The Mandalorian and Grogu , the first film in the Star Wars franchise in seven years, was the highest-grossing movie in the US and Canada over the four-day holiday weekend with $102 million in ticket sales. The performance compares with estimates of at least $100 million from industry tracker Boxoffice Pro. Although it would be considered a strong start for any other big-budget release, it’s among...
The Mandalorian and Grogu , the first film in the Star Wars franchise in seven years, was the highest-grossing movie in the US and Canada over the four-day holiday weekend with $102 million in ticket sales. The performance compares with estimates of at least $100 million from industry tracker Boxoffice Pro. Although it would be considered a strong start for any other big-budget release, it’s among the lowest debuts for a Star Wars picture since franchise-owner Lucasfilm was acquired by Walt Disney Co. in 2012. Directed by Jon Favreau , The Mandalorian and Grogu follows the adventures of bounty hunter Din Djarin, played by Pedro Pascal, and a young acolyte named Grogu — colloquially known as Baby Yoda. It’s the first Star Wars film to be shot entirely in California, aided by $22 million in state tax credits. Early reviews have been mixed , with some saying that the film lacks scope — both in geography and in storyline — while others call it “purely entertaining.” It won 63% approval with critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 89% with audiences. The storyline and characters are adapted from The Mandalorian , a TV series that debuted on the Disney+ streaming service in 2019. “Bringing these stories to the big screen, there’s an opportunity to engage with potential audience members who may have not been following Star Wars closely,” Favreau said in an interview at the Los Angeles premiere of the film on May 14. “I think it’s incumbent upon us to put stuff on the screen and put it on in a way that rewards them for going when it’s in the theaters.” Read More: Disney Is Banking on Baby Yoda to Revive the ‘Star Wars’ Saga To give the film a more cinematic feel, Favreau said The Mandalorian and Grogu includes choreographed action sequences that go toe-to-toe with John Wick or Jason Bourne , and that his team spent more on visual effects than the series did. He also built sets that would lend themselves to the vertical imagery of a giant Imax Corp. screen rather than a widescreen TV...
William_Potter/iStock via Getty Images After a strong 2025, emerging market equities were broadly flat during the quarter. Following a promising start to the year, markets pulled back sharply in March amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. Performance at the country level was led by strength in Brazil and South Korea. Brazilian equities benefited from stronger commodity prices and improved d...
William_Potter/iStock via Getty Images After a strong 2025, emerging market equities were broadly flat during the quarter. Following a promising start to the year, markets pulled back sharply in March amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. Performance at the country level was led by strength in Brazil and South Korea. Brazilian equities benefited from stronger commodity prices and improved domestic policy visibility, supporting companies tied to energy and financials. South Korea advanced on the back of a recovery in technology-related exports, particularly in memory semiconductors. In contrast, India and China were weaker, as investor concerns around growth and company-specific issues weighed on returns. During the quarter, our Emerging Markets Select Value portfolio rose and outperformed both the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and MSCI Emerging Markets Value Index. Consumer staples, information technology, and energy were the largest contributing sectors. Korean semiconductor manufacturer Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) was the largest contributor, supported by a strengthening memory cycle driving improved pricing and margins across its core businesses. Brazilian oil producer Petrobras ( PBR ) also performed well, benefiting from higher oil prices driven by geopolitical tensions, alongside a more established domestic fuel pricing framework that helped alleviate investor concerns around policy intervention. Chinese truck and engine manufacturer Weichai Power ( WEICF ) contributed on the back of strong demand for power solutions tied to data center and infrastructure buildout. Consumer discretionary, communication services, and real estate were the largest detracting sectors. Shenzhou International ( SHZHY ), a China-based apparel manufacturer, declined after reporting weak results, reflecting tariff-related cost pressures and softer demand from key global apparel customers. IT services provider Cognizant ( CTSH ) reported strong bookings and market share gains, bu...
With no food aid, 65-year-old Saeedah Mohammed heads out with a plastic bag to pick tree leaves near her displacement camp in southern Yemen, before serving them to her grandchildren to stave off hunger. Behind the camp wooded hills stretch under a clear sky, while on the ground, yellowed and stony earth is strewn with rubbish. Amid the trash and destitution, daily life manages to organise itself,...
With no food aid, 65-year-old Saeedah Mohammed heads out with a plastic bag to pick tree leaves near her displacement camp in southern Yemen, before serving them to her grandchildren to stave off hunger. Behind the camp wooded hills stretch under a clear sky, while on the ground, yellowed and stony earth is strewn with rubbish. Amid the trash and destitution, daily life manages to organise itself, however imperfectly. Advertisement Worn-out clothes dry on lines strung between spindly trees, and two old discarded tyres lie in the dust. In Al-Manij camp near Taez in southwest Yemen, Mohammed lives in a makeshift tent with her two divorced daughters and their six children. Advertisement Aid from the World Food Programme (WFP), on which her family depended, stopped more than six months ago.
NVIDIA (NVDA) just reported record quarterly results, paired with a 25x dividend increase to US$0.25 per share and a new US$80b buyback. This puts capital returns and AI growth firmly in focus for shareholders. Despite a slight pullback around the results, with the share price down 1.9% over the last day and 4.4% over the past week, NVIDIA still shows firm momentum, with a 30 day share price retur...
NVIDIA (NVDA) just reported record quarterly results, paired with a 25x dividend increase to US$0.25 per share and a new US$80b buyback. This puts capital returns and AI growth firmly in focus for shareholders. Despite a slight pullback around the results, with the share price down 1.9% over the last day and 4.4% over the past week, NVIDIA still shows firm momentum, with a 30 day share price return of 3.4% and a 1 year total shareholder return of 64.1% on the back of record AI demand, Vera CPU announcements and the expanded capital return program. If NVIDIA’s results have you rethinking your AI exposure, this is a good moment to look beyond the giants and see what else is emerging in AI infrastructure through With record revenue, a very large dividend hike and a US$80b buyback now on the table, NVIDIA is clearly rewarding shareholders. At a US$5.2t market cap, however, is the stock still mispriced or already reflecting years of future AI growth? Advertisement Most Popular Narrative: 36.6% Undervalued Compared to NVIDIA’s last close of $215.33, the most followed narrative on Simply Wall St sees fair value at $339.90, which implies a sizeable valuation gap and puts long term AI demand assumptions front and center. Nvidia will hit $400b annual revenue in 5 years time. ~90% of revenue will come from data centre customers. This equates to $90b / quarter, or equivalent to 30,000 Blackwell racks (at ~$3m per rack). According to KiwiInvest, this fair value rests on bold revenue concentration in data centers, aggressive rack deployments and sustained AI hardware refresh cycles. It also raises the question of what growth path and margin structure are incorporated into that view. Result: Fair Value of $339.90 (UNDERVALUED) However, this depends on NVIDIA maintaining its lead in AI software and avoiding major regulatory or power supply constraints that could slow data center demand and spending. Another View Using Our DCF Model The user narrative points to a fair value of $339....
Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images News President Donald Trump on Sunday cautioned that the United States wouldn’t rush into a peace agreement with Iran, tempering optimism that a breakthrough in the months-long conflict could arrive quickly. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the U.S. blockade on Iranian shipping through the Strait of Hormuz would “remain in full force and effect until an agreement ...
Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images News President Donald Trump on Sunday cautioned that the United States wouldn’t rush into a peace agreement with Iran, tempering optimism that a breakthrough in the months-long conflict could arrive quickly. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the U.S. blockade on Iranian shipping through the Strait of Hormuz would “remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed.” He added that negotiations were progressing but stressed patience, writing: “Both sides must take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!” President Trump said a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz remains in effect. (Truth Social) The comments marked a more cautious tone after Trump said a day earlier that Washington and Tehran had “largely negotiated” a memorandum of understanding aimed at reopening the strategically vital waterway. Before the conflict erupted in late February, the Strait of Hormuz handled roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. For investors, the stakes extend far beyond geopolitics. Any durable ceasefire or reopening of the strait could ease pressure on energy markets, shipping costs and inflation-sensitive sectors ranging from airlines to agriculture. But continued uncertainty threatens to keep oil and natural gas prices volatile, complicating central bank policy and corporate earnings forecasts worldwide. Major disagreements reportedly remain over Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions relief and access to billions of dollars in frozen oil revenues. Iranian media reports suggested negotiators were still divided over key provisions of the proposed framework agreement. Iranian officials have also continued to assert control over shipping access in the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring how fragile any potential arrangement could be. Traffic through the passage remains sharply below prewar levels, with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards saying only 33 vessels passed through over a recent 24-hou...
AMD pledged more than $10 billion to Taiwan's AI supply chain on May 21 — and two days later, CEO Lisa Su explained exactly why: the bottleneck that strangled AI chip production throughout 2024 and 2025 has moved. Advanced packaging is no longer the primary constraint. High-bandwidth memory is. The shift, identified publicly by Su this week, matters to anyone planning to buy a laptop, phone, or de...
AMD pledged more than $10 billion to Taiwan's AI supply chain on May 21 — and two days later, CEO Lisa Su explained exactly why: the bottleneck that strangled AI chip production throughout 2024 and 2025 has moved. Advanced packaging is no longer the primary constraint. High-bandwidth memory is. The shift, identified publicly by Su this week, matters to anyone planning to buy a laptop, phone, or desktop before 2028, because the same reallocation of silicon wafers that feeds AI data centers is already removing the sub-$500 PC from store shelves. "Commodities like memory have become tighter," Su told investors at a recent conference, flagging constrained availability of memory components as a gating factor for AI accelerator shipments and data center deployments. The remark came alongside AMD's first-quarter 2026 earnings call, during which Su said the company had "secured enough supply to certainly meet and exceed our targets" — a statement of competitive positioning that simultaneously confirmed how contested memory allocation has become across the entire industry. Bottleneck Shifts from Packaging to High-Bandwidth Memory For the past two years, advanced packaging — specifically TSMC's CoWoS process — was the chokepoint every AI chipmaker navigated. CoWoS, or Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate, fuses logic dies and high-bandwidth memory stacks onto a shared silicon interposer, creating the dense, short-path connections that AI accelerators require and that conventional packaging cannot match. When CoWoS capacity was tight, everything downstream stalled. That constraint is now easing. TSMC's CoWoS output reached approximately 75,000 wafers per month in 2025, and analysts at TrendForce project further expansion to 120,000 monthly by the end of 2026 through capacity additions at its AP6, AP7, and AP8 advanced packaging facilities. Memory is harder to loosen. Producing a single gigabyte of HBM3E — the high-bandwidth memory generation inside current AI accelerators — consumes rou...
The court decided that Özel should be replaced by Kemal Kilicdaroğlu, a 77-year-old party veteran who was defeated by Erdoğan in the 2023 presidential election and then voted out as party leader.
The court decided that Özel should be replaced by Kemal Kilicdaroğlu, a 77-year-old party veteran who was defeated by Erdoğan in the 2023 presidential election and then voted out as party leader.
A lot of investors think that the markets slow down during the summer. That's often true in terms of trading volumes, but it doesn't mean that there aren't gains still to be had. If you look at monthly S&P 500 results over the past several decades, some of the weaker returns do happen during the summer months (this helped inspire the "sell in May and go away" trope). Given the historical trend tow...
A lot of investors think that the markets slow down during the summer. That's often true in terms of trading volumes, but it doesn't mean that there aren't gains still to be had. If you look at monthly S&P 500 results over the past several decades, some of the weaker returns do happen during the summer months (this helped inspire the "sell in May and go away" trope). Given the historical trend toward modest returns during this window and below-average trading volumes, that creates the potential for more significant swings in share prices, should there be a catalyst to ignite them. How to think about the 2026 summer trading season We've seen that over the past two summers. Last year, the volatility created by the "Liberation Day" tariffs carried into the earlier part of summer. In 2024, the reverse yen carry trade unwind caused the VIX to spike as high as 65 in August. With the Fed potentially now being forced to take a more hawkish stance due to high inflation and the Iran war showing little sign of ending, it's possible we could again be entering an uncertain period for equity prices. U.S. stocks have had a strong two months. Investors may want to consider positioning themselves a little more defensively, given the macro backdrop and how far equity prices have come already. Here then are three exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to consider as we head into the dog days of summer. iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility Factor ETF One of the easiest ways to maintain equity exposure while dialing back risk is by investing in an ETF that focuses on limiting volatility. The iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility ETF (USMV +0.88%) does exactly this by creating a portfolio of stocks optimized to minimize overall volatility. You may look at the fund's current top holdings, see Nvidia and Microsoft sitting in the top five, and wonder how in the world these would be included in a volatility-focused fund. So it's key to understand the difference between "low volatility" and "minimum volat...
Key Points Trading volumes tend to decline in the summer as people take vacations and get out of the office. History shows that the summer months often feature below-average returns and downside risk catalysts. Given the run-up we've seen over the past two months, here are three ETF ideas designed to protect your capital. 10 stocks we like better than Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF › A lot of in...
Key Points Trading volumes tend to decline in the summer as people take vacations and get out of the office. History shows that the summer months often feature below-average returns and downside risk catalysts. Given the run-up we've seen over the past two months, here are three ETF ideas designed to protect your capital. 10 stocks we like better than Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF › A lot of investors think that the markets slow down during the summer. That's often true in terms of trading volumes, but it doesn't mean that there aren't gains still to be had. If you look at monthly S&P 500 results over the past several decades, some of the weaker returns do happen during the summer months (this helped inspire the "sell in May and go away" trope). Given the historical trend toward modest returns during this window and below-average trading volumes, that creates the potential for more significant swings in share prices, should there be a catalyst to ignite them. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » How to think about the 2026 summer trading season We've seen that over the past two summers. Last year, the volatility created by the "Liberation Day" tariffs carried into the earlier part of summer. In 2024, the reverse yen carry trade unwind caused the VIX to spike as high as 65 in August. With the Fed potentially now being forced to take a more hawkish stance due to high inflation and the Iran war showing little sign of ending, it's possible we could again be entering an uncertain period for equity prices. U.S. stocks have had a strong two months. Investors may want to consider positioning themselves a little more defensively, given the macro backdrop and how far equity prices have come already. Here then are three exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to consider as we head into the dog days of su...
The 2026 Tesla Model Y is a compact electric SUV focused on range, practicality and advanced driver assistance for US families and commuters. Here is how it works and where it fits in daily American driving. The 2026 Tesla Model Y is a compact electric SUV designed for everyday family use and highway commuting in the United States, built on Teslas Model 3 platform and sold nationwide through Tesla...
The 2026 Tesla Model Y is a compact electric SUV focused on range, practicality and advanced driver assistance for US families and commuters. Here is how it works and where it fits in daily American driving. The 2026 Tesla Model Y is a compact electric SUV designed for everyday family use and highway commuting in the United States, built on Teslas Model 3 platform and sold nationwide through Teslas direct sales model Tesla, 03/15/2024. As of: 05/24/2026 | Reading time: approx. 9 minutes By the AD HOC NEWS editorial team - specialized in product-focused market coverage. At a Glance Product: 2026 Tesla Model Y 2026 Tesla Model Y Category: Compact electric SUV Compact electric SUV Brand/Manufacturer: Tesla Tesla Primary Use Cases: Daily commuting and family transport Daily commuting and family transport Availability: Built-to-order via Tesla online in the US Built-to-order via Tesla online in the US Core Markets: United States, Europe, China What the 2026 Tesla Model Y Is and How It Works The 2026 Tesla Model Y is a battery electric compact crossover SUV that shares its basic platform with the Tesla Model 3 sedan, using an underfloor battery pack and one or two electric motors for propulsion Tesla, 03/15/2024. Instead of a gasoline engine, the Model Y stores energy in a high voltage lithium ion battery pack that powers the motors. Drivers charge the vehicle at home on Level 2 wall connectors or on public DC fast chargers, including Tesla Supercharger stations spread across US highways U.S. DOE fueleconomy.gov, 04/10/2024. In everyday use, the electric drivetrain delivers near instant torque, so the Model Y accelerates smoothly without gear shifts. Regenerative braking recovers energy when the driver lifts off the accelerator, slowing the car while feeding electricity back into the battery for improved efficiency Tesla, 01/30/2024. Why the 2026 Tesla Model Y Matters for US Consumers and Industry The Model Y plays a central role in making electric SUVs mainstream in the ...
The self-proclaimed largest truck stop in the world offers drivers just about everything they might need during a break. The Iowa 80 parking lots offer 900 spots for trucks and dozens more for passenger cars, while the varieties of snacks, drinks and souvenirs in the market are uncountable. Elsewhere on the premises is a dentist, a barber and a chiropractor, a weight room, a 24-hour diner and a mo...
The self-proclaimed largest truck stop in the world offers drivers just about everything they might need during a break. The Iowa 80 parking lots offer 900 spots for trucks and dozens more for passenger cars, while the varieties of snacks, drinks and souvenirs in the market are uncountable. Elsewhere on the premises is a dentist, a barber and a chiropractor, a weight room, a 24-hour diner and a movie theater. There is also a Truckomat, to wash your truck, and a Dogomat, to wash your dog. But the one thing that Iowa 80 does not offer is relief from the price of gas, which has increased sharply ever since the US joined Israel in attacking Iran and sparking a global energy crisis. On a recent afternoon, a gallon of regular gasoline at the sprawling stop in eastern Iowa went for $4.26, and diesel $5.72. “It’s a lot of money,” said Malvinder Grewal, as he gazed at a receipt showing he had just spent $809 to fill up his 18-wheeler, which was laden with a shipment of dog food that he expected would net him $2,550 for delivery to Ohio. As the summer travel season kicks off in the United States, analysts expect the high gas prices precipitated by the war with Iran to stick around. Average gas prices are the highest they have been in four years, according to the American Automobile Association, and price tracker GasBuddy predicted this week that, if the strait remains closed, pump prices could break records in the months ahead. It’s a perilous position for Donald Trump to be in before November’s midterm elections, when his Republican allies will be defending their control of Congress. His administration has responded by approving the sale of fuel with a higher ethanol content that can be cheaper but risks increasing smog, while the president has floated suspending the federal gas tax. Evidence has meanwhile mounted that the price increases have enhanced voters’ discontent with his presidency. Recent polls have found Trump’s public approval ratings in the high 30-percentage po...
is the Verge’s weekend editor. He has over 18 years of experience, including 10 years as managing editor at Engadget. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Hiking is one of life’s great joys. Turning off the screens and stepping out into nature for an extended period of time, perhaps even several days, is rejuvenating. Unfortunately, as someone wit...
is the Verge’s weekend editor. He has over 18 years of experience, including 10 years as managing editor at Engadget. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Hiking is one of life’s great joys. Turning off the screens and stepping out into nature for an extended period of time, perhaps even several days, is rejuvenating. Unfortunately, as someone with two young kids and a bad back, I’m not really able to go backpacking anymore. So I often find myself trying to live vicariously through others who write about their lengthy travails along the Appalachian or the PCT. That’s what I thought I was signing up for when I picked up On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor. But it turned out to be so much more. The prologue starts with Moor talking about his decision to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. And chapter one doesn’t stray too far from the expected subject matter either. It focuses primarily on Moor’s trip to Western Brook Pond in Newfoundland and broadly discusses the concept of wilderness. His talents as a writer are apparent from moment one. A storm pins Moor down on a ridge: For the better part of an hour, awash in mounting waves of tympanic rumble, I had time to reconsider the merits of hiking. Stripped of its Romantic finery, the wild ceased to inspire; only a gauzy scrim separated sublimity and horror. This is perhaps the first hint that what you’re in for is not some travelogue or a simple memoir that uses the trail as a narrative device. Chapter two immediately solidifies this, launching a discussion of ant trails and the fine distinctions of various English words for lines of movement. On Trails bounces around gleefully from topic to topic: Game trails, fiber optic wires, Moor’s stint as a shepherd. And all throughout, Moor seamlessly navigates shifting tones. One moment, he’s waxing poetic about the power of nature, the next, he’s spinning an anecdote about misplacing an entire flock of sheep with a comic’s se...
Dec. 31 is not a particularly magical date for stocks, but it is a very important one for Uncle Sam. That's the date when you need to tally up all of your investment decisions for the year as you prepare for April 15, tax day. Most investors should make financial decisions well before the end of the year to avoid the pressure that comes with a firm deadline. Here are three of the most important mo...
Dec. 31 is not a particularly magical date for stocks, but it is a very important one for Uncle Sam. That's the date when you need to tally up all of your investment decisions for the year as you prepare for April 15, tax day. Most investors should make financial decisions well before the end of the year to avoid the pressure that comes with a firm deadline. Here are three of the most important moves stock market investors need to consider before year-end. And how they all interact with each other in very important ways. Pay attention to your big winners We all love watching as the stocks we own rise. There's nothing wrong with that, and you should let yourself enjoy the successes you've had in your portfolio. But you shouldn't ignore the impact that investment success can have on your portfolio. If you are like most investors, you'll have some big winners in the mix. For example, shares of Alphabet (GOOG 1.04%) have more than doubled in value over the past year. That's a huge move in a very short period of time, particularly for such a large and dominant technology company. If you have owned Alphabet over the past year, it is probably a much larger portion of your portfolio than it was. It could make sense to take some profits to bring the stock's allocation back down. The problem, of course, is that selling the stock will generate capital gains. Making the sales decision well in advance of year-end will give you time to offset the tax impact of the sale of Alphabet. Expand NASDAQ : GOOG Alphabet Today's Change ( -1.04 %) $ -3.99 Current Price $ 379.48 Key Data Points Market Cap $4.7T Day's Range $ 378.28 - $ 384.88 52wk Range $ 163.33 - $ 404.47 Volume 448.4K Avg Vol 19M Gross Margin 60.43 % Dividend Yield 0.22 % Do some tax loss harvesting If you are like most investors, you also have some investments that didn't work out as well as hoped. For example, shares of NuScale Power (SMR +0.35%), a start-up working on small modular nuclear reactors, have lost 50% of the...
China’s latest space mission, which includes Hong Kong’s first astronaut , lifted off on Sunday night. The Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern China’s Gansu province at 11.08pm local time on Sunday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The rocket left the launchpad with a deafening blast and sent massi...
China’s latest space mission, which includes Hong Kong’s first astronaut , lifted off on Sunday night. The Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern China’s Gansu province at 11.08pm local time on Sunday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The rocket left the launchpad with a deafening blast and sent massive clouds of sand high up into the sky. Advertisement The crew included Lai Ka-ying , the Hong Kong police superintendent and tech specialist who will serve as the payload specialist. The mission will be commanded by Zhu Yangzhu, who was the flight engineer on the Shenzhou-16 mission, with Zhang Zhiyuan piloting the vessel. Advertisement The crew were met with cheers at a send-off ceremony at the Wentian Pavilion at Dongfeng Aerospace City and then moved on to the launch site in the Gobi Desert.
Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist In the closed-end fund space, there are a number of infrastructure-related funds. Some focus on broader infrastructure-related exposure, and some are more specifically tilted toward energy. Demand in the infrastructure space has been growing thanks to the drive to build out artificial intelligence. While technology names have been seeing so...
Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist In the closed-end fund space, there are a number of infrastructure-related funds. Some focus on broader infrastructure-related exposure, and some are more specifically tilted toward energy. Demand in the infrastructure space has been growing thanks to the drive to build out artificial intelligence. While technology names have been seeing some impressive gains, it takes power being produced, stored, and moved to power the AI infrastructure. Today, we're going to be giving two of these funds a look. Both appear attractive given their current discounted valuations. That's a key characteristic when considering CEFs: looking for funds that are trading at relatively wide discounts. They also both pay monthly, which can be beneficial to income-focused investors who may look to these investments to help fund their expenses. Even better, both of these funds have fairly recently lifted the payouts to their investors on the back of strong results. #1 Cohen & Steers Infrastructure Fund ( UTF ) 1-Year Z-score: -1.44 Discount/Premium: -8.78% Distribution Yield: 7.80% Expense Ratio: 1.36% Leverage: 29.71% Managed Assets: $4.5 billion Structure: Perpetual UTF's objective and general strategy is: "Total return, with an emphasis on income through investment in securities issued by infrastructure companies." They define infrastructure companies as those that "typically provide the physical framework that society requires to function on a daily basis and are defined as utilities, pipelines, toll roads, airports, railroads, marine ports, telecommunications companies, and other infrastructure companies." UTF is one of my favorite infrastructure plays today, though it had some disruptions last year when the fund went through a rights offering. At that time, I sold out of the name and then reentered into a position, as we always do with these corporate events. This was another example of that working out in our favor. We were able t...