China’s largest grid operator has pledged to spend 31 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) on pumped hydro storage this year, in support of the company’s plan to lift total capacity by more than 70% by the end of the decade. State Grid Corp. of China , which supplies power to over 80% of the country, will raise operational capacity from 45 gigawatts to 78 gigawatts by 2030, in a bid to bolster the country’...
China’s largest grid operator has pledged to spend 31 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) on pumped hydro storage this year, in support of the company’s plan to lift total capacity by more than 70% by the end of the decade. State Grid Corp. of China , which supplies power to over 80% of the country, will raise operational capacity from 45 gigawatts to 78 gigawatts by 2030, in a bid to bolster the country’s record-breaking renewables expansion, according to the official State Grid News . The utility will join smaller peer China Southern Power Grid Co. in helping to deliver on the the government’s five-year plan , which calls for an additional 100 gigawatts of pumped hydro by 2030. Read More: China Southern Grid Pledges $9 Billion in Pumped Hydro Spending State Grid plans to add more than 30 gigawatts of new capacity by then, with another 30 gigawatts under construction. Pumped hydro is a long-standing means of storing energy at scale and uses water released downhill to generate electricity. Storage is becoming more critical in China, particularly for a renewables sector that’s seeing mounting curtailments because of bottlenecks in the grid. Unlike batteries, which are better over short durations, pumped hydro can store energy for many hours or even days.
"How do I check that it's not a hoax?" said Ari Hodara. The Parisian art enthusiast could not believe his luck when he found out he'd won a Pablo Picasso painting worth $1 million. (Image credit: Michel Euler)
"How do I check that it's not a hoax?" said Ari Hodara. The Parisian art enthusiast could not believe his luck when he found out he'd won a Pablo Picasso painting worth $1 million. (Image credit: Michel Euler)
Getty Images Indra Sistemas ( ISMAF ) is a company that I covered about 4 months back - and a company that I consider to be very interesting and a good potential investment. Its mission-criticality is a core reason for its significant investability, and its upside into several civilian and military sectors is part of what makes it attractive to me. It's a company that you are unlikely to know abou...
Getty Images Indra Sistemas ( ISMAF ) is a company that I covered about 4 months back - and a company that I consider to be very interesting and a good potential investment. Its mission-criticality is a core reason for its significant investability, and its upside into several civilian and military sectors is part of what makes it attractive to me. It's a company that you are unlikely to know about or to have heard of a lot, but a company that nonetheless should command your attention, because it has clients in over 140 countries on the planet. You can find my last article on the company here, and as you can see, I provided a correct rating insofar as the company has dropped relative to the returns that I see in the interim. Seeking Alpha RoR So what's the reason the company has gone up, then down? Why is the company still attractive? What makes me say, as in my last article, that the share price is masking volatility (or perhaps not so much "masking" it anymore, given how obvious the volatility now seems to be)? Those are things that I will be showing you here and that I will be justifying to you before moving forward. A very common misconception, especially among novice investors, is that a company is either 'bad' or 'good.' To me, it's a fluid thing to look at. You have fundamentals, certainly. One company may be A-rated and perfectly safe. Another company may only be BB-rated and relatively unsafe by comparison. But say that the first company is traded at more than 100% of its average historically and 50% above the peer average multiple, higher than it has ever been. Say further that the second company is at pennies on the dollar. What then? You don't need to consider one more complex than the other, but it does "muddle" the picture a bit insofar as the total appeal goes. So in this article, I will try to update and determine at what point this company may become attractive for what it is and what it offers. This is fairly tricky - especially for a company that ...
Poll projects major political earthquake across Britain with Labour losing Wales and England’s Red Wall Good morning. Wes Streeting , the health secretary, is publishing a revised women’s health strategy for England today. As Andrew Gregory reports, the strategy implicitly accepts that women have been let down by a (largely male) medical establishment which has not always taken their health concer...
Poll projects major political earthquake across Britain with Labour losing Wales and England’s Red Wall Good morning. Wes Streeting , the health secretary, is publishing a revised women’s health strategy for England today. As Andrew Gregory reports, the strategy implicitly accepts that women have been let down by a (largely male) medical establishment which has not always taken their health concerns seriously. But, for Labour, this is not just a health announcement. The English local elections are just over three weeks away, and Labour is using this announcement as a platform to attack Reform UK, saying that Nigel Farage’s party can’t be trusted to stand up for women. 1. Reform want to reopen the debate on abortion limits Nigel Farage has described the current 24-week abortion limit as “utterly ludicrous” and called for Parliament to revisit it - raising concerns about rolling back long-established reproductive rights. Today Labour is taking action to fix a system that has too often ignored women - cutting waiting lists, improving care and putting women’s voices at the centre. But Reform’s record speaks for itself. From attacking reproductive rights to undermining protections at work, they simply can’t be trusted to stand up for women. If these results come to pass, we will be looking at a major political earthquake across Britain. It could be the worst local election ever for Labour in England, a collapse for the Conservatives in their historic Blue Wall heartlands, and a brutal third place for Starmer’s party in Wales. Continue reading...
Elevated US dollar valuations signal long-term correction risks, according to Harvard University professor Kenneth Rogoff , who also warned that investors may be overestimating the likelihood of a near-term resolution to the Iran war. “The dollar is probably at least still 20% overvalued,” the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund said in an interview. “Every previous episode w...
Elevated US dollar valuations signal long-term correction risks, according to Harvard University professor Kenneth Rogoff , who also warned that investors may be overestimating the likelihood of a near-term resolution to the Iran war. “The dollar is probably at least still 20% overvalued,” the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund said in an interview. “Every previous episode where the dollar — or frankly any major currency — has been this overvalued, it tends to come down over, say, a five- or six-year period.” Investors have piled into the greenback since the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, seeing it as a safe haven during a time of rising geopolitical tensions and higher oil prices. The war has revived fears that an energy-led inflation shock could persist, keeping inflationary price pressures high and limiting the Federal Reserve’s ability to ease policy. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index hit an all-time high in September 2022 as the Federal Reserve raised the policy rate at a faster-than-usual pace to contain inflation. The gauge is down more than 10% from that level. Rogoff described the war as “a big stagflationary shock” that compounds the impacts of tariffs still working their way through the system. Over the medium term, the pressures are likely to push interest rates higher rather than lower, he said in a separate Bloomberg TV interview in Hong Kong. Markets are “naive” to think the Iran conflict is resolved, Rogoff added. “More things will happen. But again, the markets have just decided, doesn’t matter, you know, everything’s going to be fine.” This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
Wasan Tita/iStock via Getty Images Feels Like 2022 But Isn’t The first quarter was a weak one across markets, as both equities and bonds pulled back – the S&P 500 ( SPX ) fell -4.35%, US investment grade bonds were off -0.05%, and high yield declined -0.50%. The market texture was reminiscent of the first quarter of 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, sending oil prices to nearly $130/barrel before...
Wasan Tita/iStock via Getty Images Feels Like 2022 But Isn’t The first quarter was a weak one across markets, as both equities and bonds pulled back – the S&P 500 ( SPX ) fell -4.35%, US investment grade bonds were off -0.05%, and high yield declined -0.50%. The market texture was reminiscent of the first quarter of 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, sending oil prices to nearly $130/barrel before returning to more normal levels by the end of that year. The market, however, did not quickly bounce back after that quarter’s decline – rather, it kept going down, putting in a -24% decline from the start of the year to its closing low in October. Investors are naturally wondering whether the current turmoil is likely to result in a similar decline. Indeed, economists and markets alike noted that growth is likely to slow in conjunction with the tighter oil availability and higher gas prices. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta reduced its first quarter estimate for real economic growth from 3.2% to 1.3% over the span of one month due largely to reduced contributions from personal consumption and residential investment. Bond investors caught a whiff of trouble starting in February, causing the two-to-ten-year yield spread, which investors watch for a forward-looking read on the economy, to flatten to 51 basis points from 73, which was a four-year high; the flattening also reversed all of the curve’s steepening progress on the heels of the Fed’s decision to start expanding its balance sheet again (see “ The World’s Biggest Buyer Is Back, and People Don’t Get It ”). While the economy is likely to slow and the bottom may not be in, the rest of the machine appears to be in a more stable position today than it was in 2022. Everything was bouncing back from COVID then, as surging demand collided with pared back supply chains, pushing headline inflation to 7% prior to the oil price shock versus inflation of just 2.7% entering 2026. At around 300 basis points, high-yield spreads w...
Warren Buffett has become arguably the greatest investor of our time by holding onto great companies that can withstand volatile markets. Now that he's stepped down from leading Berkshire Hathaway , he'll become even more of a legend. But the great company he built up persists in the capable hands of Greg Abel, and in Abel's first shareholders' letter, he made it clear that he's not looking to cha...
Warren Buffett has become arguably the greatest investor of our time by holding onto great companies that can withstand volatile markets. Now that he's stepped down from leading Berkshire Hathaway , he'll become even more of a legend. But the great company he built up persists in the capable hands of Greg Abel, and in Abel's first shareholders' letter, he made it clear that he's not looking to change up the business. That means the Buffett favorites aren't likely to disappear from the equity portfolio, at least not overnight. There's wisdom in Buffett's picks, and you can often see that most clearly when there's market volatility. Consider Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and Kroger (NYSE: KR) , which both do well under challenging circumstances. Continue reading
Twin Suicide Attacks Rock Algerian City Near Where Pope Is Visiting Algeria has been hit by two terror attacks during Pope Leo XIV's visit, officials say - though at this point there doesn't appear to have been any direct effort at targeting the Pope or his accompanying officials. Twin suicide attacks rocked a city outside Algeria's capital Monday , just as the American-born Pontiff began his hist...
Twin Suicide Attacks Rock Algerian City Near Where Pope Is Visiting Algeria has been hit by two terror attacks during Pope Leo XIV's visit, officials say - though at this point there doesn't appear to have been any direct effort at targeting the Pope or his accompanying officials. Twin suicide attacks rocked a city outside Algeria's capital Monday , just as the American-born Pontiff began his historic visit to the country, AFP reports. Pope Leo at the presidential palace in Algiers on Monday, via Vatican Media Handout/EPA "There were two security incidents yesterday afternoon in Blida, incidents of a terrorist nature. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up and were killed ," a source told AFP on Tuesday. The city in question is a little less than 30 miles southwest of Algiers. But importantly, authorities have as yet found no link between the attacks and the pope's visit , which is taking place under tight security. Video reviewed by AFP showed two bodies lying in a street in Blida. According to a regional news report , "In the videos, several people gathered around the bodies, while passers-by covered them with sheets in a light rain." The report continues, "The remains appeared severely mutilated, and the circumstances of their deaths could not be determined. Based on the images, the scene was located near several shops and a police station ." Another report out of North Africa says that Algerian authorities have remained curiously silent on the incident, perhaps trying to avoid disrupting the Pope's visit, or else on fears that the country will be seen as suffering serious security lapses : Reports quoted eyewitnesses who said two individuals were wearing explosive belts and tried to target separate locations. Le Point said police officers opened fire on the two attackers before they could reach their target s. Other reports said the first explosion targeted a security facility in Blida, with the fatal attack causing the deaths of two police officers . Reports al...