rarrarorro/iStock via Getty Images President Trump’s announcement of a halt in the strikes on Iranian infrastructure sparked a rise in risk assets on Monday (Mar. 23). It’s unclear if this is a temporary lull or a diplomatic opening that leads to a ceasefire, but risk assets found some breathing room yesterday. Commodities are still the strongest year-to-date performer for the major asset classes ...
rarrarorro/iStock via Getty Images President Trump’s announcement of a halt in the strikes on Iranian infrastructure sparked a rise in risk assets on Monday (Mar. 23). It’s unclear if this is a temporary lull or a diplomatic opening that leads to a ceasefire, but risk assets found some breathing room yesterday. Commodities are still the strongest year-to-date performer for the major asset classes , but 2026 results are a bit less lopsided through yesterday’s close, based on a set of ETFs. Raw materials continue to dominate this year, but the outperformance has become less extreme in recent days. WisdomTree Commodity ETF ( GCC ) is up 9.6% in 2026 – a strong run, although down sharply from the near-16% peak year-to-date performance set earlier this month. After commodities, the best performer: foreign stocks in developed markets ex-US ( VEA ), posting a 2.1% gain, followed by US real estate investment trusts ( VNQ ), which are up 1.1%. US stocks ( VTI ), by contrast, are down 3.3% — the deepest year-to-date loss for the major asset classes so far this year. The path ahead is still fraught due to a truckload of uncertainty. The main item on the agenda: Will a diplomatic solution emerge to end the war in Iran? There’s a glimmer of optimism following Trump’s announcement, but the fighting continues, and Iran has denied that any substantiative negotiations are happening. Fake or not, the news triggered a hefty decline in oil prices on Monday. The US benchmark fell below $90 a barrel, the lowest in nearly two weeks. Even if the war ended today, energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf region must be repaired to boost oil and natural gas exports from the Middle East to ease the supply crunch. “It will take some time to come back to the normal days we had before the war was started,” said Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency. Meanwhile, markets are on the lookout for signs that the energy shock unleashed by the war will lift inflation for ...
industryview/iStock via Getty Images The Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index rose to 0 in March, better than the -8 consensus and -10 in February, according to data the Federal Reserve of Richmond released on Tuesday. All three of its component indexes increased during the month. Shipments improved to -2 from -13 in February. New orders rose to 4 from -9, and employment increased to -2 from -7. The e...
industryview/iStock via Getty Images The Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index rose to 0 in March, better than the -8 consensus and -10 in February, according to data the Federal Reserve of Richmond released on Tuesday. All three of its component indexes increased during the month. Shipments improved to -2 from -13 in February. New orders rose to 4 from -9, and employment increased to -2 from -7. The expectations index for employment climbed to 14 from 6. The average growth rate of prices paid fell somewhat, while the average growth in prices received increased in March, the Richmond Fed said. Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index improves in March (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond) More on the US Economy U.S. Debt Hits $39 Trillion: Post-WWII Playbook Revisited Consumer Sentiment Is Near The Breaking Point U.S. PMI Composite edges down in March, manufacturing PMI rises
Vesnaandjic | E+ | Getty Images A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox....
Vesnaandjic | E+ | Getty Images A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Higher mortgage rates, high home prices and tight supply are all conspiring to squeeze investors in the home flipping play. In all of 2025, roughly 297,000 single-family homes and condos were flipped nationwide, according to ATTOM, a real estate data provider, which defines a flip as a home purchased and sold in the same 12-month period. That was a decrease of 3.9% from 2024 and the lowest number of flips in any year since 2020. Investor flips accounted for 7.4% of all 2025 home sales, down from 7.6% in 2024. Flips are falling because profits are making it less and less worth it. With the backdrop of the highest median home prices on record, the typical home flip netted investors just $65,981 in gross profit, or a 25.5% return on investment, according to ATTOM. That is down from 32% the prior year and the lowest rate since the Great Recession in 2008. Get Property Play directly to your inbox CNBC's Property Play with Diana Olick covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, delivered weekly to your inbox. Subscribe here to get access today . "Competition for homes remains strong in many markets due to constrained supply," Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM, said in a release. "With prices staying elevated, investors are finding it harder to secure deals that deliver strong returns." For comparison, in the boom decade following the financial crisis, profit margins were higher than 50%, peaking at 61% in 2012, which is around the time home prices bottomed. Net profits, or investor returns that factor in the cost of fixing up the property, can vary widely dependin...
Royal Academy, London Wautier’s mighty paintings have been misattributed to her male peers for 300 years, but now UK audiences can enjoy their first encounter with a 17th-century trailblazer Art history is currently in the process of revising the accepted white male canon by uncovering overlooked female artists. We have had the recent explosion in interest of the extraordinary work of Artemisia Ge...
Royal Academy, London Wautier’s mighty paintings have been misattributed to her male peers for 300 years, but now UK audiences can enjoy their first encounter with a 17th-century trailblazer Art history is currently in the process of revising the accepted white male canon by uncovering overlooked female artists. We have had the recent explosion in interest of the extraordinary work of Artemisia Gentileschi, of whom major exhibitions such as the National Gallery’s have been at pains to extricate from the violent sexual assault that tends to overshadow her biography. By contrast, we have scant documentary evidence of her direct contemporary Michaelina Wautier (about 1614–1689) other than that she was born in Mons in the Spanish Netherlands (present day Belgium) and lived with her artist brother Charles in Brussels near the royal court. Both share the commonality of being so technically accomplished – while operating in a patriarchal society that prevented women easily enjoying successful artistic careers – that their work has since automatically been misattributed to their male counterparts and thus obfuscated in art history for 300 years; for Artemisia her father Orazio, and Michaelina her brother Charles or other contemporary baroque painters. Wautier is also elusive in straddling several genres, all executed with consistent quality: portraits, history or religious painting, and decorative floral work – the latter more commonly associated with female artists – further preventing identification. Continue reading...
primeimages/iStock via Getty Images Gold volatility is at a record high after the precious metal had a record-breaking year in 2025 and has now quickly retracted from its all-time highs of above $5,000 an ounce to levels of below $4,500. Such returns are quite unusual and had happened only a handful of times throughout history and the skyrocketing volatility is confirming my thesis that we are ent...
primeimages/iStock via Getty Images Gold volatility is at a record high after the precious metal had a record-breaking year in 2025 and has now quickly retracted from its all-time highs of above $5,000 an ounce to levels of below $4,500. Such returns are quite unusual and had happened only a handful of times throughout history and the skyrocketing volatility is confirming my thesis that we are entering into speculative territory . Data by YCharts During such extreme movements within the market, investors who do not make volatility bets should reduce risk. This holds true when it comes to owning gold or gold-related securities as well and in that regard owning instruments like WisdomTree Efficient Gold Plus Gold Miners Strategy Fund ETF ( GDMN ) becomes counterintuitive. The reason why I say that is because adding gold exposure to an equity portfolio is done with the intention to reduce risk and not to maximize returns. The GDMN, however, is inherently riskier to other gold-related instruments as it combines exposure to gold mining stocks with leveraged exposure to gold through futures contracts. This is a brief summary of the analysis I did a couple of months ago when the optimism surrounding GDMN was hovering at record high. Nonetheless, whatever gold-related instrument one uses, it should ultimately be used as a vehicle to reduce portfolio volatility and not the other way around, unless one is willing to speculate on short-term movements of gold mining stocks. Source: Seeking Alpha As we all know, in this brief time-span since late December of last year we saw the price of gold spike and is now consolidating at levels of around $4,500 an ounce. During that period, however, GDMN holders experienced a nearly 15% drop, which notably larger to the one of the VanEck Gold Miners ETF ( GDX ). Data by YCharts More importantly, the graph above clearly illustrates why instruments which track the performance of the precious metal are superior to the ones tracking that of gol...
Pressure on Ineos over its €15.5 billion ($18 billion) debt burden is easing as investors bet that the company’s earnings will benefit from disruptions to petrochemical supplies caused by the Iran war. Bonds of Ineos Group Holdings , the division that produces petrochemicals and polymers, rose last week after the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz pushed prices for its products sharply high...
Pressure on Ineos over its €15.5 billion ($18 billion) debt burden is easing as investors bet that the company’s earnings will benefit from disruptions to petrochemical supplies caused by the Iran war. Bonds of Ineos Group Holdings , the division that produces petrochemicals and polymers, rose last week after the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz pushed prices for its products sharply higher and disrupted the supply of naphtha — a key feedstock — prompting some companies in Asia to reduce output . Analysts and investors say Ineos stands to gain from higher demand and margins. The company declined to comment. Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe ’s highly-leveraged chemicals empire has been under pressure in recent months as soaring supply from Chinese competitors depressed prices. Bond prices had tumbled from around par in late October to near or below 80 cents on the euro, a level many investors consider signals financial distress. The debt started rallying earlier this year when EU authorities promised to crack down on Chinese imports. Now it’s getting another leg-up from the supply chain turmoil caused by the conflict in the Middle East. Bonds of Ineos Group Holdings maturing in April 2029 rose to 93.3 cents, up from a low of 82.6 cents this year. Most of the others are now trading well above distressed levels. “Constrained olefins production from the Middle East, a surge in Asian naphtha pricing and steepened cost curves for a range of the commodity chemicals Ineos produces is going to be a major tailwind for as long as this conflict continues,” said Simon Matthews , senior portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman. Asian chemical companies have been hit particularly hard by the disruption to supplies of fuel and feedstock, according to a Bloomberg NEF report . About a third of global naphtha trade transits the Strait of Hormuz, with most of those volumes going to Asia. Europe, by contrast, sources most of its feedstock from domestic refineries, and margins there are s...