Regarding Gaby Hinsliff’s article (Influencers sold the world a fantasy Dubai – and now it’s gone in a puff of missile smoke, 6 March), Dubai has certainly been marketed as a place of aspiration, often through social media. But the suggestion that recent events somehow represent a moral reckoning for those living there feels glib. Most residents are ordinary professionals and families who have bui...
Regarding Gaby Hinsliff’s article (Influencers sold the world a fantasy Dubai – and now it’s gone in a puff of missile smoke, 6 March), Dubai has certainly been marketed as a place of aspiration, often through social media. But the suggestion that recent events somehow represent a moral reckoning for those living there feels glib. Most residents are ordinary professionals and families who have built lives in Dubai over many years. When tensions rise in the region, their first concern is the safety of their families, not the preservation of a “fantasy lifestyle”. Many people move to places like Dubai not out of frivolity but because they are seeking a tax and regulatory environment that allows them to keep more of what they earn. Rather than dismissing those who leave as participants in a lifestyle fantasy, commentators might usefully ask why so many skilled workers are drawn to jurisdictions with simpler and often lighter tax regimes. Mark Husbands Nottingham I cried when I saw the cartoon in the Guardian depicting an expat in Dubai – cried with fear and distress. My son is currently “sheltering in place” in Dubai as a result of the current crisis in the Middle East. He’s not an influencer or a tax dodger. He moved there during the pandemic for a graduate job opportunity when there were very few opportunities in the UK – a situation that sadly continues. He’s not asking for sympathy or demanding to be brought back to the UK, he’s showing incredible courage and continuing to work while under fire to pay off his student loan. I wonder whether the cartoonist has ever had been in imminent danger from missile and drone attacks? I doubt it – otherwise how to explain the lack of empathy shown in this cartoon published only three days after the crisis broke? Jessamy Hadley Ascot, Berkshire
The US-Israel war on Iran is a catastrophic escalation in an already devastated region, and Britain must not be involved. It is causing appalling death and destruction in Iran and risks plunging the area into wider war. Already it is causing economic convulsions around the world. Its aims seem to change daily, but it is clearly an illegal and unprovoked war, one that started in the midst of negoti...
The US-Israel war on Iran is a catastrophic escalation in an already devastated region, and Britain must not be involved. It is causing appalling death and destruction in Iran and risks plunging the area into wider war. Already it is causing economic convulsions around the world. Its aims seem to change daily, but it is clearly an illegal and unprovoked war, one that started in the midst of negotiations. Its organisers have learned nothing from the carnage and chaos caused by previous wars on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Unsurprisingly, the war is deeply unpopular here and around the world. We call on our government to end all participation, to stop allowing the US to use British bases to pursue it and to join others in calling for an immediate end to the attacks. Jeremy Corbyn MP Andrea Egan General secretary, Unison Maryam Eslamdoust General secretary, TSSA union Lindsey German Convener, Stop the War Coalition Jon Trickett MP Zarah Sultana MP and 50 others
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig discusses prediction markets, sports betting, and regulation. Selig also commented on his belief that bets could risk becoming an ‘Assassination Market’. Selig spoke with Bloomberg’s Tim Stenovec.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig discusses prediction markets, sports betting, and regulation. Selig also commented on his belief that bets could risk becoming an ‘Assassination Market’. Selig spoke with Bloomberg’s Tim Stenovec.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images News Disney ( DIS ) is close to naming Thomas Mazloum as chairman of the company’s parks, cruises, and consumer products division, succeeding Josh D’Amaro, Bloomberg reported late on Monday, citing sources. Mazloum's appointment announcement could come as soon as this week, the report said. Mazloum has run the Disneyland resort in California since March of last year, ran Di...
Joe Raedle/Getty Images News Disney ( DIS ) is close to naming Thomas Mazloum as chairman of the company’s parks, cruises, and consumer products division, succeeding Josh D’Amaro, Bloomberg reported late on Monday, citing sources. Mazloum's appointment announcement could come as soon as this week, the report said. Mazloum has run the Disneyland resort in California since March of last year, ran Disney’s cruise business earlier in his career, and held senior roles at Walt Disney World in Orlando. Mazloum is being named to the role as D’Amaro is set to succeed Bob Iger as Disney’s chief executive officer at the company’s annual meeting on March 18. More on Walt Disney The Walt Disney Company (DIS) Presents at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference 2026 Transcript 3 Reasons To Buy Disney In 2026 Disney's Leadership Change Is Exciting, But Think Very Long-Term On The Shares Disney's 'Hoppers' wins weekend box office; 'The Bride!' is DOA DraftKings and Disney strike a key integration deal ahead of March Madness
Cap-weighted index funds have a structural quirk that most investors overlook: the more a stock’s price rises, the more of your money gets automatically funneled into it. With NVIDIA, Apple, and Microsoft now representing roughly 28% of the iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF), owning a cap-weighted large-cap fund today means roughly one dollar in three ... Forget Cap-Weighted Indexes: Why This Equal Weight ...
Cap-weighted index funds have a structural quirk that most investors overlook: the more a stock’s price rises, the more of your money gets automatically funneled into it. With NVIDIA, Apple, and Microsoft now representing roughly 28% of the iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF), owning a cap-weighted large-cap fund today means roughly one dollar in three ... Forget Cap-Weighted Indexes: Why This Equal Weight Large-Cap ETF Belongs in Every Retirement Portfolio Instead
The US raised its forecast for domestic oil production next year after the recent surge in prices due to supply disruptions from key Middle East countries. US crude output is now expected to grow by 220,000 barrels a day in 2027 to 13.83 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook released Tuesday. The new forecast represents an increase of...
The US raised its forecast for domestic oil production next year after the recent surge in prices due to supply disruptions from key Middle East countries. US crude output is now expected to grow by 220,000 barrels a day in 2027 to 13.83 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook released Tuesday. The new forecast represents an increase of about 500,000 barrels from the agency’s previous projection made in February. That report showed US production was on course to peak this year and then decline in 2027. “Because changes in oil prices take time to affect production—moving from investment decisions to rig deployment to well completion and first oil—the effect of higher prices in our forecast is more pronounced in 2027 than in 2026,” the EIA said in its latest report. The US and Israel began strikes on Iran late last month, triggering widespread retaliatory attacks from Tehran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that normally handles a fifth of global oil flows. Production cuts are rippling across the region as storage capacity fills up. Shut-in oil production will likely peak in early April, mostly in Iraq with smaller volumes in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, the EIA estimated. It added that output will gradually recover as flows through the Strait resume. US oil prices surged this week to nearly $120 a barrel before easing to trade near $84 a barrel. The rally has already pulled US retail gasoline prices to the highest levels since July 2024. The EIA raised its forecast for US retail gasoline prices to an average of $3.34 a gallon in 2026, up by 43 cents from its last projection. The surge in oil prices triggered a wave of hedging by shale drillers seeking to lock in elevated prices for future sales. The move could allow producers to ramp up output even if prices decline in coming months. The EIA increased its forecast for crude oil production in the ...
Bill Ackman’s stock market inventions aren’t always as successful as they are creative. The hedge fund entrepreneur’s latest innovation — giving free shares in his firm to investors who buy into his new publicly traded fund — has a better chance of flying. A backdrop of war in the Middle East makes now look like a terrible moment to launch an initial public offering of any kind. To the contrary, a...
Bill Ackman’s stock market inventions aren’t always as successful as they are creative. The hedge fund entrepreneur’s latest innovation — giving free shares in his firm to investors who buy into his new publicly traded fund — has a better chance of flying. A backdrop of war in the Middle East makes now look like a terrible moment to launch an initial public offering of any kind. To the contrary, argues Ackman: For investment companies, market volatility creates opportunity because high-quality stocks are caught up in the selling. This, the thinking goes, is an ideal backdrop to raise a new “closed-end” fund. Hence his creation of Pershing Square USA Ltd. (PSUS), which will list on the New York Stock Exchange and invest mainly in dependable North American large-cap stocks. Closed-end vehicles are a great idea on paper. They enjoy so-called permanent capital. That is, investors can’t yank their money out of the fund. If they want liquidity, they have to sell their shares at the prevailing price in the market. Contrast that with the semi-liquid private credit funds making headlines as clients try to redeem funds above a contractual 5% quarterly cap. Permanent capital gives an asset manager unfettered freedom to make investment decisions and provides a dependable fee stream. The snag is that the share price of such vehicles typically trades below the net value of its assets. That problem has plagued Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings Ltd., its London-listed closed-end fund. This has $15 billion of lucrative fee-earning assets, but trades more than 25% below net asset value. Hardly a great advert for launching a US counterpart. Hence Ackman is sweetening the PSUS debut by offering investors 20 free shares in his own firm for every 100 shares they buy in the fund’s IPO. This would kill several birds with one stone. For starters, the incentive may well suffice to actually get the launch away. Already, a group of first-in-the-queue investors have committed $2.8 billion (alth...
Slay the Spire II launched in early access last week, and it’s already an excellent sequel to one of the best roguelikes of all time. In many ways, it’s very similar to its predecessor. Like Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong, Slay the Spire II mostly iterates on an already superb foundation. But it does add online co-op with up to four players. While multiplayer changes the familiar rhythms of ...
Slay the Spire II launched in early access last week, and it’s already an excellent sequel to one of the best roguelikes of all time. In many ways, it’s very similar to its predecessor. Like Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong, Slay the Spire II mostly iterates on an already superb foundation. But it does add online co-op with up to four players. While multiplayer changes the familiar rhythms of Slay the Spire just a bit, it’s still a great way to tackle the arduous climb up the spire. A round of Slay the Spire II plays essentially the same as the original: In each run, you navigate three different acts across a winding map, slowly making a build by crafting your deck and picking up various perk-giving relics, and fighting enemies, elites, and bosses along the way. Slay the Spire II retains the deliberate, turn-based style of play, meaning that when it’s your turn, you have as much time as you want to decide what to do. Since you can see exactly what your enemies are planning for their next turn, there’s a lot of strategy in deciding how much damage to do and how much defense you might need to set up. Multiplayer adds a slight twist: When it’s your turn, everyone can play simultaneously. That opens up all sorts of new opportunities for planning, but it also requires communication to make sure everyone is using their cards effectively. My multiplayer partner was my wife, the biggest Slay the Spire fan I know, and on our second run we got a thrilling victory. I played the new Necrobinder character, a necromancer, while she played as the returning Silent, which can make decks built around flurries of shivs. Over the course of the run, we accidentally settled into a strategy where I focused on applying the Vulnerable status to as many enemies as possible before my wife would rain down shivs upon our foes. Slay the Spire II doesn’t encourage teamwork only in battles. At a campfire rest stop, you can choose to mend a friend’s health to help them out. (Some of the new ene...
Settlement guarantees hundreds of millions of dollars of savings to Duke Energy customers CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy and a variety of organizations have reached settlement agreements on the proposed combination of Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress designed to provide measurable, trackable benefits for customers. Duke Energy logo (PRNewsfoto/Duke Energy...
Settlement guarantees hundreds of millions of dollars of savings to Duke Energy customers CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy and a variety of organizations have reached settlement agreements on the proposed combination of Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress designed to provide measurable, trackable benefits for customers. Duke Energy logo (PRNewsfoto/Duke Energy) Settling parties include the North Carolina Public Staff – the independent agency representing utility customers – the North Carolina Attorney General's Office, Google, Nucor, Walmart and a variety of other intervening groups. Our view: "We're pleased that Public Staff and the Attorney General's Office agree our customers will see significant future cost savings and other meaningful benefits from combining our two utilities," said Kendal Bowman, Duke Energy's North Carolina president. "It reduces customer costs, simplifies operations, promotes regulatory efficiencies and supports economic growth across the Carolinas." Why it matters: Combining Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress will enable Duke Energy to meet the Carolinas' growing energy needs at a lower cost than would otherwise occur, with estimated savings of billions in projected future costs shared by customers across North Carolina and South Carolina. As part of the settlement, Duke Energy has guaranteed hundreds of millions of dollars of future savings to customers – savings that can only be achieved through the combination. These savings include both lower production costs (through more efficient operation) and lower capital costs (through more efficient planning). Examples of production cost savings include the ability to use less fuel and the ability to avoid or reduce purchases of out-of-state energy. An example of lower capital costs includes the elimination of 200 megawatts of battery storage from Duke Energy's long-range plan while still maintaining reliability. The guaranteed savings will be as...
Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan earned 7.7% last year after double-digit gains in stocks outweighed soft returns in the fund’s private markets portfolio. The performance, which missed its 8.6% benchmark, brought the pension plan’s net assets to C$132 billion ($97 billion), up from C$123 billion in 2024, according to a statement Tuesday. The pension saw a buying opportunity in the volatility, bo...
Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan earned 7.7% last year after double-digit gains in stocks outweighed soft returns in the fund’s private markets portfolio. The performance, which missed its 8.6% benchmark, brought the pension plan’s net assets to C$132 billion ($97 billion), up from C$123 billion in 2024, according to a statement Tuesday. The pension saw a buying opportunity in the volatility, boosting its public equities exposure and ending the year with a 22.2% return, according to Chief Executive Officer Annesley Wallace. “Overall, the level of complexity given all of the external market environment was significant,” Wallace said in an interview. “Economic nationalism certainly tested a lot of the assumptions that would underpin how the market economy would work.” Wallace took over the Toronto-based pension plan on April 1, a day before US President Donald Trump imposed so-called Liberation Day tariffs, wreaking havoc in global markets. Private markets comprised 35% of the pension plan’s portfolio, and capital markets made up the rest. “There was generally a more muted private market environment last year, and that’s why we continue to have a diversified portfolio,” Wallace said. The pension plan is searching for more opportunities to invest in Canada, such as infrastructure, but it’s also interested in buying real-return bonds, which the Canadian government halted in 2022. As of Dec. 31, Canadian investments made up 49% of Hoopp’s portfolio, while US-based holdings were 29%. Canadian pension plans are under pressure to invest more at home as Ottawa looks to spur domestic economic growth, particularly as trade talks with the US remain uncertain. Prime Minister Mark Carney has signaled he wants to make it easier for large funds to invest in Canadian infrastructure and strategic sectors. On investing in the US, Wallace said Hoopp will continue to have exposure, but acknowledged that risks have changed recently. “That is certainly something that — as we’re making n...
In this article META Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT The front page of the social media website Moltbook on a computer monitor in Washington D.C., U.S., February 2, 2026. Raphael Satter | Reuters Meta has acquired Moltbook, the viral social media platform for artificial intelligence agents, the company confirmed Tuesday. The deal brings Moltbook CEO Matt Schlict and COO Ben Parr in...
In this article META Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT The front page of the social media website Moltbook on a computer monitor in Washington D.C., U.S., February 2, 2026. Raphael Satter | Reuters Meta has acquired Moltbook, the viral social media platform for artificial intelligence agents, the company confirmed Tuesday. The deal brings Moltbook CEO Matt Schlict and COO Ben Parr into Meta Superintelligence Labs , the company's AI unit launched last year. "The Moltbook team joining MSL opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses," a Meta spokesperson told CNBC. "Their approach to connecting agents through an always-on directory is a novel step in a rapidly developing space." Axios was first to report the deal. Moltbook was built off of OpenClaw , a separate project that was marketed as " the AI that actually does things ." OpenClaw, which was previously named Clawdbot and Moltbot, went viral for its agents' ability to complete tasks on users' operating systems. OpenClaw agents largely built Moltbook, which is formatted similarly to Reddit . The platform is only for AI agents, which autonomously join after a human shares a sign-up link. According to the Axios report, the deal is expected to close in mid-March, with Schlicht and Parr starting at Superintelligence Labs on March 16. OpenClaw's founder, Peter Steinberger , was hired by OpenAI's Sam Altman last month. watch now VIDEO 3:24 03:24 Moltbook: Where AI bots socialize TechCheck Read more CNBC tech news How the Iran war and rising energy prices are threatening semiconductor demand Kevin Mandia sold his cybersecurity company to Google in 2022. He has a fresh $190 million for a new venture Musk's xAI wants to build a power plant in Mississippi. Regulators planned a key meeting on Election Day, 200 miles away Oracle is building yesterday's data centers with tomorrow's debt Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in busines...
Brett_Hondow/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction Bath & Body Works, Inc. ( BBWI ) was a leader in fragrance and personal care retail, with a strong brand and loyal customer base driving both in-store and digital sales. But over the last several years, the company has seen slowing demand in core categories, softer traffic, and margin pressures while rolling out heavy promotions. As manag...
Brett_Hondow/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction Bath & Body Works, Inc. ( BBWI ) was a leader in fragrance and personal care retail, with a strong brand and loyal customer base driving both in-store and digital sales. But over the last several years, the company has seen slowing demand in core categories, softer traffic, and margin pressures while rolling out heavy promotions. As management looks to turn around the business with guidance for 2026 signaling a modest decline and a reset that will require careful execution, I think the real question is if these initiatives can stabilize growth and margins fast enough to justify getting involved. In this article, I’ll dive into the latest Q4 results from last week and share my thoughts on what I think this turnaround might look like. Recent Results While Bath & Body Works’ Q4 revenues were down 2.3% from last year at $2.7 billion , the figure was meaningfully ahead of initial guidance that had suggested a high-single-digit decline and surpassed sell-side estimates by $111 million . Seeking Alpha When looking at what drove results this quarter, the company’s Stores were down 2.6% for the quarter but up 0.9% for the year, with the Direct business down 2.5% in Q4 and down 5.4% for the full year. In Q4, despite some softer macroeconomic conditions and a slow start in November, the company was still able to drive sales through targeted promotions, including a new Black Friday weekend event that drove dual-channel traffic gains during peak holiday periods. Company Filings By category, category trends were slightly mixed, with Body Care (37% of sales) down mid-single digits due to weaker resonance in seasonal holiday traditions, while Home Fragrance (42% of sales) and Soaps & Sanitizers (14% of sales) each grew low single digits. Internationally, net sales were up 8.6%, with system-wide retail sales up 13% thanks to healthy partner inventories. In terms of some of the key highlights from the quarter, the company ha...
For years, the knock on ESG investing was simple: you sacrifice returns to feel good about your portfolio. The data from ESGU tells a different story. What ESGU Is Actually Built to Do iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (NYSEARCA:ESGU) is designed to give investors broad U.S. equity exposure while tilting toward companies with stronger ... The ESG US Equity ETF That’s Proving Responsible Investing Doe...
For years, the knock on ESG investing was simple: you sacrifice returns to feel good about your portfolio. The data from ESGU tells a different story. What ESGU Is Actually Built to Do iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (NYSEARCA:ESGU) is designed to give investors broad U.S. equity exposure while tilting toward companies with stronger ... The ESG US Equity ETF That’s Proving Responsible Investing Doesn’t Mean Lower Returns
CoStar ( CSGP ) shares tanked after the real estate services provider disclosed criticism by its investor D. E. Shaw over reduced financial transparency resulting from a recent change in reporting structure. CSGP was trading 4.25% lower at $46.36 on Tuesday noon. In an open letter to the CoStar board, D. E. Shaw expressed disappointment at the company's decision to reconfigure its reporting segmen...
CoStar ( CSGP ) shares tanked after the real estate services provider disclosed criticism by its investor D. E. Shaw over reduced financial transparency resulting from a recent change in reporting structure. CSGP was trading 4.25% lower at $46.36 on Tuesday noon. In an open letter to the CoStar board, D. E. Shaw expressed disappointment at the company's decision to reconfigure its reporting segments, which reduces transparency into the financial results of the company's underlying businesses. "The segment reorganization appears designed to obscure the results of CoStar's persistently underperforming Homes.com business—just six weeks after management made new performance commitments to shareholders for that same business," said the letter. "Furthermore, the company also unexpectedly stopped disclosing net new bookings for Homes.com, a key operating metric used by investors to track the progress of the business," said the letter. While the board has claimed it is "focused on holding management accountable," there can be no accountability without transparency, according to the firm with over $85B in investment capital. On February 24, CoStar reported Q4 earnings and revenue that exceeded analyst expectations. Still, the stock lost 10.51% of its value during the week, standing out as the biggest weekly loser among largecap real estate stocks. "During the most recent earnings call, when analysts specifically requested segment-level net new bookings data, management declined to provide the information. Investors took notice: these puzzling moves contributed to a 9% decline in the company's stock price the following day—destroying nearly $2B of shareholder value," D. E. Shaw said in the open letter. More on CoStar Group CoStar Group, Inc. (CSGP) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript CoStar Group, Inc. 2025 Q4 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation Costar Group: Third Point Is Being Impatient (Rating Upgrade) CoStar Group insiders, including CEO, buy shares after stock slides Co...
In Hwaseong, about an hour south of Seoul, Park Eun-hye has been staying up well past midnight to load up on risky bets on South Korean stocks. Her go-to is KORU , a triple-leveraged ETF that magnifies every move — a type of product that has become almost an addictive pastime among the country’s day traders. With every selloff, Park sees an opportunity — and for her, a clear one emerged when South...
In Hwaseong, about an hour south of Seoul, Park Eun-hye has been staying up well past midnight to load up on risky bets on South Korean stocks. Her go-to is KORU , a triple-leveraged ETF that magnifies every move — a type of product that has become almost an addictive pastime among the country’s day traders. With every selloff, Park sees an opportunity — and for her, a clear one emerged when South Korea’s stock market suffered its worst crash in history last week. When she saw the ETF was down more than 40% during pre-market trading, she couldn’t resist and began buying. Traders like Park injected more than $520 million, a record amount, into the ETF last week. This move amid a historic selloff highlights an escalating trend that has alarmed local regulators. Concerned that these high-risk overseas investments mask hidden dangers and pressure the national currency, authorities have been tightening rules for leveraged fund buyers. South Korean retail investors are among the biggest drivers of trading in US-listed leveraged funds globally, often piling into strategies that promise outsize returns. A large amount of Korean retail overseas ETF holdings are in leveraged or inverse funds. The bet paid off this time — South Korean stocks, which have become the hottest trade this year as investors chase chip heavyweights like Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. , recovered on Thursday morning to post their best day in nearly 20 years after its two-day 18% plunge earlier in the week. “Semiconductors are booming and KORU has a high exposure to Korean semiconductor stocks,” Park said. “I also had a belief that the Korean stock market will bounce back quickly and I bought it because I wanted to recover three times faster.” On Monday, the stocks were down again. Park, who had already sold when prices rebounded, bought back in. These kinds of swings lure traders into leveraged products like KORU. Retail investors poured a record $190 million into the $1 billion ETF amid the...
A Bon Jovi biopic is in the works from Universal Pictures, Deadline has confirmed. The feature film will focus on the early years of the rock band, tracing their rise from modest beginnings in New Jersey to selling out stadiums as one of the 1980s’ most defining rock bands. The film will be produced by Kevin J Walsh (Manchester By The Sea, House of Gucci) and Gotham Chopra, who directed 2024’s fou...
A Bon Jovi biopic is in the works from Universal Pictures, Deadline has confirmed. The feature film will focus on the early years of the rock band, tracing their rise from modest beginnings in New Jersey to selling out stadiums as one of the 1980s’ most defining rock bands. The film will be produced by Kevin J Walsh (Manchester By The Sea, House of Gucci) and Gotham Chopra, who directed 2024’s four part documentary Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. The Los Angeles writer Cody Brotter is set to write the script. Bon Jovi have sold over 130m albums, and the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 to celebrate their huge impact on rock music in their multi– decade career. Born Jon Bongiovi in the small city of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Jon Bon Jovi was raised in a blue collar household and started playing music after receiving an electric guitar as a Christmas present when he was 13. “When you’re that age everybody thinks you’re gonna be a rock’n’roll star and that you’re gonna really make it,” he told the Guardian in 2024. “I was just dumb enough to believe it.” As a teenager, Bon Jovi worked as an assistant at the Power Station recording studio in New York, and was transfixed by the musicians who came through such as Mick Jagger and Diana Ross. After releasing 1986’s Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi became rock superstars, and topped US charts with a string of number ones including Livin’ On a Prayer and You Give Love a Bad Name. The film will cover the band’s formation and climax with their 1980s supernova success as Bon Jovi became a must see live act, performing in front of 100,000 fans at 1989’s Moscow Music Peace Festival. Chopra’s documentary Thank You, Goodnight traces the band’s highs as well as the subsequent lows, including band member addiction issues and Jon Bon Jovi undergoing vocal surgery that threatened to end his singing career. The Guardian’s Jack Seale praised the project as “a surprisingly devastating rumination on lost youth...
Shares of Coca-Cola (KO +0.55%) have surged about 11% so far in 2026, significantly outperforming the S&P 500's decline of nearly 1% over this same period. This strong stock performance comes as the beverage giant announced strong fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings in February and prepares for incoming CEO Henrique Braun to take the helm at the end of March. However, with the stock trading...
Shares of Coca-Cola (KO +0.55%) have surged about 11% so far in 2026, significantly outperforming the S&P 500's decline of nearly 1% over this same period. This strong stock performance comes as the beverage giant announced strong fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings in February and prepares for incoming CEO Henrique Braun to take the helm at the end of March. However, with the stock trading at a premium valuation, investors now face a decision: Does the underlying business warrant this high price tag, or has the market gotten ahead of itself? Steady organic growth and robust cash flow Coca-Cola's latest financial results showed exactly why investors are willing to pay a premium valuation for the company's shares. The beverage giant's fourth-quarter organic revenue, a non-generally accepted accounting principles (non-GAAP) metric that excludes the impact of acquisitions, divestitures, and currency fluctuations, grew 5% year over year in both the fourth quarter and the full year. Additionally, incoming CEO Henrique Braun noted on the earnings call that the company "ended the year with better momentum as volume improved each month during the fourth quarter" -- an encouraging trend as the business continues to navigate persistent pressure from lower-income consumers. While the company did report a 32% year-over-year decline in fourth-quarter operating income, this drop was heavily impacted by a $960 million non-cash impairment charge related to the BODYARMOR trademark, as well as significant currency headwinds. Looking at the core business performance, Coca-Cola's comparable currency-neutral operating income increased by a much more impressive 13% for both the fourth quarter and the full year, driven by organic revenue growth and effective cost management. This operational efficiency was particularly evident in its North America segment, where the operating margin reached 30% for the first time in company history. And Coca-Cola's free cash flow (operating cash fl...
Key Points Coca-Cola's organic revenue grew 5% year over year in both the fourth quarter and the full year of 2025. Management forecast free cash flow to increase about 7% year over year this year. Coca-Cola's dividend yield currently sits at 2.7%. 10 stocks we like better than Coca-Cola › Shares of Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) have surged about 11% so far in 2026, significantly outperforming the S&P 500'...
Key Points Coca-Cola's organic revenue grew 5% year over year in both the fourth quarter and the full year of 2025. Management forecast free cash flow to increase about 7% year over year this year. Coca-Cola's dividend yield currently sits at 2.7%. 10 stocks we like better than Coca-Cola › Shares of Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) have surged about 11% so far in 2026, significantly outperforming the S&P 500's decline of nearly 1% over this same period. This strong stock performance comes as the beverage giant announced strong fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings in February and prepares for incoming CEO Henrique Braun to take the helm at the end of March. However, with the stock trading at a premium valuation, investors now face a decision: Does the underlying business warrant this high price tag, or has the market gotten ahead of itself? 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 » Steady organic growth and robust cash flow Coca-Cola's latest financial results showed exactly why investors are willing to pay a premium valuation for the company's shares. The beverage giant's fourth-quarter organic revenue, a non-generally accepted accounting principles (non-GAAP) metric that excludes the impact of acquisitions, divestitures, and currency fluctuations, grew 5% year over year in both the fourth quarter and the full year. Additionally, incoming CEO Henrique Braun noted on theearnings callthat the company "ended the year with better momentum as volume improved each month during the fourth quarter" -- an encouraging trend as the business continues to navigate persistent pressure from lower-income consumers. While the company did report a 32% year-over-year decline in fourth-quarter operating income, this drop was heavily impacted by a $960 million non-cash impairment charge related to the BODYARMOR tradem...
Facebook parent Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it had acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform built for artificial intelligence agents, bringing the company’s founders into its AI research division. The deal will bring Moltbook co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr into Meta Superintelligence Labs, the unit led by Alexandr Wang, former Scale AI CEO, which Meta purchased for $14.8bn. Meta ...
Facebook parent Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it had acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform built for artificial intelligence agents, bringing the company’s founders into its AI research division. The deal will bring Moltbook co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr into Meta Superintelligence Labs, the unit led by Alexandr Wang, former Scale AI CEO, which Meta purchased for $14.8bn. Meta did not disclose financial terms of the deal. Schlicht and Parr are expected to begin at Meta Superintelligence Labs on 16 March. Moltbook, a Reddit-like site where AI-powered bots appear to swap code and gossip about their human owners, was started as a niche experiment in late January. It has since become the center of a growing debate on how close computers are to possessing human-like intelligence. The development signals an intense race among tech giants to snap up AI talent and technology, as autonomous agents capable of executing real-world tasks move from novelty to the next frontier of the industry. Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, has played down Moltbook as a likely fad but said the underlying technology offered a glimpse of the future. OpenAI last month hired Peter Steinberger, the creator of OpenClaw, an open-source bot formerly known as Clawdbot or Moltbot that is backing the project’s open-sourcing. “Moltbook maybe [is a passing fad] but OpenClaw is not,” Altman said. Mike Krieger, Anthropic’s chief product officer, said most people are not yet ready to give AI full autonomy over their computers. Schlicht has championed “vibe coding”, building programs with the help of AI, saying he “didn’t write one line of code” for the site. Schlicht built Moltbook largely using his own personal AI assistant, which he dubbed Clawd Clawderberg. Moltbook’s rise also brought risks. Cybersecurity firm Wiz said the approach left a major flaw that exposed private messages, more than 6,000 email addresses and more than a million credentials. Wiz said the problem was fixed after it con...
Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) is scheduled to release its financial results for the third quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025, before the market opens on March 19 . The update could mark a pivotal moment for investors, offering fresh insight into Alibaba’s core e-commerce momentum, cloud computing growth, and artificial intelligence (AI) investments, all key drive...
Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) is scheduled to release its financial results for the third quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025, before the market opens on March 19 . The update could mark a pivotal moment for investors, offering fresh insight into Alibaba’s core e-commerce momentum, cloud computing growth, and artificial intelligence (AI) investments, all key drivers shaping the company’s long-term strategy and the outlook for its stock. About Alibaba Group Stock Chinese multinational technology conglomerate Alibaba Groupt is best known for its dominance in e-commerce (Alibaba.com, Taobao, Tmall), cloud computing, digital media, logistics, and financial services. Headquartered in Hangzhou, China, the company operates a sprawling ecosystem that serves consumers, merchants, and enterprises globally. Alibaba has a market cap of around $316.7 billion. Shares of Alibaba Group have pulled back in recent weeks, reflecting a shift in investor sentiment. The stock closed the last session at $138.38 , well below its 52-week high of $192.67 reached in October 2025. Over the past year, the stock is up 4.03% . Yet, BABA has declined 5.94% year-to-date (YTD) with the selling pressure even more pronounced over the past month, with 17.2% plunge. The recent weakness reflects several factors weighing on investor sentiment. Concerns about China’s slowing economic recovery and softer consumer spending have raised questions about the outlook for Alibaba’s core e-commerce business. At the same time, investors have become more cautious ahead of the company’s upcoming earnings report, while ongoing competition in China’s online retail and cloud markets has also contributed to volatility in the stock. Despite the slump, the stock is trading at a lofty valuation compared to its industry peers at 24.72 times forward earnings. Mixed Financial Performance Alibaba Group released its fiscal 2026 second-quarter results on Nov. 25, 2025, reporting solid revenue grow...
jetcityimage Casey's General Stores ( CASY ) discussed on its earnings conference call how the chain plans to position chicken wings as a major incremental growth platform within prepared foods, emphasizing both strong early results and a large runway as it scales the offer across the network. Management highlighted that sauced chicken wings and fries have moved from a 225-store test phase to a br...
jetcityimage Casey's General Stores ( CASY ) discussed on its earnings conference call how the chain plans to position chicken wings as a major incremental growth platform within prepared foods, emphasizing both strong early results and a large runway as it scales the offer across the network. Management highlighted that sauced chicken wings and fries have moved from a 225-store test phase to a broader rollout phase, with wings now available in a growing subset of stores and performing well at those locations. The chicken wings product is offered in both bone‑in and boneless formats with multiple sauce flavors and is integrated into the existing made‑to‑order hot food lineup rather than treated as a one‑off limited-time offering. Notably, Casey's ( CASY ) said guest response to wings has been strong and that wings are largely incremental to its core pizza business rather than cannibalistic. The expectation is that the chicken wings business could help expand food margins. Looking down the road, Casey's ( CASY ) characterized wings as a sizable, multiyear growth driver within prepared foods given strong category demand and the chain’s relatively low current penetration versus pizza. Wells Fargo analyst Chris Carey thinks investors should not discount the heightened value proposition of the Casey's ( CASY ) chicken wings business in comparison to fast-food chains. Shares of Casey's General Stores ( CASY ) were up 3.8% in Tuesday afternoon trading and carved out a new all-time high earlier in the session. More on Casey's General Stores Casey's General Stores, Inc. (CASY) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript Casey's: Why This Under The Radar Retailer Could Mirror The Costco Effect Casey's General Stores Would Be A Great Buy On A Pullback Casey's outlines 18%-20% EBITDA growth guidance while expanding prepared foods and store base Casey's General Stores declares $0.57 dividend
Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images Fund performance The abrdn Total Dynamic Dividend Fund outperformed its benchmark over the three-month period ending 31 January 2026 due to stock selection, while there was a neutral effect from sector allocation. 1 Exposure to technology hardware delivered excellent returns as the outlook for 2026 capex spending continued to move higher, with Samsung E...
Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images Fund performance The abrdn Total Dynamic Dividend Fund outperformed its benchmark over the three-month period ending 31 January 2026 due to stock selection, while there was a neutral effect from sector allocation. 1 Exposure to technology hardware delivered excellent returns as the outlook for 2026 capex spending continued to move higher, with Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) and ASML ( ASML ) among the strongest contributors. Roche ( RHHBY ) also outperformed, with its share price increasing as positive pipeline readouts for fenebrutinib (multiple sclerosis) and giredestrant (breast cancer) surprised investors, supported by strong momentum heading into 2026. Not holding NVIDIA ( NVDA ), due to its extremely low dividend yield, was also beneficial as its shares fell over the period. In terms of stocks that detracted, jewellery maker Pandora ( PNDZF ) was among the weaker contributors. The company is heavily reliant on silver for its products, and a sharp rise in the silver price pushed up expected input costs and raised concerns about affordability across its core ranges. A subsequent pullback in the silver price has been helpful for the company, and management has set out a strategy to transition to other metals over time. After reaching an all-time high in late October, shares of Hon Hai Precision Industry ( HNHPF ) pulled back on concerns that rising input costs for semiconductor components such as dynamic random access memory could reduce demand for mobile phones and servers and weigh on the company's margins. Fears of a developing AI bubble sent shares of Oracle ( ORCL ) lower as investors began to question how the company would fund the significant capex required to support the US$300 billion multi-year deal it struck with OpenAI ( OPENAI ) and whether OpenAI would generate sufficient revenue to honour the contract. Cumulative and annualized total return as of January 31, 2026 (%) NAV Market Price MSCI AC World Net Tot...