Guido Mieth/DigitalVision via Getty Images This year is shaping up to be one of the more exciting years in post-pandemic investing. While 2025 saw tariff madness and trade wars, 2026 appears to be hosting a more kinetic type of conflict. Most recently, President Trump has ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most significant acts of economic disruption in modern naval histo...
Guido Mieth/DigitalVision via Getty Images This year is shaping up to be one of the more exciting years in post-pandemic investing. While 2025 saw tariff madness and trade wars, 2026 appears to be hosting a more kinetic type of conflict. Most recently, President Trump has ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most significant acts of economic disruption in modern naval history. Trump’s daring use of warfare to reshape the global energy economy has generated volatility far away from where the missiles are landing. Some folks are undoubtedly looking at current events with a desire to sit this one out. Things are looking a little spicier than my taste buds have a liking for, and more of my assets are moving towards cash and cash alternatives. Among the traditional options are high-yield savings accounts and money market mutual funds, both of which offer unique forms of principal protection while also offering a relatively high yield. However, what these two options lack is liquidity. A high-yield savings account doesn’t generally offer the ability to invest, and a money market mutual fund trades just like that—a mutual fund. Another option one may consider is an exchange-traded fund, specifically the iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF ( SGOV ). This article will follow up on my prior coverage and explain why SGOV remains a top cash alternative. Review Of Prior Coverage I have covered SGOV twice on Seeking Alpha, most recently in November 2024 . This article included a relatively comprehensive overview of the portfolio, expense structure, and distribution setup of the fund. SGOV is an exchange traded fund sponsored by BlackRock ( BLK ), one of the world’s largest asset managers. The fund is part of the iShares core lineup, which is designed to track indices and charge rock bottom expense ratio. Across the lineup, each fund charges a competitive fee. In the case of SGOV, this fee is just nine basis points, cheaper than most money market funds. SGO...
vaeenma/iStock via Getty Images Introduction & Investment Thesis The software complex came again under pressure last week after Anthropic launched its own Managed Agents platform while revealing staggering ARR growth of $30B , overtaking OpenAI and positioning itself as an absolute beast of an AI beneficiary, while markets still wait for the long-expected AI inflection in the cloud software indust...
vaeenma/iStock via Getty Images Introduction & Investment Thesis The software complex came again under pressure last week after Anthropic launched its own Managed Agents platform while revealing staggering ARR growth of $30B , overtaking OpenAI and positioning itself as an absolute beast of an AI beneficiary, while markets still wait for the long-expected AI inflection in the cloud software industry. While the complex has staged a spectacular rally after Tech-Software Sector ETF IGV ( IGV ) created a lower low (for 2026) on April 10th, with the ETF rising 12% in just three trading sessions and outperforming the bounce in S&P 500 ( SPY ), SMH ( SMH ), and QQQ ( QQQ ), I think the reversal in sentiment is likely triggered by the severe undervaluation in the software segment at the moment. At a fundamental level, we still need a couple/few quarters of fundamental evidence of accelerating RPO (Remaining Performance Obligations), strengthening NRR (Net Retention Rate), and stable margins across companies to help investors find footing on how to value the sector and the companies within it in the Agentic AI era. In the meantime, I will discuss my three SaaS positions in the portfolio that include ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW ), Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) and how I’m thinking about my capital allocation strategies amid the volatility and growing AI disruption risks. SaaS Ran Out Of Gas Last Week; It’s Picking Up Steam Again In my previous post on the software industry , I had explained how Agentic AI (with Anthropic Claude Cowork and OpenAI Frontier) is rewriting the software tech stack, whereby the classic system of records is pushed down the stack and the incremental AI value created in software goes towards agents. In this world, the classic UI/UX layer of software companies gets abstracted away as AI agents autonomously execute workflows without a human being ever logging into the software tool, thus disrupting the predictable “seat-based” pricing m...
Police enhanced security in front of the Chinese Embassy in Japan on March 24, 2026. Photo: VCG The Chinese Embassy in Japan has accused Tokyo of neglecting repeated terrorist threats against its diplomatic mission after an armed Japanese soldier breached the diplomatic compound. At a press conference on Thursday, Chinese Chargé d'Affaires Shi Yong revealed that the embassy received two separate t...
Police enhanced security in front of the Chinese Embassy in Japan on March 24, 2026. Photo: VCG The Chinese Embassy in Japan has accused Tokyo of neglecting repeated terrorist threats against its diplomatic mission after an armed Japanese soldier breached the diplomatic compound. At a press conference on Thursday, Chinese Chargé d'Affaires Shi Yong revealed that the embassy received two separate threats from individuals claiming ties to Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) surrounding a physical intrusion late last month.
A higher paycheck did not ease the pressure. Orimar, calling from New Brunswick, Canada, told "The Ramsey Show" she and her husband were bringing in about 9,700 Canadian dollars ($7,050) a month, including rental income, but still felt overwhelmed after...
A higher paycheck did not ease the pressure. Orimar, calling from New Brunswick, Canada, told "The Ramsey Show" she and her husband were bringing in about 9,700 Canadian dollars ($7,050) a month, including rental income, but still felt overwhelmed after...
⚽ Europa League updates; kick-off 8pm BST ( first leg: 1-1 ) ⚽ Aston Villa v Bologna – updates | Live scores | Mail Scott Six months ago this happened … … which has got to augur well for Nottingham Forest (even if it didn’t serve as much of a promising harbinger for poor old Sean Dyche). Throw in the fact that Porto have played 24 competitive matches in England and have yet to win one (D3 L21) and...
⚽ Europa League updates; kick-off 8pm BST ( first leg: 1-1 ) ⚽ Aston Villa v Bologna – updates | Live scores | Mail Scott Six months ago this happened … … which has got to augur well for Nottingham Forest (even if it didn’t serve as much of a promising harbinger for poor old Sean Dyche). Throw in the fact that Porto have played 24 competitive matches in England and have yet to win one (D3 L21) and all signs point to YES for Vítor Pereira and his charges. The winner of this tie gets to play the victor of Aston Villa and Bologna, and the prospect of an ATVLand rammy for a place in the final is almost too much excitement for a brain to contain. So come on Forest, giddy up Villa, let’s make this happen. Kick-off is at 8pm BST, with the scores level at 1-1 after the fiasco-tinged first leg. It’s on! Continue reading...
⚽ Europa League updates; kick-off 8pm BST ( first leg: 3-1 ) ⚽ Nottingham Forest v Porto – latest | Live scores | Mail Niall Much like one of those old-timey “choose your own adventure” stories, Aston Villa have two clear paths to the Champions League. Unlike said books, there appears to be little immediate peril on either route. Villa are seven points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea in the Premier ...
⚽ Europa League updates; kick-off 8pm BST ( first leg: 3-1 ) ⚽ Nottingham Forest v Porto – latest | Live scores | Mail Niall Much like one of those old-timey “choose your own adventure” stories, Aston Villa have two clear paths to the Champions League. Unlike said books, there appears to be little immediate peril on either route. Villa are seven points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea in the Premier League, and got the job in this tie more than halfway done in the first leg in Italy. Get through tonight and Porto or Nottingham Forest (!) await in the semi-finals, while mid-table Sunderland and Fulham are up next in the league. Continue reading...
E H Shepard drawings go on display for book’s centenary, showing how he brought AA Milne’s character to life Previously unseen drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh that show the honey-loving bear before he was introduced to generations of readers in the 1926 book have come to light. Two preliminary pencil sketches by E H Shepard have been shared for the first time by his family to mark the centenary of one...
E H Shepard drawings go on display for book’s centenary, showing how he brought AA Milne’s character to life Previously unseen drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh that show the honey-loving bear before he was introduced to generations of readers in the 1926 book have come to light. Two preliminary pencil sketches by E H Shepard have been shared for the first time by his family to mark the centenary of one of the most loved books in children’s literature. Continue reading...
Stellantis, the global car company that owns brands from Alfa Romeo to Vauxhall (including Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram), has begun a five-year partnership with Microsoft. The tech company will use its expertise to help the automaker improve its digital services, beef up its cybersecurity, and enhance its engineering capabilities. And yes, it will do that with the hype-iest of tech trends, AI. W...
Stellantis, the global car company that owns brands from Alfa Romeo to Vauxhall (including Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram), has begun a five-year partnership with Microsoft. The tech company will use its expertise to help the automaker improve its digital services, beef up its cybersecurity, and enhance its engineering capabilities. And yes, it will do that with the hype-iest of tech trends, AI. When Ars Technica started covering the auto industry, it was because technology had begun to infiltrate our vehicles. More than a decade later, the impact of that trend is impossible to ignore. Almost every new vehicle has at least one modem embedded somewhere, connected to some cloud or other. Active safety systems perceive other road users and intervene to prevent collisions. Touchscreens are ubiquitous—and a necessity for the smartphone-like services we're told make Chinese cars so much better than anything we can buy here. It's difficult to say that all this innovation has been good, at least for the end user. Connected services can be very useful—ironically, one of the harder things to test with press cars—but only if those services are provided securely. Advanced driver assistance systems aren't always that safe, as Tesla's many federal investigations and recalls remind us. Touchscreens and capacitive panels might save automakers a few bucks, but they're unquestionably worse in terms of human-machine interactions than real buttons or switches. And I don't need to tell the Ars audience about the possible privacy implications of in-car apps. Read full article Comments
peshkov Crypto-linked stocks just pulled back sharply, and it’s not as random as it looks. The move reflects a mix of profit booking, company-level signals, and a cooling Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) trend. Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) is down ~5% to $16.58 Bitdeer Technologies ( BTDR ) slipped ~3% to $12.23. Cipher Mining ( CIFR ) fell ~3.28% to $17.41, marking a broad pullback across crypto-linked equities. R...
peshkov Crypto-linked stocks just pulled back sharply, and it’s not as random as it looks. The move reflects a mix of profit booking, company-level signals, and a cooling Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) trend. Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) is down ~5% to $16.58 Bitdeer Technologies ( BTDR ) slipped ~3% to $12.23. Cipher Mining ( CIFR ) fell ~3.28% to $17.41, marking a broad pullback across crypto-linked equities. Riot Platform's ( RIOT ) decline isn’t just technical—it’s also fundamental pressure. As per its press release , the company sold ~3.78K BTC for ~$289.5M in Q1 at ~$76.6K per coin and another ~500 BTC in early April, reducing holdings to ~15.68K BTC (down ~18% YoY). This signals higher profit booking. Technically, price got rejected near $18.5 after a sharp rally. RSI cooled to ~39, and MACD turned bearish, which means momentum cooled while selling pressure increased. What's next: If $16 support holds, a bounce toward $20 is possible, while a break could push it to ~$14 levels. On the other hand, Bitdeer Technologies ( BTDR ) fall is more technical despite strong fundamentals. As per its press release , its March 2026 Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) production jumped ~480% YoY to ~661—but price didn’t follow. After a rally from ~$8.5 to ~$12.8, the stock showed exhaustion. The RSI eased to ~56, the MACD flipped bearish, and volumes weakened. What's next: As long as ~11 support holds, the uptrend remains intact, with a potential retest of $15, but if it breaks, ~$9.5 might be the next stop. At the same time, Cipher Mining’s ( CIFR ) drop also reflects a classic pullback. After rising from ~$13 to ~$19, the stock failed to break resistance and formed lower highs. RSI at ~45 and bearish MACD confirm short-term weakness. What's next: Holding ~$17 support could lead to a bounce towards ~$20.5, while a breakdown may drag it toward ~$15. Overall, the bigger picture ties back to Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ). According to the TradingView chart , the asset is cooling after rejection near ~$76K, now rangin...