Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images Up until recently, BDCs ( BIZD ) were starting to show signs of stabilization. After all, the Q1 2026 earnings season resulted in no material uptick in non-accruals, but rather some improvement on the PIK and spread front. Plus, the interest rate outlook has improved, favoring BDC floating rate loan structures. However, the first week of June was again ...
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images Up until recently, BDCs ( BIZD ) were starting to show signs of stabilization. After all, the Q1 2026 earnings season resulted in no material uptick in non-accruals, but rather some improvement on the PIK and spread front. Plus, the interest rate outlook has improved, favoring BDC floating rate loan structures. However, the first week of June was again punctuated by freshly baked "dead BDC" headlines. We could see a heightened downside volatility across almost all BDCs. And, of course, it is not that these headlines have emerged out of the blue. There is indeed a base of real facts and real statistics that provide a valid reason for the media (and bears) to generate new headlines. Looking at this, I just can't remain silent without sharing my views on how these dynamics could (or should) be interpreted. I hope that some investors may find this directly actionable. Others may simply walk away with a richer set of data points for enhanced decision-making. BDC redemptions and the reason to sell The catalyst for the recent pullback in BDCs is elevated Q2 redemption requests from investors who want to get out of semi-liquid private BDCs. This was a problem in Q1, where almost all the industry giants and well-known names decided to cap the quarterly withdrawals to 5%. This started with Blue Owl Capital Inc. ( OWL ) and quickly spilled over to Ares Management Corporation ( ARES ), KKR & Co. ( KKR ), BlackRock ( BLK ), etc. Quite a scary situation. Not only from the investor perspective, who are willing to flee, but also for those who remain inside the structures. Namely, it is not that difficult to plot the various knock-on effects that might stem from a "BDC outflow phase": Forced selling, which might lead to fire-sale discounts. Limited ability to refinance (extend relationships) maturing company loans, which amid SaaSacolypses might likely trigger credit losses. Collateral damage stemming from cross-financed loans (with other...
HMS Prince of Wales expected to sail ‘in the coming days’ according to British government spokesperson A technical issue has been detected on the UK navy’s flagship as it was docked in Norway, after the warship worked with Nato and the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), the government has said. Earlier this month, the HMS Prince of Wales – one of Britain’s two flagship aircraft carriers built for £6...
HMS Prince of Wales expected to sail ‘in the coming days’ according to British government spokesperson A technical issue has been detected on the UK navy’s flagship as it was docked in Norway, after the warship worked with Nato and the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), the government has said. Earlier this month, the HMS Prince of Wales – one of Britain’s two flagship aircraft carriers built for £6.4bn – set sail for Nordic waters from Loch Long, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, to provide security in the Atlantic and High North regions. Continue reading...
A nearly 180-year-old temple nestled in the heart of Wan Chai and Hong Kong’s only mosque inside a prison are poised to receive the city’s highest level of heritage protection under a government proposal. In a paper submitted ahead of a board meeting on Thursday, the Antiquities and Monuments Office recommended that Hung Shing Temple in Wan Chai and the Stanley Mosque at Stanley Prison be declared...
A nearly 180-year-old temple nestled in the heart of Wan Chai and Hong Kong’s only mosque inside a prison are poised to receive the city’s highest level of heritage protection under a government proposal. In a paper submitted ahead of a board meeting on Thursday, the Antiquities and Monuments Office recommended that Hung Shing Temple in Wan Chai and the Stanley Mosque at Stanley Prison be declared statutory monuments. Both buildings currently hold Grade 1 historic building status. “The two...
Nearly 500 Ebola cases have now been confirmed in the deadly outbreak raging in central Africa, a WHO overview showed on Saturday, amid mounting concern over the swelling scale of the epidemic. In its daily update on the situation, the World Health Organization tallied 452 confirmed cases, including 82 deaths, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), where the outbreak was declared three we...
Nearly 500 Ebola cases have now been confirmed in the deadly outbreak raging in central Africa, a WHO overview showed on Saturday, amid mounting concern over the swelling scale of the epidemic. In its daily update on the situation, the World Health Organization tallied 452 confirmed cases, including 82 deaths, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), where the outbreak was declared three weeks ago. In neighbouring Uganda, meanwhile, it counted 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths. The...
Michael Skarke (EVP & COO) of Select Water Solutions (NYSE:WTTR) reported the direct sale of 110,000 shares for a total of approximately $1.91 million over two open-market transactions on May 11 and May 12, 2026, according to a SEC Form 4 filing . Transaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average purchase price ($17.40); post-transaction value based on May 12, 2026 market close ($18.05). * 1-...
Michael Skarke (EVP & COO) of Select Water Solutions (NYSE:WTTR) reported the direct sale of 110,000 shares for a total of approximately $1.91 million over two open-market transactions on May 11 and May 12, 2026, according to a SEC Form 4 filing . Transaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average purchase price ($17.40); post-transaction value based on May 12, 2026 market close ($18.05). * 1-year performance is calculated using June 4th, 2026 as the reference date. Continue reading
The consumer staples sector has had a rough stretch. Between stubbornly sticky input costs, cautious consumers, and a market that rotated hard into technology and artificial intelligence , many of the most recognizable brand portfolios in the world got left behind. That has created something genuinely rare: deeply discounted entry points into businesses that, over any meaningful time horizon, tend...
The consumer staples sector has had a rough stretch. Between stubbornly sticky input costs, cautious consumers, and a market that rotated hard into technology and artificial intelligence , many of the most recognizable brand portfolios in the world got left behind. That has created something genuinely rare: deeply discounted entry points into businesses that, over any meaningful time horizon, tend to be among the most resilient in the market. These two companies sell products that people buy when times are good, and keep buying when times are hard. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Ирина Мещерякова/iStock via Getty Images Foreword None on this Dividend Power list of 35 was too pricey, or revealed skinny dividends! 6 of the 35 low-priced Dividend Power dogs are ready to buy because they also show “safer” dividends whose free cash-flow yield exceeds dividend yield. June finds: Invesco Mortgage Capital ( IVR ), MFA Financial ( MFA ), Ellington Financial ( EFC ), IRSA Inversione...
Ирина Мещерякова/iStock via Getty Images Foreword None on this Dividend Power list of 35 was too pricey, or revealed skinny dividends! 6 of the 35 low-priced Dividend Power dogs are ready to buy because they also show “safer” dividends whose free cash-flow yield exceeds dividend yield. June finds: Invesco Mortgage Capital ( IVR ), MFA Financial ( MFA ), Ellington Financial ( EFC ), IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones SA ( IRS ), PLDT Inc ( PHI ), and CNA Financial ( CNA ) as the top six, safely living up to the dogcatcher ideal. About Dividend Power “How high are the earnings? This strategy defines a universe of stocks based on earnings yield, with higher earnings yield considered better, because it signifies a low valuation. How great is the yield? We sort the universe of stocks by their dividend yield, picking the top 35. What is the result? The result is a portfolio that does a relatively good job weathering downturns while still catching much upward motion during bull markets. It is one of the simplest strategies that has also proven to be one of the most effective.” —YCharts See a summary of the top ten break-even priced April Dividend Power Dogs data (below actionable conclusion #21 mid-article) and the data for six IDEAL “safer” choices in the Afterword, at the bottom of this article.] Actionable Conclusions (1-10): Brokers Expect 35.63% to 76.49% Net Gains From Top-Ten DiviPower Dogs By June, 2027 Four of ten top DiviPower stocks (tinted gray in the chart below) were the top price gainers for the coming year based on analyst 1-year target prices. So, this June 2026 yield-based forecast, as graded by Wall St. wizard estimates, was 40% accurate. Estimated dividend-returns from $1000 invested in the ten highest-yielding stocks along with their one-year analyst median target prices, as reported by YCharts, created the 2026-27 projections below. Ten probable profit-generating trades projected to June, 2027 were: Source: YCharts.com MFA Financial Inc. was projecte...
akinbostanci/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Nvidia ( NVDA ) has been a great pick for a long time. Since I upgraded to strong buy in June 2025 , the stock has delivered a return of 47% compared to the market return of 25%. Today, however, I believe the stock has likely seen the rapid price appreciation phase as in the rear-view mirror, at least for now. The company reported stellar earnings rece...
akinbostanci/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Nvidia ( NVDA ) has been a great pick for a long time. Since I upgraded to strong buy in June 2025 , the stock has delivered a return of 47% compared to the market return of 25%. Today, however, I believe the stock has likely seen the rapid price appreciation phase as in the rear-view mirror, at least for now. The company reported stellar earnings recently, to which the stock did absolutely nothing. This suggests to me the bar Nvidia now has to clear in order to see its stock price move meaningfully is very high indeed. This is partly a function of size; at $5tn in market cap, even a $50bn flow into the stock would only produce a 1% move. The stock looks cheap on a forward P/E basis, but I think earnings being baked in are potentially at risk due to documented delays in the planned data center build-out. A clogging up of the data center pipeline could cause customers to meaningfully slow down their purchases and installations of Nvidia chips. I don't think this would lead to a decline in earnings, but it does make the current consensus estimates look quite challenged. Markets are expecting Nvidia to grow EPS by close to 90% in FY27 and another 40% in FY28. From a technical perspective, the stock has put in a very neat head and shoulders pattern, which often signals a reversal of a prior trend. Nvidia had broken out of its price range as we came into earnings; however, the muted reaction suggests to me it might drift back down to its prior range. TradingView I'm struggling to see the stock price moving meaningfully from here without a catalyst, and if strong earnings and a stellar keynote by Jensen at Computex failed to be that catalyst, I'm not sure what more the company can do in the near term. With all this considered, I am downgrading Nvidia to a hold as I expect it to be range bound for a while. Earnings Nvidia reported its Q1 FY27 earnings on May 20 th . Simply put, the numbers delivered against a very high set of a...
akinbostanci/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Nvidia ( NVDA ) has been a great pick for a long time. Since I upgraded to strong buy in June 2025 , the stock has delivered a return of 47% compared to the market return of 25%. Today, however, I believe the stock has likely seen the rapid price appreciation phase as in the rear-view mirror, at least for now. The company reported stellar earnings rece...
akinbostanci/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Nvidia ( NVDA ) has been a great pick for a long time. Since I upgraded to strong buy in June 2025 , the stock has delivered a return of 47% compared to the market return of 25%. Today, however, I believe the stock has likely seen the rapid price appreciation phase as in the rear-view mirror, at least for now. The company reported stellar earnings recently, to which the stock did absolutely nothing. This suggests to me the bar Nvidia now has to clear in order to see its stock price move meaningfully is very high indeed. This is partly a function of size; at $5tn in market cap, even a $50bn flow into the stock would only produce a 1% move. The stock looks cheap on a forward P/E basis, but I think earnings being baked in are potentially at risk due to documented delays in the planned data center build-out. A clogging up of the data center pipeline could cause customers to meaningfully slow down their purchases and installations of Nvidia chips. I don't think this would lead to a decline in earnings, but it does make the current consensus estimates look quite challenged. Markets are expecting Nvidia to grow EPS by close to 90% in FY27 and another 40% in FY28. From a technical perspective, the stock has put in a very neat head and shoulders pattern, which often signals a reversal of a prior trend. Nvidia had broken out of its price range as we came into earnings; however, the muted reaction suggests to me it might drift back down to its prior range. TradingView I'm struggling to see the stock price moving meaningfully from here without a catalyst, and if strong earnings and a stellar keynote by Jensen at Computex failed to be that catalyst, I'm not sure what more the company can do in the near term. With all this considered, I am downgrading Nvidia to a hold as I expect it to be range bound for a while. Earnings Nvidia reported its Q1 FY27 earnings on May 20 th . Simply put, the numbers delivered against a very high set of a...
adventtr/iStock via Getty Images By Dalya Hahn Accelerating capital spending on AI buildouts by mega-cap hyperscalers and emerging AI model developers continues to surpass expectations. The positive trajectory of capex has supported equity performance across the semiconductor industry, with memory players seeing particularly strong gains. Just as skepticism has emerged over the potential return on...
adventtr/iStock via Getty Images By Dalya Hahn Accelerating capital spending on AI buildouts by mega-cap hyperscalers and emerging AI model developers continues to surpass expectations. The positive trajectory of capex has supported equity performance across the semiconductor industry, with memory players seeing particularly strong gains. Just as skepticism has emerged over the potential return on investment from an unprecedented period of capex, investors have also begun to raise concerns over the duration of the current semiconductor cycle (Exhibit 1). Exhibit 1: Semiconductor Revenue Highly Cyclical Data as of March 31, 2026. Source: WSTS. The semiconductor industry has historically proven volatile through waves of technology innovation where chip demand has increased faster than available supply, yet we believe the unique and expansive nature of generative AI could elongate and reduce the severity of the traditional boom/bust cycle (Exhibit 2). Exhibit 2: Hyperscaler AI Capex Keeps Surpassing Expectations Source: The term “consensus” for the Hyperscaler capex estimates refers to the average of capex estimates made by sell-side analysts. Data as of March 31, 2026. Source: FactSet. Overall chip demand continues to inflect much faster than supply as the generative AI revolution has transformed what the installed enterprise technology base needs to be. Adding supply, especially for high-end applications, can be an especially lengthy process. For example, an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine that etches intricate circuit patterns required to produce leading-edge chips can take six to 12 months to manufacture and ship to a customer. Indeed, supply is constrained by both physics as well as the production capacity of semiconductor capital equipment makers like ASML ( ASML ) and leading foundries such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing ( TSM ), especially when building the foundation for an all-new type of compute. While graphics processing units (GPUs) have bee...