Getty Images Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist The Calamos Strategic Total Return Fund ( CSQ ) continues to deliver impressive returns to shareholders. I last highlighted that I was buying shares of this closed-end fund in the March 2026 market correction, sparked by the Iran war and rising oil prices. We are still seeing elevated oil prices, but the broader equity market h...
Getty Images Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist The Calamos Strategic Total Return Fund ( CSQ ) continues to deliver impressive returns to shareholders. I last highlighted that I was buying shares of this closed-end fund in the March 2026 market correction, sparked by the Iran war and rising oil prices. We are still seeing elevated oil prices, but the broader equity market has completely rebounded and hit new all-time highs. That has helped a fund like CSQ, which carries exposure primarily to equities and convertible securities. At the same time, the fund has continued to see its discount remain incredibly wide, which is not historically normal for this fund. CSQ Basics 1-Year Z-score: -1.24 Discount/Premium: -9.79% Distribution Yield: 7.18% Expense Ratio: 1.51% (3.69% including leverage) Leverage: 28.86% Managed Assets: $4.9 billion Structure: Perpetual CSQ's objective is to seek "total return through a combination of capital appreciation and current income." They attempt to achieve this simply by "investing in a diversified portfolio of equities, convertible securities and high yield corporate bonds." The fund can invest where they think the best opportunities might be. That's part of the appeal of active management: The flexibility to adapt to different situations. However, it should be noted that the fund will have "at least 50% in equity securities." Performance - Wide Discount Makes An Appealing Entry When looking at potential opportunities in the CEF space, we don't simply pick the funds with the deepest discounts. Sometimes they can be interesting names for consideration, particularly if they look ripe for CEF activism. That said, we often look at historical discount levels compared to where a fund is trading now. Some funds regularly trade at premiums; an example of several of those could include the ones where "PIMCO" is on the front. So sometimes it is simply looking at opportunities in CEFs that are trading at premiums, but below t...
Quantum computing pure-play companies are exciting. These investments have a ton of upside, but that comes with a ton of risk. All of these companies are competing for a market of unknown size and are also having to go up against some big tech companies that have nearly unlimited resources. That's not an easy road for companies to navigate, so investors must be picky about which quantum computing ...
Quantum computing pure-play companies are exciting. These investments have a ton of upside, but that comes with a ton of risk. All of these companies are competing for a market of unknown size and are also having to go up against some big tech companies that have nearly unlimited resources. That's not an easy road for companies to navigate, so investors must be picky about which quantum computing stocks they invest in. My top quantum computing pure-play stock is IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) , as it has several factors that differentiate it from the competition. That could give it an edge, leading to substantial returns if it pans out. Image source: The Motley Fool. Continue reading
Oil prices have eased sharply on hopes that the US and Iran will agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but analysts say Asian economies are unlikely to quickly shake off the effects of the energy shock even if the key waterway returns to normal. Benchmark Brent crude oil fell 11.15 per cent to US$92.13 per barrel on Friday, from its level a week earlier, its steepest weekly drop since early April....
Oil prices have eased sharply on hopes that the US and Iran will agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but analysts say Asian economies are unlikely to quickly shake off the effects of the energy shock even if the key waterway returns to normal. Benchmark Brent crude oil fell 11.15 per cent to US$92.13 per barrel on Friday, from its level a week earlier, its steepest weekly drop since early April. Prices edged up again on Monday, trading at about US$93 per barrel during Asian afternoon trading...
A man walks a dog in the shade away from the midday sun past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) building in Manhattan, during hot weather in New York City, New York, U.S., August 11, 2020. Mike Segar | Reuters The S&P 500 closed at a record on the last trading day of May, but only a handful of stocks — focused mostly in the AI area — hit their own all-time highs. This strange occurrence echoes wha...
A man walks a dog in the shade away from the midday sun past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) building in Manhattan, during hot weather in New York City, New York, U.S., August 11, 2020. Mike Segar | Reuters The S&P 500 closed at a record on the last trading day of May, but only a handful of stocks — focused mostly in the AI area — hit their own all-time highs. This strange occurrence echoes what happened at the top of dotcom bubble 26 years ago. On Friday, just 20 of the index members hit a record. Of those 20, just seven were not directly related to AI. Michael Hartnett at Bank of America pointed out in a note to end last week that it was just 20 stocks that hit new highs at the very top of the internet bubble in March 2000. While the widely followed strategist said the "speculative price action" is likely not over yet, this occurance is the latest sign that it is nearing. Hartnett believes central banks and rising interest rates will ultimately spell the end, giving clients a "post-bubble" roadmap. The May stock boom was driven largely by semiconductors, specifically memory chip makers like Micron Technology , Advanced Micro Devices , SK Hynix and Samsung, which are all valued at or near a trillion dollars. AMD soared 50% on the month, Micron jumped 85%, Samsung 43% and SK Hynix 81%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 25% in April and May, its best two-month stretch in more than two decades. Narrow bull A growing number of strategists and investors are concerned that if this bull market doesn't start to broaden out, it will ultimately be its undoing. Advance-decline lines, which show the number of stocks rising compared to the number falling, have exhibited a similar trend, surging at the end of March and then falling back in a bearish sign since the middle of April. "Internals have lagged since the initial April surge," Ari Wald wrote in a May 23 technical analysis for Oppenheimer. Only about 55% of S&P 500 constituents were trading above their 200-day mov...
Latest figures show the company’s delivery performance has worsened compared with the previous year Business live – latest updates The postal regulator has launched an investigation into Royal Mail for once again missing its annual delivery targets, with almost a quarter of first-class mail arriving late. The company, which has been fined £37m since 2023 for routinely failing to meet delivery targ...
Latest figures show the company’s delivery performance has worsened compared with the previous year Business live – latest updates The postal regulator has launched an investigation into Royal Mail for once again missing its annual delivery targets, with almost a quarter of first-class mail arriving late. The company, which has been fined £37m since 2023 for routinely failing to meet delivery targets set by Ofcom, revealed on Friday that 24.3% of first-class mail failed to arrive on time in the year to the end of March. Continue reading...
NicoElNino/iStock via Getty Images The upcoming IPO of SpaceX is gathering a lot of attention. Space has already been an area of interest due to increased global threat levels to which emerging space companies can provide novel defense solutions and lower costs and a push for sovereign space-based defense solutions is also providing a tailwind to space companies. At the same time, we note that the...
NicoElNino/iStock via Getty Images The upcoming IPO of SpaceX is gathering a lot of attention. Space has already been an area of interest due to increased global threat levels to which emerging space companies can provide novel defense solutions and lower costs and a push for sovereign space-based defense solutions is also providing a tailwind to space companies. At the same time, we note that the valuation that SpaceX is pursuing cannot be reasonably supported by just the space and space connectivity business but includes a substantial portion of AI growth prospects which come at high scaling cost. For investors, it may be interesting to look at alternative ways to ride the prospects of SpaceX with an increased focus on space and space-based connectivity. One of the potential investment candidates is Filtronic ( FLTCF ). Filtronic Provides RF Solutions To SpaceX And The Aerospace And Defense Industry In an SA Asks article focusing on SpaceX alternatives, I already marked Filtronic as an alternative and that is not the first time I highlighted the potential. In April, I already had conversations with subscribers of The Aerospace Forum and since then the stock price has increased 65%. The one-year stock price performance of Filtronic is +215.8% and the company now has a $1.16 billion market capitalization. So, one risk for Filtronic is simply that investors have already positioned themselves for this possible investment appeal for Filtronic. RF solutions and markets for Filtronic (Filtronic Investor Presentation) The reason why Filtronic came to mind is that it is a supplier to SpaceX. Filtronic provides radio frequency or RF solutions for the Aerospace & Defense industry including space and terrestrial telecommunications. The band for which it provides solutions ranges from the UHF or Ultra High Frequency To D-band solutions. The company derives most of its revenue from a single customer. While this customer is not named as such, it is almost certainly SpaceX accoun...
He's "Full Of Sh!t": JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Slams Coinbase's Armstrong, Declares War On Clarity Act JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has drawn a battle line in Washington: the Clarity Act, as written, is dead on arrival - and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is the enemy driving it. In a Fox Business interview late last week, Dimon unloaded on the pending crypto market structure legislation, calling i...
He's "Full Of Sh!t": JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Slams Coinbase's Armstrong, Declares War On Clarity Act JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has drawn a battle line in Washington: the Clarity Act, as written, is dead on arrival - and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is the enemy driving it. In a Fox Business interview late last week, Dimon unloaded on the pending crypto market structure legislation, calling it a threat to the financial system and a gift to an industry that wants the privileges of banking without the responsibilities. “It allows cryptocurrency firms to effectively pay interest on deposits - stablecoins or something like that - without the protection that they should have,” Dimon said. “It has almost no legal protections.” Jamie Dimon went on Fox and called Brian Armstrong "full of sh!t" over stablecoins. 😳 Jamie is the GOAT. Love him or loathe him, you absolutely know where he stands. What stood out to me in the clip was to hear the CEO of America's biggest bank promise to fight, and admit he… pic.twitter.com/Jjbfj7zim9 — Simon Taylor (@sytaylor) May 31, 2026 As Micah Zimmerman reports for BitcoinMagazine.com, Dimon's core argument: if a crypto platform walks like a bank and talks like a bank, it needs to be regulated like one. That means Anti-Money Laundering compliance, Bank Secrecy Act obligations, FDIC insurance, capital requirements, liquidity rules, and the full weight of financial oversight that traditional banks carry. The Clarity Act, in his view, lets crypto firms skip all of it. The fight over stablecoin rewards sits at the center of the dispute. Banks say allowing crypto exchanges to pay customers for holding stablecoins would accelerate deposit flight from traditional institutions — a ticking clock on the business model that has defined American banking for a century. Crypto advocates counter that such incentives are a natural evolution of payments infrastructure. The bill’s markup is approaching, and neither side is backing down. Dimon also flagged...
Alexey Zakirov/iStock via Getty Images NCS Multistage Holding ( NCSM ) up 11% pre-market Monday after Weatherford International ( WFRD ) said it agreed to acquire the energy technology company in a deal valued at ~$151M, with stockholders electing to receive either Weatherford common shares or a combination of stock and cash. Under the deal terms, NCS Multistage ( NCSM ) stockholders can elect to ...
Alexey Zakirov/iStock via Getty Images NCS Multistage Holding ( NCSM ) up 11% pre-market Monday after Weatherford International ( WFRD ) said it agreed to acquire the energy technology company in a deal valued at ~$151M, with stockholders electing to receive either Weatherford common shares or a combination of stock and cash. Under the deal terms, NCS Multistage ( NCSM ) stockholders can elect to receive either 0.554 shares of Weatherford ( WFRD ) common stock at closing, or a combination of 0.239 shares of Weatherford common stock and a cash amount equal to 0.137 shares of Weatherford common stock at closing. Weatherford ( WFRD ) said NCS Multistage ( NCSM ) brings a complementary technology portfolio aimed at supporting the optimization of oil and gas well completions and field development strategies, expanding the company's offerings in the well completions segment while deepening its capabilities in the unconventional space. Weatherford ( WFRD ) said it expects to realize at least $15M in annual run-rate cost synergies from the deal over a period of 18 months. More on Weatherford International and NCS Multistage Weatherford: Still A Hold, As Oil And Gas Sector Sends Mixed Picture Weatherford International Q1 2026 Earnings Call Presentation NCS Multistage: Evaluation After The Recent Developments
Tech stocks looked set to rise on Monday, although for once the blue-chip Dow looked set to outshine the Nasdaq 100. Futures tracking the Dow jumped 280 points, or 0.6%, in early trading, while the Nasdaq was up just 0.
Tech stocks looked set to rise on Monday, although for once the blue-chip Dow looked set to outshine the Nasdaq 100. Futures tracking the Dow jumped 280 points, or 0.6%, in early trading, while the Nasdaq was up just 0.