(Bloomberg) -- The dominance of a few technology giants in the benchmark S&P 500 Index is now carrying over into the niche market for dividend futures and options. Most Read from BloombergUS Says Deals With Iran for Safe Hormuz Transit Are ProhibitedAmericans Injured in Iranian Missile Strike on Kuwaiti Air BaseStrait of Hormuz Ship Transits Are Rising Thanks to US HelpAmericans Hurt in Kuwait as ...
(Bloomberg) -- The dominance of a few technology giants in the benchmark S&P 500 Index is now carrying over into the niche market for dividend futures and options. Most Read from BloombergUS Says Deals With Iran for Safe Hormuz Transit Are ProhibitedAmericans Injured in Iranian Missile Strike on Kuwaiti Air BaseStrait of Hormuz Ship Transits Are Rising Thanks to US HelpAmericans Hurt in Kuwait as Trump Sends Mixed Signals on WarCVS Returns Zepbound to Drug Plans After Lilly Slashes PriceThe bigg
Yves Sakila died after being restrained by security guards ‘in broad daylight’ Irish authorities have agreed to a second postmortem on the body of a Congolese man who died after being restrained by shop security guards on a Dublin street, prompting an outcry and comparisons to the death of George Floyd. A forensic pathologist from England is to conduct an independent postmortem this week on Yves S...
Yves Sakila died after being restrained by security guards ‘in broad daylight’ Irish authorities have agreed to a second postmortem on the body of a Congolese man who died after being restrained by shop security guards on a Dublin street, prompting an outcry and comparisons to the death of George Floyd. A forensic pathologist from England is to conduct an independent postmortem this week on Yves Sakila, 35, an alleged shoplifter who was pursued and pinned to the ground in the city centre on 15 May. The police force, An Garda Síochána, is investigating. Continue reading...
French police detained 780 people involved in violent clashes in Paris and other French cities that erupted on Saturday night after Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League title. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 57 officers were wounded, with most suffering minor injuries, as football fans set off fires and vandalised shops. One small group even tried to storm a Paris police station. Nuñe...
French police detained 780 people involved in violent clashes in Paris and other French cities that erupted on Saturday night after Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League title. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 57 officers were wounded, with most suffering minor injuries, as football fans set off fires and vandalised shops. One small group even tried to storm a Paris police station. Nuñez said at a news conference on Sunday that “the situation has been largely brought under...
INchendio/iStock via Getty Images The stock market may only have been this stretched one other time in recent memory, and that was in the summer of 2024. That summer saw implied volatility measures and the relationship between single-stock and index returns reach extremes. May 2026 appears to be repeating that pattern. An unprecedented rally in semiconductor stocks has left much of the rest of the...
INchendio/iStock via Getty Images The stock market may only have been this stretched one other time in recent memory, and that was in the summer of 2024. That summer saw implied volatility measures and the relationship between single-stock and index returns reach extremes. May 2026 appears to be repeating that pattern. An unprecedented rally in semiconductor stocks has left much of the rest of the market behind, driving dispersion to extreme levels and implied correlations to historic lows. The move has been fueled by a sharp rise in single-stock implied volatility while index volatility remains relatively subdued. Pushing to the Max The problem is not that this is happening; the problem is the degree to which this is happening. The S&P 500 Dispersion Index at 42 has only been higher during periods of market turmoil, namely COVID in March 2020 and the Tariff Tantrum in April 2025. However, the reason for today's high dispersion is not a crisis or market event; it appears to be merely that one group of stocks is moving violently, overwhelming the index. TradingView This high level of dispersion occurs when implied volatility for individual stocks deviates from that of the S&P 500 index. One way to measure this is by comparing the S&P 500 constituent-level implied volatility index (VIXEQ) with the VIX index. The VIXEQ today is around 45, at the upper end of the historic range, while the VIX is at roughly 15, closer to its low. TradingView While neither of them is at an extreme, the spread is. The VIXEQ is trading almost 30 points above the VIX Index, a record. This is a classic dispersion signal, and because implied volatility on stocks is high while index volatility is relatively low, implied market correlation has fallen. The last time 3-month implied correlations were this low in the S&P 500 was back in July 2024. TradingView Historically, periods of extremely low implied correlation and elevated dispersion have often coincided with periods of market vulnerability....
"Well-Funded" NGO Machine Behind Newark Anti-ICE Chaos; Bessent Signals Nonprofit Crackdown Anti-ICE demonstrations outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, an ICE immigration detention facility, escalated in the overnight hours as the far-left and well-funded maximum pressure campaign entered its ninth day on Saturday. The continued mobilization only suggests a coordinated pressure operation, ...
"Well-Funded" NGO Machine Behind Newark Anti-ICE Chaos; Bessent Signals Nonprofit Crackdown Anti-ICE demonstrations outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, an ICE immigration detention facility, escalated in the overnight hours as the far-left and well-funded maximum pressure campaign entered its ninth day on Saturday. The continued mobilization only suggests a coordinated pressure operation, with dark-money-funded NGOs appearing to provide organizational and financial support. Citizen journalist Nick Sortor went undercover at the anti-ICE encampment outside Delaney Hall in Newark on Saturday night, documenting what he described as far-left revolutionaries training their so-called 'woke warriors' to combat ICE agents. Sortor explained: I went undercover into a leftist training "class" here outside ICE Newark, where rioters are each handed ~$100 of equipment to pretend to be medic. These people are basically Antifa's support staff. They were given goggles, latex gloves, and most notably, 3M P100 respirators with MULTIPLE spare cartridges — all new in the box. The respirator + spare cartridges cost $75 each. And they were doling them out like candy. These are NOT organic riots. They're well organized and well-funded. These groups need to be broken up into a million pieces. 🚨 EXCLUSIVE: I went undercover into a leftist training “class” here outside ICE Newark, where rioters are each handed ~$100 of equipment to pretend to be medics These people are basically Antifa’s support staff They were given goggles, latex gloves, and most notably, 3M P100… pic.twitter.com/CeB6m4QlYo — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 30, 2026 Chaos. 🚨 BREAKING: MAJOR clashes underway between NJ police and anti-ICE rioters in Newark SUPER physical fights WE NEED NATIONAL GUARD! pic.twitter.com/vMMmlcxBZb — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 31, 2026 🚨 BREAKING: NJ POLICE HAVE LOST CONTROL —THEY’RE OVERWHELMED VlOLENT CLASHES UNDERWAY (One of my phones is now a casuaIty) pic.twitter.com/qMbW6hfqZ9 — Ni...
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation, came in at an annualized rate of 3.8% in April, nearly twice the Federal Reserve's 2% target. To make matters worse, the Producer Price Index (PPI) increased even faster, suggesting there is more inflation on the business side that could be passed on to consumers in the coming months. May 2023 was the last time the CPI was this high, and the ...
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation, came in at an annualized rate of 3.8% in April, nearly twice the Federal Reserve's 2% target. To make matters worse, the Producer Price Index (PPI) increased even faster, suggesting there is more inflation on the business side that could be passed on to consumers in the coming months. May 2023 was the last time the CPI was this high, and the Fed was raising the federal funds rate (overnight interest rate) to bring it under control. The S&P 500 index was in the throes of a bear market at the time, because rising interest rates are a significant headwind for corporate earnings. After six interest rate cuts since September 2024, Wall Street is now predicting the Fed's next move will be a hike. Could this derail the current bull market in stocks? Continue reading
Getty Images Li Auto ( LI ), which has seen a notable headwind for its deliveries compared to peers lately amid a weak market response to the Li Mega Multi-Purpose Vehicle, released earnings for the first fiscal quarter on May 28, 2026 that beat on the top line. However, the electric vehicle start-up suffered a serious margin contraction in its core business due to model refresh cycles and lower a...
Getty Images Li Auto ( LI ), which has seen a notable headwind for its deliveries compared to peers lately amid a weak market response to the Li Mega Multi-Purpose Vehicle, released earnings for the first fiscal quarter on May 28, 2026 that beat on the top line. However, the electric vehicle start-up suffered a serious margin contraction in its core business due to model refresh cycles and lower average selling prices... all of which helped push shares to fresh 52-week lows last week. While Li Auto has disappointed my delivery expectations, especially last year, the electric vehicle enterprise is adjusting its lineup and pivoting away from Multi-Purpose Vehicle. To this end, the company launched the new Li L9 in May which had a scheduled delivery start date of May 28, 2026. With the outlook for Q2 deliveries also being weak, implying a double-digit year-over-year decline, the risk profile for Li Auto as an investment has clearly deteriorated as well. Data by YCharts Previous rating Li Auto was a ‘Strong Buy’ for me in March -- T oo Cheap To Make Sense -- despite a weakening growth trajectory related to its poorly-received Li Mega Multi-Purpose Vehicle. I maintained a positive rating on the EV enterprise chiefly because of its high gross and vehicle margins that made Li Auto one of the most profitable electric vehicle and hybrid car manufacturers in the industry. Given the unprecedented margin plunge in Q1'26, however, I feel compelled to lower my stock rating to 'Hold' and would advise a cautionary approach to Li Auto until investors have clarity about the short- and medium-term margin trend. Plunging vehicle margins are a major concern The EV company reported weaker-than-expected earnings, but it beat revenue expectations for the first-quarter on May 28, 2026: Li Auto published $(0.31) per-share in normalized earnings, meeting EPS expectations exactly. Revenues came in at $3.4B, beating the average prediction by $196M. Seeking Alpha Li Auto is growing its deliverie...
2Ban/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Visa ( V ) and Mastercard ( MA ) names are staples not only when it comes to electronic payments, but in investing as well. Visa's stock has been endorsed by Warren Buffett for many years as a way to own one of the best business models in existence. But things change over the years and in my view the stock is no-longer as attractive as it used to be. I downgr...
2Ban/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Visa ( V ) and Mastercard ( MA ) names are staples not only when it comes to electronic payments, but in investing as well. Visa's stock has been endorsed by Warren Buffett for many years as a way to own one of the best business models in existence. But things change over the years and in my view the stock is no-longer as attractive as it used to be. I downgraded the stock to a Hold in the summer of 2023 and kept my somewhat pessimistic view over the following years. My main issue has been that even though the business has been able to retain its crown and industry-leading margin, the share price response to these developments was likely to be muted . Perhaps not surprisingly, over the past 3-year period V and its major peer MA, have both been trailing the broader equity market up until the second half of 2025 when things went astray and both stocks have been on a downtrend for about a year now. Data by YCharts Problems have been mounting for Visa's investors as Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.A )( BRK.B ) also sold its stakes in both companies, thus signaling an end of an era that many value investors would find troubling. Seeking Alpha Nonetheless, it seems highly likely that V will at best continue to trail the equity market and although some short-term deviations from that trend are possible, in my view the stock is not worth owning for anyone looking to achieve above-market returns. A Long-Term Take On The Stock In the years following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, the equity market experienced a gradual increase in earnings multiples. Visa's stock was no exception and its P/E multiple expanded up until the 2017-18 period when it briefly went above 40. In the following years, the multiple has been deflating with the exception of the years following the pandemic when extreme levels of liquidity in the market forced returns to unsustainable levels. After the bear market of 2022, Visa's earnings multiple settled at much lower ...
Torsten Asmus/iStock via Getty Images The last time I wrote about Gilead Sciences ( GILD ), it was with a Seeking Alpha article entitled " Gilead: Downgrade To 'Hold' Rating Despite Arcellx Acquisition ." With respect to this article, I mentioned that the company had acquired Arcellx for $7.8 billion, which brought about anito-cel and the D-Domain CAR platform. I had downgraded the stock to a "Hol...
Torsten Asmus/iStock via Getty Images The last time I wrote about Gilead Sciences ( GILD ), it was with a Seeking Alpha article entitled " Gilead: Downgrade To 'Hold' Rating Despite Arcellx Acquisition ." With respect to this article, I mentioned that the company had acquired Arcellx for $7.8 billion, which brought about anito-cel and the D-Domain CAR platform. I had downgraded the stock to a "Hold" rating, and at this present time, I'm going to maintain this rating. The reason why is because the company is still achieving sales growth, especially with its lead HIV drug, BIKTARVY, but still has plenty of work to do to boost sales of its other drug candidates. LIVDELZI sales for Q1 of 2026 were $133 million, which was a 230% year-over-year increase. However, it had seen a quarter-over-quarter decline of -11%, impacted by inventory drawdown and normalized demand following the switch bolus. TRODELVY sales in Q1 of 2026 were $402 million, which was a year-over-year increase of 37%. For Q1 of 2026, it reported a total sales increase of 5% year-over-year to $6.9 billion. VEKLURY continues to be a drag because of lower Covid-19-related hospitalizations, with revenues seeing a decrease of 52% to $144 million. The reason for the "Hold" rating is because there are some expansions underway, which could help the company boost revenues for specific products. With respect to TRODELVY, there are two FDA regulatory decisions and possible launches in the 2nd half of 2026. This would be to expand the drug to target 1st-line PD-L1+ and PD-L1- metastatic triple-negative breast cancer [mTNBC] patients. The two other reasons for the "Hold" rating are the ability to possibly expand access to BIKTARVY and also to run an extensive multiple myeloma [MM] drug development program. Speaking of BIKTARVY, this is boosting the HIV franchise of its portfolio considerably. Sales of BIKTARVY increased by 7% year-over-year to $3.4 billion. Total HIV sales for this quarter increased by 10% to $5 billio...