Key PointsThe ProShares Ultra Pro QQQ has delivered average annual returns of 39.3% in the past 16 years -- but leverage brings bigger risks as well as rewards.
Key PointsThe ProShares Ultra Pro QQQ has delivered average annual returns of 39.3% in the past 16 years -- but leverage brings bigger risks as well as rewards.
The war in Iran is putting pressure on global energy markets, but its broader economic impact could be even farther-reaching. Former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson says the conflict is likely to push inflation higher, keep interest rates elevated, and strain industries from airlines to agriculture. At the same time, Paulson highlights rising sovereign debt and a fragile US-China relationship a...
The war in Iran is putting pressure on global energy markets, but its broader economic impact could be even farther-reaching. Former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson says the conflict is likely to push inflation higher, keep interest rates elevated, and strain industries from airlines to agriculture. At the same time, Paulson highlights rising sovereign debt and a fragile US-China relationship as key vulnerabilities, arguing that while the US economy remains resilient, the longer-term risks are mounting. (Source: Bloomberg)
SlavkoSereda/iStock via Getty Images The British military announced on Saturday that a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz had come under fire from two gunboats operated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The incident occurred after Tehran announced earlier in the day that it would reimpose restrictions on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, as the U.S. blockade of the vital maritime trade ...
SlavkoSereda/iStock via Getty Images The British military announced on Saturday that a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz had come under fire from two gunboats operated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The incident occurred after Tehran announced earlier in the day that it would reimpose restrictions on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, as the U.S. blockade of the vital maritime trade route continued. Confusion over the critical chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed conflict, even as mediators expressed confidence a new deal was within reach. Iran’s joint military command said on Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.” It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect. Two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said on Saturday. It reported the tanker and crew as safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination. TankerTrackers.com reported vessels were forced to turn around in the strait, including an Indian-flagged super tanker, after they were fired on by Iran. Iran announced earlier Saturday it was reimposing restrictions on the strait in response to a U.S. blockade on Iranian shipping and ports. Iran has prevented vessels from crossing throughout the seven-week-long war, except for ones it authorizes. Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, said that the strait was “returning to the status quo,” which he had earlier described as ships requiring Iranian naval authorization and toll payment before transiting. The shift came a day after Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared the strait open while a 10-day tru...
Changing climate, new techniques and a homegrown study programme have all helped drive a UK viticulture boom Rows of vines stretch across the rolling hills of rural Dorset. Currently waist height, they appear bare against a bleak spring sky. Up close, you can see they are already dotted with tiny woolly buds as they exit their winter dormancy for a new growth cycle. Come summer these rows will be ...
Changing climate, new techniques and a homegrown study programme have all helped drive a UK viticulture boom Rows of vines stretch across the rolling hills of rural Dorset. Currently waist height, they appear bare against a bleak spring sky. Up close, you can see they are already dotted with tiny woolly buds as they exit their winter dormancy for a new growth cycle. Come summer these rows will be laden with chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes, ready to make the latest batch of English sparkling wine from the Langham estate near Dorchester. Continue reading...
Nicholas Enrich was an eyewitness to the dismantling of the US foreign aid organization by the Trump administration Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Nicholas Enrich was working in Kenya in 2003 when the then US president George W Bush signed a landmark $15bn, five-year commitment to combat HIV , the largest international health commitment by any nation ...
Nicholas Enrich was an eyewitness to the dismantling of the US foreign aid organization by the Trump administration Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Nicholas Enrich was working in Kenya in 2003 when the then US president George W Bush signed a landmark $15bn, five-year commitment to combat HIV , the largest international health commitment by any nation to fight a single disease. It was the peak of the epidemic, and for the young American government aid worker “it clicked that my government was ready to join the fight against HIV and I was excited to be a part of that”, he says. Continue reading...
Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors group claim there are ‘dozens of individuals who must be held to account’ A group of 50 survivors of alleged sexual abuse by Harrods’ former owner Mohamed Al Fayed are calling for “meaningful consequences” for those who they claim facilitated and ignored the abuse. “If they think the money is the important factor they are so far off the mark,” said Jen Mills...
Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors group claim there are ‘dozens of individuals who must be held to account’ A group of 50 survivors of alleged sexual abuse by Harrods’ former owner Mohamed Al Fayed are calling for “meaningful consequences” for those who they claim facilitated and ignored the abuse. “If they think the money is the important factor they are so far off the mark,” said Jen Mills, a member of the Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors group. They claim there are “dozens of individuals who must be held to account”, from a range of eras. Continue reading...
Herbs, spices and love may be the secret to great falafel, but which supermarket versions hit chickpea perfection and which are over-processed duds? • The best tinned and jarred chickpeas It was surprisingly hard to find good, traditional falafels in the supermarkets for this test. While most of those on offer were delicious, many had long, complex ingredients lists, other than two standouts made ...
Herbs, spices and love may be the secret to great falafel, but which supermarket versions hit chickpea perfection and which are over-processed duds? • The best tinned and jarred chickpeas It was surprisingly hard to find good, traditional falafels in the supermarkets for this test. While most of those on offer were delicious, many had long, complex ingredients lists, other than two standouts made with just chickpeas, herbs, spices and sodium bicarbonate. Even some of the better falafels had unnecessarily long ingredients lists, despite being relatively minimally processed, but at their worst, some of these falafels were much more processed and included dehydrated potato flakes, pea protein, refined soya bean oil and stabilisers. The best, however, were delicious and contained lots of herbs, spices and even love. Continue reading...
In Canada, fans and foes of Chinese electric vehicles are holding their breath for brands like BYD to hit the market. Whether they love them or not, they share the hope that Chinese carmakers will help to bring all EV prices down, as affordability becomes a growing concern for consumers. Companies including BYD, Geely, Nio and Xpeng are preparing to roll out sales locations in Canada, seizing the ...
In Canada, fans and foes of Chinese electric vehicles are holding their breath for brands like BYD to hit the market. Whether they love them or not, they share the hope that Chinese carmakers will help to bring all EV prices down, as affordability becomes a growing concern for consumers. Companies including BYD, Geely, Nio and Xpeng are preparing to roll out sales locations in Canada, seizing the opportunity of warmer ties between the two countries. Ottawa struck a milestone trade deal with...
Derek Sylvester with members of his family, team and mascot Molly, who was featured on the dealership's logo. Courtesy Sylvester Chevrolet Derek Sylvester's father built the family's original Chevrolet dealership with his bare hands on Main Street in rural Peckville, Pennsylvania, in 1972. The store and family have been a pillar of the village, outside Scranton, ever since. That was until late las...
Derek Sylvester with members of his family, team and mascot Molly, who was featured on the dealership's logo. Courtesy Sylvester Chevrolet Derek Sylvester's father built the family's original Chevrolet dealership with his bare hands on Main Street in rural Peckville, Pennsylvania, in 1972. The store and family have been a pillar of the village, outside Scranton, ever since. That was until late last month, when Sylvester and his family closed a deal to sell Sylvester Chevrolet to a New York-based dealer group. "As a family, we decided this might be the time," said Sylvester, who at 67 has been contemplating retirement. "Unless you're a larger store, a much larger store, it's a little bit harder to make money. ... It's just scale." Many of Sylvester's family members plan to continue working at the dealership, but he said they didn't feel they were in a position to continue running the business amid the rapidly changing automotive retail landscape in the U.S. The industry is facing a tumultuous adoption of all-electric vehicles, technological shifts such as artificial intelligence, and growing demands from automakers. Sales of dealerships such as Sylvester Chevrolet are occurring across the country at a rapid pace as the business of selling cars, once considered the purview of mom-and-pop shops, has evolved into a lucrative trillion-dollar industry rife with consolidation that has drawn more notice from Wall Street and investors in recent years. While the National Automobile Dealers Association, or NADA, reports that the vast majority of its U.S. franchised dealers are small business owners such as Sylvester who have fewer than six stores, the top retailers in the country have significantly grown. The top 150 dealers sold 27% of all retail and fleet new vehicles in 2025, up from 24.3% in 2021 and 21.2% in 2015, according to Automotive News' annual ranking of top automotive retailers. They also owned roughly a quarter of dealerships last year, up from less than 20% a de...
In this article NVDA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch now VIDEO 3:06 03:06 Nvidia's once-tight bond with gamers is cracking over AI: 'That breaks my heart' Tech For its first 30 years, Nvidia wasn't a household name unless you were a gamer. Now, some of its original fan base feel left behind as artificial intelligence has made the chipmaker the world's most valuable company. "...
In this article NVDA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch now VIDEO 3:06 03:06 Nvidia's once-tight bond with gamers is cracking over AI: 'That breaks my heart' Tech For its first 30 years, Nvidia wasn't a household name unless you were a gamer. Now, some of its original fan base feel left behind as artificial intelligence has made the chipmaker the world's most valuable company. "The gaming segment is no longer the driving force of the company. There was one point when it clearly was," said Stacy Rasgon of Bernstein Research. Nvidia popularized the graphics processing units, or GPUs, that enable fast frame rates and rendering that make the best video game play possible. When Nvidia released its first GPU in 1999, the GeForce 256, it laid off the majority of workers and approached bankruptcy to make it happen. Gamers snapped up the new type of processor, bringing Nvidia back from the brink. Now, with demand for AI soaring, nearly all of Nvidia's revenue comes from its products that serve that industry, instead of gaming. And as AI chipmaking shrinks the available memory supply, Nvidia has been forced to make tough decisions about priorities. In a memory-constrained reality, it's not shocking that Nvidia would prioritize its far more profitable data center GPUs such as Hopper and Blackwell. Nvidia's operating margins in its compute and networking segment averaged 69% over the past three years, compared to a 40% margin for the consumer-forward graphics segment. "I understand that they're going to chase that. And that breaks my heart," said Greg Miller, co-founder and host of popular video game podcast Kinda Funny Games Daily in an interview with CNBC. "Dance with the one who brought you. Gamers have brought you this far," Miller added. If analyst predictions are correct, 2026 will be the first year in three decades that Nvidia doesn't release a new generation of its consumer-facing GeForce line of graphics processing units. Gamers are "hugely important...
We could rescue Social Security and Medicare and balance the federal budget by scrapping the entire federal tax code and replacing it with three simple flat taxes.
We could rescue Social Security and Medicare and balance the federal budget by scrapping the entire federal tax code and replacing it with three simple flat taxes.
Welcome to the Wall Street Week newsletter, bringing you stories of capitalism about things you need to know, but even more things you need to think about. I’m David Westin , and this week Hank Paulson took us through the economics of the Iran war, and we looked into whether the rich are paying their fair share of taxes. If you’re not yet a subscriber, sign up here for this newsletter. Avoiding “G...
Welcome to the Wall Street Week newsletter, bringing you stories of capitalism about things you need to know, but even more things you need to think about. I’m David Westin , and this week Hank Paulson took us through the economics of the Iran war, and we looked into whether the rich are paying their fair share of taxes. If you’re not yet a subscriber, sign up here for this newsletter. Avoiding “Global Shock” From the Iran War As world financial leaders met in Washington this week, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson gave us his analysis of what the war means for them and for us. Recognizing that it depends on “how long it’s going to take,” Paulson focused on “inflationary pressure,” saying “it’s not good for the US economy, but we will weather it better than anyone else.” However the war in Iran plays out, Paulson says it’s critical for the global economy that the US and China address their “fraught” relationship, putting “clear rules” in place to reinforce “a sort of stability.” “Buy, Borrow, Die” It’s tax time in the US, with the nation borrowing more money than ever and collecting less as a percentage of what it’s spending. This has raised, once again, the question of whether the wealthy are paying their fair share, with places like California proposing a tax directly on wealth. Steve Rattner of Willett Advisors calls that proposal “a terrible idea.” But he’s quick to say that there are parts of the tax code that unfairly benefit at least some very wealthy people. One such aspect of the tax code, the treatment of capital gains, allows the very wealthy to essentially erase tax liability accumulated in their lifetimes, according to Natasha Sarin of the Yale Budget Lab. Such strategies have been referred to as referred to as “buy, borrow, die.” More from Wall Street Week Bloomberg Wall Street Week is live Fridays at 6 p.m. New York time. Watch on Bloomberg Television , on the Terminal at TV and on YouTube ; or listen to the show on Bloomberg Radio and RADI . Cat...
ZambeziShark/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Purpose I look at the high frequency weekly indicators because while they can be very noisy, they provide a good nowcast of the economy, and will telegraph the maintenance or change in the economy well before monthly or quarterly data is available. They are also an excellent way to "mark your beliefs to market." In general, I go in order of long leadi...
ZambeziShark/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Purpose I look at the high frequency weekly indicators because while they can be very noisy, they provide a good nowcast of the economy, and will telegraph the maintenance or change in the economy well before monthly or quarterly data is available. They are also an excellent way to "mark your beliefs to market." In general, I go in order of long leading indicators, then short leading indicators, then coincident indicators. A Note on Methodology Data is presented in a "just the facts, ma'am" format with a minimum of commentary so that bias is minimized. Where relevant, I include 12-month highs and lows in the data in parentheses to the right. All data taken from St. Louis FRED unless otherwise linked. A few items (e.g., Financial Conditions indexes, regional Fed indexes, stock prices, and the yield curve) have their own metrics based on long-term studies of their behavior. Where data is seasonally adjusted, generally it is scored positively if it is within the top 1/3 of that range, negative in the bottom 1/3, and neutral in between. Where it is not seasonally adjusted, and there are seasonal issues, waiting for the YoY change to change sign will lag the turning point. Thus I make use of a convention: data is scored neutral if it is less than 1/2 as positive/negative as at its 12-month extreme. With long leading indicators, which by definition turn at least 12 months before a turning point in the economy as a whole, there is an additional rule: data is automatically negative if, during an expansion, it has not made a new peak in the past year, with the sole exception that it is scored neutral if it is moving in the right direction and is close to making a new high. For all series where a graph is available, I have provided a link to where the relevant graph can be found. Recap of Monthly Reports March data included a downturn in industrial and manufacturing production, as well as a downturn in existing home sales. Long l...