btgbtg The current shipping situation in the Strait of Hormuz is pretty cryptic and is also getting more crypto-esque by the day. The critical waterway was supposed to be fully open to traffic by now, but according to scans of the area, only several tankers have transited the chokepoint. Compounding the problems is that Iran wants to start charging pass-through tolls, which cannot be sanctioned or...
btgbtg The current shipping situation in the Strait of Hormuz is pretty cryptic and is also getting more crypto-esque by the day. The critical waterway was supposed to be fully open to traffic by now, but according to scans of the area, only several tankers have transited the chokepoint. Compounding the problems is that Iran wants to start charging pass-through tolls, which cannot be sanctioned or touched by the Western financial system. Quote: "Every very large crude carrier (VLCC) transiting the strait has been paying $2M (or $1 per barrel of oil), in line with what has been under discussion in parliament," said Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran's oil, gas, and petrochemical products exporters' union. "Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in bitcoin, ensuring they can't be traced or confiscated due to sanctions." It's a similar playbook taken by Russia in recent years to upend dollar supremacy , conducting international trade and cross-border transactions in crypto and other modes of currency. Iran's crypto ecosystem even reached $7.8B in 2025 , according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Payments have spanned commodities like oil and illicit arms transfers, as well as reaching regional militia proxies and paying foreigners to gather intelligence. Interesting paradox: The embrace of alternative payment systems hasn't only been celebrated by Washington's adversaries. It goes all the way to the White House. President Trump has promised a new era for digital finance to "ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and Bitcoin superpower of the world." A similar stance has been present surrounding tolls in Hormuz, where Trump, at times, has pitched a joint U.S.-Iranian collection system , calling it a "beautiful thing," but has also floated the idea of the U.S. alone charging tolls or promoting the "free traffic of oil." More on crypto Crypto ETFs: 2026 Reveals Key Cryp...
jetcityimage/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Humana’s ( HUM ) situation isn’t smooth right now. It’s a big name in the industry, but near-term profits are slipping, people aren’t exactly feeling great about it, and the stock isn’t obviously cheap, so you don’t get much of a bargain even if things bounce back. Health insurance stocks surged after the Trump administration announced that average Me...
jetcityimage/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Humana’s ( HUM ) situation isn’t smooth right now. It’s a big name in the industry, but near-term profits are slipping, people aren’t exactly feeling great about it, and the stock isn’t obviously cheap, so you don’t get much of a bargain even if things bounce back. Health insurance stocks surged after the Trump administration announced that average Medicare Advantage payments will increase by 2.48%, in 2027. But that bump doesn’t change the basic story. I can’t say the stock deserves a higher multiple, or that there’s some clear upside here, unless the company shows real progress on three things: fixing margins after getting hit on Star Ratings, picking up the pace on new member growth, and actually cutting its underlying costs. Until those start to show up in the numbers, I’m sticking with a Hold. There’s always a chance things turn fast, but as it stands, the stock isn’t dirt cheap, just maybe a bit undervalued at best. Looking back to the last time I checked in, not much has really sorted itself out. The stock dropped from $260.28 to $197.32 over that stretch. Medicare Dependence Humana’s insurance business still basically lives or dies by what happens with its Medicare Advantage plan. In 2025, total Medicare accounted for 82.6% of consolidated premiums and services revenue, while total insurance premiums revenue accounted for 95.5%. Premiums came in 9.6% higher, up to $122.8 billion for 2025. That’s mostly because per-member Medicare premiums went up, thanks to a bigger direct subsidy from the IRA and higher per-member state-based contract premiums and membership growth. But on the flip side, individual MA membership dropped 7.3% to 5.25 million after Humana hiked prices and pulled out of markets that weren’t making money. Total Medicare membership shrank 2.5% to 8.28 million. State-based membership did jump, though, up 10.7% to 1.62 million. Standalone PDP membership climbed 7.6%. CenterWell, which handles care del...
Investors should flock into commodities for the next few years as they benefit from global geopolitical and macroeconomic turmoil, according to Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett . Stocks would be replaced by commodities as the biggest winners of the “anything but bonds” trade for the rest of the 2020s as investors seek protection against risk, inflation and a weaker dollar, the strategist wrote. ...
Investors should flock into commodities for the next few years as they benefit from global geopolitical and macroeconomic turmoil, according to Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett . Stocks would be replaced by commodities as the biggest winners of the “anything but bonds” trade for the rest of the 2020s as investors seek protection against risk, inflation and a weaker dollar, the strategist wrote. Fiscal excess means that the next few years are “more likely to see bear market rallies in government bonds, but no bull market.” War in the Middle East and the artificial intelligence race have led to a heightened focus on supply chains, as governments seek to limit the fallout for industry and consumers from soaring prices for energy and other natural resources, and try to secure critical minerals , such as rare earths, that are essential for manufacturing and technology. The Bloomberg Commodity Index has climbed 35% since the start of 2025, more than double the return of the S&P 500 over the same period. Treasuries have gained less than 7%. Crude oil, in particular, has soared this year as Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to most shipping following the outbreak of war, while metals from gold and silver to copper were already benefiting from tailwinds such as central bank buying and the AI infrastructure boom. The fundamental winners in the latter half of the decade would be led by commodities over the dollar, and international and small cap stocks over US and large caps, according to Hartnett. Geopolitics was being driven by the “need to monopolize commodities,” he said. “Who owns the chips, rare earths, minerals, oil, wins the AI war.” In the short-term, the BofA team favors long yield curve steepeners as central bank rate hikes are priced out, and Chinese tech as tension with the US eases. It is also long consumer stocks and chips to play the political focus on the cost of living and continued spending by hyperscalers, so long as they are “happier to raise debt and cut...
Options trading that has supported Tesla stock in the past has waned in 2026. GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnson recently took a deep dive into options trading for Tesla stock. For starters, a lot of options on Tesla stock get traded.
Options trading that has supported Tesla stock in the past has waned in 2026. GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnson recently took a deep dive into options trading for Tesla stock. For starters, a lot of options on Tesla stock get traded.