Abnormally strong jet stream triggers deluge in Middle East, while north Africa braces for 60-80mph gusts An unusual weather pattern unleashed severe thunderstorms across parts of the Middle East last week, battering countries including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Arabian peninsula – typically dominated by arid desert climates – received up to 150mm of rain in just a few days. T...
Abnormally strong jet stream triggers deluge in Middle East, while north Africa braces for 60-80mph gusts An unusual weather pattern unleashed severe thunderstorms across parts of the Middle East last week, battering countries including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Arabian peninsula – typically dominated by arid desert climates – received up to 150mm of rain in just a few days. The deluge was caused by an abnormally strong jet stream, which helped form a deep area of low pressure to develop north of Saudi Arabia. This, in turn, drew moist tropical air from the Indian Ocean and triggered intense storms. Continue reading...
Getty Images Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist The Liberty All-Star Equity Fund ( USA ) has seen significant pressure recently, with volatility in equities starting to rise. Over the last year, the fund has also seen a significant widening in its discount. As a closed-end fund, the market price can trade significantly differently from the actual underlying net asset value p...
Getty Images Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist The Liberty All-Star Equity Fund ( USA ) has seen significant pressure recently, with volatility in equities starting to rise. Over the last year, the fund has also seen a significant widening in its discount. As a closed-end fund, the market price can trade significantly differently from the actual underlying net asset value per share. This creates discounts/premiums that can be taken advantage of, often providing opportunities. Just a year ago, USA was still flirting with a premium to NAV. That wasn't all that uncommon for the fund since around 2021, when it began to fairly regularly trade at a premium or near parity with its NAV. Given this near 10% discount now opening up and greater overall pressure in equities, it makes USA an interesting choice once again. USA Basics 1-Year Z-score: -1.09 Discount/Premium: -9.65% Distribution Yield: 12.81% Expense Ratio: 0.91% Leverage: N/A Managed Assets: $2.06 billion Structure: Perpetual USA's investment objective is to "seek total investment return, comprised of long-term capital appreciation and current income. It seeks its investment objective through investment primarily in a diversified portfolio of equity securities." When constructing the portfolio, the fund is split between five different managers, each with a value- and growth-oriented tilt. While the fund is listed as 60% value, we'll see below that the portfolio's largest allocation is to technology. It also holds many of the Magnificent 7 names near the top. USA Managers (Liberty All-Star) Performance - Discount Gets Wide The last time we discussed USA specifically in a write-up was all the way back in mid-2023 . At that time, we were also discussing Gabelli Equity Trust ( GAB ). Both of these funds are pretty vanilla equity funds, which don't do anything too exciting. That made them a perfect pair to consider for a swap trade, which ended up seeing USA outperforming significantly at the tim...