Oil slumped for a second day after Axios reported that the US and Iran are getting close to a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war. Brent fell as much as 7% to $102.22 a barrel in London, while West Texas Intermediate lost up to 7.7%. Axios said the memo, which would include both sides lifting restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, hasn’t yet been agreed and the US sees Iran respondi...
Oil slumped for a second day after Axios reported that the US and Iran are getting close to a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war. Brent fell as much as 7% to $102.22 a barrel in London, while West Texas Intermediate lost up to 7.7%. Axios said the memo, which would include both sides lifting restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, hasn’t yet been agreed and the US sees Iran responding within 48 hours. President Donald Trump said earlier in a Truth Social post the US would pause an effort to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz to see if a deal can be reached with Iran. “Great Progress” has been made on a final agreement to end the war conflict, he added. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the mediator in Iran-US talks, said in a post on X that he is “hopeful that the current momentum will lead to a lasting agreement that secures durable peace and stability for the region and beyond.” China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Iran to keep negotiating in pursuit of a lasting truce with the US, as he hosted Tehran’s top diplomat just days before Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing. Crude has climbed by about 50% since the conflict started at the end of February, cutting off hundreds of millions of barrels of Persian Gulf oil from global markets. Flows through the critical chokepoint are now constrained by a double blockade, with Tehran obstructing shipping while the US is stopping vessels from accessing Iranian ports. Earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House that “Operation Epic Fury is concluded,” 66 days after the US and Israel began bombing Iran. “We achieved the objectives of that operation,” he said. On Tuesday, Washington played down the prospect of a return to active war, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirming the truce that began just under a month ago is still in place. Meanwhile, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said attacks by Iran on vessels in the Persian Gulf a...
Thawatchai Chawong/iStock via Getty Images OneSpan ( OSPN ) reported 1Q26 results. The company continues to show consistent subscription growth, and Digital Agreements had a very good quarter, with double-digit revenue growth and a large margin expansion. Cybersecurity was also up, but most of the growth seems to have come from acquisitions, and profitability fell materially. The call also had int...
Thawatchai Chawong/iStock via Getty Images OneSpan ( OSPN ) reported 1Q26 results. The company continues to show consistent subscription growth, and Digital Agreements had a very good quarter, with double-digit revenue growth and a large margin expansion. Cybersecurity was also up, but most of the growth seems to have come from acquisitions, and profitability fell materially. The call also had interesting information about the general "SaaSpocalypse" fear around software names. OSPN products are sold based on usage, which makes the AI disruption risk lower than in many other software categories. Coming to valuation, for a company that has traded at a growth valuation at times, the problem is that growth has not arrived. For three years, OneSpan has struggled to prove that it can grow. The valuation now is no longer demanding, at roughly 10x earnings power, especially considering the high margins, net cash balance, and exposures. Still, I would not consider it cheap. I maintain a Hold rating, although with more constructive optimism than in previous quarters . 1Q26 Results The quarter was in line with OneSpan's long-term trend. Subscription revenues continue to grow across both segments, but this growth is offset by declining hardware and legacy maintenance revenues. The best part of the quarter was Digital Agreements. Revenues grew 10%+ YoY. More importantly, operating income increased from ~$3.5 million to ~$5.5 million, with operating margins expanding 9 pp to 30%+. This is the company's star business. Cybersecurity was more complicated. Revenue grew only 2% YoY to ~$49 million. Subscription revenue grew, but hardware and maintenance revenue declined by a similar amount. The issue is that Cybersecurity benefited from two acquisitions: NOK NOK last year and Build38 in 1Q26. In the call, management said organic ARR growth was about 7/8% for the segment. That implies maybe $8 million to $9 million of incremental ARR per year, or around $2 million per quarter, the sam...
Trading of Indian derivatives on the nation’s biggest bourse slumped last month by the most since curbs started in late 2024 as higher taxes aimed at cooling the options market took effect. The average daily notional turnover sank 26% in April from March for futures and options on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. to 217 trillion rupees ($2.3 trillion). That was the biggest drop since Dece...
Trading of Indian derivatives on the nation’s biggest bourse slumped last month by the most since curbs started in late 2024 as higher taxes aimed at cooling the options market took effect. The average daily notional turnover sank 26% in April from March for futures and options on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. to 217 trillion rupees ($2.3 trillion). That was the biggest drop since December 2024, with the turnover reaching its lowest in more than a year. Trading of index contracts plunged 34% and 31%, respectively, after rising in recent months. The Indian government unveiled in February a proposal to increase taxes on equity derivatives in a broader effort to curb excessive speculation that’s hit retail investors with billions of dollars in losses. The higher levies, implemented on April 1, sharply raised the threshold for high-frequency and arbitrage strategies to be profitable, in a move to nudge the market toward longer-term activity. “The increase in transaction costs is beginning to bite, especially for short-term traders who rely on tight spreads,” said Maurya Ghelani , a derivatives strategist at Kai Securities in Mumbai. “You’re seeing a recalibration of strategies rather than an outright exit, but volumes are clearly adjusting lower.” Also read: High-Speed Traders Face Profit Squeeze After India Tax Hike It didn’t help that two key expiries in April coincided with market holidays . Meanwhile, at rival bourse BSE Ltd. , which handled about one-third of index options trading last month, the average daily notional turnover for derivatives jumped 20% to 269 trillion rupees . The central bank is also tightening oversight, and upcoming measures are likely to impact derivatives trading further. One of them will force firms to use cash as collateral for proprietary trades, something that will hamper the leverage that has been driving the market. Prop firms are responsible for about 50% of equity-options turnover and one-third for equity futures. “Liquid...
BlackJack3D/iStock via Getty Images Anthropic, a potential gap in portfolios that is closeable today To invest in Anthropic ( ANTHRO ), you most likely need venture capital access, accredited investor status, or a seat at the table during a fundraising round. The KraneShares Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF ( AGIX ) had just that. AGIX was able to invest in Anthropic (directly on its cap...
BlackJack3D/iStock via Getty Images Anthropic, a potential gap in portfolios that is closeable today To invest in Anthropic ( ANTHRO ), you most likely need venture capital access, accredited investor status, or a seat at the table during a fundraising round. The KraneShares Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF ( AGIX ) had just that. AGIX was able to invest in Anthropic (directly on its capitalization table) during a fundraising round. Now, public market investors can gain exposure to one of the most talked about private companies of 2026, Anthropic, as a holding in our AI ETF, AGIX. What Is Anthropic? Anthropic is an AI safety and research company best known for Claude, its family of large language models (LLMs). Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers, Anthropic has grown into one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world, building AI systems designed to be safe, reliable, and commercially deployable at scale. How AGIX Was Able To Invest In Anthropic In February of 2025, KraneShares’ AI ETF, AGIX, added direct exposure to Anthropic. At that time, Anthropic was not well known to many investors, especially when compared to OpenAI. However, since AGIX invested in Anthropic at a $61.5 billion valuation 1 , it has arguably become a fixture in AI-related headlines. Currently, AGIX has a 2.91% allocation to Anthropic. 2 Even though this may not seem significant, it has actually been a notable driver of performance. Since adding exposure to Anthropic and xAI (now SpaceX), this private exposure has directly led AGIX to outperform its own public market benchmark by over 10%. 3 Why AI ETF AGIX Invested In Anthropic Anthropic has emerged as a core building block of the global AI ecosystem. Anthropic has developed impressive large language models and AI agents that power use cases from enterprise productivity to software development. For many portfolios, however, the ability to invest in Anthropic directly has been missing, creating a gap in ex...