The S&P 500 is at fresh highs while a giant chunk of the real economy sits in a deep freeze. On a recent episode of The Compound and Friends, Michael Batnick and Josh Brown spent a segment unpacking why housing-adjacent stocks have collapsed even as home prices across major metros stay stable. The distinction matters: ... Housing Stocks Are in Depression Mode. Whirlpool Down 81%, Lennar Crashed 54...
The S&P 500 is at fresh highs while a giant chunk of the real economy sits in a deep freeze. On a recent episode of The Compound and Friends, Michael Batnick and Josh Brown spent a segment unpacking why housing-adjacent stocks have collapsed even as home prices across major metros stay stable. The distinction matters: ... Housing Stocks Are in Depression Mode. Whirlpool Down 81%, Lennar Crashed 54% While the S&P 500 Soars.
bombermoon/iStock via Getty Images Enphase Energy ( ENPH ) up 8.7% in Wednesday's trading after saying it has opened U.S. pre-orders for its IQ9S-3P Commercial Microinverter, which the company said is its most powerful microinverter to date, supporting high-wattage solar panels up to 770 watts and connecting directly to three-phase 480Y/277 volt grid configurations without requiring external trans...
bombermoon/iStock via Getty Images Enphase Energy ( ENPH ) up 8.7% in Wednesday's trading after saying it has opened U.S. pre-orders for its IQ9S-3P Commercial Microinverter, which the company said is its most powerful microinverter to date, supporting high-wattage solar panels up to 770 watts and connecting directly to three-phase 480Y/277 volt grid configurations without requiring external transformers. Together with the recently launched IQ9N-3P Commercial Microinverter, Enphase ( ENPH ) said its IQ9S-3P Commercial Microinverters provide a broader commercial portfolio for the U.S. 480-volt three-phase market; features include rapid shutdown, phase balancing, voltage and frequency ride-through, and loss-of-phase detection. "Commercial solar needs the same simplicity, safety, and scalability that has made Enphase successful in residential solar. IQ9S-3P brings that proven architecture to higher-power 480 V projects, helping customers build faster, safer, and with greater confidence," senior VP Aaron Gordon said. Enphase ( ENPH ) shares also may be reacting to Nextpower's stronger-than-expected Q1 results and guidance boost reported earlier. More on Enphase Energy Enphase Energy: Testing 2019 Lows, Could Be Value Trap Or Generational Buy Enphase: Energy Independence vs. Regulatory Headwinds Enphase: Do Not Bottom-Fish Here - More Recovery Headwinds Ahead
Here are the stocks making headlines in midday trading. Chip stocks – Shares of semiconductor companies resumed their rally as investors bought back into names like Micron Technology . The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) was up more than 1%, while Micron jumped about 3%. On Semiconductor surged 10%, Marvell Technology jumped 7% and Nvidia was last up 2%. Akamai Technologies – The cybersecurity and ...
Here are the stocks making headlines in midday trading. Chip stocks – Shares of semiconductor companies resumed their rally as investors bought back into names like Micron Technology . The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) was up more than 1%, while Micron jumped about 3%. On Semiconductor surged 10%, Marvell Technology jumped 7% and Nvidia was last up 2%. Akamai Technologies – The cybersecurity and cloud computing company saw shares jump almost 7%. Bank of America upgraded the stock to buy and lifted its price target to $175 from $130. "The story has shifted from a legacy delivery network to a credible AI infrastructure platform," the firm said in a note. Nebius – The artificial intelligence cloud company surged 16%. In the first quarter, Nebius posted revenues of $399 million, reflecting a 684% surge from the year-ago period and aided by rising demand for cloud and GPU capacity. Nebius also announced that it has secured up to 1.2 gigawatts of power and land for a new AI factory in Pennsylvania. Alibaba — U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant rose 6% after the company said that its cloud computing unit saw a 38% jump in first-quarter revenue from a year earlier. Alibaba also reported heavy investments in artificial intelligence. EchoStar — Shares rose 4% after the Federal Communications Commission approved the company's $40 billion sale of wireless spectrum to AT & T and SpaceX. The company is selling 50 megahertz of its spectrum to AT & T and 65 megahertz to SpaceX. Nextpower — The energy stock surged 12% after Nextpower raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $3.8 billion to $4.1 billion, while previously it had estimated a range of between $3.6 billion to $3.8 billion. The company also posted a fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue beat versus analysts' expectations, per FactSet. Birkenstock — The shoe designer and manufacturer fell more than 10% after it missed estimates on both earnings and revenue in its fiscal second-quart...
Spaniard victorious despite crash and late wrong turn Eulálio takes overall lead after stage marred by heavy rain Portugal’s Afonso Eulálio seized the overall lead in the Giro d’Italia despite having victory snatched away by Spaniard Igor Arrieta in the final meters of a rain-drenched stage five on Wednesday. The Bahrain Victorious rider joined solo leader Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at t...
Spaniard victorious despite crash and late wrong turn Eulálio takes overall lead after stage marred by heavy rain Portugal’s Afonso Eulálio seized the overall lead in the Giro d’Italia despite having victory snatched away by Spaniard Igor Arrieta in the final meters of a rain-drenched stage five on Wednesday. The Bahrain Victorious rider joined solo leader Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at the front near the summit of the Montagna Grande di Viggiano climb and, when Arrieta took a wrong turn, he looked certain to take the win. Continue reading...
Money Printing 100 US Dollar Banknotes Nerthuz/iStock via Getty Images Covered call ETFs are all the rage these days. Boasting high apparent yields, these funds have attracted the attention of income-hungry investors, who provided $36 billion worth of flows to their managers in the first half of 2025 . The appeal of such funds is mainly their income potential. Covered call funds have trailing yiel...
Money Printing 100 US Dollar Banknotes Nerthuz/iStock via Getty Images Covered call ETFs are all the rage these days. Boasting high apparent yields, these funds have attracted the attention of income-hungry investors, who provided $36 billion worth of flows to their managers in the first half of 2025 . The appeal of such funds is mainly their income potential. Covered call funds have trailing yields as high as 48% , and many have been paying the same dividends, or even rising dividends, consistently over time. Among all of the popular covered call funds out there (and there are a few of them) , there is none more popular than the JPMorgan Equity Premium ETF ( JEPI ). With $45 billion in assets under management [AUM], it is the biggest covered call fund of the bunch. It’s not hard to see why. All three of the world’s biggest ETFs are S&P 500 ETFs , and JEPI is the best-known covered call ETF tracking the S&P 500. So, JEPI capitalizes on the popularity of both S&P 500 funds and covered call funds, making it the most popular covered call fund on the block. This fact has no doubt worked out well for JEPI’s fund managers. The fund has a 0.35% management fee, which, at $45 billion in AUM, generates about $157 million in fees per year. No, JEPI's fee is not outrageously or criminally high, but this fund is certainly no S&P 500 ETF charging 0.01% per year. It charges its unit holders a non-trivial sum for the privilege of being invested in it. And how is it working out for them? By some metrics, reasonably well. Since its inception in May 2020, the fund has returned 86%. That’s a 13% CAGR return, about equal to that of the S&P 500’s long-term average. That appears to be a good result. JEPI total return (Seeking Alpha Quant) However, when we compare JEPI’s May 2020 to May 2026 performance to that of the S&P 500 in the same timeframe, we spot a problem: the latter’s total return is almost double that of the former! JEPI vs. SPY: long-term chart (Seeking Alpha Quant) So, JEPI’...
Bjoern Wylezich/iStock Editorial via Getty Images As I’ve covered some months ago , Vodafone Group Public Limited Company ( VOD , VODPF) has been reporting a better operating momentum following its efforts to improve its business fundamentals over the past few years, namely by selling some struggling units (Spain and Italy) and through the merger of its U.K. operations with its competitor Three in...
Bjoern Wylezich/iStock Editorial via Getty Images As I’ve covered some months ago , Vodafone Group Public Limited Company ( VOD , VODPF) has been reporting a better operating momentum following its efforts to improve its business fundamentals over the past few years, namely by selling some struggling units (Spain and Italy) and through the merger of its U.K. operations with its competitor Three in the last year. These efforts have been positive to turn around its business, and this has been reflected in a higher share price lately. Its shares are up by more than 20% since last November and have outperformed the overall stock market ( SPY ) by a good margin during the same period, as shown in the next graph. Article performance (Seeking Alpha) As the company has recently released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 earnings, which end in March, in this article I analyze its most recent financial performance and update its investment case to see if Vodafone is still an interesting value play in the telecoms sector or not following a strong share price rally over the last year. VOD stock price (Seeking Alpha) Vodafone's FY 2026 Earnings Analysis Vodafone has been in restructuring mode over the past few years, with the company streamlining its operations in countries where it has stronger market positions and where growth prospects are better over the long term. An important milestone was the creation of VodafoneThree in the U.K., which is 51% owned by Vodafone and 49% by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison ( CKHUY ). This means VodafoneThree was consolidated in Vodafone’s accounts since May 2025, having an important impact on Vodafone’s reported financial figures during its fiscal year 2026 (which ended last March 31). Investors should note that a few days ago the companies announced an agreement for Vodafone to buy out the remaining stake in VodafoneThree for about $5.8 billion, but this is subject to regulatory approvals. If the acquisition is successful, Vodafone will have fu...
everydayplus/iStock via Getty Images Warsh’s Fed: What It Means for Dividend Investing The Federal Reserve is about to hit the reset button, and for dividend investors, the “wait-and-see” approach is likely to leave many in the dust. As Fed Chair Kevin Warsh prepares to take over the podium from Jerome Powell on May 15, we're witnessing a transition that's symbolic of how much the economic landsca...
everydayplus/iStock via Getty Images Warsh’s Fed: What It Means for Dividend Investing The Federal Reserve is about to hit the reset button, and for dividend investors, the “wait-and-see” approach is likely to leave many in the dust. As Fed Chair Kevin Warsh prepares to take over the podium from Jerome Powell on May 15, we're witnessing a transition that's symbolic of how much the economic landscape has changed over the last decade. The regime change comes on the heels of a historic 8-4 Federal Open Market Committee [FOMC] vote in April (which held the Fed Funds Rate steady at 3.75%) that revealed a fractured leadership with the most dissents in both directions since October 1992. Leverage Shares, St. Louis Fed The gravity of recent dissents cannot be understated. Consider that among the 12 voting members of the FOMC, seven are Washington-based governors (the other five consist of the permanently appointed NY Fed president and four rotating regional presidents). Since the late 1990s, the Board of Governors, which holds a majority share, has largely voted as a bloc. Historically, a governor dissenting against the chair was considered a "black swan" event. However, starting in 2025, the tide had begun to turn. This shift started with consistent dissents in favor of rate cuts by Governor Stephen Miran, who was temporarily joined in January by Governor Christopher Waller. The "consensus era," which became a notable feature of the Powell-led Fed, seems to be coming to an end. While Powell viewed a unified committee as a hallmark of a strong and independent institution, Kevin Warsh views such unanimity as a bug in the system, an unwanted consequence of decades-long groupthink. Last year, Warsh told CNBC , “What the Fed needs is more robust discussion of ideas, less groupthink. I don’t like it that everyone’s following the same models.” Whether that's good or bad is a conversation for another day. The real takeaway here is that dividend investors should prepare for a rate ...