Harley-Davidson's Back to the Bricks strategy pivots to youth-focused models, leveraging a revenue beat and healthier dealer inventory for a turnaround.
Harley-Davidson's Back to the Bricks strategy pivots to youth-focused models, leveraging a revenue beat and healthier dealer inventory for a turnaround.
Facing public apathy and frustration, Labour and Reform UK tie for second place behind the SNP while Greens claim a ‘seismic’ fourth place Long before the final votes were counted in Scotland, veteran Labour politicians said this was a defeat made in Downing Street. When Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar strode into the Glasgow count arena on Friday afternoon flanked by sombre-faced activists, th...
Facing public apathy and frustration, Labour and Reform UK tie for second place behind the SNP while Greens claim a ‘seismic’ fourth place Long before the final votes were counted in Scotland, veteran Labour politicians said this was a defeat made in Downing Street. When Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar strode into the Glasgow count arena on Friday afternoon flanked by sombre-faced activists, the scene was in mirror image to the same venue in 2024, when his resurgent party won 36 seats from the SNP, playing a significant part in Keir Starmer’s landslide. Continue reading...
FREDERICA ABAN/iStock via Getty Images By Christian Floro, CFA, Market Strategist Macro uncertainty amid a series of shocks has led to a decline in confidence in both the business and broader economic outlook. Moreover, despite limited direct global exposure, these shocks have made small businesses grapple with the same macro pressures long faced by larger firms. Helping buffer these concerns, how...
FREDERICA ABAN/iStock via Getty Images By Christian Floro, CFA, Market Strategist Macro uncertainty amid a series of shocks has led to a decline in confidence in both the business and broader economic outlook. Moreover, despite limited direct global exposure, these shocks have made small businesses grapple with the same macro pressures long faced by larger firms. Helping buffer these concerns, however, are relatively resilient underlying fundamentals, which should reduce the risk that these anxieties translate into broader economic weakness. Business optimism in the next 12 months Principal Well-Being Index The latest Principal Well-Being Index SM signals a sharp rise in economic anxiety among U.S. small businesses, with recession fears increasingly front of mind. 1 Confidence in both the business and broader economic outlook has fallen to its lowest level since Liberation Day last year. A series of macro shocks is weighing heavily on sentiment. Elevated interest rates, tariffs, supply-chain disruptions and rising energy costs are compressing margins and eroding confidence. As a result, small businesses are being pulled into the same macro pressures long faced by larger firms. Despite having limited direct global exposure, respondents report paying close attention to geopolitics, shipping routes and trade policy—underscoring how global disruptions are increasingly shaping local outcomes. While sentiment does not drive downturns on its own, sustained pessimism can influence business behavior in ways that weigh on activity at the margin. Firms facing heightened uncertainty may delay investment, slow hiring, or defer discretionary spending, potentially reinforcing any emerging economic softness. However, while subdued optimism has pushed firms to prioritize cost efficiency over expansion more recently, underlying fundamentals across the small business sector remain relatively resilient. Strong balance sheets, manageable debt levels and healthy cash flow provide importa...
According to the latest Crypto Wealth Report from Henley & Partners, there were 145,100 Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) millionaires in the world at the end of 2025. That's up 70% from 2024. Bitcoin has the power to mint new millionaires. Given Bitcoin's proven track record of delivering extraordinary returns, following a very simple buy-and-hold strategy could help to set you up for life. Bitcoin has been ...
According to the latest Crypto Wealth Report from Henley & Partners, there were 145,100 Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) millionaires in the world at the end of 2025. That's up 70% from 2024. Bitcoin has the power to mint new millionaires. Given Bitcoin's proven track record of delivering extraordinary returns, following a very simple buy-and-hold strategy could help to set you up for life. Bitcoin has been growing at an exponential pace ever since its launch in 2009. It took Bitcoin less than a year to increase in price from $100 to $1,000, four years to increase from $1,000 to $10,000, and seven years to increase from $10,000 to $100,000. Continue reading
Abstract Aerial Art/DigitalVision via Getty Images Q1 Update: FTAI Infrastructure ( FIP ) reported a messy quarter on Thursday evening (May 7th). As a reminder, there are four divisions here: Long Ridge (power plant), Transtar (Rails), Repauno (East Coast natural gas storage), and Jefferson (Gulf Coast crude and refined product storage). A sale of Long Ridge was just announced for $1.52 billion, r...
Abstract Aerial Art/DigitalVision via Getty Images Q1 Update: FTAI Infrastructure ( FIP ) reported a messy quarter on Thursday evening (May 7th). As a reminder, there are four divisions here: Long Ridge (power plant), Transtar (Rails), Repauno (East Coast natural gas storage), and Jefferson (Gulf Coast crude and refined product storage). A sale of Long Ridge was just announced for $1.52 billion, resulting in about $350 million going to FIP corporate, with $300 million being used to pay down corporate level debt. The quarterly result below includes 25 days of downtime at Long Ridge, which impacted EBITDA at that segment by $14 million. FTAI Infrastructure: Lot Of Noise But Steps To Monetization As you can see above, there are moving parts in each segment. On the conference call, management stated that they expect the Long Ridge sale to close around the middle of Q3. Given that Long Ridge has been such a large component of Consolidated EBITDA and will be sold soon, and FIP is a sum of the parts story, I'm going to focus more on the individual segments like I did in the previous writeup and give some updated values for each. Business Segment Update (Q1 Presentation) Transtar: Q1 is the slowest quarter for the rails as winter weather slows down certain carload traffic. This Q1 comparison is also complicated by the Wheeling deal. The company did the following slide to illustrate a pro-forma quarterly comparison if Wheeling had been owned in Q1 to provide an apples-to-apples framework. Transtar Results (Q1 Presentation) $10 million annualized cost synergies have been realized ($2.5 million in Q1), and the company expects a total of $23 million. It also expects $50 million of revenue synergy opportunities, many of them to come from propane loadings to and from Repauno. Wheeling Integration (Q1 Presentation) Jefferson: Jefferson benefited from the start of ammonia contracts this quarter. On the call, management said they are negotiating contracts with existing customers to ...
Stadtratte/iStock via Getty Images By Seema Shah, Chief Global Strategist The April employment report showed a significantly stronger-than-expected 115,000 gain in payrolls. This was bolstered by a positive revision to last month’s even stronger gain. Strong payrolls and a still-low unemployment rate demonstrate the labor market’s resilience despite the ongoing energy shock, easing concerns about ...
Stadtratte/iStock via Getty Images By Seema Shah, Chief Global Strategist The April employment report showed a significantly stronger-than-expected 115,000 gain in payrolls. This was bolstered by a positive revision to last month’s even stronger gain. Strong payrolls and a still-low unemployment rate demonstrate the labor market’s resilience despite the ongoing energy shock, easing concerns about recessionary conditions. Moreover, with wages trending lower, the risk of an inflationary spiral remains low, providing the Fed with some breathing room. Non-farm payrolls Thousands, January 2022–present Report details Total non-farm payrolls increased by 115,000 in April, significantly above expectations for a 65,000 gain. This comes as last month’s stellar increase was also revised higher to 185,000. Altogether, these demonstrate the resilience of the labor market amid the heightened uncertainty triggered by the ongoing Middle East conflict. Moreover, with wages trending lower, there are no signs yet of a problematic inflationary spiral. Job growth was evident across most industries, but was concentrated among healthcare, transportation & warehousing, and retail trade, making up over 90% of the increase in April. Other cyclically exposed industries also gained jobs, suggesting that the downstream impact from the energy shock likely remains muted for now. On the other hand, the information industry led job shedding, its 16th consecutive month of losses. While any large-scale AI-related job displacement remains too early to tell, headwinds from the data infrastructure buildout have likely weighed on employment in the technology space. However, as this industry accounts for less than 2% of total payroll employment, its aggregate economic impact should be limited. Meanwhile, financial services, government, and manufacturing also lost jobs, the latter swinging back into contraction. The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3%, while the labor force participation rate decline...