The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLE) , the largest exchange-traded fund (ETF) dedicated to this sector, is up 32.07% thanks in large part to the war in Iran. None of the other 10 Sector SPDR ETFs comes anywhere close to matching that performance. The bellwether energy fund ranks among this year's best energy ETFs because its top holdings are benefiting from geopolitical events, includi...
The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLE) , the largest exchange-traded fund (ETF) dedicated to this sector, is up 32.07% thanks in large part to the war in Iran. None of the other 10 Sector SPDR ETFs comes anywhere close to matching that performance. The bellwether energy fund ranks among this year's best energy ETFs because its top holdings are benefiting from geopolitical events, including the war in Iran and, before that, the removal of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. ExxonMobil and Chevron , which combine for more than 39% of the ETF's roster, are up 28.49% and 26.3%, respectively, year to date. Investors don't have to scramble to find some of the best oil ETFs. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
DenisTangneyJr/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Earlier this week, Capitol Federal Financial ( CFFN ) released its Q2 2026 financial results and also provided an update on its stock repurchase program . The company reported GAAP earnings per share of $0.16, in line with expectations and even with the results from the previous quarter. The EPS number was a 33.3% improvement from the $0.12 earned ...
DenisTangneyJr/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Earlier this week, Capitol Federal Financial ( CFFN ) released its Q2 2026 financial results and also provided an update on its stock repurchase program . The company reported GAAP earnings per share of $0.16, in line with expectations and even with the results from the previous quarter. The EPS number was a 33.3% improvement from the $0.12 earned in Q2 2025. Revenue in Q2 from this year, $57.7 million, was slightly higher than the $57.0 million that was predicted previously. I last wrote about CFFN following its Q1 earnings release in February . (The fiscal year used by the company starts on October 1, not January 1.) I deemed the stock to be a high-risk Buy given the improvements it has been making in the last year and its low valuation at the time. Since then, its returns have trailed the S&P 500 by about three percent, without the inclusion of dividends. After reading through the most recent financial report from Capitol Federal, I still believe there are enough reasons to justify a small investment in the company, even though its internal performance metrics lag most of its peers. A purchase of CFFN requires belief in the turnaround of a stock that has lost over 40% of its value in the last five years. On the bright side, the last 12 months for the company have been noticeably different, as profit growth has returned after a long absence, and its stock has gained over 34%. Seeking Alpha In this analysis, I will review the last three months of operations for the bank holding company and discuss what the second half of its fiscal year could bring. I still have concerns about several aspects of the bank’s operations, but with the stock trading below its current book value, the investment proposition becomes more compelling. An above-average dividend could also make CFFN an interesting prospect for income investors as well as those looking for capital growth. Company Overview Readers are encouraged to look back at m...
The star’s potent sexuality made him my ‘secret friend’ but, with my career in the arts stalling, his death led me to the life-changing decision to move to Minneapolis and maintain his legacy I distinctly remember the first time I heard Prince. I was a dreamy, artistic child growing up in 80s rural Australia, feeling completely out of place. One day, I turned towards the cassette radio in my bedro...
The star’s potent sexuality made him my ‘secret friend’ but, with my career in the arts stalling, his death led me to the life-changing decision to move to Minneapolis and maintain his legacy I distinctly remember the first time I heard Prince. I was a dreamy, artistic child growing up in 80s rural Australia, feeling completely out of place. One day, I turned towards the cassette radio in my bedroom, hearing something totally different to the rock music I had grown up with – something electric and alive. It was Prince. My body moved. From that moment, he became my secret soul friend, his music carrying a powerful mix of sexuality and spirituality that I didn’t yet have the language for. Songs such as Controversy and Purple Rain felt like permission to be fully expressive, and fully myself. My love for Prince remained as I grew up. I moved to New York to pursue a career in the arts, but never quite fully managed it, ending up as an arts administrator. I supported other artists, organised programmes, lived alongside creativity rather than inside it. Continue reading...
From carpetbaggers to Melodifestivalen, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz 1 What theatrical legacy did Mathew Prichard receive on his ninth birthday? 2 What conditions does the Tdap vaccine protect against? 3 The bestselling book in the US in 1981 was a guide to solving what? 4 What is selected each year at the Melodifestivalen? 5 Carpetbaggers were profiteers in the aftermath of which co...
From carpetbaggers to Melodifestivalen, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz 1 What theatrical legacy did Mathew Prichard receive on his ninth birthday? 2 What conditions does the Tdap vaccine protect against? 3 The bestselling book in the US in 1981 was a guide to solving what? 4 What is selected each year at the Melodifestivalen? 5 Carpetbaggers were profiteers in the aftermath of which conflict? 6 The confectionery lokum is better known as what? 7 In 1996, which UK sport moved from a winter to a summer season? 8 Who founded the Peripatetic school of philosophy? What links: 9 Thomas Tyers; Hester Piozzi; John Hawkins; James Boswell? 10 Admiralty Islands; New Britain; New Hanover; New Ireland? 11 Millbank, 1897; Merseyside, 1988; Cornwall, 1993; Bankside, 2000? 12 Sodium (1); carbon (2); oxygen (3); sulphur (4); tin (10)? 13 Kelpie; melusine; naiad; nixie; rusalka; selkie? 14 Igor Tudor at Spurs; Eric Ramsay at WBA; Brian Clough and Jock Stein at Leeds? 15 Made in America; -30-; Felina; Person to Person; The Iron Throne? Continue reading...
Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes Submit a question Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun , a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book , as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: Al...
Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes Submit a question Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun , a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book , as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World . Continue reading...
Documentary makers seek to start ‘informed conversation’ in country where public is allowed on just 8% of land Anger and momentum are building for Scottish style rights of access to mountains, meadows, rivers and woodlands in England where the public is allowed on just 8% of land, a new documentary suggests. Our Land , a film whose title is a nod to the protest song by Woody Guthrie, explores the ...
Documentary makers seek to start ‘informed conversation’ in country where public is allowed on just 8% of land Anger and momentum are building for Scottish style rights of access to mountains, meadows, rivers and woodlands in England where the public is allowed on just 8% of land, a new documentary suggests. Our Land , a film whose title is a nod to the protest song by Woody Guthrie, explores the rise of the right to roam movement in England. Continue reading...
Staff warned news operations face 15% cut, above BBC-wide 10% target, as corporation pushes through £600m savings plan The BBC’s news operation is to cut costs by a steeper-than-expected 15%, with staff told to expect heavy redundancies. The division, home to about a quarter of all BBC staff, is being saddled with one of the highest cost-cutting targets as the corporation attempts to cut as many a...
Staff warned news operations face 15% cut, above BBC-wide 10% target, as corporation pushes through £600m savings plan The BBC’s news operation is to cut costs by a steeper-than-expected 15%, with staff told to expect heavy redundancies. The division, home to about a quarter of all BBC staff, is being saddled with one of the highest cost-cutting targets as the corporation attempts to cut as many as 2,000 jobs in the biggest downsizing of the public service broadcaster in 15 years . Continue reading...
WHO prequalification of Coartem Baby means newborns can be safely treated rather than using medication for older children The first malaria treatment for babies has been approved by the World Health Organization, opening the door to widespread use around the globe. In parts of Africa, up to 18% of children under six months will be infected with malaria, but there has historically been no safe trea...
WHO prequalification of Coartem Baby means newborns can be safely treated rather than using medication for older children The first malaria treatment for babies has been approved by the World Health Organization, opening the door to widespread use around the globe. In parts of Africa, up to 18% of children under six months will be infected with malaria, but there has historically been no safe treatment for the smallest of them. There were 610,000 deaths from malaria in 2024, about three quarters of which were under-fives in Africa. Continue reading...
Rural dwellers reveal failings in backup plans, as campaigners call for deadline to be extended from 2027 to 2030 “Every time there is a power failure I lose all means of communication with the outside world,” says Robert Dewar of life in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands since the landlines were transferred from the old copper cable network to broadband connections. Blackouts also knock ...
Rural dwellers reveal failings in backup plans, as campaigners call for deadline to be extended from 2027 to 2030 “Every time there is a power failure I lose all means of communication with the outside world,” says Robert Dewar of life in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands since the landlines were transferred from the old copper cable network to broadband connections. Blackouts also knock out the village’s mobile phone signal. “Our most recent power cut lasted for 42 hours,” Dewar says. The interruption outlasted his five-hour emergency backup battery. “If I had had a heart attack there is damn all I could have done about it, except compose myself, say my prayers, and await the outcome.” Continue reading...
It once housed the fanciest shops and restaurants in Greece’s capital city – then it crashed. Now the area is reborn as a vibrant, multicultural neighbourhood After my father’s will banned me and my siblings from his funeral, I wrote a novel about some brothers and sisters stealing their dad in his coffin. The emotions were drawn from my painful experiences, but I invented the characters and the t...
It once housed the fanciest shops and restaurants in Greece’s capital city – then it crashed. Now the area is reborn as a vibrant, multicultural neighbourhood After my father’s will banned me and my siblings from his funeral, I wrote a novel about some brothers and sisters stealing their dad in his coffin. The emotions were drawn from my painful experiences, but I invented the characters and the tragi-comic narrative in Stealing Dad . Despite growing up in England, I’ve lived in and written about Athens for 25 years, and it came naturally to create several Greek characters. Alekos is a wild sculptor who dies in London, and his daughter Iris (one of seven dispersed half-siblings) lives off Victoria Square – one of Athens’ most fascinating corners. In the 1960s, Plateia Viktorias was a fashionable neighbourhood with the fanciest restaurants, shops and theatres. Townhouses from the interwar period were being demolished and Athenians were occupying the new six-storey apartment blocks so fast that construction dust and the constant drilling were the main problem. Today, through wrought-iron and glass doors, elegant, marble-lined halls reveal concierges’ desks and traces of a vanished bourgeois life. Continue reading...
The East West Rail project linking Oxford to Milton Keynes was finished in 2024. There’s just one hitch: no services The rumbling noise in the night, still enough to waken the unhabituated, is what really goads some people living in Winslow, Buckinghamshire. Freight trains running through the new station since late 2024 prove this stretch of railway is operational. But the long-promised passenger ...
The East West Rail project linking Oxford to Milton Keynes was finished in 2024. There’s just one hitch: no services The rumbling noise in the night, still enough to waken the unhabituated, is what really goads some people living in Winslow, Buckinghamshire. Freight trains running through the new station since late 2024 prove this stretch of railway is operational. But the long-promised passenger services have yet to appear – and there is no sign of any arriving soon. Welcome to East West Rail, open or not. For well over a decade, ministers have talked up a new railway linking Oxford to Cambridge via Milton Keynes to accelerate the drive for housing, jobs and growth – an arc of tech industry hailed as the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley. Continue reading...
You've probably heard all about the importance of making contributions to a 401(k) plan as early as possible and how wise it is to take advantage of employer matching. You may know how costly it can be to withdraw money from your 401(k) before age 59 1/2 and how important it is to regularly review your account. In other words, you may have a strong working knowledge of 401(k)s . However, you may n...
You've probably heard all about the importance of making contributions to a 401(k) plan as early as possible and how wise it is to take advantage of employer matching. You may know how costly it can be to withdraw money from your 401(k) before age 59 1/2 and how important it is to regularly review your account. In other words, you may have a strong working knowledge of 401(k)s . However, you may not be as familiar with the details of your retirement plan -- the unwelcome surprise that can haunt you if left unmanaged. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
The U.S. Air Force has finished modifying and testing a Boeing 747 jet donated by Qatar for temporary use as Air Force One and expects to have it ready for President Trump to use this summer. (Image credit: Matt Rourke)
The U.S. Air Force has finished modifying and testing a Boeing 747 jet donated by Qatar for temporary use as Air Force One and expects to have it ready for President Trump to use this summer. (Image credit: Matt Rourke)