A 102-year-old woman from eastern China has won hearts online with her optimistic attitude and unique lifestyle. Jin Baoling, a centenarian from a rural area in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, is frequently visited by her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Known for her longevity and cheerful personality, fellow villagers affectionately call her “Old Baby.” Advertisement According to the Taizhou ...
A 102-year-old woman from eastern China has won hearts online with her optimistic attitude and unique lifestyle. Jin Baoling, a centenarian from a rural area in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, is frequently visited by her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Known for her longevity and cheerful personality, fellow villagers affectionately call her “Old Baby.” Advertisement According to the Taizhou Evening News, Jin is mentally sharp and physically healthy, having not visited a hospital in the past 50 years. Centenarian Jin Baoling tucks into one the dishes she loves which have helped her live a long life. Photo: Douyin She wakes up around 9am, washes up, and enjoys the sunshine in her garden. By 7pm, she is in bed, after taking naps throughout the day.
Kirpal Kooner/iStock via Getty Images By Jennifer Nash Housing starts jumped 7.2% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.487 million, exceeding the forecast of 1.340 million. This is the highest level in eleven months and marks the third consecutive monthly increase. Housing starts are up 9.5% compared to one year ago. Background on Housing Starts Housing starts track how many reside...
Kirpal Kooner/iStock via Getty Images By Jennifer Nash Housing starts jumped 7.2% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.487 million, exceeding the forecast of 1.340 million. This is the highest level in eleven months and marks the third consecutive monthly increase. Housing starts are up 9.5% compared to one year ago. Background on Housing Starts Housing starts track how many residential buildings began construction in the preceding month. The data is divided into three types of structures: single-family homes, residences with 2-4 units (condos or townhouses), and structures with 5+ units (apartment complexes). A critical aspect of the home-building industry is the powerful influence it has on the rest of the economy. Here is the historical series for total privately owned housing starts, which dates from 1959. Because of the extreme volatility of the monthly data points, a six-month moving average has been included. Housing Starts: Structure Breakdown In January, single-family housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.935 million. This represents a 2.8% decline from December and a 6.5% drop from one year ago. Multi-family building housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.524 million, their highest level since May 2023. This represents a 29.1% increase from December and a 56.9% rise from one year ago. Note: Buildings with 2-4 units only have N.S.A. data available because tests for identifiable and stable seasonality do not meet reliability standards. Housing Starts: The Population-Adjusted Reality Here is the data with a simple population adjustment. The Census Bureau's mid-month population estimates show substantial growth in the US population since 1959. Here is a chart of housing starts as a percent of the population. We've added a linear regression through the monthly data to highlight the trend. Housing Starts: A Footnote on Volatility The extreme volatility of this monthly indicator is the rationale for p...
Paging Nostradamus: You Have A Margin Call Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, If conditions change beneath the surface, the folks behind the curtain will be powerless to do anything but make it worse. This just in: predicting is hard, especially about the future. One solution is ambiguity: couch predictions in poetic allusions that are open to interpretation. What's hard is making...
Paging Nostradamus: You Have A Margin Call Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, If conditions change beneath the surface, the folks behind the curtain will be powerless to do anything but make it worse. This just in: predicting is hard, especially about the future. One solution is ambiguity: couch predictions in poetic allusions that are open to interpretation. What's hard is making an unambiguous prediction that turn out to be correct. Recency bias often trips us up, as making predictions based on projecting the recent past seems to work well until trends and dynamics change. But due to recency bias, we tend to ignore these signals and focus on whatever supports our belief that the future will be a continuation of the recent past. If we live long enough to experience several epochal transitions, we start noticing longer-term patterns. One such pattern that attracts little attention is that recessions tend not to replicate the previous recession; they tend to follow the recession before. So the recession we're now entering won't track the 2008-09 recession, it will likely track either The 1991 recession--shallow and brief--or the previous "real recessions" of 1980-83 or 1973-75. The recession of 2008-09 was characterized by these dynamics: 1. The price of oil spiked, but fell rapidly back to its previous range. 2. Low inflation generated by the massive deflationary impact of China's expansion of low-cost manufacturing and credit expansion enabled the Federal Reserve to flood the financial system with trillions of dollars, pinning interest rates to zero (ZIRP--zero interest rate policy). 3. Low inflation enabled authorities to "run the economy hot" with cheap, abundant credit that inflated credit-asset bubbles in real estate, stocks and other assets, generating a "wealth effect" in the top 10% who own the majority of the assets. 4. The Fed's balance sheet and federal debt were both modest when measured by GDP, and so these could be expanded with little...
China’s consumer spending may have booked the worst start to any year outside the pandemic, highlighting the challenge to a government that has targeted a bigger role for domestic demand. Retail sales for the first two months of the year likely rose 2.1% compared with the same period of 2025, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg ahead of the official release on Mond...
China’s consumer spending may have booked the worst start to any year outside the pandemic, highlighting the challenge to a government that has targeted a bigger role for domestic demand. Retail sales for the first two months of the year likely rose 2.1% compared with the same period of 2025, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg ahead of the official release on Monday. That would be the lowest reading on record, outside of January-February 2020, when the economy was reeling from the Covid shock. Industrial production likely expanded 5% in the past two months, a notable slowdown from the 5.9% pace recorded at the start of 2025 — though still a relative bright spot, reflecting robust foreign demand. The third key indicator due Monday is fixed asset investment , where economists see the unprecedented slump of 2025 extending into this year. Outlays are forecast to be down 4.2% from a year before, with property investment contracting some 19.3%. If the forecasts are realized, the first detailed 2026 snapshot of the world’s second-largest economy would depict a further weakening in domestic demand, in the face of official pledges to make its revival a priority. The figures represent a bigger challenge challenge in light of risks to the surprisingly strong export side of the economy — stemming from the Iran war. “Beijing needs export growth to offset the crashing property market, but the resulting staggering trade imbalance is unlikely to be sustained,” Nomura Holdings Inc. economists led by Ting Lu wrote in a Thursday note. “It’s a dilemma that Beijing will have to resolve.” So far, the Chinese government hasn’t suggested it’s about to change course amid the fast-changing international geopolitical environment. The leadership unveiled its annual economic goals just last week — plans likely made months ahead the current upheavals in the Middle East. What Bloomberg Economics Says... “High-frequency data suggest weakness in China’s economic ac...
(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing more than 60 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,730-point plateau although it may had back those gains on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky as investors wait for developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The Euro...
(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing more than 60 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,730-point plateau although it may had back those gains on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky as investors wait for developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit. The SCI finished modestly higher on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares, resource stocks and energy companies, while the property sector was soft. For the day, the index gained 31.26 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 3,728.03 after trading between 3,702.38 and 3,745.94. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 40.40 points or 1.76 percent to end at 2,341.17. Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slumped 0.26 percent, while Agricultural Bank of China climbed 1.17 percent, China Merchants Bank added 0.48 percent, Bank of Communications collected 0.13 percent, China Life Insurance jumped 1.42 percent, Jiangxi Copper stumbled 1.82 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 3.02 percent, Yankuang Energy dropped 0.92 percent, PetroChina lost 0.58 percent, Huaneng Power perked 0.14 percent, China Shenhua Energy surged 4.45 percent, Gemdale tumbled 1.75 percent, Poly Developments retreated 1.47 percent, China Vanke shed 0.46 percent and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) and Bank of China were unchanged. The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened mixed but moved little, hugging the line all day and ending on opposite sides. The Dow shed 34.30 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 44,911.82, while the NASDAQ rose 6.80 points or 0.03 percent to close at 21,629.77 and the S&P 500 eased 0.65 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,449.15. The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders kept an eye on the White House, ...
Image source: The Motley Fool. March 12, 2026, at 5 p.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS President and Chief Executive Officer — Brian Daniel Murphy Chief Financial Officer — H. Andrew Fulmer Vice President, Investor Relations — Elizabeth A. Sharp TAKEAWAYS Net Sales -- $56.6 million, a 3.3% decrease year over year, attributed to an ongoing inventory reset at the largest e-commerce retailer and softness in t...
Image source: The Motley Fool. March 12, 2026, at 5 p.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS President and Chief Executive Officer — Brian Daniel Murphy Chief Financial Officer — H. Andrew Fulmer Vice President, Investor Relations — Elizabeth A. Sharp TAKEAWAYS Net Sales -- $56.6 million, a 3.3% decrease year over year, attributed to an ongoing inventory reset at the largest e-commerce retailer and softness in the aiming solutions category. -- $56.6 million, a 3.3% decrease year over year, attributed to an ongoing inventory reset at the largest e-commerce retailer and softness in the aiming solutions category. Outdoor Lifestyle Category Sales -- $35.3 million with 5.4% growth year over year, driven by BOG and MEAT! Your Maker brands, and representing over 62% of total company net sales. -- $35.3 million with 5.4% growth year over year, driven by BOG and MEAT! Your Maker brands, and representing over 62% of total company net sales. Shooting Sports Category Sales -- Down 15% year over year, mainly due to decreased demand for aiming solutions; Caldwell brand registered "solid growth" on the new Claycopter platform. -- Down 15% year over year, mainly due to decreased demand for aiming solutions; Caldwell brand registered "solid growth" on the new Claycopter platform. Point of Sale (POS) Growth -- 5% increase year over year, marking a third consecutive quarter of positive POS results, led by the outdoor lifestyle category. -- 5% increase year over year, marking a third consecutive quarter of positive POS results, led by the outdoor lifestyle category. Traditional Channel Sales -- Down 2.1% year over year; E-Commerce Channel Sales -- Down 4.6% year over year, with inventory reset and tariff pressures impacting channel performance. -- Down 2.1% year over year; -- Down 4.6% year over year, with inventory reset and tariff pressures impacting channel performance. Gross Margin -- 41%, down 370 basis points from prior year; the decrease driven by new tariffs and a $1.2 million inventory reser...
Earnings Call Insights: Runway Growth Finance Corp. (RWAY) Q4 2025 Management View CEO David Spreng highlighted that Runway delivered total investment income of $30 million and net investment income of $11.6 million in the fourth quarter, completing seven investments totaling $42.9 million in high-growth sectors including technology, health care, and select consumer sectors. Spreng announced, "our...
Earnings Call Insights: Runway Growth Finance Corp. (RWAY) Q4 2025 Management View CEO David Spreng highlighted that Runway delivered total investment income of $30 million and net investment income of $11.6 million in the fourth quarter, completing seven investments totaling $42.9 million in high-growth sectors including technology, health care, and select consumer sectors. Spreng announced, "our transaction with SWK is now expected to close in early April. Our confidence in closing this transaction remains unchanged. One key aspect of our transaction with SWK is the diversification it will bring to our portfolio." He emphasized the benefits of increased exposure in health care and life sciences, and the intention to drive optionality moving forward. Spreng indicated optimism for 2026, stating, "our pipeline is stronger than it was at this point last year, giving us measured optimism for the remainder of 2026." Chief Investment Officer Greg Greifeld reiterated the firm’s "credit-first investment discipline with a preference for less economically sensitive business models" and outlined confidence in the software portfolio, highlighting companies with "mission-critical functions... strong moats defined by domain expertise and high switching costs and customer diversification." CFO Thomas Raterman stated, "We generated total investment income of $30 million and net investment income of $11.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, a decrease compared to $36.7 million and $15.7 million in the third quarter of 2025." He noted, "We delivered $0.32 per share of net investment income in the fourth quarter. Our base dividend in the fourth quarter was $0.33 per share." Outlook Management expects the SWK Holdings transaction to close in early April, citing, "the modest delay in timing will contribute to some softness in Q1 2026 earnings" (Raterman). The company projects a $0.02 headwind in Q1 2026 due to one-time charges from debt redemptions. Spreng expressed, "we believe tha...
(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly lower in choppy trading on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 just below the 7,300 level, despite the broadly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, with weakness in energy and materials partially offset by strength in technology stocks. Traders also digested the U.S. Federal Reserve's...
(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly lower in choppy trading on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 just below the 7,300 level, despite the broadly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, with weakness in energy and materials partially offset by strength in technology stocks. Traders also digested the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, with a decision to accelerate the pace of reductions to its asset purchases program and signalling interest rate hikes. There are also concerns over the rising domestic Covid-19 cases, with New South Wales reporting a daily record of 1,742 new cases on Wednesday, of which 12 are of the new Omicron variant, which now totalled 122. Victoria also reported 1,622 new cases and nine deaths, with no Omicron cases. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 28.80 points or 0.39 percent to 7,298.30, after hitting a low of 7,292.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 23.50 points or 0.31 percent to 7,612.70. Australian markets ended notably lower on Wednesday. Among major miners, BHP Group is losing more than 1 percent, OZ Minerals is declining more than 2 percent, while Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are down almost 1 percent each. Fortescue Metals is edging up 0.6 percent. BHP's proposed $41 billion sale of its worldwide oil and gas business to Woodside Petroleum has been given the green light by Australia's competition watchdog. Oil stocks are lower. Woodside Petroleum and Santos are losing more than 1 percent each, while Beach Energy is declining almost 2 percent and Origin Energy is down almost 1 percent. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is edging up 0.4 percent, ANZ Banking is edging up 0.1 percent and National Australia Bank is gaining 1.5 percent, while Westpac is edging down 0.5 percent. In the tech space, Xero and Afterpay are gaining almost 2 percent each, while WiseTech Global is advancing 4.5 percent, Zip is adding ...