The euro fell to its lowest level since August amid broader dollar gains as the Middle East war escalates. The common currency slipped as much as 0.4% to $1.1467, its lowest level in more than seven months. It’s down more than 2% this year as soaring energy prices threaten Europe’s economy. The latest move came as the greenback strengthened against all Group-of-10 peers on Friday amid ongoing stri...
The euro fell to its lowest level since August amid broader dollar gains as the Middle East war escalates. The common currency slipped as much as 0.4% to $1.1467, its lowest level in more than seven months. It’s down more than 2% this year as soaring energy prices threaten Europe’s economy. The latest move came as the greenback strengthened against all Group-of-10 peers on Friday amid ongoing strikes in the Middle East. The euro was already under pressure as oil prices above $100 per barrel underscored Europe’s perennial vulnerability: when energy costs spike, the trade balance deteriorates and the currency takes a hit. Read more: Euro’s Slide Shows How Energy Shock Is Deepest Vulnerability
matejmo/iStock via Getty Images Introduction B2Gold ( BTG ) is a Canadian gold producer with operations across four mines located in Mali, Philippines, Namibia, and Canada. B2Gold has faced a turbulent period with security concerns in Mali and rising development costs at its Goose Mine in Canada putting the shares under pressure. These issues have now come to pass. Operations in Mali continue unin...
matejmo/iStock via Getty Images Introduction B2Gold ( BTG ) is a Canadian gold producer with operations across four mines located in Mali, Philippines, Namibia, and Canada. B2Gold has faced a turbulent period with security concerns in Mali and rising development costs at its Goose Mine in Canada putting the shares under pressure. These issues have now come to pass. Operations in Mali continue uninterrupted, with agreements reached under the country 's new mining code, and the Goose mine is in production and currently ramping up. Supported by the higher gold price, the shares rose 89% in 2025. Despite this strong return, the shares still lagged the wider VanEck Gold Miners Index ( GDX ) which rose 155% in 2025. This underperformance reflects continued investor concerns around Mali and weak execution at the company. 2026 is set to remain a transition year. Cost guidance on the surface appeared weak, but dig in closer and it 's all about setting up for a stronger 2027 and reflective of higher royalties from the current gold price. With the gold prepay agreement expiring in June 2026 this offers another boost. This allows 66,000 ounces of quarterly production to be sold at market prices, currently ~$5,100/oz, compared to the $2,191/oz in the prepay, suggesting a significant uplift to revenue could be coming. With this in mind, let's explore B2Gold's latest earnings, cover the guidance for 2026, and ultimately explain why I believe B2Gold shares still represent good value. Q4 Earnings B2Gold recently reported their Q4 '25 earnings , reporting quarterly production of 303,029 oz of gold. This marked an increase of ~117,000 oz (+63%) from the previous year. This increase was driven by the Goose Mine in Canada, which entered production earlier in 2025 and produced 38,616 oz in Q4. Fekola, located in Mali, had a strong end to the year; production rose 95% from a year earlier to reach 163,720 oz. This increase largely came from improved grades (2.29 g/t vs. 1.17 g/t), and a sm...
Andrzej Rostek/iStock via Getty Images The GDP in the UK stalled at 0% m/m in January 2026, following a 0.1% rise in December, and compared to forecasts of a 0.2% gain. On an annual basis, the economy remains 0.8% larger than in January 2025, and considering the three months to January, the GDP grew 0.2%. Separate data showed the UK recorded a trade surplus of £3.92 billion in January 2026, a shar...
Andrzej Rostek/iStock via Getty Images The GDP in the UK stalled at 0% m/m in January 2026, following a 0.1% rise in December, and compared to forecasts of a 0.2% gain. On an annual basis, the economy remains 0.8% larger than in January 2025, and considering the three months to January, the GDP grew 0.2%. Separate data showed the UK recorded a trade surplus of £3.92 billion in January 2026, a sharp reversal from a deficit of £4.34 billion in the previous month. Exports grew 7.2% month-on-month to a record high of £82.51 billion, while imports fell 3.3% to a one-year low of £78.59 billion. Industrial production in the UK fell 0.1% month-on-month in January 2026, defying market expectations of a 0.2% rise, but easing from a 0.9% decline in December. Manufacturing production in the UK edged up by 0.1% month-on-month in January 2026, rebounding from a 0.5% fall in the previous month but falling short of market forecasts of a 0.2% gain. More on United Kingdom, etc. GBP/USD At The Crossroads: Will Cable Break The 1.3437 Resistance? FLGB: Conflicted About Pursuing This Competent U.K. ETF Now GBP/USD Breaks Trendline; Is A 470-Odd Pip Decline On The Way? (Technical Analysis) Europe indexes turn lower as oil rally continues Middle East conflicts could trigger EU inflation above 3% - report
Vietnam produced the largest trade surplus with the United States in January, overtaking both Mexico and China, latest official US data shows, as its exports rose sharply while Chinese direct shipments to the United States fell. Hanoi has been negotiating a trade deal with Washington for months but no agreement has been reached because of the large trade gap and disagreements over tariff rates the...
Vietnam produced the largest trade surplus with the United States in January, overtaking both Mexico and China, latest official US data shows, as its exports rose sharply while Chinese direct shipments to the United States fell. Hanoi has been negotiating a trade deal with Washington for months but no agreement has been reached because of the large trade gap and disagreements over tariff rates the US wants to impose on Vietnamese goods, officials have said. In January, Vietnam’s trade surplus...
Funtap/iStock via Getty Images By Shannon L. Saccocia, CFA We remain constructive on risk assets, seeing selective opportunities to modestly lengthen duration in fixed income and to begin dollar-cost averaging in equities given the volatility. February non-farm payrolls were released today, missed estimates meaningfully, and added fuel to a fire already burning hot following the escalation in the ...
Funtap/iStock via Getty Images By Shannon L. Saccocia, CFA We remain constructive on risk assets, seeing selective opportunities to modestly lengthen duration in fixed income and to begin dollar-cost averaging in equities given the volatility. February non-farm payrolls were released today, missed estimates meaningfully, and added fuel to a fire already burning hot following the escalation in the Middle East. Payrolls declined by -92k in the month, well below expectations for a +55k gain; this is the weakest payrolls print since October and the sharpest decline in private sector payrolls (-86k) since 2020. In addition, there was a further downward revision to December’s payrolls, from +48k to -17k, with January lower as well by -4k; this implies that trailing three-month payrolls growth stands at less than +6k. Breaking down the data, the decline in health care hiring (-28k) was the primary driver of this month’s weakness; the reversal of the strongly positive trend exacerbated the weakening in other industries at the aggregate level. Construction (-11k) and manufacturing (-12k) both fell in February, offsetting gains in January, and government payrolls (-6k) continued to move lower despite already meaningful losses over the prior twelve months. There were few bright spots in this month’s report, with the most notable gains in financial activities (+10k) and social assistance (+9k). In addition, the unemployment rate ticked back up to 4.4%, even with a meaningful decline in the participation rate from 62.5% to 62.0%. More concerning was the decline in employed persons of -185k, while the number of unemployed rose by +203k in the month. The unemployment rate increased across most demographic categories, reversing last month’s trend of broadening employment gains. Despite the downward payroll pressure, average hourly earnings rose by +0.4% month-over-month and +3.8% year-over-year, while average hours worked were steady at 34.3. Admittedly, there are several factors t...
Germany’s chemical industry warned shockwaves from the Iran war are beginning to ricochet through Europe’s largest economy with a number of companies dialing down output as supply chains seize up and energy costs surge. While costs rise, disruption to global shipping routes carrying vital raw materials and intermediate goods is now compounding the strain, Germany’s VCI chemical association said at...
Germany’s chemical industry warned shockwaves from the Iran war are beginning to ricochet through Europe’s largest economy with a number of companies dialing down output as supply chains seize up and energy costs surge. While costs rise, disruption to global shipping routes carrying vital raw materials and intermediate goods is now compounding the strain, Germany’s VCI chemical association said at its annual press conference in Frankfurt. The issues raise the specter of a fresh industrial slowdown in the continent’s industrial heartland. “There’s a spiral spinning in the wrong direction and we can only hope it is over quickly,” VCI Director General Wolfgang Große Entrup told reporters, describing a mounting price and supply shock emanating from the conflict. “The longer it lasts, the more powerful impact it will have.” Read More: Iran War Threatens Agrofert’s Ammonia Production, Executive Says The industry, which underpins daily consumables from carmaking to pharmaceuticals and agriculture, is being squeezed on multiple fronts. European gas prices — a key input for producing ammonia and nitrogen-based fertilizers — have jumped more than 50% since the outbreak of the war. The war is now also throttling output of intermediate products from Asia, threatening to disrupt production lines in Germany. Asian petrochemical companies, grappling with tight supplies of naphtha — a crude oil derivative used to make plastics, solvents and other chemical building blocks — have cut output, exacerbating bottlenecks further down the chain. The result is a feedback loop of rising costs and dwindling availability that is spreading across sectors. The VCI represents more than 1,900 companies spanning chemicals, pharmaceuticals and related sectors, from global heavyweights such as BASF SE , Bayer AG and Evonik Industries AG to hundreds of small and medium-sized, family-owned manufacturers. Together, the industry employs roughly 480,000 people in Germany and accounts for one of the countr...
Germany's Industrial Collapse: Degrowth And Ideology At Work Submitted by Thomas Kolbe Even with some temporal distance and broader perspective, the election result in Baden-Württemberg makes no sense. That the two eco-socialist parties, fused into a kind of political twin planet— Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and the CDU—could claim almost two-thirds of the votes cast is staggering given the economic sit...
Germany's Industrial Collapse: Degrowth And Ideology At Work Submitted by Thomas Kolbe Even with some temporal distance and broader perspective, the election result in Baden-Württemberg makes no sense. That the two eco-socialist parties, fused into a kind of political twin planet— Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and the CDU—could claim almost two-thirds of the votes cast is staggering given the economic situation in the country. It raises a fundamental question: Can—or will—Germans no longer connect economic decline with political responsibility in any meaningful way? Baden-Württemberg’s capital, Stuttgart, is notably at the epicenter of this decline. The city serves, in a way, as a blueprint for the future envisioned by green transformation advocates. It makes no difference whether it is green ideologues and hardliners like Jürgen Trittin exploiting the cultivated German guilt complex for their degrowth fantasies, or CDU politicians of the Merkel-Merz line staging placebo reforms for public consumption. Both strategies ultimately point to the same goal: replacing traditional German industry with a state-controlled command economy. That the Mittelstand and major industry are collapsing under mounting fiscal pressure and the energy transition catastrophe is undeniable. Added to this is a kind of vacuum effect in the capital markets. Every subsidy, especially the state-guaranteed high returns in the green art economy, drains valuable resources from the free market. Startup funding, growth financing, and venture capital are systematically squeezed or driven abroad. Entrepreneurs may even choose the simpler path of marching along, extracting subsidies on the way to the green paradise. The problem is that state-run economics, whether executed by private companies as government proxies or directly by the state, adds no value to the economy. It is a destructive mechanism, felt even by city treasurers in Stuttgart, the new capital of ideological escapists. Last year, trade tax revenu...
格隆汇3月13日｜招商证券研报指出，3月5日，比亚迪召开“闪充中国改变世界”主题发布会，重磅推出第二代刀片电池与全域闪充技术体系，同步发布“闪充中国”生态布局战略，攻克新能源汽车行业长期存在的充电慢、低温充电效率低、快充与电池安全难以兼顾三大核心痛点。本次技术突破终结了新能源汽车的充电焦虑，并且攻克了极寒低温性能差的行业痛点，使得快充与电池安全、寿命得以兼顾，再次推动电动车替代油车的进程，二代刀片电池和闪充技术有望打造比亚迪新一轮产品周期。预计2025、2026、2027 年分别实现归母净利润346.98、364.92、388.72亿元，分别对应26.1、24.8、23.3 X PE，继续强烈推荐！