Over his kaleidoscopic career, the great Shakespearean was a stalwart of the RSC, co-founded a ‘rock’n’roll’ theatre company and excelled at Chekhov and Pinter Michael Pennington was what Richard II – a part he played with great distinction – called a “well-graced actor”. He had a resonant voice, a handsome countenance, a security and ease on stage. But looking back over his career, on his death a...
Over his kaleidoscopic career, the great Shakespearean was a stalwart of the RSC, co-founded a ‘rock’n’roll’ theatre company and excelled at Chekhov and Pinter Michael Pennington was what Richard II – a part he played with great distinction – called a “well-graced actor”. He had a resonant voice, a handsome countenance, a security and ease on stage. But looking back over his career, on his death at the age of 82 , I am struck by its astonishing variety. He co-founded, with Michael Bogdanov , the English Shakespeare Company. He toured the world with one-man shows on Shakespeare and Chekhov. He directed here and abroad and wrote 10 books full of practical wisdom. On top of all that, he was witty and delightful company. Continue reading...
imaginima/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis Super Micro Computer ( SMCI ) continues to be one of the most interesting but controversial names in terms of AI infrastructure. Since my last coverage SMCI is up around 9% on the back of solid margin recovery and continued healthy demand for AI technology. My bull thesis remains cautious because the current stock price already reflects the negat...
imaginima/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis Super Micro Computer ( SMCI ) continues to be one of the most interesting but controversial names in terms of AI infrastructure. Since my last coverage SMCI is up around 9% on the back of solid margin recovery and continued healthy demand for AI technology. My bull thesis remains cautious because the current stock price already reflects the negative impacts from poor corporate governance and liquidity issues. However, the easy narrative that this is just a growth play no longer holds water. Issues surrounding cash flow, customer concentrations and DOJ risk remain real. Data by YCharts The Margin Recovery Was Real But Not Yet Fully Proven It is clear from the outset that the headlines were ugly with Q3 revenue coming in at $10.24 billion against expectations of nearly $12.39 billion for a miss of roughly 17%. A revenue miss of that size would typically cause the stock to be readjusted lower. However, in SMCI's case, the market forgave the miss since management attributed it to delays in getting customers ready for rack deliveries. As usual, this is not the same as demand destruction, SMCI simply needs to manage inventory effectively. The other side of the coin was the gross margin recovery which came in strong at 10.1% compared to 6.4% in Q2 and helped SMCI report non-GAAP EPS of $0.84 against expectations of $0.63 which is roughly one-third better than expected. This is a strong result. Super Micro proved to the market that when customers improve and tariffs ease, among others, it can leverage its operations and report strong earnings. However, the margin issue cannot yet be considered solved by SMCI. Data by YCharts Additionally, the Q4 gross margin guidance of 8.2% to 8.4%, implying a reversal compared to Q3's levels. It shows that Q3's margin was aided mostly by favorable customer mix and cost savings, something SMCI will not always enjoy. For the long-term bull case, we need SMCI to maintain gross margins above...
Just over four months into 2026, and it's not a stretch to say the daily barrage of oil price headlines wears out investors. To put things succinctly, the war in Iran (yes, you've heard this before) pushed crude prices higher. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures are down 16.6% for the month ending May 7 but are hovering around $95 a barrel late on May 7. That's still too high because it's demand...
Just over four months into 2026, and it's not a stretch to say the daily barrage of oil price headlines wears out investors. To put things succinctly, the war in Iran (yes, you've heard this before) pushed crude prices higher. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures are down 16.6% for the month ending May 7 but are hovering around $95 a barrel late on May 7. That's still too high because it's demand-destructive and likely to weigh on the upcoming summer travel season. That's the bad news, but the good news is that energy investors are reaping rewards. This quartet of oil dividend stocks is worth examining this month. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Sky_Blue/iStock via Getty Images Woodside Energy's ( WDS ) long-delayed Browse liquefied natural gas project is now expected to cost A$48.7B (~US$35.2B), but could generate a long-term boost of A$141M (~US$102B) in Australia’s gross domestic product, according to a new report issued Monday by Deloitte that was commissioned by the company. The proposal to develop Australia's largest untapped natu...
Sky_Blue/iStock via Getty Images Woodside Energy's ( WDS ) long-delayed Browse liquefied natural gas project is now expected to cost A$48.7B (~US$35.2B), but could generate a long-term boost of A$141M (~US$102B) in Australia’s gross domestic product, according to a new report issued Monday by Deloitte that was commissioned by the company. The proposal to develop Australia's largest untapped natural gas resource was submitted to regulators in 2018 and was last estimated to cost A$27.3B in 2019, but a major carbon capture and storage component has since been added to the project, which aims to inject up to 4M metric tons/year of carbon dioxide emissions back into the Browse reservoirs and cut direct emissions nearly in half. "It would be one of the largest projects in Australian history based on capital expenditure," the report said, adding it would also create more than 3K full-time jobs and generate A$56.2B in tax payments. Browse is expected to produce 11.4M metric tons/year of LNG, LPG, and domestic gas, along with peak condensate output of 50K bbl/day. Environmental groups have opposed the project, arguing it would threaten the nearby Scott Reef, home to endangered pygmy blue whales and green turtles. More on Woodside Energy Woodside Energy Shareholder/Analyst Call Transcript Woodside Energy: Hedges Limit LNG Upside Woodside Energy: Entering Harvest Mode With Strong LNG Tailwinds
MF3d Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) prices gradually rose to the $70K mark in April amid uncertainty over developments in Iran. Analysts remain mixed over the cryptocurrency’s further movement this year, with odds roughly split that BTC will rise back to $100K in 2026, according to prediction marketplace Kalshi. Among crypto stocks with a market cap up to $2B, Strive Asset Management ( ASST ) saw the highest...
MF3d Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) prices gradually rose to the $70K mark in April amid uncertainty over developments in Iran. Analysts remain mixed over the cryptocurrency’s further movement this year, with odds roughly split that BTC will rise back to $100K in 2026, according to prediction marketplace Kalshi. Among crypto stocks with a market cap up to $2B, Strive Asset Management ( ASST ) saw the highest short interest at 22.62%, while BitFuFu ( FUFU ) saw the lowest at 0.55% in the month of April. Here are the five most shorted crypto stocks with market capitalizations of up to $2 billion (as a % of shares outstanding) Strive Asset Management ( ASST ) 22.62% Forum Markets ( FRMM ) 21.63% DeFi Development ( DFDV ) 20.32% Bit Digital ( BTBT ) 19.51% KULR Technology Group ( KULR ) 19.37% Here are the five least shorted crypto stocks with market capitalizations of up to $2 billion (as a % of shares outstanding) BitFuFu ( FUFU ) 0.55% Solana Company ( HSDT ) 2.27% Bitgo Holdings ( BTGO ) 2.41% Exodus Movement ( EXOD ) 2.60% Nakamoto ( NAKA ) 2.70% More on Cryptocurrency Exodus Movement: Sensible Payments Strategy, But With Weakened Balance Sheet Solana Company: A Compelling NAV Play DeFi Development: Better To Buy Solana Directly Quant snapshot: Beachbody, Deutsche Telekom among top-rated names as IceCure Medical, Fold Holdings lag Most and least shorted small-cap financial stocks at April's end
Criminal groups and state-linked actors appear to be using commercial models to refine and scale up attacks Business live – latest updates In just three months, AI-powered hacking has gone from a nascent problem to an industrial-scale threat, according to a report from Google. The findings from Google’s threat intelligence group add to an intensifying, global discussion about how the newest AI mod...
Criminal groups and state-linked actors appear to be using commercial models to refine and scale up attacks Business live – latest updates In just three months, AI-powered hacking has gone from a nascent problem to an industrial-scale threat, according to a report from Google. The findings from Google’s threat intelligence group add to an intensifying, global discussion about how the newest AI models are extremely adept at coding – and becoming extremely powerful tools for exploiting vulnerabilities in a broad array of software systems. Continue reading...
Join the Waitlist for the launch of the Quant Income Growth Portfolio! Explore Alpha Picks Today! Join Pro Quant Portfolio Now! Daniel Snyder : Hello, hello, hello, everyone. I'm Daniel Snyder from Seeking Alpha. Thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us today for this live webinar. If you're catching the replay, also glad to have you checking this out here as well. Today, we are d...
Join the Waitlist for the launch of the Quant Income Growth Portfolio! Explore Alpha Picks Today! Join Pro Quant Portfolio Now! Daniel Snyder : Hello, hello, hello, everyone. I'm Daniel Snyder from Seeking Alpha. Thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us today for this live webinar. If you're catching the replay, also glad to have you checking this out here as well. Today, we are diving-in to what's going on in this year, not only the macroeconomic factors. Everybody's, of course, watching the geopolitical risk, but we're also are in the midst of a mid-term year. And we're going to dive into conversation today here with the one, the only, Steven Cress from Seeking Alpha, Quantitative Titan as he is. But first things first, let me go ahead and get a quick legal disclaimer out of the way, and we'll dive on in. We are not advising you personally concerning the nature, potential, value, or suitability of any particular security. You are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security, strategy, product, or service is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation and for evaluating its benefits and risk. Seeking Alpha is not a fiduciary by virtue of any person's use of or access to the site. Any views or opinions expressed in the webinar do not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Any content and tools on the platform are offered for information purposes only. Seeking Alpha does not take account of your objectives or your financial situation and does not offer any personalized investment advice. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker, US investment adviser, or investment bank. Steve, I feel like I'm, like, one of those legal disclaimer readers for all the pharmaceutical commercials where you just try to get through it as fast as possible on a commercial. This might result… Steven Cress : Yeah. You could be conducting, like, a cattle auction. It's like y...
Getty Images US economic growth is expected to hold steady at a 2%-plus pace in the second quarter, according to the median nowcast from several estimates compiled by CapitalSpectator.com. This early estimate for the current quarter suggests that the economy may be more resilient to the effects of the Middle East conflict than previously assumed. The main threat is inflation, which jumped sharply ...
Getty Images US economic growth is expected to hold steady at a 2%-plus pace in the second quarter, according to the median nowcast from several estimates compiled by CapitalSpectator.com. This early estimate for the current quarter suggests that the economy may be more resilient to the effects of the Middle East conflict than previously assumed. The main threat is inflation, which jumped sharply in March and is expected to rise further in tomorrow’s April report from the government, based on the outlook for the year-over-year trend. The concern is that as the energy supply shock continues to reverberate, growth will suffer. The current median nowcast for Q2, however, suggests that real (inflation-adjusted) output will be largely unchanged relative to Q1. Today’s estimate indicates a 2.2% annualized increase for Q2, modestly above the 2.0% rise reported for Q1, which marked a solid recovery from Q4’s weak 0.5% gain. Uncertainty surrounding the Iran war—currently in a precarious state of peace—still leaves plenty of room for debate about how the remainder of the quarter will unfold and whether the current nowcast will hold. A bright spot is the labor market. US hiring rose more than expected in April, suggesting that the economy may be more resilient to the conflict than previously estimated. The gain in employment is “evidence of the underlying resilience of this economy and of this labor market, despite all of the slings and arrows of outrageous concerns about the Middle East and unemployment and inflation and the Fed,” said Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. But “one month does not a new trend establish. There’s been a lot of month‑to‑month volatility in the jobs market over the past year. I’m not sure that’s completely gone away. We get another two or three months of solid job gains, then I feel a little bit more comfortable.” Comfort will likely be in short supply as long as the threat of war hangs over the Middle East and ene...
Funtap/iStock via Getty Images Key Takeaways Markets: The first quarter of 2026 was characterized by elevated geopolitical risk and accelerating AI-driven disruption across the software sector and its incumbent business models. The period was shaped by a series of international developments, including the capture and indictment of Nicolás Maduro, escalating diplomatic tensions between the US and E...
Funtap/iStock via Getty Images Key Takeaways Markets: The first quarter of 2026 was characterized by elevated geopolitical risk and accelerating AI-driven disruption across the software sector and its incumbent business models. The period was shaped by a series of international developments, including the capture and indictment of Nicolás Maduro, escalating diplomatic tensions between the US and European NATO allies over Greenland, and a US-Israeli military operation against Iran. Contributors: Security selection was beneficial for performance. Detractors: Duration positioning and yield-curve positioning were slight detractors from returns. Outlook: Geopolitical tensions remain a defining feature of the outlook, with the Middle East conflict introducing ongoing uncertainty and contributing to oil price volatility as supply routes face occasional disruption. Even with these pressures, the global economic backdrop is gradually improving as fiscal support, easier financial conditions and moderating inflation help strengthen the 2026 outlook. Performance Review Portfolios outperformed the benchmark (gross of fees, underperformed net of fees). Duration positioning and yield-curve positioning were slight detractors from performance. Sector positioning did not meaningfully impact returns. Security selection was positive for performance as we had a higher-quality tilt compared to the benchmark. Outlook In the US, policy tailwinds and deregulation continue to support activity despite signs of softer labor conditions. Europe and the United Kingdom face trade and labor-market challenges but easing inflation and selective fiscal measures offer stabilization. China's recovery remains policy-driven amid structural constraints, while Japan's persistent inflation supports further policy normalization. Credit markets remain supported by strong fundamentals and healthy demand, with issuance elevated by AI-related capex, M&A and refinancing needs. Average annual total returns (%) - as...
bizoo_n Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) touched the $80K mark in May, its highest level in over three months, amid renewed investor risk appetite. The cryptocurrency rose to new highs as it continued to improve throughout April. Last week, it was further pushed higher after following the news that a deal had been reached on a key provision in the crypto bill. Among crypto stocks with a market cap of more than...
bizoo_n Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) touched the $80K mark in May, its highest level in over three months, amid renewed investor risk appetite. The cryptocurrency rose to new highs as it continued to improve throughout April. Last week, it was further pushed higher after following the news that a deal had been reached on a key provision in the crypto bill. Among crypto stocks with a market cap of more than $2B, Cleanspark ( CLSK ) continued to see the highest interest from short sellers in April at 33%, while Twenty One Capital ( XXI ) saw the lowest. Here are the five most shorted crypto stocks with market capitalizations of above $2 billion ( % of shares outstanding) CleanSpark ( CLSK ) 33.00% MARA Holdings ( MARA ) 27.54% Bitdeer Technologies Group ( BTDR ) 26.36% TeraWulf ( WULF ) 20.72% IREN Limited ( IREN ) 16.55% Here are the five least shorted crypto stocks with market capitalizations of above $2 billion ( % of shares outstanding) Twenty One Capital ( XXI ) 2.61% Block ( XYZ ) 4.04% Bitmine Immersion Technologies ( BMNR ) 4.81% Bullish ( BLSH ) 5.82% Strategy ( MSTR ) 11.23% More on CleanSpark, Block, etc. Bullish: Offensive Crypto Growth Play (Rating Upgrade) IREN Limited (IREN) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript Strategy Inc (MSTR) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript MSTR's answer to Q1 pressure: Strategy loaded 535 BTC just 5 days later Bitmine reports $13.4B in crypto and cash holdings; discloses 5.21M ETH treasury
Smart energy management just took a step closer to becoming simpler. This week, the organizations behind Matter , the smart-home interoperability standard, and the OpenADR protocol , which sends signals between the grid and the home, announced an agreement to work together . This should make it easier for connected appliances to participate in demand response programs (DR) and, hopefully, save you...
Smart energy management just took a step closer to becoming simpler. This week, the organizations behind Matter , the smart-home interoperability standard, and the OpenADR protocol , which sends signals between the grid and the home, announced an agreement to work together . This should make it easier for connected appliances to participate in demand response programs (DR) and, hopefully, save you money. In demand response programs, a customer agrees to reduce or shift their electrical usage in exchange for utility bill credits or other incentives. The Connectivity Standards Alliance, which runs Matter, and the nonprofit OpenADR Alliance have … Read the full story at The Verge.
Bussarin Rinchumrus/iStock via Getty Images Quarterly Snapshot Performance The Strategy declined 2.39% ((net of fees)) compared to an increase of 2.10% for the Russell 1000 Value Index. Key Drivers Stock selection in information technology, financials and health care were the largest detractors from relative performance, while our underweight to utilities also detracted. Stock selection in industr...
Bussarin Rinchumrus/iStock via Getty Images Quarterly Snapshot Performance The Strategy declined 2.39% ((net of fees)) compared to an increase of 2.10% for the Russell 1000 Value Index. Key Drivers Stock selection in information technology, financials and health care were the largest detractors from relative performance, while our underweight to utilities also detracted. Stock selection in industrials and consumer discretionary, along with our underweight to communication services, were the most notable contributors to relative performance. Summary The war in Iran is creating near-term uncertainty in markets. Our energy positioning – mostly oil-sensitive exploration and production companies with higher beta to the commodity price – is intentional and was beneficial in Q1. We continue to evaluate the war's broad economic impacts and are adjusting our estimates of intrinsic business value as necessary. Market and portfolio review Equity market volatility picked up in Q1 due in large part to the ongoing war in Iran. While the broad market fell in Q1, the Russell 1000 Value Index increased 2.10%. Unsurprisingly, energy ((+38%)) was by far the best-performing sector, with oil prices rising sharply as global supplies have been impacted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Materials ((+11%)) and utilities ((+9%)) also saw strong outperformance in Q1, while financials ((-8%)) and consumer discretionary ((-4%)) were the two worst-performing sectors. Similar to recent quarters, the portfolio's technology exposure – both what we own and what we do not own – was the most notable detractor from relative performance. A wide range of technology companies in the Russell 1000 Value Index are benefitting from the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on AI-related capital spending, with stocks such as Micron ( MU ) ((+18%)), Sandisk ( SNDK ) ((+168%)) and others increasing materially in Q1. We have little exposure to this theme, which continues to hurt relative performance. ...