A Hong Kong couple have been spared a criminal conviction for storm chasing with their children during Super Typhoon Ragasa last year after prosecutors agreed to settle the case with a bind-over order. The couple were bound over at Eastern Court on Tuesday for three years in the sum of HK$2,000 (US$255) on a joint charge of ill-treatment or neglect by those in charge of a child or young person. Th...
A Hong Kong couple have been spared a criminal conviction for storm chasing with their children during Super Typhoon Ragasa last year after prosecutors agreed to settle the case with a bind-over order. The couple were bound over at Eastern Court on Tuesday for three years in the sum of HK$2,000 (US$255) on a joint charge of ill-treatment or neglect by those in charge of a child or young person. The couple will be fined HK$2,000 if they fail to maintain good behaviour and keep the peace during...
Chicago wheat extended gains as crop conditions in the US worsened due to persistent dryness in some key growing areas. Drought in parts of the US Great Plains is threatening output in the key production region. Organizers of the Wheat Quality Council’s hard winter wheat tour in Kansas this week expect crop scouts to report freeze damage and drought stress . Winter wheat was rated 28% good to exce...
Chicago wheat extended gains as crop conditions in the US worsened due to persistent dryness in some key growing areas. Drought in parts of the US Great Plains is threatening output in the key production region. Organizers of the Wheat Quality Council’s hard winter wheat tour in Kansas this week expect crop scouts to report freeze damage and drought stress . Winter wheat was rated 28% good to excellent, down from 31% last week and well below 54% a year ago, indicating a notable deterioration in crop conditions, according to the latest report from the United States Department of Agriculture. The most actively traded wheat future contracts on Chicago Board of Trade surged as much as 1.3% during the Asian morning. Traders were also looking out for the USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report due Tuesday, with particular focus on how the drought would affect wheat production. Wheat rose 1.1% to $6.41 a bushel as of 11:56 a.m. in Singapore Soybeans gained 0.3% to $12.16 Corn was down 0.1%
Henry McVey, KKR Head of Global Macro and Asset Allocation and CIO of the firm's Balance Sheet, says industrialization, robotics, and the green economy are now driving China's growth. He believes investors should focus on relative value in AI, and notes that valuations in China have become attractive. He also shares his views on the Chinese currency and property market on Bloomberg's "The China Sh...
Henry McVey, KKR Head of Global Macro and Asset Allocation and CIO of the firm's Balance Sheet, says industrialization, robotics, and the green economy are now driving China's growth. He believes investors should focus on relative value in AI, and notes that valuations in China have become attractive. He also shares his views on the Chinese currency and property market on Bloomberg's "The China Show." (Source: Bloomberg)
Earnings Call Insights: Oxbridge Re Holdings Limited (OXBR) Q1 2026 Management View "Let me start by saying we're proud of the strong performance of our business and progress we're making executing on our long-term strategy." (Chairman, President & CEO Sanjay Madhu) "At our core, we are a disciplined reinsurance business, writing fully collateralized policies covering property catastrophe risk." (...
Earnings Call Insights: Oxbridge Re Holdings Limited (OXBR) Q1 2026 Management View "Let me start by saying we're proud of the strong performance of our business and progress we're making executing on our long-term strategy." (Chairman, President & CEO Sanjay Madhu) "At our core, we are a disciplined reinsurance business, writing fully collateralized policies covering property catastrophe risk." (Chairman, President & CEO Madhu) "As we approach May 31, 2026, conclusion of the current contract season, our existing tokenized reinsurance offerings remain unaffected with the balance yield token currently tracking 25% ahead of its original 20% targeted return, while the high-yield token remains on track towards its 42% targeted return." (Chairman, President & CEO Madhu) "Net premiums written for the 3 months ended March 31, 2026, decreased to $555,000 from $595,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2025." (CFO, Secretary & Director Wrendon Timothy) "Net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, was $22,000 or 0 basic and diluted income per share compared to a net loss of $139,000 or $0.02 basic and diluted loss per share for the prior year quarter." (CFO, Secretary & Director Timothy) Outlook "As we look ahead to the 2026, '27 underwriting cycle, we are preparing our T20 and T42 offerings targeting annual returns of 20% and 42%, respectively." (Chairman, President & CEO Madhu) "Recent forecast from the Colorado State University indicate the potential for a more constructive hurricane environment relative to recent years, supported in part by anticipated El Nino conditions." (Chairman, President & CEO Madhu) "In parallel, we are making meaningful progress in advancing opportunities to broaden the SurancePlus model into additional high-quality cash-generating asset categories, including initiatives involving tokenized data center revenue streams and infrastructure aligned with the continued growth of artificial intelligence." (Chairman, President & CEO Madhu) The transcri...
Copper steadied near its highest close on record after US President Donald Trump dismissed Iran’s proposals for a peace deal and said the ceasefire with Tehran was on “life support”. The US leader’s latest comments underscore the deadlock in the Middle East conflict that’s in its 10th week and threatened widespread economic disruption. Still, metals have posted strong gains in the past month and t...
Copper steadied near its highest close on record after US President Donald Trump dismissed Iran’s proposals for a peace deal and said the ceasefire with Tehran was on “life support”. The US leader’s latest comments underscore the deadlock in the Middle East conflict that’s in its 10th week and threatened widespread economic disruption. Still, metals have posted strong gains in the past month and the decline comes after a big advance on Monday. Copper was little changed at $13,938 a ton by 11:47 a.m. Shanghai time, after earlier losing as much as 0.8%. The metal rose 2.7% on Monday. Aluminum was down 0.7% and zinc — which closed at a three-year high — was steady. Read More: Trump Says Ceasefire With Iran Is on ‘Massive Life Support’ Metals have largely shrugged off deepening uncertainty about the impasse in th Strait of Hormuz, where blockades imposed by Iran and the US have cut off oil and gas flows and driven up global energy costs. Strong demand from China has helped, and analysts from Citigroup Inc. to Jefferies have argued copper will prove relatively resilient. “The extent of Chinese willingness to absorb higher prices remains a key question with recent data indicating strong fundamental demand,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Sam Crittenden said in an emailed note. Monday’s rallies across copper and zinc, as well as silver, were partly driven by a sudden flurry of speculation about fuel availability in Peru, a major mining hub. The government in Lima has announced a $2 billion package to shore up state-owned refinery PetroPeru, but there was widespread discussion in China about the threat to miners that depend on diesel supplies. Read More: Peru Authorizes $2 Billion New Emergency Loan for Petroperu The PetroPeru news “is just a financial arrangement and has not had any effect on mines,” said Zijie Wu, an analyst at Jinrui Futures Co. “Peru’s issue is not that they cannot get oil but they don’t have money to buy oil, so as the Middle East crisis develops, it can ...
Luis Alvarez/DigitalVision via Getty Images Investment thesis The common bear case on RingCentral ( RNG ) is that, unified communications are commoditizing, Microsoft Teams and Zoom are compressing pricing, and the company's mid-single-digit revenue growth is dismal when investors are looking for double-digit compounders in the software space. The commoditization interpretation is real, as confirm...
Luis Alvarez/DigitalVision via Getty Images Investment thesis The common bear case on RingCentral ( RNG ) is that, unified communications are commoditizing, Microsoft Teams and Zoom are compressing pricing, and the company's mid-single-digit revenue growth is dismal when investors are looking for double-digit compounders in the software space. The commoditization interpretation is real, as confirmed by industry practitioners that I talk to. But they also, often without realizing it, describe the exact mechanism that makes RingCentral's AI monetization story resilient in ways the bear case usually misses. The Q1 2026 earnings, released May 7, 2026 , showed that AI Receptionist reached 11,800 paying customers. The Customer Engagement Bundle signed 5,000 accounts in its opening weeks, with 40% already running paid AI on top. RCAI-utilizing customers crossed 10% of ARR and are doubling year-over-year, with net retention above 100%. Meanwhile, free cash flow per share guidance was raised at the growth rate of more than 15% on revenue growth of roughly 5%. At the current valuation, which I will dissect more, the market is pricing revenue risk. But it is not pricing FCF compounding, which is a mispricing opportunity. I am initiating coverage with a Buy rating. Why the bear is only half right? Bears who sell against RingCentral are direct: UCaaS has become a commodity where price is the primary differentiator and buyers increasingly expect voice to be bundled into a broader productivity suite. Gartner's own communications market data shows overall UC spending growing at a fast pace as enterprise buyers consolidate vendors and extract pricing concessions from all of them. RingCentral is not immune to this. Its 5.3% total revenue growth in Q1 2026 reflects a market where the underlying UCaaS business cannot grow meaningfully faster. Synergy Research places RingCentral at number one in UCaaS cloud PBX seat share, which means market share gains are increasingly difficult, and p...
Iskandar Zulkarnaen/iStock via Getty Images Ready for the Eruption? I'd like you to imagine something with me. Close your eyes and imagine yourself at the edge of a volcano. It's about to erupt, and you're there watching. Imagine the thrill and the sensation you might feel, the smells, the atmosphere charged with electricity, pervaded by an intense sense of anticipation mixed with fear. Know that ...
Iskandar Zulkarnaen/iStock via Getty Images Ready for the Eruption? I'd like you to imagine something with me. Close your eyes and imagine yourself at the edge of a volcano. It's about to erupt, and you're there watching. Imagine the thrill and the sensation you might feel, the smells, the atmosphere charged with electricity, pervaded by an intense sense of anticipation mixed with fear. Know that this is what some investors are feeling. Some are trembling because they're inside, and they fear an imminent collapse. Others, those who haven't invested, are watching the Korean index soar and would love to see it collapse. There have been countless news articles, press releases, social media posts, etc., talking about how May 6th, 2026, will be remembered for generations to come as the day Samsung Electronics became the first company within the Korean Industrial System to break through the $1 trillion dollar Market Capitalization threshold , causing the National Index to reach an unprecedented level of 7,000 points or higher. South Korea has long been known as the "sleeping beauty" of emerging markets—a country with cutting-edge technology but a valuation reminiscent of a 20th-century industrial economy. Thanks to AI, this is changing. How can we invest in Korea? There are efficient tools available, and as always, there are pros and cons. In this analysis, I'd like to introduce you to an instrument that I've found to be truly cost-effective and that tracks the Korean market well: the Franklin FTSE South Korea ETF ( FLKR ). The 2.0 Miracle of Exports Obviously, I'd like to provide an overview of the market in general before delving into the details of the ETF I'm suggesting you buy today. The Korean economy is not just about making promises for the future. It is about ships filled with good products sailing out of Busan Port as fast as they can be loaded. South Korea's economy serves as a barometer of the world economy, and it is showing high levels of growth at this time...