The France-Africa summit has mobilized deals amounting to 23 billion euros ($27 billion), according to President Emmanuel Macron . That includes 14 billion euros from French companies and 9 billion euros from African entrepreneurs and investors, he said at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi on Tuesday. “This is a big first,” Macron said at the summit that’s brought together more than 30 heads of...
The France-Africa summit has mobilized deals amounting to 23 billion euros ($27 billion), according to President Emmanuel Macron . That includes 14 billion euros from French companies and 9 billion euros from African entrepreneurs and investors, he said at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi on Tuesday. “This is a big first,” Macron said at the summit that’s brought together more than 30 heads of state and about 7,000 delegates including representatives of major French and African companies. “Let’s take a leap together, this is not a top-down agenda from Africa to Europe,” Macron said. “It’s an equal partnership.”
Moses Edwards, 45, from Wanstead, to appear in court in connection with incident in Whitechapel last week A 45-year-old man has been charged with arson with intent to endanger life after reports of a fire at a former synagogue in east London. Moses Edwards, from Wanstead, will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday after the alleged arson attack on the building in Nelson Street, Whitec...
Moses Edwards, 45, from Wanstead, to appear in court in connection with incident in Whitechapel last week A 45-year-old man has been charged with arson with intent to endanger life after reports of a fire at a former synagogue in east London. Moses Edwards, from Wanstead, will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday after the alleged arson attack on the building in Nelson Street, Whitechapel, on 5 May. Continue reading...
lucadp/iStock via Getty Images In January I wrote an article that displayed the ranges of returns that might be earned in 2026, depending on earnings growth during the year and the Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio at the end of the year. The formula I use to construct the table is: Return = Dividend Yield + (1 + Earnings Growth) X (1 + P/E expansion/contraction) – 1 Now a third of the 2026 return puzzle...
lucadp/iStock via Getty Images In January I wrote an article that displayed the ranges of returns that might be earned in 2026, depending on earnings growth during the year and the Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio at the end of the year. The formula I use to construct the table is: Return = Dividend Yield + (1 + Earnings Growth) X (1 + P/E expansion/contraction) – 1 Now a third of the 2026 return puzzle is in the books. The S&P 500 has returned 8% so far this year, so the trendline points to 27% for the whole year 2026—a very good return. We can use the formula above to solve for the combination of ending P/E and earnings growth that will deliver 27% for this year. It’s a P/E that remains near the current level of 40 and earnings growth above 22%. Here’s the trendline and the return table: S&P and Target Date Solutions But earnings are currently growing faster than 22%. So far this year they are growing 28% , which—if it continues AND P/Es stay at their current level of 40—will lead to a 33% return in 2026. So, an optimistic outlook sees today’s stock market returning 25-35% this year, which is phenomenal, especially since it follows 3 other very good years. The Downside of the Performance Puzzle But what if P/Es regress back toward their historic average of 15? If the US stock market reaches a P/E level of 15 over the next year, it will lose more than 50%. Any decline below 30 will result in double-digit losses, regardless of earnings growth. The following relationship between current P/E and subsequent return reinforces the current risk. Brian Kehm Conclusion The current strong earnings growth is cause for celebration, and you’d think that it would bring down the market P/E because the “E” in that ratio is growing, but it hasn’t. P/Es continue to expand, well into the realm of “never before.” The US stock market is extremely expensive. In the past, stock markets have not remained expensive for long. Is it because of artificial intelligence? Perhaps, but a similar argume...
Derick Hudson/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction I’ve been highly bullish on the current tech giants and, more particularly, Meta ( META ), as I rated it a Strong buy back in late February . Since then, Meta has been one of the few tech giants not seeing a strong capital appreciation as it dropped following its earnings release and has lost nearly 7% since my last review. With that in ...
Derick Hudson/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction I’ve been highly bullish on the current tech giants and, more particularly, Meta ( META ), as I rated it a Strong buy back in late February . Since then, Meta has been one of the few tech giants not seeing a strong capital appreciation as it dropped following its earnings release and has lost nearly 7% since my last review. With that in mind, I’ll dive into why I believe the company is still well positioned to appreciate higher, especially as it is down over 20% from its all-time high of $780 a share. Current Dynamics So let’s dive into the latest earnings to understand the latest drawdown, as Meta actually posted a double beat with revenue coming out to $56.31B, a beat of $760MM, and an astonishing 33.1% Y/Y increase, which is simply incredible considering the size of Meta. On the bottom line, Meta posted a Q1 GAAP EPS of $10.44, a great beat of $3.78, and a quarterly record for the firm. Though it is important to note that the GAAP figure was inflated by an $8.03B one-time tax benefit coming from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which partially offset non-cash tax charges from late 2025. On an adjusted basis, EPS would come to around $7.31, still a great number. Diving deeper, the great performance was heavily linked to the resilience of the advertising business, which saw simultaneous growth of impressions and pricing. Ad impressions across the Family of Apps grew by 19% while the average price per ad rose by 12%. This combination is rare in mature digital advertising platforms and indicates that Meta’s AI ranking improvements are unlocking both advertiser demand and inventory supply simultaneously. Furthermore, the Value Optimization Suite reached an annualized revenue run rate of $20B, more than doubling Y/Y, while Partnership Ads crossed a $10B run rate. I believe that these numbers represent the early-stage monetization of Meta’s advanced AI tools, which are already used by a majority of the platform...