Rolls-Royce has abandoned its goal to sell only electric cars by the end of the decade. The luxury car company launched its all-electric Spectre model in 2022, saying at the time that it would end production of its vehicles with V12 internal combustion engines by the end of 2030. However, the chief executive, Chris Brownridge, who took the top job in 2023, said the company would continue to sell c...
Rolls-Royce has abandoned its goal to sell only electric cars by the end of the decade. The luxury car company launched its all-electric Spectre model in 2022, saying at the time that it would end production of its vehicles with V12 internal combustion engines by the end of 2030. However, the chief executive, Chris Brownridge, who took the top job in 2023, said the company would continue to sell cars with the V12 engines as there was demand from clients. “For every client who is unsure whether our Spectre is right for them, there will be one that says ‘I love it’,” he said. “We can respond to our client demand … we build what is ordered.” Brownridge insisted that the company’s all-electric pledge under its previous chief executive, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, was “right at the time”. His predecessor predicted in 2022 that Spectre would make up 20% of annual sales, with a goal of 70% of sales by 2028. Rolls-Royce did not disclose what percentage of its sales now come from its all-electric Spectre models. “The legislation has changed,” Brownridge said. “That prediction was based on a different set of circumstances. We recognise some clients would rather have a V12 engine. The V12 is part of our history.” It comes as global carmakers around the world grapple with the future of their electric car divisions. Bentley, another luxury carmaker founded in the UK and owned by a German parent, Volkswagen, pushed back its plans in 2024 to go fully electric to 2035 instead of 2030. This week it announced it would cut hundreds of jobs at its site in Crewe, Cheshire. View image in fullscreen Technicians work on an engine on the production line of the Rolls-Royce Goodwood factory near Chichester. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters Meanwhile, a series of car manufacturers have booked multibillion-dollar writedowns on the value of their EV businesses. Honda told investors last week that it expects a hit of $15.7bn (£13.6bn) over the next few years as it restructured its electric car divisi...
Investors have favored artificial intelligence (AI) stocks over the past few years, seeing them as the ticket to an investing win. This is because AI has shown potential to revamp the way many things are done -- from business to daily tasks -- and as a result, supercharge earnings growth. Many companies involved in the development and use of AI already have started to reap the benefits, and this h...
Investors have favored artificial intelligence (AI) stocks over the past few years, seeing them as the ticket to an investing win. This is because AI has shown potential to revamp the way many things are done -- from business to daily tasks -- and as a result, supercharge earnings growth. Many companies involved in the development and use of AI already have started to reap the benefits, and this has been reflected in their stock performance. So investors who got in early made the right move. But in recent months, various concerns have weighed on AI stocks -- from worries about investment levels in the technology relative to the revenue opportunity to general market headwinds, such as the war in Iran. As investors turned more cautious, even the strongest of AI stocks suffered. And that brings me to the subject of Oracle (ORCL 0.51%), a company that's emerged as a leader in the AI cloud market. Down 20% this year, is Oracle a no-brainer AI buy? Let's find out. From database management to AI First, let's consider the Oracle story so far. The company has been around for almost 50 years, so it didn't start out as an AI player. Instead, you may know Oracle for its strengths in database management, and this specialty has served as a springboard for the growth it's seeing today in another business: cloud infrastructure. In recent years, Oracle has focused on ramping up its cloud business, and that proved to be a wise move, considering the level of demand today. AI customers greatly need capacity, and Oracle is offering this to them. In fact, cloud infrastructure has turned out to be a significant growth business, with revenue surging more than 80% to $4.9 billion in the recent quarter. The company called the quarter "exceptional," with both total revenue and earnings per share on a non-GAAP basis climbing 20% or more for the first time in 15 years. And, importantly, this quarter reinforces the growth trends we've been seeing at Oracle in recent quarters. An element has weig...
US Carrier Pulling Back From Iran Operations To Crete Port After Suffering Fire America's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is pulling away from the Middle East region as it nears a record-long deployment and after it suffered a major fire which damaged living quarters and other areas. Bloomberg reports in a fresh update Wednesday, " The US Navy's most advanced ai...
US Carrier Pulling Back From Iran Operations To Crete Port After Suffering Fire America's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is pulling away from the Middle East region as it nears a record-long deployment and after it suffered a major fire which damaged living quarters and other areas. Bloomberg reports in a fresh update Wednesday, " The US Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier is retreating from the Red Sea after a fire broke out in its laundry room , scuttling plans for the 100,000-ton nuclear-powered vessel to project power in the war with Iran." It is planning to temporarily pull back into Crete in the southern Mediterranean , and hopefully outside the reach of Iran's feared long-range ballistic missiles. The Ford had already docked there in late February after being called from Caribbean operations into the CENTCOM region of responsibility. US Navy/AFP "Following the incident, which left at least two of the ship's 4,000 crew members with non-life-threatening injuries, the USS Gerald R. Ford will travel to the Greek island of Crete, according to a US official familiar with the matter," Bloomberg continues. Bloomberg concludes, "The incident underscores how even the Navy’s most advanced assets are under strain as the US expands its military endeavors . The Ford — the most expensive warship ever built — has spent months beyond a standard deployment at sea." The fire occurred last week, raising immediate questions of whether it was hit by an Iranian drone or missile attack, as Tehran has claimed, amid Pentagon insistence that it was none of these - but just an accidental fire. There are also widespread rumors , speculation and claims that sailors actually set the fire themselves , in order to sabotage and derail the much longer than expected deployment. The Ford's time at sea is entering ten months. The crew has reportedly been informed that they will be deployed into May, which would make an entire year at sea, after the prior Car...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Apple (AAPL, Financials) has lost a top technical officer in charge of its home products section. Brian Lynch is leaving to work for Oura Health, a company that makes smart rings.Lynch has been the senior director of hardware engineering for home devices since 2022. He will now be the senior vice president of hardware engineering at Oura. Apple's home devi...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Apple (AAPL, Financials) has lost a top technical officer in charge of its home products section. Brian Lynch is leaving to work for Oura Health, a company that makes smart rings.Lynch has been the senior director of hardware engineering for home devices since 2022. He will now be the senior vice president of hardware engineering at Oura. Apple's home devices division is still having trouble with product delays and development issues, which is why he is leaving.Lynch worked on a number of important projects while he was there, including as Apple's self-driving vehicle project and previous work on the iPod. His leaving takes away a significant leader from a division that has been very important to Apple's push into linked home technologies.The move also shows that the wearable technology market is become more competitive, with businesses like Oura making health-focused gadgets like smart rings.Apple is still putting money on new types of hardware, but changes in leadership might impact when new products come out in these areas. Updates on Apple's plans for home devices and perhaps new product releases will be the next big news.
PIMCO President Christian Stracke is warning investors that the era of double-digit returns in private credit is coming to an end, with default rates expected to climb from the 1-2% range up to 4-6% annually. The shift will drag returns in the direct lending space from the 10-12% highs of recent years down to mid-single digits, he said. “What we’re seeing is not really a crisis, though. What we’re...
PIMCO President Christian Stracke is warning investors that the era of double-digit returns in private credit is coming to an end, with default rates expected to climb from the 1-2% range up to 4-6% annually. The shift will drag returns in the direct lending space from the 10-12% highs of recent years down to mid-single digits, he said. “What we’re seeing is not really a crisis, though. What we’re seeing is a cooling in this market,” Stracke said in an interview with Bloomberg, describing the current environment as a normalization after years of loose underwriting standards. He noted that “for far too long, there were lax underwriting standards in direct lending and too much leverage put on companies that really didn’t need that much leverage on them.” Software ( XSW ), ( IGV ), ( IGPT ) exposures represent a particular area of concern for Stracke, who warned that artificial intelligence will create clear winners and losers in the sector. With some direct lending portfolios holding 20-30% or more of their loans in software companies, the stakes are high. “Those losers unfortunately will have very low recovery values because they’re simply going to be eaten away by AI,” he cautioned. While acknowledging risks, Stracke distinguished the current situation from the systemic collapse of 2008, calling the comparison “night and day different.” Some insurance companies ( KIE ), ( IAK ), ( KBWP ) have exposure to leverage concerns, but nothing approaching the scale of the banking and securitization problems that triggered the financial crisis. The primary consequence, he said, will be a gradual credit tightening rather than an acute shock. The PIMCO president expects this period of elevated defaults to extend through 2028 as the industry works through weaker loans. As capital retreats from the space, troubled companies will find it increasingly difficult to refinance maturing debt. “It’s going to be that much more difficult for troubled companies with maturities of their loa...
With the smart plugs, you can schedule lights to turn on and off while you’re away on spring break. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you’re looking for an easy and affordable way to add smarts to your home, you can buy two Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim smart plugs on sale for $21.99 ($8 off) at Amazon and B&H Photo . That’s the bundle’s best price in months and a good opportunity to u...
With the smart plugs, you can schedule lights to turn on and off while you’re away on spring break. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you’re looking for an easy and affordable way to add smarts to your home, you can buy two Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim smart plugs on sale for $21.99 ($8 off) at Amazon and B&H Photo . That’s the bundle’s best price in months and a good opportunity to upgrade things you already own instead of replacing them with pricier smart devices. TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim (KP125M) Where to Buy: $39.99 $21.99 at Amazon (two-pack) $29.99 $21.99 at B&H Photo (two-pack) The plugs let you add smart controls to devices like lamps, fans, chargers, coffee makers, and heaters. All you need is plug one into an outlet and connect it to your Wi-Fi network, and you can automate whatever’s attached using the Kasa app on your phone. You can also control stuff with your voice thanks to Matter support, which lets the plugs work with major smart home platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. That means you can turn lights on or off when you’re out of town or, for example, schedule a fan so that it turns on a few minutes before you return home. Another advantage is that the plug also includes energy monitoring, which tracks how much electricity your devices are using. That’s handy information that can help better understand your power consumption, and potentially save money on electricity bills. The slim design is also helpful: unlike bulkier smart plugs that can block neighboring outlets, these are small enough that you can plug two into a single wall outlet.
J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Investment Thesis I reiterate my recommendation to buy the main hard assets, although I am reducing my oil recommendations to just my top pick for 2026. This article is part of a weekly series where I bring valuable insights on commodities such as precious metals, oil, uranium, and many others. In another edition of Hard Assets Weekly, it is impossible not ...
J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Investment Thesis I reiterate my recommendation to buy the main hard assets, although I am reducing my oil recommendations to just my top pick for 2026. This article is part of a weekly series where I bring valuable insights on commodities such as precious metals, oil, uranium, and many others. In another edition of Hard Assets Weekly, it is impossible not to talk about oil. In this article, my intention is to address the main cause that is making me reduce my recommendations in the oil sector to just my top pick for 2026. This is a sign that should not be ignored by investors who have shares in this segment. Revisiting My Latest Recommendations On December 18, 2025, I published an article about the UCO Leveraged Oil ETF, and the name of the article was 2026 Is The Year Of Oil And These Charts Prove It (Rating Upgrade). In that article, my investment thesis was simple: The Bloomberg Commodity Index was breaking 15-year resistance, combined with favorable momentum, where gold and copper miners were rising strong in 2025, but oil companies were not. Arguments (Crescat Capital) Finally, oil prices adjusted for money supply were very cheap, and all of this was occurring in a geopolitically hostile environment. Therefore, the thesis to buy was very clear to me at that time. Oil x Money Supply (Crescat Capiital) As early as March 3, 2026, I published an article downgrading the buy-to-hold recommendation for UCO. At the time, the war in Iran had already started, and oil prices had soared. In that article, I recommended to my readers to opt for unleveraged oil ETFs like USO or my top pick for 2026, the Brazilian oil company Petrobras (NYSE: PBR ). The arguments were also quite clear. The scenario of closing the Strait of Hormuz was already a bear case; that is, the risk-return ratio was no longer as attractive at that point. In parallel, technical indicators showed that oil ETFs were already overbought, reinforcing the thesis of an u...
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FinkAvenue Lululemon’s fourth-quarter results reflect early signs that its push for more product newness, fewer markdowns, and a streamlined assortment is taking hold, though a full recovery remains elusive. With disappointing U.S. sales and the company still without a CEO, Wall Street analysts consider 2026 as another year lululemon ( LULU ) must try to re-engage the “high-value and less price-se...
FinkAvenue Lululemon’s fourth-quarter results reflect early signs that its push for more product newness, fewer markdowns, and a streamlined assortment is taking hold, though a full recovery remains elusive. With disappointing U.S. sales and the company still without a CEO, Wall Street analysts consider 2026 as another year lululemon ( LULU ) must try to re-engage the “high-value and less price-sensitive guest,” said Goldman Sachs’ Brooke Roache. Other analysts weigh in: Seeking Alpha analyst Luca Socci: As far as I see it, there are three catalysts that should materialize: Americas sales growth, gross margin stabilization and expansion, and earnings power. The guidance and the comments that LULU's management gave don't imply any of these, at least for the next fiscal year. Sell Jefferies analyst Randal Konik: We continue to view the CEO gap as the biggest overhang. Until a credible CEO is in place to reset strategy, org design, and accountability (especially in North America), investors are left underwriting hope. Hold, $170 price target. Barclays analyst Adrienne Yih: We continue to believe LULU’s issues stem from a number of more structural headwinds that will impact 2026 and take time to fix, preventing us from becoming more constructive on LULU shares. These headwinds include: tariffs impacts; use of promotions to clean up older styles; traffic pressure as LULU pulls back on promotions; higher spending on investments; and competitive threats from new entrants. Equal Weight, $161 price target (lowered 21% from $203) UBS analyst Jay Sole: lululemon’s ( LULU ) U.S. business has two main challenges. First, its product assortment is not resonating with consumers the way it has in the past. Second, LULU must drive traffic back to its stores and website…an initiative that often needs multiple seasons and requires incremental market spend, which may not be in LULU’s FY26 plan. Neutral, $176 price target (lowered 7% from $189) BofA Securities analyst Lorraine Hutchinson...
Just_Super/E+ via Getty Images In less than a year , shares of Lumentum ( LITE ) gained eightfold, compared to a nearly 200% return since I last provided coverage on the company . On March 18, LITE stock jumped by 9.1% after the optical and photonics supplier in the AI data center networking space presented at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference in Los Angeles. What did Lumentum demonstrat...
Just_Super/E+ via Getty Images In less than a year , shares of Lumentum ( LITE ) gained eightfold, compared to a nearly 200% return since I last provided coverage on the company . On March 18, LITE stock jumped by 9.1% after the optical and photonics supplier in the AI data center networking space presented at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference in Los Angeles. What did Lumentum demonstrate at OFC 2026 that sent shares higher in the last few trading sessions? Photonic Solutions Scaling Lumentum showcased several scale-out, scale-up, and scale-across AI infrastructure solutions at OFC. It introduced three main networking applications. First, 1.6T DR4 OSFP is a pluggable transceiver prototype. It employs four Lumentum 400G differential EML lasers. The firm said that this is a stepping stone for a future 3.2T module. Investors interpreted that the 4x400Gbps design has a moat, since it requires Lumentum’s components, packaging, and high-volume manufacturing expertise. Customers who demand the next-generation hyperscale AI data center applications would need Lumentum’s 1.6T DR4 OSFP module. The company mentioned an 800 mW Ultra-High-Power ( UHP ) Laser. This is a follow-up to its 400 mW UHP Laser launched successfully last year. The device has over 1.0 W in optical power at 25 degrees Celsius and 800 mW at 50 degrees Celsius. Heat amid higher delivery is the two characteristics that customers look for. Lumentum said that the 800 mW SHP laser’s linewidth is under 100 kHz and over 40 dB SMSR (Side Mode Suppression Ratio). Third on the main product announcement is the 16-channel DWDM UHP (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) laser source. Investors only need to know that UHP lasers are required for stability in next-generation co-packaged optics (“CPO”) platforms. Additional Product Demonstrations Lumentum demonstrated three new products at the event. The twin C+L band C-OCM has four times the density of current market modules. It has two C-band and two L-band ch...
Key Points Quantum-computing stocks trading at 80–100 times revenue face steep execution and macro risk. Heavy cash burn and stock-funded deals can mean ongoing dilution before true profitability arrives. 10 stocks we like better than Home Depot › A veteran value‑style investor digs into quantum‑computing stocks trading at 80 to 100x revenue, spotlighting cash burn, dilution risk from stock‑funded...
Key Points Quantum-computing stocks trading at 80–100 times revenue face steep execution and macro risk. Heavy cash burn and stock-funded deals can mean ongoing dilution before true profitability arrives. 10 stocks we like better than Home Depot › A veteran value‑style investor digs into quantum‑computing stocks trading at 80 to 100x revenue, spotlighting cash burn, dilution risk from stock‑funded deals, and the "too hard" pile. Watch the video below to see why caution may be warranted. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » *This video was published on March 9, 2026. Should you buy stock in Home Depot right now? Before you buy stock in Home Depot, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Home Depot wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $508,877!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,115,328!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 936% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 189% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of March 18, 2026. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is restarting manufacturing of its H200 AI chips for China after securing regulatory approvals and receiving customer orders. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters at the company's annual GTC conference that the chipmaker had been licensed for many customers in China for its H200 GPU and had received purchase orders from several of th...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is restarting manufacturing of its H200 AI chips for China after securing regulatory approvals and receiving customer orders. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters at the company's annual GTC conference that the chipmaker had been licensed for many customers in China for its H200 GPU and had received purchase orders from several of them. We have received purchase orders, and we're in the process of restarting our manufacturing, he said, adding that the situation was different from it was two or three weeks ago. Nvidia had previously halted H200 production after Chinese customs officials were instructed not to permit the chips into the country. Reuters reported that Chinese authorities have since granted approval for multiple Chinese companies to purchase the H200. The development marks the latest turn in an extended policy back-and-forth as Nvidia navigates Donald Trump's volatile trade policy toward Beijing. The Trump administration green-lit H200 exports to China in December, subject to a 25% revenue share with the U.S. Treasury and a cap requiring shipments to China not to exceed half of domestic volumes. Nvidia shares rose 1.01% in premarket trading.
Photoservice/iStock via Getty Images I put a Strong Buy rating on Kodiak Gas Services ( KGS ) stock. My rationale behind the rating is that Kodiak Gas Services is working on a once-in-a-cycle arbitrage. Through advancing on >100-week OEM lead times , Kodiak Gas Services is forcing E&Ps into 7 - 10 year contracts and shifting cyclical cash flows into stable annuities. In this sense, the $675 millio...
Photoservice/iStock via Getty Images I put a Strong Buy rating on Kodiak Gas Services ( KGS ) stock. My rationale behind the rating is that Kodiak Gas Services is working on a once-in-a-cycle arbitrage. Through advancing on >100-week OEM lead times , Kodiak Gas Services is forcing E&Ps into 7 - 10 year contracts and shifting cyclical cash flows into stable annuities. In this sense, the $675 million DPS acquisition is a smart move. The move is backing Kodiak Gas Services to instantly shift its CAT 3516 engine expertise into the hyper-growth AI data center power TAM. Moreso, the Agentic AI maintenance protocol has uplifted Kodiak Gas Services’ gross margins to a high of 69.2% . For my strong buy thesis, the main risk is Kodiak Gas Services' newfound appetite for speculative ordering at peak cycle pricing and the execution risk of meeting very strict data center SLA uptime mandates. What Is Driving Long-Term Value For Kodiak Gas Services Stock Price? Kodiak Gas Services is working on an important shift from a traditional Permian compression operator into a high-margin base-load power infrastructure proxy. The main bullish catalyst is the pending $675 million acquisition of Distributed Power Solutions [DPS] . This is way beyond capacity expansion, as it is a calculated scaling into the AI and data center Behind-the-Meter [BTM] power market. With grid connection lead times extending beyond 6 years in regions like PJM, Kodiak Gas Services is advancing its operational edge of Caterpillar ( CAT ) engines to deploy a 384 MW fleet of turbine and reciprocating generators. The engineering synergy is highly unique, in my opinion. To expand more on why, the CAT 3516J gas compression engines Kodiak Gas Services currently operates have near-identical maintenance profiles and component architecture with the CAT 3516H genset engines used by DPS. Kodiak Gas Services IR Therefore, this factor backs Kodiak Gas Services to quickly cross-utilize its >700 Caterpillar-certified technicians ...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. The AI infrastructure buildout is starting to look like a financing waveand DayOne Data Centers Ltd. is moving right into it. The Singapore-based operator is seeking to increase an existing loan facility from about $3.4 billion to as much as $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, a step that could position it as the largest borrower in A...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. The AI infrastructure buildout is starting to look like a financing waveand DayOne Data Centers Ltd. is moving right into it. The Singapore-based operator is seeking to increase an existing loan facility from about $3.4 billion to as much as $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, a step that could position it as the largest borrower in Asia's data center sector. The discussions are still ongoing and terms could change, but the intent is clear: secure additional capital to expand operations in Malaysia as demand tied to artificial intelligence continues to scale. This push comes as debt markets become a key funding engine for the broader AI ecosystem. Industry estimates indicate AI-related data center spending could reach $2.9 trillion between 2025 and 2028, with roughly half expected to require external financing, a dynamic that is already driving large deals across regions. Blue Owl Capital-owned Stack Infrastructure is pursuing about an A$3 billion loan to fund a Melbourne project, while US-based CoreWeave is planning capital expenditures of $30 billion to $35 billion this year and has increased long-term borrowings to more than $14 billion to support capacity for clients such as Microsoft and Meta. Lenders have shown willingness to provide billions in financing, supported by long-term contracts with investment-grade tenants including Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), which can provide steady cash flows. Even so, the scale of borrowing is raising some concern about whether returns across the sector can keep pace with the capital being deployed. DayOne's proposed amend and extend structure, which would include US dollar and Malaysian ringgit tranches and maintain a 2030 maturity, could allow the company to access fresh funding efficiently, while it is also considering a potential US IPO that could target a valuation of as much as $20 billion.
Eka Jaya Permana/iStock via Getty Images Market Overview Global fixed-income markets delivered positive total returns in the fourth quarter of 2025, as policy uncertainty, fiscal developments, and divergent central-bank actions shaped the investment landscape. The US began the quarter with its longest government shutdown on record, which delayed key economic data and forced the Federal Reserve to ...
Eka Jaya Permana/iStock via Getty Images Market Overview Global fixed-income markets delivered positive total returns in the fourth quarter of 2025, as policy uncertainty, fiscal developments, and divergent central-bank actions shaped the investment landscape. The US began the quarter with its longest government shutdown on record, which delayed key economic data and forced the Federal Reserve to make policy decisions with limited visibility. The shutdown ended in mid-November, but data gaps persisted, adding to market uncertainty. Credit spreads diverged across ratings and regions. In the US, agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and high-yield credit spreads tightened, while investment-grade (IG) spreads widened. European spreads broadly narrowed. Both US IG and high yield posted positive total returns, outperforming European counterparts. Global aggregate and US high-yield indices contributed positively to returns, while government-bond returns were more mixed. Performance Summary The Hartford Strategic Income ETF outperformed the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index benefiting both from duration 1 positioning and income as spread 2 changes were somewhat limited across most fixed-income sectors. The Fund's positioning in high yield had the greatest positive effect on performance overall while exposure to bank loans also contributed favorably. The Fund's allocation to convertible bonds, focused on digitization and healthcare innovation themes, also benefited returns. The Fund's select exposure to emerging-market (EM) sovereign debt had a favorable impact on performance, while an allocation to EM corporate debt detracted from results. The Fund's allocation to securitized sectors overall contributed modestly to relative performance. Non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), and asset-backed securities (ABS) benefited relative results while an underweight to agency MBS passthroughs hurt results during the q...
Key Points Publicis, one of The Trade Desk's biggest customers, said that the adtech company failed an audit. Last month, two major ad agencies said they would no longer use The Trade Desk's OpenPath product. Its growth rate is also quickly declining. 10 stocks we like better than The Trade Desk › Several software stocks have plunged since late 2024 on concerns about bloated valuations and fears o...
Key Points Publicis, one of The Trade Desk's biggest customers, said that the adtech company failed an audit. Last month, two major ad agencies said they would no longer use The Trade Desk's OpenPath product. Its growth rate is also quickly declining. 10 stocks we like better than The Trade Desk › Several software stocks have plunged since late 2024 on concerns about bloated valuations and fears of AI disruption. While The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) isn't ostensibly threatened by AI, it has fallen further than almost any other stocks during that time period, now down 82% from its peak in Dec. 2024. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » The leading independent demand-side adtech platform (DSP) has been plagued by slowing growth, stiffer competition, primarily from Amazon, and the strength of "walled gardens" like Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Apple, making it difficult for it to grab market share. Management has mostly denied the competitive threat it's facing on its earnings calls and insisted that The Trade Desk's open platform is the best way to buy digital ads, but the stock price says otherwise. CEO Jeff Green has bought shares recently, attempting to instill confidence in the stock, but that hasn't been enough to give it a long-term boost. Now, The Trade Desk is facing an alarming series of customer defections that seem to underscore deeper problems with the business. Is The Trade Desk bilking customers? Last month, AdWeek reported that Dentsu and WPP, two of the world's biggest ad agencies, were leaving The Trade Desk's Open Path supply optimization product over "hidden fees and transparency." OpenPath is one of The Trade Desk's most important new products and was supposed to make it more competitive with Google. CEO Jeff Green even promised that its growth would accelerate in 2025 l...
Editor's note: Seeking Alpha is proud to welcome Hajduk Research as a new contributing analyst. You can become one too! Share your best investment idea by submitting your article for review to our editors. Get published, earn money, and unlock exclusive SA Premium access. Click here to find out more » OLEKSANDR KOZACHOK/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz is a st...
Editor's note: Seeking Alpha is proud to welcome Hajduk Research as a new contributing analyst. You can become one too! Share your best investment idea by submitting your article for review to our editors. Get published, earn money, and unlock exclusive SA Premium access. Click here to find out more » OLEKSANDR KOZACHOK/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz is a strong buy. Over the years the company has efficiently grown and scaled its business model, yet the market is pricing it as if it were a declining, low-growth business. In Kazakhstan they continue to show strong domestic growth and innovation, being deeply embedded into the lives of Kazakh consumers. At the same time, while its core business, the Kaspi Super App, is generating substantial cash flows in Kazakhstan, their fast-growing international expansion is increasingly turning into a major source of growth optionality. With Hepsiburada's profitability improving, domestic commodity tailwinds, and major regional expansion plans, I view Kaspi as a rare mispriced opportunity. Introduction Kaspi.kz is a dominant, highly profitable, asset-light super app that has in recent years turned into a multinational powerhouse. They currently operate in four countries: Kazakhstan, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine. At the same time, they are expanding or planning expansions in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe. The Kaspi app operates in three core businesses: fintech, marketplace, and payments. Due to its diversified and dominant ecosystem, they created an extremely profitable network effect, with each business feeding into each other's revenues. This actually leads to another network effect, in which both customers and merchants depend on Kaspi. Because 75% of the total population of Kazakhstan uses the app, merchants have no choice but to participate in its ecosystem, while the customers are dependent on the app to get access to the biggest shops. This leads to a c...
Key Points Stonehill Capital sold its entire holding of 320,194 shares in Telephone and Data Systems during the fourth quarter. The quarter-end position value decreased by $12.56 million as a result of the exit. TDS was previously 4.48% of fund AUM last quarter. 10 stocks we like better than Telephone And Data Systems › On February 17, 2026, Stonehill Capital Management reported in a Securities an...
Key Points Stonehill Capital sold its entire holding of 320,194 shares in Telephone and Data Systems during the fourth quarter. The quarter-end position value decreased by $12.56 million as a result of the exit. TDS was previously 4.48% of fund AUM last quarter. 10 stocks we like better than Telephone And Data Systems › On February 17, 2026, Stonehill Capital Management reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it sold out of Telephone and Data Systems (NYSE:TDS) in the fourth quarter. What happened According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated February 17, 2026, Stonehill Capital Management sold all 320,194 shares of Telephone and Data Systems (NYSE:TDS). The fund’s TDS position value dropped by $12.56 million from the previous quarter as a result. What else to know Top holdings after the filing: NASDAQ: SATS: $90.38 million (29.0% of AUM) NASDAQ: JOYY: $71.47 million (22.9% of AUM) NYSE: ELME: $30.25 million (9.7% of AUM) NASDAQ: LBRDK: $21.07 million (6.8% of AUM) NYSE: MBC: $19.65 million (6.3% of AUM) As of Wednesday, TDS shares were priced at $41.99, up about 19% over the past year, in line with the S&P 500’s gain in the same period. Company overview Metric Value Revenue (TTM) $1.23 billion Net income (TTM) ($75.5 million) Price (as of Wednesday) $41.99 Company snapshot TDS has historically provided wireless solutions, broadband internet, cloud-based television, and voice services through its UScellular and TDS Telecom segments. The firm has generated revenue primarily from wireless subscriptions, broadband access, and related telecommunications services, leveraging a mix of direct retail, third-party, and digital sales channels. It serves consumers, businesses, and government entities across the United States, with a focus on both urban and rural markets. Telephone and Data Systems is a leading U.S. telecommunications provider with a diversified portfolio that has spanned wireless, broadband, and voice services. It operates...
PM Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images People are catching on. The new government spending picture is taking over the federal government. President Trump has imposed his will. Daniel Michaels and Tom Fairless confirm this change in direction in their article, " Is War Good for the Economy?" in the Wall Street Journal. One of the conclusions reached in the article: "President Trump wants a defens...
PM Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images People are catching on. The new government spending picture is taking over the federal government. President Trump has imposed his will. Daniel Michaels and Tom Fairless confirm this change in direction in their article, " Is War Good for the Economy?" in the Wall Street Journal. One of the conclusions reached in the article: "President Trump wants a defense budget of $1.5 trillion, or about 6% of GDP, roughly comparable to the height of Reagan’s Cold War spending barrage in 1985. Restocking American arsenals after the war on Iran could keep factories across the country busy for years." And one of the benefits of this budgetary move is that the Federal Reserve will have to move to support the spending. The Federal Reserve has been closely focused over the past four years on supporting the monetary effort to reduce the Fed's securities portfolio and get the balance sheet of the central bank more in line with what was needed by the commercial banking system. President Trump has been pushing and pushing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to get the Fed to reduce the Fed's policy rate of interest, the Federal Funds rate, so that the Federal Reserve can be more aggressive in helping to stimulate real economic growth and put the United States back into a leadership position in the world. With all this spending now going into the war effort, Trump sees the Federal Reserve stepping up and buying more and more securities to provide market liquidity for all the Treasury securities that will have to be issued. The Fed wouldn't do this and lower interest rates before. Chairman Powell would just not do that. Now, it appears as if the Fed has already gotten on board. That is, the Fed is now supporting the increase in spending due to the "war" effort. And, one expects that the impact will be even bigger. Keep a close eye on what the Fed does with its securities portfolio. Before the first of December 2025, the Fed was still working unde...
The Trade Desk stock was dropping Wednesday after two analysts downgraded the stock following an advertising company’s decision to stop recommending the digital ad platform to customers. French ad firm Publicis told Barron’s that an independent auditor concluded that The Trade Desk did not pass an audit, and “as a result of the audit findings we will no longer be recommending The Trade Desk as a s...
The Trade Desk stock was dropping Wednesday after two analysts downgraded the stock following an advertising company’s decision to stop recommending the digital ad platform to customers. French ad firm Publicis told Barron’s that an independent auditor concluded that The Trade Desk did not pass an audit, and “as a result of the audit findings we will no longer be recommending The Trade Desk as a solution for our clients.” “We look forward to working with Publicis to provide workable alternatives to this particular request, including information at an even more granular level than requested,” The Trade Desk added.
Paula Steele, director at John Lamb Hill Oldridge, talks about passing along an inheritance. She speaks to Bloomberg's Merryn Somerset Webb at an event for Bloomberg.com subscribers in London on March 18. (Source: Bloomberg)
Paula Steele, director at John Lamb Hill Oldridge, talks about passing along an inheritance. She speaks to Bloomberg's Merryn Somerset Webb at an event for Bloomberg.com subscribers in London on March 18. (Source: Bloomberg)
Tamer Soliman/iStock via Getty Images Introduction to the ProShares Ultra Silver ETF The ProShares Ultra Silver ETF ( AGQ ), which is sponsored by ProShares Capital Management LLC [PCML], began trading on the NYSE on December 1, 2008. Since its inception, AGQ has garnered total assets under management [AUM] of over $2.1B. AGQ does not make any distributions and charges an expense ratio of 0.95%. W...
Tamer Soliman/iStock via Getty Images Introduction to the ProShares Ultra Silver ETF The ProShares Ultra Silver ETF ( AGQ ), which is sponsored by ProShares Capital Management LLC [PCML], began trading on the NYSE on December 1, 2008. Since its inception, AGQ has garnered total assets under management [AUM] of over $2.1B. AGQ does not make any distributions and charges an expense ratio of 0.95%. What Does AGQ Do? AGQ belongs to the category of geared ETFs (or more appropriately referred to as leveraged ETFs), which enable investors to procure a certain amplified multiple of an index’s return for a specific time period (usually just for a day, as is the case with all the geared ETFs of PCML, as well as 98% of US-listed geared ETFs), through the aid of financial derivative contracts (which provide the leverage factor). Unlike conventional ETFs which seeks to mirror the return profile of their respective indices, a leveraged ETF seeks to provide a magnified cadence of the “daily” return of its target index (note that this set-up will also work against investors, by way of magnified negative returns, if the benchmark index contracts on a certain day). Now, in AGQ’s case, the index in question is the Bloomberg Silver Subindex [BSS], and the daily return multiple that the former seeks to deliver is 2x of the latter (or 200% of the daily returns of BSS). Investors should also be aware that any returns that AGQ generates beyond a day, won’t necessarily equate to 2x of BSS’s returns (this could be above or beyond 2x). So, if you want to get the return of AGQ over 5 days, the figure will be each day’s compounded return during that 5-day period, rather than double (2X) the returns that BSS has managed over a 5-day time frame. Daily return comparison (ProShares) Because AGQ has to live up to a daily goal, one will see this portfolio get rebalanced at the end of every trading day. So, if silver goes up (as represented by BSS), AGQ will have to buy more contracts to maintain the ...