hirun/iStock via Getty Images Performance Review For the fourth quarter, the fund's Retail Class shares gained 1.64%, lagging the 2.19% advance of the benchmark, the Russell 2000® Index. We'll note that longer-term performance comparisons favor the fund over the benchmark.
hirun/iStock via Getty Images Performance Review For the fourth quarter, the fund's Retail Class shares gained 1.64%, lagging the 2.19% advance of the benchmark, the Russell 2000® Index. We'll note that longer-term performance comparisons favor the fund over the benchmark.
Is The Trump Admin Planning To Use Banks To Enforce Immigration Laws? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, President Trump’s administration is ramping up its assault on illegal immigration by eyeing a bold new tactic: enlisting banks to verify the citizenship of every customer. This potential executive order would mandate financial institutions to collect proof like passports from both new...
Is The Trump Admin Planning To Use Banks To Enforce Immigration Laws? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, President Trump’s administration is ramping up its assault on illegal immigration by eyeing a bold new tactic: enlisting banks to verify the citizenship of every customer. This potential executive order would mandate financial institutions to collect proof like passports from both new and existing account holders, effectively cutting off undocumented migrants from the banking system they’ve exploited under open-border policies. It’s a commonsense step to safeguard American resources, but watch as Democrats and their corporate allies howl in protest – the same crowd that fights tooth and nail against voter ID requirements won’t back this either. NEW: President Trump is reportedly considering forcing banks to help in his administration's illegal immigration crackdown. According to CNN, the banking industry is "very alarmed" by the potential action. "Sources do tell CNN that the industry is concerned here because they're… pic.twitter.com/Q8v8avDw3d — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 25, 2026 The move was first reported by the Wall St Journal, with a CNN segment noting “Sources do tell CNN that the industry is concerned here because they’re worried that this kind of action, it could almost compel them to be part of the administration’s immigration crackdown.” The policy would expand on existing know-your-customer rules, which focus on preventing money laundering but ignore citizenship status entirely. Banks currently don’t prohibit non-citizens from opening accounts, allowing illegals to stash funds siphoned from taxpayer-supported programs. Under the proposed order, institutions might have to retroactively demand documents like passports, potentially closing accounts for those who can’t prove U.S. citizenship. A financial industry source told CNN: “Verifying every bank customer’s citizenship status would be unworkable. It’s a bad idea. We are very alarme...
LorenzoT81/iStock via Getty Images Welcome to the Vanadium miners news. February saw China and Europe spot vanadium pentoxide prices and ferrovanadium prices higher for the past month. Vanadium Uses Vanadium is traditionally used to harden steel. Chinese rebar standards are requiring more vanadium. Also Vanadium Flow Batteries [VRFBs] are becoming increasingly popular especially for commercial ene...
LorenzoT81/iStock via Getty Images Welcome to the Vanadium miners news. February saw China and Europe spot vanadium pentoxide prices and ferrovanadium prices higher for the past month. Vanadium Uses Vanadium is traditionally used to harden steel. Chinese rebar standards are requiring more vanadium. Also Vanadium Flow Batteries [VRFBs] are becoming increasingly popular especially for commercial energy storage, most notably in China. Vanadium Pentoxide [V2O5] is used in VRFBs and Ferrovanadium [FeV] is used in the steel industry. Vanadium Spot Price History China V2O5 prices were higher the last month. The Shanghai Metal Market price on February 25 was US$10,014 /t (VAT excluded) (~USD 4.54/lb) , up from US$9,643/t (VAT excluded) last month. Europe & China Vanadium Pentoxide [V2O5] Flake 98% one year price chart (NOT UPDATED - as per the dates shown on charts below) ( source ) Vanadiumprice.com As of February 24, 2026, Argus Media reports the China Ferro-vanadium (80%V) FOB price at US$26.50/kg , higher for the past month. Europe and China Ferrovanadium [FeV] 80% one year price chart (NOT UPDATED - as per the dates shown on charts below) ( source ) Vanadiumprice.com Vanadium Demand Versus Supply An April 2021 Wood Mackenzie report stated : Global energy storage deployment surged a remarkable 62% in 2020, with 5 GW/9 GWh of new capacity added. This brought the total energy storage market to more than 27 GWh. Furthermore, we expect the global (energy storage) market to grow 27-fold by 2030. Global VRFB forecast growth by region 2022-2031 Guidehouse Insights Large scale global deployments of VRFB's are becoming more common - chart sourced as of April 2025 ( source ) VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. VRFB installations are rapidly appearing globally, notably in China ( source ) VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. Vanadium (8.5x) & Lithium (10x) demand forecast to surge the most under the IEA Net Zero Emission scenario ( source ) Neometals presentation courtesy IEA Vanadium Market News On...
Earnings Call Insights: Alpha Teknova, Inc. (TKNO) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Stephen Gunstream indicated that 2025 marked "another year of strong all-around execution for Teknova," highlighting accelerated top line revenue growth of 7% compared to 2024, with catalog product sales growing by low double digits. Gunstream also stated, "the number of customers actively buying our clinical products i...
Earnings Call Insights: Alpha Teknova, Inc. (TKNO) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Stephen Gunstream indicated that 2025 marked "another year of strong all-around execution for Teknova," highlighting accelerated top line revenue growth of 7% compared to 2024, with catalog product sales growing by low double digits. Gunstream also stated, "the number of customers actively buying our clinical products increased to 60, 25% more than during 2024." He emphasized new standards for customer service, with "approximately 95% of our products on time in 2025." The company surpassed both gross margin and adjusted EBITDA targets, using only $10 million of cash, which was better than guidance for free cash outflow. Gunstream explained that Teknova has become a "critical supplier of GMP-grade reagents to developers of emerging therapies and diagnostics," and supports "at least 70 therapies from these 50 customers," with more therapies moving into later clinical trial stages. He stated, "we believe that at the end of 2025, we supported 5 therapies in Phase II or later and 12 in Phase I, up from 3 and 10, respectively, at the end of 2024." Gunstream outlined a plan to invest approximately $2 million per year in commercial capabilities to "accelerate revenue growth towards the end of 2026 and into 2027 by expanding our presence with customers in these attractive market segments." He projected that Teknova will "offer an attractive financial profile of 60% to 65% gross margins and 25% to 30% adjusted EBITDA margins" as revenue increases, and expects the company to become adjusted EBITDA positive by the end of 2027. Gunstream cited opportunities for growth through collaborations and acquisitions, believing that "expanding our product portfolio and geographic footprint" will drive additional top line growth and margin expansion. CFO Matthew Lowell stated, "we finished the year with momentum, delivering 8% and 7% year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter and full year of 2025." He ...
Earnings Call Insights: Block, Inc. (XYZ) Q4 2025 Management View Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder, Block Head & Chairman, announced a major workforce reduction: "We're reducing Block from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000." Dorsey explained, "We're making this change after delivering one of our strongest years... In 2025, gross profit growth more than doubled from the first quarter to the fourth quar...
Earnings Call Insights: Block, Inc. (XYZ) Q4 2025 Management View Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder, Block Head & Chairman, announced a major workforce reduction: "We're reducing Block from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000." Dorsey explained, "We're making this change after delivering one of our strongest years... In 2025, gross profit growth more than doubled from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. We surpassed Rule of 40 in the fourth quarter. We reignited Cash App network growth and engagement. We scaled our lending products and delivered strong returns. We accelerated Square GPV growth and had our strongest new volume added year on record. We shipped our first Proto units, and we increased share repurchases to return more capital to shareholders." Dorsey emphasized the company's pivot to intelligence tools: "Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company... A significantly smaller team using the tools we're building can do more and do it better." Amrita Ahuja, Foundational Lead, Interim Principal Accounting Officer, COO, CFO & Treasurer, stated: "In the fourth quarter, we outperformed our guidance across gross profit, adjusted operating income and adjusted EPS, translating product velocity into strong financial performance. Block generated $2.87 billion in gross profit, representing 24% year-over-year growth. And we grew adjusted operating income 46% year-over-year to $588 million, delivering 3 points of margin expansion... On a per share basis, we grew adjusted diluted EPS 38% year-over-year." She added, "We repurchased $790 million of shares in the fourth quarter, bringing our total for 2025 to $2.3 billion." Ahuja reported, "Cash App monthly actives returned to growth in the second half of 2025, ending the year at $59 million, and we executed on our engagement strategies with primary banking actives growing 22% year-over-year to 9.3 million monthly actives in December... We grew consumer lending origination volume by 50% year-over-...
xAI co-founder Toby Pohlen said he is leaving Elon Musk ’s artificial intelligence startup, the latest founding executive to depart as the company restructures following its merger with SpaceX . “Today was my last day @xai,” Pohlen wrote on X , saying he planned to sleep more and “think about what I want to do next.” He thanked Musk for “taking me on board.” Musk replied on the social media platfo...
xAI co-founder Toby Pohlen said he is leaving Elon Musk ’s artificial intelligence startup, the latest founding executive to depart as the company restructures following its merger with SpaceX . “Today was my last day @xai,” Pohlen wrote on X , saying he planned to sleep more and “think about what I want to do next.” He thanked Musk for “taking me on board.” Musk replied on the social media platform, thanking Pohlen “for helping get xAI to where it is.” Pohlen is the seventh of 12 xAI co-founders to leave in less than three years. Jimmy Ba and Tony Wu exited earlier this month . Kyle Kosic left in 2024, followed by Igor Babuschkin and Christian Szegedy last year. Greg Yang, another co-founder, said last month that he would step back from his role after being diagnosed with Lyme disease. Musk previously announced a reorganization of xAI after its February merger with SpaceX, a deal that valued the combined company at $1.25 trillion. He put Pohlen in charge of Macrohard, a division of the company focused on AI software run by digital agents whose name is a play on Microsoft Corp . SpaceX now plans to go public in what is expected to be the largest initial public offering of all time.