Bloomsbury Publishing – best known for the Harry Potter book franchise – saw its share price soar on Thursday after it upgraded sales and earnings forecasts for the full year. At 645p per share, Bloomsbury was up 7.6%, making it the fourth-biggest riser on the FTSE 250. The publisher said that “a strong performance in the second half” of the financial year to February 2025 meant trading came in ahead of expectations. Bloomsbury also said that strong sales and cash generation last year “has enabled us to pay down $7.5 million of the $37 million debt associated with the acquisition…

After two consecutive years of stock market returns exceeding 20 percent, many investors are contemplating pulling back their equity exposure amid political uncertainty, global tariffs, and broader economic concerns. The temptation to time the market—to step aside until the volatility passes and re-enter at a more opportune moment—can be strong. But history and data suggest that market timing is more likely to hurt than help. The best course of action? Stay invested, but stay smart. The Cost of Missing the Best Days Market timing is appealing in theory but nearly impossible to execute successfully. Investors need to correctly predict not…

Gold’s rise to new all-time highs has been a long time coming. Over the past few years, we’ve examined gold’s role as both a strategic asset and a hedge against economic instability. In pieces like Gold Can’t Be Downgraded and It’s No One’s Liability and The Gold Investing Madness is just Getting Started, we’ve highlighted the importance of maximizing gold exposure in portfolios. This stance was reinforced by the breakout of gold from its four-year range to reach new all-time highs above $2,200 per ounce in March 2024. Today, with gold knocking on the $3,000 door, the forces driving this…

Tencent Q4 Earnings Overview Tencent reported Q4 financial results after the Hong Kong close that beat analyst expectations. The solid quarter was driven by “AI-powered enhancements to our advertising platform, higher engagement in Video Accounts, and growth in our evergreen games,” according to Founder, Chairman, and CEO Ma “Pony” Huateng. The company emphasized AI in their press release with Ma’s quote “we have reorganised our AI teams to sharpen focus on both fast product innovation and deep model research, increased our AI-related capital expenditures, and increased our R&D and marketing efforts for our AI-native products”. The presentation dedicated an entire…

Every so often, we get questions from readers about investments sporting yields that are, frankly, ridiculous. Case in point: The 85% forward yield (as of this writing) on a fund called the YieldMax Ultra Income Strategy ETF (ULTY): Eighty. Five. Percent. Think about that for a second: With a 85% yield, you’re getting your entire upfront investment back in about a year. Pretty sweet deal, right? Well, not so fast. Before I go further, I should say that when it comes to dividends, one thing we demand at my Contrarian Income Report advisory is that a stock or fund at…

Shares of JX Advanced Metals, a Japanese semiconductor materials supplier to foundries including TSMC and Intel, jumped in its trading debut on Wednesday, boasting a market cap of ¥811 billion ($5.4 billion). The stock rose 6.6% on the first day of trading on the Tokyo stock exchange’s prime market. The IPO was priced at ¥820 ($5.54) apiece at the top end of its marketed range. JX Advanced Metals was spun off from Japanese oil giant Eneos Holdings, which raised ¥438.6 billion ($2.96 billion) from the IPO by selling a 57.6% stake in the company; Eneos retains a 42.4% stake. JX…

Prediction markets imply a 40% chance of recession in 2025. Reported economic data has been generally positive, so far. However, forward-looking indicators, including the stock market suggests risks may be on the horizon. Here’s what the data is telling us, so far. Economic Data Has Been Good, So Far Despite recession predictions, recent key economic data has been generally good. Q4 annualized Gross Domestic Product growth rose at a healthy 2.3% rate on the most recent estimate. That’s sufficiently strong that there’s room for growth to decline yet remain above recessionary levels. Unemployment, too, has been relatively stable at 4.1%…

BYD, the world’s biggest electric vehicle maker, plans to raise its market share in Europe by building factories there to avoid stiff tariffs while news of its latest technology breakthroughs might persuade doubting customers to embrace Chinese EVs. BYD’s factory in Hungary will start production later this year with a capacity of 150,000 a year, rising to 300,000. A second one in Turkey with similar volume starts up next year, while the company has said a 3rd factory is on the cards but won’t say where. Somewhere in Germany is the current favorite to avoid the European Union’s extra 17%…

Dell stock appears undervalued, driven by ISG growth and supported by a solid margin of safety, despite challenges in the CSG segment. By Bernard Zambonin Summary Dell’s stock has faced recent stagnation but the company’s core business remains strong, especially in its ISG segment driven by AI. The CSG segment is struggling with weak margins and low growth, but there’s still potential for moderate recovery through AI-driven PC demand. Dell’s ISG segment is highly valuable with a projected equity value of $87.9 billion, making up the majority of the company’s overall value and offering significant upside potential. Dell Technologies (DELL,…

Key News Asian equities had a strong day led by Hong Kong after US-listed China ADRs rose, while Japan, India, and Malaysia saw gains, though Indonesia fell. Hong Kong grinded higher on strong volume and strong breadth, as advancers handily outpaced decliners by nearly 4 to 1, while Mainland China bounced around the room. This morning’s BofA fund manager survey noted a big decline in US equity allocations while there were increases in Europe and emerging markets. US-listed China stocks and European ETFs have not seen significant flows year-to-date (YTD), possibly indicating that US-based investors haven’t adjusted their portfolios versus…