Key News Asian equities exhibited resiliency overnight despite escalating tensions in the Middle East. Both Hong Kong and Mainland China opened lower but finished higher, led by growth stocks. There was another factor rotation, as growth and momentum factors outperformed value, dividend, and low-volatility strategies. Several catalysts drove markets, with the most important being the release of economic data and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) press conference. Retail sales were a strong beat, while industrial production missed expectations. Real estate was a top performer in both markets after the NBS press conference concluded with a discussion on further measures…

You might think UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) would be on the ropes. One of its top executives was shot dead, its CEO resigned for personal reasons, and the federal government is probing its billing practices. But executives at this health-insurance and health-services giant apparently don’t think doom is knocking at the door. Five of them have bought the company’s stock in the past few weeks, including CEO Stephen Hemsley. Barrage The barrage of bad news that has hit United Health this year is remarkable. Here’s a chronology of some of the events that have rocked the company in the past…

Let’s invest like private equity pros without needing seven figures. Yes, that’s right—PE-style starting for as little as $8. Plus, yields up to nearly 13%. No special access or options trades needed. Just a few clicks through our brokerage accounts buying regular ol’ tickers. The sneaky dividend-dishing subjects? Meet business development companies (BDCs), publicly-traded firms that lend to small businesses. BDCs were invented by Congress years ago to create a new type of lender to small businesses. They were also given the same mandate as real estate investment trusts (REITs): Return at least 90% of taxable income back to shareholders…

Oracle Corporation’s (NYSE: ORCL) stock soared to $215 per share on Friday, June 13, 2025, climbing 22% after the database provider announced its FY25 results on June 11, 2025. The company outperformed analyst expectations, posting Q4 2025 revenue at $15.9 billion, up 11% year-on-year (y-o-y) driven by strong growth in its cloud services and licenses support revenue. For FY25, the company posted total revenue of $57.4 billion, an increase of 8% compared to last year. Adjusted net income for the year was $17.3 billion, or $6.03 per share. However, the highlight of the earnings release was the robust growth in…

Markets expect the Federal Open Market Committee to cut rates between one and three times in 2025 from their current level of 4.25% to 4.5%. However, the first cuts may not come until the fall on the market’s current view as tracked by the CME FedWatch Tool. The FOMC is expected to hold rates steady in June and, most likely, in July, too. That might leave the first cut of the year until September, with perhaps a second cut in December. Nonetheless, despite the predictions of fixed income markets, FOMC officials have largely spoken of a wait and see approach,…

It’s rare to see two titans of finance openly clashing on Bloomberg. On one side, you have Jim Chanos, the short-selling legend who made his name exposing Enron, now calling a multi-billion-dollar Bitcoin strategy “financial gibberish.” On the other, Michael Saylor, the billionaire evangelist who transformed MicroStrategy into a leveraged crypto play, fired back that Chanos “just doesn’t get it” and is ignoring a model that has “generated $8.4 billion in shareholder value.” This dispute isn’t just a squabble; it’s a philosophical showdown. At its core, the debate focuses on a fundamental question in modern investing: is Saylor’s company a…

I’m just going to come out and say it: If you want to be financially independent (and who doesn’t?), you must own closed-end funds (CEFs). For those “in the know” about CEFs, the reason is simple: massive yields. As I write, closed-end funds yield 9.1% on average. And game-changing dividends like that are only one way CEFs reward us—and I’d argue they’re not even the best one! The best-in-class CEFs out there—and here I’d definitely include the three we’re going to get into below—also offer strong total returns, with price gains and dividends combining to hand us overall returns of…

In trading on Friday, shares of Huntsman were yielding above the 9% mark based on its quarterly dividend (annualized to $1), with the stock changing hands as low as $10.98 on the day. Dividends are particularly important for investors to consider, because historically speaking dividends have provided a considerable share of the stock market’s total return. To illustrate, suppose for example you purchased shares of the iShares Russell 3000 ETF back on 5/31/2000 — you would have paid $78.27 per share. Fast forward to 5/31/2012 and each share was worth $77.79 on that date, a loss of $0.48 or 0.6%…

The Israel-Iran war has taken center stage today. As you may know, Israeli defense forces launched multiple bombs into Iran successfully striking about one hundred targets, including Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel also killed six scientists. Among them were two of Iran’s top nuclear scientists. Israel also eliminated at least four military leaders including Maj. Gen. Hossein Salamani, the man in charge of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. In retaliation, Iran launched a hundred drones against Israel. According to multiple sources, Israel successfully shot down all drones. While Israels attack dealt a serious blow to Iran’s already weak military force, investors…

Week in Review Asian equities were mixed overnight as Korea and Taiwan outperformed while Mainland China’s STAR Board and India underperformed. It was a choppy week for Asian shares with the catalyst of US-China talks and the specter of flaring Middle East tensions. Trade talks on Monday between the US and China in London resulted in an agreement on rare earth exports and established a framework for continuing negotiations. May’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) in China, reported Monday, fell by -0.1% year-over-year, compared to April’s -0.2% and expectations of -0.2%. Key News Asian equities were lower overnight as Israel’s preemptive…