Earnings Season Reality Check: AI Capex vs. Free Cash Flow—Who’s Stretching?
Hyperscaler spending is exploding, but not every supplier can keep free cash flow (FCF) positive as supply chains tighten. Here’s a sober, data-driven scan of who’s funding the AI build-out…
The Consumer Check-Up: Delinquencies, Excess Savings, and the Holiday-Spending Set-Up
Credit-card and auto delinquencies have been edging higher all year. Does that finally dent consumption in the U.S., U.K., and euro area—or does resilient income and still-elevated savings keep tills…
Jackson Hole Playbook: Three Paths for Real Rates—and What Each Means for Growth
With inflation easing unevenly and policy makers converging on Jackson Hole (Aug. 21–23), the path of real interest rates and the term premium is the macro fulcrum. Where real rates…
Stablecoin Yield Comedown: How Fed/ECB Cuts Could Reshape Reserves & User Returns
If policy rates keep edging lower, the interest that dollar- and euro-stablecoin issuers earn on short-term government paper will shrink. That forces a choice: accept lower margins, tweak fees and…
Copper’s Quiet Squeeze: Why Record-Low Treatment Charges Signal Tight Concentrate
Copper smelters’ treatment and refining charges (TCRCs) have slid toward cycle lows—often a tell that concentrates are scarce and that the refined market could tighten next. Here’s what falling TCRCs…
Hurricane Season Risk Map: LNG & Gasoline If a Category-4 Hits the Gulf
We’re in the teeth of Atlantic hurricane season. One well-placed landfall can jolt U.S. LNG exports and gasoline crack spreads—rippling quickly into Europe’s gas and refined-product markets. NOAA’s updated outlook…
Private Equity Enters 401(k) Plans—How Much Is Too Much for the Average Saver?
For decades, private-equity (PE) returns—with their eye-catching double-digit internal rates of return—were the stuff of institutional portfolios: university endowments, giant pension plans, and ultra-high-net-worth family offices. That wall is now…
NVIDIA’s ‘Blackwell Ultra’ Tease Lifts Semiconductor ETFs—Have AI Cap-Ex Peaks Arrived?
Why the fuss? Because Blackwell Ultra is NVIDIA’s first AI-GPU family expected to tap TSMC’s 3-nanometre class process—a shrink from today’s 4N node—and early back-channel reports say the company has…
Ireland-Domiciled ESG UCITS Face Label Crackdown—€85 Billion Could Be Re-Badged
The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) has issued a draft guidance note that would lift the bar for funds marketed as “sustainable” under the UCITS regime. The consultation, open until…
First “Buffer ETF” Conversion Inches Closer—Could Traditional 60/40 Funds Lose Their Core Slot?
Balanced mutual funds—those classic “60 percent stocks / 40 percent bonds” workhorses—still command more than US $1.7 trillion in American retirement accounts, yet many advisers say the category feels tired.…