Ukraine’s mineral wealth has been thrown into the spotlight as US President Donald Trump looks to seize control of its resources in return for military support. Yet very little is actually known about what’s up for grabs. Various reports have suggested that Ukraine has mineral deposits worth upwards of $10 trillion, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government has been keen to promote crucial materials that can be exploited as it seeks more military and economic support. Rare earth elements — which play a key role in defense and other high-tech industries — have become a particular focus for Trump as he…
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Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesInvestors continued to dump Palantir shares on Thursday, escalating concerns that the latest hot pick among retail traders could be fizzling out.Shares of the mysterious technology and defense stock retreated close to 9% on Thursday. That builds on Wednesday’s slide of around 10%, which came after shares touched an all-time high earlier in the day and marked the stock’s worst day since May.Wednesday’s initial decline came as investors keyed in on the CEO’s new stock sale plan and comments from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reported by The Washington Post on plans to slash defense…
Ukraine has significant deposits of rare earths. In 2022, the Russian-language service of UN News reported that Ukraine’s deposits of 21 rare earth elements from the list of 30 substances the European Union defines as “critical raw materials“, accounted for approximately 5% of the world’s reserves. These materials are key in the production of devices for the development of “green” energy. These include lithium, cobalt, scandium, graphite, tantalum, and niobium. Critical reserves of strategic minerals in Ukraine “About five per cent of all the world’s ‘critical raw materials’ are located in Ukraine, which occupies only 0.4 per cent of the Earth’s surface,”…
Private equity (PE) buyouts introduce complex financial structures that can make it challenging to track portfolio company performance. The use of acquisition vehicles can obscure financial reporting, meaning investors and analysts can have a difficult time trying to understand a company’s true debt levels, profitability, and overall financial health. This post is the second in my three-part series. It explores the differences between operating entity accounts and consolidated group accounts, highlighting key financial discrepancies and what they mean for investment analysis. In my first post, I demonstrated how the creation of acquisition vehicles to facilitate PE buyouts creates challenges for…
(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said he expects the US central bank will lower interest rates twice in 2025, though uncertainty around that projection has risen. Most Read from Bloomberg “While that’s my baseline expectation, there’s a lot that is going to happen that could influence that really in both directions,” Bostic said Thursday on a call with reporters. In an essay also released Thursday, Bostic wrote that monetary policy was well positioned for the moment, but he cautioned that officials must remain vigilant amid heightened policy uncertainty that could affect the labor market and…
Image source: Getty Images Shares in tobacco group British American Tobacco (LSE: BATS) have fallen to a price of £30 since the company’s 2024 results were published on 13 February. That’s a drop of just over 10%. This FTSE 100 stock has now given up most of the gains made since 1 January, but the year is still young. British American shares are still up by 25% over 12 months. I reckon it’s worth considering whether this dip could provide a buying opportunity to lock in an 8% dividend yield. Why the dip? Let’s start with a look at some…
OpenAI appears to be growing quickly despite increasing competition. The San Francisco-based tech company had 400 million weekly active users as of February, up 33% from 300 million in December, the company’s chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, told CNBC. These numbers have not been previously reported.Lightcap pointed to the “natural progression” of ChatGPT as it becomes more useful and familiar to a broader group of people.”People hear about it through word of mouth. They see the utility of it. They see their friends using it,” Lightcap said in an interview, adding that it takes time for individuals to find use cases…
ABB has been selected by GreenIron, an innovative Swedish company working in the mining and metals industries with its patented materials reduction technology, to provide automation and control system solutions for a first commercial facility in Sandviken, Sweden.GreenIron’s hydrogen-based reduction technology will be industrialized for fossil-free and energy-efficient production of metals, producing fossil-free sponge iron that can then be used in industries such as steelmaking. A single furnace is expected to reduce carbon emissions by around 56,000 tonnes per year compared to traditional coal-based methods, with the only residual product being water. Scaling up to 300 furnaces would correspond to…
Image source: Getty Images The FTSE 25O index has been limping along for some time now. Excluding dividends, it’s risen just 21% in a decade! That meek performance is obviously very disappointing, especially when we compare it to other indexes. The mid-cap S&P 400 in the US, for example, is up more than 100% over the same period. One problem is that FTSE 250 companies tend to be more domestically focused, meaning they’re reliant on the weak UK economy. And with inflation rising again and the Bank of England unlikely to cut rates in March, I’m not optimistic that the…
Image source: Getty Images BAE Systems (LSE: BA.) shares have been having a bit of a breather recently — they’re basically flat over the past six months. Zooming out a bit further though, they’re up 47% in two years and 120% over three. That easily tops the wider FTSE 100. Yesterday (19 February), we got the defence giant’s full-year 2024 results, which were solid. So, should I buy more shares for my ISA? Let’s discuss. Strong growth and huge order backlog Last year, BAE’s sales jumped 14% to £28.3bn, while underlying profit grew by the same percentage to just over £3bn.…