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North America
Yahoo Finance

SPMO Owns the S&P 500’s 100 Fastest-Rising Stocks. Its Momentum Screen Has Beaten the Index by 67-Points Over the Last Five Years

A simple momentum screen applied to S&P 500 stocks has quietly built a performance gap that turns identical starting portfolios into dramatically different ending balances, and the strategy costs almost nothing to implement. The professional research desk has always been the part of Wall Street that retail investors could not buy. AlphaSpace by Yahoo Finance opens one for $39.95 a month, and the first seven days cost nothing.1 (Sponsor) This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them. Owning the S&P 500 has proven to be one of the simplest ways to build wealth over the long-term. But one ETF has taken the same pool of large-cap stocks, applied a momentum screen, and produced substantially better results over the last five years. The Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF (NYSEARCA:SPMO) has returned 137.81% cumulatively over the last five years, working out to just shy of 20% annualized. By comparison, the S&P 500 has returned 70.27% over the same period, or approximately 13% annualized. This momentum-driven performance advantage results in two portfolios with drastically different ending values. SPMO does not venture into small-cap stocks, obscure technology companies, or speculative names looking for the next market winner. Rather, it starts with companies already included in the S&P 500 and tracks the S&P 500 Momentum Index. The index selects roughly 100 stocks with the strongest momentum scores and reconstitutes and rebalances twice per year, in March and September. The idea behind the strategy is straightforward: stocks that have demonstrated stronger recent relative performance may continue outperforming. Constituents are then weighted using both market capitalization and their momentum scores. SPMO charges an expense ratio of just 0.13%, or roughly $13 annually for every $10,000 invested. That process currently produces a portfolio that looks considerably different from a traditional S&P 500 fund. Based on current holdings, technology represents roughly 54% of the fund. Names like Micron Technology alone account for more than 11% of assets. Meanwhile, Nvidia represents roughly 9%, followed by Broadcom at more than 6%. Johnson & Johnson, Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, and Lam Research are also among its largest positions. Altogether, the top 10 stocks represented just more than half of the portfolio. The results have been impressive. Through August 31, SPMO delivered a five-year annualized return of 19.7%, compared with 12.8% for the S&P 500 Total Return Index. Over three years, the difference was even larger: SPMO returned 37.3% annually compared with 21.0% for the index. The fund has also been ahead in 2026 through August, returning 23.8% against 13.1% for the S&P 500. Put these numbers into dollars, and the difference becomes easier to appreciate. A hypothetical $100,000 compounded at 19.7% annually for five years grows to roughly $246,000. At 12.8%, the same starting balance grows to about $183,000. That is a difference of more than $60,000 without leaving the universe of stocks already found in the S&P 500. While it is tempting to project past results forward, there is no guarantee that the advantage will continue. Momentum strategies naturally concentrate money in stocks and sectors that have already performed well. Today that means heavy exposure to semiconductors and technology. If leadership changes quickly, SPMO can find itself holding yesterday’s winners while the rest of the market rotates elsewhere. The fund also turns over more aggressively than a plain S&P 500 ETF because the index needs to continually identify new momentum leaders. According to Morningstar, the fund has a recent portfolio turnover of 44%. Investors should therefore view SPMO as more than a slightly modified S&P 500 fund. Its portfolio can become substantially more concentrated, and its results can diverge sharply from the broad index in either direction.

SPMO Owns the S&P 500’s 100 Fastest-Rising Stocks. Its Momentum Screen Has Beaten the Index by 67-Points Over the Last Five Years
Europe
BBC Business

'I don't have a buoyancy aid': Living without the Bank of Mum and Dad

ByColletta Smith, BBC Your Voice correspondent and Elaine Doran , Your Voice ProducerPublished4 hours agoBuying a home or even moving into a rented property is an increasingly unrealistic dream for many young people. This summer, BBC Your Voice revealed more than 40% of 25-year-olds were now living with their parents. Dozens of young people told us they were having to rely on the so-called Bank of Mum and Dad to help cover rent, bills and other living costs. But what happens if you cannot rely on help from family? Citizens Advice says increasing numbers are struggling to afford everyday essentials like rent and food without support from their parents. Eleanor Bell is now 23, but was taken into care when she was 10. She grafted hard to do well at school and got a first-class degree from the University of Central Lancashire. After graduating two years ago, she thought the playing field would even out. It hasn't. Eleanor says she has applied for more jobs than she can count and had a handful of unsuccessful interviews. She's currently living in her boyfriend's home outside Penistone in South Yorkshire, which helps with living costs, but the rural location has made the job hunt harder for someone without a driving licence. "I know a lot of people who've got jobs because their mum or dad worked there before them." When she saw a BBC article about how many young people now live with their parents, she got in touch. "I guess it makes me a bit sad. I'd like to live with my parents... but it made me think about the people like me, the people that don't have that, what are they doing then? Where are they? Who do they have to fall back on? "It's like everyone in their 20s is having to tread water, but I haven't been given a buoyancy aid," Eleanor tells the BBC. Official figures show that 39% of care leavers aged 19 to 21 in England are not in education, employment or training, compared with around 13% of young people overall.

'I don't have a buoyancy aid': Living without the Bank of Mum and Dad
Europe
BBC Business

Will a switch to light speed cut power use at data centres?

"I think we're at the end of copper," says Chris Sharp, the chief technology officer at data centre operator Digital Reality. He's not saying that we are running out of copper, instead Sharp, and many others in the data centre industry, are betting that it will be used less. Data centres use vast amounts of the metal: around 400 tonnes, external will go into typical facility of around 100MW (data centre size is measured megawatts, a unit of electrical power). Most of that copper is used in the electrical infrastructure needed to power the datacentre and for cooling systems. But up to 70 tonnes is used by the computer servers that do the work of processing data in that 100MW facility. Meanwhile, up to 20 tonnes is used for the network wiring connecting up those computer servers. It's here, in the spaghetti-like wiring which snakes through a data centre where copper is targeted for replacement. "The wires between these GPUs, CPUs, and all this compute are what's slowing us down," says Sharp. Data is shunted around data centres in the form of electrons, which travel efficiently in copper wiring. Many think there's an even better way of doing that, using light in the form of photons. Light has been used for decades for long-distance communications over optical fibre - the data for this article probably travelled down a fibre optic cable at some stage. But researchers and companies want to extend fibre's use to inside the data centre. It involves intricate engineering, where optical components are connected directly to electrical ones, sometimes on the computer chips themselves.

Will a switch to light speed cut power use at data centres?
Europe
BBC Business

Unexpected UK borrowing surge adds to pre-Budget pressure on chancellor

Image source, Getty ImagesByTom EspinerBusiness reporterPublished22 September 2026, 07:27 BSTUpdated 2 hours agoAn unexpected surge in government borrowing in August, driven by persistently higher inflation, has added to pressure on Chancellor John Healey as he prepares to deliver his first Budget at the end of October. Borrowing - the difference between tax receipts and government spending - was £18.3bn in August, almost a fifth higher than the year before, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Inflation rose to its highest rate in five months in August in the UK, driven up by higher petrol and diesel prices. Although tax receipts were higher in August compared with a year ago, spending on public services, benefits, and other costs grew more as the pace of price rises increased. The interest the government is paying on its debt rose to £8.8bn, its highest August level since records began in 1997. The cost of servicing that debt comes as the government is under pressure to spend more on defence and cost-of-living support to households, said Martin Beck, chief economist at WPI Strategy. He said it was important not to "overinterpret a single month given the volatility in the numbers", but added that there were some "concerning elements". He said the cost of paying the interest on government debt is likely to rise in the coming months. While the figures were an "unwelcome setback", Beck said the government tends to look at the OBR's medium-term fiscal forecast - so what it expects for the public finances three years into the future. "But even there, the chancellor's got problems," he said. "The cost of that interest has gone up. That's going to feed through into more borrowing." The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned that spending on debt interest is "a worryingly large share of overall government spending and has been pushed up" since the last official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Research economist Nick Ridpath said: "Both higher borrowing costs and higher inflation make life harder for a chancellor who is looking to bring down borrowing and to spend more on government priorities."

Unexpected UK borrowing surge adds to pre-Budget pressure on chancellor
Europe
The Guardian

Kevin Warsh may be the adult in the room. But can he calm the US economy?

Kevin Warsh at the Federal Reserve in Washington DC on 16 September. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPAView image in fullscreenKevin Warsh at the Federal Reserve in Washington DC on 16 September. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPAFederal ReserveAnalysisKevin Warsh may be the adult in the room. But can he calm the US economy?Eduardo PorterFed chair presided over unanimous decision to raise interest rates despite intense campaign from White House In the end, Kevin Warsh’s Federal Reserve acquitted itself well. For all the uncertainty he had sparked at the previous meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, when he refused to provide any indication of what he was prepared to do to tame stubborn inflation, the chair on Wednesday presided over a unanimous decision to raise interest rates for the first time in three years. “Today’s action starts to show that we’re serious about this,” he said at the press conference after the meeting, with “this” meaning inflation in excess of the Fed’s 2% target for over five years. Welcome though it was, his embrace of economic orthodoxy nonetheless did little to dispel the Keystone Cops quality of governance in Donald Trump’s US. Warsh’s resolve – raising rates just a few weeks before elections that will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress – appeared even more resolute in the face of a veiled threat from White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, who pointed out to his chums on Fox that “if you want an independent Fed, then one thing the Fed does is it stays out of the way of elections”. The central bankers’ parsimonious comments in the press conference following the meeting made a sharp contrast with the more unhinged commentary from other members of the administration, including the president himself, who earlier this month celebrated the resilience of the labor market with a mind-boggling threat to “STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT” unless the Fed cut interest rates. Yet more significant than the contrast between Warsh’s words and the incongruent economic rhetoric from the White House is the tension between the Fed’s decision on Wednesday and pretty much every other initiative from the administration, from the volley of tariffs against imports from everywhere to the war in Iran to Trump’s “promise” of $5,000 a head if he wins the midterms to treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s desperate efforts to pull interest rates down even as the Fed is raising them. All things considered, financial markets reacted relatively calmly to the day’s events. For sure, the S&P 500 index took a nosedive on Wednesday afternoon, closing some 0.4% lower at the thought that the Fed would likely now raise rates again in December and twice in 2027. The yield on the 10-year bond rose sharply, again surpassing 5%. But investors appear to have bought – for now at least – that whatever deranged policies may emerge from the rest of the administration, monetary policy will remain comparatively sane. Investors should probably remain on their toes, though. A rational Trump would probably thank Warsh for his hawkishness. There might be a plausible argument to keep rates where they were because inflation is driven by temporary forces, like a war. Yet had the Fed staid its hand, or – goodness forbid – cut rates as the president has demanded, the bloodbath in the treasury market would have been gruesome, as investors were forced to accept that the chair of the central bank would not stand up to the nut who appointed him. By contrast, by raising rates and demonstrating he is serious about curbing inflation, the Fed is likely to calm market jitters and reduce long-term inflation expectations, which will ultimately redound in lower yields on treasury bonds, allowing for lower interest rates on mortgages and other long-term loans that matter to businesses and consumers. More clown cars are likely on the way. In his fury on Wednesday, Trump again threatened to stop trading with countries that have a surplus with the US – a proposition so devoid of sense that it is hard to comprehend, let alone critique. The war in Iran is likely to continue throughout the administration, bringing more volatility to energy markets. Even Bessent seems to be losing his hold on reality. Vexed over rising treasury yields – which are raising the cost of servicing the government’s Brobdingnagian debts – the man whom markets believed would play the role of adult in the Oval Office on matters of economic policy has started to emulate the desperate government officials he once pummelled into submission. Bessent built a reputation in financial circles in 1996 as part of the team built by George Soros and Stanley Druckenmiller that pushed the British pound out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. They made a tidy profit by teaching hapless British ministers that however many pounds they bought to defend the exchange rate, they could never overcome a market determined to sell. Today, Bessent has taken the losing side of that trade, betting that he can buy enough treasuries to bring long-term interest rates down.

Kevin Warsh may be the adult in the room. But can he calm the US economy?
Europe
BBC Business

UK should 'team up' with Canada in new Europe alliance, Canadian minister tells BBC

Image source, Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty ImagesByFaisal IslamEconomics editorPublished7 hours agoThe UK should "team up" with a proposed economic alliance between Canada and Europe, Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has said. "This is all about the substance, to build an alliance of the future," he told the BBC. "The world has changed. America has changed. So we need to change." Champagne also gave a frank assessment of the Canada-US trade war after a deal collapsed last month, saying the country had "stood up for our industries, our workers, our country" by imposing tariffs. His comments come after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed "opening the door" to an associate EU membership for Canada, an unprecedented move for the bloc. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to address the EU in Strasbourg, shortly after von der Leyen's proposal was made, was "to build the alliance of the future", Champagne said. Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, has previously talked about an alliance of "middle powers" working together on economic growth, resilience and security. "We need to look at partnership in a different way and the great thing is that when you look at Canada - and I would say the United Kingdom - we share the same values. We are very aligned in our vision of the world. Why don't we team up?" he said. After his return to the White House last year, US President Donald Trump imposed sweeping global tariffs, including on long-standing trade allies such as the UK. While the UK renegotiated a trade deal with the US in June last year, the new Canada-EU alliance does raise questions for the UK's post-Brexit positioning with Europe, as well as its position with the US, after some changes of presidential rhetoric over the Falklands and Irish unity in recent weeks. Carney met Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Liverpool in the middle of his trip to Brussels and Strasbourg last week, while Champagne attended a meeting of EU finance ministers in Dublin on Friday, alongside Chancellor John Healey. The developing discussions around closer ties between the EU and Canada come as Ottawa remains locked in an escalating trade war with the US, with both sides imposing tit-for-tat tariffs after talks broke down at the last moment in August. Trump has also threatened further tariffs on the EU if the associate membership plan proved "hostile" to the US, calling the idea laughable and labelling Canada a "terrible trading partner".

UK should 'team up' with Canada in new Europe alliance, Canadian minister tells BBC
North America
CNBC Finance

Ticket prices rise for Macklemore solo concert after Ed Sheeran tour removal

Macklemore's removal from Ed Sheeran's tour is having ripple effects on the ticket market. Ticket prices for an upcoming Macklemore performance are climbing after the rapper was dropped from the remainder of Sheeran's Loop tour for making pro-Palestine comments onstage earlier this month. Meanwhile, secondary market prices for the remainder of Sheeran's concerts have dipped. Resale prices for Macklemore's October concert at Red Rocks in Colorado are increasing this week, even though the performance was announced in March. "The get-in price [or the price for the cheapest available ticket] for that show is up 45% in the past 3 days, from $108 to $157," Keith Pagello, founder of price tracking company TicketData, said in a statement to CNBC on Thursday. "That's a surge we can say with confidence would not have happened absent this week's events." Macklemore said on social media on Monday that he was removed from the tour after stadium owners threatened to cancel shows following his pro-Palestinian remarks during a performance at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sept. 4. He announced on Thursday that he will donate his $1 million in earnings from the tour to Palestinian aid organizations. All of Sheeran's other supporting acts, Finneas, Aaron Rowe, Beoga and Lukas Graham, said they would leave the tour after Macklemore's removal. It is unclear who will replace the performers. Following the Macklemore headlines, ticket prices for Sheeran's tour have decreased at nine of the ten remaining venues, according to TicketData which aggregates statistics from platforms including SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, Gametime, and StubHub. However, Pagello said the drops are normal and may not be related to the controversy. "Across the whole universe of concerts, more shows decline in price as the date approaches than rise," Pagello said. Ticket prices to Sheeran's North American concerts this summer dropped by an average of 22% in the final two weeks leading up to the show, according to Pagello. Pagello sees the amount of ticket resales to Sheeran's upcoming concerts as more significant. "There has been a clear uptick in resale volume: since Monday, tickets have been selling at a slight to moderately increased pace compared to earlier tour stops at the same distance out, even with prices trending down," Pagello said.

Ticket prices rise for Macklemore solo concert after Ed Sheeran tour removal
North America
CNBC Finance

Disney names CTO for the first time as media giant expands tech push

Disney is looking to increase its foothold in the technology space with its latest hire. The media giant said Friday it hired Karandeep Anand, most recently CEO of Character.AI, effective Oct. 2 as senior executive vice president and chief technology officer. The newly created position in the Mouse House's C-suite will report directly to CEO Josh D'Amaro. The leadership expansion comes months after D'Amaro took the top post at Disney and emphasized the need to embrace technology to advance all parts of the company. Disney said Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and artificial intelligence platforms, product and engineering at Disney, and will work across across various tech teams to "further modernize how Disney builds and delivers technology company-wide." "Karandeep brings a rare mix of experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI, and will be a vital addition to Disney's senior leadership team as we further our three priorities: great storytelling as our North Star, technology in service of creativity, and operating as One Disney," D'Amaro said in Friday's release. D'Amaro's immediate goal has been to maintain Disney's momentum in its core growth areas -- particularly streaming and parks, which have helped lift the company's earnings in recent quarters. In March D'Amaro outlined his strategy and focused on the importance of Disney's storytelling and intellectual property to all parts of the business, as well as expanding its concentration in tech to fuel growth. Since then, the CEO has made various moves to show his focus on that initiative. The company's streaming service, Disney+, has been at the center of such plans. D'Amaro has said Disney is considering a free, ad-supported tier for its Disney+ streaming service as a so-called "front porch" to get more consumers onto the platform. On Thursday, Disney also named Adam Smith as chairman of its direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment, overseeing the streaming business. Executives have also teased that streaming and shopping will be integrated on Disney+, and more details are expected to come in the spring. At an investor conference earlier this month, CFO Hugh Johnston called it an "integrated ecosystem" under the Disney+ banner, which would bring together TV and film content with consumer products, Disney's parks and cruises, and interacting with Disney's library of intellectual property in various ways, including gaming. Anand comes to Disney after overseeing Character.AI, a platform that allows users to create and interact with character-based chatbots. In addition to Anand, Disney is hiring members from Character.AI's technical team. Disney said Friday that Anand managed Character.AI through a "period of explosive growth, building one of the most engaged consumer-AI audiences in the world, while also making user trust and safety a priority at the platform." Anand has also held positions at financial tech company Brex and Meta's Facebook.

Disney names CTO for the first time as media giant expands tech push
North America
Yahoo Finance

Investors Borrowed $1.45 Trillion to Buy Stocks. Is the Market One Correction Away From a Margin-Call Avalanche?

Borrowed money quietly inflates stock-market returns until prices fall, and then it becomes a loaded gun. The scale of today's margin lending raises a question worth sitting with before the next downturn arrives. The professional research desk has always been the part of Wall Street that retail investors could not buy. AlphaSpace by Yahoo Finance opens one for $39.95 a month, and the first seven days cost nothing.1 (Sponsor) This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them. Stock-market gains can make leverage look harmless. When portfolios rise, borrowed money magnifies returns, and the debt itself can disappear into the background. That changes when prices turn lower. A margin loan does not care whether a decline is temporary or the beginning of a bear market. If account equity falls below required levels, brokers can demand more collateral or sell securities to bring the account back into compliance. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) latest margin data show that investors have accumulated an unusually large amount of borrowed money while stocks have also climbed sharply. That makes the next correction more important than the last one. According to FINRA’s monthly Margin Statistics, U.S. margin debt increased by about $37 billion in August to $1.45 trillion, the second-highest reading on record behind June’s $1.50 trillion. The August balance was up $228 billion, or 19%, from the start of 2026. The longer-term comparison is even more striking. Since the end of 2022 — and the start of the current AI-dominated era — investor borrowing has increased by $847 billion, or 140%, versus a 98% gain for the S&P 500 over the same period. That means leverage has grown faster than the market value investors have accumulated, presumably as they took on debt to buy into the AI boom. Margin debt also has reached an unusual level relative to the economy. Research using FINRA margin data puts margin debt at roughly 4.5% of U.S. GDP, above the approximately 3.6% peak associated with 2021 and the 2.8% level around the 2000 dot-com bubble. That doesn’t mean we could see another 2000 or 2008, but it does mean there is more leverage sitting underneath today’s stock prices. Leverage is at an all-time high, outpacing even the Dot-Com bubble. One market slip could trigger a devastating feedback loop of forced liquidations. © 24/7 Wall St. An investor using margin owns securities partly with borrowed money. If those securities decline, the investor’s equity shrinks. Once equity falls below the broker’s maintenance requirement, the investor may have to add cash or securities. If that doesn’t happen, the broker can sell securities — potentially without waiting for the investor’s permission. FINRA says firms can also impose higher “house” requirements. That creates a negative feedback loop where selling puts more pressure on stocks.

Investors Borrowed $1.45 Trillion to Buy Stocks. Is the Market One Correction Away From a Margin-Call Avalanche?