bmy88 com log in NCAA HOCKEY: Skidmore’s late rally falls short against Lake Forest2024 isn't quite in the books, but it's already been a banner year for stocks. Through Nov. 21, the S&P 500 is up 24.7% year to date, led by big tech stocks like the "Magnificent Seven" as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be the dominant narrative on the stock market. Given that, you might expect the top-performing Vanguard exchange-traded fund (ETF) to hail from the tech sector. After all, Nvidia stock has roughly tripled this year, but the Nasdaq Composite is only slightly outperforming the S&P 500 with a gain of 26.4% and the popular Nasdaq-100 has underperformed the broad-market index with a return of 23.3%. It might come as a surprise, but the best-performing Vanguard ETF has nothing to do with tech. Instead, it's the Vanguard Financials Index Fund ETF ( VFH 1.25% ) , which is up 33.6% year to date through Nov. 21. As you can see from the chart below, the financials sector tracked with the S&P 500 for much of the year before gaining some separation in the fourth quarter and surging on the election result. ^SPX data by YCharts Why financials are ascendant The biggest holdings in the Vanguard financials ETF include the top banks, credit card companies, and a sizable position in Berkshire Hathaway , which counts insurance as its biggest segment. Financial stocks have a number of attractive qualities in the current market. First, they are highly cyclical. Banks and credit card processors see their business increase when the economy is expanding and consumers and businesses are confident in continued growth. Banks rely on loans and fees to make money, and credit card processors depend on consumers spending money as well. Both types of businesses can also benefit from high interest rates as they allow them to collect more interest on debt. So an economy with high interest rates and stable growth with low unemployment has been favorable to the financial sector. Additionally, these stocks soared after the election as investors anticipated that the incoming administration's policies would give a boost to the sector. Investors are hopeful that the Trump administration will be less restrictive with mergers and acquisitions, which is a valuable source of income for banks. In specific cases like that of Wells Fargo , investors also hope its asset cap, which restricts its ability to do business, will be lifted. Finally, investors also expect the Trump administration to cut taxes, which would be a general boon to the economy, especially for the financial sector. Can financial stocks keep climbing in 2025? Even after their rally in 2024, financial stocks still look cheap compared to the broad market. The Vanguard Financials ETF currently trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.5, which compares favorably with the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF at a P/E ratio of 29.7. Financial stocks tend to be cheaper than the broad market because they are highly cyclical and vulnerable to a recession, and growth in the sector tends to be lower than, say, the tech sector. However, the ETF has reported an average annual earnings growth of 12.6% over the last five years, which is a solid clip for any group of stocks. The performance of the fund next year will likely depend on the overall health of the economy, and the Trump administration's ability to fulfill some of the expectations that Wall Street has placed on it. However, the current economic conditions seem ideal for another strong year for financial stocks as the economy is healthy, interest rates are moderately elevated, and business and consumer confidence seems to be increasing. While being the top-performing ETF two years in a row would be difficult, the Vanguard Financials ETF looks like a good bet to outperform next year as well.10-man Botafogo wins its first Copa Libertadores title

NoneSEMICONDUCTOR Manufacturing International Corporation’s (SMIC) stock has more than doubled over the past two months on an expected boost from China’s self-reliance push, even amid risks tied to competition and geopolitical tensions. Shanghai-listed shares of China’s largest outsourced chipmaker are up 120 per cent from a September low, trouncing global sector names including Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. The mainland stock has outperformed SMIC’s Hong Kong shares by almost 50 percentage points, underscoring stronger demand from onshore Chinese investors. Expectations for Donald Trump’s presidency have pumped up shares of SMIC and local peers as beneficiaries of China’s drive to localise manufacturing. Some analysts and fund managers caution that the stocks now look expensive, while China’s chip industry faces ongoing issues of economic malaise and restricted access to crucial technologies. “There is a lot of speculative buying and the trading is based on news events instead of fundamentals,” so volatility should be expected, said Xiang Xiaotian, a director at Shanghai Chengzhou Investment Management. “The main trading thesis is domestic substitution as Chinese companies will need to turn to local chipmakers.” China has been outspending other nations on chips as it struggles to narrow the wide technology gap with Western nations. Expected benefits from Beijing’s latest pledges of stimulus have served as an additional catalyst for SMIC and domestic peers including Hua Hong Semiconductor whose onshore shares are up 78 per cent from their September low. SMIC forecast higher-than-expected sales growth for this quarter as its competitive prices lured local chip designers, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. More broadly, China foundries “bottomed out earlier” than other global manufacturers of less-advanced chips, Counterpoint Research wrote in a note in August. Even if demand for these so-called legacy semiconductors used in auto and industrial applications improves, however, China remains far behind in artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced areas due to US-led restrictions that prevent it from acquiring the most advanced manufacturing equipment. For example, Huawei Technologies’s ambitions to create more powerful chips have hit major snags because of US sanctions, sources familiar with the matter said. “Artificial intelligence is a small blessing for SMIC and Hua Hong,” Morningstar analyst Phelix Lee wrote in a report. The pair may not be moving quickly enough to capture demand for high-end power chips used in data centres, he said, adding that if Chinese AI startups lose access to advanced processors that would also hurt demand for peripheral chips supplied by SMIC and Hua Hong. Meanwhile, SMIC’s outsized share-price gain is likely to drive increased scrutiny of its earnings and other metrics. Some observers also note the potential for rivals such as TSMC to lower prices for making legacy chips, putting pressure on SMIC’s pricing power. “We acknowledge the stronger localisation demand and gross margin sustainability of SMIC,” Morgan Stanley analysts including Charlie Chan wrote in a note. “However, we believe the competition from foundries may get more intense in 2025. In addition, SMIC’s trading valuation does not look attractive to us.” The Hong Kong-listed stock is trading at a forward price-to-book ratio of 1.2 times, above its three-year average level of 0.9 times. Valuation based on book value is seen as more useful than earnings-based multiples for evaluating asset-heavy, cyclical businesses such as chip foundries. SMIC and Hua Hong both look overvalued, “as the market may have overestimated the extent of average selling price recovery”, Morningstar’s Lee said. “Also, the market can be overbullish on the impact of fiscal stimulus.” BLOOMBERG

The Sex Lives of College Girls Co-Creator Lists Goals for Season 3 of Max Comedy By premiered this week, and the series’ co-showrunner Justin Noble recently opened up about his goals for the upcoming season of the dramedy. What are the goals for The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 3? Speaking to THR, Noble — who co-created the series with and also serves as showrunner — was asked about his goals for the upcoming series. According to Noble, his hopes are to explore the feel of what sophomore year in college is like, and how different it is from the girls’ freshman years. “This season is so interesting, because sophomore year is a really unique time in the college experience,” said Noble. “You come into school as a first-year, and you don’t know anything at all, and you’re shell-shocked. Three months ago, you had to call your parents to pick you up at the mall because you got a Wetzel’s Pretzels with your friend and you needed a ride home. And now you’re like, ‘I’m a full-blown adult,’ and life smacks you in the face. Then, sophomore year, you have the same thing happen but in a different way because it’s like, ‘Oh, I know everything about college. I’ve been here for a full year. Oh, you’re a first-year. You need to know how this works.’ Meanwhile, based on when your birthday is, you are like six months older than these people.” Noble went on to say that it would also be fun to see the girls interact with the underclassman, and opening up the world of the show. “It’s fun to see our girls start to interact with the class underneath them. It’s fun to see the world getting bigger,” Noble said. “That’s what happens in college, in my experience, and in the writers’ experiences that we talked about so much. Your first year, you hang on to the people in your life so close, because you’re in it together, and you’re like, “This is my close circle of friends.” And then as you get more comfortable, you’re joining clubs, and you’re meeting more people; your world just gets bigger and bigger. I think we start to see that a little bit in the first episode. But obviously, we have a lot to accomplish between season two cliffhangers and switching up the cast a little bit. So we’re just starting to meet some people who we’ll interact with more.” is created by Kaling and Noble, the latter of whom also serves as the showrunner. The series stars Pauline Chalamet, Amrit Kaur, Alyah Chanelle Scott, Mekki Leeper, Christopher Meyer, Ilia Paulino, Lolo Spencer, Renika Williams, Mitchell Slaggert, and , the latter of whom will be in the show for just a few episodes before her departue. Additional cast members for Season 3 include Rebecca Wisocky, Nabeel Muscatwalla, Michael Hsu Rosen, Ruby Cruz, Devin Craig, Michael Provost, and Roby Attal. It is executive produced by Howard Klein. It is a production by Kaling International in association with Warner Bros. Television. (Source: ) Anthony Nash has been writing about games and the gaming industry for nearly a decade. When he’s not writing about games, he’s usually playing them. You can find him on Twitter talking about games or sports at @_anthonynash. Share article

Adams' 25 help CSU Northridge down Utah Tech 89-79Elon Musk (L) with Donald Trump (R) (Image: AP/Brandon Bell) Like Lynx deodorant, wet dreams and the comedian Jimmy Carr, libertarianism is meant to be a phase men grow out of by at least their late teens. Elon Musk, however, appears to be growing more adolescent as he ages. His “small government” ideology is obviously blinkered, conveniently skating over the billions in taxpayer loans and contracts he has received. Nonetheless, it is increasingly central to both his political and business decisions. Indeed, he is emerging as the leader of an extreme libertarian faction within US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team. Can DOGE save some coin? Murdoch to Musk: How global media power has shifted from the moguls to the big tech bros Read More All Republican factions seem to agree on reducing immigration and “wokeness”. But whereas the “national conservatives” led by Vice President-elect JD Vance are invigorated by economic protectionism, Musk appears more excited about deregulation and slashing public service jobs. His intellectual influences appear to be arch free-marketeer Milton Friedman and President of Argentina Javier Milei , who is famous for taking a literal chainsaw to government spending. This would merely be sad, if Musk weren’t edging closer to real political power. On one hand, Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a sham “department”, a made-up office without congressional oversight. It has no defined powers, in contrast to the real departments being led by the national conservative set. However, Musk seems to have genuinely influenced Trump’s recent thinking, along with DOGE co-leader and fellow austerity enthusiast Vivek Ramaswamy. “These two wonderful Americans,” Trump recently said , “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.” Trump may, as he is wont to do, lose interest in DOGE. But if he takes up even a fraction of Musk and Ramaswamy’s agenda, the results could be catastrophic. The dynamic duo outlined their initial plan in the Wall Street Journal last week, to cut “$500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorised by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended”. They claim the president can do this unilaterally, though this would likely be legally contested if pursued. This is merely a downpayment on the $2 trillion (of an annual $6.7 trillion in government outlays) that Musk thinks he can cut. The vast bulk of US government spending is on social security and healthcare, and the vast majority of “expired” spending is on veterans’ health care. Despite being extreme on other measures, Trump dialled down Republicans’ austerity talk in his first term, reassuring pensioners and veterans their benefits wouldn’t be targeted. Trump is either about to adopt a much harsher (and less popular) “fend for yourself” posture towards middle America, or his buddies’ lofty targets will be forgotten and DOGE will devolve into small-scale witch hunts over so-called “woke” spending. Watch this space. Death by a thousand cuts Da pacem, Domine: Why Trump is what democracy needs Read More There is no doubt that Elon himself would prefer a full-scale “slash and burn” approach, as it was the approach he himself adopted upon purchasing Twitter. He fired 6,500 people – about 80% of his workforce, by his own reckoning. He later attempted to rehire some of those very same former employees after acknowledging some “babies” were “thrown out [with the bathwater]”. Particularly affected by redundancies were those working on curation, risk and integrity — namely, those reducing misinformation, defamation and harmful content on the platform, and promoting reputable sources. His leadership of Twitter, now rebranded X, reveals an unresolved tension at the heart of his (and all) libertarianism — the emphasis on freedom ends where his company begins. As CEO, Musk led X in a dictatorial fashion, according to former executives. He told remaining employees to submit to an “extremely hardcore” regime of long working hours or leave the company. As Elizabeth Anderson memorably pointed out , such dictatorial company structures are depressingly common and give the lie to many spruiking “freedom” in other domains. Even after stepping down as CEO, Musk clearly continues to exert god-like influence. He reportedly made a team of 80 engineers tweak X’s algorithm in 2023 to boost his own posts. Australian academics Timothy Graham and Mark Andrejevic investigated whether he had repeated such meddling this year, and found a “statistically anomalous boost” in engagement on Musk’s account since July. Such antics are alienating many users. But no-one is powerful enough to stop Musk internally. So naturally, users’ only avenue is to leave. Bluer skies ahead? “Network effects” (i.e. everyone else being on the platform, and not being elsewhere) have prevented a critical mass of users leaving X... until now. New rival platform Bluesky has blown up in recent weeks, as X users jump ship. The platform just hit 22 million users. That’s still far fewer than X in total, but Bluesky is currently adding more than 1 million users per day, including some of the most high-profile users. Bluesky now up to 22 million users and still growing strong [image or embed] — Benjamin Clark ( @benjamin-clark.bsky.social ) November 25, 2024 at 7:11 AM Albert Hirschman famously suggested three ways a consumer could influence an institution: “Voice”: try to influence the organisation’s decision-making through speaking up, including via coordinated efforts; “Loyalty”: try to stick things out and hope things get better; “Exit”: leave. Which Australian media outlets are leaving X for Bluesky? Read More Musk is impervious to the voices of others, and many of X’s users are tiring of loyalty. Their only option is to exit. Libertarians like Musk typically emphasise exit as their preferred means of exercising freedom (“don’t like it? Leave”). There is a delicious irony in users now saying, “OK, bye”. No social media platform will ever be perfect. But Bluesky’s foundations are better than most. It is based on an open protocol, meaning anyone with the technical know-how can set up their own sister network and bring their data across. Users can curate their own feeds to a greater extent. This provides users with some “voice” and “exit” possibilities, inviting them in as co-creators of the platform rather than force-feeding them slop. Musk will, of course, be just fine if X descends into a Star Wars cantina of fascists and spam bots. He’s still the richest man in the world, after all. But Trump likes winners. The more we can make Musk seem like a loser, the less chance his austerity package has of decimating what’s left of the American welfare state. Bluesky is also just a nicer place to be right now. So join me, X users, in the great X-odus. Let’s show Musk what real freedom looks like. Have something to say about this article? Write to us at letters@crikey.com.au . Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say . We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.

Swedish fika adds to the fun of the Great Outdoors at €1.05m Cherry Lodge on Model Farm Road

The energy and transportation sectors have seen massive disruption in the 21st century. From electric vehicles like Tesla to ride-sharing platforms like Uber Technologies , people have many different ways to get around these days. Some of these purported disrupters have made millionaires out of their shareholders. Others, such as the embattled hydrogen fuel cell truck company Nikola , have lost shareholders a lot of money. Then what are investors to think of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) taxis? Many companies are working on electric air taxis, including publicly traded stock Archer Aviation ( ACHR 4.50% ) . The start-up is aiming to build a point-to-point taxi network for eVTOL aircraft across the globe, which will theoretically decrease travel times across cities. If successful, eVTOL taxi networks could be another major disrupter to the transportation market. Should you buy Archer Aviation while the stock trades below $5 a share and with a market cap of $1.5 billion? Betting on air taxis Archer Aviation is betting big on eVTOL taxis for urban transportation, with the goal of helping solve America's traffic issues. It is estimated that the average driver in the United States spends over 50 hours a year in traffic. Multiply that by the entire country's population, and you have hundreds of thousands of total years wasted in traffic every year. If a company can improve these metrics -- even slightly -- it will be a huge boom for the overall economy and quality of life for the average person. eVTOLs aim to alleviate some of the traffic pain in big cities by skipping roads altogether. These are helicopter-like vehicles with electric motors that can go from point to point much faster than an automobile while also taking a car off the road. For example, one of Archer Aviation's first routes is going to be from downtown Manhattan to the Newark airport in New Jersey. A typical car ride to the airport can take an hour or longer. On an eVTOL, this will take less than 10 minutes. You can see the value proposition immediately in the time saved for customers. Trimming this travel time means Archer Aviation will be able to charge a pretty penny for its services, especially in wealthy places such as New York City. Growing losses, global ambitions The eVTOL air taxi network concept is great, and theoretically it should lead to traffic alleviation in major cities. However, Archer Aviation's taxi network is not operational yet. Why? A big hold-up is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In order to ensure safety and orderly operations between the hundreds of thousands of commercial planes, military projects, and drones that launch into our skies each day, eVTOL taxi networks will be heavily regulated. Nobody wants a cowboy taxi network with aircraft potentially crashing out of the sky. Given the need for regulatory approvals, Archer Aviation is currently generating $0 in revenue. It won't generate any revenue until one of its point-to-point air taxi networks is operational. With all the production and regulatory start-up costs, the company posted a $492 million operating loss over the last 12 months and burned $415 million in free cash flow . It has $500 million in cash on the balance sheet, giving it around a year of runway before needing to raise more money. This is a concern and a major risk for shareholders. But if the company can succeed in building its eVTOL fleet, there is a major demand from cities around the world for these services. At the end of last quarter, Archer Aviation had a $6 billion order book from places like New York, Los Angeles, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. It hopes to get some of these taxi networks operational within a few years. For example, the Los Angeles network is set to begin in 2026. ACHR Operating Income (TTM) data by YCharts Is the stock a buy below $5? There is clearly a lot of potential for Archer Aviation stock below $5 a share. It has a market cap of just $1.5 billion, a $6 billion order book, and a growing traffic problem around the world that it can help solve. If the company can reach 1 million annual flights and $250 charged per flight (each eVTOL can fit four passengers), that is $250 million in annual revenue. And it's not impossible for the company to see 1 million annual flights. That's less than 3,000 flights a day, which is possible if the taxi network becomes operational in just a few cities around the globe. For reference, the self-driving taxi network Waymo does 100,000 rides every week and is growing tenfold year over year. Even with this high potential, I think it is foolish for investors to buy Archer Aviation stock today. The company has so many hurdles to clear and seems to be spending its cash irresponsibly. Even if the company reaches this $250 million revenue milestone, that barely covers half of its current operating expenses. It will be a long time before Archer Aviation generates a profit, if it ever does. Avoid adding this stock to your portfolio for the time being.Guest Opinion: Did greed or misplaced generosity lead to working-class fury?