Secretary of the U.S Department of Transportation Sean Duffy has a suggestion for better travel this holiday season: have you considered just being in a good mood?That’s the message of DOT’s new “ civility campaign” titled “The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You,” and it’s meant to address the surge in unruly passenger air travel — even if some might argue it encapsulates the transportation profession’s over-focus on personal responsibility over systemic reform in the air and on the ground. Restoring courtesy and class to air travel will ensure the safety of passengers, Duffy argues, much like DOT heads…
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Image source: Getty Images Though I’m a UK-based investor, my family portfolio is mostly invested in American stocks. That’s partly because the US stock market is so vast, being larger than all other stock markets combined. Also, the US S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are two of the most-tracked indexes among global investors. Nevertheless, the UK’s FTSE 100 has overtaken its US counterpart lately. Fabulous FTSE Since the FTSE 100’s launch in 1984, it has sometimes beaten the S&P 500 over long periods. However, since the global financial crisis of 2007/09, the growth-dominated US index has thrashed its value-orientated British…
Image source: Getty Images When a FTSE 100 stock can’t stop falling in value, I’ll always sit up and pay attention. And I’ll be particularly quick to do so if it happens to be one of the best growth stocks in the entire index. All in my Foolish opinion, of course. Stuttering performance Automotive marketplace giant Auto Trader (LSE: AUTO) has slumped over 20% in the last month alone. That’s a pretty terrible drop for a multi-billion pound business. There seems to be a few things worrying the market. For one, analysts appear underwhelmed by the firm’s recent set of…
Image source: Getty Images UK stocks are still considered by many investors to be the most reliable options when it comes to retirement. This is due to their long-term, defensive nature and a tendency to focus on income over growth. Recently, I was testing out the stock-picking capabilities of ChatGPT to see if it understood what made an investment appropriate for retirement. Retirement stocks picked by AI Here’s what ChatGPT said when I asked it to recommend five British shares for a retirement portfolio. Its choices were a fairly mixed bag: M&G British American Tobacco BP Lloyds Banking Group IG…
Image source: Getty Images Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) shares have experienced a huge move higher this year, rising more than 70%. Currently, they’re on track for their best year since 2012. Now, it’s fair to say that a 70%+ gain in less than a year for a FTSE 100 bank stock is very unusual (almost unheard of). This begs the question – are Lloyds shares a ticking time-bomb right now? Are the shares overvalued? Let’s start by looking at the valuation here. Are Lloyds shares overvalued after their huge gain in 2025? Well currently, City analysts expect the bank to generate…
Image source: Getty Images These days, volatile stock markets are leaving investors wondering where best to put their money. Should Britons stick with familiar FTSE 100 blue-chips or chase US growth stocks on the S&P 500? As usual, the optimal strategy is probably one of moderation — a balance between both worlds. In the UK, investors have access to value-oriented, dividend-rich stocks, and across the pond, America’s growth engines. Leaning toward energy, financials and healthcare (12%), the UK offers an average dividend yield of 3.5% — double the S&P 500’s 1.5%. This defensive tilt does well during market downturns, delivering…
Image source: BT Group plc Few expected BT (LSE:BT.A) to deliver the market-beating share price gains we’ve seen in 2025. This is a FTSE 100 company with persistent sales troubles and a balance sheet packing lots of debt. Yet the stock’s risen an impressive 22% in value so far this year. That beats the broader FTSE index‘s 17% rise over the period. Can BT shares enjoy more substantial price gains in 2026? One especially bullish analyst does — in fact, they think the telecoms giant will surge 77% between now and next December, to 312p per share. Is this just…
Image source: Getty Images Artificial intelligence (AI) is only of limited use in helping investors decide which FTSE 100 stocks to buy. All it does is trawl the internet for facts and opinions, then bundle them into something that sounds authoritative but lacks true insight. To be fair, AI seems to understand its own limitations. So when I asked ChatGPT a really stupid question, it was ready for me. Here’s what I wrote: Can you tell me the best FTSE 100 stock to buy, please? It replied: “I can’t honestly tell you there’s a single ‘best’ stock to buy today, because…
Image source: Getty Images IAG (LSE: IAG) shares have been the hottest property on AJ Bell over the last week. According to data from the broker’s platform, the stock in International Consolidated Airlines Group (to give it its full name) was bought more than any other by account holders. The number of buys over the seven-day period for the British Airways owner accounted for more than one in every 20 purchases made! So what’s going on here? Why are so many investors snapping up these shares? Cheap The first thing to point out here is that the share price has…
Quarterly reporting is often blamed for corporate myopia, an overemphasis on meeting short-term earnings expectations at the expense of long-term value. Most US companies operate on investment cycles measured in years, not quarters, and investors often price stocks on even longer earnings horizons. In this context, changing reporting frequency does little to shift managerial behavior, while incentive structures — particularly executive compensation cycles — exert far greater pressure on short-term decisions. The question for financial analysts is whether reducing reporting frequency would improve long-term decision-making or simply weaken transparency and market efficiency. The evidence shows that it would not, and…