Shernel Thielman

The earnings season for the second quarter of 2026 is underway. For most people that is an abstract notion, something for financial specialists and market journalists. But those who understand what quarterly figures truly reveal hold an instrument that rises far above the daily price movement. Quarterly results are not a snapshot of a stock. They are a snapshot of a business, and those are two very different things. The question we ask at every result is not whether the share price rises or...

At the Rule Symposium in Boca Raton, which our team attends as a fixed part of our annual research process, there is one type of executive that stands out time and again. Not the polished CEO who has rehearsed his presentation and drops the right buzzwords at the right moment. But the founder who talks about his company as if it were his child, who has put his own money into it, and who knows he will become richer or poorer depending on how the business performs. In the commodities sector,...

Last week the European Central Bank once again made a decision that bears directly on the financial situation of everyone who saves, invests, or carries a loan. The ECB cut its policy rate for the fourth consecutive time, to 2.0 percent. At almost the same moment, the U.S. Federal Reserve held its rate unchanged at the considerably higher level of 3.50 to 3.75 percent, with new chair Kevin Warsh signalling that further cuts in 2026 are unlikely for the time being. Two of the most powerful...