Rachelle Thielman

With tensions between the US and Iran drawing renewed attention, investors are once again asking the same question they always ask in moments like this: should I do something? Over the past five weeks, markets have been gripped by the US-Iran conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world's petroleum. Oil surged above $100 a barrel. Equity indices swung wildly on every diplomatic headline. And investors, understandably, felt...

In investing, the most important trends are often not the loudest ones. While markets move from one headline to the next, some shifts develop slowly and steadily beneath the surface. Copper may be one of those shifts. For decades, copper has been viewed primarily as a cyclical industrial metal. It rises when economies expand and falls during recessions. That part has not changed. What may be changing is the structural backdrop against which those cycles unfold. Copper sits at the center of...

If you only watch the headlines, markets sound uncertain. Interest rates are still high, inflation seems better but not “solved,” and economists switch between optimism and caution almost every week. Yet, while all this noise grabs attention, something more important has been happening quietly underneath. Some companies are simply still winning . Not because markets are calm, but because their business models meet real economic needs, lending money when banks won’t, powering the digital...