Pope Leo XIV (2026) strongly advocates for an “unarmed and disarming” peace, calling on world leaders to end conflict and prioritize dialogue over weaponized power. His peace message highlights that “war is always a defeat” and condemns the “delusion of omnipotence,” urging a move away from destructive conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The question I ask myself is, why do people like the pope and the archbishop of Canterbury find it so hard to take sides? It may sound good to call for peace. Peace and love, the cry of hippies, John Lennon and Yoko Ono – ‘Give Peace A Chance’ over the ages. But what happens if the other guy, the Ayotollahs, Putin, Hamas, doesn’t want peace? If what they want is nuclear weapons and ‘from the river to the sea ‘, as in total extermination of the Israeli people.
Talk peace to these people, and most people can see that you will be perceived as weak, and they will push and probe for weaknesses harder than ever. Neville Chamberlain was one of these peace at any price, nothing can be worse than the horrors of war, people, and look at what Hitler did and what history says about Chamberlain.
Popes of all people should realise that we live in a world of good and evil, and we cannot allow the bad guys to win. If Leo number whatever read the bible, he would realise that God has much more in common with John Wayne than he seems to imagine. He is not a pacifist but an avenging God who smites the bad guys. He doesn’t cuddle up to them.
Satan personifies unequivocal evil. There has never been any suggestion that God should try to thrash out a deal with the Devil. God is good, Satan is bad, and there is no room for compromise. OK, Satan doesn’t exist, but if he did, he would not be a reasonable guy with a better side to which you could appeal. If he were, he wouldn’t be Satan.
What were we supposed to do in 1939? Sit around a table and do a deal with Mr Hitler. You can kill a few Jews, but don’t go mad, maybe 1 million instead of 6 million. You can have France or Holland or some little country a long way away like Czechoslovakia, but not the whole of Europe. There is no negotiation with fanatics. That is why they are fanatics.
Imagine a man running towards a school bus with a backpack full of explosives. Do you shoot him, the John Wayne solution, or do you try to reason with him, the Papal approach? I know what I would want if I were one of the children in that bus.
If you say Trump is deranged, nothing happens. No police or revolutionary guards come knocking on your door. Try being a citizen of their countries and saying the same about any of the Ayotollahs, Putin or Xi Jinping and see what happens. Try coming out in Saudi Arabia as gay, and this is what AI tells us.
Coming out as gay in Saudi Arabia is extremely dangerous and practically impossible due to severe legal and social consequences. Homosexuality is illegal and can be punished by death, imprisonment, fines, and corporal punishment under Sharia law. The state does not recognize LGBTQ rights, and non-conformant behavior can lead to arrests.
Why doesn’t the pope say something about that? It’s appalling, and he knows it. He hasn’t got the guts and prefers to waffle about peace. He should man up, but he never will. Frankly, I would take Trump over the Pope any day of the week. There is hardly a politician in the West prepared to say something, as men in jeans and tee shirts make their wives disappear behind black shrouds. Well done, Kemi, for promising to ban the Burka. If these guys want to live here, that is fine, but they must live by our rules, at least on important issues like women’s right to be treated as equals with men; that has to be non-negotiable.
This is an impressive chart. Like other stocks, such as SanDisk, we are late to the party with the latest red line buy signal coming in August 2022, when the price was around $32. Buying now is more of a buy-and-pray strategy, which doesn’t mean it won’t work. A 12m candlestick chart shows the massive scale of the breakout.
The combination of a red-line buy signal and a new all-time high breakout is powerful. And the fundamentals are supportive. Carpenter Technology is a member of my new favourite sector: companies making the hardware that powers the American revolution.
Business is strong.
The second quarter performance continued our earnings momentum and sets us up for a strong second half to fiscal year 2026. Let me highlight the 4 major takeaways for you. One, record earnings. In the second quarter, we generated $155 million in operating income, exceeding our previous record set in the prior quarter. And it is a 31% increase over our second quarter of fiscal year 2025, another meaningful step up year-over-year. Our consistent earnings growth continues to be the result of our solid execution, strong market position and unique capacity and capabilities.
Two, expanding operating margins. The SAO segment continued to expand margins, reaching an adjusted operating margin of 33.1% in the quarter. This margin compares to 28.3% a year ago and 32% in the prior quarter. Keep in mind that there are lots of factors that impact what our operating margins can be in any given quarter, most notably the mix of our products. So going forward, we may see some quarters that are flat or slightly lower, but the overall trajectory is anticipated to continue upwards. With that being said, our current outlook calls for increasing SAO margins over the next 2 quarters of fiscal year 2026.
As in the past, the positive trend will continue to be driven by increased productivity, product mix optimization and pricing actions. As a result of the expanding margins, the SAO segment recorded $174.6 million in operating income, an increase of 29% year-over-year and another all-time record for the segment? Three, strengthening market demand, especially in the aerospace and defense end-use market as we continue to see strengthening demand signals in terms of OEM production and order intake rates? Our customers are keenly aware of these demand signals and are positioning themselves accordingly.
In the quarter, bookings for the aerospace and defense end-use market increased 8% sequentially. However, it is important to note that defense submarket orders were down materially in the quarter due to the government shutdown and uncertainty in terms of the defense budget. Most importantly, commercial aerospace bookings were up 23% sequentially. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of sequential order intake increases for the aerospace and defense end-use market. Seeing such strong bookings in a quarter that’s usually quieter due to the holidays is a good indication of the accelerating demand for our materials. And four, pricing continues to be a tailwind.
Given the strong demand outlook, our customers continue to be focused on securing their supply and our pricing continues to increase. As evidence of this, we completed 3 additional long-term agreements with aerospace customers with significant price increases during the quarter. These long-term agreements represent good value for us and our customers as they look to secure their material needs going forward.
Meanwhile, my two favourite benchmark stocks, Nvidia and Palantir Technologies, are behaving in an encouraging way. Nvidia has a yellow line buy signal, and Palantir, despite green, yellow and red line sell signals, is refusing to fall further. On the contrary, in terms of classic Japanese candlestick chart analysis, the price action looks bullish.
Short seller Michael Burry, who is believed to be short both these shares, says privately quoted Anthropic will eat Palantir’s lunch, but the chart suggests that it won’t happen. Instead, we have a classic bunching of the moving averages. If they start to break higher, there could be fireworks.
What is fast becoming my third benchmark favourite, SanDisk, continues to display explosive price action. I know opinions don’t mean much, but my opinion, for what it is worth, is that all three shares are appealing speculative buys right now.
Share Recommendations
Nvidia. NVDA
Palantir Technologies. PLTR
SanDisk. SNDK
Each of these companies has some magic, which makes it special. Something is happening that makes me think this AI boom is full of running and there are many wonders to come. I am also impressed by the price action of the rest of the megacaps, so much so that I think they deserve a new name – the Invincibles.
Funds To Buy
SOXL
SOXX
How is this for a cool chart?
A breakout to a new high with all the moving averages rising in tandem is very encouraging. The unleveraged version, SOXX, also looks strong. These funds capture the performance of the semiconductor sector and stand at the heart of the AI boom.
