Economy

Defense has long been one of the hardest industries to enter, with decades-long programs, government customers and high technical barriers. Yet the past four years have produced a wave of new European companies winning contracts and capital at a pace few expected. This shift rests on lasting changes in how wars are fought, how equipment is built and how nations think about their own security.

This article is adapted from Weekly Economic & Bond Market Insights by Thomas Simons, CFA, Chief U.S. Economist at Jefferies, and Michael Bacolas. Simons brings two decades of experience analyzing Federal Reserve policy and is a frequent commentator on CNBC and other major financial media outlets.

The IPO market has reopened to the industry, and private equity is playing an increasingly important role. Meanwhile, the defense sector, as reflected by the ITA ETF, returned more than 38% so far this year, far outpacing the S&P 500.

As oil and gas M&A activity has surged over the past two years, a relatively new financing structure has quietly moved from the margins of the market to the centre of some of its most competitive deal processes.

In a recent edition of Greed & Fear, Chris Wood argues that the multi-year AI investment cycle has entered a new phase, with pricing power moving from hyperscaler cloud providers to memory producers. SK Hynix and Micron have been key beneficiaries, with market capitalizations rising alongside contract prices for advanced memory.

Crafting a narrative is a medium that transcends the entertainment industry. While the shift from media executive to entrepreneur and investor is one with many parallels across roles, few have succeeded in leveraging both lenses as aptly as Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Jefferies’ latest Human Capital Survey, which compares attitudes in the Japanese labor force to those in the U.S. and U.K., provides valuable insights.

Challenges are mounting for subprime consumers, who could be hit unusually hard if the economy turns south

Jim Walsh, Vice Chairman and Global Head of Consumer, Retail & REGAL Investment Banking, who has over 30 years of experience in the consumer sector shares his thoughts on how U.S. consumers are doing and companies’ opportunities and challenges in the current environment.