We review the CEF market valuation and performance through the first week of July and highlight recent market action. CEF sectors rallied this week, with tightening discounts pushing valuations into an expensive zone. Debate continues on CEF distribution sustainability, especially for equity funds like UTG.

XLF offers an attractive, diversified mix of financial stocks, including banks, insurers, payment processors, and private market leaders, balancing growth and defensiveness. The ETF's ultra-low 0.08% expense ratio and industry-leading scale make it the most cost-effective and efficient way to gain financial sector exposure. While XLF trades at a historically high valuation, this is in line with broader market trends, and sector-relative valuation remains reasonable.

Heritage Insurance has completed a successful turnaround, shifting to disciplined underwriting, geographic diversification, and product optimization, resulting in robust profitability and improved margins. The company's risk profile is significantly de-risked, with most insured value now outside Florida and a strong, cost-effective reinsurance program in place. Valuation remains attractive, as HRTG trades at a discount to peers despite strong earnings growth, resilient balance sheet, and favorable market tailwinds from Florida tort reforms.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has made history by becoming the first company in the world to reach a market capitalization of $4 trillion, a figure that now represents a sizable share of global GDP.

TRIN is one of the two venture capital BDCs that I identified in 2024 as reasonable candidates for durable income portfolios. Since then, TRIN has delivered ~17% in total returns. Currently, the BDC trades at a premium of ~11%.

Nvidia is the undisputed king of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The company has a dominant share in the graphics processing unit (GPU) market, where its chips provide the processing power necessary to run AI workloads.

Amazon Prime Day, the four-day period during which the e-commerce company offers special deals and signs up new Prime members, helped lift total online sales across America by 30.3% for the period to $24.1 billion.

JBND is an actively managed fund aiming to outperform the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. Spoiler: It's succeeding. Interesting comparison with the AGG ETF: it's immediately clear that over 50% of JBND's holdings aren't in AGG. Careful: it's not a flexible fund. The prospectus shows clear guidelines (which I like).

The new CEO is focused on stabilizing expenses, driving organic growth through cross-selling, and transforming its payments business to target affluent clients. Despite historical valuation challenges, the new CEO's strategic priorities aim to improve returns and unlock shareholder value. Currently, most of the bank loans are residential mortgages and commercial loans, both of which could experience higher demand from a potential rate cut in Q3.

Eagle Point Credit offers a high yield but suffers from massive share dilution, premium to NAV, and a poor long-term track record. ECC consistently pays out more in dividends than it earns, leading to ongoing NAV erosion and unsustainable payouts. The fund's focus on high-risk CLO tranches results in volatile returns and significant capital destruction over time.

I assign a 'Strong Buy' rating to FinVolution due to its robust financials, resilient business model, and market underappreciation. FinVolution demonstrates strong revenue growth, expanding margins, healthy liquidity, and consistent shareholder returns through dividends and buybacks. The stock trades at a significant discount to peers, with my DCF model indicating high upside potential over the next decade.

When Lucid Group (LCID -1.72%) went public in 2021, many investors hoped it would be the next Tesla. The electric vehicle (EV) start-up promised cutting-edge technology, luxury appeal, and the potential for explosive growth in the booming EV market.

STIP delivered close to a 9% gain since one year ago, surpassing my 5% total return prediction. The current setup offers an asymmetric opportunity for TIPS to profit from a higher-than-expected inflation outlook and monetary policy easing. I will maintain my hold rating on STIP shares due to the 8% return prospects in the coming 12-month horizon.

Nextracker boasts a rock-solid balance sheet with zero debt, over $760 million in cash, and industry-leading profitability driven by an asset-light model and growing free cash flow. The company is evolving into a vertically integrated solar tech platform with acquisitions like Bentek and Ojjo, offering full-stack solutions that enhance margins and customer stickiness. Positioned at the center of the utility-scale solar boom, Nextracker is benefiting from global decarbonization, favorable policy support (e.g., IRA), and high-growth markets like Europe.

The company's Q2 results and guidance affirm that the strengths present in 2024 and Q1 2025 remain, providing solid cash flow and the ability to improve shareholder value this year, next, and over time.

NRIX's Bexobrutideg shows impressive ORR for refractory CLL/WM. I believe this positions it as a potential best-in-class BTK degrader in a sizable TAM. Nurix Therapeutics also works with other big pharma like Gilead, Sanofi, and Pfizer to expand its promising targeted protein degradation IP franchise. I estimate their cash and marketable securities provide roughly 1.9 years of cash runway based on NRIX's Q1 figures. This is a risk worth considering for long-term investors.

New York Mortgage Trust is a mREIT increasing its reliance on net interest income, pivotting away from direct real estate investments. The company's NYMTI and NYMTG baby bonds offer par value discounts of 2-3%, underperforming the high-yield bond HYG ETF so far this year. Coverage of payments to senior unsecured noteholders has improved in recent quarters.

DRDGOLD experienced 13.5% YoY revenue growth largely due to increasing gold prices, and will likely see further growth as gold's value is projected to increase further. The company's ambitious Vision 2028 expansion plan seems to be well timed and appears likely to succeed. The company's dividend payments may increase substantially after the Vision 2028 investments conclude.

Travelers is a leading P&C insurer, with robust underwriting performance, consistent dividend growth, and significant share buybacks, making it ideal for conservative portfolios. The company excels in generating recurring underwriting income thanks to its specialty insurance divisions, and the improvements made on commercial and personal insurance segments. Travelers demonstrates shareholder commitment through steady dividend growth and aggressive share buybacks, significantly enhancing shareholder value and maintaining a disciplined capital allocation approach.

Investing in the stock market is one way to build enduring, long-term wealth. As an investor, you could choose to invest in high-flying growth stocks, dividend stocks that provide passive income, or more conservative investments that can preserve and grow your investments steadily over time.