Daily Point
_ Dow Jones 53,055.91 (+2.27%)
_ S&P 500 7,537.43 (+2.49%)
_ Nasdaq 26,121.16 (+3.26%)
_ Bitcoin 63,191.99 (+1.04%)
Topline Signals
- Microsoft: The firm has increased its fiscal 2027 capital expenditure estimate to $270 billion, up from a previous projection of $230 billion.
- Stablecoin Market: Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume reached a record $1.79 trillion in June 2026, representing a 63% increase from the previous month.
- Semiconductor Industry: Global memory industry revenue is projected to reach $1.76 trillion in 2027, nearly doubling from the $992 billion forecast for 2026.
Good day.
The market’s recent milestone, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaching 53,000, serves as a reminder that structural mega-trends often ignore the static of daily volatility. While the broader indices reflect a robust appetite for risk, particularly within the semiconductor and software sectors, the true narrative is found in the massive reallocation of capital toward AI infrastructure and sovereign digital assets. We are witnessing a fundamental shift in how global enterprises and nation-states define value. The record-breaking $1.79 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume is not merely a data point; it is the infrastructure of a new global settlement layer taking shape beneath the legacy financial system.
As we look toward the upcoming FOMC meeting minutes and the release of jobless claims, do not be distracted by the short-term noise surrounding interest rate speculation. The real story is the relentless, multi-hundred-billion-dollar capital expenditure cycle being driven by hyperscalers. When companies like Microsoft adjust their fiscal 2027 CapEx upward to $270 billion, they are signaling a multi-year commitment to building the physical and digital architecture of the next decade. This is not a cyclical trade; it is the foundation of the 2026 structural economy.
For the long-term investor, the lesson is clear: focus on the entities that control the bottlenecks of this new era. Whether it is the advanced logic wafer supply dominated by TSMC, the custom ASIC design capabilities of Broadcom, or the sovereign adoption of blockchain rails, your capital should be positioned in assets that benefit from this structural expansion. The volatility we see in individual stocks—like the recent fluctuations in memory producers or the strategic Bitcoin sales by large holders—is simply the market pricing in the transition from an era of easy money to an era of industrial-scale AI deployment.
Maintain your discipline. The wealth-building process requires the patience to hold through the noise while the underlying thesis matures. As you review your portfolio this week, ask yourself if your holdings are aligned with this massive, multi-year buildout of physical and digital infrastructure. If they are, let the market volatility work for you rather than against you. The transition to a high-bandwidth, AI-integrated global economy is still in its early stages, and the most significant rewards will accrue to those who remain invested in the structural winners of this decade.
Weekly Schedule
7 Jul (Tuesday)
FOMC Member Bowman Speaks
ADP Employment Change Weekly
Trade Balance
Exports
Imports
NY Fed 1-Year Consumer Inflation Expectations
Atlanta Fed GDPNow
EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook
3-Year Note Auction
API Weekly Crude Oil Stock
8 Jul (Wednesday)
Crude Oil Inventories
Cushing Crude Oil Inventories
Atlanta Fed GDPNow
10-Year Note Auction
FOMC Meeting Minutes
Consumer Credit
9 Jul (Thursday)
Initial Jobless Claims
Continuing Jobless Claims
FOMC Member Williams Speaks
Existing Home Sales
Existing Home Sales
30-Year Bond Auction
PepsiCo Earnings Call
10 Jul (Friday)
German CPI
IEA Monthly Report
WASDE Report
U.S. Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count
U.S. Baker Hughes Total Rig Count
CFTC S&P 500 speculative net positions
CFTC Nasdaq 100 speculative net positions
CFTC Gold speculative net positions
CFTC Crude Oil speculative net positions
11 Jul (Saturday)
12 Jul (Sunday)
13 Jul (Monday)
Federal Budget Balance
General
Mortgage and refinance rates today, Monday, July 6: Purchase rates currently higher than refi rates
According to average rates from the Zillow lender marketplace, the current 30-year fixed rate fell by 4 basis points to 6.40%, the 15-year fixed rate was unchanged at 5.86%, and the 5/1 ARM rose by 6 basis points to 6.52%.
U.S. inflation outlook underpins bitcoin bulls after best week since March
The U.S. two-year breakeven inflation rate, the financial market's expectations of price pressure in the economy over two years, has dropped below 2% for the first time since 2024. That’s when the deflationary impulse from falling oil prices should remind everyone that the Fed isn’t going to hike and that - if anything - the next move will be a cut," Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, said in a report.
Dollar edges up; keeps yen pinned near 40-year lows
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the U.S. currency against six peers, hit a 13-month peak last week, but has since retreated as expectations for a July rate hike have faded. New Chair Kevin Warsh has given little away so far, other than to say last week that anyone thinking the Fed may go easy on inflation, which he acknowledged had cooled recently, could be "disappointed".
Market Digest: GIS
The average price for a gallon of regular gas is now $3.83, down eight cents week over week. The Atlanta Fed GDPNow forecast calls for 2Q GDP growth of 1.2%, compared to 3.0% back in mid-June. The Cleveland Fed Inflation Nowcast calls for a CPI reading of 3.9% for June and 3.5% in July. Mortgage rates slid six basis points last week, with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage now at 6.43%, according to FreddieMac. The next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting is on July 29, with odds now at 18% for a rate hike at that meeting, this after the weaker-than-expected June jobs report
Gold Slips as Stronger U.S. Dollar Weighs on Bullion
Inflation and labour market conditions remain the two primary factors guiding the Fed's monetary policy decisions. Persistent inflation combined with a resilient jobs market increases the likelihood of tighter policy. Higher interest rates typically weigh on gold because they raise the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets. This dynamic has been one of the main factors limiting bullion's performance throughout the year after it reached record highs in January. Federal Reserve officials indicated during their June meeting that persistent inflation could still justify at least one additional interest rate increase this year.
How the Average $60,000 Salary Becomes $1 Million, and Why Most Stop at $251,400
Saving just 8.4% of a $60,000 salary at a 7% real return over 40 years compounds to over $1 million. The national personal savings rate of 3.9% in Q1 2026 leaves a $60,000 earner on track for only $467,000 at retirement. Fidelity data from 24.8 million 401(k) participants shows average balances peak around $251,400 at ages 65 to 69, far below the $1.6 million needed. The personal savings rate was 3.9% in the first quarter of 2026, down from 6.2% in the first quarter of 2024. At a 3.9% savings rate, a $60,000 earner is putting away about $2,340 a year. Inflation makes the squeeze worse. Real average hourly earnings sat at $11.23 in May 2026, and core PCE inflation stood at 130.08 in May 2026, which was its 90.9th percentile reading over the trailing year. Fidelity's Q3 2025 retirement analysis, covering 24.8 million participants across 26,000 plans, shows how the balances stack up by age at the end of 2024: Ages 30-34: $45,700 Ages 40-44: $109,100 Ages 50-54: $199,900 Ages 60-64: $246,500 Ages 65-69: $251,400 The typical 401(k) participant stops accumulating at around $251,400.
Stocks mixed as weak miners weigh in muted trade
The S&P Global UK construction purchasing managers' index edged up to 38.4 in June from 38.2 in May, remaining well below the 50-point threshold that separates growth from contraction. The headline S&P Global US Services PMI business activity index rose to 51.2 in June, below an earlier "flash" reading of 51.3, but up from 50.7 in May. The ISM services PMI registered 54.0 in June, the 24th consecutive month in expansion territory, in line with FXStreet consensus but down from May's figure of 54.5. The US 10-year Treasury yield traded at 4.49% on Monday, stretched from 4.46% on Thursday, and the US 30-year Treasury yield widened to 5.00% from 4.97% on Thursday. Gold traded at 4,148.94 dollars an ounce on Monday, down from 4,167.57 dollars on Friday.
The Income Ladder: What It Takes To Go From $250 To $5,000 A Month
The personal saving rate was 3.0% in May 2026, while average annual household expenditures reached $78,535 in the 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey. That gap helps explain why the income-ladder question keeps surfacing: what does it actually take to manufacture a paycheck from a portfolio when wages alone fall short? The math is unforgiving but simple. Income target divided by yield equals capital required. Every figure below is a function of that one equation, applied across three distinct risk profiles. The 10-year Treasury recently sat near 4.4%, and the FDIC’s national average 12-month CD rate was 1.65%, which is the backdrop against which every dividend yield should be measured. NextEra Energy yielded about 2.8%, with management guiding roughly 10% annual dividend growth through 2026 and 6% annual growth from year-end 2026 through 2028. Producing $5,000 a month at a blended 3.5% yield from this group requires roughly $1,714,000. That is the steepest capital requirement and buys the least income today. The tradeoff is a payout that can grow over time, as JNJ’s quarterly dividend did when it rose from $1.01 in 2021 to $1.34 in 2026. At a 6% blended yield, $5,000 monthly drops the capital needed to $1 million, and $1,000 monthly takes about $200,000. The compromise is meaningful. Higher-yield stocks often offer slower dividend growth, and Verizon’s quarterly payout rose from $0.6275 in 2021 to $0.7075 in 2026. That is useful income, but it has not kept pace with the broader inflation reflected in the CPI-U’s climb to 335.123 in May 2026. The capital math is seductive: $5,000 monthly at 12% needs only $500,000. The cost can show up in the price chart, net asset value, or supplemental payout policy. BDCs can be useful income vehicles, but their distributions depend on credit conditions, portfolio performance, interest rates, and management’s willingness to keep paying extras. NextEra’s quarterly dividend has climbed from $0.425 in 2022 to $0.6232 in 2026. An investor who bought and held the same number of shares over that period is now earning roughly 47% more income on those shares. A 12% payer with a flat or shrinking distribution offers more today but can lose ground every year after inflation is considered. Per-capita disposable personal income was $69,007 in May 2026, while the quarterly figure was $68,391 in the first quarter. Many households will find their replacement number is smaller than they assumed once mortgage, payroll tax, and commute costs decline or disappear. A 60/30/10 mix across conservative, moderate, and aggressive sleeves can produce about a 5% blended yield if the sleeves yield 3.5%, 7%, and 12%, respectively. That structure may carry less distribution and drawdown risk than an all-BDC portfolio. Many REIT and BDC distributions are taxed as ordinary income at federal marginal rates that currently top out at 37%, while qualified dividends from companies such as JNJ and PG can receive lower long-term capital gains tax rates.
Traders Are Most Positive on Dollar Since 2015 as Fed Hike Looms
Wagers on a stronger dollar have increased to nearly $40 billion as of June 30 — the highest amount in more than a decade, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Monday.
Stock Market Today, July 6: Semiconductor Momentum Lifts Nasdaq as Dow Closes Above 53,000
The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +1.12%) gained 1.12% to 26,121 as semiconductor strength persisted, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.72%) rose 0.72% to 7,537.43 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.29%) climbed 0.29% to 53,055.91, marking its first close above the 53,000 milestone. Gold prices rose 1.23% to $4,176.30 as of U.S. market close, while the 10-Year Treasury yield edged up 0.01% to 4.49%.
President Donald Trump Took a Direct Jab at the Fed, Yet Again -- and It's a Disaster in the Making for Wall Street
Despite recent all-time highs for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite, U.S. inflation is fostering worry among investors on Wall Street. The FOMC cutting the federal funds target rate six times to its current range of 3.50%-3.75%, Trump has been adamant that policymakers reduce interest rates to 1% or lower. Nine out of 18 officials have at least one hike this year (and six of those 9 have multiple hikes). Only one person has a cut this year, and one participant (presumably Warsh) didn't submit an SEP
Recent Rumblings From the Fed Could Make This Vanguard Bond ETF a Better Buy
According to a June 30 interview with CNBC, Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack said that the artificial intelligence (AI) boom could be causing inflation, with high demand for AI infrastructure and energy driving higher costs in the economy. Hammack said: "We've got inflation that's too high, and it's been too high for the past five years. ... [W]hen I look at policy if that continues, it may mean that we need higher interest rates to bring inflation back down to target."
All to play for
Global earnings are forecast to rise more than 20% over the coming year. This growth has been driven largely by tech, provided a major tailwind to markets and should continue to drive them higher, more than offsetting any drag from high valuations. The headline rate fell back to 2.8% in June from an energy-related high of 3.2% in May, while the core rate eased to 2.4% from 2.6%. It is a similar story for UK rates with the market continuing to believe they could be nudged up 0.25% to 4.00% late this year. The long-awaited release of the Defence Investment Plan which boosts defence spending by £15bn over the next four years.
Bitcoin
Ripple's preliminary crypto asset provider license in Luxembourg upgraded to fully compliant
Ripple said Monday that Luxembourg upgraded its preliminary Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization under the European Union’s (EU) Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations to a full license. The CASP license Ripple announced Monday makes the company one of a small number of digital asset firms to have full authorization under MiCA, which became law three years ago and came into full force on July 1.
Bitcoin's Sharpe Ratio slides to lowest since 2022. Here's what it means.
Bitcoin's 365-day rolling Sharpe Ratio plummeted to -21 at the end of June, the lowest since late 2022, according to data source CryptoQuant. It was recently hovering just short of -20. This deeply negative reading indicates that a bitcoin investor over the period took on extra market volatility while generating a return far worse than they could have earned on a risk-free investment, such as the 10-year U.S. Treasury note. The benchmark bond recently offered a yield of around 4.45%.
Crypto bounces back from the brink as altcoin optimism returns despite pockets of weakness
BTC holds at $62,800 after last week's brush with $58,000, while LIT surges 50% and the Altcoin Season indicator hits its highest reading in three months. Lighter (LIT) is emerging as a focal point for traders seeking the next hyperliquid, rising 13.5% in 24 hours and more than 50% in a week as its decentralized derivatives exchange accumulates $40 billion in 30-day trading volume. CoinMarketCap's Altcoin Season indicator climbed to 52/100, its highest in three months. Open interest in LTC$44.69 has jumped to 7.14 million tokens, the most since May 12. Open interest in Lighter DEX’s LIT token is also rising, reaching one-month highs as the bullish tokenomics overhaul supports its price. Bitcoin's and ether’s 30-day implied volatility indices, BVIV and EVIV, remain under pressure after double-digit weekly declines, reflecting continued supply of options.
Ripple’s MiCA Win Raises a Hard Question for XRP
Ripple has secured full MiCA authorisation in Luxembourg, giving the company a regulated route to offer cryptoasset services across the European Economic Area. The approval from Luxembourg's financial regulator, the CSSF, comes days after the European Union's MiCA transition period ended. From July 2026, crypto firms need proper authorisation to keep serving EU clients. Ripple says the authorisation makes its regulated crypto payments product available to financial institutions, corporates, and businesses across all 30 EEA countries. That is where Ripple's business appears to be heading. The company is no longer defined only by XRP. Its recent strategy points toward regulated payment rails, stablecoin settlement, and institutional crypto services.
The Chances of the Clarity Act Passing This Year Are Now 50/50. Here's the Most Likely Scenario for the Crypto Market in 2026.
The odds of Congress passing the crypto regulation bill, the Clarity Act, are down to a coin toss. Though they're much clearer than in yesteryear, U.S. crypto rules today are a patchwork of enforcement actions and interpretive releases that a future administration could rewrite on a whim. The Clarity Act would create a framework and make it into statute, sorting tokens into three buckets: digital commodities like Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) to be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); fundraising tokens to be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and payment stablecoins to be overseen by banking regulators. If it isn't passed before the August recess, the path to passing it at all this year narrows to September, and then to right after the midterms. In particular, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization -- the process of putting Treasuries, private credit, stocks, and many other types of asset on a blockchain as a crypto token for the purpose of trading or management -- has grown from about $12 billion in early July 2025 to nearly $32 billion today, all without a federal statute. Give institutional allocators that statute, and there will likely be big inflows to the chains that are already leaders in tokenized assets, like Ethereum, Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), among others.
Russia's largest bank plans crypto wallet launch as Moscow clears market path
Russia's largest bank plans crypto wallet launch as Moscow clears market path Services will integrate into "Sberbank Online" and "SberInvestments" once the "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights" bill takes effect in September. - Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, plans to introduce a crypto wallet and digital depository by December, pending the adoption of new digital asset legislation. - Services will integrate into "Sberbank Online" and "SberInvestments" once the "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights" bill takes effect in September. Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, plans to offer a cryptocurrency wallet and digital depository by December, bringing the financial institution into a market the country spent years trying to contain. The new services will be added to its Sberbank Online and SberInvestments platforms after Russia adopts its bill “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” according to Kirill Tsarev, first deputy chairman of the bank's management board. The law is expected to take effect Sept. 1, according to Bank of Russia First Deputy Chairman Vladimir Chistyukhin, local news outlet RBC reported. The wallet would give Sberbank clients access to authorized cryptocurrencies inside the bank’s own apps. Sberbank also plans to build a digital depository for storing and accounting for the tokens. "As regulations emerge, we will prepare a service for our clients. Essentially, it will be a crypto wallet, which we will implement first in Sberbank Online and SberInvestments,” Tsarev said. The legislation creates licenses for firms to engage in crypto trading, custody, digital-to-fiat exchange and cross-border settlements. Non-qualified investors will be allowed to trade under testing requirements and limits capped at roughly 300,000 rubles (around $3,800) per year, while market participants will have until July 1, 2027, to enter the official registry. Russia’s complicated crypto history The developments follow years of resistance from the Bank of Russia. In January 2022, the central bank called for a broad ban on crypto trading, mining, and usage, citing risks to financial stability and monetary policy. Russia’s government was less hostile. The Finance Ministry pushed a regulatory bill over the central bank's objections, keeping crypto payments prohibited while creating a path for licensed trading. After the country’s invasion of Ukraine started, President Vladimir Putin signed a law in 2022 tightening the ban on using cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services in Russia. Cross-border use became the exception after sanctions cut Russian banks off from parts of the global payments system. Russia legalized crypto mining and an experimental cross-border settlement regime in 2024, giving the central bank authority to approve selected firms for foreign trade transactions. The Moscow Exchange (MOEX) has also been moving into the cryptocurrency space, with the rollout of cash-settled futures contracts tied to various coins. VTB and T-Bank, two other major financial institutions, are working on digital depositories after the law takes effect, RBC’s report added.
Binance Halts Crypto Trading in France and Parts of Europe After Missing MiCA License
Around 2 million users in France can still withdraw their assets but can no longer access spot, margin, or other trading services. The move marks one of the highest-profile consequences of the bloc's new crypto framework, leaving millions of users unable to access spot, margin, and other trading services while highlighting the growing importance of regulatory compliance in Europe's digital asset market. Although customers can still withdraw their assets, the restrictions affect an estimated 2 million Binance users in France alone and come as licensed rivals such as Coinbase and OKX seek to attract traders looking for uninterrupted access to the EU market. From July 1, Binance users in France and several other European countries, including Italy, Poland, and Spain, lost access to spot trading, margin trading, and other covered services because the exchange had not obtained the required MiCA authorization. Binance confirmed that customer funds remain safe and that withdrawals remain available. However, users wishing to continue trading must either wait for Binance to secure a license or transfer their assets to another regulated platform. According to industry data, only 244 MiCA licenses had been granted by late June, despite roughly 3,000 applications, underscoring the rigorous approval process crypto firms face. France represents one of Binance's largest European markets, with the exchange estimating it serves around 2 million local users. The disruption has created an opportunity for competitors that completed MiCA licensing earlier.
Strategy (MSTR) Sells 3,588 Bitcoin to Cover Preferred Dividends
Strategy (MSTR) sold a record 3,588 bitcoin for $216 million to fund preferred stock dividends.
MicroStrategy Sold 7x More Bitcoin Than Reports Suggested
As of July 5, 2026, we hodl ₿843,775 in our BTC Reserves and $2.55 billion in our USD Reserves," Saylor confirmed. Combined, the transactions reduced the company's Bitcoin holdings by 3,588 BTC, leaving Strategy with 843,775 BTC, still the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury in the world. The sale also represents a notable shift in Strategy's treasury management. While the company has built its reputation on aggressively accumulating Bitcoin, it recently introduced a monetization framework allowing selective BTC sales to support corporate financing activities. Even after the sale, the company retains 843,775 BTC alongside $2.55 billion in U.S. dollar reserves, reflecting the scale of its balance sheet.
Strive (ASST) Adds 17.76 Bitcoin as Falling Prices Boost Its Quarterly Yield
Strive (ASST) added a symbolic 17.76 BTC, pushing its treasury to 19,882 bitcoin as a sharp quarterly accumulation spree delivered a 24% BTC yield.
Strategy stock falls after $8.32B bitcoin loss and BTC sales
The company recorded $8.31 billion in unrealized losses and $0.9 million in realized losses during the quarter, according to a regulatory filing. Strategy sold bitcoin in two separate transactions, first selling 1,363 bitcoin between June 29 and June 30 for $80.8 million at an average price of $59,256, followed by an additional 2,225 bitcoin between July 1 and July 5 for $135.2 million at an average price of $60,773. As of June 30, 2026, Strategy held 846,000 bitcoin with a carrying value of $49.67 billion and an aggregate purchase price of $63.94 billion, reflecting an average purchase price of $75,578 per bitcoin. Strategy's USD reserve stood at $2.55 billion as of July 5.
Bitcoin and ethereum prices today, Monday, July 6, 2026: Prices falling after last week's rebound
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) opened at $63,589.95 on Monday, July 6, 2026, 0.8% higher than Sunday's opening price. Ethereum (ETH-USD) opened at $1,784.15 on Monday, July 6, 2026, up 0.3% from Sunday's opening price. The prices of bitcoin and ethereum continued to rise this morning at open following a June jobs report that missed expectations last week. Analysts had expected a gain of over 100,000 jobs last month and an unemployment rate of 4.3% for the fourth month in a row. Instead, the economy added 57,000 new jobs, and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.2%. One year ago: -41.2% The all-time high for bitcoin was $126,198.07 on Oct. 6, 2025. One year ago: -29.1% The all-time high for ethereum was $4,953.73 on Aug. 24, 2025.
Robinhood Will Pay 7% on USDG to 27.7 Million Customers. Here Is Where the Yield Comes From
Funds supplied through Robinhood Earn are deposited into a Morpho vault, then allocated across Morpho lending markets. Borrowers post collateral from protocols such as Spark, Ethena, and Maple to borrow USDG, and the yield paid to users comes from the interest charged on those loans. Those borrowers are largely market makers and liquidity providers who need USDG to run spot and perpetuals trading. In plain terms, a retail deposit is funding a professional trader's leverage, and the depositor collects the interest. Morpho holds roughly $6.6 billion (as of June 2026) in total value locked across chains, and the first vault is curated by Steakhouse Financial and incorporates Maple Finance's syrupUSDG, an institutional credit product built on the Paxos-issued Global Dollar.
Strategy Sells $225M More BTC as Bitcoin Holds Steady
Strategy sold 1,363 BTC for $80.8 million between June 29 and June 30, then another 2,225 BTC for $135.2 million between July 1 and July 5. Strategy announced it sold another 2,225 BTC between July 1 and July 5 for $135.2 million, bringing its total sales over the past two weeks to roughly $225 million.
Strategy Sells $216 Million Worth Of Bitcoin
Strategy, led by Chairman Michael Saylor, sold 3,588 Bitcoin for net proceeds of $216 million U.S., reducing its holdings to 843,775 BTC, according to a U.S. regulatory filing. As of July 5, Strategy had $2.55 billion U.S. of cash on hand. Strategy now owns 843,775 BTC acquired for $63.69 billion U.S., or an average purchase price of $75,476 U.S. per Bitcoin. The preferred stock of Strategy pays a bi-monthly (twice per month) dividend that yields 12%.
Michael Saylor’s New MSTR Playbook Is Already Costing Investors: 17% of Bitcoin Sale Capacity Gone
The Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) market has spent years rewarding companies that accumulated as much cryptocurrency as possible. That strategy worked brilliantly while Bitcoin prices climbed and capital remained easy to access. But higher financing costs, growing leverage, and the emergence of preferred stock obligations are forcing some companies to rethink the rules. Strategy announced last week that selling Bitcoin could be used to support dividends on its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock (NASDAQ:STRC) and strengthen corporate liquidity. The change marked a major departure from Michael Saylor's long-standing message that Bitcoin was an asset to accumulate, not sell. Strategy authorized up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin sales that could be used to support its financial obligations, including preferred dividend payments. This morning, Strategy disclosed it had sold 3,588 Bitcoin for approximately $216 million to fund preferred stock dividends and bolster cash reserves. That single transaction consumed roughly 17% of the entire $1.25 billion sales authorization in less than a week. The most important takeaway isn't the size of the sale. It's who benefits. STRC preferred shareholders are entitled to dividend payments before common shareholders receive anything. By selling Bitcoin to ensure those payments continue, Strategy is effectively prioritizing preferred investors over common stock owners. Strategy has already used more than 17% of its $1.25 billion Bitcoin sales authorization after unloading 3,588 BTC for $216 million. The move protects STRC preferred shareholders and strengthens cash reserves, but it also shifts risk onto common shareholders who expected maximum Bitcoin exposure.
Here’s what happened in crypto today
At least $5 million has been drained from exposed wallets since May 27, though there could have been exploits on additional networks and addresses, meaning the number of wallets at risk may be much higher. Binance saw $1.23 billion in net outflows during the week beginning June 29, a 207% increase from roughly $400 million the week prior, while monthly net outflows totaled about $3.2 billion. Binance’s Ethereum withdrawal transactions hit their highest level in more than three years, with over 166,000 withdrawal transactions in a single day.
Bitcoin price falls up to 4% on Strategy BTC sale as trader sees Summer 2022 repeat
Strategy revealed that it sold 3,588 BTC through July 5 to fund preferred stock dividend payments and replenish cash reserves. The markets are reacting with a shock response to this news. $BTC drops, and it's clearly valuing the potential impact that Strategy can continue to sell Bitcoin going forward,” he wrote on X. “However, I wouldn't be surprised to see a message in the coming days that they've been buying more $BTC than they've sold.”
Michael Saylor's Strategy sells Bitcoin again
As per a filing on July 6, the company sold 3,588 BTC for $216 million between June 29 and July 5. The company's USD Reserve, which backs preferred dividend and interest payments, stood at $2.55 billion as of July 5, and the full $1.25 billion capacity under its BTC Monetization Program, announced June 29, remains untapped. Strategy reported an $8.32 billion loss on digital assets for the second quarter, nearly all of it unrealized, and said it will record a full valuation allowance against related deferred tax assets as a result.
One month that shook the market: Saylor's struggles over bitcoin strategy yields big losses
Strategy now holds 843,775 bitcoin purchased at an average price of $75,476, maintaining its position as the largest publicly traded corporate holder of the cryptocurrency. Alongside today's news of the sizable bitcoin sales, the company also disclosed that it had booked an $8.32 billion loss on its BTC holdings in the second quarter as the price fell from about $68,000 on April 1 to close June at roughly $60,000.
Circle’s USDC is leaving Tether behind in the stablecoin volume race, new data from Visa shows
Circle's USDC is leaving Tether behind in the stablecoin volume race, new data from Visa shows As Wall Street banks adopt digital currencies for faster settlements, overall trading volume spiked 63% in just a single month. - Circle’s USDC accounted for about 70 percent of adjusted stablecoin transaction volume in the first half of 2026, widening its lead over Tether’s USDT, which held roughly 25 percent. - Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume hit a record $1.79 trillion in June 2026, up 63 percent from May and 125 percent from June 2025, contributing to $8.82 trillion in volume for the first six months of the year. Circle’s USDC stablecoin widened its lead over competitor Tether’s USDT by transaction volume during the first half of 2026, according to fresh data from Visa’s onchain dashboard. In June alone, stablecoin activity increased to a record $1.79 trillion in adjusted transaction volume, up 63% from May's $1.1 trillion and 125% from about $795 billion in June 2025.
TeraWulf shares rise after $19B Anthropic AI lease, JV sale
Blocksbridge Consulting estimated in June that public Bitcoin miners pursuing AI infrastructure may need roughly $50 billion in near-term capital, as AI data centers require far greater investment than traditional Bitcoin mining facilities.
Will XRP (Ripple) Hit $2 Again in 2026?
XRP ETF inflows to $8 billion, which is over five times what the funds have attracted so far. Most analysts already expect XRP to end 2026 above $2. Forecasts cluster between $2 and $4, and Bitwise predicts XRP would hit $4.94. Even Standard Chartered, which cut its target from $8 to $2.80 in February, expects the token to end the year well above $2. XRP ETFs have pulled in around $1.49 billion since launch, and money still arrives most weeks. Moreover, July has also historically been XRP's best month, averaging a 10.4% gain since 2013—and the token is already up about 8% this month.
Michael Saylor predicts Bitcoin's next decade
The halving still matters, but it's no longer the story Saylor was clear that the halving itself remains structurally significant. In an X post on July 5, he mentioned that reducing new supply every four years reinforces the credibility of Bitcoin's 21-million-coin cap and remains a core part of its monetary architecture. That hasn't changed. ETF flows, corporate treasury allocations, sovereign reserve decisions, bank credit, derivatives markets, insurance capital, and structured credit products, these, in his framing, are now the variables that matter. "This is the next phase of Bitcoin adoption: not just more buyers, but more balance sheets," Saylor said.
Bitmine announces $74M Ether buys as chair says ‘greater chances of Clarity Act passage’
Bitmine holds about 4.8% of the token’s total supply, or roughly 121 million ETH. Strategy on Monday reported selling $216 million worth of BTC to fund its dividend payments, reducing its total holdings to 843,775 Bitcoin.
Trump-Backed American Bitcoin (ABTC) Pushes Treasury Past 8,000 BTC
American Bitcoin (Nasdaq: ABTC) said its treasury has surpassed 8,000 BTC.
Bitcoin recovers from Strategy's BTC sale, funding rates hit 9%: Are bulls back?
Bitcoin sold off as news of Strategy selling BTC shook investors’ nerve but the quick rebound suggests bulls remain ambitiously positioned. The Bitcoin perpetual futures annualized funding rate jumped to 9% on Monday, indicating balanced demand between bullish and bearish leverage. Transfers from long-term holders to exchanges are down to 4,130 BTC per day on average, from 8,040 BTC one week prior.
Strategy sells $216M Bitcoin, Bollinger bullish on BTC: Hodler's Digest, June 29-July 6, 2026
US President Donald Trump has responded to criticism of his 2025 financial disclosures, showing that he earned $1.4 billion in income from crypto-related ventures while in office. In a Thursday interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, Trump said that there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” with profiting from his crypto investments as president. He claimed that other people were responsible for his investments and he didn’t “even know who they are,” not directly answering questions about perceived conflicts of interest as president. Trump’s comments followed the release of his 2025 financial disclosure report by the US Office of Government Ethics, showing that he took in more than $2 billion from his businesses and investments, about $1.4 billion of which was connected to crypto projects like his memecoin and family’s platform World Liberty Financial. Many advocacy organizations have characterized the investments as a “grift” allowing the president to influence related legislation like the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. Trump disclosed that his memecoin generated about $636 million, World Liberty sales about $588 million and $197 million from equity in a stablecoin venture. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the US lawmakers behind negotiations for a digital asset market structure bill in Congress, has proposed barring elected officials and the president from issuing or sponsoring their own tokens, citing President Donald Trump’s and First Lady Melania Trump’s memecoins. In a Friday notice, Gillibrand said that Congress should support measures barring elected officials and their spouses from “issuing or sponsoring their own digital assets.” The New York lawmaker said that the proposed restriction would include any US president and their spouse, but did not specifically mention extending the provision to the office of the vice president or other members of their families. “This is a commonsense requirement that should get broad bipartisan support – public officials and their spouses should not be issuing memecoins,” said Gillibrand. “We cannot let self-dealing destroy an opportunity to strengthen consumer protections, crack down on illicit finance, and expand economic opportunity for the millions of Americans our financial system has left behind.” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has named quantum resistance, scalability and privacy as three of Ethereum's top priorities under a new "Lean Ethereum" strawmap, which lays out the network's technical direction for the remainder of the decade. In a post to X on Saturday, Buterin said the collection of upgrades will roll out over the next three to four years, touching nearly every layer of Ethereum in a transformation he compared in scale to the September 2022 Merge, which shifted the network away from energy-intensive mining. “Quantum safety has shifted up a LOT in priority,” he said, adding that finalizing a quantum-safe solution for blobs has “become urgent.” Enhancing privacy is another priority, Buterin said, stating that it has become a “first class goal.” Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher behind the payments-focused layer-1 Tempo blockchain, praised the new plan but argued the 3-4 year timeline is too slow, stating that AI could help developers ship the upgrades within a year. More than 140 companies have reportedly signed onto a US dollar-pegged stablecoin project that allows them to “receive all of the earnings” from its reserves. In a Tuesday notice, Open Standard said it was launching the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, a US dollar-pegged coin supported by financial companies including Visa and Mastercard, as well as crypto companies Coinbase, Ripple, OKX and Bybit. The project will allow businesses to mint OUSD “at no cost and with no artificial limits on volume,” and keep earnings from the coin’s reserves. “When Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, Coinbase and Google coordinate on a new stablecoin, the signal is unmistakable,” said Rhino.fi co-founder and CEO Will Harborne. “Open USD is the first launch with a real chance to win share from USDT and USDC, because reserve revenue flows back to everyone who holds it. But that same incentive is what drives fragmentation at scale.” As the week continued, some of the signatories denied making any firm commitments to the consortium. At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $64,039, Ether (ETH) at $1798, and XRP (XRP) is at $1.14. The total market cap is at $2.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are MemeCore (M) at 105%, Lighter (LIT) at 39%, and ether.fi (ETHFI) at 29%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Venice Token (VVV) at -13%, Stable (STABLE) at -10% and Audiera (BEAT) at -5%. John Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger Bands volatility indicator, believes he has spied a “W”-shaped double bottom on BTC/USD on the charts. “$BTC has seen a series of bullish patterns broken, evidence of the power of the downtrend,” he commented in X posts on Friday. "Will this 'W' be the one that breaks the trend?" “W”-shaped reversals involve two swing lows with a rejected rebound in between, with price ultimately breaking through that rejection level to form a new uptrend. Bollinger has been bullish on BTC for some time. In early May, he revealed a new long position via his Bitcoin investment vehicle. As Cointelegraph reported, an increasing number of price indicators are flashing signals not seen since the last bear market in 2022. Despite this, market participants broadly believe that the next macro bottom is still to come and is due in Q3 or later. Billionaire investor and longtime Bitcoin bull Tim Draper said blockchain analytics company Arkham incorrectly linked him to a wallet involved in a large Bitcoin transfer to Coinbase Prime. “It just wasn’t me. I haven’t touched it. Arkham has it wrong,” Draper told Cointelegraph, adding that he still expects Bitcoin to reach $250,000 within one year. The statement came after blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported Friday that a wallet “possibly linked” to Draper had transferred 1,000 Bitcoin worth about $62 million to Coinbase Prime, citing data from Arkham. Draper is best known in the crypto community as one of Bitcoin’s earliest high-profile investors, having won a US Marshals Service auction for nearly 30,000 Bitcoin seized by US authorities from Silk Road-related holdings in 2014. The holdings are now worth $1.9 billion, meaning Draper selling could have a big impact on Bitcoin's. Bitcoin’s realized profit and loss ratio has fallen to a 43-month low of -0.35, a figure that signals extreme market-wide loss conditions but has historically coincided with market bottoms, blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant said. The Bitcoin realized P&L ratio — which measures the net percentage of Bitcoin (BTC) in profit or loss relative to total supply — hasn’t fallen this low since December 2022, shortly after FTX shockingly collapsed and sent Bitcoin below $16,000. “Historically the indicator has marked BTC bottoms with extreme precision,” CryptoQuant said on
US Bitcoin reserve hits snag as federal agencies debate for control: Bloomberg
The US currently holds 328,372 Bitcoin worth $21.1 billion — the most of any nation-state — but has sold portions through court-ordered actions over the years. Under ARMA, Bitcoin must be held for at least 20 years unless it is sold to reduce America’s national debt, which is nearing $40 trillion.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP Flat, Dogecoin Falls Amid Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Push: Analyst Says 'a Lot of' Upside to Come If BTC Does This
Over $500 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with nearly $300 million in bearish short positions erased, according to Coinglass data.
Bitcoin miner TeraWulf soars on a $19 billion AI data-center lease with Anthropic
TeraWulf shares jumped after the former bitcoin miner signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic to provide about 401 megawatts of AI data-center capacity at its Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Ky., starting in 2027. The Anthropic deal is expected to generate roughly $19 billion in contracted revenue over its initial term, exceeding TeraWulf’s roughly $12 billion market value and underscoring how AI hosting is reshaping the economics of former crypto miners. TeraWulf expects the deal to generate roughly $19 billion in contracted revenue over its initial term, backed by what it described as an investment-grade credit. That figure is larger than the entire company. TeraWulf carries a market value around $12 billion, so the lease represents more than the whole business is currently worth in future revenue - a measure of how much the AI buildout is reshaping the economics of companies that once only mined bitcoin. TeraWulf began as a bitcoin miner, running warehouses of specialized computers to earn newly issued coins, a business whose margins tightened after last year's halving cut the mining reward in half.
Bitcoin drops after a run at $64,000, shrugging off Strategy's $213 million BTC sale
Bitcoin traded around $63,170, per CoinDesk data, after touching $64,400 in the early hours and slipping back. The move came despite Strategy's disclosure this week that it sold 3,588 bitcoin for about $216 million, its largest sale since abandoning its never-sell stance, which the market largely absorbed without breaking the recovery. The institutional bid has all but vanished," said Yusuf Fakhro, partner at ARP Digital, pointing to CME futures open interest at a 32-month low and a term structure at its tightest since early 2023.
Strategy’s Bitcoin sale may give BTC a ‘durable bottom,’ Grayscale says
Strategy's $216 million Bitcoin sale on Monday should be seen as a positive development for the price of Bitcoin and as a move that renews confidence in STRC, according to analysts. The sale of 3,588 BTC to fund preferred stock dividend payments and replenish cash has boosted Strategy’s dollar reserves to cover 17 months of dividend payments. “The rebound in STRC suggests investors are responding positively to this decision,” Grayscale Research said Monday. Strategy's dollar reserves now total $2.55 billion, or the equivalent of about 17 months of dividend cover. Meanwhile, the rebound in the price of STRC — which topped $91 for the first time in three weeks on Monday — “suggests investors are now more confident about the instrument,” Pandl said. “By using the proceeds to pad cash reserves for roughly 17 months of STRC dividends, they’ve cut near-term financing pressure and overhang, which helped spark Bitcoin’s quick recovery above $64k while lifting STRC near $90,” Adziima said.
Live markets: Bitcoin and ether ETFs drew inflows on Monday
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in $265.69 million on Monday, the largest daily inflow in over a month and the second in three sessions after July 2 broke a long run of outflows, per SoSoValue data. Ether ETFs added $20.66 million the same day, led by BlackRock's ETHA at $23.29 million. BlackRock's IBIT absorbed $209.40 million of the bitcoin total, with ARKB taking in $32.98 million and Grayscale's mini BTC fund adding $42.25 million. GBTC shed $44.45 million, the only fund in the red. Total bitcoin ETF assets climbed back to $77.32 billion from a June 30 low of $70.95 billion, helped by both the price recovery and the returning bid.
Bitcoin's recent macro relief faces a challenge from Japanese interest rates
The 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) yield has surged to a 30-year high of 2.85%, adding 18 basis points since the start of the month and raising borrowing costs across other major developed markets. This matters for bitcoin because higher government bond yields increase the opportunity cost of holding an asset that generates no cash.
Binance taps into Bitcoin holders’ hunger for yield with new covered call yield play
Binance debuts a bitcoin yield product exclusively for BTC holders. The product runs a systematic covered call strategy, bringing yield-generation strategies to a wider pool of potential investors. BlackRock, for example, recently introduced a Bitcoin income ETF that also uses a covered-call strategy to generate additional returns for holders.
Semiconductor
Jensen Huang Just Named Marvell the Next $1 Trillion Stock. Is the Stock a Buy Following a 129% Surge?
Marvell designs custom chips, known as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), to perform specific tasks. These custom chips have witnessed a phenomenal surge in demand due to their deployment in AI data centers. Goldman Sachs estimates that custom ASIC shipments could equal sales of graphics processing units (GPUs) by next year. That's not surprising, as custom ASICs are ideal for running AI inference workloads since they are designed to perform specific tasks. As a result, these chips are not as complex as general-purpose computing chips like GPUs, and they can perform the specific task they are designed for more efficiently. Hyperscalers and AI companies have been ramping up the deployment of custom ASICs. Marvell noted in May that its custom chip revenue could more than double in the next fiscal year, driven by both new and existing customers. For comparison, the company anticipates its custom ASIC revenue will increase by just 20% in the current fiscal year. In fact, Goldman Sachs is expecting a whopping 9x increase in sales of optical networking components in just two years. That's the reason why Marvell's data center interconnect and switching business is growing rapidly. The company expects a 70% increase in its interconnect business this year, while the switching business is anticipated to generate $1 billion in revenue in fiscal 2028, up from $600 million this year. What's worth noting is that Marvell sees its data center total addressable market (TAM) reaching $94 billion in 2028, driven by growing demand for custom chips, switching, and interconnect solutions. The company believes it can capture 20% of this market in 2028, translating into almost $19 billion in data center revenue.
Micron and Ford Sign Strategic Agreement to Strengthen Long-Term Memory Supply and Industry Resilience
Micron is increasing output of key automotive memory solutions with capacity expansions designed to support long product lifecycles and ensure sustained supply for critical production programs. This agreement is supported by Micron's ongoing investments to expand and localize manufacturing for automotive customers, including its expansion of advanced DRAM production at its Manassas, Virginia fab.
SK Hynix seeks $28 billion in US IPO listing as memory maker rides AI wave
The company intends to use the proceeds for capital expenditures related to expanding production facilities in South Korea and acquiring extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanners, the massive machines manufacturers use to produce advanced chips. SK Hynix along with peers Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and Micron Technology (MU) has been riding the AI wave over the past year as high-bandwidth memory has become a critical bottleneck in AI infrastructure.
SanDisk Rebounds 5%, Western Digital Gains 5%, Micron Climbs 3% as UBS, Citi, BofA Turn Bullish on Memory
Micron's Q3 FY2026 revenue landed at $41.456 billion, with non-GAAP EPS of $25.11 and Q4 guided to $50 billion ± $1 billion. Samsung reports Q3 results on Tuesday, a critical read on high-bandwidth memory pricing and demand.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Are Selling Off, But Taiwan Semiconductor Is Holding Strong. Is It the Ultimate AI Stock?
Taiwan Semiconductor generates 72% of the world's chip foundry revenue. Nvidia told investors during its latest conference call that it expects AI hyperscalers' data center capital expenditures to reach $1 trillion in 2027, up from about $650 billion in 2026. That all plays into the larger, long-term projection of $3 trillion to $4 trillion in annual data center capital expenditure by 2030.
Broadcom Rallies 6% on a Broadened Apple Partnership as AMD Gains 10%, Intel Rises 5%
The Catalyst Lands After Broadcom's Q2 FY2026 Report, Which Showed Revenue of $22.19 Billion, Up 47.9% Year Over Year (YoY), With AI Semiconductor Revenue of $10.8 Billion. CEO Hock Tan Stated on the Call, “The Momentum Continues and in Q3 We Expect Semiconductor Revenue from AI to Grow Over 200 Percent Year-Over-Year to $16.0 Billion.”
HSBC sees more upside in Intel stock on server CPU opportunity
Analyst Frank Lee said server CPU growth "remains the key driver for Intel's earnings growth in 2026/27," raising his 2026 server CPU shipment growth estimate from 20% to 25% year-on-year. His 2026 data center and AI revenue estimate of $24.1 billion sits 4% above consensus. For 2027, Lee raised his server CPU shipment growth forecast from 20% to 30%, with his DCAI revenue estimate of $33.0 billion running 20% above consensus. On the foundry business, HSBC said the narrative is "too good to ignore now," with Intel emerging as a leading alternative to TSMC amid front-end fabrication and advanced packaging constraints. Lee noted that Intel has signed Terafab and Apple as foundry customers and is engaging with Google and Nvidia.
‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry issues blunt 4-word warning on AI stocks
According to Seeking Alpha, Burry posted, "The end is nigh," then added, "Dancing with the devil in the pale moon light," a reference to Jack Nicholson's Joker line from Tim Burton's Batman. Burry wrote that "the AI narrative is nothing more than mass addiction," and warned that "the AI narrative may die a death by a thousand cuts, and I have only seen a few dozen so far." AI semiconductor stocks have sharply outperformed the hyperscale cloud companies funding the infrastructure buildout, as well as broader AI beneficiaries. Another chart showed the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index trading near the top of its 15-year valuation range on forward P/E. Burry argues that chip stocks may have raced ahead of the fundamentals supporting the AI boom. The Philadelphia semiconductor index dropped 6.3% on July 1 and another 5.5% on July 2, while the S&P 500 tanked 0.22% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.66% and 0.80%, respectively. According to Business Insider, he recently disclosed bearish positions via put options on some of the biggest names in tech, including Tesla, Nvidia, Caterpillar, Applied Materials, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF. Memory giant Micron recently became the latest target of this scathing narrative. As covered by TheStreet's top tech reporter, Aditya Raghunath, Burry disclosed on July 1 that he had shorted Micron (MU) shares at $1,051.87, according to a Substack post. According to Reuters, Nvidia hit $5 trillion in market value on Oct. 29, 2025, after its shares climbed 12-fold since ChatGPT's 2022 launch. According to Axios, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle raised $255.34 billion through debt and equity in 2026, while planning roughly $750 billion in AI data center spending by year-end. According to the Financial Times, the Magnificent Seven lost over $2.2 trillion in market value in June 2026. According to Business Insider, hyperscaler AI spending could reach $725 billion this year, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is up 88%. According to Yahoo Finance, BofA's Bubble Risk Indicator put the semiconductor sector at 0.91, flashing near-bubble risk.
Why Intel Stock Bounced Back Today
Intel's CPU shipments will rise 30% this year, generating $24.1 billion in revenue, and that this growth will continue into 2027, reaching $33 billion -- about 20% more than anyone else on Wall Street thinks. Lee sees foundry services (i.e., manufacturing semiconductors for other companies) contributing meaningfully to Intel's revenue haul in the future. He calls the opportunities at Terafab and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) -- and potentially Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), too -- "too good to ignore now," and predicts Intel will finally start stealing market share away from Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM) this year.
Is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) One of the Top AI Stocks to Buy According to Philippe Laffont?
According to Barclay's analyst Simon Coles, the market is clamoring for advanced logic wafer supply, which is translating into booming business for the company. The research firm expects the company's competitive edge to continue growing as capital expenditures are poised to increase from $56 billion in 2026 to $74 billion in 2027.
Exceptional Momentum Powers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s (TSM) Rally
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion. TSM was the second-largest contributor for the quarter, gaining 11% despite significant volatility driven by the Iran conflict and associated risk off selling in March. TSMC's underlying business momentum was exceptional throughout Q1: the company reported January 2026 monthly revenue up 37% year-over-year, February revenue up 22% year-over-year, and March revenue surging 45% year-over-year, with Q1 2026 revenue totaling approximately $35.6 billion, up 35% year-over-year and above expectations. The $56 billion capital expenditure plan for 2026 and management's announcement that capacity is effectively sold out through year-end underscored the durability of AI chip demand.
Marvell Technology Has Trillion-Dollar Ambitions. Here Is What the Timeline Could Look Like.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2027 (ending May 2), Marvell's revenue rose 28% year over year to nearly $2.4 billion, while operating cash flow reached a record $639 million. Management also expects fiscal 2027 revenue to be roughly $11.5 billion, up 40% year over year. The data center business is the key growth engine. Management expects data center revenue to grow about 50% year over year in fiscal 2027 and 55% in fiscal 2028. Marvell also expects the custom chip business to exceed $10 billion in revenue by fiscal 2029. Nvidia's $2 billion investment adds credibility to that growth story.
Wait! Michael Burry Is Right About the Memory Boom Ending? This Analyst Says Yes
According to Shuli Ren, a former investment banker, wrote an article for the investment research service saying the global memory shortage likely peaked during the second quarter of 2026. Industry executives continue describing memory as AI's biggest bottleneck. Earlier this year, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap identified memory -- not GPUs -- as the industry's primary constraint. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan similarly warned shortages could persist well into 2028. That would be classic semiconductor economics -- high prices encourage capacity expansion, which eventually creates too much supply and falling margins. If memory pricing reverses, earnings estimates across the sector would likely follow. Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron are all expanding production after enjoying record pricing. Those investments eventually increase supply. Second, hyperscalers may not continue buying AI hardware at today's pace forever. Once Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), and others complete much of their initial infrastructure buildout, purchasing could normalize instead of accelerating every quarter. Newer chips continue delivering more performance per watt and per dollar, meaning future systems could require fewer memory components for the same computing output.
TSMC’s Winbond DRAM Deal Isn’t Domination, It’s Insurance. Here’s What It Actually Means for Chip ETFs
TSMC's Winbond partnership breaks the SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron HBM monopoly without threatening them, since AI demand is simply too massive to cannibalize any player. The supply chain shortage in Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), and more specifically, in High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips is a big reason why the memory chip "Big 3": SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron Technology - have all been soaring with triple digit 1-year returns in 2026. The fact that these three companies have a virtual monopoly on the HBM sector, which is integral for A.I. development, has created a bottleneck in the supply chain. Although the South Korean government recently announced a $590 billion investment towards HBM and A.I. related production expansion, the results are not expected to become manifest for another five years in the future, which does nothing to ease supply chain woes in the present day. TSMC is the 800 lb. gorilla of semiconductor manufacturing, being the sole foundry for Nvidia, and AMD, as well as a major supplier for Apple and other technology titans. TSMC just announced a collaboration with Taichung headquartered Winbond to supply DRAM chips and other HBM memory chips for A.I. applications to address the supply bottleneck. ETFs with large positions in TSMC, such as VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ: SMH), iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF (NYSE: EWT), and Roundhill Memory ETF (CBOE: DRAM), which holds one of the largest stakes in Winbond among US ETFs, may all be worth watching as further news unfolds. Winbond is also a Taiwanese company, and is headquartered in Taichung. The dramatic escalation in HBM demand spurred by A.I. is unprecedented in the industry. S.K. Hynix, which is the world's largest HBM supplier at the time of this writing (60% of the global market), recently filed for a $29 billion NASDAQ listing to help it expand to accommodate the backlog on orders, not to help its balance sheet. The TSMC and Winbond collaboration not only offers the market a potential alternative new supplier, but one with an unquestionable pedigree from the A.I. processing side of the fence. Winbond is expected to provide DRAM wafers utilizing its proprietary CUBE (Customized Ultra-Bandwidth Elements) architecture. CUBE is a 3DCaaS (3D Caching-as-a-Service) design engineered explicitly for WoW integration. Its memory densities scale from 256Mb to 8Gb per die. TSMC will incorporate these wafers into its next-generation WoW (Wafer-on-Wafer) and SoIC 3D-stacking technologies.WoW 3D packaging merges logic chips and memory wafers using hybrid bonding. WoW thus creates millions of micro-copper interconnects which drastically shorten data transmission paths, lower latency, improve bandwidth, and boost power efficiency. The announcement had yet to indicate projected production amounts and timelines. Given that the South Korean announcement doesn't manifest results for five years, any earlier timeline confirmation from the TSMC and Winbond alliance will likely be met with overwhelming enthusiasm. As the largest producer of semiconductors in the world and the sole producer of processors for Nvidia, AMD, and Apple, TSMC's announcement is not only a self-sufficiency move, but strategically makes it less dependent on SK Hynix, Samsung and Micro Technology for future memory technology needs. Analysts have noted that TSMC has extremely high requirements for partners in the WoW arena. Suppliers must not only have mature 12-inch wafer mass-production capability, but also high yields, specialized processes and wafer-integration experience. Winbond has a long history in specialty DRAM and coded memory, including NOR flash, and has accumulated strong capabilities in specialty memory processes, wafer manufacturing and quality control management. These strengths are key for its selection as TSMC's AI memory supply-chain strategy collaborator. TSMC's previous memory technology suppliers for A.I.-related foundry work have been: SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron. By Winbond's entry into TSMC's key AI memory supply chain and its cooperation in WoW technology, it shows that TSMC is strengthening the self-sufficiency of its AI chip supply capabilities by supporting outside supply-chain partners. While a new, legitimate player in the DRAM and HBM arena is certainly welcome, SK Hynix (60%), Samsung (30%) and Micron Technology (10%) are unlikely to suffer any, since the pie is still so large - there's more than enough demand to accommodate all of them and more. Even with the smallest HBM sector share, Micron's earnings have been in the stratosphere, and Seeking Alpha is forecasting a $1,725 price in 12-months, up from Micron's current $975.00. A TSMC and Winbond DRAM presence in the global supply chain offers Taiwan a strategic protection renewal from the US that might have been at risk. With TSMC leading the adoption of local suppliers, Taiwan's memory industry is moving from a supporting position in AI to a more central role in the global AI supply chain. From a geopolitical perspective, this is a strategic imperative. Some political analysts have surmised that President Trump's recent tariff waiver incentives to Taiwan, which led to TSMC's (4) factory developments in Arizona, may be part of a broader strategy: to solidify US control over the Western Hemisphere by China's withdrawal from the Panama Canal and Venezuela, the US will reciprocally withdraw from defending Taiwan from a China takeover. One of the key strategic defenses of Taiwan has been the world's reliance on TSMC for its semiconductor production, which accounts for over 68% of global chip foundry market, and 90% of the highest performing logic chips.
Here’s What Cantor Fitzgerald Thinks About Intel (INTC)
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is one of the best long-term growth stocks to invest in now. It added that expectations for faster-than-previously-forecast industry revenue expansion reach roughly $3T by CY29, potentially exceeding $3.5T by CY30. Reuters reported on June 16 that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has announced the entry of the new generation of its 18A manufacturing process into risk production, as the company sees strong demand for its central processors. It further stated that by moving 18A-P into initial production, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) aims to demonstrate that it is following through on its manufacturing commitments, which could potentially make the technology more appealing to external customers.
Nvidia's next-gen AI rack system delayed to 2028 on manufacturing snags, SemiAnalysis says
Kyber NVL144 rack architecture has been delayed to 2028 as the PCB midplane remains challenging from a manufacturability standpoint. NVL576 — a larger system linking eight racks via optical connections — is also likely delayed or limited to small volumes, the research firm said. SemiAnalysis also projects Nvidia's data-center compute revenue will run 20% above Wall Street consensus in the second half of fiscal 2027.
UBS Stays Bullish on Micron as Memory Prices Rise
UBS expects DRAM demand growth of 36.2% in 2027, compared with supply growth of just 19.3%. NAND pricing is also improving. UBS raised its third-quarter forecast to 30% growth from 17% and expects the NAND upcycle to continue through at least late 2027. UBS now sees memory industry revenue reaching $992 billion in 2026 and $1.76 trillion in 2027.
The Dow Couldn't Keep Up With Chip Stocks on Monday
Broadcom (AVGO +4.49%) kicked off the tech rally with a 4.4% gain after announcing that its chip supply deal with Apple (AAPL +1.45%) will extend through 2031. That's five more years of custom silicon revenue locked in, covering multiple generations of iPhones and whatever else Apple dreams up. The stock added $78 billion in market capitalization. Tesla (TSLA +6.05%) quietly jumped 5.8% and added $91 billion in market value to become the Nasdaq Composite's single largest contributor.
Why Sandisk Stock Bounced Back Today
Memory demand may generate $992 billion in industry sales this year, then nearly double to $1.76 trillion in 2027 as volumes rise -- and prices rise even faster. Citi is raising forecasts (for Micron, at least) and predicting sequential DRAM price increases of up to 44% in Q2 2026, 20% in Q3, and 13% in Q4, and Bank of America is reiterating its buy rating (again, on Micron) today.
Marvell Is Quietly Chasing Broadcom’s AI Jackpot, and Wall Street Is Finally Waking Up
Q1 FY2027 revenue hit $2.418 billion, up 27.6% year-over-year, with data center up 11% sequentially. Management flagged over 50 new custom AI design opportunities across more than 10 customers, and Reuters reported Marvell expects custom chip revenue to top $10 billion by fiscal 2029. Guidance calls for 35% YoY growth next quarter.
Broadcom Is 24% Off Its High and Just Unveiled a Custom AI Chip With OpenAI. Time to Buy the Dip?
Q2 semiconductor revenue from AI of $10.8 billion grew 143% year-over-year, above our forecast, driven by increasing demand for custom AI accelerators and AI networking," said CEO Hock Tan in the company's fiscal second-quarter earnings release. And the momentum is guided to steepen from there. Tan said Broadcom expects AI chip revenue to grow more than 200% year over year this quarter, to $16.0 billion -- within total revenue guidance of about $29.4 billion, up 84%.
Sensata Technologies and IPG Photonics Stocks Trade Up, What You Need To Know
Broadcom (AVGO) gained about 4.2% after it disclosed in an 8-K that it signed multi-year agreements with Apple through 2031 to supply custom ASIC silicon. UBS raised its Q3 DDR contract-pricing forecast to +32% quarter-on-quarter (from +17%) and reiterated DRAM undersupply "until at least 2Q28". Citi added an upside catalyst watch on Micron; and BofA reiterated Buy ($1,550), arguing memory is "roughly 35-40% of cloud AI capex… yet memory stocks trade at sub-par 10x forward PE." Goldman's trading desk flagged an oversold buy-the-dip setup after momentum factors fell 24% from their peak, the largest drawdown since Q1 2023. SK Hynix's ~$28bn Nasdaq listing the previous week and Samsung's earnings later in the week kept the "memory super-cycle" story in the headlines.
MACOM and Universal Display Shares Are Soaring, What You Need To Know
Broadcom (AVGO) gained about 4.2% after it disclosed in an 8-K that it signed multi-year agreements with Apple through 2031 to supply custom ASIC silicon. UBS raised its Q3 DDR contract-pricing forecast to +32% quarter-on-quarter (from +17%) and reiterated DRAM undersupply "until at least 2Q28". Citi added an upside catalyst watch on Micron; and BofA reiterated Buy ($1,550), arguing memory is "roughly 35-40% of cloud AI capex… yet memory stocks trade at sub-par 10x forward PE."
Marvell Technology and NXP Semiconductors Shares Are Soaring, What You Need To Know
Broadcom (AVGO) gained about 4.2% after it disclosed in an 8-K that it signed multi-year agreements with Apple through 2031 to supply custom ASIC silicon. UBS raised its Q3 DDR contract-pricing forecast to +32% quarter-on-quarter (from +17%) and reiterated DRAM undersupply "until at least 2Q28". Samsung flagged a 146% DRAM ASP jump in Q1.
US investors will soon get access to SK Hynix, another memory maker riding the AI boom
SK Hynix will be offering American depositary receipts (ADRs), a type of certificate that lets U.S. investors buy a foreign stock without trading directly on an overseas exchange. Each ADR will represent a tenth of a common share. Like Micron, SK Hynix is riding an AI-fueled boom credited to AI in both sales and stock price. Its first quarter revenues were up nearly 200% over the same quarter last year, it said, and its stock is up about 260% so far this year. South Korean tech companies, led by SK Hynix and Samsung, have vowed to spend over $550 billion on building out new manufacturing capacity to keep up.
Micron Stock Is Down 22% From Its High. Is the Trillion-Dollar Chipmaker's Dip a Buy?
Micron's fiscal third quarter of 2026 (the period ended May 28, 2026) was enormous by any measure. Revenue reached a record $41.5 billion, up from $9.3 billion a year earlier and $23.9 billion in the prior quarter. That is more than a quadrupling year over year, and a 74% jump in just three months. Management guided to fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of about $50 billion and adjusted earnings per share of around $31 -- about 20% higher revenue and 23% higher profit than the record quarter it just posted, pointing to an even bigger quarter directly ahead.
MU, SNDK, DRAM Dip Overnight As Memory Stocks Feel Weight Of Samsung’s Post-Earnings Selloff
Samsung issued a stellar second-quarter outlook, but investors took profits after the stock’s recent surge, suggesting the strong performance had already been priced in. Samsung stock was down over 6% in Seoul around 11 am local time. In the U.S., Micron Technology and SanDisk Corp. stocks dropped around 4.5% each, while Western Digital shares slid nearly 4%. The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM), which has Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron as its top three holdings, was down 4.8% overnight. Samsung on Tuesday forecast second-quarter operating profit of 89.4 trillion won ($58.44 billion), which would be a 19-fold increase over the corresponding quarter last year and more than six times the operating profit in all of fiscal 2025. The figure handily surpassed the LSEG/Reuters estimate of 87.3 trillion won. Samsung forecasts April-June revenue to increase 129% year over year to 171 trillion won.
Samsung expects 1,800% operating profit leap on AI boom
The world's largest memory chipmaker estimated April-June operating profit at 89.4 trillion won ($58.4 billion) -- up 1,810 percent on-year, a company statement said. Revenue likely rose 129 percent to 171 trillion won, Samsung said. Samsung and domestic rival SK hynix are involved in a public-private investment of 800 trillion won to build a new chip fabrication hub in the country's southwest.
AMD Is 11% Away From Joining the $1 Trillion Club. Could It Get There This Year?
AMD grew 2025 revenue 34% to $34.6 billion and more than doubled its bottom line, with earnings up 164%. Its newest MI350 accelerators are ramping into large customers now, a next-generation MI450 part is on the way, and the company has landed commitments from hyperscale customers for multiple gigawatts of computing capacity.
Intel (INTC) Following 18A Progress And AI Optimism Looks Pricey On DCF
They are the single largest USA based foundry. Comparing Intel vs TSMC: is essentially comparing the USA vs Taiwan
NVIDIA (NVDA) Names New Field Operations Chief As AI Growth Narrative Points To Higher Fair Value
Nvidia will hit $400b annual revenue in 5 years time. ~90% of revenue will come from data centre customers. This equates to $90b per quarter, or equivalent to 30,000 Blackwell racks (at approximately $3m per rack).
SK Hynix Has a Massive Warning for Sandisk Stock Investors
$51 billion to build a new NAND flash production facility in South Korea by 2029. The company intends to address the ongoing NAND flash supply shortage, which has been exacerbated by the rapidly rising demand for storage in AI data centers. SK Hynix itself estimates that the shortage of memory chips could persist through the end of the decade despite the addition of new capacity. According to Silicon Motion, a company that supplies NAND flash controllers, estimates that the shortage could get worse next year. That's the reason why market research firm TrendForce is now anticipating NAND flash industry revenue to increase to $379 billion in 2027, up significantly from the earlier estimate of $176 billion. For comparison, the overall NAND flash revenue is anticipated to increase to $271 billion this year, up from $71.1 billion in 2025.
AI / Robotics / EV
Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Wall Street's Bulls, Few Bears
According to a compilation from Yardeni Research, Yardeni itself is the biggest bull among the firms tracked, with a year-end target of 8,250 for the S&P 500. That implies gains of about 10% from the index's recent level near 7,483. The average forecast across the firms surveyed stands at 7,716, implying a gain of roughly 3% from current levels. Stifel Nicolaus holds the lowest target at 7,000, suggesting a decline of about 6% by year-end.
Electric Vehicles Today - Wireless Charging Revolutionizing Future of Vehicle Technology
The wireless charging market for electric vehicles is poised for substantial growth, projected to rise from USD 0.11 billion in 2026 to USD 0.82 billion by 2032, at a compound annual growth rate of 38.7%.
Chery finalises acquisition of ex-Nissan plant in South Africa – report
The carmaker has also introduced a programme intended to reach 40% local content at the initial stage and is assessing tier-1 suppliers.
Tesla robotaxi service expands to Miami from Texas
According to Electrek, Austin city officials estimate the total Tesla fleet there at around 50 cars, though the subset running without any onboard Tesla employee has actually contracted over time, dropping from a high of roughly 25 down to approximately 14.
Bespoke Labs Announces $40M to Build the Environments That Train Reliable Agents
Independent benchmarks from METR show that the length of tasks AI agents can reliably complete has been doubling roughly every seven months.
Transformation World 2026: The Best Data for Business AI
Across more than 100 customer presentations, international organizations will demonstrate how they successfully manage transformation projects such as SAP Cloud ERP moves, data archiving, system decommissioning, and carve-outs and integrations. "We are looking forward to the biggest and most innovative Transformation World. With new AI-powered solutions, intelligent agents and strong partnerships, we are bringing our vision for the next generation of SAP transformations to life. Together with our customers and partners, we are redefining how these projects will be delivered in the future. Our ambition is to equip organizations with the most intelligent tools to unlock their best data for the AI era," said Jens Amail, CEO of SNP. One of the highlights at the conference is a series of innovations for SNP's Kyano software platform. Under the theme "The Best Data for Business AI," SNP will introduce the new solution Kyano Oros that further automates complex data migrations and extends the platform with the ability to process unstructured data. This type of data accounts for approximately 80% of enterprise data volumes and has largely remained inaccessible to traditional transformation tools. This provides a critical foundation for preparing enterprise data landscapes for modern AI applications. With Kyano Lorna, SNP introduces an agentic AI layer for its proven Kyano platform that amplifies and scales decades of transformation expertise. Available 24/7, able to communicate in multiple languages and continuously applying best practices, Lorna supports organizations throughout the entire transformation lifecycle. It helps reduce manual effort, accelerate decision-making and deliver real-time insights across every phase of a transformation project. By bringing decades of transformation knowledge and best practices directly into every project, the agentic AI layer also enables customers and partners to deliver SAP transformation projects with Kyano faster, more efficiently and with greater predictability.
Anthropic signs 20-year, $19 billion lease at TeraWulf Kentucky data center
Anthropic signed a 20-year lease on Monday for a data center campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, operated by TeraWulf, in a deal expected to generate approximately $19 billion in contracted revenue over the initial term. The campus, called Justified Data, will accommodate approximately 401 MW of critical IT load for high-performance computing operations, TeraWulf said. Capacity will be delivered in phases, with the first tranche expected online in the second half of 2027 and the full 401 MW in place by early 2028. TeraWulf stock climbed more than 16% in premarket trading Monday. The total consideration is approximately $530 million, payable in three installments: $250 million within 14 days of signing, $150 million by December 31, 2026, and roughly $130 million by April 30, 2027, the company said.
Lucid Is on Sale. Could This Be the Buy That Sets You Up for Life?
Consider Tesla. The company has posted negative growth in its automobile business for several years in a row. Yet the company's valuation has soared to $1.2 trillion thanks to its massive AI investments, which will help it target multitrillion-dollar growth opportunities involving self-driving cars and robotaxis. Lucid's stock has nearly been cut in half so far in 2026, with a market capitalization that now hovers just above $2 billion -- roughly 90% smaller than Rivian and more than 99% smaller than Tesla.
Bitcoin Mining Stocks Jump After TeraWulf Signs $19 Billion Lease With Anthropic
Under the deal announced Monday, Anthropic will occupy a purpose-built campus at TeraWulf's Justified Data site in Hawesville, Ky., a facility expected to eventually support about 401 megawatts of computing capacity. The first phase is slated to come online in the second half of 2027, with the site reaching full capacity by early 2028.
Tesla is doing in China what it couldn't do in the U.S.
China-made deliveries of the Model 3 and Model Y rose 24.4% year on year in June to 89,091 vehicles, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association cited by Reuters. June marked the eighth consecutive month of year-on-year growth for Tesla's Shanghai output. The Q2 figure adds more context. Tesla's combined China sales and exports from the Shanghai factory were up 32.8% year on year for the full second quarter, Reuters reported. For Q2 overall, Tesla was expected to report a 5% year-on-year increase in global vehicle deliveries to approximately 402,780 vehicles, boosted by stronger demand in Europe, Yahoo Finance noted. New energy vehicles accounted for over two-thirds of all new car sales in China in early June 2026, a record level of market penetration, Reuters reported.
Tesla Rises 6% on Robotaxi and Delivery Momentum, Rivian and Lucid Jump 7%, Nio Gains 5% in EV Sector Rally
Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2 2026 (up 25% year over year), with energy deployments up 41%, and sell-side estimates are being revised higher. The Miami coverage area is a narrow slice of the metro, the Austin operation remains small (a driverless fleet reported around 14 cars), and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said material robotaxi revenue is unlikely before 2027.
TeraWulf Stock Is Up 95% This Year: Here’s Why
TeraWulf expects to generate about $19 billion in contracted revenue by building a purpose-built AI campus at its Justified Data site in Hawesville, Kentucky. The company’s platform is targeting 250 to 500 megawatts of new critical IT capacity annually across sites in New York, Texas, Kentucky, and Maryland.
Why Did Tesla Stock Jump Today?
Tesla (TSLA +6.05%) has expanded its robotaxi rollout, and a company executive has teased that another major announcement is coming tomorrow. The company posted on its social media account that it has officially launched its driverless robotaxi service in Miami, Florida. That is giving investors a clue about what a Tesla vice president was talking about last week when he teased that a big announcement is coming tomorrow. Tesla said it has started its robotaxi service in Miami on July 3. That makes Florida the third state beyond Texas and California, but the rollout has been measured.
Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch on the fight to split off models from agents
The company currently sees 6 million deployments a day, half of them triggered by coding agents, and more than 1 trillion tokens flow through the company’s AI gateway daily.
3 Robotics ETFs Positioned to Capitalize on America’s Reshoring Boom in 2026
Manufacturing value added reached $3,000.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026, growing about 1% sequentially and holding 9.4% of GDP, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Behind that line sits roughly $200 billion in announced US factory buildouts tied to the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, including TSMC Arizona, Samsung Texas, Intel Ohio, and Hyundai Georgia. The top three positions, ABB at roughly 11%, NVIDIA near 10%, and FANUC close to 10%, cover three different layers of the automation stack: power and process automation, the AI compute that lets robots see and decide, and the industrial arm builders themselves.
Tesla Stock Rises After It Rolls Out Robo-Taxis In Miami
Tesla stock rose on Monday after the company said it started operating its AI robo-taxi business in another city.
Anthropic’s A$22 Billion Australian AI Cloud Tender Might Change The Case For Investing In IREN (IREN)
IREN's narrative projects $8.7 billion revenue and $504.8 million earnings by 2029. Uncover how IREN's forecasts yield a $80.93 fair value, a 84% upside to its current price. Exploring Other Perspectives Some of the most pessimistic analysts were already assuming revenue of about US$2.6 billion and earnings near US$301.0 million by 2029
The ‘first’ AI-run ransomware attack still needed a human
The agent got in through a known bug in Langflow, a popular open-source tool for building LLM apps, then moved on to a production MySQL server and exploited another known flaw to gain admin access. It encrypted over 1,300 configuration records and not only left behind a ransom note that it wrote itself but it left a Bitcoin address where the ransom could be sent.
Tesla (TSLA) Shares Skyrocket, What You Need To Know
Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2 versus the ~406,000 company-compiled consensus, an 18% beat, up ~25% year-over-year and up 34% from Q1's 358,023.
Jason Calacanis Says Nvidia Is 'Taking the Gloves Off' With Nemotron, Predicts Jensen Huang Will Challenge OpenAI, Anthropic by Owning the Whole AI Stack
Nvidia has been investing heavily in its Nemotron family of open-weight models, which are designed for enterprise applications including reasoning, retrieval-augmented generation and multimodal AI. Last month, Nvidia and Palantir Technologies, Inc. announced a partnership to deploy Nemotron-powered AI systems in sovereign and classified environments. This allows government agencies and critical infrastructure operators to train and run AI models while retaining control over sensitive data and intellectual property. Institutional-quality real estate has traditionally been difficult for individual investors to access. Realberry gives accredited investors direct access to private real estate opportunities backed by a team with 35 years of experience, $3.4 billion in assets under management, and $481 million in cumulative distributions paid to investors as of Q4 2025, according to the company. Immersed is building technology for the future of work through spatial computing. Known for its AR/VR productivity platform that enables users to work across multiple virtual screens, the company has grown to more than 1.5 million users worldwide.
Nvidia and Palantir Are Bringing Sovereign AI to the U.S. Government. Here's How.
The U.S. government civilian workforce is around 2 million employees across critical sectors such as energy, transportation, healthcare, defense, and financial services. By enabling government agencies to adopt frontier models in isolated computer systems while retaining ownership and the ability to continuously improve them, Palantir and Nvidia are helping to remove operational barriers to broader AI integration.
Why TeraWulf, IREN, and Other Data Center Stocks Jumped Today
The project is projected to go online in the second half of 2027 and ramp up to 401 megawatts of computing power by early 2028. The deal is forecast to produce a whopping $19 billion in contracted revenue. News also broke that Anthropic was seeking computing resources in Australia. The AI leader reportedly wants to secure at least 1.4 gigawatts of data center capacity in a deal that could be valued at up to $15 billion. Meeks sees IREN's revenue surging from $717 million this year to $8.5 billion in fiscal 2028.
TSLA Stock Cools Overnight After Miami Robotaxi Rally — But Morgan Stanley Sees 30,000-Vehicle Fleet By 2030
Morgan Stanley expects Tesla's supervised and unsupervised robotaxi fleet to reach 1,500 vehicles by year-end and 30,000 by 2030. The brokerage noted that Miami had already been listed as a market where “preparations” were underway, alongside Phoenix, Orlando, Tampa and Las Vegas. “We expect Tesla to launch in all of these metro areas by year-end,” Morgan Stanley said. Morgan Stanley expects Tesla’s supervised and unsupervised robotaxi fleet to reach 1,500 vehicles by year-end and 30,000 by 2030.
Power / Grid
Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners Announces Investment in Greenlight Electricity Centre
Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM), through investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP), its private infrastructure investment platform, today announced an investment in Greenlight Electricity Centre, a 932-megawatt gas-fired combined cycle power generation project in Sturgeon County, Alberta. MSIP is investing alongside large-cap company, Pembina Pipeline Corporation (Pembina), and Kineticor Asset Management (Kineticor) to support the construction of the project. The investment reflects MSIP's continued thematic focus on developing and constructing contracted power assets that help address the structural supply-demand imbalance in North American electricity markets. Greenlight is expected to provide long-term, reliable power to support growing electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence and data center growth. Once completed, Greenlight is expected to supply power under a long-term agreement to a major data center development customer constructing a co-located data center campus. The project is expected to utilize high-efficiency combined-cycle gas turbine technology and is expected to begin supplying power in the second half of 2030. Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP) is a leading global private infrastructure investment platform with approximately $17 billion in capital commitments since inception.
3 Utility ETFs to Buy Now as AI Data Centers Trigger a 1970s-Scale Power Buildout
Utilities are now planning generation and transmission build-outs on a scale not seen since the 1970s, and three ETFs offer different ways to own that capex cycle: Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLU), Vanguard Utilities Index Fund (NYSEARCA:VPU), and First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX Fund (NYSEARCA:FXU). The EIA's Annual Energy Outlook 2026 projects total US installed generating capacity rising between 50% and 90% by 2050 across modeled cases, with data center server load a major incremental contributor. Grid Strategies' analysis, cited by Colorado's Legislative Council, names data centers as the largest driver of US electricity demand. PJM, the grid covering the mid-Atlantic and Midwest, hosts the nation's highest concentration of data centers and is already running fast-track interconnection processes. Constellation Energy closed a $16.4 billion acquisition of Calpine to assemble a 60-gigawatt clean-energy platform aimed at hyperscaler contracts, and Vistra has pushed deeper into long-term power deals with companies like Meta. Vistra's 2025 framing was that electricity demand is "trending like it's the 1990s, fueled by AI and crypto".
Record Heat Dome Drove the Grid to All-Time Peak Demand Friday: Here’s 4 Stocks To Buy As Things Heat Up
The investment angle sits with the power grid. “What you want to look at here is the electricity power plays, because there’s pools like PJM, which are forecasting record load. I think the previous record in PJM is like 161 gigs. We’re forecasting 166 on Friday, which would beat the old record by five gigs,” Leonard said. Data center electricity use has already jumped from 1.9% of total annual U.S. electricity consumption in 2018 to 4.4% in 2023, with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory projecting up to 12% by 2028. Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST | VST Price Prediction) is the largest independent power producer in PJM with 13.9 GW of capacity including nuclear, and its pending Cogentrix acquisition adds another 3.2 GW. Constellation Energy (NASDAQ:CEG) is the second-largest PJM capacity owner with 20.3 GW and runs the biggest nuclear fleet in the US. Talen Energy (NASDAQ:TLN) is concentrated in PJM with 13.1 GW and just closed a $3.5 billion deal in June 2026 to add 2.6 GW of gas plants. NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) runs a merchant power model with gas-fired projects in PJM and recently acquired LS Power’s gas fleet to expand its footprint. That deal added 13 GW and doubled NRG’s generation base. 2026 guidance calls for adjusted EBITDA of $5.33B to $5.83B.
Software
SailPoint (SAIL) Backs Q2 Guidance at Investor Day
SailPoint, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIL) backed its Q2 adjusted EPS guidance of 7c-8c, compared with the consensus of 8c. The company also backed its Q2 revenue outlook of $308M-$312M, compared with the consensus of $310.4M. SailPoint, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIL) also backed its FY27 adjusted EPS view of 30c-34c, compared with consensus of 32c, and sees FY27 revenue of $1.265B-$1.275B, compared with consensus of $1.27B. TD Cowen analyst Shaul Eyal said SailPoint, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIL)'s investor day showed how the company plans to capitalize on the direct monetization opportunity from governing non-human identities. Eyal said the company's fiscal 2029 annual recurring revenue target of $2.1B is being driven by an "unprecedented expansion" of the threat landscape. TD Cowen reiterated a Buy rating on the shares with a $19 price target. SailPoint, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIL) delivers solutions to enable identity security for the enterprise in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. TD said the outlook is 9% above consensus and added that autonomous use cases expand SailPoint, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIL)'s total addressable market to $90B.
WidePoint (WYY) Says ITMS Command Center Deployment Remains on Schedule
On June 30, 2026, WidePoint Corporation (NYSE American:WYY) said deployment of its previously announced FedRAMP Authorized ITMS Command Center Platform for a leading U.S. telecommunications carrier remains on schedule. The underlying SaaS agreement, announced on November 4, 2025, remains unchanged and is expected to generate approximately $40 million to $45 million in recurring, margin-accretive SaaS revenue over its five-year contract term, based on the anticipated deployment of approximately 2.0 million to 2.5 million managed devices. On June 25, WidePoint announced that it was selected as the single awardee of the Department of Homeland Security's Cellular Wireless Managed Services 3.0 contract. The award is a 10-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract, consisting of a one-year base period and nine one-year option periods, with a contract ceiling value of approximately $3.1B. WidePoint Corporation (NYSEAMERICAN:WYY) provides technology management as a service to government and business enterprises in the United States and Europe.
Has Greg Abel Found Berkshire Hathaway's Next Apple? He's Put $23 Billion Into This Company So Far and Could Buy Even More.
Berkshire's Apple position grew to $177 billion in 2023 before Buffett started trimming the stock from the portfolio. After selling 75% of Berkshire's stake, the remaining shares are still worth more than $70 billion. Abel's decision to load up on Alphabet may seem like a big shift away from the core investment philosophy that got Berkshire to this place. But at its core, Alphabet may be simpler than it sounds. There are two key businesses within Alphabet: advertising and cloud computing. Alphabet has seen tremendous demand for its cloud service, as reflected in its remaining performance obligations. As of the end of the first quarter, the company had $460 billion in contracted backlog, up from $230 billion the previous quarter.
These 3 Growth Stocks Can Outperform Through AI Tailwinds and Everyday Consumer Strength
Microsoft Cloud revenue, which includes Office subscriptions and enterprise cloud services, jumped 29% to nearly $55 billion. That explains why analysts still project long-term earnings growth of roughly 15% annually. For these reasons, analysts still expect Amazon's earnings to grow at an annualized rate of about 21% over the next several years. The company's revenue surged 22% year over year in the first quarter, reaching nearly $110 billion.
Catena AB (publ) (CTTTF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
We reported a 17% increase in rental income, ended up at SEK 1.510 billion driven mostly by acquisitions, but also by our CPI-linked contracts. Profit from property management increased by 14% in total. And per share, it was up 5.2%. Isolated for the second quarter, the increase per share was up 10.9%. Our NRV came in at SEK 461.20. The balance sheet is still solid with an LTV at 44.5%.
Trump vs. Pelosi: Who Made More Money in the Stock Market Last Year?
Pelosi beat SPY with a 20% gain in 2025, and Trump bought DELL months before publicly urging Americans to buy it, which surged 107%. Pelosi's decade cumulative return of 816% nearly tripled Berkshire Hathaway's 282%, despite both politicians publicly supporting a congressional trading ban. Donald Trump logged more than 21,000 stock trades across eight investment accounts in 2025, roughly 60 trades per day, according to Financial Times and EBC Financial Group analysis. Both beat the market. Pelosi's portfolio gained 20.1% in 2025, outperforming the S&P 500's 16.6% gain, according to the UnusualWhales annual report, which ranked her 28th among all congressional traders that year. The benchmark she topped, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY), returned 16.64% for the calendar year. Trump's stock-only return cannot be precisely calculated. Federal financial disclosures report holdings in dollar ranges rather than exact figures, and his 927-page disclosure mixes stock activity with real estate, crypto, and media income totaling roughly $2.2 billion in 2025. Pelosi's Long Game Capitol Trades pegs Pelosi's cumulative return over the past decade at approximately 816%, with an 87% win rate and an estimated net worth of $642 to $649 million as of mid-2026, up from $121 million in 2013. For comparison, Berkshire Hathaway generated roughly 282% cumulative return over the same period. Her 2025 standouts included January 2025 Nvidia call options with an $80 strike expiring January 2026. Shares of NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) rose 34.88% in 2025 alone.
Musk Calls It ‘Utterly False,’ But This SpaceX Rumor Should Terrify Every Apple Investor
Apple's Services segment, which houses App Store fees, reached approximately $26.6 billion in the most recent quarter, the company's highest-margin business and anchor of its 36 trailing P/E. Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 1.7% on July 1, 2026, the day the Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX had shown IPO investors a prototype handset: slimmer than an iPhone, running a proprietary operating system, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, and deeply integrated with xAI's Grok. SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) fell 7.3%, briefly wiping more than $50 billion from Musk's net worth. The FCC approved SpaceX's acquisition of 65 MHz of exclusive nationwide mid-band spectrum from EchoStar, the legal foundation for a carrier-free network.
These 3 Stocks Were the Worst Performers on the Nasdaq-100 in the First Half of 2026. Can They Rebound in the Second Half?
The company generated 10% revenue growth in its most recent quarter (for the period ending April 30) and also raised its full-year guidance. Adobe's revenue still rose by 13% in its May quarter, as it has been using AI to drive growth by incorporating it into its software to help add value for users.
Foxconn Sales Jump 40% as AI Server Demand Accelerates
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are setting aside about $725 billion for AI spending this year, keeping suppliers such as Hon Hai closely tied to the broader AI capital-expenditure cycle.
Chipotle and Microsoft Were Crushing the Market—What Happened?
Under Satya Nadella, Microsoft pivoted from a Windows and Office licensing shop into a cloud-and-AI platform anchored by Azure, which crossed $75 billion in FY2025 revenue, up 34%. A restructured OpenAI partnership left Microsoft with a roughly 27% stake valued near $135 billion and an AI business running at a $37 billion annualized revenue run rate, up 123% year over year.
Microsoft joins AI-driven tech layoff wave with 4,800 job cuts
Big Tech's historic AI outlays, set to top $700 billion this year, are piling pressure on companies to show returns from the technology and offset the rising cost of rolling it out across their businesses.
Nu vs. OneMain: Should You Pick the Digital Disruptor or the Domestic Dividend Payer in 2026?
In FY 2025, revenue nearly $16.2 billion, representing growth of approximately 45% compared to the previous year. During FY 2025, the company reported revenue of close to $6.2 billion, which was an increase of roughly 9.1% over the prior year. The net margin for the period was roughly 18.1%, which improved from previous years as the company scaled its operations. Net income for the period was approximately $783.0 million, resulting in a net margin of nearly 12.5%. As of its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio was approximately 0.5x. Based on the December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio stood at approximately 6.7x. The company produced close to $3.1 billion in free cash flow in fiscal year 2025, which is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. Nu generated nearly $3.5 billion in free cash flow during fiscal year 2025, providing ample liquidity for further expansion in the fintech sector.
Microsoft stock target cut at Wolfe on higher capex estimates
Wolfe Research revealed in a note on Monday that it has cut its price target on Microsoft to $525 from $570, pointing to surging memory prices that have forced the firm to raise its fiscal 2027 capital expenditure estimate to $270 billion from $230 billion, while maintaining its Outperform rating. The revision pushes Wolfe's FY27 free cash flow estimate to negative $17.4 billion, compared to a prior estimate of approximately $14.7 billion positive and roughly $48 billion below the consensus of $31 billion. Wolfe said it "remains long-term bullish on MSFT's full-stack monetization approach to AI with Azure growth acceleration and rising Agent monetization potential." The firm forecasts Azure growth of 41% in FY27 and 40% in FY28, ahead of consensus estimates of 40% and 38%, respectively.
Is ServiceNow (NOW) Turning AI Disruption to Expansion?
One-month return of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) was -5.45%, and its shares lost 49.11% over the past 52 weeks. ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) has a market capitalization of $109.65 billion. "Furthermore, for the software companies we own, the evidence suggests AI is driving new business rather than destroying existing revenue. ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) reported first quarter 2026 results after the close of the period that demonstrated this directly: subscription revenue grew 22% year-over-year, customers spending over $1 million annually on its AI product Now Assist grew over 130% year-over-year, and the company raised its full-year revenue guidance."
American Express (AXP): An Analysis of The Role of AI and Payment Systems
The largest detractor from performance this quarter was American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), taking 1.4% off the fund, as it, along with fellow payment processors Visa and Mastercard, fell in value due to the perception that artificial intelligence would somehow replace them. As we mentioned above, American Express was our biggest detractor in the quarter due to concerns about AI replacing payment systems. The payments space is enormously attractive since it grows with overall spending plus the secular shift from physical cash and checks. Not surprisingly there are plenty of entrants looking to break in At heart, the core card companies—Visa, Mastercard, American Express—are digital infrastructure companies. They process massive volumes of transactions in real time. They ensure that the vendor gets their money, the customer gets their product, and if something fails along the way, it is made right. Visa and Mastercard leave the customer credit function to their partner banks; American Express acts as both the payment system and the bank for their cardholders who carry balances... According to our database, 83 hedge fund portfolios held American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) at the end of the first quarter, the same as in the previous quarter.
Dell Is Up 6% Today: Is It Outperforming Other AI Server Stocks Like Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro?
Dell surged 232% in 2026 and 6% today, far outpacing HPE's 81% YTD gain as markets reward its $60 billion AI server target. The 2026 Scoreboard Dell is leading today and running away with the year. Dell stock is up 232% year to date (YTD), well ahead of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock, which is up 81% YTD. Super Micro Computer stock, by contrast, is down 7% YTD and roughly flat on the session. Dell's gross margin compressed from 21% to 18% as AI server mix shifts, and shares now trade at a stretched 31x P/E after a massive run.
Adobe (ADBE) Stock Looks Like A Bargain Despite AI Risks
Adobe stock has fallen about 63% over the past five years, yet current valuation checks suggest it now screens as cheap on several measures. The roughly 63% decline over five years means long term holders have seen significant value eroded, so any case for Adobe today rests heavily on views about the current price rather than the past share chart. Adobe's push into generative AI tools and the planned acquisition of Topaz Labs can support expectations for the business, while concerns about AI driven disruption to traditional software revenue models remain a clear risk to how the stock is valued. On Simply Wall St's broader checks, Adobe screens as undervalued in 5 of 6 valuation tests. The P/E ratio suits Adobe because earnings are a key anchor for how investors weigh mature, cash generative software stocks. Adobe currently trades on a P/E of 12.1x, far below the broader software industry average of 28.1x and the peer group average of 57.4x. Simply Wall St's fair P/E for Adobe is 29.8x, based on its mix of growth, margins, size and risk. That is more than double the current 12.1x multiple, which implies the stock would need a materially higher P/E just to meet this tailored benchmark. Despite recent headlines around AI competition and business model pressure, the current P/E still leaves Adobe pricing in considerably less optimism than both peers and the fair ratio suggest. Overall, Adobe stock appears undervalued on its P/E multiple when set against the industry, peers and the modelled fair ratio.
Apple's Rally: Pricing Power, AI Discipline, And The Memory Crunch
DRAM contract prices jumped roughly 90% to 95% in the first quarter of 2026. Apple's gross margin hit almost 48% in the March quarter, up from 46.6% a year earlier, driven by product mix and services growth. The market may also be starting to appreciate Apple's restraint on AI spending. Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) together are on pace to commit close to $700 billion in AI capex this year, chasing gigawatt-scale training clusters.
UBS Remains Bullish on Arm Holdings (ARM) – Here’s Why
Q1 Earnings Highlights: Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) Vs The Rest Of The Data Storage Stocks
Snowflake reported revenues of $1.39 billion, up 33.5% year on year. This print exceeded analysts' expectations by 5%. Despite the top-line beat, it was still a slower quarter for the company with a significant miss of analysts' billings estimates. DigitalOcean reported revenues of $257.9 million, up 22.4% year on year, outperforming analysts' expectations by 3.3%. Commvault reported revenues of $311.7 million, up 13.3% year on year, exceeding analysts' expectations by 1.6%.
The S&P 500 Looks Pricey at 22x Earnings. On Cash Flow, It’s a Terrifying 32x.
Alphabet's Q1 2026 free cash flow collapsed 46% while capex more than doubled, and Meta's 2025 FCF dropped 19% despite 22% revenue growth. HPE is up 73% YTD and Caterpillar now trades at 48x earnings, meaning the value stock rotation Hough recommended is largely already priced in. At 32x projected free cash flow versus 22x earnings, the S&P 500 leaves little margin for error when AI capex distorts reported profits. Those specific figures are directional, and the actual reports rhyme with them. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) posted FY2025 free cash flow of $73.3 billion, up just 0.7% year over year, even as capex jumped 74% to $91.4 billion. In Q1 2026 it got worse. FCF collapsed 46.63% to $10.12 billion while capex more than doubled to $35.67 billion. Sundar Pichai then guided 2026 capex to $175 to $185 billion, which is a number that used to be a country's defense budget.
Meta Stock Surged 9% to $612.91 on July 1 After Reports That Mark Zuckerberg Is Building a Cloud Business to Compete With Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet
Meta's capital expenditures (capex) increased 84% year over year in 2025 to $72.2 billion. The figure is projected to total between $125 billion and $145 billion this year. Demand for these resources far outpaces supply. Alphabet paying Space Exploration Technologies $920 million per month for AI compute capacity is a clear sign of how constrained the industry is.
ServiceNow Was the SaaS Stock AI Was Supposed to Kill. Its Numbers Say Otherwise.
NOW has fallen 47% over one year while posting 19% subscription revenue growth and raising its Now Assist target 50% in one quarter. Gartner estimates AI agents will divert $234 billion in enterprise software spending by 2030, directly threatening ServiceNow's seat-based revenue model. Full-year 2026 subscription guidance sits near $15.75 billion, about 21% constant-currency growth. Gartner estimates AI agents will divert 20% of planned enterprise software spending by 2030, roughly $234 billion, and NOW's seat-based revenue sits in the path.
Mark Zuckerberg wants in on prediction markets. Meta's reported plans sent these stocks lower as a result
In 2025, Kalshi and Polymarket, two of the biggest platforms, drew a combined $50 billion in online trades. The S&P 500 has returned an average of roughly 10.5% annually since 1957. Over the past five years, the precious metal has more than doubled in value, outperforming the broader stock market over the same period. Roughly 69% of Polymarket users have lost money since 2022, while 77% of all profits went to just the top 1% of traders.
Software Markdowns at Mutual Funds Hint at Private Markets’ Pain
In the first three months of the year, mutual funds reduced its value by an average of 16%, regulatory filings show. They also marked down by 15% the online graphic design platform Canva, which is held by Coatue Management and others. Video game developer Epic Games Inc. was cut by 22%. It’s held by the mutual fund giants as well as private equity and venture firms, including KKR & Co. On average, they were marked down by 20%, public disclosures show. Some were slashed by more than 50%. The value of software-related private equity transactions reached $203 billion, according to a recent report by PitchBook. Data collected by Bloomberg show software and technology companies accounted for half of new private equity and venture capital investments, more than double that share from 15 years ago. In recent years, firms have struggled to sell assets at a profit and return capital to investors. The market was further rattled in April when Thoma Bravo, a software-focused private equity firm, said it lost more than $5 billion on a single bet, online customer-survey company Medallia Inc., though the firm has said the loss was unrelated to AI disruption. In conferences, TV interviews and analyst calls, executives accept there will be winners and losers but insist that, on the whole, software firms will adapt to AI. Thoma Bravo founder and Managing Partner Orlando Bravo said earlier this year on CNBC that his fund’s software companies “are crushing it,” while Vista Equity Partners Chief Executive Officer Robert Smith said in a video on the firm’s website that “this moment is not the end of the software story, it’s just the beginning of its next chapter.” In June, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s External Investing Group, part of its asset management division, applied the bank’s AI Disruption Framework to some 700 private software firms that it invests in, the firm told Bloomberg News. It found that 10% of these companies were facing imminent disruption risk, and on the other end of the curve, another 10% to 15% were clear winners. The vast middle, however, has about 18-36 months to figure it out, adapt and pivot, or face the consequences. Apollo Global Management Inc. is now assessing every new software investment opportunity for AI disruption risk. Ares Management Corp. has hired an outside consultant to scrutinize software-oriented investments in its largest publicly traded private credit fund. Blackstone Inc. and Blue Owl Capital Inc. have conducted internal evaluations of their investments.
AI Crushed Software Stocks. IGV Is Betting the ‘SaaSpocalypse’ Is Overblown
The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (BATS:IGV) is down 10.5% year to date while the S&P 500 is up 10.8% and the Technology Select Sector SPDR is up 26%. That gap reflects the market pricing software as if the AI thesis has turned against it. ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW | NOW Price Prediction), a top holding, reported Q4 revenue of $3.57 billion, up 21%, with Now Assist net new ACV more than doubling year over year. CEO Bill McDermott called ServiceNow “the AI control tower for business reinvention”. Yet the stock is down 27% YTD and 48% over one year. Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is sharper. Agentforce ARR crossed $1.2 billion, up 205% year over year, with combined Agentforce and Data 360 ARR at $3.4 billion. Q1 EPS was $3.88 against a $3.13 estimate. The stock is down 35% YTD. Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) is the counterpoint, up 21% YTD as it reported 13,600+ accounts using its AI features and raised FY27 product revenue guidance to $5.84 billion. IGV rallied 10% last week alone. Over five years IGV has returned 19% against XLK’s 155%. If you wanted tech, XLK crushed the software-only slice. The key risk. If AI agents genuinely compress seat counts across enterprise software over the next two years, IGV’s largest holdings face structural revenue headwinds that no valuation reset fixes.
Why Tenable Holdings Rallied on Monday
While information technology research firm Gartner (IT 0.89%) predicts 14.5% growth in cybersecurity spending this year, Colville and Vandrick believe that estimate is conservative. Tenable is a known leader across multiple "surfaces" of modern enterprise IT departments. In fact, Gartner named it "the company to beat" for AI-powered vulnerability assessment just last week. That's still not expensive for a profitable software company growing around 10%, and which could be due for some reacceleration, if Gartner's forecast is correct.
Oracle Stock Is Down 58% From Its Peak -- but Revenue Is Still Growing by Double Digits. Time to Buy?
Oracle's remaining performance obligations, the contracted revenue it hasn't recognized yet, reached $638 billion at year-end. Total cloud revenue grew 47% to $9.9 billion, and the piece investors care about most -- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, its rented computing power for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads -- jumped 93% to $5.8 billion. Capital expenditures ran to about $55.7 billion in fiscal 2026, and the company raised about $43 billion in debt over the year, with more financing on the way.
Aerospace
SpaceX's $1.6 Trillion Opportunity Could Be More Valuable Than Its AI Business
SpaceX had a net loss of $5 billion on $18.7 billion of revenue in 2025, but a look under the hood reveals several different stories. The company's launch services and AI segments generated significant operating losses last year, but its Starlink connectivity business generated $4.4 billion in operating income. Both subscribers and profits more than doubled from the prior year, even as it lowered its average pricing. Ultimately, SpaceX sees the potential for the internet and wireless phone service market to reach $1.6 trillion, according to its IPO filing. And it has the potential to offer the service at a relatively high margin. Starlink's operating margin is about 40%, and that could climb higher as it scales operations and reduces launch costs. New York University professor Aswath Damodaran projects it could generate $120 billion at a 60% operating margin by 2036. That's a 10-fold increase in 10 years, and it seems like a reasonable estimate based on the strength of the satellite connectivity business.
2 Space Stocks to Buy in July (Hint: Not SpaceX)
Rocket Lab is having a great run of its own. The stock is up 1,680% in the last three years, including a gain of more than 50% this year, as investors got excited about its end-to-end launch service business. Rocket Lab has completed more than 90 launches to date with its two families of space vehicles. Electron is a two-stage orbital launch vehicle used to place small satellites into orbit, while Haste is a suborbital vehicle designed for testing and deploying technologies at high speed. It's currently developing a larger vehicle, Neutron, for deep space missions and human spaceflight. Rocket Lab has two launch pads in New Zealand and one in Virginia, and has contracts with both private companies and governments, including with NASA, to support missions to Mars and the Moon. Other missions have been with the U.S. Space Force, the Japanese company Synspective, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), among others. Rocket Lab also announced an agreement to acquire Iridium Communications, a publicly traded company that maintains a low-Earth satellite network and has more than 2.55 million global customers. Rocket Lab intends to link its launch and satellite manufacturing business with Iridium's global satellite network to create an integrated space company. Redwire isn't as hot as Rocket Lab, but it's solid in its own right. The stock is up nearly 400% over the last three years and has gained 65% in 2026. The company makes aerospace infrastructure, autonomous systems, and products that incorporate digital engineering and AI automation. Redwire was a part of NASA's Artemis II mission, which was the first crewed flyby of the Moon since 1972. Astronauts used Redwire's advanced optical imaging and sun sensor technology as part of the ship's internal and external camera system, which enabled in-flight inspection of the craft. Its technology operates a greenhouse -- the first commercial greenhouse in space -- on the International Space Station, where it is studying crop production in space to support long-duration human spaceflight. Redwire is also an emerging defense company, as it was one of 14 companies selected by the Space Force to compete for contracts under the 10-year Andromeda program to track and identify objects in Earth orbit, where many communications and missile-warning systems operate. Its defense tech revenue jumped in the first quarter to $44.3 million, up from $9.2 million the previous year, accounting for nearly all of Redwire's overall 58% revenue gain for the quarter. "The Andromeda contract vehicle is focused on rapidly fielding proliferated space domain awareness capabilities in geosynchronous orbit," CEO Peter Cannito said. "We see this as a proof point for the success of our moving up the value chain strategy and further validation that we are strategically positioned as a trusted prime contractor on next-generation spacecraft."
Connected Aircraft Fleet Set to Exceed 70,000 by 2035
By the end of 2025, nearly 39,500 aircraft were connected globally, with business aviation accounting for around 70% of the fleet,” said Vishal Patil, Senior Consultant at Novaspace. Overall, capacity leased for IFC services is projected to increase nineteen-fold over the next ten years, expanding from 212 Gbps to 3.9 Tbps by 2035. Despite declining unit capacity pricing, the revenue outlook for the IFC market remains strong with total operator revenues expected to rise to $2.9 billion by 2035, a 16% CAGR.
The Commercial Space Economy Just Crossed $500 Billion in Backlog and These 3 ETFs Own the Pure Play Names
The commercial space sector hit an inflection point this month. SpaceX began trading on NASDAQ on June 29, 2026, the launch backlog across orbital providers is approaching the half-trillion-dollar mark, and satellite broadband buildouts from Starlink and Amazon Kuiper are pulling in private capital faster than legacy aerospace can absorb it. Backlog across the sector is expanding 15% to 20% annually, with Rocket Lab’s Neutron program, Firefly Aerospace’s lunar contracts, and Planet Labs’ government imaging deals all contributing. The U.S. Space Force is investing $30.7 billion to achieve Global Mission Operations objectives, including $9.8 billion for satellite communications and $10.8 billion for space-based sensing. The FY 2027 space budget totals $59.7 billion across procurement and RDT&E, funding 31 launches. That is the spending tailwind sitting underneath every fund discussed below. The portfolio holds 69 positions with $1.05 billion in assets under management and a 0.75% expense ratio. Top weights include Planet Labs at around 6%, Globalstar at around 5%, and Rocket Lab at around 5%, with SiriusXM and EchoStar rounding out the top five. Performance has tracked the underlying names closely. UFO is up about 20% year-to-date and 63% over the past year, helped by Rocket Lab. That name is up about 21% year-to-date and 134% over twelve months. Planet Labs has been the other engine, with a one-year return of about 347%. The fund ARKX appeals to those who believe the space economy naturally spills into adjacent industries and want a portfolio manager making active, high-conviction calls on those market linkages.
Where Will SpaceX Be in 3 Years?
Increased emphasis on SpaceX's data center business SpaceX is quickly morphing into an artificial intelligence company, most recently through its $60 billion acquisition of Anysphere, the parent company of AI software and coding specialist Cursor, to better compete with Anthropic's Claude Code. And it's already inking huge deals as it builds out a growing neocloud business. Neocloud companies sell their data center capacity to other tech companies, and SpaceX has already made some large deals. For example, Alphabet's Google signed a three-year deal with SpaceX to supply some of its data center capacity for its Gemini AI model, generating about $30 billion for SpaceX by 2029. And Anthropic is already paying SpaceX about $15 billion annually over the next three years to rent out all of its Colossus 1 data center capacity. Starlink will continue expanding Starlink is arguably SpaceX's most important business right now, accounting for about 61% of the company's total sales. It's also SpaceX's only profitable business. Starlink has an impressive 12 million subscribers already, brought in $11.4 billion in sales in 2025, and had $4.4 billion in operating income last year. And SpaceX aims to expand Starlink in the coming years. It's already in the midst of getting ready for a 1,200 satellite launch in mid-2027 using its Starship rocket. NASDAQ: SPCX Key Data Points What's more, a handful of analysts believe SpaceX might bid to acquire a mobile carrier in the next few years to expand its internet business. Most recently, a TD Cowen analyst suggested T-Mobile would be a likely acquisition target. While that's just speculation right now, even conservative estimates for Starlink's global total addressable market (TAM) are large. Morningstar estimates Starlink already has a $129 billion TAM. And some analysts estimate Starlink's U.S.-based subscribers will reach 15 million by 2030 -- up from just 3 million currently. The Starship rockets reach mass efficiency Last but not least, SpaceX's rocket business is expected to expand significantly in the coming years. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that SpaceX's core rocket launches could bring in $8.3 billion in revenue by 2030 -- up from $4.1 billion in 2025. More importantly, SpaceX's Starship rockets are expected to reach an operational efficiency over the next few years that could be unmatched by SpaceX's competitors. If it lowers its marginal cost of launching payloads into orbit by 90%, which it's expected to do with future Starship launches compared to its Falcon rockets, it could achieve a competitive moat that other rocket companies would have a very hard time overcoming.
Rocket Lab Falls 7%, AST SpaceMobile Drops 5%, Intuitive Machines and SpaceX Slip 3% as Space Stocks Pull Back
Rocket Lab stock had climbed 25% in the week ending July 2, and AST SpaceMobile shares had surged 30% over the same stretch. The commercial-space backlog recently crossed $500 billion, and SpaceX’s NASDAQ debut on June 29 gave public investors direct access to the sector’s dominant player. Government demand is the other pillar. The U.S. FY2027 space budget totals $59.7 billion and funds 31 launches, a step-change from prior years.
SpaceX Blew Past $2 Trillion and Is Joining the Nasdaq-100. Rocket Ship or Bubble?
SpaceX launches more than 80% of the world’s mass to orbit each year, operates roughly 9,600 Starlink satellites, delivers broadband to millions of customers across 164 countries, territories, and other markets, and now owns xAI (acquired in early 2026), giving it a frontier AI model in Grok.
Ex-Nasdaq CEO Warns SpaceX’s ‘Unprecedented’ Lockup Expiration Could Flood the Market With $800 Billion in Shares
$800 Billion Wave of SpaceX Stock Is About to Hit the Market Greifeld framed the setup this way: “SpaceX was the largest IPO ever. But let’s remember it's been in business for 23, 24 years… it's really the largest lockup expiration ever. Between now and the end of October there's around $800 billion of shares that can come onto the market. We've never seen anything like that.”
What's driving the latest push in defense stocks?
over 1,000 Tomahawk missiles, hundreds of other surface- to- air missiles that were spent. Those have four- year, five- year production times. The unit costs can be $5 and a half million dollars, $1 and a half million dollars, $10 million per unit, and they just take so long to manufacture. Anduril recently valued at $61 billion dollars.
The U.S. Army Just Took a Historic Step to Break China's Rare Earth Dominance
Commercial development is targeted to begin in 2027, with initial operating capability expected no later than 2028. That urgent timeframe is scheduled to coincide with the January 1, 2027, federal procurement ban on Chinese rare earth materials used in American defense systems. REalloys expects to finance, build, and operate the facilities under an Enhanced Use Lease structure, creating a commercial processing platform on federal military property while keeping ownership, financing, and operations in private hands. The Army award moves REalloys upstream. Earlier this year, the Defense Logistics Agency backed the company's metallization technology through a contract to expand domestic samarium and gadolinium metal production. The Tooele project reaches further into the supply chain, adding commercial heavy rare earth processing to a platform that already includes metals and alloys. Washington is compressing years of supply chain development into a matter of months. An integrated domestic rare earth industry is taking shape in real time. For decades, China built nearly every step of that industrial chain while much of the West allowed those capabilities to disappear. The effort extends well beyond the rare earth sector itself. Earlier this month, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to address production bottlenecks across the defense industrial base, citing limited manufacturing capacity, fragile supply chains and long-lead dependencies. This week, President Trump met with the heads of Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and L3Harris as the administration pressed the defense industry to accelerate production and replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles. Three of those companies show exactly why the timeline matters. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) builds the F-35, and that jet alone carries more than 900 pounds of rare earth materials, including roughly 50 pounds of samarium-cobalt magnets built to hold their strength at extreme heat. All of it falls under the same January 1, 2027, deadline REalloys is racing to meet at Tooele. RTX (NYSE: RTX) carries similar exposure through its Patriot missile system and its radar and electronic warfare lines, both of which run on high-purity dysprosium and terbium. Those inputs still trace back through Chinese processing chains, the same chokepoint REalloys' Tooele complex is meant to break. Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) has the same problem on its B-21 Raider bomber and its radar and space-surveillance work, including the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability program. Like Lockheed Martin and RTX, it has to prove its magnet supply chain is free of Chinese material by the 2027 deadline or risk losing eligibility for covered contracts. Those efforts coincide with the January 1, 2027, procurement restrictions, which require covered defense systems to source compliant rare earth materials and permanent magnets. Meeting those requirements involves far more than finding new suppliers. Rare earth oxides, metals, alloys, and permanent magnets must all be qualified before they can enter defense production, a process that can take months or even years depending on the application. That process is already underway. REalloys is expected to began qualification efforts for defense-grade heavy rare earth materials by the end of 2026, allowing prospective customers to validate North American-produced dysprosium, terbium and other rare earth materials ahead of the January 1, 2027, procurement deadline.
Bio
Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) Fell on Regulatory And Pricing Policy Challenges
One-month return of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) was 5.84%, and its shares gained 53.39% over the past 52 weeks. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY): LLY was a top detractor for the quarter, declining 14% as the pharmaceutical sector faced an intensifying regulatory and pricing policy environment. At the same time, volume growth for Mounjaro and Zepbound is substantially outpacing these price declines, with demand continuing to exceed supply across global markets.
Eli Lilly and vs. Teva: Which Pharmaceutical Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026?
In FY 2025, revenue reached nearly $65.2 billion, representing a significant 44% increase over the previous year. This surge helped the company generate a net income of roughly $20.6 billion, about double that of 2024. For FY 2025, the company reported revenue of nearly $17.3 billion, an increase of roughly 4% year over year. Unlike previous years of losses, the company achieved a net income of approximately $1.4 billion. This resulted in a net margin of close to 8.2% for the fiscal year. Eli Lilly is riding a wave of success with its GLP-1 drugs Zepbound for weight loss and Mounjaro, which is the same drug for diabetes control. There is still plenty of growth left in the treatment, and that is expected to power revenue up as high as 30% in 2026, to $85.2 billion, with close to $31 billion in net income. Teva, meanwhile, has had its own generic GLP-1 approved, similar to Novo's Saxenda. Still, that isn't expected to generate enough sales to push Teva to growth this year. Wall Street sees Teva's sales declining to $16.6 billion in 2026, while net income is projected to grow to $1.54 billion.
Consumer / Retail
Walmart Has Nearly Doubled Since Its 3-for-1 Stock Split. Here's Where It Could Be in 5 Years.
Walmart has made a strong push in online shopping. This was catapulted by the multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Jet.com in 2016. The company's stores also operate as distribution centers that support delivery and pickup orders, leveraging their physical footprint. E-commerce sales surged 26% globally year over year in the latest fiscal quarter (first-quarter 2027 ended April 30). Walmart is also quietly becoming an advertising powerhouse. Worldwide digital ad sales jumped 37% last quarter. These factors, coupled with stock buybacks, have propelled the company's diluted earnings per share 107% in the last five years. Sell-side analysts' consensus forecast calls for this bottom-line figure to rise at a compound annual rate of 12% in the coming three years, which is solid given how massive Walmart already is. Walmart's U.S. same-store sales have grown for 12 straight years, despite there being no shortage of headwinds to navigate.
Nykaa signals strong Q1 FY27 growth
Indian retail company Nykaa said its first quarter of FY27 began with a clear pick-up in growth, with consolidated gross merchandise value (GMV) and net sales value (NSV) projected to rise in the low-30% range. The business said consolidated net revenue is also expected to increase at close to 30%, pointing to one of its better quarterly performances in recent times. Nykaa said net revenue in this segment would expand slightly more slowly than NSV because House of Nykaa comprised a larger share of the mix and does not carry any marketing income component. The company said it is targeting revenue growth of two to three times and EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] growth of four to five times by FY30, supported by "disciplined execution, operating leverage and capital-efficient investments". Nykaa also said its GMV has grown more than seven times over the past six years. With this, net revenue growth in the fashion vertical is expected to rise to around 50%, which the company said would mark a multi-quarter high.
REET vs. RWR: Which Real Estate ETF Is the Better Buy?
The gap between these two funds really comes down to geography. RWR's U.S.-only approach has recently outpaced REET on both a one-year and five-year basis, reflecting the relative strength of the domestic property market compared with real estate abroad. That's not unusual -- U.S. REITs have generally benefited from a resilient domestic economy and surging demand for data centers and industrial warehouses. International real estate markets, particularly in Europe and parts of Asia, have faced slower growth and currency headwinds that have weighed on returns. REET is the cheaper option, charging a 0.14% expense ratio compared to RWR's 0.25%. That gap may look small on paper, but it can add up over years of compounding.
Mediterranean Fast Casual Luna Grill Rides Consumer Health Shift to Record Growth
The 60-unit brand completed its fifth consecutive year of same-store sales growth and 11 straight quarters of transaction growth, momentum that has carried into 2026. In the first quarter, same-store sales increased 13.3 percent, fueled by a 9.3 percent rise in transactions. On a two-year basis, same-store sales are up 22 percent and transactions have climbed 15.2 percent. Dine-in, digital, and both first- and third-party delivery sales are increasing. In fact, digital now accounts for over 55 percent of sales.
4 of Bank of America’s Top US Q3 Picks Pay Dividends With Double-Digit Upside Potential
Ford's 4.32% dividend and IBM's $10 billion quantum computing investment over five years make both high-conviction BofA Q3 income and growth plays. Visa trades at a 3x discount to its 5-year average forward P/E, while Walmart's advertising and membership businesses fund the pricing power driving share gains. We expect continued upward estimate revisions for Ford given: 1) Ford's primary North America market is better positioned compared to Europe/China given a protectionist trade agenda (no Chinese EV disruption), a favorable regulatory environment given the roll off of emission standards programs that allows Ford to produce its highest margin accretive ICE vehicles, and resilient demand despite higher gas prices, 2) mix benefit from shift to higher margin trims at F Blue, including off-road & V8 trims, 3) Novelis recovery progressing better than expected, 4) outsized growth in F's high margin software & services business, 5) support from Ford's new battery energy storage business & the scaling of its new EV platform with the launch of an affordable pickup next year. BofA Securities has set a $315 target price. Visa is our top way to own the secular shift from cash to electronic payments: a durable, double-digit revenue/teens-EPS compounder with a wide debit and credit moat, a fast-growing value-added services engine (~30% of net revenue), and $33B of buyback firepower. It trades 3x below its five-year average forward PE, continuing to discount regulatory and disintermediation overhangs that we view as overstated. The BofA Securities target price is $410. Walmart (NYSE: WMT) also has a strong e-commerce platform and a 0.88% dividend. BofA said this about the technology-powered omnichannel retailer: We remain convinced that the current backdrop, with strength from the upper-income consumer and some caution from the value-seeking consumer, is conducive to Walmart accelerating share gains by leading with price and speed. Walmart operates retail and wholesale stores and clubs, as well as e-commerce websites and mobile applications, throughout the United States, Africa, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, India, and Mexico. It operates in three reportable segments. The Bank of America price target is $20. BofA's RIC Outlook points to a largely bullish backdrop for the U.S. economy and global equities, with indicators confirming that the "new industrial cycle" remains intact and that earnings momentum is strengthening.
Oversold vs Undervalued: 3 Stocks Sitting in the Sweet Spot for Retirement Investors
PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL | PYPL Price Prediction) is the cheapest stock on this list and, for a retirement audience, the spiciest. Shares trade around $45.47, down 40.4% over the past year, on a trailing P/E of 8x and a forward P/E of 9x against an analyst target of $51.45. Nike (NYSE:NKE) is the classic beaten-down blue chip. Shares closed at $44.09, down 30.8% year to date and 42.3% over one year. The weekly RSI at 40.55 has hovered in weak territory for 12 consecutive weeks. That is textbook oversold. Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is the deepest-value anchor of the trio and the cleanest retirement fit. Shares trade at $23.79, off 29.2% from a year ago, with a beta of just 0.655. The trailing P/E is 5x, forward P/E is 7x, and price-to-book is 0.96. Analysts see fair value at $32.29. Operations are turning. First-quarter revenue rose 10.9% on a pro forma basis, broadband subscriber losses narrowed to 65,000 from 183,000, wireless lines added 435,000 net subscribers, and Peacock reached 46 million paid subscribers. Free cash flow reached $3.9 billion in the quarter, supporting a 5.6% dividend yield and continued buybacks. The dividend has climbed from $0.0625 quarterly in 2008 to $0.33 today. Prediction-market sentiment scores a bullish 65.66, the strongest read in the group.
Walmart's Bounce Faces a Fundamental Test
Comparable sales are slowing. If costs rise, Walmart has to decide how much it can absorb and how much it can pass on to shoppers. Walmart's strength has always been price. Push prices too high, and customers notice. Protect prices too aggressively, and margins can feel the pressure. The next earnings report should give a clearer read on traffic, pricing and margins.
Sellers priced homes at 'aspirational levels' — now listing prices are falling at the fastest pace since 2017
According to an analysis by Realtor.com (1), the national median asking price fell in June to $430,000, a drop of 2.5% compared to one year ago when it sat at $440,950. That makes June the eighth consecutive month that listing prices have decreased, according to the platform, and it marks the biggest year-over-year drop since Realtor.com began tracking prices in 2017. According to Consumer Reports (5), most lenders charge origination fees between 0.5% and 1% of the loan amount, which covers services including documenting and processing the loan, verifying financial information, time spent in meetings and underwriting. One point generally costs 1% of the loan amount, which equals a 0.25% reduction in your interest rate, Consumer Reports says. Jay Sobo, founder and CEO of Liberty Financing, told Consumer Reports that even if a lender advertises that they don't charge an origination fee, "these fees can also be baked into the rate and cost of the loan." "This may avoid paying origination fees upfront but could increase the total cost over the life of the loan," Sobo told Consumer Reports.
Coca-Cola Just Hit an All-Time High -- and Pepsi Trades 16% Below Its 52-Week High. Which Dividend Giant Is the Better Buy?
Coca-Cola has earned its record. In the first quarter, organic revenue grew 10%, driven by an 8% increase in concentrate sales (though the quarter was notably flattered a bit by six additional days on the calendar compared to the year-ago period) and comparable earnings per share rose 18% to $0.86. PepsiCo's North American food business -- the source of most of the market's worry after being a drag on the business -- delivered volume growth in Q1, showing signs of a recovery. Management credited innovation and affordability initiatives. The quarterly dividend now sits at $0.53 per share, good for a yield of about 2.5% at the current price. PepsiCo raised its dividend 4% this year, to $5.92 per share annually -- its 54th consecutive annual increase. At the current price, that's a yield of about 4.1%, well above Coca-Cola's 2.5%.
Here’s Why Shopify (SHOP) is Struggling
Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) has a market capitalization of $155.01 billion. "Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP): SHOP was the second-largest detractor for the quarter, declining 26%. The stock faced pressure beginning with its Q4 2025 earnings report on February 11, which investors viewed as mixed. While revenue of $3.67 billion grew 31% year-over-year and beat expectations, the company missed EPS estimates and guided Q1 2026 free cash flow margins slightly below the prior year, disappointing investors who had expected continued margin expansion."
Is Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) a Durable Long-Term Compounder?
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) posted a one-month return of -2.08%, and its shares lost 3.58% over the past 52 weeks. Comparable store sales growth remained in the mid-to-high single digits year-over-year, membership renewal rates remained above 90%, and e-commerce penetration continued to accelerate. We continue to view Costco as one of the most resilient and defensible businesses in the consumer sector. Its membership flywheel, strong private-label offering, and disciplined pricing strategy support consistent traffic and recurring revenue across economic cycles.
Slow Mornings on the French Riviera: Retire to the South of France at 62 on $1.1 Million
$1.1 million portfolio supports French Riviera retirement at 62, but only if you live inland and keep withdrawals near 4%. Delaying Social Security to 70 forces 4.5% annual portfolio withdrawals during bridge years, making a treasury ladder the smartest defensive structure. France's healthcare cotisation adds somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 yearly, but converting to Roth before relocating eliminates the biggest cross-border tax exposure. A seven-figure portfolio can make Mediterranean retirement feel surprisingly close, especially for someone in their early 60s who is tired of pricing every decision around U.S. housing, health care, and taxes. The South of France at 62 on $1.1 million sits right on the edge. It is doable, but not the way most people picture it, and the parts that trip people up are rarely the parts they worry about going in. What slow mornings on the Côte d'Azur actually cost Start with where you actually live, because the Riviera is not one market. Using the European Central Bank's June 25, 2026 rate of 1 euro = $1.1342, a one-bedroom in central Nice or Cannes can easily run about $1,100 to $2,050 a month, with Antibes often somewhat cheaper. Move inland, and a modest two-bedroom may fall closer to $1,150 to $1,500. Buying is usually harder to justify unless you are committed for years, because transaction costs and local property taxes add up. A realistic annual budget for one person living inland, eating at the market, driving a small used car, and traveling modestly might look like this in current dollars: housing around $16,000, food and household costs around $7,500, utilities and internet around $2,400, transport around $3,500, healthcare around $4,500, and miscellaneous reserves of $12,000 for travel, gifts, home repairs, car replacement, and U.S. federal tax on withdrawals. That lands near $46,000 per year. Couples may add $10,000 to $12,000, mostly for food and healthcare. The bridge years are where the plan gets tight. Claiming Social Security at 62 can reduce the full retirement age benefit by as much as 30%. For someone whose full retirement age benefit would be $2,400 a month, that means roughly $1,680 at 62. Waiting until 70 could lift the benefit to about $2,976 before any future cost-of-living adjustments, assuming delayed retirement credits of 8% per year after full retirement age. On $1.1 million, a 4% withdrawal generates $44,000. Add an early Social Security claim of about $20,160 a year, and gross income is near $64,000, which clears the $46,000 budget with room for taxes and weak markets. Waiting until 70 changes the risk: years 62 to 70 may require $46,000 to $50,000 a year from the portfolio, or about 4.2% to 4.5% of the starting balance. The piece almost nobody prices in France's healthcare system, PUMa, generally becomes available to legal residents after three months, but some early retirees pay into it through the cotisation subsidiaire maladie. For 2026, the formula is generally 6.5% of capital income above 50% of the French annual Social Security ceiling, or about $27,300, when earned income is below the required threshold. A retiree with $50,000 of capital income could owe roughly $1,500 before any adjustment, plus a private mutuelle. The offset is the U.S.-France tax treaty. U.S. Social Security and certain U.S. government pensions are generally taxable only in the United States, not France, but treaty treatment still has to be reported correctly. Private retirement accounts require more care: IRA and 401(k) distributions are often handled differently from Roth withdrawals, and the timing of Roth conversions can matter. Converting before becoming a French tax resident may be valuable, but it should be modeled before the move. The bottom line: $1.1 million can work for one person in the South of France at 62 if you live inland rather than on the seafront, hold withdrawals near 3.5% to 4% once Social Security begins, keep enough safe assets for the bridge years, and settle the Roth and treaty questions before becoming a French tax resident. For a couple, the same plan likely needs closer to $1.3 million to $1.4 million, or a willingness to claim Social Security earlier. The postcard version needs a spreadsheet The Riviera is reachable on this number, but only if the plan is built around the village, not the postcard. The make-or-break details are not café prices or beach-club splurges. They are the bridge years before Social Security, the healthcare contribution, the treaty paperwork, the exchange rate, and the decision to rent long enough to know which version of the South of France you can afford.
This Asset Class Has Lagged the Market for Years But Was the Best Performer in June. Time to Invest?
The entire sector is up about 9.5% this year, as measured by the Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF (VNQ 0.74%). That's slightly better than the broader market. Lodging and resort REITs are up almost 43% this year and 12% in June alone, driven by a resurgence of group and corporate travel, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). Data center REITs are up more than 33% this year, driven by extraordinary growth in the sector (particularly from artificial intelligence companies and rising data usage).
Car parts supplier Webasto eyes 2027 listing for India business
Financial data from the Registrar of Companies, cited by Economic Times, showed that Webasto Roofsystems India recorded revenue of Rs9.46bn ($99.1m) in FY25, compared with Rs7.20bn a year earlier. The Indian subsidiary posted a net profit of Rs314m crore, against a loss of Rs91m in FY24. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation climbed to Rs1.02bn from Rs360m.
United Natural Foods (UNFI) Delivers an Earnings Surprise, Analyst Raises Target
With EPS growth for the next five years forecasted at 74.81%, United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE:UNFI) is among the 12 Best Quality Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Next Decade. On June 10, BMO Capital raised its price target on United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE:UNFI) to $56 from $52 while maintaining an Outperform rating following stronger-than-expected third-quarter results. The firm noted that earnings exceeded both its own forecasts and management's expectations, supported by productivity initiatives that delivered benefits sooner than anticipated. BMO believes the company's ongoing network optimization strategy is successfully improving profitability and should continue driving solid bottom-line performance even as revenue growth remains uneven due to broader market conditions. Also on June 10, Goldman Sachs increased its price target on United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE:UNFI) to $47 from $42 while maintaining a Neutral rating. Although investors reacted cautiously to management's softer fourth-quarter outlook, driven by higher fuel costs and increased investments in technology and supply chain capabilities, Goldman believes these headwinds are manageable. The firm also emphasized that the company's broader profit improvement story remains intact, supported by continued cost-saving initiatives and operational efficiencies generated through its network optimization program.
Costco vs Walmart: What's the Better Retail Stock to Buy Right Now?
When it last reported earnings in May, the company's comparable sales growth rate for the trailing 36 weeks was convincingly positive, up over 6% in the U.S., Canada, and international markets. And that's without factoring in the impact of higher gas prices and changes in foreign exchange; the raw growth rate was even higher. When it last reported earnings, for the quarter ending April 30, Walmart's comparable revenue growth rate in the U.S. was up around 4% when excluding fuel.
First Solar Climbs 5% on Bullish Wells Fargo Note, SolarEdge Jumps 8%, Canadian Solar Gains 7%, Enphase Rises 5%
The company reported Q1 2026 EPS of $3.22 on revenue of $1.04 billion, both ahead of estimates, and management reaffirmed full-year net sales guidance of $4.9 billion to $5.2 billion. First Solar's fundamentals give the call something to lean on. The company reported Q1 2026 EPS of $3.22 on revenue of $1.04 billion, both ahead of estimates, and management reaffirmed full-year net sales guidance of $4.9 billion to $5.2 billion.
When I Try to Imagine the Best Investment Opportunity for the Next 10 Years, Costco Stock Just Doesn't Make the Cut. That's Why I Keep Coming Back to This Stock.
Costco's yield is 0.6%, which is even lower than the 1% yield on offer from the S&P 500 index (^GSPC +0.74%). McCormick is right up my alley McCormick is one of the world's largest producers of spices and flavorings. It has a global reach and a solid history of business growth. Compared to Costco, it looks like a slow-and-steady tortoise, but that's not a problem for me. In fact, I like companies that are boring and sell relatively low-cost products that consumers buy regularly. Consumer staples makers like McCormick tend to be resilient in the face of bear markets and recessions. That said, Wall Street's short-term focus has opened up a buying opportunity. The stock's yield is historically high at roughly 3.6%. The 2x P/S ratio is below its five-year average of 3x. The 9x P/E is below its five-year average of 25x. And the 2x P/B ratio is below its five-year average of 3.8x. A good company trading at a historically high yield and an attractive valuation is hard for me to resist. There's one big caveat with McCormick. It is about to buy Unilever's (UL 1.75%) food business. It is a big deal for McCormick, noting that Unilever's food business is bigger than McCormick's.
Why Charles Schwab Stock Bumped Almost 4% Higher on Monday
We can't say that Charles Schwab's (SCHW +3.79%) proprietary equity index is as closely followed as, say, the S&P 500 index. But when the Schwab Trading Activity Index (STAX) rises notably, investors take notice. That was the dynamic behind the brokerage's nearly 4% price bump on Monday. The STAX was stacked During that day's trading session, Schwab announced that its self-named index had risen to 59.12 in June, notably up from its May level of slightly over 55. That set a multi-year high, the company pointed out. This is indicative of more than just investor eagerness to own stock, at least according to STAX's owner. The veteran financial company claims that it's a unique behavioral index "that analyzes retail investor stock positions and trading activity from Schwab's millions of client accounts to illuminate what investors were actually doing and how they were positioned in the markets each month. The company wrote that STAX's June performance was bolstered by bargain-hunting during market pullbacks. Schwab investors were net buyers of index and exchange-traded fund (ETF) options, while they also plowed into tech, communications, and consumer discretionary stocks. By age group, the STAX data showed that Generation X investors were particularly bullish in June. NYSE: SCHW
WMT Stock In Focus As Trump Says Walmart Will Cut Prices To Celebrate America’s 250th Birthday
WMT shares closed 1.09% lower in Monday’s regular session and slipped another 0.09% in after-hours trading at the time of writing. The WMT stock has lost nearly 1% so far this year. Walmart said in a press release that both Walmart and Sam’s Club, its warehouse club chain, are rolling back prices across a wide range of high-demand products, including beef, fresh produce, beverages, grills, pools, toys and summer apparel. Walmart added that Sam’s Club is continuing to offer competitive fuel prices during the summer travel season while lowering prices on more than 250 items, including road trip snacks, grilling essentials and other seasonal favorites.
Others
Hedge funds dumped chip stocks for a fourth week as AI shares sold off
U.S. hedge funds sold tech hardware stocks for a fourth week in a row, according to a client note from Goldman Sachs on Friday, in line with a recent decline in global chip shares and just before many of these companies will report earnings. The SOX index, which tracks the performance of semiconductor stocks, declined 4.2% in the week to July 3. • Info tech stocks including semiconductor and hardware companies was the most net sold U.S. stock sector for the fourth week in a row. Hedge funds had more sold stocks than bought for the third straight week. Hedge funds might sell stocks to close bets based on an expectation for those shares to rise, or as part of a bet on those shares falling in value over time.
Scilex Shares Jump After Securing $100 Million Strategic Investment Proposal (SCLX)
Scilex Holding Company (NASDAQ:SCLX) shares climbed 7% on Monday after the company announced it had signed a binding term sheet for a proposed $100 million strategic investment from Kazakhstan-based private investment firm iHolding Group LLP. Under the proposed agreement, iHolding would acquire approximately 6.7 million newly issued Scilex common shares at $15.00 per share. The company said the investment would provide additional capital to support its long-term expansion strategy across healthcare and medical technology. If completed, the financing would be used to accelerate several strategic initiatives, including product development, commercialization activities, acquisitions and general working capital requirements. Scilex also intends to invest in expanding its healthcare and medical technology programmes as it seeks to broaden its portfolio and strengthen future growth.
Meet the 4 S&P 500 Dividend Stocks That Yield at Least 6%. Here's My Strongest Buy of the Bunch in July.
Four stocks on the S&P 500 pay out dividends of more than 6% -- not including a couple that are real estate investment trusts (REITs), which are required by federal statute to pay out most of their income in dividends in exchange for certain tax breaks. A 6% dividend yield is extremely high, but it is not always as good as it may appear on the surface. It may be a trap, because it's the percentage of the share price that goes to dividends. So when a stock tanks, the yield goes up if the dividend is not cut -- and that can create an unsustainable dividend payout. Let's examine the four S&P 500 stocks with yields of more than 6%. Of Verizon Communications (VZ +1.37%), General Mills (GIS 0.74%), Pfizer (PFE +1.78%), and Kraft Heinz (KHC +1.44%), which of the four is the best buy and has the most sustainable dividend? A look at the key metrics When examining dividend stocks, there are several metrics to consider, starting with yield. All four of these stocks have yields that are over 6%, so they are all high-yielding. Here's a breakdown -- and you'll see, Pfizer has the best yield. - Verizon: 6.74% yield - General Mills: 6.46% yield - Pfizer: 7.20% yield - Kraft Heinz: 6.40% yield Now let's look at the payout ratio, which is the percentage of earnings that goes to dividends. A high payout ratio of 60% to 70% or more can mean the company is paying out too much to support its dividend, diverting funds from growth investments or leading to a dividend cut. Here are the payout ratios -- and Pfizer is again the winner with the lowest payout ratio of the group. - Verizon: 57.6% payout ratio - General Mills: 68.7% payout ratio - Pfizer: 56.2% payout ratio - Kraft Heinz: 62.7% payout ratio Another thing to consider is how long the company has been increasing its dividend. This shows a long-term commitment and the financial strength to sustain the dividend. Here is how many consecutive years each has raised its dividends -- and Verizon ranks first this time. - Verizon: 21 years in a row - General Mills: 6 years in a row - Pfizer: 15 years in a row - Kraft Heinz: 0 years in a row Verizon is the best choice These are not the only metrics investors should consider, but they go a long way toward showing how sustainable the high dividend payout is. Based on these numbers, Pfizer and Verizon look like the best two of the bunch, with Pfizer gaining a slight edge in yield and payout ratio and Verizon showing stronger long-term dividend growth. NYSE: VZ Key Data Points It's also important to look at the returns of each of these stocks, because they show whether the high yield is mostly due to the stock price tanking. Year to date (YTD), General Mills stock is down around 20%, while Pfizer is down 2%. Kraft Heinz is up 4% YTD, while Verizon is up 2%. On a total return basis, with the dividend reinvested, Kraft Heinz and Verizon lead the way, up 6% YTD. But in the long term, only Verizon has positive returns. Over the past three years, Verizon has had an average annualized return of 4% and 11% with dividends reinvested. Over the past five, Verizon has averaged a negative 6% return, but on a total return basis, it has an average annualized return of 0.4%. Over the past 10 years, it has delivered a 2% annualized total return. Pfizer also has a positive 10-year annualized return of 1%, but the others are negative. Based on all these factors, Verizon looks like the clear choice as the best dividend stock yielding more than 6%. Analysts generally agree: 41% rate the stock a buy, with a median price target of $50.50 per share -- indicating 22% upside.
A couple owes $200,000 in student loans at 64 — and they'd need $700K in savings to comfortably cover the payments
Six times as many adults ages 60 and over (1) had student loans in 2024 compared to 1994, and the amount of educational debt carried by those seniors increased twentyfold during that period. "A $200,000 federal loan on the standard 10-year plan runs roughly $2,400 a month," said Christopher Walsh (3), senior advisor and regional director at Capital Choice Arizona. "If they're planning on retiring by the 4% rule, they're going to need to earmark nearly $700,000 of their retirement portfolio to comfortably make that monthly payment. For most people, that's a significant chunk, if not the lion's share, of their retirement."
Should Texas Instruments’ Index Shift Toward Growth Benchmarks Reframe the Core TXN Investment Narrative?
Texas Instruments was removed from several Russell value and defensive benchmarks and added to the Russell 1000 Dynamic and Russell Top 50 indexes, reshaping its classification across widely followed equity indices. This reshuffle alters how index-tracking and style-focused institutional investors may hold Texas Instruments, potentially changing trading patterns and its role in portfolios. Texas Instruments Investment Narrative Recap To own Texas Instruments today, you have to believe its analog and embedded franchises can keep compounding through industrial, automotive and AI related demand, while large U.S. fab investments eventually earn their keep. The recent shift out of value and defensive Russell indexes into the Russell 1000 Dynamic and Russell Top 50 mainly affects who holds the stock, not what the business sells, so it does not materially change the near term earnings catalyst or the key risks around capacity and pricing. What ties this index reshuffle back to the business is TI's growing exposure to AI and data centers, highlighted by the launch of its new 800V DC power architecture for AI infrastructure. That same theme is echoed in its upcoming Q2 2026 earnings and continued heavy capex on 300mm fabs, which are central to both the bull case on industrial and data center growth and the bear case around potential overcapacity and pressured free cash flow. Yet behind the reclassification, investors should be aware that overbuilding capacity and rising capex obligations could quietly reshape TI's risk profile over the coming years... Texas Instruments' narrative projects $26.4 billion revenue and $10.3 billion earnings by 2029. Some of the lowest ranking analysts see a very different picture, assuming revenue of about US$23.8 billion and earnings near US$7.6 billion by 2029, which is a more cautious path than many expect.
Double Your Retirement Income in a Decade. Here’s How.
A retiree who starts with a 10% dividend yield can collect far more income on day one than someone earning 3.5%. Twenty years later, the tables may have turned. One income stream stayed flat while inflation chipped away at its buying power. The other kept growing year after year until it was paying dramatically more. A payout growing 8% a year doubles in roughly nine years, which is why a decade is the key test for dividend-growth investing. Start with a 3.5% yield on a $1 million portfolio and year-one income is $35,000. If distributions keep growing at that pace, that same portfolio can produce roughly $75,500 by year 10 without adding new capital. The Consumer Price Index sat at near 334, in the 90th percentile of its historical range. A frozen income stream loses purchasing power every year of a 25-year retirement. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ | JNJ Price Prediction) has raised its dividend for 64 consecutive years. The quarterly payout climbed from $0.80 in early 2016 to $1.34 in mid-2026, with a current yield near 2%. The 10-year total price return was 175%. Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) has paid a dividend since 1890 and increased it for 70 straight years. Quarterly payments moved from $0.6695 in 2016 to $1.0885 in 2026, with the yield close to 3%. McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) yields about 2.7% and has grown its payout for roughly 48 years, most recently to $1.86 per quarter. Total price return over the last decade: 185%. Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW) is another Dividend King with more than 60 years of increases. The quarterly dividend went from $0.28 in 2016 to $1.25 in mid-2026, and shares gained 236% over that decade. Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) is the higher-growth outlier. Its dividend rose from $0.38 quarterly in 2016 to $1.42 today, and the stock returned 531% across 10 years. For a retiree targeting $60,000 in annual income, the arithmetic at three yield levels tells the story: - At 3.5% (dividend growth stocks and broad-market equity income): $60,000 divided by 0.035 equals about $1,714,000 in capital. - At 6% (REITs, preferred shares, hybrid income funds): $60,000 divided by 0.06 equals $1,000,000. - At 12% (BDCs, mortgage REITs, leveraged option-income funds): $60,000 divided by 0.12 equals $500,000. The aggressive tier looks like a bargain until the decade test begins. A 3.5% starting yield growing 8% annually reaches roughly 7.5% yield-on-cost by year 10, turning a modest starting payout into something much more competitive.The high-yield portfolio is still paying 12% on original capital, but its purchasing power has quietly eroded, and the 10-year Treasury near 4% now competes directly with those static payouts on a risk-adjusted basis. A lower-yielding portfolio can feel underwhelming at first, but if the income stream keeps rising, it can eventually overtake a higher-yield portfolio that never grows. More important, it may preserve or increase the underlying capital instead of forcing the retiree to rely on assets that slowly melt beneath the surface. Most households need to replace only 70% to 85% of pre-tax income once payroll taxes, commuting costs, and savings contributions disappear. The goal is not to win year one. The real test is whether the income stream is stronger ten years later. That is where dividend growth often changes the retirement equation.
FIBRA Prologis Announces Upcoming Ordinary Holders' Meeting and Incentive Fee Payment to Sponsor
FIBRA Prologis is a leading owner and operator of Class-A industrial real estate in Mexico. As of March 31, 2026, the company's portfolio comprised 516 Investment Properties, totaling 86.9 million square feet (8.1 million square meters). This includes 350 logistics and manufacturing facilities across 6 industrial core markets in Mexico, comprising 65.8 million square feet (6.1 million square meters) of Gross Leasing Area (GLA) and 166 buildings with 21.1 million square feet (1.9 million square meters) of non-strategic assets in other markets.
Big Oil Heads for Record Profits as Trump Turns Up the Heat on Gas Prices
The earnings at both ExxonMobil and Chevron are expected to have tripled in the April to June quarter compared to the first quarter, as the worst supply disruption in the history of oil markets crippled oil flows from the Middle East, triggered crude price spikes and heightened volatility, and depleted oil inventories, including in the United States. Exxon is estimated to have booked $15.9 billion in adjusted net income, and Chevron's earnings are seen at nearly $10 billion for the second quarter, more than threefold for both supermajors compared to their first-quarter profits, per analyst estimates compiled by LSEG and cited by Reuters. The April-June earnings at all Big Oil companies are set to be the highest since 2022, the previous time oil prices hit $100 per barrel and above, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Want Durable Dividend Income That Can Last for Decades? Buy This Stock and Never Look Back.
The Marathon partnership is important and is one ingredient in the MPLX dividend recipe. Not all energy stocks benefit from deal-making, but MPLX is a prime example of a company that knows how to execute on that front. Last year, this midstream outfit made three purchases while parting ways with its Rocky Mountain business. That slims the company's focus (in a good way) to the Marcellus and Permian shale regions. Long-term investors shouldn't gloss over MPLX's place in the NGL ecosystem. From this year through 2035, the NGL market is expected to nearly double, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 7.1%. North America is the largest NGL market in the world, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports are ramping up, and they are at the top of the White House's America energy independence agenda. MPLX answers the payout growth bell with ease. The 12.5% dividend hike announced by the company last October raised the annual distribution to $4.31 per share, meaning it has grown nearly 10 times in just over 11 years.