Daily Point
_ Dow Jones 52,658.64 (+0.59%)
_ S&P 500 7,572.40 (+1.2%)
_ Nasdaq 26,269.23 (+1.54%)
_ Bitcoin 64,038.76 (+0.44%)
Topline Signals
- US Inflation: The June Consumer Price Index declined 0.4% month-over-month, bringing the annual rate to 3.5%, while the Producer Price Index fell 0.3% month-over-month.
- ASML: The company raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to between €43 billion and €45 billion, up from the previous range of €36 billion to €40 billion.
- BlackRock: Total assets under management reached a record $15.3 trillion, supported by $192 billion in second-quarter net inflows and $868 billion in net inflows over the last 12 months.
Good day.
The market's upward march today, led by a 1.54% surge in the Nasdaq and a strong showing from the S&P 500, reflects a profound structural shift rather than mere daily noise. As we look ahead to critical retail sales data and a highly anticipated address by President Trump, the macroeconomic landscape is clarifying. The unexpected decline in June CPI and PPI has effectively neutralized immediate rate-hike anxieties, offering a steadier liquidity backdrop for long-term capital allocation. While Wall Street obsessively debates the timing of the Federal Reserve's next move, true wealth accumulation requires looking past the immediate horizon to identify where the global capital cycle is aggressively concentrating.
Currently, that concentration is occurring at the intersection of AI physical infrastructure and institutional digital asset adoption. While legacy technology firms like IBM suffer historic corrections as their traditional software offerings are crowded out, the hardware and power enablers of the intelligence age are demonstrating unprecedented pricing power. Taiwan Semiconductor's record NT$1.27 trillion quarterly revenue and ASML's upgraded 2026 guidance prove that the physical build-out of AI is not a speculative bubble, but a multi-year capital expenditure cycle that is fully booked out to 2028. To build lasting financial independence, one must invest in these irreplaceable gatekeepers of compute—the companies owning the physical nodes, advanced lithography, and energy pipelines.
Simultaneously, we are witnessing the quiet but unstoppable integration of public blockchains into global financial plumbing. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation's live testing of tokenized securities, alongside legislative shifts in Japan and South Korea to classify digital currencies as financial and national assets, signals that the sovereign adoption of crypto is transitioning from theory to systemic reality. With tokenized real-world assets crossing $33 billion, the rails of global finance are being permanently rewritten. As a practitioner who has survived multiple market cycles, my advice is to ignore the short-term volatility of retail-driven assets and focus on accumulating concentrated positions in these structural mega-trends. Real financial freedom is achieved by positioning your capital directly in front of these multi-trillion-dollar structural tides.
Weekly Schedule
16 Jul (Thursday)
GDP
Retail Sales
Core Retail Sales
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index
Philly Fed Employment
Retail Control
Initial Jobless Claims
Continuing Jobless Claims
Pending Home Sales
Retail Inventories Ex Auto
Business Inventories
Atlanta Fed GDPNow
U.S. President Trump Speaks
GE Aerospace Earnings Call
Intuitive Surgical Earnings Call
Netflix Earnings Call
Prologis Earnings Call
UnitedHealth Group Earnings Call
17 Jul (Friday)
CPI
Export Price Index
Import Price Index
Housing Starts
Building Permits
Housing Starts
Industrial Production
Industrial Production
Michigan Consumer Sentiment
Michigan 1-Year Inflation Expectations
Michigan 5-Year Inflation Expectations
Michigan Consumer Expectations
Atlanta Fed GDPNow
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
18 Jul (Saturday)
19 Jul (Sunday)
20 Jul (Monday)
US Leading Index
Starbucks Earnings Call
21 Jul (Tuesday)
ADP Employment Change Weekly
API Weekly Crude Oil Stock
Danaher Earnings Call
Charles Schwab Earnings Call
22 Jul (Wednesday)
CPI
20-Year Bond Auction
Alphabet Earnings Call
ServiceNow Earnings Call
Philip Morris International Earnings Call
AT&T Earnings Call
Tesla Earnings Call
Texas Instruments Earnings Call
General
Mortgage and refinance rates today, Wednesday, July 15, 2026: Mortgage rates mostly higher
The national average 30-year mortgage rate is 6.46% right now, according to data compiled from the Zillow lender marketplace. But keep in mind that averages can vary depending on where you live. For example, mortgage rates vary by state, and if you're buying in a city with a high cost of living, rates could be higher. Rates on most mortgage products are rising today. The 30-year fixed-rate purchase loan rose 4 basis points to 6.46%; the 20-year fixed purchase loan increased 13 basis points to 6.32%; the 15-year fixed purchase loan declined 6 basis points to 5.86%; and the 5/1 ARM purchase rate rose 8 basis points to 6.65%.
Morning Bid: Melting core
The drop in headline U.S. inflation may well be reversed in July given the resumption of hostilities in the Gulf, but the first drop in monthly core CPI in more than six years - a marginal fall of 0.02% - takes the annual core inflation rate down to just 2.6%.
Dollar steadies as Middle East escalation counters soft US inflation
U.S. consumer inflation slowed more than expected to 3.5% on a year-on-year basis in June, data showed on Tuesday. The headline consumer price index fell 0.4% month-on-month, its first decline since April 2020, as energy prices retreated. Traders are now pricing in about a 70% chance of a September rate hike, while a move later this month is seen as highly unlikely, according to LSEG data.
Gold prices today, Wednesday, July 15, 2026: Gold prices not advancing as airstrikes continue
Yesterday's softer-than-expected inflation report aligns with more peaceful conditions between the warring countries last month, but renewed escalations in July have sent oil prices sharply upward once again. Oil prices (BZ=F) are up over 9% in the last five days. While most market observers are confident the Fed will not raise rates later this month to battle inflation, September will remain a focal point, especially if the violence continues.
The State Tax Trap: Where the Same Retirement Portfolio Buys You Thousands More Every Year
$186,000 over a 25-year retirement. California's top rate reaches 13.3%, Hawaii's reaches 11%, New York's reaches 10.9%, New Jersey's reaches 10.75%, and Oregon's reaches 9.9%. A California retiree with $80,000 of ordinary investment income may see some or all of that income taxed in the state's 9.3% bracket, depending on filing status and other taxable income. At 9.3%, the state tax hit on $80,000 is $7,440. Across a 25-year retirement, that equals $186,000 before considering any investment growth on money that could have been kept. Recent 3-month Treasury bill rates were about 3.7%, and SGOV's 30-day SEC yield was 3.54% as of June 30, 2026. For a California resident in the 9.3% bracket, a taxable corporate bond fund would need to yield roughly 3.9% to match SGOV's 30-day SEC yield after state tax. iShares National Muni Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:MUB) had a 30-day SEC yield of 3.34% as of June 30, 2026. For a retiree in the 24% federal bracket, a 3.5% muni yield is the taxable equivalent of about 4.6%. Headline PCE rose 4.1% year over year in May 2026, while the 10-year Treasury yield was around 4.4% to 4.5% in early July. J&J's quarterly dividend rose from $1.24 in 2024 to $1.34 in 2026.
Morning Minute: Crypto Rips on Cool CPI
June CPI fell 0.4% month over month, the biggest monthly decline since April 2020, dropping the annual rate to 3.5% from May's 4.2% and coming in under the 3.8% expected. Core CPI cooled to 2.6%, below forecasts, and was flat on the month. The odds of a July rate cut fell from 35% on Polymarket to just 6% in the wake of CPI + Warsh's commentary.
US producer prices unexpectedly fall in June
The Producer Price Index for final demand dropped 0.3% last month after a downwardly revised 0.6% increase in May, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday. In the 12 months through June, the PPI increased 5.5% after rising 6.0% in May. The government reported on Tuesday that the Consumer Price Index dropped 0.4% in June, the largest decline since April 2020, after increasing 0.5% in May. Prior to the PPI data, economists estimated that PCE inflation excluding the volatile food and energy components rose 0.2% in June after climbing 0.3% in May. That would translate into a 3.3% year-on-year increase in the so-called core PCE inflation after rising 3.4% in May. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh told lawmakers on Tuesday that the central bank had "no tolerance for persistently elevated inflation."
PPI wholesale inflation falls 0.3% in June thanks to lower gas prices
Wholesale inflation dipped in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday, with the Producer Price Index for final demand falling 0.3%. It marked the first time the index has moved lower on a monthly basis since August 2025. The core PPI measure — final demand excluding food, energy, and trade services — rose 0.1% in June after jumping 0.8% in May. That measure was up 5.1% over the prior 12 months. At the intermediate demand level, prices for processed goods fell 1.2% — the largest decline since December 2022 — driven by a 7.3% drop in processed energy goods.
Mortgage applications drop as 30-year rate nears 12-month high
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported a 2.7% drop in total mortgage application volume for the week ending July 10, as the 30-year fixed rate climbed to its highest point in nearly a year. The MBA reported that the average contract interest rate on conforming 30-year fixed mortgages climbed to 6.65% — its highest reading since August 2025 — up from 6.58% the week before, with points ticking up to 0.67 from 0.64 on loans carrying a 20% down payment, after accounting for the origination fee. Purchase mortgage applications slipped 7% week over week and trailed the comparable period from a year earlier by 2%, the MBA said. Mortgage applications declined as the 30-year fixed rate increased to 6.65 percent, the highest level since August 2025. Purchase applications were down over the week and dipped below last year's pace in the week following the July 4th holiday," Joel Kan, MBA's vice president and deputy chief economist, said in a statement. Rates for other loan types also increased. The 30-year jumbo rate — for loans above $832,750 — rose to 6.62% from 6.50%, and the 15-year fixed rate moved up to 6.05% from 5.99%, the MBA said. The five-year ARM rate fell to 5.75% from 5.84%.
‘A Huge and Risky Financial Maneuver’: Experts Push Back on BlackRock CEO’s $1.5 Trillion Social Security Plan
In 2025, Social Security's combined trust funds earned a 2.6% annual effective interest rate, per the Social Security Administration. The Congressional Budget Office's February 2026 projection has the trust fund depleting in 2032, two years sooner than previously expected, triggering automatic benefit cuts of at least 20-23%. More than 70 million Americans rely on Social Security, and the Bipartisan Policy Center estimates a $25 trillion shortfall over 75 years. The 401(k) contribution limit is $23,500 ($31,000 for those 50 and up with catch-up). Benefits grow about 8% for each year you wait past full retirement age.
Here's Why the Latest Inflation Data Was Good News for Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and the Stock Market
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation rose at an accelerating pace in March, April, and May, driven by soaring oil prices amid the ongoing war in Iran. The federal funds rate (overnight interest rate) has been on a roller-coaster ride over the last few years. The Fed gradually raised it from 0.1% in February 2022 to 5.3% in August 2023, just a year and a half later, to squash a CPI that had surged to 8% -- four times the central bank's 2% annual target. After successfully bringing inflation down, the Fed started cutting the federal funds rate in September 2024, and it now sits at 3.6%, much to the relief of homeowners and stock market investors (more on that later). When the war between the U.S. and Iran started in February, the CPI was hovering at an annualized rate of 2.4%, but it spiked to 4.2% by May, setting off alarm bells at the Fed. It cooled to 3.5% in June, which is good news, but it is still well above the central bank's 2% target, and upside risks remain, given that the war in the Middle East is still raging after multiple failed attempts to achieve peace. According to CME Group's FedWatch tool, which calculates the probability of interest rate moves by analyzing the 30-Day Fed Funds futures market, there is still an 82% chance of at least one hike by December.
Bank of Canada holds rates, sees economic growth in second half
The Bank of Canada left its benchmark overnight rate unchanged at 2.25% on Wednesday as widely expected and said growth would strengthen in the second half of the year as inflation pressures eased. The bank slightly raised its growth forecasts for 2027 and 2028 but cut its 2026 projection to 0.7% from 1.2% in April, reflecting a weaker start to the year. The BoC raised its 2026 inflation forecast to 2.5% from 2.3% in April, but said inflation should remain near the midpoint of its 1%-3% target range over the next two years. The bank predicted the economy will grow by 2.5% on an annualized basis in the second quarter after stalling in the first quarter amid disruption caused by the Middle East conflict and uncertainty over U.S. trade policy. "We've been looking through the direct effects of higher oil prices on inflation, but the longer they remain elevated, the bigger the risk they spill over to other goods and services."
I’m 61 Years Old With $200,000 Saved for Retirement. What’s My Game Plan?
The median retirement savings for Americans aged 65 to 74 is $200,000, according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. Apply the 4% rule and a $200,000 nest egg yields just $8,000 a year in retirement income, before any inflation-related adjustments to your base withdrawal rate. That is a thin cushion. If $200,000 is all you have at age 61, these moves deserve your attention. One concrete reason to keep working: under SECURE 2.0, a higher catch-up contribution limit applies for employees who turn 60, 61, 62, or 63 in a calendar year. For 2026, that enhanced catch-up limit is $11,250 for most 401(k), 403(b), and governmental 457 plans. For every month from your full retirement age (FRA) until age 70 that you delay filing, Social Security increases your eventual benefit by two-thirds of 1%, which adds up to 8% for each year you wait. Workers who reach FRA at 67 but delay claiming until 70 receive an extra 24% on top of their monthly payment. Claiming at 62 moves in the opposite direction. The reduction runs to roughly 30% compared with filing at your FRA of 67. With only $200,000 in savings, accepting a permanently smaller Social Security check is a financial hit you can ill afford. At a minimum, target age 67. Pushing to 70 is the stronger move if your health and finances allow it. The median actual retirement age among middle-class retirees in their 60s is 62, and that earlier-than-expected exit often happens because of health or job loss rather than by choice. Managing risk does not mean abandoning growth. A portion of savings in equities, paired with safer assets like bonds, CDs, and money market funds, can keep the portfolio generating returns while limiting the damage from a bad year early in retirement. According to the Federal Reserve's "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024" report, 65% of Americans either believe their retirement savings are off track or are not sure. Editor's note: This article was updated to include the SECURE 2.0 "super catch-up" contribution limit of $11,250 available in 2025 and 2026 for workers ages 60 to 63, as well as the 2026 standard 401(k) contribution limit of $24,500 and the updated Federal Reserve finding that 65% of Americans feel their retirement savings are off track, from the Fed's 2024 report published in May 2025.
Fed Rate Hikes Dead? Producer Prices Fall by Largest Amount Since Pandemic
Producer prices dropped 0.4% in June, marking the largest monthly decline since the pandemic and signaling that Fed rate hikes are increasingly unlikely. Year-over-year wholesale inflation slowed to 1.8% from 2.5%, as energy prices plunged 4.1% and food costs fell nearly 1%. BLS reported that the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures prices businesses receive for their goods and services, fell 0.4% in June from May. Even more encouraging, producer prices were up just 1.8% year over year, slowing from 2.5% in May. The biggest contributor was energy. Final demand energy prices declined 4.1%, led by another sharp drop in gasoline prices. For Federal Reserve officials, softer producer prices complement this week's consumer inflation report and strengthen the case for keeping rates unchanged rather than considering another increase. Since renewed hostilities erupted in Iran after the government collected June inflation data, oil prices have climbed. West Texas Intermediate crude now trades around $80 per barrel, while Brent crude is near $85, raising the possibility that energy could once again become an inflation headwind during the second half of the year. The Federal Reserve will almost certainly want confirmation that June's decline wasn't merely a temporary benefit from cheaper fuel. Lower inflation generally favors sectors that depend on financing, including technology, housing, industrials, and small-cap stocks.
AGQ vs. ZSL: Betting on or Against Silver, Which 2x ETF Survives the Volatility?
AGQ has shed 58.74% year to date, and its supposed opposite, ZSL, is also down 40.11% YTD. AGQ seeks 2x the daily performance of the Bloomberg Silver Subindex. ZSL seeks negative 2x that same index. ZSL executed a 1-for-10 reverse split on February 26, 2026, its seventh reverse split since 2010. AGQ is up 16.09% over the trailing 12 months, while ZSL collapsed 85.47% in the same window. Over five years, AGQ eked out a 37.9% gain, while ZSL cratered 96.53%.
Wall Street Lunch: Dan Ives Teams Up With Yorkville Securities To Launch Merchant Bank
The Producer Price Index fell 0.3% month over month, versus expectations for a 0.1% decline. The prior month's increase was revised to 0.6% from 1.1%. That brought the annual rate down to 5.5%, well below the 6.2% consensus. Core PPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.2% for the month, below expectations for a 0.4% increase. The annual core rate slowed to 4.7%, compared with expectations for 5.2%.
Fed's Cook says she is prepared to act soon if inflation does not begin to slow
If we do not see signs of disinflation soon, I am prepared to act. I am fully committed to reaching our inflation target, and this commitment is unwavering.
Stock Market Today, July 15: Markets Rise on Cooler Inflation and Strong Earnings Start
U.S. producer prices fell in June, another indication that price increases are slowing, which makes an interest rate hike this year less likely. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway warned that the current market is increasingly speculative, saying that many people were “gambling” rather than investing for the long-term.
Atlassian, Sprout Social, and Flywire Stocks Trade Up, What You Need To Know
June wholesale inflation fell 0.3% against expectations for a flat reading, layering on top of the previous session's surprisingly sharp 0.4% decline in consumer prices. Lower inflation data directly reduces Treasury yields by taking pressure off the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates high.
Dow, S&P 500 Futures Edge Higher As Record Bank Earnings, Cooling Inflation Lift Risk Appetite: ASTS, ATAI, AAPL, PYPL in Focus
June’s Producer Price Index (PPI) declined 0.3% from the previous month, marking its steepest drop in more than a year and coming in below expectations. On an annual basis, producer prices increased 5.5%, also below forecasts. The lower wholesale inflation came a day after the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for June was also lower than expected. Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, said in a post on X on Wednesday, noting the decline in CPI and PPI: “These much better-than-expected figures are set to boost equities and further temper market expectations for upcoming interest rate hikes.”
The $1 Million Portfolio With Two Very Different Futures
The core PCE price index rose to 130.082 in May 2026, while BEA reported that core PCE prices were up 3.4% from a year earlier. Any income strategy that stops growing can quietly lose ground to inflation. A million dollars times the portfolio yield equals your annual paycheck. - Conservative tier, 3% to 4% yield. Dividend-growth equities, broad dividend ETFs, and blue-chip compounders. On $1 million, that produces roughly $30,000 to $40,000 in year-one income. A 3.5% yield growing 8% per year doubles the income stream in roughly nine years. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) paid a quarterly dividend of $0.36 in 2016 and now pays $0.91, roughly a 2.5x increase in ten years even as the share price advanced 741%. Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) went from $0.34 quarterly in 2015 to $1.42 today. Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) has taken its regular quarterly dividend from $0.07 in late 2010 to $0.65, while shares returned 2,974% over the past decade. Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW), a Dividend King, has lifted its payout from roughly $1.33 annually in 2016 to $4.80 in 2025, and just declared a $1.25 quarterly dividend for August 2026. NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) yields about 2.6% today and is guiding to roughly 10% dividend growth through 2026, with adjusted EPS growth of 8% or better through 2032. The distributions arrived. The principal did not keep up. Assume the conservative retiree starts at $30,000 of income growing 8% annually. By year nine, income is just under $60,000, and by year 10, it is above that mark.
Bitcoin
6 Cryptocurrencies I'm Watching Like a Hawk in July
Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) currently holds the largest base of tokenized real-world asset (RWA) value (representing ownership of assets like stocks and bonds), with about $15.9 billion on chain, or a little less than half of the market's total -- though that share has been sliding for months. Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is one of those competitors, and I'm curious to see if its current deluge of capital inflows can continue. Its tokenized asset base reached $3.3 billion in mid-July, and it surpassed Ethereum's by holder count.
Crypto steadies as Middle East tensions counter U.S. inflation report boost
Derivatives positioning BTC derivatives positioning remains largely unchanged. Open interest ticked up to $17.3 billion, though the move is not meaningful, the three-month annualized basis held at 3.8% and funding rates remained broadly in the 0%-8% annualized range across multiple venues. In essence, the market continues to consolidate Options positioning tilted more bullish as the 24-hour call/put ratio moved to 66/34 following yesterday's softer 58/42 read and the one-week delta skew held steady at ~15%. The ATM term structure remains in contango, with the front end around 32%–33% and the long end at ~42.5% out to mid-2027 - indicating a calm, non-stressed volatility environment with a renewed lean toward upside positioning. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
The launchpad that fueled Robinhood Chain's memecoin boom just gave away all its revenue
Tokenized real-world assets — the use case Robinhood actually built the chain for — account for just $12.66 million in market cap on the network. At its peak, CASHCAT alone was worth 12 times that figure. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
Japan reclassifies crypto as a financial asset, paves way for tax cuts
Japan reclassified cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, shifting them from a payments-focused regime to an investment framework under amended financial and payments laws set to take effect in 2027. The legislation approved by Parliament on Wednesday amends the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and the Payment Services Act (PSA). It shifts crypto from a framework in which it was primarily treated as a payment tool to one that treats it as an investment alongside other financial instruments. The new rules are expected to take effect in 2027. The legislation raises the maximum prison term for unregistered crypto operators from three years to 10 years and increases the maximum fine from 3 million yen ($18,500) to 10 million yen. It also introduces stricter insider-trading rules and expands disclosure requirements for crypto issuers and exchanges. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
Bitcoin and ethereum prices today, Wednesday, July 15, 2026: Prices surge after softer inflation report
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) opened at $64,974.75 on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, up 4.4% from Tuesday's open. Ethereum (ETH-USD) opened at $1,889.97 on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, up 6.6% compared to Tuesday's opening price. The all-time high for bitcoin was $126,198.07 on Oct. 6, 2025. The all-time low value for bitcoin was $0.04865 on July 14, 2010. The all-time high for ethereum was $4,953.73 on Aug. 24, 2025. The all-time low value for ethereum was $0.4209 on Oct. 21, 2015.
BlackRock's Crypto Assets Declined 39% In Second Quarter
The drop came despite $15.1 billion U.S. of net inflows into the company's spot Bitcoin (CRYPTO: $BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: $ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
US and UK Join Forces to Advance Cross-Border Tokenized Assets and Stablecoins
Total tokenized real-world assets onchain crossed $33 billion, excluding stablecoins, in June 2026.
Bitmine says ETH staking generated $45.7 million, accounting for 98% of quarterly revenue
Bitmine generated $45.7 million from Ethereum staking, which accounted for 98% of quarterly revenue as the company expanded MAVAN.
BlackRock Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
$868 billion of net inflows over the last 12 months. BlackRock’s iShares ETF platform generated $178 billion of net inflows in the quarter, led by $85 billion in core equity ETFs and $61 billion in index bond ETFs. Fink said iShares now has more than $6 trillion in assets under management globally and is benefiting from increased adoption and category innovation. He said iShares has raised $80 billion year to date in Europe, bringing European AUM to $1.5 trillion. In Asia Pacific, locally domiciled iShares crossed $100 billion in assets during the quarter. Fink also highlighted growth in active ETFs, saying BlackRock has gathered more than $70 billion in active ETF net inflows over the past year and is leading the industry in active flows in 2026. “In just the last three years, we’ve gone from the seventh largest active ETF manager to the third largest,” Fink said. BlackRock’s iShares ETF platform generated $178 billion of net inflows in the quarter, led by $85 billion in core equity ETFs and $61 billion in index bond ETFs.
Open USD poses biggest threat yet to Circle's USDC, CoinShares says
USDC's circulating supply has fallen to about $73 billion from nearly $80 billion in March, trimming its share of the roughly $312 billion stablecoin market as competition from newly regulated issuers intensifies. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
South Korea to modify 76-year-old law to classify cryptocurrencies as national assets
South Korea plans to revise its 1950 National Property Act to classify virtual currencies and intellectual property as national assets and modernize management of state-owned property. The government will pilot tokenized government bonds in 2027, explore tokenizing state-owned real estate for retail investors, and link these systems to the Bank of Korea’s central bank digital currency infrastructure. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
DTCC, Wall Street’s post-trade powerhouse, tests tokenized markets with industry heavy hitters
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation on Wednesday will complete a set of financial transactions using digital versions, or "tokenized," of assets held at The Depository Trust Company, the company announced. The DTCC is the central post-trade organization in the U.S. financial system that processes, settles and safeguards most stock and bond transactions. Its subsidiaries processed $4.7 quadrillion worth of securities transactions last year. Shares of Microsoft, Circle Internet Group, Invesco QQQ Trust, State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV), as well as Treasurys of different maturities are expected to be tokenized during the demonstration.
Crypto Long & Short: To ETH or not to ETH — is SOL the better diversifier?
Bitcoin's spot exchange-traded products (ETPs) have attracted more than $55 billion in inflows since their launch in January 2024, helping pave the way for the subsequent launch of Ether and SOL ETPs. Historically, bitcoin has exhibited relatively low correlations with traditional asset classes over full four-year crypto cycles. While those relationships have evolved as cryptocurrencies have become more integrated into financial markets through futures, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and ETPs, bitcoin has generally maintained diversification characteristics distinct from many traditional assets. Since the start of 2026, ether and SOL have exhibited volatility approximately 35% and 44% higher than bitcoin, respectively. Diversification within crypto therefore often increases volatility. Whether that improves diversification depends on correlations. A volatile asset moving in the same direction as the rest of the portfolio may reduce diversification benefits, while one moving differently may enhance them. Historically, SOL has acted as a better diversifier than ether. Over the four years through April 2026, bitcoin's correlation with ether was 0.78. By contrast, SOL's correlation with bitcoin was 0.72. Thus, SOL was slightly less likely to move in the same direction as bitcoin each week. Over the past week the dominant theme in the cryptocurrency space was the deepening of the infrastructure underpinning it, as well as its further move into regulated banking and capital markets. Strategy, meanwhile, has moved ahead with its first material BTC sale. - Circle secures final approval for a federally regulated trust bank: The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) final approval places Circle National Trust under direct federal supervision, initially supporting custody for Circle and its affiliates, with scope to serve a limited number of regulated institutions later. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
Ostium suffers $18 million exploit as oracle attack wave continues to hit DeFi
Ostium had raised $27.8 million in total funding, including a $24 million Series A co-led by General Catalyst and Jump Crypto in late 2025, and had processed over $50 billion in cumulative trading volume. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
DTCC moves tokenized securities into live trading, marking a milestone for Wall Street's blockchain push
DTCC safeguards more than $114 trillion in securities, making it one of the most important pieces of financial market infrastructure. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
JPMorgan Cuts Coinbase Target to $196, Warns on Circle Stablecoin Pressure
JPMorgan analysts, including Kenneth Worthington, believe Coinbase may pass much of the economics from USDC activity on Hyperliquid to the platform, limiting the additional revenue Coinbase could otherwise earn. The bank noted that exchanges and payment platforms are gaining greater bargaining power, potentially requiring stablecoin issuers to give up more of the interest income earned on reserves in exchange for wider distribution. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd., a brokerage firm, downgraded Circle from neutral to underperform, warning that competitors offering banks, exchanges, and payment companies more generous revenue-sharing terms could reduce margins across the industry. The bank reduced its Coinbase price target to $196 from $283, although Coinbase shares rose about 2.3% to $160.94 as of 12:42 p.m. in New York, while Circle shares were little changed at approximately $62.84.
Larry Fink stays bullish as one BlackRock unit sheds nearly 40%
According to the firm's second-quarter earnings release published July 15, the asset manager's digital assets under management (AUM) fell to $48.8 billion as of June 30. It is down 39% from $79.6 billion a year earlier, even as clients poured $15.1 billion of net new money into its crypto products over the same 12 months. The math is stark because market declines wiped $45.8 billion off BlackRock's digital asset ETFs over the year, swamping every dollar of inflows three times over. And investor behavior has turned. After a year of net buying, BlackRock's digital asset funds bled $3.1 billion in the second quarter alone, on top of falling prices that erased another $8.7 billion. Year-to-date outflows also stand at $2.2 billion. Digital assets now generate just $40 million in quarterly base fees, about 1% of the firm's fee revenue, and round to 0% of total AUM. The filing reveals a second crypto bruise: BlackRock booked a roughly $37 million noncash pre-tax loss on its minority stake in stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) in the quarter.
Traders Took $8.2 Million From Polymarket’s Five-Minute Bitcoin Bets, Study Found
Within months, Polymarket’s five- and fifteen-minute crypto up/down markets traded more than $4 billion and tripled the platform’s daily volume. Because Polymarket settled on a public blockchain, the authors traced each wallet. Just 821 traders fit the manipulator profile, about one in three hundred of the 243,000 who traded the contract. They took $8.2 million in the pushed cycles and broke even in the rest.
Bitcoin, XRP, Dogecoin Steady; Ethereum Gains Amid Soft Inflation Reading: Analyst Says Indicators 'Flashing Bottom Signals Everywhere'
Over $300 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, mostly wiping out bearish short bets, according to Coinglass data. Bitcoin's open interest rose 0.39% over the last 24 hours. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.2 trillion, following a dip of 0.79% over the last 24 hours.
Two Groups of bitcoin Investors sell on the rise as U.S. inflation lifts prices to nearly $65,000
Two Groups of bitcoin Investors sell on the rise as U.S. inflation lifts prices to nearly $65,000 Bitcoin surges toward $65,000 on softer-than-expected inflation data, but on-chain signals show two key investor groups selling into the bounce. - Two distinct groups of on-chain holders are selling into BTC’s price bounce. - BTC has jumped to nearly $65,000 on the back of softer-than-expected U.S. inflation reports for June. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
Ether outruns bitcoin as ETF money returns, almost all of from BlackRock's fund
U.S. spot ether ETFs have accelerated, with $96 million added in the first three days of the week, heavily concentrated in BlackRock’s low-fee products while Grayscale’s higher-fee ether trust continues to see outflows. Ether is also benefiting from new demand from Robinhood Chain, a layer-2 network launched July 1 that uses ether for gas and has been processing more than $800 million a day in mostly memecoin trading, even as bitcoin’s on-chain data suggest its market remains relatively steady despite volatile ETF flows. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs shed $424 million on July 13, then took back $181 million the next day. Money leaving and returning inside 48 hours is not indicative of an allocator building a position. Grayscale's original ether trust, which charges 2.5% against BlackRock's 0.25%, has now bled $5.3 billion since launch. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
A bitcoin wallet dormant since the 2017 peak just moved $383 million
A bitcoin wallet dormant since the 2017 peak just moved $383 million The coins went to a fresh address rather than an exchange, so nothing has been sold yet. - A long-dormant bitcoin wallet that accumulated 5,908 BTC in late 2017 moved its entire holdings on Thursday, a stash now worth about $383 million. - The position, built when bitcoin traded near $16,000, has gained roughly 284% despite having been briefly underwater during the 2022 market crash. - The coins were sent to a new, unidentified address rather than an exchange, suggesting the move may reflect custody changes or preparation for an over-the-counter deal rather than an immediate sale. A bitcoin address that had not spent a coin in eight years moved 5,908 BTC worth about $383 million on Thursday, data shows. The wallet took in the coins when bitcoin traded at around $16,000, a level the market saw in December 2017 and early January 2018, within weeks of a cycle peak near $20,000. The stack cost roughly $100 million then and is worth about $383 million now, a gain of about 284%. It was worth $726 million at bitcoin’s lifetime in October 2025. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B. CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.
Semiconductor
Tower Semiconductor announces $3bn manufacturing expansion in Japan
Tower Semiconductor expects operations to be fully ready for production in the fourth quarter of 2027. Based on the track-one growth outlook, Tower Semiconductor is updating its business model and is targeting $3.6bn in revenue and $1.2bn in net profit in 2028.
ASML stock pops on strong orders for advanced chipmaking equipment
ASML now expects 2026 net sales of about $49.2 billion to $51.5 billion, well above the roughly $45 billion average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg and above the high end of its previous guidance. Orders for the company's EUV lithography machines, which are essential for manufacturing chips used in AI applications and data centers now stretch into 2028. What else you need to know: ASML's results offer another sign that investment in AI infrastructure remains robust, as leading chipmakers continue spending heavily on the advanced lithography equipment needed to manufacture cutting-edge processors and memory chips. Its customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), Intel (INTC), SK Hynix (SKHY), and Micron Technology (MU).
We're buying more of Jim Cramer's favorite chip stock for the second time this week
Intel's willingness to buy these expensive machines is a positive signal that its foundry (chip industry-speak for manufacturing) is expanding capacity and improving yields for leading-edge chips. Taiwan Semi reported a strong June, with sales increasing about 68% year over year, and we expect the company will provide a bullish tone when it reports its full earnings report early Thursday morning. Not only did ASML report strong earnings, but the company said it is planning to increase its capacity for 2028 to keep up with strong demand.
Here’s the Clear Reason to Buy Intel Before Its July 23 Earnings Report
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC | INTC Price Prediction) reports Q2 earnings on July 23 before the closing bell. The Q2 print lands after market close that afternoon, and the setup into it is the cleanest we have seen from this name in a decade. Q1 2026 non-GAAP EPS came in at 29 cents versus a 12-cent consensus, good for a 2,183.46% surprise, on revenue of $13.58 billion (+7.18% YoY). Data Center and AI revenue jumped 22% YoY to $5.05 billion, and Intel Foundry grew 16% to $5.42 billion. Polymarket contracts tied to the July 23 release put a 68.5% probability on Q2 Foundry revenue exceeding $5.5B and a 75.5% probability on Data Center & AI clearing $5B. Guidance from management already calls for revenue between $13.8B and $14.8B. Cash and equivalents sit at $17.25 billion, up 92.77% YoY. The stock is up around 167% year to date and more than 350% over the past year.
ASML Just Raised Guidance Again — Is This the Strongest AI Stock Story Nobody’s Talking About?
ASML once again exceeded Wall Street’s expectations on both revenue and profit while raising its full-year 2026 outlook for the second consecutive quarter. Those machines remain essential for producing the most advanced AI processors from companies including Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and other leading chip designers. ASML plans to increase its 2027 EUV production capacity by 30%, which would take it from 65 units this year to around 84. It also noted that next year’s EUV capacity is almost fully booked and it is currently planning to expand 2028 capacity by an additional 30%. Management noted that AI demand continues driving customer investment plans years into the future. ASML builds some of the most complex manufacturing equipment ever produced. A single EUV machine costs well over $200 million, contains more than 100,000 components, and often takes months to install and calibrate. Customers don’t place those orders unless they have confidence they’ll need the production capacity years down the road. The fact that ASML’s 2027 production is nearly sold out while meaningful 2028 orders are already on the books suggests customers aren’t expecting AI spending to fade anytime soon. ASML occupies a position few companies can match. It remains the only manufacturer capable of producing commercial EUV lithography systems at scale, creating a competitive moat that has proven difficult — even impossible — for rivals to cross. The company’s higher 2026 outlook, expanded 84-system EUV production target for 2027, and nearly full order book all point to sustained AI-driven demand.
ASML shares rise after Q2 earnings beat estimates, company raises 2026 outlook
ASML reported a gross margin of 54% for the quarter, above its guidance, which it attributed primarily to higher-than-expected Installed Base Management sales. For the third quarter, the company forecast revenue of between €11 billion and €12 billion, ahead of the analyst consensus of about €10.37 billion. It also projected a gross margin of between 55% and 57%. ASML raised its full-year 2026 revenue outlook to between €43 billion and €45 billion, up from its previous guidance of €36 billion to €40 billion and above the Wall Street consensus of €39.4 billion. The company expects a full-year gross margin of between 54% and 56%.
Intel Uses ASML's New EUV System
Intel said the technology has been qualified at its Oregon facility, with production yields matching those of ASML's current EUV platform.
Stifel Raises PT on Intel (INTC)
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is a semiconductor company specializing in computing & related end products and services through its CCG, DCAI, and Intel Foundry segments. Stifel noted that the stock's movement is likely to be dependent on end-demand signals, particularly server CPU average selling prices and volumes. Moreover, supply-side commentary on GPU yields and volumes will also matter, since these are key to driving improvement at Intel's Foundry business.
Prediction: SK Hynix Will Become the Next Nvidia
According to DigiTimes, HBM prices could more than double by next year, jumping to $4 to $5 per gigabyte (GB) from an estimated $2 per GB in the second half of 2026. Not surprisingly, Micron Technology noted in December 2025 that it expects the total addressable market (TAM) for HBM to jump from $35 billion in 2025 to $100 billion in 2028. The actual growth, however, could be much stronger. That's because the consumption of HBM by custom AI processors alone is expected to grow by 35x between 2024 and 2028, according to Counterpoint Research. Counterpoint Research reports that SK Hynix's HBM market share stood at an impressive 58% in the first quarter of 2026. That's well ahead of Samsung and Micron, with each memory manufacturer controlling 21% of this massive market. The company raised $26.5 billion from its Nasdaq listing and plans to use the proceeds to build additional HBM capacity, among other things. In fact, SK Hynix noted last month that it is on track to double its wafer production capacity by 2030 to support the rapid build-out of AI data centers. That's because the HBM market is projected to grow by a whopping 15x by 2035, driven by investments in AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data centers.
Here’s Why HSBC Doubled The PT on Intel (INTC)
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) ranks among the Best Stocks to Buy Now for High Returns. The stock has gained 5.14% over the past month despite the broader semiconductor sector sell-off. Analysts expect the company to grow its EPS by roughly 45%. Recently, on July 6, HSBC doubled the price target on Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) from $100 to $200, while maintaining a Buy rating on the shares. After the increase, HSBC has the highest price target on the Street for INTC. The firm noted that the upgrade reflects a stronger server CPU outlook and also a valuation that includes the company's foundry business. HSBC sees CPU growth as a key driver for earnings in 2026-27. The firm raised the 2026 shipment growth estimate to 25% from 20% and the 2027 estimate from 20% to 30%. Moreover, the firm's data center and AI revenue forecasts of $24.1 billion for 2026 and $33.0 billion for 2027 sit well above consensus. In terms of foundry, HSBC called Intel's foundry business too good to ignore. The firm believes that it positions the company as a credible TSMC alternative given fabrication and packaging constraints elsewhere. HSBC highlighted that Intel has already signed Terafab and Apple as customers and is in talks with Google and Nvidia. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is a semiconductor company specializing in computing & related end products and services through its CCG, DCAI, and Intel Foundry segments. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of INTC as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than INTC and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Good Stocks to Invest in Now and 10 Most Undervalued US Stocks According to Hedge Funds. Disclosure: None. Follow Insider Monkey on Google News.
Micron (MU) To Boost US Investment, Here’s What You Should Know
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) said that it will boost US investment to more than $250 billion by 2035 as the demand for AI memory chips continues to surge. Moreover, the company is also allocating $3 billion separately to strengthen the domestic semiconductor supply chain. The company also marked the first concrete pour at its Clay, New York, fab, over a quarter ahead of schedule. It's expected to become the largest semiconductor manufacturing site in US history. Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) provides memory and storage solutions sold into client, cloud server, enterprise, graphics, networking, smartphone, mobile-device, automotive, industrial, and consumer markets, among others.
Prediction: AMD Stock Will Soar After Aug. 4. The Reason Is Hiding in Plain Sight
AMD is also gaining volume share in server CPUs. It reportedly controlled a third of the server CPU market in the first quarter of 2026, up from 27.2% in the year-ago period, according to Mercury Research. Its revenue share, however, was much stronger at 46.2%, suggesting that AMD is commanding solid pricing power. Assuming AMD gains more server CPU market share and sells these processors at higher prices, its growth could exceed expectations. The company has guided for a 46% year-over-year increase in Q2 revenue to $11.2 billion at the midpoint of its guidance range, though don't be surprised to see it doing better than that.
SOXS Jumps 11% as Micron Slides on Fears of Fiercer Chinese Memory Chip Competition
SOXS surged ~10% and Micron dropped ~8% after Chinese DRAM maker CXMT announced an $8.55 billion IPO, nearly doubling its initial fundraising target. CXMT is constrained by US sanctions that curb its access to the most advanced chipmaking equipment, so it cannot easily supply US customers or produce the most advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that powers AI servers. Micron generates the large majority of its revenue from DRAM, including HBM.
Micron vs SanDisk: Which Memory Play Wins the AI Boom?
SNDK's NAND flash surge delivered 251% revenue growth while MU's HBM leadership drove 346% growth, both fueled by accelerating AI infrastructure demand. Micron trades at just 6x forward earnings with 80% operating margins and HBM already shipping at high volume to lead AI customers. SanDisk posted a 251.03% revenue surge on NAND flash strength, while Micron rode HBM and DRAM to 345.72% growth. NAND Flash Roars for SanDisk. HBM Rewrites Micron's Story. SanDisk's Datacenter segment did the heavy lifting, generating $1.47 billion at a jaw-dropping +645% year over year. CEO David Goeckeler framed it as "a fundamental inflection point for Sandisk", pointing to five signed multi-year customer agreements and engagement with five hyperscalers. That is real backlog with contractual visibility. Micron played a bigger board. Cloud Memory hit $13.77 billion, Core Data Center added $11.52 billion, and gross margin expanded to 84.6%. HBM4 is already shipping in high volume to the lead AI accelerator customer. Sanjay Mehrotra said "memory has become a strategic asset for our customers". The $7.83 billion quarterly capex bill is the price of holding that HBM crown.
Dell Falls 14%, HPE and Super Micro Slide as AI Hardware Stocks Give Back Gains
Dell's Q1 FY27 revenue came in at $43.84 billion, up 88% year over year (YoY), and AI-optimized server revenue was $16.13 billion. The company's management raised its FY27 revenue guidance to $165 billion to $169 billion, with AI server revenue targeted at $60 billion.
Two AI Server Bets, Two Outcomes: Dell Technologies vs Super Micro Computer
Dell’s Q1 FY27 was the kind of quarter you rarely see from a company this size. Revenue hit $43.84 billion, up 87.54% YoY, with AI-Optimized Servers alone contributing $16.13 billion, a 757% YoY jump. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $4.86 versus a $2.96 estimate. Supermicro’s Q3 FY26 told a rougher tale. Revenue reached $10.24 billion, up 122.7% YoY, yet missed the $12.45 billion estimate by 17.75%. GAAP gross margin recovered to 9.9% from 6.3%, which is progress, though the numbers remain preliminary and unaudited. Dell’s AI orders reached $24.4 billion in a single quarter, and the FY27 AI server target sits near $60 billion.
ASML has room to raise prices, CFO says
July 15 (Reuters) - ASML has room to raise prices for some of its chipmaking equipment, its chief financial officer said on Wednesday, after an earnings report in which it said its capacity to produce cutting-edge EUV tools is nearly fully booked through the end of 2027.
NVDA Vs. AMD: Even if Nvidia’s Kyber Rack AI is Delayed, It is the Better Buy Over AMD
NVIDIA posted $81.61 billion in quarterly revenue on 85.23% growth. AMD delivered $10.253 billion at 37.85% growth. NVIDIA’s Data Center segment produced $75.246 billion, up 92% YoY, with networking alone growing 199% YoY to $14.8 billion. That networking figure is roughly 1.4x AMD’s entire Data Center segment of $5.775 billion. NVIDIA guided Q2 revenue to $91.0 billion with $119.0 billion in supply commitments already booked. AMD guided to roughly $11.20 billion at ~56% gross margin.
Morgan Stanley: Broadcom bears are wrong about Google TPU
Broadcom Inc (AVGO) shares rose 1.32% on July 14 to close at $389.11, though they had climbed nearly 3% earlier in the session. Broadcom's fiscal second-quarter revenue hit a record $22.19 billion, up 48% year over year, with AI semiconductor revenue climbing 143% to $10.8 billion, according to the company's own earnings release. That kind of growth is exactly why the stock's underperformance has puzzled Wall Street. A company posting triple-digit AI revenue growth is not supposed to trail its own sector this badly, which is precisely the disconnect Moore's note was written to explain.
If I Had $1,000 to Invest, Here's the Tech Stock I'd Invest in Before Micron
In its most recent quarter (ended May 28), Micron's revenue increased 346% year over year to $41.5 billion, and its net income increased 1,398% to $28.2 billion. Nvidia made $81.6 billion in revenue, up 85% from the same quarter last year.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company heads into earnings with Wedbush expecting continued AI-driven growth
Wedbush analysts pointing to strong revenue trends and continued demand for advanced semiconductor technologies as potential drivers for a stronger outlook. Wedbush reiterated its ‘Outperform’ rating ahead of TSMC’s earnings, writing that the company’s monthly revenue figures indicate it likely exceeded the firm’s prior second-quarter top-line estimate by around 1%, similar to the previous quarter’s performance. The analysts expect gross margins to have at least reached the midpoint of TSMC’s prior guidance range, noting that results appeared to track closely with expectations throughout the quarter. Wedbush expects TSMC could provide an improved revenue outlook for the full year. The company previously guided for sales growth of more than 30% in US dollar terms, while revenue growth has been tracking in the high-30% range year-to-date. Wedbush wrote that the ramp of TSMC’s 2-nanometer process technology in the second half of 2026 could support at least mid-30% annual sales growth. Capital spending will also be closely watched, with Wedbush writing that sustained demand for advanced nodes could prompt TSMC to raise its annual capex outlook again.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) Adds Three AI Packaging Sites As 2nm Fills Up
TSMC reported record June revenue, reflecting strong demand for its advanced chips used in AI applications. The company is rapidly expanding advanced packaging capacity, adding three new facilities to ease CoWoS bottlenecks. Management is preparing the ramp-up of its next-generation 2nm process, which is already fully booked. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) sits at the center of the AI buildout, and the latest operational updates provide a fresh window into how the company is responding.
Why Would Nvidia Invest $2 Billion in a Company Helping Build an Alternative to NVLink?
Marvell helps hyperscalers design custom silicon. It also develops the technologies needed to connect that silicon, including high-speed electrical interfaces, switches, copper connectivity, optical signal processors, and silicon photonics. Nvidia's future performance depends partly on technologies outside the GPU. A faster processor cannot deliver its full value if networking, signal integrity, or power consumption becomes the limiting factor. Marvell says Polariton's technology can advance its optical roadmap toward 3.2T connections and beyond.
TSMC second-quarter profit jumps 23%, beating estimates, on high-end chip boom
Revenue surged to NT$1.27 trillion, a 36% jump from NT$933.79 billion in the same period year ago. The Taiwanese tech giant's net income for the three months ended in June was a record high for a fifth consecutive quarter. Asia's most valuable company has been riding robust demand for AI chips it manufactures for global tech giants, including Nvidia, Apple and Broadcom.
AI / Robotics / EV
The 1 Simple Reason to Buy American Express Before July 24 Earnings
AXP traded around at $359.94 on July 14 against management's reaffirmed FY2026 EPS guidance of $17.30 to $17.90. The 24/7 Wall St. model targets $390.12 with 90% confidence, and the Street's consensus sits at $372.22 across 14 Buy ratings versus just one Sell rating. Amex hiked its dividend 16% to 95 cents per share quarterly starting Q1 2026.
The Single Biggest Opportunity to Buy Texas Instruments Before July 22 Earnings
TXN heads into July 22 earnings with traders pricing an 80.5% chance it clears $4B in Q2 Analog revenue after three beats in four quarters. Industrial and Data Center Are Doing the Heavy Lifting Second, the end-market mix is compounding. In Q1 2026, industrial revenue rose more than 30% year over year and data center revenue was up roughly 90% year over year. CEO Haviv Ilan told analysts, "The combination of a broad portfolio, ability to support the rack and the board, ability to supply at scale, and a geopolitically dependable location is unique and not easy to replicate." Industrial demand is still 15% below the 2022 peak, so the recovery has real runway before it hits a wall. Cash Generation Has Inflected Third, the cash flow story is the reason retirement-focused investors get paid to wait. Trailing twelve-month free cash flow reached $4.4 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 2025. Q1 2026 free cash flow alone jumped 610% year over year as capex moderated. Ilan told the Street, "Assuming we do not have another false start, it is very likely we will be at $8 free cash flow per share for 2026." TXN returned $6 billion to shareholders over the trailing twelve months and continues to bank CHIPS Act support, including $555 million in direct Q1 funding for the Sherman, Texas 300mm fab.
Indian AI coding startup Emergent becomes a unicorn with $130M Series C
Indian AI coding startup Emergent has raised $130 million in a Series C funding round at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation, a five-fold jump in six months. The deal takes Emergent’s total funding to $230 million. Jha said the startup has reached an annual run-rate revenue of $120 million, up 70% in the last four months, and has more than 200,000 paying customers.
Anthropic, Blackstone bet the next trillion-dollar AI business is implementation, not models
One of those businesses now has a name: Ode with Anthropic is the $1.5-billion, AI implementation company that the AI lab launched in May as part of a joint venture with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others. Ode currently employs 100 engineers, and works closely with Anthropic’s applied AI team to identify where the tech can have an impact on different businesses, and create systems tailored to each organization’s operations.
Lucid stock plunges on bankruptcy report company denies
As of the end of March, Lucid's total available liquidity stood at approximately $3.2 billion, with around $2.5 billion of that consisting of debt capacity it had yet to draw on, according to Barron's, citing Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard. The company then secured another $1 billion in April, a sum that included a $200 million check from Uber.
Forget Oil Prices — This 1 Refining Number Explains Why These Energy Stocks Are On Fire
According to Bloomberg data, the U.S. WTI 3-2-1 crack spread recently climbed to a $59 per barrel, and far above the historical range that refiners typically enjoy. Since the start of 2026, refining margins have nearly tripled. Oil producers generally benefit when crude prices rise. Refiners can thrive when crude prices stay relatively subdued while gasoline and diesel remain expensive. Those are two very different investment theses. In short, refinery stocks have earned their remarkable gains because one number has moved decisively in their favor: the WTI 3-2-1 crack spread. As long as that margin remains well above historical norms, companies like Marathon Petroleum, Valero, HF Sinclair, and Phillips 66 should continue generating robust cash flow. Ultimately, investors considering these stocks should spend less time watching the daily price of crude oil and more time following refining margins. The crack spread has become the industry's financial heartbeat, and today it's still beating loudly.
“Compute Is the New Oil”: Kalshi Just Launched a Way to Bet on the Future Price of AI Computing Power
Hyperscalers have committed "north of $500 to $600 billion just for 2026" to computing infrastructure, according to Kalshi, with total addressable market estimates stretching into the trillions.
Lucid Rises 18% as EV Maker Denies Bankruptcy Claims, Analyst Assures Sufficient Funding
LCID surged 18% after a representative called Lucid bankruptcy rumors/reports "completely false," with Cantor Fitzgerald confirming $3.2 billion in total liquidity runway. RIVN jumped 4% after beating Q2 delivery guidance and raising its full-year target, while UBER edged up 2% as Lucid's $200 million robotaxi investor. Cantor Fitzgerald reportedly maintains a Neutral rating on Lucid stock. Baird carries a Neutral rating with a $6 price target, while the consensus price target sits at $8. Rivian (NASDAQ:RIVN) stock is up 4% Wednesday to $18.24, recovering after briefly slipping on Tuesday's Lucid scare. Q2 deliveries of 12,194 beat Rivian's own guidance, and the company raised its full-year target to 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles. The next scheduled catalyst arrives on August 4, when Lucid reports its first-half 2026 results. Investors could watch for updated cash runway commentary, Midsize platform progress, and any color on the robotaxi launch with Uber and Nuro.
Why Lucid Stock Bounced Back Today
Lucid reported having about $4.7 billion in liquidity when it reported Q1 results in early May. Lucid is hoping its new Gravity SUV will help spur demand, and it has also entered a partnership with Uber Technologies to build and deploy a premium, purpose-built global robotaxi fleet using its EV technology.
Rising Power Demand Fuels ON Semiconductor’s (ON) Upside
ON Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:ON) is an American semiconductor company that provides intelligent sensing and power solutions to the automotive, industrial, aerospace and defense, medical, and communication industries. The one-month return of ON Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:ON) was -16.99%, and its shares gained 57.48% over the past 52 weeks. On July 14, 2026, ON Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:ON) closed at $93.73 per share with a market capitalization of $36.48 billion. ON is a leader in silicon carbide semiconductors, which are used primarily in electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy inverters, and high-power industrial equipment to reduce energy loss and improve efficiency. More recently, the company has gained market share with leading global EV manufacturers, enjoying outsized representation in newer car models.
Down 18%, Should You Buy Rivian Stock After Its Biggest 1-Day Drop Since November 2024?
Rivian had announced only days earlier that it topped its second-quarter guidance with 12,194 deliveries, and raised its full-year delivery outlook from 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles to 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles. Rivian sold 75 million new shares at $15.50 per share, raising approximately $1.2 billion in gross proceeds. The company has burned over $3 billion in free cash flow over the past four quarters alone. Rivian trades at a valuation that is completely disconnected from most of the automotive industry. The most successful automotive companies broadly trade at under 1 times sales. Rivian trades at 3.8 times sales, even after the stock's sell-off.
Thinking Machines amps up its bet against one-size-fits-all AI with its first open model, Inkling
It was trained on 45 trillion tokens of text, image, audio, and video, and reasons natively across all three, according to the company’s own release materials. The result scored 84.7% on financial reasoning tests, beating top proprietary AI models, while costing roughly a fourteenth as much to run, though those results, published jointly in late June, come from the two companies’ own evaluation, not an independent one. OpenAI took roughly five years, and Anthropic roughly three, to bring tech to market and show revenue; Thinking Machines says it did the same in about nine months.
Stock Market Today, July 15: Lucid Spikes 29% After Dismissing Bankruptcy and Take-Private Rumors
Trading volume reached 55.6M shares, coming in about 169% above its three-month average of 20.7M shares. Lucid Group IPO'd in 2020 and has fallen 94% since going public.
Power / Grid
The AI Boom Ran Into a Power Wall; This Nasdaq Company Is Building the Battery That Rolls In to Fix It
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) is the root of the demand. Every incremental AI data center is filled with NVIDIA's accelerators, and it is that compute density that is straining the grid in the first place. Vertiv Holdings (NYSE: VRT) is the clearest read on how richly the market is rewarding AI-power infrastructure. Vertiv supplies the power and cooling systems that keep data centers running, reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of roughly $2.65 billion, up about 30% year over year, and carries an order backlog above $15 billion. GE Vernova (NYSE: GEV) represents the fixed-infrastructure side of the equation, and its performance shows how strong the demand is. The power-equipment and grid giant has risen roughly 70% year to date, with management noting its gas-turbine supply is effectively sold out through 2030 on the strength of data-center-driven demand. Bloom Energy (NYSE: BE) is the closest thematic cousin to NOMAD, because both are built around delivering power outside the traditional grid model. Bloom's on-site solid-oxide fuel cells generate electricity at the point of use, and the stock has been one of 2026's standout performers, rising well over 200% year to date on surging demand for AI data-center power. NOMAD Transportable Power Systems, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the renamed company, introduced what it describes as the first mobile, utility-grade, truck-transportable battery energy storage system, or BESS. The pitch is straightforward: instead of waiting months for a fixed installation, a customer can have utility-grade power rolled in and delivering electricity to a grid or facility almost immediately. The company serves AI and hyperscale data centers, utilities, industrial customers, government, and critical infrastructure through a mix of sales, rentals, and an Energy-as-a-Service model.
Oklo Stock Is Down 41% in 2026: Here's What Investors Need to Understand Now
Over the next few decades, rising energy demand from AI businesses is expected to fuel a global build-out of new energy sources. Bank of America analysts believe this will create a $10 trillion opportunity for nuclear energy developers. Last year, Oklo's market cap soared to $24 billion on rising enthusiasm for SMRs to meet AI's growing energy demands. After a steep correction, however, the company's valuation is down to just $7.9 billion. The Russian project began construction in 2007, and didn't reach operability until 2020. The Chinese system, meanwhile, took 11 years to go from the start of construction to delivering commercial power.
Can CoreWeave Become a $1 Trillion Company?
The company has more than 1 gigawatt of active power and is aiming for more than 8 gigawatts by 2030. Gigawatts have become highly lucrative, with tech giants eager to sign long-term deals for this type of AI infrastructure. Just as AI chips and memory chips produced trillion-dollar stocks in the blink of an eye, power constraints can do the same, and CoreWeave is well-positioned for that scenario. If CoreWeave can reach its 8-gigawatt target by 2030, it has a real shot at becoming a $1 trillion company. However, that's a major "if," and it also assumes CoreWeave increasingly shifts away from renting data center space and owns a higher percentage of its gigawatts. Here's the good part about the math: Since it costs $60 billion to build a 1-gigawatt data center, having 8 gigawatts of data center capacity translates into $480 billion in value. That doesn't include property appreciation or hyperscaler deals. CoreWeave already has a 3.5-gigawatt pipeline, so it's feasible for the company to expand this pipeline to 8 gigawatts by 2030. CoreWeave has had no issue with signing new deals with hyperscalers. The company signed new long-term deals with Meta Platforms, including a $21 billion expanded AI infrastructure agreement that stretches through December 2032.
Software
How Alphabet (GOOGL) Is Leveraging Its Scale to Fund the Next Phase of AI and Cloud Infrastructure Growth
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the high-growth wide-moat stocks to buy. In early June, Alphabet announced an $84.75 billion equity capital raise to expand AI infrastructure and computing capacity. Reuters reported that the company increased the offering after strong demand, while also raising its planned 2026 capital spending range to between $180 billion and $190 billion. The financing is large, but it reflects the escalating cost of competing in frontier AI and cloud infrastructure.
IBM's historic crash exposes a deeper tech divide: Chart of the Day
IBM's preliminary update showed second quarter revenue of $17.2 billion, roughly $660 million short of Wall Street's $17.9 billion estimate. The 52-week correlation between the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) and iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) has fallen to 0.17, the lowest in data going back to 2002.
Oracle: Deep Value Hyperscaler Masquerading As A Software Stock
Management guides for 34% YoY revenue growth to $90 billion, with high GPU utilization and expectations of high-20s ROIC at steady state.
Apollo's Torsten Slok lays out the two-punch sequence that may finally burst the AI bubble
Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle generated a record $260 billion in free cash flow in 2024. By comparison, chipmakers Nvidia, Micron, Broadcom and Applied Materials are projected to generate $430 billion in free cash flow throughout the next 12 months, a record for the companies.
Amazon Is Throwing Billions at Warehouse Robotics: What That Means for Symbotic's Stock.
Symbotic develops fully autonomous warehouse robots that process pallets and cases. It claims a $50 million investment in just one of its modules (which includes its robots and software) can generate $250 million in savings over 25 years. Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) is Symbotic's largest customer and one of its top investors. Symbotic generated 85% of its revenue from Walmart in fiscal 2025 (which ended last September), and it holds a contract to automate all of its U.S. regional distribution centers by 2034. From fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028, analysts expect Symbotic's revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to grow at CAGRs of 26% and 73%, respectively.
Stripe and Advent International make $53 billion offer for PayPal
Stripe and Advent International have made a joint offer to acquire PayPal Holdings for $60.50 per share, valuing the payments company at more than $53 billion, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The offer — put forward earlier this month — carries approximately $50 billion in committed bank financing and was priced at a 28% premium over PayPal's Tuesday close. In the first quarter, PayPal brought in $8.35 billion in revenue, while total payment volumes reached about $464 billion — up 8% year over year when stripping out currency effects. The potential deal would add to a wave of consolidation in the global payments industry. A notable recent example was Global Payments' 2025 agreement to buy Worldpay from FIS and GTCR in a transaction valued at $24.25 billion.
Morgan Stanley Drops a $50 Billion Bombshell — Can Big Tech Still Afford to Build the AI Factories of the Future?
Morgan Stanley raised AI cluster cost estimates, with Nvidia's Vera Rubin systems now priced at $49 billion per gigawatt. That figure is nearly 20% higher than prior forecasts. Only companies generating hundreds of billions in annual cash flow, like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, can finance next-generation AI campuses at this scale. Those investments have fueled one of the strongest bull markets in technology history, with companies like Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) leading the charge. AI Infrastructure Is Becoming Even More Capital Intensive Morgan Stanley updated its bottom-up estimates for next-generation AI clusters and found costs have risen across the board. According to the investment bank, Nvidia's GB200 systems now cost about $35 billion per gigawatt (GW) of computing capacity, up 16% from prior estimates. GB300 clusters rise to $39 billion per GW, while Vera Rubin-based systems jump nearly 20% to $49 billion per GW. Those estimates closely match Nvidia's own guidance of $50 billion to $60 billion per GW for Rubin-era AI factories. OpenAI's Stargate initiative, backed by SoftBank and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), plans to invest $500 billion through 2029 to build up to 10 GW of AI infrastructure.
AI Is Reshaping a Trillion-Dollar Wall Street Catalyst, and It Has Terrifying Implications for the 2nd-Priciest Stock Market in History
According to PwC analysts, AI can create up to $15.7 trillion in global economic value by 2030. Since Alphabet began incorporating generative AI and large language model capabilities into its cloud infrastructure service platform, Google Cloud, sales have accelerated. In the March-ended quarter, this high-margin platform delivered 63% year-over-year sales growth. It's been a similar encouraging story for Meta Platforms, which has integrated generative AI into its global advertising platforms. Enabling businesses to tailor static and video messages to users can improve click-through rates and bolster Meta's unrivaled social media ad pricing power. Apple is also benefiting from its rollout of Apple Intelligence, the company's personal AI system built into its physical devices (e.g., iPhone, iPad, and Mac). Apple's sales growth has reignited since the introduction of Apple Intelligence.
Smartphone shipments hit 13-year low in Q2 as AI memory shortage hammers industry
According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone shipments declined 11% year over year, marking the segment's worst second quarter in 13 years. The global memory crisis has now overtaken every other factor as the single biggest drag on the smartphone industry. What started as a components issue last year is now a full-blown demand issue," Counterpoint Research senior analyst Shilpi Jain said in a statement. International Data Corporation (IDC) also noted a sharp decline in second quarter smartphone shipments, estimating a 6.7% decline on the back of the memory crisis. "Memory costs are up nearly 300% from a year ago, and now account for over 65% of [bill of materials] at the low end, making survival increasingly difficult for OEMs with low-end portfolios," IDC senior research director for Worldwide Consumer Devices, Nabila Popal, wrote in a research note. "We see Apple's Services revenue growing 13.5% in FY27… but slowing to 7% in FY27," he wrote.
Don’t Miss the Surprising Signal to Buy ServiceNow Before July 22
Q4 FY25 revenue grew 20.66% YoY to $3.568 billion, and current remaining performance obligations, the cleanest forward-demand metric in enterprise software, climbed 25% YoY to $12.85 billion. Management guided FY26 subscription revenue to $15.53 billion to $15.57 billion, with a 32% non-GAAP operating margin and a 36% free cash flow margin. Now Assist net new ACV more than doubled YoY
Verizon Has 24.9% Upside, and Here’s the Undeniable Force to Buy Before July 24
Verizon trades at a forward P/E of 8, carries a 6.5% dividend yield, and analyst targets point to 25% upside before July 24 earnings. The Valuation Alone Closes the Case Trading around $42.34 as of July 14, Verizon trades at a trailing P/E of 10 and a forward P/E of 8 against a PEG of 0.789. Analyst consensus target sits at $51.90, and our 247 model prints $52.47, a 24.78% upside with a 0.9 confidence score. Verizon has beaten in 5 of its last 6 quarters with zero misses. The average earnings-day move is +3.54%, and the average 30-day post-report gain is +5.51%.
Inflation cools, Morgan Stanley earnings, IBM's bad day and more in Morning Squawk
The consumer price index posted its largest monthly decline since 2020. IBM reported $2.93 in adjusted earnings per share on $17.2 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by FactSet had forecasted $3.01 per share and $17.86 billion, respectively. Morgan Stanley continued big banks' strong earnings run this morning, reporting record quarterly revenue and profit as revenue from its equities trading business jumped nearly 70%. The bank reported $3.46 in earnings per share on $21.35 billion in revenue, easily topping Wall Street's expectations of $2.94 per share and $19.64 billion, respectively. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is ramping up his donations of Berkshire Hathaway shares, announcing yesterday that he will give four family-linked foundations a total of nearly $6 billion.
Larry Ellison Was Once the World’s Richest Man. Now Oracle Is Down Over 50% While He Bankrolls His Son’s Fight to Control a $110 Billion Media Empire
Oracle reported Q4 FY2026 revenue of $19.184 billion with cloud infrastructure up 93% to $5.787 billion. The problem: spending. Capital expenditures exploded to $55.66 billion in FY2026, blowing past the company’s own $50 billion guidance. Free cash flow swung to negative $23.7 billion. Oracle left FY2027 revenue guidance at $90 billion despite a record backlog of $638 billion in remaining performance obligations, heavily concentrated in OpenAI, whose IPO has slipped to 2027. Management plans to raise another $40 billion in FY2027 through debt and equity, including a $20 billion share sale.
Hexatronic Group AB (publ) (HTROF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Net sales were SEK 2.2 billion, which is 18% growth, of which 11% organic. And our adjusted EBITA was right on 10% margin, SEK 224 million, which is a 33% increase year-on-year. Also, the strategic business shift continues, where we see that, in particular, the Data Center business continues to play an ever-increasing role at Hexatronic. As of now, Data Center and Harsh Environment business representing about 40% of net sales and about half of the adjusted EBITA.
One chart reveals why investors are concerned about earnings from Microsoft, Amazon, and other hyperscalers
Wall Street is growing increasingly impatient with Big Tech's astronomical capital expenditures on artificial intelligence, projected to balloon 70% and exceed $700 billion this year.
What Gives SAP SE (SAP) an Irreplaceable Position in Its Clients’ Tech Ecosystems?
SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) has a market capitalization of $182.51 billion. "SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) is one of the largest enterprise software providers in the world and a global leader in enterprise resource planning. The Germany-based company provides solutions that form the backbone of its clients' technology infrastructure, leading to recurring revenue streams and very low churn rates."
Apple's iPhone AI Strategy Gets China Boost
Greater China revenue rose 28% year over year to $20.5 billion in Apple's fiscal second quarter.
Bernstein’s mid-year CIO survey calls for strong IT budget growth in 2026
Microsoft and AWS are expected to capture the largest share of budget growth, while ServiceNow and Salesforce were the only other software vendors seeing modestly positive allocation trends.
Mark Cuban Made 246 Shark Tank Deals. Not a Single One Has Gone Public.
Cuban invested in 246 of 1,268 pitches, a 19.4% hit rate, before leaving after Season 16, according to Shark Tank Insights. He put in roughly $33 million of his own money by his accounting to CNBC and has seen about $35 million in cash returns plus equity he values at "at least $250 million," a paper return of 8-9x.
Apple explores chip acquisitions to bolster AI server capabilities
Historically, Apple has shied away from massive buyouts, preferring to pick up smaller startups in the hundreds of millions. But the rulebook is changing. Apple has already proven it is ready to open its wallet. In January, the company dropped nearly $2 billion on Q.ai, an Israeli startup pioneering technology that interprets speech through facial micro-movements. The blockbuster deal became Apple's second-largest acquisition in history, trailing only its $3 billion buyout of Beats Electronics in 2014. Apple's in-house silicon empire was born from an acquisition—the $278 million purchase of PA Semi in 2008, which laid the foundation for the modern iPhone processor. Nearly two decades later, Apple appears ready to replicate that playbook on a much larger scale.
Global Data Center Market Investment to Reach USD 959.19 Billion by 2031- Exclusive Insight by Arizton
The global data center market was valued at USD 514.26 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 959.19 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 10.95%. Data center investments increased by approximately 35.22% in 2025 compared with 2024, primarily driven by the deployment of AI workloads across data centers worldwide and billions of dollars in annual investments by hyperscale operators, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. The APAC data center market by investments increased by around 31.99% in 2025 compared to 2024, with rapid AI adoption in China emerging as a key investment driver. Around 515 million people had adopted AI for daily operations as of June 2025, with adoption expected to reach 70% of the population by 2027 and over 90% by 2030. The global data center market comprises 4,240+ existing facilities, with APAC accounting for 900+ data centers across key markets including Japan, Australia, India, Malaysia, and South Korea.
Oracle Stock Is Down 60%: Why Its AI Cloud Explosion Makes It a Compelling Buy
Cloud revenue growth has accelerated from 28% year over year in the August-ending fiscal first quarter to 47% growth in the fiscal fourth quarter. Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) services drove a 93% increase in the cloud infrastructure business last quarter. Its total debt has increased by $57 billion over the last year, while its free cash flow has tanked to negative $23.7 billion on a trailing 12-month basis.
Morgan Stanley Destroys Bear Case Against Nebius. Proves The 35% Plunge Was a Huge Mistake
Morgan Stanley projects hyperscaler compute capacity to nearly quadruple from 31 to 117 gigawatts by 2028, requiring up to $8 trillion in capital spending. Nebius posted 684% year-over-year revenue growth and targets between $7 billion and $9 billion in annualized revenue by year-end, with a long-term goal of $51 billion by 2030.
Why Two Major Analysts Are Pumping The Brakes On Microsoft Before Earnings
$82.89 billion, up 18.3% year over year, with EPS of $4.27 beating the consensus of $4.09. Azure and other cloud services grew 40%, and CEO Satya Nadella noted the AI business surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $37 billion, up 123% year-over-year. Commercial remaining performance obligations sit at $627 billion, up 99%.
IBM Just Crashed. If Wall Street Pros Are Right The Stock Could Soar From Here
IBM beat EPS in four consecutive quarters, with Q1 revenue of $15.917 billion, up 9.46% year over year, and IBM Z mainframe revenue up 51%. The company’s generative AI book of business crossed $12.5 billion and IBM Z mainframe revenue kept posting double- and triple-digit growth quarter after quarter. IBM is down 25.75% YTD and 21.54% over the past year. The S&P 500 is up 10.25% YTD and 20.33% over one year.
I Keep Backing Up the Truck and Buying Amazon Because Of This Silicon Secret
Jassy confirmed Amazon's custom chip business ranks top-three globally, running at a $20B annual rate equivalent to $50B if sold externally. AMZN charges a 30% premium over NVDA silicon on its own cloud while still buying NVIDIA chips, profiting as both vendor and competitor. Contracted Trainium commitments of $225B back Amazon's aggressive capex spend, with 62 analysts targeting $313 versus a current $247 price and zero sells. AWS already earns a 37.7% operating margin on 28% year over year growth, the fastest pace in 15 quarters.
Apple Sues OpenAI, Here's What It Means for Oracle and Microsoft Investors
According to S&P Global Ratings' estimate, "OpenAI makes up roughly half of the $638 billion" of Oracle's remaining performance obligations (RPO). Microsoft's exposure to OpenAI is also significant. On an earnings call in January, Microsoft's management disclosed that 45% of its commercial RPO comes from OpenAI.
Camurus AB (publ) (CAMRF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Total revenues were SEK 702 million, up 4% year-on-year and 32% sequentially, with an operating result of SEK 293 million, corresponding to a 42% margin and finishing with SEK 4.1 billion in cash. Commercially, product sales reached a record of SEK 528 million. It's the first time we are above SEK 0.5 billion in the quarter.
Whatnot acquires Shaped to power real-time live shopping recommendations
According to the company, the acquisition helps Whatnot continue its investment in AI as it looks to solve one of live commerce’s biggest challenges: helping shoppers find the right products while inventory, auctions, and buyer demand change in real time. The company says its systems process more than 500,000 hours of live video and millions of real-time interactions every week, using that data to continuously improve recommendations. Earlier this year, Whatnot raised $225 million in Series F funding, giving the company a valuation of more than $11 billion after adding 20 million buyers over the past year.
3 Reasons Investors Love Super Micro (SMCI)
Over the last five years, Super Micro grew its sales at an incredible 58.4% compounded annual growth rate. Its growth surpassed the average business services company and shows its offerings resonate with customers. With $33.7 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Super Micro is a behemoth in the business services sector and benefits from economies of scale, giving it an edge in distribution. Super Micro's astounding 57.5% annual EPS growth over the last five years aligns with its revenue performance. This tells us its incremental sales were profitable. Find out which 5 stocks it's flagging this month — FREE. Get Our Top 5 Growth Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Tecnoglass (+1,552% between June 2020 and June 2025).
IBM Q2 preview miss prompts analysts to cut estimates on softer demand
IBM’s software business was a major source of weakness, with revenue growth of 5% compared with Bank of America’s expectation for double-digit growth. UBS also lowered its estimates following the update, citing softer demand in infrastructure and transaction processing. The firm cut its second-quarter revenue estimate to $17.218 billion from $17.858 billion and reduced its adjusted earnings per share estimate to $2.93 from $3.07. Both firms lowered their longer-term expectations for IBM. Bank of America wrote that software growth is now tracking below IBM’s previous double-digit outlook and expects mid-single-digit software growth, including acquisitions, along with a mid-single-digit decline in infrastructure revenue. UBS wrote that the impact of shifting customer capital spending priorities could persist into the second half of 2026 and 2027. The firm lowered its 2026 revenue growth forecast to 3.6% from 5.5% previously and reduced its 2027 growth forecast to 2.7% from 3.1%.
Should You Buy the Dip After IBM's Historic Crash?
IBM reported preliminary second-quarter revenue of $17.2 billion, missing analysts' expectation of $17.9 billion. The company said some customers redirected spending toward servers, storage and memory as businesses sought AI-related infrastructure amid supply constraints and anticipated price increases. Cramer said corporate technology budgets are becoming increasingly focused on artificial intelligence infrastructure, cybersecurity and hardware, while other information technology projects are receiving lower priority.
ServiceNow Gets Constructive Earnings Setup
Analyst Stefan Slowinski kept an Outperform rating and $140 price target. He expects net-new annual contract value to accelerate in the second half, helping organic subscription growth finish near 19%, up from roughly 18% in Q1. ServiceNow guided to 21% to 21.5% constant-currency subscription growth, with acquisitions adding about 225 basis points.
Oracle Leads Race for Japan's Classified Cloud
Oracle had been trading near a 52-week low after its latest results laid out up to $95 billion in fiscal 2027 capital spending, negative free cash flow, and a debt-funded financing plan, leaving the stock down more than 60% from its September 2025 peak.
India Approves $19.7 Billion to Expand Chip and Smartphone Manufacturing
India has approved another 1.9 trillion rupees ($19.7 billion) in incentives to strengthen domestic semiconductor and smartphone production as Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushes the country to become a larger global manufacturing hub. The new semiconductor initiative builds on India's $10 billion program introduced in 2021, which offered to cover half the cost of establishing qualifying chip projects.
The Open Questions On ISRG Stock
Revenue growing six percentage points faster than total procedures demands an explanation. Management’s answer is that this is a new, sustainable model, and whether you believe them is the whole story for the stock. da Vinci 5 systems are seeing utilization that is approximately 11% higher than the prior Xi model. This is not a forecast, but a reported metric from the field. That single data point is what drove overall U.S. system utilization up 4% in the quarter, a notable uptick. It is the strongest evidence that the premium price is tied to tangible productivity gains for customers. Management’s answer is a firm yes, backed by the specific productivity gains of its new platform. They argue that innovation is creating a financial flywheel where better machines drive more use, justifying higher prices and fueling revenue growth beyond simple procedure counts.
Why I Won’t Stop Buying Meta Before September
Q1 2026 is the receipt. EPS came in at $10.44 against a $6.66 consensus, a 56.79% beat, and the fifth quarter in a row Meta has cleared the bar. Revenue hit $56.31 billion, up 33.1% year over year. The engine underneath: ad impressions climbed 19% while average price per ad rose 12%. Volume and pricing together define a business with genuine pricing power. Meta paid $1.35 billion in Q1 dividends and returned $26.25 billion through buybacks across 2025. At a P/E of 24 and a forward P/E of 21, the multiple stays reasonable for a compounder of this quality. Vertical integration on silicon is how a company earning 82.0% gross margins protects those margins while capex guidance runs to $125 to $145 billion this year. Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is my other AI holding, and it is a fine business. Q2 FY2026 revenue rose 47.9% to $22.19 billion, with AI semiconductor revenue up 143% to $10.80 billion.
Coherent (COHR) Stock May Be 11% Undervalued Despite Fresh AI Infrastructure News
Over the past 3 years, Coherent has returned roughly 7x, which puts extra focus on whether recent gains are already pricing in much of the long term cash flow potential. For Coherent, both the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) intrinsic value estimate and the sales multiple view point to the stock trading on the undervalued side, even after a very large 3 year move.
What Meta, Google, and BlackRock get for training electricians
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 81,000 electrician openings a year through 2034.
Hardware Bears Are Wrong and That’s Why I Keep Buying Apple on Repeat
In the March quarter, iPhone revenue hit $56.994 billion, a March record, with Tim Cook citing 22% year over year growth and 99% US customer satisfaction on the iPhone 17 family. Total revenue came in at $111.184 billion, up 16.6% year over year, with double-digit growth in every geographic segment. Revenue reached $30.976 billion at a 76.7% gross margin. The board authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback and lifted the dividend 4% to $0.27. Full fiscal year 2025 buybacks totaled $90.71 billion. On that shrinking share count, Apple posts 171.4% return on equity and 53.3% ROIC. Shares are up 51.53% over the past year and 1,300.24% over ten years at $314.86.
Mastercard (MA) Stock Looks Overvalued On Regulatory Pressure And New Competition
A 45.0% return over five years suggests Mastercard has rewarded long term holders. However, it also means today's buyers are paying up for that track record. The P/E ratio is often a useful anchor for Mastercard because earnings are a key way investors track the value of its capital light payments network. Mastercard currently trades on a P/E of about 30.4x, which is higher than the peer average of 27.3x and far above the diversified financials industry average of 15.5x.
Salesforce (CRM) Stock Still Looks Below Fair Value Despite Weak AI Sentiment
Salesforce stock sits at about US$167 after falling 34.7% over the past year, yet the valuation checks and current market multiples still lean toward the shares looking cheap rather than expensive. Across Simply Wall St's broader checks, Salesforce screens as relatively inexpensive, with 5 out of 6 valuation tests pointing to the stock trading at undemanding levels. The P/E ratio suits Salesforce because earnings are the main anchor for how investors currently value large, mature software platforms. Salesforce trades on about 17.0x earnings, which is well below the broader software industry average of roughly 28.9x and the peer group average of about 55.5x. Based on Simply Wall St's tailored fair P/E of 32.4x for Salesforce, the stock is priced at a sizeable discount to what this framework suggests may be reasonable given its profile. Despite recent concerns around Agentforce adoption and enterprise software budgets pulling back in favor of AI hardware, the current P/E still prices Salesforce below both sector norms and its own modelled fair multiple. The gap between the present 17.0x and the 32.4x fair ratio indicates that the market is assigning a cautious earnings multiple without fully matching the levels seen across comparable software companies. On this P/E yardstick, Salesforce stock currently appears undervalued compared with both the industry and its own fair multiple.
The Top Mag 7 Stock Headed Into Q2 Earnings: Jefferies Says Buy Amazon Over Tesla or Apple
Amazon wins two of three dimensions and takes the overall title for a retirement-focused investor still in the accumulation or early-drawdown phase. The setup into the July 30 earnings report is the cleanest of the group: cheapest multiple, fastest earnings growth, and a widening AWS backlog that Jefferies frames as approaching half a trillion dollars.
Global Investments In Nuclear Fusion Surge 69% To $4.5B
Global private investments in nuclear fusion hit a record $4.48 billion in 2025, in large part driven by the booming energy demands of AI data centers and rising global energy security concerns. According to the Fusion Industry Association (FIA), confidence in the viability of nuclear fusion technology is growing, with ~71% of fusion companies now expected to deliver commercial power to the grid by the 2030s.
Alibaba and Baidu shares jump in Hong Kong on Apple AI partnership
Shares of Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Baidu rose Thursday on their partnership with Apple for deploying their AI tools. Hong-Kong listed shares of Alibaba rose 5% after the company confirmed that its Qwen AI model would be integrated into Apple services in China. U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba had closed slightly higher overnight after an Alibaba spokesperson told CNBC that "Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences within iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and vision OS for users in China." Baidu's Hong Kong-listed shares gained 4% as the company confirmed that it was working with Apple on Apple Intelligence features for iPhones in China. This comes amid reports in late June that its artificial intelligence chip unit Kunlunxin is targeting an initial public offering in the city, which could value its affiliate at $50 billion.
How Investors May Respond To Charles Schwab (SCHW) Upbeat Earnings Revisions Ahead Of July 21 Report
Charles Schwab's narrative projects $32.3 billion revenue and $12.9 billion earnings by 2029. This requires 9.1% yearly revenue growth and about a $3.9 billion earnings increase from $9.0 billion today.
Prediction: Apple Will Become the Second Company in History to Reach a $5 Trillion Market Cap. Here's the Math.
Apple (AAPL +4.01%) is about 4% away from a $5 trillion market cap. The business is backing the move. Apple's revenue for its fiscal second quarter, the period ended March 28, rose 17% year over year to $111.2 billion, and earnings per share climbed 22%. The company's services business posted an all-time revenue record of $31 billion.
Michael Burry Mocks Data Center 'Fantasy’ In ORCL, NVDA, AMZN — But Trump Sees ‘Big, Strong, Bold’ Money Machines
In February, he said that the company’s purchase obligations had surged to $95.2 billion from $16.1 billion a year earlier, with combined inventory and supply obligations reaching about $117 billion. Burry compared the setup with Cisco during the 2000-2001 downturn, when collapsing enterprise demand forced large inventory and commitment write-downs. He said that Nvidia may be even more exposed because much of its supply chain is highly specialized and difficult to repurpose. “That is a custom non-fungible supply chain,” he said. Burry has now shifted his focus from demand to the financing behind the boom. In May, he noted that AI accounted for 87% of venture-capital funding, 49% of investment-grade bond issuance and 38% of high-yield issuance.
30% of Cathie Wood's Portfolio Is Invested in These 5 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks
Many of the most famous names on Wall Street are actively looking to capitalize on the fast-growing artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Cathie Wood, the CEO of Ark Investment Management, is perhaps one of the most bullish on AI. Most of the firm's top 10 holdings -- when aggregated across its entire family of ETFs -- are companies whose prospects are increasingly tied to AI. And five of them make up about 30.4% of Ark Investment's portfolio: Tesla (TSLA 0.48%), Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX 0.59%), Alphabet (GOOG +3.57%) (GOOGL +3.15%), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 3.40%), and Amazon (AMZN +2.97%). Alphabet has incorporated AI overviews and AI mode into its search engine, leading to increased engagement. It also offers a suite of cloud-based AI tools that are helping drive strong sales growth. Alphabet is doubling down. The company plans to spend between $180 billion and $190 billion on capex this year, largely to fund its AI-related ambitions. The company also has several growth opportunities beyond AI and cloud computing. Alphabet's core digital advertising business is still one of the largest in the world, and it is cashing in on the rise of the streaming industry. It is also building a robotaxi service through its subsidiary, Waymo.
2 Reasons Oracle Stock Could Double in Value by 2028
Oracle has borrowed nearly $130 billion as of the end of fiscal 2026 (ended May 31) to build the necessary infrastructure, a considerable burden for a company with a $43 billion book value. Those rising profits are also a result of the growth in its remaining performance obligations (RPO), or backlog. At the time of the OpenAI announcement, it accounted for about two-thirds of Oracle's $455 billion RPO. In other words, Oracle has booked the equivalent of 60% of an OpenAI deal, helping to justify its borrowing and the $56 billion it spent on capital expenditures (capex) in fiscal 2026.
Aerospace
Japan seeks to ramp up launch activity
The Japanese government wants to sharply increase the number of launches despite struggles with both current and new launch vehicles. In sessions at the Spacetide conference in Tokyo last week, Japanese government officials said the nation’s space policy has a KPI, or key performance indicator, of 30 launches a year from the country by the early 2030s. That includes both government and commercial launches. That goal is tied to another: increasing the percentage of Japanese satellite launches conducted domestically, said Jun Kazeki, director-general of the National Space Policy Secretariat. That percentage is currently about 50%, but the government wants to increase it to 60% to 70%. One way to reach the goal of 30 launches a year is for Japan to host launches of foreign rockets. “We want many of the launch companies to use our facilities,” said Yoshinori Odagiri, president and chief executive of Space Cotan, a company developing a commercial spaceport on Hokkaido. “But we will not reach 30 just by Japan alone, so we want to also secure international players as well.” He cited a recent study by NASA’s Office of Inspector General that said the Kennedy Space Center and Wallops Flight Facility would soon reach capacity as the number of launches at those sites grows. “In order to make up for that, we want the Hokkaido launch site to be utilized.”
Satellite investment sets annual record halfway through 2026
$8.1 billion in the first half of 2026, already surpassing every previous annual total tracked by early-stage investor Space Capital. Companies the report classifies as infrastructure collectively raised a quarterly record of $20.7 billion under a definition that encompasses the design, manufacture, launch and operation of space-based assets. Total investment across infrastructure, distribution and applications surged to $67.7 billion in the first half of 2026, surpassing all of 2025 to make this year the strongest on record. The Nasdaq debut generated $85.7 billion in proceeds at a valuation of around $1.8 trillion, contributing most of the $90.4 billion realized across all space-related exits recorded in the second quarter, which also included intelligence company HawkEye 360’s IPO in May.
Nel ASA (NLLSY) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
We generated NOK 153 million from contracts with customers. We ended the quarter with a negative EBITDA of NOK 155 million. The order intake ended at NOK 230 million, order backlog at NOK 1.2 billion and the cash balance at NOK 1.3 billion. We received 2 purchase orders for containerized PEM solutions, each worth approximately $7 million.
Wall Street Is Ignoring the Bond Market’s Warning: SpaceX Is Junk
One of the largest IPOs in history closed in June, drawing more than $300 billion in orders for $75 billion of shares sold, an oversubscription of roughly 4x. S&P projects negative free cash flow through 2029. Moody's expects strong revenue and earnings growth through 2028, powered by Starlink, which reported 12 million subscribers as of early June 2026.
Space Force awards Slingshot $69 million for AI-enabled training technology
The Space Force faces a particular training challenge because many potential conflict scenarios in orbit cannot be safely or routinely reproduced using actual spacecraft. Operators must prepare to identify unusual satellite movements, assess whether they pose a threat and determine how to respond without escalating a confrontation or disrupting other missions. Digital training environments can allow those events to be simulated without placing operational satellites at risk. They can also be updated as new threats, tactics and spacecraft capabilities emerge, rather than requiring trainers to build each scenario around a fixed sequence of events. The award reflects the Pentagon’s interest in using artificial intelligence not only to analyze large amounts of data, but also to improve how military personnel train for fast-moving operational scenarios.
Predicting Where SpaceX Is Headed by the End of 2026
The company generated just $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025. SpaceX raised another $25 billion in investment-grade bonds. Rocket Lab has an enormous $2 billion backlog and is prepared to challenge SpaceX in the medium-lift launch market with its Neutron rocket.
Swissto12 raises $70 million to accelerate small GEO satellite production
$84.8 million award announced in January from European Space Agency member states through its ARTES telecoms program. Swissto12 generated $140 million in revenue in 2025, according to the company, with contracted backlog set to drive positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2026.
Bio
J&J quarterly earnings beat Wall Street estimates on strength of medicines unit
J&J also increased its full-year sales and profit forecast. The company said its pharmaceutical unit generated $16.38 billion in quarterly sales, ahead of analyst estimates of $16.1 billion. Sales of its psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease drug Tremfya rose 72.5% to $2 billion, compared with LSEG estimates of $1.74 billion. Second-quarter sales of blood cancer treatment Darzalex were $4.2 billion in the quarter, roughly in line with analyst estimates. It now expects sales of about $101.1 billion at the midpoint, from $100.8 billion previously.
Jim Cramer crowns one surging sector the hottest in the market
The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB), is up roughly 51% over the past year and has been trading near its 52-week high, Yahoo Finance reported. Smaller companies have run even harder. The equal-weighted SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI), which leans on mid and small-cap drugmakers, has posted a total return of about 70% over the same stretch, Seeking Alpha noted. That gap shows where the energy is coming from. When smaller biotech stocks outpace the giants, it means the whole sector is rallying, not just a handful of big names. Biotech has also held up during rough patches for tech. While AI and chip stocks sold off mid-year, biotech kept climbing. Eli Lilly (LLY) has been the loudest buyer, closing four acquisitions in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Gilead Sciences (GILD) has run the same playbook, closing a $7.8 billion purchase of Arcellx for a cell therapy in multiple myeloma. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) shows the "tuck-in" model Cramer likes. Its $4.9 billion purchase of Alpine Immune Sciences added a new area to its lineup without a major overhaul, 24/7 Wall St noted. A tuck-in is a smaller purchase that slots neatly into an existing business, adding a drug or pipeline without reshaping the whole company. Vertex's cystic fibrosis expansion into new disease areas is a textbook example of a tuck-in. Cramer used Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) as an example. Its TTR drug franchise revenue surged 153% annually to $910 million on the strength of AMVUTTRA, yet ALNY has trailed, 24/7 Wall St reported. When a company grows revenue like that while shares sit still, big drugmakers see a bargain. This is especially so when the prize is an advanced platform like RNAi that would take years to build in-house. Analysts are mostly positive, but they emphasize selectivity. The setup is a "survival of the fittest" market where late-stage companies with real clinical data win and early-stage platforms without it can struggle, Mizuho said. A few forces are expected to keep the pressure on big pharmaceutical companies to keep buying: Key catalysts analysts are watching The patent cliff: Large drugmakers are losing exclusivity on blockbuster products and need to replace that revenue, which pushes them to buy mid-stage pipelines. Therapeutic gold rushes: Money keeps pouring into obesity pills, oncology, immunology, and Alzheimer's treatments. A reopening IPO window: After a multi-year drought, new biotech listings are picking up again, BioSpace reported. A steadier macro backdrop: Stable-to-declining interest rates and firmer FDA guidelines give the sector a more predictable footing.
Fractyl gains as Revita procedure reduces weight gain in post-GLP-1 setting
Fractyl Health (GUTS) added ~9% in the morning trading on Wednesday after the metabolic therapeutics company said that its Revita procedure reduced weight regain by roughly 40% following GLP-1 discontinuation in patients with obesity.
Stock Market Is Giving A Pristine Entry Point Into This 64-Year Dividend King
JNJ raised full-year guidance and absorbed $330M in talc charges while Pfizer bet $7B on GLP-1 obesity assets to offset collapsing COVID revenue. Guidance moved up to $100.8 billion in revenue and $11.55 in adjusted EPS. I want to see Padcev's August 17, 2026 PDUFA land and Metsera Phase 3 data validate the obesity bet.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Sales Growth and Raised ...
Worldwide Sales: $25.3 billion, increased 5.6% despite a 460 basis point headwind from STELARA. Net Earnings: $5.5 billion for the quarter. Diluted Earnings Per Share: $2.27, compared to $2.29 a year ago. Adjusted Net Earnings: $7.1 billion. Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share: $2.90, representing an increase of 4.7% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Innovative Medicine Sales: $16.4 billion, increased 6.8% despite a 760 basis point headwind from STELARA. MedTech Sales: $8.9 billion, increased 3.6%. Free Cash Flow: Year-to-date totaling approximately $8.7 billion. Full Year Free Cash Flow Outlook: Approaching $21 billion. Operational Sales Growth Guidance: Increased by $400 million, now expecting 6.5% to 7.1% for the full year. Adjusted Operational Earnings Per Share Guidance: $11.50 to $11.65, representing a 7.3% growth year-on-year. Reported Earnings Per Share Guidance: $11.60 to $11.75, representing an 8.2% increase over the prior year. Cash and Marketable Securities: Approximately $21 billion. Net Debt Position: Approximately $28 billion.
Consumer / Retail
What It Takes to Earn $8,000 a Month From Dividends Without Chasing Yield
The quarterly payout rose to $1.34 in Q2 2026, extending a streak of 64 consecutive years of increases. Southern Company (NYSE:SO) sits in the same tier at a 3.1% yield, with the quarterly dividend stepping up to $0.76 in 2026. Realty Income (NYSE:O) yields about 5.2% and cuts a check every month. The June 2026 payment of $0.271 per share marked another incremental raise in a track record stretching back 27 years. Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) yields close to 5.9% with the current $0.55 quarterly distribution, and it has raised the payout for 27 consecutive years. Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) is a clear example of what you get and what you give up. The 10.4% yield is real.
WH Smith (LSE:SMWH) Stock Fair Value Moves Lower After Analysts Reset Price Targets
Analysts have cut published price targets for WH Smith, with the more cautious end of the range now sitting around 370–420 GBp compared with earlier levels closer to 550–574 GBp. JPMorgan still holds an Overweight rating on WH Smith, even after trimming its price target to 575 GBp from 700 GBp. The higher end of current targets, led by JPMorgan, reflects a view that WH Smith has scope to execute on its existing business model without needing a fundamental reset to justify the revised valuation range. Berenberg and Deutsche Bank both now sit in the Hold camp, with targets at 420 GBp and 390 GBp respectively. Peel Hunt has moved from Add to Hold with a 370 GBp target, and earlier research from Peel Hunt and other firms also referenced cuts.
June heatwave dents footfall but fails to derail UK retail sales
According to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG, retail sales were up 1.9% year-on-year, matching the average for the last year, but were lower than the 3.1% increase recorded in June 2025. For the five weeks to 4 July 2026, non-food sales, including clothing, grew by 1.2% in June, surpassing the annual average growth rate of 0.6%. In contrast, online non-food sales posted an increase of 5.1% year-on-year, considerably above the 1.5% average over the previous 12 months. The share of non-food purchases made online reached 39.0% in June, rising from 37.7% in June 2025 and staying above the 12-month average of 37.9%.
CDON AB (CDOAF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
CDON Group operates 2 marketplaces, CDON and Fyndiq, in the Nordics. We have 3 million active customers, 100 million annual visits and 3,000 active merchants. We operate an asset-light scalable business with an efficient working capital structure, and we are in a highly attractive market potential with the anomaly of how we shop online in the Nordics compared to the rest of the world, where you utilize marketplaces in much higher extent. To summarize this quarter, it's a quarter of top line growth and front-loaded investments. We do have a volume expansion across both segments, 13% GMV growth, but with a reported GPAM of minus 10%, partly affected by nonrecurring effects that we will dive deeper in later on.
DoorDash launches Shopify integration for independent US retailers
According to DoorDash, the self-serve mechanism, embedded within the existing Shopify interface, cuts the time needed to go live from several weeks to a matter of days. Shopify reported in May that its first-quarter 2026 revenue rose 34%, with gross merchandise volume exceeding $100bn for the period.
Domino's adds 2 board members, elects new lead independent director
Domino's first-quarter results earlier this year fell short of analyst expectations, with domestic same-store sales rising 0.9% against a consensus forecast of 2.72%, and international same-store sales declining 0.4%. The company subsequently moderated its full-year U.S. same-store sales growth projections. The company traces its origins to 1960 and today runs a network of more than 22,300 locations spanning over 90 markets, generating global retail sales exceeding $20.4 billion in the four trailing quarters through March 22, 2026.
Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) (SVNLY) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Operating profit was SEK 6.7 billion and the ROE, almost 13% (sic) [ 12.8% ]. Income reached SEK 13.5 billion and with expenses of SEK 6 billion, the cost income ratio was 44%.
General Mills, ADM, Walmart Partner to Accelerate Regenerative Agriculture Across 40,000 Midwest Wheat Acres
General Mills generated fiscal 2026 net sales of U.S. $18 billion. In addition, the company's share of non-consolidated joint venture net sales totaled U.S. $1 billion. Walmart Inc. (Nasdaq: WMT) is a people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer helping people save money and live better - anytime and anywhere - in stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, approximately 280 million customers and members visit more than 10,900 stores and numerous eCommerce websites in 19 countries. With fiscal year 2026 revenue of $713 billion, Walmart employs approximately 2.1 million associates worldwide.
Conagra books FY losses on hefty impairment
Net sales declined 2.9% to $11.28bn. Fourth-quarter sales improved 3.6% to $2.88bn. They were flat on an organic basis, Conagra said. Conagra is forecasting its organic net sales will decline 1-3%. Its net sales dipped 0.4% organically in the year just closed. Conagra, which also lowered its dividend, is forecasting an adjusted operating margin of between 10% and 10.5%, as well as adjusted EPS of between $1.40 and $1.50. In the year under review, the company's adjusted operating margin was 11.3% and its adjusted EPS were $1.72.
Here are the Compelling Reasons to Add Sonic Automotive (SAH)
Sonic Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:SAH) posted a one-month return of 20.54%, while its shares gained 10.57% over the past 52 weeks. According to our research, earnings per share for Sonic should reach $8 in 2027, compared with an estimated $7 this year... In Q1 2026, Sonic Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:SAH) reported total revenues of $3.7 billion, marking a 1% growth from the previous year.
Finnish retail group Kesko’s sales rise 7.9% in June
Finnish retail group Kesko reported sales of €1.17bn ($1.33bn) for June 2026, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year, or 7.5% on a comparable basis. Domestic sales reached €868.8m, up 5.3% while sales outside Finland totalled €305.1m, rising 16.1%, or 14.5% in comparable terms. The grocery trade division posted sales of €557m, up 4.3%. Sales to K Group grocery stores grew 4.2%, and foodservice wholesaler Kespro recorded a 2.7% sales increase. Kesko also reported higher sales in K-Citymarket's non-food home and specialist goods trade, though no specific figure was disclosed. The building and technical trade division generated sales of €502.4m, up 13.7%, or 12.7% in comparable terms. Within the division, building and home improvement trade sales rose 10.4% in comparable terms, while technical trade sales increased 16.2% in comparable terms. By country, comparable sales growth stood at 10.2% in Finland, 11.8% in Sweden, 14.4% in Norway and 16.2% in Denmark. The car trade division reported sales of €117.1m, up 3.1%. Car trade sales grew 3.1%, with new car sales falling while used car and service sales rose. Sports trade sales increased 2.9%. For the second quarter of 2026 (April-June), group sales totalled €3.46bn, up 6.2%, or 4.4% in comparable terms. For the first half of the year (January-June), sales reached €6.56bn, up 6.7%, or 4.5% in comparable terms.
DoorDash teams with Shopify on delivery for small retailers
DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH) announced a partnership with Autoparts.com for its gig drivers to deliver parts orders for the online retailer in under an hour. The DashMart locations provide retailers with an additional sales channel and handle the entire process, from inventory management, picking, packing and delivery by drivers who use the company's app to accept assignments. DoorDash now has tens of thousands of national retail stores connected to its marketplace.
Is McDonald’s (MCD) the Worst Blue Chip Stock to Buy Now?
On June 29, KeyBanc lowered the firm's price target on McDonald's to $315 from $330 and kept an Overweight rating on the shares. KeyBanc said it was reducing near-term U.S. same-store sales expectations. While the firm sees bright spots for McDonald's during Q2, it said the core business has yet to regain meaningful momentum following a challenging April.
Deutsche Bank Raises its Price Target on e.l.f. Beauty (ELF)
On June 16, 2026, Deutsche Bank raised the firm's price target on e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) to $64 from $62 and kept a Hold rating on the shares. Bernstein said it is a long-term believer, but noted that EPS have been highly volatile after the acquisition of Rhode, distribution expansion, and higher marketing and payroll investments.
China Renaissance Moves Trip.com (TCOM) to Hold
On June 25, Benchmark analyst Fawne Jiang lowered the firm's price target on Trip.com to $65 from $72 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. Also on June 25, Trip.com reported Q1 EPS of RMB5.73, compared with consensus of RMB6.15, and revenue of RMB16.2B, compared with consensus of RMB15.85B.
UBS Raises its Price Target on Rivian Automotive (RIVN)
On July 7, Rivian said in an 8-K filing that it expects total consolidated revenues to increase for the three months ended June 30, 2026, compared with the three months ended June 30, 2025. The company cited higher vehicle deliveries, partially offset by lower average selling prices from a higher mix of commercial vans. Rivian also pointed to increases in vehicle electrical architecture and software development services and revenues related to regulatory credits.
Borealis Foods Expands Access to Protein-Rich Chef Woo Noodles Through Costco
Strong early demand reflects growing consumer interest in protein-rich convenient meals. Industry research indicates that increased use of GLP-1 medications, including semaglutide (Ozempic®, Wegovy®), tirzepatide (Mounjaro®, Zepbound®) and liraglutide (Saxenda®), for weight loss, have significantly influenced eating habits, with many consumers placing greater emphasis on protein-rich, nutrient-dense foods. Borealis Foods believes these changing priorities are contributing to growing interest in its high-protein noodles.
MCD at $268, Starbucks at $106: Buy, Sell or Hold?
McDonald’s has quietly compounded fundamentals while its stock has slipped, with Q1 2026 revenue of $6.517 billion up 9.4% year over year and global comparable sales up 3.8%. Starbucks, by contrast, has staged a dramatic rerating on Brian Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” turnaround, with Q2 FY2026 comps up 6.2% and an EPS beat of 13.64%. MCD trades at a trailing P/E of 23 and a forward P/E of 21, cheap for a franchise generating a 44.3% operating margin and returning capital through a 2.63% dividend yield. Loyalty systemwide sales exceeded $38 billion on a trailing twelve-month basis, and management is guiding to 2,600 new restaurant openings in 2026. SBUX bulls point to a genuine inflection. North America comps ran +7.1% on 4.4% transaction growth, and management raised FY2026 non-GAAP EPS guidance to $2.25 to $2.45. MCD skeptics see stalled U.S. traffic, a 50-day moving average of $278.85 now above spot, and lingering restructuring charges from the “Accelerating the Organization” program running through 2027. SBUX bears have a sharper argument: valuation. Shares carry a trailing P/E of 82 and a forward P/E of 37, with a profit margin of just 3.89% and negative shareholders’ equity of $8.457 billion. MCD is down 10.92% year to date against the S&P 500’s 10.25% gain, an underperformance of roughly 21 percentage points. SBUX is up 27.65% year to date, roughly 17 percentage points ahead of the index. A 21x forward multiple on a compounder with global scale, a 2.6%-plus dividend, and accelerating loyalty economics reads as a reasonable entry point. The turnaround is real, but the price already reflects it. Paying 81x trailing earnings for a business with a 3.89% net margin and a leveraged balance sheet requires flawless execution through the China JV transition.
Rio Tinto reports increase in iron ore sales in Q2 2026
Rio Tinto has reported a rise in global iron ore sales for the second quarter of 2026 (Q2 2026) to 89 million tonnes (mt), an increase of 5% compared to the same period last year. From its Pilbara operations, the company sold 85.3mt of the steel-making commodity in the quarter ending 30 June. Rio Tinto's first-half sales totalled 157.7mt, up 5% from the previous year. However, the company will need a strong performance in the latter half of the year to meet its annual forecast of 323–338mt. The company reported operational resilience amid the ongoing Middle East conflict, noting no significant disruptions to production or outbound supply chains for its core commodities. Rio Tinto is closely monitoring the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and has contingency plans in place for any potential escalation that could affect global energy or logistics markets. The company also disclosed a 20% year-on-year (YoY) increase in lithium production, attributed to the ramp-up at the Rincon starter plant and early deliveries at Sal de Vida and Fénix 1B.
Invest $100,000 in These Dividend Stocks and Collect Passive Income for Life
Combined, these six positions generate $7,010 in annual passive income on a $100,000 investment, a blended yield of 7.01%. Ares Capital contributes $1,703, Main Street Capital adds $1,350, Verizon delivers $1,111, Altria kicks in $1,007, Enterprise Products Partners pays $989, and Realty Income rounds out the portfolio with $850. The company has raised its dividend for 114 consecutive quarters and paid 670 consecutive monthly dividends. Management raised 2026 investment guidance to $9.5 billion and formed a joint venture with Apollo, signaling continued deployment. Q1 2026 adjusted EBITDA rose 10% to $2.69 billion, with $5.3 billion in growth projects under construction and a $5 billion buyback authorized. The stock returned 28.93% over the past year, and $1.8 billion in Q1 2026 dividends paired with a $2 billion buyback reflects Altria’s classic capital-return template. Management raised 2026 guidance to adjusted EPS of $4.95 to $4.99 and free cash flow above $21.5 billion, with more than $3 billion earmarked for buybacks. The June 2026 supplemental marked the 19th consecutive quarterly special payment. NAV per share edged up to $33.46, non-accruals sit at just 1.2% at fair value, and the internally managed structure keeps operating costs below externally managed BDC peers. Non-accruals stand at 2.1% at amortized cost, well inside historical norms for middle-market credit.
Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club Opens at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
About Chase Chase is the U.S. consumer and commercial banking business of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America with operations worldwide, assets of $5 trillion and $375 billion in stockholders' equity as of June 30, 2026.
PYPY Pops 14% as Paypal Reportedly Draws $53 Billion Stripe + Advent Takeover Bid
PYPY's covered-call overlay caps rallies and erodes NAV over time, leaving the fund still down 18% year to date despite Wednesday's jump. That trailing performance is the practical illustration of the point income-ETF holders should understand: these funds are designed to convert price volatility into cash distributions, and the NAV tends to erode over time as the underlying stock drifts, distributions are paid out, and the call overlay clips rallies. If PayPal trades toward the bid, further upside in PYPL is likely to be increasingly capped by the call overlay, and PYPY's participation in additional gains will narrow.
Elisa Oyj (ELMUY) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Comparable EBITDA was up by 1.4%, especially driven by successful execution of cost measures. We were still way down by last year's competition in terms of mobile service revenue, but that was partly offset by good progress in fixed service revenue, which grew 2.2%. The overall
Prediction: This Dividend King Could End The Year With a New All-Time High Stock Price
JNJ delivered Q1 2026 revenue of $24.06 billion, up 9.9% year over year, with adjusted EPS of $2.70 beating the $2.6773 consensus. Q2 2026 reinforced the trajectory with reported sales of $25.3 billion (up 6.6%) and adjusted EPS of $2.90, prompting another guidance raise. Management now targets full-year revenue of $100.30 billion to $101.30 billion and adjusted EPS of $11.45 to $11.65.
Citigroup (C) Stock Could Be Trading Below Fair Value Today
Citigroup has returned 212.7% over the past three years, which puts extra focus on whether today's price already reflects the turnaround and recent banking sector optimism. The Excess Returns model for Citigroup looks at what the bank can earn on its equity above its estimated cost of equity, then capitalizes those excess profits into an intrinsic value per share. For Citi, this approach uses a book value of $112.23 per share, a stable EPS estimate of $13.09 per share and an average return on equity of 10.31% against a cost of equity of $10.09 per share, implying excess return of $3.00 per share on a stable book value of $126.91. Citigroup currently trades on a P/E of about 15.5x, which sits above the Banks industry average of 12.2x and slightly above the peer group average of 13.7x.
Prediction: Netflix Could Hit a New High With 268% Upside. Tomorrow’s Earnings Could Spark The Rally
Netflix's 29.5% operating margin dwarfs Disney's (DIS) 14.6%, and its per-subscriber monetization outpaces Spotify (SPOT), justifying its premium valuation. Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is $270.75, implying 268.21% upside from $73.53. Our recommendation is buy, at 90% confidence, which is unusually high for our model. Q1 2026 revenue of $12.25 billion grew 16.19% year over year, and management raised the 2026 free cash flow outlook to roughly $12.5 billion, up from $11 billion. Netflix guided FY2026 revenue to $50.7B to $51.7B at a 31.5% operating margin.
Krispy Kreme vs. McDonald's: Which Restaurant Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026?
Krispy Kreme operates a Hub and Spoke model, producing fresh doughnuts at larger shops and delivering them daily to thousands of grocery and retail locations. In its 2025 fiscal year (FY), revenue reached $1.5 billion, representing a decline of 8.6% compared to the prior year. The company reported a net loss of $515.8 million during this period. The net margin, which reveals the percentage of revenue remaining after all costs, was -33.9%, reflecting a challenging year for the brand's bottom line among food stocks. As of its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio was 2.2x. For FY 2025, the company generated revenue of $26.9 billion, a growth of 3.7% over the previous year. Net income for the period was $8.6 billion. The net margin remained robust at 31.9%, indicating the company's ability to retain a significant portion of its sales as profit even while facing higher ingredient and labor costs. On its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio was -30.6x, indicating that total liabilities exceed shareholder equity. McDonald's generated significant free cash flow of $7.2 billion in FY 2025. This cash provides the company with ample resources to fund dividends, buy back shares, or invest in new digital ordering technologies. Krispy Kreme had a partnership with McDonald's that ended in 2025, driving the donut company’s stock price down. Moreover, it amassed huge debt on its balance sheet. It exited its fiscal first quarter, ended March 29, with nearly $900 million in debt. McDonald's is a large, profitable business with rising sales. In the first quarter, it posted 9% year-over-year revenue growth to $6.5 billion. Its Q1 net income increased 6% year over year to nearly $2 billion.
Charles Schwab (SCHW) Stock Looks Cheap On Fair Value While Earnings Stay Fair
Charles Schwab stock has delivered a 62.4% return over the past three years, yet its intrinsic value estimate using the Excess Returns model currently points to roughly 21.3% upside from the market price, while broader valuation checks paint a more mixed picture. Rising expectations around earnings and the build out of Schwab's digital assets offering can support the valuation, but higher market volatility and changing risk appetite may limit how much investors are willing to pay for that growth. Schwab scores 4 out of 6 on value checks, which points to a mixed picture rather than a clear bargain or clear overvaluation. The stock's next move may depend on whether Schwab's current price already captures this intrinsic value upside or still leaves a reasonable margin of safety for new capital. The Excess Returns model for Charles Schwab looks at how much profit the company can earn on its equity above the required return, then capitalizes that stream into an intrinsic value per share. In Schwab's case, the model uses a Book Value of $24.44 per share and a Stable EPS estimate of $7.63 per share, based on forward Return on Equity inputs from analysts. With an Average Return on Equity of 23.06% and a Cost of Equity of $2.81 per share, the model calculates an Excess Return of $4.82 per share and a Stable Book Value of $33.09 per share. This produces an intrinsic value estimate of $130.62 per share. That figure is about 21.3% above the current market price, so the stock screens as undervalued on this framework. Because the Excess Returns model focuses on sustained profitability on equity rather than short term trading activity, the recent surge in Schwab Trading Activity Index readings helps explain why the market is willing to pay more for the shares yet still prices the stock below the model's estimate. On the Excess Returns numbers, Charles Schwab stock currently appears undervalued relative to the earnings power implied by its projected returns on equity. The P/E multiple is a useful way to look at Charles Schwab because earnings are a key driver for brokerages and capital markets firms. Schwab currently trades on a P/E of about 19.8x, which is below both the peer group average of 33.7x and the broader capital markets industry average of 40.3x. The fair P/E ratio, which reflects what investors might typically pay for Schwab given its size, margins and risk profile, is about 19.7x, very close to where the stock trades today. That narrow difference indicates the market price is largely in line with this tailored benchmark, even though sector averages are higher. On the P/E multiple, Charles Schwab stock appears roughly fairly valued at current levels. Charles Schwab screens as undervalued on the Excess Returns intrinsic value estimate, while the tailored P/E suggests the stock is priced about right relative to its peers and risk profile. That split reflects two different lenses: one anchored on long term returns on equity, the other on current earnings expectations and sector sentiment. Broader valuation checks sit in the middle, so the key question is whether Schwab can sustain the profitability implied in the intrinsic value work without margins being squeezed by technology spending and new platform investments.
Why Did SPCX, IBM, BSX Drop To 52-Week Lows Today?
SPCX stock fell to an all-time low of $132.15, dipping below its IPO price of $135. IB stock slipped to an annual low of $211.03 and is on track for its steepest weekly decline on record after the company’s preliminary second-quarter results showed revenue of $17.2 billion, below Wall Street expectations. CEO Arvind Krishna said on Monday that the miss was largely due to the company’s infrastructure division, where sales fell 7% as clients pulled back or delayed IT and data center spending amid rising cybersecurity concerns. BSX stock has declined more than 54% so far this year.
Visa Reimagines Visa Infinite for Asia Pacific's Modern Affluent
Affluence in Asia Pacific continues to grow, with affluent households projected to increase at an 8 per cent compound annual growth rate through 2030[1]. The region is also home to nearly 31 per cent of the world's ultra-high-net-worth population[2]. At the same time, affluent consumers are redefining what premium means today. Less about status and more about how experiences fit into their lives, they are prioritising moments that feel personal and meaningful. Visa's research shows affluent consumers are increasingly prioritising cultural immersion over traditional luxury, signalling a move toward more immersive experiences that feel deeply personal. These experiences reflect the growing influence of affluent consumers, whose spending is increasing at nearly three times the rate of other cardholders, particularly across travel, entertainment, and retail[3]. Demand for wellbeing and more personalised services is rising among affluent consumers, with around 90 per cent seeking health-focused experiences and 84 per cent expecting more high-touch curated experiences[4].
Lululemon Backs French Recycling Start-up Syntetica in $30 Million Series A Round
Nylon production reached around 7 million tons globally in 2024, according to Textile Exchange’s Materials Market Report. Yet recycled nylon accounts for only about 2 percent of the market, as technical and economic challenges have limited the recovery of nylon from used textiles.
PYPL Slips Premarket After Its Best Day Ever: Why This Analyst Says A Buyout Is Far From A Done Deal
According to Reuters, Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have made an offer to acquire PayPal at $60.50 a share. PYPL holds a consensus 'Hold' rating among 43 analysts, with the average price target implying the stock is already trading at a nearly 7% premium to fair value, per Koyfin.
Others
Castellum AB (publ) (CWQXY) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
We sold all our properties in the Öresund region minus Copenhagen to Wihlborgs. Sales price was SEK 13.3 billion. We also sold the portfolio here in Stockholm with 2 buildings, and we sold it to Alecta, and the sales price was SEK 5 billion. And the sort of common denominator for both of those transactions were that we received a good price, and we think that we will not be able to meet our return targets given the price we achieved in those 2 transactions. We have conducted -- continued to conduct share buybacks. So for the first 6 months of 2026, we have purchased 39 million shares for SEK 4.6 billion.
Elevance Beats Earnings Estimates and There’s Even More Lifting the Stock
Elevance Health stock rose in premarket trading Wednesday after the health insurer handily cleared analysts’ earnings estimates and boosted its full-year outlook for the second time in months. For the second quarter, the health insurer posted adjusted earnings of $7.45 a share on revenue of $49.8 billion. Wall Street was looking for profit of $6.21 and revenue of $48.8 billion.
Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Stripe Checks Out PayPal
The deal would value Paypal (PYPL) at more than $53B. Reuters reported citing people familiar with the matter, that the offer submitted earlier this month is backed by about $50B in committed financing from banks. PayPal' s market capitalization peaked at about $360B in 2021 and fell to as low as roughly $36B this year. It has lost more than 40% of its market value over the past 12 months. On a January earnings call, the CEO said Verizon (VZ) was targeting $5 billion in operating expense savings in 2026, with a “substantial portion” expected to come from headcount reductions, among other measures.
Johnson & Johnson Announces Quarterly Dividend for Third Quarter 2026
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend for the third quarter of 2026 of $1.34 per share on the company's common stock. The dividend is payable on September 8, 2026 to shareholders of record at the close of business on August 25, 2026. The ex-dividend date is August 25, 2026.
Should Investors Worry After Grab's CEO Sells 400,000 Shares for $1.6 Million?
Grab Holdings Limited, headquartered in Singapore, operates a leading super app that offers transportation, delivery, and financial services. The company reported trailing twelve-month revenue of $3.6 billion and a net income of $379.0 million, with a market capitalization of $15.1 billion as of July 13, 2026, market close.
BlackRock rises after Q2 earnings top estimates as AUM hits $15.3 trillion
The company posted earnings per share of $13.91, well above the $12.57 analysts had forecast, on revenue of $7.08 billion versus a $6.72 billion consensus estimate. Assets under management reached $15.3 trillion, up 22% year-over-year, following $868 billion in net inflows over the trailing twelve months and 10% organic base fee growth. Adjusted operating income rose 39% to $2.92 billion, with adjusted operating margin expanding to 45.9% from 43.3% a year earlier. BlackRock repurchased $450 million of shares during the quarter and said it plans to increase its quarterly share repurchase pace to $550 million.
M&A in the UK is set to break record, but PE sponsors are sidelined
UK M&A value is tracking to a record high in 2026, as corporate buyers sidelined PE investors in the year's largest deals with financing options that sponsors couldn't easily replicate. UK M&A value reached £178.9 billion (about $240 billion) in the year to July 7, putting the market on track for an annualized total of around £347 billion, eclipsing the prior high of £309.2 billion set in 2015, according to PitchBook data. Sponsor acquisitions made up just 33.1% of overall UK deal value in the first half of the year, the second-lowest share since 2014, when PE typically captures 40-55% of the market.
Molina, Centene, and Oscar are down after Elevance Health’s Q2 report
Elevance Health (ELV) lost ~8% in the premarket on Wednesday, sending its peers Molina Healthcare (MOH), Centene (CNC), and Oscar Health (OSCR) lower after the Medicaid-driven health insurer reported its Q2 2026 results.
J&J falls premarket despite Q2 beats, updated guidance
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is down ~1.8% in premarket trading Wednesday despite posting Q2 financial results that beat on both lines and revising its 2026 revenue and EPS consensus upwards. The new full-year guidance figures are $101.1B in revenue ($100.8B prior)
What To Do After Wells Fargo Stock Slumped After Strong Second Quarter Report
Wells Fargo & Company delivered strong Q2 results, with EPS of $2.00 and revenue up 8.6% Y/Y to $22.62 billion. Capital returns remain robust, with nearly $10 billion returned to shareholders and an 11% dividend hike to $0.50 expected in Q3.
Catheter Precision reports preliminary revenue of $1M for quarter ended June 30
Catheter Precision (VTAK) announced on Wednesday preliminary unaudited record revenues of $1.04M for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, including both the MedTech segment and the Flyte Vision Jet segment.
VivoSim expects FY27 revenue growth of over 500%, receives $5M milestone payment from Eli Lilly
VivoSim Labs (VIVS) on Wednesday announced it anticipates revenue growth of over 500% in FY27.
Elevance Health beats second-quarter forecasts but shares slide on margin pressure (ELV)
Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings and raised its full-year outlook, but the health insurer's shares fell more than 9 percent in premarket trading as investors focused on declining profit margins. The company posted adjusted earnings per share of 7.45 dollars, comfortably ahead of the analyst consensus estimate of 6.21 dollars. Revenue increased 0.8 percent year on year to 49.8 billion dollars, exceeding market expectations of 48.63 billion dollars. Operating margin declined to 3.5 percent from 4.9 percent a year earlier, while adjusted operating margin fell to 3.6 percent from 5.0 percent. The benefit expense ratio also increased by 80 basis points to 89.7 percent, reflecting higher medical costs within government-sponsored healthcare programmes. Elevance increased its adjusted earnings guidance for the 2026 financial year to at least 27.00 dollars per share, slightly above analysts' consensus estimate of 26.91 dollars. The company also lifted its operating cash flow forecast to at least 6.0 billion dollars.
U.S. Producer-Price Index Fell in June
The producer-price index declined by 0.3% in June, the Labor Department said, after increasing by an elevated 0.6% in May.
Should You Buy Intuitive Surgical Stock Before Earnings on July 16?
In the first quarter, recurring revenue from instruments and services grew 23% year over year to $2.12 billion. The increase in instruments and accessories revenue was primarily driven by approximately 16% growth in da Vinci procedure volume, customer buying patterns, and approximately 39% growth in Ion procedure volume. It's worth noting that in the first quarter, revenue and EPS both grew by double-digit percentages, with revenue reported as $2.77 billion, up 23% year over year, and EPS of $2.28, up nearly 19% over the same period a year ago. The first quarter 2026 da Vinci surgical system placements included 232 da Vinci 5 systems, compared with 147 in the first quarter of 2025.
PNC Financial Q2 2026 earnings: record revenue, profit jumps 25%
PNC Financial Services Group reported record quarterly revenue of $6.88 billion on Wednesday, up 21% from a year earlier, as surging capital markets activity and the addition of FirstBank drove broad gains across the business. Net income for the second quarter came in at $2.06 billion, or $4.81 per diluted share, a 25% increase from the same period a year ago. On an adjusted basis, which excludes FirstBank integration costs and other one-time items, diluted earnings per share were $4.85, compared with $3.85 a year earlier, the company said. Capital markets and advisory revenue rose to $577 million, up 80% from last year, thanks to record M&A advisory fees and strong results in other capital markets areas. Total fee income was $2.28 billion, a 20% increase from the second quarter of 2025. Net interest income totaled $4.11 billion, a 16% year-over-year increase, reflecting contributions from commercial loan growth, the FirstBank deal and a decline in deposit costs. Net interest margin expanded 16 basis points year over year to 2.96%. Average loans totaled $363.2 billion, up 13% from a year earlier, and average deposits climbed 8% to $457 billion, the company said. PNC completed its $4.1 billion acquisition of Colorado- and Arizona-based FirstBank in January, according to Reuters. As of June 22, PNC converted approximately 780,000 customers, more than 1,620 employees and 95 branches, merging FirstBank into PNC Bank, the company said. The quarter included several notable one-time items. PNC recorded a $448 million gain tied to a partial exchange of its Visa Class B-2 holdings. Working against that gain were a $140 million charitable contribution to the PNC Foundation, a $139 million charge stemming from the sale of approximately $4 billion in investment securities that were rotated into higher-yielding alternatives, and $85 million in negative fair value adjustments on Visa Class B-3 derivative positions. The combined impact reduced net income by $15 million, or 4 cents per share, the company said. Credit quality remained stable. Net loan charge-offs were $226 million, or 0.25% of average loans on an annualized basis, while nonperforming loans fell 10% from the prior quarter to $2.03 billion. PNC's board raised the quarterly common stock dividend 18% to $2.00 per share, payable August 5 to shareholders of record as of July 20. The company returned $1.3 billion to shareholders during the quarter, including $0.6 billion in share repurchases.
Longleaf Partners Global Fund exits DHERO and MNNLF
Longleaf Partners Global Fund underperformed with a return of 5.9% in Q2, as compared to the MSCI World Index's 13.8% gain. The fund exited Delivery Hero (DHERO) and Menicon (OTCPK:MNNLF).
BlackRock Hits Record $15.3 Trillion as Inflows Beat Estimates
BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) rose 4.74% in premarket trading after reporting second-quarter net inflows of $192 billion that lifted assets under management to a record $15.3 trillion, beating Wall Street forecasts. The world's largest asset manager grew revenue 31% from a year earlier to $7.1 billion, with net income up 20% to $1.9 billion and GAAP diluted earnings of $12.19 a share, or $13.91 adjusted. BlackRock's adjusted operating margin reached 45.9%, the highest in nearly five years, and iShares crossed $6 trillion in AUM, roughly doubling in three years. The firm lifted its planned 2026 share repurchases to $2 billion. CEO Laurence Fink framed the result as a structural shift. "Our momentum is accelerating, and I've never been more optimistic about the growth ahead," he said, pointing to 8% organic base fee growth and 15% growth in technology and subscription contract value as clients lean harder on the firm's Aladdin platform.
Stocks Rise as Wall Street Zeros In on Earnings
The earnings season is full steam ahead, and tech stocks are leading the march higher. All three major indexes were in the green to kick off Wednesday’s session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.7%. The S&P 500 gained 0.
AI Is Crowding Out IBM
IBM (IBM) shares fell ~25% after Q2 results revealed AI infrastructure spending is crowding out IBM’s software and consulting revenues. Q2 revenue grew just 1% to $17.2B, with software growth slowing, consulting flat, and infrastructure down 7%, pressuring operating gross margin. I expect 2026 free cash flow of $14.8–$15.2B and value IBM at $180–$190 per share, as AI tailwinds bypass IBM’s core.
Morgan Stanley tops Q2 estimates with record revenue and profit
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) reported record second quarter revenue and profit that topped Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, driven by strength across its institutional securities, wealth management and investment management businesses. The bank posted earnings per diluted share of $3.46 on net revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter ended June 30, exceeding analysts' expectations of $2.93 per share on revenue of $19.63 billion. A year earlier, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) reported earnings per share of $2.13 on revenue of $16.79 billion. Net income attributable to Morgan Stanley rose to $5.58 billion from $3.54 billion a year earlier, while return on tangible common equity increased to 26.6% from 18.2%. Institutional Securities generated record revenue of $11.04 billion, up from $7.64 billion a year earlier. Investment banking revenue climbed to $2.44 billion from $1.54 billion, while equities revenue surged to $6.30 billion from $3.72 billion. Fixed income revenue increased to $2.46 billion from $2.18 billion. Wealth Management reported record revenue of $8.86 billion, compared with $7.76 billion a year earlier. The division attracted a record $148.1 billion in net new assets during the quarter, while total client assets across wealth and investment management reached $10 trillion. Investment Management revenue rose to $1.65 billion from $1.55 billion a year earlier, supported by higher average assets under management, which increased to $2.0 trillion from $1.71 trillion. Long-term net inflows totaled $7.5 billion during the quarter. Morgan Stanley's standardized Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio stood at 14.8% at quarter-end, while its expense efficiency ratio improved to 65% for the first half of the year from 71% a year earlier.
J&J raises FY26 outlook following positive Q2
Contributing around $8.9bn to its Q2 revenues of around $25.3bn, J&J MedTech’s performance was driven by its cardiovascular portfolio that includes the Shockwave IVL system.
Stripe and Advent reportedly offered to buy PayPal for around $53.4B
Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have reportedly submitted a joint bid to acquire PayPal in a deal valued at approximately $53.4 billion. Reuters reports that the offer was submitted earlier this month and is backed by roughly $50 billion in committed bank financing. Under the proposal, Stripe and Advent would jointly own PayPal, with each holding an equal stake. PayPal serves around 440 million active accounts and handles roughly $1.8 trillion in payment volume during 2025. Meanwhile, businesses use Stripe to process $1.9 trillion in payments over the same period. Plus, Stripe's valuation climbed to $159 billion earlier this year. Reports have also suggested the company intends to reduce its workforce by around 20%.
U.S. Crude Oil Stockpiles Post Weekly Withdrawal
Commercial crude oil stocks fell by 1.7 million barrels last week. Analysts expected crude stocks to decline by 900,000 barrels.
Abbott Laboratories Q2 preview: Analysts see healthy growth backed by Exact Sciences acquisition
Analysts expect the acquisition, particularly the CancerGuard MCED and Cologuard offerings, to support short- to medium-term revenue growth with potential expansion beyond $5bn annually if adopted widely. Baird analysts predict 8%-10% annual growth for MedDevices and accelerated MedTech revenue growth through the year, supporting steady top-line growth of 6% to 8%.
Intuitive Surgical Q2 preview: Here's what to expect
Healthcare equipment maker Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) is due to report second-quarter earnings on July 15, with analysts expecting a quarter of solid growth. The consensus EPS Estimate for Intuitive Surgical is $2.50, representing a 14.2% Y/Y jump. On the revenue side, ISRG is projected to
Queer Eye’s Tan France says one ‘very American’ money habit makes him 'physically sick’ — here's where he draws the line
According to Pew Research, around 80% of Americans are holding some form of debt. Around 70% say that debt is a necessity, even if they don't want to be in debt. Because of this, Americans frequently open their first form of debt — a credit card — at a relatively young age.
This ETF Pays 62% a Year. So Why Are Its Investors Quietly Losing Money?
ULTY's advertised 36% yield obscures a -4% total return over the past year, a 24-point gap behind the S&P 500. The math on YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA:ULTY) looks like a printing press. Weekly distributions, an annualized rate near 62%, and a $914 million asset base built on the promise of monster income. Yet ULTY holders over the past twelve months earned a total return of -4.8%, while the S&P 500 returned 22%. The fund is an actively managed options-income vehicle from YieldMax that writes synthetic covered calls against a rotating basket of high-volatility single stocks. Top holdings are dominated by highly volatile tech stocks like Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD), Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT), and Astera Labs (NASDAQ:ALAB). The top ten sits at 46.6% of net assets. In 2026, weekly payouts have ranged from $0.3302 to $0.5186 per share.
Can Uber Technologies (UBER) Stay Cheap While Automation Risks Grow?
Over 5 years, Uber Technologies has returned 55.6%, which points to meaningful long term share price progress even though the stock is down 21.8% over the last year. Uber currently trades on a P/E of 17.2x, which is below both the transportation industry average of 41.7x and the peer group average of 24.3x. The fair P/E ratio implied by the broader checks is 30.1x, above the current 17.2x level.
BlackRock Inc (BLK) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Record Inflows and Revenue Surge Amid ...
Net Inflows: $192 billion in the second quarter, contributing to $868 billion over the last 12 months. Revenue: $7.1 billion for the second quarter, a 31% increase year over year. Operating Income: $2.9 billion, up 39% from the previous year. Earnings Per Share (EPS): $13.91, a 15% increase year over year. Operating Margin: 45.9%, expanded by 260 basis points from the previous year. Base Fee and Securities Lending Revenue: $5.7 billion, up 29% year over year. Performance Fees: $305 million, with $115 million from HPS. Assets Under Management (AUM): Reached a record $15.3 trillion. Share Repurchases: $450 million in the second quarter, with plans to repurchase at least $550 million per quarter going forward. Organic Base Fee Growth: 8% in the second quarter. Annual Contract Value (ACV): Increased 15% year over year.
The SOX Index Fell 16% in Less Than a Month
The PHLX Semiconductor Index is down 2.3% today, a 16% drop from the index's closing high, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Stock Market Today, July 15: PayPal Surges 17% on $60.50 Takeover Bid from Stripe and Advent International
Trading volume reached 89.3M shares, coming in about 446% above its three-month average of 16.4M shares. PayPal Holdings IPO'd in 2015 and has grown 51% since going public. Despite today’s bump, PayPal is still 82% below its 2021 high, so it is not a slam dunk that shareholders will automatically accept the deal.
Morgan Stanley (MS) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Record Revenues and Strategic Growth ...
Revenue: $21.3 billion for the second quarter. Earnings Per Share (EPS): $3.46, excluding DVA. Return on Tangible Common Equity (ROTCE): 26.6%. Efficiency Ratio: 65% year-to-date. Institutional Securities Revenue: $11 billion. Investment Banking Revenue: $2.4 billion, a 58% increase from the prior year. Equities Revenue: $6.3 billion, a record quarter. Fixed Income Revenue: $2.5 billion. Wealth Management Revenue: $8.9 billion, with total client assets at $8 trillion. Net New Assets in Wealth Management: $148 billion. Investment Management AUM: $2 trillion. Common Stock Repurchase: $1.5 billion. Quarterly Dividend: Increased by 15% to $1.15 per share. Standardized CET1 Ratio: 14.8%. Tax Rate: 23.1% for the quarter.
CHAPTERS Group AG (MDCKF) Analyst/Investor Day Prepared Remarks Transcript
We have twice as many people here in the room as last year.
Equinix (EQIX) Stock Looks Like A Bargain On Cash Flow But Rich On Earnings
Equinix generated last twelve month free cash flow of about $3.8b, and the model assumes those cash flows continue to grow over time. On that basis, the DCF estimate points to an intrinsic value of about $1,557 per share, which sits above the current share price and implies the stock appears 34.3% undervalued within the model. The P/E ratio is a common way to judge Equinix because it ties the share price directly to the earnings investors are paying for today. Equinix currently trades on a P/E of about 70.9x, which is well above the Specialized REITs industry average of 16.2x and also higher than the peer group average of 30.9x. On this earnings-based view, Equinix stock screens as overvalued, with its current P/E suggesting a rich price relative to both industry norms and the fair ratio estimate.
HPE's 42x Multiple Tells Only Half the Story
While the trailing multiple is high, the story changes when you look forward. Based on the earnings analysts expect by fiscal year 2027, today’s share price of about $49.56 implies a multiple of just 12.4x. That is a 71% lower multiple, though it’s worth noting the two figures aren’t measuring earnings the same way. The trailing 42.5 times is based on GAAP net income, which was depressed by one-time charges tied to the H3C divestiture, Juniper integration costs, and stock-based compensation; FY2025 GAAP net income was effectively breakeven. The forward 12.4 times uses non-GAAP consensus estimates, which strip those adjustments out. Some of the “discount” reflects that basis shift as much as it reflects the roughly 13.4% annual revenue growth analysts are projecting. On fiscal 2026 consensus earnings of $3.41 per share, the same $49.56 price implies a multiple of about 14.5 times, already well below the trailing 42.5 times, showing the pace at which the valuation normalizes on a forward basis. The consensus projects revenue will grow about 13.4% a year for the next two years. That might sound ambitious, but it is actually well below the 23% revenue growth the company delivered over the last twelve months, and even further behind the 40% growth it posted in the most recent quarter. From this perspective, analysts are forecasting a slowdown from recent momentum, not an acceleration. The fact that management itself is guiding adds another layer of credibility. For fiscal 2026, the consensus earnings estimate of $3.41 per share lands squarely at the midpoint of the company’s own raised forecast of $3.35 to $3.45. Looking out to 2027, management’s initial framework calls for revenue growth between 8.0% and 12.0%. While the analyst consensus of 13.4% is slightly ahead of that, it is not a significant divergence. This suggests the company and Wall Street are seeing a similar trajectory, one fueled by what the CEO calls durable customer demand in areas like AI systems, where the company just booked another $1.8 billion in orders, and networking, where orders are outpacing revenue and building a “record company backlog.”
Charles Schwab (SCHW) Faces A Fresh Valuation Test Following Rising Earnings Optimism
Charles Schwab (SCHW) is back in focus as Wall Street looks ahead to its June quarter earnings report, with increasing attention on estimates that are currently above the prevailing consensus. The recent focus on Charles Schwab's upcoming June quarter results comes after a period of firm share price momentum, with a 30 day share price return of 13.02% adding to a 10.98% 90 day gain and supported by a 1 year total shareholder return of 14.06%. Most Popular Narrative: 16.3% Undervalued According to the most followed narrative, Charles Schwab's fair value sits at $122.76 against a last close of $102.79, pointing to a meaningful valuation gap that has caught long term investors' attention. The popular narrative tags Charles Schwab as roughly 16.3% undervalued at a fair value of $122.76, but the P/E picture looks more balanced. SCHW trades at 19.8x earnings, almost identical to its 19.7x fair ratio. This suggests limited mispricing on this measure.
Early Q2 Results Reveal a Highly Robust Earnings Landscape
For the 34 S&P 500 companies that have reported Q2 results already, total earnings are up +55.3% from the same period last year on +18.8% higher revenues, with 91.2% beating EPS estimates and 82.4% beating revenue estimates. The Q2 earnings and revenue growth rates have been boosted by Micron's (MU) very strong quarterly results, but the earnings and revenue growth rates would still compare favorably with other recent periods when we exclude Micron from these results. Excluding Micron, Q2 earnings for the remaining 33 index members that have reported Q2 results would be up +21.5% (vs. +55.3% otherwise) on +12.5% higher revenues (vs. +18.8% otherwise). Total earnings for these Finance companies are up +30.2% from the same period last year on +20.4% higher revenues, with all the companies beating EPS estimates and 90.9% beating revenue estimates. Boosted by the strong results from these banks, total Q2 earnings for the Zacks Investment Banks/Managers industry, of which JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are a part, are expected to increase by +32.1% from the same period last year on +12.1% higher revenues, as the table below shows. For the Finance sector as a whole, Q2 earnings are expected to increase by +22.2% on +11.7% higher revenues, following the sector's +25.6% earnings growth on +9.8% higher revenues in the preceding period.
TotalEnergies Lowers Estimated Production Hit From Iran War
TotalEnergies expects a milder second-quarter hit from the war in the Middle East than previously expected after it restarted production in some of the region’s countries.
Germany's Delivery Hero backs €13 billion takeover by Uber
German food delivery giant Delivery Hero said it supports Uber's €13 billion takeover offer, which would significantly expand the US ride-hailing company's global food delivery network. Delivery Hero said Thursday it backs the takeover offer from US ride-hailing giant Uber, which aims to acquire the German food delivery group, which operates in more than 50 markets across Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Uber has agreed to offer €41.50 a share in cash for all Delivery Hero shares, valuing the German food delivery company at €13 billion ($14.8 billion). The deal would expand Uber's mobility and food delivery operations to 99 countries. Together, Uber and Delivery Hero generated gross bookings worth $236bn (€205.9bn) in 2025, measured by gross merchandise value (GMV). Uber expects the acquisition to increase its adjusted earnings per share once the deal closes, with a high single-digit percentage boost by the third year. Additionally, Uber committed to invest €2 billion in Germany through 2031, with a focus on developing its local corporate workforce, growing its nationwide business, and launching autonomous vehicle deployments and partnerships with the German automotive industry.
2 Stocks With Dividend Yields of At Least 5.9% That Have Also Raised Their Annual Dividends for At Least 50 Years
Altria is currently on pace to pay $4.24 in dividends, excluding any future increases. Altria also has a free-cash-flow yield of about 7.13%, which also covers the annual dividend, so the company clearly has room to raise it this year. Universal Corp operates in a sector similar to Altria's, serving as the leading global leaf tobacco supplier to companies that make consumer tobacco products. The company increased its quarterly dividend by a penny in May for an annual dividend of $3.32 per share. Analysts covering the stock project adjusted earnings per share of $4.30 in its current fiscal year. Free cash flow in Universal's last fiscal year nearly covered the dividend, despite the significant goodwill charge.