Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

A federal judge on Monday refused to dismiss a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing United Airlines of charging passengers extra for “window seats” that lacked actual windows, allowing the case to move forward.

U.S. District Judge James Donato ruled the plaintiffs plausibly alleged United breached its contractual obligations by selling seats identified as window seats even though some were positioned next to solid cabin walls rather than windows.

“These terms plausibly establish that United expressly agreed to provide a seat with a window to passengers who paid for one,” Donato wrote, adding that United’s reservation screens and boarding passes represented that customers had purchased window seats. “No more is needed at this stage for the breach claims to go forward.”

The lawsuit alleges United knowingly charged passengers extra for certain window seats on aircraft, including Boeing 737s, Boeing 757s and Airbus A321s, even though some seats lacked adjacent windows because of aircraft design. Plaintiffs claim passengers often pay premiums for window seats to enjoy the view or help alleviate anxiety, claustrophobia or motion sickness.

A United Airlines aircraft taxis near a runway marker at Palm Beach International Airport. Chris Beckett/ZUMA / SplashNews.com United argued the lawsuit should be dismissed, saying “window seat” describes a seat’s location relative to the aisle rather than guaranteeing an actual window and contending federal law preempts the claims. Donato rejected those arguments at this stage of the litigation.

United declined to comment on the lawsuit.

A general view looking out an airplane window of an airplane wing and clouds over the United States as seen on August 20, 2024. Christopher Sadowski “As part of our regular review of united.com and the United App to enhance the customer experience, in 2025 we added more detail to our seat selection process, so customers can have more information about what to expect when they choose a seat,” a United spokesperson told FOX Business.

The plaintiffs seek to represent a nationwide class of passengers who paid extra for window seats but allegedly received seats without windows.

The case will now move forward in federal court.

In the latest close session, American Express (AXP - Free Report) was down 3.77% at $336.39. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.28%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.09%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.2%.

Shares of the credit card issuer and global payments company witnessed a gain of 9.8% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Finance sector with its gain of 5.35%, and the S&P 500's gain of 1.64%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of American Express in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's earnings report is set to go public on July 24, 2026. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $4.39, reflecting a 7.6% increase from the same quarter last year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $19.61 billion, reflecting a 9.82% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $17.65 per share and revenue of $79.25 billion, indicating changes of +14.76% and +9.72%, respectively, compared to the previous year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for American Express. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.35% increase. Right now, American Express possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

With respect to valuation, American Express is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 19.81. This represents a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 11.09.

Also, we should mention that AXP has a PEG ratio of 1.44. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.01.

The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry is part of the Finance sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 155, positioning it in the bottom 37% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow AXP in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP continues its investigation on behalf of MercadoLibre, Inc, (“MercadoLibre” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:MELI) investors concerning the Company’s and/or members of its senior management’s possible violation of the federal securities laws and other unlawful business practices.

[LEARN MORE ABOUT THE INVESTIGATION]

What Happened?

On May 7, 2026, MercadoLibre released its first quarter 2026 financial results and disclosed that loans which were “typically on average of 5 months” had now “moved to 8 months” and that the Company is “taking provisions in Brazil... related on the one hand, to extending the average term of our loans.” On this news, the price of MercadoLibre shares declined by $246.49 per share, or approximately 13.12%, from $1,879.01 per share on May 7, 2026 to close at $1,632.52 on May 8, 2026.

What Should I Do?

At this stage, no lawsuit has been filed. The investigation is ongoing to determine whether claims may be brought under federal securities laws.

If you purchased or otherwise acquired Mercado securities, have information, or would like to learn more about this investigation, please contact Lauren Molinaro of Kirby McInerney LLP by email at [email protected], or fill out the contact form below, to discuss your rights or interests with respect to these matters at no cost.

[LEARN MORE ABOUT SECURITIES CLASS ACTIONS]

Kirby McInerney LLP is a New York-based plaintiffs’ law firm concentrating in securities, antitrust, whistleblower, and consumer litigation. The firm’s efforts on behalf of shareholders in securities litigation have resulted in recoveries totaling billions of dollars. Additional information about the firm can be found at Kirby McInerney LLP’s website.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Published July 8, 2026 4:28pm EDT | Updated July 8, 2026 4:41pm EDT

The recall affects 2018-2020 Honda Odyssey vehicles Honda is recalling more than 325,000 vehicles over faulty rearview image displays, which could increase the risk of a crash, according to federal regulators.

The recall affects 2018-2020 Odyssey vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on Wednesday.

A total of 325,588 vehicles are covered by the recall effort.

HONDA RECALLS MORE THAN 880,000 VEHICLES OVER REAR SUSPENSION FAILURE RISK

Honda is recalling more than 325,000 vehicles over faulty rearview image displays. (Honda / Fox News)

The NHTSA said the recall was issued due to rearview cameras that may not display properly.

"Water may enter into the rearview camera, which can cause the rearview camera image to fail to display when the vehicle is in reverse," the recall notice reads.

A display malfunction could increase the risk of a crash, the NHTSA said.

The recall affects 2018-2020 Odyssey vehicles. (Scott Olson/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The announcement expands a previous recall, which affected certain 2019-2020 Honda Odyssey vehicles.

Owners affected by the recall may take their cars to Honda dealers, so the rearview camera can be replaced free of charge, according to the NHTSA.

Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed on Aug. 24.

HONDA RECALLS 99,000 VEHICLES OVER FLAW THAT COULD TRIGGER UNINTENDED AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT

A total of 325,588 vehicles are covered by the recall effort. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

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This comes after Honda issued two separate recalls in recent months that included other car models.

This included more than 880,000 vehicles being recalled because a key rear suspension part can rust and fail, and nearly 99,000 cars that were recalled over a defect that could cause airbags to deploy unexpectedly during a crash.

CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD - Free Report) closed at $191.24 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.74% move from the prior day. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 0.28% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.09%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.2%.

The stock of cloud-based security company has risen by 20.71% in the past month, leading the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 1.22% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.64%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of CrowdStrike Holdings in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.29, up 26.09% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $1.44 billion, indicating a 23.19% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $1.23 per share and revenue of $5.94 billion, indicating changes of +32.26% and +23.49%, respectively, compared to the previous year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for CrowdStrike Holdings. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 1.34% increase. At present, CrowdStrike Holdings boasts a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

In the context of valuation, CrowdStrike Holdings is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 157.78. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 50.32, so one might conclude that CrowdStrike Holdings is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that CRWD has a PEG ratio of 5.69 right now. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. Security stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 3.31 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Security industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 169, putting it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.

In the latest trading session, Zscaler (ZS - Free Report) closed at $143.55, marking a -3.98% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.28% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.09%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.2%.

The stock of cloud-based information security provider has risen by 18.8% in the past month, leading the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 1.22% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.64%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Zscaler in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $1.09, showcasing a 22.47% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $877.19 million, indicating a 21.96% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

ZS's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.14 per share and revenue of $3.33 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +26.22% and +24.57%, respectively.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Zscaler. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the business and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 9.1% higher within the past month. At present, Zscaler boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Zscaler is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 36.14. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 50.32, which means Zscaler is trading at a discount to the group.

It is also worth noting that ZS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.47. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. ZS's industry had an average PEG ratio of 3.31 as of yesterday's close.

The Security industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 169, this industry ranks in the bottom 32% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.

Hyperliquid just made it possible to trade perpetual contracts on crypto indices directly from its layer-1 blockchain. The product, called S&P 2.0, went live on July 8, giving traders a new way to get leveraged exposure to baskets of crypto assets without touching any of the underlying tokens.

What S&P 2.0 actually does While Hyperliquid did launch S&P 500 perpetuals back on March 18 through a licensing deal with Trade[XYZ], the S&P 2.0 is a different beast entirely. It focuses on crypto index perpetual contracts rather than traditional equity indices.

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One technical detail worth noting is how the funding rates work. Most perpetual contract platforms rely on spot price oracles to keep perp prices tethered to reality. Hyperliquid takes a different approach. Its index perps use validator-published median index values for funding rate calculations. This means the network’s own validators are publishing the reference prices, which in theory reduces the risk of oracle manipulation.

The platform currently supports over 300 trading markets spanning indices, equities, and commodities.

A busy year for Hyperliquid Then came THYP, an ETF launched in May 2026. Hyperliquid has also expanded into prediction markets, further diversifying its product suite. HYPE, the native token powering the Hyperliquid ecosystem, has seen strong trading activity throughout 2026.

What this means for traders and the broader market The risk side of the equation deserves attention. While validator-published pricing is an interesting alternative to traditional oracles, it introduces its own trust assumptions. Traders need to understand that the accuracy of their index perp positions depends on the integrity and diversity of Hyperliquid’s validator set. A concentrated or compromised validator network could theoretically distort index values.

There’s also the regulatory question that hangs over every on-chain derivatives product. The licensing agreement with Trade[XYZ] for the S&P 500 perps suggests Hyperliquid is at least thinking about compliance, but the crypto index products may operate in grayer territory.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

https://www.fintechweekly.com/magazine/articles/russia-crypto-reserves-bitcoin-vs-gold-yuan

Russia’s State Duma has approved a revised cryptocurrency oversight bill that eliminates the requirement for users to disclose wallet addresses to authorities, setting a cap on retail investment at 300,000 rubles annually, and introducing a 48-hour delay on large foreign transfers. This legislative move marks a significant shift from previous drafts by reducing regulatory burdens on crypto usage. The Central Bank of Russia is designated as the regulatory body, with the law expected to take effect on September 1, 2026. Analysts suggest that these changes could foster a more favorable environment for cryptocurrency markets within Russia, potentially influencing global crypto sentiment.

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Key Takeaways Russia’s revised bill appears to reduce regulatory burdens by removing the requirement to disclose wallet addresses. The legislation suggests a more controlled approach with a cap on retail crypto investments and a delay on large transfers. Market pricing suggests that these developments could influence optimism about Bitcoin’s future price trajectory. What to Watch Observers will closely monitor the implementation of this legislation to assess its impact on the Russian crypto market and global sentiment. The Central Bank of Russia’s role as the regulatory body will be crucial in determining how these changes affect market dynamics. Developments in U.S. crypto legislation and Federal Reserve rate decisions could further impact market perceptions and Bitcoin’s price outlook.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31 1.6% — — View market → December 31 1.9% — — View market → December 31 2.4% — — View market → December 31 3.4% — — View market → December 31 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 10% — — View market → January 1 2027 36.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 6.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 71.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 4% — — View market → January 1 2027 48.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 24% — — View market → January 1 2027 9.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.6% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 0.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 22.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 32.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 47.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 66.5% — — View market →

Table of contents

The XRP Ledger is living through a familiar kind of protocol standoff: the people running the network’s most influential nodes say yes, but the broader server base has not followed. A new software release has taken the lead among the ledger’s validators, yet the raw node count still puts the older v3.1.3 client ahead, and the security amendment packed into the upgrade is on a separate, slower ballot. The update needs to cross an 80% threshold on the trusted validator list before it can activate, according to the original report.

The split matters because validator support alone does not guarantee that the network’s transaction relay and full history layers move in unison. Nodes that run the older code still see the chain as valid, but they won’t enforce the new amendment’s rules. That can lead to a schizophrenic network state where the official protocol advances but the infrastructure running it treats the changes as optional. For exchanges, market makers, and custodians watching on-chain settlement, that kind of uncertainty tends to sharpen focus on confirmation logic and reorg risk, however remote.

The security amendment is the real prize. While the broader release ships feature work, the amendment patch is what most node operators will judge on its technical merits. It gets its own vote, and it is running slower. The 80% supermajority mechanism inside the XRP Ledger’s amendment process is designed to prevent rushed changes, but it also means a minority of trusted validators can hold the network back indefinitely if they refuse to upgrade. That is not a bug; it is a deliberate governance choice. But when the software release that bundles the fix already leads among validators, the image of a network half-upgraded can unsettle traders who price the token based on expected protocol hardening.

Why node count still matters more than validator count Validators order the ledger, but regular nodes serve the data. If most full nodes remain on an older client, query responses, transaction submissions, and historical lookups all flow through a version of the code that does not understand the new amendment. This creates a gulf between what the protocol says is the valid chain state and what the surrounding infrastructure reports. It is precisely the kind of operational inconsistency that major integrations try to avoid. The XRP Ledger’s design keeps the amendment process inside the validator set, so non-voting nodes cannot block progress, but a large gap in node adoption still corrodes the practical effect of the upgrade.

The market is unlikely to react strongly to node statistics alone, but the setup is worth watching because it mirrors previous upgrade cycles where validator voting stretched on for weeks while nodes lagged. In those instances, the eventual resolution — whether the amendment activated or was abandoned — gave XRP a brief directional pulse. With no exchange-facing timeline, the waiting itself becomes the story.

The governance test that echoes far beyond one chain Protocol governance fights are not unique to the XRP Ledger. Networks like Ethereum have spent years managing client diversity and upgrade coordination, and even smaller chains have seen validator splits force hard choices. The difference here is that the amendment process does not require a chain halt; it is meant to be seamless, activating once the supermajority clicks into place. But the gap between validator sentiment and node sentiment visible today shows that seamless activation is never automatic. It needs active cajoling, upgrade documentation, and often a bit of pressure from the ecosystem’s economic anchors.

Meanwhile, the wider regulatory climate adds another layer of attention. As major U.S. crypto legislation faces last-minute banking pushback, the operational choices of validators on a network tied to Ripple can feel politically charged even when they are purely technical. That does not mean the node count split has a policy cause; it means the stakes around network reliability look different when the regulatory lens is already focused on the asset.

What traders and watchers should track next The next meaningful signal is not the node count — it is whether the security amendment’s support on the trusted validator list begins to accelerate. If it stalls short of 80%, the market will likely treat the broader software release as cosmetic rather than structural. If it climbs, the narrative could swing from “divided network” to “final countdown” in a single day. The trusted validator list is visible, so on-chain analysts and community dashboards will be the first to know.

In the background, the XRP Ledger’s development activity continues to hold a place among the more actively maintained chains, as seen in recent developer activity rankings. That underlying work matters because amendments rarely land in a vacuum. The network that ships code regularly tends to accumulate the operational experience that makes upgrades less contentious over time. For XRP Ledger, this vote will test whether that muscle memory has taken hold or whether the old pattern of drawn-out validator dances is still the default.

AUTHOR

Max delves deep into the cryptocurrency realm, with a passion for altcoins and NFTs. Convinced of crypto's transformative potential, he envisions a decentralized financial future. Max's background in the financial sector grants him unique insights into global monetary systems. In his leisure, Max embraces the thrill of adventures and is an avid sports enthusiast, finding balance and rejuvenation away from work.

Ethereum just got its own lobbying arm for the suit-and-tie crowd. On July 1, Ethereum Institutional launched as an independent nonprofit designed to do one thing: make it easier for banks, asset managers, and financial giants to build on Ethereum’s blockchain.

The organization is funded by contributors including Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Sharplink, and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin. Its board features Thomas Lee of Bitmine, Joseph Chalom of Sharplink, and Executive Director David Walsh. The mission is straightforward: take the institutional engagement work previously scattered across the Ethereum Foundation and consolidate it under one roof with a broader global mandate.

The numbers behind the push Ethereum currently holds between $161 billion and $180 billion in stablecoins, representing over 50% of the global supply. In the world of real-world asset tokenization, where traditional financial instruments get minted as blockchain tokens, Ethereum commands roughly 53% market share.

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Ethereum Institutional claims connections with over 500 institutions and has hosted what it calls the Institutional Ethereum Forum, a gathering of executives collectively managing around $250 trillion in assets under management.

Who’s already building BlackRock has deployed over $122 million in AUM through on-chain products via Securitize, built on Ethereum’s infrastructure. Visa has been experimenting with Ethereum-based settlement. Coinbase, already one of the largest crypto exchanges globally, continues to expand its Ethereum-native products and services.

The network itself has been running without interruption for over a decade now.

Complementing the Ethereum Institutional launch are other recent ecosystem developments. Ethlabs, a separate entity focused on research and development, has been established to handle the technical side. Ethereum’s protocol has also undergone significant upgrades in 2026, including the Glamsterdam and Hegota updates, which have improved network performance and scalability.

What this means for investors When institutions tokenize real-world assets on Ethereum, they need ETH for gas fees. When stablecoin issuance grows on the network, it deepens Ethereum’s liquidity moats. Every new institutional product built on the chain creates structural demand for the underlying infrastructure.

Ethereum’s 53% share of RWA tokenization and its dominance in stablecoins suggest that institutions prioritize security, liquidity, and track record over raw speed.

Traders and long-term holders should monitor stablecoin supply growth on Ethereum as a leading indicator. If Ethereum Institutional succeeds in its mission, the $161 billion to $180 billion in stablecoins currently on the network could grow substantially.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

DOGE Global Debit CardFollowing the merger of House of Doge and Brag House Holdings completed last week, the former became the core operating business of the combined company.

In its mid-2026 Shareholder letter released on July 7, the company said access to public markets will help expand its Dogecoin payments infrastructure, grow its sports investments and accelerate tokenization initiatives.

It plans to launch global Dogecoin debit card and blockchain-based fan engagement initiatives.

House of Doge highlighted several recent milestones, including partnerships with Paxos and MoonPay.

The company also launched the beta version of “Such,” its direct-to-consumer mobile application designed as a testing ground for future digital banking and payments products before they are rolled out to enterprise partners.

Beyond payments, House of Doge said it is building a multi-club sports ownership portfolio through investments in Italy’s Milano Hockey Club, Switzerland’s HC Sierre and Italian football club U.S. Triestina Calcio 1918.

Network Activity, Whale MovementsThe corporate update comes amidst on-chain metrics pointing to rising Dogecoin activity.

In an X post on July 5, crypto chart analyst Ali Martinez said DOGE’s network activity climbed to nearly 50,000 active addresses, suggesting growing user participation.

At the same time, Whale Alert reported, on July 7, a transfer of nearly 4 billion DOGE, worth about $300 million, from Binance to an unknown wallet.

This potentially signals large-scale accumulation or custody movement.

From a technical perspective, trader Stefan, in an X post on July 8, said Dogecoin remains in a broader downtrend characterized by lower highs and lower lows.

He identified the $0.047 area as a key liquidity zone that could serve as a potential local bottom.

A decisive break above $0.11 would invalidate the current bearish structure.

Price Action: Over the past month, Dogecoin is down 17%.

Image: Shutterstock

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CarMax's (KMX 1.41%) summer started off well, with impressive stock performance despite a quarterly earnings report that, at least initially, wasn't well received. After analysts piled in with a clutch of price target raises and even a recommendation upgrade, the vehicle retailer's stock started heading north again. A series of insider buys also lifted confidence in the stock, and it exited June up by almost 19%.

Stop and start That earnings release was published on June 17, and, at least outwardly, CarMax did well against expectations. Net revenue was just over $8 billion in its first quarter of fiscal 2027, for a year-over-year gain of 6%. Net income under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) fell by 12%, however, to $186 million, or $1.31 per share.

Image source: Getty Images.

Despite the bottom-line decline, both metrics handily beat the consensus analyst estimates. On average, pundits tracking the auto retailer's stock were modeling revenue of less than $7.4 billion and GAAP net income of only $0.96 per share.

CarMax was a victim of timing, to an extent. As encouraging as some of the retailer's metrics were, they came at a time of persistently high gasoline prices, driven mostly by this country's conflict with Iran. Most of the models sold by the company are gas-consuming internal combustion engine (ICE) ones.

Also in mid-June, speculation grew that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates; if that occurs, auto loans will become more expensive and will likely negatively affect the car market (and, more directly, squeeze the company's proprietary lending arm, CarMax Auto Finance).

Yet the reactions of analysts tracking CarMax stock were in stark contrast to those of investors selling their shares after the quarterly results were published. A clutch of them raised their price targets on CarMax, with one, Jeff Lick of Stephens, going so far as to upshift his recommendation on the stock. For him, it's now an overweight (read: buy), one notch up from his previous equalweight (hold). He also substantially raised his price target to $66 per share from the preceding $43.

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The inside scoop The bullishness in the stock stemming from those analyst moves was exacerbated by a series of insider stock purchases. The most notable buyer was CEO Keith Barr, who purchased 9,400 CarMax shares on June 22. Four members of the company's board of directors also opened their wallets for this purchase, collectively snapping up 14,674 shares.

I feel the immediate sell-off was unjustified; even if profitability declined, that sales growth figure was encouraging, and management seems to be implementing its new "four pillar" business strategy well. The only major concern I would have is gas prices; if they stay lofty, I'd worry that the mega-dealership could take some hits.

BNB Chain has quietly become the highway most stablecoins travel on. The Binance-affiliated blockchain has processed over 5.3 billion stablecoin transactions since 2025, capturing a 24% market share in a category that practically every major chain is fighting over.

That’s not just a vanity number. It translates to roughly 10 million stablecoin transactions per day and 15 million monthly active addresses, putting BNB Chain ahead of its competitors on the two metrics that arguably matter most: people actually using the thing, and the thing actually working at scale.

The numbers behind the dominance Stablecoin supply on BNB Chain doubled from $7 billion to a peak of $14 billion during 2025. A significant chunk of that momentum came from deliberate moves like the 0-Fee Stablecoin Carnival, an initiative that did exactly what the name suggests: eliminated transaction fees on stablecoins to juice adoption.

As of mid-2026, the stablecoin market cap on BNB Chain sits somewhere between $13.7 billion and $17 billion.

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Binance’s stablecoin reserves reached $53 billion as of July 2026, a figure that no other exchange comes close to matching. The platform’s share of stablecoin reserves climbed from 54% to 57% since early 2025.

Collaborations with stablecoin issuers, including the integration of USD1, have also expanded the variety of stablecoins circulating on the chain.

What’s coming next BNB Chain’s second-half 2026 roadmap prioritizes speed upgrades and the launch of a new layer-1 solution designed specifically for high-frequency trading.

What this means for investors BNB Chain’s 24% market share in stablecoin transactions creates network effects that are difficult for competitors to replicate. More stablecoin liquidity attracts more DeFi protocols, which attract more users, which attract more liquidity.

BNB Chain currently offers one of the deepest stablecoin liquidity pools in crypto, which translates to tighter spreads and more efficient execution for anyone operating in the DeFi space on the chain.

BNB Chain’s success is tightly coupled with Binance’s own fortunes. Regulatory pressure on the exchange, which has been a recurring theme across multiple jurisdictions, could create headwinds for the chain’s growth. A $53 billion stablecoin reserve is impressive until regulators start asking pointed questions about custody arrangements and reserve composition.

Ethereum, Tron, and Solana all have significant stablecoin ecosystems with their own network effects. Tron in particular has been a dominant force in USDT transfers for years.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

July 08, 2026

Overview This is the v0.18.5.1 release of the Monero software. This recommended release includes a large number of bug fixes.

Some highlights of this release are:

Daemon: display IPv6 connections (#10611) Daemon: fix slow shutdown with Tor/I2P enabled (#10698) Daemon: avoid unsafe pidfile truncation (#10608) Daemon: use latest hard fork block for approximate blockchain height (#10580) Daemon: restrict get_alt_blocks_hashes RPC (#10610) Daemon: fix wrong block_weight in handle_get_objects (#10715) Daemon: improve incoming block scan table handling (#10838) Daemon: restore safe sync mode when target height drops (#10598) Daemon: canonicalize Tor and I2P hostnames (#10638, #10704) Daemon: fix dangling iterator in remote host checks (#10649) Daemon: improve duplicate transaction handling in handle_notify_new_transactions (#10836) Daemon: fix use-after-free in txpool prune (#10710) ZMQ: cap aggregate receive size (#10757) ZMQ: apply restricted-mode privacy filtering to get_transaction_pool (#10543) Wallet: store multisig nonce erasure before returning signed txset (#10754) Wallet: hardening against malicious remote nodes (#10773, #10776, #10774) Wallet RPC: add missing trusted daemon check to rescan_spent (#10542) Wallet RPC: fix describe_transfer source entry (#10592) Wallet RPC: preserve payment ID when editing address book (#10590) Wallet RPC: remove unused finalize_multisig endpoint (#10615) Miner: fix thread 0 always using secure JIT (#10743) RandomX: update to v1.2.2 (#10571) Fix memory leak with readline (#10568) Fix memory leak with RandomX integration on Windows (#10546) Various bug fixes and improvements The complete list of changes is available on GitHub, along with the source code.

Contributors for this Release This release was the direct result of 13 people who worked to put out 102 commits containing 1094 new lines of code. We'd like to thank them very much for their time and effort. In no particular order, they are:

jeffro256 tobtoht SNeedlewoods selsta greatjourney589 iuyua9 glv2 alhudz nahuhh woodser ComputeryPony SChernykh j-berman Download The new binaries can be downloaded from the Downloads page or from the direct links below.

Windows, 64-bit Windows, 32-bit macOS, Intel macOS, ARM Linux, 64-bit Linux, 32-bit Linux, armv7 Linux, armv8 Linux, riscv64 Android, armv7 Android, armv8 FreeBSD, 64-bit Hashes If you would like to verify that you have downloaded the correct file, please use the following SHA256 hashes:

monero-win-x64-v0.18.5.1.zip, cf2ae8273977697d9ef2031c7337b781e6e5936578f602444b2990a173a2437d monero-win-x86-v0.18.5.1.zip, f79746868794786ba4ca3c5a30191263ffb0b9a4ab1c0ffcbe30fd5d04986380 monero-mac-x64-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, 82e305bbf6128b386571bed173dae316f9dd06c4ee1217c5eda849444bec89a9 monero-mac-armv8-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, dba08921841e675384ce019fd7c93b59fe7b1e6edaa0a3cf0e3253e263f61864 monero-linux-x64-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, 22a7dda7b0cb699fdd6b7674c3b4a4465b337cc98a54983523b759e1e7cc9958 monero-linux-x86-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, 68783d76d9eac543d593ca1bdfa9c7eb540ec6c646acc68421702465c1d86182 monero-linux-armv8-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, c0caf042cb7c7b760f5ad6be188084b59352440b32990a78b8051497b9398dbc monero-linux-armv7-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, bd6693ac411919d474d98c9e7d7bae1f03e7ef7f1d779a15e2ba3a188c958d36 monero-linux-riscv64-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, 28ead34fa4320ea6809f16c4b064d3b430e71caf3155d25677cc624388fc0ee5 monero-android-armv8-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, a2c0fb240c5eaa947f5a2382ece4613c59b299645ad4d1480ef24e71b8aa8c8f monero-android-armv7-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, daa56844251a9e9f296caaaafcf72c60dade54ae93146085d627ffc883b0fec3 monero-freebsd-x64-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, cc32bb64fb577254fe24441e2db0b722dfedff5c953427ffbf396dc16f0feb62 A GPG-signed list of the hashes is at https://www.getmonero.org/downloads/hashes.txt and should be treated as canonical, with the signature checked against the appropriate GPG key in the source code (in /utils/gpg_keys). To ensure that the files you download are those originally posted by the maintainers, you should both check that the hashes of your files match those on the signed list, and that the signature on the list is valid.

Two guides are available to guide you through the verification process: Verify binaries on Windows (beginner) and Verify binaries on Linux, Mac, or Windows command line (advanced).

Post tags : Monero Software Releases

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Dream Finders has already offered and remains prepared to execute an NDA immediately to facilitate due diligence and maximize value for Beazer shareholders

The standstill in any NDA must preserve Dream Finders' ability to re-engage shareholders directly should Beazer continue to refuse to engage in good faith

Dream Finders requests that the Beazer Board clarify that the interest expressed by "additional parties" is comparable to Dream Finders' all-cash $32.00 per share proposal

Dream Finders urges Beazer shareholders to encourage the Board to withdraw unreasonable preconditions and engage constructively to pursue this compelling proposal that delivers significant, certain, and immediate value

Dream Finders remains ready to engage at any time and move forward expeditiously

For more information, visit announcement.dreamfindershomes.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dream Finders Homes, Inc. (the “Company” or “Dream Finders”) (NYSE: DFH) today issued the following statement in response to a press release from Beazer Homes USA, Inc. ("Beazer") regarding Dream Finders' revised proposal to acquire all outstanding shares of Beazer in an all-cash transaction for $32.00 per share, submitted privately to the Beazer Board of Directors (the “Beazer Board”) on June 30, 2026, and disclosed publicly to Beazer shareholders on July 8, 2026.

Dream Finders remains committed to pursuing a transaction that delivers compelling value for Beazer shareholders. The Company reiterates its willingness to execute an NDA with a limited standstill so the parties can commence due diligence and Dream Finders can confirm its best offer for shareholders.

Importantly, any standstill must appropriately preserve Dream Finders' ability to engage with shareholders or nominate directors for election at Beazer's 2027 Annual Meeting. Beazer’s claim that the confidentiality and standstill agreement they have asked us to sign is “customary” is not grounded in reality. A 12-month standstill is not necessary to conduct due diligence. Instead, it would prohibit our ability to re-engage shareholders after our diligence is concluded and would limit our optionality in pursuing a transaction that delivers significant, certain, and immediate value for all Beazer shareholders. Considering the Beazer Board’s refusal to engage constructively to date, we view this as another attempt to impede a potential transaction.

The terms of the standstill that we are requesting are intended solely to preserve Dream Finders' ability to re-engage Beazer’s shareholders directly, to protect their interests, as a Beazer shareholder ourselves, and to prevent further value destruction under Beazer’s current management team.

Dream Finders also requests that the Beazer Board provide transparency around the expressions of interest from "additional parties" and whether these are comparable to Dream Finders’ all-cash $32.00 per share offer with highly confident financing support.

Patrick Zalupski, Dream Finders’ Chairman and CEO, said, “We have engaged with numerous Beazer shareholders, and there is broad agreement that a limited standstill, as we have already proposed, is appropriate and customary at this juncture. We remain committed to pursuing this transaction, which delivers immediate and compelling value for Beazer shareholders. We urge all shareholders to encourage the Beazer Board to remove its unreasonable preconditions on due diligence and engage constructively to pursue this compelling proposal.”

For more information, visit announcement.dreamfindershomes.com.

Advisors

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, BofA Securities, Zelman Partners and Vestra Advisors are acting as financial advisors to Dream Finders, Foley & Lardner is acting as legal counsel and Edelman Smithfield is acting as strategic communications advisor.

About Dream Finders Homes

Dream Finders Homes (NYSE: DFH), headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, was recognized as the 2025 National Builder of the Year by Builder magazine. Dream Finders Homes builds single-family homes throughout the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, including Florida, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, Arizona, and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which comprises Washington D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland. As the Official Home Builder of the PGA TOUR, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tampa Bay Rays, Dream Finders Homes is deeply committed to excellence beyond homebuilding and into the communities it serves. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries, DFH also provides mortgage financing as well as title agency and underwriting services to homebuyers. Dream Finders Homes achieves its growth and returns by maintaining an asset-light homebuilding model. For more information, please visit www.dreamfindershomes.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication, and other written or oral statements made from time to time by management contain “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “will”, “should”, “propose”, “projecting”, “driving,” “confidence” and similar expressions, including statements regarding the proposed transaction, benefits and synergies of the proposed transaction and future opportunities for the combined company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management’s current beliefs, assumptions and expectations and are subject to a number of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially. Such factors include but are not limited to the ultimate outcome of any possible transaction between Dream Finders Homes and Beazer, including the possibility that the parties will not agree to pursue a business combination transaction or that the terms of any definitive agreement will be materially different from those described herein; uncertainties as to whether Beazer will cooperate with Dream Finders regarding the proposed transaction; Dream Finders Homes’ ability to consummate the proposed transaction with Beazer; Dream Finders Homes’ ability to nominate directors to serve on Beazer’s Board of Directors; the conditions to the completion of the proposed transaction, including the receipt of any required shareholder approvals and any required regulatory approvals; Dream Finders Homes’ ability to finance the proposed transaction with Beazer; the possibility that Dream Finders may be unable to achieve expected synergies within the expected time-frames or at all and to successfully integrate Beazer’s operations, the retention of certain key employees may be difficult; and general economic conditions that are less favorable than expected. All forward-looking statements are based on Dream Finders Homes’ beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Dream Finders Homes. These statements reflect Dream Finders Homes’ current views with respect to future events and are subject to various risks, uncertainties and assumptions. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions are discussed in Dream Finders Homes’ Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Dream Finders Homes undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, except as may be required by applicable law.

Additional Information

This communication does not constitute an offer to buy or solicitation of an offer to sell any securities. This communication relates to a proposal that Dream Finders Homes has made for a business combination transaction. In furtherance of this proposal and subject to future developments, Dream Finders Homes (and, if applicable, Beazer) may file one or more registration statements, proxy statements, tender offer statements or other documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). This communication is not a substitute for any proxy statement, registration statement, tender offer statement, prospectus or other document Dream Finders and/or Beazer may file with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction.

More News From Dream Finders Homes, Inc.

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Intuitive Machines shares are sliding. What’s behind LUNR decline? What Is the NASA Contract Catalyst for LUNR?The company recently secured a NASA contract worth up to $148.3 million to deliver a production-line-qualified Nova-C lander to the Moon by 2028, supporting NASA’s accelerated lunar delivery schedule and expanded Moon Base operations under Artemis.

The firm-fixed-price award includes a $68.6 million base for mission execution plus a $79.7 million performance incentive tied to successful product-line qualification.

Short interest also rose to 37.84 million shares from 34.79 million, or 28.85% of the public float, with about 2.66 days to cover based on average daily volume of 14.23 million shares. That elevated short positioning can amplify day-to-day swings in either direction when news hits.

LUNR Technical Analysis: Key Levels to WatchFrom a longer-term trend perspective, Intuitive Machines is still up 58.47% over the past 12 months, but the current setup is heavy: the stock is trading below every major moving average tracked here, including the 200-day SMA at $18.91 and the 20-day SMA at $22.12. It’s also 40.1% below the 50-day SMA at $28.21, which tells you recent price action has been more "sell the bounce" than "buy the dip."

Momentum is best framed through MACD right now: MACD is below its signal line and the histogram is negative, which points to fading upside pressure unless buyers can reclaim that baseline. The bearish 20-day SMA below the 50-day SMA reinforces that near-term downtrend, even though the longer-term Golden Cross (50-day above 200-day) that formed in November 2025 is still technically intact.

Key Resistance: $19.50 — Nearby round-number area that sits just above the 200-day SMA zone, where rebounds can stall. Key Support: $16 — Nearby floor close to current price where buyers previously stepped in. Intuitive Machines is a space infrastructure and services company focused on enabling sustained human activity beyond Earth, designing and operating space systems across low Earth orbit, geostationary orbit, cislunar space and deep space. A big part of the story is "infrastructure-as-a-service," spanning spacecraft development and space-based network connectivity for commercial, civil, and national security customers.

That matters for this week’s NASA award because it fits the company’s push toward repeatable lunar logistics — moving from one-off missions toward a more standardized transport service. Management says it’s scaling manufacturing to support higher-volume production, which is the kind of operational shift that can change how investors think about backlog durability and execution risk.

LUNR Stock Price Action UpdateLUNR Stock Price Activity: Intuitive Machines shares closed Wednesday down 4.65% at $17.02, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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Uniswap just plugged Sky Ecosystem’s LitePSM directly into its routing engine, which means traders swapping between stablecoins like USDS, DAI, and USDC can now do so with zero slippage.

The integration is the latest piece of the “Stablecoin FX Layer” initiative, a collaboration between Spark, Uniswap, and Sky Ecosystem that launched in June 2026 with a clear goal: make stablecoin trading on-chain work more like traditional FX markets, where large swaps between pegged assets don’t move the price.

How LitePSM actually works Think of LitePSM as a vending machine for stablecoins. Instead of matching buyers and sellers in a liquidity pool, it maintains pre-minted pools of tokens that can be swapped at fixed rates. You put in USDS, you get USDC. No curve, no slippage, no drama.

In more technical terms, LitePSM is a gas-optimized evolution of MakerDAO’s original Peg Stability Module. The key innovation is that it bypasses direct interactions with the Vat, MakerDAO’s core accounting engine, which makes transactions cheaper and faster. Governance-set parameters like buf, tin, and tout control the module’s operations, regulating buffer sizes and fee structures.

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The module had already proven itself through integrations with other DeFi aggregators. CoW Swap, Paraswap, and Kyber were all routing trades through LitePSM before Uniswap came on board.

As part of the rollout, Spark migrated approximately $150 million in USDS liquidity to Uniswap v4 pools on June 25, 2026. This effectively establishes USDS as a central quoting asset for multi-issuer stablecoin trades, including pairs with USDT and PYUSD.

The numbers behind the expansion USDS circulation currently sits at approximately $10.3 billion. Sky’s governance has proposed doubling the USDC buffer for LitePSM from $400 million to $800 million.

That buffer is the war chest of USDC that LitePSM holds to facilitate instant swaps. When someone wants to convert USDS to USDC, the module draws from this buffer. Doubling it signals that demand for these swaps is outpacing the current infrastructure’s capacity.

The $150 million liquidity migration to Uniswap v4 positions USDS not just as another stablecoin competing for market share, but as a routing hub. When Uniswap’s algorithm looks for the best path to execute a trade between, say, USDT and PYUSD, it can now route through USDS via LitePSM, potentially offering better execution than traditional AMM pools.

What this means for traders and the broader market For regular users, the benefit is straightforward. Swapping between major stablecoins on Uniswap just got cheaper and more predictable. The routing engine will automatically detect when LitePSM offers a better rate than traditional pools and send the trade accordingly.

For larger players, institutional desks, DAOs managing treasuries, protocols rebalancing reserves, zero-slippage execution on stablecoin pairs at scale removes one of the persistent friction points that has kept some institutional volume on centralized exchanges.

The proposed buffer increase from $400 million to $800 million represents a significant capital commitment. At $10.3 billion in current circulation, the buffer would represent roughly 7.8% of outstanding USDS.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Solana is about to get significantly faster. The network’s upcoming Alpenglow upgrade, targeting a mainnet launch in the third quarter of 2026, promises to reduce transaction finality times from roughly 12.8 seconds down to 100-150 milliseconds.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko confirmed in May 2026 that mainnet deployment is on track for Q3 2026, following successful testing on a community test cluster. The upgrade has been in the works since at least September 2025, when governance proposal SIMD-0326 passed with 98.27% approval from stakeholders, with roughly 52% of all staked tokens participating in the vote.

What Alpenglow actually changes The upgrade, led by Anza, an engineering team focused on Solana’s core infrastructure, replaces two of Solana’s most fundamental consensus mechanisms. Out go Proof of History and Tower Byzantine Fault Tolerance, the original technical pillars of the network. In their place come two new systems called Votor and Rotor.

One of the most consequential changes is the removal of on-chain vote transactions. Under the current system, validators continuously broadcast votes to the network as a form of consensus signaling. Those votes consume meaningful network resources. Eliminating them simplifies the network’s processing load and frees up capacity for actual user transactions.

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Alpenglow is currently live on a community test cluster and is expected to roll out under the Agave 4.1 client.

Why 150 milliseconds matters more than it sounds Human reaction time is roughly 200-250 milliseconds. A transaction settling in 100-150 milliseconds means Solana finalizes trades faster than a person can physically react to pressing a button.

High-frequency trading desks that operate on Solana currently have to build latency into their strategies to account for finality windows. Shrinking that window by roughly 100 times gives those operations far more room to work with, and makes Solana substantially more competitive with centralized exchanges that already operate at sub-second speeds.

DeFi protocols face a similar calculus. Liquidation engines, automated market makers, and oracle-dependent applications all perform better when the chain underneath them settles faster. Slower finality means wider safety margins have to be built into protocol design, which in turn means less capital efficiency for users. Faster finality allows protocols to tighten those margins without increasing risk.

Tokenized assets, whether they represent Treasury bills, equities, or real estate, require settlement reliability that mirrors or exceeds traditional finance infrastructure. A 150-millisecond finality window is a credible answer to institutional settlement requirements in a way that a 12.8-second window simply is not.

What investors should watch The governance vote passing with 98.27% approval is about as close to unanimous as blockchain governance gets. Contentious upgrades typically see significant dissent, lengthy forum debates, and sometimes competing forks. Alpenglow had none of that.

The removal of on-chain vote transactions is particularly worth monitoring. It streamlines validator operations and could reduce the cost of running a validator, which may affect the distribution and composition of the validator set over time. Staking mechanisms are preserved under the upgrade’s design, but the economics of validation shift when a major cost center is removed.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Key Takeaways QUBT acquired NHanced to expand U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and accelerate Fab 2 rollout. Quantum Computing secured a Planck Dynamics deal for five NeuraWave systems, with 2026 delivery expected. QUBT is broadening its quantum portfolio through manufacturing expansion and edge AI initiatives. Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT - Free Report) or "QCi" has pursued several strategic initiatives to strengthen its manufacturing capabilities and broaden its quantum technology portfolio. The company acquired NHanced Semiconductors, Inc. (NHanced), for a combination of cash and QCi stock valued at $73.1 million, subject to customary adjustments and up to an additional $72.0 million if certain performance targets are achieved. 

This acquisition marks a significant step in QCi's strategy to build a stronger domestic semiconductor manufacturing base. The acquisition builds on the successful launch of Fab 1 in Tempe, AZ, and accelerates the rollout of Fab 2, allowing the company to scale its manufacturing capacity years ahead of its original plan.

Also, photonic reservoir computing has emerged as an important computing architecture for edge AI, enabling efficient processing of data directly at the point of generation. Driven by this demand, QCi recently received a purchase order and entered into a framework agreement with Planck Dynamics to deploy QCi’s NeuraWave photonic reservoir computer as a foundational platform for next-generation AI applications. Under the terms of the agreement, QCi received an initial purchase order for five NeuraWave systems, with delivery expected during 2026. 

Peer UpdateD-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS - Free Report) announced its forthcoming gate-model quantum computing simulator, which is expected to be the first of its kind designed for error-aware programming. QBTS continues to advance its annealing platform through Advantage2 and the Leap cloud service. 

Rigetti Computing, Inc. (RGTI - Free Report) announced that it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with the U.S. Department of Commerce for an award of up to $100 million in funding over three years to accelerate superconducting quantum computing R&D. Rigetti achieved a two-qubit gate fidelity as high as 99.9% at 28-nanosecond gate speed on a prototype platform using its new proprietary adiabatic CZ scheme.

QUBT’s Share Price PerformanceOver the past year, QCi’s shares have plunged 55.1% compared with the industry’s 16.3% decline. 

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

QUBT’s Expensive ValuationQUBT currently trades at a forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) of 71.25X compared with the industry’s median of 5.25X.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

QUBT Stock Estimate TrendIn the past 30 days, QCi’s loss per share estimate for 2026 has remained unchanged at 14 cents. 

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

QUBT currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

A long-standing member of the Shiba Inu community, known as Mazrael, has issued a renewed warning to SHIB users regarding obsolete domain names associated with the ecosystem. According to his latest statement, these addresses—no longer managed by the project—should not be considered official access points for Shiba Inu services.

Shib.io now the official portalMazrael emphasized that Shib.io serves as the core portal for the Shiba Inu ecosystem, including ShibaSwap and Shibarium. He urged users to rely solely on this address and to carefully verify all official links for security reasons before interacting with the ecosystem or its products.

Glossary: Shibarium is a layer-2 blockchain network developed for the Shiba Inu ecosystem. ShibaSwap is the ecosystem’s decentralized trading application.

This warning extends beyond general ecosystem addresses. Mazrael also reminded the community about the domain name previously associated with the Shib The Metaverse virtual world project, clarifying its current status and management.

Shib The Metaverse domain no longer managed by projectAccording to Mazrael, the domain name tied to the Shib The Metaverse project is no longer owned or administered by the Shiba Inu core team. He cautioned that this address could potentially be purchased by third parties in the future, or repurposed for entirely different objectives.

For your safety, do not assume that any future content appearing at this domain is affiliated with the SHIB ecosystem.

This warning points to the risks of interacting with apparently official websites that are no longer connected to the project. Particularly after the decommissioning of older domain names, users are encouraged not to use these addresses for accessing official Shiba Inu services.

Verification urged before connecting walletsMazrael also noted that if Shib The Metaverse is relaunched, access is expected to be provided through Shib.io, rather than via an independent domain. This approach aims to centralize all official connections under a single, verified platform within the SHIB ecosystem.

When Shib The Metaverse becomes available again, access is expected to be through Shib.io, not any separate domain name.

His message to the community stressed the importance of double-checking links before connecting wallets, confirming transactions, or entering sensitive information. The risk remains particularly high that unofficial sites may emerge after old domains are decommissioned, targeting unsuspecting users.

Originating as a meme coin, Shiba Inu has grown over time into a larger crypto ecosystem, bringing together components like ShibaSwap, Shibarium, and metaverse initiatives. The latest warning is intended to clarify the project’s official access channels and reinforce user security.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Key Takeaways CBRS is pitching wafer-scale AI chips as a faster alternative to conventional GPU-based systems.Cerebras' core cloud and services revenues rose 167% year over year to $79.8 million in Q1 2026.CBRS faces concentration risk, strict OpenAI delivery obligations and near-term margin compression. Cerebras Systems (CBRS - Free Report) has built its investment story around a sharp break from conventional AI chip design. The company’s wafer-scale approach gives investors a clear growth narrative, but also a clear test.

The question is whether Cerebras can turn speed, partner demand and cloud adoption into durable scale without letting delivery obligations, margins and data-center constraints overwhelm the story.

How CBRS Built a Different AI ArchitectureCerebras’ Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE) is designed to reduce a core bottleneck in AI computing: moving data across many smaller chips. By keeping compute and memory on a single wafer, the architecture aims to lower latency and simplify large-model workloads.

The WSE-3 includes roughly 4 trillion transistors, 900,000 AI-optimized cores, 44 gigabytes of on-chip memory, 21 petabytes per second of memory bandwidth and 214 petabits per second of fabric bandwidth. Those specifications support the company’s argument that wafer-scale design can deliver faster training and inference than conventional GPU-based systems.

That matters in a market where NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) remains central to GPU-accelerated computing and data-center platforms. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - Free Report) also competes in high-performance computing, graphics and data-center markets, keeping the AI accelerator landscape highly contested.

NVIDIA is dominating the AI GPU market through its Blackwell, Hopper, DGX/NVL systems that are used for AI training and inference. AMD’s MI300 and MI350 accelerator families are competing with CBRS in hyperscale AI infrastructure and enterprise AI clusters.

In the past month, CBRS shares have dropped 19.2%, underperforming NVIDIA’s fall of 3.8% and AMD’s appreciation of 7.4%.

CBRS Stock Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Cerebras Turns Hardware Into a PlatformCerebras is not selling only processors. Its portfolio includes CS-3 AI supercomputers, networking infrastructure, cluster management software and cloud-based AI services.

The software layer is central to that platform push. CSoft maps PyTorch models to the WSE without requiring developers to rewrite code, while the Inference Serving Stack and Cluster Manager help customers use multiple CS-3 systems as a single logical computer.

The mix shift is already visible. In the first quarter of 2026, core revenues rose 92% year over year to $191.3 million, with core cloud and services revenues up 167% to $79.8 million. That cloud growth changes the investment debate. The story is increasingly about recurring infrastructure usage and higher platform utilization, not just one-time system sales.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 and 2027 revenues is currently pegged at $861.3 million and $2.77 billion, respectively.

Why Expanding Partner Base Matter for CerebrasCBRS’ partnerships with OpenAI and Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) are noteworthy developments.

OpenAI is the biggest validation point for Cerebras’ speed positioning. The company has an agreement for 750 megawatts of high-speed inference compute over the next several years, valued at more than $20 billion. The relationship also gives Cerebras exposure to frontier-model workloads. Management has said the collaboration gives the company direct insight into where advanced model development is moving.

Amazon’s cloud-arm Amazon Web Services (AWS) adds a distribution angle. The partnership is intended to bring Cerebras systems into AWS data centers and combine AWS Trainium 3 for prefill with Cerebras CS-3 for decoding.

For investors, that matters because AWS can place Cerebras closer to enterprises already running workloads inside Amazon’s cloud ecosystem. The opportunity depends on deployment execution, not just partnership headlines.

CBRS Growth Comes With Real ConstraintsCerebras’ growth case carries meaningful concentration risk. Historically, G42 and MBZUAI accounted for most annual revenues, while OpenAI is expected to represent a substantial portion of future revenues.

The OpenAI agreement also comes with strict delivery obligations across multiple data centers. If Cerebras misses deployment milestones, OpenAI can terminate portions of the agreement.

Margins are another pressure point. Cerebras expects near-term gross margin compression as it rents systems and builds the infrastructure needed to serve cloud demand. This is expected to hurt profitability. The consensus mark for 2026 loss is currently pegged at 89 cents per share. However, for 2027, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at 96 cents per share.

Data-center availability is a practical constraint as well. Management has described capacity as difficult to secure, even as the company expands across the United States, Canada, Europe and other regions.

ConclusionThe bottom line is balanced. Cerebras offers direct exposure to fast-growing AI infrastructure demand, but the stock’s outlook depends on whether the company can scale capacity, meet major customer obligations and improve profitability over time.

CBRS currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The logo of Meta at the Meta Lab in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Cole/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

SummaryCompaniesAlberta pitched cheap gas and cooler temperatures as key advantages1 gigawatt facility is Meta's 33rd globallyData center will be built in Sturgeon County in central AlbertaCALGARY, July 8 (Reuters) - Tech giant Meta announced ​Wednesday it will build a massive data center in central Alberta, the company's first ‌in Canada, as it rapidly builds out computing capacity to support the global AI boom.

The 1-gigawatt data center will be located in Sturgeon County and represents a total investment of C$13 billion, or $9.17 billion, Meta said.

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Meta has doubled down ​on AI, pledging hundreds of billions of dollars to build large AI data centers in the U.S. ​The Alberta announcement represents the company's 33rd data center globally.

Executives made the announcement ⁠in Calgary alongside Premier Danielle Smith and other Alberta government officials, who have spent several years courting Silicon ​Valley tech giants with the aim of spurring a large-scale investment in the oil-and-gas province.

Meta, like other ​tech giants, is facing rapidly expanding power needs due to the growth of AI, and Alberta is rich in natural gas which sells at a significant discount to the U.S. benchmark.

The province's cold climate also makes cooling the massive super-computers ​and related data center infrastructure more cost-efficient.

The 20 existing small- to mid-scale data centers in Alberta ​already pull from the province's energy grid, which is 60% powered by natural gas. The provincial government is giving new ‌proponents ⁠the option to build their own power sources to avoid limits on power capacity.

Meta said Wednesday it will fully fund new generation and grid infrastructure for its Alberta data center, which will consume about as much electricity as 800,000 homes.

The company has partnered with Alberta-based Pembina Pipeline, which announced last week it will ​go ahead with its ​Greenlight Electricity Centre, a ⁠new natural gas-fired power-generation facility in Sturgeon County which will be in service in late 2030 and with which Meta has a long-term tolling agreement.

The project ​will require approximately 150 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, according ​to Pembina, ⁠helping to create demand for Western Canadian natural gas producers.

Canada's government laid out an AI strategy last month that suggested new data center growth would benefit from the country's clean electricity grid, which is largely powered by renewables ⁠and low-emission ​power sources.

But the vast majority of data centers currently in ​the planning stages in Canada are located in Alberta, where a reliance on natural gas means the emissions intensity of the ​province's electricity grid is almost five times the national average.

Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary Editing by Nick Zieminski

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Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) is expected to report second-quarter results slightly above the upper end of its previously guided earnings range, though investors are likely to focus more closely on the airline's outlook for the third quarter and full year, according to UBS.

The brokerage said it expects Delta to report second-quarter earnings slightly above the high end of its guidance range of $1 to $1.50 per share, in line with broader market expectations.

"Importantly, we think its forward outlook will be the key focus on the print," the analysts wrote.

For the third quarter, UBS said investors are generally expecting earnings guidance of $2 to $2.50 per share on mid-teens revenue growth. UBS forecasts third-quarter earnings of $2.51 per share, compared with Wall Street consensus of $2.03.

The analysts added that Delta is likely to take a conservative approach to its fuel assumptions for the third and fourth quarters given that oil prices have moved higher.

On costs, UBS said the market generally expects second-quarter non-fuel unit costs, or CASM excluding fuel, to increase more than 7% year over year. Delta had previously indicated that second-quarter CASM-ex growth would be broadly in line with the 6.3% increase recorded in the first quarter, but UBS believes crew scheduling issues were likely more severe than expected and may have increased cost pressures.

For the third quarter, the firm expects CASM-ex growth of 6% to 7%, with crew scheduling disruptions likely to persist but be less of a drag than in the second quarter.

UBS also noted that Delta's refinery operations are expected to contribute a benefit of about $0.10 to $0.15 per share in the third quarter at most, although profits could be lower following the recent fire at the company's Monroe refinery.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, UBS said investor expectations for Delta's full-year guidance vary following the stock's roughly 28% gain year to date. The brokerage believes the market is looking for earnings guidance in the range of $6 to $7 per share, compared with its own estimate of $6.70 and the Wall Street consensus of $5.99.

That compares with Delta's initial fiscal 2026 guidance of $6.50 to $7.50 per share issued in January.

UBS noted that achieving the lower end of that original range would imply fourth-quarter earnings of about $2.00 per share, assuming third-quarter earnings are around the midpoint of the expected $2 to $2.50 range.

The analysts cautioned that maintaining the original guidance range would require fourth quarter revenue growth to remain consistent with the third quarter despite tougher year-over-year comparisons and the possibility of weaker consumer demand.

"While its possible DAL guides to this range, we think one has to assume Q4 revenue growth remains consistent with 3Q despite tougher compares and possibility of greater consumer elasticity kicking in by then,” the analysts wrote.

“In our view, that's a bit optimistic, notwithstanding some modest benefit from greater portion of booking curve exposed to fare increases in Q4 versus Q3.”

UBS maintained its ‘Buy’ rating on Delta Air Lines with an unchanged price target of $107, implying upside from current levels of $87.

Exxon Mobil logo and stock graph are seen through a magnifier displayed in this illustration taken September 4, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

CompaniesLAGOS, July 8 (Reuters) - ExxonMobil (XOM.N), opens new tab and its partners will invest $1 billion in the Usan ​Infill Project offshore Nigeria, a development expected ‌to add 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production, Nigeria's upstream regulator said on Wednesday.

The Nigerian Upstream ​Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said the investment ​marks a return to drilling activity by ⁠ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria ​in the country, with the company's last drilling ​operation dating back to 2016.

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ExxonMobil's Nigerian affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria, operates OML 138, which contains ​the Usan field under a production-sharing contract ​with NNPC Ltd.

ExxonMobil Nigeria Managing Director Jagir Baxi confirmed the ‌investment ⁠commitment at an oil conference in Abuja.

NUPRC Chief Executive Oritsemyiwa Eyesan said the Usan project is expected to deliver first production within ​18 months ​after seismic ⁠data identified the investment opportunity.

Nigeria is seeking to attract new upstream ​investment and raise crude oil production ​through ⁠development of offshore and onshore assets.

Separately, NUPRC presented 19 prospecting licences across deepwater, shallow-water and continental ⁠shelf ​acreage to successful bidders ​from the 2022/2023 Mini Bid Round and the 2024 Licensing ​Round.

Reporting by Isaac Anyaogu; Editing by Will Dunham

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Since the start of the AI boom in 2023, there have been several moments where the narrative around the buildout and long-term potential of this emerging technology has swung sharply from exuberance to doubt. Over the last few weeks, we appear to have entered another one of those doubt phases.

But it is important not to lose sight of how far this theme has come, not just over the last three years, but even over the last three months. In April, equities looked like they were entering a broader correction as geopolitical tensions flared and risk appetite deteriorated. Yet just weeks later, stocks found their footing and rallied aggressively.

That move was led by technology, AI-adjacent stocks, and, most notably, semiconductors. The SOXX semiconductor ETF more than doubled from those lows, while some of the biggest winners in the group, such as Micron Technology ((MU - Free Report) ), rallied more than 300% from depressed levels.

That kind of move naturally invites a reset.

Image Source: TradingView

The “Narrative Pendulum” is a concept I picked up from analyst Alex Barrow, and I think it is a useful framework for understanding this market (detailed here). The basic idea is that even when a powerful secular trend remains intact, the market’s perception of that trend can swing dramatically between extremes. In the case of AI, investors move from believing the opportunity is nearly unlimited to worrying that the entire buildout is excessive, wasteful, or unlikely to generate adequate returns.

That is where we are now. Concerns around overspending, capital misallocation, falling LLM costs, hyperscaler margins, and the ultimate return on invested capital are beginning to weigh on the AI trade. These concerns are not necessarily fatal to the long-term thesis. In fact, they are probably healthy. Periods of doubt help cool the kind of speculative enthusiasm that can drive prices almost straight higher and create a more durable base for the next leg of the cycle.

I continue to believe the AI boom has room to run, but a pause or correction here would not be surprising.

That brings me to Qualcomm ((QCOM - Free Report) ), a major player in the semiconductor industry that, until recently, has been best known as the dominant force in mobile chips. That remains a core business for the company, but smartphones are now a mature market. As a result, Qualcomm has increasingly been viewed as a slower-growth, more cyclical, and somewhat commoditized semiconductor company, not unlike how Micron was viewed in the memory space a little over a year ago.

That perception may now be changing.

A couple of weeks ago, at the company’s investor day event, Qualcomm management announced a significant pivot in the company’s strategic direction. While the company had been hinting at a larger role in AI over the last several months, the investor day made that shift far more explicit. Management unveiled a broader slate of AI-related business verticals, major hyperscaler relationships, and a much more ambitious vision for Qualcomm’s role in the AI infrastructure stack.

The key takeaway is that Qualcomm is not simply trying to enter the AI sector with one product. It is trying to position itself as a broader AI infrastructure platform.

That could include chips, connectivity, edge AI, inference capabilities, custom silicon opportunities, and data center acceleration. In other words, Qualcomm appears to be moving from being primarily viewed as a mobile-chip company to something closer to an “AI factory accelerator” — a company that helps hyperscalers and enterprise customers build, connect, optimize, and scale the infrastructure required for AI workloads.

I have many thoughts on this evolution, which I will detail more fully, but the timing of the announcement has been somewhat unfortunate in the short to medium term. Qualcomm unveiled this strategic pivot just as the semiconductor narrative began to swing from exuberance back toward skepticism. The stock initially reacted strongly to the news, but has since faded to multi-month lows.

In my view, that weakness has less to do with Qualcomm’s specific developments and more to do with the broader industry pullback. The market is currently questioning the entire AI infrastructure trade, and Qualcomm is being dragged into that reset despite potentially having just laid out one of the more important strategic transitions in its recent history.

If Qualcomm can successfully execute on this pivot, the stock may no longer deserve to trade primarily as a mature mobile-chip company. Instead, investors may begin to revalue it as a broader AI infrastructure beneficiary with exposure to hyperscalers, edge AI, data center acceleration, and next-generation compute demand.

The timing may be unfortunate, but the setup is becoming increasingly interesting.

Scope of Qualcomm’s EndeavorsThe financial targets alone show how ambitious Qualcomm’s AI pivot has become. Management is targeting $5 billion in data center revenue by fiscal 2027 and $15 billion by fiscal 2029, with the early ramp expected to come largely from custom silicon and connectivity before the company’s accelerators and server CPUs become bigger contributors.

That is a major shift for a company still mostly viewed through the lens of smartphones.

At the center of the strategy is Qualcomm Dragonfly, the company’s new data center platform. Dragonfly is not one product, but a layered portfolio that includes connectivity silicon from the Alphawave acquisition, custom silicon for hyperscalers, AI inference accelerators, and eventually Oryon-based server CPUs. In the data center, Qualcomm expects the sequence to begin with connectivity, move into custom silicon in early fiscal 2027, then AI accelerators in the second half of fiscal 2027, followed by Oryon server CPUs in fiscal 2028.

The strategic logic is built around a major shift in AI workloads. The first phase of the AI boom was dominated by training large models, where Nvidia’s GPUs and CUDA software stack remain the standard. But the next phase may be increasingly driven by inference, especially as agentic AI systems begin chaining together dozens of model calls to complete more complex tasks. That dramatically increases the number of inference requests and makes power efficiency, memory bandwidth and cost per token far more important.

This is where Qualcomm believes it has an opening.

The company’s most important technical announcement was High-Bandwidth Compute, or HBC. Rather than relying on the traditional model of pairing accelerators with stacks of high-bandwidth memory, Qualcomm is pursuing a “memory first” architecture that places compute more directly beneath the memory stack. The goal is to reduce the distance data has to travel, improve efficiency, lower power consumption and address one of the biggest bottlenecks in AI inference.

Just as important is the software announcement. Qualcomm’s acquisition of Modular may be the key to making the whole strategy work. Hardware adoption in AI is heavily dependent on the developer ecosystem, and Nvidia’s CUDA moat has made it difficult for competitors to gain meaningful share. Cristiano Amon has framed the Modular acquisition as a potential Android or Linux moment for AI infrastructure, where a more open, hardware-agnostic software layer could reduce dependence on any single vendor.

That is a powerful idea. Rather than asking customers to abandon Nvidia overnight, Qualcomm can offer a software platform that runs across Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm silicon, while still creating a natural path toward its own accelerators over time. If it works, Modular gives Qualcomm a much more credible way to enter the AI infrastructure market than hardware alone.

The company also added customer validation to the roadmap. Microsoft is expected to deploy Qualcomm’s HBC technology in Azure, while Meta has committed to a multigenerational agreement for Qualcomm CPUs in its data centers. Qualcomm also reinforced the software story through a partnership with Hugging Face, giving developers a path to deploy open models across Qualcomm platforms.

Finally, Qualcomm’s connectivity expertise may be one of its most underappreciated advantages. AI data centers are increasingly constrained not only by compute and memory, but by the ability to move massive amounts of data across racks and clusters. Through Alphawave, Qualcomm now has high-speed connectivity assets that are already generating revenue, giving Dragonfly a current revenue stream while the broader AI platform develops.

Execution risk remains significant. Qualcomm is entering a crowded market with powerful incumbents, and several of the most important products will not reach commercial scale until fiscal 2027 or fiscal 2028. But the scope of the announcement is hard to dismiss. Qualcomm is not simply adding AI exposure. It is attempting to build a full data center platform around the economics of inference, where power efficiency, memory bandwidth, custom silicon, software openness and connectivity may become increasingly important competitive advantages.

Image Source: Qualcomm

Qualcomm’s Auto Execution ExtrapolatedFull disclosure, going into Qualcomm’s Investor Day, I had my doubts about the company’s foray into the AI data center buildout.

The technical capability was never really the question. Qualcomm has long been one of the most sophisticated chip designers in the world, with deep expertise in power efficiency, connectivity, system integration and edge computing. The bigger question was whether the company was simply too late. In a market already dominated by Nvidia, increasingly targeted by AMD and aggressively pursued by hyperscalers’ own internal silicon teams, it was fair to wonder whether Qualcomm could carve out a meaningful position.

But the more I look at the strategy, the more compelling it becomes.

Qualcomm is not making a single bet on one AI chip. It is taking a multi-pronged approach across connectivity, custom silicon, AI inference accelerators, server CPUs and software. That gives the company multiple ways to win. Some pieces of the portfolio may lag expectations, and that would not be surprising given the scale of the undertaking. But if even one or two segments meaningfully outperform, the overall opportunity could still become material.

I view the entire project almost as a strategic experiment. Qualcomm is putting several products into the market, testing where hyperscaler demand is strongest, and positioning itself around the areas where AI infrastructure is most likely to evolve next. Management may not describe it that way explicitly, but I think it is the right approach. The AI data center market is still young, and the economics are changing quickly. Rather than trying to predict the entire future with one product, Qualcomm is building a platform broad enough to adapt as the market develops.

That approach becomes more credible when viewed through the lens of Qualcomm’s recent success in automotive.

News from the automotive segment can get lost when management is announcing something as exciting as AI data center infrastructure, but the execution there may be the best model for what Qualcomm is trying to do now. The automotive business did not emerge overnight. Qualcomm entered through connectivity, expanded into the digital cockpit, and then moved deeper into advanced driver assistance and broader vehicle compute.

That layered strategy has worked. Automotive has quickly grown into one of Qualcomm’s most important non-handset businesses, crossing a $5 billion annualized revenue run rate in fiscal Q2 2026, with management expecting to exit fiscal 2026 above a $6 billion run rate. That is no longer a side project. It is becoming a real business line and a meaningful proof point for Qualcomm’s diversification strategy.

The parallel to AI infrastructure is important. In automotive, Qualcomm did not need to own the entire car to create value. It needed to identify the parts of the vehicle where compute, connectivity and software were becoming more important, then expand its content over time. In data centers, the same logic may apply. Qualcomm does not need to displace Nvidia across the full AI stack to succeed. It needs to find the areas where its advantages matter most.

That is why the inference-first focus is so important. Qualcomm is not trying to win yesterday’s AI infrastructure battle. It is trying to position itself for the next phase of the market, where power efficiency, memory bandwidth, connectivity and cost per token become more important as AI workloads scale from training into large-scale inference. Those are exactly the types of engineering problems Qualcomm has spent decades solving.

This does not eliminate execution risk. The data center market is larger, faster moving and more competitive than automotive. Nvidia’s ecosystem is entrenched, hyperscalers are increasingly building their own chips, and Qualcomm still has to prove that its roadmap can translate into commercial deployments at scale.

But automotive shows that Qualcomm can execute this type of transition. It can move beyond handsets, build a platform in an adjacent market, expand its content over time and convert long design cycles into meaningful revenue. That does not guarantee success in AI infrastructure, but it makes the plan far easier to take seriously.

For investors, that may be the key point. Qualcomm’s AI data center strategy should not be judged only as a late attempt to chase Nvidia. It should be viewed as the next test of the same diversification playbook that is already working in automotive. If the company can repeat even part of that success, the market may be underestimating how different Qualcomm’s business could look over the next several years.

Qualcomm Stock Breaks DownThe technical picture in QCOM stock offers a more tactical view of the setup.

Back in May, the stock rerated significantly higher after the company teased a major hyperscaler deal. From there, it built out a broad consolidation pattern, but since the full announcement, the stock has traded lower. Over the last week, QCOM broke below a key level of support, mirroring the broader weakness across the semiconductor sector.

Technical analysis does not provide reliable forecasting ability on its own, but it can show where large orders have left footprints. That is essentially what a “level” represents: an area where a meaningful amount of shares have changed hands and where buyers or sellers have previously shown up.

For now, QCOM remains below that breakdown level, and the near-term downtrend appears intact. That makes the stock more difficult for traders looking for a clean short-term entry. But at roughly 17x forward earnings, and with a potentially much larger long-term AI infrastructure opportunity beginning to take shape, the setup may be more attractive for investors looking for a bigger multi-year win rather than traders trying to capture the next short-term move.

The earnings revision picture may also supports a more patient view. Qualcomm currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), reflecting earnings estimates that have been relatively flat. That means analysts are not aggressively raising expectations yet, but they also are not cutting estimates in a meaningful way. In the context of a major strategic pivot, that leaves room for upside if management begins converting these announcements into visible revenue opportunities.

If revisions start to move higher, that could become an important bullish catalyst. A pickup in estimate momentum would signal that analysts are beginning to underwrite the AI data center opportunity more directly into their models, rather than treating it as a longer-dated optionality story.

Ultimately, the next major move in QCOM stock appears heavily tied to the broader semiconductor cycle. There may still be downside ahead over the next month if the group continues to unwind. But when the narrative pendulum finally bottoms and the market begins to lift the AI infrastructure theme again, Qualcomm could emerge with a much stronger story than it had in prior cycles.

The stock has broken down technically, but the business may be breaking out strategically.

Image Source: TradingView

Bottom Line on Qualcomm StockQualcomm’s AI data center strategy is still early, and execution risk remains high. The company is entering a crowded market, several key products are still years from scale, and the stock remains caught in the broader semiconductor pullback.

But the announcement changes the long-term story. Qualcomm is no longer just a mature mobile-chip company looking for incremental growth. It is attempting to build a broader AI infrastructure platform across inference, connectivity, custom silicon, software and power-efficient compute.

For now, the technical setup is weak and earnings revisions remain flat, which supports the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). But that also leaves room for upside if analysts begin raising estimates as AI data center revenue becomes more visible.

In the near term, QCOM may still trade with the broader semiconductor group. Over the next several years, however, the bigger question is whether Qualcomm can turn this roadmap into a real second growth engine.

The stock is not without risk, but the setup is becoming much more interesting.