Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

SpaceX employees gather to watch Booster 20 as it rolls out of the SpaceX production facility for the launch pad as preparations continue for the 13th test flight of the Starship spacecraft... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more

July 19 (Reuters) - SpaceX (SPCX.O), opens new tab is targeting Thursday, July 23, for another ​attempt to launch its Starship rocket, the company ‌said in a statement on Sunday.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X later on Sunday that the next Starship launch would ​occur on Friday, contradicting the earlier statement from ​his company. He did not say whether the ⁠original Thursday date was wrong.

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On July 16, ​SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its ​13th flight test from Texas, which erased about $100 billion from the company's market value.

SpaceX said it has modified Starship's propulsion system ​to address the engine issue experienced on the previous ​flight.

A launch delay for the $15 billion rocket development program better known ‌for ⁠dramatic engineering feats and explosive testing failures is not uncommon.

On Friday, SpaceX said it would attempt the launch on July 20.

The company has launched 12 Starship test flights ​since 2023.

On its ​13th flight ⁠test, Starship will carry 20 Starlink satellites to demonstrate its satellite-dispensing system and the Starlink ​network's laser communication links, but those satellites ​will ⁠follow the ship's suborbital trajectory and burn up in Earth's atmosphere soon after deployment.

In its prospectus, SpaceX said that ⁠it ​aims to launch the first Starlink ​satellites to orbit on Starship by year's end, followed by routine ​launches.

Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis

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When Alphabet (GOOG 2.06%)(GOOGL 2.05%) introduced Gemini 3.5 Flash at its I/O developer conference in mid-May, the company said the model's more powerful sibling, Gemini 3.5 Pro, would arrive in June. June came and went.

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that the flagship AI (artificial intelligence) model is months behind schedule as Google works to improve its capabilities in coding -- and that some inside the company worry rivals OpenAI and Anthropic are shipping models that have passed Gemini by.

After peaking at $408.61 earlier this year, Alphabet shares closed Friday at $346.77, a decline of about 15%. That's a modest pullback by most standards. But it's a notable wobble for a stock that has been one of the market's favorite ways to bet on AI.

So, is the AI leader actually falling behind? Gemini 3.5 Pro is late -- that much is settled. But does the delay change the investment case? Alphabet's own numbers argue that it doesn't. At least not yet.

Image source: Alphabet Inc

A flagship model stuck in testing The timeline is what makes this delay notable. Google launched Gemini 3 in late 2025, and the 3.5 generation was supposed to continue a rapid release cadence, with the Flash version announced in May and the Pro version promised a month later.

Instead, according to Bloomberg's reporting, Google updated the data used to train Gemini in an attempt to improve its coding skills, and the results were disappointing.

Google hasn't announced a new launch date.

"We're currently testing 3.5 Pro, an upgraded Flash model, and other models with partners," the company said in a statement, adding that it is "shipping quickly across a wide range of models while keeping them highly cost-effective for customers."

After all, coding is arguably the main battleground for AI labs right now, and it's a big part of what enterprise customers pay for. A flagship model that can't yet clear the company's own bar there is an uncomfortable place for Google to sit while rivals keep shipping.

And the stakes are bigger than one product date. Alphabet expects capital expenditures of as much as $190 billion this year, much of it going toward the infrastructure behind its AI push. Spending on that scale assumes Gemini stays competitive at the frontier. A model that slips by a month is noise. A pattern of slipping models would worry me.

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A powerful business So far, there's no sign of that pattern in the results. Alphabet's revenue climbed 22% year over year to $109.9 billion in the first quarter, making it 11 quarters in a row of double-digit growth. Google Cloud revenue jumped 63% year over year to $20.0 billion, accelerating from 48% growth in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 34% in the third quarter. The cloud segment's operating income roughly tripled year over year to $6.6 billion. And Google Search & other revenue rose 19%, with management saying search queries hit an all-time high.

Demand for Gemini itself looks healthy, too. CEO Sundar Pichai said the company's cloud backlog nearly doubled from the prior quarter to over $460 billion, and that its models were processing over 16 billion tokens per minute through direct customer use, up 60% in three months.

"Our AI investments and full stack approach are lighting up every part of the business," Pichai said in the company's first-quarter earnings release.

In other words, customers don't appear to have been waiting on Gemini 3.5 Pro before signing contracts this spring.

Of course, the delay still deserves attention. Alphabet trades at about 25 times forward earnings -- a price that assumes growth rates remain robust. If Gemini were to fall a full generation behind OpenAI and Anthropic, the AI demand filling that cloud backlog could become harder to defend, and the AI features now driving search usage could start to lag rivals. Ultimately, however, I don't think one late model gets Alphabet anywhere close to that point. But it's the right risk to watch.

Fortunately, investors won't wait long for fresh evidence. Alphabet is scheduled to report second-quarter results on Wednesday, July 22. I'll be watching two things: Google Cloud's growth rate and any launch timing management offers on Gemini 3.5 Pro.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 2.96%) may be one of the most important companies to the health of the AI infrastructure build-out. Its foundries churn out the logic chips designed by nearly every one of the major players in the space, and it just made an announcement that supports the idea that we're still in the early innings of the AI build-out. During its second-quarter earnings call, it announced it would make an additional $100 billion investment in expanding its chipmaking facilities in Arizona. If Taiwan Semiconductor suspected that the AI build-out was nearing completion, it wouldn't be increasing its production capacity.

Given its leading position in a still-growing space, I think Taiwan Semiconductor is one of the lowest-risk, highest-potential-reward options in the market, and it still looks like a phenomenal investment now, even after rising over 30% so far this year.

Image source: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

AI computing power starts with Taiwan Semiconductor Taiwan Semiconductor is the world's leading third-party chip foundry, which means it takes chip designs from its clients and manufactures them on their behalf. Its customers include tech giants Nvidia, AMD, Apple, Broadcom, and Tesla. This puts TSMC in a strong position, as it often manufactures chips for rivals such as Nvidia and AMD, allowing it to profit regardless of which of those customers is winning in the marketplace. Taiwan Semiconductor accounts for nearly three-quarters of all semiconductor industry revenue in the world, according to research by The Motley Fool. During the quarter, 66% of its revenue came from high-performance computing, showcasing that AI is eating up a lot of Taiwan Semiconductor's production capacity, and explaining its plan to expand its Arizona foundries.

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Taiwan Semiconductor is one of the top ways to invest in the AI arms race, and it's honestly not as expensive as you might guess, considering its solid growth rate. (Revenue grew by 34% in U.S. dollars during Q2.) At 24 times forward earnings, Taiwan Semiconductor trades at only a small premium to the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.01%), which averages 21.7 times forward earnings.

TSM PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

Few companies have as much guaranteed success as Taiwan Semiconductor does as long as spending on AI computing power remains robust. All signs point to that assumption remaining correct over the next few years, which gives me confidence that Taiwan Semiconductor will be a market-crushing stock over that period, making it a no-brainer buy today.

Keithen Drury has positions in Broadcom, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Broadcom, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Boeing logo on the doors to the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, U.S., April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Genna Martin Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab said on Sunday it remains on track to deliver two new Air Force One ​jets in 2028, but meeting that target will ‌require additional spending on a program already years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

Boeing was awarded a $3.9 billion contract in ​2018 to build the aircraft, though costs have ​since ballooned to more than $5 billion. The aircraft are ⁠intended to replace the current Air Force One planes, ​which entered service in 1990.

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"We're on track for 2028," Steve ​Parker, CEO of Defense, Space & Security, told reporters ahead of the Farnborough Airshow in the UK, adding that he expected the first ​aircraft to begin testing next year.

"I do expect to ​see some cost growth there as we come through and we finish ‌off ⁠the wiring and the structures, as well as finishing up our own certifications."

In May 2025, the United States accepted a luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar for use as a ​temporary presidential aircraft. ​The jet ⁠has since entered service as a bridge aircraft. Security concerns led President Donald Trump to ​forgo flying the Qatari jet home from Turkey, ​opting ⁠instead to return aboard an older Air Force One.

The Air Force One program involves converting two Boeing 747-8 aircraft into highly ⁠specialized ​jets equipped with advanced communications and ​defensive systems. Even with a 2028 delivery, the program would be running four ​years behind schedule.

Reporting by Joe Brock; Editing by Sharon Singleton

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Joe Brock is Reuters' aerospace and defense editor, based in Los Angeles, where he leads a global team of reporters covering airlines, aerospace, weapons manufacturers, and the space industry. Joe has previously worked in Singapore, Johannesburg, Abuja and London as a reporter and bureau chief. He has received several awards for his investigative journalism, including from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing and The Society of Publishers in Asia.

Netflix (NFLX 7.26%) was down 8.2% in after-hours trading on July 16 at 5:53 PM EDT -- falling to $68.23 per share as investors digested its second-quarter 2026 earnings and weak third-quarter guidance. The problem is abundantly clear -- most of Netflix's revenue growth is coming from price increases.

Netflix's third price increase in less than three years marked a 12.5% jump in U.S. ad-supported monthly pricing, an 11.1% boost in U.S. standard monthly pricing, and an 8% increase in U.S. premium monthly pricing. In its latest quarter, Netflix reported a 13.4% year-over-year increase in revenue and is guiding for a 11.7% year-over-year increase in third-quarter revenue. Which sounds good on paper, until you factor in the glaring reality that price increases are the majority of revenue growth.

Here's what the results mean for investors, how they help paint the picture of why Netflix pursued major acquisitions, and if the growth stock is a buy now.

Image source: Netflix.

Competition for capturing user screen time is intensifying In February, Netflix declined to raise its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, losing the bid to Paramount Skydance. Netflix was also in the hunt to buy Roku before being outbid by Fox Corp. in June.

The moves were somewhat alarming, given Netflix's history of organic growth through licensing and producing its own content. But investors have been concerned that Netflix's viewer engagement is under pressure from a slew of competitors in traditional media, streaming services, gaming, and user-generated content on platforms like Alphabet-owned YouTube.

At its core, Netflix's business model is to have subscription revenue exceed content costs. The more subscription revenue, the more demand for content. And as its global subscriber base has grown and Netflix has aggressively raised prices, there's more pressure for it to produce high-quality, engaging content.

In its July 16 shareholder letter, Netflix emphasized the importance of content quality:

We've used "engagement" as a shorthand for the value we deliver members. But, as we've developed an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how consumers ascribe value to our service, we know not all hours are equal. Time spent is just one aspect of strong engagement -- quality and variety also matter. The key is to improve across all of those dimensions: quality, variety, and quantity.

In practice, Netflix's definition of quality seems to revolve around proven content, such as Warner Bros. Discovery's intellectual property, including franchises like the DC and Harry Potter universes, Game of Thrones, Looney Tunes, and more. Proven content also includes Netflix's push into sports through the latest MLB Home Run Derby on July 13 and marquee NFL games like opening week, Thanksgiving Eve, Christmas Day, and week 18.

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Two sides to the Netflix narrative The glass-half-empty view of Netflix is that the company is desperately trying to buy content at premium prices to keep subscribers engaged and justify price increases. And that Netflix could eventually resemble a modern-day network with an emphasis on live-streamed events rather than pre-produced shows and movies. Netflix's quarter after quarter of slowing growth and dependence on price increases is fueling that narrative, which is why the stock is tanking.

However, the glass-half-full view on Netflix is that the company is simply bigger than it used to be and has the deep pockets to branch into new markets rather than relying heavily on its own content. To its credit, Netflix isn't willing to pay any price for content, as evidenced by its willingness to be outbid by much smaller companies in Paramount-Skydance and Fox. And Netflix has collected a sizable consolation prize in the process through its $2.8 billion termination fee from Warner Bros. Discovery.

Netflix's latest results are disappointing, and it was a mistake in hindsight to raise prices so much in just a few years. But the stock's decline reflects that pessimism -- with Netflix sporting its lowest valuation in years -- trading at just 19.1 times 2026 full-year earnings estimates as of its after-hours price at the time of this writing.

Netflix is no stranger to taking risks Netflix has always been a risk-taking company, from disrupting Blockbuster through mail-order DVDs to pioneering the modern streaming platform to producing award-winning live-action and animated series and movies. Each evolution has been riddled with bumps along the way and periods of investor loss of confidence. And right now, Netflix is enduring another such period as investors question the price it is willing to pay for quality entertainment and if it's making the right choices with sports and pushing into daytime and mobile device viewing.

So while it's understandable if some investors want to wait for the dust to settle and for Netflix to regain its footing, folks who are confident in Netflix's long-term strategy are getting an impeccable opportunity to buy the streaming service stock at a dirt-cheap price.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) and Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) sit on opposite sides of the same retail transaction.

Amazon owns the storefront, warehouse, and increasingly the cloud powering everyone else. Shopify arms independent merchants competing against it. Both posted Q1 2026 results beating revenue expectations, and the contrast reveals where commerce and AI money is flowing.

AWS Reaccelerates While Shopify Crosses $100B in GMV Amazon reported $181.519 billion in revenue, up 16.61%, with EPS of $2.78 against a $1.653 estimate. AWS drove the headline, hitting $37.587 billion in cloud revenue, up 28%, the fastest pace in 15 quarters.

Andy Jassy told investors the chips business (Trainium, Graviton, Nitro) crossed a “$20 billion revenue run rate (growing triple digits year-over-year)”. Advertising cleared $70 billion trailing twelve months, a real second engine.

Shopify reported $3.17 billion in revenue, but growth ran hotter at 34.32%, accelerating from 27% in Q1 2025. Merchant Solutions grew 39% to $2.42 billion. GMV crossed $100.74 billion for the quarter for the first time, up 35%.

Operating income nearly doubled to $382 million, though a $941 million mark-to-market equity hit pushed GAAP net income to negative $581 million. Underlying profit was $360 million.

One Builds the AI Backbone, the Other Arms Merchants Amazon is spending like a utility. Q1 capex was $44.203 billion, up 76.68%. Anthropic committed to up to 5 GW of Trainium capacity, OpenAI to roughly 2 GW. Polymarket traders assign a 98.5% probability that Amazon 2026 capex exceeds $170B, and 86.5% above $200B. That is a substantial bill for AWS to justify.

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Shopify took the opposite approach: capex of $5 million, free cash flow of $476 million, and $491 million in buybacks under a fresh $2 billion program. Merchant lending originations hit $1.349 billion, turning Shop Capital into a real financial services line.

Lens Amazon Shopify Core bet AI infrastructure and custom silicon Merchant tools, payments, lending Q1 capex $44.2B $5M P/E 31 121 Key risk Capex payback timeline SMB merchant health, loan losses The Next Test Is Whether Capex and Consumer Spending Cooperate Amazon guided Q2 revenue to $194 billion to $199 billion. Shopify guided revenue growth in the high-twenties percentage range with mid-teens free cash flow margin. Watch whether Bedrock token growth and Trainium deployments start pulling AWS margins higher despite capex drag. For Shopify, monitor credit losses inside that $1.35 billion lending book if SMB spending softens.

Post-earnings action split. Amazon slipped 5% since its report as the market weighed capex. Shopify recovered 16.19% from its post-earnings dip, though shares are down 22.31% year to date.

The Case for Amazon on Valuation Amazon offers AWS growing 28% at a 37.7% operating margin, a real ads business, and a chip franchise Reddit compares to AMD and Broadcom, at a P/E of roughly 31. Shopify’s growth is faster, but a 121 trailing P/E leaves little room for consumer weakness.

For higher-beta commerce exposure, Shopify fits. For AI infrastructure at a reasonable multiple, Amazon is cleaner. The setup to watch is whether capex begins converting to cash in the second half.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Amazon didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

The share prices of space economy stocks may be sinking, but that does not make the sector any less important to the future of the global economy. Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX 5.43%) is the best-known of these space businesses due to its famous founder, Elon Musk, its recent record-breaking initial public offering, and its market cap of $1.75 trillion.

But this is not the only space economy company today vying to dominate the skies. Enter Rocket Lab (RKLB +0.59%). The rocket launch company just made a massive $8 billion acquisition to start directly competing with SpaceX's Starlink segment, setting off the starting gun for a collision course for the two ambitious businesses.

Which is the better buy for your portfolio right now?

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Vertically integrated space services Rocket Lab has announced its intention to buy Iridium Communications for $8 billion. Iridium has a satellite constellation for global connectivity, as well as important rights to L-band spectrum, which can cost billions of dollars in today's market. With Rocket Lab's launch and satellite manufacturing capabilities, the combined business will be able to vertically integrate to grow a satellite internet business to serve both civilians and the United States military.

This will put Rocket Lab on a collision course with SpaceX, which is already the leader in satellite internet with Starlink. Starlink has 10 million subscribers, $11.4 billion in annual revenue, and is growing quickly. Iridium generated $872 million in revenue last year, more than Rocket Lab but well below what SpaceX is achieving in satellite internet services.

For Rocket Lab, everything hinges on its ability to catch up with Starlink's customer value proposition and get its new, larger rocket, called the Neutron, operational. With much heavier payloads, Neutron will be able to deliver more satellites -- both internally and for third-party customers -- to orbit much faster.

Image source: Getty Images.

Which stock is the better buy? Both Rocket Lab and SpaceX trade at premium valuations, even after this post-SpaceX IPO dip for the entire space sector. Rocket Lab trades at a price-to-sales ratio (P/S) of 54, while SpaceX is still near 100 based on its 2025 figures.

To be fair, both businesses are growing quickly and are poised to lead the fast-growing space economy. However, the average S&P 500 stock trades at a P/S ratio of about 3.7, which is actually near a record high, meaning that these two space economy stocks trade at ultra-premiums.

If I had to choose, the lower P/S ratio and $40 billion market cap would put Rocket Lab ahead of SpaceX as a potential buy today. But for my individual portfolio, neither is close to making the cut.

PANews July 19 news, Token Unlocks data shows that tokens such as ZRO, KAITO, H will see significant unlocks next week, including:

LayerZero (ZRO) will unlock approximately 25.71 million tokens on July 20 at 7:00 PM Beijing time, representing roughly 4.6% of circulating supply and valued at around $20.9 million;

KAITO (KAITO) will unlock approximately 17.6 million tokens on July 20 at 8:00 PM Beijing time, representing roughly 4.3% of circulating supply and valued at around $16 million;

Humanity Protocol (H) will unlock approximately 266 million tokens on July 25 at 8:00 AM Beijing time, representing roughly 8.6% of circulating supply and valued at around $15.5 million;

Plasma (XPL) will unlock approximately 88.89 million tokens on July 25 at 8:00 PM Beijing time, representing roughly 3.44% of circulating supply and valued at around $7.3 million;

SoSoValue (SOSO) will unlock approximately 23.46 million tokens on July 24 at 5:00 PM Beijing time, representing roughly 6.78% of circulating supply and valued at around $6.9 million;

aPriori (APR) will unlock approximately 31.88 million tokens on July 23 at 8:00 AM Beijing time, representing roughly 11.28% of circulating supply and valued at around $6.8 million;

SOON (SOON) will unlock approximately 20.24 million tokens on July 23 at 4:30 PM Beijing time, representing roughly 3.91% of circulating supply and valued at around $3.3 million;

MBG By Multibank Group (MBG) will unlock approximately 27.15 million tokens on July 22 at 8:00 PM Beijing time, representing roughly 6.96% of circulating supply and valued at around $3.3 million;

Undeads Games (UDS) will unlock approximately 2.15 million tokens on July 21 at 8:00 AM Beijing time, representing roughly 1.11% of circulating supply and valued at around $2.4 million.

Cover image via depositphotos.com Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor posted a fresh chart of the company's crypto reserves on social media with the brief caption, "What's next?" — a teaser that immediately sparked discussion about the next steps of the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder. 

The situation is particularly intriguing because the company, which built its reputation on aggressive Bitcoin purchases, is now in a vulnerable position measured in billions of dollars in losses.

Billions in the red versus a fiat cushion: Strategy's capital scenariosAccording to the latest data from Strategy Tracker, the company holds 843,775 BTC on its balance sheet — an enormous 4% of Bitcoin's total global supply. The portfolio is worth $54.28 billion, but due to the high average purchase price of $75,653, the position is now sitting on an unrealized loss of nearly 15%, or around $5 billion, with Bitcoin currently trading near $64,000.

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Saylor's question about "what comes next" has divided the expert community into two camps, with the more optimistic side of the market predictably interpreting the post as an announcement of another buy-the-dip purchase financed through new debt. Investors are now awaiting the opening of trading on Monday and fresh SEC filings.

On the other hand, management's recent actions differ from the familiar "buy and never sell" slogan. Strategy has made no new purchases since June 22 and recently broke its own taboo by selling 3,588 BTC, with the latest transaction involving 2,225 BTC on July 6, used to pay dividends to shareholders and build a $2.55 billion reserve.

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Saylor's teaser appeared at a turning point, as the company is forced to balance its status as Wall Street's leading Bitcoin bull with the strict necessity of servicing its obligations during a market downturn.

Whether the next step will mark a return to aggressive purchases or a continuation of cautious maneuvering supported by a fiat safety cushion will become clear in the coming reporting days.

Blockchain

19 July 2026 | 11:31 Cardano’s Pogun initiative targets Bitcoin liquidity through a credit market, yield layer and trust-minimized bridge, but the project remains unfinished after its treasury request expired and its first deadline passed.

Key Takeaways Pogun plans to combine a non-margin credit market, a yield application and a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge on Cardano. The widely cited $1.6 trillion figure represents Bitcoin’s total market value, not capital already committed to the project. Pogun’s request for ₳12.29 million from the Cardano Treasury expired without receiving the required approval. The original Q2 credit-market deadline has passed, while Pogun’s official website still describes the platform as coming soon. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson is backing Pogun, a development initiative intended to bring Bitcoin liquidity into Cardano-based credit and yield markets.

Led by Omer Husain and the team behind Input Output’s open-source Cardinal bridge specification, Pogun plans to combine a non-margin credit market, a yield application and a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge.

The project’s central test is not whether Cardano can advertise access to Bitcoin’s market value. It is whether Pogun can launch a useful credit market, attract borrowers and lenders, and give BTC holders a reason to cross the bridge when it becomes available.

The $1.6 Trillion Bitcoin Claim Needs Context Pogun’s official proposal describes Bitcoin as a vast pool of capital that is “almost entirely idle.” The phrase refers to Bitcoin’s limited use in native decentralized lending and credit markets, not to every BTC sitting unused.

Some coverage has rounded the opportunity to $1.6 trillion, while Pogun’s own governance proposal described Bitcoin as a roughly $1.5 trillion asset. Either figure is a time-sensitive estimate of Bitcoin’s total market capitalization which as of 19 July, 2026, is around $1.3T, not an amount that Pogun has secured or expects to move into Cardano in full.

Bitcoin is already used through self-custody, exchanges, corporate treasuries, exchange-traded products and centralized lending arrangements. Pogun’s argument is narrower: only a relatively small portion of that capital participates in decentralized credit and yield markets without relying on a centralized custodian.

Pogun is therefore competing for the subset of Bitcoin holders willing to use BTC as collateral or deploy it into financial strategies. It is not integrating Bitcoin’s entire market value into Cardano.

Pogun Plans to Build the Market Before the Bridge Pogun’s published roadmap contains three connected stages:

Q2 2026

Non-margin credit market

Bilateral, fixed-term loans without automatic price-based liquidations

Q3 2026

Yield application

An interface connecting user capital with strategies built on the credit market

Q4 2026

Bitcoin bridge

A trust-minimized route for deploying BTC in Cardano-based applications

Pogun’s sequence is deliberate. The credit market is intended to establish demand, the yield application would make that market easier to access, and the bridge would then introduce Bitcoin as additional collateral and liquidity.

That gives incoming BTC an intended use from the beginning, but it also creates dependency between the milestones. Delays or weak adoption in the first two products could reduce the reason for Bitcoin holders to use the bridge when it arrives.

The First Roadmap Deadline Has Passed The proposal stated that the non-margin credit market would launch on Cardano’s mainnet in the second quarter of 2026 after completing a formal security audit.

That quarter ended on June 30.

As of July 19, Pogun’s official website continues to describe the platform as “coming soon.” The official project pages reviewed for this article do not provide a public mainnet announcement, deployed contract address or completed audit report.

That does not establish that development has stopped. It means the Q2 milestone cannot yet be treated as publicly delivered based on the evidence currently available.

In a June 11 video, Hoskinson said work had not been paused after the project failed to secure treasury funding and described Pogun as a commercial initiative that could continue without the proposed community investment.

His comments indicate that development is continuing, but they do not establish that the credit market has launched publicly or completed the formal audit described in the original proposal.

The Cardano Treasury Did Not Fund Pogun Pogun requested ₳12.29 million from the Cardano Treasury, valued at approximately $2.95 million when the proposal was prepared.

The proposed funding was divided into milestone-based tranches. Later bridge funding would have depended on verified progress in the credit market, while the proposal included provisions for returning undisbursed funds if milestones failed, the team dissolved or the bridge was found to be technically infeasible.

Pogun also proposed returning 20% of EBITDA to the Cardano Treasury until the original investment had been repaid, followed by 5% of EBITDA from Cardano-related products in perpetuity.

That arrangement was never activated.

The onchain governance action expired on May 24, 2026, without receiving the support required for ratification. No ₳12.29 million treasury withdrawal was approved for Pogun.

The failed vote did not remove money that had already been granted. It meant that this specific treasury withdrawal was never authorized.

If Pogun continues as a privately funded commercial initiative, the Cardano Treasury will not automatically receive the proposed revenue share unless a separate agreement is approved in the future.

How Pogun’s Credit Market Is Supposed to Work Pogun’s first planned product differs from the pooled, overcollateralized lending markets commonly found across DeFi.

Borrowers and lenders would negotiate loan terms directly, including: The amount being borrowed; The interest rate; The repayment period; The collateral requirements; The conditions that constitute default. Smart contracts would enforce those agreed terms. According to Pogun, the model would not depend on external price oracles or automatic margin calls, meaning temporary market volatility would not by itself liquidate a borrower’s collateral.

The structure resembles fixed-term private credit more closely than a continuously rebalanced DeFi lending pool.

Active loan positions would be represented by transferable Bond Tokens issued as Cardano native assets. That could allow a lender to transfer or sell exposure before a loan matures, creating the foundation for a secondary market in tokenized debt positions.

Removing automatic price-based liquidation does not remove financial risk.

A borrower can still default, collateral can lose value before it is recovered, and Bond Tokens may have little secondary-market liquidity. Smart-contract vulnerabilities, weak borrower assessment and disputes involving real-world counterparties could add further risk.

The model exchanges the danger of rapid oracle-driven liquidation for longer-duration credit, liquidity and enforcement risks. Its usefulness will depend on how clearly those risks are disclosed and priced.

The Bridge Is Trust-Minimized, Not Trustless Pogun’s final stage is intended to move Bitcoin into the Cardano environment without placing the underlying BTC under the control of a single custodian.

The roadmap describes a 1-of-N security model. Under that design, a fraudulent withdrawal can be blocked as long as at least one verifier in the operator set remains honest and available.

Although the proposal labels the component a BitVM-powered bridge, a later technical explanation from Input Output says the team moved toward a custom implementation based on BABE after identifying production constraints in the BitVM family of designs.

The architecture described by Input Output combines several systems: A custom implementation based on BABE, which uses witness encryption for Bitcoin-side verification; Recursive Halo2 proofs intended to attest to Cardano state through the Mithril certificate chain; Groth16 proofs that package the result into a smaller form for the Bitcoin-side mechanism; An N-party transaction graph designed to support multiple operators and changes to the operator set. At a high level, the design is intended to prove what happened on Cardano, compress that evidence into a smaller cryptographic proof and make the result verifiable through a Bitcoin-side mechanism without giving one custodian control of the underlying BTC.

Mithril certificates allow external systems to verify authenticated information about Cardano without independently replaying the entire blockchain. Pogun intends to use proofs built over that certificate chain to establish what occurred on Cardano before a corresponding Bitcoin-side action is accepted.

The architecture is technically detailed, but a design document is not proof of production security.

Bridge implementations can be exposed to software bugs, proof-system failures, operator outages, configuration errors and weaknesses in the applications holding bridged assets. Public code, independent audits, testnet performance and the composition of the verifier set will matter as much as the cryptographic design.

Calling the bridge trust-minimized is therefore more accurate than calling it trustless.

Why Cardano Sees an Architectural Fit With Bitcoin Cardano argues that it is a natural environment for Bitcoin-based finance because the two networks share a related accounting structure.

As Cardano’s official documentation explains, Bitcoin and Cardano both use versions of the Unspent Transaction Output model. Bitcoin transactions consume existing outputs and create new ones, while Cardano extends that structure through its EUTXO model to support programmable conditions, native assets and smart contracts.

That shared lineage can make some financial logic easier to express across the two systems. It does not mean that Cardano can control native Bitcoin directly or that other smart-contract networks cannot support Bitcoin-based applications through different architectures.

Pogun still requires a bridge to connect two separate ledgers. Its success will depend on implementation quality, security and market demand rather than the UTXO connection alone.

What Pogun Could Mean for Cardano and ADA Pogun is partly an attempt to expand Cardano’s relatively small DeFi economy.

At the time of writing, DefiLlama records approximately $72 million in total value locked across Cardano applications. Even a modest amount of BTC deployed into Cardano-based credit markets could therefore be material relative to the ecosystem’s present size.

That possibility should not be confused with a guarantee that billions of dollars will arrive.

Claims that Pogun could push Cardano’s TVL to $10 billion or $15 billion are not supported by the project’s formal proposal. Its own end-of-2027 scenarios projected approximately:

$100 million in Pogun TVL under a bearish scenario; $450 million under its base scenario; $765 million under its bullish scenario. Those are project forecasts rather than assured outcomes. Actual adoption will depend on bridge security, borrowing demand, available returns, liquidity, regulatory access and competition from other Bitcoin DeFi platforms.

The effect on ADA also needs careful framing.

Under Cardano’s current rules, ADA is accepted as payment for network fees. Pogun activity executed on Cardano could therefore generate additional transaction-fee demand.

The scale of that effect would depend on transaction volume, fee levels and whether applications require users to hold ADA directly or abstract the payment process on their behalf. Bridged Bitcoin sitting inactive in a contract would not create the same recurring network demand as an actively used credit market.

Pogun could add utility to Cardano, but publishing a roadmap does not by itself create substantial or sustainable demand for ADA.

What Would Confirm the Bitcoin DeFi Thesis The strongest evidence will come from delivered products and measurable usage rather than the total market value of Bitcoin.

The thesis would become more credible if Pogun provides: • A publicly verifiable mainnet deployment for the credit market;

• A completed independent security audit and accessible report;

• Contract addresses and documentation that allow users to verify the system;

• Measurable loan volume, borrower activity and repayment data;

• A yield application with clear risk disclosures and sustained deposits;

• A functioning bridge testnet followed by an independently audited mainnet release;

• Transparent information about operators and the assumptions behind the 1-of-N model;

• Measurable BTC collateral, Cardano TVL and transaction growth after launch.

For now, Pogun remains a development initiative rather than evidence that significant Bitcoin liquidity has entered Cardano.

The next decisive proof point is a publicly verifiable launch of the credit market, followed by its audit results and measurable lending activity. Only then will the planned yield layer and Bitcoin bridge have an operating market to connect to.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice.

Author

Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.

Jul 19, 2026, 1:00 p.m.

6 min read

The U.S. GENIUS Act to regulate stablecoins just hit a milestone, and Tether may have some compliance work ahead of it. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)Summary

The GENIUS Act that governs U.S. stablecoin issuers is complicated and a work-in-progress, but now that its first anniversary is reached, Tether and other non-U.S. issuers have two years left to figure out their compliance strategies. The one-year mark was supposed to see the federal financial regulators finishing their stablecoin rules, but none have done so, yet, leaving some compliance uncertainty. The basic outlines of the U.S. standards, though, would force the most widely circulated coin — Tether’s USDT — to make a lot of major changes before it could satisfy the law. The world's leading stablecoin by volume, Tether's USDT, could be shoved out of the U.S. markets if the company doesn't revamp dramatically in the next two years.

Despite assurances last year from CEO Paolo Ardoino that the stablecoin giant would achieve U.S. compliance for USDT, the company hasn't yet revealed a sharp turn toward the demands of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which became law one year ago.

With that consequential anniversary of President Donald Trump's signing of the law passing on Saturday, the industry has marked a surge in stablecoin interest and issuance, plus a wide array of crypto and traditional financial firms pursuing U.S. trust bank charters to ease their stablecoin pathways. But the one-year mark was also supposed to be a deadline for federal financial regulators to have rules in place implementing GENIUS, and they've so far fallen short. That could be problematic as experts and industry insiders still reveal some disagreements over how the law should be interpreted.

At this point, it's still two firms battling for market dominance, with a few others — including the issuer tied to President Donald Trump, World Liberty Financial — fighting it out for a very distant third place. Tether's chief rival, U.S.-based Circle, has made more of an apparent effort to pre-comply with what U.S. regulations will soon require.

Meanwhile, Tether's most recent disclosures suggest as much as a quarter of USDT's reserves — the stockpile meant to ensure that those redeeming their coins will always be able to — were still plugged into assets that won't meet GENIUS Act standards, such as precious metals, lending and bitcoin BTC$64,666.25 holdings. GENIUS requires that issuers are fully reserved in the most highly liquid and reliable assets — essentially cash and U.S. Treasuries.

"Tether will comply with the GENIUS Act," Ardoino told CoinDesk at the White House, in the moments after Trump signed GENIUS a year ago. While the CEO indicated then that his company would pursue a separate U.S.-specific token, he said that USDT would also be managed to meet the law's foreign-issuer standards.

When asked multiple times for an update on its compliance stance in recent days, representatives of El Salvador-based Tether didn't offer a response.

This year, Tether rolled out USAT — launched with U.S. standards in mind and issued through U.S. banking partner Anchorage Digital. So far, it remains at a relatively low level of usage.

“Non-compliant stablecoins cannot be used by U.S. institutions when the safe harbor expires in 2028, but we don’t expect the market to wait," said Kevin Wysocki, head of policy at Anchorage Digital, the crypto-native bank that manages a number of stablecoins. He said the company believes institutional users will move toward "compliant, bank-issued digital dollars well ahead of that deadline."

Do they have two years?GENIUS included a three-year grace period for compliance, and two years remain, after which U.S. crypto platforms won't be able to offer stablecoins whose issuers haven't checked all the regulatory boxes. However, there seems to be some disagreement over whether foreign issuers are meant to enjoy that same safe harbor. Some lawyers in finance assume that Tether gets until July 18, 2028, to comply, but others have suggested that foreign issuers would have to comply the moment GENIUS officially goes live, which is likely six months from now in January.

"Upon the effectiveness of the GENIUS Act, foreign issuers will need to immediately comply with lawful orders to seize and freeze coins held by illicit actors, but they will have a runway of approximately two more years to prepare for the additional requirements so that their coins may remain eligible for listing on U.S. centralized trading platforms," said Justin Levine, a lawyer at Davis Polk who advises clients on stablecoin issues, adding that one of those remaining requirements — registration with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — is likely to require a “significant undertaking”

"So they do have time, as long as they comply with seize and freeze orders,” he said. “But those that want to have their coins continue to be traded on U.S. centralized platforms and have that liquidity should still be thinking about it right now, even if it's not imminent that they're going to get delisted."

While Levine's firm and others have interpreted the deadline for foreign issuers as being two years away, an analysis last year from law firm Paul Hastings had read GENIUS as offering separate timelines for foreign and domestic firms. But after being asked about its view recently, that interpretation was removed from the firm's website, and its spokespeople didn't immediately respond to CoinDesk's requests for clarity.

A dive into the footnotes of federal regulators suggests a two-track deadline in the law. The OCC, the national bank regulator that will also be supervising certain stablecoin issuers, said in a footnote within a proposal for implementing aspects of GENIUS that the drop-dead date was generally in 2028, but that it gets triggered the moment the law is effective (by January) for the coins of foreign issuers that don't meet "certain requirements." Those requirements, though, could simply be referring to the shorter-term demands that include the ability to freeze bad actors' assets and, when requested by the government, to seize them.

The fuller slate of requirements for foreign issuers will eventually include demands that their home regulator be certified by the secretary of the Treasury as being "comparable" to the U.S. regime, that the firms be OCC-registered and they keep their reserves in U.S. institutions.

Regulators run behindHowever, none of the federal agencies have finalized their GENIUS rules, leaving some uncertainty about what will be set into regulatory stone even as the first requirements approach. A number of regulators' efforts are underway and may soon be completed, but others remain in preliminary stages. In other words, companies have no regulations to comply with just yet.

If there's lingering disagreement over GENIUS timelines, Trevor Tanifum, a managing principal at consulting firm FS Vector, said he anticipates that smaller platforms with low risk appetites will delist certain stablecoins and avoid the bother. But others may be willing to press on.

He said that prominent companies with robust legal departments may be willing to occupy a different view, such as: "We're going to spend the money on lawyers and lobbyists until someone walks up to our door and forces us to delist these non-U.S. issuers."

"It's pretty much what has happened, I think, at every major crypto hurdle," he said. "These platforms still count on a lot of transaction volumes, liquidity from non-U.S. issuers, and so I can't see them giving up those volumes without a fight."

The biggest U.S. exchange is Coinbase, but the company declined to discuss its stablecoin listing plans under GENIUS.

The exchange and much of the rest of the crypto industry has more recently shifted policy attention toward a different effort of Congress: the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The sector's lobbyists had aimed for a one-two punch with GENIUS and Clarity, and they'd succeeded last year in getting the stablecoin bill passed into law.

But that first major crypto law was meant to complement a wider-reaching regulation of U.S. crypto markets under the Clarity Act, which is still languishing in the final weeks of its potential 2026 congressional window. It remains unclear at the first anniversary of the GENIUS Act whether its companion will join it on the books. And if it does, it's likely to include some provisions that overhaul some of GENIUS's language.

Either way, Tether, Circle and the rest of the stablecoin sector are on track to be federally regulated in the coming months under the new law, and how those regulations are navigated may upend which firms play a leading role.

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Blockchain

19 July 2026 | 15:22 Chainlink is not offering central banks a new currency or asking governments to replace their sovereign financial systems with a public blockchain. Its institutional role is more practical: coordinating data, payments, tokenized assets, compliance checks and settlement instructions across systems that were not designed to communicate with one another.

Key Takeaways Central banks are testing Chainlink as connective infrastructure, not as a replacement for sovereign currencies or domestic settlement systems. The Brazil–Hong Kong experiment coordinated payments, trade documents and asset ownership across several separate platforms. Singapore’s Project Guardian showed that tokenized funds can operate alongside existing banking and fiat-payment infrastructure. These projects remain controlled pilots and do not represent permanent adoption or an endorsement of the LINK token. That pattern appears in experiments involving the Central Bank of Brazil, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Singapore’s Project Guardian, Swift, UBS Asset Management and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

These projects do not amount to broad central-bank adoption. They do, however, reveal why Chainlink continues to appear in public-sector and regulated financial experiments.

The Harder Problem Begins After a Digital Currency Is Created A central bank can build a domestic digital-currency or tokenized-settlement platform. The more difficult question is how that platform interacts with foreign currencies, commercial-bank systems, tokenized funds, trade documents, public blockchains and established payment networks.

The Bank for International Settlements has found that there is no universal model for connecting central bank digital currencies across borders. Each jurisdiction has its own legal framework, access rules, policy objectives, privacy requirements and technical architecture.

Its more recent work on tokenization reaches a similar conclusion. Multiple ledgers are likely to coexist, but fragmented systems could create isolated pools of money and assets unless institutions develop reliable ways to coordinate transactions between them. The BIS has warned that the benefits of tokenization depend not only on the technology but also on interoperability, governance and effective risk management. Its analysis is available in the report on tokenization in payments and financial markets.

Chainlink approaches this problem through several connected services.

Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol: CIP
carries messages and tokenized value between separate blockchain networks.

Chainlink Runtime Environment: CRE
coordinates workflows involving blockchains, APIs, payment messages and external systems.

Automated Compliance Engine: ACE
is designed to apply identity, jurisdiction and transfer policies before a transaction proceeds.

The proposition is therefore broader than the familiar description of Chainlink as a price oracle. It is attempting to become an orchestration layer for financial processes that span several technological environments.

Brazil and Hong Kong Connected Two Sovereign Platforms In October 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Central Bank of Brazil announced plans to connect Hong Kong’s Ensemble Sandbox with Brazil’s Drex pilot.

The collaboration focused on cross-border payment-versus-payment and delivery-versus-payment settlement. The first mechanism coordinates the exchange of two currencies, while the second ensures that the transfer of an asset occurs together with its payment.

A subsequent trade finance experiment involved Banco Inter, Chainlink and the Global Shipping Business Network. It connected the Drex environment with Hong Kong’s Ensemble infrastructure, a trade finance platform and an electronic bill of lading system.

CRE coordinated payment instructions and translated messages into the formats required by the participating systems, including ISO 20022. It also triggered an external API to update the electronic bill of lading.

CCIP synchronized events between the platforms so that contract execution, credit release, payment and the transfer of ownership over the traded goods could form part of the same workflow.

This was more complex than sending a token from one blockchain address to another. The transaction depended on money, ownership records, banking instructions and trade documentation changing in the correct order across several independent platforms.

The experiment demonstrated that these actions could be coordinated technically. It did not establish whether the architecture can operate at production scale, how responsibility would be divided after an operational failure or whether central banks would use the same infrastructure in a live deployment.

Singapore Kept the Existing Payment Rails A separate experiment examined whether institutions could use tokenized assets without requiring every participating bank to adopt an onchain currency.

In November 2024, Swift, UBS Asset Management and Chainlink completed a pilot under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian. The project automated subscriptions and redemptions for a UBS tokenized investment fund.

Chainlink coordinated the conditions needed to mint or burn the fund tokens. Swift carried the payment instructions through conventional fiat settlement infrastructure already connected to more than 11,500 financial institutions.

The payment leg therefore remained within established banking rails even though the investment fund was represented through blockchain-based tokens.

This addresses a practical barrier to institutional adoption. A bank should not need to rebuild its payment stack or hold a specific stablecoin simply to process a transaction involving a tokenized fund. Institutions can introduce tokenized products gradually while continuing to use infrastructure that already supports their operational and regulatory requirements.

The pilot involved a controlled process rather than an open commercial deployment. Its value lies in demonstrating a possible migration path, not in proving that the model has already achieved market-wide adoption.

Official Economic Data Can Now Be Read by Smart Contracts Chainlink’s work with the U.S. Department of Commerce concerns data rather than cross-border settlement.

On August 28, 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a cryptographic hash of its second-quarter GDP release across nine blockchains. The headline GDP figure was also included on networks that supported the additional data.

The department worked with Chainlink and Pyth to distribute the information more broadly. Chainlink subsequently made six data series from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis available through its Data Feeds across ten blockchain ecosystems.

The feeds covered the levels and annualized percentage changes for: Real gross domestic product The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index Real final sales to private domestic purchasers A government report published on a website is readable by people. A standardized onchain feed can also be read directly by software.

A prediction market could use the official figure to settle a contract. A macro-linked financial product could calculate a payment from a published economic indicator. Lending or portfolio-management systems could incorporate the release into predefined risk rules.

That oracle role extends beyond economic data: on June 9, 2026, ADI Predictstreet, the official prediction market partner of the FIFA World Cup 2026, adopted Chainlink as its exclusive oracle infrastructure to automate market resolution, settlement and payouts.

Those examples describe potential applications rather than established demand. The publication proves that official government data can be delivered in a format smart contracts can consume; it does not show that financial protocols are already using those feeds at meaningful scale.

Compliance Is More Difficult Than Moving the Asset Interoperability alone is not sufficient for regulated finance.

A bank may need to confirm the identity, jurisdiction, sanctions status, investor classification and transfer eligibility of both parties before allowing a tokenized asset to change hands. Publishing the underlying customer records on a public blockchain would create serious privacy and data-protection problems.

Chainlink’s Automated Compliance Engine is designed to separate the compliance result from the sensitive information used to produce it.

A trusted institution could issue a credential confirming that a customer has completed the necessary checks. The transaction system would receive proof that the condition has been met without placing the customer’s name, passport information, address or complete banking record onchain.

The policy layer could then determine whether the transaction is permitted. Rules might cover investor eligibility, sanctions screening, geographic restrictions, transfer limits or the validity period of a credential.

ACE does not automatically make a financial product compliant with GDPR, MiCA, the Bank Secrecy Act or any other regulation. Legal compliance still depends on which rules are encoded, who supplies the identity information, where personal data is stored, how exceptions are handled and which institution remains responsible for the final decision.

Its purpose is narrower: giving institutions a technical way to translate some compliance requirements into enforceable transaction conditions.

The Evidence Supports a Role, Not a Final Winner The experiments show that Chainlink can perform several functions relevant to institutional tokenization:

Move instructions between separate blockchain networks

Coordinate onchain and offchain events

Connect tokenized assets with conventional payment systems

Deliver official external data to smart contracts

Apply identity and transfer conditions across a transaction

They do not show that central banks have selected Chainlink as permanent global infrastructure.

Most of the evidence still comes from pilots, sandboxes, technical demonstrations and announcements involving a limited number of institutions. Production systems would also need to resolve questions involving operational resilience, cybersecurity, governance, transaction reversals, legal responsibility, vendor dependence and incorrect external data.

The U.S. Department of Commerce explicitly stated that publishing its GDP data on blockchains did not endorse any particular blockchain, service or associated activity. Participation by a central bank or government body should therefore not be interpreted as support for the LINK token.

The more defensible conclusion is architectural. Central banks and regulated institutions are exploring tokenized finance, but the resulting system is unlikely to consist of one blockchain controlled by one operator. Sovereign platforms, commercial-bank ledgers, public networks and traditional payment rails may continue to coexist.

Chainlink is being tested as one possible way to make transactions work across those boundaries. Whether it becomes permanent infrastructure will depend less on the number of pilots announced and more on whether those experiments progress into resilient, legally defined and production-scale systems.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice.

Author

Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.

Cover image via depositphotos.com Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

Zcash (ZEC) co-founder and lead developer, Zooko Wilcox, has revealed the details of an emergency strategy designed to preserve the coin's mathematical integrity. The network is preparing for the Ironwood hard fork (NU6.3), which will activate on July 28, 2026, at block 3,428,143 to permanently isolate the vulnerable Orchard pool and lock up any potentially forged ZEC.

The "turnstile" strategy: How to lock up phantom coinsFor those who missed it, a critical bug was discovered by Shielded Labs researcher Taylor Hornby that could theoretically have allowed hackers to mint ZEC undetected inside the private Orchard pool. By 2026, developers had quickly fixed the vulnerability at the protocol level and found no evidence that it had actually been exploited. 

However, because the Orchard pool provides complete privacy, no one can guarantee that hidden issuance did not occur before the patch was deployed.

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Zooko's strategy eliminates the need for blind trust. On July 28, the original Orchard pool will be completely sealed and a new, clean Orchard pool with corrected cryptography will launch in its place.

Ironwood Ironwood Ironwood!

Humanity is going to have a form of money that is unstoppable, private, and has full correctness proofs (formal verification) of some of its key properties, thanks to heroic math by an awesome team led by @TachyonZcash. https://t.co/Z85ktHtoPE

— zooko🛡🦓🦓🦓 ⓩ (@zooko) July 19, 2026 Funds will be transferable from the old system to the new one only through a special turnstile gateway. This cryptographic mechanism strictly controls the balance: it will prevent more coins from leaving the old pool than legitimately entered throughout its entire history.

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If hidden issuance did occur, the counterfeit ZEC will remain permanently frozen inside the old pool, becoming digital waste. At the same time, any user running a personal node will be able to independently verify the accuracy of the circulating supply.

Cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets, and swap services that have not completed their software testing may temporarily suspend ZEC deposits and withdrawals, but developers emphasize that such pauses are routine technical adjustments on the service providers' side, not a threat to the security of users' assets.

Private-wallet holders should also be prepared for their Orchard balances to temporarily appear unavailable.

As of now, ZEC holders only need to wait until July 28, when Ironwood's cryptographic "turnstile" will demonstrate in practice Zcash's ability to protect its economy under conditions of strong privacy guarantees.

Tesla (TSLA 2.47%) heads into its second-quarter earnings report this Wednesday, July 22, carrying two stories that can't both be right. The electric-car maker just delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2, up 25% year over year and its highest quarterly total since the third quarter of 2025. Yet the stock sits at about $391 as of this writing, down 22% from its 52-week high of $498.83.

And one Wall Street firm thinks the decline is just getting started. Last week, Wells Fargo raised its Tesla price target to $130 from $125 while keeping its underweight rating. From today's price, that target implies a drop of about 67%.

The firm's reasoning, in essence, is that Tesla is selling more cars than it has in any quarter since the third quarter of 2025 but earning less on each one, with price cuts and rising input costs (memory chips, copper, and lithium among them) eating away the gains.

So, who's right?

Image source: The Motley Fool.

The bull case is already public The strongest evidence for the bulls is volume. Tesla's 480,126 second-quarter deliveries were up 25% from the 384,122 vehicles it delivered in the year-ago quarter.

Delivery growth is also accelerating, up from a 6% year-over-year increase in the first quarter. After a long stretch of shrinking vehicle sales, growth is back.

The rest of the business is moving again, too. First-quarter revenue rose 16% year over year to $22.4 billion, with services and other revenue climbing 42%.

And after a soft first quarter in which energy revenue fell 12% year over year, energy storage deployments rebounded to 13.5 gigawatt-hours in Q2, up 41% from the year-ago period and up sharply from 8.8 gigawatt-hours in Q1.

Even the businesses investors are really paying up for are progressing. Tesla launched unsupervised robotaxi rides in Dallas and Houston in April, and it received approval for Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in the Netherlands the same month. Its active Full Self-Driving (Supervised) subscriptions reached 1.28 million in the first quarter, up 51% year over year.

And the company has the resources to keep funding its ambitions in autonomy and robotics. Tesla ended Q1 with $44.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, up from $44.1 billion at the end of 2025.

That's an improving picture, and I don't think the bears can dismiss it.

Today's Change

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-2.47

%) $

-9.66

Current Price

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381.41

The bear case, in numbers The problem, as Wells Fargo frames it, is what all of that volume actually earns.

Tesla's first-quarter operating margin was just 4.2%, down from 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Net income was $477 million on $22.4 billion of revenue, which works out to earnings per share of $0.13. Over the trailing 12 months, Tesla has earned $1.09 per share.

At about $391, then, the stock trades at about 360 times earnings.

That is the entire debate in one number. A multiple like that isn't pricing in a good quarter on Wednesday. It's pricing in years of things going right, including a robotaxi business that scales into a major profit stream while the core car business stays healthy the whole way.

And consider this detail. Even at Wells Fargo's $130 target, Tesla would still trade at about 120 times earnings. In other words, even the bear case values Tesla like a premium growth company -- that's how much optimism is baked into today's price.

The honest answer is that Wednesday's report can't fully settle this. After all, the bear case is about profits, and the bull case, so far, is mostly about volume. But the report should show which way the gap is closing.

Watch whether operating margin recovers from Q1's 4.2%. Watch what the second-quarter deliveries did to pricing. And watch energy, where a second-quarter rebound in deployments needs to show up in revenue and profit, too.

I don't expect a 67% plunge. A decline like that would probably require the market to stop paying for Tesla's autonomy story almost entirely, and the company keeps making measurable progress on it. But Wells Fargo's underlying framing, I think, is the right one. At this valuation, deliveries alone aren't enough. Profits have to follow.

Until they do, I wouldn't buy the stock ahead of Wednesday's report.

If Tesla can show margins turning up while deliveries grow, the bulls will have earned the next word. If it can't, a 22% discount from the high may not turn out to be much of a discount at all.

Chasing yield is a rookie mistake. The dividend stocks that actually build wealth are the ones raising payouts fast enough to outrun inflation, fund reinvestment and turn a modest starting yield into a serious income stream a decade later. That is the lens for July 2026: Three sub-3% yielders whose dividend growth rates make the compounding case, regardless of the modest headline yields.

Each of the three names below has a concrete catalyst behind the raise: AI-driven earnings acceleration at Microsoft, a payments network compounding double-digit revenue growth at Visa, and Broadcom’s post-VMware cash flow explosion. For dividend-growth investors focused on total return, the compounding math is the entire thesis. (For readers building the income side of the portfolio, our Never Touch the Principal research goes deeper on the dividend-growth playbook.)

Microsoft (MSFT) Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) is the AI dividend grower hiding in plain sight. The company raised its quarterly payout from 83 cents to 91 cents starting Q4 2025, following a multi-year cadence of September raises: 62 cents to 68 cents in 2022, 68 cents to 75 cents in 2023, 75 cents to 83 cents in 2024 and now 91 cents. The forward annualized dividend stands at $3.64, with a current yield of just 0.93%. Small number, but the growth trajectory is the point.

The engine behind the raises is the AI and cloud franchise. Fiscal Q3 2026 delivered EPS of $4.27 versus $4.09 estimated, on revenue of $82.89 billion, up 18.3% year over year. Intelligent Cloud grew 30%, Azure grew 40%, and CEO Satya Nadella told investors, “Our AI business surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $37 billion, up 123% year-over-year.” Commercial remaining performance obligations nearly doubled to $627 billion. That backlog gives management the visibility to keep the dividend ladder going.

Risk: The stock has been rerated hard, down 17.17% year to date and 23.44% over the past year, while CapEx hit $30.88 billion in the quarter, up 84%. Free cash flow is being consumed by AI buildout, and the payoff timeline is not guaranteed. At roughly 23 times trailing earnings, though, the valuation reset has done a lot of work.

Visa (V) Visa (NYSE:V) is the cleanest dividend-growth story of the three. The board hiked the quarterly payout from 59 cents to 67 cents in October 2025, a 14% increase. Zoom out and the compounding is striking: Visa paid 30 cents per quarter in 2020 and now pays $0.67, with a forward annualized rate of $2.68.

The fundamentals justify the pace. Fiscal Q1 2026 delivered EPS of $3.31 versus $3.10 expected, a 6.77% beat, on revenue of $10.90 billion, up 14.6% year over year. Payments volume rose 8% in constant dollars, cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe grew 11% and data processing revenue climbed 17%. CEO Ryan McInerney framed the strategy this way: “Our purposeful investments in our Visa as a Service stack continue to position us as a payments hyperscaler.” Buybacks are aggressive too, with $21.1 billion remaining on the repurchase authorization after Q1’s $3.8 billion in repurchases.

Analysts remain constructive, with eight Strong Buy ratings, 29 Buy ratings and three Hold ratings alongside a 12-month price target of $401.16 against the current price of $358.61.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Risk: Visa took a $707 million interchange MDL litigation provision in Q1. The merchant-fee legal overhang is not going away, and any adverse ruling could compress the network’s most profitable revenue line.

Broadcom (AVGO) Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is the highest-octane pick of the three. On a split-adjusted basis, the quarterly dividend moved from 53 cents in Q3 2024 to 59 cents through 2025 to 65 cents in 2026. The shares are up 41% over the past year and a staggering 775.99% over five years, which explains the sub-1% yield. Investors are being paid in capital appreciation while the dividend compounds underneath.

Q2 fiscal 2026 was a blockbuster. Revenue reached $22.19 billion, up 47.9% year over year, and EPS came in at $2.44 versus $2.40 estimated, extending the streak to 8 consecutive beats. AI semiconductor revenue alone hit $10.8 billion, up 143% year over year. CEO Hock Tan set the bar higher: “The momentum continues and in Q3 we expect semiconductor revenue from AI to grow over 200% year-over-year to $16.0 billion.” Free cash flow of $10.26 billion, up 60%, is what funds the dividend runway.

The industry backdrop supports the trajectory. Global semiconductor revenue reached $298.5 billion in Q1 2026, a 79.2% year-over-year increase.

Risk: Broadcom trades at roughly 67 times trailing earnings, customer concentration among a handful of hyperscalers is real, and the VMware acquisition left a significant debt load. A hyperscaler CapEx pause would hit hardest here.

The Bottom Line on Dividend Growth All three names yield under 1%, so the case rests entirely on the rate of raise and the earnings power behind it. Microsoft’s Azure engine, Visa’s payments network, and Broadcom’s AI silicon each fund a different flavor of dividend compounding. For long-duration portfolios, that is where the real income lives and what makes the compounding case compelling right now.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Interactive Brokers (IBKR 1.82%) is one of a handful of large discount brokerages, competing with the likes of Charles Schwab (SCHW 1.21%) and Robinhood (HOOD 5.72%). Competition in the discount-broker space is typically pretty fierce. However, Interactive Brokers has been doing pretty well, if its June 2026 brokerage metrics are any indication. Here's what you need to know.

Interactive Brokers' June numbers were great In June, Interactive Brokers had 5.185 million client accounts, up 34% from the same month of 2025. Its clients had equity of $930.3 billion in June, 40% higher than the year-ago period. In other words, the company's business has grown materially over the past 12 months. That's very good news, but not the end of the data the company provided.

Image source: Getty Images.

For example, Interactive Brokers handled 5.269 million trades in June, an increase of 53% over the prior year. Although the company only makes a few dollars per trade, the more trades it handles, the more commission revenue it generates. On top of that, the discount broker ended June with margin loan balances of $108.5 billion, a huge 67% increase from June 2015. Margin loans generate interest income for Interactive Brokers, so higher balances are also a very positive outcome.

Interactive Brokers' second-quarter earnings could be very good If that was how the company ended June, it seems highly likely that its second-quarter 2026 earnings update will see a notable improvement over the prior year. That would actually be a follow-up to the financial company's strong first-quarter showing. Some numbers will help.

Interactive Brokers' first-quarter 2026 revenues came in at $1.67 billion, up roughly 17% from $1.43 billion in the prior year. Adjusted earnings increased by roughly 28%, hitting $0.60 per share. The company's commission revenue increased 19%, and its interest income, largely from margin loans, increased 17%.

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The company's June numbers weren't materially higher than May's, suggesting the second quarter won't be materially different from the first. However, given the large year-over-year increase in account size, trading activity, and the total margin loan balance, second-quarter earnings seem likely to be much improved over the second quarter of 2025.

There's one small problem with Interactive Brokers All of that said, investors need to take these numbers with a grain of "valuation salt." The stock's price-to-sales, price-to-earnings, and price-to-book value ratios are all around twice their five-year averages. In other words, Wall Street is well aware of how strongly Interactive Brokers' business is performing. If the company doesn't live up to what are likely to be lofty expectations, even a strong quarter on an absolute basis could still lead to a stock decline.

Charles Schwab is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Interactive Brokers Group. The Motley Fool recommends Charles Schwab and recommends the following options: long January 2027 $43.75 calls on Interactive Brokers Group, short January 2027 $46.25 calls on Interactive Brokers Group, and short September 2026 $95 calls on Charles Schwab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Nuclear plants. Shipyards. Robots. Oil and gas.

Trying to connect the dots? You and I may not be able to, but Constellation Energy (CEG +0.25%) is doing just that with its latest power move.

Constellation, the largest nuclear energy company in the U.S., has invested an undisclosed sum in Blue Energy, a start-up specializing in prefabricated nuclear power plants. The real kicker isn’t the tech – how this newcomer builds those plants is where the disruption lies, and exactly why Constellation decided it’s worth the bet.

Image source: Getty Images.

Playing the nuclear energy boomConstellation Energy is the undisputed clean energy leader in the U.S., operating the nation’s largest nuclear fleet. That dominance has thrown the company straight into the spotlight of the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom.

Data centers consume staggering amounts of electricity, and they require uninterrupted, 24/7 power to keep their servers and cooling systems running. While solar and wind are intermittent, nuclear isn’t.

The macro tailwinds are stronger than ever, with the U.S. government planning to quadruple domestic nuclear capacity by 2050. The problem is execution. Building a traditional nuclear reactor can easily take over a decade and tens of billions of dollars.

Blue Energy directly tackles the industry's two biggest bottlenecks: speed and financing. Their solution? Shipyards.

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Why CEG thinks a shipyard can fit the nuclear equationThe biggest budget-killer in a nuclear power plant isn’t the reactor itself. It is the buildings, structures, pipes, and cooling systems that can cause the maximum delays and cost overruns.

Shipyards already have mass assembly-line manufacturing processes in place. They also have the indoor, weather-controlled spaces, high-capacity cranes, and automated robotic set-ups designed for steel ships and offshore oil rigs.

Blue Energy plugs its design right into this existing infrastructure to weld and prefabricate nuclear plants at speed, and then transports them to the installation site on barges. It can get a plant up and running in just three years.

To top that, while traditional nuclear relies on government loan guarantees, Blue Energy can monetize the asset quickly. It can start a plant on natural gas within three years and generate revenue while it finishes installation and approvals.

Blue Energy’s proprietary plant design can house regulatory-approved Light Water Reactors (LWRs), such as GE Vernova (GEV +2.09%)-Hitachi BWRX-300 SMR (small modular reactor). Blue Energy and GE Vernova are already collaborating to build a power plant using BWRX-300 at Blue Energy’s first planned site in Texas, with GE Vernova scheduled to deliver two gas turbines by 2029 to kickstart the plant.

Why this matters for Constellation Energy investorsThis isn't a speculative bet. Constellation has signed monumental, long-term power purchase agreements, including 20-year deals with Meta (META 2.79%) and Microsoft (MSFT 1.67%) each. Demand is so high that Constellation expects to generate $11.5 billion and $13 billion in free cash flow (before growth spending ) in 2028 and 2029 versus $8.4 billion in 2026-2027.

Constellation can’t bank on traditional nuclear reactors to deliver new baseload capacity, and is trying to position itself at the front of the line for the first wave of rapidly deployable, bankable SMR tech.

If Blue Energy’s shipyard model delivers on its three-year timeline, Constellation could secure a repeatable blueprint to capture the surging hyperscale demand long before traditional nuclear competitors can even break ground.

When a company announces the largest single-year infrastructure spend in corporate history, investors are right to get nervous. Amazon (AMZN 0.91%) plans to pour roughly $200 billion into capital spending in 2026, most of it aimed at artificial intelligence (AI), and CEO Andy Jassy knows how that sounds.

His response was blunt: The company is not making that bet "on a hunch." The clearest evidence that he is telling the truth sits inside Amazon's own chip business.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Image source: Amazon.

The proof is in the chips Amazon designs its own AI chips, led by a line called Trainium, and that custom silicon operation has quietly become a real business. It recently exited a quarter at an annual revenue pace above $20 billion, and this segment of the overall business is growing at triple-digit percentages. It is one of the fastest-scaling chip operations anywhere.

Even more telling is how much future demand is already locked in. Amazon says it has more than $225 billion in revenue commitments tied to Trainium alone, with major AI developers signing on for substantial capacity.

When customers commit that kind of money in advance, it tells you the spending is chasing real, contracted demand rather than a guess about what might sell someday. That is what Jassy is saying.

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Why Trainium matters beyond the revenue The chips do something else that helps the math work. Amazon's newer Trainium processors offer meaningfully better performance for the price than the third-party graphics chips most companies rent, and recent versions have largely sold out. By using its own silicon rather than buying everything from Nvidia, Amazon can lower its costs and widen its profit margins over time.

In other words, the $200 billion is not only about serving customers but also about building a cheaper, more controlled AI supply chain that Amazon owns end-to-end.

None of this makes the bet safe -- $200 billion is an extraordinary sum, and Amazon is counting on monetizing much of it in 2027 and beyond, so the payoff is not immediate. If AI demand cools or customers delay, that spending could weigh on profits. Competition from Nvidia and other cloud providers is fierce, and building chips is hard.

Amazon's AI spending is enormous, but it is backed by a chip business already running at a $20 billion pace and a mountain of pre-committed revenue. To me, that turns a scary headline number into something closer to a calculated bet. The spending still has to pay off, but Jassy has given investors real reasons to believe it is grounded in demand rather than hope.

FORT WORTH, Texas — American Airlines CEO Robert Isom has a math problem.

The carrier is flying about 6,500 flights per day this year — nearly an entire Alaska Airlines more worth of travel more than its closest competitor, according to Cirium — yet American's profit gap has grown. United Airlines brought in about $3 billion more than American last year, and U.S. profit leader Delta Air Lines made nearly $5 billion more.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC late last month, Isom said American and its nearly 140,000 employees want "to be best at everything that we do." He said that carrier's "long-range plan is certainly making up the margin gap," but he didn't put a timeline on that goal.

American's top executives at the carrier's headquarters late last month outlined new initiatives to CNBC: bigger, more luxe airport lounges, a new wide-body aircraft order, and fresh interiors for even more of its long-haul fleet to attract big spenders.

Isom described the carrier's identity as "a premium global airline with the largest footprint in North America."

American has more decisions it needs to make — and soon — to close the gap. Perhaps its biggest challenge is getting customers to shell out more to fly, something Delta and United zeroed in on years ago.

American has mastered running an efficient business but "what we will measure over time is: Are we closing this revenue gap and closing the unit revenue gap?" American CFO Devon May said.

Cabins, planes and loungesThe carrier's executives reiterated that American's plan rests on growing its ever-more important loyalty program, improving customers' experience, expanding its network and increasing higher-end revenue. 

The airline is forecast to earn 64 cents a share this year, on an adjusted basis, which would be up almost 80% from last year, according to analyst estimates. It will give an updated forecast when it reports second-quarter results on Thursday.

United and Delta earlier this month reported bookings are still strong. The surge in fuel prices have both helped and hurt the industry this year: The sudden run-up in prices because of the Iran war took carriers off guard, though they're passing more of those costs along to travelers, and executives don't expect fares will drop much anytime soon.

Wall Street is optimistic American will continue to improve, expecting it to quadruple adjusted earnings in 2027 to $2.58 a share.

American is now remodeling cabins across the fleet and taking deliveries of new planes with interiors that feature new amenities and more premium seats. Executives have said they're considering but haven't decided on bringing back seatback screens to much of its narrow-body fleet, though American recently joined the ranks of airlines that are adding satellite Wi-Fi from SpaceX's Starlink.

Customers who are willing to pay more for premium seats or other perks like lounge access have been a bright spot across the industry, and everyone from profit leader Delta to now-defunct budget carrier Spirit Airlines has tried to woo those travelers as airlines rush to get fancy, new seats — small but profitable real estate — in the air.

Isom told CNBC that work to refresh cabins will soon expand to American's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners. Its revamped cabins on its largest planes, the 777-300ERs, could debut in the next few weeks. Each business-class, lie-flat seat can bring in close to $10,000 on some long-haul international routes compared with $2,000 or even much less for a seat in the back.

Keeping up high-touch service levels could be a challenge, the airline's flight attendant union said, as the 70-seat business class soon comes online. American has been phasing out planes with separate first and business classes.

"Now, as American introduces 70 Business Suites and markets a premium international experience, they're expecting a reduced number of Flight Attendants to deliver significantly more personalized service," Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said in a statement. (American reduced flight attendant staffing on those aircraft from 13 to 11 in 2020. Other carriers have made similar moves.) "The result will be longer service times and a customer experience that falls short of what passengers expect."

In another lure for premium travelers, Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden told CNBC that American is going to build the biggest Admirals Club lounge in its network, at 37,000 square feet, at its sprawling Dallas Fort Worth International Airport hub in Terminal C.

At the under-construction Terminal F at that airport, American is also planning a grab-and-go Provisions airport lounge, as well as a Flagship check-in area in Terminal D. The entire airport, American's largest hub, is undergoing a $12 billion makeover, and the carrier recently unveiled new gates in Terminal C, which will expand further. American and others have been upgrading and expanding airport lounges for the spendiest customers around the U.S.

But United has had a roughly decade head start at catering to higher-paying travelers, while Delta has close to two decades of experience. In the late 2000s, Delta was giving away about 90% of its domestic first-class seats through free upgrades for frequent flyers, but now it says it sells the vast majority, with customers paying cash or redeeming miles, now a trend among big carriers, though American wants to increase buy-ups.

Under Isom, American has been upping its game in premium investments. American's commercial team is working on technical changes that aim to offer customers more opportunities to buy pricier seats.

Aside from its of fortress hubs, American's chief commercial officer, Nat Pieper, said the airline needs to win in so-called jump-ball markets like Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. He said American continues to grow sign-ups for its lucrative credit card program in some of those, including New York.

American said it's flying is split about 80% domestic versus 20% international. International flights often carry a high premium compared with domestic routes — and the planes serving them generally have more luxurious seats on board.

Isom said the airline's network breadth is a major strong suit and will continue to be.

While American and other airlines rely on alliances and partnerships to expand reach, United is flying a lot of that itself.

United flies more internationally than Delta and American, and made its geography quiz-like network a calling card and , adding dots on the map from Mongolia to Galicia, Spain.

'Never been deterred'A mechanical engineer by education who took his first flight at about age 4, Isom rose up the ranks at Northwest Airlines and America West Airlines, which through mergers became modern-day Delta and American, respectively.

The airline industry is one of the most insular. In part, because of the safety-critical and specific knowledge needed to keep thousands of planes on track every day, airlines don't often hire from other industries, especially at the top.

The executive team that long worked at American is split between that carrier and United. The CEO of United, Scott Kirby, used to work at American, until he was fired almost exactly 10 years ago. United announced it hired Kirby as president the same day.

Isom, 62, took over the top role at American in March 2022, after the airline industry had been rocked by the pandemic.

"I've never been deterred, no matter what the challenges that we face," he said.

He took over in a quarter when American lost $1.6 billion.

"I'm clear-eyed about the challenges in this business," he said, pointing to an industry that has been through everything from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to the financial crisis, bankruptcies, mergers and wars and disease.

American ranked sixth of 11 U.S. airlines in punctuality in the first half of the year, according to Cirium data that pointed to with a 76.6% on-time rate, while Delta and United took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively. Under Isom and COO David Seymour, the carrier is working to improve its on-time rate, spreading out its schedule instead of jamming chaotic connecting banks in major hubs, and using artificial intelligence to predict maintenance problems.

On top of that, the carrier's earnings are still hamstrung from its $35 billion debt load though American has slashed that from around a $54 billion peak coming out of the pandemic, with balance sheet improvement a major priority.

"They're a giant — with a limp," said Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American's 15,000 aviators. Earlier this year, the APA and the flight attendants' union called Isom's leadership into question. Underperformance from the broader company means less profit-sharing for staff.

Getting customers to notice improvements could take time.

"Changing a service culture is hard, but not impossible," said Jay Barney, a professor of strategic management at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. To alter overall brand perception, he said, "You have to make the changes obvious and visible, to current customers and potential customers."

One issue is that flyers are often locked in because the biggest airlines have such overwhelming market share at major hub airports, he added.

What airlines might be trying to do is "charge more to their current customers," Barney said.

Wide-body planesAmerican might be behind in its premium game, but Isom said customer satisfaction scores are rising. Chief Commercial Officer Pieper, an airline industry veteran whom the company appointed last fall as the carrier was recovering from a failed corporate sales strategy in 2024, said demand is strong across the board.

Buying new wide-body planes will be key to the airline's next phase, Isom said. An order is on the table for this year, with both Boeing and Airbus in the mix, he said.

American's more than 1,000 planes make up the youngest fleet of the three largest U.S. airlines, according to 2025 annual filings, thanks in part to a more than 400-airplane order it made about 15 years ago for new Boeing and Airbus narrow-body planes, but dozens of its Boeing 777 wide-bodies average more than two decades old.

American's refresh of those older planes, Boeing 777-200s, are next, Isom said, but the carrier is shopping for new planes.

"I think that Airbus could play a big role" in the new order, Isom said. American's wide-bodies are all currently Boeing planes.

American declined to say the size of its planned order. New aircraft for American would likely arrive in the early or middle of the next decade.

Up in Chicago, rival United — which has been duking it out with American at O'Hare International Airport — snatched up delivery slots for more than 100 Boeing Dreamliners in the last four years.

A future without UnitedAs Isom lays out his vision for the future of the airline, there's one path he says the carrier doesn't see as feasible.

United CEO Kirby suggested this year a merger with American, an idea the airline rebuffed.

"I spoke with Scott," Isom told CNBC. "Given history, given law, given past mergers, there wasn't anyone that we talked to, our advisors, interested parties, politicians, that said that there was any chance of this happening.

"At the end of the day, we spend time looking at things that have a chance of happening. We don't spend a lot of time pursuing impossibilities," he said.

United has a partnership with JetBlue (American had a more involved one with JetBlue in the Northeast but it was blocked by a judge on antitrust grounds in 2023). But Kirby has repeatedly said this year he's not interested in acquiring that New York airline. He also acknowledged that a merger with American won't happen without a willing partner in that carrier's management.

United, meanwhile, gets several slots at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport as early as next year under the JetBlue deal.

"Why buy the cow if you're getting the milk for free?" said Brett Snyder, who writes the Cranky Flier blog.

Isom gave a standard line from executives when CNBC asked his own appetite for possible mergers and acquisitions, saying the carrier is always on the lookout for opportunities to serve the company's customers.

For now, though, Isom said he is firmly focused on American's new chapter.

He said he gravitated toward the industry "to be involved with something where you can make a difference.

"This is this one that you never wake up in the morning or going to bed at night thinking: Did I do good for somebody or something?" he said. "You certainly had the chance to in this business."

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 19th, 2026

Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. cut its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Free Report) by 19.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 46,180 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,024 shares during the quarter. Johnson & Johnson comprises approximately 0.7% of Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc.’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $11,288,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of JNJ. Blueline Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Cresta Advisors Ltd. acquired a new position in Johnson & Johnson during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. DecisionPoint Financial LLC increased its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 104.2% during the 4th quarter. DecisionPoint Financial LLC now owns 147 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 49.0% during the 4th quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC now owns 149 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Finally, Family CFO Inc acquired a new stake in Johnson & Johnson in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. 69.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Johnson & Johnson In other news, EVP Kathryn E. Wengel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.15, for a total transaction of $2,411,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 114,288 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,560,551.20. This represents a 8.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Johnson & Johnson Here are the key news stories impacting Johnson & Johnson this week:

Positive Sentiment: Johnson & Johnson beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates, showing solid demand and execution in its core business. J&J Stock Falls Despite Strong Q2 Beat & Higher 2026 View: Here’s Why Positive Sentiment: The company raised its 2026 guidance after the report, reinforcing confidence in its growth outlook and pipeline momentum. Johnson & Johnson Raises 2026 Outlook After Q2 Earnings Beat Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim reaffirmed its Buy rating and set a $270 price target, signaling continued analyst confidence. Benzinga article on Guggenheim rating reaffirmation Positive Sentiment: Some market commentary suggests the post-earnings pullback could be an opportunity to buy JNJ on strength after a run to 52-week highs. Why Johnson and Johnson’s Earnings Dip Looks Like a Buying Opportunity Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also digesting the full Q2 earnings call transcript and several commentary pieces framing the company’s growth beyond legacy drugs and its collaboration announcements. Full Transcript: Johnson & Johnson Q2 2026 Earnings Call Negative Sentiment: Despite the earnings beat, the stock fell because MedTech results missed expectations, creating concern that one important division is lagging behind the company’s otherwise solid performance. J&J Stock Falls Despite Strong Q2 Beat & Higher 2026 View: Here’s Why Johnson & Johnson Price Performance JNJ stock opened at $252.93 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a market capitalization of $608.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.31, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $239.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $234.63. Johnson & Johnson has a twelve month low of $162.78 and a twelve month high of $269.43.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The company reported $2.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.84 by $0.06. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 21.48% and a return on equity of 32.86%. The business had revenue of $25.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. Johnson & Johnson has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.600-11.750 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Johnson & Johnson will post 11.68 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Dividend Announcement The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 25th will be issued a $1.34 dividend. This represents a $5.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 25th. Johnson & Johnson’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.11%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth JNJ has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $305.00 price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Thursday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $234.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $265.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Johnson & Johnson presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.30.

View Our Latest Analysis on JNJ

About Johnson & Johnson (Free Report)

Johnson & Johnson is a multinational healthcare company headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of products across pharmaceuticals, medical devices and previously consumer health. Founded in 1886 by the Johnson family, the company has grown into a global healthcare organization with operations and sales in many countries around the world.

The company’s pharmaceuticals business, organized largely under its Janssen research and development organization, focuses on prescription medicines across therapeutic areas such as immunology, infectious disease, oncology and neuroscience.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Johnson & Johnson Netflix May Be Cheap Enough to Tempt Buyers After Earnings Drop Delta vs. United: Which Airline Is Better Built for Higher Fuel Costs? The Market Sold Alcoa After Earnings—But It May Be Missing the Real Story Why Intuitive Surgical’s Strong Quarter Still Spooked Investors Want to see what other hedge funds are holding JNJ? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Free Report).

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Shares of Pfizer (PFE 0.22%) have fallen more than 50% from their late 2021 highs. That massive drawdown has pushed the dividend yield up to a historically high 6.9%. To put that yield into perspective, the S&P 500 index (^GSPC 1.01%) has a yield of roughly 1.1%, and the average pharmaceutical stock's yield is around 1.5%. As a dividend stock, Pfizer looks historically cheap and relatively cheap. Here's what's going on and why you might want to add this drug maker to your shortlist.

Pfizer has some problems to deal with Companies don't end up with outsize yields for no reason. Pfizer has several major patent expirations coming up. When a blockbuster drug loses patent protection, generic competition typically enters and revenues decline. This is why drug companies are always on the lookout for new drugs.

Image source: Getty Images.

On the new drug front, Pfizer hasn't been seeing the success Wall Street would like to see. Notably, it had to drop a GLP-1 weight-loss drug it was developing in early 2025. That was a public black eye, since it put the company well behind competitors.

There are very good reasons why investors are worried about Pfizer. And, notably, the dividend payout ratio is above 130%. There's also legitimate concern about the dividend's safety.

Things don't always line up in the business world There are definitely things for dividend investors to worry about with Pfizer, and conservative types may want to avoid it. However, there's really nothing out of the ordinary going on with the company. Patent expiration dates and new drug development don't always align the way a company would like. But Pfizer has a long and successful history in the drug sector, so it seems highly likely it will navigate this transition period.

Notably, after its GLP-1 mishap, Pfizer quickly announced the acquisition of a company with a more promising weight-loss drug candidate. It has other notable drugs in its pipeline as well.

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On the dividend front, the company's cash flows still cover the payment. Since dividends are paid out of cash flows, Pfizer has more wiggle room than it may seem to support the dividend (including using cash on its balance sheet and taking on additional debt). Management has also been very clear that protecting the dividend is a key priority.

Worth a risk for those willing to invest in out-of-favor stocks Risk-averse investors probably won't like Pfizer. But given the company's strong history, the moves it is making to address the totally normal headwinds it faces, and its stated commitment to the dividend, more aggressive dividend investors may find this cheap income stock compelling enough to put on their shortlists.

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 19th, 2026

Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT – Free Report) by 8.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 202,552 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,506 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $20,796,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Abbott Laboratories during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Purpose Unlimited Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Portfolio Resources Advisor Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Abound Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In ABT has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $144.00 to $143.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Leerink Partners lowered their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $106.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $118.61.

View Our Latest Stock Report on ABT

Abbott Laboratories Trading Up 1.9% Abbott Laboratories stock opened at $100.71 on Friday. Abbott Laboratories has a one year low of $81.97 and a one year high of $137.49. The business’s fifty day moving average is $89.89 and its 200 day moving average is $102.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.41 billion, a PE ratio of 32.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.52 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 11.65% and a return on equity of 17.65%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.26 EPS. Abbott Laboratories has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.380-1.46 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.450-5.60 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.48 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be given a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 15th. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is 70.59%.

Key Abbott Laboratories News Here are the key news stories impacting Abbott Laboratories this week:

Positive Sentiment: Abbott beat Q2 earnings expectations and raised 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $5.45-$5.60, signaling better profit momentum for the rest of the year. Abbott Reports Second-Quarter 2026 Results and Raises Full-Year EPS Guidance Positive Sentiment: Management pointed to stronger second-half demand across multiple businesses, including nutrition, medical devices, diagnostics, and diabetes care, which supports a faster growth profile. ABT Q2 Earnings Call Flags Stronger Second-Half Setup Positive Sentiment: Analysts turned more constructive after the results, with JPMorgan, Citi, Piper Sandler, Wells Fargo, TD Cowen, BTIG, and RBC all lifting targets or reaffirming bullish views. These Analysts Increase Their Forecasts On Abbott Following Better-Than-Expected Q2 Results Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories In other news, CFO Philip P. Boudreau purchased 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 23rd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $91.50 per share, with a total value of $201,300.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer directly owned 2,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $201,300. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Daniel J. Starks purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $92.65 per share, for a total transaction of $926,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 6,751,103 shares in the company, valued at approximately $625,489,692.95. The trade was a 0.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Profile (Free Report)

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of medical products and services. Founded in 1888, Abbott operates through multiple business areas that focus on diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and established pharmaceuticals. The company supplies hospitals, clinics, laboratories, retailers and direct-to-consumer channels with products intended to diagnose, treat and manage a wide range of health conditions.

In diagnostics, Abbott provides laboratory and point-of-care testing platforms and assays used to detect infectious diseases, chronic conditions and biomarkers; its Alinity family of instruments and rapid-test solutions are examples of this capability.

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Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO – Free Report) by 37.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,404 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,130 shares during the period. Broadcom makes up about 1.3% of Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $3,530,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fullerton Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Broadcom by 1.3% in the first quarter. Fullerton Advisors LLC now owns 1,989 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $616,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. NORTHSTAR ASSET MANAGEMENT Co increased its position in shares of Broadcom by 0.5% in the first quarter. NORTHSTAR ASSET MANAGEMENT Co now owns 5,350 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,656,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. RFG Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Broadcom by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. RFG Holdings Inc. now owns 8,499 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,631,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. Yukon Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Broadcom by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Yukon Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,501 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $774,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Planning LLC lifted its position in shares of Broadcom by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital Planning LLC now owns 4,044 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,252,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Broadcom Here are the key news stories impacting Broadcom this week:

Positive Sentiment: Standard Chartered chose Broadcom to support a long-term modernization of its global banking infrastructure, underscoring Broadcom’s role in secure private-cloud and enterprise networking solutions. Standard Chartered Selects Broadcom to Deliver Secure, Always-On Banking Services at Global Scale Positive Sentiment: Wall Street commentary continues to describe Broadcom as a core AI beneficiary, and some analysts have raised price targets even after the stock pullback. As Shares Fall, Analyst Are Boosting Their Broadcom Price Targets Neutral Sentiment: Broadcom remains a major talking point in AI-focused market coverage, with some investors viewing it as an indicator for the broader market and semiconductor cycle. Jim Cramer Says Broadcom Will Tell You When the Market Is About to Turn Negative Sentiment: Broadcom is facing renewed skepticism around valuation, with one report asking whether the AI story has made the stock too expensive. Has Broadcom Become Too Expensive for Its AI Story? Negative Sentiment: The stock is also being hit by a broader selloff in semiconductor names as investors rotate away from AI-capex winners and worry about a slowdown in chip spending. Marvell Drops 8% as AI Capex Slowdown Fears Weigh on Chips; Broadcom, AMD, and Intel Slide Negative Sentiment: Broadcom is also dealing with regulatory uncertainty after reports said it faces an EU antitrust review tied to VMware licensing changes. Broadcom (AVGO) Faces EU Antitrust Review Over VMware Licensing Changes Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of research firms recently issued reports on AVGO. Jefferies Financial Group set a $550.00 price target on shares of Broadcom and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Broadcom to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $450.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Benchmark lifted their target price on shares of Broadcom from $485.00 to $545.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $502.00 target price on shares of Broadcom and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Broadcom presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $493.24.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on AVGO

Broadcom Stock Performance Shares of NASDAQ:AVGO opened at $370.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 2.24 and a quick ratio of 2.01. Broadcom Inc. has a 1 year low of $273.00 and a 1 year high of $495.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.76 trillion, a PE ratio of 61.81, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.45. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $401.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $365.31.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 3rd. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.04. Broadcom had a return on equity of 41.61% and a net margin of 38.85%.The firm had revenue of $22.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.58 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 47.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Broadcom Inc. will post 10.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 22nd were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 22nd. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Broadcom’s payout ratio is presently 43.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Broadcom In other Broadcom news, Director Harry L. You bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $373.57 per share, with a total value of $373,570.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 38,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,369,743.62. This trade represents a 2.67% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mark David Brazeal sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $401.33, for a total transaction of $10,033,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 194,989 shares in the company, valued at $78,254,935.37. This trade represents a 11.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 61,644 shares of company stock valued at $24,016,214. Insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Broadcom Profile (Free Report)

Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) is a global technology company that designs, develops and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions for a broad range of markets. The company’s semiconductor business provides components and systems for wired and wireless communications, enterprise and cloud storage, networking and broadband access, serving original equipment manufacturers, cloud service providers, telecommunications carriers and industrial customers worldwide. Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, California, and operates globally with research, development and sales organizations across North America, Europe and Asia.

On the semiconductor side, Broadcom’s portfolio includes system-on-chip (SoC) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) solutions, radio-frequency and connectivity components, Ethernet switching and PHY devices, storage adapters and controllers, optical transceivers and other networking silicon.

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Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 19th, 2026

AIA Group Ltd grew its stake in shares of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDNS – Free Report) by 181.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 60,416 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 38,957 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Cadence Design Systems were worth $16,788,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of CDNS. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cadence Design Systems by 933.3% in the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 93 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cadence Design Systems by 860.0% during the 1st quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 96 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Cadence Design Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Swiss RE Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Cadence Design Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Lodestone Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cadence Design Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. 84.85% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Cadence Design Systems Here are the key news stories impacting Cadence Design Systems this week:

Positive Sentiment: Benchmark upgraded Cadence to Strong Buy, and recent brokerage commentary put the average price target around $387, indicating Wall Street still sees upside from current levels. Zacks.com Positive Sentiment: Cadence recently launched new AI products, including the AuraStack AI Super Agent for PCB and advanced packaging design, reinforcing the company’s growth narrative in AI-driven design workflows. Business Wire article Positive Sentiment: The company also announced a partnership with Rapidus to advance agentic AI for advanced SoC design, which could support longer-term demand for Cadence’s software tools. Business Wire article Neutral Sentiment: Cadence is due to report second-quarter results on July 27, and some of the weakness may reflect investors taking profits or reducing exposure ahead of earnings. MSN article Negative Sentiment: Shares are also being hit by broader fears that Moonshot and other AI-driven tools could disrupt the EDA industry, pressuring Cadence and peers like Synopsys on concerns about future pricing power and competition. MSN article Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark started coverage on Cadence Design Systems in a research note on Wednesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $450.00 price target for the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Cadence Design Systems from $381.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Cadence Design Systems from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Cadence Design Systems from $395.00 to $432.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Cadence Design Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $393.65.

Get Our Latest Research Report on CDNS

Insider Buying and Selling In other news, VP Paul Scannell sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $339.00, for a total transaction of $3,559,500.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 33,946 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,507,694. This represents a 23.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director James D. Plummer sold 1,511 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.34, for a total transaction of $576,204.74. Following the transaction, the director owned 23,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,871,493.76. This trade represents a 6.10% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 157,057 shares of company stock valued at $60,272,277. Insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Cadence Design Systems Stock Down 9.5% Shares of NASDAQ CDNS opened at $330.11 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $91.05 billion, a PE ratio of 76.95, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a fifty day moving average of $376.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $328.57. Cadence Design Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $262.75 and a 52-week high of $416.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ:CDNS – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The software maker reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.05. Cadence Design Systems had a net margin of 21.18% and a return on equity of 28.44%. The business had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.57 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Cadence Design Systems has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.850-7.950 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.020-2.080 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cadence Design Systems, Inc. will post 6.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Cadence Design Systems (Free Report)

Cadence Design Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: CDNS) is a global provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software, hardware and intellectual property used to design and verify advanced semiconductor chips, systems-on-chip (SoCs), printed circuit boards (PCBs) and packaging. Headquartered in San Jose, California and founded in 1988, Cadence serves semiconductor companies, original equipment manufacturers and system designers across the globe, helping customers accelerate design cycles and manage the complexity of modern integrated systems.

The company’s offerings span software tools for digital, custom/analog and mixed-signal design, verification and signoff, as well as solutions for system-level modeling, thermal and signal integrity analysis, and PCB and package design.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Cadence Design Systems Netflix May Be Cheap Enough to Tempt Buyers After Earnings Drop Delta vs. United: Which Airline Is Better Built for Higher Fuel Costs? The Market Sold Alcoa After Earnings—But It May Be Missing the Real Story Why Intuitive Surgical’s Strong Quarter Still Spooked Investors Want to see what other hedge funds are holding CDNS? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDNS – Free Report).

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Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 19th, 2026

Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE:CW – Free Report) by 3.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,109 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,522 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. owned about 0.11% of Curtiss-Wright worth $27,318,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CW. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Curtiss-Wright in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in Curtiss-Wright by 53.8% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 60 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Curtiss-Wright by 25.9% during the fourth quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in Curtiss-Wright in the fourth quarter valued at $42,000. Finally, Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Curtiss-Wright in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors own 82.71% of the company’s stock.

Curtiss-Wright Trading Down 1.0% CW stock opened at $708.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $746.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $700.32. Curtiss-Wright Corporation has a one year low of $463.00 and a one year high of $808.16. The stock has a market cap of $26.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.86.

Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The aerospace company reported $3.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $913.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $863.83 million. Curtiss-Wright had a net margin of 14.17% and a return on equity of 20.00%. The company’s revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.82 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Curtiss-Wright Corporation will post 15.23 EPS for the current year.

Curtiss-Wright Dividend Announcement The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Curtiss-Wright’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $724.00 price objective on shares of Curtiss-Wright in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Curtiss-Wright from $775.00 to $793.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Weiss Ratings cut Curtiss-Wright from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $860.00 price target on shares of Curtiss-Wright in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $870.00 price objective on Curtiss-Wright in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Curtiss-Wright currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $766.33.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Curtiss-Wright

Insider Buying and Selling at Curtiss-Wright In other news, CEO Lynn M. Bamford sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $721.72, for a total transaction of $1,804,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 48,134 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,739,270.48. This trade represents a 4.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Gary A. Ogilby sold 399 shares of Curtiss-Wright stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $721.95, for a total value of $288,058.05. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 2,172 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,568,075.40. The trade was a 15.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 3,119 shares of company stock valued at $2,257,998 in the last three months. 0.51% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Curtiss-Wright Company Profile (Free Report)

Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) is a diversified, global engineering company that designs, manufactures and services highly engineered products and integrated systems for the aerospace, defense, and industrial markets. Its offerings span a range of electromechanical, motion control and flow control technologies, including flight control and actuation systems, sensors and avionics components, pumps and valves, power conversion and heat exchangers, and platform integration solutions for marine and ground systems.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Curtiss-Wright Netflix May Be Cheap Enough to Tempt Buyers After Earnings Drop Delta vs. United: Which Airline Is Better Built for Higher Fuel Costs? The Market Sold Alcoa After Earnings—But It May Be Missing the Real Story Why Intuitive Surgical’s Strong Quarter Still Spooked Investors Want to see what other hedge funds are holding CW? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE:CW – Free Report).

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