Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

9.7.2026 19:07

Po volatilním průběhu v předchozím dni jsou dnes americké indexy nakonec vytaženy do zelených čísel. Převážně jsou podpořeny sektorem AI, který předchozí den nejvíce ztrácel. Strach z geopolitické eskalace na blízkém východě se postupně během dne vytrácel a trh toto riziko z části absorbuje. Je to hlavně díky poklesu cen ropy. O to se postaral prezident Trump, který sdělil, že americká strana byla kontaktována Íránem s tím, že se chtějí dohodnout po dalších amerických úderech. Černé zlato tak ustoupilo ze včerejších zisků a WTI padá o -2,11 %. Zároveň se investoři začínají soustředit na blížící se výsledkovou sezonu a tento okolní geopolitický ruch krapet odsouvají do ústraní.

Nejvíce rostoucím sektorem jsou tedy dnes technologie, a to konkrétně sektor AI. Již nějakou dobu je na trhu viditelné přelévání kapitálu mezi takzvanými hyperscaleři a čipovými společnostmi. Dnes to jsou čipové firmy, které se těší vyšší poptávce. Příkladem mohou být společnosti AMD +6,65 % a Micron +7,22 % či volatilnější ARM +11,11 %.

Z očekávaných výsledků se příliš netěšili investoři společnosti Pepsi (-3,29 %), která představila smíšené výsledky. Nepotěšils především čísla zisku EPS, přestože tržby byly nad odhady.

Uklidnění na trhu svědčí i cenným kovům, kde zlato přidává +1,34 % a stříbro dokonce +3,7 %. Lehce v zisku se drží i kryptoměny. Jejich hlavní zástupce Bitcoin přidává +0,98 %.

Index Dow Jones +0,3 % na 52507,56 b.
S&P 500 +0,68 % na 7533,74 b.
Nasdaq Composite +0,99 % na 26126,03 b.

Index S&P 500 +0,68 % na 7533,74 b. Nejsilnější sektory S&P Změna Nejslabší sektory S&P Změna Informační technologie +1,7 % Nezbytná spotřeba -1,6 % Finanční sektor +1,1 % Energie -1,4 % Zbytná spotřeba +0,8 % Komunikační služby -0,8 % Nejsilnější akcie S&P Změna Nejslabší akcie S&P Změna Lumentum Holdings (LITE) +12 % Paramount Skydance Corp (PSKY) -4,6 % Sandisk Corp (SNDK) +9,2 % APA Corp (APA) -4,2 % Flex (FLEX) +7,7 % Costco Wholesale Corp (COST) -4,1 % Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) +7,4 % Palantir Technologies (PLTR) -3,7 % Lam Research Corp (LRCX) +7,2 % McKesson Corp (MCK) -3,6 %
Jan Pazourek, Fio banka, a.s.

Key Takeaways Levi Strauss exceeded Q2 earnings and revenue estimates and raised its fiscal 2026 outlook.LEVI grew DTC revenues 11%, with e-commerce up 19% and broad-based international momentum.Levi Strauss expanded adjusted EBIT margin, reduced inventories 7% and increased its dividend 14%. Levi Strauss & Co. (LEVI - Free Report) reported strong second-quarter fiscal 2026 results, with earnings and revenues surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The denim apparel maker continued to benefit from healthy consumer demand, robust Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) momentum, broad-based international growth and improving profitability. Management raised its fiscal 2026 revenue and earnings outlook.

The global denim leader reported adjusted earnings of 28 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 24 cents by 16.7%. The bottom line also increased 27.3% from the 22 cents reported in the year-ago quarter.

Quarterly net revenues increased 8% year over year to $1.56 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.52 billion by 2.5%. Organic revenues advanced 5.7%, reflecting balanced growth across regions, channels and product categories.

Despite the earnings beat and higher full-year guidance, LEVI shares declined 5.5% following the earnings release. While management reaffirmed confidence in the business and highlighted broad-based growth, the company also noted that tariff and foreign exchange pressures remained headwinds and were embedded in its updated fiscal 2026 outlook.

LEVI's Quarterly Performance: Key Metrics & InsightsLevi Strauss' DTC business remained the primary growth engine during the quarter. DTC revenues increased 10.8% on a reported basis and 8.4% organically, benefiting from higher store productivity and strong digital momentum. E-commerce revenues climbed 19% on a reported basis and 17% organically, while DTC comparable sales advanced 6%. The DTC channel accounted for 51% of total company revenues during the second quarter.

Wholesale revenues grew 5.3% on a reported basis and 3.1% organically, reflecting healthy demand across retail partners. Beyond Yoga also performed strongly, with revenues increasing 15.8% year over year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the DTC and wholesale channels was pegged at $805 million and $734 million, respectively, for the fiscal second quarter.

Management emphasized that the company's balanced growth strategy continued to generate momentum across wholesale and DTC, U.S. and international markets, women's and men's businesses, as well as tops and bottoms. Categories beyond denim bottoms contributed roughly one-third of quarterly revenue growth, highlighting Levi Strauss' transformation into a broader denim lifestyle company.

LEVI’s Regional Performance Stays BroadThe Americas generated revenues of $815.5 million, increasing 9% on a reported basis and 6.8% organically. Within the region, the U.S. business grew 5%, supported by continued strength across both DTC and wholesale channels.

Europe reported revenues of $420.2 million, up 4.2% on a reported basis but down 0.8% organically due to the timing impact of last year's distribution center transition. Excluding this temporary disruption, underlying demand remained healthy, supported by strong DTC performance across key markets.

Asia continued to outperform, with revenues increasing 10.1% on a reported basis and 11.9% organically to $283.7 million, reflecting double-digit growth across both DTC and wholesale channels. Management also highlighted strong performances across Turkey, Japan and India, while noting early signs of improvement in China. Mexico remained another standout market with 15% growth and Latin America also delivered double-digit gains across Brazil, Colombia and the Andes region.

Levi Strauss’ Brand & Category MomentumThe Levi's brand generated $1.46 billion in revenues during the quarter, increasing 8.1% on a reported basis and 5.6% organically. Total Levi's Brands revenues rose 7.8% on a reported basis and 5.5% organically, while Levi Strauss Signature posted modest growth.

Women's revenues advanced 11%, supported by continued demand across seasonal assortments and an expanding lifestyle offering. Bottoms revenues increased 6%, driven by core fits and looser silhouettes, while shorts grew 11%. Tops revenues increased 5%, or 7% excluding the European distribution center transition, benefiting from strength in blouses, wovens, sweaters and polos. Per management, encouraging traction in its premium Blue Tab collection as Levi Strauss expanded beyond its traditional denim franchise.

The company added nearly 3 million new loyalty members during the quarter, bringing total global membership to almost 50 million. Meanwhile, e-commerce represents about 12% of company revenues despite growing nearly 60% over the past three years, highlighting a significant long-term growth opportunity.

LEVI's Margins & ExpensesGross profit increased to $979.1 million from $905.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin expanded 10 basis points to 62.7%, backed by the lower product costs and pricing actions, partly offset by tariffs and foreign exchange headwinds.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $843.4 million compared with $791 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted SG&A increased 6.5% to $837.9 million, mainly due to higher selling expenses and unfavorable foreign exchange impacts. The adjusted SG&A margin declined 80 basis points year over year to 53.6% in the second quarter. Disciplined cost management helped adjusted EBIT margin expand 70 basis points to 9%.

Levi Strauss' Financial SnapshotsLEVI ended the second quarter with $849.3 million in cash and cash equivalents and total liquidity of approximately $1.8 billion, providing ample financial flexibility. Total inventories declined 7% year over year, reflecting disciplined inventory management.

Levi Strauss returned $53.9 million to shareholders through dividends during the quarter and continues to have $240 million available under its share repurchase authorization. Adjusted free cash flow increased nearly 60% year over year to $230.9 million. The company announced a quarterly dividend of 16 cents per share, representing a 14% increase from the prior year.

LEVI’s Q3 GuidanceThe company expects continued business momentum in the third quarter, with reported and organic net revenues projected to increase 4%-5% year over year, despite no anticipated benefit from foreign exchange.

Gross margin is expected to expand by approximately 10 basis points to 61.8%, even with an estimated 70-basis-point foreign exchange headwind. Adjusted EBIT margin is projected to improve to 11.9%, reflecting continued operating leverage and disciplined cost management.

Adjusted EPS is expected to be in the range of 34-36 cents, including a 2-3 cents per share headwind from a higher tax rate and the impact of foreign exchange on gross margin. Management expects margin expansion to continue through the second half, with a more meaningful improvement anticipated in the fourth quarter.

What to Expect From LEVI in FY’26?Following its strong first-half performance, Levi Strauss raised its fiscal 2026 outlook. Management said the company is taking into account the entire second-quarter beat into its updated guidance, reflecting confidence in continued business momentum.

The company now expects reported revenue growth of 7%-7.5%, up from the previous 5.5%-6.5% forecast. Organic revenue growth is projected at 5.5%-6%, compared with the earlier 4.5%-5.5% range.

Gross margin is expected to expand by approximately 10 basis points, supported by a favorable sales mix, including higher DTC sales, continued growth in the women's category, stronger international performance, lower promotional activity and ongoing cost-efficiency initiatives. The company expects an adjusted EBIT margin of 12% for the full year.

Adjusted EPS guidance was raised to $1.46-$1.52 from the previous $1.42-$1.48 range, despite incorporating an estimated 4-cent-per-share headwind from a higher tax rate. The outlook assumes current tariff levels remain in place and does not anticipate any significant deterioration in macroeconomic conditions, inflation, supply-chain disruptions or currency movements.

The company continues to expect 50-60 net new store openings during fiscal 2026, with most openings planned for the second half. Management reaffirmed confidence in achieving its long-term objectives of $10 billion in annual revenues and a 15% operating margin, supported by profitable growth and disciplined execution.

LEVI Stock Past Three-Month Performance

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Shares of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have risen 7.8% over the past three months against the industry’s 1.2% decline.

Other Solid Picks in RetailGenesco Inc. (GCO - Free Report) is a Nashville-based specialty retail and branded company. It sells footwear and accessories in retail stores. The company flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Genesco’s current fiscal-year earnings indicates growth of 55.2% from the year-ago actuals. GCO delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 3.8%.

Designer Brands Inc. (DBI - Free Report) designs, produces and retails footwear and accessories. It offers shoes, boots, sandals, sneakers, socks, handbags and accessories. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Designer Brands’ current fiscal-year earnings and sales suggests growth of 137.5% and 0.5%, respectively, from the year-ago actuals. DBI delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 112.8%.

Tapestry, Inc. (TPR - Free Report) is the designer and marketer of fine accessories and gifts for women and men in the United States and internationally. The company carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Tapestry’s current fiscal-year earnings and sales indicates growth of 36.5% and 13.9%, respectively, from the year-ago actuals. TPR delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 15.6%.

Key Takeaways VKTX is attracting takeover speculation as its expanding obesity pipeline boosts strategic appeal.Viking Therapeutics advanced VK2735 into late-stage studies and added obesity candidate VK3019.VKTX expects key VK2735 maintenance dosing data in Q3 2026, followed by oral data in H1 2027. Although Viking Therapeutics (VKTX - Free Report) isn’t officially on the auction block, investors are increasingly viewing it as a potential acquisition target. This perception stems from the company's rapidly expanding obesity franchise, driven by the late-stage development of VK2735, the addition of a new obesity candidate and an upcoming clinical data readout that could further bolster investor confidence.

Why Is Everyone Talking About VKTX?The renewed takeover speculation isn't driven by reports of an imminent deal. Instead, it reflects Viking's growing strategic value as the company continues to strengthen and diversify its obesity pipeline.

VK2735 remains the company's lead obesity candidate and primary value driver.  This dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist has delivered encouraging efficacy across both subcutaneous (SC) and oral formulations, positioning it as one of the more promising late-stage obesity therapies currently under development. While the SC version is currently being evaluated in two phase III studies, the oral formulation is on track to enter late-stage development later this year.

Viking has further strengthened its obesity franchise with the initiation of a phase I study evaluating VK3019, a novel dual amylin and calcitonin receptor agonist. The addition of a second obesity candidate demonstrates the company's strategy of building a broader franchise rather than relying on a single asset.

Investors are also closely watching an upcoming data readout from an ongoing maintenance dosing study on VK2735, which could serve as another important catalyst. The study is evaluating multiple maintenance regimens, including monthly SC, weekly oral and daily oral dosing, to determine whether the weight loss achieved with weekly SC treatment can be sustained over the long term. Viking expects to report SC maintenance data in the third quarter of 2026, followed by oral maintenance data in the first half of 2027.

From the viewpoint of large-cap biotech/pharma companies looking to strengthen their presence in the fast-growing obesity market, Viking Therapeutics represents an attractive strategic asset. Acquiring the company would allow a potential buyer to significantly accelerate its obesity pipeline compared with developing a therapy from the ground up. Such a deal could also benefit VKTX, as the clinical-stage biotech could leverage a larger partner's commercial infrastructure, manufacturing capabilities and global distribution network to maximize the reach of its obesity portfolio following potential regulatory approvals.

Competition Heating Up in the Obesity SpaceThe obesity market has garnered significant attention in recent years, as both Eli Lilly (LLY - Free Report) and Novo Nordisk (NVO - Free Report) dominate the space with their respective blockbuster obesity drugs, Zepbound and Wegovy. The obesity market in the United States is expected to reach $100 billion by 2030. To capitalize on this opportunity, both companies have expanded their manufacturing capacity while continuing to invest heavily in next-generation obesity therapies.

Although competition initially centered on once-weekly injectable therapies, the focus has increasingly shifted toward more convenient oral alternatives. Earlier this year, Novo Nordisk launched an oral version of Wegovy, while Eli Lilly introduced Foundayo, marking a significant step toward improving patient convenience and broadening access to obesity treatment.

The competitive landscape is now evolving beyond traditional GLP-1 therapies. Both companies are advancing next-generation candidates designed to deliver greater efficacy and improved patient convenience through multi-target mechanisms. Among them, Eli Lilly's retatrutide, a triple agonist targeting the GLP-1, GIP and glucagon receptors, has demonstrated approximately 28% weight loss in late-stage studies—an efficacy level previously associated primarily with bariatric surgery.

Novo Nordisk is advancing its next-generation obesity pipeline. It has submitted a regulatory filing seeking approval for CagriSema injection, a follow-up drug to Wegovy, while another candidate, amycretin, has shown strong weight-loss efficacy in a phase II study and is expected to enter late-stage development soon.

VKTX’s Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of Viking Therapeutics have outperformed the industry year to date, as seen in the chart below.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

From a valuation standpoint, VKTX is trading at a premium to the industry. Based on the price-to-book value (P/B) ratio, the company’s shares currently trade at 9.24 times trailing book value, higher than the industry’s 3.69 times. The stock is also trading above its five-year mean of 4.35.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Estimates for Viking’s 2026 loss per share have widened from $4.67 to $4.70 in the past 60 days. During the same timeframe, loss estimates for 2027 have increased from $4.40 to $4.47.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Viking Therapeutics currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

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

Intellia gains 38% in a month as additional positive phase III lonvo-z data and other pipeline progress boost investor optimism.

A view shows the logo of Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

CompaniesLA PAZ, July 9 (Reuters) - Bolivia will launch technical talks next week with Brazil's state-run oil firm Petrobras (PETR3.SA), opens new tab on its possible return to exploration and production in the country, while the ​company is also willing to help restructure state energy firm YPFB, Energy Minister ‌Marcelo Blanco said on Thursday.

The government of President Rodrigo Paz is looking to reopen Bolivia to energy investment and revive trade with key partners such as Brazil after years of declining gas output helped drain hard-currency reserves ​and turn a former energy exporter into a country hit by recurring fuel shortages.

The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here.

"The goal ​is for them to produce again, to operate here in Bolivia, to ⁠explore, and to have a strategic partnership," Blanco told reporters, adding that Petrobras was open ​to supporting YPFB's restructuring with its past crisis-management experience.

Blanco said the two sides agreed after a ​meeting on Wednesday to set up technical working groups starting next week to evaluate Petrobras' renewed participation across the sector.

He did not provide investment figures or a timeline.

"I am not going to give figures. I will ​not be irresponsible. I never give amounts or exact dates," Blanco said, adding that Bolivia ​was also seeking to work with other investors interested in the country.

YPFB President Sebastian Daroca also said a ‌firm ⁠was expected to submit its final report next week on Bolivia's oil and gas reserves through the end of last year.

He said the government planned to use the figures to discuss how it could boost output in coming years.

The report is being closely watched by analysts and industry ​groups because Bolivia has ​faced longstanding criticism ⁠over delays in publishing updated reserve data, leaving uncertainty over the size of the country's remaining oil and gas resources.

Petrobras halted investments in Bolivia ​after former President Evo Morales nationalized the sector in 2006. Still, ​the Brazilian company ⁠has not been completely absent from Bolivian gas business, as it has been authorized to import Bolivian natural gas into Brazil through border entry points between the two countries.

In March, Paz said ⁠Bolivia wanted ​to restart its relationship with Petrobras under new and clearer ​energy regulations designed to lure foreign capital back to the country after more than a decade of declining gas output.

Reporting ​by Daniel Ramos; Writing by Michael Susin in Barcelona; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Kylie Madry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

LIVINGSTON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CoreWeave, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRWV), The Essential Cloud for AI™, today announced that Gartner named it a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud AI Infrastructure. From training the largest foundation models to inference, the gap between infrastructure built for AI and infrastructure retrofitted for AI has become the defining constraint for the teams pushing the frontier. The demands of the industry expose every layer of the stack – training runs.

© metamorworks / iStock via Getty Images

The AI infrastructure trade has minted winners across the neocloud sector, but one name has been conspicuously left out. CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) has fallen 40.57% over the past year, even as Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS | NBIS Price Prediction) has surged 359.62% and IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) has climbed 154.62%. Even NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), CoreWeave’s largest partner, is up 27.74% over the same stretch.

The Capital Intensity Problem CoreWeave’s Q1 2026 report showed revenue of $2.08 billion, up 111.69% year over year, and a revenue backlog of $99.4 billion. Yet the net loss widened to $740 million, capex hit $7.7 billion in a single quarter, and interest expense doubled to $536 million. Total liabilities reached $50.8 billion, and free cash flow ran to negative $4.7 billion.

CEO Michael Intrator framed the growth story on the earnings call: “We added more backlog in a single quarter than most AI cloud platforms have in their history.” Gross margin, however, compressed from 78% to 68% over five quarters, and adjusted operating margin fell to 1%. Investors also noted a securities fraud class action alleging concealed data center construction delays. Reddit sentiment turned bearish (scores 35 to 42) after the report.

Peers Showing Operating Leverage Nebius flipped adjusted EBITDA positive to $129.5 million in Q2 2026, targeting a ~40% adjusted EBITDA margin for the year on $3.0B to $3.4B in revenue guidance. CEO Arkady Volozh described the strategy: “We are not simply responding to where the industry stands today; we have the knowledge and experience to build the infrastructure, tools, and capabilities for where it will be tomorrow.” Nebius’s market cap now exceeds CoreWeave’s.

IREN, meanwhile, converted its Bitcoin footprint into an AI Cloud platform, signing a $3.40 billion five-year NVIDIA contract with up to $2.10 billion in NVIDIA investment. CEO Daniel Roberts noted, “There are no idle GPUs…all of our operational capacity is fully contracted.” For readers hunting for exposure to picks-and-shovels names benefiting from the buildout, our AI Boom Suppliers research walks through the supplier layer feeding these hyperscalers.

Can CoreWeave Close the Gap? NVIDIA’s $2 billion equity investment and a partnership targeting 5+ GW of AI factories by 2030 remain the strongest structural anchor. Jensen Huang has called the AI factory buildout “the largest infrastructure expansion in human history.” Wall Street analysts hold an average price target of $142.29, implying 53.83% upside from current levels, with 24 Buy ratings against 11 Hold and 2 Sell.

Management projects margin recovery to a low double-digit adjusted operating margin by Q4 2026 and $30 billion+ annualized run rate by 2027. Whether the market rewards that trajectory depends on execution against the debt stack rather than another backlog headline.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)---- $BBAI--BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI), a specialized defense and security technology company providing mission-ready AI, today announced that Pangiam Threat Detection has received Dutch national approval from the Netherlands' National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security following testing by TNO, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, an internationally recognized applied research institute and aviation security test center headquartered in The Hag.

Key Takeaways Silicon Motion expands enterprise SSD offerings with its MonTitan controller platform.SIMO supports PCIe Gen5 and NVMe with high IOPS, low latency and advanced data protection.Silicon Motion provides firmware and reference kits to speed SSD development and product launches. Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (SIMO - Free Report) is a leading provider of NAND flash controllers and has expanded its footprint in the enterprise storage market with advanced Solid-State Drive (SSD) controller solutions. The company develops controller technology that enables storage vendors to build high-performance enterprise SSDs for servers, cloud platforms and hyperscale data centers.

Silicon Motion's enterprise storage portfolio is led by its MonTitan enterprise SSD controller platform. Designed for hyperscale data centers, cloud infrastructure and AI applications, the platform supports PCIe Gen5 and NVMe technologies, delivering high capacity, low latency and high input/output operations per second (IOPS). It incorporates advanced security, data protection and error correction features to improve the reliability and performance of enterprise SSDs.

The company also develops enterprise firmware and reference design kits that help SSD manufacturers reduce development time and accelerate product launches. Its controller-focused business model enables collaboration with multiple NAND flash suppliers and storage vendors, delivering flexible controller solutions that can be integrated into a wide range of enterprise SSDs.

With its next-generation enterprise SSD controller platform, Silicon Motion is well-positioned to benefit from the growing demand for AI, cloud computing and enterprise storage infrastructure.

How Are Competitors Advancing in the Enterprise Storage Market?Silicon Motion faces competition from Seagate Technology Holdings plc (STX - Free Report) and Micron Technology, Inc. (MU - Free Report) . Seagate is expanding its enterprise storage business to support the growing demand from AI and cloud data centers. The company is advancing its Mozaic platform to increase storage density, improve power efficiency and lower data center operating costs. Seagate is expanding the deployment of HAMR-based Exos hard drives to help enterprise customers store more data within the same data center footprint.

Micron introduced high-capacity SSDs to help enterprise customers store more data while reducing power and space requirements. The company continues to expand its enterprise SSD portfolio with high-performance drives based on its latest NAND technology. Micron is enhancing SSD performance and power efficiency to meet the growing storage demands of AI, cloud and enterprise data centers.

SIMO’s Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesSilicon Motion shares have skyrocketed 319.4% over the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 218.8%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 31.61 forward earnings, higher than 13.5 for the industry.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Earnings estimates for 2026 have increased 1.3% to $8.48 over the past 60 days, while those for 2027 have also increased 4% to $10.87.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Silicon Motion stock currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Sandisk (SNDK +8.80%) stock jumped 6.4% through 10:30 a.m. ET Thursday after Reuters reported the NAND memory maker has signed a "multi-year" deal to supply NAND flash memory to Meta Platforms (META +1.80%).

Meta stock itself is down slightly on the news.

Image source: Getty Images.

Details, please Sandisk isn't the only beneficiary of the deal, with Meta reported to be splashing out cash on DRAM from Samsung and fiber optic cables from Sumitomo Electric as well, as it builds out its own artificial intelligence computing infrastructure. But as the only company of the three trading on the Nasdaq, it's the most obvious beneficiary -- and so it's the one investors are buying today.

Additional beneficiaries probably include Broadcom (AVGO +3.06%), which is helping Meta to design the Iris AI chips it will use in its data warehouses, and also Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM +1.05%), which will contract-manufacture the chips.

Note that all of these companies are currently keeping mum, with none of them officially confirming the details of the Reuters report -- but adding credence to the report, Broadcom and TSMC stocks are both up as well.

Today's Change

(

8.80

%) $

152.04

Current Price

$

1,879.22

What this means for Sandisk stock Lacking official confirmation and details on the amount of money involved in this rumored contract, it's hard to say precisely how big a deal this is for Sandisk in particular -- but it could be significant. Meta is reportedly planning to spend as much as $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year -- more than the $136.6 billion it's expected to bring in via cash from operations, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

It makes sense that with so much AI cash sloshing in its direction, Sandisk stock would be making a very big move today -- and it is.

Rich Smith has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Broadcom, Meta Platforms, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

CHANTILLY, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)---- $AMTM #Amentum--Amentum has been named to the list of America's Best Companies 2026 by TIME Magazine.

New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - July 9, 2026) - Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a nationally recognized investor-rights law firm, announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Futu Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: FUTU) and certain of its officers.

This lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Futu securities between May 24, 2023 and May 27, 2026, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/FUTU.

Futu Case Details

The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that:

Futu was not in compliance with the requirements of the China Securities Regulatory Commission ("CSRC"), including because Futu continued to conduct securities business, public fund sales business, and futures business in mainland China without obtaining the requisite licenses or approval; as a result, Futu was reasonably likely to face regulatory penalties, including the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and other penalties; and as a result of the foregoing, Futu's financial results were overstated; and as a result of the foregoing, defendants' positive statements about Futu's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.What's Next for Futu Investors?

A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint, you can visit the firm's site: bgandg.com/FUTU, or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Client Relations Manager, Nathan Miller, of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 917-590-0911. If you suffered a loss in Futu you have until August 25, 2026, to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as lead plaintiff.

No Cost to Futu Investors

We, Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman LLC, represent investors in class actions on a contingency fee basis. That means we will ask the court to reimburse us for out-of-pocket expenses and attorneys' fees, usually a percentage of the total recovery, only if we are successful.

Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC for Futu Securities Class Action?

Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide. More at www.bgandg.com

"Our practice centers on restoring investor capital and ensuring corporate accountability, which serves to uphold the essential integrity of the marketplace," said Peretz Bronstein, Founding Partner of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Instagram.

Attorney advertising.
Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/303316

Source: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC

Ready to Announce with Confidence? Send us a message and a member of our TMX Newsfile team will contact you to discuss your needs.

Contact Us

Key Takeaways Seagate is benefiting from AI-driven storage demand, supporting higher revenue growth and margin expansion.STX is advancing HAMR with Mozaic drives, targeting higher-capacity enterprise HDDs through 2027.STX is boosting shareholder returns with debt reduction, dividends, buybacks and strong cash flow. The AI boom has reshaped the technology landscape, creating massive demand not only for GPUs and cloud infrastructure but also for data storage solutions. As enterprises generate and retain unprecedented amounts of AI training and inference data, storage has become a critical piece of the AI value chain.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of this trend has been Seagate Technology Holdings plc (STX - Free Report) , surging an impressive 505.6% over the past year. It has outpaced the Zacks Computer-Integrated Systems industry, the Zacks Computer & Technology sector and the S&P 500’s run of 218.8%, 34.4%, and 23.1%, respectively, in the same period.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

STX’s shares have exceeded its industry peers like International Business Machines Corporation (IBM - Free Report) , but lagged HDD behemoth and its direct competitor Western Digital Corporation (WDC - Free Report) and storage rival Micron Technology (MU - Free Report) . WDC, MU and IBM have gained 751.4%, 676.2% and 4.1%, respectively, during the same time frame.

STX remains one of the world's leading manufacturers of enterprise HDDs and has been aggressively developing next-generation high-capacity drives specifically designed for AI data centers. The company boasts a 52-week high of $1,145. Nonetheless, such an extraordinary rally naturally raises an important question for investors: Can Seagate continue climbing, or has the market already priced in most of the opportunity?

Accelerating AI Infrastructure Spending Fuels STX’s ExpansionAI is driving an explosion in data storage. As hyperscale cloud providers continue expanding AI infrastructure, they increasingly rely on a combination of SSDs for active workloads and HDDs for large-scale data storage. This industry trend plays directly into Seagate's strengths. Major cloud providers, including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta Platforms, continue investing tens of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure. As they expand AI data centers, demand for enterprise storage is rising, creating a strong long-term growth opportunity for Seagate.

Management highlighted that the company is entering a “new era of structural growth” driven by strong AI-led demand, rising adoption of Mozaic products and disciplined execution focused on expanding margins, cash flow and long-term value. While SSDs dominate high-speed applications, HDDs remain significantly more cost-effective for bulk storage—especially critical in hyperscale data centers supporting AI infrastructure. Seagate is well-positioned to capture this expanding opportunity through a technology strategy focused on increasing areal density rather than unit volumes, enabling a more capital- and manufacturing-efficient path to scale while improving cost and power efficiency per terabyte. This supports its target of mid-20% exabyte growth.

HAMR Technology Gives STX a Competitive EdgeInvestment in HAMR technology is STX’s key competitive advantage. Seagate’s focus on areal density and HAMR technology supports capacity growth and cost efficiency, with new product generations planned. Mozaic 4, second-generation HAMR, delivers up to 44TB per drive, 30% more capacity than the first generation. Mozaic 4 shipments began in late March and are expected to command 70% of HAMR shipments by the end of fiscal 2027. Mozaic 5 is in development, targeting 50TB capacity, with qualification shipments in late 2027. HAMR exabyte crossover is expected by the end of 2026. The focus is on increasing capacity per unit rather than unit volume, leveraging technology to improve aerial density.

Second-generation HAMR enables continued growth, with third-generation drives with 50TB capacity expected by the end of next year. Technology innovations include laser, photonic circuitry and media improvements, with minimal impact on the bill of materials. Seagate's strategy is built on durable storage demand, technology leadership and disciplined execution. Rising AI-driven data creation is boosting demand for cost- and energy-efficient, high-capacity HDDs, while its Mozaic platform and HAMR technology strengthen its competitive position. Backed by build-to-order contracts, pricing discipline and long-term supply agreements, Seagate is improving margin visibility and profitability.

Strong hyperscaler investment and sustained nearline storage demand have prompted the company to raise its annual revenue growth outlook to at least 20%, with capacity largely committed through 2027. Seagate's disciplined pricing strategy, supported by build-to-order contracts, provides greater revenue visibility and margin stability. Strong year-over-year and sequential price increases reflect robust demand, while most pricing for fiscal 2027 is already locked in with a significant portion of capacity allocated over the next four quarters. This approach is expected to support sequential revenue and profit growth throughout fiscal 2027, with management anticipating stable pricing trends rather than further acceleration.

Seagate's margins continue to outperform expectations, driven by strong demand, a favorable product mix and technology-led cost efficiencies. Incremental gross margins have exceeded the company's 50% target, supported by higher-capacity drives, improved yields and greater production efficiency. Management expects further margin expansion as Mozaic 5 and other technology advancements enhance cost and performance.

Strong Cash Returns Enhance the Investment CaseConsistent free cash flow generation strengthens Seagate's balance sheet and provides flexibility for future investments. Seagate also rewards shareholders through dividends. The company has maintained an attractive dividend policy while continuing to invest in product innovation. For income-focused investors, this provides an additional layer of return beyond potential share-price appreciation.

Seagate is using its strong cash flow to reduce debt while returning capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. After retiring $641 million in debt last quarter, the company plans to reduce its remaining convertible notes further, expand buybacks and continue investing in growth, reinforcing its commitment to long-term shareholder value. It will maintain capital discipline while continuing the transition and ramp-up of HAMR technology, with fiscal 2026 capital spending expected to remain within its target range of 4–6% of revenue.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

However, investors should remain aware of several risks. The HDD industry remains cyclical, making shipments vulnerable to customer inventory corrections, slower enterprise spending and weaker PC demand. Declining SSD prices could also intensify competition, although HDDs continue to offer a significant cost advantage for exabyte-scale storage. Additionally, Seagate's reliance on large hyperscale cloud customers means changes in their purchasing schedules can lead to quarter-to-quarter revenue volatility.

Positive Estimate Revision Trend for STXSTX is currently witnessing an uptrend in estimate revisions. Earnings estimates for fiscal 2026 have inched up 0.3% to $14.93 over the past 60 days, while the same for fiscal 2027 has gone up 6.5% to $28.05.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Valuation VulnerabilitiesGoing by the price/earnings ratio, the company’s shares currently trade at 30.54 forward earnings compared with 13.5 for the industry.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

In comparison, the forward 12-month price/earnings multiple for IBM, MU and WDC are 23.35X, 6.73X and 29.54X, respectively.

Is More Upside Ahead for STX Stock?Seagate's growth outlook is driven by several long-term catalysts, including sustained AI infrastructure spending, broader adoption of HAMR technology, increasing enterprise data storage needs and continued expansion of cloud data centers. Improving storage pricing, robust free cash flow and ongoing margin expansion could further boost earnings. Successful execution of its technology roadmap would strengthen Seagate's leadership in enterprise storage and support additional upside over the long term.

For investors who believe AI-driven data creation will continue accelerating over the next decade, Seagate remains an attractive way to gain exposure to one of the essential segments of the AI supply chain. While short-term pullbacks are always possible after such a strong run, the company's technological prowess, improving profitability and exposure to one of the fastest-growing technology trends suggest there could still be further upside over the long term.

Boasting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) currently, STX is a portfolio must-have. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

GFL Environmental Inc. (GFL - Free Report) closed the last trading session at $40.89, gaining 11.8% over the past four weeks, but there could be plenty of upside left in the stock if short-term price targets set by Wall Street analysts are any guide. The mean price target of $53.31 indicates a 30.4% upside potential.

The average comprises 18 short-term price targets ranging from a low of $40.00 to a high of $65.00, with a standard deviation of $7.23. While the lowest estimate indicates a decline of 2.2% from the current price level, the most optimistic estimate points to a 59% upside. More than the range, one should note the standard deviation here, as it helps understand the variability of the estimates. The smaller the standard deviation, the greater the agreement among analysts.

While the consensus price target is highly sought after by investors, the ability and unbiasedness of analysts in setting price targets have long been questionable. And investors making investment decisions solely based on this tool would arguably do themselves a disservice.

But, for GFL, an impressive average price target is not the only indicator of a potential upside. Strong agreement among analysts about the company's ability to report better earnings than they predicted earlier strengthens this view. While a positive trend in earnings estimate revisions doesn't gauge how much a stock could gain, it has proven to be powerful in predicting an upside.

Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Here's What You Should Know About Analysts' Price TargetsAccording to researchers at several universities across the globe, a price target is one of many pieces of information about a stock that misleads investors far more often than it guides. In fact, empirical research shows that price targets set by several analysts, irrespective of the extent of agreement, rarely indicate where the price of a stock could actually be heading.

While Wall Street analysts have deep knowledge of a company's fundamentals and the sensitivity of its business to economic and industry issues, many of them tend to set overly optimistic price targets. Are you wondering why?

They usually do that to drum up interest in shares of companies that their firms either have existing business relationships with or are looking to be associated with. In other words, business incentives of firms covering a stock often result in inflated price targets set by analysts.

However, a tight clustering of price targets, which is represented by a low standard deviation, indicates that analysts have a high degree of agreement about the direction and magnitude of a stock's price movement. While that doesn't necessarily mean the stock will hit the average price target, it could be a good starting point for further research aimed at identifying the potential fundamental driving forces.

That said, while investors should not entirely ignore price targets, making an investment decision solely based on them could lead to disappointing ROI. So, price targets should always be treated with a high degree of skepticism.

Why GFL Could Witness a Solid UpsideThere has been increasing optimism among analysts lately about the company's earnings prospects, as indicated by strong agreement among them in revising EPS estimates higher. And that could be a legitimate reason to expect an upside in the stock. After all, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.

Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has increased 8.5%, as one estimate has moved higher compared to no negative revision.

Moreover, GFL currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), which means it is in the top 20% of more than 4,000 stocks that we rank based on four factors related to earnings estimates. Given an impressive externally-audited track record, this is a more conclusive indication of the stock's potential upside in the near term. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>> .

Therefore, while the consensus price target may not be a reliable indicator of how much GFL could gain, the direction of price movement it implies does appear to be a good guide.

We’ve talked before about the hot IPO summer, but with SpaceX just launched to public markets and Anthropic and (maybe) OpenAI soon to come, it can be easy to miss the sheer scale of what’s happening.

We got a good reminder of it in Wednesday’s NCVA-Pitchbook Venture Monitor report. Not surprisingly, all of the money in private markets is flooding into AI — but one particular figure stood out. Taking the measure of the pending OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs, the report drops this nugget: “Along with the SpaceX IPO, these exits will generate more value than all U.S. VC-backed exits since 2000.”

That’s quite a claim, and when you add up the numbers, it’s hard to disagree. SpaceX has already gone public at a $1.77 trillion valuation, and with both Anthropic and OpenAI pushing into the trillions it’s likely the trio together will land somewhere north of $4 trillion. By comparison, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission counted just $70 billion in U.S.-based IPO proceeds last year.

Careful readers will notice a few caveats in the language. It doesn’t include non-U.S. companies like Alibaba, and we’re measuring “value created” as opposed to strictly liquid cash. A lot of the major tech developments happened at companies that had already gone public (the iPhone, the debut of Android, and the launches of YouTube and Instagram), so they wouldn’t be captured in the IPO figures.

Still… that was a pretty eventful 25 years. Among other things, that period saw IPOs from Google (2004), Tesla (2010), and Meta (2012), which are now among the most valuable companies in the world. During the same period, LinkedIn, Slack, and WhatsApp were all acquired for more than $20 billion. Uber’s $84 billion IPO seemed like a lot of money in 2019, but it’s less than 5% of what SpaceX just drummed up.

One factor here is that companies are staying private for longer. The Google of today probably would have delayed its IPO and gone public at a higher number. Another factor is the capital-intensive nature of AI training, which has pushed labs into intense fundraising and inflated valuations. But the sheer scale of the public offerings is still way beyond anything the industry has ever done, and is already pushing the financial infrastructure to its limit.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Russell Brandom has been covering the tech industry since 2012, with a focus on platform policy and emerging technologies. He previously worked at The Verge and Rest of World, and has written for Wired, The Awl and MIT’s Technology Review. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at 412-401-5489.

The SpaceX IPO made CEO Elon Musk a trillionaire and could make investors in the company richer in years to come if the story can play out, Grantham said in an interview on Morningstar’s "The Long View" podcast.

"Supply and demand being what it is, it’s hard to imagine the price won’t go up, and perhaps it will go up a lot," Grantham said.

The GMO co-founder and chief investment strategist said the SpaceX IPO is a "landmark historical event."

"It will be amazing, by the way, if it doesn’t collapse, because it will need such massive developments on AI that our entire lives are totally different."

Grantham said SpaceX is "the craziest IPO in the history of man," an event that had everyone lining up telling investors to buy.

"In 50 years, they’ll be telling and writing stories about SpaceX and they’ll be quoting you paragraphs from the prospectus, and you will be laughing at it."

The Elon Musk AbilityThe British investor said that Musk is good at creating perceived value for his companies, which allows him to sell stock and reinvest in them.

"You’re so good at propaganda that instead of the price falling because of the dilution, it doesn’t, and very quickly it’s multiples of fair value once again."

Grantham mentions the greater fool theory when talking about Musk in the interview and his ability to get investors. This theory involves making money by buying overvalued assets, regardless of fundamentals, and later selling them at higher prices to "greater fools."

"The cohort that invested in Musk were proven right."

Grantham said time will tell if the theory works with SpaceX.

"Whether they can pull it off with $1.7 trillion worth of hype about AI – put it this way: If AI is actually going to be so good that the $1.7 trillion is cheap."

The investor said we should hope this is just AI hype, because if it’s not, the technology could put lives at severe risk.

"I wouldn’t wish it on our species at all."

Image via Shutterstock

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Key Takeaways Apple signed a $30B multi-year chip agreement with Broadcom, extending supply through 2031.ETFs like XLK and GXPT hold Apple and Broadcom among their top portfolio positions.The deal supports U.S. chip manufacturing and strengthens Apple's long-term AI and supply-chain strategy. Apple's (AAPL - Free Report) recent announcement of a landmark chipmaking agreement, worth more than $30 billion, with Broadcom (AVGO - Free Report) has sent ripples through the tech sector, with the latter’s shares climbing nearly 5% on the bourses following the news. 

This multi-year deal, which secures Broadcom as a key supplier of critical radio frequency (RF) and custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips through 2031, producing over 15 billion U.S.-made chips, underscores the deepening strategic ties between the two tech giants. 

For investors looking to capitalize on this powerful partnership without betting on a single stock, technology exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with significant exposure to both Apple and Broadcom offer a diversified path to participate in the potential upside.

But before diving straight into the specifics of these ETFs, it is crucial to understand the strategic rationale behind Apple’s $30 billion investment, how it strengthens both giants alongside the broader tech industry, and why this partnership remains critical amid the rapidly accelerating AI infrastructure build-out, so that investors can make an informed decision.

Rationale and Industry Impact of the $30B DealThe latest agreement involving the massive $30 billion investment commitment is a strategic masterstroke for both Apple and Broadcom, which will simultaneously bolster the entire U.S. tech industry. 

For Apple, the deal marks its largest commitment under its American Manufacturing Program, part of a $600 billion, four-year U.S. investment plan. It ensures a stable, long-term U.S.-based supply chain for critical components like RF filters and wireless connectivity chips, helping mitigate its supply-chain risks amid geopolitical uncertainties.

For Broadcom, the agreement eliminates its single largest long-term structural risk — the possibility of Apple replacing its components with in-house chips. This gives Broadcom long-term revenue visibility and massive cash flow security, freeing up resources to aggressively pursue its fastest-growing opportunity, custom AI accelerators. 

Ultimately, the broader tech sector should benefit heavily as this transaction accelerates an end-to-end silicon supply chain within the United States, reducing reliance on foreign fabrication plants.

The Future of the Partnership Amid AI AccelerationLooking ahead, this partnership is poised to become even more critical as the AI infrastructure build-out accelerates at a breakneck pace. The agreement goes beyond traditional iPhone components; it firmly positions Broadcom as a key partner in Apple's ambitious AI roadmap. 

As AI models grow more complex and pivot from training to inference, the demand for specialized, power-efficient silicon will surge. Custom ASICs are highly coveted for this exact transition due to their ability to maximize performance-per-watt for neural network algorithms. This trajectory is validated by Broadcom's proven strategy of providing tailored silicon for hyperscalers like Google, Meta, and OpenAI, cementing its status as a formidable player alongside NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) in the AI hardware race. 

For Apple, this long-term contract secures priority access to next-generation silicon, positioning both tech giants at the vanguard of the AI revolution.

ETFs to Capture the Tech BoomConsidering the aforementioned discussion, rather than picking individual winners in this rapidly evolving landscape, investors can gain diversified exposure through the following ETFs that hold both Apple and Broadcom, as well as other key tech players. 

State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK - Free Report)

This fund, with assets under management (AUM) worth $118 billion, offers exposure to 74 companies from technology hardware, storage and peripherals; software; communications equipment; semiconductors and semiconductor equipment; IT services; and electronic equipment, instruments and components industries. NVDA holds the first spot in this fund, with 13.24% weightage. AAPL holds the second spot with 12.67% weightage, while AVGO holds the fourth spot with 4.87% weightage. 

XLK has surged 41.1% over the past year. The fund charges 8 basis points (bps) in fees and traded at a good volume of 10.53 million shares in the last trading session. It sports a Zacks ETF Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW - Free Report)

This fund, with net assets worth $24.62 billion, offers exposure to 149 software, semiconductors, and tech hardware companies in the United States. NVDA holds the first spot in this fund, with 13.10% weightage. AAPL holds the second spot with 12.94% weightage, while AVGO holds the sixth spot with 4.31% weightage. 

IYW has soared 39.5% over the past year. The fund charges 38 bps in fees and traded at a volume of 0.43 million shares in the last trading session. It sports a Zacks ETF Rank #1.

iShares Expanded Tech Sector ETF (IGM - Free Report)

This fund, with net assets worth $10.34 billion, offers exposure to 296 U.S. and Canadian technology and select communication services companies. AAPL holds the first spot with 8.87% weightage, while AVGO holds the fourth spot with 7.79% weightage. 

IGM has soared 39.8% over the past year. The fund charges 39 bps in fees and traded at a volume of 0.33 million shares in the last trading session. It sports a Zacks ETF Rank #1.

Global X PureCap MSCI Information Technology ETF (GXPT - Free Report)

This fund, with net assets worth $123.3 million, offers exposure to 87 U.S.-listed information technology companies. NVDA holds the first spot with 19.92% weightage. AAPL holds the second spot with 19.45% weightage, while AVGO holds the fourth spot with 7.40% weightage. 

GXPT has rallied 29.6% over the past year. The fund charges 15 bps in fees and traded at a volume of 0.06 million shares in the last trading session. It carries a Zacks ETF Rank #2 (Buy). 

In this video, I will cover a major update from Meta Platforms (META +2.05%) and explain why the market's reaction may be sending the wrong signal to investors. Watch the short video to learn more, consider subscribing, and click the special offer link below.

*Stock prices used were from the trading day of July. 8, 2026. The video was published on July. 8, 2026.

Neil Rozenbaum has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Neil is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.

Key Takeaways Meta is building a $9B Alberta data center as part of its aggressive AI infrastructure expansion.A cloud business could help Meta monetize AI investments and reduce its reliance on advertising.Heavy AI spending, rich valuation and execution risks may make a better entry point worth waiting for. Meta Platforms (META - Free Report) has built one of the world's most profitable digital advertising businesses. Nearly 98% of its revenues still comes from ads, while artificial intelligence (AI) has helped improve content recommendations, advertising performance and user engagement across its apps.

But the company is thinking beyond advertising and is laying the groundwork for its next phase of growth. In the latest infrastructure push, Meta is building its first data center outside the United States—a 1-gigawatt facility in Alberta, Canada, expected to cost about $9 billion. That would be the company’s 33rd data center. Separately, reports indicate Meta is exploring a cloud computing business by potentially renting excess computing capacity or offering AI services to outside customers.

Over the past year, META stock has underperformed the broader industry and peers like Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) but has surpassed Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) .

1-Year Price Performance Comparison Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Do Meta's aggressive AI infrastructure investments and potential cloud plans strengthen its long-term investment case? And is META stock a buy at current levels?

The AI Infrastructure Build-Out ContinuesMeta's Alberta facility is the latest step in the company's AI infrastructure expansion. As AI models become larger and more compute-intensive, Meta is rapidly adding data center capacity to support growing demand for AI infrastructure and services.

Alberta offers several advantages for such a project, including abundant energy, industrial land and a business-friendly regulatory environment. The data center is also expected to create more than 3,000 construction jobs at its peak, while supporting local infrastructure and community investments.

Meta is building this infrastructure to train and deploy its Llama AI models and power AI experiences across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads.

Meta is not alone. Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet are also investing on a huge scale in AI infrastructure and data centers to meet surging demand for generative AI.

Could Meta Become the Next Cloud Provider?Alongside its infrastructure expansion, Meta is reportedly evaluating another opportunity—cloud computing.

Per Bloomberg reports, the company is debating whether to offer customers access to AI models hosted on its infrastructure or simply rent out excess computing capacity. If launched, the business would compete with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, which have become major revenue contributors for Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet, respectively.

For investors, the significance lies in diversification. Meta has invested significantly in AI infrastructure over the past several years. A cloud business could provide another way to generate returns from those investments while reducing the company's overwhelming dependence on advertising.

However, cloud computing also comes with challenges. Unlike advertising, cloud infrastructure is a lower-margin business that requires significant investments in servers, networking, enterprise sales and customer support. Alphabet offers a useful example. While Google's advertising business enjoys operating margins above 40%, Google Cloud took years to become profitable and still operates at much lower margins. If Meta eventually enters the cloud market, investors should expect greater revenue diversification, but potentially lower overall profitability.

AI Is Already Strengthening Meta’s Core BusinessMeta is already benefiting from its AI investments. Instagram Reels watch time increased 10% globally during the first quarter of 2026, while Facebook video watch time rose 8%. AI-translated videos are now watched weekly by more than 500 million users across Facebook and Instagram. Threads also surpassed 500 million monthly active users.

Meta's ecosystem remains one of its biggest competitive advantages. More than 3.56 billion people use at least one of its apps every day, giving the company enormous amounts of data to improve AI models and deliver better advertising results.

The company is also expanding monetization opportunities through paid messaging on WhatsApp, subscription offerings across Facebook, Instagram and Meta AI, and new AI tools such as Muse Image.

Meta’s Elevated Spending Remains a ConcernWhile Meta is seeing tangible benefits from AI, the cost of building that advantage remains a key concern. Its aggressive AI spending has raised investor concerns, as the financial returns from these massive investments are likely to take time to materialize.

Meta now expects 2026 capital expenditures between $125 billion and $145 billion, above its previous guidance, while operating expenses are projected between $162 billion and $169 billion. This is expected to put pressure on free cash flow and near-term earnings.

Meta is not alone in this spending race. Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure outlook to $180-$190 billion, reflecting higher AI compute demand and additional investments tied to the Wiz acquisition. Microsoft expects to invest roughly $190 billion during fiscal 2026, while Amazon plans to spend around $200 billion and continues investing aggressively to expand AWS and its AI infrastructure.

META Valuation CheckMETA stock is trading at a premium valuation. Its forward 12-month P/S of 5.45X is above the Zacks Internet Software industry's 3.89X. The stock also carries a Value Score of C.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

How to Play META Stock NowMeta is making the right long-term strategic bets, but investors may have to wait longer for those investments to deliver meaningful financial returns. The stock has a rich valuation, and heavy AI spending is likely to weigh on free cash flow and earnings over the near term. Although Wall Street's consensus price target implies roughly 37% upside from current levels, that potential is accompanied by significant execution risk.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Existing shareholders can continue to hold the stock for its long-term AI potential, but new investors may be better off waiting for a more attractive entry point. META currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

In this video, I will cover recent Meta (META +2.05%) news and explain the ripple effect it could have on Nebius, CoreWeave, and the broader AI infrastructure trade. Watch the short video to learn more, consider subscribing, and click the special offer link below.

*Stock prices used were from the trading day of July. 2, 2026. The video was published on July. 2, 2026.

Neil Rozenbaum has positions in CoreWeave, Meta Platforms, and Nebius Group. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Neil is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.

Meta Platforms Inc. META shares traded higher on Thursday, reversing early losses as investors assessed the company's latest artificial intelligence initiatives.

This includes plans to begin manufacturing an in-house AI chip and the public preview of its upgraded Muse Spark 1.1 model.

The developments show Meta's efforts to strengthen its AI infrastructure, reduce reliance on third-party chip suppliers, and expand its portfolio of proprietary AI products as competition with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google intensifies.

According to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters, Meta plans to begin manufacturing its in-house artificial intelligence chip, code-named Iris, from September.

The chip is part of the company's four-generation Meta Training and Inference Accelerators (MTIA) program and is designed to improve the AI systems powering Facebook and Instagram.

Reuters reported that testing of the chip took just six weeks and uncovered no major issues, marking progress for an in-house chip initiative that has faced challenges since it began more than five years ago.

Meta is working with Broadcom on the chip's design, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will manufacture it.

The custom silicon is intended to complement the large number of graphics processing units (GPUs) Meta purchases from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) while helping the company lower computing costs and reduce dependence on external suppliers.

Meta plans to deploy seven gigawatts of computing infrastructure this year before doubling capacity to 14 gigawatts in 2027.

To support its AI expansion, the company has secured long-term supply agreements with Samsung Electronics for memory chips, Sandisk for flash storage and Sumitomo Electric for fiber-optic equipment.

Alongside its infrastructure investments, Meta introduced Muse Spark 1.1, describing it as the latest version of its AI model focused on coding and agentic AI capabilities.

The company is making the model available through a public developer preview, allowing developers to join a waitlist for API access through Meta's developer portal.

"This is going to be served on top of the computer infrastructure that we’ve built," said Meta's AI chief Alexandr Wang.

Wang said the updated model is Meta's "strongest model for agentic and coding work yet."

He also said the pricing is "very aggressive and attractive" compared with competing offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic. New API users will receive $20 in free credits before usage-based pricing begins.

"The goal is to really have attractive pricing that scales with immense consumption usage," Wang said.

According to Wang, Meta trained Muse Spark 1.1 to strengthen coding capabilities because "You kind of have to build coding capabilities as part of that in service of overall agentic capabilities."

Meta said it is currently limiting API access to its own ecosystem rather than making the model available through third-party AI marketplaces.

The latest announcements come as Meta continues to increase spending on AI infrastructure.

Reuters reported that the company expects to spend as much as $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year, accounting for a significant share of Big Tech's projected AI investment.

The company also announced plans to build its first Canadian data center in Sturgeon County, Alberta.

The AI-optimized facility represents an investment of more than CAD $13 billion, is expected to support about 3,000 construction jobs at peak and more than 300 operational positions, and will run on 100% clean and renewable energy.

Known as one of the boldest portfolio managers out there, Cathie Wood of Ark Invest likes to swing for the fences with her exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This has led to some years of big gains for her flagship fund, the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK +1.85%). In 2023, it rose 67.6%, and in 2025, it gained 35.5%. It has also resulted in some years with steep losses, like 2022, when it plunged by 67%.

As a rule, Wood invests in companies with disruptive technology, and she's willing to make big bets on those innovators. Let's look at five stocks she was recently buying on the dip.

SpaceX

Today's Change

(

0.58

%) $

0.86

Current Price

$

149.16

Although SpaceX (SPCX +0.58%) had its initial public offering less than a month ago, Wood has already made the stock one of her 10 largest positions, and she has been scooping up more shares as the stock has come down from its early peak. SpaceX is trying to be at the center of disrupting several industries. Among its goals is to deploy a constellation of data center satellites in space, create a giant chip manufacturing facility, and potentially compete with tradition mobile carriers with its Starlink satellite broadband service.

However, the stock trades at a high valuation, and the company will need to overcome numerous technical hurdles to achieve any of these moonshot objectives.

Cerebras

Today's Change

(

3.76

%) $

6.84

Current Price

$

188.56

Cerebras (NASDAQ: CBRS) is another recent arrival to the public market that has pulled back to well below its IPO price, and Wood recently added some shares of the company to a couple of Ark ETFs. Cerebras has an innovative solution for inference that embeds SRAM (static random-access memory) directly onto its chips. This gives the company a superior solution for inference, but it comes at a premium price, as its technology is based on huge, wafer-sized chips -- each about the size of a dinner plate -- that need special cooling and energy-management solutions that need to be sold or rented as complete systems.

Right now, Cerebras is a niche player in the chip space, but it has the potential to upend the inference market. It also has a big deal in place with OpenAI.

Tesla

Today's Change

(

-0.28

%) $

-1.11

Current Price

$

392.95

Wood has continued to add to her biggest position, Tesla (TSLA 0.28%). Tesla shares fell despite the electric vehicle (EV) market reporting better-than-expected second-quarter deliveries, led by gains in Europe, as U.S. deliveries remain weak. However, Wood's thesis on Tesla largely centers on the company's robotaxi ambitions, and its rideshare service recently debuted in a second market, Miami.

I remain skeptical of Tesla's robotaxi ambitions. Its autonomous driving solution has safety issues relative to competitors that use lida, and Waymo now has a first-mover advantage. If Tesla's robotaxi or robotics ambitions don't pan out as management has promised, the stock is clearly overvalued based on its core business.

Circle Internet Stablecoin platform Circle Internet (CRCL 1.05%) has been seeing its shares sell off following the news that Open Standard is introducing a rival stablecoin called Open USD, and Wood has been buying the pullback. The stock has lost nearly 70% of its value over the past year, during which time Wood has made it the Ark Innovation ETF's 12th-largest holding.

Circle has strong liquidity and a first-mover advantage that may make it difficult to unseat in this huge market. It's deeply integrated into decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, crypto exchanges, and corporate treasury pilot programs. However, a serious threat could be looming: Big banks are expected to roll out a tokenized deposit network next year through The Clearing House that will introduce blockchain to mainstream finance. Circle will likely continue to dominate as the bridge between crypto networks and finance apps, but it likely won't be able to break into mainstream banking, which could limit the stock's upside.

Image source: Getty Images.

Palantir Another stock Wood has been buying on the dip is Palantir (PLTR 3.88%). The company has been caught in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry sell-off, although its unique position in the AI ecosystem would make it one of AI's biggest long-term winners. The company's Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) acts as an AI orchestration layer that helps reduce hallucinations and makes AI more useful for enterprises by gathering all of an organization's data and placing it in an ontology that it then links to real-world processes and objects.

While the stock is not cheap, trading at a price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 39 times, the company has been seeing rapid and accelerating revenue growth, including a surge of 85% last quarter. Given how many use cases there could be for AIP across industries, Palantir has the potential to eventually become one of the largest companies in the world.

Elon Musk has been the wealthiest man in the world since 2024, and he reached trillionaire status for the first time when Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +0.75%) stock briefly topped $200 a share in its first week of trading. However, SpaceX stock is now 26% off its highs, and Elon Musk is no longer a trillionaire.

What does that mean for his companies, SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA +1.26%), and for shareholders?

Image source: Getty Images.

Elon Musk and ownership Many of the world's billionaires have their wealth tied up in stock, usually as executives of their companies. Elon Musk heads two of the world's top-15 most valuable companies, and he owns a substantial stake in each. As of July, he owns 717.1 million Tesla shares, or 15.7% of the company, which is worth about $282.4 billion at today's price. He also owns about 46% of SpaceX stock, with more that could come his way based on performance measures. At today's prices, that's $704.5 billion worth, and together, his net worth is $987 billion, just shy of $1 trillion.

Both of these stocks have been sliding lately, although they're both trillion-dollar companies. SpaceX is the seventh-most-valuable company in the U.S., worth $1.94 trillion, while Tesla is 11th and worth $1.48 trillion. Tesla stock is down 12.4% this year. At $148 a share, SpaceX stock is still over its IPO price of $135, but it's dropped below its market open price of $150.

Today's Change

(

0.75

%) $

1.11

Current Price

$

149.41

What about other shareholders? Tesla shareholders have been well-rewarded over time. It's up more than 24,640% since it went public and has almost certainly minted some millionaires, even retail investors who aren't company insiders. However, like SpaceX, it has attracted investors based on hype and Elon Musk fandom. It's a growing company, but there's accelerating competition in the electric vehicle space, and there are worries about lower profits and a high valuation -- based on its shrinking net income, the stock currently trades at 368 times trailing 12-month earnings.

Today's Change

(

1.26

%) $

4.99

Current Price

$

399.05

SpaceX is even more expensive, trading at 110 times sales, and it's reporting high net losses. It's even clearer that the investing thesis is based on confidence in Elon Musk's vision.

Both of these are risky stocks, but SpaceX has an added risk tied to Elon Musk's ownership, and that's his 82.3% voting rights. That means other shareholders have no recourse if they're unhappy with his leadership or in making any other decisions about the company and its direction.

Right now, neither one of these companies looks like a great bargain on the dip.

Alphabet earns a 'Buy' rating, with medium-term upside driven by ecosystem expansion and M&A-driven synergies, notably the Wiz acquisition. GOOG's business verticalization and integration of assets are expected to protect and potentially expand margins as AI and cross-selling opportunities scale. Key catalysts include a doubling GCP backlog, monetization of 8th-gen TPUs, and bundled premium offerings, supporting above-consensus growth rates.

Taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals for new and old investors, and Zacks Premium offers many different ways to do both.

Featuring daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, full access to the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens, the research service can help you become a smarter, more self-assured investor.

Zacks Premium also includes the Zacks Style Scores.

What are the Zacks Style Scores? The Zacks Style Scores is a unique set of guidelines that rates stocks based on three popular investing types, and were developed as complementary indicators for the Zacks Rank. This combination helps investors choose securities with the highest chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.

Each stock is given an alphabetic rating of A, B, C, D or F based on their value, growth, and momentum qualities. With this system, an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on, meaning the better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform.

The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:

Value ScoreFinding good stocks at good prices, and discovering which companies are trading under their true value, are what value investors like to focus on. So, the Value Style Score takes into account ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and a host of other multiples to highlight the most attractive and discounted stocks.

Growth ScoreGrowth investors are more concerned with a stock's future prospects, and the overall financial health and strength of a company. Thus, the Growth Style Score analyzes characteristics like projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow to find stocks that will see sustainable growth over time.

Momentum ScoreMomentum traders and investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." This investing style is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook. Employing factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates, the Momentum Style Score can indicate favorable times to build a position in high-momentum stocks.

VGM ScoreWhat if you like to use all three types of investing? The VGM Score is a combination of all Style Scores, making it one of the most comprehensive indicators to use with the Zacks Rank. It rates each stock on their combined weighted styles, which helps narrow down the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum.

How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank A proprietary stock-rating model, the Zacks Rank utilizes the power of earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings outlook, to help investors create a successful portfolio.

#1 (Strong Buy) stocks have produced an unmatched +23.94% average annual return since 1988, which is more than double the S&P 500's performance over the same time frame. However, the Zacks Rank examines a ton of stocks, and there can be more than 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, and another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.

This totals more than 800 top-rated stocks, and it can be overwhelming to try and pick the best stocks for you and your portfolio.

That's where the Style Scores come in.

To have the best chance of big returns, you'll want to always consider stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B, which will give you the highest probability of success. If you're looking at stocks with a #3 (Hold) rank, it's important they have Scores of A or B as well to ensure as much upside potential as possible.

As mentioned above, the Scores are designed to work with the Zacks Rank, so any change to a company's earnings outlook should be a deciding factor when picking which stocks to buy.

A stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, for instance, even one with Scores of A and B, will still have a declining earnings forecast, and a greater chance its share price will fall too.

Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.

Stock to Watch: Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) Amazon.com is one of the largest e-commerce providers, with sprawling operations in North America, now spreading across the globe. Its online retail business revolves around the Prime program well-supported by the company's massive distribution network, which delivered at its fastest speeds ever for Prime members globally in 2025. Further, the Whole Foods Market acquisition helped Amazon establish a footprint in the physical grocery supermarket space. Amazon also enjoys a dominant position in the cloud-computing market, particularly in the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) space, thanks to Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is one of its high-margin generating businesses. Amazon's custom AI chips — Trainium and Graviton — now have a combined annual revenue run rate of over $10 billion.

AMZN is a #2 (Buy) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.

Additionally, the company could be a top pick for growth investors. AMZN has a Growth Style Score of B, forecasting year-over-year earnings growth of 23.6% for the current fiscal year.

One analyst revised their earnings estimate higher in the last 60 days for fiscal 2026, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.02 to $8.86 per share. AMZN also boasts an average earnings surprise of +11.4%.

With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Growth and VGM Style Scores, AMZN should be on investors' short list.