July 06, 2026 16:05 ET | Source: Encore Capital Group, Inc.
SAN DIEGO, July 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Encore Capital Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:ECPG), an international specialty finance company, announced today that it will release its financial results for the second quarter 2026 on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, after the market closes. The Company will also host a conference call and slide presentation the same day at 2:00 p.m. Pacific / 5:00 p.m. Eastern time with Ashish Masih, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tomas Hernanz, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Bruce Thomas, Vice President, Global Investor Relations, presenting and discussing the reported results.
Members of the public are invited to access the live webcast via the Internet by logging in on the Investor Relations page of Encore's website at www.encorecapital.com. To access the live conference call by telephone, please pre-register using this link. Registrants will receive confirmation with dial-in details.
For those who cannot listen to the live broadcast, a replay of the webcast will be available on the Company's website shortly after the call concludes.
About Encore Capital Group, Inc.
Encore Capital Group is an international specialty finance company that provides debt recovery solutions and other related services for consumers across a broad range of financial assets. Through its subsidiaries around the globe, Encore purchases portfolios of consumer receivables from major banks, credit unions, and utility providers.
Encore partners with individuals as they repay their debt obligations, helping them on the road to financial recovery and ultimately improving their economic well-being. Encore is the first and only company of its kind to operate with a Consumer Bill of Rights that provides industry-leading commitments to consumers. Headquartered in San Diego, Encore is a publicly traded NASDAQ Global Select company (ticker symbol: ECPG) and a component stock of the Russell 2000, the S&P Small Cap 600 and the Wilshire 4500. More information about the company can be found at www.encorecapital.com.
TORRANCE, Calif., July 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Navitas Semiconductor (Nasdaq: NVTS) today announced that it will report second quarter 2026 financial results on Monday, July 27, 2026, after the market close.
Navitas’ President and CEO, Chris Allexandre, and CFO, Tonya Stevens, will host a conference call at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the Company’s financial results and business outlook.
Analysts and investors are invited to join the conference call using the following information:
When: Monday, July 27, 2026
Time: 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time)
Toll Free Dial-in: 1-800-715-9871 or 646-307-1963
Conference ID: 1184638
Webcast and Slides: Click Here
Additionally, a live and archived audio webcast of the conference call as well as supporting presentation materials will be accessible from the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at ir.navitassemi.com.
About Navitas
Navitas Semiconductor (Nasdaq: NVTS) is a next-generation power semiconductor leader in gallium nitride (GaN) and IC integrated devices, and high-voltage silicon carbide (SiC) technology, driving innovation across AI data centers, energy and grid infrastructure, performance computing, and industrial electrification. With more than 30 years of combined expertise in wide bandgap technologies, GaNFast™ power ICs integrate GaN power, drive, control, sensing, and protection, delivering faster power delivery, higher system density, and greater efficiency. GeneSiC™ high-voltage SiC devices leverage patented trench-assisted planar technology to provide industry-leading voltage capability, efficiency, and reliability for medium-voltage grid and infrastructure applications. Navitas has over 300 patents issued or pending and is the world’s first semiconductor company to be CarbonNeutral®-certified.
Navitas Semiconductor, GaNFast, GaNSense, GeneSiC, and the Navitas logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Navitas Semiconductor Limited and affiliates. All other brands, product names, and marks are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks used to identify products or services of their respective owners.
Shares of TeraWulf (NASDAQ:WULF) extended a powerful rally on Monday afternoon, separating the stock from its bitcoin-mining peers by a wide margin. WULF stock is up 4% today and up 95% year to date to $22.10, marking its most sustained rerating since going public.
The catalyst is a landmark 20-year lease with Anthropic, the private AI lab behind the Claude chatbot. Under the agreement, TeraWulf expects to generate about $19 billion in contracted revenue by building a purpose-built AI campus at its Justified Data site in Hawesville, Kentucky.
TeraWulf also agreed to sell its 50.1% stake in the Abernathy Texas joint venture with partner Fluidstack to a Fluidstack-led investor group, monetizing a roughly $450 million investment at a premium. Together, the two moves reframe TeraWulf from a Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) proxy into a long-duration compute-infrastructure landlord.
Anthropic Anchors a New Revenue Base The Kentucky campus is engineered to support about 401 megawatts of critical IT load, with initial capacity expected online in the second half of 2027 and full capacity by early 2028. TeraWulf expects the lease to be supported by an investment-grade credit rating, a rare bar in the mining-turned-AI cohort.
TeraWulf CEO Paul Prager has been building toward this narrative for quarters. On the most recent earnings call, he stated, “We are building a power-advantaged platform that we believe is increasingly differentiated in a market constrained by access to power.” The Anthropic deal converts that pitch into a decades-long contracted cash-flow stream.
TeraWulf’s Q1 2026 results already showed the shift in real time. HPC lease revenue reached $21.02 million, over 60% of total revenue, while digital-asset mining slid to $12.99 million. Total platform contracted revenue already exceeds $13 billion before the new Anthropic agreement is layered in.
The company’s platform is targeting 250 to 500 megawatts of new critical IT capacity annually across sites in New York, Texas, Kentucky, and Maryland. That pipeline gives TeraWulf a runway to keep signing anchor tenants without leaning on bitcoin economics.
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AI-Pivot Miners Compared TeraWulf’s outperformance stands out sharply against peers pursuing the same transition. Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) shares are up 44% year to date to $21.37, aided by 700 MW of contracted HPC capacity and leases tied to Fluidstack, Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL | GOOGL Price Prediction) Google, and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Web Services.
Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) shares are up 37% year to date to $33.51, with a 200 MW hyperscaler lease anchoring its Polaris Forge 2 campus. Quarterly revenue rose 139% year over year (YoY) as the CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) build-out continues to ramp.
IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) shares are up 15% year to date to $43.59, the group laggard despite a $3.4 billion, five-year AI cloud contract with NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and a reported $9.7 billion Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) agreement. Access to grid-connected power remains the binding sector constraint, and each of these names is being re-rated as an AI landlord rather than a hash-rate story.
What to Watch Next The bull case for TeraWulf stock is now concrete: a $19 billion contracted revenue stream, investment-grade credit backing, and visible operating momentum at Lake Mariner and Kentucky. The bear case is timing and volatility. Full Anthropic capacity isn’t expected until early 2028, and WULF stock carries a beta of 4, meaning sentiment swings can dominate short-term price action.
Analysts currently carry a consensus price target of $36 on WULF shares, well above current levels, with five strong-buy and eight buy ratings and no sells or holds recorded. A single mega-deal doesn’t remove construction, permitting, or financing risk, so investors leaning into the story should size their positions modestly and expect sharp drawdowns along the way.
Watch for whether TeraWulf converts the Anthropic announcement into visible construction milestones at Hawesville through the second half of 2026, and whether the Abernathy monetization closes on the terms described. The next quarterly earnings print, together with any formal credit-rating action tied to the Anthropic lease, may set the tone for TeraWulf shares into year-end.
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TeraWulf (WULF +4.84%), a Bitcoin (BTC +2.05%) mining and AI data center infrastructure provider, closed at $22.21, up 4.86%. The company announced a lease to Anthropic and a joint-venture data center sale that could unlock long-term AI infrastructure revenue.
Trading volume reached 73.3 million shares, coming in about 135% above its three-month average of 31.2 million shares.
How the markets moved todayThe S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.72%) rose 0.74% to 7,538, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +1.12%) climbed 1.12% to 26,121. Among bitcoin mining and AI/high-performance computing (HPC) digital infrastructure peers, Cipher Digital (CIFR +7.98%) gained 8.43% to $21.73, and IREN (IREN +12.89%) rose 13.11% to $43.91 as investors kept watching AI-data-center monetization.
What this means for investorsTeraWulf has been progressing as it transitions from Bitcoin mining to a recurring revenue HPC business model. Its latest acquisition was made in late May when the company acquired a large data center development site in Eastern Kentucky. Today, the company announced a long-term lease agreement for another HPC site in Hawesville, Kentucky.
The least to AI research company Anthropic will run for 20 years and is expected to generate about $19 billion of contracted revenue. Separately, TeraWulf entered an agreement to sell its 50.1% stake in a Texas data center. The company said it will receive about $530 million for its original $450 million investment.
That capital, along with recurring lease income, will help the company expand its long-term cash flow. Investors are now cheering the success of TeraWulf’s AI business model, and there could be more to come.
Howard Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
RADNOR, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- #classaction--Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (www.ktmc.com), a nationally recognized securities litigation law firm, informs investors that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed against Futu Holdings Limited (Futu) (NASDAQ: FUTU) on behalf of those who purchased or acquired Futu securities between May 24, 2023 and May 27, 2026, inclusive. The lawsuit is filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and is captioned Tang.
Astera Labs Inc (NASDAQ: ALAB) shares are climbing Monday as strength returns to the semiconductor group, with chip stocks bouncing back from a choppy late June on renewed conviction in demand across the sector.
Astera Labs stock is among Monday’s top performers. Why is ALAB stock up today? DRAM Demand and AI Conviction Lift the GroupThe memory market set the tone. DRAM names surged ahead of Samsung’s upcoming sales report and SK Hynix’s U.S. listing later this week, sparking broader optimism that demand across the chip space remains intact. Investors are growing more confident that the AI-driven rally underpinning this bull market has not run its course with fresh evidence of compute demand from Anthropic adding to the constructive backdrop.
Capital rotated decisively into semiconductors and small caps while consumer staples, health care and utilities saw outflows. The Dow slipped into negative territory at midday despite printing a new record earlier in the session, reflecting how narrow the day’s enthusiasm has been.
Broadcom Partnership Extension Bolsters SentimentGiven Apple’s standing as one of Broadcom’s most significant revenue contributors, the agreement was read by the market as a vote of confidence in sustained chip demand and spilled over into sentiment around AI-adjacent suppliers including Astera Labs.
Astera Labs Critical Levels To WatchAstera Labs continues to show a strong upward trend on longer timeframes. The stock sits 10.9% above its 20‑day simple moving average at $392.69, 40.9% above its 50‑day simple moving average at $308.95, and more than 120% above its 200‑day simple moving average at $196.68. This stacked alignment usually signals that buyers remain in control across multiple trend horizons, even if day‑to‑day swings can be volatile.
The crossover structure supports that view. The 20‑day simple moving average is above the 50‑day simple moving average, and the golden cross that appeared in May, when the 50‑day simple moving average moved above the 200‑day simple moving average, continues to reinforce the broader bullish bias. The twelve‑month gain of 388.67% also reflects strong longer‑term momentum, although moves of that size can make pullbacks sharper when momentum cools.
Short‑term momentum is less straightforward. MACD is below its signal line and the histogram is negative, which shows that upside force has faded compared with the prior advance. MACD compares faster trend movement with slower trend movement. When it sits under the signal line, rallies often need fresh demand to regain speed.
Key Support: $372.50 — A nearby level where buyers previously stepped in and a logical line in the sand if the stock retraces toward its short‑term trend zone. ALAB Shares Are JumpingALAB Price Action: Astera Labs shares were up 7.11% at $435.32 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro.
Image: Piotr Swat/Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX 0.97%) officially went public on June 12. In the process, it became the largest initial public offering (IPO) ever and currently has a total market cap of more than $2 trillion.
On July 7, the company and the stock will make history again. Not only will SpaceX officially join the Nasdaq-100 index, but it'll also be the first to do so under the newly created "fast-track entry" rules for mega-IPOs.
Image source: Getty Images.
What is the Nasdaq's new fast-track entry process for IPOs? Nasdaq announced these new rules in May:
For the very largest new listings, those that rank within the top 40 of current Nasdaq‑100 constituents by Full Market Capitalization, there is also a Fast Entry pathway. These companies are evaluated on their seventh trading day and, if eligible, added shortly thereafter, with all existing liquidity requirements still applying.
This means that new listings meeting both size and liquidity requirements can be added to the index as soon as the 15th trading day following the IPO. The biggest reason for the policy change is SpaceX, but it's also due to the likely imminent IPOs on Anthropic and OpenAI. Both of those companies could be debuting with multitrillion-dollar market caps as well.
This will impact shareholders of the Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ +1.43%) and the Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQM +1.43%), which are both tied to the index, the most. Because weightings in the index are based on free-float market capitalization and not total market cap, SpaceX will likely see a weighting of around 1% when it joins.
Most stocks used to go public when they were much smaller and grow over time. Lately, companies have been remaining private longer until they decide to go public when they're much larger. SpaceX is the first example of the major market indices adjusting to reflect that. And there's likely more to come.
David Dierking has positions in Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF. The Motley Fool recommends Nasdaq. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Following its IPO and subsequent bond offering, Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX 0.99%) now has more than $100 billion in new capital at its disposal. Expect SpaceX to go on a massive spending spree to spur growth and justify its $2 trillion valuation.
What will SpaceX's spending focus on? Artificial intelligence will likely be the biggest beneficiary. More than 90% of SpaceX's claimed total addressable market is AI-focused. That means investors should expect the company to dramatically scale terrestrial data center construction. But SpaceX will also now aggressively pursue putting AI data centers into space -- so-called orbital data centers (ODCs).
ODCs will need many things to happen before they become a reality, one of which is successful commercialization of SpaceX's Starship megarocket. This megarocket -- which is significantly larger than the company's Falcon Heavy rocket -- would meaningfully improve SpaceX's ability to get larger payloads to space more affordably. ODCs, for example, could be launched at scale using Starship rockets.
One of SpaceX's biggest constraints on growth in this opportunity set, however, is access to rocket fuel. To solve that problem, SpaceX is reportedly looking to build its own natural gas pipeline. SpaceX may even look to produce its own natural gas over the long term.
How will this impact energy markets, and in particular, pipeline stocks? There are two factors to consider.
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1. SpaceX's natural gas pipeline won't endanger pipeline stocks According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, natural gas pipelines deliver roughly 30 trillion cubic feet to nearly 80 million consumers each year. A single Starship launch, for comparison, uses around 630,000 gallons of liquid methane, which equates to around 0.0000521 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Even if SpaceX launched 1,000 Starship rockets every year, it would still amount to less than 0.2% of U.S. natural gas demand transported by pipelines.
In short, SpaceX's actions aren't about to disintermediate conventional pipeline networks. In fact, SpaceX's actions could benefit certain pipeline networks in the long term.
Image source: Getty Images.
2. Pipeline stocks could actually benefit from SpaceX's actions long term According to reporting from Reuters, SpaceX "plans to begin next month building an eight‑mile natural gas pipeline called 'Starpipe' to its Texas launch facilities." Construction is expected to conclude in January 2027.
Reuters observes:
Designed to be fully reusable, Starship uses about 630,000 gallons of liquid methane per launch, currently delivered by hundreds of tanker trucks in an hours-long process incompatible with Musk's expansion plans. Starship has completed 12 test launches since 2023, but Musk aims to ramp up to dozens, hundreds, and eventually thousands of launches a year.
Where will Starpipe's natural gas come from? SpaceX apparently wants to explore drilling for its own natural gas in the long term. But for now, it seems likely that supply will come from Enbridge's Valley Crossing Pipeline.
Pipeline stocks, therefore, won't be affected by SpaceX's foray into pipeline construction. Enbridge may even benefit directly, with other natural gas pipeline stocks benefiting from a new source of demand that could support prices over the long term, even if it remains a fraction of total U.S. demand.
SpaceX Corp (NASDAQ:SPCX) is scheduled to join the Nasdaq-100 index before US markets open on Tuesday, marking one of the fastest additions to the benchmark following its recent initial public offering.
The inclusion follows a change to Nasdaq's eligibility rules that allows certain large-cap IPOs to enter the index after 15 trading days, rather than waiting for the next annual reconstitution.
The move is expected to trigger billions of dollars in passive buying as exchange-traded funds and mutual funds that track the Nasdaq-100 rebalance their portfolios. JPMorgan has estimated that approximately $4.3 billion of SpaceX shares could be purchased by index-tracking funds, including the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) and Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF (NASDAQ: QQQM).
Despite SpaceX's roughly $2.1 trillion market valuation, the company is expected to receive an index weighting of around 1%. The Nasdaq-100 is weighted by free-float market capitalization, meaning only shares available for public trading are included in the calculation. With less than 5% of SpaceX's outstanding shares publicly available following its IPO, the company's weighting is expected to remain relatively modest.
The addition also comes as SpaceX's post-IPO quiet period expires, allowing investment banks and research firms involved in the offering to begin publishing analyst coverage and price targets.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, wrote that investors will continue debating whether technology stock valuations are justified as SpaceX joins the Nasdaq-100.
"Remember, Nasdaq changed the inclusion rules to include SpaceX, which would normally not make its way so quickly into such a broadly watched and traded index, given its extremely low free float, its governance – Elon Musk has more than 80% of voting rights – and its fundamentals, as the company went public at a valuation of more than 100 times last year's sales," Ozkardeskaya wrote.
She added that "SpaceX's inclusion will increase the Nasdaq 100's volatility, challenge its capacity to represent underlying economic and financial fundamentals, and potentially hurt its credibility."
Ozkardeskaya also noted that the end of the quiet period will bring the first wave of Wall Street research on the stock, while "the early enthusiasm faded fast, with the price coming close to its IPO level after a more than 50% surge in the early days."
SpaceX shares have experienced volatile trading since their market debut. The stock closed at $162 late last week, above its IPO opening price of $150 but more than 20% below its post-listing high. Shares fell another almost 4% to about $156.
Unlike the S&P 500, which generally requires companies to trade publicly for at least a year before becoming eligible for inclusion, the Nasdaq-100's revised fast-track rules were designed to accommodate large IPOs more quickly. SpaceX will be added to the index in a single rebalancing event rather than in phased installments.
, /PRNewswire/ -- CNX Resources Corp. (NYSE: CNX) will announce its financial results for Q2 2026 at 6:45 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, July 30. At that time, CNX will issue a brief press release containing links to its prepared remarks for the quarter, presentation materials, and supplemental information providing a Q2 2026 update. These materials will be available on CNX's Investor Relations website.
This release will be followed by a Q&A conference call and webcast.
Q&A Conference Call Information
CNX Resources (NYSE: CNX)
10:00 a.m. ET: Thursday, July 30 Dial-In: 855-656-0928 (domestic) 412-902-4112 (international) Reference "CNX Resources Call" Webcast: investors.cnx.com A replay of the Q&A conference call and webcast will be maintained on the Investor Relations page on CNX's website.
About CNX Resources
CNX Resources Corporation (NYSE: CNX) is unique. We are a premier, ultra-low carbon intensive natural gas development, production, midstream, and technology company centered in Appalachia, one of the most energy abundant regions in the world. With the benefit of a 162-year regional legacy, substantial asset base, leading core operational competencies, technology development and innovation, and astute capital allocation methodologies, we responsibly develop our resources and deploy free cash flow to create long-term per share value for our shareholders, employees, and the communities where we operate. As of December 31, 2025, CNX had 9.7 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves. The company is a member of the Standard & Poor's Midcap 400 Index. Additional information is available at www.cnx.com.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) has ripped higher in 2026, gaining 64.47% year to date through July 2 and 111.24% over the trailing 12 months. Yet the fund fueling that run does not own a single share of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction), arguably the most recognizable technology stock on the planet. The absence is structural, not tactical, and it explains a lot about how the ETF earned its return.
What SMH Actually Is SMH is VanEck’s pure-play semiconductor ETF, tracking the largest chip designers, foundries, and equipment makers listed on U.S. exchanges. It carries a net expense ratio of 0.35%, which sits at the low end for a thematic sector fund. Total net assets were not disclosed in the most recent VanEck fact sheet dated May 27, 2026, but the fund is one of the most heavily traded semiconductor vehicles in the market.
What’s Driving the Return The rally traces directly to a concentrated basket of chip names. As of the latest fact sheet, the top 10 holdings are:
Company Weight Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) 10.33% Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) 9.57% Micron Technology 9.39% Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing 8.75% NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) 8.40% ASML Holding 8.13% Intel 8.13% Lam Research 5.62% Applied Materials 5.53% Texas Instruments 4.52% AMD, Broadcom, and Micron alone account for 29.29% of net assets combined. Add NVIDIA, TSMC, ASML, and Intel and the top seven push well past 60% of the fund. That concentration in AI accelerators, memory, foundry capacity, and lithography equipment is the engine behind the year’s return. A TipRanks piece dated May 9, 2026 flagged the same drivers, noting the rally was tied to Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor, and Intel rather than the broader tech complex.
Why Apple Isn’t In It Apple designs its own silicon, but the company generates the bulk of its revenue from devices and services. Its most recent quarter, filed April 30, 2026, showed iPhone revenue of $56.99 billion and Services revenue of $30.98 billion. Under the index methodology SMH follows, that revenue mix classifies Apple as a consumer hardware and services company under the index methodology. It is excluded by design. SMH’s holdings history from January through July 2026 shows no Apple position at any point during the period covered by the ETF’s year-to-date gain.
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How Owning Apple Would Have Compared Apple stock has done fine on its own, with shares up 13.74% year to date and 45.86% over the past year. Broad-market and megacap tech ETFs that hold Apple captured that move. SMH’s methodology traded diversified megacap exposure for concentrated chip exposure, and in 2026 that trade has paid off. Investors weighing the fund should recognize the flip side: seven names carry more than 60% of the portfolio, so a single-stock stumble carries real weight.
The Recent Pullback The year-to-date figure hides a rough stretch. SMH is down 7% over the trailing week and 6.31% over the trailing month, closing July 2 at $592.29 after a 4.54% single-day drop. Reddit sentiment reflected the shift, with r/wallstreetbets threads on June 9 and 10 turning bearish around a “Semiconductor shorts pile on” narrative. Concentrated funds cut both ways.
The Takeaway SMH offers a clean, low-cost way to own the largest listed chipmakers, and the design choice to exclude Apple has been additive in 2026. For retirement-focused investors, the more important question is fit: a fund with roughly 60% in seven names behaves differently from a diversified tech ETF that owns Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet alongside chips. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and this article is not investment advice. The fund’s structure is the story here, and the recent pullback is a reminder that concentration works in both directions.
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Despite a 9% gain in the benchmark S&P 500 so far in 2026, Tesla (TSLA +6.70%) stock has moved in the opposite direction, posting a 12% loss (as of market close on Thursday, July 2). The company is coming off two straight years of declining electric vehicle (EV) sales, so investors are understandably cautious.
But on July 2, Tesla reported its EV deliveries for the second quarter of 2026 (ended June 30), blowing away Wall Street's expectations. They also grew for the second consecutive quarter, which suggests this critical part of Tesla's business might finally be recovering.
That said, Tesla stock is trading at a sky-high valuation, which makes it a very tough investment despite recent improvements in its EV sales. Here's why it probably isn't a good buy right now.
Image source: Tesla.
Tesla's EV sales appear to be recovering Tesla delivered 1.79 million EVs in 2024, which was a 1% decline from the previous year. Sales fell at an even faster pace of 9% in 2025, with deliveries coming in at just 1.63 million. EV sales still account for over 70% of Tesla's revenue, so the declines put a real dent in the company's earnings, which plummeted by 47% last year alone.
Fortunately, the electric vehicle business seems to be recovering. Tesla delivered 358,023 cars during the first quarter of 2026, which was up 6% from the year-ago period. And on July 2, the company announced 480,126 deliveries for the second quarter, which was up 25%. It also topped Wall Street's average forecast of around 406,000 deliveries by a very wide margin.
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Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have sparked a surge in gas prices since February, likely benefiting Tesla's sales during the second quarter as more consumers made the switch to an EV. However, gas prices have started to decline thanks to an ongoing ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, so it's unclear whether this tailwind will extend into the rest of 2026.
The increasingly competitive landscape has been Tesla's biggest challenge over the last couple of years, as a raft of low-cost EV brands has flooded important markets like China and Europe. The company has responded by launching cheaper versions of its flagship Model 3 and Model Y EVs, but it still can't compete with China-based BYD, which sells its entry-level Dolphin Surf for under $30,000 in Europe.
Tesla will pivot away from the passenger EV business over the long term by focusing on its Cybercab autonomous robotaxi and its Optimus humanoid robot, but these products are still at least a year away from mass commercialization. In the meantime, shareholders might have to endure volatile financial results from the EV business.
Tesla is a tough investment because of its valuation Based on Tesla's trailing 12-month earnings of $1.09 per share, its stock trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 359. That makes it over 10 times as expensive as the Nasdaq-100 index, which has a P/E ratio of 35.2, so Tesla looks extremely overvalued compared to a basket of its big-tech peers.
Data by YCharts.
Tesla will report its official financial results for the second quarter on Wednesday, July 22, and given the sharp uptick in EV sales, its revenue and earnings are likely to grow nicely. Therefore, its stock might be slightly cheaper than it currently appears at face value once those latest earnings are factored in, but it will almost certainly still be more expensive than the Nasdaq-100 by several orders of magnitude.
Tesla's sky-high valuation is probably the main reason why its stock is down 12% this year, despite the gains in the broader market. Unfortunately, the door is open to an even steeper correction if the momentum in the company's EV business slows over the next couple of quarters -- and that is a real risk with gas prices coming down.
In my opinion, the only way investors could yield a positive return in Tesla stock from its current price is by adopting a very long-term outlook of at least five years. That will give the company time to bring new products like Optimus and the Cybercab to market, which could fuel its next phase of growth.
“Today, much of the robotics industry is still built around a single transaction: a machine is built, sold, and delivered,” Wang told Benzinga. “We believe the larger opportunity begins after delivery.”
Beyond Hardware SalesWang believes the robotics industry is approaching a business-model shift similar to what software experienced with subscriptions and cloud computing.
Instead of treating robots as one-time hardware purchases, he envisions them as long-lived assets that continue creating economic value throughout their operating lives. He calls the concept the “Robot Second Life Cycle,” where value extends beyond the initial sale through greater utilization, longer operating lives and the operational data robots generate while performing real-world tasks.
That distinction could eventually reshape how investors evaluate robotics companies. Rather than focusing solely on unit sales, the market may increasingly reward businesses that can generate recurring revenue from robots long after they’re deployed.
The Rise of Robot RentalsThat thinking also underpins Wang’s vision for Robotics-as-a-Service.
“A lot of businesses don’t necessarily want to own robots outright,” he said. “What they really want is access to robotic capabilities when those capabilities can create clear, measurable value.”
Instead of committing significant upfront capital, companies could rent robots for warehouse operations, inspections, security, deliveries or other specialized tasks, while robot owners generate income from equipment that might otherwise sit idle.
Wang sees parallels with another technology revolution.
“If cloud computing turned expensive servers into something you can access on demand, we think Robotics-as-a-Service can do something similar for robotic capabilities,” he said.
The Next Robotics TradeFor now, investors remain focused on which company will build the most capable humanoid robot. Tesla, Figure AI and other developers continue competing to improve mobility, intelligence and manufacturing scale.
But Wang argues the industry’s economics could eventually matter just as much as its engineering.
If robots become recurring revenue-generating assets rather than one-time hardware sales, the companies creating the most long-term value may not simply be those shipping the most machines—they could be the ones keeping those machines working, earning and generating data for years after deployment.
For investors, that suggests the next chapter of the robotics story may begin not when a robot is sold, but when it starts working.
Image courtesy company PR
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Shares of Coca-Cola (KO 1.40%) have been on a tear this year, rising by nearly 20% thus far. The stock hit a new all-time high on Monday as investors continue to load up on the beverage giant.
The stock's valuation is high, and the company reports its second-quarter earnings later this month, on July 28. Is the stock a good buy before it posts its latest numbers, or has it gotten too expensive?
Image source: Getty Images.
The company's growth has been impressive, but it comes with an asterisk Coca-Cola's recent results have been encouraging, with the company's growth rate accelerating and even getting back into double digits. The improved numbers may, however, have set an elevated bar for the beverage company leading into its upcoming earnings report.
While Coca-Cola's net revenue rose by 12% during the first three months of 2026, investors also shouldn't forget that they were down 2% a year earlier. Thus, the company was going up against some soft comparables, which can sometimes paint a bit of a misleading picture as to how well the business is truly doing. However, with the second quarter of 2025 also being an underwhelming period where sales were up by just 1%, it may not be all that surprising if Coca-Cola shows another strong quarter of growth when it posts its latest numbers this month.
The trouble is that Coca-Cola is not what you'd consider to be a top growth stock, yet it has been trading like one of late.
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Coca-Cola's high valuation highlights risks for investors Coca-Cola has a fantastic business, and it generates terrific margins, but that doesn't mean that it's worth paying a big premium for. But with it trading at 26 times its trailing earnings, that's arguably what investors who buy the stock today are doing. This is even higher than the 25 times earnings that the average stock in the S&P 500 trades at.
Another downside of buying the stock at its high is that its dividend yield has fallen to just 2.5%. At that level, there are many other dividend stocks to choose from that may offer comparable yields, have more long-term growth potential, and are more reasonably valued.
There's nothing wrong with Coca-Cola as a business, but the stock is arguably far too expensive to be a good buy at its current levels. And unless the company completely blows past earnings expectations in the current quarter, I wouldn't be surprised to see the stock fall after it posts its latest numbers.
Grab Holdings (GRAB 1.41%), a Southeast Asian super-app for rides, delivery, and financial services, closed at $3.85, down 1.28%. Shares fell after the company said Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi stepped down from its board, as the company tries to close its acquisition of foodpanda. Trading volume reached 73.0M shares, coming in about 35% above its three-month average of 54.3M shares. Grab Holdings IPO'd in 2020 and has fallen 68% since going public.
How the markets moved todayThe S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.72%) closed at 7,538, up 0.74%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +1.12%) finished at 26,121, up 1.12%. Among internet services and online platforms, ride-hailing, delivery, and fintech super-app peers, Uber Technologies closed at $72.43, down 2.69%, and DoorDash closed at $188.46, down 1.85%, as investors weighed platform growth against company-specific updates.
What this means for investorsThere are many moving parts tied to Grab’s news with Uber’s CEO leaving the former’s board -- but investors shouldn’t panic about today’s developments. It was mostly a web of conflicts of interest that needed to be sorted out for both companies to grow.
Uber is in the midst of acquiring Delivery Hero, a Germany-based global food and grocery delivery company. Delivery Hero owns foodpanda -- which is simultaneously being acquired from Delivery Hero by Grab. Due to these ties, Khosrowshahi’s tenure on Grab’s board had to end because of the significant overlap between the two companies and the concurrent acquisitions.
Ultimately, today’s news was more about avoiding regulatory trouble than anything else -- Uber is maintaining its economic stake in Grab (roughly 14% of shares outstanding) -- so there is no need to worry. In fact, I really like both the stocks for the long haul at today’s prices.
Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends DoorDash, Grab, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Alphabet (GOOG +2.44%) (GOOGL +1.87%) has been a top stock to own over the past year. If you bought shares at this time last year, you're up about 100% on your investment. However, the stock has shown some weakness lately and is currently about 12% off its all-time high set at the beginning of May.
With the stock going on sale for the first time in a while, many investors are wondering if this is their chance to get into Alphabet stock at a much lower price. Let's take a look at Alphabet's long-term prospects and see if this dip is a smart time to buy the stock.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Alphabet's AI strategy is panning out Early last year, Alphabet was written off as an artificial intelligence (AI) loser. AI was supposed to replace Google Search, and Alphabet's attempts at a large language model were not panning out. However, all of that seemed to be dispelled throughout 2025, which kicked off a major rally in the stock.
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Now it's clear Alphabet will be an AI winner.
Its strategy is fairly simple: Cast a wide net and see how much market it can capture. As it turns out, this wide net has captured nearly everything it set out to catch.
For Google Search, Alphabet updated the platform to include an AI-powered search summary with each result, bringing AI to the masses. Its own generative AI model, Gemini, has quickly emerged as one of the most powerful options available, especially at lower price points. Lastly, Google Cloud has become one of the top options for running AI workloads.
All these endeavors have led to a dominant AI strategy, and the market has rewarded the stock with huge gains. But has it gotten too expensive?
GOOG PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
At 25 times forward earnings, Alphabet's stock is on the higher end of its valuation that investors have seen over the past couple of years. But 25 times forward earnings is about where I'd expect an AI hyperscaler to trade. So, I don't think Alphabet's stock is expensive, but I don't consider it cheap either. Alphabet's future returns will come from business growth, and with Wall Street analysts guiding for 21% growth this year and 19% next year, I think it's a pretty compelling AI stock to buy now.
Alphabet won't be growing at a 100% pace anytime soon, but I think it's a strong candidate to crush the market over the next few years.
by Lisa Stiffler on Jul 6, 2026 at 1:09 pmJuly 6, 2026 at 1:11 pm
Amazon’s headquarters buildings and the Spheres in Seattle’s Denny Triangle neighborhood in September 2024. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Amazon has cut a total of 57 jobs in Washington state across various teams, including roles at the director and senior manager levels, according to a filing made public Monday morning.
People impacted by the cuts include 16 software engineers as well as product managers and creative marketing employees working in Seattle and Bellevue offices. Nine remote employees, including investigation specialists and risk managers, were also let go.
Employees were notified of the layoffs throughout May and in early June, according to an Amazon filing with the Employment Security Department, released Monday under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. The roles are scheduled to end in August.
“[W]e filed a WARN notice because a few businesses across the company made organizational changes that each impacted a small number of employees — in most cases fewer than five employees per business,” said Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, via email.
WARN notifications are triggered by state law when more than 50 Washington-based employees in total are laid off over a period of 30 days.
“We don’t make decisions like this lightly, and we’re committed to supporting the employees who were impacted,” Glasser added.
It’s a sign of the broader belt-tightening across the tech industry. Microsoft separately cut more than 600 jobs in Washington state on Monday morning, part of global layoffs eliminating 4,800 roles across the Redmond company, primarily in sales, consulting and gaming.
The latest Amazon cuts follow layoffs of 2,198 Washington-based employees in February and 2,303 in October 2025. Globally, the company has eliminated roughly 30,000 positions in the past year, cumulatively amounting to the the largest workforce reduction in its history.
The multiple rounds of layoffs have hit wide-ranging positions and divisions, with software engineers the hardest hit. Corporate support, commercial functions, legal, tax, and ad sales positions have all seen cuts, as have Amazon’s core technology organization, gaming division and robotics unit.
The previous larger cuts were part of an effort to “reduce layers, increase ownership, and remove bureaucracy,” according to a memo sent to employees and posted online earlier this year by Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology.
Amazon’s corporate roles numbered around 50,000 in the Seattle area.
Tech giants nationwide have made round after round of job cuts in the past year as they pour billions into AI data center expansions and gain labor efficiencies through the use of artificial intelligence.
Amazon reported $181.5 billion in sales for the first quarter of this year, up 17% from a year earlier. Profits came in at $30.3 billion, boosted by gains tied to the value of its investment in Anthropic.
Ahead of Microsoft Corporation's Q4 results, shares are underperforming, with monthly losses of about 6.5%. The stock is also sitting near the bottom end of its 52-week range. The losses come as many investors continue to question whether the company's AI investments can produce the desired results. MSFT has also announced that it will cut over 3,000 jobs in its Xbox division.
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. Litigation Partners Brandon Walker and Melissa Fortunato Encourage Investors Who Suffered Losses In Microsoft (MSFT) To Contact Them Directly To Discuss Their Options
If you purchased or acquired Microsoft common stock between May 1, 2025 and January 28, 2026 and would like to discuss your legal rights, contact Bragar Eagel & Squire partner Brandon Walker or Melissa Fortunato by email at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 355-4648
Click here to participate in the action.
NEW YORK, July 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
What’s Happening:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized stockholder rights law firm, announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of all persons and entities who purchased or otherwise acquired Microsoft common stock between May 1, 2025 and January 28, 2026, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”). Investors have until August 11, 2026 to apply to the Court to be appointed as lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Allegation Details:
According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Microsoft's Copilot family of products had experienced significant brand positioning, user experience, usage, data siloing, computational capacity, organizational, and interoperability problems; (2) Microsoft's flagship proprietary AI model ranked well below competitors on a number of benchmark tests; (3) Microsoft needed to increase by billions of dollars its capital expenditures and divert graphics processing unit ("GPU") and central processing unit ("CPU") capacity away from fulfilling demand for its profitable Azure services in order to improve the competitive positioning of its critical Copilot family of products and increase its AI-related research and development ("R&D"); and (4) as a result, Microsoft had failed to convert a significant percentage of its commercial Microsoft 365 users to paid Copilot subscriptions and Microsoft's Copilot offerings had lost market share to rival products, a trend that was increasing. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
Next Steps:
If you purchased or otherwise acquired Microsoft shares and suffered a loss, are a long-term stockholder, have information, would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Brandon Walker or Melissa Fortunato by email at [email protected], telephone at (212) 355-4648, or by filling out this contact form. There is no cost or obligation to you.
About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, South Carolina, and California. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in securities, derivative, and commercial litigation as well as individuals in consumer protection and data privacy litigation. The firm has a nationwide practice and routinely handles cases in both federal and state courts. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn and Facebook, and keep up with other news by following Brandon Walker, Esq. on LinkedIn.
Microsoft's shares were falling on Monday even as the company announced its latest round of job cuts, as investors likely refused to look past the company's high AI investments.
A price target cut by Wolfe Research on Monday, citing higher memory prices, is likely to have also weighed on the stock, even though it maintained an Outperform rating on MSFT.
Shares of Microsoft MSFT fell about 1% on Monday afternoon after suffering a higher decline earlier in the day following the software giant's announcement that it would eliminate roughly 4,800 jobs, or about 2.1% of its global workforce, while restructuring its Xbox gaming business and continuing to ramp up spending on AI infrastructure.
The decline contrasted with the market's typical response to large-scale technology layoffs, which in recent years have often been viewed as signs of improving cost discipline and stronger profitability.
Microsoft's shares have fallen 18% so far this year, making the company a laggard among the Magnificent 7 stocks as it contends with investor pushback on the front of heavy AI capex spending while also being weighed down by their fears of AI disrupting software.
Microsoft said the restructuring would include significant changes to its gaming division, with plans to divest as many as five Xbox studios after years of heavy investment in the business.
The gaming overhaul will account for about 3,200 job cuts, including 1,600 layoffs announced on Monday.
The move comes as Microsoft increasingly prioritizes investments in artificial intelligence, which executives believe offer stronger long-term returns than its slower-growing gaming operations.
DA Davidson's Head of Technology Research Gil Luria said Microsoft's capital allocation reflects where management sees the greatest opportunity.
"AI drives more infrastructure software sales, then it drives more Office sales with Copilot. They have a much better place to invest right now. The gaming business doesn’t have much growth, so they might as well cut costs there in order to fund AI investment," he told CNBC.
Investors remain focused on AI spendingUnlike previous restructuring announcements across the technology sector, Microsoft's layoffs failed to reassure investors.
Amazon shares rose, albeit modestly, after the company announced plans to eliminate 16,000 roles earlier this year, while Meta's stock also gained following reports in March that it intended to cut more than 20% of its workforce.
Microsoft's shares, however, moved lower, suggesting investors remain more concerned about the company's rising AI investment bill than potential savings from workforce reductions.
AJ Bell investment director Danni Hewson said the market is still waiting for tangible evidence that Microsoft's enormous AI spending is translating into stronger financial performance.
"Markets are waiting to see solid financial evidence that all that capex is paying off and that the faith in AI as a growth supercharger has been warranted."
She added that investors may also have already priced in the restructuring after reports emerged last week that Microsoft was preparing another round of layoffs.
Parth Talsania, chief executive of Equisights Research, said the announcement was unlikely to provide a fresh catalyst for the stock.
"That (targeted cuts) makes the announcement read more like portfolio reallocation and operating discipline than a fresh catalyst for the stock."
"In the near term, the market is likely to reward Microsoft less for headcount reductions and more for evidence that AI monetization is scaling faster than AI-related costs," she said.
Adding to investor concerns, Wolfe Research reduced its price target on Microsoft to $525 from $570 while maintaining its Outperform rating.
Analyst Alex Zukin cited sharply higher memory prices following Micron Technology's latest earnings report, prompting the firm to raise its estimate for Microsoft's fiscal 2027 capital expenditure to $270 billion from $230 billion.
The higher investment outlook led Wolfe to project fiscal 2027 free cash flow of negative $17.4 billion, compared with its earlier estimate of positive $14.7 billion and well below the market consensus of roughly $31 billion.
The brokerage also lowered its fiscal 2027 gross margin forecast to 63.1% from 64%, compared with the consensus estimate of 66.6%, while trimming its earnings-per-share estimate by 1% to $19.02.
Despite the revisions, Wolfe remained optimistic about Microsoft's long-term AI strategy.
The firm said it "remains long-term bullish on MSFT's full-stack monetization approach to AI with Azure growth acceleration and rising Agent monetization potential."
It expects Azure revenue growth of 41% in fiscal 2027 and 40% in fiscal 2028, ahead of Wall Street expectations.
Zukin also pointed to Microsoft's disclosure of $11.5 billion in restricted investments linked to supplier agreements, which Wolfe believes "could reflect the company locking in a portion of component costs tied to memory," potentially reducing future pricing pressure.
Luria argued that investors have become overly pessimistic about Microsoft's outlook by embracing two conflicting narratives simultaneously — that AI will weaken software demand while the company is overspending on AI infrastructure.
He rejected both views.
"The narrative on Microsoft has turned very negative, but that's an opportunity, because when they report in three weeks, they're going to report accelerating Azure growth and they're going to report capex growth that's at a lower rate than that."
Microsoft is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings on July 29.
According to Fiscal.ai data, Wall Street expects revenue to rise 15% year over year to $87.66 billion, while earnings per share are projected to increase to $4.24 from $3.65 a year earlier.
For investors, the results are likely to determine whether Microsoft's costly AI strategy is beginning to deliver the returns the market has been waiting for.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) looks mispriced, and the discomfort is the whole point. The company is cutting roughly 4,800 jobs, about 2.1% of its workforce, while telling investors it will spend roughly $190 billion on capex in calendar 2026 to feed AI and Azure.
Microsoft is the closest thing the S&P 500 has to a pure AI infrastructure operator, with three legs (Productivity, Intelligent Cloud, and a fading More Personal Computing segment) all bent toward the same agentic-computing story. Shares are down 22% over the past year and 18% year to date, even as Azure and other cloud services grew 40% in constant currency last quarter. The market is repricing the payoff while demand keeps compounding.
Why the reset makes MSFT interesting again The bull case starts with a number Satya Nadella dropped on the last call. “Our AI business surpassed $37 billion ARR, up 123%.” Commercial remaining performance obligations, essentially contracted future revenue, hit $627 billion, up 99% year over year. That is not a demand problem.
Valuation has become reasonable. Trailing P/E is 23x and forward P/E is 20x, on a business with 34% return on equity and 46.3% operating margins. Retail has noticed. The top r/stocks post of the past two weeks argued “Microsoft is now cheaper than the April 2025 Tariff crash, yet TTM EPS is up 30%”, drawing more than 1,400 upvotes.
Why the capex bill still terrifies people Q3 capex was $30.88 billion, up 84.39% year over year, and Amy Hood guided Q4 to over $40 billion. Free cash flow yield has compressed to 2.47%, which is skinny for a company financing GPUs with two-thirds of that spend going into short-lived assets. Industry chatter puts GPU utilization at some hyperscalers as low as 33%, maybe up to 50%, hobbled by connectivity bottlenecks.
Prediction markets have absorbed the skepticism. Polymarket is currently pricing a 69.5% probability that Anthropic and OpenAI combined will be worth more than Microsoft by year-end 2026. Insiders are net sellers across 33 recent transactions. The layoff, framed by Hood as building “high-performing teams that operate with pace and agility”, reads to bears as margin defense against a capex wave that has not paid for itself yet.
The case for sitting on your hands Polymarket’s modal outcome for July close is $405, at 67% probability, with the week ending clustered around $380 to $390. That is roughly here. The near-term signal is consolidation.
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.
What tips the verdict is Azure monetization pace. If Q4 Azure lands inside guidance of 39% to 40% growth and AI margins hold, patience gets expensive fast. If capex creeps toward $200 billion without corresponding revenue conversion, waiting was correct.
What the numbers actually say Microsoft trades at $386 against a Wall Street average target of $561.11, implying substantial upside if analysts are right. Of the analysts covering it, 53 rate it Buy, 3 Hold, and none Sell. The stock is down 19.85% over the past year while the S&P 500 has stayed roughly flat to modestly higher over the same window, based on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) moving from $718.66 at the April earnings filing to $750.82 currently. Microsoft is the laggard among the megacaps.
Right now, the setup looks constructive. You are paying 20 times forward earnings for a business growing revenue 18.3% year over year, with a $627 billion contracted backlog and an AI segment compounding at triple digits. The capex fear is real, but Hood was explicit that AI margins “were actually better and have remained better” than the equivalent stage of the cloud transition. The layoffs read as operating leverage getting engineered while the infrastructure gets built.
Can MSFT stock keep going up? The specific path to appreciation is Azure printing another 39% to 40% quarter in late July, capex coming in near the $190 billion guide rather than blowing past it, and the AI ARR line moving from $37 billion toward $50 billion over the next two quarters.
What invalidates the thesis is any of those three slipping meaningfully, particularly Azure growth breaking below 35% while capex continues climbing. Watch Q4 gross margin in Microsoft Cloud, which slipped to 66% last quarter. Another leg down there and the payoff timeline stretches.
The uncomfortable trade is the one where the fundamentals are already working and the stock has not caught up yet, and at $386, that describes Microsoft.
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.
Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox plans to eliminate 3,200 jobs, or around 20% of its staff over the next year, as part of a massive reorganization to spur growth in the struggling gaming division. Xbox will also divest four of its video-game development studios and is beginning the process to part ways with a fifth.
Microsoft can be the “orchestration layer” for enterprises using artificial-intelligence models, analysts say. (Martin LELIEVRE / AFP via Getty Images)
The artificial-intelligence boom has also caused a surge in new buzzwords for investors to learn, from “inference” to “agents” to “edge.” Next up on the list: “Orchestration.”
Alibaba will ban employees from using Anthropic's artificial intelligence tools for work purposes as of July 10, citing concerns that the U.S. company has back-door security risks, CNBC confirmed on Monday.
The Chinese e-commerce giant has put Anthropic's Claude Code on a high-risk software list, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named in order to discuss internal operations.
Alibaba's move follows Anthropic's decision in June to send a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, blaming the Chinese tech titan of "brazenly" and "illicitly" attempting to extract its AI capabilities. Anthropic accused Alibaba of carrying out "the largest known distillation attack" on it to date.
Anthropic's terms of service dictate that Chinese companies and other "adversarial nations" are banned from using its models.
Alibaba employees are required to uninstall all Anthropic models and agent products and instead use the Chinese company's own AI assistant, Qoder, the people said.
Alibaba and Anthropic both declined to comment.
Read more CNBC tech newsMeta's push into cloud computing means Wall Street has to prepare for lower marginsChip stocks that notched record rallies in second quarter start Q3 with a dudPlayStation will end physical disc production for new games in 2028Employers who laid off workers citing AI are already starting to regret itThe ban comes amid a wave of online blowback in China against Anthropic as posts on Reddit and GitHub outlined the use of hidden code meant to detect if users might be based in the country.
The Financial Times reported Friday that Anthropic is moving to close loopholes that have allowed Chinese companies to bypass restrictions and access Claude through third countries.
The UK newspaper cited sources as saying Chinese fintech group Ant "had provided employees with corporate Claude accounts that were accessed through the company's intranet, which is connected to its Singapore-based entity."
The FT reported that TikTok parent company Bytedance "does not facilitate access to Claude," but did start a reimbursement program that allows engineers to expense personal subscriptions. The engineers can access those subscriptions on virtual private networks.
Ant and ByteDance declined to comment on the Financial Times report.
ByteDance's reimbursement policy, unveiled on April 2, is meant to encourage staffers to "experience and learn" about a wider range of AI products to enhance their skills, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The person asked not to be named in order to discuss internal policies.
Key Takeaways NKE's wholesale revenues rose 4% in Q4 fiscal 2026, led by strength in North America.NIKE is rebuilding wholesale partnerships while reducing inventory and promotional activity. NKE's Win Now strategy is strengthening product innovation, brand engagement and marketplace execution. NIKE, Inc. (NKE - Free Report) has been making efforts to drive growth at its wholesale segment. The company is rebuilding its wholesale partnerships by expanding its reach across retail channels and enhancing its presence in the marketplace. It is also making significant investments in its physical retail network, refreshing more than 15,000 wholesale locations worldwide to improve product presentation and the overall consumer shopping experience.
NIKE is streamlining inventory, reducing promotional activity and investing in its wholesale network to create a healthier and more profitable distribution channel. While challenges persist in categories such as Sportswear and Jordan, as well as in markets like Greater China, the improving wholesale performance suggests that NIKE is making meaningful progress toward restoring growth. NIKE continues to remain under pressure in Greater China as it restructures its inventory and marketplace.
Hence, the company’s wholesale business is currently showing encouraging signs, with the segment’s revenues increasing 4% on a reported basis and 1% on a currency-neutral basis to $6.6 billion in fourth-quarter fiscal 2026. Wholesale trends improved, helping offset weakness in NIKE Direct. Growth was mainly driven by North America, partly offset by lower revenues in Greater China. For the fiscal year, wholesale revenues grew 4%, led by double-digit growth in North America.
Healthy demand for its performance-focused products and improving marketplace conditions have been driving results. Key partners are showing better performance. Management highlighted that sales and retail sell-through at Foot Locker turned positive for the first time in four years, suggesting stronger consumer demand and healthier inventory at retail partners.
The company continues to execute its "Win Now" turnaround strategy, which focuses on strengthening culture, accelerating product innovation, reinforcing brand strength and enhancing consumer engagement. NIKE is actively reducing excess inventory, scaling back promotional activity and optimizing shipments to better match product supply with consumer demand, helping create a healthier marketplace while supporting long-term profitability.
NKE’s Competitionlululemon athletica inc. (LULU - Free Report) continues to benefit from the progress with its Power of Three X2 growth strategy. LULU remains focused on its long-term growth strategy, which centers on continuous product innovation, enhancing the guest experience and expanding its international presence to drive sustainable growth. lululemon is experiencing robust international momentum, with China and other global markets driving faster growth.
adidas AG (ADDYY - Free Report) is focused on strengthening its brand appeal through continuous product innovation, operational excellence and strategic growth initiatives. ADDYY remains committed to enhancing profitability and long-term competitiveness by maintaining inventory discipline, improving operational efficiency and advancing its sustainability efforts. In addition, adidas is expanding its global footprint through localized market strategies, increased digital investments and an ongoing expansion of its retail store network.
NKE’S Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of NIKE have lost 33.5% in the past six months compared with the industry’s decline of 25.4%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, NKE trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 23.72X compared with the industry’s average of 20.73X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NKE’s fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 earnings per share implies year-over-year growth of 13.9% and 32.5%, respectively. The company’s EPS estimate for fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 has moved south in the past seven days.
The stock market's trading activity usually slows down during the summer. Many investors "sell in May and go away," and the Fed enters a "blackout period" (from July to September) during which its officials can't publicly comment on the U.S. economy.
But if you're already retired or on the verge of retiring, it's smart to adjust your portfolio during those sleepy months to maximize your retirement income. Here are three simple moves you can make before the weather cools down again and the market wakes up again.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Buy more defensive blue chip dividend stocks If you own a lot of high-growth stocks like Nvidia (NVDA +0.38%), which has rallied 16,510% over the past ten years, it's smart to take some off that money off the table and reinvest that cash into reliable blue chip dividend stocks like Coca-Cola (KO 1.40%).
Coca-Cola and its fellow Dividend Kings have raised their dividends annually for more than 50 years, even as the U.S. economy weathered wars, wild interest rate swings, and recessions. Therefore, shifting some cash into those evergreen stocks before the market pulls back could boost your retirement income and help you sleep better at night.
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2. Buy more fixed-income investments When you retire, your goal should be to keep pace with inflation rather than consistently beating the market. With the Fed's benchmark rate still holding steady at 3.50%-3.75% and poised to increase if inflation doesn't cool off, it could be a great time to buy more CDs, T-bills, and investment-grade bonds to generate stable, low-risk income as the broader market fluctuates.
Municipal bonds, which are exempt from Federal taxes and state taxes (if you live in the issuing state or a state with no income taxes), are also a great option for retirees who want to generate passive income without increasing their tax burden.
3. See how much passive income you actually need Lastly, retirees should consider whether they actually need to collect Social Security benefits or withdraw funds from their retirement accounts to supplement their passive income. While you can start claiming your Social Security benefits at the age of 62, your annual payments will be permanently reduced by 30%. You can only claim the full payments if you start claiming them at the Full Retirement Age (FRA) of 67.
You can only start withdrawing from your IRAs and other retirement accounts after the age of 59 1/2 without incurring the IRS' 10% penalty for early withdraws on tax-deferred accounts. Therefore, if you already have plenty of liquidity and passive income, there's no need to prematurely touch those locked-up funds.
Nvidia Corporation faces rising competitive threats from customer-developed ASICs, prompting strategic defensive moves to maintain AI chip dominance. NVDA is locking up TSMC capacity, investing in neoclouds, and launching initiatives like Nemotron and revenue-share agreements to counter customer disintermediation. I see NVDA's business moat as narrowing, justifying a lower multiple versus hyperscalers, but its near-term growth and earnings beat potential remain compelling.
SummaryVisa is rated Buy, with the current valuation offering a solid margin of safety and strong growth prospects, especially via value-added services.Q2’FY26 saw robust 17% YoY net revenue growth, a 20% EPS increase, and resilient consumer spending, supporting continued bullishness.Value-added services now comprise 30% of V’s net revenue, growing ~28% YoY, and are central to mitigating macro and disruption risks.DCF analysis yields an intrinsic value above the current price, with buybacks and strong cash flow supporting shareholder returns. FinkAvenue/iStock Editorial via Getty Images
Introduction Visa (V) serves as the backbone of the modern digital economy, with a strong footprint across the globe and an ongoing pivot into value-added services that can help it offset the broader macro
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The House of Representatives passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act last July, which establishes a clearer federal framework for digital assets. However, the CLARITY Act remains in limbo in the Senate due to one major roadblock: how to handle stablecoins that pay interest-like rewards. Traditional banks want to ban stablecoin yields to protect their deposits. In contrast, crypto exchanges like Coinbase (COIN +2.05%) -- which earn revenue by taking a cut of the interest generated from the assets backing those stablecoins -- want them permitted.
In early May, Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks finally brokered a compromise: to ban passive stablecoin rewards (earned from just holding the token) but permit activity-based rewards (tied to actual transactions or platform utility). That compromise allowed the Senate to finally draft a new version of the bill that could clear a final vote.
Image source: Getty Images.
However, JPMorgan Chase (JPM +1.43%) CEO Jamie Dimon recently warned that any yield-bearing stablecoins providing bank-like returns without comparable capital, liquidity, and capital-protection requirements could create a "shadow banking" crisis. Dimon and major banking trade groups, including the American Bankers Association, are also ramping up their lobbying efforts to completely ban all yield-generating stablecoins.
How will that pressure impact crypto companies? If that pressure forces the Senate to revise the CLARITY Act to ban all stablecoin yields, two companies could suffer the most: Circle (CRCL +6.55%) and Coinbase (COIN +2.05%).
Circle issues USD Coin (USDC 0.02%), the most widely used stablecoin in the United States. It generates most of its revenue by collecting interest on the cash and U.S. Treasury bills that it holds to back its minted stablecoins. Coinbase, a founding partner of USDC, retains all of Circle's interest income on its platform and half of its residual reserve income.
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If the revised CLARITY Act bans all stablecoin yields, those tokens will become a lot less appealing than U.S. dollars. As that appeal wanes, Circle will mint fewer USDC tokens, accumulate less cash and Treasuries, and collect less interest. Less of that interest will flow to Coinbase, which will also collect lower fees as its stablecoin trading volumes decline.
The outcome is far from certain In a recent Fox Business interview, Dimon said about the CLARITY Act's stance on stablecoin yields: "We'll fight it. If we lose, we lose, and we'll live." Therefore, it's still unclear how this battle will end -- but we'll likely see some more clashes before Congress breaks for its August recess.
JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Zoom Communications is rated a 'buy' due to undervaluation, robust AI-driven growth, and a pristine balance sheet. ZM's enterprise revenue grew 7.2%, with large customers rising 8% and non-GAAP operating margin reaching 41.1%. AI Companion adoption surged 184% YoY, driving platform expansion and prompting management to raise full-year guidance.
Key Takeaways Major banks begin Q2 earnings, setting the tone for bank ETFs and the financial sector.ETFs like XLF could benefit if loan growth and higher rates support bank profitability.KBWB offers exposure to banking giants as investors watch credit quality and loan loss provisions. A striking tug-of-war is playing out across Wall Street. On one side, investors are on high alert due to sudden economic mixed signals — namely a sharp cooldown in the labor market and sticky inflation that has kept potential interest rate hikes on the table under the new Fed leadership. On the other side, relentless capital inflows and a massive wave of infrastructure spending continue to fuel an exceptional stock market rally, which has led the S&P 500 to experience its best quarter in six years.
Against this tense backdrop, the financial sector is poised to take center stage as a cohort of major banking giants kicks off the second-quarter earnings season this week. These upcoming reports are far more than a simple scorecard for individual institutions; they represent a critical, real-time health check on corporate margins and consumer resilience, heavily dictating the near-term trajectory of banking exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Peeping Through the Q2 LensWith the Q2 earnings season kicking off this week as Wall Street’s heavyweights report, we get a front-row seat to the real engine of the banking sector. The same macroeconomic crosscurrents rattling the broader market — shifting interest rate expectations and labor market uncertainty — are also shaping loan demand and asset quality, the two key pillars of bank profitability.
The latest assets and liabilities report published by the Federal Reserve reflects a smooth acceleration in loan growth during the majority of second-quarter 2026, with the "Loans and Leases in bank credit" category having surged at an annual rate of 8.9% in April and 6.1% in May.
In particular, the Commercial and Industrial (“C&I”) loan segment delivered a significant growth trend. C&I loans surged at an annual rate of 15.9% in April alone, surpassing the 12.2% growth witnessed in the first quarter, before moderating to a still-strong 10.9% in May.
On the other hand, asset quality remains a critical area to approach with caution. While the market consensus expects credit metrics to moderately stabilize, investors remain highly sensitive to vulnerabilities in credit cards, auto loans, and commercial real estate. Wall Street continues to keep a sharp focus on any sequential rise in net charge-offs and, crucially, whether banks are ramping up their loan loss provisions — a definitive signal that institutions are hoarding capital to brace for rising defaults later this year.
A powerful resurgence in investment banking has supercharged merger and acquisition (M&A) activity throughout the first half of the year, providing a substantial tailwind to the profitability of Wall Street’s largest institutions. This momentum is further amplified by an accelerating capital markets engine, where a robust wave of initial public offerings (IPOs) and heavy debt issuance should act as major growth catalysts for the banks’ profitability.
Persistent inflation in the United States caused the country’s interest rate to remain elevated through the first half of 2026. For major banks, this higher-for-longer rate environment is likely to have offered an opportunity to expand their net interest margins (NIM), provided they can successfully contain rising deposit costs while capitalizing on elevated lending yields.
Expected Earnings ScenarioLet’s delve deeper into the likely earnings picture of the big six banking companies that could drive the performance of the Finance sector ahead, with its total second-quarter earnings expected to surge 12.5% on 8.1% higher revenues, per our Earnings Trend Report issued on July 2, 2026.
The big six bankers that are set to report next week are:
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM - Free Report) is expected to report $5.49 per share in earnings on $48.71 billion in revenues, suggesting year-over-year growth of 10.5% and 5.2%, respectively.
Citigroup Inc. (C - Free Report) is expected to report $2.65 per share in earnings on $23.46 billion in revenues, implying year-over-year growth of 35.3% and 8.3%, respectively.
The Goldman Sachs Group (GS - Free Report) is likely to report $14.01 per share in earnings on $16.31 billion in revenues, suggesting year-over-year growth of 28.4% and 11.8%, respectively.
Wells Fargo & Company (WFC - Free Report) is expected to report $1.73 per share in earnings on $21.76 billion in revenues, implying year-over-year growth of 12.3% and 4.5%, respectively.
Bank of America (BAC - Free Report) is anticipated to post $1.11 per share in earnings on $30.26 billion in revenues, suggesting year-over-year growth of 24.7% and 14.4%, respectively.
Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) is expected to report $2.78 per share in earnings on $19.02 billion in revenues, implying year-over-year growth of 30.5% and 13.3%, respectively.
Bottom LineTo conclude, the underlying health of the banking sector remains fundamentally resilient, even as it navigates defined friction points like persistent deposit costs and localized asset quality worries. However, the picture is far from bleak. With a powerful, realized revival in global dealmaking and robust underwriting activity providing an undeniable structural tailwind, the broader outlook points toward a path of stabilized, high-quality growth.
For investors looking to play this trend, major financial ETFs mentioned below offer a direct vehicle to capture this momentum — providing highly concentrated, liquid exposure to the banking heavyweights that are kicking off the second-quarter reporting cycle this week.
These ETFs include Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF - Free Report) , Invesco KBW Bank ETF (KBWB - Free Report) , iShares US Financials ETF (IYF - Free Report) , Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH - Free Report) and iShares U.S. Financial Services ETF (IYG - Free Report) .
, /PRNewswire/ -- W. P. Carey (W. P. Carey, NYSE: WPC), a leading net lease REIT specializing in corporate sale-leasebacks, build-to-suits and the acquisition of single-tenant net lease properties, today announced the release of its 2025 Corporate Responsibility Report.
W. P. Carey Releases 2025 Corporate Responsibility Report Prepared in reference to disclosure standards established by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the report summarizes W. P. Carey's progress and achievements across corporate responsibility initiatives, focused on the company's environmental, social and governance objectives. It can be viewed and downloaded from W. P. Carey's website at www.wpcarey.com/corporate-responsibility.
Jason Fox, Chief Executive Officer and President, W. P. Carey, said: "Our Corporate Responsibility Report reflects the continued integration of sustainability, social impact and strong governance across our business. We remain focused on initiatives that strengthen our portfolio and drive long-term value for our shareholders, guided by our dual commitments to Investing for the Long Run and Doing Good While Doing Well."
W. P. Carey Inc.
W. P. Carey ranks among the largest net lease REITs with a well-diversified portfolio of high-quality, operationally critical commercial real estate, which includes 1,703 net lease properties covering approximately 185 million square feet as of March 31, 2026. With offices in New York, London, Amsterdam and Dallas, the company remains focused on investing primarily in single-tenant industrial, warehouse and retail properties located in the U.S. and Europe, under long-term net leases with built-in rent escalations.
www.wpcarey.com
This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. Federal securities laws. The comments of Mr. Fox are examples of forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause W. P. Carey's actual results, performance or achievement to differ materially from those anticipated. Other unknown or unpredictable risks or uncertainties, like the risks related to fluctuating interest rates, the impact of inflation on our tenants and us, the effects of pandemics and global outbreaks of contagious diseases, and domestic or geopolitical crises (such as terrorism, military conflict, war or the perception that hostilities may be imminent), political instability or civil unrest, or other conflict, and those additional risk factors discussed in reports that we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), could also have material adverse effects on our future results, performance or achievements. Discussions of some of these other important factors and assumptions are contained in W. P. Carey's filings with the SEC and are available at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov, including Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors in W. P. Carey's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025.
Institutional Investors:
Peter Sands
1 (212) 492-1110
[email protected]
Individual Investors:
W. P. Carey Inc.
1 (212) 492-8920
[email protected]
Key Takeaways UnitedHealth is exiting lower-margin business and focusing on profitability to strengthen earnings quality.UNH improved first-quarter MCR to 83.9%, raised 2026 adjusted EPS outlook and targets a 3.6% net margin.Optum expansion in value-based care, specialty pharmacy and technology services supports long-term growth. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH - Free Report) is navigating a more challenging operating environment as elevated healthcare utilization, rising Medicare Advantage costs and tighter reimbursement have pressured margins. It has shifted its focus from rapid enrollment growth to stronger earnings quality. Now the key question for investors is whether this strategic reset can restore earnings momentum.
Rather than pursuing enrollment growth at any cost, UnitedHealth is taking a more disciplined approach by repricing Medicare Advantage plans, exiting less profitable markets and focusing on restoring margins and long-term profitability. Early signs suggest the strategy is gaining traction. In the first quarter of 2026, adjusted earnings topped expectations, while the Medical Care Ratio (MCR) improved 90 basis points year over year to 83.9%, reflecting better control over medical costs. It also raised its full-year adjusted EPS outlook and expects net margin to improve to around 3.6% in 2026 from 2.7% in 2025.
UnitedHealth's turnaround isn't just about cutting costs and improving profitability. Optum remains a key growth driver as UnitedHealth expands value-based care, specialty pharmacy and technology-enabled services. These businesses should support margin expansion and more durable earnings growth over time.
The company is also reinventing its PBM business by introducing a transparent, fee-based pricing model that moves away from the traditional rebate-driven system. Together with ongoing investments in Optum's care delivery and technology capabilities, these initiatives could strengthen customer relationships, support sustainable earnings growth and create long-term value for investors.
How Are UNH's Peers Positioned?UnitedHealth isn't alone in adapting to a tougher healthcare environment. Peers from the Medical space, including The Cigna Group (CI - Free Report) and Elevance Health, Inc. (ELV - Free Report) , are also prioritizing operational efficiency and higher-quality growth.
Cigna Group continues to strengthen its healthcare services business, with Evernorth driving growth through specialty pharmacy and AI-powered care solutions. The recent launch of Pharmacy Forward highlights Cigna's focus on simplifying specialty care while supporting long-term earnings growth.
Elevance Health remains focused on disciplined pricing, medical cost management and expanding ELV's Carelon health services platform. Continued investments in value-based care and integrated healthcare services should help improve operating efficiency and support steady long-term growth despite ongoing industry cost pressures.
UNH’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesShares of UnitedHealth have risen 40.1% in the past 12 months compared with the industry’s 42.1%. growth.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, UNH trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.71X compared with the industry average of 18.52X. UNH carries a Value Score of B.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for UnitedHealth’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $18.32 per share, implying a 12.1% increase from the year-ago period’s level.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
UNH currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The prices of oil and natural gas have been in the news lately, thanks to the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East. When the conflict started, energy prices rose. Now that the conflict seems to be nearing an end, energy prices have fallen back to pre-conflict levels.
The really big lesson here isn't that oil and natural gas prices are volatile, but that energy is vital to the world's normal functioning. Which is why you should consider buying Chevron (CVX 0.60%) and/or Enterprise Products Partners (EPD 0.79%) in the second half of 2026.
Image source: Getty Images.
Chevron gives you exposure to the entire industry Given the world's reliance on energy, most investors should have some exposure to it. Chevron is a solid choice because it is one of the world's largest energy companies. It is also one of the world's most diversified energy companies, with a global portfolio of assets and exposure across the entire energy value chain. Basically, it can put money to work wherever management believes it will produce the highest returns.
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On top of that, Chevron is also run conservatively. That shows up on the balance sheet, given the company's low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25x. And it shows up in the dividend, which has been increased for decades despite the inherent volatility of the energy sector. On top of that, the dividend yield is an attractive 4.2% right now. For most investors, Chevron is a good choice in the energy patch.
Enterprise is better for conservative income investors That said, Chevron's business will wax and wane along with oil prices. There's no way around that for an oil-producing company. If you don't want to take on that commodity risk but still want energy exposure, you should consider Enterprise Products Partners. The master limited partnership (MLP) is one of the largest midstream operators in North America.
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Midstream businesses own the energy infrastructure assets that help to move oil and natural gas around the world. They charge fees for the use of their assets, so energy demand is more important than oil and gas prices. Demand tends to remain strong most of the time, so Enterprise generates reliable cash flows to cover its lofty 6% yield. The distribution has increased every year since the MLP became public.
Don't focus on energy prices; focus on the business Energy prices go up and down. In fact, Chevron and other large energy companies have been warning that oil prices don't accurately reflect current industry fundamentals. That suggests oil prices may rise again when investor emotions cool and industry fundamentals once more become important. That could make now a good time to buy Chevron.
But the truth is, Chevron is usually a good way to get exposure to the energy sector. Unless, of course, you don't want to take on commodity risk. In that case, high-yield Enterprise will probably be a better choice.
European stocks are having their loudest year in a decade, and the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (NYSEARCA:VGK) is the vehicle most retail investors will consider. VGK trades around $90, up 18% over the past year, while every US finance headline focuses on hyperscaler capex and AI compute.
If you want to bet that the next dollar of global equity flows leaves the Magnificent Seven for elsewhere, VGK is the cleanest lever.
What you are actually buying VGK tracks the FTSE Developed Europe All Cap Index, a broad slice of large, mid, and small caps across the UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, the Nordics, and southern Europe. You get dividends from mature multinationals like Nestlé (OTCMKTS:NSRGY), Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO | NVO Price Prediction), ASML (NASDAQ:ASML), Shell (NYSE:SHEL), HSBC (NYSE:HSBC), LVMH (OTCMKTS:LVMUY), and SAP (NYSE:SAP), plus whatever earnings growth European corporates can squeeze out, plus or minus currency moves. It skips options overlays, leverage, and factor tilts. What you own is the market in euros and pounds wrapped in a US ticker.
That last part matters more than most holders realize. With EUR/USD at 1.1437, a meaningful chunk of VGK’s recent gains is currency, not earnings. JPMorgan’s 2026 outlook notes the US dollar is still roughly 10% overvalued versus fair value, and a weaker dollar has already contributed about seven percentage points to international equity returns. Own VGK and you are quietly short the dollar too.
Does the anti-Mag Seven trade actually work Year to date, VGK is up 9.5%. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is up 10.7%. The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) is up 18%. VGK has kept pace with the S&P and lagged the Nasdaq 100 by a wide margin, which is roughly what you should expect when AI capex is driving US indexes.
Over five years VGK returned 56% against SPY’s 85% and QQQ’s 107%. Over ten years it is 172% versus SPY at 323% and QQQ at 622%. Anyone who used Europe as their core got half the ten-year return of a plain S&P index fund. The trade is a diversifier, not a replacement.
The 2026 setup is friendlier than it has been in years. WTI crude sits at $68, down 25% over the past month from April highs near $115, which eases input-cost pressure on European industrials and banks. Franklin Templeton expects European equities, emerging markets, and US small caps to lead in 2026. Morningstar makes a similar case, arguing investors should reduce dependence on the concentrated bet that is the Magnificent Seven.
The tradeoffs nobody puts on the fact sheet Structural growth is slower. Vanguard pegs eurozone real GDP growth at around 1% in 2026. That is the ceiling on domestic earnings, and it is why the US equity premium versus international is still 34%, well above its 19% long-run average. Currency cuts both ways. The euro giveth and taketh away. A dollar rebound would claw back recent gains even if European earnings hold. Europe has faked breakouts before. 2015, 2017, 2021. Each time the region teased leadership and handed it back to US tech within eighteen months. Who it fits, who should skip it VGK earns a 10% to 20% sleeve of the equity side of a portfolio for investors who already own an S&P 500 or total-market core and want to trim AI concentration risk. With 10-year Treasuries at 4.5% and US mega-cap multiples where they are, the diversification math has not been this reasonable since 2014. Retirees looking for developed-markets ballast get roughly what they want at Vanguard’s near-zero fee structure.
Skip VGK if you are trying to beat the S&P outright, or if you cannot stomach three-year stretches where the dollar strengthens and European banks go nowhere. The key risk is currency. Half of what has made VGK work in 2026 is the weak dollar, and if that reverses, so does the story. Own it as a hedge against US concentration, size it accordingly, and stop expecting it to outrun US megacap tech.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Shares of Oracle (ORCL +2.49%) sank 35% in June, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. After rebounding in May, the database and software provider turned artificial intelligence (AI) cloud solution reported earnings in June that disappointed investors.
Oracle is now down 56% from its highs and trades at a below-market price-to-earnings ratio (P/E). Here's why the stock was falling in June, and whether it is a buy today.
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Cash burn and capital raises In the last few years, Oracle has pivoted its business from selling just database solutions and other software to becoming a fully cloud infrastructure company, spending billions on data centers to do so. With major partnerships from the likes of OpenAI and other AI players, Oracle now has remaining performance obligations (RPO) of $638 billion, up $85 billion from last quarter.
Revenue was up 20% in constant currency, driven by 92% growth in cloud infrastructure solutions to $5.8 billion. Oracle is aggresively trying to gain market share from the original cloud giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS), and is now outgrowing them on a % basis, albeit still with much smaller revenue levels.
The problem investors have with this build-out is that Oracle has turned itself from a cash gusher into a cash-burning incinerator. Over the last 12 months, Oracle has burned $24 billion in free cash flow and is planning to raise $40 billion this fiscal year to fund its infrastructure build-out. With over $100 billion in debt on the balance sheet in May, adding more leverage to this business with unproven profitability in this new cloud segment has investors nervous.
Image source: Getty Images.
Should you buy the dip? Oracle can claim a massive backlog because of its large contracts with AI players like OpenAI, but this does not prove anything financially about its ability to run a profitable cloud business. It is possible that Oracle is winning these contracts by underbidding competitors like AWS, which has historically been very cost-disciplined.
We can see this on the income statement. Overall, Oracle's cloud expenses are growing much faster than cloud revenue, which is why operating income was only up 13% in constant currency last year. This puts the stock in a different perspective. Combined with the heavy cash burn at the moment, it is no wonder that it has been cut in half over the last few quarters.
If this AI boom eventually turns into an AI bust, Oracle's business may be in trouble. It is probably smart to avoid buying the dip on this big tech stock today.
Key Takeaways Gilead won FDA approval to expand Trodelvy into first-line treatment for metastatic TNBC.Trodelvy generated $402 million in Q1 2026 sales, rising 37% on higher demand.GILD aims to grow oncology and diversify beyond HIV as Trodelvy expands its market reach. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD - Free Report) recently won FDA approval for the label expansion of breast cancer drug Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) for the first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC).
Trodelvy, a first-in-class Trop-2-directed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), is already approved in several countries for second-line or later metastatic TNBC and in more than 50 countries for certain patients with pre-treated HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer (mBC).
With the latest FDA approval, Trodelvy is now approved in first-line mTNBC, either as a single agent for patients who are not candidates for PD-(L)1 inhibitor-based therapy or in combination with Merck’s (MRK - Free Report) Keytruda (pembrolizumab) or Keytruda Qlex (subcutaneous injection of Keytruda) for patients whose tumors express PD-L1 (CPS ≥10) as determined by an FDA-authorized test.
The latest FDA approval came shortly after the European Commission expanded Trodelvy’s label for the same indication.
The approval broadens Trodelvy's addressable market by moving the therapy into the first-line mTNBC setting, where treatment options have historically been limited. The approval is significant particularly because many mTNBC patients do not progress to later lines of therapy, making access to effective first-line treatments increasingly important.
According to Gilead's management, the approval has the potential to establish Trodelvy as a new standard of care in first-line mTNBC, expanding its use beyond the second-line setting.
Trodelvy sales amounted to $402 million in the first quarter of 2026, up 37%, primarily driven by higher demand.
The recent label expansion is expected to strengthen Trodelvy's commercial opportunity and reinforce its position as a key growth driver within Gilead's oncology portfolio.
GILD is looking to strengthen its oncology franchise and diversify its revenue base, which is highly concentrated on HIV business.
Competition for GILD’s Oncology Business Datroway (datopotamab deruxtecan), developed by AstraZeneca (AZN - Free Report) and Daiichi Sankyo, is also a TROP2-directed ADC.
It is approved in several countries worldwide for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HR-positive, HER2-negative (IHC 0, IHC 1+ or IHC 2+/ISH-) breast cancer who have received prior endocrine-based therapy and chemotherapy for unresectable or metastatic disease based on results from the TROPION-Breast01 trial.
In May 2026, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo announced that the Datroway has been approved in the United States for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or mTNBC who are not candidates for PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor therapy.
AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo entered into a global collaboration agreement in March 2019 to jointly develop and commercialize Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan), followed by a similar agreement for Datroway in July 2020. Daiichi Sankyo retains exclusive rights to both ADCs in Japan.
Merck is evaluating sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT), an investigational TROP2-directed ADC, in collaboration with Kelun-Biotech.
Merck is evaluating sac-TMT in 17 ongoing global phase III studies across multiple tumor types through the TroFuse clinical development program.
The program is evaluating sac-TMT across a diverse range of tumor types, including endometrial, bladder, breast, cervical, gastric, non-small cell lung and ovarian cancers, and it spans early-to-late-stage disease as both monotherapy and in combination with immunotherapies.
In May 2026, MRK announced that the phase III TroFuse-005 study evaluating sac-TMT met its primary endpoints of overall survival and progression-free survival in certain patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer.
GILD’s Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of GILD have gained 7% year to date, in line with the industry’s growth rate.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Going by the price/earnings ratio, GILD’s shares currently trade at 28.73X forward earnings, higher than its mean of 11.98X and the large-cap pharma industry’s 19.11X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The consensus estimate for 2026 has deteriorated sharply over the past 30 days, shifting to a loss of 80 cents per share from earnings of $0.01 per share. The estimate for 2027 has edged up to $9.68 per share from $9.58 over the same period.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
While Gilead’s recent aggressive dealmaking strategy strengthens its long-term pipeline and growth potential, the sizable upfront payments and integration-related costs are pressuring near-term profitability.
The artificial intelligence (AI) investment opportunity has become more measured throughout 2026. After years of parabolic gains driven by explosive demand for generative models and the underlying infrastructure that supports them, both Nvidia (NVDA +0.38%) and Palantir Technologies (PLTR +2.51%) have been relatively subdued stocks so far this year.
With that said, I think the muted stock performance of Nvidia and Palantir reflects broader digestion of lofty expectations rather than a fundamental breakdown in either business. For long-term investors, periods of consolidated price action often create attractive entry points.
The question smart investors are asking is which of these two AI powerhouses offers the more compelling risk-reward profile on a dip. Let's dig in and find out.
Image source: Nvidia.
Nvidia vs. Palantir: Which company is growing faster? A close look at the financial results between Nvidia and Palantir highlights meaningful differences in both scale and momentum.
During the first quarter of calendar 2026, Nvidia generated record revenue of $81.6 billion -- up 85% year over year. The company's core data center segment grew even faster, at 92% year over year, to $75.2 billion. Nvidia's accelerating top line wasn't the only highlight from its earnings report. The company's earnings per share (EPS) increased 214% year over year, while free cash flow rose 86%.
While Palantir's 85% revenue growth during the calendar year 2026's Q1 was on par with that of Nvidia, the company only generated $1.6 billion in sales. Nevertheless, even with a modest revenue base to work from, Palantir has demonstrated an ability to maintain profitability thanks to insatiable demand from both large commercial enterprises and government agencies for its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) -- a suite that stitches together its flagship software programs, Foundry, Gotham, and Apollo. The company's adjusted free cash flow rose 57% year over year, while EPS increased fourfold.
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All told, Nvidia's growth remains primarily hardware-led and tied to the physical build-out of AI capacity. Meanwhile, Palantir's business is software-led and largely dependent on organizations embedding its tools into operational workflows. While both trajectories remain positive, Nvidia's scale and profit margin profile give it higher operating leverage and financial flexibility to explore new opportunities.
Breaking down valuation profiles Valuation is where the investment prospects between Nvidia and Palantir really start to diverge. Specifically, the forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple shows a notable difference in how the market is pricing each company.
Data by YCharts.
Investors will notice that both Nvidia and Palantir have experienced meaningful compression in their valuation profiles this year. But even so, Nvidia's forward P/E ratio of 22 is just one-quarter that of Palantir's. This is an important concept to understand. Even though Nvidia's market capitalization of $4.7 trillion is nearly 15x Palantir's, it is the cheaper stock by far.
This begs the question: Why is there such a large disparity between Nvidia and Palantir?
For Palantir, the central growth narrative revolves around accelerating the adoption of AI agents and autonomous workflows. Palantir AIP is designed to help companies build and deploy custom applications on top of their existing data silos -- transforming how large organizations operate.
While this thesis is compelling in principle, translating it into sustained revenue and profit growth requires overcoming integration complexity with existing systems, data governance, and competition from larger software providers. Taken together, these factors may delay Palantir's full growth realization -- leaving its current valuation ahead of near-term realities.
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0.74
Current Price
$
195.57
Meanwhile, Nvidia's growth story is swiftly extending beyond its flagship GPU story. The company's infrastructure initiatives are gaining traction thanks to a series of targeted partnerships that strengthen Nvidia's overall role across the entire AI stack. These efforts diversify Nvidia's revenue beyond chip sales and position the company as a more complete enabler of the physical AI infrastructure layer.
Collaborations with Nokia focus on advanced networking fabrics for communications and edge devices. Furthermore, Nvidia's tie-up with Marvell is supporting new development of complementary semiconductors for networking and storage. Additional partnerships with Coherent and Lumentum center on emerging bottlenecks in high-performance optical transceivers and critical infrastructure components that enable ultra-high bandwidth and low latency -- essential tools needed for scaling AI training and inference deployments among GPU clusters.
Nvidia has more favorable upside in the current environment When weighing valuation against growth, durability, and optionality, I think Nvidia is the better opportunity. Its valuation profile is reasonable relative to the breadth of its growth tailwinds spanning core AI silicon leadership and expanding infrastructure collaborations that create new addressable markets.
Palantir's elevated valuation already embeds optimistic assumptions about the speed of enterprise AI software adoption. To me, investing in Palantir carries greater execution risk and a potentially longer payoff timeline.
While Palantir remains an interesting story, Nvidia's fundamentals align more favorably with a buy-and-hold strategy given its current setup.
Michael Burry started betting against Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR | PLTR Price Prediction) in the fall of 2025, when the stock was one of the loudest momentum trades and every retail account had a screenshot of it. Nine months later, PLTR sits at $132, down 5% over the trailing year and off 21% year to date. Burry has not been fully vindicated. But a stock that treads water for a full year while the business behind it grows 85% is telling you something, and it is roughly what Burry said it would tell you.
What Burry actually said The trade caught fresh retail attention in early June, when a Reddit post titled “Michael Burry’s Brutal Take On Palantir: ‘A Sand Castle Supported Only By AI Applications Narrative'” ran up 402 upvotes and 159 comments in r/stocks. Sentiment on the ticker cratered into very bearish territory (scores of 18 to 22) for two straight days. Before that, on May 19 and 20, r/wallstreetbets had been posting sentiment scores of 88 with nearly 3,000 upvotes in a single window. The mood flipped inside of two weeks.
Burry’s argument, per his Scion Asset Management disclosures and public commentary, was that at north of 180 times earnings, the multiple is carrying the valuation, and the multiple compresses first when the AI narrative cools.
The business is fine. That is the problem. Palantir’s Q1 2026 was the kind of quarter that used to send the stock up 20% overnight. Revenue of $1.63 billion, up 84.7% year over year beat estimates. U.S. commercial revenue rose 133% to $595 million. GAAP operating income hit $754 million, a 46% margin. Full-year guidance was raised to $7.65 to $7.66 billion, implying roughly 71% growth.
CEO Alex Karp took a victory lap on the call, saying “Palantir’s Rule of 40 score has soared to 145%. We have shattered the metric, a feat matched only by other fellow AI infrastructure companies. NVIDIA, Micron and SK hynix are the others.”.
He is not wrong. Yet on the day of that filing, the stock closed at $144.45, well below where it traded at the Q3 2025 report ($198.32). You can find the full press release on the SEC’s site. Growth accelerated. The stock went down. That is textbook multiple compression, and it is the specific mechanism a valuation short is designed to catch.
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Early but directionally right Was Burry right? Partially. If he shorted in the fall of 2025 near the highs, the position has almost certainly worked. If he added on the way down, less so. He has not publicly claimed to have closed it or booked a specific number.
What we do know is that the froth has come out. Insider activity shows net selling across 70 recent transactions. Polymarket’s July monthly price target market puts the most likely close around $138 (80% probability), not $200. Retail sentiment on Reddit has drifted to neutral (scores of 50) with very low activity through early July. The stock is no longer the argument it used to be.
What to do with a rationally priced hype stock The P/E sits around 150x. Analyst consensus target is $183.12 with 20 buys, 10 holds, and 2 sells. Those two numbers can both be true and still leave a retail investor in a weird spot. If Palantir grows into the multiple, you are buying a great business at a fair-ish price for the first time in years. If it does not, another year of flat-to-down price action is the base case, and the bear thesis simply keeps playing out in slow motion.
Burry’s short worked without a crash. That is the quiet way valuation shorts pay off. The mechanism was quiet: a great company growing into a stock that already priced in the greatness. Watch the next two quarters. If U.S. commercial growth stays above 100% and the multiple keeps compressing, the bulls have their answer. If growth decelerates even slightly from here, Burry’s sand castle line ages very well.
If You'd Bought Amazon When the Motley Fool Said To…In September 2002, Stock Advisor told subscribers to buy Amazon. In December 2004, Netflix. In April 2005, Nvidia. The newsletter still publishes two new stock picks every month — and over 23 years, has more than quadrupled the S&P 500. Here's how to get this month's picks:
- Join Stock Advisor for one year, with a 30-day money-back guarantee
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Five years from now, you'll probably wish you'd bought this month's picks. Don't miss them.
Index DAX uzavřel pondělí seanci s mírným ziskem +0,15 % na 25817,89 bodech.
Nejlepší výkonnost si v pondělí seanci připsaly akcie zbrojaře Rheinmetal (RHM), který se postupně vymaňuje ze silných ztrát v 1. pololetí. Nejhůře si naopak stály akcie Bayeru (BAYN), patrně pod vlivem vybírání zisků po výrazné rally z předchozích dní, kterou podpořilo příznivé rozhodnutí amerického Nejvyššího soudu v kauze Roundup i spekulace o strukturálních změnách kolem glyfosátového byznysu. Pokles přišel navzdory zvýšení cílové ceny ze strany Goldman Sachs na 62,5 z předchozích 55 eur. S rozpaky byla přijata též zpráva Continentalu (CON) o prodeji divize ContiTech investičnímu fondu Lone Star Funds, a to za 4 mld. eur. Kupní cena může být navýšena o dalších 250 mil. eur podle budoucích výsledků společnosti. Continental plánuje přibližně 2,5 mld. eur vyplatit zpět akcionářům zpětným odkupem akcií, anebo mimořádnou dividendou. Společnost se tak po dokončení prodeje divize ContiTech stane čistě výrobcem pneumatik.
Nejsilnější akcie DAX Změna Nejslabší akcie DAX Změna RHEINMETAL (RHM) +3,4 % BAYER N (BAYN) -4,1 % FRESENIUS (FRE) +1,8 % CONTINENTAL (CON) -2,2 % DT BOERSE (DB1) +1,8 % MERCK KG (MRK) -2,0 % AIRBUS (AIR) +1,6 % SYMRISE (SY1) -1,8 % DEUTSCHE BANK (DBK) +1,5 % QIAG (QIA) -1,6 % Zdroj: Reuters
David Lamač
Fio banka, a.s.
Prohlášení
Související odkazy Frankfurtská burza zakončila týden v zelených hodnotách Frankfurt uzavírá v plusu Frankfurtská burza v úvodu obchodování posiluje Německé akcie uprostřed týdne mírně posílily Frankfurtská burza otevírá druhé pololetí nepatrným růstem
Micron Technology (MU +1.18%) stock has been on a tear over the past year. Shares of the memory specialist have jumped nearly 8x in a short time, driven by a rapid increase in demand for memory chips that has overwhelmed supply.
The memory supply shortage has been a massive tailwind for Micron Technology's bottom line. The company's earnings have been growing exponentially due to the incredible rise in memory prices. However, Micron's peers, Samsung and SK Hynix, have ambitious investment plans that could significantly reduce the supply demand gap in the memory industry.
That may not be a good thing for Micron stock. Here's why.
Image source: Micron Technology.
SK Hynix and Samsung are the kingpins of the memory industry As reported by Reuters, South Korea aims to double its memory chip production capacity over the next five years. Samsung and SK Hynix are going to play a key role in this expansion, as they have pledged an investment of just over $2 trillion.
Today's Change
(
1.18
%) $
11.47
Current Price
$
986.88
Given that Samsung and SK Hynix are among the world's largest memory chip suppliers, their massive investments could significantly reduce the demand-supply gap. Specifically, the two Korean giants control 67% of the global dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) capacity, according to Counterpoint Research. Their combined share of the NAND flash storage market stands at 47%.
Micron, for comparison, controls 22% of the DRAM market and 13% of the NAND flash market. So, Samsung and SK Hynix can influence the global memory in a big way. This doesn't bode well for Micron, as its pricing power could take a hit if Korean competitors add substantial new capacity. Even analysts are worried that this capacity expansion could create an oversupply, and that could negatively impact memory prices.
Does this mean it is time to book your profits in Micron stock? Not necessarily.
Micron's impressive growth is here to stay Adding new memory production capacity takes time. Building a memory fab can take anywhere between three to five years. So, even if SK Hynix and Samsung accelerate their infrastructure build-out, it will take a few years for them to start producing memory chips from their new facilities. Moreover, Samsung and SK Hynix are likely to monitor memory demand to ensure that they don't end up in an oversupply situation, which has hurt both companies in the past.
Additionally, SK Hynix's chairman believes that the additional capacity won't be enough to address the supply shortage. It is easy to see why that's the case. The high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI chips consumes 3x as much wafer capacity as conventional memory chips. With HBM demand anticipated to increase at an annual rate of 42% through 2033, the ongoing shortage in the console, smartphone, and personal computing (PC) markets is likely to persist.
And as the new capacity comes online, it is likely to be absorbed by the markets where there is currently a major shortage. For instance, smartphone sales are anticipated to decline by 13.9% in 2026, according to IDC. The firm anticipates a 1.1% drop next year before growth resumes in 2028. Higher memory prices have been affecting smartphone sales, so any additional capacity could go toward satisfying pent-up demand in this market over the next couple of years.
So, the structural growth of the memory market due to the advent of AI should ideally prevent a downturn. That's why Micron investors shouldn't worry as the favorable conditions driving its growth are likely to persist.
This is probably why analysts are predicting that the company will clock outstanding earnings growth.
Data by YCharts
Moreover, Micron's price-to-earnings ratio of 23 makes it too cheap to ignore, considering its astronomical growth and sunny outlook. The tech-focused Nasdaq-100 index trades at 35 times earnings, which means Micron is a value stock. Assuming Micron trades at even 25 times earnings at the end of fiscal 2028 and its earnings per share reach $167.92, the company's stock price could jump to $4,198.
That's just over 4x its current stock price. So, investors can continue holding this AI stock in their portfolios, or even buy more, as it could keep skyrocketing.
Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options: https://bit.ly/2v9tH6D. Citi issued a 90-day "catalyst watch" for Micron (MU) on Monday after shares saw a substantial sell-off last week.
Key Takeaways SanDisk surged 858% in H1'26, driven by AI-led demand for NAND flash and enterprise SSDs.SNDK's datacenter revenues jumped 233% sequentially to $1.47 billion in fiscal Q3 2026.KWIN and CSD rank SNDK among top holdings, offering diversified exposure to the stock. Memory giant SanDisk (SNDK - Free Report) has emerged as the undisputed standout performer in the S&P 500 during the first half of 2026, with its shares skyrocketing an incredible 858%. This meteoric rise, fueled by explosive demand for its NAND flash memory, has made it the top-gaining stock in the index, leaving the second-best performer, Micron Technology (MU - Free Report) , which gained around 300%, far behind.
For investors who missed this remarkable surge, the key question is how to gain exposure without investing in a stock at an elevated valuation.
One prudent alternative is to consider exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that hold SanDisk as a top component. This approach offers diversified exposure to the company's potential while mitigating the risks associated with its current lofty valuation and the inherent volatility of individual memory stocks.
But before diving straight into those ETFs, one needs to understand the growth catalysts that drove SNDK to such high levels and whether they are sustainable over the long run; otherwise, gaining exposure to SanDisk-heavy ETFs will be meaningless. This understanding is crucial for a prudent investor to make an informed decision.
What Drove SanDisk to Skyrocket in H126?The primary catalyst behind SanDisk's historic surge was the rapidly accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure buildout across the globe. Since AI models require massive, high-speed storage for training and inference, demand for enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs) skyrocketed over the past few quarters. This demand boom led to a powerful pricing cycle and significantly higher average selling prices for data storage devices like those manufactured by SanDisk.
Furthermore, SanDisk's spin-off from Western Digital allowed it to operate as a pure-play NAND company, making it a direct beneficiary of this AI-driven storage boom without the distraction of a legacy hard-drive business.
The numbers speak for themselves: SanDisk's fiscal third-quarter 2026 datacenter revenues rose 233% sequentially to $1.47 billion, with Enterprise SSDs now representing about 25% of the company's overall portfolio. This remarkable growth underscores just how deeply AI-led demand boom for NAND technology is bolstering SanDisk's business trajectory.
SNDK’s Growth Potential & the Case for ETFsDespite SanDisk's massive rally in recent months, the stock still has further upside potential. As the memory chip shortage is expected to persist, with industry projections suggesting supply-demand imbalances could continue through 2027, explosive demand for NAND flash will continue to outstrip supply. This should continue to fuel SNDK’s rally, at least in the near term.
The stock’s short-term average price target of $2,073, offered by 18 analysts, currently represents an upside of 18.8% from the last closing price of $1,745.
Over the long run, SanDisk’s massive multi-billion-dollar Flash Ventures partnership with Kioxia should help it secure NAND supply availability, with plans to double wafer capacity by fiscal 2029.
However, the stock remains highly volatile, as evidenced by its recent 14% decline on a single trading session during a broader AI chip selloff, reminding investors that significant profit-taking can occur at any time after such an extraordinary run.
Against this backdrop, investing through an ETF provides a more balanced approach. ETFs offer instant diversification, reducing the impact of SanDisk's inevitable volatility on your overall portfolio while allowing you to benefit from the upside of industry leaders.
ETF ExposureFor investors who believe in the long-term AI storage thesis and SanDisk profiting from it, gaining exposure to the following ETFs, with SNDK in their top positions, can be a prudent strategy at this moment:
KraneShares Wahed Alternative Income Index ETF (KWIN - Free Report)
This fund, with net assets worth $56.4 million, offers exposure to U.S.-domiciled companies that pass strict Islamic ethical screenings. SNDK holds the first spot in this fund, with 17.01% weightage.
KWIN has risen 3.1% year to date. The fund charges 51 basis points (bps) in fees.
First Trust US Equity Opportunities ETF (FPX - Free Report)
This fund, with net assets worth $1.59 billion, offers exposure to 100 U.S. companies that have recently gone public, including initial public offerings (IPOs) and spin-offs, as well as select acquirers of recent IPOs. SNDK holds the second spot in this fund, with 8.40% weightage.
FPX has soared 19.3% year to date. The fund charges 57 bps in fees.
Invesco S&P Spin-Off ETF (CSD - Free Report)
This fund, with a market value worth $224.2 million, offers exposure to 26 companies that have been spun off from larger corporations within the past four years. SNDK holds the second spot in this fund, with 7.65% weightage.
CSD has rallied 35.3% year to date. The fund charges 69 bps in fees.
Description: Rick Ducat's theme for today's Big Moves is centered on outsized bearish options activity. He walks us through strange trades he found in the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), Micron (MU), and SanDisk (SNDK).
The stock market is having a good year. The Nasdaq-100 technology index is up 17%, while the more diversified S&P 500 has gained 9%. But at the start of April, Roundhill Investments launched a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) that has already risen 121%.
It's called the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM +6.81%), and as the name suggests, it exclusively invests in semiconductor companies that design, manufacture, and distribute memory chips and components. There is currently a global shortage of memory due to substantial demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, which is fueling a surge in revenue and earnings for almost every top supplier.
But despite the memory industry's obvious tailwinds, this ETF isn't a clear-cut buy. Here's what investors need to know.
Image source: Getty Images.
Three stocks make up almost 75% of the Roundhill Memory ETF AI software applications require substantial computing power, which is typically delivered by specialized data center chips called graphics processing units (GPUs). High-bandwidth memory (HBM) stores data in a ready state for when GPUs need it, thereby maximizing processing speeds. A low memory capacity would cause bottlenecks by forcing GPUs to pause while they await new information.
Demand for HBM is so strong that many suppliers have cut production of other types of memory to fulfill their lucrative data center orders. This is causing a worldwide shortage of memory across all categories and driving up the prices of consumer electronics like smartphones and computers. In fact, Apple recently announced plans to raise prices on some of its devices due to the soaring cost of memory.
The Roundhill Memory ETF holds just 20 stocks, but its top three positions account for a staggering 74.7% of the portfolio's value.
Stock
Roundhill ETF Portfolio Weighting
Samsung Electronics
25.2%
SK Hynix
24.8%
Micron Technology
24.8%
Data source: Roundhill Investments. Portfolio weightings are accurate as of July 1, 2026, and are subject to change.
Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are the world's "big three" in memory. Micron is the only one based in America, whereas the other two are headquartered in South Korea. Nvidia, which makes the best data center GPUs for AI workloads, is sourcing HBM for its new Vera Rubin systems from all three suppliers, underscoring how critical this component is.
Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are each manufacturing HBM4 right now, which is designed with a record amount of capacity for AI workloads. Micron's HBM4 offers 60% more capacity than its previous HBM3 solution, with a 20% improvement in energy efficiency. This is a winning combination for data center operators seeking fast processing speeds and low costs.
Outside its top three positions, the Roundhill ETF also holds other popular memory stock holdings, such as Sandisk and Seagate Technology Holdings.
The Roundhill ETF is obliterating the market in 2026 The Roundhill Memory ETF only launched on April 2, so it doesn't have much of a track record for investors to analyze. However, as mentioned, it has already soared by 121%, so it's blowing the doors off the broader market.
Today's Change
(
6.81
%) $
4.13
Current Price
$
64.76
The ETF owes its blistering performance to its top three holdings, which have soared by an average of 133% since it launched. Micron is leading the way, up 177% since April 2.
But investors might want to think twice before rushing out to buy the Roundhill Memory ETF, because I'm not convinced the memory boom is a long-term phenomenon. According to a recent UBS Group survey, around 60% of businesses are beginning to reduce their AI spending by adopting cheaper models that require less computing power. This could impact demand for chips and other components going forward.
Plus, while companies like Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix can dictate prices right now because of the memory shortage, they are frantically building more manufacturing capacity, so supply will eventually catch up to demand. Prices could crash when that happens, making it very difficult for these companies to grow their earnings, which will almost certainly spark a correction in their stock prices.
As a result, it might be best to steer clear of this particular ETF for now.
Chip stocks led a Monday rally that lifted two of the three major indexes while leaving the third stuck near the flatline.
The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +1.12%) gained 1.3% by 12:48 p.m. ET. The S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.72%) rose 0.7% at the same time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.29%) slipped 0.1% after briefly touching an intraday record earlier in the session.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX +2.68%) gained 4.1%, bouncing back from a two-week losing streak that had investors wondering if the chip trade was finally running out of steam.
^IXIC data by YCharts
A tale of two market structures Broadcom (AVGO +3.78%) kicked off the tech rally with a 4.4% gain after announcing that its chip supply deal with Apple (AAPL +1.36%) will extend through 2031. That's five more years of custom silicon revenue locked in, covering multiple generations of iPhones and whatever else Apple dreams up. The stock added $78 billion in market capitalization.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +6.74%) joined in with an 8% surge. Japanese autonomous driving start-up Turing said it's now using AMD graphics processors for about 10% of its AI training needs. This notice reminded Wall Street of AMD as the budget-friendly alternative in self-driving tech. AI hardware leader Nvidia (NVDA +0.38%) didn't seem bothered, rising 1.8% anyway.
Tesla (TSLA +6.70%) quietly jumped 5.8% and added $91 billion in market value to become the Nasdaq Composite's single largest contributor. No major news; sometimes stocks just decide to go up on a bullish day.
Image source: Getty Images.
The Dow lagged, but not for a lack of winners. Goldman Sachs (GS +3.17%) rose 2.9% and IBM (IBM +3.43%) gained 3.4%. But the Dow is price-weighted, so Honeywell International's (HON +0.49%) 7.2% post-spinoff slide subtracted 104 points all by itself. Amgen (AMGN 2.02%) chipped in another 58-point drag with a 2.6% decline. The blue chips that went up couldn't quite balance out the ones that went down.
Microsoft (MSFT 0.94%) fell 1.4% after announcing 4,800 job cuts and a smaller Xbox gaming division. Analysts suggested the layoffs signal Microsoft is choosing AI infrastructure spending over headcount, and investors weren't sure that it's the right trade-off.
Over in the Strait of Hormuz, shipping traffic picked up to 25 daily transits from just 5 last Thursday. That's progress, though 350 vessels still sit in the queue waiting for calmer waters. Oil prices drifted lower anyway, apparently satisfied with the diplomatic direction.
Today's Change
(
1.12
%) $
288.49
Current Price
$
26121.16
What's next Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's June meeting minutes will drop on Wednesday, and traders are sure to parse every word for hints about rate policy. Last week's soft jobs report has already pushed the odds for a July rate hike down from 30% to 23%.
Earnings season arrives later this week with Delta Air Lines (DAL 1.26%) and PepsiCo (PEP 0.59%). Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix is joining the Nasdaq by the end of this week, adding yet another chip stock to an exchange that clearly can't get enough of them.
Anders Bylund has positions in International Business Machines and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Amgen, Apple, Broadcom, Goldman Sachs Group, Honeywell Technologies, International Business Machines, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, and iShares Trust-iShares Semiconductor ETF. The Motley Fool recommends Delta Air Lines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
The pitch for the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (NASDAQ:BOTZ) has quietly changed. For years BOTZ was sold as a niche automation bet, a fund for people who wanted factory-floor exposure without picking Japanese conglomerates one at a time.
Now, with generative AI running out of party tricks, BOTZ has repositioned itself as the way to own the moment intelligence leaves the browser and starts moving boxes, performing surgery, and driving cars. That is a bigger idea. Whether the fund actually delivers on it is a different question.
What you are actually buying BOTZ holds 51 positions spread across industrial robotics, machine vision, surgical automation, autonomous vehicles, and the AI hardware layer underneath all of it. The names on top are a mix of foreign and US companies that each play a significant role in their respective sectors. You have about 62% of the fund in ten stocks. This is a concentrated bet dressed up as a diversified thematic ETF.
The geographic mix is where BOTZ actually earns its keep. Seven of the top ten holdings are Japanese or Swiss industrial giants, businesses that have been building actuators, servos, and vision systems since long before anyone used the phrase “embodied AI.” That is the friend-shoring trade wrapped inside the AI trade, and it is difficult to replicate with a US-only tech ETF. Total net assets stand at roughly $3.54 billion, big enough to trade cleanly but small enough to move on flows.
Does it deliver Over the past year BOTZ returned about 17%. Fine, until you notice that SPY returned about 21% and QQQ returned about 31% over the same stretch. Zoom out and it gets worse: BOTZ is up about 11% over five years while SPY is up about 85% and QQQ is up about 108%. Year-to-date, BOTZ is up about 5.75% against SPY’s about 10.8%.
So the thematic case has been correct and the total-return outcome has been mediocre. Industrial automation is cyclical, Japanese equities carry a currency drag for dollar investors, and the small-cap robotics names on the fringe of the portfolio (Serve Robotics, Ubtech, Doosan) have not scaled into the kind of earnings power NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) throw off. You got the trend right and still trailed the index.
The tradeoffs Concentration risk cuts both ways. NVIDIA and ABB together are roughly a fifth of the fund. If AI capex spending cools, BOTZ will feel it before the fact sheet updates. Cyclicality is real. FANUC, YASKAWA, and SMC sell into automotive and semiconductor capex cycles. Robotics orders whipsaw. The fund fell about 8% in the past month alone. Distributions are trivial. The semi-annual distribution of $0.0180 per share payable July 7, 2026 is essentially a rounding error on a $38 fund. This is a growth vehicle, full stop. Who this fits BOTZ makes sense as a 3% to 5% thematic sleeve for an investor who already owns broad US equities and wants direct exposure to the physical layer of AI, particularly the Japanese and Swiss automation names that a US-tilted portfolio structurally misses. It is a poor substitute for a core AI or semiconductor allocation, because you get diluted NVIDIA exposure alongside a lot of cyclical industrial equity.
If your thesis is that humanoid robots and factory automation are the next leg of the AI trade, BOTZ is the cleanest single-ticker way to express it. If your thesis is “AI wins,” QQQ has done the job better and cheaper. The key risk to name plainly: you can be right about robotics and still underperform, because the fund pays for its diversification in growth you leave on the table.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Broadcom (AVGO +3.78%) has spent 2026 doing two things at once: posting some of the fastest growth of any large company in the market, and watching its stock sink anyway. Shares trade about 24% below their 52-week high of $495 as of this writing -- even after Broadcom and OpenAI unveiled Jalapeño, their co-developed artificial intelligence (AI) chip, in late June.
An accelerating business attached to a discounted stock is the raw material of every buy-the-dip debate. Is this one worth taking?
Image source: Getty Images.
The growth the sell-off is ignoring "Q2 semiconductor revenue from AI of $10.8 billion grew 143% year-over-year, above our forecast, driven by increasing demand for custom AI accelerators and AI networking," said CEO Hock Tan in the company's fiscal second-quarter earnings release.
And the momentum is guided to steepen from there. Tan said Broadcom expects AI chip revenue to grow more than 200% year over year this quarter, to $16.0 billion -- within total revenue guidance of about $29.4 billion, up 84%. For a company this size, growth rates like these have almost no precedent outside the AI build-out itself.
Companywide, second-quarter revenue grew 48% to a record $22.2 billion, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization came in at 69% of revenue -- profitability most software companies would envy, produced by a chipmaker.
Behind the numbers sits a short, remarkable customer list.
Tan told analysts that Broadcom now has six core custom-chip customers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta Platforms, and Google parent Alphabet.
Jalapeño is the newest evidence that the model works. The inference processor -- built to run AI models for users, rather than train them -- reportedly went from initial design to completion in about nine months, with OpenAI's own models helping speed the engineering. The partners have said they plan to deploy racks of OpenAI-designed chips starting late this year, building toward systems that would ultimately draw 10 gigawatts of power. The two companies first revealed their plans last October, after 18 months of joint work behind closed doors.
The design choice matters for the industry, too. Jalapeno is an application-specific chip -- less flexible than a graphics processing unit, but cheaper to run for one dedicated job. Every workload that moves to silicon like this is one that no longer needs a general-purpose chip, which is a big part of why custom accelerators have arguably become the industry's fastest-growing niche.
Today's Change
(
3.78
%) $
13.61
Current Price
$
374.06
Why are shares trading at a discount? So why is a company growing this fast still 24% off its high?
Two worries seem to carry most of the weight. The first is concentration: a business increasingly tied to a handful of giant AI customers rises and falls with their spending decisions, and the whole AI trade stumbled into July. The second is the economics of custom silicon -- purpose-built chips are typically cheaper for customers than off-the-shelf processors, which is much of their appeal and limits their sellers' pricing power.
Has the stock's pullback made it a buy?
On trailing results -- still weighed down by acquisition-related amortization running through the income statement -- Broadcom trades at about 60 times earnings. On forecast earnings, however, the multiple falls to about 19, because profits are scaling with the AI ramp.
Then there's the company's impressive cash generation.
Broadcom produced $10.3 billion of free cash flow last quarter -- 46% of revenue -- and pays a $0.65 quarterly dividend besides.
Overall, I'd call this dip buyable, but in moderation. The demand signals are among the strongest anywhere in the chip industry. The customer list keeps deepening, and Jalapeño could be a game changer.
The risks -- customer concentration, custom-chip pricing, and an AI trade prone to sudden repricing -- are exactly why the shares sit this far below their high, and they argue for a modest position rather than a bold one. But at about 19 times forward earnings, helped by revenue growth guided to exceed 80%, the discount looks larger than the danger.
I might become more cautious about the stock if upcoming reports show a material step-down in AI revenue growth from the guided pace, or a pullback by one of those six anchor customers.
Until then, I'd rather own this dip than wait for a friendlier headline and a higher price.
