Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Uber Technologies stock is charging ahead with explosive momentum. Why is UBER stock up today? Uber Eats Expands With Five New Retail PartnersUber said that Kiehl’s, FedEx Office, Blick Art Materials, Academy Sports + Outdoors and Choice Pet are joining the Uber Eats, Uber and Postmates apps for on demand delivery. The new partners expand the platform’s reach into skincare, shipping supplies, art materials, sporting goods and pet products, continuing Uber’s push to build a multi-category retail marketplace rather than a food-only service.

Each retailer adds a different type of inventory to the platform. Academy Sports + Outdoors increases access to sporting goods across the South, Southeast and Midwest. Blick Art Materials brings art and craft supplies to shoppers in New York City. Choice Pet, which will appear on the platform soon, strengthens pet supply availability across New York and Connecticut. FedEx Office adds packing and office supplies for business, school and home projects.

Uber One members receive a $0 delivery fee on eligible retail orders along with other membership perks.

Hashim Amin, Uber’s head of retail for North America, said consumers are increasingly using Uber Eats for more than meals. He added that bringing in a wider mix of retailers expands access to everything from pet supplies and sporting goods to craft materials and everyday essentials.

Pelosi’s Latest TradesCritical Levels To Watch For UBER StockUber is showing signs of short-term improvement. The stock trades 4.5% above its 20-day simple moving average and sits about 1% above both the 50-day and 100-day simple moving averages. That alignment suggests the near-term trend is stabilizing even though the longer-term picture is still recovering. The main obstacle remains the 200-day simple moving average at $81.77, with the stock still roughly 9% below that longer-term trend marker.

Momentum is leaning constructive. MACD is above its signal line and the histogram is positive, which indicates that downside pressure has eased and follow through is improving compared with the previous decline. MACD essentially compares faster and slower trend momentum, and when it rises above the signal line it often signals that buyers are beginning to regain influence even if the broader trend has not fully turned.

Key Resistance: $81.00 — This level sits near a round number and aligns closely with the 200 day trend region, an area where rebounds often stall. Key Support: $69.00 — This zone sits near the lower boundary of the 52-week range and marks an area where buyers recently stepped in to defend pullbacks. UBER Shares Are SoaringUBER Price Action: Uber shares were up 5.71% at $73.66 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro.

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Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google's DeepMind. Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images The release date for Google's next frontier AI model has been pushed to July, Business Insider has learned.

The company previously said it planned to roll out the new Gemini 3.5 Pro model in June. However, it is now targeting a July launch as it spends extra time gathering feedback from early testers and tweaking the model, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Google teased the new model at its I/O developer conference in May but said it wasn't quite ready. At the time, CEO Sundar Pichai said the model would launch "next month."

A Google spokesperson declined to comment.

With this upcoming model, the pressure is on for Google at a moment of intense competition among the AI labs. While Gemini 3 outperformed expectations last year, Anthropic and OpenAI are continuing to pull ahead of Google in coding, which has emerged as the first major enterprise use case for modern AI.

The source said that Google pushed the launch date back so it could spend more time gathering real-world use cases from early testers. The new model has been available to some users on Google's Antigravity platform and on the AI benchmarking site LMArena, they said.

The new Gemini 3.5 Pro model is expected to be better at long-horizon tasks and powering agents.

Google has also incorporated feedback from its recent Flash 3.5 model into 3.5 Pro, the source said, confirming a theory that Business Insider floated at I/O. That includes criticisms that Flash consumed tokens too quickly.

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Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman says AI will create jobs. Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services Doomsday predictions about AI and jobs are massively overblown, according to Amazon chief Matt Garman.

On an episode of the Platformer podcast released on Tuesday, the CEO of Amazon Web Services pushed back on fears that artificial intelligence will decimate large swaths of the workforce.

Instead, Garman said he believes half of white-collar jobs "may change" because of AI, but that doesn't mean they'll be wiped out.

"Wipe out and change are different," Garman said, citing the spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel as an example of a technology that reshaped work rather than eliminated it.

"The key thing is not to look at a still picture of the world and say that job's not going to exist, so I guess those people won't have jobs," said Garman. "New jobs will be created."

AI is already giving rise to new kinds of jobs, he said.

"What I tell people at Amazon is — there are going to be lots of jobs," Garman said, as he stressed the value of entry-level employees despite growing concerns that AI could replace junior workers.

Entry-level employees, he said, are the cheapest to hire, can be taught a company's culture, and are often eager to learn new tools.

"They're some of the very best employees you can possibly have," Garman said.

That's among the reasons why Amazon is hiring more than 11,000 software development engineering interns and early-career software development engineers globally this year, he said.

"They come in with an energy and excitement, a new view on things," Garman said of junior employees. "If you just have the exact same people you've had for the last 15 years, you don't get that energy and excitement and new ideas."

Garman said workers who are willing to learn new skills will continue to have jobs in the AI era, even if those jobs look very different from today.

"I tell all of our employees — If you look at what your job was two years ago, and you look at what your job is going to be in two years, it's going to be vastly different," he said. "You're going to have a job — you're going to have probably a more exciting and interesting job. But you're going to have to be willing to learn."

Garman also suggested that a worker's adaptability may soon matter more than any particular expertise.

"I actually think one of the things we start to look for in employees is not what skill set you have," he said, "but whether you have the ability to learn."

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Natalie Musumeci You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Natalie is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Business News team.She was previously on BI's Legal Affairs team where she covered major cases out of state and federal court, as well as bankruptcy. Her coverage often focused on stories at the intersection of law, business, politics and technology. Natalie has covered Donald Trump’s criminal and civil cases, the wave of lawsuits against the second Trump administration, the indictment and criminal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the legal battles facing Elon Musk and his companies. Natalie came to Business Insider in June 2021 as a breaking news reporter, focusing on the most interesting angles around the trending news of the day. Natalie largely drove BI’s coverage around the fatal “Rust” shooting involving Alec Baldwin and the disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito.Prior to joining BI, Natalie worked for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and The Brooklyn Paper. She has an extensive background covering crime and courts. During her more than 12-year journalism career, she did a stint covering the police beat out of the headquarters for the New York Police Department. Natalie, a Brooklyn native, graduated from Brooklyn College in 2012 with a journalism degree. Popular articles

Walmart and Amazon face legal trouble for using a points system to track and fire employees over absences: lawyersCelebrities who partied with Diddy may want to contact their lawyersAn unchecked AI could usher in a new dark ageAt Diddy's A-list 'white parties,' naked women were a staple — but that didn't seem to raise eyebrows at the timeThe illegal maneuvers the rich use to get richerOwner of ship that crashed into Baltimore bridge will likely try to invoke 1851 law used to cap damages after Titanic disaster Amazon AWS AI More Jobs Technology

Mid-year 2026 is a stress test for long-term conviction. The S&P’s mega-cap leaders have diverged sharply this year, with Microsoft giving back gains as AI capex skeptics resurface, Visa drifting on litigation noise, and Apple riding the iPhone 17 cycle. For investors thinking in decades rather than quarters, that divergence is the opportunity. The three names below share the only trait that matters for compounding: durable moats, fortress balance sheets, and capital return programs that turn time into the investor’s ally.

The case here is owning the businesses through cycles, with no pretense of timing a lump-sum entry.

Microsoft Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) trades at $373.20 after a brutal first half, down 22% year-to-date. The drawdown reflects AI capex anxiety, not deteriorating fundamentals. Q3 FY26 results filed April 29, 2026 showed EPS of $4.27 against a $4.07 consensus, the fourth straight quarter meeting expectations, on revenue of $82.89 billion, up 18% year-over-year.

The AI engine is real. Azure grew 40%, the AI business hit a $37 billion annual run rate (up 123% year-over-year), and commercial remaining performance obligations climbed to $627 billion. CEO Satya Nadella framed the moment plainly: “Our AI business surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $37 billion, up 123% year-over-year.” Roughly 65% of Fortune 500 companies now use Azure OpenAI services, anchoring the enterprise franchise for the next decade.

Forward P/E sits at roughly 23, with a base-case 1-year target of $483.97 and Wall Street’s mean target at $561.39, supported by 95% bullish analyst consensus with zero sell ratings.

The risk: capex reached $30.88 billion in the quarter, up 84% year-over-year, compressing free cash flow until AI monetization fully scales. The More Personal Computing segment also declined 1%. For long-duration holders, that is the price of building the next compute platform.

Visa Visa (NYSE:V) is the toll booth on global commerce. The stock closed at $330.36, off 6% year-to-date, but the fundamentals tell a different story. Q1 FY26 delivered non-GAAP EPS of $3.17 against a $3.14 consensus on revenue of $10.90 billion, up 15%. Processed transactions hit 69.4 billion, cross-border ex-intra-Europe volume grew 11%, and data processing revenue jumped 17%.

Visa processes over 200 billion transactions annually and operates a near-duopoly with massive switching costs. CEO Ryan McInerney called it a “payments hyperscaler” in the Q1 call, and the capital return engine confirms the model: Visa repurchased about 11 million shares at an average of $342.13 with $21.1 billion still authorized, and declared a $0.670 quarterly dividend. The company has raised its dividend for 15-plus consecutive years.

Forward earnings imply a P/E near 28, with analyst consensus at 92% bullish and a target of $398.83. Earnings growth ran 36% year-over-year, and beta of 0.77 makes Visa a lower-volatility compounder.

The risk: Q1 carried a $707 million interchange MDL litigation provision, the latest in a recurring series. Regulatory scrutiny on interchange and competition from stablecoins and fintech rails remain structural overhangs, though neither has bent the volume curve yet.

Apple Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) trades at $295.28, up 8% year-to-date and 47% over the past year. The iPhone 17 super-cycle is doing exactly what bulls predicted. Q2 FY26 revenue hit $111.18 billion, up 17%, with EPS of $2.01 against a $1.94 estimate, the eighth consecutive quarterly beat.

iPhone revenue printed a March-quarter record at $56.99 billion, Services hit an all-time high of $30.98 billion, and every geographic segment grew double digits. Tim Cook described it as the “best March quarter ever” driven by “extraordinary demand for the iPhone 17 lineup.” The installed base now exceeds 2.5 billion active devices, the high-margin Services flywheel that anchors the long-term thesis.

Capital return remains aggressive: management authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback and raised the dividend 4% to $0.27 per share. Apple generates over $100 billion in annual free cash flow and remained Berkshire Hathaway’s largest holding at 22% of the Q1 2026 portfolio per the 13F filed May 15, 2026.

The risk: at a P/E near 39, Apple is the most expensive of the three on trailing earnings, and the iPhone still accounts for roughly half of revenue. Tariff and component-concentration risk in China remains an unresolved variable, even as Greater China revenue reaccelerated to $25.53 billion.

What to Watch Into the Second Half Three earnings cycles before year-end will tell investors whether the compounding thesis is intact: Microsoft’s Q4 print should clarify AI capex returns; Visa’s next quarter will test cross-border resilience as consumer spending normalizes; Apple’s September event and holiday quarter will determine how much of the iPhone 17 cycle has been pulled forward. The investing edge comes from owning the names through those windows, not trading around them.

Nokia (NOK 0.66%) shares have climbed 175% over the past year. This followed its February 2025 acquisition of Infinera, extending its capabilities in optical networking, which is seeing growing demand from data centers that need faster data transmission for artificial intelligence (AI).

Despite the stock's monster run, Nokia is just getting started with its pivot to tackle this opportunity. Wall Street is still catching up to the new reality of this networking infrastructure leader, particularly what this could do to earnings growth. Here's why it's not too late to consider buying the stock.

Image source: Getty Images.

Accelerating growth in AI Nokia has quietly turned itself into a vertically integrated powerhouse of optical networking products, including owning a manufacturing facility in San Jose, California, that produces the indium phosphide material used to make optical semiconductors. AI data center demand is soaring for advanced digital signal processors and pluggable optics, such as 800G coherent optics, with industry forecasts pointing to a multibillion-dollar opportunity over the long term.

The opportunity is already showing up in Nokia's latest quarterly results. In the first quarter, Nokia reported total sales growth of just 4%, but the real story was the 49% year-over-year increase in net sales from AI and cloud customers. Sales in its optical networks segment alone grew 20%.

This statement from CEO Justin Hotard suggests this is just the beginning: "We are increasing our growth assumption for Optical and IP Networks, and we are investing to capture accelerating demand from AI and cloud customers."

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The big picture Nokia is tapping into a big tailwind. The Motley Fool's research found that leading hyperscalers plan to increase capital spending by at least 45% this year, bringing total spending to at least $600 billion. A significant portion of this spending goes to support additional AI infrastructure and data centers.

The company sees its AI and cloud addressable market growing at an annualized rate of 27% through 2028. It faces competition from Ciena, Arista Networks, and Cisco Systems, but the Infinera acquisition was a game changer. It has significantly boosted Nokia's competitive standing in the networking infrastructure market, specifically in meeting demand for AI data centers.

Usually, when companies are transitioning their business strategy, like Nokia is doing now, it can take Wall Street a few years to catch on and fully re-rate the stock. The one thing that Wall Street might still be underestimating is future earnings, as Nokia shifts its sales mix toward high-margin advanced optical chips.

Analysts forecast Nokia's earnings will nearly double from 2025 levels by 2028. That's enough growth to push the stock higher. It's not cheap, but trades at a reasonable forward price-to-earnings multiple for a growth stock, about 35, based on this year's estimate.

John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Arista Networks, Ciena, and Cisco Systems. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told shareholders on Wednesday that if a commercial opportunity conflicts with U.S. national security, the company would prioritize American interests.

"National security comes first," Huang said in a session shortly after the company's annual stockholder meeting concluded.

He added that if a company wanted to smuggle Nvidia's chips or systems into countries with export restrictions — such as China — they would have challenges getting it working because Nvidia wouldn't provide support or repairs.

"Advanced AI data centers are massive integrated systems that require trusted hardware, software, networking, and continuing support," Huang said. "Trying to cobble together data centers with some smuggled products is a dead end."

Huang's remarks come as Washington regulators and the Trump administration are increasingly wary that exporting AI software and hardware to China and other nations is a threat to national security.

Earlier this month, Anthropic, which uses Nvidia chips, shut down Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after the U.S. government ordered it to disable access to its most advanced models.

Nvidia's chips have had export controls placed on them since 2022, which forced the company to produce China-specific chips for the region that complied with U.S. government benchmarks. But last year, the U.S. cleared the company's H200 chip — the same model used by U.S. companies — for export to the region.

Read more CNBC tech newsAmazon's Zoox unveils redesigned robotaxi ahead of upcoming expansionOpenAI unveils first chip as part of Broadcom deal in effort to 'build the full stack'South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix plans to raise $29 billion via Nasdaq listing as soon as July 10Alphabet added to Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing VerizonHuang said that the U.S. government approved those licenses, but Nvidia has yet to generate any revenue from the chips and that Nvidia doesn't know whether China will allow imports of its products. About 9% of Nvidia's fiscal 2026 revenue came from China, including Hong Kong, a smaller proportion than in 2025 and 2024.

Huang told stockholders during the meeting that the question of AI return-on-investment "has been answered."

He said that when AI output is useful, such as generating code, then operating an Nvidia system to generate tokens, or bits of AI output, becomes profitable and means companies need more computing power. He noted that GitHub saw pull requests nearly triple this year because of AI.

"Nvidia systems may not be the cheapest to purchase, but Nvidia generates the lowest cost tokens, the highest token throughput, and the most revenues," Huang said.

He reiterated that Nvidia plans to return 50% of the company's free cash flow to investors through share repurchases and dividends over the next few years.

Nvidia generated over $96 billion in free cash flow in its fiscal 2026.

"Nvidia offers investors a unique combination of exceptional growth, strong margin, and free cash flow execution, and rising capital returns," Huang said.

At the annual meeting, shareholders approved the company's executive compensation plan in an advisory capacity and re-elected all 10 board members. One outside shareholder proposal to change company bylaws so that all shareholder votes would win with a simple majority passed.

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Retail investors have spent the last decade riding a simple playbook: buy the dip in mega-cap tech. JJ Kinahan, Senior VP of Retail and Alternative Investments at Cboe Global Markets, told CNBC’s Squawk Box on June 24, 2026 that the playbook is still intact. The problem is figuring out which stock leads the next leg higher.

The Leadership Vacuum Kinahan Sees For years, the rotation went Apple, then Microsoft, then NVIDIA. According to Kinahan, “none of those three at the moment are really the ones that people are stepping up for.” The data backs that up.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) trades at $200.74, down 6.99% over the past month even after reporting revenue of $81.61 billion, up 85.2% year-over-year. Data Center revenue climbed 92% to $75.25 billion, and the board authorized an additional $80 billion buyback on May 18.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) sits at $373.79, down 22.33% year-to-date, despite an AI business now running at a $37 billion annual rate, up 123% YoY. Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) trades at $158.06, down 12.3% in the last week alone, even after reporting $638 billion in remaining performance obligations.

Three mega-caps, three different stories, one shared trait: retail is no longer treating them as the obvious buy. Throw in the fact they’ve become popular “funding shorts” for hedge funds and pod shops, and you have an environment where there’s little demand for these companies’ shares even as results continue to be very impressive.

The SpaceX Liquidation Cascade Kinahan tied much of the recent selling to the SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) IPO, which sparked a liquidation cascade as investors raised cash to participate. He noted that SpaceX set a record for most options traded on a stock’s first day post-IPO and has since come back to its IPO price.

SpaceX is currently trading for $158.34, down 22.64% over the past week. Reddit posts like “SpaceX stock tumbles 16.4%, shaving off most IPO gains since debut” drew over 2,700 upvotes, while a thread titled “I’ve made loss in every AI stock!” pulled in 3,416 upvotes and 552 comments. Retail traded the rotation. Many got hurt on both sides.

The AI Repricing Risk Kinahan’s bigger concern is AI repricing. So much capital has gone into AI infrastructure that the market is now demanding proof of return. Oracle’s full-year capex hit $55.66 billion with free cash flow at negative $23.69 billion. Microsoft’s Q3 capex came in at $30.88 billion, up 84.39% YoY. Recent estimates from Epoch AI have Amazon’s data center spend already crossing the cash flow they generate. Microsoft is expected to cross in Q3 2028.

Kinahan expects tougher questions in upcoming earnings calls on whether that spending is converting into durable revenue.

The first stress test is tonight. Micron (NASDAQ:MU) reports after the close, and Kinahan pointed out that Cboe options markets are pricing a 13.5% move. Polymarket assigns a 96.55% probability of a beat, but the implied move suggests guidance will drive the reaction more than the headline number.

What to Watch Without Calling a Winner Kinahan stopped short of naming a successor. The S&P 500 is up 7.58% year-to-date, which he described as only slightly above an average year. The VIX at 19.49 stays below 20, indicating limited panic even as selling pressure builds in individual names.

For prior context on the rotation, see our coverage of what went wrong with Microsoft and our Oracle Q3 earnings preview.

The takeaway from Kinahan: retail still trusts the buy-the-dip playbook, but the vacuum left by the SpaceX-driven liquidation has them hunting. Further gains in mega-cap tech may require a clear new narrative, or hard evidence that AI capex is translating into business results. Until then, the question of which stock leads next remains genuinely open.

Partnership enhances fan experiences, expands access, and enables seamless, global participation—online and on the ground

, /PRNewswire/ -- The Evolution Championship Series (known as Evo), the world's largest and longest-running fighting game tournaments, announced a multi-year partnership with Visa (NYSE: V), a world leader in digital payments, to elevate the experience at its global events through early 2028. Evo and Visa will work together to deepen the connection with the game community and help shape cultural moments, while enabling effortless, cross-border commerce.

Evo, the world’s largest and longest-running fighting game tournaments, announced a multi-year partnership with Visa to elevate the experience at its global events through early 2028. Evo and Visa will kick off its partnership at its flagship event in Las Vegas on June 26-28, 2026 at the Las Vegas Convention Center with the Friday Night Showdown at Evo Vegas 2026 Presented Break Free By Visa and Evo Flash Tournaments Presented By Visa, along with merchandise discounts to cardholders. The partnership debuts at Evo Las Vegas (June 26–28, 2026), with new experiences designed to bring the community closer together, including:

Friday Night Showdown at Evo Vegas 2026 Presented Break Free By Visa An exhibition match featuring content creators Tyler "Tyler1" Steinkamp, the first player to reach the highest "Challenger" rank in all five distinct gameplay roles within League of Legends, and Ludwig "Ludwig" Ahgren, a YouTuber, live streamer, and digital entrepreneur, who will face off in Street Fighter 6 on the main stage at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Evo Flash Tournaments Presented By Visa All-new pick-up brackets running hourly throughout Evo 2026, and they're open to everyone attending onsite. Whether you're a registered competitor or a casual fan in attendance, you can join any single elimination bracket that anyone can enter on the spot. Just show up with a controller, sign in, and play as many times as you want all weekend long. The more you compete, the more you can win — and if you're concerned about those bracket sharks, you don't need to win your entire bracket to win prizes. Evo Merchandise Discounts For Visa Cardholders onsite. Visa champions the moments that bring fans closer to the passions they love, from gaming, sports and music to fashion and entertainment. Guided by a fan-first approach to partnerships, Visa designs experiences that deepen connection and make participation seamless and accessible for gamers around the world. Through high-impact partnerships like Evo, Visa helps shape cultural moments while enabling effortless, cross-border commerce.

Beginning in 2027, the partnership will also support grassroots growth through community-focused initiatives that reinvest back into the ecosystem, helping emerging players and local tournaments thrive.

"Gaming has become one of the most powerful ways people connect, compete and build community around the world, and our partnership with Evo puts Visa at the center of that experience," said Frank Cooper III, Chief Marketing Officer at Visa. "Evo represents the passion, inclusivity and global reach that make gaming such a meaningful cultural force today. Together, Visa and Evo will create opportunities that elevate the fan experience, support the global gaming community, and bring participants closer to the action both in-person and online."

"It's incredibly exciting to have the Visa brand join the fighting game community in our commitment to deliver unforgettable experiences at our Evo events," said Stuart Saw, CEO of RTS, who owns and operates Evo. "Our team will help bring Visa into our event in a way that feels natural and offers real value to our competitors and fans globally."

Evo Las Vegas will feature an expanded 12 titles, with a fresh mix of legendary and emerging games. New in 2026, the six games with the most registered competitors will be featured in the Arena Finals, while the remaining titles will enjoy all the pomp and circumstance on the Showcase Stage. As the largest open tournament in the world, Evo Las Vegas will have a minimum guaranteed prize pool of $500,000 across all titles.

Evo will also feature many fan favorites, including the Evo Museum and the debut of a statue and collectibles exhibit, expanded cosplay contests, Anime Alley, Evo Arcade, and the Evo Showcase with industry-leading panels and keynote speakers. Fans can purchase tickets at https://evo.gg/events/evo2026.

Later this fall, Evo France returns to Europe at the Palais des Expos in Nice, France, on October 9 -11.

About Evo
Established in 2002 The Evolution Championship Series (Evo) represents the fighting game community and largest and longest-running fighting game tournaments. Evo brings together the best of the best from around the world with events in the U.S., Japan, and France (and soon-to-be Singapore in 2027) in an electric showcase of skill and fun, as players and fans gather to honor the competitive spirit in an open bracket format that reveals the world's strongest fighting game players. Evo is owned and operated by RTS.

About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.

SOURCE The Evolution Championship Series (Evo)

Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK | SNDK Price Prediction) is $1,755.72, which sits roughly 22.78% below where the stock trades today.

After a 857.84% year-to-date run, the NAND maker has lapped almost every analyst on the Street, and our proprietary model now signals that risk and reward have inverted. Our recommendation is sell, with high confidence at 90%.

24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $2,273.73 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $1,755.72 Upside/Downside -22.78% Recommendation SELL Confidence Level 90% Why We Could Be Wrong Before going further, I should flag that SanDisk has been one of the most divisive stocks in the market. Real upside could come from a structural NAND shortage that Goldman Sachs projects through 2028, or from the company’s five signed multi-year New Business Model contracts that lock in pricing. Treat our 24/7 Wall St. price target as one datapoint among many. A full bull case appears below.

From $41 to $2,273 in Ten Months SanDisk filed its Q4 FY25 results on August 14, 2025 at $41.55 a share. It now trades at $2,273.73, up 53.77% in the past month alone and 4,781.34% over the past year.

Q3 FY26 was the catalyst: revenue of $5.95 billion grew 251% year over year, EPS of $23.41 beat consensus by 59.67%, and gross margin expanded to 78.4% from 22.5% a year earlier. Datacenter revenue surged 645% year over year.

The stock is now 20% off its $2,191.69 high after retail enthusiasm cooled from very bullish Reddit sentiment scores of 82 to 85 in mid-June to neutral readings this week.

The Case for $2,200 and Higher Mizuho lifted its target to $2,200 with an Outperform rating, and Bank of America’s Wamsi Mohan raised his target to $2,100 from $1,550, citing memory pricing strength through 2027. Bulls point to Q4 FY26 guidance for revenue of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $30 to $33.

Zero long-term debt, a freshly authorized buyback, and CEO David Goeckeler’s framing of a “fundamental inflection point” support a bull case where SanDisk holds near current levels. Our model’s bull scenario lands at $2,291.74.

What Could Go Wrong The bear scenario is sobering. Our model’s bear case projects $1,239.83, a 45.47% decline. Morningstar carries a $1,000 fair value with a 2-star rating, warning of bubble conditions. Monthly RSI hit 99.14, and insider activity has tilted heavily toward sales, including CTO Alper Ilkbahar selling 2,000 shares around $1,755 on June 1.

Bulls would counter that 645% datacenter growth and 78% gross margins reflect genuine operating leverage, and that NBM contracts dampen the historical NAND cycle. Still, Q1 FY26 datacenter revenue declined 10% year over year during qualification, a reminder that this segment is lumpy.

Hold the Gains, Trim the Risk My read is that the 24/7 Wall St. price target of $1,755.72 reflects a stock that has outrun even its own outstanding fundamentals. Shares would look more constructive near the $1,751 analyst consensus with margins holding above 75%.

The risk-reward stays challenging while the stock trades north of $2,000 with insiders distributing. The recommendation is sell at high confidence.

Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $1,755.72 2027 $1,680 2028 $1,590 2029 $1,520 2030 $1,478.93 These projections assume the NAND cycle normalizes by 2028 and that NBM contracts deliver only partial insulation. Significant upside could result from sustained AI infrastructure demand outpacing supply, while downside risk centers on a memory glut and renewed Kioxia dependency stress.

In the grand scheme of businesses near and far, General Motors (GM +0.67%) and Stellantis (STLA 1.93%) have much in common as automakers with a core prowess of producing highly profitable full-sized trucks and SUVs. But despite their many commonalities, the two automakers are wildly apart in terms of momentum and performance.

Over the past three years, GM's stock has more than doubled, and its business is hitting on all cylinders, while Ford Motor Company has at least remained in neutral. On the other hand, Stellantis has faced a long list of problems and has shed over 60% of its value over the past three years.

Of the three automakers, Stellantis may have more near-term upside due to its cheap valuation, and these two reasons could drive its stock higher over the next three years.

1. Ram takes charge Savvy investors understand that Jeep has long been Stellantis' most important brand, and its continued importance will be crucial to the turnaround's success for investors. However, Stellantis is finally putting up investment dollars to power its Ram ahead of even its Jeep over the next few years. In fact, Stellantis is targeting 2030 sales of 825,000 for Ram in the U.S. market -- that's 60% growth compared to last year -- while Jeep is still strong at 740,000 vehicles.

The driving force behind Ram's growth will be doubling its product lineup during that time, which will expand the brand's reach into multiple new vehicle segments in an attempt to reverse recent momentum that brought Ram to a 12-year low in U.S. sales last year.

"The new products coming in, by and large, won't cannibalize from anything within Ram's current lineup," said Ed Kim, president and chief analyst of AutoPacific, an automotive marketing research firm, according to Automotive News. "These are all-new vehicles that fundamentally are aimed at different types of customers than what the Ram brand currently is reaching."

A rebounding Ram brand is exactly what the doctor ordered for Stellantis. The full-size truck market accounts for about 16% of industry sales volume in the U.S., but generates roughly 40% of the profits, according to Tim Kuniskis, Stellantis' head of American brands.

Ram, along with Jeep, will be expected to help deliver higher margins and average transaction prices (ATPs), which will be crucial to the company rebuilding its profitability. But there's a second big reason to believe this turnaround could have room to run if and when it gains traction.

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2. Attacking affordability As average new-vehicle prices in the U.S. continue to hover around $50,000, there's an opportunity for automakers to deliver compelling vehicles at more affordable prices, which should be a significant boost to sales volume -- even if potentially less lucrative.

A crucial part of Stellantis' turnaround in its North American profit engine will be attacking the affordability problem. That's why it plans to launch nine vehicles priced under $40,000 in the region by 2030, including two priced under $30,000. The potential uptick in sales volume is expected to drive Stellantis' U.S. production capacity utilization to 80% by the end of this decade. Utilization improvement will improve the automaker's production efficiency and reduce the strain of overhead across its products.

Driven by both a resurgence in Ram, as well as a list of new, more affordable products, Stellantis is aiming to grow its North America sales volume by 35% by the end of the decade, grow its top-line revenue by 25%, and return margins in the region to between 8% and 10%.

Time to buy? Make no mistake: Investing in Stellantis isn't a no-brainer right now. It's making the right soundbites and headlines by finally focusing massive investment in core brands such as Jeep and Ram, as well as a couple of European-focused brands, and unleashing a list of new products to compete in new segments and at some lower price points. It still has much work to do on quality, which has drastically increased its warranty costs, and needs to mend relationships with suppliers and its dealership network.

That said, if Stellantis can produce compelling vehicles at the right price points, it should be a substantial boost to its volume, margins, and production efficiency -- and that should be enough to send its stock higher over the next few years.

Momentum investing revolves around the idea of following a stock's recent trend in either direction. In "long context," investors will be essentially be "buying high, but hoping to sell even higher." With this methodology, taking advantage of trends in a stock's price is key; once a stock establishes a course, it is more than likely to continue moving that way. The goal is that once a stock heads down a fixed path, it will lead to timely and profitable trades.

Even though momentum is a popular stock characteristic, it can be tough to define. Debate surrounding which are the best and worst metrics to focus on is lengthy, but the Zacks Momentum Style Score, part of the Zacks Style Scores, helps address this issue for us.

Below, we take a look at Goldman Sachs (GS - Free Report) , which currently has a Momentum Style Score of A. We also discuss some of the main drivers of the Momentum Style Score, like price change and earnings estimate revisions.

It's also important to note that Style Scores work as a complement to the Zacks Rank, our stock rating system that has an impressive track record of outperformance. Goldman Sachs currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). Our research shows that stocks rated Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and #2 (Buy) and Style Scores of "A or B" outperform the market over the following one-month period.

You can see the current list of Zacks #1 Rank Stocks here >>>

Set to Beat the Market? In order to see if GS is a promising momentum pick, let's examine some Momentum Style elements to see if this investment bank holds up.

A good momentum benchmark for a stock is to look at its short-term price activity, as this can reflect both current interest and if buyers or sellers currently have the upper hand. It is also useful to compare a security to its industry, as this can help investors pinpoint the top companies in a particular area.

For GS, shares are up 3.18% over the past week while the Zacks Financial - Investment Bank industry is up 1.08% over the same time period. Shares are looking quite well from a longer time frame too, as the monthly price change of 10.05% compares favorably with the industry's 7.58% performance as well.

Considering longer term price metrics, like performance over the last three months or year, can be advantageous as well. Over the past quarter, shares of Goldman Sachs have risen 29.37%, and are up 65.3% in the last year. On the other hand, the S&P 500 has only moved 12.27% and 23.62%, respectively.

Investors should also pay attention to GS's average 20-day trading volume. Volume is a useful item in many ways, and the 20-day average establishes a good price-to-volume baseline; a rising stock with above average volume is generally a bullish sign, whereas a declining stock on above average volume is typically bearish. GS is currently averaging 2,322,950 shares for the last 20 days.

Earnings OutlookThe Zacks Momentum Style Score encompasses many things, including estimate revisions and a stock's price movement. Investors should note that earnings estimates are also significant to the Zacks Rank, and a nice path here can be promising. We have recently been noticing this with GS.

Over the past two months, 2 earnings estimates moved higher compared to none lower for the full year. These revisions helped boost GS's consensus estimate, increasing from $59.08 to $59.60 in the past 60 days. Looking at the next fiscal year, 2 estimates have moved upwards while there have been no downward revisions in the same time period.

Bottom LineGiven these factors, it shouldn't be surprising that GS is a #2 (Buy) stock and boasts a Momentum Score of A. If you're looking for a fresh pick that's set to soar in the near-term, make sure to keep Goldman Sachs on your short list.

Qualcomm logo is displayed at the company’s booth at the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, China, November 5, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

SummaryCompaniesQualcomm plans to begin shipping data-center processors and other AI chips by year-endBank of America sees $2 billion to $5 billion annual data-center revenue by fiscal 2027-2028June 24 (Reuters) - Qualcomm (QCOM.O), opens new tab ​is expected to use its investor day on Wednesday to lay out ‌a push beyond its core smartphone business into the fast-growing, but highly competitive, market for AI data center chips.

Analysts expect the San Diego-based company to name new customers for its AI chips as it ​tries to gain a foothold in a market dominated by Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab.

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The shift ​reflects mounting pressure in the smartphone market, where Qualcomm is one of ⁠the world’s largest chip suppliers to Android device makers.

The sector has been squeezed ​by a memory chip shortage driven by surging demand for AI infrastructure, while major ​customers such as Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab and Samsung (005930.KS), opens new tab are increasingly developing chips in-house.

In response, Qualcomm has been expanding into automotive and data center sectors.

The company, which has attempted to boost its data-center business multiple times, is ​re-entering a fast-growing, but hyper-competitive AI market full of large incumbents such as ​Nvidia, the newly minted Cerebras (CBRS.O), opens new tab and other custom chip options including Amazon's (AMZN.O), opens new tab Graviton and Google's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Axion, ‌Bank ⁠of America analysts warned in a client note on Tuesday.

Qualcomm said in April that it plans to begin shipping processors and other AI chips for data centers by year-end.

It also said it was working with customers on three kinds of chips: central processing units, inference accelerators, ​and custom application-specific integrated ​circuits (ASICs), a segment ⁠that has been booming for rivals such as Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab and Marvell (MRVL.O), opens new tab.

AI inference — running trained AI models — has emerged as a ​key battleground.

BofA analysts said they expect modest revenue of roughly $2 billion to $5 ​billion annually ⁠from Qualcomm's data center push by fiscal 2027-2028.

Investors will be watching for updated long-term financial targets at the event, including Qualcomm's growth ambitions for its non-handset businesses.

Attention is also likely ⁠to ​focus on its $4 billion all-stock deal for AI software ​startup Modular, announced earlier on Wednesday, which positions Qualcomm against Nvidia’s proprietary CUDA software that has locked in millions ​of developers.

Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Sahal Muhammed

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

Key Takeaways INTC powers TPIsoftware's sovereign AI solutions with Xeon 6 processors and Arc Pro B60 GPUs.INTC targets on-premises AI demand as enterprises seek control of data, AI models and infrastructure.INTC may gain Asia-Pacific AI exposure as TPIsoftware expands into Singapore, Vietnam and Japan. Intel Corporation (INTC - Free Report) recently announced that TPIsoftware has adopted Intel Xeon 6 processors with Performance Cores and Intel Arc Pro B60 GPUs as the computing foundation for its enterprise-grade sovereign AI solutions. This underscores Intel’s expanding role in secure on-premises generative AI deployments.

Sovereign AI means organizations will retain full control over data, AI models and computing infrastructure. Enterprises in sectors such as banks, healthcare or the government sector that work with sensitive data are increasingly preferring this setup instead of sending information to the cloud. Intel brings a leading-edge technology stack to support these requirements.

Intel XEON 6 is designed for AI inference workloads, high-core-count computing and large memory capacity. With more cores, better performance efficiency and higher memory bandwidth compared to older XEON generations, the XEON 6 effectively supports the most demanding AI-driven enterprise applications. Along with XEON 6, Intel is also deploying the Arc Pro B60 GPUs.

On-premises deployments, sovereign AI and integrated software-hardware architectures are gaining prominence among several enterprises worldwide. Intel, with its leading-edge AI infrastructure portfolio, aims to capitalize on this growing space. TPIsoftware plans to expand across Singapore, Vietnam and Japan. Hence, this collaboration will give Intel a greater exposure to AI infrastructure demand in the Asia-Pacific.

How Are Competitors Faring?Intel faces strong competition from NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - Free Report) in this space. NVIDIA boasts a strong expertise in AI training, AI inference and dominates in generative AI deployments. The company is also rapidly expanding its sovereign AI stack. By combining NVIDIA AI platforms with domestic AI capabilities of each nation, the company aims to build robust and secure domestic AI ecosystems tailored to each nation’s unique requirements.

AMD is also on a similar path. The company is steadily creating and deploying full-stack AI that combines hardware, open-source software, models and experts. Such a strategy is boosting AMD’s prospects in multiple domains such as public administration, public healthcare, national security and others.

INTC’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesShares of Intel have surged 495.9% over the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 48.2%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Going by the price/book ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 5.32 book value, lower than 27.19 of the industry average.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Earnings estimates for INTC for 2026 and 2027 have increased over the past 60 days.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

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

Shares of Hertz Global Holdings plunged on Wednesday after the car-rental company warned that second-quarter earnings are tracking toward the lower end of its guidance range, citing unexpected weakness in the used-car market.

The stock sank more than 38% during trading and was on track for its largest-ever single-day percentage decline and its lowest close since March 2025, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Hertz said it expects second-quarter adjusted corporate earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of between $50 million and $80 million.

While the forecast remains within its previously projected range, it is expected to land near the lower end of guidance and below Wall Street expectations.

Analysts surveyed by LSEG had projected second-quarter EBITDA of $79.11 million on average.

The company attributed the weaker outlook to softer-than-expected conditions in the used-car market, which increased depreciation costs and weighed on profitability.

Hertz said "unexpected" softness in the used-car market led it to record losses on vehicle sales in May after generating gains in April.

The company now expects net depreciation per vehicle per month to be approximately $300 during the second quarter.

Last month, Hertz had projected depreciation to come in well below that level, supported by anticipated gains from second-quarter vehicle sales.

In a securities filing, Hertz said the slowdown in the used-car market had driven up depreciation expenses, creating a significant headwind for earnings.

The company noted that fleet size, revenue, rental days, and revenue per day are expected to meet or slightly exceed prior expectations, supported by healthy demand and stronger-than-anticipated capacity utilization.

However, the losses on vehicle dispositions have offset those positives and pressured profitability.

The update comes as the broader used-car market faces challenges despite higher US tariffs increasing the cost of new vehicles and pushing some consumers toward pre-owned cars.

Macroeconomic pressures and strained household budgets have made it difficult for used-vehicle companies to maintain margins.

Adding to investor concerns, Hertz announced plans for a $100 million public stock offering alongside a $300 million offering of exchangeable senior first-lien secured payment-in-kind (PIK) notes due 2030.

The company said proceeds from the note offering will be used for general corporate purposes, including the potential repayment of outstanding debt.

Under the arrangement, Hertz will lend the newly issued shares to underwriter J.P. Morgan Securities, allowing investors to establish short positions to hedge purchases of the notes.

Hertz will receive only a nominal lending fee from the stock transaction and no direct proceeds from the share sale itself.

The notes will pay interest through a combination of cash and payment-in-kind interest and may be exchanged for cash, Hertz common stock, or a combination of both at the company's election.

The number of shares issuable upon exchange is capped at 19.9% of outstanding shares unless shareholders approve a larger issuance.

Wednesday's selloff extended a difficult period for Hertz shares.

Including the latest losses, the stock has fallen roughly 28% this year and nearly 50% over the past 12 months.

The company has spent the past year streamlining operations, refreshing its fleet, and working to improve its financial position.

Hertz also sought to rebuild investor confidence through partnerships, including agreements announced in April with Uber Technologies to support the ride-hailing company's robotaxi ambitions.

However, persistent challenges in the used-car market and concerns about profitability continue to weigh on investor sentiment.

Sprott Asset Management Director, ETF Product Management Jacob White joined Steve Darling from Proactive to discuss the outlook for the silver market, highlighting recent price volatility, long-term demand drivers, and ongoing supply constraints that continue to shape the metal’s investment case.

White said silver has experienced significant price swings over the past two years, climbing from an average of roughly US$24 per ounce in 2024 to as high as US$117 to US$118 per ounce in early 2026, before pulling back to around US$60 per ounce. Despite that correction, he noted that silver remains well above historical price levels.

The discussion focused on silver’s unique dual role as both a monetary metal and an industrial commodity. White said the metal has benefited from many of the same macroeconomic forces that have supported gold, including central bank activity, inflation concerns, and broader fears of currency debasement.

At the same time, industrial demand for silver continues to strengthen, particularly because of its unmatched electrical conductivity, which makes it a critical material in a wide range of industrial and energy applications.
One of the biggest long-term demand drivers, according to White, is the rapid buildout of solar energy infrastructure and broader efforts to improve energy security. He noted that governments and companies are increasingly investing in renewable energy not only to meet environmental goals, but also to reduce dependence on external energy sources, a trend that is creating sustained incremental demand for silver. 

On the supply side, White pointed out that the silver market continues to face structural constraints. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of other mining operations, which limits the industry’s ability to quickly ramp up output when prices rise. As he noted, the market has now experienced seven consecutive years of supply deficits, with demand consistently outpacing new supply. Above-ground silver inventories have also declined significantly during that period, adding further support to the long-term outlook.

Management believes the combination of strong industrial demand, silver’s monetary role, and persistent supply tightness continues to underpin a constructive long-term view on the silver market despite ongoing short-term volatility.

#Sprott #Uranium #NuclearEnergy #Investing #HANetf #Silver #Sprott #PreciousMetals #SilverMarket #MiningStocks #CommodityMarkets #SolarEnergy #EnergyTransition #InflationHedge #ETFInvesting

FedEx Corp (NYSE:FDX, XETRA:FDX) shares fell on Wednesday following its latest earnings report, even as Bank of America said the company continues to show strong underlying earnings momentum, with the post-earnings decline driven more by reporting-transition complexity than by operational weakness.

FedEx reported adjusted earnings per share of $6.31 for fiscal fourth-quarter 2026, up 4% year over year and ahead of Bank of America and consensus estimates of roughly $5.95 and $5.97, respectively.

The beat was driven primarily by strength in the Freight segment, which delivered higher-than-expected operating income, while the Express business also contributed positively on improved international export volumes, pricing discipline, and favorable mix trends.

According to Bank of America, the quality of the quarter was broadly stronger than expected, with momentum in pricing, mix, and cost execution continuing to support profitability across the network.

Freight was the standout contributor, with operating income of $363 million coming in $71 million above the firm’s forecast, supported by revenue per shipment growth of 11% year over year versus expectations for low-single-digit gains.

Express also outperformed, with revenue up 14% year over year, well above the bank’s 8% estimate, driven by stronger yields and international volume growth of 5% versus expectations of 2%.

Despite the solid results, Bank of America noted that investor reaction was dampened by FedEx’s introduction of a transition-period outlook tied to its shift toward calendar-year reporting.

The company forecast earnings growth of about 20% year over year for the second half of calendar 2026 and provided a full-year calendar 2026 EPS range of $16.90 to $18.10. Management also outlined June–December 2026 EPS of about $11.30, which it said bridges into the broader calendar-year outlook and reflects normal seasonality alongside one-time impacts from incentive compensation costs and stranded Freight expenses.

The bank’s analysts believe that this new framework created “near-term noise” in earnings comparability, as fiscal and calendar-year figures overlap and make near-term trends harder for investors to interpret.

They noted that FedEx expects a larger portion of transition-period earnings to be concentrated in fiscal fourth-quarter 2026, reflecting peak-season strength.

Bank of America reiterated that, despite the reporting complexity, the underlying transformation story remains on track. The firm highlighted ongoing benefits from network integration, pricing discipline, and cost actions across both Domestic and International segments, with management continuing to target margin improvement through the transition period.

The firm maintained a ‘Buy’ rating on FedEx and raised its price objective to $378 from $376, valuing the shares at 17.5 times its revised calendar 2027 EPS estimate, slightly down from 18.5 times previously.

Bank of America also raised its 2027 EPS forecast by 6% to $21.60 from $20.28, citing stronger-than-expected operating income trends and improved visibility into margin expansion.

Bank of America said it continues to see mid-teens operating income compound annual growth potential through 2029, supported by sustained pricing discipline, efficiency gains, and continued execution of FedEx’s long-term network optimization strategy.

FedEx shares were down 1.5% at about $313 on Wednesday afternoon.

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

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Listen below or on the go on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

Reddit crowd piles into fast food. (0:15) Hertz plunges after proposing stock and bond offerings. (1:19) SK Hynix unveils plans for $29.4B Nasdaq listing. (2:11)

This is an abridged transcript of the podcast:

Our top story so far, the Frosty maker's getting frothy and the taco maker's on a tear.

Wendy's (WEN) is rallying more than 25% after becoming a favorite topic on the WallStreetBets Reddit (RDDT) community.

The fast-food chain features the classic meme-stock recipe of high short interest and an iconic consumer brand.

"WEN is currently sitting at $6 (ouch.) The market cap is barely over $1B. We're talking about a nationally recognized brand with 7,000+ restaurants globally, a business model that is mostly franchised. Their dividend is actually not too bad given the price," read one post calling on the "pigtailed savior to make a comeback."

In May, Wendy's appointed Robert Wright as chief executive, taking over from interim CEO Ken Cook. Earlier this year, Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund was reportedly seeking investor backing for a takeover bid.

Shares of Wendy's had drifted to a multi-year low of $6.07 on Tuesday before the social-media campaign kicked into overdrive.

And Jack in the Box (JACK) is along for the ride, posting its best day in nearly five years with shares up more than 15%.

About one-third of the company's float is sold short, helping fuel a round of short covering as meme traders piled into the name.

Among other active stocks, Hertz (HTZ) is plunging 30% after proposing a $100M stock offering alongside a $300M bond offering.

FedEx (FDX) is lower despite beating earnings expectations. Looking ahead, FedEx forecast calendar 2026 EPS of $16.90 to $18.10, with the top end barely above the $18.09 consensus.

Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) is choppy after its Rockstar Games division confirmed that pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI will begin June 25 at midnight local time.

The highly anticipated game for Sony's PS5 and Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox Series X/S will cost $79.99, with the Ultimate Edition priced $20 higher.

And Adobe (ADBE) released initial figures for Amazon's (AMZN) four-day Prime Day event, which is being matched by other major e-commerce sellers.

Online spending rose 5.3% year over year to $8.3B on Tuesday, the first day of the sale.

In other news of note, red-hot South Korean memory-chip maker SK Hynix (HXSCL) has announced plans for a $29.4B Wall Street listing.

The company plans to list American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "SKHY" and begin trading on July 10.

The offering is being led by Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.

And in the Wall Street Research Corner, fun for fans, but not a boon for business.

Pantheon Macro says the World Cup has yet to provide a meaningful boost to U.S. economic activity.

Business surveys, card-spending data and airline passenger traffic show little evidence that the tournament is supporting demand.

June PMI surveys suggest the economy has less momentum than it did a year ago.

Meanwhile, non-gas spending in June has converged with year-ago levels after posting annual increases in every previous month this year.

Growth in airline passenger traffic through TSA checkpoints has also remained near zero so far this month.

Editor's Note: This article discusses one or more securities that do not trade on a major U.S. exchange. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.

By PYMNTS  |  June 24, 2026

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Financial services platform Mercantile has joined forces with American Express and the American Bar Association (ABA).

The collaboration, announced Wednesday (June 24), is designed to give legal professionals who are part of the bar association (ABA) greater access to credit solutions.

The new ABA American Express Business Card will be issued by Celtic Bank and run on the American Express Network, letting members access Amex Network benefits, offerings and protections, the companies said in a news release.

“The card offering is designed to better support solo practitioners and small law firms—segments that often need flexible financing to manage cash flow and invest in growth,” the release added. “Through Mercantile’s platform, the ABA will offer a new member-focused business credit card designed specifically for the realities of running a modern legal practice, combining competitive rewards with tools that help firms build stronger financial footing.”

According to the release, the ABA chose Mercantile after an extensive evaluation, opting for a platform designed to support small business members. The partnership also marks the ongoing expansion of the Mercantile American Express card program in professional spaces.

“Solo practitioners and small law firms need financial solutions that work as hard as they do,” said Will Stredwick, senior vice president and general manager of global network services for North America at American Express. “The ABA American Express Business Card delivers tools that help legal professionals manage cash flow, earn on core business expenses, and access the benefits and protections of the American Express Network.”

In other small business/credit card news, recent PYMNTS Intelligence research shows that small- to medium-sized business (SMB) owners want digital tools from the companies that issue business credit cards, but also need access to some human help.

According to the research, the most popular way to apply for a business credit card is a digital application that business owners fill out on their own, mentioned by 22.8% of SMBs. Just behind it are a pair options that place another person on the other end.

“Live chat with a real person came in at 17.8%, and a human phone representative tied close at 17.6%,” PYMNTS wrote. “Owners want speed, but they also want a way out of the app when they get stuck.”

One of the knocks against Chevron (CVX 2.31%), and many other oil and natural gas companies, is that they aren't participating in the energy transition toward electricity. That may have changed significantly, as Chevron has just tentatively agreed to provide 2.7 gigawatts of electricity to a Microsoft (MSFT 1.33%) data center. Is Chevron suddenly an AI play? Here's what you need to know.

Chevron isn't changing its business much What's really happening between Chevron and Microsoft isn't exactly an electricity deal. Chevron is partnering with GE Vernova (GEV +1.34%) to build a natural gas-powered electric power plant. Assuming the agreement receives final approval, which won't be known until later in the year, it will provide Microsoft with dedicated power at a Microsoft data center under a 20-year agreement.

Image source: Getty Images.

So, on the surface, Chevron is starting to produce electricity, a business that will provide more reliable cash flows than the volatile oil and natural gas industry. However, the real story is that Chevron is using the natural gas it produces to generate electricity at a power plant it owns. The company isn't really moving too far outside its comfort zone, noting that it is used to building and operating large infrastructure assets. That should help investors get more comfortable with the agreement.

A model that could easily be replicated What's interesting here is that the power plant, with nearly 2.7 gigawatts of capacity, will be co-located with the data center. Essentially, the two will be located right next to each other, with the electricity generated from the power plant dedicated to supplying the data center. In other words, there's no impact on the power grid, which has been a headwind for data center construction.

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The location of the data center in West Texas, where Chevron has sizable operations, is important because natural gas must be transported to the power plant. However, there's no reason why this model couldn't be used with other data centers. And that opens up a whole new set of opportunities for Chevron in the hot artificial intelligence sector, and beyond.

This could be a big deal for Chevron over the long term The 2.7 gigawatts of power generated would be enough to power two million homes, making it a sizable project. But, still, relative to Chevron, it is a fairly modest deal. That's not a bad thing, as this global energy giant tends to move incrementally. So this isn't exactly a green transition. However, investors should pay close attention to this agreement because it could be an important long-term platform for Chevron to diversify beyond the oil and natural gas industry.

Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chevron, GE Vernova, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Key Takeaways GAP launched an AI-driven initiative to modernize marketing and enhance customer engagement.Gap partnered with Google Cloud to build a unified data foundation for personalization.GAP is using AI tools and Athena by Zeta to improve targeting, campaigns and marketing efficiency. The Gap, Inc. (GAP - Free Report) continues to benefit from strong brand momentum and growing market share across its key banners, driven by the steady execution of its brand reinvigoration strategy. The company’s transformation efforts are centered on four key priorities, including maintaining financial and operational discipline, revitalizing its brands, strengthening its platform and supply-chain capabilities, and fostering a high-performance culture.

GAP unveiled a major AI-driven initiative aimed at modernizing its marketing operations and enhancing customer engagement across its portfolio of brands. Through the adoption of Artificial Intelligence, advanced data analytics and agentic technologies, the company is reshaping its shared marketing organization into a more agile, scalable and real-time growth platform. The initiative seeks to deliver highly personalized customer experiences, strengthen owned marketing channels, improve customer retention and foster greater integration across the marketing ecosystem.

A key component of the initiative is Gap's collaboration with Google Cloud to create a unified, AI-ready data foundation that integrates customer and product intelligence. This platform is expected to support faster personalization, improved decision-making and continuous optimization across marketing content, customer activations and e-commerce operations.

Gap has teamed up with Publicis Sapient to build a consumer-focused, AI-driven operating model. The collaboration is aimed at integrating content development, campaign execution, commerce and customer intelligence into a more connected ecosystem, while improving efficiency across its workforce, processes, technology infrastructure and data capabilities. To power its AI capabilities, Gap is utilizing Google Cloud technologies such as Agent Studio, Agent Engine and Gemini models, along with advanced image and video-generation tools, including Nano Banana and Veo. These tools are intended to streamline workflows and support large-scale content creation.

Additionally, Gap is working with Zeta Global to build an AI-powered marketing stack centered on Athena by Zeta, an intelligence platform designed to connect customer data, decision-making and marketing execution. Athena's predictive and agentic capabilities will help coordinate audience targeting, creative development, campaign activation and optimization, enabling more personalized customer experiences and faster campaign deployment. By combining its established brand heritage with advanced AI infrastructure and data-driven capabilities, Gap aims to create a faster, more responsive and customer-centric marketing model that supports long-term growth.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s shares have lost 15.7% in the past three months against the industry’s 3.2% growth.

3 Retail Picks You Can’t MissWe have highlighted three better-ranked stocks, namely Genesco Inc. (GCO - Free Report) , Designer Brands Inc. (DBI - Free Report) and Levi Strauss & Co. (LEVI - Free Report) .

Genesco, a footwear and accessories dealer, currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Genesco’s current financial-year EPS indicates growth of 55.2% from the year-ago figure. GCO delivered an average earnings surprise of 3.8% in the trailing four quarters.

Designer Brands, designer and producer of footwear and accessories, currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The company delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 112.8%, on average.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Designer Brands’ current financial-year sales indicates growth of 0.5% from the year-ago figure.

Levi Strauss, designer and marketer of jeans, casual wear and related accessories, currently has a Zacks Rank of 2. LEVI delivered an average earnings surprise of 21.4% in the trailing four quarters.

The consensus estimate for Levi Strauss’ current financial-year sales indicates growth of 5.2% from the year-ago figure.

Oracle's NYSE: ORCL stock price sell-off started as an understandable, if overblown, reaction to fears of software-as-a-service (SaaS) disruption and swelling debt—but it has since spiraled into an outright disconnection from reality. While debt is growing, this is not an emerging tech start-up with a questionable growth trajectory, but a blue-chip name central to AI with a backlog to offset its liabilities.

Ravi Ahuja, Chairman and CEO at Sony Pictures Entertainment speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference 2026 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May, 5, 2026. REUTERS/Mike Blake Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

June 24 (Reuters) - Sony Pictures Entertainment announced a $100 million strategic investment in immersive technology firm Cosm on Wednesday, marking ​a push by the Hollywood studio to extend ‌its film and television properties into a growing network of dome-shaped venues across the United States.

Los Angeles-based Cosm operates ​dome venues using its "Shared Reality" technology, which projects ​live sports, concerts and other events onto massive, ⁠wraparound curved LED screens.

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As the lead investor in ​Cosm's Series C financing round, Sony Pictures will acquire ​a minority ownership stake in the company, it said in a statement.

The investment advances Sony Pictures' focus on experiential entertainment, fandom ​and technology, and would allow the studio to ​explore new ways to extend its intellectual property through immersive experiences.

Sony ‌Pictures ⁠CEO Ravi Ahuja will join Cosm's board of directors.

"We will use this capital to fuel Cosm's growth as we expand our venue network and advance our ​technology initiatives across ​both Sports ⁠and Entertainment," Cosm CEO Jeb Terry said.

Cosm has opened three domes in Los ​Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta, with venues planned ​for Detroit ⁠in September and Cleveland next year. Additional U.S. and international locations will be announced soon, the company said.

In ⁠July ​2024, Cosm announced it had ​raised $250 million in a funding round, achieving a valuation of over $1 billion.

Reporting by ​Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Joyjeet Das

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Chevron stock is a good play for when the stock market sinks. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The S&P 500 has clawed back some from a drop a few of weeks ago, now down only 3% from its record close. Still, it faces risks, namely AI chips and the Fed, and another slide certainly isn’t out of the question.

In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at AbbVie’s new megadeal, an agentic AI startup saving Medicare $2 million a week, how new student loan rules could degrade healthcare and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.

Gado via Getty Images

AbbVie is bolstering its franchise in immune-system disorders with its $10.9 billion cash purchase of Apogee Therapeutics.

Apogee launched four years ago as a spinout from biotech Paragon Therapeutics. Its lead drug, called zumilokibart, is a long-lasting injectable that could treat autoimmune conditions like asthma and atopic dermatitis. In phase 2 clinical trials for atopic dermatitis, about two-thirds of patients on the drug gained significantly clearer skin.

AbbVie’s blockbuster drug Humira, the rheumatoid arthritis medication that was once the top-selling drug in the world, now faces competition from biosimilars and has seen its sales plummet. The company has filled the gap with blockbusters Rinvoq (for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases) and Skyrizi (for Crohn’s disease and psoriasis), which are expected to top $34 billion in sales this year. Its total revenue last year was $61 billion.

AbbVie is paying a 49% premium over Apogee’s closing price on Thursday before the deal was announced. While that makes it “fairly expensive,” William Blair analyst Matt Phipps wrote in a research note on Monday, “the mega-blockbuster potential of zumilokibart ensures the company’s [inflammation and immunology] franchise continues to see robust growth through the 2030s.”

This Startup Says It Saves Medicare More Than $2 Million A WeekCadence's Chris Altchek

Cadence

Caring for people with chronic disease accounts for the vast majority of the $5.3 trillion the U.S. spends every year on healthcare. AI can help keep seniors healthier and cut costs by monitoring common chronic illnesses like hypertension and diabetes, argues Chris Altchek, cofounder of Los Angeles-based startup Cadence. The goal: Help people over 65 get the right medications and earlier treatment, keeping them out of the ER.

“Everyone is trying to figure out how we improve outcomes for chronic disease. I think we are realizing that even if we double the number of primary care doctors it wouldn’t actually help because the way we treat disease with two-to-four doctor visits a year doesn’t work,” Altchek tells Forbes.

Cadence’s clinical AI agents are hooked into devices like blood pressure cuffs and blood sugar monitors, which monitor patient vitals remotely. It combines this data with information from patients’ electronic health records to recommend if someone should adjust their medication, or change their lifestyle. That enables Cadence’s system, which is supervised by physicians, to alert a clinician when a patient is deteriorating before a stroke or heart attack, for example.

Cadence touts data, published in peer-reviewed journals, that shows its model works: a 27% decrease in in-patient hospital admissions, a 230% increase in heart failure patients using recommended therapy, and a 70% increase in blood pressure control for hypertension patients. On the cost side, it showed a $1,300 per patient annual reduction in the total cost of care. The company says it saves Medicare roughly $2.7 million per week.

Today, Cadence treats more than 100,000 patients at 21 health systems, ranging from academic medical centers like Duke Health to Texas Health Resources, a faith-based non-profit with 24 hospitals around Dallas-Fort Worth. Its annualized revenue is on track to reach $140 million by the end of this year, more than double last year’s $62 million and nearly seven times higher than the $21 million it reached in 2024.

Now the startup tells Forbes that it has raised an additional $100 million in a round led by Spark Capital, the VC firm best known for being an early backer of Anthropic. The new money brings its total funding to $241 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion, up from $1 billion at December 2021.

Read more here.

As Nurses Lose Student Loans, Your Healthcare Could SufferA new law that kicks in on July 1 sharply limits the amount that graduate students can borrow from Uncle Sam. Under the new rules, graduate nursing students will be limited to borrowing $20,500 a year and $100,000 over the life of their graduate studies. By contrast, grad students studying to be optometrists, podiatrists, chiropractors, pharmacists, clinical psychologists, medical doctors, veterinarians, lawyers and clergy will be able to borrow $50,000 a year ($200,000 total) for their degrees.

That’s potentially a problem for nursing–and for healthcare. As the U.S. population ages, the country faces a growing shortage of doctors and nurses, exacerbated by the Trump Administration’s attempts to limit the influx of educated immigrants. The Department of Education’s limits on how much the 200,000 students in graduate nursing programs may borrow threatens to make the shortage even worse.

One reason is that the explosion of graduate-trained nurse practitioners has been easing a shortage of primary-care doctors in rural and underserved communities, as well as such specialties as geriatrics and psychiatry. Demand for nurse practitioners is projected to grow 40% by 2034, the highest growth rate for almost any job. With younger medical doctors gravitating to higher-paid specialties, there are now more nurse practitioners than doctors providing primary care, according to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration reports. If fewer people become nurses or nurse practitioners, access to primary care–and to quality healthcare, more generally–could decline, especially in these rural and underserved areas.

Read more here.

Deal of the WeekJon Wang and Jeff Liu have a thing for cowboy hats. The cofounders and co-CEOs of Assort Health wear them everywhere, including to their board meetings and, recently, to raise venture money for their startup. "I just liked the look of them, the vibe," says Liu. "It's the wild west of healthcare."

It's a shtick, of course, but it also worked. With their hats on, the duo raised their third venture funding round in just 14 months to keep building out their voice AI chatbot for scheduling doctor appointments. The new funding of $120 million, led by Menlo Ventures, brings Assort’s valuation to $1.2 billion, up more than 70% from its valuation of $700 million last September. Assort has now raised a total of $222 million from top investors that include Lightspeed, First Round and Chemistry.

The flood of funding reflects just how miserable it is for both patients and doctors’ offices to schedule appointments. “It’s one of the most broken parts of healthcare today,” Wang says.

Some 15,000 physicians, across 23 specialties like orthopedics and dermatology, have now rolled out Assort Health’s AI agent to take all those calls for them. It has now handled 190 million patient interactions.

Read more here.

What We’re ReadingOne 79-year-old patient received highly unusual “compassionate use” access to Lilly’s experimental weight loss drug in April. The White House subsequently denied on X that the patient was President Trump.

A Medicare AI pilot program is causing confusion, frustration and long delays for patient care.

The Treasury Department is considering new restrictions on American companies’ investments into Chinese biotech.

Using AI too much can degrade the skills of professionals–including doctors and nurses.

Public health researchers find that abortion bans force doctors to delay or withhold standard pregnancy care.

Businesses are taking risks to cash in on the craze for injectable peptides.

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