Jonathan brings decades of professional trading experience to this work, and I encourage you to follow him. His free Masters in Trading LIVEbroadcasts let you see his thinking in action and ask questions. Sign up for daily email links to those here.

Below, he discusses an FCX trade he shared on the show. And watch your inbox for more about his upcoming $10K to $100K Challenge, where he’ll explain his strategy in greater detail.

A bunch of kids from the Goon Docks are about to lose their neighborhood.

Developers want the land, and their families are facing foreclosure. Then, up in an attic, the kids find an old map that might lead to a pirate’s fortune.

You know where we’re going.

Those kids soon run into underground tunnels, booby traps, One-Eyed Willy… and an entire pirate ship full of treasure.

The Goonies.

And after everything those kids go through, what actually saves their homes is a handful of gems tucked away in Mikey’s (Sean Astin) marble bag. That’s the treasure they manage to bring home.

I’m a huge Goonies fan. Whenever I talk about copper, I sneak an image of Chester Copperpot into the presentation (an old newspaper article about Chester inspires the Goonies’ treasure hunt). I can’t help it. (I’d do it here, but InvestorPlace’s image guidelines won’t allow it.)

There’s a useful trading lesson in that treasure hunt.

Finding the treasure was a big deal. But standing on a ship full of gold didn’t pay off the families’ mortgages. The gems that made it home did.

I think about trades the same way. Finding an opportunity gets my attention. Then I need to work out how to get in, how much I could lose, and when to get out. A great investment story only takes you so far. You need a plan to turn it into a profit.

Eric has already shown you here why copper matters to the AI buildout and why he likes Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX).

I like FCX, too. It’s my favorite name in the copper space. So, I appreciate him inviting me here so I can show you how I approached a specific trade in it, live on my free show.

Plus, I’ll walk through another copper stock and a fund, because the way you get into copper matters.

The Edge in Copper

Like Eric’s been telling you all, AI needs copper. All that compute, all that power delivery, all that cabling: It runs on copper.

How much are we talking about? Estimates cited by U.S. Global Investors put copper requirements for a large AI-focused data center as high as 50,000 tons. The amount depends on the facility’s size and design, but that gives you an idea of the scale.

For comparison, an average 2,100-square-foot single-family house contains about 439 pounds of copper. At that upper-end data-center estimate, we’re talking about more copper than you’d find in 200,000 of those homes. That’s just my back-of-the-envelope math, not an official stat, but you get the picture.

Now add power grids, electric vehicles, and the rest of the electrification story. S&P Global projects annual copper demand could reach 42 million metric tons by 2040, up roughly 50% from current levels. Without a meaningful expansion in supply, it projects a shortfall of about 10 million metric tons that year.

And you can’t just decide you need more copper and have a new mine producing it next week.

Eric is all over that long-term opportunity. He’s also explained how Freeport is working to get more copper out of its existing operations.

But for traders like me, the answer isn’t just “buy copper.” That’s not enough.

We need to look at where the edge is. It’s easy for everybody to look at copper and say, “There’s going to be more demand. Let’s get long copper.”

I want a catalyst. Something specific that could change what buyers are willing to pay.

In this case, I’m watching a tariff… a tax.

Washington’s copper policy opened the door to a possible phased tax on imported refined copper. We’re looking at 15% beginning in 2027, stepping up to 30% in 2028. Those were the recommended rates, with further market reviews informing the president’s decision on whether to impose them. The potential tax is the catalyst I’m watching.

So we need to start researching. What exactly is refined copper? Who produces it? Which companies might benefit if imported material becomes more expensive?

Look, I don’t have the most information. Nobody does. That’s why we follow the money.

Big players position before news becomes official, and that positioning can leave footprints we can see. I learned that on the trading floor, first at the CME and later at the CBOT and CBOE. Traders are constantly watching the biggest players in the room.

It’s like a betting line for an NFL game. The line moves as money comes in. You want to understand what’s moving that line.

The same thing happens in the stock market. The market doesn’t wait for certainty. It starts repricing the probability.

But not every copper stock plays this particular story the same way.

FCX is my favorite. Freeport’s U.S. operations include the huge Morenci mine in Arizona, along with the Miami mine and smelter in Arizona and a refinery in El Paso, Texas. So we’re looking at a company that both mines copper and processes it into usable metal. Freeport’s U.S. processing operations are part of what interests me in this potential tariff setup.

Rio Tinto plc (RIO) is another name I’m watching. This British-Australian giant has U.S. ties through its Kennecott copper operation in Utah, which includes the Bingham Canyon mine, a smelter, and a refinery. It’s a much bigger, more diversified company, so it gives you a more indirect way into the idea.

If you’d rather own a basket, there’s Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX). That gives you exposure to copper-mining companies around the world. The trade-off is that you’re spreading your investment across businesses with different operations and different exposure to Washington’s tariffs.

Know what you own and why you own it.

Even with a treasure map, you still have to choose your route. Those three names take you into copper in different ways. For the trade I shared at my Masters in Trading LIVE show, I wanted FCX.

Come See How I Work Through a Trade

During my September 3 LIVE broadcast, FCX had pulled back.

I looked at it using my Volatility Visualizer. That’s a tool that helps me see the stock’s expected trading range. I would have liked an entry closer to the bottom of that range, but I still liked the opportunity.

So I walked my viewers through a specific trade for our free portfolio. At the prices I discussed, one position put about $450 at risk, with a maximum potential profit of about $2,050, before fees. That’s better than 4 to 1.

Those were the terms of the trade I showed that day. The potential payoff wasn’t a prediction or a realized gain, and prices have moved since then.

But it gives you an idea of the work we do at Masters in Trading LIVE and my premium services.

We had a specific catalyst and a clear amount at risk. And so, we could work through the potential reward before putting money into the position.

You remember the booby traps in The Goonies. The treasure was real, but so were the risks along the way. Before I enter a trade, I want to know what happens if it goes wrong.

Then you have to decide: Does this trade make sense for you? Do you like the idea? Are you comfortable with the amount at risk?

That’s what we do on the show every day. Not just the trade, but also the thinking behind it.

And if it’s unfamiliar, paper-trade it. That just means write the trade down. Follow the stock. Watch how the trade behaves. Learn and build your confidence before risking money.

FCX is one example of the ideas I share. In recent weeks, I’ve also covered cybersecurity names, Space Race 2.0 stocks, and how the November 3 midterm elections could impact the “government put.”

What I’m watching changes with what the market is telling me. A company can be a good long-term investment while offering an unattractive entry today. Another day, a pullback or a change in the trading activity can put it back on my radar.

That’s why I keep showing up and doing the work.

Every market day, I go live on YouTube at 11 a.m. Eastern to show you the sectors, specific names, and broader market stories catching my attention.

I explain what I’m seeing. I walk through trade ideas. And I take questions from viewers while I’m live, because I believe the best way to teach is to engage with you directly.

Sign up for free Masters in Trading LIVE emails here. Once you’re onboard, we’ll send you a daily email with the link to watch, along with more pieces like this one and research from me.

Eric has given you a compelling reason to invest in copper. I want to help you work through the next questions: Which opportunity? What entry? How much risk? What’s the plan?

Think back to Mikey’s marble bag. The Goonies found an enormous fortune, but the gems they carried out were what saved their homes.

Finding something valuable and coming away with something valuable were two different parts of the adventure. Remember, the creative trader wins.

Copper is on the map. Now you can start working on a plan to bring something home.

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. You already know why I’m interested in Freeport and copper’s long-term opportunity. Jonathan adds a trader’s perspective, explaining what catches his attention and how he approaches a specific position. Sign up for his free Masters in Trading LIVE emails here to receive the daily broadcast link and additional research. You can follow along, ask questions, and get to know his teaching. And watch your inbox for details about his upcoming $10K to $100K Challenge.

The post The Copper Treasure Hunt: 3 Ways to Look for a Payoff appeared first on InvestorPlace.

When NASA began its space missions in the early 1960s, little thought was given to the food on board. Most missions only lasted a couple of hours, so astronauts were sent into orbit with just a few tubes of bland applesauce.

The problems began to surface with L. Gordon Cooper’s 1963 Mercury flight, which lasted 34 hours – an American record. The sandwiches for lunch crumbled, the pot roast spilled in the cockpit, and Cooper would skip breakfast entirely, according to flight transcripts.

By 1969, the food situation was dire. That year, Donald Arabian, head of NASA’s Mission Evaluation Room, was asked to evaluate a four-day food supply for the Apollo program. Arabian called himself a “human garbage can.” But even he could barely stomach the freeze-dried food.

And so, NASA looked for help.

One of the first outfits they asked was the U.S. Army’s Natick Laboratories – a group well versed in military-rations technology. Army researchers then hired Whirlpool Corp. (WHR), the appliance company, to help package these dinners.

Soon, other companies got involved. Pillsbury made chocolate energy bars… Kellogg’s did breakfast… Nestle SA (NSRGY) supplied coffee… and Whirlpool itself would end up creating the meals for the Apollo 11 moon mission.

It turns out the brightest minds at NASA still needed help making food for space travel.

The same concept is now proving true in artificial intelligence. Trillion-dollar companies with budgets the size of small countries are pushing the technological envelope, but also turning to outside vendors for help.

Nowhere is this clearer than at Elon Musk’s companies. His AI empire is vast: He owns data through Grok and X, computing power through xAI, connectivity through SpaceX Technologies Corp. (SPCX), robots through Tesla Inc. (TSLA), and more.

Yet, his firms are some of the biggest customers of other AI firms, such as Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), and Honeywell International Inc. (HON). That creates an opportunity. Three weeks ago, I wrote about how InvestorPlace Senior Analyst Luke Lango mapped out the supply chains of Musk’s companies and identified eight overlooked gems in his recent free Vertical AI Event broadcast.

One of his recommendations I revealed in that update – Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (CRDO) – has already risen 22%.

I’ve been allowed to reveal one more of his eight recommendations today. But this is the last one I’ll be able to tell you about. To find the rest, click here to see his free presentation.

Riding the AI Space Race

The potential Elon Musk supplier from Luke I want to tell you about here is essentially three things rolled into one.

1. A space company. It was founded in 2020 as a rollup of “heritage” space suppliers. These legacy firms made a wide range of products, including the solar panels on the International Space Station and digital sensors on the Mars Perseverance rover.

2. A defense company. In 2025, this company acquired Edge Autonomy, a defense-tech firm. Edge now generates 53% of total revenues, specializing in unmanned aircraft, ground defense systems, and backup power solutions.

3. A story stock. Shares of this space-and-defense firm have traded wildly in recent years. The stock sank below $5 in November 2025 when a major federal government shutdown put the defense industry on pause. It then surged past $25 the following May on enthusiasm over SpaceX’s IPO.

Here is a graph from our partners at TradeSmith to illustrate how volatile shares have been.

Stock price. Oct 2024-present

These stories are now converging in three ways to create a “must own” company for the long run, and are why Luke has selected Redwire Corp. (RDW) as a potential Elon Musk supplier stock to buy.

Three Rockets, One Launchpad

The first convergence is positioning. By acquiring Edge, Redwire has become a one-stop shop for space-based defense systems.

Earlier this year, Redwire was put onto SHIELD – the U.S. government’s official $151 billion master contracting vehicle to build America’s “Golden Dome” missile defense system. The Congressional Budget Office believes the government could eventually spend as much as $1.2 trillion by the end of the project. That’s over four times more than NASA spent on the Apollo missions, adjusted for inflation.

Redwire enters this program with an unusually strong hand. It can provide unmanned aerial systems, advanced sensors, maneuverable spacecraft, and the modeling-and-simulation tools needed to guide drones to their target from space. The company might not be able to cater space food, but it does enter the Golden Dome project with an unusually relevant product portfolio for the job ahead.

The second convergence is financial.

The 2025 acquisition of Edge Autonomy transformed Redwire from an indebted, slow-growing legacy rollup into a faster-growing diversified player. Management used this fact to raise $565 million in equity in six months following the Edge acquisition, retiring 75% of total debt. That’s something the pre-Edge Redwire could never have done.

Redwire is additionally using its profitable defense segment to bankroll its unprofitable R&D bets in space technologies. Supporters call it “synergies,” while critics might say it’s “cross-funding.” In either case, it’s allowing the combined firm to develop the tech it will need in an increasingly AI-powered world of space and defense. More on that later.

The final convergence is optical.

Since May, shares of Redwire have fallen 60% as retail interest in space stocks has faded. The stock is now trading at roughly $10, even though the company is better off today than it was during the summer. Redwire reported strong second-quarter earnings on August 5 and has since won multiple new contracts. For instance, Redwire was selected in September for Space Systems Command’s $980 million NITE-STAR contract, a program to build space simulators for wartime conditions.

That means Redwire’s stock has become more attractive, even as retail investors have fled. A $15 near-term target price gives a 40% upside.

Datacenters With a View

That 40% upside should expand in the coming years as Redwire moves into AI data centers… in space.

I know this sounds like science fiction. But it’s real. And that’s because the AI Revolution is running into a very earthly problem:

Electricity.

Roughly 40% of all data-center projects are getting pushed from 2026 into 2027, and grid hookups are now the No. 1 reason for projects getting scrapped.

AI is also running into other domestic problems, such as the lack of available land, and environmental permitting issues, and community pushback. There are now more than 400 state and local moratoriums in effect on new data centers.

Moving data centers into space solves these problems at once. In the right orbit, a solar panel can receive sunlight almost all the time. There are no clouds, no nighttime, and no atmosphere to dilute the sun’s rays. Google estimates that a solar panel in orbit can be up to eight times more productive than one on the ground.

There’s also no land to buy, and no neighbors to annoy.

That’s why the biggest names in tech are taking the idea seriously. Last November, Google unveiled Project Suncatcher to test its AI chips in orbit; the prototype was launched into space earlier this week. Nvidia-backed Starcloud has already put an H100 GPU into space. And SpaceX’s own IPO prospectus suggests it is already designing AI satellites to work in orbit.

Of course, putting a data center in orbit is hard. A huge solar array must fold into a rocket and then unfurl reliably in space. The computing hardware needs to vent enormous amounts of heat in a vacuum, where there’s no air to carry it away. And all that data has to get back down to Earth somehow.

Those are exactly the problems Redwire has spent years solving.

Start with power. Redwire’s solar arrays already power the International Space Station and have been used on other critical projects. NASA itself credits the design’s compact packaging, low mass, and reliable deployment.

Then there’s communications. Redwire has delivered more than 200 flight antennas, and in August it announced a new investment in next-generation phased-array technology. Rocket Lab Corp. (RKLB) has already chosen Redwire to supply antennas, proof that other spacecraft builders are willing to buy its hardware.

Finally, we have orbital computing itself. On September 30, Redwire signed an agreement with Sophia Space. The plan is to pair Sophia’s orbital computing designs with Redwire’s space infrastructure products – another early step to making data centers in space.

That brings us back to Elon Musk.

SpaceX often likes to build things itself. It manufactures its own rockets, engines, satellites, and space suits.

But just like NASA in the 1960s, even SpaceX admits there are times it needs outside help. Its rocket’s communication chips are from STMicroelectronics NV (STM), the parachutes are from Airborne Systems, and even its launchpads were acquired from NASA.

We expect SpaceX to rely on Redwire for parts of its AI data-center dreams as well. Space-ready solar panels and heat vents are specialized products that are often worth buying from someone else. So are the communications systems that link satellites together.

Now, Redwire doesn’t need a SpaceX contract for shares to go higher. It already has the three other convergences working for it. But if Musk’s empire expands its business with RDW, that would be serious upside for a stock that’s still 60% off its highs.

Finding More Winners of the AI Revolution

The trouble with buying AI companies is that the hype doesn’t always match the reality. Startups have every incentive to oversell themselves, and many investors have proven quite bad at telling the truth from marketing.

Customer testimonials often help. If a company like Google is buying chips from a startup, there’s a good chance the technology works well.

However, Luke Lango goes a step further. He identifies eight firms in Elon’s “Vertical AI Blueprint” that are already running multimillion-dollar businesses. And they’re all like Credo and Redwire – working on and selling next-gen technologies instead of trying to please investors by inserting the word “AI” everywhere.

And so, I urge you to watch Luke’s Vertical AI Event, where he talks more about those eight firms creating the tools for Musk’s AI empire and the four areas investors should watch as he considers where the money could flow next.

Click here to check it out.

As NASA learned in the 1960s, even the world’s top engineers need help from time to time.

Until next week,

Thomas Yeung, CFA

Market Analyst, InvestorPlace

Thomas Yeung is a market analyst and portfolio manager of the Omnia Portfolio, the highest-tier subscription at InvestorPlace. He is the former editor of Tom Yeung’s Profit & Protection, a free e-letter about investing to profit in good times and protecting gains during the bad.

The post One Moonshot Stock to Buy for the AI Revolution appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Picture yourself being assigned to a new floor of a warehouse during a busy shift.

You might see a robot coming toward you with a heavy container while workers move pallets off trucks for the bots to pick up.

You suddenly step in the path of the robot, which doesn’t recognize you, and just like that, you’ve got a workers’ comp claim.

The next day, the “days since last accident” sign has to be reset to zero. Yet, if factory robots are to work as intended, they must be able to recognize people and respond appropriately.

That may sound straightforward, but making it happen reliably, around people who aren’t following a carefully rehearsed demonstration, is a major engineering challenge.

Now, think about the broader AI doomsday fears going around right now. Behind those warnings is a concern about increasingly powerful systems behaving in ways their builders cannot predict or control.

A warehouse accident and a runaway AI system are very different risks. But both bring us back to the importance of safeguards that work when something unexpected happens.

Listen, you don’t have to believe every doomsday prediction to take that problem seriously.

It’s also a business problem. Because a warehouse manager can love your technology and still have very good reasons to hold off on buying it.

That’s what caught my attention about Agility Robotics’ new Digit 5.

Digit 5 Is Designed to Work Safely Around People

The company says its humanoid can lift 50 pounds, reach 7.2 feet high, and operate for more than 20 hours a day, with rapid recharging between stretches of work. But it also has an independent safety controller overseeing its response when people get too close. Depending on the situation, the robot can avoid them, stop, or sit down.

That doesn’t resolve the broader debate over AI’s risks. It does illustrate how addressing a safety problem can help move the technology forward.

Now, think about that from an investment perspective.

Teaching a robot when to stop could help a company sell more robots. Making the technology more dependable could help customers deploy it faster.

That’s the investment question I want to focus on today: What turns a promising robot into a product customers keep ordering?

For a robotics company, the distance between an impressive demonstration and a repeat customer can be enormous. Closing that gap is where I think some of the most valuable businesses will be built.

And after what I heard at the All-In Summit, I think investors need to pay much closer attention.

Why AI Safety Does Not Necessarily End the AI Boom

Last month, I spent two days at the All-In Summit listening to some of the most powerful people in technology talk about artificial intelligence at a pretty extraordinary moment.

One morning alone, I heard from Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang. I was sitting there when President Donald Trump called Jensen onstage, and the conversation went on speakerphone.

So, yes, it was quite a time to be in that room.

Especially after what had happened just days earlier. Some of the biggest names building frontier AI had begun calling for a deliberate slowdown in the development of increasingly powerful models. AI stocks got hammered as investors tried to figure out what that could mean for the hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into chips, data centers, power plants, and everything else supporting the AI buildout.

But at All-In, I didn’t hear much talk about slowing down…

I paid particular attention to Nadella. Microsoft is one of the companies writing the biggest checks in the AI Boom. Critically, I didn’t hear Satya announce that Microsoft was cutting its AI spending or abandoning its infrastructure commitments.

Running AI for customers takes compute. Testing AI takes compute. Training robots takes compute.

So I don’t look at this debate and conclude that the infrastructure spending cycle is over. I think there is still a pathway to years of growth.

In fact, as a long-term investor, I came away from All-In more bullish about how long this AI Boom could last.

And I think companies have an opportunity here to trade short-term speed for long-term durability.

A Slower Frontier Could Produce a More Durable Boom

My concern has never been this quarter’s earnings or next quarter’s earnings. I care about what happens two or three years from now. What happens if companies build too much capacity too quickly? What happens if a serious AI safety problem scares the public? What happens if regulators come down with a hammer?

Slowing down at the frontier could reduce some of those risks. We may give up some speed in the short term, but I think the industry has an opportunity to make this boom more durable over the long run.

Think about a workout. 

If you push too hard, you’ll pull a muscle and you’re done. Manage the pace, and you give yourself a better chance of finishing.

Robotics gives us a practical example of what making AI more dependable can accomplish.

And for investors, that could shift some of the biggest opportunities toward companies finding valuable new ways to put AI to work. 

One robotics company gives us a good look at what it takes to turn an impressive machine into something customers will actually fork over their hard-earned cash for.

What Separates a Great Robot Demo From a Great Business

An AI-powered robot working on a warehouse floor doesn’t have to contemplate the fate of humanity, but it does have to recognize a person who accidentally steps into its path, so it can stop before it runs him over. 

Imagine you’re the manager deciding whether to expand a robot trial across your operation.

A machine might handle a container perfectly when the aisle is empty. But your warehouse has people moving around, awkwardly placed pallets, and shifts that need to stay on schedule.

Learning a task is only the beginning. You need to know how much useful work it completes in a shift, how often an employee has to intervene, and what it costs to keep running. 

Agility says the previous generation of Digit logged more than 65,000 hours with customers. That’s experience with actual operating conditions, actual customer requirements, and actual problems to fix.

Digit 5 still has to deliver, though. Early access is expected in the first half of 2027. And the reported $300 million in orders comes from one unnamed customer and depends on hitting milestones. Those orders aren’t guaranteed revenue, so we still need to see execution. I want to see conditional demand turn into deliveries, productive use, and customers coming back for more.

That progression would tell us much more about the business than a video of a robot completing one difficult task.

Vision-Language-Action Models Help Robots Understand the Job

Across the industry, vision-language-action models, or VLAs, are helping developers address these challenges. Put simply, these systems connect what a robot sees with an instruction and the actions needed to carry it out. Nvidia is developing tools that help robots make those connections.

But understanding an instruction is only part of the job. The machine also has to carry it out reliably under changing conditions. Then you have simulation-to-real training, or Sim2Real.

Instead of doing every practice run with a physical robot, developers can train in virtual environments. Nvidia’s Isaac Lab supports running simulated environments in parallel, giving developers a way to generate training experience at scale.

There are still gaps between simulation and reality, and a successful virtual run doesn’t prove the physical machine will perform reliably. This is why real-world testing remains essential.

For investors, I think the important question is whether that training produces a machine customers can deploy with less setup and less supervision.

If every new installation requires an engineering team to spend weeks adapting the product, expansion could become expensive. A company that can reduce that burden may have a better chance of growing profitably.

What Investors Should Look for Before a Robotics Company Scales

This is how I’m thinking about young robotics companies: Can they turn one successful installation into many without letting service costs swallow the gains?

A customer expanding from one location to several would be an encouraging sign. So would a machine completing more work with fewer interruptions.

I also want to know whether the company can support those additional customers without hiring people faster than it grows revenue. Selling more robots and building a profitable robotics business are separate accomplishments.

And no one on Earth is spending more to answer that question than Elon Musk.

Optimus gets the demo videos. But watch what’s being assembled around it: the AI models, the training compute, the chips, the factories to mass-produce all of it. Musk is building the entire Physical AI stack at once – and the sheer scale of that project is why it sits at the center of what I call XPANSE.

Musk himself has suggested this effort could produce 1,000-fold gains for early investors. Perhaps that’s true; but no honest analyst can promise that. What I can offer is the map. 

In my new briefing, I walk through the three steps I’d take today to get positioned for this shift, and I give away the name and ticker of the one stock I believe sits closest to the center of the buildout. The briefing is free. So is the pick.

You’ve just seen the questions I ask before trusting any robotics company with capital: real deployments, repeat customers, scaling without runaway costs. Apply that same lens to the XPANSE supply chain, and one name stands out…

Watch the briefing to learn which.

The post The Robot Boom’s Next Milestone Is Surprisingly Boring appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Nearly three decades ago, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) bet that consumers would embrace online shopping. In 2004, the company now known as Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) bet that search would become the gateway to the internet. Tesla Corp. (TSLA) bet in 2010 that EV manufacturing would scale.

These wagers were laid out in each company’s prospectus – a document that tells potential investors about a company and its plans. We won’t get too hung up on the jargon here, but most IPO prospectuses tell investors what a company hopes to build.

But Anthropic’s prospectus, leaked earlier this week, is different. It tells investors not just what the company hopes to build, but what it has already committed to buying.

Anthropic expects to buy $518 billion in cloud, computing, and infrastructure commitments over the next decade.

This isn’t just a staggering number – it’s a revealing one. It shows just how much Anthropic expects compute to matter to the future of AI. But that doesn’t mean the infrastructure will actually be available.

So, in today’s Smart Money, I’ll explain how Anthropic’s massive infrastructure commitments are highlighting new bottlenecks across the AI supply chain — and which companies may benefit.

Let’s dive in…

Money Can’t Buy Compute

Roughly 80% of Anthropic’s future computing and infrastructure commitments must be paid – even if it ends up not needing or using all of that capacity. That means Anthropic can’t simply walk away from most of its deals if AI demand falls short of expectations.

The biggest commitments are:

• Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): $111.1 billion
• Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN): $110 billion
• Microsoft Corp. (MSFT): $31.4 billion
• Broadcom Inc. (AVGO): $161.2 billion

Anthropic is willing to lock itself into contracts of this size because that compute is becoming a bottleneck for the entire AI industry.

Indeed, the AI infrastructure boom is increasingly being driven by companies locking up massive amounts of computing capacity.

And this isn’t just an Anthropic story.

In August, Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) said shortages of memory components were limiting how quickly it could expand, even as it forecast 70% revenue growth for its next fiscal year. CEO Jensen Huang put it bluntly: “Compute is revenue.”

But money alone doesn’t create compute. Anthropic can commit hundreds of billions of dollars, but it can’t instantly manufacture the infrastructure required to turn that money into computing capacity.

The problem is that compute is only as available as the components that go into it.

For instance, AI accelerators need enormous amounts of high-bandwidth memory (HBM). So, you can have demand for more AI compute and still hit a wall if you don’t have enough memory to feed the processors.

And that’s exactly what we’re now seeing in the memory market…

The Bottleneck Spreads

Micron Technology Inc.’s (MU) latest earnings report, released this week, shows why compute is becoming harder to secure.

Micron’s customers have increased their long-term supply commitments to $32 billion, from $22 billion in June. Its remaining performance obligations have jumped to $150 billion, from roughly $100 billion. Micron also says memory supply-demand conditions should be substantially tighter in fiscal 2027 and 2028.

That’s the same scramble for future capacity we’re seeing with Anthropic, just one step down the supply chain. Anthropic is locking up future computing capacity, while Micron’s customers are locking up the memory needed to power it.

Why? Because both are concerned that the capacity won’t simply be available when they need it. So, Micron has become a real-world example of the warning signs inside Anthropic’s prospectus.

And that’s the bigger story: The bottleneck isn’t confined to compute.

In fact, it’s spreading across the entire physical infrastructure required to run AI.

Own What AI Can’t Live Without

Compute is AI’s umbrella problem, but the industry needs more than chips. It needs power, data centers, networking equipment, cooling systems, and optical connectivity – and all of those building blocks have their own supply constraints.

So, here’s my actionable advice: You want to own the bottlenecks, not the companies scrambling to overcome them.

In my FutureProof 2026 presentation, I detail the three major bottlenecks affecting the AI buildout: memory, raw materials, and energy. And the companies I’m watching most closely in those spaces are those that own the scarce physical assets AI can’t live without.

That’s why I share 15  tickers – free of charge – that I believe are positioned to benefit from the bottlenecks emerging across the AI infrastructure buildout. 

Anthropic’s multibillion-dollar commitments show just how much money is chasing AI infrastructure. But as the company’s prospectus makes clear, money alone can’t create the compute and other infrastructure AI companies need.

That’s the opportunity I see: As companies like Anthropic race to secure compute, the companies that own the scarce infrastructure behind it could benefit.

Click here to learn more.

Regards,

Eric Fry

The post Anthropic’s $518 Billion Bet Could Create New AI Winners appeared first on InvestorPlace.

But veteran trader Jonathan Rose of Masters in Trading LIVE is asking what happens the day after they arrive.

Both the U.S. and China are working toward a permanent presence near the lunar south pole. But planting a flag is one thing. Keeping people alive and productive 240,000 miles from Earth will require power, communications, navigation, transportation, supplies, and an entire infrastructure network that doesn’t exist today – and governments won’t build all of it themselves.

In today’s Digest, Jonathan looks beyond the headline-grabbing rockets to three publicly traded companies already competing for pieces of this emerging lunar supply chain. Each plays a different role, comes with a different risk profile, and gives investors a different way to approach the same long-term trend.

But Jonathan also makes an important distinction: A compelling investment theme doesn’t automatically make for a good trade today. That’s why he watches contracts, valuations, price action, and unusual trading activity before putting money to work.

You can watch Jonathan apply that same process across the market every weekday at 11 a.m. Eastern on Masters in Trading LIVE – it’s completely free on YouTube. You can sign up here to get the daily link.

Bottom line: Creating a base on the Moon will make history, but keeping a base running there could make your portfolio.

Here’s Jonathan with more…

Have a good weekend,

Jeff Remsburg

Hey, guys.

Imagine building a house where there are no roads, no hardware stores, and no power lines.

Now imagine that every gallon of fuel, every part needed to build that house or replace a part of the house, has to travel nearly 1,000 miles across one of the most hostile landscapes on Earth.

That’s the problem engineers spent decades solving at the South Pole.

The U.S. Navy built the first American research station at the South Pole in 1956. Scientists moved in. And over the next several years, windblown snow just started burying it.

They had to build a replacement — a geodesic dome in 1975 — and eventually the snow started covering the entrances to that one too.

Today’s Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station stands on columns. The shape channels wind beneath it, sweeping the snow away.

Source: U.S. National Science Foundation

It took 10 years to build and more than 900 flights to haul materials from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole.

And to keep it running today, overland crews drive 990 miles from McMurdo Station, hauling fuel and cargo across Antarctica. More than a century after the first expedition reached the South Pole, people are still solving the practical problems of working there.

Now I want you to consider the Moon.

One of the biggest infrastructure buildouts of the next decade will happen 240,000 miles away. And this isn’t the 1960s. The first Space Race was the USA versus the USSR. Space Race 2.0 is the USA versus China.

And the winner of this race will be whoever builds a working research station there first.

China is publicly targeting a crewed lunar landing before 2030 and a base by 2035. NASA’s Artemis program is targeting its first crewed surface landing for 2028.

Both of them are zeroing in on the same tiny patch of the Moon — the lunar south pole — because that’s where the water ice is.

Water isn’t just water up there. Break it into hydrogen and oxygen, and you’ve got life support and rocket propellant. The Moon stops looking like a destination and starts looking like a supply chain.

Here’s what I find interesting as a trader. NASA can’t do everything itself. It’s the anchor, with private companies building the launch systems, communications, power, logistics, and more.

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program already has 17 planned deliveries carrying more than 60 payloads. Earlier this month, NASA put out proposals for surface power, oxygen extraction, and lunar construction materials.

So the question I’m asking isn’t “Who builds the rocket?” That answer is pretty easy: SpaceX, Blue Origin, and a few other big players.

The better question is “Who builds and operates everything a Moon base needs once someone’s actually living there?”

In this piece, I’ll try to answer that question by showing you three publicly held companies – all trading on the stock market – that are competing to be the one of the answers to that question.

Three Companies Building What Comes After the Landing

The Utility Company for the Moon: Most people know the first stock I want to show you as a lunar lander company. I’m more interested in what it’s trying to become — the utility company for the Moon. In March, NASA awarded Intuitive Machines Inc. (LUNR) a $180.4 million mission to deliver payloads to the lunar south pole region. This Houston-based company has a $1.8 billion backlog and $367 million in cash. A lander gets you to the destination. A company that can also handle communications and navigation once you’re there takes on a role that doesn’t end after a single landing. That’s the story I’m watching develop.

The Repeatable Delivery Play: The second stock I want to show you already landed its Blue Ghost spacecraft on the Moon in March. And in June, Firefly Aerospace Inc. (FLY) announced a $144 million NASA contract for another mission targeted for 2028 — bringing it to six contracted lunar missions total. Landing once is an accomplishment. Building a dependable service around it is a business. I’m watching the less glamorous stuff: production capacity, schedules, what they learn from each flight. The stock pulled back hard after the initial SpaceX enthusiasm wave. Sometimes the market just hands you a better entry. You wait for it.

The Sleep-at-Night Space Stock: My third space stock today is the different animal in this group. It’s a much larger company, less directly tied to the young lunar delivery business. But L3Harris Technologies Inc. (LHX) has delivered the four RS-25 engines for NASA’s planned 2027 Artemis III mission. That makes it the firm selling the engines and the avionics — and that company wins regardless of which rocket startup succeeds. If you want exposure to the lunar buildout with less volatility than the smaller names, LHX is how you get there. Don’t expect it to move like LUNR or FLY when the narrative heats up. But don’t ignore it either.

Three different jobs behind the same buildout. Three different risk profiles.

Now here’s the part I want to be straight with you about.

A Good Story Still Needs a Good Trade

When I went through these names on my Masters in Trading LIVE show last week (sign up for that free here), I noted that LUNR, FLY, and couple other small space stocks had all made sharp moves together when SpaceX was in the news, and then pulled back together. That correlation tells me investors are trading the industry story, not the individual companies.

That’s fine. Industries move together all the time. But it means you have to be careful about what you’re actually buying and when.

I watch contract awards. I watch how these stocks move relative to each other. And I look for unusual trading activity — big, concentrated trades that tell me whether serious money is starting to build positions before the broader market figures out why. When I see that kind of footprint in names like these, that’s when I start paying real attention.

But that activity is a clue, not an instruction. I still have to look at the company, the setup, and how much I’m willing to lose before I’d put a trade on.

The timing matters in a specific way here too. A Moon base is a project measured in years. The trades I do have expiration dates. I can be completely convinced the infrastructure story is real and still wait for a better moment to trade it.

Nothing is cheap or expensive on its own. LUNR at $12 is not automatically cheap because it was at $20. It’s cheap or expensive relative to the backlog, the contract pipeline, the competition, and what comparable companies have traded at in similar situations. That’s the work.

LUNR, FLY, and other small space stocks all move together — when one goes, they all go. So you’re not really picking the winner of the Moon race. You’re buying the industry. That’s actually fine with me. I’d rather own a basket of names tied to a real structural trend than try to pick the one company that survives the shakeout in a new industry where execution risk is genuinely high.

Now let’s go back to where we started.

The Antarctic South Pole story ends like this: More than a century after the first expedition arrived, keeping that research station running still takes a full supply chain. Overland crews are still driving 990 miles across Antarctica.

Getting to the South Pole was the achievement. Keeping a research station operating there is still a job: crews drive roughly 990 miles from McMurdo hauling fuel and cargo across Antarctica.

A lunar base will need its own supply chain. And if people intend to keep working there, that work continues long after the first landing.

That’s the industry I’m watching. The trading question is when the market gives us a sensible way in.

I go live every day the market is open — 11 a.m. Eastern, for free, on YouTube. At Masters in Trading LIVE, we take on different topics each day, look at what’s moving, and work through the questions together. If this kind of thinking is useful to you, come join us.

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. Those South Pole station details are exactly the kind of thing Jonathan notices that most folks walk right past. He finds the unglamorous version of a big story, and then asks whether the market is actually offering a trade on it. That’s what he does every morning at 11 a.m. Eastern on MIT Live, free on YouTube. Get that here.

Jonathan is also doing a free live event later in October — the $10K to $100K Challenge — where he’ll walk through the exact signals he uses to find trades and how he sizes his risk. It’s free. Keep an eye on your inbox for more details soon.

The post The Real Moon Trade Isn’t Who Gets There First — It’s Who Keeps the Base Running appeared first on InvestorPlace.

It’s an important question as we approach the November 3 midterm elections and a potential “changing of the guard” in Congress. And my friend and colleague Jonathan Rose has a useful way to address it.

Jonathan’s approach to the markets is fascinating, as he watches unusual trading activity for clues about where the big money is moving. Then he weighs the opportunity against the price and risk. I’ve said it before, Jonathan has “the greatest edge over the markets I’ve ever seen.”

Below, Jonathan shares two stocks he’s bullish on, two he’s leaving alone, and three questions he asks before getting into a government-backed trade.

His analysis explains why even a promising business helped by Washington may require patience.

And watch your inbox for a note about his upcoming $10K to $100K Challenge. We’ll be sharing more info on that with you soon.

Take it away, Jonathan…

*********************************

Hey, guys.

In September 2008, Washington stepped in to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

These were enormous companies with an enormous job. Millions of American mortgages ran through the system they helped finance. The government couldn’t let that collapse.

But here’s the distinction that mattered — a lot — to anyone who owned their shares.

Washington was protecting the mortgage market. It was protecting holders of the companies’ debt. Existing shareholders? They bore losses. Common shareholders were further back in line to recover their money.

Washington was protecting a vital economic function. That didn’t mean it was protecting the price you paid for the stock.

Investors today call this kind of support a “government put” — the idea that the White House’s backing puts a floor under certain stocks. It’s a useful concept. But like all useful concepts, it can be taken too far.

Keep that in mind as you look at today’s Washington-backed opportunities. Domestic chipmaking, rare-earth production, artificial intelligence — all the industries the administration has decided are essential to America’s future.

These companies are in a completely different situation from Fannie and Freddie. But the same question applies: What, exactly, is the government protecting — and how much are you paying for it?

Answer those two things honestly, and you’ll make better trades.

Louis has been explaining why government policy can support certain businesses. I want to take that one step further and show you how I actually look at their stocks. Because a company can have a powerful tailwind and still be a bad trade at the wrong price.

And a stock that looks expensive today can become a really good opportunity after it pulls back.

In this piece, I’m going to show you how I think about that, including two names I’m bullish on right now, two I’m leaving alone, and the three questions I ask before I put any government-backed trade on.

What Washington’s Support Is Actually Worth

Think about buying a house.

You find a property you like. A major employer is moving nearby, and the town is fixing the roads. So you think demand could rise.

Those are all good reasons to take a closer look.

But you still check what similar properties have actually sold for nearby. You still inspect the property. And you still ask whether the seller has already priced in every improvement you’re excited about.

Same thing here.

A federal investment, a contract, a favorable policy — any of those can genuinely improve a company’s prospects. Once that news is public, though, investors pile in fast. The shares jump. And a lot of the good news is already in the price.

I call that the Washington premium.

It’s not a precise number. It’s just a way of thinking about how much of a stock’s appeal depends on what investors are expecting from the White House — not from the business itself.

And the support comes in different forms. It matters which kind you’re looking at.

Sometimes Washington is an investor. Intel Corp. (INTC) reached an agreement with the Trump administration for an $8.9 billion investment — a 9.9% passive stake, no board representation. That’s a serious commitment to domestic semiconductor manufacturing. It also leaves every normal business question on the table. Can Intel execute? How competitive are their products? What do their earnings look like? What price actually makes sense for the shares?

Sometimes Washington supports a company’s production economics. MP Materials Corp.’s (MP) agreement with the Pentagon included a 10-year price floor on its neodymium-praseodymium products, plus financing and purchase commitments tied to expanding domestic magnet production. That makes the business more dependable. But a floor under the price of a product is not the same thing as a floor under the price of the stock. If investors overpay, the stock can still go down.

And sometimes Washington controls who a company can sell to. That’s the export policy question for Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). You can be completely bullish on long-term demand for computing power and still recognize that a single federal policy headline can swing these stocks in the short term.

That’s why I don’t throw all these names into one basket labeled “Trump stocks.” Their businesses are different and their government relationships are different, so they deserve to be looked at separately.

So, here’s where I land: bullish on Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Nvidia and bearish on Intel and Oracle Corp. (ORCL). Those are separate judgments about separate opportunities, not one big trade on Washington.

Three Questions I Ask Before Getting Involved

First: What does the government commitment actually cover?

A signed purchase agreement is very different from a politician making encouraging comments. An actual investment is different from a potential investment. And even a big commitment may only support one slice of a company’s overall business. I want to know what’s real before I start deciding what it’s worth.

Second: How much good news is already in the stock?

If a company gets meaningful support and the shares immediately surge 40%, buying afterward means paying the new price. You don’t get the earlier entry just because you correctly understood the news first. This is where patience matters. I’d rather put a name on my watchlist and wait for a setup I like than chase it because everyone’s suddenly talking about it.

Third: What’s my plan if expectations change?

With the November 3 midterm elections approaching, investors are going to start thinking about how a different political balance might affect Washington’s priorities. That doesn’t mean existing agreements disappear. But a stock can absolutely move because investors become less confident about future support — about additional contracts, about the pace of a project. The underlying business stays intact while the premium investors are willing to pay just leaks out. Before I enter a trade, I decide how much I’m willing to risk and what would make me reconsider. Then I go look at the trading itself for confirmation.

My approach centers on unusual trading activity — big, concentrated trades that tell me whether serious money is building a position. That activity gives me something to dig into alongside the news, the company, and the price.

It doesn’t make every trade a winner, but it definitely helps me focus my attention on the right places.

One MP Materials options trade on our record offered a potential gain of 534% in three days. That’s an options result — not a 534% move in MP’s shares — and an individual trader’s outcome depended on their entry and exit. But it shows why I spend so much time thinking about how to structure a trade and when to make it, not just whether the company is good.

You could identify an attractive company and buy the stock. You could find an options opportunity with a smaller initial outlay. Or you could decide the opportunity is already too expensive and wait. The decision depends on the price, the timing, and the risk you’re willing to take.

That’s the work. And it’s what I want to help you understand.

You can see how I approach it every day by joining me at Masters in Trading LIVE — free on YouTube at 11 a.m. Eastern every day the market is open. I walk through what I’m watching, explain the activity that’s caught my attention, and tell you why something interests me — or why I’m leaving it alone.

Sign up here, and we’ll email you the link each market day, along with additional columns and research from me.

Washington’s involvement can absolutely create valuable opportunities. Understanding the “government put” is part of understanding these businesses. But then comes the next decision: what to pay, how to participate, how much to risk.

Remember 2008 and what happened to Fannie and Freddie. Government support has a specific purpose. Find out what that purpose is and figure out what it means for the business. And then make sure the trade makes sense at the price in front of you, not the price it was before everyone else figured it out.

Remember, the creative trader wins.

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. Jonathan brings a valuable trading perspective to the opportunities I’ve been discussing with you. I encourage you to sign up for his free Masters in Trading LIVE emails and hear how he evaluates the market each day. You’ll get a link to his 11 a.m. Eastern broadcast, plus additional research. And keep an eye on your inbox: We’ll have more to share soon about his upcoming $10K to $100K Challenge and what he’ll be teaching.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Editor, Market 360

The post Before You Buy a “Trump Stock,” Ask These 3 Questions… appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Three days later, Google (GOOGL) confirmed that its first Project Suncatcher prototype was online and operating in space.

The Falcon 9 mission that carried Google’s prototype also hauled two more unusual payloads. One is designed to beam power from one satellite to another. The other will test whether solar energy collected in orbit can be sent back to Earth.

Then, on Friday, Amazon (AMZN) warned that more than 100 communities are considering moratoriums on new data centers.

That is a lot of movement in four days.

We have spent months writing about why orbital computing could eventually make sense. We have studied the cost curve, the engineering challenges, the SpaceX–Nvidia strategy, and the companies building around it.

This week, the story picked up its pace.

Orbital Data Centers Are Moving From Theory to Hardware

When we broke down Google’s Project Suncatcher roadmap a few days ago, the whole thing was still on paper.

Google now has hardware in orbit.

The company says its prototype satellite, built with Planet Labs (PL), successfully established contact after launch and is operating as expected. Over the coming weeks, Google will test how its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) handle the physical stress of spaceflight, radiation, and extreme thermal conditions.

This is still a small research mission.

One test satellite is a long way from an orbital data center. It will not train the next Gemini model or replace one of Google’s giant terrestrial computing campuses.

Its job is more basic.

Does the hardware survive launch? How does it perform under radiation? Can the system manage the enormous swings in temperature? Which parts fail first?

Those questions are difficult to answer inside a laboratory. Eventually, the equipment has to fly – and now it is.

This will give Google real operating data from real hardware in the environment where a future system would have to work.

The results will shape the next design. They will also begin revealing which components can move forward largely unchanged and which ones require a complete rethink.

That’s how a science project turns into a parts list. 

Orbital Data Centers Will Need Their Own Power Infrastructure

Getting a chip to orbit is one thing. Running it is another. 

A powerful AI satellite also needs electricity, and the amount required can change dramatically from one moment to the next.

Today, each spacecraft generally brings its own solar arrays and batteries. Engineers size that equipment around the satellite’s expected peak workload, which adds mass and limits what the machine can do.

A shared power network could change that equation.

Star Catcher Wants to Sell Power as a Service in Orbit 

Star Catcher’s new Protostar satellite is designed to harvest energy, locate another free-flying spacecraft, and transmit power to it. After commissioning, Protostar plans to deploy a CubeSat and beam energy into ordinary solar panels attached to that second spacecraft.

If the experiment works, Star Catcher says it would mark the first optical power transfer between two untethered spacecraft. 

In other words, one satellite would act like a power station for another.

That could eventually allow computing satellites to draw extra electricity during demanding workloads without carrying every panel and battery themselves. Power generation could sit in one part of a constellation while compute sits somewhere else.

And customers aren’t waiting for the demo.

Star Catcher has announced 10 power-purchase agreements with space companies, more than 40 letters of intent, and a $60 million strategic-funding award from the U.S. Space Force. Those agreements may not guarantee a profitable orbital grid; but they show that spacecraft operators are already thinking seriously about buying power as a service.

The Transporter-18 mission carried another energy experiment, too.

Reason-1, built by Cowboy Space, is designed to collect solar energy in orbit and test sending it toward Earth. Founder Baiju Bhatt has described the long-term idea as something like Starlink for power: an orbital network that could deliver electricity to areas without a dependable terrestrial grid.

Both concepts are still highly experimental.

Power can be lost during transmission. Hardware has to be extremely precise. Regulators will surely have plenty to say about beams traveling between spacecraft or toward Earth. And the economics are nowhere near proven.

But those questions are now being answered in orbit instead of argued in conference rooms.

Starship Just Took a Big Step Toward Orbital Freight

None of this matters if you can’t get the stuff up there – and “the stuff” is heavy. An orbital AI system isn’t just chips. It’s radiators the size of billboards, batteries, shielding, solar arrays, laser links – tons of hardware that has to survive launch and arrive in exactly the right orbit, again and again.

Which is why the week’s quietest big deal happened on Sept. 28.

That’s when SpaceX’s 14th Starship test became the vehicle’s first true orbital mission. It also deployed 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, giving the rocket its first meaningful orbital payload.

Reaching Orbit Is Only the First Test

That doesn’t mean the mission was perfect, though. One booster engine shut down during ascent. After additional engine trouble, SpaceX shortened the planned flight from about 10 hours to roughly three. The upper stage ended its mission with a fiery Pacific splashdown.

Rapid reusability is questionable. So is the long-term launch cost.

But Starship completed two jobs orbital infrastructure desperately needs:

It reached orbit, and it released a large payload.

Previous flights proved that the vehicle could survive parts of the journey. Flight 14 showed it has the potential to become a freight system.

Musk is now targeting a Starship cadence of one or two launches per week next year. He also says SpaceX and Tesla are aiming for 200 gigawatts of annual solar-production capacity, partly because solar panels can generate much more consistently in space than they can on Earth.

Starship still has to demonstrate reflight, orbital refueling, safe recovery, and dependable operations before a weekly cadence becomes realistic.

Take the targets with a grain of salt. Musk’s timelines always need some. But even discounted, they sketch the size of the machine he’s assembling: industrial-scale solar production, heavy launches every week, and enormous amounts of computing hardware operating beyond Earth. 

Earth Is Adding Urgency

The case for orbital AI does not depend on terrestrial data centers disappearing. They will remain the center of the computing world for years.

But adding new capacity on Earth is becoming more expensive, political, and time-consuming.

Amazon just committed more than $1 billion over five years to communities that host its data centers. The company says the money will support education, workforce training, energy affordability, and water and energy conservation. It also pledged to stop using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies around new projects. 

This comes as communities are raising concerns over electricity prices, water consumption, construction, noise, local benefits, and the lack of transparency around some projects. AWS chief Matt Garman says more than 100 data-center moratoriums are now being considered across the United States. 

Amazon is spending money to keep the terrestrial buildout moving.

Google is now collecting data from the first hardware designed to explore an alternative.

Orbit doesn’t get cheaper just because a town says no to another server farm. But every “no” makes an alternative worth a little more. 

A computing platform that can add capacity without competing for a local grid connection, a water permit, or a zoning approval could eventually solve a very expensive problem.

That future is still years away. But the pressure creating it is already here.

The Bottom Line: Orbital Data Centers Have Entered the Prototype Phase

A few months ago, orbital computing was mostly an argument about future economics.

Then SpaceX chose Nvidia hardware for Starmind. Google put Project Suncatcher on a launch schedule. Startups began raising money around orbital power.

Now Starship has reached orbit with a meaningful payload.

Google’s first prototype is alive in space.

And two power experiments are beginning the work required to test an orbital energy network.

The economics remain unresolved, the engineering difficult.

Many of these experiments will probably disappoint. Some may fail completely.

But a concept becomes a prototype. A prototype creates supplier requirements. Successful tests turn into larger programs, manufacturing schedules, and orders.

And that buildout sits at the center of what I call XPANSE.

It started as a thesis. This week, pieces of it started phoning home from orbit.

Musk himself has floated the idea that early investors in this project could see 1,000-fold gains. I won’t promise that; nobody honestly can. What I can do is show you the map: the three moves I’d make today to get positioned, and the one stock I believe sits closest to the center of the buildout. Its name and ticker are in my new briefing, free – no strings attached.

The first pieces of the orbital grid are already overhead. 

Watch the XPANSE briefing – and grab the free pick – right here.

The post Google’s AI Chips Are Live in Orbit. Now Comes the Hard Part. appeared first on InvestorPlace.

AI agents are increasingly able to search databases, access applications, use credentials, and carry out tasks with limited human supervision. But as veteran trader Jonathan Rose explains in today’s Friday Digest takeover, giving autonomous software that kind of freedom also creates entirely new ways for things to go wrong.

Businesses need to know what their AI agents can access, what they’re doing once they’re inside, and how to shut them down when their behavior becomes dangerous.

Jonathan believes two leading cybersecurity companies are particularly well-positioned to provide those guardrails. He walks through the investment case for both today – including what he likes and what he still needs to see as their AI-security businesses develop.

That’s characteristic of Jonathan’s approach: Find the opportunity, then decide whether the trade itself makes sense. You can watch him do exactly that across the market every weekday at 11 a.m. Eastern on Masters in Trading LIVE, completely free on YouTube. You can sign up here to get the daily link.

Enough introduction from me. I’ll let Jonathan take it from here.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

Hey, guys.

Just after midnight on January 25, 2003, a tiny piece of code began racing across the internet.

It was a computer worm – dubbed the SQL Slammer— that could copy itself from one vulnerable machine to the next without anyone clicking a link.

Slammer was only 376 bytes long. It simply told each infected server to send out more copies of itself, as fast as it could.

That was enough.

The number of infected machines doubled about every 8.5 seconds. Within 10 minutes, Slammer had reached more than 90% of the computers vulnerable to it. The flood of traffic knocked networks offline, interfered with ATMs, and disrupted airline flights.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) had released a fix for the weakness Slammer exploited months earlier, but plenty of organizations still hadn’t installed it.

We’re at a similar moment with AI agents—software that can search for information, use tools, and carry out tasks with little human guidance. Companies putting agents to work have to control what those agents can access and catch them when they do something nobody intended.

Recent incidents have shown why. OpenAI says its reviews have found agents from their lab bypassing access controls, using exposed credentials, and interacting with third-party systems beyond their intended access. It has notified dozens of affected hacked parties – including the Australian and U.S. governments – while the reviews continue.

That creates a new job for cybersecurity companies. And I see two stocks investors should consider buying now.

Let me show you what each company sells—and what I’m watching before making a trade.

AI Agents Need Someone Watching the Door

Think of an employee’s credentials as a set of keys. An AI agent working for that employee may need access to certain files and applications. Give it too many keys, and an error—or an attacker manipulating the agent—can carry it somewhere it shouldn’t go.

That makes identity security unusually important.

This is where Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) has made a significant move. It completed its acquisition of CyberArk in February, adding that company’s identity-security products to a business that already sells network, cloud, and security-operations tools.

In plain English, Palo Alto is trying to give large customers a single place to manage more of their defenses, including the permissions granted to AI agents. The integration is still underway, so investors need to watch how well it delivers on that plan.

In its latest reported quarter, Palo Alto’s revenue rose 34% from a year earlier, to $3.41 billion. Its next-generation security annual recurring revenue—the value of subscriptions it expects to collect over a year—reached $9.1 billion. Those figures include the effects of acquisitions, so I’m watching what growth looks like as the businesses are brought together.

PANW is my first buy of the two. It gives me a large, established cybersecurity business with a clear path to sell more to customers as they add AI agents.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (CRWD) comes at the AI agent problem from another direction.

Its Falcon software already operates across customers’ computers and other devices—the places where a great deal of AI-agent activity starts. This month, CrowdStrike introduced Falcon Guardian, designed to help companies discover which agents are running, see what they do, control which ones have permission to run, and respond when their behavior becomes dangerous.

It’s a new product, so I would watch customer adoption before assuming it will become a major revenue source.

CrowdStrike ended its latest reported quarter with $5.84 billion in annual recurring revenue, up 25% from a year earlier.

I would buy CRWD, too, but I’d start with a smaller position. Investors already recognize how strong this company is. That can leave less room for disappointment if a new product takes longer to catch on or growth slows.

And spending on security is still growing. Gartner forecasts worldwide information-security spending of about $244 billion in 2026, with demand for products that both use AI to improve defenses and secure companies’ own AI use.

Even if the Company Is Right, the Trade Still Has to Work

I look for a good business first. Then I look at the market.

One signal I follow is unusual trading activity: a burst of trading that stands out from a stock’s normal pattern. It can tell me that someone is making a large bet.

For example, in August, we spotted a spike in trading activity in oil-services company SLB NV (SLB). I recommended a bullish trade. Over the following week, SLB shares rose about 9%. Our recommended trade gained 219%.

We saw another example in MP Materials Corp. (MP). Our recommended trade returned 534% in three days. For both examples, the maximum possible loss was the amount paid for each contract.

Those were standout winners. These trades can also expire worthless, which is why choosing the trade and controlling its size matter as much as finding the company.

So if I see that activity in a stock, I check the news, the stock’s price, and the amount I could lose. Some days I’m looking at cybersecurity. Other days, it’s energy, healthcare, or a company I hadn’t expected to discuss when the market opened.

It’s what I do every market day on Masters in Trading LIVE. I’m on YouTube at 11 a.m. Eastern, free, walking through the stories and trading activity catching my attention and taking questions as we go.

Sign up for Masters in Trading LIVE here. Once you’re onboard, we’ll send you a daily email with the link to watch, along with more pieces like this one and other research.

You’ll be hearing more soon about my free $10K to $100K Challenge event in October, where I’ll go deeper into the signals and risk rules behind my trades. Till then, I hope you’ll check out MIT LIVE and see how I work through them while the market is open.

SQL Slammer didn’t create the cybersecurity business. It made the cost of leaving connected systems unprotected impossible to miss.

AI agents are extending that same problem to a new kind of worker. Companies need to know what their agents can reach, what they’re doing, and how to stop them if they start hacking.

I think Palo Alto and CrowdStrike have a real chance to collect a meaningful share of that spending.

Remember… the creative trader wins…

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. Jonathan’s edge is the way he joins a strong investment idea to an actual trading decision. He’s given you two cyber companies to examine today, along with the questions he’s asking about each. You can watch him do that work across many more stocks on Masters in Trading LIVE, free at 11 a.m. Eastern every market day. Sign up here for the daily link. And keep an eye out for his free October $10K to $100K Challenge event.

The post As AI Agents Spread, These 2 Cyber Stocks Move to the Front Line appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Now, a potential tariff on a specific form of copper could add another catalyst for certain U.S. producers.

Today, my friend and colleague Jonathan Rose shares two stocks and a fund to watch. Then he dives into the details on a specific trade in his favorite copper stock.

Yes, Jonathan brings decades of professional trading experience at some of the busiest floors in America. But he also goes further and shows you his thinking, answers questions, and helps you understand the risks before putting money to work.

Get your free Masters in Trading LIVE emails by signing up here.

And watch your inbox for his upcoming $10K to $100K Challenge, where he’ll show you his strategy in more detail.

Now, let me turn things over to Jonathan…

************************************

A bunch of kids from the Goon Docks are about to lose their neighborhood.

Developers want the land, and their families are facing foreclosure. Then, up in an attic, the kids find an old map that might lead to a pirate’s fortune.

You know where we’re going.

Those kids soon run into underground tunnels, booby traps, One-Eyed Willy… and an entire pirate ship full of treasure.

The Goonies.

And after everything those kids go through, what actually saves their homes is a handful of gems tucked away in Mikey’s (Sean Astin) marble bag. That’s the treasure they manage to bring home.

I’m a huge Goonies fan. Whenever I talk about copper, I sneak an image of Chester Copperpot into the presentation (an old newspaper article about Chester inspires the Goonies’ treasure hunt). I can’t help it.

There’s a useful trading lesson in that treasure hunt.

Finding the treasure was a big deal, but standing on a ship full of gold didn’t pay off the families’ mortgages. The gems that made it home did.

I think about trades the same way. Finding an opportunity gets me started. Then I need to work out how to get in, how much I could lose, and when to get out. A great investment story only takes you so far. You need a plan to turn it into a profit.

Right now, copper has my attention.

It’s an essential ingredient in the AI buildout. And Washington is considering a policy change that could make certain copper businesses even more interesting to investors and traders.

I’ll walk you through two stocks and a fund to watch. Then I’ll show you how I approached a specific trade in my favorite name, live on my free show.

Because the way you get into copper matters.

The Edge in Copper

AI needs copper. All that compute, all that power delivery, all that cabling: It runs on copper.

How much are we talking about? Estimates cited by U.S. Global Investors put copper requirements for a large AI-focused data center as high as 50,000 tons. The amount depends on the facility’s size and design, but that gives you an idea of the scale.

For comparison, an average 2,100-square-foot single-family house contains about 439 pounds of copper. At that upper-end data-center estimate, we’re talking about more copper than you’d find in 200,000 of those homes. That’s just my back-of-the-envelope math, but you get the picture.

Now add power grids, electric vehicles, and the rest of the electrification story. S&P Global projects annual copper demand could reach 42 million metric tons by 2040, up roughly 50% from current levels. Without a meaningful expansion in supply, it projects a shortfall of about 10 million metric tons that year.

And you can’t just decide you need more copper and have a new mine producing it next week.

That’s a compelling long-term investment story.

But for traders like me, the answer isn’t just “buy copper.” That’s not enough.

We need to look at where the edge is. It’s easy for everybody to look at copper and say, “There’s going to be more demand. Let’s get long copper.”

I want a catalyst. Something specific that could change what buyers are willing to pay.

In this case, I’m watching a tariff… a tax.

Washington’s copper policy opened the door to a possible phased tax on imported refined copper. We’re looking at 15% beginning in 2027, stepping up to 30% in 2028. Those were the recommended rates, with a market review required to inform the president’s decision on whether to impose them. The potential tax is the catalyst I’m watching.

So we need to start researching. What exactly is refined copper? Who produces it? Which companies might benefit if imported material becomes more expensive?

Look, I don’t have the most information. Nobody has the whole picture. That’s why we follow the money.

Big players position before news becomes official, and that positioning can leave footprints we can see. I learned that on the trading floor, first at the CME and later at the CBOT and CBOE. Traders are constantly watching the biggest players in the room.

It’s like a betting line for an NFL game. The line moves as money comes in. You want to understand what’s moving that line.

The same thing happens in the stock market. The market doesn’t wait for certainty. It starts repricing the probability.

But not every copper stock plays this particular story the same way.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) is my favorite. Freeport’s U.S. operations include the huge Morenci mine in Arizona, along with the Miami mine and smelter in Arizona and a refinery in El Paso, Texas. So we’re looking at a company that both mines copper and processes it into usable metal. Freeport’s U.S. processing operations are part of what interests me in this potential tariff setup.

Rio Tinto plc (RIO) is another name I’m watching. This British-Australian giant has U.S. ties through its Kennecott copper operation in Utah, which includes the Bingham Canyon mine, a smelter, and a refinery. It’s a much bigger, more diversified company, so it gives you a more indirect way into the idea.

If you’d rather own a basket, there’s Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX). That gives you exposure to copper-mining companies around the world. The trade-off is that you’re spreading your investment across businesses with different operations and different exposure to Washington’s tariffs.

Know what you own and why you own it.

Even with a treasure map, you still have to choose your route. Those three names take you into copper in different ways.

For the trade I shared on my Masters in Trading LIVE show, I wanted FCX.

Come See How I Work Through a Trade

During my September 3 LIVE broadcast, FCX had pulled back.

I looked at it using my Volatility Visualizer. That’s a tool that helps me see the stock’s expected trading range. I would have liked an entry closer to the bottom of that range, but I still liked the opportunity.

So I walked my viewers through a specific trade for our free portfolio. At the prices I discussed, one position put about $450 at risk, with a maximum potential profit of about $2,050, before fees. That’s better than 4-to-1.

Those were the terms of the trade I showed that day. The potential payoff wasn’t a prediction or a realized gain, and prices have moved since then.

But it gives you an idea of the work we do at Masters in Trading LIVE and my premium services.

We had a specific catalyst and a clear amount at risk. And so, we could work through the potential reward before putting money into the position.

You remember the booby traps in The Goonies. The treasure was real, but so were the risks along the way. Before I enter a trade, I want to know what happens if it goes wrong.

Then you have to decide: Does this trade make sense for you? Do you like the idea? Are you comfortable with the amount at risk?

That’s what we do on the show every day. I walk through trades and the thinking behind them.

And if it’s unfamiliar, paper-trade it. That just means write the trade down. Follow the stock. Watch how the trade behaves. Learn and build your confidence before risking money.

Copper is just one example of the ideas I share. In recent weeks, I’ve also covered cybersecurity names, Space Race 2.0 stocks, and how the November 3 midterm elections could impact the “government put.”

What I’m watching changes with what the market is telling me. A company can be a good long-term investment while offering an unattractive entry today. Another day, a pullback or a change in the trading activity can put it back on my radar.

That’s why I keep showing up and doing the work.

Every market day, I go live on YouTube at 11 a.m. Eastern to show you the sectors, specific names, and broader market stories catching my attention.

I explain what I’m seeing. I walk through trade ideas. And I take questions from viewers while I’m live, because I believe the best way to teach is to engage with you directly.

Sign up for free Masters in Trading LIVE emails here. Once you’re onboard, we’ll send you a daily email with the link to watch, along with more pieces like this one and research from me.

Copper gives us a compelling investment story. I want to help you work through the next questions: Which opportunity? What entry? How much risk? What’s the plan?

Think back to Mikey’s marble bag. The Goonies found an enormous fortune, but the gems they carried out were what saved their homes. Finding something valuable and coming away with something valuable were two different parts of the adventure.

Copper is on the map. Now let’s work on a plan to bring something home.

Remember, the creative trader wins.

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. Jonathan’s copper example shows why I encourage you to follow his work. He explains what catches his attention, how he approaches a trade, and what he’s willing to risk. Sign up for his free Masters in Trading LIVE emails here to receive the daily broadcast link and additional research. You can follow along, ask questions, and get to know his teaching. And watch your inbox for details about his upcoming $10K to $100K Challenge.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Editor, Market 360

The post Copper’s AI Boom – Three Ways to Play It appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) stocks are shares of public companies working on the technology that lets the brain communicate directly with machines, from the firms building implants to the ones that image and sequence the brain in the first place. Neuralink is the headline act, but it is far from the only player, and it is the one you cannot own.

Can You Buy Neuralink Stock?

Not yet. Neuralink is privately held, so there is no public Neuralink stock and no ticker to buy, and the company has not announced an IPO date. For now, its shares change hands only in private markets open to accredited investors. Everyone else gets exposure to the same trend through the public companies in Neuralink’s orbit.

The Public Neuralink Supply Chain

I laid out this basket back in April 2026, before the Neuralink IPO buzz got loud, and the thesis has been playing out since. You do not have to own Neuralink to invest in brain-computer interfaces. The companies that supply the sequencing, imaging, chips, and implants are public today, and many are still small enough to get in early. The field is filling in fast, with large players pouring in money, the first US pivotal trial for an implanted interface underway, and regulators clearing faster paths to market. Brain mapping is becoming a sequencing problem.

BCI Stocks to Watch Before the Neuralink IPO

Quantum-Si (QSI) is my favorite and a protein-sequencing play on the “sequencing wins” thesis. It is a volatile micro-cap that has surged on recent news and volume. Disclosure: I am personally long QSI and treat it like a call option, sized small.

Butterfly Network (BFLY) makes ultrasound-on-a-chip devices, is further along commercially, and reports earnings in late October.

Hyperfine (HYPR) is a portable-MRI micro-cap on the imaging side, and Nautilus Biotechnology (NAUT) is a proteomics name that has moved with the group.

Medtronic (MDT) is the steady, established medtech option. For the steadiest exposure, the giants behind the science supply what the whole field runs on.

Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), and Micron (MU) provide the compute and memory, while Thermo Fisher (TMO) and Bruker (BRKR) make the instruments and microscopes.

How to Invest in BCI Stocks Without Getting Burned

These are not blue chips. Most are micro-caps that trade on news and momentum, so treat the smallest names like call options: size each one so losing it all would not hurt, because with a micro-cap that is a real outcome, while the upside can be a multiple of your money. Timing matters too. These stocks move on catalysts, earnings, FDA filings, and the first steps toward approval, and because they rise and fall together, you are buying the theme more than any single winner. A small basket beats one concentrated bet.

Neuralink and BCI Stocks: Frequently Asked Questions

Can you invest in Neuralink?
Not on the public market. Neuralink is private, so retail investors cannot buy its stock yet. Most investors get exposure through public brain-computer interface stocks instead.

When is the Neuralink IPO?
Neuralink has not announced an IPO date and remains private as of 2026, so any timeline is speculation.

What are brain-computer interface (BCI) stocks?
Public companies building the hardware and science behind brain-computer interfaces, from implant makers to imaging and sequencing firms. Examples investors watch include QSI, BFLY, HYPR, and MDT.

The Bottom Line

You can’t buy Neuralink yet, and you don’t have to in order to invest in the brain-computer interface boom. Its supply chain is already public, still small, and still early, which is what makes it both a real opportunity and a real risk. Know what you own, size the micro-caps like the speculative bets they are, and watch the catalysts.

This article is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Do your own research before investing.

Jonathan Rose has spent decades as a professional trader. Masters in Trading LIVE is his free class, 15 minutes every market morning at 11 a.m. ET, where he breaks down the setups and sectors he is watching. Sign up for free here.

The post Neuralink Stock: How to Invest Before the IPO appeared first on InvestorPlace.

The phrase even has a political cousin. In the fall of 1980, with 52 Americans held hostage in Iran and the crisis leading the nightly news, Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager William Casey warned of an “October surprise,” a dramatic late development that could swing the election before voters reached the polls. The term stuck, and ever since an “October surprise” has meant a late-season shock that rewrites the story and catches everyone flat-footed.

The stock market works much the same way. Its biggest moves often arrive when investors are looking the other way, and October has a long history of proving it. Before you let the calendar drive your decisions, though, it helps to separate what actually happened in October from what investors only think happened.

October Stock Market Crashes: How the Month Earned Its Reputation

October’s fearsome reputation rests on a handful of genuinely brutal days.

On October 28, 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.8% in a single session, then dropped nearly 12% more the next day. Together, those two sessions marked the start of the Great Depression.

Nearly sixty years later came the day professionals still call Black Monday. On October 19, 1987, the Dow lost 22.6% in a single session, the largest one-day percentage decline in its history. Nothing since has come close.

The 2008 financial crisis added the modern chapter. October 2008 was one of the worst months for the S&P 500 in decades, as the index fell nearly 17% while credit markets froze and the fallout from Lehman Brothers’ collapse spread.

Three crashes, all in October. It is easy to see how the October Effect took hold.

October’s Biggest Rallies and the ‘Bear Killer’ Effect

Here is what the fear leaves out. October is also where bear markets tend to die. The Stock Trader’s Almanac has long called it a “bear killer,” and for good reason. Several major declines found their bottom in October and reversed higher, including the lows of 1990 and 2002, handing patient investors some of the best entry points of the last half-century.

The most recent example is October 2022. After a miserable year, the S&P 500 jumped about 8% that month, the Dow surged nearly 14%, and the Russell 2000 gained roughly 11%. Investors who sold in fear locked in their losses right as the turn arrived.

Index figures cited above are from S&P Dow Jones Indices, Dow Jones, and FTSE Russell market data.

What the October Effect Means for Investors

The real lesson is not that stocks are doomed in October, and not that the month can be ignored. It is that October’s volatility cuts both ways: the market can change direction in a hurry, and it often does exactly that this month.

That is why October rewards paying attention rather than looking away. The investors who get hurt are usually the ones caught flat-footed, selling into a bottom out of fear or holding the wrong names into a decline. Knowing what you own, and watching closely when the market is most prone to turn, matters more this month than almost any other.

The Bottom Line on October’s Stock Market

October has earned its reputation for drama. What it hasn’t earned is the assumption that the drama always ends badly. The crashes were real, but so were the rebounds. The month favors investors who stay alert and know what they own, not those who fear the calendar and not those who ignore it.

October Stock Market: Frequently Asked Questions

Is October a bad month for the stock market?
Not on average. Despite its reputation, the October stock market has posted a positive long-run average return. The month has produced historic crashes, in 1929, 1987, and 2008, but also major bottoms and rallies, in 1990, 2002, and 2022.

Why is October so volatile for stocks?
October combines a history of dramatic selloffs with the start of third-quarter earnings season and, in election years, added political uncertainty. That mix is why the market can turn quickly. The volatility is real, but it runs in both directions.

What is the October Effect?
The October Effect is the theory that stocks are more likely to fall in October. It is more perception than rule: the month’s worst days are dramatic and memorable, but its average performance has not been negative.

October is a reminder that the market can turn on a dime, and the investors who come out ahead are the ones watching when it does. That is what Market360 is for. In it, Louis Navellier breaks down what is moving and what it means for your money, in plain English and straight to your inbox. Best of all, it is free. Sign up here and stay a step ahead of the crowd.

The post October Stock Market: A History of Crashes and Rallies appeared first on InvestorPlace.

On Sept. 29, AT&T Inc. (T) and Corning Inc. (GLW) announced a multiyear agreement worth more than $3 billion.

The product at the center of that deal?

Glass.

Specifically, the optical fiber that carries data through communications networks. The agreement supports AT&T’s fiber expansion as internet usage and AI increase demand for faster connections.

Now, this is a broadband deal. It is not a $3 billion order for AI data centers. But it highlights something investors should understand about the AI economy: Every digital breakthrough creates physical demands.

More data needs more places to travel. More processors need more electricity. More AI applications need faster access to stored information.

And the companies solving those problems could become some of this market’s biggest winners.

The challenge is finding them before investors fully appreciate their role, and buying them at a price that leaves room for upside.

Corning says AI data centers require more than 10 times as much optical fiber as traditional facilities. That does not automatically translate into 10 times the revenue. It does reveal how dramatically the infrastructure requirements are changing.

That is where I see opportunity.

In this week’s Being Exponential with Luke Lango, Brooke and I examine four companies addressing those infrastructure needs, plus a fifth stock positioned for a potential crypto recovery. We also tackle the question that matters after you identify a great business:

When is the stock actually worth buying?

Let’s find out.

Vicor: Solving the Last Inch of the Power Problem

Most conversations about AI electricity demand focus on power plants and the grid.

But getting electricity to a data center only solves part of the problem. You still have to deliver that power efficiently to the processors inside.

That is where Vicor Corp. (VICR) enters the picture.

AI processors require enormous current at very low voltage. Moving that current across a circuit board creates heat and wastes energy. Vicor’s vertical power delivery technology shortens the delivery path, reducing losses near the processor.

Think about the economics.

A company spending billions on computing equipment has every reason to squeeze more useful work out of each watt. As processors become more demanding, the value of efficient power delivery increases.

Vicor can pursue that opportunity through hardware and intellectual property licensing.

The investment thesis connects revenue growth with expanding profit margins. When sales grow faster than operating expenses, earnings can grow faster than sales.

That is a powerful combination. But the price you pay still matters.

In the episode, I explain why Vicor’s business attracts me — and why an overbought stock can call for patience even when the long-term thesis looks excellent.

MaxLinear and Corning: Building AI’s Data Highways

An AI cluster contains thousands of processors working together.

Those processors need to exchange information quickly and reliably. Otherwise, expensive computing capacity sits waiting for data.

MaxLinear Inc. (MXL) supplies chips that keep those connections working.

Its digital signal processors help high-speed links transmit and recover data. Its Keystone products serve 400G and 800G connections, while Rushmore addresses the move to 1.6 terabits per second. That progression increases the amount of information a connection can carry.

Why does that matter for investors?

Because the AI buildout creates recurring upgrade opportunities. As computing demands increase, customers need faster networking equipment.

For a smaller supplier, winning more business in that expanding market can produce substantial growth. It also creates execution risk: Customers have to adopt the products, and the company has to deliver.

Corning approaches the same opportunity from another direction. It supplies the fiber connecting processors, racks, buildings, and campuses.

Put simply, MaxLinear supplies silicon inside the connections. Corning supplies the glass carrying the signals.

Both benefit from the need to move more information.

I am particularly interested in this networking opportunity as AI adoption expands from training models to using them. That everyday use, called inference, happens whenever a model generates an answer, analyzes a document, or completes another task.

As those workloads spread, the entire system matters: processors, networking, storage, and the CPUs coordinating work around the accelerators.

The opportunity keeps broadening.

Everpure: Putting Corporate Data to Work

A business does not gain much from an AI assistant that cannot access the information needed to do its job.

Your sales assistant needs customer records. Your research assistant needs documents. Your internal chatbot needs company knowledge.

That creates an opportunity for Everpure Inc. (P), formerly Pure Storage, which provides storage and data management technology.

The more businesses incorporate their own information into AI applications, the more valuable fast, reliable access becomes.

Everpure’s FlashBlade platform addresses that storage performance challenge. The investment thesis centers on growing demand from both large cloud operators and enterprises deploying AI across their businesses.

In the episode, we examine how sustained revenue growth and improving margins could translate into faster earnings growth.

But there is another lesson here.

A stock holding near its highs while other technology names struggle can signal underlying business strength. You still need to examine valuation and expectations. Yet strength alone is not a reason to dismiss a company.

My approach: Identify the business you want to own, then stay disciplined about the entry.

Robinhood: A Different Kind of Growth Catalyst

Our fifth stock takes us beyond AI infrastructure.

Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD) offers exposure to trading activity, including cryptocurrency. My bullish case rests partly on a potential renewed expansion in crypto participation.

The mechanism is straightforward.

Rising crypto prices can attract more traders. More participation can generate more transactions. That activity can benefit the platform facilitating it.

Robinhood is also pursuing a broader platform spanning multiple markets, including prediction markets.

But this thesis has clear pressure points.

A stalled crypto recovery would weaken the catalyst. Regulatory restrictions could constrain prediction markets. And weaker consumer activity could reduce trading.

In the podcast, we examine the Bitcoin chart informing my outlook and the evidence that could challenge it.

A Great Business Still Needs a Good Entry

Across these stocks, I keep returning to one setup: a long-term winner that pulls back, stabilizes, and begins advancing again.

An upward-sloping 200-day moving average can provide context for that longer trend. The relative strength index, or RSI, helps assess recent momentum; readings above 70 commonly indicate overbought conditions.

Neither indicator guarantees what happens next.

The strongest investment case brings the business, earnings outlook, valuation, and chart together.

That is the work Brooke and I do in the full episode — including the entry zones, chart differences, and risks that a company overview cannot capture.

Watch this week’s Being Exponential for the complete five-stock breakdown and the setups I am watching for the next leg higher.

The post Don’t Miss These 4 Stocks in the AI Infrastructure Race appeared first on InvestorPlace.

It’s been a whipsaw session on Wall Street.

This morning, investors greeted blockbuster earnings from Micron (MU) by selling the stock, and the broader market followed.

The memory giant crushed estimates last night, with data-center revenue jumping 11-fold from a year earlier. But Wall Street worries that the highly cyclical memory trade is nearing its peak. Micron plans a massive increase in capital spending, heavily driven by new fab and clean room construction. Some investors see that as a sign of coming overcapacity.

Adding to the pressure, the 10-year Treasury yield hit 5.34% earlier in the session – its highest level since 2002.

But as I write in the early afternoon, buyers have stepped in. Treasury yields are dramatically off their highs, now down to 5.21%, and stocks – including Micron – have clawed back their losses and are in the green.

Whether that rebound holds into the close remains to be seen. Either way, the questions behind this morning’s selloff aren’t going away. So, we’ll dig deeper into both Micron and the Treasury market in a coming Digest.

In this issue, I want to focus on a different event happening today…

Last month, inside a lab in San Francisco, a team of technicians tried to shake a satellite apart to answer one question…

Could a handful of AI chips survive the bumpy trip into space?

Tucked inside that satellite were four of Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL) AI chips – the same kind that help power Google’s Gemini chatbot.

So, these technicians bolted the satellite to a table and shook it violently, simulating the pounding it would take on its way to space. According to The New York Times, which got an inside look at the project, nothing came loose.

Today, that satellite left Earth. At 2:32 p.m. ET, it launched aboard a SpaceX Technologies Corp. (SPCX) Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Google calls the satellite “MVP.” And it’s the first real test of a project with a big goal: moving AI data centers off the planet and into orbit.

To be clear, MVP isn’t a data center in space. It has roughly the computing power of a single server, running on about as much electricity as a hair dryer. Google simply wants to learn whether its chips can handle the harsh conditions of orbit.

The reason why is simple: Earth is becoming a very difficult place to build AI.

Why Big Tech wants its data centers off the planet

AI requires enormous amounts of electricity. And the chips run so hot that data centers need huge cooling systems, often using millions of gallons of water, to keep them from frying.

In theory, space solves both problems. In the right orbit, there are no clouds and almost no nighttime, so solar panels collect far more energy. According to Google’s figures, we’re talking up to eight times more than solar panels on the ground. Meanwhile, the chips can shed their heat into the cold of space.

Space also avoids another problem here on Earth: angry neighbors.

Communities across the U.S. are fighting new data centers over rising power bills, water use, and noise – and they’re winning.

According to Data Center Watch, which tracks local opposition, at least 75 projects worth about $130 billion were blocked or delayed in the first three months of this year alone. That roughly matches the total for all of 2025. Another 45 projects worth $68 billion followed in the second quarter.

There are no community pushback or zoning issues 400 miles up, which is a point Elon Musk has been making for months. Here he is on X in August:

Orbital compute will be the only way to scale AI probably sometime in 2029 due to power availability & permitting problems on land.

And last week, reacting to Google’s launch announcement, he went further:

The amount of compute in space will obviously round up to 100% of all compute.

Now, Musk is likely getting ahead of himself, as he often does. Google’s research suggests space-based AI won’t make economic sense until around 2035. And even then, launch costs would need to fall to about $200 per kilogram, a fraction of today’s prices.

But Musk’s company SpaceX isn’t waiting around. It has filed with the Federal Communications Commission for a constellation of up to 1 million computing satellites, targeting its first orbital AI deployments for late 2027.

And so, today’s blastoff is a significant step in the space race. It marks the moment orbital computing moved from a slide in an investor presentation to actual (admittedly still experimental) hardware circling the planet.

Now, speaking of SPCX, let’s check in on a call we made here in the Digest earlier this summer…

Did the “plumbing” drive SPCX higher?

On July 13, I wrote that SPCX was probably going higher – but not because of fundamentals. The driver would be “plumbing.”

As restrictions on when insiders and early investors can sell their shares – lockups – expired and more shares became tradable, SpaceX’s weighting in the Nasdaq-100 would climb, forcing index funds to buy whether they wanted to or not.

That call proved early, and SPCX fell roughly 22% from where it traded when I made the call. But from there, the plumbing did its job. At the September rebalance, SpaceX’s Nasdaq-100 weight more than doubled, from 1.28% to 2.82%. That triggered an estimated $15.5 billion to $22 billion in forced index-fund buying.

As I write on Thursday, SPCX trades around $152, which means anyone buying in after our Digest call would be up about 10%, even with that 22% haircut.

So, should investors keep buying? Let’s weigh both sides…

Starting with the bull case, the fundamentals are improving faster than many expected.

When SpaceX merged with Musk’s AI company, xAI, earlier this year, it took over xAI’s Colossus data centers in Memphis. Those buildings are packed with hundreds of thousands of Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) chips. Nvidia sold the chips. SpaceX owns the buildings and rents out the horsepower – think of a landlord leasing a fully furnished office tower. Its tenants include Anthropic and, yes, Google.

That landlord business is changing SpaceX’s numbers. In its first quarterly report as a public company, SpaceX posted revenue of $7.8 billion, up 92% from a year earlier. Its net loss narrowed from $1 billion to $541 million.

Meanwhile, the plumbing tailwind isn’t finished. SpaceX’s float – the shares available to trade – is approaching one-third of the company. Once it crosses that line, Nasdaq’s rules stop discounting SpaceX’s size. That could mean another sizable weight increase – more forced index-fund buying – at the December rebalance.

On the bearish side, the stock trades at roughly 106 times sales. For context, the current price-to-sales ratio for the S&P 500 as a whole is roughly 3.7, and its long-term average is about 1.8. Excuse the pun, but this 106X price-to-sales valuation is stratospheric.

Plus, those same unlocks cut both ways. More are due October 9 and October 24, followed by a larger tranche after third-quarter earnings, and the full lockup ends December 8. Each new batch of tradable shares – after the initial forced buying – is stock that early SpaceX investors and employees are free to sell, and some of them will.

Overall, in the shorter term, I still expect index buying to help SPCX grind higher, with bumps along the way. Longer term, it’s earnings that will decide whether this is a temporary forced-buying story or a sustained winner.

But I will say that, right now, SPCX is richly priced as the toll-booth winner of the space economy. The question is whether it actually grows into that title.

Now, if you’d like a different way to play the growing space economy, our trading expert Jonathan Rose, founder of Masters in Trading LIVE, just named three ideas.

What comes after the landing

While Google and SpaceX focus on data centers in orbit, a second space race is underway – the U.S. and China are competing to put a working base on the Moon.

SpaceX is part of that story, too. Its Starship is NASA’s pick to land astronauts. But Jonathan is watching what happens after the rockets touch down.

His reasoning is simple – NASA can’t build a Moon base alone, so it’s hiring private companies to handle launch, communications, power, and logistics.

Here’s Jonathan:

So, the question I’m asking isn’t “Who builds the rocket?” That answer is pretty easy: SpaceX, Blue Origin, and a few other big players.

The better question is “Who builds and operates everything a Moon base needs once someone’s actually living there?”

His first answer is Intuitive Machines Inc. (LUNR). It won a $180.4 million NASA mission to the lunar south pole region in March and carries a $1.8 billion backlog. But Jonathan sees a bigger role ahead:

I’m more interested in what it’s trying to become — the utility company for the Moon…

A lander gets you to the destination. A company that can also handle communications and navigation once you’re there takes on a role that doesn’t end after a single landing.

Second is Firefly Aerospace Inc. (FLY). That Austin-based company landed its Blue Ghost spacecraft on the Moon in March and now has six contracted lunar missions. Here’s Jonathan:

Landing once is an accomplishment. Building a dependable service around it is a business…

Jonathan notes that FLY has pulled back hard after the initial SpaceX enthusiasm wave – and that patient traders sometimes get a better entry that way.

Third is the lower-volatility option, L3Harris Technologies Inc. (LHX), which delivered the four RS-25 engines for NASA’s planned Artemis III mission. Back to Jonathan:

[It] wins regardless of which rocket startup succeeds. If you want exposure to the lunar buildout with less volatility than the smaller names, LHX is how you get there.

One caution: The smaller space stocks tend to rise and fall as a pack. Jonathan is fine with that. As he puts it, “you’re not really picking the winner of the Moon race. You’re buying the industry.”

By the way, Jonathan walks through setups like these live every market day at 11 a.m. ET in his free Masters in Trading LIVE videos. He profiles trading ideas, walks through entries and exits, and hands out plenty of tickers in real time. You can sign up here.

And just a heads-up…

Jonathan will be hosting a free live event later this month, the $10K to $100K Challenge, where he’ll show attendees the exact signals he uses to find trades – and how he sizes his risk. More details soon.

Zooming out

It’s easy to dismiss orbital data centers and Moon bases as science fiction. But look at where we are…

Google now has AI chips in orbit. SpaceX has filed for up to a million computing satellites. And NASA is writing checks for Moon-base infrastructure.

None of this means we’ll be taking weekend trips into space anytime soon, but the money is already moving.

For investors, the key is knowing what’s actually driving the stock you own: index mechanics, real earnings, or government contracts. Each can make you money. But they carry very different risks and reward very different levels of patience.

We’ll keep you updated on all of it here in the Digest.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

(Disclosure: I own MU and GOOGL)

The post Google’s AI Chips Blast Off Today appeared first on InvestorPlace.

For investors, the questions raised are practical: Which businesses could get paid to make these systems safer?

My friend and colleague Jonathan Rose has two stocks in mind (which he’ll show you below.) Jonathan brings nearly three decades of trading experience on some of America’s busiest floors.

For Jonathan, finding a tech company positioned to profit is only the start. He then studies factors like unusual trading activity and weighs the risks before making a trade. His Advanced Notice recommendations have averaged an 81% gain since inception in 2024 – that’s winners and losers.

Today, Jonathan explains the budding opportunity he’s seeing – and what he’s watching before putting money to work. You can follow his analysis on Masters in Trading LIVE, free on YouTube every market day at 11 a.m. Eastern. Sign up here for the daily link.

So let me turn things over to Jonathan…

********************

Hey, guys.

Just after midnight on January 25, 2003, a tiny piece of code began racing across the internet.

It was a computer worm – dubbed the SQL Slammer— that could copy itself from one vulnerable machine to the next without anyone clicking a link.

Slammer was only 376 bytes long. It simply told each infected server to send out more copies of itself, as fast as it could.

That was enough.

The number of infected machines doubled about every 8.5 seconds. Within 10 minutes, Slammer had reached more than 90% of the computers vulnerable to it. The flood of traffic knocked networks offline, interfered with ATMs, and disrupted airline flights.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) had released a fix for the weakness Slammer exploited months earlier, but plenty of organizations still hadn’t installed it.

We’re at a similar moment with AI agents—software that can search for information, use tools, and carry out tasks with little human guidance. Companies putting agents to work have to control what those agents can access and catch them when they do something nobody intended.

Recent incidents have shown why. OpenAI says its reviews have found agents from their lab bypassing access controls, using exposed credentials, and interacting with third-party systems beyond their intended access. It has notified dozens of affected hacked parties – including the Australian and U.S. governments – while the reviews continue.

That creates a new job for cybersecurity companies. And I see two stocks investors should consider buying now.

Let me show you what each company sells—and what I’m watching before making a trade.

AI Agents Need Someone Watching the Door

Think of an employee’s credentials as a set of keys. An AI agent working for that employee may need access to certain files and applications. Give it too many keys, and an error—or an attacker manipulating the agent—can carry it somewhere it shouldn’t go.

That makes identity security unusually important.

This is where Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) has made a significant move. It completed its acquisition of CyberArk in February, adding that company’s identity-security products to a business that already sells network, cloud, and security-operations tools.

In plain English, Palo Alto is trying to give large customers a single place to manage more of their defenses, including the permissions granted to AI agents. The integration is still underway, so investors need to watch how well it delivers on that plan.

In its latest reported quarter, Palo Alto’s revenue rose 34% from a year earlier, to $3.41 billion. Its next-generation security annual recurring revenue—the value of subscriptions it expects to collect over a year—reached $9.1 billion. Those figures include the effects of acquisitions, so I’m watching what growth looks like as the businesses are brought together.

PANW is my first buy of the two. It gives me a large, established cybersecurity business with a clear path to sell more to customers as they add AI agents.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (CRWD) comes at the AI agent problem from another direction.

Its Falcon software already operates across customers’ computers and other devices—the places where a great deal of AI-agent activity starts. This month, CrowdStrike introduced Falcon Guardian, designed to help companies discover which agents are running, see what they do, control which ones have permission to run, and respond when their behavior becomes dangerous.

It’s a new product, so I would watch customer adoption before assuming it will become a major revenue source.

CrowdStrike ended its latest reported quarter with $5.84 billion in annual recurring revenue, up 25% from a year earlier.

I would buy CRWD, too, but I’d start with a smaller position. Investors already recognize how strong this company is. That can leave less room for disappointment if a new product takes longer to catch on or growth slows.

And spending on security is still growing. Gartner forecasts worldwide information-security spending of about $244 billion in 2026, with demand for products that both use AI to improve defenses and secure companies’ own AI use.

Even if the Company Is Right, the Trade Still Has to Work

I look for a good business first. Then I look at the market.

One signal I follow is unusual trading activity: a burst of trading that stands out from a stock’s normal pattern. It can tell me that someone is making a large bet.

For example, in August, we spotted a spike in trading activity in oil-services company SLB NV (SLB). I recommended a bullish trade. Over the following week, SLB shares rose about 9%. Our recommended trade gained 219%.

We saw another example in MP Materials Corp. (MP). Our recommended trade returned 534% in three days. For both examples, the maximum possible loss was the amount paid for each contract.

Those were standout winners. These trades can also expire worthless, which is why choosing the trade and controlling its size matter as much as finding the company.

So if I see that activity in a stock, I check the news, the stock’s price, and the amount I could lose. Some days I’m looking at cybersecurity. Other days, it’s energy, healthcare, or a company I hadn’t expected to discuss when the market opened.

It’s what I do every market day on Masters in Trading LIVE. I’m on YouTube at 11 a.m. Eastern, free, walking through the stories and trading activity catching my attention and taking questions as we go.

Sign up for Masters in Trading LIVE here. Once you’re onboard, we’ll send you a daily email with the link to watch, along with more pieces like this one and other research.

You’ll be hearing more soon about my free $10K to $100K Challenge event in October, where I’ll go deeper into the signals and risk rules behind my trades. Till then, I hope you’ll check out MIT LIVE and see how I work through them while the market is open.

SQL Slammer didn’t create the cybersecurity business. It made the cost of leaving connected systems unprotected impossible to miss.

AI agents are extending that same problem to a new kind of worker. Companies need to know what their agents can reach, what they’re doing, and how to stop them if they start hacking.

I think Palo Alto and CrowdStrike have a real chance to collect a meaningful share of that spending.

Remember… the creative trader wins…

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. Jonathan’s edge is the way he joins a strong investment idea to an actual trading decision. He’s given you two cyber companies to examine today, along with the questions he’s asking about each. You can watch him do that work across many more stocks on Masters in Trading LIVE, free at 11 a.m. Eastern every market day. Sign up here for the daily link. And keep an eye out for his free October $10K to $100K Challenge event.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Editor, Market 360

The post The AI Boom Has a Security Problem – and 2 Potential Winners appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Space stocks are shares of public companies tied to the space economy, from the launch providers that get us off the ground to the firms that build the landers, power, communications, and engines a mission depends on. What has the whole group moving right now is a single, enormous goal: a working base on the Moon.

Why the Moon Economy Is a Massive Infrastructure Opportunity

To see why this is such a big opportunity, start with the closest thing to a Moon base we have on Earth: the U.S. research station at the South Pole. Everything there has to be hauled across a thousand miles of ice, and that logistics problem, not the science, is what has always defined the place.

The Navy built the first station in 1956, and blowing snow slowly buried it. A domed replacement went up in 1975, and the snow crept over its entrances too. Today’s Amundsen-Scott Station finally solved the problem by standing on columns, so the wind sweeps the snow beneath it instead of piling it on top. Even then, building it took a decade and more than 900 flights, and crews still drive 990 miles from the coast to keep it supplied with fuel and cargo.

The takeaway is simple. In a place with no roads, no stores, and no power grid, getting there was never the hard part. Keeping people alive there is. A Moon base is the same problem on a far larger scale, and solving it will take an entire industry.

The New Space Race Is a Supply-Chain Race

The first space race was the United States against the Soviet Union. This one is the United States against China, and the prize is bigger than planting a flag: whoever builds the first working base on the Moon sets the terms for everything that comes after. China has said it is aiming for a crewed landing before 2030 and a base by 2035, while NASA’s Artemis program is targeting its first crewed landing on the surface in 2028.

Both are headed for the same place, the Moon’s south pole, for one reason: water ice. Break that ice into hydrogen and oxygen and you get drinking water, breathable air, and rocket fuel, all produced on site. That is what turns the Moon from somewhere you visit into somewhere you can actually operate.

NASA will not build that alone. It plays the role of anchor customer and leaves the landers, power, communications, and logistics to private industry. Its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program already has 17 deliveries scheduled carrying more than 60 payloads, and it has just asked companies to bid on surface power, oxygen extraction, and building materials. Which company makes the rocket is the easy question, and the answer is SpaceX, Blue Origin, and a few others. The question that matters for investors is who builds and runs everything else once people arrive.

3 Space Stocks to Watch in the Moon Economy

Three public space stocks are competing for that work, and they sit at very different points on the risk spectrum.

Intuitive Machines Stock: the utility company for the Moon. Most investors know Intuitive Machines (LUNR) as a lunar lander company, but it is aiming to become something bigger: the utility company for the Moon. In March, NASA awarded it a $180.4 million mission to carry payloads to the lunar south pole, and the Houston company is sitting on a $1.8 billion backlog and $367 million in cash. A lander gets you to the surface once. A company that also runs the communications and navigation after you land keeps earning long after the mission ends, and that is the business Intuitive Machines is trying to build.

Firefly Aerospace Stock: the repeatable delivery play. Firefly Aerospace (FLY) has already pulled off the hard part, landing its Blue Ghost spacecraft on the Moon in March. In June it won a $144 million NASA contract for a 2028 mission, its sixth lunar flight under contract. Landing once proves you can do it; landing again and again turns it into a real business, and that is what Firefly is working toward. The stock sold off sharply once the early excitement cooled, which is often where a patient investor finds a better entry.

L3Harris Stock: the sleep-at-night space stock. L3Harris (LHX) is the steady one in the group, a large, established defense and aerospace company rather than a young lunar startup. It built the four RS-25 engines for NASA’s planned 2027 Artemis III mission, so it sells the engines and avionics that get paid no matter which rocket company comes out on top. For investors who want a stake in the Moon buildout without the wild swings of the smaller names, L3Harris is the calmer way in. It will not leap on a single headline the way LUNR or FLY can, but it also has far less to lose if the timeline slips.

How to Invest in Space Stocks Without Chasing the Hype

There is a catch worth understanding before you buy any of them: these small space stocks tend to move as a pack. LUNR, FLY, and a few others all jumped together when SpaceX was in the news, then fell back together once the attention moved on. That tells you investors are trading the story of the industry, not the results of any single company, so when you buy matters as much as what you buy.

It also means no stock is cheap or expensive on its own. LUNR at $12 is not a bargain simply because it once traded at $20. It is only cheap or expensive next to its backlog, its contract pipeline, its competition, and what comparable companies have been worth at the same stage. A Moon base is a project measured in years, so you can be completely sold on the story and still wait for the right price.

Because these names rise and fall together, you are really buying the industry more than any one winner. In a field this young, where any single company can stumble, owning a small basket of the names tied to the trend is usually smarter than betting everything on the one you expect to come out on top.

The Bottom Line

A century after the first explorers reached the South Pole, keeping a station running there still takes a full supply chain. A Moon base will be harder, and the real work begins only after the first landing. SpaceX will keep the headlines, but the companies winning the contracts to build and supply the base are the ones worth watching. The only discipline required is waiting for the market to hand you a sensible way in.

Space Stocks: Frequently Asked Questions

Is SpaceX publicly traded?

Yes. SpaceX went public in June 2026 and now trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX. For exposure to the broader Moon buildout beyond SpaceX itself, the contract winners to watch are Intuitive Machines (LUNR), Firefly Aerospace (FLY), and L3Harris (LHX).

What are space stocks?

Space stocks are shares of public companies tied to the space economy, from rocket launch providers to the firms that build lunar landers, satellites, power and communications systems, and the engines and avionics behind government space programs.

What is the best space stock to buy now?

It depends on how much risk you want. LUNR and Firefly are higher-risk bets on lunar delivery, while L3Harris is the larger, steadier supplier. Because these stocks tend to move together, judge each one on its backlog, cash, and valuation rather than on the latest headline.

Want to trade like a 25-year market pro? Jonathan Rose shows regular investors how in Masters in Trading LIVE, his free 15-minute class every market morning at 11 a.m. ET. Sign up free.

The post 3 Space Stocks to Watch in the New Moon Race appeared first on InvestorPlace.

In 1988, Ivy League graduate Robert Tappan Morris released a small, self-replicating code – a “worm” – onto the early internet. He claimed he only wanted to find out how big “the ’net” really was by counting how many computers the worm could reach.

Instead, within 24 hours, his creation had copied itself across roughly 6,000 machines – about 1 in 10 computers online at the time – bringing universities, research labs, and military systems to a halt.

The Morris worm’s source code, preserved on a 3.5-inch floppy disk at the Museum of Science.

The Morris worm became one of the first major cyberattacks in history. It made the front page of The New York Times, led to the first felony conviction under America’s computer fraud law, and forced a complacent industry to take security seriously for the first time.

But the deeper lesson is one we’re still reckoning with: Code can act on its own.

Nearly four decades later, software acting autonomously has evolved into AI agents. And this summer, we got a preview of what that can mean.

In the Hugging Face hack, more than a thousand OpenAI agents, assigned to test cybersecurity vulnerabilities, found ways to communicate with one another. They circumvented their restrictions and ultimately broke into Hugging Face’s infrastructure. Along the way, they improvised their own message board, coordinated their activities, and even began questioning one another’s motives.

More recently, we’ve learned about AI agents’ attempt to break into a Canadian government website, while another agent reportedly gained unauthorized access to files on an Australian government health portal.

And this is just the start. The more these agents can do on their own, the more safeguards we need to keep them from making costly or dangerous mistakes, like the Morris worm.

That is why, this week, Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) unveiled a platform designed to keep these autonomous agents from going rogue.

Most investors will read that headline, exhale, and move on. But in today’s Smart Money, I’ll show you why Nvidia’s AI safety “breakthrough” is really the starting gun for a much bigger economic shift – and how to position yourself on the right side of it.

Let’s jump in…

Why “Safer” AI Means Faster Disruption

On Monday, Nvidia announced its Open Agent Safety Platform, a system designed to monitor and control AI agents across the software, hardware, and computing systems they use.

The platform combines the company’s open-source OpenShell software with its Sentry reference system – a blueprint for monitoring and controlling AI agents – to provide full-stack governance and control.

But that’s enough shop talk. Here’s a clearer view of what each technology does:

• OpenShell creates a secure environment that monitors AI agents and enforces rules as they work. It runs on Nvidia’s Vera CPUs and supports compute platforms from third parties, such as Arm Holdings plc (ARM) and Intel Corp. (INTC).
• Sentry uses an independent hardware monitor to continuously watch AI agents and restart systems if something goes wrong. Within milliseconds, the software can quarantine agents that try to exceed their bounds.

More than 100 organizations – including Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Hugging Face, IBM Corp. (IBM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), OpenClaw, Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR), Gecko Robotics, Citigroup Inc. (C), and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) – are already using or evaluating these technologies that make up Nvidia’s new Open Agent Safety Platform. Taken together, those companies span software, hardware, and financial services, meaning that building safety into autonomous systems is becoming a standard across the economy.

As for why it matters, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang simply says: “AI’s extraordinary potential for society will only be realized if we solve AI safety.”

Now, some may assume a safety breakthrough like this is meant to slow AI agents down. In reality, the goal is to make them trustworthy enough to run at full speed. Companies may feel comfortable giving agents more autonomy because there are guardrails in place. That’s the starting gun.

And we are already off to the agentic AI races.

On Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a new agent called Dot, which is “remarkably capable, always on.” Instead of waiting for a new prompt, Dot can keep working toward an ongoing goal in the background. And this comes after Meta Platform Inc.’s (META) release of Muse, which can independently perform tasks across apps.

In short, what I call the “Agentic Reckoning” is here, and Nvidia has just made the technology ready for deployment at scale, with a live platform backed by the biggest names in tech. And once companies trust AI agents to act on their own, they can start giving them real work to do.

That’s why AI safety isn’t just a technical problem. It could be the key that unlocks the next stage of AI adoption.

Autonomous software has advanced exponentially since the Morris worm, which means the risks have, too. And the implications extend beyond cybersecurity. That’s because a transformation this big always does the same thing to the market: It splits it into two groups.

I want you to be in the right one.

The Agentic Reckoning Will Split Stocks in Two

As AI agents worm their way into nearly every industry, companies will face a choice to build the technology or use it to transform their own businesses.

The first group will be hollowed out. I call them “Builder Stocks.”

When software can do a job faster and cheaper without human involvement, businesses that once charged for that work lose their reason to exist. Many of today’s most widely held software and services companies fall into this category. For example, Salesforce Inc. (CRM) and Workday Inc. (WDAY) are down about 12% and 13% year-to-date, respectively, and the software sector has shed roughly $2 trillion in value since the start of the year.

The second group will pull ahead. These are the companies that adopt the technology and use it to operate more leanly and pull ahead of their competitors. I call them “Applier Stocks.”

Nvidia’s Open Agent Safety Platform could help make large-scale deployment of autonomous AI more practical. But once agentic AI becomes widely available, the biggest gains won’t go to the companies building the autonomous technology – but to the businesses that find the most profitable ways to use it.

I’ve flagged shifts like this before – the dot-com crash, the 2008 crisis, the 2020 sell-off, and the Magnificent Seven’s turn earlier this year. This one is following the same pattern.

I dive deeper into this economic phenomenon in my special The Agentic Reckoning broadcast, where I also give you the name of my #1 Applier Stock, free.

Most investors will file this week’s Nvidia news under “AI safety” and move on. I think that’s a mistake.

The sorting has already started, and the time to position is before the rest of the market catches up.

Click here for more details. 

Regards,

Eric Fry

The post The 1988 Computer “Worm” That Explains Today’s AI Panic appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Now imagine that every gallon of fuel, every part needed to build that house or replace a part of the house, has to travel nearly 1,000 miles across one of the most hostile landscapes on Earth.

That’s the problem engineers spent decades solving at the South Pole.

The U.S. Navy built the first American research station at the South Pole in 1956. Scientists moved in. And over the next several years, windblown snow just started burying it.

They had to build a replacement — a geodesic dome in 1975 — and eventually the snow started covering the entrances to that one too.

Today’s Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station stands on columns. The shape channels wind beneath it, sweeping the snow away.

Source: U.S. National Science Foundation

It took 10 years to build and more than 900 flights to haul materials from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole.

And to keep it running today, overland crews drive 990 miles from McMurdo Station, hauling fuel and cargo across Antarctica. More than a century after the first expedition reached the South Pole, people are still solving the practical problems of working there.

Now I want you to consider the Moon.

One of the biggest infrastructure buildouts of the next decade will happen 240,000 miles away. And this isn’t the 1960s. The first Space Race was the USA versus the USSR. Space Race 2.0 is the USA versus China.

And the winner of this race will be whoever builds a working research station there first.

China is publicly targeting a crewed lunar landing before 2030 and a base by 2035. NASA’s Artemis program is targeting its first crewed surface landing for 2028.

Both of them are zeroing in on the same tiny patch of the Moon — the lunar south pole — because that’s where the water ice is.

Water isn’t just water up there. Break it into hydrogen and oxygen, and you’ve got life support and rocket propellant. The Moon stops looking like a destination and starts looking like a supply chain.

Here’s what I find interesting as a trader. NASA can’t do everything itself. It’s the anchor, with private companies building the launch systems, communications, power, logistics, and more.

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program already has 17 planned deliveries carrying more than 60 payloads. Earlier this month, NASA put out proposals for surface power, oxygen extraction, and lunar construction materials.

So the question I’m asking isn’t “Who builds the rocket?” That answer is pretty easy: SpaceX, Blue Origin, and a few other big players.

The better question is “Who builds and operates everything a Moon base needs once someone’s actually living there?”

In this piece, I’ll try to answer that question by showing you three publicly held companies – all trading on the stock market – that are competing to be the one of the answers to that question.

Three Companies Building What Comes After the Landing

The Utility Company for the Moon: Most people know the first stock I want to show you as a lunar lander company. I’m more interested in what it’s trying to become — the utility company for the Moon.

In March, NASA awarded Intuitive Machines Inc. (LUNR) a $180.4 million mission to deliver payloads to the lunar south pole region. This Houston-based company has a $1.8 billion backlog and $367 million in cash. A lander gets you to the destination. A company that can also handle communications and navigation once you’re there takes on a role that doesn’t end after a single landing. That’s the story I’m watching develop.

The Repeatable Delivery Play: The second stock I want to show you already landed its Blue Ghost spacecraft on the Moon in March. And in June, Firefly Aerospace Inc. (FLY) announced a $144 million NASA contract for another mission targeted for 2028 — bringing it to six contracted lunar missions total. Landing once is an accomplishment. Building a dependable service around it is a business. I’m watching the less glamorous stuff: production capacity, schedules, what they learn from each flight. The stock pulled back hard after the initial SpaceX enthusiasm wave. Sometimes the market just hands you a better entry. You wait for it.

The Sleep-at-Night Space Stock: My third space stock today is the different animal in this group. It’s a much larger company, less directly tied to the young lunar delivery business. But L3Harris Technologies Inc. (LHX) has delivered the four RS-25 engines for NASA’s planned 2027 Artemis III mission.

That makes it the firm selling the engines and the avionics — and that company wins regardless of which rocket startup succeeds. If you want exposure to the lunar buildout with less volatility than the smaller names, LHX is how you get there. Don’t expect it to move like LUNR or FLY when the narrative heats up. But don’t ignore it either.

Three different jobs behind the same buildout. Three different risk profiles.

Now here’s the part I want to be straight with you about.

A Good Story Still Needs a Good Trade

When I went through these names on my Masters in Trading LIVE show last week, I noted that LUNR, FLY, and couple other small space stocks had all made sharp moves together when SpaceX was in the news, and then pulled back together. That correlation tells me investors are trading the industry story, not the individual companies.

That’s fine. Industries move together all the time. But it means you have to be careful about what you’re actually buying and when.

I watch contract awards. I watch how these stocks move relative to each other. And I look for unusual trading activity — big, concentrated trades that tell me whether serious money is starting to build positions before the broader market figures out why. When I see that kind of footprint in names like these, that’s when I start paying real attention.

But that activity is a clue, not an instruction. I still have to look at the company, the setup, and how much I’m willing to lose before I’d put a trade on.

The timing matters in a specific way here too. A Moon base is a project measured in years. The trades I do have expiration dates. I can be completely convinced the infrastructure story is real and still wait for a better moment to trade it.

Nothing is cheap or expensive on its own. LUNR at $12 is not automatically cheap because it was at $20. It’s cheap or expensive relative to the backlog, the contract pipeline, the competition, and what comparable companies have traded at in similar situations. That’s the work.

LUNR, FLY, and other small space stocks all move together — when one goes, they all go. So you’re not really picking the winner of the Moon race. You’re buying the industry. That’s actually fine with me. I’d rather own a basket of names tied to a real structural trend than try to pick the one company that survives the shakeout in a new industry where execution risk is genuinely high.

Now let’s go back to where we started.

The Antarctic South Pole story ends like this: More than a century after the first expedition arrived, keeping that research station running still takes a full supply chain. Overland crews are still driving 990 miles across Antarctica.

A lunar base will face even harder challenges and need its own supply chain. And if people intend to keep working there, that work continues long after the first landing.

That’s the industry I’m watching. The trading question is when the market gives us a sensible way in.

I go live every day the market is open — 11 a.m. Eastern, for free, on YouTube. At Masters in Trading LIVE, we take on different topics each day, look at what’s moving, and work through the questions together. If this kind of thinking is useful to you, make sure you tune into Masters in Trading LIVE. That’s where I’ll be highlighting the next opportunities I’m watching in this space — and where you can get the tip on the next name to explode before the crowd catches on.

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

The post SpaceX Gets the Headlines, But These Three Companies Get the Contracts appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Jonathan Rose brought me this one, along with three stocks attached to it. He’s earned the consideration: nearly three decades on trading floors from the CME to the CBOE, a bond futures desk he helped grow from six people to 150, and a live YouTube session every morning at 11 a.m. Eastern – Masters in Trading LIVE – where he works through what’s moving and why.

He’s also hosting a free live event later in October – the $10K to $100K Challenge – where he’ll walk through the exact signals he uses to find trades and how he thinks about risk. We’ll have more details on that event real soon.

In the meantime, here’s Jonathan.

Imagine building a house where there are no roads, no hardware stores, and no power lines.

Now imagine that every gallon of fuel, every part needed to build that house or replace a part of the house, has to travel nearly 1,000 miles across one of the most hostile landscapes on Earth.

That’s the problem engineers spent decades solving at the South Pole.

The U.S. Navy built the first American research station at the South Pole in 1956. Scientists moved in. And over the next several years, windblown snow just started burying it. 

They had to build a replacement – a geodesic dome in 1975 – and eventually the snow started covering the entrances to that one too.

Today’s Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station stands on columns. The shape channels wind beneath it, sweeping the snow away. 

It took 10 years to build and more than 900 flights to haul materials from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole.

And to keep it running today, overland crews drive 990 miles from McMurdo Station, hauling fuel and cargo across Antarctica. More than a century after the first expedition reached the South Pole, people are still solving the practical problems of working there.

Now I want you to consider the Moon.

One of the biggest infrastructure buildouts of the next decade will happen 240,000 miles away. And this isn’t the 1960s. The first Space Race was the USA versus the USSR. Space Race 2.0 is the USA versus China. 

And the winner of this race will be whoever builds a working research station there first.

China is publicly targeting a crewed lunar landing before 2030 and a base by 2035. NASA’s Artemis program is targeting its first crewed surface landing for 2028. 

Both of them are zeroing in on the same tiny patch of the Moon – the lunar south pole – because that’s where the water ice is.

Water isn’t just water up there. Break it into hydrogen and oxygen, and you’ve got life support and rocket propellant. The Moon stops looking like a destination and starts looking like a supply chain.

Here’s what I find interesting as a trader. NASA can’t do everything itself. It’s the anchor, with private companies building the launch systems, communications, power, logistics, and more. 

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program already has 17 planned deliveries carrying more than 60 payloads. Earlier this month, NASA put out proposals for surface power, oxygen extraction, and lunar construction materials.

So the question I’m asking isn’t “Who builds the rocket?” That answer is pretty easy: SpaceX, Blue Origin, and a few other big players. 

The better question is “Who builds and operates everything a Moon base needs once someone’s actually living there?” 

In this piece, I’ll try to answer that question by showing you three publicly held companies – all trading on the stock market – that are competing to be the one of the answers to that question.

Three Companies Building What Comes After the Landing

The Utility Company for the Moon: Most people know the first stock I want to show you as a lunar lander company. I’m more interested in what it’s trying to become – the utility company for the Moon. In March, NASA awarded Intuitive Machines Inc. (LUNR) a $180.4 million mission to deliver payloads to the lunar south pole region. This Houston-based company has a $1.8 billion backlog and $367 million in cash. A lander gets you to the destination. A company that can also handle communications and navigation once you’re there takes on a role that doesn’t end after a single landing. That’s the story I’m watching develop.

The Repeatable Delivery Play: The second stock I want to show you already landed its Blue Ghost spacecraft on the Moon in March. And in June, Firefly Aerospace Inc. (FLY) announced a $144 million NASA contract for another mission targeted for 2028 – bringing it to six contracted lunar missions total. Landing once is an accomplishment. Building a dependable service around it is a business. I’m watching the less glamorous stuff: production capacity, schedules, what they learn from each flight. The stock pulled back hard after the initial SpaceX enthusiasm wave. Sometimes the market just hands you a better entry. You wait for it.

The Sleep-at-Night Space Stock: My third space stock today is the different animal in this group. It’s a much larger company, less directly tied to the young lunar delivery business. But L3Harris Technologies Inc. (LHX) has delivered the four RS-25 engines for NASA’s planned 2027 Artemis III mission. That makes it the firm selling the engines and the avionics – and that company wins regardless of which rocket startup succeeds. If you want exposure to the lunar buildout with less volatility than the smaller names, LHX is how you get there. Don’t expect it to move like LUNR or FLY when the narrative heats up. But don’t ignore it either.

Three different jobs behind the same buildout. Three different risk profiles.

Now here’s the part I want to be straight with you about.

A Good Story Still Needs a Good Trade

When I went through these names on my Masters in Trading LIVE show last week (sign up for that free here), I noted that LUNR, FLY, and a couple other small space stocks had all made sharp moves together when SpaceX was in the news, and then pulled back together. That correlation tells me investors are trading the industry story, not the individual companies. 

That’s fine. Industries move together all the time. But it means you have to be careful about what you’re actually buying and when.

I watch contract awards. I watch how these stocks move relative to each other. And I look for unusual trading activity – big, concentrated trades that tell me whether serious money is starting to build positions before the broader market figures out why. When I see that kind of footprint in names like these, that’s when I start paying real attention.

But that activity is a clue, not an instruction. I still have to look at the company, the setup, and how much I’m willing to lose before I’d put a trade on.

The timing matters in a specific way here too. A Moon base is a project measured in years. The trades I do have expiration dates. I can be completely convinced the infrastructure story is real and still wait for a better moment to trade it. 

Nothing is cheap or expensive on its own. LUNR at $12 is not automatically cheap because it was at $20. It’s cheap or expensive relative to the backlog, the contract pipeline, the competition, and what comparable companies have traded at in similar situations. That’s the work.

LUNR, FLY, and other small space stocks all move together – when one goes, they all go. So you’re not really picking the winner of the Moon race. You’re buying the industry. That’s actually fine with me. I’d rather own a basket of names tied to a real structural trend than try to pick the one company that survives the shakeout in a new industry where execution risk is genuinely high.

Now let’s go back to where we started.

The Antarctic South Pole story ends like this: More than a century after the first expedition arrived, keeping that research station running still takes a full supply chain. Overland crews are still driving 990 miles across Antarctica. 

Getting to the South Pole was the achievement. Keeping a research station operating there is still a job: crews drive roughly 990 miles from McMurdo hauling fuel and cargo across Antarctica. 

A lunar base will need its own supply chain. And if people intend to keep working there, that work continues long after the first landing.

That’s the industry I’m watching. The trading question is when the market gives us a sensible way in.

I go live every day the market is open – 11 a.m. Eastern, for free, on YouTube. At Masters in Trading LIVE, we take on different topics each day, look at what’s moving, and work through the questions together. If this kind of thinking is useful to you, come join us.

The post SpaceX Gets the Headlines, But These Three Companies Get the Contracts appeared first on InvestorPlace.

It was a busy morning on the macroeconomic calendar…

We’ll start with the most important piece of data – the August Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, which is the inflation gauge the Federal Reserve watches above all others. It came in cooler than expected.

Headline prices rose 3.4% from a year ago, below the 3.7% forecast. Core PCE – which strips out food and energy – rose 3%, below its estimate of 3.3%. Core has now held at 3% for three straight months.

While that steady core reading is good news, the bad news is that the headline reading doesn’t capture September’s surge in diesel prices. So, next month’s headline print is likely to look much hotter. Still, this is welcome news for investors who have been worrying about rocketing treasury yields and the potential for another Fed hike in October.

Turning to the economy, second-quarter GDP was revised sharply higher, coming in at a 2.2% annual growth rate, up from the earlier 1.5% reading. The change was due to firmer consumer and government spending.

Speaking of the consumer, inflation-adjusted spending jumped 0.6% in August, the biggest monthly gain since early 2025. This came even as incomes barely budged and the savings rate slipped to its lowest since 2022. Another win for the “resilient” U.S. consumer who refuses to close their wallet.

Finally, this morning’s jobs data came in reasonably strong. Private payrolls rose 90,000 in September, according to payroll processor ADP. That was better than the 68,000 expected and the strongest reading in three months. Of course, Friday’s official BLS employment report is the big one to watch.

Returning to this morning’s cooler inflation number, it takes some of the urgency off an October hike. According to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, traders have lowered their bets for a quarter-point hike next month from 51% yesterday to about 35%. This optimism is helping push stocks higher while keeping treasury yields flat as I write approaching lunchtime.

Bottom line: the macro picture bought the bulls a little breathing room this morning. But don’t get too comfortable – in fact, by the time you read this, it’s likely a new number will have dropped that has market-rattling potential…

How did Micron do?

By the time this hits your inbox, Micron Technology (MU) will likely have reported its latest quarterly earnings.

If you’ve read the Digest over the past month, you know why this is important. Twice now – first with Micron, then with Sandisk (SNDK) – we’ve laid out the same puzzle: a memory maker printing record, AI-fueled profits, yet priced by Wall Street as if the floor is about to give way.

The market can’t shake its old fear that memory is a boom-and-bust business destined to crash. I’ve challenged that assumption, but I won’t re-litigate the whole case today.

Even if you don’t own MU, its performance tonight serves as a helpful diagnostic for the entire AI trade. After all, strip the AI build-out down to its studs, and it’s three things – compute, memory, and power. Micron sits squarely on the memory leg. So, if demand is really holding up the way the bulls insist, it should show up here, tonight, in hard numbers.

That’s important in this type of skittish market – sentiment swings by the hour, but earnings are what will help instill confidence for a more durable climb.

So, check the after-hours numbers, and we’ll dive into the results in a future Digest.

The AI “security scare” everyone’s misreading

Now, let’s turn to the story the financial press has been hammering for weeks: AI security.

The headlines have been relentless – breaches, rogue agents, frontier labs pausing training to patch holes. The knee-jerk read is that this is bad news for the whole AI trade. More danger means more caution, more caution means slower spending, and slower spending means the AI infrastructure names take a hit.

Our technology expert Luke Lango, editor of Innovation Investor, thinks that read has it backward. All this new security might be a tailwind hiding in plain sight.

Here’s Luke from Monday’s Daily Notes:

OpenAI’s estimate that enhanced monitoring consumes roughly 20% of the inference compute of monitored workloads gives us a concrete way to think about a new, largely unmodeled layer of AI infrastructure demand…

If safety monitoring becomes standard practice across frontier labs and enterprise deployments, every agentic task effectively carries a supervisory compute overhead on top of its productive compute – overhead that grows alongside usage rather than replacing it. 

If keeping AI safe eats 20% more compute on top of the work itself, then every dollar spent on safety is another dollar of demand for exactly the compute, memory, and power we just nodded to when discussing Micron.

Overall, Luke frames the safety issue as being a compute tax, not a compute cut.

And Luke isn’t alone in his take. Independent researchers have started formally measuring this “control tax” – the compute cost of monitoring AI – and Gartner now projects the AI-security market alone will balloon from about $49 billion this year to $204 billion by 2030.

There’s a virtuous circle underneath it, too. Back to Luke to explain:

So, better controls enable broader deployment. Broader deployment generates more usage. And more usage requires both productive and supervisory compute.

Overall, the scare that’s supposedly a headwind for AI may quietly be building a whole new layer of demand.

To follow along with Luke and get his favorite ways to play this, click here to learn about joining him in Innovation Investor.

Eric Fry’s backdoor way to play the boom

Now, whether Micron crushes it tonight or stumbles… and whether AI security turns into a real tailwind or just noise… you’re still betting on the companies building the AI machine. And, of course, that carries elevated risk.

So, our global macro expert Eric Fry, editor of Fry’s Investment Report, has been pointing at a different – and potentially less risky – way to play AI.

His model is the dot-com fiber boom, when telecom firms sank close to $1 trillion laying 80 million miles of cable. When the boom dried up, most of the builders went bust. But a second group of companies got rich off it – the ones Eric calls the “appliers”:

They never touch a shovel or a spool of cable. They simply wait for the new technology to become ubiquitous and cheap, then capitalize on it by finding ways to apply the new technology to their own business.

His example was Humana (HUM) – a health insurer that digitized its paper claims onto all that new fiber and went on to soar more than 5,000% over time. It didn’t build the internet. It applied it.

Eric sees the same setup forming in AI right now – and I want to share with you one of Eric’s recommendations for how to play it: Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO),

Eric’s lead analyst, Tom Yeung, dug into it in his recent Fry’s Investment Report Weekly Update. As he explained, Novo is using AI to accelerate its drug development – and it’s funding that work with the rich cash flows from an already-dominant franchise…

Its new $299-a-month oral Wegovy weight-loss pill has been one of the fastest launches in the company’s history: 12 weeks to the first million prescriptions, then just four weeks to add the next million. The pill helps users shed about 16.6% of their body weight – ahead of the 12.4% achieved by Eli Lilly’s (LLY) oral candidate – with no weekly injections required.

That moat is what makes AI applications so powerful.

Cheap AI is becoming available to everyone, so “using AI” doesn’t necessarily buy a lasting edge. But what can’t be copied is what Novo aims AI at: a drug franchise walled off by at least eight patents and decades of know-how. No competitor can suddenly churn out Wegovy pills tomorrow, no matter how good their AI is.

Here’s how Eric put it:

Novo’s AI edge isn’t exclusive, but it doesn’t need to be…

It’s about recognizing that a company applying cheap, borrowed AI compute to an already-profitable, already-growing business captures real value, while the companies building and financing the underlying AI infrastructure absorb the risk.

Or, as Tom sums it up:

Novo already has the non-commoditized products that competitors can never legally replicate. And so, cheap AI compute is just icing… on a cake no one else can bake.

To learn more about joining Eric in Fry’s Investment Report to access his full list of AI Appliers, click here. 

Coming full circle

Step back from the day, and it’s hard not to feel a little optimistic. Inflation came in cooler than feared… growth was revised higher… the consumer refuses to stop shopping… and even AI’s scariest headline may become a new source of growth.

After weeks of bracing for the next blow, the bulls finally caught a few breaks in a single morning.

But as I said earlier, the next test is already here in Micron. So, go see how the numbers came in – it’ll likely tell us about tomorrow’s market.

We’ll report back.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

(Disclosure: I own MU)

The post AI’s $204 Billion “Security” Tax appeared first on InvestorPlace.

There’s a saying that parents often don’t notice how quickly their children grow.

The process is slow and chaotic. Sometimes, it can even feel like you’re taking a step backward after a tough day.

Meanwhile, it’s the aunt who shows up once a year for Thanksgiving who says, “My word… look at how you’ve grown!”

The development of artificial intelligence has been the same way, with arguably equal amounts of unruliness. Over the weekend, for instance, OpenAI admitted to another set of unintentional cyberattacks – this time directed at several U.S. government websites. Every step forward seems to come with a step in reverse.

But if you look at AI from an outside perspective, it’s astonishing how quickly things have progressed.

In today’s Smart Money, let’s consider some of the recent incredible leaps that AI has made, particularly in healthcare. The past few months of AI development have revolutionized that industry… and barely anyone has noticed.

100 Days of AI Breakthroughs

Let’s start by taking a look at how quickly the industry has moved in the past 100 days alone:

1. Rentosertib, the first-ever drug discovered and designed by generative AI, entered final Phase III testing. In earlier trials, this drug from InSilico Medicine Cayman TopCo (ISLMF) became the first drug to reverse lungdamage in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients, rather than merely slowing the loss.

2. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration created a brand-new device class for an AI that detects heart attacks off a standard electrocardiogram. The newly authorized “Queen of Hearts” system caught 92% of confirmed heart attacks on the first ECG, compared with 71% under standard care. False positives fell from 42% to 8%.

3. The FDA authorized the first autonomous robotic blood-draw device. It uses advanced imaging to find a vein, and then applies the elastic-band tourniquet, preps the skin, inserts the needle, swaps tubes, safely disposes of the needle, and bandages the wound. Its “stick-rate” performance is as good as a trained phlebotomist.

4. A “virtual biotech” staffed by 37,000 AI agents published research in Science. Led by Stanford University researchers, the system analyzed nearly 56,000 clinical trials and discovered rules to predict which drugs were most likely to reach the market.

5. GE HealthCare Technologies Inc. (GEHC) launched software that forecasts a hospital’s capacity crunch 72 hours ahead of time, and then ranks which discharges and transfers to move first. At least two major hospitals have already started using the product.

And this list barely scratches the surface.

In other words, AI in medicine has reached a tipping point. Specialized models are now powerful enough not only to assist researchers and clinicians, but also to do the work for them.

Here’s the best part for us investors…

Find the AI Boom Hiding in Healthcare

AI’s healthcare growth spurt has gone almost unnoticed by Wall Street. Major pharma bellwethers trade at below 12X forward earnings – levels usually seen by zero-growth firms with no AI plans. And this is happening even as AI is transforming the healthcare industry.

We see this as an incredible investment opportunity.

That’s because the “old” way of developing drugs was essentially like throwing spaghetti at a wall. Thousands of drugs would be tested with the hopes that one would work. The process was slow, expensive, and why so many drugs cost billions of dollars to develop.

AI is changing that.

With this new technology, drugmakers test millions of new therapies virtually, since AI can simulate how drugs will work. AI can also design clinical trials, monitor for side effects, and potentially knock years (and millions of dollars) off development costs.

Eric’s latest addition to his Fry’s Investment Report portfolio offers a powerful example.

It’s a major global pharmaceutical company using AI to speed up the development of lifesaving drugs. It has already used AI to help test thousands of molecules virtually, cutting drug identification time by 50%.

In fact, the company also recently launched its fastest-growing product launches ever. It took just 12 weeks to reach its first million prescriptions… and only four more weeks to add another million.

Learn how to get Eric’s latest healthcare research here. 

And this is just one example. The Fry’s Investment Report portfolio includes other AI healthcare companies using AI that Wall Street is still largely ignoring.

So, we’re not worried that markets have so far overlooked how quickly AI is changing healthcare. Because when that moment comes – and it will – we’ll be invested in some of the cheapest, highest-quality names in the industry.

You can join us here.

Until next time,

Thomas Yeung, CFA

Market Analyst, InvestorPlace

The post The AI Breakthroughs – and Opportunity – Hiding in Your Doctor’s Office appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Atop the 50-foot-high pole, crowded with electric wires, a nearby fireman caught a terrifying glimpse of the grisly scene.

One of the men, John Feeks, fell from the pole, struck a crossarm, and came into contact with an electric wire.

At that moment, “The current was completed,” the Ann Arbor Register reported.

Feeks’s body stiffened. His leg remained hooked over the crossbar.

“There was no movement.”

His coworker scrambled down and fled. Below, people witnessed a scene Deputy Coroner Jenkins described as the most ghastly he had ever seen. Even afterward, Jenkins could not say whether the current had killed Feeks immediately: “The shock may or may not have killed him instantly.”

The horror soon became public fury, and a full-blown electric wire panic. Building owners cut wires above their rooftops. Newspapers demanded accountability. The next day, Mayor Hugh Grant ordered unsafe wires removed.

New York had already passed legislation requiring wires to go underground. Feeks’s death gave that longstanding fight a terrible urgency.

Put yourself in an investor’s shoes.

A technology that promised to transform everyday life had become a source of public terror. As a result, authorities ordered its infrastructure torn down.

Would you have bet on the future of electricity?

Two years later, a traveling lineman named Henry Miller organized a convention in St. Louis that founded what became the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Today, electrical power-line installers and repairers earn a median $95,320 a year, or nearly twice the median for all occupations.

The lesson I draw is that a technology’s dangers can make the work of building and maintaining it more valuable.

And that brings me to AI.

When investors see backlash, they tend to ask how much growth it could destroy. I think there’s another question worth asking:

How do we solve the problems standing in our way?

That’s the question I’d bring to the AI debate in 2026. Because investors who see only the panic may be putting fear of the unknown ahead of the opportunity.

The Money Isn’t Going Anywhere

Meanwhile, the demand behind this buildout just got locked in.

Anthropic’s leaked initial public offering (IPO) prospectus reportedly shows roughly $518 billion in compute and infrastructure commitments. About 80% of that is noncancelable or payable regardless of usage, with obligations stretching into the 2030s. And OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate is approaching $70 billion, up more than 70% since the start of the third quarter.

So, the backlash isn’t stopping AI dollars. Rather, it’s rerouting them toward the companies that build, wire, and power data centers on-site.

Follow the paychecks and you’ll see it. Experienced electricians now command north of $100,000. Postings for welders and pipefitters are up 164% year over year. Welders can graduate high school and earn $65,000 to $75,000 in short order, with almost unlimited overtime.

Unlike the internet boom, which mostly rewarded advanced degrees, this is a blue-collar resurgence. And it shows up in the order books.

EMCOR Group Inc. (EME) ended June with a record $17.1 billion in remaining performance obligations, up 44% year over year. Comfort Systems USA Inc. (FIX) posted a record $14.1 billion backlog, up 73%. Quanta Services Inc. (PWR) is sitting on $53.4 billion.

On the power side, Bloom Energy Corp. (BE) topped $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, up 166%. Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), whose generators are a go-to for on-site power, is one of our favorite ways to play this. And Anthropic just signed an $11.6 billion, seven-year compute deal with Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) to tap its distributed cloud network.

Follow the Builders

Now take that logic all the way.

If land, water, and angry neighbors are the constraint, what happens when you build somewhere with no neighbors at all?

This week, SpaceX (SPCX) sent Starship into orbit for the first time. Elon Musk says the company’s first AI compute satellites, powered by Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) chips, will launch in late 2027 and hit “significant scale” in 2028. Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL) Google is sending its own AI chips into orbit this week.

It’s early, and it’s expensive. Barclays estimates orbital compute costs roughly three times as much as building on the ground. For the next few years, the boom here on Earth keeps rolling.

But I keep coming back to one thing in particular…

In 1889, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse dominated the headline, which locked in their war of the currents. The steadier fortunes went to the builders who strung the wire, dug the conduits, and supplied the equipment that electrified the country.

The same thing is happening today. Only the headlines are about moratoriums and chatbots. Wherever new infrastructure goes, a class of builders and suppliers follows. They rarely get the magazine covers, but they’re usually where the money is made.

Orbital data centers won’t be any different. Everyone is watching SpaceX. Yet, far fewer are watching the companies that will build, launch, power, and connect the compute Musk wants to put in space.

That supply chain is what I call “XPANSE.” And I think it could be one of the most asymmetric setups in the entire AI trade.

I’ve put together a full briefing on it, including the companies I believe are best positioned to profit as this buildout leaves the ground.

Click here to see my full XPANSE presentation.

The post What the History of Electric Wires Can Teach Us About the Data Center Backlash appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Since launching on Sept. 8, Meta’s (META) Muse AI agent has shot to No. 1 on both the U.S. App Store and Google Play – and is still there.

By late last week, third-party trackers at Sensor Tower pegged downloads north of 3.4 million, outpacing even ChatGPT’s blistering early adoption.

Here’s JPMorgan:

While it is still early, we believe that Muse has the potential to become the most widely used consumer AI application since ChatGPT.

So, what’s the big deal here?

In a word: agency. Muse doesn’t just answer questions. It runs continuously in the background, operates its own virtual computer and browser, coordinates multiple sub-agents across a task, and works across your devices.

It already plugs into Gmail, PayPal, Shopify, Walmart, Best Buy, and Expedia – and connects to your bank through Plaid, the same plumbing your budgeting app uses.

In AI Revolution Portfolio – the AI-focused investing service helmed by Louis Navellier, Luke Lango, and Eric Fry – the team put it this way in last Thursday’s issue:

The distinguisher here isn’t just intelligence – it’s access and persistence.

The more access Muse gets to your email, calendar, shopping, computer, and physical surroundings, the more tasks it could potentially handle on your behalf.

And this is where this stops being a tech story and becomes a disruption story.

AI agents as a commoditization machine

If an agent can comparison-shop as well as a person – or better – it could reshape how consumers pick financial products, insurance, travel, retailers, you name it. So, instead of sticking with the bank or brokerage you’ve always used because finding a better/cheaper option is a pain and switching is a hassle, you could hand the chore to an agent with no loyalty (or search fatigue) at all.

Think about the potential fallout…

Entire industries have been built on the idea that customers are loyal, inattentive, or simply too busy or unwilling to shop around. Meanwhile, businesses spend billions cultivating brand recognition, loyalty programs, slick apps, and manipulative design tricks, all meant to nudge a distracted human toward a choice that isn’t always the best-value one. It works because humans are emotional, forgetful, and easily anchored.

An agent is none of those things.

An agent doesn’t recognize a logo, care about a funny Super Bowl ad, fall for a “limited-time only” banner, or forget to cancel the free trial. It just optimizes on cost and value, full stop.

This means that the agentic era could become a powerful commoditizing force – stripping the premium from any product whose advantage rests on branding and inertia rather than genuine, provable value.

The early data suggests consumers are ready to let it. A recent Checkout.com survey found 57% of consumers would let an AI shopping agent switch brands if it found a better-value option. And in a Deloitte survey, 44% of retail executives said they expect AI to weaken brand loyalty by pushing choice toward value and fit over brand recognition.

Here’s Bain & Company:

Shopping agents could relegate retailers to drop shippers or commoditized fulfillment mechanisms.

Now, let’s be clear: even if this is what’s coming, we’re in the earliest possible phase of this shift.

Agents haven’t yet proven they shop better than people at scale, and companies won’t go quietly. Some will fight back by blocking agents outright, as Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has already done with Muse. Others will race to game the machines with a new kind of marketing built for algorithms instead of eyeballs. So, this won’t be a clean, overnight rout.

But the direction is hard to argue with. And it points toward a surprisingly long list of industries whose moats are built on friction, which leaves them vulnerable to agentic disruption:

• Insurance – Millions of drivers and homeowners overpay for years out of pure inertia. An agent re-shops every renewal.
• Credit cards – Rewards, teaser rates, and balances that never get moved. An agent automatically chases the best terms.
• Wireless, broadband, and streaming – The home of the “loyalty penalty,” where existing customers pay higher rates than new ones. An agent renegotiates or cancels without a second thought.
• Airlines, hotels, and online travel – Loyalty programs vs. an agent that sees only the best itinerary at the best price.
• Consumer brands and retail – The brand premium erodes the moment an agent weighs it against a cheaper equivalent on identical specs.
• Banking and brokerage – The cheap-deposit model, which I’ll dive deeper into in a second.

Bottom line: The businesses most exposed won’t be the ones offering the best deal – they’ll be the ones profiting from the fact that you’ve never gone looking for a better one.

Driving it home: the “agentic bank run”

Let’s look at an example that’s already made waves in millions of investor portfolios.

The banking industry has had a rough month. In yesterday’s Digest, we walked through how the fastest jump in the 10-year Treasury yield in years is squeezing the financial system. As of last week, regional banks, as measured by the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE), had fallen nearly 10% from their recent highs.

This agentic fear is the sharp, new worry on top of woes about interest rates.

Take last Tuesday, when the S&P 500 Financials Index fell more than 2%, while Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and several brokerage names dropped more than 5%. That selloff wasn’t due to rates – it was because of Muse.

Here’s Apollo Global Management’s chief economist, Torsten Slok, from his piece titled “Is an Agentic Bank Run Coming?”:

If every household used AI agents to optimize the return on their cash balances, banks could lose a large share of the cheap deposits they rely on to make loans, which would be a problem for the entire financial system.

To make sure we’re all on the same page, banks earn money in part by paying you almost nothing on the cash in your checking account (the national average is a laughable 0.1%) while lending out your money at a much higher rate.

Now, new fintech companies already pay far more than traditional banks. Slok notes SoFi Technologies Inc. (SOFI) offers 4.5% (restrictions apply). What’s kept the money parked at traditional banks is friction. Moving it is a chore that most people never get around to.

An AI agent erases that friction.

Back to Slok:

Muse and similar agentic AI assistants could soon sweep household cash automatically into accounts paying 3.3% to 5.0%, instead of the 0.1% national average on checking accounts.

How willing would you be to spend, say, 10 seconds prompting Muse to move your money if it earned you 5% instead of 0.1%?

As I wrote earlier, this isn’t just a tech story – it’s a disruption story.

Now, before we bury the American bank: this threat, while real, is still theoretical. While it’s a genuine risk to banks’ margins, agents won’t flip the entire deposit base overnight, giving banks time to respond. They’ll roll out their own AI assistants to keep customers (and their cash) where they are.

What this means for the broader AI trade

In yesterday’s Digest, we highlighted Luke Lango’s “5% line in the sand” related to the 10-year Treasury yield and its eventual impact on the AI trade.

In short, the AI sector – and stocks in general – ultimately depends on a healthy consumer whose spending funds Big Tech’s revenues, which in turn helps fund the enormous AI buildout. Break the consumer, and eventually, it impacts the capex.

Muse is the other side of that coin. Mass adoption is precisely what turns all that AI spending into actual revenue.

Here’s Luke:

Muse may not be advancing the frontier in the same way as Claude Fable or ChatGPT Astra, but it is advancing mass adoption – a critical ingredient in turning AI investment into revenue and sustaining the infrastructure spending cycle…

The infrastructure implications extend well beyond the launch downloads…

If Muse sustains its engagement, it could become a durable, growing source of demand that was absent from many forecasts a month ago.

The market has spent two years worried about whether the AI infrastructure boom would ever pay for itself. An app that hundreds of thousands of people reach for every single day is the beginning of an answer – one that’s bullish for AI.

But – and in this market there’s always a “but” – that same buildout just drew fresh fire in Washington…

The latest political fallout

On Sunday night, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., joined by Sens. Tina Smith, D-Minn., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and several colleagues, sent letters to the CEOs of Meta, Amazon, Alphabet (GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT) demanding an accounting of the tax breaks they’ve claimed on AI and data-center spending thanks to 2025’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

The numbers they flag do catch the eye…

Meta paid $2.8 billion in federal income tax in 2025 – down from $9.6 billion the year before – while earning roughly the same profit. Microsoft’s current federal income tax expense fell more than $11 billion from fiscal 2025 to 2026. Amazon’s tax expense dropped nearly $8 billion, and Alphabet’s fell more than $7 billion.

All told, corporate tax payments are running about 25% lower this year, even as revenues climb.

Here’s the heart of Warren’s letter to Mark Zuckerberg:

This enormous tax cut appears to have been driven in significant part by President Trump and Republicans’ tax breaks subsidizing your spending on AI…

Your company has spent lavishly to stay on the good side of President Trump, and it appears that you are now seeing your investment bear fruit.

Remember – the AI buildout hasn’t just been powered by demand and cheap-ish capital. It’s also been powered by generous tax treatment – the immediate deductions that let Meta write off much of its $72 billion in capital spending last year.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates roughly $67 billion in retroactive breaks are available to companies in 2026 alone. Strip those incentives away – or even threaten to – and some of the math behind the AI buildout changes. And with data centers a flashpoint heading into the 2026 midterms, this is unlikely to be the last shot fired.

So, we end today where we’ve ended so many Digests in recent months – with genuine crosswinds

Muse shows the AI flywheel finally spinning the way the bulls promised – real adoption, usage, and recurring demand for compute. That’s a huge, encouraging tailwind.

But much of what consumers like about AI – savings and value – is a headwind for the profit margins of companies that have grown fat and happy on consumer inertia. Meanwhile, Washington is beginning to eye the subsidies propping up the buildout.

This is the kind of market where it pays to know which companies sit on the right side of the disruption – the ones collecting the inference tolls – versus the ones, like the banks, whose moats face new challenges. For Luke’s latest research and stock recommendations to navigate this challenge, click here to learn about joining him in Innovation Investor.

In the meantime, we’ll keep tracking all of it – Muse’s momentum, the deposit-flight threat, and Warren’s tax investigation – and will report back.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

(Disclosure: I own MSFT, AMZN, WMT, GOOGL)

The post Is an “Agentic AI Bank Run” Coming? appeared first on InvestorPlace.

What gives?

That’s the situation investors refer to as market breadth. And it’s been weakening of late.

But tracking a broad market index like the S&P 500 can tell you one story. Following the individual stocks trading inside it can tell you something else.

So what does that mean for investors, and is it a reason to sell?

One way to answer these questions is to look at what happened in the past.

And that’s where my friend Paul Hickey, cofounder of Bespoke Investment Group, comes in.

Paul joined Crystal and me for the latest Navellier Market Buzz to discuss the market’s narrowing leadership. We discussed how the tech-heavy Nasdaq hit a new high a week ago after more than three-and-a-half months of meandering.

Hickey looked at similar setups to this one, and what happened over the following month and six-month periods.

We also talked about the recent rise in Treasury yields, what could derail the current market rally – and two “triple play” stocks on Paul’s radar that should maybe be on yours, too.

Click the image below to watch this week’s Navellier Market Buzz.

Get Ready for a Trading Challenge

Some of you may remember my friend and colleague Jonathan Rose – a former guest on Navellier Market Buzz. He spent nearly three decades on some of the most active trading floors in America – the CME, a bond futures desk he helped grow from six people to 150 traders, and four years as a market maker at the CBOE.

These days, he goes live on YouTube every morning at 11 a.m. Eastern at Masters in Trading LIVE to work through what’s moving and why.

He’s also hosting a free live event later in October that you won’t want to miss.

It’s called the $10K to $100K Challenge – and it’s where he’ll walk through the exact signals he uses to find big winners in less time (and with less risk) than most people realize.

We’ll have more details on that event real soon. In the meantime, you can get Masters in Trading LIVE delivered to your inbox daily by going here.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Editor, Market 360

The post 2 “Perfect Stocks” Beating and Raising Right Now appeared first on InvestorPlace.

It’s quite the odd sales pitch. But during the pandemic, car dealers could apparently make it work.

In our latest episode of Being Exponential with Luke Lango, we’re joined by Money Flows’ Jason Bodner who recalled shopping for a car during the chip shortage. You’d pay a premium for less features. Even a powered tailgate was too much to ask.

The automobile industry could build the big, expensive parts. But without enough of the little electronic ones, buyers had to settle.

There’s an investing lesson tucked inside that inconvenience somewhere: A component doesn’t have to be glamorous to become valuable. It has to be difficult to replace when everybody needs it.

Which brings us to artificial intelligence.

Investors spend a great deal of time debating which AI model will be smartest, which assistant will win our loyalty, and whether the whole business has become a bubble.

All fair questions. Meanwhile, someone has to supply the memory for those systems and the optical connections that transmit information between chips.

That’s where our conversation got interesting.

I invited Jason and fellow Money Flows co-founder Lucas Downey to defend the AI bull market while I tried to poke holes in it.

You heard that right… I took the AI bear case.

Semiconductors are cyclical. Customers can overspend. A fat backlog today doesn’t guarantee fat profits tomorrow. And investors who mistake peak earnings for permanently higher earnings can discover that a “cheap” stock was actually pretty expensive.

Their response centered on rising earnings estimates, supply constraints, and signs of institutional money returning to parts of the AI infrastructure trade.

Lucas singled out photonics — technology that uses light to transmit information — as a potential next major opportunity.

But the price chart alone won’t tell you which is happening. A stock can climb sharply and still become cheaper relative to its earnings, if those earnings grow faster. It can also fall sharply without becoming a bargain.

So before you decide the AI boom has already made its money, consider the lesson from that car lot.

The next opportunity may lie in an essential part that everyone needs.

In this episode, we’ll examine where those shortages are emerging, what the money flows suggest, and how to separate businesses delivering profits from stocks selling promises:

Is the Semiconductor Boom Nearing Its Peak?

We’ve seen semiconductor shortages before.

Demand surges. Manufacturers expand capacity. Customers stockpile chips because they’re afraid of running out. Eventually, supply catches up, orders slow, and yesterday’s shortage becomes tomorrow’s inventory problem.

That’s why a low price-to-earnings ratio can be misleading in this industry. A stock trading at six times earnings looks inexpensive… until those earnings get cut in half.

I put that argument directly to Lucas and Jason. Several years into the AI infrastructure buildout, why should investors assume this cycle has more room to run?

Their answer was that the evidence they follow hasn’t signaled an earnings peak.

Lucas pointed to rising earnings expectations among memory and storage suppliers. Jason emphasized the multiyear demand outlook described by manufacturers and their customers.

Neither observation abolishes the semiconductor cycle. But both challenge the assumption that its reversal is imminent.

The question is whether the conditions that end a boom are actually developing.

Are customers cutting orders? Are earnings estimates falling? Is new capacity overwhelming demand?

Those are more useful questions than simply asking how long stocks have been going up.

In the discussion, I noted that the expected earnings peak for Micron (MU) had kept moving further into the future as estimates changed. A valuation built around an approaching collapse deserves another look if the business keeps pushing that collapse further away.

It also deserves continued scrutiny, as forecasts can change in either direction.

The Spending Has to Earn Its Keep

Now, there’s a second objection: What if the companies buying all this infrastructure eventually decide they aren’t earning enough from it?

That’s the harder question.

A company can announce an enormous spending plan. It can sign contracts, reserve capacity, and promise shareholders that AI will transform its business. Eventually, the economics have to justify the spending.

I asked whether enterprise demand could persist long enough to support the buildout.

Jason, ever the practical one, described himself as a surfer of money flows, watching the conditions in front of him. His investment process combines institutional trading activity with business fundamentals: sales, earnings, margins, and financial strength.

That framework doesn’t settle the ultimate return on every AI investment. It does help distinguish a possible future problem from deterioration already showing up in the data.

For investors, that means keeping two ideas in mind: The long-term spending debate remains unresolved, while suppliers can still have substantial opportunities serving demand that exists today.

Is This the Next AI Bottleneck?

That brings us to one of the most interesting parts of the conversation: photonics.

Buying more powerful processors is only part of building a more capable AI system. Those processors also need to exchange enormous amounts of information.

Imagine expanding a warehouse until it can process twice as many orders while leaving its loading docks unchanged. At some point, moving goods becomes the constraint.

AI infrastructure faces its own version of that problem.

Photonics uses light to transmit information. As computing systems grow, optical connections become increasingly important to moving data efficiently between their components.

Lucas identified this as a potential next major investment theme. We discussed Marvell (MRVL) and Corning (GLW) as two companies with exposure to that buildout.

Marvell supplies semiconductor technology used in data infrastructure, including optical connectivity. Corning brings fiber and optical communications expertise.

They occupy different parts of the system. The investment question is how much growing demand translates into revenue, profits, and durable competitive advantages for each.

A compelling technology story is the beginning of that analysis.

Shareholders still need the business to capture value, and the purchase price to leave room for a worthwhile return.

Which raises another question I pressed during the episode: If the opportunity is so attractive, why had several optical stocks spent months going sideways?

Lucas and Jason pointed to the distinction between business performance and trading pressure.

They discussed forced selling, portfolio adjustments, interest rates, and uncertainty as possible explanations for weakness. Their money-flow analysis was aimed at identifying whether institutions were continuing to sell or beginning to return.

But selling can occur for reasons unrelated to a company’s operating outlook. A leveraged investor facing a cash demand may sell a good business simply because it can be sold.

But investors shouldn’t turn that possibility into a blanket excuse for every falling stock. Sometimes a price decline is warning you about a business problem. The work is to compare the selling with what’s happening to orders, earnings expectations, and competitive positioning.

How the AI Winners Could Change

There’s also a broader point here that gets lost when investors treat “AI stocks” as one trade.

The companies benefiting from this buildout can change.

While critical components remain scarce, suppliers may enjoy stronger pricing power. If those components become cheaper, the companies buying them could benefit from lower costs.

That shift would create winners and losers within the AI economy. It wouldn’t automatically end the opportunity to invest in it.

Eventually, the benefits could reach further.

We discussed whether businesses outside technology could improve their margins as they learn to apply AI. Technology companies have an obvious head start. Retailers and other consumer businesses may take longer to turn experimentation into measurable results.

That potential broadening is worth watching. It still has to show up in the numbers.

For now, my takeaway from trying to play the bear is this: The bullish case is strongest when it rests on specific businesses delivering specific results.

Jason warned against paying extravagant prices for companies that have barely begun to monetize their promises. Lucas emphasized opportunities investors may overlook inside the broader AI theme.

I agree with both.

You don’t need to assume every spending commitment will pay off. You do need to distinguish an essential supplier with growing profits from a company whose main asset is an exciting presentation.

Keep watching earnings revisions. Watch whether shortages persist as capacity expands. Look for evidence that institutional buying is supported by improving fundamentals.

And remain willing to change your mind when those conditions change.

The missing tailgate offers a useful starting point. Follow the shortage to the supplier, then follow the supplier’s economics.

That’s where the story becomes an investment case.

Watch the full Being Exponential conversation for our debate on memory, photonics, institutional money flows, and the risks that could change the outlook.

The post The Next AI Stock Winners Could Be Hiding in the Bottlenecks appeared first on InvestorPlace.

As I write on Monday morning, stocks are selling off due to geopolitical disappointments over the weekend.

President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal to wind down the roughly seven-month-old conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s offer, floated at the United Nations, would have reopened the strait within seven days if the U.S. lifted its naval blockade, waived oil sanctions, and agreed to a regional ceasefire.

The breakdown came down to two things: sequencing and scope. On sequencing, nearly all those U.S. concessions would have come first – before Iran reopened the waterway or committed to a nuclear deal. The Trump administration doubted Tehran would follow through once the pressure was lifted.

On scope, Iran wanted to keep talks narrow, focused on the strait and the blockade, while the U.S. is holding out for broader nuclear concessions, including limits on uranium enrichment that Iran has so far refused to give up.

Still, Trump said he expects negotiators on both sides to keep talking this week, so the door isn’t fully closed. However, without an immediate ceasefire, the investment markets are responding as you’d expect.

Stocks are down, and oil is up. But it’s the Treasury market – where the 10-year has jumped to 5.25% – that I want to dig into.

We’ve moved into dangerous territory

In our August 19 Digest, we shared a specific number from our technology expert Luke Lango, editor of Innovation Investor: “5%” – his line in the sand for the 10-year Treasury yield.

Below it, he argued, the AI bull market survives. Above it, the risks accelerate.

His rationale was that above 5%, the bruised consumer becomes a broken one. And a broken consumer eventually impacts Big Tech’s revenues, leaving hyperscalers with fewer dollars to fund their AI capex commitments and putting the whole trade in danger.

Last Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield hit 5.20%, its highest level since 2007. This morning, it’s even higher – 5.25%. And yet, even though stocks are down this morning, the S&P has edged higher since the 10-year shot past 5% roughly a week ago.

What gives?

First, 5% is not a light switch that flips the market from “fine” to “broken” the instant we touch it. It’s a bit like having your house tented and bug-bombed – then realizing you left your keys inside…

Dart in for 10 seconds to grab them, and you’ll be fine. Pull up a chair and binge-watch a season of your favorite show, and it’s a very different story. The poison isn’t about the instant you cross the threshold – it’s about how long you sit in it.

And let’s be clear about why the yield is where it is…

This isn’t the happy, growth-is-booming version of higher yields. Our growth investing expert Louis Navellier, editor of Growth Investor, has been clear that this is the bond vigilantes at work – a global revolt against runaway government debt, now with an oil supply shock and Middle East conflict layered on top. It all points toward fears of higher inflation to come. So, collectively, this represents the “bad reason” for rising rates.

Which brings us to an important question…

What’s the potential fallout of the 10-year at 5.25%?

Where the consumer will feel it

Whatever pain the consumer feels from the 10-year yield won’t show up right away. But there’s one area where we can see what’s coming – the mortgage, the single most rate-sensitive point in any household’s life. And that’s exactly where the strain is already visible.

Mortgage rates track the 10-year, so a yield above 5% means mortgages north of 7%. The 30-year fixed now sits at 7.03% – high enough to turn an already-frozen housing market into an icy tundra. Would-be buyers can’t afford to move; sellers won’t give up the cheap loans they locked in years ago. And homeowners sitting on adjustable-rate loans could feel the bite even harder as those rates reset at higher levels in the months ahead.

This is a quick glimpse of what “weight on the consumer” looks like at this stage – not an immediate collapse in retail sales or a spike in layoffs, but the rate-sensitive front line starting to freeze. The broader damage, which I’ll get to in a moment – credit card and auto delinquencies, softer spending, a weaker job market – is the part that lags. If it’s coming, that’s a Digest you’ll read closer to the end of the year or the start of 2027.

But that’s the whole point – the longer we remain above 5%, the more likely it becomes that we’re in the early innings of a slow-moving squeeze.

The second fallout area: the system

The consumer is only one front. The same rate shock is already hitting the parts of the market that move fastest – and there, the strain isn’t hidden at all.

But before I show you two, keep one thing in mind. Beyond the 5.25% level itself, the danger, as it relates to our economic system, is how quickly we’ve reached it.

Two weeks ago, the yield was below 4.8%. And earlier in August, it even dipped under 4.6%. The race to 5.25% represents one of the fastest moves in years.

22V Research’s head of technical analysis, John Roque, looked back at five decades of historical market data and counted 16 rapid spikes like this one. Every single time, there was some sort of fallout – from the short-lived Silicon Valley Bank scare in 2023 to the 1987 crash. As Roque put it: “Something always breaks.”

So, what signs are there that something is at risk of breaking?

First, look at the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) – between mid-August and last Wednesday, it fell nearly 10% from its recent high, a hair from correction territory.

Regional banks are historically the first thing to buckle when yields spike this fast – the canary in the “something always breaks” coal mine.

Second, utilities tell a version of the same story. As a debt-heavy, rate-sensitive corner of the market, they were the worst-performing group in the S&P 500 last week.

These moves don’t directly reflect the consumer, the lagging indicator. But regional banks and utilities reprice in real time. So, what we’re seeing now could be what’s coming for the consumer since, ultimately, they’re being squeezed by the very same force.

One date to circle – and what to do about all of it

For the next clue about where this goes, watch the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report on Wednesday.

Now, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has been clear he doesn’t put much stock in any single data point; he’s watching the trajectory, not one month’s print. But Warsh doesn’t vote alone. The rest of the Fed’s members are far more reactive to fresh numbers, and a hot PCE reading could stiffen their resolve for more hikes, which brings us back to the consumer.

A moment ago, I wrote that credit card and auto delinquencies, which lead to softer retail spending, are the part that lags behind higher rates. But let’s be clear about which rate.

While we’ve been looking at the 10-year yield, most of the debt that families carry day to day comes from the prime rate – the benchmark for credit cards, auto loans and home equity lines.

But prime moves in lockstep with the Fed. It’s the fed funds rate plus three percentage points. So, when the Fed hikes, prime rises with it, and the interest on hundreds of millions of credit card balances ratchets higher within a billing cycle or two.

So this leaves us with a potential double whammy on Wednesday…

If the PCE data come in hot, it could strengthen the case for more hikes – pushing the prime higher and squeezing consumers through their everyday debt. Meanwhile, it could also keep bond vigilantes leaning toward the long end of the yield curve, holding up the 10-year yield and affecting the housing market and AI lending.

Which brings us full circle to where we started today: a market under pressure, and the question of how much damage is building beneath the surface.

The bull market – the AI trade above all – ultimately rests on a healthy consumer. Squeeze that consumer from the 10-year and the prime rate and spending softens, which eventually reaches Big Tech’s revenues, which puts at risk the AI buildout the whole market is leaning on.

Wednesday’s PCE report won’t settle the matter, but it’ll tell us whether the pressure on both levers is easing – or tightening another notch.

We’ll report back.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

The post 5% Was the Line – We’re Now at 5.25% appeared first on InvestorPlace.

This Week’s Ratings Changes:

Upgraded: Strong to Very Strong

Downgraded: Very Strong to Strong

Upgraded: Neutral to Strong

Downgraded: Strong to Neutral

Upgraded: Weak to Neutral

Downgraded: Neutral to Weak

Upgraded: Very Weak to Weak

Downgraded: Weak to Very Weak

To stay on top of my latest stock ratings, plug your holdings into Stock Grader, my proprietary stock screening tool. But, you must be a subscriber to one of my premium services.

If you are a member of one of my premium services, you can go here.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Editor, Market 360

The post Eli Lilly Upgraded, Intel Downgraded: Updated Rankings on Top Blue-Chip Stocks appeared first on InvestorPlace.

The AI boom is still pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure, but the economics of that infrastructure are already changing.

Companies are racing to build data centers, buy chips, and add computing capacity, much like telecom companies raced to bury the world in fiber-optic cable during the dot-com boom.

And history tells us something interesting about what happens when that race eventually slows down:

One category of companies tends to thrive during the bust that follows every boom: the appliers. They never touch a shovel or a spool of cable. They simply wait for the new technology to become ubiquitous and cheap, then capitalize on it by finding ways to apply the new technology to their own business.

The dot-com telecom boom ran on the same playbook.

Companies like Global Crossing, 360Networks, Williams Communications, and WorldCom raised and spent billions laying fiber-optic cable on the assumption that bandwidth would stay scarce enough to keep generating gaudy returns.

During the boom, telecom companies spent close to $1 trillion installing a staggering 80 million miles of fiber. But fiber itself never stopped working after the dot-com bust. What stopped is the boom that justifies laying more of it.

That’s when the appliers seize their moment… and begin to reward investors.

I ran an institutional research service through the dot-com era, and a few of my calls from that period illustrate the pattern cleanly.

Humana Inc. (HUM), a health insurer whose entire business runs on moving information, seized the opportunity the internet provided by digitizing its paper claims, records, and authorizations. Suddenly, these millions of pieces of information whisked through fiber-optic lines to arrive at their destinations in a fraction of the time that paper did.

Less than a year after the dot-com bust started, Humana’s stock doubled, on its way to soaring 1,000% in eight years and more than 5,000% over time. Sierra Health Services, same logic, climbed 10-fold in just five years – a period in which many high-profile tech stocks were still nursing losses of 50% or more.

Half a world away, Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. (INDHOTEL.NS) thrived by wiring a global booking system through high-speed internet connections. As the company’s annual net income skyrockets from $5 million at the end of 2001 to $70 million by 2006, its stock jumped more than 1,000%.

None of these companies contributed to building the internet. They applied it. That’s the whole trade. But here’s the catch:

During the boom, applier stocks rarely attract much attention or a premium valuation. Only when the bust arrives do they begin building names for themselves… and wealth for their shareholders.

The lesson isn’t that investors have to wait for the next bust to find these companies. It’s that history shows us where to look.

Once infrastructure becomes abundant and cheap, the real opportunity shifts to the businesses that can suddenly do more with it. And with AI, we can already see that shift beginning.

That brings us to today’s emerging class of AI Appliers.

I’ll share where I’m looking for these plays below, but first let’s take a look at what we’ve covered here at Smart Money recently…

Smart Money Roundup

September 24, 2026

How to Position Before the Oil Cushion Hits Empty

The 1999 cargo ship Hope I ran aground after its crew ignored a low-fuel alarm – a fitting warning for today, as the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve falls to its lowest level since 1982. In this issue, I get into why the West’s combined oil reserves leave us dangerously exposed to any supply shock – and the real opportunity being the renewable buildout racing to fill the gap.

September 26, 2026

If You Can Kick It, You Can Pick It

Technology used to evolve slowly. Now, AI is reshaping everything in real time, especially amidst the rise of agentic AI. As agents like Meta Platform Inc.‘s (META) Muse move from answering questions to acting on our behalf, they threaten whole industries; financial stocks already felt the sting. Here’s why you should invest in the tangible.

The Gradual Shift I Recommend

We don’t need to wait for the next bust to identify the businesses that could benefit from what comes after it. We can look at what happened after previous infrastructure booms and ask a simpler question: Who becomes more profitable when the technology gets cheaper?

That’s why I keep recommending a gradual shift: out of the headline-grabbing companies building AI infrastructure, and into the overlooked companies already learning to apply it. The pharmaceutical and medical-technology sectors are early adopters of AI. I expect both industries to produce extraordinary breakthroughs over the next few years, riding on infrastructure that companies like Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) are borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars to build.

A pharmaceutical company doesn’t need to own a single data center to benefit from AI-driven drug discovery. It only needs AI compute to get cheap enough to operate at the scale discovery actually requires.

The pharma companies hold no monopoly on AI adoption, of course. The growing cadre of AI Appliers is becoming an increasingly wide-ranging group

When the AI boom ultimately ends in a bust, history gives us a useful clue about what happens when revolutionary infrastructure becomes abundant and cheap. And the investors who come out ahead will be the ones who recognized early that the winners of the next act were never going to be the ones building the stage, but the ones dancing upon it.

Move now, while moving is easy.

Regards,

Eric Fry

The post Here’s Who Wins When AI Infrastructure Gets Cheap appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Britain has spent nearly $40 million on Elon Musk’s satellite network.

Across the Channel, the European Union is preparing to spend €15.7 billion so it can rely on that network less.

Britain is buying access today; the EU is buying insurance for tomorrow.

Put those two decisions together, and a Starlink paradox comes into view. 

Musk’s network has become so useful that governments are willing to pay for it now. It has also become so strategically important that those same governments are willing to spend billions building alternatives.

Musk gets the customer.

His lead creates the competitor.

The supply chain wins either way. 

Why Britain Is Deepening Its Reliance on Starlink

Britain started using Starlink back in 2022. Since then, it has moved live military communications onto Starshield – becoming the first country outside the U.S. to do so publicly. Its Ministry of Defence now operates roughly 1,000 Starshield terminals and another 500 Starlink terminals. 

The two services run across the same satellite network. Starshield adds military-specific contracts, stronger encryption, higher network priority, expanded coverage, and dedicated ground gateways.

Those upgrades cost more.

Britain pays up because the service is available now.

The country already operates its own Skynet military satellite network. It also owns a stake in European satellite operator Eutelsat. Yet its defense ministry still bought more than 1,000 Starshield terminals – because governments can’t always wait for the perfect homegrown solution. Command centers need reliable communications at all times. When a proven network is already in orbit, it can easily become the default.

Not to mention, Britain is building procedures around Starshield. Personnel are learning the equipment. Military units are integrating it into operations. 

Those habits create a deeper relationship than a one-time hardware purchase.

The longer the sovereign alternatives take, the more embedded SpaceX can become.

IRIS²’s Multiyear Deployment Gap Is Starlink’s Moat

Meanwhile, Europe is now moving IRIS² – its planned 348-satellite sovereign communications network – from policy into deployment. The system will include 330 satellites in low Earth orbit and 18 in medium Earth orbit, with the first launches expected in 2029 and service rolling out between 2030 and 2032. 

This fleet will be far smaller than Starlink’s 10,000 active satellites. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in control: a network European governments can use on their own terms in a crisis. 

The bigger issue is timing.

Every delay gives Starlink more time to improve coverage, lower hardware costs, sign government contracts, and deepen its lead. Europe is building against a moving target.

By the time IRIS² enters service, SpaceX will have launched more satellites, expanded direct-to-phone service, upgraded its terminals, and added more military customers.

That does not make Europe’s project pointless.

It makes it expensive.

Catching a platform with a multiyear head start usually is.

Starlink’s Dominance Is Creating a Second Satellite Spending Cycle

Starlink’s success is now pushing money in two directions.

The first stream flows directly to SpaceX.

Britain has spent nearly $40 million on Starlink and Starshield, including about $17.6 million on Starshield terminals and airtime. In the United States, SpaceX says multiyear government awards for Starshield now exceed $6 billion, largely through two major Space Force programs. 

The second stream flows into alternatives.

Ukraine turned Europe’s dependence into a battlefield reality. Starlink became central to military communications, and no European network was ready to replace it. Leaders now want secure satellite capacity they can control themselves.  

That desire has survived political fights, cost increases, and years of delay.

IRIS² was estimated to cost €10.6 billion in late 2024. The projected bill has since risen to €15.7 billion, with public money expected to cover nearly two-thirds. Even so, 22 European countries recently pledged to keep accelerating the project.

That is a remarkable response to one private company’s lead.

Usually, competition is supposed to divide an existing market.

Starlink is helping create another one.

Once satellite communications become national infrastructure, building some duplicate capacity starts to look less wasteful. Governments will pay for resilience, control, and guaranteed access even when a cheaper commercial service already exists.

Europe does not need IRIS² to win every broadband customer.

It needs the ability to stay connected if access to a foreign network ever becomes uncertain.

That political goal can support spending even when the commercial returns alone look less compelling.

And now that spending is moving from government plans into actual orders.

IRIS² Is Turning Billions in Policy Into Satellite Orders

On Sept. 10, Belgian satellite manufacturer Aerospacelab announced a €2.4 billion contract to build 264 of the 348 satellites planned for IRIS².

That gives one company responsibility for roughly 76% of the constellation and represents the largest disclosed manufacturing allocation in the program so far.

The rest of the work is spreading across Europe’s space industry.

Airbus is expected to assemble 66 satellites dedicated to sensitive government communications. Thales Alenia Space will provide payloads. Germany’s OHB will supply the medium-Earth-orbit satellites. Eutelsat, SES, and Hispasat will help operate the network through the SpaceRISE consortium.

This is where the Starlink paradox becomes investable.

These satellites need communications payloads, antennas, solar arrays, batteries, radiation-tolerant electronics, optical links, cybersecurity, ground stations, testing equipment, and launch capacity.

Then, of course, they’ll need maintenance, upgrades, and replacements long beyond the first deployment.

Europe’s Starlink response is creating a second supply chain.

Europe’s Next Starlink Fight Is Direct-to-Device Satellite Service

These ambitions extend beyond just military and government communications.

At the recent Paris space summit, French President Emmanuel Macron called on Europe’s telecom operators, satellite companies, and manufacturers to form a direct-to-device alliance. The goal is to launch a European service by 2030.

Direct-to-device technology allows an ordinary smartphone to connect with a satellite when no cell tower is available – and expands the competition into the consumer market.

Starlink already has roughly 640 satellites dedicated to the technology and claims more than 10 million users across its broader network. Europe’s largest telecom companies – including Orange, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, and Telefónica – have reportedly discussed forming a consortium to bid for spectrum and build a regional alternative.

The same pattern is repeating:

The direct-to-device race will require another wave of satellites, spectrum, antennas, radio-frequency chips, ground equipment, and carrier integrations. It also brings terrestrial telecom companies into a market that once belonged mostly to rocket and satellite specialists.

Musk’s lead is pulling more industries into orbit.

How the Satellite Supply Chain Can Win on Both Sides of Starlink

Starlink and IRIS² are headed toward different missions.

Starlink is already serving consumers, businesses, and governments. IRIS² is Europe’s attempt to build secure communications capacity it can control when commercial networks are no longer enough.

The constellations will not rely on identical suppliers. But both require the same broad industrial base: satellites, secure payloads, radiation-hardened electronics, power systems, ground infrastructure, software, launch services, and replacement hardware as the networks expand and age.

That is where I start looking whenever Musk commits to a project at enormous scale.

What will he need to buy – and which companies will benefit from supplying it?

The answer has generated some of the most compelling ideas of my career.

Thirty-three recommendations I’ve made connected to Musk’s businesses went on to double or better at their highs. A handful produced gains measured in the thousands of percent.

Of course, I’ve gotten plenty of calls wrong, too. Every investor does.

But Musk’s biggest projects have repeatedly pointed us toward suppliers before the full demand story reached Wall Street. 

Starlink makes that dynamic even more interesting.

SpaceX earns revenue when governments adopt Starshield. Europe’s effort to build a sovereign alternative creates a second wave of demand across the satellite industry. Some companies may sell directly to SpaceX. Others may supply the networks designed to reduce Europe’s dependence on it. A few may end up selling to both sides. 

That same research led me to what I call XPANSE.

Elon Musk has suggested this project could produce 1,000-fold gains for early investors. Its importance also reaches far beyond anyone’s portfolio. XPANSE could help America eliminate a looming threat that one high-ranking government official has described as an “economic apocalypse.”

In my new briefing, I lay out the three steps investors can take today to get on the right side of this shift. I also give away the name and ticker symbol of one investment I believe is ideally positioned as XPANSE moves forward.

Starlink is already showing how one Musk-led project can create spending on both sides of a market.

XPANSE could send an even larger wave through the companies supplying the buildout.

See the full XPANSE briefing – and get the free name and ticker – right here.

P.S. The Starlink paradox tells us where billions are starting to flow. Louis Navellier and Marc Chaikin are focused on the next question: Which stocks are ready to move?

Louis tracks fundamentals. Marc watches price action and institutional money. And right now, both systems are pointing toward the same unusual market setup – one tied to a 92% historical precedent going back to 1925.

They’ll reveal what they see during their Midterm Mayhem event on Tuesday, Sept. 29, along with two free stock ideas and two names they believe investors should avoid.

Save your free seat now.

The post Starlink’s Lead Is Expanding the Satellite Market Around It appeared first on InvestorPlace.

My colleague Louis Navellier sees a similar dynamic unfolding in the stock market today. After years of mega-cap dominance, smaller companies are beginning to take the lead—but that doesn’t mean every small-cap stock deserves a place in your portfolio.

Below, Louis explains what one legendary draft can teach investors about finding tomorrow’s winners—and why he and Marc Chaikin are paying such close attention ahead of their 2026 Midterm Mayhem event on September 29. (You can reserve your free spot for that event here.)

Take it away, Louis…

Every year, NFL teams spend months trying to answer one question.

Who should we draft?

Scouts watch countless hours of game film to study the players coming out of college. Coaches meet with the top prospects, while front offices debate who deserves an early pick and millions of dollars in salary.

They are all trying to answer the same question: Who could become the next NFL superstar – and maybe help bring home a Vince Lombardi Trophy?

Of course, even with all that research, they don’t always get it right. Just look at what happened with the quarterbacks during the 2000 NFL draft…

In total, 12 quarterbacks were selected that year. Some of them had nice careers. But most of the others faded pretty quickly.

Chad Pennington became a solid starter, but his career was cut short by injuries.

Giovanni Carmazzi never played a regular-season game in the NFL.

Chris Redman spent most of his time as a backup.

Tee Martin didn’t see the field much. He later became a coach.

Marc Bulger made a couple of Pro Bowls.

Spergon Wynn struggled in spurts and only lasted two seasons in the league.

Then there was Tom Brady.

Brady was the 199th overall pick and the seventh quarterback selected.

All of those other guys were picked before him. But Brady… became Tom Brady.

There’s an important lesson there: Sometimes the future superstars are the ones flying under the radar.

It wasn’t that teams hadn’t looked at him. They had watched film, evaluated workouts, and analyzed all his statistics. What they didn’t have was a way to recognize a future NFL legend. Brady went on to play in 10 Super Bowls and win seven. He became one of the most accomplished players in NFL history.

The same thing happens on Wall Street.

The next superstar stock isn’t always immediately visible. You can have all the data and still not pick the right one.

For the past few years, investors have been fixated on the same household-name mega-cap stocks, while smaller companies were largely pushed further down the draft board.

But now, that may be starting to change as small caps are beginning to take the lead.

In today’s Market 360, I’ll show you why small caps are on the move, what’s fueling the move, and why I believe some of the biggest opportunities may still be ahead. I’ll also explain why legendary investor Marc Chaikin and I are paying such close attention to them ahead of our Midterm Mayhem event on September 29. (You can click here to reserve your spot now.)

Small Caps Spent Years on the Bench

For the past few years, it has been easy to understand why investors have focused on the market’s biggest names.

The Magnificent Seven – Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), and Tesla Inc. (TSLA) – were putting up tremendous numbers.

In 2023, those seven stocks accounted for more than 62% of the S&P 500’s total return. In 2024, they were still responsible for more than half of the index’s gains.

Small caps simply couldn’t keep up.

The Russell 2000 gained just 15.2% in 2023, compared with 24.2% for the S&P 500.

In 2024, the gap widened, with the Russell 2000 climbing 10% versus 23.3% for the S&P 500. And small caps trailed again in 2025.

In other words, they spent years sitting on the bench while Wall Street’s superstars got most of the attention.

But just like Tom Brady, being overlooked isn’t the same thing as lacking potential. There were still some great small-cap companies out there. You just had to know which ones to buy. And that’s exactly what I was doing.

While small caps as a group spent the past few years trailing the market, I continued to find individual companies that were bucking the trend.

And those winners piled up.

In fact, I now have nine small-cap recommendations with gains of 100% or more in one of my premium services – including one with gains of more than 800%.

So, even when small caps weren’t leading the market, I was still finding big winners among them – thanks to my quantitative system, Stock Grader.

Now, the whole group is starting to move.

Small Caps Are Taking the Lead

As of Monday, the Russell 2000 was up 15.9% year to date, compared with a 13.4% gain for the S&P 500.

What’s behind the shift?

It starts with earnings.

The earnings story for small- and mid-cap stocks is incredibly powerful right now. Many smaller companies are expected to grow earnings much faster than their large-cap peers.

The small-cap stocks I’m currently recommending, for example, have average forecasted earnings growth of 189.8% and average forecasted sales growth of 67.5%. Meanwhile, our friends at FactSet estimate 28.9% earnings growth for the S&P 500 in the third quarter.

I’m evangelical about earnings. I believe nothing is more important to a stock’s long-term potential than its ability to grow earnings.

When earnings are growing, stock prices tend to follow.

But here’s the important part: I don’t think this move in small caps is anywhere close to finished.

Why Small Caps Could Have Much Further to Run

Here’s where things get really interesting.

Small caps may already be on a tear, but that doesn’t mean the opportunity has passed. In fact, by a couple of important measures, they still look like they have plenty of catching up to do.

For starters, small-cap valuations are still hovering around a 25-year low. Investors are paying much less for a dollar of operating earnings from small companies than they typically have in the past.

According to FactSet, the small-cap Russell 2000 index is currently trading at about 85% of the valuation of the Russell 1000 index of larger stocks. Historically, the average is close to 100%.

In other words, small caps are still cheap compared with their larger peers.

So, even after the gains we’ve seen, investors still aren’t paying anywhere close to high prices for these companies.

Another thing is that small caps only make up about 4% of the total U.S. stock market today. Historically, that figure has been closer to 9%.

That’s a pretty remarkable gap.

And remember, these companies are starting to produce much stronger earnings at the same time.

So, we have a group of stocks that is already outperforming, with accelerating earnings and relatively low valuations.

That’s not what I’d call the end of a move. More like the beginning.

Small-cap bull markets tend to play out over years, not a few weeks. And if this one follows anything close to the historical pattern, there could still be a long runway ahead.

Don’t Wait Until the Winners Are Obvious

That doesn’t mean every small-cap stock is going to be a winner, of course. Just like not every quarterback in the 2000 NFL draft became Tom Brady, not every overlooked company is destined for greatness.

You still have to know which ones to own.

Remember that by the time everyone knew Brady was a superstar, nobody was overlooking him anymore. The opportunity to recognize what everyone else had missed came much earlier.

And that’s exactly what Marc Chaikin and I are going to help you with next Tuesday during our 2026 Midterm Mayhem Event.

I don’t want you waiting until Wall Street’s next winners are obvious to everyone else.

So, we’ll show you what we believe is coming next for the market, why small-cap stocks could be some of the biggest winners – and, most importantly, how to prepare.

Click here to save your seat for the 2026 Midterm Mayhem Event now.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Senior Investment Analyst, InvestorPlace

P.S. Louis has spent decades finding stocks with the earnings strength to keep climbing, and this column offers a good look at why he believes small caps deserve your attention now. But it’s only part of the story. On September 29, at 10 a.m. ET, Louis and Marc Chaikin will come together to explain what their two very different systems are seeing in the market – and at how investors can prepare. Click here to reserve your spot for their 2026 Midterm Mayhem event.

The Editor hereby discloses that as of the date of this email, the Editor, directly or indirectly, owns the following securities that are the subject of the commentary, analysis, opinions, advice, or recommendations in, or which are otherwise mentioned in, the essay set forth below:
Apple Inc. (AAPL), Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)

The post Wall Street’s Tom Brady Is Still Flying Under the Radar appeared first on InvestorPlace.

It was allegedly written by James Garfield, the Republican nominee for the White House. And it was a bombshell: It said that Garfield supported unrestricted Chinese immigration – one of the hot-button issues of the day. 

Democrats printed half a million copies of what they called Garfield’s “death warrant” and distributed them in tightly contested states like California. It became one of the first major instances of an “October surprise.” 

Sometimes, these late-game shocks have worked. Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were neck-and-neck going into the final weeks of the 1980 election; the Iranian hostage crisis dominated the news in the election’s closing days, shifting the election in Reagan’s favor. 

Other times, the surprises don’t pan out. Garfield himself managed to squeak by and win the 1880 popular vote by 0.02%, becoming America’s 20th president. (The letter also proved to be a fake.) 

Yet, one thing is certain: These October surprises can create lasting impacts to the economy and beyond, no matter who wins the election. 

In a new special event, Midterm Mayhem, InvestorPlace Senior Analyst Louis Navellier teams up with legendary investor Marc Chaikin to explain these unusual developments as we head toward Election Day. 

They believe a series of October surprises will converge, changing the conversation and catching investors flat-footed. 

You can click here to reserve your free spot for the event, which goes live Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. Eastern. 

In the meantime, I’d like to discuss three companies that highlight how lasting this year’s potential October surprises could be.

The Deepwater Play 

Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen oil prices shoot up as U.S.-Iran tensions have reignited… and then fall again on a potential peace deal. 

I expect we’re only in a temporary lull. 

That’s because Iran has an incentive to raise oil prices going into the U.S midterms. They want the president to lose control of Congress after the election, since a split government would make it more likely for America to end its military campaign and start negotiations. Commentators from both sides of the political spectrum agree. 

So, even if America manages to push oil prices down in the near term, the physical damage to oil infrastructure in the Middle East (both existing and upcoming)should keep global prices higher for longer. 

One of my top picks here is Transocean Ltd. (RIG), a firm that scores a “B” in Louis’ Stock Grader system (Navellier subscription needed). The company is the world’s largest leaser of “floater” oil rigs (27 vessels) and owns another seven harsh-environment semisubmersibles. These platforms are used when ocean water is too deep to anchor regular rigs into the seabed. 

And business is booming. 

Transocean has seen revenues surge 40% in the past two years. No new drillships have been ordered since 2014, and a previously oversupplied market is now swinging into deficit. Industry analysts believe that high-end floaters have been fully contracted through late 2027, allowing Transocean to charge fat premiums for renting its ships and achieve utilization rates “well into the 90s,” according to its CEO. 

In other words, the company is winning from both high day rates and high utilization. 

Transocean additionally announced a merger with rival Valaris Ltd. (VAL) earlier this year. The all-stock deal will create the world’s only full-spectrum offshore driller at scale: $10 billion of backlog, $200-plus million of cost synergies, backed by a fleet of 33 ultra-deepwater drillships, nine semisubmersibles, and 31 modern jack-up drilling rigs.  

Now, I must note there is some concern that the merger will not happen. The Department of Justice is reviewing the deal for antitrust issues, which is why shares of both firms trade at somewhat depressed levels. 

However, the current administration has generally favored merger requests in the energy sector, and I give it a high chance the tie-up will go through. In addition, Valaris’s board accepted a stock-only deal – a fantastic endorsement of Transocean’s stock by the most informed counterparty in the industry.  

Perhaps most importantly, RIG is a surprisingly conservative oil play. Drilling rigs are leased on long-term agreements, and replacement rigs take four-plus years to build.  

And so, even if an “October surprise” doesn’t materialize, and the U.S.-Iran conflict ends instead, Transocean still looks attractive. Shares are likely worth near $8.50 if the merger goes through and $6.50 if not. Both signal upside from today’s $5.50 prices. 

The More Speculative Oil Play 

Investors with greater ability to take risks should also consider Oil States International Inc. (OIS), a midcap firm with three lines of business: 

Over the coming years, I expect Oil States’ offshore business to boom. Offshore drilling is starting a multiyear upcycle, and projects in the Gulf of America, Brazil, Guyana, and West Africa are already being pulled forward to help oil majors diversify away from the Middle East. Potential escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict will only pull more demand to present-day. 

Oil States is also winning contracts from an unusual customer: the U.S. military. Over the past several years, the U.S. Navy has begun buying sound- and vibration-dampening products from Oil States to outfit Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines and more. Military orders now make up 48% of the offshore segment’s record $451 million backlog. 

Now, most financial screeners would pass OIS off as a low-quality play. The company is historically not very profitable, GAAP revenues have been shrinking, and cash flow is unstable. 

But Louis’ Stock Grader system can see through the noise. It awards OIS an “A” because it is forward looking. This is useful because offshore drilling and military contracts operate on long cycles; bookings today result in negative cash flow in the short run (bad), followed by major revenue growth in the future (good). In addition, the revenue decline at Oil States this year was simply a byproduct of its withdrawal from the less profitable onshore business.  

Analysts expect sales growth to flip back positive in fiscal 2027 and adjusted net income to surge 45%. By my reckoning, shares are worth $11 in the base case and $14 in the bull case – a large upside from today’s $8.30 price.

The Media Frenzy 

The fiercely contested 1880 election I wrote of earlier was a boon for the media business. Newspapers spent the final days of the campaign printing allegations, denials, and courtroom updates, while political organizations circulated hundreds of thousands of reproductions of the “death warrant” letter. 

Today, the winners of election-based advertising and coverage have switched to more modern outlets. Social media… digital advertising… TV… and more. These advertisers are benefiting from an expected $11.6 billion in total political advertising spending. That figure not only surpasses the amount spent in the 2022 midterms, but the 2024 presidential cycle as well. Whatever October surprise happens this time around will be drawing eyeballs… and more advertising dollars as well. 

I expect one winner will be Versant Media Inc. (VSNT), the January spinoff from Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) that took many of NBCUniversal’s cable channels (including USA Network, E!, Golf Channel) and digital assets (Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes) along with it. Versant’s most important assets are CNBC and MS NOW (formerly MSNBC). 

I first recommended Versant in January as a seasonal stock to buy. The company had just gone through a post-spinoff selloff, laregly because the Comcast was in the S&P 500 and Versant is not. That meant any S&P 500 tracking funds would have been forced to sell shares of Versant, creating a temporary price dip that traders could exploit. 

Versant shares would recover to $44 by May, rewarding shareholders with a 34% return – quite wonderful for just five months of investment in a low-beta stock. 

A renewed decline back into the $33 range now gives medium-term investors another chance of a double-digit return. Political ad spending is helping lift all boats in the advertising world, and Versant is benefiting by an outsized amount. CNBC has now been a top-10 cable network for four straight months, and MS NOW has grown audiences for seven consecutive months going into the midterm election cycle.

So, even though cable-cord cutting reduced distribution by 6.3% in the past year, advertising revenues have gone down only 0.6% (and should rise from here as midterm ad spending reaches a frenzy). Versant is worth roughly $44 in the base case and $55 in the bull case. 

The Real October Surprises to Watch 

The three companies I mentioned here are a “heads-I-win, tails-I-still-win” way to play a potential October surprise. More oil infrastructure in the Middle East will get damaged in the coming month, no matter what the U.S. decides to do. And political campaigns will be spending small fortunes on TV ads this year.  

Transocean, Oil States, and Versant should come out ahead, regardless of who takes control of Congress this November. 

But the hedging also reduces some upside, since you’re not making a direct bet on exactly what will happen. 

That’s why it will be worthwhile to tune into Louis Navellier and Marc Chaikin’s September 29 event, Midterm Mayhem, where they’ll discuss specific October surprises that could catch the market off guard. They’lll also reveal two of their favorite stocks to benefit from their predictions and two companies to avoid. 

Click here to sign up. 

I’ll see you here next week. 

Thomas Yeung, CFA 

Market Analyst, InvestorPlace

Thomas Yeung is a market analyst and portfolio manager of the Omnia Portfolio, the highest-tier subscription at InvestorPlace. He is the former editor of Tom Yeung’s Profit & Protection, a free e-letter about investing to profit in good times and protecting gains during the bad.

The post 3 Stocks to Buy for an October Surprise   appeared first on InvestorPlace.

My colleague Louis Navellier sees a similar dynamic unfolding in the stock market today. After years of mega-cap dominance, smaller companies are beginning to take the lead – but that doesn’t mean every small-cap stock deserves a place in your portfolio.

Below, Louis explains what one legendary draft can teach investors about finding tomorrow’s winners – and why he and Marc Chaikin are paying such close attention ahead of their 2026 Midterm Mayhem event on September 29. (You can reserve your free spot for that event here.)

Take it away, Louis…

Every year, NFL teams spend months trying to answer one question.

Who should we draft?

Scouts watch countless hours of game film to study the players coming out of college. Coaches meet with the top prospects, while front offices debate who deserves an early pick and millions of dollars in salary.

They are all trying to answer the same question: Who could become the next NFL superstar – and maybe help bring home a Vince Lombardi Trophy?

Of course, even with all that research, they don’t always get it right. Just look at what happened with the quarterbacks during the 2000 NFL draft…

In total, 12 quarterbacks were selected that year. Some of them had nice careers. But most of the others faded pretty quickly.

Chad Pennington became a solid starter, but his career was cut short by injuries. 

Giovanni Carmazzi never played a regular-season game in the NFL.

Chris Redman spent most of his time as a backup.

Tee Martin didn’t see the field much. He later became a coach.

Marc Bulger made a couple of Pro Bowls. 

Spergon Wynn struggled in spurts and only lasted two seasons in the league.

Then there was Tom Brady.

The Best Prospect Isn’t Always the Obvious One 

Brady was the 199th overall pick and the seventh quarterback selected.

All of those other guys were picked before him. But Brady… became Tom Brady.

There’s an important lesson there: Sometimes the future superstars are the ones flying under the radar.

It wasn’t that teams hadn’t looked at him. They had watched film, evaluated workouts, and analyzed all his statistics. What they didn’t have was a way to recognize a future NFL legend. Brady went on to play in 10 Super Bowls and win seven. He became one of the most accomplished players in NFL history. 

The same thing happens on Wall Street.

The next superstar stock isn’t always immediately visible. You can have all the data and still not pick the right one.

For the past few years, investors have been fixated on the same household-name mega-cap stocks, while smaller companies were largely pushed further down the draft board.

But now, that may be starting to change as small caps are beginning to take the lead.

In today’s Market 360, I’ll show you why small caps are on the move, what’s fueling the move, and why I believe some of the biggest opportunities may still be ahead. I’ll also explain why legendary investor Marc Chaikin and I are paying such close attention to them ahead of our Midterm Mayhem event on September 29. 

Why Small-Cap Stocks Spent Years Behind Mega Caps

For the past few years, it has been easy to understand why investors have focused on the market’s biggest names.

The Magnificent Seven – Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), and Tesla Inc. (TSLA) – were putting up tremendous numbers. 

In 2023, those seven stocks accounted for more than 62% of the S&P 500’s total return. In 2024, they were still responsible for more than half of the index’s gains.

Small caps simply couldn’t keep up.

The Russell 2000 gained just 15.2% in 2023, compared with 24.2% for the S&P 500. 

In 2024, the gap widened, with the Russell 2000 climbing 10% versus 23.3% for the S&P 500. And small caps trailed again in 2025.

In other words, they spent years sitting on the bench while Wall Street’s superstars got most of the attention.

But just like Tom Brady, being overlooked isn’t the same thing as lacking potential. There were still some great small-cap companies out there. You just had to know which ones to buy. And that’s exactly what I was doing.

While small caps as a group spent the past few years trailing the market, I continued to find individual companies that were bucking the trend.

And those winners piled up.

In fact, I now have nine small-cap recommendations with gains of 100% or more in one of my premium services – including one with gains of more than 800%. 

So, even when small caps weren’t leading the market, I was still finding big winners among them – thanks to my quantitative system, Stock Grader.

Now, the whole group is starting to move.

Small Caps Are Taking the Lead

As of Monday, the Russell 2000 was up 15.9% year to date, compared with a 13.4% gain for the S&P 500.

What’s behind the shift?

It starts with earnings.

The earnings story for small- and mid-cap stocks is incredibly powerful right now. Many smaller companies are expected to grow earnings much faster than their large-cap peers.

The small-cap stocks I’m currently recommending, for example, have average forecasted earnings growth of 189.8% and average forecasted sales growth of 67.5%. Meanwhile, our friends at FactSet estimate 28.9% earnings growth for the S&P 500 in the third quarter.

I’m evangelical about earnings. I believe nothing is more important to a stock’s long-term potential than its ability to grow earnings.

When earnings are growing, stock prices tend to follow.

But here’s the important part: I don’t think this move in small caps is anywhere close to finished.

The Small-Cap Rally Is Starting to Broaden

Here’s where things get really interesting.

Small caps may already be on a tear, but that doesn’t mean the opportunity has passed. In fact, by a couple of important measures, they still look like they have plenty of catching up to do.

For starters, small-cap valuations are still hovering around a 25-year low. Investors are paying much less for a dollar of operating earnings from small companies than they typically have in the past.

According to FactSet, the small-cap Russell 2000 index is currently trading at about 85% of the valuation of the Russell 1000 index of larger stocks. Historically, the average is close to 100%.

In other words, small caps are still cheap compared with their larger peers.

So, even after the gains we’ve seen, investors still aren’t paying anywhere close to high prices for these companies.

Another thing is that small caps only make up about 4% of the total U.S. stock market today. Historically, that figure has been closer to 9%. 

That’s a pretty remarkable gap.

And remember, these companies are starting to produce much stronger earnings at the same time.

So, we have a group of stocks that is already outperforming, with accelerating earnings and relatively low valuations.

That’s not what I’d call the end of a move. More like the beginning.

Small-cap bull markets tend to play out over years, not a few weeks. And if this one follows anything close to the historical pattern, there could still be a long runway ahead.

Don’t Wait Until the Winners Are Obvious

That doesn’t mean every small-cap stock is going to be a winner, of course. Just like not every quarterback in the 2000 NFL draft became Tom Brady, not every overlooked company is destined for greatness.

You still have to know which ones to own.

Remember that by the time everyone knew Brady was a superstar, nobody was overlooking him anymore. The opportunity to recognize what everyone else had missed came much earlier.

And that’s exactly what Marc Chaikin and I are going to help you with on Tuesday during our 2026 Midterm Mayhem Event.

I don’t want you waiting until Wall Street’s next winners are obvious to everyone else.

So, we’ll show you what we believe is coming next for the market, why small-cap stocks could be some of the biggest winners – and, most importantly, how to prepare.

Click here to save your seat now.

The post The Small-Cap Comeback May Be Earlier Than It Looks appeared first on InvestorPlace.

If you gave David Bowie’s “Changes” a listen when it came out in 1972, you’d mostly be limited to a record player or a radio station.4e

The internet was barely more than an idea among scientists and engineers, let alone music streaming apps.

That was also the year that Atari released the arcade video game “Pong,” and when Intel Corp. (INTC) introduced the Q1 microcomputer.

But, to put it in Bowie’s words, “Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.” Essentially, time has the power to transform, and we have no ability to control it.

And much has changed in the decades since. We now have personal computers and video game consoles. The internet and music streaming apps.

But time’s biggest technological changes are happening right now, thanks to artificial intelligence.

The CEO of DeepMind Technologies, Demis Hassabis, believes that AI and, eventually, artificial general intelligence will have 10X the impact of the U.S. Industrial Revolution in a 10th of the time.

Change used to unfold over decades. Now it’s happening in real time.

The leap from AI chatbots to AI agents is happening in a fraction of the time it took to develop the models themselves.

And that acceleration is where the biggest opportunities are forming…

Often in places where few investors are looking.

So today, let’s dive into the latest change on the AI block – the rise of agentic AI – and what it means for where the smart money flows next.

Let’s jump in…

LLMs Were the Warm-Up Act

AI chatbots are now incredibly normalized.

A June 2026 Pew Research Center survey found that 49% of U.S. adults use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, up from 33% in 2024. About one in four adults use them daily. ChatGPT alone is used by 44% of U.S. adults, up from 34% in 2025.

That growing adoption helps explain the scale of the opportunity ahead: Gartner forecasts worldwide AI spending will reach $2.7 trillion in 2026, up 49.5% from 2025.

AI agents will be a major driver of that surge.

Take Muse, Meta Platforms Inc.’s (META) personal AI agent released earlier this month. Muse can browse the web, use connected apps and complete multistep tasks on its own. It can even keep working in the background after you close the app.

That is a meaningful shift from asking AI for information to letting AI act on your behalf.

The distinguisher here isn’t just intelligence – it’s access and persistence. The more access Muse gets to your email, calendar, shopping, computer, and physical surroundings, the more tasks it could potentially handle on your behalf.

And that’s where things get interesting for investors. If agents like Muse become good enough at comparison shopping, they could change how consumers choose financial products, travel, retailers, and other services.

Instead of spending hours researching insurance policies, bank accounts, or other financial products, a consumer could eventually ask an agent to compare the options and do much of the legwork.

That possibility was one factor behind Tuesday’s selloff in financial stocks, as investors considered whether agents could make it easier for consumers to compare products – or eventually take on some tasks now performed by insurance agents, financial advisers, and brokerages. The S&P 500 Financials Index fell as much as 2.4% on Tuesday, while Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and several other brokerage stocks dropped more than 5%. Banks, insurers, and travel companies were also hit.

AI is changing the world around us so rapidly and in so many mind-blowing ways that I hesitate to anoint any technology company immune to AI’s disruption.

But I’ve narrowed down a swath of stocks that possess a significant defense against AI agents’ encroachment…

Those that have an essential connection to physical products or infrastructure.

Here’s a simple way to identify this group of stocks…

The One Rule for Investing in an AI-Disrupted World

For simplicity and clarity, I’m referring to this essential investment qualification as: “If you can kick it, you can pick it.”

The corollary is equally valid: “If you can’t kick it, you can’t pick it.”

In other words, in the AI-infested world we now inhabit, many of the most secure and successful companies will be those that maintain a connection to the tangible world.

That connection could take many forms, including proprietary medical machinery or devices, copper mines, wind turbines and solar panels, and even trash-sorting equipment.

You get the idea. I believe physical connections like these will help companies defend against competition from AI agents.

By contrast, pure technology companies that operate entirely in a digital world seem increasingly vulnerable to this next version of AI.

I’ll admit right now that I don’t know what those future versions will look like.

So, to “turn and face the strange”… world of AI, I recommend investing in the tangible.

While that includes businesses that prioritize human experiences or products that AI cannot replace, it also includes the physical components that keep AI and data centers running, which are in short supply.

I’m talking about raw materials like copper, energy sources, and memory chips.

In fact, in new presentation, FutureProof 2026, I discuss each of these bottlenecks in detail and reveal 15 companies, five for each component, that are set to profit as AI continues to change our everyday lives.

AI is changing itself and the world in the blink of an eye. So instead of trying to make sense of this enormous, unpredictable wave, I recommend riding it.

Click here to learn how to profit.

Regards,

Eric Fry

P.S. Small-cap stocks are already having an unusual year. My colleague Louis Navellier thinks what happens next could create some of the market’s biggest winners — and some painful losers. On September 29 at 10 a.m. ET, he and Marc Chaikin will explain what they’re watching and why they believe investors should prepare before Election Day. Save your free seat for their Midterm Mayhem event here.

The post If You Can Kick It, You Can Pick It appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Ten-year-old Tilly Smith saw the signs and saved lives.

Smith was vacationing with her family on Mai Khao Beach in Thailand when she noticed the water was behaving strangely.

The sea was frothy, and water began to pull away from the beach.

Beachgoers didn’t know that a massive earthquake had roared across the Indian Ocean, creating a tsunami that would eventually slam into Thailand.

But Smith had studied tsunamis in school just weeks before the vacation and recognized the signs: a rapidly receding sea and frothy water.

While others stared at the ocean, unsure what was happening, Smith alerted her family, and they helped evacuate the beach before the wall of water hit. She and her family were credited with saving at least 100 lives.

Smith couldn’t see what was coming. She could only see the signals that told her something was coming.

And everyone else on that beach could see those exact same signals.

They just didn’t know what they meant.

Do you know what the signs mean?

Investors see a lot of information every day. We pay more attention than we probably should to screaming headlines from CNBC, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

We also see stocks moving as money shifts from one part of the market to another.

But two legendary investors believe those signals are telling us something big is about to hit. And what makes this story especially important is that they arrived at this conclusion completely independently.

Louis Navellier has spent 40 years reading the signals that investors miss. Those signals tell him when a stock is about to move and which way it’s going.

His enviable track record of beating the market year after year doesn’t depend on guesses, hunches, or headlines, but on data. Every year, his firm spends roughly $300,000 collecting that data that feeds his quantitative system.

And the system tells Louis where the wave of money is headed next.

Last December, after the U.S.-led military operation in Venezuela and before the war in Iran, Louis identified oil tankers as a significant opportunity. His quantitative stock picking system led him to recommend Okeanis Eco Tankers Corp. (ECO) to his Breakthrough Stocks subscribers.

The stock has risen more than 130% since his recommendation, and the Stock Grader still gives ECO an A-grade!

Louis’ system is designed to read the signs other investors miss. And right now, that system is flagging both danger and opportunity.

Louis believes an unusual market event could begin before the midterm Election Day on November 3. History shows this pattern has played out 92% of the time, going back to 1925.

If Louis is right, the market could soon begin splitting in two and creating huge groups of losers and a select group of winners. The challenge for investors is that waiting until Election Day to figure out what’s happening could be too late.

Why He’s Joining Forces with Marc Chaikin

Marc has spent decades looking at the market in a way completely different from Louis. Louis’ proprietary stock-picking system, Stock Grader, focuses heavily on a company’s fundamental strength, while Marc’s Power Gauge analyzes a separate set of signals tied to price action, money flow, and market behavior.

And what they’re seeing now is important enough that Louis and Marc are joining forces for the first time in their careers to help investors prepare.

In fact, they believe this could be the biggest market event of its kind in more than 30 years.

That’s because several forces that rarely line up at the same time are beginning to converge now. The historical cycle is shifting, market leadership is changing, and both systems – Stock Grader and Power Gauge – are starting to pick up on the same underlying move.

They believe the next phase could create a fresh group of big winners and losers, which makes knowing what you own especially important.

And if this shift is already beginning, waiting until it becomes obvious could mean missing some of the best opportunities while holding on too long to the stocks most at risk.

That’s why you should mark your calendar for this Tuesday, September 29 at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Louis and Marc are holding a special event called Midterm Mayhem.

That’s where they’ll explain what is changing, what investors should be watching, and how you can prepare before this shift fully takes hold.

Plus, they’ll share four free stock recommendations – two stocks they like and two they believe investors should avoid.

And Louis is adding something else.

Because this is exactly the kind of market setup where being early can matter, Louis has agreed to offer temporary access to his premium Stock Grader tool to folks who sign up.

That means you won’t just hear what Louis and Marc are seeing. You’ll have an opportunity to look for the signals yourself.

Think back to Tilly Smith. She recognized and correctly interpreted the signals everyone else had missed and saved dozens of lives.

Louis and Marc believe investors are staring at their own set of signals that need to be correctly interpreted right now.

On Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. Eastern, they’ll explain what those signals are telling them… reveal the stocks they believe could benefit… and identify two stocks they believe investors should avoid.

Go here to reserve your free spot in the 2026 Market Mayhem event and give Stock Grader a spin.

Don’t wait until Wall Street’s next winners are obvious to everyone else.

Click here to save your seat for the 2026 Midterm Mayhem Event now.

Enjoy your weekend,

Luis Hernandez

Editor in Chief, InvestorPlace

The post A 92% Market Signal is Flashing appeared first on InvestorPlace.

The magazine praised it elsewhere as one of the nation’s “Most Admired Companies” and “100 Best Companies to Work For.”

The Financial Times awarded it “energy company of the year” in 2000.

Forbes and Business Week sang its praises, too.

The company the media was head over heels for? Enron.

And for good reason.

On paper, Enron had grown sales from $13.3 billion in 1996 to $100.8 billion by 2000.

But come 2001, Enron hit Wall Street with a nasty “October surprise.”

• On October 16, 2001, Enron reported a $618 million quarterly loss and a $1.01 billion charge.
• As investors soon learned, shareholder equity got cut by $1.2 billion.
• Then on October 22, the SEC opened a formal inquiry into Enron’s accounting.

Less than seven weeks later, Enron filed for bankruptcy and investors who held on got wiped out.

While most investors know the story of Enron, what many folks might not know is that I recommended it, too. But my readers didn’t lose any money on the stock – just the opposite. We walked away with a 37% profit.

So, in today’s Market 360, I’ll explain why I recommended the stock and share the details on how my proprietary quantitative system knew it was time to sell – even though Wall Street was still singing its praises. Plus, I’ll share what my system is alerting me to now.

How My System Detected the Biggest Financial Fraud of All Time

Now, before Enron became one of the most infamous stocks ever, it was a great growth play.

In fact, I recommended it to my subscribers in August 1999. Here’s what I said at the time…

Enron’s business spans the world of energy production. Enron explores, produces, transports and markets natural gas and related products. They also produce and sell electricity both wholesale and retail. Enron’s natural gas transmission system is the largest in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world.

The system runs from Texas through Canada, and from Florida to California. Internationally, Enron has a presence in the Caribbean and Europe. An aggressive growth policy includes acquiring existing companies and building new business units as well as expanding current operations.

This growth has been reflected in Enron’s sales, up over 30% for the last two years, and margins have also been expanding. Earnings surprise and revised earnings numbers also look strong. As the world economy continues to recover, I expect Enron will continue to rise for the foreseeable future.

As you can see in my portfolio below, margins were expanding, annual earnings growth was 568.7%, and annual sales were up 47.5%. 

But in May 2001, I cut the stock loose.

My decision to sell was well before Newsweek declared “Lights out for Enron,” in December 2001. The corruption at the firm was yet to be discovered – but my Stock Grader system had detected deterioration beneath the glowing headlines. Earnings momentum was slowing, and the fundamentals no longer justified the hype.

In short, the situation had become too risky and the stock had grown too hot to handle. We got out at around $60 per share for a 37% gain, while others were later forced to sell as low as $0.25 per share.

Incredibly, one week before Enron collapsed and its accounting shenanigans became the big story on Wall Street, 11 of the 13 analysts following the firm still rated it a “Buy,” one a “Hold,” and only one a “Sell.”

How Stock Grader Helps Avoid Disaster

There was something else that was flagging Enron as a “Very Weak” stock: My Stock Grader.

Essentially, Stock Grader works by identifying strong fundamentals like sales growth, operating margin growth, earnings growth, earnings momentum, earnings surprises, analyst earnings revisions, free cash flow and return on equity.

It also monitors institutional buying pressure (the “smart money”) and grades it based on how much money is flowing in or out of a stock. That’s why I call it my Quantitative Grade.

So, when both the fundamentals and institutional buying pressure is strong, my Stock Grader will give it a high grade – a sign it might be worth buying. But the opposite is also true. If the fundamentals are weaking and institutional investors are fleeing the stock, the stock’s grade will drop. This is my signal that it’s time to sell, which is why I sold Enron… even though Wall Street and the financial media were still in love with the company.

Bottom line: When my Stock Grader flags something, I pay attention. And now it’s alerting me to something that could begin separating the market into a very different group of winners and losers.

What’s Coming Next – for Stock Grader AND the Markets

This event is so big that my friend and legendary investor Marc Chaikin has noticed it, too, thanks to his Power Gauge system. It analyzes a separate set of signals tied to price action, money flow and market behavior.

Together, our research shows a 92% historical chance of this event occurring, based on data going back to 1925.

And it could hit before the November 3 midterm elections.

Which is why on Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. Eastern, Marc Chaikin and I will be joining forces for our special Midterm Mayhem event to explain what’s going on. (You can click here to reserve your spot now.)

Marc and I are convinced we’re about to witness the most dramatic midterm-year market event in more than 30 years.

And we want to make sure investors are positioned accordingly…  

Go here to reserve your free spot now.

Once you sign up, you’ll be able to visit a private event site and use the Mayhem Monitor to check stocks with my Stock Grader for free.

Click here to give my Stock Grader a spin. You never know what Enrons could be lurking in your portfolio…

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Editor, Market 360

The post Don’t Wait Until Election Day: Know When Strong Stocks Start Turning Against You appeared first on InvestorPlace.

You’re several hundred miles above Earth, starting a six-month assignment at a commercial research station. Down the hall, scientists are developing medicines in microgravity. A cargo ship outside your window is preparing for the next leg of its journey to a lunar outpost.

Before breakfast, you ask your AI assistant to review the overnight experiments and adjust the day’s schedule.

You barely think about where the computing happens. But somewhere beyond the station, a cluster of satellites is processing those requests, drawing electricity from sunlight and exchanging data through laser links.

An orbital data center. As ordinary to you as a server farm in Virginia was to your grandparents.

That’s one possible future. But getting there would require cheaper launches, reliable hardware and businesses that can earn a return on the enormous expense of operating in space.

For investors today, though, there’s a more immediate question: Which companies could get paid to build the first pieces of that future?

We’re about to find out.

In a Sept. 24 update, Alphabet (GOOGL) said its Project Suncatcher prototype is scheduled to launch next week aboard SpaceX’s (SPCX) Transporter-18 mission. Developed with Planet Labs (PL), the satellite will test how Google’s Tensor Processing Units (the custom chips it uses for AI) perform in orbit.

The mission has a modest but essential assignment: Find out how that hardware handles the journey and the conditions waiting above Earth.

Its results could help determine what engineers build next, and which suppliers they need to build it.

That’s why I’m watching orbital data centers. Long before computing in space becomes routine, the effort to make it work could create demand for solar power systems, specialized electronics and communications equipment.

And several publicly traded companies already make the kinds of technology those systems will need.

That supply chain is also a key part of my XPANSE thesis: how the convergence of AI, energy, robotics and space could create opportunities for the businesses supplying the buildout. Later, I’ll show you where to find my full XPANSE briefing, including a free investment recommendation. But first, let’s look at what Google’s experiment could mean for the companies helping take AI into orbit.

Why Google Wants to Put AI in Space

Back in April, we explored the case for moving AI infrastructure into orbit. The underlying idea remains compelling: If power availability limits where we can build computing capacity, finding a new source of power could expand the opportunity.

In the right orbit, Google estimates that solar panels can generate up to eight times as much energy as comparable panels on Earth, with nearly continuous sunlight reducing the need for batteries.

Project Suncatcher would use that electricity where it is generated. Google envisions satellites carrying AI processors and communicating through optical links, eventually functioning as a distributed computing system. Its original research announcement describes the engineering work needed to make that possible.

The appeal of this is easy enough to understand, but a computing facility that generates its own electricity in orbit would have a different set of constraints from one waiting for a connection to the terrestrial grid.

And those different constraints could create a different set of winners.

Think about the hardware required: efficient solar cells, deployable arrays, reliable electronics, communications equipment and systems that can keep working without a technician walking down the aisle.

Every one of those requirements represents a problem somebody needs to solve, and potentially a product somebody needs to buy.

The Tests to Watch

Google’s latest update identifies the immediate priorities: surviving launch, operating through radiation exposure and managing heat. Ground testing has been encouraging, but an orbital mission will expose the hardware to conditions a laboratory cannot fully reproduce.

Cooling deserves particular attention. There is no airflow in a vacuum to carry heat away; Google is testing heat pipes and radiators to move heat out of its chips and reject it into space.

Then comes the networking test. Google plans to put two satellites in orbit in 2027 to evaluate the laser connections needed for distributed AI workloads.

Those are separate milestones. First, establish how the hardware operates in space. Then test whether multiple spacecraft can work together effectively.

For investors, each stage should sharpen the questions we ask.

Which components perform reliably? What needs redesigning? Which suppliers win follow-on work? And how much does the next version cost?

That’s how a promising concept starts becoming an investable business. The results need to support the next round of spending.

Nvidia and SpaceX Are Pursuing Their Own Approach

Google’s effort also sits alongside another significant development since our early-August issue.

On Aug. 24, Nvidia (NVDA) confirmed that SpaceXAI plans to extend its computing platform into orbit. The planned first-generation Starmind AI satellite would use an optimized version of the Vera Rubin NVL72 system.

That supports an important part of our original thesis: established AI computing platforms could provide the foundation for orbital systems. Nvidia and SpaceXAI are working to preserve a common architecture and software ecosystem while adapting the hardware for space.

Nvidia explicitly identifies power, thermal management, bandwidth, reliability and physical integration as constraints that differ dramatically from terrestrial data centers.

An Earth-based rack cannot simply be loaded onto a rocket and declared ready for business.

What interests me is the parallel investment in solving those problems. Google is exploring an approach built around its TPUs. SpaceXAI is pursuing one built around Nvidia’s platform. That gives the broader orbital-computing thesis more than one path forward.

It also suggests that investors should study suppliers whose products could be useful across different designs.

The Space Infrastructure Stocks Worth Watching

The latest developments sharpen our orbital data center watchlist:

Planet Labs (PL) has the clearest connection to the Suncatcher milestone because it is Google’s named mission partner. That gives investors a specific program to keep tabs on. I would watch for evidence that the relationship expands into additional development work or commercial contracts; participation in a prototype alone does not establish a material earnings stream.

Rocket Lab (RKLB) deserves attention for more than launch services. In February, it introduced silicon solar arrays aimed at applications including space-based data centers. And on Sept. 8, it announced production availability of its IMM Apex solar cell, touting lower cell mass and a design that eliminates conventional germanium substrates. Those developments address two practical considerations for space infrastructure: weight and supply-chain availability.

Redwire (RDW) offers another way to follow the power-system opportunity. Its Roll-Out Solar Array technology has applications including the International Space Station. I see that experience as relevant to a potential orbital-computing buildout, though relevance still needs to translate into customer orders.

Microchip Technology (MCHP) supplies radiation-tolerant programmable chips for space applications. These supporting electronics deserve attention alongside the processors doing the AI calculations. The investment question is whether new programs produce enough incremental demand to matter to the broader business.

Nvidia (NVDA) remains a direct participant through the announced SpaceXAI development effort. Orbital computing could eventually expand its addressable market, but I would treat that as a long-term possibility when evaluating the stock, rather than assume a large near-term revenue contribution.

These companies have different exposures, valuations and execution risks. A good orbital-computing story is a starting point for research; orders, margins and cash flow will determine its value to shareholders.

The Bottom Line on Orbital Data Centers

What excites me about Suncatcher is how clearly it illustrates the next investment question in AI: What has to be built to make much more computing possible?

Answering that question takes us beyond the model itself and into energy, advanced chips, manufacturing and space infrastructure.

That convergence is central to the broader investment thesis I call XPANSE.

In my briefing, I explore how Elon Musk’s businesses could become more closely integrated around AI, robotics, energy and space, including my thesis that Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX could eventually combine. I also explain why some of the most interesting opportunities may be among the smaller businesses supplying the technology and materials those ambitions require.

More companies exploring orbital computing could create opportunities beyond any single founder or corporate deal.

The challenge for investors is figuring out which businesses can turn that interest into durable growth.

That’s where my XPANSE briefing comes in. I walk through the three investment moves I’m recommending and reveal the name and ticker of my top investment for this theme… for free.

Watch the XPANSE presentation and get my free recommendation here.

The grid is going up whether you’re positioned or not. Which side of the trajectory will you be on?

P.S. Louis Navellier believes an unusual market event could begin before the November 3 midterms — and history gives it a 92% precedent going back to 1925. He and Marc Chaikin will explain what they see during Midterm Mayhem on Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. ET. You’ll also get two stocks they like and two they believe investors should avoid. Reserve your free spot here.

The post 5 Space Stocks to Buy as Google Takes AI Into Orbit With Project Suncatcher appeared first on InvestorPlace.

In today’s Friday Digest takeover, Louis explains why the weeks surrounding the midterm elections could bring an important shift in market leadership – and why history suggests investors should be paying attention before Election Day rather than waiting to see what happens afterward.

In short, Louis predicts a widening divide between a new group of winners and losers. And he says the historical pattern behind this setup has appeared 92% of the time going back to 1925.

That’s why Louis has recruited Marc – his longtime friend and fellow quantitative-investing pioneer – to join him for the first time at a special Midterm Mayhem event on Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. Eastern. They’ll explain what their respective systems are detecting and share four stocks they’re watching – two they like and two they believe investors should avoid. You can reserve your free spot right here.

Enough introduction. Here’s Louis to explain why he’s preparing for Wall Street’s own version of an “October surprise.”

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

It was the fall of 1980.

For nearly a year, Americans had been watching the same crisis unfold on television night after night. Fifty-two U.S. citizens were being held hostage in Iran after militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. ABC’s Nightline coverage became so closely associated with the ordeal that Ted Koppel would open by telling viewers what day of the crisis they were on.

Day 53. Day 200. Day 304.

The hostage crisis had become one of the defining issues of President Jimmy Carter’s reelection campaign. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan’s campaign began warning that Carter might suddenly get the hostages home just before Election Day and receive a major political boost.

Reagan’s campaign manager, William Casey, began warning about the possibility of an “October surprise,” a dramatic last-minute development that could suddenly change the race.

The phrase stuck.

Ever since, “October surprise” has become shorthand for the kind of unexpected development that arrives late in an election season, changes the conversation, and catches people flat-footed.

Of course, Wall Street has its own version of this.

I’ve been investing long enough to know that major market shifts often arrive when investors are focused on the wrong thing.

Right now, I believe we may be approaching another one of those moments.

Not because the calendar has some magical power over stocks. In fact, the setup I’m predicting is much more measurable.

Something unusual is developing as we head toward the midterm elections.

Today, I’ll show you why I’m paying especially close attention to the market right now. I’ll tell you how the weeks ahead could create a new group of major winners and losers, and why I’m joining forces with my friend and legendary investor Marc Chaikin of Chaikin Analytics for a special event on September 29 to explain what we’re seeing. (You can click here to reserve your spot now.)

October’s Strange Place in Market History

October has earned an unusual reputation on Wall Street.

The crash of 1929 accelerated late that month, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 13% on October 28 and almost another 12% the following day. Nearly six decades later, on October 19, 1987, the Dow plunged 22.6% in a single session. That day is now known as Black Monday.

And in October 2008, the financial crisis produced another wild stretch of volatility and losses.

But I don’t bring this up because October is inherently bearish – far from it. October has also marked the beginning of some powerful rallies.

Take October 2022, for example. The S&P 500 jumped about 8% that month, while the Dow surged nearly 14% and the Russell 2000 gained roughly 11%.

So, the lesson isn’t that investors should fear October. It’s that October has repeatedly been a month when the market can change direction in a hurry.

And that’s why I’m paying especially close attention this year.

In fact, I believe an unusual market event could begin before Election Day on November 3. And history gives this event a 92% precedent going back to 1925.

I’m not going to give away exactly what we’re seeing just yet. But if we’re right, the market could soon begin separating into a very different group of winners and losers – and waiting until Election Day to figure out what’s happening could be too late.

Why Marc Chaikin and I Are Joining Forces

That brings me to my friend Marc Chaikin.

Marc and I have spent decades looking at the market through very different lenses. My proprietary stock-picking system, Stock Grader, focuses heavily on a company’s fundamental strength, while Marc’s Power Gauge analyzes a separate set of signals tied to price action, money flow, and market behavior.

And what we’re seeing now is important enough that Marc and I are joining forces for the first time in our careers to help investors prepare.

In fact, we believe this could be the biggest market event of its kind in more than 30 years.

That’s because several forces that rarely line up at the same time are beginning to converge now. The historical cycle is shifting, market leadership is changing, and both of our systems are starting to pick up on the same underlying move.

That doesn’t mean every stock is about to move in the same direction. Quite the opposite. We believe the next phase could create a fresh group of big winners and losers, which makes knowing what you own especially important.

And if this shift is already beginning, waiting until it becomes obvious could mean missing some of the best opportunities while holding on too long to the stocks most at risk.

That’s why I want you to mark your calendar for September 29 at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Marc and I are holding a special event called Midterm Mayhem.

That’s where we’ll explain what we believe is changing, what investors should be watching, and how you can prepare before this shift fully takes hold.

Plus, we’ll share four free stock recommendations – two stocks we like and two we believe investors should avoid.

And because this is exactly the kind of market setup where being early can matter, I’m also opening up temporary access to my premium Stock Grader tool for folks who sign up.

Go here to reserve your free spot now and give Stock Grader a spin. 

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Senior Investment Analyst, InvestorPlace

P.S. Louis and Marc will explain what they believe is developing in the market during their special Midterm Mayhem event on Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. Eastern. They’ll also share four free stock recommendations and give attendees temporary access to Louis’ Stock Grader tool. Click here to reserve your free spot and see what Louis and Marc are watching before Election Day.

The post Wall Street’s Next “October Surprise” May Already Be Starting appeared first on InvestorPlace.

All very serious people.

And we were all there to hear about UFOs.

You read that right.

Now, government agencies and scientists will tell you that they prefer the term UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena).

That other term tends to carry some… baggage. It makes folks think of little green men and not much else.

Part of the reason I was there was to support my friend Christopher Mellon. Chris is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence who helped bring the now-famous 2004 “Tic Tac” UFO encounter into the public eye.

Now, I’m not going to tell you I came home believing every theory I heard that day.

But one idea came immediately to mind.

I’ve spent my career looking for new opportunities before they become obvious to Wall Street. And as I listened to the discussion, I kept thinking about the kinds of capabilities associated with these encounters: extraordinary speed, unconventional maneuverability and propulsion systems unlike anything most of us have ever seen.

Then one question kept running through my mind:

What if even a fraction of the capabilities people associate with this stuff is real?

To be precise, what if it can be reproduced? Is development already underway?

Whether those capabilities come from secret military programs, future aerospace breakthroughs, or something we don’t yet understand, there is one thing I know for certain.

The next generation of military and space technology is already under development.

And somebody has to build all of it.

That’s where this gets really interesting for investors.

In today’s Market 360, I’ll show you why next-generation military technology and the new space race are two megatrends that could create a powerful wave of investment opportunities.

I’ll also show you how some of the biggest winners are hiding in plain sight – and how my Stock Grader helped me find a 600% gain here before Wall Street caught on.

I’ll also explain why this kind of stock-picking matters so much right now, as my friend Marc Chaikin and I prepare for our special Midterm Mayhem broadcast on September 29. (You can sign up here now for that free event.)

What’s Being Built Behind the Curtain?

The United States is spending more than $1 trillion on national defense this fiscal year.

That number could keep climbing as Washington pours more money into advanced weapons, artificial intelligence, missile defense, space systems, and the defense industrial base.

But not all of that spending is easy for the public to see.

Some goes toward classified research, weapons development, and intelligence programs. That’s what people mean when they talk about the military’s “black budget.”

In 2026, the Air Force had about $54.6 billion marked as classified spending. For 2027, that figure is projected to climb above $74 billion, with Space Force classified spending alone nearly tripling to $17.3 billion.

And history shows that some remarkable technologies have emerged from this hidden world.

Take, for example, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The agency was created in 1958 after the Soviet Union shocked the U.S. by launching the Sputnik satellite into space. Its mission was to make sure America would never again be caught off guard by a major technological breakthrough.

Its earliest priorities included space technology, missile defense, and advanced propulsion. Since then, DARPA-backed research has helped advance technologies ranging from the precursor to the internet to GPS navigation and stealth.

Remember, these technologies once sounded like science fiction. Then, they weren’t.

Then there’s Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and its famous Skunk Works division.

Skunk Works was born during World War II and given the unusual freedom to assemble small teams and cut through the bureaucracy that normally slowed military development.

The result: It designed and built the prototype for America’s first jet fighter in just 143 days.

Skunk Works later produced aircraft like the U-2 spy plane and the SR-71 Blackbird.

Long before most Americans knew those aircraft existed, engineers were already figuring out how to build them.

That doesn’t mean every strange object spotted in the sky is some secret military project. But it does mean the technology we see today may not represent the limits of what is already being developed.

And right now, one of the biggest arenas for that kind of innovation is space.

The New Space Race

Earlier this year, NASA carried astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

But that mission was only one step in a much larger campaign. NASA plans to return to the Moon as early as 2028 and ultimately go to Mars.

At the same time, private companies are building rockets, satellite networks, communications systems, and other infrastructure at a pace that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago.

Companies like SpaceX Technologies Corp. (SPCX) and Blue Origin will play key roles. So will traditional aerospace companies, military contractors, and smaller suppliers that most investors have never heard of.

In short, we are entering a new space race.

And just like the first one, it will require far more than rockets. It will take advanced materials, semiconductors, sensors, communications equipment, propulsion systems, and thousands of specialized components that have to perform under some of the harshest conditions imaginable.

McKinsey estimates the global space economy could grow from about $630 billion in 2023 to $1.8 trillion by 2035.

That’s why I’m not only interested in the company launching the rockets. I’m interested in the companies making sure they can fly in the first place.

Because one of those suppliers has already handed my subscribers a gain of roughly 600%.

And my Stock Grader system helped us find it before Wall Street caught on.

A 600% Gain Could Be Just the Beginning…

That brings me to Carpenter Technology Corp. (CRS).

Carpenter is not a rocket company. It does not launch satellites or build lunar landers.

It specializes in something less flashy but just as essential: high-performance alloys and specialty materials. These are used in aerospace and defense – areas where extreme heat, pressure, vibration, and a whole lot of stress come with the territory.

Carpenter has already produced components for NASA’s Mars Rover. And as military aircraft, spacecraft, and space infrastructure become more advanced, the need for these kinds of specialized materials should only grow.

This is exactly the kind of company I like to find. While everyone else is watching the rocket launch, I’m looking for the companies supplying the materials that make the launch possible.

And thanks to my quantitative Stock Grader system, I had Carpenter on my radar before Wall Street fully caught on.

I added the stock to my Breakthrough Stocks service back in August 2023. Since then, it has gained roughly 600%.

These days, Carpenter has a $20 billion market cap. But it still isn’t a household name.

And with a new generation of military aircraft, spacecraft, and space infrastructure coming down the pipeline, I believe the opportunity is far from over.

Don’t Miss Out on the Next Big Winner…

Carpenter is a great example of why I don’t like chasing whatever stock happens to be getting the most attention.

By the time a major trend becomes obvious, the headline names are usually the ones everyone already knows. But the companies supplying the materials, components, and infrastructure behind that trend can still be hiding in plain sight.

That’s why it pays to have a quantitative system like Stock Grader working for you.

It analyzes more than 6,000 stocks across eight key measures, looking for fundamentally superior companies before the crowd fully catches on.

And right now, finding those stocks could become especially important.

My friend Marc Chaikin and I are watching an unusual market event that could begin before the November 3 midterm elections. And history shows a 92% precedent for it going all the way back to 1925.

We’re going to reveal exactly what we see at our special Midterm Mayhem event on September 29.

And I don’t think investors should wait until Election Day to start paying attention.

That’s why Marc and I will also give you four stocks to put on your radar immediately. Two are stocks we believe investors should consider owning. The other two are stocks we think could be particularly vulnerable and should be avoided.

And I’ll have more to share about an important change coming to Stock Grader that could help us uncover the market’s next big winners before they become obvious to everyone else.

A D.C. UFO conference may be an unusual place to start looking for stocks, but the one I attended this summer reinforced something I’ve learned throughout my career: The biggest breakthroughs – and the companies helping build them – often take shape long before most people think to look up.

Click here to reserve your spot for Midterm Mayhem now.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

The Editor hereby discloses that as of the date of this email, the Editor, directly or indirectly, owns the following securities that are the subject of the commentary, analysis, opinions, advice, or recommendations in, or which are otherwise mentioned in, the essay set forth below:

Carpenter Technology Corp. (CRS)

The post What UFOs, “Black Budgets,” and a 600% Stock Gain Have in Common appeared first on InvestorPlace.

In October 1973, America learned an unforgettable lesson about what happens when a strategic rival controls the one input everything runs on…

Arab oil producers announced an embargo on the United States – and almost overnight, the world’s most powerful economy was brought to its knees. Oil prices roughly quadrupled. Gas lines stretched for blocks. Washington imposed a national 55-mph speed limit to ration fuel. And the shock helped usher in a decade of stagflation that scarred an entire generation of investors.

The embargo itself lasted barely five months. The lesson lasted 50 years: a critical dependency, concentrated in the hands of a rival, is a weapon waiting to be fired.

I bring this up because history is rhyming right now.

Except this time, the chokepoint is a handful of obscure elements at the bottom of the periodic table. And the first shots of the new embargo have already been fired.

This past June, China’s Ministry of Commerce formally added several U.S. companies to its export-control and government-procurement blacklists – direct retaliation for America’s push to build a rare earth supply chain outside Beijing’s borders. It wasn’t the first warning, either. During the ‘Liberation Day’ tariff standoff, China restricted rare earth exports and sent automakers and defense contractors scrambling. Tesla (TSLA) faced multi-week production delays over Chinese export licenses.

And the pressure has not gone away. Chinese customs data show rare earth magnet shipments to the U.S. fell to 512 metric tons in August, down 20% from July and 13% from a year earlier.

It serves as a reminder that Beijing can squeeze the supply chain one license, one shipment, and one customer at a time.

Oil made the 20th-century economy move. Rare earth magnets make the 21st-century economy move.

Let me show you why – and how investors can get on the right side of the divide.

Why Physical AI Depends on Rare Earth Magnets

The AI boom is no longer just about data centers and chatbots. This technology is going physical. And physical AI runs on motors.

Humanoid robots like Tesla’s Optimus are powered by a network of small electric motors in their shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, hips, knees, and ankles – reportedly dozens of precision motors per machine. 

The key ingredient inside nearly every one is a neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnet, which delivers exceptional strength in a compact, battery-friendly package. Each humanoid could contain 2 to 4 kilograms of rare earth magnets, or sometimes more than an entire EV.

But robots are just the beginning. Consider how much of the modern buildout funnels through this single input:

• Tesla’s vehicles need those same magnets in the traction motors that turn electricity into forward motion. 
• Orbital data centers need them in the reaction wheels that point satellites without burning fuel. 
• Advanced semiconductor tools need them in the wafer-handling robotics that move silicon through fabrication.
• And virtually every guided munition, drone, and defense platform in the U.S. arsenal needs them, too.

Robots. Cars. Satellites. Chips. We’re talking about different revolutions with the same input.

The analysts running the numbers see what we see: from Bloomberg to McKinsey to Goldman Sachs, forecasters expect global rare earth magnet demand to roughly triple by 2040, led overwhelmingly by robotics and EVs.

So, for physical AI, more robots means more motors, more motors means more magnets, and more magnets means massive new demand for rare earth elements like neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium.

This supply chain starts in the dirt. And that’s exactly where the problem begins.

China Still Dominates the Rare Earth Magnet Supply Chain

When we first covered this story last summer, China controlled over 85% of the world’s rare earth refining and magnet production. Today, the picture is even starker. China produces the overwhelming majority of the world’s heavy rare earth elements – and roughly 90% of the finished magnets made from them.

Read that again. 

The single input underpinning robotics, EVs, satellites, chip fabs, and modern defense systems is controlled – almost in its entirety – by America’s chief strategic rival. A rival that has now demonstrated, repeatedly, that it’s willing to weaponize that position.

In 1973, at least the oil weapon was pointed at us by a coalition of nations with mixed motives and leaky discipline. This time, the chokehold belongs to one government.

Washington has finally gotten the message. The U.S. is investing billions in domestic mining, refining, and magnet-making, backed by Defense Production Act funding, DOE grants, and tariff protection. 

And defense acquisition rules now require contractors to phase out Chinese-origin rare earth magnets by January 2027 – a hard regulatory clock forcing a large pool of manufacturers to find non-Chinese supply on a fixed timeline.

Which raises the trillion-dollar question: find it where?

MP Materials Is Building a U.S. Mine-to-Magnet Supply Chain

Right now, MP Materials (MP) is America’s clearest operating mine-to-magnet platform.

MP owns Mountain Pass in California – the largest rare earth mining site in the Western Hemisphere, accounting for more than 10% of global supply. And just look at what has happened since we first profiled the company.

The Pentagon’s $400 million investment turned out to be far more than a cash infusion. The U.S. government took a 15% equity stake and signed a 10-year offtake agreement for magnet materials at a guaranteed price floor of $110 per kilogram. 

Even if global rare earth prices crash – the kind of move China could try to engineer to undercut Western producers – MP has a decade of government-backed economics on a meaningful portion of its output. That kind of downside protection is nearly unheard of for a commodity-adjacent business.

Washington and Corporate America Are Locking In Supply

Since then, the validation has kept stacking up. 

Apple (AAPL) signed a $500 million agreement to buy American-made rare earth magnets from MP, with a dedicated recycling program feeding its Fort Worth, Texas facility. 

General Motors (GM) has a long-standing supply agreement for use in EV traction motors. MP also formed a joint venture with the U.S. government and Saudi Arabia’s state mining company to develop a rare earth refinery in the Kingdom – a second leg of supply outside both China and its domestic operations. 

Its “10X” expansion plan targets nearly 10,000 metric tons of annual magnet production by 2028, roughly a tenfold increase from a couple of years ago. And it’s commissioning heavy rare earth separation at Mountain Pass – the capability to isolate elements like dysprosium and terbium, essential for magnets that hold their strength inside a hot robot joint or satellite actuator.

The customer base is widening, too. MP recently signed a long-term, nine-figure agreement to supply gadolinium to a U.S. aerospace and defense manufacturer. It also launched Project Swarm, an effort to coordinate magnet demand across the American and allied drone industries.

The same company supplying EV magnets is now positioning itself deeper inside aerospace, defense, and autonomous systems.

Now the buildout is showing up in the numbers. 

Second-quarter revenue jumped 89% year over year to $108.5 million. NdPr production rose 41%, while sales volume more than doubled, and adjusted EBITDA improved to $28.5 million from a loss a year earlier. The Pentagon-backed price-protection agreement contributed another $17.6 million.

Meanwhile, MP delivered magnets to General Motors for in-vehicle qualification testing and remains on track to begin commercial shipments in the fourth quarter.

Beijing’s pressure has not stopped the buildout. 

The harder China squeezes, the more urgent MP’s expansion becomes. 

Why Rare Earth Supply Matters to the Physical AI Buildout

Humanoid robots. Electric vehicles. Satellites and orbital data centers. Advanced chip fabs.

Those are the four pillars of one man’s empire.

Every one of Elon Musk’s biggest bets – Optimus, Tesla’s vehicle fleet, SpaceX’s (SPCX) orbiting constellations, and his push into chipmaking – funnels through the exact same magnet supply chain we’ve spent this whole issue dissecting. History’s most ambitious industrial plan has a critical vulnerability, and it’s sitting at the bottom of the periodic table.

Now, one honest caveat, because we deal in facts here, not hype: no supply agreement between MP and Tesla or SpaceX has been announced. The connection is structural – shared inputs, shared strategic goals – not a signed contract. But a manufacturer as famously obsessed with controlling his own inputs as Musk, ramping Optimus toward volume production, drawing on the same domestic magnet source that Apple and GM already depend on? We wouldn’t bet against it.

Either way, the takeaway is the same: whoever supplies the magnets supplies the empire.

The Bottom Line: Rare Earth Stocks Are Becoming a Strategic Supply-Chain Trade

The 1973 embargo caught America flat-footed. But the investors who understood the chokepoint before the weapon fired were able to ride the energy supercycle that followed to generational wealth.

Today’s chokepoint is rare earth magnets.

The weapon has already been test-fired and the regulatory clock is ticking toward January 2027.

The biggest industrial buildout of our lifetimes – Musk’s included – is competing for the same limited supply.

Rare earths are already showing us what happens when enormous demand collides with a supply chain the United States can no longer afford to ignore.

They also illustrate the framework I use when looking for the biggest opportunities: identify the project, trace the physical bottlenecks underneath it, and find the investments positioned to relieve them before the money starts flooding in.

That same framework led me to what I call XPANSE.

Elon Musk has suggested this project could produce 1,000-fold gains for early investors. The stakes extend well beyond anyone’s portfolio, too. XPANSE may help America eliminate a looming threat that one high-ranking government official has described as an “economic apocalypse.”

In my new briefing, I lay out the three steps investors can take today to get on the right side of this shift. I also reveal the name and ticker symbol of one investment I believe is ideally positioned as XPANSE moves forward – completely free.

See the full briefing – and get the free name and ticker – right here.

The post China’s Rare Earth Squeeze Is Making MP Materials More Important appeared first on InvestorPlace.

In bonds, the 10-year Treasury yield is up to 5.14% – its highest level in nearly 19 years. Meanwhile, the 30-year Treasury yield just notched its highest level since 2004 – 5.43%.

Over in the oil patch, Brent is up 3%, pushing toward $107, and West Texas Intermediate is 3.5% higher, trading above $95 once again.

Shifting to the Fed and rates, Philadelphia Fed President Anna Paulson is the latest in a growing number of policymakers to suggest more rate hikes could be coming. This morning, she said:

Looking ahead, if conditions evolve as I expect, some modest further tightening may be warranted.

And in geopolitics, there’s little evidence that talks between the U.S. and Iran are making meaningful progress toward ending the war in the Middle East. Earlier today, Houthi militants fired missiles at Saudi Arabia.

Put it all together, and it’s enough to get the bears salivating. A risk-off mood like this tends to hit the crowded trades first – the names that have run the hardest and drawn the biggest crowds. And no trade has run harder, or drawn a bigger crowd, than AI.

Which brings us to one bear in particular who’s likely enjoying this morning – Michael Burry.

The investor made famous by the movie The Big Short has spent more than a year building his case against the AI trade. A handful of names sit especially high on his hit list – and near the top is Micron Technology (MU), the memory-chip maker at the heart of the AI data center buildout.

He’s been shorting it…again. And as of this week, on an even bigger scale.

On Tuesday, Burry said he added to his Micron short “in some size.” His reasoning is that memory makers have gotten egregiously ahead of themselves and the cycle is about to turn.

Here’s Burry, from his Substack:

They really ran up to ridiculous prices for what they are and will sell down intensely on the other side.

He’s pointing to warnings of a coming memory glut – including comments from Acer’s CEO about rising Chinese supply – and arguing that the shortage driving Micron’s record profits was a temporary supply hiccup, not real, durable demand.

How do we respond when Wall Street’s most famous bear doubles down?

Now, Burry is a genuinely brilliant, deeply original researcher. His housing call wasn’t a lucky guess. He read the mortgage-bond fine print that no one else on Wall Street bothered to open, and he was spectacularly right.

But being right once, at the perfect moment, is not the same as being right on timing ever since.

Consider the track record since The Big Short:

He shorted Tesla (TSLA) in 2021, just as the stock kept climbing…

He posted a one-word warning – “SELL” – in January 2023, right before the market went on to gain more than 20% that year…

He loaded up on puts against the S&P in 2023 that he had to unwind as stocks kept rising…

And in late 2025, he closed his fund and returned money to investors, conceding his read on value had been out of step with the market – this after a stretch in which the Nasdaq had climbed nearly 70%.

To be fair, memory is a famously cyclical business, and his bearish call may be proven right. But as the legendary fund manager Peter Lynch put it:

Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves.

And that points us to the risk for investors listening to Burry…

Without a reliable way of knowing when, if ever, his loudly proclaimed reckoning will arrive, a phrase like “ridiculous prices” isn’t really a timing tool. It’s a disposition – a blanket posture. And a blanket bearish posture, however intellectually honest, has a poor track record of making anyone money.

So, is there a better way to decide what to do with a stock like Micron than betting on one man’s conviction, and then waiting – sometimes for years – to find out if he was right?

There is. But it doesn’t come from a Micron bull. It comes from a system.

What the numbers actually say

Regular readers know legendary investor Louis Navellier isn’t a “gut feel” kind of guy – he’s a quant.

For four decades, he’s screened stocks on one thing above all: measurable, fundamental strength. Strong earnings, strong sales, fat margins, rising analyst estimates, real buying pressure, and so on.

He hard-coded that discipline into a tool he calls Stock Grader, which runs more than 6,000 stocks through eight separate measures and boils each down to a single letter, A through F.

And here’s what Louis’ system says about the stock Burry is busy shorting:

An A.

But let’s dig into why…

Part of this grade rests on fantastic fundamentals you’d expect from a booming company, driven by the AI buildout.

Louis’ research highlights that Micron’s fourth-quarter revenue is expected to jump nearly 349% year-over-year to roughly $50.8 billion, with earnings surging to more than $31 per share. And analysts have revised their estimates almost 34% higher over just the past three months.

But there’s also Louis’ Quantitative Grade – his measure of institutional buying pressure. Or, in his own words, “following the money.”

Burry’s valuation argument – even if we say it’s right – still can’t account for the money that’s been flooding in. For example, this past Tuesday, the very day he was adding to his short, Micron closed up 5% on the session and up 14% for the month.

Burry would likely brush that off, saying that eventually the market will face the harsh truth he’s arrived at already.

But such a perspective brings us to the core difference between Burry and Louis – it’s a difference that all investors will have to wrestle with…

Which market lens will you adopt?

Burry decides what the market should do, bets on it, then waits – sometimes for years – for the world to agree.

Louis doesn’t wait, and he doesn’t argue. He follows what the numbers are already doing, and he lets them tell him when to change his mind – if at all.

Speaking as someone who owns Micron, I’ve chosen Louis’ approach – mostly because I don’t want the burden of perfectly predicting whether this memory cycle busts like the ones before it or runs for years on the back of AI. I prefer to follow the evidence and adjust when that evidence changes.

If Burry is eventually right and Micron’s fundamentals and money flows start to crack, the grade will slip – and the system will tell me to step aside, no crystal ball required.

And if Micron keeps climbing? I’ll happily ride those gains while Burry keeps proclaiming the top.

That’s the whole point of trusting a disciplined process over any one person’s conviction, no matter how brilliant that person is.

Which dovetails into what Louis has planned for next Tuesday…

The engine gets an upgrade

You just watched Stock Grader do its job – rendering a cold, numbers-only verdict on the very stock Wall Street’s most famous bear is betting against.

But now, the Stock Grader is about to get even better…

As I introduced in yesterday’s Digest, next Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 10 a.m. ET, Louis is rolling out the biggest overhaul to Stock Grader he’s ever made – a change he believes could multiply the gains on his top-graded names by anywhere from two to six times going forward.

And he’s not doing it solo. He’s bringing in Marc Chaikin, founder of Chaikin Analytics and a fellow numbers-first investor, because the two of them are seeing the same rare setup taking shape before the Nov. 3 midterms.

Better still, you won’t leave their event empty-handed – Louis and Marc will hand you four names you can act on right away – two they’d buy, two they’d steer clear of.

You can reserve your seat for this free event right here.

But circling back to Micron, is Burry right about a glut of memory taking it down?

Let’s circle back to one piece of the Micron question – the memory glut that Burry points toward.

It’s real. Acer’s CEO isn’t wrong that commodity memory – the everyday DRAM that goes into laptops and desktops – is seeing rising supply, much of it from newer Chinese producers. That’s the classic PC-driven memory cycle, and it has always run boom to bust.

But that’s not the type of memory that’s minting Micron’s record profits.

The demand tied to AI runs through a different, higher-end product: high-bandwidth memory, or HBM – the specialized chips stacked inside AI accelerators. And on that side of the business, there is no glut.

Micron and rival SK Hynix (SKHY) have said their entire 2026 HBM output is effectively sold out. SK Hynix’s CEO has gone so far as to suggest the crunch could last for years – long enough that some in the industry now argue AI has broken the old memory bust cycle entirely.

And here’s the twist that makes it interesting…

Building all that HBM for AI eats up roughly three times the factory capacity of ordinary memory. So, the very AI boom Burry is betting against is part of what’s draining the commodity supply – and creating the glut he’s pointing to on the low end.

Now, Burry is far too smart to have missed any of this. He’d have a ready answer – probably, that “sold out” is exactly what the top of every cycle looks like, that HBM is still memory and memory is still cyclical, and that he isn’t really betting against one chip so much as the entire AI-demand boom he believes is built on sand.

He might be right.

Which leaves us with a question…

We have two very smart analysts making opposite bets, and no way to know how it resolves until…well…it resolves. So, which market stance do you want to guide your positioning? A conviction you must defend for years while you wait to be proven right? Or a system that simply follows the numbers and the money flows and adjusts when they adjust?

One final irony

Burry now publishes under the banner “Cassandra Unchained.”

But all you mythology lovers will remember that Cassandra was cursed to make prophecies that were true and that no one believed. Burry’s problem has been closer to the opposite. People listen to his market prophecies – the financial media loves to quote him. But he just keeps being early – sometimes by years. Of course, in investing, “early” can be a polite word for “wrong.”

So, will Micron and the memory cycle go bust? Or will Burry?

Time will tell. But I won’t make the mistake of trying to guess when. Instead, I’m letting Louis’ numbers tell me when to hold and when to fold.

If you’re interested in having that same edge, join us next Tuesday.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

(Disclaimer: I own MU)

The post The Big Short Just Shorted a Grade-“A” Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Who should we draft?

For months, scouts watch countless hours of game film and study the players coming out of college. Coaches meet with the top prospects, while front offices debate who deserves an early pick and millions of dollars in salary.

They were all trying to answer the same question: Who could become the next NFL superstar – and maybe help bring home a Super Bowl?

Of course, even with all that research, they didn’t always get it right. Just look at what happened with the quarterbacks during the 2000 NFL Draft…

In total, 12 quarterbacks were selected that year. Some of them had nice careers. But most of the others faded pretty quickly.

Chad Pennington became a solid starter, but his career was cut short by injuries.

Giovanni Carmazzi never played a regular-season game in the NFL.

Chris Redman spent most of his time as a backup.

Tee Martin didn’t see the field much. He later became a coach.

Marc Bulger made a couple of Pro Bowls.

Spergon Wynn struggled in spurts and only lasted two seasons in the league.

Then there was Tom Brady.

Brady was the 199th overall pick and the seventh quarterback selected.

All of those other guys were picked before him. But Brady… became Tom Brady.

There’s an important lesson there: Sometimes the future superstars are the ones flying under the radar.

It wasn’t that teams hadn’t looked at him. They had watched film, evaluated workouts and analyzed all his statistics. What they didn’t have was a way to recognize a future NFL legend. Brady went on to play in 10 Super Bowls and win seven. He became one of the most accomplished players in NFL history.

The same thing happens on Wall Street.

The next superstar isn’t always immediately visible. You can have all the data and still not pick the right one.

For the past few years, investors have been fixated on the same household-name mega-cap stocks, while smaller companies were largely pushed further down the draft board.

But now, that may be starting to change as small caps are beginning to take the lead.

In today’s Market 360, I’ll show you why small caps are on the move, what’s fueling the move and why I believe some of the biggest opportunities may still be ahead. I’ll also explain why legendary investor Marc and I are paying such close attention to them ahead of our Midterm Mayhem event on September 29. (You can click here to reserve your spot now.)

Small Caps Spent Years on the Bench

For the past few years, it has been easy to understand why investors have focused on the market’s biggest names.

The Magnificent Seven – Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) and Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) – were putting up tremendous numbers.

In 2023, those seven stocks accounted for more than 62% of the S&P 500’s total return. In 2024, they were still responsible for more than half of the index’s gains.

Small caps simply couldn’t keep up.

The Russell 2000 gained 15.2% in 2023, compared with 24.2% for the S&P 500.

In 2024, the gap widened, with the Russell 2000 climbing 10% versus 23.3% for the S&P 500. And small caps trailed again in 2025.

In other words, they spent years sitting on the bench while Wall Street’s superstars got most of the attention.

But just like Tom Brady, being overlooked isn’t the same thing as lacking potential. There were still some great small-cap companies out there. You just had to know which ones to buy. And that’s exactly what I was doing.

While small caps as a group spent the past few years trailing the market, I continued to find individual companies that were bucking the trend.

And those winners piled up.

In fact, I now have nine small-cap recommendations with gains of 100% or more in one of my premium services – including one with gains of more than 800%.

So, even when small caps weren’t leading the market, I was still finding big winners among them – thanks to my quantitative system, Stock Grader.

Now, the whole group is starting to move.

Small Caps Are Taking the Lead

As of Monday, the Russell 2000 was up 15.9% year to date, compared with a 13.4% gain for the S&P 500.

What’s behind the shift?

It starts with earnings.

The earnings story for small- and mid-cap stocks is incredibly powerful right now. And many smaller companies are expected to grow earnings much faster than their large-cap peers.

The small-cap stocks I’m currently recommending, for example, have average forecasted earnings growth of 189.8% and average forecasted sales growth of 67.5%. Meanwhile, our friends at FactSet estimate 28.9% earnings growth for the S&P 500 in the third quarter.

And as readers may know, I’m evangelical about earnings. I believe nothing is more important to a stock’s long-term potential than its ability to grow earnings.

When earnings are growing, stock prices tend to follow.

But here’s the important part: I don’t think this move is anywhere close to finished.

Why Small Caps Could Have Much Further to Run

Here’s where things get really interesting.

Small caps may already be on a tear, but that doesn’t mean the opportunity has passed. In fact, by a couple of important measures, they still look like they have plenty of catching up to do.

For starters, small-cap valuations are still hovering around a 25-year low.

Investors are paying much less for a dollar of operating earnings from small companies than they typically have in the past.

According to FactSet, the small-cap Russell 2000 index is currently trading at about 85% of the valuation of the Russell 1000 index of larger stocks. Historically, the average is close to 100%.

In other words, small caps are still cheap compared with their larger peers.

So, even after the gains we’ve seen, investors still aren’t paying anywhere close to historically high prices for these companies.

Another thing is that small caps only make up about 4% of the total U.S. stock market today. Historically, that figure has been closer to 9%.

That’s a pretty remarkable gap.

And remember, these companies are starting to produce much stronger earnings at the same time.

So, we have a group of stocks that is already outperforming, with accelerating earnings and relatively low valuations.

That’s not what I’d call the end of a move. More like the beginning.

Small-cap bull markets tend to play out over years, not a few weeks. And if this one follows anything close to the historical pattern, there could still be a long runway ahead.

Don’t Wait Until the Winners Are Obvious

That doesn’t mean every small-cap stock is going to be a winner, of course. Just like not every quarterback in the 2000 NFL Draft became Tom Brady, not every overlooked company is destined for greatness.

You still have to know which ones to own.

Remember, by the time everyone knew Tom Brady was a superstar, nobody was overlooking him anymore.

The opportunity to recognize what everyone else had missed came much earlier. And that’s exactly what Marc and I are going to help you with next Tuesday during the 2026 Midterm Mayhem Event.

I don’t want you waiting until Wall Street’s next winners are obvious to everyone else.

So, we’ll show you what we believe is coming next for the market, why small-cap stocks could be some of the biggest winners – and, most importantly, how to prepare.

Click here to save your seat for the 2026 Midterm Mayhem Event now.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Editor, Market 360

The Editor hereby discloses that as of the date of this email, the Editor, directly or indirectly, owns the following securities that are the subject of the commentary, analysis, opinions, advice, or recommendations in, or which are otherwise mentioned in, the essay set forth below:

Apple Inc. (AAPL), Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) and NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA)

The post What an NFL Legend Can Teach You About Small-Cap Stocks appeared first on InvestorPlace.

A warning doesn’t do much good if you don’t treat it like a warning.

In 1999, the cargo ship Hope I lost generator power on the Great Lakes. Its crew had ignored a low-fuel alarm and intended to refill later, but no diesel had been transferred into the generator’s service tank. Besides, the chief engineer didn’t believe the tank was that low.

The ship eventually lost steering and ran aground near Morrisburg, Ontario.

The warning was there, but nobody treated the dwindling fuel as an urgent problem.

Right now, the U.S. and Europe are entering the same scenario with the world’s most important fuel. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve – the nation’s emergency crude stockpile – has fallen to roughly 285 million barrels. This is its lowest level since October 1982.

The reserve is now only about 40% full against its authorized capacity of roughly 714 million barrels. And just like the Hope I, nobody in Washington is rushing to refill the tank. They’re assuming there’s enough fuel in the reserves.

In today’s Smart Money, I’ll show you why the West’s shrinking oil reserves are a warning investors shouldn’t ignore – and where to look as the fuel gauge keeps falling.

Let’s jump in…

How the Tank Ran Dry

The reason the reserves have fallen is simple. U.S. crude and fuel exports have stayed near record highs since spring, helping make up for falling supplies from the Middle East.

That has helped keep oil prices in check, but it has also drawn down U.S. supplies.

As the chart below shows, America’s and Europe’s combined crude oil reserves have dropped 16% since March, and they continue to drop month-by-month.

No matter the daily churn of headlines from the Middle East – a drone strike here, a ceasefire “deal” there, on-again/off-again blockades of the Strait of Hormuz – the line on this chart keeps moving in the same direction… down.

This rapid drawdown may be necessary, but it is certainly not cautious. Combined U.S. and European crude reserves, including the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, now stand at 886 million barrels.

That figure may sound like a big cushion, until you place it in context. It is equal to roughly one month’s worth of U.S. and European consumption. One month. That’s the entire emergency reserve the West is holding as a protection against an even greater disruption to global crude oil flows.

Now consider that U.S. oil inventories have been falling all summer. At major hubs like Cushing, Oklahoma, storage levels are nearing the minimum needed to keep operating. Diesel supplies are also at their lowest seasonal level since 2003, leaving the East Coast especially vulnerable as winter approaches.

What’s more, prices recently spiked after Saudi Arabia’s shutdown of its East-West pipeline on September 11 after drone attacks. Brent crude prices rose above $108, while West Texas Intermediate surpassed $103 – the first time U.S. crude traded above $100 since May. Meanwhile, a 60-day ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran ended in August without leading to a permanent agreement.

That matters because there’s already very little cushion in the system. The West is essentially crossing its fingers, hoping that tanker traffic normalizes before the fuel gauge hits empty. Maybe it will. But with so little oil in reserve, any new supply disruption could push prices even higher.

Let’s return to HOPE I, where the lesson is simple: Don’t ignore the warning alarm.

But don’t just wait for it, either. Prepare for what could happen when it sounds.

The companies worth watching may be the ones building something that keeps the lights on when the old system starts to fail…

The Fire Under the Alternatives

The smartest players in the global economy are investing heavily in new renewable energy projects in order to protect themselves from future oil shocks.

And this buildout is a worldwide phenomenon, even here in the U.S., where the current administration shows little affection for non-fossil fuel energy sources.

Consider the numbers:

The U.S. is on track to add nearly 85 gigawatts of new power capacity over the next year – and roughly 90% of that will come from solar, wind, and batteries. Natural gas, still the country’s single largest energy source today, accounts for just 9% of new supplies.

Environmental, “tree-hugging” sentiments are not powering the growth of renewable infrastructure. Instead, several cold, hard economic factors are combining to stoke demand:

• Huge power demand: AI data centers need massive amounts of electricity.
• Faster to build: Solar and battery projects can be built in months.
• Gas turbine shortages: New gas turbines can take years to arrive.
• Wear and tear: AI data centers can put unusual stress on gas turbines.
• Nuclear takes time: New nuclear plants won’t provide significant new power for years.

Renewables are simply the fastest, cheapest tool available to meet surging demand.

And money is following that reality. Green energy, efficiency, and water management now make up a $10 trillion global industry. Cleantech companies alone raised $60 billion in equity funding in just the first half of this year, marking the strongest six-month stretch since 2022.

That’s where the opportunity lives…

The Trades Behind the Trend

Because of these powerful trends, renewable energy stocks are quietly delivering market-beating gains. Take two positions I added to the Fry’s Investment Report portfolio last year…

My play on the solar buildout has returned 35% since February 2025, outpacing the S&P 500’s 26% over the same period. And my wind power recommendation has climbed 27%, also outrunning the market during its tenure in the portfolio.

Those plays are just the entry point.

At Fry’s Investment Report, I’ve built out a full roadmap for playing this energy squeeze from both ends – the tightening oil market and the renewable buildout rushing to fill the gap. It’s designed for this exact moment, when the West is burning through its reserves and the smartest positioning may be in the companies already building what comes next.

To see the complete portfolio and my latest energy research, click here to learn how to join Fry’s Investment Report today.

The crew of the Hope I intended to refill its generator tank later. By the time “later” arrived, the ship was already headed for the rocks.

The West’s low-fuel alarm is sounding now. Don’t wait until the tank is empty to start preparing.

Regards,

Eric Fry

P.S. Small-cap stocks are already having an unusual year. My colleague Louis Navellier thinks what happens next could create some of the market’s biggest winners — and some painful losers. On September 29 at 10 a.m. ET, he and Marc Chaikin will explain what they’re watching and why they believe investors should prepare before Election Day. Save your free seat for their Midterm Mayhem event here.

The post How to Position Before the Oil Cushion Hits Empty appeared first on InvestorPlace.

“Excuse me, ma’am, do you speak English?” he asked.

Not only was she fluent in English, she also happened to run Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Her name was Dr. Lisa Su.

The interviewer had stumbled into a conversation with one of the semiconductor industry’s most consequential executives, and apparently had no idea.

For investors, there is a useful lesson here: Always do your research, or else one of the most powerful businesses in the world could be right in front of you without you realizing it.

Everyone today recognizes AI, but knowing about it and understanding its many trends and opportunities are very different things.

That doesn’t mean you have to invest like an institution, as Peter Lynch put it in his book “One Up On Wall Street”. Otherwise, you may be doomed to perform like an institution.

“If you’re a surfer, a trucker, a high school dropout, or an eccentric retiree, then you’ve got an edge already,” wrote Lynch. “That’s where the tenbaggers come from, beyond the boundaries of accepted Wall Street cogitation.”

That same curiosity can serve you well in today’s AI market. Look beyond the familiar headlines, and you start to see opportunities in the chips that coordinate AI, the storage it requires, and the devices that bring it into everyday life. In our latest episode of Being Exponential, I connect those opportunities to a shift in the charts: After months of sideways trading, several AI and semiconductor benchmarks (and individual stocks) are breaking higher.

My read? The AI trade is waking up. And the opportunity extends across the chips that coordinate AI, the storage that supports it, and the applications that make AI usable.

There are five stocks that explain why, and one offers a particularly interesting connection between today’s data centers and tomorrow’s robots. Just click the video below to watch it now:

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

Most investors approach this stock by asking whether its AI accelerators can take share from Nvidia (NVDA).

While that does matter, the reason I recommend Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) here also involves a less glamorous chip: the central processing unit, or CPU.

Think about what happens when an AI assistant completes a task. Generating an answer is only part of the job. Software must retrieve information, coordinate computing resources, and move work between different systems.

That coordination requires computing power, too.

As AI moves from training models to running them (a process called inference) the opportunity expands across the data center. CPUs remain essential alongside specialized accelerators. And AMD participates in both markets.

You do not need to predict that one chip replaces another to see the investment case. You just need to recognize that putting AI to work creates more jobs for the surrounding infrastructure.

Arm Holdings (ARM)

That same logic brings me to Arm Holdings (ARM).

Arm’s processor designs already reach across an enormous computing ecosystem. Now the company is expanding its role in AI infrastructure, including through its own data center CPU. Arm describes the opportunity around coordinating increasingly complex AI workloads in its product announcement.

There is one little wrinkle, though… Licensing a chip design and selling a finished chip have different economics.

A licensing business can generate exceptionally high gross margins because it does not bear the same production costs as a chip supplier. Selling silicon can reduce that percentage while increasing the dollars available to cover operating expenses and generate profit.

So, a lower gross margin does not automatically mean a weaker business. Watch revenue, operating expenses, and operating profit together.

That is why I am focused on Arm’s growth opportunity alongside the improving chart. The combination matters more than either piece alone.

Meta Platforms (META)

Then there is Meta Platforms (META), which tackles a different investor question: Where is the payoff from all this AI spending?

Its Muse assistant gives us something concrete to examine. The app’s strong early reception is drawing fresh attention from Wall Street.

But downloads are not profits.

What matters is the sequence of attracting users, giving them a reason to return, then building a business around that repeat activity.

Meta already understands that sequence through Facebook and Instagram. So its experience converting engagement into advertising revenue strengthens the case that it can build a business around AI usage, too.

That alone does not guarantee that Muse succeeds, however. But it does give Meta a credible starting point.

For investors, the next questions concern repeat usage, monetization, and the cost of serving those users. A popular AI assistant can be expensive to operate. The opportunity becomes more compelling when revenue grows faster than those costs.

Sandisk (SNDK)

Now consider Sandisk (SNDK).

This is where investors can confuse a stock’s past return with its present valuation. A stock can rise dramatically and still offer value if its expected earnings rise faster.

But storage businesses are cyclical. Strong prices attract investment, additional supply eventually arrives, and profits can fall. A low price-to-earnings ratio sometimes signals that investors expect today’s earnings to decline.

I address this in the episode. My thesis is that AI supports a longer growth runway than the market gives Sandisk credit for.

The question is how durable the earnings become as demand develops and suppliers add capacity. That is where the bull case must prove itself.

I also want the chart to confirm improving fundamentals. In the episode, I explain why Sandisk’s recovery and sequence of higher highs and higher lows strengthen my conviction.

Qualcomm (QCOM)

Finally, Qualcomm (QCOM) is what I call the sleeping giant of this trade.

Its expanding data center ambitions create one opportunity, while its position in computing inside devices creates another.

Consider smart glasses interpreting what you see, a vehicle processing sensor readings, or a robot responding to its surroundings. Sending every decision to a distant server can introduce delays and connectivity problems. Processing more information inside the device addresses those constraints.

Qualcomm’s work in low-power computing and connectivity positions it for that shift, which the company discusses in its physical AI overview.

That is the opportunity: nearer-term infrastructure opportunities alongside a multiyear expansion into physical AI.

My Takeaway

There is also a marketwide ingredient here in the form of interest rates.

My macro scenario is straightforward. If Middle East tensions ease enough to bring oil prices down, inflation pressure can diminish. That could reduce pressure for tighter monetary policy and lower bond yields, making future earnings more valuable today.

It is a scenario, not a completed chain of events, and a renewed oil shock would challenge it.

Improving earnings expectations and a more supportive interest-rate backdrop can be a powerful combination. When several related benchmarks break higher together, I pay attention, while watching whether those breakouts hold.

In the full episode of Being Exponential, I dive into the charts and the business cases, explain the price levels I am watching, and share my upside targets for several of these stocks.

Watch the full conversation to see why I believe this rebound has room to run, and how I distinguish an attractive business from an attractive entry point.

P.S. An improving market does not make every stock a winner. That is why my colleagues Louis Navellier and Marc Chaikin’s upcoming Midterm Mayhem broadcast deserves your attention. They believe an unusual market event could begin before the Nov. 3 midterm elections… and they are getting together Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 10 a.m. ET to explain what they see and why preparing before Election Day should be your top priority. Louis will also reveal a major change to his Stock Grader system. Everyone who attends gets four free recommendations: two stocks to consider and two to avoid. Reserve your free spot for Midterm Mayhem.

The post 5 Stocks to Buy as the AI Trade Wakes Up appeared first on InvestorPlace.

As I write on Wednesday, West Texas Intermediate Crude (WTIC) trades below $92 as traders bet that diplomacy between Washington and Tehran will finally cool the Iran conflict, resulting in increased shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

$92 is a welcome relief from last week, when WTIC touched $106 a barrel after climbing almost 30% between late August and mid-September.

This easing has been good news for most of the market over the last week. Sustained cheaper crude will take pressure off inflation, loosen the Fed’s bind, and ease a headwind on both the AI trade and equities more broadly.

But if you’re an energy investor sitting on this year’s monster gains, a falling oil price raises a different question: Is it time to ring the register?

What to do about your oil stocks today

Legendary investor Louis Navellier, editor of Growth Investor, says not so fast – at least for one corner of the oil patch.

Here he is from yesterday’s Flash Alert podcast:

As I repeatedly mentioned, crude oil prices do decline in the fall. That’s happening now because demand’s dropping, but the refinery stocks are still in the catbird seat because of the acute diesel shortages in the world.

You just can’t bomb the Russian refineries. You can’t attack the Saudi Arabian refineries and expect that diesel prices are going to drop. There is a supply chain problem.

To make sure we’re all on the same page, refiners don’t make their money on the price of crude – they make it on the crack spread. This name comes from refiners’ manufacturing process: buying the raw material (crude oil), heating and “cracking” its molecular chains, and selling the output (refined products).

The margin between what they pay for a barrel of oil and what they collect from selling the refined diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel contributes to their profit. And recently, that margin has been sitting at levels the industry has simply never seen.

The reason? Because so much refining capacity is offline, there’s a real, physical shortage of the refined oil products that power the global economy.

The refining capacity across the Middle East and Asia has dropped more than 7 million barrels a day, with another 1.4 million barrels a day knocked out in Russia by Ukrainian drone strikes. Moscow has experienced such a shortage that it has banned diesel exports outright until 2027.

As a result, U.S. diesel topped $6 a gallon earlier this month for the first time on record, and the benchmark diesel crack blew past $100 a barrel – roughly five times its historical norm. That’s why refiner stocks have been having a huge 2026 (more on that below).

Meanwhile, these high prices have become political…

Yesterday, President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington is “examining” a ban on U.S. diesel exports to pull prices down. This would potentially be a relief for truckers and farmers, but a genuine risk to the fat export margins driving refiner profits. It’s only being considered, and the GOP is split on the wisdom of this tactic, so it’s a wildcard to watch, but not yet a reason to abandon the trade.

So, how do you play it?

For one-click convenience, check out the VanEck Oil Refiners ETF (CRAK). It holds global refining giants like Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Valero Energy (VLO), and Phillips 66 (PSX).

As you can see below, it’s having a huge year, up more than 70% compared to the S&P’s 13% return.

If you’re looking for a more concentrated bet, one of the names Louis has his Growth Investor readers in is HF Sinclair Corp. (DINO) – a pure-play refiner with no upstream production to muddy the story, so those fat crack spreads flow almost straight to the bottom line.

Louis recommended DINO back on June 23, and his subscribers are already up 65%. But it’s still trading below his Buy Below price of $111.

Stepping back, here’s Louis’ bottom line:

Don’t give up on energy.

I know energy stocks don’t go up when crude oil prices drop, but I do want you to know the refineries are still very, very solid picks for phenomenal sales and earnings.

We’re still going to stick with energy stocks, especially refiners.

Now, the oil patch isn’t the only place Louis is seeing opportunity today. For another stock he likes, let’s dig deeper into his pick we flagged in yesterday’s Digest…

A cheap tech stock hiding in plain sight

Here’s a hot take…

Tech stocks are cheap.

But don’t take it from me. Here’s Louis, once again from yesterday’s Flash Alert podcast:

With technology stocks looking relatively cheap, I think there are some attractive opportunities here.

[Economist Ed] Yardeni’s got one of his QuickTakes reports out there [yesterday] morning showing how cheap tech stocks are.

Let’s look at an example – a stock that Louis’ Growth Investor subscribers are up 50% in since their July 31 entry: Sandisk Corp. (SNDK). It’s a pure-play NAND flash-memory maker, and one of Louis’ “Top Stocks” from last Friday’s issue.

Here’s a wild disconnect for you…

Sandisk is the single best-performing stock in the entire S&P 500 this year, up more than 600%. And yet it trades at roughly seven times forward earnings – less than half the 15 or so times the typical tech stock commands, and among the cheapest AI-exposed names in the market.

If that sounds familiar, it should. It’s the exact same dynamic we laid out using Micron (MU) earlier this month: a memory maker posting record profits, priced as if the floor is about to fall out.

The reason is the same single word – cyclicality. Memory has always been a boom-and-bust business, so Wall Street refuses to pay up for peak earnings it assumes will crater.

But here’s the rebuttal we made for Micron, and it applies just as much for Sandisk. The company has locked in long-term, take-or-pay supply contracts that put a hard floor under its pricing. And according to research shop Bernstein, Sandisk’s floors – around $0.29 per gigabyte – sit meaningfully above Micron’s, offering even sturdier downside protection. Bernstein figures that even in a memory-price collapse worse than 2010, those contracts would blunt the earnings hit.

So, without the fear of a complete earnings wipeout, the single-digit PE multiple makes little sense.

To be clear, it doesn’t erase memory’s cyclicality, and Sandisk has already had a monster run. But it’s clear evidence for Louis’ point: real bargains still exist within AI, even while the headlines are quick to proclaim the mother of all bubbles that’s certain to explode.

If you’re interested in SNDK, Louis’ Buy Below price is $2,238.00. We’ll keep tracking it.

How does Louis find stocks like these?

How does Louis keep finding winners like DINO and SNDK?

The answer isn’t a hunch or a hot tip. It’s data.

Louis is, at his core, a quant – a numbers-first investor who has spent four decades screening for one thing above all: fundamental excellence. Strong earnings, strong sales, fat margins, rising analyst estimates, and real buying pressure. As he put it in yesterday’s podcast:

We have pretty stocks with spectacular sales and earnings.

Years ago, he hard-coded that discipline into a tool he calls Stock Grader. It runs more than 6,000 stocks through eight separate measures of fundamental strength and boils each one down to a simple letter grade, A through F. And the results are hard to argue with – Stock Grader has slapped an “A” on the single best-performing stock in the entire S&P 500 for 12 years running.

Both of today’s names score an “A.” That’s not luck – it’s Louis’ system doing its job.

And this brings us to next week…

Louis is about to make what he’s calling a historic change to Stock Grader – an upgrade he says could add a 2X to 6X boost to his highest-graded names going forward. And he’s unveiling it in a free broadcast on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. ET.

He won’t be doing it alone. Louis is joining forces with veteran analyst Marc Chaikin, because both men see an unusual market event – an “October Surprise” of sorts – potentially taking shape before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Here’s Louis:

I believe an unusual market event could begin before Election Day on November 3. And history gives this event a 92% precedent going back to 1925…

If Marc and I are right, the market could soon begin separating into a very different group of winners and losers.

In fact, we believe this could be the biggest market event of its kind in more than 30 years.

I’ll bring you more details over the coming days, but you can register for the free event today, by clicking here. Beyond learning about this change in the market and what Louis and Marc believe investors should be doing about it, you’ll be walking away with four stocks that you can act on immediately – two to buy, two to avoid.

Wrapping up…

We’ll keep an eye on the diesel crack spread behind the refiners, and whether Wall Street ever comes around to what memory is earning.

In the meantime, put next Tuesday on your calendar. Here’s Louis to take us out:

Several forces that rarely line up at the same time are beginning to converge now.

The historical cycle is shifting, market leadership is changing, and Marc’s and my systems are starting to pick up on the same underlying move.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

(Disclaimer: I own MU)

The post A 600% Stock Still Trading at 7X Earnings appeared first on InvestorPlace.

And this time, he’s not alone.

Louis has invited his longtime friend and fellow quantitative investing pioneer Marc Chaikin to join him for a special event on Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. Eastern. They believe an unusual market event – one with a 92% historical precedent going back to 1925 – could begin before Election Day. And they want investors prepared before it becomes obvious to everyone else.

So, I’ve invited Louis here today to explain where he’s focusing his attention, and why he and Marc are joining forces for the first time. If you like what you hear, I encourage you to reserve your free spot for their September 29 event now.

Take it away, Louis…

It was the fall of 1980.

For nearly a year, Americans had been watching the same crisis unfold on television night after night. Fifty-two U.S. citizens were being held hostage in Iran after militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. ABC’s Nightline coverage became so closely associated with the ordeal that Ted Koppel would open by telling viewers what day of the crisis they were on.

Day 53. Day 200. Day 304.

The hostage crisis had become one of the defining issues of President Jimmy Carter’s reelection campaign. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan’s campaign began warning that Carter might suddenly get the hostages home just before Election Day and receive a major political boost.

Reagan’s campaign manager, William Casey, began warning about the possibility of an “October surprise,” a dramatic last-minute development that could suddenly change the race.

The phrase stuck.

Ever since, “October surprise” has become shorthand for the kind of unexpected development that arrives late in an election season, changes the conversation, and catches people flat-footed.

Of course, Wall Street has its own version of this.

I’ve been investing long enough to know that major market shifts often arrive when investors are focused on the wrong thing.

Right now, I believe we may be approaching another one of those moments.

Not because the calendar has some magical power over stocks. In fact, the setup I’m predicting is much more measurable.

Something unusual is developing as we head toward the midterm elections.

Today, I’ll show you why I’m paying especially close attention to the market right now. I’ll tell you how the weeks ahead could create a new group of major winners and losers, and why I’m joining forces with my friend and legendary investor Marc Chaikin of Chaikin Analytics for a special event on September 29 to explain what we’re seeing. (You can click here to reserve your spot now.)

October’s Strange Place in Market History

October has earned an unusual reputation on Wall Street.

The crash of 1929 accelerated late that month, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 13% on October 28 and almost another 12% the following day. Nearly six decades later, on October 19, 1987, the Dow plunged 22.6% in a single session. That day is now known as Black Monday.

And in October 2008, the financial crisis produced another wild stretch of volatility and losses.

But I don’t bring this up because October is inherently bearish – far from it. October has also marked the beginning of some powerful rallies.

Take October 2022, for example. The S&P 500 jumped about 8% that month, while the Dow surged nearly 14% and the Russell 2000 gained roughly 11%.

So, the lesson isn’t that investors should fear October. It’s that October has repeatedly been a month when the market can change direction in a hurry.

And that’s why I’m paying especially close attention this year.

In fact, I believe an unusual market event could begin before Election Day on November 3. And history gives this event a 92% precedent going back to 1925.

I’m not going to give away exactly what we’re seeing just yet. But if we’re right, the market could soon begin separating into a very different group of winners and losers – and waiting until Election Day to figure out what’s happening could be too late.

Why Marc Chaikin and I Are Joining Forces

That brings me to my friend Marc Chaikin.

Marc and I have spent decades looking at the market through very different lenses. My proprietary stock-picking system, Stock Grader, focuses heavily on a company’s fundamental strength, while Marc’s Power Gauge analyzes a separate set of signals tied to price action, money flow, and market behavior.

And what we’re seeing now is important enough that Marc and I are joining forces for the first time in our careers to help investors prepare.

In fact, we believe this could be the biggest market event of its kind in more than 30 years.

That’s because several forces that rarely line up at the same time are beginning to converge now. The historical cycle is shifting, market leadership is changing, and both of our systems are starting to pick up on the same underlying move.

That doesn’t mean every stock is about to move in the same direction. Quite the opposite. We believe the next phase could create a fresh group of big winners and losers, which makes knowing what you own especially important.

And if this shift is already beginning, waiting until it becomes obvious could mean missing some of the best opportunities while holding on too long to the stocks most at risk.

That’s why I want you to mark your calendar for September 29 at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Marc and I are holding a special event called Midterm Mayhem.

That’s where we’ll explain what we believe is changing, what investors should be watching, and how you can prepare before this shift fully takes hold.

Plus, we’ll share four free stock recommendations – two stocks we like and two we believe investors should avoid.

And because this is exactly the kind of market setup where being early can matter, I’m also opening up temporary access to my premium Stock Grader tool for folks who sign up.

Go here to reserve your free spot now and give Stock Grader a spin.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Senior Investment Analyst, InvestorPlace

P.S. Louis and Marc will explain what they believe is developing in the market during their special Midterm Mayhem event on Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. Eastern. They’ll also share four free stock recommendations and give attendees temporary access to Louis’ Stock Grader tool. Click here to reserve your free spot and see what Louis and Marc are watching before Election Day.

The post The “October Surprise” Wall Street Isn’t Ready For – and How You Can Prepare appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Their answer, based on market data going back to 1925, is “before the votes are counted.” A pattern with a 92% historical precedent tends to get underway ahead of Election Day – which means investors waiting for the political result may be reacting to a move that has already started.

He and Marc go deeper – with four free stock calls: two to buy and two to avoid – at their Midterm Mayhem event on Sept. 29. If you like what you hear, I encourage you to reserve your free spot for that event now.

Here’s Louis with more details…

It was the fall of 1980.

For nearly a year, Americans had been watching the same crisis unfold on television night after night. Fifty-two U.S. citizens were being held hostage in Iran after militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. ABC’s Nightline coverage became so closely associated with the ordeal that Ted Koppel would open by telling viewers what day of the crisis they were on.

Day 53. Day 200. Day 304.

The hostage crisis had become one of the defining issues of President Jimmy Carter’s reelection campaign. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan’s campaign began warning that Carter might suddenly get the hostages home just before Election Day and receive a major political boost.

Reagan’s campaign manager, William Casey, began warning about the possibility of an “October surprise,” a dramatic last-minute development that could suddenly change the race.

The phrase stuck.

Ever since, “October surprise” has become shorthand for the kind of unexpected development that arrives late in an election season, changes the conversation, and catches people flat-footed.

Wall Street Has Its Own Version of a Late Surprise

Of course, Wall Street has its own version of this.

I’ve been investing long enough to know that major market shifts often arrive when investors are focused on the wrong thing.

Right now, I believe we may be approaching another one of those moments.

Not because the calendar has some magical power over stocks. In fact, the setup I’m predicting is much more measurable.

Something unusual is developing as we head toward the midterm elections.

Today, I’ll show you why I’m paying especially close attention to the market right now. I’ll tell you how the weeks ahead could create a new group of major winners and losers, and why I’m joining forces with my friend and legendary investor Marc Chaikin of Chaikin Analytics for a special event on September 29 to explain what we’re seeing. (You can click here to reserve your spot now.)

What October Has Historically Meant for the Stock Market

October has earned an unusual reputation on Wall Street.

The crash of 1929 accelerated late that month, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 13% on October 28 and almost another 12% the following day. Nearly six decades later, on October 19, 1987, the Dow plunged 22.6% in a single session. That day is now known as Black Monday. 

And in October 2008, the financial crisis produced another wild stretch of volatility and losses.

Volatility Matters More Than October’s Reputation

But I don’t bring this up because October is inherently bearish – far from it. October has also marked the beginning of some powerful rallies. 

Take October 2022, for example. The S&P 500 jumped about 8% that month, while the Dow surged nearly 14% and the Russell 2000 gained roughly 11%.

So, the lesson isn’t that investors should fear October. It’s that October has repeatedly been a month when the market can change direction in a hurry.

Midterm Years Have Their Own Market Pattern

And that’s why I’m paying especially close attention this year.

In fact, I believe an unusual market event could begin before Election Day on November 3. And history gives this event a 92% precedent going back to 1925. 

I’m not going to give away exactly what we’re seeing just yet. But if we’re right, the market could soon begin separating into a very different group of winners and losers – and waiting until Election Day to figure out what’s happening could be too late. 

Why Marc Chaikin and I Are Joining Forces

That brings me to my friend Marc Chaikin.

Marc and I have spent decades looking at the market through very different lenses. My proprietary stock-picking system, Stock Grader, focuses heavily on a company’s fundamental strength, while Marc’s Power Gauge analyzes a separate set of signals tied to price action, money flow, and market behavior.

And what we’re seeing now is important enough that Marc and I are joining forces for the first time in our careers to help investors prepare.

In fact, we believe this could be the biggest market event of its kind in more than 30 years. 

The Key Signal Is Changing Market Leadership

That’s because several forces that rarely line up at the same time are beginning to converge now. The historical cycle is shifting, market leadership is changing, and both of our systems are starting to pick up on the same underlying move.

That doesn’t mean every stock is about to move in the same direction. Quite the opposite. We believe the next phase could create a fresh group of big winners and losers, which makes knowing what you own especially important.

And if this shift is already beginning, waiting until it becomes obvious could mean missing some of the best opportunities while holding on too long to the stocks most at risk.

That’s why I want you to mark your calendar for September 29 at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Marc and I are holding a special event called Midterm Mayhem. 

That’s where we’ll explain what we believe is changing, what investors should be watching, and how you can prepare before this shift fully takes hold.

Plus, we’ll share four free stock recommendations – two stocks we like and two we believe investors should avoid.

And because this is exactly the kind of market setup where being early can matter, I’m also opening up temporary access to my premium Stock Grader tool for folks who sign up. 

Go here to reserve your spot now and give Stock Grader a spin.

The post Why Wall Street Is Watching October So Closely This Year appeared first on InvestorPlace.

On any given day, there’s a headline, a fear, or a worry screaming for your attention. We regularly cover those headlines here, doing our best to separate the signal from the noise so you can keep moving toward your financial goals.

But today, let’s forget all the headlines and focus on three actionable ideas from three of our sharpest analysts.

The first says last week’s AI panic handed you a gift. The second has found a trade that pays off even if AI fears come roaring back. And the third is watching a sector that’s quietly crushed the market’s return this year.

Let’s jump in.

Idea No. 1: Louis Navellier says the fear is the opportunity

As we covered in last week’s Digest, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay arguing that AI developers should deliberately slow down to allow more time for safety testing.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk agreed. NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang pushed back, saying safety matters, but he doesn’t expect self-improving AI to take over the world.

Wall Street didn’t wait for the debate to resolve. Chip and AI names were sold off as politicians piled on, some calling for heavy-handed regulation that could throttle the AI bull.

Legendary investor Louis Navellier, editor of Growth Investor, tackled the panic head-on in last Friday’s issue. His frame was an old German proverb:

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.

Louis lands in Huang’s camp, and his reasoning isn’t about sentiment – it’s about backlogs and spending. Order books, he notes, are booked solid through 2032. So, the panic reaction, set against the actual data, starts to look a lot like opportunity.

As Louis put it:

I view [last] week’s dip as a great buying opportunity, especially in our fundamentally superior AI and data center stocks.

The numbers are on his side. Fresh figures from global research firm Gartner this month put global AI spending on track to jump nearly 50% this year, to $2.67 trillion. AI infrastructure alone accounts for $1.48 trillion. Overall, AI spending is projected to climb to $3.64 trillion in 2027.

From Gartner:

The buildout of AI data center capacity is the largest infrastructure project humanity has ever undertaken.

That’s the disconnect Louis is flagging for his readers: headlines pointing down, fundamentals pointing up.

So, how is Louis playing it?

One of his September Top Stocks is SanDisk Corporation (SNDK), a leader in the NAND flash memory that data centers can’t run without. It grew revenue 175% in fiscal 2026, with datacenter revenue up 437% and full-year earnings up an eye-watering 2,397%. That’s the accelerating earnings momentum, Louis says, that makes last week’s pullback a discount, not a warning.

As you can see below, SNDK is up almost 600% year to date. But more importantly for investors considering a new position today, it’s on the verge of breaking through recent resistance. If it pushes through on heavy volume, the ensuing gains could snowball fast.

Bottom line: when the crowd panics and dumps the market’s strongest AI names, Louis is a buyer, not a seller. He fully expects fundamentally superior stocks like SanDisk to shake off the fear and keep climbing as the dust settles.

For the rest of the top-shelf AI stocks that Louis holds in his Growth Investor portfolio, click here to learn about joining him.

Idea No. 2: Jonathan Rose and the trade that the AI panic just supercharged

Here’s another area where last week’s fear is turning into opportunity.

All that AI-safety alarm – Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon’s viral exit, senior researchers putting the odds of catastrophe in double digits, politicians from Bernie Sanders on down demanding a pause – has Wall Street waking up to a reality…

If AI is powerful enough to be dangerous, then the tools to defend against it just became mission-critical. And that means cybersecurity is suddenly one of the most talked-about trades on the Street.

Our trading expert, Jonathan Rose, editor of Masters in Trading Live, was highlighting this for his readers here well before the crowd showed up. And the beauty of his thesis is that it doesn’t hinge on the panic being right or wrong.

AI is a double-edged sword: the same technology racing through corporate America is also arming attackers with faster, cheaper, autonomous attacks. That turns security from a nice-to-have into a bill companies can’t stop paying.

Here again, the numbers are huge – Gartner sees global information security spending hitting roughly $249 billion this year and about $373 billion by 2030 – and the fastest-growing slice, “securing AI,” barely existed 18 months ago. Jonathan calls it “a multi-year, structurally funded spending supercycle.”

So, what’s Jonathan’s top pick for new money?

Palo Alto Networks (PANW).

Here’s his quick take:

It has the scale of CrowdStrike… and it still trades at a discount to CRWD. It’s the best risk-adjusted way to own the theme.

Speaking of CrowdStrike (CRWD), Jonathan rates it as the best business in the group but warns it’s priced for perfection. So, it’s a name he’d rather buy on a pullback than chase here.

That’s just two of the 15 cybersecurity leaders that Jonathan ranks, sorted by the role each plays in your portfolio: blue-chip veterans for core exposure, high-growth disruptors for firepower, and under-the-radar value plays where asymmetric setups hide – plus three ETFs for one-click exposure.

His bottom line:

The AI era needs defending. These are the companies getting paid to do it.

If you want to see the full list, you can access it for free after signing up for Jonathan’s Masters in Trading Live service. This is where he holds his free livestreams at 11 a.m. ET every market day, profiling trading ideas on his radar, walking through entries and exits, and handing out plenty of tickers in real time. Best of all, it’s free. You can sign up right here.

Idea No. 3: The sector quietly crushing the market – and the AI trade

Finally, let’s turn to a corner of the market that’s been crushing both the S&P and the AI trade this year – and many investors have no idea.

Senior Analyst Brian Hunt, editor of the free daily newsletter Money & Megatrends has spent all year urging readers to take advantage of one in particular: genomics.

The chart below shows why…

Year-to-date, the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG) – a proxy for the genomics trade – is up 81% (black in the chart below), trouncing the S&P 500’s 13% gain (in green) and even lapping the 29% gain in Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AIQ) (in blue), a solid proxy for the broad AI trade.

And this outperformance is accelerating…

Last Thursday, ARKG surged 8.5% in a single session to a fresh 52-week high, powered by testing firms Natera (NTRA) and Illumina (ILMN) plus a 14% pop in AI-healthcare name Tempus AI (TEM). It hasn’t stopped since then. As I write on Tuesday, ARKG is pushing into fresh 52-week-high territory.

Circling back to AI, Brian sees genomics being a massive beneficiary of new superintelligence. AI has the potential to analyze genes and simulate treatments at a scale no lab ever could.

Here’s Brian with what that means:

This will put medical innovation into overdrive… and create many big stock market winners.

The gains under the surface are already big. Since Brian’s October 2025 recommendation, ARKG has jumped more than 60% – but individual names have run much further: Natera up more than 100%, Illumina up roughly 150%, synthetic-DNA firm Twist Bioscience (TWST) up about 400%, and tools maker 10x Genomics (TXG) climbing more than 500%.

Don’t sleep on this sector.

For the simplest way to play it, Brian points to ARKG itself, with Tempus AI as its marquee holding. Here’s his read on where it goes:

It’s increasingly looking like genomics is being painted with the “AI brush,” a development that can turbocharge any trend or stock here in 2026…

Ten years from now, medicine will be transformed… and a lot of money will be made along the way.

Brian’s full issue has more tickers to consider, and you can get them – and his full analysis – for free. His Money & Megatrends issues deliver actionable insights loaded with stock ideas every day the market is open – all 100% free. You can sign up right here.

Coming full circle

Louis says the fear is the setup – buy the top-tier, fundamentally strong AI names that Wall Street is dumping. Jonathan is positioning his readers in the leaders who will defend us if AI goes rogue again. And Brian says not to forget the sector quietly outgunning them all.

Bottom line: There will always be a reason to worry – a “wolf to fear” in the market. But fear and opportunity usually show up looking quite similar, so the trick is learning to tell them apart – and that’s what today’s three ideas are all about. Invest accordingly.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

P.S. We opened today with Louis Navellier, so it’s fitting he gets the last word too. Beyond buying the AI dip, he’s watching the calendar closely. He believes an unusual market event could begin before the November 3 midterms — and history gives it a 92% precedent going back to 1925. He and Marc Chaikin will explain what they see during Midterm Mayhem on Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. ET. You’ll also get two stocks they like and two they believe investors should avoid. Reserve your free spot here.

The post 3 Analysts, 3 Trades to Make Today appeared first on InvestorPlace.

For nearly a year, Americans had been watching the same crisis unfold on television night after night. Fifty-two U.S. citizens were being held hostage in Iran after militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. ABC’s Nightline coverage became so closely associated with the ordeal that Ted Koppel would open by telling viewers what day of the crisis they were on.

Day 53. Day 200. Day 304.

The hostage crisis had become one of the defining issues of President Jimmy Carter’s reelection campaign. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan’s campaign began warning that Carter might suddenly get the hostages home just before Election Day and receive a major political boost.

Reagan’s campaign manager, William Casey, began warning about the possibility of an “October surprise,” a dramatic last-minute development that could suddenly change the race.

The phrase stuck.

Ever since, “October surprise” has become shorthand for the kind of unexpected development that arrives late in an election season, changes the conversation, and catches people flat-footed.

Of course, Wall Street has its own version of this.

I’ve been investing long enough to know that major market shifts often arrive when investors are focused on the wrong thing.

Right now, I believe we may be approaching another one of those moments.

Not because the calendar has some magical power over stocks. In fact, the setup I’m predicting is much more measurable.

Something unusual is developing as we head toward the midterm elections.

Today, I’ll show you why I’m paying especially close attention to the market right now. I’ll tell you how the weeks ahead could create a new group of major winners and losers, and why I’m joining forces with my friend and legendary investor Marc Chaikin of Chaikin Analytics for a special event on September 29 to explain what we’re seeing. (You can click here to reserve your spot now.)

October’s Strange Place in Market History

October has earned an unusual reputation on Wall Street.

The crash of 1929 accelerated late that month, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 13% on October 28 and almost another 12% the following day. Nearly six decades later, on October 19, 1987, the Dow plunged 22.6% in a single session. That day is now known as Black Monday.

And in October 2008, the financial crisis produced another wild stretch of volatility and losses.

But I don’t bring this up because October is inherently bearish – far from it. October has also marked the beginning of some powerful rallies.

Take October 2022, for example. The S&P 500 jumped about 8% that month, while the Dow surged nearly 14% and the Russell 2000 gained roughly 11%.

So, the lesson isn’t that investors should fear October. It’s that October has repeatedly been a month when the market can change direction in a hurry.

And that’s why I’m paying especially close attention this year.

In fact, I believe an unusual market event could begin before Election Day on November 3. And history gives this event a 92% precedent going back to 1925.

I’m not going to give away exactly what we’re seeing just yet. But if we’re right, the market could soon begin separating into a very different group of winners and losers – and waiting until Election Day to figure out what’s happening could be too late.

Why Marc Chaikin and I Are Joining Forces

That brings me to my friend Marc Chaikin.

Marc and I have spent decades looking at the market through very different lenses. My proprietary stock-picking system, Stock Grader, focuses heavily on a company’s fundamental strength, while Marc’s Power Gauge analyzes a separate set of signals tied to price action, money flow, and market behavior.

And what we’re seeing now is important enough that Marc and I are joining forces for the first time in our careers to help investors prepare.

In fact, we believe this could be the biggest market event of its kind in more than 30 years.

That’s because several forces that rarely line up at the same time are beginning to converge now. The historical cycle is shifting, market leadership is changing, and both of our systems are starting to pick up on the same underlying move.

That doesn’t mean every stock is about to move in the same direction. Quite the opposite. We believe the next phase could create a fresh group of big winners and losers, which makes knowing what you own especially important.

And if this shift is already beginning, waiting until it becomes obvious could mean missing some of the best opportunities while holding on too long to the stocks most at risk.

That’s why I want you to mark your calendar for September 29 at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Marc and I are holding a special event called Midterm Mayhem.

That’s where we’ll explain what we believe is changing, what investors should be watching, and how you can prepare before this shift fully takes hold.

Plus, we’ll share four free stock recommendations – two stocks we like and two we believe investors should avoid.

And because this is exactly the kind of market setup where being early can matter, I’m also opening up temporary access to my premium Stock Grader tool for folks who sign up.

Go here to reserve your free spot now and give Stock Grader a spin.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Editor, Market 360

P.S. Marc and I will explain what they believe is developing in the market during their special Midterm Mayhem event on Tuesday, September 29, at 10 a.m. Eastern. We’ll also share four free stock recommendations and give attendees temporary access to my Stock Grader tool. Click here to reserve your free spot and see what Marc and I are watching before Election Day.

The post A 92% Historical Market Event Could Begin Before Election Day appeared first on InvestorPlace.

I want to give it a more honest name, because the bullish one hides the risk. Call it the Government Put.

Trump Dividend Stocks: Why I Call It the Government Put

You’ve heard of the Fed put — the market’s faith that the central bank steps in when things break. You’ve heard of the China put and the OPEC put. The Government Put is the newest member of the family, and it’s the most literal one yet. Since early 2025, Washington has become an unusually direct owner of American companies: by most estimates it has taken stock, warrants, golden shares, or profit interests in roughly 30 to 40 companies — approaching $30 billion — across mining, technology, energy, and defense. It holds about 10% of Intel (INTC) and 15% of MP Materials (MP).

The market’s response was euphoric and understandable. When the government buys a stake, guarantees a floor under your output, and promises to buy what you produce, your risk profile changes overnight. In rare earths especially, that lit a fuse. Neodymium-praseodymium oxide rose roughly 138% in the opening months of 2026, and the equities went vertical — MP Materials up 223% on the year, Trilogy Metals more than 270%, some junior miners several hundred percent. A February 2026 initiative put the government directly into domestic developers, and commentators began describing a “policy floor” beneath the whole sector — a re-rating from speculative commodity to “sovereign-class asset.”

Here’s the problem with a policy floor.

A floor built by policy can be moved by policy.

Why Government-Backed Stocks Put the Risk on You

Try a simple exercise on any of these names. Split today’s price into two pieces. The first is what the business is worth on its own — the earnings, the assets, the realistic path to cash flow. The second is everything the market is paying on top of that because Washington is a shareholder, a lender, a guaranteed customer, or a price-setter.

Call that second piece the Washington premium. It’s real, it’s large in some of these names, and it exists only as long as investors believe the government’s support is permanent.

Now the uncomfortable part. If you own one of these stocks for the “government has my back” reason, you are not the one holding downside protection. You are the one who sold it. You collected a premium — the re-rating, the pop, the floor — and in exchange you are implicitly short a political option. As long as the arrangement holds and nobody asks hard questions, you keep the premium. If the political weather turns, you own the tail.

The Government Put isn’t downside protection the crowd bought. It’s a bet on calm the crowd doesn’t know it’s making.

Why the Political Risk Gets Real on November 3

Premiums built on a belief don’t need a contract to be canceled to unwind. They only need the belief to wobble — and the calendar is about to hand the market a reason.

Prediction markets now put Democrats around 90% to take the House and around 61% to take the Senate this November — favored, at the moment, in both chambers. This is not a political prediction and it doesn’t require one; it’s simply what’s priced. But the mechanism is what counts: control of the House alone hands the other party subpoena power, committee chairs, and the ability to compel documents and testimony. You don’t need new laws to compress a policy premium. You need hearings, letters, and headlines.

And that machinery is already turning. Congress sent letters in February, March, and July of 2026 demanding the selection criteria and legal justifications behind the stakes — one of them naming specific companies and asking for the documents behind each deal. The Senate’s 2027 defense bill would require an ownership review of every company the Pentagon holds equity in. An Intel shareholder lawsuit is already challenging the legitimacy of the government’s equity demands. And the public mood is no tailwind: a July poll found 49% of voters consider government ownership stakes inappropriate, against just 19% who support them.

None of that cancels a single contract. All of it can move a stock.

A stock doesn’t reprice when the support disappears. It reprices the moment the market stops believing the support is permanent.

3 Types of Government-Backed Stocks

Not every name carries the same political fragility. Sort them by how the government created the premium, because that determines how easily it can be contested.

Owner — the stocks the government owns outright through equity, warrants, or golden shares, plus the miners it backs with a price floor: MP Materials (MP), Intel (INTC), and the critical-minerals miners. Counterintuitively, this is the most durable leg. Critical minerals and domestic chips carry genuine, bipartisan national-security backing — that’s why MP became the prototype the whole program was built on. Contracts here don’t get torn up casually. What’s exposed isn’t the mission; it’s the structure of individual deals a hostile committee can put under a microscope.

Customer — where the government doesn’t own the company but is the demand: Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), Palantir (PLTR). The question isn’t “will they lose their contracts?” — they won’t. It’s how much of today’s multiple assumes federal cloud and AI spending keeps accelerating and consolidating. The premium sits in the growth assumption, not the base business.

Gatekeeper — where the government controls the addressable market through export licensing: Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD). This is the purest policy-duration risk of all, because it lives entirely on executive discretion. Nvidia took a $4.5 billion charge when H20 licenses to China were pulled, then generated only about $60 million once partial licenses returned. The current H200 regime is a case-by-case review with a 25% tariff and mandatory U.S. testing. Billions in addressable market turn on a posture that can change with a memo.

The gradient is the insight: the further you move from “national-security mission” toward “novel equity structure,” “procurement concentration,” and “discretionary license,” the thinner the political cover — and the fatter the premium at risk.

The Trump Dividend Stocks in Play

Here’s the working roster, grouped by how Washington created the premium. The lower a name sits on this list, the thinner its political cover — and the more of its price may be riding on a posture that can change.

Tickers are shown for identification and analysis only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

To Be Fair: The Bull Case for Trump Dividend Stocks

I’d distrust anyone selling this thesis without the counter-case, so here it is. These are momentum monsters — the right idea on the wrong tape will still bleed you out, and some of these names have multiplied several times over. Chips and critical minerals have real bipartisan support; the mission survives regardless of who runs the committees. And “obvious” election catalysts are notorious for being priced in early and disappointing the people who chase them.

All true — which is exactly why the honest version of this is not a crash call. It’s a premium-decay thesis. The bet isn’t that these companies fall apart in November. It’s that a premium built on the assumption of permanent, uncontested federal support has a harder time expanding — and an easier time leaking — in a world where both chambers of Congress are holding the subpoena pen.

How to Think About Government-Backed Stocks

This isn’t a recommendation to short anything, and it isn’t a political call. It’s a lens. If a meaningful slice of a stock’s price is a Washington premium, then the responsible questions are simple. How big is that premium relative to the business underneath it? How durable is the policy that created it — mission-level and bipartisan, or a bespoke structure a single hearing can spotlight? And is the market charging anything at all for the possibility that the premium gets contested — or is it treating a policy floor as a law of nature?

For traders, the shape follows from the honest framing: a slow, undated catalyst rewards patience and defined risk, not a rushed directional bet on a short clock. The point isn’t to predict a crash. It’s to notice the risk you may already be carrying before the market wakes up to it.

Follow the Money, Not the Government-Backed Hype

For years we’ve asked what happens when the Fed has the market’s back. The question now is stranger and bigger: what happens to a stock when the federal government is shareholder, lender, customer, price guarantor, permitting authority, and regulator — sometimes all at once, in the same company?

So far the answer has been extraordinary upside. That’s the “Trump dividend” everyone’s chasing. But it introduces a variable Wall Street isn’t used to modeling: policy-duration risk. Not the risk that the business disappears — the risk that investors quietly reconsider how permanent the favor really is.

Between now and November 3, one of these names is going to get a headline nearly every week — a hearing, a letter, a lawsuit docket, an export decision. Watch them. The crowd is pricing a floor. The opportunity is in the part of the price that’s really a risk nobody signed up for.

Trump Dividend Stocks FAQ

What are Trump dividend stocks?

Trump dividend stocks are the names Wall Street bought because Washington got involved. Since early 2025 the government has taken equity, warrants, golden shares, or price floors in dozens of companies across mining, chips, energy, and defense. The upside from that involvement is the so-called Trump dividend.

Which stocks does the U.S. government own?

The clearest owned names are MP Materials, Intel, Lithium Americas, USA Rare Earth, and Trilogy Metals, where Washington holds equity, warrants, or golden shares. It owns about 15% of MP Materials and roughly 10% of Intel. Microsoft, Oracle, Palantir, Nvidia, and AMD are exposed too, but through demand or licensing, not ownership.

Why have Trump dividend stocks risen so much?

When the government buys a stake, guarantees a floor under output, and promises to buy what a company produces, the risk profile changes overnight. Rare earths ran hardest: MP Materials rose 223% on the year and Trilogy Metals more than 270%. Investors began pricing a policy floor beneath the whole sector.

What is the Government Put?

The Government Put is the belief that Washington’s involvement puts a floor under these stocks, the way the Fed put stands behind the broader market. The catch: if you own one of these names for that reason, you didn’t buy protection. You sold it. You keep the reward while the calm holds and eat the loss if politics turns.

What is the biggest risk to Trump dividend stocks?

The risk isn’t that these businesses collapse. It’s that the premium built on permanent federal support starts to leak once investors doubt the support will last. It doesn’t take a canceled contract, just wavering belief. Hearings, letters, and lawsuits can do it, which is why the November midterms matter.

Are Trump dividend stocks a buy right now?

This isn’t a buy or sell call, it’s a lens. Before buying, ask how much of the price is a Washington premium, how durable the policy behind it is, and whether the market is pricing any chance that support gets contested. A slow, undated catalyst rewards patience and defined risk, not a rushed bet.

Editor’s Note: What ever happened to the AI stock boom? Even AI darlings like Nvidia have essentially gone nowhere since summer 2025. Our friend and colleague at InvestorPlace, Louis Navellier, may have the answer. According to Louis, the AI industry is quietly “staging” ahead of the next great AI breakthrough… a new class of AI he calls “Superintelligence… but better.” How will it trigger a $100 trillion reset of the AI markets. How will the launch of this tech send some stocks to zero, and others soaring? And why does Louis say: Don’t buy or sell an AI stock in 2026 until you see what’s coming next? Go here for the full story (and Louis’ #1 pick).  

The post Trump Dividend Stocks: The Hidden Risk Wall Street Is Missing appeared first on InvestorPlace.

May 21, 2025, Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) named a partner for its new 800-volt data center architecture.

For Nvidia, this was housekeeping. A supplier announcement. As such, NVDA stock hardly budged.

For Navitas Semiconductor Corp. (NVTS), a small power-chip maker, it was the most important day in the company’s history. Shares spiked more than 180% in a single session.

Two completely different outcomes for the same press release.

We call that the magnification effect. And we think it is one of the more useful ideas an investor can wield in a technology boom.

The next boom has already started, and it isn’t chatbots. It’s Physical AI… AI with a body. And the person generating more Physical AI demand than anyone else on Earth is Elon Musk.

The opportunity gap for you is that Musk cannot possibly build all of it himself…

Why Small Suppliers Can Deliver Bigger Stock Moves

Everybody remembers the PC makers of the 1980s and ’90s. IBM. Compaq. Dell. Each a fine business.

But the company that powered the revolution was Intel Corp. (INTC), whose chips became the brains inside nearly every PC on Earth. A $1,000 investment in Intel at the start of 1980 would have grown into roughly $252,200 – a total return of about 25,210%.

Then came the internet, and with it the flameouts. Pets.com. Webvan. The real money was in the plumbing.

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) made the routers and switches that became the backbone of the internet. It went public in February 1990 at $18 a share. By its March 2000 peak, Cisco had delivered total returns of just over 100,600% and had briefly become the most valuable company in the world at a $546 billion market cap.

And most recently, digital AI. While investors chased the AI app of the week, the company that captured the lion’s share of the gains was the one selling GPUs. Over the ten years through late August 2026, Nvidia returned roughly 33,280%.

Intel for computing. Cisco for the internet. Nvidia for digital AI.

Three booms, three household names that got the magazine covers, and three suppliers that got the returns.

The Robot Boom Is Starting to Hit the Supply Chain

For the past few years, AI lived on a screen. It wrote emails and answered questions.

Physical AI is different. It’s AI that can see, move, and work in the world… We’re talking robots, robotaxis, and machines on a factory floor.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has called this the next great shift:

“The next wave of AI is physical AI. AI that understands the laws of physics. AI that can work among us. Everything is going to be robotic.”

The long-range numbers Wall Street is attaching to that idea are staggering.

In The Humanoid Economy, Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas and Sheng Zhong project the humanoid market is “likely to reach $5 trillion by 2050,” built on more than 1 billion humanoids in use, about 930 million of them in industrial and commercial roles. Citi’s GPS team goes further in The Rise of AI Robots, forecasting “648m units and a $7 trillion humanoid market by 2050.” Huang himself has repeatedly framed humanoid robots and labor automation as a $40 trillion total addressable market… possibly, in his words, “the largest industry of all.”

We’d treat all of that as scenario work, not a forecast. Estimates that land in 2050 vary this widely for a reason, and none of them are tradeable.

What is tradable is the near-term ramp.

In its March 2026 research note Physical AI, part 2: Humanoid robots, Bank of America Global Research projects humanoid shipments jumping from 20,000 units in 2025 to 90,000 in 2026… That is a more-than-fourfold leap in a single year, on the way to 10 million units by 2035.

That is the part that creates purchase orders. So the question becomes: who is writing them?

Elon Musk Is Building Multiple Physical AI Demand Engines

More than anyone else on the planet, Musk is.

Tesla Inc. (TSLA) has called its Gen 3 Optimus its “first design meant for mass production,” with production targeted to begin before the end of 2026 and a converted Fremont line designed for capacity of up to 1 million robots a year. Musk has floated an aspirational 10 million units a year at Gigafactory Texas.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX) completed the largest IPO in history in June 2026 and is scaling Starlink toward tens of millions of subscribers while pouring billions into orbital compute. Its most recent quarter showed AI-segment revenue up 247%.

xAI is racing to build some of the largest data centers on the planet… hungry for chips, power, memory, and connectivity.

Every one of those is a demand engine. And building a machine like Optimus is genuinely hard: Musk has said roughly 10,000 of its parts are new, and much of the supply chain had to be created from scratch.

Somebody has to make those parts. Somebody has to supply the actuators, the harmonic drives, the rare-earth magnets, the sensors, the power chips, the connectivity.

That “somebody” is where we want your attention.

Why a Small Supplier Can Move More Than Its Giant Customer

The math behind the magnification effect is simple.

Tesla does around $100 billion in annual revenue. A few-hundred-million-dollar parts order is a rounding error at that scale. But to a supplier doing $300 million in sales, that same order could double the business overnight.

Same contract. Wildly different impact on the stock.

We’ve watched it happen in real time. When Nvidia disclosed in a July 18, 2024 SEC filing that it owned about 10% of Serve Robotics Inc. (SERV), Serve shares soared 187% in a single day. Nvidia barely moved. Ten months later, Navitas did the same thing on the 800-volt announcement.

Now imagine that dynamic playing out across Musk’s entire Physical AI supply chain over the next several years.

Four Physical AI Bottlenecks Suppliers Have to Solve

When we map Musk’s Physical AI push, we keep landing on the same four things it cannot exist without: the data that trains it, the compute that runs it, the connectivity that moves it, and the machines that carry it into the physical world. Musk is spending aggressively to lock up all four… But locking up a layer isn’t the same as making everything inside it.

On the data side, robots need training footage the internet simply doesn’t contain – how a hand grips a part, adjusts when it slips, seats a connector. Nvidia’s Isaac and Cosmos platforms exist to simulate that world and generate that data. Teaching machines about physical space is becoming its own industry.

On the compute side, training and running these models takes memory, power delivery, and thermal management. That’s where suppliers such as Micron Technology Inc. (MU) and Monolithic Power Systems Inc. (MPWR) live.

On connectivity, tens of thousands of accelerators are useless if they can’t talk to each other fast enough. Nvidia has committed billions to lock up optical supply from firms including Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) and Coherent Corp. (COHR). A company only does that when it’s worried about getting enough.

And on the machine side, there’s the body itself. Machine vision from Cognex Corp. (CGNX). Test and automation from Teradyne Inc. (TER). Precision motion and signal chains from Analog Devices Inc. (ADI). Factory integration from Rockwell Automation Inc. (ROK).

None of those are recommendations. They’re an illustration of the method: follow the layer, find the bottleneck, then ask who solves it… and how much of their revenue it would move.

We think there’s a fuller map of this than we can fit in one essay, and we’re not the only ones who think so.

Where This Trade Can Break

Small suppliers can be violently volatile, and the ones tied to a single giant customer carry real concentration risk. A design change or a second-source decision can take the story away as fast as a press release created it.

Musk’s timelines are also famously aggressive. He acknowledged on the Q4 2025 earnings call that the Optimus program is still “primarily for learning.” Treat the biggest unit numbers as targets, not promises… And assume any supplier priced today for mass production in 2027 has room to fall if that slips to 2029.

The magnification effect cuts both ways, too.

A stock that gains 180% on one announcement can give most of it back when the next quarter shows the order was smaller than the market priced in.

The Bottom Line: Follow the Physical AI Bottlenecks

One press release sent Navitas up 180% in a single session. One SEC filing did the same for Serve Robotics, +187%. In both cases, the giant on the other side of the deal barely moved.

That’s the magnification effect in action. 

Both moves were discoverable ahead of time because both companies sat directly in the path of a giant’s spending, waiting for the announcement that revealed them. And no one is about to generate more of those announcements than Elon Musk. 

His next great project – one he has suggested could deliver 1,000-fold returns – is what we call XPANSE. We’ve traced its supply chain from top to bottom. And in our new briefing, I lay out the three steps to get on the right side of this shift – plus the name and ticker of one company we believe is perfectly positioned for it. 

Check out that research, for free, right here.

The post Nvidia Moved This Tiny Stock 180% With One Announcement appeared first on InvestorPlace.

California just took the first step toward reining in AI…

When we first profiled last week’s AI selloff caused by Jacon Coxon’s viral extinction warning, the political blowback was still mostly words – lawmakers posting, 2028 hopefuls sounding off, a bill or two floated.

As of last Friday, it’s no longer just words.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order aimed squarely at the “potential dangers” of AI – the first real regulatory action, as opposed to rhetoric, to come out of the firestorm.

To make sure we’re all on the same page, Coxon is the 27-year-old former Anthropic researcher whose resignation post – warning that the labs are “gambling with our lives” – has now been viewed more than 165 million times and dragged the AI safety debate out of tech circles and into the 2028 campaign.

Newsom left no doubt about the framing:

The federal government’s abject failure to create any form of meaningful AI oversight or accountability should alarm every American, especially when AI CEOs themselves are begging for regulation.

His order gives a panel of experts two months to draft tougher state AI rules – potentially including mandatory third-party safety reviews for frontier labs and a required “kill switch” to shut models down in an emergency. He also made his ambitions national:

California has already built a national model, and our policy should be the national baseline.

Washington isn’t budging.

Earlier today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went on CNBC to reject the idea of a federal “liability shield” for AI developers and put the onus back on the companies themselves:

It is humans who are responsible, not the AI.

So, the battle lines are drawn – the states moving to regulate, the Trump administration digging in against it.

Now, for investors who’ve watched AI stocks whipsaw all month, the instinct might be to read all of this as one more reason to head for the exits.

Our technology expert, Luke Lango, editor of Innovation Investor thinks that’s the wrong take

And he’s got a good angle on this debate.  He spent last week in Los Angeles at the All-In Summit, where in the span of one morning, he heard from Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella, Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang, and – by phone – President Donald Trump.

His bottom-line takeaway for anyone rattled by the regulation noise: AI capability may be pacing, but AI capacity keeps racing.

In other words, the debate over how quickly to release and inspect frontier models – which is real and will continue to be a focal point – barely touches on the torrent of spending on chips, data centers, and infrastructure that actually drive this trade. And at the summit, not one of those check-writers so much as hinted at slowing down.

That’s the abbreviated version of Luke’s takeaways from the week. He’s putting the finishing touches on a complete recap of everything he saw and heard at All-In, and we’ll feature it here in the Digest as soon as it’s ready. In short, he remains very bullish. For the exact moves he’s making right now in Innovation Investor, click here to learn about joining him.

The takeaway isn’t to run from the AI trade. It’s to own it in a way that lets you sleep at night while political stories like Newsom’s executive order play out. And that raises a practical question that many investors are wrestling with right now, given the month we’ve had – you may be one of them…

How do you stay exposed to a jumpy market without getting steamrolled if it rolls over?

We have two ideas – and our trading expert Jonathan Rose, editor of Masters in Trading Live, has been demonstrating both.

One is to trade the short-term swings on your own terms, with your risk defined before the volatility hits. The other is to anchor part of your portfolio to a long-term structural tailwind that doesn’t depend on Wall Street to feel bullish.

Let’s take them in order.

First, learn how to trade the swings

Worried about this market?

Okay – so don’t remain in it for too long. And when you jump in, do so only on your own terms, with your risk predefined. This is Jonathan’s approach.

Let me give you an example…

Heading into last Wednesday’s Fed announcement, he wasn’t trying to guess what the Fed would do. The market had already priced in a quarter-point hike. He was focused on something more useful – how the market would react once the decision hit. And all week, one corner of the market kept pulling his attention: small caps.

The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) had been the weakest thing on the board. The reason was no mystery. Higher rates hit smaller companies harder, and IWM had been selling off all week right into a level Jonathan had circled on his screen: $280.15.

He told his community that $280.15 was the line in the sand. Here’s Jonathan from his free Masters in Trading Live episode last week, calling it before it happened:

$280.15 is massive, massive support… I’m calling right now for the low tomorrow to be $280.15.

Jonathan told his viewers it wouldn’t necessarily be a clean bounce off that level. He said IWM could fall through the level first – a shakeout – and then a recovery:

I wouldn’t be surprised if it trades through there… but after that, it is a buy.

Then the Fed raised rates. IWM sold off exactly as expected, bottoming at $281.03 – less than a dollar from his line – and bounced.

Here’s Jonathan afterward:

We didn’t wait for the move to happen and then come up with a story explaining it. We had the roadmap before the Fed announcement.

One of his members jumped into the move and reported making more than 200% overnight.

Now, the necessary dose of candor…

Not every trade goes gangbusters virtually overnight like that one. Short-dated options cut both ways, and a triple-digit overnight gain is a highlight, not a guarantee. But that’s the whole point of trading on your terms – you decide your exposure, you define your risk up front, and you leave room for the market to reward you when a setup works.

By the way, if you’re wondering where that oddly specific $280.15 came from, it wasn’t a hunch. It came from what Jonathan calls the expected move – the range the options market is actively pricing in for a stock or ETF over a given period. An objective level, not a gut feeling. As he likes to remind people:

Opinions are a dime a dozen… Experience without a process is just a gut feeling. And gut feelings are a great way to make expensive mistakes.

For more on how Jonathan trades – balancing risk and reward – tune in to his free livestreams at 11 a.m. ET, every day the market is open. He profiles market trends, explains his entries and exits, talks through the opportunities he’s watching in real time, and hands out plenty of tickers along the way.

You can sign up right here to get daily reminders and links to each upcoming episode.

A big congratulations to all the MIT Live subscribers who banked short-term profits last week. If you want to learn to trade alongside them, the door is wide open.

Second, the long game: Jonathan’s backdoor AI trade

The other way to stay in the market is to anchor to a structural tailwind that doesn’t care about the daily mood. And today, that tailwind is copper.

Here’s Jonathan:

Everybody’s crowding into the same handful of AI chip names. Meanwhile, the actual bottleneck in the entire AI buildout is a metal that’s been around since the Bronze Age — copper.

And if you haven’t been watching, copper is having a moment.

Earlier this month, three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange tagged a record near $14,700 a ton, capping its longest weekly winning streak since 1994. Jonathan’s favorite name in the space, Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), jumped more than 7% on the day and sits up almost 40% on the year.

The opportunity in copper comes courtesy of a simple, stubborn imbalance…

Demand is exploding – an AI data center uses roughly 10 times as much copper as a traditional one. But supply can’t respond – a new copper mine takes seven to ten years to build. On top of that, global mine output fell in the first half of the year, and Morgan Stanley now expects the first annual decline in mine supply since 2017.

But the piece Jonathan really likes isn’t the commodity story everyone can see. It’s the catalyst with a date on it:

I don’t just want to be long a strong commodity — I want a known catalyst with a date on it. Copper has one.

Washington already slapped a 50% tariff on semi-finished copper products back in 2025, but it left raw and refined copper untaxed. For now, at least. But Washington is currently considering a phased tax on refined copper: 15% in 2027, stepping up to 30% in 2028.

The market isn’t waiting. Roughly 200,000 tons of refined copper flooded into the U.S. in July alone – the largest monthly inflow on record – as buyers raced to beat that possible tax.

And this brings us to the specific opportunity Jonathan has flagged…

A tax on imported refined copper is a gift to the handful of companies that refine copper on American soil. And there’s barely anyone left to do it.

Jonathan points out that 16 primary copper smelters operated in the U.S. in 1976. Today, only two are operational. FCX runs one of them (its Miami smelter in Arizona); Rio Tinto (RIO) runs the other (Kennecott, in Utah). Put a tariff on finished metal, and you hand enormous pricing power to those two names.

Here’s Jonathan’s bottom line:

All any trader is ever doing is positioning in front of the biggest players in the room. Copper is flashing that exact signal right now.

And true to form, he didn’t just voice an opinion – he put a real, defined-risk version of the trade (a specific FCX options play) into his free portfolio, live on the show. Same discipline as the IWM call: know your level, define your risk, get positioned before the crowd.

Again, to join Jonathan for his Masters in Trading Live daily episodes, click here. These are the types of opportunities he profiles every day – and again, these videos are free.

Coming full circle

As I write here on Monday, the AI trade is up big. But the growing AI backlash isn’t going anywhere – Newsome’s executive order is just the latest proof. 

Luke’s read is that the AI spending survives the noise, so this isn’t the moment to abandon the trade. And Jonathan showed two ways to stay in the game without white-knuckling every negative headline, which will be returning at some point.

Different time horizons, but the same discipline…

Know what you own, why, and decide where your line in the sand is before the volatility hits – not in the heat of a 600-point down day.

Do that, and it won’t much matter whether the next headline out of Washington (or Sacramento) is reassuring or alarming.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

(Disclaimer: I own MSFT.)

The post Did California Hit the “Kill Switch” On the AI Trade? appeared first on InvestorPlace.