JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Americans have collectively never been richer. According to Michael Hartnett at Bank of America Global Research, U.S. household equity wealth is up a whopping $6 trillion so far this year, fueled by tremendous stock market gains at home and abroad. This “boom loop” should be great news for asset managers and financial advisory firms. Unfortunately for LP...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Americans have collectively never been richer. According to Michael Hartnett at Bank of America Global Research, U.S. household equity wealth is up a whopping $6 trillion so far this year, fueled by tremendous stock market gains at home and abroad. This “boom loop” should be great news for asset managers and financial advisory firms. Unfortunately for LPL Financial Holdings Inc. ( LPLA ), the 2026 equity rally hasn’t provided much of a tailwind. Indeed, shares are down 15% since my January 2025 downgrade . Today, however, I see a much-improved valuation with solid earnings growth on the horizon. Thus, I am upgrading LPLA to a Buy. The technicals, meanwhile, are not all that inspiring. LPL Lags XLF & SPY Since Early 2025 stockcharts.com Back in April, LPL reported a mixed set of quarterly results. Q1 non-GAAP EPS of $5.60 topped the Wall Street consensus forecast of $5.47, while revenue of $4.94 billion, up 35% from the same period a year earlier, was a small $60 million miss. The company tallied total client assets of $2.3 trillion, a 30% YoY jump, with organic net new assets of $21 billion (4%) annualized growth. Shares fell 4.6% in the session that followed, marking the worst earnings reaction back to July 2025. Looking ahead to the July 30 Q2 report, the options market prices in a somewhat high 7.3% earnings-related stock price swing based on the at-the-money straddle expiring soonest after the release. Implied volatility on shares of the $23 billion market cap Financials sector company is elevated at 44%, according to data from Option Research & Technology Services. Short interest is low, but notable at 3.94%. Looking back on the quarter that was, the full-service wealth management firm got off to a strong start to the year. To go along with the aforementioned AUM gains, its adjusted pre-tax margin of 38% and last-12-month adjusted EPS of $20.54 were solid profitability trends. LPL Financial: Color on Quarter LPL Finan...
Key PointsInvesco Pharmaceuticals ETF has a significantly lower five-year maximum drawdown and lower volatility profile than State Street SPDR S&P Biotech ETF
Key PointsInvesco Pharmaceuticals ETF has a significantly lower five-year maximum drawdown and lower volatility profile than State Street SPDR S&P Biotech ETF
Hims & Hers Health (NYSE: HIMS) is trying to turn GLP-1 demand, subscriber growth, and international expansion into a much larger healthcare platform. The stock has dropped sharply, margins are under pressure, and valuation still looks demanding, but the long-term upside coul
Hims & Hers Health (NYSE: HIMS) is trying to turn GLP-1 demand, subscriber growth, and international expansion into a much larger healthcare platform. The stock has dropped sharply, margins are under pressure, and valuation still looks demanding, but the long-term upside coul
Blue Origin’s New Glenn pad will take a minimum of a year to rebuild after a hot fire test obliterated the company’s only launch infrastructure for the vehicle, marking the first pad explosion since the Soviet N1 rocket in 1969. NASA’s Artemis lunar rover ride just vaporized, SpaceX inherits the entire federal manifest by default, ... Top 5 Stocks That Will Profit From SpaceX’s NASA Launch Monopol...
Blue Origin’s New Glenn pad will take a minimum of a year to rebuild after a hot fire test obliterated the company’s only launch infrastructure for the vehicle, marking the first pad explosion since the Soviet N1 rocket in 1969. NASA’s Artemis lunar rover ride just vaporized, SpaceX inherits the entire federal manifest by default, ... Top 5 Stocks That Will Profit From SpaceX’s NASA Launch Monopoly After Blue Origin’s Pad Collapse
Bitmine Immersion Technologies ( BMNR ) priced an upsized offering of 3.5M shares of 9.50% Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock at $80/share, increasing the deal from the previously announced 3M shares. The offering is expected to generate ~$273.8M in net proceeds and is scheduled to close on June 10, 2026. Proceeds may be used for additional ETH and digital asset purchases, staking and validator in...
Bitmine Immersion Technologies ( BMNR ) priced an upsized offering of 3.5M shares of 9.50% Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock at $80/share, increasing the deal from the previously announced 3M shares. The offering is expected to generate ~$273.8M in net proceeds and is scheduled to close on June 10, 2026. Proceeds may be used for additional ETH and digital asset purchases, staking and validator infrastructure expansion through MAVAN, working capital, strategic investments, and share repurchases. The preferred stock carries a 9.50% cumulative annual dividend based on a $100 stated amount/share. The company has applied to list the preferred stock on the NYSE under the ticker BMNP, with trading expected to begin within 30 days after issuance. BMNR shares down 5.4% premarket. More on Bitmine Immersion Technologies Bitmine Immersion: An Ethereum Treasury Trading Below Its Own Assets Bitmine Immersion: Ethereum Pivot Driving Hidden Upside Bitmine Immersion: Unlocking Staking Rewards CleanSpark draws highest short interest among mid, large, and mega-cap peers Bitmine Immersion Technologies to raise money via preferred stock
Getty Images Yesterday was a particularly interesting trading day because, for the first time in a long time, investors were selling tech stocks to diversify into other sectors of the S&P 500, with small-cap stocks leading the charge. That explains the 874-point rally in the Dow Jones Industrials, while the Nasdaq closed with a small loss. What may have instigated the rotation was an earnings repo...
Getty Images Yesterday was a particularly interesting trading day because, for the first time in a long time, investors were selling tech stocks to diversify into other sectors of the S&P 500, with small-cap stocks leading the charge. That explains the 874-point rally in the Dow Jones Industrials, while the Nasdaq closed with a small loss. What may have instigated the rotation was an earnings report from industry heavyweight Broadcom, which disappointed investors. The chip maker beat estimates on the top and bottom lines, but the forecast for growth fell short of expectations. Any shortfall in the AI space, which is now priced to perfection, is bound to lead to significant losses, which is why Broadcom fell more than 12% yesterday. Finviz The record run in the market has been fueled by profit growth, a resilient economy, and expectations that the Iran war will end soon. The problem is that the war rages on, and lurking in the shadows remains the repercussions of the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The reason oil prices have not exceeded their April high is that governments around the world have supplemented the shortfall in oil supply with the release of reserves, but global oil reserves have fallen to historically and dangerously low levels just as we move into peak demand for fuel during the summer months. We are nearing a critical turning point. Bloomberg If the waterway remains closed, at some point soon we are likely to see another sharp increase in energy prices. One reason that investors have likely piled into everything AI since the war began is that the technology sector is perceived to be immune to soaring energy prices and inflation. Yet we are now at a record level in terms of the sector’s weight in the S&P 500. This is a dangerous concentration that I do not think is sustainable. MarketWatch In fact, if we remove the AI-related basket of stocks from the S&P 500, the index has seen no gain since the war began. This is because the rest of the s...
CHUNYIP WONG/iStock via Getty Images The Competition and Markets Authority, a U.K. regulator, has moved on to the next stage of its investigation into Microsoft ( MSFT ) to determine if the company should receive a strategic market status designation. The CMA first announced its plan to investigate Microsoft over alleged anti-competitive practices last month. It has now moved on to the qualitative...
CHUNYIP WONG/iStock via Getty Images The Competition and Markets Authority, a U.K. regulator, has moved on to the next stage of its investigation into Microsoft ( MSFT ) to determine if the company should receive a strategic market status designation. The CMA first announced its plan to investigate Microsoft over alleged anti-competitive practices last month. It has now moved on to the qualitative customer research portion of the probe. "The research will focus on understanding Microsoft UK customers' business software purchasing decisions, the alternatives to using Microsoft that are available to them, and their ability to switch to those alternatives," the CMA said. Specifically, the CMA plans to determine if Microsoft's business software ecosystem prevents customers from effectively combining software from Microsoft with that of other providers or limits their ability to get access to the best products at the most competitive prices. It will evaluate if bundling of products, limits in interoperability, or default settings can prevent customers from switching and weaken the competitive constraints Microsoft faces from rivals. The probe will span Microsoft's provision of business software products used by U.K. organizations, including productivity software, personal computer and server operating systems, database management systems, and security software. "We are committed to working quickly and constructively with the CMA to facilitate its review of the business software market," said a Microsoft spokesperson. If the CMA does give Microsoft SMS status, it can impose various conduct requirements on the company. The CMA is slated to release its final report on the matter in February 2027. That happened to Google ( GOOG )( GOOGL ) earlier this week. On Wednesday, June 3, the competition regulator introduced new conduct requirements for Google's search services, including measures that allow publishers to opt out of having their content used to train the U.S. technolo...
JHVEPhoto Ciena ( CIEN ) was in focus on Friday as Barclays upped its price target on the networking company after it reported stronger-than-expected results earlier this week. “CIEN reported FQ2 results ahead of our estimates across top-line, margins, and EPS, and released FQ3 guidance above the Street, as well as lifted FY26 guidance,” analyst Tim Long wrote in a note to clients. “GM outperforma...
JHVEPhoto Ciena ( CIEN ) was in focus on Friday as Barclays upped its price target on the networking company after it reported stronger-than-expected results earlier this week. “CIEN reported FQ2 results ahead of our estimates across top-line, margins, and EPS, and released FQ3 guidance above the Street, as well as lifted FY26 guidance,” analyst Tim Long wrote in a note to clients. “GM outperformance in the Q was largely due to engineering cost reductions, mix, and pricing. We expect pricing actions to flow through the model more meaningfully heading into 2H, as the company works through lower priced backlog. FY27 margin uplift expected via mix (hyper-rail flowing through the model), as well as continued engineering cost productions and pricing.” Long raised his price target on Ciena to $607 from $372 and kept his Overweight rating. Shares fell 3.7% in premarket trading. More on Ciena Why Ciena Fell By Nearly 20% After Posting Second Quarter Results Ciena Corporation (CIEN) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript Ciena Corporation 2026 Q2 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation Ciena raises FY2026 revenue outlook to $6.3B amid AI-led demand and sees TAM reaching ~$50B by 2029 Broadcom, Ciena lead tech stocks lower after lackluster guidance