The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index closed at 7,537 on July 6, around 1% below its recent record closing high of 7,610 (as of June 2, 2026). The S&P 500 is trading at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 21.3, above its five-year average P/E of 19.9 and 10-year average of 19. However, investors do not have to avoid the market altogether. Instead, they can opt to buy shares of the In...
The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index closed at 7,537 on July 6, around 1% below its recent record closing high of 7,610 (as of June 2, 2026). The S&P 500 is trading at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 21.3, above its five-year average P/E of 19.9 and 10-year average of 19. However, investors do not have to avoid the market altogether. Instead, they can opt to buy shares of the Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF (NASDAQ: QQQM) . This ETF was trading at a forward P/E of 25.1 (as of June 30), according to Invesco. But the ETF offers a more direct exposure to artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, semiconductors, and large technology companies that have helped drive the recent market rally. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
imaginima/E+ via Getty Images Occidental Petroleum ( OXY ) up 3.9% in Wednesday's trading as crude oil prices surge and Evercore ISI upgrades shares to Outperform from Underperform with a $65 price target, raised from $58, citing improving financials. After a prolonged stretch of underperformance vs. both crude oil and the large-cap E&P stock sector, Evercore's Stephen Richardson says two developm...
imaginima/E+ via Getty Images Occidental Petroleum ( OXY ) up 3.9% in Wednesday's trading as crude oil prices surge and Evercore ISI upgrades shares to Outperform from Underperform with a $65 price target, raised from $58, citing improving financials. After a prolonged stretch of underperformance vs. both crude oil and the large-cap E&P stock sector, Evercore's Stephen Richardson says two developments now allow Occidental ( OXY ) tobetter reflect underlying commodity fundamentals: "a materially de-levered balance sheet and a structural step-up in capital efficiency that together reshape the free cash flow profile and the path back to shareholder returns." Rather than making a call on absolute growth, Richardson says his upgrade is about the rate of change and a closing valuation discount, as Occidental ( OXY ) is "inflecting off a depressed, deeply discounted base, and we think the market is under-crediting both the durability of theefficiency gains and the simplification of a capital structure that has long capped common-equity leverage to oil." Occidental's ( OXY ) lower well costs and a strategically shallower base decline reduce maintenance capital over time, which flattens and lifts free cash flow and supports a restart of buybacks around the back half of 2028, the analyst also says. More on Occidental Petroleum Occidental Petroleum: Cheap For Good Reasons Occidental Offers A 25% Upside At $70 Oil Occidental Petroleum: I'm Turning More Bearish (Rating Downgrade)
Are Flattening Curves And Style Rotations Deceptive Omens? Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Bond market pundits often warn that bear yield curve flatteners or inverted yield curves ultimately lead to recessions. Similarly, some equity experts caution that periods of violent back-and-forth rotations among stock sectors and/or style factors are precursors to a market top. A...
Are Flattening Curves And Style Rotations Deceptive Omens? Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Bond market pundits often warn that bear yield curve flatteners or inverted yield curves ultimately lead to recessions. Similarly, some equity experts caution that periods of violent back-and-forth rotations among stock sectors and/or style factors are precursors to a market top. Additionally, the combination of a bearish flattening trend and volatile equity rotations leads some analysts to forecast a recession, with concerning market repercussions. The argument we present in this article is that predicting economic or financial market activity is not as simple as following two indicators. Bear flattening trades, inverted yield curves, and frantic style (factor or sector) rotations are not definitive warnings of a market peak. They are extremely informative about where the economy, markets, and investor sentiment stand, but they do not tell investors whether or when the economic or market cycle will turn. Knowing where you are in a cycle is not the same as knowing when it ends. Confusing the two is a common mistake and can be a costly one for investors in late-cycle analysis. Given that both indicators are currently flashing red, we explore how they can serve as important warnings of pending financial market and economic turbulence, but also as deceptive omens. What The Yield Curve Tells Us The shape of the yield curve, or the difference in yields between long and short-term US Treasury securities, indicates the market’s expected path for short rates plus a term premium. In other words, where does the market expect Fed Funds to be in the future, plus how much of a yield premium is the market paying investors to take on the inflation, economic, and oversupply risks of holding Treasury securities? To help appreciate where the yield curve stands today and how it’s changed recently, we’ve included the graph below. A notable feature of this long-term grap...
Hi, it’s Michelle F. Davis in Sun Valley reporting in from the exclusive Allen & Co. conference. Also today, we have the ongoing European bank drama and a multibillion-dollar listing out of Asia. Today’s top stories UniCredit nears Commerzbank control as stake set to top 47%. Dream Finders Homes boosts bid for Beazer to $875 million. AI chip startup SambaNova raises funds at $11 billion valuation....
Hi, it’s Michelle F. Davis in Sun Valley reporting in from the exclusive Allen & Co. conference. Also today, we have the ongoing European bank drama and a multibillion-dollar listing out of Asia. Today’s top stories UniCredit nears Commerzbank control as stake set to top 47%. Dream Finders Homes boosts bid for Beazer to $875 million. AI chip startup SambaNova raises funds at $11 billion valuation. Apple supplier Luxshare prices $3.1 billion HK listing at top. Las Vegas NBA expansion group touts $8 billion war chest. Gathering of glitterati I’m in picturesque Sun Valley, Idaho for day two of Allen & Co.’s annual gathering of media, technology and finance moguls. With so many important people in one place, the secretive event is known for fostering the kinds of impromptu run-ins or strategic meetings that later spawn flashy TMT deals. Past Sun Valleys helped lay the groundwork for deals including Jeff Bezos’ takeover of the Washington Post , Verizon’s acquisition of AOL and Comcast’s purchase of NBCUniversal from GE, a combination that Comcast said last week it’s planning to unwind. So far I’ve spotted a lot of the usual roster of VIPs including Comcast’s Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Fox’s Lachlan Murdoch as well as Disney’s Bob Iger and new CEO Josh D’Amaro. Apple’s incoming CEO, John Ternus, is among invitees, as are Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, but I haven’t seen them yet. The official program for the exclusive event is kept under wraps but the schedule normally involves attending formal talks in the morning and then recreational networking over horseback riding, helicopter rides and whitewater rafting in the afternoon amid Sun Valley’s mountains and alpine meadows. While here I got the chance to speak on the sidelines with Steve Pagliuca, CEO of PagsGroup and senior adviser to Bain Capital. In the wide-ranging discussion, Pagliuca said he’s excited by the long...
Statement says decisions ‘raised serious concerns’ Association rues ‘controversial and influential incidents’ The Egyptian Football Association has questioned the “fairness” of the national team’s 3-2 loss to Argentina in Tuesday’s World Cup last-16 encounter. Having gone 1-0 up through Yasser Ibrahim early on, Egypt thought they had doubled their lead in the second half when Mostafa Ziko scored a...
Statement says decisions ‘raised serious concerns’ Association rues ‘controversial and influential incidents’ The Egyptian Football Association has questioned the “fairness” of the national team’s 3-2 loss to Argentina in Tuesday’s World Cup last-16 encounter. Having gone 1-0 up through Yasser Ibrahim early on, Egypt thought they had doubled their lead in the second half when Mostafa Ziko scored at the end of an excellent move. The goal was disallowed after a VAR review, however, with the referee, François Letexier, adjudging Marwan Attia to have committed a foul in the buildup. Continue reading...
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Stocks were lower on Wednesday, but well off their worst levels of the session. The big story of the day: The spike in oil prices after President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire agreement with Iran over. West Texas Intermedi...
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Stocks were lower on Wednesday, but well off their worst levels of the session. The big story of the day: The spike in oil prices after President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire agreement with Iran over. West Texas Intermediate crude jumped to $74 per barrel from $70, while Brent climbed to around $78. It is anyone's guess as to how long these attacks will last, but the move in oil has a clear impact on the bond market. Treasury yields surged as traders boosted Federal Reserve interest rate hike expectations on worries that rising oil prices will keep inflation elevated. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to roughly 4.58%, putting it within striking distance of its May high. Higher energy prices and rates are a bad combination for cyclical stocks. Materials, consumer discretionary, and financials were the three worst-performing sectors. Industrials also struggled. The best-acting group was AI stocks, which rebounded after sharp declines in three of the four prior trading sessions. Nvidia shares traded higher after The Information reported that China plans to let a handful of AI companies buy a limited amount of H200 chips. Earlier this year, the U.S. government approved licenses for Nvidia's H200 chips to be shipped to Chinese customers. However, the AI chip company has yet to generate any revenue in the world's second-largest economy. What's stopping the sales is that the Chinese government has restricted imports of Nvidia chips due to security concerns. Is this the news we've been waiting for that finally gets Nvidia back into China — a market once estimated to be worth $50 billion annually? Not so fast. This isn't the first time we have seen headlines like this, and previous reports never led to any meaningful change. In January, Reuters said China allowed ByteDance, Alibaba , and Tencent to b...
US President Donald Trump ’s suggestion on Wednesday that he would allow Ukraine — desperate for missile defenses after withering Russian strikes — to build its own Patriot interceptors won’t be easy or quick. Manufacturing Lockheed Martin Corp. Patriot missiles in war-torn Ukraine, especially at scale, would be a tall order. Just how difficult depends on what type of missile a new production line...
US President Donald Trump ’s suggestion on Wednesday that he would allow Ukraine — desperate for missile defenses after withering Russian strikes — to build its own Patriot interceptors won’t be easy or quick. Manufacturing Lockheed Martin Corp. Patriot missiles in war-torn Ukraine, especially at scale, would be a tall order. Just how difficult depends on what type of missile a new production line would produce. The PAC-3 variant, which can shoot down ballistic missiles and costs about $5 million each, is one of the most advanced air defense weapons in the world, and is now built in only two places: The US and Japan. “A Patriot missile takes years to build, meaning Ukrainian production of these missiles won’t materialize on the near-term timelines they need,” said Bloomberg Economics defense lead Becca Wasser . “Plus Ukraine’s ability to swiftly produce drones and missiles may not apply to Patriot production, given strict US technology controls.” Supply chains for current production are already stressed, and opening a new line would also require specialized equipment and training — both of which would add time to the project. In recent days, Ukraine has said its forces weren’t able to shoot down any incoming Russian ballistic missiles as Moscow targeted major cities. That’s underlined the dire need for more Patriots, which Kyiv typically relied on to counter such threats. NATO allies have warned their inventories are limited . Trump suggested his offer of production may mean no new supplies of actual missiles are likely. “This way you can’t complain that we’re not giving them enough,” Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy . “We haven’t informed the company of that yet, but that’ll work out all right.” Some components, such as the missile body, would be relatively easy to make from an industrial standpoint. Solid-rocket motors of the right energy and consistent quality would be much tougher, as would the small steering motors of the PAC-3, which enable i...
Torsten Asmus Inflation concerns and the prospect of Federal Reserve rate hikes are back at the forefront of market worries as a geopolitical crisis in the Middle East sends oil prices surging. Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, warned that the end of a ceasefire has put investors back to “square one” and that the Fed may be forced to tighten monetary policy further. "The inflation concern...
Torsten Asmus Inflation concerns and the prospect of Federal Reserve rate hikes are back at the forefront of market worries as a geopolitical crisis in the Middle East sends oil prices surging. Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, warned that the end of a ceasefire has put investors back to “square one” and that the Fed may be forced to tighten monetary policy further. "The inflation concerns are back in play. And as a result of that, the Fed is back in play. Not only is the Fed pivoting to tightening, but they may actually have to tighten," Yardeni said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. He characterized the situation as "a geopolitical crisis that just won't go away, won't end." Yardeni explained that the underlying fundamentals for oil ( CL1:COM ), ( CO1:COM ) remain bearish due to China's weak economy and widespread adoption of electric vehicles, but the short-term picture has shifted dramatically with the ceasefire's collapse. He suggested that Iran's Revolutionary Guard appears to be "out of control" and not aligned with moderates seeking a negotiated settlement. "The president made it pretty clear that it's very frustrating, if not impossible, to negotiate with the other side," Yardeni noted. The Federal Reserve has already pivoted from an easing stance to a hawkish position focused on price stability, according to Yardeni. He observed that the labor market appears stable, but "all bets could be off here depending on what happens with the Middle East." If gasoline prices ( XB1:COM ) spike again, Yardeni warned there could be "some kind of geopolitical fatigue" among consumers who have otherwise been "doing just great." Market sentiment is facing what Yardeni described as a three-punch combination: surging energy prices, rising interest rate concerns, and a sharp rotation away from high-flying technology stocks ( VGT ), ( XLK ), ( IYW ) . "The market has run into AI fatigue," he said, noting that investors had been rotating into "companies that w...
STORY: :: Nvidia Shares of Nvidia rose in Wednesday morning trading after a report said China is planning to allow its top AI firms to buy a limited number of Nvidia's second most powerful AI chip, the H200. A report from The Information on Wednesday said Chinese officials have told Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek in recent weeks that they may soon receive permission to buy some of those chips. Th...
STORY: :: Nvidia Shares of Nvidia rose in Wednesday morning trading after a report said China is planning to allow its top AI firms to buy a limited number of Nvidia's second most powerful AI chip, the H200. A report from The Information on Wednesday said Chinese officials have told Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek in recent weeks that they may soon receive permission to buy some of those chips. The U.S. government has allowed Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to China, and licensed about 10 Chinese firms to buy the chips. But Chinese officials had withheld approval, looking to nurture their domestic suppliers. :: Nvidia :: Archive Reuters reported in March that Nvidia had won Beijing's long-awaited approval to sell the chips to China. :: Nvidia The potential shift in China's stance underscores the growing computing capacity crunch that the country's tech companies are facing. Nvidia on Wednesday did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees exports of advanced AI chips.
adventtr/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Regular readers of mine know that I've been covering many names in the AI-infrastructure industry with a rather skeptical eye, with names such as CoreWeave, IREN, Nebius, etc. The pattern that I keep on seeing is a genuine real technology trend, a capital-markets machine bolted onto it, and a share price that prices the endpoint while the income statement ...
adventtr/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Regular readers of mine know that I've been covering many names in the AI-infrastructure industry with a rather skeptical eye, with names such as CoreWeave, IREN, Nebius, etc. The pattern that I keep on seeing is a genuine real technology trend, a capital-markets machine bolted onto it, and a share price that prices the endpoint while the income statement is still paying for the journey. Quantum computing is following the same trend, and IonQ, Inc. ( IONQ ) is the poster child of this. I want to dive into the firm to see if it is yet another overhyped firm or if there is some real value and momentum behind IonQ. Current Dynamics I first want to highlight where the market is on IonQ and the broad quantum industry. In late June, the White House signed 2 executive orders to accelerate the US quantum industry , yet the stock finished the month down 26.1% anyway. Combined with this, IonQ has raised its guidance and has seen a wave of raised price targets by analysts , and it is still down, meaning that the marginal buyer is exhausted. But I first want to see what is going right for the firm, as first the company is showcasing real revenue, as FY25 revenue came in at $130MM, a growth rate of 202%, and it made IonQ the first quantum firm to clear $100MM of annual GAAP revenue. Q1 revenue came in at $64.7MM , a growth rate of 755% Y/Y, and drastically beat the guidance midpoint by 30%. The firm also has a strong balance sheet with $3.1B of cash and investments, which is the longest runway in the peer group and will let IonQ outspend Rigetti ( RGTI ) and D-Wave ( QBTS ) combined for years. There is also a fair backlog with RPOs standing at $470MM , up 554% Y/Y, and the roster of customers is highly credible as it includes the University of Cambridge , KISTI in Korea , and the Space Development Agency . It also has a defensible technology position with trapped ions genuinely leading on gate fidelity and coherence, especially as the Ox...