Why we love this deal

As fall settles in and the evenings start to cool down, the backyard can become one of the best places to spend time. A fire gives people a reason to stay outside, and offers light well after sunset. It can turn a quiet evening into an easy gathering with friends and family, with a place to sit, talk, have a drink, and share a meal without needing much of a plan. For anyone who enjoys making better use of their patio or yard throughout the year, a fire pit can add warmth while also giving the space other purposes. 

If you’re in the market for a fall and winter centerpiece to create a gathering spot outside, the Outvue 2-Grill Fire Pit with a Table offers a three-in-one approach. The grills are great for meat and veggies, while you can also just use it as a bonfire, and the surrounding table can hold drinks and plates. It’s the perfect cool-weather trifecta, and it’s just $104 at Amazon.

Outvue 2-Grill Fire Pit with Table, $104 (was $116) at Amazon

Why do shoppers love it?

The design combines a fire pit, grill, and outdoor table in one setup. It comes with two cooking grills, a lid, and a tabletop, allowing it to serve different purposes. With the grills and tabletop in place, it can be used for roasting or cooking over a wood fire. When the fire is out and the lid is covering the bowl, the tabletop can still be used, offering room for up to eight people. It’s a great place to set your drink, a Bluetooth speaker, and some snacks. The two cooking grills are height adjustable and swivel 260 degrees, making it easier to position food over the fire or move it away from the heat. They can also be used to keep food warm or hold a pan for cooking. It’s advised to cover the grates before using them. 

Related: Walmart’s $75 fire pit can be used as a table and a beverage tub

The fire pit has a geometric cutout design that lets the firelight shine through and casts patterns. The openings promote airflow and help maintain the fire, as well as let heat reach your legs and feet while relaxing. The high-temperature powder coating adds durability and is resistant to rust, while the included waterproof cover helps protect the pit when not in use. The set also includes a fire poker for ease of use. It holds up to 20 pounds of wood and the lightweight design can easily be turned over to dump the ash out once it’s cooled off. 

Details to know

• Size: This 32-inch fire pit offers a deep bowl to hold up to 20 pounds of firewood.
• Grills: The two grills swivel 360 degrees, making it easy to move them in or away from the fire.
• Accessories: The kit comes with a poker, a mesh cover, and the fire pit with an attached table and grill grates.

“The deep bottom is great,” wrote one shopper. “The fact that it doubles as a table is amazing. It’s perfect for the backyard!”

Another buyer wrote, “I’ve only used it a few times so far, but it seems well built and thoughtfully designed. It’s not just a fire pit — it’s also a table, a grill, and a nice focal point for the backyard. For the price, it feels like a very versatile and worthwhile purchase.”

Shop more deals

• Verdeluxe Outdoor Fire Pit and Grill, $80 (was $100) at Amazon
• Verdeluxe Outdoor Fire Pit with Grill, $99 (was $110) at Amazon
• Greesum Multifunctional Patio Fire Pit Table and Cooler, $76 (was $85) at Amazon

The Outvue 2-Grill Fire Pit with a Table offers versatility and an easy setup for just $104. Roast marshmallows, grill food, or just use it as a table for a drink and some food. Shoppers can save 10% at Amazon.

Revenue rose, profit soared, and demand for AI infrastructure kept climbing. Now one of Wall Street’s biggest names is raising its price target on the AI stock.

Goldman Sachs analyst Katherine Murphy raised her price target on Dell Technologies (DELL) to $570 from $510 while keeping a “Buy” rating, according to a research note first reported by TheFly. 

Goldman Sachs is bullish on Dell stock

To understand why Goldman Sachs (GS) has raised its Dell stock price target, it helps to look at what the company reported in the recent quarter.

Dell posted revenue of $47 billion for its fiscal second quarter (ending in July), up 58% from a year earlier. Earnings per share came in at $7.04, up 203%. 

Both numbers beat analyst expectations, and management raised guidance for the rest of the year.

The company’s Infrastructure Solutions Group, which includes AI servers, traditional servers, and storage, was the biggest driver. 

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The segment brought in a record $31.8 billion in revenue, up 89%, with operating income more than tripling.

AI demand was the standout. 

Dell booked $60.9 billion in AI server orders in the quarter alone, its best quarter ever for that metric, and ended the period with a backlog of $95 billion. 

Over the past year, the company has booked more than $130 billion in AI server orders total.

Traditional servers grew even faster than AI servers on a percentage basis, up 122%, as businesses replace aging data center equipment. 

Storage revenue rose 26%, marking six straight quarters of demand growth above the broader market.

What’s behind the Dell stock price target hike

Murphy pointed to a few specific factors behind the higher Dell stock price target. Her note credited the beat and raise to enterprise refresh activity and AI demand, along with better-than-expected profitability.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what she highlighted:

• Durable enterprise IT hardware demand tied to data center modernization
• Growing adoption of agentic AI across enterprise customers
• Accelerating AI server demand and order growth
• Operating margin outperformance driven by scale
• A more favorable mix of higher-margin storage products

Dell’s own management has said storage products built on the company’s proprietary technology, rather than partner brands, carry better margins. As that mix improves, profitability should expand.

Dell executives echoed that theme on the earnings call. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke pointed to the sheer scale of the aging equipment still sitting in corporate data centers as a reason the growth has room to continue.

“We still have 1.2 million assets that are 14G or older in the install base,” Clarke told analysts. They have to be upgraded.”

Goldman Sachs expects a broader replacement cycle and accelerating AI spending to drive revenue and earnings higher. 

According to consensus data compiled by Tikr.com, analysts tracking DELL stock forecast revenue to increase from $113.5 billion in fiscal 2026 (ending in January) to $277 billion in fiscal 2030. 

In this period, adjusted earnings are projected to expand from $10.30 per share to $42.72 per share. 

If DELL stock trades at 20x forward earnings, up from its current 17.7x multiple, it could surge roughly 90% over the next three years. 

What’s next for Dell stock price?

Dell also raised its full-year outlook alongside the quarterly results.

The company now expects full-year revenue of $192 billion, up roughly 70% from the prior year, with earnings per share of $25.50, up about 150%.

Management said operating expenses are on pace to fall to about 8% of revenue for the year, the lowest level in the company’s 42-year history.

Lower overhead combined with higher revenue is a big part of why profits are growing faster than sales.

For investors watching Dell stock, the combination of a fresh price target increase, a maintained Buy rating, and management’s confidence in the second half of the year points to a company Wall Street believes still has room to run. 

Whether that plays out will depend on Dell continuing to convert its growing AI backlog into actual shipped revenue, something the company will update investors on again next quarter.

Out of the 21 analysts covering Dell stock, 14 recommend “Buy”, and seven recommend “Hold”. The average Dell stock price target is $586, 19% above the current price.

Related: Morgan Stanley flags unexpected Dell stock update after earnings

While it hadn’t previously disclosed the product-specific revenue, that changed this week.

Microsoft shared quarterly Azure revenue for the first time, according to Reuters, showing $29.4 billion in the most recent quarter and $101.9 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30.

The disclosures provide investors their clearest picture yet of where Microsoft stands in the cloud computing competition, with Azure behind Amazon’s (AMZN) Amazon Web Services but ahead of Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google Cloud, based on the companies’ latest quarterly sales numbers.

But maybe the scale of Azure is not the most relevant component of the Microsoft statement.

The firm is also altering how it reports its operations, going from three business categories to two as artificial intelligence increasingly spans cloud infrastructure, software, and AI applications.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said AI is transforming what Microsoft creates and how the business works, making its products less distinct from one another.

For investors, it poses a greater challenge than whether Azure can catch AWS.

Microsoft could be hinting that the traditional approach of assessing its operations no longer suits the company it is becoming.

Microsoft finally reveals how big Azure has become

Azure generated $29.4 billion in sales during Microsoft’s latest quarter, StockTwits noted, and $101.9 billion during the fiscal year ended June 30.

That provides a concrete figure for a business that Microsoft has mostly spoken about in terms of growth percentages.

It also makes the comparison with Microsoft’s top cloud competitors much clearer for investors.

Amazon Web Services made $42.2 billion in revenue in its last quarter, compared to $24.8 billion for Google Cloud, as Reuters reported.

AWS generated $128.7 billion in calendar 2025 sales, compared with $85.8 billion for Azure over the comparable four-quarter period. Google has not disclosed an equivalent full-year cloud figure.

AWS is still the biggest standalone cloud business.

But the announcement from Microsoft also demonstrates how much Azure has grown on its own.

The cloud platform generates more than $100 billion a year as companies ramp up spending on the infrastructure required to operate artificial intelligence models, apps, and agents.

Microsoft’s recent results underscore the trend.

Azure and other cloud services revenue increased 43% year over year in Microsoft’s fiscal fourth quarter. Companywide revenue rose 18% to $90 billion, while operating income increased 18% to $40.6 billion. For the full fiscal year, Microsoft generated $331.8 billion in revenue.

Those metrics help explain why Azure has become such a significant part of Microsoft’s investment narrative.

But the more crucial issue may be what Microsoft wants to offer on top of all that processing capability.

Related: Microsoft is touting a water claim critics say misses the point

One advantage Microsoft has that makes a direct Azure-versus-AWS comparison inadequate.

The corporation already has software deeply implanted within many corporate clients, including Microsoft 365, Windows, and developer tools.

That means Microsoft can earn every infrastructure dollar for its wider AI plan without relying on Azure.

Microsoft has a new client segment for its AI software: A customer running AI workloads on Azure may now also become a buyer of Microsoft’s AI software, developer tools, and workplace apps.

Microsoft’s recent reporting shift shows that management increasingly wants investors to consider those companies together.

Microsoft’s AI shift is changing how investors see the business

Microsoft intends to reduce its reporting segments from three to two.

One of those new businesses, named Agents and Infra, will contain Microsoft’s cloud-computing services, AI-based software, and more conventional business software.

The second, Devices and Consumer, would encompass Windows, Xbox, Bing-linked advertising, and LinkedIn advertising, Reuters confirmed.

That seems like an accounting adjustment on the face of it.

In a strategic sense, this change indicates much more.

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Microsoft’s former reporting structure was a reflection of a corporation whose core products could still be pretty neatly segregated into productivity software, cloud infrastructure, and personal computing.

Artificial intelligence makes maintaining boundaries harder. Azure provides AI infrastructure. GitHub Copilot integrates AI into software development. Microsoft 365 Copilot adds generative AI to business apps. Companies can add more software to Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure with its growing AI agent portfolio.

Those items may make money in diverse ways, but economically they reinforce each other more and more.

A firm may first acquire computer capacity from Azure. It may then add AI tools for developers, Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions for workers, and AI agents to automate corporate processes.

Nadella captured that shift when he said AI is “blurring the boundaries between our products and reshaping our business models,” The Standard reported.

That may be the true message of Microsoft’s financial-reporting facelift. Wall Street has been asking for years how big Azure is. Microsoft may now be telling investors that the right question is not Azure alone.

Microsoft also slightly lowered the Azure revenue forecast it gave investors last month. But there’s a good reason.

The adjustment followed the company’s decision to transfer certain GitHub sales that had been lumped with Azure into its Microsoft 365 Cloud businesses, which include many of Microsoft’s advanced AI services, the company said.

Microsoft said it still expects the same results for the quarter overall. Thus, the lower Azure forecast was not framed as a drop-off in demand. It was another consequence of Microsoft redrawing the lines between businesses that AI is increasingly bringing together.

Microsoft’s $101.9 billion reveal comes with an expensive catch

There is still a big danger underlying Microsoft’s growing AI prospect.

Building artificial intelligence costs a lot of money.

Microsoft has been investing in data centers, semiconductors, networking equipment, and other infrastructure to meet the need for AI computing.

That investment is helping Azure develop swiftly, but it is also squeezing profitability.

Microsoft said its cloud gross margin percentage declined from a year ago, partially due to a shift in its sales mix toward Azure, as well as sustained investment in AI infrastructure and increased use of AI products.

This situation presents perhaps the biggest issue for Microsoft investors.

Artificial intelligence can provide significant new income, but ultimately, Microsoft has to show those dollars increase faster than the massive expense of sustaining them.

The company has several ways to make that equation work. Azure can generate infrastructure revenue directly. Copilot products can add higher-value software revenue.

Developer tools and AI agents also provide Microsoft with other routes to monetize the same consumers who currently use its cloud.

That’s why the new Agents and Infra category is potentially so essential.

Microsoft seems to be constructing an AI economic engine in which consuming infrastructure feeds software sales, and software adoption creates more demand for infrastructure.

If that flywheel succeeds, Azure’s $101.9 billion in yearly sales may one day seem less like the main focus of Microsoft’s AI narrative and more like the foundation underneath it.

But the squeeze on margins means investors can’t expect every more AI dollar to be as lucrative.

Microsoft must still prove that improvements in efficiency, software monetization, and scalability can outweigh the expense of the infrastructure buildout.

That makes the company’s first Azure revenue report particularly helpful.

For the first time, investors now have a clear yardstick for one of Microsoft’s most valuable companies.

And Microsoft’s new reporting structure implies management already expects the next act in the tale will be far larger than Azure alone.

Microsoft finally tells Wall Street how big its cloud engine is.

Now investors need to figure out how much more valuable that engine becomes when Microsoft hooks it up to just about everything else the business offers.

Related: Bank of America resets Microsoft stock price target for 2026

It still ran 76.7% above the $25.66 billion the three platforms cleared in May.

On Aug. 28, a federal appeals court came for the legal shield underneath most of it:

“We conclude that Kalshi has not shown a likelihood that the CEA preempts state gaming regulations as applied to its sports event contracts.”

That was a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling 3-0 for Nevada’s gaming regulators and referring to the Commodity Exchange Act.

“This is a significant win for states’ authority to regulate gambling operations,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said.

“Despite the Ninth Circuit’s opinion, we still believe the CFTC regulations as written do not prohibit sports contracts,” Kalshi spokesperson Dani Lever told The Block. The company will seek further review.

Every one of these fights turns on one question. Ismail Vali, president of Gaming Compliance International, says America settled it long ago.

“Officially in America, it’s not gambling, it’s trading,” Vali said on the On The Margin podcast. “But everywhere else in the world is struggling with what do we do about these problems.”

Mayes has more riding on that question than most. Arizona is the only state to bring criminal charges against a prediction market, and the 9th Circuit binds it.

Arizona’s criminal case was frozen. Now it may thaw

Mayes filed 20 criminal counts against KalshiEx LLC and Kalshi Trading LLC in Maricopa County Superior Court on March 17: four for election wagering, which Arizona bans outright, and 16 for illegal betting, mostly on sports. An investigator from her own office placed the election bets, NPR reported.

The federal commodities statute “was never intended to strip states of their traditional police power over gambling,” Mayes said.

Kalshi went to federal court and won. U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi issued an injunction on May 5, resting on the preemption argument the 9th Circuit has now rejected. Mayes says she will ask him to look at that order again.

The panel addressed sports event contracts, not election wagering or games of chance, which is where four of Arizona’s counts live, KJZZ reported.

The CFTC is not conceding either

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has spent 2026 suing states that try to police event contracts.

“A derivative contract structured as a swap is a swap regardless of the underlying subject matter,” CFTC spokesperson Zach Fulton told The Block, noting that the statute carves out only onions and movie box office receipts.

The 3rd Circuit ruled the other way in April in Kalshi’s fight with New Jersey, holding the same contracts were likely protected swaps. The CFTC says the conflict “calls out for resolution by the Supreme Court.”

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, who sued in March, put his state’s case in plain terms.

“For Kalshi, every event, every tragedy is nothing more than a potential way for Americans to risk their fortunes and for Kalshi to get rich,” Brown said.

Where the state fights stand:

• Arizona: 20 criminal counts, frozen by federal injunction, now under fresh challenge.
• Nevada: Won at the 9th Circuit on Aug. 28.
• Washington: A King County judge ordered Kalshi on Aug. 13 to stop taking wagers on sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture, tech and science, with geofencing due Sept. 2 and penalties of $120,000 a day, according to the state attorney general’s office.
• New York: Sued Kalshi on July 31 seeking more than $36 billion.
• Massachusetts and Michigan: Each holds a court order restricting the platform.

The argument underneath the lawsuits

“Right now, prediction market platforms are the hot thing in gaming, okay? But they’re not really gambling because in America, they’re seen as financial products, they’re futures derivatives, effectively,” Vali said.

His firm’s work, he says, shows prediction markets eating into sports betting’s share. He is harsher still on the retail trader’s odds.

“You are the sucker who’s being dragged into betting a load of money on stuff that’s probably not gonna happen,” Vali said.

Betr founder Joey Levy, whose company is rolling out sports prediction markets nationwide with Polymarket as the infrastructure, reads the same growth as expansion.

“I don’t know if I fully buy the cannibalization narrative that some are running with,” Levy said on the On The Margin podcast. “This is a story of TAM expansion.”

A game built with no payout

On the other hand, some companies offering the same competitive itch can be sold with nothing riding on it. ScorePoint’s games open in a browser tab with nothing to download, and nothing in them pays anyone to play.

Its in-platform currencies, ScoreCoin and LandCoin, buy progression and stay inside the platform, closed-loop virtual currencies for gameplay rather than cryptocurrencies, blockchain tokens or financial products. “

Scores are connected to identity, not just anonymous play,” the company said in written responses to questions.

“We created Match Kora to give players a football game they can enter quickly while still offering different ways to compete,” said Hussain Al-Malki, founder of the Jeddah-based platform. What it sells instead of a payout is standing: profiles, points, badges, clans that play other clans, rankings by country.

Kalshi’s whole case is that its contracts sit on the other side of that line, federal instruments the states have no say over. One appeals court has now said otherwise.

“Calling a sports bet a ‘swap’ doesn’t make it one,” Mayes said.

In February, the cybersecurity company beat Wall Street’s estimates, and its stock fell 7% on disappointing forward guidance, according to CNBC.

In June, it beat again, and shares reversed from an early pop to close lower after hours. Each time, the explanation was some version of the same idea: good numbers, but not good enough to justify what investors had already paid for the stock.

On Sept. 2, the ritual played out for a third straight quarter. Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue, earnings, and full-year guidance all topped analyst targets, yet the stock dropped roughly 9% in the next session, Seeking Alpha reported.

Bank of America reviewed the same set of numbers and reached the opposite conclusion of the market.

Palo Alto‘s quarter itself gave bears little to work with

On paper, Palo Alto reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $3.41 billion, ahead of the $3.35 billion analysts expected, the company’s earnings release revealed. Adjusted earnings of $1.02 per share beat the 98-cent consensus tracked by Zacks Investment Research.

Next-generation security annualized recurring revenue, the metric management uses to show customers adopting AI-era tools, climbed 63% year over year to $9.1 billion, adding nearly $1 billion of new business in three months.

The company also logged a record 220 net new platformization deals, customers consolidating multiple security tools onto one system, and guided fiscal 2027 revenue to as high as $14.2 billion, above the $13.8 billion Wall Street had modeled, according to Benzinga.

None of that explains the drop. The size of the beat mattered less than how much good news was already priced in before the report.

Growth has come with a real accounting cost

Much of that acceleration traces back to two acquisitions. Palo Alto closed its $25 billion purchase of identity security firm CyberArk in February and a roughly $3.4 billion deal for observability platform Chronosphere weeks later. Both are now embedded in the growth numbers, according to CNBC.

The company posted a GAAP net loss of $282 million for the quarter, a swing from a year-ago profit, driven largely by fair-value changes on convertible notes and integration costs rather than weaker underlying operations.

Crucially, that distinction matters for anyone trying to separate a messy income statement from a genuinely slowing business.

Related: China opens formal probe into Palo Alto just as stock hits highs

Free cash flow, the figure least distorted by acquisition accounting, still reached a 38.4% margin for the fiscal year, the company’s release confirmed. Right now, the market is pricing in the mess more than it is crediting the cash.

There is also a transparency question buried in the headline growth rate. In recent quarters, organic next-generation security revenue has grown closer to 28% once CyberArk and Chronosphere are stripped out, according to the earnings call.

Palo Alto skipped that organic breakdown this quarter, making it harder for investors to judge new demand from relabeled acquired revenue.

BofA is betting the sell-off overshot

Bank of America reiterated its Buy rating and $420 price target the same day, implying 16% upside from where the stock closed before the report.

Analysts Tal Liani and Trevor Dodds noted that the price drop was driven by high market expectations rather than underlying weakness.

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“The muted after-hours response appears more reflective of the demanding setup than any deterioration in quarterly execution, in our view,” the analysts wrote, adding that they “would view any weakness as a particularly attractive opportunity.”

Baird reached a similar conclusion, reiterating an Outperform rating and its own $420 target after the print, Investing.com noted.

Beyond Wall Street, retail sentiment on Seeking Alpha ran in the opposite direction, with the community skewing bearish on valuation, dilution tied to the CyberArk deal, and skepticism toward the company’s non-GAAP profitability figures.

The gap between those two camps of professional conviction and retail skepticism, not the earnings print itself, is the real story here.

Palo Alto sell-off says more about the stock than the sector

In reality, Palo Alto’s decline was not a cybersecurity story. The Amplify Cybersecurity ETF, which tracks the broader industry, fell just 2% the same day, while peers CrowdStrike and Fortinet posted far smaller declines, according to 24/7 Wall St.

That gap points to a valuation problem specific to Palo Alto, which traded near 88 times forward earnings even after the drop, Seeking Alpha data confirmed.

Stocks priced for perfection rarely get credit for simply meeting expectations. They tend to get punished for anything short of a blowout, and that pattern has now shown up in three consecutive Palo Alto earnings reports.

The next test comes when the company reports fiscal first-quarter results this winter.

If next-generation security revenue keeps compounding near 60% and the stock still cannot hold a rally, that will say less about Palo Alto’s execution than about how much optimism the market had already spent before the numbers ever came out.

Related: Wall Street panicked over AI. Then came an 8-figure cybersecurity twist

This time, she’s buying the dip in Rocket Lab, adding more than 1 million shares over the past month as the space stock trades sharply below its all-time high.

Last year, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 17.88% in the same period. So far this year, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up 13.29% as of Sept. 3, while the S&P 500 surged 13.18%, Yahoo Finance data show.

Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. But her style also brings painful losses in bearish markets, as seen in 2022, when the Ark Innovation ETF tumbled more than 60%.

Those swings have weighed on Wood’s long-term gains. As of Sept. 2, her Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -7.60%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 11.06% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.

Cathie Wood says AI could help support high corporate profits

Wood focuses on high-tech companies across artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. She believes these businesses have strong growth potential, but their volatility often causes fluctuations in the Ark’s funds.

Over the decade ended 2025, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped out nearly $5 billion in investor wealth, according to an report by Morningstar’s analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the fourth-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs in the ranking. 

Wood remains optimistic about AI, which she sees as a major driver of productivity, economic growth, and corporate profits in the years ahead.

In an Aug. 9 post on X (the former Twitter), Wood said U.S. corporate profits remain unusually strong, with domestic profits before tax at 13.2% of GDP, a level she said is near multi-decade highs. 

Related: Cathie Wood buys $53 million of popular semiconductor stock

Some of that strength came from the massive monetary and fiscal stimulus during the Covid pandemic, but Wood believes another factor is helping sustain margins today: Companies are leaning into AI and productivity gains to protect them.

“I think we’re still early in seeing how far that can go,” she said, adding that companies that use AI effectively will “separate themselves from the ones that don’t.”

But not all investors agree with Wood’s optimism. Over the past 12 months through Sept. 2, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.82 billion in net outflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi. 

Cathie Wood buys $44.5 million of Rocket Lab stock

On Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, Wood’s Ark funds bought a total of 705,102 shares of Rocket Lab Corporation (RKLB), according to Ark’s daily trading information. Based on the latest closing price of $63.81, these stocks were worth about $44.5 million.

Rocket Lab shares have been on a roller coaster this year. The stock hit an all-time closing high of $150.23 on May 27, but has since tumbled about 58% from that peak. Year to date, the stock is down roughly 9%.

Rocket Lab is one of the biggest publicly traded space companies, competing with SpaceX, which Wood is also buying.

Related: Cathie Wood sells $4 million of surging AI stock

The company already has an established launch business built around Electron, its small rocket that carries satellites into orbit. Rocket Lab has signed more than 90 Electron launch contracts, the most in its history, according to its second-quarter earnings report.

Rocket Lab is also working with its $8 billion acquisition of satellite communications provider Iridium Communications (IRDM), a deal that would further expand its business.

In addition, Rocket Lab makes money from its space systems business, which builds satellites, spacecraft components, and other systems for commercial customers and the U.S. government. The company recently won a U.S. Space Force contract to build multiple geostationary satellites, helping push its total backlog to $2.3 billion.

At the same time, Rocket Lab is developing Neutron, a much larger rocket designed to compete for bigger launch contracts. The rocket has been in development for years and is expected to make its first flight later this year or in early 2027.

Rocket Lab’s second-quarter revenue hit a record $234 million, up 62% from a year earlier. 

Despite the revenue growth, Rocket Lab remains unprofitable. The company posted a $49.2 million net loss in the quarter and negative free cash flow of $371 million over the past 12 months.

The bigger question for investors is valuation. On a trailing basis, the stock trades at roughly 48 times sales, compared with about 3.8 times sales for the S&P 500, according to The Motley Fool analyst Brett Schafer.

Some analysts are bullish on the stock. Berenberg recently initiated coverage of Rocket Lab with a Buy rating and an $83 price target, pointing to the rapid growth of the space economy as launch costs fall, according to The Fly.

Berenberg expects the space economy, which topped $500 billion in 2025, to exceed $1 trillion by 2030. Berenberg favors companies with “vertically integrated launch and differentiated/sovereign constellation capability that cannot easily be replicated.”

Wood has been aggressively adding Rocket Lab shares, buying more than 1 million shares over the past month. Despite the heavy buying, Rocket Lab is still not a top 10 holding in the Ark Innovation ETF.

Top 10 holdings in the Ark Innovation ETF by weight as of Sept. 3, 2026:

• Tesla (TSLA): 9.53%
• SpaceX (SPCX): 6.17%
• Circle Internet Group (CRCL): 5.43%
• Tempus AI (TEM): 5.17%
• CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP): 4.79%
• Coinbase Global (COIN): 4.52%
• Robinhood Markets (HOOD): 3.83%
• Twist Bioscience (TWST): 3.43%
• Shopify (SHOP): 3.42%
• 10x Genomics (TXG): 2.97%

Other than buying Rocket Lab (RKLB) shares, Wood’s latest trades included buying Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) and the 3iQ Solana Staking ETF (SOLQ.U).

She also trimmed positions in Brera Holdings (SLMT), Shopify (SHOP), Twist Bioscience (TWST), Tempus AI (TEM), Deere (DE), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Related: Elon Musk sends a strong message to Tesla and SpaceX investors

Even in the best of times, restaurant operators face a nearly impossible challenge.

In the current market, they need to balance rising rents, increasing labor costs, pricier ingredients, and a financially stressed customer base.

“It’s an incredibly high-cost, low-profit-margin business that, in the best of times, only barely works if you have almost a full house for every meal service that you’re selling,” Sean Kennedy, executive vice president for public affairs at the National Restaurant Association, told Time.

“If you can make that happen, you have a good shot of getting a 3% to 5% profit margin.”

That’s a bleak proposition that may speak to why Hannah and Marian Cheng, the founders of Mimi Cheng’s, which grew from one location into a small New York chain, have opted to close their final location to concentrate on their wholesale business.

Mimi Cheng’s is closing its final restaurant

Hannah and Marian Cheng built their restaurant business around what they learned from their mother, “Mimi.”

“Mimi taught us early: heritage meals aren’t only about recipes. They’re about what you choose to put in them and whom you share them with. She knew what farm-fresh vegetables added to a meal. The difference family-raised chicken makes. What pasture-raised pork brings to something made by hand with real intention,” they shared on their website.

More Restaurants:

• 52-year-old international restaurant chain closing all locations
• 46-year-old casual dining chain closes underperforming locations
• Classic burger chain has closed down all its restaurants

The restaurant part of that dream will soon come to an end as the sisters close their last remaining restaurant.

“Mimi Cheng’s is closing the doors of its East Village restaurant on Friday, September 11, ending a 12-year run as one of New York City’s go-to spots for steamed and fried jiaozi. The shop at 179 Second Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets is the brand’s last remaining brick-and-mortar location in the city, and its team says the closure comes because the lease has ended,” Hoodline.com reported.

Mimi Cheng’s at a glance

• Mimi Cheng’s was founded in 2014 by sisters Hannah and Marian Cheng, who opened their first location in New York City’s East Village using family dumpling recipes from their mother, Mimi, according to Mimi Cheng’s website.
• The sisters expanded Mimi Cheng’s to multiple New York City locations and became known for handmade Taiwanese-style dumplings and creative collaborations with restaurants including Katz’s Deli, Lucali, and Pizza Loves Emily, reported Time Out.
• Mimi Cheng’s previously closed its Upper West Side location at 309 Amsterdam Ave. in November 2024, saying it was consolidating its restaurants to keep the East Village location as its flagship while building its frozen dumpling business, shared the West Side Rag.
• Its Nolita location at 380 Broome St. also closed, leaving the East Village restaurant as Mimi Cheng’s only brick-and-mortar location before that restaurant’s September 2026 closure, added The Infatuation.
• The brand isn’t shutting down entirely. The sisters are shifting their focus to Mimi Cheng’s frozen dumplings, which are sold at Whole Foods and other retailers nationwide, according to Time Out.

Related: Walmart lands Starbucks rival’s exclusive coffee, energy drinks

What’s next for Mimi Cheng’s?

“Big news: we’re turning the page on a new chapter for Mimi Cheng’s!” the restaurant team shared on its Facebook page.

“Our East Village restaurant will close its doors on September 11th as our lease has come to an end, but this is far from goodbye,” the company added.

The company said the closure is a new beginning as it focuses on its wholesale dumpling business.

“While closing this storefront will be sentimental, it means we get to pour everything into what’s next. We could’ve never imagined that our little dumpling shop would turn into a nationwide frozen dumpling business. Our focus is now scaling, so Mimi Cheng’s can land on a lot more tables than one restaurant ever could. The dumplings aren’t going anywhere. They’re just getting a bigger home,” the Mimi Cheng’s team posted.

The company sells its dumplings through Amazon and at Whole Foods, as well as through other grocery chains nationwide.

Closing the store does not close the door on the company bringing back some of its famous collaborations as a freezer-aisle product.

“[Those] have included pastrami Reuben-inspired dumplings with Katz’s Deli, calzone dumplings with Lucali, and one featuring the famed roast chicken from the NoMad,” Time Out reported.

ALSO READ: McDonald’s cuts a fall favorite for the first time in a decade

For many chains, like Cali Coffee and Dutch Bros., after a few visits, I knew that neither chain offered me a compelling enough product to drive farther than the closest Starbucks.

A local chain, Carmela Coffee, passed that test, but its higher prices and longer distance from my home made it a weekend treat, not a regular part of my daily coffee rotation.

When 7 Brew opened near our West Palm Beach condo, however, something was different. I enjoyed the chain’s indulgent “Sweet & Salty,” a salted caramel and white chocolate breve on its “7 Originals” menu, and liked its lower-calorie 7 Fizz Sodas on more responsible days.

Going to 7 Brew, however, still posed two challenges. First, it was a longer ride, and second, it often had a much longer line than Starbucks.

Now, the wait and the drive, at least for a selection of the chain’s beverages, won’t matter because you can buy a selection of ready-to-drink canned 7 Brew beverages at Walmart.

Walmart adds exclusive 7 Brew beverages

Walmart added canned 7 Brew Coffee in approximately 4,400 stores nationwide and five unique 7 Brew Energy beverages in more than 1,100 locations beginning in August. In total, the coffee chain has three canned coffees and five energy drinks that are only sold at Walmart.

In fact, three of the energy drink flavors are so exclusive that they’re only sold by the retailer and can’t be purchased at 7 Brew locations.

The coffee flavors include:

• Blondie Chilled Espresso Breve Beverage: (Caramel + Vanilla) The iconic Blondie iced espresso breve — a smooth, creamy blend with buttery caramel and rich vanilla notes. Made with 100 percent Arabica coffee, natural flavors, real cream, and 7g of protein.
• Brunette Brownie Chilled Espresso Mocha Beverage: (Chocolate) An indulgent chocolate-forward espresso beverage with a rich mocha profile. Made with 100 percent Arabica coffee, natural flavors, real cream, and 8g of protein.
• Banana Bread Chilled Espresso Breve Beverage: (Banana + Hazelnut) The buzzy Banana Bread iced espresso breve — a comforting combination of ripe banana and roasted hazelnut with bold coffee flavor.
  • Source: 7 Brew

7 Brew is also introducing a new line of 12 oz. 7 Brew Energy drinks in five flavors, including:

• 7 Brew Energy Original: Refreshing boost of caffeine with a crisp, clean, lightly sweet finish.
• 7 Brew Energy Original Sugar-Free: Same great taste experience as Original, but with 0g of sugar and only five calories.
• 7 Brew Energy Ocean Breeze Sugar-Free: (Blue Raspberry + Coconut) Blue, beachy, and iconic for a reason.
• 7 Brew Energy Nightshade Sugar-Free: (Lavender + Pomegranate + Blue Raspberry) Bold, mysterious fruit flavor with a smooth floral edge and after-dark energy.
• 7 Brew Energy Pink Mermaid Sugar-Free: (Watermelon + Coconut + Strawberry) Swimming with refreshing, fruity flavors.
  • Source: 7 Brew

Original, it should be noted, has a flavor profile similar to Red Bull. And while the three flavored cans are all Walmart exclusives not sold at 7 Brew locations, if you know the recipe, the chain will make you anything it has the ingredients for.

A win for Walmart and 7 Brew

Offering a popular, well-known brand on an exclusive basis gives Walmart an edge over rivals such as Target and Kroger. It’s simply another factor, along with price and convenience, that consumers will weigh when deciding where to spend their money.

“At Walmart, we continue to evolve our food and beverage assortment to reflect what our customers are looking for,” said Vice President of Beverages Brian Salmon. “We’re excited to bring 7 Brew’s fan favorite coffee and energy drinks to our shelves, giving customers more choice and another convenient way to enjoy the beverages they love.”

RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino sees this move as a way for 7 Brew to accelerate its growth.

“7 Brew is opening drive-thru stands like crazy, but physical real estate takes time to build out. Partnering with Walmart instantly puts their brand in front of millions of shoppers in markets where they don’t even have a drive-thru lane yet. It’s an aggressive brand-awareness play paid for by grocery shelf space,” he told TheStreet.

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He sees Walmart as having different motivation for the move.

“For Walmart, this is pure defense against Dutch Bros, Starbucks, and canned energy giants like Celsius. Securing exclusive three-dollar cans of viral drive-thru coffee keeps younger, drive-thru-obsessed consumers from walking into Target or convenience stores for their quick morning caffeine fix,” he added.

7 Brew will not sell any canned beverages at its coffee stands, according to its website.

RTD coffee growing faster than overall category

It makes sense for 7 Brew to enter the RTD business because that market has been growing, according to a report from Euromonitor.

“RTDs in the U.S. in 2025 demonstrated a notable divergence between value and volume, with total volume declining by 3% but value increasing by 6% in current terms to $25.1 billion. This reflected a decisive shift towards premiumization and resilience in pricing,” according to the report.

Room for growth remains.

“The market is attractive for brands that can adapt to rapidly changing consumer preferences, as spirit-based RTDs posted double-digit total volume growth of 13% in 2025 and non alcoholic RTDs saw total volume expand by 23%,” it added.

RTD coffee beverages have also been on a growth trajectory.

“The ready-to-drink coffee market in the U.S. is expected to reach a projected revenue of USD 10,469.6 million by 2033. A compound annual growth rate of 4.96% is expected for the United States ready-to-drink coffee market from 2026 to 2033,” according to Grand View Horizon.

ALSO READ: McDonald’s cuts a fall favorite for the first time in a decade

That company is Broadcom (AVGO), and Wall Street thinks its stock has plenty of room left to run.

Broadcom trades near $370 today. The average analyst price target sits at $509.11. That points to roughly 38% upside over the next year.

A gap that wide, on a company already worth $1.76 trillion, is unusual. 

It tells you that analysts believe the market is underpricing how much money Broadcom stands to make from AI over the next few years.

Here is what is driving that view, and what investors should consider before buying in.

Why analysts think Broadcom stock is worth more than it trades for

The bull case rests on a simple idea. Broadcom’s AI business is growing faster than its stock price reflects.

In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, the company reported AI semiconductor revenue of $10.8 billion, up 143% from a year earlier, according to Broadcom‘s earnings release. 

Total revenue hit a record $22.2 billion.

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CEO Hock Tan then guided third-quarter AI revenue to about $16 billion, which would be growth of more than 200% year over year.

Yet the stock still sits about 25% below its 52-week high of $495. Analysts read that pullback as a chance to buy, not a warning sign.

The stock also carries a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 29 analysts who cover it.

What Broadcom actually sells to AI companies

To understand the optimism, it helps to know how Broadcom fits into the AI economy. It does three things well.

First, it designs custom AI chips. Instead of buying standard graphics processors, giants such as Google and Meta hire Broadcom to co-design chips built for their exact needs. 

These are called ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits, and they let companies run AI models faster and cheaper.

Second, it makes the networking gear that ties AI data centers together. Thousands of chips need to share data instantly, and Broadcom’s Ethernet switching products handle that traffic.

Third, it owns VMware, the software business it bought for $69 billion in 2023. 

That unit brings in steady, high-margin subscription revenue, which cushions the ups and downs of the chip cycle.

The customer deals backing up the growth story

Analyst confidence is not built on guidance alone. It is built on signed contracts.

Broadcom’s AI backlog topped $30 billion in a single quarter, far above the $10.8 billion it actually shipped in the second quarter.

The customer list explains why. 

J.P. Morgan noted that Broadcom’s engagements now include a multi-generation partnership with Google, a roughly 5-gigawatt next-generation deal with Anthropic starting in fiscal 2027, and OpenAI capacity coming online the same year, Investing.com reported.

Related: BMO sees writing on the wall for Broadcom stock after earnings

Meta added to that momentum. The social media company committed to one gigawatt of Broadcom custom chips, CNBC reported.

These are long-term commitments, which is why analysts feel comfortable modeling growth years into the future.

The analyst with the boldest call on Broadcom

Among the bulls, J.P. Morgan’s Harlan Sur stands out.

Sur ranks 17th out of more than 12,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks, with a 70% success rate and an average return of 42.2% per rating, TipRanks reported. That track record gives his opinion real weight.

He reiterated a Buy rating and a $580 price target ahead of the third-quarter report, the highest of the widely followed targets. 

That figure implies roughly 57% upside from current levels.

Sur expects full-year fiscal 2026 AI revenue to top $56 billion, helped by a strong ramp in Google’s next TPU chips and steady demand for Broadcom’s networking silicon.

He also pushed back on a common worry. Some investors fear that Google adding Marvell as a chip partner threatens Broadcom’s position. 

Sur argued those concerns are overstated, since Broadcom’s five-year agreement with Google remains firmly in place.

How Broadcom stock stacks up against its own highs

Broadcom has rewarded long-term shareholders, but 2026 has been choppy.

The stock trades near $370, still about 25% below its 52-week high of $495. 

It hit that peak earlier in the year, then pulled back, even as the AI business kept growing.

Here is the recent price picture.

Broadcom’s recent price snapshot

• 52-week range: About $287 to $495
• From its high: Shares sit roughly 25% below the $495 peak
• Market cap: About $1.76 trillion

That gap between the high and the current price is where analysts see the opportunity. The company kept signing AI deals while the share price cooled.

The risks that could sink the bull case

A 40% target is appealing, but Broadcom is far from a sure thing. Several risks deserve attention.

The biggest is valuation. Broadcom trades at a price-to-earnings ratio above 61, which means the market has already priced in years of strong growth. If AI spending slows even slightly, the stock could drop fast.

The second risk is customer concentration. A small group of hyperscalers drives most of Broadcom’s AI revenue. If one or two of them cut spending, the impact would be severe.

There is also history to consider. After Broadcom’s strong second-quarter report, the stock fell about 13% because management did not raise its long-term AI target. 

Strong results are not always enough when expectations are this high.

What investors should do before chasing Broadcom stock

Before buying any single high-growth stock, secure your financial base first. That means keeping an emergency fund you can access quickly and clearing high-interest debt. 

A stock like Broadcom, however promising, should sit inside a diversified portfolio rather than serve as a single large bet.

The near-40% upside analysts see is real, and it rests on signed contracts and accelerating demand. 

But the same high expectations that create the opportunity also create the risk. Broadcom has to keep delivering to justify the price, and the next few quarters will show whether it can.

Related: Marvell investors must carefully consider latest Google deal

The department store chain saw its comparable sales decrease by 0.9% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, according to its latest earnings report. Also, it earned $261 million in operating income, down almost 6.5% from the previous year. 

Recent Placer.ai data also revealed that overall foot traffic at Kohl’s stores dipped 1.4% year over year in the second quarter. However, this is an improvement over the 7.7% decline it faced in the first quarter. 

The smaller dip in traffic comes as it ramps up its deals to win back customers. Earlier this year, it launched its Deal Bar and Toy Towers, both of which offer items under $10 in stores. In July, Kohl’s priced thousands of its back-to-school products under $25.

Kohl’s sees core customers make ‘trade-offs’ when shopping

Despite these lower-priced offerings, Kohl’s CEO Michael Bender said on an Aug. 26 earnings call that customers remain cautious about their spending, which is impacting sales. 

“Our customers remain under financial pressure, and they are becoming increasingly choiceful, actively seeking value in every purchase,” said Bender. 

Kohl’s Chief Financial Officer Jill Timm said on the call that the company continues to see “choiceful discretionary spending” from its core low- to middle-income customers.

Related: Kohl’s drops generous offers as it tries to win back customers

She added that amid this behavior, customers are making “trade-offs” by shifting their spending to Kohl’s proprietary brands, which are generally offered at lower price points than national-name brands in its stores. Against this backdrop, Proprietary brand sales increased 3% year over year during the second quarter. 

“We are seeing people trade into the opening price point (lowest price in a product category) into proprietary brands,” said Timm. “It’s where we’re making our investment from an inventory expectations perspective, and we know that that’s where the customer, they’re stretched, and they’re making those trade-offs.”

“They’re buying into our proprietary brands like Tek Gear and Active because it’s a little bit more within their budget as their budgets are being stretched,” she added.

Kohl’s CEO reveals what’s pressuring consumer spending

Bender emphasized that macroeconomic pressures are pushing customers to consistently look for value.

“We are operating in a challenging macroeconomic environment where our customers are experiencing persistent financial pressures from inflation in their everyday expenses, like gas and food,” said Bender. 

U.S. consumers have indeed been cutting their spending in response to these financial challenges. For instance, a recent report from the U.S. Department of Commerce revealed that retail sales decreased by 0.6% in July from the previous month, making it the sharpest decline since May 2025. 

Also, according to the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers data, consumer sentiment continues to decrease, dropping about 11% year over year in August. This trend comes as consumers grow increasingly concerned about the economy and high gas prices from the U.S.-Iran conflict.

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“Groups who are typically less-equipped to absorb increases in cost of living also exhibited stronger decreases in sentiment, including older consumers, lower- and middle-income consumers, and those with no stock holdings,” Joanne Hsu, a University of Michigan economist and director of the Surveys of Consumers, in a statement.

“With ongoing policy uncertainty including the Iran conflict, consumers anticipate further increases in gasoline prices both in the short and long run,” she added. “In addition to the pocketbook issues that have been central to consumers’ views of the economy, they are increasingly worried that prospects elsewhere in the economy could be weakening.”

Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius warned in a note in August that his firm doesn’t expect retail sales to improve in the second half of this year as consumers face economic pressures, according to a Yahoo Finance report.  

“We expect sluggish consumer spending growth ahead,” wrote Hatzius. “Although Friday’s drop in July retail sales partly reflected the negative impact of an earlier-than-usual Amazon Prime day, the revised sequential path now looks much more consistent with our view that the strength of real consumer spending in the spring was the temporary byproduct of the tax refund surge.”

“We expect real consumer spending growth to slow to 1-1.5% in the second half as real cash flow stagnates,” he added.

How Kohl’s plans to fix weak sales with key in-store changes

As consumers remain cautious about the economy and their spending, Kohl’s plans to make several major in-store changes to turn around its sluggish sales. 

First, it will use the $150 million of tariff refunds it received in the second quarter to invest in offering greater value to its customers, including adding more competitive pricing. 

“The realization of approximately $150 million of tariff refunds has provided us with even greater financial flexibility,” said Timm. “We are strategically prioritizing the reinvestment of these proceeds directly into our core business initiatives to better serve our customers.”

“We are deploying this capital to uphold our commitment to value while simultaneously strengthening our inventory position to support our opening price point brands,” she continued.

Second, Kohl’s is expanding its infant and baby apparel business, a move that directly competes with Target. Earlier this year, Target grew its baby category by launching “Baby Boutiques,” which features 2,000 new baby items, in nearly 200 of its stores.

Kohl’s is following in Target’s footsteps by expanding its partnership with Babies”R”Us. 

“We are expanding our offering of baby gifts and accessories through our Babies”R”Us partnership,” said Bender. “We recently rolled out in-store fixtures across all locations to highlight our top-selling baby gifts and accessories, driving solid second-quarter growth. We’re also completing 56 additional Babies’R’Us shop build-outs in September.”

Third, after seeing strong sales in its accessories business in the second quarter, Kohl’s is also expanding this category by rolling out new jewelry case lines and adding updated fixtures in its stores in the fourth quarter of this year. 

“We are rolling out an additional 350 fine jewelry case lines in the fourth quarter, bringing the total store count with case lines to 549 stores,” said Bender. “In addition, 320 stores will be receiving elevated fashion jewelry fixtures by November. These fixtures will highlight newness and inspire customers to complete their look with fashion accessories.”

Kohl’s has big plans to reverse struggling Sephora sales

Kohl’s is also making significant changes to its Kohl’s at Sephora business after sales in this category dropped by 4% year over year in the second quarter. Bender said that Sephora sales were “pressured” by distribution headwinds.

“As far as Sephora is concerned, what I would tell you is that we’re in a cycle where a handful of major brands have experienced expanded distribution,” he said. “We still have a robust pipeline of existing new brands. They’re just not big enough at this point because they haven’t scaled to offset the softness that we’re seeing from some of those much larger, well-established brands.”

He highlighted that the company will focus on adding “newness and innovation” to its in-store Sephora locations. This includes offering new fragrance, haircare and skincare brands.

“In fragrance, we are introducing Khloé Kardashian and Givenchy, alongside expansions from Kaali and Jo Malone London,” said Bender. “This will be supported by new fragrance towers in 250 stores this November. In haircare, we are launching Emi Jay, Crown Affair, i.N.O., and Fromlabs, while our skincare category will debut Evereden, Topicals, and Ultra Violette.”

Bender also said that Kohl’s will add holiday outposts at its Sephora locations in 130 stores and will continue to “maximize” its travel and trial assortment to attract new customers.  

As Kohl’s works to turn around its business, it expects its net and comparable sales to either decrease by 1.5% or remain flat for the full year of 2026. 

“We’re operating in really uncertain times, and we have a lot of pressure on our customer from a macro perspective,” said Timm. 

Related: Home Depot faces uphill battle amid a growing customer problem

Both warehouse clubs ask shoppers to pay an annual fee for access to lower prices on groceries, household products, gas, and a growing range of other goods and services. 

Both companies have built fiercely loyal customer bases. And both are betting that once shoppers become members, they’ll keep coming back to spend.

But Sam’s Club has one advantage it’s been able to use against Costco for years — its membership is cheaper.

Now, Sam’s Club is taking that advantage a step further with a limited-time promotion that could make it much easier for Costco members or shoppers who have never belonged to a warehouse club to give its rival a try.

Sam’s Club wants to get shoppers through the door

For a limited time, new Sam’s Club members can get a one-year Club membership for just $25.

That’s a steep discount from the regular $60 annual price point.

For consumers already paying for Costco, the promotion offers a relatively inexpensive way to see whether Sam’s Club deserves a place in their shopping routine. And that’s exactly what Sam’s Club wants.

Related: Costco keeps discontinuing popular products

The real value of a membership promotion isn’t necessarily the money collected on day one. It’s what happens after the customer signs up.

New members who try Sam’s Club on a whim thanks to the promotion can quickly see how much savings they can reap by purchasing groceries in bulk and taking advantage of other offers. 

If the experience sticks, Sam’s Club has an opportunity to turn a $25 introductory membership into a long-term customer.

Sam’s Club membership discount aligns with Walmart strategy

The limited-time Sam’s Club membership discount makes sense, given the momentum behind Walmart’s broader membership business.

During Walmart’s latest earnings call, the company said global membership fee revenue increased 17% year over year, driven by record second-quarter net additions for Walmart+ and 6% growth at Sam’s Club U.S.

“We are building what we believe can be the most essential membership program for consumers and excited for what’s ahead,” said Walmart CFO John Rainey during the call.

That’s a business the company has plenty of incentive to keep expanding.

Membership fees are particularly attractive to warehouse clubs because they create a recurring revenue stream.

Sam’s Club is therefore making a calculated trade — collecting less from a new member today in the hopes of getting years of membership fees and potentially much more merchandise spending down the road.

Costco isn’t playing the membership discount game

This isn’t the first time Sam’s Club has offered up a discounted membership. But Costco pretty much refuses to offer membership discounts, and its numbers help explain why.

Costco collected $1.37 billion in membership fee revenue during its most recent reported quarter, up 10.7% year over year.

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Costco ended the quarter with nearly 83 million paid members, while its higher-priced Executive membership continued to grow even faster.

This means Costco doesn’t need to slash its membership price to attract customers. Its strategy is to make the membership valuable enough that shoppers willingly pay for it and then renew.

The company has repeatedly emphasized the role membership fees play in its low-price business model. Those fees help Costco cover operating expenses, while allowing it to maintain relatively low margins on the merchandise it sells.

That’s why Costco has little incentive to match Sam’s Club’s $25 promotion. In fact, Costco has gone in the opposite direction. 

In 2024, it raised the Gold Star membership price from $60 to $65 and the Executive membership price from $120 to $130.

The fact that Sam’s Club is willing to discount membership shows that the company may be less confident in customers’ willingness to try out the store and renew. It also speaks to the strength of the Costco name and the value its memberships are known to offer. 

Maurie Backman owns shares of Costco and Walmart.

Related: Costco makes a delivery change members will love

Why we love this deal

A diamond might be forever but the same can be said of their lab-grown counterparts that, contrary to popular belief, look and feel identical to the original thing. Some might look down on them for not being “authentic” enough, but lab-grown diamonds are chemically, physically, and visually identical to mined diamonds. The main difference is that lab-grown diamonds are more ethically sourced and more affordable — two things everyone likes to hear. Everyone deserves a little sparkle and shine in their jewelry box, whether that be with a pair of stud earrings, a pendant necklace, or a bracelet like the Forever Grown Diamonds Tennis Bracelet. Although lab-grown diamonds can still be expensive, even if they are more affordable than mined ones, a great sale can come along that gives you the opportunity to score some glitz for even less.

With this Macy’s deal, the Forever Grown Diamonds Tennis Bracelet is 65% off. The $1,000 bracelet is now available for purchase for just $350. You’re saving so much, you could get two of these bracelets for less than the original price of one. 

Forever Grown Diamonds, $350 (was $1,000) at Macy’s

Why do shoppers love it?

Diamonds are classic. They can be understated or over-the-top, and whether they’re in the form of an earring, bracelet, ring, or necklace, they always look stunning. This lab-grown diamond bracelet is no exception.

Measuring 7-inches long, the tennis bracelet is made entirely of circular lab-grown diamonds set in a continuous, symmetrical line,  the standard “tennis bracelet” style. The diamonds, together totaling 2 carats, have a G color rating and an SI clarity rating. This means that they are “near colorless” which is considered the “sweet spot” for jewelers, looking completely white and brilliant to the naked eye, with slight inclusions that are usually unnoticeable unless looking at the bracelet under extreme magnification. 

Both the diamond settings and the bracelet clasp are made of sterling silver. That, in combination with the lab-grown diamonds, creates a very durable and sturdy bracelet that has great shine while also being hypoallergenic and perfect for those with sensitive skin. The clasp is a box lock clasp which has a “tongue” or wedge that slides into the clasp and clicks into place, providing the most secure fit. 

Related: Walmart is selling $85 18-karat white gold earrings for 47% off

As always, Macy’s provides free in-store jewelry cleaning at participating locations which is always helpful at keeping your purchases looking brand new even when they are years old. It’s a great service to take advantage of, but always call ahead to make sure your local Macy’s is one of the participating stores. 

Details to know

• Material: Sterling silver and lab-grown diamonds. 
• Length: 7 inches. 
• Carats: Two. 
• Rating: The diamonds have a G color rating and an SI clarity rating. 
• Clasp: Box lock clasp. 

Although shoppers find it a bit small length-wise, the bracelet is truly stunning with a spectacular shine and it’s incredibly well-made. The clasp is so secure it’s sometimes hard to get off, although that provides shoppers with a great sense of security you know it won’t fall off with the slightest bit of movement when you’re out and about. “Diamonds are consistently clear around the band,” one shopper said. “Absolutely love the sparkle in this bracelet,” another said. “It fits perfectly and I’ve gotten lots of compliments on it.”

Shop more deals

• Forever Grown Diamonds Lab-Grown Diamond Pendant Necklace, $350 (was $1,000) at Macy’s
• Macy’s Tanzanite Tennis Bracelet, $360 (was $1,149) at Macy’s
• Macy’s Blue Topaz & White Topaz Necklace, $315 (was $1,001) at Macy’s

Jewelry isn’t a necessity, but we think everyone who wants a little sparkle should be able to get it. Thanks to lab-grown diamond jewelry, like the Forever Grown Diamonds Tennis Bracelet, you can get something special for both a more affordable price and in a more eco-friendly way.

The fast-food giant has launched many limited-time menu items and collaborations overseas, often leaving U.S. customers waiting for some of them to make their way stateside.

But lately, that has changed. McDonald’s has increasingly used limited-time offerings, partnerships, and other promotions to create buzz around its U.S. menu.

Now, it is taking that strategy a step further with an offering that won’t be available to every U.S. customer.

McDonald’s launches “Texas Meal”

McDonald’s (MCD) has launched a new limited-time adult Happy Meal, but customers outside one state won’t be able to order it.

The “Texas Meal” comes in a Texas-themed Happy Meal-like box and includes:

• 10-piece McNuggets (regular or spicy)
• Medium fries
• Medium beverage
• One of seven regional collectible cups

The cups are designed by the Texas-based artist Avery Orendorf, with each one representing a different major Texas region or city, including Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin/Central Texas, West Texas, East Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley/South Texas.

The “Texas Meal” is available only at participating McDonald’s restaurants in Texas and will be offered while supplies last.

McDonald’s Spicy Chicken McNuggets return

While the “Texas Meal” is limited to Texas, McDonald’s is also introducing new menu offerings nationwide.

The chain has temporarily brought back its Spicy Chicken McNuggets and unveiled the new Mighty Hot Sauce at its U.S. restaurants.

The Spicy Chicken McNuggets are a variation of its classic Chicken McNuggets, featuring a spicy tempura coating made with a blend of aged cayenne and chili peppers, according to the company’s announcement.

The Mighty Hot Sauce combines crushed red pepper, spicy chilis, savory garlic, and a hint of sweetness.

The launch gives McDonald’s another way to build excitement around its chicken menu as the company continues to emphasize the category.

McDonald’s bets on menu innovation

McDonald’s has increasingly leaned on menu innovation and restaurant experiences as it works to boost customer engagement and improve performance in the U.S.

In March 2025, McDonald’s introduced its Restaurant Experience Team, bringing together operations, supply chain, franchising, development, restaurant design, delivery, and Speedee Labs. According to the company, the goal is to streamline innovation and improve execution across its markets.

McDonald’s also established three global Category Management teams focused on covering beef, chicken, beverages, and desserts, signaling a more specialized and data-driven approach to menu development.

Here’s some of my previous coverage of McDonald’s limited-time menu releases:

• Fried Apple Pie: Brought back the original Fried Apple Pie after 34 years.
• Caramel Apple Pie Coffee Lineup: Launched four Caramel Apple Pie flavored coffees.
• Test chicken menu items: Tested 10 new sandwiches, multiple McCrispy Strips flavors and seasonings, wings, and a stand-alone dipping sauce.
• Hello Kitty x Godzilla Happy Meal: Released a Happy Meal in partnership with Hello Kitty and Godzilla.

The latest launches also align with a broader company strategy centered on expanding its chicken business.

McDonald’s has increased its chicken offerings across its top 10 markets, with the category now roughly twice the size of its beef business globally. The company has also set a goal to grow chicken by at least 1% by the end of 2026 compared with 2023 levels. 

During its first-quarter 2026 earnings call, executives said chicken had become a larger category than beef globally and is growing at about double the pace, helping McDonald’s gain market share.

“For us, it’s gonna continue to be a point of focus and a point of priority,” said McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski during the earnings call. “When beef prices are as elevated as they are, chicken becomes a much more attractive value opportunity relative to beef.”

Kempczinski added that chicken continues to benefit from a stronger cost position and sustained consumer enthusiasm.

Related: History of McDonald’s: Company timeline and facts

McDonald’s sees early signs of growth

McDonald’s latest earnings provide additional context for its focus on menu innovation, marketing, and collaborations in the U.S.

During its second quarter of fiscal 2026, the company reported:

• Systemwide sales increased 5% year over year.
• Global comparable sales were up 1.3%.
• U.S. comparable sales rose 0.8%.
• Comparable sales at international operated markets climbed 1.5%.
• Comparable sales at international developmental licensed markets increased 1.9%.

McDonald’s said U.S. comparable sales were driven by positive check growth, including a favorable product mix, but were partially offset by declining comparable guest counts.

The results highlight the difference between McDonald’s U.S. business and some of its international markets.

“While our playbook is working around the world, we see an opportunity to raise the bar in the U.S. and accelerate performance in our largest market,” said McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski in the company’s earnings release. 

During the company’s latest earnings call, Kempczinski also emphasized the importance of marketing and creating cultural moments that drive consumer engagement and restaurant traffic.

That makes exclusive collaborations one part of McDonald’s broader U.S. strategy. The company is using limited availability and new menu concepts to give customers another reason to pay attention to the chain.

For McDonald’s, the challenge will be turning that attention into sustained restaurant traffic in a U.S. market where guest counts remain under pressure.

Related: McDonald’s discontinues fan favorite after 13 years

After a two-year decline in sales, the furniture industry recovered in 2025 as combined sales of the Top 100 furniture retailers increased by 0.9% to $51.2 billion compared to the previous year, according to Furniture Today.

Positive sales numbers have not been enough to stop furniture companies from filing for bankruptcy protection, though, including mattress and furniture retail chain Ortho Mattress, which filed for bankruptcy on June 1; Humble, Texas-based SuperNova Furniture, which filed for Chapter 11 protection to reorganize its business on April 15, and No Bull Mattress & More chain owner Mattress Warehouse of Charlotte Inc., which filed bankruptcy on Aug. 24.

Southern Motion files Chapter 11

And now, 30-year-old furniture company Southern Motion filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, facing significant financial and operational headwinds that included weaker consumer demand, increased manufacturing costs, and a burdensome, above-market master lease, according to court documents.

The Pontotoc, Miss.-based manufacturer of recliner furniture filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Mississippi on Aug. 31, listing $50 million to $100 million in assets and debts.

Southern Motion blamed a slow retail furniture market tied to weak housing demand for a slowdown in customer traffic, according to a declaration filed by the company’s Chief Restructuring Officer David Baker of Aurora Management Partners Inc.

The debtor also cited increased manufacturing costs related to tariffs and costs of fuel and container rates resulting from geopolitical events, such as the war with Iran, the declaration said.

Above-market lease burden

The furniture manufacturer was burdened with an above-market master lease for more manufacturing facilities than it needed for its operations and seeks to reduce or eliminate lease obligations it can no longer afford.

The debtor, which employs 645 full-time workers, currently operates four manufacturing facilities in Pontotoc, Miss., one in Ecru, Miss., and one in Baldwyn, Miss. The company did not indicate whether any jobs will be affected by the Chapter 11 filing.

Landlord seeks eviction

Southern Motion’s landlord filed two eviction proceedings against the manufacturer seeking to evict the company from facilities in Lee and Pontotoc counties, which were approved by court orders on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, respectively, and set to take effect the day the debtor filed for bankruptcy.

All litigation against the debtor is subject to an automatic stay while the bankruptcy case proceeds.

Southern Motion‘s largest unsecured creditors include Kuka Trade Co. Ltd., owed over $4.6 million; Remacro Technology, owed over $875,000; Superb Creation Ltd., owed over $281,000; Landstar Ligon Inc., owed over $235,000; and FXI Inc., owed over $223,000.

Southern Motion was founded in 1996 by Guy Lipscomb and Larry Todd and became the first and only major furniture manufacturer to introduce broad customization options across its product lines, the declaration said.

Man Wah buys Southern Motion

Hong Kong-based furniture manufacturer Man Wah Holdings Ltd. acquired Southern Motion’s parent company Gainline Recline Intermediate Corp. in December 2025 and paid off Southern Motion’s secured debt obligations owed to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The company did not have any secured debt obligations as of the petition date. The company’s largest unsecured debt is owed to its landlord under the master lease.

Southern Motion is seeking court approval of up to $6 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Porter Capital Corporation under a factoring arrangement secured by unencumbered assets of the debtor. The debtor expects to use no more than $5 million in the first 30 days of the bankruptcy case, according to a post-petition financing motion.

Related: Classic Chinese restaurant chain closing its final location

Why we love this deal

Now’s the best time to finally snag those expensive items you’ve been eyeing, as they’ll likely be on sale for Labor Day. Large appliances, furniture, and electronics may be the usual deals you’d suspect during this holiday weekend, but these markdowns also extend to luxury fragrances and designer fashion. If you’ve been needing a new crossbody so you can keep your hands free at the pumpkin patch and football games this autumn, Kate Spade Outlet’s Labor Day Sale is offering some of the best discounts we’ve seen yet. 

One of our favorite deals during Kate Spade Outlet’s sale is on the Leila Crossbody Bag. This spacious crossbody bag regularly retails for $329, but with 76% off and an extra 20% off applied at checkout, you can score it for just $63 in all five colorways — that’s 81% off its original price tag. The black and white options are ideal for those who love a neutral accessory that will pair with every outfit, but the Enchanted Green is the perfect option for those who want a fall-specific accessory. 

Leila Crossbody Bag in Black, $63 (was $329) at Kate Spade Outlet

Leila Crossbody Bag in Enchanted Green, $63 (was $329) at Kate Spade Outlet

If you’re not ready to forgo the warmth of summer, the icy blue or peach options are a great way to finish off the season. 

Leila Crossbody Bag in Lake Mist, $63 (was $329) at Kate Spade Outlet

Why do shoppers love it?

Hundreds of reviewers have given this crossbody bag their stamp of approval with a flawless five-star rating. “It’s the perfect size for running errands and has a separate outside pocket for your phone to keep it handy,” raved one shopper. They weren’t alone, as many buyers highlighted the ideal size, measuring 9.6 inches long, 3.2 inches wide, and 7.3 inches tall. This size is a bit more roomy than your standard crossbody, so it will have room for your smartphone, a slim wallet, sunglasses, and a few extras. 

Related: Walmart has a $70 Dolce & Gabbana perfume for 49% off during its Labor Day Beauty Sale

It’s the little details that take this luxurious crossbody bag to the next level. Crafted from premium pebbled leather, the handbag is soft and smooth to the touch, but it’s also durable enough to continue wearing it over the years. Since it has a simple silhouette with a timeless design, it won’t go out of fashion anytime soon. The bag stays securely shut with a sturdy top zipper, but if you want faster access to your items, the exterior slip pocket provides a convenient spot. Additionally, you can take advantage of the interior slip pocket to keep your contents organized.

Details to know 

• Dimensions: 9.6 inches long, 3.2 inches wide, and 7.3 inches tall.
• Color options: Five colors are on sale for $63, including black, white, green, blue, and peach.
• Material: Pebbled leather.
• Average shopper rating: 4.8 out of five stars.

The versatility of this selection makes it a winner. One shopper praised that the crossbody “would work for everyday use,” but also appreciated that it’s “a classy handbag that’s good for any occasion.” While you could easily slip this crossbody on to visit the grocery store or pharmacy, its classic design also makes it pair well with more elevated looks.

Shop more deals

• On Purpose Crossbody Bag, $99 (was $259) at Kate Spade Outlet
• Emma Large Crossbody Bag, $103 (was $429) at Kate Spade Outlet
• Kayla Triple Crossbody Bag, $79 (was $329) at Kate Spade Outlet

Don’t miss your chance to score the Leila Crossbody Bag for just $63 at Kate Spade Outlet. With similar deals, we’ve seen colors begin to sell out, so don’t wait to add this one to your shopping cart.

The energy giant confirmed new agreements with Venezuela on Sept. 2 that open the door to billions in fresh investment and a sharp jump in oil output.

The deal comes as Chevron (CVX) shareholders are already digesting a strong second-quarter earnings report. Production hit records across multiple U.S. assets, and the company reduced debt by more than $8 billion.

Now, the 147-year-old energy behemoth is adding a new growth lever thousands of miles from the Permian Basin.

Here’s what investors need to know about Chevron’s expanded footprint in Venezuela, and why it matters for CVX stock going forward.

Chevron eyes new growth lever in Venezuela

Chevron said its joint ventures in Venezuela will invest more than $7 billion over the next five years under the updated agreements.

The goal is to more than double production to about 600,000 barrels a day compared to 2026 levels.

Part of that growth comes from new acreage. 

• Chevron was assigned rights to develop the Carabobo 1 and Carabobo 2 South A areas in the Orinoco Belt, a region widely regarded as home to the largest proven crude oil reserves on the planet. 
• The company said total production costs there run below $20 a barrel, a figure that makes the region attractive even in a lower-price environment.
• The new acreage builds on an April agreement in which Chevron raised its stake in the Petroindependencia joint venture to 49% and picked up rights to the Ayacucho 8 area. 
• Combined, Chevron’s three Venezuelan joint ventures have grown production 15% so far this year.

“Chevron’s history in Venezuela spans more than a century, and our expanded position reflects our confidence in the country’s deep resource potential and its ability to compete for investment within our portfolio for decades,” said CEO Mike Wirth. 

Also read: Who owns Chevron? Understanding who controls one of the world’s largest energy companies

Venezuela fits Chevron’s playbook

Chevron executives spent much of their second-quarter earnings call in July laying out how the company thinks about growth.

Rather than chasing an uptick in production, management said every option competes for capital based on returns and cost.

CFO Eimear Bonner addressed Venezuela directly on that call, noting the company had already grown output from its three joint ventures from 40,000 to 250,000 barrels a day in recent years. She said that momentum has continued.

Related: Chevron CEO evaluates new pipeline route around Strait of Hormuz

“With the existing model that we have in place, we have grown the production from those 3 JVs 15% over the last 6 months to 280,000 barrels of oil per day, and we’re anticipating that we will be able to grow up to 50% between now and the end of 2028,” Bonner told analysts on the call.

Management has repeatedly said it will stay disciplined on capital rather than grow at any cost, a lesson the industry learned the hard way during the shale boom, when heavy spending failed to generate free cash flow. 

Venezuela, with its low production costs and now improved fiscal terms, appears to clear that bar.

What’s next for Chevron stock price

The recently confirmed Venezuela agreements add another data point for anyone modeling Chevron’s future cash flow.

The company is also recovering debt Venezuela owes it, which it expects to be fully repaid by early 2027, based on comments Bonner made on the earnings call. 

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Once that debt is cleared, the joint ventures shift toward the country’s new fiscal framework, potentially changing the economics further.

Chevron also credited U.S. government involvement in making the expansion possible. 

“We appreciate the leadership of the Administration, particularly the U.S. Department of Energy, and Secretary Wright’s partnership in helping facilitate the conditions for further investment and growth,” Wirth said in the statement.

Venezuela is just one piece of a broader growth story Chevron laid out on its earnings call.

Wirth described a deep list of opportunities, from Guyana to the Eastern Mediterranean to West Africa, alongside newer bets such as the Kilby power project supplying Microsoft’s data centers in West Texas. 

Venezuela stands out because of its resource depth and low costs, but Chevron has stressed it will only pursue growth that competes for capital against the rest of its global portfolio.

For now, the update gives investors a clearer picture of one of Chevron’s oldest and potentially most resource-rich assets, and a reason to watch how quickly the new investment translates into barrels and, eventually, cash flow.

Related: Chevron stock turns heads as company strikes fresh oil

More on Chevron & its stock: 

• History of Chevron: Company timeline & facts
• Is Chevron a good long-term investment? Its buy-and-hold prospects explained
• Does Chevron pay dividends? When & how often?
• Where is Chevron’s headquarters? Inside the oil giant’s global home

Why we love this deal

When it comes to fall wardrobe staples, there are a few things you want to have. For clothing, a lightweight pullover and a comfortable hoodie are great layers to get you through the transitional weather. For footwear, clogs are a fall classic that are comfortable, convenient, and go with practically any casual outfit.

The Odoly Genuine Suede Clogs at Amazon are an affordable option. They’re currently on sale for as low as $22, with prices ranging depending on size and color. With a limited-time deal, you can save up to 53% off their regular price of $47.  With more than 2,800 five-star ratings, these customer-favorite shoes are perfect for fall.

Odoly Genuine Suede Clogs, From $22 (was $47) at Amazon

Why do shoppers love them?

Once crisp fall weather starts to roll around, it’s time to break out the clogs. If you don’t have a pair yet, consider these affordable options from Amazon. They’re made of genuine suede that’s soft, comfortable, and on-trend for fall. The cork footbed has a soft heel cup that cushions the foot nicely, and it provides arch support to relieve pressure. The buckle design is an extra detail that not only looks stylish but also can be adjusted for a better fit if needed.

With an easy slip-on design, these clogs have a classic look that’s also convenient to wear. You can take them on and off with ease, whether you wear them out to run errands or around your home as more supportive house shoes. They’re also versatile enough to style with casual outfits, from jeans and a sweater to sweatpants and a hoodie. They’re available in up to 10 colors, with varying size availability and sale prices ranging from 15% off to 53% off.

Related: Walmart is selling $85 18-karat white gold earrings for 47% off

Details to know

• Sizes: Unisex sizing, from women’s 5-5.5 and men’s 3-3/5 to women’s 15.5-16 and men’s 13.5-14.
• Colors: 10, with availability and pricing dependent on size.
• Features: Arch support, adjustable buckle, and slip resistant.

“Cute and super comfortable, affordable clogs. You can’t beat these for the price,” a shopper said. They said they have a “durable sole, nice suede leather outside, and even a cushion in the arch.” They added that they feel soft and bend well when walking, sharing that they’re “not too stiff and don’t have to ‘break in,’ like their expensive counterpart.”

“They fit true to size, feel very comfortable, and provide great arch support for all-day wear. The suede material looks nice and feels high quality, and the adjustable strap helps get the perfect fit,” another customer said. They added that they’re “comfortable everyday shoes” that are “easy to wear with almost anything.”

Shop more deals

• Kidmi Vegan Suede Clogs, $25 (was $40) at Amazon
• Project Cloud Genuine Leather Slip-on Clogs, $40 (was $45) at Amazon
• Brelzo Calvior Suede Clogs, $22 (was $27) at Amazon

The Odoly Genuine Suede Clogs are on sale for as low as $22. With suede clogs being a cool-weather essential, it’s an affordable way to get ready for fall.

Everyone from Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Sydney Sweeney to passengers who stand up before the seat belt sign has come off often become the subject of Ryanair’s mocking posts. Ryanair’s social media is also known to be self-deprecating.

The airline’s social media team leans fully into the “cheap” vibe associated with low-cost airlines with posts like “good morning to passengers who don’t expect business-class service for airfare cheaper than pizza prices” and replying with “we sell seats, not windows” to passengers complaining about window seats that are next to the wall.

‘Not a day goes by where we don’t think about charging for toilets:’ Ryanair

The latest viral post from Ryanair reminded passengers that “not a day goes by where we don’t think about charging for toilets.”

The post on social media platform Threads generated over 4,100 upvotes within 24 hours of being posed. The notion of eventually having to pay for using the bathroom on a flight is a common line said by travelers who feel that airlines are increasingly squeezing them for features that used to be and they feel should be included.

As of 2026, no major commercial airline currently charges for lavatory use aboard the plane. It is, similar to standing-room seats and “emotional baggage fees,” the frequent subject of various April Fool’s Day posts for airlines.

There is a history of Ryanair trying to charge passengers to use the bathroom

O’Leary and Ryanair have, at one point in 2009, presented a plan to start charging passengers on very short flights €1 or £1 to use the lavatories as a way to “change passenger behavior so that they use the bathroom before or after the flight.”

The plan caused an outcry at the time and Ryanair never followed through on this proposal even amid the major cost-cutting and changes that came following the decline of the budget flight model in the 2020s.

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That said, Ryanair does periodically tease the idea on its social media channels. The last message of a “toilet usage fee” was teased on Facebook in March 2026.

With most Ryanair followers used to the jesting by now, some continued the joke with promises to “do it on the seat for free” and questions about whether the carrier is planning to “put weigh scales” so that it “can charge accordingly.”

The last few Ryanair jokes that were particularly well-received on the internet include a public feud with Elon Musk — after Musk insulted O’Leary to his millions of followers, the latter reciprocated by holding a “Great Idiots” fare sale in honor of Musk — and telling travelers than in 2026 it is time to “stop traveling in jeans” as a quip on those passengers who dress a little too casually.

Related: A European low-cost airline keeps insulting Americans

Here is what the company reported, compared with analyst expectations sourced from LSEG:

• Revenue: $116.052 million (vs. $103.34 million expected)
• Earnings per share (adj): $0.02 (vs. -$0.02)

Updates from the company’s earnings will be published here as they cross the wire. This page will refresh automatically as we publish updates.

The company wants shoppers to see it as more than a place to pick up groceries, household essentials, and everyday necessities. 

Instead, Target wants to be a destination for fashion and discovery again. And the company is betting that one of the best ways to get there is by reminding shoppers of something they loved decades ago.

Enter Delia’s.

If you were a child of the ’90s, you most likely remember getting Delia’s catalogs in the mail and begging your parents to take a chance on those trendy sweaters and jeans.

Now, the iconic brand is back at Target with an exclusive collection designed to bring its signature look to both nostalgic millennials and a new generation of shoppers. 

And Target isn’t stopping at the clothes. The retailer is also bringing back a version of the famous Delia’s catalog, a move that turns the collaboration into a full-blown nostalgia play.

Target takes aim at Gen Xers and older millennials

For shoppers who grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s, Delia’s was more than a clothing brand. Its mail-order catalogs became a cultural phenomenon, filled with colorful clothing, quirky accessories and styles that defined a generation of teen fashion.

Target’s new collection takes that aesthetic and updates it for today’s shopper.

The assortment includes graphic tees, baby tees, cargo pants, plaid and floral pieces, jackets, and accessories. Prices start at $8 – a relatively accessible starting point, making the collection another example of Target’s effort to combine fashion with value.

Related: Target recovers from Ulta divorce, goes all-in on beauty

The retailer is also making the catalog part of the experience. Target is distributing a limited number of special throwback catalogs, bringing back one of the elements that made the original brand so memorable.

All told, bringing Delia’s to Target gives customers a reason to visit.

The company has been pushing harder into exclusive collaborations and culturally relevant merchandise as it works to increase traffic and strengthen its identity with consumers.

The fashion game matters to Target

During Target’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Michael Fiddelke shared an update on the company’s strategy.

“We entered the year with a refreshed strategy to put us on a new trajectory, one of sustainable growth,” he said. 

“That means serving the busy families that shop us with that only-at-Target blend of style, design, quality, and of course, incredible value,” he continued. “We aspire to be the place families can count on for what they need, while also helping them discover what’s new, what’s next, and what will bring a little more joy to their everyday lives.”

Apparel is one category in particular where Target has plenty of room for growth. As such, the Delia’s collection is more than a retro fashion stunt. It’s a core part of the company’s strategy.

Target goes all-in on trends

Target is already seeing evidence that exclusive and trend-focused merchandise can create the traffic it wants.

During its most recent earnings call, the company said its LoveShackFancy collaboration was its largest design collaboration ever, while its Pokémon partnership generated record guest engagement and introduced thousands of new shoppers to Target.

“Our Pokemon collaboration inspired joy for fans of all ages and became one of the biggest fan moments in our history,” said Cara Sylvester, Target’s Chief Merchandising Officer.

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The Delia’s collection fits into the same strategy of creating something shoppers can’t get everywhere else. And while younger shoppers may not get overly excited about it initially, it’s a chance to discover a brand that has effectively become vintage fashion.

That gives Target two potential customers for the price of one collaboration.

Of course, Target’s challenge will be turning the initial excitement into sustained apparel sales.

Management has already warned that apparel is a longer-lead-time business and that the turnaround won’t happen overnight. 

But the retailer has made clear that fashion is part of the fight. And as Target works to restore its reputation as a style destination, bringing back a beloved ’90s brand may be exactly the kind of cultural moment the retailer needs.

Maurie Backman owns shares of Target.

Related: Target takes big step to be more like Costco

Here are the numbers that the company posted, compared with expectations sourced from LSEG analysts:

• Revenue: $2.415 billion, -4% (vs. $2.461 billion expected)
• Earnings per share: $2.92 (vs. $1.80 expected)

Updates from the company’s earnings will be published here as they become available. This page will refresh automatically as updates are published.

The second job is the harder one. A penalty deters only when the company feels it, and a company the size of Boeing (BA) feels very little.

For most of this year, Boeing has been a comeback story. The planemaker delivered 600 commercial aircraft in 2025, its best annual total since 2018, and closed the year with a backlog of $682 billion, according to Boeing. That backlog grew to a record $695 billion by the end of the first quarter.

Regulators eased off, too. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its monthly production cap in October 2025, and in July it restored Boeing’s authority to issue its own airworthiness certificates for 737 MAX and 787 aircraft.

Investors watched the operational recovery take hold while the legal wreckage from January 2024 slowly cleared.

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, the last piece of that wreckage surfaced. Boeing had paid the FAA $3.1 million, and it did so eight months ago without telling anyone.

How a missing set of bolts rewrote Boeing’s safety record

On Jan. 5, 2024, a paneled-over exit door known as a door plug separated from an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon. All 171 passengers and six crew members survived. Investigators later found four bolts had been missing from the aircraft. 

The fallout was structural. The MAX 9 was grounded. The FAA capped 737 output at 38 aircraft per month. Agency auditors then went through Boeing’s Renton, Washington, factory and the Wichita, Kansas, fuselage plant of then-subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems and found hundreds of quality system violations spanning from September 2023 to February 2024, according to the FAA.

Related: New Boeing deal gives Archer something rivals don’t have

The audit findings were not limited to assembly errors. The FAA also cited Boeing for interfering with the independence of safety officials working inside its plants, and said the planemaker presented two aircraft for agency approval that were not airworthy, according to Reuters.

The Justice Department piled on separately. Boeing’s May 2025 non-prosecution agreement required it to pay or invest more than $1.1 billion, including a $487.2 million criminal fine, $444.5 million for a crash victims fund, and $445 million on compliance and safety programs, CNBC reported.

What Boeing actually paid for the FAA safety violations

The FAA proposed $3,139,319 in civil penalties in September 2025. Boeing paid the full amount in January, and the payment was not previously disclosed publicly, the agency told Reuters. Boeing confirmed it.

I ran the number against Boeing’s own income statement, and the scale is difficult to overstate.

• Boeing generated $89.5 billion in revenue in 2025, according to the company. At that run rate, the fine equals roughly 18 minutes of company revenue.
• Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg took home about $9.4 million in 2025, Reuters noted. The fine is about a third of one executive’s pay.
• The Justice Department settlement carried more than $1.1 billion in payments and investments, according to CNBC. The FAA penalty is less than three-tenths of one percent of that.
• Boeing’s backlog hit a record $695 billion at the end of the first quarter, the company shared.

Boeing has maintained throughout that it implemented a safety and quality plan under FAA oversight and has been executing against it.

The quiet part is also the mundane one. At $3.1 million, the payment sat far below any threshold that would have forced a separate disclosure, so it moved through the books alongside eight months of ordinary operating expense.

Nothing was hidden. Nothing had to be announced, either, and that is exactly the gap critics keep pointing at.

Why the FAA fine was capped before it was ever written

Here is where the story turns, and it has almost nothing to do with the FAA going soft.

The agency “utilized its maximum statutory civil penalty authority consistent with law,” according to the FAA. That is not a defensive line. It is a description of a ceiling Congress built.

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What struck me when I went through the penalty schedule is the timing. For violations by a large company occurring in the window Boeing’s conduct fell into, the maximum penalty per violation ran in the low $40,000 range.

The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 raised that per-violation maximum to $75,000, but only for violations occurring on or after May 16, 2024, according to a Department of Transportation notice.

Boeing’s door plug violations ended in February 2024. They landed on the cheap side of the line by roughly three months.

Not everyone accepts that framing. “For Boeing, such fines are easily absorbed as the cost of doing business, not a meaningful deterrent to dangerous behavior,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), according to Reuters. Blumenthal chaired the subcommittee that investigated the Alaska incident and has argued that the enforcement regime itself is inadequate.

The counterargument is that the FAA never treated the checkbook as its main lever, and the record supports that.

What the small Boeing fine actually means for investors

The $3.1 million was never the punishment. The production cap was.

Holding 737 output at 38 aircraft per month for nearly two years cost Boeing far more than any civil penalty the FAA is authorized to levy. Deliveries are how Boeing collects cash, and a regulator that can slow the line controls the cash flow statement directly.

That is the real pressure point, and it does not appear on any fine schedule.

It’s why the Sept. 2 disclosure matters less as an accountability story and more as a signal about what to watch. The FAA has already returned certificate authority and cleared the path toward 47 aircraft per month. Wall Street’s rebuilt price targets rest on that ramp holding and on the 737-7 and 737-10 winning certification.

If you own Boeing stock, the risk was never a fine you could fund with 18 minutes of revenue. The risk is that next time, an agency decides the safest thing it can do is tell Boeing to build fewer airplanes.

There is a version of this story where the number climbs. Any violation Boeing commits from May 2024 forward carries a per-violation ceiling nearly double the old one, and the company is now building at a faster rate across more lines than at any point since the door plug came off.

The math that made this penalty small does not apply to the next one. That’s the number that would actually show up in your portfolio.

Related: Boeing lands $131 billion deal, but Americans should read the fine print

During its fiscal second quarter, Dell booked $60.9 billion of AI-server orders, recognized $16.4 billion of AI-server revenue, and finished the quarter with a staggering $95 billion backlog.

The backlog was $51.3 billion a quarter ago.

Thus, Dell supplied $16.4 billion in standard artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the quarter, yet saw its backlog grow by almost 85% sequentially as new orders poured in even quicker.

The figures led Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan to raise his Dell price target to $600 from $505, while maintaining a Buy rating.

The revised goal of $425, set Sept. 1 by Dell, implied around 41% upside.

But the most fascinating element of Mohan’s argument is not the $600 aim. That’s why he thinks Dell’s AI boom might extend beyond the tremendous server orders investors can now see.

BofA says AI is starting to pull through demand across servers, storage and PCs, while Dell also sits on a huge traditional server-replacement opportunity. Add those two dynamics together, and Dell begins to appear less like a firm riding one AI hardware cycle and more like one of the infrastructural bottlenecks through which numerous computing improvements must pass.

Dell’s $95 billion backlog is becoming difficult to comprehend

The tale is better told by the evolution than by the headline figure. BofA’s reconstruction of corporate filings found that Dell ended fiscal 2026 with an AI server backlog of around $43 billion.

That grew to $51.3 billion in the first quarter.

Then there was fiscal Q2. Dell booked $16.4 billion in AI server sales but took in $60.9 billion in new orders. Then the backlog ballooned to almost $95 billion.

Related: Nvidia stock flashes unusual signal for investors 

Dell said it has converted $131.7 billion of AI demand into orders over the past 12 months, while its remaining sales pipeline is still multiples of the existing backlog. Its AI customer count also jumped from about 5,000 to more than 6,500 in one quarter.

Dell replied by raising its fiscal 2027 AI server sales projection to $74 billion from $60 billion.

That was not even its biggest direction modification.

The business increased the midpoint of its full-year total sales outlook by $25 billion to $192 billion from $167 billion and upped non-GAAP EPS expectations to $25.50 from $17.90.

Bank of America sees something beyond the AI-server boom

This scenario is where BofA’s theory becomes more intriguing.

Mohan raised his fiscal 2027 revenue estimate to approximately $197 billion from $178 billion. His EPS estimate jumped even more dramatically: to $26.35 from $19.56.

That represents an increase of almost 35% to the analyst’s earnings forecast in a single research reset.

Compared with Dell’s fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS of $10.30, BofA is effectively forecasting EPS growth of roughly 156% this year.

For fiscal 2028, Mohan raised his EPS forecast to $30.41 from $24.67.

The $600 price target is based on about 20 times that $30.41 estimate.

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The valuation choice itself is interesting, since BofA concedes that 20 times earnings is beyond Dell’s historical price range since returning to public markets. Mohan says a premium is warranted given Dell’s exposure to AI across servers, storage, and PCs; a better storage mix and decreased financial leverage.

The analyst isn’t simply saying Dell should ship more Nvidia-powered servers. BofA believes agentic AI could spread demand through Dell’s entire hardware portfolio. That’s potentially a much larger thesis.

Dell has 1.2 million old servers waiting for replacement

An obscure number in BofA’s research deserves attention. Analysts estimate 1.2 million Dell servers are 14th generation or older. Eventually, those machines need upgrades.

That refresh cycle would exist even without the generative-AI boom.

AI could accelerate it.

Revenue from conventional servers and networking, meaning the business outside its headline-grabbing AI-optimized equipment, was a record $10.5 billion in Q2, up 122% year over year.

Dell said traditional-server revenue in the past two quarters has nearly matched its annual total.

It has also gained more than 10 percentage points of traditional-server market share over the last two quarters.

That’s important, since AI inference doesn’t always happen in massive GPU clusters.

As businesses push AI into daily applications, workloads may be pushed to traditional CPU servers, private data centers, and edge computing.

Dell said explicitly on its results call that on-premises and edge technology might provide favorable economics for certain AI workloads while enabling enterprises to retain greater control over sensitive data.

That makes for a second AI trade under Dell’s first.

The firm supplies the massive GPU systems for training and running frontier models.

It can also sell the conventional servers firms employ as AI creeps farther into everyday corporate computing.

Storage could make Dell’s AI boom more profitable

Next, there is storage.

Dell’s storage revenue jumped 26% to $4.9 billion during the quarter. Infrastructure Solutions Group operating income reached a record $4.8 billion, up 225% from a year earlier, while the segment’s operating margin reached 15%. BofA sees that as crucial.

AI servers are big moneymakers, but storage might be even more economically enticing, especially when Dell sells more of its own intellectual property.

Mohan explicitly pointed to increasing Dell-IP storage attachment as a potential margin driver. That might help answer one of the major questions hanging over the AI-server growth.

Selling a lot of hardware isn’t inherently enticing if a lot of the value goes through to Nvidia and other component suppliers.

The economic payoff for Dell comes when the first AI server sale also brings along storage, networking, services, and ultimately, PCs.

The latest quarter offers signs of precisely that. Infrastructure revenue rose 89%. Storage rose 26%. Client Solutions Group revenue rose 20%, with commercial PC revenue up 22%. Dell’s business is growing in places that don’t contain an Nvidia GPU.

Supply may now be Dell’s biggest problem and advantage

The strangest element of the story is that customers apparently want even more equipment than Dell can currently provide.

BofA expects demand to exceed available supply by about 30% in fiscal 2027, and the gap will widen further in fiscal 2028.

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Dell has pointed to memory as a significant limitation, while the entire industry remains under pressure regarding DRAM, NAND, CPUs, and other components.

Dell’s shares jumped about 11% on Sept. 2 on strong demand for AI, with its servers purchased by AI cloud providers such as Nscale and CoreWeave, according to Reuters. Dell was trading at roughly $461 throughout the day.

One risk is obviously supply shortages. Dell cannot recognize revenue on hardware it cannot obtain or ship. But scarcity can also help to support pricing and raise visibility by customers ordering further ahead. That seems to be part of what BofA expects to see.

Dell investors may be looking at the wrong number

The figure that jumps out is the $95 billion AI backlog.

It ought to. Dell’s AI backlog has risen from $11.7 billion six quarters ago to around $95 billion now, according to the BofA series.

But if you focus only on that number, you might miss what’s changing.

The company’s recent quarter saw record AI server sales, record conventional server revenue, significant storage growth, and the strongest PC growth in years. Dell’s PC business grew 20%, the quickest rate in five years, Reuters noted.

That’s the core reason BofA’s $600 objective warrants attention.

The thesis isn’t that one very successful server product just continues increasing forever. It’s because AI starts impacting everything Dell already offers.

The firm has thousands of AI clients, a massive installed base of servers that are ready for upgrades, a rising storage business, improved PC demand, and more AI orders than its supply chain can now fulfill.

BofA is forecasting $197 billion of revenue this fiscal year. Dell generated $113.5 billion last year. That would represent growth of roughly 74% in a single year.

And if Mohan is correct that agentic AI will migrate from massive cloud installations into corporations, private data centers, edge systems, and ultimately PCs, the most astonishing thing about Dell’s $95 billion backlog may not be how enormous it’s grown.

It may be that the backlog represents only the first piece of an AI infrastructure upgrade that is beginning to spread across Dell’s entire business.

Related: Dell Technologies Inc. Q2 2027 Earnings: Recap of $DELL Earnings Call, Forecast 

Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan increased his price target on SpaceX stock to $280 from $250, according to TipRanks. His price target implies about 85% upside, as SpaceX is trading near $151. The raise is a result of Horan’s growing confidence that SpaceX can become a real AI giant.

On the surface, MarketBeat’s data shows 27 of 42 analysts covering the stock rate SpaceX a buy, and this fresh take from Oppenheimer makes the stock look very attractive.

But does the thesis make sense?

Oppenheimer values SpaceX as a “unique vertically integrated AI platform”

The core valuation question is whether you believe that it can capture the market it said it aspires to capture in its S-1. SpaceX’s S-1 states that the company estimates its total addressable market (TAM) at $28.5 trillion, of which $26.5 trillion, or 92.98%, is expected to come from AI.

This means the long-term investment case depends almost exclusively on the success of SpaceX’s AI platform.

Horan believes that SpaceX’s AI play is progressing well and has increased his long-term revenue estimates for the company by about 10%.

He said that the acquisition of Cursor is “transformative” for the company and will help improve its AI platform, including Grok.

The key obstacle for growth is infrastructure capacity, and he believes it will require much higher capital expenditures (capex).

Investors who reviewed SpaceX’s second-quarter (Q2) earnings report likely raised their eyebrows reading that capex claim.

It is really simple: AI revenue in Q2 was $2.56 billion, but AI capex was $15.83 billion, and net loss was $541 million.

We can estimate that, despite the impressive revenue growth from AI, if the capex has to be much higher, as an Oppenheimer analyst said, the company will continue to report net loss instead of income for the foreseeable future.

Related: BofA names 2 SpaceX alternatives with massive upside

With an average price target of $221.2 for SpaceX, Oppenheimer is above consensus. However, this price target is nowhere near the most bullish one, Raymond James’s, at a whopping $800. Raymond James was one of the underwriters, and it certainly has an incentive to see the stock soar.

I’ve explored the problem SpaceX underwriters face, Bank of America more specifically, in my article Bank of America sets alarming SpaceX stock price target.

In short, for the stock to hit any of the price targets, almost everything the company is doing would need to go smoothly. The company needs to achieve many very difficult engineering feats, which are not guaranteed.

This is also what Morningstar equity analyst Nicolas Owens thinks. He is very bearish on SpaceX, and he values the stock at $63 per share.

The AI play is not going off without a hitch, despite Oppenheimer’s growing confidence that it is.

SpaceX’s Cursor and infrastructure build-out face setbacks

On Aug. 28, OpenAI shared that it plans to wind down its contract providing OpenAI models to Cursor. The proposed end date was set to Nov. 12, 2026.

OpenAI’s reaction to Cursor being acquired by SpaceX was fairly easy to anticipate. What is a bit trickier is guessing whether Anthropic will do the same.

Anthropic following suit would be a major blow to SpaceX. The main problem for Anthropic is that it rents capacity from SpaceX, so cutting Cursor off may cause problems on that capacity front.

The company probably has the same limited period to respond to Cursor’s acquisition, so if it also wants to cut off Cursor’s access, it will have to announce it soon.

Nonetheless, Cursor’s loss of access to one of the two generally accepted best coding models is a setback.

SpaceX also hit a bit of a snag in AI data center build-out.

SpaceX has replaced several leaders of its data-center team with executives from its rocket and Starlink operations, according to The Information. This switch follows civil engineering problems and reliability issues at data center sites in Tennessee and Mississippi, as reported on Stocktwits.

The data center sites having issues should not be a surprise to anyone who has followed the work of what used to be xAI.

Hyping SpaceX’s superfast build-out as something good is a very superficial way of looking at it. Building things fast always comes with a cost you pay for later. Building more slowly but in a more reliable and efficient manner seems to be what competitors are doing.

xAI built its Colossus 1 by mixing H100, H200, and GB200 Nvidia GPUs, and this mix is a suboptimal choice for training.

As explained by Tom’s Hardware: “When the faster GB200 chips complete their work first, the entire cluster waits for the slower H100s to catch up — a well-known bottleneck known as the straggler effect. At 220,000 chips, this effect is exponential.”

This led to Colossus 1 being used only for inference, resulting in excess capacity that was rented to Anthropic.

Meanwhile, there hasn’t been any revelation that any hyperscaler has built a supercomputer unsuitable for training.

When analysts give high price targets for SpaceX, they are saying it will win the AI race. These elevated valuations assume SpaceX will capture market share from competitors, including Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Usually, the same firms are also bullish on Microsoft, Google, and Meta. Investors need to evaluate whether these price targets reflect realistic market growth or double-counted market share across competing sell-side models.

Related: Morgan Stanley finds bigger story in SpaceX’s $100 billion bet

Morgan Stanley published a guide urging workers in their final decade of employment to give special attention to high-interest debt. It outlines six actions pre-retirees can prioritize before their income stops. 

The guide covers expenses, income sources, debt, investment strategy, tax efficiency, and insurance, but its debt section never distinguishes between credit card balances and a mortgage.

For the growing share of homeowners entering retirement with a balance still on the house, that gap changes how the guide should be read. The rate, tax bracket, and cash left after a payoff determine whether eliminating the loan builds security or drains it.

More retirees carry mortgage debt into their later years

The share of homeowners age 75 and older with a mortgage nearly tripled between 1998 and 2022, reaching about 30%, an Urban Institute analysis found.

Median mortgage debt for that group rose to $106,800 after inflation adjustments, a 61% increase from the same measure in 1998. 

Rising prices and pandemic-era refinancing changed the baseline for a generation that once entered retirement mortgage-free. More households now enter Morgan Stanley’s decade-out planning window with a mortgage still on the books.

Morgan Stanley recommended working with an adviser to review outstanding obligations, but the guide does not specify what threshold separates high interest from manageable cost.

Mortgage rate draws the line between payoff and investing

A homeowner locked in at 3% faces entirely different math than a borrower at 7%, and a T. Rowe Price analysis illustrates the gap clearly.

The firm modeled a $300,000 mortgage at 4% interest, with the borrower able to direct an extra $500 per month toward either accelerated payoff or investing. A faster payoff would save about $25,000 in interest over 13 years and cut seven years off the remaining term.

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Investing that same $500 at a 6% after-tax return would produce a net worth advantage of roughly $16,000 over the same period.

David Edmisten, a financial advisor at Pure Financial Advisors in Prescott, told Kiplinger that homeowners locked in at rates of 3% to 3.5% may benefit more from carrying the balance and directing their savings elsewhere. 

At a 7% rate, the guaranteed return from paying down the mortgage typically exceeds what short-term Treasuries and high-yield savings currently pay.

New standard deduction narrows the mortgage interest tax benefit

The standard deduction for joint filers rose to $32,200 for the 2026 tax year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to the IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32.

Retirees age 65 and older can stack a new $6,000 senior deduction onto that figure, with qualifying married couples eligible for up to $12,000 combined. An age-65 add-on, worth $1,650 per qualifying spouse in 2026, layers on top of both.

Those combined thresholds mean fewer retired households will need to itemize, making the mortgage interest deduction irrelevant for most retirees.

A retired couple, both 65 or older, with $15,000 in annual mortgage interest and $8,000 in state and local taxes, would total $23,000 in itemized deductions. 

That sum falls more than $24,000 short of the couple’s combined $47,500 standard deduction, the base plus both add-ons stacked.

Retirees with larger mortgages or high state and local tax bills may still clear the itemization threshold, but the OBBBA math pushes far more filers to the standard side.

Cash reserves matter more than a zero mortgage balance

Depleting savings to eliminate a mortgage can leave retirees without the liquidity they need during their first years without income. 

Anqi Chen, then associate director of savings and household finance at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (now at Edelman Financial Engines), told CNBC that liquidity planning matters because roughly 10% of retiree income goes to unexpected shocks.

<strong>Even small amounts of savings will help provide some sort of buffer for when these events occur</strong>.

Kevin Lao, owner and financial planner at Imagine Financial Security, told Kiplinger that retirees are better served maintaining 12 to 24 months of liquid reserves as a buffer against market downturns.

Pulling a lump sum from a pretax retirement account to pay off the house triggers an immediate tax bill that many retirees underestimate. At the 22% marginal rate, netting $100,000 after tax requires a gross withdrawal of roughly $128,000.

That withdrawal could push taxable income high enough to trigger higher Medicare premiums through income-related monthly adjustment amounts, adding a hidden cost.

“You never want to end up house rich and cash poor by paying off your mortgage,” Brandon Ashton, director of retirement security at Cornerstone Financial Services, told Kiplinger.

What shifts the mortgage calculation from here

Two moving pieces will continue to change the payoff-or-carry question for pre-retirees. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act senior deduction phases out for higher-income filers and is scheduled to expire after 2028. That makes the standard deduction advantage that currently sidelines mortgage interest a temporary feature of the tax code. 

Retirees planning around the current threshold could face a different itemization calculation before the decade is out.

Adjustable-rate borrowers who locked in during pandemic-era lows face added pressure as reset dates arrive, typically five or seven years after origination. 

That group is small next to fixed-rate refinancers, but individual stakes grow as more resets hit through 2029.

The three variables Morgan Stanley leaves each household to weigh, rate, bracket, and cash position will look different in 2028 than they do today.

Related: 3 tips for getting the lowest mortgage rate in today’s market

Why we love this deal

It’s hard to get out in the cold weather unless you have comfortable clothes that can keep you warm. Whether you need something soft and cozy straight out of bed or you want something that can hold onto the warmth for cold-weather outings, making sure you have a few good pieces is important. The North Face is a reliable option for cold-weather clothing, as the brand focuses on creating warm clothing that can be worn for years, as well as using recycled materials for cleaner clothing and a cleaner environment.

The North Face Osito Lux Fleece Jacket is a great example, offering a plush feel that stays soft and holds in warmth, while also using 100% recycled polyester fleece instead of sending it to the landfill. This jacket is ideal to throw on during a quick errand or for longer outings. It can be layered or worn on its own, depending on the weather, and remains comfy enough to lounge in at home. While The North Face items can get pretty pricey, this jacket is 49% off right now, so you pay just $66.

The North Face Osito Lux Fleece Jacket, $66 (was $130) at REI

Why do shoppers love it?

This jacket offers a super soft, plush feel for any outing. The Algae blue color leans into a more vintage color palette that mixes well with browns, greens, cream, white, and other colors, making it an easy option to style. It features a rib-knit collar, hem, and cuffs for comfort, and to help keep the cold out on frigid days. The jacket can be worn open on warmer days or fully zipped to the top to help protect your neck and chin from cold winds. It also features two hand pockets that feature zippers to keep your phone or other items safe while exploring. 

Related: REI’s quarter-zip pullover is only $41 during its Labor Day sale

The jacket is made from recycled polyester fleece with a 75-denier and 325 grams per square meter fabric weight, meaning it’s a heavier weight, holds its structure, and keeps in warmth. This fabric is a great weight for durability, making it ideal for withstanding wear and tear on a weekly basis. The relaxed fit is comfortable and easy to move around in, while the hem keeps it closed tight around your waist to prevent heat from escaping. 

Details to know

• Sizes: Choose from size XS to XXL.
• Material: The recycled polyester fleece offers a soft feel with a heavier weight of 325 grams per square meter fabric.
• Features: The two zipper pockets can warm your hands or hold your phone, and the full-length zipper is ideal for customizing your warmth. 

Shoppers have left some positive reviews, but note that it does run large, so sizing down is a good idea. One buyer said, “This is a very nice fleece for fall, winter, or spring. It’s a beautiful fleece material. I loved it,  but I had used the sizing chart to order the recommended size, and it was actually too large.”

Another person wrote, “This was a great purchase for a good price. High quality, great fit and color, and it feels terrific. I would recommend it.”

Shop more deals

• Free Country Braided Fleece Jacket, $63 (was $90) at REI
• Marmot Felton Ultra-Soft Fleece Jacket, $65 (was $100) at REI
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The North Face Osito Lux Fleece Jacket is a comfortable option for lounging at home or running errands, and offers extra warmth with the pockets and front zipper. Shoppers save 49% off the original price of $130, paying just $66.

Keeping cool throughout the night is not always easy. Oftentimes, you can stay comfortable by shopping for a lightweight comforter paired with a good window air conditioner or a dehumidifier. That said, sometimes you need to use as many tools as possible to keep those balmy nights from turning into stifling insomnia. 

There’s no denying that Earth’s climate has ebbs and flows, irrespective of the reasons behind these shifts. We’re currently in an increasing temperature trend, and it’s certainly felt by many in the warmer months. Not only is it felt by our bodies, but also by our bank accounts. Volatile energy prices have led to increases in utility costs, including electricity. That’s why you can’t necessarily rely on the aforementioned portable air conditioner to save the day. At the moment, analog solutions may be a better bet. That’s why when we found a cooling memory foam contoured pillow on sale at Amazon, we quickly took notice.

Cozyplayer Contoured Cooling Pillow

The Cozyplayer Contoured Cooling Pillow has a structured memory foam design that molds perfectly to your head and neck throughout the night. The pillow has a cool gel construction that keeps the surface temperature low while you sleep, so you can get a good night’s rest without sweating the night away. What’s more, the cool-to-the-touch pillow cover adds to the comfy vibe by keeping the contact between the pillow and your skin from getting too warm. The cover is machine washable and can be tumble dried on the low setting. If you ever thought about buying a cooling pillow, this is the time to make it happen. It also includes extra pieces, which allow you to adjust the height to your body. The Cozyplayer Contoured Cooling Pillow is just $40 at Amazon, which is 33% off the regular price of $60.

Benefits of a contoured cooling pillow

Whether it’s the above pillow or another one, there are many advantages to using a good memory foam contoured cooling pillow. Perhaps most importantly, they offer advanced temperature control, pressure relief, and spinal alignment. Sleeping in a cooler environment matches the body’s natural circadian rhythm and promotes a healthier and deeper sleep. Therefore, a cooling pillow aids in making sure your body maintains that lower temperature as the night goes on. Whether you’re a deep sleeper or someone who tosses and turns every few minutes, the right cooling pillow can keep you cozy all through the night. 

As for pressure relief, any memory foam pillow contours to the curves and crevices of your head, as opposed to stiffer standard pillows. Most people treat their pillow choice as an afterthought, often leading to picking stiff and uncomfortable pillows that don’t cool the body or offer any pressure relief for the head or neck. Because memory foam cooling pillows fill the gap under the neck as you sink in, they solve both of those problems at the same time. The excess pressure against your head is relieved because it’s distributed more evenly to a wider space, which includes your neck. 

This same feature also helps with spinal alignment. Because your neck is supported, it means your entire body remains on roughly the same slightly slanted plane. With standard pillows, the neck usually ends up being crooked, regardless of whether you sleep on your back, your stomach, or your side. If your spine is off-kilter all night long, then it’s likely to impact how you feel during the day as well. Memory foam cooling pillows promote deep, comfortable sleep and good spinal health. 

More contoured cooling pillows

If the Cozyplayer Contoured Cooling Pillow isn’t exactly what you want, then we’ve got a few more options for you to consider. The following is a list of some of Amazon’s best alternatives, and a few of them are even on sale. Take a look at what we’ve chosen and see if any of them sound as dreamy to you as they do to us.

Qiubabyo Ergonomic Cooling Pillow

Donama Contoured Cooling Pillow

Osteo Cooling Contoured Cervical Pillow

Donama Cooling Neck Pain Contoured Pillow

TheStreet Shopping is your guide for shopping insights and advice. We look beyond the price tag to find the best value in home, tech, and wellness gear based on product features and real-world use. Read more about our Editorial Standards and How We Choose Our Shopping Deals.

But since June 2026, all but one of the airline’s Boeing 737 planes has been grounded amid the high cost of jet fuel, mounting debt and creditors that are edging in by freezing financial accounts.

Amid hundreds of flight cancellations both within Argentina and to neighboring of Brazil, Brazilian authorities blocked the airline from selling any new flights into their country last month. While the airline resumed some limited service between July and the start of August, it has since stopped flying again and not run a single flight since Aug. 6.

The widespread cancelations since the start of the summer affected over 2,500 flights and approximately 350,000 passengers.

Flybondi cancels all flights for 4 weeks, may rebrand under OCA Air

As rumors of a potential bankruptcy continue to swirl, Flybondi has canceled all flights for the next four weeks but is currently selling tickets from Sept. 10 onwards to a small number of domestic destinations.

Buenos Aires-based newspaper La Nación reported that Flybondi is currently preparing to enter a court-supervised restructuring which may involve the airline being absorbed into the local logistics and postal giant OCA Air.

As OCA Air is not currently in the business of commercial aviation, many serious questions about Flybondi’s post-restructuring future remain.

‘No formal announcement has been made confirming that Flybondi will disappear:’ Report

“No formal announcement has been made confirming that Flybondi will disappear or that its passenger operations will be transferred to an airline using the OCA brand,” reports Ricardo Meier.

“The connection between the businesses nevertheless goes beyond speculation over a name change,” Meier continues. “Their previous owner has previously discussed combining Flybondi’s aviation capabilities with OCA’s logistics network, including air cargo and last-mile delivery.”

In the past, Flybondi has denied any speculation that it would exit the market as a passenger airline.

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The airline’s website has previously been shut down earlier in the summer, showing visitors who came to it a 404 page, but is now up and running as before.

The airline has not been providing comment on its financial situation.

Other airlines that shut down or filed for bankruptcy in 2026:

• Spirit Airlines: The largest airline shutdown of the year occurred when Spirit Airlines canceled all remaining flights on May 2. Although the airline had filed for Chapter 11 protection twice before, the skyrocketing price of jet fuel dealt the final blow to its operations.
• Magnicharters: The Mexican low-cost airline canceled all of its flights and eventually shut down in a collapse that left thousands stranded.
• Starflite Aviation: Houston-based Starflite Aviation had its AOC license revoked in March 2026, amid FAA claims that owners falsified pilot training records to bypass safety audits.
• AlpAvia: Slovenian charter airline AlpAvia also shut down in March 2026 over financial problems.

Related: Another airline shuts down, cancels all flights due to low demand

Tesla is rolling out the Cybercab in Austin, Texas. Cybercab is the robotaxi that the company introduced almost two years ago and designed for a single purpose. Unlike a Model Y running autonomous-driving software, Cybercab was created from the ground up, without traditional driver controls and exclusively for Tesla’s intended ride-hailing network.

The business is celebrating the introduction of the Cybercab in Austin, and Tesla’s own event site discloses that it utilized trips in its current Robotaxi service to pick five customers to attend.

That makes Thursday far more significant than a typical product introduction.

Cybercab is already beyond the idea stage. In its second-quarter shareholder documents, Tesla said it launched Cybercab manufacturing in the quarter, began engineering test drives of production cars on public roads and started giving staff rides on its Texas plant facility in July.

The next step is to turn those cars into a scalable commercial service.

Tesla has already crossed an important Cybercab line

The Cybercab event comes on the heels of Tesla discreetly doing what investors have been waiting years for.

It is making the car.

Tesla’s second-quarter report says manufacturing of the Cybercab started in the first half of 2026. The corporation also stated it was testing technical cars on public roads. This is something very different from showing prototypes on a stage.

Cybercab also has the infrastructural benefit of Tesla’s current Robotaxi service, which did not exist when the car was initially shown.

Related: Tesla quietly kills a product homeowners once paid a premium for

Tesla claims it’s now providing autonomous Robotaxi rides in Model Ys in Austin and Houston, Texas, and in Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, Florida. Cybercab is described separately on its website as the purpose-built automated vehicle that would ultimately provide trips.

That difference matters.

Tesla is not aiming to manufacture a vehicle and then build a ride-hailing service around it. It is aiming to insert Cybercab into an autonomous network on which it is currently working.

What investors should watch at Tesla’s Cybercab event

Thursday’s unresolved questions, therefore, are more important than the vehicle’s features.

Reuters adds that Tesla has not disclosed if it has received the regulatory clearances required for the commercial launch of Cybercab or that the vehicle conforms with the relevant federal safety standards.

This is especially noteworthy since the production concept for Cybercab removes two pieces of equipment regulators have long believed would be inside a passenger vehicle: a steering wheel and pedals.

Tesla’s public-road testing has included versions equipped with steering wheels.

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The event may answer several questions that matter more to Tesla’s valuation than another demonstration ride: When will paying customers ride production Cybercabs? Should early cars have conventional controls? How fast can Tesla make them? Can the company expand beyond Robotaxi markets quickly?

The responses are important for another reason.

Tesla’s own regulatory filings expressly disclose that the company’s future growth hinges in part on customer acceptance of autonomous driving. The firm warned that if its autonomous driving solutions and Robotaxi don’t reach the anticipated level of acceptability, its business and financial performance might be negatively impacted.

In other words, Cybercab is becoming less of a side project and more of a test of Tesla’s stated long-term business model.

Tesla needs Cybercab to change the economics of selling cars

The timing is particularly fascinating, since Tesla is already a major player as a traditional carmaker.

The second quarter of 2026 saw 451,758 vehicle production and 480,126 deliveries. Tesla delivered 838,000 consumer vehicles in the first six months after producing 860,000 in the first quarter.

A robotaxi might impact how frequently a Tesla earns income.

When Tesla sells or leases a privately owned car, it’s often monetized, plus the following software and service fees. A Cybercab on the Tesla network may potentially be profitable again and again over its useful life.

Tesla itself increasingly describes that transition in financial rather than futuristic terms. “We have continued to expand and refine our Robotaxi service.” The company said in its latest 10-Q that it is using its AI investments and mobility infrastructure to advance a “service-driven business model.”

That may be the most crucial term being thrown around Thursday’s event.

Tesla is not only attempting to sell a $30,000 self-driving vehicle. Cybercab might one day be sold for around that amount, Musk has stated in the past, according to Reuters. Tesla is working to develop the hardware that will support a recurrent transportation service.

If so, investors may ultimately have to judge Tesla partially on its mobility platforms, not only versus Ford, General Motors, or other EV makers.

If not, Cybercab is a costly vehicle initiative connected to a thesis on autonomy that has taken years to market.

The biggest Cybercab obstacle isn’t manufacturing

Tesla has previously shown it can build cars on a huge scale.

It has also shown it can scale its Robotaxi network outside of one city. The firm said in documents released for its second quarter that it increased unattended operations in Austin and debuted unsupervised rides in Miami, Orlando, and Tampa in July while it worked on other U.S. metro regions via testing, permitting, and first-responder training.

The bigger question is whether Tesla can remove humans while satisfying regulators and convincing passengers the system is safe.

Tesla’s 10-Q states that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Justice Department have requested information on Autopilot, FSD, and Robotaxi. Tesla discloses pending litigation over driver-assist technology statements. Tesla promises a fierce defense.

That makes for a strange setting for Thursday.

Tesla isn’t building Cybercab from scratch. Production is ongoing. It’s been tested on public roads. Its Robotaxi fleet is running in a few of cities.

It’s less clear, and likely far more difficult, whether Tesla can transform all three into a large-scale autonomous transportation company.

So the most significant item for investors at the Cybercab event may not be what Tesla shows off.

It’s what Tesla finally says about when the driverless car sitting onstage becomes a business capable of making money without anyone sitting behind the wheel.

Related: Tesla uses data transparency to get what it wants

The ongoing pullback has raised the forward dividend yield to 3.7%, making it attractive to income-seeking investors. 

Let’s see if the footwear giant is a bargain buy or a value trap at current valuations. 

Why Nike stock is under pressure

Nike’s revenue has dropped from $51.2 billion in fiscal 2023 (ended in May) to $46.4 billion in fiscal 2026. Moreover, its operating margin has narrowed from 15.6% in fiscal 2021 to 8.2% in fiscal 2026. 

In fiscal Q4 of 2026, Nike posted revenue of $11 billion, down 1% on a reported basis and 4% on an adjusted basis.

Diluted earnings per share of $0.72 looked strong on paper, but that number was inflated by a $0.52 per share one-time benefit tied to an expected tariff recovery.

Strip that benefit out and the underlying picture is far less flattering. 

Nike’s management pointed to a low- to mid-single-digit revenue decline expected for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, with earnings per share roughly flat over the next three quarters once tariff-related gains are excluded. 

Related: Nike stock could suffer because of JPMorgan verdict

In a note shared by Yahoo Finance, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Binetti, covering Nike stock, offered a warning. 

“No hints yet that revenues can turn positive in the foreseeable future; we don’t see a clear reason to expand the P/E ratio from here (from 22x FY27 consensus EPS).” 

NBA star and longtime Nike athlete LeBron James told Yahoo Sports the brand needs to reconnect with its roots. 

“You gotta get back into the roots, you gotta get back to being out in the inner city, having runners, when I was coming up, you had people that was literally out in the communities talking to these younger generations, asking them what they like, what they don’t like,” James said, according to the Boardroom interview.

Related: Is Nike’s dividend safe? Yield, payout ratio & history

Nike stock price target debate heats up

Nike is focusing on cost savings to improve profit margins. In Q4:

• Nike reduced its cost of sales by 16%, improving gross margins to 49.2% from 40.3% over the last 12 months. 
• Gross profit rose 21% despite falling sales, driven by tariff refunds.
• Adjusting for tariff refunds, its gross margins stood at 40.2%, 10 basis points lower than the prior quarter.
• Gross margin beat management’s guidance, which expected a decline of at least 25 basis points. 

Management now expects gross margin to start expanding in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, earlier than originally planned, suggesting that supply-chain fixes are starting to show up in the numbers. 

The improvement echoes what Nike’s finance chief told analysts on the company’s earnings call.

“I would say that our performance this quarter has given us increasing confidence that our margins are stabilizing and that we’re starting to see a pathway back towards gross margin expansion,” Matt Friend, Nike’s outgoing chief financial officer, said on the call. 

He added that improved discounts in North America, along with lower sales-related reserves, cancellations, and markdowns, drove much of the progress.

The ongoing drawdown has meant that Nike stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 22.3x, below its 10-year average of 31.1x. 

According to consensus data compiled by Tikr.com. analysts tracking Nike stock forecast adjusted earnings per share to expand from $1.58 in fiscal 2026 to $5.13 in fiscal 2031. If Nike stock is priced at 25x earnings, it could almost triple from current levels. 

What next for Nike stock price?

While Nike Sportswear and Jordan streetwear keep dragging on results, Nike’s running category has posted five straight quarters of double-digit growth, helping the brand gain five points of market share across Western Europe and North America. 

Nike is among the most recognizable brands globally and is wrestling primarily with product mix. 

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CEO Elliott Hill has leaned into that distinction repeatedly, pointing to the company’s new Sport Offense structure, built around small teams focused on individual sports like running, basketball and football, as the reason performance categories are recovering faster than lifestyle ones.

Sportswear and Jordan are still expected to decline through fiscal 2027, China remains a multi-year project, and tariffs are still an unpredictable cost. 

Nobody should pretend otherwise. But the pieces investors usually look for early in a turnaround are showing up. 

Margins are stabilizing, the running category is growing fast enough to matter, and management is guiding to earlier-than-expected margin expansion. 

And the stock is priced closer to a value bet than a growth story.

If Nike meets the numbers analysts already expect, patient investors buying near these levels could be rewarded over the next few years. If the Sportswear and China problems drag on longer than management hopes, the stock could stay cheap for a while longer, too. 

Nike will lay out its next chapter at its Investor Day on Nov. 16 and 17, and that event should offer the clearest read yet on which version of this story plays out.

Out of the 15 analysts covering Nike stock, eight recommend “Buy,” 15 recommend “Hold,” and two recommend “Sell.” The average NKE stock price target is $50, indicating an upside potential of 31% from current levels.

Related: Nike rival makes a surprise U.S. comeback

“In a liquidation, the assets of the debtor, usually a corporation, are sold in piecemeal, or as a going concern in order to satisfy the debtor’s creditors,” according to Cornell Law School.

After a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, the court appoints a trustee who makes decisions to maximize return for creditors. The trustee can also consider other factors, such as workers keeping their jobs (although maximizing returns is the prime legal mandate). That can lead to sales after which a new owner continues to operate the brand, or a successor entity.

Under the Code, a trustee administers the liquidation by ‘marshalling all available property, reducing it to money, distributing it to creditors, and closing up the estate.’ The sale of the debtor’s assets creates proceeds that are divided among interest holders in the debtor. The division of proceeds is made according to the hierarchy of the claimants’ rights,” Cornell Law School continued.

Now, some of the assets owned by SHR Capital Partners, LLC and GOGO Tech II, LLC, the parent company of a number of wellness and supplement brands, will be auctioned off. That could lead to those brands continuing to operate, rather than being sold off for parts and disappearing.

Auction Advisors holding Chapter 7 auction of 3 e-commerce brands

Auction Advisors has been hired to conduct a Chapter 7 bankruptcy auction of the digital assets, intellectual property, and related goodwill associated with three established consumer e-commerce brands: Body Merry, BRI Nutrition, and Refresh Filters.

• Body Merry sells skin care and beauty products, including serums, moisturizers, creams, gels, and toners.
• BRI Nutrition sells dietary supplements, including vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional products.
• Refresh Filters sells replacement refrigerator water and air filters for major appliance brands.

Body Merry and BRI Nutrition products can be found on Amazon, while Refresh Filters products show up on various industry sites.

The auction will be held via Zoom on Sept. 24, 2026, at 11 a.m. Prospective bidders must complete registration and submit the required $10,000 deposit by Sept. 21, 2026, at 11 a.m.

The assets are being offered in connection with the Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases of SHR Capital Partners, LLC and GOGO Tech II, LLC, pending in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

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SHR Capital Partners, LLC and GOGO Tech II, LLC own a number of other brands that are not being included in the sale.

It appears that the Chapter 7 process began after Key Bank sued SHR Capital Partners due to it not meeting the terms of its loan agreement, according to court filings.

The brands are being sold as going concerns

“This is an interesting opportunity because a buyer is not starting with a blank sheet of paper,” Auction Advisors Joshua Olshin said in a press release.

He believes that the right operator is essentially purchasing a ready-made business.

“These businesses were built around recognizable consumer categories with existing brand identities, digital content and customer-related assets. For the right strategic buyer or entrepreneur, acquiring an existing platform can provide a meaningful head start compared with developing a new brand from the ground up,” he added.

Auction Advisors expects that the offering may be of interest to existing e-commerce operators, consumer-product companies, private-label manufacturers, brand aggregators, strategic buyers, and entrepreneurs seeking to expand into the beauty, wellness, or home-products markets.

“A bankruptcy sale can create opportunities” Olshin added. “Our role at Auction Advisors is to create a competitive and transparent sale process on behalf of the Chapter 7 Trustee, broadly expose the opportunity to the marketplace and make sure qualified buyers have the information they need to evaluate and participate in the auction.”

A sale via auction can help establish fair market value and reduce the risk of later challenges, according to the Cowles Thompson law firm.

“There is a reason why a buyer of substantially all of a seller’s assets may want to pursue a sale via the buyer filing bankruptcy, through a bankruptcy auction. By obtaining a court order approving a sale via a bankruptcy auction, a finding of fair market value can be obtained. Such a finding can preclude a subsequent clawback by creditors and/or rescission of the sale,” the law firm shared.

SHR Capital Partners, LLC and GOGO Tech II, LLC Chapter 7 timeline

• SHR Capital Partners, LLC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 5, 2024, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The case is No. 24-10716 (JKS), PacerMonitor confirmed.
• GOGO Tech II, LLC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 5, 2024, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The case is No. 24-10717 (JKS), according to PacerMonitor.
• SHR Capital Partners was an e-commerce business that operated through GOGO Tech II and a portfolio of consumer brands sold online.
• At the time of the filing, SHR Capital Partners showed $1 to 10 million in assets and $10 to 50 million in liabilities, National Law Review noted.

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Roku has launched its first OLED TVs, pushing into a premium display category long dominated by Samsung, LG, and Sony.

The new Roku Pro Series OLED starts at $999.99 for a 55-inch model, while the 65-inch version costs $1,199.99. Roku is also preparing a brighter Pro Series LX OLED for October, priced at $1,299.99 for 55 inches and $1,599.99 for 65 inches.

Roku is pushing OLED image quality farther down the market, but still with features that are more typical of more costly TVs: 120Hz refresh rates, four HDMI 2.1 connections, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, FreeSync Premium, and variable refresh rate gaming compatibility.

But Roku’s business model makes the launch more fascinating than a simple hardware pricing battle.

More than 100 million streaming households use Roku OS devices. Licensing partners, not Roku, make the majority of its TV sales.

This implies that Roku doesn’t necessarily need to earn giant profits by selling an OLED TV.

Another Roku OS screen is required.

Roku is attacking OLED at a difficult moment for TV makers

The timing is unusual, since global television demand is hardly booming.

TrendForce anticipates global TV shipments will fall 0.8% in 2026 to roughly 194.65 million units, while shipments in the first half would rise 1.3% to 93.74 million. The sector is under pressure from growing memory prices, softening demand, and shrinking margins for smaller producers.

Memory’s share of a television’s bill of materials is expected to jump from roughly 2.5% to 3% historically to 6% to 7%.

Related: A $650 smartphone takes aim at Apple and Samsung’s surging repair costs

That is a surprisingly big shift for a category where manufacturers already compete fiercely on price.

And the market is becoming more divided.

Samsung delivered 17.6 million TVs in the first half of 2026, up 6.3%. TCL delivered 15.08 million, up 7.1%; Hisense delivered 14.23 million, up 3%. LG delivered 11.3 million units, up 3.9 percent.

Against those giants, Roku’s manufacturing scale is comparatively modest. So why enter OLED now? Because Roku may be pursuing a different strategy.

The TV itself may be Roku’s customer-acquisition cost

Roku said something telling earlier this year.

Devices revenue was $118 million in the first quarter, down 16% year over year, with a negative 16.3% gross margin. The company attributed the drop to lower player sales and promotional pricing.

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That is not how most investors want a hardware business to look. But Roku’s TVs and streaming boxes serve another purpose. They get Roku OS into homes.

Once Roku has the operating system on the device, it can monetize the device over its lifetime through advertising, streaming subscriptions, content distribution, and other platform services.

That alters the economics of selling a TV.

Samsung, Sony, and LG usually require their premium TVs to be substantial hardware goods.

The transaction brings a long-term platform user, which might possibly help Roku overcome poor hardware economics.

Its first OLED TV is therefore more of a 55-inch screen customer acquisition device. That’s likely why Roku can afford to be so aggressive with the launch pricing.

OLED gives Roku access to a more valuable type of customer

OLED is still a top-end technology.

Traditional LCD TVs use LCD pixels that need a backlight, whereas OLED pixels make their own light, enabling deep blacks, excellent contrast, and incredibly thin displays. The category has always demanded costs much above mainstream market LCD TVs.

And although the overall TV industry is in decline, OLED is one of its growing sectors.

Omdia estimates that large-area OLED display shipments will grow 18.8% to 38.8 million units in 2026, while total large-area display shipments will fall 2.3%.

Not all of that increase is coming from TVs; monitors and laptops are contributing heavily. Still, it shows a larger transition to OLED even as weaker display technologies see reduced demand.

The move into OLED also affects the sort of home Roku can target.

Its brand has long been synonymous with cheap streaming sticks and budget televisions.

A Roku television priced between $1,000 and $1,600 brings the business into living rooms where customers are ready to pay substantially more for entertainment devices.

Those homes may also be very lucrative advertising and subscription clients. And that’s where the strategic payout might be higher than the margin on the TV.

Roku’s new television makes the software battle harder to ignore

For the most part, the television business was a fight for image quality.

The fight over what occurs when the TV goes on is becoming more of a war.

As the market moves away from hardware requirements alone, TrendForce specifically expects smart-TV platforms, advertising services, and content ecosystems to become more significant to manufacturers’ competitiveness.

That observation fits Roku unusually well. Roku started with the platform. The hardware came later.

The traditional TV makers have largely gone the other way: They made displays and then built operating systems, advertising platforms, and content ecosystems around them.

That makes Roku’s OLED growth strategically crucial.

Every premium Roku television sold has the potential to usurp the default gateway to a household’s streaming habit from a Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, or Google TV interface.

And the living room screen is the prime piece of real estate.

Consumers may hold on to a TV for several years. During that time, the operating system may show advertisements frequently, propose content, and enable subscriptions.

The $999 purchase happens once, yet the platform relationship can last much longer.

Amazon exclusivity adds another twist

Amazon is the only place to get Roku’s Pro Series OLED for 2026.

That provides Roku quick access to one of the biggest consumer electronics stores in the U.S. without the need to create a similar physical retail presence.

The basic Pro OLED now comes in 55- and 65-inch sizes. The more expensive LX, arriving in October, has around double the brightness, a 144 Hz variable refresh rate, and a polarizer meant to cut down on reflections, according to product specs provided by Roku.

Roku’s official product page confirms the prices and OLED specifications. This is great for consumers. Buyers now have another option besides Samsung, LG, and Sony as OLED prices drop. For Roku investors, calculations differ. What matters isn’t whether Roku can become America’s largest OLED maker. Perhaps it’s unnecessary.

Roku OS is already running in more than 100 million streaming homes. The trick is keeping those families interested while adding new ones and extending the platform into more lucrative portions of the television industry.

An inexpensive OLED provides Roku another option to accomplish it. It could also explain the unconventional economics of the launch.

Roku isn’t simply trying to sell you a cheaper premium television. It may be willing to make the television cheaper because it really wants to own everything you do after you switch it on.

Related: Apple’s new iPhone strategy comes with a $2,500 question

August turned into one of the roughest months yet for his bearish AI positions, even as he kept adding to them rather than backing away. The stretch offers a real test of how long conviction can hold up against a genuinely strong earnings season.

Michael Burry’s bets against Palantir Nvidia and Micron backfired in August

Most of the stocks Burry was bearish on advanced during August, led by sharp gains in Palantir, Nvidia, and Micron. The month highlighted a real risk for AI skeptics: valuation concerns can look extreme for a long time before momentum and earnings growth actually break. August gave little evidence that a break is imminent.

Palantir was by far the biggest problem. The stock surged 51.4% in August, even as Burry maintained out-of-the-money put options with a $100 strike expiring December 2026 and a $50 strike expiring June 2027, according to Yahoo Finance.

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Nvidia and Micron added their own pressure. Nvidia rose roughly 8% in August while Burry held bearish put positions alongside higher-strike December calls meant to offer some protection around earnings. Micron gained 13.3% even after Burry increased his short exposure, arguing the memory maker’s rally reflected speculation more than fundamentals, according to Stocktwits.

Other names in Burry’s bearish basket told a similar story. Oracle climbed 16.2%, CoreWeave gained 17.4%, Tesla advanced 12.1%, and Nebius rose 9.9% over the month, leaving Applied Materials and Caterpillar as the only two of his tracked short targets that actually declined, down 9% and 1.8% respectively, Stocktwits noted.

Palantir was the biggest problem in Burry’s portfolio

Palantir’s second-quarter results, reported August 3, gave the stock’s rally real fundamental backing. Revenue reached $1.935 billion, up 93% year over year, with U.S. commercial revenue growing 149% to $764 million and adjusted free cash flow of $1.22 billion, TheStreet reported.

Burry has not backed off his long-term view despite those numbers. He has said Palantir is worth under $1 per share on a long-term basis, a stark contrast to a stock trading near $175 with a market capitalization around $420 billion and a trailing price-to-earnings ratio above 137, according to Stock Analysis.

Burry’s argument is not that Palantir’s business is weak. He has acknowledged the company’s Rule of 40 score, a metric combining revenue growth and profit margin, reached 155% last quarter, far above the benchmark for AI infrastructure companies. His case instead is that the current price already assumes near-perfect execution indefinitely, leaving little room for anything to go wrong, as TheStreet reported.

In early August, Burry widened the comparison further. He likened the current AI buildout to 2005, one year before the housing market began to crack. He also disclosed fresh shorts against Oracle and Nebius around that same period, broadening his bet beyond the three most talked-about names.

Why Michael Burry still isn’t backing down on his shorts

Burry’s positioning has grown rather than shrunk as the trades have moved against him. His short positions in the iShares Semiconductor ETF, Micron, Nvidia, Caterpillar, Palantir, Tesla, and Applied Materials remained largely intact up until early August. He has said publicly that all of those positions stayed profitable except his bet against Nvidia, according to TheStreet.

Micron’s own business results complicate Burry’s timing argument. Chief business officer Sumit Sadana said on the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call that customer demand for memory chips remains “well above our ability to supply” across nearly every product category through 2028, a comment that cuts directly against the idea that current demand reflects speculation rather than end-customer need, according to Insider Monkey.

Burry has also pointed to a more technical concern about how AI infrastructure spending gets accounted for. He has argued that hyperscalers may be extending the useful life of Nvidia chips in ways that understate depreciation and inflate reported earnings, estimating the resulting shortfall could reach roughly $176 billion between 2026 and 2028.

Burry’s call options on Nvidia, bought as a hedge rather than a bullish trade, at least partly cushion the impact from Nvidia’s own August strength. “I am not playing for gains here,” Burry wrote of that trade as the stock jumped roughly 8% following its August earnings report.

What investors should watch next after Burry’s August losses

August illustrates the gap between identifying valuation risk and successfully timing it. Burry may ultimately be right that parts of the AI trade are overpriced, but Palantir, Nvidia, and Micron all continue to benefit from genuinely strong earnings and sentiment momentum that has outpaced his bearish thesis so far.

Burry’s short positions are not a signal by themselves. The signal is the earnings data. Right now that data says AI demand is real and growing. If a major hyperscaler comes out next quarter with weak guidance or a spending cut, that changes everything. Nothing like that has shown up yet.

Burry has been here before. He was early on the housing trade too, and early felt a lot like wrong for a long time. August is one data point. The numbers that matter are the ones that come out of the next round of earnings calls. Until the demand story cracks there, the market is not listening.

Related: Michael Burry just sent a fresh signal to stock market investors

Now it wants your graphics card to do something similar while you’re playing a video game.

Nvidia’s new AI-powered graphics innovation DLSS 5 is officially rolling out on Sept. 3, starting with NBA 2K27. Nvidia claims it is the company’s largest computer-graphics advance since real-time ray tracing was introduced in 2018.

Nvidia calls it 3D-Guided Neural Rendering. The neural model analyzes scene objects to add more realistic lighting, materials, shadows, and other visual details.

The result sounds like an obvious technological upgrade. It also raises an unusual question for gamers and, eventually, Nvidia investors: At what point does a graphics card stop rendering a video game and start generating one?

Nvidia has dramatically reduced DLSS 5’s hardware requirements

But perhaps the most astounding figure in Nvidia’s release has nothing to do with picture quality.

When Nvidia demonstrated DLSS 5 in March, the technology required two flagship GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards.

Nvidia believes DLSS 5 performance is 5x better and can run on a single RTX 50-series GPU in six months.

That includes the RTX 5060.

Nvidia states that just about every RTX 50-series GPU can run NBA 2K27 at 1080p with ray tracing and the Ultra option, utilizing DLSS 5 and other DLSS technologies.

Related: Bank of America doubles down on Nvidia stock

At the extreme end, Nvidia says an RTX 5090 can reach up to 370 frames per second at 4K with Ultra settings, ray tracing, and DLSS.

At 1440p, Nvidia lists the maximum performance as:

• RTX 5090: 590 fps
• RTX 5080: 410 fps
• RTX 5070 Ti: 350 fps
• RTX 5070: 260 fps

Those figures need some context.

DLSS is not only making the GPU do the work of rendering hundreds of full frames per second in the traditional sense. With Multi Frame Generation, AI creates extra frames between the ones that Nvidia normally renders. Current DLSS technology can create up to five more frames for every displayed frame.

DLSS 5 crosses another line

That’s not contentious about DLSS 5 though: frame generation is.

The major difference is in what occurs in those frames.

Nvidia claims its neural model understands scene objects and semantics and can produce more realistic lighting, material reactions and subsurface scattering, while consuming information from the underlying 3D environment. Developers have controls over structure and tone and semantic masks to govern how aggressively the algorithm modifies the picture.

Nvidia claims DLSS 5 in NBA 2K27 can adjust how light goes through a player’s ears, enhance the look of skin and facial hair, and produce more nuanced shadows on jerseys and basketballs.

Those may sound like tiny details. But they represent a significant philosophical change in how video-game graphics can be created. Traditionally, developers create an asset and the GPU renders it.

Enter DLSS 5, a new AI model that can look at that item and create more visual information around it in real time.

That difference is part of why there was a pushback to Nvidia announcing DLSS 5 back in March.

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Some of the earlier demos by Nvidia were derided for modifying characters too much, notably the look of Grace Ashcroft from Resident Evil Requiem, The Verge reported. The article likened the impact to running the game through a generative-AI filter in real time.

NBA 2K27’s AI is more focused on texturing, lighting, and shadows, according to The Verge.

Developers may also instruct DLSS 5 to leave certain sections, like faces, alone.

Nvidia has another reason to make AI graphics indispensable

There is a commercial narrative behind the technical argument.

Nvidia’s Gaming unit recorded record sales of $16 billion in fiscal 2026, a 41% increase year-over-year.

This is a huge gaming company.

It is also modest in relation to what AI infrastructure has turned into for Nvidia.

The company just reported $96.2 billion of total revenue in a single quarter, up 106% year over year. Data Center alone generated $89 billion, up 117%.

It is an astounding comparison.

Nvidia’s last quarter of Data Center revenue was almost 5 times the total Gaming revenue for the entire prior fiscal year.

That doesn’t imply gaming is dead.

Instead, Nvidia is increasingly bringing the same basic economic proposition that transformed its data center business: more AI requires more Nvidia computing power, back to consumers.

DLSS 5 is one such case.

The technology is officially launching on RTX 50-series desktop and laptop GPUs and on Nvidia’s GeForce Now service. Nvidia said the next model upgrades should increase the performance further.

So, for a gamer with older hardware, some of the latest visual features are not just unlocked with a software update.

They can become another reason to upgrade the GPU.

Nvidia could change what a graphics upgrade actually means

For decades, PC gamers have been upgrading their graphics cards for a rather obvious reason.

A faster GPU would be able to produce more polygons, higher quality textures, sharper shadows and ultimately more realistic ray-traced lighting.

AI alters that equation.

If the neural networks can intelligently rebuild, augment or synthesize sections of the final product, the graphics card doesn’t have to brute-force every pixel and every frame in the conventional sense.

This might make the capabilities of AI more and more essential when buyers compare GPUs.

And Nvidia has been building just that edge into RTX.

Related: OpenAI’s agents breached Hugging Face. Nvidia wants it.

The RTX 50 series is based on the fifth generation of Nvidia’s Tensor Cores, a dedicated AI accelerator silicon. DLSS provides Nvidia with a consumer-facing application that can take those AI cores and convert them into something players will really see.

The strategic value could be more than one generation of graphics cards.

If game creators are able to start developing games with neural rendering at the core, rather than as an optional addition, AI technology might become as crucial to gaming GPUs as conventional rendering performance.

One game will now test Nvidia’s biggest graphics claim in years

There is a catch. At launch, the showcase is remarkably narrow. NBA 2K27 is the only confirmed game shipping with DLSS 5 in Sept. 3.

The games announced at Nvidia’s March event included Resident Evil Requiem, EA Sports FC, Starfield, and Hogwarts Legacy; however, The Verge reports that Nvidia did not provide an updated timeframe for DLSS 5 support in those titles.

That is, investors and gamers should not mistake the promise of the technology with the possibility for mass adoption.

Nvidia has shown that DLSS 5 can operate on much less hardware than it could six months ago.

Developers or players have yet to show that they want AI to change depicted scenes in broad strokes.

That’s why NBA 2K27 is more significant than it looks.

The discussion isn’t actually about whether artificial intelligence can make virtual bacon shinier or basketball players’ skin more lifelike.

It’s about where computer graphics are heading, according to Nvidia.

For decades, the graphics industry competed over which GPU could render reality most convincingly.

Nvidia is beginning to suggest that the next winner may be the GPU that can intelligently generate the missing pieces of reality instead.

Gamers can decide on Sept. 3 if that’s the future or if Nvidia’s AI has gone too far.

Related: Nvidia stock flashes unusual signal for investors 

Two resorts in Miami Beach filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within a few weeks of each other in March 2026, while at the end of last year, the company behind well-known New York City hotels such as The Tuscany and Hotel 27 shut down operations in a situation that left guests from different parts of the world struggling to find last-minute accommodations at Manhattan rates.

The latest development company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York is the beleaguered Park Place Partners Development LLC.

Park Place Partners Development files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

The owner of both the unfinished 66-foot 45 Park Place tower at the intersection of New York’s Tribeca and Financial District neighborhoods and the vacant lot next to it, the company run by Sharif El-Gamal started running into financial troubles after lower numbers of apartments in the property have gone under contract than expected and overseas lenders started to cut off funding.

The initial plan to put a 71-foot-tall, 16,000-square-foot Islamic cultural and prayer center adjacent to the main tower also caught national attention around 2010 due to its proximity to the Ground Zero site of the former World Trade Center and was eventually scrapped amid controversy.

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Amid both rising debts and multiple creditor efforts to foreclose, construction on the tower stopped in 2019, and the tower stood in a half-finished shell over the last seven years in one of the most well-recognized examples of a stalled project in New York and the U.S.

According to the bankruptcy filing, Park Place Partners Development reported $15 million in assets and $13.8 million in liabilities. Kevin Nash of the Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein law firm is representing El-Gamal and Park Place Partners in the bankruptcy case.

How 45 Park Place became the most famous unfinished condo tower in New York

Park Place Partners Development could not be reached for comment on the filing; as a result, little other information on why the company filed for bankruptcy now, after years of setbacks, is currently publicly available.

Amid multiple foreclosure efforts, El-Gamal has previously threatened to tear down the top of the 667-foot tower that has already been built in order to make the project less valuable and “get back” at creditors that he felt were purposefully preventing him from getting ahead.

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In response, the lending group that included creditors like Malaysia’s Malayan Banking Berhad, Kuwaiti Warba Bank and Chicago-based MSD Partners accused El-Gamal of creating a “bad faith scheme” to “gain leverage in negotiations.”

“To the extent that Mr. El-Gamal and his companies seek to pursue this scheme, they will be held fully liable for any and all damages,” the group wrote in a letter through the attorneys representing them as reported by The Real Deal in 2020.

Related: Another national park closes hotels, campgrounds, overnight parking

Stay within the AI shockwave

Demand for more computing power and electricity will continue unabated for the foreseeable future. We are somewhere in the early innings of this historic rally in AI and data center stocks. I expect it to persist for at least 14 to 20 more innings.

Dell Computer, Inc. rides server wave

Dell (DELL) is smack dab in the middle of the data center boom. It is a key supplier of the infrastructure needed to run NVIDIA GPUs in AI data centers.

Simply put, Dell provides the infrastructure needed to package GPUs to keep data centers up and running. Dell also offers management software to ensure that the data center environment runs efficiently.

Dell followed up its record first quarter with another blowout performance in its second quarter of fiscal year 2027, which was reported on September 1. 

Thanks to persistent demand, Dell’s AI and data center solutions, which are identified in its financial statements as the Infrastructure Solutions Group or ISG, now account for 68% of total revenues as of its last quarterly report.  But more importantly, ISG grew by more than 89% quarter over quarter.  

And AI backlog was the big story. Dell exited the quarter with a whopping $95 billion AI server backlog.

Related: Louis Navellier unveils 3 under-radar stocks to buy on dips

Given the stunning second-quarter results, Dell raised its AI-optimized server revenue expectations for fiscal 2027 to $74 billion, up from its previous forecast of $60 billion. The company also raised its full-year revenue outlook by $25 billion to $192 billion, a 69% year-over-year growth.

With AI momentum accelerating and Dell continuing to post record orders, revenue and backlog, the AI opportunity clearly shows no signs of slowing. DELL is an Aggressive buy below $598.

My stock grading system rates Dell as an A.

Western Digital Corporation sees intense memory demand tailwind

In early 2025, Western Digital (WDC) spun off its memory business, which focused on NAND flash and solid-state drives (SSDs). That spinoff became SanDisk Corporation (SNDK). The decision let Western Digital focus its core business on hard disk drives (HDDs) and data center storage.

And that puts Western Digital in an enviable position as the AI Revolution accelerates. HDDs provide the capacity, reliability and long-term storage necessary to keep the massive data required for AI models and training, machine learning, analytics and compliance secure.

So, it’s no surprise that Western Digital’s business is booming.

In fiscal year 2026, Western Digital achieved total revenue of $12.92 billion and earnings of $3.88 billion, or $10.22 per share. That represented 36% annual revenue growth and an impressive 120% annual earnings growth.

Company management called 2026 an “outstanding year.” Thanks to continuing demand for its HDDs, the company remains confident heading into fiscal year 2027.

For the first quarter in fiscal year 2027, Western Digital expects total revenue of about $4.1 billion. It expects earnings per share between $3.85 and $4.15. That compares to revenue of $2.82 billion and earnings of $1.78 per share in the first quarter of 2026. That works out to 45.4% year-over-year revenue growth and 116.3% to 133.1% year-over-year earnings growth.

Analysts have increased first-quarter earnings estimates in the wake of Western Digital’s positive outlook. And the company has a history of beating analysts’ expectations. WDC is a Moderately Aggressive buy below $565.

My stock grading system rates Western Digital as an A.

For more information about my stock grading system, click here. 

Related: Broadcom’s earnings loom, but this reveal came first

People have been wondering when mortgage rates will go back down ever since.

For the last several years, a common housing-market narrative has been that high mortgage rates are stopping people from buying homes. Naturally, if mortgage rates decrease, Americans will jump at the chance to buy houses again. Right?

However, findings from the real estate technology company Zillow have complicated that narrative.

Less than half (42%) of renters said they would be very or extremely likely to buy a home if mortgage rates dropped, according to the 2025 Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report. Nearly three in five expect to keep renting over the next year. 

So, the question becomes: If lower mortgage rates aren’t enough to bring renters back into the market, what else is keeping them out?

Zillow pinpoints the hidden costs of ownership keeping buyers away

When thinking about a future housing payment, many people’s minds go to their monthly payments toward the loan principal and mortgage interest.

But a lot more goes into a monthly payment, including insurance and property taxes. And there are always the costs of unexpected repairs, such as a broken oven or air conditioning system.

An analysis by Zillow and Thumbtack found that the average annual “hidden costs” of homeownership in America total $15,979.

That includes $10,946 for home maintenance, $3,030 for property taxes, and $2,003 for homeowners insurance.

Related: Morgan Stanley’s troubling housing forecast is playing out now

At the time of the analysis, these three costs were increasing more quickly than household incomes. Together, maintenance, property taxes, and homeowners insurance rose 4.7% year over year, while household incomes only increased by 3.8%.

And these costs don’t decrease or go away when mortgage rates go down.

Let’s say a person’s monthly rent is roughly equivalent to their monthly principal and interest payment. If they kept renting instead of buying, that’s roughly $16,000 they could invest in the stock market and use to build wealth.

Many people feel that, unless wages spike and costs cool, buying a home doesn’t make financial sense.

The homeownership break-even point is getting longer

Renting may make more sense in the short term, but the rule of thumb has been that buying a home pays off in the long run. Generally, people say to expect to stay in a home for about five years before you break even, meaning the savings outweigh the initial expenses of a down payment and closing costs.

But a 2026 Zillow rent-versus-buy analysis discovered that the timeline is changing. Nationwide, buying can still make financial sense if the homeowner stays in the house for at least six years. And that’s assuming a 20% down payment, which few buyers can afford.

More Housing Market:

• Fannie Mae predicts where home prices are headed next
• Will the housing market crash in 2026? Experts weigh in
• Dream of owning a home is slipping away for young Americans

That estimate lengthens for people buying in areas with higher costs of living. In some high-cost markets, including Austin, Los Angeles, and Seattle, the break-even point stretches to roughly 18 years.

If you live in areas such as New Orleans, San Francisco, or San Jose, it could be closer to 30 years.

That’s a much bigger commitment — especially if you aren’t sure you’re going to stay in one place for decades.

And as the cost of owning a house rises, the old assumption that renting is merely a temporary stop on the road to homeownership is starting to change.

Renting is becoming a long-term choice

For generations of Americans, buying a home has been viewed as one of the biggest milestones of adulthood. It was a crucial step in attaining the American dream.

As for renting, it was a short-term solution while you saved to buy a house.

But younger Americans have been shifting their mindsets. Even those who can afford a house and qualify for a mortgage are seriously considering renting instead. For some people, it just makes more sense financially.

“It is not automatically smarter to buy, and it is not automatically a waste of money to rent,” Chief Economist Mischa Fisher wrote for Zillow.

“In a lot of high-cost markets, a household that could qualify for a mortgage is making a rational call by staying flexible and keeping its money invested, and plenty of people simply do not want the upkeep that comes with owning,” Fisher continued. “Renting is a legitimate long-term option, not a fallback.”

Related: Clark Howard sounds alarm on hidden fees inflating your rent

Labor Day might not technically be here until Monday, September 7, but top retailers are already kicking off monumental savings events to honor the occasion. While the majority of stores are offering rare deals for the three-day holiday weekend, the overstock and outlet stores, which offer unbeatable discounts all 365 days of the year, are stepping it up with even better bargains to keep up with the competition. One of our favorite outlet stores is the Amazon Outlet, which is getting in on the price-slashing action.

Amazon Outlet’s End-of-Season Sale

Amazon Outlet is basically a well-kept secret. It’s not easy to find on the homepage, but it’s filled to the brim with overstock selections and offers some of the lowest prices on the retailer’s website. With it being the end of summer, many soon-to-be out-of-season products are on sale, and those low prices just got even lower with Amazon Outlet’s End-of-Season Sale. You’ll find outlet deals up to 70% off during this savings event, with new deals featured daily. There are savings in just about every department, whether you need to stock up on lawn and garden supplies, refill your beauty cabinet, or score a new pair of earbuds for less. 

For those who have been wanting to upgrade their home as we head into autumn, Amazon Outlet can help you stay within budget when buying these essentials. For example, if you need new pillows because the ones in your bedroom are lumpy or have been giving you a stiff neck each morning, the top-rated BedMust Cooling Cover Memory Foam Pillow is 70% off. The ergonomic pillow cradles the neck and has two heights, depending on how you flip it, making it suitable for back, side, or stomach sleepers. Hot sleepers will also appreciate the temperature-regulating pillow covers that keep you cool and comfortable throughout the night.

BedMust Cooling Cover Memory Foam Pillow

Amazon Outlet’s furniture and home goods deals

Amazon Outlet is a go-to spot when you’re buying furniture on a budget. While some of the selections may be out of season, there’s still plenty of deals that can be useful year-round. One particularly noteworthy deal is on the Hausfrau Ottoman and Storage Bench. With an impressive 42% off, the versatile piece of furniture has been discounted from $45 to just $26, and it comes in multiple colorways. The stylish selection can be used as an elegant footrest in the living room, but its multipurpose design is also ideal for seating and storage in the entryway or bedroom. The $25 deal on the pair of Simple Trending End Tables is also quite remarkable, considering it comes out to less than $13 per side table.

Hausfrau Ottoman and Storage Bench

Simple Trending End Tables Set of 2

GarveeHome 8-by-10 Foot Washable Area Rug

Simple Trending Double Rods Clothing Rack

Amazon Outlet kitchen deals

The steepest savings we’ve found during this End-of-Season Sale can be found on kitchen gear. Multiple selections have been reduced by 50%. This includes the LoftyChef 20-Ounce Portable Electric Heated Lunch Box, which is on sale for just $12 and allows you to enjoy hot meals at work without the microwave. The Sweese Porcelain Deep-Fluted Pie Dish is also half off, and it’s perfect for bakers who appreciate a sturdy baking dish with timeless appeal. On top of that, you’ll find deep discounts on utensil holders that double as charming decor and dishwasher-safe food containers to store your leftovers or snacks.

LoftyChef 20-Ounce Portable Electric Heated Lunch Box

Sweese Porcelain Deep-Fluted Pie Dish

Comfify Coral Mason Jar Utensil Holder

Kzdaz Stainless Steel Snack Containers 8-Pack

Amazon Outlet cleaning and organization deals

Spring cleaning in September might not be as popular as Christmas in July, but most homes can use a refresh before the holidays begin, so it’s an idea we can get behind. Tackling the messy clutter with a proper storage system or investing in cleaning supplies that can help you keep things tidy will go a long way in your efforts. Amazon Outlet has storage and organization deals up to 50% off, including the Moonedge 8-Pack Stackable Small Clear Storage Bins, which are a superb choice for streamlining the closet, refrigerator, cabinets, or pantry. The Lucundm Wall-Mounted Key Holder is a steal while it’s on sale for just $9, and it has seven hooks that are great for hanging keys, umbrellas, or scarves. If you require heavy-duty cleaning power, the fan-favorite Bissell Little Green Max Pet SmartMix Carpet Cleaner is currently 25% off. 

Moonedge 8-Pack Stackable Small Clear Storage Bins

Lucundm Wall-Mounted Key Holder

Bissell Little Green Max Pet SmartMix Carpet Cleaner

Leguo 3-Tier Medicine Organizer Box

TheStreet Shopping is your guide for shopping insights and advice. We look beyond the price tag to find the best value in home, tech, and wellness gear based on product features and real-world use. Read more about our Editorial Standards and How We Choose Our Shopping Deals.

MongoDB beat revenue and profit estimates by wide margins on Tuesday and raised its full-year forecast.

By Wednesday’s close, the stock had shed more than $4 billion in market value in a single session.

Atlas grew 28.9%. Traders wanted 30%.

The culprit was Atlas, MongoDB’s cloud database platform and the engine behind roughly three-quarters of total revenue.

Atlas revenue grew 28.9% year over year, according to a Morgan Stanley note shared with TheStreet, ahead of the company’s own guidance but short of the roughly 30% pace some buyside investors had penciled in.

Related: Bank of America resets Microsoft stock price target for 2026

That gap matters because Atlas is the number Wall Street uses as a proxy for whether MongoDB is actually capturing AI-driven demand, not just legacy database business.

This marked the fifth straight quarter Atlas landed near 29%, a plateau that has investors asking when, not whether, artificial intelligence workloads will push growth higher.

Nearly everything else beat

Total revenue hit $771.8 million, up roughly 30% year over year and well ahead of Wall Street’s approximately $735 million estimate, according to a company press release. Adjusted earnings came in at $1.90 per share versus the $1.61 analysts expected, a beat of nearly 18%, CNBC reported.

Non-GAAP operating margin reached 24.1%, up roughly 940 basis points from a year earlier, and the company raised its full-year revenue guidance.

None of that was enough to offset the Atlas number, which shows how little room high-multiple software stocks have left for anything short of acceleration.

MDB shares: from $434 to $375, then a bounce

Shares closed Tuesday Sept 1, at $434.21, ahead of the earnings release. By Wednesday’s close, MongoDB (MDB) had fallen to $375.40, a drop of about 13.5%, after tumbling as much as 14.6% intraday.

More Bank Stock Resets:

• Bank of America revamps AMD stock price target for 2026
• Morgan Stanley resets Microsoft stock forecast ahead of earnings
• Goldman Sachs revamps SpaceX stock price target for 2026

The stock remains well inside its 52-week range of $215.68 to $473.10. In early Thursday trading, shares were changing hands near $380, up modestly from Wednesday’s close but still far below where they started the week.

Wall Street defends MongoDB against market overreaction

While traders dumped the stock, major Wall Street firms largely maintained their positive long-term ratings, viewing the selloff as a valuation reset rather than a structural issue.

• Barclays: Maintained an Overweight rating and raised its price target to $480 from $460. The firm remains constructive on MongoDB’s long-term growth prospects despite the market’s near-term reaction.  
• Guggenheim: Reissued a Buy rating and set a Street-high $560 price target, signaling strong conviction in the company’s underlying fundamentals.  
• Mizuho: Kept an Outperform rating and boosted its target to $460 from $400, reflecting confidence in the broader AI-driven consumption trends.  
• DA Davidson: Increased its price target to $465 from $375 and maintained a Buy rating. Analysts remain optimistic about durable enterprise demand for the Atlas cloud database platform.
• Monness Crespi & Hardt: Raised its target to $460 from $415 with a Buy rating, pointing to improving sentiment across the software sector as a key driver for the 12-month outlook.  

MongoDB has punished good news before

This is not new territory for MongoDB investors. In March 2026, the stock fell more than 22% after a fourth-quarter beat, because fiscal 2027 revenue guidance implied a sharp deceleration, according to Seeking Alpha.

The pattern is consistent: strong headline numbers, a growth signal that disappoints, and a stock that gets repriced hard.

CEO Chirantan “CJ” Desai said he was surprised and disappointed by the reaction, arguing the company delivered a clean beat and raised guidance anyway, according to a Stocktwits report.

He told CNBC an Atlas growth inflection tied to AI adoption is “not if, it’s just when,” and could arrive within a few quarters.

Wall Street’s analysts mostly agreed with him. More than ten firms raised their price targets after the report even as the stock fell, while a smaller group trimmed theirs.

That divide is the real story here. MongoDB’s selloff is less about one company’s numbers and more about how the market now treats consumption-based software: growth alone no longer earns a premium multiple, only acceleration does.

Investors watching Snowflake, Datadog and other usage-billed cloud names should expect the same standard to apply the next time a “good” quarter isn’t good enough.

Related: Goldman Sachs resets DKS stock price target amid store closures

The selling followed a fresh escalation between the United States and Iran that pushed oil prices sharply higher and sent government bond yields climbing, according to a market recap from Alain Guillot.

Every major index closed lower, but NOBL fell only a fraction of what stocks broadly lost.

Related: Schwab SCHD draws $679M as dividend ETF climbs 2.39%

NOBL barely reacted while stocks sold off hard

The S&P 500 dropped 0.7% on September 1 to close at 7,631.47, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 419 points, or about 0.8%, to finish at 52,766.88, according to CNBC’s recap.

The Nasdaq Composite fell roughly 1% to close at 26,099.77. Technology stocks led the decline, with cybersecurity firms among the hardest hit.

NOBL closed the session at $57.64, down about 0.4%, according to ProShares’ own fund data. That decline was roughly half the size of the S&P 500’s drop and less than half the size of the Nasdaq’s, a gap that shows dividend-focused strategies picking up support just as tech sentiment turned sour.

The fund’s structure limits its tech exposure

NOBL’s resilience traces back to how it is built. The fund equally weights all 69 of its holdings rather than letting a handful of giant companies determine its returns, and no single sector can exceed 30% of the index, according to ProShares.

That structure is why the fund was not dragged down by the same mega-cap technology weakness that hit the Nasdaq hardest.

That construction pushes technology down to roughly 3% of the portfolio, while consumer staples and industrials each make up about a fifth of the fund, according to a July analysis from 24/7 Wall Street.

None of the Magnificent Seven companies qualify for the index, since two of them (Amazon and Tesla) do not pay a dividend at all.

More Dividend Stocks:

• Does IBM pay dividends? History, yield & payout ratio explained
• Does Walmart pay dividends? Its yield and payouts explained
• Does Sandisk pay dividends? Will it split its stock?

Dividend growth matters more than headline yield

NOBL’s 30-day SEC yield sits at 2.14%, modest next to some high-yield ETFs, and the fund charges a 0.35% expense ratio while holding $11.76 billion in net assets, according to ProShares.

What the underlying index screens for is not yield, but a 25-year streak of dividend increases, a bar that filters out companies with shaky cash flow.

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index returned 5.89% over the three months ended July 31 and 11.05% year to date, trailing the broader S&P 500’s stronger tech-driven gains during that stretch, according to ProShares.

That lag is the tradeoff investors accept for smoother days like September 1.

A few additional data points frame the broader shift toward dividend strategies:

• Dividend-focused ETFs pulled in $24.1 billion in the first quarter alone, a pace that could set a record for the full year, according to The Motley Fool.
• A 10-year Treasury yield near 4.76% makes bonds more competitive with expensive growth stocks, pressuring the same technology names that have carried the market for years, according to Yahoo Finance.
• NOBL trades close to its 52-week high near $58, even after years of lagging the S&P 500’s tech-heavy gains, according to 24/7 Wall Street.

A quiet rotation could reshape market leadership

One calm trading day does not prove dividend aristocrats have taken over market leadership.

But the pattern fits a broader shift already visible in fund flows, where investors increasingly want proof of durable cash generation rather than a promise of future AI payoffs.

If oil prices and rate worries keep pressuring growth stocks through September, historically the weakest month for stocks, funds like NOBL may keep drawing steady interest.

Not because they are exciting, but because they are boring in exactly the way nervous investors want right now.

Related: Dividend ETFs paying 2% to 3.7% for your portfolio

For a while, it looked like the security vendors had more to fear from AI than to gain from it. Nikesh Arora, the CEO of the global AI cybersecurity leader, Palo Alto Networks (PANW), himself admitted as much on Mad Money Sep. 2 night.

Nine months ago, I said we were guilty and convicted of near-death because AI was going to eat our lunch, breakfast and dinner.

Nikesh continued to tell Jim Cramer, “It seems like that’s not the case. Seems like we’re going to have to have the feast with them.”

The twist is that AI did not kill cybersecurity as most of us thought. It radicalized the threat environment, which means the demand for serious, AI-native security platforms is actually accelerating. And Arora had a number that should make every IT executive stop scrolling.

Also Read: Palo Alto Networks Inc. Latest News and Stories

The $1 trillion problem Arora is describing

Cramer put the warning as: “You’re talking about the need for accelerating the urgency to modernize $1 trillion of legacy security. That just means hackable security, $1 trillion worth.”

Nikesh explained the math. 

“If the average life is seven years and you’re spending $200 to $300 billion a year, you’ve got $1 trillion of security infrastructure that’s out there,” he said. “Nothing that was deployed seven or 10 years ago is prepared or ready to handle AI at machine speed.”

And that is the structural argument behind Palo Alto’s entire growth thesis right now. Legacy firewalls, security information management systems, and endpoint tools built before generative AI existed were not designed for adversaries operating at machine speed. 

More AI:

• Nvidia just made a move Wall Street wasn’t ready for
• Microsoft just took sides in AI policy fight
• OpenAI just disclosed something genuinely alarming

Bad actors are already using AI to generate attacks faster, more variably, and at greater scale than human security teams can respond to manually.

And then Nikesh added a second number on top of the first: “On top of that, you’re going to see $5 trillion of capex spend in the next five years with people building AI data centers and having tons and tons of agents running around. You also have to build a net-new security stack for that.”

So the addressable market is not just modernizing the existing $1 trillion of legacy infrastructure. It is also securing the $5 trillion of new AI infrastructure being built simultaneously.

Palo Alto’s Q4 fiscal 2026 showed a company catching that wave

The Q4 results, reported September 1, validated the demand environment Arora described on Mad Money.

• Total revenue grew 34% year-over-year (YOY) to $3.41 billion. 
• Next-Generation Security ARR (NGS ARR) grew 63% YOY to $9.10 billion, adding nearly $1 billion in a single quarter. 
• Remaining performance obligations grew 34% to $21.2 billion. 
  • Source: Palo Alto Networks Q4 and Full Year 2026 Results

CFO Dipak Golechha said the “profitable growth framework continues to scale effectively,” reinforcing confidence in a 40% adjusted free cash flow margin target for fiscal 2028.

That means we are more likely to see the stock continue surging, too. Currently, PANW is up 76.66% year-to-date, according to Yahoo Finance.

For Q1 fiscal 2027, Palo Alto guided total revenue of $3.30-$3.31 billion, up 33%-34% YOY, with NGS ARR of $9.54-$9.56 billion, continuing the 63% growth rate. Based on 45 analysts’ ratings of Palo Alto Networks in the past 3 months, 38 recommended buy, 7 hold, and 0 sell, TheStreet reports.

Related: Jim Cramer has a strong message for Nvidia stock investors

Full-year fiscal 2027 guidance calls for $14.10-$14.20 billion in revenue, up 23%-24%, and NGS ARR of $11.075-$11.175 billion on the path to the $20 billion fiscal 2030 target.

On the same earnings day, Palo Alto announced the acquisition of Console. It is an AI-native agentic platform designed to help organizations resolve alerts and security issues at machine speed. 

This addresses the “AI at machine speed” threat Arora described. Palo Alto also completed the acquisition of Chronosphere in Jan. 2026. This one focused on AI-driven observability, targeting the AI security operations and IT operations market.

The phone calls Arora is now receiving and what they mean

There is a detail from the Mad Money interview I find most revealing about where enterprise technology priorities sit right now, and where they’re headed. Why?

Arora said he is now on the receiving end of calls rather than making them. More than 2,000 companies have reached out about cybersecurity in the context of AI deployment. 

Every organization rushing to build AI infrastructure is realizing, often for the first time, that deploying AI agents across a corporate environment without a modernized security architecture is a serious risk.

“The Mythos moment has just become a net new beginning for the cybersecurity industry,” Arora noted, “because the world has realized that we have to pay attention to cyber because AI is going to be weaponized by bad actors.”

And I think the transition from selling to receiving calls is the leading indicator that the $1 trillion modernization cycle has actually begun. 

Palo Alto is the largest pure-play cybersecurity platform company in the world, with the most comprehensive portfolio to address both the legacy refresh and the new AI security stack Arora is describing.

Palo Alto Networks reports a 78% growth in AI usage over the last 12 months, with 94% of enterprises currently utilizing Generative AI software. The stock is up 76.66% year-to-date, suggesting the market already agrees. The $1 trillion problem and the $5 trillion capex wave say the story is not finished.

Related: Jim Cramer has strong message for Micron stock investors

Bank of America’s proprietary Bull & Bear Indicator has remained in sell-signal territory since May 2026, with July weekly readings ranging from 9.5 to 9.6 on a 10-point scale, Business Insider showed. 

Those are the highest levels seen since 2021, driven by extreme positioning across hedge funds, fund managers, equity flows, and credit-market technicals.

“Extreme bull positioning says reduce risk exposure,” Bank of America chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett said in a client note, Business Insider reported.

The signal does not guarantee a decline, and prior sell triggers have sometimes fizzled without producing meaningful losses. But the buyer pool has thinned enough that even modest earnings or policy disappointment can spark outsized selling pressure.

Bank of America’s indicator hits 9.5 as positioning extremes spread across asset classes

The indicator blends institutional positioning, equity and bond flows, global stock-index breadth, and credit-market technicals into one composite score. When that score crosses above 8.0, the firm treats it as a contrarian sell signal for risk assets.

Fund-manager positioning reached the 99th percentile, equity flows hit the 93rd percentile, and hedge-fund exposure registered at the 83rd percentile in Bank of America’s component breakdown reported by Guru Focus. 

Also read: Rare volatility signal prompts stock market alert from 43-year veteran analyst

Credit-market technicals also came in elevated at the 77th percentile, reflecting tight high-yield spreads and thin risk premiums across global bond markets.

A second threshold fired alongside the indicator, with managers cutting cash reserves to 3.5% of total assets under management in the August Global Fund Manager Survey, down from 3.6% in July and the sixth-lowest reading in the survey’s history since 1998. 

That breaches Bank of America’s 4.0% Cash Rule, a sell indicator that confirms institutions are fully deployed, with almost no dry powder remaining.

What 17 prior sell signals reveal about near-term stock returns

The indicator has fired 17 sell signals since its launch 24 years ago, giving investors a meaningful sample of post-signal outcomes to evaluate.

Global stocks, as measured by the MSCI All Country World Index, averaged declines of 2% to 3% in the two to three months following each signal, Hartnett noted. 

More Bank of America:

• Bank of America sends sharp August stock market warning
• Bank of America CEO warns inflation will back Fed into a corner
• Bank of America just made a strong call on inflation, economy

Equities fell 60% of those times, and the worst drawdowns reached the 15% to 20% range, Business Insider reported.

The most recent signal complicates that track record. The current sell signal cycle was triggered on May 26, and the S&P 500 has gained 1.6% since then, while the MSCI ACWI has advanced 1.3%, Guru Focus indicated, based on Bank of America’s tracking.

Morningstar’s momentum data reinforces the crowding concern

Bank of America is not the only major institution flagging stretched positioning. The S&P 500 Momentum Index, which tracks the 100 best-performing stocks in the benchmark, delivered a 34% return between April and May of this year. 

That marked the strongest two-month gain since at least 1995, surpassing peaks reached during the dot-com era, Morningstar reported.

Philip Straehl, chief investment officer, Americas, for Morningstar Wealth, told Business Insider that the surge in momentum reflects crowding that has historically preceded weaker forward returns for equities.

<strong>I think it's one signal that there might be excessive optimism in the market today, and so I think it leaves us with a cautious outlook for markets from this point on</strong>

Straehl said measures, including the Shiller PE ratio, price-to-book, price-to-sales, and the equity risk premium, all look extreme. His broader assessment of the market’s outlook: “The overall reward for risk is not really good.”

What the sell signal means for the S&P 500 ETF concentration risk

Investors holding the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) or the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) face a concentration concern that goes beyond general market direction.

Technology stocks now represent roughly one-third of the S&P 500’s weight, and the 10 largest positions make up about 36% to 38% of both funds’ total assets, according to State Street’s SPY and Vanguard’s VOO fact sheets.

That top-heaviness means a positioning unwind would not hit the index evenly. The stocks that drove the rally, mega-cap growth and semiconductors, are the same names Hartnett’s team flagged as most exposed to a reversal, alongside banks and industrials.

How the sell signal reframes the risk inside your S&P 500 index fund

After the S&P 500 peaked in February 2026, the index dropped more than 7% before recovering, a very different post-signal outcome from the small gain that followed the May trigger, Business Insider reported.

A breakdown in market breadth, fewer stocks with the index higher while the rest quietly roll over, is what converts that vulnerability into actual losses. The Bull & Bear Indicator uses breadth as one of its composite inputs. 

If the percentage of S&P 500 stocks trading above their 200-day moving average begins to fall while the index holds steady, a divergence emerges. Historically, that signal has preceded sharper drawdowns in the post-signal sample.

Bank of America’s positioning composite and Morningstar’s momentum data arriving at the same conclusion narrows the chance that either one is a false alarm.

For SPY and VOO holders, that divergence is the earliest available evidence that the crowding risk Bank of America flagged is translating into price action.

Related: Bank of America sends strong message to stock market investors

Recently, however, the chain brought back its classic fried apple pie for the first time in 34 years.

“The OG Fried Apple Pie is back at participating restaurants nationwide for a limited time. The all-day menu item features our signature filling made with 100% American-grown apples, wrapped in the same golden crunch and flaky fried crust fans remember — or soon won’t forget,” the chain shared in a June press release.

To put that return into perspective, in June 1992, the last time the Fried Apple Pie was offered, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin met at a Washington summit and agreed to a historic accord to dramatically slash their nations’ nuclear arsenals.

That was also the summer the Dream Team debuted at the Olympics and “Batman Returns” with Michael Keaton debuted.

Now, while it’s not quite as historic, McDonald’s has opted to bring back another classic pie, the Pumpkin and Crème Pie, while leaving a traditional fall season classic off its menu.

McDonald’s brings back the Pumpkin and Crème Pie

McDonald’s Pumpkin & Crème Pie has not been officially announced by the chain, nor has it appeared on the official New Menu Item Spotter page. It has, however, been spotted in select restaurants.

“So far, it’s been spotted at a few McDonald’s in Brooklyn and Dallas. It seems more and more locations are getting it by the day before its eventual return nationwide,” Sporked reported.

Brand Eating, a popular food blog, has also seen the pie at select Los Angeles-area stores and shared more details.

“Prices vary, but at my local McDonald’s, the Pumpkin & Creme Pie costs $2.39 for one or $3.99 for two,” the site shared.

More Restaurants:

• 52-year-old international restaurant chain closing all locations
• 46-year-old casual dining chain closes underperforming locations
• Classic burger chain has closed down all its restaurants

McDonald’s has not confirmed the extent of the release, but it has added the pie to its national website.

“No matter the season, it’s the perfect time to enjoy your fall favorites. The Pumpkin and Crème Pie features a baked, sugar-coated premium pie pastry crust with a pumpkin pie filling on one side and a crème filling on the other,” the chain shared.

McDonald’s drops a seasonal classic

McDonald’s has surprisingly made a change to its seasonal McCafe beverage lineup, which will not include a Pumpkin Spice Latte for the first time since 2016.

“We’re always exploring new ways to give fans seasonal flavors to enjoy,” McDonalds said in a statement to USA Today. “We chose Caramel Apple Pie because it offers a fresh take on the familiar tastes of fall — and one we think fans will fall in love with.”

McDonald’s was actually late to the Pumpkin Spice Latte party, or PSL, as it’s commonly known, after Starbucks first introduced it in 2003.

McDonald’s McCafé fall seasonal includes:

• Caramel Apple Pie Frappe
• Hot Caramel Apple Pie Latte
• Iced Caramel Apple Pie Latte
• Caramel Apple Pie Iced Coffee

The company in its statement called the drinks a “seasonal blend that mixes notes of apple and caramel flavoring with McDonald’s bold blend coffee, topped with salted caramel-flavored whipped cream and bits of apple pie crumble.”

McDonald’s responds to pumpkin spice backlash

In recent years, pumpkin spice has become ubiquitous, and Starbucks has received some pushback for bringing it back earlier and earlier every year. McDonald’s embraced the opportunity to do something different while tweaking its rivals.

“Step aside pumpkin spice, there’s a new flavor in town!” McDonald’s said on its menu spotter webpage.

And while there has been some social media backlash, one expert sees the move as a smart one for McDonald’s.

“Pumpkin spice will always be a classic people keep coming back to, but consumers are also craving interesting alternatives that deliver surprise and comfort,” Yelp’s VP of community expansion and trends, Tara Lewis, told Axios.

Caramel apple is not the only flavor making fall gains, according to Axios.

• Brown sugar overtook pecan as DoorDash’s breakout fall flavor of 2026, the delivery service tells Axios, with orders up 58% year over year.
• Maple latte searches on Yelp rose 65% in July from a year earlier, while searches for “salted maple latte” jumped 591%.
• Cardamom, peanut butter, and hazelnut are also among Google’s top-trending latte searches.

McDonald’s has not commented on whether it will bring the PSL back in future years.

Starbucks brought the PSL back on Aug. 25.

Related: Classic Chinese restaurant chain closing its final location

McDonald’s bets big on beverages

McDonald’s has been making moves designed to help it win business from Starbucks and other beverage-forward chains. That’s something CEO Christopher Kempczinski talked about during the chain’s first-quarter earnings call.

“And yesterday, all U.S. restaurants nationwide began offering 3 different refreshers and 3 crafted sodas as part of our new U.S. beverage platform under the McCafe brand. The soft launch results over the last week are encouraging, and we’re looking forward to introducing different flavors and Red Bull-infused energy drinks throughout the year,” he said.

Many of those drinks were taken from the chain’s short-lived CosMc’s spin-off concept.

He sees beverages as a global growth driver.

“There’s no better example than the beverage category. In Q1, Australia successfully executed the beverage test, building on learnings from last year’s U.S. pilot. We’re continuing to build real momentum in the category with both Germany and Canada launching new beverage platforms a few days ago,” he added.

ALSO READ: Why you can’t find McDonald’s $3 value menu

But the change in ownership has not saved every location.

One of its stores is now facing closure after the business behind the location was placed in liquidation proceedings, highlighting the difficult decisions the retailer faces as its new owner begins restructuring the company.

Founded in 1831, Harvey Nichols is a British luxury department store chain known for its upscale designer fashion, beauty products, fine wines, and gourmet food. Frasers Group acquired the retailer on Aug. 13, 2026, through a pre-pack administration, taking over six UK stores, the online business, existing inventory, and more than 1,000 employees. Its international franchise agreements were also included in the transaction.

Harvey Nichols is closing its Ireland store

Harvey Nichols’ only store in Ireland, located inside Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin, is expected to close Sept. 13, 2026, after efforts to find a way to continue operating the business failed.

The store employs 33 people, all of whom have been informed of the planned closure.

The High Court appointed Grant Thornton’s John Boland and Nicholas O’Dwyer as provisional joint liquidators of the Dublin business in August after the company was found to be insolvent and unable to pay its debts.

Grant Thornton later confirmed that the store was expected to cease trading on or around Sept. 13 after it was unable to reach an agreement with Dundrum Town Centre to continue operating.

“We recognise that this is difficult news for employees, customers and other stakeholders,” Grant Thornton said in a statement reported by The Irish Times.

The firm added that representatives would meet with employees and provide support during the wind-down process.

Harvey Nichols opened its Dublin store in September 2025. Its planned closure means the retailer will no longer have a physical store in Ireland.

Why Harvey Nichols is closing its Dublin store

The closure follows years of financial difficulties at the Dublin business and the failure to reach an agreement that would allow the store to continue trading at Dundrum Town Centre.

The Irish company has been unprofitable for several years and has not recovered from the difficult trading conditions that followed the pandemic. It was also no longer receiving financial support from its UK parent company, according to evidence presented to the High Court.

Harvey Nichols CEO Julia Goddard said in written evidence that the store’s annual rent was nearly €1.1 million ($1.3 million). The Dublin business had net liabilities of €19.4 million ($22.5 million) in 2021, rising to €28.2 million ($32.7 million) by the end of its 2026 financial year.

Goddard also said that no buyer had been found for the Dublin company. The board therefore determined that winding up the business was in its best interests and that the liquidators would be best positioned to oversee an orderly cessation of trading and secure the company’s assets.

Harvey Nichols’ financial struggles

The Dublin closure comes as Harvey Nichols undergoes a major change in ownership following years of financial losses.

Hong Kong luxury goods businessman Dickson Poon acquired Harvey Nichols in 1991 from Debenhams and the Burton Group for £53 million. After 35 years of ownership, Poon put the retailer up for sale in June 2026 as it struggled with mounting losses and a lack of profitability.

The retailer had not returned to profitability following the pandemic and warned that it could run out of money within a year without additional investment.

Harvey Nichols reported a £105 million ($142 million) loss after tax for the year ended March 29, 2025, after writing off intercompany loans, according to its annual report and financial statements.

Revenue fell from £204.8 million ($277 million) to £184.8 million ($250 million) in the year, while pre-tax losses widened from £34 million ($46 million) to £49 million ($66 million). The retailer’s accumulated pre-tax losses had reached more than £140 million ($189 million) over five years.

The financial pressure reflects several challenges facing the retailer and the wider luxury market, including weaker consumer demand, higher operating costs, online competition, and changes in international shopping patterns. The end of tax-free shopping for tourists in the UK has also weighed on luxury retailers that rely on international visitors.

After months of uncertainty, Frasers Group announced on Aug. 13 that it had acquired Harvey Nichols through a pre-pack administration process. The deal included six UK stores, the retailer’s online business, existing inventory, more than 1,000 employees, and its international franchise agreements.

However, the future of the Dublin business remained separate from the acquisition. Frasers Group said discussions regarding the store were ongoing at the time of the deal and that it continued to support the Dublin location’s trading operations while its future was considered.

Here’s some of my previous coverage of store closures:

• Major mall retailer closes more stores in 2026
• Sportswear giant closes 113 stores as shares plunge
• 172-year-old luxury giant exits entire market

The acquisition marked the beginning of a significant restructuring effort for Harvey Nichols. Frasers Group said it would review and potentially rationalize the retailer’s store portfolio, organizational structure, operating model, and cost base as it works to create a sustainable business.

The Dublin closure underscores that the turnaround will not necessarily mean preserving every part of Harvey Nichols’ existing physical footprint.

Related: Classic Chinese restaurant chain closing its final location

Meta did it in May, shedding roughly 8,000 workers in one of the largest rounds of job cuts the company has ever made, as TheStreet reported. Morgan Stanley cut nearly 2,500 roles in March. UBS has been working through thousands more layoffs.

Uber became the latest addition on Sept. 2. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi confirmed plans to cut approximately 10% of the company’s global workforce. That is roughly 3,300 of its 34,000 employees. Uber shares rose about 2% in premarket trading, CNBC reported.

What Uber’s 10% layoffs will actually do

Khosrowshahi sent an email to employees that was also published online. He was specific about what will change.

“The changes we’re making today are designed to do two things: make Uber simpler and faster, and create more capacity to invest in our future,” he wrote, according to CNBC.

Small teams are being cut the hardest. Teams with one or two direct reports will be cut by roughly 50%. Employees more than seven reporting layers away from the CEO are being reduced by 20%. The company is combining its engineering, science, and delivery divisions, TechCrunch reported.

Jobs will be concentrated in hubs. New York and San Francisco are the main ones. Only about 1% of employees will be allowed to work remotely. Everyone else is expected back in the office.

More Layoffs:

• Samsung cuts jobs as it shifts U.S. headquarters
• Another popular soda giant closes warehouse operation, cuts 184 jobs
• Meta layoffs take disturbing turn in new lawsuit

Khosrowshahi said Uber has outgrown the structures it built during its rapid expansion years. “We’ve built new products, expanded into new businesses, reached more consumers and supported more earners,” he wrote. “But that growth has also brought complexity: more layers, more coordination, more fragmented ownership.”

The delivery reorganization is specific. Restaurant, retail, and direct delivery units are being merged into teams organized at the global, regional, and country levels. That consolidation alone affects a significant portion of the operational staff.

These are the largest cuts Uber has made since May 2020, when it eliminated about 6,700 jobs during the Covid pandemic.

Why Uber isn’t blaming AI for the cuts

This is important. Tech company layoffs in 2026 have frequently been framed as AI-driven. Companies say the technology is replacing tasks that people used to do, and they are reducing headcount accordingly.

Khosrowshahi did not say any of that. He did not mention AI as a reason for the cuts at any point in his email. The explanation he gave is about management bloat. Uber grew fast. It added layers that made decisions slower and less clear. The cuts are meant to fix that.

That is a different story than what Meta told its employees when it cut 8,000 people. Meta was direct that AI investment was part of the reason for reducing headcount.

Uber is cutting for organizational reasons, not because a machine is doing someone’s job. Whether that distinction holds up as the company continues to invest in technology is a separate question.

What Uber’s return-to-office policy means

Allowing 1% of employees to work remotely is not a remote-work policy. It is the effective end of one. Most employees who were hired under flexible arrangements are now being asked to relocate, commute, or resign.

Uber is concentrating jobs in New York and San Francisco. For workers in other cities or countries, that means relocation or departure.

This is becoming a pattern at large tech companies. The argument from management is that office-based teams move faster and collaborate more effectively.

For Uber specifically, the timing matters. These employees are already absorbing the news of large-scale layoffs around them. Telling them they also need to relocate or return to an office adds a second decision on top of the first.

Employees have pushed back at every company that has made this call. In Uber’s case, some will leave, and some will comply. The cost of return-to-office mandates usually shows up months later in attrition numbers.

What the Uber layoffs mean for workers and investors

Uber did not break down the cuts by team or level. The company also did not specify severance terms or timing in the announcement. That information will matter enormously to the people affected.

For employees who keep their jobs, the message is that their responsibilities are about to grow. Fewer layers means fewer people between them and the decisions that must be made. Khosrowshahi said the goal is “clearer ownership, faster decisions, and more time spent building rather than coordinating.”

That sounds good in a memo. In practice, it means remaining teams will need to absorb what the cut teams were doing.

Investors reacted positively. The stock moved up. The market tends to read workforce reductions as evidence that a company is getting serious about costs.

Uber had about 34,000 employees at the end of 2025, according to its annual filing. It operates in more than 70 countries. A 10% reduction touches every region. The company did not detail which geographies or divisions take the deepest hit. That information will come as affected employees receive their notices.

Whether the cuts produce faster decisions without creating new problems is what Uber’s next few quarters will show.

Related: Mark Zuckerberg sends shocking message to Meta employees

The retailer has already closed dozens of locations this year, and its latest update shows that the pullback from physical stores is not slowing down. At the same time, one part of its business is gaining momentum and helping to shape a more digitally focused strategy.

Founded in 1924, The Foschini Group (TFG) is a South Africa-based multinational retail company with 39 fashion and lifestyle brands and more than 4,900 outlets across five continents. Its portfolio spans clothing, footwear, jewelry, beauty, technology, home goods, and other categories.

TFG confirms more store closures

TFG has confirmed plans to close 180 additional stores over the next three financial years as it works to improve the profitability and efficiency of its physical retail network.

The company expects about 80 stores to fall within its closure parameters during fiscal 2027, followed by approximately 100 additional locations over the following two financial years.

The announcement follows an earlier warning in June, when TFG said it planned to close at least 100 underperforming stores while reviewing approximately 300 other underperforming locations across its portfolio.

TFG has emphasized that the store closures are a last resort and that it first considers whether individual locations can be improved or used more effectively by another brand.

The latest update also shows that the rationalization is already underway. TFG said it closed 85 stores that were no longer economically viable during the 21 weeks ended Aug. 22, while opening 25 new locations during the same period.

The company ended fiscal 2026 with 4,914 stores, compared with 4,923 a year earlier. Across the full fiscal year, TFG opened 233 locations and closed 242, resulting in a net reduction of nine stores.

Management has linked the store strategy to both profitability and the growing importance of digital sales.

“We are closing underperforming and marginal stores and sharpening our brand portfolio,” TFG CEO Anthony Thunström said in the company’s latest earnings call.

TFG is also using parts of its physical network to support online orders, including converting selected store space into fulfillment hubs. The approach allows the retailer to use its existing footprint to support e-commerce while reducing its reliance on traditional store space.

Why TFG is closing stores

The latest store reductions come after a difficult financial year for the retailer.

According to TFG’s fiscal 2026 results, group revenue increased 7.2%, but profitability declined sharply. Operational EBIT fell 22.1%, while headline earnings per share dropped 33.5%.

Here’s some of my previous coverage of store closures:

• Major mall retailer closes more stores in 2026
• Global fashion retailer closing all stores, winding down operations
• Global fashion retail chain closing all stores after 33 years

The pressure was not simply a result of weaker sales. TFG’s trading expenses increased 10.7% during the year, outpacing revenue growth, while gross margin declined to 48.2%.

The company said trading conditions deteriorated during the second half of fiscal 2026 as slowing consumer demand and margin pressure affected its business across multiple regions.

That combination makes underperforming stores more difficult to justify. Physical locations carry significant fixed and operating costs, while a store that generates insufficient sales can weigh on margins even when the broader retail business is growing.

TFG’s current strategy is therefore less about abandoning physical retail altogether and more about concentrating resources on locations and brands that can generate stronger returns.

The company has also continued to manage inventory more closely, reduce costs, and reassess its brand portfolio as part of that broader effort.

TFG’s new retail strategy

While physical-store profitability remains under pressure, TFG’s online business has emerged as an important source of growth.

Group online sales increased 15.3% during the first 21 weeks of fiscal 2027 and accounted for 15.9% of total group sales, up from 13.8% during the comparable period a year earlier, according to TFG’s latest trading update.

That growth helps explain why TFG is willing to reduce parts of its physical footprint while continuing to invest in its digital and fulfillment capabilities.

The company’s latest results show that the strategy is not simply a broad retreat from stores. TFG continues to open new locations where it sees an opportunity, even as it closes stores that no longer meet its profitability requirements.

Management said it expects consumer conditions to remain challenging in the near term and plans to maintain a disciplined approach to credit, store space, and online penetration.

The strategy gives TFG a way to reduce costs associated with stores that are no longer economically viable while investing more in the digital channels that are driving faster growth.

For the retailer, the challenge now is determining which physical locations still justify investment and how much of its future growth can be supported by its increasingly important online business.

Related: 102-year-old fashion giant faces 400 store closures

Why we love this deal

You don’t need to be an avid DIYer to have extra tools around the house. In fact, it’s a good idea to have a kit or two stashed away for your basic household needs. From assembling furniture to basic home repairs, you’re likely going to need a tool set eventually. There are plenty of options to choose from, but one you should consider is a ratcheting screwdriver set. 

The Craftsman 26-Piece Ratcheting Screwdriver Multibit Set is a popular choice at Amazon. Right now, it’s on sale for only $16. With 34% off its regular price of $24, it’s a great deal for everything you get, from all the pieces to the carrying case.

Craftsman 26-Piece Ratcheting Screwdriver Multibit Set, $16 (was $24) at Amazon

Why do shoppers love it?

Ratcheting screwdrivers can be a game changer for DIY projects, big or small. Take assembling furniture, for example. A dresser with a lot of pieces will take a lot of time to put together. And with multiple screws involved, using a traditional screwdriver can cause fatigue and potential wrist pain from all the twisting and turning. A ratcheting screwdriver does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. With an internal mechanism, you can tighten or loosen screws by simply twisting the tool back and forth without having to lift it. This also allows you to work faster in tighter spaces.

This Craftsman set comes with 26 pieces that can get you through almost any basic household project. In addition to the ratcheting screwdriver, you get 18 assorted bits, one telescoping pick-up tool, and six ¼ nut drivers. It also comes with a convenient carrying case to keep everything together. Some shoppers said the screwdriver doesn’t fit into the case, but other reviewers noted that you have to release the extension while in the first position to remove it and make all the pieces fit inside. 

With an interchangeable design and so many bits to choose from, it’s a great pick for anyone who wants to cut down on the clutter with a space-saving kit and carrying case.

Related: Amazon has a heavy-duty 4-tier wire shelf that can hold up to 800 pounds on sale for only $29

Details to know

• Comes with: One ratcheting screwdriver, 18 assorted bits, one telescoping pick-up tool, six ¼ nut drivers, and one carrying case.
• Material: Chromium-vanadium steel.
• Warranty: Lifetime.

“I bought this Craftsman ratcheting screwdriver mainly for general home and kayak gear maintenance, and it’s honestly hard to beat for the price,” a shopper said. “The ratcheting mechanism is smooth and functional, making it easy to drive screws quickly without constantly repositioning your grip.” They added that the magnetic extender it comes with is also highly useful, especially for “reaching deeper or awkward spots where a standard bit wouldn’t work.”

Shop more deals

• Craftsman 2-Piece Pliers Set, $17 (was $23) at Amazon
• Craftsman 140-Piece Impact Driver Bit Set, $40 (was $50) at Amazon
• Sharden 13-in-1 Ratchet Screwdriver, $10 at Amazon

On sale for only $16, the Craftsman 26-Piece Ratcheting Screwdriver Multibit Set can be a household essential for working on DIY projects and basic home maintenance.

Sure, Costco Travel lived there, but the website was more about advertising ancillary services such as TurboTax access than about selling anything to members.

In recent years, however, Costco has offered a greatly expanded selection, and it allows members to use Instacart and Shipt to order select items directly from its warehouses.

It had also been building on that with its digital-only program, Costco Next, which lets members access items the warehouse club does not stock. It’s not a new service; it has technically been around since 2017. But Costco does not promote the offering, and it’s something I, and many other members, did not know about.

Now, that service has been shut down with no notice.

Related: History of Costco: Company timeline and facts

Costco closes Costco Next

Visitors to the Costco Next web page got a terse message from the company.

“Access to Costco Next store fronts is no longer available. Please refer to the list below for contact information for vendors with active return policies. For eligible returns and warranty inquiries, contact the vendor directly,” the company shared.

That was followed by a long list of company names with their contact information.

A third-party marketplace like the model pioneered by Amazon, Costco Next offered an expanded selection of items that never make it into a Costco warehouse. The program, however, differed from Amazon’s approach in important ways.

More Costco:

• Costco keeps discontinuing popular products
• Discontinued Costco member favorite returns to shelves
• Costco’s new service beats Amazon at its own game

Costco Next allowed the retailer to offer more merchandise, but have it shipped directly from partners. The warehouse club, however, is still careful with its merchandise, and its buyers worked with partner retailers.

Next provided a more carefully curated selection than Amazon does, because Costco remains focused on delivering value to members.

Costco recently celebrated Costco Next’s success

“Costco Next, our curated marketplace, also continues to show healthy year-over-year growth. In Q3 fiscal year 2025, our sales on Costco Next equaled our total sales for all of fiscal year 2022, and we are excited about the pipeline of new vendors and development for future rollout,” CFO Gary Millerchip said during the company’s third-quarter 2025 earnings call.

• Products are offered from hand‑selected suppliers chosen for the quality of their merchandise and strong customer service, expanding the variety beyond typical warehouse inventory.
• The platform helps Costco offer higher‑margin discretionary items (e.g., electronics, appliances, goods sold directly from vendors) while leveraging member pricing perks.
• The impetus for Costco Next is to strengthen e‑commerce and mobile growth by offering discounted deals from trusted brands that complement warehouse inventory.
  • Source: Costco website (now removed)

“Separate from what members will find in the warehouses or at Costco.com, Costco Next showcases products from some of Costco’s suppliers that have been selected for the quality of their merchandise and their exceptional customer service,” Costco General Merchandise Manager Cheryl Smeby said on Costco’s website.

“By shopping at Costco Next, you have access to a variety of products from these vendors, and you’ll get a discount that is available only to Costco members.”

A request made via the Costco media request form was not immediately answered by the company.

The Press Democrat also confirmed the sudden closure.

Related: Classic Chinese restaurant chain closing its final location

Gamers wanted the option of having a physical copy of the game, not just a digital one. The backlash became so loud that Rockstar was eventually forced to reveal that the disc version would be available in the “following months” after its November release, Vice reported.

The GTA incident is just the latest example of public pushback against the digitization of entertainment. Having your favorite movie or television show available through streaming has obvious benefits, including speed of access, saving space, and cheaper cost.

However, the downside is that you don’t actually own the entertainment. So if you stop using the streaming service, or if you lose internet access, then you no longer have access to your library.

With that in mind, younger generations are increasingly turning to analog entertainment options such as DVDs and Blu-rays for movies.

For music, vinyl records have maintained a certain popularity for decades, but now CDs are also making a comeback as music lovers turn to old-school options to expand their music collections.

CD sales grow faster than vinyl

Compact Discs reached the zenith of their popularity in the late 90s and early 2000s. However, as digital streaming services, including Napster, came into play, CDs were increasingly seen as outdated.

Once Apple released the iPod, it was all but over for the era of CDs. That is, until now, according to the latest Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) mid-year report.

Related: AMC Theatres CEO says one long-running entertainment debate is finally over

U.S. recorded music revenues for the first half of 2026 were up nearly 7% year over year, according to the RIAA. While streaming is still the unquestioned king of most of that revenue, accounting for 82% of total revenue at $4.9 billion, CDs are the fastest-growing portion of music sales.

Consumers purchased 17.5 million CDs in the first half of the year, a 46% year-over-year increase, spending $171.1 million, a 59% increase. Meanwhile, music lovers purchased nearly 27 million vinyl records, a 21% increase, spending $534.8 million, a nearly 18% increase.

The shift toward CDs has been happening since at least early 2022, when Billboard reported that 2021 CD sales represented a year-over-year improvement for the first time since 2004.

What’s fueling CD sales growth?

A separate mid-year report from entertainment industry data and analytics company Luminate dives deeper into the numbers to find out what’s driving CD growth.

K-pop sales growth had a lot to do with the 16% surge in CD sales to 16.3 million units that Luminate recorded. While the growth was “fueled by collectible K-pop releases,” even if you strip out K-pop’s numbers, U.S. CD sales still grew nearly 7% in the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, vinyl sales only grew 2.4% in that time period.

“Halfway through 2026, our data shows the entertainment market growing in several directions at once, as audience behavior across music, television & film defies easy assumptions,” said Luminate CEO Rob Jonas.

“Streaming is expanding, CDs are surging, younger audiences are returning to theaters, and library and broadcast titles are commanding enormous audiences alongside the newest streaming originals.”

Gen Z is helping fuel the CD surge due to what experts are calling “performative audiophilia.”

Digital Music News defines performative audiophile as “the idea that handing a physical format has become a deliberate, visible alternative to algorithm-driven listening. As a result, there’s been a surge in CD players and headphone sales designed to be accessorized by Gen Z in the same way that Sony Walkman and Discman players were loved in the 80s and 90s.”

Related: As GTA VI pre-orders break records, investors still need one answer

The company reported that during its most recent quarter, it took in $1.37 billion in membership fee income. Costco also boasted a 92.2% membership renewal rate across its U.S. and Canadian markets. 

On top of offering amazingly low prices on bulk grocery items and household staples, Costco is constantly finding ways to add valuable new services. You can get new tires at Costco, schedule HVAC installation, and plan your next vacation. 

Costco has also invested heavily in its Kirkland Signature brand as a means of member retention. 

Shoppers have come to rely on Kirkland for quality products at a lower price point than national brands.

Costco sometimes faces hard choices

Costco members don’t tend to have too many complaints. But some feel that the store’s operating hours aren’t as generous as they could be.

Granted, Costco recently added an extra shopping hour on Saturdays for all members. 

The company also brought back early shopping hours for Executive members, who pay twice as much as regular members for warehouse access. 

Still, weekend hours at Costco tend to be limited. And Costco also sometimes needs to make the tough choice to close its doors on certain holidays for the sake of its employees.

Costco won’t open on Labor Day

Costco doesn’t close that often. And there are certain holidays where the company remains open so that members can access the products they need.

But Costco will not be open this year for Labor Day, which falls on Monday, Sept. 7. 

The logic is that Costco feels its employees deserve certain holidays off to be with family and get a break. 

The good news for members is that Costco only closes seven times a year. The other closure dates are:

• New Year’s Day
• Easter
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day
  • Source: Costco

Also read: Costco’s normal hours, extended hours, & holidays explained

Of course, not every major retailer and grocer is closed on Labor Day. Costco knows this, but it’s still willing to give up revenue seven days a year. 

The reality is that Costco is in a strong place financially. So the company can afford to see shoppers go elsewhere once in a while. 

As CEO Ron Vachris said during Costco’s most recent earnings call, “All three four-week fiscal periods of the quarter set successive all-time company volume sales records, with the final five weeks of the quarter becoming our top five volume weeks ever.”

More Retail:

• Costco sees major shift in member behavior
• Retail chain shuts all locations as legal changes hit industry
• Costco makes major investment in online shopping for members

In other words, Costco isn’t a company that’s hurting for business. And closing up shop for major holidays to throw employees a bone is a strategic decision that generally works out well in the long run.

If employees at Costco are happy, they’re less likely to leave. Less turnover equals a better shopping experience for members, making those annual fees more worthwhile and making renewals more likely. 

Maurie Backman owns shares of Costco.

Related: Costco shuts down member service with no notice