Rates stuck in a holding pattern, inflation still above target and the Fed hinting it may not be done yet. That mix keeps pressure on growth stories and puts steady cash payers back in the spotlight. Investors hunting for resilience and reliable income are watching this closely, because moments like this can reshape portfolios for years. This article walks through 3 dividend stocks exposed to this macro story.
The stocks covered next are just a sample to illustrate the idea. The full screen surfaced 18 more large-cap defensive dividend companies with income profiles and risk characteristics that also fit this tighter brief. If you want to identify and ******* yze your own shortlist of higher-conviction defensive payers right now, head straight into the Large-Cap Defensive Dividend Stocks (US) screener.
Overview: Consolidated Edison is a regulated utility that delivers electric, gas and steam services to customers across New York and parts of New Jersey.
Operations: Consolidated Edison generates almost all of its roughly US$17.7b revenue from US$12.1b CECONY electric, US$3.4b CECONY gas and US$872 million steam operations in the United States.

#edison #income

Kimberly Guilfoyle has lost her ambassador job, but her name still carries a six-figure price tag on the speaking circuit. The former Fox News personality is listed for appearances costing between $50,000 and $100,000 after she left as U.S. ambassador to Greece amid allegations of financial misconduct, which she denies. Whether anyone is paying those rates is another question. The listing offers a glimpse of her potential earning power, but it doesn't show that she's booked a single six-figure engagement.
Papadakis Press/MEGA
According to her Speaker Booking Agency profile, Guilfoyle is available for speaking engagements, corporate appearances, virtual events, moderated discussions, and meet-and-greets. The page displays a speaking-fee range of $50,000 to $100,000 and lists West Palm Beach, Florida, as her departure point.
That puts the advertised upper limit for one appearance at the same dollar figure as the American Express payment at the center of the controversy surrounding her diplomatic career. The two amounts concern separate matters. One is a public booking estimate, while the other involves disputed allegations about a donor's financial dealings with her.
Papadakis Press/MEGA

#papadakis

Colom would be Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.
Why are major Democrats and Republicans flocking to Mississippi in recent weeks?
In a climate where polls show President Donald Trump's approval ratings cratering, Democrats are unusually optimistic about Scott Colom's chances of flipping the Senate seat held by incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith -- even in deep-red Mississippi.
"We got to have a senator that looks out for Mississippi, that puts Mississippi farmers first, Mississippi small businesses first, represent our values by not allowing corruption to ruin our country and actually delivers on the commitments to put America first," Colom told ABC News in an interview earlier this week.
The incumbent's campaign dismisses the Democratic push as the last-ditch effort of a campaign that will fall short.

#first #black #reconstruction

Adriana La Cerva in The Sopranos. Ginger McKenna in Casino. Sofía Vergara's Griselda Blanco. For decades, the mob wife has been the archetypal anti-heroine – all fur, animal print and knee-high boots. Now Catherine Zeta-Jones has joined the ranks.
Shedding the gothic lace and American drawl of Morticia Addams in Netflix's Wednesday, Swansea-born Zeta-Jones is using her real Welsh accent on screen for the first time in Prime Video's revenge thriller Kill Jackie. She plays Jackie Price, an ex-cocaine dealer whose quiet life unravels when one routine decision ends with an elite squad of ******* assins hired to kill her.
Unsurprisingly, the series is already drawing comparisons with the BBC's Killing Eve. The series shares a director (Damon Thomas), a dark, twisted humour and puts a fierce, quirky woman at its centre. But the strongest link may be the wardrobe.
Just as Villanelle's Molly Goddard tulle dress became a character in its own right, Jackie's wardrobe – built on an enticing mix of British designers, vintage and second-hand – is every bit as scene-stealing, and serves as inspiration for how we'll want to dress this autumn.
Jodie Comer as Villanelle wearing the memorable Molly Goddard tulle dress - Robert Viglasky/BBC

#goddard #kill #series

Realty Income (O) sits near its 52-week low of $53, but UBS ***** yst Brent Dilts sees 39% upside to his $74 Buy target.
Net-lease peers NNN REIT and Agree Realty also fell double digits as the 10-year Treasury yield surged toward 5.3%, its one-year high.
A 6% forward yield and 674 consecutive monthly dividends offer income stability, but a recovery toward $74 depends entirely on rates turning.
Just released. Our ***** ysts combed the entire stock market and named the ten best stocks to buy right now, and Realty Income made the cut. Enter your email to see the other nine names and why O earned its spot. The report is free. Enter your email and see the full list.
Realty Income (NYSE:O) trades at $53.35. Wall Street's average price target is $66.39, which puts the stock about 24.4% below where ***** ysts think it belongs.

#income #yield #toward

AGNC Investment has seen a mix of setbacks and gains in recent years, which raises a straightforward question for anyone looking at the stock today: Is the current share price meaningfully supported by the returns the business earns on its capital base?
Over the past 3 years, AGNC Investment has delivered a total return of about 48.1%, which puts real weight on whether those past gains are grounded in sustainable returns on the equity it deploys.
The mortgage REIT model relies on how efficiently AGNC Investment can fund and reinvest its portfolio. The valuation story therefore hinges on whether that capital structure can keep generating attractive excess returns after funding costs and hedging.
What if you looked at AGNC Investment through its earnings instead? See what AGNC Investment's 4.9x P/E says about the price.
For investors, the debate is whether AGNC Investment's current price fairly reflects the level and quality of the returns it earns on its capital.

#investment #returns #whether #earns

SPY trades up 14% year-to-date near $778, yet Burry calls the market in denial, which he views as the first stage before a 2000 or 2008-style collapse.
Burry's last known positions were puts on NVDA and PLTR, disclosed in November 2025, before he shut down Scion and stopped filing with the SEC.
Burry's denial stage has already started, and given his nine-month ceiling, the next phase could arrive within 270 days, possibly much sooner.
Building a portfolio and living off one are two completely different skills, and almost ******* ody teaches the second. This problem is what The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income helps, and it is free today. Read more here. (Sponsor)
Michael Burry posted a two-sentence market call on X early Tuesday, and unlike most market warnings that lack a timeline, this one gives a duration.

#stage #november

Palantir surged 60% in Q3 after reporting 93% revenue growth, but trades at 100x forward earnings versus Microsoft's 25x.
Michael Burry holds puts through 2027 while UBS and DA Davidson set $250 targets, signaling a sharply divided Wall Street on Palantir.
Palantir's November earnings must hit $2.16 billion guidance, which is a bar the current share price already ****** umes it clears.
Building a portfolio and living off one are two completely different skills, and almost ****** ody teaches the second. This problem is what The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income helps, and it is free today. Read more here. (Sponsor)
Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) rose 60.3% in the third quarter. That was its best three-month run since the second quarter of 2025. Even so, Palantir is up just 6.55% this year, because it lost most of that ground in the first half.

#burry #davidson

Khloe Kardashian is sending her mom some love on Instagram, as the reality star shared a new photo carousel with Kris Jenner, and the sweet post has fans talking. Khloe captioned it with a playful question about how cute her mommy is. She also took a moment to brag about her own fitness progress. Fans in the comments were happy to agree.
Khloe Kardashian's Instagram carousel puts mom Kris Jenner front and center. In a sweet post, Khloe shared photos of herself with Kris. She wrote, "How cute is my mommy?" and added a blue heart emoji. The first photo shows the mother-daughter pair posing in front of a wooden door with a dark beam above it.
Khloe also added a postscript about her arm. "I just cannot believe that's my arm! Years in the making, but I am so proud of that muscle definition. Never did I ever think I could get that," she wrote. She ended by noting that the song on the post is for her mom.
Fans filled the comments to praise the pair. At the time of writing, the post had 813 comments and 319 reposts. Fabletics, the brand Khloe partners with, wrote, "You guys are the cutest."
Khloe wore a white top with blue trim, a blue belt, shiny electric-blue pants, and matching pointed-toe boots with a high heel. Her long hair was down. Kris, with her dark bangs, wore a gray zip-up jacket with matching pants and dark sneakers, her hands in her pockets. Khloe leaned toward her mom for the shot.

#Instagram

Dana White has a lot of haters, but it was surprising to find out that his mother was one of them.
June White shocked the MMA world back in 2011 when she released an unauthorized biography on her son ****** led 'Dana White: King of MMA.' The 152 page book was full of all sorts of accusations: that White and his wife got into physical conflicts regularly, that he 'puts Tiger Woods to shame' regarding infidelity, and that he'd slept with his sister-in-law.
All unproven claims, and all a part of what White now says was part of a scheme to get money out of him to buy a bar. In a new interview with The Diary of a CEO, White addressed his mother's book in-depth for the first time.
"I was on a trip one time, I didn't have emails or any of that s–t on the road," White said. "We were in London for like two weeks and when I got back I checked my emails and I had like a bunch of emails from her threatening me: 'You have two options: you can give me this all upfront, or you can pay me in payments over the next f–king whatever. I'm looking to buy a bar or whatever it was.'"
"And then she wasn't getting responses because I was in London, and then the emails started getting nastier and nastier and nastier," White continued. "And I f–king just blew up. That was the beginning of the end with me and her."

#emails #king #back

Apple Martin has officially gone from fashion campaign star to runway model. The 22-year-old daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin made her runway debut on Thursday, Oct. 1, stepping onto the catwalk for Chloé's Spring/Summer 2027 show during Paris Fashion Week.
For the milestone moment, Martin wore an airy white maxi dress that leaned fully into the romantic, free-spirited aesthetic **** ociated with Chloé under creative director Chemena Kamali.
PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 24: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY - For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) Apple Martin attends the Chanel Haute Couture Spring Summer 2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 24, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) (@ Getty Images)
And while Martin has spent the past few years steadily building a fashion résumé, walking a Paris Fashion Week runway puts her in an entirely new category.
Martin made her first-ever runway appearance at Chloé's Spring/Summer 2027 ready-to-wear show in Paris, where she joined an established cast that included models Mona Tougaard, Edie Campbell, Mariacarla Boscono and Eva Herzigová. Cynthia Erivo and Claire Danes were among the famous faces watching from the front row.

#Paris #show #Apple

What do you get when you combine a hilarious actor, a popular social media influencer, and some furry best friends with a well-known brand? A hilarious series of videos that puts a playful spin on an everyday reality of being a cat parent that's sure to make you laugh.
Actor ***** ail Nanjiani and viral content creator Jordan Howlett teamed up for the purrfect collab that will have you running to your nearest pet store to stock up on Tidy Cats litter.
Kumail Nanjiani had some time earlier this week to sit down with The Blast to talk exclusively about the new partnership and collaboration, his upcoming roles, and what he loves about being a cat dad.
Tidy Cats
Kumail and Jordan recently joined forces to help put a stop to a crime every cat parent is well aware of – bad litter. The cat litter brand from Purina just launched the Special Litter Unit, a three-part crime series starring ***** ail and Jordan. Fans can follow the case online and New York City cat lovers can join the investigation in person on Friday, Oct. 2 for a one-day pop-up experience that features some loveable adoptable feline agents.

#actor

MACOM Technology Solutions is suddenly giving investors two numbers to think about: its stock has more than doubled over the past year, and its newest optical components push data rates toward another doubling.
asharkyu/Shutterstock.com
MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTSI) announced a 3.2-terabit optical chipset on September 17 built around eight 448-Gbps PAM-4 channels. A day later, BMO Capital upgraded the shares to Outperform with a $335 target, arguing that a 36% decline from the May peak had compressed MACOM's forward valuation to roughly 29 times earnings while data-center fundamentals remained intact.
That puts Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) directly in the conversation because both companies supply the optical connectivity needed to keep larger AI clusters fed with data.
MACOM's new platform combines drivers, photodiodes and transimpedance amplifiers for next-generation optical modules. The company says the components are already available, rather than merely a research roadmap.

#data #macom #holdings #NASDAQ

On September 17, Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) announced an upgraded Pluggable Optical Line System that covers the full C-band and fits in a compact QSFP module, the same slot ordinary transceivers use. That is a lot of networking gear shrunk into a plug, and it follows a quarter of 34% revenue growth. Here is what the launch means, and where the stock's story gets harder to read.
Start with what the product does. The upgraded system can pack 32 wavelengths onto a single pair of fibers, which Coherent says adds up to as much as 25.6Tbps of traffic on links running 2km to 200km. It is designed for the latest 800G coherent optics, and it configures itself, handling link setup and laser safety without a technician tuning each connection. Coherent also says the system is generally available and already shipping in high volume, in 400G and 800G versions that work with existing network setups. Madhu Krishnaswamy, who runs the company's telecom transport unit, describes the goal as easing the usual trade-off between raw performance and operational simplicity.
The launch also sits on top of a business that is already moving. On August 12, Coherent reported results for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended June 30: revenue of $2.05 billion, up 34% from a year earlier. Non-GAAP earnings per share rose to $1.74 from $1.00, and CEO Jim Anderson noted that for the full year, that measure grew more than twice as fast as revenue. Management guided to revenue of $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, and Anderson says AI data centers are increasingly moving from copper to optical links.
Now look at the two versions of profit. Coherent's non-GAAP earnings came to $1.74 per share, but under GAAP the figure was $1.19. The gap comes from items management leaves out, including stock-based pay, amortization on acquired intangibles, and restructuring and integration costs. Operating margin shows it more clearly, at 21.8% on a non-GAAP basis and 12.4% under GAAP. Some of those costs are non-cash, but they are real, and anyone anchoring on the higher figure is skipping them.
Then there is how much weight this launch can carry. The announcement puts no sales figure on the product, so its contribution to a company that booked $2.05 billion in a quarter cannot be sized from what has been published. The bullish story also rests on management's own read of where AI networks are headed, and on a capacity build-out that CFO Sherri Luther says gets priority in spending. Money spent on capacity only pays off if the demand management describes keeps arriving.

#gaap #revenue #launch #anderson

When Christmas rolls around, my wife puts out a very small tree and some stuffed ornaments we bought a few years ago at Target. That's a pretty modest approach to decorating for the holidays compared to many of our neighbors.
At the house we just moved out of, some homes added tasteful lights, others opted for religious displays, and a few opted for a whole lot of inflatables. In some cases, the spending was significant, although many of the items were reused year after year.
Decorations are a small but meaningful part of holiday spending.
Americans planned to spend an average of $1,172 on travel, $632 on gifts, $351 on entertaining, and $227 on decorations, according to a BMO survey conducted before the 2024 holiday season.
Getting those items may be more of a challenge this year, as Gordon Companies, which runs a number of Christmas-themed websites and lists Target, Kohl's, Home Depot, Walmart, Amazon, Lowe's, and Michaels as retail partners, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

#christmas #decorations #opted #items

Definium Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:DFTX) has now delivered a third consecutive positive Phase 3 readout for its LSD-based medication, the second in generalized anxiety disorder. The result puts the company on a viable route toward a potential FDA approval of an LSD-based treatment for generalized anxiety disorder, and considering how closely psychedelic stocks have historically traded on each other's data, the reading carries far more weight than Definium's own ticker.
On September 14, Definium Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:DFTX) announced that its drug DT120, an orally disintegrating tablet formulation of LSD, was successful in Panorama, the company's second late-stage anxiety trial. Over 12 weeks, patients who received a 100-microgram dose experienced a 9.8-point decline on the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, a typical clinical measure, compared to a 4.7-point drop with placebo.
The resulting 5.1-point placebo-adjusted improvement is similar to what the company's first pivotal anxiety trial, Voyage, showed back in August: an 11.6-point improvement versus 6.2 for placebo, a 5.4-point separation that Jefferies called one of the strongest placebo-adjusted efficacy results ever seen in generalized anxiety disorder, and that Stifel simply described as "a clean win."
Psychedelic equities have a history of trading as a group rather than as individual names, and this tendency applies both ways. In February 2026, when Compass Pathways, the sector's other clinical leader developing a psilocybin-based drug for treatment-resistant depression, reported positive late-stage data, shares of Definium Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:DFTX), Atai Beckley, GH Research, and Helus Pharma all rose, some by double digits.
That correlation is significant here because Definium's win is an independent validation of the broader therapeutic argument on which Compass and others are betting: a single dose of a classic psychedelic, administered in a controlled clinical setting, can produce lasting improvements in serious mental health conditions via pathways different from existing SSRIs and other standard-of-care drugs.

#definium #placebo

On September 15, Digital Realty (NYSE:DLR) made ServiceFabric MCP available, a software layer that lets AI agents design, monitor and troubleshoot network connections across more than 800 data centers, including third-party sites. That nudges a real estate company toward becoming a control panel for enterprise AI. It arrives after second quarter results reported on July 23, when Core FFO per share, the company's preferred earnings yardstick, excluding net promote rose to $2.13 from $1.87 a year earlier. Here is what the launch does, and what it has yet to prove.
The pitch is that enterprise AI needs more than servers. It needs power, cooling, and sovereign placement that software can control. ServiceFabric MCP handles four jobs: designing and provisioning connections, spotting capacity and watching live network health, managing access through OAuth 2, and handing troubleshooting to agents with links into chat and monitoring tools. It is also open by design. Customers do not have to live only in Digital Realty buildings or commit to a single AI model. An IDC research VP argues that public cloud interfaces alone cannot give enterprises enough control over data movement and policy, which favors providers that pair global reach with programmable interconnection. Digital Realty runs the system on its own AI workloads, and See All AI, a medical imaging developer, leans on the Boston campus and ServiceFabric to move large datasets quickly and securely.
The financial engine underneath is running hot. Renewal leases in the second quarter were signed at rates 25.4% higher on a cash basis, which shows customers will pay more to stay put. Signed leases waiting to start added up to a $1.9 billion backlog of annualized base rent at 100% share, so future revenue is already lined up. Management responded by lifting its 2026 Core FFO per share outlook, excluding net promote, to $8.15 to $8.20.
Start with what the launch has not shown yet. Digital Realty itself calls MCP an emerging standard, and ServiceFabric MCP is still being validated across internal, enterprise, and partner deployments. The announcement puts no dollar figure on what it could add to revenue, and the company describes it only as the first programmable surface of a larger architecture that may later stretch into ***** e, power and inventory. Until customers pay for this layer, it is a promising idea more than a line item.
Then there is the bill for the physical side. Digital Realty carried about $18.6 billion of debt at June 30, 2026, and its 2026 development spending outlook, net of partner contributions, now sits at $4.25 billion to $4.75 billion. The outlook also ***** umes new long-term debt priced at 4.5% to 5.5%, up from the earlier 4.0% to 4.5%. To help pay for growth, the company has sold roughly 13.5 million shares this year for about $2.5 billion, which spreads future earnings across more owners. And the quarter's headline flattered a bit: Core FFO per share of $2.65 included a $18

Six-Month Run: NVDA stock has climbed 20.6% since mid-March, a 45.4% annualized pace, even as the S&P 500 wobbled under the Fed's rate hike and a 10-year Treasury yield near 5%.
Model Verdict: TIKR's model puts fair value at $643, implying 193% total return by early 2031.
Coverage Split: Nvidia stock carries 48 buy ratings, 10 outperforms, 2 holds, 2 no opinions and 1 sell, with a mean target of $328, 50% above the current price.
Supply Squeeze: Nvidia guided to roughly 70% revenue growth for fiscal 2028 on demand it calls supply-constrained, with cloud industry backlog above $2 trillion.
Nvidia (NVDA) stock has climbed 20.6% since mid-March, a 45.4% annualized pace, while the Federal Reserve's first rate hike in more than three years pushed the 10-year Treasury yield toward 5% and dragged the S&P 500 into back-to-back weekly declines. Most of the market treated the hike as a reason to sell. Nvidia stock kept climbing anyway.

#march #model #supply #since

The days of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) being a laggard in cutting-edge technology may be over.
The social media giant's new personal AI agent, Muse, reached nearly 600,000 downloads in just its first five days after launching, according to data from SensorTower.
Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »
That puts Muse on a similar trajectory to ChatGPT, the breakthrough app that ignited the AI boom, and Muse could be a major disruptor as well.
Image source: The Motley Fool.

#signal #meta #flashing #NASDAQ

Joby Aviation (JOBY) remains firmly in the spotlight on Sept. 18 after the eVTOL specialist announced a major technological milestone. In its press release, the company said a modified Cessna Caravan equipped with its autonomy suite completed a 3,199-mile flight across the U.S. without control inputs from an onboard safety pilot.
Note that JOBY shares have been in a sharp downtrend in 2026, currently trading at less than half their price at the start of this year.
Bank of America Just Declared a 'Generational Entry Point' in U.S. Bonds. Why Investors Should Be Backing Up the Truck on Treasuries Here.
Mark Cuban Says He Was Dizzy for Months, So He Built a VR Fix That Does at Home 'Much Of What A 180k Machine' Does
JPMorgan Gives Up Forecasting Iran War Endgame as Trump Tells Reporters 'Anything Could Happen With Me'

#joby #America #declared #generational

Bitcoin's most violent rally of its two-year drawdown wasn't powered by fresh bullish bets. It was powered by bears getting crushed, according to a new report from ******* ytics firm Glassnode and crypto exchange Bybit.
Over five days in August, Bitcoin climbed 24.6% even as coin-denominated open interest, a measure of active leverage, fell 12.6%, the report found. That combination is the tell: rather than traders piling into new long positions, the move ran on the forced unwinding of existing shorts.
Roughly 64,000 BTC worth of open interest was closed out, and short positions supplied 89% of every liquidated dollar during the stretch.
The options market told the same story. Puts, the contracts traders buy to protect against a fall, had priced richer than calls for 361 straight days. A single session ended that run, flipping roughly a year of downside positioning as the market scrambled to reprice.
Bybit's own volatility index traveled four times its normal daily range in one session, and the front of the futures curve repriced sharply while longer-dated contracts barely moved, a sign the market read the move as a one-off event rather than a lasting regime change.

#interest

On September 15, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) announced that it had bought McMillan Insurance & Bonding Inc., an Englewood, Colorado, firm that operates as Innovise Business Consultants. Gallagher did not say what it paid. On its own, the deal is a footnote. But it is one of many, and the way those deals show up in earnings is where the debate over this stock really lives.
On July 30, Gallagher reported results for the quarter ended June 30, and the top line was hard to argue with. Revenue from its combined Brokerage and Risk Management businesses grew 24%, and organic growth, which leaves out acquisitions, was 6%. That second number shows clients are staying and spending. It was not confined to one corner, either, since organic fees in the risk management arm rose 12%. Management adds that retention is strong and customers want broader help from the platform. Adjusted earnings per share climbed to $2.84 from $2.30, which means growth is reaching profit once one-time acquisition costs are set aside.
Innovise fits the pattern. It sells surety bonds and commercial insurance brokerage with a focus on manufacturing, energy, construction and real estate, and Chairman and CEO J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr. said that niche expertise adds depth in Colorado. Jason McMillan's team will move into Gallagher's Denver office and work under Bret VanderVoort, who oversees retail property/casualty brokerage for the Western Zone. Buying specialists and folding them into existing offices is a repeatable playbook, and Gallagher closed 14 brokerage acquisitions in the first six months of 2026.
Now look at reported earnings, because that is where you see the cost. Diluted earnings per share fell to $1.25, from $1.40 in the second quarter of 2025, even though revenue jumped. Much of the gap between reported and adjusted results is the price of buying growth. Amortization of acquired intangibles alone weighs on brokerage net earnings by $218 million, up from $130 million a year ago, and integration costs rose as well. Adjusted figures set those aside, but they are real expenses, and they keep landing as long as Gallagher keeps buying.
Margins tell a similar story. The brokerage segment's adjusted EBITDAC margin, a stand-in for operating profit, slipped to 33.3% from 36.1%. Gallagher points to last year's interest income on cash raised for the ***** uredPartners deal, which closed in the third quarter of 2025, plus seasonality and newly added tuck-ins. That is a fair explanation. But the debt behind the deal is still here, including $9.55 billion of public debt, plus more in private placements and on a credit line. And the deal flow is thinner: brokerage acquisitions closed in the first six months of 2026 carried $107 million of annualized revenue, versus $354 million a year earlier, which puts more weight on organic growth.

#Growth

On September 17, Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) announced an upgraded Pluggable Optical Line System that covers the full C-band and fits in a compact QSFP module, the same slot ordinary transceivers use. That is a lot of networking gear shrunk into a plug, and it follows a quarter of 34% revenue growth. Here is what the launch means, and where the stock's story gets harder to read.
Start with what the product does. The upgraded system can pack 32 wavelengths onto a single pair of fibers, which Coherent says adds up to as much as 25.6Tbps of traffic on links running 2km to 200km. It is designed for the latest 800G coherent optics, and it configures itself, handling link setup and laser safety without a technician tuning each connection. Coherent also says the system is generally available and already shipping in high volume, in 400G and 800G versions that work with existing network setups. Madhu Krishnaswamy, who runs the company's telecom transport unit, describes the goal as easing the usual trade-off between raw performance and operational simplicity.
The launch also sits on top of a business that is already moving. On August 12, Coherent reported results for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended June 30: revenue of $2.05 billion, up 34% from a year earlier. Non-GAAP earnings per share rose to $1.74 from $1.00, and CEO Jim Anderson noted that for the full year, that measure grew more than twice as fast as revenue. Management guided to revenue of $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, and Anderson says AI data centers are increasingly moving from copper to optical links.
Now look at the two versions of profit. Coherent's non-GAAP earnings came to $1.74 per share, but under GAAP the figure was $1.19. The gap comes from items management leaves out, including stock-based pay, amortization on acquired intangibles, and restructuring and integration costs. Operating margin shows it more clearly, at 21.8% on a non-GAAP basis and 12.4% under GAAP. Some of those costs are non-cash, but they are real, and anyone anchoring on the higher figure is skipping them.
Then there is how much weight this launch can carry. The announcement puts no sales figure on the product, so its contribution to a company that booked $2.05 billion in a quarter cannot be sized from what has been published. The bullish story also rests on management's own read of where AI networks are headed, and on a capacity build-out that CFO Sherri Luther says gets priority in spending. Money spent on capacity only pays off if the demand management describes keeps arriving.

#quarter #launch #anderson

The CLARITY Act's 49-50 Senate failure sent XRP down 8% and invalidated every major **** yst price target built on the bill passing.
ChatGPT's 90-day forecast puts XRP's central estimate at $1.20, down from $1.30, and identifies the $1.20 to $1.23 range as the key near-term battleground.
Weekly XRP ETF inflows fell from $110 million to $19 million, while a second Fed rate hike in October threatens further downside pressure.
Read More: Learn 7 secret wealth tips high net worth investors use that most investors miss (sponsor)
XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) holders spent this year anticipating the Digital **** et Market Clarity Act, a bill intended to write XRP's commodity status into federal law rather than leaving it subject to regulatory changes. The bill reached the Senate floor with 126 Democratic amendments included but failed on a procedural vote on September 15, 2026, with cloture ending 49 to 50.

#clarity #october #Crypto

Corn futures saw some late session strength as contracts closed with losses of 1 ½ to 2 ¼ cents across the board on Wednesday. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was down 1 1/2 cents at $4.89.
The weekly EIA report showed ethanol production at 1.099 million barrels per day in the week of 9/4, steady with the week prior. That is still 4.17% above the same week last year. Stocks saw a 33,000 barrel increase to 25.22 million barrels, which is 11.58% above the same week last year. Refiner inputs of ethanol were up 3,000 barrels per day to 911,000 barrels per day, with exports up 14,000 barrels per day to 161,000 bpd.
Coffee Prices Pressured by Improved Global Supply Outlook
Cocoa Prices Consolidate Below 11.5-Month Highs
Signs of Improving Global Supplies Weigh on Coffee Prices

#coffee #cents #ethanol #million

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) trades near $172.56, and the options market has already drawn the year ahead in dollars. The one-year band runs from $96.77 at the floor to $307.69 at the ceiling. That is not a forecast. It is the size of the uncertainty you are holding, and it raises a question about position size rather than direction.
What You Are Actually Risking On A Palantir Position
That range is where the options market puts roughly a two-in-three chance over the twelve months ahead. On a $10,000 holding, that is about $4,400 at risk down to the floor. Up to the ceiling there is about $7,800 of room. The two sides are not the same size because a stock cannot fall below zero but can rise without limit.
Outside that band sit two tails: roughly a one-in-six chance the stock finishes above the ceiling, and the same chance it finishes below the floor. So $96.77 is the edge of the ordinary, not the bottom of it.
Palantir Has Been Moving More Than Its Options Imply

#options #position

Amazon Business is now a $60B operation serving 11 million customers worldwide. In this FreightWaves Today interview, Amazon Business exec Daniel Silverfield breaks down what that scale means for procurement, supplier consolidation, same-day grocery delivery and AI-driven savings.The big takeaway: business buyers want fewer suppliers, better visibility and less waste in purchasing. Silverfield explains how Amazon Business is pitching exactly that to everyone from small companies to Fortune 100s.
Amazon Business has hit $60 billion in annualized gross sales and now serves 11 million customers worldwide, with 1.8 million organizations added this year alone — a growth rate that puts it on par with a Fortune 100 company if it were standalone. The platform, which launched roughly a decade ago after Amazon noticed businesses already shopping on amazon.com, is increasingly central to how companies across sectors manage procurement, from office supplies to same-day groceries.
The scale matters to shippers, carriers, and brokers because Amazon Business is driving a fundamental shift in B2B purchasing behavior — consolidating supplier pools, centralizing data, and moving procurement from quarterly reporting cycles to an always-on, AI-powered model. Every order that migrates to the platform is one fewer touchpoint for traditional distributors and one more shipment flowing through Amazon's own logistics network.
Daniel Silverfield, head of value and selection for Amazon Business, said the platform saved customers $880 million on Prime free shipping last year and $1 billion through business-specific discounts. The company added 30% new items year over year and recently launched same-day grocery delivery across 2,300 U.S. cities in the first half of this year, a capability customers had been requesting for some time.
"The big shift that we're seeing is that people are moving to a continuous, always-on, conversational-powered procurement journey where agents may be looking for the best price while they're asleep, maybe negotiating on their behalf while they're asleep, and then surfacing to them the best product to buy," said Silverfield.

#customers

XLE's put/call ratio hit 2.57, with the most crowded trade being a one-month put that only pays off if energy stocks drop 12%.
USO has surged 126% YTD, but $6 diesel and freight earnings warnings of 5 to 10% signal that high crude is becoming an economic drag.
If energy breaks, defensive rotation candidates XLP (up 10% YTD) and XLV (up 25% over one year) stand to benefit.
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Energy is the year's best-performing sector, and on Wednesday the options market bet heavily that it is about to break. Volume in Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSEARCA:XLE) options ran roughly 70% above normal, with more than twice as many puts as calls changing hands and nine of the ten busiest contracts on the day being puts. The single most crowded trade was a 57-strike put expiring one month out, a structure that only pays off if XLE falls roughly 12% from here. Our own full-chain read on XLE puts a live put/call ratio at 2.57, with ratios above 16 at the Sept. 23 expiration and above 13 at Sept. 25.

#above #call #ratio #trade

Heavy volume in Apple Inc. (AAPL) puts expiring in one year with a strike price 4% lower shows that institutional investors are bullish on AAPL. In addition, this short-put play provides a 6.76% one-year yield.
AAPL is trading at $322.96 midday on Wednesday, Sept. 16. This is off a recent peak of $340.08 on July 28, but up from a trough of $302.25 on Aug. 12.
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Unusual Out-of-the-Money Put Option Volume in Amazon Shows Investors Bullish on AMZN

#bullish #play #recent #year

Caterpillar (CAT) trades around $780. The market puts roughly a two-in-three chance that the stock finishes somewhere between about $525 and about $1,170 a year from now. That is not a forecast of direction. It is the size of the swing a holder is already carrying, and Caterpillar's own record says it is no exaggeration.
Measured from around $780, the floor of that range sits roughly a third below today's price and the ceiling close to half again above it. The extra room on the upside is arithmetic, not optimism. A stock cannot fall below zero and can rise without limit, so the upper end is always the longer one. There is also roughly a one-in-six chance of finishing above the band, and the same chance of finishing below it.
A third of the money in the position can go, and the band's low end is not the worst case. The same market pricing that drop is pricing a larger gain on the other side. The size of your position decides how much of that drop, or that gain, you actually feel.
None of that width is theoretical here. Caterpillar returned 83% over the past twelve months, against about 17% for the S&P 500, and it still trades about 26% below its 52-week high. Both of those belong to the same year. A stock that can do both is the kind an options market prices this wide.
Implied volatility of 39.9% is running level with the 40.0% the stock has actually delivered over the trailing year. The market is quoting the recent past forward rather than charging extra for fear. What could make the year ahead different sits inside the business.

#market #below #chance #around