Databricks’ valuation surged to $190 billion as private markets kept paying up for AI software growth, while Applied Materials showed that semiconductor spending remains strong across advanced chips and packaging. Nubank added another milestone, topping $1 billion in quarterly profit for the first time.
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Futures at a Glance📈
Futures are hovering near flat after the S&P 500 notched another record close. Traders are watching retail sales and consumer sentiment for the next read on the economy, while rising oil prices and renewed U.S.-Iran tensions are keeping a lid on the early optimism.
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What to Watch
Earnings (Premarket):
· RLX Technology Inc. [RLX]
· Americas Gold and Silver Corporation [USAS]
· Suncrete, Inc. [RMIX]
· Sigma Lithium Corporation [SGML]
Earnings (Aftermarket):
· Cosan S.A. [CSAN]
Economic Reports:
· Retail sales (July): 8:30 am
· Manufacturing & trade inventories (June): 10:00 am
· University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment (August): 10:00 am
Elite Trade Club Insider
$28.9 Million In Insider Selling Just Hit Two Very Different Winners
You’re looking at one medical-technology stock after a 106% one-year surge and one established insurer trading well below its yearly high. Elite Trade Club Insider readers are seeing the distinction underneath nearly $29 million of selling: one executive sold exactly the shares he had just acquired through deeply profitable options, while another senior leader reduced an existing position by more than $18 million under a pre-arranged plan.
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Market Pulse
Wall Street Finds Another Reason to Make New Highs
The S&P 500 closed at another record Thursday after relatively mild producer-price data reduced pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise rates in September. Technology remained the engine of the advance, with memory-chip stocks particularly strong as investors continued rewarding companies exposed to the AI infrastructure buildout.
Retail Sales Get the Last Word on the Economy
Friday’s U.S. retail-sales report caps a packed week of economic data and could help determine whether the consumer is holding up despite softer employment growth. After CPI and producer prices reduced immediate rate-hike fears, a surprisingly strong spending number could reopen the debate over how much cooling the economy actually needs.
Software & Deals
Databricks Is Now Worth $190 Billion
Databricks raised $5 billion at a $190 billion valuation, up sharply from the $134 billion valuation it received just six months ago. The AI and data-software company has surpassed a $7 billion annualized revenue run rate and says second-quarter revenue grew more than 80%, giving investors another reminder of how aggressively private markets are pricing the AI software boom.
Silver Lake Wants to Take Workday Private
Private-equity giant Silver Lake is in talks to acquire Workday in a transaction that could rank among the largest software buyouts ever. AI has created uncertainty around slower-growing traditional software businesses, but that valuation pressure is also creating opportunities for private capital willing to bet that established platforms can adapt.
Chips & Memory
Applied Materials Says the AI Equipment Boom Still Has Legs
Applied Materials forecast quarterly revenue above Wall Street expectations as semiconductor manufacturers continue investing in advanced chips, memory, and packaging. The company expects its advanced-packaging revenue to grow more than 70% this year, although the shares slipped after hours as another solid report ran into exceptionally high expectations.
Lam Research Puts $3 Billion Behind the Next Generation of Chips
Lam Research plans to invest more than $3 billion over five years to expand its global research-and-development laboratory network. More experimental capacity could help Lam shorten development cycles as increasingly complex AI processors and memory chips require new manufacturing techniques, extending the spending boom deeper into the semiconductor supply chain.
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AI Platforms
Google Pushes Gemini Deeper Into Coding
Google launched Gemini 3.7 Flash, a new model aimed at software development and automated business workflows. The release keeps Google moving quickly in lower-cost AI applications, although Wall Street is still waiting for its next flagship Gemini Pro model as the bigger test of how DeepMind stacks up against OpenAI and Anthropic.
Microsoft Is Retreating From China Without Leaving
Microsoft has closed at least 15 Chinese branches and joint ventures over the past five years as geopolitical and competitive pressures reshape its strategy. Yet AI is giving the company a reason to maintain a foothold, particularly by providing cloud and Western AI services to Chinese companies expanding overseas and preserving access to the country’s engineering talent.
Finance & Mobility
Nubank Crosses the $1 Billion Profit Mark
Nubank’s quarterly profit exceeded $1 billion for the first time, beating expectations as revenue and lending continued to expand across Latin America. The digital bank now serves nearly 139 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, while improving early-stage delinquencies gives it more room to keep growing its credit business.
Uber Is Taking Its Robotaxi Push Deeper Into Europe
Pony.ai and Uber are expanding their partnership to deploy more than 2,000 robotaxis across Europe, significantly increasing the scale of their autonomous-driving ambitions outside China. The agreement reinforces Uber’s strategy of becoming the distribution platform for multiple self-driving developers rather than taking on the enormous cost of building autonomous technology entirely in-house.
Trivia: Henry Ford is famous for the Model T — but he also changed something fundamental about American work culture in 1926. What did he do?
- He introduced the first company-sponsored health insurance plan for factory workers
- He became one of the first major industrial employers to give workers Saturdays off
- He created the first employer-funded pension plan in the United States
- He introduced profit-sharing bonuses for all Ford employees, not just management
Movers and Shakers
SanDisk [SNDK]: Premarket Move: +3%
SanDisk moved higher after Bernstein highlighted the company as one of its preferred memory and storage investments. The call centers on booming AI workloads driving unusually strong demand for NAND flash and data-center storage, extending the same memory-cycle story that sent the shares sharply higher Thursday.
Alibaba [BABA]: Premarket Move: +4%
Alibaba climbed after Apple developed a China-specific AI model with support from the Chinese technology giant. The partnership puts Alibaba at the center of Apple’s push to bring Apple Intelligence to China and gives its Qwen AI ecosystem another major validation with one of the world’s largest consumer-tech companies.
Reddit [RDDT]: Premarket Move: +12%
Reddit jumped after winning a long-awaited spot in the S&P 500, replacing AvalonBay Communities before trading begins on August 18. The addition puts the roughly $30 billion social-media company into portfolios tracking the benchmark, creating a fresh wave of automatic institutional demand.
Musk’s Financial Signal (Sponsored)
Elon Musk spent millions to speak directly to 125 million Americans during the year’s biggest television event.
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Everything Else
🚀 The biggest small-cap moves often start with signals most traders never see. This guide breaks down exactly what to look for in the data and a few current setups worth watching.
💼 Workday surged after reports that Silver Lake is exploring a takeover of the cloud-software company in what could become one of the largest software buyouts ever.
📺 LG Electronics India jumped after quarterly profit rose more than 27%, helped by strong summer demand for air conditioners and refrigerators.
💻 HP and Dell rallied after strong Lenovo results boosted confidence in PC and AI-hardware demand.
👜 Tapestry plunged after the Coach owner forecast muted growth for annual revenue despite otherwise resilient demand for its luxury brands.
📊 GB Group sank after cutting its outlook for 2027 revenue growth, sending shares sharply lower as investors reassessed the identity-verification company’s trajectory.
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Elite Trade Club
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