Drilling Consolidation Drives Gains, Cancer Research Moves Ahead, and Accounting Woes Shake Tech

Consolidation in the offshore drilling industry brought major deal news, while progress in cancer research marked another step forward for clinical development.

Elsewhere, accounting-related concerns created fresh uncertainty for a technology company.

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U.S. stocks ticked higher as tech shares continued rebounding from last week’s AI-driven selloff, lifting the broader market.

Gains were also helped by easing volatility and investors repositioning ahead of key jobs and inflation data later this week.

Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) just agreed to acquire Orna Therapeutics for up to $2.4 billion in cash, gaining access to a platform that could fundamentally change how cell therapies are delivered.

Instead of extracting a patient's immune cells, Orna's technology aims to trigger that entire process inside the body using circular RNA and novel lipid nanoparticles.

The deal lands as Lilly continues pushing hard beyond obesity, stacking bets across oncology, immunology, and now next-generation cell therapy in rapid succession.

Skip the Lab, Treat the Patient

Current CAR-T therapies from Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead, and Johnson & Johnson work, but the process is slow, expensive, and logistically heavy.

Orna wants to collapse that entire workflow into a single treatment step.

If the science holds, this is cell therapy that scales like a drug rather than a procedure. That changes the economics, and you start to see why Lilly paid full price for early-stage science.

Lilly Keeps Stacking the Deck

This acquisition follows a new partnership with China's Innovent Biologics, worth up to $8.85 billion in milestones across immunology and oncology. 

The pattern is unmistakable. Lilly is not slowing down while the weight-loss franchise prints revenue.

It is spending aggressively to ensure the pipeline behind the blockbusters remains just as competitive, and you stop thinking of this as defense once the deal count keeps climbing.

Voyager Technologies (NYSE: VOYG) just locked in a new contract with NASA's Johnson Space Center worth up to $24.5 million over four years, covering mission management services for the International Space Station.

This is not a flashy lunar announcement or a rocket debut. It is the operational backbone that keeps payloads moving safely to and from orbit.

The deal covers payload integration, mission operations, safety compliance, and post-mission closeout.

Voyager has already completed over 50 task orders for NASA, and this contract makes that relationship structural through 2030.

Boring Work, Serious Moat

Space gets attention when rockets launch, but the real business sits in the repetitive, high-stakes execution that most companies cannot handle reliably.

Voyager is building your awareness of this company around one idea: make missions routine, safe, and repeatable.

Three new payload missions are expected to be onboarded next quarter, signaling that demand is not slowing.

A track record like this is how you go from contractor to infrastructure.

ISS Today, Starlab Tomorrow

The contract framework includes options for NASA to expand both scope and value over its lifetime.

That flexibility matters as the ISS transitions toward eventual decommission and commercial successors step in.

Voyager is already positioning to apply its mission execution playbook to

Starlab, the next-generation commercial platform.

If you control the operational layer during the transition era, the jump to commercial stations stops looking like a pivot and starts looking inevitable.

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Playboy Inc (NASDAQ: PLBY) just sold 50% of its China, Hong Kong, and Macau operations to UTG Brands Management Group for $122 million in cash.

UTG takes over all day-to-day operations, and Playboy keeps a stake in the joint venture, with distributions still flowing back.

That is a clean structure for a brand that has spent years figuring out what it actually wants to be.

This is not a retreat from China. It is Playboy admitting that running operations overseas was never its strength and handing the keys to someone who does it better.

Cash Now, Royalties Later

The $122 million lands immediately, and the deal is expected to be accretive to earnings right away.

For a company trading under $3, that kind of cash injection changes the math on what comes next.

You also keep the upside. Playboy retains ownership of the joint venture, meaning annual distributions continue without the cost of managing a complex international operation.

The Brand Is the Business

Playboy has always been worth more as a licensing machine than as an operator.

This deal leans fully into that reality and lets UTG handle the execution in one of the most complicated consumer markets on the planet.

If your entire strategy is built around the power of a globally recognized name, this is exactly how you monetize it. Let someone else run the stores and collect the check.

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Valaris Limited [VAL] $83.82 (+34.29%)

Valaris surged after agreeing to be acquired by Transocean in a $5.8 billion all-stock transaction combining two major offshore drillers.

TransCode Therapeutics Inc [RNAZ] $10.72 (+20.31%)

TransCode climbed after submitting an FDA IND amendment for a Phase 2 trial of its RNA-based cancer therapy in colorectal cancer.

Gold.com, Inc [GOLD] $64.14 (+15.93%)

Gold.com rose after reporting quarterly earnings and revenue that far exceeded expectations, while a $150 million investment from Tether boosted confidence in its precious metals platform.

Kyndryl Holdings, Inc [KD] $10.59 (-54.94%)

Kyndryl plunged after disclosing an SEC-related review of its accounting and internal controls alongside executive departures and weaker guidance.

Pagaya Technologies Ltd [PGY] $14.19 (-23.87%)

Pagaya fell despite reporting strong earnings as investors reacted to softer-than-expected forward profitability guidance.

monday.com Ltd [MNDY] $77.63 (-20.79%)

Monday.com dropped after issuing weaker-than-expected revenue guidance, raising concerns about slowing growth in its customer base.

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— Adam G.
Elite Trade Club

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