Peace Talks Stalling, Oil Climbing, and Meta Having the Worst Week of Its Legal Life

The ceasefire talks are alive, but barely, and today’s session reflected every bit of that uncertainty.

Oil surged back above $100 as both sides continued to talk past each other, Meta cratered after losing two major child safety cases in court, and the Nasdaq had its worst session since November. Everything that moved today, along with the reasons, is laid out below.

A micro-cap company in the subsea resource space has submitted a formal proposal under a U.S. solicitation focused on securing nickel supply.

The opportunity is notable because selected projects may be eligible for non-dilutive funding, offering a potential path to government-backed support without immediate share issuance.

The company also brings offshore operating experience and a relatively tight public float for its size, factors some investors may view as relevant at this stage.

It is speculative and early, but the bid adds a tangible milestone to the story.

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*This communication is a paid advertisement published by Capital Gain Media Incorporated and does not constitute a recommendation, offer, or solicitation to buy or sell securities. Capital Gain Media Incorporated has been compensated by Deep Sea Minerals Corp. with four hundred thousand dollars (USD 400,000) plus applicable taxes for an ongoing marketing campaign, which includes the publication of this communication. This compensation constitutes a significant conflict of interest with respect to our impartiality. This communication is for entertainment and informational purposes only. Never invest solely on the basis of our communications. The owner of Capital Gain Media may buy or sell securities of this issuer for its own profit. Resource exploration and development is highly speculative and involves significant inherent risks. There is no guarantee that Deep Sea Minerals Corp will generate a return on investment. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions. For complete risk factors, refer to Deep Sea Minerals Corp.'s continuous disclosure documents available at www.sedarplus.ca.

Stocks fell as oil prices climbed back above $100 after Trump posted a blunt warning to Iran on Truth Social, telling negotiators to "get serious," erasing most of Wednesday's gains in a single session. The Nasdaq had its worst day since November, falling into correction territory for the second time this week, weighed down by a 7.7% drop in Meta after back-to-back child safety verdicts and continued selling in Micron.

The OECD raised its U.S. inflation forecast sharply for the year, treasury yields climbed again, and gold fell as rate hike fears continued to crowd out the safe-haven argument for precious metals. The one genuinely good data point on the day: gas prices ticked lower for the first time since the war began, which Trump noticed, though the market mostly did not care.

BlackRock Inc (NYSE: BLK) manages nearly 800,000 bitcoin worth $55 billion through its market-leading ETF. It runs the world's largest tokenized fund. And its head of digital assets just called most of the crypto market nonsense.

Dominance and dismissal in the same breath. That tells you exactly how BlackRock views this industry.

Two Coins, Everything Else Is Noise

BlackRock's clients care about Bitcoin and ethereum. Full stop. The thousands of smaller tokens worth roughly $1 trillion combined do not even enter the conversation. BlackRock built ETFs for the two that matter and ignores the rest.

Institutional money is concentrating, not diversifying. The long tail of crypto may have retail fans, but it does not have BlackRock's attention or your portfolio manager's either.

$500 Million Revenue Target by 2030

BlackRock currently earns an estimated $250 million annually from its bitcoin ETF alone. The company projects crypto could generate $500 million in revenue within five years. That is a doubling for a business that launched only two years ago.

For a company managing trillions across every asset class, crypto is still small. But it is growing faster than almost anything else on the platform.

AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ: APP) has been one of the fastest-growing companies in the ad tech industry. Its AI-powered advertising platform dominates mobile gaming. But the push into e-commerce advertising is running into trouble. Brands are reporting that returns shrink as budgets grow. New customers are not arriving fast enough to replace the ones leaving.

The gaming business remains rock solid. The e-commerce expansion is where the cracks just appeared.

Scale Is the Problem

E-commerce brands testing AppLovin's platform liked the early results at small budgets. But as spending increased, returns began to fade. That is a classic scaling problem, and it raises questions about whether the platform works as well for shopping ads as it does for game installs.

Creative quality has also been a bottleneck. Brands struggle to produce enough effective ad content to keep campaigns running efficiently. Without strong creativity, even the best algorithm cannot deliver results. You hit a ceiling fast when the ads themselves are not good enough.

AI Might Be the Fix

AppLovin is rolling out generative AI tools designed to solve the creative bottleneck. Early feedback has been positive. If these tools can produce high-quality ads at scale, they could remove the biggest barrier to e-commerce growth.

AppLovin built something extraordinary in gaming. The question now is whether it can do it twice in a completely different category. You get the answer to that over the next few quarters, and it will define what this company becomes next.

Rising geopolitical tensions have pushed oil sharply higher and renewed interest in energy equities.

For investors, the key question is not just where crude goes next, but which companies could be best positioned if prices stay firm.

Zacks’ latest report reviews three oil stocks that may deserve attention in this environment.

Access the report.

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PepsiCo Inc (NASDAQ: PEP) just launched Pepsi Football Nation, a global platform that ties together all of its football partnerships, fan activations, and digital experiences under one brand umbrella. Separately, the company secured a deal as the official beverage supplier for Sunset Amphitheater venues, expanding across multiple U.S. locations.

Two moves, same strategy. PepsiCo wants to be wherever people gather, cheer, and celebrate.

Football Gets Its Own Pepsi Universe

Pepsi has sponsored football for years. But those deals existed as separate partnerships scattered across different markets. Football Nation unifies everything into a single platform spanning digital content, retail activations, and live experiences worldwide.

That consolidation matters. Instead of dozens of disconnected sponsorships, PepsiCo now runs one cohesive global football brand. You stop seeing scattered logos and start seeing a platform designed to keep fans engaged year-round.

Concert Venues Lock In the Cups

Becoming the official beverage supplier for an expanding amphitheater network guarantees that every drink sold at those events carries a PepsiCo label. Pouring rights at live venues are quietly one of the most valuable assets in the beverage industry. Once your brand owns the cup at a venue, competitors literally cannot get in the door.

Ask yourself what sticks longer. A 30-second ad during a break or the drink in your hand during the best night of the summer. PepsiCo clearly knows the answer.

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EpicQuest Education Group [EEIQ] $8.44 (+209.15%)

EEIQ is a small education services company that went absolutely vertical today on volume running at over 1,600x its average pace, which is the kind of number that stops looking like trading and starts looking like a fire alarm.

There was no major news catalyst driving the move, which means this was pure retail momentum feeding on itself in a thinly traded name. The move is real, the volume is real, and whether the price holds is a completely separate question that Friday's open will answer decisively.

Kodiak Sciences [KOD] $39.76 (+74.79%)

Kodiak reported Phase 3 data for its eye disease treatment showing it matched the efficacy of the current standard of care while requiring significantly fewer injections over the treatment period.

In a market where patient compliance and dosing convenience are increasingly treated as competitive advantages, that result landed hard. Volume ran at more than 16x average on a $2.4 billion company, and the Strong Buy rating tells you the institutional base was already positioned and buying more on the print.

Navan [NAVN] $13.11 (+43.28%)

Navan is a corporate travel and expense management platform, and the stock surged after reporting quarterly results that beat on revenue, showed accelerating enterprise customer growth, and guided for a path to profitability ahead of what analysts had been modeling.

Volume ran at nearly 10x average on a $3.4 billion company with a Strong Buy rating, which tells you this was not a retail momentum trade but a genuine institutional repricing of a growth story that had been undervalued going into the quarter.

Wave Life Sciences [WVE] $6.19 (-49.67%)

Wave reported Phase 2 data for its RNA medicine program targeting a neuromuscular disease that failed to hit its primary endpoint, and the stock lost nearly half its value in a single session.

At a $2.3 billion market cap with a Strong Buy rating, there was serious institutional ownership going into this readout, which explains why volume ran at nearly 15x average on the way out. When a company this size misses on a binary clinical event, there is no soft landing.

MillerKnoll [MLKN] $15.03 (-22.37%)

MillerKnoll makes Herman Miller and Knoll furniture and reported a quarter where both revenue and earnings missed estimates, with the company citing weaker corporate office spending and a consumer that is pulling back on big-ticket home furnishings.

In an environment where gas is near $4 and recession odds are being raised by every major bank, office furniture is not where discretionary budgets go first, and the stock priced that reality in without ceremony.

Vicor Corporation [VICR] $157.96 (-15.08%)

Vicor makes power components for AI data centres and high-performance computing, and the stock fell after reporting quarterly results where revenue missed estimates, and forward guidance came in below what the street had been expecting.

In a sector where investors have been paying premium multiples on the assumption of uninterrupted growth, a guidance miss tends to reprice the whole thesis, and Vicor's session reflected exactly that dynamic.

Many are wondering why so many countries are frantically buying gold right now.

The truth is that this is just the beginning of a much larger story...

One that could send gold soaring to even bigger highs in the coming months.

But the best way to cash in on gold's upside potential might surprise you.

One firm says this stock (less than $50) could be the best way to get started.

That's it for today! Please, write us back, and let us know what you think of the Closing Bell Roundup. We're always eager to hear feedback!

Thanks for reading. I'll see you at the next open! 

Best Regards,
— Adam G.
Elite Trade Club

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