RJ Hamster
RJ Hamster
RJ Hamster
Power Rankings heading into Trade Deadline
Monday, July 27
TOP NEWS
How much will these Power Rankings change after Trade Deadline?
With one week to go before the Trade Deadline, the latest Power Rankings are a snapshot of where teams stand before some fortify their rosters and others look ahead to 2027.
Sun-splashed and spirited crowd watching, Beltrán, Andruw, Kent enshrined in Hall
D-backs drop rubber game to fellow Wild Card contender as Deadline looms
Miz sets marks with 100 mph heat, 7 straight K’s to open game
Bobblehead day, multihomer game showcase Murakami’s impact on White Sox
Trade rumors: Alcantara, Abrams, Blue Jays, Mets
Phils get needed confidence boost with rout of playoff-contending Yankees
‘It was art, really’: Fouts leads Talons to 2nd straight AUSL championship
Ranger returns in All-Star form with scoreless outing against Jays
Braves grind out another series win as Acuña’s return nears
Guardians, Reds face off in 2026 Ohio Cup (7 p.m. ET on ESPN)
Bellinger lands on IL with hamstring strain; Spencer Jones recalled
ADD MLB AS YOUR PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE
TOP PERFORMANCES
Longest Home Run
Jo Adell
446 ft
4th Inning
Hardest Base Hit
William Contreras
112.8 mph
1st Inning
Fastest Strikeout
Jacob Misiorowski
104.5 mph
2nd Inning
Decisive Play
Royals
53% WPA
8th Inning
CJ Abrams
Leads MLB in HRs (7), RBIs (15), OPS (1.640) since All-Star break
Jacob Misiorowski
1st since at least 1969 with 11 K’s, 0 H in first 4 IP of a game
Munetaka Murakami
2nd career multihomer game (1st since 5/16); career-high 6 RBIs
James Wood
First National with consecutive 30-HR seasons since 2009-10 (Dunn)
Mike Trout
1st 4-hit game since 4/26/2021
PLAY A SPORCLE BASEBALL QUIZ!
MUST-SEE PLAY
Braden Montgomery kept his eye on the ball to make a spectacular leaping grab.
STAFF PICKS
5 series to watch this week as Trade Deadline looms
As teams including the Orioles, Tigers, D-backs and Pirates determine their Trade Deadline plans, key matchups this week could weigh heavily into their decision-making.
‘Village of people’ helped Beltrán reach HOF
As the sixth Hall of Famer from Puerto Rico, Carlos Beltrán waved a small flag and delivered his induction speech in both Spanish and English as he credited his upbringing and everyone who helped him throughout his baseball career.
Braves Country comes out for Andruw
Andruw Jones couldn’t help but notice all the Atlanta fans in attendance as he became the latest player from the franchise’s 1990s-2000s dynasty teams enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
Kent shows his other side on landmark day
Jeff Kent kept people at arm’s length during his playing career, but he let his emotions flow as he took his place alongside baseball’s greats in Cooperstown.
‘I didn’t think it was for real’
When Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle heard that fellow rookie Connelly Early had been traded to the Nationals for Curtis Mead, he thought he was being duped by AI before receiving confirmation it was a real deal.
Pilot completes 22-year baseball journey
Since British pilot James Rowlands attended a game at Yankee Stadium in 2004, he set out to see all 30 teams play a game in their home ballparks and finished that quest yesterday at Tropicana Field.
Red Sox vs. A’s on MLB Network
Winners of 17 of their past 19 games, Willson Contreras and the Red Sox clash with Nick Kurtz and the A’s at 9:30 p.m. ET.
SCOREBOARD
CLE 0
TB 1
AZ 7
WSH 10
CHC 7
PIT 8
TOR 1
BOS 6
ATL 3
BAL 2
KC 5
DET 4
LAD 3
NYM 8
SD 5
MIA 3
ATH 8
MIN 11
HOU 3
CWS 12
COL 2
MIL 11
CIN 5
STL 3
SEA 6
TEX 4
LAA 4
SF 3
NYY 4
PHI 11
© 2026 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
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RJ Hamster
🪙 Dividend Stocks Newsletter for 7/27/2026
UnsubscribeJuly 27, 2026A 17-year investing experiment investigated in Dublin (ad)
Porter Stansberry flew the Porter and Co. team 3,300 miles to Dublin to investigate a 17-year investing experiment called Project Prophet – and documented everything on film.
Rooted in the laws of physics, this quantitative approach challenges conventional wealth-building wisdom. With 17 years of verified data behind it, Porter calls it unlike anything he has seen in nearly 30 years in the business.
Watch The Full Investigation And Decide For YourselfTop Dividend NewsAMD’s AI Bubble Could Burst Into Explosive UpsideForget Tesla: These 2 Earnings Reports Reveal Where the Auto Market Is Heading3 tickers just showed unusual early patterns. See the Trading Ideas report now. (from Trading Ideas)Meta Earnings Put AI Spending and Ad Growth Back in FocusConagra Brands: The Dividend Cut Makes Me Even More BullishBroadcom May Be the Biggest Winner From Alphabet’s EarningsVolatility Is Back and These 3 Market Tollbooths Are Best Positioned to ProfitThe Calm Before the Rotation — What’s Quietly Building Now (from Stock Wire News)Telecom Earnings Reveal a Sector That Finally Looks HealthierDefense Earnings Show Readiness Now and Modernization Ahead
Dividend Stock Lists:
- Best Dividend Stocks To Buy
- High-Yield Stocks
- Best Dividend Stocks By Sector
- Trending Dividend Stocks in the News
- Trending Dividend Stocks by Media Sentiment
Marc Chaikin, founder of Chaikin Analytics, is flagging a little-known company that just secured a partnership with Nvidia – one he believes positions it ahead of Tesla in the autonomous vehicle race.
With a market-moving announcement expected on July 31st, Chaikin is urging investors to swap overpriced AI stocks for this under-the-radar name before markets open. He’s also releasing a free Hotlist and Hitlist of buy and sell ideas for the second half of 2026.
Get The Ticker Symbol And Full Details At No Charge Today
Ex-Dividend Stocks for Tuesday, July 28th
CompanyShare PriceAmount / PeriodYieldPrevious AmountPayout RatioPayable DateASMLASML$1,634.94$2.15
quarterly0.47%$3.1833.5%8/5/26
CECelanese$44.79$0.03
quarterly0.25%$0.03-1.2%8/10/26
FASTFastenal$47.27$0.26
quarterly2.24%$0.2481.4%8/25/26
NEXANexa Resources$12.66$0.13
special- – 6.3%8/11/26
NOKNokia$9.03$0.05
quarterly1.87%$0.0592.9%8/11/26
PAYXPaychex$116.46$1.19
quarterly4.15%$1.1997.3%8/28/26
Please note you must purchase shares of these companies by the market close today to receive the next dividend payment.Please read this August 14 warning from my colleague (ad)
Jason Bodner – a former Wall Street trader who placed trades as large as $1 billion for hedge funds and banks – says an obscure market anomaly he calls the Nasdaq Glitch can detect major stock moves weeks before they happen.
His system recently flashed on a new group of stocks he believes could break out beginning August 14. Past signals preceded gains of 825%, 2,105%, and 4,496%. He’s hosting a free briefing on July 29 at 8 p.m. ET to reveal the details, including his top stock pick at no charge.
Register Free For The July 29 Briefing And Claim His Top Stock Pick
Ex-Dividend Stocks for Wednesday, July 29th
CompanyShare PriceAmount / PeriodYieldPrevious AmountPayout RatioPayable DateAMAntero Midstream$22.19$0.23
quarterly4.02%$0.23104.7%8/12/26
ENTGEntegris$122.02$0.10
quarterly0.29%$0.1023.1%8/19/26
PSECProspect Capital$2.29$0.04
monthly15.27%$0.04-113.5%8/20/26
PXEDPhoenix Education Partners$29.59$0.21
quarterly2.44%$0.2139.1%8/14/26
WSTWest Pharmaceutical Services$326.39$0.22
quarterly0.24%$0.2211.3%8/5/26
Please note you must purchase shares of these companies by the market close tomorrow to receive the next dividend payment.ALERT: Drop these 5 stocks before the market opens tomorrow! (ad)
The Wall Street Journal is already raising the alarm about a potential market crash, and Weiss Ratings research points to the first half of 2026 as a particularly rough stretch for certain holdings.
Some of America’s most popular stocks could take serious damage as a radical market shift plays out. Analysts at Weiss Ratings have identified five names you may want to remove from your portfolio before this unfolds.
If any of these are in your portfolio, now is the time to review your positions.
Ex-Dividend Stocks for Thursday, July 30th
CompanyShare PriceAmount / PeriodYieldPrevious AmountPayout RatioPayable DateATRAptarGroup$133.07$0.48
quarterly1.42%$0.4832.9%8/20/26
BMOBank Of Montreal$177.52$1.71
quarterly3.04%$1.6751.0%8/26/26
BSBRBanco Santander Brasil$5.42$0.10
quarterly7.74%- – 8/17/26
CAGConagra Brands$15.08$0.18
quarterly4.95%$0.35-35.0%9/2/26
CFGCitizens Financial Group$71.18$0.46
quarterly2.48%$0.4639.9%8/13/26
FULH. B. Fuller$56.06$0.25
quarterly1.68%$0.2530.1%8/13/26
STZConstellation Brands$129.94$1.03
quarterly2.96%$1.0339.3%8/13/26
Please note you must purchase shares of these companies by the market close tomorrow to receive the next dividend payment.
Dividend Stock Ideas
This is a list of companies that meet common criteria that investors use to evaluate dividend stocks. This list contains companies that have dividend yields greater than 3%, payout ratios of less than 75% (or less than 100% for REITs), five-year average annual dividend growth of at least 1.5% and a minimum market cap of $1 billion.CompanyDividend YieldAnnual PayoutPayout RatioAnnual Dividend GrowthP/E RatioMarket CapTBCGTBC Bank Group PLC5.30%GBX 1,067.0141.39%5.29%1.87£2.66KFSKFS KKR Capital Corp.28.22%$1.68N/A1.81%N/A$3.04KBGEOLion Finance Group PLC4.45%GEL 1,622.5831.57%4.90%2.29GEL507.37KEFCEllington Financial Inc.11.67%$1.5693.98%4.36%8.11$1.69KPRGOPerrigo Company plc11.50%$1.16N/A5.21%N/A$1.43KWPPWPP plc5.46%GBX 31.90N/A4.75%N/A£3.20K
Dividend Research Tools:
- DRIP Dividend Calculator
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- Today’s Dividend Announcements
- Ex-Dividend Stock Calendar
- Monthly Dividend Stocks
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Featured Link: A 17-year investing experiment investigated in Dublin(From Porter & Company)
RJ Hamster
The pitcher traded for 60 cases of beer
Monday, July 27
Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.
You’ve heard of being traded for a bag of baseballs. But how about being traded for a bucket of beers?
OK, it was for a lot of buckets of beer. Sixty cases of beer, to be exact. That’s 1,440 cold ones. But yes, it really happened.
Let’s take you back to the 2005 Golden Baseball League, a now-defunct Independent league where — fun fact — a 46-year-old Rickey Henderson played his final season for a team named the “Surf Dawgs.”
It was there that the Schaumburg Flyers traded pitcher Nigel Thatch to the Fullerton Flyers for 60 cases of Budweiser. (Yes, both teams were named the Flyers.)
Matt Monagan tells the story here — including an interview with former Fullerton GM Ed Hart, the architect of the sudsy swap.
What gave him the idea? Well, Thatch was no ordinary pitcher. He was also an actor, who at that time was famously starring as “Leon” — a cocky athlete in early-2000s Budweiser commercials who loved nothing more than himself.
Sixty cases of ice-cold Budweiser for the most well-known Budweiser spokesman? The trade was only natural.
It was Hart’s idea to drum up some publicity for his Flyers. Thatch wasn’t exactly an ace pitcher — he threw in the mid-80s and had a 10.22 ERA for Schaumburg. Trading for him was about acquiring his celebrity, his ability to attract fans to the ballpark.
Schaumburg was just as game for the publicity stunt, too. When Hart went to the other Flyers to propose the deal, they were all-in.
Soon enough, the beer was on its way.
As Hart remembers with a laugh: “We contacted our distributor in Southern California, told them what we were doing and they said, ‘Where do we send it?'”
But what happened to Thatch? Well, it turned out, he wasn’t too happy about being traded for beers. So much so that he quit!
“I seem to recall that he didn’t take too kindly to it,” Hart said. “He came out right at the beginning of Spring Training, we had a conversation, and then he didn’t come back.”
1 WEEK TO THE TRADE DEADLINE
There’s just one week left until the Trade Deadline. Here’s where things stand.
A lot more rumors — and, hopefully, deals — are coming between now and next Monday, when the Deadline hits at 6 p.m. ET. For now, we’ve put together the latest on these eight key players, who are some of the buzziest names on the trade market:
• Tarik Skubal — What will happen with the Tigers ace is the No. 1 storyline of the Trade Deadline.
• Mason Miller — Will the Padres really deal the best closer in baseball just a year after their blockbuster trade to get him?
• CJ Abrams — The Nats All-Star would be a great fit for a couple of contenders in need of more offense at shortstop.
• Francisco Lindor — So would the Mets star — and New York is expected to be an active seller, with lots of other trade candidates on the roster.
• Ryan Jeffers — With Shea Langeliers now potentially out for the season, a lot of the catching market attention could be focused on the Twins backstop.
• Luis Arraez — You know what you’re getting at the plate from the three-time batting champion, but Arraez’s much-improved defense at second base could make him a fit for a lot more teams.
• Zach Neto — Right-handed bats are in short supply, so a young slugger like Neto could fetch a premium for the Angels.
• Kevin Gausman — Pitching-needy clubs — and there are always plenty of those — will surely be interested in someone like Gausman with a history of being a frontline starter.
See what’s going on with those players here >>
GAMES OF THE NIGHT
Here are three games to watch tonight. Go to MLB.com/Watch for info on how to watch every game this season.
Phillies at Marlins (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Zack Wheeler is on the verge of qualifying for league leaderboards, and once he does, he’s going to rank right near the top of the NL in a lot of key numbers. Right now, if he had enough innings, he’d rank second in ERA (2.16), WHIP (0.88) and batting average against (.149), behind only Jacob Misiorowski. Wheeler isn’t the pitcher you want to be facing when you’re on a 12-game losing streak like the Marlins are.
Blue Jays at Nationals (6:45 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Happy 42nd birthday to Max Scherzer, who’s returning from the injured list today to face the team he won back-to-back Cy Young Awards with. Scherzer last pitched on June 10, a game in which he recorded his 3,500th career strikeout. He’s just a dozen K’s away from reaching Walter Johnson and entering the top 10 all-time. Mad Max is also pretty darn good on his birthday — in six career birthday starts, he has a 1.35 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 40 innings, including an 11-K game for Toronto last year against a different one of his former teams, the Tigers.
Yankees at White Sox (7:40 p.m ET, MLB.TV)
Entering a big four-game series against the upstart White Sox, who lead the AL Central at 55-49, the Yankees’ starting rotation is finally rounding into form. For the first three games, they’ll roll out their trio of aces in Max Fried, Gerrit Cole and Cam Schlittler. Fried was lights-out in his return from the injured list last week, throwing five innings of one-hit baseballagainst the Pirates.
THE TRADE ACTION GETS GOING
The Red Sox and Nationals swung the most interesting trade of Deadline season so farover the weekend, with Boston sending left-hander Connelly Early to Washington for infielder Curtis Mead.
The Red Sox trading Early was a surprise, since the 24-year-old has looked very promising ever since he was called up during last year’s playoff race. But right-handed bats are a scarce commodity at this year’s Trade Deadline, and Boston believes in Mead’s breakout season at the plate.
Plus, the Red Sox are deeper on the pitching side than they are on the hitting side. They’re tied for last in the Majors with 98 home runs this season, and Mead has slugged 17 of them. Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow explains what Boston likes about Mead here.
Washington was facing the opposite situation— the Nats had a ton of offense, but their starting rotation was very thin, with a 4.78 ERA that’s fourth highest in the Majors. There’s also been buzz that they might trade their best starter, Foster Griffin. Either way, Early will fill a clear need. The rookie southpaw has a diverse pitch arsenal and promising stuff.
Hear from Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni on why the team made this deal here.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
Here’s the news and notes from around the Majors.
• Ronald Acuña Jr. is back. The Braves star is leading off and playing right field in tonight’s series opener against the Mets at Citi Field. Acuña missed about a month and a half with a left hamstring strain.
• Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent were inducted into the Hall of Fame yesterday. See how the Cooperstown Class of 2026 stacks up against all the other Hall of Fame classes here.
• What a day for Munetaka Murakami. Yesterday was his bobblehead day … his parents were in the house to throw out his first pitch … and he mashed two home runs. The legend grows for the White Sox rookie sensation.
• At some point, Jacob Misiorowski is going to run out of velocity records to set, right? But that day hasn’t come yet. In yesterday’s start against the Rockies, all 66 fastballs that the Brewers ace threw were at least 100 mph. He also struck out 12 of the first 13 batters he faced. The Miz isn’t just missing more bats this season, he’s missing bats by more — read about that here.
• In today’s latest trade buzz, we’ve got updates on how Cody Bellinger’s injury might affect the Yankees’ Trade Deadline plans, which teams are pursuing some big arms, the state of the catching market and the Astros’ priorities as buyers.
HOW MUCH TWINNING IS TOO MUCH?
We’re going to have to rename them the Quadruplets after this.
The Twins are going to have quite the dilemma this November thanks to an absolutely crazy coincidence: Four Twins players … yes, four … are all getting married on the exact same day. And it was completely by accident.
Somehow, Ryan Kreidler, Brooks Lee, Luke Keaschall and Cole Sands ALL scheduled their weddings for Saturday, Nov. 14.
Again, these weddings were all planned separately. The four players didn’t learn about the shared date until Spring Training.
Lee’s explanation: Baseball players just don’t have a big window to get married.
“You don’t want to be too close to the end of October, and don’t want to be too far [into November] because Thanksgiving is coming up,” he said. “Seemed like everyone is going to choose that date.”
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RJ Hamster
the RJ Hamster Show
RJ Hamster
🦉 The Night Owl Newsletter for July 26th
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ALERT: Drop these 5 stocks before the market opens tomorrow! (From Weiss Ratings)
RTX and Lockheed Earnings: Can Strong Guidance Reset the Defense Trade?
Written by Dan Schmidt
The war trade has resumed in July, and earnings from two of the U.S.’s most prominent defense contractors are leading the tape. After weak Q1 reports and a tenuous Iran ceasefire, aerospace and defense stocks deepened their drawdowns as the market repriced the re-stock trade and institutional selling intensified. But now that the war is back on and Q2 reports from defense companies are rolling in, the repricing is being repriced. Does the defense trade have staying power this time?
What RTX and Lockheed Martin Earnings Tell Us About the Defense Trade’s Path Forward
Lockheed Martin Inc. (NYSE: LMT)and RTX Inc. (NYSE: RTX) are two of the largest U.S. defense contractors, and both their stocks soared at the start of the year. But the outbreak of the Iran war in late February actually marked the top of the defense trade, and shares of both companies declined 25% and 19% peak to trough, respectively, after making all-time highs in Q1. Poor Q1 earnings from Lockheed drove the deeper decline, while higher commodity prices also weighed on RTX’s commercial order book.
The Q2 reports flipped the script, with both companies beating earnings-per-share (EPS) and revenue estimates and adding to their record backlogs. And crucially, not a dollar of earnings or backlog space has factored in the resumption of hostilities in Iran.
One crucial caveat to the thesis: the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has not yet been enacted following a failed cloture vote in the Senate. The debate is likely just noise and posturing between the Trump administration and Congress. Still, if the NDAA isn’t signed by October 1, no multiyear contracts for defense procurement can be distributed, and these contracts are the backbone of the RTX and LMT backlogs.
RTX: Clean Earnings Beat Has Stock Primed for New Highs
The drawdown in RTX shares is officially over following its Q2 2026 results. The beat was highlighted by 14.5% year-over-year (YOY) revenue growth, which topped analysts’ estimates by more than 8%. EPS of $1.89 also crushed the expected $1.66, and the backlog grew 22% YOY to a record $289 billion.
More than $43 billion worth of new orders were booked in the quarter, including $20 billion for the Raytheon division (i.e., defense). This is the company’s 8th consecutive beat, which may be why investors are willing to pay 30 times forward earnings for the stock.
An 8% earnings beat is rare, even for RtX, and it gave management the confidence to raise guidance for full-year sales, EPS, and free cash flow. The company now projects total 2026 EPS of $7.10 to $7.25, a 5% increase over its previous high-end estimate.
RTX shares jumped 7% on the release, but a looming issue clouds the celebration. The backlog is a mix of commercial and defense contracts, and the Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney divisions account for $170 billion of the $289 billion total. Collins and Pratt are the aerospace wings of the company, with Raytheon making the weaponry, which means more than 58% of the total backlog is exposed to commodity risk through higher fuel prices and lower airline capacity—two factors exacerbated by the Iran war.
RTX shares are just a hair below their previous all-time high following the 7% earnings pop, and the technical signals are pointing toward more short-term gains. The stock now trades comfortably above the 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which are converging into a Golden Cross. The MACD indicator has also reached positive territory above the histogram, and a bullish cross hints at more upside to come.
Lockheed Martin: Headline Numbers Mislead, But Backlog Stronger Than Ever
On first glance, Lockheed Martin blew the market away in Q2 2026, beating top and bottom line estimates with EPS of $7.94 on $1.8 billion in net income.
This represents more than 400% YOY earnings growth, but that figure is flattered by the $1.6 billion losses absorbed by Lockheed in Q2 2025, which depressed the year-ago base. Still, the stock popped 10% on the day for a reason.
First, the backlog continues to reach record levels, growing to $230 billion, up from $193 billion at the end of 2025. The Q2 haul was especially impressive as Lockheed booked $65 billion in new orders in the period. Missiles and Fire Control (MFC) remains the shining segment, with a backlog of $87 billion for THAAD interceptors, GMLRS, HIMARS, and radar systems.
Additionally, Lockheed’s cash pile shows very real gains over the previous year’s quarter. Operating cash flow was $3.2 billion, and quarterly free cash flow came in at $2.25 billion. Management also boosted the top end of full-year revenue guidance to $81.75 billion, up from $80 billion in the previous quarter.
LMT shares had a deeper drawdown this spring, falling from an all-time high of $676 on March 2 to $491 by the end of June. The stock declined more steeply than RTX due to its poor Q1 earnings, but it may also have more upside given its unique exposure to the war in Iran. The company’s backlog is nearly all defense, meaning limited commodity risk compared to RTX.
The chart also shows a violent reversal, with the 10% pop breaking through both the 50-day and 200-day moving averages. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has also moved above 50 into bullish territory, but the stock is still about 16% below the March all-time high. At 19 times forward earnings, LMT is cheaper than RTX, but its backlog is less diversified, and another sudden ceasefire would pressure Lockheed’s Q3 guidance. READ THIS STORY ONLINE
A 17-year investing experiment investigated in Dublin (Ad)
Porter Stansberry flew the Porter and Co. team 3,300 miles to Dublin to investigate a 17-year investing experiment called Project Prophet – and documented everything on film.
Rooted in the laws of physics, this quantitative approach challenges conventional wealth-building wisdom. With 17 years of verified data behind it, Porter calls it unlike anything he has seen in nearly 30 years in the business.WATCH THE FULL INVESTIGATION AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF
These 4 Earnings Reports Expose the Market’s Growing Economic Divide
Written by Jessica Mitacek
As the second week of earnings seasondraws to a close, companies across several sectors are providing clues about what investors can expect for the remainder of the year. Of course, quarterly earnings and revenues are rear-facing metrics. But when combined with recent financial performances and full-year guidance, notable trends begin to emerge.
Four companies—ranging from defense contractors to homebuilders to big banks—that reported earnings on Tuesday, July 21, are providing a glimpse into what the market may hold in the second half of 2026.
Northrop Grumman’s Record Backlog Reinforces the Defense Spending Story
The energy sector hasn’t been the only beneficiary of the war with Iran.
The ongoing war with Iran has also kept defense spending in focus, and the administration’s 2027 budget request proposes $1.5 trillion in total defense resources, although Congress has not enacted that amount.
Northrop Grumman’s (NYSE: NOC)Q2 earnings double beat offered further evidence of strong global demand for defense systems. Earnings per share (EPS) of $7.68 topped the analyst consensus of $6.82, while quarterly revenue of $10.88 billion—a 5.1% year-over-year (YOY) increase—surpassed expectations of $10.8 billion.
But the biggest takeaway was that, with no end in sight for the war in Iran, Q2 serves as a precursor to what is likely to be a protracted global conflict. Northrop announced that it received net awards totaling $20 billion during the quarter, pushing its backlog to a record $104.7 billion.
As a result, the company raised its 2026 sales guidance to $43.75 billion to $44.25 billion, with full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $28.60 to $29.10.
Defense contractors have been pivotal in industrials’ outperformance this year. The sector ranks third with a year-to-date (YTD) gain of 15.18%, trailing only tech at 25.57% and energy at 30.84%. With institutional buying nearly doubling selling over the past 12 months, and a short interest of just 1.66% of the float, Northrop should continue to reward shareholders for the remainder of the year.
D.R. Horton Treads Water as Housing Stagnates, Cancellations Rise
With real estate stuck in limbo, homebuilder stocks have chopped around this year.
D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) is the perfect example. Shares were up approximately 3.7% year to date (YTD) ahead of its fiscal Q3 earnings release.
But now, the stock currently finds itself in one of those downtrends,
After enduring six double-digit peaks or troughs, DHI is down a little over 3% YTD, and down nearly 15% from its three-month high. Much of that can be attributed to a stagnant—if not cooling—housing market.
According to the latest House Market Index (HMI) survey, homebuilders cut prices by 37% in July, 35% in June, and 32% in May. That’s a bearish trend for housing, and the largest companies may be hanging their hopes on a potential interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve later this year.
For D.R. Horton, that showed up in the company’s latest earnings report. EPS of $3.20 beat analyst expectations of $3.02. And while revenue of $9.23 billion beat expectations of $9.1 billion, the figure was essentially flat YOY—a concerning indicator for the housing market.
Management noted that affordability constraints and cautious consumer sentiment continue to weigh on demand, with orders flat YOY and the company’s cancellation rate rising to 20% from 17% a year ago.
D.R. Horton cut its full-year delivery outlook after demand softened later in the quarter, and now expects Q4 starts to be lower than Q3 while keeping gross margin roughly flat sequentially. That leaves investors with a mixed picture: The builder is still beating near-term expectations, but demand, pricing incentives, and margins remain under pressure.
Capital One and Schwab Point to Improving Financial Momentum
This year, the financials have performed third-worst among the S&P 500’s 11 sectors. But a string of earnings beats from major banks has improved the sector’s near-term momentum. The sector appears to have turned a corner, posting the third-best performance with a 7.28% gain.
Capital One (NYSE: COF) and Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) both posted a double beat in their Q2 earnings reports.
Last year, Capital One doubled downon its efforts to challenge the duopoly of Visa (NYSE: V) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) by expanding its in-house payment rails.
Capital One completed its acquisition of Discover in May 2025, and Discover says card accounts will migrate to Capital One throughout 2026 and early 2027, with a major wave scheduled to begin July 27, 2026.
On the earnings conference call, CEO Richard Fairbank said that 50% of Discover’s new-account originations were already on Capital One’s technology platform and that the company expected all new Discover originations to be on its technology stack by the end of Q3.
The bank handily beat on earnings with EPS of $5.81 against analyst expectations of $4.79. However, the upshot was revenue, which rose 26.9% YOY to $15.83 billion, surpassing the consensus forecast of $15.76 billion.
Meanwhile, Schwab posted record EPSand record quarterly revenue of $1.62 and $7.07 billion, respectively. Revenue increased 20.9% YOY, and management highlighted strong operating leverage and a 54.3% adjusted pre-tax profit margin.
Trading activity and lending were major drivers of the quarter, with daily average trades reaching 11.9 million and bank loan balances rising to $67 billion, up 33% YOY.
Looking forward, the company emphasized numerous longer-term growth initiatives, including crypto transfers, private markets, AI tools, tokenization infrastructure, and prediction markets tied to financial events.
While these could expand the platform over time, they are in their early stages and therefore unlikely to materially affect 2026 results.
For investors, the common thread is improving operating momentum. Both stocks may merit watchlist attention if earnings growth continues without a corresponding rise in credit or execution risk. READ THIS STORY ONLINE
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Broadcom May Be the Biggest Winner From Alphabet’s Earnings
Written by Leo Miller
Magnificent Seven giant Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) just reported its latest financial results, but the company’s earnings have implications for more than Alphabet itself.
Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) has some of the clearest ties to Alphabet, having helped the firm develop its tensor processing units (TPUs) for years. Amid this, Alphabet is widely considered to be Broadcom’s largest AI chip customer.
In turn, what Alphabet is seeing from a demand perspective and the spending it forecasts has meaningful consequences for Broadcom. While Alphabet shares tumbled after releasing its results, it’s hard not to take the company’s numbers as positive indicators for the world’s second-largest semiconductor company.
Alphabet’s Capital Expenditures Soar, Guidance Gets a Boost
The first notable metric to highlight is Alphabet’s capital expenditure (CapEx) and its CapEx forecasts. Alphabet’s CapEx in Q2 was $44.9 billion. This equated to an increase of 100% year-over-year (YOY) and a 26% increase quarter-over-quarter. The company notes that the vast majority of this spending went toward infrastructure to support its AI investments.
Alphabet’s rapidly increasing AI infrastructure spending is a strong positive indicator for Broadcom. Much of that increased spending goes toward the TPUs Broadcom helps develop, as well as its networking chips.
More importantly, Alphabet also raised its full-year CapEx guidance. Its CapEx forecast now sits at $195 billion to $205 billion. At a midpoint of $200 billion, this is approximately 8% higher than the company’s previous midpoint CapEx guidance of $185 billion. This increase raises the ceiling of revenue that Broadcom could generate in 2026.
Additionally, Alphabet is now near the top of the heap in planned hyperscaler CapEx for 2026. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) expects to spend $200 billion, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) planned CapEx is $190 billion, and Meta Platforms’ (NASDAQ: META) is $135 billion at the midpoint. For Broadcom, having a close-knit partnership with the company tied for the highest CapEx guidance among hyperscalers is a great position to be in.
Alphabet Looks to Accelerate AI Capacity Delivery, Makes No Mention of Memory
It is also important to note the reasoning behind Alphabet’s CapEx increase. The company says the increase is “primarily due to an acceleration in the delivery of capacity to meet growing demand.” “Acceleration in delivery” is the key phrase, showing that Alphabet wants more AI infrastructure, like Broadcom’s products, faster. This signals Broadcom’s revenue growth attributable to Alphabet could accelerate.
This reasoning is notably different from past statements made by other hyperscalers when raising CapEx guidance. For example, in Q1, Meta raised its CapEx guidance, but said, “Most of that is due to higher component costs, particularly memory pricing.”
Here, Meta indicates that much of the gain from its higher CapEx guidance will flow to memory makers, rather than companies like Broadcom. Thus, the omission of such language by Alphabet and its focus on demand instead is considerably more positive for Broadcom.
Cloud Takes off, Supporting TPU Demand
Speaking of demand, Alphabet’s Cloud business is soaring. Cloud revenues grew by 82% YOY, well more than double the 32% YOY growth rate achieved in Q2 2025. Cloud was far and away Alphabet’s fastest-growing segment. Search was second, growing by just 17% YOY. Overall, Cloud grew more than three times faster than Alphabet’s total revenue growth rate of 24% YOY.
This is key for Broadcom, as Cloud is the segment that is directly tied to TPU demand. Accelerating Cloud demand implies that downstream demand for Broadcom could also be accelerating. Additionally, Alphabet said that it received its first revenue from its external TPU sales. Historically, Alphabet has used the vast majority of its TPU capacity for internal purposes, such as training and deploying its Gemini models.
As the company begins to sell TPUs to third parties, it could be a substantial growth driver for Broadcom as well. Although Alphabet expects to recognize the vast majority of external TPU revenues in 2027, it is good to see that this business is starting to ramp up.
Alphabet notes that its models are processing 22 billion tokens per minute, more than double the 10 billionachieved in Q4 2025. Tokens per minute is a key indicator of AI demand, showing how much information models take in and output. As TPUs are part of the underlying hardware that processes tokens, more token demand should generally translate into more TPU demand.
Alphabet Growth and CapEx Guidance: Another Feather in Broadcom’s Cap
Overall, Alphabet is seeing a huge increase in demand in its Cloud segment. This results in the company needing more AI infrastructure and the notable CapEx guidance boost it outlined. As Alphabet’s key custom chip partner, the implications for Broadcom are clearly positive, supporting the firm’s already strong AI growth outlook. READ THIS STORY ONLINE
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Further Reading: ALERT: Drop these 5 stocks before the market opens tomorrow!(From Weiss Ratings)
RJ Hamster
People Who Made America Great
TODAY’S PATRIOT
People Who Made America Great
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) – A genius of the American Enlightenment, Franklin was an inventor, writer, diplomat, and Founding Father whose influence spanned politics, science, and culture. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and played a critical diplomatic role in securing French support during the Revolution. Franklin also helped frame the Constitution and promoted civic institutions like libraries, fire departments, and universities. His wit, wisdom, and tireless service made him one of the most beloved figures of early America. He embodied the self-made American ideal.
One of the most iconic achievements of Benjamin Franklin’s life happened in 1752 when he flew a kite during a thunderstorm to prove that lightning was a form of electricity. Tying a metal key to the kite string and standing under a shelter to stay dry, Franklin observed sparks jumping from the key when lightning struck nearby—confirming his theory. Though many believe he was struck by lightning, Franklin was careful enough to avoid direct danger, using a dry silk string to stay insulated. This bold experiment revolutionized science and led to his invention of the lightning rod, which saved countless buildings from fire. His fearless curiosity and hands-on approach made him a symbol of Enlightenment thinking. Franklin later wrote, “I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time.” The kite experiment wasn’t just brilliant—it was audacious.
RJ Hamster
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
July 26, 1948
President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981, ending racial segregation in the U.S. military. This landmark decision paves the way for civil rights advancements across the nation.