Dear Reader,

Dr. Mark Skousen here.

I’ve worked for the CIA.

I’ve personally met four US presidents.

I’ve spent 45 years studying the markets — calling Black Monday six weeks before it happened… predicting the fall of the Berlin Wall… pinpointing the exact bottom in 2009.

But what I’m about to share with you is the boldest prediction of my career.

After meeting Elon Musk face-to-face at a private gathering of Wall Street elites, I’m now staking my reputation on one date.

March 26, 2026.

Mark it on your calendar right now!

That’s when I believe Elon will announce the SpaceX IPO — what Bloomberg is calling “the biggest listing of ALL TIME.”

I have an “access code” that lets you grab a pre-IPO stake before it happens.

But I’m only willing to share it with 500 people today. After that, you my never get the chance again.

Click here to see how to claim your “SpaceX access code”.

Yours for peace, prosperity, and liberty, AEIOU,

Dr. Mark Skousen
Macroeconomic Strategist, The Oxford Club

P.S. I don’t make predictions lightly. When I put my name on something, I mean it.

Click here before the 500 spots are gone.

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This Month’s Exclusive Content

IBM’s Steep Drop on AI Fears May Be an Overreaction

Authored by Jeffrey Neal Johnson. Originally Published: 2/25/2026. 

Key Points

• International Business Machines consistently generates exceptional free cash flow to comfortably support ongoing corporate transformation and reliable shareholder dividend payouts.
• Strategic acquisitions strongly enhance hybrid cloud architecture and provide a robust foundation for future enterprise technology expansion.
• Proprietary artificial intelligence innovations allow clients to safely modernize their legacy code directly on highly secure mainframe platforms.
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A sudden collision between cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) startups and legacy enterprise infrastructure wiped out billions in shareholder dollars in a single session. On Feb. 23, 2026, International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM)suffered its steepest single-day decline since 2000, as shares plunged 13.2%, erasing roughly $30 billion in market capitalization in hours.

The catalyst was a product announcement from AI startup Anthropic. The company unveiled new features for Claude Code, including tools it says can automate modernization of COBOL — the decades-old language that still underpins large parts of the global financial system. Investors feared that automated code translation would instantly erode the infrastructure and consulting revenues tied to maintaining these systems. That concern sparked a sector-wide pullback, dragging down major IT service providers.

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The dramatic sell-off, however, began to reverse quickly. The stock rebounded the next day, closing up 2.68% at $229.34 on exceptionally heavy trading of more than 13.3 million shares. Major Wall Street analysts, including teams at Wedbush and Evercore ISI, called the drop an unwarranted overreaction and flagged it as a buying opportunity for investors who understand enterprise technology dynamics.

Why AI Cannot Replace a Mainframe

Enterprise clients cannot simply abandon mainframes because a new AI tool can translate legacy code. There is a critical difference between converting syntax and modernizing a deeply integrated hardware-software architecture. Rehosting or translating code without addressing I/O, middleware, transactional integrity and regulatory controls does not produce a modern, production-ready system.

The structural moat of the Z series mainframe remains intact. A basic software-as-a-service tool hosted on a public server cannot match the hardware-level guarantees required by the world’s largest institutions. Modern mainframes are purpose-built from the silicon up to deliver unmatched transactional resilience:

• Massive Scale: A single system can process 25 billion encrypted transactions per day.
• AI Speed: The platform supports 450 billion AI inferences per day with one-millisecond response times.
• Extreme Reliability: The hardware operates with up to eight nines of availability (99.999999%).
• Future-Proof Security: The system includes quantum-safe encryption to guard against future threats.

Today, over 90% of the world’s credit card transactions pass through these specialized mainframes. Regulated entities — global banks, insurers and governments — are highly unlikely to move their most sensitive operational workloads to third-party public clouds because of data sovereignty, regulatory compliance and security concerns.

AI often strengthens this protective moat rather than eroding it. The company already offers a proprietary generative AI tool, watsonx Code Assistant for Z, which lets clients safely refactor and modernize legacy code directly on the platform while preserving enterprise-grade controls and security.

Pristine Financials Hidden in the Noise

The market panic obscured the company’s recent operating performance. Before the AI-driven sell-off, fourth-quarter 2025 earnings showed broad-based growth that beat expectations:

• Earnings Beat: Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $4.52 topped consensus estimates of $4.33.
• Revenue Surge: Fourth-quarter revenue reached $19.7 billion, a 12% year-over-year increase.
• Segment Strength: Growth was driven by a 14% increase in Software revenue and a 21% jump in Infrastructure revenue.
• Record Cash: Free cash flow for full-year 2025 hit a record $14.7 billion, up $2 billion from the prior year.

The business is growing and generating substantial cash independent of the market noise. The internal generative AI book of business now tops $12.5 billion — more than $10.5 billion in consulting and about $2 billion in software — showing successful monetization of AI within regulated enterprise environments.

Management is also deploying capital to bolster the higher-margin software portfolio. The recent acquisitions of HashiCorp ($6.4 billion) and Confluent (NASDAQ: CFLT) ($11 billion) expand hybrid-cloud capabilities. To strengthen its AI offerings, the company recently announced a collaboration with Deepgram to integrate advanced voice AI into its enterprise solutions.

A 3% Dividend Yield Built on Rock-Solid Cash

The sharp drop in IBM’s share price compressed the stock’s valuation. The trailing price-to-earnings ratio has fallen to roughly 20.5, creating a more reasonable entry point than earlier in the year. The pullback also pushed the dividend yield to about 2.93%.

Management has a 30-year track record of consecutive annual dividend increases, and the payout is well supported by the company’s free cash flow. Guidance for 2026 calls for more than 5% constant-currency revenue growth and an additional $1 billion in free cash flow this year, signaling confidence in the ongoing business transformation.

While markets fixate on short-term disruption narratives and flashy startup announcements, the underlying financials tell a different story. The core infrastructure remains defensible, and the company is a highly profitable, cash-generating technology leader. For patient investors, the recent volatility presents an opportunity to buy at a meaningful discount.

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This Month’s Exclusive Content

3 Stocks With the Most to Gain From Tariff Relief

Authored by Dan Schmidt. Originally Published: 3/2/2026. 

Key Points

• The Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s sprawling tariff regime under the IEEPA.
• While other tariffs remain and Trump quickly enacted new ones, the decision provides significant relief and newfound policy predictability for many U.S. firms.
• Five Below, Ross Stores, and FedEx Corp are three of the companies that stand to benefit most from tariff reductions (and potential refunds).
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Tariffs are once again dominating market headlines after the Supreme Court struck down the strictest rates. While that ruling is broadly bullish for many retailers, the muted market reaction may have left investors puzzled. Below we explain why markets reacted modestly and highlight opportunities for several stocks that are no longer in the trade-war crosshairs.

Where the Tariff Situation Currently Stands

On Feb. 20, the Supreme Court ruled againstPresident Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping tariffs without Congressional consent. In a 6-3 decision, the Court held that the President exceeded his authority under IEEPA and ordered that tariffs imposed under that law be vacated immediately.

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After the ruling, the administration implemented new 10% tariffs under Section 122 and said existing Section 232 tariffs would remain in place. According to a Penn Wharton analysis, the new effective tariff rate is 9.1%, down from the roughly 9.8% effective rate that prevailed through most of 2025. Companies facing tariffs will welcome any relief, but the relatively small decline in the effective rate helps explain the market’s tepid response.

Section 122 tariffs also include limitations that the IEEPA ones did not. They cannot be targeted to specific countries, cannot exceed 15%, and do not stack on other tariff types (such as Section 232). Crucially, they are temporary: after 150 days the President must seek an extension from Congress, which is unlikely to pass with midterm elections just weeks after the expiration.

Another wildcard is the prospect of refunds. IEEPA-era tariffs collected an estimated $175 billion, and companies seeking refunds must file suit in the Court of International Trade. Refunds would be a windfall for many firms that built higher import costs into their 2026 projections. Combined with further rate reductions after the 150-day window, refunds could create dual tailwinds for stocks that faced the heaviest tariff pressure.

3 Stocks That Benefit From Tariff Cancellations (and Potential Refunds)

The market’s recovery over the final eight months of 2025 likely reflected expectations that the Supreme Court would curb the administration’s tariff authority. Regardless, the tariffs materially affected the three stocks below, and further rollback or refunds could have meaningful implications for each.

Five Below: Immediate Relief on China Imports

Five Below Inc. (NASDAQ: FIVE) faced significant margin pressure from tariffs because most of its products are imported from China and its value-oriented strategy limits the ability to pass costs on to customers.

The company targets very price-sensitive, younger shoppers, so every tariff increase directly squeezed margins.

Revoking the harshest rates on China therefore provides immediate relief, and the Supreme Court’s decision adds predictability by removing the threat of unchecked escalation, like last spring’s Liberation Day tariffs.

Five Below reported fiscal Q3 2026 results in December. While results were strong, management warned tariffs could compress operating margin by roughly 240 basis points. The company will report fiscal Q4 results on March 18; tariff relief is unlikely to materially affect those figures but should improve fiscal 2027 projections. JPMorgan appears to agree: it raised its price target to a Street-high $259, implying nearly 15% upside from current levels.

Ross Stores: Margin and Inventory Improvements Ahead

Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) also stands to benefit, albeit more indirectly. Although over half of its merchandise originates in China, Ross does relatively little direct importing.

Instead, it buys overstocked inventory from other U.S. brands that have already absorbed duties.

Many retailers front-loaded inventories last year to avoid tariff risk and may now offload excess stock to resellers like Ross at deeper discounts, improving Ross’ margins and inventory positioning.

Ross indicated that tariffs still shaved about 16 cents off EPS in fiscal 2025.

In Ross’s March 3 earnings report, investors will watch guidance closely now that the IEEPA tariffs are gone. Analysts were optimistic into the report: five firms raised price targets on ROST in February, including a Street-high $232 from JPMorgan on Feb. 23.

FedEx: Trade-Volume Recovery and First-Mover Advantage on Refunds

FedEx Corp (NYSE: FDX) won’t receive the same direct margin relief as retailers, but it does gain important operational and legal advantages.

The biggest tariff benefit for FedEx is the normalization of its most lucrative trade lane: China to the U.S. Tariff-related disruptions depressed volume and pricing on that route.

FedEx executives estimated tariffs produced roughly a $1 billion revenue headwind in fiscal 2025, a drag that should be easier to manage now that IEEPA rates have been vacated.

FedEx was also the first company to sue the U.S. government seeking refunds after the Supreme Court decision. If successful, it could recover up to $1 billion and potentially share some of that relief with shippers. One caveat: FDX shares rallied on the news and the stock appears overbought on the Relative Strength Index (RSI). A pullback toward the 50-day moving average may offer a more attractive entry for new investors.

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Further Reading: Buy this Gold Stock Before May 15th, 2026(From Golden Portfolio)