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Bank of America (BAC): Is Its Wealth Business More Valuable Than the Headline Bank Suggests?
Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) has a wealth franchise that deserves attention beyond lending spreads. Second-quarter 2026 Global Wealth and Investment Management net income reached $1.41 billion, roughly 16% of group earnings. That contribution matters when comparing bank stocks favored by billionaires: advisory fees diversify revenue, although rising markets still influence their value. Bank of […]
Baidu (BIDU) Expands Its AI Business, but the Core Revenue Recovery Remains Uncertain
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) is expanding autonomous driving and AI services while its traditional business stays under pressure. That raises a hard valuation question: can the new activities grow fast enough, and profitably enough, to replace what the established business is losing? At roughly 19 times forward earnings, investors pay for that transition to work. They […]
Boy George joins Eretz Nehederet as election satire exposes 'monkey business' in Israeli politics
Boy George joins Eretz Nehederet for its final episode before Israel's elections, as the comedy show takes aim at Netanyahu, Eisenkot, campaign scandals, and political rivalries.
Germophobe Primates Want to Avoid Getting Sick, Too
Some monkeys become significantly more cautious about food sources that appear contaminated after experiencing deadly outbreaks of disease.
Monkeys also avoid germs after viral outbreaks
Macaques who survived the spread of a deadly disease were more wary of potentially contaminated food.
Meta (META): Can WhatsApp Become a Meaningful Business Beyond Advertising?
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is turning business conversations into revenue. Paid WhatsApp messaging helped Family of Apps other revenue grow 73% to $1.01 billion in the second quarter of 2026, following 74% growth in the first. That category includes subscriptions and other services and represented just 1.7% of group revenue. Expanding messaging alternatives make merchant […]
Netanyahu condemns Magal's 'monkey' remark against Eisenkot, calls out opposition
Netanyahu condemned Magal's insult to Eisenkot but accused the opposition of double standards for attacking Likud voters. Ben-Gvir defended Magal.
Arista vs. Vertiv: Which AI Infrastructure Business Has the Bigger Profit Cushion?
Arista and Vertiv rank tenth and ninth in our 10 Best AI Infrastructure Stocks to Buy for the Long Term. The list shows which eight infrastructure businesses attracted more hedge-fund holders. Both benefit when AI campuses become operational, but their profit cushions differ sharply. Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) supplies data-center networking; Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) […]
Nvidia vs. AMD: Which AI Business Has More Room for Margins to Fall?
What separates earnings resilience between NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)? Both sell AI compute, but a dollar of lost margin has a very different effect on their current profits. The stocks rank first and fifth in our 10 Best AI Infrastructure Stocks to Buy for the Long Term, respectively. See which […]
Nvidia vs. AMD: Which Business Is More Exposed to a Data-Center Slowdown?
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) depends far more heavily on data centers than Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD). That makes AMD more diversified by reported sales, although diversification alone cannot establish which stock is safer. The two AI stocks made it to our list of Best AI Infrastructure Stocks to Buy for the Long Term, but their revenue […]
Ubisoft plans cuts at German studios, adding to wave of workforce reductions
Ubisoft is planning to reduce its workforce in Germany, where it operates a trio of studios, by about 100 workers, Game File has learned. The company wants to offer employees buyouts to, should enough people accept, avoid having to lay anyone off. “In Germany, we initiated discussions with the Works Council last week regarding a proposed voluntary departure plan across Ubisoft Dusseldorf, Ubisoft Berlin & Ubisoft Mainz,” a company rep told Game File. A “works council” is a union-like group representing employees. “The voluntary plan is the primary measure being proposed to support the intended organizational changes,” the Ubisoft rep added. The company declined to confirm the scale of the potential headcount cut. Of the impacted studios, Mainz might be the best known to the public. It leads development of the Anno series and shipped the well-reviewed strategy game Anno 117: Pax Romana in November 2025. Berlin and Dusseldorf operate as support studios within Ubisoft’s creative network. Berlin recently supported the development of Rainbow Six Siege and the Rayman Legends Retold remake. Dusseldorf also contributed to those projects, as well as The Settlers and Ubisoft-branded escape rooms. Dusseldorf is the biggest of the three studios, with some 400+ workers, compared to just over 100 at the other two, a source familiar with the reductions and the teams told Game File. More than half of these new reductions of about 100 people are expected to happen at Dusseldorf. The planned cuts were announced at a town hall for the German studios on Tuesday of last week. In an email follow-up, the studio group’s managing director, Benedikt Grindel, said the cuts were intended to “best position our German studios for the future... with a clearer focus on their role, capabilities and organizational setup needed for the work ahead.” The email was an echo of the past. In January 2025, Grindel had emailed the Ubisoft developers in his region (or studio “zone”) to explain that a round of 185 cuts at the time, including about 65 at Dusseldorf, were “essential to improve our operational efficiency and ensure the long-term sustainability of our studios, the zone and the company.” A half-decade of continued job cuts Ubisoft has been aggressively cutting its headcount for years. At the end of September 2022, it had 20,729 workers. By the end of March 2026, that total was down to 16,590. Studio management is trying to trim costs as it grapples with a changing industry and a drought of releases, let alone hits. The company announced earlier this year that it had reduced its costs since 2022 by “nearly €325 million” ($362m) and planned to lower them through 2028 by another €180 million ($200m). In June the company said it was closing down its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios and cutting roles in its Barcelona team. Even commercial and creative success hasn’t spared studios from this ongoing company-wide contraction. As Game File was nailing down details around the proposed cuts in Germany, Ubisoft management was informing workers of cuts in its Singapore studio, which shipped a hit remake of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag this past July. Some 70 positions in Singapore are being eliminated “to align the studio with upcoming production needs,” per a company rep’s statement to Game File. In early 2024, a large team in the Singapore studio launched the multiplayer pirate game Skull & Bones. It performed poorly but has been supported with regular content updates since. Many of Ubisoft’s studios around the world are heavily subsidized via regional grants and tax breaks. Singapore had been among them for years, but received no such local assistance in the 12 months ending this past March. News of the Singapore cuts broke today alongside word that Ubisoft is also proposing the closure of RedLynx, pending negotiations with officials. The Finnish studio behind the motorbike series Trials was founded in 2000 and sold to Ubisoft in 2011. As reported by VGC (and corroborated by Game File), Ubisoft management told employees it could not come up with a new, sustainable assignment for RedLynx. The 2025 workforce at Ubisoft Dusseldorf were straight-up cuts. This time, Ubisoft is hoping the reductions at its trio of German studios will largely come from workers taking a payout to leave. The company offered such voluntary dismissals at its Massive Entertainment studio (The Division) a year ago. For the German studios’ buyouts this time around, Ubisoft and the Works Council had discussed a formula that’d pay a worker’s monthly salary multiplied by 1.5 and by the number of years they’ve worked at the company, according to Game File sources. The formula is still subject to negotiations with the Works Council and has not yet been part of an official offer to workers. It could be adjusted up or down, and it could be supplemented with additional bonuses. Asked about the floated payout formula, a Ubisoft rep told Game File, “The terms of a potential voluntary departure program remain subject to negotiation with employee representatives. No final agreement has been reached, and we won’t comment on specific proposals while discussions are ongoing.” Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Epic’s AI adventures Epic Games (Fortnite, the Unreal engine) is all-in on using AI to try to transform the way it makes video games and game-making tools. It’s leaders appear to be undeterred by any resistance among gamers and some game developers around generative AI—and instead emboldened by advances, particularly in AI-assisted programming. A recap of the last three days: On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Epic management told workers last week that development of an upcoming game combining Star Wars and Marvel characters would be “AI first.” Employees would be expected to use AI models such as Claude to code the game. A manager told Epic’s developers there would be “[n]o more hand-written code” and that art for the game would be “generated with full AI workflows,” per the outlet. Just ahead of that story running, Epic founder Tim Sweeney tweeted: “We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal.” In a follow-up, Sweeney predicted that most game development processes would be at least three times faster a year from now than they were in January 2026, thanks to AI. To a person on X who told him he was failing to read the room, Sweeney said: “Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it’s not. Our job, as the provider of tools and technology to much of the industry, is to design for the present that is and the future that will soon be.” On Wednesday, Epic announced it was releasing a faster launcher for its Epic Games Store marketplace. It did so by stating in a blog post as clear as could be that the launcher is an AI-enabled, vibe-coded project: Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look. Programming is hard? That was unexpected phrasing from a company founded by a legendarily great programmer. Back in 2011, Sweeney told me that he’d picked up programming quickly as a kid and rejoiced at the power it gave him. “I could look at any program that anybody else had written and, with enough effort, build something cooler.” Item 3: The Xbox Labs experiment (and one of the people behind it) Microsoft’s Xbox division, which is flooding the zone with announcements lately, yesterday revealed a new internal tech-tinkering team called Xbox Labs. In the words of Xbox boss Asha Sharma Labs is “a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience.” Conventional wisdom coming out of the announcement is that Labs is a team that’ll focus on ideas driven by generative AI. In her announcement, Sharma cited some of the dizzying achievements in tech and gaming over the past month as AI agents and other AI tools have been deployed to swiftly figure out how popular games work, then rebuild them and mix them up. She mentioned seeing ”games rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support” and said “[p]erhaps more surprisingly, we’ve seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another.” (Minecraft plus Elden Ring, for example, or Fortnite + Super Monkey Ball + Overwatch + Diablo + others.) Sharma also cited the work of Windows PC games being ported to run in browsers, a seeming reference to a recent AI-assisted fan port of Halo. Or perhaps Call of Duty or GTA. Sharma didn’t use the specific term “AI” in her memo, but she came close, citing AI “agents” and their potential for game-making tools that Labs could help craft: I think XBOX has an important role to play here. Coding became the first major workload for agents because they can write, run, and test software. Games share many of those same properties, and people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing XBOX games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. We’ve spent 25 years learning how to make great games, and I want our game makers to help shape what these new technologies make possible. As we learn, we’ll share the tools we build with developers across the industry, just as we always have. When I asked an Xbox rep if Labs was an AI-centric team, they said genAI was not the focus, describing it as having a broader mandate for using new tech in new ways in gaming. As an example, they pointed to Xbox’s recently launched disc-to-digital gaming usage rights program. Microsoft didn’t specifically name anyone involved full-time in Xbox Labs yesterday, but on social media and LinkedIn, I spotted Adrian Mato IDing himself as leading the creatio of tools at Labs and talking up the launch. Mato first caught my attention in late September, when he said on X that he was “starting to build a new team at Xbox focused on products and tools for how games get built and distributed as agentic tools become more capable.” At the time, he framed AI-based tools as a supplement to traditional game dev tools. “I don’t think we need to replace them,” he said. Since then, he’s publicly shown interest in AI and in games. He’s recently spent some of his X feed marveling at the power of AI agents and praising the lighting in the latest Gears of War. Following the Labs announcement yesterday, he enthused about the Xbox Labs’ stylish landing page. He wrote: “We built some fun tools to art-direct shaders in real time, experimented with interactive ASCII art, and sprinkled in lots of tiny details. “Move your mouse to leave a colorful trail that reveals the original footage, or interact with the video to trigger bursts of particles. “A lot of love went into making it all feel just right. “More to come”
Amazon (AMZN) Has a $25B Chip Business. Is the Cash Burn Worth It?
Most people think of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) as the place their packages come from. The part of the company drawing the most attention right now sells something far less visible: custom AI chips. In the second quarter of 2026, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said its chips business and its AI business had each passed a $25 […]
Illumina’s (ILMN) Sequencing Business Is Recovering, But Is the Stock Getting Ahead of Itself?
Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) has returned 118% over the past six months, compared to a 21.25% return for the Insider Monkey Billionaire Index and 14% for State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust. Illumina has given investors a reason to look at it differently in 2026. After years of dealing with growth challenges and strategic distractions, […]
CVS Health’s Valuation Suggests Opportunity, but Can Earnings Deliver?
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) operates across several areas of healthcare, including health insurance, pharmacy benefit management, and retail pharmacy services. Although its diverse range of businesses provides it with access to a variety of revenue sources, increasing medical costs, pressures relating to reimbursement, and ongoing regulatory scrutiny are still affecting its profitability. For investors, the main […]
Intel (INTC) Fixed Its Chip Business. Can the Foundry Earn the Premium?
For years, the easy line on Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was that it had become a fallen giant, losing ground on chip design and manufacturing at the same time. That line has aged badly. The stock now trades at a multiple usually reserved for high-flying growth names. Here’s the twist: the part of Intel that best explains […]
Jim Cramer Breaks Down the Complicated Story Behind CVS Health’s (CVS) Decline
During the October 6 episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer examined whether CVS Health Corporation’s (NYSE:CVS) turnaround still has room to run after the stock’s sharp retreat from its summer highs. CVS ranked ninth among 10 stocks screened for a potential bear market. The criteria behind its inclusion offer another way to assess the turnaround […]
Jim Cramer Weighs MasTec’s (MTZ) Business Against the Selling Pressure
Toward the end of the October 6 lightning round of Mad Money, a caller asked about MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ). Jim Cramer acknowledged its operating performance but remained reluctant to buy, as he said: This thing has been crushed. I mean, it’s been crushed. And you know what? It’s doing pretty well. It’s not even that […]
HSBC’s Synopsys Upgrade Bets on a Business Model Shift. Can It Justify $700?
HSBC upgraded Synopsys Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS) to Buy from Hold on September 25 and raised its price target from $490 to $700, implying a multiple of nearly 35 times HSBC’s fiscal 2027 EPS estimates. According to analyst Frank Lee, the company is evolving beyond its traditional slow-growth software profile as its licensing-plus-royalty model and agentic AI […]
Biodome, future home to rainforest animals, takes shape at Greensboro Science Center
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — The Greensboro Science Center is one step closer to welcoming new species like sloths, spider monkeys and clouded leopards. Construction on the Greensboro Biodome, which w…
Option Care Health (OPCH) Rockets as CD&R, McKesson Table 37% Premium Bid
Option Care Health Inc. (NASDAQ:OPCH) soared by as much as 33 percent on Tuesday to $31.11 apiece following news that it is merging with Clayson, Dubilier, & Rice LLC (CD&R) and McKesson Corp. for $5.8 billion. In a joint statement, the firms said that they entered into a definitive agreement under which they will acquire […]
Caterpillar is a Great Business. But is CAT Stock a Great Buy?
Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) is having a strong year. Construction and mining demand remain solid, infrastructure spending is creating more opportunities, and the rapid buildout of data centers is opening another market for the company’s power equipment. The latest numbers make that clear. Sales and revenues reached a record $20.5 billion in the latest quarter, up […]
Jim Cramer Likes the Nat-Gas Liquids Business and Highlights This Stock
During the episode aired on September 28, Cramer mentioned Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD), as he was highlighting the disruptions and operational bottlenecks plaguing infrastructure in the Gulf. He remarked: And I like the nat-gas liquids business, which is just crushing it in America because all the problems in the Gulf. It’s Enterprise Product Partners, […]
Israel boss shuns politics before Republic of Ireland clash
Israel boss Ran Ben-Shimon insisted he is “not dealing with any politics” ahead of his side’s behind-closed-doors Nations League meeting with the Republic of Ireland in Serbia on Sunday. Republic manager Heimir Hallgrimsson’s press conference on Saturday morning in Backa Topola ended abruptly following a confrontational conclusion, after an Israeli journalist accused Irish players of calling their opponents "monkeys" in Hungary, where the reverse fixture was held.
Sea Monkeys Show Scientists How To Rewrite a Rule of Turbulence
Scientists assumed that energy flows in only one direction in a turbulent system. What they didn’t know, until they looked closely at brine shrimp, was that a simple factor can reverse the flow.
Elevance Health (ELV): Conviction Pays Off as Underwriting Disciplines Stabilize Margins
Cambiar Opportunity Fund, managed by Cambiar Investors, published its Q2 2026 investor letter. The letter can be downloaded here. U.S. equity markets experienced a significant rebound in Q2, with the S&P 500 rising 15.2% and the Russell 2000 up 21.5%. Growth stocks outperformed value, although value retained a year-to-date lead. The market’s rise was fueled […]
Good science requires much more than evidence
Empiricists believe that scientific theories are true only if they make correct empirical predictions: if we can't verify these predictions, then there is no reason to expect that they tell us anything about reality. However, Professor of Philosophy at King's College David Kyle Johnson argues that this is mistaken. In response to Bas van Fraassen, who has written on this subject for the IAI, he argues that we have many reasons for believing a theory to be true, such as it being parsimonious and having large scope — qualities which have been used throughout the history of science as criteria for judging theories. In 2024, Princeton philosopher Bas van Fraassen wrote a short article for IAI News entitled “Science Does not Describe Reality: The Limits and Benefits of Explanation.” At the time, I was working on two projects (a science book and a Great Course) that, when completed, would (among other things) defend science’s ability to describe reality. I wanted to write a response to van Fraassen, but the projects demanded too much of my attention. But now that those projects are complete, I am in a position to explain the objections to van Fraassen’s thesis. Summarizing van Fraassen’s argumentIn a nutshell, his argument is this: What scientists do is make predictions based on theories and then invite others to test to see whether those predictions are borne out. “If theory T is right, result R should happen in experimental condition C.” Many think that running an experiment that shows that R happens in condition C is proof that theory T is true (and should be believed). But, van Fraassen argues, that R happened in condition C is only a reason to think that R happens in condition C. That’s the only observable, or empirical, result we can actually see, so that is all that we are really justified in believing. (The underlying theory that made that prediction still may or may not be true.) That is why he calls those who accept his position “empiricists.”Before I explain what is wrong with this position, let me explain what it gets right. What van Fraassen Gets RightFirst, a theory correctly predicting the results of an experiment is not, strictly speaking, “proof” that the theory is correct. The basic line of reasoning is this:If the theory T is true, result R should happen. Result R did happen. Thus, theory T is true.In other words:“If T then R. R. Thus, T.”This is a deductively invalid, fallacious mode of reasoning, called “affirming the consequent.” Those premises do not guarantee that the conclusion follows. “If I am in Pennsylvania, then I am in the USA. I am in the USA. Thus, I am in Pennsylvania.” Clearly that argument doesn’t guarantee its conclusion; neither does the above argument.However, science is not a deductive method of reasoning; it is an inductive one. And inductive arguments merely try to raise the probability of their conclusion, not “prove” them for certain. Thus, the fact that an experimental result doesn’t prove a theory is true is irrelevant; it’s not supposed to. That is not what scientific reasoning is about.___If the hypothesis that something exists clearly provides the best explanation for what we can observe, then the belief that it exists is what is rational.___Second, it’s also true that a single experimental result doesn’t provide enough justification to believe that a theory is true. Scientists do not come to a consensus about whether a theory is true by looking at a single experiment; they look at all the evidence to determine where the preponderance of evidence points. The mere fact that I am in the USA raises the probability that I am in Pennsylvania, but not nearly enough to conclude that I am in Pennsylvania. However, if I am also regularly encountering people wearing Eagles and Phillies hats and seeing advertisements for Founding Father tours, I probably am. In the same way, a theory successfully predicting the outcome of one experiment is not enough to conclude that it is true; but if a theory makes a wide variety of predictions that are all vindicated by multiple experiments, performed by many different groups and people, all actively trying to prove the theory false (which is what good scientific experiments are designed to do)—that is a good reason to conclude that the theory is true. In other words, if you repeatedly try to prove something false but can’t, that is a very good indication that it isn’t. The problem of underdeterminationIn reply, those whom van Fraassen calls “empiricists” often point to the “problem of underdetermination.” For any given theory that makes successful predictions about what happens in experimental conditions, there are countless other possible theories that make exactly the same predictions—and since they do, the experimental evidence in question is just as much reason to accept any of those theories as it is to accept our original one. Thus, the argument goes, we have no way of knowing whether our original theory is true, or one of the other “predictively equivalent” theories is true. SUGGESTED VIEWING How Occam's Razor changed the world With Johnjoe McFadden As an example of underdetermination, philosophers often offer this example. The evidence of fossils seems to provide reason to conclude that the universe is quite old; ancient fossils are what the “ancient universe” hypothesis predicts. But it’s also possible that God created an ancient-looking universe 200 years ago, complete with a “fake” fossil record for us to find, to make it look old. The existence of fossils is what that theory predicts too. So, the argument goes, the fossil record can’t be used as evidence that the universe is ancient; the fossil record supports the “200-year-old ancient-looking universe” theory just as much. The problem of underdetermination points out that, for any theory with supporting evidence, we could invent another completely different theory that predicts exactly the same evidence, and thus undermine that evidence’s ability to support the original theory.But this “argument from underdetermination” betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what scientific reasoning is and how it works. To explain, let me use another rather strange (but very real and commonly discussed) philosophical thought experiment called “The Grue Problem.” The “Grue” ProblemSuppose I want to know what color emeralds are, so I observe a few, see that they all appear green, and form the theory that “all emeralds are green.” I thus predict that the next 100 emeralds I find will also appear to be green. And let’s say that happens, and so I thus conclude that my theory that all emeralds are green is true. Now, one might rightly point out that I don’t know for sure that all emeralds are green—I have not seen them all. Maybe some I haven’t found yet are blue. Fair enough. After all, we used to think that all swans were white, until we found some black ones. But let’s say that I go on a quest and collect every emerald in the universe—and, for the sake of the argument, let’s say I can do this, and can even know that I have every one of them. So, I collect them all, look at them all, and verify that they all appear green. Can’t I now rightly conclude that all emeralds are green?Inspired by the problem of underdetermination, a friend might argue that I cannot.Sure, they all appear green now—but there could be another kind of color called “grue.” Something is grue if it is green up to a certain point in time, but then spontaneously turns blue. And there could be an infinite number of “shades” of grue. Something that is one shade of grue will turn blue at noon today, but something that is another shade of grue will turn blue at noon tomorrow, etc. So yes, the emeralds appear green now; and since they haven’t turned blue yet, they are not some “past” shade of grue. But they might be some “future” shade of grue (e.g., they may turn blue at noon tomorrow). And since all future shades of grue are consistent with “being green up to this point in time,” the evidence you have is completely consistent with the notion that all emeralds are some future shade of grue, rather than green. Indeed, that they would appear green until now is what the “some future shade of grue” hypothesis predicts. So, we have just as much reason to conclude that all emeralds are some shade of grue as we do to conclude that they are green.You’re probably thinking “It’s not equally possible that the emeralds are grue; they are obviously green.” You are right! But explaining why your instinctive reaction to my friend’s argument is correct will help inform why van Fraassen’s “empiricist” is wrong and science actually does describe reality.The main mistake my friend makes is in thinking that the “empirical evidence” (of all the emeralds appearing green) is (or even should be) all I am using to draw the conclusion that all emeralds are green. It is not. I am also considering known facts about how colors typically work; things don’t usually change color, and when they do, they don’t do so suddenly, without cause, and all at once. So, even though the simple evidence of the emeralds all appearing green up to this point is consistent with them being some future shade of grue—that is even what the grue hypothesis “predicts”—it is still exceedingly unlikely that they are. The hypothesis that they are green is much more likely. Understanding science refutes the problem of underdetermination The misunderstanding about science that the “empiricist” pointing to “the problem of underdetermination” makes is similar to the one that my friend made. Science is not just about considering experimental evidence; in fact, it’s not even just about considering empirical evidence. As Ernan McMullin and many other philosophers of science have pointed out, the inference that makes science is “inference to the best explanation” (sometimes called “abduction” or “retroduction” by McMullin). While, depending on the circumstances, scientists use many different kinds of reasoning, science as a whole is, simply put, the process of considering multiple competing explanations and comparing them to certain criteria—explanatory criteria (the kinds of things explanations must be and do, by definition, to be a good explanation)—to see which explanation is the best.And these criteria do not deal only with empirical results. Yes, successful predictions raise the probability of a hypothesis, but it’s also the case that the more new assumptions a theory makes, the less likely it is to be true; every new assumption presents an opportunity for the theory to be false. (The fewer assumptions a theory makes, the simpler or “more parsimonious” it is said to be.) Likewise, the more existing evidence a theory contradicts, the less likely it is, because in order for a theory to be true, every piece of evidence it contradicts has to be somehow faulty. (The fewer established theories a new theory contradicts, the more “conservative” it is said to be.) And, obviously, the more something explains, the better explanation it is. (This is called having “scope.”) If a theory raises unanswerable questions, it’s not expanding our understanding, and thus is not wide-scoping. Scientists consider all these things when deciding which theory to accept, because the theory that adheres best to these explanatory criteria is most likely to be true.___the mere fact that a theory’s predictive success is why it “sticks around” or “becomes accepted” in the scientific community is not a reason to be skeptical about its truth.___The reason the grue hypothesis is no good is because it invents an entirely new kind of color—not just a new shade, but an entirely different category of color (a different way colors work)—and thus is not parsimonious. It raises unanswerable questions about how and why emeralds would just spontaneously change from green to blue (and thus does not have wide scope). And it contradicts what is already well established about how color works (and thus is unconservative).The theories that the problem of underdetermination points to do the same thing. Yes, the theory that God created an “ancient-looking universe” (complete with an ancient-looking fossil record) two hundred years ago is also consistent with the empirical evidence (of a fossil record) that presently exists; but that theory is monumentally unparsimonious (it requires many extra assumptions about infinite entities) and not wide-scoping (it raises unanswerable questions about why God would do such a thing). So, I can rationally conclude that it is false.Indeed, the history of science includes many examples of theories that were rejected because they lacked parsimony and/or scope, even before their falsity (and the truth of their competing theory) was confirmed by observation. As I point out in my book, geocentrism was rejected by the scientific community because it lacked parsimony, almost 200 years before the observation of parallax confirmed that the Earth moves around the sun. And the continuum theory of matter was completely rejected by 1860, because it couldn’t explain chemical reactions or organize matter into a periodic table, even though the experiments that eventually confirmed atomic theory weren’t even proposed until the 1870s. Solving the best of a bad lot problemIn response, the “empiricists” are likely to object, this time pointing to the “best of a bad lot” problem. “We have no reason to conclude that an explanation that has been shown to be better than others is true because we have no guarantee that the true theory was among those that we were considering.” If you have a “lot” (a collection) of poor explanations, even the best one is not true.The responses to this problem, however, are numerous. Peter Lipton argues that the set of hypotheses that scientists consider are not just randomly selected and thus unlikely to contain a theory that is true; they use existing knowledge to home in on what is most likely to be true. A doctor trying to explain abdominal pain is not going to bother wondering whether demons are causing it; they are going to stick with things like appendicitis and kidney stones, because they are most likely. Further, despite its name, inference to the best explanation is not just the process of comparing hypotheses and accepting the best one; we also want one that is a good explanation in its own right. If it’s not, we are going to keep looking until we find an explanation that is. And while that process does not guarantee that we will come across the exact truth, it’s very likely that the theory that emerges as the best will be at least approximately true, and thus we will be justified in believing it. And lastly, as I point out in my book, although many theories not based in scientific evidence (like geocentrism and continuum theory) have been completely overturned, science almost always progresses by the refinement of scientifically established theories—not their replacement. (Although our sun is not the center of the universe, heliocentrism was our first step in understanding the Earth’s true place in the universe.) So even if a theory we accept today may not be completely right, accepting it is a step on the journey toward the complete truth. The example of atomic theoryNow, it’s worth pointing out that most empiricists are not skeptical of all scientific theories; they are only skeptical of the ones that hypothesize the existence of “unobservables.” It’s not like they think that round Earth, heliocentrism, and germ theory are just useful (but untrue) “instruments” for making predictions about how to most efficiently navigate the seas, predict planetary motion, and treat diseases. They admit that the Earth actually is round, that the planets revolve around the sun, and that germs exist and cause disease. These facts and entities can be observed; the theories that suggest they exist are true. It’s only when theories start hypothesizing the existence of unobservables—like electrons, or quantum fields—that can’t be observed directly, that we should start doubting the theories’ truth. And to be fair to van Fraassen, in this published work, he doesn’t really say that we should doubt the truth of such theories. Only that scientific reasoning does not rationally force us to accept them as true. Skepticism, or agnosticism, he argues, is warranted. SUGGESTED READING Science is based in metaphor By Andrew Reynolds But the history of atomic theory throws a monkey wrench into that argument. Atoms used to be unobservable; again, scientists first accepted the theory that they exist because it had such grandiose explanatory power. But then atoms were seen with electron microscopes. They thus moved into the category of the observable. But this didn’t substantially change anything about what scientists were justified in believing; it certainly didn’t change any “atomic skeptics’” minds. It just confirmed what everyone already knew! If the hypothesis that something exists clearly provides the best explanation for what we can observe, then the belief that it exists is what is rational. The fact that the thing itself is not technically observable does not make doubting its existence rational.What’s more, the atoms were seen with an electron microscope. But electrons are themselves unobservable. How can an electron microscope reveal an atom if electrons are not real? This leads us to what is famously known as Hilary Putnam’s “miracle argument.” It’s (not) a miraclePhilosopher Hilary Putnam’s miracle argument is somewhat famous. Basically, he argued that a scientific theory being able to repeatedly make successful predictions—even about unobservables—without being at least approximately true would require a “miracle.” In other words, it would be such an improbable occurrence that it could not rationally be believed—the better explanation for why scientific theories about unobservables make the right predictions is because the unobservable entities and structures they hypothesize exist.Van Fraassen has addressed this argument. Indeed, in his original article, where he references Alison Gopnik’s point about orgasms not being “necessary for procreation” even though the desire for orgasm “drives the creation of progeny,” he is pointing to his own argument about how organisms are not naturally selected by evolution to get true beliefs; to the extent that belief-forming processes are selected for, the ones that are selected are the ones that are useful for survival—not the ones that produce true beliefs. In the same way, van Fraassen argues, scientific theories are accepted, not because they are true, but because they aren’t falsified; they make successful predictions; that’s what makes them “stick around.” So, the fact that they make successful predictions (and thus became accepted) is not a reason to think they are true.This argument is similar to C. S. Lewis’s “argument from reason,” which he used to argue against evolution: “The truth of evolution undercuts our ability to know that it is true.” Lewis’ argument famously failed; Elizabeth Anscombe, by Lewis’s own admission, demolished Lewis in a debate on the topic, and I have explained elsewhere why modified versions of the argument fail as well. In short, it’s because it fails to recognize that a belief-forming process can make an organism more likely to survive because it reliably produces true beliefs. It is therefore not the case that beliefs generated by naturally selected belief-forming processes are automatically false or unjustified.In the same way, the reason a theory “sticks around” could be because it’s not falsified, because it “makes correct predictions.” But the reason it makes correct predictions is most likely because it is true. (In pointing this out, I am echoing the arguments of Musgrave, Lipton, Psillos, and Kitcher, who refuted van Fraassen’s argument and analogy long before his 2024 article.) It would be a huge coincidence that it could do so without being true. And that is the point of Putnam’s miracle argument. Thus, contrary to van Fraassen’s suggestion, the mere fact that a theory’s predictive success is why it “sticks around” or “becomes accepted” in the scientific community is not a reason to be skeptical about its truth. ConclusionLet me close by saying something about the fact that empiricists don’t doubt the truth of all scientific theories, just the ones that hypothesize unobservables. In today’s society, this theory is dangerous to espouse publicly. The nuance between being skeptical about all of science, and just the highly technical theories about unobservables, is guaranteed to be lost to the average reader. And there is so much unjustified skepticism and doubt about the findings of science and experts that a headline like “Science Does Not Describe Reality” could easily fuel the anti-science movement, worsen climate change denial and cause the next pandemic.This is why I believe it was important to still respond to van Fraassen’s article, a full two years after he wrote it. Not only, as I have argued, does it represent a philosophically inaccurate view of how scientific reasoning works and what scientific reasoning can do, but it is a dangerous view to boot. It should thus be rejected.
SpaceX (SPCX): Can Its Business Justify Its Ludicrous Valuation?
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IBM is Building a Bigger Software Business. Can Its Balance Sheet Keep Up?
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TKO Group Holdings (TKO) Benefit from Strong Demand for Sports and Entertainment
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AMC Entertainment (AMC) Plans $3.97 Billion Refinancing. Can It Buy More Time?
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Shift4 Payments (FOUR): A Stock Priced for Trouble, a Business Still Compounding Underneath
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Could AI Commerce Reshape Meta (META)’s Business Model?
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4D Wizard Of Oz Success Could Be A Game Changer For Sphere Entertainment Stock
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Apple (AAPL) Plans a Health App Overhaul. Can Better Insights Boost Device Sales?
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The Supreme Court just threw a new monkey wrench at the midterms. Here’s what to know
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Twilio (TWLO) Keeps Climbing as Investors Rediscover its AI Business
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How ‘One Piece’ became sports’ biggest crossover sensation: MoneyCall
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Exceptional Earnings and AI Immunity Fuel Hinge Health’s (HNGE) Performance
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Here’s What Strengthened CVS Health (CVS) in Q2
Polaris Capital Management, an investment management company, released its second-quarter 2026 investor letter for “Global Equity Strategy”. The letter can be downloaded here. Global markets delivered strong gains during the quarter, supported by an AI-driven earnings rally despite elevated interest rates, inflation concerns, and geopolitical uncertainty. Polaris Global Equity Composite (net of fees) returned 13.26% […]
Is PENN Entertainment (PENN) Stock a Buy After Its Latest Multi-Million Dollar Bet?
Analyzing a gaming and entertainment operator requires looking past headline-grabbing project announcements to examine underlying cash generation, portfolio compounding, and capital allocation discipline. PENN Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN) has spent recent periods restructuring its debt profile, improving operating margins, and refining its regional asset footprint to focus on higher-return landside venues. While the company has made measurable […]
Durable Business Strengths Underpin Vontier Corp’s (VNT) Long-Term Growth Outlook
The London Company, an investment management company, released its second-quarter 2026 investor letter for its “Small Cap Strategy.” U.S. equities rebounded in the quarter, driven by AI infrastructure spending and positive earnings. The letter can be downloaded here. Despite this optimism, rate outlook uncertainty persisted. Technology, previously weak, surged to lead the market, especially in semiconductors, […]
Xpeng’s Tech-Licensing Expansion Meets a Core Auto Business Still Losing Money
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Monkey business: Hundreds line up to shop UT, Roller Rabbit pajama partnership
The line of eager faces stretched nearly a quarter of a mile. Hundreds of customers, some of whom waited almost six hours, patiently anticipated the Roller Rabbit and University of Tennessee collaborative pop-up Monday morning. The two-day event brings a limited edition collection of pajamas designed exclusively for Vols, featuring the brand’s “iconic” monkey-covered pattern...
Fastly Inc. (FSLY) Jumps 15% Ahead of Tuesday’s Key Business Updates; Hedge Fund Conviction Weak
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Here’s What Lifted BrightSpring Health Services (BTSG)
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Jersey Mike’s (JMKE) Owns the Sub Business. Winning Over Younger Diners is the Next Fight
On September 1, 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported that Jersey Mike’s Subs Inc. (NYSE:JMKE), a Blackstone-backed sandwich chain that went public in July, has built a dominant position with affluent, older customers but still needs to attract Generation Z to sustain its growth, since roughly 70% of its customers skew toward older, more established […]
HCA Healthcare (HCA) Acquires a Healthcare College. Can Training Capacity Improve Staffing?
HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) announced on September 15 that it had completed its acquisition of The College of Health Care Professions. The institution serves more than 8,000 students annually through 10 Texas campuses and online programs, offering more than 20 accredited healthcare programs. For HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), the opportunity is to connect education more […]
Brookfield Business (BBUC) Joins Reliance Deal. What Returns Can it Capture?
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Why politicians should pay more attention to the polls (reprise)
Welcome to the 231st edition of The Week in Polls (TWIP), a polling newsletter that always welcomes new readers. So please don’t keep TWIP a secret; share it with your friends and colleagues: Share The Week in Polls With all the stories swirling around Reform, JL Partners and political polling, I am finally tearing myself away from talking about the regulation of polling this week - and instead re-running a previous piece reminding us why the solution to problems with polls isn’t simply to ban or ignore them. Rather, we need them to play a vital role in making our politics - and politicians - better. This is followed by summaries of the latest national voting intention polls, seat projections from MRPs and the most recent party leader ratings. Subscribers who pay for the full edition can also read ten insights from the latest polls and analyses, including: A trio of organisations and a pair of professors have been casting their eyes over the Liberal Democrats ahead of the party’s autumn conference; What impact did the summer heatwave have on views on climate change? and Which wins out between chocolate and cheese? If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can read all ten by starting a free trial now: Get FREE 7-day trial For more polling news as it comes in ahead of next week’s edition, you can also follow The Week in Polls on Bluesky. Picking up on my doubt last week about whether or not 35% of British train travellers have tried to order a takeaway for delivery to a railway station or carriage, thank you to reader Iain, who has been in touch to say he has done just that… in India. Another quick pair of updates, this time on the controversies around Reform and polling. Politico has a further scoop - “Farage aide caught in donor sting attended Egypt retreat with JL Partners” - and Ian Dunt has written about the problems with polling too: “Seeing the response of many polling experts in the last few weeks suggests that they are nervous about what is happening and keen to mitigate against it. Seeing the response of journalists, which has been basically non-existent, suggests the precise opposite.” My usual reminder as well: please do hit reply if you’ve spotted a poll, focus group or new piece of poll-based research that you think should be in contention for coverage in a future edition. Thank you! And with that, on with the show. How politicians get public opinion wrong I have written before about the benefits that come from widespread availability of high-quality political polling. We need more polls and more good coverage of polls. However, what I’ve not dug into before is the research into how accurately politicians estimate public opinion on issues. Thankfully we have academic research to tell us. First, the bad news: We present results from a study of 866 politicians in four countries.1 Politicians were asked to estimate the percentage of public support for various policy proposals. Comparing more than 10,000 estimations with actual levels of public support, we conclude that politicians are quite inaccurate estimators of people’s preferences. They make large errors and even regularly misperceive what a majority of the voters wants. Politicians are hardly better at estimating public preferences than ordinary citizens. Walgrave, S., Jansen, A., Sevenans, J., Soontjens, K., Pilet, J.B., Brack, N., Varone, F., Helfer, L., Vliegenthart, R., van der Meer, T., Breunig, C., Bailer, S., Sheffer, L. & Loewen, P.J. (2023a), “Inaccurate Politicians: Elected Representatives’ Estimations of Public Opinion in Four Countries”, The Journal of Politics, 85(1): 209-222. The bad news is not quite as bad as that makes it sound because, when asked whether the majority of public opinion was for or against various policies, politicians picked the wrong option ‘only’ 29% of the time. However, this included getting it wrong even when public opinion is far from evenly split on an issue: They do not only get it wrong when the public is divided and hard to read (e.g., when there is a 51%:49% distribution). Seventy percent of the misplacements occur for policies with a relatively clear distribution of at least 60% (dis)agreeing citizens. Moreover, the public scored only slightly worse than politicians, picking the wrong option 2.7 out of 8 times on average, compared with 2.3 times for politicians. Turning to the other measure of accuracy (not which side is in the lead but what the percentage support is for each side), politicians on average were 18 percentage points out in their guesses. Again, this was only slightly better than the public, whose error came in at 21 percentage points.2 Further research, using the same mix of countries, gives a little more comfort about how (in)accurate perceptions are: We show that politicians have a better understanding of public opinion when they think the issue matters to voters. Further, when an issue is personally important to politicians they more accurately estimate their party supporters’ opinions. The results confirm that politicians hold more accurate perceptions of voters’ preferences when they think it is important to do so but not necessarily when the issues actually are important to voters. Butler, C., Walgrave, S., Soontjens, K. & Loewen, P.J. (2024), “Politicians are better at estimating public opinion when they think it is more salient”, Party Politics: 1–13. Even so, it’s not a good picture. The remedy for this? Politicians should spend more time reading the polls. So forward this newsletter to someone you know… Share For a more general argument against banning polls, see my 2024 piece. Is “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet” good advice or not? The latest episode of my Political Fictions podcast heads across the Atlantic for a dip into one of the political TV classics: Mark and Cory talk about a giant of American political drama for the first time this week, as they tackle The West Wing. They talk about Let Bartlet Be Bartlet, the nineteenth episode of series one. In it, Mark wonders if The West Wing is actually the epitome of the “Boris Johnson school of politics”, Cory outmanoeuvres Mark into confirming we will record a Christmas Special about Love, Actually and they debate whether the central message of this episode has been misunderstood. Cory’s email newsletter is Paperback Rioter and Mark has a family of email newsletters. Subscribe to our newsletter for some additional bonus content and to get alerted whenever a new episode comes out. Our theme tune is “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” by Kevin MacLeod/incompetech.com and licensed under the Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. You can also listen to our episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the web or YouTube. Elsewhere from me… [ A Lord's Eye View How to fix the problem of money in our politics Welcome to my latest update on work in the House of Lords. This time I am taking a look at how our political system is regulated, and the protections we need to keep democracy safe from becoming simply a contest to see who has the biggest bank account… Read more 5 days ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Mark Pack ](https://lordseyeview.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-the-problem-of-money-in?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web&embedding_publication_id=1269283) If you spot a factual error… Borrowing an idea from Stuart Ritchie and others, if you spot a factual error in an edition of this newsletter, I will give you a free 12-month subscription to the paid-for version (or an extra 12 months on your existing one). Factual errors qualify, but grammatical errors or disagreements over interpretation do not, and my decision is final. Messages about both of those are always welcome, though. Voting intention and leadership ratings Here are the latest voting intention polls from different pollsters. It is all pretty static at the moment, with a small and consistent Labour lead in nearly all the polls. The table is also online here, along with explanations about what is included. It is updated regularly throughout the week as new polls are released. Next are the seat projections from MRPs, also sorted by fieldwork dates, listing those which are based on dedicated fieldwork (rather than models based on averages of other polls). Because such MRPs are published infrequently, some of the entries below are quite old. Finally, here is a summary of leadership ratings, with a graph from PollCheck: Detailed numbers from the latest polls are online here, and both that and the graph are updated regularly throughout the week as new data comes out. For historical figures on both voting intention and leader approval stretching back to the 1930s, including Parliamentary by-election polls, see PollBase. Catch up on the previous two editions [ ](https://theweekinpolls.substack.com/p/a-crisis-point-for-political-polling) [ A crisis point for political polling Sep 13 ](https://theweekinpolls.substack.com/p/a-crisis-point-for-political-polling) [ Read full story ](https://theweekinpolls.substack.com/p/a-crisis-point-for-political-polling) [ ](https://theweekinpolls.substack.com/p/extra-questions-about-the-polls-in) [ Extra questions about the polls in Reform’s funding scandal Sep 6 ](https://theweekinpolls.substack.com/p/extra-questions-about-the-polls-in) [ Read full story ](https://theweekinpolls.substack.com/p/extra-questions-about-the-polls-in) My privacy policy and other legal information are available here. Links to purchase books or other items are usually affiliate links which pay a commission for each sale. Quotes from social media messages are occasionally lightly edited for punctuation and clarity. If you are subscribed to other email lists of mine, please note that unsubscribing from this one will not automatically remove you from the others. If you wish to be removed from all my lists, simply reply to this email to let me know. A quintet of Lib Dem polling analyses, and 9 other polling insights you shouldn’t miss The following ten findings from the most recent polls and analyses are only for subscribers who pay for the full edition, but you can sign up for a free trial to read them straight away. Ahead of the start of Liberal Democrat conference, we have a trio of organisations and a pair of professors with pieces out about Ed Davey’s party:
Business Tech News: 86% Of Solopreneurs Try AI Before Hiring
SurveyMonkey, Autodesk, Claude, QuickBooks and FreshBooks roll out new AI, security and support tools aimed at helping small businesses work smarter.
Delivery Outlook Shows Tesla (TSLA)’s Core Business Under Pressure. Its Next Growth Engine Must Deliver
Goldman Sachs has cut its delivery forecast for Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) while citing weaker sales trends across the company’s most important markets. The investment bank slashed its Q3 delivery forecast to 435,000 vehicles from 490,000. It also lowered its Q4 delivery forecast to 475,000 vehicles from 515,000. The question now is whether Tesla’s demand weakness […]
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Jim Cramer Compares Aveanna Healthcare (AVAH) With Hinge Health (HNGE)
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GameStop (GME)’s Collectibles Business is Quietly Rewriting its Profit Story
On September 8, 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) second-quarter net income of $298.7 million, up from $168.6 million a year earlier, even as revenue fell to $790.2 million from $972.2 million. The video-game retailer raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA outlook to more than $650 million from a prior target of more […]
Southwest (LUV) Finally Joins the Lounge Business it Long Rejected
Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) disclosed plans on September 2 to open its first-ever airport lounges, partnering with JPMorgan Chase on a new premium co-branded credit card launching in 2027 that will provide access, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reported. The first four lounges will open at Austin, Baltimore, Honolulu, and Nashville airports in late […]
Jim Cramer Believes Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Is “Amazing”
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Mosaic (MOS) Bets On Enzymes While Its Core Business Bleeds
On August 17, Mosaic Biosciences, a unit of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS), launched Renuvis Enzara, an enzyme-based treatment meant to speed up how fast crop residue breaks down after harvest. The launch landed less than two weeks after Mosaic reported a second-quarter net loss of $273 million, a sharp reversal from the $411 million profit […]
Bausch Health (BHC) Expands Probiotic Skincare Bet To Six New Markets
On September 8, Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE:BHC) and Belgian skincare innovator YUN announced they are extending their microbiome-focused dermatology partnership into Mexico and five additional markets spanning Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The move builds on a 2025 launch in Poland and lands just weeks after the company raised its full-year guidance […]
Here’s Why Sotera Health Company (SHC) Surges 25% in Q2
Broyhill Asset Management, a Charlotte-based firm, issued its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, which is available for download here. The Broyhill Equity Composite gained 8.8% in Q2, trailing the MSCI All Country World Index’s 15.1% and the MSCI ACWI Value Index’s 10.8%. For the first half, the Composite returned 2.3%, versus 11.5% for the Index. The […]
Everforth (EFOR) Lands $30M Pentagon Health Deal But Growth Questions Persist
On August 11, Everforth (NYSE:EFOR) said its federal segment, Everforth ECS, had won a four-year, $30 million contract to support the Defense Health Agency’s technology modernization program. The deal lands less than two weeks after Everforth’s July 29, second-quarter report showed revenue, net income, and margins all landing above the high end of management’s own […]
Monkeyflowers thrive in salty air that kills other plants
On the windswept coasts of Oregon and California lives an unassuming little plant called the monkeyflower, which can withstand salty blasts that kill its inland counterparts. Now, researchers at Michigan State University are beginning to understand how it manages to thrive in conditions that leave other plants burned, brown and withered.
Broadcom’s Anthropic Ramp Puts Google’s TPU Business in a Different Light
Broadcom’s September 2 results show custom AI hardware turning into substantial sales. On the accompanying call, management said it expected to accelerate Ironwood shipments to Anthropic in the fourth quarter. That puts Google’s TPU technology at the center of a relationship whose economics differ for Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Broadcom can sell […]
Lakeland’s (LAKE) Fire Business Is Carrying A Bumpy Turnaround
On September 9, Lakeland Industries (NASDAQ:LAKE) reported fiscal second-quarter results that told two very different stories depending on which line of the income statement you read. Net sales fell 4.5% year over year to $50.1 million, yet climbed 5.7% sequentially, powered by a Fire segment that now makes up more than half the business. The […]
Academy Sports (ASO) Turns A Tariff Refund Into A Profit Surge
On September 10, Academy Sports and Outdoors (NASDAQ:ASO) posted second quarter results that looked strong on the bottom line and shaky underneath it. Net sales rose 3% to $1.65 billion, but comparable sales slipped 0.4%, and the gap between those two numbers is where the real story sits. A one-time tariff refund did most of […]
ABM Industries’ (ABM) Cash Flow Jump Masks A Split Business Story
On September 8, ABM Industries (NYSE:ABM) told investors that a business famous for grinding out steady, unglamorous cash flow had rediscovered exactly that. Free cash flow through the first nine months of fiscal 2026 jumped more than $150 million from a year earlier, and management used the moment to raise guidance across the board. But […]
Is Zscaler (ZS)’s Depressed Stock Opportunity Or Warning? Answer May Lie in Emerging AI Security Business
Cybersecurity company Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) delivered solid results in the latest quarter. However, it is also evident that the market remains skeptical about the company’s AI security opportunities. Zscaler reported revenue and earnings that beat Wall Street expectations and issued upbeat guidance for both the current quarter and fiscal full-year. Yet Zscaler shares are down […]
Jim Cramer Explains Why He Added Hinge Health (HNGE) to His Fantasy Lineup
Expanding his fantasy stock lineup on Mad Money’s episode aired on September 8, Jim Cramer turned his focus to digital healthcare provider Hinge Health, Inc. (NYSE:HNGE) to fill an important roster spot. He said: You need a tight end. This is a hybrid offensive position. On some plays, the tight end acts like an offensive […]
Marvell Is Winning Custom AI Business. TSMC May Be the Safer Way to Play It
Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) is betting heavily on custom AI accelerators and networking. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) occupies a particularly powerful position in that strategy. Marvell’s latest regulatory filing says TSM is currently the sole wafer supplier for its advanced-node products, including its 3nm products. That makes the relationship unusually direct. Marvell itself […]
Blackstone (BX) Eyes $2 Billion ZO Skin Health Exit
Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) is exploring a possible sale of ZO Skin Health, the medical-grade skincare company founded by dermatologist Dr. Zein Obagi. Reuters reported that the business could be valued at around $2 billion. The process is still in the early stages, and Blackstone is working with Citigroup and Raymond James on the potential sale. […]
Academy Sports (ASO) Rockets 14% on Solid Q2 Despite Consumer Spending Tests
Academy Sports and Outdoors Inc. (NASDAQ:ASO) saw its share price jump by 14.40 percent on Wednesday to close at $51.15 apiece after posting a strong earnings performance in the second quarter of the year despite weakness in consumer spending trends. In an earnings call on the same day, the sporting goods store chain said that […]
Apple’s (AAPL) “Surprise and Shine” Event Tests Its Foldable iPhone Against Huawei and Xiaomi
Wall Street sees Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) entering a significant hardware cycle ahead of its “Surprise and Shine” event streaming live on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. Bank of America, in particular, expects a broad slate of new Apple devices led by new iPhones and a Foldable iPhone. On September 8, BofA Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan reiterated a […]
Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Expands 4D Wizard Of Oz As Valuation Hinges On Growth Story
New 4D effects spotlight Sphere Entertainment’s product ambitions Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) just rolled out an expanded 4D package for The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, adding animatronic Winged Monkeys, themed scents, Glinda Glitter, pyrotechnic fireworks, and scented apples from September 25, 2026. For investors watching Sphere Entertainment, the latest 4D upgrade lands after a choppy few months, with the share price down about 11% over 30 days but still showing strong momentum through a 51%...
What Makes Guardant Health (GH) a Compelling Bet?
Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its second-quarter 2026 investor letter for the “Artisan Mid Cap Fund”. The letter can be downloaded here. Global equities rebounded sharply in Q2 2026, recovering from March lows as resilient economic data, strong corporate earnings, and continued AI investment improved investor sentiment despite inflation concerns, delayed rate cuts, and […]
Global Growth Fund is Re-Evaluating Flutter Entertainment’s (FLUT) Strategic Fit
Sands Capital, an investment management company, released its second-quarter 2026 investor letter for “Sands Capital Global Growth Fund”. The letter can be downloaded here. Global Growth seeks the best growth businesses worldwide, leveraging a research team that explores both developed and emerging markets for sustainable competitive advantages. In the quarter, global equities rebounded strongly, driven […]
Encompass Health (EHC): This Rehab Hospital Giant Just Raised Its Own Bar Again
On August 5, Encompass Health (NYSE:EHC) reported second quarter results that beat its own expectations by enough to raise full year guidance twice in the same release, first on revenue and then on profit. Net operating revenue climbed 9.6% to $1.597 billion, and adjusted earnings per share rose 10.7% to $1.55. For the largest owner […]
Microsoft (MSFT)’s Outlook and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Work Both Broke the Same Day
On August 31, 2026, CNBC reported that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) suffered a widespread Outlook and Exchange Online outage on August 31, with Downdetector reports peaking at 6,015 for Outlook and 2,044 for Microsoft 365. Microsoft said on its status page that “users may experience degraded functionality with various Exchange Online functionalities” while it reviewed service […]
Apple (AAPL) Sets iPhone Launch Event. The First Under New CEO John Ternus
CNBC and Reuters reported that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will hold its next product launch event on September 9 at Apple Park in Cupertino, marking incoming CEO John Ternus’s first major event since taking over from Tim Cook. He became executive chairman on September 1. Analysts expect Apple to reveal the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro […]
Poll: A polarized America unites behind deep concerns about AI
Worries about AI transcend age, race, education, partisanship and other typical dividing lines, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey.
Voya Financial’s (VOYA) Earnings Fell While Its Retirement Business Boomed
On August 4, Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) announced its second-quarter 2026 results, and the headline numbers tell an uncomfortable story. Net income available to common shareholders dropped to $90 million, or $0.97 per diluted share, down from $162 million and $1.66 a year earlier. Adjusted operating earnings fell just as sharply, to $140 million from $240 […]
TSS Inc. (TSSI) Is Quietly Rewiring Its Business Around AI Data Centers
On August 13, TSS Inc. (NASDAQ:TSSI) reported second-quarter results that look worse on the top line and better underneath it. Revenue fell 20% year over year to $35.1 million, yet gross profit rose 11% and adjusted EBITDA climbed 12%. The company is deliberately walking away from lower-margin procurement work and leaning into systems integration for […]
Jim Cramer Says “Own It, Don’t Trade It” as CVS Health Gains Momentum
A caller on the September 2 episode of Mad Money noted that CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is up 21% this year, sports a 3% dividend, and trades at a 28 valuation compared to its 54 average. Pointing to raised guidance, higher price targets, and a massive capital plan, they asked if it makes sense to […]
The Bull Case For Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Could Change Following New 4D Wizard of Oz Launch
Sphere Entertainment Co. announced that The Wizard of Oz at Sphere introduced a series of new and expanded 4D effects on September 25, 2026, including animatronic Winged Monkeys, themed scents, “Glinda Glitter,” pyrotechnic fireworks, and scented apples. By deepening its multi-sensory technology in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, Google and Magnopus, Sphere is reinforcing its position in premium, experiential destination entertainment. Next, we will examine how this upgraded 4D...
Guardant Health Faces a $245 Million Patent Judgment, But Its Newer Tests Could Offer Protection
Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) faces a costly legal setback after a US court ordered the cancer-testing company to pay more than $245.2 million in a DNA-sequencing patent dispute. The final judgment upheld a 2023 jury verdict finding that Guardant willfully infringed two DNA-sequencing patents asserted by TwinStrand Biosciences and the University of Washington. The financial […]
Science Applications (SAIC) Grew Revenue 6% but Posted a 0.6 Book-to-Bill Ratio. Is the $22B Backlog Enough?
Science Applications International Corporation (NASDAQ:SAIC) reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $1.88 billion, up 6.3% year over year. Net bookings, however, were approximately $1.2 billion. That produced a quarterly book-to-bill ratio of 0.6, calculated as net bookings divided by revenue, while the trailing 12-month ratio was 0.8. Total backlog stood at approximately $22.1 billion, including […]
Global Business Travel Group (GBTG) to Be Acquired for $9.50: What Investors Should Know
Gabelli Investment Management Firm recently released its “ABC Fund” second-quarter 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fund benefited from a favorable merger-arbitrage environment in the second quarter of 2026, as global announced M&A value reached a record $2.85 trillion in the first half of the year, up 50% […]
Archrock’s (AROC) Compression Business Locks In Years Of Growth
On August 4, Archrock (NYSE:AROC) posted second-quarter results that told two different stories at once. Revenue slipped to $371.2 million from $383.2 million a year earlier, yet net income climbed to $66.7 million, and earnings per share rose to $0.38. That gap between a shrinking top line and a growing bottom line is the puzzle […]
Citi Sees a New Catalyst for Baidu as Its AI Infrastructure Business Grows
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) may have a new near-term catalyst on the horizon, with Citi opening a 30-Day Upside Catalyst Watch on the stock. On September 2, analyst Alicia Yap reiterated a Buy rating and a $166.00 price target on Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), according to a press release statement. The rating affirmation follows the firm’s 2026 […]
Jim Cramer Notes Cardinal Health (CAH) is “Too Attractive to Ignore”
On the September 2 episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer called Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) one of his “absolute favorites” and mentioned its growing exposure to specialty pharmaceuticals and higher-margin healthcare services. Cardinal’s been running circles around McKesson and Cencora. They consistently put up the best numbers because this company has gradually become less of […]
PENN Entertainment (PENN) Swings To Profit As Debt Comes Down
On August 6, PENN Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN) reported second-quarter results that flipped from a year-ago loss into a profit. Net income came in at $32.6 million, compared with a loss of $18.3 million in the same quarter of 2025. Revenue rose to $1.86 billion from $1.77 billion, and Adjusted EBITDA climbed to $312.6 million from $236.1 […]
Entertainment Unleashed: Sphere Entertainment’s (SPHR) Innovative Approaches
Sands Capital, an investment management company, released its “Sands Capital Select Growth Fund” Q2 2026 investor letter. The letter can be downloaded here. Select Growth Fund targets U.S. businesses driving significant structural change through disruptive innovation. The fund returned 23.2% in the quarter, outperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 16.7%. U.S. large-cap growth equities rebounded […]
Corpay (CPAY) Simplifies Its Business As Profits Take A Hit
On August 5, Corpay (NYSE:CPAY) delivered two headlines in one breath. The corporate payments company reported second-quarter results that beat its own targets, and it agreed to sell a UK fleet software business it no longer sees as core. Revenue climbed 21% to $1,338.8 million and adjusted earnings per share jumped 36% to $7.00, yet […]
The light is blinking red on Trump messing with the 2026 election
It should surprise nobody that the president who tried to overturn the 2020 election based on lies — and didn’t seem to mind his supporters rising up violently on January 6, 2021 — might try to monkey with the 2026 midterm elections.
Grand Canyon Education (LOPE): A Steady Cash-Generating Business Ignored in a Speculative Market
Riverwater Partners, an investment management company, released its ‘Small Cap Strategy’ Q2 2026 investor letter. The letter can be downloaded here. The Small Cap Strategy underperformed the Russell 2000 in the second quarter as the benchmark experienced one of its strongest risk-on rallies in recent memory, although the strategy remained ahead year-to-date. The quarter was defined […]
Why Alphabet (GOOGL) Is Proving AI Can Strengthen Its Search Business
Aristotle Capital Management, LLC, an investment management company, released its “Value Equity Fund” Q2 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fund delivered a 4.32% total return in Q2 2026, underperforming the 13.87% gain for the Russell 1000 Value Index and the 15.20% return for the S&P 500, while […]
Ecologist Cynthia Malone and her crusade to decolonize science
As a kid growing up in Bushwick, Brooklyn Cynthia Malone was fascinated with monkeys, apes, and tropical forests.
Monkeys hunt small animals when fruit is scarce
Capuchins hunt and eat small vertebrates more often as plant foods wane. The behavior may help us learn more about humans’ early dietary evolution.
QXO (QXO) is Rebuilding Business Models for Greater Value
Orbis Investment Management, an investment management company, released its Q2 2026 investor letter for “Orbis Global Equity Strategy”. The letter can be downloaded here. In the first half of 2026, the Global Equity Strategy returned 19.9%, surpassing the MSCI All Country World Index by 7.8%. The market faced narrow breadth in the quarter. The strategy focuses […]
Gilead’s HIV Business is Surging, but is the Company Too Dependent on One Franchise?
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) delivered strong fiscal Q2 2026 results, with total revenue rising 10% year over year to approximately $7.8 billion. The performance was primarily driven by continued growth across its HIV franchise, including Biktarvy and the newly launched Yeztugo. Gilead also raised its full-year product-sales guidance following the quarter. However, HIV products generated […]
Zoetis Earnings Reveal a Divided Business, But Can its Pipeline Restore Growth?
Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) entered 2026 as a leader in animal health, but its latest earnings show that even a strong market position cannot fully insulate the company from weaker consumer demand. Fiscal Q2 2026 revenue remained flat at $2.5 billion and declined 1% on an organic operational basis, as pressure in the U.S. companion-animal market […]