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Your Daily Dose of Market & Career Clarity

📬 Delivered to 150,000+ ambitious readers

🎯 In this issue:

• Banana Bits: Finance headlines that actually matter

• Market Summary: Wild Wednesday

• What’s Ripe / Rotten: The tastiest and most disgusting stocks 

• Technical Trip: Interview Q&A from Lazard

• Lesson from the Library: Investment Banking Interview course module

• Deal Dispatch: M&A, IPOs, and other transactions 

• The Daily Poll: See how you stack up

Market Snapshot

📉 Banana Bits

• Markets surged today as investors shook off recessionary risk and focused on corporate earnings. 

• Apple led gains in the S&P 500 after announcing a $100 billion investment in U.S infrastructure. 

• Uber’s stock narrowly fell despite beating earnings estimates and announcing a $200 million share buyback program.

• AMD stock fell over 6% yesterday after a mixed earnings announcement caused by tariff pressures and weaker China sales.

• Wall Street firms are warning that stocks are “ignoring recession risks,” according to a trader at Goldman Sachs.

• President Donald Trump announced the doubling of tariffs on India to 50% on the purchase of Russian energy. 

• Zillow beat analyst estimates for Q2 earnings despite a struggling housing market. 

• The President of Brazil ruled out enforcing reciprocal tariffs on the U.S despite the hefty 50% tariff imposed by the Trump Administration. 

• Trump plans on meeting with Putin to put an end to the war in Ukraine.

Market Recap 

Blind Faith in the Fed

Yesterday, the market erased Tuesday’s losses as investors are brushing off the seemingly tumbling U.S economy. Apple and other large-cap tech stocks led the gains, with the NASDAQ pushing forward 1.2%.

The yields of short-dated treasuries fell as investors are continuing to price in and be more confident in a September rate cut. Mary Daly, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said that “policy makers will need to adjust rates in the coming months to prevent further weakness within the labor market.” 

Despite this weakness, investors are seemingly more focused on corporate earnings than the declining labor market and a potential inflationary increase. 

The July CPI data set to come out on August 12th will likely be a solid indicator of the Fed’s next move. Additionally, the August CPI data will also come out before the September FOMC meeting, which should be an even more significant indicator of the Fed’s actions. 

The bottom line is that while investors are pricing in a Fed cut, as a result of Powell’s “wait and see” strategy, if CPI comes in hotter than expected, the FOMC could very well hold rates. 

What's Ripe

Viasat Inc. (VSAT) 30.7%  

• Viasat’s stock skyrocketed yesterday after they beat revenue and EPS estimates in their Q1 2026 (fiscal) earnings report. 

• In response to the earnings beat, several banks such as Needham, William Blair, and J.P. Morgan raised their price target for the communications company.

Astera Labs Inc. (ALAB) 28.7%  

• Astera’s stock soared yesterday after surpassing analyst estimates for Q2 for both revenue and EPS, primarily due to extreme demand within AI. 

• The AI cloud and infrastructure company also raised its guidance for Q3, bolstering investor confidence.   

What's Rotten

Lantheus Holdings Inc. (LNTH) 28.6% 

• LNTH fell sharply yesterday after they significantly missed consensus estimates, with revenue and EPS coming in 4.1% and 6.3% shy, respectively. 

• Something else to take into consideration is that there has been significant insider selling of LNTH of significant proportions, indicative of a potential red flag for investors. 

Kemper Corporation (KMPR) 21.3%  

• Kemper Corporation, an insurance holdings company, saw its stock price plummet after it fell short of earnings, with Kemper’s EPS giving a surprise 14% downside. 

• Kemper’s shares hit a 52-week low, with some Wall Street analysts describing it as a buying opportunity. 

🧠 Technical Trip

Interview Q&A from Lazard

👉 Want 1-on-1 recruiting help from Lazard bankers & 2,000+ top mentors? Apply to WSO Academy

📚 Lesson from the Library

Lessons We’re Sharing from our course library

This video covers key FAQs about using trading comps as a valuation method. What they are, when to use LTM vs. forward multiples, how market inefficiencies can impact results, whether to include the target company in the peer set, and whether to use median or mean multiples.

🎓 Watch Now

🦈 Deal News

M&A, IPOs, And Other Notable Transactions

• Open AI is in talks for a share sale at a $500 billion valuation. 

• Blackstone has agreed to acquire Enverus, an energy data platform, for over $6 billion.

• HeartFlow, a cardiovascular disease diagnostics company, announced they are increasing their IPO terms to 16.7 million shares at $16-17 per share.

• SERB Pharmaceuticals announced the acquisition of Y-mAbs Therapeutics, an oncology-focused biotech company, for $412 million, a 105% in Y-mAbs' share price.

• Atour (NASDAQ: ATAT), a Chinese hotel chain, is considering a second listing in Hong Kong.

• Apollo has agreed to acquire Stream Data Centers in a move to capitalize on surging demand for AI.

📊The Daily Poll

Previous Poll:

New Fed governor incoming. What matters most?

Rate stance: 42.9% // Market credibility: 33.9% // Tariff response: 12.5% // Meh, same old 10.7%

Student Success Corner

Banana Brain Teaser

Previous

A photography dealer ordered 60 Model X cameras to be sold for $250 each, which represents a 20% markup over the dealer’s initial cost of each camera. Of the cameras ordered, 6 were never sold and were returned to the manufacturer for a refund of 50% of the dealer’s initial cost. What was the dealer’s approximate profit or loss as a percent of the dealer’s initial cost for the 60 cameras?

Answer: 13% profit

Today

If m > 0 and x is m percent of y, then, in terms of m, y is what percent of x?

How Would You Rate Today's Peel?

Happy Investing,
Chris, Vyom, Ankit, Colin, & Patrick

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