Silver banana goes to…

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: “September Selloff” starts early 

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

• Technical Trip: Interview Q&A from Morgan Stanley

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

• The Daily Poll: See how you stack up 

Market Snapshot

📉 Banana Bits

• Google’s stock caught a bounce after a federal judge ruled that it wouldn’t have to sell its Chrome browser.

• 30-year treasury yield jumped to almost 5% as traders digest the prospect of Trump having to refund tariff revenue.

• The U.S pulled TSMC’s waiver for China shipments of chip supplies.

• Kraft Heinz stock fell 7% after Buffett said he was "disappointed" with the company’s split.

• President Trump wants an emergency Supreme Court hearing after many tariffs were ruled illegal.

• A federal judge in California barred President Trump from deploying National Guard troops.

• September is statistically the worst month for stock returns for a variety of reasons.

• Waymo begins testing in Denver & Seattle in an effort to expand robotaxi services across the U.S.

• U.S securities and commodities regulators announced a joint crypto initiative.

Market Recap

September Slump

We knew that September was statistically a bad month for the stock market, but we didn’t think the “September effect” would kick in so quickly and so aggressively. 

After raking it in during the summer rally, investors puked stocks to begin the month, with the NASDAQ and S&P ending Tuesday down -0.8% and -0.7% respectively. 

The market had a lot to contend with. To start the day, traders digested news of a Federal ruling that deemed many of President Trump’s global tariffs illegal. 

This would mean that the U.S would potentially have to pay back billions in collected revenues. The headline caused yields to spike, with the 10-year touching 4.3% while the 30-year jumped to 4.9%.

Everyone is on edge as a ton of jobs data is on the docket for this week, with Job Openings this morning, Initial jobless claims on Thursday, and the employment report on Friday. These are HUGE reports as they are the final pieces of jobs data before the Fed meets September 16-17. 

Traders are pricing in 90% odds of a 25 basis point rate cut, and a somewhat weak jobs number would all but seal the deal.

Nvidia led market declines in a broader AI pullback as the chipmaker pushed back against media narratives that its AI chips were “sold out.”

In a post on X, Nvidia said chatter claiming supply constraints on its H100 and H200 processors was “erroneous,” reiterating comments from its earnings call last week that customers can continue to rent the chips through cloud providers and that new orders are being filled without delay. 

What's Ripe

Ulta Beauty (ULTA) 8.1%

• Ulta Beauty received a strong vote of confidence across the street. Goldman, Oppenheimer, UBS, and Raymond James all increased their price targets on the stock.

• The optimism is driven by the anticipation of solid Q2 results, predicting 4% same-store sales growth.

Ralph Lauren (RL) 4.8%

• The fashion retailer hit an all-time high, ending the day at $311.02, riding high on strong Q1 ‘26 financial results.

• The company surpassed analysts’ expectations with EPS of $3.52 versus a consensus of $3.45 on revenue of $1.7 billion.

What's Rotten

Kraft Heinz (KHC) 7.0% 

• That feeling when the investing legend you’ve looked up to your whole life says he’s "disappointed in you” has to sting. That’s what Warren Buffett told Kraft Heinz.

• With a 27.5% stake, he’s their largest shareholder and voiced his concerns over the company deciding to split into two, unwinding the merger it completed 10 years ago.

Constellation Brands (STZ) 6.6%

• The maker of Modelo Beer took a hit after cutting its full-year outlook, driven by weaker beer demand and the impact of tariffs.

• Constellation now sees its FY ‘26 EPS range between $11.30-$11.60, down from earlier guidance of $12.60-$12.90. 

🧠 Technical Trip

Interview Q&A from Morgan Stanley

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

🦈 Deal Dispatch

M&A, IPOs, And Other Notable Transactions

• OpenAI is purchasing product testing startup Statsig for $1.1 billion.

• Bankers are prepping for the busiest week this year with an aggregate of $3 billion worth of IPOs set to price.

• Swedish FinTech company Klarna is set to IPO at a $14 billion valuation in the U.S.

• Blockchain-based lender Figure is raising $526 million in an IPO.

• Goldman’s Co-Chair of M&A sees merger volume across the world reaching $3.9 trillion in 2026.

• Black Rock Coffee Bar is looking to raise $250 million in an IPO this year.

📊The Daily Poll

Previous Poll:

Early Santa rally in September?

Yep, bullish: 31.6% // Maybe, cautious: 50.9% // Doubt it: 17.5%

Student Success Corner

👉 Are you next? Find out with WSO Academy

Banana Brain Teaser

Previous

In a weight-lifting competition, the total weight of Joe’s two lifts was 750 pounds. If twice the weight of his first lift was 300 pounds more than the weight of his second lift, what was the weight, in pounds, of his first lift?

Answer: 350

Today

At a loading dock, each worker on the night crew loaded ¾ as many boxes as each worker on the day crew. If the night crew has 4/5 as many workers as the day crew, what fraction of all the boxes loaded by the two crews did the night crew load?

How Would You Rate Today's Peel?

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

ADVERTISE // WSO ALPHA // ACADEMY // COURSES // LEGAL