Dow Jones Futures: Circle, Meta, Palantir, Nvidia, Tesla Rally On Easing Israel-Iran Fears; Fed Meeting Looms
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why Circle and Stripe (And Many Others) Are Launching Their Own Blockchains
Every day, there seems to be a new blockchain for stablecoins. Or at least that's how it felt this week, when USDC (USDC) issuer Circle announced Arc, its own settlement network, shortly after payments giant Stripe accidentally revealed Tempo, built in collaboration with Paradigm. They were the latest in a growing list. Startups Plasma and Stable both raised funds recently to develop dedicated chains for USDT (USDT), the $160 billion and largest stablecoin on the market. Tokenization players are piling in, too. Securitize is building Converge with Ethena, Ondo Finance announced its upcoming in-house chain earlier this year, and, just days ago, Dinari said it will soon launch an Avalanche-powered layer-1 network for clearing and settling tokenized stocks. Stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets are rapidly growing segments of the crypto economy, and analysts project them to swell into trillion-dollar asset classes in the not too distant future. Stablecoins are poised to disrupt cross-border payments, while tokenization allows traditional instruments like bonds, funds and stocks trade around-the clock with faster settlements on blockchain rails, proponents build L1s? Today, the vast majority of these tokens live and settle on public blockchains like Ethereum, Solana or Tron. These neutral networks give issuers global reach and liquidity, but they also come with certain constraints for asset issuers. "Building their own L1 is about control and strategic positioning, not just technology," said Martin Burgherr, chief clients officer at crypto bank Sygnum. Stablecoin economics are shaped by settlement speed, interoperability, and regulatory alignment, so "owning the base layer" lets firms directly embed compliance, integrate foreign exchange engine and ensure predictable fees, he said. There's also a defensive motive. "Today, stablecoin issuers depend on Ethereum, Tron or others for settlement," Burgherr said. "That reliance means exposure to external fee markets, protocol governance decisions, and technical bottlenecks." Custom chains allow companies to issue their own gas tokens, control transaction costs and keep network performance isolated from unrelated activity that may clog the network, said Morgan Krupetsky, VP of ecosystem growth at Ava Labs. Increasingly, she said, blockchains are becoming the "middle and back office" of a company's operations, powering transactions behind the scenes while user-facing apps may live across multiple chains. 'The idea of a company owning and customizing their end-to-end blockchain infrastructure is increasingly appealing,' she said. The economics can be even more compelling than the tech. "The revenue opportunity from owning the settlement layer will dwarf traditional payment processing margins, said Guillaume Poncin, chief technology officer at web3 development platform Alchemy. He said that the new chains can offer additional control and the ability to implement know-your-customer (KYC) checks and other innovations at the protocol level. While L1s can offer full customization, rollups are faster to deploy and secure. In either case, Poncin noted, compatibility with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) makes it far easier to integrate with other blockchains and speed adoption. How could this impact existing L1s? It's way too early to tell how the new chains will impact the incumbents, but some networks may feel the competition sooner than others, analysts said. Coinbase analysts led by David Duong argued in a Friday report that Circle's Arc and Stripe's Tempo are targeting high-throughput, low-fee payments, which is Solana's (SOL) sweet spot. Meanwhile, Ethereum with its institution-heavy user base is less likely to be disrupted in the near term, they wrote. The process for the entrants to win over users could take years, Sygnum's Burgherr said. "New entrants will need not just technology, but also years of trust-building to shift the deepest liquidity and highest-value payments away from incumbent rails," he said. "Financial institutions prize proven security, custody integration, and resilience under real-world stress." "That's why Ethereum remains the institutional 'Fort Knox,'" he said. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Constellation Energy (CEG) Strikes 20-Year PPA with Meta, Boosts Nuclear Expansion Plans
We recently published .Constellation Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CEG) is one of these profitable utility stocks. Constellation Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CEG), a Fortune 200 leader in emissions-free energy, delivers nearly 90% carbon-free power through nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar sources, serving businesses, homes, and public sectors nationwide. It powers the equivalent of 16 million homes, including three-fourths of Fortune 100 companies. Recent highlights include a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Meta starting in 2027, covering the full output of the Clinton Clean Energy Center. This deal supports Meta's clean energy goals and enables a 30-megawatt capacity expansion at the Clinton facility, which will provide low-cost, reliable power to the local grid for decades. Constellation Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CEG) is making major investments in Pennsylvania's nuclear sector: the Crane Clean Energy Center is set to restart operations a year early in 2027 with 835 megawatts capacity; the company is seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to extend Peach Bottom Energy Center's operations through 2054; and the Limerick Clean Energy Center plans life extension and a 340-megawatt capacity boost to operate through the 2040s, backed by customer commitments. These efforts aim to enhance grid reliability and foster innovation, including in AI. The business also launched an AI-driven demand response tool to help businesses reduce energy consumption during peak periods, boosting grid efficiency and cutting costs. Copyright: highwaystarz / 123RF Stock Photo In Q2 2025, Constellation Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CEG) reported adjusted operating earnings of $1.91 per share, surpassing analyst expectations, fueled by rising electricity demand from AI, electric vehicles, and industrial growth. While we acknowledge the potential of CEG as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Yes, You Read That Right. Palantir Just Won $10 Billion From the U.S. Army.
Key Points On July 31, the U.S. Army merged 75 smaller contracts into one big $10 billion award -- and handed it to Palantir. Spread over 10 years, the contract secures about $1 billion a year in revenue for the AI defense tech contractor. Palantir earns superior and growing profit margins on its revenue. 10 stocks we like better than Palantir Technologies › When you follow the U.S. Pentagon's daily digest of contract awards as regularly as I do, things sometimes tend to blend together. Don't get me wrong -- $1 billion here, $1 billion there, and it eventually becomes clear that the government is spending "real money" on military hardware. Still, most of the contracts described on the Pentagon's website tend to be much smaller in size -- $10 million here, a few tens of millions there. All of which I tell you by way of illustrating that when all of a sudden, the U.S. Army announced last month that it's awarding a $10 billion contract to defense contracting upstart Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR), that made me sit up and take notice. Palantir's big payday This contract, announced on July 31, is the biggest single award I've ever seen handed to Palantir, and almost 10 times bigger than the Maven Smart System contract it won from the U.S. Army in May. And yet it's perhaps not quite as big as it seems. As described on the Pentagon website, the $10 billion award "transition[s] existing contracts in which Palantir is currently a prime or subcontractor to [a new] enterprise agreement" worth $10 billion. This means the award doesn't really give Palantir $10 billion worth of new work to do for the Army. Rather, a substantial amount of the award (and perhaps even all of it), comprises dozens of existing contracts, already won by the defense company, now bundled up into one megasized $10 billion deal to provide artificial intelligence (AI) software and data services to the U.S. Army. What's more, the $10 billion value is spread across 10 years. All of which is to say that Palantir's "$10 billion contract" is really worth only about $1 billion a year -- and much or all of that $1 billion was already destined for Palantir's wallet anyway. How much is $1 billion worth? Now, let's try to put these numbers in context for you. One billion dollars may not be as big a number as $10 billion, but it's still pretty big. Palantir generated $3.4 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. So a $1 billion Army contract amounts to about 29% of the revenue Palantir collected over the last 12 months -- a very big deal if this were additional incremental revenue added to the company's revenue stream. It's less of a big deal, however, if all the Army is doing here is gluing together 75 smaller, existing contracts into one super-big agreement. A second consideration is how valuable this revenue is to Palantir, which is to say, what kind of profit margin the company will earn on its $1 billion a year. The good news here is that Palantir's software-centric profit margins are robust, and getting even more so over time. In 2023 for example, Palantir earned a 5.4% operating profit margin on its revenue. In 2024, that number doubled to 10.8%. This year, it's grown even more, to about 23.3%. That's the good news. The better news is that the new $10 billion mega-contract "removes contract-related fees," according to the Army. And this logically implies that it's removing cost from the contract, potentially permitting Palantir's profit margin to expand even further. Is Palantir stock a buy? At least, Palantir investors had better hope this is the case. Palantir is generating giant revenue from the U.S. military; no one disputes that. Its revenue is also growing, roughly doubling in size since 2021, whether or not this particular $10 billion contract adds to that growth. However, none of this changes the fact that Palantir is a frighteningly expensive stock, and that it absolutely must continue to both grow its revenue and expand its profit margin in order to justify its valuation. Priced at an astounding 573 times trailing earnings, or an only slightly less alarming 255 times free cash flow, Palantir probably needs to be growing earnings somewhere in the low triple-digit percentage range to justify its current stock price -- yet according to S&P Global data, most analysts project no more than a 40% long-term earnings growth rate for the stock. Sad as it is to say, even with a $10 billion Army contract in hand, Palantir stock costs too much to buy. Should you buy stock in Palantir Technologies right now? Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $668,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,106,071!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,070% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies and S&P Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Yes, You Read That Right. Palantir Just Won $10 Billion From the U.S. Army. was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
