BNB cryptocurrency can be expected to fall further toward the next support level 755.00 (which stopped the previous impulse wave (1) at the end of September).
BNB cryptocurrency recently reversed down from the resistance zone between the strong resistance level 807.00 (which stopped the previous ABC correction 2 in the second half of September, as can be seen from the daily BNB chart below) and the upper daily Bollinger Band. The downward reversal from this resistance zone created the daily Japanese candlesticks reversal pattern Shooting Star, which stopped the earlier intermediate correction (2) – that belongs to the higher order impulse wave 3 from the second half of September.
Given the strength of the resistance level 807.00, the clear bearish divergence on the daily Stochastic and the weakening bullish sentiment seen across the crypto markets today, BNB cryptocurrency can be expected to fall further toward the next support level 755.00 (which stopped the previous impulse wave (1) at the end of September).
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The sporting goods industry has been shrinking its retail footprint, with major companies, including Nike and Dick’s Sporting Goods, closing stores across the U.S.
Economic uncertainty, changing consumer habits, growing competition, and ongoing store evaluations have contributed to the closures, leaving some communities without their nearby sporting goods and sportswear retailers.
Now, another sporting goods chain has been quietly closing stores across three major states over the past year, with more locations set to disappear in the coming months.
Founded in 1995 in El Segundo, California, Big 5 Sporting Goods is a sporting goods retailer with more than 400 locations across 11 Western states.
Big 5 Sporting Goods closes stores
Big 5 Sporting Goods is closing two more stores after shuttering several locations earlier in 2026.
The company’s store at Boise Towne Square, located at 101 N. Milwaukee St. in the Westpark Towne Plaza shopping center in Boise, Idaho, will close. Liquidation sales have already begun, although no exact closing date has been announced yet, BoiseDev reported.
Another Big 5 Sporting Goods location at 4330 N Freeway Rd. in Pueblo, Colorado, is scheduled to close in January 2027, Pueblo Independent News reported.
The retailer has already shuttered several locations over the past year across Colorado, Idaho, and Arizona.
Lakewood, Colorado: The store at 7111 W. Alameda Ave. closed in March 2026, Denver Post reported.
Denver, Colorado: The store at 1430 S. Colorado Blvd. closed in January 2026, Denver Post reported.
Cañon City, Colorado: The store at 3215 E US Hwy. 50 closed in January 2026, Denver Post reported.
Wheat Ridge, Colorado: The store at 5185 Kipling St. closed in January 2026, 9News reported.
Aurora, Colorado: The store at 10051 E. Iliff Ave. closed in January 2026, Denver Post reported.
Fort Collins, Colorado: The store at 2211 S. College Ave. closed in January 2026, Denver Post reported.
Pocatello, Idaho: The store at 700 W. Quinn Rd. closed in April 2026, East Idaho News reported.
Garden City, Idaho: The store at 6762 N. Glenwood St. closed in December 2025, East Idaho News reported.
Green Valley, Arizona: The store at 714 W Calle Arroyo Sur closed in October 2025, SGB Media reported.
Maricopa, Arizona: The store at 41800 W. Maricopa-Casa Grande Hwy. closed in October 2025, SGB Media reported.
Big 5 Sporting Goods has been shrinking its store base amid weaker financial performance and broader changes to its business.
In October 2025, the retailer completed its merger with a partnership comprising Worldwide Golf and Capitol Hill Group, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the partnership. The transaction also resulted in Big 5 Sporting Goods being delisted from Nasdaq.
The company had already been reducing its store footprint before the merger.
During the fiscal 2025 second quarter, Big 5 Sporting Goods said it expected to close approximately four additional stores and not to open any new stores. The company had 414 stores in operation as of June 29, 2025, according to a SEC filing.
The retailer was also dealing with declining sales and profitability.
Big 5 Sporting Goods reported a 7.5% year-over-year decrease in net sales during the second quarter, while same-store sales fell 6.1%.
Gross profit declined 11.1%, putting additional pressure on the company’s gross margin. The retailer also reported a net loss of $24.5 million, or $1.11 per basic share.
Together, the financial results and planned store reductions suggest a company focused on a smaller, more profitable, physical footprint rather than expanding its retail presence.
Other sporting goods and sportswear retailers are closing stores
Big 5 Sporting Goods is not the only retailer in the broader sporting goods and sportswear industry to reduce its physical footprint over the past year.
Nike: Closed nearly a dozen stores nationwide during July 2026 alone.
Dick’s Sporting Goods: Shuttered 113 stores across its portfolio during fiscal 2026 through the second quarter.
Munich: Will close 15 stores internationally as part of a collective redundancy plan.
The closures come despite continued growth in the broader sportswear market.
The global sportswear market was valued at $399.4 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.7% through 2033, according to Grand View Research. North America accounted for the largest regional revenue share at 33.1% in 2025.
“Increasing awareness of physical health, mental well-being, and preventive fitness has encouraged consumers across age groups to integrate regular exercise into daily routines,” said Grand View Research industry experts. “As a result, demand for sportswear has expanded beyond professional and competitive sports into everyday use.”
The continued growth of the broader market suggests that rising demand for sportswear and sporting goods does not necessarily mean retailers will maintain every physical location. Companies continue to reassess their store networks as they seek locations that support their evolving business strategies.
It’s an Atlantic Division showdown as the Ottawa Senators clash with the Boston Bruins on Monday. Live coverage on Sportsnet+ begins at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT, or follow along with our live tracker.
Nu Holdings stock has pulled back sharply in recent months, falling from a high of $18.95 in January to around $13.43 today. Despite the decline, the long-term growth story remains intact, supported by the company’s expanding customer base, strong presence in Brazil, and continued push into other Latin American markets such as Mexico and Colombia.
Goldman Sachs analysts also remain optimistic about Nu’s outlook, believing the stock has further upside potential in the near term. Their bullish view suggests that the recent pullback may be more of a valuation reset than a deterioration in the company’s underlying fundamentals.
Goldman Sachs is bullish on Nu Holdings
In a recent note, analysts at Goldman Sachs maintained its bullish outlook for the stock. In a note last week, they noted that the company’s entry into the United States may work out in the long term. The note argued that the company was doing so using a low-cost approach, coupled with a good customer care experience, which will help gain some market share in the country. The report added:
“We think NU’s ultra-low-cost digital approach with a strong consumer experience could allow it to successfully enter the market.”
Other analysts are largely bullish on Nu Holdings. For example, Rothschilds and Needham’s analysts set a target of $19, higher than the current $13. Wolfe Research has a target of $17, while UBS and JPMorgan Chase have targets of $18.20 and 20, respectively.
The most recent results showed that Nu Holdings’ business continued doing well, with its number of users and customers continuing to rise. It added nearly 4 million customers in the second quarter of the year and now has 139 million globally.
Most of these users are in Brazil, where it has close to 118 million users, a notable figure since Brazil has a population of 213 million people. Nu Holdings has also become a big neobank in Mexico, where it has 15.8 million customers. Its Colombia business has attracted over 5 million users.
The company is now planning to launch its business in the UK, where it was said to be considering making a bid for Monzo, one of the country’s biggest neobank. It decided to walk away after Monzo insisted on a £10 billion valuation.
Nu Holdings stock price technical analysis
Nu Holdings shares chart | Source: TradingView
The daily chart shows that Nu Holdings shares have dropped by 30% from the all-time high even as its revenue and user growth accelerated. Most recently, the stock formed a down-gap after reports of its Monzo buyout emerged and then filled it after it denied the rumors.
Even so, it remains below the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), a sign that bears have prevailed. It also sits below the Strong, Pivot, Reverse level of the Murrey Math Lines tool.
Therefore, the stock will likely continue rising as bulls target the important resistance level of $15. This view will be confirmed when it jumps above the Strong Pivot Reverse level of the Murrey Math Lines at $14.
Ripple and the XRP Ledger Foundation have launched XRP Asia, a new regional organization designed to expand the XRP Ledger ecosystem across Asia-Pacific, with the initiative making its public debut in Seoul alongside a conference that put some of South Korea’s best-known financial institutions on stage.
The launch took place on October 3 at XRP Seoul 2026 at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, a Korea Blockchain Week side event. XRP Asia is led by Sabrina Tachdjian, the former Vice President of Fintech and Payments at the Hedera Foundation, and is intended to support developers, startups, systems integrators and regional communities building around the XRP Ledger.
Woori Bank and Kakao Bank both sent representatives to speak at XRP Seoul. That institutional presence is significant, but it needs a clear boundary: neither bank announced that it had joined XRP Asia, committed to deploy the XRP Ledger or signed a new Ripple partnership at the event.
What XRP Asia Actually Does
XRP Asia formalizes a regional expansion plan that Ripple had already outlined earlier this year.
Ripple described the initiative in February as a dedicated Asia-Pacific hub intended to grow the local XRP Ledger builder base and community, with a long-term model that included localized teams capable of distributing funding and driving adoption.
The organization launched with a broader operating remit that includes XRPL learning resources, support for developers and startups, systems-integrator partnerships, hackathons, product-development assistance, introductions to infrastructure providers, funding programs and investor networks, and expansion of existing communities such as XRPL Korea and XRPL Japan.
Tachdjian appeared with Ripple Senior Ecosystem Growth Manager Tatsuya Kohrogi in a session titled “Special Announcement: What’s Coming Next for the XRP Ecosystem in Asia.”
Her background is particularly relevant to that mandate. Before taking the XRP Asia role, Tachdjian worked on fintech, payments and tokenization at the Hedera Foundation and previously worked on blockchain investment at LINE.
Investor Takeaway: XRP Asia is an ecosystem-development organization, not a new bank consortium. Its relevance depends on whether developer support and institutional outreach ultimately produce named production deployments rather than conference appearances.
Woori Bank and Kakao Bank Were on Stage, but They Did Not Sign Up to XRPL
The strongest institutional signal from Seoul was the number of Korean financial firms willing to participate publicly in discussions around blockchain-based finance.
Woori Bank Senior Manager Seunghoon Han joined Ripple APAC Sales Director Jinnie Lee, Kbank’s Jaehyuk Choi, Kyobo Securities Executive Director Heejin Shin and JB Bank’s Mansik Yoon for a panel titled “From Cross-Border Payments to Tokenized Deposits.”
Kakao Bank appeared separately later in the program. Manager Leo Lee joined a session titled “Bringing Stablecoins into Everyday Finance.”
That distinction matters because some early reports bundled the banks together with the XRP Asia announcement. The official program does not show either Woori or Kakao Bank participating in the 20-minute XRP Asia launch fireside itself.
Nor has either bank publicly announced, as of October 4, that it is deploying XRPL infrastructure as a result of the event.
Ripple President Monica Long was also on the official program, appearing in a fireside focused on bringing XRP utility into institutional finance. RippleX Senior Vice President Markus Infanger was included on the event’s official speaker roster, alongside executives from Kyobo Securities, Kbank, Woori Bank and Kakao Bank.
Jeonbuk Bank Is the Concrete Korean Deployment
There is already a much clearer example of Ripple moving from a Korean conference stage into bank infrastructure.
Ripple announced on August 18 that JB Jeonbuk Bank had become the first regional bank in South Korea to deploy Ripple Payments for cross-border remittances.
The service gives the bank near-real-time settlement for business customers, with Ripple saying transfers that traditionally required days can instead complete within seconds to minutes and operate around the clock.
That is materially different from Woori or Kakao Bank appearing at XRP Seoul. Jeonbuk has an announced product deployment; the other two currently have conference participation.
Ripple’s Korean footprint extends further. The company has also worked with Kyobo Life Insurance on on-chain government-bond settlement and with Kbank on institutional wallet infrastructure through Ripple Custody.
XRP Asia Launches Days Before XRPN’s Expected Nasdaq Debut
The Asian expansion also arrives just days before another test of institutional demand around the XRP ecosystem.
Evernorth Holdings, an XRP-focused treasury company, is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN on October 8, assuming the remaining closing conditions are completed.
Armada Acquisition Corp. II shareholders approved the merger on September 30. The companies expect the transaction to close October 7 and have said the combined company would hold approximately 473.3 million XRP.
The two developments target different audiences. XRP Asia is designed to build regional infrastructure, applications and institutional relationships. XRPN gives public-market investors exposure to a corporate treasury built around XRP.
Investor Takeaway: October now offers two separate tests of XRP’s institutional thesis: whether XRP Asia can turn Asian financial-sector engagement into deployments, and whether XRPN can attract public-equity demand for an XRP-heavy treasury vehicle.
What Comes Next for XRP Asia
The next meaningful XRP Asia headline will not be another bank appearing at a conference.
It will be a named financial institution committing capital, launching a pilot, deploying XRP Ledger infrastructure or moving a real financial product into production.
Seoul demonstrated that Ripple can bring banks, securities firms and XRP Ledger developers into the same room. Jeonbuk Bank shows that Ripple can already move at least one Korean lender from discussion into live cross-border payment infrastructure.
For Woori Bank and Kakao Bank, however, the evidence stops at participation for now. They were on stage. They discussed payments, tokenization and stablecoins. They did not announce that they had joined XRP Asia or put their banking infrastructure on the XRP Ledger.
That is the line to watch as XRP Asia moves from launch event to execution.
People rarely think about who owns and operates the hotel they’re staying in.
In most cases, if I’m in a Marriott or a Hilton, I just assume that the brand on the marquee is the company running the property. In reality, that’s often not the case and many hotel brands are franchised, with some run by large groups and others family-owned.
That means that, while the brand might be perfectly healthy, the franchise operator might be facing financial distress.
In the case of Phoenix American Hospitality, LLC, American Hospitality Properties REIT, Inc., American Hospitality Properties REIT II Inc., and various affiliated companies, a complicated series of events, including an SEC investigation and enforcement action, now surround a series of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in Texas, which are published on PacerMonitor.
What is Phoenix American?
The American Hospitality Properties REITs own a number of hotel properties under the Hilton and Marriott brands. The company focuses on, but is not limited to, what it calls “Premium Select Business” hotels.
In a PDF aimed at investors, the company shared that it likes these properties because they can price rooms higher based on demand.
“Unlike apartments, offices, or warehouses, hotel properties have no long-term leases. Rooms rent out by the day, meaning the hotel sector can quickly and easily adjust pricing up or down daily, or even hourly, based on demand and other factors,” it shared.
The PDF also shared another reason the American Hospitality REITs used to sell investors on the fund.
“As experienced operators, we embrace the small staff required compared to resorts or other full-service hotels, we pay them a little better, reducing turnover and increasing customer satisfaction,” the company shared.
American Hospitality fired Phoenix American
Phoenix American Hospitality, LLC (PAH) was the external manager for both American Hospitality Properties REIT, Inc. and American Hospitality Properties REIT II, Inc. (AHP). The REITs entered into management arrangements with Phoenix under which Phoenix provided management and administrative services.
Phoenix was responsible for much of the REITs’ management infrastructure, while the REITs themselves owned the real-estate investments. In other words, you can think of the structure as AHP REITs = investment/ownership entities; Phoenix = external management company.
It’s a fairly common structure, but investors who owned shares of the real estate investment trusts (REITs) did not have an interest in Phoenix American Hospitality.
in May 2026, when both REITs terminated their management agreements with Phoenix and moved to new, internal, management arrangements. AHP REIT appointed Joseph Reardon as president, while AHP REIT II entered into a services agreement with AHP, according to an SEC filing.
“There is real opportunity in today’s hospitality market for a focused, well-run company. My role is to help put AHP on firm operational and financial footing so that it is ready to act when the right opportunities arise,” Reardon said in a press release.
American Hospitality Properties invests primarily in hotels that cater to business travelers.
Hilton Hotels
Phoenix American settled with the SEC
The SEC announced a settled enforcement action against Dallas-based Phoenix American Hospitality, LLC (PAH) and its president, William Lee “Perch” Nelson. The case centers on an alleged $86 million hotel-focused investment offering that pulled in capital from more than 2,000 retail investors under Regulation A, according to a document from the SEC.
“For real estate investors, the pitch was a familiar one: a tangible portfolio of commercial hospitality assets yielding predictable, double-digit income. According to federal regulators, however, the underlying reality was built on severe misrepresentations,” the law firm shared.
The SEC’s complaint was filed on June 4, 2026, in the Northern District of Texas, and final judgments were ordered on June 5, 2026. Investors can review the official regulatory findings here.
Here are some of the charges made by the SEC:
The SEC’s complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleged that PAH and Nelson raised approximately $86 million from more than 2,000 retail investors in the two funds from March 2022 through July 2024.
According to the complaint, PAH, through Nelson, claimed that one fund owned as many as 11 hotels, while, in reality, the fund owned only a preferred equity interest in a single hotel until January 2024, when it acquired interests in other hotels.
As further alleged, PAH, through Nelson, made untrue statements that both funds made regular profit distributions of up to 12% per year to investors, when, in reality, neither of the funds was profitable, and distributions were primarily funded by returns of investor capital.
“Without admitting the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, PAH and Nelson each consented to the entry of a final judgment, subject to court approval, in which each agreed to be permanently enjoined from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder,” according to the SEC release.
The final judgments, if approved by the court, also would order PAH to pay a $591,127 civil penalty and Nelson to pay a $118,225 civil penalty, as well as impose a five-year officer and director bar on Nelson.
The AHP REITs were connected to the SEC investigation through their former manager, Phoenix American Hospitality.
In July 2024, American Hospitality Properties REIT II disclosed that Phoenix had received an SEC subpoena seeking information about Phoenix and related entities, including the REIT. American Hospitality Properties itself was not named as a defendant in the SEC enforcement action.
What does AHP own?
AHP does not list the properties it owns, or has an interest in, on its website. The PDF referenced above shows a long list of properties, but the document predates the SEC filing.
An SEC filing from 2024 shows the company having an interest in the following properties:
TownePlace Suites, Springdale, Arkansas: 92 rooms
Aloft Rogers, Rogers, Arkansas: 124 rooms
Fairfield Inn & Suites, Jonesboro, Arkansas: 83 rooms
Courtyard Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 121 rooms
Residence Inn Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 108 rooms
TownePlace Suites, Harahan, Louisiana: 124 rooms
Hampton Inn & Suites, Fort Myers, Florida: 120 rooms
Those are not necessarily the only properties owned or operated by the company.
The companies’ current filings do not establish whether investors will receive additional distributions as the bankruptcy cases proceed. The July 2024 SEC filing explicitly says the company temporarily paused both distributions and solicitation of additional investments.
AHP faces a new lawsuit
Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a self-described investor-rights law firm, has filed a class action lawsuit against Phoenix American Hospitality, LLC, American Hospitality Properties REIT, Inc., American Hospitality Properties REIT II, Inc., and William Lee Nelson.
“This lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired securities in American Hospitality Properties REIT, Inc., and/or American Hospitality REIT II, Inc., between March 1, 2022 and July 31, 2024, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”), the law firm shared on its website.
The complaint alleges that the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that:
Phoenix’s public statements concerning its business and operations were materially false and/or misleading; and
Subsequent SEC filings and disclosures revealed the truth concerning Phoenix’s operations and the falsity of Defendants’ prior statements.
None of the named companies have commented on the lawsuit or how it relates to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings.
These are the companies which have filed for Chapter 11 protection
American Hospitality PropertiesREIT, Inc.: Case #26-80071
American Hospitality Properties REIT II, Inc.: Case #26-80072
AHP Master Lease, LLC: Case #26-80073
AHP REIT Port B LLC: Case #26-80074
AHP RI Cape Canaveral, LLC: Case #26-80075
AHP LP7 Bentonville, LLC: Case #26-80076
AHP LP7 CY Baton Rouge, LLC: Case #26-80077
AHP LP7 Fayetteville, LLC Case #26-80078
AHP LP7 FT Meyers, LLC: Case #26-80079
AHP LP7 Jonesboro, LLC: Case #26-80080
Lakemore-Phoenix Investment Platform B, LLC: Case #26-80081
AHP LP7 Metairie, LLC: Case #26-80082
PAH Charlotte Hospitality JV, LLC Case #26-80083
PAH Charlotte JV, LLC: Case #26-80084
PAH Charlotte LLC: Case #26-80085
AHP LP7 RI Baton Rouge, LLC: Case #26-80086
While the PAH abbreviation appears on some of the companies that have filed, it does not appear that Phoenix American Hospitality has itself filed for bankruptcy protection.
A quick look at how REITs work
What is a REIT? A company that owns and typically operates income-producing real estate, including hotels.
How do investors make money? REITs can distribute income generated by their real-estate holdings to investors.
Can investors lose money? Yes. Non-traded REITs can be particularly illiquid and carry additional risks.
American Hospitality Properties REIT, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Oct. 4, 2026, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas. The case number is 26-80071, according to filings on the Daily Dac.
American Hospitality Properties REIT II, Inc. also filed Chapter 11 on Oct. 4, 2026. The filing is case No. 26-80072 in the Northern District of Texas, the same source shared.
Several related American Hospitality Properties entities also filed Chapter 11 on Oct. 4. The filings include AHP Master Lease LLC, AHP REIT Port B LLC, AHP RI Cape Canaveral LLC and several AHP LP7 entities, according to the shared documents.
The bankruptcy filings come just days after a securities class-action lawsuit was filed against Phoenix American Hospitality, American Hospitality Properties REIT, American Hospitality Properties REIT II and William Lee Nelson. The lawsuit covers investors who purchased the REITs’ securities between March 1, 2022, and July 31, 2024, and alleges violations of federal securities laws. The allegations have not been adjudicated, according to Journal of Business News.
Goldman Sachs has overhauled its flagship European Conviction List – Directors’ Cut this month, spotlighting key investment opportunities across the continent heading into 2027.
Marking the list’s three-year anniversary, the Wall Street titan added four high-conviction equities while rotating out former favorites Naturgy, Norsk Hydro, and Smith & Nephew.
Highlighting six picks with projected returns exceeding 70%, led by defense giant Rheinmetall (up to 143% upside) and fintech titan Adyen (111%), the bank’s updated roster underscores a strategic shift toward companies boasting strong pricing power, secular growth tailwinds, and “meaningful” valuation discounts.
Here are four European names that made Goldman Sachs’s list in October.
Solaria
Madrid-based solar and wind operator Solaria enters the conviction roster with a €25 target ($28), signaling a robust 52% potential upside.
Having already satisfied roughly 65% of its full-year EBITDA target, the clean energy pioneer stands to benefit from stabilizing hydro generation and elevated gas prices heading into late 2026.
Goldman Sachs strategist Alberto Gandolfi believes a recent valuation retreat offers an attractive entry point.
Crucially, Solaria’s ability to bundle land, grid connectivity, and power generation into multi-year data center agreements provides a powerful high-return growth catalyst.
Straumann
Zurich-listed Straumann offers investors a rare deep-value setup within restorative dentistry.
Trading near decade-level valuation lows at 24x next-twelve-month earnings, the dental implant innovator earned a CHF125 price target ($151), implying a 38% rally.
Goldman Sachs’s senior analyst Richard Felton points to reaccelerating sales velocity, narrowing losses in its orthodontics division, and operational recovery across Chinese markets.
While macro headwinds – such as softening US elective procedure spending – persist, improving underlying fundamentals and structural market-share gains make Straumann stock a “quality pick” for long-term portfolios.
Scout24
Operating Germany’s dominant digital property portal ImmoScout24, Scout24 commands a €108 price target ($121), representing a dramatic 64% upside potential.
The firm’s massive addressable market – supported by 21.7 million German renter households – drives rapidly expanding adoption of its Living+ subscription package.
Goldman Sachs’s analyst Adam Berlin highlights Scout24’s deep proprietary data ecosystem and embedded network effects as robust competitive moats against emerging AI disruptors.
Furthermore, accelerating top-line growth combined with disciplined capital allocation positions Scout24 as a prime candidate for balance-sheet-driven share buybacks.
IMCD
Rotterdam’s specialty chemical distributor IMCD rounds out the additions with a €133 price target, targeting about a 40% total return from current levels.
Unlike commodity chemical peers exposed to cyclical volatility, IMCD’s specialized formulation services and high-value product portfolio grant it superior margin protection and pricing power.
Goldman Sachs’s analyst Suhasini Varanasi projects IMCD’s EBITA margin will surge from 10.4% in 2025 to an impressive 27% by 2027.
This value-add business model insulates the Dutch company from Asian low-cost competition – transforming supply chain turbulence into a sustainable profit driver.
An orbital data center is not online. On October 1, 2026, a prototype satellite for Google’s Project Suncatcher reached orbit on a SpaceX rideshare and checked in. It is a radiation-and-heat test with a handful of chips and a power budget measured in kilowatts, not a facility Alphabet can book against this quarter’s capital spending. Friday’s investable event was on the ground.
Having lined the October 2 Nasdaq closes up against Super Micro’s August 11 earnings exhibit and its September 23 shipping release, the split is plain. Super Micro Computer closed at $43.69, up 4.22%, while the fiscal 2027 net-sales range it actually published remains $65.0 billion to $72.0 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise closed at $69.33, up 7.36%, which is the networking and server print. Alphabet Class A closed at $343.50, up 1.56%, and still below its September 30 close. A satellite photograph is not a revenue event.
The calendar is the part a launch photo leaves out. Super Micro’s “more than $60 billion in new orders” line, and the $65 billion to $72 billion fiscal 2027 guide, were stated on August 11, 2026. They were not a new October 2 filing. The Vera Rubin NVL72 shipping announcement is dated September 23. Friday was the session that re-priced that already-public book. HPE’s $1.2 billion Vultr order and its higher networking-growth range were presented at a September 30 investor day. Google’s October 1 note calls the satellite the first step in a research moonshot. Those are three different cash-flow stories.
Key facts
Super Micro closed October 2, 2026 at $43.69, up 4.22% from $41.92, on 44,497,410 shares (Nasdaq, retrieved October 3).
On August 11, 2026 the company guided fiscal 2027 net sales to $65.0 billion–$72.0 billion and cited more than $60 billion of new orders over the prior year (Exhibit 99.1).
On September 23, 2026 it said Vera Rubin NVL72 racks were shipping: 72 Rubin GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs per rack, and 1,152 GPUs across 16 racks (PR Newswire).
HPE closed October 2 at $69.33, up 7.36%, after a $70.29 high. The quote page still showed a 52-week range of $19.84–$67.10 (Nasdaq).
On September 30 HPE lifted fiscal 2027 networking growth to the high teens–low 20s percent, from 14%–17%, and announced a $1.2 billion Vultr order (SiliconANGLE).
Google said October 1 the Suncatcher prototype was operating as expected (Google Research). Ars Technica reported four TPUs, about one kilowatt, and ~15-minute runs (Ars).
Alphabet closed October 2 at $343.50, up 1.56% on the day and $0.58 below the September 30 close (Nasdaq).
What Friday’s tape actually priced
October 2 was not the day these companies discovered artificial intelligence. It was the day desks marked three pieces of physical infrastructure that were already in primary documents. Super Micro did not make a 52-week high. Nasdaq’s quote page, retrieved October 3, still showed a range of $19.48 to $58.78. Friday’s $43.69 close sits inside that band. In the daily series from April 1 through October 2, the highest close was $50.17 on June 2, and June 3 still closed at $47.42.
The October 2 open was $42.775, the low $42.28, the high $44.585, and the close $43.69. An unverified print near $43.03 is not the close. Volume was 44,497,410 shares, against 26,504,280 on October 1. The shipping release hit PR Newswire at 9:05 a.m. Eastern on September 23, and that day’s close was $41.44, a dime under September 22’s $41.54. Friday was a second look, not the announcement session.
Super Micro Computer (SMCI) daily closing prices, April 1, 2026 through October 2, 2026. The marker is the October 2 close of $43.69, up 4.22% from $41.92. Source: Nasdaq historical prices, retrieved October 3, 2026.
HPE was the cleaner price event. From the April 1 close of $23.98 to Friday’s $69.33, the stock rose 189% in this daily series, and October 2 was the highest close and the highest intraday print in the window. The prior high was $67.1008 on September 30, in line with the $67.10 top of the 52-week range Nasdaq was still displaying. Friday’s $70.29 high and $69.33 close cleared it. Investor’s Business Daily’s October 2 headline called it a record. The close and the range break are verified here; this piece does not audit every session back to the 2015 listing, because older Nasdaq windows returned no rows.
The afternoon tape was looser than the close. StockStory, timestamped 12:35 p.m. Eastern on October 2, said HPE had jumped 7.8% in the afternoon. That print sits inside the day’s range. The high of $70.29 was 8.8% above the prior close. The official close was 7.36%, or $4.75, on 29,092,160 shares versus 16,453,820 the day before. The figure that belongs in a headline is the close.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) daily closing prices, April 1, 2026 through October 2, 2026. The marker is the October 2 close of $69.33, up 7.36% from $64.58, with an intraday high of $70.29. Source: Nasdaq historical prices, retrieved October 3, 2026.
Alphabet is the control, and the detail is below. From September 30 to October 2 the Class A close went from $344.08 to $343.50. The sessions that actually re-priced hardware were the rack name and the network name. The ground-based squeeze was already visible in Nvidia GPU prices, up as much as 21% at Nebius and CoreWeave.
Quick take. Friday priced three clocks. Super Micro’s guide is seven weeks old and its shipping release is nine days old. HPE’s order is from September 30, and the price broke the published 52-week high on October 2. Google confirmed a prototype in orbit on October 1, and the stock did not re-rate.
Super Micro is shipping racks into an August guide
The document that contains the $65 billion figure is Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed August 11, 2026, for the quarter and year ended June 30. Fourth-quarter net sales were $11.1 billion, against $10.2 billion in the third quarter and $5.8 billion a year earlier. Gross margin was 17.5%, against 9.9% and 9.5%. Full-year net sales were $39.1 billion, against $22.0 billion in fiscal 2025.
The outlook in that exhibit is the one the tape is still using. For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, the quarter ended September 30, 2026, Super Micro expected net sales of $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion. For fiscal 2027 it expected $65.0 billion to $72.0 billion. Liang’s “more than $60 billion” line is new orders over the prior year, plus record backlog, not fourth-quarter revenue of $11.1 billion and not a Vera Rubin-only purchase order.
“Our Total AI/IT Solutions strategy continues to deliver strong results, we added several hundred enterprise and other customers in the past year, generated more than $60 billion in new orders, and booked record backlog entering fiscal 2027,” said Charles Liang, founder, president and CEO of Supermicro.
That sentence is from the August 11 release filed with the SEC. Friday’s 4.22% move was the market trading the later shipping news against that book.
What changed on September 23 was the hardware. Super Micro said it is shipping NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 racks on its Data Center Building Block Solutions platform with DLC-2 liquid cooling: 72 Rubin GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs in one rack, eighteen 1U trays tied by nine NVLink switch trays at 216 TB/s, 20.7 TB of HBM4 and up to 54 TB of LPDDR5X per rack. One scalable unit is 1,152 GPUs and 331 TB of HBM4 across 16 compute racks, with 1.8 megawatt in-row cooling units at N+1. The blueprint runs from 5 megawatts to gigawatt scale.
“We have spent years building the liquid-cooling stack, the manufacturing capacity, and the deployment teams for exactly this moment,” said Charles Liang, president and CEO. “Our customers can now order a Scalable Unit and receive production-ready systems with end-to-end integration, because we design and build every layer between the cold plate and the cooling tower.”
The September 23 statement does not raise the $65 billion to $72 billion range and does not name a new customer dollar figure.
The slope was already in the August guide. This next step is arithmetic, not a company cadence. At a $15.0 billion midpoint for the September quarter, hitting $65 billion for the year leaves about $16.7 billion a quarter for the following three. Hitting $72 billion leaves $19.0 billion a quarter. Both are above the $11.1 billion June quarter. Because the shipping release is dated September 23, only the last week of the quarter ended September 30 can contain revenue from a rack just declared shippable.
No fiscal first-quarter earnings 8-K was in the filing list reviewed October 3. The last earnings exhibit was August 11, then the August 31 Form 10-K. The earlier Super Micro bull-and-bear note is an August valuation frame, not a substitute for those filings. The live question is whether backlog converts near the June quarter’s 17.5% gross margin or slips toward the prior quarter’s 9.9%.
HPE is the networking print, and the percent is the close
HPE did not need a rocket. SiliconANGLE’s account of the September 30 networking investor day, and a StockStory note that attributed the order to Reuters, describe the same two facts. HPE raised fiscal 2027 networking revenue growth to the high teens to low 20s percent, from 14% to 17% earlier in September. It announced a $1.2 billion order from Vultr, its first for AMD Helios racks. SiliconANGLE reported that each rack uses six HPE Juniper Networking QFX5252 scale-up Ethernet switch trays to connect 72 AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs.
It is not Super Micro’s rack. Vera Rubin NVL72 is 72 Nvidia GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs on NVLink, liquid-cooled. The Vultr system, as SiliconANGLE described it, is an AMD Helios rack scaled up on Juniper Ethernet. Same headline category, different gross margin and different guide.
SiliconANGLE also reported Rahim saying Helios is more than a $1 billion networking opportunity over two years, with tray orders already above $200 million, and that fiscal 2027 would be back-end loaded. The same account put combined networking near $11.3 billion in fiscal 2026, from $9.3 billion in fiscal 2024. Those figures are targets and a reported order, not revenue.
“AI is reshaping the technology stack, making the network more strategic,” Rami Rahim, executive vice president and general manager of HPE Networking, said at the investor day, as reported by SiliconANGLE.
The price waited a day. HPE closed September 30 at $63.89 and October 1 at $64.58. The 7.36% break of the published 52-week high came on October 2. StockStory also cited a jobs print and a Citigroup target. Those secondary figures were not re-checked here. The corporate facts two outlets share are the growth-range change and the $1.2 billion order.
The percents differ because the setups differ. HPE had already rerated from $23.98 on April 1 to $63.89 on September 30, and Friday made a closing high. Super Micro rose from $22.51 to $43.69 over the same window, a 94% gain, but remained below its June 2 close of $50.17. One “AI server” factor misses that.
Project Suncatcher is a heat test, not a data center
Travis Beals, senior director of Paradigms of Intelligence, wrote on October 1 that the prototype, built with Planet, had launched on Transporter-18 and was operating as expected. He called it the first step in a research moonshot and pointed to a paper in Joule. The post does not announce a product or a change in Alphabet’s capital spending.
The limits were described before liftoff. Ars Technica reported a refrigerator-sized satellite, called MVP, with four Google TPUs inside a Planet Labs spacecraft. Solar panels supply about one kilowatt, a figure Ars attributed to The New York Times, and Gemini test runs last about 15 minutes before the chips shut down so the radiators can catch up. CNBC confirmed the October 1 Transporter-18 launch and the contact check, without restating the chip count. Where this article says four, one kilowatt, or 15 minutes, the source is that pre-launch reporting, not an Alphabet financial line.
Google’s September 24, 2026 post says low-Earth orbit can offer up to eight times more solar power, that Trillium TPUs survived a proton-beam dose above a five-year mission in initial tests at the University of California, Davis, and that vacuum cooling is radiators, not air. It schedules a two-satellite laser test for 2027. That is later work, not four chips now.
Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) daily closing prices, April 1, 2026 through October 2, 2026. The marker is the October 2 close of $343.50, up 1.56% on the day and still below the September 30 close of $344.08. Source: Nasdaq historical prices, retrieved October 3, 2026.
Super Micro’s in-row cooler is rated at 1.8 megawatts. The satellite, on Ars’s figure, has about one kilowatt, and not continuously. Four TPUs in bursts do not replace 1,152 GPUs or an HPE switch order. FinanceFeeds described the plan before launch in the September 25 Transporter-18 note. October 1 added a contact check, not a capex line.
From September 30 to October 2, Class A shares fell $0.58, while Super Micro rose from $41.07 to $43.69 and HPE rose from $63.89 to $69.33. Buyers paid for racks and switches, not for four chips in orbit. The Gemini 4 Argon rate of $2 and $10 per million tokens is a software price, not a cloud region.
“Today, our prototype satellite for Project Suncatcher, built in partnership with Planet, launched into orbit aboard the Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX. Our team has confirmed contact with the satellite and it is operating as expected. This is the first step in a long-term research moonshot exploring whether space could one day host scalable machine learning infrastructure.”
Travis Beals, senior director, Paradigms of Intelligence, Google Research blog, October 1, 2026.
What has to happen next before any of this is revenue
For Super Micro, the next hard number is the report for the quarter ended September 30. The guide is $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion, and only the last week of that quarter can include a rack declared shippable on September 23. A print near $15 billion would still leave later quarters averaging about $16.7 billion to reach $65 billion and $19 billion to reach $72 billion. Friday’s headline does not pass that test.
For HPE, the test is whether fiscal 2027 networking growth lands in the high teens to low 20s, on the back-end-loaded schedule Rahim was reported to have flagged. A $1.2 billion order is not December-quarter revenue. The $69.33 close is the market’s view. The 7.8% afternoon print was not the close.
For Google, the named next step is a 2027 pair of satellites for laser links, plus whatever this prototype reports on heat and radiation. That can succeed and still leave this quarter’s Alphabet capex unchanged. Four TPUs on a one-kilowatt, 15-minute duty cycle are not why HPE closed at $69.33.
FAQ
Did Super Micro raise a $65 billion forecast on October 2?
No. The $65.0 billion to $72.0 billion fiscal 2027 net-sales range is in Exhibit 99.1, filed August 11, 2026. That filing also guides the quarter ended September 30 to $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion. October 2 was a trading session. The shipping news the tape used is the September 23 Vera Rubin NVL72 release, which did not change the range.
Was the $60 billion figure a fourth-quarter order?
No. On August 11, Charles Liang said Super Micro had generated more than $60 billion in new orders over the past year and held record backlog entering fiscal 2027. Fourth-quarter net sales were $11.1 billion. The exhibit does not identify the $60 billion as Vera Rubin orders. Treating the sentence as a new Friday purchase order double-counts an older book.
Did HPE close up 7.8% at a record?
The Nasdaq close was $69.33, up 7.36% from $64.58, with a high of $70.29. StockStory’s 12:35 p.m. Eastern note put the afternoon gain near 7.8%, which was not the close. The close and the high cleared the $67.10 top of the 52-week range Nasdaq still showed on October 3, and they were the highs of the April 1–October 2 series. Investor’s Business Daily called it a record. This article does not rebuild every session since 2015.
Is Google’s orbital data center operating?
No. Travis Beals wrote on October 1 that a prototype built with Planet reached orbit on Transporter-18 and was operating as expected. Ars Technica reported four TPUs, about one kilowatt of solar power, and Gemini tests of roughly 15 minutes because of cooling. Google’s September 24 post treats dozens of chips and a 2027 laser test as later work. That is a research satellite, not a commercial data center.
Why did Alphabet stock not jump with the launch?
Class A shares closed October 1 at $338.24, down 1.70% from $344.08, and closed October 2 at $343.50, up 1.56% but still under the September 30 close. The prototype does not add a cloud region or a disclosed capex line. The sessions that did reprice hardware were HPE, up 7.36% to $69.33, and Super Micro, up 4.22% to $43.69.
What is a Vera Rubin NVL72 rack, in Super Micro’s numbers?
The September 23 release specifies 72 Nvidia Rubin GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs in one liquid-cooled rack, eighteen 1U trays, and nine NVLink switch trays at 216 TB/s. Each rack has 20.7 TB of HBM4 and up to 54 TB of LPDDR5X. A scalable unit is 1,152 GPUs and 331 TB of HBM4 across 16 compute racks, with 1.8 megawatt in-row cooling units. Those are product specs, not revenue.
Making it to 100, however, is extraordinarily rare.
Researcher Vicki TenHaken, who has studied U.S. companies that have been in business for a century or more, identified at least 1,200 businesses in continuous, independent operation for 100 years or more in 2020. She estimated that those businesses represented just 0.02% of U.S. companies.
Hitting your hundredth birthday as a retailer, restaurant, or single location of a larger chain rarely happens.
Hurwitz Mintz, a 102-year-old furniture chain, will be closing its doors, joining a larger group of 100-year-old or older businesses that have closed over the past 12 months. Much like when my great-grandmother died at age 99, it’s a loss that will hurt, but one that should also be celebrated because of the achievement of surviving that long.
Hurwitz Mintz closing after 102 years
Hurwitz Mintz shared on its website that it is closing and is offering 60% to 70% off storewide as it winds down operations. The sale has already begun, and all sales are final, according to the company.
“All sales are FINAL SALE and sold AS IS — no holds, returns, exchanges, refunds, credits, or cancellations. No special orders. Promotion valid while supplies last. See store for details,” the company posted.
The closing date is open-ended, depending on the liquidation of their current inventory, a Hurwitz Mintz manager told local news station WWL.
“Hurwitz Mintz has been proud to be a part of the greater New Orleans community, serving generations of families and becoming part of the homes of so many,” Hurwitz Mintz said in a statement to the news station. “We are grateful for the time we shared with the community, our employees, and for everyone who made it all possible.”
The company has been owned and operated by the Mintz family for three generations.
Hurwitz Mintz has not said why it is closing.
Shutterstock
More business giants closing or closed after 100 years
Hurwitz Mintz joins a number of other distinguished companies or retail locations to call it quits at, or even well after, 100 years in the past several months.
The reasons these businesses are disappearing vary widely, from retirement and succession issues to bankruptcy and corporate restructuring. But their closures illustrate how difficult it is to preserve a business across multiple generations of owners, consumers, and economic conditions.
Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas, operating for 112 years at its Main Street location: The iconic downtown flagship closed Sept. 30, 2026, ending more than a century at the location. Saks Global, which owns Neiman Marcus, confirmed the closure as part of its restructuring after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Neiman Marcus is not leaving Dallas. It is concentrating its operations at its NorthPark Center location, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Baker’s Main Street Furniture in Garland, Texas: The family-owned furniture retailer is closing after 103 years in business. Owner David Baker is retiring, bringing the three-generation family business to an end, reported Furniture Today.
Laurel Grocery Company in London, Kentucky: The grocery wholesaler closed in 2025 after more than 100 years in business. The company had operated since 1922, according to WKYT.
Pelot’s Rexall Pharmacy in Bradenton, Florida: The family pharmacy closed March 4, 2026, after more than 130 years in business. The Miami Herald reported that owner Robert Pelot cited his age as one factor in the decision.
Minerva Bakery in McKeesport, Pennsylvania (2026): The bakery closed in September 2026 after 103 years in business. The family-owned shop had been operating since 1923, according to CBS Pittsburgh.
These stories show that reaching 100 requires more than surviving economic downturns. A business also must navigate multiple generations of owners, employees, and customers while adapting to a changing market.
What it takes for a business to reach 100 years
Former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner doesn’t think that reaching 100 can be a company goal.
“I don’t see how it can help the management team if one of the primary objectives is getting to 100. It’s not something they can execute on. I’m not sure what you can do to guarantee success in that time frame, or even on a 20- to 30-year view,” he told McKinsey.
He made it clear what it takes to reach that milestone.
“Remember that the enduring companies we see are not really companies that have lasted for 100 years. They’ve changed 25 times or 5 times or 4 times over that 100 years, and they aren’t the same companies as they were. If they hadn’t changed, they wouldn’t have survived,” he added.
Quest Global Chief Strategy Officer Yumi Clevenger-Lee wrote about company longevity for Fast Company.
“Building a company that has what it takes to celebrate 100 years is made up of slow and steady progress — the kind that is achieved day by day. Using your North Star as guidance, take care of the present by focusing on these five daily priorities to build a company for the future,” she wrote.
