📌 Top story -- scroll down for more updates
FTC Flags Pricing Tactics at StubHub
4:36 pm — STUB -3.06%
StubHub (STUB +1.32%) fell as much as 9.7% before closing down about 3% after the FTC sued the company over alleged violations of “all-in” ticket pricing rules tied to the 2025 NFL schedule rollout. Investors appeared to weigh the limited duration of the alleged misconduct—potentially just days—against the company’s $1.2 billion cash position and prior litigation reserves. The muted reaction suggests markets see manageable downside, even as legal risk lingers.
- Timing tells the tale: The FTC claims StubHub delayed compliance during a peak demand window tied to NFL ticket sales, raising questions about intent versus execution.
- Balance sheet buffer: With prior reserves and ample cash, penalties may be absorbable, leaving valuation—not survival—as the central debate.
NYSE: STUB
Key Data Points
Closing Bell
4:09 pm
U.S. stocks rose for a second day as oil prices pulled back from highs above $100, with investors leaning into a fragile ceasefire narrative in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average turned positive for 2026, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also advanced. Crude remains elevated near $98, reflecting ongoing risks around the Strait of Hormuz reopening. Strength in Meta Platforms (META +1.37%), along with defensive stocks like Walmart (WMT +0.85%), helped support the move.
- Peace premium returns: Markets are pricing in de-escalation, but shipping constraints and limited Strait traffic show supply risks remain unresolved.
- AI + defensives lead: Meta’s AI push lifted tech, while utilities and staples quietly bid higher—suggesting investors aren’t fully convinced the risk is over.
Disney Cuts Deep In Fresh Cost Push
3:52 pm — DIS +0.92%
Shares of Walt Disney (DIS +2.17%) were up slightly after reports the company plans up to 1,000 layoffs, largely in marketing, as new CEO Josh D’Amaro accelerates cost-cutting. The move follows earlier restructuring under former CEO Bob Iger, who cut 7,000 roles and $5.5 billion in costs. Disney has centralized marketing under a single executive, signaling a push for efficiency as leadership shifts from turnaround to execution.
- Central command: Marketing consolidation under one leader suggests tighter control over brand spend—and fewer redundancies across divisions.
- From reset to refine: With prior cuts done, this phase looks less like survival and more like margin discipline under new leadership.
NYSE: DIS
Key Data Points
APLD Crushed Q3, But Investors Bail
3:28 pm — APLD -6.41%
Shares of Applied Digital (APLD +3.56%) fell despite a strong fiscal Q3, highlighting a familiar market tension: results vs. quality. The company beat expectations with $0.09 EPS and $126.6M in revenue, up 139% year over year, but investors focused on what drove the upside. Lower-margin segments like fit-out services and power passthroughs weighed on perception, while a lack of new hyperscaler lease updates left growth visibility murky.
- What powered the beat: Revenue strength leaned on lower-margin business lines, raising questions about earnings durability even as headline growth impressed.
- What’s missing: Investors were looking for hyperscaler lease wins—silence there may matter more than the quarter’s upside.
NASDAQ: APLD
Key Data Points
AI Fear Hits Atlassian Stock, Down 10%
2:56 pm — TEAM -7.74%
Shares of Atlassian (TEAM 2.20%) fell after Guggenheim cut its price target by nearly 40% to $115, citing AI as a potential near-term headwind. The stock trades below $60, implying upside remains even after the downgrade. The analyst kept a buy rating, pointing to Atlassian’s moat in tools like Jira and Confluence. Wall Street still expects roughly 20% annual earnings growth, and at under 13x free cash flow, the reset may reflect shifting expectations more than a broken thesis.
- Valuation reset, not collapse: Lower targets reflect tempered growth assumptions, not structural decline.
- AI: threat or funnel? Experimentation with AI tools could delay adoption, but may also expand Atlassian’s long-term market.
American’s Baggage Fees Climb With Fuel Surge
2:30 pm — AAL -0.22%
American Airlines (AAL +5.99%) raised checked-bag fees, joining peers as jet-fuel costs climb amid geopolitical tensions. The carrier will charge $50 for a first bag and $60 for a second on many routes, with higher prices for last-minute payment and basic economy tickets. Rivals including United, Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest have made similar moves, underscoring an industry pattern: when fuel rises, ancillary fees follow—and tend to stick even if fares fluctuate.
- Fees Move in Formation: Airlines often raise baggage charges in tandem, signaling pricing discipline and a shared playbook for protecting margins.
- Ancillary Flywheel: Bag fees, credit cards, and seat upgrades remain durable profit levers—less volatile than ticket pricing and increasingly central to earnings.
Tesla Revives Plans for Cheaper Compact
1:05 pm -- TSLA +0.9%
Tesla (TSLA +4.48%) is reportedly developing an all-new compact SUV designed to sit below the Model 3 in price and size. Sources indicate the automaker is coordinating with suppliers for a vehicle roughly 14 feet long — nearly two feet shorter than the Model Y. While CEO Elon Musk previously dismissed a dedicated $25,000 "Model 2" as "pointless" in favor of autonomous robotaxis, this new project appears to bridge the gap by offering a lighter, single-motor platform that could support both human-driven and driverless configurations. The shift comes as analysts warn of a third consecutive year of declining sales for Tesla’s traditional electric vehicle lineup.
- Manufacturing Globalism: Though early production is slated for China, Tesla reportedly intends to scale this smaller SUV into U.S. and European factories to maximize capacity.
- The "Controls" Compromise: To navigate global regulatory hurdles that block pedal-less cars, the new model may retain traditional steering hardware to ensure immediate marketability across diverse jurisdictions.
NASDAQ: TSLA
Key Data Points
Maine Bids to Ban Data Centers
1:10 pm
Maine is on the verge of becoming the first state to pass a temporary ban on data center construction through November 2027. The bipartisan measure aims to protect residents from soaring energy prices as the AI "gold rush" strains the power grid. While Maine lacks a massive hyper-scaler presence, the move signals a growing legislative backlash against infrastructure heavyweights like Microsoft (MSFT +1.79%), Alphabet (GOOG +1.24%), and Meta Platforms (META +1.37%). With similar bills pending in over a dozen states, investors must weigh whether these localized "guardrails" will throttle the domestic expansion of the cloud and AI sectors.
- A Regulatory Virus: Lawmakers in data-center hubs like Virginia and Georgia are monitoring Maine's progress, threatening to turn local energy concerns into a nationwide bottleneck for tech giants.
- The Cost of Saying No: Industry advocates warn that even a two-year hiatus could permanently divert billions in investment to more hospitable regions, leaving Maine’s struggling industrial zones without a high-tech replacement for its fading paper mills.
Exclusive Masters Coverage Hits Prime
12:25 pm -- AMZN +4.8%
Amazon (AMZN +1.53%) has officially teed off as the fourth-ever media partner for the Masters, securing exclusive live coverage for the tournament’s opening rounds. Prime Video will broadcast the legendary Amen Corner and featured groups on April 10-11, leveraging advanced stats and unique camera angles to deepen viewer engagement. This deal marks a critical expansion of Amazon’s premium sports portfolio, moving beyond the gridiron to capture the high-net-worth golf demographic. By integrating live prestigious sports with its massive e-commerce engine, Amazon aims to drive both Prime retention and high-margin apparel sales.
- Merchandising the Fairway: The partnership creates a direct digital bridge between the broadcast and Amazon's storefront, allowing fans to purchase tournament-related gear in real-time.
- Non-Traditional Growth: Augusta National’s leadership highlighted the move as a strategic shift toward digital-first promotion, signaling that even the most conservative sporting institutions are pivoting to tech giants for long-term relevance.
NASDAQ: AMZN
Key Data Points
Amazon Kiosks to Stock Lilly's Pill
12:45 pm -- AMZN +4.3%, LLY +0.5%
Amazon (AMZN +1.53%) announced Thursday that its pharmacy unit will stock Eli Lilly’s (LLY +2.11%) new weight-loss pill, Foundayo, at physical kiosks and offer same-day delivery. Unlike injectable GLP-1s, the pill form requires no refrigeration, allowing Amazon to dispense it through One Medical clinics. This expansion leverages Amazon’s $4 billion investment in 2025 to triple its delivery footprint. By serving as a primary fulfillment partner for the LillyDirect platform, Amazon scales its healthcare presence while providing Lilly a direct-to-consumer pipeline that bypasses traditional cold-chain logistics hurdles.
- Logistics over Lab Coats: The ability to bypass refrigeration allows Amazon to treat these high-demand drugs like standard maintenance meds, slashing shipping overhead and fulfillment times.
- The Prime Health Ecosystem: By integrating WeightWatchers (WW +3.37%) and One Medical, Amazon is building a "closed-loop" system where prescriptions, consultations, and same-day pickup happen under one corporate umbrella.
AMZN performance
LLY performance
OpenAI Freezes UK "Stargate" Project
11:25 am
OpenAI is hitting the brakes on its "Stargate UK" data center project, citing a restrictive regulatory environment and soaring energy costs. The move marks a significant setback for Microsoft (MSFT +1.79%), which backs the AI leader, and partners like Nvidia (NVDA +1.24%) and Oracle (ORCL 0.32%) that are racing to scale global compute. While the UK government hoped to anchor its growth strategy in sovereign AI infrastructure, OpenAI's retreat suggests that capital is flowing toward more favorable cost environments. The company maintains its London research hub but will defer infrastructure spending until the UK’s pro-innovation pledges translate into lower operational overhead.
- Computing Sovereignty Stalled: The pause disrupts a technology partnership designed to give Britain independent control over its AI development, leaving the nation more reliant on external clouds.
- Energy Price Pinch: With global electricity demand for AI surging, high UK utility rates are proving to be a decisive deal-breaker for massive scale-out projects involving high-density GPU clusters.
Amazon's Jassy: Bet Big, Stay Squiggly
11:10 am -- AMZN +3.3%
By Andy Cross
Motley Fool CIO
Amazon (AMZN +1.53%) CEO Andy Jassy dropped his latest annual letter this morning laying out the reality of squiggly, messy innovation on the way to changing the world. (And, to be fair, partly to justify the huge capex dollars Amazon will spend this year and beyond.)
It's a letter that lays out Amazon's cultural identity toward its project development more than it is a look back at 2025. The Goliath that is AWS started out with as many question marks and pivots as anything. It's now a $140 billion-plus business, or about 20% of Amazon's top line, and more important to operating profits.
The letter is chock-full of inspirational insights and take-aways for not only Amazon investors but anyone curious on what drives one of the most important companies in the world.
Google Doubles Down on Intel
10:00 am -- GOOG -1.0%, INTC +2.1%
Alphabet (GOOG +1.24%) expanded its decades-long partnership with Intel (INTC +0.66%), committing to use multiple generations of Xeon 6 processors to power its artificial intelligence data centers. The agreement focuses on utilizing Intel’s advanced 18A manufacturing process for AI training and inference, addressing the growing "CPU bottleneck" in complex agentic workloads. This multi-year commitment provides a massive boost to Intel’s foundry ambitions and domestic fabrication strategy, even as Google continues developing its own internal Arm-based Axion chips and TPU accelerators.
- Systems over Accelerators: While Nvidia (NVDA +1.24%) GPUs have dominated the first phase of AI, this deal underscores a shift toward balanced architectures where Intel's programmable IPUs offload networking and security tasks.
- Domestic Foundry Momentum: Intel's Arizona facility is now producing the Xeon 6 on its leading-edge 18A node, securing a high-volume internal customer while the company courts external giants like Tesla (TSLA +4.48%) for its custom silicon projects.
NASDAQ: INTC
Key Data Points
Opening Bell
9:35 am
The S&P 500 retreated Thursday as the initial euphoria over a U.S.-Iran ceasefire faded. Despite the Dow’s 1,300-point surge yesterday, skepticism returned after Iran’s parliamentary speaker accused the U.S. of violations. Consequently, West Texas Intermediate futures jumped 5% back toward $99 as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to oil tankers. While some strategists view this as a buying opportunity, the lack of energy traffic and President Trump’s warning of a "military response larger than anything seen before" if compliance fails is keeping risk premiums high.
Market indexes
Spending Spikes While Savings Shrink
9:25 am
The Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge, the PCE Price Index, rose 0.4% in February, pushing the annual headline rate to 2.8%. While core inflation — which excludes food and energy — edged down to 3%, the monthly heat surpassed expectations, which may force the Fed to keep interest rates "higher for longer." This data reflects an economy already warming up before the recent Iran conflict spiked energy costs. The odds of a summer pivot are fading as stubborn service costs and resilient consumer demand keep price pressures well above the central bank's 2% target.
- The Consumption Paradox: Personal spending jumped 0.5% despite a 0.1% dip in income, suggesting households are cannibalizing their savings to sustain lifestyles — a trend that historically precedes a pullback in discretionary stocks.
- Disposable Income Drain: Real disposable income saw its sharpest decline since early 2024, falling 0.5% after inflation adjustments, which may soon squeeze margins for retailers like Walmart (WMT +0.85%) and Amazon (AMZN +1.53%).
CoreWeave Secures $21B Meta Pact Through 2032
8:15 am -- CRWV +5.20%, META +1.42% in pre-market trading
CoreWeave (CRWV 1.18%) announced a massive $21 billion expanded agreement Thursday to provide Meta (META +1.37%) with dedicated AI cloud capacity through 2032. The deal deepens an existing partnership as the social media giant aggressively scales infrastructure to support the increasingly complex workloads required for its generative AI roadmap. Under the terms, CoreWeave will deploy specialized compute across multiple locations, including some of the first installations of Nvidia's (NVDA +1.24%) next-generation hardware. This long-term commitment underscores the intensifying arms race for high-performance processing power as big tech players move from experimental models to industrial-scale inference and deployment.
- Capital Intensity Signals: The sheer scale of the $21 billion commitment indicates that Meta's management sees no immediate plateau in AI infrastructure spending, prioritizing guaranteed hardware access over short-term capital expenditure reductions.
- Rubin Platform Adoption: The inclusion of Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform in this rollout suggests that CoreWeave is successfully positioning itself as the primary gateway for enterprises to access the most advanced silicon before it reaches broader public cloud availability.
NASDAQ: CRWV
Key Data Points
Anthropic Takes Direct Aim at Enterprise SaaS
8:00 am
By Andy Cross
Motley Fool CIO
In an otherwise impressive rebound day for stocks (with the market up more than 2%), software moved the opposite way, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV +1.51%) falling nearly 1%. Once again, the cause points toward Anthropic. Its latest salvo is the release of its Claude Managed Agents (CMA), which is likely to pile on the competitive threats building against software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies.
In simple terms, CMA offers a full cloud platform for created agents. In reality, running a bunch of agents in a corporate environment at scale is highly complex. It involves all kinds of tools, data feeds, security, testing, and so forth. CMA hopes to lower the barriers to building and deploying artificial intelligence (AI) agents by providing an out-of-the-box environment to developers (at business clients).
This includes a so-called "harness," which is software that handles a lot of the grunt work of running a bunch of agents in a real environment. The goal is for clients to move from testing to application in days or hours, rather than weeks.
It's yet another example of how Claude (run by Anthropic) is attacking the heart of software applications. It is now giving enterprise clients a way to more easily create, test, validate, and run their agents to do things that, in some cases, software by design is meant to do. Claude is building a vertically integrated platform for managing those corporate agents.
This Morning's Breakfast News
7:30 am -- DIS -0.22% in pre-market trading
The WSJ reports Disney (DIS +2.17%) is planning to cut up to 1,000 jobs in the near term, as it continues to try and streamline and cut costs as it adjusts to lower box office income and higher streaming competition. The stock was little changed ahead of market open.
- Most job losses to be in the consolidated marketing team: The cuts would build on the 8,000 cumulative redundancies made since the start of the last transformation in 2022, although is still relatively modest when compared to the 231,000 total employees from the end of the fiscal 2025 year.
- Waiting for direction under new CEO Josh D'Amaro: Having taken over last month, D'Amaro is expected to reveal his priorities shortly, but will likely include a push for different divisions to collaborate more quickly and efficiently.
ICYMI: Wednesday's Scoreboard
7:00 am -- MELI -0.42% in pre-market trading
MercadoLibre (MELI +2.51%) was the subject of the latest Scoreboard video.
Top of the Morning
6:30 am -- STZ -0.83% in pre-market trading
By Morning Show host Emily Flippen, CFA
Team Rule Breakers
Constellation Brands (STZ 0.20%) wants you to think its future is outside of its control and that everything within its control is perfectly fine. Management wants investors to look at its fourth-quarter earnings and its guidance for the next year and see a story of stabilization, of an underdog outperforming a cyclically weak industry. Management wants investors to see the silver lining, not the dark clouds. But what Constellation Brands seems to have forgotten is that it doesn't matter whether you're outperforming in a dying industry. The industry is still dying.
I say this as a Constellation Brands shareholder (and an investor who enjoys her fair share of wine). I am not rooting for this business to fail. And there were bright spots in the quarter. As the business continues to divest its wine and spirits portfolio, beer sales have managed to maintain their lead as the No. 1 dollar share gainer domestically, with beer depletions finally turning positive and net sales growing in the quarter after a year of declines. Newer lines, like Pacifico and Victoria, are legitimately performing well in an otherwise decimated category.
But no matter how silver the lining is, when I zoom out, I am still incredibly uncomfortable. Modelo Especial, which has not just been Constellation's best-performing brand but also the crown jewel of beer in America, saw depletions fall 3% in the fourth quarter. Corona Extra was down 7%. The reality is that the alcohol industry is declining, and no amount of new product launches or category share gains will change that.
FedEx Ends 5-Year Pilot Dispute With 40% Rise
6:00 am -- FDX -0.17% in pre-market trading
FedEx (FDX +2.24%) and the Air Line Pilots Association reached a breakthrough tentative agreement Wednesday, potentially ending a five-year labor dispute. The deal features a massive 40% hourly wage increase in 2026, followed by 3% annual raises through 2030, and up to $150,000 in retroactive pay for senior captains. This resolution is a critical pivot for management after pilots rejected a smaller 30% offer last year over outsourcing fears. While the deal still requires Master Executive Council approval and pilot ratification, it provides much-needed stability as the company integrates its air and ground networks to boost efficiency.
- Competitive Labor Pressure: The significant pay bump follows aggressive contract wins at rivals like United Parcel Service (UPS +2.09%), signaling a new era of higher structural costs for global logistics providers.
- Operational Stability: Securing the world's largest cargo air fleet allows FedEx to focus on its upcoming spin-off of FedEx Freight, slated for June 1, without the looming threat of industrial action.
NYSE: FDX
Key Data Points
Ackman Eyes New Fund to Bet on Complacency
5:15 am
The FT reports Pershing Square Capital founder Bill Ackman is looking to launch a spin-off fund to try and exploit investor complacency via large concentrated macro trades.
- Potential to boost company fee earnings from "asymmetric" fund: The strategy behind the new fund would aim to make wagers against the prevailing narrative in the markets at any given time, mimicking his profitable trade from the start of the pandemic that yielded a $2.6 billion windfall.
- Added publicity ahead of likely IPO: Ackman is preparing to take his main hedge fund public along with a separate new closed-end fund, aiming to raise between $5 billion and $10 billion in the process.
Before the Opening Bell
5:00 am
Stock futures retreated Thursday as the newly minted U.S.-Iran ceasefire showed immediate signs of strain, threatening to reignite the Middle East conflict. While markets initially rallied on hopes of a "complete" lifting of the Strait of Hormuz blockade, Tehran has restricted passage to coordinated military transit, and recent Israeli strikes in Lebanon have further destabilized the 14-day truce. Investors are now shifting focus to the February Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index--the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation metric--to gauge how sustained energy price spikes are filtering through the broader economy.
- Monetary Policy High Stakes: Persistent volatility in crude prices poses a direct challenge to the Fed's inflation targets. If the "war premium" remains embedded in energy costs, it may force a more hawkish stance on interest rates, hurting high-growth tech valuations.
- Supply Chain Fragility: The halting of tanker traffic through Hormuz despite the truce keeps insurance premiums elevated and transit times uncertain. This creates a difficult operating environment for global logistics players and manufacturing sectors dependent on stable energy flows.
