Stocks Just Had Their Worst Week in a Year. The Companies? Still Fine.
Weekly Market & ValueAligned Portfolio Review — trading week of June 1–5, 2026 The short version The S&P 500 — a list of 500 of the biggest U.S. companies — fell 2.6% last week. Tech stocks fell harder, down 5.6%. Almost all the selling hit the biggest tech and AI names. The average stock barely […]
The week the S&P 500 stayed quiet while everything else got loud
TL;DR Oil jumped almost 12% after fighting near Iran shut down a key shipping lane, and U.S. crude closed at $105.90 a barrel. Prices for shoppers rose to 3.8% over the past year, the hottest reading since May 2023. The Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the new Federal Reserve Chair by a 54 to 45 […]
How AMD Made $120 Billion in AI Deals — Explained in Plain English
What this post is about AMD makes computer chips. Two years ago, most people knew them for the chips inside gaming PCs and regular business computers. In the last 12 months, they signed deals worth more than $120 billion to make AI chips for the world’s largest AI companies. This post explains what changed, why […]
Amazon (AMZN) Q1 2026 Earnings: Why a 95% Free Cash Flow Drop is Actually Bullish
Why the cash collapse is not the story, the backlog is — and what investors are really being asked to underwrite. TL;DR Trailing twelve-month free cash flow fell 95% to $1.2 billion while Amazon spent $43.2 billion on capex in a single quarter. AWS revenue grew 28% to $37.6 billion — its fastest pace in […]
Alphabet (GOOGL) Q1 2026 Earnings: 5 Surprising Truths Behind the $500B AI Pivot
How Q1 FY2026 turned Google from a search-ad cash machine into the world’s most capital-hungry AI infrastructure builder — and why the headline net income hides the real story. By David Berkowitz · Berk on Value · Published April 30, 2026 TL;DR Alphabet reported Q1 FY2026 revenue of $109.9 billion, up 22% year-over-year — a […]
S&P 500 Hits 7,165: Why 5 VAP Earnings Beat Got Sold Off Anyway
Week ending Friday, April 25, 2026 | Berk on Value | VAP Wealth Advisors TL;DR Five VAP holdings reported earnings this week. All five beat. Three got hammered anyway. The headline S&P 500 record close at 7,165 hides what is actually moving the tape. Intel printed a blowout Q1 , with Data Center & AI […]
Medpace’s 20% Crash: Why the Earnings Beat Couldn’t Save the Stock
Ticker: MEDP | Event: Q1 2026 earnings release, April 22, 2026 | Stock reaction: ~20% drop TL;DR Medpace posted Q1 2026 revenue of $706.6 million, up 26.5% year-over-year, yet the stock dropped roughly 20% after hours because forward indicators collapsed. The net book-to-bill ratio fell to 0.88, the weakest reading in more than a year […]
Inside Andy Jassy’s 2025 Amazon Shareholder Letter: AI, Capex, and the Future
TL;DR Amazon closed 2025 with revenue of $717 billion, up 12% from $638 billion the year before, with operating income climbing 17% to $80 billion. Free cash flow collapsed from $38 billion to $11 billion, driven by a $50.7 billion year-over-year jump in property and equipment spending tied to AI infrastructure. Jassy committed to roughly […]
The Unpriced Peace Dividend: What an Open Iran Means for Global Markets
April 6, 2026 | TL;DR Iran has 208 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves. Forty-seven years of sanctions have kept most of it offline. James Altucher and Iranian-born investor Kiana Danial argue that regime collapse would trigger a peace dividend larger than the one that followed the Soviet […]
How the Iran Conflict and $111 Oil Are Shaping Stocks – Weekly Market Review
One Variable Rules This Market: Oil, Iran, and the Week That Showed Investors What Really Matters April 5, 2026 | David Berkowitz, CFA | VAP Wealth Advisors TL;DR The S&P 500 snapped a five-week losing streak with a 3.4% gain through Thursday, April 2, led by mega-cap tech and semiconductors — then the weekend changed […]
