Below is an important message from one of our highly valued sponsors. Please read it carefully as they have some special information to share with you.

Dear reader,

After correctly predicting the 2008 and 2020 stock market meltdowns…

I believe this AI company is about to trigger the next crash. (Click here to see its name, completely free of charge.)

Look, I’m not the only one warning.

The research firm Bernstein Research said this AI company “has the power to crash the global economy for a decade.”

The CEO of this AI company also just issued a CODE RED in an internal memo…

Warning his employees that they’re dealing with a critical situation.

Another company executive even implied they might need a government bailout.

The last time I saw something like this was in 2008…

When I predicted a stock market meltdown…

Just three weeks before Lehman went under.

Make no mistake…

The stage is set for a meltdown of historic proportions.

So please click here and I’ll show you why I believe this is a $1.4 trillion ticking time bomb…

That will destroy the foundations of the entire AI economy…

And ruin the retirement of millions of unprepared Americans.

The good news is you don’t have to be a victim.

In fact, I’m recommending you take these five simple steps to prepare, before it’s too late.

Regards,

Jim Rickards

AeroVironment’s Stock Is Down, But Drone Demand Is Taking Off

By Jeffrey Neal Johnson. Date Posted: 7/21/2026.

Modern infantry doctrine is undergoing a rapid, radical rewrite in front of investors. As global conflicts play out, it is clear that the battlefield is moving away from heavy, slow-moving legacy armor. The physical economy of defense is shifting toward agile, autonomous platforms. Militaries worldwide are realizing that expensive tanks and traditional ground vehicles are highly vulnerable to cheap, precision-guided munitions. This realization is forcing defense departments to rethink how they allocate capital, prioritizing systems that provide asymmetric advantages on the battlefield.

For investors closely watching defense spending, this structural pivot opens a unique window. Defense budgets are shifting capital away from traditional heavy machinery and toward autonomous robotics and advanced loitering munitions. Investors are witnessing a generational recapitalization in which software and adaptable hardware are replacing heavy steel. Understanding this macroeconomic backdrop is critical because it will determine where government funding flows over the next decade.

Pinpointing the Premier Autonomous Pure-Play

Elon Musk on His New Invention: “An Infinite Money Glitch.” (Ad)

Jeff Brown and Marc Chaikin - two investors who spotted Nvidia a decade ago - are now pointing to Elon Musk's latest AI patent as the catalyst behind their next major call.

They say a market pattern with a 100% historical track record is converging with this new breakthrough by end of month. The last time conditions aligned like this, investors had the chance to turn $10,000 into as much as $350,000 in roughly 12 months.

Brown and Chaikin have released the full details for investors who want to get ahead of it.

See Jeff Brown and Marc Chaikin's full analysis and next steps here

The U.S. military is not ignoring this global shift. The Pentagon's Replicator initiative encapsulates the transformation, mandating the rapid deployment of thousands of attritable, uncrewed systems designed to swarm and overwhelm adversaries in contested environments. The mandate is clear: The Defense Department is seeking commercial partners capable of delivering reliable technology at an unprecedented scale.

At the intersection of this capital rotation sits AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV), a defense pure-play specializing in tactical uncrewed aerial systems. While prime contractors build billion-dollar fighter jets, AeroVironment builds the tactical, autonomous tools deployed by modern infantry battalions on a daily basis. The market has heavily discounted AeroVironment this year, but underlying fundamentals and recent contract wins suggest a severe mispricing. When a structural shift in the physical economy meets a misunderstood asset, investors should pay attention.

Tactical Upgrades: The MOSA Moat and Recurring Revenue

On July 20, 2026, AeroVironment secured a definitive $117.3 million Basic Ordering Agreement under the U.S. Army's Long Range Reconnaissance program. This initial full-rate procurement order covers 82 P550 autonomous Group 2 eVTOL, or electric vertical takeoff and landing, systems.

While a nine-figure contract provides excellent revenue visibility, the real value lies in the technology the Army just validated. The P550 architecture relies heavily on a modular open systems approach, widely known as MOSA in the defense sector. In simple terms, MOSA allows military operators in the field to swap payloads, batteries and sensors in under five minutes without specialized tools. This could enable operators to switch from a reconnaissance camera to an electronic warfare jammer in the middle of a tactical operation.

This level of adaptability creates a significant economic moat for AeroVironment. When the military adopts a MOSA-compliant system, it establishes a long-term relationship with the manufacturer. Upgrades can be delivered through new payloads rather than entirely new airframes, creating the potential for high-margin, recurring revenue streams over the P550 fleet's lifecycle.

The financial data supports this aggressive expansion. In fiscal Q4 2026, AeroVironment delivered impressive 133.3% year-over-year revenue growth, generating $642 million in revenue. More importantly, the company maintained a healthy 19% EBITDA margin during this high-growth phase. AeroVironment currently has a funded government backlog of $1.2 billion to $2.7 billion. Demand for these systems is not theoretical; it is already contracted and awaiting delivery.

Turbulence and Tailwinds: Accumulation in the Drop Zone

If AeroVironment is growing revenue by triple digits and securing major Army contracts, investors might wonder why the stock is down more than 40% year to date, trading near $142 after opening the year above $241.

The aggressive drawdown stems from a localized regulatory headwind. In early 2026, the U.S. Space Force reopened the $1.7 billion Satellite Communication Augmentation Resource program, commonly known as SCAR, creating uncertainty around AeroVironment's expected sole-source position on the program. Predictably, this sparked analyst downgrades related to the company's 2030 long-term financial targets and triggered a wave of procedural class-action lawsuits ahead of a July 27 lead-plaintiff deadline.

Markets hate uncertainty, and algorithmic trading models aggressively sold the news. However, this legal and procedural noise masks the fundamental strength of AeroVironment's core tactical drone business. Losing single-vendor status on one space program does not negate the overwhelming demand for the company's ground-based and aerial tactical systems.

Wall Street analysts are beginning to spot the discrepancy between the stock price and the underlying business fundamentals. On July 16, Raymond James upgraded AeroVironment from Market Perform to Outperform and set a $210 price target. The firm cited the accelerating defense backlog and a highly favorable risk-to-reward profile following the severe year-to-date price compression.

Institutions are quietly using the current weakness to accumulate shares. Recent filings show that total shares owned by institutional investors increased by nearly 30% over the last quarter. When asset managers increase their positions by that magnitude during a 40% drawdown, it can signal quiet, calculated accumulation. Options chain data currently reveals a decisively bullish put-to-call ratio of 0.60, indicating that derivatives traders are positioning for an upside reversal rather than further downside.

Positioning for the Tactical Tech Boom

The broader unmanned aerial systems sector features widely varying risk profiles. Pure-play competitors such as Red Cat Holdings (NASDAQ: RCAT) trade on extreme top-line momentum, generating 849% year-over-year revenue growth, but operate with deeply negative free cash flow and low gross margins.

Others, including Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ: KTOS), offer high-beta exposure through target drones and attritable jet systems. Meanwhile, traditional prime contractors such as Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) offer stability and a dividend yield but lack the explosive growth potential of a smaller, more agile technology firm.

AeroVironment occupies a unique middle ground. The company is scaling rapidly but still experiencing growing pains. Trailing net margins stand at -9%, reflecting the heavy capital expenditures required to expand manufacturing capacity and meet its multibillion-dollar backlog. AeroVironment must successfully transition from aggregating government contracts to delivering durable, bottom-line profitability.

The $117.3 million Army contract demonstrates that the Department of Defense views AeroVironment as a premier supplier capable of meeting modern warfare demands. As global military budgets pivot away from legacy armor and toward intelligent, scalable drone technologies, companies with verified government backlogs are positioned to capture significant market share. Investors with a higher risk tolerance might consider adding AeroVironment to their watchlist as the company continues converting its impressive backlog into realized revenue.

Alphabet Is Down 18% From Its High After a Stellar Quarter—Overdone, or More Downside Ahead?

By Ryan Hasson. Date Posted: 7/29/2026.

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) finds itself in an unusual and precarious position. The company just delivered one of the strongest quarters in its history, yet the stock closed Tuesday down just over 18% from its 52-week high and is now up only about 7% for the year.

A mega-cap stock posting record results while its share price retreats toward its 200-day moving average leaves little middle ground.

ALERT: Drop these 5 stocks before the market opens tomorrow! (Ad)

The Wall Street Journal is already raising the alarm about a potential market crash, and Weiss Ratings research points to the first half of 2026 as a particularly rough stretch for certain holdings.

Some of America's most popular stocks could take serious damage as a radical market shift plays out. Analysts at Weiss Ratings have identified five names you may want to remove from your portfolio before this unfolds.

If any of these are in your portfolio, now is the time to review your positions.

See the 5 stocks to avoid

Either the market is handing long-term investors a rare entry point, or the AI spending fears driving the weakness are about to intensify.

The Quarter Deserved Better

The results themselves left little to criticize. Revenue rose 24% year over year to $119.8 billion, extending the company's double-digit growth streak to 12 consecutive quarters. Google Cloud stole the spotlight again, accelerating to 82% growth at $24.8 billion, roughly 11% above analysts' estimates, while the cloud backlog swelled to $514 billion. Cloud operating income more than tripled to $8.8 billion. Search grew 17%, quieting the cannibalization debate for another quarter.

One accounting factor, however, warrants attention. Reported earnings per share (EPS) of $9.11 were inflated by a $99 billion unrealized gain on Alphabet's Anthropic and SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) stakes, with operational earnings landing near $2.87 per share. That same gain is now distorting the stock's headline price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios, which appear unusually low as a result. Investors comparing valuations should look through that noise rather than take the multiple at face value.

What the Market Is Actually Afraid Of

The GOOGL sell-off has one primary source: spending. Capital expenditures (CapEx) hit $44.9 billion in the quarter, double the prior year's figure, and management lifted its full-year guidance to $195 billion to $205 billion, up from the previous range of $180 billion to $190 billion. Free cash flow consequently turned into a $5.9 billion outflow. In a market already extremely anxious about AI CapEx across the mega-cap sector, Alphabet's decision to spend even more was viewed as a risk rather than a signal of demand.

The bulls' counterargument, however, writes itself. A $514 billion backlog represents contracted future revenue, and infrastructure is what converts that backlog into sales. Monday brought a reminder of that demand, with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) signing a dark fiber agreement with Alphabet, reportedly worth more than $1 billion, to support AI data center connectivity.

The Technical Picture

From a technical perspective, GOOGL traded down toward its 200-day simple moving average (SMA) and found support near $320, exactly where the bulls needed it to. Going forward, that is the important line in the sand.

One could argue that if the stock breaks below that support area and its post-earnings low, the structure will break, potentially sending shares into a stage-four decline. But if it stabilizes above that zone and forms a higher low on the longer-term chart, this pullback could prove to be an attractive entry point for long-term investors following a major retreat from the high.

What the Street Is Doing

Notably, the analyst community has leaned into the weakness rather than away from it. The consensus rating on GOOGL was recently upgraded to a Buy across 54 analysts, with the average price target rising to $419.86, implying nearly 26% upside from Tuesday's close. The high target sits at $515. Alphabet also scores in the 96th percentile of MarketBeat's MarketRank.

The caution flags are real but familiar: the TradeSmith Health Indicator slipped into the Yellow Zone just over a week ago, and insider selling has continued. Neither development is unusual for a stock working through a drawdown of this size.

Overdone, or Just Beginning?

The honest read is that the fundamental case and the price action are telling two different stories, and the $320 level is where they meet. Nothing in the quarter weakened Alphabet's position. Cloud is accelerating, the backlog is enormous, and the Street responded to the sell-off by raising ratings and targets. What has changed is the market's tolerance for the spending required to serve that growth, and that tolerance may remain thin until free cash flow stabilizes.

For long-term investors, an 18% discount on a business performing this well and sitting at major long-term support is about as clean an entry point as mega-cap tech offers. For everyone else, the inflection point is simpler: Watch the $320 area. Hold it, and a higher low could build the next leg higher. Lose it, and the CapEx fears will have won the argument for a while longer.