Dear Reader,

Before every major market reset, three things have appeared.

Not one. Not two. All three.

#1 — Debt reaches a breaking point.

U.S. debt is closing in on $38 trillion. Foreign buyers are pulling back. When the biggest buyers of U.S. debt start stepping away — liquidity tightens. And when liquidity tightens… markets reprice.

#2 — Global institutions weaken.

The 2026 Munich Security Report — the annual assessment issued to world leaders — just described the global order as “Under Destruction.” Trade fragmentation. Rising power conflicts. Weakened institutions. The system that supported markets for decades is shifting.

#3 — Central banks quietly move into gold.

Central banks are currently buying gold at record levels. They don't announce it. They don't explain it. They just move. And historically, when central banks load up on gold — it's because they know something about the system that most investors don't.

>> See what's unfolding — and the 3 steps to shield your IRA or 401(k) right now

All three warning signs are present. At the same time.

And if your IRA or 401(k) is heavily tied to stocks — you may be more exposed than you realize.

>> Click here to see how thousands of Americans are protecting their retirement savings before the reset hits

Gold has crushed the S&P 500 in 2026. Central banks know why.

You can make the same move they're making — inside your existing IRA or 401(k).

No new account. No penalty. No tax hit.

But only before the reset. Not after.

>> Learn how to add gold to your IRA or 401(k) — tax and penalty-free — with this free Info Guide

Striking Oil: How the U.S. Play for Venezuela Fuels Supermajors

Author: Jeffrey Neal Johnson. Publication Date: 9/2/2026.

Middle Eastern supply-chain risks are adding urgency to renewed U.S. engagement with Venezuela’s vast energy reserves, potentially creating new opportunities for domestic supermajors with the scale and expertise to participate. As capital flows into this geopolitical divergence play, peak operational leverage and fortified balance sheets position key upstream companies for significant upside.

Investors watching global Brent prices spike on war fears might be missing the underlying domestic energy play. A structural shift in physical energy markets is underway—one that bypasses traditional, conflict-prone supply routes and connects directly to one of the world's largest oil reserves. The geopolitical risk premium on oil may be climbing rapidly, but the potential for wealth creation is emerging through foreign-policy maneuvering. Understanding the fundamentals behind this transition highlights a potentially lucrative, multiyear runway for integrated energy equities.

The Geopolitical Pivot: Anchoring the Supply Chain

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The escalation in the Middle East is rewriting risk models for global energy supplies. With fresh airstrikes raising the geopolitical risk premium, the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz is causing Western powers to adopt a strategic hedge. The unpriced catalyst driving recent market momentum is the U.S. Department of War's active pursuit of an approximately 35% stake in Venezuelan oil rights through third-party intermediaries.

This maneuver could open a pool of Latin American reserves to help replenish depleted domestic Strategic Petroleum Reserves. For investors, it creates an asymmetric risk-reward profile: Global oil prices remain elevated because of geopolitical instability, while select domestic companies could gain government-backed extraction rights just south of the border.

The sector has already experienced a sharp repricing, but the cash flows generated by this new extraction mandate are only beginning to materialize. Investors pricing in standard cyclical commodity fluctuations may be underestimating the long-term cash-flow stability provided by federal backing for foreign heavy crude.

When evaluating the macro landscape, access to physical commodities takes precedence over temporary pricing dynamics. The integration of Venezuelan crude into the U.S. refining ecosystem is not merely a short-term trade; it represents a realignment of energy dependence that could shield domestic producers from overseas bottlenecks.

Pumping Yield: Flexing Balance Sheet Supremacy

Executing a state-sponsored extraction mandate requires an exceptionally strong balance sheet and extensive logistical networks. Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) are uniquely positioned to leverage these global reserves and could be major beneficiaries of this foreign-policy pivot.

Chevron Corporation recently reported a 57.4% year-over-year revenue surge, posting earnings per share of $6.06 against a consensus estimate of $5.55. This earnings beat demonstrates strong operational leverage ahead of a potentially transformative international expansion.

Chevron's stock price is up around 39% year to date and currently trades near $210. The stock is backed by a resilient 3.4% dividend yield and a $419 billion market capitalization. Trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 20, its valuation remains competitive given the potential revenue streams from new Latin American fields.

ExxonMobil generated an imposing $114.53 billion in quarterly revenue and reported a trailing return on equity of about 13.14%. The scale of these operations largely eclipses the domestic political friction currently making headlines.

While the administration publicly pressures refiners over rising consumer gas prices and excludes key executives from domestic policy meetings, the geopolitical reality is that ExxonMobil and Chevron Corporation are among the few operators with the capital-expenditure runway to manage a Venezuelan infrastructure overhaul.

Picks and Shovels of the Oil Boom

Extracting heavy crude from neglected Latin American fields requires substantial upfront capital and sophisticated technical retrofitting. This necessity brings oilfield service providers sharply into focus, making Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) a critical name in this geopolitical equation.

When supermajors secure foreign extraction rights, they often outsource specialized infrastructure recovery to proven service providers. Halliburton Company operates with a healthy 18.71% return on equity and a stable net margin of about 7.16%. The stock has risen more than 30% this year and trades near $37, yet Wall Street consensus maintains a price target of around $43.10, suggesting that meaningful upside potential remains.

Service providers can capture high-margin contracts during the initial phases of infrastructure revitalization. Halliburton Company is positioned to absorb future capital expenditures from Chevron Corporation and ExxonMobil. As Venezuela's physical fields are brought back online, proprietary drilling technology, cementing services and reservoir consulting will become essential line items for the supermajors.

This could create a relatively insulated revenue stream for Halliburton Company, reducing its exposure to day-to-day oil-price volatility. Service contracts are generally locked in regardless of short-term crude fluctuations, offering a defensive position within a high-beta sector.

Pipeline to Profits: Capitalizing on the Geopolitical Shift

The synchronized momentum across integrated oil companies and energy-service providers is not simply a typical commodity-cycle peak. It represents a repricing of geopolitical energy security. The rapid year-to-date gains across Chevron Corporation, ExxonMobil and Halliburton Company align with the new Venezuelan extraction catalyst.

Investors looking to capitalize on this divergence play might consider adding these equities to a watchlist and waiting for minor market pullbacks before taking a position. Cash flow from these newly acquired, government-backed extraction rights has yet to fully appear in upcoming quarterly earnings, leaving an extended runway for long-term growth as the physical economy adapts.

3 Retail Stocks to Watch After a Big Consumer Earnings Week

Authored by Dan Schmidt. Originally Published: 8/29/2026.

The retail sector was one of the biggest winners of earnings season, a trend that was especially evident in several reports released last week. Eight major retailers reported earnings within 48 hours, and nearly all beat headline estimates. But headline numbers rarely tell the whole story, and this quarter was particularly deceptive. Tariff refunds have done to earnings what steroids did to baseball players in the 1990s, and these juiced results can mask underlying weakness.

Take Abercrombie and Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF), for example, whose stock soared more than 35% after its Q2 release on an impressive double beat and buyback increase. However, the company accumulated about $100 million in tariff refunds during the period, boosting its margin by 790 basis points (bps) and adding $1.75 to its $4.12 earnings per share (EPS) figure. Another $20 million in refunds is expected in Q3, but comps were weak, particularly at Hollister.

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A small explorer is working in a frontier gold-copper region near a proven multi-billion-dollar producer.

The company holds a large land package, high-grade surface samples, and now has a second drill turning.

Most investors wait for confirmation. This is the stage before that happens.

Look closer at the story before it becomes obvious to everyone else

To find the real winners, we need to screen out earnings juiced by tariff refunds. That means focusing on comp sales and traffic instead of EPS and revenue, while distinguishing true operational improvement from one-time windfalls.

Dollar General: The Trade-Down King Continues to Grow Traffic

Cash-strapped consumers trading down to discount stores has been a boon to Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG), which seems to impress the market every time a conference call rolls around.

In its fiscal Q2 2027 results, released Aug. 27, the company once again beat top- and bottom-line estimates. Same-store sales, or comps, rose 3.5%, with growth spread across all four merchandise categories.

Foot traffic increased for a fifth consecutive quarter, and gross margins expanded by 127 bps.

Crucially, the EPS beat wasn’t reliant on tariff refunds. The company earned $2.48 per share during the period, and management estimates that only 25 cents of that figure came from tariff refunds.

Removing the one-time tariff boost leaves EPS of $2.23 per share, still well above the expected $2.01 and nearly 17% higher than fiscal Q2 2026’s $1.86. Management also raised its full-year guidance for revenue, comps and EPS.

DG shares jumped as much as 12% following the earnings call before surrendering most of those gains later in the day. But the bounce off the May lows has been confirmed, and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) refuses to dip much below 50. The stock is up 16% over the last three months, and a potential Golden Cross involving the 50-day and 200-day moving averages could be the next technical catalyst.

Best Buy: Stock Sell-off Obscures High-Quality Beat

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) posted one of the better quarters in the retail sector but fell 4% after the release, despite receiving only $34 million in tariff refunds.

High memory costs continue to weigh heavily on computing prices, and management expects this pressure to persist through year-end. But Best Buy’s fiscal Q2 2027 results deserve a closer look because the beat was the cleanest in the cohort.

EPS and revenue both easily beat expectations, but the eye-popping figure was comps, which grew 4.1% year over year (YOY) versus management’s expectation of 1%. Despite soaring memory costs, computing and home theater product sales continued to grow, indicating that consumers are still willing to pay up for big-ticket home entertainment.

Management lifted full-year comp sales guidance to a range of 1.9% to 3% and EPS guidance to $6.70 to $6.90.

BBY shares were up nearly 30% year to date (YTD) before earnings, so investors may have been looking for reasons in the report to take profits. But this could be an opportunity for new investors to ride some technical and fundamental tailwinds. The stock is bumping up against its 50-day moving average, which has been a support area since the Golden Cross formed in July, and the RSI is back to its August lows.

Williams-Sonoma: Outlier in Weakest Consumer Category

Few areas of the retail sector have seen more divergent consumer attitudes than the home furnishings industry.

According to the most recent Census Bureau Retail Sales report, furniture and home furnishings sales in 2026 fell 1.7% from the same seven-month period last year. But not every home goods store is feeling the heat. The K-shaped economy is alive and well in this space, and Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM) continues to grow comps while many competitors struggle.

Williams-Sonoma reported fiscal Q2 2026 results on Aug. 26 and, of course, beat EPS and revenue estimates. But two numbers stand out in the report.

First, comp sales grew 6.2% YOY, accelerating considerably from Q1’s 4.8% figure. With furniture sales essentially flat in 2026, comp growth of this magnitude shows Williams-Sonoma is taking significant share from competitors struggling to bring traffic through the door. Second, management raised full-year operating margin guidance to 17.8% to 18% and said it did not factor in any tariff refunds, implying that operational efficiency gains will do the heavy lifting.

The WSM chart has a similar setup to BBY, with investors taking profits following an excellent quarter and a YTD run-up of more than 30%. But the Golden Cross suggests that it will take more than a little profit-taking to break the uptrend, and the 50-day SMA could provide another entry opportunity for new investors. The RSI is hovering near 50 but still hasn’t dipped into the bearish zone below.