BUSINESS

After closing dozens of stores and shutting down two brands, a major jewelry retailer is continuing to shrink its footprint, with dozens more locations expected to close in the coming months.

The latest closures are part of a broader turnaround as the company reshapes its store base, consolidates smaller brands, and shifts resources toward its strongest performers.

Founded in 1949, Signet Jewelers (SIG) is one of the largest diamond jewelry retailers worldwide, operating 2,534 stores across the U.S., UK, and Ireland under several brands, including Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, Banter by Piercing Pagoda, Diamonds Direct, Blue Nile, Peoples Jewellers, H.Samuel, and Ernest Jones.

Signet Jewelers closes 53 stores

Signet closed 53 stores between January 1, 2026, and August 1, 2026, with its latest earnings report showing a total of 2,534 locations.

The closures are part of a restructuring effort in which the company plans to shutter approximately 100 stores in fiscal 2027 while renovating its remaining fleet.

As part of its broader transformation, Signet also launched “Love All In” on September 8, 2026, a new brand platform that will refresh the store experience with new approaches to visual merchandising, navigation, and product education, as well as pilots in open selling, custom design, and interaction zones.

The company said the closures will focus on underperforming locations, particularly those outside its core brands or in declining retail environments.

Why Signet is closing stores

The closures follow a comprehensive review that Signet revealed during its fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call, aimed at restructuring its brand portfolio to focus on higher-growth opportunities.

In this review, the company identified opportunities to integrate smaller brands into its larger, more established banners. As a result, Signet prioritized its three core brands: Kay Jewelers, Zales, and Jared.

As part of its new strategy, Signet made James Allen a proprietary collection within Blue Nile and shut down its standalone website. The company also integrated Rocksbox into Kay Jewelers.

The move will allow the company to concentrate resources on top-performing brands, improve operational efficiency, expand customer reach, and drive more consistent comparable-sales growth.

“We believe the cash generation from these businesses as well as the potential tax cost of exiting these brands significantly outweighs any potential sale proceeds,” Signet Chief Operating & Financial Officer Joan Hilson said in the Q4 2026 earnings call.

The retailer also added that it will continue evaluating the long-term role of Banter.

Signet noted that all real estate decisions are guided by strict financial and operational criteria, including local market potential and mall performance. The company said it continues to “rationalize its store footprint” to improve productivity, reduce exposure to weaker malls, and enhance the in-store experience.

Signet Jewelers closes 74 stores.Bloomberg / Getty Images

Signet’s business shows signs of improvement

During the second quarter of fiscal 2027, Signet reported:

Net sales: Declined 0.5% year over year

Same-store sales: Increased 2.2%

North America same-store sales: Climbed 1.9%

Adjusted Operating Income: Rose 25%

Signet said it delivered positive comparable sales across all fine jewelry brands, including high single-digit unit growth at higher price points.

The company also raised its full-year guidance for the second time, reflecting core performance and the economic benefits of a newly signed consumer credit agreement.

“Building on this momentum, we are accelerating our key brand initiatives, including merchandise refreshes, enhancements to both the online and in-store customer experience, and a more modern and emotionally engaging marketing approach,” Signet CEO J.K. Symancyk said in the company’s Q2 2027 earnings release statement.

“By leveraging the full strength of our diversified portfolio, we are entering the back half of the year well-positioned to deliver compelling value throughout the holiday season for customers across a broad range of income levels.”

Retail rivals close stores

Signet is not alone in reassessing its physical footprint. Several major retailers have closed stores or announced additional shutdowns as they adjust to changing consumer demand and shifting market conditions.

For many of these companies, the strategy is not simply about reducing store counts but reallocating investment toward stronger brands, markets, and locations.

Here’s some of my previous coverage of retail store closures:

Tiffany & Co.: Closed several stores across domestic and international markets in late 2025 and 2026.

The Foschini Group: Plans to close 180 additional stores over the next three financial years

Kering: Closed 133 locations across its brands in 2025, with an additional 100 store shutdowns scheduled worldwide in 2026.

Saks Global: Plans to close an additional nine stores following the shutdown of hundreds of locations and its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Related: 77-year-old jewelry giant will close 100 stores, shut 2 brands

Looking for today’s NYT Connections hints? Some help and the answers for today’s game are right here to help keep your streak alive.

Malone Lam convicted of operating a massive cryptocurrency crime ring that used social engineering and sophisticated money laundering to steal $245 million

Rival sports leagues that try to encroach on long-established leagues often fail in their attempts to succeed.

The National Football League, established in 1920, has faced challenges from several competing leagues that failed, including the All-America Football Conference, which lasted four seasons before folding after their 1949 season.

The World Football League’s attempt to compete against the NFL in 1974-75 failed and the league went out of business, and about 10 years later, the original USFL operated from 1983-86 and folded, winning $1 in an anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL as a consolation.

LIV Golf’s star golfer Jon Rahm is uncertain about his future with the fledgling sports league.Michael Reaves/PGA of America / Getty Images

LIV Golf cancels event before bankruptcy

And now fledgling international sports league LIV Golf Inc.‘s future is uncertain after finishing its season on Aug. 23 in Indianapolis and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept 8.

The league also cancelled its Team Championship that was scheduled to begin Aug. 27 in Detroit.

The West Trenton, N.J. debtor and 54 affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey with a restructuring support agreement, backed by a proposed new investor, BC Partners Advisors, after its original investor Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia ended its support of the organization in April.

LIV Golf and London-based BC Partners contemplate the company continuing as a going concern through a player-first model, with the company majority owned by players. The parties are currently negotiating details of the ownership structure, according to a company statement.

Star golfer uncertain of return

The upstart league’s star golfer, Jon Rahm, who signed a contract with LIV Golf in December 2023 and won the league’s individual title three straight years, has said he is uncertain about his future with LIV as it faces bankruptcy and restructuring.

“There’s a lot of things that could happen and it’s one of those things where time is gonna tell,” Rahm told the BBC.

“I still have a contract with LIV 1.0 that I’m more than willing to fulfill, so like I said, time will tell,” Rahm said.

Rahm has not yet committed to continuing with a reorganized LIV Golf or a so-called LIV 2.0, however.

Two other LIV golfers, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed, have left LIV to return to the PGA tour, according to the BBC.

Public Investment Fund provides DIP loan

Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide up to $49.6 million in debtor-in-possession financing to fund the debtor’s bankruptcy case, while BC Partners and other potential minority investors are expected to provide exit financing and recapitalize the reorganized company as the company’s plan sponsor.

LIV Golf, which listed $100 million to $500 million in assets and $500 million to $1 billion in liabilities in its petition, will also seek recognition of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in England and Wales to protect its assets in those countries.

The golf league posted a message to its fans on Sept. 8 regarding the bankruptcy filing.

Golfers would be league owners

“The next phase of LIV Golf will be built around a sustainable business model and deeper alignment between players and the league, with team golf at its core,” LIV’s CEO Scott O’Neil said in the note. “Players will have the opportunity to share directly in the value they help create, while teams will be positioned to grow into enduring global sports businesses. And fans will remain at the center of everything we do.”

LIV Golf, founded in 2021, claims to be the world’s only global golf league, which featured 57 players from 21 countries competing across 10 countries and five continents in 2026. The league has 13 teams, a 14-tournament schedule, and some of the top golfers in the world.

The league broadcasts to nearly 1 billion households across 250 international markets and territories, while LIV Golf has generated over $1.5 billion in economic impact across host markets since its launch, according to the league.

LIV Golf differs from the PGA Tour and Europe’s DP World Tour, as the longtime established tours compensate players through prize purses, requiring golfers to cover their expenses, such as hotel and travel for themselves and staff. Players also need to sign their own sponsors for personal branding.

To attract top quality golfers, LIV Golf offered upfront payments as well as annual payments to cover the rights to the players sponsorship inventory. Teams sell sponsorships for their organization’s benefit and not any one player, according to a declaration by the debtor’s Chief Restructuring Officer David Orlofsky of Alix Partners LLP.

Annual payments compensated players for their lost earning potential from not being able to sell their own sponsorships.

LIV Golf required significant investments from affiliates of its ultimate equity holder, the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, totaling about $5 billion in equity capital since it launched in 2021.

Over its five-year existence, LIV Golf ran at an operational loss and was years away from standalone profitability. The Public Investment Fund in April 2026 asserted that it would cease further equity funding, but would fund operations through the 2026 season, according to the declaration.

LIV Golf hired restructuring advisers who identified BC Partners Advisors as a lead investor willing to fund operations, contingent on the debtor filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Related: Beloved pizza dining chain’s franchisee closes more locations

Oracle (ORCL) has been a goliath in enterprise technology for decades. Lately, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) has emerged as the primary growth engine because of the AI boom.

Oracle just delivered a very solid quarter. Cloud infrastructure revenue grew 121% year over year. Total revenue hit $19.3 billion, up 30%. The company booked more than $30 billion in new AI cloud contracts in a single quarter. Remaining performance obligations reached $664 billion, up $209 billion year over year.

Impressive, right?

Yet the stock is still down 20.90% year to date and 49.83% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance. How and why?

That gap between operational excellence and stock performance is the Oracle story in 2026 (we’ll get into it in a moment). Then, Morgan Stanley reviewed the Q1 fiscal 2027 results in a note shared with TheStreet. 

The firm kept its Equal-weight rating and $210 price target. And the headline tells it all: OCI delivers, gross margin still to come.

Morgan Stanley’s story on Oracle is impressive execution, but the path to profitability remains the outstanding question.

Also Read: Oracle Corporation Latest News 

Here’s what Oracle’s Q1 fiscal 2027 actually showed

The Sept. 10 results were really strong across most top-line metrics, according to Oracle’s earnings release.

Total cloud revenue reached $11.6 billion, up 62% year over year (YoY).

Cloud infrastructure, the OCI segment that is the center of the AI debate, grew 121% to $7.4 billion, beating consensus by approximately 3%.

The company has delivered 850 megawatts of additional data-center capacity and deployed more than 300,000 GPUs to AI cloud customers since Q4. 

Non-GAAP EPS of $1.92 grew 30% year over year.

The backlog picture is remarkably strong. RPO of $664 billion grew 46% YoY and $26 billion sequentially, with management projecting about half of the RPO to convert to revenue over the next 36 months. 

Customer prepayments with a significant financing component contributed $11.4 billion of deferred revenue in Q1 alone, compared to $4.6 billion across all of fiscal year 2026.

Related: Oracle sends another shocking message to employees

“Customer demand for AI Cloud Training and Inferencing Services continues to grow faster than supply,” the company said in its earnings release.

For Q2 fiscal 2027, Oracle guided total revenue growth of 30% to 34% and total cloud revenue growth of 65% to 71%. Full-year fiscal 2027 guidance was nudged to at least $90 billion in revenue, with non-GAAP EPS of $8.10.

What Morgan Stanley liked and what is still missing

Morgan Stanley’s note has answers to both.

On the positive side, OCI capacity delivery was diversified across multiple sites rather than dependent on any single location. Shackelford, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Michigan are highlighted sites that do not affect fiscal 2027 guidance, management said. 

GPUs up for renewal in Q1 achieved an average 20% premium to prior contracts, indicating pricing power rather than desperation. The $20B at-the-market equity program was completed at $19.9B, removing a share overhang that had been weighing on the stock. 

And the RPO expansion of $26B sequentially came without any increase to the fiscal 2027 capital expenditure guidance of $90 billion to $95 billion.

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The concern is in the gross margin line. Non-GAAP gross margin fell to 61.0%, down approximately 770 basis points YoY, just below consensus. The heavy upfront investment in GPU infrastructure is understandably weighing on margins, but it also raises questions about when profitability will begin to inflect.

“When will impressive execution on the capacity build-out translate to more impressive flow-through on profitability?” Morgan Stanley asked.

The answer management offered was “gross margin stabilization” as capacity comes on stream. 

But the firm wants to see evidence rather than guidance, which explains the decision to maintain the Equal-weight rating rather than upgrading.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) has emerged as the primary growth engine, with the AI boom pushing the business into a new phase of growth. OCI revenue grew 121% year over year.Shutterstock

The debt question has weighed on Oracle all year

Yahoo Finance data show the stock hit a record high of $345.72 a year ago (Sept. 8, 2025) and has since lost more than half its value. 

The reason is not the cloud infrastructure business. That sector is executing well. It is the debt load required to build that infrastructure.

Related: Morgan Stanley says Bloom can withstand an Oracle project delay

Oracle took on enormous capital expenditure commitments to compete with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud for the AI buildout. 

Free cash flow has been negative. The company raised $20 billion through equity issuance. Fiscal 2027 and 2028 are described by management as peak capital expenditure years at $90 billion to $95 billion annually.

What comes next for Oracle investors

For investors who can underwrite the view that these are productive investments that will generate strong returns once the $664 billion backlog converts to revenue, the stock is attractive. 

For investors who worry that the economics of GPU-as-a-service are less favorable than assumed, the gross margin compression is the concern signal that validates their hesitation.

Morgan Stanley‘s Oct. 28 Financial Analyst Day is the event the firm flagged as the next major information opportunity. 

Management is expected to provide more detail on the infrastructure build timeline, gross margin trajectory, and the path from backlog to earnings. That is where we are likely to see the Equal-weight rating get reassessed.

With a 30% single-quarter revenue growth rate and 121% cloud infrastructure expansion, I see Oracle valued on the assumption of continued uncertainty.

If the Oct. 28 analyst day removes that uncertainty, Oracle’s position changes quickly.

Related: Morgan Stanley delivers bold Carvana stock verdict

Amodei urged rivals to invite embedded external auditors into their offices and coordinate a slowdown in development of AI that would allow regulators to catch up.

Leaders of major AI companies say they agree with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who just called for the tech industry to move more slowly with model development.

Many homebuyers have felt the strain of an expensive housing market so far in 2026. High housing prices, surging mortgage rates, and costs such as insurance and property taxes are making monthly payments unaffordable for numerous Americans.

Real estate technology company Zillow released its August 2026 Market Report on Sept. 8. The report showed that high costs have had several negative consequences for the housing market, including slower home sales and higher monthly mortgage payments.

But Zillow also discovered a bright spot for homebuyers: less competition.

In fact, if you can still afford a home in today’s real estate market, you may have some serious advantages.

“Affordability is putting the brakes on the for-sale market, but it is also changing the experience for buyers who remain active,” wrote Mischa Fisher, Zillow chief economist. “Less competition gives well-prepared buyers a better chance to compare options and negotiate with confidence.”

More homes for sale could give buyers more negotiating power

Zillow data showed 1.41 million homes for sale in the U.S. in August.

Active inventory, which refers to all homes for sale during the month, increased 3% year over year. It also rose monthly, up 0.2% from July.

New listings hit 356,934 in August, which is a 2.4% annual increase.

New listings are down 7.9% from July. However, this decline may partly reflect typical housing market trends. For example, Opendoor reports that sale price versus market value, days on the market, and buyer competition are typically a little weaker in August than in July. These types of factors could discourage sellers from listing their homes in August.

The national housing shortage is the main driver of the U.S. home affordability crisis. The country still has a long way to go — Zillow estimates that 4.7 million new homes need to be built — but a 3% annual increase is a good start.

More inventory means less competition among buyers. And less competition typically leads to lower home sale prices.

Zillow data shows that active inventory increased both monthly and annually in August.Bloomberg / Getty Images

More than 1 in 4 listings had a price cut

When a seller cuts the listing price on their home, buyers benefit in two ways.

The first (and most obvious) perk is that the price is now lower. Someone who was on the fence about being able to afford the house before might be able to make an offer now.

The second is that, depending on the circumstances, a price cut might indicate that a seller is more motivated to negotiate and make the sale work.

The Zillow August 2026 Market Report revealed that 26.3% of home listings had a price cut in August. That’s a year-over-year increase of 0.5%.

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“Buyers who can make a move today are encountering conditions that were scarce during the frenzied years: more homes to consider, more time to decide and sellers who are increasingly cutting prices to attract buyers,” wrote Zillow.

Mortgage rates may have been lower from 2020-2022, but “frenzied” is the perfect word to describe the national real estate market in those years. Now, borrowers can take their time, wait for possible price cuts, and find more opportunities for negotiations.

Key takeaways from the Zillow Market Report

Buyers in areas with more inventory have more power. Zillow found that a select few U.S. metro areas experienced more inventory growth in August than others: Salt Lake City (6.2%), Buffalo, New York (5.2%), and Detroit (5%) topped the list.

Buyers in cities with decelerating inventory have less power. Some metro areas actually lost inventory in August. The most significant drops were in Boston (-4.2%), New York City (-3.5%), and Austin, Texas (-3.2%). As a result, residents could face more competition and even higher prices.

Monthly pricing cuts are down. Although the year-over-year number of listings with price cuts has increased by 0.5%, they’ve decreased by 0.8% since July.

An expensive housing market also means less competition. High home prices and mortgage rates have priced some people out of the 2026 housing market. If you can afford to buy a home, this means even less competition for you, which could help you negotiate for a lower price or other concessions.

Be honest about what’s affordable. The truth is, the current national housing market is good for those who can afford a home they like and the monthly payment that comes with it. But it’s still an expensive market overall. Don’t take on a mortgage so large that the rest of your life becomes financially stressful.

Related: Zillow predicts big mortgage rate, housing market change

Comcast Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong is issuing a stern warning about broadband pricing and the company’s future performance as it continues to lose a significant number of customers.

In 2025, Comcast, which operates broadband service under the name Xfinity, lost over 700,000 internet customers after raising Xfinity prices and restricting its autopay discount. The trend continued, with the company losing a combined 232,000 internet customers across the first and second quarters of this year. 

On an earnings call in July, Armstrong said that the company is operating in an “intensely competitive” market. 

“Fiber continues to expand, fixed wireless remains aggressive, satellite is emerging as another alternative, and convergence-based promotional activity remains elevated across the industry,” he said. 

Comcast CFO warns about “irrational” fiber internet pricing

At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference on Sept. 9, Armstrong has warned that the company is seeing “irrational” pricing from fiber internet rivals, a trend that began in the first half of this year. 

“We were starting to see irrational competition,” said Armstrong. “It popped up a little bit in the second quarter. I would tell you it’s continued into the third quarter.”

“So when we see fiber pricing, standalone fiber pricing, in the $30-$40 range for a gig, when we say irrational, that’s what we mean by irrational,” he continued. “That to us is not a rational price point.”

Related: Comcast adds new service to internet plans as customers leave

Armstrong said that the transition from copper to fiber costs Comcast “potentially thousands of dollars,” causing him to question the $30-$40 pricing. Currently, Comcast charges roughly $50 per month for its fiber-powered internet (a hybrid fiber-coaxial network) at 1 Gbps speed. 

He also flagged that rivals are rapidly increasing their fiber internet build in Comcast’s markets, further intensifying competition. 

“If you look at fiber making its way into our markets, historically, we would see overbuild of 2%-3% per year,” he said. “That’s accelerated in the last couple of years. It looks more like 4% or 5% at this point.”

As fiber internet operators accelerate their growth and offer lower-priced plans to consumers, Armstrong warned that Comcast doesn’t expect customer losses to improve in the third quarter of this year. 

“We do think a full year we’ll improve our broadband subscriber losses,” he said. “I think quarters are going to look different within that. This particular quarter, I don’t think we’ll improve year over year. So the pressure we’ve seen, in particular with irrational fiber pricing, is going to cause that.”

Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong said “irrational” fiber internet pricing by rivals is intensifying broadband competition. Bloomberg / Getty Images

Comcast faces growing pressure from fixed wireless and satellite

Fiber isn’t the only growing threat to Comcast’s business. Fixed wireless internet, which is usually offered by mobile providers at lower prices than traditional wired internet, is becoming increasingly popular among U.S. consumers. 

“Fixed wireless continues to be a pressure on subscriber additions,” said Armstrong. “That’s no different from the past several years.” 

Satellite internet providers are also gaining steam in the broadband market. For instance, SpaceX’s Starlink surpassed 12 million global high-speed internet customers so far this year. Armstrong said that while satellite internet isn’t a major threat to Comcast at the moment, this could change over time. 

“Satellite looms out there as a potential threat,” he said. “Would reiterate what we said on the second-quarter call, not really seeing it yet, but there’s no complacency around it. I think we’ll see it over time and, in particular, in rural and maybe deep suburban markets, it may be a better option as a competitor than we’ve faced historically.”

Despite intensifying competitive headwinds, Armstrong said that wired internet still “wins.”

“If you think about the ability to increase speeds over time, if you think about lowest latency, if you think about lowest marginal cost to upgrade, all those sort of bring you back to you want a wire in the home,” he said.

Comcast navigates cautious consumers, bets on company split 

Armstrong’s bleak outlook on broadband competition and on Comcast’s near-term performance in the industry comes as more consumers nationwide are opting to switch internet providers amid rising prices.

A survey from Reviews.org in March found that 73% of Americans have seen their internet service bills inflate this year, with 30% facing monthly increases of $10 to $20.

Hidden fees and unexpected charges are influencing internet customers’ decisions, as roughly 

67% said this has caused them to either change providers or consider switching. Meanwhile, higher prices have led 30% of Americans to cancel their home internet service or move to a lower-tier plan over the past year. 

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Tim Tincher, a media relations specialist at Reviews.org, said in a press release that pricing significantly impacts customer retention in the broadband industry. 

“People want internet pricing to be simple and honest,” said Tincher. “Instead, many are dealing with rising bills, surprise fees, and confusing charges. When customers feel caught off guard, they’re much more likely to start looking for another provider.”

As Comcast faces a more price-conscious consumer, it announced in June that it plans to split into two companies in mid-2027. This includes separating its media and entertainment assets, including NBCUniversal and Sky, from its cable business, which provides broadband, wireless and cable TV services under the name Xfinity.  

Former Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis will rejoin the company as CEO of the retained cable business. Armstrong said this change will help fuel growth into its broadband, cable TV and wireless services. 

“For the remaining cable co., it’s also a forcing function,” said Armstrong. “How many things can we go reinvent? Where are the pockets for growth that we can just be more agile, more focused? There’s a lot of different things out there we’re looking at.” 

In a research note in July, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said that Angelakis’ main task will be to “find balance” to turn around Comcast’s struggling broadband segment, according to a report from Light Reading. 

“Yes, broadband sub trends clearly need to improve,” said Moffett. “But the improvement can’t come solely from cutting prices.”

He added that the goal “isn’t to ‘lose less.’ And it’s certainly not to ‘lose less’ if the cost of the price reductions is greater than the benefit to net additions.”

“But, as we noted last quarter, turnarounds must start somewhere,” he continued. “It’s not unreasonable to be at least a little optimistic.”

Related: Comcast hopes generous offers will slow internet customer losses

Trump broke a history of American leaders staying neutral on Ireland—putting him at odds with the UK’s Prime Minister.