BUSINESS

Growth exposes every weakness in how you operate — here are the four principles I return to whenever the business starts to feel out of control.

The Spanish-language network’s coverage shattered viewership records across every stage. The Spain vs. Argentina final was the most-watched soccer match ever, drawing 23.9 million viewers.

LNG exports from U.S. to 43 countries are projected to reach 120 million tpy in 2026. Annual export revenues exceed $60 billion, with over $8 billion to government.

Tailored Brands, the owner of Men’s Wearhouse, is preparing to return to public markets six years after bankruptcy, but its pitch to investors goes beyond a simple stock listing.The menswear retailer is also making an aggressive bet on physical stores.Tailored Brands, which also owns Jos. A. Bank, Moores, and K&G Fashion Superstore, sees room for hundreds of new physical stores over the next decade as it makes its latest pitch to investors.This is a striking reversal for a company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy during the pandemic and ultimately shuttered more than 400 stores.The expansion comes as retailers across the U.S. continue to rethink their physical footprints and traditional department stores lose ground.And in Tailored Brands’ view, it creates an opening for specialty retailers like them to offer services difficult to replicate online.Men’s Wearhouse owner files for IPOTailored Brands publicly filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering and plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “MENW.”The company has not yet determined how many shares it will offer or the expected price range.Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Jefferies are serving as lead bookrunning managers for the proposed offering, according to the company.More Retail:Coca-Cola quietly hints at reinventing previously failed flavorBath & Body Works quietly gains a competitive advantageDollar General brings back old pricesTailored Brands plans to use proceeds from the offering in part to repay debt, with the remainder available for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses, and capital expenditures.Silver Point Capital, which acquired a significant stake following Tailored Brands’ bankruptcy, is expected to remain the company’s controlling shareholder after the IPO.But the planned listing also marks a dramatic change from where the retailer stood in 2020.As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many offices closed, disrupting weddings and other events.Consequently, demand for suits and formalwear collapsed.At the time, Tailored Brands warned it could close as many as 500 stores before finally filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 2020. The company ultimately shuttered more than 400 locations during that period.Now, after its relatively quick exit from bankruptcy in December 2020, Tailored Brands operates more than 1,000 stores across North America and is also preparing to expand again.

Men’s Wearhouse owner to file for IPO.Brett_Hondow / Getty Images

Tailored Brands plans more than 500 additional storesTailored Brands expects to open about 20 stores in fiscal 2026 and more than 35 in fiscal 2027, before ramping up to more than 50 openings annually in the near term, according to its IPO filing.Over the longer term, the retailer says it sees potential for more than 500 additional locations across 100-plus markets.That plan stands out in a retail environment, where closures still exceed openings overall, even though the pace of closures is improving and openings are risingCNBC reported that Coresight Research expects U.S. retailers to:Close about 7,900 stores in 2026, down 4.5% year over year.Open about 5,500 stores, up 4.4%.This makes the projected store closures the lowest in three years.More importantly, Tailored Brands believes some of that disruption could work in its favor.In its IPO filing, the retailer pointed specifically to the retreat of department stores, which historically held a major position in suits, dress clothing, and other apparel categories.The company, citing U.S. Census Bureau data, said the number of department stores fell by more than 40% between 2018 and 2023.Tailored Brands argues that as department stores disappear, spending is shifting toward specialty retailers.“We believe our focus on menswear, our high-touch service and our offering with unparalleled expert advice and fit solutions position us favorably to continue capturing share from department stores and competing effectively against e-commerce and off-price retailers,” reads the SEC filing.Its own stores are also largely insulated from the struggles of enclosed malls.More than 90% of Tailored Brands’ locations were outside malls at the end of fiscal 2025, and the company said its entire store fleet was profitable on a four-wall basis.Now, the company is using customer data, trade-area demographics, results from its existing stores, and competitor information to identify markets for expansion.Weddings and rentals remain keyTailored Brands is also betting that stores still matter for purchases that require more service than a typical apparel transaction.Suits and formalwear often require measurements, alterations, and styling, while weddings can bring entire groups of customers into stores for fittings and rentals.That rental business gives Tailored Brands a particularly strong position.The company said in its SEC filing that it is the leader in the U.S. men’s apparel rental market, capturing roughly half of the market annually since 2018 and nearly 60% more recently.Rentals are also a high-margin part of the business. Tailored Brands reported rental selling margins of 85.5% in fiscal 2025.But Tailored Brands is no longer relying solely on traditional suits.Since its restructuring, the company has modernized its assortment, expanded its casual and flexible clothing offerings, and increased its reliance on products sold under its own brands.Private brands accounted for roughly 88% of its assortment by the end of fiscal 2025.Those changes are important as workplace dress codes have become more casual, and fewer consumers need traditional business suits every day.Instead, Tailored Brands increasingly depends on a mix of weddings, celebrations, job interviews, professional events, and other occasions to bring shoppers into its stores.That creates another challenge revealed in its IPO filing: getting those customers to come back.Nearly 70% of Tailored Brands’ customers are classified as new or reactivated shoppers, and the company attracted roughly 6 million new and reactivated customers in fiscal 2025.Customers averaged only 1.6 visits per year.Tailored Brands sees converting even part of that large group into repeat shoppers as a major growth opportunity.Tailored Brands posts higher sales ahead of IPOThe retailer is returning to Wall Street with a significantly different financial profile than when it entered bankruptcy.Tailored Brands generated about $2.5 billion in net sales and $217 million in net income in fiscal 2025.Its gross margin reached 48.2%, and the company said its menswear market share increased by about 70 basis points between fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2025.The latest quarter showed continued sales growth.Revenue increased 5.8% to $681.8 million for the three months ended May 2, compared with $644.4 million a year earlier.Net income, however, declined to $44.9 million from $50.7 million during the same period a year earlier.The planned IPO will therefore serve more than one purpose.It gives Tailored Brands access to public equity markets as it prepares for a major expansion, while also allowing the company to direct some proceeds toward debt reduction.Retail IPO market remains difficultTailored Brands is also trying to return to Wall Street during an unusual period for consumer companies.The broader U.S. IPO market has surged in 2026, but retail has largely been left behind.Only five U.S. consumer and retail IPOs had priced so far this year as of July 22, the lowest year-to-date number in a decade, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters.That could soon change.Jersey Mike’s and fashion retailer Reformation have both moved forward with IPO plans and together are seeking to raise more than all U.S. consumer and retail IPOs completed so far this year.Reuters identified Tailored Brands as one of the retailers waiting in the IPO pipeline that could benefit if those offerings perform well.For Tailored Brands, however, the bigger test goes beyond whether investors are ready for another retail stock.Six years ago, the company was closing hundreds of stores as demand collapsed.Now it is asking investors to back the opposite strategy.A return to public markets, hundreds of additional stores, and a bet that the decline of traditional department stores has left room for a specialty menswear retailer to grow.Related: 75-year-old giant auto parts company files Chapter 15 protection

Finding a real estate property below market value has grown harder as more buyers chase the same shrinking pool of listings, which has pushed a growing share of investors and everyday homebuyers to look for deals well before they ever reach a public site.For investors, that search often ends at a wholesaler, an operator who ties up a property under contract and then sells the right to buy it for a fee. The appeal is a faster route than the open market, though it can arrive with similarly inflated asking prices, figures that don’t pencil, and the same address landing in hundreds of competing inboxes at once.On Wednesday’s episode of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, a listener wrote in stuck on that decision, unsure whether to keep leaning on wholesalers or start hunting deals on his own.”When I look at a deal from a wholesaler, I pretend anything they say isn’t there,” said Henry Washington, an active flipper who’s done hundreds of deals and co-hosts the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast.Why a bad real estate deal is usually on the buyerWashington’s starting point is that wholesalers are a legitimate way to source property, not a category to avoid. Bad operators work in the business, but bad agents and bad contractors do too, and investors keep hiring from both groups without fairly assigning responsibility for deals gone wrong. To Washington, the distinction that matters is less about whether a wholesaler can be trusted and more about how much weight their claims deserve.His framing puts the responsibility for a poor purchase squarely back on the buyer, which is a reality check for those who have disproportionately removed their share of ownership from the process. “If you bought a bad deal from a wholesaler, chances are that’s your fault and not their fault,” Washington said.This logic rests on where the risk actually sits in this type of real estate transaction. A wholesaler’s sheet usually leads with an estimated after-repair value and a repair budget, the two figures that decide whether a purchase pencils. Taking either one on faith is how a buyer ends up overpaying, since both come from the seller’s side and tend to be tuned to make the property look ready to sell.”The only thing that matters on a wholesaler sheet when they send me a property is the address so I can do my own due diligence,” Washington said.More homebuying and housing market:Zillow sees change in housing market, home valuesNew home-selling strategy poses threat to buyersGoldman Sachs issues major prediction for U.S. housing marketEverything after the address becomes the buyer’s job. Pull the comparable sales, build a repair estimate from the ground up, and settle on a price that’s irrespective of the number printed at the top of the flyer. While this conversation was for investors, the core principles apply to everyday homebuyers as well. Wholesale deals are not the only ones where an appropriate level of due diligence is necessary. Even in more straightforward real estate transactions, the seller’s side can paint a much prettier picture than what a buyer is actually inheriting.As for Washington, his habit in wholesale deals is to land on a number and send that offer no matter how far under the asking figure it falls. A wholesaler is free to pass, and many will, but a buyer never absorbs a loss on a price they set themselves. 

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The questions to ask in wholesale dealsThe second risk in wholesale deals is tougher because it has nothing to do with underwriting. Laying out some of the logistics and complexities of these deals, Washington talked through a process where a wholesaler is supposed to control a property, holding it under contract before selling anyone the right to buy it. However, this is not always how it plays out. As a hypothetical, a wholesaler could take a property already under contract at $100,000, walk it to a buyer at $105,000, and keep the $5,000 gap as a middleman with no real stake in the outcome.Washington’s protection against this is a short list of questions asked before any money changes hands.“I would always make sure you ask the question of the wholesaler, ‘Hey, are you in direct contract with the seller?’” Washington said.He also tells buyers to test a claimed record instead of accepting it, asking how many deals the operator has closed and which title company handled them, then calling that company directly to confirm the sales were real and closed without trouble. Then, a final safeguard lives in the paperwork.”Never sign an assignment contract without seeing the original contract,” Washington added.Again, these are wholesale-specific safeguards, but the same buyer behavior can benefit anyone looking to purchase real estate. Being willing to ask questions, and walk away if the answers aren’t right, is the type of discipline that can save anyone from getting burned when buying property.Key takeaways for investors and homebuyers vetting dealsTreat the wholesaler’s sheet as an address and little else: Washington said the only line worth trusting is the property address, and every value and repair figure should come from the buyer’s own comps and budget, with an offer set independently even when it lands well under the asking price.A deal that goes bad is usually the buyer’s own doing: Washington said accepting a wholesaler’s stated after-repair value or repair costs without checking them, rather than underwriting from scratch, is what turns an off-market purchase into a loss. This same principle applies to all real estate deals.Confirm the wholesaler actually controls the property: Washington said buyers should confirm the wholesaler is contracted directly with the seller, a guard against deals that get marketed but were never locked down.Demand the original contract before signing an assignment: Washington added that a buyer should never sign an assignment without first seeing the original agreement.Being willing to walk away is critical: Homebuyers who can sense when a lack of transparency or consistency on the sellers’ side spells trouble can save a bad deal by walking away.Related: Homeowners face selling decision after housing market shift

The Atlanta Braves World Series champion sent a promise to President Donald Trump ahead of upcoming elections.

Musk told investors there is “more and more overlap” between his two companies.

I have covered each of the following four stocks separately over the past few weeks:Micron’s historic earnings. Intel’s painful turnaround. AMD’s server CPU advantage heading into August 4. Applied Materials’ wafer equipment supercycle. On July 21, Jim Cramer put them all in the same basket with a single post on X (formerly Twitter).OK, if you have to, let’s go with Micron, AMAT and Intel/AMD for the ones I like the best….for this part of the food chain.The phrase “this part of the food chain” is also a key framing. Cramer is not picking the companies spending the money but picking the ones getting paid. Big Tech hyperscalers, including Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft, are on track to invest a combined $725 billion in AI infrastructure in 2026 alone, according to Forbes reporting. Every dollar of that spending flows downstream to hardware suppliers, chip manufacturers, and the equipment companies that enable chip production. That is the food chain Cramer is referencing, and he is betting on the suppliers.As of midday July 22, according to Yahoo Finance: Micron traded near $974, Applied Materials near $558, Intel near $104, and AMD near $556.Also Read: Jim Cramer’s Recent StoriesMicron — the memory shortage that will not resolve for yearsYahoo Finance reports that Micron (MU) is up 241.46% year-to-date and ranks third on the S&P 500’s year-to-date performance table, according to Slickcharts. I sat through Cramer’s June 30 interview with CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and came away with one phrase that stuck: “tightness continues beyond 2027.”The supply shortage is structural, not cyclical. AI data centers are projected to consume 70% of all memory chip production in 2026, according to The Motley Fool data, leaving smartphones, laptops, and cars competing for the remaining 30%. More Jim Cramer:Jim Cramer’s cryptic comments on key AI supplier turn headsJim Cramer says investors are getting the Mag 7 all wrongJim Cramer recommends buying these 5 stocksHBM3E and HBM4 are 100% sold out through calendar year 2027, with order books extending into 2028. Hyperscalers have committed $22 billion in advance cash deposits to secure supply, according to TheStreet.DRAM prices rose by a percentage in the mid-60s sequentially in Micron’s fiscal Q2 alone. NAND prices jumped 70% in the same period as Micron’s first Idaho fab delivers wafers by mid-2027, with production ramping in 2028. Micron is also investing more than $250 billion through 2035 in U.S. manufacturing capacity.Applied Materials — the equipment company behind every advanced chipApplied Materials (AMAT) ranks 10th on the S&P 500 year-to-date table at 117%, according to Slickcharts. The company does not make chips. It makes the machines that make chips, which means every dollar of new fab capacity built by Micron, Intel, TSMC, or Samsung requires AMAT equipment.I covered Citi’s wafer fabrication equipment market estimates in a prior report. The bull case numbers are striking: $145 billion in WFE spending in 2026, growing to $200 billion in 2027 and $250 billion in 2028. Related: Why Citi is still backing Applied Materials after the rallyFor AMAT specifically, Citi modeled 30% revenue growth in calendar 2027 and 22% in 2028, including 35% and 25% growth from its Silicon segment.The semiconductor industry as a whole is reporting 131% year-over-year earnings growth and 75% revenue growth in Q2 2026, according to FactSet’s July 17 earnings insight. If semiconductors were excluded from the Information Technology sector, the sector’s blended earnings growth rate would fall from 63.4% to 25.7%. AMAT captures the equipment spend, behind that entire growth story.

If semiconductors were excluded from the Q2 2026 Information Technology sector, the sector’s blended earnings growth rate would fall from 63.4% to 25.7%.Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Intel — the geopolitical play and the 18A turnaroundIntel (INTC) ranks 6th year-to-date at over 180%, according to Slickcharts. I covered the latest layoff announcement on July 21, framing it as painful but necessary medicine. Q2 earnings arrive July 23.Cramer’s Intel thesis rests on the foundry business and the geopolitical urgency of domestic chip manufacturing. Intel is the largest beneficiary of the U.S. CHIPS Act with $8.5 billion in direct subsidies. Related: Intel makes another painful move in one of its key businessesIntel Foundry revenues grew 16% to $5.42 billion in the most recent quarter, according to Intel’s Q1F26. Intel invests billions annually in R&D to perfect the 18A process node.CEO Lip-Bu Tan confirmed in May that 18A yields are improving at approximately 7% per month, the best-practice benchmark, according to his Mad Money interview. Foundry customer commitments are expected to become “more concrete” in the second half of 2026, per CFO David Zinsner’s prior commentary.AMD — the server CPU advantage Goldman is betting onAMD (AMD) ranks 7th year-to-date at 159%, according to Slickcharts. I covered Goldman Sachs’ earnings preview on July 9 in detail, and the thesis is specific: the server CPU story is what wins August 4, not the GPU headline.AMD guided 70% year-over-year growth in server CPU revenues for Q2. Goldman’s 2027 EPS estimate sits 13% above Street consensus, driven by a structural view that agentic AI is expanding CPU demand in ways the market has not yet fully priced, according to the same report.Related: Goldman Sachs sees AMD entering earnings with 1 powerful advantageThe follow-on Verano 2nm CPU platform arrives in 2027 with a focus on AI performance per dollar per watt. AMD increased its server CPU total addressable market estimate to $120 billion by 2030, according to Lisa Su’s Q1 earnings call commentary, which I highlighted in my previous report.Bitget reports that UBS projects HBM demand to reach 33.1 billion gigabits globally in 2026, a 90% year-over-year increase, jumping another 77% in 2027. The supply gap means available production will meet only about 60% of total market demand, according to analyst estimates. That imbalance benefits every company in Cramer’s food chain simultaneously — the memory makers, the equipment suppliers, and the chip designers.His four picks are actually not a coincidence. They are the companies positioned directly in the path of the most powerful capital expenditure cycle in semiconductor history. Take notes.Related: Jim Cramer shares strong verdict on IBM stock for investors

GE Vernova (GEV) raised its 2026 revenue and free-cash-flow forecasts on July 22, but a widening loss in its Wind business sent shares lower.The stock fell about 6.3% to $1,011 in midday trading July 22 after dropping as low as $964.16 earlier in the session. Its second-quarter revenue rose 22% to $11.1 billion, according to a company press release, and orders climbed 88% organically to $24.2 billion. Power and Electrification led the growth as utilities and data-center developers sought more gas turbines, transformers, switchgear, and grid equipment.Wind orders fell about 40% from a year earlier, Reuters reported, while the segment’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization loss widened to $275 million from $165 million.Data-center-related orders have exceeded $5 billion this year, more than double GE Vernova’s total for 2025. Those orders are filling the Power and Electrification backlog, while the larger Wind loss is limiting companywide margin improvement.Data-center demand is filling GE Vernova’s backlogAI data centers require a steady supply of electricity for servers, cooling systems, and networking equipment. Connecting those facilities to the grid may also require new substations, transformers, switchgear, and transmission equipment.More Oil & Gas:Drivers face an unpleasant surprise at the gas pumpU.S. blocks Strait of Hormuz: Here’s what’s next for oil pricesA big shift in the U.S. energy market is about to happenGE Vernova supplies equipment across the system. Its Power segment supplies gas turbines and related services, while Electrification provides grid hardware and software for moving and managing electricity.Power orders rose 135% during the second quarter, driven by demand for gas equipment and services, Reuters confirmed. Electrification revenue also increased by 68% as customers invested in grid capacity.The company’s backlog of gas-powered equipment and slot-reservation agreements grew from 100 gigawatts at the end of the first quarter to 116 gigawatts, the press release stated. Management now expects to have at least 125 gigawatts of gas equipment under contract by the end of 2026.We remain on track to deliver 20 GW of annual gas turbine output in the third quarter of 2026.GE Vernova plans to further increase annual gas-turbine production capacity to 24 gigawatts in 2028 and 30 gigawatts in 2030.Its total backlog reached $176 billion after rising by $13 billion during the quarter, the company indicated. Much of that work will be delivered over several years, giving the company a large base of contracted future business. It also requires GE Vernova to expand manufacturing capacity and deliver equipment on schedule.Wind losses spoiled the earnings reactionGE Vernova’s Wind orders fell about 40% from a year earlier as demand for onshore equipment weakened and costs tied to offshore projects increased.The segment’s EBITDA loss widened by $110 million to $275 million, according to Reuters. The deterioration reduced part of the earnings growth generated by Power and Electrification.Related: GE Vernova CEO sends rattling message on data centersCompanywide adjusted EBITDA rose to about $1.25 billion but fell short of analysts’ roughly $1.28 billion estimate, according to Reuters, citing LSEG.The company also left its 2026 adjusted EBITDA margin forecast unchanged at 12% to 14%, even as it raised its revenue and free-cash-flow forecasts.William Blair analyst Jed Dorsheimer told Reuters that investors may have expected another quarter in which GE Vernova exceeded EBITDA estimates and raised its margin forecast.The unchanged margin range and larger Wind loss could explain why the stock fell, despite order growth and a higher revenue outlook.Key numbers from GE Vernova’s quarter$24.2 billion: Second-quarter orders88%: Organic order growth$176 billion: Total backlogMore than $5 billion: Data-center-related orders year to date$45.5 billion to $46.5 billion: New 2026 revenue forecast$11.5 billion to $12.5 billion: New 2026 free-cash-flow forecast12% to 14%: Unchanged adjusted EBITDA margin forecast40%: Year-over-year decline in Wind orders$275 million: Wind segment EBITDA loss

GE Vernova’s adjusted EBITDA rose to about $1.25 billion but fell short of analysts’ roughly $1.28 billion estimate.fokkebok / Getty Images

GE Vernova must turn its backlog into margin gainsGE Vernova increased its 2026 revenue forecast to between $45.5 billion and $46.5 billion, up from $44.5 billion to $45.5 billion.It also raised its free-cash-flow outlook to $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion, up from $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion.The company generated $5.1 billion in free cash flow in the second quarter, more than it produced during all of 2025. The higher cash-flow outlook gives GE Vernova greater capacity to fund production expansion and execute its $176 billion backlog.Margin improvement will also require the company to prevent Wind losses from offsetting earnings growth in Power and Electrification.Investors will be watching three developments over the next several quarters: continued growth in data-center orders, progress converting the gas-equipment backlog into revenue, and a narrower Wind loss.GE Vernova’s margin expansion now depends on efficiently delivering that backlog while reducing the earnings drag from Wind.Related: 3M finds a surprising role in the AI data-center boom

Treasury yields are approaching the highest levels seen since the Iran war started in February as oil prices rise