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AT&T CEO explains why AT&T can withstand satellite competition

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

There are only a handful of industries in America where the infrastructure advantage is so deeply embedded that new competitors, regardless of their capital or tech, face a decade-long climb to approach parity. Telecom is one of them.But SpaceX’s Starlink is not a typical competitor. And AT&T (T) CEO John Stankey knows it.Stankey appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday, July 22, to discuss AT&T’s strong second-quarter results and field questions about the satellite threat directly. And his answers were measured, confident, and revealing. AT&T closed the week on Friday, July 24, at $24.13, up 5.10% on the session following earnings, according to Yahoo Finance. The company reported Q2 revenues of $31.6 billion, up 2.3% year over year, and announced an accelerated $10 billion share buyback program for 2026.Stankey’s core message on Starlink was that competitors are welcome. Yes. But they are arriving very late to a party that AT&T has been hosting for decades.Also Read: History of AT&T: Timeline and FactsWhat AT&T CEO actually said about Starlink — the infrastructure argumentStankey did not dismiss satellite competition. In fact, he contextualized it in a way that tells you how AT&T thinks about the threat internally.There are going to be new competitors, and they’re going to be folks that come in. But the reality is that they’re coming to the game very late after this industry has been established.Stankey continued on Squawk Box. “They have to catch up with substantial amounts of infrastructure investment that’s been going on for decades inside hospitals, on university campuses, in stadiums, in tall buildings.”That last sentence matters the most, and here is the reason why. Indoor coverage is the problem satellite cannot solve with the same economics as terrestrial networks. More AT&T:AT&T stock price target cut puts dividend investors on alertAT&T may be left out of the Starlink deal everyone wantsAT&T leaves rivals flat-footed as bankrupt carrier foldsEvery high-rise apartment building, every hospital basement, every stadium concourse represents infrastructure that Starlink cannot serve from 340 miles above Earth. AT&T handles more than 98% of traffic generated by its converged customers on terrestrial networks today, according to the Interview. Satellite addresses the remaining fraction of time a customer walks off-grid. In fact, Stankey says AT&T will address that by next year through the partnerships they’ve already established.Related: AT&T may be left out of the Starlink deal everyone wantsThe scale comparison supports Stankey’s confidence. AT&T generated $31.6 billion in revenue in Q2 alone. According to a Reuters report, Goldman Sachs projected full-year 2026 Starlink revenue is approximately $15.6 billion. AT&T notes that it has more than 100 million U.S. consumers across mobile and broadband. As noted by Idem Est Research & Advisory, Starlink has approximately 12 million globally, as of June 2026.The wholesale strategy and why AT&T is not signing with Starlink as a main partnerStankey drew a specific line on wholesale network agreements that has direct implications for how AT&T approaches Starlink and the broader satellite ecosystem.We do wholesale agreements when we think there’s a part of the market that we can’t address with our distribution, our brand and our product.In U.S. suburban and metropolitan markets, AT&T can address those customers itself. The U.S. is also more disciplined than European markets, Stankey noted, precisely because American carriers have “very robust distribution, very well recognized brands, very pervasive infrastructure.”Rather than a bilateral deal with any single satellite operator, AT&T prefers a consortium approach.Related: Oppenheimer downgrades AT&T stock on SpaceX threat”We want to partner with everybody in the satellite ecosystem,” Stankey said, explaining that aggregating volume across multiple low-Earth orbit constellations, including AST SpaceMobile, Amazon Kuiper, and SpaceX, gives AT&T coverage for the small percentage of off-grid traffic at economical pricing without creating dependency on any single provider.This matters for investors tracking the AST SpaceMobile story, which I covered when Cramer called it a buy for the two-year horizon. AT&T’s consortium framing suggests the relationship is complementary but not exclusive, which limits both the upside and the risk for either party.

AT&T is raising prices by $5 per month for fiber and copper internet plans, starting August 16, targeting customers established between June 2024 and July 2025.Kevin Carter/Getty Images

AT&T’s Q2 results and the buyback signalThe financial performance underneath Stankey’s July 22 Squawk Box commentary was genuinely solid, according to AT&T’s earnings release.Revenue of $31.6 billion, representing growth of 2.3% year over yearAdjusted EBITDA reached $12.3 billion, up 5.2% year over year. Free cash flow was $4.7 billion, up from $4.4 billion. Advanced Connectivity service revenue of $23.5 billion grew 5.1%, with Advanced Connectivity operating income up 20.3%. Added more than 646,000 total internet net adds, including 367,000 fiber and 279,000 fixed wireless. Postpaid phone churn was 0.86%.The $10 billion buyback acceleration is the number that sent the stock up 5.10% on the last session of the week. AT&T returned $4.1 billion to shareholders in Q2 alone, including $2.2 billion in common share repurchases. The company is also on track to reach 40 million total fiber locations by the end of 2026 and 60 million by 2030, according to the same statement.On the consumer side, my colleague reported that AT&T is raising prices by $5 per month for fiber and copper internet plans, starting August 16, targeting customers established between June 2024 and July 2025. Price increases alongside volume growth are the combination that drives the margin expansion embedded in the Q2 results.Also Read: AT&T Inc.Latest News and StoriesAT&T is up 0.64% year-to-date but has returned 89.07% over three years, according to Yahoo Finance. The stock had been range-bound for much of 2026 as investors debated the satellite threat. Stankey’s direct engagement with that question, paired with a buyback acceleration and strong free cash flow, is why the Friday, July 24 session looked the way it did.Related: AT&T quietly raises prices again as customer behavior shifts

IBM CEO makes bold AI strategy claim

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

International Business Machines (IBM) CEO Arvind Krishna has spent the past 10 days apologizing.On July 14, he told shareholders his company had faltered. Eight days later, he opened the second-quarter earnings call by admitting that IBM fell short on execution.Krishna then told CNBC on Thursday, July 23, that only 2% of IBM’s software could be replaced by applications built by artificial intelligence models. Everything else, he argued, helps clients get ready for AI rather than compete against it.That is a bold number from a chief executive whose stock recently recorded the worst single trading day in its 115-year history.IBM shares rose 4.01% to $214.94 by midday Friday, July 24, up $8.30 from Thursday’s close of $206.65, but the stock is still down more than 18% over the past month and sits near its 52-week low of $199.19.What Krishna’s 2% claim means for IBM software revenueSoftware is IBM’s profit engine. It brought in $7.76 billion in the second quarter, up 5%, and makes up roughly 45% of the company’s revenue, CNBC reported.Krishna’s argument rests on a distinction most investors skip. More AI Coverage:The AI honeymoon appears over amid stock sell-offGoldman Sachs backs surprising non-AI stocksMark Cuban sees a problem with the AI spending spreeMost of that revenue is infrastructure software, the layer that manages data, security, and hybrid cloud plumbing. AI tools need that layer to run.Applications are the exposed category. IBM’s Tririga lease management product, acquired in 2011, earns about $2 million a year from Starbucks (SBUX), which is phasing it out before a 2027 support cutoff.Put a dollar figure on it. Two percent of a $7.76 billion quarterly software business is about $155 million a quarter, or roughly$620 million a year.Krishna made the same case to analysts on the earnings call, telling them IBM’s AI strategy is the right one and the shortfall came down to execution, Yahoo Finance reported.

IBM chief executive Arvind Krishna told CNBC that only 2% of the company’s software faces real replacement risk from AI-built applications.Marvin Samuel Tolentino Pineda / Getty Images

The 42% mainframe collapse behind IBM’s AI defenseIBM’s Z mainframe revenue fell 42% in the second quarter, and the transaction processing software tied to those machines dropped 9%, according to CNBC.One quarter earlier, Z revenue had grown 48%.The reversal came from IBM’s own customers. Krishna wrote in IBM’s July 14 letter to investors that clients spent late June redirecting capital toward servers, storage, and memory to lock in supply ahead of price increases.Memory prices are climbing because AI chip production absorbed manufacturing capacity. So IBM’s clients bought hardware first and pushed software purchases into the next quarter.That sequence hurts twice, because IBM collects about $3 of software revenue for every dollar of mainframe hardware it sells.Inside IBM’s second-quarter 2026 resultsRevenue: $17.2 billion, up 1% year over year, according to IBM’s earnings releaseSoftware: $7.76 billion, up 5%, with Red Hat up 11% and data offerings up 19%Consulting: $5.33 billion, flatInfrastructure: $3.84 billion, down 7%, including the 42% drop in IBM ZOperating earnings: $2.93 a share, up 5%Free cash flow: $4.8 billion for the first six months, flat year over yearWhy Wall Street cut IBM stock price targets anywayKrishna handed analysts a second data point. About one-third of the deals that slipped out of the second quarter have already closed in July.  IBM normally recaptures two-thirds to three-quarters of slipped deals within six months, Benzinga noted. Krishna called that a deferral rather than destroyed demand.Related: Oppenheimer sends warning on IBM after shares crashWall Street trimmed targets regardless. Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring cut his target to $190 from $293 on July 23 while holding an equal weight rating, according to GuruFocus. Stifel analyst David Grossman moved to $235 from $290 and kept a buy rating, Investing.com reported.Grossman told clients IBM’s stock will likely stay stuck in a narrow range, with more room to fall than to rise.Guidance came down with them. IBM now expects full-year constant currency revenue growth of 4% to 5%, trimmed from more than 5%. Oppenheimer had already downgraded the stock after the July 14 warning.How IBM stock compares with the S&P 500 and software peersThe scoreboard is unforgiving.IBM: Down about 30% in 2026 through Wednesday’s close, according to CNBCS&P 500: Up about 10% across the same stretchiShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF: Down 17%IBM is trailing its own sector by 13 percentage points, which points to execution problems specific to Armonk on top of the industry-wide anxiety about AI.IBM now trades at 19.08 times earnings against a 52-week high of $332.46, and yields 3.15% on a quarterly payout of $1.69 a share. Its free cash flow held at $4.8 billion for the first half.IBM has paid consecutive quarterly dividends every year since 1916. That streak is the biggest reason income investors held on through a 25% one-day crash.What has to happen before IBM stock earns back its valuationKrishna and CFO Jim Kavanaugh are asking investors to accept a two-part promise: The delayed deals come back, and mainframe demand recovers.Kavanaugh told Yahoo Finance that IBM sees no evidence of clients walking away from the mainframe, and that installed capacity points to a record year against prior programs.Four things have to land for that promise to hold:The remaining two-thirds of slipped deals close by the fourth quarterSoftware growth reaches the 6% to 8% full-year range management now guides toFree cash flow rises by about $1 billion for the year, as reaffirmed on July 22Z mainframe revenue stops declining by early 2027IBM is also committing more than $10 billion to quantum computing over five years, which will not offset a 42% mainframe decline inside 2026.What IBM’s next two quarters mean for ordinary investorsKrishna’s 2% claim is testable, which is what makes it useful.Red Hat grew 11% in the quarter, while transaction processing software fell 9%. Transaction processing is tied directly to the mainframe cycle, so that split supports his timing argument.Here’s the practical read. At $214.94, IBM’s stock price already assumes 4% to 5% revenue growth and stable cash flow. It assumes nothing more. If software growth jumps back into double digits, that upside isn’t priced in yet.Buying now means trusting that the delayed deals land on schedule. Waiting costs you the first leg of any rebound and buys you one more quarter of evidence.The number to watch on the October earnings call is Z mainframe revenue. Krishna has said software should catch back up within a year, and the mainframe line is where that claim will show up first.Related: OpenAI just disclosed something genuinely alarming

Piper Sandler names 5 software stocks cutting AI token costs

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

For most of the past two years, investors bought nearly every company tied to semiconductors, from chip designers to equipment makers, and those stocks rose across the board.Enterprise software, on the other hand, got treated as collateral damage, priced as though large language models would eventually make the whole category redundant.That assumption is now getting tested, and not by the software companies themselves.Piper Sandler told clients on Wednesday that five infrastructure software names are positioned to solve the problem chief information officers complain about most: Running AI agents at scale costs far more than anyone budgeted.Piper Sandler’s argument is that the customer data these companies already store can cut the number of tokens an AI agent needs to process, which lowers the cost of running it.Why Piper Sandler says these 5 software stocks cut AI token costsThe note, led by analyst Rob Owens, named Elastic (ESTC), GitLab (GTLB), MongoDB (MDB), Snowflake (SNOW), and Atlassian (TEAM) as the primary beneficiaries, Investing.com reported.A token is a chunk of text that is often smaller than a word. AI models charge by the token, counting both what you send in and what you get back.Related: AI is quietly changing how portfolios are managedOwens wrote that the proprietary data already sitting inside these platforms can make models “significantly more accurate and efficient while dramatically reducing token usage costs.” That will let companies expand AI adoption without costs rising too much.Early deployments showed token usage falling by 50% to 75% when clean organizational context was fed directly to the agent.The mechanism is simple enough. AI uses fewer tokens and answers faster when given clean, organized data instead of messy data.The token math that changed enterprise AI budgets in 2026Here is the part that confused a lot of investors this year: Token prices fell, yet AI bills went up anyway.Owens noted that output tokens on newer frontier models run about 50% cheaper than the prior generation, yet improved reasoning capabilities caused consumption to increase.Reasoning models think in tokens, so a single query that once cost a few hundred tokens can now cost tens of thousands.More AI Stocks:AMD just landed its biggest AI deal yetThe AI honeymoon appears over amid stock sell-offMorgan Stanley sends strong verdict on memory stocksSnowflake’s pricing documentation shows how detailed this has become. The company splits AI usage onto a separate consumption meter so customers can track token spend against regular processing costs.That shift changed corporate behavior. Companies moved away from what Owens calls “Tokenmaxxing,” or throwing unlimited model capacity at every problem. Instead, the companies shifted toward model routing, which sends easy queries to cheap models and hard ones to expensive models.What the consumption pricing model means for revenueVendors price context layers on consumption rather than per seat. That matters because the per-seat model is exactly what the market fears AI will destroy as headcounts shrink.Piper Sandler called this an attractive incremental growth opportunity that also strengthens long-term competitive advantages.Put plainly, if a customer’s AI agents run more queries next quarter, the vendor gets paid more without signing a single new user.Three things have to hold for that thesis to work:Enterprises must keep expanding agent deployments rather than pausing them.Context layers must stay difficult enough to replicate that model vendors do not absorb the function.Consumption revenue must grow faster than any decline in traditional seat licenses.Owens said conversations with management teams and channel partners confirmed that organizations are turning to software to make AI more efficient.How these 5 software stocks have actually tradedThe stocks Owens named have not moved as a group.MongoDB has been the standout, with a market capitalization near $27.7 billion in mid-July, up more than 62% from last year, according to StockAnalysis data. The stock traded around $307 on July 21.Elastic went the other direction. Shares sat near $50 in recent trading, and Jefferies cut its target to $75 from $95 while keeping a Buy rating.GitLab has been the weakest of the five. Analysts carry an average Hold rating with a 12-month target of $34.50, roughly 4% above where shares trade.Snowflake sits in between, with 33 analysts rating it Strong Buy at an average target of $302.26.Atlassian rounds out the group with shares sitting near $86 as of the time of writing, well below the average analyst target of $139.70 reported on Yahoo Finance. KeyBanc set the most recent target at $115 on July 8 while keeping an Overweight rating, which points to about 33% above where the stock trades.

Piper Sandler says enterprise data platforms are becoming the cost control layer for corporate AI deployments.SOPA Images / Getty Images

Where this fits against the broader software selloffPiper Sandler is not alone in making this argument.Morgan Stanley told clients this week that sentiment on software has become too negative, naming eight Overweight companies positioned for the AI era, Yahoo Finance reported.The firm raised a similar question: What happens to software growth once AI companies stop selling tokens below cost?The backdrop explains why these calls keep coming. The S&P 500 software industry index has fallen more than 25% from its October highs. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) tells a similar story. It’s down 13% this year. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has gained close to 10% over the same stretch.Risks investors should weigh before buying the thesisThe counterargument to Owens’ call is that AI model providers build retrieval and memory features directly into their own platforms.Nothing stops a frontier lab from building its own retrieval and memory tools, which would make a third-party context layer less necessary. Several labs have already started doing this.There is also a timing problem. Piper Sandler describes a critical window opening, which is analyst language for a call that has not yet shown up in reported revenue.None of these five companies breaks out context-layer revenue as its own line item in filings. That means investors are betting on an analyst estimate, not a disclosed number.Two further limits that also matter:The 50% to 75% savings figure comes from early use cases, not audited results across a customer baseConsumption pricing cuts both ways, since AI budget cuts would hit revenue faster than annual seat contracts wouldWhat to watch next on these AI software stocksThe next earnings cycle should settle a lot of things.Snowflake, MongoDB, and Elastic all report consumption metrics that investors can check to verify Piper Sandler’s call.Each company’s management comments on AI-driven usage will tell you whether context layers are actually producing revenue.Watch net revenue retention specifically. If existing customers are spending more as agent deployments expand, that means the consumption approach is working.Also watch whether GitLab and Atlassian, the two most seat-dependent names on the list, can show credit or consumption revenue growing while seat counts stay flat.For readers deciding what to do with this, the practical read is that the five names carry very different risk profiles despite sharing a common call. MongoDB has already priced this call in. GitLab has not. Related: Cathie Wood buys $8.7 million of beaten-down AI stock

Morgan Stanley sees shift coming for Big Tech investors

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

If your portfolio has been riding the same cluster of mega-cap technology stocks since 2023, Morgan Stanley has a timely warning. The S&P 500climbed about 20% from its April low to a record high near 7,620 on June 2, fueled by optimism over the U.S.–Iran ceasefire and persistent enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.Since then, the benchmark has stalled, closing near 7,457 on July 17 and struggling to gain traction despite strong corporate earnings. Giant stocks are pulling in opposite directions, and those offsetting moves are keeping the broader market locked in place.Morgan Stanley Wealth Management chief investment officer Lisa Shalett laid out those dynamics in her July Global Investment Committee presentation. Her conclusion carries a pointed implication for anyone who remains heavily concentrated in the same handful of Big Tech names.Semiconductor stocks have ballooned to a historic share of the S&P 500The core of Shalett’s case is about how lopsided the S&P 500 index has become, and exactly where that imbalance is concentrated.The 10 largest stocks now represent about 40% of the S&P 500’s total market value, according to Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s July 2026 Global Investment Committee note. A modest pullback in just a few of those names can erase gains from hundreds of other companies in the AI trade.JPMorgan strategist Mislav Matejka advises buying dips triggered by geopolitical tensions despite lingering risks.The risks of renewed flareups remain, but we believe one should keep using any dips on the back of adverse geopolitical headlines in order to add.Chipmakers have surged to extreme valuations, with semiconductor market capitalization growing to about 18% of the S&P 500, Shalett noted. That figure stood at roughly 3% for most of the index’s modern history, illustrating how concentrated the rally has become.Investors have simultaneously punished the “Magnificent Seven” hyperscaler stocks over concerns about the cost of their massive AI infrastructure buildouts.That creates an index-level stalemate where one group of trillion-dollar names gets bid higher while another gets sold, and a concentrated portfolio goes nowhere.Morgan Stanley says the AI trade is entering a cost-conscious phaseThe real substance of Shalett’s note goes beyond diagnosing the stall and into where the AI investment cycle is heading next.Enterprises are moving from an early adoption phase focused on maximizing AI usage to a disciplined approach that prioritizes cost control, the committee observed. More Tech:Microsoft cuts thousands as Xbox faces rude awakeningSpectrum makes significant decision as customer losses mountGiant troubled satellite TV company files Chapter 11 bankruptcyThat transition is pushing what the firm calls “hybrid engineering” across the AI technology stack, Shalett explained in the presentation. In practical terms, companies are becoming more willing to blend expensive frontier AI models with lower-cost open-source alternatives and to diversify their hardware choices. That trend could pressure chipmakers whose valuations assume limitless demand while rewarding cloud providers that adapt to leaner enterprise budgets, the firm noted.

Morgan Stanley says companies are shifting toward cost-efficient AI, favoring hybrid models and disciplined spending over unlimited infrastructure investment.Kasipat Phonlamai/Getty Images

How semiconductor concentration risk affects index fund investorsInvestors holding S&P 500 exchange-traded funds carry sector concentration that is not always visible.Cameron Dawson, chief investment officer at NewEdge Wealth, quantified the scale during a recent interview on the Thoughtful Money program. A decade ago, semiconductors accounted for about 2% of the S&P 500, and today that figure sits near 18%, she noted.That means a passive investor who believes they hold a diversified portfolio has nearly one in five dollars exposed to the chip trade. Chip stocks are projected to deliver about 133% year-over-year earnings growth in the second quarter of 2026, according to data compiled by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and cited by earnings research head Tajinder Dhillon.That single sector accounts for roughly 44% of the entire S&P index’s profit expansion, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has fallen about 20% from its late-June record high, entering bear-market territory, according to Bloomberg.Morgan Stanley’s positioning adjustments for the second half of 2026Shalett’s team outlined several moves in the July note that reflect the firm’s view on where market leadership is migrating. Investors with large gains in semiconductor holdings may want to capture profits, especially where earnings expectations appear stretched, the committee recommended. The team also suggested selectively revisiting hyperscaler stocks that are retooling their businesses to serve cost-conscious AI demand across enterprise customers.On the fixed-income side, the firm pointed to intermediate-term bonds as a priority allocation, with longer-duration bonds worth adding if yields climb further, Shalett noted. The committee also emphasized global diversification, noting that non-U.S. equity markets have continued to outperform and offer a reason to broaden exposure.Gargi Pal Chaudhuri, BlackRock’s chief investment and portfolio strategist for the Americas, has argued that “continued dispersion” will define 2026, urging investors to broaden holdings beyond the AI trade, according to her February appearance on Yahoo Finance’s Market Domination Overtime.Chaudhuri told Yahoo Finance that ‘continued dispersion’ will be a defining 2026 theme as leadership broadens away from the AI infrastructure trade, with markets rewarding companies that convert AI spend into profitability rather than those simply announcing more capex. The shift from AI builders to AI adopters is gaining momentumShalett’s thesis builds on a pattern that Morgan Stanley has been developing since February, when the firm first flagged a rotation from mega-cap tech.In an earlier note, the committee argued that capital would eventually flow from AI “builders” selling infrastructure to AI “adopters” boosting margins with the technology. Health care, energy, software, and financial services were all identified as sectors with meaningful tailwinds from AI adoption in the report.That rotation appeared to stall during the spring rally as chipmakers recaptured attention, but the July semiconductor selloff suggests it is now resuming. Morgan Stanley’s Global Investment Committee framed the takeaway as a call to broaden, not exit, the AI theme, arguing that the next phase of returns is more likely to reward selective exposure across sectors than continued concentration in the same handful of Big Tech names.Related: Morgan Stanley sends strong verdict on memory stocks

Mark Cuban predicts radical change for American workers

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

Mark Cuban sees another massive workplace shift coming, and it could impact how Americans build careers.The billionaire investor of ‘Shark Tank’ fame believes AI could now play a much bigger role in how workers deal with challenging situations, sharpen their judgment, and prepare for more valuable work.In turn, that allows businesses to train people a lot quicker and at a far lower cost. Cuban is among the select group of investing giants who remain broadly optimistic about AI. He feels that businesses that embrace AI will become much more productive, while workers who use it will still find opportunities.Nevertheless, that prediction underscores an uncomfortable trade-off.AI opens the door to supposedly better training, but it replaces human mentorship and the early career work that paved the way for people to move up the ranks.Mark Cuban’s AI job simulator vision is already taking shape According to Business Insider, citing a July 24 X post from Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor believes the next major AI application will be an open-weight or open-source job simulator.More Layoffs:Meta layoffs take disturbing turn in new lawsuitMajor snack brand closes plant, cuts 345 jobsJPMorgan Chase pushes fraud division layoffs, despite rising revenuesCuban believes that workers will have fewer colleagues, supervisors, and routine workplace interactions from which they can absorb experience. In response, businesses could ask company veterans and other domain experts to encode their knowledge into realistic scenarios, revamping onboarding as we know it.Think of scenarios like a junior lawyer rehearsing a deposition, a doctor responding to an AI patient, or an electrician diagnosing a simulated fault. Like pilots and racing drivers, employees will be able to continue to practice difficult or dangerous situations without exposing themselves to the financial, reputational, or safety consequences of making mistakes in their real lives.Some corporations are already applying this innovative approach.Bank of America said that employees wrapped up over 1 million AI-powered conversation simulations in 2024. The bank recreates client interactions, allowing workers to rehearse responses and receive immediate feedback before speaking with actual customers.Amazon’s AWS offers a Meeting Simulator in which employees speak or type to AI characters that represent executives, technical experts, and other stakeholders. Users can also practice and explain products, address objections, and gather requirements, then receive instant feedback on their communication.Skillsoft’s CAISY similarly allows employees to rehearse difficult business, leadership, and compliance conversations in a controlled environment. At the same time, Docebo allows companies to build customized role-playing exercises delivered via voice or text, with AI providing performance feedback after every exchange.Private capital is also following that same trend. Yoodli, an AI role-playing and communication-coaching platform, raised $40 million in Series B funding in December 2025, bringing its disclosed funding to nearly $60 million. Its software recreates sales calls, interviews, leadership conversations, and customer objections, then scores users and suggests areas for improvement.

Mark Cuban speaks at a business event about AI job simulators, worker training and the future of entry-level employmentJulia Beverly/WireImage

What is Mark Cuban’s broader view on AI and jobs?Cuban argues AI adoption for employee training is unavoidable. Companies that use AI effectively will continue outperforming those that don’t, and it’s unwise for employers and colleges to wait for those skills to be defined. However, at the same time, Cuban, unlike for example Tesla CEO Elon Musk, doesn’t see AI as a complete substitute for people. He argues that AI models still struggle with real-time context, consequences, and social judgment, among other things. The shifts may hit entry-level hiring at large businesses, but Cuban sees opportunities for small businesses needing younger workers who can apply AI to their jobs. On top of that, he is also more bullish on practical AI applications instead of data center spending, warning that efficiency gains could leave some infrastructure underused.AI simulators may deepen the problem they claim to solveI feel as though AI simulators might actually weaken the traditional career ladder by removing another step.For instance, Stanford researchers found a 16% drop in employment among workers aged 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed occupations, even after accounting for company-level shocks. However, a May 2026 Strada survey of 1,500 executives complicates the pessimistic view.More than three times as many executives expected AI to increase entry-level hiring as reduce it. However, 41% said AI had already reduced the number of skill-building tasks, while 42% reported giving junior workers more judgment-based responsibilities.So in essence, businesses might still hire graduates, but expect them to exercise senior-level judgment while taking away the bulk of the work that helped develop that judgment. That notion is also supported by PwC, which similarly found that AI-exposed entry-level vacancies were seven times more likely to demand traditionally senior skills, including leadership and judgment.Cuban’s simulators might help narrow that gap, but they may also institutionalize it. Senior employees might encode their experience into proprietary systems, allowing businesses to scale up training with a lot less direct mentorship.The second big risk is that employers might first look to automate apprenticeship and then sell simulation as its replacement. Companies would then gain ownership of institutional knowledge, control over what counts as “good judgment,” and potentially another system for measuring employees’ performance.How junior roles shaped some of America’s biggest CEOsEntry-level work has actually served a far bigger purpose than just cheap labor. For many future CEOs, it helped build the judgment, empathy, and credibility needed to lead much larger organizations. In fact, according to a report from Spencer Stuart, 76% of sitting S&P 500 CEOs in its 2025 study had been promoted from within their companies. Mary Barra, General Motors: Barra joined GM at 18 as a co-op student inspecting vehicles. “I learned that working on an assembly line is hard work and the people that do it are talented.”Raj Subramaniam, FedEx: The FedEx CEO started off in an entry-level marketing role. “I started off as an associate marketing analyst in the international division in Memphis. That job is the lowest level in marketing.”Doug McMillon, Walmart: McMillon got his start by unloading trucks before rising through Walmart. “I became a low-risk promotion because people had already seen me do the job.”Bob Iger, Disney: Iger credited his early ABC production roles with developing a lasting professional discipline. “I discovered that I had in me … a prodigious work ethic, which I think has never left me.”
Sources: Duke Today, Time, Business Insider, and Vogue.
AI job simulators could create major winners and hidden costsFor investors, the big opportunity, at least in the long term, is that businesses could turn workplace knowledge into scalable software.Naturally, the potential returns could be attractive, as simulators could shorten employee ramp-up periods, slash coaching expenses, and reduce costly errors while improving consistency on the customer service side. However, the real moat would depend largely on developing robust proprietary scenarios, integrating with corporate systems, ensuring reliable scoring, and demonstrating that simulated performance equals better real-world results. For consumers, that could mean better-prepared employees and more consistent service. Or it might result in poorly designed simulations that could scale bad advice, biased scripts, or regulatory errors across an entire workforce.On the other side of the equation, workers might gain private, repeatable practice without the embarrassment or consequences of making mistakes in front of customers or managers. Yet the downsides include opaque scoring, as highlighted by the recent claims in the Meta Platforms lawsuit, reduced access to human mentors, and greater pressure to train outside paid working hours. Related: Bank of America says Alphabet stock investors are missing the bigger signal

Amazon’s quiet $60 dehumidifier manages up to 1,000 square feet

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

TheStreet aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.Along with higher temperatures, summer brings with it higher electric bills and oftentimes higher humidity. That’s why it’s helpful to have a device that can address all three of those issues simultaneously. Some people shop for separate items to handle each of those issues individually. However, if you’re not able to find what you need with this technique, you may be stuck with many other people who dread the onset of summer simply because of what it means for their monthly budget.For starters, this summer has already seen record temperatures, and this trend doesn’t appear to be waning. If you want to fully enjoy your summer, you have to find a way to address the heat problem. What’s more, energy prices continue to surge, so any way to help reduce your electric bills should be at the top of your to-do list. Humidity is an issue that exacerbates both of these issues because it adds an extra layer of discomfort on top of the heat, and it forces your air conditioning unit to work overtime. Luckily, there is in fact a single device that can address all three of these challenges, and Amazon is currently selling it at a discount.What does a dehumidifier do?Of course, dehumidifiers are a great way to deal with humidity, but they also reduce heat and help you get the most out of your AC unit. That’s why they’re such popular summertime buys. To state it simply, a dehumidifier extracts excess water from the air around it. Summer temperatures are naturally higher than the rest of the year, which means your air conditioner has to work harder. One way to ensure a lower overall temperature in your home without increasing the output of your AC unit is through the use of a dehumidifier. Because a dehumidifier removes excess ambient moisture, your air conditioner doesn’t have to work overtime to remove humidity and reduce the temperature. That factor also reduces energy consumption by your temperature control unit. If your HVAC is not working as hard as it would without a dehumidifier, then its power consumption is reduced. In essence, running an air conditioner in conjunction with a dehumidifier increases the efficiency of the AC unit, which utilizes less electricity. Lower electricity usage equals lower energy bills, and that’s especially welcome in the hot summer months.Finally, overall comfort and a reduced “feels like” temperature are possibly the most important results of using a dehumidifier. High humidity causes slower evaporation of your skin’s sweat. That in turn makes the temperature feel much warmer than it actually is. Reducing the humidity in a room will instantly create a more comfortable and cooler environment for everyone. Ultimately, that’s the most valuable aspect of using a dehumidifier in the hot summer doldrums.Bedred Quiet Dehumidifier

Courtesy of Amazon

Check price at AmazonThe Bedred Quiet Dehumidifier is a wonderful option for anyone looking to improve their summertime comfort and energy spending. It can pull an impressive 95 ounces of moisture from the air before needing a changeover. The machine is designed to handle a room of up to 1,000 square feet, which should be more than enough for most homes. It has a quiet operation feature and an automatic shut-off timer. Both of these functions make it ideal for use when sleeping, which is one of the most vital times for you to be at your most comfortable.In addition to all the aforementioned practical features of the dehumidifier, it also has a nice added treat. There is a built-in multicolored LED light that constantly changes hues when turned on. Not only does this add to the ambience of any room where the dehumidifier is placed, but it also has a more useful result. It offers the perfect amount of ambient light at night, which can serve as a nightlight for scared little ones or just an easy way to light your path to the restroom, avoiding painful toe stubs. More dehumidifiersIf the Bedred Quiet Dehumidifier isn’t the right choice for you, Amazon and Walmart both have plenty of other options. Whether you’re looking for something with an extremely large capacity or you just want a small unit for your home office, you’re likely to find it at one of these retailers. However, most of the dehumidifiers that go on sale don’t last very long, so you’re probably better off buying one sooner rather than later.Pro Breeze 50-Pint Dehumidifier

Courtesy of Amazon

Check price at AmazonLuko 2,000 Square-Foot Dehumidifier

Courtesy of Amazon

Check price at WalmartDuracomfort Dehumidifier with Pump

Courtesy of Walmart

Check price at WalmartPro Breeze Mini Portable Dehumidifier

Courtesy of Walmart

Check price at WalmartTheStreet Shopping is your guide for shopping insights and advice. We look beyond the price tag to find the best value in home, tech, and wellness gear based on product features and real-world use. Read more about our Editorial Standards and How We Choose Our Shopping Deals.

Suze Orman warns of a 401(k) match error costing workers

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

Contributing regularly to workplace 401(k) plans is widely viewed as a responsible step toward building long-term retirement security.Yet a costly mistake hidden within those routine paycheck deductions can erode a household’s combined retirement savings year after year without attracting much attention.Personal finance expert Suze Orman flagged the problem in a blog post on July 23, drawing on recent findings from Boston College retirement researchers.Her warning challenges a common assumption that two working spouses saving into their own separate plans are automatically making the most of their employer benefits. Which account gets funded first is what determines the outcome, not how much a couple saves.The $757-a-year mistake in married couples’ 401(k) plansThe Center for Retirement Research at Boston College published a June 2026 brief examining how married couples handle retirement plan contributions across two different workplaces. About one in five couples where both spouses have access to a plan fail to coordinate how they divide their retirement savings, the brief found.Those couples forgo an average of $757 each year in employer matching contributions they could have captured without saving an additional dollar of their own. That forgone match represents approximately 13% of those couples’ total annual retirement contributions, a significant share of their combined savings, the study found.Over a full career, the compounding effect of missed matching dollars makes the long-term damage far worse than the annual shortfall alone. The brief’s simulation estimated that couples who never correct the imbalance can expect about $14,000 less in combined retirement wealth by age 65.For couples at the 90th percentile, the lifetime cost of failing to coordinate exceeds $40,000 in total lost retirement savings, the researchers calculated.How different employer match formulas create the 401(k) coordination gapThe problem grows out of a basic structural feature of employer retirement plans: no two companies use the same formula for matching worker contributions.One spouse might receive a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 3% of salary, while the other receives a 50-cent match up to 6%, Orman wrote. More Retirement:Vanguard drops playbook on retirement incomeVanguard warns workers losing thousands in 401(k)sFidelity’s wake-up call on Social Security, IRAs, and 401(k)sBoth formulas provide a benefit, but the dollar-for-dollar match produces a higher immediate return on every contribution dollar the employee puts in.A couple that splits contributions evenly without comparing both formulas will capture less total employer money than one that funds the richer match first. The difference is matching money that the employer was prepared to contribute, but the household never claimed, Orman wrote in her blog post.”They think about retirement savings individually, not as a household system,” Jeff Judge, managing partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners, told Money.

Couples can boost retirement savings by prioritizing the stronger 401(k) employer match instead of splitting contributions evenly between accounts.shapecharge/Getty Images

What prevents couples from coordinating their 401(k) contributionsThe Boston College researchers built a matched employer–employee dataset covering approximately 500,000 couples by linking IRS tax filings with Department of Labor Form 5500 records from more than 6,000 defined contribution plans. They supplemented the analysis with a custom survey of 1,000 married individuals to examine the factors behind their findings.Evan Potash, Executive Wealth Management Advisor at TIAA Wealth Management, told Money magazine that the coordination failure is often a matter of awareness rather than intent, since many couples do not realize they are forgoing employer matching dollars until someone points it out.Sometimes life can get in the way. People can’t act if they aren’t aware they are missing out on their full employer matchThe problem splits nearly in half between accidental oversights and deliberate choices tied to low marital commitment and misperceptions about how retirement assets are divided in a divorce, the brief found. More than one-third of surveyed respondents wrongly believed they would keep their own retirement accounts if a marriage ended.Couples with joint bank accounts, shared mortgages, or children were significantly less likely to forgo available matching dollars, the study found.Orman’s approach to fixing the 401(k) coordination gap for couplesOrman framed the fix as coordination rather than consolidation, urging couples to stop treating the two accounts as separate and start treating them as part of one household retirement strategy. Couples need to compare both plans’ matching formulas at least once a year, then direct contributions first to the more generous match, Orman wrote. After that match is fully captured, the remaining retirement dollars can flow into the second spouse’s plan for additional employer contributions, she added.Employers can alter their matching formulas from year to year, and a job switch by either spouse can reshape the household math entirely, Orman noted. She recommended an annual review of both plans to ensure the strategy stays current and aligned with whatever both employers are offering.Capturing the full 401(k) match is only the first retirement savings stepOrman stressed that capturing every available matching dollar is the highest priority for couples with limited savings capacity, but not the ultimate retirement goal. The broader target for most workers is saving approximately 15% of annual pay toward retirement, with employer matching contributions included in that figure, she wrote.Average employer matching contributions reached a record high of 4.7% of salary in 2025, Vanguard’s How America Saves 2026 report confirmed. Combined with employee deferrals, the average total savings rate hit 12.1%, a figure that falls within the range retirement researchers recommend for long-term security.For households on a tight budget, maximizing the match across both plans adds retirement wealth without requiring the couple to increase personal contributions, Orman emphasized.Related: Suze Orman says this 401(k) habit is quietly hurting parents

After 80 stores close, 63-year-old chain gives Chapter 11 warning

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

When a retailer sells a product people no longer want or need at the same level they once did, it becomes challenging for that retailer to operate. Yes, you can cut expenses and close stores, but if customers aren’t buying, no amount of frugality will keep the doors open.That’s a challenge facing any chain serving the luxury market, as Americans have cut back on discretionary spending. Luxury shoppers’ optimism about the economy continues to decline, driven by global financial uncertainty and market volatility, according to the latest Saks Global Luxury Pulse survey.”The survey, conducted between April 24 and April 28, found that only 28% of respondents reported feeling optimistic about the economy. That represents a 13 percentage point decline since the prior survey fielded in January, and a decline of 17 percentage points compared to last year,” according to the report.It’s bad news for Leslie’s Pool Supply. The company closed 80 locations in March, but it hasn’t been enough to stem the bleeding. Now, the retailer faces a possible Chapter 11 filing, according to a report from Bloomberg.Leslie’s Pool Supply reported positive Q2 results When Leslie’s reported second-quarter earnings in May, the company seemed to have turned the corner.”Compared to last year, in the second quarter, we delivered overall revenue growth of 4.3%, a comparable sales increase of 6.6%, improved year-over-year adjusted EBITDA by 26% and registered total customer count growth of 8%,” shared CEO Jason McDonell. Those numbers followed the chain making a number of cuts during the first quarter.Leslie’s announced the closure of approximately 80 underperforming stores as part of a cost-reduction and operational restructuring plan during Q1 fiscal 2026, according to its Q1 earnings release. The company also closed one distribution center (Illinois) to streamline its supply chain and reduce expenses, which it also included in its Q1 filings. Leslie’s recorded approximately $10.1 million in non-cash impairment charges related to store and asset closures, the company reported. For Q1 fiscal 2026, Leslie’s reported a net loss of about $83 million and sales down roughly 16% year over year, citing weak demand and margin pressure, it shared in SEC filings.The chain, which has moved more of its sales to a digital model after closing the stores mentioned above, also cut its loss from the first quarter.”Net loss for the second quarter was $52.5 million compared with a net loss of $51.3 million in the second quarter of the prior year. Adjusted net loss in the second quarter was $50 million compared with an adjusted net loss of $48.3 million in the second quarter of the prior year,” according to CFO Jeffrey White.

Pools are a luxury item.Shutterstock

Leslie’s Pool Supply faces bankruptcy Leslie’s executives did not mention a potential Chapter 11 filing during the earnings call.Bloomberg’s report, which cites unnamed “people familiar with the matter,” said Leslie’s is looking at “a range of strategic options” to address its debt load, including restructuring its debt through Chapter 11.In addition, Bloomberg reported, Leslie’s has a $756 million term loan due in 2028 that is being quoted at about 39 cents on the dollar.While Leslie’s is reportedly talking about Chapter 11, Bloomberg’s sources stated that the discussions are “ongoing” and that “no final decision has been made.””Leslie’s reportedly brought on Centerview Partners LLC and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett to advise the company through the debt negotiations. A group of creditors hired Houlihan Lokey and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld,” according to Phoenix Business Journal.Leslie’s Pools has struggled financiallyLeslie’s Pools has faced recent financial challenges with its stock listing.“The company’s stock performance has been under pressure throughout 2025, culminating in its removal from the S&P SmallCap 600 index earlier this year,” Pool Magazine, a leading publication covering the pool industry, shared.This isn’t the only sign that investors have lost confidence in the company.“Being part of the S&P SmallCap 600 gives a company visibility, provides passive fund support, and signals investor confidence. Losing that standing means Leslie’s no longer met benchmarks for market cap and liquidity — a clear sign the stock has struggled to maintain momentum,” the magazine added.S&P Global Ratings has downgraded the issuer credit rating of U.S. specialty pool supply retailer Leslie’s Poolmart Inc. from “B” to “B-” due to weaker-than-expected business prospects for fiscal 2025, according to Investing.com.Related: 140-year-old mall retail giant only has 5 locations left

Goldman says ServiceNow is writing a totally new playbook

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

Seven years ago, on an earnings call, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott promised the company would become the defining enterprise software company of the 21st century, according to a transcript published by Benzinga.That promise rested almost entirely on IT ticket routing, the unglamorous software that logs a broken laptop or a locked account. It was a modest foundation for such a large claim.This year tested that promise in a way McDermott could not have foreseen. Enterprise software spent the first half of 2026 gripped by what Fortune called a “SaaSpocalypse,” the fear that AI agents could simply perform the work software licenses used to gate.If an autonomous agent can resolve a support ticket on its own, the logic went, why keep paying per seat for the software that used to route it to a human?ServiceNow absorbed that fear directly. Shares had fallen close to 50% over the prior year heading into the company’s second quarter report. Wall Street was not debating whether ServiceNow made good software. It was debating whether AI made the entire subscription model obsolete.The company reported second-quarter results on July 22, beating estimates on revenue, earnings, and bookings, according to the company’s earnings release.“Q2 was an outstanding quarter that highlights ServiceNow’s broad based demand,” said ServiceNow President and CFO Gina Mastantuono in the release.Subscription revenue rose 24.5% year over year to $3.877 billion, and NOW shares initially fell before recovering after hours as investors digested the numbers.Two days later, Goldman Sachs raised its price target on the stock to $152 from $145 while keeping a buy rating, according to a Goldman Sachs research note shared with TheStreet.That target reboot did not lean on the subscription beat. Goldman analysts led by Gabriela Borges wrote that the single biggest driver of a ServiceNow rerating will be whether the company proves its relevance inside the enterprise AI stack, not whether it keeps beating quarterly guidance. That distinction reframes what investors should actually be tracking.The ServiceNow $1 billion AI milestoneServiceNow’s AI annual contract value crossed $1 billion for the first time this quarter, and Goldman noted the company reiterated confidence in exceeding a $1.5 billion target by the end of 2026.That pace also puts ServiceNow ahead of its own long-term goal of AI reaching 30% of total ACV by 2030.Goldman views that AI revenue as more valuable than a comparable dollar of core workflow revenue, because AI deployments deepen customer entrenchment and create room for future consumption growth.Net new AI bookings grew more than 40% quarter over quarter, and the number of customers running AI in production increased ninefold over nine months. Deal volume among first time AI buyers grew 45% year over year.

Goldman Sachs raised its ServiceNow price target to $152 after AI annual contract value crossed $1 billion in the second quarter.Bloomberg / Getty Images

Automating the IT help deskServiceNow’s Level 1 IT service management product went generally available in May and now resolves 80% to 85% of service requests without human intervention, Goldman’s note revealed.That statistic matters because it is happening inside the same category that built the company’s original business, not a bolted-on side project.More AI:Workers just sent AI companies an ultimatumPalantir CEO has a blunt verdict on OpenAI and AnthropicElon Musk pulls no punches with AI rivals as Grok 4.5 debutsThe bank also flagged a new voice capability, citing one airline customer now routing all customer service calls, roughly 5 million annually, through ServiceNow’s Voice AI.As agents take on more complex tasks, Goldman expects assists and consumption to rise, which is where the actual monetization shows up.The Guggenheim counterpointGuggenheim’s John DiFucci upgraded the stock to buy on July 1 for the opposite reason Goldman is bullish.He expects AI monetization to disappoint and still views AI as a real threat to the software model, according to TIKR. He upgraded purely because the stock had gotten too cheap.Related: ServiceNow’s quiet $1B cybersecurity boomGoldman’s own note lists disintermediation by competing AI technologies as a named downside risk, alongside elongated sales cycles and federal spending delays.McDermott has already previewed his rebuttal to that exact fear. “We don’t need Lamborghinis to deliver the mail,” he told Fortune, arguing most enterprise AI runs on cheaper, purpose-built models rather than the frontier systems that bears worry will replace ServiceNow’s platform.In other words, the same bank raising the target is also naming the scenario in which the thesis fails.Which companies get to keep their multiple?ServiceNow’s stock has now had one violent post-earnings drop and one sharp rally within the same year, evidence that investors have not settled on how to value AI exposure in enterprise software.The company that once described itself as a ticket routing tool is now being priced on whether it becomes infrastructure that AI runs through, rather than a layer AI erases.That question extends well beyond one Santa Clara software company.Every enterprise vendor with a seat-based business model is now being asked to prove the same thing ServiceNow just tried to prove, and the next few quarters of AI ACV disclosures across the sector will show which of them actually can.Related: Bank of America spots ServiceNow’s overlooked AI advantage

Popular ETFs carry hidden tax rules that surprise retail investors

July 26, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are a popular choice for millions of investors. They allow investors to quickly gain exposure to many stocks, and unlike mutual funds, they offer intraday buying and selling (mutual funds can only be bought or sold at their closing price).Despite those advantages, ETFs may have different tax treatments depending on what they ownn and what type of account they are held in.Why ETFs are more tax-efficient than mutual fundsThere are a number of reasons that ETFs are generally more tax-efficient than mutual funds. Two main reasons are:The In-Kind Creation/Redemption Process. ETFs have a unique in-kind creation and redemption mechanism that helps reduce taxes for ETF shareholders holding the ETFs in a taxable account. The creation and redemption process occurs between the ETF and large institutional investors known as authorized persons or APs. This mechanism eliminates or reduces realized capital gains inside the ETF that would be taxable to existing shareholders at the end of the year.The in-kind creation and redemption mechanism allows the ETF fund manager to exchange underlying securities in the ETF with institutional investors, versus selling the securities for cash, as is the case with a mutual fund when they need to raise cash for large redemptions.In the latter case, this often triggers realized capital gains within the mutual fund, which are then passed on to existing shareholders. These gains are generally taxable to the mutual fund shareholders.  Lower turnover: Many ETFs are passive index funds tracking indexes like the S&P 500, the Russell 2000, and a host of others. Generally, these index ETFs do less trading than actively managed funds and generate fewer taxable capital gains.Note that, as there are more active ETFs and ETFs tracking investments like commodities, cryptocurrencies, and other alternatives, this tax advantage may not fully be there for these ETFs.Tips to manage ETF tax liabilityThere are a number of other ways investors can mitigate their tax liability on ETFs. A few suggestions include:Asset location. Proper asset location can help reduce your tax liability on your ETFs. Taxable accounts are generally best for broad market stock ETFs such as those investing in an index like the S&P 500 or a broad total stock market index.ETFs investing in fixed income that generate regular income, active stock ETFs that have high turnover in their holdings, as well as many alternative ETFs that generate ongoing income during the year, all might be good candidates for a tax-deferred account, such as an IRA, to limit your current year tax hit.Hold ETFs for more than one year. Not unique to ETFs, it can be a good idea to hold ETFs contained in taxable accounts for at least one year to ensure any capital gains from selling shares are taxed at favorable long-term capital gains rates. This needs to be balanced against investment considerations for the particular ETF and for the portfolio as a whole.Tax-loss harvesting. If you hold any ETFs or other investments that have underperformed and are currently in a loss position, they can be sold and the losses realized if held in a taxable account. These losses can be used to offset realized gains on other ETFs that you might hold in a taxable account.Charitable gifting of appreciated shares. As with many other types of investments, gifting appreciated shares of an ETF as a charitable contribution can not only keep you from having to realize capital gains, additionally for investors who can itemize deductions this is a way to reduce their overall taxes.

TradingView/TheStreet

ETFs offer a solid investing option for many investors. Understand the tax treatment of your ETFsDifferent types of ETFs have different tax structures. It’s important that you understand this tax treatment in the overall context of your financial objectives and your tax situation.ETFs that invest in physical metals such as gold and silver may be treated as collectibles for tax purposes. This would result in a higher long-term capital gains tax rate than with other investments.Commodity ETFs that use futures contracts as the investment vehicle are often structured as limited partnerships. That may subject these ETFs to the 60/40 rule where 60% of any capital gain or loss will be treated as long-term, the other 40% will be treated as short-term. This is regardless of the actual holding period.Currency ETFs are sometimes treated as grantor trusts, meaning all gains will be taxed as ordinary income.Leveraged and inverse ETFs often have high turnover and may also be subjected to the 60/40 treatment.As with anything you invest in, be sure to fully understand the tax implications of any ETFs you hold in your portfolio.Related: Vanguard ETFs offer bold escape from top-heavy S&P 500

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