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The Walt Disney Company is pulling back from another part of its business, marking a significant change for customers in several markets.

The move follows years of changes to Disney’s retail footprint, including the closure of hundreds of physical stores and a greater emphasis on other ways of selling its merchandise.

Now, another piece of that strategy is coming to an end, although Disney has not explained why it is making the latest change.

In 1996, Disney launched the Disney Store website, marking the official entry of The Walt Disney Company into e-commerce.

Disney is closing its online Disney Store

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) is shutting down its Disney Store websites serving Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Customers in those markets will have until Sept. 30, 2026, to place orders. The affected websites will then cease operations at the end of the day, with the Australia and New Zealand storefront officially closing on Oct. 1 local time.

Disney Store Australia and New Zealand are served through DisneyStore.com.au, while customers in Singapore and Malaysia use DisneyStore.asia.

Disney has notified customers that orders placed by the Sept. 30 deadline will continue to be fulfilled. Sold-out products are not expected to be restocked before the closure, while existing return windows and product support policies will continue to be honored after the websites shut down.

The company alerted customers through an “Important Update” message on the affected Disney Store websites.

Although the online storefronts are closing, Disney merchandise will remain available through authorized retailers in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia. The company has also confirmed that the closure does not affect its Disney Store websites in other markets, including the U.S., U.K., Japan, China, South Korea, the Philippines, and the Middle East.

Disney has not publicly provided a specific reason for ending online Disney Store operations in these four markets.

Disney shuts down its online store operations across several international markets.VIEW press / Getty Images

Disney has reduced its Disney Store physical retail footprint

The online shutdown comes after years of reductions to Disney’s brick-and-mortar retail presence.

In 2021, Disney shared plans to close at least 60 Disney Store locations in the U.S. and Canada as it shifted its focus more toward e-commerce. The company ultimately shuttered dozens of North American locations as part of the broader restructuring of its retail business.

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

Popular women’s retailer closes 38 stores worldwide

102-year-old fashion, lifestyle retailer confirms 180 more closures

Hip fashion retailer closes more stores in 2026

The closures also extended into international markets.

Disney continued reducing its physical retail presence in subsequent years, including the closure of Disney Store locations at Walt Disney World and the company’s last remaining European retail operations in early 2026.

The Disney Store footprint today is considerably smaller than it was several years ago, with the company’s remaining 23 retail locations concentrated in select markets and Disney parks, according to the Disney Store locator.

Why Disney is closing physical and online stores

Disney has not said that declining merchandise demand is the reason for the latest online closures. In fact, the company’s merchandise business has continued to grow.

In the third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings report, Disney said revenue from merchandise licensing and retail increased 8% to nearly $1.06 billion. The company attributed the increase primarily to a 10% rise in merchandise licensing revenue, partially offset by a 2% decline in merchandise retail revenue.

That distinction is important because the latest Disney Store shutdowns do not necessarily indicate a decline in demand for Disney merchandise. Instead, the closures are another example of Disney adjusting how and where it sells its merchandise.

For shoppers in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia, however, the change means the end of a direct online shopping option from Disney.

Disney has not disclosed whether the decision is tied to profitability, operating costs, logistics, local market conditions, or another factor.

For now, the company has only confirmed the closure and directed customers toward authorized retailers for future purchases.

Related: Disney closes iconic store after 33 years

TheStreet aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.

Why we love this deal

Long before music streaming services took over, CDs were once the preferred method for listening to music. They were a step up from cassettes and significantly smaller than vinyl records, offering a more portable way to listen to music. While many drifted away from CDs over the years, people are making their way back to physical media. In addition to building CD collections by sorting through thrift stores, estate sales, or eBay, CD players are also on the rise.

The Kogoda Bluetooth Portable CD Player is available on Amazon, and it’s on sale for only $45. With a regular price of $70, Prime members can get it for 36% off. 

Kogoda Bluetooth Portable CD Player, $45 (was $70) at Amazon

Courtesy of Amazon

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Why do shoppers love it?

Whether you have your old CD collection or are building a new one, this CD player is a great way to listen to them. The look alone is eye-catching, as it has an elevated area that displays the CD with a clear screen. You can watch the CD spin as it plays, giving it an old-school yet futuristic appearance, and enjoy the five RGB lighting modes. The brown colorway has a woodgrain finish that looks much like vintage home entertainment speakers and systems of the past, but it has modern features that give it a leg up from older models. 

The CD player has a six-in-one design, with modes like CD, Bluetooth 5.3, USB, TF card, FM radio, and AUX in/out. Its Bluetooth connectivity is worth highlighting. While in “receive” mode, you can play music via Bluetooth from your phone or computer. In “transmit” mode, you can send CD or USB audio from the player to other Bluetooth devices, like headphones or a speaker.

With a rechargeable battery, you can take this device on the go, whether it’s around the house or in the backyard. You can get over 4 hours of wireless playback on one charge, and it can power up quickly with USB Type-C fast charging. It also comes with a remote control, so you can operate the device from a distance, as well as through controls on the player itself.

Related: Walmart has $160 wireless earbuds for 89% off with 40 hours of playtime

Details to know

Dimensions: 7.99 inches long by 4.06 inches wide by 8.39 inches high.

Colors: Brown, black, and white.

Modes: CD, Bluetooth 5.3, USB, TF card, FM radio, and AUX in/out.

Additional features: Rechargeable battery, RGB lights, sleep timer, and remote control.

Amazon shoppers like this CD player, saying it has “great sound” and useful features, from FM radio to Bluetooth connectivity. One customer said they use the autoscan feature on the radio to discover different types of music after years of streaming and listening to similar, popular genres. “I use the auto scan function to move through the available stations and seem to hit on a different station every day with different music,” they shared.

“I use this CD player for some of my older CDs. I particularly like the clear screen, because you can see the CD in there and it kinda becomes its own little art piece with certain CDs,” a reviewer said. They said its Bluetooth mode is “amazing,” saying, “I can play my CD on the player and then connect the player to my Bose Bluetooth speaker and take the Bose speaker anywhere in my apartment. The Bluetooth signal is that good.”

Shop more deals

Mydash Retro Bluetooth CD Player, $70 at Amazon

Freefish 4-in-1 Retro Portable CD Player with Bluetooth Speakers, $50 (was $53) at Amazon

Thinkya K10 Bluetooth CD Player with Speakers, $110 at Amazon

The Kogoda Bluetooth Portable CD Player is on sale right now for only $45, thanks to an exclusive Prime member deal.

Nvidia (NVDA) built its artificial intelligence empire by selling the chips that companies need to train and run increasingly powerful AI models.

Now CEO Jensen Huang is spending almost $13 billion to position Nvidia where millions of developers find, build, and deploy those models.

One of Nvidia’s largest acquisitions, Hugging Face cost $12.93 billion. Hugging Face shareholders receive $11.9 billion and up to $1 billion in equity-based incentives to retain employees. The deal should close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approval.

The price is sky high, but Nvidia isn’t purchasing another semiconductor startup.

Hugging Face operates an open AI platform used by more than 18 million developers and over 200,000 companies, giving Nvidia a direct connection to one of the world’s largest AI developer communities.

That might explain why Wall Street is not fleeing from the price tag.

Nvidia pays billions for access to AI’s developers

Hugging Face has emerged as a key marketplace and cooperation tool for open AI.

Nvidia says its customers share 3 million-plus models, 500,000 datasets and 1 million apps. With Hugging Face, organizations and developers are able to find, tweak, and deploy existing models instead of building each model from scratch.

That provides Nvidia something it can’t achieve from just selling more GPUs: closer proximity to the developers determining whose models and infrastructure they will employ.

Related: Nvidia stock flashes unusual signal for investors 

The company is already the biggest source of open models and data on Hugging Face, with more than 500 models and 250 open datasets on the platform.

The deal might significantly enhance that connection.

But Nvidia is making a strange vow.

Hugging Face will remain accessible to rival processors, clouds, models, and frameworks, the business adds. No Nvidia hardware is needed to create or deploy using Hugging Face. The platform will continue to support other semiconductor suppliers, the SEC filing clearly indicates.

That’s important, since part of Hugging Face’s appeal is its neutrality.

Too much of a lean to Nvidia’s hardware might alienate the company from the developer community it just paid almost $13 billion to buy.

The broader potential may be more subtle: Keep Hugging Face open while making Nvidia’s tech easier and easier for those millions of developers to use.

Nvidia makes a $12.9 billion move that few investors saw coming.Bloomberg / Getty Images

Wall Street backs Nvidia’s massive AI bet

At least one Wall Street business isn’t backing away from Nvidia following the transaction.

Needham reiterated its Buy rating and $300 price target on Nvidia following the Hugging Face announcement. The rating is notable because Nvidia is spending heavily to acquire a company outside its traditional chip business.

More AI:

Nvidia just made a move Wall Street wasn’t ready for

Microsoft just took sides in AI policy fight

OpenAI just disclosed something genuinely alarming

Hugging Face was valued at $4.5 billion in 2023, according to Reuters, meaning the Nvidia deal values the company at almost three times that previous private valuation.

That premium implies that Nvidia sees strategic worth well beyond Hugging Face’s present financial profile.

It also comes as Nvidia confronts a long-term threat from some of its largest clients. Microsoft, Meta, and other tech firms are creating proprietary AI chips to save costs and lessen dependency on Nvidia GPUs. The deal might help Nvidia diversify its position as big clients create their own processors.

It also makes Hugging Face a viable hedge fund for you.

Nvidia would own a platform higher in the technology stack that touches millions of developers regardless of model, even if AI hardware becomes more competitive.

Nvidia’s $12.9 billion gamble goes far beyond chips

The real issue is, why does Nvidia need to possess Hugging Face in the first place?

Nvidia already dominates the market for strong AI accelerators. You acquire a hardware-agnostic development platform, and with that, you receive the risk of integration and the potential for customers to raise concerns about its neutrality.

But CEO Jensen Huang appears to be betting that the next phase of AI will not be won by merely building the fastest computers.

The open models allow corporations to customize AI without relying solely on proprietary systems from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. And as those models improve, the platforms where developers locate and deploy them may become more powerful.

Hugging Face is home to the developer community working on open models, and the infrastructure and technical expertise from Nvidia may improve its reliability, model validation, inference, and deployment capabilities, Huang added.

The strategic reasoning creates an interesting conundrum. Nvidia says it’s acquiring Hugging Face for $12.93 billion and tells developers they won’t need to use Nvidia hardware.

If such openness keeps Hugging Face’s massive developer community intact, Nvidia may not have to force anybody to use its technology. It only has to be the most obvious and appealing alternative for those developers when they finally require processing power.

It’s what makes this transaction more than just another AI deal. Nvidia already has a prime place at the bottom of the AI stack with its GPUs.

Now Huang is spending almost $13 billion for a seat considerably closer to the developers that determine what gets built on top of them.

Related: Nvidia’s $96 billion quarter revealed a surprising constraint

Operating a contract business with the federal government can require millions of dollars of capital investment to efficiently procure, store, and ship products.

The required capital investment can also require a contractor to secure debt to finance its operations. Contract businesses can quickly deteriorate once government agencies begin canceling contracts that provide contractors hundreds of millions of dollars.

Noble Supply & Logistics, which provides mission-critical, non-lethal military equipment and services to the U.S. military and its allies, files for bankruptcy.Olena Bartienieva / Getty Images

Noble Supply & Logistics files bankruptcy

Major U.S. Defense Department contractor Noble Supply & Logistics LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, facing financial distress after losing several lucrative defense contracts.

The Boston-based global supplier of mission -critical, non-lethal military equipment and services to the U.S. military and its allies filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Aug. 31, listing $100 million to $500 million in assets and $500 million to $1 billion in debts, including over $292 million in funded debt, according to court papers.

Contracts with government agencies

Noble Supply & Logistics, founded by Thomas W. Noble III in 2003, is the fifth largest prime vendor to the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency and also a partner of the General Services Administration, which manage the supply chain for the U.S. military, as well as certain federal and state agencies, including the FBI and U.S. State Department, according to a declaration by Chief Transformation Officer Robert Abergotti.

Noble’s contracts fall into two categories: High Touch Customer Solutions, representing 70% of the company’s business and Global Supply Chain Program representing the remaining 30%.

The High Touch portfolio of contracts involves over 100 multi-award contracts, providing customers with an indefinite quantity of supplies or services over a 1-10-year period without a specified order schedule or without minimum volume commitments.

Products supplied through Noble’s High Touch contracts include unmanned aerial vehicles, communications equipment, safety equipment, and tactical gear, according to court papers.

Noble’s Global Supply Chain contracts involve 12 single-award, five- or 10-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts through which Noble procures, warehouses and distributes products listed in the agreement.

Noble’s largest business line is its Defense & Federal Solutions, which provides tactical, survival, and support equipment and services to the Defense Department and other federal agencies, amounting to $674 million in revenue in 2025.

Agency won’t renew contract

The debtor incurred significant financial distress after the Defense Logistics Agency informed Noble in December 2024 that it wouldn’t renew its 10-year, $1.2 billion FSG-53 contract in June 2026, Noble’s largest single-award contract, to supply the agency with aerospace products, according to the declaration.

The agency also did not comply with contract closeout procedures and end of contract inventory buyback, leaving Noble with $70 million in inventory and purchase obligations that were meant to support the FSG-53 contract.

The Defense Logistics Agency subsequently informed Noble in March 2026 that it would not renew its Fire and Emergency Services Equipment contract, then sent additional notices of non-renewal for other critical contracts in May 2026, according to court papers.

Company issues WARN notices

Noble, which employs 294 workers at 19 locations, issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice on Aug. 10 after entering into a forbearance agreement with its lenders and facing a possible wind-down with limited financing or sale options available at the time.

The Defense Logistics Agency on Aug. 27 terminated $400 million of orders under a special operations equipment contract for tactical gear and safety equipment, which the debtor intends to appeal under the Contracts Disputes Act of 1978, the declaration said. The special operations equipment contract amounted to $630 million in revenue for Noble in 2025.

After considering its debt obligations and multiple contract cancellations, Noble decided that a Chapter 11 filing was the best opportunity to stabilize its operations and maximize the value of its assets, according to the declaration.

Related: 39-year-old major bullet manufacturer files Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Some corner offices come with a trapdoor.

You can spot them by the turnover. The pay is enormous, the mandate is obvious, and the person holding the job keeps disappearing between annual reports. Investors eventually learn to price in the exit before it arrives.

At Europe’s largest carmaker, the trapdoor has a name, and it is not China. It is not the electric vehicle transition, either, though both have done real damage to the balance sheet.

It is a 20-seat supervisory board where workers hold half the votes, alongside a German state that owns a fifth of the company and almost always sides with them.

Three chief executives have fallen through that trapdoor since 2006. Each one arrived promising to cut costs in Germany, and each one left before he could finish.

The diagnosis was never the problem. The votes were.

On Thursday, Sept. 3, the fourth one, CEO Oliver Blume, walked into the same room at Volkswagen (VLKAF), asked for the deepest restructuring in the company’s 89-year history, and walked out with a vote of 20 to nothing.

Why Volkswagen keeps losing chief executives to its own board

German co-determination law gives workers real votes in the boardroom, and nowhere is that power more concentrated than in Wolfsburg.

Half of Volkswagen’s supervisory board seats belong to employee representatives. The state of Lower Saxony holds roughly 20% of the company and two more seats, and its representatives typically vote with labor.

That arithmetic means any chief executive who wants to shrink the German footprint needs the consent of the people whose jobs he plans to shrink. It is a constraint BMW has managed to sidestep even while running its own redundancy program.

The record of what happens when a VW boss tries anyway is unusually consistent.

Bernd Pischetsrieder was pushed out in 2006 after losing the support of key stakeholders, including employee representatives, reported Bloomberg.

Matthias Müller, who steered the company through the aftermath of the 2015 diesel scandal, was ousted in 2018, according to Bloomberg.

Herbert Diess was replaced by Blume in 2022 after repeated clashes with the Works Council, a conflict that followed his private estimate that Volkswagen carried 30,000 excess staff in Germany, reported the Irish Times.

I covered the earlier phase of this fight when the plan was still a leak, and what struck me then was how little the numbers had changed across two decades of failed attempts.

Every VW chief since Pischetsrieder has arrived at roughly the same diagnosis. None of them got to write the prescription.

VW’s supervisory board approved 50,000 more job cuts and quietly loosened its own veto power.NurPhoto / Getty Images

What Blume gave up to get Future Plan 2030 approved

The version of the plan that reached the board on Sept. 3 was not the version Blume wanted in July.

Two concessions unlocked the vote. Management deferred the decision on four German plants rather than committing to close them, and it dropped a proposal to carve out Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Components, a structure labor argued would have diluted its influence, reported Bloomberg.

Talks ran through the night of Sept. 2 and into the following day before the board’s eight-member executive committee broke the deadlock.

Related: Volkswagen may cut 100,000 jobs in brutal reset

In exchange, Blume got almost everything else. Volkswagen will cut roughly 50,000 more positions, including management roles, on top of a similar number already in progress. It will shrink its model portfolio by about 50% by 2035 and cut offering complexity by around 75%.

It is targeting a 9% operating margin by 2030 on annual sales of about nine million vehicles, with €135 billion earmarked for capital spending and research between 2027 and 2031, according to Volkswagen.

The approval was “a strong signal for the future of the Volkswagen Group,” Blume said in the company statement.

General and Group Works Council Chair Daniela Cavallo framed it differently in the same release, arguing that job security and economic viability are not opposing goals but intertwined ones. Read alongside the concessions, that is a fair description of what labor actually won.

The governance change hiding inside the Volkswagen resolution

Here is the part that got almost no coverage, and the reason my read is that this vote matters well beyond the layoff math.

Tucked into the same resolution, the supervisory board agreed to limit its own reserved approval rights to measures of material significance for the group, with thresholds adjusted to align with standard DAX practice, according to Volkswagen.

In plain terms, the board that has spent 20 years second-guessing chief executives just voted to second-guess them less often.

More Automotive:

The failed Honda-Nissan merger just got a second life

EV maker’s biggest ever recall hits 27,000-plus sedans

Tesla just set a date for its riskiest launch yet

That is a structural change, not a one-time concession. It does not remove labor from the room, and it does not touch the 50% employee representation that makes Volkswagen unusual among global automakers. What it does is raise the bar for how big a decision has to be before the full board gets a veto.

For anyone holding the stock, that is the difference between a management team that can execute a five-year plan and one that has to relitigate it every quarter.

It matters outside the shareholder register, too. Volkswagen employs roughly 650,000 people worldwide, and the towns built around its German plants have spent two decades watching executives promise change and then vanish.

A board that intervenes less often is a board that lets decisions actually land, for better and for worse.

The market debate was never about whether the company had problems, one analyst noted. It was about “whether those challenges could realistically be addressed” inside that governance structure, said Deutsche Bank analyst Tim Rokossa in a note reported by Bloomberg.

What the unanimous Volkswagen vote still does not solve

Markets responded quickly. Volkswagen shares climbed as much as 10% in Frankfurt on Sept. 4 before settling back, and the broader European autos index rose 4.3%, reported Reuters. Even after that jump, the stock was still down more than 20% for the year.

That gap between the one-day pop and the year-to-date hole is the honest scoreboard here. The board vote fixed a political problem. It did not sell a single additional car in China, where the overall market has contracted by more than 20% this year as domestic rivals flood the segment with new models, reported the Associated Press.

Volkswagen has acknowledged that European capacity exceeds demand by more than 500,000 units, and it now has until the end of June 2027 to produce a workable production concept for Emden, Zwickau, Hanover, and Neckarsulm, according to Volkswagen.

The company has said those plants cannot be guaranteed competitive follow-on models between 2031 and 2034. Alternative uses under consideration reportedly include new industrial partners, potential buyers, and work outside carmaking entirely.

None of that is settled. The vote bought time and political cover, not savings.

“The ball is now entirely in the Executive Board’s court,” said Moritz Kronenberger of VW shareholder Union Investment, reported Reuters.

The thing worth watching is not the next round of job numbers. It is whether the four plants get a decision or another deferral when the June 2027 deadline arrives. Pischetsrieder, Müller, and Diess all won meetings, too.

What none of them ever won was the second vote.

Related: Luxury auto giant cuts 5,000 more jobs in major reset

TheStreet aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.

Why we love this deal

It never seems like there’s enough storage space in the home, and this is especially true when you have a smaller layout. You can find all kinds of furniture to address this issue, like farmhouse cabinets or a versatile set of drawers, but you’ll need the extra space to fit them, which is a precious commodity in cramped houses. On top of that, this purchase is going to be a bit of an investment, with the most basic cabinets and shelving units usually starting at around $50. Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule, like the Furinno Turn-N-Tube End Table, which is on sale for just $14 at Amazon.

The Furinno Turn-N-Tube End Table is a budget-friendly end table with two shelves to place your belongings and a pull-out bin that works as a built-in drawer nestled below the tabletop. Normally, the compact shelf retails for $26, which already makes it one of the most affordable side tables on the market. With a limited-time deal taking 46% off, you can score it for just $14, which is cheaper than my McDonald’s orders these days. You might think that with such a low price, the quality will be lacking, but that’s not the case, as over 5,000 shoppers have given it a perfect five-star rating.

Furinno Turn-N-Tube End Table, $14 (was $26) at Amazon

Courtesy of Amazon

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Why do shoppers love it?

Measuring 11.6 inches long, 15.5 inches wide, and 27.7 inches tall, this tall and narrow side table is well-suited for small spaces and tight corners. The tabletop is just the right size for placing an alarm clock or charging your tablet at night, and the lower shelf has ample room for journals and books. The selection that would be great in a living room or bedroom is lightweight and made of composite wood and plastic to keep the costs low, but it’s still plenty sturdy. Each shelf can hold 30 pounds, giving the table a maximum weight capacity of 60 pounds overall, so you don’t have to worry about loading it up too full. 

Related: Amazon has a tall 6-shelf farmhouse storage cabinet for just $95

My favorite feature of this piece is the pull-out storage bin, which looks just like a real drawer at first glance. It’s the ideal spot to put messy charging cords or small items, like chapstick, to keep the house from looking cluttered. The fabric bin has a rich leather tone, which pairs nicely with the wood-grain tabletop and black legs for a high-end look. One shopper wrote, “The little drawer and lower shelf provide all the bedside storage we needed, in such a compact little space.” The same reviewer also highlighted the tool-free assembly, writing, “It took mere moments to assemble, and they have an elevated look.”

Details to know 

Dimensions: 11.6 inches long, 15.5 inches wide, and 27.7 inches tall.

Color options: The side table is available in multiple colors, but only the espresso shade is on sale for $14.

Materials: Composite wood and plastic.

Is assembly required?: Yes.

The simple assembly process was frequently mentioned by shoppers. One reviewer, who raved, “They’ve added both function and style to my space,” explained that “the assembly was quick and easy — no tools needed, just a simple twist-and-turn process.”

Shop more deals

Wlive 3-Tier End Table with Charging Station, $36 (was $38) at Amazon

Homedawn Narrow Side Table, $21 (was $24) at Amazon

Simple Trending 2-Tier Side Table, $16 (was $19) at Amazon

If you want a budget-friendly end table, look no further than the Furinno Turn-N-Tube End Table at Amazon. Don’t miss your chance to score it for just $14 by adding it to your cart now.

Jim Cramer openly shares his opinions about various stocks, and on September 3, 2026, during an episode of CNBC’s Mad Money, he gave his two cents on Nuvation Bio (NUVB).

A caller asked about the surging biopharma name, and Cramer answered in five plain words: “This is a pure spec.”

That is short for pure speculation, which implies a stock that trades on what a drug might do someday, not on the money the company is making right now.

His warning came as the stock climbed on real news, which is exactly what makes Nuvation such a tricky call for investors.

Cramer has hosted Mad Money since 2005 and ran a hedge fund for years before that, so when he flags a stock as too risky for most people, it carries weight.

What Cramer means when he calls Nuvation Bio a pure spec

Cramer is not saying the clinical pipeline is bad. He is saying the stock has almost nothing steady underneath it yet.

Nuvation Bio is an early commercial-stage oncology company. It has one approved drug on the market, but most of its stock value still rests on pipeline drugs moving through trials rather than on steady profits.

Wall Street expects the company to post a net loss for the full year ending in December 2026, according to StockAnalysis. 

Until an approved drug generates large, steady sales, Nuvation leans on its cash to keep funding research.

That’s why it has the “pure spec” label. Good news can send the shares up, and a single bad trial result can cut them in half.

Nuvation Bio’s rise rests on cancer drugs still moving through trials and early sales.SOPA Images / Getty Images

The FDA win that has investors piling in

The optimism is not baseless. 

In August 2026, the FDA granted Fast Track Designation to Nuvation’s experimental brain cancer drug, Safusidenib, according to a press release.

Fast Track is a status the FDA gives drugs for serious diseases with few options, and it speeds up the review process. 

Safusidenib targets IDH1-mutant glioma, a brain tumor that’s hard to treat, and it is now in a crucial late-stage trial.

Related: Morgan Stanley uncovers major Bristol Myers stock signals

The company also has a drug already on the market. Its lung cancer pill, IBTROZI, became the most prescribed treatment of its kind for new patients over the first five months of 2026.

That early traction is why some analysts are far more upbeat than Cramer.

Why analysts see much more room to run than Cramer does

Wall Street’s price targets tell a very different story from the Mad Money warning.

The average 12-month target sits at $14.5, which points to roughly 113% upside from the stock’s recent price near $6.80.

More Biopharma Stocks:

JPMorgan sees 100% upside in overlooked cancer drug stock

FDA approves first broad RAS pancreatic cancer pill

Eli Lilly raises the stakes in $2.88 billion autoimmune buyout

Several firms have moved their targets higher after the company’s successful lung cancer drug launch and its recent brain cancer trial milestone. 

The gap between the analysts and Cramer comes down to time frame and risk tolerance.

Analysts are pricing in what could go right over the next year. Cramer is reminding investors what happens if the drug trials disappoint.

How investors can handle a stock like Nuvation

If you are tempted by the story, Cramer’s own rules offer a sensible guardrail.

He has long argued that a speculative bet should be a small part of your portfolio, money you could lose without wrecking your finances. 

The bulk of your savings belongs in diversified, lower-risk holdings.

Here are a few practical steps for investors:

Keep the position small, and treat it as a satellite holding rather than a core one.

Watch the cash runway in upcoming quarterly filings, since a company running low may issue new stock and dilute your shares.

Consider taking partial profits on big FDA-driven rallies instead of expecting the climb to last.

Nuvation Bio has real progress behind its rise. The catch is that clinical-stage biotech can reverse quickly, so the position size you choose matters as much as the stock you pick.

Related: Key HIV stat over 70% leaves BofA siding with Gilead

Few retail chains that filled malls in the 1980s and 1990s still exist today.

Teenage me could have shopped at Chess King for shiny shirts, visited Gadzooks for baggy pants, or gone a little classier and purchased dressier clothes at Structure. All of those chains were fairly, if not very, popular for a minute, and none of them exist now.

Former Tory Burch Chief Client Officer Francesca Danzi told Forbes that it’s a major challenge for a brand to remain relevant across decades.

“Enhancing retail experience is key and goes beyond adding omnichannel capabilities that boost convenience. We are witnessing the rise of experiential retail that is reshaping the store of the future,” she said.

Danzi does not see the so-called retail apocalypse as a crisis where stores are closing, but as an opportunity to right-size store portfolios.

“Actually, what I see is the continuous integration and convergence of physical stores, e-commerce websites and digital content/marketing platforms. Relevancy and personalization are key,” she added.

It’s a changing market that makes the ongoing survival of Gap Inc. impressive. The Gap, the company’s flagship brand, was a hip mall chain in the 1980s that maintained that status through the 1990s.

Now, the company has completed its process of closing 350 stores, but the company still faces a difficult cost equation.

The Gap delivers mixed results

“In the second quarter, while the company exceeded our profit expectations, we delivered a net sales decline of 2% with mixed performance on the top line across the portfolio. While not the revenue outcome we wanted, continued operational and financial rigor contributed to gross margin strength,” Gap CEO Richard Dickson said during the chain’s second-quarter earnings call.

The Gap brand was the clear standout.

“The Gap brand delivered another exceptional quarter with comparable sales increasing 10%, and Banana Republic continued to build momentum, posting its fifth consecutive quarter of positive comps. Athleta’s top line remained pressured, though we saw encouraging improvements in inventory productivity,” he added.

Old Navy, which was the company’s strength in the 2000s and 2010s when the chain’s namesake brand lagged, has been dragging the company down.

“At Old Navy, as we previewed on last quarter’s call, seasonal categories continued to weigh on performance. While we took actions to address this as the quarter progressed, we also experienced a slowdown in traffic, which led to a modest miss versus our expectations,” the CEO shared.

Gap needs to cut costs

In a process that began in 2020, Gap Inc. closed 220 Gap and 130 Banana Republic stores.

At the time, the company made it clear that it was mostly exiting mall stores in favor of cheaper strip malls, open-air city centers, and outlet malls.

“We’ve been overly reliant on low-productivity, high-rent stores,” former Gap brand CEO Mark Breitbard told Boston 25 News. “We’ve used the past six months to address the real estate issues and accelerate our shift to a true omni-model.”

The long-term goal was to reduce ROD, rent, occupancy, and depreciation, which are fixed or semi-fixed costs associated with store operations.

That strategy worked, according to CFO Katrina O’Connell, but more work remains to be done.

“We have previewed that ROD deleverages this year. It is a new dynamic for us. I think it represents 2 things. First of all, we’ve largely concluded closing our underperforming stores. The pace of the closures that we were doing when we were closing 350 stores had provided meaningful benefit to ROD,” she said.

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Now, the retailer has moved to opening stores, and that has created a negative when it comes to expenses.

“And now we’re modestly opening stores. So that does impact the ROD line as the closures abate, and we end up with not that ROD favorability,” she added.

Opening new stores, she noted, “does help us on the sales line,” but it leaves the company in a position where it needs to cut costs without the lever of being able to close high-cost, low-profit stores.

Old Navy, which used to carry the company, has been dragging it down, and that’s something the company has addressed with a leadership change.

The company appointed Michael Francis as Chief Executive Officer of Old Navy, effective November 2, 2026. Francis will succeed Haio Barbeito, who will transition from his operating role into an advisory capacity.

“As strategic advisor to Walmart’s C-suite and board for a decade, Francis supported the world’s largest retailer in growing nearly $200 billion in revenue through its evolution into an omni-channel, e-commerce, membership and advertising business,” the company shared in a press release.

Gap has been growing, but its Old Navy brand has struggled.Shutterstock

Gap reported mixed results

Gap Inc. saw its sales drop, but increased its profitability in the second quarter and returned $262 million of cash to shareholders in the form of share repurchases anddividends during the quarter.

Some financial highlights included:

Net sales of $3.7 billion were down 2% compared to last year. Comparable sales were down 1%.

Store sales decreased 3% compared to last year.

The company ended the quarter with nearly 3,500 store locations in about 35 countries, of which 2,471 were company-operated.

Online sales decreased 1% compared to last year and represented 35% of totalnet sales.

Adjusted net income was $190 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.52, excluding the net IEEPA tariff recovery and related interest income.

The Gap brand itself was the clear leader for the company.

“Second quarter net sales of $844 million were up 9% compared to last year. Comparable sales were up 10%, with the brand’s focus on big ideas and culturally relevant storytelling continuing to drive strong performance in destination categories including denim, fleece, and kids and baby,” the company shared.

Experts and analysts have mixed opinions on Gap

GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders acknowledged that Dickson has shifted the culture at the company.

“I stand by that view, mostly because I think it’s important to give due recognition to positive changes — especially in an area where a retailer has traditionally struggled. However, as I also mentioned, this is only one piece in the jigsaw puzzle of change that needs to occur for Gap to get back on track,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

He was, however, critical of the company’s merchandise after a visit to a local store.

“In menswear, the assortment is still incredibly bland. There is very little, if any, newness. None of the products are innovative. Few have those little twists or styling embellishments that make them ‘must-have’ items. Everything is just very flat,” he added.

Saunders made that assessment after visiting a Gap store previously, and his comments offer a useful counterpoint to the brand’s much stronger Q2 results.

Some analysts also remained concerned about the problems at Old Navy.

Ahead of the report, Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe downgraded Gap (GAP) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $23, down from $29, TipRanks reported.

“The firm is ‘increasingly concerned’ about softer trends at Old Navy, with its data pointing to higher promotions. Gap’s Q2 offers the easiest comparison of the year, yet trends have lagged, and the comps get tougher in the second half of the year, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Jefferies downgraded the shares to reflect its weakening survey metrics for Gap,” the website reported.

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Anyone who has renovated a house knows the trick contractors use on estimates. The plumbing and electrical get itemized down to the fitting, because those costs are already locked in.

The kitchen gets a vague range, because nobody has decided what it will cost yet, and a vague range usually means the biggest bill is still coming.

Japan’s $550 billion investment pact with the US is following the same logic, just with far more zeros attached.

The energy side of the deal arrived with company names, dollar figures, and construction sites already breaking ground, according to a White House fact sheet.

The chip and AI side has arrived with an adjective. For investors trying to get ahead of the next round, that gap between hard numbers and vague language is exactly what matters.

The energy money got names. The chip money got a mood.

Japan’s Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa told reporters in Washington on Friday, September 4 that talks on artificial intelligence and semiconductors will carry “very significant weight” in the pact’s next funding round, according to Bloomberg.

He declined to name which projects or companies were under discussion.

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That vagueness is conspicuous, because the pact’s earlier tranches were specific almost to a fault. The original framework earmarked up to $332 billion for nuclear and power projects tied to Westinghouse, GE Vernova, and Hitachi, according to Anadolu Agency.

It also set aside $25 billion for gas turbine equipment and another $25 billion for electrical substations built with Toshiba.

Chips got no comparable line item then. They still don’t have one now.

One thing did get resolved this week: both governments confirmed no additional tariffs would be added on top of last year’s 15% rate, according to Bloomberg. That removes a source of uncertainty for Japanese exporters, even as the far larger question of where chip money goes stays open.

The US and Japan continue to strengthen their economic alliance through a massive $550 billion investment pact targeting tech and energy.Wong Yu Liang / Getty Images

GE Vernova already cashed the check the pact wrote

GE Vernova and Hitachi are building small modular reactors in Tennessee and Alabama under the pact’s second tranche, a project the White House valued at up to $40 billion, according to Bloomberg. That location is not incidental.

Data centers near Huntsville have already strained the regional grid, exactly the kind of demand small reactors are designed to serve without drawing on residential capacity, according to NEI Magazine.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer has made a similar case, arguing GE Vernova profits from both sides of the AI power problem: gas turbines for demand that needs power now, and nuclear for demand still years away, according to CNBC.

The market has already noticed. GE Vernova shares gained 167% over the past 52 weeks, according to Barchart.

That run pushed the stock’s forward price-to-earnings ratio to more than three times the industry average.

A multiple that high means investors are already paying for years of growth that has not happened yet, which is exactly why the easy trade here is arguably behind us.

The chip money is waiting on a name

The ambiguity around Tranche 3 looks less like indecision and more like a placeholder.

Akazawa has previously told public broadcaster NHK that funding is not restricted to Japanese or American firms, and that a Taiwanese chipmaker building a US plant with Japanese components would qualify, according to Reuters. He stopped short of naming Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) directly.

The headline $550 billion figure is softer than it sounds, too. Equity investment covers only 1% to 2% of the total, with the rest structured as loans and guarantees through Japan’s state-backed lenders, according to Reuters.

That structure gives Tokyo room to delay naming a specific chip winner without technically breaking the agreement.

That delay serves as a strategic buffer, allowing Tokyo to navigate shifting U.S. political cycles, ensure fab construction timelines are locked, and avoid committing capital to a single foundry winner too early.

Tokyo Electron sits in a more interesting position because it does not need that name revealed to benefit. The company builds the etching, coating, and deposition tools used inside chip fabs regardless of whose logo ends up on the building, and it has kept developing equipment for several future manufacturing generations at once.

Tokyo Electron trades in the US as TOELY and TOELF, giving American investors direct exposure to Japan’s equipment supply chain without picking a single chipmaker’s outcome.

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What the sequencing itself is telling investors

The pattern across every tranche so far is identical: vague language first, specific dollar figures only once the politics are settled. Energy moved through that cycle in months.

Chips have been stuck in the adjective phase since at least February, when people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that a SoftBank-led data center project was already a finalist for early funding.

Together, GE Vernova and Tokyo Electron sketch out a power-to-processing chain running through this pact.

One supplies the electricity that AI infrastructure needs, and the other supplies the tools used to build the chips that electricity will run.

For investors, the immediate catalyst isn’t the final ribbon-cutting headline. It is watching upcoming quarterly equipment order backlogs and bilateral trade summit updates to identify which infrastructure and tool suppliers are quietly booking revenue while Tranche 3 works its way out of bureaucratic hold.

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Why we love this deal

Summer is on the way out, but fall will be here soon. And if you love spending time outdoors, it likely has you in the mood to refresh your yard for the cooler weather, whether it’s reviving patchy grass with a lawn mix or envisioning a new spot to lounge on crisp fall days. To achieve the latter, a new patio set can help create a lounge-worthy outdoor space that you’ll be able to enjoy all year long.

If you’re looking for a patio set under $100, Walmart has plenty of options to choose from. Our latest outdoor find is the Krofem 3-Piece Wicker Patio Set. Right now, this all-weather set is on sale for only $54, which is 33% off its original $80 price tag. Even at full price, the three-piece patio set is a steal. All the more reason to add it to your cart while it’s available at an even more affordable price.

Krofem 3-Piece Wicker Patio Set, $54 (was $80) at Walmart

Courtesy of Walmart

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Why do shoppers love it?

This three-piece patio set can make an outdoor space feel more like home. It can create a small seating area in a compact space, or cozy up a corner on a large deck with its two armchairs and a side table. Each piece has a powder-coated steel frame that’s wrapped in wicker rattan, complete with UV treatment and an all-weather design that can hold up in the spring and summer — rain or shine. While it’s a good practice to use a furniture cover during inclement weather, this budget-friendly patio set can keep up with the seasons. 

Each chair measures 22.7 inches long by 23.8 inches wide by 30.9 inches high, with a seat height of 16.5 inches. The chairs feature contoured backrests to support good posture, and they’re paired with comfortable seat cushions. The cushions themselves are thick and have removable waterproof covers that are easy to clean. 

The side table measures 16.1 inches long by 16.1 inches wide by 15.6 inches high. It has a stylish and durable tempered glass top that’s secured with suction bases to prevent it from sliding around. The tabletop is also easy to clean with a quick wipe with a damp cloth.

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Pros and cons

Pros 

Compact size: The three-piece set is perfect for small outdoor spaces, including small decks or apartment balconies.

All-weather design: Its powder-coated frame wrapped in wicker rattan is resistant to warping and made for the outdoors. The cushion covers are also removable and waterproof.

Easy assembly: Reviewers say it’s easy to put together, and it comes with a tool.

Cons

Limited colors: The set was available in only three colors.

Stationary: Plenty of shoppers love a stationary patio set, but we’ve seen a lot of readers take to rocking chair designs lately. If you’re into the relaxing feel of an outdoor rocking chair, this set might not be the one for you.

According to Walmart shoppers, this patio set was very easy to assemble, which isn’t always the case with furniture. One shopper also said it provides a lot of comfort for the price, while another reviewer loved it so much that they plan on ordering more.

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Lofka 3-Piece Rocking Chair Patio Set, $66 (was $103) at Walmart

If you’ve been waiting for an outdoor deal that will help you cozy up your outdoor space and save you money, the Krofem 3-Piece Wicker Patio Set is an excellent choice. On sale for just $54 at Walmart, you’ll get a stylish and durable set at an affordable price.