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Juan Hernandez, who now works as a welder at Jeff Bezos-owned rival Blue Origin, is one of more than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees who became millionaires on paper when the company went public. When SpaceX hired Juan Hernandez as a welder in 2015, the company offered him $10,000 in stock alongside his $28-an-hour wage. He accepted the equity without giving it much thought, since none of his previous hourly positions had included company shares, Hernandez told CBS News.SpaceX priced its initial public offering at $135 per share ahead of the Nasdaq debut, valuing Hernandez’s 6,500 shares at roughly $880,000 at the offer price, Fortune reported. The offering raised $75 billion at an implied valuation of approximately $1.77 trillion, according to Nasdaq, and became the largest initial public offering in history, nearly tripling the previous global record set by Saudi Aramco’s $25.6 billion listing in 2019.However, the celebration has come with details that most headlines overlooked, and the reality of the windfall is more complex. Shares have dropped roughly 35% from their post-debut peak, and lockup agreements prevent most employees from selling their stock for months. SpaceX created thousands of employee millionaires from the factory floor to the C-suiteThe scale of wealth creation across SpaceX’s workforce makes this listing unusual among technology IPOs, which typically reward only executives and software engineers, Fortune reported. An analysis by Hill.com, a San Francisco-based investment platform, found that about 400 employees are expected to hold stakes exceeding $100 million, the New York Times reported.Ruchir Shah, CEO of SkillCat, an online skilled trades training startup, told Fortune that SpaceX is exposing a broader truth about the future economy, where some of the hardest-to-automate and hardest-to-fill roles sit in the physical world.If you think about it, these are some of the most critical people for SpaceX to grow. It’s just as hard to find good welders and good machinists as it is a software developer, if not harder because if there’s a massive shortage, so it makes sense that they were given equityThe new millionaires include welders, machinists, technicians, and manufacturing workers who built rockets and launchpad structures for years before the listing, Fortune reported. According to the SpaceX prospectus, the company distributed equity through stock option grants at hiring and promotion milestones, annual performance awards, and an employee stock purchase plan.Twice-yearly liquidity events also let employees sell portions of their holdings even while the company remained private, a former employee told the Next Web. Those periodic selling windows gave long-tenured staff an early signal of the wealth their accumulated equity could generate on open markets.SpaceX shares have dropped roughly 35% from their post-listing peakThe stock’s price trajectory since the first trading day illustrates why a brokerage account balance and a bank account balance are very different things. SpaceX shares opened at $150 on June 12, surged to an intraday high of $225.64 on June 16, and then trended lower through late June and early July, hitting an all-time low of $145.07 on July 10, according to TradingView data.More SpaceX:Elon Musk sets SpaceX IPO price in blunt message to Wall StreetVeteran hedge fund manager makes a brazen SpaceX betFranklin Templeton CEO sends strong message on SpaceXFor Hernandez, whose 6,500 shares were worth about $1.05 million at the $160.95 first-day close according to CBS News, that decline would cut his holdings to roughly $942,500 at the $145.07 low.Lockup restrictions add another layer of friction for employees hoping to convert paper gains into spendable cash. SpaceX’s prospectus allows most insiders to sell up to 20% of their holdings after the first quarterly earnings report, expected August 6, Fortune reported. An additional 7% unlocks at each of the 70-, 90-, 105-, 120-, and 135-day marks, with a further 28% released after the third-quarter earnings report and the remaining restrictions lifting at day 180, the SpaceX prospectus showed. 

SpaceX shares have plunged 35% since their post-debut peak, shrinking employee paper wealth while lockup rules delay access to cash gains.Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Why SpaceX millionaires may not stay that wayOn Hernandez’s 6,500 shares alone, the drop from $225.64 to $145.07 wiped out roughly $524,000 in paper wealth in under a month. Jason Schloetzer, an associate professor of accounting at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, cautioned against reading SpaceX as a blueprint for blue-collar wealth creation.“This is largely venture-backed compensation attached to a company that happens to build rockets,” Schloetzer told Fortune.He noted that many employees accumulated shares through the company’s stock purchase plan, buying discounted equity with their paycheck deductions rather than receiving free grants. That structure shifts financial risk from the employer to the employee, replacing the guaranteed pensions and profit-sharing arrangements that once protected industrial workers, Schloetzer explained in the Fortune interview.SpaceX stock represents up to 90% of many employees’ total net worth, Jamie Battmer, chief investment officer at Creative Planning, told CNBC, creating substantial downside exposure in a single volatile holding.Morningstar equity analyst Nicolas Owens added a further layer of concern, placing SpaceX’s fair value at $63 per share, roughly 53% below the offering price.“Our valuation is the result of mathematics more than skepticism,” Owens wrote in the firm’s analysis of SpaceX’s financial outlook and IPO pricing.Newly wealthy SpaceX employees are reshaping the wealth management industryThe sudden flood of liquid wealth has pushed more than 100 SpaceX employees to band together and negotiate discounted advisory services as a group. That collective, representing between $1 billion and $5 billion in combined assets, signed with registered investment advisor Choreo at fees starting at 0.5%, CNBC reported. The fee falls below the industry standard range, giving the group a meaningful cost advantage over individual advisory relationships.Jason Van de Loo, Choreo’s chief executive officer, told CNBC that most investors spend decades building wealth, but SpaceX employees received theirs virtually overnight. He compared the windfall’s speed to receiving a large inheritance, noting the difficulty of processing so many financial decisions at once.Private banks, trust companies, and independent advisors have dispatched teams to California, Texas, and Florida to court the newly wealthy employees, CNBC noted.Related: SpaceX investors may be ignoring troubling trend

Spectrum, which is owned by Charter Communications, has decided to make another significant workforce change as it continues to battle mounting customer losses in its cable TV and internet business.Charter revealed in its latest earnings report that Spectrum lost 120,000 internet customers and 60,000 cable TV customers in the first quarter of this year. Amid these losses, the company’s revenue dipped by 1% year over year.The decline in customers comes after Spectrum increased the monthly prices of its TV Select packages by $5 and several older internet plans by $2 in July last year. On social media platform Reddit, customers have also flagged what they see as stealthy price hikes for Spectrum’s internet service this year.“The operating environment for new sales, in particular internet, continues to be competitive,” Charter Chief Financial Officer Jessica Fischer said during an earnings call in April.She also said Charter is betting on its $34.5 billion acquisition of Cox Communications, which received approval from the Federal Communications Commission in February, to help repair its business. The acquisition will enable Charter to invest billions of dollars in upgrading and expanding Spectrum’s network nationwide. Spectrum suffers another round of layoffsAs Charter works to reverse Spectrum’s customer losses, it continues to cut jobs, with its latest round affecting hundreds of employees.In a WARN notice filed on July 8, Charter announced its decision to “discontinue the operation of its network operations center” in Town and Country, Missouri, resulting in the layoff of 107 Spectrum employees. According to a recent report from Fox 2, the center is a regional office for Spectrum’s business, finance and corporate support teams. Also, Spectrum clarified to the news outlet that the office building is not closing entirely, as teams not affected by the layoffs will continue working at that location. The layoffs will officially take place on Sept. 8 and will primarily affect employees and managers in network engineering operations. To lessen the blow of the job cuts, Spectrum is outsourcing back-office roles to manage remote network monitoring. It will also offer laid-off employees a comparable role in the St. Louis area for at least the next eight months.Related: Spectrum suffers heavy loss as customers ditch serviceThe latest round of layoffs comes after Spectrum closed its call center facility in Appleton, Wisconsin, in March, which resulted in 313 employees losing their jobs. Back in October, Spectrum also reportedly laid off 1,200 workers, reducing its workforce by about 1%. Corporate employees and those who work in back-office functions across the country were impacted by this move. Spectrum’s recent layoffs come as Charter is aggressively investing in artificial intelligence to reduce its $8 billion in annual operational service costs.In November, it even entered a partnership with Amazon Web Services to deploy AI across its business to transform operations and software development capabilities.Charter CEO Christopher Winfrey said during the earnings call in April that the company’s new AI tools are so far yielding positive results across its business. “We have deployed new AI tools, now used by our service agents, driving higher customer satisfaction and reducing call times with higher job satisfaction for our employees as well,” said Winfrey. 

Spectrum faces another round of job cuts, affecting 107 employees.jetcityimage / Getty Images

Spectrum’s layoffs reflect a broader telecom workforce shiftSpectrum isn’t the only telecommunications company that has cut jobs this year. T-Mobile quietly conducted layoffs in January, March, and April, impacting workers in several departments such as consumer and retail, sales, end-user support, and product. Verizon also eliminated hundreds of jobs nationwide in May, impacting less than 1% of its global workforce, according to a Business Insider report. In June, AT&T employees took to social media platform Reddit to reveal that the company had also quietly axed jobs across multiple departments. According to recent data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, tech layoffs are on the rise as more companies invest in AI.More Telecom News:T-Mobile warns customers that a key service will double in priceVerizon adds generous offers for customers after price increaseSpectrum suffers heavy loss as customers ditch serviceIn June, the tech industry announced 15,503 job cuts, the most of any sector. So far in 2026, the tech industry has announced 139,156 layoffs, up 83% from the 76,214 cuts announced in the sector through June 2025. “Tech remains the epicenter of this year’s cuts,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, in a press release. “AI is the dominant force as companies are restructuring around it, automating roles, and reallocating budgets toward new capabilities. The sector is being reshaped in real time.”In the telecom sector specifically, 2,269 layoffs have been announced so far this year. In a report from Mobile Europe in May, Matt Walker, chief analyst at MTN Consulting, said that as global telecom revenues remain flat, the industry’s top companies are “shifting from unrealistic growth targets to aggressive cost control” and using AI as an excuse to cut jobs. He warned that this move comes with several consequences. “Indiscriminate cuts can erode morale, institutional knowledge, service quality, and brand equity, hurting long-term profitability,” said Walker. “Telcos that rush to cut staff in response to AI may also create talent gaps that increase cybersecurity risk, churn, and lost innovation.”Related: Comcast launches new service to win back internet customers

Oracle’s annual filing cited AI adoption among the drivers of 21,000 job cuts in fiscal 2026. Snap cut 1,000 people and the CEO said rapid AI advances meant a smaller team could do the same work. At college graduation ceremonies this spring, speakers who brought up AI got booed.By May, Challenger, Gray and Christmas found AI was the primary reason cited for nearly 40% of U.S. job cuts. In January it was 7%. Mark Cuban had been watching this play out and posted on X. It drew nearly 2 million views.What Mark Cuban said AI companies owe workers and communitiesThe post, covered by Fortune within hours of going up, was blunt. Cuban said major AI companies have already lost the public relations battle. They keep talking about the technology and ignoring the people most threatened by it. He told them what to do: go to the towns losing jobs and ask what they need.”Billions of dollars is a lot of money across towns and city programs. Across the major LLMs, it’s a cost of doing business,” he wrote on X.”One thing I have learned is being hated is not good for business,” he wrote, adding that big AI companies “all suck at putting people first.”More Layoffs:JPMorgan Chase pushes fraud division layoffs, despite rising revenuesAnother major fintech firm cutting 10% of its workforceReal estate tech firm exits key hub, cuts 100s of jobsHe told companies to skip the celebrities and stop buying politicians. Neither works, he said. Instead, go to working artists and creative unions in Los Angeles and New York, not the studios, and ask directly what financial and creative support would look like. Then actually do it.”Given the number of data centers and power that is needed, today and going forward, if you don’t kiss the asses of the people that go to work every day, and are just trying to pay their bills, you will fall far far short of the capacity you need to make your business work,” he wrote.Why Cuban says data center protests are really about something else”It’s time for everyone to realize that the fight against data centers has nothing to do with data centers. They have become a proxy for the hate towards AI and the concentration and accumulation of wealth it’s creating,” Cuban wrote.At least 75 data center projects worth roughly $130 billion were blocked or delayed in Q1 2026 alone, the worst quarter on record, according to Benzinga.A Gallup survey from May found 71% of Americans oppose AI data centers near their communities. Nearly half strongly oppose them. Residents cited power use, water consumption, noise, and rising utility bills.Residents aren’t fighting the buildings. They’re fighting what the buildings represent: AI wealth concentrating at the top while their jobs disappear.

At least 16 U.S. companies have announced layoffs citing AI redundancies in 2026Andrey/Getty Images

The AI job loss numbers Cuban is pointing toAt least 16 U.S. companies have announced layoffs citing AI redundancies in 2026, including Snap, Cisco, and Coinbase, as TheStreet reported. AI went from 7% of cited layoff reasons in January to 10% in February, 25% in March, 26% in April, and nearly 40% in May.”AI is now the leading reason companies give for cutting jobs,” said Andy Challenger of Challenger, Gray and Christmas.The same morning Cuban’s post went up, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman published a multipart Substack critique of the AI industry, concluding the backlash is not “normal skepticism about change.” Cuban himself thinks AI will produce net job gains eventually. He just doesn’t think companies get to say that while doing nothing for workers losing jobs right now.Why blocked data centers are becoming an AI industry business problemPew Research found 71% of Americans thought tech companies had a positive impact in 2015. By 2022 that had broadly reversed after years of social media controversies, privacy scandals, and frustration over concentrated wealth. AI is inheriting all of that.Seventy-five blocked data center projects in a single quarter is a capacity problem, not just a narrative one. If communities keep saying no, the infrastructure buildout that underpins most AI growth projections slows down. The Q1 numbers show it’s already happening.Cuban’s case is that community spending solves it. Companies that fund local programs and actually show up in the towns being disrupted face fewer permitting fights and cleaner expansion paths. The ones still spending on politicians and celebrities keep hitting the same wall, and the wall keeps getting bigger.Related: Mark Cuban has strong words on minimum wage and employers

Reddit (RDDT) is generally considered a social-media stock.That may understate the opportunity.Reddit won social media ad share in the second quarter, bolstered by contextual targeting, a high-intent audience, and incremental reach, Jefferies underlined. But the hidden investor implication is wider than just a few advertisers moving dollars. Reddit may be constructing something like a search-ad business inside of a social platform.That’s key: Search dollars follow purpose. Advertisers pay more when users are studying, comparing, or getting ready to buy, and Reddit’s forums have plenty of those moments.The next test is upon us. Reddit said it will report second-quarter results after the market closes on July 30, giving investors a fresh look at whether agency momentum is becoming revenue growth.“Reddit is a one-of-one business powered by deeply engaged communities and authentic human conversation,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in the company’s first-quarter earnings release.Reddit’s ad gains are really about intentDigital advertising has always rewarded scale. That’s why you hear so much about Meta Platforms, Google, and TikTok dominating the ad-market chatter. They have reach, data, automation, and the ability to absorb giant budgets.Reddit’s angle is different. The company is not just suggesting it can reach a wide audience. It says it can reach people when they’re asking inquiries, comparing items, reading reviews, and searching for actual human responses.That is why the checks from the Jefferies agency are important.Jefferies noted that agencies saw greater digital ad growth in the second quarter, with Reddit being mentioned as a platform taking more social-media expenditure. Agencies cited contextual targeting, high-intent audiences, and incremental reach as reasons why advertisers were shifting funds to Reddit.That’s a stronger narrative than just gains from ad-share. Reddit isn’t just fighting for social dollars; it is also gaining intentional users, and advertisers are buying Reddit because of that. It is also heading toward the performance rationale that makes search such a compelling advertising vehicle.Related: Google gives Reddit surprising tailwindReddit’s own metrics are drawing investors’ attention. Revenue jumped 69% to $663 million in the first quarter, the business reported, with ad revenue up 74% to $625 million. Daily active uniques jumped 17% to 126.8 million, and adjusted EBITDA rose 131% to $266 million.Those numbers are significant because Reddit is still figuring out who it is as a public company.A social platform can attract investor interest with the right user growth. A social platform that can demonstrate fast ad growth, good gross margins, and expanding free cash flow can begin to have a new valuation conversation.Reddit’s gross margin was 91.5% in the first quarter, compared with 90.5% a year earlier, the business said. It produced $312 million in operating cash flow as well, a 145% year-over-year increase.That puts the stock in a better position heading into earnings.The question isn’t just whether Reddit is growing. It’s whether Reddit is becoming a more efficient ad platform and whether advertisers are on the hunt for new areas to discover intent.Reddit’s tools aim to turn conversations into conversionsReddit’s advertising opportunity has always had one huge drawback. Advertisers may love the audience, but performance budgets need proof.That’s why the company’s updated ad tools matter. Reddit needs to make its messy, human conversations easier to buy, easier to measure, and easier to tie to sales.In May, Reddit said its native Shopify integration became widely available to global advertisers. The integration enables merchants to connect Reddit Ads accounts to Shopify storefronts, configure a codeless Reddit Pixel, and automatically synchronize product catalogs, including images, live pricing, descriptions, and inventory levels.It seems complicated, but the investor’s point is easy.If Reddit is serious about higher ad budgets, it can’t just count on brand campaigns or experimental spends. It requires technologies that help advertisers swiftly begin ads and measure if Reddit users become customers.More Social Media:Meta launches smart glasses cheaper than Ray-BanMark Zuckerberg admits mistakes in leaked memo after Meta layoffsMark Zuckerberg and Meta face first tough test after layoffsReddit’s move into Shopify gives the company a more direct line into retail and e-commerce spending.A TransUnion study indicated that performance results on Reddit in North America produced more than two times the incremental return on ad expenditure versus the media-plan average, the business said. Reddit also referenced studies that show users are 62% more inclined than the average American to shop daily.Investors should be wary of marketing data published by companies.But those indicators are part of the reason why agency checks matter to Jefferies. It’s not only that Reddit has communities, but also that those communities might be valuable commercially, and that’s why advertisers seem to be testing it.Reddit has also been implementing automation. Its MAX campaigns automate targeting, creative selection, placements, and budget allocation. Early testers witnessed a 17% drop in cost per acquisition and a 27% increase in conversions, on average, versus business-as-usual ads, Reddit stated.And that’s important because Meta and Google trained marketers to anticipate automation.Reddit does not need to mimic those companies exactly. It must demonstrate that its community data and discussion context can add value to automation.This is the actual test of the ad platform: Can Reddit turn the intent that users are already showing in communities into a repeatable performance for advertisers?

Reddit may be turning conversations into ad dollars.Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Reddit’s next test is search-budget credibilityThe most relevant portion of the Jefferies readout might not be social media ad share but search.Agencies are keen to test Reddit’s search advertising product, anticipated later this year or early next year, Investing.com said. The tool will enable Reddit to access funds set aside for performance and search objectives while improving targeting and brand safety.That’s the bull case brief.Search advertising is powerful because users tell us what they want. They enter the product, inquiry, comparison, or problem into a search box.Reddit has its own interpretation of the signal. Users ask other users what to buy, what to avoid, which product is better, which service is worth the money, and how to handle certain difficulties. This is not a standard search but can have a comparable commercial motive.Reddit also markets itself to advertisers as a place to “reach people ready to buy,” saying it has well over 490 million weekly visitors and calling itself the “No. 1 platform for product conversations.”And that is why the search-ad opportunity matters.If Reddit can package community intent as a commodity marketers trust, it may compete for budgets that are more valuable than conventional social media awareness campaigns.Key takeaways for Reddit investorsJefferies says Reddit gained social-media ad share in the second quarter.The bigger implication is that advertisers may see search-like intent inside Reddit communities.Reddit’s first-quarter ad revenue rose 74% year over year to $625 million.Shopify integration and Dynamic Product Ads could help Reddit win more performance budgets.Max campaigns show Reddit is building automation tools advertisers already expect.Reddit’s July 30 earnings report will test whether agency interest is showing up in revenue.Those findings give a more sober view of advertising.Reddit is no longer merely selling itself as a place where communities congregate. It’s attempting to make those communities measurable for advertisers.It provides opportunity, but also increases the bar. Advertisers can try just about anything once. The question is whether Reddit can transform those tests into repeatable budgets.That will mean improved measurement, more automation, more robust brand safety tools, and confirmation that advertisers can drive performance at scale.Agencies are interested, the Jefferies note says. If that interest is translating into a sustainable business trend, the earnings report will tell us.Reddit’s ad edge still has to prove it can scaleThe best thing about Reddit is also the worst thing about Reddit.The platform is based on human speech. That’s why users trust it and advertisers get distinct intent signals.And it’s also why Reddit has to do more to convince companies that advertisements will show in the correct context than cleaner, more controlled platforms.And here starts the next chapter of the story.If Reddit can make community-driven ad inventory easier to acquire, easier to measure, and safer for sponsors, the firm might continue to take share from platforms that feel more saturated.If it can’t, the Jefferies agency checks may turn out to be nothing more than an early flash of enthusiasm and not a durable shift.The official numbers allow Reddit an opportunity to make the bull argument. Revenue is growing quickly. Ad revenue is outpacing total revenue. Profitability has improved. Shopify integration and Max campaigns show management is building tools advertisers need.But investors should not confuse a promising setting for a finished story.The next question is whether Reddit can transition from an experimental line item on media plans to a core performance channel. That’s why this tale is relevant for regular investors.Reddit’s chance may not just be about snatching social media bucks from LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, or X.The real prize is search-like purpose. If Reddit can land that amount, its ad business could be stronger than the market thinks.Related: Reddit CEO delivers bold warning to Google and OpenAI

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 dealGetting around town doesn’t always require getting behind the wheel. For many people, finding alternatives can offer a practical and affordable solution that not only saves on gas but can also save on time finding parking spots in town. An electric scooter offers a functional way to shorten a daily commute, travel across a college campus, run errands, or cover the distance between public transportation stops without having to lug a bike around. It’s also a fun option for weekend rides through the neighborhood, trips to the local coffee shop, or an easy way to get to the neighborhood pool. Compared to driving, a compact scooter is easier to store, quicker to park, and convenient to bring along while traveling, especially for short trips down the street that are a bit too far to walk but still too close to drive. For commuters and recreational riders, having a portable form of transportation can save time while making everyday travel a bit more flexible. If this type of easy and convenient transportation sounds like a good fit for you, the Aovowheel Electric Scooter is a useful choice. With a portable, folding design and Bluetooth features, it’s the perfect option to cruise around town. This scooter is on sale at Amazon for just $160, plus $10 shipping, saving shoppers 41% off the original price.Aovowheel Electric Scooter, $160 (was $270) at Amazon

Courtesy of Amazon

Shop at AmazonWhy do shoppers love it?With a top speed of 19 miles per hour, this scooter is a solid option to get around town or the neighborhood. It can handle inclines of 20 degrees and uses a high-capacity battery that can be recharged in about four hours. Designed for adults, it can support up to 265 pounds and has a UL2272 certification, which ensures the device’s electrical system can withstand extreme conditions and heightens safety. It also combines a dual-braking system with front electronic brakes and rear drum brakes that provide solid and dependable stopping power. The bright headlight and taillight improve visibility, while the dual suspension systems help absorb bumps along the road. The 8.5-inch tires are designed to provide an easy ride without worrying about maintenance, as they are solid instead of air-filled tires.Related: Amazon’s bestselling electric scooter is on sale for only $160Tons of features are accessible via the Vicont app, offering smart technology cruise control, riding modes, speed limit setting, and more, although the scooter can be used without the app, too. It also features an LCD display that shows speed, battery level, and distance traveled. With the foldable design, this scooter is super convenient and offers an easy alternative to driving. It’s easy to throw into the back of the trunk for traveling to bigger cities, where parking may be limited upon arrival, and it makes a great addition to keep in your car in case of an emergency, like running out of gas. The pros and cons of this electric scooterProsSpeedy: The motor reaches a speed of up to 19 miles per hour, allowing you to get around town quickly. Super portable: This scooter offers a convenient foldable design and weighs about 30 pounds.Cons Some smart features require an app: Although the scooter works without it, some features are only accessible with the Vicont app that needs to be paired with the scooter.The solid tires offer a firmer ride: Because the tires are not inflatable, they do not absorb road bumps as well.One reviewer said, “I’ve been using this scooter for about a month now, and I’ve only needed to charge it for the second time. I ride around 30 minutes a week, and the battery life has been much better than I expected. The ride feels smooth, and it has been reliable for my daily use.”Shop more dealsAyolny Electric Scooter, $200 (was $240) at AmazonVolpam Electric Scooter, $140 (was $220) at AmazonVie Velo Scooter and Bike Lock, $12 (was $15) at AmazonWhether you’re looking into getting an electric scooter for fun, for travel, or for emergencies, the Aovowheel Electric Scooter offers affordable convenience, ease, and portability. The folding design allows you to keep it in your car or take it on the bus, and the four-hour charge time is easy during the workday or overnight. At 41% off, this is a fantastic deal for an electric scooter. Shoppers pay just $160 plus $10 shipping and get to save on gas.

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 dealFew watchmakers are as widely known or respected as Citizen. The famed Japanese brand has been making high-quality watches for over a century, and we expect it will be doing so for the next one as well. One of its most technologically advanced models is currently on sale at Amazon, and we think it’s worth checking out. However, deals on luxury items like this one usually go fast, so we wouldn’t recommend taking too much time.The Citizen Promaster Sea Eco-Drive Watch is available for only $290 at the moment. That’s 39% off the original price of $475. Even at the regular price, this watch is an amazing deal, so slashing it so significantly makes it an absolute marvel.Citizen Promaster Sea Eco-Drive Watch, $290 (was $475) at Amazon

Courtesy of Amazon

Shop at AmazonWhy do shoppers love it?As referenced above, the Promaster Sea is a high-tech timepiece that takes watchmaking to the next level. It’s powered by the legendary Citizen Eco-Drive movement, which is quite unlike anything else on the market. Most commercially produced watches operate either through a series of mechanical gears that must be wound or a lithium-ion battery that requires regular changing. The Eco-Drive movement collects sunlight through small solar panels hidden underneath the dial and releases it throughout the day with ticks of the watch. The rechargeable battery inside never needs to be changed for the life of the watch.While the inside of the watch is indeed impressive, the outside is exquisite. The case and bracelet are made from 316L stainless steel. It’s durable and rustproof, making it the perfect watch for fun in the sun. Add to that an impressive 200 meters of water resistance, and you have a piece that you can swim with, making it the ultimate go anywhere, do anything watch. A unidirectional rotating dive bezel adds to its dive watch DNA and allows you to keep tabs on your dive time, or anything else you wish to track. It also has a case diameter of 44 millimeters, which makes the watch highly legible underwater.With so many world-beating tech specs under its belt, you might not expect it to be much of a looker. Nothing could be further from the truth. A matching deep blue dial and bezel insert mimic the color of the deep blue sea, and applied geometric hour markers surround the outside of the dial. The hour markers and handset have generous amounts of luminescent coating, making the watch easy to read in low-light conditions. A small date window at the three o’clock position is the perfect cherry on top of this lovely little sundae. It’s available in three colorways as well.Related: Citizen slashed the price of its luxury watch to only $107 at AmazonDetails to knowMaterials: 316L stainless steel case and bracelet.Case diameter: 44 millimeters.Water resistance: 200 meters.Movement: Citizen solar-powered Eco-Drive movement.Colorways: Three variants.Amazon shoppers were very excited about this watch. One praised its “excellent quality and value,” before adding, “I absolutely love the way it looks and feels…This is a superior watch to many of the high-end dive watches on the market that command premium prices.”Shop more deals Citizen Classic Eco-Drive Sports Watch, $222 at AmazonCitizen Eco-Drive Weekender Brycen Watch, $425 at AmazonThe Citizen Promaster Sea Eco-Drive Watch may be your best chance for a luxury watch at an affordable price. Currently, it will only cost you $290, but that may not be true for long. Time is ticking on this deal, and you’ve already done the deep dive on its specs. Now all that’s left to do is click the buy button.

Drug trials fail all the time. What is rare is a failure that costs a company tens of billions of dollars in a single afternoon.That is what happened to AstraZeneca (AZN) on July 9. One setback wiped out more market value than the stock had lost on any day in years.For investors, the loss was alarming. But the reason behind the loss was even more concerning. Wall Street had been counting on this drug to become a major seller, and that trial failure took those hopes off the table in one afternoon.What AstraZeneca’s trial failure means for the stockAstraZeneca shares fell after the company said its experimental heart drug Wainua failed the main goal of a late-stage trial, Reuters reported. The London-listed stock closed down about 7.7%, its worst single day since March 2020 and the biggest drop on the FTSE 100 on Thursday, July 9.More Health Care Stocks:BridgeBio stock jumps after rival heart drug fails key trialJPMorgan resets Eli Lilly stock target on drug demandJPMorgan resets UnitedHealth stock target for 2026At its lowest point of the day, the drugmaker had shed roughly £19 billion (about $27 billion) in market value, according to Reuters’ report. The drop stands out because AstraZeneca is usually one of Europe’s steadier large-cap names, not a stock that swings like a small company.

AstraZeneca shares suffered their worst single day since 2020 after a key heart-drug trial failed.Robert Way / Getty Images

Why the Wainua heart trial disappointed investorsWainua, known generically as eplontersen, is a gene-silencing drug that AstraZeneca co-developed with Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS), Reuters reports. The Phase III trial tested it in a heart condition called ATTR-CM, where a faulty protein builds up in the heart and makes it harder to pump blood.The study, called CARDIO-TTRansform, did not meet its primary goal. Adding Wainua to standard care did not significantly cut cardiovascular deaths and repeat heart events over 140 weeks compared with a placebo.How the trial design blurred the resultAnalysts pointed to the trial setup. About 57% of the 1,432 patients were already on a stabilizer drug at enrollment, and roughly another quarter added one during the study.Because Wainua works by lowering the faulty protein rather than stabilizing it, that overlap made it hard to isolate the drug’s added benefit. Related: Eli Lilly’s hottest drugs face a quiet new threatIn patients taking Wainua alone, the company said the result looked better, though that subgroup cannot rescue a missed main goal.How rivals and Ionis partners reacted to the newsThe failure did not affect only AstraZeneca. Ionis shares fell about 21%, while companies with approved treatments for the same disease climbed, PharmExec reported.BridgeBio (BBIO) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), which already sell ATTR-CM drugs, rose between 6% and 16% as investors saw a less crowded market ahead.The setback reduced prospects for a drug that analysts had estimated could reach about $2 billion in peak annual sales. The failure removed those expected future sales from valuation models, which is a big part of why the stock fell so hard.Why the AstraZeneca selloff was bigger than one drugThe lost revenue alone does not fully explain a move this size. The deeper issue was confidence.BofA analyst Sachin Jain said the miss came as a surprise, noting that he and other investors had not even debated the odds of a primary endpoint failure given the positive earlier data, PharmExec noted. Jefferies analysts called the trial design a possible credibility problem for a management team known for getting trials right.For a company that investors treat as a gold standard on trial design, a surprise failure affects trust in future readouts, even ones in unrelated areas.What AstraZeneca investors should watch nextThe setback is real, but it does not erase the rest of AstraZeneca’s business. A few things are worth tracking:Key signals for AstraZeneca stock from hereFull trial data at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in August, which may show whether the monotherapy signal holds up.The July 27 second-quarter earnings report, and whether management touches full-year guidance.Wainua’s existing approval for a nerve-damage condition in more than 20 countries, which is unaffected by this trial.Broker views on the wider pipeline, with Citi still citing about $46 billion in risk-adjusted peak pipeline sales.No single trial defines a company this large, yet a surprise failure is a reminder that even strong drugmakers can fail in drug development. Anyone weighing the stock should size any position to their own risk tolerance and wait for more data before deciding whether the selloff was an overreaction or a warning.Related: Lilly quietly hands Chinese partner its cancer drug

Wall Street just sent a clear signal to income investors who count on AT&T for steady payouts. Morgan Stanley slashed its price target on the telecom giant, and the reason has little to do with AT&T’s (T) own performance.The real threat is coming from space. Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network is growing fast enough that analysts now believe it will meaningfully dent the broadband and wireless business every major U.S. carrier depends on.For AT&T shareholders who rely on the stock’s dividend, this is worth close attention.Starlink has Wall Street on edgeMorgan Stanley (MS) analysts led by Sean Diffley cut AT&T’s price target to $25 from $30 in a July 7 research note shared with me, while keeping an “overweight” rating on the stock. Diffley and his team pointed to a broader shift in investor psychology, as much as any single company’s fundamentals.”The fear of the unknown has led many to shoot first and ask questions later in Telecom,” they explained.The firm made similar cuts across the sector, trimming T-Mobile’s target to $230 from $260 and Comcast’s to $30 from $33.Morgan Stanley now expects Starlink to reach about 16 million broadband subscribers in the United States by 2030, up from roughly three million at the end of 2025. That is enough growth to start pulling customers away from cable, fixed wireless, and even fiber.The bigger worry is what happens after 2027. SpaceX plans to launch newer V3 satellites that carry far more capacity than today’s fleet, and the company is also rolling out satellite service that connects directly to regular cell phones. Related: AT&T may be left out of the Starlink deal everyone wantsMorgan Stanley expects direct-to-phone service to expand from 480 satellites in 2027 to 3,500 by 2030.None of this means satellite internet is about to replace fiber or wireless overnight. Physical limits on capacity still make satellites better suited to rural areas than crowded cities. But the pace of improvement is fast enough that analysts are now incorporating it into long-term forecasts for every major carrier, which is pushing valuations lower across the board.What the price cut means for AT&T specificallyAT&T’s new $25 target implies the stock trades at roughly 6.5 times forward EBITDA, and about 10 times forward earnings. Analysts tracking AT&T stock forecast that adjusted earnings per share will expand from $2.12 in 2025 to $3.40 in 2030. However, these forecasts could narrow if Starlink gains significant traction over the next few years. Morgan Stanley also trimmed its long-term subscriber estimates for AT&T. The firm now expects AT&T to add 350,000 fewer fixed wireless customers and 100,000 fewer fiber customers by 2030 than it previously projected.According to the Morgan Stanley research report:Building out fiber to a single new customer runs AT&T somewhere between $2,400 and $2,400 per subscriber added. Comparatively, Starlink can add a customer for closer to $669. AT&T has to keep spending heavily on fiber to defend its market share, even as a cheaper rival expands in the background.There is also a churn problem hiding inside AT&T’s own customer base. According to Morgan Stanley’s annual survey work, 57% of AT&T’s DSL customers say they are likely to switch providers in the next year, and 43% of AT&T Fiber customers say the same. That is a lot of potential turnover for a company trying to protect its subscriber count.

AT&T could face intense competition from Starlink.Kevin Carter/Getty Images

AT&T’s dividend still has a defenseThe fundamental risk for dividend investors stems from the intense capital spending required to defend market share. Upfront capital costs per added fiber subscriber are estimated to be 2.3x to 6.4x higher than satellite deployments.If higher build costs or lower-than-expected broadband penetration rates hamper AT&T’s deployment, free cash flow will be under severe downward pressure, limiting the excess capital available for shareholder returns.More AT&T:AT&T is raising 2 fees customers pay monthlyAT&T launches 4 new internet plans amid fight for customersAT&T lands Rivian win as Wall Street sees growing threatNotably, AT&T had cut its annual dividend from $2.08 per share in 2022 to $1.11 per share today, due to rising interest payments and an unsustainable dividend payout. None of this means AT&T’s dividend is in immediate danger. Management has committed to returning more than $45 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks between 2026 and 2028, a plan that CEO John Stankey reaffirmed at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in May.AT&T is also leaning on new bundled offers, including its OneConnect wireless and broadband package, to keep customers signed up for multiple services at once. Stankey has said customers who buy both internet and wireless from AT&T tend to stick around longer and generate more profit per account.Morgan Stanley’s estimates still show AT&T’s free cash flow growing from about $18.3 billion this year to more than $21 billion by 2028, according to the firm’s base case model. That gives AT&T room to keep funding its dividend, even while spending heavily on network upgrades.Still, the direction of the price target cut tells investors something important. Analysts are no longer treating satellite competition as a distant, rural-only threat. They are building it into valuation models today, and that is compressing the multiples investors are willing to pay for AT&T and its peers.For dividend-focused investors, the payout looks safe for now. But the days of assuming AT&T’s stock will simply grind higher on the back of a stable, low-competition market appear to be over.Related: AT&T leaves rivals flat-footed as bankrupt carrier folds

Oracle’s stock performance from the 1980s pushed the tech giant to split its shares. Its fortunes rose and fell during the dot-com era, and then picked up again in recent years with the popularity of artificial intelligence. Here’s how many times Oracle — whose foundational business was database software management before expanding into cloud computing and AI — split its shares.When did Oracle conduct its first stock split?Oracle implemented its first stock split in March 1987, when it offered two shares for each one they owned.Related: Intel’s stock split history (& prospects) explainedWhen was Oracle’s last stock split? Oracle’s last stock split was in October 2000. From the mid-1980s to 2000, the stock had risen significantly and splitting its shares would reduce the per-share price would make the stock more accessible to retail investors. Adjusted for all stock splits, Oracle’s stock rose from around 10 cents in early 1987 to a peak of around $46 in 2000. How many times has Oracle split its stock?Oracle has conducted a total of 10 stock splits. The first stock split was 2-for-1 in March 1987, followed by another 2-for-1 in December, and again in June 1989 and in November 1993. The company changed the ratio to 3-for-2 in February 1995, April 1996, August 1997, and February 1999. It returned to the 2-for-1 stock split in January and October of 2000, which was during the peak of the dot-com era. Since then Oracle has held off from splitting its shares. Oracle stock split quick factsNumber of stock splits: 10Most recent stock split: October 12, 2000First stock split: March 9, 1987Decade with most stock splits: 1990sMost common stock split ratio: 2:1Oracle’s stock split history at a glanceEffective DateSplit AmountOctober 12, 20002 for 1January 18, 20002 for 1February 26, 19993 for 2August 15, 19973 for 2April 16, 19963 for 2February 22, 19953 for 2November 8, 19932 for 1June 16, 19892 for 1December 21, 19872 for 1March 9, 19872 for 1More on tech:AMD’s stock split history (& prospects) explainedHow many employees does Meta have in 2026? Locations, layoffs explainedDoes Intel pay dividends? History & future prospects explainedOracle’s stock price performanceOracle went through its initial public offering (IPO) on March 12, 1986 and set its offering price at $15 a share. Over the next 40 years, the stock would increase more than 3,000 times. A $10,000 investment from its IPO would be valued at $30.378 million.However, Oracle’s stock price performance wasn’t a straight line up to record highs. During the dot-com era, the stock peaked at around $46. After the dot-com crash, Oracle’s share price tumbled and then traded in a narrow range, and that was most likely a reason the company hadn’t conducted a stock split since 2000. The stock would not break above the $46 level until 2017. What would Oracle’s stock price be in 2026 if it hadn’t conducted any stock splits?Oracle’s share price, had the stock not been split 10 times, can be calculated by multiplying the current stock price by the cumulative stock split ratio, in this case, 324:Current Oracle stock price x (2×2×2×2×1.5×1.5×1.5×1.5×2×2) = Oracle stock price had the stock never been splitCurrent Oracle stock price x (324) = Oracle stock price had the stock never been splitHad Oracle never implemented stock splits, a share would be valued at $45,567, based on the July 10, 2026 closing price of $140.64. At that 5-digit price, Oracle would be out of the price range of many retail investors, unless they buy fractional shares.Is Oracle going to split its stock again?Oracle’s stock peaked at $328 in September 2025 amid its push into cloud computing and artificial intelligence, but it has lost more than half heading into the second half of 2026.With the recent decline in stock price from its highs, it doesn’t seem likely that Oracle would be conducting a stock split anytime soon. Related: Has Meta ever had a stock split? What sets this ‘Mag 7’ stock apart

David Ellison spent eight months persuading Washington that buying Warner Bros. Discovery would strengthen competition in Hollywood, and it worked. The Justice Department closed its antitrust review in June and cleared the deal. However, things have taken an unexpected turn.A group of state attorneys general, led by California, is finalizing an antitrust lawsuit that could freeze the transaction well past the closing date that Paramount Skydance (PSKY) promised investors. Oregon has gone further, asking a judge to pause the deal for 60 days while it examines how Paramount lobbied federal officials.Paramount shares felt the impact. The stock trades near $9.34, sitting near the bottom of its 52-week range of $8.62to$20.86. It is down about 29% this year and roughly 9% over the past five trading sessions.Why state attorneys general can still block the Paramount-Warner Bros. dealFederal clearance does not end the fight. State attorneys general hold independent authority under U.S. antitrust law, and a Justice Department decision not to sue does nothing to stop them from filing their own case, Fox Business reported.More Media and Entertainment Stocks:Paramount’s WBD merger faces a major regulatory hurdleNetflix has a stunning milestone in sight for 2027Disney’s next growth story isn’t parks or moviesThe multistate suit could be filed within days, CNN Business reported, citing people familiar with the process. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has voiced concerns for months, and his office says the investigation remains active.Critics argue that combining two of the five largest studios would thin out competition in film, streaming, and news. Paramount rejects that argument, telling CNN it is confident the transaction raises no legitimate antitrust concerns.

Paramount Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery has cleared Washington but not the states.Busà Photography / Getty Images

Oregon’s lobbying probe and the “Project Warrior” documentsOregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield is conducting a narrower, more direct inquiry. According to the Oregon Department of Justice, he has asked a Multnomah County court to compel Paramount to hand over records tied to an internal lobbying effort the company code-named “Project Warrior.” Rayfield also wants to know whether Paramount helped write the DOJ statement that cleared the deal. According to him, this document was unusual because the agency normally speaks up when challenging a merger rather than clearing one.Related: ‘Michael’ gives Lionsgate stock timely Hollywood testUnder that request is a Wall Street Journal report that senior officials overruled career staff attorneys who had leaned toward challenging the deal.Rayfield has said that if approval turned out to be the product of a corrupt bargain, it would change how Oregon reads its own evidence.Paramount calls the demands irrelevant to Oregon antitrust law and notes it has already produced more than 822,000 documents, TheWrap reported. A hearing is set for Monday, July 13.The $650 million ticking fee that turns delay into cash burnLitigation risk is usually something shareholders can ignore. But not this time. Here, the cost is easy to see.According to Paramount’s merger agreement, if the deal has not closed by Sept. 30, 2026, Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders collect a 25-cent-per-share “ticking fee” every quarter until it does.That works out to roughly $650 million a quarter.A ticking fee is simply compensation to the target’s shareholders for waiting. It rewards them for patience and punishes the buyer for being slow.A delay also pushes back the $6 billion in cost savings Paramount has told investors it will capture after closing, Benzinga noted. The company is already expected to carry about $80 billion in debt once the transaction completes.4 things that have to go right before Paramount Skydance stock recoversThe bull case has not disappeared, but it now depends on a sequence of events landing in order.Brussels clears the deal by its July 22 deadline after Paramount agreed to exit its film distribution venturewith Universal, Variety reported.The U.K. concludes its media plurality review, with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy saying she is minded to intervene.The Oregon judge declines to grant a 60-day pause.The multistate suit either fails to materialize or fails to win an injunction.Miss any one of those and the Sept. 30 date slips, which means the fee starts accruing.How PSKY stock stacks up against the market and its peersThe gap between Paramount Skydance and the broader market says a lot.PSKY is down about 29% this year. Operationally, the company is not falling apart, as first-quarter revenue reached $7.35 billion, up 2.2% from a year earlier.Paramount’s earnings also beat consensus by a wide margin, according to the company’s SEC filing.However, Wall Street is unconvinced. Wells Fargo cut its target to $7 from $8 and kept an underweight rating. Guggenheim reduced its target to $12 while maintaining a neutral rating, citing debt concerns. The consensus rating across Wall Street is a moderate sell. The market is not pricing an operating problem. It is pricing the odds that a judge grants a pause on the merger.What investors should watch next in the Paramount Warner Bros. sagaMerger arbitrage is a bet on timing as much as outcome, and right now, the calendar is what matters.Monday’s Multnomah County hearing is the first real test. The July 22 EU decision follows, and the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority faces an Aug. 7 deadline on its Phase 1 review. Any state lawsuit filed in between could add months.None of that guarantees the deal will die, as State challenges do not always succeed. However, a coalition of attorneys general did stall Nexstar’s takeover of Tegna earlier this year when a judge froze that transaction ahead of trial.For investors, the practical question narrows to how much delay they are willing to tolerate. Even if the merger closes, the buyer inherits $80 billion in debt and pays $650 million a quarter to the other side’s shareholders until it does.So the real question is not whether the deal survives, but how long you can afford to wait for it. The courts have the final say on that.Related: AMC stock traders ignoring warning signs send shares surging