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Summer is a great time to head outdoors, going for walks, runs, hikes, and more. But with brutal heat hitting the U.S. repeatedly, it might’ve been tough to get out as much as you wanted to. Now that the temperature is slowly but surely starting to drop as we head into fall, the cooler weather calls for hitting the trails. All you need are the right layers to do it.

REI is the perfect place to shop for those lightweight pieces, especially during its Labor Day sale. From now until Monday, September 7, you can shop deep discounts on everything from hiking gear to running essentials. The REI Co-op Active Pursuits Long-Sleeve Quarter-Zip Pullover is one of them, and it’s on sale now for $41. With 25% off its regular price of $55, you’re going to want to stock up on this highly rated pick while you still can.

REI Co-op Active Pursuits Long-Sleeve Quarter-Zip Pullover, $41 (was $55) at REI

Courtesy of REI

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Why do shoppers love it?

A light layer, like the REI Co-op Active Pursuits Long-Sleeve Quarter-Zip Pullover, can be all you need to get you through your outdoor adventures. Made of stretchy polyester fabric, it’s lightweight, quick-drying, and moisture-wicking, all of which are what you want in a performance-ready pullover. Not to mention, it has UPF 50+ sun protection.

The pullover design is comfortable and stylish, giving you a put-together look without sacrificing its performance features. If you start to heat up, you can unzip the neck to get some ventilation, or if you wear it when it’s cold, you can zip it up to retain heat. The sleeves have thumbholes for extra warmth and comfort that can be hidden with an overlapped cuff when you don’t need them. There’s also a hidden zippered pocket on the right side to hold a card or keys.

This quarter-zip pullover is available in seven colors. The Stone Green color gets you the best deal at $25, but the sizing is very limited. A majority of the colors are available for $41, including black, Alloy Gray Heather, Woodland Olive, and more.

Related: Spyder’s waterproof rain jacket is only $34 at Amazon right now

Details to know

Sizes: From men’s small to XXXL.

Colors: Seven.

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Features: Moisture wicking, quick drying, and UPF 50+ sun protection.

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Another customer who wore the pullover on a 9-mile hike highlighted its moisture-wicking feature, adding that even with long sleeves, they “never felt clammy or heavy — the lightweight fabric wicked moisture away brilliantly, keeping me dry and comfortable even as the humidity climbed.”

Shop more deals

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Patagonia R1 Air Zip-Neck Pullover, $72 (was $145) at REI

Arc’teryx Beta SL Jacket, $200 (was $500) at REI

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David Tepper recently walked away from one of the hottest semiconductor trades of 2026.

Billionaire’s Appaloosa Management fully withdrew its investment in Sandisk (SNDK) during the second quarter, after commencing the position only a quarter earlier, its latest 13F filing showed.

But Tepper did not shy away from artificial intelligence.

He scrambled farther into it.

Appaloosa established a new Broadcom (AVGO) position of 150,000 shares worth about $56.7 million as of June 30. The fund simultaneously continued holding enormous positions across the AI ecosystem, including Amazon, Micron, Taiwan Semiconductor, Alphabet, Nvidia and Meta.

This makes the move far more intriguing than just collecting profits.

Tepper did a remarkable job of swapping out a firm that benefited from the scarcity and growing pricing of AI storage for one that was better positioned closer to the bespoke silicon and networking architecture that powers hyperscale AI data centers.

For ordinary investors, the question is straightforward: Did Tepper just cash out of the hottest part of the AI cycle before the economics change?

Tepper sold Sandisk after an almost unbelievable earnings explosion

Sandisk’s recent financials suggest Tepper had enough profits to protect. Revenue rose 51% sequentially and 372% year-over-year to $8.97 billion in fiscal fourth quarter. GAAP net income was $6.9 billion, and diluted EPS was $43.97. Its gross margin rose to 84.6%.

That is not a typo.

Sandisk said around two-thirds of its sequential revenue growth came from higher prices and one-third from increased volumes.

The AI data center explosion has changed the company’s business.

Data-center revenue for Sandisk rose 437% to $5.15 billion in fiscal 2026. 4Q data-center revenue was nearly $2.98 billion, almost double the previous quarter.

Related: JPMorgan revamps SanDisk stock with massive price target

That type of operational leverage may create huge gains.

It may also explain in detail why an experienced investor would want to harvest them.

Memory markets have been cyclical before. Prices go higher as supplies become tighter, producers add capacity and ultimately the economics may stabilize.

Tepper didn’t wait around to see where that cycle peaks.

Broadcom gives Tepper a very different AI bet

The AI potential at Broadcom is unique.

Instead, Broadcom is within the architecture of hyperscale artificial intelligence systems and less dependent upon escalating memory costs.

Its high-speed networking equipment and proprietary AI accelerators are used to link large clusters of computers.

And the figures are becoming big.

Broadcom said it reported $10.8 billion in AI semiconductor sales for fiscal Q2, increasing 143% year over year.

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The demand for specialized AI accelerators and AI networking has been more than expected, said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.

Broadcom projected $16 billion in AI semiconductor sales for fiscal Q3, up more than 200% year over year.

Tan said, “The momentum continues.”

That brief comment helps clarify why Tepper’s rotation is worth watching.

He has not sold off a rapidly developing AI firm and moved into cash.

He sold one fast-growing AI startup and purchased another that may have a different economic motive for its development.

Tepper’s portfolio shows he is hardly turning bearish on AI

That idea is much more obvious in the remainder of Appaloosa’s repertoire.

Amazon was the fund’s largest disclosed holding at $1.19 billion on June 30, 15.4% of the portfolio.

Micron came in second, with almost $1.13 billion.

Taiwan Semiconductor accounted for around $788 million, Alphabet for about $654 million, Meta for some $380 million, and Nvidia for about $305 million.

That’s a modest stake compared to Broadcom’s $56.7 million.

But the point is that it was new.

Appaloosa also cut down its holding in Sandisk altogether, which was worth around $178.7 million, based on portfolio monitoring data from the disclosures.

That makes the broad direction of the trade difficult to miss. Tepper appears comfortable owning AI infrastructure. He simply changed which piece of it he wanted.

Sandisk’s spectacular numbers contain the risk investors should watch

There’s a certain irony in Tepper selling Sandisk just when its financials appear almost outrageously excellent.

Full-year fiscal 2026 revenue reached $20.25 billion, up 175%. GAAP net income reached $11.43 billion, compared with a loss the prior year. Fiscal-year gross margin jumped to 71.5%, compared with roughly 30% a year earlier.

Sandisk had an even more powerful viewpoint.

Management expects to generate between $10.3 billion and $10.8 billion in sales and between $44 and $46 in non-GAAP EPS in fiscal first quarter 2027.

The stats might make Tepper appear hasty in his resignation.

But they also highlight a typical challenge for investors.

Sometimes the finest moment operationally for a cyclical firm might be the most risky time to expect present margin and price would last forever.

Pricing was responsible for around two-thirds of Sandisk’s sequential sales gain in the fourth quarter, the company said.

That’s a positive sign when prices are going up.

It also informs investors about which variable matters when supply and demand finally go back into balance.

David Tepper just made a bold rotation between two AI winnersEston Parker/ISI Photos / Getty Images

The trade may be about durability rather than growth

That is where Broadcom becomes an interesting alternative.

Both firms are susceptible to huge AI infrastructure investment.

But their economics are not the same.

Sandisk offers the storage capacity that artificial intelligence systems are rapidly demanding.

Broadcom is in specialized accelerators and networking solutions that can be incorporated in hyperscalers’ multi-year infrastructure road plans.

Broadcom’s AI semiconductor sales for the fiscal second quarter was $10.8 billion, already around four times the size of Sandisk’s quarterly data-center revenue.

And Broadcom expects the AI semiconductor number to hit $16 billion in the coming quarter.

It doesn’t mean Broadcom is secure by default.

That valuation has its own risk, especially if investors anticipate remarkable AI growth to continue.

Related: Morgan Stanley delivers bold pre-earnings verdict on Broadcom

But Tepper may be picking between two kinds of danger.

Investors have to assess SanDisk based on the sustainability of historically high memory prices and profits.

With Broadcom, they have to think about how long the hyperscalers are going to be buying specialized AI processors and networking.

Tepper’s move carries one important warning

Investors should not just follow the trade.

13F is history.

Appaloosa reported its holdings as of June 30 in an Aug. 14 filing. It doesn’t say when Tepper acquired Broadcom or sold Sandisk during the quarter, the prices he paid, or whether he has since changed either position.

The limitation matters. Tepper could have changed his mind already. But the revealed rotation still provides the average investor with something more useful than a ticker to copy. It provides a framework for thinking about the next phase of AI investing. The first phase rewarded almost all aspects of scarce computing capacity. The next stage might be more picky.

Investors may have to separate firms that are beneficiaries of excellent price cycles from those with enduring positions in the AI architecture.

Tepper’s portfolio implies he is making that difference today.

He sold Sandisk following one of the greatest semiconductor runs of the year.

Then he bought Broadcom with new money.

The billionaire isn’t leaving the AI boom. He appears to be betting that its next winners may look different from its last ones.

Related: Broadcom gets $30 billion Apple boost as valuation debate grows

Most partnerships do not fall apart over the work. They fall apart over who gets to sign off on it.

Bands that record well together argue about whose name goes first on the sleeve. Law firms that bill beautifully split over the letterhead. The thing that breaks a partnership is almost never the thing the partnership was built to do.

The auto industry has been running that experiment at industrial scale for a decade. Building a competitive car has become too expensive for most companies to manage alone, which is why the past 10 years produced Stellantis, a long row of battery joint ventures, and an even longer row of announced tie-ups that quietly went nowhere.

Japan has felt the squeeze harder than most. Toyota (TM) moves more than ten million vehicles a year by itself. Chinese rivals have taken share in Europe and Southeast Asia with cars packed full of software features. And U.S. tariffs on Japanese-built vehicles have chewed through the margins that used to fund exactly this kind of engineering.

So when Honda (HMC) and Nissan (NSANY) walked away from a roughly $60 billion combination in February 2025, the working assumption was that both would go it alone and one of them would eventually run out of road.

That assumption did not survive Monday, Aug. 31.

Why the Honda Nissan merger collapsed in 2025

The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2024 to fold themselves into a joint holding company, with a Tokyo listing targeted for August 2026. Mitsubishi Motors (MMTOF), in which Nissan is the largest shareholder, signed a separate memo to study joining them.

The arithmetic was compelling. The combined group would have ranked as the world’s third-largest automaker by volume.

Related: Nissan scrapped a bank it couldn’t afford to build

The governance was not. Negotiations deteriorated after Honda proposed that Nissan become a subsidiary through a share exchange instead of an equal partner under a holding company, a change both sides described in a joint statement.

Nissan would not accept it. Talks were formally called off that February, CEO Makoto Uchida stepped down the following month, and Ivan Espinosa inherited a company that needed a turnaround plan more than it needed a wedding.

Honda later signaled the conditions it wanted before restarting talks, and Nissan moved ahead alone with roughly $2.6 billion in cuts.

What survived the wreckage was the boring part. The two had already agreed in March 2024 to study working together on electrification and vehicle intelligence, and they widened that into joint research on software-defined vehicles five months later.

Nobody wrote headlines about it. It kept running anyway.

Honda and Nissan will share onboard computers and a common vehicle operating system beginning in fiscal 2029.EvgeniyShkolenko / Getty Images

What the new Honda Nissan software agreement covers

The companies have entered a joint development agreement covering “multiple electronic control units (ECUs) that form the core of next-generation software-defined vehicles (SDVs), along with the in-vehicle operating system and key parts of the middleware, and vehicle control software,” according to a joint statement posted to Honda’s newsroom on Aug. 31.

An electronic control unit is an onboard computer. A modern vehicle carries dozens of them scattered through the body, and the point of this agreement is to replace that sprawl with a smaller number of shared, high-performance units running common code.

The architecture is planned for both companies’ next-generation vehicles beginning in fiscal year 2029.

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Read the language carefully and notice what is missing. No equity. No holding company. No share exchange. Nothing that requires either board to hand anything over.

For the person actually sitting in the driver’s seat, a software-defined vehicle is one in which the features are delivered by code rather than fixed by whatever hardware left the factory. Driver assistance improves over the air. Infotainment gets patched instead of replaced.

That only works if the underlying computer was designed to keep receiving updates for the 15 or 20 years the car stays on the road, which is why the industry is spending so heavily here.

Software has become a central battleground as vehicles take on more autonomous and connected functions, and the pressure is sharpest from Chinese carmakers such as BYD (BYDDY) that have gained ground in Europe and Southeast Asia, reported Reuters.

Mitsubishi Motors said it was considering joining the collaboration and remained in discussions with both automakers, the same Reuters report said.

Investors liked it. Honda’s U.S.-listed shares opened Aug. 31 around $31.91, up roughly 1.7%, while Nissan’s Tokyo-listed stock closed up about 2.3%. Honda said the agreement is not expected to have a material effect on results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2027, which is a polite way of saying the payoff sits several years out.

How Honda and Nissan built toward a software deal

When I lined up both companies’ own disclosures against the merger timeline, the pattern was hard to miss. The software track never stopped. It just got quieter while the corporate drama played out above it.

March 2024: Honda and Nissan sign a memorandum of understanding to begin a feasibility study of a strategic partnership covering vehicle electrification and intelligence, announced Nissan.

August 2024: The two sign a joint research agreement on fundamental technologies for a next-generation software-defined vehicle platform, plus a second memorandum the same day covering shared battery cell specifications, e-Axles, and charging services, said Honda.

December 2024: Merger talks begin, targeting an August 2026 holding company listing, according to a joint announcement.

February 2025: Talks collapse over the subsidiary proposal, the companies confirmed at the time.

May 2026: Nissan selects Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System as the Linux foundation for its Scalable Open Software Platform, announced Red Hat, a unit of IBM (IBM).

May 2026: Honda commits to applying its ASIMO OS across gasoline, hybrid, and electric models under a “Triple Half” goal of halving development cost, timeframe, and workload versus 2025 levels, said Honda.

Aug. 31, 2026: The joint development agreement is signed, first flagged days earlier by Nikkei Asia.

Espinosa had been telegraphing this for months. Discussions with Honda were constructive and news was coming, he told Yahoo Finance in July, while stressing that there was no discussion around integration.

He had said much the same in April about talks covering larger vehicles in North America, Automotive News reported.

What the Honda Nissan software deal means for investors

Here is the part that matters well beyond Tokyo. A vehicle operating system certified to automotive safety standards costs an enormous amount to build and considerably more to maintain across millions of cars for two decades.

Honda earmarked about one trillion yen for software technologies over three years at its May briefing. Nissan is running a development platform used by thousands of engineers.

Split that bill two ways, or three if Mitsubishi signs on, and the per-vehicle cost of staying competitive with Tesla and the Chinese automakers drops without either company surrendering a seat at its own table.

My read is that this structure is more durable than the merger would have been, precisely because it asks for so much less. Merger integration failures are usually cultural and political. A shared parts bin and a shared codebase require cooperation on engineering, not on hierarchy.

The risk is just as clear. Neither company has published an investment figure, a governance structure, or a model list, and joint software programs between rival automakers have a poor completion record.

Fiscal 2029 is three product cycles away, and the deal did not specifically mention electric vehicles or name a single model, the Associated Press reported.

Wall Street has been warming up regardless. Honda joined the Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) list on Aug. 18 after its consensus current-year earnings estimate climbed 77.4% over the prior sixty days, according to Zacks.

The merger was supposed to deliver scale. What Honda and Nissan actually signed delivers scale in the one place where scale now decides the winner, and it does it without either side ever having to say the word subsidiary again.

Related: Honda CEO withstands investor backlash after $9B EV misstep

Every industrial supply chain has a part almost nobody notices, until it becomes the reason nothing else can ship.

For the natural-gas turbines racing to power artificial intelligence data centers, that part is the blade sitting inside the hottest section of the machine.

On Monday, Aug. 31, investors got a blunt reminder of how much that single part matters. Shares of Howmet Aerospace Inc. (HWM), one of the few companies on Earth that knows how to cast those blades, tumbled more than 8% after Elon Musk said SpaceX plans to make its own, according to CNBC.

The stock move looked like a simple competitive threat: a customer becoming a rival.

Wall Street’s read, delivered within hours, was almost the opposite, and it centers on a shortage most investors have never had reason to track or even know about.

What Musk actually said about the turbine-blade bottleneck

Musk posted on X (the former Twitter) on Aug. 29, saying that Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX) and Tesla are each racing to build 100 gigawatts of annual solar capacity. Natural gas will still be needed to fill the gap for years, he added.

He then named the real constraint. Casting the blades and vanes inside gas turbines is what slows new production, Musk wrote, and bringing that work in-house at SpaceX could get turbines online up to 18 months at sooner, a change he called a “profound game-changer.”

Related: Elon Musk drops stunning SpaceX forecast

SpaceX is building that capability at a foundry in Bastrop, Texas, tied to a planned 20-gigawatt power project for AI data centers, according to Seeking Alpha.

The location matters because it signals SpaceX wants full control over one of the industry’s tightest chokepoints, not just a cheaper supplier. Elon says, Elon does.

How Howmet and SpaceX stock moved apart

Howmet fell as much as 7.7% to a two-month low during the session, Seeking Alpha noted, before closing down more than 8%, according to CNBC.

The stock had closed at $264.85 the prior Friday, Aug. 28, and it carries a market capitalization near $97 billion. On Aug. 31, shares gapped down to open at $248.25.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. shares moved the other way. Options traders were positioning for further upside in SPCX the same day Howmet sold off.

The divergence signals investors initially read this as a wealth transfer from one company to another, rather than a shared response to industry-wide scarcity.

That matters for anyone holding Howmet. The company makes precision-cast metal components for jet engines and industrial gas turbines, and its gas-turbine segment has become one of its fastest-growing businesses, with revenue climbing 39% in the first quarter after a 25% gain for all of 2025.

Howmet Aerospace shares tumbled more than 8% Aug. 31 after Elon Musk said SpaceX would cast its own gas-turbine blades in-house.Vithun Khamsong / Getty Images

Wall Street calls the sell-off a buying opportunity

Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned pushed back on the panic within hours. He wrote that he sees “little risk to Howmet from the SpaceX announcement” and framed the news as a positive signal instead, according to Seeking Alpha.

Bloomberg Intelligence reached a similar conclusion. Analyst Omid Vaziri said SpaceX’s plan validates turbine scarcity rather than threatens established suppliers.

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Incumbents such as Siemens Energy AG and GE Vernova Inc. are already expanding their own casting capacity to meet the same shortage, Investing.com confirmed.

Harned’s argument centers on scarcity, not sentiment. Turbine-blade demand is outpacing global casting capacity, and that imbalance is why a well-funded buyer like SpaceX would rather build its own supply than wait in line.

Bernstein said Howmet’s supply agreements with major turbine makers extend into 2030. The firm also flagged six additional capacity expansions expected before year-end, which could lift blade capacity by as much as 38% from early 2025 levels.

Bernstein raised its price target on Howmet to $328 from $248 and kept its Outperform rating, treating the Aug. 31 decline as an entry point rather than a warning sign.

Citi Research joined the pushback, placing Howmet on a 30-day upside catalyst watch with a $329 price target, according to Seeking Alpha.

The bank noted that SpaceX entering the casting space demonstrates extreme market demand and tight supply constraints, forecasting earnings to reach $8.08 per share by 2028.

AI’s power race has a hidden chokepoint

The Howmet story is really a supply story, and it extends well beyond one stock.

Only four companies worldwide cast the nickel-superalloy blades and vanes that survive inside a turbine’s hottest section, and all four are currently running at capacity, Benzinga reported.

Howmet is one of only two in that group that trade publicly.

Precision Castparts sits inside Berkshire Hathaway, and newly listed Doncasters is the other. The other rivals remain private, according to Benzinga.

That means the Aug. 31 sell-off doubled as a rare moment when investors could actually price the entire bottleneck.

That scarcity is colliding with an unprecedented wave of demand. Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement with Chevron in June for a 2.67-gigawatt gas-fired power project in West Texas.

It is one of several hyperscaler deals now competing for the same turbine backlog, according to Bloomberg.

SpaceX’s foundry does not eliminate that scarcity. It just proves how far a well-capitalized company will go to jump the line.

Investors should watch whether other AI builders follow the same path, because the next chokepoint story may not involve Howmet at all.

Related: SpaceX Stock has a buyer that can’t say no

Panera Bread has spent much of the past year changing what customers see when they walk into its restaurants.

To keep freshness alive and as part of its broader Panera RISE transformation strategy, the fast-casual restaurant is working overtime to cater to its customers.

The latest change is in how it tries to keep customers coming back.

Panera has rolled out a new points-based MyPanera rewards program for its more than 70 million loyalty members.

The change comes shortly after Andrew Rebhun joined Panera as chief marketing officer, putting the chain’s brand, digital business, loyalty program, and menu innovation under new leadership.

Rebhun, who has previously worked at Cava and held roles at McDonald’s, replaces Mark Shambura, who helped launch Panera’s RISE strategy.

His appointment puts an executive with experience in loyalty and digital growth in charge as Panera tries to get more out of an already massive customer base.

This new move places greater focus on customer retention as Panera continues its broader reset, which has included menu changes, restaurant closures, layoffs, and a major overhaul of its bakery production network.

What is Panera’s new reward program?

Panera’s new loyalty program launched nationwide in August, replacing its previous rewards structure with a more traditional points system.

Members now earn 10 points for every $1 spent. 

Rewards start at 250 points for a free bagel or mini bakery item and rise to 2,000 points for a full entree.

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And don’t worry, previously earned rewards will carry over into the new program.

“From everyday favorites to exclusive offers, we have reimagined MyPanera to deliver more value with every purchase,” said Chief Digital Officer Joshua Fine.

The newly revised program offers what customers want most: “more transparency, better rewards, and more choice,” Fine added.

The chain also introduced MyPanera+, available to members who spend at least $300 in a calendar year. This will include additional benefits such as a birthday You Pick Two meal and bonus points on delivery purchases.

And its MyPanera+ Sip Club combines those benefits with Panera’s existing beverage subscription.

The new structure gives customers a clearer connection between spending and rewards at a time when restaurant chains are competing harder for repeat visits from value-conscious diners.

Panera unveils an all-new MyPanera rewards program.UCG / Getty Images

Panera’s reset goes beyond rewards

The loyalty overhaul is only one part of Panera’s broader transformation. Earlier this summer, the chain expanded its menu with new Market Bowls, premium salads, proteins, and frozen coffee beverages.

TheStreet previously reported that Panera also brought shrimp back to its menu after roughly a decade as it sought to expand its protein offerings.

Behind the scenes, Panera has been making even bigger changes.

Panera is closing all its regional Fresh Dough Facilities as it moves away from its longtime in-house dough-production network and toward outside artisan baking partners.

The company has also been reshaping its restaurant footprint. TheStreet reported in June that Panera had closed at least two dozen bakery-cafes across several states since the previous summer, even as it continued to open new locations.

However, based on TheStreet’s tally, Panera had 2,208 bakery cafes as of July 2025.

By July 28, 2026, that number had risen to 2,251, a net increase of 43 locations, despite the closures.

It suggests that the company is not simply shrinking its footprint, but repositioning it.

Panera is changing several parts of its business at once, including where it operates, how it produces its food, what it serves, and now how it rewards customers.

Currently, it already has more than 70 million MyPanera members.

The bigger question is whether a simpler rewards system and a new marketing chief can turn that enormous membership base into more frequent visits.

Related: McDonald’s quietly brings back snack discontinued 2 years ago

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is defending the Trump administration’s intervention in the bond market, pushing back against criticism from his former investing mentor, billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller.

Druckenmiller called Treasury’s decision to expand its government debt buybacks a “mistake” in the Wall Street Journal last week. The criticism came as long-term Treasury yields climbed to their highest levels in years, putting more pressure on the government’s borrowing costs.

“Stan’s a great investor, but what I would point out is that, again, the U.S. bond market has been the best performing market since the president came in,” Bessent said on Monday at the G20 finance ministers meeting, CNBC reported.

Bessent said he has spoken with Druckenmiller since the op-ed was published and that the conversation went “fine.”

Also Read: Scott Bessent has surprising answer for U.S. debt fears

But he also took a jab at his former mentor.

“Stan’s a great investor. He changes his mind a lot, and he doesn’t like losing money,” Bessent said. “I think he lost money the day he sent in the editorial.”

The clash comes as bond yields are moving higher again. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield topped 4.75% Monday, its highest level since January 2025, as high energy prices added to inflation concerns and expectations for another Federal Reserve rate hike.

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh also signaled in his recent Jackson Hole speech that interest rates may need to rise again as inflation remains above the central bank’s 2% target.

Druckenmiller argues Treasury should stay out of the way and let the bond market “speak.”Bloomberg / Getty Images

Why Druckenmiller opposes Bessent’s move

Treasury recently more than doubled the size of its buybacks of longer-term government debt, with Bessent saying in August that purchases could exceed $4 billion per operation.

Bond buybacks allow the Treasury to repurchase older securities that can be harder to trade. They are designed to improve liquidity and keep trading orderly, rather than pay down the national debt.

Druckenmiller argues Treasury should stay out of the way and allow the bond market to reflect investors’ concerns about inflation, deficits, and federal debt.

“You can’t buy your way out of a solvency conversation with liquidity tools. You can only postpone the conversation and raise the eventual price,” Druckenmiller wrote in the Journal.

Bessent sees the situation differently.

Related: Billionaire Druckenmiller makes cancer stock his #1 buy for a reason

He noted that Treasury yields have been roughly flat since President Trump took office and argued that U.S. government bonds have performed better than other major sovereign debt markets.

“My job is to make sure that the market is looking at fundamentals and that the market does not dictate policy,” Bessent said.

“Hedge fund managers like to speed things up,” he added.

Bessent has also rejected the idea that Treasury can simply force borrowing costs lower. In an earlier interview, he said his job was to keep the market from becoming disorderly rather than determine where bonds should trade.

U.S. debt now tops $40 trillion

Gross federal debt recently crossed $40 trillion, more than double its level a decade ago. About $32 trillion is held by the public, including investors, banks, pension funds, the Federal Reserve, and foreign governments.

Higher Treasury yields increase the cost of refinancing that debt.

The Congressional Budget Office projects a federal budget deficit of roughly $1.9 trillion this year, growing to $3.1 trillion by 2036. 

For investors, rising yields can reach well beyond the bond market. They can raise borrowing costs for companies and consumers, while higher Treasury returns give investors a more attractive alternative to stocks.

Still, Bessent’s buybacks don’t remove risks. Inflation, Fed policy, and Washington’s borrowing needs will continue to influence where Treasury yields trade.

Druckenmiller reshuffles his stock portfolio

Druckenmiller made some big changes to his investments through his Duquesne Family Office during the second quarter.

In its latest 13F filing, Duquesne increased its Amazon (AMZN) stake by more than 1,000% to 541,600 shares and more than doubled its call options on the stock. The firm also opened a new position in Alphabet (GOOGL) with 336,300 shares and added call options on Meta (META) and Tesla (TSLA), according to data from Whalewisdom.

Related: Cathie Wood buys $53 million of popular semiconductor stock

Druckenmiller also made several changes to his semiconductor bets. Duquesne sold its entire stakes in Broadcom (AVGO), Intel (INTC) and Micron (MU), while opening a new 72,900-share position in AMD (AMD) and slightly increasing its Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) holding.

Outside Big Tech, Duquesne bought 603,000 shares of Delta Air Lines (DAL) and nearly tripled its United Airlines (UAL) stake to about 795,000 shares.

Druckenmiller also added several data-center and crypto-mining stocks, including more than 4 million shares of Bitdeer Technologies (BTDR) and 754,800 shares of Riot Platforms (RIOT). Meanwhile, he exited Cloudflare (NET) and MercadoLibre (MELI) and cut his stakes in Alcoa (AA) and Arm Holdings (ARM) by more than 70%.

Related: Mexican restaurant chain closes all locations in major market

Applied Materials has returned shareholder value through dividends, stock splits, and share repurchases. The company — which is the world’s largest manufacturer of equipment, machines, and software used to build semiconductors and advanced flat-panel displays — has benefited from the recent rise in interest in artificial intelligence. Its chipmaking expertise is used in the data centers that develop AI applications. 

Here’s how much Applied has bought back its shares since its first repurchase authorization.

Applied Material stock buyback quick facts

First buyback: 1996 ($37 million)

Most recent buyback by fiscal year: 2025 ($4.9 billion)

Year with biggest buyback spend: 2022 ($6.1 billion)

Total historical buyback spend: $50 billion

When was Applied Materials’ first stock buyback? 

In January 1996, the company’s board of directors authorized the repurchase of 200,000 shares of its common stock to fund stock-based employee benefit plans. For its fiscal 1996, which ended in late October and began the prior late October, Applied bought back a total of $37 million in shares. 

When was the last time Applied Materials repurchased shares?

As of late August 2026, Applied repurchased $1.178 billion in shares in the nine months through July 26, 2026. For fiscal 2025, the latest reporting year, the company repurchased $4.9 billion in stock. 

How much stock has Applied Materials bought back?

Applied has repurchased almost $50 billion in shares from fiscal 1996 — the first year of its stock buyback authorization — to the nine-month period ended on July 26 2026. From fiscal years 1996 to 2025, the company’s average annual repurchase amount was $1.6 billion.

In general, Applied increased the size of its stock repurchases as its free cash flow (cash provided by operating activities minus capital expenditures) rose. 

Applied Materials’ stock buyback history by year

The following is a table of data compiled from Applied Materials’ annual reports. The ratio of stock repurchases to free cash flow was calculated by TheStreet. Dollar amounts are in billions of dollars.

The company’s stock repurchase-to-free cash flow ratio (which expresses the amount of free cash a company uses on stock buybacks) peaked at 2.31 (or 231%) in 2006.

More on stock buybacks:

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Sandisk’s stock buyback program explained

A ratio exceeding 1 (or 100%) indicates that a company is spending more than its free cash flow on stock buybacks. During the fiscal 1996 to 2025 period, the ratio exceeded 1 in eight different years (2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2022), suggesting that Applied was aggressive in its stock buying as it spent more on repurchases than the amount of free cash it had on hand. 

Applied spent the most in fiscal 2022, when it bought back $6.1 billion in shares. The stock averaged $118. As of the end of August 2026, the stock was trading at $458. 

Applied Materials’ stock performance

As of the end of August 2026, Applied’s stock had been trading at historically high levels. The stock closed at a record high of $730 on June 30, 2026. As the shares rrose in value, the company reduced the size of its repurchases in fiscal 2026.

Applied’s shares gained 13,200 times from the company’s IPO in 1972 through the end of August 2026.   

Applied Materials’ stock price since IPO, from Google Finance via Google Sheets

Related: Intel’s stock buybacks: History & investor impact explained

Costco did not even sell merchandise on its website until 1998, and, in those days, the selection was very limited.

Sure, Costco Travel lived there, but the website was more about advertising ancillary services, like TurboTax access than selling anything to members

In recent years, however, Costco has a greatly expanded selection, and it allows members to use Instacart and Shipt to order select items directly from its warehouses.

It had also been building on that with its digital-only program, Costco Next, which lets members access items the warehouse club does not stock. It’s not a new service; it has technically been around since 2017. But Costco does not promote the offering, and it’s something I, and many other members, did not know about.

Now, that service has been shut down with no notice.

Costco closes Costco Next

Visitors to the Costco Next web page got a terse message from the company.

“Access to Costco Next store fronts is no longer available. Please refer to the list below for contact information for vendors with active return policies. For eligible returns and warranty inquiries, contact the vendor directly,” the company shared.

That was followed by a long list of company names with their contact information.

A third-party marketplace like the model pioneered by Amazon, Costco Next offered an expanded selection of items that never make it into a Costco warehouse. The program, however, differed from Amazon’s approach in important ways.

More Costco:

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Costco Next allowed the retailer to offer more merchandise, but have it shipped directly from partners. The warehouse club, however, is still careful with its merchandise, and its buyers worked with partner retailers.

Next offered a more carefully curated selection than Amazon offers, because Costco remains focused on offering value to members.

Costco Next required a membership to the chain. Shutterstock

Costco recently celebrated Costco Next’s success

“Costco Next, our curated marketplace, also continues to show healthy year-over-year growth. In Q3 fiscal year 2025, our sales on Costco Next equaled our total sales for all of fiscal year 2022, and we are excited about the pipeline of new vendors and development for future rollout,” CFO Gary Millerchip said during the company’s third quarter 2025 earnings call.

Products are offered from hand‑selected suppliers chosen for the quality of their merchandise and strong customer service, expanding the variety beyond typical warehouse inventory.

The platform helps Costco offer higher‑margin discretionary items (e.g., electronics, appliances, goods sold directly from vendors) while leveraging member pricing perks.

The impetus for Costco Next is to strengthen e‑commerce and mobile growth by offering discounted deals from trusted brands that complement warehouse inventory.Source: Costco website (now removed)

“Separate from what members will find in the warehouses or at Costco.com, Costco Next showcases products from some of Costco’s suppliers that have been selected for the quality of their merchandise and their exceptional customer service,” Costco General Merchandise Manager Cheryl Smeby said on Costco’s website.

“By shopping at Costco Next, you have access to a variety of products from these vendors, and you’ll get a discount that is available only to Costco members.”

A request made via the Costco media request form was not immediately answered by the company.

The Press Democrat also confirmed the sudden closure.

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Americans have no shortage of choices when they want to buy a soda, and Pepsi is fighting for consumers in one of the industry’s most competitive markets.

Coca-Cola remains the most widely consumed soft drink in the U.S. About 60% of Americans surveyed by Statista reported consuming it in the past year. 

Pepsi followed at 48%, only narrowly ahead of Dr Pepper and Sprite (a Coca-Cola product), both at 46%, according to Statista Consumer Insights.

PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew and Keurig Dr Pepper’s 7UP were each consumed by 36% of respondents, illustrating how closely major beverage companies compete across several soda categories.

And as PepsiCo fights for shoppers on store shelves, the company continues to change parts of the network that deliver those beverages.

In the most recent change within its U.S. distribution network, the beverage giant is handing over its South Carolina operations to an outside logistics provider.

As a result, it will eliminate 105 warehouse jobs at its Columbia, South Carolina, facility.

Additionally, TheStreet has identified at least four PepsiCo warehouse or distribution actions in 2026 that will affect 583 jobs. This includes closures or workforce reductions in California, Florida, Oklahoma, and now South Carolina.

The circumstances differ at each location, and PepsiCo has not characterized the actions as a single restructuring program. 

But the changes come as the company emphasizes productivity, supply-chain modernization, and new ways of moving its food and beverage products across North America.

PepsiCo warehouse changes affect 583 workers

The latest action involves PepsiCo Beverages Sales’ facility at 6925 N. Main Street in Columbia.

As a result, 105 workers are expected to lose their jobs beginning Oct. 18, according to a WARN reviewed by TheStreet. The majority (57) are warehouse workers, forklift operators, and checkers, among other roles.

The facility itself will remain open, and its remaining operations will continue without interruption.

More Layoffs:

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PepsiCo said management of the warehouse operation will transition to an external logistics provider. 

In a statement provided to TheStreet, PepsiCo Beverages US said it is “shifting how warehouse logistics are managed at our Columbia, South Carolina, facility to continue to support our customers and consumers in the area.”

The company added that the facility will remain open and fully operational.

“We are committed to treating impacted employees with utmost care, including assistance with applying to work with the new logistics provider and offering pay and benefits continuation based on their years of service, along with transition assistance and career support,” PepsiCo also said.

The South Carolina move follows another major warehouse restructuring reported by TheStreet in July.

PepsiCo Beverages eliminated 184 warehouse jobs at its Tulsa, Oklahoma, operation while keeping beverage production running at the same site. 

At the time, the company said warehouse operations were being moved to another facility in the Tulsa area.

Together, the changes in Tulsa and Columbia affect 289 jobs at PepsiCo beverage warehouses. They also follow two earlier distribution actions within PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay business.

Frito-Lay permanently closed its Rancho Cucamonga, California, warehouse in June, affecting 248 logistics and distribution workers. Another off-site warehouse in Orlando closed in May, affecting 46 employees.

Taken together, the four actions have affected at least 583 workers in 2026.

PepsiCo shifts warehouse operations to an external logistics provider.NurPhoto / Getty Images

PepsiCo targets more supply-chain efficiency

In its second-quarter 2026 earnings report, PepsiCo said it plans to optimize its North American supply chain and go-to-market systems as part of a broader effort to improve productivity and profitability.

The company has said it expects another record year of productivity savings in 2026 and is expanding automation, digitalization, and simplification across its operations.

PepsiCo has also tested ways to combine parts of its traditionally separate food and beverage distribution networks.

During the company’s latest earnings call, CEO Ramon Laguarta discussed the expansion of “mixing centers,” which allow PepsiCo to consolidate food and beverage inventory and potentially share deliveries and vehicle fleets.

PepsiCo has historically operated much of its North American food and beverage distribution through separate warehouses, inventory systems, and delivery networks.

The company has also pursued new technology across its supply chain.

In June, PepsiCo unveiled a multiyear agreement with autonomous-freight company Gatik to expand autonomous trucking across parts of its North American food and beverage network.

PepsiCo has separately partnered with Siemens and Nvidia on digital twin and artificial intelligence technologies. They are designed to simulate factories and warehouses and identify ways to increase capacity and improve operations.

Amid these changes, the latest move adds another location to a growing list of changes across PepsiCo’s U.S. warehouse and distribution network.

Related: Mexican restaurant chain closes all locations in major market

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

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Related: Walmart’s bestselling orthopedic slip-on shoes are on sale for as low as $5 right now

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Shop more deals

StepLively 2-Piece Floral Kitchen Mats, $27 (was $30) at Amazon

Soulgenix Kitchen Rug Set, $20 (was $30) at Walmart

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