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Looking for today’s NYT Connections hints? Some help and the answers for today’s game are right here to help keep your streak alive.

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Particularly in regional cities and various smaller communities, the closure of a community bank can leave a significant service gap.

Some of the most recent small-bank collapses occurred when Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank in Philadelphia was acquired by the Second Federal Savings and Loan Association in August 2026 while Kentfield Federal Savings and Loan Association in Kansas closed all branches last July.

In most cases where a small bank closes down or gets bought, the financial institution struggles to compete with larger players to have the scale necessary to justify the high costs of staying on top of all government legal and compliance requirements.

While far from shutting down, the most recent banking institution to announce large-scale closures is Arkansas-based Simmons Bank.

Simmons Bank says “evolving customer preferences” are behind 26 bank location closures

In a Sept. 3 filing with the  U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), parent company Simmons First National Corporation certified plans to close 26 locations across Arkansas and some neighboring states by December 2026.

“The Company’s decision was made as part of a broader review of the Company’s retail network strategy, and the Branch Closures are intended to align Simmons Bank’s branch network with evolving customer preferences while maintaining customer access, preserving service levels, and continuing to provide advice, guidance, and financial solutions through nearby branches and other banking channels,” the filing reads.

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Founded in 1903 by Arkansas physician Dr. John Franklin Simmons, Simmons Bank was one of the few banks in the state to survive the Great Depression and over the decades became an early adopter of credit cards and international transfers. In a period of growth, it acquired several smaller Arkansas banks in the 2010s but ultimately ran into fairly typical problems of overexpansion and rising costs.

The bank closures are part of the company’s efforts to cut costs and improve earnings after recently missing Wall Street revenue expectations at $248.6 million quarterly revenue despite sales that rose by 12.5%. At the moment, Simmons operates 220 bank locations across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

Simmons Bank was founded in 1903 by an Arkansas physician.Simmons Bank

Which Simmons Bank branches are closing down

Similar to many smaller banks, many serve a loyal customer base built over decades in a given community. The closures include locations in Arkansas cities like Jonesboro, North Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Fort Smith.

The bank said that it expects disruptions to be limited as “there is no significant geographic concentration among the affected locations.” Any customer who has an account at a branch that is set to close down will be transferred to the nearest location as Simmons makes a greater push to increase digital services in general.

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The locations are expected to be shut down by December 4 while the closures will affect approximately 100 employees working at the closing branches. In the filing, Simmons said that it hopes to rehire at least 70% of the affected employees at other locations.

The filing also said that Simmons expects to incur between $20 million and $23 million in expenses related to the closures but they are part of a wider strategy to have fewer underperforming branches in the long run.

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Snowflake recently delivered one of its strongest quarters in years, prompting Wall Street to take notice. 

In an investor note shared with me, Morgan Stanley analyst Sanjit Singh raised his price target on the cloud data company to $470 from $300, keeping his “Overweight” rating intact.

Valued at a market cap of $106 billion, SNOW stock is priced at $356 at the time of writing. Over the last three years, SNOW stock has more than doubled. 

A higher stock price target comes after Snowflake posted its third straight quarter of accelerating revenue growth, a trend that’s rare for a company of its size.

Singh called it “an AI-powered growth flywheel that is still in the early innings.” 

Snowflake stock climbs on earnings beat

Snowflake (SNOW) reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Sept. 2, and the numbers topped expectations across the board.

Product revenue came in at $1.49 billion, up 37% year over year, accelerating from 34% growth in the prior quarter and beating both the company’s own guidance and Wall Street consensus.

According to Morgan Stanley’s note, the results were “particularly strong against a ~530bps tougher YoY comparison,” meaning Snowflake grew faster even though it was being compared against a much stronger quarter from a year ago.

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Here’s a quick snapshot of the key numbers from the quarter:

Product revenue: $1.49 billion, up 37% year over year

Net revenue retention rate: 126%

Net new customers added: 692, up 32% year over year

Total customers: 14,554, up 22% year over year

Customers spending over $1 million annually: 828, up 27% year over year

Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy pointed to the breadth of that growth on the company’s earnings call, stating:

“We see the acceleration come from a very broad swath of customers. It is not concentrated, for example, with, let’s say, AI native companies. They continue to be a small part of our overall revenue stream.”

Morgan Stanley raises Snowflake stock price target

Morgan Stanley’s bullish call centers on what it describes as a flywheel effect.

Snowflake’s AI products, mainly its CoCo (formerly Cortex Code) and CoWork tools, are bringing in new customers while also pushing existing customers to use more of Snowflake’s core data platform.

Company management estimated that AI products drove about half of the quarter’s growth acceleration, with the rest coming from strength in the core business, including faster data migrations from legacy systems.

CoCo adoption jumped to more than 9,100 accounts, up over 2,000 from the prior quarter. CoWork reached 5,800 accounts, up nearly 11% quarter over quarter.

Morgan Stanley also flagged Snowflake’s operating discipline.

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Non-GAAP operating margin expanded more than 400 basis points year over year to 15%, even as the company kept hiring modestly. 

Year to date, Snowflake added 334 employees, well below the 935 it added over the same period last year.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Robins explained the approach on the earnings call.

“AI is driving greater efficiency and reducing our reliance on headcount growth,” he said, adding that the company is using its own AI tools internally across sales, finance, and marketing.

Snowflake stock price target reflects stronger guidance

Snowflake also raised its full-year outlook. 

The company now expects fiscal 2027 product revenue of $6.07 billion, representing 36% growth, up from a prior forecast of 31%. 

Third-quarter guidance calls for product revenue growth of 37% to 38%, marking another acceleration.

Morgan Stanley’s analysis suggests Snowflake has a clear path toward 40% growth in the second half of its fiscal year, a figure the firm called the “major takeaway” from the quarter.

The firm’s new $470 price target is built on a discounted cash flow model, assuming Snowflake’s revenue grows at roughly a 26% compound annual rate through 2030, with free cash flow reaching about $4.4 billion by then.

Not every metric was perfect. 

Adjusted free cash flow came in at $92 million, below both Morgan Stanley’s and Wall Street’s expectations. Product gross margin also slipped to 74.7% as AI workloads, which carry thinner margins today, made up a bigger share of revenue.

Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy expects AI to drive future growth.Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images

What’s next for Snowflake stock

Analysts project Snowflake to increase free cash flow from $1.12 billion in fiscal 2026 to $4.47 billion in fiscal 2031.

If the tech stock trades at 35x forward FCF, below the three-year average of 55x, it could return 50% over the next four years. 

Out of 35 analysts covering Snowflake stock, 32 recommend “Buy,” and three recommend “Hold.” The average SNOW stock price target is $435, 22% above current levels. 

Executives struck a confident tone about what’s ahead. “The Agentic Enterprise runs on Snowflake, and we’re just getting started,” Ramaswamy said in his closing remarks on the earnings call.

For now, Wall Street appears convinced that Snowflake’s AI bet is starting to pay off in the numbers, not just the narrative.

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Millions of travelers head to Hilton Head Island each year for its beaches, golf courses, and Lowcountry setting, making tourism one of the biggest drivers of the South Carolina island’s economy.

But visitors planning a trip later this year will find one of the island’s major oceanfront resorts unavailable for an extended period.

The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa, located at Two Grasslawn Avenue in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, is preparing to temporarily close for a major renovation.

The Marriott-branded property sits along the Atlantic Ocean and features 420 guestrooms and suites.

What has made it famous is direct beach access, outdoor pools, dining, spa services, and nearly 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space.

The closure comes in a market where hotel availability is highly important to the local economy.

Hilton Head attracts approximately 2.84 million visitors annually, according to the Chamber of Commerce, supporting thousands of local jobs.

Westin Hilton Head will be closed for months

The Westin Hilton Head resort is scheduled to close on Monday, November 2, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice reviewed by TheStreet.

Current booking information indicates the Westin Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa will remain closed from Nov. 2, 2026, through April 16, 2027, putting the property out of service for roughly five and a half months.

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The shutdown will also temporarily affect 219 employees, with layoffs scheduled to begin Nov. 3. 

The hotel said those workers are expected to be recalled once the renovation is complete.

However, the Westin cautioned that construction schedules can change, which could also shift the planned closure period and the timing of temporary layoffs and recalls. 

Employees will be notified if the schedule changes.

Westin Hilton Head Island Resort to temporarily close.neiu20001 / Getty Images

Resort changed hands in nearly $200 million deal

The planned shutdown comes less than a year after the property changed ownership.

KSL Capital Partners, a private equity firm specializing in travel and leisure investments, announced in September 2025 that its affiliates had acquired the Westin Hilton Head through its Tactical Opportunities Fund.

KSL did not disclose the purchase price in its announcement. 

However, Beaufort County property records showed the nearly 14-acre property changed hands for approximately $199.8 million on Sept. 26, 2025.

The buyer was Grasslawn Property LLC, which listed KSL Capital’s Denver office on the deed.

At the time of the acquisition, KSL described the Westin as a market-leading oceanfront resort in one of the Southeast’s most sought-after leisure destinations.

The firm said it planned to build on the property’s legacy and find new ways to further elevate the resort.

The property had already received substantial investment before the acquisition.

KSL said more than $47 million in capital enhancements had been made to the Westin since 2012. 

Its 420 guestrooms and suites had also recently been refreshed when KSL announced the purchase.

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Howmet Aerospace (HWM) had one of the roughest weeks a market favorite can have, and it happened for reasons that had almost nothing to do with the company’s actual business.

The stock dropped hard after a surprise announcement from Elon Musk, then started climbing again once Wall Street had time to read the fine print.

By the time Jim Cramer got to it on his show, the argument had already shifted from panic to opportunity.

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, during the Lightning Round segment of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” Cramer told viewers to hold or add to Howmet, calling it the best way to play aerospace, since the other names are too difficult.

For investors, that kind of call raises a fair question: Is this a bargain, or a warning?

What triggered the Howmet Aerospace sell-off

The trouble started with a post on X (the former Twitter) from Elon Musk.

Musk said SpaceX (SPCX) plans to cast its own turbine blades and vanes in-house, the intricate metal parts that sit inside the hottest section of a gas turbine.

The goal is to speed up power generation for artificial intelligence data centers, tied to a planned 20-gigawatt project in Bastrop, Texas.

Here’s why that alarmed people: Howmet is one of only a handful of companies on the planet that can make these parts, so any hint of a new rival hits a nerve fast.

Investors treated Musk’s plan as a customer turning into a competitor, and Howmet shares fell as much as 7.7% on Monday, Aug. 31, before closing down more than 8%, according to CNBC.

The stock was trading near $265 before the news hit, and it immediately crashed to a much lower price as soon as the market opened.

Howmet Aerospace makes the precision-cast turbine blades at the center of the AI power buildout.Cheng Xin / Getty Images

Why Wall Street sees the SpaceX threat as small

Two major banks pushed back within hours, and their reasoning is worth understanding before you make any decision.

Casting these blades takes decades of specialized, proprietary knowledge that a new entrant cannot buy overnight.

Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned kept his Outperform rating and raised his price target to $328 from $248, writing that he sees little risk to Howmet from the SpaceX move, GuruFocus noted.

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His core point is about scarcity. Howmet holds more than 50% of the market for these castings and has customer agreements running into 2030.

Citi analyst John Godyn agreed, keeping a Buy rating and a $329 target while opening a 30-day catalyst watch on the stock.

Godyn called the drop a unique and likely short-lived opportunity in the shares.

The read from both firms is simple. A buyer with deep pockets building its own supply is a sign of how tight capacity has become, not proof that Howmet is losing its edge.

How the AI power boom actually helps Howmet

What people overlook during the panic is that artificial intelligence helps this company’s business rather than hurting it. 

Data centers need enormous amounts of electricity, and much of that will come from natural gas turbines for years to come.

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Every one of those turbines needs the blades and vanes that Howmet makes.

That demand is already showing up in the numbers. Howmet’s gas-turbine revenue jumped 39% in the first quarter after a 25% gain across all of 2025, according to a press release.

Because supply is so tight, Howmet keeps strong pricing power, which means it can charge more without losing orders.

The company is also expanding, with six more projects expected to lift blade capacity by as much as 38% from early 2025 levels.

Rivals such as GE Vernova and Siemens Energy are racing to add casting capacity, too, which tells you the shortage is real across the whole industry.

Why Cramer trusts Howmet’s core aerospace business

Cramer’s confidence rests on more than the turbine business.

Howmet also supplies parts for jet engines, and that side of the business stays busy, even when its biggest customers struggle.

Aircraft makers including Boeing (BA) have wrestled with production delays for years, yet Howmet keeps benefiting from demand for replacement parts and defense upgrades.

Airlines need a steady supply of spare parts to keep their existing planes flying, and that recurring demand lands on Howmet, regardless of how new aircraft deliveries are going.

This is the point Cramer keeps coming back to. Howmet earns money, whether its customers are thriving or just maintaining what they already have.

That mix of engine parts and turbine blades gives the company two separate growth engines, which is rare in a single stock.

What to weigh before buying the Howmet dip

Cramer has spent more than two decades hosting “Mad Money” and ran a hedge fund before that, so his aerospace calls carry weight with many retail investors.

Still, his endorsement does not remove the risks, and there are a few you should know.

Howmet trades at a steep valuation, with a price-to-earnings ratio near 55, meaning the market already prices in strong future growth.

When a stock sits that high, any bad headline can trigger sharp swings, which is exactly what the SpaceX news showed.

Here are the key figures to keep in mind.

Howmet Aerospace by the numbers

Recent share price: About $256, partially recovered from the week’s low but below Wall Street targets

Average analyst price targets: $340, implying solid double-digit gains from current levels

Price-to-earnings ratio: About 55, a rich multiple that reflects high growth expectations

Consensus rating: Carries a Strong Buy consensus rating, with 12 of 14 analysts calling it a Buy

If you want exposure but worry about the volatility, spreading purchases over time through dollar-cost averaging can soften the effect of short-term swings.

That approach means buying a fixed dollar amount on a regular schedule instead of putting everything in at once.

The bottom line for Howmet investors

The market’s first reaction to the SpaceX news was fear, and that fear created the dip that Cramer and two major banks now want investors to consider.

The company that makes the parts still holds its lead, still has contracts locked in through 2030, and still benefits from an AI power buildout that shows no sign of slowing.

The main catch is price. 

Howmet is expensive, and expensive stocks fall fast when the news turns.

For long-term investors who believe in the aerospace and AI power story, the recent drop offers a cheaper entry point than the stock has shown in months.

For anyone uneasy with big price swings, it is much smarter to buy small amounts over time rather than rushing to buy everything during a rebound. 

Either way, the reason the stock fell had little to do with how the business is actually performing, and that gap is what Cramer is pointing his viewers toward.

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