A blowout quarter and a premium customer mix are forcing the market to revisit what this franchise is worth.
American Express(AXP 0.70%) is a global payments company with a different model from the card networks most investors know. Unlike Visa and Mastercard, which mainly run transaction networks and avoid lending, American Express issues cards, extends credit, and earns meaningful fee income from premium customers. That difference mattered on Friday, when shares jumped after the company posted strong third-quarter results and lifted its full-year outlook.
Is this move noise or the start of a repricing toward peer-like valuations? I think the latter. With spending and fee income looking good and credit holding steady, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the stock’s valuation multiple expand significantly over time, catching up with the valuation multiples of Visa and Mastercard.
Image source: Getty Images.
Impressive results
It wasn’t surprising to see shares jump following the release of the company’s latest financial results. Third-quarter revenue rose 11% year over year to $18.4 billion, and earnings per share increased 19% to $4.14. Card member spend growth accelerated to 9% (up from 7% growth in Q2). Management also raised full-year guidance, saying it expects 9% to 10% revenue growth and earnings per share of $15.20 to $15.50.
Driving the quarter, the company’s cardmember fee income climbed 18% year over year as more customers adopted its premium cards, which offer travel and lifestyle perks in exchange for annual fees. Additionally, net interest income rose 12%.
Credit metrics look good, too. American Express’s provision for credit losses declined year over year on a lower reserve build. And the company’s net write-off rate held at 1.9%, flat from a year ago and from the prior quarter. For a credit card issuer that keeps credit risk on its own balance sheet, steady write-offs and a lighter reserve build point to disciplined underwriting even as spend grows rapidly.
What makes American Express different
Of course, American Express doesn’t differentiate itself from Visa and Mastercard just by extending credit and charging substantial card fees across its flagship products. The company’s value proposition in the premium space is perhaps the company’s greatest edge. This is fresh on investors’ minds because American Express recently refreshed its U.S. consumer and business Platinum products — and it’s working; new U.S. Platinum account acquisitions in the three weeks following the refresh doubled versus pre-refresh levels, management said in its third-quarter update. Considering that the refresh came with a substantially higher annual fee, that kind of customer response suggests pricing power with the customers who spend the most, use travel benefits, and stay loyal.
Driving home just how premium American Express’s cardmembers are, they spend an average of three times more on their cards than the average spend per card on other networks.
Valuation still trails far behind Visa and Mastercard
Even after the rally, American Express trades at a lower price-to-earnings multiple than the pure networks Visa and Mastercard. The two peers earn higher valuations for their capital-light models, which carry less credit risk and produce steady cash flow. That premium makes sense.
Depending on how you look at it, however, there are also reasons that American Express may deserve a premium. Visa and Mastercard may take on less risk, but American Express participates in more of the profit pool per dollar of spend and has more control over the customer’s overall experience — an advantage that is likely key to helping the company cater to higher spenders.
Ultimately, if American Express can show that its approach is leading to a better customer experience, including higher engagement and greater lifetime customer spend while maintaining good credit metrics, investors may be willing to narrow the gap between American Express’s valuation multiple and its pure network peers.
Of course, being an integrated payments company requires carefully balancing underwriting and incentives to bolster cardmember spending. A surprise rise in delinquencies would pressure earnings. Likewise, a slowdown in the macroeconomic environment could hit discount revenue, customer acquisition trends, and even lending. These factors could keep the valuation discount in place longer than bulls expect.
Still, there’s a lot to like — especially given the stock’s fair price-to-earnings multiple of about 23. This compares to Visa and Mastercard’s price-to-earnings ratios of 34 and 38, respectively. With strong financials in the context of its valuation, American Express stock looks compelling. Revenue is growing at double-digit rates, spend is accelerating, and fee income tied to its premium cards is doing the heavy lifting. Management’s playbook of regularly refreshing its products and deepening engagement while broadening acceptance shows up in the numbers and in guidance.
If American Express’s momentum persists, a narrower valuation gap with Visa and Mastercard makes sense. Friday’s surge looks less like a spike and more like the start of a reset in how investors price this franchise. After years of consistent growth and strong credit metrics, investors might start seeing the company’s integrated payment model as a key competitive advantage worthy of a significantly higher premium.
American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Daniel Sparks and his clients have positions in American Express. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Mastercard and Visa. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Ausbil Investment Management Ltd disclosed a purchase of approximately $4.31 million in NextEra Energy(NEE -0.50%) shares, according to an SEC filing for the period ended September 30, 2025.
What Happened
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated October 08, 2025, Ausbil increased its position in NextEra Energy by 58,977 shares during the quarter. The fund held 140,270 shares, worth $11.04 million as of quarter-end.
What Else to Know
Fund bought shares, bringing its NextEra Energy stake to 5.9% of reportable AUM
Top holdings after the filing:
NEE: $11.04 million (5.9% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
NSC: $10.08 million (5.4% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
CSX: $10.06 million (5.4% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
LNG: $7.71 million (4.1% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
ES: $7.32 million (3.9% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
As of October 8, 2025, shares were priced at $84.04, up 4.4% in the past year, underperforming the S&P 500 by 10.65 percentage points over the same period.
Company Overview
Metric
Value
Revenue (TTM)
$25.90 billion
Net Income (TTM)
$5.92 billion
Dividend Yield
2.64%
Price (as of market close 10/08/25)
$84.04
Company Snapshot
NextEra Energy generates, transmits, and distributes electric power through wind, solar, nuclear, coal, and natural gas facilities, with a growing portfolio in renewable energy and battery storage projects.
The company operates a regulated utility business and develops long-term contracted clean energy assets, earning revenue primarily from electricity sales and energy infrastructure services.
It serves about 11 million people through roughly 5.7 million customer accounts on the east and lower west coasts of Florida as of December 31, 2021.
NextEra Energy, Inc. is a leading North American utility and renewable energy provider with significant scale and a diversified generation portfolio. Its strategic focus on renewables and grid modernization positions it as a key player in the transition to sustainable energy.
Foolish Take
Ausbil Investment Management’s decision to acquire more than $4.3 million worth of NextEra Energy stock looks like a big bet on a stock that has underperformed the benchmark S&P 500 over the last year. Bear in mind, following this purchase, NextEra Energy is now Ausbil’s largest single position. The stock now represents nearly 6% of its total AUM, meaning the portfolio managers have strong conviction in NextEra’s potential.
Nevertheless, NextEra’s three-year performance isn’t anything to write home about. Shares have generated a three-year total return of only 18%, which equates to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has generated a total return of 90% over that same period and a CAGR of 23.8%.
In other words, this is a notable buy, as it shows at least one large institutional money manager is making a significant bet on NextEra stock. Given the company’s key role within the North American utility industry and its focus on renewables and sustainable energy, investors who are seeking exposure to the utility sector may be well served by giving NextEra stock a closer look.
That said, NextEra’s chronic underperformance versus the S&P 500 should also be taken into account. No institutional move should ever be the sole reason for buying or selling a stock, and while this move is significant, NextEra stock still has much to prove.
Glossary
13F reportable AUM: Assets under management reported by institutional investment managers on SEC Form 13F, covering certain U.S. securities. Dividend Yield: Annual dividends per share divided by the share price, expressed as a percentage. Regulated utility: A utility company whose rates and operations are overseen by government agencies to protect consumers. Long-term contracted clean energy assets: Renewable energy projects with multi-year agreements to sell electricity at set prices. Grid modernization: Upgrading electric power infrastructure to improve reliability, efficiency, and support for renewable energy. Battery storage projects: Facilities that store electricity for later use, helping balance supply and demand on the grid. Stake: The ownership interest or shareholding an investor holds in a company. Trailing the S&P 500: Underperforming the S&P 500 index over a specified period. TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report. Quarter-end: The last day of a fiscal quarter, used for financial reporting and valuation. Contracted revenue: Income guaranteed by signed agreements, often over multiple years.
Jake Lerch has positions in Norfolk Southern. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Cheniere Energy and NextEra Energy. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Tilray Brands surged after posting stronger-than-expected quarterly results and renewed optimism around U.S. cannabis reform.
Tilray Brands Inc(TLRY 21.51%) rose 22.09% to close at $2.10 after reporting better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results. Trading volume reached 297.6 million shares, about four times its three-month average of 71 million. In intraday trading, the company reached a new 52-week high of $2.32.
The S&P 500(^GSPC -0.28%) slipped 0.28% to 6,735.11, while the Nasdaq Composite(^IXIC -0.08%) also edged lower as investors rotated toward smaller growth and speculative names.
Peers in the cannabis sector advanced alongside Tilray. Canopy Growth Corp(CGC 7.84%) gained 7.84% closing at $1.65, and SNDL Inc(SNDL 7.03%) added 7.03% closing at $2.82, both supported by stronger sentiment for U.S. cannabis policy changes.
Tilray’s earnings, released before the open, showed net revenue of $209.5 million, up 5% year-over-year, and net income of $1.5 million, reversing a prior loss. Margins narrowed slightly, but the company improved cash flow and reaffirmed its full-year profitability outlook, helping bolster confidence in its ongoing diversification strategy beyond cannabis.
Market data sourced from Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
Daily Stock News has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. This article was generated with GPT-5, OpenAI’s large-scale language generation model and has been reviewed by The Motley Fool’s AI quality control systems. The Motley Fool recommends SNDL and Tilray Brands. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
CoreWeave just signed a $14 billion deal with Meta.
Few stocks are as directly exposed to artificial intelligence as CoreWeave (CRWV 0.72%). The AI cloud infrastructure company reinvented itself, transitioning from a crypto mining company by repurposing its GPUs to provide AI computing power to customers like Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI.
With the AI boom in full swing, that business model has led to jaw-dropping growth. In its second quarter, its revenue jumped 206% to $1.21 billion, showing how fast demand for its services is ramping up.
Now, CoreWeave just got another shot in the arm as the stock jumped 12% on Tuesday after announcing another blockbuster deal, this time with Meta Platforms (META 1.35%).
Image source: Getty Images.
What’s happening with CoreWeave and Meta?
Meta is committing to spend up to $14.2 billion through 2032 on cloud computing capacity from CoreWeave, with an option to expand its commitment.
The deal comes at a time when Meta has been ramping up its spending on AI, seeing it as a must-win for its future. In June, Meta acquired a 49% stake in Scale AI, a data-labeling start-up, and poached its CEO, Alexandr Wang, to run its new AI lab.
On the same day that the CoreWeave news came out, Meta also announced that it’s buying the chip start-up Rivos, which designs chips based on RISC-V architecture, an alternative to those used by leading CPU architecture designers Arm, Intel, and AMD. Rivos is also expected to help Meta build out full-stack AI systems.
For CoreWeave, the deal builds on the earlier momentum it earned when it signed an expanded $6.5 billion agreement with OpenAI in September, bringing its total contract with OpenAI to $22.4 billion.
The drumbeat of positive news for AI includes rival Nebius’s $17 billion deal with Microsoft, Oracle’s huge cloud computing forecast, and CoreWeave’s own wins, including OpenAI, Meta, and a $6.3 billion deal with Nvidia, in which it will buy any of CoreWeave’s unused capacity, effectively backstopping the company’s growth.
Those news items, and improving sentiment around CoreWeave, sparked a recovery in the stock last month. After falling by more than 50% from its peak in June, CoreWeave jumped more than 50% off its lows early in September.
Is CoreWeave overvalued?
CoreWeave is a challenging stock to value. The company is delivering phenomenal top-line growth, but it’s also reporting huge losses. The company’s business model is risky. It’s borrowing billions of dollars to buy Nvidia GPUs and build out the infrastructure to provide next-generation AI computing.
That high-interest debt has also led CoreWeave to pay significant interest expense, set to be above $1 billion this year, essentially preventing CoreWeave from turning a profit.
For most stocks, to determine an appropriate valuation, you just look at the numbers. However, CoreWeave is in a class of its own. Given its growth rate, in which revenue is still tripling, the upside potential for the stock is tremendous, and conventional cloud computing businesses like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure have shown how profitable cloud computing can be at scale.
Rather than parsing the numbers for CoreWeave to determine whether the stock is overvalued, investors are better off considering the future of the AI boom. If the massive capex buildout continues, including on CoreWeave’s infrastructure, the stock is a good bet to be a winner. At a market cap of $66 billion, the stock still has room to move higher.
However, if the AI boom turns into a bubble and spending suddenly slows, CoreWeave is likely to plunge. While it’s locked in multi-billion-dollar deals with the likes of Meta, the company will need more of those to turn profitable and justify its current valuation.
Either way, expect the volatility in the stock to continue.
Jeremy Bowman has positions in Amazon, Arm Holdings, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Intel, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends Nebius Group and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft, and short November 2025 $21 puts on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
THE Chancellor has been dealt another setback after borrowing hit the highest level in five years, making Budget tax rises “inevitable”.
The Government borrowed more money than expected last month, at £18billion, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This was £3.5billion more than in August 2024.
1
Experts suggest tax rises are inevitable as borrowing soars
The interest on Government debt soared by £1.9billion to £8.4billion, which added to higher spending on benefits and public services.
This offset any boost from the National Insurance Contributions hike, the ONS said.
It marked the highest August borrowing since 2020, significantly overshooting the £12.8billion expected by economists.
The level of government borrowing was £5.5billion higher than the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast in March.
Meanwhile, borrowing for the first five months of the financial year hit £83.8billion.
This was £16.2billion higher than the same period last year and well ahead of the OBR’s £72.4billion prediction.
Martin Beck, chief economist at WPI Strategy, said: “The £10billion buffer the Chancellor pencilled in against her key fiscal rule in March has almost certainly gone.
“That means tax rises in November look inevitable.”
James Murray, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, insisted the Government “has a plan to bring down borrowing because taxpayer money should be spent on the country’s priorities, not on debt interest”.
He added: “Our focus is on economic stability, fiscal responsibility, ripping up needless red tape, tearing out waste from our public services, driving forward reforms and putting more money in working people’s pockets.”
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Ethereum has broken past $3,800 for the first time since December 2024, driven by major whale accumulation and a growing pipeline of technical upgrades. The upcoming Fusaka fork, expected in November this year, is a key step toward Ethereum’s next phase of scalability, while developers are already gearing up for Glamsterdam, a major execution-layer upgrade after Fusaka.
Behind the scenes, institutional firms are quietly amassing ETH, betting big on the future of decentralized finance and Ethereum’s role as its core infrastructure. On-chain data shows whales and institutions have accumulated 681,103 ETH (worth over $2.5 billion) since July 1, according to Lookonchain.
Meanwhile, XRP has solidified its position as the third-largest crypto by market cap, hovering just shy of its all-time high, at $3.50. The rise of Ripple’s crypto comes after favorable regulatory calls, which opened new institutional doorways into XRP, including a ProShares XRP leveraged ETF.
Together, these moves have pushed the CMC Altcoin Season Index to 57, up from 12 in April of this year. Historically, when Ethereum outperforms Bitcoin, altcoins follow. Capital rotation from BTC to altcoins comes next, and often new tokens gain unprecedented momentum, sometimes reaching all-time highs.
We reviewed four popular cryptocurrencies that could define this altseason. Each of our choices offers different utility and thesis, making them suitable for different investor and trader profiles.
Snorter Bot (SNORT)
With the growing number of meme coin launches on Solana, traders desperately need tools to stay on top of a chaotic market. Snorter Bot offers what many meme coin traders have been calling for: automated sniping tools and lightning-fast execution ready at hand.
To ensure the bot doesn’t aim at any rotten apples, it comes equipped with advanced rugpull and honeypot detection. Protective measures like these have become paramount in an environment where over 98% of all meme coins launched on Pump.fun exhibited rugpull and pump-and-dump characteristics.
SNORT token holders also pay 0.85% transaction fees for operating the bot, compared to the 1.5% paid by users who don’t own the token. Additionally, token holders unlock the bot’s complete feature set, which includes unlimited snipes and copy trading. The latter can be an excellent tool for automatically replicating the trades that are making pro traders a fortune.
The experts at Cryptonews believe this is an easy 100x thanks to Snorter Bot’s fast and secure swaps, limit orders, and copy trading, the full potential of which is only possible with SNORT.
Snorter Bot has already raised over $2 million in its presale and offers a dynamic yield of 186% for those who stake the token. With the growing number of meme coin launches during the altseason, demand for valuable tools is likely to increase, and SNORT is well-positioned to benefit from this trend. Visit Snorter Bot Presale.
Jupiter (JUP)
Jupiter is one of the largest DeFi platforms of Solana with nearly $3 billion in total value locked (TVL), according to DeFillama. This is one of the most profitable platforms with an annualized revenue of $224 million as of June 2025.
That’s not surprising given how fast the project has grown. What started as a simple price aggregator is now a fully-fledged ecosystem that offers fast token swaps with recurring purchases and limit orders, advanced manual meme coin trading (on Jup Pro), and a perpetual futures platform.
While users can trade ETH, SOL, and BTC with leverage on the Perps platform, it’s still far from the level of Hyperliquid, which offers faster execution and a significantly wider range of cryptocurrencies to trade. Despite that, it shows what the team is capable of if they decide to expand on their offering.
JUP is the governance token of Jupiter that incentivizes voting by rewarding voters with more JUP tokens. In the past, JUP voters also received allocations from all tokens that launched via the Jupiter launchpad, including Zeus and DeBridge.
Recently, a partnership between Jupiter and Huma Finance allowed JUP stakers to participate in the HUMA presale at a fixed price of $0.0075. Currently, HUMA trades at $0.03858, giving presale investors a return of over 400%. Rumors suggest that a similar scenario could unfold with the upcoming Meteora token launch, where JUP stakers will receive a presale allocation with conditions similar to those of the HUMA presale.
Emijaop.Turbo, an analyst on X, predicts JUP will trade at $3 before the end of the year, which would represent a 400% increase from current prices.
TOKEN6900 (T6900)
TOKEN6900 is a new meme coin presale that latches onto and aims to outperform its peer, SPX6900. With a parodic view of both the financial and cryptocurrency markets, suggesting that we’re past the stage where trading makes sense, it caters to those disillusioned with the absurdity of modern finance.
Unlike other meme coins that offer, or pretend to offer, some utility, TOKEN6900 promises nothing. There’s no roadmap to look forward to, no utility, and no promises. This meme coin thrives simply on “Vibe Liquidity.”
And while it has nothing to offer but memes and the chance to be part of something that could potentially become epic, TOKEN6900 does pay out staking rewards during its presale. A dynamic yield of 66% could be enough for early investors to increase their holdings without making new purchases.
Borch Crypto, a popular crypto YouTube analyst, believes T6900 could explode soon because it features the same vibes and humor as SPX6900 and could attract a similar profile (and number) of investors.
Once the presale ends, the token will list at $0.007125 with a hard cap of $5 million. Compared to the nearly $2 billion market cap of SPX6900, T6900’s value is a drop in the ocean, giving it enormous potential to grow. TOKEN6900 has already raised close to $1 million in its presale, showing strong demand. This might be a second chance for anyone who missed SPX6900. Visit TOKEN6900 Presale.
Hyperliquid (HYPE)
Hyperliquid is the most popular decentralized perpetual exchange, aiming to bridge the gap between centralized exchanges and DeFi. It offers near-instant trading with zero gas fees, no wallet connect popups, and a clean UI.
These features have been made possible thanks to its own Layer-1 blockchain, which doesn’t rely on Ethereum or Solana to execute orders. This means the platform isn’t bottlenecked by congestion issues or architectural design choices on other chains.
The platform supports direct deposits from over 30 chains, and users gain access to spot, margin, and perpetual futures. Hyperliquid gained popularity in the past few months thanks to James Wynn, a prominent crypto trader who turned $4 million into $90 million, before losing it all while trading BTC with 40x leverage.
HYPE is the platform’s native token, providing governance rights, while also being used to cover gas fees on the Hyperliquid blockchain. While there are staking rewards, the rate is low, around 2%, and may not be suitable for all investors.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. ModernDiplomacy.eu is not a licensed crypto-asset service provider under EU regulation (MiCA). Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and involve significant risk. Always conduct your own research and consult a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions.
‘Holiday hopping’ is a growing travel trend among Britons and one UK region in particular has been singled out as the ultimate hotspot for its natural beauty and historic landmarks
Lake Windermere is just one example of Cumbria’s many great staycation destinations(Image: Chris Dobson / SWNS.com)
The emergence of a new travel trend has seen one UK region enjoy renewed popularity. The trend known as ‘holiday hopping’ has Britons booking consecutive stays at multiple holiday cottages to maximise their time off.
The new staycation trend is leading to a surge in multi-destination bookings ahead of summer 2025, reports holiday letting provider, holidaycottages.co.uk. Looking into their booking data, the provider reports that multiple regions in the UK have distinguished themselves as ‘holiday hopping’ hotspots, but one is the standout winner.
Cumbria is the UK’s top region for holiday hopping adventures with its abundance of national treasures including the clear waters and mountains of the Lake District and historic sites like Hadrian’s Wall.
Hadrian’s Wall stretches 73 miles from coast to coast and was built to guard the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire(Image: PA)
Located in the heart of Cumbria in the north west of England, the Lake District is one of the most picturesque destinations in the country. One of the most prominent features of the District is Scafell Pike – the 978 metre-tall mountain that is the tallest in England.
Cumbria is well known for its mountains as 10 of England’s tallest mountains are all located in the Lake District. But beyond the lakes and mountains that first come to mind with the mention of Cumbria, the region has plenty to offer hungry and rest-seeking holidaymakers.
According to holidaycottages.co.uk, Cumbria is an enticing destination for food-focused travellers. Here, foodies can “indulge in local delicacies such as Cumberland sausage and visit one of the many farmers markets or independent cafés or restaurants”.
For the uninitiated, Cumberland sausage has been a local specialty for around 500 years and is notably sold in a coil rather than links. It is defined by a unique blend of spices is typically longer and thicker than other sausages.
Cumberland sausage is known for its unique coiled shape(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Another Cumbrian specialty is Cumberland sauce which is the perfect complement for cold cuts. The savoury and fruity blend combines red currant jelly, mustard, salt, pepper, cloves, orange peel and port.
The letting provider also makes note of the top destination pairings for summer 2025, listing Cumbria and North Yorkshire as a winning combination. North Yorkshire came in second on the provider’s list of top UK holiday hopping hotspots for its dramatic cliffs and Viking history.
Other great destination pairings for staycationers to consider include North Cornwall and West Cornwall and Norfolk and Suffolk. Suffolk promises “a tranquil escape with its golden beaches, nature reserves, and charming countryside” according to the letting provider.
The holiday hopping trend’s rising popularity mirrors a shift towards more meaningful, responsible travel. The flexibility, freedom, and the chance to provide valuable support to multiple local businesses along the way is of great appeal to travellers.
Universal Pictures’ “How To Train Your Dragon” soared over the competition this weekend, as family-friendly films continued their dominance at the box office.
The live-action adaptation of the animated franchise from DreamWorks Animation grossed $83.7 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates.
It beat out fellow live-action remake “Lilo & Stitch” from Walt Disney Co., which hauled in $15 million over the weekend for a cumulative total of $366 million so far after 24 days. A24’s “Materialists,” Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” and Lionsgate’s “Ballerina” rounded out the top five.
Expectations were high for the Universal film, which revives a profitable franchise for the studio.
The original animated movie was released in 2010 and grossed nearly $495 million in global box office revenue. A sequel soon followed in 2014 and brought in more than $621 million worldwide. The most recent film in the trilogy, “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” came out in 2019 and made almost $540 million globally.
“How to Train Your Dragon” comes at an opportune time for family films. After a lackluster first quarter at the box office, theater attendance has been turbocharged, at least in part by the success of kid-friendly movies such as Warner Bros. Pictures “A Minecraft Movie” and Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch.”
Though family audiences were initially slow to return after the pandemic, movies that appeal to those theatergoers have turned out to be box office juggernauts.
Last summer, Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me 4” drove theater revenues at a time when the industry was collectively wringing its hands after a slow Memorial Day weekend.
This summer, “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Lilo & Stitch” are demonstrating the power of the hybrid film, which combines live actors with computer-animated creatures — a strategy that has proved valuable, said David A. Gross, who writes movie industry newsletter FranchiseRe.
The trend began back in 1988 with Robert Zemeckis’ “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” but has seen recent success with films like Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchise and StudioCanal’s “Paddington” movies.
“It’s just a logical step in computer filmmaking,” Gross said. “It’s a very powerful storytelling tool.”
OJAI — You can’t escape nature in Ojai. That meant that flutist Claire Chase, this year’s Ojai Music Festival music director who is often called a force of nature, fit right in.
Chase is the proudest flutist I’ve ever observed. And the most expressive. She holds her head high whether playing piccolo or the 6-foot contrabass flute, as if her instrument were a magic wand used to activate her voice in the highest registers and the deepest.
The activism is more than an analogy. Chase is also a joyous and entrepreneurial music activist, MacArthur “genius,” educator, founder of New York’s impressive International Contemporary Ensemble and commissioner of a vastly imaginative new flute repertory in her ongoing Density 2036 project. The current surge of interest in Pauline Oliveros is largely her doing.
For Ojai, Chase collected concerned composers on a quest for a kind of eco-sonics capable of conjuring up the pleasure of nature and, in the process, saving our sanity. Over four days of concerts mostly in the rustic Libbey Bowl, the names of many of the works gave away the game.
“The Holy Liftoff,” “Horse Sings From Cloud,” “How Forests Think,” “Spirit Catchers,” “A Grain of Sand Walked Across a Face, on the Skin of a Washed Picture,” are a few.
The festival’s proudest moment (30 minutes to be precise) was the West Coast premiere of Susie Ibarra’s “Sky Islands.” It was the last work in a resplendent Sunday morning program that Chase described as “multi-spiritual” and “multi-species.” The sun found its way through the trees as the composer and percussionist Levy Lorenzo stood in front of the stage and began with a ceremonial pounding of bamboo poles.
“Sky Islands” evokes the magical Philippines upper rainforests, where sounds scintillate in a thinned atmosphere that gives gongs new glories, where animals capable of great ascension exclusively live, where the mind is ready for enlightenment. Ibarra wrote the score for her Talking Gong Trio (which includes Chase and pianist Alex Peh) along with added percussion and a string quartet, here the Jack Quartet.
To the head-scratching surprise of the music establishment that has thus far paid little attention to Ibarra, “Sky Islands” won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for music. A Filipino American from Anaheim who is now based in New York, Ibarra is best known as a percussionist in experimental jazz and new music with a strong interest in environmental sound installations and Indigenous music.
The head scratching stopped in Ojai. In the three works by Ibarra on the program, she proved a capacious sonic visionary. She is a superb mimic of nature’s aural realm — the sounds of animals, of a river, of trees in the wind, of rocks falling down a hillside. She stirs spirits with the barely heard whooshes of drum brushes waved in the air. She connects with the underground as a resonant gong master. She stops to smell whatever there is to smell. She’s often funny.
Mainly, though, she simply entrances, whether she spread her percussive wares in “Kolubri” or writing for other musicians in “Sunbird” on a misty early morning at Ojai Meadows Preserve. Her lovingly sly Haydn-esque wit came out in the premiere of “Nest Box,” a duo for her and Wu Wei on sheng, the Chinese mouth organ.
Steven Schick (percussion), from left, Wu Wei (sheng) and Susie Ibarra (percussion) perform Annea Lockwood’s “bayou-borne” in Libbey Bowl at the 2025 Ojai Music Festival.
(Timothy Teague / Ojai Festival)
Gauging by the audience response, “Sky Islands” was the clear favorite of more than three dozen new or newish works. It is a complex piece that appears to set off on a well-apportioned journey led by Chase into the unknown. But at every turn, the music surprises with a melody that feels familiar until it suddenly doesn’t.
Ibarra leaves room for improvisation as a way for the performers to react to what they are encountering. Chase and Ibarra may, for instance, begin a dialogue as nervous chit-chat with staccato flute interjections with drummed responses that soon turn to broad expressions of wonder. At the end the musicians pick up percussion instruments and leave the stage in a slow, winding procession of dance steps, as if marching into the unknown.
Chase brought together other composers from all over. And she brought together superb musicians from L.A. (particularly members of Wild Up) and New York. The music was all of our time with the exception of three small pieces of early music, but even that was modernized. There was long-winded indulgence and lovely itty-bitty works, over in a flash but suggestive of a full and lovely life, like that of an insect.
The spirit of the Ojai festival need not be conveyed by a laundry list of composers and works or by value judgments. At its best, the event is a musical wilderness, like no other festival of its caliber. The audience goes on a walk in the woods, with nature calling for discovery.
Around every corner you encounter a different musical voice. Hawaiian composer and violist Leilehua Lanzilotti rocked. Cuban composer Tania León added dollops of exciting modernism. Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir commanded long stretches of empty landscape. Brazilian composer Marcos Balter conjured up the mythological Pan in a sometimes outrageous nine-part theatrical extravaganza for Chase.
New Zealander Annea Lockwood offered a 90-minute journey down the Housatonic River captured by loudspeakers in surround sound. In contrast, Australian Liza Lim, in raw instrumental outbursts, revealed the less agreeable possibilities of what forests may think (of us?).
And then there was, at long last for Ojai, the elephant in the minimalism room, the iconic California composer Terry Riley. His “In C” is the one piece Ojai has previously programmed. As Riley now approaches his 90th birthday (June 24), Chase unveiled three parts of an epic cycle of uncategorized pieces Riley has been working on since moving to the mountains of Japan five years ago.
“Pulsing Lifters,” in an arrangement for two pianos and harpsichord, is like a delicate dew. “The Holy Liftoff” realized by Samuel Clay Birmaher for flute and string quartet, opens with Chase on all five of her flutes, one played live, the others prerecorded. The effect is that of being submerged in a lush wash of beauteous flute chords. Riley then softens the spectacularly rigorous Jack Quartet with Ravel-like melody.
In “Pulsefield” pieces numbered 1, 2 and 3, Riley returns to the modular roots of “In C” a half century later. Here repeated rhythms are overlayed by a large ensemble featuring all the festival performers in ecstatic elaborations.
If this, one of the best and truest Ojai festivals in recent years, is meant not for explication but discovery, please do so. The festival has been slowly evolving a system of outdoor amplification, and it captures excellent audio on streams of the Libbey Bowl concerts. They remain archived on the OJai festival YouTube page.
Next year Esa-Pekka Salonen will return for the first time in a quarter century.
Bitcoin just hit a new all-time high (ATH), but Solana is setting the pace among crypto majors with a 6.8% gain today. Can it rally to $200 this month?
Meanwhile, the new Solana layer 2 Solaxy displays incredible strength in its presale, raising $39 million. Will this follow Solana’s lead and explode once it hits exchanges?
Solana Outpaces Peers as Ecosystem Explodes
The market is euphoric right now, with Bitcoin trading above $110,000 and altcoins green across the board.
But amidst this excitement, Solana leads the way among large-cap cryptos. With a 6.8% gain in the past 24 hours, it has just tapped the $180 level.
This makes it the best-performing top five crypto by market cap today, underlining that investors are eager to get involved as market conditions show positive signs.
But this momentum extends beyond $SOL and into its ecosystem tokens. Solana-based meme coin SPX6900 is the biggest gainer among the top 100 cryptos by market cap today, with a 24% gain. It’s followed by fellow Solana meme coins Fartcoin and Dogwifhat, up 21% and 20%, respectively.
It’s no surprise that Solana leads the way in terms of daily active users among all blockchains, with 4.5 million people interacting with it today alone. This figure stretches to a staggering 82 million users over the last month, almost double the next-most-active blockchain, Near Protocol, with 42 million daily active users.
Solana’s vibrant ecosystem is the reason it’s performing so well today, and judging by its on-chain activity, there’s no sign that it will slow down anytime soon. With that in mind, Solana looks poised for an uptrend continuation, but what does its chart say?
Expert Says Solana to Break $200 Within 1 Month
A breakout above $180 will spark a rally to $200 and beyond, says prominent crypto analyst Posty.
He awaited $SOL to retest the $150 level, but noted that it displayed too much strength. Now, he thinks that’s unlikely to happen. Rather, he anticipates a breakout above $180, followed by an upswing to $200, which will happen in early June.
The analyst’s price chart displays the next major resistance level after $180 at $220, suggesting that could be the next target.
But what’s interesting is that analysts don’t believe that $SOL will slow down once it hits $200, or even once it hits $250. Rather, this might just be the start. According to long-term Solana holder Jelle, $SOL could explode to between $350 and $450 once it breaches its current $250 all-time high (ATH).
From a fundamental standpoint, Solana is solid. From a technical outlook, things are even more exciting. With that, we could certainly see $SOL rally to $200 in the near future and then potentially well beyond that level.
As Solana gains pace, analysts are also backing new project Solaxy to see huge gains, given its promising use case and massive presale raise.
Solana Layer-2 Project Solaxy Tipped to 100X as Presale Nears $40M
Solaxy is building the world’s first Solana layer 2 blockchain to resolve the network’s pressing congestion issue.
Although Solana is highly scalable, it can become overwhelmed in periods of peak network activity, leading to longer wait times and increased rates of transaction failures.
Solaxy will solve this with off-chain computation and rollup technology, aiming to provide cheaper, faster, and more reliable transactional throughput than if users were to trade directly on the Solana layer 1 chain.
If it achieves its goal, Solaxy will enable Solana to function flawlessly at all times and even open the network to new use cases.
We’ve seen Solana meme coins make huge gains today, so there’s every chance that $SOLX also explodes. As to how far it could go, Umar Khan from 99Bitcoins thinks it could 100x.
The $SOLX presale has raised a staggering $39 million so far, showing huge investor support.
However, it’s set to end in 25 days, so there’s little time for prospective buyers to get involved.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and the market can be unpredictable. Always perform thorough research before making any cryptocurrency-related decisions.
Bitcoin has just hit $111K for the first time in history, sending waves of excitement through the crypto market.
As Bitcoin rises, investors are becoming increasingly confident in their altcoin positions. This is attracting more liquidity to the market and allowing prices to soar.
Seasoned traders understand that this creates an opportunity for massive gains.
With that in mind, here are our top five picks of the best crypto to buy now:
BTC Bull Token
BTC Bull Token is a Bitcoin-themed meme coin that pays real Bitcoin rewards. As the Bitcoin price rises, investors will seek ways to outperform the market leader with altcoins.
With both a meme coin allure and native Bitcoin rewards on offer, BTC Bull Token will be a no-brainer for many of these investors.
BTC Bull Token will track Bitcoin’s price and airdrop rewards to holders at key milestones. The first airdrop will occur when it hits $150K, then the next at $200K, and then there will also be a $BTCBULL airdrop at $250K.
The project even has a staking mechanism so users can lock up their $BTCBULL and earn passive rewards over time.
Solaxy is building the first-ever Solana layer 2 blockchain. During bullish market conditions, investors take bigger risks to generate more profits, and this often means investing in smaller altcoins and meme coins.
Solana is the home of countless major meme coins and tokens in other emerging sectors such as AI, DeFi, and real-world assets (RWAs). However, the network grapples with congestion issues during periods of peak network activity, leading to delays and transaction failures. This is what Solaxy will fix.
It’ll handle some of Solana’s workload and use rollup technology to increase scalability. If it achieves its goal, Solaxy will be cheaper, faster, and more reliable than Solana.
🛸 Solaxy Testnet Bridge is LIVE! 🛸
You can now bridge native SOL between Solana Devnet and Solaxy Testnet at https://t.co/BFMV1G9v4c 🔥🚀
Built with Hyperlane, this is the first step toward full cross-chain interoperability.
However, the presale is set to end in 25 days, leaving limited time for investors to get involved. Given its presale success, it appears that there will be huge demand for $SOLX once it lists on exchanges, which could translate to big gains.
Core
Behind Bitcoin, Core is the second-highest trending cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap today, but that’s no surprise. While it doesn’t carry the same viral branding as BTC Bull Token, Core is another project popular for its Bitcoin yield.
It is a Proof-of-Stake Bitcoin layer 2 blockchain that aims to integrate Bitcoin into a DeFi economy.
The project allows users to stake Bitcoin and earn rewards, transforming it into a yield-bearing asset.
There’s currently an institutional gold rush for Bitcoin, with MicroStrategy, BlackRock, and Twenty One just a couple of the big names that have made headlines for Bitcoin buys in recent weeks.
As word spreads about Bitcoin yield projects like Core and BTC Bull Token, it could awaken an even deeper interest among sophisticated players. And because these projects are valued substantially lower than Bitcoin, it takes just a relatively small amount of liquidity for their prices to soar.
OFFICIAL TRUMP
What’s interesting about Bitcoin’s all-time high (ATH) is that it came just one day before Donald Trump’s first-ever meme coin dinner, where he will host the 220 biggest holders of OFFICIAL TRUMP at the Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia.
The dinner announcement sparked a huge wave of interest in $TRUMP and squashed concerns that the President would not invest effort into developing the project or adding utility incentives.
It’s set to take place on 22 May, and Trump could announce even more token perks at the event, which may cause the price to explode.
don’t own this yet but also believe if you’re betting on Bitcoin + stock all-time high breakouts, you’ll likely also get another leg higher on all of the memecoins
As shown above, prominent meme coin influencer Ansem suggests that $TRUMP could be one of the best cryptos to buy now, underlining that it’s well-positioned for “recapturing attention” as meme coin prices rise.
Hyperliquid
Hyperliquid is the best-performing top 100 crypto by market cap today, and it’s for good reason. But before we explain why, let’s briefly explore what Hyperliquid is: it’s a decentralized perpetual futures exchange that allows users to place leveraged trades on cryptocurrencies without using a central intermediary.
The platform offers one of the largest selections of tradable tokens among all decentralized perpetual DEXes. It also boasts a seamless user experience with high speeds, low fees, and an intuitive user interface.
So why is it making headlines? A crypto whale named James Wynn has opened a $1 billion Bitcoin long on the platform. He’s risking $25 million at 40x leverage, betting on Bitcoin’s price going up.
According to the latest reports, he’s sitting at a staggering $39 million profit.
The move doesn’t just underline the potentially lucrative nature of Hyperliquid; it signals immense trust from sophisticated users.
If Bitcoin keeps rising, we could see other traders begin using Hyperliquid more, allowing the $HYPE price to keep rising.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and the market can be unpredictable. Always perform thorough research before making any cryptocurrency-related decisions.
Nvidia’s shares surged 5.6% on Tuesday, boosted by a tens-of-billions-of-dollars artificial intelligence (AI) investment plan agreed between the US and Saudi Arabia. However, the AI powerhouse’s stock remains down 4.5% year-to-date as of market close on 13 May, facing challenges stemming from US-China trade tensions and the launch of China’s DeepSeek, a lower-cost AI model.
CEO Jensen Huang was among the US tech leaders—alongside Tesla’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, AMD’s Lisa Su, Palantir’s Alex Karp, and other executives—who accompanied President Trump on his visit to Saudi Arabia. At the investment conference, the White House announced a $600 billion investment pledge by the Middle Eastern kingdom into the US, including a nearly $142 billion defence sales deal, an $80 billion commitment into “cutting-edge transformative technologies” in both countries, and other agreements across energy, aerospace, and sports sectors.
Trump also vowed to lift all sanctions against Syria during his visit, a political gesture to warm the relationship with key Middle East countries. He is also going to meet leaders of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this week.
The Middle East AI deals
Nvidia announced it will partner with HUMAIN, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund focused on AI, to transform the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) into “a global powerhouse in AI, cloud and enterprise computing, digital twins and robotics.” Nvidia will supply its most advanced AI chips over the next five years, including 18,000 units of the GB200 Grace Blackwell AI supercomputer with its InfiniBand networking in the initial phase. The purchase forms part of a broader project for HUMAIN to build AI factories in the kingdom, with a projected capacity of up to 500 megawatts.
The announcement also includes a deal with the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), which will “deploy up to 5,000 Blackwell GPUs for a sovereign AI factory and enable smart city solutions.” Aramco Digital, the technology arm of oil giant Saudi Aramco, will also collaborate with Nvidia to develop AI infrastructure in the country.
Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich nation, is seeking to diversify its economy, which still relies heavily on crude exports. The kingdom aims to attract $100 billion in foreign direct investment annually, as outlined under its Vision 2030 strategy.
According to a Bloomberg report, the Trump administration is also considering a deal with the UAE, which would permit the import of over one million advanced Nvidia chips—well above the export limits imposed under the Biden administration.
Other major US tech firms, including AMD, Global AI, Amazon, Cisco, and OpenAI, also announced AI investment plans in Saudi Arabia during the event.
The US scraps Biden’s AI diffusion rule
Trump’s Middle East trip is shaping up to be a major win for US AI chipmakers, as the president looks to ease export curbs to China. On the same day, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced that it is rescinding the AI diffusion rule imposed during former President Joe Biden’s administration, which had been due to take effect on 15 May.
Biden’s administration had implemented fresh restrictions on AI chip exports to China in January, its final month in office, expanding controls to much of the world, amid concerns that China was accessing US AI chips via third countries. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE had also been subject to those restrictions.
“The Trump administration will pursue a bold, inclusive strategy to advance American AI technology with trusted foreign partners, while keeping the technology out of the hands of our adversaries. At the same time, we reject the Biden administration’s attempt to impose its own ill-conceived and counterproductive AI policies on the American people,” stated the DOC.
The department added that the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued new guidance to strengthen controls over overseas exports of AI chips to limit China’s access to advanced US technologies.
