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If Artificial Intelligence Is in a Bubble, These Are the Stocks That Could Benefit Most


Few developments have had as big an effect on the stock market over the last four years as the advancements in artificial intelligence. The promise of productivity improvements from AI has driven significant spending on the technology, including new data centers and equipment to outfit them. However, the market has started to waver in recent weeks, amid fears that all that spending might not pay off in the long run.

Semiconductor stocks are technically in a bear market after falling more than 20% since late June. Hyperscalers are under increasing scrutiny as capital expenditures push free cash flow into negative territory. The results have some investors asking whether artificial intelligence is in a bubble.

If there is an AI bubble, it could lead to further pressure on semiconductor and hyperscaler stocks. One sector that could benefit currently looks extremely cheap, and it’s worth buying now regardless of whether there’s an AI bubble.

Image source: Getty Images.

The stocks that could benefit from too much spending on AI

Earlier this year, software stocks tumbled as investors feared artificial intelligence services like Anthropic’s Claude Code could cut into their growth. Many analysts re-rated the value of current earnings because they felt future earnings growth wasn’t as predictable as it had been for many software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies.

The market indiscriminately sold off software stocks, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV +1.36%) dropping nearly 30% from the start of the year through early April. While the sector has bounced back over the last few months, there are still plenty of values in software.

If there is an AI bubble, those companies hit hardest by the software sell-off earlier this year could be some of the biggest beneficiaries. First of all, it might suggest that AI isn’t as capable of fully replacing existing enterprise software solutions as feared. While many SaaS stocks have considerable moats that would protect their businesses against AI disruption, the fear of AI disruption has remained a significant overhang on stock prices.

iShares Trust - iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF Stock Quote

iShares Trust – iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF

Today’s Change

(1.36%) $1.27

Current Price

$94.58

Second, software companies integrating generative AI tools into their core offerings may be able to access the compute power needed to run those features at significantly lower cost. If hyperscalers overbuild and there’s not enough demand to meet the supply, they may be willing to sell access to their services at a lower price. That would transfer gross margin from hyperscalers to their customers, like software companies.

Not every software stock will be a winner. But large software companies with considerable free cash flow and low valuations could be well-positioned to benefit from capital market trends, potential operational flexibility, and financial wherewithal.

Some potential winners if investors move away from AI stocks

If investors move capital away from the biggest AI winners, like semiconductor stocks and hyperscalers, they may want to stay in the tech sector. As such, software stocks trading at attractive valuations could be natural landing spots for many.

Some of the most beaten-down stocks have already seen significant share price recoveries, including Adobe (ADBE +1.01%) and Salesforce (CRM +1.83%). Even after a recent increase in price, the two stocks trade for forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios of 10.3 and 13, respectively. Meanwhile, both are producing solid free cash flow: $10.3 billion for Adobe over the last 12 months, $14.7 billion for Salesforce.

Both stocks are down due to fears of slower growth. Analysts expect revenue growth of just 9% per year for both companies. Management continues to deliver growth above expectations, but investors remain worried about the future. Salesforce expects revenue to accelerate in the back half of the year after posting growth of 12% in the first quarter. Adobe grew revenue 13% last quarter while showing strong progress on its top-of-funnel freemium offering, which should support long-term revenue growth.

Salesforce Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(1.83%) $3.31

Current Price

$184.02

Additionally, both are using AI to improve their products, increasing their utility and expanding their moats compared to smaller competitors. Adobe offers its own Firefly model, which is trained on its stock photos and videos. Salesforce introduced Agentforce, which uses its Data Cloud to automate some operations within its software.

These are just two examples of opportunities in the software sector. Investors could buy the whole lot with the iShares software sector ETF, but those who buy the highest-quality software stocks could do even better.

Canadian economy tracking 3.4% second quarter annualized growth




The Canadian economy is on track for a stronger-than-expected rebound in the second quarter, as oil and gas led growth in May for a second consecutive month.

Worley wins engineering contract for Missouri cobalt refinery




Worley wins engineering contract for Missouri cobalt refinery

Hilton Adds and Removes SLH Hotels in August Update


Hilton Adds and Removes SLH Hotels in August Update

Hilton has made another round of changes to its Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) partnership, with several new properties becoming bookable through Hilton Honors while one has disappeared from the program. The ongoing updates are part of Hilton’s continued expansion of the partnership, which now includes hundreds of boutique luxury hotels worldwide.

The new additions are mostly in Europe, but there are also newly added properties in Japan, Saint Kitts and South Africa. If you have your eye on a particular SLH property, it’s worth checking availability periodically, as Hilton continues to update the portfolio every month.

SLH Hotels Added (August 2026)

Country Hotel
Czech Republic Grand Palace Brno
Denmark Hotel Sanders
Italy Grand Hotel Majestic
Italy Mastrojanni Relais
Japan Hotel La Suite Kobe Harborland
Norway Savoy 1918
Saint Kitts and Nevis Paradise Beach Nevis
South Africa The Houghton Hotel
United Kingdom The Ampersand Hotel
United Kingdom The Cavendish Hotel

SLH Hotels Removed (August 2026)

Country Hotel
Spain CoolRooms Palacio de Luces

Guru’s Wrap-up

The Hilton–SLH partnership continues to be one of the best improvements to Hilton Honors in recent years. While it’s disappointing to see a few hotels leave the program, the steady addition of new properties more than makes up for it. Prices however have continued to climb through several rounds of devaluation, so hopefully you have Free Night verts or can still afford them with your stash of points.

If you’re planning an aspirational Hilton redemption, it’s worth checking the updated SLH portfolio regularly.

HT: LoyaltyLobby

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Armin Zerza exits as Warner Music Group CFO and COO


Armin Zerza is exiting his dual role as CFO and COO of Warner Music Group, effective immediately.

A press release issued by WMG today (July 31) stated that Zerza is leaving the company for “personal reasons”.

The news comes two months after Zerza added the COO role to his position as CFO of WMG.

That transition saw Zerza extend his oversight at WMG to include corporate development, central marketing, business and market intelligence, and WMX.

WMG says it has initiated a formal search for its next CFO.

Lou Dickler, currently SVP, Global Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at WMG, has been appointed Acting CFO.

Zerza will remain available to WMG through the end of the fiscal year to support the transition, said Warner; the company’s fiscal year ends on September 30.

“Armin has been an instrumental leader and member of the executive team during a crucial period of growth and transformation,” said Robert Kyncl, CEO of Warner Music Group.

“We thank Armin for his outstanding business and financial leadership and enduring contributions to WMG, and we wish him all the best,” Kyncl said.

WMG described Dickler as “a deeply respected finance leader within the organization,” and said he “has previously served in this capacity.”

“Armin has been an instrumental leader and member of the executive team during a crucial period of growth and transformation.”

Robert Kyncl, Warner Music Group

Dickler was appointed Acting CFO of WMG once before, in November 2021, when then-CFO Eric Levin began a medical leave of absence.

Armin Zerza joined Warner Music Group as EVP and CFO in May 2025, succeeding Bryan Castellani.

Before WMG, Zerza spent a decade at Activision Blizzard, where he served as CFO and Chief Commercial Officer.

He played a role in the gaming company’s $68.7 billion acquisition by Microsoft, which closed in 2023.

Before that, he held finance roles at Procter & Gamble for more than 20 years.

Brian Castellani had joined WMG in October 2023 from The Walt Disney Company, where he was CFO of Disney Entertainment and ESPN.

In its most recent quarter, ended March 31, WMG reported total revenue of $1.73 billion, up 12.1% year-on-year at constant currency.

On the accompanying earnings call, Zerza told analysts that WMG had “delivered on our sustainable growth model, accelerating core growth, margin expansion, and cash flow productivity.”

“Behind a profitable growth engine that pairs disciplined capital allocation and rigorous cost management with industry-leading creative and AI initiatives, we are well-positioned to create significant long-term value for our shareholders,” Zerza added.Music Business Worldwide

MOHELA Glitch Hits Student Loan Borrowers With False Past-Due Notices


Student loan borrowers serviced by MOHELA spent this weekend staring at delinquency notices they say should not exist. Accounts that showed $0 due and active SAVE forbearance on Friday flipped to past-due balances ranging from roughly $2,000 to more than $6,700, with some borrowers marked as many as 12 months behind.

MOHELA’s phone lines are closed on weekends, leaving affected borrowers with no way to reach a human until Monday. The company is one of five servicers handling the federal loan portfolio.

Student loan attorney Jay Fleischman flagged the issue in a video over the weekend.

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@moneywiselawyer 8/1/2026 Anyone else seeing this from MOHELA? Let me know in the comments #mohela #studentloans #studentloanlawyer #moneywiselaw ♬ original sound – Jay | Student Loan & Debt Law

Why It Matters

Federal student loan delinquency is typically reported to the credit bureaus at 90 days past due. Borrowers seeing 210-plus days of phantom delinquency and “Loan Default is Approaching” emails have a real reason to worry about credit damage they did nothing to cause.

The timing also collides with the end of the SAVE plan. Roughly 7 million borrowers are being moved off SAVE, and servicers began issuing 90-day notices to select a new repayment plan on July 1, 2026.

The forbearance covering those accounts winds down by September 30, 2026. A billing system throwing false delinquencies during that handoff is the worst possible moment for it.

What Borrowers Are Reporting

The reports surfacing on r/StudentLoans this weekend share a pattern: an administrative forbearance disappearing with no notice, no billing statement for the months now shown as past due, and a sudden lump-sum balance. MOHELA has sent incorrect forbearance notices before.

One borrower described receiving three emails within 30 minutes (a default warning, a 210-day delinquency alert, and a payment-due reminder) after having been in SAVE forbearance with a $0 payment. Another said MOHELA took more than a year to process a request to leave SAVE for IBR, then flagged two months delinquent after silently ending the forbearance it had applied.

MOHELA suddenly says I’m 12 payments behind. Yesterday I was in SAVE forbearance, owed $0, and was in my 90 days to select a plan.
by
u/Ickyid in
StudentLoans

In at least one case, StudentAid.gov still showed the account in forbearance while MOHELA’s portal showed a year of missed payments, an error that points to a servicer-side data problem rather than an actual status change. It echoes the Parent PLUS loans wrongly appearing on borrower accounts after an April 2026 system update.

MOHELA has not publicly addressed the reports as of Sunday, and there is no confirmation yet of how many accounts are affected. 

How This Connects

MOHELA has been here before. In October 2023, the Education Department withheld $7.2 million from the servicer after it failed to send timely billing statements to 2.5 million borrowers, pushing more than 800,000 into delinquency. The department ordered those borrowers placed into forbearance. A 2024 class action alleged the failures continued.

The oversight that caught that failure has since thinned considerably. As we reported, GAO found that Federal Student Aid halted its servicer accuracy reviews and call quality assessments in February 2025 and had not replaced them as of December 2025, while FSA staffing fell 46% over the same year. Four of five servicers had failed accuracy standards in the last quarters reviewed.

That matters because errors now land on borrowers already under strain as 7.7 million were in default as collections resumed, and millions more are delinquent.

What To Do If You’re Impacted

Screenshot everything: the past-due balance, the emails, your prior $0 statements, and your status on StudentAid.gov. Send a written message through MOHELA’s portal so the timestamp is on record.

Do not rush to pay a balance you do not believe you owe. Paying a bogus past-due amount does not generate qualifying IBR or PSLF payment credit, and it will not retroactively fix a payment count.

Borrowers can also escalate to the FSA Ombudsman, file a complaint with the CFPB, and contact their congressional representative’s constituent services office.

Expect long hold times when MOHELA reopens Monday. Watch for corrections and for whether the Department of Education says anything about it. Borrowers still on the fence about selecting a new repayment plan should compare their remaining options before their deadline regardless of how this shakes out.

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GAO: FSA Halted Student Loan Servicer Reviews

GAO: FSA Halted Student Loan Servicer Reviews
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Lawsuit Says MOHELA Still Failing Student Loan Borrowers

Lawsuit Says MOHELA Still Failing Student Loan Borrowers
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How Much Do Federal Student Loan Servicers Make Per Loan?

How Much Do Federal Student Loan Servicers Make Per Loan?

Editor: Colin Graves

The post MOHELA Glitch Hits Student Loan Borrowers With False Past-Due Notices appeared first on The College Investor.

As AI creates a skills mismatch, Gen Z must choose: be a specialist or a ‘general-purpose nerd’



Depending on your point of view, young people today trying to choose an employment path either have immense opportunity or a bleak future.

Entry-level corporate jobs are drying up, whether that’s due to AI or the prevalence of remote work, cutting off traditional avenues for launching careers. At the same time, demand for workers in skilled trades is booming amid the frenzy to build AI infrastructure.

Even more crosscurrents are at work. Baby boomers are retiring en masse, leaving positions to fill, and decades of declining birth rates have created a dearth of young workers.

Lightcast, a labor market data company, predicted in 2024 that U.S. employers will suffer “the largest labor shortage the country has ever seen” amid a demographic drought.

Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce estimated last year that the U.S. economy will need 5.25 million more workers with education and training beyond high school, warning that 171 occupations will face skills shortages through 2032 without massive increases in education.

Meanwhile, the proliferation of AI is making it easier to start a business with few workers—or even just one “solopreneur.”

So what’s a young Gen Zer to do?

Specialized talent

Economist and market veteran Ed Yardeni pointed to a recent surge in openings for professional and business services positions, saying they reflect the need for specialized talent required for AI adoption.

Companies with just one to nine employees saw the most openings, representing more business formation made possible by AI tools that lower the cost and complexity of entrepreneurship, he said in a note in June. But despite the surge in job openings, actual hiring was muted.

“That could be because the job openings AI creates are highly specialized, so talent is in short supply,” Yardeni explained, adding that it could also be the reason for higher long-term unemployment.

He noted the rise in tech job postings that require explicit AI fluency. In June, the share reached 75%, up from 67% in March and a 178% jump from a year ago.

Some of the fastest-growing skills are in areas like agentic AI, responsible AI and AI infrastructure, according to tech workplace platform Dice.

“AI is creating a structural skills mismatch as companies aggressively replace generalists with specialized talent,” Yardeni said. “We believe in the Jevons Paradox: As AI makes tasks more efficient, the falling cost of using that capability ultimately drives up total demand for it, making AI a net creator of jobs over time.”

‘General-purpose nerds’

Meanwhile, economist Simon Johnson, a Nobel laureate and MIT professor, has a different take. In an interview with the Financial Times in June, he used his daughters as examples of the two career paths young people face.

One daughter is interested in lab science, or the kind of high-value job that requires human judgement and is unlikely to be replaced by AI.

His other daughter is more of a generalist, Johnson said, adding that the advent of a new general-purpose technology, namely AI, requires “general-purpose nerds.”

“The general-purpose nerd is someone who can master the latest AI over the weekend. On Monday and Tuesday, they can interview real people face to face and learn things. On Wednesday, they can read a 50-year-old book that has not yet been digitised, make sense of it and figure out how you’re going to use it. On Thursday, they can run a podcast. On a Friday, they prepare a one-page memo for the minister,” he explained.

By contrast, a research assistant who simply looks up stock market data from Brazil, for example, could easily be replaced by AI.

But an assistant capable of integrating information, solving problems, and bringing solutions more quickly to leaders would be “quite appealing,” Johnson said.

For executives feeling overwhelmed by AI, he recommends they hire a general-purpose nerd, who is also a generalist outside of academics.

“I think young people getting life experiences, learning languages, traveling, understanding other people, being able to talk to people and listen face to face, and then combining these things, are going to be very valuable,” Johnson argued. “I think if you want to place your bets on something specialized, you need to think about where AI is going to come into that.”

No Seasoning Requirement After Inherited Or Court-Awarded Property Transfers


We work with many homeowners and real estate investors who acquire properties through inheritance, divorce settlements, legal separations, or dissolution of domestic partnerships. One important guideline many borrowers and even some mortgage professionals overlook is this:

There Is No Seasoning Requirement on Legally Awarded Properties

When a borrower legally receives ownership of a property through Inheritance, Divorce, Legal separation, Dissolution of a domestic partnership, or court-ordered property transfer, there is generally no waiting period or seasoning requirement before refinancing the property.

Eligible for Both Rate & Term and Cash-Out Refinances

Many borrowers assume they must wait six months or longer after receiving title to a property before refinancing. However, when ownership is obtained through a legal award or court settlement, standard seasoning requirements are often waived. That means eligible borrowers may be able to access equity sooner than expected without waiting through traditional ownership seasoning timelines.

  • Rate & Term Refinances
  • Cash-Out Refinances

Applies to Multiple Occupancy Types

Another important advantage is that this flexibility is not limited only to primary residences. Eligible property types may include the following occupancies. This is especially valuable for heirs inheriting rental properties or individuals awarded investment real estate through divorce or legal settlements.

  • Primary residences
  • Second homes
  • Investment properties

While seasoning may be waived, we will still require proper documentation supporting the transfer of ownership. Proper paper trails are essential to ensure the transaction qualifies under the applicable refinance guidelines.

  • Divorce decrees
  • Separation agreements
  • Probate documentation
  • Court orders
  • Recorded deeds
  • Inheritance documentation

If you recently acquired a property through inheritance, divorce, or another legal proceeding, contact us to discuss your refinance opportunities and available loan solutions.

 

BILT Erroneously Sends Some Users To Collections


Some reddit users are reporting that they have received a collections notice from Tate & Kirlin saying that BILT is taking adverse action against them due to unpaid debt. A BILT spokesperson has acknowledged the issue and provided the following statement:

We are aware of a small number of customers receiving unexpected collections notices and/or credit reports related to their beta Bilt card. We are in touch with the agency responsible and any erroneous credit reporting will be deleted immediately.

A second statement was issued stating:

Credit bureaus have been notified and your report will update within 2-5 business days due to credit bureau updating schedules

The issue seems to be affecting Evolve Bank cardholders (beta or pre 1.0) and not Wells Fargo (BILT 1.0) or Cardless (BILT 2.o) cardholders.  Evolve Bank cards were all issued before March, 2022. To say this is a significant issue is underselling it, one reddit user reports they were in the midst of the approval process for a house purchase before their credit score suddenly dropped 60 points. If you are affected I’d strongly recommend keeping track of any damages you’ve incurred as a result of this issue.