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CICC cuts Las Vegas Sands target to $51.8 on Q2 EBITDA miss
Edgen Stock·Jul 24 2026, 04:03Share to
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[1] ＜Research＞ CICC Cuts Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS.US) TP to USD51.8 as 2Q EBITDA Misses Market Expectations (https://www.aastocks.com/en/stocks/news/aafn- ...)[2] Sands China 2Q EBITDA miss ‘too large to ignore’ amid worst-ever VIP luck: analysts (https://www.ggrasia.com/sands-china-2q-ebitda ...)[3] Las Vegas Sands gains as investors look past near-term headwinds (https://seekingalpha.com/news/4617608-las-veg ...)[4] Las Vegas Sands misses Q2 expectations as World Cup and weak VIP hold weigh on results (https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/20 ...)[5] Las Vegas Sands falls as World Cup focus impacts Q2 results (LVS:NYSE) - Seeking Alpha (https://seekingalpha.com/news/4616861-las-veg ...)
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Jul 24 2026, 05:10
Bitcoin holds near $65,000 as $800 billion AI selloff rattles tech stocks
Bitcoin fell less than 1% to hold near $65,000 as the Magnificent Seven suffered their worst selloff since April 2025, erasing $800 billion in market value as of 20:00 UTC on Thursday. "The market is undergoing a fundamental regime shift in how it values capital-intensive investments," Peter Oppenheimer, chief global equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, said. "If you can generate a return that comfortably exceeds the higher cost of capital, that's going to be an important factor." Alphabet dived almost 7% after raising its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to as much as $205 billion, while Tesla plunged more than 14% after pledging to accelerate spending despite missing earnings estimates. Amazon slid 5%, Meta tumbled 4.7% and Microsoft dropped 3.1%. Apple, which has largely avoided massive AI infrastructure buildouts, fell just 1.7%. The selloff comes as the CME FedWatch Tool shows an 82% probability of a Federal Reserve rate hike in September 2026, with oil prices surging past $100 a barrel on Middle East tensions. The 10-year US Treasury yield, a key baseline for corporate cost of capital, is at its highest in over a year — raising the bar for returns on the hundreds of billions poured into AI infrastructure. The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) plunged nearly 5% on Thursday, heading for its worst session since the tariff-driven selloff in April 2025. The index has now retreated 11% from its record high set in late May. Bitcoin's relative stability contrasted sharply with the equity rout. Dogecoin led losses among major cryptocurrencies, while ether also declined. The decoupling suggests crypto markets are not yet pricing in contagion risk from a broader tech unwind, though traders are watching whether the selloff spreads to risk assets more broadly. Goldman Sachs' Oppenheimer described the current environment as a "post-modern cycle" defined by higher interest rates, elevated government debt and geopolitical fragmentation — conditions that have raised the hurdle rate for capital across all asset classes. In the prior era of falling rates and cheap capital, investors benefited simply from rising financial asset valuations. Now, fundamental profit growth is becoming the crucial driver of performance. The transmission chain is clear: surging oil prices after the breakdown of the US-Iran truce have reignited inflation fears, pushing fed funds futures to price in a rate hike. Higher rates raise the cost of capital for tech companies funding massive AI buildouts. Investors are now demanding clear visibility on returns from the more than $700 billion that Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and others have committed to AI spending this year. For Bitcoin, the key question is whether it can maintain its decoupling if the tech selloff broadens into a full risk-off move. Support sits near $63,000, while resistance at $67,000 marks the next upside hurdle. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
Jul 24 2026, 05:09
11 cryptos set to explode in 2026 as capital rotates into presales
**Capital is rotating out of tired large-caps and into early-stage presales, Bitcoin Layer-2 scaling plays, and AI-linked tokens as the market positions for the next cycle.** Bitcoin Hyper, a Layer-2 solution using the Solana Virtual Machine to settle state commitments to the Bitcoin mainnet, has raised $32.98 million in its presale at $0.01368360 per HYPER token, making it the best-capitalized presale of the year. The project uses a Canonical Bridge system where users deposit BTC to a monitored Bitcoin address, the Bitcoin Relay Program verifies the transaction through smart contracts, and an equivalent amount of wrapped BTC gets minted on the Layer-2 network. The SVM architecture allows a theoretical throughput of 50,000 transactions per second, according to Solana Labs technical documentation, enabling sub-second finality while settling to Bitcoin L1. "The speed and efficiency of Solana combined with the security of Bitcoin is what crypto users have been asking for," the Bitcoin Hyper team said in a statement. "If the project proves reliable, it could attract developers and users looking for scalable Bitcoin-based applications." The broader market is in one of those quiet periods where the best opportunities historically appear. Bitcoin is down roughly 50% from its October all-time high, sentiment is at Fear, and most altcoins have been hit even harder. The CME FedWatch Tool shows a 93% probability that rates will remain low by the next fund meeting, according to CME Group data, a historical correlation that typically triggers capital rotation into high-beta assets like crypto. The projects that survive a downturn with active development and growing communities are the ones that tend to explode when conditions turn. After researching over 100 cryptocurrencies across every sector, the 11 most likely breakout candidates for 2026 include a mix of presale-stage tokens, live protocols with proven product-market fit, and infrastructure plays targeting specific pain points in the market. **Hyperliquid leads the established protocols** Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange built on its own custom Layer-1 blockchain, has exceeded $4 billion in daily trading volume and serves over 300,000 users. The platform processed over $688 billion in trading volume in Q1 2026 alone, according to the project's data. HYPE maintains a 5.06% daily turnover rate, signaling high organic utility versus speculative price action, and boasts an open-interest-to-volume ratio of 45%, indicating that nearly half of its volume represents sustained directional positions. The token trades at $57.58 with a $55.01 billion market cap, ranking it among the top 10 cryptocurrencies globally. The platform was audited by Zellic. Render Network, a decentralized GPU computing platform on Solana, has 91,000 unique token holders and added 5,200 new active wallets in Q1 2026 alone. The project uses a Burn-and-Mint Equilibrium model where 95% of tokens spent on rendering jobs are burned, creating deflationary pressure. RENDER trades at $1.48 with a $788.33 million market cap. The advisory board includes industry figures like Ari Emanuel, JJ Abrams, Brendan Eich, and digital artist Beeple. Pump.fun, the Solana-based token launchpad, has generated over $1 billion in cumulative revenue as of mid-2026 with $412 million in executed token buybacks this year. However, rival LetsBonk.fun has seized over 55% market share, more than double Pump.fun's 27.4%, directly eating into the fee revenue that funds token buybacks. The platform also faces a $5.5 billion class-action lawsuit accusing it of running an unlicensed casino. PUMP trades at $0.0019 with a $1.91 billion market cap. **Presale-stage projects offer asymmetric upside** Maxi Doge, an Ethereum-based meme token that launched its presale in July 2025 at around $0.00025 per token, has accumulated $4.83 million in investments. The project offers a 155% annualized staking yield to incentivize long-term lockups. MAXI trades at $0.00028300 with a 150.24 billion max supply. The contract was audited by SolidProof and Coinsult. LiquidChain, a Layer 3 blockchain designed to unify liquidity across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, has raised $150,446 of its $438,966 target in stage 13 of its presale. The project uses unified liquidity pools, a Solana-style VM, and cross-chain proofs to enable asset interaction across all three chains without bridging delays. The max supply is 11.8 billion LIQUID tokens. Divine Ray takes a different approach — the project already operates a full-service social media platform available through the Apple App Store, Google Play, and desktop, while running its own Cosmos SDK-based blockchain. Divine Ray Coin trades on Osmosis at a Phase 1 ICO price of $0.0000015 per DRC, with a total supply of 5 trillion tokens. The soft cap is $750,000 and the hard cap is $3 million. SUBBD is building an AI-powered, tokenized subscription platform targeting the creator economy, where platforms like OnlyFans generated $5.6 billion in 2023. The project claims over 2,000 creator partnerships reaching 250 million followers. SUBBD trades at $0.05763000 in presale with a 1 billion max supply and has raised $1.57 million. VortexFX combines a traditional forex trading platform with blockchain-based rewards on Solana. The VFX token offers rebates on trading activity, staking rewards, and access to premium features. The max supply is 100 million VFX tokens. **Live tokens with established communities** Brett, the Base chain mascot meme coin inspired by Matt Furie's Boy's Club comic series, launched with no presale, a renounced contract, and 85% of tokens added directly to liquidity with zero transaction taxes. BRETT trades at $0.014 with a $1.02 million market cap and over 850,000 holders. Kaspa, a proof-of-work Layer-1 blockchain using the GHOSTDAG protocol, processes 10 blocks per second with plans to scale to 100 BPS, offering transaction confirmations in about 10 seconds. KAS trades at $0.027 with a $771.20 million market cap and over 15,000 holders. The project launched in November 2021 with no pre-mine, no presale, and no central governance. Most of these tokens are not yet trading on major exchanges like Coinbase. Investors need a non-custodial wallet such as BestWallet, MetaMask, or Trust Wallet to participate in presales, then connect to the official presale website — always verified through the project's official Twitter or Telegram to avoid scam sites. The next big crypto project won't advertise itself on mainstream platforms after it already exploded. Active communities on Telegram, presale aggregators like CoinSniper and CryptoRank, and Discord servers focused on specific chains like Solana or Base are where early-stage projects build before the wider market catches on. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
Jul 24 2026, 05:06
Meta's $12B data center bond costs 0.4% more as AI debt tightens
Meta is paying roughly 0.4 percentage points more to borrow $12 billion for a Texas data center than it did nine months ago, as bond investors demand higher compensation for AI-related credit risk. "This is almost a carbon copy of the prior transaction," Viviane Gosselin, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings, said of the deal's structure. The bonds, issued through a special purpose vehicle called Sopaipilla Investor, carry preliminary yields above 7%. Meta's prior $27 billion Hyperion deal, closed in October 2025, priced at roughly 6.6%. Bonds linked to that earlier project have since fallen to about 96 cents on the dollar, reflecting a broader repricing of AI debt in secondary markets. The widening spread — 40 basis points in nine months — carries real financial consequences. For a $12 billion issuance, each 10-basis-point increase adds roughly $12 million in annual interest expense. The rising cost coincides with a selloff in AI-linked equities, as investors question whether the massive capital spending cycle will deliver commensurate returns. **Deal Structure Mirrors Prior $27B Issuance** The transaction follows the same project-finance blueprint Meta used for its Louisiana campus. Sopaipilla Investor will hold 80% of the El Paso project, with Meta retaining the remaining 20%. BlackRock is leading the financing. The bonds mature in 2048 and are backed by Meta's 20-year rent payments starting in 2028. Meta has four four-year renewal options and must pay steep penalties if it exits early. The company also bears construction risk, covering cost overruns beyond 105% of the initial budget. However, if delays exceed 18 months, Meta can terminate the lease without penalty — a clause that limits bondholder recourse. S&P rated the bonds A+, one notch below Meta's AA- corporate rating. Fitch and KBRA assigned AA-, matching Meta's corporate grade. The bonds carry no direct pledge of physical assets, a structural limitation S&P flagged in its analysis. **BlackRock's $57B Week Reshapes Data Center Finance** The Meta deal is part of a broader wave of capital flowing into digital infrastructure. BlackRock, which is leading the $12 billion financing, also closed its $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers this week, bringing its total data center transaction volume to roughly $57 billion. The firm now controls more than $200 billion in data center-related assets, following its acquisitions of Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners. The Aligned deal adds more than 6.4 GW of operational and planned capacity across 51 campuses. CBRE reported a record $48 billion in global data center investment activity in 2025, with hyperscale capacity pipelines reaching 14 GW — up 21% year over year. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are anchoring the bond purchase for Meta's El Paso campus and plan to syndicate the remaining debt to outside investors. BlackRock plans another $5 billion investment to accelerate Aligned's expansion, targeting power-rich and underserved US markets. For investors, the rising cost of AI debt is compressing returns for hyperscale projects, while the sheer scale of capital deployment — $57 billion in a single week from one asset manager alone — shows that institutional appetite for digital infrastructure remains strong. The question is whether revenue from AI workloads will grow fast enough to service the debt being raised to build it. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.