A Nobel Prize-winning economist said it plainly: "We're investing more than we should."
That's not a fringe opinion anymore. It's coming from MIT researchers, JPMorgan's CEO, Bridgewater's founder, and even the people inside the AI industry itself. The concern isn't that artificial intelligence is fake — it's that the stocks built around it have been priced like the profits are already guaranteed. They're not.
Warren Buffett's preferred market valuation tool recently hit 217% — the highest reading ever recorded. A reading above 200% is historically considered a danger zone. The last time sentiment was stretched anywhere close to this, it took the Nasdaq over a decade to recover what it lost.
→ Get your free guide from Thor Metals Group here
The circular nature of the deals being cut between these companies — where suppliers are financing customers who are spending money back with those same suppliers — has led more than one analyst to call it a house of cards waiting for a reason to fall. Maybe it holds together. Maybe it doesn't. But if you're sitting in a retirement account that's heavily concentrated in these names, you're not invested in the future of technology. You're holding a bet on the timing.
Thor Metals Group put together a free guide specifically for people who want to know what their options look like outside of that bet. No sales pitch. Just the information.
→ Claim your free Thor Metals Group guide now
Apple Just Handed These 4 Memory Stocks Their Best News of the Year
By Bridget Bennett. Published: 6/28/2026.
Key Points
- Analyst Louis Navellier ranks Micron as the top beneficiary of a structural memory shortage, citing a two-to-three-year order backlog and expanding margins.
- Seagate, Western Digital, and Sandisk also score well on Navellier's fundamental model, with all four stocks positioned to benefit from ongoing AI-driven data center demand.
- Navellier favors buying into pullbacks of 3 to 4 percent rather than chasing strength, and views large existing gains as confirmation of fundamentals, not a reason to sell.
- Special Report: The company SpaceX cannot operate without
When Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) signals it may need to raise prices because memory costs are climbing, the market takes notice. For investors already holding Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU), Seagate Technology Holdings (NASDAQ: STX), Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC), and Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), that warning is not a red flag—it is confirmation of pricing power.
Growth Investor's Louis Navellier sees all four names as direct beneficiaries of the same structural shortage, with one clear leader at the top of the stack.
When Pricing Power Meets a 2-Year Backlog
Geothermal breakthrough - costs down 50% and credits preserved (Ad)
A crew in Beaver County, Utah drilled 15,765 feet through solid granite in just 16 days - a target the DOE didn't expect to see until 2035. Costs have dropped 50% in 18 months, and this energy source kept its tax credits while solar, wind, and EV credits were eliminated.
Google signed a 15-year contract. Bill Gates committed $100 million. One company with 60 years of operations sits at the center - and a July 4th catalyst is now days away.
See the company that just beat the DOE by 12 yearsThe setup for Micron is simple: data centers want the fastest memory chips available, Micron makes them, and demand is running well ahead of supply. That's why analysts—who have historically lagged on this stock—keep revising estimates upward, and why the order backlog tells a more compelling story than the revenue line alone.
Navellier calls Micron something close to a monopoly in the data center memory segment. Samsung (OTCMKTS: SSNLF) competes on volume, but for hyperscalers building AI infrastructure, Micron's high-bandwidth memory is the preferred choice.
That preference translates directly into operating margins. When you have pricing power in a supply-constrained market, margins expand—and Micron's have.
He ranks Micron at the top of his eight-factor fundamental model, which weighs sales growth, margin expansion, earnings stability, analyst revisions, and surprise history. Recent upward revisions across the analyst community, he notes, are a reliable signal of what is coming. Micron's last earnings report blew past expectations, and Navellier sees that pattern continuing—particularly given that analysts in this space are notoriously conservative and are penalized more for overestimating than for arriving late.
The order backlog, extending roughly two to three years out and driven by data center construction, is why he is not treating this as a late-cycle trade. More than half of U.S. construction activity is currently tied to data center builds, and whoever has the chips has the leverage.
The Reliability Play in an Unreliable Market
Not every data center storage decision comes down to the fastest chip. Reliability matters enormously—downtime in a hyperscale facility is catastrophic—and that's where Seagate has built its reputation over decades of enterprise deployments.
Navellier calls Seagate his favorite solid-state name in the group. Its data center business is accelerating as the transition from spinning hard drives to solid-state drives continues across enterprise deployments, and the company's reputation for bulletproof performance has made it a preferred vendor for operators who cannot afford failure.
That brand equity is doing real work in a market where procurement decisions are increasingly driven by reliability track records, not just spec sheets.
Revenue and earnings growth have been strong, and Seagate scores well on his fundamental model—though at a higher multiple than Micron. That premium does not concern him. Storage has historically commanded a higher valuation than DRAM, and Seagate's market share position and switching costs justify the spread. His view: ride it as long as the fundamentals hold.
Western Digital and Sandisk: Strong Names, Slightly Lower Scores
Western Digital and Sandisk both have meaningful exposure to the same AI storage surge. Navellier is careful not to dismiss either—comparing them unfavorably to Micron and Seagate, he says, is like being asked to pick a favorite child.
If pressed, he leans toward Sandisk over Western Digital on the basis of analyst revision momentum, earnings surprise history, and margin expansion trajectory. But both names score well on his model; they simply score below the top two. The demand environment is strong enough that all four can win simultaneously—the difference comes down to who captures the most orders when speed and reliability are the deciding factors.
How to Think About Entry After a Monster Run
All four stocks have posted extraordinary gains. That makes entry feel uncomfortable, and Navellier acknowledges it. His approach: keep them on an alert list and buy into daily pullbacks rather than chasing strength. The memory sector's natural volatility means stocks that run 12% will typically give back 3% to 4% before the next leg—and those brief windows are where he builds or adds positions.
For investors already in these names, the calculation is different. Navellier's rule for his own portfolio is simple: if a stock still scores well on fundamentals—strong sales, expanding margins, positive revisions, and solid surprise history—the size of the gain is not a reason to sell. The stocks that have run 100%, 500%, or more in his portfolio are still there because the underlying businesses have not deteriorated. The gain is a feature, not a warning sign.
The broader backdrop supports staying engaged. Data center construction is ongoing, AI compute demand continues to grow, and the memory shortage driving Apple's pricing warning is not a quarterly blip. The bottleneck that's making iPhones more expensive is the same bottleneck that's making these four stocks very difficult to bet against.
How to Invest in the Biggest European Defense Surge in Decades
By Nathan Reiff. Published: 6/19/2026.
Key Points
- European defense spending surged by 14% from 2024 to 2025 as NATO members bulk up military operations.
- Accessing European defense names can be difficult for U.S. investors, but several ETFs make the process more straightforward.
- EUAD is perhaps the most direct way to gain exposure to European defense stocks, but funds like SHLD and WAR also provide access as part of a broader geographic reach.
- Special Report: The company SpaceX cannot operate without
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, military spending around the world is rising rapidly, reaching $2.9 trillion in 2025. Europe has led the way in this growth, with a 14% year-over-year (YOY) increase in military spending from 2024 to 2025. Not only are Russia and Ukraine continuing to pour more money into the ongoing war in that region, but a broader rearmament trend is also boosting NATO spending; European NATO member military spending rose at its fastest pace since 1953 last year.
For U.S. investors, the easiest access point to the global defense industry is through major domestic players with an international presence, such as RTX (NYSE: RTX). However, these plays don't provide direct access to the European market, a segment that can be difficult for investors in other regions to explore. Fortunately, a growing number of defense exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can provide diversified exposure in a ready-made, easy-access portfolio. Beware, though, that not all of these defense ETFs focus exclusively on European names.
The Primary Pure-Play European Defense Fund, But Some Performance Issues Linger
Ticker Revealed: Pre-IPO Access to "Next Elon Musk" Company (Ad)
We’ve found The Next Elon Musk… and what we believe to be the next Tesla.
It’s already racked up $26 billion in government contracts.
Peter Thiel just bet $1 Billion on it.
👉 Unlock the ticker now and get it completely free.For exclusively European aerospace and defense names, the best bet for many U.S. investors is likely the Select STOXX Europe Aerospace & Defense ETF (BATS: EUAD). Launched in late 2024, EUAD stands out among domestic ETFs for its regional focus on developed European nations. Despite being passively managed, this unique exposure comes at a relatively high price: EUAD carries an expense ratio of 0.50%, which is expensive for a passive fund.
EUAD is also not an especially diversified fund. It has just 23 holdings, including companies that derive a majority of their revenue from making, servicing, supplying, or distributing equipment for European military defense and aeronautics, or related industries.
Investors can expect significant allocations to major producers like Rolls-Royce Holdings (OTCMKTS: RYCEY), Safran (OTCMKTS: SAFRY), and Airbus Group (OTCMKTS: EADSY), each of which accounts for between 17% and 21% of the overall portfolio.
The companies EUAD focuses on are all well-established, which may make the fund a good long-term buy-and-hold investment for investors concerned that, after 61% growth since launch, EUAD's biggest rally may be behind it for the time being.
A Globally-Focused Fund With Greater Diversification
The Global X Defense Tech ETF (NYSEARCA: SHLD) is a much larger fund than EUAD—it has several times the managed assets and a significantly higher one-month average trading volume approaching 2 million.
Its expense ratio also matches EUAD's exactly at 0.50%. However, SHLD is certainly not as direct a means of accessing the European market in particular. While SHLD offers exposure to key European defense players—companies like Rheinmetall (OTCMKTS: RNMBY) and BAE Systems (OTCMKTS: BAESY), among others—more than 62% of its portfolio is U.S. firms. Combined, British, German, French, and Italian companies make up only about 20% of the total basket, although a handful of additional European nations bring that exposure up slightly.
Still, the 50 or so holdings in SHLD's portfolio have fared very well since the fund launched in the fall of 2023 and are up about 8% in the last year.
A Top-Performing Fund With an Active Approach
For an actively managed approach, one of the few options available to investors with a global focus is the U.S. Global Technology and Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEARCA: WAR), a fund holding some 30 defense industry names from around the globe. Like SHLD, WAR does not specifically focus on European names. However, its largest holding is Swedish defense contractor MilDef Group AB, and it also carries shares of Rolls-Royce and other prominent European companies.
WAR's industry purview is a bit broader than the funds above, as this ETF also holds firms involved in cybersecurity, data centers, semiconductors, and more.
Because it is actively managed, it has a slightly higher annual fee of 0.60%, as well as a much smaller asset base and trading volume than even EUAD above.
For investors primarily focused on recent performance, however, WAR stands out above these peers. The fund has returned an impressive 42% year-to-date (YTD). By comparison, one of the largest defense ETFs available to investors—the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (BATS: ITA), with nearly $14 billion in assets under management and a focus on North American companies—has returned only 12% YTD. Investors willing to spend a bit more may be handily rewarded by WAR's strategy.
This email communication is a paid advertisement from Thor Metals, a third-party advertiser of The Early Bird and MarketBeat.
If you have questions or concerns about your account, don't hesitate to email our South Dakota based support team at contact@marketbeat.com.
If you no longer wish to receive email from The Early Bird, you can unsubscribe.
© 2006-2026 MarketBeat Media, LLC.
345 North Reid Place #620, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57103-7078. USA..
