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Happy Friday afternoon to everyone on The Street. Here's a snapshot of where markets ended the trading session, plus tomorrow's trade idea delivered to you today.

• 🟩 | US Stocks Rose on Friday. The Dow closed marginally higher, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose nearly half a percent, regaining much of Monday’s sell-off to end the week.

• 📈 | One Notable Gainer: Shares of digital health company Doximity shot 39% higher after reporting 17% revenue growth and profit growth of 42%.

• 📉 | One Notable Decliner: Elf Beauty’s stock tumbled 14% after its forecast for annual sales and profit came in below estimates, indicating budget-strained customers are spending cautiously.

• 🏷️ | Tomorrow's Trade: A Strategic Sale. Scroll down for more.

Plus, today’s partner’s high-yield cash accounts provide earnings that are 11x the national average.

MARKET MOVERS

SweetGreen, Unity Software, & Trade Desk

PBI (+11%) Shipping firm Pitney Bowes Inc. agreed to liquidate much of its e-commerce business in bankruptcy (Bloomberg)

SG (+33%) Salad chain Sweetgreen reported second-quarter revenue of $184.6 million, a 21% increase (Investor.com)

AKAM (+11%) Akamai Technologies’ stock jumped after strong quarterly results eased fears of a revenue slowdown at the cloud service company (Barron’s)

U (+8%) Unity Software’s stock surged after beating second-quarter earnings and revenue expectations (YF)

TTD (+13%) The Trade Desk improved its gross margin this quarter, and sales grew 26% year on year (YF)

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OVERHEARD ON THE STREET

CNN: US mortgage rates plunged to the lowest level in more than a year after weaker-than-expected employment data raised the odds of a rate cut.

Fortune: Delta expects $380 million in lost sales from the CrowdStrike outage that forced it to cancel thousands of flights.

Fox Business: Paramount Global's co-CEO, Chris McCarthy, said yesterday that the company will cut about 15% of its U.S.-based workforce.

YF: Cisco will cut thousands of jobs in a second round of layoffs this year as the U.S. networking equipment maker shifts focus to higher-growth areas.

CNBC: Wharton’s Jeremey Siegel backed off on calls for the Fed to do an emergency rate cut but still wants policymakers to cut quickly and aggressively.

TOMORROW’S TRADE IDEA, TODAY

A Strategic Sale

Investing in Itself

Japanese investment holding company SoftBank (SFTBY) has been in the red for the last three fiscal years ending in March. But now it’s employing a new tactic to end that streak: buying its own shares.

SoftBank recently announced plans to buy back $3.5 billion to repurchase up to 6.8% of its stock. Its stock hit a record high last month, largely thanks to its 88% stake in chip designer Arm (ARM). But the investment company’s stock has since fallen around 30%.

Something Isn’t Adding Up

Arm’s stock is up 58% YTD in response to the continued construction of AI data centers. The company also has the advantage of charging other chip makers high royalty fees to use its designs.

SoftBank’s shares haven’t had the same success. Its stake in Arm, valued at around $105 billion, is actually bigger than the company’s own market value. SoftBank’s stock is currently trading at around a 60% discount to the value of its assets.

Why It Makes Sense

Arm’s stock has a small float, making it difficult for SoftBank to liquidate a large block of its shares. This problem is further compounded by the fact that Arm is trading at a multiple of 73, much higher than competitors like Nvidia (NVDA).

The stock buyback will allow SoftBank to purchase its own assets at a significant discount to their true value, providing a level of safety should tech stocks see another massive selloff.

In turn, value could be returned to SoftBank’s shareholders.

TOGETHER WITH BETTERMENT

We put your money to work

Betterment’s financial experts and automated investing technology are working behind the scenes to make your money hustle while you do whatever you want.

Learn more

ON OUR RADAR

BI: A survey from Clever Real Estate found that 90% of real estate investors reported losing money on their residential real estate investments.

QZ: GARM, the so-called “advertising cartel” sued by Elon Musk's X and Rumble, is shutting down.

CNBC: For the first time in China, new energy vehicles have outsold traditional fuel-powered passenger cars on a monthly basis.

AP: The Chinese government filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over European Union tariffs on electric vehicles made in China.

YF: According to a recent survey from Credit Karma, 1 in 3 parents say they can’t afford back-to-school shopping this year.

YESTERDAY’S POLL RESULTS

Are you bullish or bearish on Ford (F) over the next 12 months?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Bullish 🐂 

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Bearish 🐻