Today is Friday, August 14, 2026.

The Early Bird Index today is 88.56.

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Applied Materials $AMAT ( ▼ 2.48% ) did everything with its earnings on Thursday. Good financials. Good outlook. Yet the stock fell 5.03% in after-hours trading.

Financials: Applied Materials reported earnings of $3.50 per share in the past quarter and revenue of $9.12 billion. Both were better than expected.

Detail: Revenue jumped 25% in the quarter, and earnings increased over 40%. The company expanded the number of research and development partnerships in the quarter.

Quote: “As the rapid global adoption of AI drives unprecedented demand for our materials engineering solutions, we are further raising our Semiconductor Systems revenue expectations for calendar 2026 and are confident we will grow faster than the market this year.” - CEO Gary Dickerson.

Background: Shares of Applied Materials nearly doubled in price this year due to increased AI demand.

Early Bird’s Nest Egg Gains: The stock’s after-hours decline looks like a “beat, but not enough versus elevated expectations” reaction.

Final Thoughts: It’s a recent trend among AI-related companies to see the stocks fall after reporting good news.

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Notable Earnings Today: Sinda (SIND), Suncrete (RMIX), Acurx Pharmaceuticals (ACXP), LifeWard (LFWD), Outlook Therapeutics (OTLK). 

Notable IPOs Today: East West Ave Acquisition Corp. Common Stock (Nasdaq: EWAV), BOA Acquisition Corp. II Class A Ordinary Shares (Nasdaq: THEO).

Notable Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns Ending Today: Lumohs (Wefunder).

Notable Economic Events Today: Retail Sales / Core Retail Sales (8:30 a.m. ET), Business Inventories (10:00 a.m. ET), Michigan Consumer Expectations / Sentiment (10:00 a.m. ET).

Tyson Foods $TSN ( ▲ 1.04% ) announced on Thursday the closures of two beef plants amid one of the most historic cattle shortages in United States history. The stock jumped 1.35% in after-hours trading.

Details: The company will end operations at beef facilities in Joslin, Illinois and Eagle Mountain, Utah. It is also pursuing a sale of its Pasco, Washington beef facility.

Background: In 2026, the U.S. cattle inventory shrank to a 75-year low due to more droughts and high feed and operational costs. 

Final Thoughts: Tyson’s stock was down 2.84% this year.

As most cryptocurrency prices remained flat on Thursday, Hyperliquid $HYPE ( ▼ 2.1% ) experienced a 2% gain due to a new infrastructure-access initiative.

Details: This week, Hyperliquid opened new low-latency data infrastructure access to third parties.

Final Thoughts: Hyperliquid’s price has more than doubled this year.

All-Time High: US stocks rise to a record as oil prices drop and inflation gets less bad (Associated Press)

Ouch: Bitcoin user accidentally pays $103,000 in fees to send nothing at all (The Street)

High Valuation: Anthropic Investors Think It’s Worth $2 Trillion (Gizmodo)

C-Suite Shakeup: OpenAI loses revenue chief Denise Dresser, second major executive departure in days (CNBC)

Higher Borrowing Costs: US sells 30-year bonds at highest borrowing costs since 2001 (Financial Times)

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