Today is Thursday, August 6, 2026.

The Early Bird Index today is 86.69.

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Western Digital’s $WDC ( ▼ 5.36% ) stock had been incredible in 2026, but it plunged 11.78% on Wednesday in after-hours trading following the company's earnings release.

Financials: Western Digital reported earnings of $3.56 per share in the past quarter and revenue of $3.75 billion. Both were better than expected. However, investors were not pleased with the company’s outlook of $4.1 billion in revenue for the current quarter.

Early Bird’s Nest Egg Gains: $4.1 billion, while still strong, looked like a step down from the very hot recent run-up in expectations for Western Digital’s AI-driven storage cycle. The market priced in even more upside from hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure demand.

Final Thoughts: The stock was up 176% this year.

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Notable Earnings Today: ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), DraftKings (Nasdaq: DKNG), Airbnb (Nasdaq: ABNB), The Trade Desk (Nasdaq: TTD), Roku (Nasdaq: ROKU), Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), Lyft (Nasdaq: LYFT), D-Wave Quantum (Nasdaq: QBTS), Datadog (Nasdaq: DDOG), Fiserv (Nasdaq: FISV), Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL), Red Cat Holdings (Nasdaq: RCAT), Constellation Energy (Nasdaq: CEG), Kenvue (NYSE: KVUE), Keurig Dr Pepper (Nasdaq: KDP), Rocket Companies (NYSE: RKT), Atlassian (Nasdaq: TEAM), Applied Optoelectronics (Nasdaq: AAOI), Century Aluminum (Nasdaq: CENX), 10x Genomics (Nasdaq: TXG), Himax Tech (Nasdaq: HIMX), Rigetti Computing (Nasdaq: RGTI), Innodata (Nasdaq: INOD), Viatris (Nasdaq: VTRS), Cheniere Energy (NYSE: LNG), Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSE: CQP), MP Materials (NYSE: MP), Aflac (NYSE: AFL), Akamai Tech (Nasdaq: AKAM), Amrize (NYSE: AMRZ), ATI Inc. (NYSE: ATI), Becton Dickinson (NYSE: BDX), Cloudflare (NYSE: NET), Evergy (Nasdaq: EVRG), Gen Digital (Nasdaq: GEN), Howmet Aerospace (NYSE: HWM), Insmed (Nasdaq: INSM), ITT (NYSE: ITT), James Hardie (NYSE: JHX), MACOM Tech (Nasdaq: MTSI), Onto Innovation (NYSE: ONTO), Parker-Hannifin (NYSE: PH), Reinsurance Group of America (NYSE: RGA), Republic Services (NYSE: RSG), ResMed (NYSE: RMD), Restaurant Brands Int'l (NYSE: QSR), Roivant Sciences (Nasdaq: ROIV), Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), US Foods (NYSE: USFD).

Notable IPOs Today: OceanLight Acquisition Corporation Units (Nasdaq: OCLTU), Phalanx Acquisition Corp I Units (Nasdaq: PHAXU).

Notable Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns Ending Today: Cru World Wine (Crowdcube).

Notable Economic Events Today: Initial Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m. ET), Unit Labor Costs (8:30 a.m. ET), Nonfarm Productivity (8:30 a.m. ET).

Mobile technology company AppLovin $APP ( ▼ 0.45% ) plummeted 15.87% in after-hours trading on Wednesday following mixed earnings results.

Financials: AppLovin reported earnings of $3.77 per share in the past quarter, exceeding expectations. But revenue was $1.92 billion, which was lower than expected and represented slower revenue growth than in previous periods.

Final Thoughts: Slower revenue growth could make things worse for AppLovin, especially since the stock was already down 32% this year.

A weaker-than-expected outlook caused shares of Zillow $Z ( ▼ 0.5% ) to fall 7.31% in after-hours trading on Wednesday, even though the real-estate marketplace’s current financials were good.

Financials: Zillow reported earnings of 52 cents per share in the past quarter and revenue of $772 million. Both were better than expected. The company anticipates lower revenue in the current quarter.

Final Thoughts: Shares of Zillow were already down 45% in 2026.

The First to Shut Down: Wall Street just killed its first spot Bitcoin ETF and for a known reason (The Street)

AI Leadership Switch: Jeff Dean and other top AI researchers are leaving Google to launch their own startup (TechCrunch)

Same Old, Same Old: Gold hits 6-week highs on China demand as Bitcoin ignores fresh S&P 500 record (Cointelegraph)

Bad Bet: Flutter shares plummet on earnings miss and another key leadership change (CNBC)

Weak Forecast: Sandisk Earnings Soar, but the Stock Is Still Dropping (Barron’s)

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_{The contents of Early Bird are intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. They do not constitute trade or investment recommendations, and they are not financial or legal advice. Readers are encouraged to consult licensed professionals for personalized guidance regarding their financial or legal situations.}