THIS WEEK’S FOCUS
There's a habit most investors fall into at market highs: chasing whatever's going up. It feels safe. It feels logical. But the most interesting opportunities are almost never found where everyone else is looking.
This week's video is about a single sector that has been quietly moving in the wrong direction while the rest of the S&P 500 celebrates record highs — and three specific companies inside it that might be worth your attention.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
3 Contrarian Bets in a Falling Sector
The financial sector is the only part of the S&P 500 that has been negative over the last six months. While technology, energy, and communication services climbed, financial services went the other way.
Saturday's video uses that divergence as a starting point and then narrows down more than 800 companies to three specific contrarian bets — each with a very different story, a very different risk profile, and a very different reason to be paying attention right now.
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5 STORIES THAT MATTER THIS WEEK
Greg Abel stepped into the role of Berkshire Hathaway CEO at the start of 2026, and this week he delivered his first full earnings report in that seat. Operating earnings rose nearly 18% year over year to $11.3 billion. Cash swelled to a record $397 billion. The annual shareholder meeting in Omaha drew a smaller crowd than in Buffett's years, but the reviews for Abel were broadly positive — steady, knowledgeable, and reassuring. Even so, Berkshire's stock slipped after the results. And a piece published Saturday captured the mood well: Abel knows the business cold, but some shareholders still miss the particular magic of the man who built it.
AMD reported first-quarter results on Tuesday that beat Wall Street expectations, with second-quarter revenue guidance of $11.2 billion topping the $10.5 billion consensus. CEO Lisa Su said AI agents are driving demand at a pace she had not anticipated, and the stock surged on the results. After a difficult stretch, AMD is re-establishing itself as a genuine beneficiary of AI infrastructure spending — not a future promise, but a business delivering now.
McDonald's beat first-quarter expectations on Wednesday, earning $2.83 adjusted per share on $6.52 billion in revenue, with same-store sales up 3.8%. The stock initially jumped more than 3% but pulled back as the CEO flagged a tougher second quarter ahead, noting that consumers are still eating out but spending more carefully. A steady business in a wobbly environment — which is exactly what long-term investors tend to appreciate.
Uber's stock jumped more than 8% on Wednesday despite missing revenue estimates. What moved the price was forward bookings guidance that came in well above expectations. Revenue rose 14% to $13.2 billion — a reminder that markets often care less about what a business has done than where it appears to be going next.
Corporate America spent $665 billion buying back its own shares in the first four months of 2026 — the most ever recorded to start a year, according to data from Birinyi Associates, as reported by Bloomberg. The pace of buybacks has been accelerating even as markets sit at record highs, with S&P 500 companies continuing to prioritize share repurchases over dividends. For long-term investors, it is worth remembering what buybacks actually do: they gradually reduce the number of shares outstanding, which mechanically increases each remaining share's claim on future earnings — quietly, without fanfare, over years.
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