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Ford Motor Company Sells Hertz Car Rental Group
(Karl Stolleis/Getty Images)
Rent to Own

The big winners of Trump’s autos tariffs? Rental cars.

Hertz and Avis are rallying as auto tariffs are set to take effect in April.

J. Edward Moreno

The big winners of President Trumps auto tariff announcement arent Tesla or Rivian, two American-made electric car firms. It’s rental car companies.

Hertz and Avis are each up roughly 20% on Thursday, the first trading day after Trump declared that his administration would slap a 25% import tax on vehicles and auto parts coming from outside the US. If the stocks stay at this level, it would be the best single day for Hertz stock and the best day for Avis since 2021.

As new cars are expected to get pricier, these companies fleets will suddenly become more valuable. Rental car companies often sell their used cars, which may be in higher demand while the tariffs are in place.

Retailers that sell auto parts may also get more traffic as consumers keep their cars longer. Advanced Auto Parts, O’Reilly, and Autozone all rose on Thursday as well.

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An internal army memo reportedly says Anduril and Palantir’s battlefield communication system has deep flaws

The new NGC2 platform, the Army's next-gen battlefield communications network built by Anduril Industries, Palantir, and others, is full of “fundamental security” problems and should be considered “very high risk,” per an Army memo cited by Reuters.

Anduril and Palantir have both secured Pentagon contracts in recent months, with the former having promised faster, cheaper and more advanced solutions than traditional defense suppliers. In July, Anduril won a $100 million contract to build a prototype of NGC2 alongside Palantir and several smaller contractors.

However, in an internal memo, the Army's CTO warned the prototype version could allow adversaries to gain “persistent undetectable access,” with the memo explaining “We cannot control who sees what, we cannot see what users are doing, and we cannot verify that the software itself is secure.”

Still, the Army’s chief information officer, Leonel Garciga, told Reuters that the memo was part of a process to “triage” vulnerabilities and address them.

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Applied Materials slumps after forecasting $600 million fiscal 2026 revenue hit from export curbs

Applied Materials is down 3% in early trading, after the semiconductor machinery maker said revenues could take a $600 million hit in the next fiscal year, on the back of widening chip export restrictions.

Per the company’s regulatory filling, net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 will take a $110 million dent, while annual sales next year would be reduced by “approximately $600 million.” Applied Material’s fiscal 2026 runs through next October.

In a move to restrict the development of China’s domestic chip industry, the Commerce Department started to prevent sanctioned companies from using affiliates to access restricted US goods. On Monday, the blacklist was widened to include majority-owned subsidiaries of listed companies.

“We doubt AMAT will be the only US semicap player impacted here,” cautioned Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, while noting that other players in the industry have not offered any commentary on this subject.

China is the top market for Applied Materials and others in the wafer fab equipment industry.

In its most recent quarter, 35% of AMAT’s net revenues were generated by sales to China. For peers Lam Research and KLA Corp, those shares stood at 34% and 33%, respectively, for the year ending in June.

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Hims’ COO to step into advisory role months after joining the company

Hims & Hers Chief Operating Officer Nader Kabbani — an Amazon veteran who joined the telehealth company in May — will leave his post next month, the company announced in a Thursday regulatory filing.

Kabbani will begin an advisory role with the company starting November 2 and Mike Chi, who is currently the companys chief commercial officer, will assume Kabbanis title and duties.

Kabbani, who helped launch Amazon Pharmacy at the robotics company Symbiotic, took over from Melissa Baird, the companys longtime COO who transitioned to an advisory role earlier this year.

Kabbani joined Hims at a tumultuous time. The company saw explosive growth when it started selling copies of popular weight-loss drugs made by Novo Nordisk last year while they were in shortage. But now that those supply constraints have waned, its limited in how much it can continue selling. Meanwhile its core business has slowed down, which resulted in disappointing revenue numbers in its most recent quarterly report.

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AST SpaceMobile surges as satellite services theme gains market traction

Space stocks jumped on Thursday, led by a surge in AST SpaceMobile after Bell Canada named the Texas-based satellite services provider as a partner for a new direct-to-cellular service it plans to offer next year.

AST is up more than 20% just this week after announcing that its latest Bluebird 6 satellite was assembled, tested, and ready for launch and that its launch schedule appears to be on track.

“AST reiterated its expectation of launches every one to two months on average during 2025 and 2026, which is expected to result in between 45 and 60 satellites in orbit by the end of 2026,” wrote Louie DePalma, an analyst at William Blair. “Reaching 45 to 60 satellites in orbit is significant because it allows for continuous broadband coverage for AST’s core markets in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. We view this update positively.”

Space and satellite stocks Rocket Lab and Planet Labs ascended alongside AST Thursday. But all of these stocks are, in a sense, drafting off dynamics being driven by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the leader in the private space sector.

The company has played a key role in lowering the costs of space launches, thereby “fostering intense competition and accelerating innovation across the sector. This has led to significantly lower launch prices, reshaping the economics of deploying large-scale Low Earth Orbit constellations,” wrote Barclays analysts in a recent note on the outlook for the satellite industry. This has opened up new possibilities such as providing consumer broadband services, they noted.

“AST reiterated its expectation of launches every one to two months on average during 2025 and 2026, which is expected to result in between 45 and 60 satellites in orbit by the end of 2026,” wrote Louie DePalma, an analyst at William Blair. “Reaching 45 to 60 satellites in orbit is significant because it allows for continuous broadband coverage for AST’s core markets in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. We view this update positively.”

Space and satellite stocks Rocket Lab and Planet Labs ascended alongside AST Thursday. But all of these stocks are, in a sense, drafting off dynamics being driven by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the leader in the private space sector.

The company has played a key role in lowering the costs of space launches, thereby “fostering intense competition and accelerating innovation across the sector. This has led to significantly lower launch prices, reshaping the economics of deploying large-scale Low Earth Orbit constellations,” wrote Barclays analysts in a recent note on the outlook for the satellite industry. This has opened up new possibilities such as providing consumer broadband services, they noted.

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