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Forget AI — if you’re looking for growth, check out natural gas

Everybody knows about tech’s fast growers.

And Palantir’s 63% year-over-year Q3 sales growth rate was impressive. So was Robinhood Markets, which saw a 100% sales rise, or AppLovin, at nearly 70% revenue growth.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions. I own Robinhood stock as part of my compensation.)

But as we turn into the final lap of Q3 earnings season — Nvidia reports its numbers on November 19 and Walmart closes the season on November 20 — natural gas stocks have emerged as some of the most overlooked sources of revenue growth for investors, according to a screen we recently ran using FactSet data.

Expand Energy, created by the merger of Chesapeake and Southwestern last year, is the nation’s largest natural gas producer, and when it posted sales of $2.97 billion in Q3 — up over 350% — late last month, it leapt to the top of the leaderboard for Q3 sales growth, FactSet data shows.

An early US cold snap, strong liquefied natural gas exports from the US to Europe, and doubts about Russian supplies to the world market amid more talk of sanctions and Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure have all helped push up prices for gas.

US benchmarks are up more than 70% over the last 12 months, including a more than 50% gain over the the last three months — and strong demand from power plants competing to churn out energy for the AI data center boom has created a favorable growth backdrop for other gas industry players, from gas pipeline and processing company Oneok, to distributor EQT Corp, to drillers like Diamondback Energy and Coterra Energy.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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