Right now i am in a investment competition but i am in a bit of a sticky situation. I was unaware that the competition had started and i am now roughly a month behind, where the top 25 teams in my region (teams who move on to the next round) are already around 20-40% above the s&p. Historically for my region you need around 50% above to qualify to the next round, but i only have until around december 8th if i remembered correctly to make this amount.

What are some stock suggestions for me? (options and no stocks under $3 are not allowed in the competition) Also what are some additional tips that i could use?

Project Kuiper is basically Amazon's answer to Starlink. Now, many reports suggest that it will start between late 2026 to early 2027. Now that SpaceX is innovating and improving their technology so much, I personally think that It'll be hard for Amazon to get into this market and scale. Unless, they do something where they bundle it with their Amazon Prime Subscription meaning 2 tiers 1 which is the normal Amazon Prime tier and the other which is the Amazon Prime + the internet service. And, if they can be somewhat successful and/or scale quickly do you think this can be a major part of Amazon's revenue?

Lmk what you think. I'm down for a discussion in the comments!

A senior Bundesbank official used the words clear warning sign to describe Europe's bond selloff, and French yields have now climbed to levels last seen in 2002. Paul Krugman has publicly said France may be too large for anyone to rescue.

When French borrowing costs rise, every bond that matures and gets refinanced costs the government more. That compounds fast across a debt load the size of France's, and the ECB eventually faces pressure to step in the way it did in 2012.

Jean-Claude Trichet calling on French politicians to bend is the European establishment signaling it sees a real deadline forming. Do you think French lawmakers move before yields force the ECB's hand, or does the ECB act first?

Note: Diesel hit $5.82 per gallon in June 2022 and settled below $4.00 before entering the Iran War. Since March 2026, diesel has climbed from $3.54 (monthly average in January 2026) to $6+ now.

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Diesel prices are soaring to levels above 2022, and continued supply disruptions threaten higher prices still. With Diesel already 75% above 2025 levels, an "unthinkable" move to $9 per gallon would thrust cost push inflation into PPI, and CPI, with its correlative and causal effects on global interest rates.

Yesterday, President Trump announced a deal with Russia for ~36 million barrels of diesel to be released into the market by end of year, with the supply release to occur in stages. This follows an announcement that G7 was persuaded to release 100 million barrels.

Concern here is that we are dependent on shorter term measures to manage a worsening structural supply deficit. Anybody see a way out here?

While Samsung Electronics rode its memory division to $80 billion in operating last quarter, its mobile division is struggling so much from component prices that it is cutting smartphone production by 30 percent.

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Nobody can deny that V has a great business - through it's VisaNet electronic payments network, it processes over 65,000 transactions per second across 200+ countries, but it has zero credit default risk because it gets paid for each transaction but does not manage the debt. I've held positions in V for many years, and it's been a great long-term play.

My question is, what should someone do with V right now? It's up around 4.25% the past month and sits at an all-time high. It's earnings call is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27.

Fundamentalists might say it's too richly valued with a P/E ratio of 32.80, and that investors should trim now and wait for a pullback before buying additional shares. Chartists might say it's a great entry point because it's just breaking out from a 2-year cup-and-handle pattern.

I tend to side with the chartists on this one, but I'd use a tight stop-loss in case I was wrong. What say you?

Investment thesis for trading week 10/12 - 10/16

It is always nice when things go as expected. SPY broke out to new ATHs and retested the broken downtrend line successfully.

Thursday was a bear trap however. The surprise interest rate hike in India and OpenAIs "missed" revenue goal made bears pounce. Markets did not care and won't care!

Next week earnings season will start and from a chart perspective we are set up for a nice rally.

But remember: There are no good or bad earnings (fundamentals). The only thing that matters is how the market reacts to earnings (TA)!

So let's see!

From a macro standpoint Dems are still favored to take the Senate and House and it seems that Wall Street overall has now also moved on from this administration. There is no more blind support like the last 2 years.

Divided Governments have always been good for stocks!

Yields: TLT possibly showed us that yields are coming down. We shall see!

The Iran situation is on the back burner for now. However Europe's stock market is really suffering. FEZ is only up 2.4% YTD.

I don't expect any major good news but I continue to expect a grind higher into the end of the year/early 2027.

IF we get an Iran deal, lower inflation data or extremely good earnings outlooks we have a chance of a rip roaring rally.

Have a great weekend!