Shares of Dell Technologies surged more than 10% Wednesday morning after rival server maker Super Micro Computer delivered an unexpectedly strong preliminary earnings update, boosting investor confidence across the broader artificial intelligence infrastructure sector.

Dell shares traded at $445.69 as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, up $41.54, or 10.28%, on the day. The rally builds on gains that began in after-hours trading Tuesday, when Dell shares initially climbed roughly 5.4% following Super Micro’s announcement, before extending further into Wednesday’s regular session.

What sparked the rally

The move was triggered by a preliminary business update from Super Micro Computer, one of Dell’s chief competitors in the AI server market. Super Micro disclosed that its gross margins for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended June 30, are now estimated in the range of 15% to 17%, a dramatic improvement compared with the company’s own prior guidance of roughly 8.2% to 8.4%. Super Micro attributed the sharp margin increase primarily to a more favorable mix of customers and products.

Although the update came from a competitor rather than Dell itself, investors interpreted the news as a positive signal for the entire AI server ecosystem, reflecting healthier pricing dynamics and stronger underlying demand conditions across the sector. That sympathy move helped drive gains not just for Dell but for other companies tied to AI infrastructure buildout as well.

Dell’s own AI positioning

The rally comes as Dell has built an increasingly prominent position in the AI infrastructure market over the past year. The company has reported an AI server backlog of $51.3 billion, representing approximately 85.5% of its full-year sales target, and has raised its overall revenue guidance to $60 billion on the strength of AI-related demand.

Dell’s partnership with Nvidia has played a central role in that positioning, allowing the company to offer integrated AI infrastructure solutions aimed at enterprises with complex deployment needs. The company has also expanded its AI-related partnerships more broadly, including a collaboration announced earlier this year with OpenAI to bring its Codex coding tool to hybrid and on-premise enterprise environments, an approach aimed at businesses that prefer to run AI tools on their own servers for security and compliance reasons rather than relying solely on public cloud infrastructure.

A volatile year for Dell shares

Wednesday’s jump adds to what has already been an extraordinarily volatile year for Dell’s stock. Shares are up significantly year-to-date, following a series of sharp swings tied to AI-related news. In late May, Dell shares closed up nearly 33% in a single session, marking the company’s best trading day on record, after first-quarter results showed AI server revenue had surged more than sevenfold year-over-year to $16.1 billion. That report prompted Ben Reitzes, head of technology research at Melius, to say he had “never seen anything like” Dell’s quarterly results at the time.

The stock has also seen notable single-day drops this year, including a 14% decline reported in mid-July, underscoring how sensitive Dell shares have become to shifting sentiment around AI infrastructure spending and competitive dynamics within the server market.

A politically notable shareholder

Dell’s stock moves this year have drawn additional attention due to disclosed stock purchases by President Donald Trump. Government ethics filings reviewed by financial outlets show Trump purchased Dell shares on multiple occasions in 2025 and early 2026, including a purchase of roughly $770,000 worth of shares in February at around $126 per share. Trump has publicly referenced the company on at least two occasions this year, including remarks at a White House Mother’s Day event in May, where he thanked Dell’s chairman and chief executive Michael Dell and his wife Susan Dell by name. Dell shares rose sharply following that appearance, though the move also coincided with strong underlying AI order data building in the background at the time.

Analyst outlook

Wall Street’s consensus price target for Dell currently sits in the range of $483 to $490, implying further upside of roughly 18% to 22% from recent trading levels before Wednesday’s jump. Coverage of the stock currently includes a large number of Buy ratings alongside a smaller group of Hold ratings, with no major bank currently maintaining an active Sell rating on the shares. Susquehanna’s Mehdi Hosseini holds one of the more bullish targets on Wall Street at $700, while Morgan Stanley’s Erik Woodring has taken a more measured stance, upgrading his rating from Underweight earlier this year to Equal Weight, with a price target of $477, reflecting a view that Dell’s underlying AI business is real but that the stock is not inexpensive at current valuations.

With Super Micro’s full quarterly results still pending confirmation beyond Tuesday’s preliminary update, investors will be watching for additional detail on the sustainability of the improved margins that sparked Wednesday’s rally. Dell’s own next quarterly earnings report will offer a more direct look at whether the company’s AI server backlog and revenue guidance continue to translate into the kind of margin improvement now being priced into shares of its competitors.

For now, Wednesday’s gain reflects the broader market’s continued sensitivity to any signal, positive or negative, about the health of AI infrastructure spending, a dynamic that has made shares of companies like Dell and Super Micro among the more volatile trades on Wall Street throughout 2026.

This article was written by

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Chick-fil-A said Wednesday that a recent security incident may have exposed personal information linked to a limited number of customer loyalty accounts.

The Atlanta-based fast-food chain told FOX Business that it moved quickly to secure affected accounts and notify customers who may have been impacted.

“We recently identified a security incident that may have affected a limited number of Chick-fil-A One Loyalty accounts,” a company spokesperson said. “Upon discovering the issue, we took steps to immediately address, secure and restore accounts, and we are communicating directly with all customers who may have been impacted.”

CHICK-FIL-A EXPANDS ITS ‘GHOST KITCHEN’ MODEL WITH NEW DELIVERY-ONLY STORE IN FLORIDA

The spokesperson added that the company “sincerely apologize[s] for any inconvenience or concern” and remains “committed” to maintaining customers’ trust.

The company notified potentially affected customers Monday after discovering suspicious login activity involving certain Chick-fil-A One accounts, USA TODAY reported.

SALADS OUTSELL FRIED FAVORITES AT THIS CALIFORNIA CHICKEN CHAIN GROWING NATIONWIDE

According to the notice, “unauthorized parties” targeted the company’s website and mobile app between June 17 and June 19. The attackers used account credentials obtained from a “third-party source,” the outlet reported.

The incident affected customers in Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, D.C., according to USA Today.

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The data that may have been compromised included customers’ names, email addresses, Chick-fil-A One membership and mobile payment numbers, the last four digits of payment cards and the amount of Chick-fil-A credit stored in their accounts.

Chick-fil-A said it reset passwords for affected accounts, restored any impacted loyalty balances and added rewards to customers’ accounts, USA TODAY reported.

Employers should pay no National Insurance on any worker under 25, MPs have told the government, after hearing “overwhelming evidence” that the current regime is pricing young people out of the jobs market.

The Work and Pensions Committee said higher employer National Insurance rates are putting businesses off hiring, with the damage concentrated in the sectors that have always been the first rung of the career ladder: retail and hospitality.

More than one million 16 to 24-year-olds are now not in education, employment or training. The committee called the figure a “travesty”.

For SME owners, the more immediate point is the arithmetic. Employers pay nothing for staff under 21, and nothing for apprentices under 25, until earnings pass £50,270. But take on a 21 to 24-year-old who is not an apprentice and the bill starts at £5,000, at 15 per cent on everything above it.

The result is a cliff edge that lands precisely where most young people are ready to start a proper job. A firm weighing up two similar candidates, one 20 and one 22, faces a materially different payroll cost for the same work. MPs say that gap undermines the government’s own efforts to get this age group into employment.

The committee also cited former minister Alan Milburn’s review of youth unemployment, which found the government spends 25 times more on benefits for young people than on supporting them into work.

The backdrop will be familiar to anyone running a payroll. Firms have been cutting jobs at the fastest pace in four years since the £25bn rise in employer contributions, with more than half of the losses falling in hospitality and retail. Those are the same two sectors the committee identifies as the traditional entry point for younger workers.

Ministers have not been idle. Employers can now claim £3,000 for hiring a jobless 18 to 24-year-old who has been claiming benefits for six months or more, and foundation apprenticeships are being extended into hospitality and retail from April. The committee welcomed the early steps but said further action is essential to prevent long-term harm.

The distinction matters for smaller firms. A grant is a one-off payment against a permanent cost. An NI exemption is structural, it applies automatically through payroll, requires no application, and does not run out. For a business with tight margins and no HR function, that difference is not academic.

There is also a question of what sort of jobs young people are landing when they do get hired. Sheila Flavell CBE, chief operating officer of FDM Group, argues the debate has settled on the wrong metric.

“Recent conversations around graduate employment focus on whether people have jobs but not actually on whether they have the right jobs,” she said. “Underemployment is a growing threat for the UK labour market. We have capable, ambitious graduates working in roles well below their skill level, and that is a waste of talent on a national scale.”

“What’s missing is a practical bridge between education and industry. ‘Earn while you learn’ models and structured, industry-led training give graduates the chance to build real-world experience and move into long-term careers matched to their skills.”

That points to a second opportunity for SMEs. Larger employers dominate formal graduate schemes, but structured on-the-job training is something smaller firms can often do better, and more quickly, than corporates with rigid intake processes. The NEET figure now sitting close to one million represents a very large pool of people nobody is currently competing for.

Whether the Treasury accepts the recommendation is another matter. Extending the under-21 exemption to everyone under 25 carries a cost, and the fiscal position is tight. But the committee’s argument is that the alternative is more expensive still, paid out in benefits rather than wages.

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The site previously housed the Beauty Queens Cosmetics store

A Leicester city centre plot devastated by a massive fire could be transformed into student accommodation under fresh proposals.

Plans have been submitted to Leicester City Council to redevelop the land at 2-4 Belgrave Gate into a five-storey building featuring a retail unit and 23 student studios.

The site formerly housed the Beauty Queens Cosmetics store, which had to be torn down following a rapidly-spreading fire in October 2023.

Firefighters battled the blaze for over 36 hours, though investigators were ultimately unable to determine what initially sparked the fire.

Beauty Queens Cosmetics has since moved to the Haymarket Shopping Centre.

Planning documents state that the city centre site presently makes a “limited contribution” to the character and appearance of the surrounding neighbourhood.

The applicant, BQC Properties Ltd, argued that the scheme would help tackle an identified shortage of approximately 5,080 bedspaces for students across the city.

A target decision date of 13 October has been set.

As PRISM prepares for its public market debut, one of the biggest changes inside its India business is happening quietly. The company is increasingly shifting towards higher-value, company-serviced and premium hospitality, a move that is materially changing the economics of its domestic business.

Company-serviced hotels are directly managed and operated by hotel operators, under its upper budget to premium brands, namely Townhouse, Sunday, Townhouse Oak, Clubhouse and Palette. Unlike its traditional hotel owner-operated model, PRISM takes greater control over operations and service standards, while also benefiting from dynamic pricing, revenue management, technology and customer acquisition which are a core part of its asset-light business model. The company markets these hotels under the “OYO-Serviced” identity in India.

The Updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus (UDRHP) shows that PRISM’s company-serviced hotel network in India expanded from just 75 storefronts in FY24 to 1,053 by the end of FY25 and further to 1,573 as of December 31, 2025. While these properties still account for a relatively small proportion of the company’s overall hotel network, they contributed 49.29% of India’s Gross Booking Value (GBV) during the first nine months of FY26, highlighting how quickly they have become a key driver of the business.

The revenue trajectory has been equally striking. India company-serviced hotel GBV reached Rs 1,346 crore during the first nine months of FY26, already around 65% higher than the company’s entire FY25 company-serviced GBV, indicating that the business is scaling both in size and productivity.

The UDRHP also suggests this is part of a broader structural shift within India’s hospitality market. The 1Lattice industry report cited in the filing points to rising disposable incomes, increasing business and leisure travel, expanding religious tourism and improving infrastructure as key drivers of demand for branded accommodation. At the same time, India’s hotel market remains highly fragmented, with 92% of hotel storefronts still unorganised, creating significant headroom for organised hospitality platforms.

Importantly, PRISM’s premium strategy is not replacing its traditional economy-hotel business. Instead, the company appears to be broadening its addressable market by operating across multiple price points and customer segments. Budget hotels remain an important part of the network, while premium and company-serviced hotels are increasingly contributing a disproportionate share of value creation.
That evolution also changes how investors may evaluate the India business. Rather than measuring success primarily through the number of hotel storefronts, the emerging focus is increasingly on GBV per storefront, operating quality, premiumisation and customer experience. The rapid growth of company-serviced hotels suggests PRISM’s domestic strategy is becoming less about network expansion and more about improving the quality and productivity of the network it already operates.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

The S&P 500 and ​the Nasdaq closed lower on Wednesday with a mixed performance from technology stocks, as investors waited for key earnings reports to gauge the health of a market rally fed by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.

After months of gains that lifted the major indexes from their March lows, momentum has been wobbling with uneven trading in ‌heavyweight semiconductor stocks ⁠and weakness ⁠in software stocks.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index ended higher, after bouncing off early losses. The index was angling for its third straight day of gains after three days ​of losses that had confirmed it was in a bear market last week.

Investors were preparing for second-quarter results from Alphabet and Tesla, the first of ​the so-called “Magnificent Seven” megacap companies to report after the bell for fresh evidence that these companies’ multibillion-dollar investments in AI are paying off.

“Investors have become a lot more discerning and specific as to where they’re choosing to invest in the AI trade,” said Kevin Gordon, head of ​macro research and strategy at Charles Schwab. Gordon noted that software stocks fell while ⁠chip stocks ‌rose during the session.

Trading was choppy in Alphabet, which will be under scrutiny after a delay in the ​launch of a model ​central to its AI ambitions. Texas Instruments, also due to report after the close, ticked higher during ⁠the session.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 10.72 points, or 0.14%, to ​end at 7,498.48 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 145.48 points, or 0.56%, to 25,691.72. The ​Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.52 points to 52,226.16.The crowded earnings calendar leaves markets vulnerable to sharper swings this week, while geopolitical tensions added another layer of caution.

Crude oil futures recorded their highest settlement since June 11, up around 3% on the day as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia threatened shipping in the Red Sea, one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints along with the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Iran shoots at a ship in the strait.

“Excluding ‌the megacap AI trade, there’s an element of what’s going on with oil that’s driving the market,” said Schwab’s Gordon, noting that high oil prices are fanning inflation worries. “People are being defensive with utilities, but with energy and ​materials being higher, ​that’s the inflation component.”

The Federal Reserve is ⁠expected to keep interest rates steady for the rest of 2026, according to the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. Still, respondents said the risk of a rate hike remained elevated.

Traders are pricing in a roughly 66% chance the Fed leaves rates unchanged ​at next week’s meeting, CME Group’s FedWatch tool showed.

Shares in Super Micro Computer rallied sharply after the server maker said it had secured more than $60 billion in new orders in the fourth quarter. Peers Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise also climbed after Super Micro reported upbeat preliminary results.

Among other movers, AT&T advanced after the telecom firm added more wireless subscribers than expected in the second quarter. Philip Morris International shares rose after stronger cigarette demand helped the company beat quarterly results estimates.

Despite internal conflicts in 2025, ASEAN demonstrated remarkable cohesion and advanced its mission. Timor Leste’s accession as the 11th member brought economic opportunities and enhanced security. A significant achievement was the “substantive agreement” on the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA), a pioneering region-wide pact harmonizing digital trade rules. DEFA aims to accelerate digital transformation, boost MSMEs, and ensure data security. This progress, even amidst challenges like the Myanmar conflict and border disputes, highlights ASEAN’s commitment to partnership, inclusivity, and collective growth, reinforcing its standing as a vital regional bloc.

Despite internal conflicts and regional tensions in 2025, the Association for Souteast Asian Nations (ASEAN) stayed cohesive and advanced its core mission.

For Timor Leste, ASEAN membership brings economic opportunity, security, and stronger sovereignty.

The ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement is a region-wide digital governance framework that harmonizes digital trade rules while respecting different development levels.

Last year was challenging for ASEAN. Its leaders struggled to find viable solutions to addressing the ongoing conflict in Myanmar, while border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand were a jarring reminder of long-standing territorial disputes and cultural tensions that historically beset the region.

And yet, even in challenging times, the bloc hasn’t faltered in its overriding purpose. During 2025, it recorded two milestones – its expansion to 11 members and the “substantive agreement” of the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) – both partnership models that merit exploration.

Timor Leste’s accession to ASEAN in October 2025 stands as a heartening example of the power of partnership in challenging times. It underscores ASEAN’s long-standing commitment to one vision, one identity and one community, and highlights how the bloc’s members can trade years of enmity for mutual support to achieve an outcome that ultimately benefits the bloc as well as its composite parts.

It’s taken 14 years for one of the world’s youngest democracies to become part of the bloc, and to achieve this, both Timor Leste and Indonesia have put years of animosity behind them.

It’s both a symbolic and transactional partnership. ASEAN offers the small, young nation regional solidarity, economic development through enhanced opportunities and market access, security, a boost to its sovereignty and a belief that it is ultimately stronger as part of the union.

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