Business
Palantir Stock Jumps 7% Today as Nvidia Partnership, Trump Disclosure and Meta Cloud Plans Lift AI Software
Palantir Technologies shares surged more than 7% Wednesday morning, continuing a sharp recovery from their 52-week low as a combination of macro tailwinds, fresh contract momentum and a broader rebound in artificial intelligence software stocks pushed the data analytics company back toward levels not seen since early June.
Shares of the Denver-based company were trading at $125.21 as of 10:05 a.m. EDT, up $8.54, or 7.32%, on the day. The gain extends a recovery that began last week after the stock hit an all-time low of $106.37 and follows a 3.27% advance on June 29 and a 3.55% gain on June 30, suggesting a meaningful reversal of momentum after a seven-session losing streak that had erased nearly 25% of the stock’s value during the month of June alone.
Several converging factors are driving Wednesday’s move. The most significant immediate catalyst was Meta Platforms’ announcement that it is developing plans to sell its AI computing capacity to external customers in a cloud infrastructure business, a development that sent Meta shares up more than 7% and broadly lifted sentiment across AI software and infrastructure names. Palantir, which is simultaneously positioned as an AI software platform and a government data infrastructure operator, benefited from the sector-wide enthusiasm the Meta news generated, with investors interpreting the announcement as further validation that AI-driven enterprise technology spending remains a durable and expanding category.
Separately, President Donald Trump’s financial disclosure report released Tuesday revealed that the president holds a multimillion-dollar stake in Palantir Technologies, a detail that circulated widely among investors Wednesday morning. While the disclosure did not represent any new commercial relationship between the company and the federal government, it added to a narrative of political proximity that has historically amplified attention on Palantir’s defense and intelligence contracts. The stock rose more than 2% in premarket trading Wednesday in response to reports of the disclosure before extending those gains during the regular session.
The most substantive company-specific driver of the recovery over the past week was the announcement of a strategic alliance with Nvidia, confirmed in early trading on June 29, that involves embedding Nvidia’s open-source Nemotron AI models into secure, classified computing environments for U.S. government agencies and critical infrastructure operators. The collaboration integrates Nvidia’s AI platform with several of Palantir’s core products, including its Artificial Intelligence Platform, Foundry data operating system and Apollo deployment infrastructure, allowing government customers to train, customize and deploy large language models in environments where sensitive data cannot be exposed to external model providers.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said: “Open-source AI is foundational to national security, public safety, and U.S. technology leadership. Palantir’s Nemotron-powered intelligent engine shows how open models can strengthen America’s leadership in AI, giving U.S. government agencies a secure, customizable, and fully controlled foundation to build mission-critical AI systems.”
That framing has resonated with investors who view Palantir’s government-facing AI business as structurally defensible in ways that consumer-facing AI companies are not, since the barriers to replacing a deeply integrated defense and intelligence software platform are considerably higher than switching between cloud providers or software-as-a-service vendors. Japan’s defense establishment has also been evaluating Palantir’s AI systems for potential military use, according to recent reporting, adding to the sense that the company’s international government business, which has faced headwinds from contract losses in parts of Europe, may be finding new growth vectors elsewhere.
Palantir’s first-quarter 2026 revenue rose 85% year over year and 16% sequentially to $1.63 billion, with CFO David Glazer calling it the company’s “strongest ever Q1 sequential growth rate.” U.S. revenue grew 104% to $1.28 billion, led by 133% growth in U.S. commercial revenue and 84% growth in U.S. government revenue, while customer count rose 31% to 1,007.
Management raised full-year guidance to $7.65 billion to $7.66 billion in revenue, representing a 71% growth rate. Operating margins stayed near the 46% first-quarter mark, validating what analysts have described as a Rule of 40 narrative for the company.
Despite that financial performance, the stock had spent much of June under intense pressure as a combination of high valuation concerns, institutional selling and sector-level rotation away from expensive software names took their toll. Ken Griffin’s Citadel cut its PLTR position by 40%, selling 1.33 million shares, a reduction in institutional backing that coupled with high-profile short-seller commentary criticizing Palantir’s shallow moat and aggressive revenue recognition, exacerbated downward momentum and pushed the stock toward new 52-week lows.
Wedbush has maintained an Outperform rating with a $230 price target throughout the selloff, while Wolfe Research upgraded the stock to Peer Perform from Underperform as the share price approached its lows. ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood purchased approximately 122,000 PLTR shares in late June, a contrarian bet made at prices near the bottom of the recent correction that has proven well-timed given Wednesday’s rally. Rosenblatt Securities analyst John McPeake, who initiated coverage in February with a Buy rating and a $150 price target, has maintained his position that the stock could reach that level by year-end 2026 based on the combination of revenue growth acceleration, margin expansion and the $4.92 billion U.S. commercial backlog already contracted.
According to 32 analysts, the average rating for PLTR stock is “Buy,” with a 12-month stock price target of $182.75, which represents an increase of roughly 56% from recent trading levels.
The stock’s next major fundamental checkpoint arrives August 10, when Palantir is scheduled to report its second-quarter results. Analysts will be closely watching U.S. commercial revenue growth, the pace of new customer additions and whether Palantir has made progress in rebuilding investor confidence following the sharpest single-month decline in the stock’s recent history, even as Wednesday’s rally suggests the market is willing, for now, to look past the recent correction and focus instead on the company’s expanding AI partnerships and accelerating growth trajectory.
Business
Instagram Goes Down for Thousands of Users Monday Morning in Latest String of Outages This Summer Alone
Instagram experienced a widespread outage Monday morning, with users across the platform reporting problems accessing the app beginning around 11:05 a.m. Eastern time, according to outage-tracking service Downdetector.
Downdetector said user reports indicated problems with Instagram since 11:05 a.m. Eastern time, and the company posted about the disruption on X shortly afterward, using the hashtag #InstagramDown. The scope of Monday’s outage and the specific issues users encountered were still becoming clear as reports continued to come in.
A Pattern of Recurring Problems
Monday’s disruption is not an isolated incident. Instagram has experienced multiple outages over the past two weeks alone, part of a broader pattern that has frustrated users and raised questions about the reliability of one of the world’s most widely used social media platforms.
Just five days earlier, on July 22, thousands of users reported problems on Downdetector, with nearly 1,400 reports logged and issues appearing to begin around 7:30 a.m. Eastern time. That outage affected several major U.S. cities, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and Atlanta, and it appeared other Meta-owned services, including Messenger and Facebook, were experiencing problems at the same time.
During the July 22 outage, Downdetector reports spiked to more than 2,000 almost immediately and eventually reached a high of around 4,000, with the disruption lasting roughly two hours starting at 6:30 a.m. Meta did not appear to acknowledge that outage on its official status page, and the problems seemed to center primarily on direct messages, which were not going through for many users.
An Even Broader Outage Earlier in the Month
The July 22 disruption followed an even larger international outage just days before. On Sunday, July 19, some Facebook and Instagram users reported international outages that left them unable to access their feeds, according to two internet watchdogs and a check of the platforms. More than 23,000 users reported problems with Facebook in the United States alone between 3:44 and 5:02 a.m. Eastern time that morning, while at least 18,000 reports flagged problems with Instagram in the U.S. during the same window, according to Downdetector’s data.
Internet monitoring group NetBlocks, which tracks worldwide internet access, noted that the Facebook and Instagram disruptions were international in scope and unrelated to any country-level internet restrictions.
Recent Reports Suggest Ongoing, Smaller-Scale Issues
Beyond the larger, headline-grabbing outages, data from outage trackers suggests Instagram has continued to experience a steady stream of smaller user-reported issues throughout the past week. Status-monitoring service StatusGator logged 7,392 outage reports in the 24 hours leading into Monday, with users describing a range of problems including pages that wouldn’t load, story-posting failures, login errors, and app crashes.
Individual reports came in from locations spanning Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia’s Mecca region, Ireland, India’s Punjab state, Oregon, Maryland, England and Spain, describing issues ranging from posts getting stuck partway through uploading to apps glitching and shutting down unexpectedly.
How Instagram Outages Typically Unfold
Based on the pattern of recent disruptions, Instagram outages have tended to resolve within a relatively short window, though the company has not always been quick to publicly acknowledge problems while they are occurring. Instagram outages are often resolved within 30 minutes, though a more significant outage can affect the entire Meta network for several hours. Looking at a broader window, Instagram experienced five incidents over the trailing 90-day period, with a median duration of roughly one hour and nine minutes.
That track record suggests Monday’s outage, like several before it this summer, could resolve relatively quickly, though the exact timeline and root cause had not been confirmed as of publication.
Meta’s Track Record on Communicating Outages
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has had an inconsistent record of publicly acknowledging outages in real time. During several recent disruptions this year, the company’s official status page continued to show no known issues even as user reports on third-party trackers spiked into the thousands, a discrepancy that has fueled user frustration and made platforms like Downdetector the primary source of real-time information during outages.
Why These Outages Keep Making Headlines
With more than 2 billion monthly active users worldwide, even brief disruptions to Instagram can generate outsized attention, both because of the platform’s massive scale and because so many businesses, creators and everyday users rely on it for real-time communication, marketing and social interaction. Each outage tends to trigger a familiar cycle: a spike in Downdetector reports, a wave of complaints on X and other platforms, and eventually either an official acknowledgment from Meta or a quiet resolution as service returns to normal.
The repeated nature of these disruptions in July has drawn particular notice, with users online increasingly commenting on what feels like a heightened frequency of outages compared with previous months. Whether Monday’s issue is connected to the same underlying causes as the July 19 and July 22 incidents remains unclear, and Meta has not detailed the technical root cause of any of the month’s outages publicly.
What Users Can Do
In the meantime, users experiencing problems are typically advised to try basic troubleshooting steps, including restarting the app, checking their internet connection, or trying to access Instagram from a different device or network. If problems persist across multiple devices and networks, that is generally a stronger indicator of a broader, platform-wide issue rather than a local connectivity problem.
For now, the scale and duration of Monday’s outage remain in the process of being assessed, with real-time reports on Downdetector offering the clearest available window into how widely the disruption is being felt as the situation continues to develop.
Business
MapLight Therapeutics’ Lead Candidate Falls Meaningfully Short In Schizophrenia (MPLT)
With a background as a RN, I analyze healthcare-related stocks by evaluating clinical data, treatment guidelines, and market dynamics. After completing my MBA, I expanded into tech. My writing is influenced by books such as “Superforecasting” and “Fooled by Randomness.”
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
This article is intended to provide informational content and should not be viewed as an exhaustive analysis of the featured company. It should not be interpreted as personalized investment advice with regard to “Buy/Sell/Hold/Short/Long” recommendations. Financial models presented here, including DCF, rNPV, and scenario analyses, are illustrative tools based on the author’s assumptions and are highly sensitive to inputs; small changes can materially alter outputs. The predictions and opinions presented reflect a probabilistic approach, not absolute certainty. Efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but inadvertent errors may occur. Readers are advised to independently verify information and conduct their own research. Investing in stocks involves inherent volatility and risk. Before making any investment decisions, it is crucial for readers to conduct thorough research and assess their financial circumstances. The author is not liable for any financial losses incurred as a result of using or relying on the content of this article.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Business
Facebook Down Now? Facebook Goes Down Alongside Instagram Monday Morning as Meta Services Face Outage
Facebook experienced a widespread outage Monday morning, with user reports surging just minutes after a similar disruption hit sister platform Instagram, according to outage-tracking service Downdetector.
Downdetector reported that user complaints about Facebook began around 11:08 a.m. Eastern time, prompting the company to post about the disruption on X using the hashtag #FacebookDown. The timing closely mirrored a separate wave of Instagram outage reports that began just minutes earlier, suggesting the two Meta-owned platforms may have been affected by the same underlying issue.
Two Platforms, One Company, Same Morning
Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta Platforms, and the two services have a well-documented history of experiencing simultaneous outages, given that they often share underlying technical infrastructure. Monday’s near-simultaneous disruption reports fit a pattern that has played out repeatedly in recent Meta outages, where problems on one platform frequently coincide with issues on the other.
As of the most recent check by outage-monitoring service StatusGator, however, official indicators painted a more muted picture than the real-time user reports suggested. StatusGator’s last check of Meta’s status found the service operational as of 11:05 a.m. UTC on July 27, with 25 user-submitted outage reports logged over the preceding 24 hours. That relatively modest 24-hour figure stood in contrast to the concentrated spike in complaints reported by Downdetector around the same time Monday morning, a discrepancy that has been common during past Meta disruptions, when user-facing problems have periodically outpaced what appears on official status trackers.
A History of Recurring Disruptions
Monday’s reports add to what has become a familiar pattern for Meta’s family of apps. The company has experienced several high-profile service disruptions in recent years, some lasting only minutes and others stretching for hours and affecting hundreds of thousands of users worldwide.
Meta experienced a nearly six-hour global outage in October 2021 that affected Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger simultaneously, an incident the company attributed at the time to a faulty configuration change to its network infrastructure that unintentionally cut off communication between its data centers. More recently, in March 2024, Facebook and Instagram, along with Threads and WhatsApp to a lesser extent, suffered a widespread outage that left hundreds of thousands of users unable to access their accounts for more than two hours, with many users unexpectedly logged out and unable to sign back in while Instagram feeds failed to refresh.
How Past Outages of This Type Have Unfolded
Previous joint Facebook-Instagram outages offer a rough template for how Monday’s disruption might play out. During a comparable outage in 2024, Facebook, Messenger, Threads and Instagram reported tens of thousands of complaints beginning around 10 a.m., with Facebook’s outage reports reaching 183,731 at their peak, according to Downdetector. In that incident, 75% of affected Facebook users reported issues with logging in, 17% reported problems with the app, and 8% reported issues with the website, while Facebook’s own login status page marked the disruption a “major disruption” before later declaring it resolved that afternoon.
During that same episode, Instagram’s outage reports peaked at 89,330, with 62% of affected users reporting app-related issues, 27% reporting problems with their feed, and 10% reporting login troubles. That outage was eventually resolved within a few hours, with Meta’s communications team confirming the fix publicly once service was restored.
Meta’s Communication Pattern During Outages
Meta has generally acknowledged major outages through its communications team once problems become widespread, though the company has often been slow to do so and has typically declined to offer detailed technical explanations. During a prior large-scale outage, Meta’s communications director posted on X that the company was aware people were having trouble accessing its services and was working on the issue, later confirming the problem had been resolved and describing it only as “technical” in nature, consistent with the company’s longstanding practice of offering limited detail about the underlying causes of most of its outages.
Meta does not operate public-facing status pages for its consumer products the way many technology companies do, instead relying on its business products status page, which tracks services like advertising tools rather than the consumer apps themselves. That approach has often left outage-tracking services like Downdetector as the most immediate public source of information during disruptions, since Meta’s own status indicators frequently continue showing normal operations even as user complaints mount elsewhere.
What to Watch For
Based on the pattern of previous incidents, resolution timelines for Meta outages have varied considerably, ranging from disruptions lasting under an hour to episodes stretching across an entire afternoon. Users experiencing problems Monday were left to rely largely on Downdetector’s real-time reporting and social media chatter for updates, as is typically the case during the early stages of a Meta service disruption before the company issues any official acknowledgment.
Given that both Facebook and Instagram reported issues within minutes of each other Monday morning, the disruption appeared consistent with past incidents in which a single underlying technical issue affected multiple Meta platforms simultaneously, though the company had not yet confirmed the cause or scope of Monday’s problems.
A Frustrating Pattern for Users
For many users, Monday’s outage is likely to feel like part of an increasingly familiar rhythm. Meta’s platforms have faced a string of disruptions throughout the summer, with outages affecting Instagram alone reported on multiple occasions in recent weeks. The recurrence of these incidents has fueled ongoing frustration among users who rely on Facebook and Instagram for everything from personal communication to business operations, even as the platforms have historically restored full service within hours in the vast majority of cases.
As of Monday late morning, the full scope and cause of the outage remained unclear, with users encouraged to check official channels and outage trackers for updates as the situation continued to develop.
Business
Canara Bank targets up to $2.5 billion via FCNR-B, overseas borrowings
The state-owned lender targets to raise $1.5 billion from FCNR-B alone by September, managing director Brajesh Kumar Singh said.
“We have already raised $750 million in FCNR-B deposits and expect the count to cross $1 billion this month,” Singh said after announcing a slim 2.2% year-on-year rise in first quarter net profit at Rs 4856 crore against Rs 4752 crore in the year-ago period.
He said that the bank would target to raise around $1 billion in the third quarter through a combination of external commercial borrowing and overseas foreign currency borrowing.
He also said that the mobilisation of FCNR-B deposits would help the bank shed about Rs 10000 crore of bulk deposits, which constitutes over a fifth of the bank’s total deposit base, keeping cost of deposits near 5.3% even after a 40 basis point moderation year-on-year.
The bank’s operating profit rose 0.96% year-on-year at Rs 8636 crore while total income was lower at Rs 39696 crore for the quarter against Rs 41442 crore in the year ago period.

Mobilisation to help shed ₹10K-cr of bulk deposits, bank says after posting slim growth in Q1 net
A 13.4% year-on-year rise in net interest income at Rs 10215 crore was offset by a 60% drop in earnings from sale of investment at Rs 654 crore against Rs 1617 crore earlier.
It maintained net interest margin for the quarter at 2.52% against 2.55% a year prior. Gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 1.57% as at June 2026 reduced from 1.84% as at March 2026 and 2.69% as at June 2025. Net NPA ratio improved to 0.36% from 0.43% and 0.63% over the same period.
The bank’s gross advances expanded by 18% year-on-year to Rs 12.93 lakh crore while deposits increased by 11.6% to Rs 16.12 lakh crore at the end of June.
Business
Vellion Group on Why Documentation Is the Real Trust Signal
Every business owner has a version of the same routine. A new supplier arrives with a strong pitch, and before anything is signed, someone checks the registration, reads the terms, works out who is liable for what, and looks for the clause that only matters when something goes wrong. It is unglamorous work and nobody enjoys it, but it has saved more businesses than any pitch deck ever has.
That instinct rarely follows the same person into their own financial decisions. Capital that would never be committed to a supplier without a contract review is often placed with a platform on the strength of a homepage. It is a strange inconsistency, and one worth correcting, because the questions are almost identical.
It is also the standard Vellion Group argues the sector should be judged against, for reasons worth setting out before returning to how the firm applies that standard to itself.
The habit transfers more easily than people expect
Due diligence is simply the care a reasonable business takes before entering an agreement. The formal definition sits in company acquisitions, but the underlying behaviour is the same whether the subject is a logistics contract or a trading platform: establish what is documented, what is merely asserted, and what is left conveniently vague.
Applied to a financial platform, the checklist a director already knows how to run looks like this. Where is the company registered, and where does it say so? What happens to money once it is transferred in?
Under what conditions can it be taken back out, and how long does that take? Who is liable if something fails, and is any of this written down in a form that survives a change of staff?
What published documentation actually signals
A platform that answers those questions in writing has told you something before you read a single word of the substance. Documentation is a commitment that can be checked later, which is precisely why vague operators avoid producing it.
This is not a new insight. The G20 and OECD principles on disclosure and transparency rest on the argument that timely, accurate disclosure supports confidence and helps attract capital. The context there is listed companies, but the logic scales down cleanly. Written standards create accountability. Unwritten ones create deniability.
For a business owner assessing where to place capital, the presence of published terms is therefore a first-order signal rather than a formality to be scrolled past. It also gives you something durable to return to. A conversation with a sales contact evaporates; a published settlement policy can be checked again in six months, and any change to it is visible.
Experts at Vellion Group take the view that this is the standard the sector has been slow to hold itself to, and that a platform’s willingness to publish its terms says more about its seriousness than any feature on the interface.
Vellion Group’s own answer to that checklist
Vellion Group publishes the material this kind of assessment depends on. Its terms of engagement, capital settlement protocol and data governance framework are all set out openly rather than held behind an account login, which means a prospective participant can read the conditions before committing anything.
The substance is specific rather than decorative. Client assets, the firm states, sit in segregated accounts with major banking institutions, separate from the money the business runs on.
Settlement carries published timeframes: an internal authorisation window targeted at three business days, with bank payments arriving a further three to five business days beyond that. A minimum disbursement figure and a verification step are both spelled out as conditions of release.
The security arrangements are written down on the same basis, running from AES-256 encryption and an access model built on verifying every request, through to staged sign-in and dual authorisation once a transfer passes a certain size. Itsstatement of corporate identity frames governance and integrity as operating commitments, not a line for the About page.
Governance as a working habit
None of this is glamorous, which is rather the point. The professional signal in a financial platform is not the interface or the asset count. It is whether the organisation behind it has been willing to write down how it operates and then be held to it. Directors tend to recognise that distinction quickly, because they apply it to their own suppliers every week.
Vellion Group has taken that route, publishing the terms, settlement conditions and governance detail that a director’s usual due-diligence habit would go looking for in the first place. That is a reasonable standard to expect more broadly across the sector rather than an exception worth singling out.
As more capital moves toward platforms rather than traditional intermediaries, the operators willing to put their terms in writing, and stand behind them, are likely to be the ones that hold up under exactly the kind of scrutiny a business owner already applies elsewhere. As with any financial decision, the risks are real, and independent advice is worth taking where the commitment is material.
Financial instruments carry substantial risk. Capital is at risk and losses can exceed the sum originally deposited. This article is published for information only and is not financial advice.
Business
David Deno to take over as Cracker Barrel CEO as rebrand recovery continues
Hometown customers in Lebanon, Tennessee, share their thoughts on Cracker Barrel scrapping its newly unveiled text-only logo to keep its long-standing “Old Timer.”
Traffic at Cracker Barrel locations is yet to fully recover from the backlash against its failed rebrand last year despite signs of improvement, company executives said on the restaurant chain’s most recent earnings call.
The company has been looking to put itself on a more solid financial footing after sales slumped in response to the unsuccessful rebrand that included the removal of the “old timer” from the company’s logo and changes to the restaurant chain’s interior layout, which has long featured a general store.
Cracker Barrel announced on Monday that CEO Julie Masino will step down from the role this summer, with David Deno set to take the helm of the company on Aug. 10. The move follows a slow recovery from the attempted rebrand.
CRACKER BARREL CEO JULIE MASINO TO STEP DOWN

Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino is stepping down, effective Aug. 10. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)
The company noted in its third-quarter earnings last month that while traffic was improving relative to the recent trend, it remained lower than it was in the prior year.
Masino said, “Q3 results exceeded our expectations, driven by our operating and cost actions, while guest-facing metrics continue to improve, and position us for further traffic recovery.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CBRL | CRACKER BARREL OLD COUNTRY STORE INC. | 52.40 | -1.31 | -2.44% |
CRACKER BARREL COMEBACK GAINS STEAM AS LOYAL CUSTOMER SAYS RETURN VISIT ‘FELT LIKE COMING HOME’
“Comparable store restaurant sales decreased 2.6%, which included a traffic decline of 6.7%,” said Cracker Barrel CFO Craig Pommells. “Although traffic remained negative, we are encouraged by the gradual improvement in the underlying trend.”
Pommells said that “controlling for the variability between last year’s third and fourth quarters and the resulting comparison in the current year, the underlying traffic trend continues to show gradual improvement.”

The company noted in its third-quarter earnings last month that while traffic was improving relative to the recent trend, it remained lower than it was in the prior year. (Gregory Walton/AFP via Getty Images)
Cracker Barrel’s stock is down about 18% from a year ago, remaining well below its pre-rebrand levels.
However, it has made significant progress in getting back to those levels this year; the company’s stock is up 105% since the start of 2026.
The company has taken steps recently that aim to improve its financial performance.
CRACKER BARREL SALES, TRAFFIC CONTINUE TO SLUMP MONTHS AFTER FAILED REBRAND
Last week, Cracker Barrel announced that it will sell some of its restaurant properties as well as exiting its Maple Street Business Company business. It sold the Maple Street brand and 35 of its locations to Biscuit Belly LLC, with Cracker Barrel closing the remaining 16 Maple Street restaurants.

Cracker Barrel announced last week that it will exit its Maple Street Business Company business. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The company also completed a sale-leaseback deal involving 26 company-owned locations, which generated about $77 million in net proceeds that it planned to use to pay down debt, while continuing to operate the restaurants by leasing the properties from the new owner.
“A brand isn’t what management wants it to be,” said brand expert Bruce Turkel. “It’s what customers believe it is.”
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FOX Business’ Sophia Compton contributed to this report.
Business
Massachusetts mother goes on trial for killing her three children

Massachusetts mother goes on trial for killing her three children
Business
Building Practical Housing Solutions Across Greater Boston
Alpha Management Corporation is a family-owned real estate company that has spent decades helping shape the housing market across Greater Boston. Founded by Anwar Faisal, the company began with a simple goal: provide dependable property management built on integrity, innovation and reliable service.
Over the years, that vision has grown into a business that owns, develops and manages residential and commercial properties throughout communities including Allston, Brighton, Brookline, Fenway, Back Bay, Jamaica Plain, Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and Medford.
One area has remained at the centre of the company’s work for more than thirty years. Alpha Management has focused on helping students find practical housing close to universities. As enrolment has grown and on-campus accommodation has struggled to keep pace, many students have needed reliable off-campus options. Alpha recognised that demand early and made it a priority.
The company has worked with both domestic and international students while also partnering with universities to help simplify the housing search. At a time when some landlords hesitate to rent to students because of limited rental histories or other perceived risks, Alpha Management has continued serving this important part of the community.
That long-term approach reflects the company’s wider philosophy. Students contribute to neighbourhood businesses, public transport, restaurants and the local economy, making accessible housing an important part of Boston’s continued growth.
Today, Alpha Management Corporation continues to invest in its properties while maintaining the family values that shaped its beginnings. With decades of experience and a strong understanding of the Greater Boston housing market, the company remains a trusted leader in practical property management and student-friendly housing.
Alpha Management Corporation: Three Decades of Meeting Boston’s Housing Needs
Q&A with Alpha Management Corporation
Q: How did Alpha Management Corporation begin?
Alpha Management Corporation was founded by Anwar Faisal with the idea that property management should be built on integrity, reliable service and long-term relationships. What started as a small family business has grown into a company that owns, develops and manages residential and commercial properties across Greater Boston. Even as the company expanded, the focus on serving local communities has stayed the same.
Q: What has been the biggest change in the Boston housing market during that time?
One of the biggest changes has been the growing demand for housing near universities. Boston has always attracted students from around the world, but university enrolment has continued to increase while on-campus housing has remained limited. That has created lasting demand for practical off-campus accommodation close to campuses.
Q: Why has student housing become such an important part of the company’s work?
We recognised many years ago that students needed dependable places to live. They often value being close to campus more than having large apartments or luxury features. By providing housing near universities, we help meet a genuine need in the community.
Student housing is not a luxury. It is a practical necessity for thousands of people who come to Boston every year to study.
Q: Why do you believe students are so important to the city?
Students contribute far beyond the classroom. They support local cafés, restaurants, shops, transport services and neighbourhood businesses. Their families also visit throughout the year, adding further economic activity.
Universities are a major part of what makes Greater Boston successful, and suitable housing helps support that wider ecosystem.
Q: Some landlords are reluctant to rent to students. How has Alpha Management approached that challenge?
Many students are renting for the first time. They may have limited rental history, limited credit history or require co-signers. Some landlords see those factors as additional risk.
Our approach has been different. We have spent more than three decades working with students and understanding their circumstances. Experience has shown us that with clear communication and proper management, student housing can work well for both residents and property owners.
Q: Has working with universities been an important part of that process?
Yes. We have partnered with universities to help students find housing and make the transition to living in Boston easier. For many domestic and international students, finding accommodation is one of the biggest challenges before classes even begin.
Helping simplify that process has always been an important part of what we do.
Q: Alpha Management operates across many communities. How has that shaped the business?
Every neighbourhood has its own character and housing needs. We manage properties in areas including Allston, Brighton, Brookline, Fenway, Back Bay, Jamaica Plain, Cambridge, Somerville, Malden, Medford, Newton, West Roxbury and Norwood.
Having a broad presence across Greater Boston gives us a better understanding of local markets while allowing us to stay connected to the communities we serve.
Q: What makes successful property management today?
Property management is about much more than maintaining buildings. It is about understanding the people who live in them, responding when issues arise and building trust over time.
That means listening carefully, communicating clearly and taking a long-term view. Those principles have guided the company from the beginning.
Q: How do you see the future of housing in Greater Boston?
Demand will continue to be strong, especially in areas close to universities. That means practical housing solutions will remain important. As the market evolves, there will continue to be opportunities for property owners, universities and housing providers to work together to help meet growing demand.
Q: After more than three decades, what continues to motivate Alpha Management?
The answer has remained remarkably consistent. We want to provide quality housing that meets real needs. We are proud to have helped generations of students find homes near their universities while continuing to invest in communities across Greater Boston.
Our goal has never been simply to manage properties. It has been to provide dependable housing solutions that support residents, strengthen neighbourhoods and contribute to the long-term success of the region.
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Why Market Volatility May Be Part Of The Bull Case
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Business
How to Start a Sports Prop Firm in 2026
Sports prop trading allows traders to place positions on sporting events through a funded account after completing an evaluation. Traders follow a set of rules covering areas such as profit targets, drawdown limits, and eligible markets before they can access firm capital.
The global sports trading market was valued at $11.2 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $123.4 billion in 2026. For entrepreneurs, this creates an opportunity to build a platform that combines trading challenges, reliable technology, and a smooth user experience.
Keep reading to learn how to build and launch a sports prop firm in 2026.
6 Steps to Start a Sports Prop Firm in 2026
Starting a sports prop firm needs the right business model, reliable technology, and clear operating procedures before opening your platform to traders.
Here are the 6 steps to help you build and launch a sports prop firm in 2026:
1) Understand the Sports Prop Firm Model
Before creating a sports prop firm, decide how your platform will operate. The trading model affects your evaluation process, your payout structure, and risk management.
Here are some of the most common trading models used by sports prop firms:
| Trading Model | How It Works |
| One-Step Challenge | Traders complete one evaluation by reaching a profit target while staying within drawdown rules before receiving a funded account. |
| Two-Step Challenge | Traders complete two evaluation phases before qualifying for funding. Each phase has its own trading objectives and risk limits. |
| Instant Funding | Traders pay a higher fee to receive immediate access to a funded account without completing an evaluation. Risk controls are usually stricter. |
| Scaling Programme | Traders begin with a smaller funded account and become eligible for larger account sizes after meeting performance milestones. |
| Subscription Model | Traders pay a recurring monthly fee to access challenges, trading tools or platform features. |
2) Set Up the Legal Structure and Compliance
This will depend on where the company is registered and how it plans to operate. It’s also important to prepare documents such as your Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, and user agreements before accepting customers.
Compliance may include data protection requirements, anti-money laundering (AML) procedures, and record-keeping. If your platform operates in multiple countries, local regulations may differ.
3) Choose a White-Label Platform
Building a platform from scratch takes time, technical knowledge, and ongoing maintenance. A reliable and trusted sports prop firm software provider like Sports Prop Tech can help you launch faster by providing the core technology needed to run your business.
A typical white-label platform includes:
- Trader dashboards for tracking account performance and progress
- Challenge management tools for creating and managing evaluation programmes
- User registration and account management
- Reporting and analytics for monitoring trader activity
- Secure payment gateway integration
- Administrative controls for managing users and platform settings
- Sportsbook integrations and live odds feeds
- Automated account management for funded traders
4) Create Clear Trading Rules
Every rule should be easy to understand before someone starts an evaluation. This includes profit targets, daily loss limits, maximum drawdown, payout requirements, and account scaling rules where applicable.
You should also decide which sports, leagues and trading markets are available on the platform. Some firms may focus on major football competitions, while others include basketball, tennis, baseball or additional sports.
Clear rules reduce confusion and help create a consistent experience for every participant. If changes are made, they should be communicated clearly so traders always know what is expected.
5) Set Up KYC and Payment Processing
Before traders can receive payouts, you’ll need a secure process for verifying customer identities and handling payments.
Know Your Customer (KYC) checks are commonly used to confirm that users are who they claim to be. This process may include identity documents, proof of address, or other verification steps depending on your business requirements.
Your platform should support secure deposits, withdrawals, and transaction records. It’s also worth deciding how challenge fees, refunds, and payout requests will be managed.
6) Launch and Market Your Sports Prop Firm
Before opening registrations, test every part of the platform. Check the registration process, payment system, trader dashboard, reporting tools, and email notifications. Beta users can also provide useful feedback before the public launch.
Once everything is ready, focus on promoting your business through channels that match your audience. This may include:
- Search engine optimisation (SEO)
- Affiliate partnerships
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Educational content
Ready to Launch Your Own Sports Prop Firm?
Starting a sports prop firm takes planning, testing and the right technology. Before opening your platform to traders, make sure your trading rules, payment system, compliance checks and user dashboard all work as expected.
Running a few final tests can help you spot issues before launch and give new users a smoother experience. Once everything is in place, you’ll be ready to focus on growing your platform and building your community.
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