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one where algorithms catalog not books, but the

The House of Heineken, famed for its golden elixirs and strategic pricing, released its second-quarter earnings this morning. On a net organic adjusted basis, revenue and profits improved, much like a sorcerer conjuring gold from lead. Yet the magic was not in the volume of brews sold, but in the price tags affixed to them. Volumes, however, continued their slow waltz downward, leaving investors to ponder whether they’d been handed a goblet of ambrosia or a chalice of despair.

Over the weekend, in the slender hours when most traders dream of green candles flickering through the night, a familiar word arrived from Mr. Musk—a name spoken too often for comfort and too seldom for certainty. He had inked a deal with Samsung; inked, as those in my line might say, in characters twelve figures long. Sixteen and a half billion dollars—enough to make the numbers on a ticker tape pause and clear their throat—was the sum exchanged for a future that gleams somewhere just out of reach.

On this dismal day, LVMH, that once-mighty colossus of opulence, found itself in the company of other beleaguered titans, such as Heineken, Puma, and AB/InBev. Its European peers—noble but weary Hermes, pragmatic Kering, and stolid Richemont—all beckoned retreat, stumbling haphazardly under the weight of weak earnings and the disquieting nature of a tariff agreement, which, if we dare to paint it with the brush of sincerity, feels more like a gilded cage than a highway to prosperity.

The portrait painted by Cantor Fitzgerald’s analyst Thomas Blakey, however, offers a glimpse of optimism quite different from the wary murmurs that often shroud corporate earnings. ServiceNow, with its ardent embrace of artificial intelligence (AI), seems unfazed by the naysayers. Blakey’s report, penned ahead of market open, reiterated a buy recommendation—a veritable beacon for those seeking solace in an otherwise tumultuous financial sea. His aspirations for a $1,200-per-share target stand nearly 22% higher than the waves where the stock currently resides.