Dear Reader,
I believe what's inside these strange white crates will go down as Elon's greatest ever invention.
They are part of a new "super startup" that Elon is incubating within Tesla itself.
This new super startup has nothing to do with electric vehicles, space, social media, crypto, biotech, robots or AI…
In fact, 99.99% of Elon's followers have no idea about it…
It's quietly buried in financial statements, already putting billions in his pocket...
$12 billion in 2025 alone.
And that's just the beginning.
Because according to Adam O'Dell, the analyst who recommended Palantir before it became the top performer in the S&P 500…
As Adam shows here, it's at the center of what Blackstone, one of the world's largest asset managers, calls: "A $23 trillion investment opportunity".
And yet… virtually no one is reporting on this story.
You won't find any pundits discussing it on Fox Business or CNBC. And you certainly won't read about it in the pages of the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.
But that won't last long.
Because when the news gets out about what's inside Elon's crates, and what they can do, it's going to be everywhere — from Fox News to your family's group chat.
Which is why Adam believes that anyone who understands what's going on here, and positions themselves before July 22, could walk away wealthier than they ever thought possible.
Regards,
Adam O'Dell
Chief Investment Strategist, Money & Markets
P.S. In this briefing, I also give away the name and ticker symbol of one of my top picks to play this new Elon opportunity — completely free. Go here to watch it now.
Affirm's Google Deal Aims for Your Wallet
By Jeffrey Neal Johnson. Article Published: 5/14/2026.
Key Points
- Affirm's groundbreaking partnership with Google creates a massive new customer-acquisition channel within the search and payments ecosystem.
- Affirm is demonstrating significant improvement in its underlying profitability, demonstrating its ability to manage loan unit economics effectively.
- This strategic integration positions Affirm at the forefront of AI-driven commerce, creating a substantial competitive advantage in the digital payments space.
- Special Report: Elon Musk’s $1 Quadrillion AI IPO
A persistent 3.8% Consumer Price Index (CPI) and record-high credit card APRs are reshaping consumer credit behavior. With total U.S. credit card debt swelling to $1.28 trillion and serious delinquencies reaching 7.10%, a structural shift away from traditional revolving credit is accelerating. This macroeconomic backdrop creates a significant tailwind for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) providers. A strategic partnership that integrates Affirm Holdings (NASDAQ: AFRM) directly into the ecosystem of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) fundamentally changes the customer acquisition landscape for the BNPL sector.
A Structural Reshaping of Customer Acquisition
Affirm Holdings' integration with Google Pay, Google Search, and the Gemini AI assistant represents an evolution from a merchant-centric to a consumer-centric acquisition model. By embedding its real-time underwriting engine at the point of intent—within search results and the native payment wallet on billions of Android devices—Affirm effectively bypasses the traditional friction of merchant-by-merchant onboarding.
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The Wall Street Journal is already raising the alarm about a potential market crash, and Weiss Ratings research points to the first half of 2026 as a particularly rough stretch for certain holdings.
Some of America's most popular stocks could take serious damage as a radical market shift plays out. Analysts at Weiss Ratings have identified five names you may want to remove from your portfolio before this unfolds.
If any of these are in your portfolio, now is the time to review your positions.
See the 5 stocks to avoidThis creates a powerful, low-friction pipeline to capture high-intent buyers before they even finalize a purchase decision, a strategic moat that competitors like Klarna (NYSE: KLAR) and Block's (NYSE: XYZ) Afterpay must now contend with.
The technical execution is important. When a user shops in Chrome or on an Android device, Google's autofill and wallet features can now directly surface Affirm Holdings as a payment option. This enables the generation of a virtual card and an instant underwriting decision, streamlining what was once a multi-step process.
For Affirm Holdings, this dramatically lowers customer acquisition costs (CAC) and provides a direct channel to drive Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV). For Alphabet Inc., it enriches its commerce ecosystem by adding a critical financing layer that can boost conversion rates for merchants using its platform. The partnership also includes Affirm Holdings piloting extensions to the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard for agentic commerce that enables artificial intelligence (AI) agents to execute purchases on a user's behalf, positioning Affirm Holdings at the forefront of this technological shift.
Affirm's One-Two Punch
This powerful new distribution channel arrives just as Affirm Holdings is demonstrating improving underlying profitability and financial resilience. A key metric, Revenue Less Transaction Costs (RLTC), which serves as a proxy for gross profit on loan volume, expanded 41% year over year to $498 million in Affirm's third quarter of 2026. This growth, representing 4.31% of GMV, signals that Affirm Holdings' underwriting algorithms are successfully navigating the high-rate environment, balancing loan performance with funding costs to preserve unit economics.
This performance is supported by a solid balance sheet. Affirm Holdings has fortified its liquidity, expanding total funding capacity to $28.2 billion. This financial firepower is critical, providing the scale needed to support more than $65 billion in potential annual GMV. The combination of a strong funding base and proven margin expansion directly addresses a central point of the bearish thesis, which has historically questioned Affirm Holdings' ability to sustain profitability and liquidity through a full credit cycle.
Furthermore, the broader regulatory environment has become more favorable. The rollback of certain Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) oversight initiatives for nonbank entities in late 2025 reduces a layer of compliance friction, potentially lowering operational overhead for the entire BNPL sector.
Valuation and Volatility Remain in Focus
Despite the powerful catalyst and improving fundamentals, investors must weigh the associated risks and the stock's premium valuation.
With a forward P/E ratio near 60, Affirm Holdings trades at a premium, reflecting high expectations for future growth. The stock's high beta of 3.72 underscores its volatility and sensitivity to macroeconomic shifts.
Bearish sentiment, evidenced by healthy short interest, remains focused on the inherent credit risk. The same consumer escaping high credit card debt is the core demographic for Affirm Holdings, and a further deterioration in household savings or employment could pressure the underwriting models.
While Q3 results were strong, the market will be watching closely for any signs of margin compression or rising delinquencies within the loan portfolio as the Google integration scales. Recent insider trading data, which shows net selling, also warrants consideration, though the volumes have not been substantial enough to signal a major shift in executive confidence.
An Alliance That May Redefine Digital Payments
The integration with Alphabet Inc.'s ecosystem appears to be an inflection point for Affirm Holdings, positioning its financing tools at the nexus of search, mobile payments, and AI-driven commerce. Affirm Holdings' ability to maintain underwriting discipline and expand margins while absorbing a potentially massive influx of new volume will be the key determinant of its long-term success.
Investors evaluating the fintech and payments space may consider this development a significant shift in the competitive landscape. For those with a higher risk tolerance, direct access to billions of consumers could justify the stock's premium valuation as a structural advantage over competitors. More cautious investors, however, may prefer to see further data confirming that Affirm Holdings can maintain its strong RLTC metrics as the Google-sourced volume fully ramps up before committing capital.
Japan's Stealth Bull Market: How U.S. Investors Can Get Exposure
By Chris Markoch. Article Published: 5/17/2026.
Key Points
- Japan’s corporate governance reforms are driving stronger shareholder returns through buybacks, dividends, and improved capital efficiency.
- ETFs like EWJ and DXJ provide investors with different ways to gain exposure to Japanese equities, including currency-hedged strategies.
- Sony and Toyota offer contrasting opportunities, with Sony focused on diversified technology growth and Toyota representing a higher-risk turnaround play.
- Special Report: Elon Musk’s $1 Quadrillion AI IPO
Japanese stocks have been an attractive option for investors seeking exposure outside U.S. equities. Several factors have fueled the multi-year run, including corporate governance reform, record shareholder returns, and a weak yen.
The governance overhaul began with Japan’s Stewardship and Corporate Governance Codes in 2014–15. This pushed companies to prioritize shareholder value over the old habits of cash hoarding and cross-shareholdings, where companies held each other’s stock to cement business relationships rather than generate returns.
ALERT: Drop these 5 stocks before the market opens tomorrow! (Ad)
The Wall Street Journal is already raising the alarm about a potential market crash, and Weiss Ratings research points to the first half of 2026 as a particularly rough stretch for certain holdings.
Some of America's most popular stocks could take serious damage as a radical market shift plays out. Analysts at Weiss Ratings have identified five names you may want to remove from your portfolio before this unfolds.
If any of these are in your portfolio, now is the time to review your positions.
See the 5 stocks to avoidMore than a decade later, the overhaul has produced tangible results: more than 90% of listed companies now have meaningful independent board representation. In addition, the Tokyo Stock Exchange has ramped up pressure by threatening to delist companies that fail to meet capital efficiency standards.
This pressure has unlocked a wave of shareholder returns. Share buybacks have risen nearly 6x over the past decade, dividends have doubled, and companies are increasingly canceling repurchased shares outright rather than warehousing them.
The weak yen has amplified the story. Having lost roughly a third of its trade-weighted value over four years, the yen has boosted the overseas earnings of Japanese exporters and made Japanese assets attractively priced for foreign buyers, drawing record foreign inflows in 2025.
Has the Japan Trade Run Its Course?
Not yet, but there are some risks. The primary one would be a recovery in the yen, which would squeeze exporter margins. In addition, many companies now have valuations that make them less compelling, and despite the progress that has been made, many firms are still dragging their feet on reform.
Still, those are short-term concerns in a long-term bull market. Japan’s equity market is in the midst of a structural shift that should make it compelling for long-term investors.
iShares MSCI Japan ETF Offers Broad Exposure to Japan
Many investors will choose exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as a way to gain exposure to Japanese stocks. One option is the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (NYSEARCA: EWJ). The fund invests in a representative sample of securities that are part of the MSCI Japan Index.
The fund has 184 holdings, but the key is that its holdings are weighted toward technology and industrials. These sectors face headwinds from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but they also stand to benefit the most from a reversal.
EWJ is up 12% in 2026 as of this writing. It’s also up 25% over the last 12 months and 35% over the last five years. That performance isn’t bad, but it does reflect the impact of a weakening yen.
The fund does have an expense ratio of around 0.5%, which is considered expensive.
But it has over $21 billion in assets under management (AUM) and an average daily trading volume of around nine million shares.
WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund Removes Currency Risk
The WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEARCA: DXJ) takes a different approach that some investors may prefer. The fund gives U.S. investors exposure to Japanese equities while hedging out the yen-dollar exchange rate.
That removes the drag of yen fluctuations, which is reflected in the fund’s performance. DXJ is up over 50% in the last 12 months and an impressive 185% over the last five years.
What may be even more attractive to investors is the fund’s structure.
It focuses on dividend-paying, export-oriented Japanese stocks that are typically associated more with value than growth.
The fund has an expense ratio of 0.48% and over $6.6 billion in AUM as of this writing.
Sony Balances Growth Opportunities With Near-Term Challenges
Investors considering single-stock exposure would do well to consider Sony Group (NYSE: SONY). The stock is up almost 500% over the last five years, though it’s down over 10% in 2026.
That reflects the diverse nature of the company’s business, which spans sectors ranging from consumer electronics and gaming hardware to an electric vehicle venture and audio intellectual property.
SONY delivered mixed Q4 earnings for its 2026 fiscal year on May 7, with a revenue beat offset by lighter-than-expected earnings per share.
The company will face pressure from rising memory costs as well as a supply shortage.
That’s one reason why analysts may have a Hold rating on the stock. But at 17x forward earnings, Sony is a solid choice for long-term growth and value.
Toyota Could Be a Contrarian Opportunity in Japanese Stocks
Toyota Motors (NYSE: TM) is the asymmetric play among Japanese stocks. TM is down 10% year-to-date and is only up about 20% over the last five years. That reflects the issues that have beset the auto industry.
Toyota delivered mixed results in its Q4 earnings for its 2026 fiscal year. Moving forward, the company still expects tariff headwinds. Toyota also acknowledged that its business transformation initiatives aren’t complete, making it unclear when it will be able to achieve its goal of 20% ROE (return on equity).
That said, TM still has a consensus price target of $290, which would give investors a gain of over 50%. There’s a lot that has to go right for the company, but for investors willing to accept the risk, there could be a market-beating return.
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