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If this is your first time reading, welcome to The Investor’s Edge — a thriving community of over 25,000 subscribers striving to be better investors with an edge in the market.

Every weekend we publish “The Weekly Wrap-Up” — your ticket to being well informed and staying ahead in the investment game!

This report is designed to help investors of all skill levels break down important stories/topics within the stock market. And best of all, we cut through all of the BS and give you exactly what you need to know in easy to digest, bite sized pieces of content.

Grab your coffee and let’s dive in.

The major indexes all made record highs following the CPI report this week.

These are some of the biggest stories from this week that had an influence on market action.

Consumer prices rose more than expected in August, with inflation still running hotter than the Fed’s preferred pace. Core inflation came in steady, but the broader measure highlighted renewed price pressures. At the same time, jobless claims spiked, underscoring fresh signs of labor market weakness and setting the stage for a highly consequential Fed meeting next week.

🔑 Key Points

👀 What You Need to Know

Markets are heading into next week’s Fed meeting with more conviction that rate cuts are on the way. Inflation is still running above the central bank’s target, but the rise in jobless claims is keeping pressure on policymakers to ease. Investors expect a quarter-point move at this meeting and see more reductions likely by year-end. For now, the focus is shifting to how the Fed signals its path forward.

David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance $PSKY ( ▼ 0.3% ), is reportedly preparing a takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery $WBD ( ▲ 0.31% ), sending WBD shares soaring in their best trading day on record. While no formal offer has been made, Ellison has tapped an investment bank to structure the approach, a move that could reshape the entertainment landscape. Combining WBD’s franchises and sports rights with Paramount’s growing slate would create a content and streaming powerhouse.

🔑 Key Points

👀 What You Need to Know

If Ellison succeeds, Paramount Skydance could instantly transform into a diversified media juggernaut with unmatched content breadth and sports coverage to rival Disney’s ESPN. The scale of streaming subscribers alone would give it leverage against Netflix and Amazon. But WBD’s heavy debt load and regulatory scrutiny could complicate execution, and future sports rights availability remains limited.

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Adobe $ADBE ( ▼ 2.6% ) posted another strong quarter, with results above Wall Street expectations and momentum across its subscription businesses. Management highlighted continued adoption of its AI-first products and announced an increase to full-year revenue and earnings targets. Despite the upbeat report, shares slipped as investors remain cautious about competitive threats in generative AI and the company’s ability to translate product innovation into sustained growth.

🔑 Key Points

👀 What You Need to Know

Adobe’s story remains centered on whether it can prove durable AI monetization at scale. The company has deep penetration in the enterprise, with Fortune 100 adoption and growing spend among its largest accounts. The breadth of Adobe’s AI product suite is still underappreciated, but investor confidence hinges on clear evidence of commercial returns. With the stock down heavily this year, execution in AI will define whether the guidance hike sticks.

In this section, we'll be curating a selection of news headlines we think you'll find interesting. If a topic catches your eye, click the provided links to read more about it.

We continue to push out more and more content every week to give investors that edge. Here are the posts Investor’s Edge+ subscribers received this week.

Mondays are for the investors. Every Monday morning we share exactly what we’re watching in the week ahead, how we’re positioning, and even share a sneak peek into our systems and models. This week we discussed the the upcoming inflation reports, as well as our expectations for key earnings. See the latest full report here:

This report is a breakdown of every options trade we made this week—what we opened, what we closed, and how our open trades are performing. Each edition gives you full transparency on our strategy, including entry points, premiums collected or paid, trade rationale, and risk/reward setups. See this week’s recap:

Every month we share a full access look into our portfolios, including holdings, performance, activity and our watchlists for the upcoming month. You can see both of our portfolios here and see what moves we made in August:

Every month we break down 5 stocks that we believe are attractive from a valuation perspective right now. See the 5 stocks we are buying in September:

Our Deep Dive focused on Honeywell this week. We not only broke down the financials of this industrial powerhouse, but we also shared our valuation models, price targets for 2025, and put the stock through our Edge Scoring System. You can see the full analysis here:

The Fed will make its interest rate decision next week, which is highly expected to be the first rate cut of the year. The announcement is sure to move markets.

Earnings season is officially over but FedEx is one of the remaining names left to report next week. Here is the list of names we will be covering next week:

Here is the full calendar of scheduled earnings releases:

Next week is another big week on the economic front as we get the Fed’s interest rate decision, which is expected to be the first rate cut of the year. We also get retail sales, initial jobless claims, and several housing reports.

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Thank you for reading this edition of the Weekly Wrap-Up. Have a great weekend!

Until next time investors!

Mark & Chris

The Investor’s Edge

This is not investing advice. It is very important that you do your own research and make investments based on your own personal circumstances, preferences, goals and risk tolerance.