Peltz wants Wendy's off the menu 🍔

Welcome back to the Day Trading newsletter 📈

A tame inflation report sent the S&P 500 up 0.3% to close near record highs Wednesday, but the tastiest story of the day was Nelson Peltz assembling a group to take Wendy's off the public markets entirely.

Let’s get into it 👇️ 

📈 Inflation cooled to 3.4% in July, matching forecasts and easing fears of a September rate hike. Consumer prices rose just 0.1% on the month, with core CPI at 2.5% annually. After three Fed officials dissented in July in favor of raising rates, the tame print buys the Fed time to wait.

🔼 Super Micro soared 19% Wednesday — the S&P 500's top gainer — after forecasting fiscal 2027 revenue of $65–72 billion, far above the $54.4 billion analysts expected. Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.70 beat estimates, and current-quarter revenue guidance of $14.5–15.5 billion also blew past the Street's $11.68 billion.

☁️ CoreWeave's Q2 revenue more than doubled to $2.6 billion, and its backlog swelled to $104 billion — up 246% year over year. The AI cloud provider raised full-year revenue guidance to $12.4–13.2 billion and disclosed a $21 billion deal to supply Meta with AI capacity through 2032. Shares jumped double digits.

👎️ On Holding had its worst trading day on record Tuesday, plunging 22% after the Swiss sneaker maker missed revenue estimates. Q2 revenue of CHF 850.3 million fell short as On deliberately held back wholesale shipments to protect full-price sales in a heavily promotional U.S. market.

💰️ Cisco booked $4 billion in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers last quarter, capping a fiscal year in which AI orders hit $9.3 billion — roughly 4.5x the prior year. Revenue rose 18% to $17.3 billion, but shares slipped after hours as management warned a heavier hardware mix will pressure margins.

🔋 Bloom Energy jumped 12% after AI cloud firm Nebius confirmed Bloom's fuel cells will power its planned 300-megawatt data center in Vineland, New Jersey. It's the latest sign that AI's power bottleneck is minting winners far beyond chipmakers.

🚢 Fresh attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Oman dented hopes for a quick reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude settled just under $89 a barrel. With U.S.-Iran talks stalled over Tehran's conditions for reopening the waterway, traders see little relief on the supply side.

🧑‍⚖️ The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued President Trump and Trump Media on Wednesday over "Truth API," which charges up to $100,000 a month for early access to his Truth Social posts. The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, argues that selling priority access to official presidential statements is unconstitutional.

Wendy's shares jumped as much as 15% Wednesday (closing up about 12%) on reports that Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management is preparing a bid to take the burger chain private.

The consortium Trian is assembling could include Flynn Group (one of Wendy's biggest franchisees, with 309 U.S. locations) and Abu Dhabi-based BlueFive Capital, with a formal offer likely in the coming weeks.

Peltz knows this company: Trian holds a 7.85% stake, Peltz personally holds 16.24%, and together they control more than 24% of Wendy's.

Trian told regulators back in February that Wendy's was undervalued and that it was sounding out co-investors on a go-private deal.

Wendy's is struggling. Last week it halved its dividend from 14 cents to 7 cents (preserving about $53 million a year), withdrew its 2026 outlook, and reported a 7% drop in Q2 U.S. same-store sales (falling well behind rival burger chains).

A take-private would let new leadership attempt a turnaround away from the quarterly earnings spotlight, with franchisee money and Middle East capital footing the bill.

For shareholders, a buyout premium on a beaten-down stock is the most concrete catalyst the name has had in years.

It's also a signal to the broader market: when public investors won't pay up for beaten-down consumer brands, activists with deep pockets will.

What to watch:

• Whether a formal bid actually lands in the coming weeks (and at what price)

• With Peltz-aligned holders already controlling roughly a quarter of the company, the board's response and any competing offers will determine whether this becomes a bidding war or a done deal.

• Franchisee reaction matters too. Flynn Group's involvement suggests operators want a seat at the table.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: Not financial advice. Do your research before making any trades.