The AI Boom Needs More Than Chips. It Needs These 5 Stocks.

📁 The Catch-Up Rule That Changed in January  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

August 13, 2026   |   Read online 📁 The Catch-Up Rule That Changed in January If your wages from that employer topped $150,000 last year, your 401(k) catch-up is now a Roth contribution. The AI Boom Needs More Than Chips. It Needs These 5 Stocks. Most investors are still chasing AI stocks. But the companies supplying the power behind the AI boom may offer an even bigger opportunity. Our analysts uncovered 5 stocks positioned at the center of AI's growing energy demand—including one monopoly supplier and one company already benefiting from Big Tech's data-center expansion. 👉 See the 5 stocks now. (By clicking the links above, you agree to receive future emails from Stock Alert Daily and bonus subscriptions from our partners. You can opt out at any time. - Privacy Policy)   📁 The Catch-Up Rule That Changed in January If your wages from that employer topped $150,000 last year, your 401(k) catch-up is now a Roth contribution.   🌙 TONIGHT'S NUMBERS $150,000 Last year's wage line that decides whether your 2026 catch-up must go in as Roth. 4.70% The 10-year Treasury's August 11 close, still above most large-cap dividend yields. (Ad) One analyst's read on the part of the SpaceX filing that has nothing to do with rockets.   A rule that took effect on January 1 is only now turning up on people's pay stubs. If you are 50 or older, still working, and your FICA wages — the pay your Social Security and Medicare taxes are withheld from — came to more than $150,000 last year from that employer, your 401(k) catch-up contribution can no longer go in pretax. It has to go in as a Roth contribution, after tax. Congress wrote the threshold at $145,000 when it passed SECURE 2.0. The IRS raised it to $150,000 on November 13, 2025. Nothing about the amount you can put in has changed. What changed is which pocket the tax comes out of, and when. Ted Benna, the benefits consultant credited with designing the first 401(k) plan back in 1980, built the thing around one trade: take the deduction now, pay the tax later. For this group of savers, the rule reverses that trade. You pay tax on the catch-up portion in the year you make it, and the money comes out untaxed in retirement. If you are in a high bracket now and expect a lower one later, that is a real cost, and it lands in the same year you are already paying more. If you expect the reverse, it may work in your favor. The rule does not ask which describes you. One more piece of timing worth knowing: the final regulations do not take effect until 2027, and through the end of 2026 the IRS says it will apply a good-faith standard. That is why some plans switched in January and others have not moved yet.   ADVERTISEMENT · INVESTORPLACE A way to hold a pre-IPO stake before the listing opens Millions of investors are queued up to buy OpenAI the moment it lists, which InvestorPlace argues may be exactly the wrong moment to be a buyer. The alternative they lay out is a way to take a pre-IPO position now, starting with a few hundred dollars. The mechanics are the interesting part, whether or not you would use them. See How It Works Paid advertisement from InvestorPlace. Past performance is not indicative of future results. All investing involves risk of loss including total loss of principal. Not investment advice.   Looking at the longer horizon, this is the second time in a decade that a tax-timing rule has shifted under savers' feet. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed December 22, 2017, ended the ability to undo a Roth conversion for anything converted from 2018 forward. People who converted, then watched the account fall, found the do-over was gone. The lesson is the same one now. Call your plan administrator before December and ask how your catch-up is being coded, rather than finding out from a W-2 in January.   💵 INCOME WATCH Declared. EnerSys raised its quarterly dividend 10% to $0.2875 a share on August 12, payable October 2 to holders of record September 18. Pinnacle Bankshares declared $0.33 on August 11, up from $0.30, payable September 4 to holders of record August 21. Otherwise a quiet day on the declarations front among the large-cap income names. Ex-dates ahead. All of these go ex tomorrow, August 14: Duke Energy at $1.0850 a share, roughly a 3.4% yield. WEC Energy at $0.9525. J.M. Smucker at $1.12. Hershey at $1.4520. Honeywell at $0.70. RTX at $0.73. Starbucks at $0.62. Yield check. The 10-year Treasury closed at 4.70% on August 11. SCHD, the Schwab dividend ETF many income holders use as a benchmark, showed a 30-day SEC yield of 3.20% as of August 10.   Tomorrow is a consumer day. Retail sales for July arrive at 8:30 Eastern, with economists looking for a 0.2% rise. The version that strips out auto sales carries the same 0.2% estimate, after a 0.2% decline in June. Consumer sentiment and business inventories follow at 10:00. None of it moves a dividend, but retail sales is the number that shows up in staples and retail earnings a few weeks later.   📅 TOMORROW'S CALENDAR 8:30 a.m. ET — July retail sales. Estimate is a 0.2% rise, matching June. Look at whether the gain comes from volume or from higher prices. 8:30 a.m. ET — Retail sales excluding autos. Estimate is 0.2%, after a 0.2% decline in June. This is the cleaner read on everyday spending. 10:00 a.m. ET — University of Michigan consumer sentiment, August preliminary. Watch the inflation-expectations line more than the headline mood number. 10:00 a.m. ET — June business inventories. Rising inventories against soft sales tends to mean discounting later.   If you're still working past 50, has your plan told you yet how it's handling the catch-up? Reply and tell me. — Randy Cole, Editor P.S. Before OpenAI ever rings a bell, there is a stretch where the money gets positioned quietly. Here is our read on that window. And if you'd like a short text when something in the retirement rules actually changes, Early Bird Alerts sends a brief note overnight or before the open. Free, two to three texts a week, opt out anytime. Your interaction with our content, in any format, is appreciated. We value your time and the trust you place in our communications. Thank you for being an active member of our community, and we look forward to continued exchanges in the future. 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