Friday, September 04, 2026
Written before the market opens. Every price and move in this brief is as of the close on Thursday, Sep 3; company pages show live prices. The Buildout is a website built on agentic AI tools, currently in beta, and could have factual errors.
SPY closed at $773.17, up 1.05%, while QQQ gained 1.19% to $717.67 in Thursday's session. Across the 523-company AI infrastructure universe, 352 names advanced, 164 declined, and 7 finished flat, for an average move of +0.97% — a 0.08% underperformance relative to SPY. Operators led all segments at +5.62%; the weakest segments were natural resources (-0.57%), networking (-0.43%), and chip making (-0.18%). BTBT (Bit Digital, Inc.) was the standout at +17.3% amid a broad crypto-adjacent operator bid, while MEI (Methode Electronics, Inc.) fell 15.4% as the biggest decliner. Next week's earnings slate includes ABM (ABM Industries Inc.) on Tuesday and ORCL (Oracle Corporation) on Thursday.
CIEN (Ciena Corporation) reported fiscal third-quarter EPS of $2.11, above the $1.73 consensus estimate — a $0.38 beat. The stock nevertheless closed down 10.4% on Thursday, the second-worst decliner overall. The company released results via 8-K and press release after the close.
TTC (The Toro Company) delivered EPS of $1.33 against a $1.31 estimate, a $0.02 beat. Shares fell 6.8% on the session, the worst performance in the construction segment, which averaged +0.46%.
BBCP (Concrete Pumping Holdings, Inc.) posted EPS of $0.09 versus a $0.08 estimate, a $0.01 beat, and announced the initiation of a quarterly dividend alongside its third-quarter fiscal 2026 results.
FLEX (Flex Ltd.) announced a definitive agreement to acquire EPC Power for $4.4 billion, adding power conversion capabilities for AI data centers and grid applications. EPC Power designs and manufactures power conversion systems used in data center power architectures and grid-tied energy storage.
CWK (Cushman & Wakefield plc) released its 2026 Data Center Development Cost Guide, citing a 21% rise in per-megawatt construction costs. The report quantifies what construction contractors and data center developers have been navigating — higher labor, materials, and power delivery costs.
CIFR (Cipher Mining Inc.) announced that Cipher Digital has begun development of lateral pipelines to facilitate data center expansion via a bring-your-own-generation model. The pipeline work is tied to the company's effort to source power independently for data center capacity, rather than relying solely on utility interconnection queues. Shares closed up 14.4% Thursday in a broad operator rally that also lifted RIOT (Riot Platforms, Inc.) and HIVE (HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd.).
ORCL (Oracle Corporation) reports fiscal Q1 results on Thursday, September 10, with an EPS estimate of $1.74. Oracle is a critical readout for cloud infrastructure demand, given the company's direct data center expansion tied to AI compute availability. One confirmed linkage: AAOI (Applied Optoelectronics, Inc.) is a documented supplier to Oracle. Oracle's capital expenditure and capacity commentary will be the key data point for the optical interconnect supply chain.
ABM (ABM Industries Inc.) reports Tuesday, September 8, with an EPS estimate of $1.01. As a facility services provider with data center customers, ABM's results and backlog commentary could offer a read on operational spending at data center facilities. Documented competitors in the energy services and facility services markets include AMRC (Ameresco, Inc.) and EME (EMCOR Group, Inc.), and their shares could react to ABM's margin and demand commentary.
OCC (Optical Cable Corporation) reports Thursday, September 10, with an EPS estimate of $0.20. Optical Cable operates in fiber optic cabling and connectivity, a niche within the networking supply chain that feeds data center physical layer deployments. The report lands the same day as Oracle's, and both will provide complementary reads on AI network buildout activity.
Non Farm Payrolls (Aug) leads the macro calendar this week.