Hot or Not, Stock Market Edition: 08/28/2026

Happy Friday! Here’s what’s hot and what’s not in the market and in our Zen Ratings:

• 🔥 HOT: Comfort Systems USA (FIX) is riding record data center demand and a $14.1B backlog, while Chevron (CVX) pairs record production with higher oil prices and a new AI power-growth angle.
• 🥶 NOT: Firefly Aerospace’s (FLY) revenue is exploding but losses and cash burn remain severe, while Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) still looks rock-solid but offers slower growth at a less compelling valuation.

P.S. For more stocks making moves, check out our Zen Ratings Upgrades & Downgrades screener.

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🔥 HOT: Energy major Chevron (CVX) is benefiting from two forces at the same time: better oil economics and production at record levels. U.S. output just hit nearly 2.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, an all-time high for the company, while worldwide production rose 20% year over year. The pricing backdrop is doing its part too … Brent averaged $92 through the first half of 2026 against $72 a year prior, and each $1 move in Brent is worth roughly $600 million in annual after-tax earnings and cash flow to Chevron. There's another angle as well: a newly signed 20-year agreement to supply power to a Microsoft data center in West Texas places the company directly in the path of surging AI electricity demand.  

Across its 115 factors, the Zen Ratings assign CVX a B (Buy). Its Component Grades show an A for AI alongside B's for Growth, Momentum, and Sentiment — a mix suggesting investors get a strong commodity setup right now plus exposure to a power-demand story that could grow considerably larger. 

🥶 NOT: Space and defense contractor Firefly Aerospace (FLY) is not lacking for exciting headlines. Q2 revenue exploded nearly 660% year over year to a record $117.7 million, a $144 million NASA lunar contract came through, the Lockheed Martin launch agreement was extended, and another Blue Ghost lunar payload deal followed. None of it has yet demonstrated the company can generate profit. The same quarter delivering that $117.7 million in revenue also produced a $92.3 million loss, negative adjusted EBITDA of $61.2 million, and $106.3 million in free cash flow burned. 

The Zen Ratings frame those risks plainly: FLY holds a C (Hold), carrying D grades across Financials, Momentum, Safety, Value, and AI. The contracts and the growth are genuine, but so is what comes with them — thin profitability, substantial cash consumption, and a weak price trend. The company is compelling; the stock hasn't caught up to that yet. 

🔥 HOT: Mechanical and electrical contractor Comfort Systems USA (FIX) is capturing the data center construction boom, and its latest quarter shows the scale of that demand. Revenue jumped 50% to $3.27 billion, EPS nearly doubled to $12.53, and backlog expanded around 75% year over year to a record $14.1 billion as customers kept queuing for its infrastructure work. Even following a recent pullback, a backlog of that size offers rare visibility into growth extending through the rest of 2026 and into 2027. 

Weighing 115 fundamental and technical factors, the Zen Ratings test whether such a story holds beyond the headlines. FIX earns a B (Buy) built on an A for Financials with B's for Growth and Sentiment … rapid expansion paired with genuine financial quality and sustained investor support. Among picks-and-shovels routes into AI infrastructure spending, this remains one of the strongest available. 

🥶 NOT: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) is actually performing well under new CEO Greg Abel. Operating earnings climbed 16% in Q2 to nearly $13 billion, buybacks resumed with roughly $4.5 billion of its own stock repurchased, and Abel directed almost $20 billion net into public equities while closing a multibillion-dollar acquisition. Nothing about this points to a deteriorating business. The question is what shareholders receive for the price — growth that stays modest against faster-moving alternatives 

The Zen Ratings assigns BRK.B an overall C (Hold), combining an A for Safety with D grade for Value (find better Value stocks here…) and C grades for Growth, Momentum, Sentiment, and Financials. The profile is unambiguous: one of the market's genuine financial fortresses, priced fairly fully for the growth it produces. That can still make an excellent defensive position, but it isn't a setup pointing toward a meaningful upside. 

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