Our top 10 things to watch Friday, July 17 — Today’s newsletter was written by Jeff Marks, the Club’s director of portfolio analysis. 1. Market futures are sharply lower, driven by the continued pullback in tech and semiconductor stocks. The latest worry is from a Chinese AI startup claiming its new model is competitive with those of OpenAI and Anthropic. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) is down nearly 3%, while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) is off by more than 2%. 2. Netflix is another drag on the market, with shares down more than 11% after the streaming giant’s in-line results for the second quarter and a disappointing outlook. No major analyst downgrades, but a bunch of price target decreases: Goldman Sachs to $94 from $110; UBS to $115 from $130; JPMorgan to $85 from $118; and Morgan Stanley to $83 from $90. 3. In case you missed our July meeting on Thursday, Jim and I ran through all 34 stocks in the portfolio and explained our approach to this market. We also called out names to buy and places where we’d look to trim, and answered some great questions from members. 4. SpaceX shares are under pressure after the Elon Musk-led company delayed its Starship mega rocket launch. The next launch attempt is “hopefully in a few days,” Musk wrote on X . 5. Longtime Club stock Apple was upgraded to buy from hold at HSBC, which cited an Apple Intelligence-driven cycle and the arrival of new Siri AI. I wrote this week about how the company’s latest breakthrough in China could be another big tailwind. 6. Meta poached a top executive at Amazon’s cloud division, AWS, to help build out its data center infrastructure business, The Wall Street Journal reports . The hire shows the social media company is serious about monetizing compute. 7. 3M and Emerson Electric both got upgraded to buy from hold at JPMorgan, which sees stronger and less cyclical growth ahead. Both are increasingly viewed as beneficiaries of the data center buildout. 8. PPG upgraded to buy from hold at Bank of America on improving organic growth, says raw material costs are a risk but more manageable. 9. Intuitive Surgical shares dropped after reporting earnings. The company maintained its outlook for da Vinci procedure growth at 13.5% to 15.5%, but Jefferies says investors were expecting a raise. 10. Abbott Labs got a round of price target increases after reporting a much improved quarter on Thursday. Management also raised its full-year guidance for adjusted earnings, forecasting a range of $5.45 to $5.60 per share, versus its earlier estimate of $5.38 to $5.58 per share. Sign up for my Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter for free (See here for a full list of the stocks at Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
The Club’s 10 things to watch in the stock market Friday
Jul 17, 2026
