BUSINESS

Salesforce (CRM) rarely draws a downgrade from two research firms at once. This week it did.On Thursday, July 9, KeyBanc Capital Markets and Bernstein downgraded Salesforce to a Hold. The stock fell roughly 3% to 4% at its low before steadying the next day.However, what matters beyond the price drop is why both firms stepped back at the same time, and what that means for anyone who owns the stock.The message inside the Salesforce downgradesKeyBanc moved Salesforce to Sector Weight from Overweight. Bernstein also downgraded the stock to Sector Weight from Outperform, according to Investing.com. Both firms had the same concern. The adoption of Agentforce, the company’s flagship AI agent platform, is progressing more slowly than the headline numbers suggest.According to Benzinga, KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader was blunt, saying the only real reason to buy the stock now is that it’s cheap. More AI stocks:Wall Street expects ServiceNow stock to gain 52%, despite AI threatMorningstar drops bombshell warning on AI stocks’Big Short’ investor Michael Burry issues blunt 4-word warning on AI stocksAder’s team kept noting the same thing: customer data is not organized enough for real AI work, and Agentforce “just isn’t there” yet as a product, TipRanks reported.A recent survey of chief information officers, the executives who control software budgets, deepened the worry. More of them plan to trim Salesforce spending over the next year than raise it. The downgrades quickly spread caution across other software names, Barron’s noted.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff staked the company’s next decade on Agentforce, the AI product now drawing analyst skepticism.Frank Brennan / Getty Images

What “Agentforce isn’t there yet” means for CRM shareholdersAgentforce is Salesforce’s wager that AI agents, software that carries out tasks on its own instead of just answering questions, will power its next decade of growth.Here is the catch for shareholders:Salesforce has sold its software the same way for 25 years, charging per user, or “per seat.” If agents handle work people used to do, customers may need fewer seats, which could shrink revenue rather than grow it. The company is now trying to charge for the work its agents complete instead of for headcount, though that model is still unproven at scale.Related: Salesforce bets another $1 billion despite AI spending cratering its stockThe analyst checks matter because they test the changes the company wants to make against reality. If customers need months to get their data ready before agents can run, the revenue Salesforce promises will arrive later than bulls expect.The numbers Salesforce leans on to defend AgentforceSalesforce released its first-quarter fiscal 2027 report on May 27. According to Salesforce, Agentforce’s annual recurring revenue reached $1.2 billion.That’s up 205% from a year earlier, which is the fastest ramp of any product in its history. Revenue also rose 13% to about $11.1 billion, operating margins set a record, and management raised its full-year guidance, according to an SEC release. CEO Marc Benioff has kept spending into the shift, pledging $1 billion to Switzerland this week on top of earlier commitments to Italy and France, Salesforce reported.That is the standoff. Management points to booming AI metrics, while the analysts who just downgraded the stock hear hesitation from the customers who have to deploy the technology. It is a rare split between what a company reports and what its buyers say on the ground.What CRM investors should watch nextFor readers, the question is simple. Will Agentforce show up in the growth numbers, or stay a promise?Three signals that would ease the bear caseSigned deals set to become revenue over the next year growing in the mid-teens or better.Agentforce revenue climbing well beyond $1 billion on new customers, not just upsells to existing ones.Guidance that beats Wall Street when the company reports next.The stock is hardly expensive after a roughly 37% slide this year. CRM trades near 19 times earnings, pays a dividend, and sits about 80% below its post-2020 free-cash-flow peak, GuruFocus data shows. For perspective, CRM has been one of the Dow’s weakest members in 2026, even as the wider market climbed. Even so, being cheap did not stop the downgrades, as both firms argued that the discount would fade once slower growth is priced in.Salesforce is still a deeply rooted platform, its customers are unlikely to walk away from it. The unresolved question is whether Agentforce becomes a real growth engine. The next earnings report will provide more answers.Related: Top Analyst strongly resets AMD stock price target

Several recent regulatory steps indicate the UK might finally stop dragging its feet when it comes to crypto, argues Wirex CEO Chet Shah.

Consumers frequently claim that the American shopping mall is dying. Yet a 44-year-old nostalgic mall retailer recently proved that structural changes, including aggressive store optimization, are actually saving it. As part of my recent retail tracking coverage for TheStreet, I’ve documented how several major mall staples are executing similar strategies to protect their profit margins: Michael Kors (Capri Holdings): Shuttered 139 stores over a three-year optimization window.Vera Bradley: Quietly closed 13 underperforming retail locations.Marshall Rousso & Misura: Closed 14 locations with additional consolidations planned.Fossil Group: Shuttered 7 stores during the first quarter of 2026 alone.These localized closures don’t signal a retail apocalypse, but rather an uneven landscape heavily dependent on mall layout and tier rankings.In fact, according to the June 2026 Placer.ai Mall Index, foot traffic actually rose 5.7% year-over-year at open-air shopping centers and 1.9% at indoor malls. A report by Cushman & Wakefield citing Green Street data further underscores this divide, showing that top-tier malls maintain a healthy 95% occupancy rate, while lower C-rated properties languish at just 72%.Ultimately, modern consumers are shifting toward shorter, mission-driven visits under 30 minutes, causing focused spending across fewer stores per visit. Now, an iconic staple of youth culture and fashion has trimmed stores from its footprint, aiming to boost sales at its remaining locations. Tilly’s closed 28 stores over the past two years Mall staple Tilly’s is known for its cool, youthful vibe. The retailer’s vast offering for teens and young adults ranges from graphic tees to Vans sneakers to Santa Cruz skateboards and gear, embodying the unique skater culture that ruled ‘90s and 2000s fashion. Tilly’s recently reported its first quarter of fiscal 2026 results. Total net sales were $124.7 million, up 15.9% compared to the same period in 2025. Tilly’s Q1 fiscal 2026 earnings highlights: Net sales from physical stores were $96.3 million, an increase of 12.1%. Net sales from e-commerce were $28.4 million, an increase of 30.9%. E-com net sales represented 22.8% of total net sales this year, compared to 20.2% of total net sales last year. Gross profit was $36.1 million, or 28.9% of net sales, compared to $21.3 million, or 19.8% of net sales, last year.Net loss improved to $8.0 million, or $(0.26) per share, compared to a net loss of $22.2 million, or $(0.74) net loss per share, last year.
Source: Tilly’s Q1 Fiscal 2026 Earnings Document on SEC.gov 
In the report, the company confirmed it has closed a total of 18 stores, cutting its traditional mall footprint by more than 7.6% in 12 months. After analyzing Tilly’s previous reports, I discovered that Tilly’s has closed 28 stores in two years, reducing its footprint by 11%. Based on its latest earnings report, the brand has 220 operational stores remaining, down from the 248 it had at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2024. 

Tilly’s has closed more than two dozen stores over the past two years.Wolterk / Getty Images

Why has Tilly’s been closing stores? Analyzing Tilly’s latest earnings report, it becomes clear that the company’s performance improved after its quiet downsizing. Net sales from physical stores grew 12.1% year over year, even though the company operated 18 fewer stores than in the comparable quarter. “Net sales from physical stores represented 77.2% of total net sales this year compared to 79.8% of total net sales last year,” the report added. Related: Discount grocery giant shuts 100 stores, completely exits 3 statesTilly’s management explained that margins also improved because of improved full-price selling and lower buying, distribution, and occupancy costs “due to decreased occupancy costs associated with reduced store count. “Fiscal 2025 was a year of significant store optimization, resulting in 21 total store closures,” Tilly’s CEO Nate Smith said during Tilly’s fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call, as reported by MarketBeat. “We are proud of the fact that we were able to deliver sales growth in the fourth quarter with 17 fewer net stores.” Smith emphasized that downsizing was a difficult but necessary decision to get back to historical sales levels.“It requires discipline, focus, and a willingness to make difficult decisions day after day,” the CEO said, adding that “returning to historical levels of store sales, productivity, and the operating performance this business is capable of is the goal we’re driving toward, and we know there is meaningful work still ahead of us to get to that point.” “There have certainly been some high-profile failures this year, but a lot of space that’s come on the market has been quickly released,” according to Neil Saunders, a retail analyst and managing director of analytics firm GlobalData.”Vacancy rates remain relatively low. In general, there is too much headline grabbing [a]round store closures. People like to make a thing about physical retail is dead or dying, which is completely untrue.”Tilly’s is powerhouse behind fashion brands RSQ, West of MelroseTilly’s was founded back in 1982 by former Israel Navy officer Hezy Shaked and his wife Tilly Levine. The couple divorced in 1989, but Levine continued to work for the company as director of vendor relations.Originally known as World of Jeans and Tops, over the years the retailer grew to a national scale. The company went public in May 2012, raising $124 million through its initial public offering of stock.The Irvine, California-headquartered retailer sells branded apparel, accessories, shoes, and more, including some company-owned brands.Tilly’s-owned brand names: RSQFull TiltWest of MelroseTilly’s Additionally, Tilly’s features about 200 different brands, from Asics and Nike to Levis and Von Dutch. You can track its full list of brands here. What’s next for Tilly’s It’s evident from the earnings results and the company management’s comments that Tilly’s is not backing down; rather, it is optimizing its operations to improve margins. Downsizing appears to be working for Tilly’s, which plans not only to close more stores but also to open new ones. During the first quarter, Tilly’s opened one store and closed four. For the rest of the year, it plans to “open 2 new stores in late July, and 1 more in late October, and to close 1 existing store in mid July and another at the end of the fiscal year,” Smith said.The CEO added that management is optimistic about the possibility of expanding its net store footprint. These moves align with the recent mall data, suggesting that top-tier malls are seeing more foot traffic, pushing many brands to close underperforming stores in malls that don’t see enough traffic. Based on Tilly’s Form 10-K filing with the SEC, the company’s store count spread across Regional Malls, off-mall locations, and outlets as of Jan. 31, 2026, was: Regional mall: 128Off-mall: 79Outlet: 16 “Visits to indoor malls, open-air shopping centers, and outlet malls all remained in positive YoY territory in June 2026, with indoor mall visits up 1.2%, open-air shopping center visits up 5.1%, and outlet mall visits up 1.0% compared to June 2025,” according to Placer.ai. Additionally, the company plans to invest and launch an “AI-driven merchandise allocation tool before the holiday season to help us improve initial allocation accuracy across our stores and online.”   Related: We compared Walmart’s new prices to Target and Kroger

“It’s a loss to the economy, to jobs, to decades of institutional knowledge when a business simply turns off the lights”

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have reached their highest point in weeks, with both sides trading military strikes not long after a ceasefire agreement was signed.

June was a brutal month for the Magnificent Seven. The group shed roughly $2.3 trillion in market value and is down more than 13% since mid-May. While memory chip makers and networking vendors supplying the AI buildout have outperformed, the hyperscalers writing the checks have taken the hit.Jim Cramer owns six of the seven in his Charitable Trust. On July 9, he told Mad Money viewers who are thinking about selling that they are misreading what is actually going on.Jim Cramer’s warning to investors selling Mag 7 stocksCramer’s message on Mad Money was aimed at a specific habit he sees investors falling into: treating the Magnificent Seven as a single trade. Buying or selling all seven as a block, without distinguishing between their individual businesses and AI timelines, is where he thinks people are going wrong.”One day, one of these companies is going to announce on its conference call that it is raising forecast because of its AI products, and you are going to see a rally in all of them, a rally that will be so powerful that you kick yourself for missing out on it,” Cramer said.”We get one, just one, of these heavy hitters saying its AI business is now profitable, then you can forget about owning a commodity semiconductor stock,” he added. “Instead, you’ll go for the hyperscaler that’s spewing so much cash flow it won’t even know what to do with the money.”Why Cramer says the Mag 7 selloff is a misread of what is actually happeningInvestors have been watching these companies pour hundreds of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure and asking when the returns show up. Until a hyperscaler announces on an earnings call that AI is driving revenue growth, the spending reads like a cost center. That is what has been weighing on the group all summer.Cramer’s read is different. He thinks these companies are not spending blind. They are looking at demand signals Wall Street does not have access to, and the capex reflects what they are seeing in their own pipeline, not recklessness.Related: Jim Cramer recommends buying these 5 stocksHe used Meta as a specific example. The company announced on July 9 that it plans to begin manufacturing its own AI chip in September 2026, expanding computing capacity to 14 gigawatts next year, according to Reuters. Investors sold the stock on the news, interpreting it as a sign that capital spending has no ceiling. Cramer said that reading misses the point.”I think that they’re looking at a book of demand, saying it’s really good, and we’re going to be able to make it so that we can meet that demand,” he said. On Zuckerberg specifically: “Maybe we should lean in and recognize that he knows more about his company’s prospects than we do. He’s demonstrated that time and again.”

Cramer thinks that trade reverses the moment a hyperscaler shows AI is working.Jonas/Getty Images

The mistake Cramer says investors keep making with Mag 7 stocksEach of the seven companies has a different AI story. Alphabet’s runs through Google Search and Cloud. Amazon’s flows through AWS. Microsoft’s is in Azure and Office. Meta’s is embedded in its ad stack and increasingly its own hardware. Apple’s lives inside devices. Nvidia makes the chips everyone else buys. Tesla is building autonomous driving systems.More Jim Cramer:Jim Cramer delivers strong buy call on fast-growing digital bankCramer’s Intel bet rests on one unproven numberWhy Jim Cramer says Ford’s real story isn’t trucks or EVsLumping all of that into one trade and selling it when any one name disappoints is what Cramer thinks investors are doing. He has stayed long six of the seven through the entire correction because his read is that this is a sentiment problem, not a business problem.The companies are still generating huge cash flows. The AI buildout they are funding is not going away. Cramer’s position is that the investors waiting for certainty before buying back in will find they have missed the move by the time that certainty arrives.What Cramer says could trigger a powerful Mag 7 rallyOne earnings call. That is Cramer’s catalyst. He needs one major hyperscaler to announce it is raising guidance because AI products are profitable, and he believes the rally that follows would sweep across all seven names, regardless of which company made the announcement.The Q2 earnings season starts later this month. Meta reports on July 29. Alphabet and Microsoft follow in late July. Amazon reports in early August. Each of those calls is a window, as TheStreet reported in covering Cramer’s recent views on the group.What Mag 7 investors should watch in the second half of 2026The trade that has worked in 2026 is owning the AI suppliers and avoiding the AI spenders. Micron jumped nearly 8% on July 9. Sandisk has outperformed. The logic is simple: These companies get paid regardless of whether the hyperscalers’ AI bets work out.Cramer thinks that trade reverses the moment a hyperscaler shows AI is working. When that happens, money rotates back into the Mag 7, and the investors who sold into the correction find themselves chasing.The Magnificent Seven still control the AI infrastructure the rest of the economy is being built on. Their combined market cap is in the tens of trillions. These are not companies the market forgets about. Cramer’s point is that investors who are treating the current underperformance as a verdict on the group are going to find out they were wrong when the next earnings season gets going.Related: Jim Cramer sends strong signal to Nvidia stock investors amid rumors

A lender dispute over millions of dollars has led a Hardee’s restaurant franchisee to file for bankruptcy to invoke an automatic stay of all legal actions against the debtor.Hardee’s restaurant franchisee Superior Star LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, facing an alleged seller financing dispute, according to court papers.

Hardee’s franchisee Superior Star LLC files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy facing a lender dispute.Shutterstock

Hardee’s franchisee files for bankruptcyThe Phoenix-based franchisee filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Kentucky on July 9, listing $10 million to $50 million in assets and liabilities, according to PacerMonitor.The debtor’s largest creditors include Starcorp LLC, owed $7.04 million in a disputed seller note subject to setoff; Lionsgate Investment, owed over $184,000 in terminated leases; Kosmides Family Trust, owed over $147,000 in a settlement; FJ Enterprises LLC, owed over $144,000 in a settlement agreement; McLane Company Inc., owed over $138,000 for food products; and MB2K LLC, owed over $123,000 in rent, according to court papers.Superior Star, which purchased 93 Hardee’s locations in 10 states from Starcorp in 2023, currently operates 59 locations in Midwestern states. The company closed about 12 locations in 2025, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.The debtor and Starcorp are entangled in a financing dispute over a $7.04 million seller note. “We are aware that Hardee’s franchisee Superior Star, which independently owns and operates certain Hardee’s restaurants primarily in the Midwest region, has filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code,” franchisor Hardee’s said in a statement.Hardee’s comment on dispute”Superior Star’s decision to file is based on its own specific financial and business circumstances. We remain focused on continuing to strengthen the Hardee’s system and deliver quality experiences for our guests,” Hardee’s said.Burger chain franchisor CKE Restaurants Holdings, which franchises Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr restaurants, has been in a battle with some of its franchisees as it tries to collect revenue, such as franchise fees, digital fees, advertising fees, and rent.One such dispute led a franchisee to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.CKE affiliate Hardee’s Restaurants LLC sued franchisee ARC Burger LLC for alleged breach of contract, seeking to recover over $6.5 million in unpaid franchise fees and other obligations, according to Law.com.ARC Burger LLC, closed all 77 of its locations after Hardee’s Restaurants LLC filed a lawsuit against the franchisee in November 2025, for alleged failure to pay franchise fees and other obligations.ARC filed Chapter 7 bankruptcyThe franchisee subsequently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation on April 20, 2026, which invoked an automatic stay while its bankruptcy case proceeded.Hardee’s, however, reopened 25 of the ARC locations as company-operated stores and plans to reopen more, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.Another Hardee’s franchisee, Paradigm Investment Group, battled franchisor CKE Restaurants Holdings over the parent’s demands that the franchisee’s restaurants stay open past 2 p.m., pay digital fees, and adhere to loyalty program mandates.CKE Restaurants indicated that it would terminate Paradigm’s franchise agreements if the franchisee — which operated 76 Hardee’s restaurants in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee — did not make the changes and payments. The franchisee refused, and CKE on Jan. 15, 2025, sent Paradigm a notice of default and termination, threatening to cancel the franchise agreements on April 15, 2025.CKE Restaurants operates over 3,800 Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants across 44 states and 43 countries.Superior Star location territoriesIowaIllinoisIndianaKentuckyMinnesotaMissouriNorth DakotaOhioSouth DakotaTennesseeSource: Nation’s Restaurant NewsRelated: Major tire and auto repair franchisee files Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Katy Perry’s “Watch It Burn” helps her break her tie with Justin Bieber and Kelly Clarkson as she claims the fifth-most Adult Pop Airplay chart hits in history.

Chelsea is reportedly open to letting Alejandro Garnacho leave the club just 12 months after he joined from Manchester United.

Two Sabrina Carpenter singles — “House Tour” and “Bring Your Love” with Madonna — debut on different Billboard pop radio charts simultaneously.