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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

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One of the most comprehensive pieces of housing legislation in decades just became law. But if you’re waiting for home prices to come down as a result, it could be a long time.
In a rare display of bipartisanship, legislators in both chambers overwhelmingly approved the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in late June. President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony on June 24, but under the Presentment Clause, the bill automatically became law at midnight on Saturday.
The landmark law was years in the making and combined input from mortgage lenders, home builders, housing advocates, property appraisers and others. The goal? To craft a piece of housing legislation to increase housing supply and, in turn, improve affordability.

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Housing experts were nearly unanimous in support of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Among the most talked-about provisions were those that streamline rules and regulations for homebuilding and encourage housing development. This is crucial because adding more homes for sale has long been identified as the primary way the market could lower home prices.
But building homes and adding supply still takes time, and would-be buyers shouldn’t expect an immediate improvement in affordability.
Jeremy Ray Davis, president of mortgage at Southern Bancorp, a community development financial institution, says the legislation was designed to address some of the underlying causes of the homebuying roadblocks currently being experienced. It was not supposed to instantly lower prices.
“That’s significant because we didn’t arrive at today’s affordability challenges overnight, and we won’t solve them overnight either,” Davis says. “For most markets, I view this as a multiyear affordability strategy rather than a short-term affordability solution.”
While the majority of the law focuses on improving supply over time, it also addresses another important aspect of the housing crisis: providing underserved communities with greater access to home and financing options.
How the ROAD to Housing Act impacts accessibility
The affordability crisis has had a severe effect on low- to median-income families and first-time buyers. With no equity to count on for a down payment or income high enough to afford the current median home price of $403,000, many of these households have been pushed out of the market.
Tia Boatman Patterson, president and CEO of the California Community Reinvestment Corporation, points to provisions in the bill that enable and encourage modular and manufactured housing, which are energy-efficient and can be built faster and more economically at scale. (Think: houses that are prebuilt at a factory and assembled on-site and homes that can be trailered to different locations.)
Incentivizing alternative homebuilding techniques can increase housing supply faster and at a lower price point than traditional ones.
“We’ve been building housing the same way for over 200 years,” she says. “Bringing some modernization and innovation to that is going to be extremely helpful.”
The ROAD to Housing Act’s elimination of the chassis requirement, in particular, can make manufactured housing even more affordable. Since 1974, these homes have been required to have a chassis, a feature that is intended to provide stability when the home is moved.
This requirement means that lenders consider these homes to be personal property rather than real estate. Manufactured homes can’t be financed with traditional mortgages; they must be financed with chattel or personal loans, or some other form of financing, usually at a higher interest rate than a home loan.
Eliminating the chassis requirement also helps improve affordability by lowering the price of a manufactured home by $5,000 to $10,000.

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Other provisions in the ROAD to Housing Act address small-dollar mortgages, generally defined as loans of $70,000 or less. The law authorizes the Department of Housing and Urban Development to establish a pilot program expanding access to FHA-guaranteed mortgages to loans of up to $100,000 — the price range that many moderate-income households seek.
The ROAD Act also requires the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to review and revise the fee structure for these smaller loans and amend any regulations that increase costs and discourage lenders from offering them. According to Vishal Garg, CEO of mortgage lender Better, expanding and reviewing these smaller loans is important, since many lenders opt not to originate them due to their low profit margin.
“What’s great about this bill is it asks regulators to revisit the rules that make those loans uneconomical,” Garg says. “That matters, because many buyers at the lower end of the market have been shut out by this math, not by credit.”

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The 2026 housing market has been unpredictable. It feels a bit like riding a shoddily maintained roller coaster, if I’m being honest.Mortgage rates spiked a couple of months ago — then we finally experienced a little relief once tensions in the Middle East settled down. But now rates are back up as the situation between the U.S. and Iran worsens.Home price growth is much calmer than a few years ago. However, prices are still inflated due to values spiking during the COVID-19 pandemic.As a real estate journalist, I’ve witnessed the ups and downs of the 2026 housing market. Sometimes things don’t feel so bad. Other times, they seem horrible.Real estate technology company Redfin released housing market data for the four-week period of June 8-July 5. These numbers provide a glance into what’s going on in the real estate market, from housing prices to inventory to sales trends.Truthfully, the Redfin Weekly Housing Market Tracker numbers did not make me feel like we are getting off the roller coaster anytime soon. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad time to buy a house, though.Home prices keep ticking upThe median home sale price is $408,808. That is actually down a smidge from the previous four-week period, June 1-28, when the median price was $409,388.However, it’s a year-over-year increase of 2.2%.”In most of the country, it’s still a buyer’s market, meaning there are more homes for sale than people looking to buy a home,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, told TheStreet. “While that puts buyers who can afford a home in the driver’s seat, it doesn’t change that overall housing costs –– including home prices –– are higher than many would-be buyers can afford to pay.”Related: Americans must face long-term reality after mortgage rate newsMortgage rates have held steady at around 6.5% for two months. Due to geopolitical tensions and inflation, rates are unlikely to decrease significantly in the near future.Fairweather said that since there isn’t much reason to hold out for lower mortgage rates, Americans who can afford to buy or need to move have no reason to wait on the sidelines anymore.”Regardless, all buyers should consider their total monthly payments when making the decision to buy a home –– including their mortgage rate, yes, but also closing costs and other associated monthly payments like HOA fees, insurance costs, and utilities,” she said.

Home prices have increased 2.2% annually, but it could still be a good time to buy.Smith Collection/Gado / Getty Images

Pending home sales rise — but this trend might not continueWeek-over-week pending home sales increased by 1.3% during the four-week period ending July 5. A Redfin report partly attributes this uptick to lower mortgage rates. Interest rates inched down the week of July 2, largely due to easing tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The lower rates resulted in the lowest median monthly housing payment in six weeks: $2,598.Annual pending sales also increased. There were 337,402 pending sales in this four-week period, up 6.3% year over year. That’s the largest incline since the period ending in Mid-may. More Housing Market:Zillow sees change in housing market, home valuesNew home-selling strategy poses threat to buyersGoldman Sachs issues major prediction for U.S. housing marketHowever, the issue once again goes back to interest rates. Freddie Mac mortgage rates have bounced back up since July 5, and they will probably stay relatively high. Redfin mostly attributes the pending sales increase to the previous dip in mortgage rates. It’s possible that pending home sales data will weaken in upcoming weekly reports from Redfin.What Redfin’s data means for buying a house right nowHome sale prices will keep increasing. It’s a general rule of thumb that property values grow over time. Besides stagnant mortgage rates, this is another reason I agree with Fairweather’s take that people don’t necessarily need to wait to buy homes. The longer you wait, the more expensive housing will become — meanwhile, you could have spent that time building equity in a home.Home price growth depends on where you live.Redfin broke down the year-over-year median home price change in the 50 largest U.S. metro areas. The cities with the strongest price growth were Pittsburgh (9.1%), San Francisco (8.2%), and West Palm Beach, Florida (7.7%). Those with the lowest were San Jose (-5.6%), Seattle (-4.5), and Miami (-1.3).Future pending home sales data is unpredictable. I mentioned that future pending home sales data could decrease now that we expect mortgage rates to stay around 6.5% for a while. However, plenty of homebuyers are tired of waiting on the sidelines and entering the housing market anyway, according to the National Association of Realtors. Buyers are now receiving messaging that mortgage rates are stuck, so maybe more will actually stop holding out and start buying houses. We’ll see.We are still a buyer’s market. Fairweather said it herself: America is a buyer’s market. This is a stark difference from a few years ago, when we were a strong seller’s market and buyers were forced to enter bidding wars, offer over listing price, and waive contingencies if they wanted a house. Overall, it is actually a much calmer time to buy now than earlier in the 2020s.Related: Dave Ramsey, Vanguard warn Americans on housing costs

Investors came into July expecting a familiar stock market setup leaning on resilient earnings and AI spending, along with a seasonal stretch favoring equities.Though Morgan Stanley doesn’t feel that setup has gone away, it warns of a much narrower margin for error.There’s a major $1.2 trillion question hanging over Big Tech’s AI buildout. If hyperscalers continue bumping capex, the market’s leadership can look a lot more justified. If they slow down, that pressure would spread well beyond chip stocks.Investors have to contend with this amid a rally that’s still powered by optimism but increasingly vulnerable to one weak signal from earnings, the Fed, or geopolitics.Morgan Stanley’s $1.2 trillion question for the stock market Morgan Stanley said AI spending is one of the stock market’s biggest supports, according to a report from Business Insider. The rally continues benefiting as Wall Street repeatedly raises capex estimates for Big Tech, reinforcing the view that the AI trade remains durable.Moreover, Morgan Stanley’s base case is still aggressive. More Wall Street:Wall Street has a new problem, and it’s not the technologyWall Street’s biggest banks just landed the AI IPO of the yearWall Street’s top analysts just doubled down on 3 stocksThe bank currently expects AI investment to jump from nearly $800 billion in 2026 to roughly $1.2 trillion in 2027, a scale that will continue feeding into demand for chips, data centers, cloud infrastructure, and power.However, the big risk emerges if Q2 earnings show hesitation. Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Sheets warned that some major AI spenders have underperformed of late, Business Insider noted. This makes investors a lot less patient with heavy capex and uncertain returns.Nevertheless, AI spending has powered the market’s earnings story, which is why it’s arguably the biggest factor driving the rally.FactSet data back up those claims as analysts continue growing more bullish on earnings during the quarter. S&P 500 Q2 2026 profits are now expected to rise 23.3%, up from 18.8% on March 31, spearheaded by the AI-heavy Information Technology sector, which is expected to grow earnings 63.3%, versus 48.6% earlier. Additionally, tech earnings estimates jumped  9.9% to $223.6 billion, helped by Micron, Nvidia, Apple, and Sandisk.

The S&P 500 rally faces a fresh test from Big Tech spending.Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Wall Street price targets for S&P 500According to the Associated Press, the S&P 500 closed at 7,543.64, up 10.2% year to date, while MarketWatch shows a 20.1% gain over the past year at the time of writing.That said, here are some Wall Street targets from major banks. Citigroup: 8,100, citing resilient earnings and an AI-driven growth cycle.Goldman Sachs: 8,000, saying earnings growth is powering the market’s return.Morgan Stanley: 8,000, with a separate 12-month target of 8,300 tied to earnings strength.Wells Fargo: 7,950, pointing to stronger profits and easing macro risks.J.P. Morgan: 7,800, citing AI investment, resilient growth and earnings momentum.
Sources: Reuters, AP, MarketWatch, Investing.com, KITCO, Yahoo Finance
Why the summer rally still has room to stumble Morgan Stanley analysts warn that the market’s margin for error has narrowed, and aside from capex concerns, the market is up against a couple of major headwinds. The first big risk is oil. A lot of the stock market’s bull case depends on maritime traffic and normalization through the Strait of Hormuz, oil supply returning to pre-war levels, and Brent crude dropping back toward $75 a barrel over the next 12 months. However, if we see major escalation with Iran again, those assumptions get a lot tougher to defend.Naturally, a big spike could bleed into transport, goods prices, and inflation expectations, compelling investors to effectively rethink the soft-landing trade.The second major risk is the Fed. Morgan Stanley argues that it is partly built on the belief that policymakers can keep rates steady through year-end. But if inflation pressure builds, the Fed may have less room to wait.Markets are already alert to that risk, with the CME FedWatch tool showing an 82% chance of at least one hike by year-end.BofA and Deutsche Bank are perhaps the clearest big-bank hawks, with Reuters reporting that both shifted to Fed rate hikes this year.I covered the BofA story recently, and the big bank expects three 25-bp increases, while Deutsche Bank expects 50 bps. There’s BNP Paribas, and Macquarie is also in the minority looking for hikes. Naturally, the rate-cut skepticism has jumped on the back of sticky inflation, the labor market staying resilient, and Reuters saying the Fed’s latest minutes showed policymakers’ inflation concerns had grown substantially. Related: Bank of America warns America now has 2 economies