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Yes, Jim Cramer has said a lot of things about a lot of stocks over the years. But when the “Mad Money” host identifies a single name as the market’s directional signal, that is a different kind of call entirely.Cramer posted about it on X (formerly Twitter) on July 8.If there is going to be a turn, the stock of Broadcom will let you know.Let’s look at the timing, too. On the same day, Apple confirmed a new multiyear commitment with Broadcom worth more than $30 billion to design and produce custom silicon and wireless connectivity components for Apple products. The deal includes a $1.5 billion capital expenditure expansion at Broadcom’s Fort Collins, Colorado, facility.More than 15 billion U.S.-made chips will be produced under the agreement, according to Apple.On the day of the deal, 65-year-old Broadcom (AVGO) closed at $388.69, up 4.83% on the session, Yahoo Finance reported. At last check, AVGO is up 12.72% year to date and 44.05% over the past year.Also Read: Broadcom Inc. Latest News and StoriesWhy Cramer made Broadcom his market bellwetherCramer’s logic is rooted in what Broadcom actually does and who its customers are. Broadcom designs custom artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators for Google, Meta, and, most recently, OpenAI. It produces the networking chips that connect GPU clusters inside hyperscale data centers. Its components are hard to source, in persistent supply constraint, and embedded so deeply in customer roadmaps that switching costs are prohibitive. My point of view is this. A combination of structural demand and low substitutability is exactly the profile Cramer has consistently identified as the most durable position in the AI infrastructure trade.More Broadcom:Broadcom gets $30 billion Apple boost as valuation debate growsBroadcom extends Apple chip deal through 2031JPMorgan’s latest Broadcom outlook sends key signalHis view is that Wall Street is rewarding the “picks and shovels” suppliers of the AI boom rather than the mega-cap tech companies spending billions on the infrastructure. Broadcom captures the revenue from that spending without bearing the deployment risk.And CEO Hock Tan, whom Cramer has praised repeatedly, has built a track record of securing long-term contracts that insulate revenue visibility years into the future.The Apple deal unveiled July 8 is a direct example of that contract-locking strategy. The agreement spans multiple years, entails meaningful capital investment, and binds Apple’s wireless component supply chain to Broadcom’s Fort Collins facility for the foreseeable future.The Q2 fiscal 2026 results show why Cramer’s thesis has numbers behind itBroadcom’s Q2 fiscal 2026 results, reported June 3, delivered exactly the kind of print that supports Cramer’s bellwether framing.Revenue came in at $22.19 billion, up 48% year over year. AI semiconductor revenue was $10.8 billion, up 143% year over year, above Broadcom’s own forecast. Free cash flow reached $10.26 billion, or 46% of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was $15.24 billion, representing 69% of revenue. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $2.44.
Source: Broadcom Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Results
“Q2 semiconductor revenue from AI of $10.8 billion grew 143% year-over-year,” said Tan in the earnings release. The momentum continues, and in Q3 we expect semiconductor revenue from AI to grow over 200 percent year-over-year to $16.0 billion.For Q3 fiscal 2026, Broadcom guided for total revenue of approximately $29.4 billion, up 84% year over year, with adjusted EBITDA of approximately 68% of projected revenue. That guidance, if delivered, would represent one of the largest single-quarter revenue prints any semiconductor company has ever reported.

The semiconductor and Semiconductor Equipment industry is expected to report 131% year-over-year earnings growth in Q2, making it the largest single contributor to the Information Technology sector earnings growth.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Apple Broadcom deal and what it adds to an already loaded pipelineLet’s talk about the Apple announcement for a moment.The agreement, described by Apple as its largest commitment under its American Manufacturing Program, covers advanced radio-frequency components, including FBAR filters and advanced wireless connectivity technologies. Related: Jim Cramer sends strong signal to Nvidia stock investors amid rumorsThe Fort Collins facility will receive $1.5 billion in capital investment to support the production ramp, according to Apple. The company described the deal as helping “create an end-to-end silicon supply chain in America.”For Broadcom, this adds to a partnership with Apple that already extends through 2031 for custom silicon components. The new agreement layering in another $30 billion-plus commitment is the kind of contract visibility that justifies premium valuation and long-term earnings predictability.Where analysts stand on AVGO heading into Q3As pointed out in my previous AVGO coverage, Wall Street’s analyst community is broadly bullish on Broadcom. Evercore ISI holds an outperform rating with a $582 target, raised from $490. JPMorgan sits at $580, raised from $365. Bernstein carries a $550 buy target, citing multi-year hyperscaler pipeline security past 2027. Bank of America at $530.Deutsche Bank at $515.Mizuho at $530.Goldman Sachs maintains a buy.D.A. Davidson holds a cautious view at $400.
Source: TheStreet
Looking at the recent FactSet earnings insight data dated July 2, 2026, the Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment industry is expected to report 131% year-over-year earnings growth in Q2, making it the largest single contributor to Information Technology sector earnings growth.Broadcom, with Q3 AI revenue expected to grow over 200%, is at the epicenter of that dynamic.My read of Cramer’s bellwether call is that it is less about Broadcom specifically and more about what Broadcom’s stock behavior reveals about institutional sentiment toward AI infrastructure as a category. If AVGO is bid, the trade is alive. If AVGO rolls over, the broader infrastructure thesis is being questioned. The Apple deal, and the continued Hock Tan execution it represents, means that signal is not flashing anything bearish right now.Related: Broadcom extends Apple chip deal through 2031

SpaceX (SPCX) is the most crowded new trade on Wall Street.It was priced at $135 in June, spiked above $225, then settled near $150. The banks that took SpaceX public were barred from publishing research on it until July 7. The moment that ban lifted, six of them initiated coverage, all with buy ratings.Then, Deutsche Bank’s analyst team said something the others did not: You can buy the same rocket company for roughly 20% less than what the market is charging.Deutsche Bank calls EchoStar a discounted play on SpaceX stockThe discounted company is EchoStar (SATS), the satellite and wireless firm behind DISH TV, Sling, and Boost Mobile. Analyst Bryan Kraft resumed coverage on July 7 with a buyrating and a $143 target, according to CNBC.More SpaceX Coverage:Morgan Stanley sends strong signal on SpaceX stock price targetGoldman Sachs revamps SpaceX stock price target for 2026SpaceX Nasdaq fast-track just left the S&P 500 flat-footedThe gap opened after the IPO. In the month since SpaceX listed, EchoStar fell 23%, while SpaceX climbed 19%. As a result of this, EchoStar buyers now pay less for those SpaceX shares than SpaceX buyers do. As Kraft put it, SATS investors are “buying SPCX at a 20% discount.”The note landed the same morning SpaceX joined the Nasdaq-100, which drew billions in passive buying.

SpaceX shares have retreated from their post-IPO peak, and one satellite company has fallen further.Sven Piper / Getty Images

How EchoStar ended up holding $11 billion of SpaceX stockEchoStar did not buy into SpaceX. It sold something SpaceX wanted. SATS agreed to hand over its AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses, according to EchoStar’s investor relations page. Payment arrived partly as roughly $11 billion of SpaceX Class A shares, valued then at $212 apiece, Investopedia reported.Two terms worth knowingSpectrum licenses are government rights to transmit over specific radio frequencies. Starlink needs them to reach ordinary phones.Class A shares are the ordinary, lower-voting stock. Musk holds supervoting Class B stock, so EchoStar gets economics without control.The discount math on EchoStar stock, step by stepThe stake’s net asset value works out to $121.46 per EchoStar share, Intellectia reported. EchoStar also closed at $96.28 on July 8. That is about 79 cents on the dollar. Apply the same to SpaceX at $148.26, and an EchoStar buyer picks up the rocket company for nearly $118 a share. Deutsche Bank goes further, arguing the rest of EchoStar comes free.Related: Trump floats intriguing Elon Musk, SpaceX planTwo things complicate that. The $212 mark comes before the 5-for-1 split SpaceX ran in May, so it equals about $42 in today’s shares. That means the stake has gained value rather than lost it, Yahoo Finance reported.Nothing is free, either, while a $24.6 billion debt sits on the books. These discounts usually exist for a reason, and EchoStar has more than one.Why EchoStar stock trades at a discount in the first placeThe discount is not a market error; it is a price tag on real damage.Three things went wrong in six weeks:The DISH DBS pay-TV subsidiary filed forChapter 11 bankruptcyprotection on June 30.Hamid Akhavanresigned on July 6 from his roles at EchoStar after board discussions about a change in strategic direction, Light Reading reported. Founder and CEO Charlie Ergen absorbed his duties at Hughes.The SpaceX IPO itself hurt the stock, because investors who bought EchoStar for indirect exposure could buy the real thing.The company also warned in its first-quarter 10-Q that substantial doubt exists about its ability to continue as a going concern until the spectrum sales close.Lockups, taxes, and the catch nobody mentionsA discount you cannot access is not a discount.SpaceX replaced the usual single 180-day lockup with a tiered schedule that frees shares in 7% increments between days 70 and 135, Morningstar explained.Early backers can also sell up to 20% of their holdings two trading days after the first post-IPO earnings report, Investing.com noted.Renaissance Capital called it among the most complicated ever written, Fortune reported. EchoStar has not said where its stake sits in that schedule, which is the biggest question here.What EchoStar investors should watch nextThree things decide whether the thesis survives contact with reality.EchoStar is expected to report second-quarter results on July 30. Any disclosure on lockup terms, or on whether management will hold or sell the stake, resolves most of the ambiguity.SpaceX reports its first quarter as a public company shortly after, which triggers the first 20% unlock tranche for early backers.Ergen’s strategy. He took back operational control of Hughes for a reason, and has never been a passive holder.EchoStar is no substitute for owning SpaceX directly. It is a leveraged, restructuring satellite company holding a large stake in a rocket maker, and the discount pays you for that.Investors comfortable with that balance sheet get cheaper access to a stock Wall Street just blessed six times over. Everyone else should note that even Deutsche Bank’s $143 target sits only 18% above the SpaceX value it says is already on the books.Related: SpaceX investors may be ignoring troubling trend

Amid persistent economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures, millions of Americans are aggressively navigating the complex task of securing their financial futures. For many near-retirees, however, traditional savings methods are colliding with rising daily expenses. Compounding these anxieties is a stark realization about the nation’s baseline safety net, with more than half of Americans now stating that Social Security benefits alone will not be enough to sustain a standard of living in retirement.AARP, the nonprofit advocacy organization for older Americans, highlights a widening gap between savings goals and reality, revealing that a growing number of adults aged 50 and older report feeling financially squeezed. Today, 37% of older adults feel financially insecure, while 60% express concern about having enough money to last throughout their retirement, according to AARP’s 2026 Financial Security Trends Survey. Of Americans who have yet to finish their careers, 42% say they have saved less than $50,000 for retirement.”These findings highlight how critical it is to protect Social Security today, especially as 61% of older Americans say the average Social Security monthly payment — around $2,000 per month — is not enough,” AARP said in a statement. “Sixty-nine percent of older adults also say that prices are rising faster than their income.”Social Security under stressThe Social Security Administration (SSA) warns that the combined reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASI and DI) Trust Funds are currently forecast to be able to pay all expected benefits only until 2034.”If Congress does not act, combined trust fund reserves are projected to be depleted in 2034,” the SSA wrote. “At that time, there would be sufficient income to pay 83 percent of scheduled benefits.”“With prices rising for everyday essentials like groceries, housing, utilities and health care, current and future retirees are counting on Social Security now more than ever,” said Nancy LeaMond, Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy & Engagement Officer at AARP. “The bottom line is that Social Security is the critical foundation of retirement security that Americans have earned through a lifetime of hard work, paying in with every paycheck,” she added. “It must be strengthened and protected.”AARP, Fidelity highlight 401(k) lessonsSo the financial burden for individuals and families has shifted heavily onto workplace accounts and personal investments. For a workforce facing a highly unpredictable economic landscape, transforming these workplace vehicles from passive savings buckets into aggressive financial tools has become essential to achieving long-term financial security.Both AARP and Fidelity Investments highlight strategies to optimize 401(k) plans by maximizing employer matching contributions.”Saving for retirement is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Mike Shamrell, Vice President of Thought Leadership for Fidelity.Fidelity says a growing number of Americans have managed to save $1 million in their 401(k) accounts.“These are not hypothetical scenarios,” Shamrell said, according to AARP. “These are real people who through the course of their careers were able to reach this point.”A major key is to start your 401(k) early and take advantage of an employer match.“That’s free money,” Shamrell said, “so get started as soon as you can.”

AARP and Fidelity explain that Americans saving for retirement are dealing with financial stress about Social Security and are instead leaning into 401(k) plans.Shutterstock

Scenarios for 401(k) savings starting at different agesTo provide readers with a clear view of how these savings goals function in practice, I ran 401(k) plan growth calculations across three scenarios — the early starter, the mid-career pivot, and the late-stage catch-up. Based on a standard 7% annual rate of return, these real-world examples illustrate the monthly commitment required to cross two major financial milestones by age 62 (the age of early eligibility for Social Security benefits). We’ll use $500,000 and $1 million as our goals. While both objectives are achievable, the cost rises dramatically with every decade of delay.Starting your 401(k) at age 22Starting at age 22 gives a worker a 40-year runway, allowing compound interest to handle a massive portion of the heavy lifting. To build a reliable $500,000 nest egg by age 62, a young investor needs to set aside a modest $202 each month. For those aiming to double that security blanket and hit the $1 million milestone, the required monthly contribution comes out to $403. By maintaining that steady $403 monthly discipline from their early twenties onward, a saver will accumulate a final total of $1,001,663 at age 62.Launching a mid-career 401(k) pivot at age 32Delaying the journey until age 32 compresses the investment window to 30 years, which noticeably increases the pressure on a monthly household budget. Hitting the $500,000 baseline from this mid-career starting point now requires a steeper $426 monthly commitment, more than doubling the early starter’s burden. Meanwhile, striving for the full $1 million mark on this accelerated schedule requires a substantial monthly savings rate of $851, representing a significant strain on one’s household budget. An investor who stays the course by saving that $851 every month for exactly three decades will secure a final total of $1,000,831 at age 62.Executing a late-stage 401(k) catch-up at age 42For those starting from scratch at age 42, a retirement target of age 62 leaves a highly compressed 20-year timeline, demanding an intense sprint fueled almost entirely by raw capital. Securing a basic $500,000 milestone on this truncated schedule requires a hefty $962 monthly investment, which is a massive leap for any household budget. Pushing for the full $1 million goal forces an extraordinary monthly savings rate of $1,924, illustrating just how punishing a truncated timeline can be when time is short. Yet, by aggressively committing to that $1,924 monthly target for 20 years, a late-starting saver will still successfully secure a final total of $1,000,432 at age 62.(Source:Jeffrey Quiggle, TheStreet)As demonstrated, running 401(k) growth calculations across these three scenarios reveals that hitting a $500,000 or $1 million retirement nest egg by age 62 is entirely achievable at a 7% annual rate of return. However, because delaying the process severely diminishes the power of compound interest, the monthly savings requirement escalates the longer one waits to begin.Note: This piece of financial journalism is for educational purposes only and not for formal tax or investment advice.Related: Charles Schwab, Fidelity alert workers to forced 401(k) rule

Lim Kim teams with Bree Runway on “INSA,” a house-driven single that turns a Korean greeting into vogue-ready K-pop crossover song ahead of her album ‘Exit to Nowhere.’

Mark Zuckerberg has a sprawling estate on Kauai that cost more than $300 million to assemble. He has two mansions on the property, an underground shelter, guest houses, and enough land to raise cattle. He brews his own beer. He feeds the cows macadamia nuts to bulk them up. He is experimenting with cattle genetics in pursuit of what he described as some of the highest-quality beef in the world.He is also, by any reasonable measure, one of the wealthiest people alive. And yet, when the interviewer from Complex pointed all of that out and asked why he keeps working, the answer was not complicated. “I don’t think I’m ever going to stop,” Zuckerberg told Complex.What Zuckerberg told Complex about work, money and retirementThe interview aired on July 7, conducted by Complex Chief Content Officer Noah Callahan-Bever at a live event. Callahan-Bever set up the question by describing Zuckerberg as having “infinite money” and the freedom to disappear into private life whenever he chose. Zuckerberg’s answer was that the freedom does not change the impulse.”I don’t know what I’d do,” he said. “That would be boring.”He said he can take a break, play video games, recharge for a few days. But eventually he feels the pull to start building something again. He told the outlet that his motivation comes down to something fairly simple: “It’s just finding interesting projects to do with interesting people. It’s a good life.”More Mark Zuckerberg:Mark Zuckerberg makes a move on a new billion-dollar marketMark Zuckerberg admits mistakes in leaked memo after Meta layoffsMark Zuckerberg gets real with Meta stock investorsHis wife Priscilla Chan has apparently asked the same question Callahan-Bever did. Zuckerberg said she has wondered why he keeps taking on enormous projects when he could just stop. He does not have a clean answer for her either. The Hawaii ranch is partly his version of a project that has nothing to do with Meta. He described it the same way. “It’s like I’m never going to stop,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how important the thing is.”Why Zuckerberg says he struggles with being obsessive about workThe interview was not all bravado about loving work. Zuckerberg acknowledged that the drive to build can become a problem. “I think when you work on one thing too hard, you can burn it, right? And you can burn the people,” he said.He said he tries to find balance by working on different kinds of projects at the same time, mixing what matters enormously with things that matter less. The ranch fits into that. His daughters help him plant trees and care for the animals. He described it as a way to stay engaged without putting everything into one pressure point.That is a version of Zuckerberg most people do not see. The public image is the hoodie and the congressional testimony and the pivot to the metaverse. The private version, at least as he described it to Complex, is someone who genuinely does not know what he would do with free time and has stopped pretending he will ever find out.What Zuckerberg’s work ethic means for Meta and AI investorsFor investors watching Meta, comments like these carry weight beyond the personal anecdote. A founder who describes work as the only thing he would choose to do is usually someone who stays deeply plugged into what the company is building. That matters at a moment when Meta is in the middle of one of its most complicated stretches.Zuckerberg told employees at an internal town hall on July 2 that AI agents have not progressed as quickly as he expected, according to TechCrunch. He admitted the company’s reorganization earlier this year, which included cutting roughly 10% of the global workforce in May, was not as clean as planned. His expectation is that the company sees more meaningful returns from its AI investment within the next three to six months.Meta is spending between $125 billion and $145 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, according to Reuters. The reorganization moved roughly 7,000 employees into AI-focused teams. The bet is enormous. Whether it pays off is still being determined, and Zuckerberg is clearly not planning to watch from the sidelines while it plays out.

Part of what is keeping him engaged is where he thinks computing is headedGraythen/Getty Images

Zuckerberg’s vision for AI glasses and personal superintelligencePart of what is keeping him engaged is where he thinks computing is headed. In the Complex interview, he described Meta’s long-term AI vision around what he called “personal superintelligence,” where AI assistants become deeply integrated into daily life through wearable devices rather than phones.”When you interact with your phone, you’re kind of interacting with this small rectangle,” he told Complex. Glasses, in his view, keep you present in the world rather than pulling you out of it.Meta has been developing AI-powered smart glasses through its partnership with Ray-Ban. Zuckerberg described glasses as a potential next major computing platform, the way smartphones replaced PCs for most everyday tasks. Whether that vision materializes on the timeline he expects is one of the central questions hanging over Meta’s stock right now.What Mark Zuckerberg’s mindset means for Meta stock investorsMeta shares have recovered significantly from their 2022 lows, when Zuckerberg’s bet on the metaverse rattled investor confidence and the stock lost roughly two thirds of its value in a single year. Since then, the stock has climbed back on the strength of the advertising business and the AI narrative. The founder’s continued engagement has been part of the recovery story.A CEO who describes himself as constitutionally unable to stop working is a different risk profile than one who is mentally checking out. For Meta, that has historically meant Zuckerberg pivots hard when he decides the direction needs to change, which he has done more than once. The AI reorganization is the latest version of that, and Reuters reported that even with the slower-than-expected pace, he is not changing course. He is pushing through.Whether that persistence is reassuring or concerning depends on your read of where Meta’s AI bets land. What is not in question, at least based on what he told Complex, is that he will be the one making the calls either way.Related: Mark Zuckerberg makes a move on a new billion-dollar market

The U.S. is truly a special, entrepreneurial oasis where anyone can succeed. The fact that one American stock, Nvidia (NVDA), is worth more than the French, German, and Italian stock markets combined says it all. I should add that Nvidia is also worth more than the entire British stock market. Nvidia isn’t alone in demonstrating the substantial growth associated with AI, or investors’ opportunity, though. Here are three buy-the-dip stocks I’m still targeting.Micron Technology (MU) experiences profit boomMicron is profiting from higher memory prices. In its third quarter 2026 earnings report in June, Micron Technology’s revenues surged 346% to $41.46 billion vs. $9.3 billion in the same quarter a year ago. During the same period, the company’s earnings soared 1,368.5% to $28.24 billion or $24.67 per share, compared to $1.89 billion or $1.68 per share. Micron also raised its quarterly revenue guidance to around $50 billion, well above the consensus estimate of $43.2 billion, so the tech boom is for real.Related: Veteran manager sends blunt take on buying the June swoon in JulyNvidia (NVDA) gets cheap as earnings surgeThe stock is trading below 15.4 times forecasted 2027 earnings. Any dip in Nvidia is a screaming buy. Looking closely at the fundamentals, in its first-quarter earnings report, Nvidia announced its revenue surged 85% to $81.6 billion, compared to $44.1 billion in the same quarter a year ago. During the same period, the company’s operating earnings surged 139.7% to $45.5 billion, or $1.87 per share, compared to $19.1 billion or 78 cents per share. The analyst community was anticipating revenue of $78.9 billion and operating earnings of $1.75 per share, so Nvidia posted a 3.4% revenue surprise and a 6.9% earnings surprise. More importantly, the company raised its second-quarter revenue guidance to $91 billion, above the analysts’ consensus estimate of $87.3 billion. I expect Nvidia to be $300 per share by the end of the year and $500 per share by the end of the decade.Palantir (PLTR) takes a breather, but AI upside remainsPalantir Technologies is probably implementing AI better than most companies as it strives to revamp the U.S. Defense Department, the CIA, NSA and other federal agencies.In its first quarter 2026 earnings report, its revenue continued to accelerate, running at an 84.7% annual pace, to $1.6 billion from $883 million in the same quarter a year ago. Their operating earnings are up 153.8%. They posted a 6% revenue surprise and a 13.8% earnings surprise and raised their guidance above estimates.Every dip is a buying opportunityI hope you share my enthusiasm for America. Between the onshoring, increasing energy exports, strong retail sales growth, and AI productivity gains, America cannot lose, so I expect 5% GDP growth to finally arrive. I also expect earnings growth to continue to accelerate. As a result, I have extremely high expectations for our fundamentally superior stocks and expect continued appreciation in the upcoming months.The current economic and market environment is the best since 1999, and it would be a shame if investors listened to naysayers like Jeremy Grantham and missed the best stock market environment in almost three decades. We cannot stop the current technology train, so you must get on the train, invest with the billionaires, or get left behind. The naysayers cannot see the forest through the trees, so please ignore them. Every dip in fundamentally superior stocks remains a buying opportunity for me. I’m not worried about daily gyrations, since these stocks typically bounce right back.Related: Veteran analyst drops massive Micron valuation prediction

Netflix’s reboot of the classic television series “Little House on the Prairie” is being met with mostly positive reviews from Rotten Tomatoes’ critics.

At its last stage for government approval, the state’s executive council rejected the bond project 3-2.

An outbreak of a parasite-caused illness has sickened more than 1,000 people in Michigan.

Traders are completely enthralled by the bull market — but surging Nasdaq volatility suggests it is time to hedge.