Quick Hits

• Reddit (RDDT) is joining the S&P 500. After months of speculation and past snubs, the index committee called its number, sending shares on an after-hours rally Thursday — though analysts still have concerns about the name.
• Stocks hit fresh records with rates at multiyear highs. LPL Financial notes the relationship between bond yields and equities has turned negative again, and the big question on the Street is how long the defiance lasts.
• July inflation data is in, and it cuts two ways. A September Fed rate hike looks less likely, but The Motley Fool flags one "sinister" inflation metric that remains problematic — and the first of three readings that set 2027's Social Security COLA is bad news for retirees.
• The AI buildout keeps printing money. Lenovo's profits soared past expectations on AI computers and servers, Dell (DELL) has roughly quadrupled this year, and Sandisk (SNDK) landed a wave of new Wall Street price targets.
• Cisco (CSCO) bucked the tape, falling as analysts warned the AI "supercycle" could pressure gross margins.

Markets Overview

The day's defining tension: equities at new highs while debt markets wobble. MarketWatch reports the latest rally has energized stock traders but left the credit market concerned — options players are chipper on equities, wary on debt. That divergence frames everything else.

The marquee story is Reddit's S&P 500 inclusion, which ends months of speculation and follows earlier snubs; the after-hours pop Thursday confirms how much index membership still matters. Meanwhile, South Korea's bear market has flipped back into a bull — a recovery MarketWatch attributes partly to technicals (liquidation of retail long positions) but backed by genuinely booming earnings growth.

Elsewhere: Ethereum (ETH) sits 62% below its all-time high of nearly $5,000 hit last August, a slide that has Cathie Wood buying the dip. And SpaceX (SPCX) has climbed back above its $135 IPO price after touching $104, reopening the "too late to buy?" debate.

Earnings Reports

• Lenovo became the latest AI-infrastructure winner, with profits soaring past expectations on AI computers, servers, and services — a report that also lit a fire under Dell, which MarketWatch notes has beaten Micron and AMD this year on its way to roughly quadrupling.
• Apple (AAPL) remains a post-earnings case study: solid fiscal Q3 results on July 30 were met with a 5% sell-off, and The Motley Fool digs into what history says tends to follow such drops.
• Tencent (0700.HK) reported Q2 revenue up 11% — decent, not spectacular — and Reddit traders are watching whether it offloads more of its Sea (SE) ADR stake.
• Sandisk (SNDK) is flying after offering revenue-growth forecasts stretching to the end of the decade while pledging to sustain high profitability; Wall Street responded with higher targets.
• Small caps on the tape: Neumora Therapeutics posted GAAP EPS of -$0.23, beating by a penny, while Adlai Nortye lost $0.04 on $13.06 million in revenue.

Fed & Economic Data

July's inflation print is the day's most consequential macro event. The Motley Fool reports the first of three readings (July, August, September) that determine the 2027 Social Security COLA came in as bad news for beneficiaries — and separately argues the 2027 COLA may disappoint retirees no matter what. On the Fed side, markets have trimmed odds of a September hike, but Fool flags one persistent inflation metric that keeps the hawks' case alive.

The bigger worry: Fool argues the puzzle pieces for stagflation are taking shape — "terrible news" for Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and Wall Street alike. The hedging is real: CME Group (CME) averaged a record 27 million contracts a day in July after 30.6 million in June, with an unsettled Fed its best customer.

The loudest bear call of the day belongs to CrossBorder Capital's Mike Howell, who tells MarketWatch global liquidity has peaked and investors should "batten down the hatches": allocate defensively, hedge inflation, and buy gold and commodities.

Stock News

• Salesforce (CRM) caught a J.P. Morgan boost, with an analyst calling AI fears overblown and predicting 29% upside on promising AI features.
• NuScale Power (SMR) is the valuation poster child of the nuclear revival: a $4.2 billion market value against just $10.7 million in trailing sales — with Fool recalling that the last U.S. nuclear boom set out to build 26 reactors and finished two.
• Capex cascade: Amazon expects ~$220 billion and Alphabet ~$200 billion in capital spending — $420 billion combined — and Fool highlights two suppliers primed to cash in.
• Under Armour (UA) stayed underwater this week; McDonald's (MCD) is betting on innovative beverages to reignite growth.
• Capital returns: J&J Snack Foods declared an $0.80 dividend, Old Republic $0.315, and Brookfield Business renewed its buyback.

Market Analysis

The bull case and the bear case are both getting louder. Against fresh record highs, Michael Burry is warning of a 1987-style crash tied to AI excess — while even Reddit's r/stocks crowd is pushing back on crash talk, noting the market sits at all-time highs this week.

The more sophisticated fault line is stocks-versus-credit: equity options traders are leaning bullish while debt markets signal concern, and LPL's negative yield-equity relationship means bonds have quietly become a real threat again. Howell's liquidity-peaked call is the sharpest expression of that view.

What to watch: two more inflation prints (August and September) that will finalize the 2027 COLA and shape the Fed's September decision; whether AI capex keeps converting to earnings (Lenovo, Dell, Sandisk say yes; Cisco's margins say maybe not); and whether the credit market's unease spreads to equities before the rate rally does.