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Happy Saturday, and welcome back to our super skimmable Street Tweets newsletter.

Meta owns a variety of platforms, most notably Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, which are home to billions of users across the globe.

Despite its international userbase, Meta has recently faced some serious headaches from foreign regulators:

• The European Commission found Meta in violation of its Digital Markets Act for its pay or consent model.

• Meta has decided to withhold its multimodal AI from European customers due to a lack of clarity from the region’s regulators.

• Meta has also halted its use of generative AI features in Brazil after the country issued a preliminary ban over MetaAI’s privacy policy.

Having international appeal is certainly critical for social media companies: more users entail more data to sell to advertisers. However, Meta seems to be learning that international success is a double-edged sword, with profits on one edge and regulators on the other.

Plus, today’s partner provides the opportunity to invest in the future of keeping children safe online. Click here to learn more! 

MARKET REVIEW

TL;DR: U.S. markets started strong this week with record highs for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones, but momentum faded, leading to the S&P 500's worst week since April.

Fed Chairman Powell indicated rate cuts could occur before inflation hits the 2% target, while June retail sales were stable, and unemployment claims reached a nearly year-high. Homebuilder sentiment dropped, but June housing starts and building permits exceeded expectations, and the 30-year mortgage rate saw its biggest decline in four months.

Big Tech stocks declined as investors rotated into small caps, with Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon all experiencing losses. In the financial sector, major banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan reported strong earnings, while Berkshire Hathaway hit a record high. Healthcare saw gains with UnitedHealth and Johnson & Johnson exceeding expectations, but Eli Lilly fell due to competition from Roche.

Click here to read our full market review

MARKET PREVIEW

TL;DR: For the fourth week in July, the markets will focus on the Q2 GDP advance estimates on Thursday and the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report on Friday. These reports will significantly influence the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions, with the GDP providing insight into economic growth and the PCE offering a look at inflation trends.

Last quarter's GDP growth was 1.4%, signaling moderated growth, and May’s Core PCE showed the softest increase since November 2023, boosting confidence in the Fed’s inflation management efforts. Additionally, major earnings reports from companies like Microsoft, Alphabet, and Tesla, along with economic data on existing and new home sales, durable goods orders, and initial jobless claims, will further impact market sentiment throughout the week.

Click here to get ready for the week ahead

Analysts are bullish on Apple due to the new iPhone. Should they be?

Last Thursday, Bank of America analysts reiterated their Buy rating on Apple and raised their price target to $256.

The bank cited its latest global smartphone survey, which revealed a commitment among Apple consumers to upgrade their phones in light of the new generative AI features.

However, will the new iPhone really have mass market appeal under current economic conditions? We’ve seen that 80% of Americans now view fast food as a luxury, pandemic savings are gone, and car repossessions have surged 23% as more and more people fall behind on payments.

While those market conditions are very real, there’s also a real chance that Americans will overlook their sour financial standings and cough up the dough for the latest new Apple toy… We can’t overlook Americans’ notoriously bad spending habits — evidenced by the fact that 30% of Americans are considering using a buy now, pay later (BNPL) loan this month.

American automobile manufacturing is back online…

… and just this week, we saw that Ford is investing $3 billion to boost the output of its popular F-series pickup trucks.

Those F-series trucks are Ford’s biggest money maker, and the automaker hopes the recent investment will help it keep up with strong demand.

With more and more automakers upping production levels, that means they are seeing rising consumer demand, which could be a bullish sign for their stocks.

But there may be a more interesting play here… Magna International is an auto parts supplier for Ford and GM. If those two car makers continue to boost production levels, it could be good news for Magna International and its stock, which is down 15% over the last six months.

TOGETHER WITH GRYPHON

Invest in The Future of Keeping Our Children Safe Online

Gryphon Online Security uses AI to make protecting your family online easy. Gryphon's mission is to equip families with cutting-edge technology, empowering them to reclaim control over their online safety.

Today, many primary threats to families are from online, often infiltrating through the home WiFi router. Gryphon offers an AI-powered network protection service, packaged in a robust mesh WiFi system with an intuitive mobile app, all designed to easily safeguard families online.

Recent accomplishments:

• Over $12M in total revenue since launch.

• 3x growth in paid subscribers over the past 2 years.

• Over 80K Gryphons sold protecting families and small businesses.

• 10 patents awarded covering advanced network protection.

• Featured in Forbes, Tom's Guide, PC Mag, and Wall Street Journal.

Learn more and Invest in Gryphon

The energy sector is still underrated.

Nvidia’s valuation is insanely high but understandable, considering the company is at the forefront of powering AI implementation with its state-of-the-art processing chips.

However, the energy sector is also working behind the scenes to power AI in a big way — a ChatGPT query uses 10X the power of a Google search.

While AI enthusiasm has sent tech stocks soaring this year, it’s critical to view both AI and the energy sector as the new power couple, meaning they should rise in tandem. Despite this, year-to-date, the energy sector has only risen 12.8%, while the S&P 500 has risen 16.5%.

If you’re looking for energy stocks to take advantage of this trend, we highlighted some in our article “Outside-The-Box AI Plays.”

Experts claim the US is short somewhere between four and seven million homes.

But with every crisis comes great opportunity, and Guggenheim Securities Co-Chairman Jim Millstein may have just discovered one.

Millstein’s plan is to leverage Fannie Mae and Freddie to create a secondary market for construction loans via mezzanine financing: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would fill in the gap between the money a builder has and the total cost to build a project.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have never been used for this kind of construction financing before, and this could make it easier for home builders to secure loans and less expensive to bring new supply online.

Millstein believes this novel approach could facilitate up to $100 billion in new construction annually and help ameliorate the housing crisis.

If his plan works… it could be a good time to invest in the Guggenheim Strategic Opportunities Fund (GOF).

Click here to read Bloomberg’s full report on Guggenheim’s big plan to build millions of new homes.

TOGETHER WITH GRYPHON

Invest in The Future of Keeping Our Children Safe Online

Gryphon Online Security uses AI to make protecting your family online easy. Gryphon's mission is to equip families with cutting-edge technology, empowering them to reclaim control over their online safety.

Today, many primary threats to families are from online, often infiltrating through the home WiFi router. Gryphon offers an AI-powered network protection service, packaged in a robust mesh WiFi system with an intuitive mobile app, all designed to easily safeguard families online.

Recent accomplishments:

• Over $12M in total revenue since launch.

• 3x growth in paid subscribers over the past 2 years.

• Over 80K Gryphons sold protecting families and small businesses.

• 10 patents awarded covering advanced network protection.

• Featured in Forbes, Tom's Guide, PC Mag, and Wall Street Journal.

Learn more and Invest in Gryphon

Could JD Vance help bring about a crypto bull market?

While JD Vance is known for his best-selling book Hillilly Elegy and serving in the US Senate for the last year and a half, there’s a bit more to him than initially meets the eye.

If Trump wins the election this November, JD Vance would be the first Silicon Valley tech guy in the White House.

Unlike the traditional big-business conservatives, Vance has deep connections to Silicon Valley from working in San Fran as a venture capitalist and investing in companies in fields ranging from app development to gene therapy.

This week, billionaire Mark Cuban took to X with his own theory on why Silicon Valley is showing newfound support for Republicans, namely Trump and Vance.

Cuban believes it is a bitcoin play:

1. Trump and Vance are pro-crypto and could forward SEC changes favorable to cryptocurrency exchanges.

2. Cuban claims lower tariffs and taxes could be inflationary, and could pressure investors to seek alternative stores of value.

3. He also views a Trump presidency as increasing geopolitical uncertainty and impacting the standing of the US dollar, which would further boost investments in alternative assets like crypto.

TRIVIA

Last week, we asked: what is the world’s oldest and first stock exchange, founded in 1602?

The correct answer was the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

This week’s question…