Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Market moves: The S & P 500 was lower Monday, giving back some gains following its run to new highs last week. The market was drifting lower for most of the session as its overbought condition finally caught up to the rally. However, Monday’s losses picked up steam after President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the U.S. will impose 25% tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea, starting Aug. 1. While there’s no guarantee that these tariffs will stick as both countries still have time to work out a deal, the update was viewed negatively since they are important trading partners. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on “Squawk Box” on Monday that the Trump administration plans to announce “several” trade deals in the next 48 hours, so expect a mix of some good and bad news over the next few days. Prime days: Amazon’s annual deal event “Prime Day” kicks off Tuesday. This year, the event will be four days, up from two days last year. According to a forecast by Adobe Analytics, online spending is expected to increase 28.4% year over year to $23.8 billion across all U.S. retailers during this period. Analysts at Bank of America wrote last week that Amazon’s decision to extend the Prime Deal event “suggests that Amazon has greater retail logistics capacity to offer promotions and that inventory availability is not a constraint, despite tariff concerns.” It’s a good thing, too, because many people were concerned that Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs would lead to empty shopping aisles (or warehouses in Amazon’s case) by the summer. That could still be the case for some smaller retailers that rely heavily on goods from Asia, but not for major players like Club names Amazon, Costco , or TJX Companies — the parent of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods. Besides pure merchandise sales, Prime Day also boosts advertising revenue. BofA pointed out that the event will likely benefit spending on Prime Video ads, and that makes a ton of sense because brands know Prime Day is when users shop more. Shares of Amazon were basically flat Monday. Playing catch up: Threads, a social media service owned by Meta Platforms , is catching up to the number of daily app users of rival X (formerly Twitter). That’s according to new data shared with the Investing Club from digital market intelligence company Similarweb, which indicated that Threads’ mobile app for iOS and Android reached 115.1 million daily active users (DAUs) last month, compared to its top competitor’s 132 million. Threads’ experienced 128 % year-over-year growth, while X saw a 15% year-over-year decline. Threads may be closing the gap on smartphones, but X continues to hold a tremendous lead online. According to Similarweb, X’s worldwide average daily web visits increased 3% month over month to 145.8 million compared Threads’ 2.3% decline to 6.9 million. The data is interesting because it comes around two months after Meta’s standalone microblogging app began rolling out ads on its platform. The boost in total engagement bodes well for ad revenues for Meta Platforms as the social media behemoth tries to grab share from peers. In addition to Threads, the company also is trying to monetize its hugely popular messaging service WhatsApp. Progress on these initiatives is something to watch in the quarters ahead — given the scale of Facebook and Instagram’s business, though, they may take time to really move the needle. Meta stock was up only slightly Monday in an overall bad tape. It’s the only “Magnificent Seven” stock in the green. Shares have surged over 23% year to date, handily beating the S & P 500’s nearly 6% gain. Up next: There are no major earnings after Monday’s closing bell or before Tuesday’s open. We will get two bits of economic data: the NFIB small business optimism index and the New York Fed’s one-year inflation expectations. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Stocks fall on Trump’s new tariff threats, and an update on usage of Meta’s Threads
