2 of our financial stocks jump to record highs — plus, Meta's Threads keeps growing
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2 of our financial stocks jump to record highs — plus, Meta's Threads keeps growing

Why This Matters

Every weekday, the Investing Club releases the Homestretch; an actionable afternoon update just in time for the last hour of trading.

August 12, 2025
06:33 PM
4 min read
AI Enhanced

Every weekday, the CNBC with Jim Cramer releases the stretch — an actionable afternoon , time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street.

: The S & P 500 and -heavy Nasdaq Composite surged to record highs, adding more than 1% each, ing the July consumer price index report.

Headline inflation increased slightly less than expected on an annual basis, causing traders to increase the odds of a quarter-point interest rate cut at the September meeting.

nology and the "Magnificent Seven" stocks continue to drive the rally, as they have all quarter, but what stands out Tuesday is the strong showing from the financial sector, which has mostly struggled since the start of July.

Even with the sector's more than 1% advance on Tuesday, the group is still in negative territory quarter to date.

We always to see the banks leading market rallies because they are a barometer of the economy.

Both names Goldman Sachs and BlackRock hit record highs during the session, with Goldman managing to brush off criticism from President Donald Trump on Truth Social.

Capital One wasn't quite back to its record close of $220.91 on July 3, but it was participating in the rally. s added nearly 4%, to roughly $216 apiece.

Growing base : Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday afternoon that its Threads social network has surpassed 400 million monthly active users — an increase of 80 million since late January.

Appriately, Zuckerberg made the disclosure in a post on Threads.

This is solid growth for the social platform that was launched two years ago, but don't expect it to be a meaningful contributor to revenue just yet.

Threads is in the early stages of its monetization journey – the company introduced ads within the "s" on Threads in the second quarter and ad supply is low, CFO Susan Li said on the late July earnings call.

Meta also rolled out ads on WhatsApp during the period, which is another potential growth driver further down the road.

Given the scale of Instagram and Facebook's ad es, it will take a bit for these other apps to move the needle.

Another wrinkle to watch around Threads is how some nological experimentation on the app could show up across the Meta empire.

Specifically, Meta is using large language model nology in the social network's recommendation system and seeing "mising results" in doing so, Li said on the earnings call.

LLMs are the foundation for generative AI chatbots ChatGPT, and there's been a school of thought that incorporating the nology into traditional recommendation systems can imve them.

"The incorporation of LLMs are now driving a meaningful of the ranking related time spent gains on Threads," Li said.

"We're now exploring how to extend the use of LLMs in recommendation systems to our other apps." Up next: AI cloud computing vider CoreWeave reports after the closing bell on Tuesday, and because it's a key partner to Nvidia, the company's ary will give us a look into the pace of AI infrastructure spending.

Fast-casual restaurant chain Cava Group also reports after the closing bell.

Before the opening bell on Wednesday, we'll see earnings from Brinker International , the parent company of Chili's Grill and Maggiano's.

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FinancialBooklet Analysis

AI-powered insights based on this specific article

Key Insights

  • Inflation data often serves as a leading indicator for consumer spending and corporate pricing power
  • Earnings performance can signal broader sector health and future investment opportunities
  • Financial sector news can impact lending conditions and capital availability for businesses

Questions to Consider

  • What does this inflation data suggest about consumer purchasing power and corporate margins?
  • Could this earnings performance indicate broader sector trends or company-specific factors?
  • Could this financial sector news affect lending conditions and capital availability?

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