Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Thursday’s key moments. 1. The stock market is higher Thursday on the back of some encouraging economic data. It comes one day after Wednesday’s volatile session, which was sparked by reports that President Donald Trump was “soon” going to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, though Trump quickly denied those reports. “The markets are doing well in part, I think, because Powell got that reprieve, but also because we got some retail sales that are very good,” Jim Cramer said. U.S. Census Bureau data showed improved retail sales since May. June retail sales came in better than expected with sales up 0.6% month over month, well above estimates. Meanwhile, portfolio name Abbott Laboratories released earnings that Jim called “very disappointing.” Jim will be speaking with Abbott CEO Robert Ford on “Mad Money” Thursday evening. 2. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings . The chipmaking giant raised its 2025 sales outlook to 30% growth, up from previous guidance of mid-20%. The growth is largely driven by strength in AI trade as the company produces advanced processors for clients like Club name Nvidia , shares of which added more than 1% Thursday. Nvidia was recently reapproved to export chips to China and hit a $4 trillion market cap. With shares hitting a fresh all-time high intraday Thursday of $174.16 apiece, Jim said, “It’s going up to $200.” The Club is bullish on companies making big moves in AI, which is why we jumped on an opportunity to initiate a position in Cisco while the market is no longer overbought. At the same time, we’re not forgetting our discipline when stocks have had big moves. Accordingly, we’d be looking to trim Eaton , one of our other AI data center plays, if not for our trading restrictions. We trimmed GE Vernova earlier Thursday. 3. Starbucks was downgraded to an underperform sell rating from hold at Jeffries. Analysts believe the stock has surpassed reasonable expectations. Jeffries analysts cite credit and debit card data, foot traffic, and app data as reasons why there is downside to consensus U.S. same-store sales estimates over the next two quarters. “If it [the stock] goes to the $80’s, buy more, “Jim said. The analysts also think the sale of Starbucks’ China stake is baked in and believe a realistic valuation is in the range of $2 billion to 2.5 billion, lower some estimates that have gone up to as much as $10 billion. “It’s not going to hit a $76 dollar [price] target, “Jim added, referencing where Jefferies has its target. Starbucks is set to report its latest quarterly numbers July 29. 4. Stocks covered in Thursday’s rapid fire at the end of the video were: GE Aerospace, PepsiCo , United Airlines , Union Pacific , and Elevance . (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long ABT, ETN NVDA, SBUX, TSM. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.
