My top 10 things to watch Monday, July 21 1. Shares of Block are up big as the fintech company is set to join the broad-based S & P 500 index — a reminder that so much money is indexed to the S & P that it is hard to beat, and is a reason why the small-cap Russell 2000 keeps underperforming. Block will officially join the S & P 500 before the bell on Wednesday. 2 . Verizon — much better, posted a second-quarter earnings beat before the opening bell ($1.22 vs. $1.19 estimate). EBITDA was also stronger than expected. The telecom now expects 2025 adjusted profit to rise 1% and 3%, compared to the previous expectation of 0% to 3%. 3. President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” is about to unleash a giant amount of spending. Don’t give up on retail. It contains so many provisions that will boost the economy that we need to rethink the possibility of a hobbled consumer, as I wrote in my Sunday column , along with nine other reasons to be positive. 4. DoorDash price target raised to $265 a share from $210 at Bernstein, which kept its outperform buy rating. This is the winner in delivery. The analysts also raised their PT on Uber to $110 from $95 and kept its buy rating. This is the winner in ride-hailing. These two stocks turned out to be in winner-takes-all categories. 5. Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics are down another 8% after the FDA said Friday that it was pulling support for Elevidys, a gene therapy used to treat muscular dystrophy, after three patient deaths. The stock plunged 36% Friday. 6. Melius analyst Ben Reitzes said in a note that it’s time for Apple to get aggressive on AI, and that bold moves — like buying AI-driven search engine Perplexity — would be rewarded by the market. I’ve advocated for Apple to spend less on buybacks and more on AI. 7. Barclays raised its price target on United Rentals to $620 from $565 but kept sell rating, noting the outperformance this year of the machinery and construction stocks. This whole group has been underestimated. The analysts also raised Caterpillar to $383 from $335 (hold), and Cummins to $387 from $381 (hold). Again, if you had a recession forecast, your stock picks are all wrong. 8. Baird raised its price target on Club name Amazon to $244 from $220 and kept its buy rating, noting another big long-term bet on its space platform. 9 . Second-quarter earnings season is off to a mostly strong start, and it’s picking up steam in the week ahead. Within the portfolio, we’ll hear from Danaher , Capital One , GE Vernova , Honeywell and Dover . See what we’re looking for from each company in our week ahead column. 10. Barclays downgraded Target to sell from hold and kept its PT of $91. Analysts believe sales will continue to underperform. No real edge for Target. Shoppers are not loyal. In physical retail, we own Costco and TJX for the Club. Sign up for my Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter for free (See here for a full list of the stocks at 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.
