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If this is your first time reading, welcome to The Stock Investor’s Edge — a thriving community of over 30,000 subscribers striving to be better investors with an edge in the market.

Every weekend we publish “The Weekly Wrap-Up” — your ticket to being well informed and staying ahead in the investment game!

This report is designed to help investors of all skill levels break down important stories/topics within the stock market. And best of all, we cut through all of the BS and give you exactly what you need to know in easy to digest, bite sized pieces of content.

Grab your coffee and let’s dive in.

The AI trade was back on this week with META, NVDA and AVGO leading the charge, though the rest of the market struggled. Both the S&P and Nasdaq finished green, while the Dow fell.

These are some of the biggest stories from the second half of the week that had an influence on market action.

Chipmakers poured record money into new production this week while big tech cut spending on outside AI models. Apple, Micron, and SK Hynix all committed fresh capital to expand chip supply, while Microsoft shifted some AI tasks to its own cheaper models. China also opened a narrow path for its AI firms to buy a key Nvidia chip, capping a week of massive AI announcements.

🔑 Key Points

👀 What You Need to Know

This week shows two different reactions to the AI boom happening side by side. Some companies are betting big by building new factories to meet future chip demand, while others are trying to spend less on AI right now. China's decision to allow limited Nvidia chip purchases adds another layer, since it shows how much global access to advanced chips still shapes the AI race. These competing pressures will most likely keep driving volatility in chip stocks.

Meta $META ( ▲ 0.17% ) had a major week of AI and business news, headlined by new product launches and cloud plans. The company introduced new AI models, moved toward building its own cloud computing business, and signed new hardware supply deals. A new research report detailed Meta's plan to build five massive AI data center clusters, while the company also faced fresh legal and regulatory scrutiny over its platforms.

🔑 Key Points

👀 What You Need to Know

Shares have climbed sharply over the past two weeks, and the market's focus right now is clearly on AI progress and the new cloud business. New product launches and the data center buildout give investors a clear reason to expect real revenue from Meta's heavy AI spending. The lawsuit and EU finding remain open, but neither has slowed the stock's recent gains so far. The next earnings report on July 29 should show if this momentum continues.

📚 Edge-ucation: What is AI Compute?

AI compute refers to the raw processing power, chips, and data centers needed to train and run artificial intelligence models. It has become one of the largest cost drivers for companies like Meta, Google, and Microsoft as models grow larger and more complex.

When compute costs fall faster than AI usage grows, heavy spending today can turn into wider profit margins down the road.

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Oil prices swung sharply this week after tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz led Trump to declare the Iran ceasefire “over”. The U.S. launched new strikes against Iran and pulled its approval for Iran to sell oil on the global market. At the same time, Russia banned diesel exports after drone strikes damaged its refineries, adding to the global fuel squeeze.

🔑 Key Points

👀 What You Need to Know

This week showed how fast oil prices can move if the Strait closes again, and we also saw what happened when this is combined with Russia’s diesel export ban. Both pushed prices higher for the week, and a sustained rise in energy costs could delay interest rate cuts investors are hoping for. Higher diesel costs also raise shipping expenses, which slowly raise prices on everyday goods.

In this section, we'll be curating a selection of news headlines we think you'll find interesting. If a topic catches your eye, click the provided links to read more about it.

We continue to push out more and more content every week to give investors that edge. Here are the posts Investor’s Edge+ subscribers received this week.

Mondays are for the investors. Every Monday morning we share exactly what we’re watching in the week ahead, how we’re positioning, and even share a sneak peek into our systems and models. This week we discussed our outlook on the second half of the year and how even though it was a quiet week in terms of economic news and earnings, there was potential for volatility as a rotation out of tech looks to be starting. See the latest full report here:

Every month we break down 5 stocks that we believe are attractive from a valuation and momentum perspective right now. Our picks are +25.9% YTD compared to the S&P’s +9.5% return YTD. Here’s a look at the 5 stocks we are buying in July:

Every month we share a full access look into our portfolios, including holdings, performance, activity and our watchlists for the upcoming month. You can see both of our portfolios, what moves we made in May, and how we are performing YTD here:

Next week is the official start of Q2 earnings season as well as the all-important releases of 2 key inflation reports, all of which should lead to an interesting week for the market.

Earnings season kicks off next week with Taiwan Semi, Netflix, UnitedHealth and the banks slated to report. Here is the full calendar of scheduled earnings releases:

Here is the list of names we will be covering:

Next week is full of economic releases, but the focus will be inflation as we got both the CPI and PPI reports.

We also get retail sales, jobless claims, several housing reports, consumer sentiment, and several speeches from Fed members.

Here is the full calendar of events we will be watching:

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Our Discord server is tailor-made for investors like you who want to dive deeper into stocks, share insights, and engage directly with us. And it’s completely free!

Here’s what you’re missing in the Discord:

🗨️ Chat rooms: Investors discussed the the huge moves from mega cap tech. Members also dove into the number of jobs reports and shared their views on the overall economy.

📊 Earnings / Economic reports: No more waiting for our newsletters to hit your inboxes - see earnings results and economic data as they are released. And more importantly, get our reactions and insights immediately.

🚨 Trade Alerts: Chris and Mark shared several trades, including additions to the portfolio and trades that set up their portfolios for the week.

Join us on Discord and let's level up our investing game together. The future of trading awaits—and you're invited to be a part of it! 🌟

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Thank you for reading this edition of the Weekly Wrap-Up. Have a great weekend!

Until next time investors!

Mark & Chris

The Investor’s Edge

This is not investing advice. It is very important that you do your own research and make investments based on your own personal circumstances, preferences, goals and risk tolerance.