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. Markets: The S & P 500 and Nasdaq were dragged down Thursday on post-earnings slumps from Club holdings Meta Platforms and Microsoft. While both reported better-than-expected quarters, Wall Street was worried about their increased forecasts on artificial intelligence spending. Shares of Meta and Microsoft were down 10% and 3%, respectively. This comes one day after the Federal Reserve announced a widely expected interest rate cut for the second time this year. Investors were also on the look out for trade headlines. President Donald Trump said early Thursday the U.S. would halve fentanyl-linked tariffs on China, bringing the overall duties on the world’s second-largest economy to 47% from 57%. Spin update: Club holding Honeywell on Thursday finally completed the highly anticipated spin of its advanced materials business. The new specialty chemicals company, dubbed Solstice Advanced Materials , started trading under the ticker symbol “SOLS” on the Nasdaq. Honeywell shareholders as of Oct. 17 received one Solstice share for every four shares of the industrial conglomerate. Ahead of the stock’s Nasdaq debut, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage of Solstice with a buy-equivalent rating and a price target of $70 apiece. That’s compared to the when-issued line of slightly below $50 apiece. Solstice shares rose as much as nearly 6% on Thursday afternoon, hitting an intraday high of roughly $54. Honeywell stock, in comparison, was flat. We previously told members to expect some volatility because investors could be selling Solstice to purchase more shares of parent Honeywell. But the Solstice spin is just one step of Honeywell’s multi-stage plan to break up into three publicly traded entities. Honeywell will separate its remaining aerospace and automation divisions in the second half of 2026. DuPont, another Club name, will complete the split of its electronics business, called Qnity Electronics, next week. The stock will join the S & P 500 on Monday and begin trading under the “Q” ticker. Solstice joined the S & P 500 on Thursday. Wall Street: Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on Thursday brushed concerns about the bank’s post-earnings stock drop , which came despite strong profit growth. Since the release to Wednesday’s close, Goldman stock has recovered, but it was still lagging the S & P 500. Speaking at the Economic Club of Washington on Thursday, Solomon said, “Our job is to execute, to be patient, to take a long view.” He stressed, “The stock will follow.” Solomon also touted the success of Goldman’s crucial global banking and markets division, which includes its investment banking and trading businesses. “We’ve obviously had an extraordinary leadership position in investment banking and M & A, and we’ve maintained and strengthened that. But, in our trading businesses, we’ve increased our wallet share with our clients over the past five years by 380 basis points.” Solomon also gave his outlook on the U.S. economy, describing it as “in pretty good shape at the moment.” He added that the chance of a “recession in the near term is low.” He cited the AI infrastructure investment boom as a major tailwind. “You’ve got six or seven large companies that are going to spend $350 billion this year on AI infrastructure. That has an effect on growth.” Up next: Club holdings Apple and Amazon will release earnings Thursday night. Cybersecurity firm Cloudflare , a rival to Club names Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike , will share results at the same time. Before Friday’s opening bell, Club stock Linde reports results. (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.
While many of the largest tech companies race to build massive data centers for their artificial intelligence ambitions, Apple is taking a more modest approach.
Instead of simply buying as many AI chips as possible, Apple buys computing capacity from outside partners, finance chief Kevan Parekh explained Thursday on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call.
When Apple does build servers for its AI software, the company is using its own chips — not those from Nvidia or AMD — to power a service it calls Private Cloud Compute.
“I don’t see us moving away from this hybrid model, where we leverage both first-party capacity as well as leverage third-party capacity,” Parekh said.
Apple’s results on Thursday closed out a busy week of earnings for the tech industry. Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta reported on Wednesday, while Amazon reported on Thursday.
All of the companies said they planned to boost spending on capital expenditures to secure the computing capacity needed to develop next-generation AI and serve users.
Alphabet said it expects to spend about $92 billion on capital expenditures this year. Microsoft said it spent about $34.9 billion on capex during the September quarter and will spend more in capex for its fiscal 2026 than it did the year prior.
Meta stock got whacked after CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the company’s plan to spend about $71 billion on AI chips and other expenses in 2025. On Thursday, Amazon raised its 2025 spending forecast 6% to $125 billion.
Compared to them, Apple’s barely spending at all.
In its fiscal 2025, which ended in September, Apple spent $12.72 billion on capital expenditures.
And yet, that’s up 35% from what it spent last year, a significant increase. Parekh said Apple is expecting further increases. Analysts expect Apple’s capex to increase to $14.3 billion this year, according to FactSet.
“In ’25 we did have capex costs associated with building out our Private Cloud Compute environment in our first party data centers,” Parekh said. Earlier this month, Apple announced that it was starting to ship those servers from a factory in Houston.
Last year, the company released Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI tools that runs on the company’s chips that can summarize notifications, generate images like new emojis, and pass complicated queries to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Apple Intelligence has received mixed reviews from critics, and one of its centerpieces, an improved Siri assistant, was delayed by the company in May until 2026. The improved Siri is on track to come out next year, Apple said Thursday.
But if Apple’s decision to take a different approach to AI puts the company’s hardware sales at risk, it hasn’t happened yet.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach that the consumer response to the company’s iPhone 17 models was “off the chart,” and the company said that overall sales would rise between 10% and 12% in the company’s December quarter. Apple executives were effusive on a call with analysts about the new iPhone’s popularity.
Still, Apple executives are aware that that AI features like Apple Intelligence are a factor in smartphone purchasing decisions.
“We’re very bullish on it becoming a greater factor,” Cook said.
Apple’s “hybrid” approach means that some of what the company spends on compute for AI ends up as an operating expense, instead of a capital expense. Analysts pressed Apple executives that the company’s operating expenses rose 11% in the past year to $15.91 billion.
“We are increasing our investments in AI, while also continuing to invest in our product roadmap,” Parekh said. “The vast majority of the increase to our operating expenses are driven by R&D.”
CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp attends the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 15, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-reynolds | Afp | Getty Images
Palantir‘s head of global communications said Wednesday that the company’s political shift toward the Trump administration is “concerning.”
“I think it’s going to be challenging, as a lot of the company is moving pro-Trum-, you know, is moving in a certain direction,” communications chief Lisa Gordon said in an interview at The Information‘s Women in Tech, Media and Finance summit.
“It’s concerning,” she said, while noting she’s a Democrat and previously worked on Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign.
President Ronald Reagan defeated Mondale, who served as vice president under Jimmy Carter, in the 1984 presidential election.
“So until recently, we’re pretty much on both sides, and so it hasn’t been that challenging,” Gordon said about Republicans and Democrats. “I’m just starting to navigate that now, moving forward, where I feel like there’s been a shift.”
Palantir CEO Alex Karp, who has given money to the campaigns of former Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden, has been outspoken about his recent support for President Donald Trump.
Gordon said Karp’s “frustration with the Democrats” pushed him in a different direction politically.
Gordon told CNBC in an email that “Palantir welcomes diverse opinions.”
“The company has worked with four administrations and prides itself on supporting the nation no matter who’s in office,” she wrote.
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Palantir, which is also a donor for the White House’s new ballroom that is under construction, just inked a contract with the U.S. Army worth up to $10 billion over the next decade.
The deal further cemented the company’s role in the U.S. government’s focus on cost efficiencies by using artificial intelligence tools.
Palantir also sponsored the president’s parade for the U.S. Army‘s 250th birthday in June.
The analytics firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, has helped U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with data used for the agency’s crackdown on immigration. Palantir won a $30 million contract to build the government a new platform called ImmigrationOS that allows the agency to “streamline” the identification and deportation of immigrants.
Gordon’s comments this week show how internal dynamics within the company are working as it undergoes this political movement. Gordon has worked at Palantir since 2009.
“You don’t get fired for having a different position, but you will leave if you’re not aligned, ultimately, like if you don’t support Israel,” Gordon said, referring to Karp’s staunch support of Israel amid the conflict in Gaza.
Palantir has supplied tools to Israel during the war in Gaza. Israel launched the campaign after Hamas-led fighters stormed through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and bringing 251 hostages back to Gaza.
As of this week, Gaza health authorities said 68,000 people were confirmed killed in the Israeli strikes and thousands more were missing.
Karp has said that the company has lost employees and expects to lose more over his public support for Israel.
“What we try to focus on are the missions, not the personalities so much and and staying true to the work,” said Gordon.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks during a press conference at San Francisco City Hall on Oct. 23, 2025 in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who was recently thrust into a national debate about the safety of big cities, told CNBC on Thursday that he feels “pressure every day” to continue improving conditions for residents.
Last week, President Donald Trump reversed plans for a “federal surge” in San Francisco. The potential National Guard deployment hit the headlines when Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told the New York Times that he’d support Trump’s call for federal troops to be sent to the city.
Benioff’s sentiments were supported by Elon Musk and David Sacks, high-profile techies with close ties to the Trump administration. Benioff quickly backtracked as criticism mounted.
Unlike California Governor Gavin Newsom, Lurie has tried to avoid clashing with Trump since taking office in January. But he has spoken up to say that the city is progressing on business development and crime, often citing data to back up his claims.
In Thursday’s interview, Lurie’s first on television since the Trump incident, the mayor said there’s plenty of hard work ahead.
“I felt that pressure in January, I feel it today,” Lurie said, when asked about support from tech leaders. “I think they understand… when San Francisco is strong, America is strong.”
Lurie, a moderate Democrat, pointed to an array of data that show the city is making progress on a post-pandemic comeback, largely driven by the boom in investment and usage of artificial intelligence. CBRE data on venture funding show 2025 is expected to surpass the record reached in 2021, thanks in large part to AI investments in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
In addition, crime rates are down 30% from 2024, as event bookings and tourism are up, residential real estate is becoming more scarce and the office market is getting hot.
“We have a lot of competition out there in the world, and we are on the rise,” Lurie said. “Anything that would have hindered that rise is something that we don’t need.”
Lurie is also leveraging philanthropic commitments to work with the city in cleaning up streets and supporting small businesses. He shared on CNBC Thursday that the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation has now raised $50 million for this effort, up from the $40 million at launch.
The goal is to spark a comeback, with the help of the tech boom in the city, but one that paves the way for all businesses to thrive, he said.
“What we’re trying to build here is a broad-based recovery at City Hall,” Lurie said. “Our job is to create the conditions so that not only these [tech] companies can succeed, but our restaurants and small businesses can succeed. We’re stripping away red tape. We’re telling everybody that we’re open for business. We want you here, and we want you to be part of the community.”