Stakes and the Chips, Palantir Hits Bear Territory, Target Picks a New CEO 8/20/25

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Still jumping from tab to tab to create trades? With Fidelity Trading Dashboard, you can easily access live data, advanced charting, portfolio insights, and automated alerts all on one screen. Our streamlined view lets you quickly create and execute your trading strategies to help keep up with the markets. Because better trading starts with finding what you need fast. Your Fidelity Trading Dashboard is ready now for free. Visit fidelity.com/tradingdashboard.

Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, member NYSE SIPC.

Josh Brown (0:31)

My name is Josh Brown. The best stocks in the market is very simple. These are stocks with good fundamentals, a great story, and technically they're in the process of rising higher. Everyone needs to invest. The cost of living goes up every year. The purchasing power of the dollar goes down. Assuming we're all going to be here for a very long time, we're going to need more money, the stock market is how that happens.

SPEAKER_3 (0:54)

Join Pro for exclusive access to Josh Brown's best stocks in the market at cnbc.com/beststocks.

Jim Cramer (1:01)

It's Jim Cramer here. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Don't miss a minute of the action.

Carl Quintanilla (1:09)

Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Mike Santoli, David Faber here at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. NASDAQ futures are red again as we keep our eye on this wobble in tech coming off the worst day for high beta momentum since April. Retail earnings are busy. Target, TJX and Lowe's, Jackson Hole begins. A roadmap though begins with the Trump Administration reportedly eyeing stakes in other chip companies that received funds from the Chips Act. We'll talk about what's at stake for them.

David Faber (1:35)

Plus target shares are tumbling after a sales fall again. The struggling retailer also announces who will be its new CEO. And of course there is that slide in some of the big tech names, chips, momentum in particular. Some of the biggest gainers turning into big losers. Even some of those crypto-backed companies. We're going to talk about all of that and that rotation with who better than Mike Santoli.

Carl Quintanilla (1:59)

Speaking to which, let's begin with the US government reportedly considering taking stakes and other chip makers besides Intel. We talked to the Commerce Secretary about this yesterday. A lot of ongoing turn debate about what it means when the government starts literally picking stocks.

Mike Santoli (2:15)

This looks like it's adding to some pressure on things like Micron before the open. Just this what if question of if you're going to start to claim equity stakes just for funds that were appropriated by Congress in the last presidential administration. It's just hard to know how to draw the lines. It's also hard to know how to separate out what's going on with some of the chip stocks with this broader reset in the market, the rethink of AI momentum and things like that. But it is worth asking the question. First of all, Samsung and Taiwan Semi, they're not US companies. We don't know exactly how this might work. But it's worth keeping in mind. I mean, also, I don't know. I just looked on the Department of Energy website. There's $97 billion allocated as part of the infrastructure and inflation reduction act. It's still out there for companies to build infrastructure projects in energy. Are we taking a piece of those companies? You know, it really does mushroom.

David Faber (3:08)

We're not doing that anymore because it's wind and solar, right?

Mike Santoli (3:11)

You're not doing a lot of it, but it's still the website. That's why I look today. And so, in theory, there are these programs that you can subscribe to. But you can go down to, you know, Medicaid spends a lot of money keeping hospitals afloat. You know, I mean, you get to an absurd point of saying, when Congress commits money for a stated public purpose and companies are the ones executing on that spending, does it give the government a right to own a piece of the equity?

David Faber (3:36)

And the answer would have been no.

Mike Santoli (3:38)

Right. Exactly. And so, but that doesn't seem to be where we're settling.

David Faber (3:42)

The answer still might be no. I mean, in the case of Intel, of course, they need money.

Mike Santoli (3:46)

Yeah.

David Faber (3:46)

I mean, that's what it really comes back to in terms of just specific to Intel and the conversation that we had yesterday.

Carl Quintanilla (3:52)

What they need are customers.

David Faber (3:53)