Stocks @ Night is a daily newsletter delivered after hours, giving you the first information about tomorrow and the last information about today. Sign up for free to receive it straight to your inbox. As stocks ended the first half on a strong note, here’s what CNBC TV producers were paying attention to and what they’re eyeing for next deals. As our British football friends say: ‘On half-time’ As the first six months of 2026 come to an end, the small-cap Russell 2000 is the top performer among the major indexes, up nearly 22%. The Nasdaq 100 rose about 20%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose about 13%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 8.9% in the first half. The NYSE Composite Index is up about 8% so far in 2026. The top S&P sectors are industrials and high tech, which have risen about 19% annually so far. Energy increased by about 18% over the same period. .RUT YTD Mountain Russell Year 2000 to Present Some Big Calls After the First Half At the beginning of the year, Morgan Stanley made a call to acquire Applied Materials. The stock price will rise 180% in 2026. Bank of America announced that it will acquire Lam Research. In 2026, the stock price will rise 153%. Hut8 was a call from Needham. The stock price will rise 151% in 2026. The company designs and leases large data centers. Palo Alto Networks is up 85% since the beginning of the year. That’s Jeffries’ nomination. It’s also a Jim Cramer pick, and the stock is up 86% since he called for a buy in November 2025. Jeffries also chose CrowdStrike at the right time. Year-to-date, it’s up about 63%. This is another great call from Cramer, who encouraged investors to buy when the stock price started to rise. Alex Karp Live on Squawk Box Co-founder and CEO of Palantir Technologies joins the team live at 8:30 a.m. ET. The stock is down 43% from its November high. The stock’s closing price on Tuesday was $116.67. In June, the stock price fell 25%. According to FactSet, 21 analysts overall rate the stock as a “buy” or “overweight.” 11 people rated it as a maintain and 2 people rated it as a sell. The average price target is $189.87 per share, more than 60% above Tuesday’s closing price. Palantir on Monday announced a partnership with NVIDIA to “provide an intelligent engine to run NVIDIA AI and Nemotron open models in sovereign environments focused on U.S. government agencies and U.S. critical infrastructure.” PLTR YTD Mountain Palantir in 2026 Big Data on “Squawk Box” ADP jobs report released at 8:15 a.m. Dow Jones Consensus calls for 110,000 new jobs. Last month there were 122,000. General Mills, the maker of Golden Grahams, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Bisquick and Cheerios, reported Wednesday morning. The stock is down 6% in three months and about 33% in a year. General Mills pays a dividend of 61 cents per share and currently has a dividend yield of 7%. Mad Money’s Jim Cramer sometimes refers to the company as “Generous Mills” based on its dividends. According to FactSet, 13 analysts have rated the stock a hold. 5 people said it was a buy and 4 people said it was a sell or underweight. The stock closed at $34.80, with an average price target of $35.53 per share. GIS 1Y Mountain Over the Past Year General Mills U.S. Gasoline CNBC TV’s Pippa Stephens looks at the numbers and reports on President Donald Trump’s desire to get gasoline down to $2.50 a gallon. According to AAA, the national average is currently $3.8470 per gallon. She explains the challenges and how long it would realistically take to bring prices down, conditions permitting. Chevron stock is down 23% from its May high. ExxonMobil stock is also down 23% from its March high. Gasoline futures have fallen nearly 20% in two months. Both Brent crude and crude oil have fallen more than 30% in the past two months. The S&P Energy sector is down 16% from its March high. CNBC TV’s Phil LeBeau breaks down second-quarter auto sales as the numbers are released General Motors stock has risen about 6% over the past three months. The stock is down 12% from its February high. Stellantis stock has fallen 15% in three months. The stock is down 52% from its December high. Toyota’s stock price has fallen 17% in the past three months. The stock is down 32% from its February high. Ford is up 24% in three months. The stock is down 22% from its May high. Tesla is up 18% in three months. The stock is down 16% from its December high.
