The market split Friday as investors rotated out of crowded AI chips and into energy, small caps, and policy winners.

Oil’s rise helped energy lead, while softer retail sales and renewed Middle East tension restrained big-cap risk appetite. Washington’s new drone tariffs sent domestic suppliers higher, giving traders a fresh policy basket to chase.

Stocktwits attention clustered around PayPal, Iovance, Broadcom, Gorilla Technology, and Netlist. Iovance drew the loudest stream, while Broadcom’s bearish room debated whether a 5.9% drop was an AI reset or the start of something uglier.

Today's Briefing: Powered by Stocktwits Community API.

Broadcom, the semiconductor and infrastructure-software giant, fell Friday as two company-specific risks landed at once. Attackers were reportedly exploiting a critical VMware vCenter flaw, while Bank of America estimated the debt supporting Broadcom’s AI financing platform could reach $370B by mid-2029.

The RIP: $AVGO dropped 5.9% to $392.99 on 29.3M shares, about 2.1x its recent pace. The $370B would belong to third-party financing vehicles, not Broadcom, but the company disclosed up to $29B of lease backstops on the platform’s initial $35B Anthropic transaction.

Broadcom guided to $16B of quarterly AI semiconductor revenue after producing $10.8B last quarter, so demand is not the immediate problem. Holders now need the Sept. 2 update to show how much additional lease exposure Broadcom will accept as the platform expands, while VMware customers race to patch compromised systems. Retail’s $430 rebound calls suddenly require both an earnings beat and better cybersecurity hygiene.

The Community Read: The $AVGO room is bearish, inspect the financing and VMware fallout ->

Reddit, the discussion platform powered by user-run communities, surged Friday after S&P Dow Jones Indices said it will join the S&P 500 before Tuesday’s open. The company will replace AvalonBay Communities, turning one committee decision into a very large buy order.

The RIP: $RDDT jumped 12.6% to $178.09 on 21.5M shares, about 5.8x its recent pace. J.P. Morgan estimated index funds must buy 16.7M shares, nearly three times Reddit’s 5.98M average daily volume.

Index buyers take over Tuesday, but the business still depends on user growth and advertising. Daily active user growth slowed to 18% from 21%, while Reddit’s reported $60M-a-year Google data deal is up for renewal. New index members have historically surrendered some announcement gains and lagged the benchmark by roughly 2% over the next three months, so a bullish but unusually quiet room may discover that promotion day is also graduation day.

The Community Read: The $RDDT room is bullish but quiet, follow Tuesday’s index handoff ->

AI didn't scale by accident. Every breakthrough, from early models to autonomous agents, depends on one thing working flawlessly behind the scenes: memory and storage. As AI moves from cloud to edge, memory and storage that deliver performance, efficiency, and capacity become the real differentiators. Micron is helping power this next phase with advanced memory and storage built to move data faster, closer, and at massive scale. Because as AI grows more powerful, the infrastructure at its foundation has to be ready. AI's future isn't just about computing. It's about what feeds it.

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

PayPal, the digital-payments platform behind Venmo and Braintree, rose Friday after The Wall Street Journal reported it is negotiating a possible sale to a group including Stripe and Advent International. PayPal rejected a $60.50-a-share July proposal, and talks have continued at a potentially higher price.

The RIP: $PYPL ( ▲ 1.77% ) rose 1.8% to $61.66, trading between $59.34 and $62.31 on 15.5M shares, or 1.9x its recent pace. The July proposal valued PayPal around $53B.

PayPal holders care because the stock closed barely above the rejected offer, leaving Friday’s lift dependent on a richer bid actually arriving. The next step is a higher negotiated price or no deal, and @AllMixedUp’s speculative $65-to-$68 range captures the room’s practical fight better than its $100 demands. Watch Friday’s $62.31 high and $59.34 low as traders handicap the takeover premium against another round of turnaround duty.

The Community Read: The $PYPL room leaned bearish, inspect the takeover premium fight ->

Netlist surged nearly 19% Friday as retail traders piled into a fresh patent fight with Micron. The memory company wants U.S. regulators to block Micron’s allegedly infringing DDR5 server-memory products from entering the country, opening a new front just eight days after Samsung paid to end its own Netlist war. Retail fans see it as the next hit in the Netlist set list.

The RIP: Shares climbed 18.9%. Samsung’s five-year deal pays Netlist $200 million upfront and up to $27.5 million quarterly for 20 quarters. Netlist’s new complaint targets Micron products used by Supermicro, HPE, and Lenovo and asserts four memory patents.

The Samsung settlement on Aug 4 gave Netlist’s legal threats a price tag, so Friday’s rally treated Micron as the possible next domino. The next step is for the International Trade Commission to decide whether to open an investigation, because filing a complaint is not a victory. Watch whether momentum survives without that decision or settlement talks; retail has already written the sequel before Washington greenlit the pilot.

Community Read: $NLST sentiment is Extremely Bullish with Extremely High activity.

President Trump signed a proclamation Thursday imposing 100% tariffs on certain sensitive foreign drones and components, plus 25% duties on smaller systems and broader components. Domestic drone names promptly launched their own air show.

The RIP: Unusual Machines surged 25.0% to $34.06 on 15.8 million shares. Red Cat gained 8.8% to $11.13 on 18.3 million shares, while Ondas rose 3.6% to $9.23 on 96.1 million shares.

Domestic drone and defense investors care because tariffs can reshape customer economics, though imported inputs can still bite the supposed winners. The next event is agency implementation guidance and evidence of procurement orders shifting toward domestic suppliers. Watch Unusual Machines’ $34.93 high versus Red Cat’s $11.76 and Ondas’ $9.64, because this family rally already has a favorite child.

Community Read: $UMAC sentiment ended Extremely Bullish with Extremely High activity.

Where retail traders find their next setup.

Clean setups, key levels, and charts actually worth your screen time, curated from millions of Stocktwits traders. No noise, no guru upsell. In your inbox daily by 8PM ET.

19.6K WATCHERS · BULLISH · HIGH ACTIVITY

Iovance extended its post-earnings run after reporting record Q2 revenue of about $99M, above its prior $86M to $88M outlook, while institutions disclosed larger positions. The room is treating the commercial ramp as proof that Amtagvi has traction, but traders have not settled how much upcoming lung-cancer data belongs in the valuation.

25.2K WATCHERS · BULLISH · NORMAL ACTIVITY

Gorilla Technology climbed as traders revisited its Q2 revenue outlook of at least $44M and the $2.5B GPU-as-a-service contract expected to begin deployment in September. The room is deciding whether contracted demand can outrun execution risk from the $125M convertible-note financing.

23.5K WATCHERS · EXTREMELY BULLISH · EXTREMELY HIGH ACTIVITY

CorMedix extended its slide as investors weighed $300M to $320M of 2026 revenue guidance against a second-half reimbursement step-down for DefenCath, its catheter-infection drug. The bullish room is betting adoption can offset lower net pricing, but product demand and reimbursement math are still pulling in opposite directions.

9.3K WATCHERS · BEARISH · LOW ACTIVITY

Aurora Innovation added to its rebound after launching second-generation driverless trucks built for 1M miles, with hardware costs expected to fall more than 50%. The bearish room remains unconvinced that a fleet targeted to reach 200 trucks by year-end can scale quickly enough to outrun cash burn.

In this free two-hour online workshop, you’ll learn the fundamentals of sound stock market investing directly from IBD®, the trusted leader in investing education for over 40 years. You’ll walk away with time-tested strategies for outperforming the market and a list of actionable stocks that are setting up for big gains. IBD’s Jonathan Howard and Scott St. Clair will cover:

1. Proven strategies for picking winning stocks
2. How to avoid common investing mistakes
3. Recognizing signs of a market correction—and when to take action
4. Managing risk and maximizing profits with IBD’s time-tested investing system

Register today to join us for this live virtual workshop! Please note that this event will not be recorded for later viewing.

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

🧬 Mangione pleads guilty to federal charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting

📰 Group including Jeff Bezos buys minority stake in Liverpool FC, with option to become controlling owner

🪙 Israel’s Largest Bank Will Give Bitcoin Trading Another Try

🧬 Selena Gomez sued for alleged fraud over mental health company

😨 Trump shrugs off concerns about dismal conditions on USS Abraham Lincoln

🏠 Markets bet on a pause for September, but Fed hawks may not be swayed ahead of Jackson Hole

💰 Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital Invests $215 Million in Amazon

Want to see some change? Email me, Kevin Travers with feedback, and follow me on Stocktwits. Refer a friend for this quarter’s edition of The RIP Forecast 😎

_{Securities Disclaimer: STOCKTWITS IS NOT A TAX ADVISOR, BROKER, FINANCIAL ADVISOR OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. THE SERVICE IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE TAX, LEGAL, FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND NOTHING ON THE SERVICE SHOULD BE CONSTRUED AS AN OFFER TO SELL, A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, OR A RECOMMENDATION FOR ANY SECURITY. Trading in such securities can result in immediate and substantial losses of the capital invested. You should only invest risk capital and not capital required for other purposes. You alone are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security or strategy, or any other product or service, is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation. You should also consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation. The content is to be used for informational and entertainment purposes only and the service does not provide investment advice for any individual. Stocktwits, its affiliates and partners specifically disclaim any and all liability or loss arising out of any action taken in reliance on content, including but not limited to market value or other loss on the sale or purchase of any company, property, product, service, security, instrument, or any other matter. You understand that an investment in any security is subject to a number of risks and that discussions of any security published on the Service will not contain a list or description of relevant risk factors. In addition, please note that some of the stocks about which content is published on the service have a low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float. Such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information. Read the full terms & conditions here. 🔍
Author Disclosure: The author of this newsletter does not hold positions in any of the securities or assets mentioned. 📋}