When it comes to meme stocks there is something for everyone. Fancy yourself a cinephile? Head on over to AMC. Enjoy gaming? Pick up Gamestop on your way home. Do you have 15 orange-stained Tupperware containers and only three lids? Shares of Tupperware are up more than 500 per cent in the last month waiting for you. My favourite one right now is superconductors. Mainly because it allows me to feel smarter than I am. Haven’t you heard? Superconductors are the hot new thing. They make AI seem as hip as the fax machine. Superconductors conduct electricity without losing power in the process. This makes them one of the most efficient ways to transmit electricity. The problem is that to work it needs to be cooled to below -100 C. So it is basically useless for anything but specialized and expensive things. Except recently, papers have come out in South Korea and the U.S. claiming to have accomplished superconductivity at room temperature. Now this hasn’t been replicated and has been greeted with a healthy dose of skepticism in the scientific community. But enter the geniuses in the financial community. Shares of a company called American Superconductor were up 60 per cent yesterday. I don’t know why, but I am guessing the name has something to do with it.  It is up 350 per cent so far this year. Not bad for a company that has lost money every year since going public and is expected to see its top line fall two per cent this year.
 
Here are five things you need to know:
 
And then there were 10: Fitch joined S&P 12 years later downgrading the debt rating of the U.S. This leaves just 10 countries who have two of three of their government ratings at AAA standing (Canada is among that group). There are two immediate questions: why and so what? The “why” is easier to answer: the U.S. is on a spending spree at the same time it starts to play chicken with its debt payment obligations. The “so what” is a bit tougher. Markets right now are under a bit of pressure. Recall when S&P downgraded the U.S. in 2011. The S&P 500 fell an ominous 6.66 per cent that day; gold rallied almost 4 per cent. Right now gold is only up modestly and the U.S. dollar is flat. So as markets shrug this off, Rabobank suggests the U.S. dollar might be more affected by the political reaction from this announcement rather than the announcement itself. Indeed Biden officials are already out calling the decision “bizarre."
 
AMD has AI potential too: I’ll be interested to see if AMD holds onto its pre-market rally after its latest results. On one hand it talked up its AI possibilities. It is going to have a chip to rival Nvidia’s by the end of the year. They also talked up a recovery in PCs. On the other hand, sales fell 18 per cent in the quarter (but not as much as feared) as sales of chips tied to PCs fell 54 per cent and data centre revenue fell 11 per cent. Citi is upgrading AMD this morning in a mea culpa admitting they missed the 84 per cent rally this year. Part of the upgrade is the fact the AI chips AMD will make will add to margins, not weigh them down. They also thought investors would hold their nose about AMD valuation and “we were wrong on that count as well.”
 
Cameco sees glowing future: Shares of the uranium company are a bit weaker after reporting a surprise loss in the quarter. But this was mainly due to accounting for unrealized currency losses, so we will see if the markets get more forgiving throughout the day. Especially considering the company is boosting its full year sales outlook on the back of higher uranium prices and expected deliveries. Tim Gitzel, CEO of Cameco struck an optimistic tone saying, “We are seeing improving market fundamentals.” We will get perspective at 11:15 a.m. EDT when he joins me on Morning Markets.
 
The AI of housing: It is not an AI stock, but Equitable Group may add to it’s nearly 37 per cent rally this morning. Earnings for the alternative mortgage lender came in 16 per cent above expectations all on the back of margin expansion. The Big Six banks must be green with envy. At a time when loan growth is slowing at the big banks, alternative lenders have been picking up the slack. A small dent in the quarter could be rising provisions for credit losses that were higher than expected. At a time when banks are struggling to attract depositors, Equitable’s customer base is up a whopping 31 per cent as it offers zero-fee retail banking. Oh and they increased their profit forecast for the year.  The CEO will be on The Close at 3:20 p.m. EDT.
 
Starbucks double-shot: Shares of Starbucks are weaker as sales missed expectations and its forecast for Chinese sales was weaker than expected. The company says it sees growth in China in the low to mid single digits, which would be a stark drop from the 46 per cent jump it saw in sales this quarter (benefitting from easy comparisons).