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The AI trade is back on the defensive this morning. A cloud infrastructure name and a Korean memory giant are both sliding on fresh worries about how the build-out gets funded, and a space company is leading the losers after pushing a key rocket launch into 2027.

The gainers are a steadier crowd. A transportation company is jumping on a deal to go private, while a retail giant and a footwear brand are picking up upgrades from Wall Street banks.

You don’t need to buy hundreds of shares – costing thousands of dollars - to get exposure to a company’s potential upside. Warrants often cost a fraction of the underlying stock. But gives you leverage to the upside.

Strategic Trader’s free guide explains the mechanics so you can decide whether this speculative corner of the market fits your strategy.

Penske Automotive Group (PAG): +8%

The transportation company agreed to be taken private by Motown Acquisition Corp, an entity owned by Penske Corp and Mitsui, for $212 per share in cash, a nearly 9% premium to Wednesday’s close. With the deal expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, the stock now trades less on the business and more on the market’s confidence that the buyout gets done.

Walmart (WMT): +3%

Deutsche Bank (DB) upgraded the retailer to Buy from Hold, citing a positive outlook for 2027 and improving incremental margins. The bank also argued that current inflation levels could help Walmart attract more shoppers, a reminder that the biggest discounter can turn a tough consumer backdrop into a tailwind.

Crocs (CROX): +2%

Barclays (BCS) upgraded the footwear company to Overweight from Equal Weight. Analyst Adrienne Yih pointed to progress on product innovation, category expansion, and international growth, a sign the bank sees growth levers well beyond the core clog.

Rocket Lab (RKLB): -10%

The space company is sliding after delaying the launch of its Neutron rocket to 2027. For a stock priced on what comes next, a launch that slips by a year means investors have to wait longer for the payoff they’ve been underwriting.

SK hynix (SKHY): -7%

Shares of the Korea-based memory maker are falling as investors grow concerned about how the AI build-out gets funded. The drop also follows a ~7% slide in South Korea’s Kospi overnight, so SK hynix is absorbing both the AI funding debate and a broad selloff at home.

CoreWeave (CRWV): -4%

The cloud infrastructure company is falling for a second straight day on worries that CoreWeave and other tech companies are borrowing too much to fund the AI build-out. When the AI debate shifts from demand to how the build-out gets paid for, the companies doing the borrowing are the first to feel it.

A cheap warrant isn’t automatically a bargain. Strategic Trader editor John Pangere asks three questions: how much time is left, how good are the stock’s prospects, and whether the warrant trades actively enough.

Learn more in his free guide to warrants.

ImmunityBio (IBRX)

ImmunityBio climbed to the top of StockTwits’ trending list after the FDA expanded approval for its bladder cancer drug Anktiva on Wednesday, and message volume has surged alongside it. The board is split: some users are calling the approval mostly a formality, while bulls are already looking ahead to founder Patrick Soon-Shiong’s fireside chat at a Piper Sandler oncology event on Friday, hoping for news on moving Anktiva into earlier-stage patients.

The new label covers papillary-only tumors, which account for roughly 85% of patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, and the stock is up about 400% this year even as it heads for a losing week. Whether Friday brings the bulls a fresh catalyst or the approval turns out to be already priced in is what this crowd seems to be waiting to find out.

✌️That’s it for today.