Top 10 Stocks to Watch — Monday, August 24

Monday morning arrives with Friday's momentum still warm. Last week's session on August 21 delivered the kind of sector-wide breakout that resets watchlists: uranium stocks surged across the board, critical minerals names broke out on volume, fintech printed a double-digit day, and AI healthcare crossed the threshold into profitability. Two major Chinese technology companies report second-quarter earnings before the opening bell today, adding event-driven volatility to an already active tape.

The themes are not random. Nuclear power demand from data centers is driving a genuine uranium supply rethink — long-cycle capital decisions that take years to move are now being re-evaluated in weeks. Rare earth supply chain security has graduated from a think-tank talking point to procurement urgency at major defense and automotive OEMs. And the AI infrastructure buildout is creating a new class of picks-and-shovels companies — not the chip designers, but the data infrastructure and clinical intelligence platforms that are quietly turning profitable.

Macro calendar for today: PDD Holdings and XPeng both report Q2 before the open. No major U.S. economic releases are scheduled. Watch pre-market reaction to both Chinese reports as a sentiment read on trade-related risk appetite for the week.

All prices below are prior close (Friday, August 21). Pre-market levels noted where confirmed.

#1 — $PDD | PDD Holdings

Prior close: $88.38 | Pre-market: ~$90.75 (+2.68%)

PDD Holdings — the parent of Temu and Pinduoduo — reports Q2 2026 earnings before the open this morning. The consensus estimate is $18.35 EPS, against a trailing EPS of $9.59. At a P/E of 9.22 and a forward P/E of 8.5, PDD trades at a valuation that would be unremarkable for a regional bank, let alone a $125 billion e-commerce conglomerate generating over $106 billion in quarterly revenue.

The pre-market bid of $90.75 — up nearly 3% from Friday's close of $88.38 — suggests traders are leaning positive heading into the report. The average analyst price target of $116.94 implies 32% upside from current levels, with the high target at $171.73. Barclays' latest rating is Equal-Weight with a view toward the Q2 print as the decisive data point.

Watch for: a clean beat on EPS combined with management commentary on Temu's trajectory in Western markets. A miss or guidance cut on international expansion could pressure the pre-market bid. The Q1 FY26 revenue print of $106.23 billion sets a very high comparable.

#2 — $MRNA | Moderna

Prior close: $145.13 | Pre-market: ~$143.16 (-1.36%)

Moderna surged 8.86% on Friday on volume of 87.3 million shares — nearly seven times its 90-day average. The stock is up 392% year-to-date from lows near $30 in January, a turnaround that has left most analyst price targets in the dust: the average target is $91.39, and even the most recent raise — JP Morgan to $77, while maintaining Underweight — sits nearly 50% below where the stock is trading.

When a stock trades 60% above the highest non-bull price target and volume runs at 7x average on an up day, the signal is momentum-driven, not analyst-driven. The 52-week range of $22.28–$176.66 captures both the collapse and the recovery. The prior close of $133.32 into Friday's open, closing at $145.13, means the move came from a genuine intraday catalyst — Q2 revenue of $143 million remains thin (the company is still losing money), so the catalyst is pipeline-driven.

Watch for: any pre-market news on mRNA platform approvals or partnership announcements. A move back through $148 would confirm the breakout is holding. A fade to $138 in the open would signal the move is being distributed.

#3 — $HOOD | Robinhood Markets

Prior close: $108.13 (+13.70% Friday) | Pre-market: ~$106.56

Robinhood put up a 13.70% session on Friday — the biggest single-day gain in the stock's recent history — on volume of 50.5 million shares versus a 26.5 million average. The catalyst is Q2 2026 fundamentals: $1.31 billion in revenue, $561 million in earnings, and a 42.89% profit margin. For a retail brokerage that was written off two years ago as a meme-era relic, that margin profile is exceptional.

The pre-market at $106.56 — slightly below Friday's $108.13 close — is a healthy sign. Big single-day gap-ups that immediately give back all the move on the open are a problem; a slight pre-market cooling with volume compression is not. Bernstein rates HOOD Outperform. Cantor Fitzgerald maintained Overweight on August 3, lowering the price target from $130 to $115 — the stock is now trading back above the new target.

Watch for: whether HOOD opens above $107 and holds. A clean retest of the prior day's close with buyers stepping in is the setup. A gap down through $105 on volume would suggest Friday's move was an overreaction to earnings.

The rest of this briefing is for paid members: the full setups on the uranium trade (two tickers, two entry scenarios), the rare earth opportunity that trades at a 94% discount to its analyst consensus target, the AI healthcare play that just turned profitable, and XPeng's robotics catalyst that could dominate the earnings narrative today.

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