1. Must we accept that there’s a bubble in AMD, NVDA, META, MSFT, AMZN and GOOGL. All core tech holdings? Are we being too greedy? Year to date: Nvidia and Meta Platforms more than doubled; Advanced Micro Devices up over 65%; Google parent Alphabet and Amazon up about 40% each; and Microsoft up more than 30%. Wall Street to open higher. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks Friday.
2. Foot Locker (FL) quarter bad, as predicted. Shares down rough 25%. We said wait for the release and here it is. We are now hoping it can get to be de-risked by the call. We’re waiting for CEO Mary Dillon to bring things down as she did when she was CEO of Ulta Beauty (ULTA). Business had turned weak BUT she has to get rid of that inventory. Watch, wait. Buy when right?
3. Speaking of ULTA, Oppenheimer cuts price target on the stock to $575 per share from $600. Limited upside worries about promotion. In beauty, the Club owns and still has faith in Estee Lauder (EL). Bought more shares Wednesday. The sell-off in EL is overdone. China recovery post-Covid slower than expected. But Estee Lauder trading back to fall of 2022 when lockdowns there were in full effect.
4. Morgan Stanley (MS) CEO James Gorman said at Friday’s shareholders meeting that he plans to step down after a new CEO is chosen within the next 12 months. He said the board has three strong candidates. After he hands over the reins, Gorman said he will be executive chairman for a while.
5. Disney (DIS) CEO Bob Iger, in the midst of cutting lots of expenses, scraps plans for a nearly $1 billion office complex in Orlando. Latest salvo, too, in Iger’s war with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the likely 2024 Republican presidential candidate’s stance on LGBTQ issues and Disney World area special status. The Orlando office was the idea of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek.
6. TD Cowen analysts raise Salesforce (CRM) price target to $200 per share from $190. Keep market perform (hold) rating. Seasonably weak but stable. Still has challenges but Cowen likes CRM and so does the Club. In quarterly filings from Wall Street’s biggest investors and money managers, we got an update on the activists in the stock. Salesforce reports quarter end of the month.
7. Club name Bausch Health (BHC), which has been a severe disappointment, is moving now because of a favorable Xifaxan ruling in patent litigation. But BHC’s majority-owned spinoff Bausch + Lomb (BLCO) got approval for an important drug, Miebo, for dry eye. This will bring out value at BHC. But you must watch the bonds.
8. Disney (DIS) CEO Bob Iger, in the midst of cutting lots of expenses, scraps plans for a nearly $1 billion office complex in Orlando. Latest salvo, too, in Iger’s war with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the likely 2024 Republican presidential candidate’s stance on LGBTQ issues and Disney World area special status. The Orlando office was the idea of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek.
9. Oppenheimer says recent earnings-driven sell-off in Home Depot (HD) is a buying opportunity. The analysts cuts price target to $360 per share from $400. But keep outperform (buy) rating. Fundamental weakness will be shortlived, says Oppenheimer.
10. Citi cuts Alibaba (BABA) price target to $144 per share from $154. The analysts say BABA bringing out value through repurchases and cloud spin-off. But the China rally is still elusive.
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