Jim Cramer’s top 10 things to watch in the stock market Friday
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the stage at a Turning Point Action campaign rally at the Gas South Arena on October 23, 2024 in Duluth, Georgia.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
My top 10 things to watch Friday, Nov. 15
1. President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has vast implications for drug companies. That’s why shares of pharma stocks, and vaccine makers in particular, sold off late Thursday when reports of the pick first surfaced. We own Eli Lilly for the Club.
2. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold most of its stake in Ulta Beauty in the third quarter after only building its position in the second quarter, regulatory filings show. Did Buffett ever know about the Ulta stake beyond the cursory? Not clear. He never spoke to management. Worth noting: Buffett has two investing lieutenants, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, who control some money.
3. On the other hand, Berkshire built a stake in Domino’s Pizza in the quarter, sending shares of the chain higher Friday. Should you buy Domino’s off of Berkshire’s move? Maybe buy Domino’s off of CEO Russell Weiner. We don’t know how involved Buffett is anymore. Is he titular on these investments?
4. Multiple price target bumps for Club holding Disney after its good quarter and upbeat multiyear earnings guidance. TD Cowen goes to $123 a share from $108, but kept its hold rating on the stock. Wells Fargo goes to $138 from $116 and kept its buy. Bank of America’s new price target of $140, up from $120, is the highest I’ve seen. BofA reiterated its buy call.
5. Alibaba shares rose after the Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant, not surprisingly, reported better-than-expected profits. Companywide sales were a bit light. However, year-over-year cloud revenue growth slightly accelerated in the quarter, helped by triple-digit-percentage growth in AI-related products.
6. Shares of Applied Materials are getting crushed after the semiconductor equipment company’s sales outlook for the current quarter came up short of expectations. Analysts lowered their price targets in response, but not too badly. Could the stock’s roughly 9% drop be an overreaction?
7. Palantir is transferring its listing to the Nasdaq from the New York Stock Exchange, in a move that would make the data analytics software firm eligible for inclusion in the Nasdaq 100. That index consists of 100 largest nonfinancial companies on the exchange, and it’s tracked by the the popular Invesco QQQ ETF.
8. Kate Spade and Coach owner Tapestry landed a couple price target hikes now that its merger with fellow luxury player Capri has officially been terminated. A federal judge blocked the tie-up last month. Wells Fargo went to $75 a share from $65 and maintained its buy rating on Tapestry stock. Baird went to $64 from $58 and reiterated its buy call.
9. Cowen upped its price target on Mastercard to $587 a share from $533 after the payments network provider’s investor day made clear that its durable growth trajectory is intact. I really liked what Mastercard had to say, too.
10. Morgan Stanley has grown more cautious on the clean technology industry ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, saying there’s uncertainty about changes to the policy environment. Still, analysts lifted their price target on GE Vernova, which makes gas and wind turbines, to $367 a share from $301 and reiterated their buy-equivalent rating.
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