The top 10 things to watch in the stock market Monday

The top 10 things to watch Monday, Dec. 11

1. U.S. stocks are muted Monday following last week’s push to a new 52-week high in the S&P 500, helped by a stronger-than-expected jobs report Friday. Good economic news is good news for the stock market, for now, with investors looking ahead to Tuesday’s consumer price index report. But we’ll learn what the Federal Reserve makes of the state of the labor market and inflation when the central bank convenes this week for its final meeting of the year.

2. Bank stocks like Club name Wells Fargo became “extraordinary performers” last week, according to Jim Cramer’s Sunday column. “The percentage gains for bank shares and the pretty stock charts, all wondrous, look like they are in their infancy,” he writes.

3. Health insurer Cigna abandons its pursuit to acquire Club holding Humana — a deal that was misguided from the start because it never would have received regulatory approval. Cigna announces a new $10 billion stock buyback. And shares of Humana rally roughly 2% in premarket trading.

4. Occidental Petroleum announces plans to buy privately held CrownRock for $12 billion in cash and stock, while raising its quarterly dividend by 4 cents, to 22 cents per share. Before the deal announcement, Morgan Stanley had upgraded Occidental to overweight from equal weight, with an unchanged price target of $68 a share.

5. More analysts are warming up to energy stocks after last week’s carnage. Citi upgrades Club holding Coterra Energy, along with EQT and Southwestern Energy, to a buy. Coterra is the firm’s top large cap pick, with a $30-per-share price target based on capital-efficiency improvements.

6. Goldman Sachs upgrades Abbvie to buy from neutral, with a $173-per-share price target. The firm cites revenue that has proved more resilient than expected, along with the drug maker’s recent deployment of capital to build out its pipeline. Over the past two weeks, Abbvie has shelled out nearly $20 billion in cash to acquire ImmunoGen and Cerevel Therapeutics.

7. JPMorgan raises its price targets on a handful of cybersecurity stocks, including CrowdStrike (to $269 a share from $230), Club name Palo Alto Networks ($326 from $272) and Zscaler ($212 from $200).

8. Citi upgrades Nike to buy from neutral, while raising its price target on the stock to $135 a share, up from $100. The firm sees margin recovery beginning in the second quarter of next year through 2025, helped by easing freight costs, leaner inventories and a shift to direct-to-consumer.

9. Jefferies upgrades Best Buy to buy from hold, while raising its price target to $89 a share, up from $69. Analysts at the bank think this call won’t take much to work, with expectations low and the stock cheap and yielding a 5% dividend.

10. Citi resumes coverage of Club holding Broadcom with a buy rating and $1,100-a-share price target. The firm sees the chipmaker’s artificial-intelligence business offsetting the cyclical downturn in the semiconductor business, along with strong accretion from its recent acquisition of VMware. We thought the company reported a better quarter last Thursday than what the market gave it credit for. 

(See here for a full list of the stocks at Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.)

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Jim Cramer’s top 10 things to watch in the stock market Tuesday

My top 10 things to watch Tuesday, April 11

1. Truist Bank downgraded natural gas producer EQT Corporation (EQT) to hold from buy, while lowering its price target to $28 per share, from $41, on “potentially lower volumes.” Meanwhile, the bank raised its price target on Club holding Coterra Energy (CTRA) to $29 per share, from $26, on the expectation the oil-and-gas producer will “significantly outperform” the broader market in the second half of the year and in 2024. Truist maintained a hold rating on Coterra.

2. Barclays cut its price target on Club holding Constellation Brands (STZ) to $277 per share, from $279, while maintaining an overweight rating. The move is somewhat meaningless given how far the target is from where the stock is, with shares of STZ closing at $224.60 apiece on Monday. The bank also lowered its price target on Lincoln National (LNC) to $20 per-share, from $29, while maintaining an equal weight rating.

3. JPMorgan is positive on Netflix (NFLX) going into its first-quarter earnings, but sees a risk to the second quarter due to its new paid-sharing policy. The bank maintained a price target of $390 per share, along with an overweight rating.

4. Wells Fargo upgraded natural gas exploration-and-production group Range Resources (RRC) to overweight from equal weight, while raising its price target to $31 per share, from $30. The bank expects RRC to “relatively outperform” other gas players in a weak gas price environment. Meanwhile, the bank downgraded Southwestern Energy (SWN) to underweight, or sell, from equal weight, while lowering its price target to $5 per share, from $6 — largely a result of limited capital returns and weak cash flow generation.

5. Guggenheim lowered its price target on Club holding Walt Disney (DIS) to $130 a share, from $140, on the back of moderating growth at its parks and resorts — a target that is very far off. Shares of Disney closed at $100.81 apiece on Monday.

6. Citi reiterated neutral ratings on chipmakers Intel (INTC) and Club holding Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a result of ongoing weak cloud demand. Still, computer notebook shipments were up 41% in March, month-over-month, 18% above Citi’s estimate.

7. KeyBanc raised its price target on Club holding Nvidia (NVDA) to $320 per share, from $280, citing strengthening demand for artificial intelligence (AI).The semiconductor firm’s graphics processing units (GPUs) have proven central to the proliferation of AI, which reached a tipping point late last year with the launch of OpenAI’s viral chatbot, ChatGPT.

8. Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Club holding Humana (HUM) to $637 per share, from $620, saying the health insurer has “the strongest earnings growth story in managed care through 2025.” The bank maintained an overweight, or buy, rating on the stock. But Morgan Stanley chose UnitedHealth (UNH) as its top pick in the sector, replacing Cigna (CI).

9. UBS lowered its growth estimates on Club holding Microsoft‘s (MSFT) Azure cloud business, suggesting customers will continue to cut back on cloud spending amid slower economic growth. The bank maintained a neutral rating and price target of $275 per share.

10. Despite recent price cuts, electric vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA) should be able to maintain “industry leading” operating margins and is better positioned than competitors to navigate economic headwinds, Baird argued. The firm maintained an outperform, or buy, rating and price target of $252 per share.

(See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.)

As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade.

THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY, TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER.  NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB.  NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

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