Jim Cramer's top 10 things to watch in the stock market Thursday

My top 10 things to watch on Thursday, January 8 1. The S&P 500 headed for a lower open this morning, pulling back from all-time intraday highs seen in the previous session. Fresh economic data this morning was largely positive. However, the index closed with a decline yesterday after President Donald Trump said that Venezuela would release up to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. 2. Venezuela is a country without guarantees, and since there is no rule of law, it may be a fool's errand for some oil companies to invest capital in the unstable South American country. According to media reports, Trump is preparing to meet with executives from Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Exxon at the White House tomorrow. 3. Bloomberg reported this morning that China plans to let Nvidia owner Club sell some of its H200 chips this quarter. I don't think tech stocks can rise because there are more skeptics than ever. People still think Nvidia is about hardware, not software. 4. There's a lot going on in defensive stocks, too. Trump ordered U.S. defense companies to halt dividends and share buybacks until they resolve their grievances with the industry. In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump criticized these companies for taking too long to produce military equipment. He also called for an increase in the country's defense budget late Wednesday. If you cut dividends and buybacks from them but increase the budget, do you want to own defensive names or short them? This depends on stocks. Club holding Boeing has no dividends or buybacks. 5. Is the White House's plan to ban institutional investors from buying homes just a trickle? No. If you force these corporate home depots to vacate their properties, this could start a cycle of liquidations that would drive prices down. In this tight residential real estate market, such an effort cannot easily be dismissed as fallacious. 6. Citi lowered its price target on DR Horton to $154 from $163. Analysts who maintain their ratings favor heavy construction materials with exposure to infrastructure over stocks with exposure to housing. Other homebuilders Lennar and Pulte also saw major PT cuts. This group, including the Home Depot that the club is affiliated with, is being killed. 7. Needham downgraded Nike from buy to hold, with no price target. Analysts say the athletic retailer's turnaround story is taking longer than expected. China also “seems quite problematic,” according to Needham. Club shares were down more than 1% premarket. 8. Truist made a macro call for club Texas Roadhouse after a tough year. Analysts, who raised their price target to $206 from $195 and maintained their buy rating, said consumers getting tax breaks and lower inflation could help. But cattle prices refuse to comply, already rising more than 1% in 2026 after rising more than 20% last year. 9. Constellation Brands reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue per share, but both were below last year's levels. We need to hear from the Modelo and Corona brewer on the post-earnings conference call starting at 10:30 a.m. ET. Beer consumption decreased by 3%. Wine and spirits were flat. Run-outs, a key industry metric, are sales from distributors to retailers. 10. Walmart saw price target increases on Barclays ($125, from $108) and Oppenheimer ($125, from $115). Both companies maintained their buy ratings. As a club, we prefer and own Costco, which reported its December sales last night. Costco provided 7% comp; It increased by 6.3% excluding gas. Big hits. The numbers will break the lethargy in the stock. Sign up for free for my Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter (See here for a complete list of stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) When you subscribe 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 trading alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable foundation's portfolio. If Jim talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trading alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTMENT CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY, TOGETHER WITH THE DISCLAIMERS. NO CIVIL OBLIGATIONS OR DUTIES EXIST OR SHALL BE RESULTING FROM YOUR RECEIVING ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTMENT CLUB. NO SPECIFIC RESULT OR PROFIT CAN BE GUARANTEED.