Jim Cramer’s top 10 things to watch in the stock market Thursday
My top 10 things to watch Thursday, July 16 1. TSMC had another hit-and-raise quarter. The world’s largest contract chip maker reported a 77% increase in second-quarter operating profit. It also plans to invest another $100 billion in a foundry complex in Arizona to help meet growing demand for artificial intelligence. But still, TSMC’s New York-listed shares are down more than 4% premarket. 2. TSMC’s incredibly good numbers mean nothing for today’s broad semiconductor group. We are seeing premarket weakness in the chip complex, which is weighing on Nasdaq futures. Club name Intel, AMD, Micron and Sandisk fell based on yesterday’s losses. Since SK Hynix’s blockbuster US listing last week, the semiconductor market has become a casino of emotions. We are holding our July monthly meeting for the 3rd Investment Club members today. Starts at noon ET. I’ll be reviewing our stock portfolio with my partner, Jeff Marks. Which stocks are worth buying here? Where should we lighten up? What’s the outlook for Nvidia and other trillion-dollar tech giants? It’s not too late to register and participate. 4. UnitedHealth is on the rise after the insurance giant had a stellar quarter. The huge quarterly success is coupled with much stronger full-year profit expectations. As I said, this company has truly come back thanks to Stephen Hemsley returning as CEO in May of last year. Complete reset. Better plans and pricing. 5. GE Aerospace had a real boom. Sales, profits and free cash flow beat the Street’s expectations. Full-year guidance for revenue growth, operating income and cash flow moves higher. Still, analysts at UBS argued that the outlook appeared conservative. This quarter is further evidence that aviation demand remains incredibly strong despite the challenges posed by the war in Iran. That’s why we have both Boeing and Honeywell Aerospace for the Club. 6. Strong second quarter from JB Hunt, shares are up over 7% this morning. Is this the official end of the multi-year bear market in the freight industry? Transportation stocks are rallying amid early signs of a turnaround. Maybe it’s here now, which could be good news for the FedEx Freight Club. There have been a number of price target increases for JB Hunt, including Baird ($320, from $290) and Citi ($309, from $278). 7. Uber is acquiring German peer Delivery Hero in a deal valued at $14.8 billion. Big bonus. Uber increased its purchase price after rejecting Delivery Hero’s offer in late May as too low. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told CNBC this morning that the deal offers “compelling value” and increases the number of markets where Uber offers rides and delivery services by nearly 50%. Uber shares rose slightly on the news. 8. The name of the club is Eli Lilly, which continues to engage in mergers and acquisitions, diversifying companies that study a variety of conditions and diseases away from its current source of cash: obesity. The final target: psychedelic drug maker AtaiBeckley. Lilly is making an upfront payment of $2.8 billion to the company, which has started late-stage trial activities for the treatment of depression. 9. Lilly’s exclusive financial advisor on this deal is none other than Goldman Sachs, whose Club name rose 1% yesterday, continuing its 9% post-earnings gain on Tuesday. I think this number could rise even higher as AI fuels the financing boom and mergers and acquisitions continue. Bank of America raised Goldman’s price target to $1,300 from $1,150 and maintained a buy rating. 10. Amazon’s PT increased by five dollars to $330 on KeyBanc. Analysts have called this their favorite e-commerce stock for two key reasons: Retail is strong and AWS is impressed. They added that spending on the Leo satellite network and data centers may limit margin expansion, but revenue and EPS consensus estimates are still too low. We will discuss what to do with this share at our club meeting. 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.
