My Top 10 Things to Watch Monday, April 27th 1. Stock futures were flat this morning. That’s surprising given that oil is rising after Iran peace talks stalled again over the weekend. President Donald Trump on Saturday scrapped plans to send U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for war negotiations. Markets are coming off a volatile but historic week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit several all-time highs. 2. Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman. A years-long legal battle between two of OpenAI’s founders goes to trial today. Musk’s $134 billion lawsuit alleges that Altman reneged on his promise to keep the ChatGPT startup non-profit at all times. The lawsuit comes as Altman’s OpenAI and Musk’s SpaceX are both reportedly preparing to go public. I mentioned these potential IPOs in my Sunday column for club members. 3. Qualcomm stock soars 8% this morning on reports of a partnership with OpenAI to develop smartphone processing chips. OpenAI plans to develop a smartphone. Last year, the company acquired former Apple design chief Jony Ive’s startup for $6.4 billion. Ive has been the creative force behind iPhone for many years. On Friday, Qualcomm soared 11% as chip names surged. 4. Organon shares rose 17% this morning following a premium all-cash acquisition offer of $11.75 billion from Sun Pharmaceuticals, India’s largest drug company. Shares of New Jersey-based Organon, which was spun off from Merck in 2021, soared 30% on Friday following news of the deal. Organon specializes in women’s health, including Nexplanon and NuvaRing contraceptive implants. 5. Adobe. Where do we go from here? Mizuho said it downgraded the stock from buy to hold. Analysts said concerns about AI disruption and increased competition could hurt Adobe’s profits in the future. We have similar concerns about AI, whose club name is Salesforce, but we generally think the business should be more segregated. 6. Verizon reported higher earnings per share each quarter, but missed sales. Regardless, the stock rose 2% due to a net increase in the number of monthly plans and superior prepaid plans. Monthly plans, or deferred payments in industry parlance, were positive in the first quarter for the first time since 2013, and the outlook for full-year deferred payments was raised. 7. Bernstein downgrades soup and snack maker Campbell’s to pending acquisition. Analysts criticized Campbell’s growing share in a shrinking subcategory. Cape Cod and Kettle Chips is a show-me story. Snyder’s pretzels are on the decline. Pepperidge Farm is good, but not enough to offset the lack of performance. Rao’s sauces are showing low double-digit growth. 8. China blocked Meta’s acquisition of AI startup Manas. Early this morning, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, which formulates national plans, called for the deal to be scrapped. Meta’s bid for Manus was announced in December last year in a deal worth about $2 billion. A Meta spokesperson previously told CNBC that the acquisition was “in full compliance with applicable law.” Facebook’s parent company is scheduled to report earnings on Wednesday. 9. Crowdstrike has been upgraded to be available for purchase from Holdover at Mizuho. Analysts raised their price target to $520 from $490, citing “very healthy” demand across the company’s platforms. The club stock experienced significant fluctuations in 2026. Wall Street has unfairly categorized cyber stocks as a “buy hardware, sell software” trade. The company also owns peer Palo Alto Networks. 10. Piper Sandler raised its price target on Blackstone from $122 to $130. Analysts pointed to the gains last week when Blackstone reported its second-best quarterly results since 2022. Fundraising was strong, as were management comments on the IPO activity. Remember, increased trading on Wall Street is good news for Goldman Sachs stock. Sign up for free for my Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Markets email newsletter (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer Charitable Trust stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club, you’ll receive trade alerts before Jim makes a trade. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he will issue a trade alert and then wait 72 hours before executing the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with our disclaimer. No fiduciary duties or obligations exist or arise from your receipt of information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
