My Top 10 to Watch Friday, October 24th 1. The long-awaited September Consumer Inflation Report, delayed due to the continuing government shutdown, came in at a slightly lower than expected annual rate of 3%. The stock market liked the numbers, although they were still above the Fed’s 2% target rate. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said he had called off trade talks with Canada. 2. Intel stock is up almost 7% this morning after a quarterly recovery. Five years after the fallout in demand caused by the coronavirus, demand for PCs has remained strong. Now the refresh is off the larger base. Windows 11 is also helping with that. AI infrastructure build-out is also driving demand for server CPUs, with supply constraints limiting revenue upside in the quarter. 3. Good news for Intel is also good news for the data storage industry for Western Digital, Seagate, and Micron. That is already reflected in their estimates to some extent, but there is much more demand than supply. You can also buy Dell from Intel print. AMD’s numbers, which make CPUs for both PCs and servers, are probably too low as well. 4. Procter & Gamble had a much better-than-expected quarter, with earnings of $1.99 per share, compared to expectations of $1.90. Beauty was the strongest performing segment, with organic sales up 6%. A quarter into its fiscal year, P&G stood by its full-year earnings and sales guidance released in July. The company has cut its forecast for tariff headwinds in half to $400 million. 5. Beyond Meat is a failed meme stock, up nearly 600% in three days. Streets don’t play ball. Mizuho Securities lowered its price target from $2 to $1.50 and maintained its sell rating. Beyond and Walmart’s new deal is not expected to significantly increase sales. 6. Quantum stocks, including IonQ, Rigetti, and D-Wave, rose again this morning. However, it wasn’t as strong as yesterday’s strong rally, even as the Trump administration threw cold water on stock buyout talks with a $10 million financing. Almost all companies have analyst buy ratings. Does $10 million even make sense? 7. Ford’s comeback? Bank of America raised its price target on the automaker’s stock from $13.50 to $14.50. Analysts said yesterday’s results showed the underlying business was strong, although the fallout from the aluminum supplier fire has disrupted Ford’s earnings outlook. The stock rose more than 3% this morning. 8. Deckers Outdoors stock fell 12% this morning after the Hoka & Ug shoe company reported lower-than-expected full-year sales. Many analysts have lowered their price targets. UGG Beat. I missed out on selling Hoka. Could this be a sign of a comeback for the club name Nike? 9. Citi raised its price target on Union Pacific by $2 to $265. Analysts added this stock to their watch list to monitor upside factors over the next 90 days. Stock prices too low ahead of shareholder vote on Norfolk Southern merger. 10. Two major companies announced layoffs. Target is cutting 1,800 employees, or about 8%, ahead of hiring a new CEO early next year. Separately, Applied is cutting more than 1,400 jobs, or 4% of its workforce, due to “automation, digitalization and geographic mobility.” 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.
