My Top 10 Things to Watch Monday, December 1st 1. Tech stocks and Bitcoin fell on the first day of the new month after a rough November. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were expected to open lower. Corporate earnings continued to be modest this week, with club names appearing on CrowdStrike and Salesforce on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, respectively. 2. Bitcoin fell below $86,000. In my Sunday column, I discussed how this one piece of cyberpaper intersects/controls dozens of financial products. And if one company, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), cannot withstand the pressure or continue borrowing, perhaps the entire speculative organization may collapse. 3. Will Japan raise interest rates? Japan’s 10-year bond yield is 1.84%, the highest since 2008, perhaps marking the end of the borrow-there-buy-here fintech monster (yen carry trade). Yes, they never took money from geniuses who spent long enough to become heroes no matter what. 4. Guggenheim is the latest company to raise its price target on Alphabet from $330 to $375. This is an example of the market’s questionable concept of failed capital investment. Alphabet, including its club name Nvidia, spends huge sums on capital investments, and its market capitalization increased by 15.5 trillion yen last year. Is it that stupid? reckless? 5. Nvidia acquired a $2 billion stake in chip design software provider Synopsys as part of a partnership to expand its computing power. Synopsys stock rose nearly 8% this morning, while Nvidia stock fell more than 1%. 6. Barclays downgraded American Tower’s rating from “buy” to “hold” and lowered its price target from $203 to $200. Analysts say it could be difficult for tower companies to collect royalties from Echo Star after Dish Wireless’ parent company plans to sell its radio frequency licenses to SpaceX and AT&T. 7. Goldman Sachs initiated shares of Joby Aviation with a Sell rating and a $10 price target. Analysts are questioning the airline’s leadership in the industry given the FAA’s concerns. Hey, may I agree with this? Despite the club’s name, and much maligned one, Boeing is the real leader here. 8. Eli Lilly is lowering the cash price for single-dose vials of its weight loss drug Zepbound on its direct-to-consumer platform. Pia Novo Nordisk recently announced additional discounts on Wegovy. The move builds on efforts to make these drugs more available in collaboration with the Trump administration. Club Holding Lilly became the first pharmaceutical stock to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion. 9. Stifel raised his price target for Home Depot, the club’s name, from $370 to $350, while Lowe’s price target increased from $230 to $250. Analysts said Home Depot’s results highlighted underlying weaknesses, while Lowe’s showed resilience. Are you riding the wrong horse at the club? Regardless of what current central bank governor Jerome Powell does, I think the two home improvement retailers will settle for multiple rate cuts from the new Fed chief. I mentioned this horse race on Friday. 10. Bernstein lowered Zscaler’s rating from “buy” to “hold” and maintained its price target of $264. Citi lowered the stock’s PT to $350 from $365 and maintained it at Buy. Both notes reflect the view that cloud cybersecurity provider Zscaler’s business is strong but not accelerating. 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.
