My top 10 things to watch Thursday, Aug. 20 1. We’re heading for a lower open, with the decline in futures picking up steam this morning. The S & P 500 yesterday snapped its three-day losing streak, though the index closed well off its highs of the day. The rally fueled by the Treasury Department’s bond-buying announcement lost momentum as the day went along. 2. Is the Treasury now bigger than the bond market? Or did they just not know how and when to issue more 30-year paper? Perhaps the $40 trillion national deficit is starting to register. No matter, yesterday’s relief was short-lived. The yield on the 30-year Treasury is creeping higher this morning. Same with the 20-year and 10-year. 3. Big show tonight for “Mad Money.” I’m in Boise, Idaho, otherwise known as Micron Country. I’ll have an extended interview with the memory-chip maker’s CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra. Micron , which is our newest position for the Club, said this morning it’s investing $10 billion to launch Micron Research Labs to pursue new tech breakthroughs. This is about artificial intelligence and the future of American technology 4. Dueling calls on Merck after yesterday’s promising cancer vaccine results sent shares up almost 13%. RBC Capital Markets downgraded the drugmaker to hold from buy, saying risk/reward for the stock is now fairly valued. Morgan Stanley went the other way, upgrading to buy from hold on a belief Merck can better navigate the looming Keytruda patent cliff. Merck shares were down modestly this morning. 5. Walmart is off roughly 6.5% this morning after the retail giant reported disappointing Q2 same-store sales, or comps, growth of 2.6% and issued light earnings guidance for the current period. Pros: using tariff refunds to keep prices low, e-commerce sales, and advertising. A big con: pharmacy drag due to lower drug prices. CFO John David Rainey told CNBC that consumers have “been very resilient in this environment.” 6. A round of price target cuts for Lowe’s following yesterday’s quarterly results, which management itself admitted were not that strong. UBS went to $275 from $285. Citi went to $260 from $267, while saying numbers for the rest of the year are now “de-risked.” Lowe’s biggest problem: too much DIY customer exposure versus Club name Home Depot , which skews professional. Advance Auto Parts this morning also called out DIY weakness. 7. Best retail quarter so far belongs to Target , and many analysts are responding with price target bumps, including Evercore and Goldman Sachs. Haven’t seen any upgrades yet. The majority of analysts have a hold rating. There was skepticism over picking an insider like Michael Fiddelke to lead Target’s turnaround. But roughly seven months in, he’s delivering. Much better pricing and merchandising. 8. Piper Sandler hiked its price target on Best Buy to $85 from $77 ahead of earnings next week. Analysts raised their estimates on second-quarter comp sales due to improving traffic trends. Good news for Best Buy: appliances sold well at Home Depot and Lowe’s. The stock has had a nice move since earnings in May. A big question that remains is what the rise in memory prices is doing to sales of consumer electronics like laptops. 9. Samsung will announce a new shareholder return policy worth about $72 billion later this month, Korean news outlet MoneyToday reported . I predicted yesterday that Samsung would follow in SK Hynix ‘s footsteps after it announced a $29 billion buyback. The memory-chip makers are flush with cash thanks to the AI boom. They’re investing in new plants, but still plenty to go around. 10. Deere continues to benefit from the AI-related boom in construction, helping offset a long period of weak demand for its farm equipment. Top- and bottom-line beats, including its first quarter of positive earnings-per-share (EPS) growth since 2023. Tariff refunds contributed to the profit growth, though not all of it. Management still believes 2026 will be the bottom of the ag cycle. Shares are up 2% premarket. Sign up for my Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter for free (See here for a full list of the stocks at Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber 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 trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
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