My top 10 things to watch Wednesday, Aug. 19 1. Futures are jumping after the Treasury Department said this morning it will more than double the size of its government debt purchases . Bond yields had been spiraling in recent weeks. This is an obvious Trump administration “put.” The administration wants the stock market rally preserved in the worst way, and some might say they’re doing it in the worst way. 2. Moderna is surging over 90% this morning after the company’s experimental cancer vaccine, jointly developed with Merck , showed promise in a late-stage trial focused on melanoma. Cracked the holy grail. While there’s heavy short interest in Moderna, this vaccine is one reason why I said last month the stock was finally investable again. Merck shares are up almost 7%. Really bullish. 3. Target is pulling back this morning despite much better-than-expected quarterly results and an increase to the full-year sales and earnings guidance. Saw “broad-based” strength across the top line. The stock had run into the print, so this may just be profit-taking. New CEO Michael Fiddelke is doing a great job cleaning up the place, investing in the stores and better merchandise. 4. Not a great second-quarter print for Lowe’s . Earnings-per-share (EPS) topped expectations, but revenue and same-store sales growth missed. Full-year outlook was cut on a handful of metrics. It’s now two quarters in a row that Club name Home Depot has turned in stronger results than its chief rival. Home Depot’s larger exposure to professionals versus the do-it-yourself crowd is paying off in this brutal housing market. Buying trade distributors like SRS has helped immensely. 5. Club name TJX Companies is down over 3.5% despite a top and bottom line beat. Same-store sales growth at its Marshalls and T.J. Maxx division was disappointing, though the market was pricing some of that into the stock. Rest of the business looks great. Current quarter guidance is light, but we know this management team is conservative. Accelerating new store openings is bullish on the future. 6. SK Hynix announced a monster $29 billion stock buyback plan. Will this be enough to appease the sellers and stabilize the stock? New York-listed shares are up over 4% premarket. Unfortunately, trading in SK and fellow Korean memory-chip maker Samsung seems to influence the rest of the data center cohort. We now own rival Micron for the Club. I’ll be interviewing Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra tomorrow on “Mad Money.” 7. JPMorgan argued Nokia’s revenue potential in AI has been overlooked by the market. Consensus estimates are underestimating the strength of the networking company’s order book for 2027 and 2028, according to analysts. Earlier this year, Nokia started to look interesting to me. I am also looking at fellow networking play Cisco, which has given up a lot of its recent most post-earnings. We exited Cisco in March, partially to replenish our cash position. 8. Klarna was downgraded to hold from buy at JPMorgan after bad guidance yesterday sent the stock down nearly 23%. Shares are steady this morning. Klarna needs “multiple quarters of clean execution” to get investor confidence back and close the valuation gap to its peers, analysts said. Wells Fargo cut its price target to $21 from $26. Are we seeing a rationalizing of the buy now, pay later space? This one really gaffed people. 9. J.M. Smucker seems to be the only food stock really working. Jefferies hiked its price target to $140 from $129 and kept a buy rating. Moderating coffee prices helped the Folgers and Bustelo owner’s retail volumes recover for the first quarter. We’d rather play coffee deflation via Club name Starbucks . Have faith in the turnaround under CEO Brian Niccol. 10. RBC Capital Markets initiated Club name Cardinal Health with a buy rating and price target of $276. That’s more optimistic than our $265 price target, which we increased last week after the drug distributor issued rosy profit guidance for fiscal 2027. RBC likes Cardinal’s nuclear medicine business, which makes and distributes radiopharmaceuticals used in imaging tests. They expect nuclear to drive a lot of profits going forward. 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.
