Jim Cramer’s top 10 things to watch in the stock market Wednesday – CNBC
Top 10 Watchers for Wednesday, September 18 1. Wall Street is likely to have a quiet start to trading on Wednesday. Attention is focused on the Federal Reserve decision, due to be announced at 2 pm Eastern time. It remains to be seen whether the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points or opt for a larger cut of 50 points. Whatever the Fed does, it's too early to get ahead of itself. 2. Will Starbucks adopt a so-called China Lite strategy under new CEO Brian Niccol? Bank of America says it should at least do so. Analysts have raised their price target for Starbucks to $118 from $112. Analysts say licensing stores in China, rather than owning them, would boost earnings-to-price multiples. 3. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff blasted all other artificial intelligence providers in a one-on-one interview with me at Dreamforce in San Francisco. He took a direct shot at Microsoft, saying billions of dollars have been wasted on the company's AI tool, Copilot. He wants to use AI as an agent that can understand data-driven decisions. 4. Meanwhile, Microsoft is working with BlackRock and others to raise $100 billion to develop data centers for AI and the energy infrastructure to power them. The Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP) is initially looking to raise $30 billion for new and existing data centers. 5. Bernstein said Apple's iPhone 16 base and Pro launches this year should be “relatively strong/normal,” but could be distorted by a delayed rollout of Apple Intelligence, a system that uses generative AI. Analyst Toni Sacconaghi maintained an outperform rating and $240 price target. 6. William Blair initiated coverage on Broadcom with a buy recommendation. The chipmaker expects $12. The company expects AI sales to hit $1 billion in fiscal 2024, and analysts see non-AI semiconductor chips bottoming out and accelerating growth in Ethernet AI network fabrics. Blair also recommended Nvidia as a buy due to the strong demand for its products, and Arm as a buy, calling the company a “significant vendor” of computing IP with best-in-class financials. 7. Wells Fargo lowered Micron's price target to $175 from $190, but said the selling off of chip stocks was overdone. The analysts noted the company is in the early stages of an inflection point in high-bandwidth memory and maintained an overweight rating on the stock. 8. Needham likes Supermicro Computer, initiating coverage with a buy recommendation and a $600 price target. He is still waiting for clarity on the company's accounting. 9. GE Healthcare was raised to a buy recommendation from neutral at BTIG, with a $100 price target. The club name is no longer counting on China for growth. 10. Goldman initiated popular Marriott with a buy rating, a stock that is always in the spotlight during interest rate cuts. The analyst also upgraded Intercontinental to a Buy rating from Neutral. Sign up for my free Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter. (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust stocks). Subscribers to Jim Cramer's CNBC Investment Club receive trade alerts before Jim makes any trades. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling shares in the Charitable Trust's portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC television, Jim waits 72 hours after issuing a trade alert before executing the trade. The Investment Club information above is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and Disclaimer. Receipt of any information provided in connection with the Investment Club does not and will not create any fiduciary duty or obligation. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol
Anjali Sundaram | CNBC
Top 10 things to watch on Wednesday, September 18th
1. As Wall Street prepares for the market to open on Wednesday, attention is focused on the Federal Reserve's (Fed) decision, which is due to be announced at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. It is unclear whether the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points or opt for a larger cut of 50 points. Whatever the Fed does, it is too early to act, so it would be best not to act too soon.
2. Intention Starbucks Will the company adopt a so-called China-lite strategy under new CEO Brian Nicol? Bank of America at least says it should. Analysts raised their price target on Club Holdings to $118 a share from $112. They say licensing rather than owning stores in China would boost earnings and share price multiples.
3.Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, in a one-on-one interview with me at Dreamforce in San Francisco, criticized all other AI purveyors. He said: Microsoft“We want to use AI as an agent that can understand decisions based on data,” he said, pointing to billions of dollars wasted on the AI tool Copilot.
