My top 10 things to watch Monday, March 9 1. No end in sight to Iran war: Oil is surging again this morning, with both U.S. benchmark WTI and global standard Brent trading in the low-to-mid $100s a barrel. The Financial Times reported that G7 officials are discussing tapping their strategic oil reserves, which helped WTI come well off the overnight highs above $119. 2. That same report helped stock futures bounce off their lows. Still, we are looking at a sharply lower open on Wall Street. Dow futures are down over 500 points. In my Sunday column for Investing Club subscribers , I offered advice on navigating the stock market in the face of skyrocketing oil, looking back at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an analogue. 3. What got us to this acceleration: an attack on a water desalination plant in Bahrain, then Israel’s attack on fuel depots in Iran. Also, the Strait of Hormuz is now effectively closed. Kuwait, the UAE, Iraq, and now Saudi Arabia are curtailing production because there’s nowhere to put the oil. Neither U.S. insurance for tankers nor Navy destroyer escorts may be enough to restart traffic in the vital Strait. 4. G7 nations releasing some oil from their strategic reserves could help relieve some short-term pressure on prices. It did when the Biden administration tapped our Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2022. The SPR is a little more than half filled, with about 415 million barrels . While energy’s influence on GDP is lower than before, it still matters. It’s a major input for business and high prices at the pump squeezes consumers. 5. Away from the war, there are some important earnings reports this week. None is more critical than Oracle’s tomorrow night. The market is still not sold on its massive AI data center buildout. Worst chart in the book. Deutsche Bank, caught looking the wrong way, lowered its price target on buy-rated Oracle to $300 from $375. This is a $153 stock. 6. Baird added a “fresh pick” designation on buy-rated Huntington Bancshares and said the stock’s risk/reward has improved following a pullback over the past month. I say banks are the most vulnerable right now. Economically sensitive group and private credit concerns haven’t helped. 7. Novo Nordisk is planning to sell blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy on telehealth platform Hims & Hers , Bloomberg News reported . Shares of Hims & Hers, which has been a big seller of copycat GLP-1s, are up almost 50%. Novo is looking for ways to catch Club name Eli Lilly , now the leader in the space. This could hurt Lilly a bit. 8. Wells Fargo downgraded Netflix to hold from buy. While analysts said “the scars” on Netflix’s stock from the Warner Bros. Discovery saga can start healing, they are worried about decelerating revenue growth and higher content investments. They actually think the stock trading at a discount to its historical valuation is fair. 9. Club name Starbucks was hit with a downgrade at Wolfe Research to hold from buy. Analysts see some positive things happening in the turnaround under CEO Brian Niccol, but they are worried about the competitive landscape. Wolfe started coverage on one of those competitors, Dutch Bros , with a buy. 10. Not too early to start anticipating Club name Nvidia’s influential GTC conference next week. Ben Reitzes at Melius Research wrote in a note that the real total addressable market for artificial intelligence is “labor, all $60 trillion of it globally.” I think Friday’s weak jobs report showed the relative decline for knowledge workers is already happening. 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.
Jim Cramer’s top 10 things to watch in the stock market Monday
Mar 9, 2026
