My top 10 things to watch Monday, March 23 1. U.S. stock futures soar, and oil prices plummet after President Donald Trump said he is pausing strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure for five days following “productive conversations” to end the war. The S & P 500 is expected to open higher by 2% as U.S. and international oil prices drop more than 9% each. 2. Trump told CNBC this morning that talks with Iran are intense and that he remains hopeful something substantive can be achieved. State media in Iran, however, quotes an official there as saying that there have been no negotiations, referring to Trump’s comments as “psychological warfare.” 3. Crisis at Microsoft : Melius analyst Ben Reitzes suggests the software and cloud giant’s reorganization of Copilot and possible lawsuit against OpenAI and Amazon are signs of a meltdown. Reitzes says paying extra for AI is no longer a thing. He adds that customers want “AI-first tools, not seat-first fossil-ware.” 4. Bank of America raised its Darden Restaurants price target to $272 from $262. The company behind the Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and Ruth’s Chris chains is a favorite restaurant stock at BofA. 5. Piper Sandler cut its Kraft Heinz price target to $24 from $26. Is this a much harder job than CEO Steve Cahillane expected? I doubt it. Cahillane became chief executive at the beginning of the year. He previously served as CEO of the former Kellogg’s snack unit Kellanova. 6. Elliott Investment Management is going after Synopsys . The Wall Street Journal reported that the activist investor has a multibillion-dollar stake in the maker of chip-design software and sees an opportunity to improve its financial performance. Shares of Synopsys are up more than 4%. 7. Apple will likely be the only major smartphone maker to take share in 2026, according to a Morgan Stanley survey. The firm said switching rates are improving to five-year highs. We noted last week that iPhone sales in China surged 23% during the first nine weeks of 2026, in contrast to a 4% year-over-year decline in the entire smartphone market there 8. Mizuho says MongoDB has inflected positively. The firm upgraded the stock to a buy from hold, and raised its price target to $325 from $290. But this is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, so I don’t know if it will matter. This group has been under fire as fears of AI eating its business have grown. 9. Is Ulta Beauty in a price war, and can it come back? I’m meeting with the retailer’s management for tonight’s “Mad Money.” Did its July acquisition of Space NK Limited, a British high-end chain, help? 10. Is Alshaya Group going to slow down any retailers? The Kuwait-based company partners with U.S. brands to open shops in the Middle East, a region that may be disrupted by the Iran war. Club stock Starbucks is a big partner. 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 23, 2026
![i’m-nervous,-too!-[part-2]](https://10xwealthreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/177042-im-nervous-too-part-2-1568x784.jpg)
