My top 10 things to watch Monday, May 4 1. Oil prices jumped after conflicting media reports of an Iranian attack on a U.S. warship sparked more concerns about instability in the region, pushing the S & P 500 lower. It follows a blockbuster week for stocks, with the broad-market index closing at record levels three times. Investors will get a big April jobs report on Friday. 2. Chevron’s price target lifted to $192 from $180 at Barclays, which kept a hold on the stock. The oil company’s Q1 report showed “resilient” operations and free cash flow momentum growing into Q2. This is the one that has tracked the war in Iran almost perfectly. 3. Video game retailer GameStop said on Sunday it has made an unsolicited, non-binding offer to acquire eBay for $125 per share in a cash-and-stock deal, valuing the e-commerce platform at roughly $55.5 billion . Could it happen? Anything’s possible. It did move eBay shares up nearly 9% premarket. CEO Ryan Cohen told CNBC this morning that he hasn’t started any conversation with eBay’s management. 4. Is the market a church with a casino attached, as Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett says? Speaking with CNBC’s Becky Quick over the weekend at the company’s annual meeting, Buffett said that the casino “has gotten very attractive to people . If you’re buying one-day options, or selling them, I mean that is — that’s not investing, it’s not speculating, it’s gambling.” 5. Bernstein raised its PT on digital memory stock SanDisk to $1,700 from $1,250 after last week’s beat and raise. Strong, strong, strong — that’s the watchword. We wrote on Friday about how sky-high memory prices were a big theme in this market, and what SanDisk’s shift to long-term contracts means for our tech stocks. Separately, HSBC downgraded chipmaker AMD from buy to hold, citing limited upside. I think AMD can still go higher. SanDisk went up when it reported its strong numbers. 6. This quarter’s earnings reports amount to nothing short of a Judgment Day for AI. As I wrote in my Sunday column for members , the companies that spent well are now the winners and are beginning to get the kinds of returns we once thought possible. 7. Airbnb was upgraded to buy from hold over at Oppenheimer. Analysts said that product initiatives like AI search and hotels are not yet fully reflected in Wall Street’s estimates. The firm predicted that the company would benefit disproportionately from the World Cup as demand for rentals in host cities increases. I think management’s fixes are starting to materialize. 8. A lot of love for Linde . JPMorgan raised its price target to $530 from $525, citing improved fundamentals during first-quarter earnings. Citi went to $585 from $580 due to the upside to guidance for the second quarter and 2026. We raised our price target to $550 from $540 following the industrial gas giant’s report on Friday. The Club has a buy-equivalent 1 rating on shares. Really terrific quarter. 9. Estee Lauder’s price target was lifted to $85 from $80 at Canaccord. Analysts pointed to a beat in third-quarter results on Friday, with the cosmetics company reporting improvements and share gains in Mainland China. The stock popped over 3% to about $79. The updated PT implies a 7% upside from Friday’s close. 10. Huge call on Alphabet . Citizens hiked the Google parent’s PT to $515 from $385, citing strong first-quarter top-line growth. It was a monster print , with earnings nearly double the Street’s estimates. Shares jumped even as management said to expect higher capex spending in the year ahead. It was a perfect example of how the market will give some teams a pass if they can prove that big AI bets are paying off. 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
May 4, 2026
