Jim Cramer’s top 10 things to watch in the stock market Thursday

1. The S&P 500 is headed for a lower open after touching an intraday high in the prior session. The index is riding a three-day win streak. At noon ET today, I’ll be hosting our January Monthly Meeting for Investing Club subscribers. For all 30-some stocks in our portfolio, I’ll provide catalysts that may propel shares in 2025.

2. SK Hynix reported a disappointing outlook, and it’s regarded as Club name Nvidia’s partner on the high bandwidth memory so crucial to AI chips. But it also has a cellphone business. No matter, chip stocks are lower on this despite so much other evidence of a strong year. Silly? Not sure.

3. GE Aerospace shares jump more than 7% on better-than-expected profits and revenues. I like that its margins were up, and supply chain issues seem to be behind them. Guidance for the current year also looks good.

4. American Airlines shares slid nearly 6% after its fiscal 2025 first-quarter earnings outlook came in well below expectations. American expects an adjusted loss per share between 20 cents and 40 cents versus a consensus 4-cent loss. New labor contract agreed to last year is adding to costs.

5. Club stock Abbott Laboratories remains undervalued, UBS said following mixed quarterly results. We made a similar case in our earnings analysis for Club members. Bernstein lifted its price target on the stock to $138 a share from $135, and Stifel went to $135 from $130. All three shops have buy ratings on Abbott.

6. Multiple price target bumps for beloved GE Vernova after earnings. Citi went to $437 a share from $361 and kept a neutral rating on the turbine maker, saying risk-reward is balanced. Barclays went to $487 from $420 and kept its buy-equivalent overweight rating, believing that high operating leverage can continue.  

7. On the other hand, lots of price target cuts for Johnson & Johnson in the wake of earnings. That includes Morgan Stanley, which went to $163 a share from $175, and Stifel, which went to $155 from $170. Bank of America said it’s using a lower sum-of-the-parts valuation on 2025 earnings estimates, lowering its PT by a dollar to $159.

8. JPMorgan expects IBM to report healthy AI and software numbers next week and upped its price target to $233 a share from $227. Still, analysts kept their hold rating on the name and said expectations are generally reasonable. IBM has outperformed the market over the past 12 months.

9. Bank of America boosted its Meta Platforms price target to $710 a share from $660, but not because of any new fundamental reasons to like the name. Analysts kept their buy rating on the stock. We own Meta for the Club, and it’s one of my favorite “Magnificent Seven” names.

10. Palantir will be a “core winner” in the trillions of dollars spent on AI in the coming years, according to Wedbush Securities. That includes capturing stepped up AI spending from the Trump administration. Analysts acknowledged the stock looks expensive at current leverls, but still raised their price target on the “Messi of AI” to $90 a share from $75 due to long-term optimism.

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