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

1. Wall Street was poised to build off Tuesday’s modest gains, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq seeking their third winning session in a row. The 10-year Treasury yield continued its June slide. A much weaker-than-expected ADP report was a key factor behind Wednesday’s stock and bond moves. The ADP release, ahead of Friday’s key government employment report, added to hopes the Fed would cut interest rates sometime later this year.
2. CrowdStrike shares rose 12% after the cybersecurity company delivered a quarterly beat on earnings and revenue and better-than-expected forward guidance. CrowdStrike describes a company that seems like so-called platformized Palo Alto Networks, which is owned by the Club. CrowdStrike admitted that you have to be with Club name and AI chip powerhouse Nvidia to go to the next level.
3. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares jumped more than 15% after the server and hybrid cloud company beat quarterly estimates on the top and bottom lines. Despite some skeptics, I think HPE can make a good case as an alternative to Dell. It has lots of customers and a huge backlog, which makes the data center trade stronger.
4. Cisco Systems gets right with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins emphasizes big growth in 2025. Robbins talked about an Nvidia partnership to integrate with the company’s ethernet. It could be big. The growth rate of Cisco accelerated from 1% to 3% to possibly 6%. Club name Microsoft endorsed this plan but, as Melius Research said in a note, things are complicated.
5. Barclays upped its price target on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to $170 per share from $150. Analysts said TMSC’s next-generation production node, known as 2 nanometer, is set to ramp faster than its current 3 nanometer technique did, carrying positive implications for other chipmaking firms such as Applied Materials and KLA Corp. Barclays upgraded both AMAT and KLA to a hold-equivalent rating from sell. I think that sell had been a bad call.
6. Citi said Club name Apple demand is stabilizing in China. The analysts added that service revenue is very good, with continued double-digit revenue growth on a percentage basis, which is exceptional because they get Apple Music, Shazam, Apple Podcasts and Video apps.
7. Eli Lilly CFO Anat Ashkenazi has been tapped to become Alphabet‘s new chief financial officer, effective July 31. The announcement came almost a year after Alphabet first announced that current CFO Ruth Porat would move to a new role as president and chief investment officer. Both Lilly and Alphabet are Club stocks.
8. Dollar Tree breaking up? Shares fell about 2.5% on the news that the company is exploring a sale of its Family Dollar brand, which has been a real drag. Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar in 2015 for almost $9 billion. But it has struggled to compete with rival Dollar General.
9. Blackrock and Citadel are backing a group that wants to start a new national stock exchange in Texas. Pretty good pedigree. The supporters have raised $120 million. This alternative to New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq would come with less regulation.
10. Mortgage demand fell for the second straight week as home loan rates moved to their highest level since early May. Total mortgage application volume fell 5.2% last week. Buy apps dropped 4%. Refi apps declined 7%.

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