My top 10 things to watch Wednesday, June 12
- Stocks jumped after the May consumer price index came in cooler than Wall Street expected. Bonds yields fell after CPI, with the yield on the Fed-sensitive 2-year Treasury reaching its lowest level since April 5. The Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were looking up nearly 1% each.
- Despite the encouraging inflation picture after the CPI, I’m still not convinced a September Fed interest rate cut is guaranteed. The timing of the report is convenient: Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds his post-June meeting news conference later Wednesday.
- Oracle delivered a true blowout quarter in the remaining performance obligation (RPO) line item. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure momentum was awesome. The company announced cloud deals with Alphabet’s Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. Oracle jumped 8%.
- Amazon‘s cloud unit announced an investment of billions of dollars in Taiwan, launching an Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure buildout there. Taiwan is a geopolitical hotspot, with China claiming the self-governed island as its own. It’s also a major semiconductor manufacturing hub.
- After two straight days of endless news stories and analysis devoted to Apple‘s AI announcement, there’s a lot to be said about how so-called Apple Intelligence will lift the fortunes of other stocks. Many of those derivative plays are in our Club portfolio, and they go beyond tech.
- The long knives are out for Elon Musk ahead of the Tesla shareholders’ vote on his $56 billion pay package. Citi analysts, however, see improving sentiment at the electric vehicle giant. They cited the Robo Taxi Day, set for Aug. 8, as an important moment. Morgan Stanley analysts think Tesla may make a smartphone.
- GameStop raises more than $2 billion by selling 75 million shares, building its cash pile by taking advantage of the latest meme stock frenzy. When is this thing going to be heavy? Is GameStop effectively a SPAC? Can CEO Ryan Cohen reinvent the video game retailer?
- Eli Lilly became the most valuable drugmaker in the world on the promise of its blockbuster diabetes and obesity treatment. To join the $1 trillion market cap club, it will need help from the bench — including an Alzheimer’s drug that moved one step closer to market this week.
- General Motors approved yet another buyback — adding to our frustration that portfolio name Ford has yet to embark on a repurchase program of its own. While encouraged by Ford’s successful hybrid pivot, a sizeable stock repurchase program would be a catalyst for Ford shares as it has been for GM.
- National Amusements has stopped talks with Skydance on a proposed merger with Paramount. That ended months of deal discussions. National Amusements is owned by Shari Redstone who is also the controlling shareholder of Paramount. Shares of Paramount dropped more than 2.5%.
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.)
What Investing Club members are reading right now
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.