My top 10 things to watch Friday, Dec. 2, 2022 1. U.S. stock futures point to a lower open as bond yield rise on stronger-than-expected November job growth and wage inflation. Nonfarm payrolls up 263,000. The nation’s unemployment rate holds steady, as expected, at 3.7%. Average hourly earnings up 0.6% month over month and up 5.1% year over year — both hotter than expected. Persistent wage increases come two days after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said smaller interest rate hikes may be coming. Though he did say more needs to be done to quell inflation. 2. Marvell Technology (MRVL) gets multiple price target cuts. Shortfall coming. Guidance down on all lines but less consumer. Quarterly miss on revenue and earnings. Real issues. Data centers bad. enterprise networking (China, not government) bad. Storage bad. We exited Marvell about a month ago, selling the rest of our then-small position. It’s been a rough year for chip stocks. We’ve been recently reducing exposure to the rest of our semis: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Nvidia (NVDA) and Qualcomm (QCOM). 3. Here’s a switch: Citi is RAISING its price target on FedEx (FDX) to $190 per share from $165. “Earnings are likely fine,” analysts say. Big change from the warnings on Sept. 15 when CEO Raj Subramaniam told me on “Mad Money” he was concerned about a worldwide recession. The stock the day after dropped 21% to $161. Shares closed Thursday at $180. 4. As predicted, multiple price-target raises for Ulta Beauty (ULTA) following the company boosting guidance. Ulta beat on quarterly revenue and earnings. Crushed estimates with year-over-year same-store sales growth of 14.6%. 5. Cybersecurity Zscaler (ZS) reports better than expected numbers, yet guidance isn’t what people want. So price target cuts on Wall Street and the stock down more than 11% in the premarket. Though shares did jump 8% in the prior session. 6. Asana (ASAN) sinks 14% in the premarket. The work management platform issues disappointing operating income and lots of analyst price target cuts. 7. Barclays downgrades Blackstone (BX) to equal weight from overweight (hold from buy). BREIT (Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust) is attractive, but analysts cite near-term pressures. Redemption limits for shareholders went in effect. 8. Rail strike averted. Senate sends labor agreement to President Joe Biden for his signature. Perhaps sell the news on CSX (CSX) and Norfolk Southern (NSC). Both saw strength earlier this week as it became clear there would be no walkout. 9. RBC Capital says DoorDash (DASH) risk/reward is less comfortably balanced; downgrades to sector perform from outperform (hold from buy). Analysts there are concerned about “likely hypersensitivity to order deceleration” in the economy next year. 10. Tesla (TSLA) announces the first delivery of its long-haul Semi-truck. The EV maker says a fully loaded Semi can travel 500 miles on a single charge. PepsiCo (PEP) buys the first one. Baird Equity Research says demand is strong; sees big unit sales in China. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AMD, NVDA and QCOM. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.
My top 10 things to watch Friday, Dec. 2, 2022
1. U.S. stock futures point to a lower open as bond yield rise on stronger-than-expected November job growth and wage inflation. Nonfarm payrolls up 263,000. The nation’s unemployment rate holds steady, as expected, at 3.7%. Average hourly earnings up 0.6% month over month and up 5.1% year over year — both hotter than expected. Persistent wage increases come two days after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said smaller interest rate hikes may be coming. Though he did say more needs to be done to quell inflation.
2. Marvell Technologyexited Marvell about a month ago, selling the rest of our then-small position. It’s been a rough year for chip stocks. We’ve been recently reducing exposure to the rest of our semis: Advanced Micro DevicesNvidiaQualcomm
