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

My top 10 things to watch Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022 1. U.S. stock futures point to a higher open after the S & P 500 dropped five sessions in a row, including Monday and Tuesday’s sharp back-to-back declines. Concern that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes may tip the economy into recession has been dogging Wall Street of late. 2. Club holding Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) price target lower to $260 per share from $290 at KeyBanc. However, analysts keep their overweight (buy) rating. Analysts blame recently lower natural gas and oil prices. They also cited uncertainty around China’s zero-Covid policy, even as Beijing appears to be easing restrictions as we wrote about Wednesday . 3. Pentagon awards a $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC, cloud contract. It will be split among three Club holdings — Alphabet ‘s (GOOGL) Google, Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) — as as well Oracle (ORCL). 4. Baird downgrades Salesforce (CRM) to a neutral rating from an outperform (buy), citing turnover in the executive ranks, including co-CEO Bret Taylor. Analysts cut price target to $150 per share from $200. 5. Citi rates Boeing (BA) a buy rating and a $222-per-share price target. Analysts see a “return of great power competition” driving defense budgets in the U.S. and Europe higher. Wells Fargo raises Boeing’s PT to $218 from $185; keeps overweight (buy) rating. Analysts see free cash flow above the company’s 2025-2026 goal. For the same reasons, Citi puts a buy on Lockheed Martin (LMT) and General Dynamics (GD). Analysts put a neutral on Northrop Grumman (NOC) and L3Harris Technologies (LHX). 6. Barclays raises price target on Toll Brothers (TOL) to $50 per share from $47 but keeps underweight (sell) rating. Soft sales pace: 8,500 home closings versus prior estimates of 8,800. I ask: Is that really slowing given where mortgage rates have risen to? UBS increases PT on Toll Brothers to $65 from $61; keeps buy rating. Analysts cite solid fourth-quarter results. 7. Troubled Carvana (CVNA), whose shares lost 98% of their value year-to-date as of Wednesday’s close, could lead to much lower used car prices than we have already. That could help cool inflation even more. Wholesale prices of used vehicles reached their lowest level in more than a year last month, according to Cox Automotive . 8. GameStop (GME): Third-quarter revenue fell 8.5% to $1.19 billion versus $1.34 billion expected and a wider-than-expected 31-cent per-share loss. Media reports say layoffs are coming. Moved aggressively into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in September. Deal with collapsed crypto exchange FTX not addressed. 9. Tesla (TSLA) considering margin loans to reduce debt at Elon Musk’s Twitter, according to a Bloomberg report. Interest costs could be $1.2 billion more than a measure of Twitter’s earnings for all of 2021. 10. Bernstein sees Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) as a top pick for 2023. Analysts call CMG “low-hanging fruits;” 5-year low valuation equals an attractive entry point. Separately, UBS downgrades Mondelez (MDLZ) to neutral from buy; macro headwinds, limited sales growth. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long PXD, GOOGL, MSFT, AMZN and CRM. 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 Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022