Jim Cramer's top 10 things to watch in the stock market Friday
My top 10 things to watch Friday, Aug.
28 1. Calm morning for the futures ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh's first Jackson Hole speech. He's set to start speaking at 10 a.m.
ET. Will we get any updates on his task forces? Hard to know what to expect. The S & P 500 enters today up about 0.7% for the week. The Nasdaq is up 1.4% 2. Marvell turned in a solid quarter, but shares are still down 7% this morning.
The issue, as is often the case with these data center names, is the monster run into the print. That sets a high bar that Marvell couldn't meet, even after raising its fiscal 2028 forecast. Still, the new Google partnership matters, and an Oct. 6 analyst meeting will show off Marvell's earnings power.
CEO Matt Murphy is bankable. 3. Workday reported a top- and bottom-line beat, with AI contributing more than a quarter of its new annual contract value. Some debate around whether the guidance was enough. A bunch of price target increases, including at Barclays, which went to $224 from $200 and kept its buy rating.
Hold-rated Stifel went to $160 from $115. CEO Aneel Bhusri declined to comment on take-private reports. 4. When you consider Salesforce's encouraging report this week, the passable numbers from Workday and the recent trading in these software stocks, I am beginning to wonder how much of the issue with the "SaaSpocalypse" was really the Situational Awareness hedge fund betting against these names.
That may have been more novel than we realized. At the very least, the worst is over for Club name Salesforce. 5. Another good quarter from Affirm , sending shares up 13% premarket.
Profitability is really shining, with big beats on operating income and EPS in the fourth quarter. Guidance for fiscal 2027 operating margin and revenue looked strong too. Validates my preference for Affirm over Klarna .
Affirm is a good stock for this market. Also in fintech, Advent and Stripe dropped their pursuit of PayPal , sending PYPL down 15%. 6. Gap Inc is up 16% premarket after the retailer named a new leader to run Old Navy, which is by far the largest of its store brands but in the midst of a major funk.
Michael Francis, who was at Target during its heyday, will take over Old Navy in November. Quarterly results for namesake Gap and Banana Republic topped expectations. Companywide gross margins also were better.
7. Solstice and Element Solutions are walking away from their $14.5 billion merger. Both stocks are down big since the deal was unveiled July 6. Solstice CEO David Sewell defended it on "Mad Money," and I thought he made a great case for assembling a chemical powerhouse with a bigger electronics focus.
But the tribe of investors has spoken. Solstice announced a $500 million buyback last night. Shares are up over 14% premarket. Element is up 3%.
8. Big price target hike for Club name Palo Alto Networks ahead of earnings next week. Jefferies went to $450 from $335 and kept its buy rating, predicting the cybersecurity vendor will beat top-line estimates for both the fourth quarter and its initial 2027 guidance. We know from CrowdStrike this week that cyber demand is booming .
But, as with Marvell, high expectations make it tough to predict the market's reaction. 9. Club name Eli Lilly's Mounjaro was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to reduce cardiovascular risk in adults with type 2 diabetes. Expanded label. Rival Novo Nordisk's Ozempic has been approved for this indication for some time.
Good to see Lilly get there now too. Shares aren't doing much premarket. 10. Citi raised its price target on Dollar General to $135 from $116 after yesterday's beat-and-raise quarter.
Goldman Sachs went to $141 from $128. Both shops kept hold ratings. Still, Dollar General is now the market's favorite of the two dollar stores. Dollar Tree's guidance for the current quarter disappointed.
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