My top 10 things to watch Monday, Sept. 29 1. Wall-to-wall ads for Apple’s iPhone 17 are being run this weekend by the wireless carriers. That feeds into my belief that Wall Street is underestimating this upgrade cycle for Club name Apple. Bank of America, which has a buy rating on Apple stock, said order lead times point to strong demand. On the other hand, Jefferies, which has a hold rating, sees momentum cooling. 2. The government could shut down just after midnight on Wednesday unless Congress comes to an agreement on spending. The top Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are set to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House today. If there’s a shutdown, could Friday’s jobs report, one of the two big things we’re watching this week, be delayed? 3. Wall Street, which is coming off a losing week , is on track to open higher on Monday. In my Sunday column for Investing Club subscribers , I explored one of last week’s emerging bearish narratives: that all this AI spending is increasingly looking like the dot-com bubble. I don’t buy it. 4. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing from privately held auto-parts supplier First Brands is turning heads. The company owns brands including ANCO windshield wipers and Autolite spark plugs. It used debt to fuel an acquisition streak. In a filing, First Brands listed liabilities between $10 billion and $50 billion, and assets between $1 billion and $10 billion, according to Bloomberg News . 5. Oil major Occidental is in talks to sell its chemical division for around $10 billion, the Financial Times reported , though the potential buyer couldn’t be learned. Analysts at Barclays like the idea of divesting OxyChem, as it could improve Occidental’s cash returns. Then again, everyone likes everything this Warren Buffett-backed company does. 6. Morgan Stanley upped its price target on American Express to $362 a share from $311 but kept its hold rating. It increased its PT on buy-rated Capital One to $267 from $261. The firm sees an improving picture for consumer finance, with credit performance getting better. American Express is second-best in the group after Capital One, which we own for the Club. 7. Barclays started coverage of nuclear firm Oklo with a buy rating. Analysts like it as a way to play the small modular reactor theme. This speculative stock had monster gains this year as AI power demands sparked investment into nuclear. I’ve been telling people to book profits in their money-losing speculative names . 8. Video game maker Electronic Arts is going private in an all-cash deal worth $55 billion. That works out to $210 a share. The stock closed at $168 on Thursday, the day before The Wall Street Journal reported a take-private deal was imminent. Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, and Silver Lake are the acquirers. 9. Mark Bristow stepped down as CEO of gold miner Barrick Mining , and Mark Hill is replacing him, effective immediately. It’s a sudden shakeup. Bristow had been at Barrick for nearly seven years. In a great year for anything gold-related, Barrick shares have more than doubled in 2025. They’re up slightly this morning. 10. More C-suite news: Comcast named President Mike Cavanagh as co-CEO alongside Brian Roberts, beginning in January. Comcast is in the midst of spinning off its cable channels, including CNBC, into a separate publicly traded entity called Versant Media. The Roberts family founded Comcast over 50 years ago. 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.) 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.
