My top 10 things to watch Tuesday, Dec. 23 1. The S & P 500 is little changed this morning after a strong start to the holiday-shortened trading week. U.S. GDP data, delayed due to the government shutdown, showed that the country’s economy grew much more than expected in the third quarter. The New York Stock Exchange will close early tomorrow on Christmas Eve, and will be closed entirely Thursday on Christmas Day. 2. The fight over Warner Bros. Discovery rages on, but I regard the Larry Ellison-backed Paramount Skydance bid as illusory. Netflix’s financing is much firmer. Paramount ought to raise its bid by $4 a share to $34, or bow out. 3. The FDA greenlit Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 pill for weight loss, beating Club name Eli Lilly by a few months. Small victory for Novo, as it could cut into some of Lilly’s injectable GLP-1 users because people don’t like shots. Novo shares rose more than 8% this morning; Lilly lost a little over 1%. Still, Lilly’s obesity pill will have some advantages when it gets to market, namely no food and water restrictions. 4. A Maryland jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $1.56 billion to a woman who claimed J & J’s talc baby powder caused her asbestos-linked cancer. J & J fights every one of these and it will not matter much to its bottom line. I wish the talc litigation hadn’t caused me to sell the stock for the Club in 2023, as it’s become less of an overhang on shares. 5. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered its KB Home price target to $62 from $67. The analysts, who maintained a hold rating, pointed to uncertainty regarding margins and ongoing market weakness for their cut. Homebuilders like these just keep getting shoved down. In the Club’s case, we own Home Depot. 6. Baird lowered its price target on Club holding Meta Platforms to $815 from $820 and kept a buy rating on the stock. The call was made as analysts updated their models into the new year. It’s an odd call. You hardly ever see a price target cut on Meta. 7. Baird raised its price target on hold-rated Stanley Black & Decker to $85 from $75, with analysts citing the sale of its Consolidated Aerospace Manufacturing division. Howmet Aerospace announced its plan to acquire the aircraft fastener maker yesterday for roughly $1.8 billion. 8. Saks Global, the private company behind department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue, is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported late yesterday. It’s seemingly a last ditch effort as the company faces a $100 million debt payment due at the end of December. 9. Wells Fargo lifted its price target on copper miner Freeport-McMoRan to $55 from $47. Copper stocks are going crazy, with Freeport shares up 27% over the past month, as copper futures continue their big run. 10. Suntory -owned Jim Beam is pausing production at one of its Kentucky distilleries for at least a year as the world is flooded with bourbon. The alcohol stocks have been miserable places to be recently as drinking rates have declined. 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.
