My top 10 things to watch Monday, Aug. 4, 2025 1. Wall Street was bouncing back Monday morning after a tough week. Friday was crazy, with a terrible jobs report and President Donald Trump firing the BLS head, plus a Fed governor resigning. Trump is expected to announce replacements for each in the coming days. He has been pressuring Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. 2. A number of people unemployed for at least 27 weeks topped 1.8 million, the biggest since 2017. Could this be tariffs? Artificial intelligence? Both? July nonfarm payrolls grew by just 73,000 positions. Worse yet, the June and May readings were both revised significantly lower. Those jobs numbers put a September Fed rate cut back on the table, with market odds of 85%. 3. The stock market also has a host of other things to watch this week, including a tariff deadline on Thursday. Six Club names report this week , including Disney and Eli Lilly . After its GLP-1 rival Novo Nordisk reported a slowdown, Lilly needs to show it’s not having the same problems. 4. Tonight, it’s all about Palantir . The big data company needs to report 14 cents per share in earnings and $1 billion in revenue. There is a heavy short position. Another home run would ignite even more speculation. Figma IPO anyone? In my Sunday column , I wrote about what can be learned about this market’s direction by looking at last week’s big winners and losers. 5. Ahead of Disney ‘s earnings on Wednesday morning, Morgan Stanley made a really aggressive call. The analysts raised their price target to $140 per share from $120, citing growth in parks and streaming. On earnings day, we want to hear more about the upcoming standalone ESPN. The Athletic on Friday reported on a deal in which NFL will provide ESPN with many of the league’s media assets in exchange for equity in the sports network. 6. Oil prices tumbled today, with U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude hitting $65 per barrel. The declines came after OPEC+ agreed to another large output hike in September to 547,000 barrels per day. The move, in line with market expectations, marks a full and early reversal of the largest tranche of output cuts from the cartel and its allies. 7. Spotify announced price hikes for its premium individual subscription in several markets outside the United States. Citi hiked its price target on shares of the music streaming giant to $780 from $715. The analysts kept their neutral rating and updated their models after last week’s weak guidance. The stock rose 5% today after dropping 9.5% last week. 8. Tesla approved a 96-million-share award, worth about $29 billion, for CEO Elon Musk. The move comes as Musk continues to fight a court ruling that voided his original pay package for being unfair to shareholders. Musk began his appeal back in March. The new award would also give Musk more voting power. 9. There is a new favorite among cruise lines: Norwegian . After last week’s strong earnings, Morgan Stanley bumped up its price target to $26 from $24 but kept its equal weight hold rating. The analysts raised their estimates. 10. After last week’s solid earnings from Club name Linde , JPMorgan raised its price target on the stock to $475 from $470. The analysts kept their overweight buy rating, citing the industrial gas and engineering giant’s tremendous pricing power. It’s why we like it, too. We reiterated our $500 price target and hold-equivalent 2 rating . 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.
