A logo sits illuminated at the Nvidia booth in Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona on March 6, 2025.
Cesc Maymo | Getty Images
My top 10 things to watch Monday, March 17
1. Nvidia’s annual GTC conference will dominate this week’s news. Nvidia’s stock has had big run-up into the event for AI developers. That’s normal, as is a rally after. The AI chip king, which we own for the Club, is expected to share new details about its next-generation products.
2. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he’s not worried about the negative stock market reaction to President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policy. “Corrections are healthy,” Bessent said. He also referenced the famous “voting machine/weighing machine” quote. Standard hackneyed phrases.
3. Stocks are on track to open lower across the board today after a strong bounce-back rally in Friday’s session. Something I’ll be watching going forward: Will the megacap tech stocks in the “Magnificent Seven” start acting like safe havens gain? I explored that question in my Sunday column for Investing Club subscribers.
4. Melius Research is out with a defense of Apple, one of those Mag 7 names, after the stock fell almost 11% last week. Analysts conceded that the delays to AI-enhanced Siri are disappointing, but they still see a path to get the Club stock back on track. Melius also argued that Apple’s free cash flow helps make the stock defensive.
5. Quantum computing stocks such as D-Wave and Rigetti Computing are hot again. They soared Friday and are up again this morning. Nvidia holds a “quantum day” at GTC on Thursday, so I suspect these speculative names will run right into it and through it.
6. Shares of Affirm are tumbling on news that Swedish fintech provider Klarna is replacing Affirm as the exclusive provider of buy now, pay later loans for Walmart. This matters to both Affirm and Klarna, which just filed to go public. There’s a heavy short position in Affirm, so I would expect a short-covering rally by tomorrow.
7. JPMorgan upgraded Norwegian Cruise Line to a buy-equivalent overweight rating from neutral. The travel stocks have been hit hard by recent economic worries and the airlines cutting earnings guidance. However, JPM analysts said in a meeting with Norwegian Cruise management, executives indicated they weren’t seeing a change in demand.
8. Baird upgraded Accenture to an outperform buy rating from neutral ahead of earnings Thursday. Shares of the consulting firm have been weak, partially due to the Department of Government Efficiency ramping up its efforts. About 8% of Accenture’s revenue last fiscal year was tied to the U.S. government.
9. Citigroup expects Micron to issue lighter-than-expected guidance when the memory chipmaker reports Thursday, but analysts remain upbeat on the stock on a belief that DRAM pricing will improve. They reiterated their buy rating and price target of $150 a share, which implies nearly 50% upside from Friday’s close.
10. Redburn Atlantic started coverage of Reddit with a sell rating and price target of $75 a share. That is well below Friday’s close of $128 and its all-time high of $225 in February. Redburn analysts expressed concerns about Reddit’s reliance on Google to drive traffic and see “material downside” to estimates.
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