Shipping containers at the Port of Long Beach on March 4, 2025, in California, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico take effect.
Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images
My top 10 things to watch Thursday, March 13
1. President Donald Trump said today he plans 200% tariffs on alcohol from France and other European nations if the EU does not remove 50% levies on U.S. whiskey imports.
2. U.S. stocks were looking at a lower open following Trump’s tariff threat, which came out shortly before the government’s cooler February wholesale inflation reading. Wednesday’s consumer inflation gains were also smaller than expected.
3. Concerns about tariffs and their impact on the U.S. economy have the Dow on a three-session losing streak. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were higher yesterday. We’ll sort it all out during today’s March Monthly Meeting at noon ET, exclusively livestreamed for Club members. We’re also going to name six stocks to buy.
4. Intel gets a new, amazing CEO: Lip-Bu Tan. He’s a much-loved chief executive, formerly of Cadence Design Systems. Tan, also a venture capitalist, resigned from Intel’s board last year. He replaces co-CEOs David Zinsner and MJ Holthaus. Zinsner goes back to being CFO. Holthaus remains on products team. Battered Intel shares jumped 12% on the news.
5. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen is being openly questioned about whether artificial intelligence is really a significant business strategy that can be monetized or just a defensive play. The software giant did beat on quarterly earnings per share and revenue. Management guided current quarter EPS slightly below. There were lots of Wall Street analysts cutting price targets. Adobe shares dropped 6%.
6. Microsoft, which has been terrible, got an upgrade to buy at DA Davidson. The analysts also boosted their price target on the Club stock to $450 per share from $425. They said Microsoft is “best equipped” to deal with a slowing consumer. Bank of America said similar things about Club holding Salesforce.
7. Take the other side of the trade on this one: Morgan Stanley research analysts cut their Goldman Sachs price target to $659 per share from $782. Yes, the Club stock got ahead of itself. But don’t sell on the cusp of more dealmaking and IPOs. While negative in tone, Morgan Stanley kept its overweight buy rating on Goldman.
8. RBC Capital upgraded Club name Wells Fargo to an outperform buy but kept its price target of $80 per share on the stock. The analysts cited CEO Charlie Scharf’s leadership in clearing regulatory hurdles. This is what we have been saying — and recently, wrote about the hidden benefit of an eventual removal of the Fed-imposed $1.95 trillion asset cap.
9. JPMorgan cut many oil and natural gas stock price targets, including going to $33 per share from $36 on Club name Coterra Energy. The analysts did keep their overweight buy rating on Coterra as they turned a bit more pessimistic in their latest exploration and production models.
10. Citi said Boeing is being undervalued, suggesting shares could gain 50%. The analysts reiterated their buy rating with a $210 per share price target. I have waited and waited on this one and I have nothing to show for it.
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