My top 10 things to watch Wednesday, July 30 1. Wall Street is on pace for a flat open ahead of a busy day for the market. Federal Reserve decision at 2 p.m. ET followed by Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference a half hour later. After the close, we hear from Club names Meta Platforms and Microsoft . 2. Private payrolls grew by a more-than-expected 104,000 in July, ADP said this morning in its monthly employment report. The government’s official jobs report is out Friday. The first look at second-quarter GDP showed the U.S. economy grew 3% in the three months ended in June. Elsewhere, President Donald Trump said his Friday tariff deadline will not be extended. 3. Club name Palo Alto Networks is buying CyberArk in a cash-and-stock deal that values the identity security provider at $25 billion. That’s a bit rich versus the $20 billion number floated yesterday , but this deal gives Palo Alto a presence in identity management and accelerates its “platformization” strategy . 4. Morgan Stanley lifted its price targets on Club stocks Nvidia and Broadcom , arguing increased enthusiasm for AI chipmakers is justified by the long-term strength in the business. Analysts’ confidence in strong AI spending next year, in particular, continues to grow. They went to $200 a share from $170 on Nvidia and to $338 from $270 on Broadcom. 5. Citi opened an “upside catalyst watch” on Eli Lilly after the stock’s sell-off in sympathy with rival Novo Nordisk’s ugly profit warning. Citi believes the GLP-1 issues are more Novo-specific. I hope that’s the case as I’m used to seeing the weak pull down the strong. Still, for the Club, we trimmed our position in Lilly yesterday to manage risk. 6. Shares of Club name Starbucks climbed more than 5% this morning on the back of last night’s encouraging earnings report. The overall results were messy, but CEO Brian Niccol had plenty of good things to say about his turnaround plan . He’s sped up the timeline of implementing service changes at U.S. cafes. I’ll be talking to Niccol this morning on CNBC. 7. Jefferies upped its price target on Baker Hughes to $60 from $54 and kept the stock as a buy in the wake of its planned Chart Industries acquisition. The oilfield services firm got a good price on Chart, which will help it get more exposure to areas like liquefied natural gas (LNG). 8. A number of price target cuts for UnitedHealth Group following earnings, including at KeyBanc, which went to $350 from $400. Bank of America went to $290 from $300. The insurer established a low earnings baseline so it can start beating and raising. 9. People want to love PayPal again. While Citizens JMP lowered its price target to $100 from $110, the firm kept its outperform buy rating on the name following earnings. Another roughly 2 million first-time PayPal and Venmo debit card users were added during the quarter. 10. UBS oddly lowered its price target on UPS to $118 from $124 but kept its buy rating on the delivery giant. I would take that even lower. UPS warned of lower demand yesterday, citing macroeconomic uncertainty. 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.
