My top 10 things to watch Friday, Dec. 23, 2022 1. U.S. stock futures are up and down Friday in a volatile premarket after a hotter-than-expected inflation reading. Wall Street on Thursday broke a two-session winning streak in a big way. December is traditionally a strong time for the market, but stocks are down for the month. 2. The Fed’s favorite inflation gauge — the core personal consumption expenditures price index — showed a 4.7% year-over-year advance in November versus 4.6% expected. Remember, wage deflation and pulling consumer purse strings tighter are goals of the central bank. No commodity matters. 3. Case in point: Natural gas prices plunge roughly 25% this week alone and even more for the month. Worst weekly performance since early 2014. While poised to log back-to-back weekly gains, oil prices are still tracking lower for the sixth month out of the past seven. 4. Citi cuts price target on Paychex (PAYX) to $119 per share from $131. Tone was incredibly cautious. I totally agree. Good number but might be weaker going forward. Barclays cuts numbers, too. Win for the Fed on the labor side. 5. Wedbush cuts price target on Tesla (TSLA) to $175 per share from $250, though keeps its outperform (buy) rating. Analysts think the EV maker will miss reduced Q4 estimates and predict a tougher set-up for next year. Musk promises not to sell any more Tesla for roughly two years. 6. Bank of America cut price target on CarMax (KMX) to $49 per share from $100. Well below consensus same-store sales growth. Stephens and Baird cut PTs, too, to $53 and $65, respectively. JPMorgan says it’s too soon to buy KMX, “pain for from over” for the used vehicle seller. 7. Citi says Club holding Alphabet ‘s (GOOGL) Google will be the winner in the NFL Sunday Ticket/YouTube deal. For Alphabet, the arrangement adds a loyal viewer base to its vast ecosystem of services and products, providing a greater opportunity to collect user data and more effectively target advertisements. 8. Loop Capital cut Paramount Global (PARA) to a sell from hold, slashing its price target to $14 per share from $30. Cites declining cash flow; says path to streaming profits unclear. Paramount’s portfolio includes CBS, lots of cable networks including Showtime, as well as Paramount+ and Pluto TV. 9. Club holding Disney (DIS) needs a strong second weekend at the box office for “Avatar: The Way of Water.” Opening weekend domestically $134 million fell short of estimates. Together with overseas current tally is more than $600 million. 10. Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class action lawsuit. The suit claimed the social media giant gave third parties access to user data without their consent. It was prompted in 2018 after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long GOOGL, DIS and META . See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.
My top 10 things to watch Friday, Dec. 23, 2022
1. U.S. stock futures are up and down Friday in a volatile premarket after a hotter-than-expected inflation reading. Wall Street on Thursday broke a two-session winning streak in a big way. December is traditionally a strong time for the market, but stocks are down for the month.
2. The Fed’s favorite inflation gauge — the core personal consumption expenditures price index — showed a 4.7% year-over-year advance in November versus 4.6% expected. Remember, wage deflation and pulling consumer purse strings tighter are goals of the central bank. No commodity matters.
Read More:Inflation, natural gas plunge, Tesla
2022-12-23 14:25:06