My top 10 things to watch Thursday, July 17 1. GE Aerospace delivered a monster beat and raised its outlook for 2025 and and its longer-range targets for 2028. Business may be the strongest I have ever seen in this travel bull market. Its second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.66 is what Wall Street expected the engine maker to deliver in Q2 of 2026. Its updated cash return program also is giant. 2. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company also reported a blowout quarter, with profit rising almost 61% over the year-ago period amid strong AI chip demand. TSMC, which makes Club name Nvidia’s AI chips, upped its 2025 sales growth outlook to 30% in U.S. dollar terms, up from mid-20%. 3. Wall Street is tracking for a muted open this morning, a day after the markets dipped on a report that President Donald Trump was preparing to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell — then bounced back once Trump said he wasn’t planning to do so. 4. Shares of PepsiCo added almost 3% on the back of better-than-expected earnings and sales. Organic revenue was up 2.1%, ahead of estimates. Still, global volumes for its food products such as Quaker Oats dropped 1.5% while it was flat for beverages. 5. Is Johnson & Johnson the new gold standard? What a quarter. A blueprint for how to do it. After rising 6.2% on earnings in yesterday’s session, the stock was modestly lower this morning. Also in health care, Club name Abbott Labs was down 5% despite top and bottom line beats. 6. Jefferies downgraded Club stock Starbucks to an underperform sell rating from hold. Analysts said the stock has gotten ahead of itself, and that credit and debit card data doesn’t bode well for the next two quarters. I still say I don’t want to abandon CEO Brian Niccol’s turnaround effort. 7. Netflix is set to report earnings tonight, and Bernstein has great confidence in the streaming giant ahead of the print. The firm upped its price target to $1,390 a share from $1,200, which implies 11% upside from yesterday’s close. Analysts say Netflix’s moat supports its valuation. 8. BMO Capital downgraded Quanta Services to a hold-equivalent rating from outperform but lifted its price target to $400 from $352. While this is strictly a valuation call, can you really downgrade a stock for that reason when business is as good as it is for the infrastructure solutions provider? 9. Bank of America upped its price target on GE Vernova to $620 from $550, with analysts noting their 2027 forecast for an operating profitability metric called EBITDA is still 10% above consensus. The gas turbine maker has been a big winner for the Club. 10. KeyBanc raised its price target on Pinterest by $5 to $45 and kept its overweight buy rating. Analysts expect second-quarter results for revenue and EBITDA to run ahead of consensus. I think this is right. There’s a lot of valuable data on Pinterest’s platform. 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.
Jim Cramer’s top 10 things to watch in the stock market Thursday
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