My top 10 things to watch Friday, May 1 1. Stocks are up, and oil prices are down, to kick off a new month of trading. Apple shares rose on a strong quarter, helping boost the S & P 500 , which closed above 7,200 for the first time. Brent crude futures tumbled on easing tensions in the Middle East and hopes for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. 2. Apple had a blowout quarter , and the guidance was much stronger than expected: June quarter revenue is expected to increase by 14% to 17% versus the year-ago period, Street looking for 9%. Services revenue rose 16% to a new all-time high of $30.97 billion — and I expect more to come from here. Margins will be pressured by higher memory prices, but they might be passed on. China sales were excellent, a big thawing there. Lots of sold-out Macs and iPhone 17s. Wells Fargo raised its price target to $310 from $300. Shares are up 3.5%. 3. Memory company Sandisk goes to a new business model focused on long-term contracts to add certainty, but costs are high for the hyperscalers. Already, people are questioning the rate of price increases for memory chips, which can’t realistically grow to the sky. Shares fell 5% depsite reporting earnings on Thursday that beat expectations. Bank of America rasied it price target to $1,550 from $1,080. 4. Morgan Stanley raised its PT on Arm Holdings to $191 from $150, expecting the chip company’s print on May 6 to be in line with estimates. We recently initiated a position in Arm, which unveiled its first in-house data center central processing unit, the AGI CPU , designed specifically for agentic AI workloads. Historically, the company only designed and licensed chips to other companies, including Nvidia , Amazon , and Apple . Big change. 5. Tremendous cash flow from Chevron : $4.1 billion for the quarter. After adjustments, Chevron earned $1.41 per share to beat Wall Street’s estimates of 95 cents, the biggest beat since October 2020 . 6. Mastercard had a very strong quarter, but the Street didn’t seem to think so. This is a big global company with 3.7 billion cards, and it has big interests in the Middle East. Really going all in on stablecoins as the intermediary, thinks it could be a big business. I had a great talk with CEO Michael Miebach about the quarter, AI, and much more. 7. A lot of love for Reddit after earnings. Wells Fargo hiked its price target to $176 from $149, citing an increase in daily active users and a better-than-expected second-quarter revenue guide. Piper went to $215 from $205, while Bank of America went to $190 from $175. Both mentioned the strong quarter, which saw a 69% jump in sales. This is a terrific stock. 8. Citi lowered Cardinal Health’s price target to $245 from $249 after Thursday’s earnings, citing risks in its global medical products and distribution segment. But the firm kept its buy rating and said its post-earnings decline was “an overreaction.” I thought it was a good quarter, not great. The sell-off is an opportunity. 9. Roblox was downgraded to hold from buy at Bank of America. Analysts said that first-quarter bookings were just “okay,” and the second-quarter guide came in well below expectations. They didn’t like the big cut to 2026 bookings growth guidance either. Shares of the gaming platform plunged nearly 25% in premarket trading. 10. Caterpillar’s price target was lifted to $1,125 from $860 at JPMorgan. The equipment manufacturer’s earnings should more than double by 2030, the firm said, noting its “high-growth valuation [is] here to stay.” Caterpillar on Thursday raised its annual revenue forecast and delivered a big earnings beat. 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 Friday
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