My top 10 things to watch Wednesday, March 25 1. We’re looking at a stronger open on Wall Street this morning, as oil prices are sliding on hopes of a truce between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. benchmark WTI crude is back below $90 a barrel. That’s the whole ballgame right now. Even as Iran denies interest in a ceasefire , if oil prices are falling, then it’s hard to be negative about stocks. 2. Arm is seeing incredible demand for its first in-house chip, known as the AGI CPU. Billed as a chip for AI agents. Arm is now designing the processor itself, not just licensing its instruction sets to other customers. Raymond James upgraded the stock to buy from hold. Citi analysts said its forecast of $15 billion in revenue by 2031 exceeds all expectations. Shares are up 12% this morning. In sync with Nvidia’s GPUs. 3. OpenAI has raised an additional $10 billion from investors, bringing its total haul in this record fundraising round to north of $120 billion, CFO Sarah Friar told me on “Mad Money” last night. The ChatGPT creator secured institutional money from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, D.E. Shaw Ventures, MGX. Notably, longtime partner Microsoft is also part of this $10 billion tranche. 4. Friar didn’t offer a clear timeline when I asked her about plans for a potential IPO, but she acknowledged OpenAI is “starting to build that outcome.” She said her goal is making sure the startup is ready for public markets. Shutting down video generator Sora may be part of that. Sticking with blockbuster IPOs: Elon Musk’s SpaceX may file its prospectus with the SEC later this week or next, The Information reported . 5. UBS cut Microsoft’s price target to $510 from $600, citing investor concerns around its software business. Yesterday, we got two pieces of bullish research on Microsoft (from Bank of America and Citi) and yet the frustrating stock failed to rally, falling 2.7%. Too many worries about Copilot. I worry that OpenAI is a huge part of Microsoft’s Azure numbers and that the startup can diversify to other clouds. 6. Vertiv gets a buy rating from HSBC. Analysts say that long-term outlook for the AI buildout looks strong and that should keep Vertiv’s earnings growth humming at an impressive clip. Vertiv makes crucial power and cooling solutions for data centers. This is part of the data center trade that is still winning. Vertiv shares are up nearly 2%, on top of its already over 67% year to date gain. 7. Club name Meta implemented a massive stock incentive program for top executives. For them to get the max reward, Meta’s market cap needs to reach $9 trillion by 2031, way above its current $1.5 trillion. Very aggressive timeline. The Wall Street Journal is right to point out there are plenty of cash costs tied to stock-based compensation. At the Investing Club, we recently published a deep dive into all things stock-based comp . 8. Rothschild & Co Redburn downgraded Oreo owner Mondelez to hold from buy. Analysts are concerned about softening volumes and stiffer competition in European chocolate. They said restrictions to SNAP benefits and rising GLP-1 adoption are also bad news. One reason why Procter & Gamble is the Club’s consumer staple of choice is because it has no GLP-1 risk. 9. Some love for General Motors : Wolfe Research upgraded the automaker to a buy from hold. Analysts said the stock looks inexpensive at current levels and pointed to tailwinds like improving losses in electric vehicles. The firm left its $96 price target unchanged, which is still 25% higher than yesterday’s close. CEO Mary Barra has done an incredible job at GM. 10. Merck is buying cancer biotech Terns Pharmaceuticals for $6.7 billion. This is all about augmenting its oncology portfolio ahead of top-selling cancer drug Keytruda losing its patent protection in 2028. Merck has been one of my favorite drug stocks, and CEO Rob Davis told a good story last month about its transformation outside of Keytruda. 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 Wednesday
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