Jim Cramer’s top 10 things to watch in the market Wednesday: Tech layoffs, bank double downgrade, opportunities in industrials

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My top 10 things to watch Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023 1. Wall Street looks to bounce after starting the first trading week of the new year with a decline. Club holding Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA) and other mega-cap tech stocks sank Tuesday. Though many of them were trying to rebound in the premarket. 2. Salesforce (CRM) announces the beginning of what we have been looking for from the Club holding. The company is layoff 10% of its staff and closing some offices in a restructuring. Co-founder Marc Benioff, soon-to-be solo CEO, admits to over-hiring during the Covid pandemic. A very serious letter to employees. 3. UBS sees slowing growth at Azure, Microsoft ‘s (MSFT) cloud computing offering. Analysts lower their rating on the tech giant to neutral from buy and their price target to $250 per share from $300. Does this Club name have much further to fall having fallen already? Goes to what multiple? We will kick that around on “The Homestretch,” our new audio feature to get you ready for the final hour of trading. 4. Wolfe Research double-downgrades Morgan Stanley (MS) to underperform from outperform (sell from buy). Analysts say the Club name seems rich. We think the new MS is a gem that does well in a slowdown because CEO James Gorman has set it up that way. 5. Club holding Emerson Electric (EMR) downgraded to neutral from buy on less opportunistic optionality at UBS. The research firm sees order slowdowns. We don’t see it and will most likely buy some. We have been waiting for downgrades on industrials, which went on a late 2022 run. Analysts also cut price target to $100 per share from $118. 6. UBS takes Club name Honeywell (HON) to sell from buy, looking for order compression. We disagree. Honeywell has been a huge win because of aerospace orders and firepower. How can they make it a sell? Might be an opportunity for new members to buy. Analysts trim price target to $193 per share from $220. 7. Nucor (NUE) started with a buy at Bank of America. We’ve been thinking about getting back into this name after making a great deal of money. BofA says it can rebound. We see it as a function of the government’s infrastructure efforts. The estimates are well below what NUE can do. BofA put U.S. Steel (X) on the sell list; Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) as a neutral. 8. GE HealthCare Technologies (GEHC) starts Wednesday. The company split from General Electric (GE) is slow growing like Medtronic (MDT), not like Club holding Danaher (DHR). GE wants to concentrate on its aviation business. It plans to spin off energy next year. 9. BofA raises Merck (MRK) rating to buy from neutral and price target to $130 per share from $110. Now? After its historic run? Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Analysts downgrade Pfizer (PFE) to neutral from buy. In pharmaceuticals and health care, we like and own Eli Lilly (LLY) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). 10. Wells Fargo downgrades Target (TGT) to equal weight from overweight (hold from buy), says there is meaningful deceleration. Analysts cut price target to $142 per share from $170. Could this be the company most affected by the slowdown? Not clear. We own and like off-price retailer TJX Companies (TJX). (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AAPL, CRM, MSFT, MS, EMR, HON, DHR, LLY, JNJ and TJX. 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 Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023

1. Wall Street looks to bounce after starting the first trading week of the new year with a decline. Club holding Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA) and other mega-cap tech stocks sank Tuesday. Though many of them were trying to rebound in the premarket.

2. Salesforce (CRM) announces the beginning of what we have been looking for from the Club holding. The company is layoff 10% of its staff and closing some offices in a restructuring. Co-founder Marc Benioff, soon-to-be solo CEO, admits to over-hiring during the Covid pandemic. A very serious letter to employees.