Top 10 Things to Watch on Friday, May 1st 1. Stocks rise, oil prices fall as a new month of trading begins. Apple stock rose on a strong quarter, pushing the S&P 500 index higher and closing above 7,200 for the first time. Brent crude oil futures fell on hopes of easing tensions in the Middle East and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. 2. Apple had a blockbuster quarter, but guidance was much stronger than expected. June quarter sales are expected to rise 14% to 17% year over year, with the Street expecting 9%. Services revenue increased 16% to a record $30.97 billion. I expect to get more revenue from here. Profits will likely be squeezed by soaring memory prices, but profits may be passed on. Sales in China were great and there was a big thaw there. There are a lot of Macs and iPhone 17s that are sold out. Wells Fargo raised its price target to $310 from $300. The stock price rose 3.5%. 3. Memory company SanDisk is moving to a new business model focused on long-term contracts to increase certainty, but the costs are high for hyperscalers. People are already questioning the rate of increase in the price of memory chips, but realistically it is unlikely that prices will rise. Despite reporting better-than-expected results on Thursday, shares fell 5%. Bank of America raised its price target to $1,550 from $1,080. 4. Morgan Stanley raised its PT on Arm Holdings to $191 from $150, expecting the semiconductor company’s May 6 announcement to be in line with expectations. We recently started our position at Arm and announced the AGI CPU, the first in-house data center central processing unit designed specifically for agentic AI workloads. Historically, the company simply designed chips and licensed them to other companies like Nvidia, Amazon, and Apple. Big change. 5. Huge cash flow from Chevron: $4.1 billion in the quarter. On an adjusted basis, Chevron earned $1.41 per share, beating Wall Street expectations of 95 cents and its biggest profit since October 2020. 6. Mastercard had a very strong quarter, but the Street didn’t seem to think so. The company is a large global company with 3.7 billion cards and significant interests in the Middle East. We believe that if stablecoins are fully utilized as an intermediary, it has the potential to become a big business. I had a great talk with CEO Michael Miebach about this quarter, AI, and more. 7. After making money, you will love Reddit. Wells Fargo raised its price target to $176 from $149, citing growth in daily active users and better-than-expected second-quarter earnings guidance. Piper’s price rose from $205 to $215, and Bank of America’s price rose from $175 to $190. Both men cited a strong quarter in which sales increased 69%. This is a great stock. 8. Citi lowered Cardinal Health’s price target from $249 to $245 after Thursday’s earnings, citing risks in the global medical products and distribution sector. However, the company maintained its buy rating and said the post-earnings decline was an “overreaction.” I think it was a good quarter, but not great. Selling is an opportunity. 9. Roblox has been downgraded from Buy to Hold at Bank of America. Analysts said first-quarter bookings were “fair” and second-quarter bookings were significantly lower than expected. He also did not like the drastic reduction in the forecast for booking growth in 2026. The gaming platform’s stock price plunged nearly 25% in pre-market trading. 10. Caterpillar’s price target was raised to $1,125 from JPMorgan’s $860. The company said the equipment maker’s revenue should more than double by 2030, noting that “high-growth valuations are here to stay.” Caterpillar on Thursday raised its full-year sales forecast and significantly beat its profit. Sign up for free for my Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Markets email newsletter (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer Charitable Trust stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club, you’ll receive trade alerts before Jim makes a trade. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he will issue a trade alert and then wait 72 hours before executing the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with our disclaimer. No fiduciary duties or obligations exist or arise from your receipt of information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
