My top 10 things to watch Tuesday, Feb. 18 1. The holiday-shortened week is relatively quiet on economic data and earnings , but my Investing Club has its Monthly Meeting at noon ET on Thursday. A key theme I’ll be discussing: How to stay long Nvidia and Apple , for better or worse. 2. DeepSeek was good for Nvidia because the Chinese AI startup’s more efficient model broadened the need for its newest chip platform Blackwell, which has impressive video capabilities. But ahead of Nvidia’s earnings report next week, keep in mind that Blackwell demand is hard to meet because the production and installation process is complex. 3. Apple may be the winner in China’s new initiatives to restore growth. Its plans to partner with Alibaba and Baidu on artificial intelligence features is brilliant and could stoke demand for the iPhone 16. Apple shares are coming off a great week, fueled by this AI news. 4. Is Palantir ‘s stock too high? Short sellers are circling, but the question is will there be a big Department of Government Efficiency push that the Pentagon that leads to even more demand for Palantir’s software tools? Palantir was one of 10 companies that went public in recent years with staying power. I highlighted them in my weekly column for Club members . 5. Robinhood , another company discussed in my column, was downgraded to a hold-equivalent rating from outperform by Wolfe Research. Analysts say the elements of its bull case have mostly played out and are priced in. Not a fan of the downgrade. This is a cult stock. 6. Club name Broadcom has held informal discussions about making a bid for Intel’s chip-design and marketing business, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has separately looked at plans to control some or all of Intel’s manufacturing operations, The Journal reported. Not clear yet if this would actually amount to Intel being broken up. 7. Research analysts at Bank of America raised their Citigroup price target to $100 per share from $95. Citi CEO Jane Fraser is loved by the Street. BofA also boosted its PTs on Club names Wells Fargo to $90 and Goldman Sachs to $750. The analysts came away from their firm’s annual financial services conference optimistic about group. 8. Piper Sandler lowered its Floor & Decor price target to $103 per share from $118, citing the stock’s high multiple. The analysts did keep their neutral rating, noting long-term possibilities. We own view Home Depot as better way to play a recovery in housing. Plus, Home Depot stands to benefit from Los Angeles wildfire rebuilding. 9. Does Elon Musk’s xAI startup have the best AI model? The company unveiled its latest model , called Grok 3, and claims its performance bests OpenAI and DeepSeek in early testing. I find it hard to track these things and find out what the truth is. 10. Wolfe downgraded Datadog to a peer perform hold rating. This is enterprise software. You cannot downgrade these stocks. They are loved by big institutions, though recently it’s been a bit of a tough ride. Look at ServiceNow and Club name Salesforce . 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.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang present NVIDIA Blackwell platform at an event ahead of the COMPUTEX forum, in Taipei, Taiwan June 2, 2024.
Ann Wang | Reuters
My top 10 things to watch Tuesday, Feb. 18
1. The holiday-shortened week is relatively quiet on economic data and earnings, but my Investing Club has its Monthly Meeting at noon ET on Thursday. A key theme I’ll be discussing: How to stay long Nvidia and Apple, for better or worse.
2. DeepSeek was good for Nvidia because the Chinese AI startup’s more efficient model broadened the need for its newest chip platform Blackwell, which has impressive video capabilities. But ahead of Nvidia’s earnings report next week, keep in mind that Blackwell demand is hard to meet because the production and installation process is complex.
3. Apple may be the winner in China’s new initiatives to restore growth. Its plans to partner with Alibaba and Baidu on artificial intelligence features is brilliant and could stoke demand for the iPhone 16. Apple shares are coming off a great week, fueled by this AI news.
