My top 10 things to watch Thursday, Jan. 30 1. Meta was outstanding both on top and bottom line. I didn’t think a quarter like that would be possible. Meta.ai has already become the largest assistant, and it is learning from all of the interactions people have. It will have won the personal agent role by the end of the year and can’t be stopped because it will outspend everyone. 2. Microsoft is problematic because it always seems to be growing these days as expected or a little bit slower. I thought CEO Satya Nadella had good things to say about Copilot and how so many companies are using it. Can Microsoft be the de facto corporate agent? Yes, but only because of its relationship with Open AI. DeepSeek comments from Wednesday night’s conference calls: Microsoft said falling software prices will increase consumption. Nadella embraced the advances made my Chinese AI startup DeepSeek with open arms. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t revise last week’s capital expenditure guidance after Monday’s DeepSeek tech rout. 3. Wall Street was looking at a mixed open after a Wednesday decline driven by pressure on Club stock Nvidia and the Fed holding interest rates steady and saying inflation remains “somewhat elevated.” Nvidia has been crushed this week on the DeepSeek developments. The inflation comments from the Fed implied rates may stay on hold for a while. GDP in the fourth quarter grew slower than expected. 4. Trump attacked the Federal Reserve pretty hard with charges that it spent too much time on diversity equity and inclusion and allowed inflation to run rampant. During the post-meeting news conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said he has had no contact with Trump, who said last week at Davos he wanted rates cut immediately. 5. Tesla’s quarter missed due to discounting but the post-earnings call was about the robotaxi this year, superior manufacturing and, most importantly, the robot Optimus. CEO Elon Musk wants to win the war to be your personal assistant capable of performing a wide range of tasks both at home and at the office. Things you don’t want to do. 6. Softbank is putting $15 billion to $25 billion in OpenAI. Nobody knows what’s really going on here. OpenAI Sam Altman is mercurial. Softbank and Oracle with OpenAI unveiled last week the Stargate Project, a big U.S. data center build commitment of up to $500 billion. The announcement was made at the White House with President Donald Trump. 7. ServiceNow served up some fantastic quarterly financials. But what’s freaking people out and dragging the stock down 10% is a comment on the conference call about how the company “assumes a more pronounced back half weighted seasonal linearity in our U.S. Federal business due to the change in the presidential administration.” 8. Shares of Club holding Dover added more than 2% despite mixed fourth-quarter results. Order growth was positive for the fifth straight quarter. The diversified industrial, which has exposure to the data center buildout, expects adjusted EPS growth in the double digits this year. 9. Wall Street analysts cut price targets on Club name Danaher after the life sciences company delivered a messy quarter and disappointing guidance. We cut our PT on Danaher, too. This is supposed to be a performance company. I am getting sick of Danaher getting the benefit of the doubt. 10. The turn continues at VF Corp. , whose stock we added to our Bullpen watch list last week. Barclays raised its price target on the company behind the well-known brands Vans, The North Face, Timberland, and Dickies. VF reported a strong quarter Wednesday. This is one of the fastest and will be one of the most studied turnarounds ever. 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.
Visitors take pictures by a sign posted in front of Meta headquarters on Jan. 29, 2025 in Menlo Park, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
My top 10 things to watch Thursday, Jan. 30
1.Meta was outstanding both on top and bottom line. I didn’t think a quarter like that would be possible. Meta.ai has already become the largest assistant, and it is learning from all of the interactions people have. It will have won the personal agent role by the end of the year and can’t be stopped because it will outspend everyone.
2.Microsoft is problematic because it always seems to be growing these days as expected or a little bit slower. I thought CEO Satya Nadella had good things to say about Copilot and how so many companies are using it. Can Microsoft be the de facto corporate agent? Yes, but only because of its relationship with Open AI.
DeepSeek comments from Wednesday night’s conference calls: Microsoft said falling software prices will increase consumption. Nadella embraced the advances made my Chinese AI startup DeepSeek with open arms. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t revise last week’s capital expenditure guidance after Monday’s DeepSeek tech rout.
3. Wall Street was looking at a mixed open after a Wednesday decline driven by pressure on Club stock Nvidia and the Fed holding interest rates steady and saying inflation remains “somewhat elevated.” Nvidia has been crushed this week on the DeepSeek developments. The inflation comments from the Fed implied rates may stay on hold for a while. GDP in the fourth quarter grew slower than expected.
