10 things to watch in the stock market Friday including the AI race and dealmaking
The Club's 10 things to watch Friday, June 20 — Today's newsletter was written by Zev Fima, the Investing Club's portfolio analyst 1. Wall Street is on pace for a higher open this morning as investors await President Donald Trump's decision on direct U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict. Oil futures gave up earlier gains, while natural gas hit its highest level since early April. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said the central bank could cut rates as early as July. 2. Club name Home Depot has submitted a bid to acquire building products and solutions provider GMS Inc , The Wall Street Journal reported . This follows a $5 billion offer from QXO on Wednesday. It's unclear what Home Depot offered. We aren't fans of bidding wars. 3. Google is using YouTube videos to train its AI models, CNBC reported , showing how tech giants are leveraging their own platforms to gain model-building advantages. Consider: Meta has social media data. Alphabet has Google Search and YouTube. Amazon has shopping and Alexa data. Apple has phone usage data, but we still need to see more from them. We own Meta, Amazon and Apple for the Club. 4. Meta is also using its wallet to gain an AI talent edge. After poaching Scale AI's Alexandr Wang , the Instagram owner is planning to hire Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, CNBC reported . That comes after Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI co-founder, rejected Meta's attempt to acquire Safe Superintelligence earlier this year. 5. SoftBank's Masayoshi Son is looking to partner with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to build a $1 trillion AI and robotics factory in Arizona, Bloomberg News reported . TSMC is already building its chipmaking campus in the state. 6. Sticking with robotics: Club name Nvidia and Foxconn are in discussions about deploying humanoid robots at the contract manufacturer's factory in Houston that's set to produce Nvidia AI servers, Reuters reported . 7. Club name Dover acquired a German maker of hygienic pumps called IPP and is folding it into the company's Pumps & Process Solutions segment. The acquisition expands Dover's presence in industries including food and beverage and pharmaceuticals. Dover also made a deal last month for Sikora. 8. Club name Eli Lilly said the launch of Mounjaro in India has been "positive" since it began in March, Reuters reported . Sales of the diabetes and weight-loss drug appear to have increased 60% from April to May, the report noted, citing data from PharmaTrac. 9. Shares of Olive Garden owner Darden rose more than 2% this morning after the restaurant operator's fourth-quarter sales and earnings edged out estimates. Earnings guidance for its fiscal 2026 looks a bit short, while same-store-sales guidance appears to be in line with expectations. 10. Morgan Stanley said it is "tactically bullish" on Micron into its earnings report next week due to an acceleration in AI spending. Still, analysts kept their hold-equivalent rating on the chip stock, which has soared nearly 90% from its tariff-driven low in early April. Wedbush lifted its price target on buy-rated Micron to $150 a share from $130, citing positive pricing trends. 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.
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