My top 10 things to watch Friday, Oct. 24 1. The long-awaited September consumer inflation report, delayed because of the ongoing government shutdown, came in slightly cooler than expected at an 3% annual rate. While still above the Fed’s 2% target rate, the stock market liked the number. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said he has called off trade talks with Canada . 2. Intel shares rose almost 7% this morning after a comeback quarter. Demand for PCs was strong, five years past the Covid pull-forward in demand. Now the refresh is off a larger base. Windows 11 is helping that, too. The buildout of AI infrastructure is also driving server CPU demand, with supply constraints limiting revenue upside in the quarter. 3. The good news at Intel is also good for data storage plays Western Digital , Seagate and Micron . That’s somewhat reflected already in their estimates, but there is much more demand than supply. Buy Dell off Intel’s print, too. Numbers for AMD , which makes both PC and server CPUs, are also most likely too low. 4. Procter & Gamble’s quarter was sharply better than expected, earning $1.99 a share versus $1.90 expected. Beauty was the top-performing segment with organic sales up 6%. A quarter into its fiscal year, P & G backed the full-year earnings and sales guide it issued in July. It cut its tariff headwind estimate in half to $400 million. 5. Beyond Meat has failed as a meme stock after a roughly 600% move over three days. The Street won’t play ball. Mizuho Securities cut its price target to $1.50 from $2 and kept its sell rating. It’s not expecting a material sales pickup from Beyond’s new Walmart deal. 6. Quantum stocks, including IonQ , Rigetti , and D-Wave , were all up again this morning — though not as much as yesterday’s powerful rally despite the Trump administration throwing cold water on talks to take equity stakes with $10 million funding awards. Almost all of them have analyst buy ratings. Would $10 million even matter? 7. Resurrection of Ford ? Bank of America raises its price target on the automaker stock to $14.50 from $13.50. The analysts said Ford’s guidance was messy due to the impact of a fire at an aluminum supplier, but yesterday’s earnings showed the underlying business is strong. The stock rose more than 3% this morning. 8. Deckers Outdoors shares sank 12% this morning after the Hoka and Ugg shoe company’s full-year revenue forecast fell short of expectations. Lots of analysts cut price targets. UGG beat. Hoka sales missed. Can this signal a resurgence of Club name Nike ? 9. Citi raised its price target by $2 to $265 on Union Pacific . The analysts added the stock to their focus list and put on an upside 90-day catalyst watch. The stock is too low ahead of a shareholder vote on the Norfolk Southern merger. 10. Two major firms announced layoffs. Target is cutting 1,800, or about 8%, corporate jobs ahead of getting a new CEO early next year. Separately, Applied Materials is cutting more than 1,400 jobs or 4% of its workforce, citing “automation, digitalization and geographic shifts.” 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.
