My top 10 things to watch Thursday, Jan. 8 1. The S & P 500 was headed for a lower open this morning, retreating from its all-time intraday highs seen during the prior session. Fresh economic data this morning was largely positive. The index did, however, close lower yesterday after President Donald Trump said that Venezuela will give up as much as 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. 2. Venezuela without guarantees might be a fool’s errand for some of the oil companies to commit capital in the volatile South American country, as there is no rule of law. According to media reports, Trump is set to meet with executives from Chevron , ConocoPhillips , and Exxon at the White House tomorrow. 3. Bloomberg reported this morning that China plans to allow Club holding Nvidia to sell some of its H200 chips as soon as this quarter. I am thinking that the tech stock can’t lift because there are more than the usual number of doubters. People still think Nvidia is hardware, not software. 4. A lot is going on with defense stocks, too. Trump ordered U.S. defense companies to stop dividends and stock buybacks until they address his complaints about the industry. In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump blasted these firms for taking too long to produce military equipment. He also called for an increase in the country’s defense budget late Wednesday. If you strip them of dividends and buybacks but raise the budget, would you want to own defense names or short them? That depends on the stock. Club holding Boeing has no dividends or buybacks. 5. Is the White House’s plan to ban institutional investors from buying homes just a drop in the bucket? No. If you forced these corporate home repositories to dump their properties, that could start a cycle of liquidation that would bring down prices. Such an effort in this tight residential real estate market is not so easily dismissed as wrongheaded. 6. Citi lowered its price target on D.R. Horton ‘s to $154 from $163. Analysts, who kept their hold rating, like heavy construction materials with exposure to infrastructure more than residential-exposed stocks. Other homebuilders Lennar and Pulte saw big PT cuts, too. This group is being killed, including the Club’s own Home Depot , which depends on housing. 7. Needham downgraded Nike to hold from buy without a price target. Analysts say that the athletic retailer’s turnaround story is taking longer than expected. China also “appears highly problematic,” according to Needham. The Club stock is down more than 1% premarket. 8. Truist made a macro call on Club name Texas Roadhouse after a tough year. The analysts, who raised their price target to $206 from $195 and kept their buy rating, said consumers getting tax breaks and inflation coming down should help. But cattle prices refuse to comply, already up more than 1% in 2026, following an over 20% increase last year. 9. Constellation Brands reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings per share and revenue, but both were below year-ago levels. We need to hear from the Modelo and Corona brewer on the post-earnings conference call, which begins at 10:30 a.m. ET. Beer depletions were down 3%. Wine and spirits were flat. Depletions, a key industry metric, are sales from distributors to retailers. 10. Walmart saw price target increases at Barclays ($125 from $108) and Oppenheimer ($125 from $115). Both firms kept their buy ratings. For the Club, we prefer and own Costco , which reported December sales last night. Costco delivered 7% comps; up 6.3% excluding gas. Big beats. The numbers should shake the lethargy off the stock. 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.
