Tri Cities Grain

Markets reacted sharply to Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole comments suggesting potential future interest rate hikes. Friday's August jobs report at 8:30am will test whether employment resilience justifies Warsh's caution on accommodation. The week delivers comprehensive manufacturing and services activity assessment alongside critical labor data. Tuesday features major earnings from Dell (DELL), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), and Medtronic (MDT) testing enterprise spending.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) reports earnings on Sept. 1, and Wall Street has high expectations. In the week before its quarterly release, almost every day an analyst firm raised its price target for the company. Benchmark started the rally by raising its price target on Aug. 24. J.P Morgan raised its price target on Aug. 25. Robert W. Baird raised it on Aug. 27. And Jefferies did the same on Aug. 28. All these firms kept a “Buy” rating on the stock.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the software landscape, giving investors a reason to reconsider which companies can capture the next wave of enterprise spending. Zoom Communications (ZM) occupies an appealing intersection, pairing an established communications platform with an expanding AI strategy. Zoom once depended heavily on video conferencing. Its enterprise business now grows faster than overall revenue, while AI products play a larger role across its broader platform.

Marvell Technology (MRVL) keeps winning over the analysts. GF Securities reiterated its favorable view on the stock, naming it a top pick within its positive outlook on custom AI chips. Analyst Henry Huang said much of the growth he sees comes from Alphabet's (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google. He expects three of Marvell’s chip lines tied to Google to bring in around $3 billion each by 2028.

Nvidia, Inc. (NVDA) produced impressive fiscal Q2 revenue and earnings, but its free cash flow (FCF) and FCF margins were lower than in Q1. NVDA may be stuck in a trading range, despite analysts' higher price targets. As a result, shorting out-of-the-money (OTM) puts might be the best play here. NVDA fell on Friday, Aug. 28, to $217.55. That's only slightly higher than before it released its results on Aug. 26 ($213.05 on Aug. 25).

Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) may be setting up another major catalyst for investors as the chip giant reportedly agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. According to The Information, the deal would rank among Nvidia’s largest acquisitions and give the company control over one of the most important platforms in the open-source artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. The strategic logic extends well beyond simply adding another AI company to Nvidia’s portfolio.

If you had told me at the beginning of May that I would spend part of my summer scanning thousands of stock charts every morning, writing daily stock analysis, and putting my technical reputation on the line across 21 individual picks, I would have been very skeptical. As a veteran portfolio manager, my career has been defined by viewing the investing world from 30,000 feet.

With a market cap of $760 billion, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is a high-performance and AI computing company focused on driving innovation across cloud, AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. Its broad portfolio includes AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software designed to deliver powerful, scalable computing solutions. Companies valued at $200 billion or more are generally classified as “mega-cap” stocks, and Advanced Micro Devices fits this criterion perfectly.

With a market cap of $385.8 billion, The Coca-Cola Company (KO) is a global beverage leader with brands sold across more than 200 countries and territories, serving about 2.2 billion drinks every day. Its portfolio spans sparkling soft drinks, water, sports drinks, coffee, tea, juice, dairy and plant-based beverages, including 32 billion-dollar brands. Companies valued at more than $200 billion are generally considered “mega-cap” stocks, and Coca-Cola fits this criterion perfectly.

With a market cap of $521.5 billion, Mastercard Incorporated (MA) is a global payments technology company operating across more than 220 countries and territories. It enables secure, simple, smart and accessible digital payments through its technology, network and broad range of products and services. Companies worth more than $200 billion are generally labeled as “mega-cap” stocks and Mastercard Incorporated fits this criterion perfectly.