A 32-point gap separates the best and worst names in a 381-stock universe today: ServiceNow and Fortinet both shed roughly 24% while Eli Lilly leads the upside at 7.72%. Positioning set for a quiet session is already wrong.
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Merck topped expectations on both lines and lifted its full-year non-GAAP EPS range to $2.77 to $2.82, a signal patent cliffs are not yet biting the bottom line. Winrevair growth is offsetting Bridion's collapse to U.S. generics.
Defense and big pharma own the top of the board at the open, led by Northrop Grumman up 5.36%, with Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck also higher. The pain is concentrated in crypto miners and optics names, where IREN leads the decline.
Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 10/1/26
- Cramer still buys Palantir at $190 after the stock gained 60% in Q3 and stalled short of his $250 target
- Salesforce, up 46.5%, called the better SaaS-apocalypse rebound than Veeva at 30 times earnings
- Caterpillar's 24% Q3 profit taking framed as a buying chance on data center engine demand
- IBM, down 22% on its miss, gets the wait-a-quarter rule; Home Depot stays hostage to rates
Cramer wants to add software as the bounce-back trade and the beaten-down industrial names tied to data center power. He also warns that rising rates are the real threat heading into earnings season in a couple of weeks.
- BRK.BBerkshire Hathaway Inc. New Common Stock (BRK.B)Buy$1K – $15KAug 7
- CBUBS IRA Account Chubb Limited Common Stock (CB)Sell$15K – $50KAug 19
- IBMUBS Brokerage Account International Business Machines Corporation Common Stock (Partial sell$1K – $15KAug 24
- IBMUBS Brokerage Account International Business Machines Corporation Common Stock (Partial sell$1K – $15KAug 24
- MRKUBS IRA Account Merck & Company, Inc. Common Stock (MRK)Buy$15K – $50KAug 19
- MRKUBS IRA Account Merck & Company, Inc. Common Stock (MRK)Buy$15K – $50KAug 19
- MRNAUBS Brokerage Account Moderna, Inc. - Common Stock (MRNA)Partial sell$1K – $15KAug 19
- MRNAUBS Brokerage Account Moderna, Inc. - Common Stock (MRNA)Buy$1K – $15KAug 19
Salazar rotated out of insurance and legacy tech and into big pharma, with two Merck buys of up to $50,000 each landing the same August day she sold Chubb. The filing also shows private SpaceX shares bought in two separate accounts, a reminder that members are accessing pre-IPO names retail investors cannot touch. Disclosed 33 days after the trades.
MRK Coverage
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