Jim Cramer’s daily rapid fire looks at stocks in the news outside the CNBC Investing Club portfolio. Southwest Airlines : Well-known activist firm Elliott Management has a nearly $2 billion stake in the Texas-based carrier. The stock popped nearly 8%. “Southwest Air is an underperformer for many, many years, but it does have a good balance sheet,” Jim Cramer said. “Therefore, when you see that situation — good balance sheet and you get Elliott in — a lot of good things can happen. Buy.” Adobe : Melius Research downgraded Adobe to a hold, contending that enterprise software is facing increased competition from artificial intelligence. “[Lead analyst] Ben Reitzes has been very strong,” Cramer said. “And what he’s saying, basically, is, ‘Look, you’ve got to be careful.'” Advanced Micro Devices : Analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded the semiconductor designer, saying investor expectations for its AI chip business seem too high. “I’m not so sure they’re as high as people think,” Cramer said. “But what matters here is that Lisa Su’s chips … only really are known for inference, not for training. But people want training and inference.” The CNBC Investing Club has long owned Nvidia , the dominant maker of AI chips. Walmart : JPMorgan upgraded the retail giant to a buy-equivalent rating. “About time,” he said. “Walmart and Costco have been the two. You own one or the other, but you can’t own none.” The Investing Club owns Costco. CrowdStrike : Shares jumped 9% after the cybersecurity company was tapped to join the S & P 500 before the June 24 session begins. Private equity firm KKR and web services provider GoDaddy also will join the benchmark index. “There isn’t a day that I don’t think why didn’t we do CrowdStrike versus Palo Alto? And yet if you look at the long term, Palo Alto has been very good,” Cramer said. Still, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz “is remarkable,” he said. The Club has owned Palo Alto Networks since February 2023.
