My top 10 things to watch Friday, Oct. 18

1. Wall Street is headed for a mixed open. The Nasdaq is being helped by a pop in Netflix shares while the Dow is down a bit after closing Thursday at a record high. The S&P 500, which touched an intraday high Thursday before finishing lower, is on track for modest gains to end the week.

2. Tour-de-force quarter from Netflix driven by content and its incredibly popular ad tier, which saw a nice quarter-over-quarter rise in sign-ups. The company wants you to understand that you only need a bundle if you are threatened by traditional media's eclipse.

3. Sales of Apple's new iPhone 16 in China are up 20% in the first three weeks of launch compared with last year's model, according to Counterpoint Research data provided to Bloomberg. This is the full-scale opposite of what we have been hearing and points to healthier consumer demand than some might expect, given China's sluggish economy. A deflationary spiral is hard to break. We own Apple for the Club.

4. KeyBanc raised its price target on Club holding Palo Alto Networks to $435 a share from $400, implying nearly 16% upside from Thursday's close. Analysts cite survey results showing improved performance in the quarter along with a rosier outlook on IT budgets into 2025. Earlier this week, we took a stake in a second cybersecurity provider.

5. Karen Lynch is out as chief executive at CVS Health. David Joyce, the CEO of pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark, takes her place. Can he really make a difference? Shares tumbled nearly 10% Friday. The company also announced a big earnings shortfall for the third quarter.

6. Procter & Gamble shares were lower after reporting another quarter of sluggish growth. Despite weaker-than-expected topline sales numbers, the company's earnings per share of $1.93 beat estimates by three cents. Organic sales growth was up 2%. Organic volume was up 1%. We exited our position in P&G earlier this month, believing the stock was no longer right for this market.

7. JMP Securities upped its price target on Oracle to $205 a share from $175, implying almost 17% upside from Thursday's close. Analysts are upbeat on Oracle's AI computing infrastructure. The company is hungry for more data centers. When you think of that, think industrial Club names like Eaton and Dover, which benefit from this capacity buildout.

8. Piper Sandler lowered its PT on Microsoft to $470 a share from $480 ahead of earnings later this month. Analysts cautioned that the tech giant's new reporting structure could result in "optical headwinds" because estimates haven't fully captured the changes. For its part, KeyBanc lifted its PT to $505 from $490, citing strong IT spending overall. We own Microsoft for the Club. I have questions about its Copilot offering.

9. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into whether Tesla's advanced driver assistance system, which it markets as "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)," is safe to use in reduced visibility conditions. There's been reports of four collisions, including one that was fatal, where FSD was being used within 30 seconds of the crash.

10. American Express shares were lower despite an earnings beat. Consumers are paying more for cards even if sales were slightly light. Spending was up 6% in the quarter, and 3.3 million cardholders were added. Provisions for credit losses rose to $1.4 billion from $1.2 billion a year ago.

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