Dow futures tumble as Britain identifies a new COVID variant that triggers strict lockdown orders for London and travel restrictions with the rest of Europe. U.S. lawmakers agreed on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package late Sunday, with votes in both the House and the Senate expected later Monday.
In the last episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer said that Tesla’s (TSLA) – Get Report inclusion in the S&P 500 is a dream come true, and just like the broader market rally, the believers have been running circles around the skeptics.
TheStreet’s Katherine Ross and Cramer are talking about Darden’s earnings, Palantir becoming the next Tesla, and buying Microsoft.
Darden Restaurants Inc. Stock: Buy or Sell?
Darden Restaurants (DRI) – Get Report beat Wall Street’s second-quarter earnings expectations but the owner of Olive Garden reported disappointing sales and guidance.
Darden reported net earnings of $96 million, or 73 cents a share, up from $24.7 million, or 20 cents a share, in the year-ago period. The FactSet consensus called for earnings of 71 cents a share.
Sales totaled $1.66 billion, down 19.4% from a year ago, and missed Wall Street’s call for $1.69 billion.
Cramer thinks that Darden is “really interesting.”
“What matters is that how do you sell Darden now “knowing that Olive Garden is going to be one of the surviving restaurants given the fact that not a lot of restaurants are not going to stay open,” he said.
Palantir Stock: Buy or Sell?
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) – Get Report was falling Friday after Credit Suisse analysts downgraded shares of the analytics-software maker to underperform from neutral while raising the stock’s price target to $17 from $13.
Shares of Denver-based Palantir were falling 3.82% to $26.19 in trading Friday.
Analyst Brad Zelnick said in a note to investors titled “Well Ahead of Itself” that he sees “valuation disconnected from fundamentals with the stock now trading over 50% above our previous blue sky scenario.”
Cramer thinks that Palantir is not becoming the next Tesla (TSLA) – Get Report “because Palantir, in the end, does secret stuff and we are not really going to know what they do.”
Microsoft Stock: Buy or Sell?
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) – Get Report on Friday sounded the alarm over the SolarWinds (SWI) – Get Report cyber-attack imbroglio, saying it has found malicious software in its own systems related to the massive cyber-attack that was disclosed by U.S. officials earlier this week.
The Richmond, Wash.-based software giant is a user of Orion, the widely deployed networking management software from SolarWinds that was used in the suspected Russian attacks on several U.S. government agencies.
Cramer said that Microsoft explained a lot about what happened and “if anything I am a buyer not a seller” of the stock.
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