Wall Street analysts rush to Eli Lilly’s defense but investors aren’t listening

Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Friday’s key moments. 1. Stocks advanced Friday as Wall Street looks to close out a winning week. The S & P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were solidly higher. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is on track for another record closing high. Next week all eyes will be on a slew of U.S. economic data, most notably on the inflation front. The consumer price index is due out Tuesday morning and carries implications for the Federal Reserve’s next monetary policy move. If inflation has picked up significantly, that could force the market to reconsider its expectations for a cut at the Fed’s September meeting. 2. Wall Street analysts came to Eli Lilly’s defense Friday after the stock plunged 14% Thursday on disappointing late-stage trial data for its obesity pill, which also overshadowed its overall solid quarterly earnings report. “Yesterday was just a disaster of a day,” said Jeff Marks, the Club’s director of portfolio analysis. Morgan Stanley said the sell-off was “overdone.” Meanwhile, JPMorgan argued that the pullback in shares creates a “compelling entry point.” Despite the positive Wall Street chatter, Eli Lilly stock fell another 2.5% during Friday trading. There’s a lot of hesitation to get back into the stock right now. We feel the same way, which is why the Club downgraded to a 3 rating, meaning sell into strength, and lowered our price target to $800 from $1,000. The analyst community is “all getting really behind Eli Lilly, but the investors [are] not quite yet,” Marks added. 3. Meta Platforms has reportedly turned to alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital and bond giant PIMCO to lead a $29 billion financial deal to help fund the company’s data center expansion. Bloomberg News first reported on the deal. We applaud Meta’s push further into AI. “It really just shows their commitment to AI,” Marks said. “They’re not afraid to really use a lot of their cash flow to support these efforts.” Shares of the social media giant are up slightly on Friday. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long LLY, META. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.