Obesity drugs approach a major milestone, and Lilly may have a 'game changer' ahead

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. A late day rally is needed if the S & P 500 and Nasdaq on Thursday are to avoid their fourth down session in a row. As of 2:45 p.m. ET, the S & P 500 had inched into slightly positive territory. The Nasdaq was still negative. While the semiconductor and data center buildout theme got a jolt of good news from Micron's earnings and strong forward commentary, the companies that have to foot the higher memory chip bill — think cloud hyperscalers like Amazon , Microsoft , Meta Platforms and Alphabet , but also Apple because consumer electronics need these chips too — are seeing their stocks tumble. As Jim Cramer pointed out in his Sunday column , the memory chip shortage has been one of the key drivers behind the recent stock weakness in the hyperscalers, throwing a monkey wrench in their growth plans. Shares of Eli Lilly traded higher Thursday afternoon after analysts at Leerink raised their price target on the GLP-1 maker by 10%, to $1,232 from $1,119. The firm raised its price target in anticipation of upside to obesity sales outside the U.S. as utilization grows in international markets. Back at home, the analysts expect prescription momentum for Lilly's oral GLP-1 Foundayo and injectable Zepbound to pick up when Medicare obesity coverage begins July 1 for $50 a month. …