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. Market moves: Stocks were poised to close out the week on a strong note. Friday’s gains put the S & P 500 on track for a weekly gain of more than 3%, a feat it hasn’t done since the election. There was a lot of angst in the market last Friday about inflation and rising interest rates after the Labor Department reported a big increase in jobs for December. The resilience of the labor market and concerns about sticky inflation even led some prognosticators to suggest the Federal Reserve may be forced to raise interest rates at some later this year. But what a difference a week makes — the market breathed a sigh of relief after back-to-back days of cooler-than-expected inflation reports, which caused the 10-year Treasury yield to plummet and stock to soar. Winners: Cyclicals and economically sensitive stocks were the big winners this week. The top-performing sectors were materials, energy, and financials. The two materials stocks in the portfolio — DuPont and Linde — both outperformed the broader S & P 500. Linde caught an upgrade to buy from hold from TD Cowen on Monday. The stock has gained over 4% year to date after a 2% advance in 2024. DuPont said Wednesday it moved up its breakup timeline to Nov. 1 but will only separate its electronics business. The company, which won’t spin off its water operations after all, also reaffirmed its fourth-quarter outlook, an update we viewed positively because the stock was acting like a miss was coming. Wolfe Research upgraded its DuPont rating to an outperform buy on Friday. DuPont has gained more than 2% year to date after last year’s nearly 1% drop. While Coterra had a strong week among energy stocks, we downgraded the stock to our 2 rating on Friday and said we would trim it if not restricted to book profits. The Club stock has logged an impressive 15% rise so far this year after a flat 2024. The financials shined thanks to strong earnings. Club names BlackRock , Wells Fargo , and Goldman Sachs rallied in reaction to their better-than-expected fourth-quarter reports. Goldman Sachs was the top-performing stock in the portfolio this week — soaring more than 11%. Goldman shares hit an all-time high on Friday. Wells Fargo finished the week near a record high. Both stocks were up around 8% year to date. Wells Fargo rose 19% in 2024. Goldman soared 48%. BlackRock, which jumped 26% in 2024, has come off the boil this year — down about 2% year to date. Losers : When cyclicals lead the market, you’ll most likely see defensive stocks lag. That’s what played out this past week in the bottom two sectors: health care and consumer staples. We were hoping for more of a spark coming out of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco — where Jim Cramer spent the early part of his week. But it didn’t materialize. Of our four health-care stocks, only Eli Lilly was poised to finish the week in the red after announcing preliminary fourth-quarter sales that missed expectations. We would have been buyers on the dip because the 2025 outlooked looked guide and supply is increasing. Lilly shares have dropped 5% year to date after last year’s 32% advance. Out of our staples, Costco was roughly flat this week and Constellation Brands added 1% but has a long way to go to recover from last Friday’s selloff. Costco has gained more than 2% year to date after soaring 39% in 2024. Constellation, the Modelo and Corona brewer, has lost 16% year to date after an 8.5% drop in 2024. Up Next: The week ahead is going to be a busy one. But we have to skip past Monday because the stock market will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Monday is also when Donald Trump will be inaugurated as president for another term. Earnings pick up next week with more than 30 companies in the S & P 500 set to report. Some of the big names are 3M , GE Aerospace , Schwab , J & J , Procter & Gamble , American Express , and Netflix . Only one company in the portfolio is scheduled to report and that’s Abbott Laboratories . It will release earnings before Wednesday’s opening bell. On the data side, it’s not as consequential of a week as this past one, but there are still weekly initial jobless claims on Thursday, as well as S & P Global PMIs and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index on Friday. In terms of events, on Thursday at noon ET, we’ll hold our January Monthly Meeting. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) 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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.
