Here’s why the market plunged Friday, and the series of stock buys we made in response

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. Forceful sell-off: Wall Street was getting slammed in Friday afternoon trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 750 points, or 1.9%. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq sank 2.2% and 2.5%, respectively. The sharp selling began Thursday after some soft economic data prompted investors to start questioning whether the Federal Reserve was right to keep interest rates steady the day before . Then Friday morning, a weak jobs report solidified concerns about economic growth and whether the Fed put itself even further behind where the market thinks rates should be. Ahead of the employment data, three quarter-percentage point cuts were expected this year, starting in September. The jobs numbers, which showed an uptick in unemployment and lower-than-expected wage inflation, boosted market odds that September might see a half-percentage point rate cut. Jim Cramer said Friday the Fed should have cut at this week’s meeting. However, he was calling for calm all day long, saying the flight from stocks, especially megacap tech companies, was overdone. Jobs data: The U.S. economy added just 114,000 nonfarm jobs last month — well below the downwardly revised 179,000 in June and the Dow Jones estimate for 185,000. The nation’s unemployment rate in July rose to 4.3%, the highest level since October 2021. Average hourly earnings increased 0.2% for the month and 3.6% from a year ago. Both figures were lower than expected. Investors selling stocks piled into bonds. The price on the 10-year Treasury soared and the yield inversely plunged to 3.81% — its lowest level since December. Bond traders, which have been bidding down yields recently, have not been waiting for the Fed to cut rates. They’re doing their part to lower rates as many consumer loans are pegged to the 10-year Treasury yield. Flurry of moves: We turned to our large cash position Friday to take advantage of all the market volatility. Given all the number of actions we took across multiple trade alerts, here’s a summary of them all in one place. Shortly after the opening bell, we picked up 50 shares of chipmaker Broadcom . That is half the shares we trimmed in June at much-higher prices. At the same time, we told members we also would’ve added to our Advanced Micro Devices position if not for our trading restrictions. Those were in place with AMD because Jim Cramer mentioned the stock on CNBC TV over the past 72 hours. Later, we bought 30 shares of Palo Alto Networks . Trimming the stock multiple times this year at levels above Friday’s prices helped inform our decision to buy the cybersecurity firm here. In that same alert, we upgraded Nvidia , Amazon and Meta Platforms to our buy-equivalent 1 ratings. We indicated that we would be buyers of Amazon, in particular, on Friday if not for our trading restrictions. And finally, we said in the same alert that we have our eyes on DuPont , Dover and Wells Fargo heading into next week. A key element to our thinking Friday was that if the situation was reversed and stocks were surging, we’d likely be looking for places in the portfolio to lock in some gains. The sell-off, then, represented an opportunity to put some cash to work and boost our exposure to high-quality companies at more attractive levels. Up next: The flood of portfolio earnings reports in recent days slows to a trickle next week. Wynn Resorts, which we downgraded Thursday , is set to release results after the bell Tuesday. Before the open Wednesday, Disney is slated to report; we added to our position in the media-and-entertainment giant Monday. Eli Lilly is scheduled to complete the week of Club earnings Thursday morning. Of course, the biggest focus will be sales of its GLP-1 drugs, Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for obesity. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) 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.

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.