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. Markets : It was shaping up to be another ugly day in the market, but stocks moved off their session lows after President Donald Trump said his tariff plan would have “flexibility.” We don’t exactly know what “flexibility” means ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariffs. But, the market took this less harsh update as good news because it may leave the door open for exemptions and maybe even a more targeted plan. The bounce off the lower levels Friday was enough to put the S & P 500 back on track for a positive week, although just barely. A positive weekly finish for the index would mark its first in five. Club movers: CrowdStrike was the top-performing stock in the portfolio, bucking the decline in the broader tech sector as software fared better than the semis. The cybersecurity company’s management team must have been making the rounds this week, with several analysts publishing positive notes from their recent meetings. Energy was the best-performing sector this week, with a gain of nearly 3%. Coterra Energy kept pace with its group and was one of the best portfolio stocks for the week. The financials were the second-best performing sector this week and rebounded from their recent pullbacks. Our four financial stocks are finished positive, including Capital One Financial despite a nasty pullback on Monday tied to a report that said the Justice Department may challenge its Discover acquisition. However several analysts came to the defense of Capital One, pointing out that if necessary, the company could sell part of its subprime business to ease concerns and the deal would still be highly accretive. A spokesperson for Capital One told CNBC in a statement that the merger meets all legal requirements and remains “well-positioned to gain approval.” Health care had a solid upside week. Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly both outperformed. Danaher lagged but the stock caught an upgrade for the second Friday in a row. On the downside, it was a rough week for the Magnificent Seven. Every one of them except for Apple delivered a negative weekly move. The decline in Nvidia came despite what we thought was another exciting GTC . CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote featured another positive Blackwell data point and the company announced too many partnerships to count. Up next: No companies in the portfolio are scheduled to report next week. Some headliners are KB Home, McCormick, Dollar Tree, Cintas Chewy, and Lululemon. The most interesting report may be Jefferies on Wednesday night. It may not be a globally systemically important bank, also known as GSIB. Still, earnings from Jefferies will give us a look into how investment banking activity is shaping up in the first quarter and beyond. The rebound in M & A many expected this year has failed to materialize due to concerns about tariffs, trade policy, and other uncertainties, prompting analysts at Oppenheimer to downgrade their ratings on Goldman Sachs and Jefferies to a hold-equivalent peer perform this week. We took the other side of the trade and nibbled on some Goldman shares into slight weakness, pointing to a couple of high profile potential IPOs in the works as a potential sign that dealmaking is getting ready to pick up. On the economic data side, there are S & P Global PMIs on Monday, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence on Tuesday, durable goods orders Wednesday, and then Friday is a big one with February PCE price index, which is the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge, and the final read on March consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan survey. (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.