Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch – an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the final hour of Wall Street trading. Markets: The S&P 500 briefly touched 6,000 as record gains continued. It’s the fourth straight positive session for the broad-based index, which has risen nearly 4% since the presidential election. Interestingly, the 10-year Treasury yield is on track to end the week lower, despite a large swing higher in reaction to the election result. Donald Trump’s victory has sent banking and industrial stocks soaring on expectations of less regulation and a pro-business environment. Companies at risk of tariffs on goods made in China have exited the rally. Adding insult to injury, China-linked stocks felt additional pain on Friday on another disappointing stimulus update. What the market wants to see is for the Chinese government to put money directly into people’s hands to boost consumption. Tech lags, headlines shine: Tech stocks underperformed Friday, with all of the Magnificent 7 in the red except Tesla. Arista Networks’ disappointing 2025 guidance may be a culprit, but there is certainly some conservatism. All the major cloud hyperscalers raised their capex expectations last earnings season, supporting a rosy growth outlook for technology spending in 2025. The major stocks are making a curious move higher for reasons that aren’t immediately apparent. clear. Costco is the second best performer in the sector, rising more than 4% to another new all-time high. The only news this week at Costco was Wednesday night as it reported another strong set of monthly sales. Eli Lilly: Shares of Eli Lilly are finally putting together back-to-back winning sessions. Thursday was the first positive session for stocks since the very disappointing quarter and downgrade on October 30. Shares of Eli Lilly were trading at $903 ahead of the quarterly report, putting the post-earnings pullback at about 7%. What could help stocks on Friday is a positive research note from analysts at Wells Fargo. The analysts, who have an overweight rating on Lilly with a price target of $1,000, met with the company’s management team including CEO David Ricks for a two-day presentation. The key takeaway from the note was that the third quarter sales loss was not based on fundamentals or underlying demand, which was characterized as strong. Instead, it was due to the dynamics of the dismantling that we wrote about in the quarter. Wells added that management is “confident” about the fourth quarter, with accretion benefits not a key part of guidance. As for 2025, some tailwinds that Wells Fargo noted are Zepbound employer choices, index expansion and launches outside the United States. We’re troubled by Eli Lilly’s post-quarter messaging and all the confusion it caused, but we know we have more certainty that there wasn’t a demand problem — and the Street acknowledges that. Next: It’s a quieter earnings week with only 9 companies in the S&P 500 scheduled to report. Within the portfolio, Home Depot reports before the opening bell on Tuesday and Disney before the opening bell on Wednesday. Other notable companies reporting are Shopify, Tyson Foods, AstraZeneca, Spotify, Occidental, Cisco, Advance Auto Parts, Applied Materials and Alibaba. Earnings may be lighter, but it’s a tough week with economic data on inflation and consumer spending. On Wednesday is the consumer price index (CPI) report and the next day we will see the producer price index (PPI) report. The October retail sales report is due on Friday. (See here for a complete list of holdings in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Foundation.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you’ll receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a share in his charitable trust portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after the trade alert is issued before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTMENT CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY ALONG WITH OUR STATEMENT. NO OBLIGATION OR FIDUCIARY DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH INVESTOR CLUB. NO SPECIFIC RESULTS OR PROFITS ARE GUARANTEED.
An Eli Lilly & Co. injection pen. Zepbound arranged in the borough of Brooklyn, New York, USA, on Thursday, March 28, 2024.
Shelby Knowles | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch – an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the final hour of Wall Street trading.