Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer publishes Homestretch, a helpful afternoon update just in time for the final hour of trading on Wall Street. (We will no longer be recording audio, so we can get this new written article to members as quickly as possible.) Inflation Relief: The stock market was mostly up on Thursday, although the Dow Jones was under some pressure. Stocks looked like they were headed for a lower session before the opening bell, but they got a boost after the January core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.4% month on month. over month in January and 2.8% year over year, in line with expectations. “The fact that S&P 500 futures were down so much ahead of PCE is a reminder that the negativity is still in full force,” Jim Cramer said Thursday. On this last day of February, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are poised to post strong monthly gains. Semifinals Soar: Semiconductor stocks were a bright spot within technology, outperforming software stocks and other tech hardware stocks. The group may be reacting to a note from Citi analysts that said they are “still wildly optimistic about the semi-finals.” Jim said: “Chris Danely from the Citi department is helping us get to the semi-finals.” Cramer said. “Don't forget Broadcom, it's one of their purchases.” Citi's favorite AI plays are club names Nvidia and Broadcom, as well as Bullpen's Advanced Micro Devices. Danely's top pick on the DRAM rally is Micron. Dividend increase: Club name Eaton hit another all-time high on Thursday after announcing a 9% increase in its quarterly dividend. The increase in payouts will move its dividend yield to 1.3% from 1.19%. Added income is always appreciated, but Eaton is much more of an industrial growth stock than a value stock. Its energy management solutions come into play with so many different megatrends, which is why we named it one of the Club's Top 12 Holdings last Saturday at our annual meeting. On deck: We're almost done with earnings season. But there are still some companies reporting after the bell, including Zscaler, Dell Technologies and Autodesk. GLP-1 Madness: We'll be watching a new CNBC original on Thursday at 10 pm called “Big Shot: The Ozempic Revolution.” The documentary will focus on Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, which became the name associated with this new GLP-1 class of anti-obesity injectables. (Technically, Ozempic is Novo's diabetes treatment and Wegovy is Novo's weight loss drug.) However, Cramer said, “Don't forget that you need protein if you're going to take these and the name of the club, Abbott Laboratories, has a protein shortcut supplement that will be in high demand.” As for Eli Lilly, one of the reasons we believe he has built a wide moat around his GLP-1s (Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes) is because of the billions he invested in ability. Lilly's advantage was the reason we ruled out Viking Therapeutics' Phase 2 drug as a serious contender. Viking has no balance sheet to compete with Novo and the Lilly club name. Following its recent surge in price (a 121% gain on Tuesday and an 11% rise on Wednesday), biotech Viking's shares fell 15.5% on Thursday after raising $550 million through a offer of almost 6.5 million shares. “Viking's offer serves as a reminder that it is not safe to speculate in companies that do not have the money to compete with Lilly,” Cramer said. (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust holdings.) 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 fund'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 INVESTMENT 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 THE RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN RELATION TO THE INVESTMENT CLUB. NO SPECIFIC RESULTS OR BENEFITS ARE GUARANTEED.
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer publishes Homestretch, a helpful afternoon update just in time for the final hour of trading on Wall Street. (We will no longer be recording audio, so we can get this new written feature to members as quickly as possible.)
