It's been a topsy-turvy start to 2025 for the stock market. Since the Club's monthly meeting in December, Wall Street has been bombarded by headlines that sent stocks swinging down and then up. The S&P 500 closed 2024 with a gain of about 23% despite falling in the last four sessions of the year and the first trading day of 2025. Although it recovered on January 3, the Santa Claus rally faltered. After losing ground in the first two weeks of 2025, the last nearly two weeks have been stronger, with the S&P 500 hitting an all-time intraday high on Wednesday. The index, however, did not finish above its December 6 closing high of just over 6,090. From the monthly meeting on December 19 to Wednesday's close, the S&P 500 rose 3.7%. The tech-heavy Dow and Nasdaq advanced 4.2% and 3.2%, respectively, over the same period. Our top performers during that stretch were Coterra Energy, Nextracker, Goldman Sachs, GE Healthcare and Wells Fargo. Here's how the winners fared over the past 33 days and what drove the gains in each. 1. Coterra Energy up 23.3% Shares have risen since the beginning of the year thanks to strength in energy commodities. Rising prices for West Texas Intermediate crude oil and natural gas have lifted the oil and gas exploration and production company. Ahead of the January monthly meeting, which will be live-streamed Thursday at noon ET, Coterra's advance has placed the stock at No. 26 in the entire S&P 500 in 2025. The stock is No. 4 in the energy sector, which has been the top-performing sector in the S&P 500 so far this year. After a year of balance in 2024, we did not want to reverse the recent rally. So, we shorted Coterra on Tuesday and made a 1% gain on shares purchased in April 2022. President Donald Trump wants to pave the way with deregulation to boost American energy production. 2. Nextracker up 21.7% Most of the solar stock's gains were concentrated in early 2025, offsetting last year's 22% drop. It's not entirely clear what caused Nextracker stock to rise earlier this month. We previously speculated that the rally could be related to investors buying back shares after selling them in late December for tax-loss harvesting purposes, which caused stocks to fall artificially. Mizuho analysts later rated Nextracker stock a “top pick” in their outlook for the clean energy and renewables sector, while raising their price target on the stock. After that, then-President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would require more infrastructure for generative AI, including new clean energy facilities. Both contributed to the rise in the stock. We made two sales of Nextracker thanks to recent gains since the December meeting. Nextracker shares fell on Thursday, extending a three-session losing streak. 3. Goldman Sachs up 14.2% Bank stocks had two major catalysts over the past month. First, stocks have advanced as part of the deal with Trump. Investors appear optimistic that another four years of Trump in office could lead to a rebound in trading on Wall Street due to a more lenient regulatory environment. Goldman Sachs also rose to near-record levels in its quarterly results on January 15. The firm “once again finished the year as the number one M&A advisor in the markets,” CEO David Solomon said on the post-earnings conference call. For the Club, this was a stark reminder of why on December 16 we started buying Goldman. As part of building our position in Goldman, we exited our banking rival Morgan Stanley. Goldman received a lot of praise from Wall Street analysts following its results, which has helped it maintain its gains since then. 4. GE Healthcare up 12.8% GEHC stock has rallied on upbeat comments from Wall Street. Jefferies upgraded the stock to buy from hold in early January, citing future catalysts such as a withdrawal of China stimulus, suggesting orders could start arriving after the Chinese New Year. Analysts like GEHC's valuation after shares retreated in late September through the end of 2024. GE Healthcare also announced a major partnership with Sutter Health to provide AI-powered medical imaging technology. Media reports indicated that this could generate $1 billion in revenue for the company. 5. Wells Fargo up 12.6% Like Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo got a boost from Trump's business. For Wells, that could finally mean removing the $1.95 trillion asset limit the Federal Reserve imposed in 2018 following the bank's fake accounts scandal. Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf has been cleaning things up since taking the helm in 2019. Jim Cramer believes the progress Scharf has made should be rewarded. Lifting the asset limit would allow the bank to expand key businesses, especially its growing investment banking operations. This, along with a stellar January 15 earnings report, led to Wells Fargo rounding out our list of featured performers. (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.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on January 10, 2025 in New York City.
NYSE
It's been a topsy-turvy start to 2025 for the stock market. Since the Club's monthly meeting in December, Wall Street has been bombarded by headlines that sent stocks swinging down and then up.
