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. Market pressure: Major stock indices fell on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones once again bearing the brunt. Adding pressure to stocks, bond yields rose following a poor auction of $44 billion in 7-year Treasury bonds. Nvidia was weathering the overall market decline, but its modest gain was much cooler than the incredible rally over the past three sessions following last week's gains. Shares of American Airlines plunged about 15% after a company sales strategy backfired and the airline cut its growth forecast. Sector Watch: All S&P 500 sectors were under pressure Wednesday, led by energy and utilities. Tech has been flirting with positive territory as Nvidia, which opened lower, reversed higher. The names of the club's partners, Apple and Microsoft, were also in green. Combined, the three represent almost 49% of the technology sector index. Apple and Nvidia, our two “own, non-tradable” stocks, also performed the best among the Club's entire portfolio of 33 stocks. Drivers of the deal: ConocoPhillips agreed to buy Marathon Oil in an all-stock transaction worth $17 billion. Marathon shares rose about 7.5%, while Conoco shares fell about 4%. Additionally, Hess shareholders approved the company's pending merger with Chevron. And Merck has reached an agreement to acquire privately held Eyebiotech for $1.3 billion in cash. Banking News: Here's a dispatch from our Investment Club reporter Morgan Chittum on what Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said Wednesday at the 40th Annual Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference: Scharf said Wells Fargo has focused on investment banking in a “very, very specific way.” There were several mentions of the bank's quiet hiring spree to bolster its Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division, which we reported on last week. Building lucrative underwriting and advisory fee capabilities “is staring us in the face,” he added, as long-dormant IPO and M&A activity has begun to heat up. Expanding Wells Fargo's Wealth Management franchise and another commission-based revenue stream is “one of the biggest opportunities” ahead of us, Scharf said. The bank has around 12,000 advisors and is better positioned than in previous years, the CEO added. We are encouraged by Wells Fargo's push to boost fee lines of business. Scharf said Wells Fargo remains focused on efficiency. The bank has reduced its staff from 275,000 to 225,000. “The conversation about efficiency is less [about] “When the Federal Reserve eventually lifts its asset limit on Wells Fargo, Scharf said corporate lending and trading will be growth areas for the bank. He said, “When you turn away a consumer, they will remember it forever,” he said. Scharf: Companies understand it and can recover it, he added. It's a matter of time before the asset cap is lifted and we do too, Scharf said Wells Fargo was able to eliminate a key regulatory penalty in February by eliminating things like certain incentive plans. in the branches to which the so-called consent order was linked. The bank's 2016 fake account scandal that predates Scharf. Several other orders are still pending: The FDA granted accelerated approval for the Eli Lilly's Retevmo Club name. , which is used to treat certain types of advanced or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer in children age two and older. Twelve years or older was the previous age threshold. Elsewhere, HubSpot shares were weathering a broad market decline amid fresh speculation that the Alphabet club name is considering an acquisition. CNBC's David Faber believes that if a deal is reached, it would be all-stock. Next up: Salesforce will report earnings after the closing bell on Wednesday. Feedback on AI monetization and what the team has been seeing in terms of cross-sell opportunities will be key elements to watch. Foot Locker and Best Buy report before the bell on Thursday. Costco will release results Thursday evening. This will be enough for the profits of the club names, except for Broadcom, which will present its report next month. (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.
