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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: Stocks are rebounding Wednesday, but tariffs and trade talk are still dominating the market headlines and creating a lot of intraday volatility. Like much of 2018, the market has become hostage to the optimism — or pessimism — around a trade deal game. It depends on the day or even the hour. For example, the market got a boost shortly before noon ET after Bloomberg News reported the White House is considering delaying auto tariffs on Canada and Mexico by one month. The story had the market feeling better that there will be some exceptions to tariffs, and later the White House officially confirmed that will be the case for automobiles, boosting sentiment. President Donald Trump spoke with the leaders of General Motors , Ford Motor and Stellantis on Wednesday. In these unpredictable times, we remain focused on companies that can weather the trade war uncertainty and have been unfairly beaten down by the headlines. Our large cash position allows us to be opportunistic when volatility strikes. Earlier Wednesday, we added to our position in CrowdStrike on its guidance-related weakness. Energy blues: The worst performing sector in the S & P 500 this week is energy. The group has erased all its year-to-date gains after falling more than 6% over the past few days. Concerns about the slowing economy and OPEC+ going through with a planned April output hike are pressuring oil prices. Brent crude , the international benchmark, dropped below $70 a barrel and reached its lowest level since December 2021. Meanwhile, U.S. oil standard West Texas Intermediate crude is trading around $66 a barrel. The portfolio’s lone energy position, Coterra Energy , is still up 1% for the year. However, the stock is down about 14% from where we trimmed the position in January, a trade we made to protect gains after Coterra got off to a hot start to 2025. We’re not ready to buy those shares back just yet because the Trump administration wants to bring back an attitude of “drill, baby, drill” — even though the publicly traded drillers want to stay disciplined on production levels to support prices and their own profits. But there is one bright side to all this: Lower energy prices are a key part to battling inflation, which is generally good for stocks and especially those tied to consumer spending. Up next: After the closing bell on Wednesday, we’ll see the earnings from semiconductor firm Marvell Technology . The company, which has both a custom AI chip business and sells networking equipment for data centers, will provide a good readthrough to Club name Broadcom ahead of its own report Thursday night. Other companies reporting Wednesday are database software maker MongoDB and Zscaler , a cloud security provider. Some companies reporting before the opening bell Thursday are Macy’s , BJ’s Wholesale , Burlington Stores , Kroger and Cracker Barrel . On the economic data side, it’s a less busy day with the government’s look at the monthly trade balance and initial jobless claims. First-time filings for unemployment insurance in the week ended Feb. 22 totaled a seasonally adjusted 242,000 , the highest level since early October. (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.
