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. Market update : The major averages are mixed this afternoon, with the Nasdaq advancing roughly 0.5%, the S & P 500 holding onto a 0.06% gain and the Dow Jones Industrial declining about 0.5%. Apple and Alphabet are powering the tech-heavy Nasdaq, following a favorable court ruling in the Google antitrust case. Google will not have to divest its Chrome browser, and Alphabet can continue payments in exchange for Google search’s status as the iPhone’s default search engine. Apple is estimated to receive between $20 to $25 billion a year from Alphabet. Morgan Stanley called the ruling “a near best-case scenario” for Apple. We outlined why this ruling is positive for Apple in two ways and may even alleviate some investors concern as it relates to the company’s AI strategy. Inventory improvements: Starbucks is partnering with NomadGo to innovate its supply chain management, announcing the implementation of “AI-powered automated counting.” Through a combination of “computer vision, 3D spatial intelligence and augmented reality,” Starbucks will reduce the time spent on inventory management while ensuring that all ingredients are always in stock so no sales are missed. Though we’re a bit surprised learn such a system wasn’t already in place, it’s low-hanging fruit in CEO Brian Niccol’s turnaround. We know he’s made technology improvements a focus by bringing order sequencing to the mobile app. Now this seems to be a back of the house tech improvement that, if it works well, could deliver benefits to operations and the financials. This news comes roughly two weeks after we learned that the company will reduce U.S. production to five days a week from a 24/7 operation. The combination of the two moves should help Starbucks realize a more efficient supply chain, leading to lower costs (and in turn margin expansion), without negatively impacting the the customer experience. Today’s news may well be why Starbucks is confident that it can throttle down production days without risking missed sales due to lacking inventory. It’s conference season : With earnings season winding down, industry conferences are picking back up. Speaking at Goldman Sachs’ global retail conference this week, Home Depot management said the consumer remains healthy and homeowners have benefited from significant appreciation in the value of their homes. However, they are hesitant to take on larger projects that typically require financing due to uncertainty about tax rates, tariffs and the overall economy. While there is plenty of untapped home equity, it’s the longer-end of the yield curve that needs to come down to catalyze home inventory turnover, which is at multi-decade lows. On Thursday, Honeywell is set to speak at the Jefferies Industrial Conference; Disney will present at the Bank of America Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference; and Palo Alto Networks will speak at the Citi Global TMT Conference. On Friday, Eli Lilly will present at the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference. Up next: Salesforce reports earnings after the close. The company’s Agent Force AI offering is likely seeing strong demand, but we’re cautious ahead of the quarter as it’s still unclear as to what extent the introduction of generative AI, and more so agentic AI (where the AI can actually do things on your behalf with little input) will impact the “seat model” that software-as-a-service companies like Salesforce rely on. The bear thesis is that if agentic AI makes employees more efficient, then it will make companies rethink headcount. At best, that would mean maintaining current levels, meaning minimal growth; worse, it could result in a reduction in headcount, leading to fewer seats and therefore less demand for seat licenses. We’ll be listening closely on the call to get a sense as to the long-term merits of thesis. Given we are believers in AI, we have opted to not to step into shares despite the greater than 30% decline since the stock topped out back in early December 2024. We need to better understand the longer-term impact of Agentic AI as it relates to the seat license business model before becoming more positive on the SaaS space. It’s on management to tell a strong story here and ease investor concerns. Other notable reports out Wednesday include Hewlett Packard Enterprise , American Eagle Outfitters , and recent IPO Figma . (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) 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