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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 wrapping up a strong week with modest gains in Friday’s session, as the S & P 500 aims for its fifth consecutive positive day. The broad index is up around 5% week to date, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has surged roughly 7%. The week began with a fierce rally, driven by an agreement between the U.S. and China to reduce tariffs for 90 days and work toward an agreement to reduce trade imbalances. As the week progressed, the market responded favorably to more moves from the White House. President Trump, along with several U.S. business leaders, visited the Middle East to unveil major investment commitments from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. These deals featured substantial investments in artificial intelligence-focused data centers, semiconductors, energy infrastructure, airplanes, and engines. Against that backdrop, it’s no surprise that this week Nvidia and Broadcom , our two AI chip stocks, are the biggest gainers in the portfolio. In the weeks ahead, we could see trade deals with several other big economics, including Japan, South Korea, and India. Weekly winners: There were big gains in the market this week. Technology and consumer discretionary were the two best-performing sectors in the S & P 500, ringing up gains of more than 7%. The de-escalation with China was a major boost for companies with significant international operations. It also benefited discretionary sectors like travel and leisure, as it eased investor concerns about a potential recession. Banks also had a solid week, with Club name Goldman Sachs ranking among the top gainers in our portfolio, adding around 9%. Clarity on trade policy was a major win for the investment bank, sparking optimistic signs of a long awaited rebound in the IPO market . It was also a strong week for dealmaking, with Foot Locker receiving a bid from Dick’s Sporting Goods and Charter Communications reaching a merger agreement with Cox Communications. Goldman bankers worked with Dick’s on the Foot Locker deal. And while Goldman didn’t have a hand in the Charter-Cox tie-up, fellow portfolio name Wells Fargo was among the firms advising Cox. With the way that CEO Charlie Scharf has pushed to grow Wells’ investment banking influence , it was nice to see the bank involved in such a sizable deal. As of Friday afternoon, shares of Wells were up around 5% for the week. The laggard: Health care was the only sector to fall this week. The group was beaten up on multiple slides. The health-insurance stocks were crushed after UnitedHealth Group withdrew guidance, warned about elevated medical costs, and was the subject of a Wall Street Journal report that alleged the Department of Justice was conducting a criminal investigation into the company over possible Medicare fraud. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical stocks had a mixed week over concerns about Trump’s “most favored nation” drug pricing executive order. For what it’s worth, analysts at Wells Fargo argued Friday that the mounting overhangs impacting the biopharma sector will be another “this too shall pass” moment. As for our drug stocks, both Eli Lilly and Bristol Myers Squibb entered Friday slightly lower for the week. However, Lilly mounted a more than 3% rally Friday after weight-loss drug rival Novo Nordisk announced it was replacing its CEO. Bristol Myers added more than 1.5% Friday, creeping into positive territory for the week, as its cancer drug Opdivo secured expanded use approval in the European Union. Finally, medical device stocks came out of the week mostly unscathed. Club name Abbott was higher by roughly 1% for the week. Next week: Earnings pick up again next week, and three companies in the portfolio are scheduled to report: Home Depot , Palo Alto Networks and TJX Companies . In addition, 14 companies in the S & P 500 report earnings, including Lowe’s , Target , Medtronic , VF Corp , Snowflake , Analog Devices , Ross Stores and Toll Brothers . In other events, a new era begins for Capital One Financial as it closes its transformative acquisition of Discover Financial . The stock has made a great comeback from its tariff uncertainty depths, but we continue to see long-term upside based on deal synergies and strategic benefits . Some other key events are Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s Keynote at Computex late Sunday evening and the Investing Club Monthly Meeting on Wednesday. (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.
