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 : Wall Street was still heading for modest losses for the week despite Friday’s rally on the government’s stronger-than-expected September jobs growth. Investors were encouraged to see labor market resilience after a summer of weaker readings. The Fed has signaled that it’s more concerned lately with the jobs side of its dual mandate than inflation. The market sees a 25-basis-point interest rate cut at the Fed’s November meeting and another 25 in December. The Fed kicked off its easing cycle in September with a jumbo 50-basis-point cut. Investors and the Fed will get to see the latest inflation data next week. Oil up : The S & P 500 energy sector was leading the market Friday (neck and neck with financials) and for the week. It’s no surprise because West Texas Intermediate crude , the U.S. oil benchmark, was up again on the session — nearly 2% to above $75 per barrel. WTI jumped after Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Tuesday. Prices kept going higher on concerns about whether Israel would target Iran’s oil infrastructure in retaliation. WTI was on track for its biggest weekly gain in over a year. As speculation was swirling early Tuesday before Iran’s attack, we added to our lone energy stock Coterra as a geopolitical hedge. Shares jumped about 5% this week. Banks up : Financials were also strong Friday, with Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley our top performers on the session. Wells Fargo kicks off earnings season next Friday. During the Morning Meeting, Jim Cramer said he likes Wells Fargo and it should be on investors’ buy list. Morgan Stanley caught an update. Jim has been back and forth on Morgan Stanley, which reports quarterly results Oct. 16. He wanted to boost Morgan Stanley for his old shop Goldman Sachs. But if there continues to be a broader pickup in deal-making activity, Morgan Stanley will be a “good place to be,” he said. Good news : Three major U.S. health agencies put out a statement Friday in support of using specialized baby formulas to treat premature infants. The Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes of Health said: “There is no conclusive evidence that preterm infant formula causes NEC,” or necrotizing enterocolitis, an intestinal illness. That’s good news for Club holding Abbott Laboratories , which is currently defending itself in a second trial against claims that its premature infant formula causes NEC. It lost a similar case in late July. Beer boss : Shares of Club stock Constellation Brands were bouncing Friday, one day after a steep post-earnings slide . For the week, the Modelo brewer was our second worst-performing stock. Jim is looking to clear up some questions Friday evening when he interviews Constellation Brands CEO Bill Newlands for “Mad Money.” Jim said he wants to ask about several external factors that are “difficult to keep track of” but may impact the company’s future. Those include GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and a potential impact from the presidential election next month. Constellation imports its beers from Mexico and its customer base in the U.S. is heavily exposed to Hispanic consumers. “Maybe we’ve overstayed our welcome or maybe we haven’t,” Jim said on the Morning Meeting, in an attempt to summarize the crosscurrents for Constellation. The interview with Newlands “matters tremendously,” he said. Next week : In addition to Wells Fargo earnings next Friday, Costco is set to release monthly sales figures after Wednesday’s closing bell. Jim Cramer said Friday morning, “Buy some Costco if you don’t own it.” We know the stock is not cheap but it never has been. Following strong earnings last week, we increased our price target to $950 per share and kept our 2 rating . On the economic calendar next week, with the jobs report behind us, we get September readings on consumer inflation Thursday and wholesale inflation the next day. (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.
