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. S & P 500 hovers at flatline: The broad-based index is off to a muted start to the week, with semiconductor stocks are having a rough day after rallying big last week. Tech’s problems seem to be related to concerns about the initial launch of the Apple iPhone 16, which based on very early reporting is off to a slower start. We always caution to not read too much into these early reports. And we’re not surprised by them this time because the catalyst for upgrades is Apple Intelligence. These features are not available at launch. Still, the news is taking down stocks of wireless chip providers. Micron is also having a rough day after Morgan Stanley slashed its price target on the memory makers to $100 from $140 — and kept an equal weight rating — on slowing growth in memory average selling prices. Wells bounces back: The big banks are having a solid day, coming after some group weakness last week in reaction to comments about 2025 net interest income and expenses by JPMorgan’s president and chief operating officer. Wells Fargo was also hit last Thursday, falling 4% after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued an enforcement action against the bank. We would have bought more Wells last Friday if we weren’t restricted. We thought concerns about growth and higher expenses tied to the action looked like an overreaction. Thanks to stock’s near 2% gain on Monday, the stock has fully recovered from the Thursday pullback. We are still restricted from adding to our position, leaving us unable to buy it before the recovery. But if the stock gets hit again we may still look to add. Debating P & G: We remain torn over traditional slowdown stocks like Procter & Gamble and other defensive consumer stocks. The consumer staples group is having a strong quarter so far, up nearly 10%. That puts it behind only real estate and utilities as the best performing S & P sectors in the third quarter. The market likes these dividend growth stories as interest rates fall. Also, concerns about an economic slowdown have helped defensives catch a bid. That’s how P & G is up nearly 20% year to date. It’s been a good hedge in case the Federal Reserve can’t engineer a soft landing. But we’ve been selling shares into this strength over the past few weeks on concerns that defensive stocks will go out of favor if the Fed rate cuts boost the economy. Colgate-Palmolive , which has been the best-performing stock in the household product industry, was downgraded to underweight from equal weight at Wells Fargo. The Street backing away from these stocks is what we want to get ahead of. Our last trim of P & G was at $176 per share last Monday. We don’t have a lot of shares left — the position size is the fourth smallest in the portfolio at about 1.7% — but we’re still debating if we need to sell more to protect our big profits. Up Next: There are no major earnings after the closing bell, but there are a couple of big interviews on “Mad Money.” Jim Cramer has on Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas to talk tech and AI. The key economic data point Tuesday is retail sales and it’s the last major economic data point before the Fed meeting on Wednesday. The market isn’t sure whether the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points or 50 basis points. As of mid-day Monday, there was a 61% probability of a 50-basis-point cut, according to the CME FedWatch. (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.
Charlie Scharf, CEO, Wells Fargo, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California on May 2, 2023. speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California on May 2, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images
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.
