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 moves: Tech stock strength on Wednesday pushed the Nasdaq up nearly 2% and above 20,000 for the first time ever. The S & P 500 jumped almost 1%. Both Wall Street benchmarks were bouncing back after back-to-back losses. The Dow was being left out of the rally, right around unchanged late Wednesday trading. A lower close for the Dow would extend its losing streak to five straight sessions. Some of the big movers in the market were the Magnificent Seven, with Tesla as well as Club names Alphabet , Meta Platforms , Amazon , and Apple hitting all-time highs. Apple hit an intraday record for the ninth straight session Wednesday, helped by the release of new iPhone artificial intelligence features. Broadcom was our best performer on the session, jumping more than 6% on a media report that it’s working to help Apple develop a customer AI server chip. Broadcom reports earnings after Thursday’s close. The health-care sector, on the other hand, was continuing its weak performance. Major health insurer and pharmacy benefits manager stocks were dragging down the group after lawmakers introduced a bill to cut drug costs and reform PBMs. Drug stocks were also getting hit, with Club holdings Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb down on the day. Utilities, real estate, and consumer staples were other weak spots in Wednesday’s market. The 10-year Treasury yield was higher, even as the November report on consumer prices showed an increase in the inflation rate that was in line with the consensus forecast. The probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points at next week’s meeting increased to about 95% from 89% one day earlier, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The Fed kicked off its easing cycle with a 50-basis-point rate cut in September followed by a 25-basis-point reduction in November. Bank on it: Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf spoke at Goldman Sachs’ Financial Services Conference early Wednesday. The conversation was not short-term focused but more broad-based, with Scharf talking about big themes like the macroeconomic environment, the bank’s strategic initiatives, and the regulatory landscape. It was similar to Jim Cramer’s interview with Scharf back in October. Here are some key Scharf quotes from the conference. On the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump: “When you have an administration that’s extremely focused on the U.S. economy, that is something that, as we look forward, is good for us because it’s good for our clients.” On its risk and control process: “For every one of our consent orders that we have, for every one of our regulatory deliverables, we have extremely detailed plans in place that the regulators have reviewed. And we track our progress at the operating committee every single week. … So, when I talk with a greater degree of confidence that we’re getting things done, we’re getting things over the finish line, it’s because we see all those internal metrics.” On what happens after the asset cap is removed: “In an environment where there is stronger loan growth, where we’re able to compete more on deposits, we get some expansion out of the consumer bank, not having the asset cap will be a huge advantage for us that we just don’t have today and haven’t had over the last, six or seven years.” On cybersecurity : ” Cyber is by far the biggest risk that we all face. We all are spending a huge amount of money on it. It’s one that industries work together on, governments work together on, but it’s something that, we just always ask the question, are we doing everything we possibly can?” Our takeaway from the conference is that we remain impressed with the success Scharf has had in turning around Wells Fargo. Whether it’s improving the bank’s risk and controls, cutting expenses, or building out an investment banking business to make earnings less levered to the yield curve, the progress made here is nothing short of impressive. His leadership is why Wells Fargo has been our largest bank stock for a few years. That last quote is a ringing endorsement to own the best two companies in the cybersecurity industry: CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks . Both of the Club stocks made a strong move higher Wednesday, with Krispy Kreme revealing that it was hacked bringing further attention to the cybersecurity stocks. Up next: After Wednesday’s closing bell, we’ll get the latest quarterly results from Adobe . Before the opening bell on Thursday, we’ll see the November producer price index. Barring a significant deviation from the consensus forecast, it’s unlikely the PPI data will materially alter the market’s post-CPI thinking about next week’s Fed meeting. (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. 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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.
