Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a Morning Meeting livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Wednesday’s key moments. 1. U.S. equities edged up in midmorning trading Wednesday after two-straight days of declines, with the S & P 500 gaining 0.15%. Bond yields, meanwhile, pulled back slightly, with that of the 10-year Treasury hovering just above 4.1%. The drop comes amid growing evidence the U.S. labor market is loosening, a sign the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes have cooled an overheated economy. U.S. private payrolls rose by 103,000 last month, according to the ADP National Employment Report, well below forecasts for a 130,000 increase. The report also showed that wage gains are slowing. Elsewhere, oil prices tumbled by more than 2% Wednesday, with West Texas Intermediate crude falling to around $70 a barrel. 2. The CEO of Club holding Starbucks (SBUX), Laxman Narasimhan, warned Tuesday that the recovery in China is “perhaps half the rate of what you would expect it to be.” But he emphasized that the long-term outlook is very strong. China is Starbucks’ second-largest market by stores and revenue, after the U.S. So, investors concerns about China could explain why the stock has traded down for 12-straight sessions. Jim Cramer said Wednesday that he would still be a buyer of Starbucks stock at current levels, but warned: “I’m in a wakeup-call mode.” He added: “I was lulled into thinking China was coming back” in full force. Shares of Starbucks were up 0.6% Wednesday morning, at around $96 apiece. 3. Jim is set to interview Amazon (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy later Wednesday, with the company’s international efforts in focus. Some investors have questioned whether the Club holding’s spending on Prime Video is worth the investment. What’s Amazon’s strategy? And, crucially, can artificial intelligence help accelerate revenue growth at cloud unit Amazon Web Services? Bernstein on Tuesday named Amazon its “best idea” in the internet space for 2024, citing acceleration in its cloud business, cost discipline, digital advertising growth, and its continued leadership in ecommerce — a call with which we fully agree. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long SBUX, AMZN. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.
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