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. (We’re no longer recording the audio, so we can get this new written feature to members as quickly as possible.) Finishing the week strong: Friday’s market rally is pushing the major U.S. stock benchmarks into positive territory for the week. Club holding Apple is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, with a more-than-7% rally in reaction to better-than-expected earnings , an upbeat guide for the June quarter and bullishness ahead of its World Wide Developer’s Conference in June. That’s when the company is expected to announce new generative artificial intelligence features coming to the iPhone. Despite a 2% gain for the tech-heavy Nasdaq, shares of Alphabet were slightly lower Friday after opening the session down more than 1%. Jim Cramer suggested some of Apple’s AI commentary Thursday night could be a factor in the Google parent’s stock move. “Google’s down because people believed they would be the firm that gave Apple the AI engine it needs,” Jim said, referring to media reports that said Apple and Alphabet had talks about licensing the latter’s AI technology. “I think that Apple is making it all in house, but that Google should be bought because it remains the most undervalued of the large cap stories.” Outside of Apple, the rest of the market got a lift Friday after Treasury yields plummeted in reaction to the softer-than-expected April jobs report ; the latest nonfarm payrolls data eased some concerns about the need for more tightening from the Federal Reserve. Later in the morning, bond yields moved off their lows of the session after S & P Global’s U.S. services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) and prices paid in the Institute for Supply Management’s services index came in higher than expected. Both releases pointed to a stronger economic picture than the jobs report. Notes from the call: Coterra Energy held its first-quarter earnings call Friday following its better-than-expected results Thursday night. Among our takeaways from the call: The company will stay disciplined about natural gas production, allowing the commodity’s economics dictate investment decisions. For example, management said it’s delaying a few more wells until it sees stronger local pricing. Despite a 5% surge on Friday, natural gas prices have still fallen more than 14% year to date and more than 33% over the past 12 months. Although Coterra CEO Tom Jorden called the near-term natural gas demand environment “real hostile,” he remained constructive about demand increasing in the years ahead as additional liquified natural gas export capacity is added in the U.S. and more power-intensive data centers are built. We continue to believe the market is underappreciating Coterra’s ability to pullback production in natural gas in favor of oil. In addition, management’s comments on capital allocation lead us to believe it is inclined to step up share repurchases if the stock continues to trade at or below these levels. The company repurchased $150 million worth of stock in the first quarter, a big increase from the $29 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. Coterra is scooping up its own shares “because we see value in our stock,” Jorden explained on the call. “We look at the net asset value and we think our stock is a really prudent buy.” Shares of Coterra rose about 3% Friday in reaction to the strong results, bucking the broader trend for energy stocks in the session. In fact, energy is the lone S & P 500 sector in the red Friday. Another strong oil stock this year is Diamondback Energy . Jim has his eye on Diamondback as a potential Bullpen name given his view that oil could be bottoming here. The Bullpen is the Club’s watchlist of stocks that we’re considering for the portfolio. There’s no guarantee a company in the Bullpen makes it to the portfolio. Next few days: Cinco de Mayo is Sunday, and some good weather could sure help out Club holding Constellation Brands . Its portfolio of Mexican beers like Corona and Modelo dominates the holiday. “The company’s biggest day is Sunday, and it should be great because excluding 2023, it has fallen on weekdays in the recent years, preventing its ability to demonstrate the huge numbers that are possible,” Jim said. Meanwhile, the pace of earnings slows considerably next week — though we’re eager to see Disney ‘s report Tuesday morning. The company won the proxy fight against activist Nelson Peltz, but that doesn’t mean it can afford to let up on driving costs down, improving efficiencies and investing in partnerships for growth. “I think that Disney is likely to report a good quarter if only to demonstrate that its changes are working and Peltz won’t squawk ‘I told you so,'” Jim said. (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. (We’re no longer recording the audio, so we can get this new written feature to members as quickly as possible.)
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