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.) Market Wrap: The market is higher to start the week, though it is off its best levels of the session. The S & P 500 index is on track for another record close but the Dow Jones Industrial Average is back below the 40,000 level it closed above on Friday for the first time. There’s a growth tilt to the market Monday, with technology stocks outperforming other sectors. The key to the tech/AI trade has been Nvidia , so the group is one to watch ahead of the AI chipmaker’s earnings Wednesday after the bell. Jim Cramer added: ” Broadcom should be more a part of the tech equation because it has been set back by its regular semiconductor biz which might be getting better.” The energy sector is lagging, but Coterra Energy is firmly in the green after natural gas hit its highest price since late January. As we pointed out last week, the energy needs of data centers in the future should be a solid tailwind to natural gas prices. AI PCs: We’ve been talking for months about how the launch of new AI PCs from the likes of HP and Dell and a specialized generative AI keyboard button from Microsoft will start a new PC refresh cycle later this year. One reason why someone will want an AI PC over a current model is that the new ones will have specialized chips designed to speed up AI tasks. This thesis why we started buying Best Buy stock in March. PCs are one of the retailer’s key end markets. We may have started the Best Buy position early but we wanted to get in before everyone started talking about this new tech innovation. We also liked the big dividend to pay us as we waited. We’re now seeing a ton of news about AI PCs from Microsoft and Dell. In an interview, Michael Dell told Bloomberg News that AI PCs will be delivered “in volume” this year and will be “pretty standard” by 2025. “If Michael Dell says the new PCs will be the standards that could mean that the fourth quarter for Best Buy could be great,” Jim said. Up next: Palo Alto Networks reports after the closing bell, and we’re hoping to hear a positive update on its plan to accelerate “platformization” — the bundling of its services and products — across enterprise customers. Two other companies of note reporting results after the bell are Zoom Video and Keysight Technologies . Tuesday morning will kick off a busy week for retail reports, starting with Lowe’s and Macy’s . The Lowe’s report follows last week’s results from Home Depot, which missed sales expectations due to a soft environment in home-related categories. “Home Depot is down big when it reported a bad quarter,” Jim said. “But almost every other stock that reported last week is higher. I think that the do-it-yourselfer is still trapped by that 7% jumbo mortgage.” (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.
People walk past a Best Buy store in Manhattan, New York City, November 22, 2021.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
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.)