Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the final hour of trading on Wall Street. (We are no longer recording audio, so we can get this new written feature out to members as quickly as possible.) As we prepare for the CNBC Investing Club's annual meeting on Saturday, I asked Jim Cramer for some quick thoughts on some of today's portfolio drivers. “Ford looks really interesting as the electric vehicle market slows down,” Jim said. One of the key highlights of Ford's fourth quarter was a greater push into hybrid vehicle production through plug-in electric vehicle spending. “Disney's strategy is very similar to Warner Bros. Discovery's strategy, which I like,” Jim said. “They need some kind of change agent there,” he added, referring to the proxy battle between Disney and Train's Nelson Peltz. “Lost in all the semi-talk is the continuing strength of Costco,” Jim said. “I think we can keep it.” “But I think Stanley Black & Decker has become very cheap compared to everything else in this sector.” “I don't want to get too excited, but the way Starbucks and Estée Lauder are doing it looks like China has hit bottom,” Jim said. We will review several of the stocks in the club's portfolio during Saturday's meeting, which members can watch live beginning at 1:30 PM ET on our website. Conference Call Update: Coterra Energy reported earnings Thursday evening but held its conference call Friday morning. The main takeaway from the call was that the oil and natural gas producer has a lot of flexibility to shift investment where it will yield the highest return. For 2024, this means stepping back from natural gas production and focusing on oil. While the near-term fundamentals around natural gas look bleak, management is optimistic about the outlook 12 to 18 months from now. The main reason: Much of the new LNG export capacity is expected to come online at the end of the year and into early 2025. This combined with the potential for cold weather gives the team hope for a price recovery. Coterra plans to monitor the commodity market and will be ready to act when gas fundamentals improve. But in the meantime, she plans to stay disciplined. It is, however, difficult to predict how long fluctuations in commodity cycles may last. “We will be patient and watch the macroeconomic recovery for gas,” CEO Tom Jordan explained. He added that the company would prefer to wait a few months to recover before investing early. We appreciate this focus on returns rather than chasing production and activity. CLUB EARNINGS: Two portfolio companies are scheduled to report next week. Both will release on Wednesday: retailer TJX before the opening bell and enterprise software giant Salesforce after the closing bell. Outside of the portfolio, some of the more interesting earnings reports will come from Elanco Animal Health, Unity, Zoom, Lowe's, American Electric Power r, Cava, Snowflake, Paramount Global, Best Buy, and Zscaler. Economic Calendar: The data point that will likely have the biggest impact on the bond market is the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation: the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index. (See here for a complete list of stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you'll receive a trade alert before Jim takes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after a trade alert is sent before buying or selling a stock in his charitable fund's portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after the trade alert is issued before executing the trade. The above Investment Club information is subject to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, as well as our Disclaimer. No obligation or fiduciary duty exists or is created by your receipt of any information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or profits are guaranteed.
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the final hour of trading on Wall Street. (We are no longer recording audio, so we can get this new written feature to members as quickly as possible.)
