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. Markets: Stocks are mixed Thursday , following a similar trend that has played out most of this week . Initially, it looked like a solid session was in store with the futures nicely higher in premarket trading. However, like Wednesday, which saw the S & P 500 erase all its early gains, the market tumbled after President Donald Trump clarified his tariff policy. The President said tariffs on Mexico and Canada will start March 4 and an additional 10% tariff will be placed on China on that date. Trump’s first 10% tax on goods imported into the U.S. from China took effect in early February. It’s always possible to see a last-minute deal to delay or avoid tariffs, but worries that they will damage the economy by slowing capital investment decisions and compressing corporate profits have put a lid on the broader market’s gains, at least in the short term. The reason is the market hates uncertainty more than anything else, and it’s too early to know the impact of the tariffs. When it gets harder to estimate what companies will earn this year, investors take down risk and exposure. The already-slowing economy hasn’t done any favors either. This all might help explain why some of the hot tech trades over the past year have lost their momentum. From our point of view, we’ve raised a ton of cash over the past few weeks. The president’s unrelenting support of tariffs validates our recent decision to exit several companies — Best Buy , Constellation Brands , and Stanley Black & Decker — that could see their earnings be materially squeezed. The portfolio is better positioned to handle volatility if rhetoric escalates from here. Our view : As Jim explained in his Sunday column , we lean to the buy side on the recent sell-off, but when there’s doubt, you have to keep cash and wait. That’s why we’ve sat on our hands all week, with exception of one Texas Roadhouse buy after it got beaten down due to temporary weather-related disruptions . This patience and hesitance to pay up when the market looked good in early trading has served us well so far. Looking ahead, we prefer the market gets oversold, per the S & P Short Range Oscillator , before deploying more capital. However, the bifurcation of the market — with investors moving out of tech, momentum, and cyclicals and into defensives — may be obscuring the Oscillator’s reading. It ended Wednesday’s session at minus 1.51%, with minus 4% being the threshold for oversold. There are several economic data hurdles the market needs to get through Friday and next week, but we are warming up to the idea of getting more opportunistic as prices come down. Up next: We are through Club earnings this week, but there are still a handful of interesting companies outside the portfolio left to report. Dell Technologies , HP Inc , Solventum , and Edison International are scheduled to report after the closing bell Thursday. And before the opening bell Friday, we’ll hear from EOG Resources , Mosaic and RadNet . But the bigger market story Friday isn’t earnings, it’s the economic data. We’ll see the January personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve’s favorite measure of inflation. The index is expected to have risen 2.5% year over year and 2.6% for the core index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices. We’ll also get the next update to the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow, a running estimate of real GDP growth based on available economic data. This unofficial forecast has come down from 2.9% at the end of January to 2.3% on Feb. 19, stoking fears of an economic slowdown. (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.
