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 Rally: Stocks surged on Thursday, climbing even further during President Donald Trump’s press conference announcing a trade deal with the United Kingdom. The rally, which was broad-based and led by sectors such as energy, industrials, banks, and consumer discretionary, gained momentum as additional details on the deal framework became public — a possible sign that investors are optimistic about reduced trade barriers and increased market access. One deal highlight that was most interesting to us was the U.K.’s agreement to buy airplane parts, most notably a $10 billion “Boeing procurement.” This development confirms the logic behind our decision last month to add Boeing to our Bullpen , based on the thesis that its planes could be used to reduce bilatiral trade deficits between the U.S. and its trading partners. Shares of Boeing added more than 3% Thursday. Trump also struck an upbeat tone that this weekend’s planned talks between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer, and Chinese officials will be “substantive” and could lead to tariffs rates coming down. Goldman talk: One of the best-performing Club stocks Thursday is Goldman Sachs , with shares rising roughly 3%. Investment banking rival Morgan Stanley , which we no longer own, also is having a strong day. What’s driving the outperformance? Investors may be betting that the U.K. trade deal means more are on the way — and by extension, a lot of the uncertainty that crimped dealmaking activity at the start of the year could start to subside. We got a chance to hear Goldman’s president and chief operating officer, John Waldron, discuss the backdrop for deals earlier Thursday in an interview on CNBC. John Waldron offered plenty of good insight on mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings, so it’s worth reading them at length. “I think we can actually get back to a reasonable capital markets level of activity because … the backlog and pipeline remains very, very strong,” Waldron said. “I think there’s fundamental demand for those capital markets transactions with a little bit more of a certain backdrop.” CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla then asked Waldron whether M & A or IPOs would see the rebound first. “Well, I think M & A is healthier,” Waldron responded. “I think there’s a fair bit of demand for M & A. I think scale is still a big underlying driver of M & A. Technology spend, need to really create breadth and operating leverage in your business. So, I think there’s really good underpinnings for M & A. IPOs are harder because IPOs are really the riskier element of what market participants will express as a point of view. So, I think IPOS probably lag. … Those in [in the media] love to talk about the capital markets decline. And volumes in April were obviously down meaningfully. But if you look at it in the round, we’ve actually had a reasonable year thus far, and I think if we get a little bit of a more certain underpinning, we could end up having a good end of the year and the second half could be strong. But we definitely need a stronger underlying economic footing to get there.” Funny enough, Reuters reported shortly after the interview that the U.S. corporate travel and expense company Navan has hired underwriters for an IPO that could value the company at more than $8 billion. Goldman Sachs was selected as the lead underwriter. Up next: Club name Texas Roadhouse reports after the closing bell Thursday, giving us a closer look at how its comparable store sales fared after the weather disrupted start to the first quarter. Margins will be in focus, especially management’s thoughts on beef prices through the rest of the year. Other companies reporting Thursday are Coinbase , Lyft , Paramount Global , Expedia , Affirm , Solventum , Toast , Cloudflare , and DraftKings . There are no major earnings or economic reports Friday. (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.
