Our top 2 performing stocks in one of Wall Street’s most volatile weeks ever
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. Wall Street’s wild week: Stocks rallied Friday as investors tracked the latest developments in the U.S.-China trade war. The White House on Friday afternoon signaled that it’s hopeful China will seek a deal with the U.S. That comment follows Beijing earlier Friday raising its tariffs on the U.S. to Friday to 125% from 84%, in response to President Donald Trump upping the duty rate on Chinese imports to 145%. These are some of several headlines that have caused major stock averages to whipsaw this week on economic and policy uncertainty. Case in point: On Wednesday, the S & P 500 secured its third-largest advance in a single session since World War II, but then gave back a large chunk of those gains during the Thursday sell-off. Monday and Tuesday also saw big swings intraday. Through it all, the S & P 500 is still set to close the week more than 5% higher, its best weekly performance since the week of the November election. As for the Club’s portfolio, Wells Fargo and BlackRock swung throughout Friday trading following first-quarter earnings reports in the morning. Wells Fargo shares fell as much as 5% after the bank posted slightly lower-than-expected quarterly revenues and a decline in net interest income. These losses narrowed to 1% by the afternoon, coinciding with the broader market rally picking up steam. Meanwhile, shares of BlackRock added nearly 3% after reporting solid results for the January-to-March period despite a rocky operating environment. Our views on both financial names haven’t changed after the results. Chipping away: In one of the most volatile weeks in Wall Street’s history, our two chipmakers stand out as the best-performing Club stocks: Broadcom has jumped more than 22% week to date while Nvidia has advanced around 17%. It partially reflects the dynamic we highlighted earlier this week: When the market bounces back from a steep sell-off, some of the hardest-hit names tend to lead the way higher. Broadcom and Nvidia both dropped around 15% during last week’s two-day plunge on Trump’s initial “reciprocal” tariff announcement — placing them in the bottom third of the portfolio during that stretch. They surged during Wednesday’s tariff reprieve rally. Based on Friday’s intraday prices, Broadcom is solidly above where it traded on April 2, the day Trump unveiled his aggressive tariff plans after the close. Nvidia has erased almost all of its tariff-driven losses from last week. Still, both stocks are down more than 25% from their respective highs of the year. Broadcom and Nvidia also benefited this week from some positive headlines that involve both companies. On Friday, in particular, the stocks were bouncing in part due to news that China’s tariffs on chips will be based on where they are manufactured, not where they are shipped from. For Broadcom, the company announced a $10 billion stock buyback program that needs to be completed by year-end. If the stock starts getting hit again, the company will likely be in there buying, which should help support the share price. Google-parent Alphabet , which has long used Broadcom’s design services for its custom AI chips, also reaffirmed its plans to spend around $75 billion building data centers this year. On the Nvidia front, there was a report that Trump may not crackdown on shipments of its made-for-China AI chip known as the H20 — a fear lingering in the marketplace ever since the emergence of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek showed off impressive capabilities earlier this year. While Citigroup on Friday cut its price target on Nvidia to $150 a share to reflect the possibility that data center spending could moderate due to economic uncertainty — something we find plausible since every company is likely examining its capital expenditure plans to account for the geopolitical headwinds — it’s worth noting that $150 would still be an all-time closing high for the stock. Plus, analysts reiterated their buy rating on shares of the chipmaker. Up next: First quarter earnings season continues next week. Club holding Goldman Sachs reports Monday, and fellow portfolio name Abbott Labs will post results before Wednesday’s opening bell. There’s a slew of economic data for investors to parse through as well. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its monthly import and export price indexes early Tuesday morning, which tracks changes in the prices of goods and services traded between the U.S. and other countries. Meanwhile, the Census Bureau’s retail sales report will be released next Wednesday, offering investors a read on consumer spending trends. (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.
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