Nvidia bucks the market, and oil jumps on fears of how Israel may respond to Iran’s missile attack
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: U.S. stocks were lower Thursday as Wall Street extends Tuesday’s sharp selloff, which was triggered by concern over Iran’s missile attacks on Israel. All three stock benchmarks closed only slightly higher Wednesday. U.S. oil prices have been soaring — up another 4%-plus to more than $73 per barrel — as the world awaits a response from Israel, which has vowed to retaliate. There are fears that Israel could target Iran’s oil infrastructure and cause major supply disruptions. The Mideast uncertainty was putting a lid on the Dow , the S & P 500 , and the Nasdaq ahead of Friday’s pivotal jobs reports. Club movers : Constellation Brands was our worst-performing stock Thursday, losing more than 4% after the Modelo and Corona brewer’s earnings contained no real surprises . After Constellation made big changes to its guidance a month ago, the stock had been outperforming the market. Nvidia was our best-performer on the session, gaining more than 3% on positive comments from CEO Jensen Huang to CNBC late Wednesday about “insane” demand for the company’s upcoming artificial intelligence Blackwell chip platform. Huang also said Blackwell was in “full production,” reassuring investors following some recent snags. Multiyear high : Dow and Club stock Home Depot reached its highest level since late 2021 before reversing slightly lower with the rest of the market Thursday. The home-improvement retailer got a positive mention Wednesday from research firm Gordon Haskett, which upgraded the stock to a buy and raised its price target to $450 per share. On Thursday, Home Depot’s retail advertising unit, Orange Apron Media, announced a new self-service platform, allowing onsite and offsite campaigns. Retailers, including fellow Club name Amazon , are increasingly getting into the lucrative digital ad business. Power possibilities : Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is looking at possibly using nuclear energy to power its data centers. In a Nikkei interview , Pichai said that such considerations are part of the company’s net-zero 2030 emissions goal. The CEO’s comments came shortly after Microsoft agreed to buy nuclear power from Constellation Energy , which plans to restart Three Mile Island as part of the deal. Pichai also mentioned solar. On Thursday, Alphabet announced a 12-year agreement to buy renewable energy from a solar project under development. The rise of generative AI computing has forced tech companies to think critically about the power that will supply their growing data center footprint. In general, AI computing is more energy intensive than traditional workloads of the past. Up next : There are no major earnings Thursday evening or Friday. As mentioned, the big market event of the week is Friday’s employment report. It follows Wednesday’s better-than-expected ADP data on U.S. companies’ hiring and Thursday’s worse-than-expected weekly jobless claims. Wall Street will be parsing the government’s jobs numbers for their implications on future Fed interest rate cuts. (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.