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. Market moves: In Wednesday afternoon trading, the S & P 500 gave up its earlier gains. The market seemed to lose momentum around noon ET as President Donald Trump said at his first cabinet meeting that Canada and Mexico tariffs would go into effect. He also said tariffs will be coming on imports from the European Union. Once again the stock tape was heavily bifurcated with distinct groups leading and lagging. Unlike the past few days, however, technology and industrials were in the green while stocks with little economic sensitivity such as health care and consumer staples were in the red. The defensives had been bid up recently on concerns about slowing economic activity following a stretch of soft data. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow forecast, which provides a running estimate of real gross domestic product growth, has fallen from 2.9% on Feb. 13 to 2.3% as of Feb. 19. The next GDPNow update will be on Friday. Manufacturing boom: Club name Eli Lilly announced plans Wednesday to invest $27 billion to build four new U.S. manufacturing sites amid surging demand for its blockbuster GLP-1 weight loss and diabetes injectables Zepbound and Mounjaro. The move brings Lilly’s total manufacturing investments in the country to more than $50 billion since 2020. CEO David Ricks told CNBC the company’s commitment signals a “huge buildout in our country.” Making the announcement in Washington D.C., he said, “We do want to influence the policy environment” and work with President Donald Trump’s administration to speed up the time it takes to get government approvals. “We want to build things here,” the CEO added. “Our factories around the world right now are running 24/7, every day of the year. There’s zero slack,” Ricks added. “We’re withholding launches of Zepbound and Mounjaro in a lot of global markets like India [as a result].” Three of the new U.S. plants will produce active pharmaceutical ingredients, including tirzepatide, which branded as Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes. The fourth will expand capacity for future injectables. Ricks also said there has been no talk of tariff exemptions. “We don’t have a tariff policy impacting pharmaceuticals as of yet, but you can bet we’re speaking to the administration about what the contours of that should be.” Lilly has four manufacturing sites across Europe. Trump has threatened reciprocal levies against U.S. trading partners but we don’t think Lilly has material tariff risk. Lilly shares rose about 1% on Wednesday. Thanks to this week’s rally, shares are trading above $900 for the first time since October. Shares are up more than 25% since their Jan. 17 close. Also helping the stock Wednesday, JPMorgan opened a positive catalyst watch on its oral GLP-1 medication ahead of two separate late-stage readouts for type 2 diabetes and obesity. AI-powered Alexa : Amazon on Wednesday unveiled Alexa+, powered by generative artificial intelligence. During a devices and services event in New York City, company executives said the new version of the voice assistant would be free for Prime members, or $19.99 per month al a carte. It will be rolled out in the U.S. in the coming weeks. “It’s not just that she’s really smart and can be conversational, but she can also do something that you just don’t see today in these chatbots, which take real action and get things done,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC in an interview after coming off the stage. Speculating about Alexa+ at the Club’s January Monthly Meeting, Jim Cramer said, “I think the device will become the key to a whole new Amazon ecosystem.” During his CNBC interview Wednesday, Jassy also noted how Amazon’s cloud business is helping build better customer experiences through its generative AI. On tariffs, he said China-based sellers on Amazon should “still sell on our marketplace.” He added, “Some of the prices may be higher but that will be true for everybody who has sellers, or merchants or partners in China.” On capital expenditures, Jassy said, “As more companies are trying to do generative AI at scale, they want better price performance to be able to be able to afford it, and that’s what’s driving our investment.” Up next: Speaking of AI, Nvidia and Salesforce report their earnings after Wednesday’s closing bell. Here’s what we are looking for when Nvidia reports . As for Salesforce, we want to see how its AI platform, Agentforce, is selling and whether it help accelerate company sales growth. We also want to hear from recently appointed Robin Washington, who assumed the combined roles of CFO and COO. We want to get her thoughts on operating efficiencies and where margins can go from here. No portfolio companies report before Thursday’s open. On the economic data side, we’ll be looking at durable goods orders and initial jobless claims. (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. 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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.
