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. The S & P 500 was little changed Wednesday afternoon after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at the conclusion of this week’s meeting. The pause was expected. The policy statement talked about an improving economy. On the employment side of the Fed’s dual mandate, central bankers said the jobless rate has “shown some signs of stabilization,” while the inflation side “remains somewhat elevated.” During the post-meeting news conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank was well-positioned after last year’s three rate cuts totalling three-quarters of a percentage point and the three rate cuts totalling a full point in 2024 to let the data guide the next move. Powell’s term as Fed chair ends in May. President Donald Trump , who has been critical of Powell’s tenure, has said he is close to naming a successor. Powell’s last words at Wednesday’s news conference were: The Fed wants to be careful “not declare victory prematurely” on inflation. It’s been a big day of earnings for our portfolio companies. We already sent out our four commentaries on the Wednesday morning releases. Danaher stock dropped despite solid earnings, leading us to question whether it is time to move on. Starbucks shares rose as quarterly results showed that CEO Brian Niccol’s brand revival is working . Corning ‘s stock drop after solid earnings doesn’t worry us , since shares soared Tuesday on the Meta Platforms fiber-optic deal. GE Vernova shares reversed higher after Wall Street realized what we knew this morning: the earnings miss due to the wind segment, which is not that important to the stock. Our busy earnings day is not over . We’re getting the first two reports from our megacap tech names after Wednesday’s close. Meta ‘s quarterly release and conference call will be scrutinized for signals on spending. We would like to see CEO Mark Zuckerberg talk about slowing the pace of capital expenditures. Any hints of improvements in the company’s large language model efforts will also be of interest. Microsoft ‘s results and commentary concerning Azure cloud unit growth will be front and center for investors. Also, remember that Microsoft doesn’t provide guidance until near the end of the prepared remarks on the call. Up next , in addition to Meta and Microsoft earnings after the bell, Tesla , Lam Research , and ServiceNow will also report their quarterly results on Wednesday evening. In the portfolio Thursday, Dover and Honeywell will deliver earnings before the bell, and Apple will issue its quarterly results after the bell. (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 discussed a stock on CNBC, 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.