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: The S & P 500 remained on track for its fourth losing day in a row, dragged down by concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. The latest piece of weaker data was the Conference Board’s consumer sentiment survey for February, which registered its biggest monthly decline since August 2021. A bright spot in Tuesday’s down market was Club stock Home Depot , our top performer on the session. Shares rose more than 3% after the company reported earnings and guidance that cleared a lowered bar . There is also a flurry of trade-related headlines in the air, with President Donald Trump saying Monday night that tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico “will go forward ” upon the conclusion of a 30-day pause. The Trump administration also is considering tougher rules on artificial intelligence chip exports to China, Bloomberg reported , which is something to watch for Nvidia investors. Jim Cramer said earlier Tuesday that Nvidia’s earnings report Wednesday evening could be a “clearing event” for the stock , which fell roughly 1.5% in afternoon trading. The recent emergence of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s more efficient AI model will also be in focus when CEO Jensen Huang holds court at Nvidia’s post-earnings conference call. Club name Salesforce also reports earnings after Wednesday’s close. Cyber calls : Wall Street analysts see more upside for Club cybersecurity stocks Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike , which were both on five-session losing streaks. Citi on Tuesday lifted its Palo Alto price target to $220 per share — more than 20% higher than current levels. The analysts were upbeat following Palo Alto’s Feb. 13 quarterly earnings report , citing “execution-at-scale, steady large-deal-capture, and multifaceted GenAI investment angles.” TD Cowen on Monday raised CrowdStrike’s price target to $450 per share — implying more than 20% upside as well. The analysts thought recent earnings from Palo Alto and other cybers peers, along with numbers from reseller CDW, bode well for CrowdStrike’s upcoming quarterly release after next Tuesday’s closing bell. During the Morning Meeting, in keeping with our 2 rating , Jim said he would be tempted to buy more shares of CrowdStrike if they were to fall below our $333-per-share cost basis. The stock fell another 3% to around $378 apiece in afternoon trading. “You wait until the buyback is meaningful to our Trust and to you,” Jim added. We’ll be taking a closer look at CrowdStrike after it reports earnings. We trimmed CrowdStrike twice over the past month — one as recently as Feb. 19 after a nice upswing. “Despite these sales, we remain long-term believers in the importance of cybersecurity spending, which is why we own two: CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks,” said Jeff Marks, the Investing Club’s director of portfolio analysis, in a recent trade alert. But we had to book profits out of discipline because the valuation got ahead of the fundamentals. We last bought more Palo Alto Networks stock back in early August. Our most recent Palo Alto sale was on Jan. 8. Up next: No companies in the portfolio report after Tuesday’s closing bell. But a few other companies, we’ll be monitoring are First Solar , Intuit , Workday , Axon Enterprise , Caesars Entertainment , Cava Group , Lucid Group , and Instacart . Before Wednesday’s open, we’ll hear from TJX Companies . We suspect the off-price retailer had a strong holiday season — but like others in retail, we’re curious about a slowdown in the first three months of the year due to bad weather. Other companies that report before the bell are NRG Energy , Lowe’s Companies , Advance Auto Parts , Anheuser-Busch InBev , and Bloomin’ Brands . There are no major economic reports on Wednesday. There are some housing-related updates like mortgage applications, new home sales, and building permits, but all three are pressured by higher mortgage rates and inclement weather. — CNBC’s Kevin Stankiewicz and Jeff Marks contributed to this report. (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.
