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: Stocks were mixed to slightly lower Thursday in what has been an up-and-down session. The market is trying to build on Wednesday’s gains, which came after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at its March meeting. The policy statement and post-meeting commentary from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell had something for both the doves and hawks, with doves pointing to the committee’s plan to slow the pace of its balance sheet runoff and the hawks focusing on the impact of tariffs on inflation expectations. The 10-year Treasury yield traded as low as 4.17% earlier in Thursday’s session but started to climb in response to a surprise increase in existing home sales in February. Financials and energy were the two top-performing sectors in late afternoon trading, while technology and consumer staples were the bottom two. Bullpen update: We are always searching for new ideas in the portfolio, especially after the broader market’s recent selloff. That’s why we are adding Dell Technologies to our Bullpen watchlist. When Jim Cramer attended Nvidia ‘s GTC 2025 — the “Woodstock of AI” event — earlier this week, one of the more exciting stories he heard was about Dell Technologies, the iconic maker of personal computers, servers, and storage equipment. Cramer sat down with Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell on Tuesday. Dell, the company, is best known for its PCs, but it is also one of the big winners of the AI build-out story. Its servers are the way that many enterprise customers access Nvidia’s high-performance chips, and its storage products are used in many AI infrastructure stacks. Over the past year, Dell has gone from an AI darling to a stock struggling to regain any traction in the market. There are a couple of reasons why. First, the new AI-powered PC never really took off with the consumer. Second, margins in its core server business have come under scrutiny due to increased sales of its newer AI server models. They may be dilutive to Dell’s higher margin businesses, but they are “dollar accretive” as Dell put it and the demand here is extraordinary. Last quarter, the company said its AI backlog has doubled since last October, growing from $4.5 billion to $9 billion largely because of demand for Nvidia’s Blackwell platform. The AI infrastructure thesis carries some risks, but we don’t think the theme is over just yet. Tariffs are another big watch item too. But with the stock trading at about $100 per share, we like how expectations have finally come down to realistic levels, and the market has a much better handle on the AI margin story. We know this by looking at Dell’s price-to-earnings multiple. The stock currently trades at about 10.5 times its estimated earnings per share (EPS) over the next four quarters. That’s about half the multiple it traded at when the stock traded at its 52-week high last May. Some other things we like are the cash flow and cash returns to shareholders. After increasing its annual dividend by 18% last month, the yield is about 2.1%. The company also increased its share authorization by $10 billion and management likes to use it opportunistically. Up Next: It is a busy night of earnings ahead. Micron, Nike, FedEx, and Lennar all report after the closing bell. The quarters and commentary from management will give the market a look into the semiconductor industry, consumer spending, broader commerce, and the housing sector. (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.
