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 is basically flat in afternoon trading Monday after staging a nice comeback from its early session lows. Wall Street is trying to regain some stability in the wake of an ugly sell-off last Friday. Banks, other cyclical sectors and red-hot momentum stocks were among the hard-hit areas Friday amid concerns about slowing economic activity following a string of soft data points. The market comeback on Monday isn’t getting any help from artificial intelligence-linked stocks, such as Club chip names Nvidia and Broadcom , as well as those that benefit from data center power needs, such as Club holding Eaton , GE Vernova , Vertiv and Constellation Energy . This cohort was struggling to find its footing following a TD Cowen report dated Friday, in which analysts said their channel checks indicated Microsoft had canceled some U.S. data center leases. It’s unclear if Cowen’s checks are related to a demand signal or Microsoft pulling back some of its OpenAI-related investments now that the upstart AI company has a new financial backer in Softbank. Analysts at Jefferies, who coincidently were with Microsoft in Australia for meetings, wrote that the company reiterated there has been no change in its capex plan or strategy. Microsoft also provided our colleagues at CNBC with a statement . “Our plans to spend over [$80 billion] on infrastructure this [fiscal year] remains on track as we continue to grow at a record pace to meet customer demand,” a company spokesperson said in an email, adding: “While we may strategically pace or adjust our infrastructure in some areas, we will continue to grow strongly in all regions. This allows us to invest and allocate resources to growth areas for our future.” Bristol’s a brightspot: If there’s one winner from this rotation out of momentum and AI-related stocks, it’s been the health-care sector. It’s now the top-performing S & P 500 sector year to date on the ever-changing leaderboard. Bristol Myers Squibb is one of the standouts in the group Monday, climbing more than 3%. Part of the move is clearly due to a market rotation into defensive sectors, but we shouldn’t ignore an insider buy disclosed by CEO Chris Boerner. On Thursday, Boerner purchased 2,000 shares at roughly $55 each, or about $110,000 worth of stock. The buy increases Boerner’s shares in the drugmaker to 104,626. That kind of purchase is on the small side — something over $1 million would really get our attention — but it’s still worth mentioning because insiders can sell for several reasons, but they really only buy for one reason : They think the stock is going higher. With its recent advance, Bristol Myers has erased some of its post-earnings losses , though it still remains more than 3% below its Feb. 5 close. Club stock ties: Shares of Alphabet are outperforming cloud computing counterparts Amazon and Microsoft after scoring a win from fellow Club name Salesforce . The two companies said Monday they expanded their strategic partnership , which includes running Salesforce’s Agentforce, Data Cloud, and Customer 360 apps on Google Cloud infrastructure. Salesforce’s fast-selling AI platform Agentforce will also gain access to Google’s Gemini models. Google Cloud becomes the third outside deployment option for Salesforce customers. The enterprise software giant also uses Amazon Web Services, Alibaba, and its own proprietary data centers. Salesforce has committed to spend at least $2.5 billion over seven years on Google’s cloud computing services, according to Bloomberg News. For reference, Alphabet’s Google Cloud unit generated about $43 billion in revenue in 2024. Salesforce reports earnings after the closing bell on Wednesday. Up next: Club holding Coterra Energy reports after the closing bell on Monday. The two things to watch are the company’s production guidance and capital expenditure budget for 2025. Both production and capex are expected to increase in 2025 due to a completed acquisition, but we still need to see a disciplined balance between the two. Management will hold its conference call at 10 a.m. ET Tuesday. Other companies reporting after the bell Monday include Diamondback Energy , Hims & Hers , Public Storage , Realty Income and Cleveland-Cliffs . Before the opening bell Tuesday, we’ll hear from Home Depot . Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen several analysts lift their fourth-quarter same-store sales estimate but talk about 2025 being another soft year for the Club-owned retailer. Expectations should be on the lower side due to the stock’s recent six-day losing streak. Other companies reporting Tuesday morning are Sempra , Keurig Dr Pepper , Kontoor Brands , American Tower and Planet Fitness . The market also will closely analyze each new data point regarding the economy due to the current concerns over slowing growth. One of the key reports Tuesday is the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which is due out at 10 a.m. ET. (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.
