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. Friday markets: The S & P 500 resumed its record-high climb after a slight dip Thursday. The index was on pace for its third positive week in a row. Stocks initially got a boost from the government’s November nonfarm payrolls report. The economy added 227,000 jobs in the month — ahead of the Dow Jones consensus estimate of 214,000. The prior two months were revised higher by 36,000 collectively. Many market watchers are calling Friday’s report goldilocks – meaning not too hot and not too cold – due to the solid job gains and wage growth mixed with a slight uptick in the unemployment rate to 4.2%. TikTok, tick tock: Social media stocks, including Club name Meta Platforms , got a boost after the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., upheld a law requiring China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok by Jan. 19 or face a ban in the United States. The law was signed in April by President Joe Biden , but it’s unclear where President-elect Donald Trump comes down on TikTok. Trump’s cabinet picks appear split , too. But we do know that China hawks have his ear, and everything is up for negotiation — so, it will be interesting to see if TikTok gets dangled as part of a larger trade deal. Either way, TikTok’s uncertain fate should send more eyeballs and online advertising dollars to other forms of social media. That explains why Meta shares rose more than 2.5% to a record high while Club holding Alphabet gained more than 1%. TikTok said it would appeal. Homegrown: Apple may finally be ready to roll out its in-house modem system for the iPhone, Bloomberg reported Friday. Apple currently uses a Qualcomm modem system for the iPhone and has been working for years to develop its own solution. Bloomberg said the Apple-made component will debut next spring. This is all part of Apple’s long-term strategy of developing components in-house to cut down on costs and have greater control over its supply chain. The story later mentions that Apple’s relationship with fellow Club name Broadcom , which makes radio frequency filters for the iPhone, will continue. These RF chips block unwanted signals. This looks like a sigh of relief for Broadcom shareholders, at least for now, because previous reporting suggested Apple planned on dropping Broadcom’s chip next year. Broadcom’s wireless business is not a key part of our thesis in this semiconductor and software company. Our focus has been on its fast-growing custom artificial intelligence chip business and its VMWare integration. Still, Broadcom’s wireless business is estimated to generate about $7.4 billion of the total company’s $51.6 billion revenue for fiscal year 2024. It’s understood to be a high-margin revenue stream — so, any sign that Broadcom may hang onto this business with Apple for a little longer is certainly a good thing. Next week: We’re only waiting on two Club companies to report earnings before we wrap up 2024. They are the aforementioned Broadcom and Costco . Both report this coming Thursday after the closing bell. Some other key events next week are two key inflation reports: the November consumer price index on Wednesday and the November producer price index on Thursday. We care about these because they are the last two inflation data points before the Federal Reserve’s two-day December meeting. After Friday’s release of the November jobs report, the probability of a 25-basis-point interest rate cut after the central bank’s Dec. 17-18 meeting climbed to nearly 90% from 71% the day before, according to CME FedWatch tool. (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.
