Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club hosts a “Morning Meeting” livestream weekdays at 10:20 a.m. ET. A recap of Friday’s key moments. 1. Stocks are looking to stabilize on Friday after a sharp decline that spared some corners of the market in pre-trade. Banking, office real estate, transportation and logistics, and media stocks all fell on concerns about AI-induced disruption. After one such session, Jeff Marks, director of portfolio analysis, said we were “looking for opportunities” after a week of raising money through trimmings at Eaton, Cisco and Procter & Gamble. Even industrial stocks, which had been leading the market, took a hit in Thursday’s trading. At the same time, software names that have been killed in recent weeks are making a comeback. Salesforce, Palo Alto Networks, and CrowdStrike all rose on Friday. 2. The financial industry was also a casualty of Thursday’s selloff, with Wells Fargo down 3%, Goldman down 4%, Capital One down 3.5% and BlackRock down 2.5%. On Friday, the group was stabilizing and Baird upgraded Wells Fargo to neutral from underperform. The company believes the bank’s valuation is more reasonable following the exit and is optimistic about Wells’ growth prospects. Morgan Stanley also defended large banks, saying banks are benefiting from AI as AI tools should improve operational efficiency and drive productivity gains. The company sees this pullback as a buying opportunity. Jeff said he might consider “grabbing” some of Capital One stock in the coming days, as the company’s shares have fallen nearly 15% since the beginning of the year, trading at $206 per share. The last time the stock price was lower was on December 19th, when it was $240 per share. 3. Looking ahead to next week, Palo Alto Networks is scheduled to report earnings after the close of trading on Tuesday. With the company’s CyberArk acquisition completed this week and its acquisition of Chronosphere also completed in late January, now is the time to integrate these acquisitions into Palo Alto’s broader product suite. Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a cyber preview note that they favor Palo Alto and CrowdStrike within the group this earnings season. Elsewhere, Texas Roadhouse reported Thursday night. Same-store sales are strong, but profits are expected to be weak due to margin pressure from beef inflation. I sold positions in the $180 range multiple times this year. I’m not ready to trade this name yet, as there is no further clarity on when beef inflation will ease. (Jim Cramer’s charitable trusts are Long ETN, PG, WFC, GS, COF, PANW, CRWD, TXRH. See here for a complete list of stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club, you will receive trade alerts before Jim makes a trade. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he will issue a trade alert and then wait 72 hours before executing the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with our disclaimer. No fiduciary duties or obligations exist or arise from your receipt of information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
