It’s been a wild ride for U.S. stocks since the CNBC Investing Club’s last Monthly Meeting as investors navigated the implications of DeepSeek, Trump tariffs and the Fed, and earnings. The Monday after our Jan. 23 meeting was when Chinese startup DeepSeek’s claims of a cheaper artificial intelligence model slammed chip stocks, most notably portfolio name Nvidia , on concerns that big tech companies might be slow their rampant spending in the AI race. Those worries were unfounded, at least in the short-term, as Club names Meta Platforms , Alphabet , Microsoft , and Amazon all revealed continued robust capital expenditure roadmaps alongside their quarterly results. Shares of Nvidia have not quite recovered all of their pre-DeepSeek losses. They finished on Jan. 24 at $142.62 and closed as low as $116.66 on Feb. 3. They ended Wednesday’s session at just over $139. Jim Cramer plans to look at how to manage investments in Nvidia and fellow Club behemoth Apple during our February Monthly Meeting, which livestreams Thursday starting at noon ET . During this past month of volatility, the major stock benchmarks turned out to be largely flat. As of Wednesday’s close, the Dow and Nasdaq were each less than 1% off their all-time highs. The S & P 500, meanwhile, logged a record close on Wednesday — its second in as many sessions. .DJI .IXIC,.SPX 1M mountain Major stock benchmarks 1 month Trump’s trade policies have also been keeping investors on their toes in recent weeks — and so has the latest commentary from the Federal Reserve. With inflation ticking higher even before the effects of tariffs, both implemented and threatened, the Fed left interest rates unchanged after its Jan. 28-29 meeting. Central bankers cut rates three times last year and projected two more this year. The market currently, according to the CME FedWatch tool, puts the highest odds on just one cut in 2025. We saw some of these themes play out in our top performers since January’s Monthly Meeting. Additionally, corporate earnings of our portfolio names helped boost four out of the five winners over the period, including CrowdStrike , Eli Lilly, Nextracker , and Starbucks . The DeepSeek-induced selloff, along with inflationary concerns, also caused a rotation of capital into so-called value names like Costco . Here’s a full breakdown from Jan. 23 through Wednesday’s close. 1. CrowdStrike up 19.2% CRWD 1M mountain CrowdStrike 1 month Investors used solid quarterly results from Club holding Palo Alto Networks and other peers like Fortinet and Check Point as a positive readthrough to CrowdStrike, lifting the cybersecurity stock higher in recent weeks. CrowdStrike shares received another boost on a slew of praise from Wall Street analysts. Truist, Mizuho and KeyBanc each recently raised their price targets on CrowdStrike. Finally, the sector broadly jumped on signs of more demand for cybersecurity offerings following last month’s cyberattack on DeepSeek. CrowdStrike shares hit an all-time high Wednesday, so we decided to book profits given the string of recent gains. This comes ahead of the company’s earnings report after the closing bell on March 4. 2. Nextracker up 16% NXT 1M mountain Nextracker 1 month Nextracker owes much of its gains to a stellar earnings report on Jan. 28. The solar company not only posted top- and bottom-line quarterly beats but also raised full-year guidance. Nextracker shares jumped over 25% in the session that followed. Despite the post-earnings pop, we held our hold-equivalent 2 rating on Nextracker. “Crucially, we also need more clarity on solar policy under the new Trump administration,” Club portfolio analyst Zev Fima wrote on earnings day. “While President Donald Trump has said that he’s a ‘big fan of solar,’ it’s unclear what the administration’s policies will be regarding government spending on renewable energy and solar tax credits.” While Nextracker shares trended higher after earnings, the stock has largely flatlined since then. 3. Starbucks up 14.8% SBUX 1M mountain Starbucks 1 month Starbucks showed Wall Street that its turnaround story is in full swing. Shares surged on signs of progress following the company’s Jan. 28 better-than-feared quarterly release . Sequential sales improvement made throughout the quarter, along with new CEO Brian Niccol’s remarks that there’s a clear plan to get the business back on track, made us more upbeat. As a result, we raised our price target to $115 per share from $100 and reiterated our buy-equivalent 1 rating. A week after earnings, we downgraded the stock to a 2 rating. On Feb, 10, we booked some profits on Feb. 10 following a great run for the stock. It was the first sale we made since Niccol became CEO. 4. Eli Lilly up 13.1% LLY 1M mountain Eli Lilly 1 month The bulk of Lilly’s stock gains were in reaction to the company’s Feb. 6 fourth-quarter earnings . Investors were reminded that Eli Lilly is still the best growth story in large-cap pharmaceuticals as demand remains strong for its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro. This follows a lackluster three-month period, ignited by a messy third-quarter report last year, along with political hurdles from GLP-1 critic and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the nation’s top health official. Lilly’s negative Q4 preannouncement on Jan. 14 later sent the stock tumbling to its lowest level in nearly a year. Despite the volatility, Jim was clear on what to do during the downturn: “Let the uniformed people sell.” He added, “I think you have to be on the horse that is Eli Lilly.” 5. Costco up 12.8% COST 1M mountain Costco 1 month Costco shares benefited from investors putting money into higher-quality companies like consumer staples on macroeconomic uncertainty rather than megacap tech, along with concerns on how long the AI trade can hold up following the DeepSeek news. We see this in an outperformance from peer Walmart over the same period. Costco stock received another boost a couple of weeks ago when the company released strong monthly sales , which showed a 9.2% year-over-year increase in January to $19.51 billion. Shares of the portfolio name later hit a record high. Costco is set to report earnings after the market close on March 6. (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.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 13, 2025.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
It’s been a wild ride for U.S. stocks since the CNBC Investing Club’s last Monthly Meeting as investors navigated the implications of DeepSeek, Trump tariffs and the Fed, and earnings.