Tariffs, Nvidia and 2 more things that defined the stock market this week
The stock market stumbled into the weekend after President Donald Trump on Friday said China violated the preliminary trade agreement the two sides reached earlier this month. The S & P 500 closed flat Friday after spending most of the session lower. The benchmark index, however, rose for the week and for the month of May. Tariffs were among the four things that defined this week’s market. Investors were kept on their toes. Following Trump’s Friday morning accusations, a Bloomberg report around lunchtime about Trump administration plans to broaden restrictions on Chinese tech companies took the market a leg lower. Then, hours later, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he expects to talk to Chinese Xi Jinping , and stocks cut most of the day’s losses. The S & P 500 gained nearly 2% during the holiday-shortened week. A big rally Tuesday, after Trump last Sunday delayed the 50% tariffs on the European Union that he threatened only two days before, carried the week. For the month, the strength was much more pronounced as investors showed a willingness to take good and bad tariff headlines in stride. The S & P 500 jumped more than 6% in May, its best monthly gain since November 2023. There was certainly no “sell in May and go away,” which is an old Wall Street adage about selling ahead of seasonally weaker warmer-weather months and buying back in before better-performing colder months. Club name Nvidia was the star of the earnings show Wednesday evening. We raised our price target to $170 per share from $165 after Nvidia delivered a better-than-expected quarter and upbeat guidance despite the export restrictions on what artificial intelligence chips the company can sell in China. Shares on Thursday surged more than 3% on the print but gave back much of those gains in Friday’s down market. Also on Wednesday evening, Salesforce reported better-than-expected quarterly results and guidance. However, the Club stock fell more than 3% on Thursday and another nearly 0.5% on Friday. Some on Wall Street argue Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is focusing too much on AI , rather than the company’s core business. Costco on Thursday evening reported what Jim Cramer called the “perfect quarter.” We were impressed by Costco’s margin improvement and same-store sales growth as other retailers struggled to manage tariff impacts. The stock on Friday opened lower but then shot up 3%. Costco and Nvidia were among the best-performing Club stocks this week. Salesforce was the worst. We sent out one trade alert this week during Tuesday’s big rally, trimming Broadcom and booking profits of 170% on stock purchased in August 2023. The small sale does not indicate any change in our long-term view that the custom AI chip designer is poised to keep growing. We did, however, downgrade Broadcom to our 2 rating , meaning we would buy more shares on a pullback, which aligns our short-term view of the stock with the trade. Broadcom stock went on to gain nearly 6% for the week and almost 26% in May. The only other better monthly gain in the portfolio was GE Vernova ‘s over 27% advance. Our newest stock was also solid for the week. On Tuesday, along with Broadcom, we downgraded GE Vernova to our 2 rating, in recognition of its recent rally back to record highs . But we raised our price target to $500 per share from $460 to account for the recent momentum in its business. Broadcom reports earnings this coming Thursday. Inflation also made its mark this week. The Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge on Friday came in cooler than expected for April, adding to the argument that price pressures are easing. The jury is still out, though, because final tariff levels are still up in the air and could rekindle inflation down the line. According to the minutes from its May meeting , the Fed was worried about that. The minutes, released Wednesday afternoon, showed that central bankers felt a “cautious approach” to monetary policy was appropriate as the economy could face “difficult tradeoffs” should inflation heat up. A day later, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell met with Trump at the White House at the president’s request. “Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook,” the Fed said in a statement following the Thursday meeting. It’s no secret that Trump wants Powell to cut interest rates. The last Fed cut was back in December. (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.
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