Week in review: Stocks swing wildly, Disney disappoints, and we make 6 trades
It was a volatile week for the stock market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting an all-time high before pulling back. Wall Street pulled money away from Big Tech and into more defensive sectors, such as health care and financials. The end of the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown and expectations for interest rate cuts were also top of mind. When it was all said and done, though, stocks were little changed. For the week, the S & P 500 edged up only 0.3%, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell nearly 0.5%. That was the Nasdaq’s second straight week of losses. The Dow saw weekly gains of 0.3%. After closing above 48,000 for the first time on Wednesday, the 30-stock average pulled back in Thursday’s sharp market rout and ended modestly lower in Friday’s session. .SPX YTD mountain S & P 500 (SPX) year-to-date performance All-time highs Despite the market’s volatility, many Club holdings hit records this week. Wells Fargo shares hit all-time highs on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs reached new heights Thursday. The financial sector also benefited from investors seeking safety from the high valuations of many AI trades. DuPont’s stock has continued to rise since the company’s split from Qnity Electronics . Shares reached an all-time intraday high Wednesday, but lost some steam later in the week. The industrial name closed Friday slightly lower week to date. We love the new DuPont. The company operates a diversified materials business that can withstand a downturn in any single end market. DuPont’s water business is fantastic, too. Eli Lilly shares hit a series of highs this week, including on Friday. The stock closed above $1,000 for the first time ever on Wednesday. In response, Jim Cramer said Eli Lilly would soon be the first pharmaceutical company to reach a $1 trillion valuation . To achieve that, the stock would have to top $1,057. Lilly’s market cap was just over $969 billion at Friday’s close. The stock owes the bulk of its gains to the Trump administration’s recently announced GLP-1 deal with Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk . The agreement is expected to lower prices for certain weight-loss treatments for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries next year, in turn making Lilly’s drugs more accessible. Cramer’s buy calls On the other side of the trade are the portfolio’s laggards. During the November Monthly Meeting , Jim pointed to three that he sees as buying opportunities. These include Nike, Boeing , and Linde. Each is outside of the data center boom, a positive in a market that’s very concerned about AI-related valuations. “I cannot recall a time this year when it feels this good to be diversified among a whole host of terrific growth stocks, because growth of all kinds always works. Until now, it’s been terrific for all of 2025 to own nothing but data center, AI, nuclear, and quantum stocks,” Jim told members Thursday. “But that’s become way too risky now; it just took much longer than expected for that risk to surface.” Here’s a breakdown of why Jim’s recommending each one. If you don’t own any Linde, it might be time to start a position. Shares of the industrial gas giant have taken an unnecessary beating recently. The weakness presents an opportunity to invest in a stock with a promising future ahead. Wall Street analysts agree. UBS upgraded Linde this week to a buy rating, forecasting more earnings growth in 2026. In addition, Linde has immense pricing power and has consistently delivered for shareholders each quarter, regardless of the macroeconomic environment. Consider buying Nike shares on weakness as well. We believe in CEO Elliott Hill’s turnaround strategy for the athletics giant. Just look at the progress Nike’s made already in the company’s upbeat first quarter of fiscal 2026. Boeing stock is a screaming buy, too. Like Nike, we’re focused on the aircraft maker’s turnaround story under CEO Kelly Ortberg. Expect Boeing’s cash flow to improve, Jim said, which will allow the company to pay down debt. Trades The Club executed six trades this week as stocks seesawed. Monday: The Club trimmed our Cisco Systems position and used the proceeds to purchase more Corning and Meta Platforms. Corning, which makes optical fibers for data centers, was especially attractive to us after the stock’s post-earnings sell-off late last month. The company failed to meet Wall Street’s lofty expectations and missed its revenue target. We first added to our position on the Oct. 28 release, and then again Monday because shares have continued to go down. “We think that momentum will continue as data center operators increase their use of fiber connections instead of copper to connect AI nodes,” Jeff Marks, the Investing Club’s director of portfolio analysis, wrote in the trade alert. Meanwhile, the Club scooped up more Meta shares on recent weakness. It was the first time in more than three years that we’ve added to our position in the social media stock. Finally, we sold some of our Cisco Systems shares after the stock rebounded following its August earnings report. Wednesday : We let go of some Disney shares ahead of the entertainment giant’s earnings report Thursday morning. In the same trade alert, the Club downgraded the stock to a 2 rating from a buy-equivalent 1. The trim wasn’t a call on Disney’s quarter. Instead, it gave us some extra room in case shares traded down on the release – and that is exactly what happened. Disney stock fell during Thursday’s session after the company reported a mixed quarter, which included a miss in streaming revenues. “It’s a hated stock,” Jim said Thursday during the monthly meeting. “Sometimes, you gotta go. And, I don’t want to fight Disney anymore.” Friday: We added to our Corning position for the second time this week. The broader AI market sell-off has weighed on shares because data centers are a huge end market for the fiber-optic cable maker. The Club also bought more Honeywell . The industrial stock has seen an unwarranted decline despite recently splitting from its previous capital-intensive Solstice Advanced Materials division, which occurred earlier this month. Earnings analysis Here’s a more thorough breakdown of quarterly earnings reports from Cisco and Disney, the only two stocks we trimmed this week. Cisco delivered a beat-and-raise quarter Thursday as the networking company delivered another quarter of double-digit order growth. Shares surged on the release, and we raised our price target to $85 from $78. The quarter reaffirmed our view that Cisco is an underrated winner from the AI infrastructure boom. There wasn’t much to like about Disney’s release on Thursday. Although adjusted earnings per share outpaced analysts’ estimates, revenue for the quarter missed. Crucially, Disney’s experiences segment, which includes sales from theme parks and cruises, also fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. We’re fed up with this stock, which plummeted on the release. Still, we wouldn’t want to exit the position entirely when shares are down this much. The Club will look for an opportunity if there’s a rebound soon. (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.