Market Data 
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. Market check: The S & P 500 is limping into the long weekend, giving back most of its earlier gains in the session, though the index remains slightly in the green. The tepid action on the last trading day of August comes despite a pair of encouraging economic updates that showed inflation is calming down while the U.S. economy is still growing at a solid pace. The Commerce Department reported Friday that the PCE price index — which is the Federal Reserve’s favorite measure of inflation — increased 0.2% month over month and was up 2.5% from last year, matching estimates. In addition, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s third-quarter GDPNow forecast was upwardly revised to 2.5% from 2%. Summer of Best Buy: Summer’s end is around the bend, and Best Buy ‘s stock has been flying. With Labor Day weekend serving as the unofficial conclusion of summer, we took a look at the biggest winners in the portfolio from the Friday before Memorial Day through Thursday’s close. The No. 1 gainer by a country mile: Best Buy. In fact, it was the top performer in the S & P 500 over the period. Shares of the electronics retailer soared 40.1% in that stretch thanks to a pair of strong earnings reports — on May 30 and then again Thursday — that sent the stock jumping 13.4% and 14.1%, respectively, on those days. It’s been quite the run, but as we wrote Thursday , there are still catalysts to drive Best Buy even higher. Multiple Wall Street analysts upped their price targets on Best Buy in response to the quarter, including UBS, which went to $123 a share from $106. Apple and Starbucks captured the silver and bronze medals, gaining 21% and 20.3%, respectively, between May 24 and Thursday. Apple benefited from laying out its artificial intelligence strategy in June, and more recently the market has been looking ahead to its annual iPhone launch on Sept. 9. On Wednesday, we outlined three ways that Apple can impress Wall Street at the event and bolster confidence that a major AI-fueled upgrade cycle is on the horizon. Starbucks, meanwhile, owes its inclusion in the top five to a shocking — but necessary — CEO switch announced on Aug. 13 , which led to a 24.5% single-session gain for the stock. Investors couldn’t be happier that Chipotle ‘s widely respected boss Brian Niccol was poached to replace Laxman Narasimhan, who struggled to navigate the coffee chain through a thicket of problems in the U.S. and its key growth market of China. Niccol starts Sept. 9, and we’re hopeful he can lead Starbucks out of the woods. In the meantime, it’s a good sign that Starbucks is consolidating around its CEO change gains at $95 per share and hasn’t given those up. Rounding out the top five are Stanley Black & Decker in fourth place, gaining 18.3%, and Eli Lilly in fifth, up 16.4%. Mounting expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts have been the wind at Stanley Black & Decker’s back this summer. Shares of Eli Lilly in July were temporarily dragged down by a spike in competition concerns for its blockbuster obesity drug Zepbound, but its second-quarter earnings report on Aug. 8 put those firmly in the rearview mirror. Up next: In the holiday-shortened week, we’ll get earnings from chipmaker Broadcom on Thursday followed by a pivotal economic release, the August jobs report, on Friday morning. (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.
