Stocks give up early gains — Here's why a busy week of earnings is good news for investors

Published Mon, Apr 15 20242:25 PM EDT

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. (We're no longer recording the audio, so we can get this new written feature to members as quickly as possible.) Markets wobbly: After a weak attempt at an oversold bounce in the morning, pressure in the market picked up steam midday and stocks fell into the red as investors remained worried about what could come next following the events in the Middle East over the weekend. Ongoing concerns about sticky inflation and higher interest rates clouded the picture, too. There is nothing markets hate more than uncertainty, which is why stocks struggled to hold onto their early gains. Earnings in focus: The good news is we're about to head into earnings season, giving us the opportunity to hear directly from management teams and get their thoughts about how current events and the economic crosswinds impact their companies, if at all. Earnings season is when great companies with solid fundamentals and upbeat outlooks can separate from the pack, which is why doing the homework this time of year is so important. Including Monday, approximately 40 companies in the S & P 500 and six Dow Jones Industrial Average components are scheduled to report this week. Up next : Morgan Stanley reports before the opening bell Tuesday. Great quarters from Goldman Sachs and Charles Schwab bode well for Morgan Stanley, but the Club holding needs to ease concerns about the probe into its wealth management business and get this segment back on track after a couple of lackluster quarters in a row. Sector scorecard : Nearly all 11 sectors in the S & P 500 were solidly lower, as of roughly 2:15 p.m. ET. The lone exception is health care, which is hovering around the flatline. The sector has spent time both in the green and slightly in the red. The group is being supported mostly by beaten-down insurance stocks, though some of our companies in the sector such as drugmaker Eli Lilly were slightly positive. Abbott Laboratories is essentially flat on the session. It's not exactly a shock to see health care holding up better than other sectors, though, because it has some defensive growth characteristics. (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.