Investing Club: The week in review, the week ahead — April 22, 2022

Published Fri, Apr 22 20224:07 PM EDTUpdated Fri, Apr 22 20224:23 PM EDT

It was another difficult week for the market. All major stock benchmarks closed in the red as inflation fears intensified and commentary from Federal Reserve officials, including Chairman Jerome Powell, seemed to get more hawkish by the day. That said, panic is not a strategy. It's important to keep a level head and acknowledge that what we're seeing in many stocks across the market is the result of central bankers, even some former doves, signaling their willingness to aggressively hike interest rates to flight rampant inflation. It's not the result of deteriorating fundamentals. While further Fed action and an economic slowdown can certainly impact corporate profits and price-to-earnings multiples, it's our job to search for those companies where the sentiment has simply become too negative. We also want to be mindful that once the backdrop becomes more supportive it's the names with strong underlying fundamentals that will rally back first. To give members a better sense of what we look for when contemplating putting money to work, we provided an outline of nine key questions we're constantly asking ourselves as we navigate this brutal market. No stock screen is bulletproof. But we believe that targeting names like we have in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust along with some patience and a willingness to keep a long-term focus, investors can be rewarded long-term. That's not saying we won't have to endure some near-term pain. The bottom line: Investing is simple but definitely not easy. In the end, we must focus on controlling our emotions, keeping up with our homework and continuing to scan for opportunities to pick up shares in best-of-breed companies that sell at attractive prices. We think that ultimately the prices in the stock market will reflect the fundamentals once again. We won't catch every bottom — but by sticking to our discipline, as we always have, we'll make it through this storm. Under the hood this week, real estate and consumer staples were the only two sectors that managed to close in the green while communication services , energy and materials led to the downside. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index advanced to just over 101. Gold pulled back slightly to the mid-$1,900s region. WTI crude prices held north of $100 per barrel. The yield on the 10-year Treasury advanced to 2.9%. Here's a quick look at our Club trades from this past week: Looking back Within the portfolio this past week: Halliburton (HAL) on Tuesday edged out expectations with first-quarter revenue and per-share adjusted earnings; Procter & Gamble (PG) on Wednesday reported better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings and sales; and Danaher (DHR) on Thursday reported solid first-quarter results . On the macroeconomic front: Tuesday brought March housing starts , which rose 0.3% to a better-than-expected seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.793 million units; Wednesday's existing home sales for March fell 2.7% month over month to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 5.77 million units, the lowest levels in almost two years but slightly higher than estimates; and Thursday, initial jobless claims for the week ended April 16 dipped to 184,000 but came in just ahead estimates. What's ahead Next week promises to be the busiest week of this latest earnings season. Club stocks reporting starts with Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL) after the closing bell Tuesday. Boeing (BA) and Humana (HUM) are out before the opening bell Wednesday, and Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (FB), Qualcomm (QCOM), PayPal (PYPL) and Ford (F) hit after the bell. Eli Lilly (LLY) and Linde (LIN) are before the opening bell Thursday, with Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) out after the bell. Chevron (CVX), Abbvie (ABBV) and Honeywell (HON) finish the week before the opening bell Friday. Here are some other earnings reports and economic numbers to watch in the week ahead: Monday, April 25 Before the bell: Coca-Cola (KO), Philips (PHG), Otis Worldwide (OTIS), Activision (ATVI) After the bell: Whirlpool (WHR), Ameriprise Fin (AMP), Universal Health (UHS), Crown (CCK), WR Berkley (WRB), Packaging Corp (PKG) Tuesday, April 26 Before the bell: PepsiCo (PEP), Centene (CNC), Valero Energy (VLO), UPS (UPS), Archer-Daniels (ADM), General Electric (GE), Raytheon (RTX), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), Novartis (NVS), 3M (MMM), Sherwin-Williams (SHW), Waste Management (WM) After the bell: General Motors (GM), Chubb (CB), Capital One (COF), Mondelez (MDLZ), Visa (V), Texas Instruments (TXN), Chipotle (CMG), Edwards Lifesciences (EW), Teradyne (TER), Exact Sciences (EXAS) 8:30 a.m. ET: Durable goods orders 10 a.m. ET: New home sales Wednesday, April 27 Before the bell: United Micro (UMC), T-Mobile (TMUS), Cenovus (CVE), Bunge (BG), General Dynamics (GD), Penske Auto (PAG), Kraft Heinz (KHC), Fiserv (FISV), Spotify (SPOT), Harley-Davidson (HOG) After the bell: Molina Health (MOL), Amgen (AMGN), CH Robinson (CHRW), Avnet (AVT), Aflac (AFL), O'Reilly Auto (ORLY), Equinix (EQIX), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Matel (MAT), Netgear (NTGR) 10 a.m. ET: Pending home sales Thursday, April 28 Before the bell: Comcast (CMCSA), Merck (MRK), Caterpillar (CAT), Thermo Fisher (TMO), Sanofi (SNY), Northrop Grumman (NOC), McDonald's (MCD), Mastercard (MA), Southwest (LUV), Stanley Black & Decker (SWK), American Electric (AEP), Domino's Pizza (DPZ) After the bell: Intel (INTC), Gilead (GILD), US Steel (X), Western Digital (WDC), Celanese (CE), Dexcom (DXCM), Seagen (SGEN), Zendesk (ZEN) Friday, April 29 Before the bell: Exxon (XOM), Phillips 66 (PSX), Charter Comm (CHTR), LyondellBasell (LYB), Bristol-Myers (BMY), AstraZeneca (AZN), Magna (MGA), Newell Brands (NWL) 8:30 a.m. ET: Personal income and spending (See here 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 March 30, 2022 in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images