These 5 portfolio stocks outran the market in Wall Street's strong week. Here's what fueled their gains

Published Sat, Mar 23 20242:00 PM EDT

In a strong week for Wall Street, a wide-ranging group of Club stocks marched higher, including both of our chipmakers benefiting from the artificial intelligence boom. Here's a breakdown of the Club's top-five performers over the past five sessions. AVGO YTD mountain Broadcom (AVGO) year-to-date performance Shares of Broadcom jumped 9.55% this week, occupying the top spot among portfolio stocks. The company held its artificial intelligence infrastructure event Wednesday, where management announced a third customer for its custom AI chip business. Wall Street analysts speculated that TikTok parent ByteDance is Broadcom's new customer. Alphabet's Google and Meta Platforms are the other two customers, according to JPMorgan analysts. Broadcom stock jumped 3% Wednesday, as investors digested its event. Shares climbed even higher Thursday, adding another 5.6%. In response to the conference, TD Cowen analysts boosted Broadcom's price target to $1,500 per share from $1,400. It closed Friday at $1,353.47 per share. Jim Cramer said Broadcom will continue to benefit from the AI frenzy because the firm is "integral in advancing accelerating computing." Broadcom, he said, will "make a fortune" off of it. FL YTD mountain Foot Locker (FL) year-to-date performance Foot Locker was the week's second-best performer, advancing 8.5% over the past five sessions. The stock received a nice boost Friday, after Citigroup upgraded the stock to neutral from sell and raised its price target to $24 a share from $19. Nike's new distribution strategy may benefit Foot Locker, the analysts argued, translating to improved risk/reward for the beleaguered sneaker retailer. Still, we remain cautious on Foot Locker because of its recent slump and sizable earnings miss earlier this month. "I have very low expectations," Jim said on Friday's Morning Meeting. SWK YTD mountain Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) year-to-date performance Stanley Black & Decker stock advanced 7.41% this week, grabbing the No. 3 spot in the portfolio. Positive data surrounding the U.S. housing market – a key proxy for demand around the company's tools business – likely boosted investor sentiment. This includes better-than-expected existing home sales and housing permit figures. Optimism around the Fed's forthcoming rate cuts also helped the stock move higher because lowering borrowing costs can spur activity in the housing sector. More activity should mean more demand for the products sold by the DeWalt and Craftsman parent. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia (NVDA) year-to-date performance Nvidia is our fourth-best performing stock this week, as shares climbed 7.35% over the period. The company held its annual GTC developer's conference earlier this week, during which CEO Jensen Huang delivered his anticipated keynote address and announced its next-generation AI chip , among other updates. Based on recent history, it's hardly a surprise Nvidia made it on the top-gainers list. The megacap tech stock continues to see outsized gains, up 90% year to date, given its dominant role in the AI chip market and investor enthusiasm around the nascent tech. "The sum of all that Nvidia's doing will indeed create the next industrial revolution because Nvidia's about the speed with which we can arrive at smarter, better answers," Jim said earlier this week while attending the conference. F YTD mountain Ford Motor (F) year-to-date performance Shares of Ford Motor rose 7.05% this week, rounding out the list at No. 5. Large U.S. automakers received news in recent days that the White House will be easing originally proposed rules around gasoline-powered vehicle production output. These are typically more profitable offerings for legacy automakers, which have been investing heavily in recent years to build out their all-electric vehicle businesses. Demand for EVs, though, has been softening. We've seen other recent bright spots for Ford's business, too. Management posted strong monthly hybrid sales in early March – a sign the company's decision to scale back spending on money-losing EVs may be paying off. In fact, Jim recently said he believes hybrids are "going to be a breakout for Ford." (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AVGO, NVDA, SWK, F, FL, META, GOOGL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.

Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom

Lucas Jackson | Reuters

In a strong week for Wall Street, a wide-ranging group of Club stocks marched higher, including both of our chipmakers benefiting from the artificial intelligence boom.