Two 2024 tech laggards are driving the stock market higher Monday — here's why

Published Mon, Apr 29 20242:33 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.) Two laggards do the lifting: The market was up on Monday, extending last week's rebound. Driving the S & P 500 higher, ironically, are the two "Magnificent 7" stocks that have underperformed all year: Tesla and Apple . Tesla jumped more than 15% after CEO Elon Musk visited China and received approval from the Chinese government for its driver-assistance system. Apple is higher after a long-time bear at Bernstein research turned bullish, surprisingly days before an earnings report that is expected to be weak. But on Bernstein's side: Everyone already knows about Apple's problems in China. There's been a news report about sluggish iPhone sales practically every week this year. Bernstein thinks Apple's weakness in China is more cyclical than structural and that the company's outlook could serve as a "clearing event" for the stock, much like it did in 2019 and 2023 after lackluster sales for the iPhone XS and 14. Discipline calls: We trimmed our Wells Fargo position this afternoon. It was a sale made out of discipline, as the stock's strong performance since the beginning of March — up 8% vs the S & P's less than 1% gain — pushed the weighting of this long-time Cramer fave bank to our 5% threshold. The trim also comes ahead of two big economic events later this week. "The banks' charts are great, but there are two events this week that could hurt the group: the Fed meeting Wednesday and the jobs report Friday," Cramer explained. "If we didn't have so much Wells Fargo stock, I wouldn't worry." Up next: Huge day tomorrow. Eaton , GE Healthcare , and Eli Lilly report earnings before the opening bell. All three are off to good starts in 2024 and outpacing the broad market S & P 500. Other big reports include PayPal , 3M , McDonalds , and Coca-Cola . And those are just the companies reporting in the morning. After the bell, we hear from Amazon , Starbucks, and a couple of AI/data center chip stocks — Advanced Micro Devices and Super Micro . (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.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook attends the China Development Forum in Beijing on March 24, 2024.

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