How we navigated the market’s winning week amid Trump’s Truth Social surprises
Wall Street had a stellar first full trading week of 2026, shaking off a barrage of uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump ‘s social media posts and the surprise military operation in Venezuela. The S & P 500 turned in a record high close Friday, following weaker-than-expected December job growth. The government reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 50,000 last month, less than the 73,000 that economists had forecasted, adding to the case for more Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. For the week, the S & P 500 gained 1.6%. The Nasdaq advanced nearly 2% last week but remained short of its record high. .SPX .IXIC 5D mountain S & P 500 and Nasdaq last week The market’s hot streak came despite the United States’ capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro last weekend, along with a dizzying number of announcements from Trump. In a series of Truth Social posts Wednesday, Trump said he wants to ban large investors from buying homes; bar defense companies from issuing dividends and doing stock buybacks; and he called for an increase in the nation’s defense budget. On Thursday, the president ordered mortgage bond purchases designed to lower interest rates. Through it all, Jim Cramer warned that investors should not make any sudden moves. That’s because the market often displays “strange patterns” in the first weeks of the year. “This is not a moment to make big bets,” Jim said during Thursday’s Morning Meeting. That said, the Club did execute a few small, calculated trades. On Monday, we offloaded some BlackRock shares. The financial name has jumped since the start of the year following a lackluster 2025 performance, so we capitalized on the strength. BlackRock, as well as Club names Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs report earnings this coming week. On Thursday, we exited Solstice Advanced Materials . Club holding Honeywell split from the specialty chemicals company on Oct. 30, which gave us a tiny Solstice position that represented only about 0.15% of the entire portfolio. It’s a great name, but we were hesitant to buy more at that price point. We decided to put Solstice back in the Bullpen instead. NVDA 5D mountain Nvidia last week Despite the market’s outperformance, some of our stocks still lagged this week. Nvidia , for example, declined over 2%, despite several positive developments from the company. On Monday evening, CEO Jensen Huang shared bullish remarks about the chipmaker’s partnerships at the Consumer Electronics Show. A day later, CFO Colette Kress said that management’s $500 billion sales guide for 2025 and 2026 has “definitely gotten larger.” After that, Bloomberg reported Thursday that China will allow the import of Nvidia’s H200 chips. None of this, however, was enough to bring the stock into the green for the week. We told existing Nvidia investors not to buy the dip. Although there is further growth on the horizon, especially with China back on the table, we don’t see any near-term catalysts to make us think that a Nvidia stock break to the upside is imminent. To those without a position, it may be a good time to start one. CRWD 5D mountain CrowdStrike last week Nvidia wasn’t the only portfolio holding that had a surprising reaction to company news. CrowdStrike fell more than 3% Thursday after management announced plans to buy identity management startup SGNL in a $740 million deal. The Club saw it as a win, but a broader rotation of tech stocks weighed on shares. The acquisition gives CrowdStrike a stronger foothold in identity security, one of the fastest-growing segments in the entire sector. In fact, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz himself told CNBC that the deal presents a “massive opportunity for us to disrupt the identity market.” Identity security has become increasingly important because the AI boom has made online attacks even more sophisticated. Despite Thursday’s tumble, CrowdStrike stock still rose nearly 3.8% for the week. (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.
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