Here are 3 themes that drove another super challenging week for stocks
The ripple effects of the war in Iran are ever-widening. Soaring oil prices continued to put pressure on stocks last week, with the Dow and Nasdaq slipping into correction territory, defined by declines of 10% or more from record highs. The Dow and Nasdaq sank 1.7% and nearly 2.2%, respectively, on Friday and just about 1% and 3.2%, respectively, for the week. The Dow is down 10% from its most recent record high close, while the Nasdaq is off roughly 13%. The S & P 500 lost 1.7% on Friday and 2.1% for the week. The S & P 500 is barely on the right side of the correction threshold, down 8.7% since its record. It was not just the war that crushed stocks on Friday, adding to five straight weeks of market malaise. News that Anthropic is testing its powerful new artificial intelligence model throttled enterprise software stocks, including cybersecurity names that should never be lumped in with the rest. Social media stocks also struggled after two court rulings in child safety cases went against Meta Platforms . Here are the three themes that drove another challenging week on Wall Street. War-driven oil surge Iran and the U.S. exchanged proposals to end the hostilities. Neither side was all that enthusiastic. President Donald Trump again extended a deadline for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz oil route or face bombings of its power plants. The new date is April 6. Jim Cramer has said it’s going to be hard for stocks to recover while the Strait remains closed and oil prices soar on supply constraints. West Texas Intermediate crude on Friday finished up 5.5% to $99.64 per barrel, its highest settling price since July 2022. Brent international crude jumped 4.2% to $112.57, also its highest settle since July 2022. WTI and Brent rose more than 1.3% and 0.3%, respectively, for the week and 48.7% and 55.3%, respectively, since the war began four weeks ago. The national average for regular unleaded gasoline, according to AAA , is just a hair below $4 per gallon — up $1 per gallon in a month. We did explore two bright spots of higher gas prices for Costco : Busier pumps bring more shoppers into the stores, and the retailer’s new standalone gas station experiment to drive membership growth. Costco shares rose 1.2% last week. ‘Anthropic the Impaler’ During the Investing Club’s March Monthly Meeting on Friday, Jim referred to Anthropic as “Anthropic the Impaler,” because every time there’s a development about the AI startup, software stocks get killed. Friday’s Anthropic headline took another 6% off CrowdStrike , and the same for Palo Alto Networks . The stocks were both off more than 9% for the week. The market worries that Anthropic and other AI tools will replace enterprise software companies. But AI can’t replace best-of-breed cybersecurity. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz explained why on Thursday evening’s “Mad Money.” Kurtz said that every company that deploys AI needs independent protection for compliance and enforcement. “It’s a bit like dentists trying to do brain surgery,” Jim said during Friday’s meeting. When CrowdStrike came under pressure on Tuesday on Databricks’ entry into the security market, we bought into that weakness. While he still likes Palo Alto, Jim said the portfolio does not need two cybersecurity stocks and that he favors CrowdStrike. Not tobacco, not asbestos Meta Platforms ‘ stock was our worst performer last week, dropping almost 11.5%, after losing two social media addiction cases — one in California and one in New Mexico. Jim wants to add to our position when we can. He said during Friday’s meeting: “Did Meta lose some lawsuits involving some painful addictions to their product? Yes. But is this hidden asbestos? I believe that Meta has the law and the facts on their side and will defend it vigorously.” He also denounced comparisons to tobacco. Jim did say the Meta lawsuits remind him of the talc cases against Johnson & Johnson . “It’s like J & J, $140 at the plaintiff’s peak, then straight shot to $240,” Jim said. He lamented being chased out of J & J over talc and does not want to give in on Meta. Jim said he is not too thrilled about the gobs of money Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is spending on AI. But he concluded, “I have been wrong whenever I have doubted him.” (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long COST, PANW, META. 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. 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