Michael Huber 
Another bruising week on Wall Street gave us a chance to open up our wallet and pick up a number of stocks on sale. The week ahead will offer investors a fresh look at inflation at a time of growing economic and trade policy uncertainty. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq Composite sank 3.1% and 3.45% for the week, respectively, their third weekly loss in a row and their fifth out of the past six. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.37%. A flurry of tariff headlines once again weighed on the stock market. Investors are trying to keep up with President Donald Trump’s shifting decisions on import duties and the response of affected U.S. trade partners in Canada, Mexico and China. It’s making it harder to forecast future earnings, which is a recipe for selling. Mounting concerns about the health of the U.S. economy adds to the degree of difficulty. The crucial February jobs report came in weaker than expected on Friday, but one could argue it wasn’t as bad as feared. And yet, despite that muddy backdrop, we started to take advantage of the sell-off as our trusted momentum indicator, the S & P Short Range Oscillator , moved into oversold territory. That’s our cue to begin nibbling on beaten-up stocks, even if the road ahead isn’t all clear. We bulked up our cash position to be ready to act, as Jim Cramer advised in late February , and largely stayed patient until this week. While the uncertainty can feel overwhelming, our discipline guides us through it. Around midday Tuesday, we bought additional shares of three companies: BlackRock , Disney and Home Depot . We followed up with two separate trade alerts Wednesday. First, we bought the dip in CrowdStrike as the stock sold off on its weak guidance issued the night prior . Nothing in that report changed our outlook on the company and the cybersecurity market overall. Later in Wednesday’s session, we scooped up more shares of Salesforce , Goldman Sachs and Honeywell . On Thursday, we added to our holdings of diversified industrial Dover — and initiated a position on Capital One Financial , using the stock’s recent pullback to get in before its planned acquisition of Discover Financial Services, a huge potential catalyst, is scheduled to close. We capped off the busy week with an active Friday. It started with a trim of Bristol Myers Squibb following its outperformance and used that cash to nibble on Home Depot again. We later bought more Capitol One and lightened up on Abbott Labs , another outperformer, to maintain cash flexibility. Bristol Myers was the top-performing Club stock for the week and one of just five in positive territory. Our biggest loser was CrowdStrike, and if not for our trading restrictions, we would’ve purchased additional shares Friday. Unlike CrowdStrike, we didn’t make any moves in our two other stocks that reported earnings last week: Costco and Broadcom . Costco checked plenty of important boxes for investors on Thursday night, but shares tumbled 6.1% in Friday’s session. The magnitude of the sell-off reached a level that Jim Cramer called out in Friday’s Morning Meeting as a place to start doing some buying. Broadcom, meanwhile, delivered a very strong report and guidance , sending shares up 8.64% in Friday’s session, the best of any stock in the S & P 500. There are no Club holdings reporting in the week ahead. Here’s what we’re watching: 1. Tariffs Tariffs will be a dominant story for the stock market for the foreseeable future. Trump’s comments will swing markets. U.S. trading partners may make trade policy moves of their own. Corporate executives will talk about the potential impact on their companies’ earnings calls and at investor conferences. There figures to be more twists and more turns after weeks already filled with them. Last week alone, Trump’s 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada went into effect Tuesday after a monthlong delay. A day later, he granted a one-month pause to automakers that comply with USMCA trade agreement, which was negotiated during Trump’s first White House stint between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. And then on Thursday, Trump expanded the pause to include additional goods that are compliant with the USMCA, which covers about 50% of Mexican imports and 38% of Canadian imports, CNBC previously reported . An additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports took effect Tuesday, on top of the 10% increase that Trump put in place last month. We cannot predict where it goes from here, of course. But as investors, we’ll look for dislocations within our portfolio that are worth capitalizing on — and places where it makes sense to lighten up, as we did with Bristol Myers. At a high level, we made moves earlier this year to reduce our tariff exposure by exiting Constellation Brands , Stanley Black & Decker and Best Buy . 2. Inflation data The biggest economic data of the week is about inflation. We’ll get the February consumer price index (CPI) on Wednesday morning, followed by the February producer price index (PPI) — a measure of wholesale inflation — on Thursday morning. CPI gets the most attention because it captures the prices that consumers experience, but PPI also matters because it measures input costs for businesses, which feed into prices consumers may face down the road. As of Friday, economists expect a 0.3% month-over-month increase in the CPI and a 2.9% annual inflation rate, according to FactSet. On a core basis, which excludes the impact of food and energy prices, the CPI is expected to show a 0.29% monthly increase and a 3.2% annual gain. Economists expect the PPI to be up 0.3% month over month and 3.2% annually, according to FactSet. Core PPI, which also excludes food and energy, is expected to show a 0.3% monthly gain and a 3.5% annual increase. The reports will add to our understanding of inflationary dynamics in the U.S. economy before Trump’s tariffs took effect. They also may further shape expectations of the Federal Reserve’s future interest rate decisions at a time when softer economic reports have raised the prospect of three cuts this year. On Friday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank’s policy is “not on a preset course.” “Our current policy stance is well positioned to deal with the risks and uncertainties that we face in pursuing both sides of our dual mandate,” Powell said at an event in New York. The Fed’s dual mandate is price stability and maximum employment. The Fed, he said, is “focused on separating the signal from the noise as the outlook evolves. We do not need to be in a hurry, and are well positioned to wait for greater clarity.” A pair of other economic reports to note: The job openings and labor turnover survey (JOLTS) on Tuesday morning offers a look at the slack in the labor market, and the University of Michigan’s preliminary March consumer sentiment survey on Friday provides insight into how Americans are thinking about the economy and the trajectory of inflation. The February edition of the survey — along with a different consumer confidence gauge — have painted a more pessimistic picture in recent weeks. Week ahead Monday, March 10 Before the bell: BioNTech (BNTX) After the close: Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Asana (ASAN), Mission Produce (AVO), Quanex Building Products (NX), Vail Resorts (MTN) Tuesday, March 11 NFIB Small Business Index at 6 a.m. ET Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: Kohl’s Corporation (KSS), Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), Viking Holdings (VIK), United Natural Foods (UNFI), Douglas Elliman (DOUG), Kanzhun Limited (BZ), First Watch Restaurant Group (FWRG), After the bell: Casey’s General Stores (CASY), LoanDepot (LDI), Westrock Coffee Co. (WEST) Wednesday, March 12 Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 8:30 a.m. ET Before the bell: ABM Industries (ABM), Vivid Seats (SEAT), Vera Bradley (VRA) After the bell: Adobe (ADBE), UiPath (PATH), SentinelOne (S), Crown Castle International (CCI), American Eagle (AEO), Tilly’s (TLYS) Thursday, March 13 Producer Price Index (PPI) at 8:30 a.m. ET Initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET Before the bell: D-Wave Quantum (QBTS), Dollar General Corporation (DG), Weibo Corporation (WB), Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW), Blade Air Mobility (BLDE) After the bell: DocuSign (DOCU), ULTA Beauty (ULTA), PagerDuty (PD), Rubrik (RBRK), ServiceTitan (TTAN), Zumiez (ZUMZ) Friday, March 14 University of Michigan consumer sentiment at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: LiAuto Inc. (LI), Gogo Inc. (GOGO) (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.
Another bruising week on Wall Street gave us a chance to open up our wallet and pick up a number of stocks on sale. The week ahead will offer investors a fresh look at inflation at a time of growing economic and trade policy uncertainty.
