Wall Street opened the new trading week in rally mode on Monday, with the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each gaining around 1% and the S&P 500 not far behind, according to the CNBC Investing Club's daily Morning Meeting recap.
Megacap technology names powered much of the advance. Amazon climbed more than 4.5% on the session, comfortably erasing the losses it suffered on Friday after its earnings report, a pullback that Jim Cramer had viewed at the time as a buying opportunity. Alphabet also posted a strong day, helping support the Nasdaq.
A big drop in crude prices, driven by hopes of a diplomatic solution to the Middle East conflict, gave support to oil-related stocks such as Boeing. The Club added to its position in the planemaker earlier Monday as the dust settled on last week's cash flow guidance reset. While the Club cited fundamental reasons for sticking with Boeing, it acknowledged the stock's linkage to oil prices this year. "If oil goes lower, Boeing goes higher no matter what," Cramer said.
CrowdStrike did not join Monday's tech rally even after catching an upgrade from Deutsche Bank, whose analysts moved the cybersecurity stock to buy from hold. They argued that "investors are still not fully appreciating the extent to which AI will expand the market for cybersecurity and CrowdStrike's leadership at the forefront."
Weakness spread across the cybersecurity landscape to start the week, with disappointing results from industry peer Check Point likely weighing on the group after Fortinet's unsatisfactory earnings report the previous week. "What's happened here is we have the haves and the have-nots. CrowdStrike is a definite 'have,'" Cramer said, adding that he wants investors without a position in the stock "to think about this."
Apple was set to report earnings after Monday's closing bell. Portfolio director Jeff Marks noted that the stock's valuation has become extended following a solid run since August, which raises expectations heading into the print. The report is the first under CEO John Ternus since he took over from Tim Cook on Sept. 1.
Marks said the conference call should offer a better sense of demand for the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo, along with the impact of higher memory prices. Cramer reiterated his "own it, don't trade it" mantra on Apple but emphasized he was not making a call on how shares would react to the results. "Historically it would go down after this big run, but I don't know when I could get back in," he said.
Monday's rapid-fire segment at the end of the livestream covered Estee Lauder, Abbott Labs, PepsiCo and Marriott International. Cramer's Charitable Trust holds positions in Amazon, Alphabet, Boeing, CrowdStrike and Apple.
