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.) Markets Bounce Back : Stocks rebounded from Wednesday’s sell-off on inflation fears, as interest rates spiked and many market prognosticators recalibrated their Federal Reserve interest rate cut projections to maybe one or two this year, if any. However, Thursday’s producer price index report, which came in cooler to in-line, assuaged some of those concerns, helping stocks and bonds rally. Banks weaker ahead of earnings: Despite the market rally, financial stocks are lower Thursday, with a prominent exchange-traded fund for the industry working on its third consecutive down day. The selling comes right ahead of the unofficial start to first-quarter earnings season with a few of the big banks reporting Friday including Club holding Wells Fargo . BlackRock , Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase also are scheduled to report. “I think that the market is confused about the Fed and nothing else and fears JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon [will be talking about ]talking 8% rates tomorrow,” Jim Cramer said Thursday. “Makes sense.” In Dimon’s annual letter to shareholders released Monday, he discussed the bank’s preparedness for a broad range of interest rates, from 2% to 8%. In other news, Morgan Stanley fell midday on reports that U.S. regulators including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Securities and Exchange Commission are probing the bank’s wealth management business over concerns about money laundering. Our initial view is that the stock’s more-than-4% decline on the news is an over reaction. Bausch gets a “win”: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Club holding Bausch Health in its defense against preventing a generic version of Xifaxan until…
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