The S&P 500 fades despite tech rally — plus, the crosscurrents driving Lilly's volatile day
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Every weekday, the Investing Club releases the Homestretch; an actionable afternoon update just in time for the last hour of trading.
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July 31, 2025
06:47 PM
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Every weekday, the CNBC with Jim Cramer releases the stretch — an actionable afternoon , time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street
Market moves : The S & P 500 turned negative Thursday afternoon after s of major drugmakers came under pressure from President Donald Trump over prescription prices
Trump posted on social media letters that were sent to 17 pharmaceutical companies, including names Eli Lilly and Bristol Myers Squibb , asking them to cut U.S. drug prices
The letters mention the executive order the president signed in May that aims to reduce drug prices in the U.S. by comparing them to what's paid in other developed nations
This pricing push is separate from the sector-specific tariffs that Trump has threatened the pharmaceutical industry with
The stock market would look a lot worse if it weren't for the big post-earnings moves in names Meta Platforms , up 12%, and Microsoft , up 4%
Microsoft became the second stock to join the $4 trillion , ing fellow portfolio member Nvidia , which did so earlier this summer
But as of this writing, Microsoft was off its session highs and appeared unly to close above that market cap threshold
Tariff deadline : The S & P 500 had been rallying for much of the session but was losing steam even before the drug price news
Investors might be dealing with a little bit of a hangover from Wednesday when Federal Reserve Chairman Powell hesitated to pencil in an interest rate cut in September due to caution whether tariffs will be inflationary
We will also watch out for more trade deals ahead of Friday's Trump administration-imposed "recical" tariff deadline
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Thursday morning the U.S. has the "making of a deal" with China
In the afternoon, Trump froze Mexico's tariffs at 25% for 90 days as talks continued
The European Union made a trade deal with the U.S. on Sunday
Other countries reaching deals with Trump included Japan last Thursday and the United Kingdom back on May 8
Diabetes trial : In other Lilly news, the company announced the topline results of its highly anticipated SURPASS-CVOT Phase 3 trial on Thursday
This was a head-to-head trial comparing Mounjaro (tirzepatide) versus Trulicity (dulaglutide)
Both drugs are in the GLP-1 class
The goal of the study was to ve that Mounjaro is an acceptable alternative in treating patients with Type 2 diabetes with cardiovascular risk
The results confirmed just that
While some of the more bullish investors were hoping for a more significant superiority, we still view the outcome as a positive step forward
It means Mounjaro's label will potentially expand to include cardiovascular risk reduction, an that could drive broader insurance coverage
That said, this trial is not the most important factor on our radar when it comes to Lilly
That event will be next week's earnings — and more specifically, what management says sales expectations for Mounjaro and sister drug Zepbound in the second half of the year, especially in light of Novo Nordisk's surprise guidance cut earlier this week
While Novo's stumble makes it that Eli Lilly is gaining in the lucrative GPL-1 market, we sold some s on Tuesday to hedge against the possibility that GLP-1 market growth did not expand as fast as predicted, impacting the company's guidance. s of Lilly opened Thursday lower before mounting a comeback, only to rollover into the red after Trump went public with his drug price threats
ET, s of Lilly were down 2%
At its highs of the day, the stock was up 0.8%
Up next : Apple and Amazon report after Thursday's close
In addition to those two "Magnificent Seven" stocks, Reddit , Coinbase , Roku , Cloudflare ,and MicroStrategy report earnings
Before Friday's opening bell, we will get earnings from name Linde , Exxon Mobil , Chevron , Colgate-Palmo , Regeneron and Dominion Energy
On the data side, the July nonfarm Payroll report will be out Friday morning
According to FactSet, the economy is expected to have added 115,000 jobs for the month. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a r to the CNBC with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade
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