It was a topsy-turvy week for Wall Street, d by a big Friday rally. The market was looking at a weekly loss at Thursday's close.
But a day later, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell came through, hinting at possible interest rate cuts ahead.
His speech on Friday at the central bank's economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was just what investors had hoped to hear, and the stocks that can benefit the most led the market.
The cyclical, more economically sensitive names were strong with DuPont and Depot among the winners Friday and for the week.
Defensive groups lagged, which put Bristol Myers Squibb and Costco in the red for the session and the week.
While lower rates lift all boats, some of our big stocks up only slightly Friday but down for the week. Why?
Well, the number of rate cuts this year won't impact names Meta Platforms or a Microsoft quite as much.
Instead, their fortunes are more tied to the boom in artificial intelligence rather than lower borrowing costs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new all-time high Friday, closing at a record and exceeding its previous record close from early December.
The S & P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rallied on Friday too, but it was not enough to eclipse last week's milestones.
While the Dow and S & P 500 both advanced overall this week, the -heavy Nasdaq posted a weekly loss.
"In the end, Powell managed to thread the needle perfectly and, as a result, all three major averages are rallying," Zev Fima, a portfolio analyst for the CNBC , wrote in a Friday analysis.
"When we look underneath the hood of the S & P 500, the leading sector is consumer discretionary — and that makes sense because lower rates mean more money discretionary money in consumers' pockets." It was a big week for Disney as well.
The company finally launched its new ESPN flagship ing app Thursday, allowing the sports channel to become a standalone ing service.
The duct was designed to expand access for existing rs and sports fans outside of the traditional ing bundle to all of ESPN's content.
"We think this will contribute nicely to ESPN's bottom line over time as engagement grows," Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC on Thursday.
Some on Wall Street, however, were concerned when management said that Disney would not break out r numbers for the new ESPN offering.
After all, many people view them as a key metric to evaluating the success of ing platforms.
But Iger said that r figures are "irrelevant," and that Disney is taking more of an "agnostic" strategy instead.
"We don't feel the way to measure this is immediate, nor do we feel the way to measure this is in just rs," the CEO added. Three names reported quarterly earnings this week.
On Monday evening, Palo Alto Networks posted a better-than-expected quarter and issued upside guidance for fiscal year 2026.
The cybersecurity company beat estimates across all key metrics, including revenue, adjusted earnings per (EPS), adjusted free cash flow margin, next-generation security annual recurring revenue (ARR), and total remaining performance obligation (RPO).
The upbeat fiscal outlook gave us reassurance Palo Alto's planned $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk, which recently sent the stock tanking on worries that the offer was made because the core was not doing well.
That turned out not to be the case. The stock was among our biggest weekly winners with a 5% gain. holdings CrowdStrike and Nvidia will both report earnings next Wednesday.
Depot posted mixed results on Tuesday morning, missing analysts' estimates on the top and bottom lines. That was a first for the imvement retailer since 2014.
Still, the stock surged after management made it during the post-earnings conference call that momentum seen in the quarter was set to continue, barring any unforeseen economic shocks.
We're still confident in key catalysts for Depot s, such as lower rates and its push further into the market with big acquisitions.
The stock was among our best performers of the week, with a gain of over 3%. It was also among the top of the Dow 30, too. TJX Companies released an impressive quarterly earnings report Wednesday.
Management increased the discounted retailer's full-year outlook, and the company saw strength in all of its operating segments, causing the stock to be one of the top performers in the S & P 500 that session.
As a result, the raised our TJX price target to $150 apiece from $145, and reiterated a buy-equivalent 1 rating on s. The stock pulled back modestly Friday but still gained nearly 3% this week.
We executed only one trade. The purchased more s of our newest holding, Cisco Systems , on Tuesday morning.
The stock experienced a big decline ing its earnings release last week — a reaction we saw as overblown.
Although the quarter wasn't clean, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins did a solid job assuaging investor concerns and down why the security experienced a revenue miss. The stock the week 1.7% higher.
(Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long DD, HD, BMY, COST, TJX, DIS, META, MSFT, PANW, CRWD, NVDA, CSCO.
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