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. The S & P 500 was up in afternoon trading as investors shrugged off news of the Department of Justice’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The probe concerns the $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed’s headquarters and Powell’s testimony on it. Powell, however, said the investigation is the result of the Fed “setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences” of President Donald Trump. The ongoing feud raises questions about the future of Fed independence, but the market has brushed aside the risks for now. Monday’s market laggards are the financials, which are taking hits after Trump’s call to cap credit card interest rates at 10%. In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump said the cap would take effect on Jan. 20, but didn’t give further details on how it would be implemented. Capital One , one of the nation’s largest credit card issuers, sank more than 7% on the news. Wells Fargo , another Club stock, tumbled nearly 2%. Meanwhile, Alphabet ‘s market cap crossed above $4 trillion for the first time. Google’s parent company reached an all-time high after Apple tapped Gemini, its AI model, to power the iPhone maker’s AI features. We see it as a huge win for investors in both tech giants. Danaher pre-announced better-than-expected results ahead of its Tuesday presentation at JPMorgan’s annual health-care conference in San Francisco, an event that is always filled with trial data, new partnerships, deals, and business updates. The medical equipment supplier said it expects fourth-quarter non-GAAP core revenue to be toward the high end of its guidance for low-single-digit growth, and that full-year 2025 non-GAAP adjusted earnings per share will be toward the high end of its previously announced guidance range of $7.70 to $7.80. Both figures look slightly better than the FactSet consensus of about 1.4% core revenue growth and $7.71 in earnings per share. Shares of Danaher aren’t reacting positively to the news, down about 1% on Monday. Our take is that the upbeat results were largely expected given management’s “under-promise, over-deliver” nature. Investors are instead looking ahead to commentary on 2026, and this morning, there wasn’t much that was new. Management backed its preliminary expectations of core revenue growth of 3% to 6% and high-single-digit earnings growth. We’ll be listening for additional color on the current year during tomorrow’s presentation, but formal guidance is unlikely until the company reports earnings on Jan. 28. Jefferies analysts say buy Club holding Nike into the week’s annual ICR consumer conference, arguing that the retailer is on track to become a “dividend aristocrat” in 2026. To earn that designation, a company has to be a member of the S & P 500 that has increased its dividend for at least 25 consecutive years. It’s a milestone that signals a firm’s cash flows have proven resilient across economic cycles. “Hitting aristocrat status should put NKE on even more investor screens while shares still trade near 15-year lows on [Price to Sale] even as North America improves, wholesale rebuilds, and Running posts strong gains,” Jefferies wrote in the Sunday note. Nike last raised its quarterly dividend in November, so it still has about 10 months to go before it becomes an aristocrat. That said, we appreciate Jefferies putting it on our radar. The next level up from a dividend aristocrat is the more exclusive “dividend king club.” To become a member, a company must have increased its dividend payout for at least 50 consecutive years. Procter & Gamble and Dover are the only stocks in the Charitable Trust with that label. Up next: There are no major earnings after the closing bell. Tuesday marks the unofficial start of the fourth-quarter earnings season, and we’ll hear from JPMorgan , Delta , and Bank of New York Mellon . It will be interesting to hear JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s thoughts on the feasibility of the President’s proposed plan to cap credit card interest rates. On the data side, the key report will be the December Consumer Price Index. (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.
Why this health-care stock isn’t bouncing after preannouncing beat
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