These 5 portfolio stocks crushed the volatile market since our August Monthly Meeting

It’s been a topsy-turvy stock market since the Club’s August Monthly Meeting. The S & P 500 jumped 1.8% over the period, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.1% and 0.9%, respectively. But it hasn’t been a one-way climb for the stock market. Investor concerns around the longevity of the generative artificial intelligence boom , coupled with the market’s sensitivity to the Federal Reserve’s next policy move, have caused Wall Street to seesaw in recent weeks. Case in point: On Friday, the S & P 500 wrapped up its worst week since March 2023, dragged down by a weaker-than-expected August jobs report and Nvidia’s big decline (though the AI chipmaker has soared this week, erasing much of those losses). September’s rocky performance so far follows four consecutive winning months for the S & P 500. We’ve taken advantage of the market’s recent volatility. Since our last monthly gathering, the Club trimmed shares of Eli Lilly and Procter & Gamble and exited our position in the struggling Estee Lauder entirely. We used those funds to boost our positions in AI beneficiary Dover and clean energy play Nextracker despite the latter’s near-term challenges. We also initiated a stake in Home Depot on Sept. 4. The market’s recent jitters have pushed money into more defensive areas as investors seek well-capitalized companies that can endure a potential recession. Just look at portfolio names like Abbott Laboratories and TJX Companies . These were two of our top performers since the August Monthly Meeting. Meanwhile, other winners such as Amazon escaped last week’s sell-off in megacap tech, while Best Buy got a boost on a strong quarterly earnings report. Advanced Micro Devices joined the gainers list late Wednesday on a bounce back in chip stocks. Here’s a breakdown of what drove gains in each of these five stocks since the close of the Club’s August 14 meeting through Wednesday’s close. 1. Best Buy: up 17.7% Shares got a boost Aug. 23 after Fed Chair Jerome Powell delivered dovish policy remarks at the central bank’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. Best Buy can benefit from rate cuts because lower borrowing costs leads to more activity in the housing sector, which can increase demand for the company’s offerings like televisions and appliances. We capitalized on the move higher, making a small sale on Aug. 26 to protect against any disappointment at its upcoming earnings report. It did not disappoint. Indeed, most of the stock’s whopping double-digit advance came from the electronics retailer’s beat-and-raise quarter on Aug. 29 . Shares jumped more than 14% during the session. Although the stock is down roughly 3% since that initial pop, it’s held most of its gains on a string of positive Wall Street commentary. Bank of America, Telsey Advisory Group and DA Davidson each raised their price targets after quarterly results. We also updated our PT to $105 a share from $95. 2. Amazon: up 8.5% Shares of the e-commerce giant advanced on a string of positive Wall Street research, which added fuel to an ongoing recovery from its earnings sell-off to start last month. JPMorgan called Amazon its top internet stock pick on Aug. 19. Days later, Goldman Sachs also named the stock its top internet pick while reiterating a buy rating on shares. In the Aug. 29 note, Goldman analysts said that even if consumers trade down on their shopping choices amid economic uncertainty, the company is still well-positioned to capitalize on the shift in spending. “We believe that [Amazon] sees this as an opportunity to gain market share and meet consumers with lower prices, faster delivery speeds and a widening selection,” the analysts wrote, citing growth in Amazon’s everyday essentials businesses. The stock then faded a bit until Monday, when shares began another ascent higher after Amazon’s investor day, where investors celebrated CEO Andy Jassy’s positive remarks regarding its cloud business, and a new partnership with Oracle. 3. TJX: up 8% Similar to Best Buy, the retail stock lands on this list thanks in large part to a stellar earnings report . On Aug. 21, TJX shot up 6.1% to a record close after the company raised its fiscal 2025 profit outlook and posted a beat on the top and bottom lines. The stock has lost about 2% since then, but that’s much better than the performance of a popular retail ETF over the same stretch, which lost 6.7%. TJX’s relative outperformance versus other retailers came as investors looked for recession-resilient names. A bargain retailer like TJX certainly fits that bill. 4. Advanced Micro Devices: up 6.5% AMD has mounted a big rally, up 11.5% over the past three sessions alone, to land in the top five. The stock has been clobbered in recent months, including in late August into September. Now the dip buyers have come out in full force alongside some generally positive updates on AI demand. After a 2.8% jump Monday, AMD kept its run going Tuesday after a cloud computing partner, Oracle , posted upbeat quarterly results. Wednesday’s strength in chip stocks, spurred by commentary from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang , likely contributed to AMD’s gains in that session. The stock closed nearly 5% higher on the eve of the September Monthly Meeting. 5. Abbott Laboratories: up 6.1% The medical device maker can thank the rotation of money into defensive sectors like health care for its slow ascent higher in recent weeks. The S & P 500’s health care sector is up 2.2% since the August Monthly Meeting, slightly outperforming the broad index’s 1.8% rise in that timeframe. Abbott shares have seemingly benefited from a company-specific driver, though. The stock really took off on Sept. 5 after the company launched its first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor, Lingo, in the U.S. ( 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.

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