Wells Fargo & Co – Page 3

Why Wells Fargo shares will rise once the Fed starts cutting interest rates

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July 15, 2024

3 money moves to make ahead of the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut in years

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Recent signs that inflation is easing have paved the way for the Federal Reserve to start lowering interest rates as soon as this fall.

The consumer price index, a key inflation gauge, dipped in June for the first time in more than four years, the Labor Department reported last week.

“With abundant signs of a cooling economy, the consumer price index for June certainly constitutes the ‘more good data’ on inflation that Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said we need to see before the Fed can begin cutting interest rates,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

With a fall rate cut looking more likely now, households may finally get some relief from the sky-high borrowing costs that followed the most recent series of interest rate hikes, which took the Fed’s benchmark rate to the highest level in decades.

Fed officials signaled they expect to reduce its benchmark rate once in 2024 and four additional times in 2025.

The federal funds rate, which is set by the U.S. central bank, is the interest rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another overnight. Although that’s not the rate consumers pay, the Fed’s moves still affect the rates they see every day on things such as private student loans and credit cards.

“If you are a consumer, now is the time to say, what does my spending look like? Where would my money grow the most and what options do I have?” said Leslie Tayne, an attorney specializing in debt relief at Tayne Law in New York and author of “Life & Debt.”

Here are three key strategies to consider:

1. Watch your variable-rate debt

With a rate cut, the prime rate lowers, too, and the interest rates on variable-rate debt — such as credit cards, adjustable-rate mortgages and some private student loans — are likely to follow, reducing your monthly payments.

For example, credit card holders could see a reduction in their annual percentage yield, or APR, within a billing cycle or two. But even then, APRs will only ease off extremely high levels.

Rather than wait for a small adjustment in the months ahead, borrowers could switch now to a zero-interest balance transfer credit card or consolidate and pay off high-interest credit cards with a personal loan, Tayne said.

Olga Rolenko | Moment | Getty Images

Many homeowners with ARMs, which are pegged to a variety of indexes such as the prime rate, Libor or the 11^th District Cost of Funds, may see their interest rate go down as well — although not immediately as ARMs generally reset just once a year.

In the meantime, there are fewer options to provide homeowners with extra breathing room. “Your better move may be waiting to refinance,” McBride said.

Private student loans also tend to have a variable rate tied to the prime, Treasury bill or another rate index, which means once the Fed starts cutting interest rates, the interest rates on those private student loans will start dropping.

Eventually, borrowers with existing variable-rate private student loans may also be able to refinance into a less expensive fixed-rate loan, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

Currently, the fixed rates on a private refinance are as low as 5% and as high as 11%, Kantrowitz said.

2. Lock in savings rates

While borrowing will become less expensive, those lower interest rates will hurt savers.

Since rates on online savings accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit are all poised to go down, experts say this is the time to lock in some of the highest returns in decades.

For now, top-yielding online savings accounts and one-year CDs are paying more than 5% — well above the rate of inflation.

The opportunity to earn 5% annually on those cash investments may not last much longer.

Howard Hook

wealth advisor with EKS Associates

“One thing you may want to do is consider investing any idle cash you have into a higher-yielding money market fund,” said certified financial planner Howard Hook, a senior wealth advisor at EKS Associates in Princeton, New Jersey.

“Money market brokerage accounts usually pay higher rates than money market or savings accounts at banks,” he said in an emailed statement. “If the Fed is indeed looking to reduce rates five times over the next eighteen months (as currently projected), then the opportunity to earn 5% annually on those cash investments may not last much longer.”

3. Put off large purchases

If you’re planning a major purchase, like a home or car, then it may pay to wait, since lower interest rates could reduce the cost of financing down the road.

“Timing your purchase to coincide with lower rates can save money over the life of the loan,” Tayne said.

Although mortgage rates are fixed and tied to Treasury yields and the economy, they’ve already started to come down from recent highs, largely due to the prospect of a Fed-induced economic slowdown. The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is now just above 7%, according to Bankrate.

However, lower mortgage rates could also boost homebuying demand, which would push prices higher, McBride said. “If lower mortgage rates lead to a surge in prices, that’s going to offset the affordability benefit for would-be buyers.”

When it comes to auto loans, there’s no question inflation has hit financing costs — and vehicle prices — hard. The average rate on a five-year new car loan is now nearly 8%, according to Bankrate.

But in this case, “the financing is one variable, and it’s frankly one of the smaller variables,” McBride said. For example, a quarter percentage point reduction in rates on a $35,000, five-year loan is $4 a month, he calculated.

In this case, and in many other situations as well, consumers would benefit more from improving their credit scores, which could pave the way to even better loan terms, McBride said.

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July 15, 2024

Buying into Charlie Scharf’s 5-year turnaround plan for Wells Fargo just got a bit cheaper

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When Charlie Scharf took the reins at Wells Fargo five years ago, the bank was in turmoil. A series of scandals landed it in the regulatory doghouse — dealing a major blow to the 172-year-old firm’s reputation and leading to a multi-billion-dollar plunge in its stock market value. Fast forward to 2024: Wells Fargo looks like a different bank altogether — and despite Friday’s post-earnings decline, the turnaround is still humming. Wells Fargo tumbled more than 6% to under $57 per share after missing expectations on quarterly net interest income (NII), a key measure of lending profitability. Investors on Friday were more concerned about NII weakness than overall second-quarter revenue and earnings per share (EPS) beats. Management’s drive under Scharf into fee-based businesses such as investment banking helped offset softer NII. However, since investment banking revenue is tied to compensation, the bank had to raise its expense outlook for the year. That’s a good problem to have. In Friday’s earnings commentary , the Club upgraded Wells Fargo back to our buy-equivalent 1 rating — viewing Friday’s drop as an opportunity to add shares. Expansion into new markets has been a hallmark of Scharf’s tenure, along with an overhaul of senior leadership and an improved standing with regulators. Taken together, it shows just how far the CEO has gone to rehabilitate Wells Fargo. Investors have taken notice. Despite Friday’s setback, shares of Wells Fargo are still up more than 15% so far this year, compared to 13% for the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index , which tracks the performance of major U.S. banks. Since Scharf was announced as CEO in September 2019, Wells Fargo shares gained 12.5% — on par with the banking sector. The stock hit a multiyear high of $62.55 per share in May, which was only a few dollars off its January 2018 all-time record close of nearly $66. “Scharf has done an incredible job fixing up Wells Fargo,” said Jeff Marks, director of portfolio analysis for the CNBC Investing Club. “Before he joined, the bank had a bloated cost structure, lagged in technology, and suffered from a horrible reputation. Scharf and his team have right-sized costs, invested in tech, and materially enhanced the bank’s risks and controls.” A big part of Scharf’s job has been moving the company through all the regulatory hurdles that were put in place after the scandals of the late 2010s. In 2016, Wells was found to have opened millions of unauthorized bank accounts under customer names as employees tried to meet high-pressure sales goals. Just a year later, the bank was accused of charging hundreds of thousands of people for auto insurance they did not need, many of which resulted in delinquencies. Among those affected were active duty military service members. That same year, Wells Fargo admitted to improperly charging home lending customers for mortgage-rate-lock extensions as well. WFC YTD mountain Wells Fargo (WFC) year-to-date performance The Federal Reserve ordered Wells Fargo to freeze its balance sheet in 2018, keeping its assets below $1.95 trillion until senior management cleaned up its act. The most recent sign that Scharf is repairing that damage came in February when the company cleared a major regulatory hurdle tied to the 2016 fake accounts scandal. The bank said in a release that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency terminated a consent order, or penalty, that forced it to change how it sells its retail products and services. This was a “huge accomplishment” and another big step toward removing the Fed’s asset cap, said Bank of America analyst Ebrahim Poonawala. “As we know, getting regulatory issues resolved is not an easy task for large organizations, and I think that if the bank can get out of the asset cap over the next year or so, that will be a big boost of additional credibility for Charlie and his leadership,” he added. The asset cap places a constraint on Wells Fargo’s growth by prohibiting the bank from doing more lending and, in turn, increasing interest incomes. It also keeps the bank from acquiring other high-growth companies or making strategic investments that could increase its assets beyond that nearly $2 trillion threshold. To be sure, Scharf and Wells are not out of the woods yet. The bank has cleared six of 14 consent orders from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. While they don’t all need to be cleared before the U.S. central bank lifts the cap, more progress is still needed. During a banking conference in May, Scharf said Wells had eliminated the aggressive sales targets and certain incentive plans at branches that initially spurred bad behavior. The bank has also paid billions to regulators over the years. In 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Wells to dish out $3.7 billion alone for violations across its auto loans, mortgages and deposit accounts. But ultimately, it’s up to the regulators to decide if the cap will be removed. “We have to close these orders. We have to build the controls and make them part of the company,” Scharf said. “So, we’re not declaring victory.” In addition, Wells Fargo’s investment banking business, while growing, is small in comparison to the other banking behemoths that also reported Friday. Revenue from Wells Fargo’s investment banking segment in the second quarter jumped 38% year over year to $430 million. JPMorgan Chase ‘s investment banking revenue surged 46% to $2.5 billion. The Club’s other bank, Morgan Stanley , also has a bigger investment banking division. It reports earnings on Tuesday. There’s still a lot to celebrate, however. Wells Fargo parted with most of its senior management from its pre-2019 era and remade its board of directors. Eleven out of the 15 members on Wells Fargo’s senior leadership team have joined since Scharf assumed his role. The same goes for six out of the 13 board members for the financial behemoth. Poonawala said the new hires will help change the company’s culture and build back its reputation for honesty and trust. “I think not having sort of a lot of intense legacy [in management] helps,” he said, adding: “If you look at the org structure, most of these executives are new to the bank during his operating committee. When you look at the turnaround and how this plays out, he’s been able to attract a lot of high-quality talent from competitors, and I think that helps” when fixing a company. Scharf’s plan to move Wells beyond its traditional lending roots is also well under way. A CNBC analysis in late May found that Wells Fargo made at least 17 senior-level hires in its corporate and investment banking (CIB) division since the start of 2023. Under Scharf’s leadership, the bank has poached top talent from Wall Street peers like Scharf’s former employer, JPMorgan Chase. For example, Doug Braunstein, an M & A veteran who spent nearly two decades at the bank, joined Wells Fargo as vice chairman in February to oversee its corporate finance and advisory businesses. “Wells Fargo has historically been known as more of a mortgage bank, but they’ve taken some measures to reduce their sensitivity to the mortgage environment,” Raymond James analyst David Long said in a recent interview. “Charlie and his team brought in several high-ranking bankers in the investment banking arena, and we’re starting to see positive results in that regard.” He added: “The higher-for-longer [interest rate] environment is not conducive to more M & A and other investment banking transactions, but if rates do start to come down, we’re likely to see a pickup in that business, which Wells would be a beneficiary of.” Thursday’s cooler consumer inflation report boosted the case for the Fed to start cutting interest rates, with market odds growing for as many as three cuts by year-end. An expansion into investment banking is beneficial for Wells Fargo because it allows the firm to rely less on interest-based revenues, which are at the mercy of the Fed’s monetary policy. Remember, management forecasted a NII decline between 7% to 9% for fiscal year 2024, and second-quarter earnings on Friday showed that it will likely come in at the top of that range. This is because customers are moving their funds to higher-yielding products as rates stay higher for longer. Instead, fee-based incomes — like those from advisory costs on M & A deals and other IB transactions — are a more durable and less volatile revenue stream. “We continued to see growth in our fee-based revenue offsetting an expected decline in net interest income,” Scharf said on Friday. “The investments we have been making allowed us to take advantage of the market activity in the quarter with strong performance in investment advisory, trading and investment banking fees.” Marks said the exec’s strategy is “really working,” citing the second-quarter’s 19% year-over-year increase in non-interest income, which handily beat expectations. “Fee revenues were fantastic, we continue to see Charlie Scharf really make a really big push into this. He’s gone on a hiring spree lately, hiring a lot of ex bankers throughout the industry,” Marks said on Friday. “He wants to make the bank less tied to the yield curve and more tied to the sticky fee-based revenues, but it’s going to take time.” (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long WFC, MS. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.

Charlie Scharf, CEO, Wells Fargo, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California on May 2, 2023. speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California on May 2, 2023.

Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images

When Charlie Scharf took the reins at Wells Fargo five years ago, the bank was in turmoil. A series of scandals landed it in the regulatory doghouse — dealing a major blow to the 172-year-old firm’s reputation and leading to a multi-billion-dollar plunge in its stock market value.

Fast forward to 2024: Wells Fargo looks like a different bank altogether — and despite Friday’s post-earnings decline, the turnaround is still humming.

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July 14, 2024

Here’s why Wells Fargo stock is down 7% despite the bank’s quarterly earnings beat

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July 12, 2024

Hightower’s Stephanie Link breaks down JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo earnings

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Stephanie Link, Hightower chief investment strategist, joins ‘Squawk Box’ to break down the quarterly earnings results from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

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July 12, 2024

Wells Fargo shares tumble after net interest income falls short of estimates

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CNBC's Leslie Picker joins 'Squawk Box' to report on the bank's quarterly earnings results.

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July 12, 2024

Wells Fargo shares tumble after net interest income falls short of estimates

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Wells Fargo on Friday reported a 9% decline in net interest income, even though its second-quarter earnings and revenue exceeded Wall Street expectations.

Here’s what the bank did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.33 versus $1.29 cents expected
Revenue: $20.69 billion versus $20.29 billion expected

The San Francisco-based lender recorded $11.92 billion in net interest income, a key measure of what a bank makes on lending, marking a 9% year-over-year decline. That was below the $12.12 billion expected by analysts, according to FactSet. The bank said the drop was due to the impact of higher interest rates on funding costs.

Shares of Wells Fargo fell nearly 7% in Friday’s trading.

“We continued to see growth in our fee-based revenue offsetting an expected decline in net interest income,” CEO Charlie Scharf said in a statement. “The investments we have been making allowed us to take advantage of the market activity in the quarter with strong performance in investment advisory, trading, and investment banking fees.”

Wells Fargo saw net income dip to $4.91 billion, or $1.33 per share, in the second quarter, from $4.94 billion, or $1.25 per share, during the same quarter a year ago. The bank set aside $1.24 billion as provision for credit losses, which included a modest decrease in the allowance for those losses. Revenue rose to $20.69 billion in the quarter.

The bank repurchased more than $12 billion of common stock during the first half of 2024 and it expects to increase the third-quarter dividend by 14%.

The stock is up more than 22% this year, outperforming the S&P 500.

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July 12, 2024

JPMorgan Chase is set to report second-quarter earnings – here’s what the Street expects

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Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., speaks during an Economic Club of New York (ECNY) event in New York, US, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings before the opening bell Friday.

Here’s what Wall Street expects:

Earnings: $4.19 a share, according to LSEG
Revenue: $49.9 billion, according to LSEG
Net interest income: $22.8 billion, according to StreetAccount
Trading Revenue: Fixed income of $4.82 billion; Equities of $2.77 billion, according to StreetAccount

Will cracks in the economy begin to reveal themselves in JPMorgan Chase results?

While JPMorgan has passed numerous stress tests lately — actual and hypothetical — it’s possible the bank’s consumers could begin showing more strain from higher interest rates.

Another open question is about succession at JPMorgan after CEO Jamie Dimon acknowledged in May that he now had less than five years remaining in his current role.

Wells Fargo and Citigroup are scheduled to post results later Friday, while Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley report next week.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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July 11, 2024

San Francisco’s AI boom can’t stop real estate slide, as office vacancies reach new record

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Artificial intelligence has been a big boon for San Francisco real estate. But not enough of one to make up for the broader struggle across the market.

The vacancy rate for San Francisco office space reached a fresh record of 34.5% in the second quarter, according to a report Monday from commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. That’s up from 33.9% in the first quarter, 28.1% in the same period a year ago and 5% before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the average asking rent dropped to $68.27 per square foot in the quarter, the lowest since late 2015, down from $72.90 a year earlier and a peak of $84.70 in 2020.

San Francisco is reeling from the twin challenges of bringing people back to the office after the Covid pandemic and a slowdown in the tech market that’s led to mass job cuts across the industry. Tech companies have laid off more than 530,000 employees since the start of 2022, according to the website Layoffs.fyi, with major downsizing at Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Tesla, Microsoft and Salesforce.

Softening the blow of late has been the soaring popularity of generative AI and the decision by fast-growing startups to open large offices in San Francisco.

OpenAI, the market leader with a private valuation that’s topped $80 billion, announced in October that it was leasing about 500,000 square feet of space in the Mission Bay neighborhood, the biggest office lease in the city since 2018. Robert Sammons, senior research director at Cushman & Wakefield, said OpenAI is continuing to look for more space in the city.

Also last year, OpenAI rival Anthropic subleased 230,000 square feet at Slack’s headquarters. And in May of this year, Scale AI signed a lease for a reported 170,000 to 180,000 square feet of space in Airbnb’s office building.

“San Francisco is certainly the center of AI, but AI is not going to save the San Francisco commercial real estate market,” Sammons said. “It will help.”

While richly capitalized AI startups are signing large leases for new space, the bigger trend is that tech companies, law offices and consulting firms are looking to reduce their footprint when existing leases come up, Sammons said, reflecting the widespread move to hybrid work.

In many cases, companies are looking to relocate to higher quality space in more desirable parts of the city, because prices have come down and employers need to be near restaurants and shops to get staffers to come back, Sammons added.

“The best quality trophy space continues to perform well, because tenants want to be in the best locations with the best amenities around them,” Sammons said.

Some of the city’s top employers, including Salesforce, Uber, Visa and Wells Fargo, have brought employees back to offices for part of the week. That’s helped in the financial district, where the vacancy rate is still 34.2% on the north side and 32.7% on the south side at the end of the quarter. In SoMa, which historically was a popular area for venture-backed startups, the vacancy rate is almost 50%.

SoMa is further away from mass transit options and has also been hurt by large retail departures. Vacant office space across San Francisco for the quarter totaled 29.6 million square feet, Cushman & Wakefield said.

The firm said in its report that there are positive signs in the market, with absorption poised to improve in the second half and office job numbers stabilizing following a steep drop-off. But Sammons said it looks like there’s more room for rents to fall and for vacancies to rise. Uncertainty surrounding the upcoming presidential election may be a factor delaying new leases, he said.

“Sometimes tenants postpone making decisions when there are major elections,” he said.

WATCH: Commercial real estate vacancies in San Francisco are at an all-time high

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July 8, 2024

Here are 3 major reports that could drive the stock market in the week ahead

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Wall Street finished higher for the holiday-shortened trading week, with tech stocks leading the way. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained under 1% for the week. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq , which both closed at record highs Friday — rising nearly 2% and 3.5%, respectively, for the week. The first week of July continued the strength seen in June, the second quarter, and the first half of 2024. The S & P 500 technology sector was the big winner this past week, with Apple and Broadcom as our top Club stocks. Consumer discretionary and communication services, featuring Club name Meta Platforms and Alphabet , were also strong. Energy led to the downside this week, followed by health care and industrials. Looking back on the week, short as it was given the early close on Wednesday and Thursday off, we got some notable updates on the economy and heard from Club holding Constellation Brands . The Corona and Modelo brewer’s quarterly results Wednesday were decent , and the stock initially popped on the news. We told members that we were taking some profits in Constellation shortly before the open . However, the troubled wine and spirits business remained a problem that management must address in the coming quarters. Shares finished Wednesday down more than 3%, though they recovered much of that on Friday for a relatively flat week. Helping Friday’s largely higher session was drop in bond yields – precipitated by an uptick in June’s unemployment rate to 4.1% and only modestly higher than expected nonfarm payrolls additions of 206,000. Wage inflation was right in line with expectations. Taken as a whole, the government’s monthly jobs report card supported the case of the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at its September meeting. While market odds favor a second cut in December, the Fed projected after its June meeting just one rate cut this year. This past week also brought updates on the manufacturing sector. On Monday, June’s ISM Manufacturing purchasing managers index came in weaker than expected and pointed to a faster-than-expected contraction, and on Wednesday, May’s factory order numbers showed a monthly decline versus expectations for a small increase. The ISM’s services PMI for June, out Wednesday, also disappointed, as it showed a contraction in the services sectors. Economists had been expecting to see an expansion. These readings were also green lights for the Fed to start cutting rates. We hope everyone had a good July 4 th and has a restful weekend. You’ll want to take advantage of the lull because believe it or not, earnings season is back. Three of the four big money center banks report this coming Friday, including Club name Wells Fargo . The government also delivers key data on consumer and wholesale inflation. Economic data : The June consumer price index (CPI) is out on Thursday morning, and the June producer price index (PPI) is out on Friday morning. Of the two, CPI carries more weight given that it more closely represents what consumers are paying for a basket of goods from one year, or month, to the next, which is the Fed’s main concern. However, PPI is important to track because it tells us what is happening at the cost input level for corporations. That speaks to margin dynamics – and therefore, it can inform us on both profitability and potential price actions companies may need to take in the future to protect profitability. Within the CPI data, be sure to watch the shelter component, which has been a huge thorn in the Fed’s side. Shelter, a barometer of what people pay for housing, has proven a very sticky source of inflation – a problem because, for most Americans, it represents a large and unavoidable cost. For headline CPI, economists are looking for a 3.1% annual increase, according to FactSet as of Friday. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, is expected to increase 3.5% year over year. If realized, that would represent a slight deceleration at the headline level but a slight acceleration at the core level. As for PPI, economists are looking for a 2.3% annual increase at the headline level and a 2.5% year-over-year rise at the core level. Those numbers would be slightly higher than what we saw in May. Earnings season : Within the portfolio, net interest income (NII) guidance is going to be a key watch item when Wells Fargo reports its quarter this coming Friday. At an industry conference Tuesday, CFO Michael Santomassimo reiterated guidance for NII to be down 7% to 9% year over year. We still think this outlook could be conservative since the Fed’s higher-for-longer policy is generally a tailwind to net interest income. However, other factors like muted loan demand have prevented Wells Fargo from raising its outlook this year. Recognizing strong recent runs in shares of Wells Fargo and our other Club bank Morgan Stanley , we took some profits this past Friday. Morgan Stanley is set to deliver its earnings on Tuesday, July 16. We’re also interested to hear management’s thoughts on the intended pace of share repurchases in the second half of the year, now that the results of the stress test are in. Wells Fargo – and our other bank name Morgan Stanely – both passed, indicating they have strong capital positions with excess money to return to shareholders. Other higher-level watch items in the Wells Fargo report include commentary on the state of consumer savings, an indication of further buying power, and the real estate market, which has been something we’ve been monitoring as the world finds a new normal post-Covid. Monday, July 8 No major events Tuesday, July 9 No major events Wednesday, July 10 No major events Thursday, July 11 8:30 a.m. ET: Consumer price index 8:30 a.m. ET: Initial jobless claims Before the bell earnings: PepsiCo (PEP), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Conagra Brands (CAG) Friday, July 12 8:30 a.m. ET: Producer price index Before the bell: Wells Fargo (WFC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C) (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.

U.S. flag is seen hanging on New York Stock Exchange building on Independence Day In New York, United States on America on July 4th, 2024.

Beata Zawrzel | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Wall Street finished higher for the holiday-shortened trading week, with tech stocks leading the way.

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July 6, 2024

We’re taking some profits in our bank stocks after big runs and ahead of a tricky time

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July 5, 2024

Shares of Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley rise on plans to raise their dividends

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July 1, 2024

U.S. banks are in a good and resilient place, says Wells Fargo’s Mike Mayo

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Mike Mayo, Wells Fargo, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss big banks stress tests and his outlook for the sector.

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June 27, 2024

Fed’s decision is favorable for banks, says RBC’s Gerard Cassidy

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Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital Markets managing director, joins ‘Fast Money’ to discuss why he is still bullish on bank stocks.

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June 12, 2024

Wells Fargo CEO talks up reasons to love the stock — plus, what’s behind the market drop

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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. Market pressure : The major stock benchmarks were moving lower Wednesday, with the Dow getting the worst of it again. Adding pressure on equities, bond yields moved higher following a poor auction of $44 billion worth of 7-year Treasury notes. Nvidia was bucking the overall market decline, but its modest gain was much cooler than the incredible march higher over the past three sessions after last week’s earnings. American Airlines shares sank roughly 15% after a company sales strategy backfired and the carrier cut growth guidance. Sector watch : All of the S & P 500 sectors were under pressure Wednesday, led by energy and utilities. Tech has been flirting with positive territory as Nvidia, which opened lower, reversed to the upside. Fellow Club names Apple and Microsoft were also in the green. Combined, the three account for nearly 49% of the tech sector index. Apple and Nvidia, our two “own, don’t trade” stocks were also the top performers among the entire 33 stock Club portfolio. Deal movers : ConocoPhillips has agreed to buy Marathon Oil in a $17 billion all-stock transaction. Marathon shares rose about 7.5%, while Conoco stock fell roughly 4%. Additionally, Hess shareholders approved the company’s pending merger with Chevron . And, Merck has reached a deal to acquire privately held Eyebiotech for $1.3 billion in cash. Banking news : Here’s a dispatch from our Investing Club reporter Morgan Chittum about what Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said Wednesday at Bernstein’s 40th annual Strategic Decisions Conference: Scharf said Wells Fargo has been focusing on investment banking in a “very, very targeted way.” There were several mentions of the bank’s quiet hiring spree to beef up its Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division, which we reported on last week . Building out lucrative underwriting and advisory fee capabilities is “staring us in the face,” he added, as long-dormant IPO and M & A activity have started to perk up. Expanding Wells Fargo’s Wealth Management franchise, another fee-based revenue stream is “one of the bigger opportunities” ahead, Scharf said. The bank has around 12,000 advisors and is better positioned than in years past, the CEO added. We have been encouraged by Wells Fargo’s push to boost fees business lines. Scharf said Wells Fargo remains focused on efficiency. The bank has cut staff to 225,000 from 275,000. “The conversation around efficiency is less [about] saving money and it’s more about how do we run a better company,” he added. When the Federal Reserve at some point removes its asset cap on Wells Fargo, Scharf said corporate lending and trading will be areas of growth for the bank. He said he dialed back those areas to stay under the Fed’s $1.95 trillion limit. “When you turn a consumer away, they’ll remember that forever,” Scharf said. Businesses understand and can be won back, he added. The CEO believes it’s just a matter of time before the asset cap is lifted and so do we. Scharf said Wells Fargo was able to get a key regulatory penalty removed back in February by stripping away things like certain incentive plans at branches. The so-called consent order was tied to the bank’s 2016 fake accounts scandal that predated Scharf. There are still several other orders outstanding. Quick hits : The FDA granted accelerated approval for Club name Eli Lilly ‘s Retevmo, which is used to treat certain kinds of advanced or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer in children two and older. Twelve years and older was the prior age threshold. Elsewhere, shares of HubSpot were bucking the broader market decline on further speculation that Club name Alphabet is indeed considering an acquisition. CNBC’s David Faber believes that should a deal occur, it would be all-stock. Up next : Salesforce is set to report earnings after Wednesday’s closing bell. AI monetization commentary and what the team has been seeing in terms of cross-selling opportunities will be key watch items. Foot Locker and Best Buy report before the bell Thursday. Costco is out with results Thursday evening. That will do it for Club name earnings, except for Broadcom, which is set to report next month. (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.

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.

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May 29, 2024

Wells Fargo goes on quiet hiring spree to expand from lending. What it means for the stock

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Wells Fargo is breaking out of its lending roots. The bank has quietly gone on a hiring spree to grab a bigger slice of the profitable investment banking business long dominated by its Wall Street rivals. Since the start of 2023, a CNBC analysis found that Wells Fargo made at least 17 senior-level hires in its corporate and investment banking (CIB) division. Leaning on the expertise of its rivals, many of the newly employed executives previously worked at the likes of JPMorgan Chase and other big banks. Expanding investment banking “improves our outlook” on Wells Fargo stock, according to Jeff Marks, director of portfolio analysis for the CNBC Investing Club. “Adding more fee-related revenues to the overall picture makes the bank’s profits less hostage to the bond market yield curve and could improve the overall return profile of the bank.” He added, “Wells Fargo could fetch a higher multiple in the market as a result.” It’s no wonder CEO Charlie Scharf wants a bigger slice of businesses like investment banking, which garner huge revenue from fees. Services like underwriting for initial public offerings (IPO) and facilitating mergers and acquisitions (M & A) allow banks to take home a percentage of these deals and advisory fees. Fees are a more durable and less volatile revenue stream than what Wells Fargo has historically focused on. This is important because, as Scharf said in the bank’s 2023 annual report , the CIB division has positioned Wells Fargo to “increase our fee-based revenues” and “increase our returns overall.” At the top of the recent hire list, however, is Doug Braunstein, a JPMorgan veteran who was brought in as vice chairman in February to help steer Wells Fargo’s corporate finance and advisory businesses. During nearly 20 years at JPMorgan, Braunstein held many roles including chief financial officer, head of investment banking in the Americas, and head of global mergers and acquisitions. Fernando Rivas was named earlier this month co-CEO of corporate and investment banking at Wells Fargo. Formerly head of North American Investment Banking at JPMorgan, Rivas will lead CIB together with Jonathan Weiss, who had been the sole CEO of the division since February 2020. Weiss, also a JPMorgan alum, has been at Wells Fargo since 2005. Rivas had been at JPMorgan for three decades. In addition to those high-profile hires, CNBC found that Wells Fargo also poached top talent from other financial behemoths such as Barclays , Deutsche Bank , Piper Sandler, and now-defunct Credit Suisse — all within the past year. A Wells Fargo spokesperson declined to comment on the total number of CIB-related hires across all levels in the division. However, Wells Fargo’s Scharf said in the press release announcing Rivas’ hire, “We have added over 50 senior bankers and traders since 2020 and have seen the positive impact with increased revenue and market share.” Break from tradition Management has long relied on interest-based revenue streams like net interest income (NII) from its retail and business customers. NII is the difference between what a firm makes on loans versus what it pays for customer deposits. Wells Fargo and other banks have benefited in recent years as the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates in March 2022. That’s because the cost of borrowing goes up much more than what customers earn on deposits. However, as rates have stayed higher for longer, customers began to withdraw some of their deposits for higher-yielding offerings like money market funds. Wells Fargo said NII decreased 8% during the first quarter, citing interest rate dynamics. Full-year guidance for NII is also expected to decline in the 7% to 9% range. That’s the double-edged sword of rates, which are now expected to be cut by the Fed later this year, and why Wells Fargo was glad to see its CIB-related investments pay off in the first quarter. The division saw a 1.6% increase in revenue to $4.98 billion. During the April 12 post-earnings conference call, Scharf said the bank is “beginning to see early signs of share and fee growth which will be important as we diversify our revenues and reduce net interest income as a percentage of revenue.” From 2019 to the end of 2023, Wells Fargo’s overall investment banking share moved up two ranks in the U.S. market to No. 6, management said in an annual report , citing Dealogic figures. More recent data indicates that Wells Fargo’s investment banking revenue share globally has jumped to No. 7 from No. 12 year-over-year, as of Tuesday. In the investing banking subset of M & A, Wells Fargo has been garnering more fees. The bank has been tapped for a series of high-profile deals as well, including Kroger ‘s attempted nearly $25 billion acquisition of Albertson’s in October 2022. The transaction is in limbo after the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit to block the merger in February . In IPOs, Wells Fargo was among the lead book-running managers of recent IPOs: cruise line Viking and data management firm Rubrik . Wells Fargo shares, which began their upward trajectory back in November, gained more than 50% in the past 12 months — and about half that gain in 2024 alone. That’s roughly double the S & P 500 ‘s performance on both measures. The stock saw its highest close last week of $62.55 since mid-January 2018. Shares have pulled back a bit since then but remain only about 7.5% away from its all-time high close of $65.93 at the end of January 2018. In recognition of that strength, the Club trimmed its Wells Fargo position in late April and booked a healthy profit on the trade. While still bullish, we wanted to reduce the stock’s overall weighting in a show of portfolio discipline. It was near the 5% threshold that we don’t like exceeding in order to run a diversified portfolio. The Club has a 2 rating on the stock and a $62 price target . WFC mountain 2018-01-26 Wells Fargo since record high close on Jan. 26, 2018 Moving forward Wells Fargo’s CIB expansion bodes well once the firm’s Fed-imposed $1.95 trillion asset cap is gone. Although the timing is uncertain, Wells Fargo secured a key win with regulators in February after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency terminated a penalty tied to the bank’s 2016 fake accounts scandal. That so-called consent order was believed to be a major factor in the Fed’s decision to cap Wells Fargo’s asset levels in 2017. Those regulatory burdens for past misdeeds at the bank predated Scharf’s tenure who has been clearing them since becoming CEO in 2019. Piper Sandler analyst Scott Siefers has said that Wells Fargo will be able to compete more effectively against other large Wall Street firms once the growth cap is removed. “Wells Fargo on a relative basis is very undersized in businesses such as investment banking,” Siefers told CNBC in March . “So, one part of the investment banking business is being able to commit capital. In other words, put some risk on your balance sheet. But thanks to the asset cap, Wells has not been able to build out its investment bank to the same degree, as have some of its other peers.” (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long WFC. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.

A woman walks past Wells Fargo bank in New York City, U.S., March 17, 2020.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Wells Fargo is breaking out of its lending roots. The bank has quietly gone on a hiring spree to grab a bigger slice of the profitable investment banking business long dominated by its Wall Street rivals.

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May 24, 2024

Here’s where we’ve trimmed our portfolio and are reallocating money, says Wells Fargo’s Wren

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Scott Wren, Wells Fargo Investment Institute senior global market strategist, joins ‘Money Movers’ to discuss where in Wren’s portfolio he would trim, if the stock shopping list is wide outside of the technology sector, and more.

03:53

Thu, May 16 202411:49 AM EDT

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May 16, 2024

Off The Charts: Where big banks go from here

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Fast Money guest trader Chris Verrone takes a closer look at the banking sector after big moves in the sector.

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May 15, 2024

The next airport terminal lounge or club you pass may also be a bank branch

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Nicolette Nelson was running late for her return flight to Fairbanks as she sprinted towards her gate at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG). Overcome by a medical issue, she didn’t make it to her gate and wound up spending the night in a Cincinnati hospital. By the next day, she had recovered and awaited her flight home, but it was repeatedly delayed.

So Nelson spent hours of her delay in a quiet cubicle in an unlikely place — a bank — waiting for her flight and wiling away the time on electronic devices.

“It’s been really, it’s quiet and that is what I need,” Nelson said.

Fifth Third Bank was trying to appeal to this type of traveler when it rechristened its 40-year-old CVG branch last month as a combination lounge and lending center. Weary travelers and constantly working entrepreneurs stake out prime spots in the bank away from the airport hubbub, while corporate travelers use the center to squeeze out more business.

“One woman wanted to rent my office to work,” remembers Lisa Slocum, the airport Fifth Third Bank branch manager. Slocum directed the woman to other options in the branch.

Other customers use the bank on a purely transactional basis. On a recent day, Hannah Thelen and her mother, Ashley Thelen, were passing through on their way to Spain and stopped in to convert currency.

“I love the central location,” Ashley Thelen said as she converted dollars to euros.

It’s a central location for a flyer, but a maze of trams, moving sidewalks, and concourses need to be navigated to get to it in Terminal B, and it is past the TSA checkpoint, so the branch doesn’t get customers off the street.

Fifth-Third Bank isn’t the first financial institution to create an airport lounge vibe. Capital One closed its branch at Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International Airport in 2020, instead creating “airport lounges” for cardholders in Dulles, along with similar spots at airports in Denver and Dallas. The lounges offer amenities on par with an airline rewards club but are only for Capital One card holders, and banking services are not a part of the experience like they are at Fifth-Third’s CVG branch.

Capital One Lounge inside Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.

Capital One

If CVG were a city, it’d be the fourth or fifth largest in Kentucky on most days, with 16,000 workers employed on the airport campus daily, according to Mindy Kershner, CVG’s senior manager of communications, plus the nine million passengers going through the gates yearly. That’s a lot of potential banking customers. Yet full-service airport bank branches are a relative rarity, surprising in a retail landscape that often resembles an upscale mall more than a terminal.

Wings Credit Union has a small full-service branch at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and Wings Vice President of Marketing Brent Andersen said the branch is also more about serving the large number of airport employees who are members than the traveling public. He adds, however, that in terms of visibility and advertising, even with the higher airport rent, the branch is a no-brainer.

“We’d have to spend a lot more in other advertising to get that kind of visibility,” Andersen said, crediting the branch with also landing new members.

For Fifth Third Bank, and a handful of other retail banking players, the airport branches are more than just expensive advertising for the brand (though that’s certainly part of the appeal). They are also functional financial centers, and in a digital era when bank branches are under existential scrutiny, some financial companies are betting on airports as a viable and visible place to keep their shingle hung.

Big banks are adding hundreds of branches

The banks and credit unions adding airport branches are just another indicator that the long-predicted demise of in-person banking at the hands of digital isn’t happening exactly as expected. The long-term trend is still less retail footprint, but branches have been staging a bit of a comeback. In fact, FDIC data shows that 2023 saw the first annual gain in branch count nationwide, to nearly 70,000, in a decade. This rebound comes as banking giants JPMorgan Chase and PNC have announced plans to open more branches — Chase up to 500, plus 1,700 renovations, while PNC is adding 100 new branches and renovating another 1,000 at a cost of $1 billion over the next three to five years.

When Fifth Third Bank, the nation’s tenth-largest bank by deposits, rechristened its 40-year-old CVG location last month, it did so with plenty of local media coverage, cementing its commitment to airport banking.

“There are very few full-service branches in airports, and this is one of a kind,” said John Sieg, regional retail executive for Fifth Third Bank. The bank is trying to create something like Delta’s Sky Club, except with on-site banking — cashing checks, checking balances, and converting currency — and open to all. And you won’t get dinged with an overdraft fee for lounging on their sofas.

“Our objective is for travelers to have a place to do their full-service banking and hang out with us. They could hang out with us all day if they have a delayed flight. We have had customers that have done it,” Sieg said.

Wells Fargo operates a full-service branch in Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International Airport, and according to a bank spokeswomen, has a multi-year relationship with the airport that involves both the branch and multiple ATMs throughout terminals. Although Wells Fargo had little to say about the branch, it’s not difficult to imagine why it might be popular in Vegas, where slots are as much a part of the landscape as espresso machines.

Truist Bank, formerly SunTrust, operates a full-service bank branch at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where serving customers remains a top priority, but Brian Davis, director of consumer and small business banking communications, also noted that being at the airport provides the bank with “a high level of brand visibility for the millions of passengers who pass through.”

Still, not everyone in the industry is sold on mixing anxiety about getting through security and to the gate on time with personal finance.

“I think it’s a bad idea,” says Paul McAdam, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at analytics firm J.D. Power. McAdam says ATMs and advanced-function kiosks are one thing, but a full-service branch, except maybe in the largest markets, is overkill. JFK Airport in New York City has three credit unions in its terminals.

“I sense that bank branches in airports would handle a lot of transaction volume but very little value-added volume of customers looking to open accounts or receive advice. Who wants to open a new account in an airport?” McAdam said.

Financial giants are testing the concept of bank-branded destinations more widely. Capital One has opened some cafes in New York that cater to the remote worker, offering a financial vibe without vaults of money and tellers watching your every move.

With most travelers focused on traveling, Fifth Third conceded that banking isn’t top of mind for many airport customers. Sieg says the CVG branch does about 1,700 transactions a month.

“That is probably on the smaller side of what a transaction count would be at a traditional bank mart or office,” he said, but the visibility of the branch makes up for lower volume.

The branch offers an array of spaces, including a service bar where travelers can tap away at their tablets while watching coffee-clutching, harried travelers racing for their gates. The bank also includes a fully private office with phones, a hydration station, sofas, and overstuffed chairs, an enticement for remote workers.

“Regardless of whether you are a customer or a non-customer, we wanted to put out the best welcome sign we could have. Everybody is invited and can use this space,” Sieg said.

However, if someone feels a need to apply for a mortgage during their layover or open a savings account, the branch has that functionality.

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May 3, 2024

Stocks pop after Fed decision, oil plunges, earnings mixed — what to watch in the market

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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.) Market check: Stocks surged Wednesday afternoon after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at the end of its latest two-day meeting. According to their post-meeting statement, central bankers noted a “lack of further progress” in bringing inflation down to their 2% target. Fed chief Jerome Powell reiterated that concern at his news conference. Powell said that rate cuts would be considered when the Fed feels inflation is on its way to target. “We feel our policy stance is in a good place” and appropriately restrictive, he added. Early in 2024, expectations in the market were for as many as six cuts. Now, there are questions about whether there will be any cuts this year. April, which has historically been one of the stronger months of the year for the market, was rough. Monthly declines in the Dow , the S & P 500 and the Nasdaq broke five-month winning streaks for the three major stock benchmarks. While April overall was terrible, there were some big winners in the Club’s portfolio, including Alphabet up nearly 8%. Before last week’s strong quarter, CNBC learned that Alphabet’s Google had laid off hundreds of employees from so-called core teams. The reorg includes moving some roles to India and Mexico. Crude sinks: U.S. oil prices sank roughly 3% to under $80 per barrel Wednesday. That’s about a seven-week low on West Texas Intermediate crude . The reasons: stockpiles surged on lackluster demand as the U.S. and its international partners continue to push for a ceasefire between the Israelis and Hamas in Gaza. WTI has fallen 9% from its intraday high for the year of $87.67 per barrel. Our lone oil-and-gas stock, Coterra Energy , was down 2% on Wednesday. It’s set to report quarterly results after the close Thursday. Cruise IPO: Viking Holdings shares rose 10% in its debut as a public company Wednesday. The cruise line company Tuesday evening priced roughly 64 million shares at $24 each — toward the higher of the expected range. Viking is the latest in a recent revival of the long-dormant initial public offerings market. The IPO comeback of late has boosted the investment banking arms of Wall Street banks. Morgan Stanley is one of the lead underwriters of the Viking offering. Last month, the Club name delivered a much-needed rebound quarter . Investment banking revenue at Morgan Stanley rose 16% year over year, driven by IPO business. These deals must succeed to entice more private companies to become public, which is crucial to Morgan Stanley. Biggest winners: DuPont was the Club’s biggest winner Wednesday, jumping more than 7% after the chemicals company beat on quarterly earnings and raised guidance. DuPont’s semiconductor business rose 10%, and we see plenty of runway for growth next year thanks to artificial intelligence. GE Healthcare was next, rising nearly 2% after Tuesday’s 14% earnings-driven decline , which we thought was an overreaction. Amazon was our third-best stock, gaining more than 1.5% Wednesday following the e-commerce and cloud giant’s great quarter and what we think was conservative guidance. “There’s no incentive in giving some pie in the sky number,” Jim said during the Morning Meeting . Biggest losers: Starbucks was our biggest loser Wednesday following the terrible quarter and outlook that was out the evening before. Jim blasted the Starbucks CEO in a morning CNBC interview, saying he was “stunned” by Laxman Narasimhan’s lack of awareness of how bad things are at the coffee giant. Estee Lauder was next, dropping 14% after light guidance and worries about China overshadowed quarterly beats. Nvidia was our third-weakest stock Wednesday, dropping more than 5%. The AI chip giant enjoyed a 15% bump last week on all the spending plans from Big Tech. While inching higher Monday, Nvidia also was down 1.5% Tuesday. Club earnings : In a busy week with quarterly reports from 12 portfolio stocks, Thursday brings morning earnings from Linde , Stanley Black & Decker and Bausch Health . After the bell Thursday, Apple is out with its quarter following a bump earlier this week tied to an upgrade from the often-skeptical Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi. Apple has had a rough year, but Sacconaghi sees the pullback as an “attractive entry point.” Jim said the call is ill-advised, and we must wait for the release to see where Apple might go from here. As mentioned earlier, Coterra is also out with earnings Thursday evening, but the post-release conference call won’t be until Friday morning. (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.

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.)

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May 1, 2024

Tag: Wells Fargo & Co

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Big banks are adding hundreds of branches