It’s been a topsy-turvy start to 2025 for the stock market. Since the Club’s December Monthly Meeting, Wall Street has been barraged by headlines that sent equities seesawing down and then up. The S & P 500 wrapped up 2024 with a roughly 23% gain despite tumbling in the final four sessions of the year and the first trading day of 2025. While bouncing back on Jan. 3, the Santa Claus rally faltered. After losing ground in the first two weeks of 2025, the past almost two weeks have been stronger, with the S & P 500 hitting an all-time intraday high Wednesday. The index, however, did not finish above its Dec. 6 closing high of just over 6,090. Since the Dec. 19 Monthly Meeting to Wednesday’s close, the S & P 500 jumped 3.7%. The Dow and tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 4.2% and 3.2%, respectively, over the same period. Our top performers during that stretch were Coterra Energy, Nextracker, Goldman Sachs , GE Healthcare and Wells Fargo . Here’s how the winners fared over the past 33 days, and what drove the gains in each. 1. Coterra Energy up 23.3% Shares have surged since the start of the year thanks to the strength in energy commodities. The lift in West Texas Intermediate crude and natural gas prices has sent the oil-and-gas exploration and production company higher. Ahead of the January Monthly Meeting — being live-streamed on Thursday at noon ET — Coterra’s advance has put the stock in 26th place out of the entire S & P 500 in 2025. The stock is fourth in the energy sector, which has been the top-performing sector in the S & P 500 year-to-date. After a breakeven 2024, we didn’t want to give back the recent rally. So, we trimmed Coterra on Tuesday and realized a gain of 1% on stock purchased in April 2022. President Donald Trump wants to pave the way with deregulation to boost American energy production. 2. Nextracker up 21.7% Most of the solar stock’s gains were concentrated to the start of 2025 — making up for last year’s 22% decline. It’s not entirely clear what sent Nextracker shares higher earlier this month. We previously speculated that the rebound could be linked to investors repurchasing shares after selling in late December for tax-loss harvesting purposes, which pushed the stock artificially low. Later, Mizuho analysts called Nextracker stock a “top pick” in its outlook for the clean energy and renewables sector, while also raising its price target on shares. After that, then-President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would require more infrastructure needed for generative AI, including new clean power facilities. Both contributed to the stock’s run. We made two sales of Nextracker on recent gains since the December meeting. Nextracker shares were lower Thursday, extending a three-session losing streak. 3. Goldman Sachs up 14.2% The bank stock had two major catalysts over the past month. First, shares have advanced as part of the Trump trade. Investors seem upbeat that another four years of Trump in office could lead to a pick up in Wall Street dealmaking due to a more lenient regulatory environment. Goldman Sachs climbed to near-record highs on its quarterly results on Jan. 15 as well. The firm “once again ended the year as the No. 1 M & A advisor in markets,” CEO David Solomon said on the post-earnings conference call. For the Club, this was a clear reminder of why on Dec. 16 we started buying Goldman in the first place. As part of building our Goldman position, we exited banking rival Morgan Stanley . Goldman went on to receive a plethora of praise from Wall Street analysts following earnings, which has helped it sustain its gains since. 4. GE Healthcare up 12.8% Shares of GEHC have rallied on upbeat Wall Street commentary. Jefferies upgraded the stock to buy from hold in early January, citing future catalysts such as a push-out of China stimulus, suggesting that orders could start to come in after the Chinese New Year. The analysts like GEHC’s valuation after the stock pulled back in late September through the end of 2024. GE Healthcare also announced a big partnership with Sutter Health to provide AI-powered medical imaging technology. Media reports indicated that this could garner $1 billion in revenue for the company. 5. Wells Fargo up 12.6% Like Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo received a boost on the Trump trade. For Wells, that could finally mean the removal of the $1.95 trillion asset cap that the Fed imposed in 2018 following the bank’s fake account scandal. Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf has been cleaning things up since taking the helm in 2019. Jim Cramer feels the progress Scharf has made should be rewarded. Lifting the asset cap would allow the bank to expand key businesses, especially its growing investment banking operations. This, coupled with a stellar earnings report on Jan. 15, led to Wells Fargo rounding out our performers list. (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.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 10, 2025 in New York City.
NYSE
It’s been a topsy-turvy start to 2025 for the stock market. Since the Club’s December Monthly Meeting, Wall Street has been barraged by headlines that sent equities seesawing down and then up.