The S&P 500 and Nasdaq maintained their record highs. Here are 3 key takeaways
Another week of record stocks. Strong first-quarter earnings and a war-driven oil rally made for another historic week on Wall Street. Investors also made sense of a slew of economic data and the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate decision. The IS&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have gained 0.9% and 1.1%, respectively, over the past five sessions. Both indicators are closed for records three times (Monday, Thursday and Friday). Thursday also marked the end of April trading, which was the best month for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since 2020. It was the fifth consecutive week of gains for both indices. The blue-chip Dow was up 0.55% for the week, but all those gains came on Thursday; it ended up red for another four days. It is not clear whether stocks can continue this good performance until next week, when the collection of companies reporting earnings is very different and risks disappointing. Until then, here are three takeaways from the past five trading sessions. Oil did not scare stock investors Oil prices rose as Wall Street watched recent developments in the Middle East. During the first few weeks of the war, the two had a hostile relationship. But concerns over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and supply disruptions are not driving investors out of banks as they did in March. Just look at Monday’s trading. International benchmark Brent and US West Texas Intermediate crude both jumped after President Donald Trump rejected plans to end talks with Iran over the weekend. The IS&P 500 and Nasdaq were still able to close at record highs on Monday. Thursday is another example. Brent hit a four-year high following media reports that the US military will brief the president on possible action against Iran. On the same day, both indexes hit their second record closes of the week. What most impressed Wall Street, however, were corporate profits. Although a number of names were reported at the Club last week, Wednesday’s stood out. Meta Platforms , Microsoft , Alphabet and Amazon all released overnight results. Strong earnings, mixed reaction Each company reported a high and significant beat, but its stock reaction told a different story. Microsoft’s quarter could not shake off concerns about the viability of the chair-based business model for its Office suite. The stock fell nearly 4% on Thursday after the results. It’s not surprising because Microsoft is involved in the “sales software” business, which carries the name of Club Salesforce. Jim Cramer said there is no need to buy the dip in Microsoft, describing the quarter as “not exciting.” We’re staying a long time now because it wasn’t all bad. Microsoft’s forecast for Azure growth looked strong. Microsoft clawed back some of Thursday’s losses on Friday, adding 1.6%. Amazon shares gained an unfavorable 0.8% on Thursday. That is contrary to the strength of its results. The company is firing on all cylinders. The e-commerce and cloud computing giant delivered its highest operating margin in all segments to date. Amazon Web Services has achieved its fastest growth rate in 15 regions. We raised our target price to $300 from $250 and maintained our buy rating equal to 1 on the stock, which added 1.2% on Friday to a new record. Meta fell 8.55% on Thursday after the parent of Instagram raised its capital expenditure outlook by $10 billion in the middle. The stock also lost 0.5% on Friday. The market doesn’t like the extra spending because Meta has already poured billions into productive AI, and investors are questioning whether the company has shown enough to justify it. Unlike Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, Meta does not have a public cloud offering. Still, Jim said the drop in earnings after the acquisition was not enough reason to exit the stock. He still has faith in CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Also, Meta posted its best revenue growth in five years and its ad business is killing it. Alphabet did what Meta couldn’t. Google’s parent proved how big AI investments can pay off, sending the stock up nearly 10% after earnings. It rose another 0.2% on Friday. Google Cloud revenue jumped 63% and the segment’s operating income tripled. “It was a strange call,” Jim said Thursday. We raised our price target to $400 from $350 and repeated our 1 rating. Jim ranked Alphabet as the top performer among Wednesday’s four tech reports, followed by Amazon and Microsoft. The Meta was last. Rounding out Big Tech’s earnings week was Apple on Thursday night. The iPhone maker delivered a set of positive results that sent shares up more than 3% on Friday. The stock is about $6 off its all-time close of $286.19 set on Dec. 2. Strong economy Last week we provided the Fed’s latest policy decision, lots of data, and encouraging comments from the two companies with the closest momentum to consumer spending: Visa and Mastercard. This paints a strong picture of the US economy despite all the war-driven uncertainty. The central bank announced on Wednesday that interest rates would be left unchanged. That was very much expected. It was Fed chief Jerome Powell’s comments during a press conference afterward that gave us hope. “Growth is really strong in our economy,” Powell said. “Part of that is that consumer spending is holding up well.” Visa’s quarter reaffirmed Powell’s view of the consumer. Wall Street often views the earnings of the financial services and banking sector as a measure of consumer health. And it was a really big quarter. The payments processing company beat earnings and revenue estimates, with CFO Christopher Suh saying the US payments volume reflects “strength in consumer spending.” A day later, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach did the same. “Looking at the big picture, the economic fundamentals remain supportive of healthy consumer and business spending,” he said on the earnings call. Meanwhile, jobs numbers on Thursday showed a stable labor market. Initial unemployment insurance filings fell to their lowest level since 1969. And on Thursday, the Commerce Department said first-quarter gross domestic product grew at a seasonally adjusted 2%. That’s lower than the expected 2.2% growth, but still higher than the 0.5% in the last three months of 2025. (See here for a full list of 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 stock in his charity portfolio. When Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing a trade warning before making a trade. THE PRIVATE INFORMATION OF THE BURNING CLUB IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY, AND OUR PRIVACY POLICY. 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