S&P 500 extends winning streak to 6 weeks. What drove the stock market gains

Another great week for stocks is in the books. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rebounded on Friday, closing the week at a record high; Wall Street was celebrating another solid set of earnings and a strong but not too strong jobs report, while also holding out hope for an end to hostilities in the Middle East. The Iran war remained the main focus of investors, as it has been every week since late February. But a dizzying number of headlines have made it impossible to tell where the conflict will actually go next. Media reports on Wednesday stated that the United States and Iran are approaching a 14-point memorandum of understanding to end the war. A day later, both sides reported exchanging fire in the Strait of Hormuz, a global choke point for oil transportation. "We need to know something today" about Iran's latest peace offer, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday morning. There was no news Saturday afternoon. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran will be a topic at next week's Beijing summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. On a weekly basis, the S&P 500 increased by 2.3%, while the Nasdaq gained 4.5%. Both indices have been on the rise for six weeks in a row; He is on his longest winning streak since 2024. This has certainly helped lower oil prices and bond yields, which have led to a rally for stocks recently. It is unclear whether the stock market will continue its rise next week. Until then, three things have driven last week's trading action. What's next for the Fed? Friday's mixed economic reports didn't stop the market from moving. The April jobs report was strong, but consumer sentiment remained extremely low. But they have complicated matters for the Fed's next interest rate decision as Jerome Powell's term as central bank governor ends May 15 and Trump has chosen Kevin Warsh to take over. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 115,000 last month, far exceeding economists' muted expectations of 55,000 but remaining well below the 185,000 jobs created in an unusually strong March, the Labor Department said Friday. April unemployment rate remained stable at 4.3%. The pressure has weakened the prospects for a short-term rate cut due to the resilience of the labor market. But that didn't completely close the door on Warsh, who has been a strong proponent of lowering rates. Jim Cramer argued that the parts of the economy tied to housing and consumer spending still need lower rates. "I still believe the Whirlpool economics will be focused on Warsh," Jim said on Friday's Morning Meeting, citing slowing demand in lower-end consumer and housing-related categories. Whirlpool shares have tumbled 20 percent this week after the company cut its forward-looking forecast and suspended its long-term dividend. Recent research from the University of Michigan on how consumers feel about the economy supported Jim's view. Rising gas prices due to the Iran war pushed consumer confidence readings in early May to a new low. Cyber stocks jump A quarterly earnings report from a cybersecurity rival provided a boost to Club holdings CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks, with shares rising about 16% and 15%, respectively, for the week. This was due to firewall provider Fortinet removing its full-year billing guidance. Investors viewed the firm's report as a read on the health of our favorite cyber names. It's been a tumultuous year for cyber stocks overall. The group has been unfairly caught up in sales from software names like Salesforce. Wall Street has called the sector bearish on concerns of AI-induced disruption. We've long thought that the adoption of more productive AI would actually benefit cybersecurity companies, and we're happy to see that investors are receptive to the idea. Optical partnership Our top performer last week was Corning, up 18%. The stock really took off on Wednesday after the company shared optimistic financial forecasts and announced a major supply deal with Nvidia; Nvidia also had a strong week, up 8.4%. During its Investor Day presentation, Corning projected a $20 billion annual sales rate starting in 2026, which would result in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% for sales from the fourth quarter of 2023 through the fourth quarter of 2026. Corning's most optimistic projection for the end of the decade now targets $40 billion in annual revenue starting in 2030. On the same day, Corning announced that it would open three new manufacturing facilities in the United States. Producing optical fiber technologies with Nvidia. As part of the multi-year agreement, Corning will increase U.S. optical interconnect production tenfold and increase fiber manufacturing capacity by 50%. This is all an effort to keep up with the massive demand for AI infrastructure. "We're going through the largest infrastructure buildout in human history," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on "Mad Money" a day after the news broke. On Thursday evening, Jim also interviewed Corning CEO Wendell Weeks, who talked about the alliance. Weeks also said the deals with two previously unnamed hyperscalers are "bigger" than the $6 billion deal with Meta Platforms. (See here for a complete list of stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust, including CRWD, PANW, CRM, GLW, NVDA, META.) When you subscribe to the CNBC Investment Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trading alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable foundation's portfolio. If Jim talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trading alert before executing the trade. 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