Starbucks stock is a bright spot in Wednesday's bleak market. Here's why

Every weekday, CNBC Investment Club with Jim Cramer publishes Homestretch, an actionable afternoon update just in time for the final hour of trading on Wall Street. S&P 500 and Nasdaq headed for consecutive losses. The increase in oil prices as war tensions in Iran increased again on Wednesday put pressure on stocks. The highest consumer price index reading in more than three years boosted bond yields, but that didn't help either. But much of the inflation is due to higher energy costs, which will decrease when the Strait of Hormuz reopens. Jim Cramer is more concerned about all the new stocks coming to market with three major IPOs, starting with SpaceX on Friday. Proposals from Anthropic and OpenAI are expected to arrive late this year or early next year; Not to mention the massive stock sales Alphabet and others are making to fund AI spending. We are therefore shortening our positions (three on Wednesday alone) and filling our large cash position, whose weight in the portfolio has increased to approximately 12.4%. Wall Street analysts see Linde as the clear winner of SpaceX's IPO. More funding means more rocket launches, a boon for Linde, one of the space industry's dominant gas suppliers, Redburn said Wednesday. In particular, SpaceX can complete the next generation rocket Starship, which burns more oxygen than the Falcon rocket. Analysts predict Linde will generate $6 million per launch by 2028, up from less than $4 million per launch last year. Redburn said Linde's domain sales "could scale rapidly" as management increases spending to meet growing demand. Analysts raised their price target for Linde to $560 from $550. Redburn's call comes as no surprise to us. We've been naming Linde as one of the beneficiaries of SpaceX's IPO for some time now. And management isn't being shy about the opportunity in the space. "This end use continues to see strong double-digit percentage growth," CFO Matthew White said on Linde's first-quarter earnings call. Although industrial is a small portion of the company's overall revenue, it is growing at an impressive pace. Once commercial space makes up at least 5%, Linde said it will distribute those sales as its end market. Overall, the field is positive for Linde, but that's not the main reason we like this stock. The company has a hand. Linde's senior leadership and excellent capital management have provided a guaranteed path for the company to deliver to investors regardless of the macro environment. According to Bloomberg, the report states that the company is considering offering him a stake worth about $2.5 billion. Unlike China, where fierce competition from low-cost players like Luckin Coffee has put Starbucks' business under pressure, Japan has been a pretty good market for the company. In its April earnings call, Niccol said Starbucks had an "exceptional quarter" in the country, driven by record New Year's sales, strong tourism and menu additions. “The logic of making money out of Japan” because it is not a core market and will allow management to focus on the turnaround in the US. We couldn't agree more. But ultimately the decision belongs to Niccol. But ultimately the decision belongs to Niccol. We have full confidence in it, and if Starbucks can be better managed with a partner in Japan, the company should follow suit. Oracle reports after the closing bell and the market will focus on its AI backlog, capital spending guidance and cash visibility Like many tech stocks, Oracle had a rough June after hitting its highest levels since the beginning of the year. Weekly jobless claims and the May producer price index are on the economic calendar Thursday morning (see here for a full list of stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust). After sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio, Jim, who talked about a stock on CNBC TV, waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. OR THE ASSIGNMENT EXISTS OR HAS BEEN CREATED AFTER YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTMENT CLUB. NO SPECIFIC RESULT OR PROFIT CAN BE GUARANTEED.