Stocks rise, Meta gets real on metaverse, and Salesforce bounces

Stocks continued their rise on Friday and ended the week higher after the Fed's favorite inflation gauge raised the possibility of a rate cut next week. For the week, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% while the Nasdaq rose nearly 1%. Both indexes posted back-to-back weekly gains. The Dow gained roughly 0.5%. On Friday morning, the government's personal consumption expenditures price index for September showed a cooler-than-expected year-on-year rise in the core interest rate, which excludes food and energy prices. While the PCE report was delayed by the government shutdown, it was welcome news in a data-starved market ahead of the Fed's two-day policy-making meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. .SPX 1M mountain 1-month performance of the S&P 500 It's been a few weeks since New York Fed President John Williams breathed new life into the possibility of a central bank rate cut. During that time, the S&P 500 rebounded 5% and finished the week just shy of its record high close of 6,890 on Oct. 28. Here are some of this week's featured portfolios. Meta Platforms shares gained 4% for the week after Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Instagram and Facebook are preparing to reduce spending on their main database by up to 30%. This move by CEO Mark Zuckerberg would be a smart move, especially if it means the company focuses on technologies that can make money faster, like Meta's smart glasses and artificial intelligence efforts. The commodity has been spending like crazy, and its shares have taken a hit since late October, when management increased capital spending guidance alongside strong earnings. Salesforce shares are up 13% for the week following a big earnings beat. Despite being this week's best-performing portfolio stock, it's still down 22% year-to-date. This dynamic reflects Salesforce's struggle to convince investors that the adoption of generative AI does not pose a threat to the armchair-based business model of its core customer relationship management software. Management brought up guidance on Wednesday evening alongside fiscal 2026 third-quarter results and announced more paid deals for the company's artificial intelligence platform Agentforce. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff argued on Thursday on "Mad Money" with Jim Cramer that artificial intelligence is a "business feature" that increases the value of the company's CRM software. On Tuesday evening, CrowdStrike reported better-than-expected fiscal 2026 third-quarter results and strong forward guidance. Jim called it a “reward quarter” after the cybersecurity firm delivered record levels of free cash flow, annual recurring revenue and operating income. It did not surprise us that the stock, which remained quite horizontal throughout the week, did not move according to the bullish report. It's become common to see CrowdStrike and even fellow cyber stock Palo Alto Networks trade lower after earnings, only to recover and move higher in the coming weeks. Following press, we reiterated our buy-equivalent 1 rating on CrowdStrike and raised our price target to $550 from $520. We sent out three trade alerts this week. We bought more Boeing on Monday as the stock stabilized after November's steep earnings decline. We didn't buy shares when they were falling because the stock was trading like a falling knife. We wanted to see things calm down before putting more money into the business. We bought more Procter & Gamble shares after falling on Tuesday following CFO Andre Schulten's comments about the unstable environment in the United States. We see better times ahead for P&G and are establishing this defensive position in case of losses in the AI trade. On Wednesday, we took some profits from Goldman Sachs, which closed at a record high on Friday. We still like this position long term. (See here for a complete list of stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) When you subscribe 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 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. THE ABOVE INVESTMENT CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY, TOGETHER WITH THE DISCLAIMERS. NO CIVIL OBLIGATIONS OR DUTIES EXIST OR SHALL BE RESULTING FROM YOUR RECEIVING ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTMENT CLUB. NO SPECIFIC RESULT OR PROFIT CAN BE GUARANTEED.