S&P 500 tries to hold gains Friday. Plus, more portfolio earnings on the horizon

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. Markets: The S&P 500 was trying to hold on to its gains. It looked like a strong day at the open on Friday, as Amazon shares rose in response to accelerating revenue growth at its cloud computing unit. Apple's strong revenue guidance also initially buoyed the market. Market gains faded later Friday. Still, the S&P 500 continues to gain more than 0.5% for the week and more than 2% in October. Earnings: Another week of declines and so far quarterly results remain optimistic. About 64% of the S&P 500 is accounted for, and 79% of those companies saw an increase in revenue, while 83% reported an increase in earnings, according to FactSet. That's slightly worse than the 82% revenue and 87% earnings ratio reported last week. The size of earnings beats is decreasing. "Although the percentage of S&P 500 companies reporting positive earnings surprises is above recent averages, the magnitude of earnings surprises is below recent averages," FactSet's Senior Earnings Analyst John Butters wrote on Friday. This week's earnings data pushed the S&P 500's third-quarter earnings growth rate from 9.1% to 10.7%. If this rate continues, Butters says, the index will enter its fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. The last time it happened was in 2021, when companies recovered from Covid-related shutdowns. Analysts predict the S&P 500 will continue to experience double-digit earnings growth in four of the next five quarters, according to Butters. Next up: Nearly a quarter of the S&P 500 is scheduled to report quarterly earnings next week. The club that hired Eaton will announce the results on Tuesday morning. Solstice Advanced Materials, which just spun off from Honeywell and DuPont, will go up for sale before Thursday's opening. Texas Roadhouse came out with quarterly results following the closure. Investors will also receive a business update Thursday evening from Qnity Electronics, which will be spun off from DuPont on Saturday. If the government shutdown continues, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will not release its important monthly employment report. Instead, Wall Street will have to rely on Wednesday's ADP private employment report to gauge the health of the labor market. (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.