Stocks battled a flood of news and we booked some profits

Stocks ended last week slightly lower as the market struggled with a barrage of political headlines and policy news. As we began the week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he was under criminal investigation by the Trump administration regarding a $2.5 billion renovation of the central bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. The market did not like the uncertainty and the attack on the Fed's independence. Global and geopolitical tensions also shook the market, with President Donald Trump threatening to impose an additional 25 percent customs duty on countries doing business with Iran. The bank opened the snow season. Despite the solid reports, bank stocks were weak last week on concerns about Trump's call to cap credit card interest rates. A positive inflation report came to the market in the middle of the week. The consumer price index increased by 0.3% in December, bringing the annual rate to 2.7%. Both were in line with forecasts and showed that the pace of price increases was approaching the Fed's 2% target but remained high. On a sector-by-sector basis, the tech trade volatility was driven by Nvidia's pullback after Trump said the chipmaker had to meet some new requirements to ship its H200 AI chips to China. The USA will make a 25% cut on these sales. Other megacap names including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Broadcom have also come under pressure. This helped fuel expansion of trade in energy, industry and staples last week. .SPX .IXIC 5D mountain S&P 500 and Nasdaq 1 week For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.1% and the Nasdaq fell 0.4%. However, the S&P Short Range Oscillator remained in the overbought zone as of Friday's close. When this happens, our discipline kicks in and we try to correct rising positions, which is what we did. We executed a number of portfolio trades during the volatile week. We narrowed our position in Texas Roadhouse on Monday to hedge against the risk of higher beef prices impacting the company's margins. We're optimistic that beef prices will stabilize at some point, which will boost the restaurant chain's shares. In the meantime, we booked some profit just to be safe. We downgraded Texas Roadhouse to our equivalent rating of 2. On Tuesday, ahead of earnings, we took profits in Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo following gains in both stocks. Wells Fargo reported earnings and revenue losses on Wednesday. Goldman had a mixed quarter on Thursday, missing revenue but beating earnings expectations. We have a 2-rated rating on both bank stocks. On Wednesday, we converted some of our earnings from Honeywell into cash. Although it's a tough stock to own in 2025, we still like the industrial giant after it announced plans to pursue an initial public offering for quantum computing company Quantinuum, in which it holds a significant stake. An IPO means Honeywell will monetize an asset that may be worth more in public markets than its current value in Honeywell. We downgraded the stock to our equivalent rating of 2. We followed up another trade on Thursday, taking profits at Dover. The industrial name has lost 24% since its last reported earnings in October, so we're out of discipline. We lowered our rating to a hold equivalent of 2. (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.