The S&P 500 kept hitting records, and an AI giant went back into the Bullpen

The stock market broke records during the holiday-shortened trading week. The S&P 500 reached an all-time high on Friday but closed slightly lower. However, the index rose 1.4% last week and has progressed almost 18% since the beginning of the year. Last week's economic data, along with weekly unemployment claims as well as third-quarter GDP and inflation data, painted a positive picture of the economy, boosting investors' morale. Last week's market rally also coincided with the start of a historically strong period for stocks known as the Santa Claus rally, which extends from the last five trading sessions of the year to the first two sessions of the new year. Data from Stock Trader's Almanac shows that the S&P 500 has gained an average of 1.3% over the period since 1950. .SPX YTD mountain S&P 500 (SPX) year-to-date performance We made a few portfolio moves during Wall Street's winning week. On Monday, the Club added Alphabet to the Bullpen's list of stocks to watch. We made the mistake of exiting in March due to concerns that Google's Gemini wasn't advanced enough to keep up with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Pressure from the Justice Department, which wanted Google to disable its Chrome browser, did not work. But a lot has changed since then. Google released Gemini 3, which quickly became the most preferred major language model. Additionally, Google has trained and is running Gemini 3 on custom silicon developed in conjunction with Broadcom, the other Club name that has attracted interest from other companies and will represent a new revenue stream. The headwinds surrounding Alphabet's DOJ lawsuit have also largely faded. We added to our Nike position on Wednesday following a mixed earnings report that sank the stock. We thought this weakness was exaggerated and were encouraged by the news that Nike board members Apple CEO Tim Cook and former Intel CEO Bob Swan recently purchased more shares. Insider purchases are a big sign of management's confidence going forward and can indicate that those closest to the company think the stock is undervalued. Overall, we're still optimistic about Nike's turnaround story under CEO Elliott Hill. It just takes longer than expected. Nike is also one of five high-quality Club stocks we expect to take off in 2026. Others include Starbucks, Amazon, Palo Alto Networks and Eaton. Last week we published our analysis of Amazon. Here's a malfunction. After a 2025 rocked by concerns about cloud growth and tariff impacts on retail, Amazon shares are poised for gains next year. We see three catalysts that could continue moving forward. Sustained growth in Amazon's cloud computing division, continued expansion of margin from advertising, and further momentum in the company's e-commerce and advertising businesses. Amazon shares gained 6% in 2025, making it the worst performing stock among the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks. (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.