Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Market moves: Stocks were rallying to start the week, with all three major stock benchmarks — the Dow , the S & P 500 , and the Nasdaq — hitting new, all-time intraday highs. A cooling of trade tensions between the U.S. and China is a big part of the market rally after the world's two biggest economies agreed on a framework for a deal to ...

Market Overview - Bitcoin attempted a rally towards a record high of nearly $124,000 but quickly fell back to below $121,000 within ninety minutes of the U.S. market opening, coinciding with declines in gold and silver markets [1] - Gold has been in the spotlight, but silver's performance was notable, reaching $50 per ounce for the first time, before experiencing a rapid profit-taking drop of about 4% to $48.55 [2] - Gold also saw a reversal of more than 1% from a challenge of the $4,100 per ounce level, currently trading at $4,035 [3] Investor Sentiment - The ongoing U.S. government shutdown is impacting investor sentiment, disrupting key economic data releases and slowing operations for businesses reliant on federal services, affecting both traditional and digital asset markets [4] Cryptocurrency Market Dynamics - Smaller cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, experienced significant declines, with ether dropping 3.5% to $4,300, while BNB and DOGE fell by 3%-4% [5] - Despite the pullback, Bitcoin's market dominance increased to 59.4%, the highest level in nearly eight weeks, indicating a rotation of capital back to Bitcoin [5] - The pullback in the crypto market led to over $600 million in leveraged trading positions being liquidated across all digital assets in the past 24 hours [6]

Market Reaction to Geopolitical Events - The market initially reacted to escalating tensions, with oil prices dropping almost 5% [1] - Analysts believe the market's response indicates a perceived de-escalation of the situation [4] - Some are surprised by the market's seemingly muted reaction to the geopolitical events [9] Economic Outlook and Investment Strategy - The market was relatively expensive at 235 times earnings prior to recent events [3] - The current situation adds to existing uncertainties, including tax bill negotiations and tariff pauses ending in July and August [3][6] - Despite uncertainties, the base case remains a slowing economy that avoids recession this year [6] - Potential Fed rate cuts, productivity gains, and deregulation could support the economy and markets through 2026 [6][7] - The recommendation is to lean towards quality stocks and wait for a pullback to buy, expecting a recovery [7] Oil Market Dynamics - OPEC's previous output increase in early May led to higher oil prices [10] - The market may have partially discounted the potential impact of geopolitical events on oil prices [10] - Current oil prices are not expected to derail the bull market that started in April, but could potentially stall it [10][11]