Our prime 5 performing shares since December's month-to-month assembly are tech-free
It's been a tumultuous start to 2025 for the stock market. Since the club's monthly meeting in December, Wall Street has been bombarded with headlines that sent stock prices down and then back up. The S&P 500 ended 2024 up about 23%, although it fell in the final four sessions of the year and on the first trading day of 2025. While the Santa Claus rally got back on track on January 3rd, it stalled. After losing ground in the first two weeks of 2025, the last nearly two weeks have been stronger, with the S&P 500 hitting an all-time intraday high on Wednesday. However, the index did not close above its December 6 closing high of just over 6,090. From the monthly meeting on December 19 through Wednesday's close, the S&P 500 is up 3.7%. The Dow Jones and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 4.2% and 3.2%, respectively, over the same period. Our top performers during this time were Coterra Energy, Nextracker, Goldman Sachs, GE Healthcare and Wells Fargo. Here you can find out how the winners fared in the last 33 days and what triggered their respective winnings. 1. Coterra Energy Rises 23.3% Shares have risen sharply since the start of the year thanks to strength in energy commodities. The rise in West Texas Intermediate crude oil and natural gas prices has pushed the oil and gas exploration and production company higher. Ahead of January's monthly meeting — which will be broadcast live on Thursday at noon ET — Coterra's rise has pushed the stock to No. 26 of the entire S&P 500 in 2025, making it the best-performing sector in the S&P 500 year-to-date. After breaking even in 2024, we didn't want to turn back the recent rally. That's why we reduced Coterra on Tuesday, achieving a 1% gain on the shares purchased in April 2022. President Donald Trump wants to pave the way for deregulation to boost American energy production. 2. Nextracker gains 21.7% It's not entirely clear what drove Nextracker shares higher earlier this month. We previously speculated that the recovery could be related to investors buying back shares after selling them in late December to capture tax losses, which artificially pushed the stock lower. Mizuho analysts later called Nextracker stock a “top pick” in their outlook for the clean energy and renewable energy sector, while also raising their price target on the stock. Afterward, then-President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would require more generative AI infrastructure, including new clean energy facilities. Both contributed to the stock's rise. We sold Nextracker twice due to recent gains since the December meeting. Nextracker shares fell on Thursday, extending their three-day losing streak. 3. Goldman Sachs rose 14.2% The bank stock had two major catalysts last month. First, stocks have risen on the Trump trade. Investors appear optimistic that another four years of Trump's term could lead to a pick-up in business on Wall Street due to a milder regulatory environment. Goldman Sachs also climbed to near-record highs in its quarterly results on January 15th. The company “once again ended the year as the leading M&A advisor in the markets,” CEO David Solomon said in the post-earnings conference call. For the club, this was a clear reminder of why we began purchasing Goldman in the first place on December 16th. As part of building up our Goldman position, we sold our banking competitor Morgan Stanley. Following the earnings results, Goldman received plenty of praise from Wall Street analysts, which has helped the company maintain its gains ever since. 4. GE Healthcare Rises 12.8% GEHC shares have gained on upbeat comments on Wall Street. In early January, Jefferies upgraded the stock to “buy” from “hold,” citing future catalysts such as an expiration of stimulus measures in China, suggesting new orders could come in after the Chinese New Year. Analysts like GEHC's valuation after the stock declined in late September through the end of 2024. GE Healthcare also announced a major partnership with Sutter Health to provide AI-powered medical imaging technology. According to media reports, this could bring the company sales of one billion US dollars. 5. Wells Fargo rises 12.6% Like Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo got a boost from the Trump trade. For Wells, that could finally mean lifting the $1.95 trillion asset cap the Fed put in place in 2018 after the bank's fake accounts scandal. Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf has kept things in order since he took office in 2019. Jim Cramer believes the progress Scharf has made should be rewarded. Lifting the asset cap would allow the bank to expand key business areas, particularly its growing investment banking business. This, coupled with a stellar January 15 earnings report, led to Wells Fargo rounding out our list of top performers. (A complete list of Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust stocks can be found here.) 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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on January 10, 2025 in New York City.
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It's been a tumultuous start to 2025 for the stock market. Since the club's monthly meeting in December, Wall Street has been bombarded with headlines that sent stock prices down and then back up.
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