Why we like this wait-and-see market — plus, our latest thinking on 3 portfolio names

Published Tue, Jul 23 20242:50 PM EDT

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. Stock spotlight: The S & P 500 inched higher Tuesday despite a couple of early attempts at a bigger rally. One could say Wall Street is in wait-and-see mode ahead of earnings from the megacap tech stocks that start after the bell with Club holding Alphabet . Or is the market waiting for the release of the Federal Reserve's favorite inflation gauge Friday? Whatever the case, we don't mind the choppy action because we want to see the market work off its overbought condition ahead of the busy earnings slate and Fed-related events over the next week and a half. More portfolio reshaping: Dover said late Monday it acquired Marshall Excelsior Company for $395 million in cash. The Michigan-based company, which serves the liquefied petroleum gas and cryogenic market, is expected to be complementary to Dover's OPW Global unit within its Clean Energy & Fueling segment. Marshall Excelsior generated approximately $120 million in revenue in 2023. This bolt-on acquisition follows Dover's announcement Monday morning that it was selling its business that makes garbage trucks and trash compactors for $2 billion in cash. We have not seen any sell-side analysts write about these deals besides Baird calling Dover's sale "a positive." These moves may be small for a company with a $25 billion market cap expected to generate $8.6 billion in sales this year. However, portfolio reshaping is the bread and butter of a company like Dover. We should get more color around these deals and management's plans for the remaining cash when the company reports Thursday before the opening bell. China woes continue: The luxury fashion group LVMH reported lackluster results Tuesday. Organic revenue increased 1% in the second quarter thanks to growth in Europe, the U.S. and a double-digit increase in Japan. However, Asia excluding Japan — LVMH's region that includes China – reported a 14% year-over-year decline in organic revenues, a result much worse than the 6% decline in the first quarter. It's yet another disappointing sign of consumer demand in China, as companies like Nike , Burberry , Richemont and Swatch are all struggling in the region. Our concern that a similar fate will befall Estee Lauder again when it reports next month is why we trimmed the position Monday despite taking a loss. More Disney headlines : Longtime Disney shareholder Ike Perlmutter sold his entire 25.6 million share stake in the company in the months after activist Nelson Peltz failed to win a seat on the Disney board, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday . We're not surprised to see this development because ever since Perlmutter was laid off in 2023, he's been highly critical of management. We don't view Perlmutter's exit as positive or negative for Disney. If anything, we could argue the news provides some clarity into why the stock has been straight down since Peltz lost the proxy vote in early April: Disney had to absorb a lot of stock for sale. Up Next : The big earnings reports of the night are Alphabet, Tesla , Visa , Enphase Energy , Texas Instruments , Chubb , Capital One and Seagate . Vertiv , AT & T , NextEra , Thermo Fisher , GE Vernova , Boston Scientific and a handful of other stocks reporting Wednesday. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber 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 trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

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.