Jim Cramer’s Investing Club meeting Friday: Fed strategy, Club mantra

Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 am ET. Here’s a recap of Friday’s key moments. The Fed isn’t ready to stop Investing mantra reminder Looking to buy 1. The Fed isn’t ready to stop Stocks rose Friday after a rocky start following the core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation, came in hotter than expected on a year-by-year basis. This suggests that inflation is still not going down, and that the Fed is not ready to stop tightening. The next piece of data that will help determine the Fed’s next move – in other words, whether it’ll take a 25- or 50- basis point rate hike at its February meeting – is the December unemployment report. If unemployment is down to 4%, that’s good news for the central bank. 2. Stick to our investing mantra As we close out 2022, we’re reminding investors of our mantra: Buy shares of companies that make things and do things at a profit and pay back some of that cash to shareholders. Find old-fashioned, boring stocks that make money, withstand a potential recession and have sustainable growth. The stocks that did well this year also tended to report strong earnings and pay back dividends. While these are not the stocks that investors typically like, they are the ones that tend to do well. Some defensive growth staples in the Club’s portfolio include Constellation Brands (STZ), Costco (COST) and Humana (HUM). 3. Look for buys on that note, we are looking for potential buys in this oversold market. However, we are avoiding fad stocks, and are instead looking at names that are inexpensive on a price-to-earnings ratio basis. Cramer said that he’s tempted to review the food stocks for potential buys, noting that JM Smucker (SJM), Campbell Soup (CPB) and General Mills (GIS) are all companies that fit the Club’s investing mantra. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long COST, HUM, STZ. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.