Every weekday, Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club releases the Homestretch, a practical afternoon update to coincide with the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Markets: The S&P 500 rose nearly 1.5% on Monday as House members were recalled to Washington to vote on a Senate deal to end the longest government shutdown in history. The Nasdaq rose more than 2%. With these gains, both indexes recouped nearly all of last week’s losses. The 41-day government shutdown that caused massive flight delays and cancellations and shook consumer confidence in the economy may be coming to an end, putting investors in a more risk-taking mood. The club that owns Nvidia rose nearly 5% on Monday after falling 7% last week as tech stocks tumbled on concerns about stock valuations related to the artificial intelligence boom. Monday’s rally wasn’t just about technology. The consumer goods and materials sectors also performed well. In fact, eight of the S&P 500’s 11 sector indexes rose. Only real estate, public works, and daily necessities were in the red. Wafer demand: NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told reporters over the weekend that the company has asked its main manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor, to increase wafer production. This is a clear indication that Huang expects strong demand for Nvidia’s AI chips to continue. This also aligns with the “$500 billion order visibility” comment made by the CEO at the company’s GTC event a few weeks ago. While Huang’s comments are clearly positive for Nvidia, hearing the word “wafer,” the basic building material used to make semiconductor chips, immediately brings to mind DuPont’s recent spinoff of Qnity Electronics. CEO John Kemp has repeatedly said that the start of wafer shipments is the best indicator of demand. Wafer start refers to the number of new semiconductor wafers that start the manufacturing process at a manufacturing facility. “Wafer starts, as measured by MSI data, is one of the best indicators of demand for our products,” Kemp said at an October Investor Day event. “Wafer starts, as measured by MSI data, are one of the best indicators of demand for our products. We see wafer starts steadily growing at a mid-single digit long-term (compound annual growth rate), indicating consistent positive growth.” “Global fab capacity is steadily expanding in step with demand, increasingly driven by cutting-edge investments, and will approach more than $200 billion in the coming years.” This comes after the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group, which provides market data to the silicon industry, reported last week that global silicon wafer shipments increased 3.1% in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year. This increase was driven by the demand to support AI applications. Looking ahead, SEMI predicts that global shipments will steadily increase until 2028. Shares in Qnity, the club’s name, rose about 6% on Monday, rebounding along with other AI-related names. However, it is unclear to what extent the latest measures are related to Hwang’s comments. After all, trading on Qnity has been volatile since the spin was completed last Monday. Next up, we’ll continue to follow events in Washington to see if there’s a deal to reopen the government. In terms of earnings, Paramount Skydance, CoreWeave, Rigetti Computing, AST SpaceMobile, Rocket Lab, and Occidental Petroleum will report after the closing bell. Before the start of trading on Tuesday, Wall Street’s Nevius Group and Sea Ltd. are scheduled to report results. – CNBC’s Matthew J. Belvedere contributed to this report. (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer Charitable Trust stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club, you will receive trade alerts before Jim makes a trade. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he will issue a trade alert and then wait 72 hours before executing the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with our disclaimer. No fiduciary duties or obligations exist or arise from your receipt of information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
