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 solidly higher Friday afternoon, with the gains in the S & P 500 pushing the index into positive territory for the week. It’s been a volatile stretch for technology and AI-related stocks as anxieties over data center construction delays and funding concerns plagued the group earlier in the week. However, the pressure eased over the past few days. There’s been a worry about OpenAI’s ability to meet its financial obligations, but that risk could be tabled if there’s truth in the several reports that indicated the AI startup behind ChatGPT is in the process of a new fundraising round that could help it raise as much as $100 billion. Cybersecurity : Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud announced Friday an expansion to their strategic partnership. The new collaboration combines Google Cloud’s AI and infrastructure capabilities with Palo Alto’s AI security platform, Prisma AIRS. Analysts at Cowen on Friday called this a “full platformization deal” that will give Google Cloud customers the “full breadth of Prisma AIRS’ capabilities.” But sometimes there’s no give without a get. Reuters said that Palo Alto Networks will pay Google-parent Alphabet close to $10 billion over several years as part of this collaboration. Cloud security is going to become even more important as organizations increasingly adopt agentic AI. We believe Palo Alto Networks and fellow Club name CrowdStrike are the leaders. Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora is no stranger to Google. He spent at a decade at the company, rising to the ranks of chief business officer, before leaving in 2014 . Next week : It will be a quiet, holiday-abbreviated week, with no major earnings reports. On the data side, we get readings on third-quarter economic growth and consumer confidence on Tuesday morning, as well as the weekly look at first-time jobless claims before Wednesday’s opening bell. The U.S. stock market will close early on Christmas Eve at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday afternoon and will be closed on Thursday for Christmas Day. (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.
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