Lilly perseveres in a bad day for drug stocks — plus, Boeing’s mixed deliveries
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. Stocks dipped to start the holiday-shortened week as rising oil prices and bond yields pressured the S & P 500 and the Nasdaq . Chip names and other AI infrastructure extended last week’s rebound as investors viewed the announcement of the Nvidia Blackwell-trained OpenAI GPT-6 Astra model as a positive signal of compute demand. Nvidia hit session highs shortly after the open and was only a few dollars shy of its May records. However, the Club stock quickly reversed and was down nearly 2% in afternoon trading. Healthcare stocks were having a bad day after Novartis suffered setbacks across several Phase 3 drug trials, including a medication being studied to reduce cardiovascular events by lowering lipoprotein(a), a cholesterol-carrying particle in blood. Lp(a) levels are mostly inherited. While successful in reducing Lp(a), the trial failed to significantly improve cardiovascular outcomes. Novartis stock sank 11%. The news sent Amgen shares lower by roughly 9%, making it the biggest drag on the Dow Jones Industrial Average . Amgen is also working on a medication that lowers Lp(a). Eli Lilly has an Lp(a) lowering drug in its pipeline as well, but the pharma giant’s massive obesity stream makes it less dependent on these types of higher-risk trials. Lilly was down a much more modest 2% on the day. Lilly was reiterated as one of JPMorgan’s three top ideas in U.S. large-cap biopharma, alongside Gilead and AbbVie . The analysts cited three drivers of revenue upside over the next several years: the international obesity market, upside from a ramp in Medicare, and the company’s pipeline. In the pipeline, they called out Lilly’s next-generation obesity drugs, including higher-efficacy retatrutide as well as amylin-based eloralintide, which showed promising tolerability and meaningful weight loss in phase 2 trials. Boeing deliveries in August dipped from the year-ago period and the prior month. The company said Tuesday it sent 51 aircraft to customers last month versus 57 in the same month in 2025. August was also lower than the 53 in July. Jefferies said, “The 418 YTD deliveries in Jan-Aug represent 63% of our full-year estimate of 659 (+10% y-o-y).” So, that’s a little behind the pace. However, there were encouraging signs for Boeing ‘s best-selling 737 Max jets — deliveries totaled 41 in August. While one less than a year ago, it was two better than July’s total. Jefferies said, “September is expected to be first month of rollouts closer to the targeted 47/mo rate.” When Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg speaks at next week’s Morgan Stanley Laguna conference, we may know a little more about what the pace of deliveries looks like from here. Boeing has been a tough one to own because higher oil prices pressure the stock — no matter the strides that management has made in cleaning up the company’s act. Boeing shares tend to fall when oil prices rise on fears that higher fuel costs will pressure airline economics and lead to order cancellations. But that bear case has yet to play out in any meaningful way, with Boeing reporting zero cancellations in August. After encouraging second-quarter results on July 28, the stock enjoyed a nearly 14% rally to over $240. But shares have since retreated to around $211, where they closed the day before earnings. Casey’s leads a light earnings slate after the bell . On Wednesday morning, Chewy and Signet Jewelers are out with their quarterly results. It’s a quiet day for data, with only weekly mortgage applications scheduled. The two inflation readings the market is looking ahead to are PPI and CPI, which will be released Thursday and Friday, respectively. Those reports could influence what the Federal Reserve does at its policy meeting next week. Hot prints would likely increase the chances of a Fed interest rate hike, while cooler readings could keep central bankers on hold again. (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.
