Here’s why one of our favorite industrial stocks is up over 3% Friday

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 movers: The S & P 500 was on pace to break its five-session losing streak. But even with Friday’s strong gain, the index was still tracking to be slightly down for the week. Friday’s rally was broad-based with every sector in positive territory. Consumer discretionary topped the leaderboard thanks to Tesla rebounding from Thursday’s selloff. Information technology was having a strong day with gains in semiconductors and software. The utilities sector was continuing its strong start to 2025. Laggards on Friday included materials, consumer staples, and financials. Power stock: Eaton was one of the standouts in the industrial sector — jumping nearly 3% in Friday trading. RBC Capital raised its price target on the electrical equipment maker to $392 per share from $374, implying 18% upside from Thursday’s closing price of $331.96. However, there is another reason for the rally in Eaton. Digging through December’s manufacturing ISM report, it again showed the electrical equipment, appliances and components industry is one of the best growth stories in the group. In addition to electrical equipment, appliances and components, the ISM report surveys all different industries, including chemical products, transportation equipment, computer and electronic products, along with food, beverage and tobacco products. One response from a member of the electrical equipment, appliances and components industry — which includes Eaton — said, “The increase in new orders has our plant at full capacity.” This industry was also one of six reporting growth in new orders, and that’s obviously a very good demand signal. Eaton’s rally Friday also jibes with the strength in the utilities, which is one of the company’s largest end markets (estimated to be 11% of total 2025 sales; data center and distributed IT is the second largest at 17%). If utilities are investing more to support the country’s growing power needs, they are going to need Eaton’s utility and grid solutions. Next week: On Monday night, we’ll be listening to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote address at the Consumer Electronic Show conference in Las Vegas. The December FOMC meeting minutes are out Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET. We usually don’t like to put too much weight on this release because it is backward-looking and there’s been a lot of new data since the December 17-18. However, we expect the market will still scrutinize the information because one of the big questions for 2025 is how many times the Federal Reserve will cut rates. After the closing bell Wednesday Jefferies Financial Group reports its fourth-quarter earnings and those results are always a good indicator of what lies ahead for the major banks later this month. The stock market is closed Thursday in honor of former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100. Friday is a big day: Constellation Brands , Walgreens Boots Alliance and Delta Air Lines all report earnings and the December jobs report comes out. (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.

Power management company Eaton in Pleasanton, California.

Smith Collection | Archive Photos | Getty Images

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.

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