GE Healthcare shows signs of life, but a lingering uncertainty keeps us on the sidelines

November 24, 2024

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. More weakness: There’s been a couple attempts at a rally Wednesday, but stocks are still mostly lower in the second session of September after a rough start to the month Tuesday. Nvidia is acting a relatively better after its 9.5% plunge Tuesday, though it was a little lower in afternoon trading after trading in the green earlier. The stock has been lower in three of the past four sessions entering Wednesday. Elsewhere, we initiated a new position in home improvement retailer Home Depot , increasing our exposure to Federal Reserve rate cut beneficiaries. China in focus: GE Healthcare kicked off back-to-back days of Wall Street events Wednesday with a fireside chat with CFO Jay Saccaro at the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference. We were most focused on what Saccaro had to say about China following the company’s organic growth forecast cut in July that was entirely driven by weakness in region and a lack of new government stimulus spending. As a reminder, GE Healthcare actually rallied on the disappointing news because some investors believed the new outlook completely “derisked” the region for the rest of the year. About one month later, it looks like there is still limited traction around China stimulus. “It’s kind of progressing as we kind of anticipated. There’s increased interest in putting orders in what we call this pre-tender bucket. So we’re seeing that progress kind of as we would expect,” Saccaro explained. “But all this has to pay out from pre-tender to tender to approval to order to sale. And so it’s a fairly extended process. The biggest thing is this is a longer process than the last stimulus.” Saccaro also spent some time discussing what could be a big opportunity for its radiopharmaceutical business due to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ proposed changes to imaging agent reimbursements. The company plans to talk a lot more about this at its investor day in December. Overall, Saccaro’s remarks did not change our thinking on the stock. The U.S. business is thriving thanks to procedure volume strength and strong hospital profitability, but uncertain developments in China keeps us at a hold. Management is scheduled to talk Thursday shortly after 1 p.m. ET at the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference. Shares of GE Healthcare were up more than 2% Wednesday and on track for their highest close since April. Up next: After the closing bell Wednesday, we’ll hear earnings from AeroVironment , Hewlett Packard Enterprise , Casey’s General Stores , and C3.ai . On the economic data calendar Thursday, we’ll get a look at private payroll growth in ADP’s employment monthly report and the ISM Services Index. (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.

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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