Capital One's earnings sell-off has picked up steam. Here's what we're doing next

CNBC Finance

4 min read

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch â an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Markets are mixed on Friday. It's been a turbulent few days, with President Donald Trump's tariff threats against many European nations pressuring stocks to start the holiday-shortened week, followed by an agreement on a framework of a future deal on Greenland that sent them rallying. Through it all, the S & P 500 managed to finish the week relatively unscathed. The start of 2026 has been filled with talk about rotation out of the Magnificent Seven and a broadening out of the market rally. But on Friday, at least, the tech giants are getting some revenge, with big gains in Amazon , Meta Platforms , and Microsoft . Meanwhile, the financials are getting hit the hardest and are being led lower by Club name Capital One after an earnings miss on higher investments. The company also announced a $5.15 billion acquisition of corporate card issuer Brex. We called out the risk of higher-than-expected investments when we trimmed the position in December. The market may not like the fact that management now has two deal integrations on its plate, and the pace of buybacks could theoretically slow. Nevertheless, we're fans of the Brex deal and won't fault CEO Richard Fairbank for going after exciting growth opportunities that enhance Capital One's business modes. With a nearly 7% pullback Friday, Capital One shares are now down about 10% since our December sale. Given the magnitude of Friday's decline on developments we believe will ultimately strengthen the company rather than hurt it, we are upgrading our rating back to a buy-equivalent 1. DuPont was named a catalyst call buy idea at Deutsche Bank. The analysts believe the company's first quarterly report â set for Feb. 10 â after the spinoff of Qnity Electronics "will highlight a new era of stability, simplicity, and clarity." The analyst also points out that they believe DuPont trades at a 34% discount to its sum-of-the-parts value. We agree the stock is still too cheap relative to its peers, but we're not anticipating another separation or breakup anytime soon. DuPont hit a new 52-week high on Friday, extending its gains post-Qnity spinoff to roughly 29%. Qnity has been volatile since coming public on Nov. 3, but it reached a record high on Wednesday before pulling back over the past two days. We trimmed this position on Thursday to lock in gains after a big move to start 2026. Honeywell filled out its Aerospace bench ahead of its planned separation in the second half of 2026. The Aerospace business, which will trade under the ticker symbol HONA, named Josh Jepsen as CFO of the Aerospace division, effective Feb. 23. Jepson is coming over from Deere, where he has been CFO since the fall of 2022. Aerospace also named the leaders of its Electronic Solutions, Engines & Power Systems, and Control Systems units. Each leader was a longtime Honeywell executive. The update marks another key step ahead of the breakup, which we believe will create value for shareholders over the long run. Next week is one of the busiest of the quarter with about 20% of the S & P 500 scheduled to report earnings. Within the portfolio, we'll hear from Boeing on Tuesday; Corning , Danaher , GE Vernova , Starbucks , Meta Platforms , and Microsoft on Wednesday; and Dover , Honeywell , and Apple on Thursday. There's also a Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday, but the central bank's policymaking committee is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged. (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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Capital One's earnings sell-off has picked up steam. Here's what we're doing next

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