Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Monday’s key moments. Labor costs still elevated Watch Caterpillar Buy Ford 1. Labor costs still elevated Stocks ticked lower Monday. It was the first regular trading session since Friday’s jobs report from the government, which showed the U.S. economy added 236,000 nonfarm payrolls in March, the lowest monthly advance since December 2020. Wage growth decelerated year over year, but it was slightly higher month over month. “These [wage] numbers, as soft as they were, are not soft enough” to really move the needle on inflation, Jim Cramer said Monday. Labor costs are key for the Federal Reserve to watch as it considers its next move on monetary policy. Central bankers could use elevated wages as a cover to raise interest rates another 25 basis points at their May meeting. 2. Watch Caterpillar Shares Caterpillar (CAT) rose more than 2.5% in Monday’s largely down market, bouncing after a rough patch in the past couple of weeks over concerns of slowing economic growth. In his Sunday column , Jim said he’s convinced a lot of the federal infrastructure spending dollars will flow to Caterpillar. He’s not worried about CAT’s inventory build because there are only a few American construction equipment names vying for those government contracts. 3. Buy Ford Barron’s reported over the weekend on Club holding Ford (F), saying F-150 Lightning prices have “plunged” since June 2022. The price-per-vehicle was at one point, according to Barron’s, listed at $140,000. Those figures are misleading since the F-150 Lightning’s starting price new is around $56,000, depending on the model. The reality is the still-hard-to-get EV version of Ford’s popular pickup truck is selling at a huge premium in the used vehicle market. Jim said, “Buy Ford, don’t sell it,” predicting the current quarter will be a strong one for the automaker. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CAT, F. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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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