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. Markets: Stocks lost some momentum in afternoon trading after the S & P 500 had mounted a rally back above 6,000. The broad index was roughly flat around 2:45 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average held on to minor gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was slightly lower. The bond market is a thorn in the side of the equity market, just as it was in Tuesday’s session . Initially, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note dropped after the October consumer price index report was exactly in line with economist expectations. But the pullback was short-lived as yields are now up in the session. Coterra update: Investors seem like to Coterra Energy’s acquisition splash announced earlier Wednesday. Shares of the oil-and-gas producer are up more than 2% in the session and outperforming the S & P 500’s energy sector. Coterra is paying $3.95 billion ($2.95 billion in cash and $1.0 billion in stock) to acquire a pair of privately held firms: Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources. The deals beef up Coterra’s presence in the Permian Basin by adding acreage in New Mexico that is adjacent to its current land. The Franklin and Avant acreage has a higher mix of oil than natural gas, which is better for margins and cash-flow generation. Importantly, Coterra believes these deals will be highly accretive without “stretching” its balance sheet — much to the relief of investors. On Coterra’s third-quarter earnings call Nov. 1, CEO Tom Jorden made an unprompted comment about what would motivate the company to engage in a transformative merger or acquisition. The market didn’t like it at all, and the stock sunk in response. But Wednesday’s deals are being well-received because they are so-called bolt-on acquisitions that keeps Coterra’s pristine balance sheet intact. Plus, the market likes how management is focused on the Permian Basin, which stretches between New Mexico and West Texas. Some had feared the company would look elsewhere to add inventory. Job cuts: Advanced Micro Devices is laying off 4% of its global workforce . “As a part of aligning our resources with our largest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps that will unfortunately result in reducing our global workforce by approximately 4 percent,” an AMD spokesperson said in a statement. Later, Bloomberg News reported that the job cuts are focused on sales and marketing positions in areas like consumer and gaming PCs. The layoffs come at a time when AMD’s margins and expenses have been scrutinized as the company tries to quickly ramp up its AI chip business. AMD has made two acquisitions this year to boost its AI talent, buying Silo AI for $665 million and ZT Systems for $4.9 billion in what is more of an “acqui-hire” transaction . It is a good thing that AMD is focusing its resources on…
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