Hot inflation, Nvidia, earnings on deck

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 Friday’s key moments. Higher rates positive for banks Watch Nvidia Earnings on deck: Salesforce, Costco 1. Higher rates positive for banks Wall Street dropped Friday after January’s core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index came in hotter than expected. It’s the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric. The reading added to investor concerns that the Fed will likely keep interest rates higher for longer and may step back up to a half-point hike at its March meeting. While higher rates hurt the overall market, they are positive for our bank holdings Wells Fargo (WFC) and Morgan Stanley (MS) from a net interest income basis. 2. Watch Nvidia Nvidia (NVDA) on Friday gave back some of the previous session’s 14% gain. Investors were likely taking profits after such a surge on a solid quarter and strong guidance . There’s excitement around Nvidia’s role in building chips for artificial intelligence and the company’s big developers event next month. Shares of the Club stock, which fell half of their value last year, have gained roughly 58% year-to-date. We’re watching the stock to determine at what level we might consider adding to our position. For now, we reiterate our 2 rating . 3. Earnings next week: Salesforce, Costco Salesforce (CRM) is set to report earnings after the closing bell Wednesday. We’ll be looking for a path to improved profitability. The enterprise software maker has recently come under pressure from activist investors who want to see better margins. Costco (COST) is set to release earnings after the bell Thursday. Unlike most companies, the wholesale retailer reports monthly sales figures and they’ve been good. We’ll be looking for any changes in consumer spending and whether Costco plans to increase membership fees or issue a special dividend. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long WFC, MS, NVDA, CRM & COST. 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.