Here is Eli Lilly’s competitive edge in GLP-1 obesity drugs and Abbott’s secondary play

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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. (We’re no longer recording the audio, so we can get this new written feature to members as quickly as possible.) Inflation relief: The stock market was mostly higher Thursday, though the Dow was under some pressure. It looked like stocks were headed for a down session before the opening bell rang but got a boost after January’s core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 0.4% month over month in January and 2.8% year over year, in line with expectations. “The fact that the S & P 500 futures were down so big before the PCE is a reminder that the negativity is in full force still,” Jim Cramer said Thursday. On this final day of February, the Dow, S & P 500 and Nasdaq are all poised to post strong monthly gains. Semis soar: Semiconductor stocks were a bright spot within technology, outperforming software and other tech hardware shares. The group may be reacting to a note from Citi analysts that said they are “still wildly bullish on semis.” Jim said, “Chris Danely from Citi’s piece is helping to spike the semis.” Cramer said. “Don’t forget Broadcom, it is one of his buys.” Citi’s favorite AI plays are Club names Nvidia and Broadcom as well as Bullpen stock Advanced Micro Devices . Danely’s top pick on the DRAM upturn is Micron . Dividend boost: Club name Eaton hit another all-time high Thursday after announcing a 9% increase to its quarterly dividend. The payment hike will move its dividend yield to 1.3% from 1.19%. The added income is always appreciated, but Eaton is much more of a growth industrial than a value stock. It’s power management solutions play into so many different megatrends, which is why we named it one of the Club’s 12 core holding last Saturday at our annual meeting. On deck: We’re pretty much through earnings season. But there are still a few companies reporting after the bell, including Zscaler , Dell Technologies , and Autodesk . GLP-1 craze: We’ll be watching a new CNBC original Thursday at 10 p.m. called “Big Shot: The Ozempic Revolution.” The focus of the documentary will be on Novo Nordisk ‘s Ozempic, which became the name associated with this new GLP-1 class of anti-obesity injectables. (Technically, Ozempic is Novo’s diabetes treatment and Wegovy is Novo’s weight loss drug.) However, Cramer said, “Don’t forget you need protein if you are going to take these and Club name Abbott Laboratories has a protein shortcut supplement that will be in great demand.” As for Eli Lilly , one of the reasons why we think it has built a wide moat around its GLP-1s (Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes) is due to the billions it invested in capacity. Lilly’s head start was why we shrugged off Viking Therapeutics Phase 2 drug as a serious competitor. Viking doesn’t have the balance sheet to compete with Novo and Club name Lilly. Following its recent surge in price — a 121% gain Tuesday and an 11% rise Wednesday — shares of biotech Viking fell 15.5% Thursday after raising $550 million through an offering of nearly 6.5 million shares. “Viking’s offering serves as a reminder that it’s unsafe to speculate in companies that don’t have the money to compete with Lilly,” Cramer said. (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.