Jim Cramer Says Falling Oil Prices Lifted Stocks, Warns Fed Meeting Could Shift Outlook

According to CNBC, Jim Cramer said falling oil prices helped revive stocks on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 509 points, or 0.98%, the S&P 500 up 0.86%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.96% after four straight down sessions. He said positive after-hours results from Adobe and Oracle helped lift technology shares and renewed interest in enterprise software and data center stocks, naming Dell, Vertiv, Cisco, Marvell, GE Vernova and Hewlett Packard Enterprise as possible beneficiaries. Cramer said next week’s market direction will depend largely on oil prices and interest rates, with the war in Iran a key variable. He said progress toward peace could push oil lower and ease inflation pressure, while renewed fighting could send oil higher and hurt stocks. He also said the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee meets Wednesday and that the consensus expects policymakers to raise rates to combat persistent inflation. Cramer said he will watch how longer-term Treasury yields react and warned that another rate increase would make investing more difficult. He also said Lennar reports after Wednesday’s close, while Brinker International and Intuit hold analyst meetings Thursday.