Records for several stocks in the US stock market and CNBC Investing Club’s portfolio in a week. The S&P 500 jumped to an all-time high of 6,187.68 on Friday, with the high-tech Nasdaq composite rising to a new record of 20,311.51. Both benchmark gauges have advanced about 4% since the end of last Friday. These milestones mark the surprising comeback of the financial markets since April. Stocks were hit on April 2nd as President Donald Trump’s “mutual” tariff announcement caused Wall Street to panic over what higher collections mean for economic growth and geopolitical relations. The S&P 500 has risen 24% since its 2025 low on April 8, despite uncertainty remaining in three aspects: the administration’s trade policy, the next monetary policy move in the Federal Reserve, and ongoing conflict in the Middle East. That rebound has brought seven club holdings to record highs, including Nvidia, Microsoft, Broadcom, Ge Vernova, Capital One, Goldman Sachs and Crowdstrike. Outperformance highlights much of the driving forces of the stock market. In fact, there are three important themes. 1. The generative artificial intelligence trade is back. Wall Street feared that it would slow AI spending as US-China tensions threatened semiconductor production and demand. Investors then ruled out this uncertainty. This is due to tariffs and Trump’s chip export controls. It was partly a five-day victory, with a record of over $158 on Friday, due to a lot of good news from AI Behemoths like Nvidia. Recent profits have increased Nvidia’s market capitalization to $3.8 trillion, making it the world’s most valuable public company. The second half of the quarterly financial results report shows that demand for chipmakers still had strong. Around the same time, CEO Jensen Huang announced a big deal with startup Humain, which sends its latest artificial intelligence chips to Saudi Arabia. All of this also helped the Chipmaker Broadcom peers too. On Friday, each recorded $272. This is because the more demand for AI chips, the more these companies can sell. Another beneficiary of AI trade is Hyperscaler, a company that supports the computing power and infrastructure required for AI. One of these megacaps, Microsoft is benefiting from Azure, a large cloud computing business, generating a large portion of its revenue. The stock hit a high of over $499 on Friday. Club Holding Ge Vernova is also the recent AI winner. Ge Vernova supports the creation of data centers, power-hungry facilities used to handle the computational demands of AI through turbine production. Industrial stocks have hit many highs this year alone, but most have been on Friday recently. Compared to the 5% of the S&P 500, it has exceeded 61% so far in 2025. 2. Investors are turning to defense stocks. Geopolitical conflicts across the Middle East and around the world have companies looking for products that can protect against virtual attacks. Companies are considered safe havens for investors. That’s why it hit a cybersecurity name like CrowdStrike on a new record on a $506 Thursday. Club Holding and PierPalo Alto Networks took a 3.5% off their all-time high in February. 3. The US economy is more resilient than expected. Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell described the economy as “still solid,” saying the central bank is “well well placed to wait” before cutting interest rates. A resilient economy could lead to working on Wall Street deals, such as the first public sale. This means that more companies will leverage Goldman’s key investment banking business to support their public debut. Goldman has been appointed lead underwriter for famous IPOs like Chime and Etro in the past month alone. The shares hit a record high of $694 on Friday. For Capital One, a stable economic environment means there is less chance of a slower consumer spending. This is good news for credit card issuers. Investor sentiment improved after the company completed its $35 billion discovery acquisition earlier this month. We have long slammed the table that this trade is a key catalyst for stocks. Capital One stock hit a record of nearly $213 on Friday. “I think people should still buy stocks,” Jim Kramer said at a meeting Friday morning, adding that Capital One will trade at a discount to rivals like the American Express. (For a full list of Jim Kramer’s Charitable Trust stocks, see here.) As a member of the CNBC Investment Club with Jim Kramer, you will receive a trade warning before Jim can trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before purchasing or selling stocks in the Charitable Trust portfolio. If Jim talks about stocks on CNBC TV, he will wait 72 hours after issuing a trade alert before running the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with the disclaimer. 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