Meta unveils a new AI model that it hopes will justify its massive spending plans

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. The stock market gains carried through Wednesday's session as equities rebounded on news that the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire predicated on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. After nearly touching $113 per barrel at one point on Tuesday, oil prices plummeted. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped more than 15% to the mid-$90s. WTI hasn't seen those levels for about two weeks. Bond yields followed oil prices lower, with the 10-year Treasury yield dropping to around 4.28%. Every sector was positive Wednesday, except for energy. Some of the biggest gains were in the most cyclical and interest rate-sensitive parts of the market, like industrials, consumer discretionary, materials, and financials. The Magnificent Seven tech stocks and AI-related names powered the market higher, too. Late in the session, the S & P 500 was up 2.5%, and the Nasdaq was up 3%. As Jim Cramer said on the Morning Meeting, the price action Wednesday is exactly why we don't try to time the market . Getting out last week at the lows since the war started on Feb. 28, you would have missed the move higher since then, especially the rip higher on Wednesday. It's nearly impossible to be right on both sides of such a trade. Meta Platforms shares surged after the company on Wednesday announced a new AI model. It's called Muse Spark, and Meta said it is the first of its Muse family of models developed by its Superintelligence Labs team. Muse Spark was made available Wednesday at meta.ai and in the Meta AI app. While Meta's advertising business and engagement time on its social media platforms have benefited from leveraging AI, the company's attempts thus far at developing a popular model have been unsuccessful. Llama was an underperformer — but with Muse Spark, the company believes it will be more competitive with Alphabet 's Google Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and xAI's Grok. At a glance, Meta said in a blog post that Muse Spark stacks up well against the leading frontier models. If Meta finds success with Muse, investors will feel a whole lot more confident about the return it will get on the company's aggressive AI infrastructure buildout plans. Meta guided to capital expenditures in the range of $115 billion to $135 billion this year, up from 2025's spending of nearly $70 billion. Constellation Brands reports earnings after the closing bell. There are no major earnings reports before the opening bell on Thursday. On the data side, the February PCE price index (the Federal Reserve's favorite inflation gauge), the government's third read on fourth quarter GDP, and weekly jobless claims are out. (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.