'Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 4/3/25
44:17 Share

Say you've always wanted to take a spontaneous trip to the Caribbean. Here's the thing. If you get smart with your money, you can do things like that. With Empower, you can start making the most out of your money so you can get out and live a little. Isn't that why we work so hard? To have some fun with our money. Like treating yourself to something special or spontaneously doing something extra for a loved one. So use Empower and get good at money so you can be a little bad. Join their 19 million customers today at Empower.com.

Not an Empower client paid or sponsored. Under Biden, Americans' cost of living skyrocketed. Food, housing, auto insurance. Lawsuit abuse is a big reason everything's more expensive today. Frivolous lawsuits cost working Americans over $4,000 a year in hidden taxes. President Trump understands the problem. That's why he supports loser pays legislation to stop lawsuit abuse and put thousands back in the pockets of hardworking Americans.

It's time to make America affordable again. It's time to support the President's plan. My mission is simple, to make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a bone working somewhere, and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now.

Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. My friends, now I'm just trying to save a little money here. My job is not just to entertain, but to teach you, explain things like what happened today. So call me at 1-800-743-CBC. We meet you, Kramer. What a real tough day for you and your portfolio and me and my chapel trust.

You know what I'm going to do? I take a different approach. I'm actually going to try to come out here constructive. I know what you're wondering. You're saying, how do you handle this new Trump tariff regime? Get out now? Sell everything? Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. No, no, no. You just have to buy some different stocks and maybe trim some of the new found riskier ones.

You buy stocks that have a couple of important characteristics encapsulated by this one sentence. You want stocks of domestic companies with pricing power and with no slackening in demand or credit risk that do well to slow down. And that's it. That's what works. That's what we buy.

That's what will get a higher price-to-earnings multiple in the market. And it's already started happening today. A horror show session where the Dow tumbled 1,679 points. S&P plunged 4.84%. And the Nasdaq plummeted 5.97%. It's painful to lose so many great stocks, classics, the techs, the enterprise software, the cyclos, consumer discretionaries. But you have to pare them back because they don't work in this new world.

Maybe when they get that much lower, but not yet. And maybe the president changes his mind. He seemed to give a little wiggle room this evening, but we don't know. OK, only with phenomenal opportunities, maybe. All right. Now, we saw exactly what we're seeing today in April of 2000, when we recognize that the dotcom year was over. So you had to sell Qualcomm and Cisco and Worldcom to say nothing of the newly minted dotcoms, most of which went under.

In return, what did you have to do? You had to go buy Bristol-Myers, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, textbook slowdown stocks. It was painful because it was too simple. And it happened over a week. Too ridiculous, but it worked as the dot-com implosion spared none of the old favorites. I was so bummed. I'd feasted off of Intel and Microsoft for years, but also off of tech junk like Infospace, Copper Mountain. Next thing you know, I'm discovering the wonders of the drug metalmen like McKesson.

What a nightmare. But it worked. After dumping tech and bulking up on the slowdown stocks, my hedge fund finished up a bad year, up 36%. We pulled it off because we recognized that the world had changed. Tech valuations had gotten too high while the fundamentals were falling apart. The good news is that's not happening to tech this time. Tech is good. Now we're just trying to find a price.

Now, because of these brutal tariffs, we're facing a similar moment, though. About a dozen groups worked in 2000. So I'm going to dust off that 2000 playbook that I have. OK, I know it's 25 years ago, but I still have it with stocks that investors will be willing to pay up for because their earnings won't disappoint even in a bad economy.

All right, the first, the drug middlemen. These three, Cardinal Health, McKesson, and Sankora, which is the artist formerly known as Immerse Horse Bergen. They like to call themselves solution companies, and Cardinal really is. You can't kill these drug middlemen, and believe me, many politicians would love to get rid of them. But nobody's ever laid a glove on them. They are the original rope-a-dopers.

Second, pharma. Never outthink this. You need to own at least one stock like Bristol-Myers or Abbott Labs or AbbVie. They are sedate and steady growers with AbbVie and Bristol offering real good dividend protection, which is a lot more valuable now that rates are coming down. I like Eli Lilly, too, but it might be too flashy and aggressive at this moment. Right now, we want slow and steady, not revolutionary that looks like tech.

Third, health insurers. These hated companies are perfect for this new market. Again, do not mess with what's going to work. Just go buy the best, and that is UnitedHealth. It has great systems and tremendous tech. I also like Cigna, but not as much as UNH. Got my permission to dislike these companies as much as you want, as long as you own them. Fourth, you want financial technology companies with no credit risk. Here I go with our landlord.

Yes, the Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of what people call the NYSE, the New York Stock Exchange, among a host of other stock exchanges. At this stage in the cycle, you never want to own a stock that needs people to do well because fewer people will do well in this country and the Fed won't help as it'll be too worried about inflation from the tariffs. You buy the fintech names that have zero credit risk because people will soon be defaulting on their debts. MasterCard and Visa, by the way, they work too. They don't have credit risk.

Fifth, you know what's really in the driver's seat here? Telco. The price wars are over, people. Verizon and AT&T have good deals. They both work. They've been working. AT&T is suddenly out executing everybody else in the space. It also has the best chart in the entire book.

Six, low-priced retailers that offer great value are so great here, and that means TJX and Costco. Right now, all sorts of retailers are ordering stuff as fast as they can to beat the tariffs, right? We heard that. They're ordering too much, though. They won't be able to sell it all, so what do they do? They dump their excess inventory, which is good inventory, to TJX, like they always do. Costco, subscription market success.

With a club motif? Fighting for low prices? Fighting for you? Costco is where you go when you want to hoard ahead of the government-mandated price inflation from the tariffs. You won't regret going. You won't regret buying. I'll see you there Saturday. Seventh.

Say you're a foreign government and you want to get on the president's good side. Historically, what you did was you placed big orders with Boeing or Lockheed Martin. These stocks are down today because it takes a bit of thinking before you realize that countries can probably get Trump to lower the tariffs they're paying by ordering big-ticket defense items from these heavy hitters, and it's a smart plan. Maybe that's what President Trump was talking about tonight on Air Force One when he said it was offering phenomenal deals. Maybe you'll see some of these countries buy a lot of our planes, a lot of our defense stuff.

Eight, what's a list of stocks that we're going to slow down, which is what we're getting without the consumer package of good stocks? Don't you have to have them? They can't be challenged. Your Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark, they all have pricing power. They worked in 2000 to work again. They were able to raise price. Nobody balked.

Ninth, you're never going to go wrong buying the utilities here, even if lower rates have already spurred a decent move. I go with Duke or American Electric Power. Don't look at where they went today. They're so up, you think it's over, but it's not. Client, if you're chicken. Energy, if you're aggressive. These stocks will all run to slow down, even though most of them had very nice moves today. They'll surprise you with how far they can go.

Tenth, you need some real estate investment trusts that don't have any credit risk. You know what? I'm going to go with Ventos, which is senior assisted living, and that's run by Ace Dev Kofaro. It's her time to shine. I really like the realty income two-letter O. Got some retailers, though. Eleventh, the insurance companies about to clean up here, as they did before this. They'll do well when interest rates go lower, which is what's happening. They're raising prices with no real resistance. You know I like Chubb, which is the most careful of underwriters, and I had Hartford on recently. I really like them. You have to be impressed.

Finally, I want to give you one more name that has a little cyclicality and helps with our new housing developments going up, among other reasons. And that's the old waste management, WM. Now, it's a little out there because it does depend on building something, which depends on interest rates going down. But I do think rates will come down, even though it wasn't part of the 2000 playbook.

Now, there will always be some anomalies. Today, the Justice Department granted Capital One the right to buy Discover Financial. This deal was in limbo. It's now happening. I really like it. But the merger approval was totally obscured by today's horrific tape. We're buying more for the CBC Investing Club because I just want to have a bigger position this one now that Discovery Deal is going through. It does have credit risk, but there's a transformation going on and it's a special situation. And then there's NVIDIA. OK, now listen to me for a second. Listen to me.

It's down another 7% today. It's horrendous. I've been saying that, right? Is that, have I hit that for you? Why Nvidia? Because the White House blessed its goods that are made in Taiwan with no tariff. Too important, yet few noticed. I know there's a widespread belief that we're seeing a slackening in demand for AI infrastructure. All I can tell you is that I monitor this thing like a hawk and there hasn't been a slackening. It's been in total acceleration mode, but nobody cares. And I know it's headed lower, but at least you know why I'm not selling.

All others, they'll get interesting as they go still lower because their fundamentals are good. But you can't buy them yet. Their stocks are too high because people won't pay up for those earnings. Trump gaffed companies and their investors, but good today. In retrospect, we were all fish in a barrel and now we're being filleted, beheaded and fried.

It's tough to even think about taking a chance with the old guard, just like 2000. Every time you stuck your neck out back then, the stocks went lower still. Bottom line, I know that there's nothing more exciting to invest in than tech, and tech will have its chance again in the future. But right now in the April 2000 playbook, well, in charge, that book is. And that severely limits what you can own here. You now know what worked back then, and I bet the same groups will work once again. How about Joel in Ohio, please? Joel.

Thanks for taking my call, Jim. I've owned Tonica Phillips for a long time, COP, and like everything else, was down over 10 points today. What do you think of it? I like it here. I would buy it. It's inexpensive, yields three and a quarter. It's one of the best-run oils. You never really see this thing down like this. When you see a stock down 10, it's probably going to go down three or four more points, and then I would buy some. That's exactly where you want to be, and it's a great call. Michael in New Jersey. Michael.

Hi, Mr. Kramer. How are you? Booyah. I am good. Booyah, Michael. Thank you for calling. What's up? I was on the Comex since 1991. I was a member there. Oh, wow. On FCX. On

On FCX, what's your opinion on that? Should I hold it? I've been buying it since, you know. Yeah, I want you to hold it. I mean, it is really a shame what happened to FCX. FCX has been going up because we need it for data centers and the Chinese were ordering some. Suddenly we decided the Chinese aren't going to order any and the stock has given up so much of its gain. I would actually, and you're from the COMEX, so you know more than I do, but I think that this is a very good level to buy some. But if you want to really hedge it, why not buy Barrick?

Because Barrick, symbol G-O-L-D, has gold and copper. That might be the best way to go. Hey, let's speak to Robert in New York. Robert. Jim, first of all, I want to just say this again, okay? If you recall weeks ago, you said this was going to happen. I know. Either I'm living in a fog, and every analyst on TV, we can't believe this. Oh, this is unbelievable. But if you listen to Jim Cramer...

You would have had this called weeks ago. You're very kind. Now, Jim. Well, but to be fair, I thought that they were going to give real tariffs, not the kind of nonsense they did. And when I talk with them every day and I was actually kind of saying, listen, this is the way if you want to explain it to people, because they knew that I was a fair trader and they've done that for very many years and they didn't do a good job. But how can I help you now?

but you did but shim you called it weeks ago when you said it to me on the air you were the one who called it that this was going to happen on thank you know this is not a shock okay and i think you're very kind thank you jim i really like that you guys very hot that

But it's true. Jim, I was with my friends the other day at a great steakhouse having a steak at Brian and Cooper's, and they were all worried about the stock market. And one of them suggested this next company, and I said, we must go to Jim and ask him because I don't do anything without talking to you, Jim. That's the bottom line. Thank you. This company that manufactures and markets a wide range of food and beverages, in 2024, the company –

struggle to regain a method with the stock declining twenty three percent throughout the year the products are really see if the healthy option but what makes this company right now state if the dividend yield of five point one eight percent the annual dividend yield the potential of a turnaround and the dividend yield state right now and what what's up is a robert it's last time

I mean, that's just a really poorly run company. I'm sorry, Robert. I mean, look, ConAgra is a better run company. It's got better yield. I can't buy a company that has such, that's just badly run. Anyway, look, right now we're back in the April 2000 playbook. Trust me, because I lived it and I did it. You know what worked then, now, and there's no reason it can't work again. Tech will work again because it's not breaking down, but not yet on Mad Money Tonight. In today's sell-off response to the latest Trump tariffs, I'm telling you where I stand on the news and its impact.

Then could stocks like Carvana and Clarmac shift into high gear despite the tough market? I'm looking at the road ahead for the used car cohort. Plus, as the price of gold sits near new highs, as I mentioned, we have Barrick Gold's CEO. Let's hear what he has to say. So stay with Kramer. Kramer.

Don't miss a second of Mad Money. Follow at Jim Kramer on X. Have a question? Tweet Kramer. Hashtag Mad Mentions. Send Jim an email to madmoneyatcnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC. Miss something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com.

Under Biden, Americans' cost of living skyrocketed. Food, housing, auto insurance. Lawsuit abuse is a big reason everything's more expensive today. Frivolous lawsuits cost working Americans over $4,000 a year in hidden taxes. President Trump understands the problem. That's why he supports loser pays legislation to stop lawsuit abuse and put thousands back in the pockets of hardworking Americans.

It's time to make America affordable again. It's time to support the President's plan.

Don't miss Good American Family. We have a little girl here for adoption. She has dwarfism. Starring Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass. Something is off. She's just a little girl. You think she's faking it? She has adult teeth? There are signs of puberty? Inspired by the shocking stories that tore a family apart. I don't know what's going on. How old are you? You should get a lawyer. You have no idea how those people hurt this girl.

The Hulu Original Series. Good American Family. New episodes Wednesdays, streaming on Hulu.

This episode is brought to you by Freshworks, AI-powered service software that makes work easier and processes less complex. Are you working harder than your software? Uncomplicate your business with fresh service for IT and fresh desk for customer support. Stop wrestling with clunky tools and start focusing on what matters, delivering exceptional employee and customer experiences that drive ROI in weeks versus years, all with no hidden fees. Start working smarter, not harder, with Freshworks uncomplicated service software.

Learn more at Freshworks.com. What's the deal with these heavy-handed tariffs? Look, I've never been a dogmatic free trader. I believe in fair trade, a pretty fierce belief, just so you know. And we can only get that by lowering the boom on our trading partners who rip us off as a matter of policy. That's why, unlike most people in this business, I've never had a problem with tariffs in theory. I think they can be a very effective tool when they're deployed strategically with a specific goal in mind.

Unfortunately, that is not what we got yesterday. I'm honestly astounded by how poorly this new trade regime is being implemented. Last night's so-called reciprocal tariffs being the best example? Come on. If we had reciprocal tariffs, that'd be one thing. As President Trump has said on many occasions, quote, they charge us, we charge them. Listen.

-Whatever they charge us, we're charging them, so it works out very well. We're gonna be doing reciprocal tariffs, so whatever they charge us, we're charging them. Nobody can complain about that. -Reciprocal tariff of 34%. I think -- In other words, they charge us, we charge them, we charge them less, so how can anybody be upset?

Boy, was I a believer in that. They charge us, we charge them. I thought that was so terrific. I thought it was an idea also that anyone could understand. And I wanted reciprocal tariffs for certain. If Europe charges a 10% duty on our cars from the U.S., we should charge them 10% on their cars too, not 2.5%. And that's what we've been charging. Initially, I actually thought that was what Trump was doing last night. He brought out a big, beautiful colored chart that announced the custom tariff rates that were slapping almost every country on Earth, including a couple of uninhabited islands near Antarctica.

but not including Russia, Cuba, North Korea or Belarus. The charts look simple. They had the country name on the left, then a column entitled Tariffs Charged to the USA with a subheader that said, including currency manipulation, trade barriers. So far, so good. And then a final column with a USA discounted reciprocal tariffs, which is the new tariff rate that Trump's slapping on their goods with a 10% minimum tariff across the board. Still, the chart made it look like we were cutting these countries a break.

charging them just half the tariff rate that they're supposedly charging us. But pretty quickly, people started to realize that something was very wrong with these numbers. And you saw it with the stock futures going down. The figures for tariffs charged to the USA were not, in fact, tariffs charged to the USA. Vietnam doesn't hit us with a 90 percent tariff on our exports, even when you include currency manipulation and non-tariff barriers to trade. So we were all wondering where the heck they got these numbers. And not long after the speech, we found out.

According to James Czerwicki, the author of The Wisdom of Crowds, a fabulous book and also a former financial writer for The New Yorker, whom I trust, follow on Twitter. You can go follow him. He's pretty terrific. The White House simply took out our trade deficit with each country and then divided it by that country's exports to America. Then they cut that number in half to determine the tariff rate we'd be slapping on the country in question.

Now, within a couple of hours, the administration more or less confirmed that was how they come up with the numbers with an unnamed official explaining that our trade deficits with these countries are, quote, the sum of all unfair trade practices, the sum of all cheating. Hmm. That's ill-advised. Now, this evening, President Trump says he's open to tariff cuts if he gets some phenomenal offers. But who the heck knows what those are? I don't even know. Man, I studied this all my life. I don't even know what he's talking about.

There's a lot of room for improvement here. I hope that Trump knows that. For a good example, let's make up a country. Craymarica, okay? Craymarica. If the U.S. imports $100 billion, okay, $100 billion of goods from Craymarica, and Craymarica takes in $10 billion in goods from the U.S., then the U.S. would have a $90 billion trade deficit with Craymarica.

That means Craymerica would have been on President Trump's list with a 90% tariff rate in the middle column. And we'd be hit with a 40% tariff in response. But none of this has anything to do with tariffs. Neither tariffs nor non-tariff barriers factor into this calculus at all. Whether Craymerica had a 0% tariff on U.S. goods or a 100% tariff on U.S. goods, it wouldn't have mattered because Trump's only looking at the size of the trade deficit relative to total imports, not the tariffs. So why does this matter? Because if Trump's tariffs aren't based on what other countries are actually doing to us...

then there's nothing reciprocal about them. We should never use that word. He's just punishing any country that we have a trade deficit with. Let's consider a real example this time. Let's go to the southern African nation of Lesotho, which had the misfortune of being one of the two most highly tariffed nations on Trump's list. They're being hit with a 50% duty on their exports to America. That happened because Lesotho only imported $2.8 million worth of U.S. goods last year, whereas we imported roughly $240 million worth of stuff from them.

Now, the thing is, Lesotho is a really tiny country. Virtually everything we buy from them is either apparel or diamonds. But because it's a very poor country, they can't afford to buy much from us. So what happens now? To start, we're going to have to pay a lot more for any apparel or diamonds from Lesotho. Maybe we can replace the apparel with diamonds.

I mean, that's a lot harder. And the only way for the sooner to get out of this jam is by importing more stuff from America, which it can't do because it doesn't have any money. So the president has likely just made things more expensive for Americans and not really changed the behavior of our trading partners. That leads me to my next point. Wasn't the goal of these tariffs to change behavior? Apparently not.

Earlier this week, in the run-up to yesterday's announcements, Vietnam and Israel either significantly reduced their tariffs on American goods or totally removed them altogether. That was really encouraging. Trump hadn't even announced anything yet, and these countries were already playing ball. Win-win. That's the art of the deal, baby!

But then this list of tariffs came out yesterday, and guess what? Vietnam's getting hit with a whopping 46% tariff, which is why Nike, Lululemon, Onholding, and Columbia Sportswear stock got crushed today, as they do a ton of manufacturing over there. Israel got hit with a 17% tariff. So these countries did what we wanted, and they still got punished anyway? I mean, how does that make any sense?

Even the countries that we have a trade surplus with, like the United Kingdom, they're being hit by Trump's baseline 10% tariff. Why? Just because?

Listen, I have favored tariffs, especially reciprocal tariffs. But there's nothing reciprocal about what Trump announced yesterday. The new tariffs announced yesterday are instead a poorly thought out way to try to correct the trade imbalances that exist between the U.S. and most other countries. Unfortunately, that's just not going to happen because we're the richest country in the world. So we have more money to spend on goods than anybody else. If Trump wants to run a trade surplus with the entire world, the only way to do that is by making America much poorer. Nobody, at least I look, wants that.

I just wish the administration had been straight with us about what they're trying to accomplish here because these tariffs have nothing to do with changing bad behavior from our trading partners. Not at all. Unfortunately, this whole tariff rollout has been chaotic and disjointed from the get-go. Frankly, this starts with President Trump, who still to this day simply won't explain how these tariffs actually work. He says that they're paid by the countries we trade with, and that's not true. Here's an example. I...

I'll pay for them on this. My wife owns this company, Fosforo Mezcal, right? We import from Mexico. We sell it here. I wish we didn't have to pay, but they don't grow Toblerone agave juice here, only in Mexico. So we pay the tariff. That's the breaks. Now we're going to pay a higher tariff.

I don't know. Sounds like we pay it, not them. Here's the bottom line. I wish I could get behind this new tariff regime because I've never been a free trader ever. But the White House doesn't seem to understand what it's trying to do. And the not really reciprocal tariffs we got yesterday could do tremendous damage to the U.S. economy.

Of course, including the stock market, without changing the bad behavior of our trading partners. To me, this has become a loose loose. It's very tough to accept because I wanted tariffs to change things, not to wreck things. And money's back into the break.

The U.S. and China are competing for global leadership. The country who wins will define the world we live in. U.S. international assistance is vital to our national security. It helps prevent terrorism and avoid costly wars. It fights diseases and saves lives. It helps keep America as the number one economy in the world.

U.S. international assistance protects our interests at home and abroad. If America doesn't lead, China will.

Don't miss Good American Family. We have a little girl here for adoption. She has dwarfism. Starring Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass. Something is off. She's just a little girl. You think she's faking it? She has adult teeth? There are signs of puberty? Inspired by the shocking stories that tore a family apart. I don't know what's going on. How old are you? You should get a lawyer. You have no idea how those people hurt this girl.

The Hulu original series, Good American Family. New episodes Wednesdays, streaming on Hulu. Now that we're coping with the aftermath of President Trump's extreme tariff announcements, we've got to figure out how to make some money. It's suddenly become a very, very difficult market. These tariffs are brutal for a whole host of industries, but there are some businesses that are basically immune.

Take the used car sales. As of today, there's now a 25% tariff on imported automobiles. And given that half of the cars we sold last year were imports, suddenly half of new cars in the United States are likely to cost a lot more. Maybe not the whole 25%, but I'm guessing most of it. Plus, there are also tariffs on imported auto parts, which will make domestic cars more expensive, too.

Long story short, if there's a new car, it's going to cost you a lot more than you thought. Worse, given all the other tariffs announced yesterday, the consumer's budget is already going to be stretched thin, even without buying big-ticket items. And that's why I bet people will look to save money however they can. Which brings me to the used car salesman, especially Carvana and CarMax. If new cars are too expensive, why not just go buy used cars? It really is that simple.

Carvana is interesting because it's been taking share like crazy for years. They make it easy to buy your car online. You know we like this. We've profiled these guys so many times. You can either deliver it to you, they'll do that right to your house, or let you pick up from one of their car vending machines. Basically a gigantic automated garage. It looks like a soda machine. If you don't like it, they've got a seven-day money-back guarantee. I've bought and returned a car once. I didn't like how it looked. They took it back.

Carvanhas also made some very smart acquisitions along the way, like a vehicle auction business that gave them access to a lot more inventory, as well as the infrastructure to repair and refresh old cars on their own, cheap and well. This stock warred during the pandemic, but like every other fast-growing speculative operation, Carvanhas collapsed as the world went back to normal. During the worst times in late 2022 and 2023, there was open speculation that the company may not even make it.

But Carvana, with a very smart management, defied all of its critics and pulled through by raising capital. Now, I'm not sure exactly where the fierce critics gave up, but at some point over the past couple of years, they threw in the towels. The stock rallied from $3 in September 2022 to a high of $292 and changed in this February. I am glad we got on board in the low teens.

Since setting that high in February, Carvana's come down hard with the rest of the market. Okay, but after quickly catching up on the story, you know what? I don't think that much has changed here fundamentally.

Their fourth quarter earnings report looks solid, with a top and bottom line beat on top of higher than expected gross profit per unit, which is one of the key metrics for the used car business. Theirs is terrific. Carbon is full year outlook, while a bit vague. But who can blame them with all this craziness? We're still pretty optimistic. They're talking about significant growth in retail units sold for 2025. And in terms of the current quarter, management expects, quote, a sequential increase in both retail units sold and adjusted EBITDA, assuming the environment remains stable, end quote.

Now, that last qualifier might give Carvon a little wiggle room to disown this quarterly guidance. But, you know, the environment's been stable. But the point remains that management was very optimistic when it last reported just six weeks ago.

When I look at these tariffs, though, I think the environment has changed in Carvana's favor. Suddenly used cars represent ridiculous value versus heavily tariffed new cars. So this one should be a winner until they start running out of merchandise, which I don't know, take a long time. They're pretty well prepared. Still, Carvana remains a high multiple stock selling for about 50 times this year's earnings estimates. And it remains a pretty volatile trader, as we saw today.

So if you're looking for a safer way to play this used car thesis, all right, you got my blessing to buy CarMax, which is lower risk but also lower reward. While Carvana claims to be the nation's fastest growing used car dealer, CarMax remains the largest dealer of used cars. Last year, they sold 770,000 of these things, along with another 550,000 used vehicles sold at its auctions. While the company's certainly not a digital first operation like Carvana, CarMax shouldn't get credit for seriously improving their omnichannel infrastructure over the past few years. I don't

argue that they have a very competitive online model at this point. They have showed it to me. It is really, really smart. Of course, CarMax hasn't been having particularly great results as of late, with persistently high interest rates biting into their business, as you would expect.

Through the first nine months of the company's fiscal 2025, the 12-month period that ended in February, CarMax sales and earnings per share were both down about 3%. Unit sales held up okay, but average selling prices have taken a hit. FYI, CarMax reports again next week from today. And I don't have a good read on how that's going to be. So you might want to wait to see what they have to say before you pull the trigger.

I'm not trying to make a call about the quarter. That's really important that you know that. I'm telling you the entire used car industry wins as long as the White House maintains these tariffs on new cars. Now,

Now, that's a good transition to another disclaimer that we want to get, which is that there's going to be a temporary boost to new car sales here as customers rush to buy cars that got here before the tariff started being imposed today. In fact, that's already started. You know, we're hearing that March cars sales ended up pretty good. Philip Boe said that to me this morning on Squawk on the Street. We both expected April will be good. May could be good. Most dealerships have about 60 to 90 days of inventory. So we could see this dynamic last for another two or three months. But

But don't be fooled. Any boom in car sales over these next couple of months is essentially a pulling forward of demand from this summer. And it will evaporate once people need to start paying tariff-adjusted prices. There will be some real sticker shock. So why bring up the used cars today?

Because these stocks are getting crushed today. And I think it will be turning up the amazing buying opportunity in a market that doesn't have a lot of them. Carvana plunged almost 20% today. CarMax was down nearly 8%. I think these prices are wrong. I think we could see more weakness first, though, as we hear about a short-term pop in new auto sales. But that only makes me like Carvana and CarMax even more. These are stocks that get cheaper as they get lower, blowing to companies that should be rare beneficiaries from Trump's new tariff regime.

Of course, if this period of tariff-related turmoil worsened a full-blown recession, all bets are off. Sure, used cars will be in much better shape than new cars, but nobody wants to buy any kind of car when the economy falls off a cliff, and you know that. Not even CarMax or Carvanica withstand an outright recession. So if you want to own these, you're betting that the tariff turmoil will be bad enough to wreck new car sales, but not so bad that it causes a truly economic slowdown, and nobody buys cars. Bottom line here.

Now that we know the details of President Trump's draconian new tariff regime, not reciprocal draconian, we have to try to pick from a much narrower group of winners because these import duties are devastating for a whole host of former winners. It's slim pickers out there, people, as you can probably tell from today's market-wide beatdown.

But winners will eventually emerge from the new tariff regime. And I think the auto tariffs represent a huge gift for used car dealers like Carvana and CarMax. I do like them both. Let's go to Gallimard in California. Gallimard. Hi, Jim. Hey, man. What's up? I appreciate everything you're doing. Just recently. Thank you. We're trying so hard. It's so hard. Thank you. Thank you very much.

All right, so I'm a value investor with a five-year budget plan in mind. How should someone like me approach Stellantis as a long-term investment?

I think it's very hard. I think that they've changed. The rules have changed so much that for all I know, if things don't pick up, they need capital because it sells at four times earnings. I'm going to ask you not to do that one. I'm going to ask you to be if you're going to go there. I think I think that in the autos, I like GM more, but I don't really care for the autos. It's a bad house in a bad neighborhood. I don't want you in there. I really don't. Let's go to Stafford in California. Hey, Stafford.

Hey, Jim, how are you? I'm good. How are you doing, buddy? I'm OK. Thanks. I want to get your thoughts on Goodyear Tire. Value trap, my friend. Value trap. So many people have tried to make this thing work in my career so many times. And every time that's happened, it just doesn't pay off. I do not want Stanford in there. Let's talk to another longtime caller. Why don't we go to Trey in Texas. Trey.

Jim, wish me luck. I'm interviewing with Harvard Business School tomorrow. Are you really? What, are you going to be the dean? Well, they're actually seeking an experienced janitorial professional. You know, I consider myself an expert in the custodial arts, and I'm ready to seriously enhance their restroom and other common area facilities. What can I say? You're a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. I appreciate that. I'm calling today about another titan of housekeeping industry. What do you think of ABM here?

I like that stock. Do you know, Trey, that no one in the 20 years of this show has ever asked me about a stock that I just like? Plain and simple. You've got a good one. It's a janitorial, as you alluded to, lighting, parking, security. This is the kind of company that Trump cannot hurt. He can wake up and say, how do I destroy ABM? And he can. It's Trump proof. All right.

Finding winners in this tape has gotten tough, but winners will start to emerge. And I'm betting used car dealers like Carvana and CarMax are among them. Much more mad money, including my check-in with Canada-based metal producer Barrick Gold. I love gold here. I really do. And then how are the new tariff announcements affecting the tech titans? You don't want to miss my take because, man, am I ever on this like white on rice. And all your calls rapid-fire tonight's edition of the Lightning Round. So stay with Kramer.

During this multi-month market-wide sell-off, the only people who are smiling are the ones who own gold.

Now, you know I've long chipped in keeping some money in the precious metals, kind of insurance against economic chaos, and now that's paying off. Gold prices briefly hitting an all-time high last night in the wake of Trump's liberation day tariff announcements. But while the price of gold has soared, some of the gold miners still have a lot of room to play catch-up. Take Barrick Gold, the Canadian producer of gold and copper with mines all over the world. These guys reported a terrific quarter mid-February, but the stock's only up a couple bucks from these levels, even though the price of gold has soared. So could this be a terrific buyout?

buying opportunity in the kind of stock that works when the world's going insane? Well, let's check in with Dr. Mark Bristow. He's the president and CEO of Barrick Gold to find out. Dr. Bristow, welcome back to Mad Money. Jim, nice to see you again. Yeah, same. Now, why don't you tell me, in your words, why it is such a terrific place, time for gold? Because this is a rather remarkable move after many years where you and I thought this would happen.

Absolutely. This is what we're seeing. And it's not just about tariffs, Jim. This is about excesses across the world. You know, high debt in the developing economies, reckless management of taxpayers' money and

And and and a decline in the value of the paper money that we know. And that's what gold has always been. You and I have always spoken about the fact you can't print gold. No. And that's why we've been since the day I met you. You know, I feel I feel just like you do now. One of the things that's been vindicated also is that ever since the most recent kind of nuttiness, Bitcoin has stopped going up. It had a big move.

Perhaps people are realizing that that... They did have a moment. Right, but I mean, that's... They definitely had a moment. Right, it had its moment. Now, do you think that the moment has come and gone or does it even matter?

Well, it doesn't matter, as you see. Do you recall those early days back in 1999 where people said that gold was finished, it was done, it'll never really be a value asset? And you look back to 1972, all the way gold has outperformed all the other asset classes. Right. Now, Mark, one of the things that I think people don't understand, and you're going to help us,

People think there's just an unlimited amount of gold. How much gold do we replace each year in the world versus what we had? We haven't replaced what we've mined now since the turn of the century. What's happened is that the rising gold price has allowed gold miners to continue to deliver more gold. But essentially, we're shrinking our industry's asset base. And by the way, Jim, the same goes for copper miners.

And so because why you've seen all the big drive, we want dividends, we want payouts, we want more money from our shareholders, particularly the fund managers.

And you know me, I'm always about how to make sure that we keep investing in the future. And so Barrick today, you know, we recognize Barrick had some great assets, poorly run maybe, but great assets. And we've worked hard to develop that. And today we have

Plus 15 years, we've got a number of mines, four out of our six-tier mines that are over 30. And that's the runway that you need to be able to really deliver value over the long term. Okay. Now, I absolutely love what you're doing in the United States and Nevada.

and how you're developing. It's perfect. You know, I always like to question you on the idea of some of these far-flung areas. Mali? Have they released your workers yet? Because that would be a place where you have done so much business with them, it is outrageous that they have taken your workers.

Absolutely outrageous. They still haven't released our workers and we've still got the mine closed. But we are talking, Jim, because at the end of the day, they are now saying they need us. We have always said that we'll work with them to create value for all our stakeholders, including our host country. As you know, that's what we do.

But I've got no doubt at the end of the day we'll fix it and we'll be able to deliver more value out of that asset. That asset has delivered enormous value, number one, for the Mali people and the government. And, of course, all our stakeholders, including Barrick and before that, Grand Gold Resources.

So you're willing to continue to work there and be in other areas where you've also had some problems. We know that you have said that these are things that you can cure and you have. But what point do you say, you know what, it's not worth my time when I have these unbelievable assets in the United States? Every every if you want to be, I've always said, if you want to be world class, you need to be global.

And mining is a risky business, as you know, and you point to, no matter where you operate. And we've had our challenges in the US. It depends on every four years, we've got to deal with somebody different.

And and but the thing that drives me and it always has is focus on high quality assets and you can manage the risk. And we certainly have done that and continue to do that. All right. Well, let me ask you a point blank something, because I'm looking at what happened today. Is President Trump the best thing that could ever happen to gold?

No, I think he's doing his job, I believe. And the world needs a reset. And whether you use tariffs and trade imbalances and anything else, there's lots that we can debate around that.

I think what's helped gold is, as we just referenced, is the excesses of the past, particularly the developed economies. And all around, the world is in a mess. You know, if you go back to 1999, we didn't have any conflict. You know, gold was low. People used to think that the dollar was the all-time, you know, asset.

It's different today and everyone's in trouble. If you look at the debt

across the developed world. It's unsustainable. And that's why people are buying gold, because politicians can't print it. Well, you know, I think that it's more than just a storehold of value. And I've always valued exactly what you have taught me, sir. You have taught me a great deal. I want to thank Dr. Mark Bristow, who's president and CEO of Barrick Gold, G-O-L-D. And it is great to see you again. Thank you. It's Jim. Neb Money's back in for the break.

Coming up, Kramer takes your calls. And the sky's the limit. It's a fast-fire lightning round. Next. It is time. It's time for the lightning round. And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready? It's time for the lightning round. I want to start with Joe in New Jersey. Joe.

Hello, Mr. Kramer. Thank you for taking my call. Always great to speak to you, Joe. How can I help? With the tariffs going into effect, is Louisiana Pacific Corp a buy off of the ties? It would have been a buy if we banned Canadian lumber, and we didn't. So the answer is no, it is not. Thank you, Joe. Let's go to Danny in Florida. Danny.

Hello, Jim. What's your current take on Ubiquity? They have strong margins. They do, but it's expensive stock. And what we're going to do is we're not going to pay up for those stocks going forward. That's the problem. Let's go to Tim in Iowa. Tim.

Hi, Jim. I've been watching a stock lowest point in about four years. Is Teradyne a buy or beware? No, not yet. No, Teradyne, not yet, because we are not going to buy semiconductor test equipment in this experience right now when the semiconductors are lagging so badly we can't go there. I need you to go to Sam in Pennsylvania. Sam. Jim, listen, today was a sea of red, but one area that offered a surprising upside was sea

CNE Group. Stock is up 2% today. Totally terrific stock under the pro-in ice. That's exactly where you have to be. That's fintech without credit risk. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the Lightning Round. The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, if we build it, will they come? Kramer is breaking down whether new tariffs can really bring jobs back to the U.S. Next. Next.

This is one of those crazy moments, like in the James Bond classic Goldfinger, where James Bond's on a table with a laser about to cut him in two. And he asked the fabulous villain Goldfinger, do you expect me to talk? And Goldfinger responds, no, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die. The Trump administration put these huge tariffs on last night, not because they want our trading partners to talk, but because they want our trading partners to die, metaphorically speaking. Tonight, I'm here for a little bit of wiggle room, but I

believe it when I'll see it. As the White House sees it, though, these countries have ripped us off for ages. Remember when we were supposed to go to Mexico instead of building cars in Japan, Korea, or Europe? Remember when you were supposed to wean yourself off of China by going to Vietnam for apparel? Turns out that was wrong. You weren't safe doing that. The government's new plan is even more simple. Build it here or else. Trump doesn't care if your company's done anything great to help our country. He welcomes everyone with open arms. But if you want access to our markets, you're building here, not talking here.

I know that to many of you, this sounds a little atavistic. Maybe you think we can't bring those jobs back. And even if we did, they'd be low-end jobs anyway. But you know what? They aren't. These are good manufacturing jobs of pensions and health care that were sacrificed by politicians of both parties in exchange for cheaper goods made overseas.

It's true that if these jobs were to flow back here, I know they'd chiefly be construction jobs, as the factories, when finished, might have more robots than people. The tariffs tend to make it what gamblers would call a push, where it might cost you more to sell things from the host country than it does to simply pay up to do your manufacturing here. But what it does to the stock market is a whole different story. Other than small, medium-sized businesses that operate domestically and the recession-recession plays I mentioned at the top of the show, everyone else is struggling to figure out what to do.

Some will think that maybe conversations can be started with the administration to see if they can get something like what NVIDIA got last night, an exception to the Taiwan tariff for national security reasons. Others are trying to figure out how to cut costs and bargain with their customers over who eats the cost of the tariffs. Still others, those without pricing power, are going to eat the tariff themselves. And then there are the hapless companies that will try to pass the tariffs on the consumer, losing business in the process, and their stocks are going low.

If that's the case, what happens to the stocks? All stocks. Simple. We pay less for the earnings of those that get hurt by the tariffs and much more for those who don't. We're sorting them out right now on the fly. Take Apple. I think the world of this company, but we can afford their phones only because they're made in China, not America. So time to pay less for the stock. And that's what happened today. Then again, there's Amazon, which got clubbed.

But that's because people don't want to pay as much as they did before, now that the prospect of recession is on the table. Honestly, I think there's a good chance a recession happens because these tariffs will keep prices high, making it very hard for the Federal Reserve to bail us out with rate cuts because we're worried about inflation. And because of that, we can't pay as much for companies that might have gotten a break if the Fed were able to cut. We can't pay as much for companies related to mortgages and cars.

So today, right in front of us, we're witnessing what's known as multiple compression. The market's process of paying less, maybe much less, for the earnings of companies that are directly or indirectly impacted by the tariffs. As much as these companies were caught off guard, and there were investors who were caught off, too. And now we're scrambling. But unfortunately, this is not about our portfolios, is it? The president's own mission, reverse our trade deficits. And whether you like it or not, he's committed.

That mission means the stock market will have to trade lower. Stocks are a last word less today than they were yesterday, unless the whole business is domestic, lock, stock, and barrel. In the movie, Bond intrigues Goldfinger enough that he gets released to go find out something Goldfinger wants. In this non-movie, Trump doesn't have any curiosity. Instead, Bond gets split in half, and you can't put them back together again. I like to say there's always a bull market somewhere, and I promise to try to find it just for you right here on MadMoney. I'm Jim Cramer, and I'll see you tomorrow.

All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Cramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBCUniversal, or their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by Cramer on television, radio, internet, or another medium.

You should not treat any opinion expressed by Jim Cramer as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Cramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Mad Money Disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com forward slash madmoneydisclaimer.

Under Biden, Americans' cost of living skyrocketed. Food, housing, auto insurance. Lawsuit abuse is a big reason everything's more expensive today. Frivolous lawsuits cost working Americans over $4,000 a year in hidden taxes. President Trump understands the problem. That's why he supports loser pays legislation to stop lawsuit abuse and put thousands back in the pockets of hardworking Americans. It's a big reason why we're all here.

It's time to make America affordable again. It's time to support the President's plan.