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Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. Other people make friends. I'm just trying to make you a little money. My job is not just to entertain, but to educate and do some teaching. Call me, 1-800-743-CNBC. Tweet me at Jim Kramer. When you get a strong employment report like we did this morning, it does a lot of things that you need to know about. First, it takes a New York term recession kind of off the table.
Very difficult to have a recession with a 4.2% unemployment rate. That's just too much to bear for workers. Second, it tends to discourage the Fed from cutting rates, which matters because they meet next week. Third, it can cause an explosive rally as long as wage growth isn't too high. And that's why the Dow rewarded 564 points today. It has to be shot up 1.47%. NASDAQ pulled forward 1.51%.
House of pleasure. We get so many different numbers out from the government, but none are more important than the labor report. That is the real predictive power when it comes to the stock market. So keep in mind that today's rally may not be one off as we go through our game plan for next week. But first, let me just say we're over the hump.
We've now had companies that reported fabulous numbers like Microsoft and Meta, good numbers like Amazon that I think will get terrific as the year goes on, which is why I say you buy Amazon, but also some strong numbers that could become problematic unless the tariffs get brought down soon.
And that's what we heard from Apple. Now, we're not waiting until Monday to start the plan here. The market was up in the morning and but then accelerated higher when we heard that the Chinese were debating a peace offering involving a crackdown on fentanyl. If that comes true, I expect this rally will have legs. Plus tomorrow, beginning at 830 a.m. on CNBC.
We have full coverage of something I know you'll want to watch, the always upbeat Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. Becky Quick and Mike Santoli will bring you wall-to-wall coverage of Warren Buffett and his beloved supporters and shareholders. I don't know if you caught any of the stuff that they were doing today, but both Michael and Becky are really on their game on this one. It's going to be exciting.
Oh, by the way, don't change the channel when it's over. Why? Because we're re-airing our Mad Money 20 doc after the Berkshire Hathaway coverage, 2.30 Eastern. Now, Monday's key earnings start after the bell. We're going to see what Ford Motor reports in the morning.
Now, I have to tell you, I'm a little concerned here. Ford has worked hard to try to mitigate the tariffs, even as they're the most American of American automakers when it comes to content. Maybe they can break their streak of so-so quarters. I really hope so. I think Jim Farley deserves a break himself.
The ultimate meme stock for the moment is this company called Palantir, which reports it's a cybersecurity company. Now, this one is moved up by persistent retail buying that starts around 4 a.m. every day when they literally walk it up a couple of points before the bell and then continue to keep it at that level until the close. It's possible the story is not as big as the hype.
Or the hope. But we know that Palantir's got a constituency of retail buyers that just won't quit. I don't know if they'll quit when they see the number. We also get numbers from Vertex Pharma, including the first look at how its non-opioid painkiller is doing. That's the one that's not addictive. The numbers could be explosive here because the drug is revolutionary. Now, Clorox reports, too. This is the kind of recession-proof stock that was going up when the rest of the market was getting hammered. But now that the market's bouncing back, they've all folded with the exception of Coca-Cola and Mondelia.
Use Clark's as a gauge to see if this new bull market phase remains on. Tuesday, all right. We find out if the travel bull market is still alive when we hear from Marriott. Now, this incredibly resilient stock typically goes down after reports, and then it rockets higher. Same session. I think we'll think twice about the end of the travel rally when Marriott reignites the chatter. It's going to be a good number. Extraordinary.
To close, we want to hear great things about demand from advanced micro devices, AMD. Perhaps we get the news that AMD is selling that manufacturing part of the ZT systems. That's a company they acquired for $4.9 billion in cash and stock in March. That could give this stock a lot of juice.
Arista Networks is a crucial part of the data center. It reports, and last time the doubters surfaced immediately, claiming that these guys were losing share. I think Arista can put those doubts to rest when it's, you know, honestly, they can. And that means it's a buy ahead of the quarter. Never count out CEO Jay Shree Yalal. Big mistake. Think about buying Arista. We went to see Wynn Resorts when we were out in Vegas recently, and I know the stock's been under some pressure. I'd love to hear that the negativity is all hot air.
Don't forget that Jensen Wong, the CEO of NVIDIA, will be joining ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott at the latter's Knowledge Conference. Jensen's a good partner at Bill's, and we might get news about how the government and NVIDIA are working together to solve some of these export issues. The meeting could certainly help the stock of ServiceNow, which has been a rocket ship since reporting a fantastic quarter. Lots of fireworks on Wednesday. We start with Disney. So many doubters. I think too many doubters.
And not enough supporters. We own this country and play for the Chappell's West. We have not made money in it. It has not been good to us. I hope it gets good. Hope shouldn't be part of the equation, but I'm just telling you as I see it. Next, did Novo Nordisk deliver a knockout punch to Eli Lilly when it signed a deal to be the preferred
third GLP-1 supplier to CVS on Lilly's earnings day, no less. What a comeuppance. I think there's plenty of gas in the Lilly tag, especially once it's got this pill formulation that's going to be available next year. I think it's going to matter tremendously.
We've come to expect that Uber trades down after reports, and you've got to buy the ride share, King, because it's got so much going for it worldwide. I bet that plays out again, just like Marriott. Stock reports, stock gets kit, got to buy it. In the afternoon, we're going to hear from Fed Chief Jay Powell and get the verdict from the Open Market Committee about what they're doing with interest rates now that the tariffs are here. Tough spot for Jay Powell because we've had plenty of soft numbers.
But today's all-powerful employment report wasn't one of them. Will Powell mention that the president's been frosty of late? No, but the press will. The man with the mirror. He's too smart to do anything else. After the close, we had a couple of companies that have caught the fancy of younger viewers, DoorDash and Dutch Bros. I expect both to have very strong quarters. They can send their stocks higher. We'll have the inevitable comparisons between Dutch Bros and Starbucks. Oh, all I can say is that the bros have the edge right now, but I like them both. And I don't know, did you see Starbucks starting to move up here?
What else can arm holdings amount of comeback without strong cell phone sales. I think the year when we realized this is it, this is the year we realized that arms and everything, it deserves a higher price during this bowl. We also get results from one of the most heavily shorted stocks in the universe, Carvana. And I think there'll be able to talk about how tariffs will drive shoppers to the digital use car platform as new terrified cars. I made that word. I terrified it's really tariffed, uh, could become too expensive. Uh,
It could be exposed to a report for Carvana. Thursday, we get Shopify's numbers. Here's another stock that tends to sell off on good news and then rallies when people will parse it out and realize that, wow, this company is more than just a poor man's Amazon. At the close, we get a report from still another heavily shorted stock. That's Affirm. That's a buy now, pay later story that has delivered some incredible results to date. I suspect the streak will continue.
Two winners after the close. McKesson, the ultimate drug middleman with a target on its back that's never, never been hit. And Cloudflare. Yes, the cybersecurity firm bought to you by Matthew Prince, who gave you a superb number last time, remember? I bet he can do it again. Will DraftKings make a comeback here? We like this company very much, but the stock does seem stalled, doesn't it? Maybe it needs more states to legalize sports betting. Nothing important Friday, but after still one more week of grueling earnings, let me just tell you,
I think we deserve a day off. Here's the bottom line. We know that we're living through a time of great tumble. We could easily be thrown off if President Trump responds harshly to this Chinese olive branch this very weekend. If that happens, there could be some unwinding to do. Right now, though, it looks like the momentum can keep up as long as we don't get a total breakdown in the nation trade talks between the world's two biggest nations. Let's start with Peter in Maryland. Peter.
Thank you for taking my call, and congratulations on your 20 years on MedMoney. Thank you, Peter. I really appreciate that.
As you know, Elliott Management has taken a large position on Phillips 66 and is nominated as separate slave directors. Their principal plan seems to be to sell off assets to focus the company on its primary business. I'm concerned that selling assets will weaken the company's future prospects. So I have a two-part question.
Do you have an opinion on whether to vote for the company's slate or for Elliott Management? And is Phillips 66 a good investment? All right, let's just view it as an investment situation. It's got a 4.4 percent yield. We're running short of refiners. I think that the stock has been overly punished. It's been going down as if it's an oil stock. It is not an oil stock. It's a refiner. And
I would be a buyer of PSX. And I've been waiting to say that for some time, but it's down enough that I think it's time. Paul in Oregon. Paul.
Hey, Jimmy, I want to thank you for all the years I've followed you on TV from way back when you were hanging around with Larry Kudlow. I'm currently in Investors Club, and I love to watch you every day. I'm really hurting right now. I'm in a world of pain and a house of serious pain. In regard to a software stock, one of the networks that we touted to be last year, the Stock of the Year for 2025.
Now, all the research I did on it said it's a buy, buy, buy. I bought it back when it was about $190. I just hit it wrong. It currently has a P-E ratio of 35 to 1, but it's down to 20% when I bought it. It should be tariff-resistant. It's slowly coming back. It's had a lot, a lot of hemorrhage.
I need some analgesia from it, Jim. I'm in a lot of pain. What's happening with Oracle and why are we stuck in the mud? Well, last quarter was not good. Last quarter was not good, okay? But I think the stock started to show you something today. I think it showed you that if you get a better tape and a better tech tape, you're going to make some money in Oracle. I urge you to hold on. Would I be a buyer?
Yes. Right now, it looks like this period of rallying could keep up next week. That is, unless there's a breakdown of these rumor trade talks. Yeah, tonight, MedTech player Becky Dickinson is trading at its lowest level in years. I'm seeing this decline as a buying opportunity or maybe a sign that it's too clear. Then could Shake Shack grill up some more gains despite some misses on its quarter? I'm looking at the reasons for the rally in this
But in a million. And later, don't miss my exclusive with utilities player Exelon. Hear how the company's navigating tariff turbulence. And stay with Exelon.
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Yesterday morning, we got a very disappointing quarter from Becton Dickinson. The medical technology put its stock down 18 percent to its lowest level in eight years. Everybody's giving up on this one. But I think actually you might be getting a real buying opportunity in a company that has the potential to turn itself around. Listen to me.
For decades back, it was a fantastic growth stock. I mean, it was just incredible. It's a name I love to recommend here. Why? So reliable. Over the past five years, though, the stock had leveled off, mostly trading sideways with the occasional strong rally, but just as many sharp pullbacks.
We actually spoke to CEO Tom Poland about 15 months ago. He told a pretty darn good story. In fact, Beckham Dickinson delivered a series of strong, beaten, raised quarters last year. The stock never got any traction. The stock finally started to rally this January and February, especially after we learned that the smart activist investors at Starboard Value had taken a big position. And by the way, they were urging Beckham Dickinson to sell its life sciences division. Two days later, Beckham Dickinson basically said, OK, let's do it.
Announcing the spin off of its life science division to unlock some value, I think it's a really smart move because the core medical technology business will be worth a lot more once it separates from the slow and steady segment.
Unfortunately, alongside that announcement, management also issued what I guess you can call mixed guidance. Though the reported quarter had gone pretty well, they cut their full year revenue forecast pretty substantially and the stock tumbled 7% in response. After that, back and forth didn't hold up okay throughout the rest of February and March, even as the broader market started breaking down. But when the Liberation Day tariffs were announced, the stock tumbled 11%.
8% over the next two days. Even though the rest of the markets bounced back substantially since then, Becht and Dickinson, it never recovered. That leads me to yesterday's earnings report. Even though I think the stock's now worth buying on weakness, let me be crystal clear. That quarter was distinctly sub-opt. Becht and Dickinson gave you a meaningful revenue miss paired with a slight earnings beat. But more important, they cut their full year forecast.
First, management cut their organic revenue growth outlook by a percentage point from the previous 4% to 4.5% range down to the 3% to 3.5% range. Analysts were looking for 3.6%. Then Beckinsale said the tariffs will shave $0.25 off their four-year earnings, which is not huge but also not good.
More important, the market simply hated this update. No less than six analysts have downgraded the stock over the past two days. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Three intraday yesterday and three more overnight. It was just so hideous. All six took the stock from the equivalent of a buy rating to the equivalent of a hold or neutral, with the downgrading analysts all basically sounding exasperated about yet another negative revision from management. It was...
Visceral. I think it was like visceral negativity. It's not the particular forecast cut was so terrible. When you read through the numerous downgrades, there's a consistent message. While Beckton Dickinson has disappointed investors for several years now, this year was supposed to be different. Coming into 2025, management said they'd be guiding conservatively, essentially keeping the numbers low to ensure they could beat their own forecast.
They went to under-promise. But now here we are getting yet another downward revision. And the sellers just said, enough. Get this stock off my sheet. People just ran out of patience and they ran out of Becht and Dickens. Sell, sell, sell. I'm not going to tell you that these analysts were wrong to downgrade. No, not at all. Or that investors were wrong to sell the stock. I get their frustration. But I simply think that the total give up moment by Wall Street might represent a
darkest before dawn moment for Becton Dickinson. Anyone who has had high hopes for the company is now throwing in the towel. Sold the stock, and that makes it much safer to own. Sure, it is disappointing that Becton Dickinson hit us with yet another guy down after already saying they'd given us a lowball forecast, but there were some pretty significant extenuating circumstances. When Becton Dickinson committed to guiding conservatively, how could
They have known that to be a total upheaval of world trade. The company said specifically that, quote, before the impact of tariffs, the company expects adjusted diluted earnings per share to be consistent with the previously issued guidance, end quote, noting that, quote, strong operational performance driven largely by margin improvement is enabling the company to fully offset the earnings impact from its updated organic revenue growth expectations, end quote.
Basically, even though Beckman & Gibson lowered its organic revenue growth outlook a touch, Madman still says they would have been able to make their earnings guidance if not for Trump's tariffs. And look,
They think tariffs will cost them only about $0.25 per share this year, when they were previously looking to earn $14.30 to $14.60 per share. All right, not a big hit. It's just it was the exasperation that they kept cutting their guidance that bothered so many of these analysts. Hey, by the way, for all the commentary about missed expectations, Beckton Thames has now beaten Wall Street's earnings expectation for six consecutive quarters. Their sales and earnings have been growing steadily over the past two years, and they're on track to grow nicely this year. So how disappointing is that? I don't know.
More importantly, I like the stock at these levels because it's gotten incredibly inexpensive. Beckham Dickinson now sells at an extraordinary 12 times this year's earnings estimates. That is absurdly cheap for a high quality company. When you look at the average valuation over the past 10 years, Beckham Dickinson typically is traded at a little less than 20 times earnings for what it's worth.
A stock also sports a decent dividend of only 2.5%. The company is a regular repurchaser of its own shares. They've already bought back $750 million worth of stock through the first six months of their 2025 fiscal year.
Then there's the last thing, and this is the thing I really like. Starboard Value's gotten involved, and they're a very smart activist firm. I think they're very thoughtful. They pushed for a life science spinoff, and Beckham Dickinson agreed to do it practically overnight. Management says that's still on schedule. That's really important. I like the breakup, and just as important, I like that a sharp firm like Starboard's gotten involved, not running. They think these guys can do it. They can keep management on their toes.
Maybe Starboard will have to do more work than it previously thought it would. Look, maybe there needs to be a discussion about whether the company has the right leadership in place, which Starboard wasn't talking about previously. But I think their presence certainly makes, let's just say it ensures that the company gets back on track by any means necessary. That's how I felt.
So here's the bottom line here with Becton Dickinson. It got wrecked this week, collapsing after the company reported a mixed quarter and cut its full year earnings guidance. But I think this could be a buying opportunity, not a selling opportunity, as long as you're willing to embrace what I call a fireman trade, where you run into a burning building rather than run out of it like everybody else. Becton Dickinson isn't just too cheap to ignore here. The core business is fine. They can unlock a lot of value with this life sciences spinoff. To me, this stock looks like a
Not a cell. Let's go to Ann in Indiana. Ann.
Well, for the millionth time, congratulations on your 20th anniversary. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's been so much fun. Thank you. It's been a long time, but it doesn't feel like it. Thank you. Oh, my God. It puts tears in my eyes. Thank you. So happy for you. Wow. Thank you. So another dumb question, but who cares? Dumb question. Come on.
Why specifically is Abbott's forward P.E. so much higher than their current or trailing P.E.?
Okay. Their forward PE shows that there's going to be pretty much of an earnings explosion, and I think a lot of that's going to come from Libra, which is their diabetes. They have the best diabetes device. It's cheaper than everybody's. By the way, I think pound for pound it's better than Dexcom, and Dexcom's stock was up very big today.
Also, remember, Robert Ford runs Abbott, and he runs it incredibly well. And I also think they're going to settle these lawsuits or win the lawsuits that have really kept the lid on the stock. And that's going to happen in 2025. But thank you for the kudos. I really appreciate it. Good to talk to you.
fireman trade but right here i think it really is too cheap to ignore you gotta take a look at this one much more mehb on it including my post earnings analysis with shake shack then could power player exelon see more growth head stocks up 24 this year i've got a exclusive look with the company's top rest and all your calls rapid fire in tonight's edition of the lightning round so stay with kramer
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Perhaps you could have seen today's rally coming because Ernie's season's been signaling that we've gotten too negative. Over and over, we've seen stocks roar in underwhelming numbers. That's a classic sign of excess pessimism. Take Shake Shack, which reported not so hot quarter yesterday. Still saw its stock rally 1% on the news before jumping over 6% in today's session. Now, look, when a stock rallies in subpar numbers, you know what that means. It means it's bottomed.
Yesterday, Shake Shack delivered a modest revenue miss with 0.2% same-store sales growth. Wall Street was looking for 2.3% gain. Two-cent earnings miss off a 16-cent basis. Worse, management trimmed...
with full-year revenue and calm forecasts. That's definitely nothing to write home about. Now, when those numbers crossed the wire yesterday morning, the stock instantly fell nearly 6%, $6, almost 7% in pre-market trading. It was incredible. Totally justifiable given the headline numbers. But in retrospect, you were really smarting if you made those sales because the stock quickly caught a bid. By the time the market opened Shake Shack, it was in positive territory.
So what turned things around, given the fact that it was a pretty bad mess? Well, for starters, Shake Shack missed estimates for several key metrics, but there were some positives in there, too. The company's restaurant-level profit margins came in at 20.7%. That's up about 120 basis points a year. We're not shabby. 30 basis points higher than expected.
They're benefiting from falling food and paper costs and plummeting labor costs as the companies now optimize their new hourly labor model, which provides more efficient staffing options, and they've gotten more efficient with their throughput. Plus, while management lowered some aspects of their full-year outlook,
Well, this was more mixed than negative. Shake Shack raised their full year restaurant profit margin outlook from 22 to 22.5 percent. Even with softer sales, they see margins continuing to tick higher. Even better, management raised their three year restaurant level profit margin forecast pretty substantially. They're talking about 50 basis points of margin expansion each year. And I love a three year. How great is that? But margins weren't the only bright spot.
quarter there was a lot of encouraging commentary on the conference call while traffic remained negative last quarter management sounds confident this is temporary a lot of it came down to bad weather in some of the biggest markets we know that happened shake shack started off the year strong in january but february proved to be the most challenging month and again that was because of the weather
There was some recovery in March, but April same-store sales were still down 1%. However, management said that momentum picked up as April progressed. They were seeing positive low single-digit same-store sales growth in the last few weeks, so we had good cadence. The most important part of the call was management's acknowledgement of maybe the biggest problem facing the industry, high prices for the consumer after years of elevated inflation. This one reminded me of what we've been hearing from Kevin Hoffman, the CEO of Brinker. That's a parent of Chili's.
which turned itself around by emphasizing value offerings, giving people great bargains. As previous price increases rolled off, Shake Shack exited the quarter with less than 2% menu pricing increases compared to last year. Although it's been years since the company implemented such a small price increase, management believes keeping prices in check will give them an edge over the competition.
The company also plans to ramp up its limited-time offer innovation. Shake Shack placed some of the blame for the subpar traffic last quarter on the fact that their black truffle burger, LTO, limited-time,
had been running for several months, well, for seven months. The lack of new menu items meant less buzz to attract customers. I mean, can you really call something that's been around seven months a limited-time offer? It was last summer through the past Easter. By the way, Shake Shack's new limited-time offer launched today featuring a full barbecue menu. I hope it's successful, but I also hope it's pulled sooner than not.
And it's not just burgers. Shake Shack saw strong success, but here's a wild one. It's recent Dubai chocolate pistachio shake.
which went viral on social media and sold out within minutes of its launch in mid-April on some locations. Very lucrative, because their shakes come in at a premium price. Given the Dubai chocolate shake was priced at $8.49? I mean... The house of pain. The highest price point for a shake they've ever offered? That tells me there's plenty of demand for this stuff as long as it's good. Personally, I'd opt for a $9.99 combo deal, but it's clear that the customers respond to these new products.
What else? Shake Shack CEO Rob Lynch, a restaurant industry veteran who served the stint as VP of marketing at Taco Bell. What a launch point that has been. Point out that Taco Bell can make 450,000 different items out of just 14 ingredients with minimal impact on operations. He also helped engineer a turnaround at Papa John's from 2019 until May of last year when he moved to Shake Shack.
After speaking with him late last year, I'm confident he can make it work at Shake Shack, too. With value offerings on one side, premium items on the other, this approach sounds a lot like the barbell strategy that Chili's has had so much success with.
Management noted that they're on track with their plans to reduce their cost to build new locations by at least 10 percent this year, despite tariff and construction concerns. That's pretty cheap. Starbucks wasn't able to talk about it being that cheap. They also raised their full year outlook from new unit opening slightly, bringing it up to 45 to 50 locations, with most of these new units coming online in areas of strength, like the southeast, the southwest.
While Shake Shack still has a long way to go to reach their goal of 1,500 company-owned locations, more than quadruple its current footprint. That means this regional and national growth story won't exhaust itself anytime soon. Ooh, I really like that.
Here's the bottom line. Shake Shack's quarter came up short on several key metrics, but the stock still managed to rally in part because it was already down so much, but also because the margins are improving and management got countless growth initiatives going. You know what? I think this is a very compelling story. Look, you may want to wait for a better entry point for today being up 6%, but I got to tell you, Shake Shack, it's here. It's bottom. I like it. We'll be right back after the break.
Coming up, can this stock power higher? Kramer's catching up with the CEO of electric utility company Exelon and seeing what's charging its recent gains. Next.
Boy, this has been a great year for utilities. Classic recession-proof stocks that also benefited from the big data center build-out because we simply don't generate enough electricity in this country to power all of these new AI applications. Look at Exelon, the parent company of a handful of major utilities in the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest. From the end of last year through the end of April, this stock rallied nearly 25%, vastly outperforming the S&P 500.
And yesterday morning, the Cup reported a rock-solid first quarter. So let's take a closer look with Calvin Butler, the president and CEO of Exelon Corp. To learn more, Bishop Butler, welcome back to Mad Money. Jim, it's great to be with you, and thank you for having me. And can I just also add happy anniversary? Oh, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you very much. It's been good. That is quite kind. Thank you.
OK, so, Calvin, if you had told me last year at this time I'd be sitting in front of someone who just had his stock go up 24 percent and not, you know, I'm not talking about Meta. I don't talk about Amazon. I don't talk about Apple. I'm talking about. Yes. Excellent. I'd say that's not possible. How could you do it? What did you do?
Well, I would say first, it's we had a strong regulatory calendar year. We had over six rate cases last year in 2024, busiest regulatory calendar year we ever had. And what I can tell you is that the team performed well in partnering with each of those jurisdictions. That's one. Two.
I think there was a recognition that there's a partnership with the jurisdictions, but also what we're doing in the economic development for those states and those regions matters. Three, we've consistently delivered and did what we say we were going to do.
And that carries a long way. And I was just reading a headline the other day when they said, hey, defense wins championships. You're right here in the Knicks right now. And Exelon's platform, size and scale matters. And we're able to balance a lot of the uncertainties right now and be a stable force in it. Well, as being a former ratepayer of one of yours at PICO, the old Philly elect,
I can say that things weren't always so convivial. So you must be bringing some level of rigor to them that there's not that kind of fractious relationship that you have with the regulators. That's exactly right. We always say we want to do this together in a collaborative manner. If you don't want us to invest a dollar, let's talk about it. But we will provide you the best reliability and best resilience possible.
of any utility in the country and that is what we stand on and then i think them into recognition that if the utility truly serves as an anchor
we can be part of the solution and we can balance affordability, reliability and resilience all at the same time. Now, you also can be quite a job creator when it comes down to it. Looking for some areas that have had a hard time creating jobs. That's exactly right. We use the rule of thumb for every million dollars of investment, we generate $1.6 million in economic output. For every million dollars we invest, we create seven new jobs.
And we do that very intentionally through our workforce academies. We hire from the neighborhoods in which we serve. We have over 90 different workforce programs across our jurisdictions. Last year alone, we hired 2,000 men and women directly with us and with our contractors. We are training people for family-sustaining wages, and they're having careers with us and our partners.
One of the things I am trying to understand, yeah, but I'm showing this because the data centers use a lot of electricity. You've got areas that were originally a lot of manufacturing, some of the areas that have since departed. But you've got great experience with gigantic projects. Your data center business must be really great. It is. And we really see it taking off in Illinois.
On our earnings call yesterday, to your point, we announced over 17 gigawatts of new load coming to our area, the majority of that being in the Chicagoland area. You look at the abundance of land, you look at the reliability and the cost of energy in Illinois alone, you see it. But it's also growing in the other jurisdictions. And what we found is that when you partner with those data centers and understand what they need, we can meet that expectation. Well, I mean...
is it possible that you can become, when I hear the corridor, I hear the corridor, I usually think about the Pittsburgh area, but maybe your corridor is big. I think what we are providing, when you look at the mid-Atlantic and Chicago, Chicago's in the top five data center development centers.
Why don't people talk more about that instead of the idea that Chicago's on decline? Well, it's just the opposite. So when I tell you about that 17 in the works right now, there's another 16 that we're considering and working with them right now. So it's just the opposite. I think Illinois is on the precipice of doing something great, and we're right in the center of all of it. Well, Kelvin, is that natural gas? What are you using? What's the fuel? Well, the anchor in Illinois is nuclear.
But that is still that's the other part of the other people. And that's not part of us. But that foundation is there. So that new that clean energy is there. And then what you find with the data centers, they're saying, hey, if we've got a steady flow of power, what can we do to provide backup? But I would tell you what they're really interested in.
is reliability and resiliency. Right. And ComEd is the most reliable utility in the nation according to the benchmarks. That means something to them? Well, that's what I wanted to ask you about because to me, I've been following what happened in Spain very closely. They didn't have an anchor like ComEd. That's exactly right. And we've been working with them as an industry
We're lessons learned. We share information. We still don't know exactly what happened, but we do know it was triggered by some of their generation, large loads of their generation going offline within a couple of seconds. That was the triggering event. Waterfall. It did. And it just goes to show you how fragile it is when you're not
coordinated and doing the things. This happened to us in 2003, the country, right? Right. And we did a lot of things to reinforce. We won't ever say it won't happen again, but I know we're much better off today than we were then, and I know they will be much better off tomorrow than they are. And I know that they're much better off since you've come in because I followed these utilities very, very closely. You've done a remarkable job. That's Calvin Butler, President and CEO of Exelon Corp. Take it from me as a former ratepayer.
This person has changed things. We have money back after the break. Coming up, Kramer takes your calls. And the sky's the limit. It's a fast-fire lightning round. Next. My happiness is the lightning round. Lightning round. Lightning round. Lightning round on Kramer's Mad Money. This is where I take your calls, Mad Money Party. This is where I take your calls, rapid fire. Rapid fire calls. Rapid.
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Booyah, Pop! Booyah. All right. Mark in Hawaii. Let's go to Janet in Colorado. Janet! Let's go to Kyle in Oklahoma. Hey, hello, Professor Kramer. Thanks for making my life a little happier place to be. Booyah, my new friend. I'm P.O.P. Pepsi-Cola. Oh.
Oh, I love that booyah. A chip or five, booyah. I'm enjoying that entirely. This is an exam cramming, ramen noodle eating, college-like booyah from Colorado State, Fort Collins. Grain-less ice cream booyah. You are so hot on all your picks. Oh!
Yeah, yeah, what do you want? I want to say thank you for not just the money, Jim, but what the money translates into, in my case, a college education for my son. They have no respect for when I am talking about a company that I just bought a tuxedo at. I taught high school for 42 years. If your show was a required part of life skills classes, we'd have generations of financially savvy Americans. Yeah, uh...
Regina, help me. I want to tell that guy who's ringing the buzzer that he is about to be fired. If he ever does... Where is he? Come on. Come with me. We're finding this clown. Is he back here somewhere? Who is buzzing me? Who is buzzing me? Which one of you? You're all fired. All right. Lucky for us, I hired all
those people back the next day. And we kept going ever since. Let's see if we can keep the big booyah energy going today as we enter our 21st year. And now it is time. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the Light Round. It's time for the
Hey, Jim, congratulations on 20 years. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Jim, I want to thank you also. I'm an investment club member for all that you do for us as well.
Absolutely. Jim, I got a question. So this is about a semiconductor stock that's been kind of beat up this year. Still looks pretty low to me, but I wanted to know what you think about Marvell Technologies. Its stock is the same price it was before it got into AI. This is ridiculous. It's below or right around where Matt Murphy, the CEO, bought stock back. I went and bought it personally. I would buy the stock of Marvell and I'd buy it on Monday. Now I'm going to Dave in Colorado. Dave.
First time caller, long-term viewer, and club member. The educational section of the club is gold mine, Jim. It's about the importance of the stock's fundamentals. The membership's the best educational investment I've made. Now I make money, lots more money. I use your phrase, homework by homework. With that said, I have a question on ticker OZK, Ozark Bank.
Well, I'll tell you, Ozark Bank, I mean, we look at this, it's not a high-quality bank. Now, you remember the club. You know, I think Capital One, COF, when it finishes this merger with Discover, which is going to be done in two weeks, that is the red-hot stock that I think can go much higher. As I said several times today in Twitter, it's the one I really like. Now we're going to go to Phil. Thank you for all the kind words. Let's go to Phil in Florida. Phil.
Hello, Jim. It's a thrill to speak to you. I want to congratulate you on 20 awesome years and thank you for what you do. Thank you. Thank you, partner. Appreciate that. I wanted to get your opinion on Applied Digital.
I know the company, and it's the kind of thing, we have so many of these digital infrastructure places. I actually just prefer you, if you're going to go there, just go by Salesforce. I'm not kidding. Go by CRM. I would feel better that way. Let's go to Sonny in Massachusetts. Sonny.
Hey, Jimmy Chill. First of all, congratulations on 20 years. And I want to say a special thank you to your wife and family for allowing them to share us and give us all this knowledge. You're very nice. That is very kind. Thank you. How can I help you? So first of all, can you tell me where the Kramer Farm stand is? Kramer Farm? Pennsylvania. Go ahead. Hello? I think we lost him. We should go to Greg in New York. Greg in New York. Greg.
Hi, Jim. Thank you so much for taking my call. Thank you. My question today is about Applied Materials. Applied Materials, I think, is an excellent company. But I have to tell you, I like Lamber Search more, and that's the one I would go for. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the Lightning Round. The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab.
Jim Cramer, congratulations on 20 years. I'm so excited for you. You know what? You put in the work. You deserve every accolade that you get. You are Mad Money and Mad Money is you. On behalf of the entire Mad Money community, congratulations on this incredible...
a cheaper graduations so proud of. Yeah, what you've accomplished over 20 year period is quite extraordinary. We all see how hard you've worked all these years and how clean your mission has been all that time. Congratulations, I'll see hit work in the morning. We're only getting better so don't worry about how old you are. And I love you.
Dad, congratulations on 20 years. I am so grateful that you're my father and I wouldn't have it any other way. James, I can't believe it's 20 years. 20 years for your show and happy show. It's been an incredible 20 years of Mad Money and I'm so grateful to all the guests who joined us and the staff members who've helped us along the way and of course my daughter and my wife.
But we're not done. I still want to talk about two big quarters we saw yesterday from Amazon and Apple. They're just too important to ignore. I don't know a soul who has any other kind of phone. I don't know anyone who isn't a Prime member. It's not easy to get that kind of brand loyalty. It's not easily lost in both companies, no matter what their stocks are saying are indeed locked. These are complex businesses, though. Apple has cell phones and wearables, but also has a service revenue stream that matters tremendously because it's sticky and it grows as people get more comfortable with the whole family of products.
Amazon's a retailer with an enormous web services business, as well as an advertising division that's got incredible gross margins. The complexity does not help the valuations, though. Wall Street loves simple stocks that are easy to get your head around, and these are anything but simple. Last night, Apple reported a very fine quarter, but because of tariffs on goods made in China, this budding consensus is that this was the last good quarter.
So the stock cratered, falling $8 to 3.74%. Wow. The tariffs could really play havoc with the numbers. Apple's trying to move enough cell phone production from China to India to get a lower tariff rate, but we have no idea how long it will take to move a significant amount of their manufacturing, so there's a lot of guesswork.
We also had a disappointment on the service revenue front, and it comes on top of two lawsuits that can hurt service revenues itself. The epic suit involving how to pay for downloaded games and the monopoly suit that calls into question Google's decision to pay Apple $20 billion for its right to be their default search engine.
These legal issues are rough. Put it all together and you can understand why the stock got hit today. How about Amazon? The problem here is that the giant web services business seems to have skipped the revenue beat, with growth declining from 19% to 17%, even as though the margins increased. Now, Amazon's stock was able to shrug that off, finishing virtually unchanged, because it could have been avoided if they had more computing power, meaning more chips from NVIDIA. Not all that coincidentally, NVIDIA had a very good week.
Apple, no comeback. But it just couldn't make it. I think it could overcome the service revenue miss. It's not like the business has never disappointed before. I was thinking any resolution to the lawsuit with Google could be years away. And it isn't clear if the contract can be voided. No, the real problem with Apple is that it's caught in the crossfire of this trade war with China.
Right now, I think there are two camps at the White House. The camp that says Apple doesn't deserve this, but CEO Tim Cook will be able to figure out what to do. After all, Apple's created 2.9 million jobs here. About 1.5 million people helped to put together Apple hardware in China. Tim Cook is a champion of the United States and China. He's almost a mystical figure. He's managed to straddle these two countries better than anyone. The other White House camp, though, says that China and the United States simply can't be straddled. And anyone who's trying to do that is not a good act.
actor. This camp has a lot of sway with the president. Without a big trade deal with China that effectively rolls back nearly all the tariffs, Apple's earnings are indeed in trouble. Unfortunately, I believe a friendly deal with China, I think it's going to prove elusive. We are choosing to own both of these stocks for our travel trust because I believe in them long term. But only one is likely to snap right back, and that is Amazon. Apple, I fear, will be stuck in the penalty box for playing by the rules that our governments endorsed ever since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
But that was then with a very different president. And this is now. Like I said, there's always a bull market somewhere. I promise I'll find it just for you on Mad Money. I'm Jim Cramer. See you next time. 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. It's impossible to find more time in the day.
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