We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 6/2/25

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 6/2/25

2025/6/2
logo of podcast Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
J
Jim Cramer
通过结合基础分析、技术分析和风险管理,帮助投资者在华尔街投资并避免陷阱的知名投资专家和电视主持人。
R
Russ Becker
Topics
Jim Cramer: 我认为特朗普总统对股市有很大的影响力,他可以通过发布消息来影响市场走势。虽然市场对与中国的贸易谈判抱有希望,但实际上特朗普更倾向于利用这些谈判来为美国公司争取利益,比如允许NVIDIA向中国出售芯片。我认为,市场对政府会为私营企业做些好事过于乐观,但事实是,股票经常受到打击。我个人认为,我们应该允许NVIDIA向中国出售芯片,这样可以阻止中国发展自己的半导体产业,并保持他们对我们的依赖。然而,特朗普政府似乎并不这么认为。总的来说,我认为投资者需要为失望做好准备,因为特朗普政府可能会为了推进自己的议程而让股市失望。

Deep Dive

Chapters
This chapter analyzes President Trump's significant impact on the stock market's fluctuations, highlighting instances where his actions and statements caused dramatic market shifts. The discussion explores the president's control over market sentiment and the role of leaked information in influencing investor behavior.
  • President Trump's actions and words significantly influence stock market movements.
  • Leaked information from White House officials can dramatically affect market trends.
  • Investors' optimism towards presidential actions often outweighs concerns about trade realities.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

Your best restaurant location gets five-star reviews. How do you make every location like your best location? Your best paper mill has been operating at peak productivity. How do you make every mill like your best mill? Your best data center has optimized every drop of water. How do you make every data center like your best data center? The answer is Ecolab. Better performance, better outcomes, better impact. Ecolab. Now every location is your best location.

As America's leading business lender, Bank of America is on your corner and in your corner. With $215 billion in business loans and over 3,700 business specialists across the nation, we help businesses thrive so communities prosper. What would you like the power to do? Learn more at bankofamerica.com slash localbusiness. Bank of America, official bank of FIFA Club World Cup 2025. Copyright 2025 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.

Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. I'll be your great friends. Hey, look, I'm just trying to make you a little money. My job is not just to entertain you, but to put it in context. So call me at 1-800-743-CNBC. Tweet me at Jim Kramer.

we're always one posting one whisper away from rallying as long as you recognize that the president's in control of the stock market at least when he wants to be we can make sense of this tape and that's my conclusion when i look at the average which were down badly in the morning and then rebounded with the down gaining 35 points that's the rising point for women's and nasdaq getting 0.67 percent quite a comeback from the lows

Today at around 10.30, with the market looking real ugly, a casualty of no talks with the Chinese this weekend, CNBC's own Iman Jabbers, K1 Air reported that President Donald Trump and the Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to speak this week.

The expected discussion wouldn't happen today, he reported, but it was likely to happen very soon, in the words of the senior White House official Jabra spoke with. And with that one report, the market did an entire 180. That was easy. Funny, we saw the same exact pattern on Friday. Market going lower, the play could really spiral down if the president's

No more Mr. Nice Guy truth social posting early Friday morning. Then during the farewell event for Elon Musk at the White House Friday afternoon, the president says something positive about talking to Xi, and the market flies right back, allowing the month of May to finish in an extremely positive way, the strongest since 1990 with a gain of more than 6%. So what does this tell us about the stock market? First, it says that the president remains completely in the driver's seat, regardless of his mercurial nature.

No, one thought. He hasn't really delivered on his promises at all yet, at least when it comes to trade. No one has come to the table from Europe or Asia except for the UK. We already had trade surplus with. Can you imagine anyone else leaking that the talks could be back on after nothing happened this weekend? We're told the talks could be coming this week. Really? I mean, do we even know? A single anonymous source turned this whole market around today.

Incredible. It gets worse. The Chinese are attacking our government's handling of semiconductors. And tip for tat, they're now slow-walking licenses for key rare earth minerals. In other words, it's not that nothing happened this weekend. Things actually got worse this weekend.

Now American companies are complaining they're not getting rare earth magnets that are critical for the auto industry and the Defense Department, for that matter. Amazing that we let the Defense Department be hostage in China, but they have a stranglehold on these rare earths. Given that both sides are taking an ever harder line with a phone call, will she even accomplish anything? The answer? It doesn't matter.

it doesn't matter at all whether we're compensating this market's so hopeful that president trump will do what's right for stocks that it's blind to the truth he is happy to have operas leaked just about any story to stem a decline but he's not happy to have a genuine trade peace with china let me give you the details we know that the chinese desperately want what do they want nvidia's chips that's their whole complaint the market again so hopeful sending video stock flying on the news potential talks but

Buyers are betting that Trump will change course and allow Nvidia to sell up to $50 billion worth of chips, billion dollars worth of chips, to China this year alone. And China will cut us a break with our rare earth needs. The art of the deal. Yet this stance, leaked by still one more White House official, seems pretty definitive. Maybe it's all a negotiation, another hopeful view this market keeps taking. Or maybe it's over.

But does anyone truly believe that this administration will give China what it wants? Hey, anything's possible. That seems to stretch to me. Even Jensen Wang, CEO of NVIDIA, said the president has a plan. By the way, I think Jensen makes a very compelling case when he argues that we should let NVIDIA sell those chips to the Chinese, because otherwise China will indeed invest much more heavily in their own semiconductor industry. Wouldn't it be better to blunt China's efforts to leapfrog us and keep them dependent on our chips the same way we're dependent on their rare earth minerals?

Sadly, the White House says no. I think it makes a ton of sense. There's a larger issue here. While Wall Street remains constantly optimistic if the government will do something good for private industry, our stocks keep getting walloped. Case in point, Dell. Now, I love the quarter Dell reported last Thursday. It was huge. And the buyback was incredibly aggressive. This company's a true believer in itself. Buy, buy, buy!

Which is good for Dell. Good for Nvidia, by the way, one of their key component makers. Great business. But on Friday, the stock actually went down. One possible reason. The government's General Services Administration is trying to put the squeeze at federal contractors, including Dell. According to the Wall Street Journal, the GSA is, quote, asking executives to justify their work and find areas to cut. Do you know how many of these federal contractors buy their PCs and servers from Dell? It's definitely not a small number.

Now, these tech-oriented government contractors and consultants, they have seen their stocks eviscerated. Booz Allen Hamlin's stocks plunged from 129 to 103 over the past week and a half, 129 to 103, after its grim guidance in anticipation of more federal spending cuts.

Now, I think Dell's doing tremendously, but if the government keeps cutting back on its tax spending, that's going to hurt them, too. Hence the $3 decline for Dell today. Sure, the White House periodically looks like it's going to do something for business, like this trip by three cabinet officials to Alaska, jumpstart an incredibly expensive natural gas pipeline, one that's unnecessary because we have so much gas in the lower 48 states, and that's not in the Arctic. It's not in a wildlife preserve. Not that East Texas feels like a wildlife preserve. The

The feds had to get involved because the energy companies aren't interested. Too costly. It's kind of like how the administration favors opening federal lands for drilling in the lower 48. While cheaper and cleaner than drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it's not cheap enough to justify drilling in these places with oil at $62 a barrel.

Of course, sometimes we get something genuinely good from the White House for business. Our tariff-happy president just doubled the duty on imported steel from 25 to 50 percent, something that helps a couple of very good steel companies, but hurts every company that makes things out of steel. Did you see how badly the oil companies acted today? It's maybe cool to push.

Ultimately, I believe the president will end up helping business. A big part of these trade negotiations is Trump helping Boeing sell expensive blades while GE Vernova sells similarly expensive turbines. Put that chart, GEV, up. It's unbelievable. NVIDIA and many other tech companies like Cisco racked up big wins when the president visited the Gulf monarchies.

But against that, considering that on nearly every quarterly conference call I've listened to since Liberation Day, companies have had to quantify their tariff. It's been brutal. Just ask shareholders of the gap, which plunged from 28 to 22 on Friday. I don't even want to think about what's happened to Apple because it dared to move some iPhone manufacturing from China to India. Trump's hitting those phones with a 25 percent tariff because he wants them to be made in the U.S. From Apple's perspective, it's probably cheaper just to pay the 25 percent.

So we have to appreciate the market's unrelenting optimism when a nameless White House staffer can save the day by downing the prospects of a phone call with President Xi. It just reminds us how bullish investors really are right now. They just only seem bearish. Bottom line, we have to be ready for disappointment because we've seen it over and over and over again. This administration is perfectly willing to disappoint the stock market, not Bitcoin, but the stock market to advance their agenda. And it's foolish that you should believe otherwise.

Hey, speaking of Texas, Jim in Texas. Jim. Hello. This is Jim. Hey, Jim. Houston, Texas. From Houston. Fantastic. I love Houston. What's going on? Well, first of all, I want to wish you a warm B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B

Ten years ago, I retired and started watching Mad Money. As soon as the club was formed, I joined the club. And as a result of the diversified portfolio and the sage advice that I've gotten from the club, my nest egg is now bigger than what it was when I retired. That's what I want. That's what I want. Even though he's not working, that's good news. How can I help you now?

Well, even though it's a diverse cycle for it, it's still like to improve it. And the one thing I'm looking at now is something to help with all the hassles going on with the trade talks. And I've been thinking about Netflix. The problem is every time I look at Netflix now, it's going up and up and up. Well, Jim, here's what you do with a situation like Netflix. What you do is you buy a little, OK? Just take your bite.

Bite it. Just bite it. You have to. Bite some more. Buy a little. You want to buy 100? Go buy 20 and then work it down. But don't let it get away from you because it is, I would tell you, this Netflix, this may be still the best growing stock in the entire market. Rick in Michigan. Rick. Jimmy Chill. I'd be a long time listener, long time caller and club member.

Thank you.

you know, was kind of cut short. I'm wondering with First Horizon. Oh, I like First Horizon very, very much. I like it very much. I think it should be bought. It's a terrific situation. And I'm still thinking that what the heck happened to that deal? Because, man, whoever buys that franchise is going to do incredibly well. That is a nice growth franchise. All right. Today's action is a reminder of exactly how bullish investors really are. But we still got to be prepared for disappointment. Yeah.

given how this administration is willing to let the market down in order to advance its agenda. But there's always someone from the White House willing to make a call. We just don't know who it is. On Man Money tonight, last week we learned that President Trump will be doubling steel tariffs from 25% to 50%. So what could this mean for the domestic player that we like called Nucor? I'm going to dig into all the factors at play. Then there's this old adage in this business called sell and may and go away. Well, it turned out to be the exact opposite. It's dead wrong. I'm sharing to you why this strategy isn't working.

And you know, I was relatively anti-SPAC, but there were some trends. There's a couple that buck the trend. I'm seeing a fire safety company, API Group, is doing just that when I sit down with the CEO. Won't that be something if we have a good SPAC? So stay with 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.

The $150 billion pet industry is booming as people absolutely love their dogs. If you're looking for a solid investment, Dogtopia is the name to know. With 300 locations across North America, it's the largest, leading, and fastest-growing pet franchise offering a recurring revenue membership model. Dogtopia offers safe, open-play dog daycare, boarding, and spa services. Want a recession-resistant franchise? Check out Dogtopia because every dog and dog parent deserve it. Go to Dogtopia.com to learn more.

How will you shape the future of consumer products in retail with confidence? Behind every favorite product or seamless checkout, there's a series of strategic decisions to make.

EY brings real-time insights and deep sector expertise to create value in the moments that matter. Whether it's untangling global supply chains, managing cost pressures, or leveraging emerging tech, EY's full spectrum of services help CPG and retail companies deliver profitable growth. EY. Shape the future with confidence.

You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites. Indeed's sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast. With sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates, so you can reach the people you want faster. A

According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have 45% more applications than non-sponsored jobs. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash madmoney. Just go to Indeed.com slash madmoney right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast.

Indeed.com slash madmoney. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring? Indeed is all you need. There's an old adage in this business. It's called sell and may and go away. Great little ditty. Except these days, it's dead wrong.

The idea originated with the Stock Traders' Almanac, first published by Yale Hearst way back in 1967. Originally, it was based on this idea that the best returns for the market typically come during the six months between November and April. So you should be fully invested during those months, then swap into something safer like cash for the period from May through October. Now, conveniently, that also let money managers take an extended summer vacation.

Over the years, sell in May and go away has evolved into something more like this. On average, you typically have some nice gains by this point in the year, although not this particular year. So you need to protect those gains. After May, trading gets thinner as the masters of the universe head to the Hamptons for the summer. Given that accidents can happen, the sell in May thesis argues that you're better off hopping out of the market for a couple of months while you're distracted with the joys of life in the summer called Labor Day weekend.

I've never cared too much for the idea of sell a man, go away. It feels too much like an attempt at market timing, trying to jump out ahead of trouble and then jump back in once the trouble's over. I have often wondered if it weren't such a nice bit of dog roll, it would have been left for dead a long time ago.

In reality, the vast majority of your gains will come from a small number of very strong days that come throughout the year. And I don't want you to miss any of them. We certainly don't know which ones they're going to be. Unless the entire financial system is collapsing, like the summer of 2008, you're better off keeping your money in the market, even if things get choppy. But is there something to the sell and may and go away thesis?

Well, we don't have to guess. It's very straightforward. Over the weekend, as May turned June, we decided, well, you know what? We're a little curious here. Let's crunch some quick numbers to answer a simple question. Over the past 25 years, what's happened to the S&P 500 from the end of May through the end of August? Let's start with the first decade of that 25-year period, stretching from 2000 to 2009. If you just looked at that decade, sell in May and go away.

Defensible. During this 10-year period, stocks were negative in 5 out of 10 years. In fact, the average performance from the end of May until the end of August was a 1% decline from 2000 to 2009, although the median performance, the one that was right in the middle, was a gain of 0.5%, 0.5%.

I want you to keep this in mind. 2000, 2009 included three of the worst summers on record. 2001, we were down 9.7 percent thanks to ongoing dotcom collapse. 2002, we had a 14.2 decline. Holy cow. Which in retrospect was a dark for the dawn moment for the broader market right before it finally bottomed in October of 2002. In 2008, we were down 8.4 percent as we got closer and closer to the financial crisis. And even with these three horrific summers in the data set, the average is only down 1 percent over those 10 years.

And look, 2000-2009 was a lousy time for the stock market as a whole. It wasn't just the summer. From the end of 1909 through the end of 2009, the S&P 500 lost a quarter of its value thanks to the dot-com collapse and then the Great Recession. We had two generational meltdowns in the same decade, but sell in May and go away barely gave you an edge. All right, how about the next 10 years, from 2010 through 2019? Different story.

During this span, the market was positive in seven to 10 summers. Average gain of 1.2 percent, median gain of 3.0. Not bad. Buy in May and go away. There's a strategy for you. This year, it got off to a rocky start. There was a nearly 4 percent decline in the summer of 2010 when investors began to question the durability of the rally off the financial crisis load and then got spooked by the flash crash in May of 2010. Sell, sell, sell.

Then in the summer of 2011, we had that debt ceiling crisis culminating in our government's first debt downgrade that August, hence the 9.4% decline from June through August. After that?

Look at that. Smooth sailing. Sorry for a bad summer in 2015. A lot of that was because of China. We were up every summer from 2012 to 2019. And toward the end of this 10-year period, we were actually stacking some nice gains, up more than 7% in the summer of 2018, up more than 6% in the summer of 2019. All right, how about the last five years? During this period, sell a man, go away. I'm calling it financial suicide.

The S&P 500 is best up in four of the past five summers every year since 2022, where the S&P was down 4.3% over the summer as inflation was all at its worst. And the Fed was hitting us with increasingly large rate hikes to get it under control. On average, the market's been up 6.6% over the past five years. Media performance 7.6%. 2020 alone, we caught a 15% summer rally as the market rebounded from its COVID lows.

Now, if we take a step back and look at the last 25 summers as a whole, here are the numbers. S&P 500 has been up 16 out of 25 summers. That's 64% of the time. Average gain, 1.4%. Median gain, 2.7%. At least in this current millennium, sell in May and go away. It's been a loser.

And it's only gotten worse over time. When you look at the last 10 years, you'll find that the S&P 500 was up in 8 out of 10 summers with an average gain of nearly 5%, median gain of 6.7%. We should be sitting here thinking, well, can we buy? If you're on the hedge fund on these summers, well, you decide to take off.

you could be out of business. I'm going to send you an invitation to your funeral. Long story short, sell in May and go away has a terrible track record. On average, you've been much better off doing the exact opposite, even if it cuts into your vacation time. Of course, that doesn't mean that the market's definitely going to rally this particular summer. We've got

plenty of worries here from the on again, off again tariffs to the budget bill negotiations, inflation looming through the bond market. I don't endorse selling mango away, but maybe you want to lighten up a bit after the nice recovery we've had from the April lows. In the end, though, it's a mistake to sell stocks just because of a stupid

Selling May and go away strategy has not helped you over the past 25 years, where stocks have been up nearly two thirds of the time from the end of May to the end of August. If you look even more recently, you've actually been really hurt by missing the summers. Stocks have been up 80 percent of the time and you've missed out on some terrific mid to high single digit gains during this period from June through August. I like that. That's now.

So the bottom line, don't just go blindly sell and make it go away. We looked at the data and it says that the so-called strategy is indeed a big loser. By all means, you can go on vacation, but please stay invested. Keep an eye on your portfolio while you're out there. Hey, let's speak to Jay in Kansas. Jay. Oh, yeah, Jay. Thank you for taking my call. Of course, Jay. What's going on?

Jim, I have this company that I've been keeping a close eye on for a while. They had a solid Q1 performance, although gross margins contracted about 10 basis points. The stock dropped about 5% post-earnings, although it did rebound the following week. But last week, it took another beating, Jim. And I've been trying to make sense of it. My question for you is, how much more runway does Arista Networks have in the AI boom? Okay, this was AI...

Arista. Arista. Okay. I've been, well, you know, I talked about Arista this morning with someone and we were both aghast that the stock has come down this much. This is a terrific company.

And I was with Jeff Marks, my partner for the club. And we think we've got to do some work. I want Jay Shree back. OK, I'm not going to. Jay Shree deserves to have her story told rather than just accept that 19 percent decline. That's what we're going to do. We'll have her back because I don't understand why it's down this much. How about we go to Tom in Ohio? Tom.

Hey, Jim, how you doing today? And a big booyah to you. Thanks for having me on. I am thrilled that you're on the show. Thank you.

Okay, I want to talk to you about retail. You talk a lot about the big box stores, Costco and others, and Walmart and Target. I'm a shareholder with Kohl's, K-S-S. Okay, let me tell you, Tom, look, I think that last quarter was good, okay? I'm going to be abject. I'm going to say it was good, and the company is not losing money.

It's going to make money. Can I do I think it can go from eight to 12? Yes. OK, that is a very big move. It could do that. But because this guy, the guy's doing a good job. The last guy would seem like a little bit of a well, I don't know. I don't want to disparage cast versions, but I think you can catch four. But no more than that. All right. Now, people, you should you shouldn't blindly follow the idea to sell a man go away. The market's performance during the past 25 years proves that the price.

that the practice can cost you some nice gains. Watch where I made money and include my services with API Group. Look, more than doubling in spread versus coming public, I'm seeing if momentum can continue with the fire, life, and safety company when I sit down with the CEO. Then the packaged food stocks have typically given you an earnings call worth listening to. But after listening to Campbell's, I got some different thoughts about the space it's changed. And no one recalls rapid fire in tonight's edition of the Lightning Round. So stay with Kramer.

Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Whole Almonds makes for a wholly amazing, wholly delicious experience that's, well, wholly Hershey's. Everyone should get to experience the satisfying surprise of a whole almond tucked inside creamy Hershey's chocolate. So don't wait your whole life to try Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Whole Almonds. And if you've already had it, then chances are you're already a lifelong fan of this confectionery delight. Find Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Whole Almonds wherever candy is sold.

Are you still quoting 30-year-old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now. It pays to discover. Learn more at discover.com slash credit card based on the February 2024 Nelson report.

In 2020 and 2021, there were hundreds of businesses that came public by merging with these things called special purpose acquisition companies. They were called SPACs. And you know what? Nearly all of them turned out to be lousy investments. I say nearly all because there have been a handful of SPAC winners. And when they're good, they are really, really good. Think DraftKings, Averta, both tremendous long-term opportunities. Then there's another one that fits the bill. It's called API Group. That's APG for all you home gamers. This company is a leading player in a series of niche industries like fire protection, all sorts of specialty construction.

APR's really, it's roughly doubled its sales since it came public. It's got a nice, steady business with lots of recurring revenue, which is one of the reasons why this stock's up an outstanding 30% year to date. So can it keep climbing? Let's check in for the first time in a long time. Russ Becker, the president and CEO of API Group, to find out. Mr. Becker, welcome back to Mad Money.

Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here and I'm especially excited to be here in person because the last time I had the opportunity to interview with you, it was kind of post pandemic and everything was still virtual. But it was still before the huge great carrier acquisition, wasn't it?

Well, we were fortunate to be able to acquire Chubb Fire and Security from Carrier. And that transaction closed right at the beginning of 2022. And that is one gem of a company, isn't it? It's a great company. And, you know, back at the time, everybody talked about Chubb as if it was the sleeping giant. And at our investor day just 10 or 11 days ago, I talked about how the sleeping giant has awoken.

So give me a sense so people know this is not Chubb the insurer. This is Chubb that's probably maybe the foremost of the fire and safety companies in America, in maybe the world.

Well, Chubb Fire and Security has basically become the international piece of our business. The business is based in London, has operations in Western Europe, Asia, and Australia. And it really has become kind of the international arm of API. We have an equally robust business that operates throughout North America.

They're very, very complementary to each other. And we're very excited to have our Chubb teammates with us. Now, the verticals that Chubb is in, data center, pharma and healthcare, critical national infrastructure, third-party logistics, these are not verticals that should be affected by a slowdown in the economy.

No, we talk about end markets all the time across every aspect of our business, to be honest with you, Jim. A lot of strength in the end markets that you mentioned. The end markets and what we do really do matter. When we go to a data center, will we see you or is it just something that you take care of?

So we want to do the inspection service and monitoring for our data center customers. We also want to be in a position to provide security and fire protection services when they have expansion needs or modification needs for their existing facilities. And they really work one with the other.

We want to lead in our business with inspections and service and then have that great opportunity that we create by doing a good job for that client to lead to the project work or expansion work that they may have. And what would be an example of that project or expansion work?

Oh, so it happens all the time. Like as an example, you know, we work with many of the hyperscalers and we're doing the inspection and service work for them. And, you know, the data center market is just absolutely exploding, you know, right now.

In fact, one of the things that we're talking to our businesses about is making sure that we're not overextending ourselves in the space. - 'Cause you have that much that you could do. - For sure. We wanna take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to us.

And we want to make sure that we're working for clients who value our services. You know, one of the things about API is our culture that's centered on people and our purpose, and our purpose is building great leaders.

And we are 100 percent a people centered business. And so we want to make sure that we're putting our people that go to work on our customer sites every day on client sites that value their work. I used to own an inn. And when I went for studying to learn about what to do, I went to someone who was a teacher of business.

of hospitality. And he told me, one thing you need to know is that there will be safety rules added every year. And there will never be a safety rule subtracted, just added and added. And it wore me down, but it was true. You have a secular tailwind, which is safety.

Well, there's, you know, when I think about safety and I think about, you know, your comment slash question, I think about it in two sectors. There's the safety, health and well-being of each of our leaders and our businesses. And that is our number one value as a company and making sure that we're putting our people first.

But the beautiful part about our business model is the life safety component of it. A commercial office building, a hospital, the different government codes and regulations requires those buildings and facilities to have their fire protection and life safety systems inspected for functionality and operability at least once a year.

And we want to continue to build on the inspections, doing that inspection work for those clients, because we know we're going to get $3 to $4 of pull-through service work at any point during the course of a year for those clients. And then that leads to our project work.

where we build those sticky customer relationships so that we're able to pursue that work not based on price but based on the value we provide. I have to tell you, I've run two businesses where they went, when I took them over, there was an inspection once a year. And within two years, there was an inspection twice a year.

And it was a fortune. But I guess that's also what API has. You get twice as much business. That's the protective mode around the business, as we like to say. And, you know, we recently entered the elevator and escalator space. Right. And for the exact same, you know, opportunity.

idea behind it is that escalators and elevators have to be inspected by code and by law each year as well. And so there's just tremendous opportunity for us. And the people that we have, we're very fortunate, the people that we have providing service to those clients, they do a really good job. Well, Russ, you have a great business. And I can see why the stock just went straight up. It is a stock and a company that will work

perfectly in this environment because safety never takes a vacation. That's 100% correct. Russ Beckers, the president and CEO of API Group. Look at that chart. You'll understand what works in this environment because a lot of what you own does not have that same chart. They have money's back in. Coming up, Kramer takes your calls and the sky's the limit. It's a fast fire lightning round. Next.

In 2020 and 2021, there were hundreds of businesses that came public by merging with these things called special purpose acquisition companies. They were called SPACs. And you know what? Nearly all of them turned out to be lousy investments. I say nearly all because there have been a handful of SPAC winners. And when they're good, they are really, really good. Think DraftKings, Averta, both tremendous long-term opportunities. Then there's another one that fits the bill. It's called API Group. That's APG for all you home gamers. This company is a leading player in a series of niche industries like fire protection, all sorts of specialty construction.

APR's really, it's roughly doubled its sales since it came public. It's got a nice, steady business with lots of recurring revenue, which is one of the reasons why this stock's up an outstanding 30% year to date. So can it keep climbing? Let's check in for the first time in a long time. Russ Becker, the president and CEO of API Group, to find out. Mr. Becker, welcome back to MidMoney.

Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here, and I'm especially excited to be here in person because the last time I had the opportunity to interview with you, it was kind of post-pandemic and everything was still virtual. But it was still before the huge great carrier acquisition, wasn't it?

Well, we were fortunate to be able to acquire Chubb Fire and Security from Carrier. And that transaction closed right at the beginning of 2022. And that is one gem of a company, isn't it? It's a great company. And, you know, back at the time, everybody talked about Chubb as if it was the sleeping giant. And at our investor day just 10 or 11 days ago, I talked about how the sleeping giant has awoken.

So, give me a sense so people know this is not Chubb the insurer. This is Chubb that's probably maybe the foremost of the fire and safety companies in America, in maybe the world? Well, Chubb Fire and Security has basically become the international piece of our business. The business is based in London, has operations in Western Europe, Asia, and Australia.

And it really has become kind of the international arm of API. We have an equally robust business that operates throughout North America. They're very, very complementary to each other. And we're very excited to have our Chubb teammates with us. Now, the verticals that Chubb is in, data center, pharma and healthcare, critical national infrastructure, third-party logistics, these are not verticals that should be affected by a slowdown in the economy.

No, we talk about end markets all the time across every aspect of our business, to be honest with you, Jim. A lot of strength in the end markets that you mentioned. The end markets and what we do really do matter. When we go to a data center, will we see you or is it just something that you take care of?

So we want to do the inspection service and monitoring for our data center customers. We also want to be in a position to provide security and fire protection services when they have expansion needs or modification needs for their existing facilities. And they really work one with the other. We want to lead in our business with inspections and service.

And then allow, have that great opportunity that we create by doing a good job for that client to lead to the project work or expansion work that they may have. And what would be an example of that project or expansion work?

Oh, so it happens all the time. Like as an example, you know, we work with many of the hyperscalers and we're doing the inspection and service work for them. And, you know, the data center market is just absolutely exploding, you know, right now.

In fact, one of the things that we're talking to our businesses about is making sure that we're not overextending ourselves in the space. - 'Cause you have that much that you could do. - For sure. We wanna take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to us.

And we want to make sure that we're working for clients who value our services. You know, one of the things about API is our culture that's centered on people and our purpose. And our purpose is building great leaders.

And we are 100 percent a people centered business. And so we want to make sure that we're putting our people that go to work on our customer sites every day on client sites that value their work. I used to own an inn. And when I went for studying to learn about what to do, I went to someone who was a teacher of business.

of hospitality. And he told me, one thing you need to know is that there will be safety rules added every year. And there will never be a safety rule subtracted, just added and added. And it wore me down, but it was true. You have a secular tailwind, which is safety.

Well, there's, you know, when I think about safety and I think about, you know, your comment slash question, I think about it in two sectors. There's the safety, health and well-being of each of our leaders and our businesses. And that is our number one value as a company and making sure that we're putting our people first.

But the beautiful part about our business model is the life safety component of it. A commercial office building, a hospital, the different government codes and regulations requires those buildings and facilities to have their fire protection and life safety systems inspected for functionality and operability at least once a year.

And we want to continue to build on the inspections, doing that inspection work for those clients, because we know we're going to get $3 to $4 of pull-through service work at any point during the course of a year for those clients. And then that leads to our project work.

where we build those sticky customer relationships so that we're able to pursue that work not based on price but based on the value we provide. I have to tell you, I've run two businesses where they went, when I took them over, there was an inspection once a year. And within two years, there was an inspection twice a year.

And it was a fortune. But I guess that's also what API has. You get twice as much business. That's the protective mode around the business, as we like to say. And, you know, we recently entered the elevator and escalator space. Right. And for the exact same, you know, opportunity.

idea behind it is that escalators and elevators have to be inspected by code and by law each year as well. And so there's just tremendous opportunity for us. And the people that we have, we're very fortunate, the people that we have providing service to those clients, they do a really good job. Well, Russ, you have a great business. And I can see why the stock just went straight up. It is a stock and a company that will work together.

perfectly in this environment because safety never takes a vacation that's 100 correct russ becker's the president and ceo of api group look at that chart you'll understand what works in this environment because a lot of what you own do not have that same chart that money's back in 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, skeet? Let's start with Eric in New York. Eric.

Jim, brand new to the club, first-time caller. My question, ACB, Aurora Cannabis. You know, I keep thinking that it has to come alive, right? The stock is up a lot. Here's what I say. You know what? I'm not fighting it. I'm not fighting it. You can own it. It's a nice speculative stock. There, I said it. Let's go to Joyce in Nebraska. Joyce. Joyce.

Booyah, Mr. Kramer. Booyah. First time, long time. Club member. Yes. And how about Skyworks Solutions? You know, Mr. Kramer. It's very cheap. It's very cheap, but I don't have a catalyst. I would still rather own NVIDIA than I would Skyworks. Got to go for best of breed. I want to go to Trevor in Kentucky. Trevor. Trevor.

Jim, how are you doing? Hope you're having a great Monday morning. Oh, man, it's the greatest. It's more of an afternoon thing here. But yeah, I mean, it's just a terrific day. What's going on? Hey, I had put...

Sezzle on my watch list about two months ago, and I can't even remember why. Oh, my. Two months ago, you would have made a fortune. Now, this happens to be a Ben Stoto rhymes with photo specialty. He looks at Sezzle quite a bit. And all I can tell you is we think Sezzle's had his day. I don't think we can recommend Sezzle any higher here. I just don't think we can. I'm looking right at Ben and wondering, and he's very helpful. Let's go to Aaron in Louisiana. Aaron.

Hey, Jim. Aaron. Hello. Yeah, you got me. It's me, Jim. It's Jim, Aaron. You can talk to me. I'm friendly. I think I speak for a lot of people out there when I say you drop a lot of good gems, and we're here to pick them up. Oh, thank you, Vince. Oh, man, between the club members and these nice words. Thank you, Aaron. What's going on?

All right. The question I have or the concern I have is with the stock that I've been holding since 2021, I have a five-year time horizon on it. Just had a record-breaking first quarter. My question is, should I hold, trim, or add to the position? And that position is Bill DeBaird.

All right, I remember many, many years ago when Danny Meyer came here, not really here, he came to an interesting studio. We had an angle of cliffs where I had an office that was really pretty terrific. And he said, listen, this is a company to watch. It is a company that is also a great hospitality company. And I'm going to tell you, I have followed it ever since. I cannot believe it had that earnings breakout. And if anything, I am not a, I'm a holder, not a buyer because it just had that spike. But if it came down, I would certainly be a buyer. Now I'm going to go to Alan in my home state of New Jersey. Alan.

Hey, Jim. Thanks for taking my call. Oh, my pleasure, Alan. What's happening? I am a long-time listener, first-time caller. Of course. That's great. Okay. With all the buzz with the evolution, revolution of artificial intelligence, my stock aligns very well with your closing segment on Friday as AI peak. So I'm curious to hear your perspective on Saren's...

I like Sarns, and I also happen to like Brian Krasanich, CEO. I am partial. They make money. I think you've got a winner. I was actually trying to figure out whether I could justify doing a piece on it because it's not that expensive. Sarns is a winner, and Brian's always welcome on the show, as we know. Now let's go to Bruce in Texas. Bruce.

Jim, I own a position at a company that produces 53,000 barrels a day, owns 143,000 Permian Basin acres, is trading at 1.25 times EBITDAX, has a billion dollars of infrastructure in place.

200 million barrels of proven reserves, Jim. High Peak Energy. Okay, Rusty Brazil once told me this was a terrific company. The problem is oil at $62 a barrel does not make me interested. If you think oil is going to go up, you do have a winner, though. High Peak is levered to the price of oil more than almost all of them. Hey, let's go to Roger in South Carolina. Roger. Yeah, howdy, Jim. Roger.

I want to ask you about a stock that's been trading for 27 years, Jim. And all that time, it's averaged over 52% a year gains. But it has a beta of only 0.64. What's your short and long-term outlook on ticker RSG?

RSG is such a good company. Oh, my God. It's just so good. I don't know if anyone remembers, we had John on recently, and I just said, you know, you got one hell of a company. That is a great stock. And that, ladies and gentlemen, the conclusion of the Lightning Round. The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab.

Coming up, do Campbell's latest earnings have investors saying no soup for you? With snacks slipping and costs climbing, Kramer serves up a spoonful of investing advice. Next. There was a time when you'd listen to a food company conference call and you'd hear point after point about how price increases were sticking. Costs were coming down and the return of capital would be immense. Safe growth meets safe income. That time is now long gone.

Campbell's reported this morning, and if you listen to the call, you'd think that they must make expensive gourmet food, not some of the most basic stuff in the supermarket, because apparently high prices are scaring away their customers.

Over and over again, management stressed the dynamic situation for the consumer, meaning the consumers are addressed. As new CEO Mick Bakehausen put it, quote, we started to see consumer sentiment softening in January. This continued throughout Q3 with consumers making more deliberate choices with their spending on food, end quote. Now, it would be comical if it weren't true. For example, Bakehausen said, quote, the consumer environment was a continued headwind in the quarter for some of our more discretionary categories in snacks, end quote.

such as crackers and chips."

Crackers and chips? Discretionary? Holy smokes. You'd think they were selling ozetic caviar, not Cape Cod potato chips. Now let me make, I gotta say something. I've been very fond of Campbell's with a good dividend, staple set of product lines, meals and beverages and snacks. Meals were quite strong, as management explained, the consumer's favorite ingredients that, quote, help stretch food budgets, eating at home. Snacks, however, were quite weak. Together, that gives you 1% organic sales growth and a 3% decline in earnings per share. Meow.

Under former CEO Mark Klaus, who came on the show all the time, now he's now the president of the Washington Commanders in the NFL, Campbell's bought Rayos, the terrific Italian sauce company, and initially that deal bolstered sales. Oh, but get this, in a real bit of bad luck, Rayos is tearing down a reciprocal tariff. Currently, in pause, that could turn out to be an 8% to 9% headwind because they imported from Italy.

Plus, we just learned that steel and aluminum tariffs are being doubled from 25 to 50 percent. The classic Campbell's soup can is made of steel. The softer tops with the pull tabs, they're made of aluminum. That's going to hurt. When you look at the weakness in snacks, things get more problematic. The company was hurt by weak sales of goldfish and Snyder's pretzels. Overall, snack sales were down 5 percent on an organic basis. Now, management repeatedly mentioned the economy as the main driver of this shortfall. You know what they didn't mention once?

The GOP-1 weightless drugs, the ones that make you feel full and they tamp down all sorts of cravings, including cravings for the junk food that Campbell's makes. I don't think they're oblivious, but over and over again, the packaged fruit companies have told us that what sells better in GOP-1 world is multi-packed snacks. And that turned out to be what worked well for Campbell's potato chips. So don't you think there's some similarity?

Honestly, I think it's insane to blame the economy for everything when 15 million or more Americans are taking these weight loss drugs. And to not acknowledge that younger people are much more concerned about their health than they used to be and know better than to eat salty snacks, that seems downright naive to me. The beer companies tried to ignore the two-pronged thrust of weight loss drugs and healthy bodies. In the end, though, they just sounded silly.

Now, Campbell's has a nice, juicy, good dividend that gives you a 4.5% yield, which seems safe here. Company just raised its payout by two cents per share in December for a quarter. Normally, I'd say you're paying you to wait. But now I'm thinking, wait for what?

for gop-1s to go out of style for younger people to break discipline for cans to come down in price for more clarity on tariffs with the benchmark 10-year treasury yielding 4.5 percent but the possible secular change against snacking

I don't think there's anything to wait for. And so I won't wait for unless you think Campbell's will catch a takeover bid. I don't think you should wait either. I like to say this always. Bull market is not my problem. Just for you, radio man money. I'm Jim Cramer. 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.

On WhatsApp, your personal messages stay private between you and whoever you send them to. So things like the passport numbers for your honeymoon stay between you and your fiancé. And that video call for your grand's 80th stays in the family. Even your streaming password stays between you and your college roommates who still ask for it every week in your group chat. Because on WhatsApp, your personal messages are yours. No one else can see or hear them. Not even us. WhatsApp. Message privately.