Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 2/6/26

I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. Other boom and friends, I'm just trying to help you make some money. My job is not just to entertain, but to educate to teach you. So call me at 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me at Jim Kramer. What an incredible snap. This was a hideous week until today when the Dow shot up one thousand SB jumped 1.97%, Nasdaq soared 2.18%. Let and bought by companies that helped build data centers. Yeah, well it turned out those worked out.

Now, uh now we've made it through the roller coaster of a week, you of course we really have to ask what's next. I mean it's not like we can just say, hey, that was it, terrific. I I don't usually start the game plan on Wednesday. Uh but that's when we get the employment report this time. It's kind of screwed up because of the government shutdown. For the various job inputs we've seen, it looks like we'll have some real weakness.

I like to take my cue from the stocks and the endless rallies and recession-proof names like PepsiCo or Procter and Gamble, J and J Burke suggest maybe the economy's not that high. Honestly, interest rates have been creeping up, so we actually do need a week labor port for the stock market to keep going higher.

Uh we clearport would give the Federal Reserve later this year, not now I'm not counting on any cuts from Ch outgoing G PAL, more wiggle room to cut rates. Something that would be a huge positive for housing, autos, and the construction sector, all of which are still hurting.

Now let's go back to uh to uh Monday morning, uh and that's when we hear from Cleveland Cliffs talk about a company that's hurting. This is a steel company that's done better than if it there were no tariffs, but not as well as Kramer Fab Newcore, with a stock that's had a tremendous year. Cliffs needs more economic activity to do better. It's discouraging. But I'm not giving up on what lower interest rates could do for a steelmaker that's not as good as Newcore.

Now there's been some incredible moves happening in the medical devices and distribution space this quarter. The once unsinkable and Boston Scientific got clobbered this week. 'Cause the competition got intense in their pulse field ablation business, which they had dominated. But the other side I told you that McKesson last week could be counted on for an upside surprise of gigantic proportions.

And I have praised Cardinal Health to the mul to the moon multiple times. Well McCasting Cardinal Health both shot the lights out. These are classic drug middlemen. You can buy them anytime they're down, although the problem is they're almost never down. Well the next device company that reports is called BD. Now that's the old Becton Dickinson. It's streamlined the business. And I I I kind of really like the new company. I expect a very positive forecast.

On Tuesday, we're back in Heavy Earnings Rotation. We've got DuPont, Coca-Cola, CBS Health, AstraZeneca, Data Dog, and uh SP Globe Report. This is the new DuPont run by Lori Cosh. She's done a terrific job. The stock's had a parabolic move though, so we peeled a little off for for the travel trust. I hated to leave it, but wow, it's been you know, let me be greedy.

PEPSCO stock went insane this week. It looks like the old PepsiCo with growth in snacks, except this time the growth occurred because they cut price. Coca-Cola doesn't have that nagging snack business. I mean the snack business, but you know that's been hurt by GLP-1s. But they've got a new CEO, and this is James Quincy's last quarter. He will be missed. CVS is now less of a drugstore than a managed care company.

uh which is uh theirs is called Aetna. The stock got hammered not that long ago and we learned that the government will barely raise reimbursement rates for Medicare Advantage plans this year. It was a disaster for the health insurers. The only one I want to own is CVS. Which reports Tuesday morning. CO David Joyner's done a terrific job, and I think it's a fascinating time to own the stock.

They're the you know what, they're the least they're the last real national drugstore chain now that Walgreens has been taken private and the one-time giant Rite Aid has closed all of its stores. Now how do you like that? Oh also AstraZeneca, we want every drug stock, they're all working. Uh next we have the uh the tells a powerful AI company uh AI companies.

destroying little guys, and this time it's Data Dog and SP Global. The dog is the kind of software as a service company that was once loved, not anymore. Stocks been nearly cut in half, but it still sells for less than 50 times earnings. But it's too expensive in this environment. There are cheap enterprise software stocks, just not this one. I'm going to go into the ones that are cheaper in a screen on emotional basis.

later in the show. Meanwhile, somehow the street has decided that SP global isn't worth as much as we thought, again'cause of AI. Maybe the AI machines can design better indices and you don't have to pay SP global exorbitant fees to use them. I don't buy it. But that's how the stock has been trading. We're again we're gonna go into how these stocks some c stocks that have been destroyed from AI, but I don't want to own this one either.

After the close Robin Hood reports, people are starting to get unnerved by how closely aligned this stock is with the price of Bitcoin. Even if today's dramatic rebound, Bitcoin still feels like it's lost its lobster. The precipitous decline of the cryptocurrency occurring at the same time as a weakening dollar calls into question whether it's a real storeholder value or even a hedge against inflation. We know nothing.

Th we we we this volatile thing used we used to think it could be a currency. That's uh obviously not gonna happen. It's a great speculative asset, I guess, until it started plummeting. So Robinhood may be the repository of something that's become toxic and

I think a lot less dependable. Wednesday we have some possible blowouts. Let's start with Vertive, which makes power including equipment for the data center could be a monster quarter. But will anyone care? Depends on the mood of the day, I guess. Here's another one that's blessed, McDonald's. Uh sure they've been hurt by beef. It ain't wingstop, but the value proposition is back and I think it works. By the way, the president's just now

Uh cutting tariffs on Argentina, that could at on Argentinian beef, I think that could be positive for that. And for Texas Roadhouse, by the way. Maybe we can find out what's the matter with one time fanfave T-Mobile. Uh with a stock that has fallen off K two. This thing acts uh at least it trades like it's got slower growth in Verizon. How's that possible? We get earnings, an analyst presentation, and hopefully some answers.

Wednesday night we find out how Cisco stock's been s been doing. If the stock's been soaring, I don't know. We have to find out whether this is a company that has got Uh less software and more hardware. The old days I used to hope it had more software and less hardware. But it's still a size position for the Chapel Trust. You know what the market doesn't like?

How about App Lovin', which is a former market darling from the year of magical investing? Not so magical now that Google's decided to crowd into that space. Plenty of earnings Thursday, but I want to start with what could be an explosive analyst meeting from Federal Express. Have you seen this thing run? CEO Raj Huberman is one of my heroes. He took the reins from the late founder, Fred Smith, and he made him proud. What an extraordinary improvement in service while cutting out costs.

Billions of dollars. Not easily done. Imagine how Robinhood may just be a proxy for Bitcoin just now. What does that say about Coinbase now that the major cryptocurrencies are everywhere? I I gotta tell you, I don't want to touch this. Then there are two contrasting story stocks that make terrific bookends for this segment, DraftKings and Agnico Eagle.

DraftKings is stymied by a lack of consolidation, an industry that needs California, Florida, and Texas to change their minds and allow gambling. I'm beginning to believe that unless they find new people who can help them open accounts, the stock might falter. It's so low now though it reflects no good and a whole lot of bad.

Agneco Eagle on the other hand reflects all the good in the world and then some as the second largest gold miner on earth. This gold stock is so shiny you need sunglasses just to look at it. Here's my advice. If you don't own any gold, bite the bullet and get some of this stock in. then wait for it to pull back. It will. But always own some gold, especially after we saw that Bitcoin isn't worth its weight in the precious metal or perhaps maybe even anything.

Finally Friday we're going to hear from Moderna, one of the hottest stocks in the market this year, as people are buzzing about their personal cancer vaccines. All I can say is I hope they happen because you know what we've been expecting these For well how about since the time it came public seven years ago?

All right, what a week. The mighty Dow crosses 50,000 and to think that the Dow was at 1,000 when I first walked down this street right over here 44 years ago. A lot of money's been made, but only for the persistent and the pig. Oh, and I neglected to mention that you won't see fast money or mad money in the next two weeks.

In our place will be coverage of the Milan Cortina Olympic Games Go Team USA, and we'll see you on the 23rd. Here's the bottom line. There's a lot going on next week, but the most important thing is, believe it or not, the Labor Department's non-farm payroll report on Wednesday. If that comes in soft, it means the Fed can keep cutting rates, and that's great news for the stock market itself. Let's take questions. Let's go to Ian in North Carolina. Ian.

Happy Friday, Jimbo. How's the weekend looking? Ah, it'll be fine. How about you? You got the game. You know, the game matters. It's all good. Game matters. Well hey, I got uh just a simple buy, sell or hold on Tempus AI ticker T E M. Well, you know, we're not recommending uh stocks that are losing a lot of money here just because the year of magical investing made a return and I think we got a little reprieve and it's gonna go back down again. Let's go to Matt in Arizona. Matt.

Jim, with magical investing over is a comfort technology now in the clear. Um well that stock has had such a run. I You know, I has you know what, I'll tell you the truth. Uh I'd rather own Verde going in ahead of the quarter than this stock, which is now up 31% already this year and up at a new high just this very day. All right, look, there's a lot going on. But keep your eye on the non-farm labor report in particular because rates have to come down.

お前まで行きたい So I'm taking it through the numbers and getting 50,000 today, but there are plenty of stocks not taking part in that route. I'll look at the Enterprise Swapers. trying to identify just what's going wrong here. And this week. energy player Coach her. I'm learning all about the chan the this big merger and Tweet Kramer. Send Jim an email to madmoney at CNBC. Um Call at 1-800-743-CNBC.

Over the last two weeks, we've heard from six of the seven megacap tech stocks that we formerly called Magnificent Seven. We don't do that anymore here. We don't because they no longer feel like a coherent group and they certainly don't trade that way. Some of'em are just terrible, some of'em are okay, and a couple are good.

But it this is a big a big butt here. The Mag 7 still account for roughly a third of the SP 500. They're still incredibly important, which is why tonight I'm gonna give you a roundup on the ones we've seen so far, which is everybody except NVIDIA. On Wednesday of last week we got results from Meta, Microsoft, and Tesla, one of these days where I sincerely believe that big tech is trying to give me a heart attack. Why else would they? All at the same time. Let's take them one by one by one.

Started with Meta, which initially got a lot of love, rallying ten percent the next day. Makes sense, Mark Zuckerberg delivered a huge top and bottom line beat. More importantly, he explained exactly how Meta's AI investments are already helping to make their core advertising businesses more profitable. I like that.

Of course, you still projected$115 to$135 billion of capital expenditures for 2026, but that goes down easier with an explanation and the guidance for the current quarter was excellent. Basically, meta gave us enough reason to believe that its investments are worth it. So it got a positive reaction at first.

Now since then the stock has slid lower in five out of six sessions, including a one point three percent decline in today's otherwise positive tape. That was surprising to me. At this point, Met has now erased all of its gains from last Thursday and then some. But as I see it, that just means m you're getting the quarter for free. Remember, we enthusiastically own this one for the Charitable Trust. It actually mystifies me. I I just think this one's a buy.

That same night we heard from Microsoft and the market was not amused. Mr. Softie's Azure Cloud Unit saw a deceleration in his revenue growth, in part because they were sending essential NVIDIA chips to other parts of the business, including Copilot, so they couldn't keep up with Azure demand.

Meanwhile, Copilot doesn't seem to have much demand. They boasted that their AI platform has 15 million paid users, which sounded pretty pitiful to me given the way that they crammed this thing into every aspect of Microsoft's office. Now, it didn't help that Microsoft is still spending a fortune on AI infrastructure, or that 45% of the remaining performance obligations, meaning bookings, came from open AI.

I'm not too worried about OpenAI, but to many on Wall Street, it's no longer seen as a reliable customer. And that's why Microsoft stock fell nearly ten percent the next day. And it's kept falling s until today when it finally got a slight bounce. I think they need to explain their story better, although with the stock now at twenty four times earnings, it certainly seems more enticing. Happy to have them on the show explain what's going on here.

That same night we got results from Tesla, which actually beat numbers, but nobody cares about the numbers here as electric vehicles from the past. And according to CEO Elon Musk, the future of this company comes down to cybercabs and humanoid robots. Stock fell more than 3% the next day. Maybe because their capital expenditure budget was higher than expected, or maybe people wanted more details on the new business.

At this point, I think musk acolytes might be more excited about SpaceX, which is planning to come public later this year. Last Thursday, Apple reported a magnificent quarter with blowout iPhone sales and staggeringly good numbers from China, which had previously been one of their worst regions. Apple also offered strong gross margin guidance for the current quarter, which suggested that they aren't getting killed by high memory prices, at least not yet.

While there was some initial handwringing about what might happen beyond this quarter, buyers eventually shook off that concern and were able to send the stock higher. After barely moving last Friday, Apple's rallied nicely to this. Now it's you know it's now up almost eight percent since the quarter. Doesn't hurt that they're avoided spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers by simply partnering with Google's Gemini on AI.

As I always said, own Apple, don't trade it. That's what we do for the Travel Trust. This week, two members of the Mag 7 reported Alphabet on Wednesday night and Amazon last night. And with both of these Wall Street focused on their massive cap cap Forecast. That's what they said. Outlook plans to spend$175 to$185 billion when the NL suspected just$116.5 billion. Then Amazon said, hold my beer. and projected$200 billion in capex this year when Wall Street was only looking for$146.6 billion.

Initially looked like Alphabet might get away with its huge CapEx forecast as they blew away the numbers and and they're winning the AI race on the consumer side. But eventually the stock faced some selling pressure falling almost three percent over the past couple days. Keep in mind though, Alpha came in hot. This was the best performing Mag 7 stock last year. I think it was simply due for a breather, frankly. This is a house of great business.

Google, Google Cloud, Gemini, YouTube, Waymo, they're the best at everything they do. I see it now, puts in the capper seat. As for Amazon, I believe in management's ability to deliver, but you need a certain level of faith if you're planning to own this market. That$200 billion CapEx number was shocking, as the company invests in everything from AI infrastructure to its retail operations to the low Earth orbit satellites that it can use to compete against Starlink.

It totally overshadowed positives from the quarter, including strong growth from Amazon Web Services, but away from that$200 billion capex burden, the stock also sold off because their operating income guidance for the current quarter came in substantially worse than expected. I think their investments will pay off eventually, but in the meantime it's obviously gonna hurt.

So again, do you trust Amazon to come out of the other side of this investment cycle in a better position with more earnings power? I do, which is why we own it for the CBC Investing Club. But not everyone agrees, so I wasn't shocked to see the stock down more than five percent today. As a matter of fact, I thought it down more than that.

I'm not going to pound the table for the stock of Amazon here. It's too hard. I am saying that I'm willing to hold on to it because I trust CEO Andy Jasny to execute here. But I know that's a leap of faith that's too hard for many of you to take. It's a big change to go from a solid growth company to one that may have to take down a lot of debt to grow faster. Not what many of you signed to one for hard stock dose.

That leaves us with NVIDIA, which hasn't reported yet, but when you see all these megacap tech companies budgeting insane amounts of money for capital expenditures, you know a lot of that's going to NVIDIA. Sure, some will go to Broadcom and Marvel Tech, but you better believe NVIDIA's getting a big cut of it. Maybe that's why the stock soared nearly eight percent today. It's best session since April of last year, and many had just begun to give up on it.

Here's the bottom line. If you're in from six of the formerly Night Division 7, I reiterate that the group is no longer monolith. Some are doing a lot better than others. If you've seen the movie, not everybody makes it to the end, like Steve McQueen or Ewell Brent. Based on what we've heard so far, I'm more sanguine about Alphabet. I like Meta, and I reiterate that you should own, not trade the stocks of both Alphabet. up a handful of jam Could be buying back.

If you own any software stocks, the last couple weeks have been eight. Hard for your portfolio. Looking at the iShare's expanded tech software sector ETF, that's the big one. It's down over 30% from its September highs and 15% just in the last week and a half. Like I've told you before, a lot of this comes down to AI worries. These generative AI platforms are great at writing code, making it easier for big companies to develop their own software in-house.

And at the same time, AI helps businesses do more with fewer employees, which is a problem for enterprise software firms that charge per user. Lately we've seen a bunch of big announcements from Anthropic, the company behind Claude, which keeps rolling out AI tools that can potentially replace all sorts of non-revenue generating jobs. And that's caused Wall Street to give up on the enterprise software cohort en masse.

Even when these companies report good quarters, and most of them have been good, well, their stocks, they still go lower. But this sell-off has gotten so savage that in some cases I think the proverbial babies are finally, and I've been waiting for this.

finally being thrown out with the bathwater because I don't necessarily like all these companies. That's why tonight I want to help you identify some buying opportunities. Software stocks that have got either gotten too low or never should have been thrown out in the first place. We ran a screen looking for non-small cap software and tech services companies with the stocks that are at least down 25% from their 52-week highs.

And that now trade at a discount to the SP 500, despite having above market earnings growth rate. We also screened out anything unprofitable. Of the 176 software and tech services stock sector, only 23 of them passed these tests. Now that's a nice you know nice winnowing owl. Let's go through some of my favorites.

Since this screen. Let's start with box and document storage and collaboration software play with a stock that's down 36% from its high. CEO Aaron Levy was on CNBC earlier this week, and I thought he gave a great rebuttal of the idea that AI will make enterprise customers completely abandon third-party software. You can watch that on CNBC.com, by the way.

Box is expected to grow its earnings at a fifteen percent clip this year, and it sells for just sixteen times this year's earnings estimates. That's pretty darn cheap, especially since box hasn't had any trouble meeting the estimates. Now, a little more controversial. Let's talk at Asian Simple Team, another collaboration software firm, mainly and its software developers.

Because they make software for coders and coding jobs are under threat from AI, the stock's been obliterated, down over 70% from its 52 week high. But when Atlassian reported last night, it delivered a terrific beat and raised quarter. It's just that Wall Street didn't care as the analyst nitpicked the company's R and D spending, so the stock tumbled another four percent today. At this point though, Atlassian's expected to put up nearly thirty percent earnings growth this year.

Yet the stock sells for just twenty times its twenty twenty six already says. I look it's absurdly cheap unless you think the business is about to fall off a cliff and some people think that. I do think AI is a real threat here, but my gut feeling says it's a long term threat, not not something immediate.

Third, there's HubSpot. This is controversial. It's a marketing sales and customer service software play with a stock that's down 74% from its high, even worse than at last season. It's considered to be a mini-sale switch. This company's on track to put up 20% earnings growth this year, and its stock trades at 20 times this year's number.

Sure seems cheap to me. That said, help us about reports next Wednesday. And given the way these stocks have been trading, I think maybe you wait for the quarter and then do some buying if it sells off on good numbers, which we've seen time and again over and over this earnings season. Keep in mind House Spot has not been one of my favorites, but it pops up on our screen as very cheap, and I can't deny the screen identified it.

Then there's Workday. You've seen them on our show a lot. Make software ca uh for human capital management and corporate finance. It's a named brand company. The stock's fallen forty few percent from its highs to the point where it now trades at less than fifteen times this year's earnings estimates, despite the analysts expecting them to have an eighteen percent growth rate. What else? Okay, here's one that I I I I'm happy to buy. It's Intuit, the company behind TurboTax and QuickBooks.

With a stock that's down more than forty-five percent from its high, trading at just around nineteen times this year's earnings estimates, one of the great growth stocks of our era. To me, this this health doesn't make much sense.

Much of turbo tax is geared toward the consumer. The AI threat for that is therefore minimal. The rest of their software is geared to small and medium-sized business. The kind of companies really can't afford to develop their own software internally, even with the help of AI. I think this one's a baby that's been thrown out with the bathwater and I'd be a buyer right here right now.

Well, those are my top five that passed the strict screen we ran to identify undervalued software stocks. But if you're willing to step a little outside these strict parameters, I've got five more that are starting to look enticing.

Well first there is Salesforce, which we own for the Travel Trust. It barely missed our final screen list because it's growing earnings at a twelve percent clip this year, a little slower than the SP in the aggregate. But man, Salesforce is down forty-three percent from its fifty-two-week high. It's selling for just 14 times this year's earnings estimates, literally its lowest priced earnings multiple in history, including 2008, including the Great Recession. I think it's near a bottom.

ServiceNow, which we had on the show last week, is also starting to look good, down over fifty percent from its high. They're expected to grow earnings by nineteen percent this year, and though you you'd have to still pay a slight premium with the stock selling for nearly twenty-four times this year's numbers, that's down from nearly seventy times forward earnings at the end of twenty twenty four.

ServiceNow also announced a big buyback last week, including a two billion dollar accelerated buyback. So you have to assume that they'll be right there buying along with you. Beyond that, I like three beaten-down cybersecurity names because I think security is important enough that most companies won't want to experiment with having AI make their own in-house replacement.

First is Okta. And they didn't initially make the list because it's only expected to have 7% earnings growth this year. It's kind of unusual for this good company. But not long ago, CEO Todd McKinnon told me that Oklahoma is huge opportunity securing thousands, if not millions, of AI agents that are being created within the enterprise. And that r it resonated with me, frankly, with the stock selling for just twenty-three times this year's earnings. I I it's probably worth nibbling at.

Now here's two that I just say. 看著吧 We own Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike for the travel trust. We're sticking with them, even though these stocks are down 29 and 30% from their highs, respectively. These are t the top two consolidators in the cybersecurity space, and they're so important to their customers that I see little or no possibility of a or threat of AI disruption.

I think that they could be worked hand in hand with AI. If anything, AI means more business for them though, because this new technology gives bad actors powerful tools to hack into your network. You almost never get a chance to buy Palo Alto or CrowdStrike at deep discounts. So if you don't own them already, I would pound. Of all the stocks mentioned, these two are my favorites because the Anthropic cannot possibly duplicate or even improve on what they have built.

We bought some CrowdStrike into this dip because the decline is way out of whack with the company's process. We know that it might not bottom here, but sometimes you have to take a bit of risk. With high quality franchises when stocks are low. Here's the bottom line. Yes, AI will hurt many enterprise software companies.

But when you look at how much these stocks have already come down, I think there are real buying opportunities here. As long as you stick with high quality merchandise, especially cybersecurity stocks. That simply shouldn't be trading with the rest of the group like they are now. Let's go to Ahab in New York. Ahab.

Hey Jim, how are you? I have a quick question. I took a position on Oracle since it was two hundred and eighty eight. That as you as you know now it's below fifty percent. My question, should I sell or hold? Well, uh, Oracle I don't like what they're doing to their balance sheet and I always like companies with good balance sheets and I think that this one is therefore not uh investable right now. I think it can bounce and if it does bounce I think you should sell it.

Let's go to Brian in New York. Brian. Jimbo, am I overreacting here? Is Unity software's down over fifty percent? Is this is management just not able to execute or is AI really gonna take over? business. You you think that I do think I think that these guys are a candidate to be to be hurt by um buy it but you know what we have to we should just have them on and and make the decision like that because let's hear them out if the the client the stop has had.

AI will hurt a lot of enterprise software stocks. But when you consider how much they've come down already, you know what, you gotta take a look at least among the rubble and see what might be.

Much more mad money ahead, including my exclusive with Cote Terra, off the news of the company's merger with Devon Energy. And even after a hugely positive day, this week saw a lot of the things that we're going to do They saw a lot of pockets of weakness. I'm running through them in detailing how you can prepare for next week. And all your calls rapid fire tonight's The lightning round. So stay with Chris.

Earlier this week, we learned that Devon Energy is merging with Cotur, an all-stock deal worth about$21.5 billion. That would make the combined company the fourth largest independent energy producer in America. It'll be one of the largest operators in the Delaware Basin. That's an oil-rich region of the Permian that we like so much. This is a very big deal.

So let's take a closer look with Tom Jordan. He's the chairman, president, and CEO of Kotura to learn more about what's happening here. Mr. Jordan, welcome back to Man Money. Hi Jim. Thanks for having me. All right. So tell me Tom, why do you have to do it? Because you know you've been running the company, you got a merge company with Cabot, been going along okay. Why now? Why do this?

Well look, uh both companies are doing exceedingly well. We've always had great respect for Devon, their assets, their people, their organization, and I think it's been mutual. And Jim, this is a story that kind of tells itself. When you look at the overlap of the assets the diversity that we'll have of of revenue and and also the strength of both organizations. It it it really is a story that tells itself. This will be one of the strongest companies in our sector, very well positioned.

and built to compete with a whole new class of peer companies. So you've got uh it looks uh you'll be top. Let's say top one or t top two or three. Anadargo, Eagleford, Marcellus, Rockies, and of course we've got uh the Permian. What's the plan? Will you you keep all those areas or is it time just to really focus on on the Permian, which is terrific?

Well first let me tell you that Clay Gaspar will be CEO, I'll be chairman of the board. So uh certainly uh Clay's Clay's the one that carries this torch. But uh, you know, at at the very beginning we're gonna need to go through just a portfolio optimization and that can mean a number of things, including looking at capital allocation, looking at do we have the right assets. I mean all that's work to be done and we we need to get our new board together, we need to have conversations.

But uh, you know, Clay's the right person for the job and he'll do a fantastic job just getting this company on its feet. Day one. Okay, so tell me where things are in the industry. I I mentioned that because I've been spending an awful lot of time with the people who uh run these big data centers in Mag Seven.

And it's very clear as much as they would like very much, very much, to be able to make it so they could j make it all with nuclear, make it all with solar, make it all with wind, make it all with hydro. It's really natural gas and they w uh they just don't like to talk about, but it's true. Um where do you think natural gas is in the pecking water in this country of energy? Top of the stack, Jim. Uh y you know, we need all uh it

It's not one one source of energy is not in competition with another and they all have different attributes. But when it comes to things like electrical power generation, particularly for data centers that need to run twenty four seven. That energy needs to be reliable and dispatchable. And by that I mean regardless of whether it needs to be able to generate electricity on demand under all conditions. And natural gas is a clear winner in that set of criteria.

And then one other thing I'll say about the new company, Jim, a lot of these counterparties are looking for very healthy investment grade suppliers. And a uh we announced on Monday, all three credit ra rating agencies have us on positive watch. And with our balance sheet and our financial wherewithal, we are really sitting in a good position to satisfy that demand with counterparties that want investment grade counterparties.

Well, I actually thought thought of you when uh w I know that some of these companies are looking to buy they're lit literally looking to buy a natural gas company, but I think now you're too large and you're able to dictate some good terms versus some of the smaller guys.

Well, it's gonna be a powerful company. Uh we're we're gonna we're we're putting this company together to compete. It's it's uh it's gonna be something that will be a force to be reckoned with. You know, Jim, you know our industry well. I in many respects, uh companies like ours are technology companies that happen to produce oil and gas. The amount of technology that we throw at these problems is just stunning and the advancements we've made

And that's the beauty of this combination. Not only do our assets overlap But both companies have taken different approaches and solved different problems technology-wise, and bringing them together is going to be a powerful leveraging combination. Both teams are excited about this.

And uh th this company is gonna be built to compete. Hey Tom, tell me about uh natural gas in general. What the heck happened that we could still as a major country and the biggest natural gas uh country in the world still have a natural gas spike on it? Cold snap, go to five, six dollars, get everybody worried. What is it about the system that made that happen? Well we need we need more infrastructure, Jim. There's still bottlenecks

And you have disconnects between our ability to move the product to the customer based on where the demand is. And and you know, in in some sense we're a broken record here, but you know, it's a record that needs to be heard. We need infrastructure. We you know, if you look at the amount of pipelines that have been built in the United States over the last twenty or thirty years, it's criminally low compared to the increase in production.

So, you know, hopefully some people in Washington are hearing that. Some people in states are hearing that. Uh we're ready as the industry to supply the gas. We need very productive, efficient pathways to get it to our customers. Are you willing I've just got a minute left, I don't know whether I I hope I still get to interview you but

Uh are you willing to go to Washington and tell that story? Because we need someone who's level headed and understands the environment, is not trying to do anything that's cowboy, whatever. To explain how natural gas really is great and how we just need more infrastructure and make it so that we're a much stronger country. Well I I it you know, it's an honor to to be able to represent our industry in any venue where there are reasonable people that want to engage in conversation.

Uh we love engaging with our critics'cause we think we've got a persuasive argument. and our industry is gonna be there to supply, you know, put it put America and the catbird seat in a global competition. Well I look I wanna congratulate you for all the great things that you've done.

Uh you've been an amazing steward of shareholders and when it came to the idea that you look you gotta combine and do well for the shareholders even better than you do and you went and did it. Didn't have to. Could have stayed independent. Right. Could've stayed independent, but you chose not to.

You look, it's the right move for our shareholders, it's the right move for our company. And uh yeah, I'll just say one more time, Clay's the right leader for this organization. So I'll I'll be honored to be chairman of the board. Highly engaged, but uh from a board standpoint, Clay will be running the company. Fair enough. Uh Tom Jordan, uh terrific guy. Soon to be chairman of the first time. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you, Jim. Coming up, Kramer takes your

Sky's the limit. It's a fast fire lightning round. Next. It is time! I was talking to my sauce is all just been there on colour colours I hadn't found my stepbare's the graphics of the body play the sound. Dad, come on the light round case, red brother. Let's start with Ron, it's not just Ron.

Thanks Jim for taking my Darkest corner, symbol K-L-A-O you the truth i would rather see you in a firm i interviewed max slepton today i know the stock is going out of favor but the numbers are good and that's the one i would be in let's go to sam in pennsylvania

Jim, listen, we got an aging global fleet of aircraft and the backlog of Boeing is not getting any better. So that's where TAD technology is benefiting right now. So I'm curious what you think about. That is a really interesting stock. I know it's moved up a lot, and I say yeah, I like Halmet. I think you're in a good Hi Jim. Thanks for taking my call. Oh, I'm not sure. I just wanted to get an opinion.

I wanted to get your opinion on UiPath. You know, I have not like UiPath because this whole idea about you know that there's these things that Get rid of the uh of the humdrum and the prosaic. Uh-uh. It that it's just never struck me as something I wanted to be in. It's finally got Nikki some money, but it's expensive a stock. Let's go to John in Pennsylvania. John. Mr. Kramer, thanks for taking my call.

Oh excellent. Have a great birth have a great birthday next week too. Thank you. Listen, I feel like I own the deed to the house of pain and toast. Yeah, you know what? Boy, that stock has just really come down. They've got a great device, but you know what? That's not enough. And I've always been suspicious of it because I still think you can trade back and forth, but it's got a good device, but a device does not make great stock. Let's go ahead and James in Louisiana. James.

I want to know your thoughts about the first publicly traded company with a federal bank charter. in the digital asset sector. Well I you know I I think if you went digital assets I think you should just go buy the st go buy Bitcoin. That's the only thing I'm gonna recommend in that whole group anymore. Just go buy you want Bitcoin? Buy Bitcoin. Let's go to Josh in New New Jersey.

Gosh. Hi Jim. My father has never steered me wrong before, but is he scared me wrong with going with Butterfly Network? You know the ultrasound, I don't know. Just tell them it's it's a very competitive market and I don't want to be in that part of the medical device group. Even GE Healthcare reported a pr a pretty good number and it went up for about 10 seconds and then it went right back down. Too hard for this guy, just too hard. at Curtin, Ohio, Kurt. Hello, Jim. Good evening, sir.

Good evening. My question is regarding Enbridge. I love Enbridge, but it hit a 52 week high today. Next week. I still think the you know look, the yield's great. It's a really good company. I'm not gonna push something at a 52-beki before it reports. There'll be people who don't like it, and that's when you're gonna want to uh buy it after they sell it. Let's go to James and Mississippi, James.

Wow, you came to play. What's happening? Looking at a stock, I've got a this company I've had it for a number of years. Harmony gold mining. It's homemade's good. Look, I'm an Agnico guy and you see when we have Agnico Eagle. What a solid stock that is. I what a great story that is. That's the one I want you to be in. Let's go to Ross in Maryland. Ross.

Hi, how are you? It it's an honor to uh speak with you, uh Jim and uh thank you very long time listener. Um and um I um uh in order to um uh di diversify my tech heavy portfolio I was thinking about Okay, look Dallas still needs the Chinese buyers to come back. It's had a really nice bounce because people wanted to buy the cyclicals. Trimmer of Dow right here after a very brutal run, not a buyer. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of The Lightning Round is sponsored. Coming up.

Rough week on Wall Street, Kramer's investigating the most likely culprits and telling you how to help your Now that we've come out of the other side of the brutal sell-off, with the averages soaring today, it's worth looking back on this week, figuring out what the heck happened.

What was going on when stocks were melting down? I think you have to divide the sellers into a couple camps to make sense of anything. First, there was a tremendous amount of selling in everything thanks to the collapse of Bitcoin earlier this week. When it rebounded today, did you notice stocks came right back?

When you have some asset that's so big, so sprawling, and it goes down, you always find that there are people on margin, borrowed money, who don't want to sell that asset. So what do they do? They sell what they can to meet their margin costs, like the SP future. That always creates confusion. What do the SB futures have to do with Bitcoin? Simple. They're a ready source of funds for people who suddenly need funds, like the owners of Bitcoin. And why did Bitcoin go down so much?

I think people who watch the dollar weaken at the same time as Bitcoin were surprised. I think it caused a big loss of faith in crypto. Wasn't it supposed to be a store of of wealth that you could pr be protected from if it if currency gets devalued? A weaker dollar should have made it strong. It didn't. Well, we now know that gold was a storeholder value and is a much better safe heaven. And uh by the way, that's where the money went. I think the money's gonna keep going to gold.

At this point, though, it looks like Bitcoin might have bottomed thanks to rumors that President Trump will put money in a strategic Bitcoin reserve. I'm not sure why we need one, but just the chatter alone that this could happen bailed out a lot of crypto investment.

Including a company called Strategy, which has the largest agglomeration of Bitcoin in the world. Strategy reported yesterday and talked about our crypto present. Crypto's been bouncing ever since, and it's taken a lot of pressure off the stock market. They are terrific cheerleaders. The faithful lap it up. Second campus sellers, those who believe that the AI companies will come after every enterprise software stock.

Now this camp is acting out of fear of anthropic the business to business AI service. It's developing programs that a lot of people feel are better than Adobe, Salesforce, Workday, Atlassian, ServiceNow. Uh that anything that those guys have to offer. As you heard earlier though, I think some of these declines are overdone.

Sellers don't care. They just want to get out now. Third campus sellers, those who have given up on the Magnificent Seven altogether. Close viewers know I have given up on the name of the Magnificent Seven because these stocks were once considered solid performers, but are now just dislike on mess.

Their stocks have no pic they've been no picnic to own. I say stop thinking of them as a group though. I know that for the charitable trust, we want to buy more alphabet as soon as we can, and we've been telling club members this. Uh because that's the one that really seems to be having a viable dip.

I like the decline in meta, but because the stock is overdone, but I'm not gonna pound the table on it. Apple and NVIDIA remain the two stocks that I say own, don't trade. The only two in the entire market that I'll bless like that. Amazon after today, it's become a work in progress. I can see why people are selling these stocks. They're falling behind much of the market. So they're Losers instead of winners.

Finally, there were sellers who said they only want to own companies that make things and do stuff and have reasonable price to earnings, multiples, dividends, buybacks. Most of the tech stocks do not fit that pattern. You must know that I am in this final camp. I have pulled in my horns for the Charible Trust. I don't want to lot own a lot of stocks that are expensive or make no money or can't be justified by typical prosaic valuation. That's why the Chapel Trust portfolio looks like it does.

I think that what matters here is value and you have to have some value in your portfolio. To have value, you need profits. So you have a couple of unprofitable or expensive companies in your portfolio. That's okay. As I say, and how to make money in any market. I am okay with owning some speculative stocks, but if they make up a big chunk of your portfolio, you are chasing too much risk and not enough reward. I like to say there's always a more market.

I'm sure find just for you right here on Man Money. Kramer, see ya next time. All opinions expressed by Jim Kramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNPC or its parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by Kramer on television, radio, internet, or another media.

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