Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 02/05/25

Summary

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – Episode Summary (02/05/25)

Release Date: February 6, 2025
Host: CNBC – Jim Cramer

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Market Overview

Jim Cramer kicks off the episode by highlighting the day's market performance:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: Gained 3,17%
• S&P 500: Advanced 0.39%
• Nasdaq: Climbed 0.19%

Despite a sluggish morning appearance, Cramer emphasizes opportunities within growth stocks, which often suffer overreactions to minor setbacks.

Jim Cramer [01:03]: "This market has the memory of a mayfly that creates a ton of opportunities."

Stock Picks and Market Insights

Dissecting Market Overreactions

Cramer discusses how minor news often triggers disproportionate stock sell-offs:

• Disney (DIS): Despite a strong quarter in theme parks, Disney's stock dipped due to a 1% subscriber loss in its streaming service following a price hike.

  Cramer [02:10]: "Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. These wise men and women sold Disney down into oblivion."

  He contrasts Disney's resilience with Netflix, asserting Disney's undervaluation and potential for recovery.

• Uber Technologies (UBER): Cramer praises Uber's robust performance, noting extraordinary numbers but observes that negative analyst comments provide buying opportunities.

  Cramer [06:50]: "I think this is a good one."

• Tesla (TSLA): Criticizes the ongoing sell-offs over unrelated issues, such as CEO Elon Musk's political stance, insisting Tesla's core innovations remain strong.

• Spotify (SPOT): Argues against analysts' pessimism, highlighting consistent growth and presenting recent stock dips as entry points.

Resilient Stocks and Teflon Qualities

Cramer identifies several "Teflon" stocks—companies that consistently recover from setbacks:

• Abbott Labs (ABT): Despite losing a $500 million lawsuit, ABT's stock surged over 30 points post-event.
• American Express (AXP) and Marriott International (MAR): Both experienced temporary declines followed by significant recoveries.
• Costco (COST) and Walmart (WMT): Consistently rebound from short-term setbacks, maintaining their status as retail giants.
• CyberSecurity Stocks: Companies like CrowdStrike (CRWD) and Palo Alto Networks (PANW) rebounded from technical glitches and market skepticism.

Cramer [07:45]: "Are you ever going to keep them down... you buy them when they're down because they won't stay down for long."

In-Depth Analysis: Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL)

Cramer delves deep into Alphabet's recent performance and investor reactions:

• Earnings Report: Alphabet reported a disappointing quarter, primarily due to a massive $75 billion increase in capital expenditures (CapEx) intended for growth.

  Cramer [08:00 - 11:59]:
  "Alphabet, parent company of Google, reported a seemingly disappointing quarter and their stock just got slammed down 7%."

• Market Reaction: Investors reacted negatively to the aggressive CapEx, viewing it as overinvestment which contrasts with other tech giants like Microsoft and Meta, whose similar investments were well-received.

• Competitive Landscape: Introduction of Deep Seek, a Chinese generative AI tool, heightened market fears about excessive spending on AI infrastructure.

• Future Outlook: Cramer questions whether this marks a shift in investor sentiment toward tech CapEx:

  Cramer [11:59]: "So, we're gone pretty quickly from a world where major investments in infrastructure are cheered... to a less certain world where it seems that investors don't like it."

Caller Interactions

Chevron (CVX) and Salesforce (CRM) Recommendations

• Caller: Interested in adding Chevron to the portfolio.

  Cramer [08:03 - 08:17]: "Mike Worth is just the CEO. He's committed to that dividend like no other. That's one of the safest dividends I know. I bless that investment."

• Caller: Inquires about Salesforce's upcoming report.

  Cramer [08:32 - 09:10]: "I think you stay in the stock and if it gets hit, I would buy more. That's how much I believe in their Agent Force."

Marriott International (MAR) Analysis with Caller Lonzi

• Caller Lonzi: Questions Marriott's standing in the hotel industry.

  Cramer [09:23 - 09:32]: "They are the top dog when it comes to lodging in hotels."

  Advises a strategic buy approach:

  Cramer [09:32]: "You buy some and then you let it go down 30 times earnings. That is a high multiple for Marriott."

Featured Segment: Columbia Sportswear with Tim Boyle

Cramer hosts Tim Boyle, Chairman, President, and CEO of Columbia Sportswear, for an in-depth discussion.

Corporate Performance and Strategy

• 2024 Performance: Columbia Sportswear fell short of growth and profitability goals, particularly in North America despite strong performance in China.

  Tim Boyle [29:30]: "When we're not operating at a high level in the upper quartile of our competitors, that's a problem for me."

• Inventory Management: Successfully reduced excess inventory accumulated during COVID, focusing on maintaining lean operations.

  Cramer [31:20]: "I think the stock is very interesting here."

• Market Positioning: Plans to enhance brick-and-mortar presence in high-traffic malls and bolster online and mass media marketing to increase product adoption.

Challenges and Future Plans

• Tariffs Impact: High import duties on Columbia's products create financial strain and uncertainty in planning.

  Tim Boyle [34:35]: "We need some surety about what is going to happen, what's the future."

• Strategic Initiatives: Emphasizes the "Accelerate" strategy to revitalize North American operations and improve growth metrics.

Cramer [36:39]: "I think the stock is very interesting here."

Lightning Round: Rapid Fire Stock Opinions

Cramer engages in the popular Lightning Round, offering quick buy, sell, or hold recommendations on various stocks based on caller inquiries. Highlights include:

• Work Management Platforms (e.g., Monday.com): Positive outlook due to user-friendly features and AI integration.
• SoundHound (SOUN): Approaches with skepticism despite some analyst support.
• Bitcoin (BTC): Strong endorsement as a belief-driven investment.
• Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Stocks: Mixed feelings due to rising costs, health trends, and competition from private labels like Costco's Kirkland brand.

Cramer [40:35]: "I am a huge believer in bitcoin. Okay. I think it should just buy bitcoin."

Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

Cramer wraps up by expressing concerns over the current sentiment in consumer packaged goods (CPG) stocks, citing challenges like rising ingredient costs, health-conscious consumer trends, and intense competition from private labels.

Cramer [45:00]: "These used to be safety stocks, for heaven's sake, but they're safe no more."

He concludes by reaffirming his commitment to helping investors navigate the volatile market landscape.

Cramer [46:24]: "I like to say, as always, more markets somewhere. I promise I've been just for you right here, Money. I'm Jim Cramer. See you tomorrow."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Jim Cramer [01:03]: "My mission is simple to make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors."
• Jim Cramer [02:10]: "Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. These wise men and women sold Disney down into oblivion."
• Jim Cramer [07:45]: "If you buy these every time they get hit, you'll do well because they shouldn't be hit in the first place."
• Jim Cramer [08:00]: "Alphabet got hit because it's investing too heavily in growth. And that represents a huge change from what we've been seeing very lately."
• Tim Boyle [29:53]: "We've worked diligently on those areas. We've seen growth. And frankly, we need to be putting the same sort of rigor around our North America business."
• Jim Cramer [36:39]: "I think the stock is very interesting here."

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Conclusion

In this episode of "Mad Money," Jim Cramer provides a comprehensive analysis of current market trends, stock performances, and investment strategies. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing overreactions in growth stocks, identifies resilient "Teflon" stocks, and offers insightful discussions with industry leaders like Tim Boyle from Columbia Sportswear. Through his energetic and informative commentary, Cramer aims to equip investors with the knowledge needed to capitalize on market opportunities and navigate potential pitfalls.

Transcript

[Jim Cramer]

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[Jim Cramer]

My mission is simple to make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a bull market somewhere and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now. Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramer Record. My friends, I'm just trying to make you a little bit of money. My my job is not just to educate, but also to entertain you. So call me at 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet Mitchell Kramer. This market has the memory of a mayfly that creates a ton of opportunities. So today with the Dow gained 3 or 17 push SB advanced.39%. Nasdaq climbed.19% after. By the way, looking truly awful in the morning. I want to help you find them. Time and again I've seen growth stocks just get pummeled. Some little bitty bit of bad news, some downgrades niggling nonsense about a quarter with less hair on it than I have. And the punishment doesn't fit the crime, if there's even a crime at all. This morning for instance, Disney reported it was trip and quarter theme parks much better than expected. Movies, fantastic TV and sports are real positive. But there was this one line involving Disney streaming property. When it raised prices, there was some churn and subscribers dropped by 1%. Oh no. The genius trader said to themselves, Netflix had no churn when it raised prices. So let's bury this stock. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. These wise men and women sold Disney down into oblivion. Not thinking about two things. One, Netflix is a beast. The best, the best without compare. And to Netflix doesn't have parks or cruise ships or even a fraction of Disney's intellectual property. I bet that in a few weeks people will forget why they sold Disney stock down and the stock it will be higher. Same thing with Uber. You see Uber won the war of pick up and deliver. The numbers reported this morning were extraordinary. But the experts found a line or two they didn't like. Next you know, they kick it to the curb and you get an opportunity to buy some at a discount. I am confident about this one. After interviewing CEO Darcash with the story this very morning on Squawk on the Street. We'll give you a little more on Uber's politics later but I think this is a good one. Now we see this pattern constantly. Tesla will sell off over something I don't. Maybe it's German numbers is California's China business. I heard today that people have stopped buying Teslas because Musk turned out to be a trumpist. I say so what? He's going to solve the self driving conundrum. Of course Tesla always has some acolyte loving person who comes on our air and blesses it and says it's worth $1,000 and so off the races again. And that will happen. That will happen. Now here's an easy one. Spotify. This is subscription business like Netflix that keeps on growing and growing and growing. It's the ultimate beat race stock. But there's always someone down there giving them the business. I saw it today when Alfred said Spotify's run too far. It's peaking. To which I say based on what? I didn't see a thing in the piece. It was convincing but the stock still got knocked down in the morning. It gave you a great entry point for it rallied and ended the day in positive territory. And we saw this with Abbott Labs abt not that long ago when it lost a lawsuit involving a special infant formula that seemed agreed that some aggrieved parents thought harm their baby. The formula was made by Abbott because women sometimes just can't produce enough milk. Abbott only made $9 million a year on it. I think that he actually own this formula. I I think they do it at the best of the government or they just out of literally out their hearts but it doesn't matter. They lost a $500 million lawsuit5 or may I told you to dismiss it. Not worried about it. Sure enough what happened? Abbott's stock is now up more than 30 points from that event. I've seen this happen endlessly with American Express asp to it'll creep up and the fact that the millennials, the gym, whatever's love it. And then it reports on a sleepy Friday which puts on Friday and everyone runs from it like it's got the bubonic plague. But two weeks later American Express is up from where it was before the quarter and people have forgotten why they sold it. Same deal with Marriott Growth Wholesaler. It heads down after reports then soars when people realize it is the best hotel chain out there. I even see this with Costco and Wal Mart, the two best retailers in America. When Costco reports people tend to be repelled by the quarter, it could lose 100 points only to start the trek higher again as there was no reason to sell the stock in the first place. Someone will always find fault with Wal Mart or say it's run too much and they'll sell it down. Week later another analyst remind us of the buying opportunity that it is and will jump at the chance. They both hit all time highs today. CyberSecurity Just over six months ago, a glitch caused by crowdstrike seemed to stall the whole world. Then the CEO George Kurtz, truly indefatigable gen visits 130 companies in 100 days for a genuine apology tour and all is forgotten and forgiven. In response, the stock quickly takes out its old high. Can you believe this? Cloudflare and Palo Alto Networks. They're come back kids too. Every time. Oh, let's not forget the ontologists at Palantir. Those guys can do no wrong, especially in the eyes of their buddy buddy investors. Now if you buy these every time they get hit, you'll do well because they shouldn't be hit in the first place. So you're probably saying, can it really be that easy? I mean, why aren't I a millionaire? Well, I'll tell you why. Because there are landmines, real landmines, in the yellow brick road times when the dips are merely the beginning. So I'm going to spell those out for you too. First you have to ask is it dependent upon China in any way, shape or form? That's been the case of death for a really good casino company, Wynn Resorts, and for Estee Lauder, the mess of a cosmetics company. The one sharp people. Sharp as attack people actually. Danaher who've lost their way and don't even know it have been bashed by China. Oh, let's not forget how well Merck could be doing if the Chinese government didn't slow play the role out of the Gardasil vaccine for no particular reason other than forget it Jake. It's China. It has China. I mean honestly, what the heck happened there? We're worried about Apple now, which has to be one of the largest employers in the entire People's Republic. The Chinese Communist Party is now going after Apple for the service stream almost as hard as the U.S. justice Department did under Biden. Oh, and anything chemicals. Those need Chinese orders desperately. Second, can the GOP just one drug stop the craving for the product? Hershey bars, Donuts, Canvas, all the Johnny Walkers, Jack Daniels, Casa Amigos, Oreos, Twinkies, lay's potatoes, Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops. If it tastes good. The stocks of these creators are out. Third, department stores of any kind. Doesn't matter. Kohl's. Oh boy. Try saving that one. Macy's? No thank you. Although I sure wish it wouldn't sell. Let's expand it. Does it sell in department stores? Capri pvh, Tapestry sold to you. Sell, sell, sell. Nothing's foolproof. I want to put a video on the always right story, but what if Amazon says tomorrow that it's developed its own chip? The lessons Dependence on Nvidia after the deep sea scare, I thought Ferrari might work, but that thing's gotten way too high. In the end it is a car company. Verta fit the bill because of its data center affiliation. But that's become a battleground too. We don't need no stinking battlegrounds. Bottom line, always remember that there are indeed Teflon stocks in any market. The key don't buy them unless and until they get knocked down. And then remember, they'll get up again. You're never going to keep them down. I need to go to Chuck in North Carolina. Chuck? Booyah, Jim. Booyah, Chuck.

[Caller]

Thanks for taking my call.

[Jim Cramer]

With the recent market volatility, I'm looking to add a stock with a sustainable divide.

[Caller]

And if not this one, maybe you could recommend another.

[Jim Cramer]

But I'd like to have opinion on.

[Caller]

Adding CVX Chevron to my portfolio.

[Jim Cramer]

Yeah, that's a great one. I'll tell you why. Mike Worth is just the CEO. He's committed to that dividend like no other. They've got giant cash flow. It is not a problem. That's one of the safest dividends I know. I bless that investment. Sharon in Minnesota. Sharon.

[Caller]

Hey Jim. I hope your family is doing well.

[Jim Cramer]

Absolutely. Good question.

[Caller]

That's great. The question that I have is about Salesforce. It's going to report soon. It's almost to. It's close to its high and I'm wondering whether it's a good time to buy now or to wait until I.

[Jim Cramer]

Actually think it's okay. There was a really terrific piece out by Morgan Stanley yesterday about what the clients are doing and how great it's been Agent Force has been for them. It's such a winner that I smiled. I said oh my God, Mark Benioff is going to do so well. I think you stay in the stock and if it gets hit, I would buy more. That's how much I believe in their Agent Force. It's terrific. And thank you for the call. How about law in my home state of New Jersey, Lonzi.

[Caller]

Hey, how you doing Mr. Kramer? First time caller, been following you since my financial class back in 97.

[Jim Cramer]

I love. Oh my God. I've really been around. Wow. Let's go to work.

[Caller]

Hey man, just wanted to know what's your thoughts on Marriott and are they the top dog when it comes to lodging in hotels?

[Jim Cramer]

They are. And I don't even mind that the stock is three points off its high. You buy some and then you let it go down 30 times earnings. That is a high multiple for Marriott. But the travel thesis is so strong you don't know when you're going to get in. But you buy some. You don't buy all of it right now. You buy some. That's the prudent way to do it. I listen people. Nothing's foolproof. But some stocks are more Teflon than others. The key is to buy them when they're down because they won't stay down for long. On Mad Money tonight, Alphabet is down 7% across the tape last night. I'm eyeing the Texas giant Capex commitment and how it could affect the stock moving forward. Then what's the road ahead for Uber? I'm getting a read on the ride share sharing company after the stock slid on the report. And later I'm checking in with the CEO of Columbia Sportswear to hear if today's post Ernest Dip could be a chance to buy in a turnaround story. So stay with Kramer.

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[Tim Boyle]

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[Tim Boyle]

Last.

[Jim Cramer]

Night Alphabet, parent company of Google, reported a seemingly disappointing quarter and their stock just got slammed down 7%. That's the headline. But when you dig down to the details, what really freaked people out is that they're Planning to sell $75 billion in capital expenditures this year, yet they're being punished for investing heavily in growth, which is a big change from last year. Of course, that's not the only reason the stock got hit first. Keep in mind that Output stock had run up nearly 25% from the end of September through yesterday's close. It was really charming. Is making the third best performer the Magic 7. So the expectations were certainly not low. But then Output reported the quarter was mixed to say the least, was slightly weaker than expected revenue and a market deceleration in growth even as they also delivered a 2 cent earnings beat thanks to better cost control. No one really cared about that though. Their core advertising business is still doing great. Both search and YouTube. Wow. YouTube was great. Outperformed expectations. The top line and shortfall from its Google subscriptions. Google Cloud and the company catch all other bet segment the Google Cloud weakness was particularly surprising. In the previous quarter this business put up great numbers, but its growth rate slowed substantially in the fourth quarter. Now that was a key pillar of the bull thesis and it's been kicked over. It needs to return to Tory growth now to make up for all the data spend that's been going on. In the earnings statement, CEO Sundar Pichai boasted about all the things that are going right. Search YouTube. Then it went on to drop that $75 billion bomb. While this company doesn't give much in the way of formal guidance, they mentioned that they expect revenue headwinds in the current quarter thanks to currency fluctuations as well as some tough comparisons for Google services and Uneven revenue growth for Google Cloud. But it really seems like it was the $75 billion in capitalist pensions that truly freaked people out. Looking at the action today, Wall street sure didn't like that number, did it? Yep. Alphabet got hit because it's investing too heavily in growth. And that represents a huge change from what we've been seeing very lately. Now that 75 billion, it's capex. It's a commitment, it represents a big step up. And this was what was really important from the 52.5 billion they spent last year. A lot of people were hoping that was going to be the ceiling and the 30 odd billion that they spent in 2022 and 2023. Now much of that money is going toward infrastructure like GPUs from Nvidia and custom accelerators from Broadcom. Hence why those two stocks rallied big today. But we've been seeing major capex commitments from many of the other tech titans in recent weeks and to date, the market loved it. Lapped it up. Microsoft kicked things off the first few days of January by announcing $80 billion of investment in data centers this fiscal year. Stock gained more than 1% that day. Microsoft was up nicely for the year until the company gave soft revenue guidance last week. In late January Met A Platform CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company was planning for 60 to 65 billion in capital expenditures this year, mostly on AI infrastructure, MED AI pretty good this. And then the stock jumped 2% that day. It's up 20% for the year. It's terrific. Then there's the big one, the Stargate infrastructure venture that Oracle's Larry Ellison, Softbank's my assigned son and we well son and OpenAI Sam Altman rolled out at the White House on January 21st. That was Trump's full first full day in office. They're spending 100 billion upfront and could go up to 500 billion over the next four years. Now some question whether these companies even have that kind of money. But you know who didn't care? I mean Wall Street Oracle stock gained 14.4% over the next few days. And while it's since given back much of that move, clearly AI spending was not seen as a problem two weeks ago. So you can imagine you've got this one company spending far more than we thought and then what happens? Its stock goes up. Now something big changed in recent weeks though, and that was the arrival of Deep Seek. That's a Chinese generative AI tool that seems to be perform nearly as well as any of the leading edge expensive US AI systems and was allegedly developed with far less hardware, meaning a heck of a lot less money. Deep Seat was actually launched last year, but it fully broke into Wall street and Silicon Valley's collective radar the consciousness about two weeks ago after the Chinese quant hedge fund that created Deepseek released a white paper explaining how it was made. On January 20, the collective angst about Deep Sea caused a huge nasty tech sell off. I mean, like that was just last Monday. It demolished the stock of Nvidia and the market still hasn't fully recovered from this development. The still unanswered question Deep Seek has forced investors to ask is whether or not developers of AI applications still need to spend huge amounts on infrastructure in order to get the best results. But so far the tech titans have stood by their major capital spending forecast and they haven't been punished for it. Simply last week, both Microsoft and Meta formally reported and reiterated these big CapEx budgets. I mean, sure, Microsoft sold off in this quarter, but that was really because of a soft revenue number and discouraging revenue forecast. Metafort reiterated its CapEx budget and the stock soared. They're reveling in it. But now Alphabet's announced its own large CapEx number for the year, one that's right in the same neighborhood as that of Met and Microsoft. Boy, the market hated it. And that is the biggest takeaway from Alphabet's quarter. And we have to see if this is an exception or if it's the new normal. Maybe investors simply trust Matter and Microsoft to spend the money more wisely than these guys. Doesn't seem to be the case for me though. Now, I don't think this should be considered bad news for all of tech. In fact, you could argue it's somewhat bullish for video and other AI hardware makers, which sounds like they'll continue to get robust orders from the tech titans. Although after AAM tonight, which wasn't that great, I'm sure people say, wait a second, maybe spending is cooling. I don't think it is. We'll find out more tomorrow. These huge companies certainly don't seem to be taking Deep Seek seriously though. That said, if the market is becoming more skeptical about these types of massive AI investments, and even punishing companies that commit to that type of spending, as it did with Alphabet today, then maybe the hyperscalers will start dialing back their hardware investments. That will be bad for a whole lot of companies. Now, the next big event here is Amazon support Thursday night. Now they have not yet pulled out there. We don't know what their CapEx guidance is going to be for 2025. So we'll see what they say and more importantly, we'll see how it's received. I doubt it can change overnight, but I do think that output has put the big time spenders on the defensive. So you know what you think this way to think about this number when you see it tomorrow night. Bottom line though, we've gone pretty quickly from a world where major investments in infrastructure are cheered, I mean literally cheered by investors, to a less certain world where it seems that the investors don't like it and are starting to get skeptical about some of these big spending commitments. Now that's a huge change people, and if it continues this way, we might need to rethink our top picks in tech going forward. And you know how I feel about this. So let's watch Amazon on Thursday and go from there. Mad Money is back. It's the break.

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[Jim Cramer]

Work Management Platforms Ugh. Endless onboarding. It bottlenecks admin requests. But what if things were different? Monday.com is different. No lengthy onboarding, beautiful reports in minutes, custom workflows you can build on your own, easy to use prompt. Free AI, huh? Turns out you can love a work management platform, Monday.com, the first work platform you'll love to use today, Uber Technologies reported. And the stock just got completely slammed, finishing the day down 7.6%. That's a hideous move, especially as the rest of the market was up. But honestly, like I said at the top of the show, I actually thought the quarter was good. I mean, like really good. Now here's a stock that, after roaring for years, started selling off last October based on worries about autonomous driving, specifically robotaxis. Uber's All Time High was set on October 11, one day after Tesla's big cybercap event. That event was originally considered underwhelming. Big on hype, short of details. So Uber stock popped more than 10% the next day. But that was as high as it got. Less than a month later, President Trump won the election and given all the support he got from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. During the campaign, investors started taking the company's cybercap ambitions much more seriously. Look, I think that was the right call, but you know what? I vehemently disagree that it's bad for the whole ride share industry. When Uber reported its previous results at the end of October, the stock did get hit. Even though this was a beat and raised quarter, investors nevertheless seized on an oh so slight miss for rideshare bookings and stocks sold off. So I was looking forward to this morning's report from Uber because I wanted to see if the company could set the set things straight. Long story short, we got the solid numbers that we were looking for, but it didn't mean anything for the stock, which just got pulverized. I mean like obliterated. What the heck happened here? Well first I want to reiterate that Uber gave us very strong overall numbers. GROSS Bookings grew 18% year over year, substantially higher than expected. Revenue was up 20%, also higher than expected. The cash flow results were excellent. Net cash provided by operating activities grew by 130%, way ahead of expectations. Free cash flow up 122%, also a huge beat. Other operating metrics like monthly active platform customers and total trips exceed expectations to. The worst thing you could say about the results is that the earnings for interest, tax appreciation, amortization that is a key profitability metric here. We're merely in line. Okay? Uber's two main businesses, mobility and delivery, meaning ride sharing and Uber Eats, both beat expectations for gross bookings. Uber smaller segment freight did have a gross bookings missed, but it doesn't matter. Uber also provided some guidance for the first quarter of 2025 and I call their outlook for the current period in line with expectations, though perhaps a bit short of Wall Street's elevated top line expectations. The company expects gross bookings to grow 17 to 21% year over year, which was below the consensus estimate the midpoint. Importantly though, Uber said expects a huge 5.5% currency headwind. That's not their fault. Uber also expects adjusted EBITDA to grow by 30 to 37% year over year. That's in line with expectations I think is pretty super. Now to be clear, there were some small issues with the quarter I mentioned, the freight gross bookings miss and the slightly lower than expected gross bookings guidance for the current quarter, even as the latter can be explained away because of those currency fluctuations just mentioned. There was also some noise with the company's operating income result. Like I said, adjusted EBITDA is really the key measure of profitability for Uber. It's what they guide for and it's what the analysts care about. But the company's operating income result of 7,70 million was meaningfully below the 1.19 billion number that Wall street was looking for. And some, some pointed to that as a reason for the negative response in the quarter. But wait, wait a second. So I'm not buying that. Uber's operating income only came up short thanks to a $462 million expense for legal tax, regulatory, reserve changes and settlements. As a one time item, it does check out as the reason for the disparity. Again, there was some hair in the quarter, but was enough hair to justify the stock's 7.6% decline today. In a midday reaction note to the Uber quarter, Melius Research analyst Connor Cunningham said the following quote, the issue facing Uber is the earnings beats revisions are less intense now and the bear case around autonomous vehicles can't be disproven quickly. Basically the magnitude of Uber speeds for key metrics like gross bookings and EBITDA are declining and that big scary long term threat of autonomous competition looms. I think that's exactly what's holding the stock out. But I'm just not convinced that the Robotaxi competition is serious problem for Uber right now or even in the near term future. See this morning I got to speak with Uber CEO Derek Sari on Squawk on the Street. He was right there with me and there was a lengthy discussion about how the company's thinking about the autonomous vehicle threat. As he explained it, this is less of an existential threat to Uber, more of an opportunity. Putting aside all the obstacles of self driving cars, once people are finally building them at scale, how are they supposed to make money as taxis? But keep in mind, Uber crushed all the old car services, so once these things exist, the people who buy them will want to partner with a ride share app. When customer Sari was asked if the introduction of Waymo in the same six to a market has resulted in a meaningful market share loss. No, still too small a matter. In fact, Uber's rideshare business accelerated in San Francisco in the fourth quarter. More importantly, Uber and Waymo are going to be partners in some new markets like Austin and Atlanta. And by the way, Uber has been partners with Waymo for a while in Phoenix, enabling tens of thousands of rides there. No reason they need to compete against self driving cars. Now there was something else that the man universally known as Dara said during the interview that I think is important. A couple of times he emphasized Uber's excellent free cash flow results over the past few years, including the record $6.9 billion result for 2020 24, which was up 105% for the previous year. The end of the interview, when I expressed some dismay about the fact that the stock was down, Dara said, quote, you know, while the stock is cheap, we get to buy it back. And that is not a bad thing. He's right. Around this time last year, Uber announced his first buybacks, a massive $7 billion authorization. And we knew from this morning's report that they only ended up spending 1.25 billion of that last year. Through the last month, Uber also announced that it completed a $1.5 billion accelerated buyback. But some quick math tells you that the company has plenty of money left on that program. And it sure sounds like Uber's ready to put that cash to work. I like that. So here's the bottom line this Today's quarter was not the clearing event that I had hoped it would be for Uber, but I'm still not ready to give up on this terrific stock. I think Wall Street's way too worked up about the threat of self driving, which might not even be a threat at all. And this stock's worth buying into the week. Eric in Michigan. Eric.

[Caller]

Jim, I love the show. I'm a longtime listener and I'm a club member, so there.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you, Eric, thank you very much. Thank you. How can I help?

[Caller]

I'm calling on General Motors today. I'm a longtime shareholder. I love the company. I love the products. I know about the tariffs and I love the share buyback. What do I do with this stock?

[Jim Cramer]

Right now you own the stock and Mary Barrett is better than the 4 times earnings P E that you're getting there. I think that's reflecting every bit of the bad and not a lot of the good. Keep in mind, forbe disappointed again tonight that could move GM stock down. I would be a buyer. Nicholas in California.

[Caller]

Nicholas, what's up, Jim? This is Nicholas live from East Palo Alto, California. First off, I want to say thank you for initiating the buy in Goldman Sachs. My question today is about crowdstrike. I recently trimmed half my position and Palo Alto Networks been in it for a couple years and use that profit to get into crowdstrike. But I'm wondering because Palo Alto Networks has been in the doghouse for a.

[Jim Cramer]

Little bit, this could be fine. Yeah, there's a three analysts who downgrade it now. Nikesh, Arora, Believe it. He's a CEO. He will tell you he's going to confound those handles. There's no way that guy is going to take sitting down. The three different guys took it to a cell. That's straight. How about this crowdstrike? I mean, it burst out today. It's now past where it was when they had that outage. And I say George Kurtz is the real deal. I want to go all the way down to James in Texas. James.

[Caller]

Hey, Kramer. Big hello from Texas, man. Hey, all the guys at Greenroom love your show. Got a question regarding Soundhound. Is it a meme stock or is it something more?

[Jim Cramer]

I was talking about this with Jeff Marks today. It's very funny you mentioned that because sound out as a stock that my friend Dan Ives likes and I don't like to go against Dan. I think he's terrific. But I think the stock is a little elevated. How about that, Dan? Don't get mad at me. You know I love your pink and your green jackets, although I wear Brioni. All right, look, I'm not ready to give up on Uber. I think if anything, it's worth buying into weakness here. Now, much more money ahead. I'm hearing how the latest tariff headlines could affect apparel and footwear stock. Calm Stuff Colm, also known as Columbus Sportswear after yesterday's earnings. Then I'm laying out a packaged goods playbook that you're really going to like. PepsiCo, Clorox, they've been going more. What the heck's going on? All your calls, Rapid Fire, tonight's edition of the Lightning Round. So stay with Kramer. Okay, what do we make of these numbers from Columbia Sportswear, the outdoor apparel and footwear company that you know is Columbia, Sorel, Prana and Mountain Hardware brands. Last these guys reported seemingly mixed quarter with slightly higher than expected sales. But a 9 cent earnings miss off a $89 basis for your forecast. And their guidance for the current quarter also came in light and that's why the stock got clobbered today down almost 6%. However, Columbia looks like it's going to return to sales growth this year. So if they deliver, this could be a turnaround story as the stock just got quite a bit cheaper. It's got a fantastic portrait balance sheet. Let's take a closer look with Tim Boyle is the chairman, President CEO of Columbia's boards. Will get a better read on the Twitter and what comes next. Mr. Boyle, welcome back to Mad Money.

[Tim Boyle]

Thanks, Jim. Great to be here with you.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, thank you, Tim. Now I'm going to just quote from what you said about yourself because I think it's important because you're a man of great integrity. You said, while we made progress in many areas, our 2024 financial performance was short of my personal growth and profitability goals. Can you tell us what would have been something that would have made you happy and not feel like this?

[Tim Boyle]

Well, you know, frankly, for me, we've historically been in the high teens, both in the growth area and in operating margins. And frankly, when we're below that, my personal goals are not met. So we have to be a little bit more circumspect about, you know, the fact that at that, those lofty times we were a smaller company. It's a bigger time now. But frankly, when we're not operating at a high level in the upper quartile of our competitors, that's, that's a problem for me, especially when you think about the company's balance sheet. You know, it's an embarrassment to me to be talking about an anemic growth pattern when we've got, you know, 800, over $800 million in cash and we should be doing better. So if we think about historically when we've underperformed in an area, let' China and Europe underperforming areas from a historical perspective. And we've worked diligently on those areas. We've seen growth. And Frank, frankly, we need to be putting the same sort of rigor around our North America business, which at the end of the day is. Is the one remaining economic geography where we aren't performing as high as we need to. And so we've, we've bundled a number of issues and strategies together in what we call accelerate. And we're just going to be spending an incredible amount of time and effort on our North American business to get us back to growth.

[Jim Cramer]

Well, Tim, what gives me hope here is that I'm a big retail guy with my parents from retail, and all I ever think about drumming in my head was inventory. Inventory is the bane of your existence. Excess inventory. It looks like to me that that is not your problem.

[Tim Boyle]

No, we've been, we've been working diligently to work our inventories down, which got bloated during COVID and frankly, we spent arguably too much time because we concentrated on profitably liquidating those inventories, which had a dampening effect on the whole business. But we were able to successfully move the inventories down. We again had a down quarter in terms of our inventory perspective in Q4, and we think we can operate the business even with less inventories than we ended with with at the end of the year. It's going to require diligence and we were capable of doing that. Fully capable, but which has to be a focus. And that's where we're going to be spending our time and effort accelerating the business and lowering the inventories.

[Jim Cramer]

Right now you mentioned brick and mortar, but you also mentioned that you had these, I guess almost pop up stores. I'm not sure to get rid of the inventory. But brick and mortar in high traffic areas. What is a high traffic area for Columbia Sports where.

[Tim Boyle]

Well, I would say in some of the best malls in the United States and in Canada where there's very high traffic, where we could have 8 or 9 million people in a, in a particular mall and we, we get great positioning and that's going to be part and parcel really of our marketing efforts because we, we expect that those kinds of traffic figures will allow us to show off some of our technologies which are complex and require an explanation. And also our footwear business, which we believe we had very high quality footwear and great products with great technologies but it's tough to get adopted in the kind of way we would like it at our wholesale partner. So we're going to.

[Jim Cramer]

It's easy to say that I've got your footwear and it's very warm on really, really cold days, but doesn't look like it's not cold. They're not quality, but they. I had to learn about it. I mean, you know, you can't, you know, I had to learn about it because of the show. I wouldn't just buy it without learning about it. That's kind of a problem.

[Tim Boyle]

I agree. In fact, you're not the only one who's been critical of our efforts and marketing. So that's part and parcel of what we will do. We'll have these stores which will have them a minimal impact on the population where we're going to be spending more time and frankly more money will be in our dot com business and marketing efforts as well as talking about with TV ads and a larger, more mass media budget.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, so terrific.

[Tim Boyle]

We're going to be. Yeah, it's going to be important and we need to be thinking bigger about how we talk about our product.

[Jim Cramer]

I totally agree. Now you are a bit of an anomaly. Your business in China is very strong and your business, North America isn't that strong. Plus you're one of the most outspoken people about tariffs where you recognize that tariffs are not a way necessarily to do business. Now, since you straddle both countries and since you're doing very well in China, again an anomaly. Why don't you give us a view of why? One, that is that you're doing well there and two, about how it doesn't help if you tariff them.

[Tim Boyle]

Well, as you know, tariffs are designed to raise the price of imported products. And, and so Colombia is one of the largest duty payers in the United States. And the reason that's true is that we are in a commodity footwear in apparel that's very highly tariffed already. Call it in the mid, mid teens area in terms of import duties but some of our products carry 37 and a half percent duty so they're very high. It's, it's a dampening effect. But more importantly we need some surety about what is going to happen, what's the future. We, we import very little into the US from China. China is an important part of our business where we reproduce products in China for distribution in China and distribution in other parts of the world. But we have to be incredibly cautious in my opinion about how we go forward because we don't know where these tariffs are going to appear and frankly how much they're going to be.

[Jim Cramer]

And it doesn't seem like that it's going to bring back the, the seamstress business, the textile business, those are long gone. We don't got it. Not going to restart, right Tim? No.

[Tim Boyle]

You know, in fact it's interesting when we have a factory in Asia, forget that the particular jurisdiction but if we have a factory in Asia making either footwear or apparel and a, and an electronics factory opens up next door, everybody rushes away from the textile products into the digital environment. It's just a more highly sought after environment. So yeah, it's, it's a challenge and it's one that we're, we're frankly very good at navigating. But you know, we need some surety about what's going to happen so we can plan well.

[Jim Cramer]

I sure wish people would talk to you because they would understand better than anyone because you actually have lived it and breathed it. I want to thank Tim Boyle, Chairman Presidency of Columbia Sports where you heard that the inventories are down, you heard they're going to do campaigns, the stock is down. A lot of fortress balance sheet. I think the stock is very interesting here. Thank you so much, Tim.

[Tim Boyle]

Thanks Jim. Great talking to you.

[Jim Cramer]

Nick, back at the book Foreign. It is time. It's time to the white round crazy boys Raptor goes Bye bye, soldiers. If you're going to the cornerstone, My stepper is blending this way. And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready skiing die top of the light round. Crazy, man. I'm going to start with Ben in Florida. Ben, Mr.

[Caller]

Cream, you got your spikes packed in case Kellen Moore calls you in?

[Jim Cramer]

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you.

[Caller]

And by the way, happy early birthday, buddy.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Caller]

Wow.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you, thank you.

[Caller]

I just try to invest. I don't trade really. I'm betting on my kids inheritance. And so I'm coming to my sensei for some advice. I have a moderate position in stock that recently beat earnings revenues. You EPS is in line, looking good in 25, about 11% versus prior year, stuff like that. Unfortunately, it's in a dicey spot in the evolving D.C. policies.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay.

[Caller]

But I think that Carp needs a wingman, so I'm flying with Bah. What do you think?

[Jim Cramer]

I think that there are a lot of people fleeing this stock because of Doge. And I think that they think that this is somehow going to be front and center. The problem. Problem. I don't think that's the case. I think it's going to be the big military contractors that they're really going to go after. I'm. I'm with you on this one. Let's go to Ty in Arizona. Ty.

[Caller]

Professor Kramer. How are you?

[Jim Cramer]

I am good. Professor's fine. How about you?

[Caller]

Doing good. I'm at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. I wanted to give a big Bubba booyah birthday shout out to my beautiful girlfriend, Amara.

[Jim Cramer]

I love, love. Good for you. And that is some tourney that you're out there with. I know. We got to get there one day. We have to.

[Caller]

It's beautiful. You got to come out, Kramer. We'd love to have you. Last week you spoke about two companies I really like, Marvell and rh. Insider buying recently. Yes, I noticed some insider buying on a stock that I like. I want to get your opinion. Stock ticker symbol M A N H.

[Jim Cramer]

That stock got clubbed. I mean, they really crushed it. If there's insider buying in that, we're going to do some homework and find out because, wow, I cannot believe how much that thing went down. Uh, go leak. Let's go to Trey in Minnesota. Trey.

[Caller]

Hey, Jim, thanks for taking my call and best of luck to your Eagles this Monday.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you very much.

[Caller]

Trey. You put this name on my radar a few weeks ago. And then later that day in Davos, Trump had mentioned the need for coal to power aid data centers. In our country with the new China tariffs on coal, this company operates 100% in the U.S. the stock has a 10% dividend yield. The stock I'm asking about is ARLP.

[Jim Cramer]

It's intriguing to me because I think the president doesn't believe in traditional global warming. If that's the case then he must really like coal. I'm not a big fan of coal but that has to do more because I believe in the science and. But therefore I think if he, I'm not in charge, he is. I would buy the stock. Let's go to Kyle in Wisconsin.

[Caller]

Kyle, Booyah. Jim, I'm a jet since birth but I'm flying right beside you in the Eagle so you can beat those.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, I appreciate that. You're a very good man. I appreciate that. Thank you. What's up?

[Caller]

Well, Jim, I'm a huge fan of the show, a viewer since I was 12 and a first time caller.

[Jim Cramer]

All right.

[Caller]

Good to have you on, Jim. My Stock's up over 130% over the past year but it's reeled back in recent months. Kramer, is it the house of pleasure or the house of pain for bit your technology?

[Jim Cramer]

I'm going to do this because I'm a huge believer in bitcoin. Okay. I think it should just buy bitcoin. That's what you want to do. We don't fool around. We buy the best. We leave the raggedy others to the rest. Let's go to, let's go to Allen in Virginia.

[Caller]

Allen, Booyah.

[Jim Cramer]

Professor Kramer, thank you for the tenure. What's going on?

[Caller]

I am a very satisfied investment club member. I've just renewed my membership for a second year.

[Jim Cramer]

I want to thank you and your.

[Caller]

Team for everything you do to help.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you. We got a good team. We're trying to teach. We're trying to teach. We're all small investors. How do I help?

[Caller]

My question is twofold. About the same stock. What's your medium or long term prognosis crisis? And can you please explain whether interest rates affect this stock? The stock is so fi technology.

[Jim Cramer]

The reason why so far has moved from where it was to where it is is because it is much more of a service provider stock fintech than it is a lender these days. But I do think it needs to digest. I would not buy at this level. Maybe put a quarter of your position on let it come in. It's been purchased here precariously from while I think you can go down from here. Let's go to Nick and Maryland. Nick. Yeah.

[Caller]

What's up, Jim? Big fan. Hashtag mgc. So, yeah, grew up watching the show with my dad and all I gotta say is keep seeing you, man. You're truly the goat.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Caller]

So yeah, stocking calling about is Red Wire.

[Jim Cramer]

Rdw. Well, okay, so Red Wire is part of a comp. It's. It does space work. And Professor Ben Stodo who works with me, we both are kind of skeptical of space stuff and I think we just have to kind of hold off. That said, we've done some work on this and I'm not going to say that we're through. I'm looking over at the professor right now. It's not necessarily one of our favorite stocks, Red Wire. I think that we're going to have to hold off. And that. Ladies and gentlemen, conclusion of the lightning round. The recent decline in the consumer packaged good stocks. I find it sells breathtaking. The other day PepsiCo got crushed and weaker than expected earnings. Clorox got walloped after a quarter that was not up to snuff. Mondelez reported a quarter that verified why the stock's been falling. Though after a lower opening and dip, buyers did come in. The stock ended the day higher. That was more about the bond market. I think Kimberly Clark gave you a pretty darn good report last week. But people still aren't happy. It goes on and on. Why is this happening? The truth is there are a host of reasons. And every time you think that things have gotten better, they seem to have gotten worse. Much worse than you've imagined. So take PepsiCo. I don't know if people realize how excellent this company really is. The stock always carried a premium price journeys multiple meaning we're willing to pay extra for its profits. They have terrific brands at Pepsi Mountain Dew at Frito Lay, the latter being one of the most dependable of all staples. But now PepsiCo's got a problem because Frito Lay is not delivering the consistent numbers that it used to. Why? Management says it because younger generations fixate on health and there's nothing particularly healthy about potato chips or Cheetos. They'll buy smaller portions. That's what their hope is. Me. Look, I'm sure that a part that's a part of it but I do think the PepsiCo is in somewhat of denial about the impact of GOP Dash 1 weight loss drugs from Novo Nordisk which reported trip recorded this morning and Eli Lilly reports them all. I know the threat is real because these drugs eliminate your cravings for junk food. And they could only be taken by 40 million people in this country alone. Although that might actually be a lowball number considering the 42% of Americans. The adults are obese for mongolies. The problem isn't just the gop, just one softening demand for its candies and its biscuits. There's also the cost element. The price of a key ingredient, cocoa, is incredibly high right now. Most people thought that'd be temporary, but it's held an astronomical level versus where it used to trade. Cocoa is now about four times the price that Mondelez has had to pay historically. That's devastating to the margins. Plus, they can't get away with the endless raising of prices like they used to. Oh, and let's not forget about the problem of tariffs. You're getting some sudden price increases for many goods. Someone has to pay for the tariffs. These companies hope it will be you, because if it's not you, it's them. Third problem. If you're in the consumer packaged goods business, you have a hard time raising prices because when it goes up too much, you're going to get bushwhacked by an Amazon or a Costco, both of which offer really terrific private label products that many shoppers know that are as good as the originals. We buy Costco Kirkland brand toilet paper. We're comfortable with Amazon trash bags. We know from the former Costco CFO Richard Glante that if these companies charge too much, it's easy to bring them down simply by creating a homegrown competition. The excellent Kirkland brand. Wal Mart has private brands under this great value name that compete in the paper goods, pantry, staples and cleaning supplies. As I like this stuff. Hey, you go to Chewy for cat litter and you find Fresh Step. That's the Clorox brand. Then you see Frisco, the chewy brand. And if the Clorox stuff gets too expensive, well, you might just easily go to Frisco. How much are you really going to pay up for kitty litter? Now, I know that private label is not growing all that much right now, but it's a force that keeps oil prices down, including the brand ones. There were so many price increases put through during the era of COVID that the consumer is now desperate for value. And there is a reason why Wal Mart and Costco keep hitting new highs. They put a ceiling on so many products, both by forcing the suppliers to keep prices down or by blitzing them with house brands that seem just as good at a lower price. I don't know what turns around the consumer packaged goods stocks. Mergers would make sense. This new antitrust department probably blessed the concentration. Maybe the companies that slash prices the deepest ultimately win. No matter. This moment is untenable. The stocks can't find their footing, just too many forces against them. These used to be safety stocks, for heaven's sake, but they're safe no more. I like to say, as always, more markets somewhere. I promise I've been just for you right here, Money. I'm Jim Cramer. See you tomorrow.

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All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of cnbc, NBC Universal or their parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by Kramer 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. Kramer'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 madmoneydisclaimer.com it's game day.

[Jim Cramer]

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