Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 1/15/26

Summary

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – January 16, 2026 Summary

Episode Overview

In this packed episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer breaks down the day’s bullish turnaround in the markets, driven most significantly by Taiwan Semiconductor’s (TSMC) blockbuster results and bullish guidance on AI chips. He explores how this surprise result reverberated through tech and bank stocks, and then pivots to in-depth interviews—first with Brian Jordan of First Horizon Bank on regional financials and economic migration, and then with Bipul Sinha, CEO of Rubrik, on data security and AI governance. Cramer also responds to listener stock questions in the Lightning Round and shares personal trading lessons rooted in his own history with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Taiwan Semiconductor Ignites the Market (01:40–09:55)

• TSMC’s Results Set the Tone: The fate of the day's market was "decided at 12:30am" when TSMC reported one of their best quarters ever, shattering rumors of an AI bubble.
  • “Demand for these AI chips is off the charts... The only company with real insight in the long-term demand for advanced semiconductors just can't make enough of them fast enough.” (Jim Cramer, 02:20)
• Ripple Through Tech: TSMC’s performance directly lifted Nvidia (its largest client), as well as capital equipment suppliers like ASML, KLA, Applied Materials, and Lam Research. Memory chip makers were also on fire.
• AI Isn’t a Bubble—It’s a Boom: Both TSMC and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang reinforce: demand is “insatiable”, and hyperscalers (big cloud players) are seeing massive profits, not wasted spend.
• Major Hurdle: Energy Supply: Data center expansion meets electricity shortages—clean energy is in short supply, and Cramer sees a potential for a hyperscaler to break ranks and invest directly in natural gas plants to solve this.

Memorable Quote:

“The gating factor here isn’t even supply. It’s the darn electricity shortage... Building a new gas plant is much, much faster and cheaper than building a nuclear power plant. If I were in charge, that’s exactly what I’d do.” (Cramer, 05:25)

Timestamps:

• TSMC’s earnings impact & tech stock rebound: 01:40–04:40
• Electricity and data center challenge: 05:10–06:35

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2. Banks Rebound; Rotation Returns to Fundamentals (06:35–09:55)

• Big Banks Lead Recovery: Blowout results reported by BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley reversed recent negativity following weak quarters from key U.S. banks.
• Market Leadership Shifts: Cramer hails the return of banks, tech, consumer stocks, and small-caps, moving away from “terrible generals” like pharma and oil which signal economic stagnation.
• Housing and Retail Strength: Restaurant stocks (e.g., Starbucks, Texas Roadhouse), and homebuilders (Toll Brothers, Lennar, Horton) also surged.

Memorable Quote:

“The turn in Nvidia... is what gives me hope that the bubble talk may have finally run its course, at least for the moment.” (Cramer, 09:20)

Timestamps:

• Bank strength/rotation: 06:35–08:50
• Housing and retail: 09:10–09:55

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3. Lightning Round & Listener Stock Questions (09:55–14:30, 39:49–43:17)

• Featured stocks: ARM Holdings (“hold, but don’t add until more clarity”), Starbucks (“coming back”), Santander (“amazing, buy”), Origin Bank (“rocket ship, stay in”), Kava (“bye bye bye, making a big move”).
• Key advice: Cramer remains wary of overvalued or speculative names, but highlights when risk/reward tips in the buyer’s favor.

Notable Lightning Round Moments:

• On Kava: “No, no, no. Kava’s making a big move. It’s just starting... Kava is a. Bye bye bye.” (Cramer, 41:46)
• On Santander: “I think that Santander is amazing. I think Anna Boutine is incredible. We Recommend this option 3 and I’m redoubling my average to tell you to buy it right now.” (Cramer, 40:29)

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4. Regional Banks and the Southeast U.S. Economy (15:05–22:00)

• Interview with Brian Jordan, CEO of First Horizon
  • Jordan reports surprising strength: “Expenses under control, revenues growing. Really sound.” (Cramer, 15:07)
  • “People are generally biased for growth”—companies and individuals are looking to invest and expand (15:23).
  • Migration is strong to the Southeast due to lower taxes, business-friendly climate, and strong infrastructure.
  • Mortgage activity is up locally, defying national trends, as refi activity picked up in Q4 (17:21).
  • Data center construction is largely welcome (contrary to NIMBY attitudes elsewhere): “It’s clearly going to require some investment... but it really does bring economic growth.” (Jordan, 19:32)
  • Regulatory/bureaucratic hurdles lower in the region, benefiting business expansion and driving consolidation in banking.
  • Labor markets stable, with migration and technology offsetting longer-term demographic headwinds.

Timestamps:

• Growth bias, migration patterns: 15:23–16:34
• Mortgage and data center trends: 17:21–19:32

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5. Deep Dive: Babcock & Wilcox & Nuclear/Defense Contractors (23:53–31:26)

• Speculative Ride: Babcock & Wilcox’s stock soared 3,600% from under $1 to over $8 on new data center partnerships and coal-to-gas conversion contracts, with a $1.5B deal cited.
• Caution Advised: Cramer flags extreme valuation, ongoing losses, and execution risks—“pure speculation” until the price cools off.
• BWX Technologies: Favors this as a more stable, long-term nuclear defense play; 80% of sales from government/nuclear subs and carriers. Yet, at 50x earnings, it’s also expensive—wait for a pullback.
• Defense Upside: Huntington Ingalls and General Dynamics highlighted as more reasonably priced long-term winners in nuclear-powered shipbuilding, benefiting from increased US defense spending.

Memorable Quote:

“Maybe a warren of nuclear powered chip building... Babcock and Wilcox is pure speculation. I think it’s too expensive for the moment. BW much less speculative. Also very expensive... General Dynamics right now, I think maybe I should put it in the charitable trust.” (Cramer, 30:44)

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6. Rubrik CEO Interview: Data Security & AI Governance (34:17–39:18)

• Robust Results: CEO Bipul Sinha touts record quarters and partners with Okta and Microsoft for identity protection.
• Data as AI’s Engine: Rubrik positions itself as the “infrastructure for AI, for cloud, for SaaS.”
• Security Role Against AI Threats: Rubrik’s system enables rapid recovery from cyberattacks or AI “agentic” errors with strong governance and the undoing of bad actions.
• Business Model: Not a seat-based SaaS model; focuses on infrastructure and security platforms, distinguishing itself from other software names facing market pressure.

Notable Quotes:

“Data is the engine for AI and Rubrik is a data company. We are helping businesses accelerate their agent AI journey and finally we have an exciting platform with multiple products.” (Bipul Sinha, 34:54)

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7. Trading Lessons: Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley (43:48–46:59)

• Cramer’s Wall Street Origin Story: Recounts his persistence in landing a job at Goldman—years of rejection and relentless networking, capped by a marathon “test” of market knowledge.
• Takeaway for Investors: Both Goldman and Morgan Stanley are still world-class franchises, trading at only 17x earnings—“insane” given the quality and growth prospects, especially compared to consumer staples.
• Investment Case: Cramer is bullish on their long-term outlooks: “They will go much higher and I think from my history, deservedly so.” (Cramer, 46:50)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On TSMC’s impact: “That conference call from the other side of the world... changed this entire market.” (Cramer, 03:10)
• On Nvidia: “The Prometheus of our time. Eagles feasting on the liver of the chained Nvidia giant—until today.” (Cramer, 05:55)
• On small cap resurgence: “Russell 2000 broke out with space, alternative power, bitcoin virals and of course quantum computing and nuclear power adjacencies all back in the Wincom.” (Cramer, 08:00)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• TSMC earnings & tech sector impact: 01:40–09:55
• Listener Q&A & Lightning Round: 09:55–14:30, 39:49–43:17
• First Horizon CEO Brian Jordan Interview: 15:05–22:00
• Babcock & Defense Stock Deep Dive: 23:53–31:26
• Rubrik CEO Bipul Sinha Interview: 34:17–39:18
• Cramer’s Goldman/Morgan Stanley Story: 43:48–46:59

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Summary Table: Major Stock Takeaways

| Stock/Theme | Cramer’s Take | Timestamp | |----------------------------|-----------------------------|-------------| | TSMC / Nvidia / AI Chips | Bullish, “insatiable” demand | 01:40–09:55 | | Big Banks (Goldman, MS) | “Phenomenal numbers”/Buy | 06:35–08:50 | | ARM Holdings | Hold, not adding | 10:12 | | Starbucks | Turnaround, “Choice is Starbucks” | 11:08 | | Babcock & Wilcox | “Pure speculation,” wait for pullback | 23:53–31:26 | | BWX Technologies | Long-term growth, but expensive | 29:50 | | Rubrik | Unique SaaS data play, bullish | 34:17–39:18 | | Santander | Strong buy | 40:29 | | Kava | Buy | 41:46 | | Origin Bank | Stay in, buy pullbacks | 41:22 |

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Language & Tone Notes

The episode maintains Cramer’s signature energetic, metaphor-rich delivery, blending financial insight, market storytelling, and personal anecdotes with actionable advice.

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This summary is designed to help both seasoned investors and newcomers grasp the key moments, insights, and actionable advice from this episode of Mad Money.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[C]

Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramer, other people and friends. I'm just trying to make a little bit of money. My job is not just entertain, but to put it all in context. Do some educating. Call me 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me at Jim Cramer. Do that. The fate of today's market was decided at 12:30am Eastern time. Yeah, middle of the night. That's when Taiwan Semiconductor, the biggest chip manufacturer in the world, reported one of the strongest quarters I have ever seen. That's when we learned in a definitively bullish conference call that the artificial intelligence doubters may have no idea what they are talking about when they keep talking about a bubble because demand for these AI chips is off the charts. That's when we found out that the only company with real insight in the long term demand for advanced semiconductors just can't make enough of them fast enough. Taiwan Semi axis spend more than $50 billion just to keep up with its current orders. Its stock was up about 20 bucks before most of you woke up the rest of tech. All part of the lure of the day where The Dow gained 293 points, S&P advanced point to 6 point. Nasdaq rose 0.25%. I have to tell you that they were much higher before an afternoon pullback Related yes, of course, to where interest rates are going to be and whether they're going to be chopped, which I keep telling you is a sideshow if you want to make big money. Tech wasn't all the flu today. After sticking up the joint for a couple of sessions, the banks rebounded because of beautiful pristine blowouts from BlackRock, from Goldman Sachs, my alma mater, and Morgan Stanley. We're going to go into those in a moment. But make no mistake about it, that conference call from the other side of the world, the one thrown by Taiwan Semi, the company that physically turns the blueprints into semiconductors, changed this entire market. More specifically, it changed the way this market views the most important largest company in the world. The elephant in the room that is in video, which have been down for 2026 until last night when so many other less modern chip makers have seen their stocks soar. And that's what made this session so encouraging for those of us who like technology stocks. See until just after midnight when Taiwan Said reported that the new narrative had become you need to steer clear of the stocks, especially in video, which had become known as what we use the term over owned, meaning that too many institutions already owned it. So there were no new buyers of any size every the only stocks that have been working this year are the so called commodity chip makers because of a severe shortage of semis that stored data. These are so called memory chips. No one thought that these low tech chips would ever be needed in such high quantities. But data centers can't get enough of those things either and there aren't enough machines available to make more of them. That's why SanDisk is up 72% since the beginning of the year. Western Digital up 29% Micron up 18% up 16%. Everything they make is in short supply. Customers are desperate. Meanwhile Nvidia stock is flat. So these outsized gains taunted the Prometheus of our time. Eagles feasting on the liver of the chained in video giant. I just like that imagery until today. That's because Nvidia is Taiwan Semi biggest client. So if business is fabulous as they say, and there's no reason to believe otherwise, then business must be pretty darn good for Nvidia. Certainly better than expected. The stock closed up 487 one point had been 189AMD quite a bit to us we say. And Taiwan Semi's good fortune is terrific news for the semiconductor capital equipment makers. The Companies that supplied Taiwan Semi and the other foundries. I would think ASML, that's a big European company of 500 billion KLA. Applied Materials. That's hot. And Lam Research, LRCX. These all rallied like crazy today. We used to have a ton of these semiconductor capital equipment plays but they all merged. And when demand is this type, whoa, they can make fortunes just as important. Taiwan Semi made mincemeat of the skeptics who've been doubting AI stay power. They said something we have only heard from Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. The demand is insatiable. More important, the profits. They could be humongous for the customers. The companies we call hyperscalers aren't wasting their money when they spend billions on data centers. According to Taiwan Semi. They're fighting money everywhere. They're making it, they're making on the data centers. Despite what we keep hearing. Taiwan Semi says the more they spend, the more they make. Remember Jensen told us that, but no one's believing him. The gating factor here isn't even supply. It's the darn electricity shortage. The hyperscalers want clean energy. They went nuclear and shunned natural gas even at three bucks a throw. They put up data centers all over the place, setting the price of power higher. They don't seem to understand that they'll have to go hat in hand to NOVA to beg them to build to give more gas turbines because building a new gas plant is much, much faster and cheaper than building a nuclear power plant. When I listen to the Taiwan semicolon, I realized that one of these hyperscalers is going to break ranks. Maybe buy some natural gas companies in Texas and Pennsylvania, start building huge numbers of nat gas power plants right next to the natural gas wellhead. That's what I do if I were in charge. I told you earlier this week that we needed to see the banks reverse. Right? Remember? Because that's the best leadership group in the world. And then suddenly it's been really bad ever since J.P. morgan reported. Well, guess what? We saw it happen today. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Blackrock broke the downturn precipitated by allegedly weak quarters from Morgan Citigroup, bank of America, Wells Fargo. It takes a lot to get these stocks out of their tailspin. And we got a lot with Goldman Sachs putting up phenomenal numbers across the board. Morgan Stanley continue to be a juggernaut of corporate finance and asset gathering and Blackrock taking him just trillions to the point where they now managed astounding $14 trillion. Yes, that was 80 last time I lamented that the market seemed to be led by Big Pharma in the oil. Those are terrible generals. The health care rally signals a weak economy and oil rally signals inflation. Worst possible combo stagflation. My hope is that the J.P. morgan Health Care conference was causing pharma to temporary levitate and the President's rhetoric toward Iran well was going to get hotter. It got cooler. So both catalysts fizzled. I said I wanted to see these major minor cords recede and the major courts come back. I wanted the money flowing back into tech and and and some consumer stocks, retailers coupled with a ramp up in both data centers and non data center industrials. And today we saw exactly that. The major courts return. Plus we had a monster move in the small caps as Russell 2000 broke out with space alternative power, bitcoin virals and of course quantum computing and nuclear power adjacencies all back in the Wincom. Now there's some excellent news here. Let me give you some examples because I hate to say that Russell this and S and P that. I like the resuscitation of the restaurant stock, Starbucks and Texas Roadhouse to Chapel Trust teams. Look they were on the brink. Seasons on the brink not that long ago. Now the breakout to the upside. What else? Housing stocks are moving up. Not long ago after getting hit with mass downgrades, there's a thaw going on as supply has arrived to quell demand. Home prices are at last coming down, many of them to 2019 prices. Toll Brothers Lenore Horton led the group higher. The same by the way was about this. Home Depot rallied again only to be out down by Lowe's which hit its 52 week high. Congratulations to Low CEO Marvin Ellison for that achievement in this God awful environment. But the turn in Nvidia which had become an eyesore of this market is what gives me hope that the bubble talk may have finally run its course, at least for the moment. One listen to the words of Taiwan sent me one gander. The transcript tells you that it's worth buying Metta as social media was caught off for strength as well as Apple which was down today because expensive phones were noted too as having great strength. Apple's stock has done nothing. That worries me. It worries me that the buyers haven't figured out the buy yet. These stocks have done nothing lately. Same goes for Broadcom which is linked to C1 72. That stock rally. Three bucks. Maybe today was the day it started. What's really happening? Well here's the bottom line. To me you're getting another chance to buy these high quality stocks before they take off in the face of the doubters who didn't get up early enough to hear the Taiwan semi call. As for the rest of us, we knew it would be a good day at 12:30am last night. Would you mind if we got some sleep tonight? Shelley in West Virginia? Shelley.

[D]

Hey, Jim. I love your show as always.

[C]

Well, thank you, Shelley. What's going on?

[D]

My question is on ARM Holdings. Yeah, I've had this position for a while and it's taken a beating. Do I just go ahead and add more? Sold it or sell it? Do I buy?

[C]

You know, I've got to tell you, something's going on. I mean, we got to get Rene Haas on. I mean, the stock has just been in freefall and that's not right. Maybe it's because the price earnings multiple got too high. I would hold it. I can't tell you to add any until we find out definitely that isn't Softbank selling its stake or something because, man, this thing's been nasty. All right, let's go to Mark in Illinois.

[D]

Mark, booyah. Jim, good to see you squawk this morning.

[C]

Oh, yeah, it was nice to be back. But you know what? We do have great chemistry. I dropped chemistry because it was going to ruin my transcript, but I've got it with a show. How can I help?

[D]

Listen, Carl, about Starbucks and a competitor that I've seen pop up in my neighborhood and I looked into it in the places, like off the chart. As a matter of fact, they got more places popping up than the cheese graters at a Bears game. It's, it's called, it's called seven brews and the traffic in seven bruise, several.

[C]

Seven bruise for seven brothers. All right, let me, let me, let me, let me retort, let me retort with the fact that I think that Brian Nicol is going to pull off this turnaround at one point, Starbucks today was all the way up to 94, fourth finish at $93.28. It's been a slow step by step, inch by inch move from the 70s, but it's coming back up. I hope that the seven brothers, the seven bruised, the seven brides, whatever, is doing well. But I got to tell you, my Choice is Starbucks. 12:30am was when everything changed for today's market thanks to TSMC. Can we get some sleep tonight, please? Oh, man, we've got really unbelievable earnings for the big banks. Now is it time for the regional players? Interesting. I'm sitting down with Mat at the Space Bank First Horizon to hear all about the company's latest results. Then yesterday, if you appointed me in the direction of a centuries old company whose stock has been quietly soaring lately, I'm digging deeper into the tale of Babcock and Wilcox and give you my take on the story. Name and as identity protection comes front and center for companies in the age of AI, I'm checking in on the cybersecurity stock rubric. With a stock that's been much worse than how the company's doing, let's see how to protect you. I want you to stay with Kramer Foreign.

[B]

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

[C]

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[B]

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[F]

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[C]

We get earnings from those big national banks this week. Wall street was not impressed. Okay, the whole sector got hammered. Now though, we're starting to get numbers from the regional banks and they're doing better. Take First Horizon Tennessee based bank that reported this morning even though the stock had rallied more than 50% from its lows last April, it still tacked on another 1.6% gain today. Why? Because the numbers were that good. So can this stock keep rolling as the new year unfolds? Let's begin with Brian Jordan, chairman, presidency of First Horizon, old friend of the show. Get a better sense. Mr. Jordan, welcome back to bed Money.

[G]

Thank you, thank you for having me.

[C]

All right, so Brian didn't skip a beat. This was the kind of quarter I like. Expenses under control, revenues growing. Really sound. And you used a phrase I'm going to use from now on. People are generally biased for growth. What does it mean to be biased for growth?

[G]

Well, it's not a term of technical, it's term of art. And we survey our customers on a, on a number of different ways. And I spend a lot of time with customers and everybody I generally run into is looking for opportunities to invest, to buy, build or expand. And I think if we can get the uncertainty to a lower level, I think people will really see this economy take off. I think there's a great opportunity for us and I'm hopeful that the benefit of the one big beautiful bill this spring will actually accelerate the growth in the economy.

[C]

Well, people may confuse exactly your footprint. We're talking about the whole Southeast, which I guess is just seeing everything from data centers being built to a lot of new, a lot of people coming in. I was thinking of you when they did the one that talked about the billionaires tax in California. And I think that we know what. I'm going to run to Texas, I'm going to run to Florida, I'm going to run to First Horizon. Are you seeing people who are basically a Magras, people coming from other areas of the country into your area because they know that you can expand and the government's got your back?

[G]

Yes, absolutely. If you look at the U haul destination list, Nashville is always near the top of that list. Tennessee is a tax free state, income tax free state, right to work, great laws and great business environment and you've got great climate, great resources in terms of human capital, transportation. And it has been a real magnet for the state. And we've seen a number of headquarters located here over the last several years.

[C]

Now we were looking at some of the things that make it so that things are much better than expected than expected for yours. And this growth in loans to mortgage companies now is. I always thought that the mortgage market was not so hot and then I read how you're doing and maybe it's a regional thing.

[G]

Yeah, it's, it's a combination of things for, for us that is a national business and there has been a lot of shift in the market over the course of the last 18 months and we've picked up a good bit of market share and we've picked up greater line utilization because of people exiting the business. What really started to happen late in the fourth quarter and surprised us a bit is refinance activity picked up. As you know, people with the last couple of years wanted to get the 2 and the 3% rates and they haven't been available. So people have had arms. And as the 30 year mortgage has approached that 6% area, we started to see people refinancing and buying mortgages at that lower 6% area and getting out of arms. So it's not a big wave at this point. But activity did start to pick up in the fourth quarter. We saw it in our warehouse business and we saw it in our mortgage origination business.

[C]

Now I want to ask you something because I know you're not a biased individual. I keep reading that the data centers are being built all over the country. People don't want them anymore because they jack up the electric prices. You've got areas that, where there's tremendous data center expansion. Are you seeing that or is that just some sort of thing that people are using to slide these guys?

[G]

Yeah, we're seeing data centers built two miles from where I'm sitting right now. Xai has built a huge facility and it's probably at 20 to 30% of the capacity that they will ultimately build. We're seeing across the footprint and it does put some pressure on water and electricity. But at the end of the day, the community seems to be very, very open to having those investments and the tangential or follow on investments that vendors and providers will once the data centers like XAs are finished.

[C]

All right, let me follow up on that. I was going to go another way, but I stop because this is really important. You just said be able to repeat that. You basically just said that the net, they're net positive, not a net negative. Which makes me think given how what big your footprint is, that perhaps we're getting a little too negative about the idea of having new data centers.

[G]

Yeah, I think they're very much a positive. It's clearly going to require some investment infrastructure, but that's going to be required anyway. So it really does bring economic growth to, to the communities. And here in Memphis, the growth dynamic that has been created around XAI is tremendous and we're very, very excited about how that's playing.

[C]

Thank you for that. Because you're the first person to say and I thought it was the case, honestly, I thought it was the case because I talked to the guys who put the put them in and they were saying that. Now let's go back to what you were talking about in terms of people feeling better now nationally we have a new administration. Obviously it is really not, I'm not going to say it's doesn't like regulating to say anti regulation. Is that an attitudinal thing that gets your area or is it just frankly less enforcement of regulation that might be onerous to business?

[G]

Well, I think there's clearly a much better environment for lower bureaucracy or red tape when it comes to making decisions or investments or acquisitions. It's very clear in the banking industry and you've seen that drive consolidation over the last six months in our industry. But it's generally true across all sectors of the economy. And efforts to change environmental permitting and things of that nature which seem to be taking root and growing is going to be very, very effective in driving growth over the next several years.

[C]

But what can your new companies find workers? We keep hearing that kids not have enough families that are having kids. We're running out of people, so to speak. We stopped immigration. Can these companies find people to hire?

[G]

We may have a longer term problem and we'll have to figure out, I think how we balance out the needs for workers and balance it out in a smart immigration system. But in the short run, with the use of technology, with the use of automation and the great workforce, the end migration we have in our footprint, there's not been a tremendous amount of contention for human resources in terms of staffing, open positions.

[C]

Well, I knew you'd be a breath of fresh air. You've been with us consistently. I know when things are bad, you say, hey, look, things aren't that great. Other people are always reluctant to do that. So you have every right to be able to say when things are great. I want to thank Brian Jordan is the CEO of First Horizon. Thanks for coming on, Brian. It's great to talk to you.

[G]

Thank you for having me.

[C]

Absolutely. Mad Bunny's back in for the break.

[B]

Coming up, last night you caught Kramer's attention with this energy technology stock. Now he's returning his homework with some extra credit.

[C]

Next.

[E]

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[F]

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[H]

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[F]

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[C]

Last night I got this call from Jim in Rhode island who served in the nav. Thank you. What do they know about Babcock and Wilcox? I told him it's great speculative play on the construction of power plants, but the stocks had an insane run. It's up over 30% just since the start of the year. So I recommended waiting for a pullback before you do any buy. But after showing that you know, I couldn't stop thinking about this Babcock and Wilcox. I remember from the old days, the small industrial company was founded only a couple of years after the Civil War. Yeah, the actual Civil War. They made boilers for Thomas Edison, the New York City subway. They were involved in the Manhattan Project too, which is how the company got involved in the early development of nuclear energy industry and ended up making components for nuclear powered submarines. That was Babcock and Wilcox's main business unit until it was acquired by rival construction company McDermott in the 70s. About 25 years ago this company was forced into bankruptcy thanks to a wave of asbestos lawsuits that troubled many of these companies that were in Construction. In 2006 it came came out of bankruptcy and merged with another McDermott subsidiary, BW X Technologies before being spun off as the new BMW in 2010. Now, 10 years ago, Babcock and Wilcox split again. This time you with me. It spun off its commercial power business as Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises. That is the company I got a call about last night while their defense and nuclear business changed its name to BWX Technologies. And I got to tell you, I think both of these companies have a lot going for them these days. I just wish the darn stocks weren't so high. Look, it wasn't always the case. Babcock and Wilcox peaked at $110 in 2016. That's adjusted for a 10 for 1 reverse split by the way. And its stock then sunk to well below $1 at its lows early last year. Back then a lot of people were worried that this business might be headed for bankruptcy. Last April sank to 2222 cents. 22 cents where it was at risk of getting delisted. Since then though, Babcock and Wilcox has caught fire. Get this is rallied 36,030 600% 3600% from its lows to $8 and change now. You know what? That created a lot of penny stock millionaires. Why the renaissance? First the company sold some assets to raise some cash, bought back some debt, avoided delisting and stayed in business. Then in the fall they announced a deal that would give the company exposure to the A AI data center space. I don't want to get too lost in the details. This story is tough enough already. But one of the things that this new iteration back in Wilkos does is help convert old dirty coal fired power plants in the new relatively cleaner natural gas plants. And most of the tech companies building data centers want relatively clean energy if they can't have nuclear. Since then, there's not enough of that to go around. Natural gas is often the best thing can do. So that deal instantly made Babcock and Wilcox a sexy new data center play. And the stock it soared. Of course most of the data center adjacent place peaked last October and then saw the stocks get hammered over the next couple of months. Remember that was the end of the year of magical investing. This window avoided that. It just kept charging higher. Some of that's because when BMW reported November, they posted a huge increase in their backlog from all this datacenter business. And they announced this $1.5 billion deal with Applied Digital, which is one of the Many cryptocurrency miners is pivoting to become a NIO cloud company. This is the first time BMW is installing a power plant for a new data center rather than just doing coal to gas conversion for older ones. So it was pretty good reason to buy the stock. In the end though, the stocks had a pretty extreme run. While Babcock and Wilcox is racking up a lot of new business which is impressive for a company with a 923 million dollar mark. Yeah, Cap, it's highly speculative. It certainly doesn't help that this company is currently losing a lot of money, still has a lot of debt, plus there are big projects and we don't even know Babcock can deliver. So it's worth your attention. But I wouldn't buy it even for speculation until the stock cools off. And remember October of last year they cooled off. Now what about this BW Technologies, the nuclear and defense company that used to be under the same corporate umbrella as Babcock and Wilcox. Intriguing. This is another stock that caught fire in recent years because the newfound interest in nuclear energy that you all know about now BW gets about 80% of its sales from the government, mostly from the Navy. They do design, engineering, manufacturing for nuclear components, reactors and nuclear fuel for nuclear powered aircraft carriers and submarines. Where Jim worked while he was in the submarine when he. It was previous, before he, when he called, but this was what I thought was his true interest. I thought this would be the division that he would like. This company also has a commercial business is connected to civilian nuclear power plants. BW X has really cleaned up over the past few years. In 2024 the Navy rolled out a 30 year shipbuilding plan that included a lot of investment in nuclear powered subs and aircraft carriers. That's decades of growth for these guys. Meanwhile, the commercial nuclear industry has come back from really from the dead thanks to all these power hungry data centers. As latest quarter BW government business put up 10% revenue growth and its commercial business was up 120%. Because these projects are so long term, a lot of visibility to the company's growth many many years into the future and the long term earnings are looking pretty, pretty good. Of course a lot of that's baked into the stock though, which was again, look at this. It rallied from $76 at the end of 2023 to $213 today, quitting a 23% gain since the beginning of 2026. Another parabolic move. At these levels, BW X trades at nearly 50 times this year's earnings estimates. That's too rich for me. Good story. But you need to wait for a major pullback or rapid acceleration BW earnings growth to justify the sky high valuation. Finally, look, while we're on the subject, you know what? Let's do this. Let's highlight some of the top defense contractors in the shipbuilding space space because that's good for bw. X. Right. All right. To stand out here versus hi I that's the old Huntington Ingalls Industries. That's the nation's largest military shipbuilder. They're the sole designer and builder of nuclear powered aircraft carriers and one of only two companies that makes nuclear powered submarines. Not better. They've also got a rapidly growing business making drones for the Navy. But look Hill up 80% last year. Even at this levels it sells for just under 24. This year's earnings estimates though and that's pretty reasonable given that the company's earnings should grow at a 16% clip. I I like it. Then there's the other company that builds nuclear subs, General Dynamics. This is a big diversified defense contractor so it's less of a pure play on shipbuilding. They even got a commercial aerospace business that Gulfstream. Still, the stock rallied 28% last year. And I think you could have more upside in a world where the president is talking about a 50% increase in defense spending. Stock trades at 21 times this year's earnings estimates. That it's not that pricey given that General should be able to put up 12% earnings growth this year. Both of these are cheaper. Here's the bottom line. When Jim Rhode island called about Babcock and Wilcox last night, it sent me into a rabbit hole. Maybe a warren of nuclear powered chip building. Babcock and Wilcox is pure speculation. I think it's too expensive for the moment. Bw much less speculative. Also very expensive Asia if you want nuclear powered ships. And I got to tell you, General Dynamics right now, I think maybe I should put it in the charitable trust. I got a big meeting next week. It's a club meeting. And you know what? There's so many stocks that I'm intrigued in right now. But I would have to sell something to buy General Dynamics and I can't think of what to sell. Stay tuned next week for more information. Why don't we go to Greg in my home state of New Jersey. Greg.

[D]

Hey Jim. Good evening. Enjoy the show. Love to get your opinion on cat. Texas Pacific Land purchased some stock over a year ago, just split three for one. And they also just Let both dad and energy in the door with the former, I guess was Google CEO that Eric Schmidt to get your opinion on that stock.

[C]

Well, you know, look, we. We recommended stock a couple of years ago. We had a good run. We're not inclined to like the oil stocks this year. We just think that the president wants oil down and this president seems to get a lot of what he does want. I'm not going to get in the way of him in his $50 price target for. For. For oil. Let's go to David in Florida. David.

[H]

Booyah.

[D]

Jim, how are you?

[C]

Oh yeah, I'm good. David, how are you doing?

[D]

Good, good. I'm calling about an energy company that has had very strong earnings the past multiple quarters and was just upgraded yesterday from Jefferies. I've heard you talk about them a lot. Do you still like G.E.

[H]

Vernova?

[C]

You know, I'm glad you mentioned over. I hit it up today. I saw it was down. I say that's ridiculous. This company is on fire. What does she for Nova do? What does natural gas turbines and it does nuclear. And I think it's ridiculous that the stock is down since the year began. It is a. And we own it for the charitable trust. It's one of my absolute favorite stocks. All right. Unfortunately, I think Babcock and Wilcox is just pure space at this point. But there are others in the space that stand out to me. I'm glad I took a deep dive into the sector. I wanted you to know more than just BW now, much more made by including my suits with Rubrik. How can companies stay ahead of the curve when it comes to cybersecurity these days? And when they break into your place. I'm getting all the latest with the identity providers, top brass, the ones who insure your business. Then I think, well, not technical insurers. When you hear it, you'll know then Goldman Sachs morning recently. How about these two? I think they're getting unfairly punished by the market after their quarters. Even though they're up today. I'm taking a step back in time. Give you a little perspective about these stalwart institutions. And of course, all your calls. Rapid Fire, tonight's edition of the Whiting Round. So stay with Raymond. Sometimes you put a truly great quarter at your stock source and then later comes right back down. Take Rubrik, the data security company that turned in a blowout quarter a little over a month ago. It's a huge beat that sent the stock legitimately flying from 70 to 86 the next day. It Charged higher for the next couple of sessions for peaking at $92 and change since then. The rubrics pull back hard, coming down to around $69 today. Meaning you're basically getting that fantastic quarter for free. So is this an incredible buying opportunity or do the sellers know something we don't? Let's take a closer look with Biffle Sinho. He's the co founder chairman CEO of Rubrik. To find out more. Mr. Sinha, welcome back to Mad Money.

[H]

James, thank you for the opportunity.

[C]

Of course. Now people, that quarter was amazing and it said to me that you'd be nuts not to have your kind of program because especially once they're in, if they get in, you're kind of a dead man without your stuff. Is that too extremely positive?

[H]

I mean, if you look at the last several quarters, ever since we became a public company, we have been producing great numbers and last quarter was our greatest ever. Look, I leave the stock and the stock price to the experts of the market. But we are into an exciting market. I mean if you think about data is the engine for AI and Rubrik is a data company. We are helping businesses accelerate their agent AI journey and finally we have an exciting platform with multiple products. And as you said, as you said, instead we help businesses keep their services up and running even when they had a successful cyber attack.

[C]

Well, I look at things to see maybe something's wrong. I said, geez, maybe Okta, which does identity work, is taking share, but it's the opposite. You're partners with Okta.

[H]

We are a big partner with Okta. We are a big partner with Microsoft Active Directory because we are helping these directory services up and running even when they had a cyber attack. Because after all, people have to log in after a cyber attack.

[C]

Well, let's go over. I like your approach of let's not determine the market yet, let's determine what you're doing for companies. I get in through the typical port, I log in somehow, I get it, I then try to shut down the entire system. What can you do to protect that?

[H]

What we do is we keep the copies of your most mission critical applications in Rubrik. And when your system is shut down because of cyber attack, human error, natural disaster, we copy the data back into those systems and bring those systems up and running. The speed of clean data delivery is the Rubrik's core business. And now with Rubrik Agent Cloud, we are also helping businesses deploy and secure AgentIQ AI.

[C]

Now how dangerous is agentic? I keep hearing first I heard it was the greatest thing in the world. But then I heard that it's a terrific way to imitate and therefore exploit. So I mean, what were we doing putting these things in that seem like a natural cyber attack vehicle?

[H]

I mean you, you heard their stats that 80% of AI projects are not getting into production. The biggest risk factor is governance, monitoring, compliance and ability to undo bad action. And that's where Rubrik comes in. We have a full suite of solution which does agent monitoring, agent governance, so that there's a guardrail and they don't take bad actions. And if they do bad actions, then we undo it. And this is the think about, this is a passport for everybody to fly in the agentic world.

[C]

Now you do get business from at the expense of other companies, but they tend to be what you call legacy companies. So what does that mean to people who are thinking, well, I don't know, I don't know any legacy companies.

[H]

If you think about Rubrik, what we are doing in the Marketplace is what ServiceNow did to ITSM. So ServiceNow took the legacy ITSM and transformed that into a workflow platform to deliver digital transformation. We have taken the backup and recovery, which is a legacy product for business continuity in case of natural disaster, and transform that into a data security platform to deliver cyber resilience. Which means that even when you have a cyber attack, your businesses are running, you can deploy agents with confidence.

[C]

Okay, so a lot of people are feeling at the software as a service companies are all being lumped together. So you have atlassian going down, ServiceNow going down, Salesforce going down, workday going down, of course, Adobe going down. I look at your business, it doesn't really look like those guys. Yes, you analogize the service now, but more toward the way a platform is, not because you're based necessarily on a seat model.

[H]

We are not on the seat model at all. We are an infrastructure company, a data infrastructure company for AI, for cloud, for SaaS. And we are delivering security and AI automation.

[C]

Okay. @ the same time, I want people to understand your progression of what your margins were last year at this time versus now. And you're, let's get your return the.

[H]

Error. I mean, if you look at our business growth, we had tremendous business growth. I mean we are growing 34% year over year, 1.35 billion and we generated 77 million of free cash flow, which is 22% cash flow margin. And if you just look at last, all of last year we generated 22 million of cash. Just this past quarter we generated 77 million of free cash flow. So we have done tremendous job in creating a top line growth because we are in a very, very large market while doing a disciplined execution to generate profitability and cash.

[C]

Flow. Well, look, I think it could be a case of mistaken identity, frankly because I can tell if you go through that trajectory where you'll be and people will probably say by that point, six months from now, wow, what a cheap stock. Because that's the way it works in this market. I want to thank Bibble Sinhuis, the co founder chairman CEO of Rubrik. It is not a seat model. I repeat that it's important that money's back after the.

[B]

Break. Coming up, Cramer takes your calls and the sky's the limit. It's a fast fire lightning round.

[C]

Next. It is time. My staff bears the glamour superbike you play this out and then the lightning round is over. Are you ready? Ski Dagon White one comes to mind the store with Susie in California. Susie.

[D]

Hey. Hi, Jim calling from the food bank in Fairfield.

[C]

California. It's lovely and.

[D]

Sunny. I'm calling about bank.

[C]

Stocks. I have capital one due to your recommendations and I'm looking at a small bank stock. This had a good half year. It's called.

[D]

San. What are your thoughts and should I have two.

[C]

Things? Santander is terrific by the way. My daughter works at the New Jersey food bank. You are doing the right thing and so is she. I think that Santander is amazing. I think Anna Boutine is incredible. We Recommend this option 3 and I'm redoubling my average to tell you to buy it right now. Let's go to Tim in New York. Tim, what's.

[D]

Up? Tim, sorry about those eagles but I got a question about another Scott.

[C]

That'S beat down right now. We're not. We're going to stay away from these enterprise software companies. They seem to be almost in free fall and I don't need to break the ball. Let's go to Bill in Texas. Bill.

[D]

Booyah. Jim, Bill from Texas here. Proud club, proud club member and longtime student of.

[C]

Yours. You the man. Thank you and I hope you'll be at the meeting next week. Let's go to.

[D]

Work. Yes, sir. I wanted to get get your thoughts on a regional bank in the south origin bank.

[C]

Card. That thing is a rocket ship. You are in a winter club member. You're a winner and I think that you should stay in it and if it pulls back, I would buy more. Let's go to Rick in.

[D]

Florida. Rick, Jim, first time longtime club.

[H]

Member. How are.

[C]

You? I'm doing well, how about.

[D]

You? Good sir, my question is about Kava. I bought some in the the.

[C]

50S, got a decent gain.

[D]

Going. Should I.

[C]

Continue? No, no, no. Kava's making a big move. It's just starting. Look at yum today. Look at Texas Roadhouse today. Look at that group. Kava is good. It's in it was making me look bad and how to make money in any market. But that's no longer the case. Kava is a. Bye bye bye. Let's go to Joe in Washington.

[D]

Joe. Hey Kramer. Booyah to you. Company I bought about within the last 90 days. I'm up 40%. Royal.

[C]

Gold. Yeah, I know that's royalty Franco Nevada. It's a very very good company. Now the problem is is that kind of money be made that fast. But it hitting an all time high today makes me say time to snitzel. I want you to take a little off the table tomorrow. You'll never regret it, I promise. Okay, let's go to Scott in Tennessee.

[D]

Scott. Jim, we just stuck in Marvel.

[C]

Or Marvel buying Celestial AI for 3.

[D]

Billion. That's a big validation for optical.

[C]

Interconnection. Here's the point. Poet Technologies, they're the verified supplier.

[D]

Building the light engines inside Celestial Tech. So with a 300 million dollar cash war chest, what's your take on Poet.

[C]

Technology? I'm not a poet and I don't know it have to come back. What can I say? Let's go to Ken in California.

[D]

Ken. Hey, Jim. Carter J. Yeah, what the.

[C]

Heck. This is another one. Look. This is enterprise software. No one wants to touch these companies. It doesn't even matter if it's for architects. No one wants to touch. These are toxic, okay? These are toxic. And we're going to stay away from the love canal that is enterprise software. And that ladies up the clues. You have the Lightning.

[B]

Round. The Lightning round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up after more strong earnings from Gold, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Kramer is giving a lesson from his own history with those firms to help guide your present.

[D]

Next. Booyah. Jim, your integrity makes you the booyah saint of Wall Street. Booyah, Jimmy chill. Booyah, Jimmy chill. Booyah.

[C]

Jim. Quadruple. That's a lot of booyahs. I found myself waxing nostalgic today, going back to 1982 when I was a young kid at Harvard Law School angling for a job more suited for the students across the Charles at the business school. I wanted a job at Goldman Sachs because I was a demon for research about stocks. And the more I read about Goldman, the more I realized working there could change my life. Of course I was immediately turned down. I wasn't up to stuff. Didn't understand the balance sheet or the income statement. Didn't know how to use the HP12C calculator. One day obviated by Gold Google. I didn't know how to carry myself, how to dress. Maybe it was that Marshall's corduroy suit with the button down sans cufflinks. And I didn't know how to eat or talk the way gentlemen extinct instinctively know how. So I went about how to. I learned these things. I studied how to win friends and influence people. The 1936 classic by Dale Carnegie. I worked on diction. I went to a wondrous place called Mo Ginsburg for my clothes. A pipe rack warehouse with suits that you couldn't tell from Brooks Brothers. I took a corporate finance class. I took a year of accounting and when I reapplied I was immediately rejected. Why? Well this was Goldman Sachs for heaven's sake. And I still wasn't good enough. I was told not to come back, which I immediately responded by saying that I'll take that as a maybe. They told me a no means a no so I redoubled my efforts. It's like a variant on that old Groucho Marx line I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member. I figured if Goldman didn't want me this badly the place must be incredible. So soon after I told the person who'd given me the solid no that I was in New York for Christmas break I wanted to stop by. The naysayer said sure, see you at 11 I got there as assistant said just go into this little closet like space and someone would be with me be soon by to interview me. I said terrific. Six hours later I popped out to see when they would meet me but no one was there. Everyone had gone home. That intrigued me. So I came back soon after saying that I think I was overlooked A new person intervened, said no. They were just trying to send me a message that I obviously didn't get. So I played my only card. I said that I knew every stock, every one and I'm willing to describe it, tell you what price it was selling at and what should be be done with it. I said that if I failed I'd never bother them again. Well they took their term one after another after another. To me it felt like batters practice I don't think I sent maybe a couple to the lower deck. Most went to the upper deck except for the ones that broke car windows outside the stadium. No fly balls, just home runs. At that point the biggest naysayer told me that I got my foot in the door, but they'd slammed the door on my foot unless I could get a job offer at the other iconic investment bank, Morgan Stanley. So I started that process, crashed cocktail parties using alumni network, waited outside with my Mo Ginsburg soup and said I knew syndicate work underwritings somewhat. After many meetings with pretty senior people, I got close to an offer. With my gossamer break at Morgan, I went back to Goldman and I got a summer offer. It was 1983 by then, a year and a half went by fine with me. I got a full time offer at the end of the summer and even started doing some work for him before I graduated. Now why do I tell this story? Because these places still have incredibly high standards all these years later. Which is why the buyer should stop clowning around and find they realize that their stocks are worth much more than they're trading for even at today's rallies and they should be taking all offers. Today, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs reported fantastic numbers, as they almost always do. Their stocks were up 5.78% and 4.6% respectively. Yet even after these romps, they still traded a ridiculously low 17 times earnings. Insane. These are not some episodic roller coaster firms. They're solid granite, tungsten even, yet they sell at multiples far lower than Colgate or Procter and Gamble toothpaste or just the average stock in the SB500. That's farcical. However, I think the investment banks are finally starting to get their due and this is just the beginning, people. I'll tell you when it's too late to buy, but for now we're definitely not there yet. They will go much higher and I think from my history, deservedly so. I like to say, as always, markets on my promise for you right here on My Money. I'm Jim Graber. See you.

[E]

Tomorrow. All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its 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 Kramer as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Cramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy. And it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Mad Money disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com madmoneydisclaimer Building a.

[B]

Portfolio with Fidelity Basket Portfolios is kind of like making a sandwich. It's as simple as picking your stocks and ETFs, sort of like your meats and other topics, and managing it as one big juicy.

[A]

Investment.

[B]

Mmm. Now that's pretty good. Learn [e-mail] baskets Investing involves risks, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC Member nyse.