Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 1/20/26

Summary

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Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer — Episode Summary

Date: January 21, 2026
Main Theme: Navigating Frothy Markets, How to Handle Speculative Manias, and the Dangers of Overexposure

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Episode Overview

Jim Cramer delves into what he sees as a dangerously frothy stock market, particularly focusing on the explosive, sometimes irrational rallies in speculative stocks, small caps, alternative energy, and crypto miners. He counsels listeners to preserve their gains through profit-taking and rebalancing portfolios away from overexposed sectors—especially technology—and toward more solid, less volatile stocks. The episode features his signature “Lightning Round” of rapid-fire stock opinions and ends with a geopolitical reflection comparing U.S. and Chinese foreign policy strategies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Market Jitters and White House Tariffs

Timestamp: 01:12–02:45

• Cramer opens with the day’s sharp market declines:

  “The Dow tumbling 871 points, S&P plunging 2.06%, Nasdaq plummeting 2.39%. Get this. It could have been worse.” (02:00)

• He attributes the volatility to President Trump’s tariff threats, this time aimed at Denmark for Greenland, emphasizing Wall Street’s aversion to unpredictable trade actions.

2. “Froth” in the Market and How to Respond

Timestamp: 02:45–09:00, 13:52–21:19

• Cramer’s chief concern is acute speculation:

  “We're going to talk about froth, the process by which we overpay for things that might not be worth as much as we think.” (02:45)

• He draws a line between:
  • Speculative stocks: “Companies with no earnings and little in the way of sales.”
  • Momentum stocks: Have real earnings/sales, like memory chip makers.
• Recommends profit-taking:

  “You haven’t made a profit unless you ring the register. Paper gains, that doesn’t count.” (04:00) “If you’re up, say, 50% since the year began, you cannot turn a gain into a loss.” (05:00)

• He’s less draconian than in earlier years: keep a “lottery ticket” in hot speculative names but always take some profit off the table.

Sectors in Focus:

• Tech Overexposure: Warns that with tech now 40–50% of the S&P, it’s underperforming, so “diversify, especially if you have over 40% in tech.” (08:30)
• Momentum Sectors:
  • Memory plays (Micron, Seagate, SanDisk) are on fire, but supply gluts can end runs “in a heartbeat.”
  • Semiconductor equipment makers (Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA) also strong, but risks are high.
  • Gold and silver: okay as insurance, but parabolic moves spell speculative froth—take cost basis out, let the rest ride.

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3. Lightning Round — Caller Q&A Highlights

Timestamp: 09:00–11:38, 38:26–43:19

• Novo Nordisk (GLP-1 pills): “Hold it. I met with the CEO last week… They’re making a turn here.” (09:28)
• Spotify: “Sells at a very high price/earnings multiple. People no longer like the high PE. You might consider selling and coming back later.” (10:16)
• Dell Technologies: “I like Dell very much. But margins are getting hurt as suppliers raise prices. Wait until we see a peak in those storage companies.” (29:17)
• Nvidia chips and cooling: “You’re still going to need Vertiv, and also Emerson, Eaton. But be careful—market doesn’t like data center exposure now.” (30:28–30:46)
• IBRS Community Bio: “Had a giant run off the FDA meeting. Take profits in some of that—not all, but some.” (39:06)
• Pan American Silver: “It’s the best silver mining company, but after a gigantic jump, don’t start a position today. Wait for a pullback.” (39:38)
• KLA Corporation: “Well-run, was down huge today. Okay to nibble—buy a partial position, not the top.” (40:09)
• Firefly Aerospace: “A little too speculative for me. Right now, I favor earnings-generating companies.”
• Procore Technologies (construction management AI): “Tremendous pressure from cheaper competition. Be careful.”

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4. The Anatomy and Warnings of Speculative Manias

Timestamp: 13:52–29:00, 21:19–28:52

• Cramer details a screen of US-listed stocks with $1B+ cap and up over 50% YTD. Only 9 of 32 had expected profits for the year; only 3 had reasonable PEs.
• Hot themes include:
  • Alternative energy (Bloom Energy +75%, uranium and battery plays, nuclear startups)
  • Space/drone stocks (AST Space Mobile, Rocket Lab, Red Wire)
  • Crypto miners pivoting to AI/data centers (CoreWeave, Riot, Applied Digital—some up 40%+)
  • Speculative biotechs
  • Leveraged commodities ETFs (Ultra Silver +74%)
  • Ambiguous AI and wacky Chinese names (Rich Sparkle Holdings)
• Reality check: these leadership groups invariably “end in tears” because “when the froth dries up, they crash—hard and fast.”

Historical Precedents:

• Recent frothy periods led to big pullbacks:
  • Fall 2025: Small caps and speculative names fell up to 9–10%, many individual stocks worse (31:00).
  • Late 2024 post-election: Nasdaq fell 27%, S&P and Nasdaq-100 fell 20%+ within months (34:30).
  • Early 2021 GameStop mania: Followed by 6–12% drops and a freeze on speculative names for the year.
• The most dramatic period was late 2021:

  “S&P 500 fell 27.5% peak to trough from its 2022 highs to the October bottom; Nasdaq indices off more than 30%” (36:40)

• Bottom line: froth is an early warning sign— even if the broad market recovers, speculators quickly get wiped out.

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5. Geopolitics: U.S. vs. China — Rare Minerals, Tariffs & Influence

Timestamp: 43:37–48:16

• Cramer reflects on President Trump’s use of tariffs (“coercion”) compared to China’s Belt & Road high-spending infrastructure diplomacy:

  “Are tariffs and coercion really the way to go? I got to tell you, they clearly aren’t as good as what China's been doing to get its hands on critical minerals.” (44:00)

• Examples:
  • China’s soft-power lending grabs cobalt (Congo), copper, lithium, oil (Venezuela), and even encroaches on Cuba.
  • U.S. approach, in contrast, alienates allies with tariffs—even threatens Danish trade over Greenland’s rare minerals.
• Predicts that, for now, China’s quiet, deep-pocketed strategy is winning global resource influence battles.

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Notable Quotes

• On profit-taking:

  “You haven’t made a profit unless you ring the register. Paper gains, that doesn’t count.” (04:00)

• On speculative excess:

  “That’s too much exuberance, not enough rigor.” (21:23)

• On dangerous leadership:

  “I hate to see money flowing out of proven high quality stocks like the Mag 7 and then flowing right into the most speculative names… This is worrisome.” (17:00)

• On cautious action:

  "It's not a get out now, it's a take profits on some. ... No panic. Just be smarter.” (10:16, 08:57)

• On US–China rivalry:

  “The United States...we anger everybody. China just takes over because they speak softly and carry a big wallet.” (47:00)

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Actionable Takeaways

• If a stock is up 50% YTD (especially speculative), take profits now—don’t let paper gains vanish.
• Do not chase parabolic runs in questionable sectors; be prepared for quick, severe corrections.
• Diversify away from tech if it’s over 40% of your portfolio.
• Focus on companies with real earnings and solid fundamentals.
• Speculative “lottery ticket” positions are acceptable but only as a portion of a disciplined portfolio.
• Watch out for geopolitical shocks and policy swings—tariffs still rattle markets.

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Key Segments (with Timestamps)

• Market Volatility & Tariff Worries: 01:12–02:45
• Froth & Profit Guidance: 02:45–09:00, 13:52–21:19
• Lightning Round (Live Callers): 09:00–11:38, 38:26–43:19
• Deep Dive on Speculative Manias & Historical Parallels: 13:52–29:00, 21:19–28:52
• Geopolitical Analysis (US vs. China): 43:37–48:16

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Overall Tone & Advice

Cramer is energetic, urgent, and slightly exasperated by what he perceives as widespread overconfidence and speculative excess. He repeatedly urges listeners not to panic, but to be rational and disciplined—lock in gains, limit tech exposure, and beware the siren song of frothy stocks. He is proud to be a voice of experience and caution:

“What made money history is always the best guide for the future.” (31:00)

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In summary:
Jim Cramer frames the current run-up in speculative stocks as a red flag, drawing on recent history to warn of pending corrections. He emphasizes disciplined investing, profit-taking, and sector rotation toward quality and away from market fads. And, in a world increasingly defined by strategic resource fights, he notes the difference between U.S. saber-rattling and China’s calculated, checkbook diplomacy—advising awareness of both in your investment thinking.

Transcript

[A]

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Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member NYSE SIPC. Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramer America. Other than friends, I'm just trying to save a little bit of money. My job is not just to educate, but to explain how something like this could be happening. So call me at 1-800-743- CNBC. Tweet me at Jim Cramer. Talk about a jarring session. We're captive to a president who's decided he can wage economic warfare against any country in order to get his way. In this case, it's against Denmark for refusing to hand over Greenland. Of course, Greenland has nothing to do with our stock market, right? But our president uses tariffs to coerce our trading partners, even though Wall street absolutely hates it. And that's what caused today's pain. The house of pain. With The Dow tumbling 871points, S&P plunging 2.06%, Nasdaq plummeting 2.39%. Get this. It could have been worse. But everyone remembers when we sold off hard on tariff worries last spring on for stocks to rebound once the president rolled back most of all day as the market adjusted to the possibility that someone blinks on Greenland next 72 hours. Something we might find signals, by the way, when we watch our own Joe Kernan speak to the president tomorrow in the exchange. I Had something else on my mind. I want to talk about something that's beginning to really bother me in this market and it does not have all that much to do with Greenland. Tonight we are going to talk about something I despise. We're going to talk about froth, the process by which we overpay for things that might not be worth as much as we think, maybe much less than we think. We're going to talk about how to preserve gains that might not otherwise be available and how to reposition to high grade, as we call it, the investing club, where I should add, we have a noon meeting for members on Thursday. It's an hour long. I think you should join and find out what we're talking about. Let's start with a simple supposition. While many long term winners have struggled since the beginning of the new year, the speculative stocks and momentum stocks have really caught fire. They're different, very different. The speculative names are at the heart of the froth. More on that later. But there's been a huge amount of money made in these stocks over the past few weeks. And that's one part of the problem. For the most part, they're companies with no earnings and little in the way of sales. Now, as I teach in how to make money in any market, speculation is a reasonable way to make a lot of money. But the operative word is make. You haven't made a profit unless you bring the register on some of your gains. Otherwise you don't have gains. Paper gains, that doesn't count. And that's what I suggest you do. Tomorrow morning. I have a big gain. Let's say you have big, let's say big gain in stock. Okay, that soared this year. Tomorrow you can take something off the table. If you're up, say 50% since the year began, you're crossing over to one of our most important disciplines on mad money. You cannot turn a gain into a loss. We know four months ago that we had a very similar situation to the one we've seen lately. Back then I excoriated those who failed to take profits and was loud and noisy about it. And I'm doing the same right now tonight. I was right back then and I think it would be right again. Many of you have made more money this year already than you might have made last year or maybe multiple years altogether. I'm not advocating you sell everything. I'm advocating that you try to take a big percentage of your stock and put it in cash. That way you're playing with what I call the House's money you'll still be in. In the old days, I used to advocate wholesale selling of speculative stocks. But I spent years studying the process of what a speculative stock morphs. When it morphs into a long term investment, I've gotten much less strict. I now think that you're perfectly justified to pick one speculative name if you own five stocks, or even two if you own 10 and let them ride if they put a big gains. You can gradually ring the register on the way up. But you've also got my blessing to leave part of your position on the table. A large part of it. Because when you catch a terrific speculative winner, the long term gains can be immense. But you got to take something off now. How about a different course of. How about the momentum stocks? Now those are the ones that have earnings and have sales. And those stocks have caught fire too. Very tough call. These are two. There are two kinds of momentum stocks in this market right now. First, we got the memory plays. Okay, that's the memory and storage. Sandisk, Micron, Seagate, Mushroom Digital. Those stocks are up huge both last year and this year. It seems like every day one or another broker recommends them with a new price target. The whole group rallies accordingly again and again. Even today, the memory plays seem unassailable. But I got news for they're not. And that's because there's another set of companies with momentum stocks that are going higher. Ever higher, ever higher. That's the semiconductor capital equipment makers which are busy trying to create more memory supply. We don't know when supply will catch up with demand because we know there are companies in Japan and Korea that are also trying to pump out as many storage devices as possible to make as much money as possible. And they're using these very same capital equipment. Place Applied Materials, Land Research and kla. There will come a day when we will. This is going to happen, people. When there'll be a marginal increase in disk drives and flash memory chips and then the prices for those products will plummet. You cannot afford to get caught holding a lot of these stocks. When that occurs, it won't be tomorrow. I know. And you'll say, why didn't tell me to get out? No, I don't know when. So what do you do after these monster parabolic moves? You need to cut these positions pretty sizably. Take profits. Let the restaurant. That's fine. They're great companies. But the unseen competition might be right around the corner. And then you'll say, why didn't he tell me? Why didn't he? Tell me. Final group, gold and silver tough. For some these are hedges, basically insurers. But for others are just speculation. In either case, the moves have been parabolic. Now you know what I say about parabolic moves. I can justify the gains because these companies like the Memory Place have actual earnings. But a parabolic move? No, no. If you own them because you want precious metals as insurance, I'm not. I'll bless it. If you're speculating, you got a remarkable moment to take out your cost basis and let the rest run. One other consideration. We're seeing a change in the gardens market. Depending on what you include it's message 40 or 50% of this s and P is is tech right now. And we're noticing the tech, especially large cap tech, is underperforming to start the year. If you want to take a longer term view that everything's fine and tech will come back all right, I get that. But I don't agree, which is not. And that's why we're not doing that for the investing club only. One of our recent buyers is tech. As we spread out into many other tremendous secular themes. Which themes? Non data center tech, consumer goods, retail, aerospace, banking, health care. You saw how those act much better than tech. Is tech done? Of course not. But could you have too much tech exposure in your portfolio? Absolutely. If you have 40% tech or more, may I suggest you take some profits, put that money in cash, then wait and see. Guys, I'm really asking you to do this. All right? I asked you to do it in September, October and I was right. And I really do think I'm going to be right this time. Again, the bottom line, there are better non tech stocks to own in this frothy market. It's time to diversify. Remember, you want to make the most amount of money with the least amount of risk. That's what this business is about. And right now that's simply not tech. Make these changes and I think you'll be glad you did. Did no panic. Just be smarter. Gil in Virginia. Gil.

[D]

Yes, Jim. How are you, Jim? Good to be with you, Jim.

[C]

Thank you.

[D]

My question is, with Novo Nordisk coming out with the first one to come out with the oral pill to GLP1 and with Eli Lilly coming out with theirs, I believe in the spring of this year, would you consider Novo? I have a pretty big position in that. Would you consider that a buy, hold or sell going forward?

[C]

I would hold it. I met with the CEO last week. I kind of. I liked him a lot. Now. I met with Dave Rich from Lilly and you know he's my favorite. But I'm not going to go against owning some novo. I think they're making a turn here. I think that that head start they have, the pill is very good. Let's go to Ambarish in Missouri. Ambarish.

[D]

Hey Jim, longtime listener and second time caller.

[C]

Love your show. Thank you. What's up?

[D]

I'm calling about a small problem. I have ticker symbols but Spotify held it for a year. Now I own 45 shares. Cost basis is 618. The company has solid subscriber growth, recent US price hikes. However, it has premium valuations, competition From Apple and YouTube, Amazon, mixed analyst sentiment. Is this a sell hold or a buy?

[C]

I have been watching the stock just shed points and shed points and shed points as the street turns on it because it sells at a very high priced earnings multiple. People no longer like the high price earnings multiple stocks. Right now we have to obey that and watch it come in and own it for the long term or sell it and come back later. Which may be the way that I would approach Spotify. All right, look, if most of your money is tied up in tech stocks, I think you got to take some profits. It's time to diversify better. You'll be more much better off without so much tech. And when it comes to speculation, the whole show is going to be devoted to froth, how to spot it, what to do and getting out or at least taking profits. Okay, on man money time, I am kicking off my series and what could go wrong in the market after we've had so many things go right for the investors over the past couple of years. Remember, it's not a get out now, it's a take profits on some. Then I'm going on froth watch to break down why the price action. Spectrum Stocks is the top of my list of concerns with this tape, not the president and our review. What happened to the market the last few times we saw this kind of frothy action and how you can prepare for what might come next. Regardless about what happens with Greenland. So stay with Kramer.

[E]

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

[C]

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[D]

Oh yeah, huh?

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Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on baby, get with the times. Right.

[F]

So we shouldn't get the parachute pants.

[C]

These are making a comeback, I think. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.

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[C]

Before we get to the most crowded part of the earnings season today, I want to talk to you about what could go wrong with this market. Don't get me wrong, even with today's tariff threat inspired beat down, I still think we're in a pretty good place. But honestly, that's the problem. The market's had a terrific run over the past three years and the averages are within spitting distance of some big, big milestone levels. 50,000 for the Dow, 7,000 for the SB 500. Now it's always worth considering what could derail the market, especially when times are relatively good and you still have the flexibility to reposition your portfolio without swallowing too many losses. And look, once you start thinking about what could go wrong with the market, it's actually not that hard to identify a lot of potential problems. For one, we have stubbornly high interest rates, benchmark U.S. 10 year yield touching 4.3% today. You know that's the highest level since August is also an unclear path that we have forward for the Federal Reserve. I put these mildly. I Guess I can also point to elevated earnings growth projections. Equally high valuations create a situation where many stocks are more or less priced for perfection. That's one reason we've had an inauspicious start to earnings season with the big banks reporting generally good quarters only to see many of their stocks sell off. Not all, but many pluses Washington President Trump has always been unpredictable. Sometimes it's bad for the stock market. As you know, I don't think anyone in the business world particularly wants to conquer Greenland. And we certainly don't want to pay the cost of the tariffs that the president threatened to impose on Europe. That's his way of coercing Denmark into handing Greenland over without a fight. Remember, Wall street hates tariffs. That's not change. More on that later. On top of that, there are plenty of industry specific worries like all the money that's being plowed into these data center spaces, specifically whether or not open AI that's the large private one can cover its $1.4 trillion where the spending commitments. Don't forget being sued by Elon Musk. That's not good. Meanwhile, the market could be flooded with supply. That's what I really worry about if we had all the big IPOs this year that many are expecting. But tonight I want to start with something we talked about at the top of the show. We've seen a return of frothy action in many parts of this market in these past few weeks. We've gotten used to high levels of froth in the past few years when stocks rally and rally, rally some more or nothing. But lately that froth has reached what I regard as extreme levels. First, there's the fact that this market is being led by the small caps with the Russell 2000 up nearly 7% since being the new year. That's a bad leadership group people, as many of these companies don't make any money. And most classic overvalued on an earnings per share basis. Some of them don't have a lot of revenues. It's just not a good group. When you take a closer look at what's been working best to begin this year, the problems start to really come into focus. So over the weekend what we did was we ran a simple screen looking for US listed stocks with market capitalizations over $1 billion and total returns of more than 50% year to date. As of Friday, stocks close. It's a staggering gain for thus in three weeks time. Do you know that we found 32 stocks, actually 31 stocks in one ETF that fit this criteria and it's a good sample of what I consider frothy action with representatives from many of the groups that they've started to get over there overheating. There are the memory stocks. Those are still white hot. I mentioned at the top other speculative semiconductor plays, lots of alternative energy plays, space stocks, drones, crypto miners turned data centers of course, and other tangential crypto related names. There's a lot of biotechs in there, plus plays on silver, other metals. Then we got some one offs including a wacky Chinese stock with a funny name called Rich Sparkle Holdings. You always see these percolate in the frothiest markets. Plus stocks that fall into a category that I call ambiguous A I stories. We'll get into all these groups after the break, but for now here's something to consider. Of those 32 companies that met our screening criteria, including a 50% plus total return just in the first two and a half weeks of the year, only nine of those companies are expected of positive earnings this year. And yes, I was generous and I use forward earnings estimates. Remember that's the PE on the forward numbers because it would look even worse if we asked which of those companies made money last year. Also, of the nine companies that are expected to make money in 2026, three have triple digit price earnings multiples, which is insanely expensive in any environment. So that's the kind of thing that has me worried. It should. It should worry you. As begin 2026, lots of money is flowing to these stocks, mostly profitless companies. But it's not just that I'm that I'm also concerned by the fact that it appears people are selling the highest quality stocks to fund their speculative purchases. Just take a look at the performance of the bank dividend 7 so far this year. Nvidia is now down more than 4% after big tumble today. It's off more than 15% from its late October high. Apple off over 9%. Oh my God. This could be another eighth week of Apple being look out matter. Platforms is down more than 8%. Microsoft down almost 6%. Amazon, the worst performing mag7 last year, is doing better, still up slightly for the year despite getting hit today. And the sainted Alphabet, which broke free from the group in the fourth quarter to soar higher, continues its magical run up a quick 3% to start 2026. We own that for the Travel Trust. Now there are legitimate questions to ask about the individual max seven components and the staying power of their stocks after some truly tremendous multi year runs. But in general, I hate to see money flowing out of proven high quality stocks like the Mag 7 and then flowing right into the most speculative names in the market that I've been describing. This is worrisome. Here's the bottom line. There's plenty to worry about in this environment, but in my opinion, the biggest problem with this market is froth. I want you to stick around after the break and I'll walk you through exactly what that means and why it has me so concerned that money is back after the the break.

[E]

Coming up, the market has been frothing up a storm to start 2026, so Kramer's taking a closer look at the pockets he's most worried about. Staying hot Next this episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Landsford for this information packed daily market Preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions and key results and statist that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] MarketUpdatePodcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts.

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[C]

Tonight I'm walking you through what could go wrong with the market and the biggest problem right now is fraud when prices skyrocket, especially for the most speculative stocks out there without any improvement in the actual fundamentals. This weekend we ran a screen of companies with at least a $1 billion market cap and stocks that are up 50% or more since the beginning of the year. There were 32 of them and most of these are Insanely speculative. That's too much exuberance, not enough rigor. Let's start with the alternative energy plays, which are booming because most of the data centers want clean energy. That's why Bloom Energy is up a quick 75% year to date. You heard me, 75% if you really quadruple in 2025. There is a catalyst here, although it's not as a great one at this point. Merck Electric Power ep, the big utility confirmed in a regulatory filing that is buying fuel cells from Bloom, though we actually already knew that. This company's also now solidly profitable and its earnings should grow at 150% clip this year. That's good, but the stock ain't exactly cheap. Trading hundred times this year earnings estimates. That's dangerous to me. Meanwhile, EOS Energy Enterprises, that's a Battery storage companies up 51%. Coupled nuclear plays, uranium energy, terrestrial energy are up 55%, 71% respectively. Again, those gains have all happened in the last three weeks. Do you own those stocks? I mean we please other companies working on smaller Nuclear reactors like OCLO, new scale power, nano nuclear energy are up 25 to 41%. None of those companies makes money either. And we're seeing some spectacular runs. The Iranian producers too. Meanwhile, the more legitimate companies with nuclear power exposure have all had more tame years. Yes, the so called hyperscalers one Clean Energy. That doesn't mean new nukes are going to come on anytime soon. Yet this market acts as if that's a given. Do you hear that? What else is frothy? How about the space and drone stocks? AST Space Mobile, which is building out a satellite based broadband network that's rallied nearly 55% this year even though it is losing a fortune. Red Wire, a product of a 2021 SPAC merger, is a a cool 40% year to date. Rocket Lab is now a $52 billion company after 28% year to gain gain. They're both unpropable. I wonder if investors are just hiding out in these names until they can get a piece of the Space X deal. Possibly later this year. What a bunch of. Then there are the companies that make drones for the Defense Department like Kratos Defense and Security, av, the former Air Environment. Bear with me on this one small player, red cat. All three are up between 37% and 82% for the year now. I actually like it, along with Craters. Actually profitable, but they're both incredibly expensive at these levels. Plus there haven't been any real catalyst for the drone Companies. Aside from the President's saber rattling next, there's a whole new class of companies that's caught fire over the past year. Cryptocurrency miners that are converting their racks full of servers into data centers for AI. Now, this all started with Core Weave. I don't know if you saw Michael in Trader. He's over Davos. The quarterly successful IPO last March really caught everybody by surprise. Then we saw Nebby has joined the fray. Those stocks were up 33% and 19% respectively by the way, just in 2026. But some of the of the even newer converted crypto miners are up more than 40%. Like Iran Riyan Applied Digital Riot Platforms. These moves are insane. I need you to take profits before they're cut in half. Hey, speaking of crypto, a couple of other crypto related names have had big pops begin with 2026. Even as the broader crypto market still seems stuck, if anything really negative today. Galaxy Digital and figure technology, they're 44% and 76% respectively. Here's what you do when you hear those and see those and own those sells out. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. How about silver? Okay, one ETF made our fourth list for 2026. The Pro Shares Ultra Silver ETF, 74% came for the year. 360% gain last year and it added to those numbers today with a 10.7% gain. This is a leverage way to bet on silver, which has been roaring in price. Again, it feels like a speculative mania. I want some off the table and I want some off the table tomorrow. Okay. A couple other metal companies made the list of stocks up 50% or more. Could he. United States antimony up nearly 85%. Critical Metals Corp, 147% for the year. I mean that's a rare earth elements producer. You got to be kidding. Of the 32 stocks that made our fourth list, seven of them were biotechs and four of them have more than doubled. Some of these moves are easy to understand. There's Revolution medicines up nearly 46% after reportedly during takeover. Interest from both Merck and Ivy that could be a winner. Others have had strong clinical trial results. I like that. But again, biotech is not a good leadership group. This is a boom and bust business where gains can disappear just as quickly as they materialize. At that J.P. morgan Health Care Conference, I went to the 40 War Thunder the 4th last Monday. I got a feeling that all sorts of biotechs were raising money here and rallying to pretty incredible valuations. Often based on nothing more than a press release. That's Froth. A few one offs made the list too. And ambiguous AI company resolve, that's with a Z. AI has rallied nearly 38% for the year I covered as a homework item in September when the stock was just under 6. Now it's at 3 and change even after rallying like crazy over the past three weeks. Now some that's because they made positive revenue pre announcements last week. But then today Resolve announced its $250 million secondary offering crusted shareholders stock tumbling 23% get ready to see a lot of those two. There's also Rich Sparkle holdings, not an ice cream company is a Hong Kong based company that offers financial printing and other corporate services. I'm guessing the name doesn't really translate that one soared from the mid-20s to a high of $180amatter of days. Mostly because they announced a deal with popular Tick Tock. This with a Tick Tock or everybody recognizes except for me, the stocks now and 300 million other people. The stock's now breaking down. It sank 36% and then another 20% 29% just today because it never should have been up so much in the first place. This stuff's so painful. Curiously, we even see some housing related names pop like Doan Depot, one of the nation's largest non bank retail mortgage lenders. That a 55% year to date gain through Friday. Not anymore though as Loan Depot plunged more than 12% as long term interest rates soared today. Get used to seeing those kinds of declines. Finally, the memory chip makers. Now they're on their own. They're on fire because there's a genuine shortage here. This is different. The big four memory and data storage company SanDisk, its former parent Western Digital, Micron and Seagate Technologies were the four best parts performing stocks, the S and P last year and they're still roaring in 2026. Now I intentionally save those for last because they're a different beast from all the other frothy pockets that I just covered. The memory shortage is legitimate. These companies are printing money. But we're now in year two of the supply shortage. And sooner or later the semiconductor capital equipment makers will produce enough machinery to ramp up capacity and then pricing will go down. You never know when there will finally be enough equipment available to to tip the balance out of the storage. No one does. But almost no chip shortages last more than two years. Plus the storage doesn't even need to end to stop these rallies. The first sniff of waning demand from or supply catching up is all that it takes to bring the memory stocks down. Here's the bottom line now you know where we can find the pockets of froth in the market. But why does it matter that so many speculative groups are rallying like crazy? We got to stick around. After the break, I'll explain why. This is a real problem that you have to address as soon as you can. Meaning tomorrow. Hal in Arkansas.

[D]

How Louie. Jim, longtime first time caller.

[C]

What's up?

[D]

I'm a member of the investing club and like your opinion on a stock that has a relatively low price to earnings ratio for the technology industry and is in the middle of the air race but is down over 30% since its high almost three months ago. Jim, what are your thoughts on Dell Technologies?

[C]

Okay, I like Dell very much. Here's the problem. They are a big buyer of storage. Their buyer of Micron, a buyer of these disk drive, their buyer of all the companies that are in tight supply and those companies keep raising prices to Dell which means Dell has to eat it and their margins are going to get hurt. So you have to wait till reports or you have to wait until we finally see some sort of peak in these different lower end storage companies or like a Micron. Let's go to Bill Matthews. Bill.

[D]

Hi Jimbo, how are you today?

[C]

I'm good, Bill. How you been?

[D]

Fantastic. I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Sean and the staff on the phones. They're incredible.

[C]

They are great.

[D]

Awesome.

[C]

They are great. And that whole team is good. That's a good team. They get everybody all. They get everybody fired up because that's the way we should be. How can I help you?

[D]

I got to meet him at the meeting and I was really thrilled to just meet that guy.

[C]

That's great. That's cool.

[D]

Jim, I had a question about the new, the new Nvidia chips with your friend Jensen and I'm wondering as far as the cooling system, as far as I'm cooling the chips, are they going to change that? I understand that they're going to in the newer chips it's easier to cool them.

[C]

No, my understanding is that you're still going to need Verta, you're still going to need Verta, which is the Libre cold system that I don't think they're going to stay away. Which ones in particular are you thinking about?

[D]

Well, I have a good position invertive and I just wanted to know if that was going to affect it.

[C]

The new Vertif is going to still be used. Emerson is still going to be used from what I can tell. I do think and we also think that Eaton is going to be used. These are all part of this process of getting electricity in cooling them. So I'm not backing can wait from any of those. However. Understand Bill, this market does not like the data center at this very moment. And all those I just mentioned are data center players. Right? Look, the biggest problem with this market is the froth we're seeing in the most speculative names out there. So consider yourself warm before starting position any of these names and if you have profits or you just are way too exposed are your own margin. I want sales tomorrow. What made money history is always the best guide for the future. I'm taking a look back the last few times we've had this amount of speculation. The market and what it might mean and what it's signaling for you and China and the US have taken different approaches to foreign policy these months. And with the tariffs front and center on the world stage, I'm going to break down the potential limits to US influence around the globe. And of course oil calls rapid fire. Tonight's issue, the lightning round. So stay with Kramer. Like I mentioned earlier, the market's gotten incredibly frothy since the new year began with all sorts of highly speculative stocks shooting in the stratosphere. And that's a problem. You know why? Because we've seen this movie before. Most recently saw a ton of froth in September and early October with the market peaking a few weeks later. Down the S and p both fell about 5 to 6% from peak to trough last fall and they both revisited their highs before the end of the year. Not too terrible. The NASDAQ 100 fell about the same amount, though it has not made it back to its late October high shift. What about some of the smaller, more speculative names that make up the frothy action in the fall? We warned you to do some selling and we got some of you out before much more extreme declines. Consider this. The Russell 2000, which is the small cap focus index. It fell 9.4% from its mid October high to its low in late November. The Nasdaq composite, which is more spec names than the NASDAQ 100, fell 8.8% peak to 12th in the fall. And many individual speculative stocks were hit much, much harder than that. Let's stick with the stocks that have really caught fire again in 2026 because those are the things that got really hammered. I mentioned some of these. Boom Energy plunged 49% for its November high to its mid December low. Now Bloom is back above that November high, but darn thing was still cut in half in a matter of weeks. Then there's OCLO, that nuclear play, which fell 63% from October high to its late December low. And even at recovery in the new year, it is still down about 54% from its peak. Other nouveau nuclear stocks like New Scale Power Nano Nuclear energy fell 76% and 61% respectively in the fall. Now this is the type of breakdown that I'm hoping to keep you out of. I do think we could see a repeat of these declines. What else? AST Space Mobile, one of the space stocks I mentioned before the break. It fell 52% from its mid October high to its late November low for catching fire again over the past two months and making it back to new highs. Red Wire, the smaller space name, fell roughly 59% in an early October to late November. Tumble Red Cat, the smallest of the drone companies we mentioned fell 65% over roughly the same period. And that is very, very dicey. We saw the same carnage in the crypto miners turned a datacenter place. Iran applied digital riot platforms. Each fell somewhere between 50 to 57% from peak to trough. That is dangerous. And listen, I could go on and on, but the point is that the last time we saw this super frothy action, basically all the hot stocks had devastating pullbacks. Plus, that's hardly an isolated example. Again, we've seen this movie many times, but before, when the market gets really frothy, it means we're getting closer to a big meltdown for overheated speculative stocks. That's what I'm trying to get you to understand here. We saw this in late 2024, in the weeks after the election. All sorts of groups unprople stocks, space stocks, crypto stocks, fintech and alternative energy plays. They rallied hard as investors race to position themselves for the new Trump administration. And then those stocks quickly gave back the same gains. That late 2024 frothy period preceded a major quarter cool off. The Nasdaq composite peaked in mid December of 2024 and proceeded to fall almost 27% by the time it finally bottomed in early April after Liberation day. The NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 held on a couple of months longer. They Both peaked on February 19th of last year, but then they both fell more than 20% over the next two months. Of course, now some of that had to do with President Trump's aggressive tariff agenda, but the extreme Froth of late 2024. That was a warning sign. If you heeded the warning, you're putting Folio would have held up much better over the following few months. Hence why we're doing this. We're not being scolds people, we're just trying to remember what happened now the latest period of froth actually reminds me of some of the things we saw at the beginning of 2021. Now that's the period best known for the GameStop LED short squeeze mania that took over the market for a couple of weeks. That froth took place right at the beginning of the year, and it came on the heels of what had been a pretty good set of years for the market. But both then and now, it felt like investors were starting the year by chasing some nonsense rather than thinking hard about what stocks could continue a steady climb into the new year and that early to that early 2021 froth. It also preceded a harsh decline for the broader market, though that was much shorter lasting. The S&P 500 peaked in mid February of 2021, then fell almost 6% over the course of the next few weeks or so. Nasdaq 100 fell 12% during roughly the same period. Those were quick pullbacks, but painful ones, and the market became a lot more skeptical towards speculative stocks, especially the companies that came public via SPAC. Mergers and sparks are back, of course. In 2021 and 2024, those post frost sell offs turned out to be buying opportunities. So as painful and scary as the post fraud sell off were, the house of if you stayed invested, you were fine. Just let's say that you were fine a few months later. Pleasure. But if you were only invested in some of the most speculative stuff, I mean the stuff that I'm really highlighting tonight, you took a real beating and you have not recovered. Now the scariest example of froth in recent years might be the late 2021 period when the market put in what ended up being a longer term top period also featured plenty of froth, mostly coming from the IPO and SPAC markets, as well as other hot themes like cloud software and electric vehicles. And the correction period that followed was really bad. The S&P 500 fell 27.5% peak to trough from its early 2022 highs to the bottom in October, while the Nasdaq indices both were off more than 30% over roughly the same period. I don't think we're facing a situation like that, at least not yet. The speculative activity now isn't anywhere near as Bad as it was in late 2021. And unlike back then, the Fed is our friend right now. But if you look back at what happened previously when the market got too frothy like it is now, you see this kind of action typically leads to meaningful declines. We just saw this in the fall when many speculative stocks were cut in half. I think it could happen again. Here's the bottom line. My big fear is that this froth might precede a bigger top like the one from late 2021 so far. Feels closer to last fall of what we saw maybe in the end of 2024. While it probably is not the end of the world, it's still worth worrying about. And to me again tomorrow. Let's take some action. Mad money's back after the break.

[E]

Coming up, Kramer takes your calls. And the sky's the limit. It's a fast fire lightning round.

[C]

Next. It is time. It's time for the lightning round. And then the lighting round is over. Are you ready? Ski dag? Time the light round comes over. Let's start with Skip in California. Skip, skip, Skip with shaking.

[D]

Oh, man, I've been waiting so much to ask you this question. First time caller, long time watcher, IBRS community bio. I know everybody's talking about it.

[C]

Yes. Okay, now that, see what happens, I think is you already had that, that move gigantically. It's had a giant run off this FDA meeting. And I really think that you have to take profits in some of that. Not all of it, but some of it because it's up so big. Let's go to Ted in Arizona. Ted. Hello, Jim.

[D]

Ted from Glendale, Arizona.

[C]

How are you? I, I'm great.

[D]

First time caller. I'm interested in starting a position in some kind of a silver stock and I'd like your thoughts on Pan American Silver.

[C]

Well, you did hit the best. Pan American Silver is the best silver mine company. However, to say to start a position now after the stock is up so gigantically is worrisome. Let's at least wait for a day when it's not up 3 or 4 because I don't think you're getting great price if you come in today on Pan American stuff. But you do have the best one. Let's go to Tony in California. Tony.

[D]

Yeah, Jim. Hey, this is Tony the bread man, Northern California.

[C]

All right, good to have you.

[D]

Big fan. I just want to get your opinion on KLA Corporation going forward.

[C]

Okay. KLA is an incredibly well run company whose stock is up gigantically. They make the semiconductor capital equipment you need to have memory. I think that if you want to start a position, get this, I am blessed to. Okay, the stock was down huge today. I think if you wanted to buy 100 shares, you can buy 15 to 20 shares tomorrow. I normally would not say that, except for this one was down huge. You're not buying it at the top. That's what matters to me. Let's go to Victor in New Jersey. Victor.

[D]

Booyah, Jim. Happy New Year.

[C]

Right back at you. As long as we can still say that it is the 20th. It's getting long in the tooth. But happy New Year. Right.

[D]

I'm curious about a position of Firefly.

[C]

Aerospace, Space and Defense continues to attract a lot of interest. I now I'm saying we've got to buy companies that make some. That have some degree of earnings right now because I don't want too speculative, and I think that that one is a little too speculative for me. Let's go to Paul in California. Paul. Booyah, Jimbo. Greeting from records in America's finest city.

[D]

San Diego, home of the San Diego State University Aztecs and legends Marshall Fox, Wy Leonard and Tony Gwynn. How about paying us a visit as part of your next stock?

[C]

To school on turf. I remember. Let's go to work. What do we got?

[D]

Okay. My stock, you once said was a 80 to 120 mover, but it's been stuck in the mud for over a decade now. Under 80. I'm talking about Shell. What is your opinion?

[C]

Shell is just an okay oil company and nothing more. And that. That's the problem. And I don't really care for the oils. At least they're not speculative. Let's go to Michael in Colorado. Michael. Hi, Mr. Kramer. First of all, thank you so much for taking my call. I'm 39 years old and I wanted to just thank you for the enduring impact you've had on my generation, which is millennials. And it's had imminent significance. I'm a little nervous. Okay. But I was going to ask you about Allegiant plc, based out of Dublin, Ireland. That's a good company. It's a. It's a electronic security company and it's a good company. It's not that expensive. It's the kind of company that you can buy into weakness and not feel like you're going to get your head blown off, which is how I feel about a lot of these stocks that are up between 50 and 80% so far this year already. Let's go to Kai Shore in Florida. Kai Shore. Hey.

[D]

Hey, Jim.

[C]

This is Kishore calling from Orlando, Florida. Thank you. Thank you. What's up? Enjoy your show every evening.

[D]

My question is regarding this company that.

[C]

Manufactures construction management AI based software.

[D]

I'd like your opinion on a long term hold. The company is Procore Technology sticker.

[C]

Okay. Now this is an enterprise software company and we are seeing tremendous pressure on these by people who think they can go into Claude which is owned by Enterprise Philanthropic and create the same software product that they might be paying a fortune for. I don't know if Procore can be easily, let's say, I don't know, copied. Let's say copied. But I do know that that's the problem with these stocks and they're not going to let up. You have to be careful. Procore and that ladies. Conclusion of the Lightning round.

[E]

The lightning round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up with new tariffs possibly on the horizon, Cramer's comparing the current US approach to foreign policy with that of China to see how each is faring Next.

[D]

Good evening, Mr. Cramer.

[C]

Thank you. Thank you for everything you do.

[D]

You've been such a wonderful source of information with your teachings. I have to say thanks.

[C]

Thank you for all your advice and saving us promote count your advice let me quit a job that I hated. I love you to death. Thank you for everything you do. Thanks for making us money and more importantly, thanks for keeping us from losing money. Belt and road versus tariffs. You take your pick in how to win friends and influence people. Right now, President Trump essentially wants to get access to multitudinous rare minerals in Greenland while making sure that Greenland is secured from our putative enemies, Russia and China, of course. News sources indicate that the President feels peeved that he didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize, although that's really the purview of Norway. But maybe the White House sees Scandinavia as one big blob. The President has threatened to slap tariffs on a whole bunch of nominal American allies as a way to pry Greenland from Denmark. Now that the Peace Prize can't be pride from Norway. Smart, perceptive, ham handed. Are tariffs and coercion really the way to go? I got to tell you, they clearly aren't as good as what China's been doing to get its hands on critical minerals. Right now, the Chinese are simply doling out money for various key infrastructure projects. South America, Africa. It's part of what's known as their Belt and Road Initiative, a so far complicated but compelling offering to the the countries with the most critical minerals in the world, whether it be the Lithium Triangle Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, or the cobalt of the Congo, or whatever might be available in Namibia and Zimbabwe, among other nations. The Chinese have a claim on pretty much everything that's available. The amounts sold out by China are staggering, but it clearly works. Few things are more addictive than regular infusions of cash. When we think of these minerals, we think strategically. The Democratic Republic of Congo has about 70% of the world's cobalt, a mineral that's essential for batteries and jet engines. The Chinese also have significant stakes in the gigantic COP repositories essential for data center infrastructure, EVs and other end markets. Although we've also won a copper concession from the Congolese government, both the US and China have a carrot and stick approach. The Chinese, true capitalists at heart, use a bit of a loan shark mentality, as they did with Venezuela, offering infrastructure support in return for oil as payment, seemingly. Or else the penalty for not paying off on the belt and road is nothing short of lost sovereignty for key national infrastructure. The US derailed that relationship with the Maduro, kidnapping Two birds, one stone. You'd have to do a lot of kidnapping to get the other concessions though. Next stop, perhaps Cuba, where the Chinese have infiltrated pretty much all the nation's meager resources. Cuba used to get 30 to 35% of its oil from Venezuela. One more thing for them now to worry about. Especially if the President tells Mexico, its chief supplier, not to ship any more oil to Cuba. Don't you expect that? Which brings us back to Greenland. If you're running Denmark and you looked at our nation's long history of cooperation, you have to wonder if some sort of treaty in return for say nothing is better than more wearing tariffs than our standard course of measure of the Trump White House. Denmark's a big buyer of US military equipment, especially F35 jets, which to me amounts to the only coal on us. Now the characteristic of NATO is under stress. I say cutting numbers. Rtx, Northrop, Grumman and Lockheed. You have to wonder what the end game here is given that we do so much trading with Europe. Still, I'd rather be China. The United States. When it comes to influencing foreign governments, we anger everybody. China just takes over because they speak softly and carry a big wallet. I wish none of this mattered to our companies, but the US market simply isn't big enough to absorb our exports. I think that a simple tax on Novo Nordisk principal export to US Ozempic, which would then favor its American rival Eli Lilly, will be more localized, maybe more effective, albeit certainly self serving and yes, ugly. Raising numbers, Lily, no matter what. The markets have grown weary of the mercurial nature of Trump's tariff slapping. As it is, the Chinese are gaining a stranglehold in European electric vehicles. Who knows, they might just say no, we'll buy everything you send to the US gratis just to win over every tariff nation. That would leave us with a lot of stones but no birds. So it might be time for someone in Congress to figure this out. My great hope is that the President simply backs off like he usually does. One of his plans start to do some real damage to the stock market. And that's exactly what this one is going to end up doing. I like to say there's always bull market somewhere. I promise I find it just for you right here on Mad Money. Optim Kramer See you tomorrow.

[F]

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 Taxis was feeling unwelcome.

[B]

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