Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 12/12/25

Summary

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Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer, December 13, 2025

Podcast Summary
Host: Jim Cramer (CNBC)
Episode Theme: Navigating market volatility amid a tech shakeout, sector rotation, major earnings, and insights from special guests— all delivered with Cramer’s signature energy and market wisdom.

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles a turbulent market week, focusing on a pronounced sell-off in major AI and data center stocks, the ensuing rotation into “plain vanilla” sectors, and key strategies for listeners trying to make sense of it all. Cramer previews critical economic data and company earnings coming up, takes live calls on listener stock dilemmas, interviews Build-A-Bear Workshop’s turnaround CEO, breaks down Restoration Hardware’s (RH) results, and emphasizes—yet again—the necessity of portfolio diversification.

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Major Discussion Points & Insights

1. Market Sell-Off & Sector Rotation

• Tech Rout & Rotation Dynamics (01:43–07:05)

  • Rough day for AI/data center stocks—big names like Qualcomm, Oracle, Broadcom, and Nvidia slammed.
  • “Ugly day if you own nothing but artificial intelligence companies. Normal decent day if you own anything else.” (Jim Cramer, 01:50)
  • Rotation into stable, so-called “plain vanilla” stocks—food, drugs, and staples.
  • Cramer maintains faith in AI as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but says valuations need to come down before buying.
  • Nvidia: “Own it, don’t trade it. I’m not changing my tune.” (Jim Cramer, 02:38)
  • Warns investors the pain may persist for a few sessions as shell-shocked tech holders surrender before stabilization and rotation back.

• On Oracle’s Woes:

  • Oracle delays on data center buildout spooked investors, despite management’s denial.
  • “The fact that management could issue a point-blank denial and then it meant nothing to the stock... That’s bad news for Oracle, not the rest of the sector.” (Jim Cramer, 05:08)
  • Sees possible bargains emerging for data center hardware supply chain names (mentions Corning—“ultimate copper background”—as one to watch).

• Advice on Timing:

  • “You have to get these stocks to settle down before you go near them... The bargains could be upon us maybe by this time next week.” (Jim Cramer, 06:22)

2. Upcoming Economic Data & Earnings (The Game Plan)

• Critical upcoming events next week:
  • BLS Nonfarm Payrolls report—will drive Fed interest rate expectations (03:08).
  • NY Fed President Williams speaks day after jobs numbers—his dovish signals have swayed markets previously.
  • Retail sales: Weak numbers would justify more rate cuts, which the bulls want.
  • Jabil earnings (Wed): Manufacturer tied to data center demand; “Could be the data center turning point if we’re going to get one.” (Cramer, 07:10)
  • General Mills earnings: A litmus test for battered food stocks (07:24). “What could be better than the maker of Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch?”
  • Darden (Olive Garden): Restaurant with minimal beef inflation exposure—a rare bright spot (08:10).
  • Nike & FedEx reports (Thu PM): Not quite time to go big into Nike; FedEx “could put up a monster set of numbers” due to e-commerce strength (08:24).
  • Friday: Carnival Cruise (discretionary spend), Conagra (at-home food trends), and Paychex (SMB payrolls) will round out the week’s multi-sector barometer.

3. Fan Calls & The Lightning Round

• Rapid-fire stock opinions, including sector rotation picks, trade strategies, and outlooks for:
  • UnitedHealth: Strong leadership, “has to be bought” (09:06).
  • Uber: No longer expensive, suggests buying in tranches (09:54).
  • RH, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Builders First Source, Starwood REITs, Bank of Santander, Caterpillar/Deere/Cummins, mid-cap index funds, nuclear stocks, T-Mobile, DuPont, pipeline operators (EPD vs ET), Cheniere Energy Partners, and more.
• Memorable Lightning Round Quote:
  “I like EPD, 6.7% yield. Growing really, really well. Understands natural gas liquids. That’s your company.” (Jim Cramer, 41:41)

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Notable Interviews

Build-A-Bear Workshop CEO: Sharon Price John

(14:28–23:09)

• Remarkable Turnaround: Stock up 5,000% from COVID lows; shifted company focus from “mall retailer” to “hospitality brand.”
• Cramer: “You have exploded this company... Into the greatness of the pantheon of what people look for and think about when it comes to retail.” (15:15)
• John emphasizes ‘brand unlock’:
  “Build-A-Bear is a place; Build-A-Bear is a feeling.” (Sharon Price John, 16:39)
• Hotel, tourist locations, partnerships (e.g. Great Wolf Lodge) drove new growth.
• Personalization, nostalgia, and “cadulting” (adults reliving childhood)—key trends keeping Build-A-Bear relevant.
• On managing tariffs: Pulled forward inventory to lessen impact, then managed via price increases and cost control (21:12)
• Returned $160M to shareholders since 2021 via buybacks and dividends.
• Holiday Season: Saw record Black Friday sales.
  • “We’re in a really interesting intersection right now of personalization and creativity and cadulting and the nostalgia economy.” (Sharon Price John, 17:52)
• Cramer closes: “The stock shouldn’t have gone down the way it did. It is obviously the right place to be for Christmas.” (22:45)

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RH (Restoration Hardware) Earnings Breakdown

(25:11–35:00)

• Backstory: CEO Gary Friedman’s lifestyle brand ambitions, big bets, and wild stock swings.
• Current Q Notes: Better-than-expected top line, free cash flow positive ($83M vs -$96M prior year), but margin guidance ugly and full-year forecast cut.
• Tariffs: Ongoing headwind due to Southeast Asian exposure.
• Cramer quotes CEO Friedman:
  • “Not a time to underestimate risk, also not a time to run from it.” (paraphrased, 33:51)
  • “Building an iconic global selling platform... never to be duplicated in our times.”
• Cramer’s Take: “RH is high risk, high reward—but it really comes down to how you feel about housing.”
• If Fed stays friendly and housing rebounds, RH could be "a home run"; if not, major downside.

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Practical Investing Lessons

1. Diversification as Survival

• Cramer’s Mantra:
  “If you pack all of your money into just a few red hot groups, you can get blown out of the game on a day like today.” (43:53)
• Use sector diversification to survive volatile splits between tech and staples.
• “Being diversified, knowing what you own—these are the difference makers.” (46:32)

2. Timing, Rotations, and Psychology

• Wait for most sellers to clear out before buying fallen “battleships” (like Broadcom).
• Adds that it takes patience and pain tolerance to profit from sector reversals.
• Warns about emotional overreaction and “house of pain.” Many investors bail at the wrong time.

3. Stay Engaged, Stay Educated

• Touts the benefits of CNBC’s Investing Club and a community to avoid mistakes of isolated, ill-informed investors.
• Strongly advises not to panic, to “never get blown out,” and always stay in the market with a diversified portfolio so “you’re always going to get another opportunity.”

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Most Memorable Quotes

• “Ugly day if you own nothing but artificial intelligence companies. Normal decent day if you own anything else.”
  — Jim Cramer (01:50)

• “Nvidia: Own it, don’t trade it. I’m not changing my tune.”
  — Jim Cramer (02:38)

• “Build-A-Bear is a place; Build-A-Bear is a feeling... Operate really well-run vertical retail. It’s a cash machine.”
  — Sharon Price John (16:39)

• “Not a time to underestimate risk, also not a time to run from it.”
  — Gary Friedman, quoted by Jim Cramer (33:51)

• “If you pack all of your money into just a few red hot groups, you can get blown out of the game on a day like today.”
  — Jim Cramer (43:53)

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Key Timestamps for Quick Reference

• [01:43] – Cramer’s market open, tech rout, sector rotation
• [07:00] – Upcoming events and game plan for the week
• [14:28] – Build-A-Bear Workshop CEO Sharon Price John interview
• [25:11] – RH (Restoration Hardware) quarter breakdown
• [39:06] – Start of the Lightning Round
• [43:53] – Diversification lecture and show wrap-up

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Summary Takeaways

• Survive sector shakeouts with sector diversification
• Be patient; don’t try to “catch a falling knife” in overbought sectors
• Wait for fundamentals and seller exhaustion
• Pay attention to upcoming macro data and earnings for timing cues
• Look for secular tailwinds (AI, e-commerce, innovation) but buy at reasonable prices
• Don’t panic out of long-term winners on headlines or short-term volatility
• Stay engaged, seek community, and stay focused on learning

For more actionable advice, Cramer suggests—above all else—patience, discipline, and diversification.

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Cramerica friends. Hey, I'm just trying to make a little bit of money here. My job is not just to entertain but to put things in perspective. Do some teaching. That's what I'm doing tonight. So call me at 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me at Jim Cramer. Ugly day if you own nothing but artificial intelligence companies. Normal decent day if you own anything else. To which I say it's the revenge of the plain vanilla companies that got left by the wayside as the high flying soaring AI stocks moved into the stratosphere via parabolic. And that's how you wind up with a day where The Dow dips 246 points and S&P plunges 1.07 and the Nasdaq filled with all air stocks just plummets 1.65%. With Qualcomm stock collapsing after a good but poorly received quarter, we now have a true rout in the air data center stocks. When you see this kind of rotation out of the red hot sector into cold ones like the foods or the drugs where even the worst food stock apple force the Best I play. You must be mindful that moves like these are shocking to your fellow shareholders who don't know what a data center is other than it's something that drives stocks higher that they own or that they thought they own but they had to sell. These people are going to leave over the next two to three sessions. Yes, just give up because they can't take the pain, the house of pain. And then we might be able to circle back to the group. No matter what, though I still believe in AI as the fourth industrial Revolution. And, and I think most of these stocks will be worth buying once their valuations come down to less lofty levels. And of course I'm including Nvidia, which people ask about all the time. And I say the same thing. I say own it, don't trade it. I'm not changing my tune. Now with that in mind, what's the game plan for next week? Let's take a look. Now this is a tricky week. Why? Because on Tuesday we get something that we used to see on the first Friday of every month. The Bureau of Labor Statistics nonfarm payroll report. You know, we've been flying blind for several months now thanks to the stubborn, the shutdown that just wouldn't end, remember? And that means there's been a lot of second guessing of the Fed right down to its latest quarter point cut on Wednesday, a strong employment number will call into question the need for any additional rate cuts. It might end up being one, two punch because the very next day after we get those numbers, New York Fed President John Williams is going to comment. Now he moved the rate, he moved a lot of the betting on a rate cut last time by being a little more dovish. And you better believe he'll talk about whether or not we need more rate cuts. And in face of the persistently high inflation that we have, that's all people are going to talk about. Even if it overshadows the results from one of the biggest homebuilders, Lenore, which is later in the day. If the labor report is weak, that means the Fed can keep cutting. And if we're, if, you know, if we're headed for lower rates, then Lenore is a buy. Actually, I got to tell you, other than Toll Brothers, I think I like Lenore second best. Now let's go back and consider next Monday in light of today's miserable tech sell off, what's really going on here? Well, we got a press report that said that Oracle is delaying some parts of its gigantic data center build out. Now Oracle refuted the report. But at this point these stocks, many of them overbought for months, have taken a real header. As I told people at the monthly investing club meeting today, you have to get these stocks to settle down before you go near them. I always say to people, they tell you when they're going to, when they're done going down, it's when they start going back up. These positions are. But the positions are too big for many of these big investment funds and hedge funds. They can't get out all at once. There's just not enough of an aperture. That said, the bargains could be upon us maybe by this time next week. Stay tuned. Now you have my blessing to buy some of these, say Wednesday. If you really want to own data center stocks. One of the names that's been crushed investment closed stock is Corning because it's working to displace copper wiring everywhere. And the data center is the legitimate copper ultimate copper background. That would be the one I would suggest to start with. Start small. We don't want to miss a possible rotation right back because of the news flow. I'm anticipating OpenAI next week which is operating in code red mode and putting out a lot of cool things. I wouldn't pick Oracle. The reason why this move down was so emphatic is that people truly believe Oracle can't get access to the money it needs to continue its increasing incredible build out. The fact that management could issue a point blank denial and then it meant nothing to the stock. Well that's bad news for Oracle, not the rest of the sector. And that includes by the way Broadcom and Nvidia which were brought down at the same time. On Tuesday we get some more macro numbers retail sales and I think they need to be weaker to justify more rate cuts since this is all anybody wants to talk about. The bulls need that drum beat to of negative news flow in order to be able to keep the rate cuts coming. Then on Wednesday morning we hear from Jabil. Okay, now this is really important. This manufactures a lot of the infrastructure and hardware inside data centers. I expect this could be the data center turning point if we're going to get one. I think you need to listen to Jabil very closely because it can undo the negativity that was unleashed by the Oracle story. This could be a huge reversal as short sellers will be running rampant and in the air stocks on Monday and Tuesday sensing they finally have a chance to bring them down. Now lots of people wondering if the food stocks will ever catch a bid and if they Don't. After this, I don't know what to say. We need to hear what General Mills is saying when it reports Wednesday morning. You want a litmus test for the group. What could be better than the maker of Cheerios, Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch? With these, you alienate the secretary of Health and Human Services. You're taking fire from the GOP. 1 Weight loss drugs and you run smack into a new generation of people. And they're early teens and in their teens and early twenties some they're committed to eating healthy. Next up, I like Thursday. Almost all of the restaurant stocks have been horrendous because of the soaring price of beef which just refuses to come down. But Darton's this one, Darden, well, it's anchored by Olive Garden which has minimal beef exposure. The OG is crushing it and so is the stock at least over the past few weeks. Cintas, the uniform and safety equipment supplier reports too. That's a terrific barometer of the mood of small business. After the close is the biggest night of the week when CNBC investing club position Nike reports. And FedEx also issues its quarterly numbers. Now I told people listen to the club today that I think it's still too soon to make a big swing at Nike. I'm not doing that yet because the company was so messed up much more than we thought before Elliot Hill came in, the new CEO. That was, that was a year ago. But it's been that tough to take turnaround. I do like that we have the World cup next year, a good showcase ahead. But it's the old inventory that I worry about. FedEx could be the star of the week. This company is the leanest it's ever been. The leanest. It's, it's got furious growth of E commerce going for no signs of abating there. FedEx could put up a monster set of numbers. That's how well run the company is. Finally Friday we have a bunch of good reads on a slew of different industries. Carnival Cruise will tell us about discretionary spending. You don't have to go on a cruise ship if you don't want to. Conagra Brands got a lot of stuff in the food freezer case can show it's whether people are cooking at home in ever larger numbers. And Paychex handles the payouts of millions of individuals who work at small medium sized firms. We need every piece of data to keep on what's really happening as the money rotates from the magnificent Seven to all these other different areas. Kind of like a Fire hose. Hey, by the way, do you think it's over for the seven? I don't. The bottom line, we're taking an Oracle Broadcom inspired break. Although I don't think anything's really wrong with Broadcom and I'm not worried about its gross margins. That sell off today, which is plain out overdone, but overdone sell off doesn't end in one day. I have been worried about Oracle ever since it decided was going all in on data centers. Didn't really get it. I always looked at it as a go big or go home initiative. And today I found out. I found myself thinking, you know what? Where exactly does Oracle live? What's its address? Because right now the street thinks it's going home. I need to speak to Dean in Florida. Dean. Hey, Jim. Big southwest Florida. Booyah and happy holidays. Well, man, you know I'm a Knoll fan from way back the times of T hass. What's going on? Hey, I've got a managed care company that just raised its 2025 earnings guidance even as it's trimming its Medicare Advantage membership and is raising premiums. Is this a trade for a 2026 rebound or could it be a long term core holding? I'm talking about UnitedHealth. All right. I think the United has to be bought. I think that they've got a CEO should come on the show. I think he's doing everything right. Obviously they had big, big problems. But you know What? This is UnitedHealth. I've seen it. I've seen it come back from even an option scandal that was so horrible a lot of people felt that it was never going to come back. I believed it then, I believe in it now. There you go. Let's go to Alfred in the tremendous state of Mississippi. Alfred. Hi, Jim. How's it going, Alfred? It's going real well. How are you? Good. Thanks for taking my call. I read the book and it was a treasure of knowledge. Oh my God. Thank you. Thank you very much. I like Faulkner, by the way. Just for the, the, you know, we go through state by state analysis. How can I help you? Got a question about Uber. I've been reading where some money management said Waymo is eating Uber's lunch. I'm just wondering, what's your opinion? No, Uber's good. Uber's good. Look, I, as I say in the book, you know, I think that Uber is not an expensive stock anymore. I really like it. 85. Let's see. Let's say you want to buy 100 shares. You buy 25 here. I buy 25 at, at 80 and then I 50 and 75. That may be the trajectory. I don't think it goes much lower below that. And thank you for the call. All right, Next week brings a lot of good data. I'm hoping we can take a break from the Oracle Broadcom shakeout, but it'll probably still be with us when we come in on Monday. And some analysts who are cowards downgrade both of them because they can't take the pain on that money. Tonight, I'm taking a look at a different kind of bear market, a market for bears. I'm sitting down with a terrific spot. CEO of Build a Bear Workshop, Talk tariffs. Yeah, listen, I'm cool. Oh, gee, right. What does that mean? Okay. Anyway, I don't miss my exclusive then. Where do housing stocks stand? Stocks like rh. After the Fed's latest commentary, I'm digging into the company's latest quarter and telling you where I come down. And the investing club held our monthly meeting today. Oh, I wish you had been there. It was really fun. But the one questions I didn't get to I'm going to come to do them right here. You kind of see like what the program's about. So stay with Kulting. Oh, stay with Kramer.

[A]

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

[B]

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[A]

Before the trophy and bragging rights are rightfully yours. Before your sleeper turns. In a season no one saw coming, before stats and projections turn into points on the board and your lineup falls perfectly into place, you flip the lid on a can of on nicotine pouches. And as you make your first pick, you know this is the season where fantasy's going to surpass reality. It's on products for tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older. One warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information packed daily market Preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] MarketUpdatePodcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcast Risks.

[B]

Remember Build a Bear Workshop, the iconic mall staple where kids can go bring the teddy bear of their dreams to life. After spending a while lost in the wilderness, the stocks managed this really remarkable turnaround. Do this thing is up more than 5,000% from the COVID era lows. Lately, Build A Bears has been hip hop by tariffs and the company reported last week the results were a bit mixed. Better than expected earnings paired with slightly soft sales. In response, the stock was crushed down 5.15.5% single session. Kind of extreme if you ask me. Although it since made back about half that. Still, it's down from $75 and change at its highs in September 52 and change today. So can the company get through this tricky period and keep its turnaround going? Let's check in with Sharon Price John, the president CEO of Build a Bear Workshop to find out. Michelle, welcome to Man Money.

[C]

Thank you. Very excited to be here.

[B]

As you know, I'm very excited to have you. You have to understand, when we first started the show, we had our friend Danny Meyer come in and he put Build a Bear in this index of hospitality. And it took a little while, but it's happening. And it's you. You've. You have exploded this company. I want to know how you have made it into the greatness of the pantheon of what people look for and think about when it comes to retail.

[C]

Well, first of all, that's too many accolades for me.

[B]

No, it's not.

[C]

But what, you know, it takes a team and it takes a great strategy. But the underlying facts are that the company was the brand, if you will, was already great. There was so much, I would say, unmonetized equity because of these heart ceremonies and this experience that you shared. And even just the idea that this is a hospitality company, not a mall based retailer for kids. Exactly right. And that's the unlock.

[B]

The potential out.

[C]

That is the unlock.

[B]

How did you know to do it?

[C]

Well, what we did is think about it in an entirely different way. Right. So it was necessary for me to educate almost our organization that even though we operate like a retailer, but we can't be a retailer, we have to think about ourselves as the brand that we Almost accidentally created. 200 million heart ceremonies 1 at a time. Right. And so all of those memories and that warm feeling. And how build a bear with build a bear really means elevates you to a brand status. Right. So we build a bear is a place built workshop. The workshop is a place. Build a bear is a feeling. And so if we could operate really well run vertical retail. It's a cash machine.

[B]

Right. And not just in America. You. You added vision.

[C]

Oh, now we added across the globe. Right.

[B]

And where are you in terms of the evolution of this company? I mean, you just started this great idea. Landry's at great wolf lodge. You just got these new intersections of happiness.

[C]

Absolutely. Because we looked for. You're going to love this story. We tried to figure out where we really need to be besides malls. I mean, malls have been on a journey, as we all know, up and down. Coming back a little bit right now. But just because you start somewhere doesn't mean you have to stay there. And when I got there, 20% of the stores were unprofitable, but that means 80% were. So we did a core trial analysis, and I said, tell me what holds those top stores together? And it was that they were in tourist locations.

[B]

Right. Now tell us for those of us who wish we had kids or whatever, tell me about what a lot of people say is the joyous experience of going to your places.

[C]

Well, first of all, we are in a really interesting intersection right now of personalization and creativity and cadulting and the nostalgia economy. And a lot of that is based on this fact that we've had almost 30 years of people coming in and creating their own special furry friend. And that heart ceremony at the stuffing machine is very, very special, almost emotional for people. And once that happens for a kid and even kidults adult, sort of like every young at heart, they think of these as almost like. It's like a. Almost a microcosm of that moment in time. Everything about it was captured when you put a voice in the bear or a scent in the bear and you're in a tourist location doing something special and making a memory. It's a. It's a 3D sort of just memory machine.

[B]

All right, now, let's marry that with the fundamentals and some of the numbers here. The stock was just down, got hit hard. One of the patterns that I've detected is you think your company's undervalued. The way that people can do that is they buy back stock. That seems to be a method of capital allocation that you favor very much.

[C]

Yeah, we. A few years ago, once we started to turn the corner, post Covid and started to be very consistent in our ability to deliver both profitable growth, sustained profitable growth, quarter on quarter and quarter on quarter. We wanted to be able to then be return that capital to our shareholders in a balanced way. And that was a combination of stock buybacks as well as dividends. And we have been able to do that over time. And now we've over since, oh, 2021. We returned about $160 million to shareholders.

[B]

Now we are in the season. My dad sold toys and this is the season every day really matters. A day like today matters, tomorrow matters. How are you spending your time and what are you seeing from the consumer right now?

[C]

Right. So it's an interesting time right now. Although we did have a record third quarter and a record first nine months, we saw some softness in the tail end of the third quarter right. In October and then. Yes. And then as the we turned the flipped the corner to November, we started to see an uptick and quarter to date at the time of the call, I happen to know this information. We had seen an increase in conversion and an increase in dollars per transaction and we had our biggest Black Friday in the history of congratulations. Yes. So it's a. It feels like there's a little bit of up and down.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

And some of that might be some external impacts. So when the government shuts down, do people get a little more reticent or, you know, depending on how they feel their own holiday bonus is going to be there or not. What do they do and how they spend. But thus far, quarter to date for us, we've seen some ties to results.

[B]

We would all love to go back to the days I think our president was certainly where we could make these. We can't make them cheaply enough. However, we do have a government that wants to make it so that we could if we wanted, let's put tariffs on it. Have the tariffs had any impact in terms of of what make you your profit margins? And are we ever going to see a day when people are going to say, you know what, we found a place in Vermont that we can make these cheaper than anywhere else in the world?

[C]

Well, as we noted on the call and we had been warning that obviously when we're importing from China and Vietnam, we're going to have a tariff impact. Now we pulled forward a tremendous amount of inventory and managed to avoid a lot of that direct impact in the first quarter. But then it showed up in the third and fourth quarter. Even though that happened you gap had.

[B]

It happened the previous one. People get very confused. That's why I think you got hit so hard. By the way, Laura, Albert, William, Steven, and almost you had the same problem. It wasn't. You just couldn't prep the street enough. They weren't ready.

[C]

Point being that we reaffirmed guidance, right? Sort of like that's the ultimate clarity that nothing changed between second quarter call and third quarter call. And what we felt the tariff impact would be for the year, which is about $11 million. And we've overcome a lot of that, right? A lot of it with some traditional approaches, little scaffold pricing increases, really managing our sga, trying to pull down our expenses. But you know, we're going to have to find a way to manage through it like everyone else. And to your question, it would take a long time and a lot of clarity with a horizon to choose to.

[B]

And it may not be the best.

[C]

Use of a lot of it over here.

[B]

People we don't know. It's a, it's more of an existential issue, frankly. And then one last thing.

[C]

Where can everyone get delighted?

[B]

The mad money. I mean, this is going to be what I know, I know. It's the hottest thing I see at all the airports. There's a tower of these in Berlin. What do we do? How do we get these? How do we get the word out about the mad money?

[C]

That particular bear is a one of a kind, just like the person that it's made for.

[B]

Well, just like. And just like the CEO who did it. I want to thank Sharon Price John, the president CEO of Build a Bear Workshop bbw. Look at this company. The stock shouldn't have gone down the way it did. It is obviously the right place to be for Christmas. Madmin's back.

[A]

Coming up. Is RH getting back on the right track? Kramer's diving into the quarterly numbers to see whether the luxury brand is living the high life or if this is one to sit out.

[B]

Next. Hi there, it's Andy Richter and I'm here to tell you about my podcast and the three Questions with Andy Richter. Each week I invite friends, comedians, actors and musicians to discuss these three questions. Where do you come from, where are you going? And what have you learned? New episodes are out every Tuesday with guests like Julie Bowe and Ted Danson, Tig Notaro, Will Arnett, Phoebe Bridgers, and more. You can also tune in for my weekly Andy Richter call in show episodes where me and a special guest invite callers to weigh in on topics like dating, disasters, bad teachers and lots more. Listen to the three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

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Before the trophy and bragging rights are rightfully yours. Before your sleeper turns. In a season no one saw coming, before stats and projections turn into points on the board and your lineup falls perfectly into place, you've flipped the lid on a can of on nicotine pouches. And as you make your first pick, you know this is the season where fantasy's going to surpass reality. It's on products for tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older. Warning this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information packed daily market Preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions and key results and statistics 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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Last night we got this confusing set of numbers from rh, the high end home goods retailer that used to be known as Restoration Hardware. This story has been a bit of a roller coaster for years. Four or five years ago, CEO Gary Friedman laid out some grandiose sui generis expansion plans. He wanted to turn RH into a fun, full lifestyle brand with restaurants, hotels, yachts and even a utopian real estate development in Aspen. The stock soared to the mid-700s at its peak in August of 2021, as the street became fascinated justifiably with the possibilities. Then the Fed hit us with a devastating series of rate hikes in 2022, and anything remotely connected to housing, well, it just got eviscerated. While RH quietly backed away from its most aggressive extreme plans, they kept aggressively expanding the core luxury home goods business. Even in depths of the downturn, the company had to pile on debt to make this happen. The stock just sunk lower and lower. Basically, Gary Friedman made a big bet that his business could come roaring back once the economy turned around. Twelve months ago, it looked like we were on the cusp of that kind of recovery. The Fed had started cutting interest rates and there was a widespread sense that the housing market could indeed rebound. But then the bond market rebelled, the rate cuts stopped and the Trump administration rolled out a very aggressive tariff agenda that devastated rh. Because they do most of the manufacturing Southeast Asia places the they got hit hard on Liberation Day. This stuff's hard to build. Expensive again. The stock was pulverized, falling from 249 to 149 in a single session. I checked in with Gary Friedman the next day and he was optimistic about RH's ability to navigate the tariffs. Plus those initial rates ended up being rolled back sedatively over the next few months, which allowed the stock to crawl back from its lows. Unfortunately, RH got hit hard in September, ironically right as the Fed started cutting rates again after the nine months pause. This time was because the company reported a weak quarter with a dismal outlook for the for the following quarter. And you know what? A slashed full year forecast. Friedman seemed as confident as everybody was, losing support from analysts and investors who previously had been giving him the benefit of the doubt because he is a genius. In the months since then, the stock drifted all the way back to the high 100/30s last month, not too far above where it bottomed in April. There was so much worry about the state of the consumer that nobody wanted to touch an incredibly high end home goods chain. Of course this stocks recovered over the last couple of weeks as Wall street turned more positive on the consumer and more confident the Fed would continue to cut rates. Which is exactly what happened two days ago. RH sat at $150 and change as of last night's close right before the quarter. And this time the numbers were tricky to parse, although the stock eventually roared in response, finishing the day up 5.7%. Hey, very different from tech, huh? Why? First RH revenue came in a little better than expected, up 9% year over year. But its margins were soft. Surveys were pretty light, down 31% year over year, well short of the consensus. On the other hand, they delivered an excellent free cash flow number, $83 million. That was up from negative 96 million the year before. And that may be the best measure of the health of the the company and why the stock ended up doing well. Unfortunately, management's forward guidance wasn't all that encouraging. For the current quarter, RH says it expects revenue growth of 7 to 8%, which is well below the 10% number Wall street was looking for. Their margin guidance was real ugly too. For the full year, management cut their profit margin guidance second quarter in a row. In his quarterly shareholder letter, which is always incredibly entertaining, Friedman emphasized that RH is taking share all over the place and its industry leading sales growth even as this is the worst housing market in almost 50 years. In Friedman's view, his companies run roughshod over the competition. I have to agree. Still, even if they find on the revenue front, they've got a real problem on the margin Front. Friedman blamed this one, quote, higher than forecasted tariff expense and quote, higher than expected Paris opening expenses. The former self explanatory and the latter to do with the company's expensive European expansion plan that he thinks is really just a flag planted large. Of course in the Congresswoman, Friedman had nothing but positive things to say about the gorgeous new location. It's a destination and like many of Gary's other properties, the Paris property is like nothing you have ever seen. I mean look, I joined down, I got to go see it, that kind of thing, as I've done with other ones, it was great properties. There was also plenty of talk about risk on the call with Friedman citing the still pretty awful housing market, the highly a disruptive tariff situation and the fact that construction costs have risen significantly since the pandemic. He says that this is, quote, not a time to underestimate risk, end quote. Still, he followed that up a million by saying quote, while not a time to underestimate risk, also not a time to run from it, end quote. He added that RH is quote, building an iconic global selling platform that will likely never be duplicated in our times, end quote. He's right. Now there are few people who are better at shameless self promotion than I am, but even I can't compete with Friedman. That said, I don't. Have you heard about my new book how to Make Money? It's in the old bookstores I can. But the fact is Wall street love this update from rh. Initially, stocks sold often after hours trading and spiked up 14% for cooling off. Again, this one's a wild trader. Unfortunately it finished today up nearly. I mean ultimately it finished up 6%. I thought that was pretty darn good because there were a lot of companies that really did not do well after the quarter quarter today. Now look, not everyone sold on the idea that this was a positive quarter. Here was a curious one analyst Stifel downgraded RH in response, saying they still believe there's a fundamental mismatch between the company's valuation and its long term prospects. They just don't see what kind of catalyst could be coming to help close that mismatch. How about if housing got better? So here's where I come down. At the end of the day, RH remains what has been a highly levered way to play a potential housing recovery recovery if we get some more relief on interest rates. Meaning if the Fed stays friendly and housing can rebound, RH will be a home run over the next couple of years. If you believe There will be a turn in housing. This could be a fantastic stock. But if the housing market doesn't materially improve and the company continues to be rocked by tariffs, and Gary Freeman keeps forging boldly with his expansion strategy, even if market conditions don't really warrant it, well, then some very, very bad self inflicted outcomes could be on the table. The bottom line, RH is high risk, high reward. But it really comes down to how you feel about housing. Either way though, I know it's going to be an entertaining ride, a classroom full of ideas from a driven professor of lifestyle galleries and the human mind. Let's go to Rich in Texas. Rich. Hey, Jim. Hey. With interest rates killing builders and suppliers, but not diminishing the housing shortage, with the current PE of 20 in an environment of low demand, is Builders First Choice poised for explosive growth to 150 with the next? I was a huge believer in Builders First Source. This is proving to be such a hard market that I had to default and switch to Home Depot and Lowe's. Builders First Source is a moonshot. It could be unbelievable. I want to take a little bit of the risk off the table, which is why we bought Home Depot for the the Travel Trust. I too want to be involved in exactly what you just said, but I've known Home Depot for much longer and I'm much less worried about it. And that's what you have to be. You have to be much less worried about something connected to housing. Today Home Depot up a couple bucks again. Let's go to Mark in Iowa. Mark. Hi, Jim. I'm thinking about adding a REIT stock for the dividends to go with the seven other stocks I put on my watch list today. Thank you. It's a REIT that's sitting around about in the middle of its 52 week range right now. It's at a 10.39% yield. The CEO has stated before that lowering of interest rates would really be a boon to all the REITs. And with a little room to go up in this stock, is it time to add Starwood to my watch list? Okay, this is a tough one for me. I think the world of Barry Sternlich. It's got a 10% yield, which is pretty terrific. I want Barry to come on and tell me what's in the portfolio so I would feel better recommending because I was quite surprised they could have such precipitous fall given how good Barry Stern with really is. Thank you for the call. How you think RH will do? All comes down to how you think the housing market will do if you want. We've been a housing turnaround. I think that you should also believe in RH so much more. Mad moneyhead. I'm hearing more of your marketing questions and give you an inside look at what we do for the CNBC Investing club every month. Then rotation days like today can throw investors out of the game, but not if you make sure to keep this one investing mantra in mind. I'm telling you what it is. After the break, of course. All your calls. Rapid Fire. Tonight's edition of the Lightning round. So stay with Framework. Today we had our investing club monthly meeting where Jeff Marks and I get together. We walk club members through our decision making process. I love people to know exactly what's going on. We discuss our current holdings and then we take questions from the club members. It's one of my favorite parts of the whole day and since we never have time to get to all of them, I say let's do the rest of them here. Let's start out with first up is Thomas and he wants to know how can we strike the proper balance between building a new position while respecting our cost basis on a profitable and fundamentally sound stock headed higher. Toughest question in the book. I talk a lot about. These are different. What they are. You really have different parameters and you're really competing with each other. I like to do this unless it's incredibly, incredibly compelling, don't do it. Don't you know why? Because you'll regret it. I've done so much amount of work on the regret. The regret is probably 3 to 1. So don't do it. It's that difficult. But you've got to pass. Next we have a question from Dave in Connecticut who asks, hi Jim, what are the pros and cons of the market being open 247 in 2026? There's just nothing but cons. Okay? Because you got an illogic market that is often manipulated and we don't have a government going to be looking to manipulation and you're just going to be part of the people the manipulators crush. I don't like to be crushed. I hope you don't like to be crushed. Next we have a question from Bruce in Kentucky who asks, Jim, what is your take on Netflix today? Is that a buy, hold or sell? It has been a buy for me all along until they got into this thing with Paramount to buy. To buy the Warner Brothers. What is that? They've got the best studios in the world. They don't need that Come on, Netflix. All right, now let's go to Chris in North Carolina who asks, do you have any concerns about the management changes at Costco given the stock has been a laggard all year? Look, I have concerns about everything I have, I have seen. I was watching Costco today versus Wal Mart. It was really killing me. I know that Richard Glante has departed as cfo. New CFO I think does a good job. I know that the monthly fees, signups, the, the people who re up have been a little slower. I know that some months were better than others. These are not what I'm used to from Costco. I said that I have to reevaluate it. I will reevaluate it. I didn't like everything I heard and I'm used to liking everything I heard. But it's stunning for me because I own this stock for so long and I love shopping there. So I'm not willing to throw in the towel. But I'm never oblivious to changes that I don't like. Next up, we have a question from Jeremy in Georgia who asks. I bought a large position in bank of Santander a few years ago. In your recommendation. I'm up over 100% and have taken some profits but I think it will continue to go higher. Should I buy, hold or sell bank of Centenary? You hold it. You're playing with the house. Is money on a boutine is just extraordinary. Okay, extraordinary. That was a triple and I think there's more ahead. And she has been the most successful bank CEO to come on their money. She's also the small, smartest and coolest by the way. Now let's go to Mark who asks. I'm looking at Caterpillar, Cummins and or Deer for investment. But since I've been following them this fall, they have gone straight up. Have I missed my opportunity? Do you think it's worth investing in? I'm leaning toward Cummins. Which do you like best? Cummins got a lot of data center exposure because of their engines. Caterpillar has just been straight up. How about deer? Deere is just about to get. Some of the farmers about to get a handout. I think the Chinese should come back and start buying things. You do want to see a rising tide of crop prices. We don't have that right now, but of those three, I think Deere is the cheapest. Now let's go to Karen in Maryland who asks, is it time to move some money to mid cap index funds as investments since The S&P 500 is already heavily invested in the Magnificent Seven. If you feel that way just go into an equal weighted equal weighted fund in other words one where each stock is equal not that we look the market capitalization do an equal weighted S and P and you'll get the exposure that you want you Next up we have a question from Marion in Texas who wants to know given the recent pullback in certain so called specular stocks with nuclear energy stocks being included with this group is OCLO still by these current price levels okay if I say oculus to sell tomorrow to put out some release I mean Monday put some release that juices the stock. They seem to juice the stock every time I urge people to be to try to keep a level head about Oklo. I would sell Arklow I just would sell everything nuclear except for GEV the the revolution is not going to happen nuclear in this country as much as I've been calling for for 25 years. Thanks again to all our callers and be sure to join the club ahead of the next monthly meeting. Look, the club is just different, okay? It's for serious people. Everybody's back everywhere.

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

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Next. It is time to talk about light mountain bubble by soul censorship for planet sale. And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready ski Daddy? Time to light round. Christopher Martin Snowman Jacob Illusion Jacob. Jacob. Jacob how's it going? J. Jacob I'm doing well. How about you partner? Hi Jim, it's Randy from the small town of Rainier, Washington. It's Randy. Speak of the devil. What's going on? Hey, I. I'm starting to think about opening a position in this company. They started the year at 220, got up to 250. Been dropping like a rock ever since. With the PE at 10. What are your thoughts on Cheniere Energy? Ellen well, what I want you to do is I want you to own because they're obviously inclined and done a lot of work. Chenier Energy partners with a 6.27% yield. Thank you Matt Horween for explaining that one to me. It's cheaper, it's cheap. When you get that yield, I think that's a better play for you. Let's go to Frank in Pennsylvania. Frank hey Jim, thank you for taking the call. Hey, I'm going to give you a quick shout out. I've been investing in individual stocks 35 years. I beaten the market the last 11 years. Consecutive. It can be done and Frank, I gotta tell you, my book. People think you can't do it. You just told me you can't. Oh, hell yeah. I live in now neighborhood. No, it's not. Yeah, you're, you're.

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You're the best.

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And I call in because I. Well, I, I listen religiously and watch because I learned about other companies from you which I wouldn't pick up on my own. You've also taught me technical facts, factors which I would never have picked up on my. Anyhow, I'm calling about pipeline operators. EPD versus et. They look close. But you tell me my favorite in that group because you know, my book is Enterprise Product partners. I like EPD, 6.7% yield. Growing really, really well. Understands natural gas liquids. That's your company. That's the one you want to be being. And thank you for the affirming words versus the resistance that I've gotten from my book about how individuals have a right to be empowered and pick stocks. And I'm tired of it. Tired of people saying no, they can't. And I, I know I'm losing, but I'm not done. Let's go to Mike in Kentucky. Mike. Hey, Jim. Great to be here. I acquired Lite from owning jdsu. Is it a real stock? Should I hold it? Should I sell it? I think it's had such a run. I just can't put you. You know, I can't say yes to that. Remember, just JDSU meant just don't sell us. And then it became just, well, whatever. But let's just say don't compare the two. This better company. But I don't want you to, to, to be in it. Now let's go to Paul, Maryland. Paul. Hi, Jim. Yeah, I want to ask you about a stock that's down about 20% so since August, that I own. It's. And I want to know what you think about T Mobile. T us. T Mobile is being hurt by the Death Star. That's Elon Musk. And I have to tell you, I would be worried too. I think that his satellite gambit can really hurt the margins of T Mobile. I would love to be able to say, you know what? Right here, right here. Cold shot. But I can't. I have to wait. It has, has not settled down yet. It's still part of the. Of the Musk radiation zone. Let's go to Cannon, Texas. Ken. Jim, I've owned DuPont for 20 years. After the recent spinoff of Quinity and an upcoming reduction in the dupont dividend, I don't find A reason to stay in dupont. No, you shouldn't. Yeah, you are. Because Lori Koch is terrific. The properties are really great. Do not sell dupont. The water business is really great. The materials are really great. You really do not want to sell it. She's doing a fabulous job. And that. Ladies and gentlemen, conclusion of the Lightning Round.

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The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, we all know variety is the spice of life. But is it also the spice of investing? Kramer breaks down the importance of a diverse portfolio.

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Next. It's a terrific day to own Clorox and GE Chipotle. But not so terrific on the data center. Plays with the super speculative names. Think flying cars, battery backups, uranium, nuclear, Bitcoin derivatives. In other words, it's a great reminder of the need of diversification. If you pack all of your money into just a few red hot groups, you can get blown out of the game on a day like today. I mean, like I. That's why I always tell you to diversify because I don't want you giving up on the entire asset class at the exact wrong time. Because you are overloaded with one sector. Look, I believe in the growth of the data center. I think we'll look back on the stock of broadcom, down over 11% today and say, wow. I waited a couple of days after its hideous decline client and I found out that insiders bought it and orders are flying in. I like to buy this kind of stock not in free fall, which is right now, but usually a couple days after the free fall. Make sure that all the sellers are done. Here's what I know, though. When we get days like today, wise guys will come up to me and say, thanks for nothing. Thanks for putting me at the top of Broadcom. I don't know that's. People do that. I didn't say that. And second, my Chapel Trust has plenty of fail safes which include buying small, not large. Because Broadcom is now a battleship, not a swift boat. And it's going to take time to mend. We do own a lot of it and I liked it even after we had to put up with this like today. That's what the. Well, I don't know. That's pretty much par for the course. Still, only something like Broadcom when it's getting killed hurts. And if it really stings, you only have data center names in your portfolio. This is a very tough day if you don't have anything like a Clorox or G to offset the damage. It's very hard to take that kind of pain, I've got to tell you that's tough for me. And I am a seasoned pain taker. House of pain there's so much likelihood to just go into cash. I don't want that. I often talk about the value of diversification. It's a way to spread out the risk. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. But that's not really why I want you to be diversified. I want it because on days like today, lots of investors will go, what have I done with my money? As they realized they were too concentrated in a single group, maybe they had a huge amount of money in Nvidia and Broadcom and Oracle. So now what do they do? They take the bat and the ball and they go home. But if you can own some winners on a day like today, well guess what, it's much easier to stick around despite the losers. I know this because of my myriad contacts I have with with investors. When Confession of a Street addict came, my first book came out more than 20 years ago. I saw so many people get pancaked during the dot com crash because they owned so much tech, junk tech. Worse, they didn't know anything about the companies. They just own the stocks because they were going higher, which left them woefully unprepared. When the stock started going lower, most of them closed their accounts. They never came back. Given what the average have done since the departure, they deeply regret it. I want to keep a new generation of more informed investors as is invested as possible. Hence why I do mad money now. I recognize that investing can be a solitary affair. The people I know who lost everything at the end of the dot com year down, what they really were lone wolves. They had no one to talk to. They were just operating on a machine. No one to turn to, no one to discuss stocks with. We started the investing club in part to change that. As you can tell, if you watch our 1 hour and 6 minute club meeting call we had today, we answer questions about your stocks and we speak very convivially break it down about what stocks are. We know though that if you're not diversified, if you own too much of any one segment and that segment turns sour, you'll be finished. It's just impossible to take relentless losses like that without wanting to throw in the towel. Being diversified, knowing what you own, these are the difference makers. These are the things that can be a drag. They can take time, they can produce losers, but ultimately the winner will be you. Because if you're diversified, you're never going to get blown out, which means that you're always going to get another opportunity. I like to say, as always, bull market. Start by prom just for you, Radio Man Money. I'm Jim Cramer. See you Monday.

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All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of cnbc, NBC Universal, or their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by Kramer on television, radio, Internet, or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Jim Cramer as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Kramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Mad Money disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com madmoneydisclaimer.

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Before the trophy and bragging rights are rightfully yours. Before your sleeper turns in a season no one saw coming, before stats and projections turn into points on the board and your lineup falls perfectly into place, you flip the lid on a can of on nicotine pouches. And as you make your first pick, you know this is the season where fantasy's going to surpass reality. It's on. Products for tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.