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Jim Cramer
Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramer America. Other people make friends. I'm just trying to make you a little bit of money here. My job is not just to entertain, but to explain. So call me at 1-800-743- CNBC. Sweet me. Jim Cramer, the Consumer Calvary got here just in time to give us what looks to be the beginning of a Santa Claus rally. That's the only way to describe what worked today. Everything involving consumer spending couldn't come as a better time because tech's been faltering. We needed something big to replace it. Even as you couldn't tell from the averages delvacing 66 points. SB jumping point, 79%. But the tech lead, NASDAQ surging 1.38%. Let me set the scene. For most of the year we've had. Whoa, is the narrative consumer right? I mean, oh, consumer doing so poorly. Higher unemployment. True inflation kept the consumer on the sidelines. We kept thinking that they were just decelerating. Retail is pretty awful, except for Wal Mart, which powered through everything as CEO Doug McMillan moved to keep prices low. His own one man war against inflation, a war I think he may have won before he retired. We didn't see the weakness in the averages though, even though the consumer represents two thirds of the economy, because it was masked by the incredible run in technology led by Nvidia, but followed by Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Tesla and most importantly, Alphabet. Behind the scenes lurked Open Air, the creative chat cbt, which along with Oracle, have been huge drivers of the burgeoning tech spend for most of 2025. Those are the stocks that drove the market higher. And that was the narrative we love. Lately, those skeptics have begun to challenge the notion of unlimited data spending, or Oracle raised a huge amount of money in the bond market, $18 billion. But there's now a belief in the market that Oracle may not somehow be money good for the financing of this massive data center build out, something it's doing largely on behalf of OpenAI. That's the private company. You can tell because people have been buying credit default swaps or Oracle's debt like crazy. Now, I do find that somewhat worrisome, I admit it. I am glad to hear tonight though, according to the Wall street journal, that OpenAI is trying to raise $100 billion. And at an $830 billion valuation, that's up from 7, 50 billion yesterday. Not bad, huh? If I can rate. If it can raise 100 billion at that valuation, well, then the company can keep building out data centers aggressively and stocks like Nvidia and Broadcom should be bought tomorrow. I for one, though, I'm delighted, delighted that the attention for the day was away from the datacenter valuations because the artificial intelligence trade has become very hard to fathom. And Wall street doesn't like hard to fathom valuations. So how do we start liking the rest of the market again? Was it just out of revulsion toward the trade? Somewhat. But it all starts with the consumer and what she has to pay. This morning we saw a decline in the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index, the core cpi, which excludes food and Energy prices fell to a four year low. Inflation had been eroding the consumer confidence and caused all sorts of consumer related stocks to just get hammered. These numbers today show that inflation may have peaked. Starting to come down in a very positive way. So many different costs are coming down. We can see that. We know gasoline's gone down sharply. Used car prices are down high single digits. All sorts of goods coming down to levels where they can move and while it's not in the cpi, home prices they are really coming down. We're going to more on that about from Talk about Lenore but suffice it to say that the average selling price of some houses now below where they were in 2019, I thought that would never occur again again. It's become a self fulfilling world. If the Fed cuts rates, the consumer should spend even more. Hence why so many consumer stocks have been roaring since last week's Fed meeting. Of course you got to ask yourself if the move is sustainable. I don't know tonight Nike looks terrible. That could be a lot of that is China. I think that the trend of lower prices though is just starting. Gasoline will struggle to rally given the glutton oil that gives excess cash to the consumer who can spend it as she sees fit. Retail, such a huge portion of its economy. It can mask the questionable kinds of transactions we've been seeing at the highest level of tech. Consider the retail winners. Say there's Darden. That's the owner of Olive garden evolving nearly 2%. Yes, the numbers from Olive Garden look great. Investor Club Holding Texas Roadhouse gained 1.6%. WILLIAMS Sonoma, we know how much we like those guys. Laura Albert that gained 2%. Target at.46 and Kohl's finished up 1%. Look, you got to start somewhere. Let's not forget there's a lot of consumer intact. Amazon for example is more than Amazon Web Services, even though Wall street only seems to talk about that. Remember they saw this e commerce website that you're on every minute and that's a huge giant tailwind in this backdrop. So does YouTube and Waymo owner Alphabet. Apple might be hurt by higher memory prices from Micron as we heard just last night. More on that later in the show. But a wealthier consumer may also buy more phones. Isn't it ironic that President Trump was railing last night about how Biden had left him with what was perhaps the worst inflation ever? When in reality looks like the inflation story is coming down pretty quickly. The commodities themselves almost all have come down except for cattle. If the President could Give the cattlemen checks. We could take beef from Brazil and bring that price down too. That's something that should be done. The Fed now seems justified in that last rate cut. The new Fed chief love declining prices to allow even more room for easing rates. It's going the President's way. He seems to be so busy trashing his predecessor he doesn't seem to realize when he's winning the war of inflation. Now this whole market spent several years trying to get away from just owning tech. In the last few months we've seen a tremendous broadening this rally. The financials have been incredible. Late Cities Crossing is up 60% for the year. Goldman Sachs is up 53%. JP Morgan is rolling 31%. The autos have been getting stronger and Stronger. Ford's a 35%. GM's gained 52%. Now it is retail turn. Just in time for Santa Claus. The bottom line. The CPI number was terrific this morning. Consumer spending looks to be alive and well and it's a huge win for the stock market. Best of all, it's a reminder that we can still rally big without tech, thank heavens. And when we get tech rallying and open air gets us money. So that story's out of the way, it's going to be all the sweeter. Let's go to Dustin in Oklahoma. Dustin, booyah.
Caller
Jimbo, good to talk to you again my friend.
Jim Cramer
To talk to you. Justin, thank you for calling. How can I help?
Caller
Absolutely, absolutely. We had a great game against my Chargers two weeks ago. I'm sorry didn't work out but that was a great game.
Jim Cramer
It's just one, one of many, one of many to come. Got a couple of people in the do not playlist I don't like, but go ahead. Let's go on.
Caller
Hey, you're awesome. Let's get to work. Jim, My portfolio is pretty tech heavy as I've talked to you before. So I've been trying to diversify some into a large, very cyclical US industrial. I got back into it about three months ago but I find myself watching the headlines a little bit more because the earnings are still negative and the business is so sensitive to policy. A big part of the international demand seems tied to tariffs deals that are negotiated under Trump. And now the Supreme Court is reviewing the tariffs that could potentially impact those overseas purchases. So given all that uncertainty, what's your long term thoughts on Boeing still?
Jim Cramer
Okay. I'm glad you asked about Boeing. It's a big position. My chapel trust. I will tell you unequivocally unequivocally that I think Boeing is bottomed. I thought the last quarter was terrific. People sold the stock down huge off it. Now it's coming all the way back. And that makes a lot of sense. I think that Kelly Ortberg is the person who should be running Boeing for years. He's doing that good a job. That's what I'm seeing. We've seen a tremendous broadening of this market over the last few months and I think it's a reminder that we can still have a rally without tech. Thank heavens on man Money tonight you called in and you stopped me on and light. So I hit the books on this company that specializes in laser technology and I'm ready to give you my take on whether or not it's a buy at these levels. Then Lenore, KP Home both reported this week and I'm homing in on the housing sector to see what's next for the cohort in 2026. And FedEx is on the move after the earnings crossed the tape. And I'm getting all the highlights from the company's CEO. So stay with Kramer.
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Jim Cramer
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Jim Cramer
Whenever you call to ask about a stock that I don't know, I put it aside, do some homework and come back with a more considered and informed opinion. Let's go to work. Back on December 2nd, Ed in New York asked me about a company called N Light. Now it's L A S R or Laser for you home gamers. As you can tell from the ticker, these guys make advanced laser products for aerospace and defense, industrial and micro fabrication applications companies as it leads the world in high power lasers for mission critical defense systems and advanced manufacturing. Pretty Sexy now. And like came public in April of 2018 and after a strong debut, the stock quickly fizzled. Its long term trajectory isn't particularly inspiring either. It caught fire during the speculative mania of the COVID era, peaking at an all time high of $46 in early 2021. But then it quickly pulled back hard from those highs before bottoming at $6.20 at the post Liberation Day lows. April wow. Sentinel and let us caught fire, rallying roughly 480% in the last eight and a half months to just under $36 today. This is one of the rare momentum stocks. It's actually held up just fine over the past couple of months. Why? Because analytics increasingly focus on the defense industry. There's a lot of laser business there. Initially this company was focused on lasers for telecommunications. Then after the dot com bubble burst they shifted to industrial end markets. But in the last few years they've been big on defense and now and like gets more than 60% of its sales from the defense business. I got to tell you, when you're you purely look at what they're doing as a defense contractor. The story is actually very compelling. And Light makes a lot of lasers that basically gather data helping to identify and position objects including missiles and drones. Most targeted weapon systems rely on this kind of technology. At the same time these guys are working on so called directed energy weapons. This is what I find most interesting. Actual lasers like from a science fiction movie. This contract with the Pentagon was upsized to $171 million to the end of 2020. Of course enlightenment needs to keep winning contracts here as as that one should be finished next year. On the latest conference call back in November, CEO Scott Keeney sounded very confident about these directed energy programs because the Pentagon wants a laser that can shoot down drones. Inexpensive drones, expensive drones. Go for the inexpensive. Go for laser to stop the inexpensive. If you bet on the stock here, you're really betting that and like can keep winning this kind of business. And there are plenty of people who are willing to make that bet. Just yesterday, analysts at Roth Capital initiated coverage on End Light with a buy rating and a $44 price target precisely because they believe in this business. I have no idea whether the technology makes sense, but it sure seems like the Defense Department is willing to spend money on it, which might be all that matters now. There's one thing that's been nagging at me with this, with this one. It's a simple fact that Enlight doesn't have a great tracker when it comes to, you know, making money. Company has been profitable for the last three, four years and perhaps worse, its sales peaked way back in 2021 before declining each of the past three years, falling from 270 million in 2021 to under 200 million last year. When you look at those numbers, it's no wonder and Light stocks sunk to an all time low earlier this year. But most of that historical weakness was caused by a combination of poor performance from Enlighten industrial business and the fact that the company had to ramp up spending in order to build its types of directed energy weapons that the Defense Department wants. Plus this year their financials have improved significantly. The year started poorly with pre announcing weak results in early January. And the full results for that quarter were bad too when they came out in February. But in May and late surprise to the upside, a nice revenue beat and a smaller than expected earnings loss for the quarter plus strong guidance for next quarter in August and reported even better numbers with another top line beat and a surprise profit plus again, very robust guidance for the next quarter. And that's why the stock jumped 28% in response to the quarter. When the company turned its latest numbers in early November, they delivered another excellent quarter. The story is entirely now about aerospace and defense growth at this point. That end market was up 50% in the latest quarter and accounted for 68% of total revenue. Now just so you know how important this is, the other two end markets were both down double digits. We deemphasize those according to the full year consensus estimates. And lights put up 29% revenue growth in return to profitability. On top of that, analysts who cover this thing expect the numbers to keep improving for the next few years. Nice. So where do I ultimately come down on Enlight? When I saw the stock's tremendous gains and noticed that the company is focused on laser guns, I was worried that this might be another year of magical investing stock. But after looking into the story in depth, this is a real established company with a legitimate business that has great potential, potential in the future of warfare. The stock's been roaring this year because it should be. The numbers have gotten better and better. Plus, it's very encouraging to me that Enlight stock has held up so well, right as so many of the other year of magical investing names have fallen by the wayside. That said, considering how much the stock has run, I find it very hard to recommend this one up here right now and light selling for roughly 80 times it's 20, 27. 27, not 6, 27 earnings estimates. It was just pretty rich, especially for the hours. Also, and this is more instinct than science, I'm a bit worried that while Enlightenment might not be a year of magical investing stocks, it certainly traveled with many of those names and could get hurt by a broader cool off in momentum stocks. And these keep happening. So so far it hasn't happened. But if momentum names keep getting hit, this one might cool down too. So here's the bottom line. I wouldn't put new money to work in Enlightenment at these levels given how much the stocks run. If you already own it, I say stop. Sell enough shares to cover your cost basis so that you're playing with the house's money. If you don't own it and you like the story, I recommend waiting for a pullback, which seems highly likely to me at some point. But if the pullback comes and Enlightenment keeps putting up good numbers, then you better believe I'd be a buyer. Everybody's back in February.
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Coming up are homebuilding stocks headed for a big finish to 2025. Kramer is deconstructing the latest key earnings numbers to find out next.
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Jim Cramer
We're starting to wind down for the year, but there's still some big reports coming from industries that are real battlegrounds. Take the homebuilders. On Tuesday night we heard from Lennar and then after the close today we heard from KP Home. This is a group that Wall Street's wanted to like for a long time. The iShares US Home Construction ETF that's called the ITB rallied more than 40% from early April to its highs in early September, mostly anticipation of another round of rate cuts for the Fed. But now those rate cuts are here and the situation is not playing out the way the Bulls hoped. See long term rates, the one set by the bond market that actually control the cost of your mortgage. They haven't really played ball. The 30 year treasury currently has a 4.8% yield which is down from around 5% its highs, but not by much. It's actually been trending higher since mid October with only a little bit of support from lower rates. The homebuilders just rolled over in September and kept falling until mid November for finally catching a bid. Once we started to believe that the Fed will bless us with another rate cut at this December meeting. Now that rate cut is also coming on and the builders as a group have lacked clear direction this month. That's why I wanted to see what Lenore and K.B. holmes had to say this week about what they're actually seeing on the ground. What do we learn? Long story short, the builders are still not particularly well. So if you're inclined to Bet on them. You're wagering that things will improve substantially in 2026. And it's not clear that's going to happen. Let's start with Lenore turning a technically mixed but mostly bad set of numbers on Tuesday night. The good news. Deliveries came in better than expected, up 4% year over year. Total revenues also surprised the upside, although they still declined 6% from the previous year. That's not good. Within the core homebuilding segment, revenues and average sales price both exceeded expectations even as they represented declines of 7 and 10% respectively. The bad news? The most important thing. Profitability. Or the lack thereof. The NARS homebuilding gross margin came in at 17.0%. That was down over 500 basis points year over year and well below expectations. I always look at gross margins when I do homebuilders. That's my number one metric. Homebuilding operating earnings were down 52% year over year. Much worse than expected. And $2.03 per share. Most was looking for $2.26. That's an almost 50% decline year over year. That's not good. It gets worse with every quarter. Lenor also gives us some more forward looking metrics and those painted a pretty discouraging picture. New orders. They came in lower than expected. The average sales price for new orders was in line with expectations. That's good. But still below the average selling prices for deliveries this past quarter. And it was down huge year over year. Lenar's guidance for the current quarter. Weak. Company expects to deliver 17,000, 18,000 homes in the current quarter, well below the to 20,089 number that wall street was looking for. That's. That was shocking to me. Magnus says the average sales price for these homes will be between 3 or 65,000, 375,000. And they're talking about a homebuilding gross margin coming in between 15 and 16%. Both of those represent deterioration for the quarter they just reported. How about the full year forecast for 2026? And our guidance for deliveries was also weaker than expected. Man. Now Lenore has been pretty transparent about a strategy. They're focused on keeping volumes up and they're willing to make sacrifices on price and incentives in order to keep moving lots of inventory. Admirable. But their strategy comes with a big hit to profitability. Worse, when you look at the new orders numbers and the forward guidance, it doesn't seem to be working. Even with an are giving buyers great deals, demand still seems to be softening. And you understand these guys are fantastic at what they do. So this was Shocking to me this morning two different analysts, someone else was shocked to RBC Capital and Evercore as isi they downgraded Lunar to an underperform rating. Sell RBC Capital. Mike Doll wrote, quote, we are downgrading Lennar to underperform from sector reform following a weak fourth quarter and first quarter guide with the fiscal year 26 guide and expectations around a recovery in margin later this year still presenting risk to 26 earnings. While numbers may have reset yet again, there is no quick fix to margin headwinds in an affordability constrained soft consumer environment, end quote. That's a tough assessment, but it's hard to disagree unless interest rates come down much faster than almost anyone's expecting. All right, how about KB Home? Smaller. But it reported after the close they also had a disappointing set of numbers. Like Lennar, they did beat on some lines for the quarter. Homes delivered and revenues were both slightly ahead of expectations even as they fell 9 and 15% respectively. I told this group is very difficult. Adjusted earnings per share beat expectations too, even as it fell 24% from the year ago period. But average selling price was down 7% and missed expectations. Homebuilding gross margins were down nearly 4, 400 basis points. What did I tell you? That's the key metric. Fell well short of the street's expectations. And KB Homes Homebuilding operating income fell 49% and came in well short of the consensus estimates. Like Lennar, KB Homes forward looking metrics look well, like the new orders, they're weak. And its outlook for both the current quarter and the year ahead was far below what analysts were looking for. So it's no surprise the KB shares are lower in after trading. I told you this Scoops from hunger. So what should you make of these updates from the homebuilders this week? Especially that disappointing result from Lenore, one of the most important homebuilders in America. Honestly, it's a pretty discouraging picture. On yesterday morning's conference call, CEO Stuart Miller, he's the dean of the whole home bidding industry, said matter of factly, quote, the current housing market is entrenched in an affordability crisis, end quote. He even found his way to talking about socialism and capitalism for a minute. You know, something's a real problem here. We when the CEO of a large capitalization homebuilder seems to be sharing talking points with the socialist mayor elect of New York City. In my opinion, Miller sounded a little befuddled by how long it's taken to get the housing market back on its feet. Lenar has already Cut its prices a great deal at this point. Lenore's average selling price on an annual basis peaked at 4,008 at 480,000 in fiscal 2022. Keep that number in my 480,000. In the past 12 quarters, we've seen a steady decline in average sales price through the 400,000 level, down to the 380,000 in the past couple of quarters. That's real deflation. And remember, they're now talking about three 65,000 to $375,000 per house. Average sale price for the deliveries in the current quarter. So this chart will keep going lower for the time being. These are lower than pre Covid numbers were never helped. Remember how housing it had gone up 40% from its low and everyone was worried about the price of a home. Extraordinary. How much home prices have come down from the COVID spike. Extraordinary. Ultimately, Miller said he believes that Lenore can, quote, keep the volumes moving and quote this strategy he thinks is the correct one. We will find our floor and rebuild our margins as the overall housing market continues to remain short on supply. End quote. But you know what? After. After this week, you got to wonder how low that floor might actually be. A lot of investors and analysts are deciding that they don't want to stick around to find out. And I don't blame them. The bottom line, at the end of the day, you don't need to be a hero in the housing space. If you want to make a bet on a turnaround for the builders, I think you should start small for now and wait for a clear sign that the buyers are returning before you make any big bets. And we are most certainly not there yet. Let's take some calls. Let's go to John in New Jersey. John.
Caller
Hey, Jim. Thank you so much for taking my call. Super longtime listener, former club member. Got to jump back in there some point, but appreciate everything that you do. My question.
Jim Cramer
I hope you come back. I hope you come back. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Will do.
Caller
Absolutely. I have some more time on my hands. So my question is on anywhere. Real estate advisors symbol house ho us.
Jim Cramer
Yeah, you know what? I know that I know those guys because my. My wife sold real estate. I don't want to be in that group. I think that you really need a much hotter market. Be able to justify being that. I'm going to take a pass. It just doesn't seem right for me right now. Look, if you want to bet on a turnaround for the homebuilders, I suggest you start small. Wait for a Clear sign business is picking up. I wish I could be more encouraging. I have to like the management of these companies very much. Mad Money was much more mad about ahead including my sit down with FedEx. Now, finally, there's a quarter for you. The global shipping giant is often seen as a bellwether for the economy and I'm getting a read on where it might be headed next in my post Earnings exclusive. With the company's top rates and the narrative switching, it's going to be more business business. That's where the real money is. Then I'm breaking down Micron's blowout or any support to see what I think about it's what it's setting the standard for business and what should be done in the tech space. Of course, oil calls rapid fire and tonight's issue, the lighting round. So stay with Creamer. You look at These numbers from FedEx at the close, say the freight powerhouse reported truly strong quarter with higher than expected revenues and a 70 cent earnings beat of $4.12 a basis. Even better management raised the low end of their full year forecast for both revenue and earnings. This company spent years trying to cut costs and optimize its delivery network. Clearly those efforts are paying off. And even though the freight division came in a little weaker than expected, that business is struggling for a While now and FedEx plans to spin it off next year. So let's take a close look with Ross Subramania. He is the President CEO of FedEx. To learn more business silver medium. Welcome back to Mad money.
Raj Subramanian
Hey Jim, thank you for having me on the new show. And I'm just delighted about this quarter. You know, we have, we grew revenues 7% and bottom line 17%. And despite trying circumstances, I'm just shout out to the entire FedEx team who delivered these results.
Jim Cramer
Well, it's very clear that this is the kind of quarter that we've been looking for. FedEx and the stock did run up in anticipation because I think people just understood that a lot of what you're doing, the cost cutting programs and the longer term really kind of like what you did with health care, which is obviously winning. You are starting to win one by one in the verticals. Tell us where you are in terms of taking share from everybody else.
Raj Subramanian
Well, I think first of all, as you said, you know, we put in place a structural cost reduction program. We took $4 billion out in the last three years and we have $1 billion target for this year and we are on track for that. But I think the most important thing for this quarter was the revenue growth story. And we are, as you can imagine, FedEx is the heartbeat of the industrial economy. That's the global network that we have put in place. Our focus is always on differentiation and providing new value for our customers. So we are winning in key verticals, whether it's health care, whether it's aerospace, whether it's defense, and now the newly minted data center, you know, and the investments. So this is a very strong quarter for us because we have been putting these plans in place for some time, but now the team is really executing, and I'm just really proud of that part of our team.
Jim Cramer
Let's talk about the investment in particular for your company. If I went to some of your more modern warehouses, would I see people or I just see robots?
Raj Subramanian
Well, I think from the, from our perspective, you go to the newer hubs, you know, you will see that there's this huge building. The packages go through this, go through that facility in a matter of minutes with all machines. But there are, you know, we have truck loading and truck unloading that is manual. And there are robotic solutions being being built for that as well. But I was referring also to supporting customers who are investing in data centers. And when they talk about these, you know, billions and billions of dollars of investments, that means they have to move these parts around the world. And we are in full support of that as well.
Jim Cramer
Well, go over that with me because I know that for a data center, there literally can be hundreds of thousands of parts. I never really had an idea how they got there. They're going through. They're going to FedEx.
Raj Subramanian
Well, we are, we are part of the solution. Obviously, you know, these things are moving within the country. They're moving across, across border. And as soon as our network, as we have built it over 52 years, this is in place now to move any, in any product from any one part of the world to any other part of the world and moving through customs clearance, moving through borders, those kind of things. So we provide a unique solution for, for the, for that business. And as the investment grows in this space, that translates to more B2B business for FedEx.
Jim Cramer
I was just going to go there, I was thinking, you know what? I'm listening to this man Raj is saying to me. He's not talking about Christmas holidays. That's B2C. That's a hard business. And the margins aren't that good. B2B, the margins are great. Where are you in some sort of transformation will be thinking of FedEx is a B2B business that also happens to.
Raj Subramanian
Work for consumers 100% because you know, the, the network that we have built over the last 52 years is really reflective of the high value supply chains in the world. We are the heartbeat of the industrial economy. And of course we can provide services on B2C on that platform. Obviously we're seeing significant growth on B2C as well. So, you know, that's been a more prominent feature in the last few years in terms of what people are thinking about FedEx. But ultimately FedEx is 66% of our revenue comes from B2B.
Jim Cramer
Okay, that's really. Look, I would have before you told me that in two years ago, even I would have said, all right, well tell me how Black Friday was. Maybe will Black Friday ever be an afterthought where you'll make good money but you won't take care of the prize of business to business?
Raj Subramanian
Well, we'll never take our eye off the ball for B2B. We have a very, very dedicated focus to support our B2B customers. I was just in our Memphis hub just two nights ago and we put in place specific services that move our healthcare customers, for example. However, having said that, you know, we are also, you know, big in the B2C side of the house. We are having a very good peak. We're just right alongside of the forecast that we thought it was going to be. And it's going to be a high single digit, year over year growth for peak. We've got one more week to go. So I'm not counting it all till it's all finished. But you know, despite mother Nature being, being a little bit finicky this, this, this month, this month our teams have done a tremendous job.
Jim Cramer
If I were the Federal Reserve chairman, I would say, well, wait a second, everyone tells me I should cut rates, but these guys are growing at a high single digit. How do you figure why your business is has far exceeded what the GDP growth is right now?
Raj Subramanian
Well, I think we are executing at a very, very high level. We are undergoing three different transformations at the same time. The first is a networks transformation, both domestic and international. We're going through an organizational transformation with one FedEx, you know, removing all the silos that existed before. And we are also going through a digital transformation with all this. We are executing at a very, very high level. And I think that's part of the story. It's too early for me to say how much of it is market and how much of it is FedEx.
Jim Cramer
Now what are we Thinking drive. What are we thinking Tricolor? What are we thinking about how much money you're saving?
Raj Subramanian
Well, I think the, you know, for example from a structural cost perspective, like I said, we remember $4 billion in the last three years. Our target was a billion for this year. We are right on track for that. We are halfway through this fiscal year and we are more than halfway to that target. So that's, that's going great. The, the Tricolor network has been absolutely fantastic especially in this current trading environment that provides us the flexibility and the precision and the resilience in this environment. And I think that's, that's what's played paid real dividends especially as the trading patterns have shifted dramatically in the external environment.
Jim Cramer
Okay, so tell me about where Europe is compared to where it was five years ago.
Raj Subramanian
Well, I think you know we are very pleased. Our progress in Europe now it all started with service and that's when about a few quarters ago, you know, we had some challenges that we had to fix. Technological challenges, we fixed that, we fixed our service. That translated into revenue growth which translated into profit improvement. Having said that, we have a long way to go here and so there's a significant upside for us to generate in Europe. We are putting, you know, is primarily 80% of the businesses in Europe is a ground based business. So we have now moved some of the top management from our ground business or the legacy FedEx ground into Europe and that's paid huge dividends. So why I'm pleased with the progress but we have significant upset ahead.
Jim Cramer
Okay, let's go China. You probably know China because your business council work better than anybody. Where are we, what are we doing with tariffs? How are we feeling about it? Can it ever be a growth business again?
Raj Subramanian
Well, I think for you know, the, the supply chain patterns and trade patterns are changing. We're going from one equilibrium state that has been in place for 30 years or so to another. And we are right in the middle of that transition. China, the United States has declined significantly in the, in the last six months and we have flexed down our capacity significantly accordingly. However, as you've seen probably reports, the China's trade surplus is actually up, meaning that there's more traffic going to other parts of the world. So our intra Asia traffic is up or Asia to Europe which is primarily B2B actually is up. And Latin America inbound is up. Asia, the Middle east and India is up. India outbound is up. So this patterns are changing. The fact that we already have a scale network globally in place and the Fact that we have intelligence on high value supply chains coming from the bottom up allows us to move with precision and agility. And that's what's helping us in this.
Jim Cramer
Environment has reassuring helped you. I know that when you talk about Eli Lilly for just putting up billions of dollars with the plants, that's health care. That you, Mexico largest trading partner, that you fill us in about the new US and what it looks like for FedEx.
Raj Subramanian
Yeah, no, this is the point I was trying to make because when we have our scale network in place, we are here, there and everywhere. And that's what allows us to, you know, traffic's moving from Mexico to United States. Obviously that's a big, big, big opportunity for us. And we are now, you know, making moves all around the world. For example, you know, we have direct flight launch from US to Singapore connection. For example, we have launched a flight out of Dublin, out of Riyadh, for example. We opened facilities in Bangalore, in India, we opened facilities in Istanbul. This has all happened in the last six months. So we're moving with, with pace. And you know, we, as I said, we have the intelligence of what's happening from the bottom up and we can move with velocity here to, to, to cater to the demand.
Jim Cramer
Last question. How are we looking in terms of new planes versus old planes? I mean MD11, I mean that's a plane that people don't know what they look like anymore.
Raj Subramanian
Yeah, I think firstly our thoughts go out to the folks at UPS because this is a terrible tragedy of the MD11 and we offer all support there. And you know, our fleet modernization program started in 2012. In fact, our age of our fleet now is, is younger than our competition because of the modernization program that have been through. We have, you know, we've done a terrific job of managing the MD11. I was in the hangar on Tuesday night and we got phenomenal team of aircraft technicians dealing with MD11. We are waiting on what NTSB and what FAA are going to give us a protocol and we are ready to execute and get those planes back in the air.
Jim Cramer
Well, congratulations on a great quarter. I hope the rest of the B2C goes very well. It's B2B is in my heart because I know that's for big money. But you got to do both and you do a great job. That's Raj subramanian, President and CEO of FedEx. Thanks for coming on the show, Raj. Really appreciate it.
Raj Subramanian
Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it very much.
Jim Cramer
Okay, May Bunny's back here for the break.
Mad Money Announcer
Coming up, Kramer takes Your calls and the sky's the limit. It's a fast fire lightning round.
Jim Cramer
Next. It is time buy. So since you've been in a core stock cross, that's how much the prison play the sound and then the lightning round is over. Are you ready, ski daddy? Time for the light round question. Let's go to Sam, Pennsylvania. Sam.
Caller
Jim, how are you?
Jim Cramer
All right. How are you doing? Good.
Caller
You know, Jim, last week we had a big acquisition of a cyber security company by ServiceNow talking about Armis for 7 billion. So it called my attention because sen1001 has been long on my radar. So I'm curious what you think about Fem 10:1?
Jim Cramer
No, I don't think it's a good. It has been various times. I understand Shopton didn't get a bid. You got to stick with the high quality ones. Got to check with CrowdStrike or Palo Alto Networks. Both owned by the trust. Let's go to Harlan in Washington. Harlan.
Caller
Hey, Jim, listen. This Kurer k u R a oncology. Their first recent US sale triggered $135 million.
Jim Cramer
Yeah, that's a lot. That is a lot. And. And now just understand that they are milestone payments, not actual. Now here's what you have to understand. I have always felt that if you have something that is for cancer and it works, then you have to own the stock as a speculation, but just as a speculation because it's been such a difficult disease. J and J and Merck are the ones that are ahead. If you want the majors. Let's go to Sean in New York. Sean.
Caller
Hey, Jim.
Jim Cramer
How you doing? I'm doing well. How about you? Sean?
Caller
New York.
Jim Cramer
Booyah. What's up?
Caller
Yes, I had a question on a stock. I saw an interview on the network there about three months ago. It was pretty convincing. My. The stock I was asking about is bmnr.
Jim Cramer
Yeah. Bit mine. Immersion. Okay. Now, I think this is part of that year of magical investing that I'm telling you, I think you is over. And I don't want you in anything that's involved in the year of magical investing. Let's steer clear of that. I want to go to Dave in Illinois.
Caller
Dave, Dr. Kramer, my mad Trinidadian tarpon angler.
Jim Cramer
How are you indeed? Boy, I'll tell you, those things really pack a wobble wallop. What's going on, Dave? What's happening in Chicago? Well, or suburbs. Jim, go ahead. Yeah, yeah. Jim, several months ago you label this.
Caller
Like a mini in video. With earnings growth rivaling in videos up over 100% on the year. Jim, please update your thoughts on CREDO Technology.
Jim Cramer
CREDO is a winner. There's a lot of insider selling in that one. But no, we think that CREDO has one of the great growth stories and I'm not going to back away from it. Look, this is right now, people hate what's inside the data center. But there is good business being done inside the data center. And just because we haven't figured out how all the financing is going to happen, Dave, CREDO still works for me. Let's go to Jim in New York.
Caller
Jim, Jimmy, chill. Yo, this is Jimmy R, one of the friends. Yeah, big holiday.
Jim Cramer
Booyah.
Caller
From Schenectady, New York.
Jim Cramer
Excellent. What's going on?
Caller
I'm first time caller, long time. Listen, I made some money about 20 or 25 years ago on a stock and then saw the stock come into favor again recently. I bought a bunch, sold it for like a 65% return and now it's inside of an IRA rollover. I want to buy it back. I'm wondering about Sienna.
Jim Cramer
It has moved a great deal. That was an amazing quarter. I think there's. It was so great. The next scores could be great, too. I'm not going to fight you on it because Sienna, this Sienna is much better than the sienna of 2000 when a lot of us lost money in the first three months of the year. If you remember that. And that, ladies and gentlemen, conclusion of the Lightning Round.
Mad Money Announcer
The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, Kramer's putting Micron under the microscope to see how the chip manufacturer has taken taken off and whether it's time for you to get on board next.
Jim Cramer
Yes, it makes sense for Micron, the dean of memory chips, to blow away the estimates and see its stock fly 10% today. This may be the second largest beat I've ever seen, only behind the monster quarter that Nvidia put up two years ago. It was what's magnificent. But you must realize that as great as this is, there's very simple reason for Micron strength. Demand overwhelms supply, just like Act 10. As CEO Sanjay Mirota told me, quote, we are only able to meet 50% to 2/3 of demand from several key customers, end quote. The stock didn't go down even as IT advanced almost 250% from its April lows. Coming to the print because Sanjay said that tightness in memory chips should persist beyond 2026. The kinds of chips Micron makes used to be considered plain humdrum, just commodities. Not anymore. The chips are in such short Supply that the value of memory, especially the high bandwidth memory that Micron specializes in, is higher than ever before. He's already talking about substantial records for revenues, gross margins, earnings per share and free cash flow for next quarter and several quarters after that. Look, there have been many times when Microns have more demand than it can handle. In the 30 years I've found the company, this time seems more, much more lasting because there are extreme shortages for all the machines Micron would need to expand its production capacity. And that's why the stocks of Applied Materials, KLA and most important, Lamb Research, the company's Micron needs to build capacity, all roared too. But the rest of tech took its cue from Micron and broke the recent downtrend. Even though the supply demand situation for most of these companies quite different from Micron. For instance, let's say two of my favorites, Broadcom and Nvidia, both will drop today. They simply do not have the same situation at all. Micron has its own manufacturing facilities, meaning it makes the stuff itself. Nvidia, Broadcom, what's known as fabless companies. They, they make their chips through Taiwan semi. That's who actually does the manufacturing. If demand overwhelms supply, it's Taiwan semi problem. That's why even though Micron's crying about demand, it doesn't exactly translate to Broadcom and Nvidia. Unlike Western Digital and Seagate, which are basically in the same kind of business as Micron, albeit with less intellectual property. I go into this level of detail because the Micron portion, the semiconductor world, is a world that actually makes sense to me. You have a good chip, people buy the chip in short supply. You raise the price, you make money. However, that's not how it seems to be working for some of the hyperscalers these days, especially for a company called OpenAI. This company, which is the pioneer in the AI group, needs tremendous accelerator computing power in order to work efficiently. Metta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon all use in video chips. They pay Nvidia out of cash flow. It hurts, but they do it. OpenAI doesn't have enough money to pay outright, but companies want their business so badly, they come up with novel ways to make it happen. Some companies literally seem to be buying their business by investing in OpenAI with the presumption OpenAI spends that money on their products. Some think it's just going to be a great buy to get in there. I don't know. It's very different from the Micron situation, which is a lot cleaner. Like I told you at the Top of the show. I'm mistrustful of these kinds of deals. I wish the vendors would just insist on actual payment because when I saw these kinds of deals at the end of the dot com era and I was involved with that as a business person, they often misled you into thinking that some companies are doing better than they really were. It was a sign of weakness, not strength. Micro, on the other hand, is the way business should be done. Micron's not paying anyone to take their stuff. There's just so much demand in these memory chips that they can't possibly make enough of. They're trying hard to allocate what they can give the customers. In the end, that makes me like Micron a lot more than some of these other companies that have an air of desperation around them. I'm a simple guy. I don't want to stake in a company that wants my price because I have no idea what that stake might only be worth. I want to be paid with cash in the barrel head Microns, a cash machine. When in doubt, you know what? You always go with cash. The other methods may come back to bite you. Even if you, like me, think the world of the chip companies that are actually doing the selling to these hyperscalers. I like to share as always, but Marcus, I'm right. Problem certified just for you. Right here on Man Money, I'm Jim Cramer. See you tomorrow.
Legal Disclaimer Narrator
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Recent Results: Both Lennar and KB Home reported; numbers disappointed across deliveries, average sales price, and gross margin.
Headline Data:
Key Quote:
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Cramer’s Warning:
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Caller Q&A: (27:18–28:25) Cramer tells John from NJ not to buy Anywhere Real Estate Advisors, saying the market isn’t hot enough.
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Memorable Picks & Calls:
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