← Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer
Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer
Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 12/22/25
00:44:24
Listen to Jim Cramer’s personal guide through the confusing jungle of Wall Street investing, navigating through opportunities and pitfalls with one goal in mind - to help you make money. Mad Money Disclaimer
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- [00:00]
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- [02:13]
Jim Cramer
Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. Other People My friends, I'm just trying to make you a little bit of money. My job is not just to entertain you, but to educate, to do some teaching. That's always been the case, hasn't it? So call me at 1-800-743- CNBC. Tweet me at Jim Cramer. This setup's a great one. That's what I see right now, and I want to get a jump on it. As bad money winds down for our 20th year, the Chief pillar takeovers and acquisitions, they're going to be an extraordinary force for the Bulls in 2026, When I try to get the right team, they want necessarily move the averages in a visible way. Like today when we got some real takeover news. But it didn't play an obvious role. Dow gaining 228 points S&P rising.64%. Nasdaq advancing.52% as the Christmas rally continues. But I want to really get into this because I'm so worried you're going to leave. I don't want you to leave this market. I know it's high, I know people say it is, but there's things happening. There are mergers and acquisitions that are really special to you. Some don't do that much. I get that. But others do, the kind you're going to see in 2026. They're strategic, they're valuable and they're going to make you a lot of money. Before I go into the specific deals though, let me tell you why these transactions are so important to you and and why you must stay in the market to profit from it. First, the stock market is fundamentally about supply and demand. If you increase the number of shares and the averages may have trouble advancing periods of great stock issuance can lead to uncomfortable moments. We've seen this. There may not be enough money coming in to sop up the additional supply. So what happens? The market goes down. A bear market. But takeovers, they can temper the market's endless stock issuance. Now I think we're actually going to need that because I also expect a very robust issuance here. With a few potential blockbuster deals, one from Open Air and one from Elon Musk flooding the zone, so to speak, with new stock, it could be hard to overcome that much new supply. Fortunately, public companies keep buying the private companies that are held by private equity. That's good. We don't need these potential IPOs. Tight supply means higher stock prices. Second, I know that the market did well under the Biden administration. But I believe that most of that advance occurred despite the President. I say that because Biden didn't care much for the stock market. I knew that. And he had the single most dogmatic anti merger individual running the Federal Trade Commission that I've ever seen. Lynne accompanied worked hard to twist logic to try to veto almost every deal. Now, in fairness, she genuinely believed all mergers were inherently anti competitive and putive to someone in each case. But that attitude removed a key way for you to make money in the market. The administration. This one much more friendly. So far we've seen a propensity to believe in deals, recognize Their value to the market, the customers, the shareholders. The previous FTC had really didn't factor in the value to you, the shareholder. That's not the case anymore. I salute that. Third, the markets awarded some of the acquiring companies with a higher stock price. Now, that rarely happens, but now it's happening right now, somewhat consistent with the incredible market that I see happening. Finally, CEOs are beginning to realize that there can be many gains from artificial intelligence. But the gains come with turmoil and stress. You may be able to fire a huge percentage of people, replace them with AI, but the disruption can cause a company to miss its quarter or maybe many quarters, punishing shareholders. It's better to be privately held. The most salient takeover battle right now is the contest for Warner Brothers Discovery. Here we have a public company that's more like a private company. Paramount, Skydance, I said because its bid is personally funded in part by the fifth wealthiest person in the world, Larry Ellison. His son runs the business in the fight for Warner Brothers. And Paramount is going against Netflix. Today we get more assurances that Larry's willing to provide backstop financing for the acquisition to the tune of $40 billion. But Netflix wants it. And you know what? I think Netflix has the blessing of Time Warner board unless else he comes back with a huge amount of money. I. I don't think they get it. What I care about is that there are two bidders with big pools of capital trying to get this one asset. Netflix isn't known as a dealmaker, but they've surfaced out of the woodwork. Ellison personally is a dealmaker either, though his principal employer, Oracle has been known to make deals. Larry standing up for $40.4 billion, a personal guarantee. Let's not lose this forest or burn it down for the sake of the trees moment. This stock Warner Brothers Discovery was trading at $7 when I dinner with CEO David Zasov just seven months ago. He said the company is worth $34 a share. You know what? I think he's going to be right. Everyone keeps talking about how expensive stocks are. Was Warner expensive at seven bucks? Isn't that the real takeaway? It turned out to be dirt cheap. Take that, bears. Or how about the deal this morning we're trying. The fund led by Nelson Peltz and an alpha called General Catalyst Group are taking the storied money manager Janice Henderson Private for $7.4 billion, which is 18% above where it was trading back in October when trying and its partners made their first offer for the company. The big story here, Janice knows that it wants to move aggressively using AI to come up with great things for investors. The performance for most of their funds has been stellar. And if you have money with them, you won't even notice these moves they're going to be making that I'm about to talk about. But Janus doesn't feel it can make these kinds of moves with AI without crushing its stock. And as long as it remains a public company, which is why it wants to go private here. I think this deal is the template for dozens of companies going private in 2026. Then there's a whole nother template. Cintas trying to buy unifirst an ongoing saga that has the number one uniform retail company, Cintas trying to acquire the number three player in the same business. There was an indication of interest via Cintas in 2022. Then in January of 2025, Cintas formalized a generous bid that was rejected. Now it's back with the same bid, $275, which is a 64% premium to where the stock have been trading. But get this, this is what's important. Cintas is so confident that the regulators will approve, will bless this deal that they're offering a $350 million reverse termination fee. Bear with me on this $5.2 billion transaction. Therein lies what's most interesting. If Cintas had offered a termination fee under the old ftc, there was a good chance they would have had to pay it because Linocom would have eagerly blocked this kind of deal. This administration wants strong companies that can extend their reach, confident that others will rise up and challenge them. If you're a client of Universe, you actually might of course may worry that your uniform bills are going to go up and the government's going to look at that. But Cintas, they're not stupid. It will lose clients if it raises prices too much, as there's always someone willing to come in underneath. Universe has been adamant about staying independent, but it's a public company, which means it's always for sale at the right price. I frankly, I think a 64% premium seems to me to be the right price. Finally, there's the everybody wins kind of M and A. This morning, Stanley, Buck and Decker sold its aerospace manufacturing business, Consolidated Aerospace Manufacturing to Helmet, a cracker jack aerospace company for 1.8 billion in cash. This is a terrific deal for Stanley Back and Decker shareholders which because that company needs to repair its balance sheet and hence why the stock rallied 3%. How met, which we affectionately call how I met your mother can become an even bigger player in aerospace which is why that stock jumped $4.68. The bottom line, these are all fantastic templates to acquirers with stocks that go higher. A buyer confident that it can merge the number three with the number one in the same industry and a company that can't get AI right without hurting a quarter or so or two profits. So why be publicly traded all and then finally their Stanley Block and Decker aerospace business turned out to be worth more than anyone expected. New patterns, new methods, new money. What's not to like? Mark in Massachusetts. Mark. Jim, the Patriots are back. But when is Costco going to be back? I was at Costco this weekend trying to check it out. Trying to figure out what the heck is wrong. I think there's. What's wrong is the stock got too high. I would have thought of 41 times earnings. It's done going down. That was wrong. We did sell half the position. I can't believe I sold any of it. For the travel trust. We had to. I don't like the, the re ups. The, the what. What we call the people going back to the club and, and getting a new card. And I've got to tell you, replacement card. I've got to tell you I don't like it. Still I had a great time at Costco yesterday with my wife but that doesn't necessarily translate into people re upping at a better rate. I am concerned I might sell the rest. Let's go to Nick and yeah, I know that's big. Let's go to Nick and Connecticut please. Nick. Hey Jim, first time caller, longtime listener and club member.
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Homes.com Announcer
Thank you for everything you do.
- [11:10]
Jim Cramer
Thank you. Thank you for calling. Thank you. How can I help Home Depot in September expecting some upside from the anticipated fed rate cuts but the stock is down after those two cuts recently. Should I buy more seller Yes, I would buy more. It's a big position. My channel trust. Why would I buy more? Because we are going to get more rate cuts. Particularly because the president wants them and he's going to pick someone who forget all this nonsense you hear. They're going to cut rates and cut rates dramatically and you have to be in Home Depot for that because it's the single best way to play a turnaround in housing. It's the only one housing related stock that we have in the trust and I feel very good about it right as we head into 2026. I think takeovers and acquisitions will be the chief force for the bulls and to that I say what? What's not to like? Oh my. Tonight we're revisiting our 25 questions for 2025 and seeing how the market stacked up to our expectations this year. First, I'm looking at the macro picture to see how the economic backdrop affected your portfolio. Then I'm going sector by sector from commodities to consumer packaged goods. And I'm getting read on the REITs when I sit down with the CEO of Prologis for the last time. Stay with.
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Homes.com Announcer
Don't miss a second of Mad Money. Follow imkramer on X have a question? Tweet Kramer Madmentions. Send Jim an email to madmoneycnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC. Missed something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com on Fox 1. You can stream your favorite news, sports and entertainment live all in one app. It's raw and unfiltered.
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Jim Cramer
This is the best thing ever.
- [13:01]
Homes.com Announcer
Watch breaking news as it breaks.
- [13:03]
Jim Cramer
Breaking. Tonight we're following two major stories.
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Homes.com Announcer
Catch history in the making.
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Jim Cramer
Debate drama. Touchdown.
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Homes.com Announcer
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Jim Cramer
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- [14:13]
Jim Cramer
At the very beginning of the year we ran this three part segment on my 25 questions for 2020 25. Okay. Came up with four big macro questions, one question for each of the 11 major sectors and of course 10 tech specific questions. So now the year is nearly over. Let's talk about the answers. First question does the yield on the 10 year treasury go to 4% or 5% first or neither? At the time the 10 year was sitting at just over 4.5%. This is one where we got a definition definitive answer because the 10 year went to 4% first. Given that so much wealth from housing to your portfolio is related to the 10 year, we have to follow like a hawk what happened in 2025. Specifically the 10 year broke below 4% briefly in that post Liberation Day wash out last spring, setting a 52 week low of 3.88. More recently now, the Fed started cutting short term interest rates. The 10 year has touched the 4% level a couple of times, first in mid September, then mid October and then again in late November. Of course the bulls would feel better if the 10 year had fallen below 4% and stayed there. But that's not the case with benchmark yield currently sitting at about 4.15%. Don't let anyone scare you. That's fine. Fine for stocks. And there's a lack of consensus about how much help we can realistically expect from the Federal Reserve next year. Not even the members of the Open Market Committee can agree on the number of rate cuts that are needed. Say nothing about investors or people betting in the predictions market. The second question for 2025 we wanted to know whether the labor market would remain tight. And here the answer seems to be. It seemed to be definitive. No. We went from adding over 100,000 jobs per month in the first few months of the year to averaging around 17,000 jobs added over the course of the past six months, meaning June through November. That's actually kind of pathetic. In June, August, October, job growth was actually negative and that I'm going to call that bad. Meanwhile, the unemployment rates rise from 4% in January to 4.6% November. That's not good either. Now the silver lining here is the fact that the labor market weakness has allowed the Fed remain our friend. But to answer the question from the beginning, no, the labor market has not remained tight. Third question we asked what what's going on in Washington? Specifically, what's going to happen? Now? That was a catch all question. What I was really asking was how the Trump administration would impact stocks. In retrospect though, maybe I should have been more detailed because Trump 2.0 cuts in many different directions. Long story short, the NASDAQ indices up over 21% for the year. That's incredible. S and p up almost 17%. I'll take it. And the Dow closes 14%. The Trump administration has overall been just fine for stocks. I of course it didn't look that way initially. The year began with this huge pullback with the S and P falling 21% in anticipation of the President's increasingly hard line tariff agenda and in response to those initial Liberation Day tariff rates that were announced in early April. But once the President reduced or postponed most of those tariffs, the market bounced back and bounced back quickly. It spent most of the year since then, rising gradually, whether you love Trump or whether you hate him. Look, if he does something that truly panics the market, he tends to roll it back. Now, the only major piece of legislation out of Washington this year, the One Big Beautiful Bill act, didn't impact stocks much. Yet in fact, some of the specific policies in the OBBA concerned immediate expensing of capital investments might actually be underappreciated as a huge catalyst as we enter 2026. It could boost earnings dramatically. But no one's talking about there. I just did. And the government shutdown this fall, the largest, longest history, 43 days. I didn't hurt that much, did it? Not stocks. Once it ended, we bounced right back. I want you to remember that because I'm going to tell you there are going to be more of them. Of course there's a ton of controversial stuff happening in Washington any given moment, but at the end of the day, it's just not that relevant to the market. Maybe you think the Trump administration is pushing the boundaries of executive power. Look, but I guarantee you that Wall street doesn't care either way. Fourth, the last big macro question we asked was whether corporate earnings would keep growing like we expected in the end of end of 2024 as a reminder to be the year. When I first posed these questions, the consensus expectation was that we'd see about 12% earnings growth for the S&P 500 in 2025, followed by another 12% of earnings growth in 2026. Those expectations were at the heart of the bull thesis for this market coming into the new year. So how does does that look? Well, to start the final tally for S&P 5002024 earnings ended up slight, Like it will come in slightly lower than anticipated. More like 10% instead of 12%, but not for bad reason. In fact, the S&P 500 earnings projections for 2025 slightly higher than it was the beginning of the year on absolute basis. Earnings expectation for both 2025 and 2026 came down after the President's tariff rollouts, but bottomed in May and June. Then we had strong second and third earnings seasons. So the estimates have gradually climbed back to levels that are now above what we were looking for at the beginning of the year. The other big thing to note here is the fact that the earnings expectations for next year are higher rather than the 12% earnings growth that Wall street was projecting for 2026. Now we're looking for nearly 14% earnings growth next year. That's going to be very high benchmark of course, those are just estimates, not something you can take for granted. For the market to Keep rolling in 2026, we're going to need to hit that 14% collective earnings growth forecast. But looking at these numbers, you can see why the markets had another strong year of gains. At the end of the day, earnings growth is the single most important determinant of your stocks. The direction and the fact of the matter is that earnings growth outlook has gradually gotten better, better over the past 12 months. So the bottom line, There you go. Those are your answers for my four big macro questions that I asked the beginning of the year. But we're far from done. Stick around because after the break we'll revisit our sector specific questions and see how those have worked out in 2025. NetMoney's back hit for the break.
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Homes.com Announcer
Coming up, Cramers answering more of our 25 questions for 2025 as he's taking you sector by sector and seeing how they each fared this year.
- [20:29]
Jim Cramer
Next.
- [20:32]
Homes.com Announcer
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- [20:39]
Jim Cramer
Touchdown and catch.
- [20:40]
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- [21:44]
Jim Cramer
Coming into this year, I posed 25 questions questions about the market to figure out where we might be headed. And now the year is almost over. I'm giving you the answers before the break. We already went over the first four big picture questions. Now I want to cover the next 11 and it's one for each major sector. First, for the communications services sector, which is an odd amalgam of a group of including say both traditional telecom companies as well as some gigantic tech companies like Alphabet Matter platforms and Netflix. I wanted to know if the advertising market, the most important profit center for the first two of those I just mentioned would hold up in 2025. But as it turns out, I was asking the wrong question. Sure, the advertising market's been fine, but I should have been asking about how the mega caps would hold up in the race for a supremacy. Outfit's made great strides with the release of Gemini 3. One reason it stocks up more than 60% for the year. Metal, on the other hand, has been able to convince Wall street that its bets will pay off yet, which is why it's only up 13%. Maybe I should have been more curious about M and A here because some of the biggest winners in the group are indeed takeover targets. Think Warner Brothers Discovery like you talk about at the Top and Electronic Arts about to close for the financials. I asked if there'd be a tangible benefit from the deregulation that we expected once the Trump administration took over. And here I think it's a clear yes, the banks have been solid performers this year, but the investment banks have been a benign Nanza. And that's all about deregulation. Goldman Sachs, a favorite mine huge position by Chapel Trust. Join the club. You find out more is up 57%. Morgan Stanley's up 43%. JP Morgan's up almost 35%. These companies are a lot more money. When the White House isn't blocking mergers or heavily scrutinizing new IPOs. Keep an eye out for another big position in the trust. It's Capital One Cof now is the credit card company. It's up about 38%. I think it's going to be a monster year in 2026 for these guys. For the consumer discretionary sector, we asked whether the consumer starting to get tapped out almost 12 months later. You know the debate is still raging in the middle of the year. It sure looks like the consumer was sputtering. I think it's fair to say that lower income consumers are clearly not doing particularly well right now. Consumer sentiment obviously isn't in a great place either. I wish that would change, but it's just a gloomy time. We can't seem to bust it. However, the market's been feeling much better about consumers consumer stocks in recent weeks after we got a terrific series of earnings reports from some big retailers, followed by some strong Black Friday numbers and another rate cut from the Fed. Although there's a lot of talk about how the last few weeks have been not so great. I don't want to take it like that. You just have to say it's been a pretty good season for the tech sector. I asked if the investment team would keep roaring and that's a clear yes. More on that later because we posed another 10 questions just about tech alone for the utilities we asked whether they could actually meet the rising need for electricity. But from all these new data centers the utes are in growth mode again from all this power demand and I still feel pretty good about these stocks. It is the groups up over 12% for the year. I do worry about rates going up and maybe some of the rate the let's see some of the ratepayers rebelling for the industrials we asked which subsector would be proved most durable and the answer in retrospect is that power and electrical equipment continues to lead the way right alongside aerospace. That's something I saw coming. But what's maybe more interesting some of the subsectionary groups that have performed much better than I thought at the beginning of the year think defense which has overcome the tough talk about cutting Pentagon spending and done just fine including today when the group just went nuts to the upside and don't look down but the transports have been very strong of late the end of the favorite session what does that ever bode well all aboard for the entire market in 2026 for the consumer staples we we asked if the packaged food group could overcome the wall of worry Created by the GOP Dash 1 drugs this one straightforward because the answer is a plain now packaged foods really one of the worst cohorts the entire market the broader consumer staples sector has been the second worst sector out there. Individual food stocks like Campbell's, Lamb, Weston, Conagra brands are all down about 30% at the same point at some point look the valuations and the yields for the this group might become too compelling to ignore but we're not there yet. I talk a lot about how those stocks used to be called safety stocks. Now they're safety last in how to make money I was pretty pretty brutal about them. I'm actually proud I got that right. For the energy stocks I asked if industry discipline would remain once a new drill maybe drill era began with the return of the Trump administration and the answer is no they couldn't stay disciplined. As I predicted domestic crude oil production is up, domestic natural gas production is up and shares of most oil and gas producers are therefore down some down big energy exposure I suggest the pipelines and similar infrastructure plays here I'm talking about something like a 1Oak Enterprise product basically anything it's not levered to actual energy prices for real estate well I asked about if we'd see elevated store closings because of more retail bankruptcies. And this is another place where I think I was asking the wrong question. We had very few retail bankruptcies and most retail focused real estate investment trust is just fine. Despite all the sturm and drang we heard about, the power of the retailers to stay afloat is just much greater than people realize. It will always be that way. I think there's just not enough development to make it so that there's there's a scarcity that year. That said, real estate ended up being still the worst performing sector of the market this year the biggest headwind seems to have been interest rates, though not not failures and interest rates. They didn't come down enough. Not enough to get investors excited about the group. At least we need more relief from the Fed in the bond market if real estate is going to make comeback for health care. I asked how much of an impact the new HHS Secretary, RFK Jr. Would have impact on the group, and I got to say for much of this year his arrival in Washington did have a negative impact on the health care cohort. But the health care stocks have come roaring back in the past few months. While some of that's from pure flight to safety trade, part of it comes down to a tacit acknowledgment that RFK Jr hasn't really impacted the industry all that much, at least not yet. Everything from the off maligned middlemen like McKesson and Sankora to the much vaunted Eli Lilly just roared this year. Finally, I asked the question about the materials sector. Could put prices for certain commodities like non precious metals and certain agricultural goods which entered the year at very low levels. Find a way to rebound in general, commodities have firmed up this year with the Bloomberg Commodity index up over 11% year to date. That's inflationary under the surface that we've seen a totally mixed base back. Precious metals are way way up. Silver, gold, holy cow. Crude oil way way down. Regular metals generally up with the help of tariffs, but a lot of crops and chemical stocks very bad. That explains why we've seen a middle of the pack performance overall for the materials group which is up about 9% for the year as a sector. But within that we've seen huge disparities. 40% plus declines for chemical companies like Dow and Lydell, but also 40% increases for companies like Newcord Steel Dynamics. I didn't see these before, but you know what I should have told I should have pushed hard on Nucor. I always Knew that was a good one. Bottom line. Well, that's where we stand with our questions for the 11 major sectors. And we've now covered our first 15 questions for 2025. After a quick break, I'm going to be back with updates on our last 10 questions of the year, which were all about tech. But in the meantime, let's take some calls. Let's go to Mark in Illinois. Mark. Oh yeah, Jim from the home of the Chicago Bears. I'm liking that. And the Bears look real good. Congratulations to you. I hope they go pretty far. Far at not too far, but pretty far. How can I help? Listen to looking into. By the way, we got your book. Love it. Oh thank you. Love your book and love you. Been watching since you started trying to tell stories. Stories. Go ahead. Love it. You got such integrity. I love it. Thank you. Thank you. I've been following been got into Rivian around 17. Looks like a lot of good news going through the pipeline. What do you think the prospects are? Rivian? I look, I'm a balance sheet guy. This has had a major, major move. It's been terrific. I think some of it is a short squeeze. There's a very big short. I want you to take some off the table and then let the rest run because in the end I care more about maintaining gains when it comes to the heavily speculative stocks that are losing a lot of money. Let's take some off the table. Rest run. And thanks for the kind words about how to make money in any market. Now, some of the sectors surprised us to the upside this year, but for some reason some sectors like consumer staples. The jury's still out. And for the foods, let's just say safety last much more mad money ahead. I'm continuing my year in review by honing in on the sector that might have defined 2025 and that's technology. And what's the outlook for real estate in 2026 for a year full of rate fluctuations and economic uncertainty, I'm finding out with the CEO. Prologis an old favorite of ours. And of course oil calls rapid fire in tonight's edition of the lightning round. So stay with Rainbow. Like I mentioned earlier, at the beginning of the year, I post 25 questions for 2025 and tonight I'm rounding up the answers. We've been through the first 15 and now we're down to the final 10 questions that are all about tech. The 16th overall and first tech specific question I asked was how the infrastructure trade would evolve. And well, I really don't have enough time to answer that one. For the first nine odd months of the year, the theme grew beyond anyone's imagination. But for the last couple of months, Wall street started to balk at the size of some of these spending commitments for the data center. I don't blame them. I think this new, more discerning phase will ultimately be positive for the market, though, even as now makes it a lot tougher to Winners Next we ask who will be the initial group of AI software winners? In retrospect, maybe that question should have been will there be any AI software winners? With the exception of Palantir, which I still like very much, the breakdown in enterprise software stocks this year has just been nothing short of brutal. The fear is that customers will be able to develop more of their own software with the help of these new AI platforms that are very good at writing code. Now, I'm not quite ready yet to give up on some of these companies, like Salesforce, which is now solid for just 20 times next year's earnings estimates. But it would help if their agent Force AI platform keeps putting up good numbers. Stock did close up $4.72. Say that was a nice move. Question 18 I asked if the APC theme would ever materialize, and the answer to this one is sort of. Dell and HP have been reporting better numbers for the PC divisions in recent quarters, but Dell stocks only up 10% this year and HP is down almost 30%. Don't buy, don't buy, don't, don't buy dollar any device with an Internet connection could be an AI device. So I don't see the real appeal for the PC sales pitch. The PC refresh thesis. It was a bust. For question 19, I asked if some of the more cyclical semiconductor names to start growing, and that turned out to be a big fat yes. Do you know that four of the top five performers the entire S&P 500, SanDisk, Western Digital, Seagate Technology, Micron are memory chip makers or more, up more than 2% year to date. Now these are inherently cyclical stocks that come down once more, production comes online. But we got a shortage of semiconductor capital equipment too, so these can keep booming. This thesis was the number one propellant of 2025, and those it touched roared right into the close of the year. Very few people saw that coming separately. For question 20, I asked if unprofitable growth names would remain hot. And yes, they stayed hot for about 10 months, at which point they went out of style on the Wall street fashion show. As the year of magical investing came to a dramatic end. I also have Some of the legacy tech giants like Cisco and IBM could continue the better performance they've been putting up. And I'm happy to say that by and large they have Cisco's climb nearly 32% year to date. About three weeks ago, the stock closed at a record high for the first time since March of 2000. Great win for the CBC investing club there. Meanwhile, IBM is up more than 38%, trading at record highs. It's still cheap by the way, and it still should be bought. For a 20 second question, we asked if the cybersecurity stocks would remain unassailable in 2025 while the group has held up okay this year. I wouldn't call it unassailable. The two that the trust owns, Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike, are up 3% and 41% respectively. And across the entire range of cybersecurity there's a lot of variation. I still believe this is a powerful secular growth story for 2026 because businesses need to protect themselves against hackers. But they're going to be winners and losers within the industry, which is why I urge you to stick with the best of breed. I still think that's Palo Alto, but more importantly it's CrowdStrike. I also asked a fun question. How about this Robotaxi race? How's that going to shape up in 2025? At the time I thought that Alphabet's Waymo was the leader, but I said that Tesla had a good chance to catch up with Elon Musk. Elon Musk, so close to the point President well as we exit 2025 way most clearly still the market leader and its success is yet another reason to like Alphabet, one of the best performing stocks of the year. Although I'm mindful of that San Francisco power outage story that was a big way most setback just this weekend. Tesla Robo Taxi Service meanwhile is making progress, albeit a slower pace than Waymo, and Musk had a high profile falling out with the President last spring. Still, that hasn't held back Tesla stock which has been roaring for many muds. It is a horse at this point. I'm wondering if Robotaxis will be a duopoly, if maybe there's another contender, I don't know Amazon, Zeus or Uber with some self driving tech partners, but I think right now it's way more to win. I also asked what the impact of President Trump's trade policies would be on tech, and by and large this hasn't been a major issue There were times the tariffs on China and India look like they would might impact Apple, but the company won exemptions by making large domestic investment commitments. I say Apple own it, don't trade it. Maybe you could argue that in video was held back by a ban on selling even dumbed down AI chips to China, which was initially partially repealed recently. But with Nvidia still up more than 36% for the year and China basically completely excluded from their numbers, it could didn't do that much damage. It could be upside too if they ship that H200 to China this spring, which is what press reports reports indicated earlier today. Nvidia I say own it, don't trade it. Finally, I wondered how President Trump would help the cryptocurrency ecosystem given his much friendlier attitude toward crypto than his predecessor. Now, there've been some legislative progress here. The Genius act, which is related to stablecoin regulation, signing the law in July. I'm sure the industry appreciates the President Trump says he doesn't seem as hell bent to prosecuting crypto malfeasance as Biden's. But looking strictly at crypto prices, it's tough to say that the Trump beer has actually been all that good for the space. Bitcoin stands about 88,000, down about 30% from its early October high and even down slightly from the $90,000 level it climbed to right after the 2024 election. I wonder if crypto ends up being like the oil and gas sector under Trump, where the administration saying have at it is only bad for prices. Time will tell. I still like crypto as a hedge though. But the bottom line, I hope this look back at our 25 questions for 2025 has been useful to you. As we head into 2026, you need to know where we came from before you can figure out where we're headed. And money's back. After the break, It is time for the White Mountain everybody. This is. And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready Ski dag? Time for the lightning round Craves over. Stephanie in Rhode Island. Stephanie. Hey Jim, this is Stephanie, Rhode Island. How are you? Oh, I'm fine, thank you. Merry Christmas Team I have owned Network appliance for over 25 years and I'm just curious whether I should continue to hold on to it. Well, you know, I think it's an okay company. It's storage management. That's a good business. Not a good year this year. I wouldn't mind if you trim some and gotten some more exciting stocks like we I Shouldn't say exciting. More investable stocks that we have and how to make money in any market. Let's go to Dylan and Connecticut. Dylan. Booyah. Jim, thanks for taking my call. Of course. What's going on? We spoke September about this company and since then they have posted their first ever quarter with earnings. The stock still on the report, but this pulled back. I would like your thoughts on Rubrik Inc. Ticker rbrk. Oh my God. I think. I think Bimple's doing a fantastic job. I can't say enough about how great the trajectory of this company is. I think you should own it. Continue to own it. Let's go to Richard in California. Richard, Right. Excellent. It's a must own. I gotta say, I love it. It's excellent. Thank you. Coverage on an AI company with a strong buy $31 price target. I did a deep dive. I like what I see. It's Gorilla Technology. I know. What do you think? I don't know. Gorilla Technologies. It is a small cap stock that I've not looked at. We're going to have to take a harder look at it because it is a little bit lower than our size parameters allow. Let's go to Tom Todd in Ohio, please. Todd, hey. Jim Patterson, uti.
- [38:47]
Hamid Mogadam
It's been a UTI for the last year.
- [38:49]
Jim Cramer
We're not. Yeah, no kidding. That's a good. Dude. It's a good use of that term. No, Oil and gas is just a flat out no on this show. We are just not. We've not recommended those stocks for a very long time and we're not going to do it this year. Let's go to Greg in Washington. Greg. Yeah. Hi, Kramer. Hey, Greg. I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask you about the Dynex Capital. Yeah. Now this is another one. I do not know these guys. Look, I think it's okay. Look, if I didn't. There's a lot of companies. It's a read. I don't follow all the reads. I'm gonna have to do work on it and come back to you. Let's go to Rick in Florida. Rick. Booyah, Mr. Kramer. Booyah. First, I wish you and your staff a happy holidays. Oh, thank you. Right back, Right back.
- [39:37]
Hamid Mogadam
Not right.
- [39:38]
Jim Cramer
Not a problem.
- [39:38]
Hamid Mogadam
So the reason why I was calling.
- [39:40]
Jim Cramer
Is I know that you're not. You're. You're a big fan on the streaming media when it comes to companies like, you know, Netflix and stuff like that. Yes, but what. Yes. Opinion. After the acquisition with Disney and they.
- [39:54]
Hamid Mogadam
Changed up a little bit of their.
- [39:55]
Jim Cramer
Business plan for Google for fubu. Fubu's had a big run and I don't think there's any need to pile on at this price. I think it's a just too high and that. Ladies and gentlemen, conclusion of the Lightning Round.
- [40:11]
Homes.com Announcer
The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab.
- [40:30]
Jim Cramer
So how do we feel about E Commerce as we head into 2026? Well, that's a question for Prologis, the real estate investment trust focused on logistics, mainly warehouses and fulfillment centers for E Commerce. But they got a big data center kicker. Here's a company reported a strong quarter mid October, but it's about to have a big management transition with co founder and longtime CEO Amin Mogadan stepping down at the end of the year. He's been on our show since 2012. He is staying on executive chair effective January 1st. The current president, Dan Letter will take over as CEO. So what does this mean for the business? Let's check in with Hamid Moghada. He's the co founder, Chairman and outgoing CEO Al can't believe I have to say that. Mr. Mogadon, welcome back to Money.
- [41:12]
Hamid Mogadam
Thank you Jim. I hope you're well.
- [41:14]
Jim Cramer
Oh, and I hope the same for you. I want to wish you well and great health. New year coming up and mostly I need you to impart some wisdom because you've been spot on now for 13 years with us. Where are we in terms of what you've seen in terms of the revolution, the need for warehouses, E Commerce and whether business has caught up to your vision because you were about a decade ahead of everybody.
- [41:40]
Hamid Mogadam
Well Jim, that's nice of you to say. I think the business has evolved a great deal and maybe E commerce is the latest aspect of it that has changed. But if you really roll the clock back to 42 years ago when we started this business, the real estate industry was a highly fragmented business. It was all very opaque and in the private market it was actually mostly financed with tax deals and and the idea of global companies serving global customers on a scale that we have been doing and it being available to the average investor through a restructure or a public restructure was unheard of. So I think depends on which aspect of it you want to focus on. But certainly the business, the format, pretty much everything has changed in the last 42 years.
- [42:31]
Jim Cramer
Talk about durability. Because that's what our investors want. They want to be able to be consistent. They want to be able of course to compound because compounding is the best way toward wealth. Prologue has been an amazing Compounder first stock that I followed the bottom during the Great Recession. What. How about the durability of what you've established and what you see in the future? Future.
- [42:51]
Hamid Mogadam
Of course, you know, our business is ultimately based on the success of our customers. We collect rent and hopefully over time, because of places we select for investment, those rents grow and earnings grow along with them. So it's a pretty simple business if you really look at it. I mean, the dividend yield is somewhere between 3 and 4% depending on the day. And the growth rate over time has been in the high single digits. So that, that is a pretty good return in my book on a consistent basis. And of course, there are times that it's below, There are times that it's above. But we're never going to be the growth stock that tomorrow you can triple your money in. But year after year it's a good place to have capital.
- [43:37]
Jim Cramer
I always say that you need more than just the ones that you can triple your money because other ones that can go to 0, 0, very bad. That's how you, that's how you're not. You become poor. Now, you were always willing to say where things were. At one point you told me there was overbuilding. One point you said there's overbuilding in Southern California, but the rest of the country is good. I need you to help me with data center. I know that you're perfectly willing to say if it's overbuilt. Do people know what they're doing?
- [44:06]
Hamid Mogadam
Some people do and so many people don't. So it's everybody's favorite line of business these days. Of course, to state the obvious, there's a lot of capital and plans and press releases that are, that we see every day. But if you're asking me 10 years from now, will data centers be a pretty significant investable aspect of the real estate universe? I would say absolutely. Whether they will be growing at the rate that people project or not depends on a lot of things, including changes in technology. I mean, I'm not smart enough to answer that question. But will demand grow? For sure. Will technology grow even at a more rapid rate, thereby reducing the need for real estate?
- [44:52]
Jim Cramer
I don't know.
- [44:54]
Hamid Mogadam
We'll find out. But like everything, it's a good thing in moderation.
- [44:57]
Jim Cramer
Okay, you've done gone in, but not in the way that, say an Oracle scorn in. In the way that I see a lot of the big hyperscalers come in. Do you think that some of these people kind of. They're not. This is not Their specialty. Why would they know what they're doing? This is what you do for a living. It's not what they do.
- [45:16]
Hamid Mogadam
Well, on the real estate side, building a data center is not that different than building anything else. It requires a lot of energy, but it requires entitlements, permits, the ability to execute on time, etc. Etc. The technology companies know the insights better than anybody. They know the technology really well. But we know what it takes to get one of these structures up so that they can move their equipment into and get into business quickly. And I think increasingly having a strong balance sheet, having a strong brand, having a 40 year track record of performing for big global customers is going to be a differentiator. And like everything else, there's going to be an over investment and there's going to be a shakeout. I don't know when, I don't know how, but it always happens. And we certainly hope to be a winner in that business. You know, if you look at history, we've always done better after a crisis because it sort of wipes out the field. And the ones that were, I guess, swimming with bathing suits come out looking pretty good.
- [46:20]
Jim Cramer
Well, look, I want to thank you for everything you've taught us. It is. I know we're all getting old one, we're not going to be on TV anymore, it happens to everybody. But I want to thank you for your wisdom and if you have a parting thought to us, please give it right now.
- [46:39]
Hamid Mogadam
Jim, it's been a pleasure working with you. The only parting thought I have is that the public markets are an excellent way for individuals to gain exposure to the best businesses in the world. And it's ironic that we have a fraction of the companies that we had that are public today and that, you know, private equity has taken over the world and now we're talking about of course, the everyday investors being able to access that business much longer conversation. But I think we should not lose of that transition, that we're sort of giving up the most transparent way and efficient way of investing in the future of this economy to maybe a somewhat less transparent way.
- [47:24]
Jim Cramer
Wow. Okay, that's a great cautionary note. And in the meantime, thank you for all the money you've made for shareholders in a very reasonable never. I never thought you ever bet the farm on anything which is kind of what we really need. That's Hamid Mogadam. He is the co founder, chairman and CEO of prologis. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Like I said, there's always a bull market somewhere and problems, try to find it just for you right here on Man Money. I'm Jim Cramer. See you tomorrow.
- [47:54]
Fidelity Representative
All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBCUniversal, 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 strateg, 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 hi there, it's.
- [48:34]
Jim Cramer
Andy Richter, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, the three Questions with Andy Richter. Each week I invite friends, comedians, actors and musicians to discuss these three 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.