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Don't just ride the index, seek to outperform it with Felc, the Fidelity Enhanced Large CAP Core ETF. Unlike passive ETFs, FELC is run by a team of experts to adapt to market conditions and pursue upside potential wherever it's hiding. And while you get the potential outperformance of an actively managed fund, you can still buy and sell it on your terms just like any other ETF. Discover FELC, the Fidelity Enhanced Large Cap Core ETF part of Fidelity's suite of active ETFs. Learn more at fidelity.com felc before investing in any exchange traded fund, you should consider its investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Contact Fidelity for a prospectus and offering circular or if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully. While active ETFs offer the potential to outperform an index, these products may more significantly trail an index as compared with passive ETFs. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member NYSE SIPC.
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Imagine what's possible in your business career when learning doesn't get in the way of life at Capella University. Our game changing flexpath learning format is available in select business programs and lets you learn at a time and pace that works for you. That means you don't have to put your life on hold while earning your business degree. Instead, enjoy learning your way and earn your degree without missing a beat. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more@capella.edu.
Jim Cramer
Hey, I'll be Kramer. Welcome to Bad Buddy. Welcome to Kramer friends. I'm just trying to make you a little money. My job is not just entertain, but to teach you. So call me at 174, CBC Creamy Jim Cramer earnings matter again. Okay, that's what happened last night when the United States and China reached an agreement, however temporary, to hold off trade Armageddon. The rollback of the exorbitant tariffs to much more reasonable levels caused the stock market to explode. Dow jumping 1.161 points 1160 the S&P surging 3.26% in the Nasdaq poll voting 4.35% reaction instantaneous stocks erupted. Everything had anything to do with the world economy. Not just stocks directly related to Chinese trade took off with huge gobs of gains made today. It was a spectacular day for the bulls, one of the smartest I can recall. Very rarely have I seen the stock market actually get surprised by something from the White House in a positive way. We've now seen it three times in barely over a month. One bad too good. First April 2, Liberation Day, the day it will live in trade infamy. When President Trump declared a trade war against the entire world which caused a two date decline of over 10%. Then he surprised us again by pausing those tariffs by 90 days for most countries cheering in more than 9% gain on April 9. It happened again today with the news that the embargo like tariffs on China will come down to more reasonable levels, albeit still higher than before liberation. The market rebounded hard. But what was most interesting. I don't to me we just. It wasn't only a bounce in tech stocks tied with China. You expect that, right? We got a jump in all tech and in many other stocks with any economic sensitivity. It was a day when earnings estimates took on new meaning and it could bring about higher prices for some time. Let's parse how this all came to pass and why it was such a surprise to the market. First, there were always two camps close to the President. One wanted China back to where it was before it was admitted to the World trade organization in 2001. Now is a very big deal because China fully opened its economy to exports but also wiped out a ton of our industries. A rollback of that proportion could have done real damage to China, but it also bring down big chunks of our economy. The second camp, the one that seems spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Besson, let's call this one the cooler heads prevail contingent. They negotiate the pause in the big tariffs and a reduction for now to to levels that are still significant but they are not punitive. That's important because many investors believe the punitive tariffs there being catastrophe here. Now, I don't want to make any judgment about whether all of this trade brouhaha was a part of the art of the deal yet one big negotiation or the President simply changed his mind for seeing how much carnage the original plan unleashed on the stock market and on consumers and retailers who feared hoarding an empty shelves. What really matters, at least to the stock market, is that many hedge funds didn't believe Trump would change his mind. Stocks have become heavily shorted, betting that Trump would never give in even if it wrecked our economy. Now, we don't know if Trump allowed for a temporary compromise because the economy did seem to be troubled and Fed chief Jay Powell wasn't going to respond with rate cuts. That's the, you know, cognizant he say stuff like that or because the weakness was starting to turn to fear. Raw naked worry about what would happen the House of Bay think about it. How many times have you heard that we were on the road to an unavoidable recession because of the China tariffs that became the cause celebrate the bears wouldn't let go of a pot of honey for the grizzlies that was oh so close. As the talks already thought to fail produced nothing all weekend. But the early morning announcement gaffed these bears as surely as an earth sign character walking around in a New Jersey backyard. Boom. Now let's talk about the beneficiaries. The first the company's directly affected here let's talk about Apple, Broadcom and Video. All which were about to see a chunk of earnings disappear or become jeopardized by an ever harsh relationship with China. Same with the semiconductor capital equipment. You know thinking about the Lams and the KLA that have already seen their earnings cut back by a decline in trade. Apple's been treated like a pinata ever since it reported because of a belief that it would be unable to shift enough of its Chinese manufacturing new countries like India and then its service revenue skipped a beat on that last quarter of Nvidia has been perceived as a hot potato where you never knew where the White House might stand. Qualcomm has a ton of business that could be impacted by China by the way its stock has been smashed beyond all recognition. That been a real winner. These three stocks were easy prey for the bears who captured the mike including both strategists and hedge fund managers. Now you might want to include Amazon in that group because did a ton of business with TAMU and Sheehan. Those are the Chinese companies that thrived on a tariff loophole that that allowed their goods to flood our markets. Now we don't know if they're going to get that break break back. It wasn't announced last night but Amazon stocks sure act like it would. And there are the tax that benefit from a possible avoidance of recession. Take matter which rallied nearly 8% Alphabet up 3.7%. Neither is much direct exposure to China but they would still be it would be collateral damage from a slower economy. But the most quizzical were all these other groups Financials, industrials, transports, consumer discretionary stocks that might have been crushed by a recession. Classic case the banks. Now they're always the first to be annihilated by any decline activity. The three IQ on are Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Capital One. Why? Because my chapel trust owns all three. Join the club, find out about them. All three of these soared with the latter Capital One most sense of the potential defaults because of its Poor credit card clientele that skyrocketed more than 6%. It has been my favorite in the club. So I'm kind of proud of it that that the latter cohort could rally even as the group that had nothing really to do with China directly. Well, that just shocked a whole lot of investors. Could there really be such a reaction of reverberation from this China stamp execution? Yes, absolutely. Why? Because we'd all become used to the idea that it didn't matter how good their previous numbers were, the ones they just reported. What mattered were the future numbers, the estimates. And they were coming down hard because analysts believe that the present trade policy would most likely cause a recession. So the estimates they were going to go lower even year over year. That fear made their most recent quarters completely irrelevant. You could own virtually nothing except the most defensive stocks, utilities, some of the safer food stocks, better drug stocks. How about this Friday? The President announced this very morning some unilateral drug price cuts. Ones that can't really push through, he can't really do on his own. Even though initially people thought they could and the stocks just cratered. Later on we realized that perhaps they would just be a negotiation. They still got hurt but then they came back when people realized that big Pharma doesn't know how to roll over and it's going to fight tooth and nail. Most safety stocks fails particularly though their declines were stock recognition. Stark recognition that while the President may not be fixated on stocks, they're always a focus and he doesn't want to annihilate the stock market. Too many people own stocks in this country now. We know that we won't be free of the bears here. There's too much at stake. They don't want to see the rap that Trump could still caused world trade crash and you better be short, that's what they say and take advantage of this rally to short. But I come back and say that we see how easily stocks are now is a little dangerous to be that short. Bottom line, it's better to stay in, stay on and let a ride than to try to pick the perfect moment to trade in and out. By the way, that's so much of a strategy. It's more of a game of chicken where there are no winners, just losers who think they are smarter than than the average bear. I'm going to Jeff in Texas. Jeff speaking. Jeff, what's up buddy? It's Jim.
Caller
Hey, how are you Mr. Kramer. I just wondering what your views were about bondolese.
Jim Cramer
It's a really interesting question because this has been the drug, this has been the food stock that's been the best. Okay? The best. Even though it's got a lot of chocolate in it, which doesn't make much sense to me because chocolate's supposed to be something that's really been attacked by the GOP1s. That said, I think that it's done well. It's got a 3% yield. I'm not against it. And Jerk Vanderput has done a pretty good job there. How about Mike in Illinois? Mike. Hi, Jim. Welcome back. Thank you, Mike. I have a nice position in Lilly.
Caller
Which I've accumulated over the last two or three years. I'm wondering if you think I should.
Jim Cramer
Buy, sell or hold. I want you to buy more. I'm glad you mentioned this because at one point today was the 66 99. I wanted so much to tell people to buy it, but that was around 6 6am the reason why you want to buy it is because there was definitive data that came out last night about Novo Nordisk being anywhere near as good as Eli Low when it comes to waste loss, which is what a lot of people are in the GOP for. And it is not reflected because things were so crazy because of what the President announced. I think the stock could be up 100 points when people realize, wait a second. It is definitively better than Novo. I would buy Eli Lilly hand over fist. Let's go to Simon in Delaware. Simon.
Caller
Hey, Jim. Booyah. Thanks.
Jim Cramer
Of course. What's going on?
Caller
Stock I want to ask about is hpe. I have been holding this stock a long time. I'm kind of embarrassed to tell you how long I've been holding it. You know, back to its pre split days with hpq, who has enjoyed some success.
Jim Cramer
Right.
Caller
But HPE has apparently just been stuck. It goes up a little, down a little. It's traded inside a very small band for like 10 years.
Jim Cramer
Well, you know, it's a very competitive spot, Simon. It's a very competitive area. You're up against Dell, a bunch of other companies. And so therefore I think that even though it sells at 10 times earnings, it is still a very difficult stock to own. So I'm not going to recommend the stock to you, but today's action shows you how easily stocks can rally. So I say it's better to stay invested. Remember, I say stay, stay in rather than try to trade in and out and in and out as so many people advise on man money. Tonight I'm examining the state of the consumer with shopping center re Kimco don't miss my exclusive with Top Press Then should you be shifting your sights to the global markets as tariffs continue to affect the domestic tape? I'm telling you where I stand fresh off today's rally and my trip to Europe and Cramerrick asked me a question on AI Player Excel and I'm doing my homework and giving it right to you by talking with the CEO. So stay with Kramer.
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Don'T just ride the index, seek to outperform it with Felc, the Fidelity Enhanced Large CAP Core ETF. Unlike passive ETFs, FELC is run by a team of experts to adapt to market conditions and pursue upside potential wherever it's hiding. And while you get the potential outperformance of an actively managed fund, you can still buy and sell it on your terms just like any other ETF. Discover FELC, the Fidelity Enhanced Large Cap Core ETF part of Fidelity's suite of active ETFs. Learn more at fidelity.com felc before investing in any exchange traded fund, you should consider its investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Contact Fidelity for a prospectus and offering circular or if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully. While active ETFs offer the potential to outperform an index, these products may more significantly trail an index as compared with passive ETFs. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member NYSE SIPC.
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Jim Cramer
It's about all the handwriting we been hearing about the state of the economy. Healthy consumer earnings seasons really told a different story. Take Kimco. Really low one. My favorite spot. The Shopping Center Real Estate Investment Trust put an excellent quarter nearly two weeks ago. Not only did they beat the estimates, they raised their full year forecast for funds from operations per share and same property. Net operating income growth. Incredible REIT equivalent of the same store sales. Fantastic numbers Tells us their business is seeing real momentum. Oh, and it doesn't hurt, by the way. Got a 4.6% yield. Pretty protected too. So how they pulled off? Let's check in with Conor Flynn, he's the CEO of Kimco Realty to find out. Mr. Flint, welcome back to.
Connor Flynn
Great to see you. Thanks for having me.
Jim Cramer
Okay, so first, you're incredibly transparent. And it's terrific because you explain to people that it's really a supply problem. There's not enough land and it's about tenants and your tenants are good and yet people keep selling the stock anyway. Could you explain to people why the 4.4.6% yield actually may be a bargain? And that you yourself bought a huge amount of stock, highly unusual for REIT when it got hit?
Connor Flynn
Well, it's all about the fundamentals, right? So if you think about it from a high level supply and demand, supply is the big benefit to Kimco Realty. We are all the commercial real estate sectors. Shopping centers are the lowest amount of new supply under construction.3% of existing stock. There's more office being built today than there is shopping centers. And it's been 10 years running. So if you look at that amount of supply that's been not included in the, in the supply chain, all of a sudden the demand has outpaced supply. And that's why you're seeing pricing power for Kimco Realty and vacancy rates at all time lows. And so that's why you're seeing new deal spreads of close to 40%.
Jim Cramer
Meaning that when you have an outfit like a Party City go under, it's actually in weird way better for you.
Connor Flynn
And that's a perfect example. These, these like bankruptcies that have hit the first quarter, these are all multiple filers, meaning that they're chapter 22. They've been in bankruptcy multiple times.
Jim Cramer
I like that.
Connor Flynn
And so they have been to the dance. We knew that this was coming. And we're seeing how quickly the absorption is occurring. We've already backfilled half of our party cities at nearly 40% newly spread. So 40% higher than what Party City was paying.
Jim Cramer
And what's key for people, they should recognize is that when you have an anchor tenant like my Kings, and in Short Hills, which had a vacancy for a while, but then filled by a gigantic health care provider that I use, there are, there's a, an anchor that's a real anchor.
Connor Flynn
So perfect example. Most Kymco shopping centers are dominated by a grocery anchor like a Kings or a Whole Foods Trader Joe's or sprouts or a tjx and those two combine for really the anchor cross shopping. That is the sweet spot in retail. And now what you've seen is it's all about services, services, services, services. So over 80% of our new deal flow is coming from services. So urgent care facility, that's what exactly. You know, when you think about what's changing in the retail environment, the omnichannel approach where the brick and mortar is being enhanced by the E commerce but services is all about in person, all about the the E commerce resistant type use. And that's what's driving vacancy rates to all time lows. And the numbers were so strong that.
Jim Cramer
We felt we had to all time lows. That's why it was so right now when I look at your terrific deck, I see something and you know, but Philadelphia, we talk about that, but Colter Place, Suburban Square Armor, which is where my mom signs from, a mixed use project. So it's not just all retail.
Connor Flynn
So this is the future of Kymco Realty is you think about, you know, obviously that's an all time lows vacancy. You're seeing the real strength of demand. But the future upside is all those parking lots that are undeveloped. So from a high level shopping centers are 80% parking lots that are just untouched. And that's all upside for us. Our strategy is first string major metro markets and parking ratios are required by the municipality. And so think about driverless cars, robo taxis, all the things that are going to actually lower parking ratio requirements. And that's why we've entitled 12,000 apartments to be built on our parking lots of the future. And that's where mixed use comes into play. Retail enhances the apartments, apartments enhance the retail. It's a harmonious situation where they can drive traffic to each other.
Jim Cramer
Okay, so Connor, why do you think that there is such a, let's say price discovery problem with your company? We get tariff legislation and then we raise tariff. Mainly people think I got a short Kymco, I got to get out of Kimco. There is nothing that has got to do with China in your places.
Connor Flynn
You know, I think a little bit might be retail ptsd. You know there's some people that they remember right, the retail apocalypse, you know where that was the end of the brick and mortar retail world. The dawn of E commerce. We've had our black swan events Covid essential retail versus non essential retail. Kymco is positioned as a defensive play that's driving value to consumers every day because it's convenience and value. It's where you live, it's where you shop, it's where you play.
Jim Cramer
Now, we always do have places that I guess you would say on your watch list. What percentage of your tenants right now would you say are on your watch list?
Connor Flynn
So the watch list tenants are the ones that have credit issues that might go into bankruptcy. It's the smallest list it's ever been in history.
Jim Cramer
How about that, huh?
Connor Flynn
If you think about COVID what were some of the benefits of COVID The watch list got reduced significantly. The people that were on sort of like the watch list list because their balance sheet wasn't great or because they didn't have a good business model, they weren't able to make it through. Now all of a sudden you think about the dawn of new retail, the services industry, urgent care, pediatric urgent care, vet clinics, you know, health and wellness, all of that coming into the shopping center. All of those vacancies have been absorbed with much more resilient type tenancy. And that's why we feel really good about.
Jim Cramer
I want people to own your stock. I know that. And I say this because I like the yield and I say that it's backed up by a lot. But the, the thing that's most important to me is almost every so many reasons. I know they're constantly issuing stock. It is highly unusual to see someone just enough. We're going to take money and buy our stock back. But that's precisely what you did.
Connor Flynn
Well, we have a great balance sheet. You can only do that if you.
Jim Cramer
Have a balance sheet.
Connor Flynn
We're an A minus credit rating from Fitch for one of only 11 rates across all universe, which there are many REITs. And so we feel good about the ability to buy back stock when it's dislocated like it was post liberation day. There was a big sell off. We saw that the business fundamentals were super strong. Blackstone just came into the sector and privatized ROIC for a very strong cap rate, big valuation. And so to your point, there's this big disconnect between public and private valuations and sometimes there's windows of opportunities that we feel like we should take advantage of. And buying back stock was exactly.
Jim Cramer
I want people who think that there are no bargains out there or people who are looking for income to think about Kymco Realty, a company that I know from, from the family. I mean, this thing has always been right and it always, because they are such superb underwriters and knowledge will understand their balance sheet and what can be done. It has been strong throughout all the different why don't you call them Retail.
Connor Flynn
Retail Apocalypse Retail Apocalypse.
Jim Cramer
It's Connor Flynn, CEO of Kim Ko. Really Kim made back into the break.
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Imagine what's possible in your business career when learning doesn't get in the way of life at Capella University. Our game changing flexpath Learning format is available in select business programs and lets you learn at a time and pace that works for you. That means you don't have to put your life on hold while earning your business degree. Instead, enjoy learning your way and earn your degree without missing a beat. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more@capella.edu.
Jim Cramer
Our stock market has been on a bit of a roll over the past four or five weeks, especially after today's tremendous rally and that was in response to the tariff negotiation with China. But keep in mind the S&P 500 still basically flat for the year. This whole move is happening because the Trump administration has gradually rolled back the incredibly severe tariffs that announced on Liberation Day. That was just over a month ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it happened, but I just spent a week in Europe and it is stunning how much better the markets are doing over there. For example, the Stocks Europe 600, which is the closest thing they have, the SB 500 is up more than 7% year to date. Meanwhile, the Euro Stoxx 50, which is a more concentrated index considered the Dow, is up just over 10% year to date. But in America, the actual Dow is still down slightly for the year. The European indices started roaring in late January and February as our market flattened out and then rolled over as the White House took a hard line on trade. Of course, the Liberation Day tariff announcements caused a true global sell off and these major European stock indices moved into the red for a few days in early April. On April 9, President Trump announced a 90 day pause for most of the so called reciprocal tariffs after the European Bourses had closed for the day and of course a gigantic rally. And for the for that one single night, our markets in their markets were essentially at parity, down mid single digits for the year. But since then, European stocks have just rallied much harder and more consistently than the US counterparts. Re establishing their lead. How a pleasure. Listen, I hope that we continue to get positive developments on trade that allow our stocks to keep rally. But still there's a lot of uncertainty here in the market. Like I keep telling you, businesses don't like uncertainty. Meanwhile, business seems to be booming in Europe. It's like a complete inversion of the past 15 years. The Germans in lead again with the Deutsche Bourst AG German stock market, the aka the DAX. It's up a whopping 18% for the year. Messenger more often mystical about the German economy than they've been in a very long time in large part because the German government has waived their deficit rules to roll out some big defense and infrastructure programs. So it is no surprise that the best performing stock in the DAX is Rheinmetall ag. That's Germany's largest arms manufacturer with a stock that's up almost 160% year to date. Also in the top two top are two banks, Commerzbank AG and Deutsche bank, up 64% and 48% respectively, as well as building materials company Heidelberg Materials AG in third place, 55% gain and Siemens Energy AG in fourth place with a 50% gain. Holy cow. Just behind the DAX is amazingly the Spanish IBEX 35 index. That's up nearly 18% for the year. It's bad enough that the Germans are being used, but Spain 15 years ago, this is practically a failed state. Like Germany, Spain has pledged to boost its defense spending. So leading the way in the Ibex 35 is Indra Systemis. That's an industrial technology company with a large defense business up more than 76% for the year. After that, it's all about the banks, including longtime Kramer Faye Banko Santander, which is the second best performing index, up almost 52% for the year. By the way, Santander's American deposit receipts san for you homegamers are up almost 50% since we last spoke to executive chair on a boutine back in October. Doing an embrace of technology and a knowledge of the consumer worldwide boutique has built a powerhouse that's the envy of Europe. They just had a really smart transaction in Poland last week. I also need to call it the performance of the footsie MIB index, the primary stock index for Italy which is up more than 16% for the year. Here too, right at the top of the list of best performers is an aerospace company, Leonardo, which is up more than 75% year to date. After that it's Iveco Group and V. It's a maker of heavy duty vehicles like trucks and buses, specialized vehicles for defense, mining and construction industries as well as industrial power transfer propulsion Systems. That's up 67%. What a conglomerate that is. Telecom Italia also made the top five. It's in the fourth place, up 47%. Apart from that, it's more banks. Remember the banks were almost going under in Italy 15 years ago. Germany, Italy and Spain the same boat with a bull market and arms manufacturers. This setup says a little bit to 1930s for you. Well luckily the Japanese market not doing that well. After the German, Spanish and Italian indices, there's a big gap to the next groups with France CAC 40 index, UK's Footsie 100 index and the Dutch AX index up roughly 4 to 6% for the year. But within each of these countries we see similar types of outperformance. In France, the top performer is the Bank Society Society General that's up almost 75% for the year. Aerospace defense company Valet SA in second place, up over 72%. I'm trying here, okay. And Britain, the top performers, defense related name Babcock International that I find so easy, up over 65. Britain up over 65% while another defense play, BAE Systems there for the taking in fifth place up 45%. Second place by the way, is a quirky one for Nillo, which up about 61%. That's precious metals mining company based in Mexico. So it's all about the high price of gold. In the Netherlands a couple of financials are leading the way. One of the biggest Dutch banks, ABN Amro is up 33% on insurance and an asset group and in group is in second place with more than 30% gain. I was surprised that I was in Belgium and in the Netherlands last week. I would have thought that those markets doing better because it's just nothing but cranes everywhere, you see. So what's the overall point here? The US has had a great run over the past five weeks and if we get more headlines like we had today, we're going to be less hostile Trade rhetoric, you know, I think our stocks keep moving higher. But I don't want you to forget that Europe is an option and this year in particular it's looking like a very good option, especially when you're talking about specific Sectors like aerospace and defense, many other types of industrials and the financials, because the European banks are on fire right now in terms of how to play Europe. Okay, you could simply, you could look up these stocks or you can pick up some ETFs to track the kind of performance like the Vanguard Footsie Europe ETF or VGK, that's the symbol which is doing quite well, up 17%. Then there's the iShares Core MSCI Europe ETF, that's the II, that's up almost 18%. But many times the largest European companies also have American depository receipts that trade here. If you have conviction about a single company in Europe, you can often find a way to get ADRs of that company through your brokerage account. But you might have to do some digging to find that. And please be careful with limit orders, please, because many of these ADRs have thin trading volume. That's why I'm partial. Not the many reasons I'm partial to Santander as symbol, as a. But here's the bottom line. I love this comeback for US stocks. I hope it continues. But if we find ourselves in trouble yet, something is still a real possibility. Please don't forget that Europe's also an option. In fact, so far this year it's been the best option. Let's take some calls. Let's go to Thomas in New York. Thomas, Hi Jim.
Caller
Jim, do I have your blessing to start a position in Tesla for my 8 year old son for long?
Jim Cramer
Absolutely, absolutely. And I'd like Tesla, you know, broke down after that point of that big quarter. Adam Jonas, my favorite analyst in this space, said, listen, it's time to start thinking about this as a technology company. I went out hard with his, I don't mind being derivative with his idea. Why? We've caught a lot and we're not done. It's going to go higher. Let's go to Jim in Florida. Jim? Jim. Oh, maybe it's. Who do we have here?
Caller
Jim from Florida.
Jim Cramer
Oh, Jim, how you been? What's going on?
Caller
Pretty good. First of all, I'd like to thank you and your staff for all of your years of helping me during my retirement. You've really been a kid.
Jim Cramer
Thank you. Thank you.
Caller
My question, my question is on a, on Chevron with the stock down almost 14% in the last year and a nice dividend might just be a good time for me to add to my position.
Jim Cramer
I think the answer is yes, get a 4.8% yield, they return a lot of money to Shareholders, I think they're doing terrifically. The problem of course is you have to like oil to own Chevron. If you do like oil, I think it's a terrific place to be. And thank you for the kind words. Right. The comeback in our stock market has been impressive but it comes under pressure again. You know what, you might want to look toward Europe as a great option because it's been a real winner. Hey, there's much more made money ahead, including my check in with the CEO of AI company exl. Then I'm cutting through the Wall street commentary and giving you my take on decision making in this tariff focused tape. And of course all your calls. Rapid fire in tonight's edition of the lightning round. So stay with Kramer. You know how smart I think our viewers are. At the beginning of the month we got this call from Alex in Oregon who asked about a company called Excel. It's a business process outsourcing play with an AI kicker. I told Alex I like the stock basically quadrupled over the past five years but also issued an open invitation for EX L to come on the show in order to explain how the unique business has been supercharged by the arrival of the air copy. Heard these comments except the infinite presentation. So let's check in with Rohit Kapoor now. He is the co founder, chairman and CEO of Excel. Mr. Kapoor, welcome to Mani.
Rohit Kapoor
Thank you Jim. Thank you for having me.
Jim Cramer
Well, you know, when I had Alex call me on that, I said it's obviously done well. But then I looked into it. You have quite a company and you've developed it over many years but it's really been turbocharged. I want to give you the floor first of all to let people know how great a company over the last two and a half decades you built.
Rohit Kapoor
Thank you, Jim. So we started the company 26 years ago and today we are a data and AI led company that's transforming businesses, helping them grow their revenues and be cost competitive. AI is been a terrific boon for us. It's something which is powering ahead a lot of efficiency and productivity and we are right in the midst of it helping our clients adopt AI into their operation.
Jim Cramer
So tell people because some people are getting a little skeptical of AI. What were you doing before and what you're doing after AI? How many people you had to do it with before and how much you're faster, more accurate now?
Rohit Kapoor
So. Well, we started out as a business process outsourcing company and we basically ran operations and then we figured out you need to embed intelligence into the Operations. So we started to delve a lot more into data and analytics and started to integrate in analytics along with the operations operations. And then I came along and so over the last couple of years, we've been helping our clients build use cases, adopt AI and put it into the workflow and make it work for them.
Jim Cramer
Okay, so the natural question is why, if we've heard about, say a ServiceNow Salesforce, have we not heard about Excel?
Rohit Kapoor
Yes. So because we are in the execution business. So what that means is we make a real for our clients. You know, today when clients use AI, the failure rate is as high as 70%, which means 70% of the use cases that clients try to build using AI fail. And they fail because either the data is not good or the architecture is not right, or the execution simply has not done well. We think there are three ingredients which are really, really important, important if you want to be successful embedding AI. And that's number one, you need to understand the domain and the business context because that is the framework under which you can ground the model.
Jim Cramer
Okay.
Rohit Kapoor
Number two, you have to have mastery over data. If you don't have good data, you really can't use AI for anything. And the third piece is AI requires iteration. So it needs to be kind of experimented upon in small cycles and you need to fine tune it so that it is working. It's something that gives you the right business outcome and there is adoption that takes place. So just kind of putting these three things together, that's critical for success.
Jim Cramer
Well, I know when I look through it, you talked about how in health care, the billing, the mistakes are just, it's incredible how much the insurance business, with these repeated situations, subrogation, for instance, where you, you have this, I guess this body of work and people keep reinventing it, they, they, it's too expensive, let you invent it.
Rohit Kapoor
Yes. So here's the irony of it. When you talk about insurance, either you talk about underwriting or claims.
Jim Cramer
Right.
Rohit Kapoor
On the underwriting side, let's assume you're a small business. You want insurance policy for general liability. The timeline that it takes for getting that policy, quote just the court right, is three weeks.
Jim Cramer
Sure.
Rohit Kapoor
And the reason it's three weeks is because there's a lot of back and forth on the data and the underwriter is unable to make a decision unless and until everything is provided to them so that it can, they can take an effective decision. With AI, you can actually collapse that time cycle from three weeks to one day.
Jim Cramer
Wow.
Rohit Kapoor
And that's powerful talk about it on the claim side where so many claims, claims need to be paid out and there is estimation that there's approximately 5% fraud, waste and abuse when claims are paid out. And that's the big reason why insurance carriers take time in terms of processing a claim and making a payment out. And I think again, you can compress that very, very significantly. And the end customer is going to be very happy, the insurance carrier is going to be happy. And you know, you, you'd make life just so much easier and comfortable for everyone.
Jim Cramer
And we should point out that two of your most important partners are databricks. A company we've had on that is magnificent comes to Data and Nvidia, which you work closely with.
Rohit Kapoor
Yes. Both of them are special partnerships for us. Nvidia has this ecosystem where it not only has the great chip, but it also has the software on top of that that creates a platform.
Jim Cramer
I thank heavens that you said it. Besides me, I've been driving myself batty that why people don't understand it's a software and hardware company.
Rohit Kapoor
Yeah. So it's actually that ecosystem that is very, very powerful and very difficult to replicate. And then databricks is a great partnership for us. We've really elevated our relationship with databricks over the last couple of years. And we think in terms of managing unstructured and structured, structured data, that's a key ingredient that you need to have in place.
Jim Cramer
So at the same time, your company's very fairly valued. I mean people can come in now. There's companies that are selling 70, 80 times earnings that are doing similar things to yours, but they may be a little bit more hype oriented. You know what I mean?
Rohit Kapoor
Yeah. So look, I think what we've been able to do is to show consistent growth.
Mad Money Producer
Right.
Rohit Kapoor
If you take a look at it.
Jim Cramer
For the last quarters, have you given consistent growth?
Rohit Kapoor
For 19 consecutive quarters we've been able to incrementally increase our earnings and show the growth. So that's been a phenomenal, successful story for us. And not only that, the opportunity set for us right now is fantastic. We have a very strong pipeline. We think that there is a tremendous dam available for us and that's only growing and exploding. You know, when I first came onto the scene, there was a little bit of haziness. Is this going to cannibalize revenue? Is this going to grow revenue? Which way is it going to go? Nobody really knew. But I think now, you know, the dust seems to be settling down and it's pretty clear that if you Use AI correctly there's a huge opportunity.
Jim Cramer
Well you make it very clear I want everyone to go to the website there's an hour long presentation just from the investors day. Well I looked at one of the verticals there's many hours but you will very quickly understand what Rohit Kapoor has built here. He's the co founder chairman CEO of xl. Thank you. Also Alex Morgan I did not know the company it is an incredibly strong company. Thank you sir.
Rohit Kapoor
Thank you.
Jim Cramer
That money's back everybody.
Mad Money Producer
Coming up Cramer takes your calls and the sky's the limit. It's a fast fire lightning round next.
Rohit Kapoor
It is time.
Jim Cramer
It's time for the lightning round crazy tonight that's where we're Colton wrapped on CNN stock said bye bye bye Shelton here with the stock watch that my stamp for this great plan is down and then the lightning round is over. Are you ready Ski dag? The hunt for the lightning round crazy reminds me start with Lou in Pennsylvania. Lou. Hi Jim.
Caller
This energy company had missed a clean earnings were four quarters in a row until their recent report on May 6th which met expectations Prior to this it had not been phoning home still positive?
Jim Cramer
Oh Yes I am 7.6% yield and I tell you the pipes are great business here. They really are. Let's go to Bobby in Florida. Bobby.
Caller
Hey Jim, I wanted to circle back on a company you did a mini deep dive on almost a year ago on your show. Wanted to get your latest thoughts on Harrow Inc. H R O W Look.
Jim Cramer
It'S going to make money. I care is a good business. I don't want to go away from it because if it makes money then we'll say hey wait a second why do we get out right before the the earnings breakout? So I'm okay with it. Let's go to Amos California. Amos.
Caller
Hi Jim. Thanks for taking my call buddy. Of course I had a rollover on some CD wouldn't pay much more than 3% so I decided to buy 800 shares of Pfizer paying 7% I was wondering what your take, you know look.
Jim Cramer
I think Pfizer I think you can bottom here. I do believe I still believe in the C gen acquisition. I know I seem like that I'm alone along with Dr. Borla but I think that there's a lot of good stuff that they have so I would say keep it here. Let's go to Nick in Connecticut. Nick.
Caller
Jim. How are you?
Jim Cramer
I am good. How are you?
Caller
Good, thank you. I was interested in your opinion about a specialty insurance company that I'VE been doing some research on that. I never hear too much discussed. And the name is Kinsale Capital Group.
Jim Cramer
Very good group. Very good. Very good stuff. Especially insurance companies. Good business. Good business. Especially right now. I would own the stock. Let's go to Rick in Mississippi. Rick.
Caller
Jim, it's a travesty. It's a stain on the fabric of America.
Jim Cramer
What's that?
Caller
How is it, how is it that a man who for 20 years has done so much for so many Americans does not have the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
Jim Cramer
Well, I'll tell you, I got, I am actually, I have the Lisa Deadwater Medal of Freedom because she's over in Italy. I'm here and I'm telling you that's worth a lot more house.
Caller
God bless you, man. Thank you for what you do.
Jim Cramer
Of course. Thank you. I like that. Thank you.
Caller
Jim, Please share your thoughts on Manulife Financial.
Jim Cramer
Good. Got a good yield. It's John Hancock. I mean, look there. All the insurers are really terrific right now and they have been good for some time. No one's come in underneath them. They're all making fortune. So I'm not going to go against any one of them. Let's go to Michael in Texas. Michael Kramer.
Caller
Hi.
Fidelity Representative
That's my daughter.
Caller
She loves your show. She knows the.
Jim Cramer
All right. Yes.
Caller
My question, for years the stock has given me the hot growth, the tech with the juicy dividend of a reit. But the last six months have been pretty rough. Do I buy more? Sell or hold Iron Mountain?
Jim Cramer
No. Better places to be. Be better places to be. You know, like we have Kim Cole on tonight. Give you better yield. I think that's a better place to go. Let's go to deep in Florida. Deep.
Caller
Hey, Jim, good evening. It's so nice to talk to you again. How you doing?
Jim Cramer
Good to talk to you. How's it going?
Caller
And it's so nice to have you back. We really missed you last week.
Jim Cramer
So hope you had a wonderful week. Thank you. I got the recharge after a very long period. So I feel great. What's going on?
Caller
So I'm considering investing in adt. They've been growing their profitability. So should I pull the trigger and.
Rohit Kapoor
Secure my portfolio with adt?
Jim Cramer
You know, I haven't looked at ADT since I considered it to be a major short for a long time and it looks like it's coming back. So I can't give you an answer. I have to do work on that one. That had been such a loser. It's frightening. But Here it is coming up. Got to find out what's going on and I do not know. Let's go to Rob in Alabama. Rob.
Caller
Hey, Jim, thanks for taking my call.
Jim Cramer
My question for you is given DVN's.
Caller
Current valuation, should I be loading up the truck on it?
Jim Cramer
No, you can't. I mean, Devin has been such a poor performer. I can't have you do that. It's really been a nightmare, frankly. Maybe it's starting to bottom, but oh my, has it been bad. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes it of the Lightning Round.
Mad Money Producer
The Lightning round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, after today's rebound, Kramer's giving you his take on why there may be too much negativity coming from the billionaires and what you should make of this market next.
Jim Cramer
Maybe it's my job to keep you in stocks. Last week while I was away on a barge traveling through Belgium and Holland to study art. Imagine spend a few minutes catching up on CNBC.com just to see what was happening. What I saw is what's become typical of the billionaires who regularly come on our network. Unmitigated bearishness that would scare most people out of the market. Sell, sell, sell, sell. Do so in a hurry. This time it was from Paul Tudor Jones, a legendary figure, a man I respect greatly for his acumen and his fabulous works of charity. I've had the privilege of helping raise money for the disadvantaged through the Robin Hood Foundation. The charity started. I always feel good when I help out because I know everything goes to charity. But Paul does have a habit of being negative on our network and this time was no different quote for me. It's pretty clear, he told Andrew on Squawk Box. You have Trump, who is locked in on tariffs. You have the Fed who is locked in on not cutting rates. That's not good for the stock market. We'll probably go down to new lows even when Trump dials back China to 50%, end quote. He went on to call the tariff exchange's largest tax increase in history. First, even if it's only for 90 days, the reciprocal tariffs, the bad one, so to speak, dropped to 10%, way down from 125. Paul was way too negative on Trump being locked in on tariffs. It was easy to say, hey, wait, that's just the state of execution. They'll come back at much higher levels. But surely that could happen. But it's not likely. Second, and perhaps most important, if you took his advice, you would have missed one of the biggest days of the year. And historically there are only about seven days of huge gains in any given year. Hence why I say it's my job to keep you in this stuff Starting to bother me. I went back to all Paul's appearances in the last five years and they're all incredibly persuasive about how terrible things are over and over again. His talk is about inflation and recession. You had to be a complete stooge if you held on to stocks. If you're listening to him now, much of what he said probably should have happened. We should have had runaway inflation. We still might one day. We should have had a recession, given how the Fed tightened so aggressively in 20, 22 and 23. We didn't though. We should have sold everything because of the chaos that was supposed to ensue. It didn't happen. Theoretically, Jones was absolutely right to be concerned. However, he was, in a word, wrong. And he was wrong in the same way as the vast majority of billionaires who come on our air. What's wrong with this? Look, he has every right to express his opinion. Of course I can't ask that he be less persuasive. He's too important a figure to ignore. I admire his candor. Maybe, though, it'll help if I point out how very smart billionaires are almost always crying wolf in the same way. It's awkward to point this out, but you need to take these guys with a bit of a grain of salt. They almost never like anything and they seem hell bent to scare carry you out of stocks. I can point to multiple moments when we have seen this happen. In fact, other than billionaire owner of the Panthers, Dave Tepper of Appaloosa. I can't recall billionaire coming on with ideas that have made you money and being real bullish. Some come on to talk their book endlessly, but most are hopelessly negative. Never a word of optimism or encouragement. Eagers. They must know that there are millions of people watching. Hang on their every word. And you know what? If I had a billion bucks, I'd hate stocks too. Stocks are inherently risky and with that much money they have zero reason to take even an ounce of risk. But with their capital, their advice is good if you're also a billionaire, but not that helpful for others. All I can say is make up your own mind. Don't believe someone just because he or she is a billionaire. It means nothing other than the fact that they have a lot of money. These people are rich enough that they can afford to be incredibly risk averse, but that makes their commentary somewhat suspect for the vast majority of investors, including perhaps you, as you struggle to make money in a market that it's going from Dow 1000 to Dow 42,000. In my experience downtown, that's the same one, by the way, that they can't stop bashing at every turn. I'd like to say there's always a bull market somewhere. I promise I'd find it just for you right here. Mad Money I'm Jim Cramer and I'll see you tomorrow.
Fidelity Representative
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Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – Episode Summary (May 12, 2025)
Hosted by CNBC’s Jim Cramer, the May 12, 2025 episode of "Mad Money" delves into the recent U.S.-China trade agreement, its immediate impact on the stock market, strategic investment opportunities, and insights from industry leaders. The episode combines market analysis, expert interviews, and a dynamic Lightning Round segment to provide listeners with actionable investment advice.
Jim Cramer kicks off the episode by discussing the unexpected agreement between the United States and China to temporarily halt escalating trade tensions. This move led to a significant surge in the U.S. stock market:
Market Surge: "Dow jumping 1,161 points, the S&P surging 3.26%, and the Nasdaq polling 4.35%" (00:01:56)
Historical Context: Cramer references past events to highlight the rarity of such positive market surprises from White House interventions. He notes similar market boosts following previous tariff adjustments, illustrating a pattern of investor optimism when trade tensions ease.
“It's a spectacular day for the bulls, one of the smartest I can recall.” (00:03:15)
Investment Strategy: Emphasizing the unpredictability of timing the market, Cramer advises investors to remain invested rather than attempting to time their trades based on short-term market movements.
“Bottom line, it's better to stay in, stay on and let a ride than to try to pick the perfect moment to trade in and out.” (00:11:21)
Cramer identifies sectors and companies poised to benefit or suffer due to the tariff agreements:
Winners:
Apple, Broadcom, Nvidia: These tech giants saw substantial gains as tariffs eased, boosting investor confidence.
Financials & Consumer Discretionary Stocks: Unexpected surges in traditionally vulnerable sectors, such as Goldman Sachs and Capital One, underscored the broad impact of the tariff rollback.
“These three soared with the latter Capital One most sense of the potential defaults because of its poor credit card clientele that skyrocketed more than 6%.” (00:07:45)
Losers:
HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise): Despite holding steady, Cramer advises caution due to intense competition in the sector.
Chevron: While offering a solid dividend, Cramer acknowledges the inherent risks associated with oil stocks.
A significant portion of the episode features an in-depth interview with Connor Flynn, CEO of Kimco Realty, a leading Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) specializing in shopping centers.
Company Strengths:
Supply and Demand Dynamics: Flynn explains, “Supply is the big benefit to Kimco Realty. We are all the commercial real estate sectors. Shopping centers are the lowest amount of new supply under construction.” (15:27)
Tenant Quality and Vacancy Rates: Emphasizing strong fundamentals, Flynn highlights Kimco's ability to maintain low vacancy rates through strategic tenant placements, such as healthcare providers enhancing their properties.
“Most Kymco shopping centers are dominated by a grocery anchor like Kings or Whole Foods Trader Joe's or sprouts or TJX... all about services, services, services.” (16:50)
Investment Rationale:
Yield and Stock Buybacks: Kimco’s robust balance sheet enables it to buy back shares during market dislocations, presenting a compelling value proposition for income-focused investors.
“We're going to take money and buy our stock back. But that's precisely what you did.” (20:22)
Future Outlook:
Mixed-Use Developments: Flynn discusses plans to develop parking lots into mixed-use spaces, integrating apartments with retail to drive mutual traffic.
“We're entitling 12,000 apartments to be built on our parking lots of the future.” (17:30)
Cramer shifts focus to international markets, particularly Europe, highlighting their impressive performance compared to the stagnant U.S. market.
Market Comparison:
European Indices: The STOXX Europe 600 and Euro Stoxx 50 have surged over 7% and 10% year-to-date, respectively, outperforming their U.S. counterparts.
“The Stocks Europe 600... is up more than 7% year to date. Meanwhile, the Euro Stoxx 50... is up just over 10% year to date.” (12:48)
Key Performers:
Germany’s DAX: Up 18% with leaders like Rheinmetall AG and Commerzbank AG driving gains.
Spain’s IBEX 35 & Italy’s FTSE MIB: Both indices showcase strong growth, led by defense and financial sectors.
Investment Vehicles:
ETFs: Cramer recommends ETFs such as the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK) and iShares Core MSCI Europe ETF for broad exposure.
“The iShares Core MSCI Europe ETF, that's the IE, that's up almost 18%.” (22:09)
In the interactive Lightning Round segment, Cramer addresses listener questions on various stocks:
Bondolese & Eli Lilly:
HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise):
Pfizer & Chevron:
ADT & DVN (Devon Energy):
Cramer interviews Rohit Kapoor, CEO of Excel, focusing on the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business operations.
AI Integration:
Operational Efficiency: Kapoor explains how AI has transformed Excel’s business process outsourcing by enhancing data analytics and productivity.
“AI is being a terrific boon for us. It's something which is powering ahead a lot of efficiency and productivity.” (32:10)
Success Factors: Emphasizes mastery over data, understanding business context, and iterative AI implementation as critical for successful AI adoption.
“You need to understand the domain and the business context... mastery over data... AI requires iteration.” (34:09)
Market Position:
Consistent Growth: Excel has shown 19 consecutive quarters of incremental earnings growth, positioning it as a reliable investment in the AI-driven market.
“For 19 consecutive quarters we've been able to incrementally increase our earnings and show the growth.” (37:23)
In a poignant segment, Cramer critiques the persistent bearish outlooks presented by wealthy billionaires on the network:
Paul Tudor Jones Example: Cramer references Jones’s negative commentary on tariffs and the Fed’s policies, which contradicts recent positive market movements.
“...they're always the first to be annihilated by any declining activity.” (44:13)
Investor Guidance: He warns listeners to take such pessimistic views with a grain of salt, emphasizing that overly negative predictions often fail to materialize and can lead to missed investment opportunities.
“These people are rich enough that they can afford to be incredibly risk-averse, but that makes their commentary somewhat suspect for the vast majority of investors.” (47:52)
Market Resilience: Cramer underscores the importance of maintaining a positive investment stance despite external bearish opinions, citing historical market resilience.
“If you took his advice, you would have missed one of the biggest days of the year.” (44:30)
Jim Cramer wraps up the episode by reiterating the potential of both U.S. and European markets, highlighting strategic investment opportunities, and encouraging listeners to stay informed and confident in their investment choices despite prevailing negative sentiments from high-profile billionaires. He emphasizes the value of diversification, staying invested, and leveraging expert insights to navigate the ever-evolving market landscape.
Note: All timestamps correspond to the original transcript timing for reference.