Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 5/29/26

Summary

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – May 29, 2026

Podcast Summary

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jim Cramer takes listeners through a week packed with explosive moves in tech stocks, surprising earnings from both hardware and software giants, and shifting market dynamics driven by geopolitical tensions and evolving trends in AI and healthcare. The episode is a tight mix of market analysis, CEO interviews, and the signature Lightning Round. Cramer’s goal remains clear: to educate and empower investors to make money confidently in a volatile landscape.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Market Recap: Dell’s Blowout and Tech’s Surge

Timestamp: 00:56-04:30

• Dell delivers one of the biggest quarterly surprises Cramer can recall, with a 32% gain in a day, exemplifying ongoing tech strength.
  • “When we look back, I wonder if we'll say this was that moment when Dell simply took over the hardware computer space with one of the biggest blowouts I could ever recall.” (01:08)
• Nearly all strong tech results in May have been tied to data center demand.
• Software companies like ServiceNow, Atlassian, Salesforce, and Microsoft also delivered “magnificent performances” after long punishment.
• Nvidia’s stock suffered an unexplainable late-day drop, despite being central to the data center boom.
  • “It was a wild and inexplicable fall for the largest stock in the world. I didn’t think it collapsed so fast on no news. No news at all.” (02:40)

2. Looking Forward: Eventful Corporate and Geo-Political Week Ahead

Timestamp: 04:35-09:10

• Eyes on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s annual Computex talk, with hints at a “new era of PC”.
• Potential for positive news to reverse negative sentiment and refocus on fundamentals.
• Anticipation of possible Middle East developments affecting oil prices and broader market breadth.
• Cramer wishes to see the market expand beyond tech, but believes escalating oil prices and war are limiting consumer spending, housing, banking, and travel sectors.

3. Upcoming Corporate Catalysts

Timestamp: 07:50-09:55

• FedEx Freight spin-off (FDXF): Cramer is bullish, seeing neglected value.
• Merck hosts a post-ASCO cancer portfolio meeting, challenged by J&J.
• Snowflake’s Analyst Day: Reinforced as a top-performing AI company.
• Dollar General & Signet Reports: Dollar stores as consumer barometers, Signet for consumer discretionary trends.
• Palo Alto Networks, Ulta Beauty, Medtronic Reports: Cybersecurity’s moment, Ulta’s valuation questions, medtech under performance.
• Broadcom & CrowdStrike Earnings: Both at highs; cautions attendees against “running up ahead of a quarter.”
• Five Below: Down from highs but Cramer still recommends, citing price consistency.
• Lululemon, Sienna: LULU could reset; Sienna networking player “has room to grow”.

“This market could really use some peace in the Middle East, or at least something that can reopen the Strait of Hormuz, bring down the price of oil, and allow the bull market, which is so much centered on tech, to broaden out to more economically sensitive sectors.” (09:33)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Portfolio Strategy:

• “You have to look at the IPOs and decide if they're better than what you own. I'm not trimming 10 to 15% of a great stock in order to buy a stock that may not be great.” (35:48)

On Market Breadth:

• “I want this market to broaden beyond tech. But it can't do that because of the war and the shackles that the Hormuz blockade is putting on the consumer.” (05:22)

On Nvidia’s Rollercoaster:

• “I still like Nvidia very much. I'm not backing away from Nvidia. I just need to know what the heck started, what went on in the last hour because it just seemed, unless you say it didn't seem right.” (12:13)

On Management’s Accountability:

• After the Gap CEO interview, Cramer praised honesty:
  • “You did not take the cop out. You could have very easily said the consumer’s weaker. You did not do anything like that. You were consistent in saying that you’ve got to do a better job. And I admire that.” (23:46)

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Deep Dive: CEO Interview Highlights

Gap Inc. with CEO Richard Dixon

Timestamp: 15:45-25:12

• Gap’s own brand delivered double-digit comp sales (up 10%), driven by women’s, men’s, and kids’ categories, plus Gen Z-focused collaborations and denim.
  • Richard Dixon: “Gap is back on the forefront of the cultural conversation. It’s an iconic American brand.” (16:55)
• Old Navy, however, weakened due to poor execution in the dress segment and overestimating demand.
  • “Our dress assortment did resonate in occasion dresses… but we did not have the right fashion quotient and value equation.” (18:31)
• On outlook:
  • Cautiously optimistic; “moderated growth” for Old Navy, strong confidence for the back half.
  • Raising earnings outlook despite lowering sales guidance.
• Cramer’s Take: Praises Dixon for transparency and not blaming external factors.

Agilent Technologies with CEO Corey McDonald

Timestamp: 27:02-34:46

• Agilent, a core life sciences tools provider, delivered a “monster good quarter,” surprising the Street.
• Key drivers: Drug development, diagnostics, semiconductors, and airport security.
  • “Over the last few years, semi fabric reshoring has also already happened and that’s a here-and-now benefit for Agilent.” (31:54)
• GLP-1 (obesity drugs) business up 20%; driving pharma QC/testing.
• TSA contract leverages Raman spectroscopy for screening; expanding into new markets.
• “Customer intimacy” means providing broad, embedded services in client labs.
• Focus on resilience and innovation; digital and AI investments.

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Investing Club Q&A – Cramer’s Practical Advice

Timestamp: 34:57-40:40

• Trimming portfolios for IPO opportunities: Only if the IPO is better than what you own; be selective.
• Dividend vs. growth approaching retirement: Balance both, don’t drop growth entirely.
• Position sizing: In a concentrated portfolio, trim oversized positions (>25%).
• Medical device picks: Wait on Medtronic’s quarter before buying.
• Defense companies: Lockheed Martin is the best-in-class, RTX as a secondary for its commercial side.
• On selling lots: Cramer prefers to sell high-basis shares for tax efficiency.

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Lightning Round

Timestamp: 40:58-43:05

• Clover Health: “You’re in pure spec mode… the quarter was not good.”
• AMKR (Amkor): Prefer Cadence or Intel’s packaging division to Amkor for semi packaging exposure.
• Ellington Financial (EFC): Does not recommend mortgage finance with unclear transparency.
• BigBear.ai: Total speculative play, loses money, not recommended.

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AI and Tech Future – Interview with Joanna Stern

Timestamp: 43:28-47:05

• Joanna Stern’s commentary on generative AI: Claude’s rapid improvement; usefulness in healthcare especially for cancer detection and diagnostics.
• AI’s impact on entry-level jobs, community disruption by data centers, and the need for greater corporate civic responsibility.
• Cramer sees AI as evolving faster than many can track and encourages listeners to approach it at their own pace.

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Closing Thoughts

• The bull market remains heavily concentrated in tech, particularly areas touching the data center and AI.
• Broader market growth is dependent on geopolitical stability, especially a drop in oil prices and a potential end to conflicts.
• Cramer’s bottom line: Focus on fundamentals, be analytical about new opportunities, and never underestimate the power of transparency and resilience in management.

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For more insights, check the episode for in-depth CEO interviews, actionable portfolio advice, and Cramer’s ever-bold market calls.

Transcript

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[Jim Cramer]

My mission is simple to make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a bull market somewhere and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now. Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. Other people, my friends, I'm just trying to make a little bit of money here. My job is not just to entertain, but to educate, do some teaching. So call me at 1-800-7-3 CNBC tweet me Jim Cramer. When we look back, I wonder if we'll say this was that moment when Dell simply took over the hardware computer space with one of the biggest blowouts I could ever recall. On a day where The Dow jumped 363 points to 2%, the Nasdaq gained point to 1%, Dell with a 102 point gain or 32%. One session defined today creating still one more day of tech strength in even if we did see some recent winners get hit with a bizarre round of profit taking at the end of the day's quarter was a true surprise and Michael Dell should be very proud. But there's one great tech quarter after another in May that we saw great results and nearly all of them were connected to the same thing, the data center in some way, shape or form. Today, away from Dell, we actually saw some stunning strength in a host of software companies that have underperformed. I'm talking about stocks like ServiceNow, Atlassian, the Salesforce, Microsoft, all which were simple. They gave you some magnificent performances as if nothing were ever wrong with them and they'd been punished almost the whole month. Their gains were in some ways as shocking as the decline to some of the great hardware leaders in the last few minutes of today's session at Dell, they saw incredible strength across all their businesses. But the fastest growing saving came from Dell's partnership with Nvidia, the pioneer with the stock that's been a bizarre underperformer of late. Including today where the company stock fell 4 points in the last few minutes of the trading session and finished down an ugly $3. It was a wild and inexplicable fall for the largest stock in the world. I didn't think it collapsed so fast on no news. No news at all. Maybe that's a good place to start our game plan then because the week begins on Sunday night when Jensen Wong, the CEO gives his annual Computex to talk in Taiwan. Maybe something he says could reverse today's inexplicable decline. This year Jensen plays host with some of his favorite partners, including Rene Haas at ARM Holdings. That stock held up. Matt Murphy from Marvell Intel's Lip Bhutan. That stock did not hold up. And Qualcomms Christian Oman Computex has been a stake in the ground for many years now for Jensen Huang and I think he may unveil something special here now. Why do I feel that way? We got a potential hint when in videos official X account posted a cryptic tweet teasing quote a new era of PC. The account for Microsoft Windows posted the same message. Grasp me at straws, doing everything I can for you. Maybe what we saw in late day trading was some sort of end of the month rebalancing out of some semis and into depleted software. Let's hope Nvidia can give investors a reason to get excited again with its copy text presentation and we can get back to talking about the fundamentals and and not just endless flip flopping trading next when we come in on Monday we may have a deal with Iran. Who knows. I know I'm in the minority though for what will happen. I'm believing this. I think that will be very quickly awash in oil and I suspect a very fast plumage in the 70s from the high 80s to low 90s when it comes to the price of oil. I want this market to broaden beyond tech. But it can't do that because of the war and the shackles that the Hormuz blockade is putting on the consumer. Now the American consumers remarkably resilient. That's been one of my themes. You know that I said it last night. But it only takes you. I take it so far. For example, we can't have banks among the weakest of all stocks this past month rally until the war is over and the price of oil comes down because the risk of a spike in defaults because of expensive gasoline is just too darn high. We can't expect a housing boom as rates have gone up even as again, I'm contrary. I expected decline when the war ends. We can't expect lots of travel. These are all important props to the economy and they need to kick in if you're going to take any money. Beyond Tech, Monday's also got a host of important corporate events. The Federal Express less than truckload LTL division is going to be spun off as FedEx Freight, which will trade under the symbol F D X F as in Frank. We own FedEx the for the Chabel Trust, so we'll have full coverage about what the breakup means to you if you're a fellow club member. I think FedEx freight could be a true winner given the not so benign neglect it suffered through the for so many years as part of the combined company, although I still favor parent fdx Now Merck in the Monday evening very odd. It's in the actual 6pm hosts a meeting to review its cancer portfolio after the 2026American Society of Clinical Oncology conference. That's the most important cancer confound of the year. Merck's cancer dominance has been challenged of late by J and J. Let's see what Merck has to say the next day. We've got some market moving tech news. We know after speaking to Sridhar Ramaswamy, the CEO of Snowflake, earlier this week, that he'll be hosting an anal day on Tuesday. And I expect the stock's phenomenal post quarter rally, which continue by the day with today's 7% gain, will roll on. Yes, it was that good a quarter. A real conversion from an enterprise software company with some artificial intelligence to a genuine AI company that stores data. The latter is worth a lot more in this market than the former, as shareholders blessed blessedly found out this week. Now that same morning we see Dollar General. We see if it's as good as Dollar Tree, which reported a blowout quarter yesterday morning. Dollar Tree has sensational numbers and a bright forecast despite its core clientele being weighed down by higher fuel costs and inflation. I expect the same thing to happen with Dollar General. We also hear from national jewelry company Signet, which could tell us about the state of the consumer as everything they sell is discretionary. Obviously I find Signal to be an excellent barometer of the times. If they're close, we get results from Palo Alto Networks, that's a cybersecurity company that we own for the investing club, this stock tends to run into the quarter and then when it reports we get hit with some profit taking. It's possible we can see the same pattern again. It's been the way of Palo Alto, except the cyber threat situation is more extreme now than it's been in the last few quarters. Let's see what happens then there's Ulta Beauty now. We went to see them not that long ago. You know the stock's down 15% this year and today an analyst cut their price target ahead of the quarter next Tuesday after the close. Maybe the analyst knows something. I don't know. It was jarring Wednesday morning. Medtronic reports. Speaking of jarring, this long term winners become a short term loser. With the stock down 23% year to date, Medtronic is not alone. Most of the medical device stocks are down with the worst being one of the best just last year. Boston Scientific almost 50% down. I wish I could be aggressive in recommending Medtronic right on Monday morning, but I can't now. We got to wait to see the quarter. That group so awful after the close. Club members beware. We have both Broadcom and Crowdstrike, two very important positions for the trust. Both hit their all time highs today. So I have to be a tad circumspect. You know how I feel when stocks run up ahead of a quarter. Broadcom stock hasn't done all that much this year. I think it'd be delivered global. CrowdStrike's going parabolic though. It might be able to brave the profit takers on a good quarter, but it most likely will be greeted with some noticeable profit taking if it's at any time, any kind like the last last few CrowdStrike quarters because it's an expensive stock. But the company's been a bulwark against cybercriminals, especially since Anthropic Private released this mythos and scared the dickens out of all of us. We also hear from one of the strongest stocks this year which is 5 below now. That's well off its highs now down nearly 25 points. I like it very much and I go for it given its consistency and its price points for purely discretionary products. Yes, I would buy five Below ahead of the quarter Thursday results from Sienna. This had been networking player. It's come off a lot from its highs even though it's up almost 150% for the year. I think Sienna's got its own proprietary technology and there's more than enough room for it to grow for this one. Thanks again to the data center. Next, if you've been following the turmoil at Lululemon, it's hard to believe that they can beat the estimates. This could be a reset quarter and you don't buy ahead of a reset quarter quarter. Finally, on Friday, we get the Labor Department's nonfarm payroll report. Could this be the moment when we start seeing all the building jobs related to the data center show up? They really haven't shown up yet in the numbers. It's a very important series of numbers that we are going to get though, and it does need to be weak enough to justify a rate cut from the Fed. I think new Fed chief Kevin Warsh needs to see a truly soft employment number before he starts aggressively pushing for lower rates. But the bottom line, beyond the data center, this market could really use some peace in the Middle east or at least something it can reopen the Strait of Hormuz, bring down the price of oil and allow the bull market, which is so much centered on tech, to broaden out to more economically sensitive sectors. Otherwise, hardware softer, who knows? But they all seem to be in play as a magnificent month of May draws to a close. Let's go to Arthur in New York.

[Caller]

Arthur, hi, Jim. Thank you for taking my call. Really appreciate. Love what you.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you, Arthur. Thank you.

[Caller]

Jim, I needed your opinion on Elf Beauty. I have this stock all over the map. Over the last three years, this company has been growing 25 to 50% a year that the stock has just been beat up. Am I buying more now or am I holding on to what I have?

[Jim Cramer]

I'm worried about it. I'm worried about it because, you know, they get a lot of stuff, you know, it's made in China. And what really bothers me about it is the inexplicable decline and the very large short position. I am, call me confused about Elf. I don't understand how the stock did indeed fall apart. Let's go to Patrick in Virginia, Patrick

[Caller]

Booyah from the Shenandoah Valley there. Jim Booyah.

[Jim Cramer]

Chief, what's up?

[Caller]

Well, I wanted to ask you about Nvidia back in 2017 when you called it the stock of our generation. And then in the next eight years it grew to represent about 60% of my entire individual stock portfolio. And so I've been diversifying it over the course of the last year and I wanted to get your opinion on GE Vernova. Even though there's other companies in the space that have some seemingly more attractive.

[Jim Cramer]

I think she Vernova is absolutely terrific. We know that it's come down nicely from its top. It's at a very good level. I still like Nvidia very much. I'm not backing away from video. I just need to know what the heck started, what went on in the last hour because it just seemed, unless you say it didn't seem right. How about that? Leave it at that. Okay? This market needs a few more catalysts to broaden it out besides the data center. Maybe we'll get that in June. Got to hope so, because you can't just keep trade the same stocks. Maybe today Gap shares plummeted on the company's latest earnings, but were they really as bad as Wall street seems to think? I got to dig deeper in this one with Retailer CEO an investor sent Agilent shares soaring on its beaten raised quarter. What is that about? It's a medical dev company. Those are not doing that well. I'm going to find out what the company's top risk and after a great investment club meeting this week, although I did beat myself pretty badly, I'm taking a look at some of the more amazing questions we get from our amazing club members. So stay with Great.

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[Jim Cramer]

What the heck happened to the stock of Gap today? Last night, the retailer reported a mixed quarter. Gap Brands doing well, but Old Navy did a little worse than anticipated, while Banana Republican Athletic also missed expectations. The reason the stock plunged over 50% today though, is that Gap gave soft revenue guidance for the current quarter because of weakness in the Old Navy division. It's the largest division and the company cut its full year sales forecast even as they raised their earnings outlook. Now the stock is now back to where it was in late 2023, which was just a couple of months after CEO Richard Jackson took over and started to orchestrate a real turnaround. So what do we do now with the stock? At this point, it's trading at less than nine times the midpoint of this year's earnings guidance. Very solid dividend, good buyback. On the other hand, the turnaround is not playing out as well as we had hoped. I think we need to do more digging. Earlier today I got the chance to speak of Richard Dixon, the President CEO of Gap. Take a look. Richard, welcome back to Mad Money.

[Richard Dixon, CEO of Gap]

Jim, good to see you.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay, so we've got some things that are tough, obviously that we're going to go over, but I do want to start with something that I thought was surprising. The excellent Gap numbers themselves because they were very, very strong. Good.

[Richard Dixon, CEO of Gap]

I love that you're starting with there. I'd even zoom out just a little bit more because we did deliver progress across key metrics for the quarter. This is our ninth consecutive quarter of positive comparable sales. Three out of the four brands growing comps on the total were up 2%. That's up against 2% last year. Overperformed on gross margin by 30 basis points, winning across income cohorts. We returned 450 million in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. The performance at brand was varied, but let's talk about GAAP for a minute because double digit comp up 10% and that's 10 consecutive quarters of positive comps. It was a standout quarter up against 5%. The playbook is being executed with excellence. We are now seeing consistency in women's progress in men's improving trends in kids and baby category. Performance across the board in Gap remains healthy, particularly in denim. We've been incredibly disciplined in delivering clear and consistent brand messages which is truly resonating with consumers, particularly Gen Z, through the collaborations that we've been driving, which have been incredibly exciting and culturally relevant. Yeah, I will say the brand will also be accelerating its store remodels as we build on the success of the test stores that we did in the Past year. We're also relaunching fragrance this fall, which is going to be another brand building momentum driver. And overall, I would tell you Gap is back on the forefront of the cultural conversation. It's an iconic American brand. We've got significant Runway to build upon. Great product, great storytelling, great execution. Lots of Runway to continue the progress.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay, so people might say, then why is the stock not up? And the answer is Old Navy. Indeed. And you would very abject about it losing a momentum. You did not blame tariff. You did not blame the. The environment. It was. You put it on your shoulders. You talked about dynamic environment, which means that things change very quickly. So tell me why you had to guide, actually guide down to negative because of Old Navy. Because it was something that had been going quite well in the other times that you have been on the show.

[Richard Dixon, CEO of Gap]

Yeah, Jim, I appreciate it. You know, we operate with integrity and transparency. The good news here, which is being clouded a bit, is we delivered a 1% comp growth. That's on top of last year's 3% growth. This is also the brand's sixth consecutive quarter of positive comps. As you know, we've been pursuing categories like Denim, Active, kids and baby, all of which posted growth versus last year up 6%. And we continue to build upon that with relevance with our customers and momentum. Seasonal categories got off to a weaker start within that, particularly dresses where we've admitted and said we just did not have the right fashion quotient and value equation. Dresses just didn't deliver the right execution. Now, I will also say we overinvested in inventory slightly and didn't correctly anticipate what ended up to be a decline in the dress market. Our dress assortment did resonate in occasion dresses, which have much more specific end use like weddings and Easter. We are seeing a change in customer acceptance of dresses during key peak moments like summer stock up. Now instead shifting to more versatile categories and styles that can be worn year round.

[Jim Cramer]

But can.

[Richard Dixon, CEO of Gap]

Knowing this and seeing it.

[Jim Cramer]

But how can that be? Just to hear you say it makes me feel like, okay, you missed some things, but not don't take apart the stock. With all the buyback that you're doing, you're shrinking, you have a good dividend. People are just reacting to this one division and I think in part because you had fixed it, we thought it was on to the next, but then it seemed inconsistent. And I think people are not, not recognizing, recognizing. They didn't think that you did something that could be inconsistent because you've been so solid in all these different ones,

[Richard Dixon, CEO of Gap]

look, we are continuing to be consistent. We grew in the quarter 1%. Now would we want more growth? Do we expect more of ourselves? Absolutely, of course we do. But the consistency that we've been demonstrating quarter after quarter, season after season, six consecutive quarters of comp growth with Old Navy market share stability, leadership across nine out of the 10 categories in the industry and really important to recognize we're calling it out. This was a seasonal challenge in a category. Now as these changes have begun to take hold that we've effectively driven, we're seeing trends improve. Now given the performance that we had in Q1 and the continuation of seasonal products in Q2, we are taking a moment moderated view of the year. But of course we're driving for better results. And as we look to the second half with the seasonal product behind us, I'm really confident in our ability to drive improvement.

[Jim Cramer]

But why when you shake things down then, I mean I felt when I listened to you that you shouldn't. I think I said, I figured that you would just say listen, we're done with that part. We're going to be. Maybe we are low single digit but you took to, you were negative and it made me feel like wow, maybe I'm missing something. I don't know how Richard could be as negative as he is given the fact that he laid out a pretty good scenario for the future.

[Richard Dixon, CEO of Gap]

I'm absolutely not negative. We are taking a moderated growth approach as we continue to drive gap with double digit increases. Banana is solid. Old Navy got off to a slower start and it is a large base business. We're giving ourselves and our investors the room, if you will, to get through these seasonal categories and then really overdrive in the back half. But that being said, we're transparent. You know, as the changes are taking hold, we have seen trends improve. We are holding our operating margin outlook. Our gross margin outlook is unchanged at flat to up slightly. We continue to maintain our cost discipline with SGA as a rate to sales that is flat to last year. And despite Jim the lower sales outlook, we're also raising Our earnings outlook $2.30 to $2.40 which reflects 11% growth year over year at the midpoint. While this is our current outlook on the top line, of course we aspire to outperform the brand's strive for continuous improvement on holding the balance sheet you

[Jim Cramer]

have and we were again sure you were, you were tough on yourself for, for Athleta. I found myself thinking do you need an off ramp athletic because it's really missing and you said it's behind schedule.

[Richard Dixon, CEO of Gap]

Athleta is an important brand in the portfolio. It's an important brand in the industry. Very few brands are over $1 billion in this industry. It's the number five active brand in the space now. We've admitted and shared. We are in the rebuild year. Maggie Gagger, who joined us in August, has taken several actions to strengthen the brand. She streamlined the assortment considerably, which is resulting in better aur. Better margins, even with a challenging top line. We've been repositioning talent, filling in key roles. If you look at the website, you can see we're delivering much better creative execution. We've gotten some new merchandise in. It's checking really well. It's small, they're early reads. But we do believe that this brand has strong strength to deliver and it's on us to prove that. And so stay tuned, you know, as we look to slight improvement in the back half, we believe we'll continue to chip away at this and find the growth pattern for Athleta.

[Jim Cramer]

And one of the reasons why I respect you coming on and saying is that you did not take the cop out. You could have very easily said the consumer's weaker. You did not do anything like that. You were consistent in saying that you've got to do a better job. And I admire that. An executive that blames the environment, well, you know what, there's. That just doesn't hold water for me. And I thought that was really important that you did not do that.

[Richard Dixon, CEO of Gap]

All right, thanks, Jim. I mean, honestly, we see our consumer, we love our consumer. We're seeing strength in customer behavior. We've sustained a. You are growth and we've gained market share. I mean, the product is resonating on whole. We're winning across all income cohorts, low, middle, high income customers. This is demonstrating the breadth, the relevance, the resilience of our portfolio. So, no, this is not a consumer issue. This is a seasonal challenge where we got off to a slower start in seasonal merchandise. The good news is the season gets smaller as we get into the back half and you're going to see us with a robust and determined, motivated perspective.

[Jim Cramer]

If you weren't returning all this money and weren't growing and I said, but you were tough on yourselves. And I think people aren't used to seeing managements as tough on themselves as you were. I want to thank Richard Dixon, president CEO of Gap. No excuses here. Hold it as it is. That's what matters to me. Thank you.

[Richard Dixon, CEO of Gap]

We got this, Jim. Thank you.

[Jim Cramer]

May I want to be back.

[Mad Money Announcer]

Coming up, can Agilent Technologies continue to build momentum after a strong, strong quarter? Kramer's finding out from the CEO next.

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[Jim Cramer]

What do we make of these results from Agilent Letter A, one of the major arms dealers to the life sciences industry among other precision enterprises. Earlier this week the company reported magnificent top and bottom line beat management also raising their full year forecast. Yesterday the stock in response jumped 17%, although it's still basically just flat year to date, so might be opportunity. This quarter was interesting because some of Agilent's key end markets were indeed weak. China, food, academic government spending down. But the rest of the business was so good at more than made up that softness. We're talking about strength in drug development, drug manufacturing, cancer diagnostics, semiconductor material testing, airport security screening and lab automation. Next week they're presenting data on some new products to the American Society of Mass Spectrometry meeting and it's going to be very important. So can the stock keep running even after this incredible move? Let's check in with Corey McDonald is the President CEO of Agilent Technologies to find out. Welcome back to Mayor Bonding.

[Corey McDonald, CEO of Agilent Technologies]

Thanks a lot I'm great to be on.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay, so for you really did just some remarkable work here. Why don't you first tell us, remind us of what Agilent is doing in general and then certainly walk us through this quarter because obviously it took a lot of people by surprise.

[Corey McDonald, CEO of Agilent Technologies]

Yes, we're a critical part of the two. We're tools company and pharma chemical and advanced materials and diagnostics. So really along the value chain of those industries. And the stock saw a big, very big jump. Something we haven't seen for, for quite a while in 20 years, but a really fantastic jump. We provide our technologies and very proud of what the team delivered. And when you think about the markets that we're in, you know, pharma, health, healthcare, those areas are really important and really growing for us. Chemical and advanced materials really important of course with semiconductor reshoring happening and pharma reshoring happening and of course clinical and diagnostics testing. So we're very satisfied with our internal efforts. We put a huge amount of effort into transformation, innovation, our portfolio resilience and you put that together with steadily improving end markets all coming together, we delivered a strong performance and of course we're really optimistic about our prospects going into H2 but we're also very clear eyed about the dynamics in the world. But we're very, very much looking forward to the rest of the year.

[Jim Cramer]

So let's go to some things that for instance people might know. We know that GOP Dash one drugs are maybe going to be the biggest drugs in the world. I saw today France said they're really going to and everybody gets reimbursed. So it's obviously something very big. But I also fear counterpart counterfeits. I also fear phony compounds. What can you guys do to be sure that this stuff that the GOP dash ones are clean, clear, accurate and healthy?

[Corey McDonald, CEO of Agilent Technologies]

Well that's where we're best in class at doing so. Our business grew 20% in GLP GLP1s. We see long term opportunities in GLP1s as a pennant penetrates in obesity and drug labels in different areas. But we have two business where we're actually involved in the production, helping with precursors and GLP1s but also in the testing of GLP1s and that's where we want to remain modality exhaustic. Whether it's orals or injectables, our equipment and our tests and our workflows and our teams make sure that they're safe and make sure that their efficacy is there.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay, so would you be up against companies say like, I don't know, Danaher might be there, Alumina could be there. Thermo Fisher, are you in? Are those are the ones that you come up against?

[Corey McDonald, CEO of Agilent Technologies]

Yeah, we come across, you know, we have many fine competitors out there, but our real sweet spot is in QA qc, which is downstream. So we're at the very end of the testing and the development areas to make sure they're absolutely, the drugs are absolutely safe and to leave. So that's right in the sweet spot. And you can see with reshoring, Jim, you know, there's a lot of investment in the US and around the globe in terms of, you know, manufacturing capability. And that's where you see our equipment, our workflows and our software testing these drugs.

[Jim Cramer]

Now, how about this TSA contract? We're all, we've all had to deal with tsa. We want it to be, they want it to be as good as possible. You've got something is pretty novel. Yeah.

[Corey McDonald, CEO of Agilent Technologies]

So it's Raman spectroscopy. It's one of our key technologies. And if you go to the airports for the FIFA World cup and you go through secondary screening, it's going to be one of our systems going to do it to keeping the cities and people safe. And it marks a significant milestone in our aviation security and forensics Portuguese portfolio. This is a technology we've had and we built on in this new market. So it's opened up a new market for us. And it's not just a one off. It's, it's, it's FDA is actually TSA is like the security of what FDA is to global drugs. So there's a clear halo effect. And actually we're working with other geographies outside of. So it's really exciting.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, that's fantastic. I also know, of course you go back to the original business. We talk about semiconductor exposure. Talk about something that's in fire. And I also believe Achieve is reshoring. So where are you fitting in there?

[Discover Advertiser]

Yes.

[Corey McDonald, CEO of Agilent Technologies]

So while reshoring gets a lot of attention, we have a big opportunity there and we're working with our customers globally to make sure that their labs are going to be ready when the reshoring happens for manufacturing in the US but over the last few years, semi fabric reshoring has also already happened and that's a here and now benefit fragilent. And moreover, the air boom and related memory chip shortage has a very strong demand for, for semis. So we have an unmatched capability in our chemical and advanced materials market. Spectroscopy Products and gcms Gas chromatic graphic Mass spectrometry. So it's very broad and diversified and we have a long history. It's our heritage back to the old HP days. Jim and that's something that we're, we have a very high market share on. And actually at ASMs which the mass Spectrometry Society next week we're going to be launching a new technology that's even higher sensitivity for those, for those bombs.

[Jim Cramer]

Now let's talk about a term that I read when I was reading your documents that I usually don't read about much. Customer intimacy. What is that that you have?

[Mad Money Announcer]

Yes.

[Corey McDonald, CEO of Agilent Technologies]

So we believe in building really strong intimacy with our customers. So we have an incredibly strong service team. We do enterprise services for labs where we not only service our equipment but look after lab operations with multiple vendors equipment on it. So we have service engineers that are embedded in pharmacy sites, bedded in semi fabs, etc. And what we really do is not just fixing the equipment but we help customers get more out of their equipment, get more productivity and help them with new banalities. So for example, if there's reshoring happening with GLP1 and a QA QC lab has been set up in a manufacturing facility, our engineers are installing the equipment, making sure it works, but making sure it's productive and making sure the right data comes out. So that's really, really important. So that creates a lot of intimacy. And a service business is just a fantastic business for us. It's a very big part of our company and it's going to continue to

[Jim Cramer]

be how important was ignite to making this quarter?

[Corey McDonald, CEO of Agilent Technologies]

Ignite is really important. So we're fundamentally changing the company with a view on growth. So we're looking at how we can take some shocks with tariffs and of course with supply chain changes that you see and ignite us met it's more. More have greater ability to move, you know, supply chains around the world more move fast, move manufacturing. We're also doing a huge investment, I would say in digital and AI and these, all these products and innovation is really moving towards the growth for the company. So transformation is really important. We're changing it because the world is changing around us and we need to be more nimble and agile and you see that through our pipeline of innovations and what we're going to be seeing with AI very short.

[Jim Cramer]

Well terrific. Congratulations again on just a monster good quarter. I think all these things came together it sometimes that's what happens. Each piece came together all at once. And surprised all the analysts, obviously. Terrific. I want to thank pouring McDonnell, President CEO of Agilent Technologies. Thank you for it was great to have you on.

[Corey McDonald, CEO of Agilent Technologies]

Thanks, Jim.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay, may have money's back after the break.

[Mad Money Announcer]

Coming up, it's your questions answered as Kramer's getting caught up on the ones he missed from this month's investing club meeting.

[Jim Cramer]

Next. Earlier this week may know that we held our Investing club monthly meeting where Jeff Marks and I get together to walk club members for decision making process for the portfolio. We discuss our current holdings, then we take questions from club members. Now this is one of my favorite parts of the meeting because frankly we don't get the time to spend a lot with the actual club members. So we read your questions and then we don't even get to read all the questions. That's why I brought some more questions right here and give you some answers so you at least get a sense of what we do in the club. So why don't we start with our first question? You get a good sense of what we're doing. Obviously if you want to join, you can just do this, but I want to. Let's spend some time with the questions. I want to start with Lester from Maryland who asks with depending IPOs coming and your concerns about free money shortages, would it be reasonable to trim 10 to 15% across the portfolio prior to IPOs being issued in order to hold a larger cash position for better buybacks? Thank you for all you do and for Jeff for teaching. Now look, I've got to tell you, this is a really important question and I've seen a lot of these from a lot of people from all walks of life saying what do I do with these pending ipo? I want to be in of the all, all them. You have to look at the IPOs and decide if they're better than what you own. I'm not trimming 10 to 15% of a great stock in order to buy a stock that may not be great. And more importantly, if I'm not in on the IPO initial price, if I'm coming in where after it comes public, I am telling you that most of the stocks in your portfolios right now are probably better than those. So let's calm down about these IPOs. Let's look at our stocks on a case by case basis and decide whether it really is better to say buy a stock that's already come public and is all the way up versus some of the stocks you may have. Case by case, people, case by case. Next we have Lee From Alabama who is wondering is it better to invest dividends or for growth given 10 years to retirement? Okay, I talk a lot about this and how to make money in any market. And the answer is is at that point we really do want a lot more dividend income but from growth stocks. That's why I gave you a list of eight companies that are growing their dividend but they are still income related. We have to balance again. It's a set of balance. I don't want no growth. I think that you should own growth stocks right until the end, so to speak. But I do think you need to adjust to more income. Don't sacrifice growth though. Now we have Justin from Georgia who says booyah. Jim, longtime watcher. And Lister, as you talk more about a 5 stock portfolio, what would you consider an oversized position that needs trimming? I recently trimmed some of my positions in crowdstrike and Alphabet as they were nearing 25% of my portfolio. Was this the right move? Absolutely. In a five stock portfolio, I need you to pull back a little bit so you can play with the house's money. Your goal ultimately in a five stock portfolio is to get to where you're playing everything with the house's money and then you can actually add more stocks if you want to and put those stocks to the side. After I wrote the book, I said to myself, I should have said that one of your goals is when you get the house money, you can actually add another stock. You don't have to do just five. And by the way, the reason I pick five is a little arbitrary. But I just find a lot of people don't have enough time to look into like 7, 8, 10 stocks. And I don't want you to be a mutual fund. We have mutual funds for that. We don't need you to be a mutual fund. Next we have Cheryl, North Carolina. I'm looking for a medical equipment maker. If you agree the timing is right, should it be Abbott labs, Medtronic or Boston Scientific? Both. Scientific had a very weak quarter because of its primary product, did not do well. Abbott Labs bought this exact science. I don't know exactly what it's going to look like. Medtronic has fallen off a cliff and they report next week. Let's look at Medtronic after they report and then that may be the one that we pull the trigger on. Now we have Stephen in Massachusetts who says defense companies seem to have flatlined over the last few months. Some have reasonable P. E multiples, all have significant backlogs. The world remains a dangerous place and they appear to be making money. So why the stall? More importantly, what's your view on their outlook? Okay, a lot of people feel that the government just can't continue to afford this kind of spending on defense. Other people say, you know what, the cycles have peaked and what we're going toward is cheaper and more efficient. Say, let's ordinarily say drones versus manned giant jets that cost a fortune. I think that it's going to take a long time for us to wean ourselves out of the stuff that's really cost a fortune. Which is why I say, if you want to own one of these, you own Lockheed Martin. Okay? That's, that's the best one in the group. And I'm not recommending any defense stocks, but that would be number one. And number two would be rtx, which also has a big commercial business. And I think the commercial business may save you. Next up, we have Bruce from New Jersey who says hello. Can you share your strategy on trimming a position that is doing well? I have a series of buys from higher to lower costs that I build a position on when selecting a sell option. Which lots of stocks do you select and why? Okay. I always like to take high basis. The reason I take high bases, I want to pay taxes. I don't have to worry about for Chapel Trust, but I want to pay taxes. And more importantly, I always like to get my basis as low as possible. And I do think that what matters, I mean, some of that's just arbitrary, but what matters for you is just don't end up with. With too much of one stock versus the rest. Okay? Then you'll be swinging with that stock and not with the actual fundamentals. The rest of your portfolio want to thank you to all club members. And Mad Money is back after the break.

[Mad Money Announcer]

Coming up, he's the fastest mind on Wall street. So we're putting him to the test with your help. Bring on the lightning round next.

[Jim Cramer]

It is time. It's time for the Light Mountain race him stock. Bye bye bye. Calls over. That is not my step. Playing the sound. And then the lighting round is over. Are you ready? Ski Daddy time. Light round Crazy. Let's start with Bill. New York Bill. Hey, Jen, thanks so much for taking the call. I just. Of course. Today about Clover Health. They've exploded. I got lucky. I got in around April, but considering it's good. But remember, the quarter wasn't good. The quarter was not good. So you're in pure spec mode there. The revenues were okay, but the earnings were not there. So take it with a grain of salt that it's moved up because it was not a great quarter. Let's go to Eric in Nebraska. Eric. Hey, Jim, first time caller, new listener. Okay. Just want to say thank you for all you do. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. My question is on amkr, if packaging, but the right kind of patching is semiconductor packaging. I do prefer Cadence, though, and I like the burning, burgeoning packaging division of intel under Lip Bhutan, who used to run Cadence. Let's go to Scott in California. Scott, we got Jen Scott from Marin. What do you think here? I've owned EFC for 12 years. My retirement account down about 30%. But the dividend and solid. Well, my problem is this. That's been a mortgage fee. When I see these mortgage finance companies, I never know what they really own, so I never feel like I can give any good guidance. So that's why I do not recommend them, even though they have very big yields. Not for me. Let's go to David in Arkansas. David.

[Caller]

Hey there.

[Jim Cramer]

Longtime listener, first time caller. Big razorbacks to you, buddy. Oh, thank you. What's going on? You're welcome. There's a lot of volume going recently on Big Bear AI and not a lot of announcements. I'm wondering total spec, because it loses money hand over fist. I can't recommend it, but if you want to speculate, that's fine. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the Lightning Round.

[Mad Money Announcer]

The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up with the calendar turning to June. Don't let your portfolio fall into a swoon. Stick around for Kramer's top tips next.

[Jim Cramer]

Last night I interviewed Joanna Stern, the author of I Am Not a Robot and chief technology analyst for NBC News, at our terrific local bookstore, Words in Maplewood, New Jersey. We had Joanne on the show not that long ago. She was funny, as insight, as sightful as ever. I mean, just enjoyable. What I found incredible, though, was in the short time since she was on our show, so much has already changed in the AI world. Wow. Take this concept of genetic AI. While Joanna was filling my question, she told me she had an agent working for at that very moment, helping her pull together some information for her next column. She talked about how she's been using Claude for so much of her work. A big deal since I thought she was kind of agnostic about which of the chatbots she prefers. I've been a Gemini and ChatGPT guy, but all day today I was using Claude. And I find Claude much better informed than the last time I checked it out, although I can still make some mistakes. But no wonder. Anthropic Claude's owner just raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation. Three months ago it raised 30 billion to $380 billion valuation. I was jealous of Joanna, her agent. So I made a mental note that I'm going to create an agent this weekend. Maybe I'll create two agents in case one gets busy. I have a lot of jobs. Maybe I should get a whole fleet of Share some of them with the always skeptical David Faber Squawk on the street Monday morning, but Stern said I don't need a humanoid robot. They aren't improving fast enough and they simply aren't all that functional. They can't do enough. I can't look, I thought that each month they were getting more and more useful, but it sounds like robots still can't make a better fold things, so they're probably not worth my money. The biggest change in the last few months. She says that it keeps getting better and better when it comes to health care. Catches so many things that humans can't, especially when it comes to cancer. It's also become much smarter about discussing health issues with patients. I guess somebody realizes even machines need a good bedside manner. Then again, how hard is it for AI to tell us what we really want to hear? I mean, look, my biggest problem these days with sites is that they're often too far. They're just too sycophantic. She explained that the sites can only be as good as what they're trained on, and the vast body of thoughts they tap into favor sucking up as an mo. When we opened the floor to questions, the same issues we keep hearing about came up and people are pretty heated. They wanted to know what will happen to the entry level jobs that so many people count on. They're worried about the same bots that that examine x rays and MRIs will take away the jobs for people used to do that work. Where will they go? What will they do? And of course they're worried about the data centers wrecking water, jacking up electric rates, not helping the communities they build it. I mentioned that I blame the politicians for not asking for more from the hyperscalers and neo cloud companies that build these things. Of course, the hyperscalers could afford to be more like Nucor, the giant steel company that spends so much time working with the community it cites before it builds a plan they could avoid. A lot of these problems would be more proactive Even if local polls aren't doing their jobs, they should be telling the hyperscalers to pay up or hit the road. I got to tell you, it's tough to keep up with a couple of months of change in this new world. But no matter what, I think you have to try. I just want to do it in some way I can understand, like the stuff that Joanna teaches you. In the end, unlike so many of the professionals I meet, I don't think I will ever be my second nature. But one thing I'm glad about, for some younger people, AI has become first nature. If you live your life through your own lens like I do, you'll always have an edge on the people and probably be a lot more satisfied with your own lot in life. If you make it maybe your third nature. I'd like to say there's always a bull market somewhere and I promise to find it just for you right here on Mad Money. I'm Jim Cramer and I'll see you

[Mad Money Announcer]

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

[Jim Cramer]

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Start with as little as $1 with no account fees or trade commissions on US stocks and ETFs.

[Jim Cramer]

That's music to my ears.

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