Transcript
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Jim Cramer (1:25)
Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramer. I got other people who make friends. Hey, listen, I'm just trying to make a little money. My job is not just to entertain, but to explain. So call me at 1-800-743- CNBC or tweet me imKramer. President Trump better be a much tougher negotiator than President Xi, because right now, we're so hooked on China, it's almost hard to believe. That's why it's so worrisome when the president posts on Truth Social about the negotiations, as if there are any real negotiations going on at all. Every day, I hear some companies say that it's doing its best to wean itself off China. But we depend on so much. We depend on them for manufacturing, on our goods, our raw materials, that it's just not easy. Sometimes it can't even be done. As the president said in his true social posting, quote, I like President Xi of China, always have, always will. But he is very tough and extremely hard to make a deal with. Now, with the back half of that post in all caps, followed by three exclamation points, now that's a serious analysis, especially for 22:17am now, if that was the only action for today, I think that everything would look a lot worse at the close. We did dodge a bullet. The Dow off 92 points, S&P advancing 0.01%, and the Nasdaq gaining 0.32%, how bad is our Chinese addiction? To me, it's relentless. You know, it's like fentanyl. I want you to consider these dependencies. This morning, the Journal reported that our automakers are racing to find a workaround to China's stranglehold on rare earth magnets. The Journal says several traditional electric vehicle makers and their suppliers are considering shifting some auto parts manufacturing to China to avoid looming factory shutdowns. The Journal continues moving production to China. And as a way to get around the export controls on rare earth magnets could work. Because restrictions only cover magnets, not finished products. China controls 90% of the world's supply of these rare earth metals that go into these magnets. Now granted, these are incredible materials, but it's kind of crazy that we allowed our F35 jet fighters to rely on something that China is a stranglehold on. I was shocked at this piece. It's worth reading. It's must read. This stuff is the exact opposite of what the President would like to hear here. Now, we've heard from a number of retailers that have been crushed by the tariffs. I was surprised by how quickly both Dollar General and Dollar Tree moved away from China, but they're still. They got dinged. Especially Dollar Tree. Best Buy is absurdly dependent. As CEO Corey Barry said on her call, while China remains the number one source for products we sell, we currently estimate the percentage of cost of goods sold. It represents approximately 30 to 35% compared to the 55% metric we shared in March. All right, Best Buy clearly going in the right direction, but it's, it goes so far that it's hard to imagine the company being weaned off Chinese merchandise anytime soon. Wal Martin this the Walmart imports 50 billion worth of goods and there've been a lot of false stories about there. Less than 25% are from China. Okay, that's the real skinny. But Wal Mart, so big. That's a big number. Target's trying on its conference call, they said back in 2017 they were 60% China. They think they brought it down to less than 25% from year end, but that's still a lot. Oh, Stanley Block and Deckers working furiously to get out of China. They're down from about 40% to the mid teens. They hope to be out of China in 12 to 24 months, but it can't happen fast enough. Apple's pulling off something amazing. Moving about 20% of their iPhone manufacturing to India, but the rest are still coming from China. Still the White House doesn't care. They want those phones made in America, so they're threatening a 25% tariff for the ones from India. Not much lower than the current tariff on phones from China. What a shame. Apple is a huge employer in China and China is a huge market for Apple. But the White House is making them leave and they're not even getting any credit for it. If Trump wants leverage with China, he should be doing everything he can to make Apple move its manufacturing to literally anywhere else and not tariff. There's another wrinkle here. Some in the White House believe that allowing imports from Vietnam might give China a stealth way, a backdoor to get around the tariffs. Now, that's why Vietnam's tariffs from Liberation Day is 46%. That is crazy. China, Vietnam haven't been buddy buddies since the early 70s. They still have periodic border disputes. It would be easy for our government to audit American companies in Vietnam to see where the goods originate, where this stuff comes from. Let's be a little more rigorous, please. And Trump's first term moving from China to Vietnam was the right move. Now it's dead wrong. Retailers behind the scenes are furious. But who wants to be called out in this environment? So how could the President turn around these negotiations with the Chinese? Okay, so I've been thinking about this. I always like to be constructive.
