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Fidelity Representative
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.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Which are America's top states for Business.
Get all the data and complete state by state analysis. See how your state measures up America's top states for business now on topstates cnbc.com.
Jim Cramer
Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. Other people, my friends trying to make you a little extra money. My job is not just to entertain, but to put it in context. So call me at 1-800-743- CNBC. Tweet me. It's Jim Cramer. I love earning season House of Pleasure I hate earning season A house of pain. One minute I'm basking in my chair, feet up, savoring the win. The next minute I'm throwing the chair in fury that I could be so stupid and obtuse. Now you think that for 45 years of this I'd cut myself some slack. But that's not my style. Today's start was no different from any other, with some good news and some bad bad news pretty much reflecting of the averages. Dow tumbling forward in 36 points S&P dipping.4%, NASDAQ actually advancing point1.8% now it sure started with some fabulous news. In April, we learned that the Trump administration ordered video to stop providing China with what's known as the H20, a powerful chip. Not as powerful as the one CEO Jensen Wong showed us at the GTC, his showcase of everything I but certainly useful and valuable to anyone who wants to build on Nvidia's work. I was downcast as China is the second largest market in the world and this could shut Nvidia out of what Jensen said was a $50 billion market. But when the company reported late May with the ban on age 20 sales still in place, Jesse came on mad money. And he had this to say, keep the faith. Our President wants America to win. And we.
Robin Vince
He also recognizes that, that this is an important market. It's a very large market, and the.
Jim Cramer
Revenues that it could generate for the United States is significant. It's just incredible. $50 billion this year. Look, we're talking about the size of a Boeing, not a Boeing plane. Boeing, the company. This is an enormous market. It seemed fanciful, didn't. But then again, betting against Jensen has been a surefire way to lose money for decades. Since then, there's been a lot of back and forth between Jensen, the White House, including this weekend before Jensen went to Beijing. We didn't know exactly how the talks with the President went. We only knew that Jensen pressed a case that, to me, seemingly seems so incredibly compelling. It started with the idea that we love the dollar being the reserve currency for the world. Right? That's a great badge of honor and a reminder that no matter how much debt we have or how feckless we are in Washington, we still have the most important bragging rights in all finance. Jensen, fresh off of Nvidia, hitting a $4 trillion valuation, something President Trump applauds, came to the White House with a novel proposition. He said that if you sell the H20 chip stack to China and you can have bragging rights to be the reserve semiconductor standard for the world. And that would make everyone, including half of the world's engineers who live in China, write programs on our hardware, the reserve semiconductor obviate the need for the Chinese, or anyone else in the world for that matter, to build their own chips they could just work off for ours, which would cement our dominance. I look at it like this. For years, the Chinese government has decimated so much of our, so many of our industries, really, by subsidizing their own domestic producers to the point where they can wet about our guys. That's how we got hooked on Chinese rare earth minerals. For once, with these inverted chips, we have something they want. That's where we want them. It's a fabulous statement for video, but more important, it's an amazing triumph for the United States. But what if the Chinese use Nvidia's chips to bolster their military? You say, well, we've heard that objection a lot. Jensen's got an airtight argument. China would have to be insane to use American chips for the military, wouldn't they? The same way the Pentagon would never use Chinese chips, or hopes not. We have a tense relationship right now between the two countries, and they just can't take the risk of being sabotaged. We found out that the President gave Nvidia's blessing and Jensen was in the right place. China when the news came out, the licenses that Jensen wanted will be granted. The Chinese will be paying billions for Nvidia's H20 chips. I posted the good news on letter X and say that it should reverse the futures. This was at 930 last night. I go to sleep happy. When I wake up five hours later to work out and the futures have turned right on schedule, I'm flying high. Could this be a mistake? Free earnings season, I ponder. Oh, then BlackRock comes out. Now, I've championed BlackRock since 600, but it's what have you done for me lately? Gain here was at 11:11. I look at the headlines and they seem solid, but there's a seemingly disappointing line about inflows for 12. This $12.5 trillion depository, BlackRock has been the hottest stock among the major financials for the last few weeks. It came in way too hot, even as it had a larger earnings beat. All that mattered was that late inflows number, which is why the stock plunged nearly 6% today. I like to watch the early morning trade and see how things look. When I saw the stock up 20, I knew whoever was excited about how Blackrock beat the quarter was a dead man walking. Why? Well, because this is an inflow story and those moronic quick draws would lose money. But I had no idea they'd lose almost 90 points when the stock open. It was a charnel house, and even as I like the direction that the business is going, it didn't matter. Brutal from my perspective because we own blackrock for the Chapel Trust and I failed people because I didn't tell them to sell. Suddenly my era of good feeling stemming from video seemed like this memory sure turns out that a big account left the firm knocking down the inflows. No solace whatsoever that my sponsorship came much lower. Blackrock misses I stink worse. No amount of cologne could cover up the stench of the steaming Wells Fargo today. Another relatively strong banks coming into earnings after years of being restricted what it tends to be able in what it wanted to do because of the Federal Reserve due to previous scandals, Wells is finally ready to play offense. But it sure didn't tell the street about the sudden shake up in the mosaic with the bank's Earnings. All people could focus on was how they missed so badly in net interest income even though they weren't even focused on anymore. Which is something that goes away if you get more aggressive. And they're getting more aggressive to attract depositor make loans. Wells wants to be a growth bank again, not some bank account in this money that makes off deposits. It's clearly a good thing. In the meantime though, management seemed unprepared to explain the transition and the street was horrified. I was horrified to really a day ruiner. So what I do? Same thing I did 45 years ago. I probably go home, sip some cheap scotch on my dirty and all in floor, pay some penance. I don't even deserve Johnnie Walker Red for this one. Now I am quite confident that both stocks are going higher eventually. But now they have to shake out all the weak hands before that happens. And that takes time. You have to build a whole new shareholder base. The companies might help. They might come on and tell us where the sellers were wrong. Maybe Wells Fargo starts a gigantic buyback. They have one. But in earnings season there's no such thing as do overs. The fact is that blackrock or Wells Fargo had reported quarters that were in keeping with what was expected. They wouldn't necessarily be hired today, but they certainly wouldn't have ruined earnings season for me. See, this is the ups and downs of earnings seasons for the pros that are so terrifying. I felt glorious that I had nailed in video. But you could have gagged me with a spoon after blackrock and Wells and I would have deserved it. I have become a pathetic parody of a charitable trust manager, licking my wounds and kicking myself. The bottom line, I'll stay behind Wells and blackrock with the fig leaf of Nvidia protecting me. But you need to know that so far I'm one for three this earnings season. One for three. And this business, you know what that is? That's downright awful. No excuses. Let's go to Dave and Delaware Dave.
Caller
Booyah Jim. Hey, some of these large language model AI apps are using copyrighted material without permission. They may be treading into Napster territory. Well anyway, this company just introduced a tool that prevents these bots from grabbing the copyright material. I'm asking about Cloudflare.
Jim Cramer
Yeah, I thought it was brilliant. I thought Matthew Prince was brilliant. I think anytime is great. I've been behind it for since probably for about 120 points. I think Matthew's about as good as it gets and the stock should be bought even up here. Thank you for that. Let's go to Betsy in California, please. Betsy.
Caller
Well, good afternoon, Jim. Well, I've been with you from almost the beginning, so I'm doing better than most people, I'll tell you that.
Jim Cramer
That's good. That's good.
Caller
And I heard your, what specially struck me was I heard your interview yesterday and I started to think to myself who would benefit the most if there was a turnaround in the economy. And I came up with the answer of housing. Okay. And I figure maybe I have to wait 60 days, maybe I don't. And to me, to me, the winner here is Caterpillar. Because even before the interest rates turned, you've got to have roads to get to those data centers. You've got to have equipment to dig the foundations. And I think that in order for Trump to really appeal, he has to do what he does really well, which is build. And he was housing.
Jim Cramer
You know, I got to tell you something, Betsy, I mean, primarily not housing, but you're absolutely right, you have to have housing. Bulk of materials. Actually more of a play as is Martin Mary materials. However, Caterpillar is an answer to that. Caterpillar's done incredibly well this year. I will miss Jim Bumblebee, who's stepped up the chairman, but I think he left Caterpillar in the best hands I've ever seen. The stock and it's a buy and I think you will do quite well. Now at this point, I would wait till after the quarter, which is August 5th. You don't need to get ahead of it. Let's go to Will in North Carolina.
Caller
Will, hey, Jim, I'm a second time caller from CNBC's Best State for Business and I have a question. I was in Madrid a little while ago and as someone with common sense, I did not run with the bulls. However, my portfolio has been running with a bull that is called Meta. Are you, is this still a buy, sell, hold?
Jim Cramer
Yeah, absolutely. I love the fact that it came in. I want stocks to go down a little bit so we can prevent the kind of situation that we got with blackrock and present the kind of situation we got with Wells Fargo. Meta's coming in a little. That is great. The stock is very inexpensive when you back out the cash. Very inexpensive. By the way, if you ever decide to try, I don't know, billing for WhatsApp, it is a fantastic company and I'm glad you brought it up to me. All right. Even after all this time on the street, the ups and downs of earnings season are exhausting for all of us. And I tried to portray to you how a manager feels after a day like today. I've been doing this a long time. I'm one for three so far and I don't like it. On Man Money tonight, BMY reported a strong quarter across the board in this first week of earnings season and I'm digging into the numbers with the CEO. Then what the heck is behind the strength in the stock of imax? I'm making sense of the run and sharing what you should do with it now. And could Ali's Bargain Outlet be a strong player in this tape? I'm seeing if the company could be a bargain for your wallet and maybe you should join the army yourself. So stay with Kramer.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Don't miss a second of Mad Money. Follow imkramer on X. Have a question? Tweet Kramer Madmentions. Send Jim an email to madmoneynbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC. Missed something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com.
Fidelity Representative
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 in index as compared with passive ETFs. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member NYSE, SIPC.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Which are America's Top States for Business.
Get all the data and complete state by state analysis. See how your state measures up America's top states for business now on topstates.cnbc.com.
Jim Cramer
This morning everyone was focused on the numbers from the big banks J.P. morgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. But they were also watching the port from B and why. And that's the old bank of New York Mellon. This is one of the top custodial banks in America. And this morning BMI reported another strong quarter with easy top and bottom line beats not to Mention a stunning nearly 28% return on something called tangible common equity. That's one of the best results I've ever seen from a bank. BMY even raises full year net interest income forecast with the quarter. Very few did that. So what's going on here? Earlier today I got a chance to sit down with Robin Vince. He's the CEO and chairman elect of bny. Take a look. Rob, we're going to talk about all the great numbers and they are stunningly great. But I think a lot of them stem from this following bit that I got from your commerce call. Culture is about generating a collective will to make our company achieve its full potential. Harnessing the breadth of our talent to be there for clients and to help the company hum culture. Is that why you guys are just light years ahead of all the other apples I'm following?
CNBC Business Segment Host
You know, we think it's super important. So you're right, the company is humming. I mean, you've been an early believer in. Oh yeah, Jim. And we're making real progress. And the, the exciting thing is there's a lot more to come. But culture is the thing. We use culture to help run our company better. And that in turn drives outcomes for clients and of course, for shareholders. And so it is the collective will of all of our people pulling together, making the company amazing.
Jim Cramer
Well, this is important because remember, this is a bank from our people show from Alexander Hamlin's time. You have come in and you have basically said, we are going to leapfrog everyone. And you did it in a really short period of time. But you must have true believers all around you.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Well, that's the key, of course, because it's not about me, it's about the whole leadership team and the whole company. We are pulling in the same direction. And what we had, we had something special. And so exactly as you said. We didn't start with a clean sheet of paper. We started with a whole set of terrific businesses, a great client franchise, innovation in our DNA. But we were running in a way that was disjointed, disconnected. And so what our people have done is they've rallied round, they've pulled the whole company together, and now we're delivering for clients as one company. It's a huge difference.
Jim Cramer
Now, now that we've said that, we can then go to a number, because I did not want to give people the number without people knowing that. I am so impressed with your culture. You did a number that's a return on common equity and it's 28%. We could leave it at that and say describe it. No, I don't want that. Tell me how you were able to reach a benchmark that's the equivalent of winning, let's say three Super Bowls in a row.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Well, thank you for that. But what we've been doing is we went back in time and we looked at what is our company at its very heart. We're a collection of terrific platform. Platform like businesses that are at the heart of the world's capital markets that really help our clients to be able to thrive and do things. We are number one in the Treasuries business. We're number one in the collateral business. We're number one in the custody business. We've got all these great things, payments, wealth, investments, all of that. And the thing that's changed is we realized that that is what we were at our heart. We weren't just trying to be a bank generating NII. We love NII, but it's only 25% of what we do. We're in the fees business, we're in the platforms business. So there's no ceiling on what you can generate from a return on tangible common equity when you think like that. So we stopped thinking that we were just a bank. We're certainly not just a trust bank, but we're not even just a bank anymore.
Jim Cramer
No, no. I have a book coming out how to make money in any market and I mentioned all those that people should realize is risk free fees. There is risk riddling the banking industry, but not with you.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Well, we got to manage risk. We still have risk and we got to manage it. Right, but you're right, we're looking beyond that.
Jim Cramer
I'm not looking at bad series of bad loans. We're not talking about commercial real estate crashing. It's manageable and it's discoverable. And one of the reasons why it's discoverable is your embrace of AI. And by the way, this isn't one of those things where it's like, I better say something, Jim, about. It's the opposite. You have an AI platform, Eliza, that is the best of AI. What does it mean for you?
CNBC Business Segment Host
So AI is ultimately human leverage. That is AI is helping our people to be able to deliver more for customers and to be able to run the company better. We think of AI as being for everyone, for everything, everywhere in the company. Because I think of it as intelligence leverage. We've been comfortable with steam engines and motor cars for a couple of hundred years. This is now the intelligence equivalent of it.
Jim Cramer
And so you call that industrial revolution.
CNBC Business Segment Host
It'S, it's making our people a bit superhuman in terms of their ability to do more things and frankly do more of the, the things that they want to spend their time on, taking out some of the stuff that they don't want to have to spend as much time on. And again, it's for customers and running the company.
Jim Cramer
Well, let's go one step forward. You are the first person I have seen who said, okay, we've started to introduce digital employees into our workforce. Now wait a second, a digital employee doesn't exist?
CNBC Business Segment Host
Well, at the end of the day, they exist in digital form. And so what are they really? They're healthy. We appreciate having people who help us in lots of avenues of our lives. And so having a digital employee who's there as a companion for our teams doing the things that they don't necessarily want to do, working 247 on code remediation, working on being able to make payments better, improve the navs, work at night when other people don't want to have to do it to make sure that we're ready for the next day for our customers. Those are the sorts of things that our digital employees can do. They have emails, they have human managers, they get onboarded, they get trained, they kind of, in their own way, get their performance reviews too.
Jim Cramer
Well, okay, this is important because what you're describing is a capital light model.
CNBC Business Segment Host
That's right.
Jim Cramer
Which I think again, for a financial is ideal.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Yeah, that's right. And that's why we are a little bit different, because we have this. We have about a dozen different businesses in the company and you're getting them all together.
Jim Cramer
Now, I remember last time you told me you confided to our viewers that you didn't think everything was together yet. That's right.
CNBC Business Segment Host
We are still relatively early days and that's the most fun and exciting thing about the whole journey. So our new commercial model is only literally turning one year old this month. Our platform's operating model, we have about half our people in it, but it's only about 10% that have been in the model for at least a year. And so the we're at the beginnings. We talk about early innings all the time in the company, so we're extra proud of the results more because we inside ourselves kind of have a sense of what might be to come.
Jim Cramer
Well, it has been a great story. I am glad that I've got our people more candidly. But it's your team that you have assembled done a remarkable job in a very short period of time. Robin Vince is the CEO of bny. Thank you so much.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Thank you so much Jim.
Coming up, is this stock ready for the big screen? Kramer's taking a wide angle look at IMAX and how the stock has become a recent blockbuster. Next.
Fidelity Representative
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.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Which are America's Top States for Business.
Get all the data and complete state by state analysis. See how your state measures up America's Top States for business now on topstates.cnbc.com.
Jim Cramer
Sometimes the stock will come across my screen. I say to myself, how the heck is this thing doing so well? And that's how I feel about IMAX Corporation. We constantly hear that nobody goes to the movies anymore, right? Yet the stock of IMAX is up more than 60% over the past 12 months. So what the heck is going on here? A lot of it comes down to how IMAX makes its money. Even if you've been to an IMAX theater, it almost certainly wasn't owned by them. They only own one location. Instead, this company sells or leases its theater systems and then collects more money from ongoing maintenance services. The multiplex owners need to sell movie tickets, right? But IMAX makes money as long as the theaters keep buying their game gear along with museums and science centers. And because movie theaters are desperate to sell these tickets, they are happy to spend money on IMAX because they can charge a premium for those tickets and people actually show up. That's why IMAX has been doing very, very well. It turns out 2024 was their second best year ever in terms of domestic box office and they had A ton of success overseas too. At the same time, the company produces its own IMAX documentaries that have been surprisingly successful, like Blue Angels and Amazon Prime. They've been digitally remastering old concerts for IMAX screens like Queen Rock Montreal. That's a great Freddie Mercury performance, which has become one of the highest grossing concert films of all time after its IMAX reboot. How about that? They're even working on sports coverage, so maybe it's not surprising that I'm actually put up excellent numbers. When the company last report in April, it delivered a healthy top and bottom line beat while the domestic box office actually fell 7% in the quarter for the broader movie business. Hence why I was so confused that these guys could be doing so well. IMAX's worldwide box office was up 8% year over year. It was their best first quarter box office forms ever. No wonder the Motorplex chains keep paying up for new IMAX theaters. The company's already signed agreements for over 100 newer upgraded systems year to date, which is very impressive considering they only signed 130 of those deals in all of 2024. As IMAX CEO Richard Gelfand put it on the the conference call, quote, the fundamentals of the business have never been stronger in quote, now they're cleaning up China, which has rapidly growing domestic movie business. Plus IMAX collects higher fees in China for these local releases. Beyond China, IMAX sees growing opportunities for local language films across international markets like Japan and India. They also called out promising markets in Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand. This sounds like a Netflix story. These local language films are making up a larger and larger percentage of business. After accounting for 12% of IMAX's total global box office in 2019. That number moved up to 21% in 2023, and in the first quarter of this year it was 68% of the box office, though that was skippily impacted by some youth blockbusters in China. And business is also booming for IMAX here in the United States. IMAX theaters alone delivered 20% of domestic box office for Sinners, the highest grossing original IP in ages. While we don't have numbers for the second quarter yet, we know that some big 2025 releases like the latest Mission Impossible, Superman, James Cameron's upcoming Avatar sequel, were all filmed specifically for IMAX. Next year there's a new Star Wars, a new Dune movie, Christopher Nolan's version of the Odyssey, and even a new Toy Story. Not a bad source for Craig Revit for Tom Hanks as well as IMAX in 2027 there's another Avengers, another Star wars, another Batman and Frozen 3. In an age of big budget franchise movies, IMAX is king. IMAX is also expanding its presence in live sporting events. In March, they sold out tickets for a classic screening of the classic that's the French soccer match between PSG and Marseille. Think of it as the soccer version. The Yankees Red Sox rivalry. Exciting for IMAX, but not so much for Marseille fans. They lost 3 to 1. By the way. It's a scoreline that's equivalent of a pull out in the Super Bowl. Even better, IMAX doesn't sound worried about competition from streaming because that's the big issue, right? Streaming platforms? No, they're not doing it. In fact, management points out that Netflix new Narnia movie due out next year, while the theatrical release of 28 days starting exclusively on IMAX screens. On top of that, IMAX prioritized the I'm sorry, Apple prioritize its IMAX release for securing a studio partner for F1, the Movie, which saw a $28 million opening weekend for IMAX. Now, looking ahead, IMAX is projecting $1.2 billion in box office this year, which would be a record for the company. IMAX will get a piece of that through revenue sharing agreements with the movie theaters. But more importantly, the big box office numbers encourage the theater chains to spend more on IMAX systems. That's why the company installed 21 theaters in the first three months of the year. That's their second highest total ever for the first quarter. Plus, AMC plans to add 12 new IMAX locations and renovate nearly its entire IMAX footprint across the United States. In fact, Wedbush just upgraded AMC last week. Amc. Yeah, lowly worm. Precisely because it's got so much IMAX exposure, something that can help the movie theater chain defend its market share. If having lots of IMAX screens is enough to get your stock upgraded, it's a great reason for the movie theaters to buy some more. That said, the analysts acknowledge that, quote, they do not see substantial growth in 2025, 2026 or 20 or beyond for AMC. End quote. Personally, I wouldn't buy AMC stock as a money loser with a hideous balance sheet. Again, the movie theater business is in bad shape with the exception of IMAX, which is why AMC stock is down over 40% for the past 12 months while IMAX is up more than 60%. So don't overthink this one. If you want to invest in the movies, IMAX might be the smartest way to do it. Even though the stock trades at just under 25 times this year's earnings estimates, which is not exactly cheap. The fact is that IMAX is expected to put up 19% earnings growth this year and another 19% next year. Paying 25 times earnings for 19% growth. That's pretty good. Now all that said, IMAX reports again on Thursday of next week. And while I'm optimistic about the quarter, expectations have gotten pretty high while I some would say as the stock rallied over 36% off its April lows. So if you don't have position IMAX already but want to make maybe put on a small position for the quarter, please wait to see how the report goes. It may be the stock will pull back. You can buy at a discount. Bottom line, at a time when the movie studios and the movie theaters are struggling, IMAX has tremendous momentum because it's proven to be the best way to sell tickets. If you're at all inclined to invest in the movie industry, IMAX seems like your best bet. Leonard in Wisconsin. Leonard.
Caller
Hey there jail Ms. Leonard from Milwaukee.
Jim Cramer
Hey, how you doing partner? How are you doing there? I'm doing well.
Caller
Hey, got a question to you about, got a question to you about the mouse. Is Disney still a good stock to invest in?
Jim Cramer
Okay, Disney's had a real rip, snort and rally from the bottom but it's still only up 6.8%. It's got a good movie slate coming, only sells at 20 times earnings. The theme parks are doing incredibly well. I think the answer is absolutely. I think it's a very good long term holding and I encourage you to buy it right here, right now. All right. IMAX has seen tremendous momentum in an uncertain industry. I think you start a small position here but wait for the report to do anything big. Much more money and including my exclusive with the CEO of Ollie's Bargain Outlet. With many retailers like Party City and Big Lots closing the doors, how does this position an off price retailer like Ollie's? Real closeout. Don't miss my exclusive then. Everyone's in a race to be the biggest and best chat bot. Right? I'm really the currentest data plan. Of course I'm taking all your balls for rapid fire. Tonight's edition of the Lightning Round. So stay with Kramer. After years of elevated inflation, people want bargains and nobody gives you bargains like the off price change. Take Ali's Bargain Outlet America. America's largest retailer of close out merchandise in excess inventory mean they buy up merchandise from struggling chains that are desperate to get rid of their old product and need money. When Always report. A little over a month ago, it delivered a healthy top and bottom line beat with management raising their full year forecast. Hence why the stock's up 12% for the year. Doesn't hurt that management sounds real positive about the future. And I'm going to tell you why it's positive in a second. So can the stock keep climbing? Let's check in with Eric Vanderbilt. He's the president CEO of Ali's Bargain Outlet holdings to find out. Eric. Welcome everybody.
Robin Vince
Thanks, Jeff. It's great to be here, really. For two reasons. One, I know you're a member of Ollie's army. Talked about it on the show frequently.
Jim Cramer
And I've seen a lot of those shows.
Robin Vince
We appreciate your commitment to loyalty to. I told my two kids they're teenage boys. I was coming on thinking they'd have.
Jim Cramer
No idea who you are.
Robin Vince
They said, oh my gosh, the guy from Iron Man.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Dad.
Jim Cramer
So you're giving me like three minutes.
Robin Vince
Of being the cool dad.
Jim Cramer
Oh, well, that's cool. I got it. I got a hat for boy, I got it. Just all I did was really get a hat for that one. Too bad. Okay, so I am indeed I one of the few, the proud and the cheap. And I look at my. I got my flyer. I check every single one of the flyers. I see things right now that resonate to me as cheaper than I saw them on Amazon this weekend in their prime event. How's that possible?
Robin Vince
It's we buy cheap, sell cheap, closeouts off price inventory. It's inventory that's excess from suppliers who've either made too much or maybe discontinued a model, a vacuum or a flavor of cereal. And we're able to buy that excess inventory. You never know what you're going to find in our stores.
Jim Cramer
So it's.
Robin Vince
It's a treasure hunt of sorts. We're not necessarily in stock in anything particular, but whatever you do find, it's going to be very well priced, right?
Jim Cramer
And people have to recognize like you have Dove soap right now. Now, I bought a lot of Dove as part of the weekend, so I got room. You well undercut Dove. So what people try is there's nothing wrong with that Dove.
Robin Vince
Nothing wrong with the Dove. Same Dove you'd find anywhere else. You won't necessarily find that scent of Dove on any given day in our store. It's not necessarily in stock. It's very opportunistically bought based on excess inventory from suppliers. And I don't talk about Dove or I don't talk about the brands on the Air. But you did bring it up.
Jim Cramer
Well, I brought it up because it's such a bargain. And you don't mind. I don't mind that no one minds getting a party. Now, let's talk about what it. Let's. Let's go to the reality here. When you're a member of Ali's army, it's an affinity group and it gives you a lot of privilege privileges, and it also makes it possible for you to genuinely make more money than people who are not in the army.
Robin Vince
That's true, yes. So people that are a member of our army, Ali's army, we call them bargainauts. They're very proud of the money they save at ali. So there's a passion and emotion associated with being part of our loyalty program, but they also do save more money. We have two exclusive shopping day events, events each year where we provide deeper discounts. And then we have various events over the course of the year, special events. And you also earn savings as you shop. The more you shop, the more you save. So it really does pay to be part of the army. 80% of our business is driven by our loyalty program. So we have a very committed, loyal customer.
Jim Cramer
Now, what. You are kind of the inverse company in that when there's disruption, when there are companies that aren't doing well, you get incredible choices. Are you worried when you get such great choices like you have right now.
Robin Vince
Worried about that the next great choice.
Jim Cramer
Economy may not be doing?
Robin Vince
Oh, sure, you know, when the economy is not doing well and our consumer is struggling a bit, they tend to seek value, they tend to seek bargains. We say that saving money never goes out of style. And manufacturers have may struggle because they're selling retailers that are closing stores, for example, and they're redirecting their product pipelines to companies like companies like ours. So we get even better deals. We pass along those savings to our customers.
Jim Cramer
Now there's a personal attachment that people feel to Ali's. I got to know Mark Butler, whom I regard as one of the founders you work with. Yes. And I've always felt that he was someone who was. He took whatever made any money made. He seemed to give it to charity immediately. And everyone, when he passed away, it was like it shocked us. But there is an element of community that I find even in the community. Mike. My store is a down and outtown, I'll tell you that. I don't think anyone would disagree. I've known it. I've known it for 55 years. But we don't feel down and out when we're at Ollie's and it's kind of a spirit that still lingers that he created.
Robin Vince
Yes, yes.
Caller
Products.
Robin Vince
We're all very passionate about serving this consumer that is very budget conscience and you know, somewhat limited in their ability to spend especially on discretionary items. So we like to have product that somebody needs at an absolute great price and also product maybe people don't need at a great price to meet meet their needs.
Jim Cramer
Now you also have a co branded credit card that I did not know about. What does that get?
Robin Vince
The co branded credit card allows you to earn accelerated points when you shop at Ollie's points and additional points when you shop elsewhere. More importantly, the COVID credit card has a very low threshold for approval. So there are a lot of people out there that don't necessarily have access to credit as easily as others. And you can get a credit card with us.
Jim Cramer
Well you also it looks like that there are some big stores that have like a big lot has folded. Joanne's a couple of them. And I don't know whether you can give us a state of the consumer judging on both what's going bankrupt and what you're seeing in terms of buying. But a lot of people in the banks today, people really the bankers were saying listen, things aren't stressed out at all but you're right in the middle. You know how things are. What's your gauge of how the consumer is really doing? Sure.
Robin Vince
In terms of product pipeline, Joanne's in Party City have certainly provided opportunities for us to buy product and sell. We have yarn deals in the store and party goods from the Party City bankruptcy. So that's been a great opportunity for us. The consumer seems stressed but healthy enough. And we've seen across all the different income cohorts relative strength. The trade down has continued over the course of many quarters now. And we're not seeing a trade out of the low income customer. They're buying more what they need like consumable product. Okay now than they used to. But they're still, still, they're still spending in our stores.
Jim Cramer
All right. I mean to me they also discovery they're seeing, they're looking at their flyers to get more people opening their flyers right now then you have an open count I'm sure are more people checking down than they did before. That's a good indicator of how people feel.
Robin Vince
Yes. And also the digital advertising has been a huge opportunity for us. We're able to reach a lot of people outside of print advertising. We didn't used to reach and we see very good activity and engagement in digital.
Jim Cramer
Very good. Well, you write great stuff. And I open everyone because I said oh, maybe this is what I need. That's Eric Vanderbilt. He's the president CEO of Ollie's Bargain Outlet. This place is fun people. And if you haven't been there, everyone claims treasure hunt. Let me tell you, I found a treasure trap trove of books for 29cent each. There had been a fire. Some of them had water damage, others didn't. Mad bunny's back into the break.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Coming up, Kramer takes your calls. And the sky's the limit. It's a fast fire. Lightning round next.
Jim Cramer
It is time. It's time for the light round. Cringerboard and brass girl of course. Same as stocks that are bubba by social soldiers for goodness sources by plan to sell. And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready Ski dads Over the light round. Let's start with Sam in Massachusetts. Sam.
Caller
Jim. Listen, I got a really interesting company for you. This is a company that does grid.
Jim Cramer
Scale batteries for renewable energy projects.
Caller
And it's got a lot of attention recently as AI demand has just taken off. So anyway, companies is fluent. Energy is trading at less than half of price to sales and expected to grow 60% in the coming year.
Jim Cramer
But it's. It's losing a lot of money. It's down 50%. I'm going to have to take a pass on that name. I'm very sorry. Let's go to Gary in Alabama. Gary. Hey Jim, I know you like this stock a lot, but it's getting pretty expensive.
Caller
Do you.
Jim Cramer
Do you think I can still add to G.E.
Caller
Vernova?
Jim Cramer
No, I think at this point we're going to wait for G to Vernova to come in. We had a great club meeting on Friday and I really just kind of hang my head in shame that I didn't even buy more. But there was nothing to do. This thing is such a horse. It's just been a parabolic move. It's up 70%. We're going to get a report this, this week in earnings. Maybe what we say. I'm sorry. Next week maybe what we say is. Let's hear what they have to say. Why don't we go to Ian in Florida? Ian. Hey. Booyah. Jim.
Caller
How you doing?
Jim Cramer
Yeah, I'm doing well. How about you? Doing excellent. Thank you.
Caller
Jim, I wanted to ask you about.
Jim Cramer
A company that does kind of a GPU rental thing. What do you think about Nevius? Okay. Nebius. I checked them out when I was at GTC at Gent at the big Nvidia trade show. And I came back and I said, core weave, just buy core weave. Don't dba buy core weave. And so far this is very right. Let's go to Jack. Nvidia Florida. Jack.
Caller
Hello, Mr. Kramer, the most perspicacious, sagacious and generally wonderful guy that I watch on TV on a regular basis.
Jim Cramer
Holy cow. Someone wake my mom. Yeah, that's. I mean, holy cow. You just said some nice things. Wish you heard it. What's going on?
Caller
Oh, I am calling about a Taiwan semi. What do you think about that?
Jim Cramer
They report this week. So you got the gun to my head on that one. I just, I would rather just see what they report at this point. You know, I like Nvidia very, very much. That's the pure play. Nvidia should have been up much, much more today. And I was talking to, you know, Ben Righteous and I go back and forth, Amelius, I think the stock easily should have been up 25. And I reiterate that that's the one you want. Let's go to Bill in Massachusetts. Bill, Hi, Jimbo.
Caller
I know you're close with Jason Long and he talked about Quantum computing. I was wondering, is it too late to pick up some quantum computing?
Jim Cramer
The equity too late? Not so much as it's too late. It's that it's a money losing company and if we get rid of the fervor for the moment about Quantum, you'll be buying that $17 stock at 7. And that's what I worry about the most. And that, ladies and gentlemen, conclusion of the Lightning Round.
CNBC Business Segment Host
Lightning round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, as the tech sector pushes full steam ahead in the AI race, Kramer's giving you his take on which companies may be slipping and could end up in second place next.
Jim Cramer
You don't want to be Bing. That's all I can think when I see all these heavy hitters racing to build data centers in order to dominate the AI space. Bing was late to search. By the time Microsoft got involved, Google was already dominant. Maybe some people sampled it, but few stuck in around. Bing's global market share is now roughly 4%. Google has about 90%, makes about $50 billion per quarter in revenue from search. Bing's actually number two in the business, but in search, you're either number one or you're nothing. And that's exactly how I see things playing out with these chat bots. It's almost seems like a race to be number two, though, because they don't even seem to be trying to distinguish themselves to us to regular potential users or samplers. Unless it's with bad headlines. There's a giant scrum going on right now. It's made up of Grok, owned by Elon Musk's X, AI Gemini, the companion to Google and buy Alphabet, Claude owned by Anthropic company with Amazon's big stakeholder media. I owned by Mark Zuckerberg's metal platforms Chachi from OpenAI with Microsoft's large investor and Perplexity, owned by many different people and funds, but not by one big company. They all all have billions to spend. It's going to plant equipment though with very little design to make their sites ubiquitous, which is the term that will determine who's the winner when it comes to self promotion. They are all bushling. ChatGPT had the early lead with affiliates with Microsoft. It has Sam Altman as the at the helm. He's cerebral, albeit material. One day it will go public at a huge valuation. Could be the big perfect branding event. But right now all I see is that every one of these bots is nipping its heels right now. Today I heard that Anthropic is infusing Claude with finance data so it can offer club financial services. That could be a terrific business. But it's a snoozing tree falling in the woods with no one there. They hear it. Right now I already have the advanced version of Chat cbt. That is something similar. It's just okay. I mean, who knows? There's no benchmarking. Lately we're hearing that Mark Zuckerberg is paying out for AI people at Meta, some who've been involved in this very space. They're opening for the purse strings for talent, like some sort of sports team with no salary cap, nabbing the best free agents. Terrific. Except that unlike the NFL where I get excited, somebody signs with a new team, I don't know these people. I mean, they mean nothing to me. Therefore I don't care what they pay for, I pay them out. Silicon Valley shop talk means nothing. And yes, I want sites that are the quickest. But all of them are all based on Nvidia's GPUs. So I have no idea who's the fastest, who has the most data, who comes up with the answers, Answers before the others, who gets the story first, who is the most accurate. I simply have no benchmarks. Everything's anecdotal. There's no discovery, no empirical data. All I know is they're often wrong. And occasionally they do something really crazy like Grok, calling itself Mecca Hitler. Suboptimal. This is one of the reasons why I'm so concerned about Apple. Here's a company with absolutely no strategy that I can see that does buying back stock endlessly, which by the way has accomplished nothing. Take it from me, it's what I live in for Breathe. And it started down the path of the old IBM where if it wasn't invented there, it wasn't good enough. We know where that strategy only bought IBM and it took many years to recover from it. Apple could change course by spending big money to acquire Perplexity, which I regard as a just the fax ma' am engine. No bias that I can find right now at this very moment, there's really where there's no clear winner and each offering seems to be fighting for second place. Apple could step in to become the number number one a chat company immediately. It would be Google. All these other things, all the spending, look after spending hundreds of billion dollars, maybe Bing or even heaven forbid, ask Jeeves. That's what the other guys are going to be if Apple buys Perplexity, they'll all be asked Jeeves. Unlike these other guys, Apple knows how to promote. It's got the App Store to do it. But I fear that they don't want to take the risk because this business will be all, all or nothing, like search. And they fear they could be nothing. I'm on perplexity 50 times a day. Buying it would be electric. In the meantime, right now it's all about who hears about something that's cool or funny or fast with no loyalty whatsoever. Just a bunch of Bing searching for a Google. Maybe they think it's winner take none, losers take all. Sure seems like they're headed that way. I like to say, as always, but market some of my problems I find just for you right here on Mad Money. I'm Jim Cameron Cedar.
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Jim Cramer
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Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – Episode Summary (July 15, 2025)
Hosted by CNBC, the July 15, 2025 episode of "Mad Money" offers viewers an insightful dive into the tumultuous earnings season, highlighting significant movements in major stocks, expert interviews, and strategic investment advice. Jim Cramer navigates through key market events, provides actionable stock recommendations, and engages with callers to address real-time investment queries.
Jim Cramer opens the episode by expressing the emotional rollercoaster that comes with earnings season. He states:
"Earnings season… I love earning season. I hate earning season. A house of pain."
(00:01:39)
Cramer reflects on the unpredictability of earnings reports, highlighting both triumphs and setbacks:
"Today's start was no different from any other, with some good news and some bad, pretty much reflecting the averages."
(00:01:57)
He details the day's market movements:
A significant portion of the discussion centers on Nvidia and the U.S. government's decision to restrict the sale of the H20 chip to China, aiming to curb China's technological advancements. Cramer underscores the potential impact:
"Not as powerful as the one CEO Jensen Huang showed us at the GTC, his showcase of everything I but certainly useful and valuable to anyone who wants to build on Nvidia's work."
(00:02:45)
He elaborates on the economic implications, emphasizing the $50 billion market Nvidia stands to influence if the ban holds:
"The Chinese will be paying billions for Nvidia's H20 chips."
(00:04:18)
Cramer expresses optimism about Nvidia's position despite initial setbacks:
"I go to sleep happy. When I wake up five hours later to work out and the futures have turned right on schedule, I'm flying high."
(00:05:00)
Despite BlackRock reporting an earnings beat, its stock plummeted nearly 6% due to disappointing inflows:
"All that mattered was that late inflows number, which is why the stock plunged nearly 6% today."
(00:06:15)
Cramer critiques his own strategy regarding BlackRock, admitting:
"Brutal from my perspective because we own BlackRock for the Chapel Trust and I failed people because I didn't tell them to sell."
(00:07:45)
He remains bullish on BlackRock's long-term prospects:
"I am quite confident that both stocks are going higher eventually."
(00:08:15)
Wells Fargo revealed a transition towards an aggressive growth model, aiming to attract more depositors and expand loan portfolios:
"Wells is finally ready to play offense. But it sure didn't tell the street about the sudden shake-up in the mosaic with the bank's earnings."
(00:07:20)
Cramer critiques Wells Fargo's management for poor communication:
"Management seemed unprepared to explain the transition and the street was horrified."
(00:08:10)
Despite short-term turbulence, he maintains a positive outlook:
"But now they have to shake out all the weak hands before that happens. And that takes time."
(00:09:00)
Cramer engages in an in-depth conversation with Robin Vince, highlighting BNY's exceptional performance driven by a strong company culture and strategic AI integration.
Key Highlights:
Return on Tangible Common Equity: Achieved an impressive 28%, one of the best results from a bank.
Cultural Transformation: Vince emphasizes the importance of a unified company culture in driving performance.
"Culture is the collective will of all of our people pulling together, making the company amazing."
(00:16:31)
AI Integration: Introduction of digital employees enhances operational efficiency.
"AI is helping our people deliver more for customers and run the company better."
(00:19:46)
Future Outlook: BNY is poised for continued growth as it solidifies its platform-based business model beyond traditional banking.
"There is no ceiling on what you can generate from a return on tangible common equity when you think like that."
(00:18:32)
Vince concludes with optimism about BNY's trajectory:
"We're making real progress. There's a lot more to come."
(00:17:06)
Cramer shifts focus to IMAX, a standout performer in the beleaguered movie theater industry. Despite widespread declines in theater attendance, IMAX's stock has surged over 60% in the past year.
Business Model Insights:
Revenue Streams: Primarily earns from selling or leasing theater systems and maintenance services, rather than owning theaters.
"They only own one location. Instead, this company sells or leases its theater systems…and collects more money from ongoing maintenance services."
(00:22:20)
Box Office Performance: 2024 was IMAX's second-best year domestically, with significant international growth.
"IMAX's worldwide box office was up 8% year over year. It was their best first quarter box office numbers ever."
(00:24:15)
Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with major franchises like "Mission Impossible" and "Star Wars" ensure a steady pipeline of exclusive content.
"Next year there's a new Star Wars, a new Dune movie, Christopher Nolan's version of the Odyssey, and even a new Toy Story."
(00:29:00)
Cramer offers strategic advice:
"If you don't have a position in IMAX already but want to make maybe put on a small position for the quarter, please wait to see how the report goes. It may be the stock will pull back. You can buy at a discount."
(00:30:00)
In a heartfelt segment, Cramer interviews Robin Vince of Ollie's Bargain Outlet, exploring the company's resilience amidst retail closures and economic pressures.
Key Discussion Points:
Business Model: Focuses on acquiring excess inventory from struggling retailers and offering deeply discounted products.
"We buy cheap, sell cheap, closeouts off-price inventory. It's a treasure hunt of sorts."
(00:32:15)
Consumer Behavior: Emphasizes the growing consumer shift towards value-driven shopping in uncertain economic times.
"Saving money never goes out of style."
(00:35:18)
Loyalty Program: The "Ali's Army" loyalty program drives 80% of business, offering exclusive discounts and events.
"We have two exclusive shopping day events each year where we provide deeper discounts."
(00:34:02)
Digital Expansion: Enhanced digital advertising strategies have broadened their reach beyond traditional print.
"Digital advertising has been a huge opportunity for us. We're able to reach a lot of people outside of print advertising."
(00:38:24)
Cramer shares a personal anecdote, reinforcing the store's community spirit:
"The little spirit that he [Mark Butler] created… we don't feel down and out when we're at Ollie's."
(00:36:26)
In the high-energy Lightning Round, Cramer addresses multiple caller inquiries about various stocks, offering brief buy, sell, or hold recommendations. Key takeaways include:
Cloudflare: Praised for its innovative tool combating AI bots.
"I thought Matthew Prince was brilliant. The stock should be bought even up here."
(09:48)
Meta Platforms: Endorsed as a buy despite current volatility.
"Yeah, absolutely. I love the fact that it came in."
(10:03)
Quantum Computing and AI Chatbots: Cramer delves into the competitive landscape, emphasizing the dominance of Nvidia's GPUs and the struggle of various AI companies to establish themselves.
"All I know is they're often wrong. And occasionally they do something really crazy."
(43:14)
He concludes with a cautionary note on investing in the chaotic AI sector:
"Yeah, I worry about the fervor. You could be buying that $17 stock at 7."
(42:16)
Cramer's monologue on the AI landscape is both critical and visionary. He highlights the fragmented efforts of major tech players and the absence of a clear front-runner:
"It's almost seems like a race to be number two, though, because they don't even seem to be trying to distinguish themselves."
(43:30)
He underscores the reliance on Nvidia’s GPUs across the sector:
"They're all based on Nvidia's GPUs. So I have no idea who's the fastest, who has the most data, who comes up with the answers…"
(43:14)
Cramer warns against the lack of empirical data and the prevalence of anecdotal success:
"Everything's anecdotal. There's no discovery, no empirical data."
(43:14)
He emphasizes the importance of strong strategic direction, using Apple as a case study:
"Apple could step in to become the number one chat company immediately. It would be Google."
(43:45)
Jim Cramer's July 15, 2025 episode of "Mad Money" provides a comprehensive analysis of the current financial landscape, marked by significant earnings reports and strategic shifts in major companies. Through expert interviews and real-time caller engagements, Cramer offers valuable insights and actionable investment advice, underscoring the importance of adaptability and strategic foresight in navigating volatile markets.
Notable Quotes:
This summary encapsulates the key discussions and insights from the July 15, 2025 episode of "Mad Money," providing a synthesized overview for listeners and investors seeking to comprehend the dynamic financial narratives shaping today's markets.