Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 7/9/26

Summary

---

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – July 9, 2026

Podcast Summary
Host: Jim Cramer (CNBC)

---

Episode Overview

This episode of Mad Money centers on Cramer’s persistent theme: encouraging investors to avoid simplistic comparisons among the mega-cap tech stocks (“trillion-dollar giants”), urging instead a deeper dive into what differentiates each company. Cramer analyzes the nuance behind recent moves by Meta, Alphabet, Nvidia, and others. He covers the much-anticipated SK Hynix NASDAQ debut as a major test for the AI-driven chip market, gives a tough post-mortem on PepsiCo's disappointing earnings, explores overlooked infrastructure plays like Preformed Line Products, and highlights the long-term bull market in senior housing stocks. The episode is rich with actionable insights, memorable quips, and classic Cramer energy, topped off with the caller-driven Lightning Round.

---

Key Segments and Insights

1. Why Comparing Tech Megacaps Is "Odious"

[01:02 – 10:32]

• Cramer’s Core Message:
  Investors & analysts obsess over comparing the likes of Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia just because of their size. But, as his Grandma Mary said:

  “Comparisons are odious. Especially comparisons involving the trillion dollar giants.” – Cramer [01:17]

• Meta (Facebook) – Misunderstood Strategy:
  Recently hit by panic over new chip investments, but Cramer suggests:

  “Mark Zuckerberg is a genius. He’s demonstrated that time and again... Maybe that could be a huge new revenue stream.” [02:47]

  Cramer suspects Wall Street underestimates Meta’s potential for data center integration and new monetization avenues (e.g., WhatsApp).

• Alphabet (Google) – The Gemini Play:
  Investors talk about Alphabet like it’s lagging the pack or burning cash, but its advantage is Gemini being the AI default on 2.5 billion Apple devices:

  “If I were at Alphabet, all I’d be thinking about is how to make the best product for Apple, how to, how to please them, how to come up with a better Siri.” [04:42] He points out the market’s tunnel vision, forgetting the juggernaut value of YouTube.

• Data Center Stock Rally:
  Commodity chipmakers like Micron, Seagate, and Western Digital soared due to demand and an analyst upgrade on SanDisk. Cramer mocks the schtick of selling Nvidia because it’s "too big" (which he considers illogical).

  “I regard that as insulting. Insulting to Jensen Huang, insulting to me. I’m insulted.” – on Nvidia’s valuation [06:37]

• Apple’s AI “Critique”:
  Apple is dinged for not “spending enough,” but Cramer reminds us:

  “The crazy thing though is that they have a superior consumer product... History says they will eventually get there.” [07:34]

• Meta-Point:
  All these companies are compared as if they’re one family, but their businesses are distinct – sometimes only their stock prices are correlated.

• Investment Takeaway:

  “One day, one day, one of these companies is going to announce… it’s raising its forecast because of the AI products it is making. And you’re going to see a rally in all of them… you will be left holding commodity companies that can’t hold a candle to any of these giants, even if they are decidedly not from one big happy family.” [09:30]

---

2. Lightning Round (Q&A on Individual Stocks)

[10:32 – 12:24 and 28:21 – 41:18]

Highlights:

• IBM:

  “I want you to buy the stock, Craig, of IBM. You buy some now and then... it’s inexpensive and Arvind Krishnan is doing a fantastic job.” [11:20]

• CVS Health:

  “It’s a strong buy. Why? Because this David Joyner has come through the scrum… The only real competitor, CVS is Amazon. And CVS has Aetna. Amazon doesn’t. Aetna is crushing it.” [28:42]

• Marriott Vacations vs. Marriott Hotels:

  “I prefer Marriott Hotels. Much better, longer term growth.” [29:33]

• Lemonade (LMND):

  “I wish they could make some money, frankly. I mean that would be good.” [37:44]

• Weyerhaeuser:

  “If rates go up, this stock goes down… I am more bullish on it than the rest of Wall Street.” [39:18]

• Carpenter Technology:

  “You got a terrific company there. What a great chart too. I think I would buy some here and buy some if it comes down, but definitely add some right here.” [41:09]

  Cramer also promises to invite Chris Urmson (Aurora Innovation, Waymo co-founder) onto the show after a listener presses on the autonomous freight story.

  “I’m calling him right now. I can’t even wait… But I will not render a verdict until I have him on the show.” [40:19]

---

3. SK Hynix: The “Biggest Trader Tomorrow”

[14:22 – 22:16]

• Background:
  SK Hynix, a massive Korean memory chipmaker, is about to list $26.4B in American Depository Receipts on NASDAQ – one of the largest offerings in history. Most Americans haven’t heard of it, but it holds 56.4% of the high bandwidth memory market vital for AI/data centers.

  “SK Hynix is one of the top five stock offerings of all time by size.” [14:57]

• Bull Case:
  – Dominant in high bandwidth memory (HBM), which is in insatiable demand via data centers and Nvidia partnership
  – > “The companies involved say that they don’t expect supply to catch up to demand until at least late 2027 or even… 2028, meaning multiple years of insanely strong ever higher pricing for memory chips.” [16:31]
  – Still trades cheaply: just 7x this year’s estimated earnings

• Bear Case:
  – The memory chip industry is cyclical: every boom is followed by a bust
  – SK Hynix will spend massively to keep pace; risk of glut if demand falters
  – U.S. listing makes the stock less scarce
  – Recent steep drop in memory chip stocks

• Cramer’s Play:

  “If you really want it, put on a medium sized position, leave room to buy more into weakness.” [21:42]
  He recommends caution, but sees value for those who can weather volatility.

---

4. PepsiCo’s Earnings Miss: Sticker Shock and Market Realities

[23:50 – 29:33]

• What went wrong?
  Despite appearing strong on the surface, PepsiCo’s earnings fell short due to gasoline inflation and consumer sticker shock over snack prices (notably for Frito-Lay).

  “On a conference call, management admitted that inflation in the price of gasoline caused domestic snack sales to fall. That led to a collapse in the stock.” [23:58]

• Industry Disconnect:
  Wall Street missed the everyday impact:

  “They don’t think about the added cost of a bag of chips on top of the money they spent at the pump when they go to the convenience store...” [25:34]

• Key quote on price sensitivity:

  “When a bag of chips was three bucks it was not an issue. But six bucks, well that’s a real source of savings.” [26:02]

• Cramer’s Take:
  Urges drastic price cuts, foreseeing more rollbacks:

  “I fear… this is the beginning of a slow rollback in pricing. I say rip the Band-Aid off, go back to prices from 10 years ago...” [27:30]

---

5. Under-the-Radar Infrastructure Play: Preformed Line Products (PLPC)

[29:39 – 34:25]

• Overview:
  A listener tip sparks Cramer’s review of Preformed Line Products, a small cap making physical hardware (connectors, cable holders, hardware for data centers and the electric grid) critical to the U.S. infrastructure and AI buildout.

• Why it's compelling:
  – “The AI boom is incredibly hardware intensive.”
  – PLPC up 105% in 12 months; yet still below recent highs
  – Market leadership in grid and data center cabling
  – Potential beneficiary of federal infrastructure funding

  “I think PLPC is a great derivative play on the market's biggest theme.” [35:37] “Sure it’s doubled over the last year but I don’t think it’s crazy anymore to buy a stock like preformed at 35 times earnings in this data center obsessed market.” [36:02]

  Cramer’s advice:
  – Buy a position here but, ideally, “wait for weakness” to add more.

---

6. Senior Housing: A Secular Growth Bull Market

[41:41 – 47:23]

• Macro trend:
  America’s aging population (80+ demographic set to increase 30% by 2030), with a massive shortage in senior housing units.

• Featured analysis (with technician Dan Fitzpatrick):
  – Welltower (WELL):
  REIT landlord for senior housing, in a 3-year uptrend.

  “He thinks you can buy Welltower right here, right now, but you should leave room to buy a little more on weakness.” [42:35] – Pennant Group (PNTG):
  Senior housing operator embracing AI for efficiency. After forming a base, recently broke out; projected to reach $55 this year. – National Health Care Corp (NHC):
  Reliable “bounce at the 50-day” pattern; institutions buy every dip.

• Cramer’s bullish take:

  “The senior housing shortage is phenomenal long term theme. As a matter of fact, I actually want to be more aggressive than he is.” [47:09]

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Zuckerberg’s not a bozo, you can quote me on that.” [03:53]
• “I regard that as insulting. Insulting to Jensen Huang, insulting to me. I’m insulted.” [06:37]
• “The only real competitor, CVS, is Amazon. And CVS has Aetna. Amazon doesn’t. Aetna is crushing it. Buy the stock of CVS.” [28:42]
• “When a bag of chips was three bucks it was not an issue. But six bucks, well that’s a real source of savings.” [26:02]
• "There's always a bull market somewhere. I promise I'd find it just for you." [47:13]

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

| Segment | Time | |---------------------------------------------------|--------------| | Cramer on Tech Megacap Comparisons | 01:02 - 10:32| | Lightning Round Part 1 | 10:32 - 12:24| | Deep Dive: SK Hynix IPO | 14:22 - 22:16| | PepsiCo Earnings Breakdown | 23:50 - 29:33| | Preformed Line Products/Infrastructure | 29:39 - 36:40| | Lightning Round Part 2 | 36:59 - 41:18| | Off the Charts: Senior Housing | 41:41 - 47:23|

---

TL;DR – Actionable Takeaways

• Don’t lump tech giants together—each has unique strengths, strategies, and cycles.
• Meta and Alphabet: Ignore the panic; look at how their assets (users, partnerships) may be leveraged for future growth.
• AI chip/hardware boom: SK Hynix is primed but volatile; think “buy in stages”.
• Consumer staples stocks like PepsiCo: Beware input and sticker-price sensitivities; rollbacks are coming.
• Infrastructure mini-giants: Seek out small cap “picks-and-shovels” plays like PLPC, which quietly power the AI and grid buildouts.
• Senior housing stocks: Both REITs (Welltower) and operators (Pennant, NHC) are in multi-year uptrends because demographic demand is unstoppable.

---

For further detail, catch the specific timestamp for each actionable discussion or memorable Cramer-ism above!

Transcript

[Empower Advertiser]

Say you always wanted to have a backyard oasis. Here's the thing. If you get smart with your money, you can do things like that. With Empower, you can start making the most out of your money so you can go out and live a little. Isn't that why we work so hard to have some fun with our money? Like treating yourself to something special or spontaneously doing something extra for a loved one? So use Empower and get good at money so you can be a little bad. Join their 20 million customers today at empower.com, not an empower client, paid or sponsored.

[Indeed Advertiser]

When the right person joins a team, everything changes. Deadlines tighten, momentum builds, chaos settles down. That's why hiring smart matters. Indeed Sponsored Jobs gets you quality candidates when you need them most. Spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes with Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Less stress, less time, more results. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit@ Indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

[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 Kramer the Blue Big Friends. I'm just trying to make you a little extra money here. My job, not just to entertain, but to educate. So call me at 1-800-743- CNBC or tweet. Mer There's a reason that so many of us in this business love to talk about the biggest companies on earth. But we need to stop making endless comparisons among them just because they're all colossal in size and many of you own them. On a day where the averages roll over the map, with the Dow advancing 139 points as being.1%, the Nasdaq jumping 1.3%. I think we need to accept an old adage that my Grandma Mary always told me. Comparisons are odious. Especially comparisons involving the trillion dollar giants that dominate the daily discussion of the stock market.

[Indeed Advertiser]

Why?

[Jim Cramer]

Because comparisons are only useful when the companies really have something in common beyond their scale. And often they are considered to be carbon copies of each other. And that's just not true. Consider what each of these companies really is. Hey, why don't we start with Meta? Okay, that's been come a real mystery. This morning it was reported that Meta has a new chip in production with Broadcom that caused an instant panic because it meant that Meta was going to spend a ton of money to keep up with Google, Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud computing business. Then throw in met his acknowledgment that it's going to spend a lot more money on capital expenditures. A dreaded strategy from Wall Street's perspective. And the stock got slammed right out of the gate. Meta can't possibly go up against those other companies. Right? Their expertise is advertising. Correct. How do they defeat Google, Amazon and Microsoft in cloud infrastructure? But hold up here for one moment, just one moment, and forget about the other trillion dollar companies and just think about Metta. Stop comparing. Start thinking. Mark Zuckerberg is a genius. He's demonstrated that time and again. Perhaps, just perhaps, he's thinking that his web service business could be huge because it can cross reference with all the Data from Metis. 3 and a half billion users. Maybe that could be a huge new revenue stream. Maybe his plans to monetize what's app in some way that needs the agents that a data center creates. We don't know. But we can approximate that Meta might get a gigantic return on its investment here. It's only because we think of how much everyone else is spending that we don't consider. Maybe Zuckerberg's got profitable plans and he isn't just some cowboy throwing up expensive data centers all over the world purely because he can afford to. That's nuts. This is a man who take that, who really would. He would take the same money and and use it just to sit there and buy back stock. If he thought that was a better use of cash, he's done that. There are a ton of investors who'd happily buy his stock and Zuckerberg would simply cancel these expensive plans. But maybe we should lean in and recognize that he knows more about his company's prospects than we do. Maybe that's why matter ultimately rallied like crazy after that initial decline. It finished up $28. Zuckerberg's not a bozo, you can quote me on that. We should stop considering him as one. What a stand. Or how about Google? All right. Now they raised a ton of money recently and basically captain Terrific rally in their stock. In the old days, everyone loved Google because it was spewing cash. Now it seems like it's trying to raise any money, any amount of money that it can, just to stay in the air. Rat race with the other magnificent seven. But wait one minute. Sure, there's a race to get market share in what seems like an increasing commoditized market. With Chachi beat Claude Grog Perplexity Gemini. It's entirely possible that we only will have one winner in this whole game. And if that's the case, it's going to be Google. Because in Gemini why? Because it's a default on Apple's installed base of 2.5 billion devices. If I were at Alphabet, all I'd be thinking about is how to make the best product for Apple, how to, how to please them, how to come up with a better Siri. That was enough to wipe out all comers once before with Google Search. Now it could be the same with Gemini. Meanwhile, we no longer spend much time pondering the worth of YouTube and way more ridiculous. Do you think YouTube may be the most profitable large scale business ever invented and all we care about is Google spending money in another place. Now today was one of those days where the complex of Micron, Seagate, Lumenum, Corning, Western Digital and Sanders all took off and they're all at the top of the S&P 500 leaderboard. These are all companies that make products where there's intense demand right now mostly from the data center and there's not enough supply. This rally got triggered by an analyst who raises price target for Sanders from $1200 to $2000. Where was that guy? Was he like hiking the Andes for a while? I don't know. Come on, wake up. There was a clarion call that there are plenty of price increases still to come for their data storage products. When traders see that they do three things. Okay, they do three things. We're going to get them in the order that they do. First thing they do. Okay, well they buy the stocks I just mentioned. Two, they put in orders for SK Hynix, the giant Korean memory chip maker seeking to raise something like $26 billion in an ADR offering on the NASDAQ that starts trading tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for more about that. And three well what do they do? This is their favorite thing to do sell Nvidia because they it's too big to play out to lumbering me. What do I do? Well I look at in video as a company unto itself with a management run by Jensen Huang who seems like a smart fellow to me. I say it's at the heart of the data center with a product that's still the NV industry. Doesn't matter though. All I see is people endlessly comparing chips by Amazon, by Alpha, hey by Sanders, by Micro and maybe by Mad. I thought my Space X. We never stop to think that all of these companies, what are they really at least the hyperscalers. There they are. They are customers of Nvidia and just like The Commodity Semiconductor Dr. Companies in videos on allocation too. We just don't talk about it. They can't make enough of their product either. But some of the commodity chip companies like SanDisk and now have price earnings multiples that are higher on next year's earnings than in video. I regard that as insulting. Insulting to Jensen Huang, insulting to me. I'm insulted. Sans is a commodity chip maker. Nvidia is the most proprietary chip company in the history of the world. You know what held back Apple for ages? Its lack of data center spending. Lack of it. That's what. That's all this comparison stuff where they're not spending enough. Yeah, it was constantly under fire for not shelling out fortunes on an AI strategy. Even the other guys were under fire because they were constantly selling out fortunes on an AI strategy. All right, this compare scheme has got to stop. No, Apple didn't build its own AI. It's not in that business. The crazy thing though is that they have a superior consumer product. Now Google's Gemini is Basically the default AI on your iPhone. Are they given the benefit down? No, because Siri is smart enough. I say don't sell Apple. The company has a product that's unusually. Maybe it's just not the best for them. It's not the best. Typically everything they make is the best. But history says they will eventually get there. All these companies suffer by the compares. Amazon is not good enough because it keeps borrowing money to build data centers that it won't be able to monetize like anthropic can. Microsoft has a suboptimal AI product versus the others. Copilot. What if it has a new one we don't even know about that's going to blow us all away? Maybe it's got something secret. The competition so stiff, the amounts of money that they're spending make them second rate investments in the eyes of the market. You can't raise numbers on them, not now. And if you listen to the zeitgeist of Wall street, not ever. But one day, one day, one day, one of these companies, one of these companies is going to announce on a conference call that it's raising its forecast because of the AI products it is making. And you're going to see a rally in all of them. A rally that'll be so powerful that you'll never stop kicking yourself for missing out on it. How do I know this? Because unfortunately they all trade together. Right now we're in a sink one, sink them all situation. But the bottom line, we get one. Just one of these heavy hitters saying it's a business is now profitable. Then you can forget about owning a commodity semiconductor stock. Instead you'll go for the hyperscaler that spewing so much cash flow you that it won't even know what to do with the money. And you will be left holding commodity companies that can't hold a candle to any of these giants, even if they are decidedly not from one big happy family. Craig in texas.

[Caller]

Craig.

[SiriusXM Aviation Advertiser]

Craig.

[Jim Cramer]

I kind of missed Craig.

[Caller]

Booyah, Jim.

[Jim Cramer]

Booyah. What's happening,

[Caller]

Jim? Let me start by thanking you for sharing your wisdom with us listeners over the years. I've done very well because of you and I feel indebted.

[Jim Cramer]

Well, I like that. Do not feel indebted. Watching is good enough. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

[Caller]

Okay, no worries. I'm a second time caller club member and I have your most recent book. I love it. My stock is IBM. I wanted your opinion so I can decide whether I should buy, sell or hold.

[Jim Cramer]

I want you to buy the stock, Craig, of IBM. You buy some now and then. It's been having these kind of panic fits, just panic attacks. You buy the rest then. I think IBM is terrific. It's inexpensive and Arvind Christian is doing a fantastic job. All right, guys. I'm a little fired up about this idea that all these stocks should trade together because they should. One day you're going to see a rally in one of these stocks that kicks off a rally in all of them because everyone thinks they're one big family, one that is so powerful that you will kick yourself for missing out on it. On Man Money tonight with SK Hynix at the list on the NASDAQ tomorrow, I'll give you a rundown of whether you should fold this new name into your portfolio. Then a different kind of chip stock fell hard after earnings. So what's behind PepsiCo's dec? Taking a closer look at it. And I'm digging into a company with a boring name but exciting prospects that you told me about. Don't miss my take on preformed line products. No, don't fall, Steve. It's gonna make big money. Stan Kramer,

[Mad Money Announcer]

Don't miss a second of Mad Money. Follow imKramer on X. Have a question. Tweet Kramer MadMentioned. Send Jim an email to madmoneynbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC. Miss something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com

[Comcast Business Advertiser]

the world of business is constantly evolving and Comcast business keeps you totally in step with secure AI backed networking in more than 100 countries. They're powering over 90% of the Fortune 500 and millions of small businesses. That's a lot of muscle. And behind it all, thousands of experts answering your call at 2am like it's 2pm One partner powering how business gets done for companies around the globe. When you add it all up, no one does business like Comcast Business.

[EY Parthenon Advertiser]

How do you turn your strategy into action and action into impact? Bold leaders do it through transformative strategy and transactions, ones that work in practice, not just on paper. At EY Parthenon, we use an investor mindset to help you create value.

[Caller]

How?

[EY Parthenon Advertiser]

By combining deep sector experience with AI powered technology so you can reimagine your business for tomorrow while building it today. Shape your future with EY Parthenon. Learn more Today when you're at work,

[Dell Advertiser]

you never know when you'll be interrupted. But with the Dell Pro powered by Intel Core Ultra with vpro, no matter what distracts you, your laptop won't. It's battery optimized for the way you work. With built in intelligence that quiets distractions when you need to focus, your laptop will help keep you locked in even when it's bring your dog to work day. Built for those who stay in the flow. The Dell Pro built for you Dell.com Dell Pro.

[Jim Cramer]

Tomorrow this market gets hit with its third gigantic equity offering in the past six weeks, when SK Highness, the South Korean memory chip giant, issues American depository receipts that will trade on the nasdaq. Now, the numbers haven't been finalized yet, but we're Talking roughly about $26.4 billion worth of stock, based on the company's closing price in South Korea today and the current exchange rate. Now this comes on the heels of the $75 billion Space X IPO and Alphabet's $45 billion fundraise. We've also seen some big bond offerings from Space X and Amazon. That's why I'm really hung up on this SK Hynix deal. It's yet another test of this market's appetite, especially for stocks that are connected to the data center theme that I always talked about. I know 26 billion might not sound matter shattering, but you know this it's one of the top five stock offerings of all time by size. Until last month, Alibaba was the largest IPO in US history, and that was less than 22 billion. At the same time, SK Hynix is a company that most Americans had never heard of, at least until the great memory shortage went into overdrive about a year ago. Now it's already valued at more than $1 trillion in Korea. So tonight, what I want to do is this. I want to walk you through where this company came from. It's going to be the biggest trader tomorrow. Originally, SK Hynix was founded as Hyundai's electronics subsidiary back in 1983. And in 2001 it rebranded itself as a Hynix semiconductor and was spun off as an independent company. For years this was basically a petty stock as it took from eight ages to recover from the East Asian financial crisis of the late 90s and the company settled a heavy debt load. Things started to turn around in 2012 when SK Group acquired a controlling interest and SK still owns 20.5% of the business. Since then, they doubled down on investments in production and new technologies while other chip makers were pulling in their horns. For example, in 2013, SK Hynix rolled out the first high bandwidth memory product, something that's become crucial to AI infrastructure. These days, the demand for all kinds of memory chips has exploded thanks to all these new data centers. And when we talk about memory chips, there are basically three big companies that make them. Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix. They're number two in overall DRAM memory market and also number two in modern in more modern flash memory while being the biggest maker. And this is what really matters of high bandwidth memory. See, that's why the stock's been on fire lately. They control 56.4% of the hottest market on earth, the high bandwidth memory market. Nobody else comes close. And this is the stuff that data centers can't get enough of. The hottest commodity on Earth if you measure from November 30, 2022. Today, the ChatGPT launch SK Hynix stock is up roughly 2550 percent, morphing the 354% gain from Samsung. South Korean listed shares, they're in that same business. And the 1,620% gain from Micron. Much of these gains came in the past year as the memory shortage has gotten much more acute. That's what causes prices to soar over the past 12 months. This one's even about even with Micron, which you know is one of the great performers of all time. That's a 700% gain. Now I know these runs in the memory chip stock, they just seem crazy, right? But it's much easier to process when you remember that the Underlying earnings are flying too. It's not just based on ether. From 2023 to 2025, SK Hynes his revenue nearly tripled. As for the earnings, they lost about 7 billion. 2023 was a very lean time and then they turned to $30 billion profit last year. That's what this business used to be up and down and up and down. This year, the analysis back SK Heis revenue is going to more than more than triple while net income is expected to increase fivefold to around $153 billion. Like Ralphie from the Sopranos, it's a good earner. That's how SK Hynix became a member of the trillionaires club. So, okay, now you know the background. Is this thing worth buying when it starts trading in America tomorrow? You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to give you this case and that'll give you this case. The both thesis is simple. As the dominant maker of high bandwidth memory, SK Hynix is one of the top beneficiaries of the great data center build out. And it should keep winning for a long time in the memory chip market. Specifically, the companies involved say that they don't expect supply to catch up to demand until at least late 2027 or even I think this one's more likely 2028, meaning multiple years of insanely strong ever higher pricing for memory chips. At the same time, S.K. hynes is a very, very, very, very, very close relationship with the best customer of all all Nvidia. Just last month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited SK Hynix on a trip to Seoul where the two companies announced an expanded multi year partnership creating long term supply agreements that was very important for both companies. But the simplest argument in favor of SK Hynix is this. Even after the stock's incredible gains. I know this is going to sound crazy, but it's still pretty darn cheap. Right now the stock trades at seven times this year's earnings estimate. Just seven, five times next year's numbers. Four and a half times the numbers for 2028. The memory chips may sell at a used premium, but the stock trades at a discount. How about the bear case? Okay. As I've mentioned many, many times with Micron and other commodity chip makers, the big concern is that historically memory chips have been a boom and bust business. So when supply eventually catches up with demand, you don't want to be left holding the bag again. Historically, every memory chip boom has led to a memory chip bust. We also know that SK Hynix has enormous capital spending plans. They want to boost the capacity to catch up with the voracious demand for these chips. Their long term plan is to spend the equivalent of $729 billion, bolstering their South Korean manufacturing footprint. Now if you believe the AI driven demand for these chips is permanent, well then, then you're going to need all that capacity. But if you're familiar with the story here, you know that lots of new production capacity is how shortages turn into gluts. At the same time, SD Hynix has probably benefited from the fact that it only trades in South Korea, making the stock inaccessible for many American investors. Once it trades here though, starting tomorrow, the whole group, including Micron and Samsung, will have less scarcity value. The final leg of the bear case for SK Heights is what's happened over the past three weeks. In that period we've seen many memory stocks just get crushed. A beat down for Samsung, just as last week, this week, despite the fact that it pre announced what I thought were fantastic numbers on Tuesday morning, Micron's also been hit hard even though it reported a terrific quarter in late June. Meanwhile, SK Hynix's South Korean listed shares are down about 25% from their highs less than three weeks ago. That's happened on no real news from the company itself. It's just that the stock went parabolic. Fortunately, that means you're not coming in at the tippy top for the stock, but this thing's a roller coaster that can go down real fast. There's the bottom line. Tomorrow SK Hynix Korea will start trading on the NASDAQ here. And this offering represents another enormous slug of stock that our market will need to digest. I think it's an important test for the market. That said, we know the memory chip business is on fire, at least right now. And if you're willing to accept the volatility, I think you do a lot worse than this one. If you really want it though, how about this? Put on a medium sized position, leave room to buy more into weakness. It's had quite a run and it's not clear that the digestion of this new chunk of stock will be all that well received, especially if it's priced at a premium to the last sale in Korea, which is what we are hearing may happen. Bear bunny's back after the break.

[Mad Money Announcer]

Coming up with PepsiCo's earnings falling flat, Kramer's digging into the report to see what went wrong next.

[Podcast Narrator]

A history of the United States in 100 Objects is a brand new podcast from 99% Invisible and BBC Studios. Each week we're looking at a different object from across American history with a unique story to tell about who we've been, what we've built, and what we've allowed ourselves to forget. Some of these objects are well known, many are not, but all of them carry the story of how we got to this moment. Find a history of the United States in 100 objects on the 99% invisible feed. Wherever you get your podcasts with the

[Indeed Advertiser]

Vifgaard, Hytrulo, Eschart Alpha and Hyaluronidase QVFC Pre filled Syringe Self injection is in your hands. It's your treatment routine. You set the time and same day each week. Take the pre filled syringe with you on vacation or have it handy for cozy staycations. For more information, visit livevividly.com that's L I V E V D Y-V-I-L-Y.com brought to you by Argenics with my Sapphire

[Empower Advertiser]

Preferred card we took a trip to

[Mad Money Disclaimer Narrator]

a desert Oasis earning five times the

[Empower Advertiser]

points on Chase Travel, two times the

[Jim Cramer]

points on all other travel plus $100 hotel credit.

[Indeed Advertiser]

Chase Sapphire preferred a car that's preferred for a reason.

[Jim Cramer]

Cards issued by JP Morgan, Chase bank

[Empower Advertiser]

and a member FDIC subject to credit approval terms apply.

[Jim Cramer]

Was it the price of gasoline that crushed PepsiCo stock today? Or was it the price of fritos? This morning PepsiCo reported a quarter that looked fine on the surface but failed. Well when you got to the fine print. Meanwhile, the stock, once a market darling, has turned into an ugly D duckling. On a conference call, management admitted that inflation in the price of gasoline caused domestic stock sales to fall. That led to a collapse in the stock. It dropped $4.65 or 3.26%. It was one of the worst performers SB 500 today. Now unlike its beverage competitor Coca Cola, PepsiCo is a very complicated company, one that's historically relied on the salty snacks division. Not this. Frito Lay is what fuels its growth. And unfortunately Frito Lay has gone negative in North America, the Most important market down 2%, primarily affecting lower net pricing. How come? Well, here's the paragraph that slew the quarter results were tempered in you in the quarter as US Food and beverage category performance moderated with consumer budgets tightening due to rising inflation pressure. Well, this is new verbiage for PepsiCo. The previous quarter CEO Ramon Laguardo thought that he had pricing under control. There have been sequential improvement and the stock was strong. Now though, in just three months things are looking much worse. A pretty shocking development, especially for a well respected run company like PepsiCo. How did it take us by surprise? Maybe we on Wall street just bunch stops. Most of the big trigger pullers in this industry don't know much about regular people. They don't shop at Wal Mart, they've never been to a dollar tree and they probably don't know the difference between a six dollar bag of Fritos and a seven dollar one. They don't think about the added cost of a bag of chips on top of the money they spent at the pump when they go to the convenience store which is a huge locus of snack spending. So we were all aghast that there could be any pushback on the price of potato chips. Could a dollar increase really make such a huge difference? Honestly, yes. See the Wall street guys aren't considering two things. First, the price of gasoline is right in front of you and we know it's exorbitant versus a few months ago even as it's pulled back from size. When gas is that expensive, consumers need to give up on something like snacks. When a bag of chips was three bucks it was not an issue. But six bucks, well that's a real source of savings. So there was genuine shock on this miss. Now I've been lucky enough to be a rich guy for a long time. Look, I play with an open hand here, okay? I'm not gonna pretend. But I remember what it was like to be poor. And I can tell you it isn't the absolute price of potato chips that has people upset. It's the endless increases in price and the compounding of those price increases over the years that make tens of millions of people sick to their stomachs. This quarter I think some of the largest distributors had enough and demanded price rollbacks. We know that Wal Mart committed to rolling back prices. In fact, they specifically named fairly chips and PepsiCo sodas in their announcement on price cuts on Monday. It wouldn't shock me if Wal Mart forced PepsiCo's hand and demanded rollbacks as the prices stayed in their aisles. I think it was the rollbacks in the traditional grocers plus the sticker shock of the convenience stores that made it so no matter what PepsiCo did, it couldn't grow the business. Now they've tried things to forestall this moment. I know they want to stick by their innovation playbook. I respect that. They're tremendous cost cutters too. But maybe they just have to take the darn hit and cut the price of their products big time, take a ton of market share and then three quarters from now they can have a much better return. I fear, as others do, that this is the beginning of a slow rollback in pricing. I say rip the band Aid off, go back to prices from 10 years ago before the illness increases and get realistic. You raise prices too much too often for a country is now weight obsessed, health obsessed and gop, that's one obsessed. And you're just not going to make as much money for a bag as you'd like to. Now PepsiCo gets about half of its sales from overseas. Net business is terrific. They need to make international much bigger to lessen the impact of feudalized domestic pain. Here's the bottom line. I fear now that only drastic pricing can reverse a domestic dive. Something, by the way, CEO Raymond LaGuarda disagree with when we interviewed him squawk on the street. In truth, I thought Raymond wasn't really disagreeing with me. I think he was suddenly disagreeing with the action in the stock. And that's actually not that great idea when you're running a publicly traded company. Let's go to Cliff in New York. Cliff.

[Caller]

Boy, Mr. Kramer, booyah, as they say in the Haynes underwear commercials. I'll try to be brief. Health care stocks have been out of favor for a long, long time now.

[Jim Cramer]

Right.

[Caller]

But when it comes to CVS health care, would you say it's a buy sell?

[Jim Cramer]

It's a strong buy. Why? Because this David Joyner has come through the scrum. Where do we see a Walgreens? Very few of them. We don't see Rite Aids anymore. They're gone. The only real competitor, CVS is Amazon. And CVS is. Got Aetna. Amazon doesn't. Aetna is crushing it. Buy the stock of cvs. I sure wish I'd done it for my trust. Let's go to Justin in West Virginia. Justin.

[Caller]

Hey, Jim, how you doing?

[Jim Cramer]

I'm doing well, Justin. How about you?

[Caller]

I'm doing great. Thank you for taking my call. It's an honor to talk to you. Hey, I'm looking at. I'm looking at a stock that is down considerably still from its 2021 highs. But year to date it's had a heck of a run. It's up almost 70% in 2026. Jim, is it too late to get into Marriott Hotels?

[Jim Cramer]

No, no, it's not. No, it's absolutely not. I think this is a long term winner. I've been saying this over. Oh, oh, hold it. Marriott Vacations or Marriott Hotels. Two different stories but I like them both Vacation. Oh the. Okay, that's Marriott vacation. Not as good as Marriott Hotels. I prefer Marriott Hotels. Much better. Longer term growth. I'm sorry that I reacted so quickly. I heard Marriott and I liked it so much I couldn't restrain myself. All right. I fear that only drastic price cuts can save PepsiCo. Stop the company. It's a great company. It's just the stocks too high because maybe Fritos are too high. What's my money at the name? Preformed line products might not sound all that interesting but a closer look at the stock reveals something promising. I'm digging deeper. Then are the senior housing stocks getting a new lease on my boy? Who's looking at them lately? I'm going off the charts. Serving the space and of course all your calls. Rapid fire. Tonight's digital the lightning round. So stay with Kramer. The other night I got this terrific call from Sam in Massachusetts. We asked about a company called Preformed line products company plpc. I told him that he had a winner tonight. I want to circle back to it because this one's a beneficiary from the great American tech build out. And like many other data center plays the stocks come down hard over the past week and a half. Now this is a company that designs and manufactures all sorts of stuff that's critical when you're building new infrastructure. Things like connectors, fascinating solutions, cable holders and protection products for cables, lines, fiber optic networks. I know, boring. So what that we need this stuff for the new electric infrastructure to power all these data centers and that means more business for Preform line products. They dominate the market for heavy duty transmission lower line hardware. Same goes for inside the data center. These guys make the physical infrastructure you need if you want to run bundles of wires and and fiber optic cable throughout a big warehouse full of servers. Now this is something I talk about practically every night, right? The AI boom is incredibly hardware intensive. After decades where software was in charge. Now it's all about setting up massive buildings, filling them with tech and even building new power plants to supply them with electricity. That's how something like a caterpillars become a big winner. And it's why Preform line products keeps winning. In its latest quarter the company delivered a monster. Earnings beat 24% growth just versus the previous three months. In other words, that's linked. Their sales were in line but that still represented 19% year over year growth. And this stock's been a great long term compounder. It's up 105% over the past 12 months and up 67% just year to date. But after soaring above 400 in June, the stock has now pulled Back to the 340s. The preform line products chart looks like every other AI related stock chart. A huge run this year that's taken a breather lately. Although given how this group's bounce today, I don't know, the Breather could be over. That said, even after these gains, Preformed is still tiny with a market cap of under $1.7 billion. You're definitely not early if you buy it up here, but if. But you might not be late either. See, this is a small company with an increasingly large role to play in grid upgrades. And the great data center build out, which we know is still early and Preformed also has some potential exposure to robotics and automation. They're even working on next generation robotic installation systems for overhead power lines. Boy, does Sam have a good one here. At first when I got the call on this one, I called it a mini quanta. And it's also reminded me of an outfit that was on the show not too long ago that I really, really struck me as a great one called Sterling Infrastructure. These are the guys doing the construction, engineering contracting, buying a lot of the power infrastructure and data center build us we keep hearing about. We had Sterling CEO Joseph Cutiello on the show. That was February 22nd. Get this, the stocks are Ford and 24 just a few months later and it's down in the 700, up more than 200% over the past 12 months. You could do a lot worse than being in another Sterling infrastructure. And now Preform line products in Sterling operate in different parts of the AI infrastructure stack. To start, Sterling is a services provider while Preform makes physical products. But they're similar in that they're both tied to key bottlenecks in one of the biggest buildouts in history. Sterling helps solve the bottleneck at the very beginning. Physical construction, engineering and site prep. Preform solves the bottleneck in digitizing the power grid, hanging the advanced conductors and providing the hardware that helps connect and protect the guts of the data center and the grid around it.

[Caller]

Wow.

[Jim Cramer]

I think both are good places to be and the market seems agreed me. These are two smaller companies that benefit from all the capex construction everything that goes into a data center and the systems connecting them. Every cable, every line, every connector and every piece of hardware that makes the build out work. Preformed also has the potential benefit from the White House's efforts to bolster domestic energy infrastructure and and secure the power grid. Like when Trump invoked the Defense Production act back in April. That order authorized federal purchases, purchase commitments and export action to expand manufacturing and deployment capacity for companies critical to American infrastructure. Companies like perform put it all together and I think Preform Line products is a good fit for this moment. Again, I'm not saying the company will definitely get a check for Uncle Sam, but the government's telling you exactly what it thinks is strategic grid infrastructure. Conductors, transformers, transmission equipment substations and the supply chain around them. That's plpc bread and butter. This kind of company might not be your first thought when you imagine what goes into the great build out like what I talked about at the top of the show. But before the boom this was a really pedestrian grower. Why? Well look, the electric grid hasn't grown much in this country in the last couple of decades but now there's a colossal amount of spending to make the grid more much faster and more powerful. Certainly make it a little bit harder so to speak. I think PLPC is a great derivative play on the market's biggest theme. I think you're getting a nice entry point here given the recent pullback. Sure it's doubled over the last year but I don't think it's crazy anymore to buy a stock like preformed at 35 times earnings in this data center obsessed market. So here's the bottom line in this very cool idea that one of our brilliant viewers Sam brought to us. Preform Line Products company is a small but critical part of the build out. If you believe in this story and you believe the company can earn nearly $13 per share in 2028 which is what the analysis projecting then you got my blessing to put us position on right here. Now look, ideally the stock will pull back a little bit more. You get that the position weakness because I don't see the data center build up slowing down anytime soon. But. But the stock has already pulled back. I see you're getting at a much better level than I thought you'd get anytime soon. That money's back in.

[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.

[Jim Cramer]

It is time. It's time for the lightning round for Stockton by my bison. So I'm just putting on four stock quizzes that's not my dead friends round. And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready Ski daddy? Turn to the light. Tyler. New York.

[Caller]

Tyler.

Buh buh buh buh buh boy. First time longtime listener and club member. Jim, I wanted to get your thoughts on this founder led company using AI to try to disrupt a multi, multi trillion dollar industry. Jim, the customer growth is impressive and the story just keeps on getting more and more interesting. Jimbo, summer is here. It's scorching outside. So tell me Jim, what do you think about some lmnc?

[Jim Cramer]

I wish they could make some money, frankly. I mean that would be good. You know, it would change my view of they started making money that would make it into a better state, stock in a better company. But I think you put on a tremendous presentation. Let's go to Ned in Ohio.

[Caller]

Ned, Professor Kramer, good to talk to you again, sir. How's your day going?

[Jim Cramer]

How's my day going? I think fair to Midland. I did a little this, a little that, mostly that. That's a steal from another show. Go ahead, start.

[Caller]

Okay. Well, I was afraid I was going to strike out today because I was in the queue to talk to you Tuesday and then Wednesday. So I was over two until today. And I'm one for three now.

There you go.

[Jim Cramer]

That's 33 average. And the phone room people are fabulous. I love the phoneroom people.

[Caller]

Yes, sir, I wanted to talk, I wanted to ask you about a company that pays a secured dividend of around 3.7%. It has millions of acres of owned or controlled timberlands. It's in the construction wood products business for commercial and housing construction. They're in real estate. They also, their stock price has drifted down quite a bit. But it seems to me it's a,

it would be a pretty good buy

with that interest rate and it has room to grow over time. The company is Weyerhaeuser, sir.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, warehouser. Okay, here's the problem, Weyerhaeuser. If rates go up, this stock goes down and people think rates are going higher. If you think rates are going to lower, going lower, ultimately then you would start buying the stock right here. I am more bullish on it than the rest of Wall Street. Let's go to Sal in New York.

[Caller]

Sal.

Jim, how are you?

[Jim Cramer]

All right, buddy. What's happening?

[Caller]

Nothing much.

[Jim Cramer]

All right.

[Caller]

A couple weeks ago you had the CEO of FedEx Freight on your show.

[Jim Cramer]

Yeah, everything was great.

[Caller]

But you guys, he was awesome. I mean, it was awesome. And you guys are talking about all the autonomous routes that they're running. But there was only one issue, Jim. You didn't talk about the company who's running those routes for FedEx Freight and how successful those Routes are and the on time percentage and the safety percentage and all the great partnerships that that company has. Jim, it's time for you to bring on Chris Urmson, the one of the co founders of Waymo. It's time for you to bring Chris on your show. Jim, what do you think about Aurora innovation and bringing Chris on?

[Jim Cramer]

I'm calling him right now. I can't even wait. All right, we're gonna wait till the end of the show. We're getting that fellow on the show. I am not gonna to make a determination on Aurora Innovations. So I guess Chris Urson on the used to be, by the way is the founder of Waymo. I'm going to really be all over this guy. I get all over him. But I will not render a verdict until I have him on the show. There it is. Now we're going to go to Harvey in Arizona.

[Caller]

Harvey, good to talk to you.

[Jim Cramer]

Jim, enjoy your show.

[Caller]

Thank you.

[Jim Cramer]

Well, probably talk stocks too. I mean, you know, while we're at it. Right? Yeah, yeah, the. Well, I was calling you.

[Caller]

I. I'm an old engineer so I

[Jim Cramer]

like carpenter technology symbol CRM. And so do I. And not just because it's car tech is one of Philly's best. You got a terrific company there. What a great chart too. I think I would buy some here and buy some if it comes down, but definitely add some right here. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes it

[Caller]

of the Lightning round.

[Mad Money Announcer]

The Lightning round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, could assisted living stocks be a safe haven for your money in a turbulent market? Kramer's going off the charts. To find out next,

[Jim Cramer]

Today, I want to tell you about one of the great secular growth stories of our era that really has got nothing to do with with the data center talking about the senior housing shortage in this country. And we've known about America's aging population base for decades. There's nothing new about my fellow baby boomers getting older and older. But throw in massive senior housing shortage that we're having and suddenly there's a lot of money Major. That's why we're going to go off the charts with the help of Dan Fitzpatrick. Oh, he's a terrific technician who's the founder of stock market mentor and the host of his own podcast, the Fitz Factor. Take a closer look at some of the best performing senior housing stocks. Blow your socks off. You can't believe these charts. First, let me set the stage. The number of Americans over The age of 80 is set to grow from 14.7 million today to nearly 19 million by 2030. That's a 30% increase in less than four years. As these people get older, the senior housing and assisted living industry will need to build about 600,000 new units by 2030. But it's very hard to put up new housing in this country. And we know that senior housing construction slowed dramatically, shrinking to its lowest level more than a decade. In short, demand for senior housing is accelerating, but supply just isn't keeping up. As Fitzpatrick sees it, that means existing senior housing assets are likely to become a lot more valuable. Now, there are two distinct categories here. You've got the owners, basically landlords for senior housing, and then the operators who actually run these facilities. Fitch thinks opportunities are all over the place here. Why don't we start with the weekly chart of the biggest one, the one everybody knows if you're following this industry, and that's Welltower. It's a real estate investment trust that owns one of the largest senior housing portfolios in America. Welltower owns the law, the real estate and partners with different operators to manage many of them. But ultimately Welltower is a landlord. When you look at the weekly chart, you can see the Welltower has been in a magnificent three year uptrend that is so good, clean, no signs of slowing down at all. And it makes sense. They own lots of senior housing. In a world where the 80 plus demo is skyrocketing. Fitzpatrick points out that the 40 week moving average blue, okay, shows strong institutional buying every time. Well, Tower Share pulls back the price. Look at this. The professionals come in and they load up the truck. The top of the trading range shows you how far the stock can run for these institutions. Back away some room there. The Patrick believes this stock can keep chugging higher. He thinks you can buy Welltower right here, right now, but you should leave room to buy a little more on weakness. Maybe the next time the stock pulls back to around its 40 day, 40 week moving average. A little bit here, okay? And that's a very solid, that's a very solid line of support. That's a very pretty chart, people. Next, let's talk about senior housing operators like Pennant Group and National Health Care Corp. Check out the weekly chart of Pennant. Oh man. As an operator of senior living communities, the biggest expense is in people. Isn't business. I'm sorry? Isn't buildings. This is people, okay? That's why Penn has been embracing artificial intelligence to make its employees more efficient. Basically do more with less. Fitzpatrick notes that Pennant peaked at around $36 in late 2024 for pulling back 40%. Since then though, the stock has repeatedly found buyers at the $22 level. Nice for support there. Over the next 20 months, Pen is traded sideways forming a round base that looks like a bull. I love bull patterns. Basically every time the stock comes down institutional money managers would step up and basically profit back up and they never stop buying the stock. Finally just a couple weeks ago this all that supply below 37, well it was soaked up. So the same institutional buying pushed pennant higher and higher. Now they're running it up on high volume. At this point right there you can tell that's high volume and the stocks broke it out above its key ceiling and resistance at 37. Today it cost about 40. And and based on the depth of the the of the action here, I got to tell you something. This thing can sell to $55. I agree with fits before the end of the year. That would be a very nice move. You want to be in on that move. I don't see much resistance at all. Last but not least, there's National Health Care Corp. Take a look at the daily chart. This is another operator of senior housing has been putting up good numbers. Fitzpatrick points out the national Health care is a reliable repeating pattern where the stock pulls back to the 50 day moving average and then institutional buyers snap it up. I mean this is they just differ where people snap it up. But this one is the purple line the 50 day. If the stock gets too far above the 50 day moving average, the same institution close up shop, wait for a better entry point. We've seen the same pattern seven times over the past year. Now Fitzpatrick to this kind of pattern needs periodic rest before it can trigger another rally. He points out the national Health Care has experienced a series of flat tops that ultimately led to next buying next buying opportunity as the floor of support at the 50 day. This is another one that's the 50 day moving average gradually catches up with the share price. At this point he thinks the stock's moving up to another level. But it won't be too long before we get another shallow pullback that could make for an excellent entry point. Here's the bottom is bottom line. These are three unbelievable charts I had not Dan came to miss. I did not know about this bull market. I'm glad that he brought it to us. It suggests that the senior housing plays like Welltower, Pennant Group and National Health Care are all gradually trending higher. He thinks you should wait for weakness and then pounce. I find it hard to disagree because the senior housing shortage is phenomenal long term theme. As a matter of fact, I actually want to be more aggressive than he is. I'd like to say there's always a bull market somewhere. I promise I'd find it just for you right here man. Money I'm Drew Kramer. See you tomorrow.

[Mad Money Disclaimer Narrator]

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 been previously disseminated by Kramer on television, radio, Internet or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Kramer as a specific opinion inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Kramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Mad Money disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com madmoneydisclaimer Pilots know that

[SiriusXM Aviation Advertiser]

weather factors like storms, turbulence and icing can turn routine flight into a challenge. But what if you had satellite delivered weather data giving you the full picture of what's around you? With SiriusXM Aviation, get coast to coast high resolution weather info all without altitude limitations or line of sight restrictions. Fly confidently knowing you have the best information available to make decisions in flight. Visit SiriusXM.com aviation to learn more.