Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/13/25

Summary

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – Episode Summary (August 13, 2025)

Host: CNBC's Jim Cramer
Release Date: August 13, 2025

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1. Market Overview

Jim Cramer opens the episode with a vibrant comparison of the current market to the tumultuous Wall Street eras of the 1980s and 1990s. Highlighting the Dow’s gain of 4.64 points, the S&P’s climb of 3.2%, and the Nasdaq’s increase of 1.4%, Cramer emphasizes the frenetic pace of today's market driven by IPOs, mergers, acquisitions, and unexpected upside moves.

Notable Quote:
"This is a wild chase, a mad dash... It's a wonder to behold."
— Jim Cramer [02:30]

He contrasts the present enthusiasm with the post-dot-com lull, asserting that retail investors are now re-engaging with individual stocks, reminiscent of the high-energy trading days of the past.

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2. Bullish IPO Analysis

Cramer delves into the recent IPO of Bullish, a digital asset exchange specializing in cryptocurrency trading. The IPO was notably oversubscribed by over 20 times, with the stock surging 143% above its offering price despite underwriters' attempts to moderate enthusiasm.

Notable Quote:
"When I heard that they're going to be dealing in Solana, I thought the opposite—we are still early."
— Jim Cramer [05:10]

Cramer criticizes traditional brokers for restricting crypto trading, positioning Bullish as a forward-thinking platform catering to Gen Z investors eager for substantial gains from crypto assets.

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3. Stock Highlights: Core Weave & AMD vs. Video

Core Weave:
Cramer discusses Core Weave's significant rebound following a strong earnings beat and an increased full-year forecast. He predicts a potential dip due to the expiration of insider lockups, recommending investors to "buy after the pullback."

AMD vs. Video:
Addressing rumors about Video, which allegedly faces delays in its new chip, Cramer clarifies that AMD's Vera Rubin chip is on schedule. He criticizes the misinformation circulating in the market, highlighting regulatory leniency.

Notable Quotes:
"If you want to buy it, buy it after that pullback."
— Jim Cramer [07:50]

"It's okay because lying is really bad, but you can get away with it if you're on Wall Street."
— Jim Cramer [09:05]

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4. Interview with Kevin Hockman, CEO of Brinker International

Cramer welcomes Kevin Hockman to discuss Brinker International's impressive performance, particularly Chili's, which reported a 23.7% increase in same-store sales. Hockman attributes this success to Brinker’s robust marketing strategies, significant investment in service and food quality, and ongoing restaurant reimaging projects.

Notable Quote:
"We are in an invest-to-grow mode... our margins are up from 12% to 18% this fiscal year."
— Kevin Hockman [18:33]

Cramer praises Brinker’s ability to maintain strong sales despite industry-wide challenges, highlighting the company's commitment to enhancing guest experiences and operational efficiency.

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5. Exchanges Performance Analysis

Cramer shifts focus to the stellar performance of major stock exchanges, including Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Nasdaq, CME Group, and CBOE Global Markets. He notes significant year-to-date gains, driven by high trading volumes marked by market volatility and a resurging IPO market.

Notable Quote:
"These four exchanges are expected to have high single-digit or low double-digit revenue growth for the full year."
— Jim Cramer [26:15]

He discusses how increased retail trading activity, especially in derivatives and crypto-related products, has fueled the exchanges' profitability, despite some analyst downgrades.

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6. Interview with Eric Hansso, CEO of Agco

Cramer interviews Eric Hansso to discuss Agco's recent earnings and strategic initiatives. Hansso highlights Agco's advancements in autonomous agricultural machinery, cost management, and expansion into international markets like Brazil.

Notable Quote:
"We're at the bottom of the cycle and the farmers are thirsty to purchase more."
— Eric Hansso [37:12]

Hansso elaborates on Agco’s innovative technologies, such as fully autonomous combines and tractors, which enhance productivity and reduce labor costs for farmers. He underscores Agco’s optimistic outlook on global agricultural markets, particularly in Brazil.

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7. Lightning Round Highlights

In the rapid-fire segment, Cramer addresses various caller inquiries:

• Ian from Florida praises the show's staff and inquires about semiconductor stocks, specifically Marvell Technologies, receiving a bullish outlook from Cramer.
• Matt from Ohio discusses IBM International, with Cramer highlighting potential in IBM’s quantum computing and software advancements despite recent stock volatility.
• Mike from Pennsylvania brings up UEC Uranium, receiving Cramer’s endorsement for its prospects in the nuclear sector.

Notable Quote:
"Yes, there's room for speculation in everyone's portfolio. Let Arcus be your speculation, but keep other holdings stable."
— Jim Cramer [41:13]

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8. Fast-Casual Dining Sector Analysis

Cramer critiques the performance of fast-casual chains Sweetgreen and Cava, both of which reported disappointing same-store sales growth. He contrasts their struggles with Brinker International's success, attributing the underperformance to high pricing strategies that deter price-sensitive consumers.

Notable Quote:
"Kava and Sweetgreen have to lower their prices or give us a couple of much lower-priced dishes if they want to turn things around."
— Jim Cramer [43:45]

He advocates for value-driven pricing models, citing McDonald's recent introduction of affordable meal options as a strategic move to retain customers.

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9. Conclusion

Jim Cramer wraps up the episode by reiterating the dynamic and opportunistic nature of the current market. Emphasizing the importance of adaptability, he encourages investors to remain engaged with high-potential stocks and sectors while being cautious of speculative risks.

Notable Quote:
"There's always a bull market summer and I promise to try to find it... Just for you."
— Jim Cramer [46:00]

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10. Disclaimer

Cramer concludes with the standard disclaimer, reaffirming that his opinions are personal and not endorsements, urging listeners to conduct their own research before making investment decisions.

Notable Quote:
"All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions... You should not treat any opinion expressed by Jim Cramer as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy."
— Jim Cramer [47:25]

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Key Takeaways:

• Market Sentiment: The current market is highly active and volatile, reminiscent of past high-energy trading periods.
• IPO Opportunities: Bullish IPO exemplifies strong investor appetite for cryptocurrency and digital assets.
• Exchange Growth: Major stock exchanges are thriving due to increased trading volumes and technological advancements.
• Sector Performance: Hospitality and fast-casual dining sectors show mixed results, with value-driven strategies being crucial for success.
• Innovation in Agriculture: Agco’s advancements in autonomous machinery position it well for future growth in the agricultural sector.

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This summary captures the critical discussions, insights, and opinions shared by Jim Cramer and his guests during the August 13, 2025, episode of "Mad Money." For a comprehensive understanding and real-time analysis, listen to the full episode.

Transcript

[Narrator]

This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information packed daily market Preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] MarketUpdatePodcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts CNBC Make It Online Course how to Build a Standout Personal Brand Three industry experts will show you how to create and grow your brand step by step.

[Jim Cramer]

There's no time like now to start building your personal brand.

[Narrator]

Register [e-mail] Personal Brand.

[Jim Cramer]

Foreign hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. Other people make friends. I'm just trying to help make some money. My job is not just to put in context, but to entertain. To teach. Call me 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me at Jim Cramer. This market isn't unprecedented, but I honestly haven't seen anything like it since back in the 80s and 90s. In those days, money roved Wall street like a gang of thugs, beating up, taking over sectors, relentlessly searching for big game, always on the lookout for the next get rich thing. And that's where we are right now at this moment. With The Dow gaining another 4 to 64 points today, S&P climbing point 3. 2%. The Nasdaq is advancing point 1. 4%. Nasdaq has too much data center, which was weaker today. Bear with me on that. Right now it is a wild chase, a mad dash, so to speak, to make money wherever it can be found. IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, giant upside surprises. When the gangs don't see bounty in one part of the market, they swing to another like lighting. It's rolling everything. It's just, it's a wonder to behold. So if you first started investing after the dot com implosion, you really have never seen anything like this. That's because Main street, which participated in the roller coaster rides of the 80s and 90s, got their clocks clean and the dot com crash. And they never regained its enthusiasm for stocks after the early 2000 bear market ran its course. Sell, sell, sell. With the enthusiasm gone, we just didn't expect to make a lot of money in individual stocks that were kind of forgotten about. And even when we did, of course it was always stocks. Think of fang and then fi and then the magnificent seven. But back in the 80s and 90s, before the great Deflation of all sorts of tech stocks and the obliteration of the banks and the rationalization of the health care stocks. We used to have lots of days, just like today, your head would be spinning. We see some stocks go up huge while others went down hard for no explanation. We saw IPO so big that they actually siphoned off cash from other areas of the market. I'm trying to put it in that context because it's all too easy to view this market in a much more negative light. I don't want. I don't want you to do that. Let's start from the most visceral and most cynical and I think the most prominent case of concern and worry. Let's start with something called Bullish. Today, a company called Bullish came public to broad a claim. This company is a digital asset exchange offering trading in all the cryptocurrencies at scale. The deal was more than 20 times oversubscribed. And the stock opened up for trading 143% from its offering price. Wow. The underwriters actually did their best to tamp enthusiasm. The deal was supposed to be 20.3 million shares priced between 28 to 31. But it was indeed upsized at 30 million shares, then priced 30 to 33. I would have taken that a little bit higher, but you know what I mean. Arguably they could have upsized it much more and made the price much higher. But like most recent IPOs, this was known as a sliver deal where the company only sold a small fraction of the shares. The less were left were left behind. Now, by the way, that actually was a routine trait of nearly all IPOs before 2001. But then the sliver deal kind of went the way of, well, let's put this way, went away during the Markets Post.com hangover. At the same time, the regulators cracked down on what I consider just to be this nonsense. But it's been a long time since then. We're back in the soup and there really aren't that many regulators anymore. It's a funny thing. When I was in law school, I wrote a stock newsletter to my parents called Mr. Bullish, something I tended not to talk about these days because it was so silly. Mr. Bullish, but so it's not lost to me that a big company actually calls itself Bullish and isn't embarrassed by the moniker. I mean, should this stock have been as hot as it was? I mean, honestly, yes. First, younger investors inherited are inheriting huge wealth from the boomers. They're all over this market. But not in a traditional fashion. The younger investors, Gen zers are not buyers. The S&P 500 index that bores them and they've seen millionaires created by the likes of Nvidia. And they want to make millions. Why not? They know that the biggest gains have come from crypto. Yet they also know their banks won't let them trade all the cryptos and offer no reason why they don't. And their brokers just want them in the S&P 500 period. Full stop. This morning, Tom Farley, old friend of mine, CEO of Bullish and the former president of New York Stock Exchange, told me the his company is going to be dealing in Solana. That's one of the lesser known cryptos. Now, unlike stocks, I'm actually allowed to trade crypto currencies. So what I did, as soon as I heard that, I went after the show was over, I went to where I always kept my savings, Fidelity and I said, look, I want to buy some Salana. The stuff that they're doing over Bullish. Nope, they don't make a market in Solana. They told me to go to Coinbase. Look, that's what it did. But my takeaway is you may think we're late in crypto, right? You may think that. But when I am turned down from buying Solana after hearing Tom Farley say that it's going to be their currency of choice, I think the opposite. I think we are still early even after all these runs, so few institutions make a market in it. To me that means Bullish and the whole crypto complex here. Well, let's just say they got more room to run. The others better get with the program, by the way, or they will not get these Gen Zers. But they're so stuck in the mud, they won't. They are about to be overrun by a whole generation with $100 trillion and they won't know what hit them and they will be out on the street. My shoes need to shine. So how do people get the money to buy Bullish if they like it? Well, you have to sell something else, right? But the people who like Bullish don't own Mercury, Pfizer. They own stocks like Palantir, also known as Palantir by a few dumb people and Circle and anything nuclear or crypto. So Palantir pulls back and the march to 200 gets delayed. Circle gives up a quick 10. It's the only crime is, is that it's up a lot that money heads to Mr. Bullish. Also like the old Days we are seeing huge register ring in stocks like how about big winners? I take Core Weave one of the biggest winners this year gigantically from its 40 hour pricing in March. Ben stowed when I told you to buy this one. It had the misfortune reporting on the eve of Mr. Bullish's deal. The numbers were nicely better than expected befitting the boom in data centers. Unfortunately, stock plummeted more than 20% today. Why? Because the lockup on insider sell you expires tomorrow night. Although there are a bunch of short stories out there trying to say it was a problem with demand. That's wrong. Demand is on fire. Totally wrong narrative. What does matter though is a ton of stock coming at you. Remember when I said that the underwriters are only bringing small slivers of stock to the market tomorrow? A huge chunk of supply loses the restraints and can start selling And I think that Core we will go lower and if you want to buy it, buy it after that. Now get this. I believe that people looked at Core. We've decided that if this linchpin name is no good they should sell everything AI and flow back to other more traditional software stocks that have been slaughtered like Salesforce or Servicenow. Those are minor cord stocks right now I like the major court. Of course they should go to other sectors that haven't got much love. One oddity by the way worth noting I want to clear up right now. So listen to me. There was a lot of talk today and video was down. AMD was up a lot because there was a short story. There had been this story all day that in video is going to be late with its new chip vera Rubin and AMD is going to benefit with its my 450. The story I look, I want AMD to do well but that story is untrue. The chip, the Vera Rubin is not late, it is on time. Someone was trying to make some money. They lied. It's okay because lying is really bad. But you can get away with it if you're on Wall street because we stopped looking into that stuff. But I'm still looking into it. I'm going to find out who did it because that's what I do for a living. Today was a day where the roving money had a field day. Case in point, we had a nice jump in mortgage applications as rates dipped down last week that ignited anything housing. I was going to talk tomorrow at my noon monthly CBC investing committee about how I thought that Home Depot was the cheapest stock we own. But literally I Wrote that when the stock was at 385. Now is it for seven. That was two days ago. Two days ago to how could the despot be up so much? Because when these marauding gangs of buyers come in, there's just not enough stock for sale and they have no patience. They buy with reckless abandon, taking the stocks up themselves. Or they go to some place where takeovers seem to be needed to rationalize industries. They go to pharmaceuticals and health care. Lowly worm. United Health was up today. Oh, come on. How about this? Bristol Myers went up today. I mean, did it snow outside? I want. I'm asking, I'm asking. Was it snowing today? I don't know. It doesn't snow in August. All right. Anyway, I'll talk about that in the investing club too. The money won't stay in one place anymore. It just can't. It has to roll. This is not the market of the last 25 years. It's the exciting market of the 80s and 90s. That got me involved and will get you involved. I like that. And that's why people are so skeptical of the market, because it's become exciting, enthralling. Even with real money being made every day by regular people. There will be plenty of regular fund managers who hate that. It's fun. They prefer to contain the fund of one stock like Gamestop and the rest of the market into one homogenized bushel of stocks. 500 them. Because they're really lazy. And they wouldn't even know how to look up a stock if they hit them in the head. Those days are over too. I say le bonton roulette, which is French. The bottom line. Yes. The good times are rolling. It's not the end of the world. It's just the end of the stable of just nothing but index buying by people who don't want you to make money. We're back to the old world where people like me want you to make money. And we will get you there. Okay? That's what we're going to do. It's not a gangster's paradise. It's a buyer's paradise. Get used to it, because it very well may be here to stay. I want to speak to Ian in Florida. Ian. Ian. Hey.

[Caller]

Booyah, Jim.

[Jim Cramer]

How you doing? Booyah, Ian. Booyah. I am doing better than well. How about you? Amazing.

[Caller]

Thank you, Jim. Jim, I'm a five Time Caller and Investing club member.

[Jim Cramer]

Five TIME Caller Investing. I hope you're going to be at the new meeting like my daughter Cece. She's going to be there. How about you? You'll be there.

[Caller]

You bet it. You bet I will.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay. That's what I want.

[Caller]

Also to the step to the staff. You have an amazing staff.

[Jim Cramer]

The staff is unbelievable. And not only that, but they know how to use things like complicated things like doordash. Yes, they do.

[Caller]

Jim, I want to get your opinion on a semiconductor stock.

[Jim Cramer]

I got into it back in around.

[Caller]

The April time with the total tariff.

[Jim Cramer]

Terror stuff and around the 60 range.

[Caller]

And it's been really kind of stagnant. I've been wondering, stay in it or not? What do you think about Marvell Technologies?

[Jim Cramer]

Marvell Technologies run by Matt Murphy. And I got to tell you, Matt, Matt is a gamer. I want you to buy more. I kid you not. I think the stock is going hard. Maybe goes back to. Maybe it goes back to par which is genuine Wall street shivers for $100. I listen to me. I think we're entering the. I'm obviously fired up here. I think we're reentering the environment that I remember when I first got involved right down the street. The place I work at is now like a three bedroom apartment house or something like that's a rental. It was used to be Goldman Sachs. Now it's anyway. Oh man. Tonight Brinker, the parent company of Chili's reported red hot earnings earlier today. I'm going to check in with the CEO here how his value meals stocks like up five times started talking him then the stock and derivative exchanges are fuego as of late. Maybe they can continue to run or we wait for a pullback and then I tell you something. AGCO has recovered nicely from the Liberation day lows. And the CEO was on last time he told you to buy the stock. He said just go buy it. Well, he was right. Did you? I don't know. Don't miss my exclusive with the company's top brands. And I want you to stay with Kramer.

[Narrator]

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

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[Jim Cramer]

You heard about it all day. This earnings season has been filled with disappointment in the restaurant space. You know we got the kava that was really bad to Sweetgreen. But some of these companies always seem to come through because they have something different. Like Brinker International, the parent company Chili's and Maggiano. This morning, Brinker reported a beautiful top and bottom line beat with a mind boggling 23.7%. Same store sales numbers from the Chili's business. They just keep doing it even better. Management issued a strong forecast for the year ahead, which is why the Stock rallied over 1.6% today, although at one point is up even bigger. Breakers has been a winner in this environment because they offer their customers an incredible value proposition. But with the Stock up roughly 124% of the past year, can we expect it to keep running? Let's take a closer look with Kevin Hockman, the president CEO of Brinker Natural. More about the quarter, what comes next. Mr. Ochman, welcome back to Mad Money.

[Caller]

Hey, thanks for having me on the show.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay, so let me ask Kevin, why is tick tock every time you look somebody doing triple Dipper stuff? How's that happen? What is it? An algorithm? What occurs?

[Caller]

Well, the first algorithm is we have the best marketing team in the entire world. These guys just got honored by Ad Age for the literally the brand of the year. And not just restaurants, every industry. So we've got a really well equipped marketing team. You know, we re fortified our marketing budgets. Three years ago, we spent about $32 million in marketing. This past fiscal, we just finished, we spent 137 million. So they actually have ammo with which to do marketing. And they're doing a phenomenal job. They're showing how our Chili's proposition is relevant to people's lives and it's working.

[Jim Cramer]

So other people just come in naturally. You're not paying any of these people and they're just doing things because they think it looks cool and fun and yet it's the greatest. It's better advertising you're going to get if you actually spend money, put it on tv.

[Caller]

Well, it's a combination of both, Jim. So it's a real discipline where you brief agencies and you let the influencers know what are the things that you have and then you give them the freedom to create. And these creators do amazing things with our products. And so some of it is paid endorsement and a lot of it is not paid endorsement. Because when people see what's going on, they go inside the restaurant and they see that exactly. What they see on social media, they can recreate in the restaurant, have an amazing experience, then they want to post themselves. And that's one of the big things about our turnaround. A lot of people don't know is that our operation has gotten so much stronger under Aaron White and Doug Cummings. They've done a phenomenal job getting Chili's to where it should be, which is a great guest experience with great food.

[Jim Cramer]

Now, I mean, it's also, I was looking at just over a three year period. The amount of cost that you've taken out is Extraordinary. What are the central things that make it so if you're listening and you've got a business you should be thinking of to take out costs very clearly.

[Caller]

Yeah, well, you know, unique to restaurants. I don't know if it's that unique to restaurants, but everybody's got cogs pressure, everybody's got labor pressure. So the number one thing that you can do to, to offset that is to continue to grow your business. Right. It's going to be very, very difficult to simply cost cut your way to control margins or maintain margins with the, with the inflationary environment that we all have to deal with. So number one is we got back to growth. So we are in an invest to grow mode. We are investing in the business. You know what I share on the earnings call, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars on labor, on repairing the restaurants, on upgrading the food. And that's having a big payback to the business right now. Because our AUVs are so much higher, we get leverage on the fixed costs and that's one way that we're able to really explode margins. You know, our margins when I started were around 12% this fiscal year. We just finished and announced we were at 18%. So when you have over 40% growth in AUVs and margin improvement of 600 basis points, really good things happen.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, absolutely. Leverage is great. One of the reasons why to bring that out is because, you know, we've seen what's happened with. I don't mean to pick on any of these guys and I know them, they're all nice. But when you look at Sweetgreen and you look at Kava, they are not able to get the amount of money they need. And they've also got the whammy the other way there. I think their stuff costs too much. What I find amazing is that you've been able to make even more money out of a $10 offering than you did a year ago. Because otherwise what these guys would say is I don't know if he can, you know, we will lose money if we do something at $10. I don't think that's true. If they follow your precepts.

[Caller]

Yeah, you know, it is a challenge out there. You know, we always listen to a fellow CEO in qsr, one of the big chains, talk about during their earnings calls that people go up to their drive thru, they see over $10 combo meals and there's people feel differently about that brand in terms of the value equation. You know, we've been able to hold 10, 99. Now, for a long time, doesn't matter where you go in the country, even in higher wage states like a California, you're always able to get a 1099 meal from Chili's and it's always something good. You know, it's one of our burgers or one of our other options that quite frankly add a ton of value to that guest. And they don't need a coupon, they don't need an app. We make it really easy to get abundant value and I think that's winning right now in the market.

[Jim Cramer]

Now, why are you so perceptive as I this from the restaurant business that you need to have name brand, that you need to have name brand tequila, even if all tequila, that is just the standard tequila has to be all regulated by the state. But you know that if you have name brand tequila in that market, people like it more. Even though you and I might say, you know what, you really can't tell the difference. It doesn't matter. People will pay.

[Caller]

Yeah. You know, at the end of the day, we have a barbell strategy on margaritas. So you know, whether you want to get, you know, our $6 mark of the month, I got our shark bite here, which is phenomenal, or we got, you know, we have a $10 patron margarita, which is more of a premium frozen. You know, regardless of what price point that you're at, you want something of quality, of substance, you want it served well, you want it in a nice atmosphere, everybody wants that. That's not unique to people that just want to buy, you know, the best tequila or the best steak, etc. And so that's one of the reasons why we've been delivering on value. You know, people, the bears have said, hey, they can under, you can get undercut chilies.

[Jim Cramer]

Right, Right.

[Caller]

That's actually happened. But we haven't seen any change in our same store sales trajectory because we're delivering the total experience, not just the low price.

[Jim Cramer]

Incredible. Now I have to ask you, you're the best in the industry right now. Why are you working on four new reimages in Dallas? Why? Ain't broke, don't fix Kevin.

[Caller]

Well, we still have opportunities in food and service and atmosphere. In fact, that's the fundamentals of casino. And the only way we're going to continue to grow the business quarter after quarter and, and count these impressive numbers is to continue to be better versus year ago. Right. So on food, we still have 50% of our menu. We think we can upgrade. We're making millions of dollars of investments in core ingredients, we call it the Chili's food pyramid of bacon, bacon bits, ranch and mayo. Those are all going to be upgraded this year. On service, we're going to continue to add labor to improve our service model. And then on atmosphere, we've got a, you know, about 200 restaurants that haven't been touched in a few years that need a bit of love. And that's what this reimage program is about. We're going to test it here in Dallas. By the end of the calendar year, we'll have the learnings from those four. And then we're going to start rolling it out. 10% a year, over 100 restaurants every year for the next 10 years. And we'll always have a fresh estate. So I couldn't be more excited about the focus on the fundamentals. That's going to be the next three years of our turnaround and we'll be able to comp the comp to comp.

[Jim Cramer]

Look, I want to congratulate you. You always give us value and it's always fun. It's always fun. I can see why people do their tiktoks there. I've been telling my daughter to come do Cheetos Tiktoks all the time and come with me. She's a vegetarian, but it doesn't matter. You got plenty even for vegetarians. You really do. Place got everything. Yeah, there's something.

[Caller]

There's something for everybody. Everybody at Chili's know whether, you know whether you want low priced margaritas or something more premium. If you want vegetarian, I don't know if we do vegan, we gotta look at that one. But we pretty much have everything covered. And that's what's so cool. We're winning. Is that every, every demographic, every income level, everybody is coming to Chili's more often. And that's been the key to our success. Chili's is forever.

[Jim Cramer]

Well, congratulations to you. It really has worked. Kevin Hockman, the president, CEO of Brinker Symbol E A T. Another terrific quarter. Thank you, Kevin. Really good to see you.

[Caller]

Hey, thanks so much, Jim. And a big shout out to our team members. You're doing a great job.

[Jim Cramer]

You deserve it, man. Buddy's back after the break.

[Narrator]

Coming up, as stocks are on the rise, Kramer's breaking down the movement in the stock exchanges and seeing if the sector can keep moving higher.

[Jim Cramer]

Next.

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[Jim Cramer]

All right, Right now there's a raging bull market that's hidden in plain sight like the purloin letter. I'm talking about the bull market in the exchanges, many of which have hit new all time highs in recent weeks. Intercontinental Exchange, which happens to be our landlord here and they're terrific at it, is the parent company. The NYSE is up 21.7%. Saw Jeff's Becker today. The CEO congratulate him and that's after pulling back 8bu its high last week. Nasdaq's up 23.6% for the year. You've done much better owning the NASDAQ than the stock and the stock would have been by owning the NASDAQ 100 CME group, the parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the world's leading derivative marketplace, is a nearly $100 billion company you almost never hear about. Right. It's up 18% year to date, down slightly from its June highs. The cbo, CBOE Global Markets, formerly CBOE holdings, is best known for opening the Chicago Board of Options Exchange, the first marketplace for trading options back in the 70s. It's got a lot of options and future exposure, which is why its stock is on fire. It's up 25.6% per loin letter right in front of you. That's for the year. It's hitting a new all time high on Monday before pulling back a few bucks. Now historically the exchanges have almost always been great performers, but lately they're really caught fire relative to the rest of the market. Now some of that's simply because these companies are making fortunes in this environment. We've heard from all the major exchanges in the past few weeks and everyone delivered better than expected sales and earnings with varying degrees of double digit growth. Most of them posted record numbers too. And this is in keeping with what I said at the top of the show in terms of the way this market is constructed right now. Intercontinental Exchange ICE posted 19% earnings growth. Chairman CEO Sprecher, whom I talked to today Said quote, amidst a backdrop of continued volatility and uncertainty. Our strong second quarter performance reflects the all weather nature of our business model and the value of our markets, technology and data services. I could not have said it better than myself, Jeff. Nasdaq put up 24% earnings growth. Now chair and CEO Adena Friedman, you probably seen her on our network. She explained that, quote, our ability to deliver broad based growth through cycles is testament to our role as a partner to our clients, helping them capture strategic opportunities, manage risk and solidify their operational resilience. Okay. CME Group reported genera generated 16% earnings growth. Veteran chairman CEO Terry Duffy, you've seen them on network many times, told us to quote, demand for CME Group benchmark futures and options reached an all time high in Q2 as clients around the globe turn to our markets to manage their business risk across asset classes and quote. Oh, and their average daily volume also rose 16%. These are record numbers. CBOE Global Markets delivered 14% earnings growth. New President CEO Craig Donahoe always welcome the show. By the way, sir, who took over in May said, quote, strong double digit net revenue growth across derivatives, Data Vantage and cash and spot markets drove our outstanding results, end quote. And if you zoom out, these four exchanges are expected to have high single digit or low single digit revenue growth for the full year with even better earnings growth. So what's driving this incredible numbers? First, obviously it doesn't hurt that the markets are at our all time highs. The exchanges don't necessarily benefit directly from stock prices being higher. It's not like these companies are asset managers. That would be like a blackrock, which you know, I like. We'll talk about tomorrow at the, at our monthly meeting. They make their money off of transaction volume. But when the markets have done incredibly well for the past couple of years, that tends to drive a lot of trading activity. Second, and more importantly, there's been tremendous volatility this year. When you hear these incredible numbers that the exchanges report reported in the second quarter, I want you to consider the context. The second quarter started with Liberation Day which caused a massive sell off. Then we had choppy trading for a few weeks afterwards with extreme reactions to every new tariff headline. And then once the worst fears had passed, there was aggressive, relentless buying as investors piled back into the market again. High volatility and high volume translate into big business for the exchanges and lots of profits. Of course, we don't know if that's going to continue. If the market calms down, which, you know, I don't think it will. The Exchanges will likely suffer. And that's why UBS downgraded CMB from buy to neutral after its quarter, because they don't see how this kind of high volume can continue. I disagree with them. On the other hand, though, a lot of things are clearly going great for these businesses. For Intercontinental Exchange and Nasdaq in particular, they've made a fortune from the revival of the IPO market, which you see all the time now, right? What do we have today when you have big IPO winners like bullets, like bullish. I mean, it's hard for me to say it's just kind of bullish, but yet like bullish, well, inspires more companies to come public, which is terrific for the exchanges, which can charge all kinds of fees when companies list their stocks for the first time. I should have brought Mr. Bullish Public in 1982. Finally, for CME Group and CBO global markets, there's another dynamic working in their favor. The proliferation of derivatives trading, especially from retail traders. Modern brokerage platforms like Robinhood have democratized access to options and futures, which mostly trade on the CME and the cbo. This is something that CME Group CEO Terry Duffy called out during his latest conference call, noting that, quote, in the second quarter, over 90,000 new retail traders participate in our markets for the first time. That's a 56% increase versus the same period last year. That's huge. But it's going to get bigger and bigger. And it's not just derivatives. We've also seen an explosion in exchange traded products like ETFs, including leverage single stock ETFs, which, you know, I don't care for, but they're very popular with home gamers. These things all have to list and trade somewhere. Plus, CME Group and CBOE in particular have also started to do plenty of business in crypto. CME has lots of options and futures for Bitcoin and Ethereum and other top cryptocurrencies. While the CBOE has become a major exchange in clearing out for digital asset derivatives. Now, looking at the market as a whole, I'm not too thrilled about some of these trends. I worry that home gamers will blow themselves up using option or leveraged ETFs or crypto derivatives because this stuff tends to be pretty high risk. I'm in favor of people buying and holding high quality stocks, and that's how the big money is made. You got my blessing to buy options as long as you don't do it carefully. But when I see lots of people diving into more risky Assets. It does make me nervous still. Whether I like it or not, this is what's happening and the big exchanges are making the most of it. So can the stocks of these changes keep running? I feel a bit squeamish about recommending them and after the big moves they've already had. But when you consider what's been driving them, higher markets doing well, elevated volatility, strong IPO market and home gamers messing around with derivatives. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if exchanges could keep running. I think that they're, they're not that expensive. Here's the bottom line. The Intercontinental Exchange, nasdaq, CME and CBOE Global markets are all up significantly year to date and at or near their all time highs because their businesses are on fire. And as long as you think the markets will stay volatile, these stocks will keep winning. Consider it a bet on the craziness of this moment. Let's take calls. Let's go to Matt in Ohio. Matt. Hey Jim, thanks for taking my call. It's good to talk to you. Of course man. Good to have you on the phone. What's up?

[Caller]

I've had this stock since prior to Covid.

[Jim Cramer]

It has always been a good winner. It's a strong company in my opinion.

[Caller]

But man, the last six months it.

[Jim Cramer]

Is just taking a tumble.

[Caller]

Give me some ideas, give me some thoughts as it relates to IBM International.

[Jim Cramer]

I didn't think IBM's quarter last was all that bad at all. I think you have a major opportunity down here because I think that we're going to start talking about IBM and Quantum. I think they have the lead in Quantum and I think Quantum really does matter. They have a great software package. They're doing so many things that are good against that. Let me tell you what's really going on the charts. Bad. And people say it's head and shoulders. Now you and I both know there comes a time when you have to step in. The fundamentals are right and I think we're there. Okay, thank you for that call, Matt. Now all the companies running our biggest exchanges right now are on fire. Their stocks are terrific. The trends we see so far continue. There's no reason that I think you can't buy these stocks and watch them go higher. Much more mad money ahead, including my suicide with agco. Wow, what a stock. I'm digging into the farming equipment company's recent earnings report that has sent the stock higher ever since then. Copy stock plummeted after earnings. Holy cow. And there's one piece of the story that I think is ailing the entire food fast casual space. But the exception may reveal it and of course, order calls. Rapid fire. Tonight's edition of the Lightning round. So stay with what's happening at Agco, the big maker of agricultural equipment and precision ag technology. Quietly, over the past few months, this stock has rebounded from its April lows. And I'm wondering if it might have even more upside when I could report at the end of July, it delivered a much better than expected series of numbers even though it's still looking at steep year over year sales declines. Didn't matter. What matters is that it is beating expectations. It delivered a 27% earnings beat off a $8 basis while also raising its full year forecast, which is why the stock jumped more than 10% response. While it has pulled back a bit since then, it's up 55% since its April lows. Can this thing keep running? Let's check in with Eric. And so he's the chairman, president, CEO of Agco. Eric, welcome back to Bad Money.

[Eric Hansso]

Great to see you, Jim.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you. Okay, sir, there are very few people come on and say, look, my stock is right to buy. It's going to go up. You said it on air. I then challenged you after and I said, come on man, you know, you really stuck your neck out and you said, I'm going to be right. How did you know?

[Eric Hansso]

Well, a couple things. One, I've been in this industry my whole life and so I've kind of understand the dynamics of the industry. Plus we've had our data analytics team put together a really good model of trying to forecast the future. Demand looks at about 200 variables, assigns more weight to those variables that are better predictors, and it's showing that we're at the trough of the cycle, meaning the bottom of the cycle. And we're showing recovery starting in next year. That's the industry. Then you combine that with the fact that we've been managing our costs proactively. We've committed to $200 million coming out of our overhead, we've been managing our inventories. And then the big news is this technology business we've been building steadily over the last several years and then made the big leap. Biggest ag tech deal in the history of the industry, $2.3 billion deal last spring. And that's really starting to come online now. Plus we've eliminated the grain and protein business kind of a distraction and gotten the tough distraction out of our way, which allows us to now do our share buybacks. All that's Coming together to not only provide a lot more value to farmers, but allow us to give returns back to shareholders in the form they want.

[Jim Cramer]

Let's focus on that precision. I mean, in your deck, you have these big, beautiful machines, and there's nobody driving them. And I presume, therefore, someone has a joystick somewhere. Maybe they can run three or four machines at once.

[Caller]

Well, exactly.

[Eric Hansso]

So we're in the market today with a solution in the harvesting application, where the combine, that's the machine that harvests the grain, is harvesting grain. And then when it gets full, it summons the tractor. The tractor finds the combine. Nobody's in the tractor. It comes alongside. They run parallel to one another. The grain unloads from the combine into the cart behind the tractor. When the combine's empty, it releases the tractor. The tractor drives off to the side of the road where it can be unloaded all the time without an operator in it. Now, you think about the labor savings. That one's clear. But now we can also make sure that we can keep running at the maximum speed for the combine, because there's no concern about running into one another. We can drive only on a few areas of the field, minimizing compaction to help the crop the next year. Lots of things like that. So you're adding not only a labor benefit, but a lot of other features. We're coming into the market with other tasks now, like tillage and other things that we'll be showing at the farm Progress show here in a couple weeks. I'll be there for that. So it's one after another, building on the same tech stack, adding many more features for the farmer to use in full autonomous.

[Jim Cramer]

I have to presume that like many different professions, not a lot of people go into it. Like maybe your dad's a farmer and you don't want to be a farmer. My experience, particularly in Europe, is that there's just not a lot of people who want to farm anymore. This must be the way to be able to make it so you don't have to pay whoever you have, double or triple what you might have paid 10 years ago.

[Eric Hansso]

Well, exactly. I mean, there's. There's a. Farming is one of the most. I'll call it hereditary industries, meaning most farmers had relatives in farming, either their parents or relatives or something like that. So it's a very, very typical thing. What this technology allows for is that as those numbers are shrinking, we can have productivity happen at a higher performance level while still managing through this labor cycle.

[Jim Cramer]

Now, we are not close to Europe. We Think of Europe as being Ukraine. And Ukraine, as you told us, is a huge percentage. And it's out. It sounds like that whatever's going on in Europe is really good.

[Eric Hansso]

Well, let me temper that just a little bit. The overall global economy for farming is at the trough, even at Europe. So. So all farmers are being squeezed right now. Grain prices are relatively low, especially for the North American farmer because of all this trade activity going on. But we're at the bottom of the cycle and the farmers are thirsty to be able to purchase more. Thirsty because their fleet is getting older. They look in their machine shed and the age of the fleet is getting older. Plus all this new technology that we're talking about, whether it's autonomous machines or automating features, you know, just one feature after a time where we're automating on the machines. Those all make the farmer productive, lets them run longer into the day and does the job better. So they're thirsty for more. We just need to come off the bottom.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay, so of the business cycle, let me ask you, when I look at what's going on in Brazil, is Brazil getting to be a better market? Because it seems like to us as being kind of a, you know, a lot of different crazy things happening politically.

[Eric Hansso]

You know, Brazil is going to be probably the big growth opportunity going forward. It's got more acres to put into production, along with the fact that they can put two, sometimes two and a half crops in the ground during the year. So the combine will harvesting a crop and right behind it, literally right behind it, is the planter planting the next crop. It's the only place in the world because of the tropical climate that that's available. So we're big bullish on Brazil and we think that there's going to be, they're going to convert pasture land into cropland. Not anything touching with the Amazon and leveraging this multi crop per year.

[Jim Cramer]

Well, that sounds pretty terrific.

[Eric Hansso]

So we're there not only with our machinery. Yeah, go ahead.

[Jim Cramer]

Well, no, no, I'm just saying you're telling me a very positive story and I really like that. Of course the stock is run, but you told us that it would be a good story and it turned out to be a good story. So I want to thank Eric Hansso. He's the chairman, president, CEO of agco. Nice call by you. Great job. Great.

[Eric Hansso]

Thanks a lot. We're not done yet.

[Caller]

All right.

[Jim Cramer]

I don't think you are. Thank you.

[Narrator]

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 mount Rapacles. Every time chocolate. But you bled itself. And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready? To George in New York. George. Hey Jim.

[Caller]

Thank you for taking my call.

[Jim Cramer]

Of course. George. What's happening? My. My mother's been battling clear cell renal.

[Caller]

Cell carcinoma for the last five years.

[Jim Cramer]

I know that hits close to home.

[Caller]

For you and your family as well. So I'm sorry that you've had to experience that.

[Jim Cramer]

I'm calling in today about a company called Arcus Biosciences.

[Caller]

They're pioneering breakthrough cancer immunotherapy treatments. They have quite a few treatments at various clinical stages. It's most prominent being a drug called.

[Jim Cramer]

Catastrophe which is a part of a.

[Caller]

Combination treatment trial showing extremely promising results. Almost all patients have achieved tumor reduction.

[Jim Cramer]

The comb. I'm of two minds here and again I'm sorry about your family. For mine, I'm of two minds here. Here's the problem. One is, is that they losing a lot of money. But second, there's room for one speculation in everybody's portfolio. Let this be your speculation. But if you do this, you have to promise me that the other stocks are not going to be speculative because it's too risky to just bank it all on arcus. Too risky. Let's go to Carl in Colorado.

[Caller]

Carl. Hey Jim. I'm a longtime viewer and a club member and I want to thank you for securing my financial future with Nvidia.

[Jim Cramer]

That's the Garnier Nvidia. Good call. Thank you. How can I help?

[Caller]

Rather than being a hog, I took out my cost basis or part of.

[Jim Cramer]

It and put it right. Oh yeah.

[Caller]

And I can't. Thank you.

[Jim Cramer]

I will.

[Caller]

And I think United Health is going to work.

[Jim Cramer]

I think it's going to work. I really do. Look, I'm not a believer. I don't like the fact that they had shenanigans. But I will say this. I think that the company is run by a very good CEO. It could come back. Oh, what stock? I'm sorry, I talked right over what stock? Oh, my bad. I thought it was United.

[Caller]

Hell. Hello?

[Jim Cramer]

What's what stock? Oh, Mikey, Pennsylvania. Go ahead, Mike. I wanna. I wanna know about UEC uranium. What you know about uec? I like nuclear. It's a. In the nuclear game. Do I care that it's up in a straight line? Not anymore. No. Because like Arclo, when I bought that I told you by that alcohol doubled. I want money to be made that's what I'm here for. And that lands up a conclusion of the Lightning Round.

[Narrator]

The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, Are high prices putting the squeeze on the fast casual dining space? Kramer's digging into earnings from Cava and Sweetgreen next.

[Jim Cramer]

Here's something you never hear from the restaurant companies that are losing customers, even though it's the truth our meals cost too much. Unfortunately, that's exactly what's going on with two formerly red hot restaurant chains, Sweetgreen and Cava. Last night, Cava, the fast casual Mediterranean restaurant, reported numbers that were well below expectations, 2.1% same store sales growth while the analysts were looking for 6.1%. The shortfall was reminiscent of the results from Sweetgreen last week when the salad chain announced that its same store sales had fallen by 7.6%. Wall street was looking for a 5.5% decline. Sweet Green lost 20 cents per share. The analysts were only looking for an 11 cent hit. Hey, at least Kava made money. How do these companies explain their weakness? Brett Shulman, who's a very perceptive man, the CEO of Kava, said, we have a fluid micro, I'm sorry, macroeconomic climate. He told Restaurant Business, which is an excellent trade publication, that the macroclimate was like a fog, a fog that the consumer is trying to find her way through. Listen to this. Sometimes that fog gets denser and sometimes it gets lighter, he said in an interview. And now we've got tariff whiplash again. He goes on to say, quote, I think the consumer is less firm footed, less ebullient than they were last year. To which I say, hold on, where was the fog at Chili's, the subsidiary of Brinker, which just delivered 23.7 same store sales growth, beating even the elevated consensus estimate of 22%. How did Brinker issue such a strong forecast if the fog is thickening? We heard from CEO Kevin Hockman earlier and it sounds like his business is doing great. Different weather report. I guess maybe it's because you can get a burger, fries, a soft drink and chips and salsa for $10.99 of Chili's. You can do that and get served quickly and have a terrific experience. You don't get that white glove treatment at Sweetgreen, even though I see a ton. Then there's a ton of dishes in the $16 range that don't come with drinks or sides. And cava, $16 and $17 entrees. They're routine. Go check the sights. To me, it's Pretty clear what's going on. Kava and Sweetgreen have to lower their prices or give us a couple of much lower priced dishes if they want to turn things around. For now, they're pricing themselves out of this American market. I get why they're reluctant to cut prices. What business wants lower margins? Recently, for instance, Texas roadhouse gave you a plus 5.8%. Same store sales number. Very strong revenues too. But they missed the earnings numbers. And that's because they chose not to take price either. As the cost of beef skyrocketed, the decision to keep their dinners at $11 was costly. But Texas Roadhouse sense, it was the wrong time to raise price. And they were right. The stock dropped 12 points. We sold some of the stock for the Travel Trust in the spring, very high, before the earnings report. And we bought some of those shares back on Friday after the price collapse because I think they did the right thing. We will buy the rest if the stock trades lower. They read the room correctly and I think they'll benefit from that longer term. Now, of these two problem children, Sweetgreen and Kava, I think Kava's in much better shape. It has a better balance sheet, which means Kava can afford to take its medicine. Cut prices to bring the customer back. I think they will do it. Which is why after all this, call me a buyer of Kava. There's nothing wrong with taking the medicine. McDonald's, since it had gotten too expensive, introduced a series of value meals. A little confusing admittedly, but they have a $5 burger meal with small fries and four piece chicken nuggets and a small drink. Those are good. They realized they were losing loyal customers and they bit the bullet. That's what Kava and Sweet Queen need to do. The problem is, unlike McDonald's, they're either maybe too proud or too obtuse. I don't know. To realize that the consumer's gotten serious about avoiding high priced foods, including theirs, even though the food is fresh and good. As a former restaurant or myself who resorted to giving away a lot of free beer when people turned were turned off by my prices. The simplest thing was to swallow my price and lower the cost to the customer. It's time for these change to heed the value thunder before it runs over them. I like to say there's always a bull market summer and I promise try to find it. Just for you. Right here at Man Money, I'm Jim Cramer. See you tomorrow.

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[Narrator]

Online Course how to Build a Standout Personal Brand Three industry experts will show you how to create and grow your brand step by step.

[Jim Cramer]

There's no time like now to start building your personal brand.

[Narrator]

Register [e-mail] Personal Brand.