We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Put These 16 Stocks Under a Microscope. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer put under a microscope.
On Thursday, Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, shared his thoughts on the president’s recent stance against the “false free trade era,” expressing his agreement with the shift away from free trade.
“Yes, I’m not a big fan of free trade. Yes, I feel that our country has been abused by our so-called trading partners, especially when it comes to cars. And yes, I favor the 25% tariff on automobile imports. Close watchers of the show know that this is not a new view for me. I’ve seen China devastate entire industries in this country.”
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Cramer said that America made a “deal with the devil” in the 1990s by allowing the influx of cheap goods from overseas. He noted that while there is nothing inherently wrong with affordable products, the trade-off has been the decimation of American industries and the devastation of factory towns across the country.
Cramer observed that the loss of manufacturing jobs has been a major concern. He noted that while the decision to import cheap goods may have seemed like a good deal at the time, in retrospect, it has led to significant societal and economic damage. He added:
“Now the president has declared that false free trade era is over, and I’m on board with this even as I wish he could lay out a clear plan rather than rolling out the tariffs one by one.”
He emphasized that if America wanted to bring back manufacturing jobs, sacrifices would be required, including the imposition of tariffs. The most important point for Cramer was the acknowledgment that these jobs, along with the many ancillary positions tied to them, had been lost, but there might be a chance for some of them to return.
“Factory jobs may not be as important these days as every other kind of job, frankly but when we look around our country at all these gutted small towns that have led to such despair, such drug use, such homelessness, the bargain for cheap goods, I think it’s a mistake. I’m glad the White House is finally going full speed in the opposite direction. It’s about time.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 16 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on March 27. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A large open-pit copper mine with heavy machinery extracting minerals from the earth.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 88
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was mentioned during the episode, and here’s what Cramer said:
“Alright, I think copper’s going higher and one of the reasons why I like it, by the way… China’s coming back. They’re the biggest user of copper. But also something that Jensen Huang told me, from Nvidia, he said, listen, copper is just the right thing to have in the data center. I was hoping it’ll be replaced by glass… Two-thirds of the copper is used by China and China’s making a comeback here. At least parts are trying to make it a comeback.”
Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) is involved in the extraction of mineral resources across North America, South America, and Indonesia, with a focus on copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals. Appearing on Squawk on the Street last week, Cramer said:
“Freeport, there’s a JPMorgan piece out there upgrading to Overweight. Now what’s important David, let’s say you believe in tariffs. Let’s say that everything is going on and you don’t like the President, or you love the President, doesn’t matter. Freeport could have a 400 to 450 million EBITDA tailwind from tariffs! So let’s say here’s like woohoo tariffs! Go buy some FCX.
And by the way, Jensen Huang is saying that copper is the dominant metal that goes into the data centers. It’s not in the report. The report mostly talks about, yes, Chinese stimulus, cause a lot of the, almost, that’s the majority of copper is used in China. But I really like the call. Stock’s not that expensive. Go buy it… JPMorgan, David. Good as gold. Gold’s a good by product of Freeport. And gold is hitting another high.”
Overall, FCX ranks 4th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer put under a microscope.While we acknowledge the potential of FCX as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than FCX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
