On Monday, Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, discussed the current market and he identified opportunities for investors amid the volatility.
“Alright, there’s always a bull market somewhere. I end the show with that tagline every night. I say it because it’s true. Look at today, the market looked hideous this morning, right on the heels of some horrific overnight futures action. But after the S&P 500 reached a level where it was down 10% from its highs. where it held last time, we started snapping back.”
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Cramer suggested that the market’s swift recovery might be a result of an overly negative sentiment among investors. He theorized that the S&P 500’s brief drop to the 10% mark could have triggered some buying activity as traders took advantage of the lower prices, possibly fueled by end-of-quarter retirement contributions. The selling pressure, he pointed out, seemed to dissipate, which could have allowed for a bounce in the market. However, Cramer cautioned that the movement was not just coincidental. It appeared to challenge the narrative that the economy was heading toward a stagflation scenario due to tariff-induced inflation.
Cramer suggested that investor exhaustion over the current administration’s unpredictability is a significant factor in the market’s volatility. Cramer remarked that many investors are uncertain about what actions the president might take next, which has created a climate of fear and hesitation in the market. He noted that the bears had dominated the quarter, with a gloomy outlook prevailing throughout, which leaves little room for optimism. Yet, Cramer hinted that it might be shifting. He wondered if the negativity had simply reached a tipping point, which resulted in a shift in market dynamics.
Cramer highlighted the mixed economic signals contributing to the market’s turbulence. While inflation was on the decline, the president’s tariffs were adding inflationary pressure. Unemployment was at historically low levels, yet certain policies from the administration had caused uncertainty and disruption. Cramer noted how the market had been performing well last year before political instability introduced a level of uncertainty that he had not seen since the Carter administration.
“Bottom line: Maybe Wednesday is the liberation day. It’s just the day when American investors may be finally liberated from the president’s not-so-pro-business attitude once he gets the tariffs out of the way.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 12 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on March 31. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock 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).
Jim Cramer Highlighted 12 Stocks and Tariff Panic
12. Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64
Pointing to the market sentiment around retail stocks, Cramer mentioned Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR) and commented:
“There’s also seems to be a weird belief that somehow the tariffs won’t hurt retail. I mean, that’s how you got very big moves, say in TJ, Walmart, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, maybe their stocks simply got too oversold, or the tariffs are now baked in the stocks. We just don’t know. But we do know that these retail stocks were rallying from the get-go this morning. They’ll definitely be hurt by tariffs. Every one of them.”
Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) runs discount stores that sell a variety of products, such as food, household items, seasonal goods, clothing, and electronics. Recently, discussing the company’s decision to leave Dollar Family behind, Cramer said:
“There’s also Dollar Tree, that’s the all-American dollar store. They reported very good numbers today, but mercifully dumped Family Dollar. Now that was an ailing business. It never should have been bought in the first place…. Now I know a very significant portion of Dollar Tree’s merchandise comes from China, but on their conference call, they said they’d be able to mitigate a lot of the cost. Now that is great news. No wonder, the stock’s rallied more than 3%.”
11. Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 53
Cramer mentioned Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) during the episode and stated:
“There’s also seems to be a weird belief that somehow the tariffs won’t hurt retail. I mean, that’s how you got very big moves, say in TJ, Walmart, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, maybe their stocks simply got too oversold, or the tariffs are now baked in the stocks. We just don’t know. But we do know that these retail stocks were rallying from the get-go this morning. They’ll definitely be hurt by tariffs. Every one of them.”
Dollar General (NYSE:DG) is a discount retailer that sells a wide variety of products, including everyday essentials, packaged foods, perishables, health and beauty items, pet supplies, seasonal goods, home products, and clothing for all ages. Artisan Partners stated the following regarding the company in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Turning to a discussion of full-year performance results, our biggest detractors were aforementioned Dentsply Sirona, Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) and Cable One. Dollar General operates a chain of discount retail stores in the US. A combination of execution issues, competitive pressures and an increasingly constrained lower income consumer are hurting sales growth. Additionally, margins are under pressure due to labor costs, shrink and markdowns. Some of the issues are self-inflicted. After years of focusing on store growth to drive the top line, store standards have suffered. Addressing store standards is needed to turn around flagging traffic, comps and customer satisfaction. Additionally, its strategy to grow the share of sales that come from non-consumables hasn’t achieved its objectives as these products have tended to sit on store shelves, leading to more promotions and inventory write-downs. Turning the business around will take time, but the stock price is now back to 2016 levels, and multiple valuation metrics are the cheapest in the stock’s history.”
