In this piece, we will look at the 13 stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently.

As the Federal Reserve exits the year by having continued its interest rate cuts, Wall Street is wondering what 2025 will hold for markets. Inflation is a key concern among investors, and many believe that the Fed might have to update its models that determine the rate cuts. This update will account for any potential uptick in inflation and one which might be spurred by tariffs imposed by the incoming Trump Administration.

In a fresh episode of Squawk on the Street, Cramer commented on what might happen once the interest rate cuts intensify and how these effects might tie in with Trump’s strategies. Cramer doesn’t “understand that people want to be very concerned about the future after the cut, I really am not buying any of this.” According to him if the tariffs go through then the CPI can rise which will lead the Fed to not cut interest rates. But, if the tariffs don’t materialize or if  “they’re targetted tariffs, and we get break in housing, I mean we just saw Tol Brothers, I know it’s only one million dollar house and not a hundred and fifty, but it starts somewhere. And we get some more apartments come in and we have big inventories from more than Ford.”

In the event the CPI rises, Cramer believes that “A year we’ll be sitting here and saying well, okay we had this blip up inflation but that’s over.” As a result, he believes that it is important to focus on “what the President-elect is gonna do. Why do we have to focus so much on what’s going to happen next year for the Fed when they actually have to react to what the President does?”

Cramer also believes that the US needs more workers. Commenting on Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son announcing $100 billion in investments at Trump’s Mar-e-Lago resort, Cramer stated “I think the most important thing is we don’t have the workers for this stuff.” He added “The idea that we get the workers, and we do not have a good birth rate, robust birth rate, we do not have enough workers, we’re gonna have immigration reform. You know you wanna create jobs, what you need are people to fill them and we don’t have it.”

Another matter that’s caught Cramer’s attention when it comes to the President-elect is Trump’s remarks about taking on healthcare benefit managers once he assumes power. During a press conference at Mar-e-Lago, the President-elect shared that Americans were “paying far too much,. . . .much more than other countries” for healthcare. He added “We have a thing called the middle man, you know, the middle man right? The horrible middleman that makes more money frankly than the drug companies. And they don’t do anything except they’re a middleman.”

Trump says that his team will “knock out the middle man [AND HE’S] going to be very unpopular after that.” According to Cramer, “I think that what, if President-elect Trump follows up about knocking out the middleman, he will. He will because these companies will eventually lose their support in Congress,” as “when you have that kind of come together over them, you don’t wanna be in that business.”

Cramer commented on the impact the President-elect’s comments had and can have on the pharma benefits management industry. According to him “these companies are not, uh, without their friends. And by the way, they all resent the middlemen. Cardinal’s had a lot to be able to be a little bit more forward about what can be done. McKesson is considered to be a company that has done a lot to be able to make it so smaller drug stores get product.” Craner added that “the drug will all give you some great data which shows you that they are not the cause of the inflation. But they always are willing to finger, uh, United Health,” and as for the environment surrounding healthcare benefit managers, “right now, I’ve never seen it this bad for them.”

Our Methodology

To make our list of stocks that Jim Cramer is talking about, we listed down stocks he commented on during a fresh episode of CNBC’s Squawk on the Street.

For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds invest in? 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).

13. Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 32

Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) is a North Carolina-based industrial products firm that makes and sells steel and iron items. The firm’s shares have lost 29% year-to-date as a glut in the steel industry has led to minimal demand and a drop in prices. Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE)’s hypothesis is built on a recovery in building and industrial activity in America. Higher activity typically stems from lower interest rates as mega projects and industrial manufacturing chains need large amounts of capital to kickstart their operations. Cramer’s remarks for Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) covered its mid-quarter guidance, and he wasn’t impressed by the data release:

“Nucor is the biggest and the best. I do wanna say that we always keep hearing that there’s nothing that indicates that there is weakness. And that’s cause we’re not looking hard enough. Nucor does an intra-quarter, uh, rundown of what they are and they took their numbers down rather dramatically today. They are, I am in shock to some degree how much. Nucor expects fourth-quarter earnings to be in the range of 55 to 65 cents. Nucor reported net earnings of $1.05 share in the third quarter 2024. So you can see how it is just declining so rapidly. Now you can say well that’s because of Mexican imports. I don’t care. The price of steel is coming down. And now here’s something that I didn’t like. They bought 13 million shares at an average price of $168, $122 [CURRENT SHARE PRICE], so they got that wrong.

“Well there’s weakness in steel. Now steel is only, it’s not only about a hundred thousand people employed anymore in steel. But steel does matter. It shows that there is some weakness, somewhere. You also say look, China is flooding the world with steel. Because they don’t know what to do with it.”

12. PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 58

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) is one of the two major consumer beverage players in the world. Its hypothesis is dependent on high volumes, raw material prices, logistics, and pricing power. PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) has to deliver on all these fronts to generate value, especially in today’s era where cooling inflation limits the firm’s ability to raise prices and grow top-line sales. However, its brand strength and global strength make it a classic staples stock that investors rush for safety. Cramer’s comments surrounding PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) also included this facet as he linked the stock with the Fed’s interest rate policy:

“Watch things like PepsiCo. That’s where the money should be going today. So people are going to start thinking. Oh they’re not gonna cut, after? Well that means the economy going to slow, so we gotta buy things that are doing well on a slowdown. Because that’s how stupid this market is.”