Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, warned investors on Friday that until there is more clarity regarding the tariff situation, they should brace for continued volatility. His comments followed a day where President Trump suggested that he might be open to flexibility regarding tariffs, leading to a modest rise in the markets.
“After an okay day where President Trump indicated that he might be willing to be flexible in the tariffs, a day where the Dow ultimately gained 32 points, the S&P advanced 0.08%, and then Nasdaq rose 0.52%. After a hideous opening, that made little sense. How do we handle this crazy environment? One way is to get out of the office as we did this week and talk to real business people.”
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Cramer went on to explain that although there are real bargains to be found in the market, investors are hesitant to take advantage of them due to a prevailing sense of fear driven by analysts, hedge funds, and journalists. He pointed out that this fear has been exacerbated by talk of a stagflation scenario.
While Cramer himself disagrees, he mentioned that this is a glass-is-half-full scenario, if not more. He expressed confidence that the tariff issue will eventually be resolved, and when it is, investors will likely be able to move forward without that overhang.
“You can see that stocks want to go higher. If we get just a little bit of a reason to be more positive about the looming April 2nd wave of tariffs, stocks can bounce. It doesn’t even have to be much.”
On Friday, during a midday press appearance from the Oval Office, President Trump used the word “flexibility” when discussing tariffs, stating, “The word flexibility is an important word. Sometimes it’s flexibility. So there’ll be flexibility, but basically it’s reciprocal.” Cramer admitted that this statement did not provide much new clarity, but noted that the market seemed to respond positively to the mention of flexibility. He personally shared that he likes the idea of flexibility as well.
“After all of the major averages were decidedly negative this morning, all then finished in positive territory proving once again that there is too much gloom.”
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 21. 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).
Jim Cramer Recently Talked About These 12 Companies
12. NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 36
A caller asked about NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) during the lightning round and Cramer answered:
“I’ve liked NiSource forever. I’ve gotta tell you, I recommended it when I was at Goldman Sachs… I think you’ve got a good one there. I like consistency. It’s got it.”
NiSource (NYSE:NI) is an energy holding company that provides natural gas to millions of customers and generates, transmits, and distributes electricity. The company also operates various power generation facilities, including coal, natural gas, hydro, wind, and solar units. In 2021, Cramer was bullish on the company when he said:
“There’s a stock I want to own. Very reliable, good dividend, fantastic management. Buy, buy, buy.”
Since the comment was aired in September 2021, NiSource (NYSE:NI) stock went up over 63%.
11. ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 37
When a caller asked Cramer’s thoughts on ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD), he said:
“Sure. Okay, so Mick Farrell came on the show and told me that I really, that my, let’s say my reservations about recommending the stock, which is about GLP-1, were misplaced and the company’s doing quite well. I’m with Mick, he’s never steered me wrong. I like the stock.”
ResMed (NYSE:RMD) develops and markets medical devices and cloud-based software applications for healthcare, offering solutions for respiratory disorders, sleep apnea, and patient monitoring. The company also provides software for healthcare management, including business solutions for home medical equipment providers and care management tools for senior living and hospice organizations.
Fidelity Growth Strategies Fund stated the following regarding ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“The fund’s bigger-than-benchmark position in medical equipment designer ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD) (+15%) was the next-largest contributor. ResMed’s primary focus is sleep technology – it provides cloud-connected devices for the treatment of respiratory conditions like sleep apnea and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The stock declined sharply in the second half of 2023, in the wake of market speculation that the rise of weight-loss drugs would negatively impact sales and usage of ResMed’s devices. But it has risen steadily since then, helped this quarter by an August earnings report that showed steady sales and improving profitability. That said, the stock was no longer in the portfolio at quarter end.”