We recently compiled a list of the Jim Cramer Discussed These 12 Stocks Amidst The DeepSeek AI Selloff. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stands against the other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed.
In the episode of CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on the day of the DeepSeek stock market selloff, Jim Cramer mentioned the risks that utility companies had talked to him about when it came to investing in power generation. Energy stocks were among the hardest hit during the selloff due to earlier investor optimism about the high power demand from AI. Cramer shared “Well look . . .a bunch of utilities behind the scenes have been telling me, we would like to spend. But what happens if something comes out Carl, that doesn’t burn as hot. Then they would have spent a fortune and they don’t want to go rate payer versus data center. They didn’t want to make that trade-off. And today I think that the AIPs of the world, the American Electric Powers, they may actually catch a nice bid.”
One concern that co-host David Faber raised during the program was DeepSeek having access to large amounts of data, including the entire Gmail account used to sign up for the service. In response, Cramer shared that he had been trying to cancel his service during the break. “But they have everything,” he added. He mentioned the amount of time that he’d spent on TikTok and DeepSeek and wondered if he would be able to remove his DeepSeek account if he said “that I love Mao? Would that help me? I think Mao was a great man and should’ve gotten the Nobel Peace Prize. What would help me at this point? That Tiananmen Square was a great celebration? What do I do? Tell me what to do?”
The primary reason stocks shed billions of dollars on Monday was that investors wondered if companies would have to spend billions of dollars to set up AI platforms. However, Cramer argued that the argument that some firms might see an ROI improvement from lower costs was very important. He listed the beneficiaries of AI and stated “We have so many beneficiaries, now we have a healthcare rotation going on, we have the beneficiaries that have really been hamstrung. We have the notion like the Justice Department said under the previous President, there’s been too much concentration.”
Commenting on the environment as the market fell Cramer shared “Look I do think it’s a moment, Carl, where all of us were talking, like it was when we first discovered ChatGPT, and we were playing Haiku.” Yet, he remained skeptical about the accuracy of the data surrounding DeepSeek and R-1. According to Cramer “The difference here I think is that, if we really think that they are playing by American rules and they’re telling us everything, then maybe that’s why we keep seeing such a great number, a growth number from the Chinese economy.”
On whether the American GPU restrictions against China had failed after DeepSeek, Cramer maintained that “the point of the ban was military.” He also believes that President Trump might ban DeepSeek and added “Why can’t we just shut it down?” Returning to DeepSeek accessing huge amount of data, Cramer said “I’ve been really upset about this. I was playing on it all weekend. And I didn’t realize they were playing me. I mean it is on your PC. They’re like, what are they burrowing through it right now? Are they gonna get like personal things that I’ve said to my wife? Which would be devastating. I mean in a positive way.”
Finally, in his last morning remarks, Cramer shared that he thought that the selloff could have been much worse. According to him:
“Yes, I have to tell you that I thought these things, when I first saw this [NVDA share price graph] I’m not saying that I was in a panic but I said look, this could be, a lot of people are going to say this is the end of Mag 7. And of NASDAQ. But people are discerning winners and losers. We have to hear from Jensen, we haven’t yet, Jensen Huang. But frankly, I thought it would be worse.”
Our Methodology
To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on January 27th.
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).
A close-up of a person’s hand holding a bottle of pharmaceuticals.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 86
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is a pharmaceutical company that has made waves with some of the most popular medicines in the world lately. The firm’s flagship drug is KEYTRUDA, which helps cancer patients. Its HPV vaccine called GARDASIL is another popular treatment and has led to weak share price performance due to problems in China. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s Chinese distributor has limited its GARDASIL inventory procurement due to regulatory troubles and slow demand. Here’s what Cramer said about the firm:
“[On MRK and PFE being up during the DeepSeek selloff] Uh based on what there? What happened?
“Did you see the tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas? Worst outbreak in tuberculosis. Do you really think that happens to be a coincidence? I think that was something that we beat. Tuberculosis. But I guess if you don’t take a shot against it, we didn’t, then all healthcare’s up. I think that Rob Davis at Merck, that’s been a one-way stock. Down. Even though he’s done some terrific things. He’s got a great heart drug. But it doesn’t seem to matter at all.”
Overall MRK ranks 6th on our list of the stocks Jim Cramer talked about as DeepSeek wreaked havoc on the stock market. While we acknowledge the potential of MRK as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some 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 MRK 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.
