On Friday, Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, commented on the current state of the markets as he emphasized that this week’s earnings reports will be the first real indicator of how CEOs are managing tariff-related challenges ahead.
Cramer highlighted the continuing collapse in the markets and remarked that there is a “manmade obliteration”. He mentioned that the crisis is far from over. He also expressed concerns about the rising tariffs, especially with the White House’s current stance on trade policy.
“Right now, I’m most worried about inflation, which is something… let’s say something that we’ll be thinking about a lot when? When we have the CPI report. This is what really matters, see, because this is where we are not going to be able to cut rates if these numbers start being bad. Inflation became very sticky, and it was no longer going the Fed’s way even before the tariffs.”
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Cramer warned that tariffs could drive prices up even further which can lead to reduced consumer purchasing power. Highlighting the scale of President Trump’s tariffs, Cramer said that it was nearly impossible for these tariffs not to raise consumer prices. He noted that the Federal Reserve’s attempts to lower interest rates to stimulate the economy will be met with challenges by inflationary pressure. He added:
“I say the Fed’s locked in a box here and can’t do nearly as much as they might like because they don’t want to spur another route of inflation on their own.”
Cramer pointed out that various banks are predicting that there will be a recession. He mentioned that some are focusing on the 10-year Treasury yield dropping below 4% as a signal of an impending recession. He went on to acknowledge the difficulty of the day and week for investors. He added:
“Our only real hope is that the president comes up with something that can turn this bear into a bull and he can do it even as he seems unwilling to scale back the tariffs. All he has to do is offer our companies a path to get out of this hell that they did not create and they do not deserve. But the bottom line: That’s a very glass-half-full hope in what feels like a glass totally empty market.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 10 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on April 4. 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’s Game Plan: 10 Stocks in Focus
10. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 96
Cramer highlighted that Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) stock is currently “outrageously cheap” and said:
“Charitable Trust owns several financials including BlackRock and Wells Fargo, both of which are just getting clobbered beyond all recognition. I don’t think that they should be, but so what? Wells is a national bank that was doing incredibly well until it ran into a macro buzzsaw that was the president. I think it’s now outrageously cheap. But what, what the heck is CEO Charlie Scharf supposed to say on his call when he is asked about the future? He has no choice but to be cautious and circumspect and the stock can’t rally in that kind of environment.”
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) is a financial services firm. The company provides banking, investment, mortgage, and other financial solutions. During March 13’s episode of Mad Money, Cramer stated:
“I like Wells Fargo down here with these interest rates…Been a long-term turnaround play under CEO Charlie Scharf, whom we greatly respect. Even though Scharf’s now more than five years into the job, at this point, he’s still actively reshaping Wells Fargo for the better, shrinking or exiting businesses that weren’t working well… The last big benefit that could still accrue to Wells would be a removal of the asset cap that’s been in place since early 2018…
I think that you would absolutely get this cap removed. And Wells Fargo, there’s billions of dollars in costs they could take to reallocate, move from compliance efforts to activities. There’s, they have to spend a lot of money on compliance. I’m not against that, but I do think the bank would be much more profitable without the cap. Even with the stock’s recent 16% pullback from its highs, Wells Fargo’s still giving us a nearly 85% gain for the Charitable Trust.”
9. BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 53
Calling BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) “the best” during Mad Money’s episode, Cramer said:
“Charitable Trust owns several financials including BlackRock and Wells Fargo, both of which are just getting clobbered beyond all recognition. I don’t think that they should be, but so what?… The best for last, BlackRock. I think that CEO Larry Fink, perhaps the most thoughtful exec in the group, will give us a much-needed gut check about what happened here, where we had a well-oiled economy all set for a pro-business president to take it to the moon and instead what we’ve gotten is a journey to the center of the earth. It’s an incredible conundrum, and I really hope Fink will take a moment to tell us what he sees. We need to know.”
BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) is an investment management firm that offers risk management, advisory services, and a range of investment products, including mutual funds, ETFs, and hedge funds.