Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, discussed the upcoming market and corporate activity to look forward to this week, which will be dominated by earnings reports from various companies and an important inflation report from the Labor Department.
Cramer noted that Friday marked the heavy market focus on the prospect of the White House imposing tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China. As expected, the tariffs were announced, 25% from Mexico and Canada, and 10% from China, and the market, which had already been struggling, dropped further.
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Cramer noted that the Dow plunged by 337 points, the S&P 500 fell 0.5%, and the Nasdaq declined by 0.28%. Adding fuel to the fire, President Trump later commented that he was “not concerned about the market’s reaction.” Cramer, reflecting on this, wished he could share that same sense of ease. He added:
“Finally, on Friday, we get the Labor Department’s non-farm payroll and right now the Fed is concerned that the economy might be running too hot. If we get robust job growth with higher wages, then I doubt we’ll see any rate hikes in the first half of the year.”
He then posed the question: if investors are hoping for a rising stock market, what would they want to see? Cramer explained that a job report that’s just “so-so” would be ideal, strong enough to keep rate cuts on the table, but not so strong as to hinder quarterly earnings.
“Bottom line: When you get a week that’s packed with important earnings reports and the monthly employment report plus the tariff news, you’re usually better off sitting on your hands because there’s just too much data for any individual to process even for an AI-powered individual. By the way, oh, let’s just throw in this DeepSeek stuff, which has made tech too maddening to buy or sell and too, let’s say boring. So if in doubt, do nothing.”
Jim Cramer’s Game Plan: 15 Stocks in Focus
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 15 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money on January 31. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the third quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Jim Cramer’s Game Plan: 15 Stocks in Focus
15. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 286
Cramer suggested to wait before buying Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) as he explained:
“After the close, Amazon reports. Although I predict terrific numbers, they might not be as terrific as they have to be to justify the stock’s incredible recent run. We own it for the Charitable Trust too… It’s a bonanza, but you may wanna wait until after the quarter to do any buying. That’s not being, I’m not being negative, I’m just saying I don’t want you after this big run to come in and then there’ll be this give up because people are just taking profits. That’s when you wanna buy.”
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has emerged as a significant player in the global technology sector, with a wide-ranging portfolio that includes e-commerce, advertising, and subscription services. For its fourth-quarter 2024 guidance, the company has projected net sales to range between $181.5 billion and $188.5 billion, reflecting a growth of 7% to 11% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.
Additionally, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) expects operating income for the fourth quarter to fall between $16.0 billion and $20.0 billion, a noteworthy increase compared to $13.2 billion in the same period of 2023.
14. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 70
Talking about Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY), Cramer said:
“Next, another trust holding, Bristol Myers. They got a whole series of great drugs, but the one people are watching very closely is COBENFY. That’s the first new class of schizophrenia medications in 30 years, far fewer side effects than the current standard of care. If there really, you wanna call that a standard of care. I bet CEO, Chris Boerner will give us some, an early read on prescriptions written this year. Now this could be a nice upside and I’ve gotta tell you with that yield, it’s one of my faves.”
Bristol-Myers (NYSE:BMY) is a well-known company in the biopharmaceutical sector, concentrating on the development of treatments for various diseases across different therapeutic fields. Cramer was enthusiastic about the company in December 2024 when he discussed:
“Finally, as I’ve been saying pretty regularly for the past few months, I think you should consider building a position for Bristol-Myers Squibb, which happens to be the newest position of my Charitable Trust… This stock has been hot since the summer as investors have bought into the new strategy put forward by CEO Christopher Boerner, who took over late last year.
Now, Boerner’s trying to build world-class franchises in cancer, cardiology, and neuroscience. His plan started paying off when Bristol-Myers got approval for the first and a totally new class of schizophrenia drugs back in September.”
At that time, Cramer noted that despite a 42% increase since July, a particular pharmaceutical stock still trades at a low multiple of 7.9 times next year’s earnings, making it the cheapest in the S&P 500, except for unprofitable Moderna.
He also highlighted Bristol-Myers’ (NYSE:BMY) 4.4% yield, the second highest in the sector, and pointed out that the company’s fundamentals had improved significantly in the second half of the year. Cramer added that the stock remains undervalued, with an attractive dividend that was recently raised.
