Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, on Friday talked about what investors should expect in the week as another round of quarterly earnings approaches.
This market is kind of just meandering. It’s erratic. It hates the banks one day, likes the banks another. Despises big tech one day, favors small tech the other. Passing on semis except the ones with the least intellectual property. Not liking NVIDIA, liking Sandisk. And yes, this was a week of magical investing where you buy any crazy new small-cap thing, and you turned out to be making a lot of money. Just make sure, though… it was called nuclear power, or space travel, or quantum computing, or crypto. As long as that is in the title, it made you money… Once again, the averages tell you none of this… The indices just percolate along again, punctuated by bursts of small-cap buying.
READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Put These 17 Stocks Under a Microscope and 7 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar Recently.
Cramer said Thursday morning will bring the latest reading of the PCE price index, which he described as an important inflation measure. He said that he expects the data to come in restrained. He also noted that investors should be prepared for a flood of commentary from Federal Reserve officials afterward. He went on to say that President Donald Trump will eventually choose a Fed chair who will push rate cuts through, and added that, “That’s all you need to know.”
So here’s the bottom line: It’s an awfully odd week, this second week of earnings season, as light as the next week is heavy. Except for a couple of cases, I think it’s best to keep your bat on your shoulder and hope for a better set of pitches.
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 14 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on January 16. 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 2025, sourced from Insider Monkey’s database of 978 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 427.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 264 percentage points (see more details here).
14 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Game Plan for This Week
14. SLB N.V. (NYSE:SLB)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 70
SLB N.V. (NYSE:SLB) is one of the stocks on Jim Cramer’s game plan for this week. Cramer showed caution ahead of the company’s upcoming report, as he remarked:
Lots of people have been loving SLB of late, that’s the old Schlumberger. They’re seeing potential contracts in Venezuela for this oil service company. But I just looked at the price of crude, though, below $60 a barrel. I think that it’s very hard for SLB to deliver special numbers when it reports on Friday.
SLB N.V. (NYSE:SLB) provides technology and services for the energy sector. It offers solutions in field development, hydrocarbon production, carbon management, and energy system integration. The company delivers well construction, reservoir evaluation, drilling, and production optimization technologies. Ariel Investments stated the following regarding SLB N.V. (NYSE:SLB) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:
Lastly, SLB N.V. (NYSE:SLB) traded lower during the quarter, pressured by a challenging macroeconomic environment. OPEC+ supply increases and heightened geopolitical uncertainty weighed on oil prices, dampening upstream investment activity. Revenue softness and margin pressure in the Reservoir Performance and Well Construction segments impacted results, despite solid contributions from Digital and Production Systems services. Looking ahead, we see medium-term tailwinds as national oil companies accelerate investment in long-cycle projects to offset expected production declines. With unmatched scale, broad technical capabilities, and strong exposure to resilient international markets, we believe SLB remains the best-positioned oilfield services provider to meet rising global energy demand.
13. McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 40
McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC) is one of the stocks on Jim Cramer’s game plan for this week. Cramer did not show much optimism around the company’s upcoming numbers, as he said:
The food stocks have been miserable, but one that still has a premium multiple because of its impressive growth from yesteryear is McCormick. We’re going to, look, you know what, we have to see if that can stick. Now, I liked this stock before, when the growth was from overseas. I frankly don’t know if it’s capable of really beating the numbers anymore, though. The packaged food business, I’m calling it the new coal in this market.
McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC) produces and sells spices, seasonings, condiments, and flavor products for consumers and food manufacturers. While discussing the stock during the October 3, 2025, episode’s game plan, Cramer noted that he just does not “trust the whole group.” He commented:
Then we get results from the always reliable McCormick. Problem is, though, reliability hasn’t been enough to move the needle for this stock. The spice maker still has a premium multiple at a time when the packaged food group has fallen totally out of favor in this market. Let’s put it this way, if any food company can do well on a slowdown, it’s McCormick because spices are excellent trade down material. The stock’s down nearly 10% for the year and well off its high, so it has a fair chance to bounce, but I just don’t trust the whole group. Earlier this week, Conagra reported, and it bounced a tad on an inline number, so there’s some hope. But food’s now a tough business. It’s too hard for me.
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