In this piece, we will look at the stocks Jim Cramer discussed.
In a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer discussed long-term interest rates and tied them to economic sentiment. When asked by co-host Carl Quintanilla why the markets continued to hold up even though interest rate expectations had dropped, the CNBC TV host used the long-term rates to wonder whether markets were in a prosperous moment. Cramer’s comments came after banking giant JPMorgan withdrew its projection of a rate cut in January and went as far as to predict that not only would interest rates remain unchanged in 2026, but the next shift would come in the form of a 25 basis point hike in the third quarter of 2027. Discussing the overall sentiment, Cramer remarked:
“Well I’ll tell you, the more I, you step away for a second, and you go out West, and you look at what people are looking at. And what they’re saying is, hey you know Jim, why don’t you talk about the fact that interest rates have done nothing? That it’s still, the ten year is still exactly where it was? If it’s so bad, why is the ten-year exactly where it was? And we’re going to pay more because if the ten-year hasn’t gone up in interest, so far, after all the craziness, well you know what, maybe this is a little bit more of a halcyon moment. So the long buyers are buying into the halcyon moment. We do need to see silver go down, we need to see gold stop going up. Copper, enough already.”
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 15th. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the third quarter of 2025, which was taken 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).
15. ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)
Number of Hedge Fund Holdings: 82
ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is a Dutch semiconductor manufacturing equipment provider. It enjoys a monopoly in the high-end market due to being the only firm capable of making EUV lithography machines. ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)’s shares have gained 79% over the past year and are up by 16.8% year-to-date. Taiwan chip giant TSMC’s strong earnings report is also seeing analyst focus on ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)’s shares. For instance, Bernstein reiterated an Outperform rating and a €1,300 share price target for the firm after TSMC’s capital expenditure guidance for 2026, which marked a 32% annual bump. RBC Capital initiated coverage of the shares as well in January. It set a $1,550 share price target and an Outperform rating as it pointed out that spending on wafer equipment and EUV machines could sustain in 2026. Cramer discussed ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)’s share price performance after TSMC’s earnings:
“It’s really funny ASML moved faster than Taiwan Semi itself and the others caught up and a lot of firms upgraded the capital equipment stocks.”
14. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holdings: 194
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) was the star of the show last week as it set the tone for AI investing in 2026. The firm is the largest contract chip manufacturer in the world, particularly when it comes to manufacturing leading-edge chips. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)’s shares are up by 7% year-to-date on the back of strong fiscal fourth quarter earnings report. The results saw the firm deliver NT$1.046 trillion in revenue and NT$505 billion in profit, which beat analyst estimates of NT$1.034 and NT$478 billion. Cramer discussed the results and used them as a proxy for the health of the AI industry. He also discussed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)’s US Arizona site and mentioned that the form factor of the chips manufactured here wouldn’t be as small as those that the firm makes in Taiwan:
“The actual Taiwan Semi call was amazing, and we’re gonna get a lot of talk about what it means for Applied Materials and Lam Research. It’s good. But what the essence of it was, you think there’s a bubble? Have you talked to any of the clients? Do you know that they can’t enough? Do you know how much money they’re making? We usually hear that they’re spending too much and they’re not getting a return. It was quite the opposite from the company that sees everything. The begging that’s going on for equipment. That includes the actual customers going, maybe even cutting off NVIDIA. David, their conference calls are different from ours. Their conference calls are, let’s stop fooling around, this is as great, because, there’s no way it can’t be. And I found it refreshing, because there was none of this, there was one question directly about a bubble, and I’m not saying it was laughed out loud because the translation misses something, but what the essence of it was, they want it, we gotta make it.
” One thing I think we have to point out, Carl, is the US buildout of Taiwan Semi was praised multiple times. Now Morris Chang, who founded Taiwan Semi has been very critical. But there, and it’s not the best form factor, it’s a little bit larger. . .you’re starting to say maybe America isn’t as bad a place to build as the critics say. Now Taiwan Semi is an upbeat company and there’s not a lot of room for frivolity, but anyone who listened to that call was struck by the fact that we can’t just buy Lam Research and KLA and Applied Materials over and over again. . .”
