Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, reflected on the uncertainty surrounding the year 2025, focusing on several macroeconomic questions that are top of mind for him. One of the important questions Cramer was the future movement of the 10-year Treasury yield.
Specifically, he wondered whether it would drop to 4%, climb to 5%, or simply stay where it is. According to Cramer, this is the most important question currently facing the market. He pointed out that ever since the Federal Reserve began cutting short-term rates in September 2024, an unusual dynamic has taken place.
From the moment the first rate cut occurred, long-term interest rates began to rise sharply, a trend Cramer found highly unconventional. Cramer posed the crucial question: will the yield continue to rise toward that 5% mark, or will it begin to fall again?
“As far as stocks are concerned, I think they’ll do well if the yield on the 10-year peaks out and go slower, even if it basically sits here between 4.5% and 4.6%, the market should do fine. However, if long rates keep climbing with the 10-year reaching 5%, well, it could be truly miserable for the stock market at least short term.”
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Another critical issue Cramer pondered was the state of the labor market. Despite signs of economic softening in recent months, unemployment remains exceptionally low, which is contributing to a strong overall labor market. According to Cramer, this is the reason many are hopeful for a “soft landing” after the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes in 2022 and 2023.
“So can the labor market stay strong this year? Right now, I’m betting it can. Remember the labor market was great during the first three years of the original Trump administration. We had 3.5% unemployment right before COVID hit and everything fell apart. Plus, if Trump pushes through mass deportations… it could cause a major labor shortage. If anything, we probably should be worrying about whether the labor market will get too tight, causing severe wage inflation.”
9 Stocks Jim Cramer Talked About
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 9 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during episodes of Mad Money aired on January 3rd and January 6th. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the third quarter, 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).
9 Stocks Jim Cramer Talked About
9. SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 11
While Cramer admitted that SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN) has appealing technology, he called it a “short squeeze” and noted that the company loses money constantly.
“You got to ring the register on some of that. Here’s the problem with SoundHound: It’s just a chronic money loser and because of that, it actually, I think if I were them I’d sell about 50 million shares right here down in the hole and make it so you’d never worry about the cash position because they do have some interesting technology but at this point, it is a short squeeze and a short squeeze only. Until they do that stock and make it so their balance sheet’s better because they keep losing money.”
SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) develops voice AI technology that helps businesses deliver conversational experiences across various industries. Its offerings include tools for creating personalized voice assistants and improving customer service through real-time data integration.
8. Hafnia Limited (NYSE:HAFN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 13
While Cramer was enthusiastic about Hafnia Limited (NYSE:HAFN), he also suggested exercising caution.
“Oh, it’s so, look, we got that huge dividend. It looks so juicy. Those are stocks that you must avoid. You gotta trust me in this. You’ll get a dividend or two, but those stocks are saying, the dividends saying, look out below.”
Hafnia (NYSE:HAFN) operates a fleet of vessels that transport refined oil products, vegetable oil, and chemicals to various national and international companies in the oil, chemical, and utility sectors. The stock has gained over 45% over the last 5 years and it has a dividend yield of around 26%.
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