We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Says Tariff Pain Isn’t Over Yet And Reviews These 9 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses.
In his latest appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer dissected the market’s recent rally and reminded his viewers to not mistake short-term optimism for resolution. As major indices bounced earlier in the day, Cramer warned that some deeper structural uncertainties remain unresolved, saying:
“Well, I think that those who are running companies are saying, what the heck is going on here? We’re trying to run our companies. Suddenly, we find that a country that we’ve dealt with for a long time, we have to just say, wait a second, we’re going to put a surcharge on. We’re going to pass through. So the issue is, who can pass through and who isn’t? Who has pricing power? It’s often like that. Who has scale? Who has pricing power? Who can tell the Chinese, listen, we’re going to go away, of which then you have out-of-stock parts. And who says, OK, we’ll split the tariff.
When it comes to money managers, I think money managers are looking at this snapback and saying, listen, just ignore it. Or use it to get out. Because tomorrow is decision day. And China’s not going to blink. Japan will blink, by the way. I think a lot of people feel that, wait a second, if Japan’s willing to blink, then China should. But China’s not going to. So when we come in tomorrow, it’s going to be, well, China isn’t blinking. Let’s take numbers down. And numbers down, move stocks lower.”
READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Got These 10 Stocks All Wrong and Jim Cramer Warns of a 36% Market Drop & Reviews These 9 Key Stocks.
Cramer acknowledged the bullish hopes circulating among traders and policymakers that quick deals with allies like Japan, Mexico, and Canada could offset the trade war’s damage. But he was clear that these deals, while politically useful, won’t erase the inflationary burden already being felt by companies and consumers:
“[Talking about expectations about the White House reaching deals with other countries] There’s going to be a deal. They’re very excited about Japan and the administration. Exactly. They’re very excited. By the way, they like Korea. […] Yeah, I think that Mexico, they are very much expecting it’s going to be a better deal. Canada, and they’re going to be able to trumpet a few days from now. Look what we’ve done by being really tough. And you know what? The Chinese are going to fold. They believe that the Chinese will fold.”
At the heart of Cramer’s analysis was a question he believes investors need to ask themselves:
“So, then the question becomes at a certain point, do you believe in everything else about President Trump that you’re willing to overlook the inflationary aspects? Do you believe the social aspects, are they so important to you? Do you believe the commitment he’s made to try to cut the budget deficit? Do you believe President Trump just decided, I’m not going to focus on the inflation? Because that’s really been unusual to not focus on inflation.”
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 April 8th.
For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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).
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Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 31
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) was framed as one of the few retailers with enough leverage to push back against rising costs caused by tariffs. With its low-margin business model and membership-based revenue stream, Costco (NASDAQ:COST) was highlighted as potentially being in a better position than most to limit price increases and maintain customer loyalty, according to Cramer:
“I think what’s going to happen is the big guys, are going to offer much lower prices. I think Costco is going to be the lowest prices. Costco doesn’t mark up because Costco wants to make money from the war. They have a lot more leverage with their supplier. Of course, they don’t have everything, but yeah, I think the most leverage.”
Overall, COST ranks 8th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of COST as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than COST but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.