Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, spent Thursday explaining how each major market sector performed in 2025, and pointed out what worked, what lagged, and what that might signal going forward.
“Tonight, I want to break down the performance of each major sector in the market for 2025. Now, there are 11 of them, and they give us a real good sense of what worked and what didn’t… Last year, only three of them outperformed the S&P 500: Communication services, that was up 32%, information technology up 23%, and industrials, they were up almost 18%.”
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Cramer pointed out that information technology was the second-best performing group, and explained that much of the upside came from semiconductor stocks, with memory and data storage companies leading the charge. At the same time, he noted that those stocks have started to cool off and are taking what he described as a necessary pause after running too hot. Turning to industrials, Cramer emphasized that the sector is made up of many different sub-groups, which means investors need to be selective. He pointed out that areas tied to power generation and aerospace delivered strong results in 2025, while other parts of the industrial space did not keep pace.
“Looking at all the groups that underperformed last year, I think the financials will be the winners this year. I still like the utilities. I’m optimistic about healthcare after its rebound late last year… If we get… the lower rates that I’m looking for, it’ll be good for the material sector, real estate sector, and the consumer discretionary cohort. Energy might benefit too, but I’m less optimistic there because the White House is so aggressive about boosting production, which is bad for pricing. As for the staples, the best thing I can say is that some of those stocks have just gotten cheap, cheap, cheap, and their yields look great. I just don’t know if that will be enough. The bottom line: Now you know why the 11 big sectors are positioned as the new year gets going, we know what they look like, or you know how I feel they’ll be. We can make predictions about where these groups might be headed based on what we saw last year.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 13 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on January 8. 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, 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).
Jim Cramer Commented on These 13 Stocks From Different Market Sectors
13. The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 87
The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) is one of the stocks from different market sectors that Jim Cramer commented on. Cramer mentioned the stock while discussing the performance of consumer packaged goods companies, as he commented:
“The packaged food stocks were mostly lower, with some huge names down… the big ones just down horribly, and some of that was GLP-1. The consumer packaged goods stocks also drifted lower, with even high-quality operators like Procter & Gamble down double digits. Now, I recommended Procter here yesterday, and it rallied $3.5, and I do not think it is done today. A weaker operator like Clorox tumbled 38%. Target was a one-off disaster, down 28%, and the alcohol companies, they were just eviscerated.”
The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) provides branded consumer goods across beauty, grooming, health care, home care, and family care. The company sells its products through renowned names such as Tide, Pampers, Gillette, Crest, Olay, and Febreze. Cramer discussed the stock during the January 7 episode and said:
“I can go over how NVIDIA or Broadcom are down huge too much, and they’re way, way from their highs, but well, then again, I’ve been recommending them consistently for club members, so there’s no real revelation there. So let me give you another one that’s on my radar screen that might intrigue you, one that is hated, despised, one that I wrote up in How to Make Money in Any Market as a tremendous company, that’s become a complicated, unloved stock because it’s not tech and it doesn’t have great growth right now. I’m talking about Procter & Gamble. The Cincinnati colossus has seen its stock tumble remarkably from $180 in March to $138 today. This is P&G. It doesn’t usually have that kind of move. It’s a dividend aristocrat. Some people call it a dividend king because it’s increased its payout for 69 consecutive years. You’re now getting the stock with a 3% yield. I’m not calling the bottom, but it does have a new CEO. It has the opportunity to shake things up.
Procter’s already pre-announced a nasty quarter, and it’s one of the few consumer package goods companies that doesn’t have a GLP-1 problem. I got no illusions. I don’t think it will necessarily stop at 3%. That’s not that high a yield. Many of the packaged goods companies… 4, 5, 6%. Those are mostly food-related. How do you approach it? Okay, let’s say you want to buy 100 shares tomorrow, don’t. Only buy 25 shares. Then you wait for it to fall to another level… and then you buy another 25. It gets down low to say, 4%, be extremely, that would be a big, big move… big dividend yield. Well, then you can have 50 shares. You have a very nice-size position slowly but surely, not at one price. Okay, it’s not CrowdStrike. It’s not Microsoft. It’s not Broadcom. It’s not NVIDIA. But you can’t just have all tech.”
12. Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 54
Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) is one of the stocks from different market sectors that Jim Cramer commented on. Cramer discussed the stock while showing optimism around dollar stores, as he remarked:
“How about the plight of the consumer staples cohort? This was the second worst group in the market last year, was up just 1.3%. How about some standouts? The dollar stores, they did well, with Dollar General and Dollar Tree checking off tariff worries to rally 75 and 64%, respectively. Monster Beverage also had a good year, up 46%, and the long-hated Estee Lauder mounted a recovery, up 40%. That was just, wasn’t a dead cat bounce, but man, that stock had fallen way too low. Philip Morris International posted 33% gain. Walmart… up 23%, beating the market. You know now I like the underperforming Costco, and I accept that the dollar stores will just keep running. They are Wall Street faves, but the rest of the sector, really awful.”
Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) sells everyday essentials, including food, household items, personal care products, and apparel at affordable prices. In addition, it provides seasonal goods, pet supplies, and home products.
