Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, said on Monday that he wanted to revisit the major macro questions he asked at the start of 2025 and see how events actually played out.
“Okay, I came up with four big macro questions… First question, does the yield on the 10 Year Treasury go to 4% or 5% first, or neither?… This is one where we got a definitive answer because the 10 Year went to 4% first… What happened in 2025? Specifically, the 10 Year broke below 4% briefly in that post-Liberation Day washout last spring, setting up a 52-week low of 3.88 in April. More recently, now that the Feds started cutting short-term interest rates, the 10 Year has touched the 4% level a couple of times… Of course, the bulls would feel better if the 10 Year had fallen below 4% and stayed there, but that’s not the case with the benchmark yield currently sitting at about 4.15%… That’s fine for stocks.”
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Turning to the second question, Cramer noted that it was whether the labor market would stay tight through 2025. On that front, he said the answer appeared to be clearly negative. He explained that job growth slowed sharply over the course of the year, shifting from more than 100,000 jobs added per month in the early months of 2025 to an average of roughly 17,000 jobs per month from June through November. He described that pace as “kind of pathetic. Moving to the third question, he said what he was really trying to assess was how the Trump administration would affect the stock market, and his conclusion was that the administration has, overall, been fine for stocks.
“Fourth, the last big macro question we asked was whether corporate earnings would keep growing like we expected in the end of about 2024… The estimates have gradually climbed back to levels that are now above what we were looking for at the beginning of the year. The other big thing to note here is the fact that the earnings expectations for next year are higher. Rather than the 12% earnings growth that Wall Street was projecting for 2026, now we’re looking for nearly 14% earnings growth next year. That’s going to be anvery high benchmark… Looking at these numbers, you can see why the market’s had another strong year of gains. At the end of the day, earnings growth is the single most important determinant of your stocks, the direction, and the fact of the matter is that earnings growth outlook has gradually gotten better over the past 12 months.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 12 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on December 22. 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 Discussed 12 Stocks and Macroeconomic Conditions
12. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 234
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer noted the effects of the company being banned from sale in China during the episode, as he said:
“Maybe you could argue that NVIDIA was held back by a ban on selling even dumbed-down AI chips to China, which was initially partially repealed recently. But with NVIDIA still up more than 36% for the year, and China basically completely excluded from their numbers, it clearly didn’t do that much damage. It could be upside too if they shipped that H200 to China this spring, which is what press reports indicated earlier today. NVIDIA, I say own it, don’t trade it.”
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) develops accelerated computing and AI platforms, GPUs for gaming and professional use, cloud services, robotics and embedded systems, and automotive technologies. During the December 18 episode, Cramer mentioned the company and said:
“The rest of tech took its cue from Micron and broke the recent downtrend, even though the supply-demand situation for most of these companies, quite different from Micron. For instance, let’s say two of my favorites, Broadcom and NVIDIA, both of which are up today. They simply do not have the same situation at all… NVIDIA and Broadcom are what’s known as fabulous companies. They make their chips through Taiwan Semi. That’s who actually does the manufacturing. If demand overwhelms supply, it’s Taiwan Semi’s problem. That’s why even though Micron’s crying about demand, it doesn’t exactly translate to Broadcom and NVIDIA, unlike Western Digital and Seagate, which are basically in the same kind of business as Micron, albeit with less intellectual property.”
11. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 166
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer highlighted how the company tackled the tariffs, as he remarked:
“I also asked what the impact of President Trump’s trade policies would be on tech, and by and large, this hasn’t been a major issue. There were times that tariffs on China and India looked like they might impact Apple, but the company won exemptions by making large domestic investment commitments. I say Apple, own it, don’t trade it.”
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) manufactures and sells devices such as the iPhone, Mac, iPad, along with its line-up of wearables and accessories. The devices are supported by the company’s app ecosystem, AppleCare, and cloud tools. During the December 17 episode, Cramer called the company a “buyback monster.” The Mad Money host stated:
“Second, don’t forget that Apple, the second-largest company in the world, also happens to be a buyback monster, having shrunk its share count by 33.7% since the end of 2015. The stock’s up 933% over that same period. I always say own Apple, don’t trade it, so tonight, I just want to point out that this is a $4 trillion company that still managed to repurchase more than a third of its shares over the past decade.”
10. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 120
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer compared the company’s Robotaxi service to Waymo, as he commented:
“Tesla Robotaxi service, meanwhile, is making progress, albeit at a slower pace than Waymo, and Musk had a high-profile falling out with the president last spring. Still, that hasn’t held back Tesla’s stock, which has been roaring for months. It is a horse.”
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) designs and sells electric vehicles and also develops and installs solar energy and storage systems for residential, commercial, and industrial customers. In addition, the company is working on autonomous vehicles and robots. Cramer noted the company’s transformation during the December 11 episode, as he said:
“Finally, Tesla’s transitioning from auto company to tech company, from a company that’s getting its head handed to it in sales to a company that’s a nascent leader in robots and self-driving cars and in energy storage. The auto business benefits from a rate cut, but Tesla no longer trades like an auto stock. Everything else is totally unrelated to the Fed. It doesn’t work. No wind at the back of any of these.”
9. CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 66
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer highlighted the company’s gains, as he said:
“We asked if the cybersecurity stocks would remain unassailable in 2025. While the group has held up okay this year, I wouldn’t call it unassailable. The two that the trust owns, Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike, are up 3% and 41%, respectively. And across the entire range of cybersecurity names, there’s a lot of variation. I still believe this is a powerful secular growth story for 2026 because businesses need to protect themselves against hackers. But there are going to be winners and losers within the industry, which is why I urge you to stick with the best of breed. I still think that’s Palo Alto, but more importantly, it’s CrowdStrike.”
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) provides cloud-based cybersecurity solutions. The company offers protection for endpoints, cloud systems, identities, and data. During the December 3 episode, Cramer highlighted that the company holds a position in the Charitable Trust portfolio. He remarked:
“Sometimes the cybersecurity stocks go out of style, but as I lay out in How to Make Money in Any Market, the cybersecurity business never goes out of style. The risk of being hacked is just too high, especially now that the bad guys have access to the tools, the artificial intelligence tools, which brings me to CrowdStrike, that’s a key position in my Charitable Trust, has been for years, reported what I thought was a pretty darn good quarter last night.
The company posted a nice top and bottom line beat, while their net new annual recurring revenue, the key metric, came in at $265 million. Wall Street was only looking for $239 million. Maybe all you need to know. Of course, the stock temporarily pulled back in response to the quarter… opening down… almost 20 bucks, before rebounding to finish up more than $8. And that’s what almost always happens to CrowdStrike, and then the stock tends to bounce back.”
8. International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 66
International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer called the company stock cheap despite a noteworthy run, as he stated:
“I also asked if some of the legacy tech giants, like Cisco and IBM, could continue the better performance they’ve been putting up, and I’m happy to say that by and large, they have. Cisco’s climbed nearly 32% year to date about three weeks ago. The stock closed at a record high for the first time since March of 2000. Great win for the CNBC investing club there. Meanwhile, IBM’s up more than 38%, trading at record highs. It’s still cheap, by the way, and it still should be bought.”
International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) provides software, consulting, and cloud and on-site technology solutions, along with financing to help clients use its products. During the November 19 episode, Cramer highlighted the company as a quantum play, as he said:
“Now, I know that many of you can’t resist the quantum computing stocks even after they sold off hard over the past month. Maybe you like to lose money. I’m against that. I would steer clear of the speculative quantum plays because the profitable companies with the best quantum computing technology are actually Alphabet and IBM. You could do worse.”
7. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 119
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer highlighted the company’s stock price movement for the day and commented:
“The fear is that customers will be able to develop more of their own software with the help of these new AI platforms that are very good at writing code. Now, I’m not quite ready yet to give up on some of these companies like Salesforce, which is now selling for just 20 times next year’s earnings estimates. But it would help if their Agentforce AI platform keeps putting up good numbers. Stock did close up $4.72 today. That was a nice move.”
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) provides CRM-focused tools that help businesses manage customer interactions, use AI agents, analyze data, collaborate, and run marketing, commerce, and field service operations. During the December 4 episode, Cramer was bullish on the company’s latest quarter, as he remarked:
“Second is Salesforce… And boy, I love this quarter. When his (CEO Marc Benioff) company reported last night, it was lights out, people, lights out. He laid out a… program for Agentforce that suggested Salesforce might have the agentic AI space to itself. This could be one of the largest markets in history. This is the holy grail, people, for customer service. An informed salesperson at the point of contact who knows everything about you and is ready to help you instantly, can’t make mistakes, many languages…
Salesforce now has the holy grail. An Agentforce bot answers your phone call, knows all about you from the get-go, and can service you better than any human, mistake-free, all for a fraction of the cost. And by the way, can I just tell you, no healthcare, no days off, it’s amazing, which is exactly why Costco, the world’s best retailer, and CVS, the biggest drugstore, both chose this technology, and I’m told that they love it.
This is a new business line for Salesforce, just unveiled last year on our show, by the way. And it’s already hit a $500 million run rate. I think Agentforce can redefine this company within the next 12 to 18 months… The reaction, well, the stock immediately jumped more than 20 points last night… But then it gave it all up, I mean, every penny of it. And then of course, it did rebound in the afternoon. It closed higher. But I mean, this thing was down at one point. This was crazy. While investors came to their senses later on, the fact that Salesforce was down even briefly today just shows me, wow, this is one nasty tech market.”
6. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 81
Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer mentioned the company and said:
“We asked who will be the initial group of AI software winners? In retrospect, maybe that question should have been, will there be any AI software winners? With the exception of Palantir, which I still like very much, the breakdown in the enterprise software stocks this year has just been nothing short of brutal.”
Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) develops data analytics and AI software platforms, including Gotham, Foundry, Apollo, and Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform, that help organizations integrate, analyze, and act on complex data. Cramer mentioned the stock during the December 10 episode and said:
“Now, there’s a way to speculate responsibly. You buy stocks of companies with real earnings, real revenues that can get a much higher price-to-earnings multiple expansion on that news flow. It’s not the perfect way, but it’s a way… Palantir continued to surge higher as it won tons of contracts, both from the private sector and the federal government. It went up $6 today to $188.… Neither stock is done going higher. These kinds of stocks with the ability to turn into high-powered, high-earning stories could absolutely last through the end of the year of magical investing because their sales and earnings are still growing like weeds.”
5. Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44
Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer said he should have “pushed hard” on the company stock, as he commented:
“Regular metals, generally up with the help of tariffs, but a lot of crops and chemical stocks are very bad. That explains why we’ve seen a middle-of-the-pack performance overall for the materials group, which is up about 9% for the year… but within that, we’ve seen huge disparities. 40% plus declines for chemical companies like Dow and Lyondell, but also 40% increases for companies like Nucor and Steel Dynamics. Didn’t see these before, but you know what? I should have told, I should have pushed hard on Nucor. I always knew that was a good one.”
Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) manufactures steel and steel products, including sheet, plate, bar, and structural steel. The company also produces raw materials, metal products, and industrial gases for construction, manufacturing, and energy applications. During the November 3 episode, Cramer called the company’s stock a “hostage to the Fed’s next move,” as he said:
“I am looking for stocks you don’t have a buy and a sell. You just own them. I waffle on the builders of data centers, too. I think they may have secular growth, meaning growth that doesn’t depend upon the health of the broader economy. That’s the kind of growth I’m looking for. I just don’t know if they have enough of it. I feel the same way about Nucor. Got a large data center, steel business, even as other customers desperately need lower interest rates. So that means Nucor’s hostage to the Fed’s next move, and we don’t know if we’re going to get a rate cut in their next meeting.”
4. Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE:EPD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 26
Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE:EPD) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer highlighted the company while suggesting pipeline and similar companies for energy exposure. He stated:
“For the energy stocks, I asked if industry’s discipline would remain once a new Drill, Baby, Drill era began with the return of the Trump administration, and the answer is no. They couldn’t stay disciplined. As I predicted, domestic crude oil production is up. Domestic natural gas production is up, and shares of most oil and gas producers are therefore down, some of them down big. If you want energy exposure, I suggest the pipelines and similar infrastructure plays. Here I’m talking about something like ONEOK, Enterprise Product, basically anything that’s not levered to actual energy prices.”
Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE:EPD) provides midstream energy services, including the transportation, storage, processing, and marketing of natural gas, crude oil, natural gas liquids, and refined products. A caller inquired about the stock during the December 12 episode and the Mad Money host replied:
“My favorite in that group… is Enterprise Products Partners. I like EPD. 6.7% yield, growing really, really well, understands natural gas liquids. That’s your company. That’s the one you want to be in.”
3. Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE:COF)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 129
Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE:COF) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer was bullish on the company as he remarked:
“Keep an eye out for another big position in the trust, it’s Capital One, COF. Now, it’s the credit card company, it’s up about 38%. I think it’s going to be a monster year in 2026 for these guys.”
Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE:COF) provides banking and financial services, including credit cards, loans, deposit accounts, and commercial banking solutions. RGA Investment Advisors stated the following regarding Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE:COF) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:
“We recently added shares of Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE:COF) to our portfolios. At one point, through our shares in ING years ago, we owned COF indirectly. This resulted from ING’s divestiture of ING Direct to Capital One, in exchange for cash and shares totaling just shy of 10% of the company. This acquisition gave Capital One a low-cost, digitally native (branchless) deposit base with a state-of-the-art user interface and consumer experience. Though we never owned COF directly, we watched it admirably for years. When COF announced their Discover (DFS) acquisition, we thought it was too good to be true and feared regulators could prevent the tie-up from happening, but we did our work as we watched to see what would happen. As luck would have it, regulators eventually approved the deal and we now own COF directly.
The acquisition of DFS is a transformative transaction that uniquely positions COF to generate substantial value, fundamentally redefine its competitive standing, and reshape the US payments landscape. By integrating DFS’s proprietary network and customer base, COF is shifting from being primarily a card issuer to a vertically integrated payments entity, akin to an American Express-like operation with scale rivaling the largest payments networks in the world. …” (Click here to read the full text)
2. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 75
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer noted the company is a “huge” position for the Charitable Trust, as he commented:
“For the financials, I asked if there’d be a tangible benefit from the deregulation that we expected once the Trump administration took over. And here I think it’s a clear yes. The banks have been solid performers this year, but the investment banks have been a bonanza, and that’s all about deregulation. Goldman Sachs, a favorite of mine, huge position for my Charitable Trust… is up 57%. Morgan Stanley’s up 43%. JPMorgan’s up almost 35%. These companies earn a lot more money when the White House isn’t blocking mergers or heavily scrutinizing new IPOs.”
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) provides financial services, including investment banking, asset and wealth management, and banking solutions. Cramer highlighted the company’s stock performance for the year during the December 19 episode, as he stated:
“Meanwhile, there are plenty of IPOs and acquisitions, which have caused furious buying of the bank stocks. We saw a very positive article about Wells Fargo in the journal. Goldman Sachs up 56% for the year, now eclipse[s] most of the performance of the Magnificent Seven. There’s a reason for that. Goldman Sachs may be growing faster than almost all the stocks in tech, let alone the Magnificent Seven. And by the way, had a lot less risk, which is what really matters. These financial and consumer spending companies just keep delivering better and better and better expected numbers as expectations are incredibly low versus the monstrously high expectations for anything related to the data center.”
1. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 243
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer discussed along with macroeconomic conditions. Cramer highlighted some reasons “to like Alphabet,” as he remarked:
“First, for the communication services sector, which is an odd amalgama of a group of including, say, both traditional telecom companies as well as some gigantic tech companies like Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Netflix. I wanted to know if the advertising market, the most important profit center for the first two of those I just mentioned, would hold up in 2025, but as it turns out, I was asking the wrong question. Sure, the advertising market’s been fine, but I should have been asking about how the mega caps would hold up in the race for AI supremacy. Alphabet’s made great strides with the release of Gemini 3, one reason its stock’s up more than 60% for the year. Meta, on the other hand, hasn’t been able to convince Wall Street that its AI bets will pay off yet, which is why it’s only up 13%…
At the time, I thought that Alphabet’s Waymo was the leader, but I said that Tesla had a good chance to catch up with Elon Musk so close to the president. Well, as we exit 2025, Waymo’s clearly still the market leader, and its success is yet another reason to like Alphabet, one of the best-performing stocks of the year. Although I’m mindful of that San Francisco power outage story. That was a big Waymo setback just this weekend.”
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) provides tech-related products and services, including search, advertising, cloud computing, AI tools, and digital content platforms like YouTube and Google Play.
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