In one of his latest appearances on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer maintained his view that President Trump and his administration will be quite pro-business. Commenting on Trump’s statements at his inauguration, Cramer started out by saying, “I think that, regardless, it’s a very pro-business regime.” He explained that his view came despite “a story that the FT just ran about Donald Trump threatening tax wherever US multinationals [are].” According to Cramer, the story “is the only thing I have heard so far that just tells me, you could one day raise numbers. I think it’s important, David because we live in a raise numbers, decline numbers world.”
As to Trump’s policies, one shift that caught his attention was the President’s aim to invigorate the American oil production industry. “Well look I think that the only substantive stuff from the market is that prices for oil are going to go down ’cause he’s going to get us to pump more,” Cramer outlined. “And I think that the discipline of the oil companies versus what he said, could be, that’s front and center,” he added. However, Cramer cautioned that “[t]he oil companies are not into drilling all over the place. They realize that their stocks had kind of a housing moment because they held back. And now they’re being told, drill. I don’t think they’ll respond to that. I just don’t think that they will.”
Continuing his remarks on the US energy industry, he shifted his focus to the gas sector. Cramer believes that America needs “more pipe[line], we’re out of pipe[line] to send the natural gas from the Permian.” He outlined that President Trump “basically undid that January pause about building new facilities for natural gas.” Cramer believes that the move was necessary “[b]ecause a lot of projects, longer-term projects got halted. They will come back. But we don’t have a lot of what’s known as trains. We don’t have enough car loads to be able to ship as much natural gas . . . it just looks like, that you can’t ship more, as long as you don’t have a lot of, facilities. And we don’t have enough facilities to ship. And that does matter.”
However, one thing from Trump’s inauguration speech that surprised Cramer was his take on China. “So far China kind of got off the hook,” he believes. This apparently relaxed attitude towards China also might have led to markets performing well, with Cramer stating, “[a]nd I think that’s another reason that people are pretty buoyant.”
Another aspect of the new administration that has caught investor and public attention is the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. Headed by Elon Musk, the department aims to reduce purported wasteful spending in the US government. Cramer believes DOGE has its work cut out. According to him, “[r]ight now DOGE sounds like, we’re going to put some guys in. They’re going to make a difference. It doesn’t work like that. I mean, well the deep swamp, well, it’s the deep state. But you know what I’m saying is that the swamp is hard to clear with just four guys.”
However, the CNBC host does believe that the tech sector could modernize the government’s operations. “It could be. I mean take a look at all the hacking. When you speak to cybersecurity people, they say, look the technology is many years old. They didn’t keep up,” he shared.
He also commented on President Biden and how he stood out when it came to wealth. “When the previous president got it . . . .there was no billionaires for Biden. He was not into that,” Cramer shared. According to him, “[h]e [Biden] wasn’t into hundred millionaires. . . . he didn’t like em. He didn’t like them, he felt that they represented the wrong stream of thought in America. That’s just what he did. He was also very proud of how poor he was. Which is a very, which is anomalous. We do not have a lot of people who are proud of being poor!”
Shifting gears, Cramer then commented on the ongoing saga of TikTok’s ban in the US. While the application is still banned, it has been granted a temporary reprieve by the President as he attempts to reach a solution that balances national security with a popular software application. Cramer shared that the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Protecting Americans Against Foreign Adversaries Act (PAFCA) was quite unique. According to him, “[t]hey handed down, the only time I’ve ever seen it, one hundred percent. One hundred percent agreement. Everybody.” He added according to the court’s opinion, it was clear that “there is a huge national security risk.”
When co-host David Faber countered and claimed that the court had simply agreed with Congress, Cramer replied, “Right, but I’m saying Bill [Bill Ford of General Atlantic] would be contrary to the, one of the few times that the court was unanimous about national security risk.” Cramer backed his argument by outlining the kinds of user data that TikTok collects. He explained, “[b]y the way, if you look at what they get from you when you sign up. Now, I’m not close to Joe Rogan. I listened to Mark Zuckerberg talk about hunting with Joe, but Joe did read, he did read down what you give them when you sign up. And you give them, everything. Everything. They have access to everything.”
He also commented on whether there’s a backdoor for access despite the data being hosted in the US. “There is! The Supreme Court says it’s not even a backdoor. Supreme Court basically says it’s a front door,” Cramer believes. He added, “I think they went a step further. I think that Chief Justice Roberts basically just said this is a Manchurian candidate. He didn’t use that term, but he meant it.”
Our Methodology
To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down all the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on January 21st.
For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds invest in? 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).
6. FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 41
FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) is a small company that leases aircraft and aircraft engines. It also has an aircraft engine repair and refurbishment business. Its shares have faced quite a bit of turmoil this year since they are down by a stunning 42% year-to-date. At the core of FTAI Aviation Ltd.’s (NASDAQ:FTAI) troubles is a short seller report that alleges the firm was misleading investors by mis-declaring engine sales revenue as repair and overhaul revenue. The real bloodbath for the stock came when FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) announced that it would delay filing its annual report as it investigated the claims. Cramer’s comments about the stock revolved around its cash flow:
“[on shares falling and short seller report] Their cash flow is not too great there. Cash flow, not great.”
5. General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 64
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is one of the largest car manufacturers in America. Its shares closed 2024 51% higher as the firm consistently beat estimates for its quarterly earnings. Despite a broader slowdown in US consumer spending, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s gas-powered SUVs performed well and led it to raise the low end of its annual profit guidance to $14 billion from $13 billion during its third-quarter earnings report. Cramer’s comments about the firm revolved around a Deutsche Bank report that upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold on the back of expected strength in its Q4 results:
“GM caught an upgrade today. I found that quizzical given that we have no idea what their earnings are going to be.”
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