Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, said on Thursday that the market’s sharp move had little to do with fundamentals and everything to do with a massive shift out of hardware stocks like NVIDIA and into beaten-down software names.

Today was an ambush, pure and simple. The sellers, they were waiting. They didn’t care what NVIDIA said last night. They probably didn’t even listen. They decided from the get-go that NVIDIA or any of the hardware tech stocks that have been up lately have now gotten too expensive. Instead, they want to swap into the left for dead software equities that they think represent good value… Does that make any sense? Of course not, but it’s what’s known as a program, and on any given day, the program can rule over the actual market. Today, the out-of-hardware-into-software program that I spotted ruled the day.

READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Discussed These 16 Stocks Recently and 12 Stocks Jim Cramer Commented On.

Cramer emphasized that the action had “nothing to do with the fundamentals and everything to do with the big switch.” He described the rebound as artificial, driven by flows rather than company-specific developments. He added, “We don’t buy sectors, we buy companies,” and he admitted that he has no way of knowing whether the sell program targeting NVIDIA has run its course. Even so, he suggested investors could take advantage of the dislocation by using the program-driven weakness to pick up favored stocks at prices below where they should trade. He pointed out that a single enormous account can move markets, and when that happens, the resulting prices may be more attractive than expected.

The bottom line, though: Don’t take today as a referendum on anything. Someone with a lot of money, and I’m talking about tens of billions, wanted out of one group and into another. The stocks were treated as playthings of that account, not companies. They were puppets on hedge fund strings, and they got jerked around all over the place. I prefer when stocks represent the fundamentals of the underlying companies, but on days like today, don’t be fooled. The program is all that matters.

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 16 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on February 26. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them.

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 Put These 16 Stocks Under the Microscope

16. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer put under the microscope. Cramer highlighted the company’s AI division during the episode, as he said:

Marc actually brought on two clients of Agentforce, the AI division that’s generating $800 million in annual recurring revenue. Wyndham Hotels, that’s the largest hotelier, and SharkNinja, we’ve had them on the show. Each talked about how Agentforce is saving them money by doing the easy stuff, saving the hard calls for humans. They described an almost euphoric world where robots handle the drudgery so that the people can focus on the real work… Initially, the stock sold off in after-hours trading, but it ultimately managed to catch fire today, rallying 4%. And I think one of the big reasons for that is that Marc announced a $50 billion buyback.

Now, that’s not bad for a $187 billion company. He said the cash flow can cover it as well as a small dividend boost. Basically, if the stock market refuses to give Salesforce the benefit of the doubt, then well, they’re just happy to repurchase their own shares at a big discount to what they think it’s worth. I think he’s serious about snapping up all that stock because he’s certain that the sellers are making a mistake, and they do have a ton of cash flow. Overall, Marc was trying to communicate a very simple idea. Salesforce sees the damage that AI can do to enterprise software, which is why his company’s invested so heavily in AI agents that are taking share and taking names…

He’s heard what the bears are saying, which is why he’s mad as hell, and he is not going to take it anymore. This is my favorite version of Marc Benioff, a fired-up CEO with a new product that I think can take the world by storm… Sure, it could be tough for a couple of quarters as Salesforce transitions to a much more agent-heavy model. But I’m now convinced that they can pull it off, if only because I’ve seen this company down before, and it’s always been a mistake to count them out. And I’m betting this time, it will be no different.

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.

15. MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer put under the microscope. Toward the end of the lightning round, a caller inquired about the difference between MSCI and SPGI. In response, Cramer said:

… Well, one is Standard & Poor’s, whereas the other is for the, it’s the old Morgan Stanley index, the international, and the one, MSCI is the one I prefer. That’s Henry Fernandez. I admit he’s a friend of mine, but I can tell you he’s a great businessman. The stock was down, some sort of AI fears that were dead wrong.

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) provides tools that help investors track markets, measure risk, compare performance, and evaluate ESG and private-asset data. A caller inquired about the stock during the December 3, 2025, episode, and Cramer responded:

Okay, that’s one of my absolute favorite stocks. It’s been a complete winner. It’s been a winner for ages. The reason why it’s been a winner is, frankly, because Henry Fernandez runs it. I think he’s great. The stock’s down 9% for the year. What an opportunity.

Moreover, we recently discussed the stock based on its Relative Strength Index. You can read about it here.