In this piece, we will look at the stocks that Jim Cramer recently discussed.

Jim Cramer’s appearance on Squawk on the Street aired on January 17th covered a wide variety of topics. As the day was in the final few days of the outgoing Biden administration, Cramer shared his thoughts about the policies of the outgoing and incoming governments. Commenting on President-elect Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent’s confirmation hearing Cramer shared that he “liked it.” He shared the reasons behind his approval.

“Well, I think that, in the end, he respects the process. I think a lot of the, I think there’s the process respecters and the process undoers,” Cramer thinks. He “felt that Secretary Bessent, soon to be, I gotta be careful, who knows, he’s talking about, there was a give and take. There was a moment when he was give and take with Senator Sanders.” While during their exchange, Cramer thought “Sanders thought that he was gonna, tee off on Sanders.” However, Bessent and Sanders actually “had common ground, and there was a lot of respect. And then I think Sanders had nothing to say, it was kind of like, okay,” according to the CNBC host.

Another hot topic in the markets is the President-elect’s potential policies on cryptocurrency. When asked by co-host Sara Eisen about his thoughts on Trump passing an executive order for crypto, Cramer stated “I agree and I think, well look the President-elect has made it no secret that he wants a strategic crypto reserve. So I’m not quite sure where that would be. Not in Fort Knox, it’s kind of, anywhere, right. I would like to make sure the blockchain is severe. I’m trying really hard to get a grip on that reserve because it doesn’t jump out at me.”

One country that Cramer regularly targets in his morning thoughts is China. This time around, he likened China to East Germany. ” We thought East Germany was incredibly powerful. They would go to the Olympics, and we’d say they’re amazing. We thought their schools were really great. And it turned out to be an empty suit,” believes Cramer. China needs “exports, they need everybody, they need help from everyone and they don’t wanna help anyone,” according to him.

In fact, China might be one of the reasons “President-elect Trump was elected,” he shared. Cramer shared that this is “because the Chinese dumped everything in every, of what we used to make. I mean my father sold gift wrap. They wiped out the gift wrap companies. So my father ended up working for the Chinese. They were nice to him.” China’s hostility leads Cramer to “think that we all should be cognizant that the Chinese are not our friends. But they are trying. I think that’s smart to try.”

The CNBC host also shared his on a recent conversation between China’s President Xi Jinping and the President-elect. “Well look I think that Taiwan is a hot button. Because President-elect Trump has said why doesn’t Taiwan pay more for its defense? I get that. That’s a kind of the NATO, consistent, right, consistent with NATO,” he shared. Cramer also shared his thoughts on Bessent saying tariffs are not inflationary. According to him, “Well, I liked that even though everything we’ve ever read all our lives says that they’re inflationary.”

He still likes Bessent since Cramer believes “Bessent’s a serious guy. I mean when you sit down and you watch these presentations and interactions in the European world where they interview him. The man is so thoughtful. That you’re close to Secretary Yellen, I think that in terms of a chess match, I’ll bet Bessent. He’s really exciting. He’s an exciting intellect.” In fact, Cramer thinks that Bessent “may know more about the way the economy interacts with our country than anyone out there.”

Finally, the outgoing Biden administration, particularly the Treasury Department, has been repeatedly targeted by Chinese hackers. Cramer quoted a cybersecurity CEO and shared:

“He was describing how out of date most of our government is in terms of identity. Meaning that you can, someone’s hacking you, you’re blocked, because they don’t have the eye, like you know it’s vision, or it’s finger. And we don’t do that. We use very old fashioned technology from the nineties where it’s very easy to hack. Everyone in the world knows the last four digits of your social security number.. . .we need to have visual, or we need to have fingerprint, and we don’t. Which is crazy.”

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 17th.

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).

17. QXO, Inc. (NASDAQ:QXO)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 31

QXO, Inc. (NASDAQ:QXO) is a small software company headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. Along with its software and technology consulting business, the firm is also seeking to gain a foothold in the building products distribution market. On this front, QXO, Inc. (NASDAQ:QXO) made the news earlier this month when it put forward an $11 billion takeover build for roofing company Beacon Roofing. While the deal has been rejected by Beacon’s board, QXO, Inc. (NASDAQ:QXO) aims to pursue it nevertheless by targeting the firm’s shareholders. The firm is also shifting to the NYSE, and Cramer’s remarks came as it rang the opening bell:

“Well, Brad Jacobs, who we know is the CEO. This is his ninth ringing of the bell. . . .A hostile takeover against Beacon, Beacon is a company I liked very much once it [inaudible] independent. So all I can say is this that [inaudible] but it’s going to be a real battle.”

16. Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 32

Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) is one of the largest steel manufacturing companies in America. It has been a regular feature of several of Cramer’s shows this year. This is primarily because of Cramer’s analysis of the steel industry and Japanese firm Nippon Steel’s planned acquisition of US Steel. Cramer has quoted Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) several times to outline that cheap Chinese steel flooding the market has depressed steel prices and harmed American steel companies. This time around, he was full of praise for Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE):

“I mean look, if you’re Nucor, maybe arguably the best steel company in the world, you’re saying, you know if we don’t get a rate cut soon, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”