Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, discussed the current economic outlook on Monday as he outlined why he believes the possibility of a recession this year may be less likely. He pointed out that while it is easy to be negative in the current climate, the situation is almost too obviously bad, which makes him hesitant to align with the pessimistic view.
“This morning, Craig Melvin interviewed me on the Today Show, and he correctly asked, are we going into a recession? I stuck my neck out and I said, no. Will the tariffs hurt? Yes. Will prices go higher? Yes. Could there be shortages? Absolutely.”
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Cramer emphasized that the way to understand whether a recession is likely often lies in employment figures. He noted that right now, there are more job openings than there are people to fill them. According to Cramer, the disparity makes it challenging for a recession to take hold in the near future. He recognized that some people would be impacted by corporate cost-cutting measures, often referred to as “mitigation” by CEOs.
“That’s the term CEOs are using when they talk about getting costs down to offset the impact of tariffs. Mitigation efforts usually mean taking supply chain costs out, but they also mean laying people off.”
However, Cramer noted that companies are not rushing to let go of workers because they fear they would not be able to rehire them when business conditions improve. He pointed out that, historically, economies tend to recover, and it is difficult to derail growth when so many jobs are still being created. Cramer expressed confidence that upcoming reports, including the monthly labor data due on Friday, would show a healthy job market, which would further complicate the notion of a recession.
“That will make it very hard once again to slip into a full-blown recession anytime soon, and perhaps in several quarters, we will have a more steady and predictable trade policy. Anything’s possible.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 9 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on April 28. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Jim Cramer Recently Discussed These 9 Stocks
9. Rubrik, Inc. (NYSE:RBRK)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 41
A caller inquired about Rubrik, Inc. (NYSE:RBRK), and Cramer said:
“Okay, this is again, it’s another stock, Bipul Sinha came on the show. I thought he told an amazing story, cybersecurity. Do we need to be in a Mag Seven when we can be in a Rubrik?”
Rubrik (NYSE:RBRK) provides data security services for both individuals and organizations. The company’s products and services include protection for enterprise, cloud, and SaaS data, along with tools for identity security, threat detection, and cyber recovery. When Cramer was asked about the company in March, he said:
“They’ve had two great quarters. What can I say? I watch them when they’re on air and man, they are doing, they’re doing very, very well. And you know, I do like cybersecurity.”
8. FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 42
A caller asked Cramer’s thoughts on FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE), and he said:
“You know, it’s not [a] great energy company. But you know what, it sells at a little bit cheaper than the others, and I think it’s a buy.”
FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) generates, distributes, and transmits electricity using a mix of energy sources, including coal, nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar. The company manages extensive power lines for delivering electricity to customers. On April 25, Wells Fargo analyst Neil Kalton increased the price target on FE stock to $44 from $41 and maintained an Equal Weight rating. Following a more volatile Q4 update with lowered EPS guidance, the Q1 report was more stable. Wells noted that attention is currently on Ohio, where the base rate case is active and energy policy is moving forward.
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