On Friday, Mad Money host Jim Cramer commented on the ongoing trade dynamics between the United States and China. Cramer also pointed to the latest non-farm payroll report, which came out on Friday. While the report showed an uptick in job growth, it also included downward revisions for the prior two months, which created what Cramer described as a “soft read”, a reading that could give the Federal Reserve additional justification to consider a rate cut.
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“I know President Trump sure wants one, and the market exploded higher from the get-go, and it didn’t falter, that was in part because of the just-right labor report, in part because the president didn’t hurt his cause by tearing into our trading partners.”
Cramer went on to highlight the mutual dependencies between the U.S. and China. He pointed out that China controls rare earth materials that are needed for the U.S. auto industry. He warned that without access to the materials, American auto plants could soon face shutdowns. On the other side of the equation, he noted that China has a pressing need for high-performance semiconductors produced by companies like NVIDIA. Lastly, Cramer touched on consumer sentiment reading coming out this week and said:
“After reading through the Dollar General conference call, which I thought was very downbeat about our country… I get the sense that the consumers’ feeling pretty darn gloomy. Let’s see if the stock market’s run has impacted that direction. The answer’s probably not.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 15 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on June 6. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the first quarter of 2025, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 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 Talked About These 15 Stocks
15. DeFi Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:DEFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: N/A
DeFi Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:DEFT) is one of the 15 stocks that Jim Cramer recently talked about. The company was mentioned during the episode, and here’s what Mad Money’s host had to say:
“Naturally, DeFi is a pretty speculative name, and that’s putting it lightly. It’s got a market capitalization of just over $1 billion. This one’s barely big enough for me to even mention an air. On top of that, DeFi doesn’t even have $1 billion in assets under management. Now, in management’s defense, the company was profitable last quarter and doesn’t have any meaningful debt.
While DeFi currently offers roughly 65 exchange-traded products in the crypto space, they’re continuing to bolster these offerings and expect to have 100 by year-end. But don’t get too excited. These products are mainly for the Europeans at the moment. Entering the US market doesn’t seem such a high priority for them… Going back to the speculative nature of this stock, the company only became available for trading on the Nasdaq about a week before Joe in Arkansas asked me about it. No wonder I didn’t know it. Since then, it’s down about 18% despite a rally today. You haven’t missed much.
So let me give you the bottom line here: DeFi Technologies is a pretty volatile name, and I’d much rather own something consistent like ESCO. As I’ve said many times, if you really want to invest in crypto, just buy actual crypto. All these other instruments tend to have more risk than I’m comfortable with. You don’t need that in your portfolio.”
DeFi Technologies (NASDAQ:DEFT) develops exchange-traded products tied to decentralized finance protocols, provides digital asset management and liquidity services, engages in early-stage investments in the digital asset sector, and operates an arbitrage trading desk focused on low-risk opportunities.
14. ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 23
ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE) is one of the 15 stocks that Jim Cramer recently talked about. Cramer discussed ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE) and said that it looks like a “well-rounded business,” as he commented:
“When you look under the hood, there’s actually a lot of interesting stuff here, which is why the stock’s up more than 70% over the last 12 months. See, over 40% of ESCO’s business last year came from their aerospace defense division… 27% of their sales come from US government contracts… Another 35% of ESCO’s revenues come from their utility business… ESCO’s RF Test & Measurement segment, that’s 20% of revenue…
Honestly, you know what, this sounds like a well-rounded business, and when the company reported back in May, that was on full display. ESCO turned in slightly better than expected sales, up 7%, with truly better than expected earnings, up 24%. Management was confident enough in the momentum they’re seeing to raise their full-year earnings forecast. That was good enough to send the stock rallying more than 6% the next day…
… Overall, I find this one intriguing. Sure, with ESCO trading at roughly 26 times next year’s earnings estimate, it’s not the cheapest stock in the market, but this is a company that’s looking at nearly 15% earnings growth next year, and 40% of the business is related to aerospace and defense, which is I think [in] great shape here.
Even though the stock doesn’t garner a lot of Wall Street coverage, that might just be another positive. Not a bad idea to start a position before the analysts start getting enthusiastic about it. You can tell I like this company. It may seem like a boring business to some, but not everything needs to be a play on crypto or artificial intelligence, or flying cars.”
ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE) develops specialized filtration, fluid control, propulsion systems, and diagnostic testing products across aerospace, defense, utility, and RF measurement markets.