In this article, we will look at Jim Cramer’s review of the S&P 500’s top performers and the Nasdaq 100’s biggest laggards for the first quarter. The host of Mad Money, on Wednesday, discussed the top-performing names in the S&P 500 for the first quarter and broke down the weakest stocks in the Nasdaq 100.

Tonight, I want to go over the 10 best performers in the S&P 500 for the first quarter… [and] the 10 worst performers in the Nasdaq 100 because that’s a tech-heavy index, where the most heinous declines were in tech. I just felt we should put those two different ones, a nice contrast with each other… When you look at the S&P’s 10 biggest winners over the last three months, kind of looks like what happened today. Most of them are either tech hardware plays with exposure to the data center… or they’re materials and energy stocks that soared thanks to the war with Iran causing shortages.

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Talking about the quarter’s leading stocks, Cramer said that the mix included IT hardware names alongside commodity-driven chemical and energy companies that gained from higher prices linked to Iran-related constraints. He also pointed out that Moderna stood apart, as it benefited from a steady stream of positive developments that pushed the stock higher during the period.

Here’s the bottom line: The biggest losers of the first quarter were nearly all victims of AI displacement worries, even if some of those worries are less legitimate than others. Still, unlike the war, this is a problem that’s not going away. Iran might stop shooting at oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, but Anthropic will never stop gunning for the enterprise software plays.

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 19 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on April 1. 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 498.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 303 percentage points (see more details here).

Jim Cramer’s 19 Stock Q1 Recap: S&P 500 Winners vs. Nasdaq 100’s Worst Performers

19. Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP)

Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) is among the stocks in focus as Jim Cramer reviewed the S&P 500’s top performers and the Nasdaq 100’s biggest laggards for the first quarter. Cramer highlighted why the stock declined despite “tremendous growth and impressive profitability.” He commented:

Finally, there’s Shopify, down 26% in the first quarter. This one’s like AppLovin. It’s got a great business with tremendous growth and impressive profitability, but its stock just got too high. Even here, it sells for 64 times this year’s earnings estimate. Frankly, I don’t think there’s a compelling AI disruption case against Shopify. These guys are mission-critical for small, and medium-sized businesses that operate online. Unfortunately, money managers are no longer willing to pay a premium multiple for this kind of company, and 64 times earnings ain’t cheap.

Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) provides a commerce platform that helps businesses manage products, orders, payments, and customer relationships. Cramer discussed the stock during the November 5, 2026, episode, and said:

How about a stock like Shopify? I picked this one, this internet behind-the-scenes player, because I’ve done the homework, that’s why. More specifically, I was able to get into this market’s kitchen and see how the sausage was made, and I didn’t like it. Shopify’s a big company, and its stock, like so many others, trades with the futures even though it’s Canadian. That’s why the stock started going down hard. It was just right in line with Palantir, as if there was something truly wrong with this company.

The cash flow, the sales, the earnings, the outlook, these are the kinds of things that I’m asking the company’s president, Harley Finkelstein, while he is on Squawk on the Street. I’m interviewing why the stock’s in free fall. I recall, six months ago, the exact same objections, the exact same pack of lies. I said, don’t believe them. It was at 100 bucks, stock’s up 60 since then. It was a bogus rap then and a bogus rap now. Harley’s expecting a very strong holiday season despite what you might’ve read in… any press story. See, it was time to buy Shopify, not sell it.

18. Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) is among the stocks in focus as Jim Cramer reviewed the S&P 500’s top performers and the Nasdaq 100’s biggest laggards for the first quarter. Cramer highlighted the threats to the company, as he stated:

The ninth-worst decliner is Adobe, which was down over 30% in the first quarter. But that’s really just the latest indignity, I should say, for this snake-bitten former cloud king, which everyone knows is, or at least they assume, is toast. At $241 and change, Adobe’s stock is down more than 65% from its all-time high set in November, 2021. Stock now trades at just 10 times this year’s earnings estimates. It’s trading like a home builder for heaven’s sake.

But anytime OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini comes out with some new design tool, Adobe stock goes lower. They now have new competition, Figma, which has also been terrible, too, the stock, Canva, there’s a, that’s an ultra-cheap option. So why am I, who am I to say that Adobe stock’s gotten too cheap? It can always get cheaper. One day, the design schools will leave behind Adobe and start their students on Canva. That will make the end of Adobe’s design dominance, and it could be existential from there.

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) provides creative, document, and digital experience software. The company’s solutions are used to create, manage, and optimize digital content and customer experiences.