On Thursday, Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, walked viewers through what he described as an important week ahead for Wall Street, with earnings season hitting full stride and a flood of quarterly reports expected from companies spanning multiple sectors.
“The fact is the president wants lower interest rates to help offset the pain from higher prices that gonna be caused by the tariffs, but higher prices represent inflation.”
READ ALSO: 12 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar Recently and Jim Cramer Discussed These 12 Stocks Recently.
“The Federal Reserve never cuts rates when inflation’s out of control,” Cramer emphasized and added that it may very well become the case if tariffs continue to drive up costs. He made it clear that he respects Fed Chair Jerome Powell as he described him as a capable public servant who, in Cramer’s words, has “generally done a good job.” Still, he acknowledged Powell’s difficult position as he said the Fed chair is “stuck between a rock and a hard place.” He added:
“Now history says he should be doing exactly what he’s doing, but history is now in the eye of the beholder and there’s only one beholder in this whole country and it ain’t Jay Powell.”
While Cramer stopped short of diving deeper into political commentary, he admitted he is growing increasingly weary of the political noise surrounding monetary policy. As earnings reports begin to dominate the conversation, he highlighted how swiftly sentiment on Wall Street can shift based on results and noted that the market is entering a phase where “snap judgments” start flooding in after hours.
“Here’s the bottom line: I know it’s supposed to be a terrible time, right? I mean like woo, scary, but I don’t know. The companies themselves they keep delivering and delivering, and you know what? I don’t think next week’s going to be any different.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 25 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on April 17. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock 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’s Game Plan for Next Week: 25 Stocks in Focus
25. AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 85
Cramer recommended buying AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) before the company reports its earnings, as he said:
“On Friday, we have two recession-resistant stocks and historically they’ve done really well, Colgate and AbbVie… AbbVie stock is vulnerable, but when it reports, you typically see some really good numbers that send it back towards its 52-week high. I would buy the stock of AbbVie ahead of the quarter. I wish I owned it for the trust. I’m trying to figure out whether I should buy still one more drug stock for the trust. But God, we got a lot of drug stocks.”
AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) is a pharmaceutical company that focuses on researching, developing, manufacturing, and marketing a broad range of medications.
24. Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 62
Calling Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) “recession-resistant”, Cramer said:
“On Friday, we have two recession-resistant stocks, and historically, they’ve done really well, Colgate and AbbVie.”
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) is a leading producer and distributor of consumer goods. It offers a variety of recognized brands such as Colgate, Protex, Sanex, Meridol, Softlan, and Ajax. Diamond Hill Capital stated the following regarding Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“As valuations have continued rising and the economic cycle has gotten relatively long in the tooth, we’ve thought carefully about where and how we are exposed to more cyclical stocks. As such, we initiated just two new positions in Q4: Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) and the aforementioned lululemon.
Colgate-Palmolive is a high-quality business with leading positions in oral care, home products and pet nutrition. Historically, the company has allocated capital well, and it produces significant free cash flows. Shares were pressured in Q4 primarily, we believe, in sympathy with near-term macroeconomic concerns rather than any fundamental issues at the business. We consequently capitalized on the underperformance and compelling valuation to start a position.”
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