On Friday, Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, talked about the various market events taking place through the week and focused on corporate earnings, interest rates, and market expectations.
“The president’s been real quiet about stocks lately since the deal with Pfizer. That makes it look like the drug companies won’t get hurt too badly by the president’s plan to roll back drug prices. The gains in big pharma have been outstanding, and they continued today. I’d like to see a deal with at least one more drug company after this rally.”
READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Was Focused on These 15 Stocks Recently and Jim Cramer Recently Expressed Thoughts on These 18 Stocks.
Cramer explained why Friday’s comments from Austan Goolsbee, a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, were important. He noted that Goolsbee spoke Friday morning and expressed concern that the current strength of the economy might not justify an interest rate cut. Cramer stressed that the recent rally has largely been fueled by expectations of further rate cuts, so Goolsbee’s tone had a dampening effect on the market earlier in the day. Adding to the uncertainty, he reminded viewers that due to ongoing federal furloughs, there was no labor report released on Friday.
“Here’s the bottom line: We have a lot of anecdotal evidence of weakness, but not anything hardcore. We need to watch this, as we’re about to head into earnings season, and the bulls could run into serious trouble if the Fed doesn’t take action. For my money, the economy away from the data center buildout is getting weaker. This is no time for indecision. The Fed needs to cut because too much of the economy, away from this multi-trillion dollar build-out, just isn’t going anywhere.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 7 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on October 3. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the second quarter of 2025, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 900 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 This Week: 7 Stocks in Focus
7. Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 36
Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) is one of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s game plan for this week. Cramer was optimistic about the company’s upcoming earnings, as he commented:
“After the close, Levi Strauss reports, and this company’s become very reliable despite tariffs. It hit a 52-week high today. That last quarter was extraordinary. I think another good one could be coming.”
Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) designs, markets, and sells apparel and accessories for men, women, and children under brands such as Levi’s, Dockers, Signature by Levi Strauss & Co., Denizen, and Beyond Yoga. During the July 10 episode, Cramer discussed the company’s last earnings. He stated:
“Heaven knows there’s been a lot of hand-wringing about the state of consumer lately, but maybe we should be a tad less worried. After the close… Levi Strauss & Company, the denim kingpin, reported a phenomenal quarter with 9% organic sales growth, trouncing the estimates. The European business is on fire, direct to direct-to-consumer strong, margins expanded substantially. Put it all together, and the company delivered a 9-cent earnings beat off a 13-cent basis. Not bad. Even better, management raised their full-year forecast even with the impact of the tariffs. No wonder the stock went flying right when the earnings were released. Pretty impressive given that this thing was already up 62% from its April lows.”
6. Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 69
Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) is one of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s game plan for this week. Cramer called it a tough stock to own, as he said:
“Now we’ve got a couple of important earnings reports on Thursday, including PepsiCo and Delta in the morning… Delta’s a tough stock to own. It’s been among the best performers in the group, yet it’s still down 5% for the year. I know that consumer’s supposed to be weaker, but there’s still an appetite for travel. I think it might work as a trade, but like I say in my book, these are the toughest stocks to own. So many things can go wrong.”
Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) provides passenger and cargo air transportation. The company operates a large fleet and global network across major hubs and also provides aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul services. Cramer discussed Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) during the March 12 episode and commented:
“Now for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, this week Delta Airlines slashed its first-quarter earnings outlook, citing, ‘the recent reduction in consumer and corporate confidence caused by increased macro uncertainty’, which they say drove ‘softness and domestic demand’ in recent weeks. Now for a long time, Delta was the best of the airlines so you really don’t want to hear that kind of commentary from them. Now these guys cut their guidance ahead of an appearance at the JPMorgan Industrials conference on Tuesday.
But honestly, these names have already come down dramatically over the past few weeks. This makes them very interesting to me. After this week’s blood bath, you got a lot of them are down 35 to 40%.
So given all the newfound negativity, why on earth would I stick my neck out and recommend some cheap travel plays? Look, as tough as these airlines, the updates were, the collective news, frankly, it wasn’t that horrible, at least not if you listen closely…
Let’s start with Delta, which kicked things off with this guidance cut. Monday night, Delta CEO Ed Bastian spoke with CNBC’s Phil LeBeau on Closing Bell that night and explained that the domestic, corporate, and consumer spending ‘started to stall’ in February, mostly due to lower consumer confidence. But he also said he believes this weakness is transitory… Bastian is pretty confident we’re not headed for a real recession.
Delta cut the revenue growth forecast from 8% to 4%… It is not great but in a recession, they, they’d be down double digits. Bastian also noted that some of the weakness came after a couple of high-profile air safety instances.”
Since the above comment, the company’s stock has gained over 26%.
