In his recent appearance on CNBC's Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer shared his thoughts about Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk's role in the government, and its impact on his companies. Commenting on industry concerns about his government efficiency initiatives impacting his companies, Cramer shared that his car, AI, and rocket companies have "seen valuations soar in recent months. So, again, the complainers, they really have to re-think their view." Musk "is creating wealth," Cramer believes as he added that "he's [Musk] changing the government. Cramer then wondered "is he President Musk?" and asked, "Who is The Apprentice?"
When asked if he didn't have a problem with Musk splitting his between two companies "No, I don't think that Dorsey, I did give him grief because it wasn't clear that he was for everyone. This guy favors every. . . .look I, he is remarkable. I just don't want him to show up here." He added: "Look what do you do, when it says, Elon Musk on line two? What do you do?"
Another hot topic that caught Cramer's attention was the SEC purportedly dropping its lawsuit against one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the US. He shared:
"Well look we always know why that it was a parochial view that Gensler took. Uh, Tim Massad over at the CFTC didn't take that view. He said it's going to be huge overseas because they got even less faith in their currencies than we have. And it's got a lot more portability than gold. Look I'm a huge believer in it. I don't know if I'm a believer in the big buck, but I am a believer in Bitcoin because I believe the thirty-six trillion, I don't know what to do with the thirty-six trillion in debt. I haven't figured that out yet, David. I thought when you spoke to Mnuchin, you would push the fifty-year bond that you know I'm a huge believer in."
However, Cramer added that what former SEC chair Gary Gensler also "really didn't like were the bogus coins! He didn't wanna see that. . ."
The CNBC TV host also commented on AI and Elon Musk's xAI announcing its Grok 3 model Cramer thought "it [Grok 3] was okay. I think it was okay. I don't know, I caught ChatGPT hallucinating like mad yesterday. No, look, Grok 3's okay." When asked whether AI could displace a substantive portion of jobs, he shared:
"I do think that there are few employees in areas that are drone-like, but there are more employees in areas that really matter. I know Salesforce, really interesting that they're talking about, you know lack of code. But they are putting people in a much more substantive position. I think banks will do that too."
Returning to Musk's DOGE, he shared:
"Uh, okay so there's this piece in The Atlantic. 'This Is What Happens When The DOGE Guys Take Over,' I want everyone to read this piece. Because what it is, is they come in and they take over your computer and they find out what's wrong. And it is devastating. Because they're going into companies and really, and they're going into agencies, and just taking over. It's a great article. It's heavily sourced. And one of the things that's really clear about it is they're winning. They're winning. They're finding things. And they tend to be in agencies so far which are, you know, I think of like the Consumer Financial Safety Board. They're in there heavily. They tend be on to agencies that frankly many people would say, Democrat agencies. Democrat agencies."
As for DOGE rapidly firing and re-hiring people, he commented: "This thing is done so ad-hoc, uh, there is, there's almost no due process whatsoever. If you overwhelm the courts, and just make it so that they have to constantly take up these matters then, then DOGE wins. That seems to be the pattern. They can overwhelm the court system with all these different, if they just keep going after agency, after agency."
Our Methodology
To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down all the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on February 21st.
For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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 on Booking Holdings (BKNG): "Makes a Big Splash Every Time!"
A fast-paced travel agent making a bookings for a family vacation package.
Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is an online travel advisory services firm that is one of the largest of its kind. It is an early mover in the industry, whose performance depends on global economic activity and demand for travel. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)'s shares are up by 42.6% year-to-date as a resurgence in global travel drove revenue 10% higher during the first three quarters of 2024. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)'s Q4 results sent the stock 2.4% lower on the back of a disappointing forecast. Here's what Cramer said about the firm:
". . .conference call with Booking Holdings basically saying listen a lot of people feel we're gonna be wiped out by generative AI. But we actually have this incredible generative AI unit. I felt very secure in a stock I've liked for a very long time, Booking Holdings, that they're using it. And they referenced the open table contract with Salesforce. And how that's working for them."
Overall BKNG ranks 9th on our list of the stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed. While we acknowledge the potential of BKNG as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BKNG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
