In a recent appearance on CNBC's Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer recalled the stock market crash due to the coronavirus. The COVID stock crash in 2020 was one of the worst periods in market history after the Great Recession which saw the S&P, Dow Jones, and the NASDAQ 57%, 54%, and 56%. During the COVID selloff, the S&P lost 34% between February and March while the Dow bled 25% and the NASDAQ shed 28%.
Cramer recalled what he was doing just as COVID would start to devastate the markets. He remembered that he was at his birthday party and "had a lot people at Manhattan." At the gathering, Cramer met with hedge fund billionaire David Tepper and the pair discussed an article in the Lancet medical journal which speculated how the virus "could be like the biggest thing ever."
However, while Cramer and Tepper wondered about the implications of the virus, his co-host David Faber wasn't too worried. Cramer recalled: "And I remember David Faber, specifically saying that I was a . . . called me a crybaby or just an alarmist. But then the next day like the world closed. Not David's finest hour. But it was amazing. And it was just one of those things [that] just, happened."
However, even as markets shed a third or a quarter of their value during the pandemic, the CNBC TV host shared that these losses rarely stick over the long term. After all, according to him, even though the 2008 stock market crash was much worse, the markets have made significant gains since then.
Cramer commented that "people have to recognize that the declines are not necessarily the end of the world. And the future isn't necessarily bad while the past is good." He added that investors were irrational during the pandemic selloff as well. According to Cramer "There were stocks that were bought, there were people who came on air, somewhat recklessly, I'm not going to mention the names. Who drove down stocks to the point where you got bargains you wouldn't believe." He recalled buying the shares of one of the most well-known coffee chains in the world for his Charitable Trust at "fifty three." The price was a bargain, according to Cramer, and he remembered thinking "wow, I mean, see you later."
Another development that Cramer commented on was the possibility of President Trump's policies leading to the US exporting more natural gas. Mentioning the natural gas industry in the US, President Trump, and his recent remarks about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the TV host shared:
"Right and then you do have the possibility of a massive increase in export of nat gas. We have a lot of nat gas, it's just very hard to be able to, you can't pump it right every second. But we are not in trouble with the amount of nat gas we have. We do I think always, we find it quizzical that Russia has been able to export it so well. I mean all that stuff with Russia, I mean look I think the President is a little bit ahistorical Ukraine may be starting the war."
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 19th.
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).
Is Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) the Best Very Cheap Stock To Buy Right Now?
A close-up of a person's hand holding a bottle of pharmaceuticals.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. For most of the past year and 2025, its share price performance has depended on its cancer drugs and HPV vaccine called GARDASIL. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)'s stock has lost 30% over the past year as Chinese sales of its GARDASIL vaccine have been hampered due to a tough regulatory environment in the country. Here is what Cramer said about Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK):
"Although Merck, is, maybe the ultimate laggard. I don't think I've ever seen Merck perform this badly. Here's this stock, distinguished from the company, which actually got hurt by a decision by the Chinese to not give their people two hundred million vaccines, GARDASIL, RFK, maybe it's kind of a reciprocal thing [laughs]. . .it's great vaccine, you may not like vaccines, but great vaccine, and the, the Chinese have chosen not to use it, they haven't, and some of it's with a wholesaler that apparently can't give anymore to because they don't have enough money. But that's the one I'm. . . .that used to be called saint Merck, and I know it's not high growth anymore but wow, I think it's worth looking at because it trades like a bad tack."
Overall MRK ranks 7th on our list of the stocks Jim Cramer recently talked about. While we acknowledge the potential of MRK 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 MRK but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
