In a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer commented on whether President Trump would risk high inflation that could result from tariffs. While some have argued that the strengthening of the US dollar could reverse the tariffs’ inflationary impact, Cramer commented on the effect of the tariffs on trade with America’s closest trading partners.
According to him: “If you look at Mexico, I do some business in Mexico, the Peso fell apart. So suddenly we had this windfall from Peso. Kind of wanted to do more business. And then we got the deadline. Had to ship everything out really quickly. People don’t realize that the currency sometimes is adjusting and there’s a lot, it’s much more difficult than people just think.” Cramer added that the right approach to tariffs can be targeted tariffs. He believes “If you’re not in favor of targeted tariffs where there’s got to be some fair trade, I think you’re just willing to have” some of the largest and most important steel companies in America “get wiped out” due to cheap Chinese steel entering the US market via Mexico.
However, just because targeted tariffs might be right for the steel industry doesn’t mean broader tariffs are irrational. Cramer shared that “so there is like, there’s targeted, that’s Navarro [who argues for targeted tariffs], and then there’s just kind of like broad based . . .of we gotta solve the problem of why Nissan doesn’t have more plants here. I don’t it’s so irrational. . . .It comes out a little irrationally, and then it’s lumped in with some of the Ukraine things that I kind of don’t wanna talk about because they seem a little . . .”
Cramer remained focused on President Trump and also commented on his approval slipping according to a Reuters poll. The CNBC TV host outlined that while the poll might show that the President was becoming unpopular, “at the same time, when you’re with all these business executives that I was, at the Super Bowl, oh my. Oh my, I mean I’m talking about people who’re just saying, look, let’s just tell you something Jim, this election occurred, we didn’t expect it, we didn’t like the guy. But wow, business is so good, we like the guy. That was the tone, and it was the tone for every industry. Didn’t matter. . . I’m talking about every single line of work, people saw a huge expansion in business except for homes.”
While the President ran a diametrically different election campaign to his predecessor’s policies, his administration’s approach to anti-trust cases is shaping up to be quite similar. Commenting on this peculiar phenomenon, Cramer shared:
“I think the people have to understand, that the, when I went through these last night, these are actually rules of law. They are not ideological, they are not meant to hurt business, they are meant to be able to include the worker. Interestingly enough Lina Khan did not do enough to include the worker. That’s what, one of the things that said that to me, sent her way off base. But I do think that there was a neutrality to it that Democrats, Republicans, both don’t want jobs to be lost. So I don’t want people to think that it necessarily is going to lead to fewer mergers. But I would say, it’s the tone. When I speak to CEOs, they don’t expect to be subpoenaed, they don’t expect some sort of lawsuit . . .and the idea of constructive dialogue with that, with the agreement of the legalese so to speak, is actually going to change things. It’s constructive, it’s no longer hateful.”
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 invest in? 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).
"Novo Nordisk Is Up, But the Market Is Not Rational!" – Jim Cramer on Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO)
An elderly couple receiving insulin from a pharmacist, representing healthcare company's successful pharmaceutical products.
Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) is one of the two primary players in the global weight loss drug market. It makes weight loss drugs such as Wegovy but has struggled to compete with US pharma giant Eli Lilly. More recently, Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)’s stock has come under pressure due to President Trump’s geopolitical decisions. Investors were worried in January whether the firm would be caught in the crosshairs of a dispute surrounding Greenland between the US and Denmark. However, disappointments about its weight loss drugs have ‘weighed’ more heavily on the stock which dipped by 18% in December after disappointing trials. Here’s what Cramer said about Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO):
“[on what foreign pharma tariff might mean for Lilly] Right, in meanwhile Novo Nordisk is up, they would be the one that’d be most hurt, they make their stuff overseas. And Eli Lilly would be helped. But the market is not rational. Or doesn’t believe the President. The President, I was watching Frank, like I do every morning, Frank Holland, the Japanese car companies were up. Well this is, I have a source, source in the administration . . .you guys thought about why you’re, you’re not even tariffing all these cars that are coming in from Japan? Next thing you know, say it here, it comes out there, it was a little strange.”
Overall, NVO ranks 7th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of NVO 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 NVO but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
