>> it's her birthday. we have to give -- >> happy birthday, chloe! >> 23, unbelievable. american bar rick. that comes out gold, melms. >> thank you for watching "fast adney." "m money" with jim cramer starts right now. my mission is simple. to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere. and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to save you a little money. my job not just to entertain but put days like this in context because i know how hard they are. call me 1-800-743-cnbc. tweet me @jim p. cramer. we're taught to always look forward because bringing up the past is worthless. that's the first lesson in business wherever you go. and you know what?

it's wrong. sometimes the past is so crazy it distorts everything. that's what's happened with covid which disrupted so many things to the point where it's still with us. even though the pandemic ended more than two years ago. it's just not acknowledged enough as a factor still. and i've got to start changing that so we can start making some money because of it. the markets were humming most of the day until oil broke to the up side despite ample supply, causing people to believe something terrible must be lurking in the middle east. bonds rallied. rates fell. flight to quality head of what many frards think will be a widening of both the ukraine and mideast wars. then fed official neale kashkari spoke up don't they all and said maybe we don't need any rate cuts. perfect. thanks, pal. can't you just let jay powell do the talking? but the one-two punch knocked the dow off. nasdaq plummeted. we've been saying this market's overbought. it's finally no longer. but the action's not good. the nasty albeit ephemeral daily action does control our

thinking. but the deeper text of this market, the context often revolves around the last word of covid and how hard it is to figure out which habits are dead and which ones are still around. take tonight. where we're going to be speaking to conagra. this was the number one performer in the s&p 500. this is why i'm talking about this stuff. the number one on a bad day the packaged food company conagra dominates the troezen food aisle. before the pandemic they were crushing it. millennials, gen z, singles thrived on these inexpensive dishes making conagra one of the hottest names in the group. but then the pandemic, it drove up prices for everything at the supermarket. especially things that had to be packaged or transport nad special way like frozen foods. next thing you know because of the pandemic conagra needs to raise the price of its products to you by 30%. you go from having a cheap product that's loved seven days a week to an expensive product that's loved only five days a

week and the other two days you cook from scratch, burgers, chicken, whatever, you save some money. but that was then and this is now. as sean connolly the conagra ceo will explain to us the healthy choice consumer has gotten sick of cooking, more important sick of cleaning. so they're now buying healthy choice meals seven days a week. yet this frozen food aisle is buzzing again. almost nobody save conagra saw it coming. given the profile of so much of conagra's product line i bet this won't just be a one quarter phenomenon. if anything it's the first quarter where the consumer's back. where the collective cooking and baking got the people and they're buying like the old days when the stock was much higher. i think it's going to stay this way for some time. if you don't follow the history of the pandemic, you miss stocks like conagra, again, the number one performer on a really ugly day. i bring this up because we can't afford itto take these covid-related changes for granted. here's two companies that have been crushed by this, united health care and humana. they were terrific stocks for ages but now they're being obliterated.

what's wrong? first there were millions, i mean of people who put off non-urgent surgery until covid died down and they felt safe going to the hospital. that allowed the health insurers to make out like bandits during the pandemic. they didn't have to pay for this stuff. and of course they got your premiums. but now people are finally getting these procedures and it's causing shortfalls everywhere. then to add insult to injury the managed care companies try to recuperate some of these new expense business raising prices for medicare advantage policies. they need to get government approval to do that, though, because it really impacts retirees. this time they didn't get approval. their request for larger increases were denied. so the stocks got hit again. >> sell sell sell sell sell sell! >> see, that's all about covid. and again, almost no one saw it coming. because even though it should have been obvious that's the stocks of united and humana, huge favorites of this market for so lock, are now down 13.5 and 32% respectively.

how about the stock of disney? david faber interviewed bob iger after his win in the roxy fight with nelson peltz. midway through the interview bob talked about his predecessor, no need to name him since nobody at disney seems to -- okay, i'll do it p bob chapek. the stock took it on the chin of course and didn't really recover until the last few months. i think we misjudged how much disney was really hurt first by covid and then management's response to covid. frantic attempts to meet their streaming goals not backed up by what had been the company's regular cash flow. now there's no excuse which is a big reason why nelson peltz thought it was worth going after some board seats but things got better as pelths agitated while the pandemic faded and the travel tail winds reemerged. i don't think pelts saw the turnaround in the stock coming even as he arguably caused a lot of it which ironically then hurt his chances of joining the board. the cruise line stocks have been among the best performers for the last 18 months, especially royal caribbean. seems quizzical but wait a second this move's almost entirely a function of covid and

its aftereffects. first cruise ships were at the epicenter of the. demmic and the publicity was horrendous. when short sellers bet against these stocks they thought they were shooting fish in a barrel. if you go back and look at the bottom of the covid bear market you'll see some owners refinancing for carnival. representing real bankruptcy risk. at the same time the cruise ceos were telling you not to worry as the months wore on. because customers always come back to cruising. too great a bargain for them to ignore. they didn't believe that, though, they shorted the cruise line stocks endlessly and mercilessly. but it turned out that the ceos were right, the customer did kim back. and then the shorts were overrun. what happens? royal caribbean goes from $37 when the pandemic truly began to ebb in the end of 2022 to $135 now. that's the short sellers covering because of the broken covid trade. many people who try to game habits lost fortunes. they thought there was no way peloton was going to lose all those subscribers, right? wrong. who knows if in one will ever

come back? >> they know nothing! >> williams sonoma was the place during the pandemic to buy outdoor furniture. remember we used to go outside because we were afraid of giving it to each other? or goods for the home office. we weren't going to the office anymore. then we got all the outdoor furniture we needed and we went back to work. the stock gets cut in half. then we needed new stuff again. we went back to williams sonoma. this time helped by some -- laura al behr's so good. she's the ceo. then the stock doubles right back and then it almost trips. the world went back to normal and people shorted dell or hp like crazy. but then finally dell turned out to be i atie-in with generative ai. it was nvidia's preferred partner to connect supercomputers. next thing you know there's i ashort squeeze on the stock of dell although hp without a huge nvidia tie-in kind of does nothing. we still can't get our arms around who's coming back to work and who isn't. do we need that commercial real

estate or not? again, that's post-covid lack of knowledge. so many stocks are controlled by their pasts and right now their pasts are still controlled by covid. sure right now we're in the grips of higher oil and what that means for inflation. but the bottom line if you want to understand this economy it's all about knowing what happened in the past and looking for ways to extrapolate it to the future. the pandemic may be over but we are just now finding out how our habits have changed, some permanently and some in retrospect not at all. robert in new york. robert. >> caller: jim! jim. >> robert. >> caller: jim, i have my reminder on my phone to remind me how much money you made me and how much money you saved me. jim, i love you. you saved me -- you gave us this whole scenario to take some money off the table. again you did it for me. and you've done it for me multiple times. >> thank you. i've got to tell you, you -- like i'm watching with jeff

marks, jeff, i did say repeatedly take money off the table. it always hurts. but we got it right. and robert, i'm so glad you pointed it out because it does get me down a little but you just reinvigorated myself and made me feel like i am ready for your question so i can hit it out of the park. let me help. you. >> caller: jim, you reinvigorate me because i look at my portfolio and on the down side it never goes down because i listened to you. >> it probably goes down a little. i want it to just go down less. thank you. you're a good man. how can i help? >> caller: okay, jim. let's talk about a stock that's up 11% in one month. the stock has hit a half a trillion-dollar market cap this year and the energy sector has been on a tear crushing the s&p again last month. not to mention they're getting into the alternative energy space. and with oil up above $80 a barrel this is a dream for this company. they posted sales and earnings nearly ten-year highs, a 13.1 operating margin and 33.5 billion in free cash flow and

they've returned 32.4 billion to shareholders. exxonmobil. >> you know, it's funny, robert. i saw this stock up on a bad day even though they admitted last night that they missed the numbers pretty big. what does that tell you about what can happen here? now, it is at a high. we don't buy at a high. we wait for a 3 to 5 or 7% pullback, we buy at those levels. but you are a winner and you've recommended a winner, and i thank you for your kind thoughts because yes, we told people to lighten up. you remembered. thank you! you want to get a handle on this economy, you need to understand what happened during the pandemic and how that's impacting companies right now. even though we've all forgotten the pandemic we've got to bring it back if only just to remember in our minds what to do. conagra turned a solid quarter and sent the stock higher. what can we glean about the state of the consumer from the packaged food giant report after the pan dem snik i'm digging into the numbers with the ceo. last night i covered what i think small caps can do to move higher. tonight i'm going to take a look

at some small cap industrials and share the names with you even though i know most of them went down today. we can't turn down our minds as the market went down. last year i shared my power rankings in the media space and the rankings have held pretty pl bup now that the disney proxy battle is over and i'll be talking to members of the investing club about that what do we do here? do we update the rankings? of course we do. so stay with cramer. >> announcer: don't miss a second of "mad money." follow @jimcramer on x. have a question? tweet cramer. hashtag mad mentions. send jim an e-mail to madmoney@cnbc.com. or give us a call at 1-800-743-cnbc. miss something? head to madmoney.cnbc.com.

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even on a dow down 530 day there are still stocks in the green. take conagra. this morning we got a strong set of numbers from conagra, cag as i call it. the packaged food powerhouse behind bird's eye, marie callender's, slim jim, orville redenbacher, hebrew national and so many other brands. the last time they reported they were let's say less than ideal. this time the company post aid four-cent earnings beat off a 65-cent basis with in-line sales and management reaffirming their full-year sales and earnings per share forecast and suddenly raised their operating margin guidelines which is really bullish. looking under the surface their volume is still down year over year but management said it's already improving off a sequential basis. if you were worried they couldn't produce decent numbers without raising prices something that's hard to do now that consumers are pushing back this quarter's pretty encouraging. the stock jumped on a very poor day for the market. is this just the beginning as i think? let's check in with sean connolly, the president and ceo of conagra brands, to get a better sense of the quarter,

what comes next. mr. connolly, welcome back to "mad money." >> hey, jim, thanks for having me on. >> i'm happy to have you on, sean, because your stock was the best performing stock in the s&p 500. and it wasn't happenstance. i see a major turn here. because we finally got over our covid hangover, we finally got over our giant price increases that you were forced to put through, not that you wanted to but were forced to. and to me it seems now you're back on a firm growth path. >> we're making progress for sure. the quarter unfolded largely the way we expected. our supply chain did a terrific job generating cost savings. and that gave us the ability to invest in our business to drive volume particularly in advertising, innovation and merchandising. and we were pleased to report a quarter that saw continued volume progress but importantly while maintaining our gross margins. we also put up some very strong free cash flow conversion at 124% which enabled us to continue our debt reduction

efforts and keep that on track. overall a very solid quarter. >> sean, one of the things that happened during covid was thing got a little too expensive for some people and they started i guess cooking from scratch. now they're back to some of their favorites including healthy choice and singles really love those too because it's not that much fun to cook and clean. >> no question. the amount of input cost inflation we saw in a two-year period was unlike anything i've seen in my 30-plus years of doing this. and of course that leads to higher prices in the marketplace. and the consumer obviously became stretched. they turned to problem-solving techniques including more scratch cooking. but when we talked to consumers, interestingly a lot of them tell us we don't like planning for meals, we don't like preparing meals and we certainly don't like cleanup after meals. that's why frozen single-serve meals is an example is such a big category. so we invested again this quarter to nudge consumers back to their typical routines and we saw progress and i expect more from here.

>> how about we include in terms of progress some of these positive share gains that i saw that conagra had this quarter? >> yeah, our two growth priority areas at conagra are snacks and frozen. and we saw shares that were stable to up in about 59% of those two consumer domains, which is very strong in our peer set. and that's in part because of the great innovation we've got in the marketplace but also the support we put against the brands in merchandising and advertising and sampling, things like that. share gains are important to us. in particular our large frozen single serve meal business where our market shares are over 51% was up another 1.7 points, which is outstanding and really leading the category. >> i want to go back over something you said. you'll say leading innovation. people will say -- we happen to have some of your products in front. what's innovating there? well, how about the fact that when the younger people in the office, it's not me, show me dolly parton videos, which are directly related to conagra products, i say something's going on that could be

meaningful for your bottom line. >> well, dolly is a near friend to the conagra family. and we started working with dolly along with duncan hines in our baking mix category, and now we're extending into the frozen space. and the amazing thing about dolly is everybody loves dolly. it doesn't matter squlaerngs you are. everybody loves dolly. she is an american icon. and she's a great partner for us at conagra. and that's an important part of how we innovate. but i've got another one for you, jim, in terms of innovation. the fastest-growing sport in america is pickleball. and i'm pleased to tell you that this year we've got a really cool innovation coming out from our great vlasic pickle brand and it's called vlasic pickleballs. it's tangy, it's dill, it's delicious and it's crunchy. i'll send you some so you can experience them for yourself. >> please do. i happen to love the puddings you sent. how's the pudding doing? >> excellent. our innovation is going well. i know you like angie's boom chick-a-pop popcorn.

we've got some great varieties there as well. people are looking to snack. it's a little healthier snacking. but we've got products that meet those needs as well. >> the boom-chick-a is a household staple. i see you have a tie-in with cinnabon. how do you reason people will like those two? how do you get together and say the taste works for a lot of people? >> well, we draw a lot of our inspiration for innovation from both away from home, restaurants as well as social media. tiktok, instagram, et cetera. you don't have to look very far to get creative ideas these days. so we have a whole demand science group that studies consumer trends everywhere and we don't have to invent anything. we'll copy, it design it into our products, bring it to life and the consumer response. >> the lacht st thing we have tk about is the glp-1. you would see an impact. i know. you do the most data science. dwroent you share the data science to see if we should be worried about that on a day when the s&p was down but your stock was up nicely? >> there was a lot of anxiety in

our space on the impact of glp-1 on foods about three, four, six months ago. that has diminished a bit. we track it very carefully and frankly we've seen no impact. but we have a diverse portfolio. and when i look at glp-1 users and what they might need to satisfy their dietary needs it's things like portion control, high protein, the avoidance of sugar, the avoidance of carbs, and also the presence of vegetable nutrition. well, we can do all of those things with our froze erin single serve meal business. and when it comes to snacks i can't think of a better snack for a glp 1 user than a meat stick because if you're on glp-1s you've got to protect against muscle loss and high protein snacking is the way to go. between popcorn and meat sticks we think we have a solution there as well. >> one last thing i see the -- in the times i've known you david's has become the acceptable snack. i used to think that was going to be something that was always going to be tiny. but it's become a way that people snack, correct?

>> david is a big brand for us. we've got another seed brand in big's. between the two i think we've got about a 60-plus market share of the category. seeds are incredibly healthy snacks. they're interactive and they have a great opportunity to deliver flavor with the seasoning techniques that we use. so it's a great business for us. it's not small. it's a big profitable business. >> people want yield. people want growth. they want steady. and they want science. i think conagra has it. i've been waiting, sean, because i know one day you would say jim, it's here. now you're not supposed to do that. that's actually my job. but i like everything you had to say and i'm really glad you came on the show. sean, it's great to see you. >> good to see you, jim. >> okay, guys. yield, some growth, trends going with it. sean connolly, conagra brands and ceo. you don't get to be up on a down day like this unless you've got something real good to talk about. "mad money's" back after the break. >> announcer: coming up, go small or go home? part two of our stroll through the small cap landscape is next.

go big and stick with cramer.

yesterday i told you the small cap cohort could finally be due for a nice bounce in large part because these smaller companies are more hostage to interest rates and i expect rates even after this recent spike to only go lower this

year. plus their stocks tend to be much cheaper than the big caps. i know the market was terrible today. and oil soared. but that can paralyze you and cause you to stop cogitating on good ideas. i want to go sector by sector searching for the best small cap opportunities and tonight we're going to start with the industrials. the sector with the heaviest weighting in the russell 2000. first i like to run a screen. that's time honored for me. this time we only focused on companies smaller than $5 billion that are smil large enough to mention on air. with positive earnings estimates for this year and stocks that trade at a discount to the s&p 500. these are the parameters. out of the 274 industrial stocks in the russiaell 2000 that scre left us with 121 stocks. from there the process say lot more subjective. go through the list and pick out ten stocks that i know and like most? hey, that's okay. use my institutional knowledge. first up is terex. you've gotten some good buying opportunities in the last couple years whenever investors get

spooked about non-residential construction market. because the only problem area in the space are office buildings and even there the widespread concerns i think are overblown. trust me there's plenty of building going on from infrastructure to data centers to new manufacturing facilities to the massive need for new power plants. that means there's plenty of demand for terex's equipment. every time the stock pulls back on non-residential construction worries it's always been able to snap back. it's up nearly 82% for the past few years trouncing the s&p 500 over the same period. in recent months the stock's been hit with a few downgrades and that's based on valuation. but it still trades at less than ten times this year's earnings estimates sure doesn't look all that overvalued to me especially by the way versus caterpillar. next is dycom industries. in late 2022 i recommended this one as part of a homework segment when it was around $90 thinking it within a big beneficiary of the infrastructure bill with its

billions upon billions of dollars for rural broadband. the stock floundered for about a year afterward thanks to worries about a capital spending slowdown from the telco carriers. these fears have now passed, though, and the federal dollars are finally coming through. the stock caught fire about six months ago and it shot up to just under 140 today. so i would say stick with it. see this example. it got hammered today. everything got hammered today. let's just take this off the tape. and imagine about trying to capture this, not trying to miss that. when looking through the small cap industrials i saw a bunch of strong transportation plays like arkbest, a trucking company focused on the lasting truckload or ltl space. i didn't know this one that well until ceo judy mcreynolds came on the show two years ago. i was impressed and i've been impressed with the stock ever since. it has effectively doubled during this period despite constant worries about a freight

recession. imagine what will happen when they get their act together. i think trucking is coming back. fourth is hillenbrand, which makes highly engineered mission-critical processing equipment for a bunch of end markets like durable plastics, food, and recycling. that's a big change. this company used to make mainly caskets but thanks to a series of acquisitions it's much more diversified. this stock's been trading sideways for roughly three years. i think hillenbrand can break out to the up side now that it's got its house in order. by the way, look at in. classic reverse head and shoulders. our fifth small cap industrial is sterling infrastructure, texas-based engineering construction firm, one that pivoted to data centers and e-commerce fulfillment centers a few years ago. smart. when it comes to this point in august of last year as a homework item i told you sterling had a great story but that the stock was too high so you should wait for a pullback. and that's exactly what you got with the stock tumbling from $80 at the time to the low 60s by late november. i'm sure -- now it's up 105. in large part because the

company reported a blowout quarter with phenomenal gienz back in february. while sterling's on the expensive side for the small cap industrials training at 21 times this year's earnings estimates the numbers here are so good it might be worth paying up for. six, one i haven't talked about in a very long time, john bean technologies, which makes very specialized equipment for the food and erospace industries. including those funky vehicles you see on the tarmac in any given airport. 2023 was a down year for john bean and the stock swooned since last summer. but the company just issued a much better than expected forecast for 2024 when reporting in february so i wouldn't be surprised if the stock makes a nice comeback this year. the cabinet maker masterbrand spun off in 2022. they came on the show a few weeks ago so i won't spend much time hashing out the story. just now the company thrived since its break-up even outperforming its former parent which is supposed to be a better business. this sells for 12 1/2 times

earnings. eighth is h & e equipment services. i know some of these are kind of out of the realm. but listen this is a heavy-duty equipment rental company. we even embarked on a new building renaissance in this country. all the equipment rental places thrive. i want you to think of this one as a small united rentals. next up is trinity industries. remember we had css on last night? that railroad's booming. norfolk southern doing very well. handles maintenance and related services like we saw yesterday. this is another potential winner from recovery in the freight market. plus i think anything connected to the rails benefits from the rise of onshoring and near shoring as companies move their manufacturing closer to home in order to maintain stable supply chains. we saw what happened during covid when we don't. when it comes to rail cars we've got a couple options. trinity's got the better dividend. 4.1% yield. i think that gives you a nice cushion and in this market don't we need nice cushions? finally we need a bit more aerospace exposure for this basket of small cap industrials so why don't we go with a

company that i used to have a huge position in in my old hedge fund 25 years ago, aar, which is an independent provider of after-market parts and services for both commercial aviation and government customers. the after-market parts portion of the aerospace market is always a pretty good business. but right now it's particularly good because of the terrible, horrible and seemingly endless production quality problems at boeing. they have too many problems and an extremely long wait list to buy new planes from their only real competitor airbus. if airlines can't buy new planes, airlines need to squeeze more life out of their existing ones and that's good news for after market players like aar. i am surprised this one came down. we did the research and said how can this be, this is exactly in the wheelhouse of this market. bottom line that's our first bash of small cap names that look enticing all from the industrial sector. tune back in tomorrow i'll give you ten more small cap, that's right, ten small caps in the health care space. probably do bet everyin a recession. and then we'll keep going group

by group next week because we are fascinated by this small cap stock market. i want to go to paul in pennsylvania. paul. >> caller: hey, jim. second time caller, long-time disciple. >> excellent. >> caller: i love your show. i love your sound box. i've got two questions for you. >> okay. >> caller: my first question is about the fed. what is the market's obsession with what the fed does? and you've got these fed guys coming out every other day saying different things, there's not going to be any cuts, there are going to be cuts. i just wonder are companies really that dependent on what the fed is going to do? and my second question is i saw your bit on ajak. i've been holding it a little bit. i'm wondering if i should switch into treks. >> no, i want you to stay long azek and buy more if it goes lower. i think you're absolutely right there's an obsession with the fed and i wish it weren't the case. why? because we have jay powell, he's the fed chief. he's really the only guy who matters and we should just pay attention to him once a month. i think the whole idea of trying to read the tea leaves of the

fed has kept people out of this market for a very long time. i have written and railed about this forever. the people obsessed with the fed are the people who don't make any money. i think it's my job to hem you make money, not do nothing. sorry, that's how i see it. and i'm sticking by it. joseph in new york. joseph. >> caller: yeah. just wanted to see if cramer could make -- i own some shares of procter & gamble. >> okay. >> caller: i wonder if he could just look into it. >> joseph, listen, procter & gamble's terrific. we bought some yesterday. we sold some procter when it burst into the 16s. and now we're trying to rebuild the position. we bought some yesterday and i'm looking to buy more. why? because procter & gamble's what you buy. it's a steady eddie company. whenever it's had a break i've always reached for it and it's been right to reach for it. now, if you're looking for some small cap industrials to add to your portfolio, then look no further than this list i just

gave you and many more names that are coming. and then after that we will refresh it and refer to these stocks over and over because i like this section of the market. now, we've got much more "mad money" ahead from disney to paramount there have been a lot of developments this week in the media space. so i'm updating my media power rankings and sharing where i come down after the influx of headlines. then you know my stance when it comes to apple, right? own it, don't trade it? but the queen of fibs has a big call on the name. could the stock be showing signs of a bottom? a special edition of off the charts on a really crazy day. and of course all your calls rapid-fire on tonight's edition of the "lightning round." so stay with cramer.

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five months ago we laid out our major media power rankings. the list went disney, then fox, then warner brothers discovery and finally paramount global in that order. since then i've got to say that ranking list held pretty well. disney's been far and away the best performer finally doing something for my charitable trust. the stock up nearly 33%, although bad today after a brutal intraday reversal. while i was right to highlight warner brothers and paramount as the laggards in the group warner was a much worse performer. the proxy fight at disney came to an end yesterday with disney fending off legendary activist investor nelson peltz's bid for two board seats. there's also a lot of activity with paramount which has been engaged in complex takeover talks for weeks now. plus we've gotten fourth quarter

earnings for each of these at this point and some of these stocks had very big moves, which is why this is a good moment to reassess. why don't we start like this? let's start with the returning disney the clear outperformer. ♪ hallelujah ♪ the problem with disney is the stock has roared in large part thanks fought proxy fight. the board of directors knew they'd have to get their act together to fend off pelts but now they've succeeded. i wish he'd gotten those board seats because he's very good at helping companies create value even though it's considered controversial. disney's made some major commitments to cut costs to set up succession plans for ceo bon iger. will they stick to those commitments if peltz doesn't have a gun to their head? that was on my mind as i watched david faber interview bob iger and then did my own interview with nelson peltz during the 10:00 a.m. hour. he did not give us a clear answer on whether he's sticking around the stock after losing the proxy contest. you about he did say if disney

didn't follow through on improvements like the cost cuts or making more entertaining movies he might come back with another proxy contest next year. i consider that a good thing because it will keep management on their toes as there are enough votes among these index funds that will most likely turn against management if they don't follow through. i think management will follow through. however, as i said in the special alert to cnbc investing club subscribers earlier today, even as we sold some disney stock monday because it had run so much we wanted to trim even more this morning again when the stock was up nicely but we couldn't because of our prohibitions. of course it doesn't mean i'm restricted from telling you not to sell. so i told you to sell. as i wrote in the bulletin i'm still positive on the stock but a good bit less than i was five months ago when it was of course much lower. next how about this fox which i correctly pegged as second best of the big four media stocks in november. when fox reported its latest quarter the numbers were surprisingly resilient. nobody expected a great-looking quarter because the company's up against some real difficult comparisons. they had the world cup of the

quarter but their sales came in slightly better than expected and their earnings were magnificent. a 22-cent earnings beat off a 12-cent basis. outsized. i still see fox as a good solid choice especially because the stock hasn't run too much and has a reasonable valuation. plus we're now in an election year where fox news will likely make out like bandits. you know what's nota good solid option, though? sadly. warner brothers discovery. i put this stock in third place five months ago purely oust respect not fourth place because the long-term track record of ceo david zaslav, we only care about long term on this show, but it's getting harder to see how he's going to pull this rabbit out of a hat. remember all the old line media companies are up against the same set of challenges here but warner needs to navigate these challenges with the worst balance sheet in the industry by far, actually, and the possibility of some mega cap kpgs for their nba contracts. in short it's a highware act. the company needs strong numbers to outrun its debt maturitied and interest payments. sadly the most recent quarter

did not have strong numbers. with warner brothers missing expectations pretty much across the board. best i can say about this one is "dune 2" seems like a major success. at this point i can't go positive on the stock until the balance sheet gets much more clean. and you have to respect that. we do balance sheet analysis here and the balance sheet is just not good. finally let's talk about paramount global which is also an enigma. on the one hand it's not doing well operationally, second worst balance sheet in the industry, a close second, actually, on the other hand paramount's considered to be in play, meaning somebody might buy the whole shooting match. i think that's the only reason why this stock has held up so much better than warner brothers over the past five months. but man, for a company that's supposed to be in play paramount shares act terribly. $11 in november to 17 in early december. since then it's given back almost all those gains because even if there is a deal we've realized it's going to be very messy and probably not too rewarding for shareholders at least the common shareholders like you or i. in fact, to understand this point you only need to look at what happened this week. yesterday the stock jumped 15% on news that the company was

entering exclusive merger talks with sky dance, a production company controlled by david ell ellison, son of billionaire oracle founder larry ellison. sounds real good, right? made it sound like a done deal even better. analysts raised the price target, one even upgraded the stock. but this morning david faber broke the story that thanks to the dire state of paramount's balance sheet here we go again the company might need to do an equity raise of up to $3 billion or else no deal. that, any friends, is bad. according to faber's reporting ellison and his partners would buy any equity raised but it wrote still be diluted for harlds. the market didn't care for this news and that's why the stock sunk giving back most of yesterday's gains. even if paramount gets a takeover bid it probably won't be a huge windfall for shareholders as nobody's crazy enough to pay up for this thing right now. people don't like this. by the way, great work again by my "squawk on the street" colleague david faber. given this how do our media

rankings change? first i want to swap fox for disney at the top of the rankings with disney moving to second because it's already run so much and the proxy fight is over. long term i still prefer the house of mouse but for the rest of 2024 i'm betting on fox because it still has the election ahead of it. and the bottom of the rankings i'm going to swap pair mournt and warner brothers discovery too. paramount in third. warner brothers dead last. they're both not in great shape but at least paramount has takeover chatter. warner brothers doesn't seem to have anything. bottom line, for the rest of 2024 our new media power rankings go like this. fox in first, disney in fairly close second and pairmount way, way down in a distant third. only slightly better than worst of breed warner brothers discovery. "mad money" is back after the break. >> announcer: when we return, master the markets one stock at a time. the "lightning round" is up next.

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it is time. it's foom for the "lightning round" on cramer's "mad money." calls -- play until you hear this sound and then the "lightning round" is over. are you ready skee-daddy? time for the "lightning round" on cramer's "mad money." start with jeff in north carolina. jeff! >> caller: cramer, boo-yah, skee-daddy! >> man, i like your fired up attitude. >> i've loved you. you've helped me make millions. tell me what do i do? >> i didn't like the last quarter. i went over it with a fine-toothed comb. there was nothing that made me feel good about a high multiple stock. let's go to joe in maryland. joe. >> caller: hello.

jim. >> joe. what's up? >> caller: not long ago i invested in a company that was doing very well. and just before the earnings report came out i really loaded up on it and then it took a dump. i'd like to know whether to hold it or sell it and move on and that would be snapchat. >> snapchat did not have a good quarter. you do not have much luxury here. you've got about three weeks to make a move. if it bounces here, if you can get it out of 12, 13, that's what i'd prefer, probably has a couple points to the up side from here. let's go to leon in pennsylvania. leon. >> caller: good evening, mr. cramer. >> leon. how are you? >> caller: looking for your opinion on blackstone. buy, sell or hold. >> we are in a tougher tape than we were. the stock is only down five points from its high. i am use cuesing that kind of analysis. six points. using that kind of analysis trying to figure out where i can make a stand and the stand is not reached at 126. how about we go to rob in new york?

rob. >> caller: boo-yah, jim! >> boo-yah, rob. >> caller: i'm in the investing club. thanks for the picks. it's been a great year. >> excellent. thank you. what's going on? >> caller: my friend who's an eagles fan gave me an assist on a stock a couple years ago. it's down 15%. do i dump it for a loss or hold on? the stock isrtk rocket. >> that must be a detroit lions fan. an eagles fan would never steer you that long. you do not want to be in that stock. ka-ching ka-ching. honestly. and i like dan campbell. stefano in new york. ka >> caller: ba-ba-ba-boo-yah! jimmy cramer, how are you doing? >> tough day but we're about to go do some cocktails. what's going on? >> caller: i'm talking about a world that needs security. i'm talking about ticker symbol -- >> i know you're talking about palo alto.

jeff marks and i were saying time to buy. and that ladies and gentlemen is the conclusion of the "lightning round"! >> announcer: the "lightning round" is sponsored by charles schwab. coming up, own it, don't trade it. cramer tackles apple. when we return. the award-winning trading platforms. bring your trades into focus on thinkorswim desktop with robust charting and analysis tools, including over 400 technical studies. tailor the platforms to your unique needs with nearly endless customization. and track market trends with up-to-the-minute news and insights. trade brilliantly with schwab.

everybody knows i'm a big long-term believer in the stock of apple. but for the last few months the stock's been a nightmare. so what's it going to take to stem the bleeding? what needs to happen before this thing can bottom? finish that question we're running a special thursday off the charts with the help of carolyn rhodes. she's the brilliant technician who runs the trading room at elliott wave trader.net and whose work you can find on x, formerly twitter, at queenoffibs. because despite all the ugliness of the stock trading she's starting to feel more constructive. now that apple's experienced a substantial pullback from its

peak last september she started to watch the stock closely for signs of an important low developing in the future. in other words, approaching a bottom. but why does she feel this way? let's start with apple's weekly chart which apparently has a lot going for it. right now she notes it's sitting on top of important levels of support. she likes to measure past swings in a stock then run them through the prism of fibonacci ratios to find the places where that stock is most likely to change trajectory. on the weekly chart apple's got a whole cluster of eight fibonacci price relationships running from around 165 to just under 169. basically, this is what's known as a building floor. she thinks the floor's probably somewhere between the stock's current level and four points down from here. i like that. on top of that she's always looking for what we call symmetry because past moves often end up being similar in size to future moves. if you look at the recent declines in apple five of them were between roughly 31 and 35. 34, 32, 33.

okay? 31. well, guess what? hey. this is where the stock should find its footing. it's a little ridiculous, i know the stock tends to trade this way, the fact is we've seen this symmetry pattern over and over and over again. that matters because apple's down nearly 31 in its highs and this is around where it should bottom. right around there. got to give it to you ahead of time. okay? from a chart perspective there are a ton of reasons for the stock to bottom in the mid to high 160s. she uses the fibonacci analysis on the x access of the chart too. looking back at those five declines, low 30s, they typically lasted for 16 weeks. this time apple's slide has lasted for 15 weeks. now, not all these swings will be equal to others but the timing gives us another reason to suspect the climb might be coming to an end. remember this is fibonacci work. this is nothing to do with the iphone. it has nothing to do with ai. it's fibonacci worked, and it's been unparalleled in calling the tops and bottoms of apple. when you check out apple's daily chart broaden thinks okay, not as encouraging. okay? sure, the stock has some key

support levels in the 160s once again but it's still caught in the pattern of lower lows and lower highs. more important, broaden has a specific buy or sell target. watching the five-day exponential moving average and the 13 day. you see the five is blue and the 13-day is red. when the five-day in blue goes above the 13-day in red, that's her favorite sign. unfortunately, the 13 day as we see is -- well, it's still above the five-day, meaning apple is not there yet. that has to change direction. but it could get there in the not too distant future and that's why broaden says she's stalking apple for a new buy entry point as long as its floor of support in the 160s holds. and if we get that five to 13-day exponential moving average crossover she'll get even more constructive on the stock. but if those key support levels fail, well, okay, time to throw in the towel. my view. look, you know i always tell you to own apple, don't trade it. because trying to trade in and out of this stock has been very hard and very wrong. it's tough to get the timing

right, especially if you don't manage money as a full-time job. but if broaden's right then you might want to buy more apple into this dreary and seemingly frankly endless sell-off. i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise to try to find it just for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. see you tomorrow. "last call" starts now. right now on last call, throwing in the electric towel . one of detroit's big three, stunning the auto world. leading analyst out with a big call you want to hear. big city money grab. a showdown in new york could soon be coming to a city near you. another pandemic on the way? a scary story you have to hear about. blacked out. solar eclipse coming. wait until you ear what it is doing to some home rental rates. you would be surprised. all that and more over t