hot move today, i think it continues. >> dnx, console energy. >> thank you very much, have a good evening. i'm simon hobbs. "mad money" with the one and only jim cramer begins right now. i'm jim cramer. and welcome to my world. you need to get in the game! going out of business and he's nuts, they're nuts! they know nothing! i always like to say there's a bull market somewhere and i promise to -- "mad money," you can't afford to miss it. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money," welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends, just trying to save you a little money. my job is not just to entertain but to teach and coach. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. sure is easier when stocks are downgoing into earnings season than when they're higher, isn't it? that's all i can think about after today's rocky session. dow got slammed for 69 points.

s&p down, but the nasdaq fell .7%. it is important to mention that at one point it was much ugly you are if it weren't for a late-day rally. people keep asking, is this a good earnings season or a bad one? and while that is a perfectly legit question, it's not responsive. it's not the question that illuminates the action. did stocks run too much ahead of earnings, jim? because the earnings themselves are pretty darn good, but most stocks i follow are getting hammered after they report good numbers. and that is exactly what's happened. we're taking our cue from the stocks not the actual earnings. so we're getting angry and even scared about the reactions. we're driving ourselves -- >> buy, buy, buy! >> i'm going to use a couple of household names to show what i mean. help explain the action. put it in perspective. take yum brands.

y kfc, taco bell. i'm telling you point-blank, china did have good numbers. others were unhappy about the results of taco bell, others fretting about the raw costs, i know that because i read the notes! the truth is, these worries had nothing to do with yum's results. china, right on target for heaven sake. i mean, it was almost as if it was right out in the little red -- a major turn around, raw costs going down, not up. the ceo david novak couldn't have been more adamant about these costs being terrific. this was a fabulous yum quarter. even if you put it under the mic mic mic mic microfine glass. and when i read over the results in a vacuum without looking at the price of the stock, a great exercise in removing emotion in the equation, i was shaking my

head like reagan, you know what i mean? i didn't spew green vomit, though. how could i have been so stupid to have sold yum from my trust i was thinking? how could i have been so stupid? what was i thinking? what am i? what a bozo, but the stock had been up so much. i couldn't let it give up that gain. i didn't want to have to get exercised! yum had rallied 45% since last year for heaven sake. sure enough, what happens? the stock gets hammered! and because it gets hammered suddenly, oh, it was a bad quarter. people ferment the woes, they did it as an alibi for the decline. because no one wants to believe that a stock can go down on good earnings. the reality is, that the price matters. the reality is, that yum had rallied so, so much ahead of the quarter that it didn't matter what the company said, it couldn't justify that 45% increase with the commentary.

the stock had become more bullish than the fundamentals. the stock ran ahead. i wasn't an idiot for selling it for the trust. i was brilliant! of course i wasn't really brilliant or stupid. i simply recognized at times the price of the stock is more important than the actual earnings reported itself. and yum moved up so much, it couldn't handle even the good news. do you really think that ibm was any different despite what you've read? i know it really well. i've traded it since 1981. it raised, no the cut, it raised estimates. raised them handily, but because the stock opened down, that's how they explain the decline. hey, pundits, i've got bad news for you. in the last two years, ibm has rallied from 120 to 200 without any real revenue growth. it was the earnings that drove things. but the stock had run to $210, gone up 90 points almost a straight line since april of 2010, that's a 75% gain and this is old big blue.

again, given the scale of that move, it really didn't matter what ibm said. so when the company did the very thing it moved it up for ages, investors weren't so crazy about it in the 200s. ibm is another classic example of how hard this business can be. and why you've got to stop kicking yourself. my charitable trust owns ibm, but we had sold some at $206 in the last week of march. when it ran to $210 after i sold -- how could i have been so dumb to sell ibm? what the heck was i thinking? of course, just like with yum, i was neither -- not a joker or space cowboy for that matter. some would say continuing the metaphor that i should have taken the money and run. i'd argue that i did the right thing with ibm. my charitable trust sold some now it's in position to buy back the stock at a lower price.

in fact, i'm with the buy back yum suit because the quarter was so good. both quarters were so good. it says the stocks were reflecting even better so they had to be knocked down. you don't believe me? okay. let me give you the other side. give you the inverse. consider cy, cypress semi. that's a company we've liked. excellent management team led by t.j. rodgers. they make the chips for the touch screens in almost every non-apple device. yet the stock has been terrible as numbers have come down repeatedly. right out of freddy krueger. and people decided that anything but apple, their customers, well, that's not good enough. turns out, making all of those chips for the non-apple players wasn't good enough when cypress was at $19. but at $14 and change where the stock closed at yesterday, all those non-apple customers, that was plenty. so when cypress reported a

better than expected quarter today, better than the slash freddy krueger estimates, it was one of the biggest gainers of the day. how about the travelers? here's the -- people figured this insurance company wasn't doing that well. today we found out that this dow jones average member was doing spectacularly and that's how travelers can run $2.23 on the most hideous day. finally, there's a company i saw them on this afternoon, super cycle. pea body energy with the gain of $2 or 7% today, one of the fourth best performer in the s&p, you wanted to be in pea body. you said, oh, i wish i had pea boy body. wow, how great, you'd be a genius if you owned pea body, right? well, you would have been a total idiot to own it the last year, it's fallen 60% in the

last month as the earnings estimates were slash, slash, slash. so on a reported terrible horrible earnings today they weren't quite terrible and horrible enough to disappoint. which is why pea body went higher. when you get these kinds of reactions, people tend to freak out about the winners. isn't that the take away? winners. so when you hear that qualcomm a winner that got turned into a loser today makes the wireless chips for the iphone, hear they're having trouble making those chips and predicting it won't be able to meet customer demand, meaning apple demand, then you put the -- not unlike edgar allen poe, you start thinking apple itself may not be able to sell as many phones as it would like or perhaps it might have to delay the iphone, which means quarters two, three, and four of this year might be light? you augment that with the demand that no customer or supplier is allowed to speak about apple? so you've got that aura of

mystery that allows you to fret about how many iphones verizon sold because they're not going to give you the number when they reported today? when you add in a stock that's up almost 75% year-over-year as apple is, you start to go, nothing can go wrong with this one no matter what happens, it is going to get just slashed mercilessly when it reports tuesday night. then you start thinking, i don't want to be greedy, you know what i'll do? i'll ring the register. and that's how apple falls 20 points today. here's the bottom line, many things matter when you're investing. we always have to worry about europe at jim cramer on twitter someone says, i'm worried about europe. it was bad last night. we have to worry about jobless claims which were, again, not so hot. we have to worry about the fundamentals and the expectations and those were terrific. most importantly, when it comes to the instant reaction after earnings, the instant analysis we need to worry about price. after a terrific quarter, for many stocks the price isn't right anymore. those prices are being adjusted

downward even when they're upwards. be patient, let them come down and do some buying when the price is right. let's go to steve in michigan. steve? >> caller: boo-yah, cramer. how are you doing? >> real good, partner. how about you? >> caller: pretty good. i got two in one. ford stock, it seems like it should be higher than it is. do you think it's being punished because they're unionized? and what do you think about the new plant they're building in china? >> yeah, i saw that. ford's not up because ford's got raw cost problems. ford's not up because ford's doing poorly in europe and latin america. it isn't doing as well as it should. there you go. anyway, price matters. you can't just look at the macro, the europe and jobless claims -- we can't look at the earnings. we've got to look at where the stock is. and in a lot of cases, it turned out the stocks were priced too high. "mad money" will be right back. coming up -- melting point?

mega dow component alcoa kicked off earnings season on a high note, but can it handle the heat of this market? cramer's sitting down with the ceo to find out. and later, nutrition facts, how conscious consumers are fortifying interest in companies keeping you well. but which stock could be the best supplement for your portfolio? and which will have it feeling deficient? don't miss cramer's head-to-head vitamin stock smackdown just ahead all coming up on "mad money." miss out on some "mad money"? get your "mad money" text alert today text mm to 26221 to get cramer right on your phone. for more info visit madmoney.cnbc.com. or give us a call at 1-800-743-cnbc. choose control.

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'cause he's a scotty. oh. scott: get scotts ez seed. it's guaranteed. seed your lawn. seed it! the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us.

[ traffic passing ] ] ♪ [ music box: lullaby ] [ man on tv, indistinct ] ♪ [ lullaby continues ] [ baby coos ] [ man announcing ] millions are still exposed to the dangers... of secondhand smoke... and some of them can't do anything about it. ♪ [ continues ] [ gasping ] never ever write off a great american company with phenomenal management. that to me is the lesson of alcoa which totally out of nowhere reported a much better than expected first quarter when it kicked off earnings season

last week. what a great surprise. more important, as it is green week here on "mad money," i think we need to talk to alcoa. because if there's any one company i know that is benefitting from the actual -- not the lip service, the actual it's alcoa. i'm not going to give you the long drawn out thing because i've got to get to claus kleinfeld, find out more about what's driving this company's earnings and the remarkable comeback. welcome to "mad money." >> good to see you. >> have a seat. >> wonderful. >> i've got to tell you, most companies, oh, yeah, we've got to get green, got to get green. i know that a lot of your clients make us more sustainable. you are the reason why some clients are more sustainable. explain to us how the clients are driving what you're doing? >> well, let's start with aerospace. we both love the industry. we just raised the forecast 13% to 14%. we believe as a growth rate this year. eight years of back of boeing

and airbus. >> the most bullish part of your conference call. >> there's a good reason. they just decided their main workhorse, the a-320 and the boeing 737 is going to be all-aluminum plane. why did they do it? because they know the planes that are getting replaced, they have a 50% better fuel efficiency. how do they get that? they get that through aluminum, right? they get that through aluminum lithium and that alloy we invented which is ten times less weight as composites -- >> but as strong. >> much stronger than that and a lot of experience of how to maintain it. everybody knows how to do that, the industry -- >> cars? >> same story. in a car if you go over life cycle, 20% fuel efficiency. so we see today with the new emissions standards coming in that people are now shifting on their volume cars to aluminum

intense cars. then you look at wheels. people say, you know, you shouldn't reinvent the wheel. we reinvented the wheel. because this wheel, aluminum wheel it's 49% lighter than a steel wheel. and it gives you 5%. this alone gives you 5% fuel efficiency. >> trucks? >> trucks, exactly, you know. and on top of it, you see it's self-cleaning, six times brighter than aluminum wheel. very cool stuff, right? >> how about plastic bottles versus -- >> yeah, right. exactly. look at that. this is what we call cheap cans. this material, i mean aluminum is infinitely recyclable, right? >> how much aluminum still around that was made -- >> 75% of all aluminum ever produced on this planet is still in produce. this cools faster and it is cool, right? >> right. >> in beverage cans it's great,

in the u.s., the recycling rate is at 57%. so if only every american would recycle one can more, we would get it up to 75%. >> like where you were born where they recycle 85%? >> 90 plus percent in germany and 90 plus percent in other countries and some states in the u.s., right, where they have different legislation. it's doable. we can do it. >> are you your own worst enemy? >> if there's 75% around, there's too much aluminum in the world. >> no, we love it, our customers love it. we have the largest recycling plant in the country. it only takes 5% of the energy to remelt that and turn that into new aluminum compared to if you have to remake it. also remaking it there's differences. because you said what do they expect from us? two-thirds of the energy that we use for making primary new aluminum comes from hyde power. so the cleanest water power, the cleanest thing, no co-2

emission. we released co-2 emission in the last 13 years by more than 16%. that's the story. >> my daughter took this class and said the number one pollution problem in the world is plastic computers. >> oh, yes. >> your daughter is smart -- >> she is -- >> where did that come from? she knows and you know that an average house in the u.s. throws a uh way today 3 1/2 pieces of electronics every year. this adds up. you see that this industry is in the process of ithe whole casin. it's appealing from the consumer side and has a refunction. in addition to that, it's sustainable because, again, recyclable. the function is the cooling function, all right. it acts as a heat sync. so you can slim the product down, you can get rid of a fan and you can see that many products are using that and that's a great story.

one industry to the other. >> we are big believers that coal's being taken out of the system and natural gas is taking over. turbines. >> oh, turbines, great stories with turbines. turbines alone on the fuel efficiency that we're seeing put into aircrafts. i mean the products that we have in place, i talked about aluminum lithium weight, this is about 10% weight saving. you get another 15% weight saving through modern technology, jet engine technology. and that comes to all kinds of stuff. but what really happens here is you have to make it as such, the blade as such that it cools itself. so you can bring the temperature up in the burn chamber. the burn chamber gives you an additional advantage of bringing the emissions down by 50%. another thing in aerospace is this you know that looks like, what is this? you talking about nuts and bolts. yes, because this thing alone, you know, this is a fastener. this is an aerospace fastener. this aerospace fastener alone holds 50 camries, toyota

camries. >> absolutely. you know, as you see the precision. 50% of our downstream business is aerospace, right? >> right. >> you saw it in the results. this is a booming business, we're expanding in there, good profitability and good innovation growth rates, you know? and similarly, we're increasing our footprint in the midstream business. you saw the earnings last week, record results and downstream, midstream and good improvement on the cost efficiency side on the upstream side. that's the story. >> okay so -- well, last question i have is that with all these great secular trends, lower fuel costs, that's aluminum, more sustainability, no -- apple ipad is made of aluminum that's great-looking, great looking, it conducts if you need it to replace copper. when will you see the explosion earnings power? and is it the chinese who were

producing in your unbelievable conference call, 5 million tons, is it the chinese that are wrecking the story here? >> no, there's actually -- your question is two questions, really. so let me start with the chinese one because that's most misunderstood. right? the chinese are not flooding the market. this is not what happens. chinese basically have 40% of the amount and 40% of the production. but the real story is that the 40% production that they have is the most expensive and the dirtiest that we have on this planet and it eats up all of the resources they don't have. they have to import, they have to eat up their water resources and the energy resources. doesn't really make much sense. >> doesn't even put as many people to work as -- i love that. that analysis -- >> right. exactly. and the second thing is, what is needed? what is needed? i think what's needed is for people to better understand the earnings power and i have the impression that some people m misinterpret us and say this is just an aluminum company and

they're swinging with what's going on with the world. and there's a negative view some days more or less with europe, people focusing on one thing overlooking the other. you know, the thing we've learned from it, basically continue to do the good things we're doing, you know, in the end, people will understand. and see all the great -- >> no, the quarter was terrific. it was terrific. thank you very much. that's klaus kleinfeld. the clients are excited about it. they're the guys that pay the bills. good to see you. nutrition facts. how conscious consumers are fortifying interest in companies keeping you well. which stock could be the best supplement for your portfolio? don't miss cramer's head-to-head vitamin stock smackdown just ahead. and later, ppg is shined in 2012, rising over 20%. but will shades of gray hanging

over europe hurt future returns? all coming up on "mad money." everyone in the nicu, all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes

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around, i'm going to keep on taking your best questions on twitter @jimcramer and turn them into yes, what we call segments, full segments. here's the tweet we got from rxa7 my buddy last week. gnc or vsi? vitamin shop. all right, that's my kind of tweet because it sets me into motion. here we've got two retailers of vitamins and nutritional supplements. a key part of the health and anti-obesity trend that's made you so much money in stocks like whole foods, herbalite, buzz, annie's, gnc and vitamin shoppe have been on fire lately and both within striking distance of the 52-week high and both relatively fresh-face companies that have done wonders since they became public, emphasis on the word relatively. vitamin shoppe has rallied 175% since october 2009 which is a lot of money to make in 2 1/2

years. gnc has done even better, up 120% since it came public a year ago on march 21st, 2011. so we like the vitamin and supplement space. when you have two stocks in the same industry, you got to be able to decide which one is better! that's rigger, that's the essence of stock picking, it's a battle! and it's why i thought it was worth devoting an entire segment to this question. gnc or vitamin shoppe? you don't need to put together a steel-cage death match with tina turner as referee. you don't need me being your master blaster, although i do want to be that. but you do need to be able to choose wisely. and to do that, you need the right framework. we need to be aware of the differences between two companies. gnc, these guys are huge. 7,600 stores in all 50 states. gnc also has a franchise heavy

business model as about 2,500 of these locations are franchises, makes it much cheaper for them to expand, but they don't capture as much upside from the franchise store. vitamin shoppe is much smaller, 530 stores, all of which company owned, free-standing stores as opposed to gnc's mall-based format. covers 40 states, district of columbia. we can still compare these two on an apples-to-apples basis, which is how you always have to try to pick stocks with and start with growth prospects because growth is the elixir that moves stocks higher. we like new-store growth. on this front, vitamin shoppe has a lot more potential. vsi plans to open up 52 new stores this year, 10% increase. they have to put up a lot of stores. management expects for vitamin shoppe they can only grow to 900 stores before they saturate the market. that's a 70% increase from the current level.

gnc, on the other hand, already saturated the u.s. market, opening just 125 new locations in this country off of a base of more than 3,000, that's only a 4% increase. however, gnc does have their international business where they're adding new stores more quickly a la dominos, a la yum. i think they have the edge on growth from new stores. but we also care about how much growth these companies can squeeze from their existing store base. same-store sales. last year, vitamin shoppe posted an impressive 7.4% rise in these comparable store figures. and this year the projecting growth in the mid-single digits. gnc, though, even more impressive. 10.1% increase in company-owned same-store sales. and 12.1% increase last quarter. accelerated revenue growth even when backing out ecommerce. projecting 8% to 9% growth and then they upped that still

further, noting that first quarter comps are running in the teens, i couldn't believe it. it was like a junior growth stock. these are spectacular numbers. vitamin shoppe, same-store sales growth, moderating like you'd expect from most retailers. but even though gnc is a huge established chain, their comps are accelerating. i can't emphasize enough how impressive that is. thank you, tweeter, for putting me in front of that thing. how about profitability? gnc has higher margins, you know how much importance we place on margins. as opposed to just 9% for vitamin shoppe. not only does gnc have a stronger balance sheet, but even initiated dividend last quarter that gives you 1.3% dividend. how about the execution? gnc wins hands down in execution. having exceeded every target set by management.

vitamin shoppe, occasional miss here and there. i find myself wondering how is it that gnc is doing so much better? because they are. they really are doing much better. i think the answer is that gnc has the superior understanding of what its customers want, which, of course, is management's strategy. see, gnc gets 40% of its sales from the sports nutrition category. which is by far the fastest growing category in the industry versus just 29% for vitamin shoppe. i want you to think about things like -- i bought one of these just this weekend, protein powders. the ones that help athletes put on muscle. designed to improve performance and post workout supplements to help with rehydration and muscle recovery. plus gnc carries many private label products, 56% private label at gnc, 24% at vitamin shoppe and the private-label products are considered high-quality. look at the fancy packaging. i actually want to buy this more than the branded guy. and they push this stuff when they go to buy something.

we love private label because the gross margins are so much higher than selling other people's merchandise. think about parigo, their manufactured store brands versus those made by j & j. one's much cheaper and looks the same. and gnc creates systems for getting customers hooked on the products that get people coming back month after month. something vitamin shoppe maybe just hasn't figured it out? vitamin shoppe carries a broader range, but they aren't necessarily the hottest products. and they don't keep customers coming back for more. so in my view, gnc is definitely a superior company. and this is one of those very rare cases, by the way, where the better company also has the cheaper stock. gnc sells for 16 times next year's earnings and 20% long-term growth rate, vitamin shoppe for a higher multiple, 21 times earnings even though it has a lower 21% growth rate. the bottom line, right now people are paying up for vitamin shoppe because it has much more

capacity to add new stores domestically. but store growth isn't everything, people. gnc has stronger accelerating same-store sales consistent execution, better mix of products and an international kicker all of which add up to a higher growth rate. and as long as gnc is cheaper than vitamin shoppe, i think it's a steal. debbie in new york. debbie? >> caller: hi, jim. big east boo-yah to you. >> iwhat's going on? >> caller: okay. with so many americans overweight out there and where can weight watchers be headed? as a member myself that believes in the program and the fact that the company bought back a huge amount of the stock. i think there is potential, i just want to know how you feel about that. >> we've got this guy on the staff and he's just like -- i have to tell that guy to put a little weight on.

he's killing me with that wtw. he's like the invisible man. but that said, the stock did have that catalyst of buying back, right? the big buyback and then it's finished. as much as i think tim looks fabulous and is thinner than ever, thinner than i'll ever be again, i can't recommend the stock. can i feel like a habitat for humanity and say he looks good. i work out. if your portfolio needs a little boost, i say look to gnc. stronger profits, better growth, same-store sales than the lower priced brand. stay with cramer. tonight on the "kudlow report," what's the pro-growth business agenda? how america's on the verge of the new economic recovery. he's my special guest, "kudlow report" 7:00 eastern cnbc. [ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger -- eden prairie, minnesota.

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it is time for the "lightning round" on cramer's "mad money." i don't know the callers or the stocks ahead of time, play until this sound, and then the "lightning round" is over. are you ready? it's time for the "lightning round" on cramer's "mad money." start with matthew in new york. matthew. >> a big carmelo anthony b-b-boo-yah. >> what's up? >> caller: hey, my question is

about a stock that i lost my pants on recently. and i know the analysts are really bullish on the stock. it's about devon energy. >> stephanie link research director and i must have spent an hour kicking around devon and why we like it. and the answer is sometimes you have to buy action stocks, it's the chart that's speaking in chesapeake. this company's a buy, worth far more than the stock it's selling for. ira in new jersey, ira. >> ira from livingston, new jersey. >> serial dividend raiser, what's your take on it? >> serial dividend raiser. i think the stock is much cheaper than -- >> buy, buy, buy! >> these companies are really great shareholder companies that can take us into the jersey play. i like it. bob in virginia. bob? >> boo-yah from virginia, y'all. >> nice to haveu. >> you have a very polite staff. i like the nat gas story.

are you negative -- >> i can't because it's just, if you want to go that way, you know i want you to go kinder morgan. kmp has come down a great deal. that's a better play. let's go to cameron, please, in virginia. a lot of virginians. >> how you doing, jim? >> how are you? >> i'm awesome. awesome. hey, i want to see your outlook on micron with all the recent earnings from qualcomm and intel? >> nope, nope, nope -- >> sell, sell -- >> i'm not going to go there. i'm sorry, but i do want to go to bobby in illinois. bobby? >> yes. >> go ahead, bobby. >> yeah. this is bobby from chi-town, i have a question for cramer. >> you're on. >> caller: i'm interested in natural gas and it's at a ten-year low. most experts say it's going to $1.80 to $1.85. my time horizon is three to five years, i'm looking for a dividend play. looking at chkm which is the chesapeake mainstream -- >> no, no -- look -- i don't

think chesapeake -- i think it's an okay situation. energy transfer partners, a much safer bet, a much higher yield and kelsey warren is doing a good job. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the "lightning round." >> the "lightning round" is sponsored by td ameritrade. investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive, and available to all. distill all that data. make information instinctual, visual. introducing trade architect, td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. take control of your portfolio today. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds )

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don't let today's hideous action blind you to all the domestic breed companies reporting best numbers. the chemical company that managed to break free from the gravitational pull of the averages and rally today. $2.53 or 2.6% to a new high courtesy to an amazing quarter. ppg makes all kinds of chemicals. but the company's main business is coating. the number two player worldwide. you've probably seen their products all over the place, you may not have realized it. as coatings protect everything from cars, airplanes, chips, to basic packaging. they have a solid glass business. plus benefitting from the ultra low price of natural gas, which is one of the most important input costs, maybe the most right now. despite the hand wringing about the weakness in europe and the slowdown in china managed to deliver a better than expected

quarter this morning with a 3.5% dividend rate to boot. the stock has moved. company earned $1.81 per share excludeing one-time expenses, 12 cent beat with inline revenues that rose year-over-year. ppg talked about strengthening demand in most of the end markets as well as growth in emerging regions. they expect the next quarter to be even better. ppg has given you 141% return including reinvested dividends. but it's only up about 8% year-over-year. and i think the future's looking a lot brighter for this company. let's check in with the bankable chairman and ceo of ppg energies to find out about the quarter and where his company is headed. welcome back to "mad money." >> it's great to be back, jim. thank you. >> i'm going to have to take a break here and say, listen, ten goals pens versus the flyers, don't get your hopes up. >> they got one back last night. they needed it. flyers have played well, but

don't count the penguins out. >> all right. i won't. i won't. and i'm not going to count ppg out because you said something that blew me away. i'm going to quote. you've heard my comments. we're optimistic on the north american market in the u.s. across all of the end use markets. this is a change for you. you have often talked about how asia's been a driver. sounds like everything's better in the u.s., nothing here's particularly weak. a lot of people at home are saying employment not that great, country's in a funk. that's clearly not what you're saying. >> we're a lot more optimistic and i am personally about what's happening in the u.s. economy. it's not going to be a straight line up, but we see a lot of end use markets that are really performing well for us in the u.s. and overall, it's our best market. the automotive oem business is excellent, aerospace is great, and even the construction business that you and i have talked about, jim, over the last many quarters, even that is showing signs of life at least on the residential side and in

the home renovation and repair markets. >> at the same time, your raw costs clearly are going in the right direction. we have to talk about natural gas, how you've got natural gas even where your plants are. but as a raw cost going down, with the hedges off, it looks like the margins are going up at the same time the revenues are expa expanding. >> yes, this natural gas situation for us has been a real boon. we saw natural gas prices close today at $1.90. this is an unbelievable windfall for our economy, for the chemical industry. more broadly for ppg and for any energy-intensive business here in the u.s. and it's one of the reasons i'm more optimistic. i think it's going to make us a lot more competitive in manufacturing, our wages here have been more under control than in markets like china and so i am more bullish than i've been in many years on the u.s. economy, especially on the industrial side. >> i'm not going to let you just

throw that out there. i've heard something that i've not heard from any executive on the show. you're saying our costs are cheaper than making things in china? >> oh, yes. so if you look at $2 natural gas in china natural gas costs and energy in general more than three times that cost, natural gas is over $6, mcs in china, our wage rates in china. even though the economy has been growing well there and our business is still very good, wage rates have been inflating at over 10% a year for the last five years, land costs up. so i would say that the china cost advantage in many energy-intensive industries is diminishing, and i think now the u.s. is going to be a much more competitive on the global scene in terms of manufacturing costs. >> boy, that's an amazing story. which you're at the heart of it. now, you did have a -- you were talking in your conference call. it's not like you can lock in

these low prices forever, right? if you go out three or four years, you're not going to get $1.90. >> right. and we've looked at additional hedging. we've had, i think a mixed experience over the years in our hedges. we can go and start and start hedge edging these forward. you and i talked about it. if you go out much past a year or so, you're starting to pay certainly prices a lot higher than what we're seeing today in the market. and it's not clear if how long. and we may have these prices around $2 or potentially even lower for some period of time. >> well, that would be totally boon to your earnings. now in the fantastic ppg investor, you basically i think show how you moved from a proprietary company. how did you know coatings was going to be better than glass? >> well, we liked many aspects of the coatings industry. it's not capital intensive, it's

been a more consistent earner, it's a capital light business that depends a lot on proprietary technologies. you can really solve a lot of your customers' problems, create benefits for them, and i would say that it is an opportunity for us to use our science and technology to really come to bear in markets where i think we don't have some of the same advantages in commodity businesses such as glass in some aspects of that end use market. >> last question because you have talked about how great it is. if you had to put money right now dollar for dollar in asia versus the united states, how close are they to being competitive with each other as the place you want to commit resources to? >> i think we're comfortable putting resources and capital in both markets. i think china is still a very good story. we've had a slowdown in china in the construction markets. as an example, a little lower growth rates, but i think over

the next few years, china's going to continue to be a very attractive market for ppg. maybe not as export-oriented as in the past. so i'm still very optimistic about china. but as i told you, the u.s. now is a really attractive place. the markets are strengthening. we'd like to see the corporate tax rate changes that would really spur more investment. but i would say i feel equally good about both markets now, jim. >> incredible. thank you so much, chuck bunch for delivering endlessly for your shareholders. thanks for coming on the show. guys, stock's not done. going higher. it's just too good of a story. and it's natural gas. finally you hear the good side of natural gas. you always hear the bad side. look at how much money they're making. stay with cramer. [ horn honks ]

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find your theme and stick with it. own it, don't deviate from it. this morning, we got a terrific number from f5, the onramp to the internet. we saw vm wear blow out the estimate. this company posting extraordinary earnings. that's big data speak. these companies all helped route and store large complex files including video at gigantic data farms so they can be accessed by companies, individuals, governments, you name it. it's a proprietary trend that

blasted spanish bond auctions, it can smash the jolting of the public by the stock markets. when you have a theme that works thick and thin, it allows you to pick up stocks on weakness that would otherwise terrify most people. we know big data's on fire. and when you think of big data, companies levered to the cloud are important. who dominates the cloud? salesforce.com? red at? both hit new highs today. how about splunk which orders the data in ways that companies can order to use. in short, you stick to the seam, i'm telling you, you will make money. what i like to do is look at variants of the theme being thrown away because they're misunderstood. here's two. intel, emc. emc was over $1.04 today. emc actually owns vmware, that's the virtualization cloud play. meaning the cheap way for enterprises to tap into the cloud and vmware knocked it out of the park. emc itself is a dominant player

in storage for the cloud. take a look at the ownership. if you don't believe me, look at the ownership of vmware. intel's simple, they make the processors that go into the data forum, break open a data farm, it's intel. and they didn't give you that gratification. that's a huge mistake. you've got to buy stocks to play on the theme when they're cold not when they're hot. the big gains came from picking them up when most people thought they had lost their way, of course they hadn't because they got the big theme behind them. the the companies failed to blow people away. the next time they succeeded, you've got enormous gains. that's what i believe will happen the next time around. patience does get rewarded. this isn't megamillions we're playing here. patience can't be rewarded instantly. that's oxy moronic, but patiently exploiting secular themes, that's how you make real money. stay with cramer. next on the "kudlow report," what's the pro-growth business agenda?

andrew liveris is going to tell me how america is on the road to recovery. fiona here was just telling me that ford dealers sell a new tire like...every five seconds, how's that possible? well, we purchase 3 million a year. you just sold one right now didn't you? that's correct. major brands. 11 major brands. oop,there goes another one. well we'll beat anybody's advertised price. and you just did it right there, what's that called? the low price tire guarantee. wait for it, there goes another one. get a $100 rebate, plus the low price tire guarantee during the big tire event. look at that. it's happening right there every five seconds. your not going to run out are you? no. has been because of the teachers and the education that i had. they're just part of who i am.

she convinced me that there was no limit to what we could learn. i don't think i'd be here today had i not had a wonderful science teacher. a teacher can make a huge difference in a child's life. he would never give up on any of us. thank you dr. newfield. you had a big impact on me. is now within your grasp with the all-new e-trade 360 investing dashboard. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are and what they're doing with free streaming quotes, news, analysis and even your trade ticket. everything exactly the way you want it, all on one page. transform your investing with the all-new e-trade 360 investing dashboard.

yeah, scott. i was just about to use... that's a bunch of ground-up paper, lad! scotts ez seed absorbs and holds water better. it's guaranteed to grow grass anywhere, even if you miss a day of watering. [ scott ] seed your lawn. seed it! seconds away on the "kudlow report," dow ceo andrew liveris says why natural gas will spur jobs and the economy. plus, what the fed tells community bankers today. we have someone in that closed-door meeting who is going to spill all the goods. and breaking now. new