chris and then the longer the base the higher the space. >> he is doing the same thing. ko. >> no cushion involved. >> you back here tomorrow at 5:00. meantime, "mad 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. 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 make you a little money. my job isn't just to entertain but to teach you. call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. or of course tweet me @jim cramer. the market is almost everything these days. in fact, this market is so welcoming it's almost humorous.

or maybe blithe. it's starting to get too sane win about every move that a ceo makes. the dow surged today and the s&p gamed, nasdaq up 0.9%. taking the comp through the 5,000 level. some of the new found love comes from a natural rotation related to the fact that the economy irrefutably is getting better. we are seeing huge almost indiscriminate moves among all the big capitalization stocks as money pours into the s&p 500. we had definite green shoots in europe. and we are seeing copper in the baltic freight index stabilize and start to climb. you better believe this xhation can drive it up i'm talk about disney, united technologies, boeing. these gigantic moves have no specific news. not at all. they just reflect optimism about

the future. this weekend, warren buffett praised the big stocks. could this rally be a coincidence? and buffett says if you believe in american progress -- you have to own long term great american businesses. if you don't, go buy bonds. >> boo! >> the big monies is agreeing with buffett. they're selling bonds and the utilities are linked to bonds right along with them. by the way, those were just crushed. that's today's undercurrent. but got to look at individual situations that were bubbling up today. show you the markets perhaps viewing keycorp rat decisions through rose colored glasses. i should put them on. they're here somewhere. whatever. remember this last week? consider the 17% increase in semiconductors thanks to the acquisition of freescale. in a deal linked just yesterday, when i came over i was doing another netflix thing.

holy cow, i had to stop, why? i said this is good for both sides. you see normally the target -- the target goes down. okay. i'm sorry, the target goes up. freescale rallied 12%, but case nxp goes down. that's what we know happens. the market clearly loves the concept of a semiconductor that's dominant in security wireless payments and automobile infotainment merging with another automobile centric semiconductor to cleat the number one supplier of chips to the auto industry at a time when the car is on the rise. i praised the semi in the past. i think it's a terrific deal more on it later. the point i want to make though is that now only a few years ago both of these companies were castoffs. freescale has been a nearly busted leverage buyout and nsp was shed but they're gigantic winners in internet world. back to life from these left for

dead semis. and now, it mirrors the love we have seen. the mergers like the microcombo which is known as qrvo. no wonder the nasdaq hit 5,000 today. that's the hometown for so many semis so it makes sense it would take out the old highs that's going to happen people. the earnings are real. the opportunities are great. and the stocks are cheap. if they execute well. i think they will. i buy any of them and let me by the way just throw in sky works solutions too. i mean, they are doing in incredibly well. how about cardinal health buying johnson & johnson's one unit and it makes a win or lose judgment with this kind of transaction. not in this tape. it's win-win. cardinal jumped $1.53 and j&j, i

say happiness abounds. just a second. this is the way i feel about it. i think i should do the rest of the whole segment with these on. the other reaction in pharmacyclics. this $221 stock is up 100 points and all the speculation that j&j will buy the company and you think, well, the market should say pharmacyclics is up enough already. for heaven's sake. j&j wouldn't pay up here, but then j&j people can't be blind -- be blind to how well active this has done. this is very expensive acquisition of aler gone. the one loves to slash research and development. they're like freddie kruger of research. but valeant has been soaring ever since it announced the sale of a company.

and from this action one can only conclude there seems to be no price a company won't pay for another company. and no price investors won't pay for that acquirer once the deal is announced. or how about the rally in mastercard today. this is a stock we own for my charitable trust. i have to tell you, you know, this one -- no, i have to don genuine rose colored glasses for this one. costco announced a new credit partner, visa. we know that american express lost 73 cents in earnings power. this is a huge win for visa. when it came over i went -- that's like a gulp you know? i figured there's some awful -- that's awful news for mastercard. like ma help me. but the market as as if ma won the deal. and talk about positive, that's just plain bizarre. a big smiley face emoji of a deal.

cue the emojis. oh there's been hope said as long as there was no deal with visa, maybe american express with come back to the table. nope, i figured it would be down hard. we learned that amex is done it's done with costco yet it rallies anyway. perhaps buffett praised the stock. i figured hey, maybe if we let it run a bit, if it's not unhappy, he's happy, i'm happy. we're all happy. here's another shocker and most markets when you get a run-up in the good news you get a post news sell-off. netflix's house of cards is the most popular tv show and that's why it went up in the release. proving without a doubt that this market is plain happy with stuff that we all knew was going to happen anyway. frank underwood would approve. so would have petrov. or how about when i had domino's pizza on the show after they were hammered last week. not so with the guidance i

tamped it down. buyers recognized the declines represented opportunity and both stocks are rallying that's pure unmitigated happiness. like the two drumsticks that i chowed down. popeye's is good. now here's the rub. if i believe that we were too positive, too enthusiastic shouldn't i be telling you to sell like i did when my hedge fund went negative or i told you to get out of dodge in september and october of 2008? honestly, no. i can't tell you to bet against the market just because we finally breached nasdaq 5,000 or headed to all-time high territory. the fact is there are a lot of good reasons to be bullish. not the like the market is ignoring the negatives. i would be concerned if london liquidators would go up. but thankfully, i have to tell you, going into the show it did

go down. i say that because you don't want it to go higher. we're way too rosie. memo to those who have bought their wood i wouldn't take any chances. i would stop licking the floor if i were you. meanwhile, ibm is down again, in part because i believe warren buffett praised it and he praised them on "squawk." but ibm keeps buying back stock. i think the market is looking for more than a buy back. they want growth. and oil went down again today. and while oil may not be falling through the floor let's hope it's not one of the toxic floors, oil is not going back up to sale like 100 any time soon. don't get me wrong. i fear they won't find fault with anything. we saw it last year at this time. but it's not what's happening now. not yet. here's the bottom line. this market is not crazy. it's not irrationally exuberant. it's happy. it's an antidepressants and they're working and as long as

we don't go high wire and devil may care i can make my peace with it. i have been struggling with this myself. maybe happiness isn't so bad after all. let's go to lou. >> caller: hey good to be on the show. >> i'm lou, i'm not booing. >> caller: i thought that mblb high a few months ago. i have been getting reports, downgrade, outperforming, i'm not sure what to do. >> well i think it's not as -- i mean, you have to put real rose colored glasses on. i think the problem is the real guts, i'd rather buy nxpi and freescale. they got game together. is the market into some happy pills? it seems to like almost everything these days. you know what? as long as we don't go haywire i can make my peace with it.

on "mad money," no surprise i have four stocks in the group doing much better than anybody is thinking about. then it's not every day you get to speak with unof the greatest investors of all time. don't miss what i learned from warren buffett today. plus, nxpi a gain. stick with a real happy cramer. >> announcer: don't miss a second of "mad money." follow @jimcramer on twitter. have a question? tweet cramer, #madtweets. 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.

i really admire my mother. despite what people said she bought me a sewing machine and she let me play with dolls and that was something that was kind of growing up culturally, it was quite unacceptable and she really dared to let me be different. [thunder and rain] [thunder and rain] [thunder and rain] ♪ help an oil company overcome minus 47 degree temps, 5 foot ice, and 16 foot waves, to safely keep crude oil flowing 365 days a year. when emerson takes up the challenge it's never been done before simply becomes consider it solved. emerson.

surprise! when we look back at this past earnings season we have a ton of surprises. some terrific numbers from a lot of retailers we forget about,

courtesy of strong execution and cheap gasoline giving the consumer disposable income. not all of the upsides were necessarily surprising. i mean, for instance we knew that elle brands shopping the -- dominates the shopping brands. we know that home depot always delivers and that target is turning itself around. the streamlining of management will be important for the earnings going forward. however, even in the rising tides seems to be lifting all retail ships there were some retailers that really managed to truly surprise us. astonish us even with incredible strength of results and they're not getting talked about enough until tonight. i can think of four companies that really managed to rise above the pack. four surprise retailer winners of the quarter that you don't know and right now, i'm going to tick them down because these stocks are deserved on fire. first, there's ross stores. parent company behind two off

price concepts. now we have been huge fans of ross brands but still i had no idea this company was doing as well as it is. last thursday, ross stores reported after the close and the company delivered an amazing acceleration in the business that totally took wall street by surprise. it caused the stock that raise 6%s higher in a single day. it posted an 8 cent earning beat higher than expected revenues. 6% increase in the company's same store levels because they don't have the same exchange rate issues that plagued the other companies. even better ross has been taking market share and on top of that thanks to the bountiful cost share it announced a buy back for the growth retailer. that's equalled to nearly 5.5% of the market gap and the

dividend boost even though it yields 8%. so we put ross in here. bam, okay. pretty good, huh? how did ross dress and dee dee's discount put up so much? they clearly resonated with the consumers. ross stores has roughly 1300 locations across the country. they can almost double that store count to 2500 and you have many years to own this thing. when you combine wit the 6% same store figure plus even up here these levels less than 20 times earnings, ross teased it could be a winner from the west coast slow down. merchandise that didn't reach those for the season could be snapped up at low prices for out of season. the next surprise that people aren't looking for, nordstrom. let's put nordstrom in here too.

okay. well, i never had good handwriting. when they reported on february 19th, the actual headline number was worse than expected. it was a 3 cent miss off of $1.35 basis. ew. stock immediately tumbled 3 bucks to $74 in after hours trading. but then when people heard what they had to say on the conference call the stock came flying back and only closed up 5.9%. amazing. so what exactly did nordstrom say on the call that got everyone so excited? simple. the biggest worry here is that nordstrom is spending a fortune to build out the online business so they can compete with amazon. in fact, just a couple of days before the company reported they were downgraded for precisely this reason. take this!

on the call we heard something very surprising. nordstrom said that it was almost done with the huge online investment even as they plan to spend out the omni channel business. they said that this would be the peak investment year. that's what we're waiting for. in orders after the spending is all -- in other words after the spending is all down and plus they hosted strategic partnerships with brands that should reach $20 billion in annual sales. meanwhile, you dig down and look through the quarter, nordstrom posted a better than expected 4.7% gain in same store sales. thanks in part to the strength of the off price nordstrom rack business. route 10 looks terrific. with the stock trading at 1 times next year's earnings estimates, i think nordstrom is worth buying here. the next surprise retailer, you won't believe this one. dds. that's dillard's. yeah. that's the arkansas based

department store chain that was able to deliver spectacular results. they reported back on the 23rd and they reported a 5% increase in revenues. that was better than expected. represented the fastest revenue growth since the third quarter of 2012. dillard's is one of the most communicative companies in america. i think i hear voices in my ahead, this quarter made one thing very clear. it's executed one of the most impressive retail turn arounds in history. since 2009, they have shut down underperforming stores and shifted to footwear accessories and beauty. and perhaps best of all, delivered a phenomenal buy back that has shrunk the share cap by astonishing 40%. that's the most significant buy back in the group and rivals autozone's buy back. no wonder the stock is a couple points off the all time high. and get this. 13 points next time year estimates. when i talk about people -- i talk to people about the stock,

i always hear the same thing. who are these guys? i know the answer. they're winners. it's a "w." last but not least our fourth surprise earnings winner from this quarter is kohl's. they transformed themselves into a serial maker if not beater of the number. a 3 cent earnings beat off of a $1.80 basis and a 3.7% increase in same store sales. its up to 74 but it's been going up since the 50s. it was trading at an eight year high until today's pull back. so what's changed here in addition to the 15% dividend boost that gives the stock a 2.45% yield? according to management a number of initiatives are driving the same store sales growth. get this. i was shocked at this. did you hear they were 25 million members in the loyalty growth plan. kohl's. 20% higher than the original

goal. and they anticipate another 10 to 12 million sign-ups for this year. this is for the big loyalty plan. plus, they have been redesigning the way they display their products. target's got to listen to kohl's. and throughout all of this, the company has maintained tight control on expenses. i think i can say that kohl's now has its groove back. this is the bottom line on this issue. my daughter likes it. never thought i'd say that. so here's the bottom line. in this environment of cheap gasoline and emboldened consumer it's not exactly shocking when most manage to beat the numbers. a company will report a result sometimes that's so amazing they send the stock prices soaring higher that's what we saw with ross stores, nordstrom, dillard's and kohl's. all the companies are kicking butt and taking names. if we get hammered with anything

negative out of china they're doing fabulously and won't be hurt by those headlines. as long as oil stays low and the consumer stays strong. oh, yeah, much more ahead. a lot of stuff coming up. stick with me. 80% of the poor in africa are rural farmers. 96% of them are doing rain-fed agriculture. they're all competing with each other;

they're all making very low margins making enough to survive but not enough to get out of poverty. so kickstart designs low cost irrigation pumps enabling them to grow high value crops throughout the year so you can make a lot of money. it's all very well to have a whole lot of small innovations but unless we can scale it up enough to where we are talking about millions of farmers, we're not going to solve their biggest challenge. this is precisely where the kind of finance that citi is giving us is enabling us to scale up on a much more rapid pace. when we talk to the farmers and ask them what's the most important thing. first of all they say we can feed our families. secondly, we can send our children to school. it's really that first step that allows them to get out of poverty and most importantly have money left over to plan for the future they want.

when i read warren buffett's insightful annual letter, the best one i can recall and spoke with him this morning on "squawk box" i certainly can't recall one where mistakes made are highlighted in the transparent fashion. how many ceo's articulate the 4 40 million dollars loss on a supermarket bet gone awry? and the acquisition is written down to zero while the stock is up to $5.7 billion. these things don't get talked about. how many ceo's explain why their company is so much more successful than the peers, except the railroad where buffett compared his own company

with union pacific the competitor. it can be excused because of the brutality of self-registration he saves for this berkshire hathaway subsidiary. they can't challenge him, nor could the lawyers who keep a lid on everything as to what he has to offer at any other place. while buffett reports to the shareholders they really in actuality report to him. he is as they say in the law sui generis. they wouldn't have been able to keep the job for nearly as long as he's had it, which brings me to the interesting line of thought. if we were to have -- wow, i'm going to say, it will get me in trouble, looser corporate governance, in we were to let the good guys like buffett stay on longer, if we were to treat

them would our businesses be better run? why isn't it a template? do we believe that there's one buffett, is the oracle of omaha truly that unique? something goes awry in the corporate world if we can praise him and yet everyone else feels shackled into being nothing like him. so few try to emulate the model of berkshire hathaway. one day buffett will no longer will be with us and that will be terribly sad. but we'll -- what will be worse is we have learned to revere only him and not his style or his methods or his way of doing business. you know the phrase you can't take it with you? well, in buffett's case maybe you can. but i'm not talking about the money. the bottom line is i'm talking about a different wonderful way of running a company. and creating wealth for hundreds of thousands of acolytes because he's been left to do the job better than anyone else ever will perhaps at any other

company can. can i speak to kathy? >> caller: hi, i'm an elder i will investor. i have been interested in chevron since it was in the $90 price range but my husband wanted to think about it and then it was at 130 and over. i'm wondering what your thinking is about oil and chevron in particular? >> i wasn't happy about chevron because they bought a ton of stock higher and then it goes lower. that's not my thing. you want to own oil, i'm not urging you to own oil at all. our charitable trust owns royal dutch, i think it has a better balance sheet. eog, sim arax, those are good on a rebound. and i have to tell you, conchose too. jonathan in new york jonathan? >> caller: yes. >> go ahead, you're up. >> caller: booyah, jim. 64% short on weight watchers right now. is this a poise for the takeover

of a company or are they going to cover any funds soon. >> which one? >> caller: weight watchers. >> look, all right, evan plank plank -- jawbone, fit bit, they're destroying weight watchers. this is not a love of liquidators. they're outmoded by other guys. plank and under armour with that map my fitness they can take over the world. people are short under armour. give me a break. warren buffett, thank you. thank you for being that good. thank you for creating wealth for hundreds of thousands of people and most of all, thank you for leading great american business. much more "mad money" ahead including my take on the surge of the semiconductor. i have a gold stock outperforming the precious metal. don't miss my exclusive with the

ceo of randgold. plus lightning round. stick with cramer.

look at nxp semiconductors roaring high. climbing 17% today on the news that it's acquiring freescale semi. normally you see only that amazing move from the target of takeover, not the acquiring. but this is a special case. even after today's run believe it or not, i think nxp deserves to go a heck of a lot higherment i don't usually say that after the big moves. first of all, i have been a fan of nxp semiconductors, that's nxpi for you home gamers. i recommended it last august. and the leading player in a bunch of red hot markets making chips for the wireless networking identification mobile, industrial even lighting. specifically nxp is about the connected car and the cell phone. the top chipmaker for automobile sound and infotainment systems within a autonomous driving kicker. this is the company that invented what's known as near field communications. which allows for short distance communications between devices.

and in other words, nxp makes the technology that powers apple pay and samsung pay. the chips are right in the guts of the iphone 6 and the top dog in the rapidly growing chip market. these are those what you have seen in the credit cards to prevent fraud. they make contactless keys even the chips that help identify passports. in every single one of the core markets they have 50% market share. in short this is not some commodity chip making. the leading developer of proprietary technology that all the others are jealous. even though nxpi is so far ahead of the competitors, company is the furthest from complacent. which brings me to this

brilliant freescale deal. first of all even without looking at the particulars of the transaction we know from past experience that consolidation in the semiconductor space has been incredibly lucrative and we salute it. excluding the initial pop, avago has given you a gain since the acquisition of lsi. and i bet it's got more room to run because of the last week of the deal. and triquinn and the stock went through the roof, you still have 147% gain. cypress semi has rallied 29% after it announced the merger. that's not done going higher. if you bought the stocks after the news broke you still made a killing. keep that in front of you. that's the lesson of this story i'm telling. the performance of these consolidators is a big part of the reason why nxp soared through the roof today. because if it falls in the -- follows in the footfootsteps, you have some monumental gains ahead

of you. i think the acquisition for the cash and the stock may be the best semiconductor acquisition yet. i think this could be a game changer. right now it's the 14th large scale semiconductor in the world and they'll be the fourth largest player in the space. right behind intel, qualcomm and texas instruments. i liked nxp before the news broke but now i adore it because it's buying freescale. it will give them a top position on the commuting side too. they'll become the number one chip make efor the auto marketer at a time when the average car is just stocked with connectivity. that's right. everything requires a lot of connectivity. and a lot more computing horsepower. we know that nxp is the leading

semiconductor of the keyless ignition systems. so you put them together you have an autd motive titan making chips and think crash free like warning beeps, in car cameras, automatic braking, automatic steering radar. vehicle to vehicle communication. in short on the automotive side these are complimentary businesses. this is the platform of choice for 27 of the 28 largest auto manufacturers and freescale used the application processor for 7 of the 28 top automakers. so there are 21 car companies that use nxp's chips and after this closes they are confident they can elle is to all 21 of the -- can sell to all 21 of the automakers. they're a one stop shop for the connected cars which is a theme for 2015. the cross selling opportunity is enormous. the word that kept popping up to describe the combined entity power house.

i could not agree more. plus, freescale's microcontroller business will give them exposure to wearable devices another theme for 2015. the internet of things which of course is the dominant thing from now until the end of the decade. smart appliances, smart power grid. thank you to john chambers from sysco to teach me that. frank underwood, let's get down to brass tacks. this deal will generate $220 million after it closes, hopefully they're anticipating $500 million in annual sales and the freescale acquisition will be added to the earnings in the first full year after it closes. plus, nxp believes it can boost the margins to bring them more in line with the industry leading margin of 26%. in fact, management expects enough margin expansion to quickly boost the combined bottom line by 300 million bucks. now, nxp's debt load will expand and that worries some from

earnings before appreciation and amortization right now. warren buffett may not like this one. but the combined company will be able to generate so much more cash flow that nxp believes that i can bring the debt load down very quickly. down to the current level, just six quarters a year and a half in the -- and the balance sheet will be back to normal. that's the final reason i like this. when we interviewed the ceo of nxp, i realized -- this guy really gets it. he's proven himself to be a true visionary. he's done an amazing job of running nxp. it's it's grown at a faster place than others. i bet he can work the same magic with freescale. while i think nxp is worth owning for those daunted by the massive run on the stock today, let me recommend harmon industries. what we saw with nxp and

freescale, harmon is the king of the thesis because they make the bulk of the infotainment systems which is why it rallied more than four bucks today. i can't emphasize how long and how much i like what harmon is doing at these levels. you know many people gave up on it, but not here. let me give you the bottom line. we know that can consolidation has been incredibly lucrative as we saw it. but i believe this freescale and nxp deal creates a power house that will connect the car and the internet of things which is i think what nxp semi is still a buy even after the monster move today. stay with cramer. why do we do it? why do we spend every waking moment, thinking about people? why are we so committed to keeping you connected? why combine performance with a conscience?

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>> announcer: lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade. >> it is time. it is time for the lightning round. you say the name of the stock. i don't know the calls or the name of the stock ahead of time. i tell you whether to buy or sell. when you hear this sound -- [ buzzer ] -- then the lightning round is over. are you ready, skee-daddy? time for the lightning round. start with lorraine in minnesota. lorraine? >> caller: yes thank you for taking my call mr. cramer. >> of course.

>> caller: i enjoy the program. i was thinking what did you think of american mobile? >> too hard too hard. look, you want telco, go with verizon and get that yield. that's too hard. you don't know what's going to happen down there. let's go to sam in ohio. >> caller: hi, jim, here's a big booyah to you. >> thank you very much right back. >> caller: hey, jim, would you buy bank of america ahead of the banking stress -- >> i'm concerned but i notice warren buffett it's his fourth largest position. he says he likes it. that said, i like his other big bank. i'm a wells fargo fan. i have to tell you something that's what my charitable trust owns. i wish it was bigger. richard in massachusetts. >> caller: hi, cramer. you are the most and the best. >> thank you. >> caller: i'll be 94 shortly. >> oh, congratulations. that's fabulous. >> caller: i never have seen anybody as quick and sharp as you are. >> thank you. >> caller: i've got a tough

question to ask you about a stock that you recommended -- you probably remember it when i tell you what it is. i want to know the hold buy or sell? micron technology. >> i think micron is having a decent quarter but some people think it's too tied to pc. after hewlett-packard i'm worried about. don't buy. you can hold it, but i'm nervous about it. i have to look at it that way. thank you and thank you for the kind words. cameron in texas. cameron? >> caller: booyah, baby, what's up, jimbo? >> not much, how about you partner? >> caller: not much kicking it in the cold texas weather right now. >> i hear you. >> caller: tell me something good about mattress firm holding group. >> i'm more of a betting company than i like and you go with home depot or lowe's. chico in texas. >> caller: hey how you doing,

jim? >> not bad. how about you? >> caller: doing great. a great day to be in the market. >> what's going on? >> caller: hey, i was wondering to get your thoughts on -- holdings. >> yeah, you know what? that came public at a particular time and others became public. i have to do more work on it because it's cloud based. i'm not sure myself. i need to go to melo in cape cod. >> caller: it's melo, thank you for taking my call. my question is regarding her amack pharmaceuticals. >> we like them. it was one of the big specs. i think it's in good shape. you have to go in on merrimack. that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round. [ buzzer ] >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade.

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at a time when so many commodities have been slammed, especially oil, what are you supposed to do with gold? which has been slowly churning its way lower of late. the price of gold seemed to go higher year after year, but then in 2012 it fell off a cliff. ever since it's been trading sideways at best. now i always like to say that gold is insurance for your portfolio. should be part of any diversification strategy which brings me to randgold, operations in western and central sub saharan africa. times were tough for gold including randgold.

gold is going down which means that even if you're the best miner you can't blow up the darn earnings. they used last year to remain virtually debt free and growing the cash on hand by 117% year over year and even boosting the small dividend and plus they're consistently outperformed both the price of gold itself and the gold miner's etf. let's take a better look with mark bristow. dr. bristow, welcome back to "mad money.." >> nice to speak to you again. >> i would be remiss if i didn't give you a chance to talk about what you did in maui in terms of spear heading the fight against ebola because it was rather amazing. >> you know, jim it really was an exciting time. all we did, we're good at managing things. we manage mines and which manage infrastructure and supply chains. when it broke, we sat down with the ministry of mines and we said let's get the ministry of health together and let's see what we can do and i must say

our health workers in particular our doctors on the mine sites, they really rallied to that challenge. and it was amazing what they did and we -- you know, today now we just are managing the control of the border posts and, yeah, it was really good for us as far as -- as foreign investors in the country to work with the establishment and prove our partnership. our commitment to both the country and the communities around our mines. >> well, i had a solution for that. because i know you talked about it last time. you said you had plans and you executed them. speaking of plans, you mentioned in this amazing conference call you have cleaned up your balance sheet. your balance sheet was never bad, but you have cash. you have borrowing capacity and you say and i quote you, the industry is a lot more stressed than certainly you analysts think. it has to say to me that you can use your balance sheet and your market cap to pick among what used to be great gold companies

that still have good gold, but are now bad stocks. >> yeah. i think, jim, the first thing is we're -- we really wanted to get our house in order and ensure our profitability. so you will see in our annual report where we presented these results you talked about, it's about a ten-year plan at by -- and being profitable at $1,000 an ounce gold for ten years. and then we can worry about -- you know, as you know, we have been investing in our new mines we've now completed the investments and it's about harvesting that capital, delivering returns to our shareholders who have been very patient. and the longer we can sweat that capital, so every year we add on replacing gold, so if you look at last year we got our costs down. we produced more than a million ounces. we have no debt. we have a growing cash position.

and we want to have a business that's ten years, you know, bulletproof over ten years. then we can worry about, you know investing in the future. and of course our most important value creators are exploration team. i believe the gold industry is broke. and for it to survive it has to reinvent itself. and we think that, you know, we're a solid management team. we know this game. and if the opportunity presents itself where we can participate in the industry's reinvention and create more value for our stake holders we'll do that. >> well, you're the only one who just point blank said listen it's been a three-year bear market. you're the only guy who calls it that. at the same time, are you bothering to hedge or you have

your costs down so much you're fine at these levels? >> yeah, no, we have not -- we are not hedging. as you notice, no one is hedging because if they hedge now they'd be well and truly broke. you know, everyone's trying to survive. and right now there's more debt in the industry than there has ever been before hand. and so you know we as an industry have got to exercise a lot more discipline. we have to find a way to get our shareholders owning their companies again. right now, i think there's more ownership sitting in the -- with the creditors than with our own shareholders. of course, randgold's unique in that situation. >> one last question. you talk about how you have been laying the groundwork for deep mines. you're back doing deep mining. it sounds like the 2016 could be a year where you're harvesting deep mining. which nobody else has the capital to do any more. >> i'm not sure it's that deep

jim, you know? it's 800 meters. so what's that 2,400 foot. so it's not very deep. but it's deep enough. >> well, you're not going to get me to go down there. i'm not going down there. >> well, you can drive down there in a land cruiser. land cruiser, air conditioning, you don't have to get out. we'll show you. show you around. >> too much show for one of those. okay, mark, you totally delivered, no one else is. i don't want -- i don't have any other gold mining companies anymore. you're the only guy that's delivering. thank you so much for what you've done. dr. mark bristow, ceo of randgold. good to see you. guys the only guy -- the only guys with the balance sheet the only guy staying afloat and the only one who will win game, set and match, mark bristow with randgold.

you, my friend are a master of diversification. who would have thought three cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets.

it's a masterpiece. thanks. clearly you are type e. you made it phil. welcome home. now what's our strategy with the fondue? diversifying your portfolio? e*trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right. are you type e*? all right. we have to study palo alto tonight. i'll be doing it with the rose colored glasses. don't forget target tomorrow and i need to hear the job cuts. got to make it so close to bottom line. yes, i still like nxp. can you believe it after this run. maybe i'm too bullish. i'm jim cramer, i will see you tomorrow!

>> the following is a cnbc original. >> come along on a ride with us. we're about to take you to a place unlike any other... >> let's go. >> all right. >> ...where marijuana is legal and the scent of money is in the air. >> first time i've smoked a joint in a long time. >> go ahead and take it easy. it hits really smooth. >> and i no longer have to feel like a criminal. >> that's right. >> i'm not doing anything wrong. >> kevin and rachel are pot tourists, oh, so happy to be a mile high. >> welcome to colorado. >> in colorado today, the start of a brand-new industry. >> this is by far one of the biggest stories happening in the world right now. >> once, prospectors came here