>> kb homes don't be afraid of rising interest rates. >> pandora is worth the shot. >> time warner say it pete? >> giddy up. thanks for 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 make you some money. my job is not just to entertain you but to educate you. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc or tweet me @jimcramer. if you want to know what this market's all about, look no further than the stock of amazon. today the e-commerce titan announced that it will create

100,000 new full-time, full-benefit jobs in the next 18 months all over the country. while the averages were down with the dow sinking 63 points, s&p 0.21%, nasdaq backsliding 0.29%. it's been ages since we've seen that down. amazon stock screamed higher, closing up 14 points to $813. that's just like how stocks used to react on news of hiring, on expansion, before the recent age of stagnation, derision, and gridlock. let me explain. ever since growth slowed, i mean really slowed and the u.s. became episodic in its ability to expand the economy, we desired a particular set of traits, a set of rewards so to speak from our stocks before we bought them. first we would look and we'd want a good dividend, one that gave us a nice return versus the competition, namely treasury bonds. second, we wanted a large and

meaningful share buyback to shrink the share cap, and thus artificially or not increase the earnings per share. we cared more about this than actual revenue growth because what revenue growth, pretty nonexistent for most companies. economy is so bad. third, we wanted to companies to increase their growth margins by har necessarying technology or cutting costs or moving manufacturing to where it's cheaper, like vietnam, cambodia, china, or mexico. increased gross margins translate into dividend broofts and bigger buybacks. sometimes it simply came down to how many people can we fire? the more the better. gross margin growth was so important it eclipsed organic revenue. it was a key metric for many money managers. fourth, we liked companies that engaged in self-help either by spinning off slower divisions or breaking themselves up because the parts were worth more than

the whole. or if there was no breakup opportunity, we wanted companies to make acquisitions. maybe that would fuel some growth. then again, throw their hands up and put themselves up for sale so we could get a quick return on the stock. in fact, if we didn't get something on that menu, we tended to avoid the stock because it just didn't have what it took. by the same token, there were a bunch of things we didn't want from our stocks. for example, we didn't want some yahoo management that hired a huge number of people while revenue growth slowed and expenses skyrocketed. in fact, the only reason you'd embrace those kinds of wayward stocks in recent years is if you thought that an activist would come calling and create some noise, maybe generate a sale. why wouldn't we ask for more from our stocks? let's start with the macro backdrop. for six years the president and

congress have been at odds on pretty much everything, making it impossible for washington to advance anything that might boost hiring. when i talk about the government helping the economy, what i mean is not picking industries but maybe big bond offerings to fund specific infrastructure projects that could have a large multiplier effect. this is what's happening in this country before, the center state highway system under eisenhower or policies that make it easier for the private sector to grow by making loans more plentiful. in the absence of that help, our companies wanted to export to developing countries that were still growing, and there i want you to think about brazil, russia, india and china. do you even recall brick? does anyone recall when europe was a growth market? in the last few years, brazil fell off a cliff. russia became persona non-grata. china just kept decelerating. meanwhile, europe has become

synonymous with stagnation. so we lost those growth markets and that meant anyone staffing up for them has had his head handed to him. who wants to own the stock of a company that's hiring people to expand in brazil? that's crazy. >> the house of pain. >> yet today amazon announced plans to hire 100,000 new employees here, and its stock went up big, not down. this action reminds me of the old days when we had companies that had so much business and so much room for expansion that all you wanted was for them to keep investing in order to grow. amazon a business we all know, one that offers veensz, bargain basement prices, fabulous customer services and innovate products that we suddenly can't live without. think of the kindle or the echo. beyond that, amazon just doesn't stop. you're happy with overnight delivery. how about same day? you're thrilled with the big break of amazon prime. how about a credit card that gives you 5% off amazon prime purchases? >> hallelujah.

>> put it all together, and you've got a company that offers no dividend, offers you no buyback. it's not doing any layoffs to boost gross margins, all things we had come to expect from winning stocks in recent years. worse, amazon is going on a hiring spree that would seem insane if you didn't know that it needs every one of those people in order to meet the demand that it created. at the same time, this is a company that has almost no viable competition, and the competitors that do exist tend to be encumbered by brick and mortar infrastructure. what does amazon get for being the opposite of pretty much every stock we've loved over the past years? how about a stock that just blew threw $800? now, what's so important about the success of amazon's stock in order to be able to figure out what the entire market's doing? i think it shows you a path that many other companies and many other stocks have taken since the election, a path that didn't really exist a few months ago. the industrials, for example,

are rallying because of a belief that demand has got to get stronger since there's a sense that washington's no longer in the way and the president-elect wants to work with businesses that create jobs in the united states. sure, we joked this morning on "squawk on the street" about how trump would likely say he's getting amazon prime card and so should you because they're hiring so many people here. but there's some logic to the notion that demand is picking up in this country. last night delta airlines said business got better in december, something united airlines said the other day. kb homes told us things had improved since the election too. demand is stronger, and if demand is stronger, there's a whole new universe of stocks to own that aren't about dividends or buybacks or layoffs or takeouts or breakups. for now, the market will be drawn to these new kinds of stocks, not the staid companies that have been loved for so long because of their consistent, slow, one, two, three percent growth and their 3%-size dividends. it's a seismic shift in stock

picking and amazon is the most extreme example. it's the road map. this is the same reason why the thing we feared all last year, the prospect of the fed raising interest rates, has suddenly become something we barely bat an eyelash at. think about it. think about all through 2016. we fretted about what the fed governors were going to be saying. we cared so much about them and whether they put through a rate hike despite turmoil overseas or weakness here. now the narrative has totally changed. these days we care more about who goes up the golden elevator to see president-elect trump -- >> trump stock, trump stock. >> than we care about fed speak. sure, he's taken on some targets, absolutely. pharma being the latest. but compared to the obama administration, he's a heck of a lot more pro-business, and he actively sliszities the opinions of real business people. say what you want about trump's style or his grace. if you think having business people surround the president will help us produce more jobs -- and i do -- then we're

going to see a lot more growth, a lot more stories like amazon and a lot fewer stories about firing people to make the numbers. yes, it's a different and new paradigm. this market is buying the stocks of companies where demand seems to have picked up, and these companies are anticipating that demand with spending on growth, not on all those other artificial ways to boost stock prices. granted, amazon is a bit of an outlier of course, and companies will see their earnings be boosted by lower corporate taxes and repatriation gifts and deregulation. but the bottom line is the stocks you're going to want to buy here will be those with so many customers clamoring for goods that they have no choice but to spend money in order to meet that demand. anything else, and i fear you may have a loser on your hands that won't keep up with this new demand-driven stock market. paul in massachusetts, paul.

>> caller: hey, how are you doing, jim? >> i am doing really well. how about you? >> caller: i want to thank you for taking my call. >> okay. >> caller: i'd like to give you a booyah from the whip city of westfield, mass. >> thank you so much. >> caller: i'm calling about -- i have a long time holding of mine, mccormick. it's gone from 107 down to 90. is there a problem, or is that a red flag here? >> this is part of that broad rotation out of the kind of staples like old bay. here's a seasoning from mccormick and into more like the caterpillars. i think that individual investors need to ride this out. mccormick's a great company. it dominates the spice market. will it do well in the next three months? i don't know. how about the next three years? i like mccormick. how about mark in texas, mark? >> caller: booyah from the great city of houston. >> super bowl town.

what's up? >> caller: i'm calling about the rr donnelley stocks. >> right. >> caller: since the split. now, dsn seems to be about to break even. lksb seems to be going nowhere. >> right. >> caller: and rrd itself continues just to spiral down. what do you see the future like? >> i'll tell you, rrd needs to buy call graph. that's what has to happen. you're absolutely right. this has been terrible. but you know what? the parts were worth more than the whole and they will be. i'm sticking by it. but rrd buy quad graphics, get your stock rolling. cynthia in georgia, cynthia. >> caller: hi, jim. this is cynthia from the peach state of georgia. first time caller and newbie investor. >> okay. >> caller: i wanted to know your thoughts on new relic. >> when we sat down, we liked them. we think it's a great software company. i know it's been going down. i do like salesforce.com more than that, and i like adobe more

than that, but i think it's a good company. all right. if paradigm people has shifted. the stocks you want to buy are those of companies that have no choice but to spend to meet increased customer demand, and that's what makes amazon. that is what makes a winning stock here. on "mad money" tonight, whenever a company gets hits with i aseries of down grades in a matter of weeks, you have to wonder what's happening. tonight i'm eyeing one mysterious case in the oil patch and telling you if the panic was overblown. then one auto parts maker could be ready to kick things into high gear. i'm putting you in the driver's seat of this interesting company i think could be taken over. and at his news krerns yesterday, president-elect donald trump said he would be the greatest jobs producer that god ever created. those are pretty high expectations. i'll tell you if he can meet them. stick with cramer. >> announcer: don't miss a second of "mad money." follow @jimcramer on twitter. have a question? tweet cramer, #madtweets.

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whenever a company gets hit with a series of downgrades in the span of a few weeks but its stock refuses to go lower, you got to ask your self what the heck is going on here? why is wall street suddenly turning on this company aen masse? consider the case of held merrick and pane, the big best of breed oil and gas drilling contractor with a huge business here in the united states. last month, this stock got hit with a slew of analyst downgrades, not too long after the stock plunged down to 62 in mid-november, and that was based on oil glut. but with the benefit of hindsight, it sure likes this panic was a big mistake as the price of crude quickly rebounded back above 50 and hem rick and pane stock has climbed to just

under $79 as of today. that's why i always tell you that no one ever made a dime panicking. before we get into the details of this story, though, let me give you some background on the company itself. held merrick and pane is a mostly land based drilling contractor that makes the vast majority of money here in the united states although they also have smaller international and offshore businesses too. and, look, there's a lot to like about this industry, especially given how pro-petroleum the trump administration is going to be. we're about to get a drill baby drill president. with the price of crude in the 50s -- who cut back on production during the downturn, they're starting to drill again. >> hallelujah. >> grants these downgrades came in the first two weeks of december, but even then we knew the president-elect was in favor of fossil fuels and opec had already announced its proekz freeze agreement. it seems like a weird time for so many firms to down grade a driller. on top of that, even within the

industry, held merrick and pane is a pretty high quality operator. in terms of active onshore oil rigs in the united states, this company is the number one player even though we don't talk about it that much. it's got a very strong balance sheet, much better than most of its peers and the stock also sports a bount ifrl 3.5% dividend yield. perhaps best of all, held merrick and pane is highly sought after, especially by larger producers because they introduced the industry's first flex rig over a decade ago. these are rigs that have been customized for all the red hot domestic shell plays and the horizontal drilling that's become widespread. these positives were all evident a month ago yet four analysts suddenly turned negative in the first couple weeks of december. these downgrades hit one after the other. seaport global took the stock from buy to hold on dis1.

guggenheim took it from buy to neutral on december 6th. bank of america did the same december 8th. then rbc took it from sector outperform to sector perform on the 16th. the stock closed at $75 the day before the downgrades hit, and it was at $80 right before the last one hit. so it's not like these analysts helped you avoid some kind of precipitous decline given that hp is currently at $79 and change. so why the heck did these analyst dozen this? why did they jump ship? on the hell merrick and pane bandwagon last month? what were they thinking? was there anything the company had said, for instance, anything the company did that might have spooked them? i've looked at everything, all the pronouncements, all the statements. the answer is no. no. when h and p reported its most recent quarter, they posted a larger than expected loss. okay, but the revenue also came in higher than anticipated. more important, the commentary on the conference call was pretty darn bullish. i couldn't believe it.

i said these guys have got game here. management talked about the company's strong presence in the permian basin in texas that we talk about all the time, especially now that the price of crude is at $53 a barrel, on top of that they highlighted the strength of the dividend. in fact, h and p is the only driller with an investment grade credit rating. they forecasted an increase in working u.s. land rigs for the first quarter of 2017. what happened then? why these downgrades? back in mid-november, the price of crude fell back to the low 40s as we got a number of data points that suggested oil inventories were higher than expected. plus some investors were worried that opec wouldn't be able to deliver on its production cut agreement, and that's why hell merrick and pane stock fell to $62 in early november. by december 1 when the wave of downgrades started, both the price of oil and this stock had made a dramatic recovery. i think the analysts saw hell merrick and payne going from the low 60s to the high 70s and decided you know what? this thing is just too darn

risky to keep recommending so they declared victory and downgraded it perhaps because they didn't believe the rebound in oil prices could last. i got to say, though, the timing here is really silly. by the time most of these downgrades hit, opec had already reached a production cut deal with non-opec countries like russia. the price of crude had rebounded, and if you were going to down grade a driller, hell merrick and pane would be far from the first choice to do. this was a company with a bountiful safe dividend and management had made it very clear that their business could do a heck of a lot better with any kind of uptick in crude. i think these analysts had already decided hell merrick and pain was too risky, so they downgraded rather than adjusting to new facts on the ground. i would have made it from a buy to a strong buy. going forward, i think the firms that downgraded this stock in es did, i think they're going to have egg on their faces. there's too much going right in this business as helm eric and pane alluded to in their

conference call, there seems to be a turnaround in drilling. given the long term shift toward more complex, unconventional drilling, i have to believe it's one of the best drillers to own here because that's what so many of the rigs are designed for. put it all together, and i got to agree with the outfit argus, whose analysts just upgraded the stock from hold to buy earlier this week. as for all the firms that downgraded helmeric and pain in december, it looks like they panicked, although i do give them some credit for waiting for the stock to rebound before they jumped ship. here's the bottom line. when the facts change, you need to change your mind. in early november, the price of oil plummeted and everybody got real worried about the whole oil patch, especially the drillers. but by the time these four firms downgraded held merrick and payne, oil had already rebu rebounded, the demand for drilling was picking up, as

illustrated -- i think they failed to adjust to the new reality, which is that why this stock barely seemed to notice their downgrades and why i think held merrick and pane is a buy right here. this is a high quality company p. don't count me out. count me in. much more "mad money" ahead. start your engines. i'll tell you if it's time for -- i want to tease it, but i'll just say it. advanced auto parts to shift gears and maybe consider something big. then with the news that amazon plans to add 100,000 new jobs in the u.s. and trump taking credit for some of these moves, i'm eyeing the president-elect's impact on employment. and do your stocks have what it takes to survive the unknowns in this market? i'll be the judge of that when we play "am i diversified?" so stick with cramer. wdtterer

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. for years the auto parts retailers roared higher as the anemic american economy caused people to hold their cars longer and longer without buying new ones. the average vehicle on the road keeps getting older and requiring more maintenance. now about 12 years old. stocks like advance the auto parts, autozone and o'reilly automotive roared higher year after year. then a couple of years ago something odd happened. the group decoupled. while autozone and o'reilly kept climbing, advanced auto parts seemed to plateau, stall out. now, this underperformance eventually caught the attention of a man by the name of jeff smith. he's the guy behind star board value, one of the more successful activist hedge funds out there. in september of 2015, star board took a 3.7% stake in advanced auto parts with a plan to unlock value.

though it took some time, star board eventually took control of the situation. 15 months in, we're already seeing major progress. last year, aap was the best performer in the group. but now that the activists had star board have a nice gain, i'm wondering about their exit strategy. it's no sin. even the best have to ring the register sometime. specifically i think advanced auto parts could be an ideal takeover candidate. first, though, let me give you some background as i never recommend a stock on a takeover basis unless i like the fundamentals. like i mentioned, advanced auto parts started faltering in 2015 after a multiyear run and that's when star board values stepped in, when they announced their position in september of 2015, they also released an open letter to the company's management, highlighting a number of ways it could unlock value. among other things, star board pointed out that advanced auto parts operating margins were 800 to 900 basis points behind autozone and o'reilly automotive. a very big gap, and one they

wanted management to close via a series of operational improvements. at the time, star board argued that aap could travel to $350. it was at $170 back then. or even $400 if it would just boost its margins and improve the execution to get a valuation more in line with its peers skpmpt it didn't take long for advanced auto to start adopting star board's proposals. first, long time ceo darryn jackson resigned effective january 2nd of last year. the company replaced a third of its board of directors and added an extra board seat for jeff smith himself. however, these announcements came at the same time the company reported a subpar quarter with truly atrocious guidance, and that initially overshadowed all of these changes. all throughout last year, though, star board worked with advanced auto parts management to install a better leadership team. in april they hired a man by the name of thomas greco. he's a 30-year pepsico veteran who had been running frito-lay north america. then in may, the company

appointed jeff smith himself, a man i admire very much, as the chairman of the board, giving star board even more influence over the business. and the truth is it's worked so well that i think all sorts of acquirers could be salivating over this company at these levels. remember, again, i reiterate, i will never recommend a stock on a takeover basis on this show unless the fundamentals are sound. while it's taken some time, advanced auto parts' numbers have started to improve dramatically. that said, this is a recent development. for the first half of 2016, this company continued to put up tepid numbers with shrinking same-store sales, shrinking total revenues and disappointing earnings. by the time the election night rolled around, advanced auto parts stock was down 8.5% for the year. things looked pretty darn gloomy. just a week later, the company reported a fabulous quarter and things have turned around. what happened? advanced auto parts posted its first earnings beat in ages and the company's same-store sales only sha rang by 1%. that may not sound too amazing. i mean only? but it represented a gigantic

improve. over the 4.1% decline the previous quarter. that's why the stock jumped 15% on the news, and the analysts have been jumping all over themselves to upgrade the thing ever since. now, since the election, advanced auto parts has run up nearly 27%, but even at these levels, the stock remains relatively cheap. it sells for 19 times next year's earnings estimates which is less expensive than o'reilly automotive at 20 times earnings. on the other hand, autozone sells for just 14 times next year's numbers, but that's because it has not as great balance sheet. what makes me so confident that aap could be a juicy takeover target? the first and most obvious reason, right now, there are just three major auto parts retailers out there. so if autozone or o'reilly bought advanced auto parts, that would create an incredibly lucrative due opply that i don't think the government would fight. given that aap is a $13 billion company, well, advanced auto parts is a natural target and whoever acquired them would

instantly become the largest player in the space. this is similar to what walgreens is trying to do in the drugstore business with the takeover of rite aid. it is why my charitable trust sticks with walgreens, because scale matters so much. second, advanced auto's fundamentals seem to have turned. if they can continue putting up better numbers than this company will soon be a growth property again. we will start thinking about it as a value, as a growth company. that would make it a more attractive target for autozone. o'reilly, yeah, same boat, or any other retailer that's looking to diversify into an area that can't be wrecked by amazon, at least not yet. third, it's got a clean balance sheet, and omost important i think this could be a motivated seller situation. remember, jeff smith, currently the company chairman, but at this point sar board's position in advanced auto is up slightly. given that the position represented 11.5% of the fund's

portfolio, i bet star board would absolutely love to arrange to sell the company, pick up a terrific gain. and considering the board's composition, if star board wanted advanced auto parts to accept a takeover bid, then i think that's probably what would happen. like i mentioned, autozone and o'reilly would be the natural acquirers, and if they can both afford it, although i think o'reilly would be more likely because it's larger and has a cleaner balance sheet, which would make it easier to finance the deal. at the same time, there are countless bricks and mortar retailers that are searching desperately for businesses that can't be easily replaced by amazon. and selling auto parts is one of the few areas that's insulated from online competition. oh, and i wouldn't be surprised at all if a private equity firm -- they got a lot of capital just sitting on the sidelines -- thinks about snapping up advanced auto, at least if its numbers continue to improve. even carl icahn could be a potential buyer given he recently snapped up pep boys, although when you consider that he trashed the auto parts sector a month ago, i wouldn't bet on it. here's the bottom line.

now that advanced auto parts seems to be in the midst of an activist fueled turnaround for real, i think this could be one of the most straightforward takeover stories out there, if only because of jeff smith's unique position as the head of star board values, being the chairman, and advanced auto's chairman -- i mean, i don't know, it would make it so darn easy for the company to accept a bid when the chairman of the company is also the head of the activist fund. and if no one bites, you still got the fundamentals on your side in what seems like the early innings of a major turnaround. again, i never recommend if i just think it's going to be a takeover. but what smith has done here, it's a value play. going to be a growth play. and i say -- >> buy, buy, buy. >> mike in florida, mike. >> caller: hey, jim, a balmy booyah from fort myers, florida. >> what's up? >> caller: i've been considering opening a position in u.s. concrete after you had the ceo on, and i watched with interest

and it dropped down from the end of the year a little bit more than 10%. >> right. >> caller: i was shocked that it didn't fly after trump's press conference when he said he wanted to build the wall right away. what's your take on opening a position? >> caller: i like this stock. we talked about it a lot after the ceo came on. i was kind of struck by him saying, you know what, i like vulcan materials. everybody knows that. i like martin marietta. but this company with mr. sand brooke, i think, is exceptional. >> buy, buy, buy. >> how about zach in illinois, zach. >> caller: jim, thanks for taking my call. been a long time watcher. made my first trade ever on barry plastics right after you recommended it. my question for today is about chesapeake energy. bought it in november before the election on your recommendation. took some off the top and i'm looking here at 690. should i get back in? >> yes, because i think it is the year of natural gas. we're set up correctly. i think we're going to be a big exporter of natural gas. chesapeake has a lot of natural

gas. chesapeake has fixed the balance sheet. it's the $6 equivalent of freeport for copper. i think chesapeake, chk, is a buy. all right. want to take your portfolio the distance? i think advanced auto parts, aap, is ready to roll, even if a takeover doesn't happen, the fundamentals are strong. then much more "mad money" ahead. since the job market bottomed out in the depth of the great recession, the u.s. economy has gained nearly 6 million jobs, but donald trump is convinced he'll have a far better record on job creation than obama. i'll tell you if his campaign rhetoric can become reality. and its impact on your money. then after today's down trend, worried about what a potential trump slump could mean for your portfolio? i'll see if it can stand up to the unknowns when we play am i diversified. and all your calls rapid fire in tonight's edition of the lightning round. so stick with cramer. ]

say what you want about president-elect trump. he's clearly making jobs his number-one priority, and so far he's changing the paradigm even if he seems to be doing it one company at a time. now, cnbc tallied that under president obama, we created almost 6 million jobs although there's always that caveat that he started his term during the early innings of worst downturn since the great recession. still, i think the pace of job creation might accelerate here, perhaps even dramatically under the trump administration because as i've said repeatedly, the core of his economic agenda is lowering corporate taxes, deregulation, and a tax holiday on the repatriation of overseas capital. plus he's put forward a

$550 billion program although it's going to be hard to push that through a republican-controlled congress. we don't know how many jobs these policies could create. for instance, a democratic staff report showed that the 15 largest companies that took advantage of the last repatriation tax break in 2004 actually cut more than 20,000 jobs and decreased research and development spending after the change came through. meanwhile we're on the cusp of bang earnings and i expect to hear less regulation means more people getting loans which should cause housing and job creation to pick up. yes, it's entirely possible that firms will use the corporate tax cut to reward their sharehold s shareholders. but i think this whole debate is missing the point. what matter sds that when it comes to strong arming executives into keeping jobs in this country or creating them here, trump's got what i call the supermarket factor going for him. what do i mean by that?

it's something i learned from the "mad money" wall of shame. when i speak with executives who have been put on the wall of shame for destroying value at their own companies, what i often hear in their pleas to be taken down is that they're tired of their spouses being stared at in the supermarket. they're embarrassed. they want to explain what they're doing right now and what they fixed or what's going to happen next that's better for shareholders, better for viewers in order to get themselves taken off the wall and eliminate the embarrassment factor. now, this is just a basic cable show about business. and my bully pulpit is only a fraction the size of trump's rather through tweets or press conferences or whatever. but as ceos get uncomfortable about being on the "mad money" wall of shame, just imagine how they feel when the next president of the united states singles them out on twitter. suffice to say, the supermarket factor is off the charts here. it's working to keep

executives -- and it's working when we see amazon put out a press release saying it's going to hire 100,000 people in this country. amazon may have been set to do that made. i don't know about you, though. i found the release inspiring. look, before trump won the election, ceos used to talk about how sending jobs overseas would boost their gross margins all the time. many were subtly proud of it, showed they were tough. now they're a lot more sheepish about that kind of thing and inclined not to do so. in other words, it's working so far. of course there are plenty of areas where you might disagree with the president-elect, and in some cases there are very real tradeoffs that aren't be talked about, like energy versus the environment, or american jobs versus cheaper goods made overseas. but what matters for the market is that the tone of the country is changing, and it's doing something. the off the charts reading of the small business index just the other day confirmed this optimism. in the end, whether you love trump or hate him and he's the most polarizing figure i've ever seen in my life, at least in this country, he seems to be succeeding in his mission to

protect and create american jobs. and the guy hasn't even been sworn in yet. that has to make you feel better about the stock market even as we had our first real down day and on the eve of a very tricky earnings period. "mad money" is back after the break. har,e kesn s l r

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it is time for the lightning round on cramer's "mad money." that's where i take your calls rapid fire. you tell me the name of the stock. i tell you to buy, buy, buy or sell, sell, sell. we'll play this sound -- [ buzzer ] -- and then the lightning round is over. are you ready, skee-daddy? it's time for the lightning round on cramer's "mad money." we'll start with scott in florida, scott. >> caller: baba booyah. coming from hollywood, florida. >> i love hollywood. lived there for a little bit. what's going on? >> caller: my stock is vz. >> it's run a lot. the problem is that there's been upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. you got to let it come down a little, and then you can pull the trigger. not yet. let's go to mark in michigan, mark. >> caller: hey, how you doing, jimmy? booyah. my question is about a stock that i've owned for a while. american power, symbol amp. they seemed to have fallen out of favor lately. >> it has because there's a lot of talk of mergers in the business. i would say american tower is the best in the business. it's worth owning. i think the stock if you can get it under 100 is terrific.

let's go to terry in west virginia, terry. >> caller: hello, jim. i love your show. >> thank you. >> caller: i was recently started a position in mattel and i'm kind of concerned that there may be some tax increases on imports. >> that's possible. you have that 5% yield. i think you're okay. i do prefer hasbro for a growth profile over mattel just so we know. let's go to ernie in new york. >> caller: booyah, jim, from new york. big question for you, jim. i love the banks. san tand da. >> you're really going down the food chain. i prefer barclays. earnings tomorrow. we got wells fargo, bank of america, jpmorgan. let's wait and see what they have to say. how about brandon in ohio. >> caller: i just want to say thank you and just curious what

you thought of pro-lodge ix. >> it's the king of industrial real estate of that business. i have not a fan right now because i think rates are going to go higher. it is so best of breed, i can't hold back on that. let's go to john in alabama, john. >> caller: hey, jim. how are you doing? >> i'm doing well. how about you, john? >> caller: i'm pretty good. i used to have a stock in franklin temple ton about ten years ago. it did really well for me. >> you know what, i'd rather see you in morgan stanley or e-trade. i think they're both better. i think you can make more money in schwab. i think those are exactly where you want to be in terms of the federates and where the rate hikes go. that's where the money will be. i need to go to brian in california, brian. >> caller: how is it going, jim? booyah. >> booyah. >> caller: calling from chargerless san diego. >> oh, yeah, maybe. okay. >> caller: my question is for kmi. >> i'm no longer putting the

hate on kmi. they did a lot of things that were reckless. they're okay now, but there are better ones absolutely. we had enterprise product earlier today, and i think that's a better situation. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round [ buzzer ] >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade. mypt tra onl , i art.o

new year, new you? well, hitting the gym and

convincing yourself to eight kale, remember to think about the health of your portfolio. just like you shouldn't skip leg days, it's important to make sure your portfolio isn't too heavily concentrated in one area. that's why we play am i diversified. this is where you give me a call or tweet me and tell me your top five holdings and i'll let you know if your portfolio is diversified enough or if you need to break a sweat and do some more work. up first we have a tweet from mike at&t brick can 615. he say @jimcramer. jim, can i be the first to play in 2017? >> hallelujah. >> i have bank of america, carnival, honeywell, nordic american tanker, and tryton international. am i diversified? wow, this is not as easy as we think. particularly because there's one that i really don't like, and i'm going to try to get him out of. all right. let's see. i'm going to try to do this in a delicate way. carnival is just terrific

entertainment. you know, i've got to do a piece about how much better that call was that last quarter than i thought. bank of america, obviously one of the largest banks in the company. about to report tomorrow. honeywell, terrific industrial. triton, a leasing company. i've got to tell you i'm going to say it's okay. it's intermodal containers and we know from csx it's good. but nordic american tankers has disappointed us way too many times. we're not going to be in that. so intermodal, industrial, bank, entertainment, and let's add unh. remember we did that piece yesterday on unh and health care? that would go so well with this portfolio. i want nordic american tankers out. >> sell, sell, sell. >> let's go to steve in california, steve. >> caller: jim, thank you so much for taking my call. >> of course. >> caller: i'm a beginner investor. my girlfriend and i watch your show every day. i'm aiming to be one of your best students. >> thank you so much for watching. that's nice. tell your girlfriend i said thank you too. >> caller: okay, cool. here's what you need to know. i am going to be 31 years old.

i want to make sure that i am positioned with aggressive stocks for the trump era, and of course i want to make sure i'm diversified. >> all right. >> i own adobe, arconic, black stone, key, and paychex. >> okay. wow. good. i like that background because i want younger people to have growth. you've got your whole life to make that money back if it doesn't work out. black stone private equity, i'm concerned right here about the president going blaack and sayi they should not be able to get that tax braex. arconic is the old alcoa. aa is the new, and they really made it very difficult. i consider it mostly aerospace. adobe, these are both big charitable trust names. i feel great about adobe and the cloud. key corps, that's beth mooney. paychex. so we've got a payroll processor. we have a bank. we have a cloud company. we've got an aerospace company.

and black stone is a fnl. we're going to let it go as long as you understand there could be a chance that trump makes good on his promise during the campaign that would make it so that the carried interest break that black stone has will go. all right. let's go to jeff in south dakota, jeff. >> caller: jim, big booyah from south dakota and my beautiful wife and i. >> there you go. fantastic. thank you for calling. >> caller: my stocks are enterprise product partners. >> okay. >> caller: nova nor disk, caterpillar, raytheon, and dow chemical. >> let me go to work. interesting. cat pilller, you know we think that's the best truck story around. we think that the pre-announcement to the douns side put a floor on the stock. enterprise products is just an absolutely terrific pipeline company. i've liked it forever. raytheon, great defense contractor.

novo nordisk is health care and they've raised prices a lot. i am not a fan. you're going to sub unh for that. and dow chemical, actionalertsplus.com club name where they're converging with dupont. i like it. a chemical, a drug, but we're switching out to a health care. a defense company, an infrastructure play, and an oil company. wow, i like it as long as you get rid of novo like we had to get rid of nat. all right. stick with cramer.

there's a game being played about the bank stocks and i don't like it. they're either so horrible you got to sell them now, or they're so great you just can't wait. you got to buy them. i say somewhere in between. if the bank stocks come down, and we get federate hikes, you want to buy, not sell them. i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere. i promise to try to find it just for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. see you tomorrow!

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