>> i have to honestly, they're doing a great job at mcdonald's. they report on the 23rd. i'm with seaburg here. i think 130 before 110. >> we'll see you tomorrow at 5:00. 5:00 for more "fast physici" me "mad money" starts right now. my mission is simple, to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere, and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to 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. read-throughs and derivatives. that's what earnings season is all about. even with donald trump's inauguration coming up on

friday, it's what makes the markets move here, including todd where the dow dipped 22 point, s&p inched up 0.18%, the nasdaq advanced 0.31%. while the trump factor is always going to be with us, it certainly isn't the be all and end all. what matters during earnings season are the numbers, the read-throughs and the derivatives of those numbers are driving stocks. what do i mean by these concepts? what makes them so important? let's start with the nasdaq. did you notice the intraday pep in its step? do you know what caused it? the nasdaq's intraday bounce had everything to do with a company called asml. asml. a dutch semiconductor equipment maker that reported outstanding numbers last night, causing the stock to rally more than seven points. all right. you may not know this $54 billion company, but you've definitely heard of their clients. think intel, samsung, taiwan

semi-texas instruments, which order gigantic, expensive pieces of equipment from asml in order to make all sorts of chips that go into all kinds of devices from the internet of things, cell phones, personal computers, and aton mus cars. when semiconductor companies by equipment from asml, they're making a real commitment, a commitment to produce smaller, faster, better chips that could be used well into this next decade. like i said, this stuff is expensive, and purchasing semiconductor equipment means putting down a lot of money up front. so what happens when asml gives us such an incredibly bullish forecast like it did this morning? the read-through here is straightforward. we got major rallies in the cell phone chip makers like skyworks and qorvo. we got a big lift in broadcom which makes all sorts of telecommunication chips micron

roared. meanwhile, amd, which is down 13% just since the beginning of 2017, finally seemed to stem its decline. we got a nice move up in western digital because asml told us flash chips are in high demand. analog devices and qualcomm moved up too with qualcomm's run being pretty amazing given all the negative chatter about an fdc investigation over pricing. even the formerly red hot now ice cold nvidia saw its stock rally. i'm calling it a bull chip jailbreak. yet these are only the simple derivatives moves of this one remarkable dutch semiconductor equipment maker. the easy pin action. on the other hand, you can also get negative read-throughs. this morning, target really got walloped and for good reason. the company reported terribly disappointing numbers. with its bricks and mortar business down 3% of late and

management slashed their guidance, what's the problem? simple. it's about target's incredibly positive e-commerce numbers. just amazingly strong. i think you could even say too strong given that they cannibalized the actual bricks and mortar stores. that's very negative because target sells a lot of food, and if you don't come by the stores, you don't buy the food. hence which that business had a low single digit decline. if you don't swing by, you might not purchase some entertainment or electronic gadgets, driving that business down high single digits. that's the problem with old-line retailing. the whole edifice was built around the store no matter what they do with e-commerce. so as matthew boss from jpmorgan has told us over and over again, when you build out an e-commerce platform, you open yourself up to countless competitors, who make it possible for customers to price compare online while also seriously cutting down on the oomt of impulse buying people do in the store. there goes kohl's and macy's and

walmart and jcpenney and all the other usual suspects. sure, it didn't help that the president-elect now seems open to so-called border taxes that would ding these retailers even as he just told "the wall street journal" the other day that he thinks that plan is too complicated. you can't bank on trump to be predictable because he, himself, would tell you he's an unpredictable kind of guy. target stock down four bucks in heavy trading. that was the tinder for these derivative fires that will not be easily put out. but how about some winners from the strength of target's online business? do you know what people buy when they see numbers like these? thy reach for companies that are part of the awesome from offline to online. they reach for fedex and ups. both had nice rallies. now, i know you want to hear about the banks. was goldman sachs so bad that the stock deserved to be down a buck and change? was citi hideous enough to justify today's smackdown? no and no. these stocks are just victims of

circumstance. circumstances that come from reporting after magnificent rallies. as i said in our game plan last friday, it might not even matter what these banks report. goldman sachs was up some 40% in advance of the quarter, which means it was due for some profit-taking. i don't think the profit-taking is over yet because the firm's partners are heavily compensated in stock, and the window for them to sell opens right after the company reports. given that everybody involved has a profit since goldman's last quarter and given that there are shrewd people who believe as i do that nobody ever got hurt taking a profit -- they're the ones who taught me that -- i think more selling could lie ahead. i say let it happen. there's room for the banks to stall or even to fall, and then there's room to buy because of coming rate hikes and deregulation, which will allow banks to buy back more stock -- boy, citi bought a lot of stock back -- and cut compliance costs. those are all long-term themes that can drive these stocks higher after the profit-taking runs its course.

finally the transports. when united continental reported, management said their business had turned the corner. i sure hope so. six months ago this $74 stock was at $47. after that kind of run, i think that warranted an attaboy. like the banks, the group has moved up too for the moment. something very special has to happen to those airlines to propel them further. something like what happened to the rail stocks tonight. on tuesday, csx reported a good, not great, quarter, and the stock, which had been rallying for ages naturally sold off. but after the close tonight, canadian pacific announced a new ceo, and the new ceo immediately said the consolidation is inevitab inevitable, so the group is soaring after hours. finally you could get a lot of positive read-throughs tomorrow in tech after netflix reported a spectacular quarter tonight with record customer gains. 7 million both at home and

abroad, giving them a total of nearly 94 million customers. news which sent the stock up about ten points in after hours trading. do i have to tell you what goes up when netflix goes higher? fang! facebook, amazon, and google, now alphabet, travel with the n, netflix. fact of life of eenkz season. bottom line, in a world where it seems like tons of things aren't making sense anymore, at least you know these moves aren't random. somehow considering the craziness of pre-inaugural washington, i find the whole exercise rather comforting. let's go to daniel in north carolina, please, daniel. >> caller: jim, a big eagles booyah all the way from north carolina. >> what's up? >> caller: i'm curious. i'm a recent college graduate, and i'm wondering about investing in tesla stock. is that a good idea? >> all right. i'm glad you said you're a recent college graduate. we have a lot of younger people calling. i think that tesla is a cult

stock, but people who love the tesla love the stock. if you love it, you're young enough to be able to endure whatever it throws at you. losses of of course positives. so i think it's okay for you to own it. i think it's a cult stock. i have no way to value the stock on earnings or sales or anything else. richard in connecticut, richard. >> caller: hey, jim. first time, long time. thanks for taking my call. >> of course. >> caller: i'm calling about conseeco, cno, a long time employee of bankers life. as you probably know, it's their largest subsidiary. >> right. >> caller: back during the final crisis, the stock actually hit around 25 cents. i watched it for a while. i jumped in at a dollar, and it's trading around $19 right now. i've been buying incrementally over the time. it pays a small dividend. i'm kind of thinking of using it towards retirement. i have a horizon of about six years. you think i should just keep buying some more? >> no. i got to tell you that stock's

up a lot in the last year. i think that kind of insurance product is a very hard product to value. you should take advantage of the fact united health has come down three after what i regarded was a great quarter. that would be a better buy. how about noor in california, noor. >> caller: i was looking at sprint corporation. what's your advice on possibly investing with them given that they're, you know, pretty much -- revolutionized japan's wireless industry? >> i think sprint is doing very well, and i think t-mobile is doing very well. there was a lot of chatter today about combinations. either way, they're doing well. now, all that said, i think that you have to recognize that they've run, but i wouldn't -- i would not get in the way of someone who wanted to buy some sprint stock here. phil in my home state of new jersey, phil. >> caller: booyah, jim. how are you? >> i'm good. how about you? >> caller: good. i'm calling in regards to coit.

i own 400 shares and i was thinking about purchasing more shares. is it worth adding to my position? >> you know what i would do if i wanted to own kite? i would wait because this is -- >> not a trump stock, not a trump stock. >> i would wait until there's a tweet. let's say a presidential tweet as of friday that bashes the drug companies. then if you want to buy kite, that is going to be your moment. all right, read-throughs and derivatives. connect the dots in this market and you can understand the action and get yourself ahead of the game. on "mad money" tonight, is this market a friend of the farmer? this business had been down and out, but now some stocks are growing like a weed. i'm eyeing one play that may be making its way out of the dog house. then ever since trump's election, this market's been hungry to find stocks that can thrive off the new administration. however, not all the names that have run are created equal. tonight i'm telling if whirlpool is an anointed one or maybe just a poser.

and is splunk out of the funk? is it time to make an investment in the company? i've got the ceo. so stick with 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. e stussshe ere,

we know there are a ton of down and out sectors that ignited after the election and have been roaring pretty much ever since even as the market's been stalled lately. but there's one formerly despised cohort that was already rebounding before trump's surprise victory, and it's only gotten stronger since then. i'm talking about the remarkable comeback and something i've been mentioning very subtly, the agriculture business. take fmc, frank, mary, charlie

for all you home gamers. fmc corp. is mainly a chemical company that caters to the ag market although they also produce lithium as well as having a health and fitness kicker. but this heart and soul of the company is agricultural chemicals and that accounts for nearly 70% of its sales. now, like most of the ag complex, fmc stock peaked in the summer of 2014 and spent the next year and a half in a brutal nosedive. but over the last 11-odd months, you know what? fmc has been on fire. rallying more than 80% since its lows last february. just like we've seen and talked about with agco, the big maker of farm equipment. >> buy, buy. >> fmc has been making an extraordinary recovery. so we got to ask ourselves, what the heck is going on here? how did this stock go from a deadbeat to a market darling and, more importantly, can its remarkable run temperature? let me give you the background.

fmc corp. has a number of different lines of business. on the kennel cal side, they make all sorts of pesticides and seed treatments. they also have nich berks where they make ingredients in food and drugs. finally fmc also makes lithium compounds, which it primarily sells to companies that make rechargeable batteries. think cell phones, laptops and, of course, electric cars. now, the fmc of today is very different from the fmc of just a few years ago. in 2014 and 2015, the company sold its two big commodity divisions, soda ash and hydrogen, and then in 2015 when the agriculture industry was still getting hammered, fmc stepped up and bought chem nova, a danish producer of crop protection products for $1.8 billion. this was visionary. these moves together made fmc much more of an agriculture oriented company and also

dramatically increased the company's exposure to europe, which is very aggressive about subsidizing its own farmers. at the time of the chem nova deal, you might not have seen that enticing, but it's clear that the people running fmc were playing a long game and realized this business would become a heck of a lot more valuable once the ag market rebounded. sooner or later it always does because the feed the world thesis is one of the great secular growth stories of all time. sure enough, that's exactly what happened. when fmc reported last may, the company delivered a nice top and bottom line beat and raised their full-year earnings forecast thanks in part to the tremendous strength of the company's lithium business. the stock jumped 9% on the news even though the ag business continued to suffer from lower volumes, not to mention that super freakin' strong dollar, which has been a big problem for american exporters. in short, even before the ag market started to rebound, fmc was beating the earnings

estimates, so it shouldn't have been that surprising when the company reported a blowout quarter in early november, and the stock surged into the stratosphere, rallying 10.5% in a single session. the reason? even though most analysts seemed reluctant to declare a bottom in agriculture at the time, fmc came out on its conference call and gave us some very bullish commentary, particularly about their big latin american business. let me give you a snippet. quote, in ag solutions compared to last year, we saw an improved start of the season in latin america, officially in brazil, a stronger performance in both asia and north america, end quote. even though fmc's volumes weren't so hot, pricing had finally started to improve, and the company finally annualized the impact of that strong dollar. plus their lithium business, it's just on fire, up 22% year-over-year. all in all this was the first time in six quarters that the company posted actual earnings growth, and what growth it was. it was up 59%.

since then the stock has continued to climb as we've gotten more and more good news. on november 30th, fmc spoke at citigroup's basic materials conference, predicting high single digit earnings growth for their ag business for 2017 thanks to synergies from that chem nova acquisition. even better, management predicted they'd generate 40% earnings growth in that little lithium division that i mentioned, with much of that thanks to substantially higher prices and volumes. why is this lithium business so strong? okay. if you want any kind of device with a remargeable battery, it's almost certainly a lithium ion battery. the demand for this stuff has been rising steadily for years as people kept buying more and more electronics. but recently the lithium business has accelerated even harder thanks to the growth of electric vehicles. your average laptop battery contains roughly an ounce of lithium, but the average electric car battery, 44 pounds of lithium. and a tesla, 112 pounds!

that's a gigantic and fast-growing source of demand that should keep bolstering fmc's lithium business for years to come. then on december 12, goldman sachs added fmc to their conviction buy list, saying the broader ag market is approaching the bottom. and on top of that, fmc has got both the integration of chem nova and their red hot lithium business to bolster its growth. the latest development? it just keeps getting better. roughly two weeks ago monsanto, the seed maker, reported a stunningly positive quarter. even better, monsanto told us that they saw double-digit growth in latin america during the quarter, some of which has to do with the rebound in the brazilian real and some of which comes down to stronger demand. fmc now has a big latin america business and if farmers in brazil are paying up for monsanto seeds, we've got the derivative, okay? we've got the read-through.

now, fmc itself reports in three weeks. so if what we heard from monsanto is any guide, i think we're looking at a pretty excellent quarter ahead. there's just one thing you might be worried about. the stock has run more than 80% in the last 11 months, so we're not early here. i can see how you feel like maybe we missed the move. however, even after this run, fmc trades at just under 18 times forward earnings. more expensive than dow chemical at 14 times. cheaper than dupont or monsanto. when you look out to 2018, fmc trades at just under 16 times those numbers, and i expect the 2018 estimates could turn out too be too low, possibly way too low in the nascent rebound in agriculture continues. i think fmc should trade at a premium, especially when you consider its smaller lithium business growing at that 40% clip. put it all together, this stock starts to seem pretty darn cheap even after the remarkable rally. maybe the better way to think of it is that fmc traded as high as 84 back in 2014 and went as low

as 32 last year. it probably should never have been that low in the first place, and with the shares price back up to 58, fmc has still got a long ways to go before it comes anywhere near its old highs. i like that. here's the bottom line. after spending years in the dog house, fmc corp. made a fabulous comeback in 2016 thanks to the broader come ba-- i think fmc is still cheap here and it's worth buying into any weakness market wide as we head into the next earnings report in less than three weeks. all right. much more "mad money" ahead including my take on whirlpool. >> trump stock. >> not a trump stock. >> the company has been heading higher as of late. then i'll get to the bottom of the funk in shares of splunk. can this big data business find new life in 2017? i'll talk with the ceo. and what kind of investor are you? tonight i'm peeling back the

mask of money management to help you avoid some potential hazards popping up on wall street. stick with cramer. tel?at hlo nofefee

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ever since donald j. trump's surprise victory on november 8th, investors have been using a brand-new rubric to judge companies. is it a -- >> trump stock. >> or is it -- >> not a trump stock. >> meaning is it a name that stands a good chance of benefiting from the president-elect's agenda or does it belong to the cohort that's likely to get some presidential punishment? the list of names that have rocketed higher in anticipation of trump's inauguration on friday has gotten very long. we got to start asking ourselves do these equities all really deserve to be anointed as trump stocks? yep. you know what? it's time to put the trump stocks to the test. tonight i want to start with a

household name, whirlpool. the huge maker of big ticket appliances, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, ovens and so on. before the election, whirlpool was a controversial stock, had been on a real roller coaster ride in 2016. post-election, it's a rocket ship, up nearly 18%, and the analysts have been jumping all over themselves to say positive things about it. so since we're trying to be more selective here, we have to wonder is whirlpool really a trump stock? did it deserve to tack on the 28 points it's rallied since november 8th? on balance, you know what? i think the answer is yes. but i'm going to walk you through the pros and cons because it's an important exercise. i want to teach you how to do it, how to do your own kind of trump/non-fru trump/non-trump analysis for yourself. before the election, whirlpool was not doing all that well. when the company reported at the end of october, the numbers just plain bad. whirlpool delivered a top and bottom line miss with shrinking

sales and worst of all, lower full-year guidance for 2016. following the news, the stock lost 10% of its value in a single session, falling from 170 to 152. the problem? whirlpool was getting mauled by the strong dollar, which gives its foreign competitors a big advantage of pricing. it was hurt by higher steel prices, and its u.s. sales weren't as robust as we'd like. since the election, though, the stock has sprung back to 186, and if whirlpool truly is a trump stock, it could have a lot more room to run since it's still a little more than 30 points away from its all time highs in 2015. the key to understanding whirlpool is to recognize that this appliance make ser a truly global company. while america remains their largest end market, it still only accounts for 44% of the company's sales. the rest coming from overseas. all of this international business means that whirlpool has plenty of exposure to fast-growing emerging markets but it also means they're pretty

darn vulnerable to fluctuations and exchange rates. when the dollar gets too strong, then whirlpool's foreign sales translate back into fewer dollars. the gad news is there's not a lot the president can do to directly change exchange rates. the good news, there's something very important that trump can do to help whirlpool. see this past year whirlpool claims that its south korean competitors have been dumping chinese made washing machines in this country. they're saying these korean companies like samsung and lg are exporting their products at artificially low prices. the wto ruled in favor of south korea back in september. however, we know that trump is a big believer in standing up to our trading partners, and i use that term only because these countries are certainly the senior partners in these deals, in order to bolster american manufacturing. whirlpool is a quintessential american manufacturer. in fact, they didn't even need to wait for the trump administration on this issue since president obama's commerce

department slapped an anti-dumping duty on chinese-made washing machines sold by samsung and lg. right now the tariff rates are set at 52.51% for samsung, and just last week, the u.s. international trade commission confirmed the ruling. i have to think that trump will be much tougher on trading predators -- there, that's better -- which will be good news for whirlpool. ever since g.e. sold its appliance division last year, whirlpool is pretty much the last remaining american manufacturer that makes washing machines. so i could see it becoming a pet cause for our next president. hmm, a positive tweet could be worth ten points here. on the other hand, all right, so it's not a pure trump stock because more than half of its sales come from overseas. if trump can pass his pro-growth agenda and the u.s. economy accelerates, then interest rates will keep rising and the dollar will go even higher. that's basic economics, and while whirlpool would benefit

from improved domestic demand, it -- how about that trade war? trump's main focus is china, but the entirety of asia accounts for just 6% of whil pool's sales. remember those washing machines samsung and lg were making in china and dumping here? they've become a lot less competitive if america starts a trade war with people's republic although trump would probably say we're already in a trade war and just not fighting back. after the u.s. whirlpool's second largest mrkt is brazil, 9% of sales. lately both brazil's economy and its currency have been heating up, good for whirlpool. more important, whirlpool has got this crazy idea. they like to manufacture things in the countries where they sell them. that's why they have ten factory heres in the u.s. and only five in mexico even though manufacturing costs are so much cheaper south of the border. again, this model would help them avoid getting hit too hard by any potential tariffs in the event of a trade war. another potential negative that turns out to be quite so bad. bottom line, on balance, i think

the pros outweigh the cons here, meaning whirlpool is more of a trump stock than a non-trump stock. it also happens to be incredibly cheap, selling for just ten times next year's earnings. my own caveat, they report on friday of next week and the expectations may have gotten ahead of themselves. my advice, if the stock pulls back ahead of the quarter in a general market pull back because of the inauguration or whatever, i would do some buying. if it sells off after the quarter, take your chance to buy some more of a stock that's more likely than not to be championed by the next president of the united states. >> trump stock, trump stock. >> jim in north carolina, jim. >> caller: hey, jim. sca stair ry sickcycle. a good performing stock, but recently has not. this year's changing health care system under the trump administration, how will astairery cycle be impacted. >> i think people have soured on it because they made a series of acquisitions which some of the bears have been saying really kind of hid what was slower

organic growth and that's been the rap against it. i don't see that changing until we get an accelerated earnings number. adam in north carolina, adam. >> caller: hey, jim. big fan of the show. thanks so much for taking my call. >> thank you, adam. thank you very much. >> caller: so i've got a holding of ford in my roth. i'm up a decent amount. i see on the news all this stuff about manufacturing coming back and then on the other side, i hear about peak auto and increasing delinquency in subprime auto loans, all that jazz. what i'm thinking is should i add to ford, keep drifting, or maybe trim some of my holdings? >> i think you can hold on to it. remember in that most recent commentary from ford, they did not say that 2017 was going to be as great a year as they would like. but gmp m. said it would be, and that's why g.m. has been outperforming ford. all right, whirlpool. it's deserving of my coveted trump stock, trump stock, trump stock button.

in my eyes, it's still cheap with plenty of opportunity going forward. hey, much more "mad money" ahead. it's a company that helps clients like fedex get to know its customers, but is it time for you to get to know splunk? you're in luck. i've got the ceo. then all investors are not created equal, and some types of tlading canning down right moronic for the home gamer. i'll help you avoid making the wrong moves. and all your calls rapid fire in tonight's edition of the lightning round. stay with cramer. se cae inti wkio o ♪

in this viefrmt, what are we supposed to make of a company like splunk, the software analytics play? splunk has a burgeoning total addressable market. 9 platform is designed to make machine data more accessible and use for their clients. now, splunk's stock really hasn't been doing much lately. falling 13% in 2016. it's lost more than 5 bucks since the election. the reason it's been tepid? splunk is the kind of growth stock that investors adore when the economy is anemic.

but when people believe the economy is accelerating, then money managers forget about this kind of tech and pour their money into the cyclicals that can put up tremendous numbers when business gets better. splunk had a fantastic analysts day a week ago where management laid out a long term plan that i thought was pretty compelling. could the stock of splunk have a better year in 2017, or do we have to wait for this kind of stock to come back into favor on the wall street fashion show? let's check in with doug merritt. welcome back to "mad money." great to have you in the studio. >> thank you so much. happy to be here. >> doug, you know, i've long been enamored of your company because i think the way i like to describe it, it's the google of data mining. you make it accessible. so if you can just describe to people whether that's a good analogy and what it means for your company. >> it's a great analcy. it's a term that our founders used when they came up with the initial idea. at splunk, we're the leader in big data as you talked about by a long shot. as you said, we've got this massive -- data is exploding.

55 billion in tam. what people love about splunk, it's so unique. the product is uniquely differentiated. you've got this massive data coming in that's not structured in any way. >> right. >> trying to ask it questions and have it format itself so that you can answer random questions is a very, very difficult piece. and that's what our customers just -- they're fan at cal. they all wear our t-shirts. >> when you go listen to the analysts call and read it, it's amazing. you guys really love to make sense out of things that can't be made sense. for instance, like fedex. you somehow are able to make those data points come alive for them. >> absolutely. rob carter, we were shipping splunk down to fedex to help rob out. in this new economy, all money transacts i.t. systems, especially someone like fedex. they're really an i.t. company. rob has got this tough job of how do i keep those networks secure? that's one of those big threats for everybody. then how do i make sure they stay up so we can deliver

packages on time, keep our business differentiated? he was gracious enough to join our list of growing customers, and we're really excited about what he is doing down there. >> we mentioned when target saw unbelievable growth in its e-commerce -- and i know you targeted a separate economy entirely -- but that's fedex. you think of the explosion in e-commerce. they have to handle it and profit from it, and it's too hard if you're just a shipper, right? >> yep. we talked about digital transformation all the time. how do these companies given multichannel and everything online, how do they move at the speed that their customers want? how do you get a great mobile experience? how do you get a great in-store experience? how do you make sure you can do all the amazing package tracking that fedex does reliably? this movement is something that's another fuel for someone like splunk. >> it's funny. we've had -- i happen to like domino's pizza. domino's, i always call is a technology company that sells pizza. i look at their apps and think

how brilliant they've been and how amazing they are in taking business. what i didn't know is that splunk powers a lot of it. >> yeah, they were one of the early folks that figured out -- >> patty doyle. >> yeah, this data that we're using for security and i.t. operations, you know, many people, mundane stuff. who cares about web logs and server logs? they realized there's c-- they started asking google questions. and they realized there's consumer data in there. there's data in those web logs that tells me buying patterns of customers, that tells me surges in different types of products, and they, through splunk, they started correlating structured data with their unstructure the data and used that to run the right campaigns, the right couponing, the right ads to drive their pizza. i think a technology company that sells pizza is a really good example. >> this is an example a lot of people ask me on twitter, jim, you say machine learning. what the heck is that? you were the king of machine

learning. >> we are excited about where we've gone with machine learning. when you bring together our bigger customers that are doing a ped abite of data or more a day. we archived every web page since the beginning. that's 15 ped abites since the beginning of time of the internet. a ped abite per day, how do you mine that data? how do you get insight out of that data is one of the biggest challenges at these organizations. >> how about the public sector? what can you do there? they probably have a gazillion pieces of data. >> we're honored that almost every federal agency and a huge growing body of state and local agencies are using splunk. they often start with security or i.t. operations, but then they start to realize i can help serve constituencies better. i can understand the interactions that's happening at those constituencies if i've got a single, logical data layer that's easy for me to manipulate and work with. >> right. >> it's been a great sector. we started investing six, seven years ago, and it's one of our key theaters globally. >> lastly to circle back, at the

beginning of your conference, you talk about how you were ordering some presents for christmas. the store didn't have it even though they said they did, and what that can mean for the customer, for the store and loyalty, and how important splunk is because you can really ruin a customer experience without it. >> you can. the difficulty with these applications is everything talks a different language. all the technology talks different languages and tying those together, there's the hard way. i'm going to rewrite all these applications so they feel the same. that's years and difficult to do. or let me take all the data from the application logs or from these applications, read it into a flexible layer, and now it feels like one unified experience. so we have retailers that are using splunk to tie together the online web shopping experience, the mobile experience. you can splunk point of sale systems. you can splunk wi-fi location locators, and you can have a journey with a customer from home when they're online with your store all the way through the store, through the checkout to help make sure they've got the right experience and return.

>> that's a great way to leave things. the google of data mining. i like big data, i cannot lie. what an exciting company. "mad money" is back after the break.

>> announcer: lightning round is

sponsored by td ameritrade. it is time! 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." start with michael in oregon, michael. >> caller: hey, jim cramer. booyah, jim cramer. >> booyah. >> thank you for all your help in the stock market. >> thank you. >> caller: i worked on harley-davidsons for a living, and i want your opinion of should i short harley-davidson? >> here's the problem with it. i don't know how the quarter is going. i think the brand is terrific, it has great brand equity. i do feel you can own it for the long term, but the short term, it has been a rocky performer. let's go to rupert in new mexico, rupert. >> caller: booyah, jim. >> booyah. >> caller: i'm asking about

acadia health, achc. buy, sell, or hold? >> behavioral health centers, yeah. let me do some more work on that because that group is so in flux because of the -- >> trump stock. >> not a trump stock. >> i'm not going to opine until i do more work. richard in virginia, please, richard. >> booyah. >> booyah. what do you got? >> caller: i just wanted to know on bb and t. buy, sell, or hold? >> i think that this one's going to come down a little bit because the group is for sale. and when the group is for sale, it tends to trade all together. wait a point or two and then you can pull the trigger because i really like bb & t. let's go to theresa in maryland, theresa. >> caller: hello, cramer. >> hi. >> caller: i'm traditionally a short term, day trader. with the good news continuing to roll out on atayio gin, i'm

questioning whether to rethink my trading strategy and hold for a longer term? would you consider akao a buy, sell or hold? >> that stock is up 36% this year. it is a very speculative stock. i just feel like i cannot offer you any comfort to buy a stock that is up that much already since the year began. let's go to ben in texas, ben. >> caller: booyah. >> booyah. >> caller: cosca bear. >> i do not like -- this show s does not like the container ship since they started. we are not deviating. james in florida, james. >> caller: hey, cramer. i'm looking for a downtrodden biotech for my retirement account. what do you think about gilead? >> you got a downtrodden one all right. you certainly identified that. i do think they need to do an acquisition. i've been trying to keep people away from this one unless they did something because while they do make a lot of money, they are not growing. you are self-described.

you're in it. i'm not going to disagree with you. sam in oklahoma, sam. >> caller: booyah, jim. >> booyah. >> caller: thanks for taking my call. i own some prospect capital. your thoughts on the stock and the dividend long term. >> which one was that? i'm sorry? prospect? prospect, i know it yields high. i do not like companies where i do not know exactly what loans they have made. i think that stock is too dicey for me, and i do regard that high yield as a red flag. not for me. tommy in kentucky, tommy. >> caller: booyah. >> booyah, tommy. >> caller: what do you think about enterprise products? >> nice. almost 6% yield. could go down because of the disappointing kinder morgan numbers, and i would pull the trigg trigger. those guys are very good. they have built a lot of plants, take advantage of natural gas. i really like it. jerry in california, jerry. >> caller: hi, jim. how are you doing? >> i'm good. how about you?

>>caller: thanks for taking my call. what about parago? >> i think it's just too dicey. they've missed and missed and missed. they didn't take that very high bid like they should have. i say stay away. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round! [ buzzer ] >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade. ga ibing

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are you nimble enough to get out and then get back in? all my trading life that's been a fundamental issue as in can you sell bank of america stock at $23 knowing you like it but want to take a profit and then get back in at say 20 to 21? are you that good? if you're a hedge fund manager, you bitter be that good. that's what they pay you for. you have to identify when that stock has gone up too much. you have to leave it even if you like it. then when it goes down, because that's typically what happens after a huge run, you need to brains, the wherewithal, and the fortitude to start buying it back lower.

that's what good trading means within the context of a big rally. but here's also what you need to understand. bank of america shareholder base is not monolithic. you'll always have investors, people who believe in the fundamentals and listen to the conference call and figure out what the pay for the stock based on how much the company could eastern, n earn, not traders. on the other end, there are people who do not but trade bank of america all day. some are well foerinformed aboue business. now, the key to being a trader is that you need to assess the thinking of all your other fellow shareholders. that's actually what matters, not your own view of the fundamentals, which is what would matter if you were investing for the long term. these are two very different skill sets. the short term active shareholder base was ready to flip bank of america given their recent run and the lack of major catalysts going forward. these traders don't even particularly care about how well the company is doing, but the longer term active shareholder base, they've been trying to

figure out how and when to build a larger position in bank of america going into a series of rate hikes and potentially years' worth of regulatory role backs. so where do we go from here? you know what, i don't think bank of america stock is headed back to 16 or 17. too much going right for the business now. but i also think this $22 and change stock could have trouble breaking out above that $23 ceiling because there are too many short term traders who bought it for the quarter and they need to ring the register before bank of america can break out, which is why if you're not a professional money manager and you're not someone who absolutely loves to trade, then i think you should forget about this whole exercise entirely and just own some of it. and buy if it comes in because there is so much going on that is positive for bank of america in the next few years. stick with cramer.

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fi ori'. it's earnings season. there's a lot more to this maerk than just donald j. trump. i'm watching the rail stocks continue to go higher. why? because of talk the canadian pacific must do a deal. new ceo says he wants to do one. i don't know. these stocks have gotten very pricey in one day. 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, and i will see you tomorrow!

tilman: tonight on "billion dollar buyer..." your technology is on a different level than what we've seen before. ...these entrepreneurs put on a big show. i am impressed. but wait, there's more! but at the end of the day, it might be smoke and mirrors. keep it all tight. it's safety first, yeah? a lighting wiz with bold designs and even bolder claims. the initial capital investment will pay back. yeah, well, show me that calculation. a smooth talking marketer who says he has the magic touch. we're the engine behind experiential marketing. but what are you doing for me that is special? if they can walk the walk, i'll take them further than they can imagine. this is a big moment. let's see what you got. this is the american dream.