play calling last night? >> amazing. unbelievable. >> do you know what else is amazing? tesla. >> tesla. >> thank you for watching. see you back here tomorrow at 5:00. cramer starts right now. my mission is simple, to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere, and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to make you some money. my job is not just to entertain you but to educate and teach you. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc or tweet me @jimcramer. after cheering on the trump rally for so many months, many

talking heads are now looking for the trump-related correction. waiting for the tweet too far, readying themselves for a break in the gop coalition needed to get things done. i got to tell you, every day we meander like today, where the dow dipped 19 points, s&p declined 0.21%, nasdaq inched down 0.06%. every day we bob and weave is a day where the risk grows less because in the end, people listen. this business is about earnings, not politics. about profits. and the earnings we are getting this season, let me tell you, they are pretty darn good. >> hallelujah. >> now, there's no doubt that the rancor engendered by the president's recent executive orders will slow the economic agenda of the corporate tax reform and the repatriation of overseas assets, two things that the stock market is practically salivating over. there's simply too much on

congress's plate for them to move as quickly as trump wants them to. plus there's so many this must be done firsts out there. it makes your head spin. the repeal of obamacare is first. no, barring travelers from countries with a history of terrorism is first. no, corporate tax reform is first. no, infrastructure is first. no, tariffs are first. way too many firsts. far too little plans. plus the president does seem to be racking up eneconomies left and right. nearly 100 tech execs signed a document against the immigration ban. leaders have started pushing back. the retailers really don't want the border tax. trump's proposed tax cuts could blow up the deficit. that's that litany you keep hearing about. not on this show, but there. you go it all, all right? that's what says the rally is going to fizzle. i beg to disagree. i think a big correction is less likely than others suggest. i'm going to tell you why. first i recognize that trump is incredibly compelling as a news story and as a business story.

he's always seemed to be meeting with business leaders, captains of industry. this week he's meeting with the ceos of the airlines. what's that about? i don't know. but i'm sure it will trump anything else that's watched or talked about that day. probably good for him. you know what, though? i question the focus, at least when if comes to stock prices to the bailiwick we're in here in cramerica. we've got all these democrats and republicans arguing about every single thing, but the fact is there's no e kwult, and the republicans control congress and the white house right now, which means until a bunch of republicans or unless a bunch of republicans break ranks, they're probably going to get their way. it may not be now, but it ultimately will be theirs. more important, just as i think it's a mistake to obsess about the federal reserve like the media always does, it's equally a mistake to obsess about every move trump is making if you're trying to manage your portfolio. if you're trying to moik money in the market. now, i know it's a little against the grain here, but i'm tired of it, all right?

sometimes i get tired of it. it is absolutely true that if the president's economic agenda of corporate tax reform and repatriation gets delayed, that's a set back to higher stock prices. but if you think the recent rally has only been about trump's legislative agenda, you're fooling your self. there are two other things the bulls have going for them that you need to factor in. they happen to be a lot more boring than covering trump's every move but they present far more lucrative opportunities to try to make money. first positive? deregulation. i know there's this fixation that everything's got to go through congress. you want to remove the handcuffs of dodd/frank from the banks, don't you need congress? won't that take forever? that's the conventional wisdom, but it's plain wrong. it's just wrong. the president has a lot of latitude when it comes to how aggressively he wants to enforce these rules and trump's signaling to the whole regulatory app rat thaus he wants them to have a lighter touch. he's going to get his way. the regulators used dodd/frank to come down hard on the banks. i'm telling you right now that the days of coming down hard on

the banks are over. and if the regulators let the banks return more capital to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends, then who the heck cares how much of dodd/frank gets repealed or how long it takes? it won't even matter. that's why the bank stocks are moving. and if the economy accelerates, they'll rally even harder because the fed will have to tighten, and that's nirvana for the financials. same thing with the oil and gas industry. in just a couple weeks, the federal government has green lighted the dakota access and the atlantic sunrise pipelines. these were going to be dead on arrival under hiktd. think about it. president obama used the army corps of engineers to block the dakota pipe. now they're being use the to approve it. the atlantic sun rise home has been green lighted by washington. great news for everything oil and gas related. can you imagine what happens once the national labor relations board, fda, ftc? just about every regulator in

washington is about to get more business friendly, and these will ultimately be estimate-raising events for so many companies. the second positive that blunts the impact of the chaos and rancor in washington? earnings. think about what's been happening in the last few weeks, people. what would have occurred if you had sold your stocks say some of the largest companies because you feared the current political environment? well, you no doubt would have dumped apple, right? biggest company on earth. one of the main reasons people are sticking with apple is that the company has more than $40 a share in cash overseas, and that could be repatriated. so you figure, hmm, repatriation, maybe that isn't going to happen anytime soon. better sell, sell, sell. next thing you know, though, the stock is screaming toward all-time highs not because of something in washington, but because of something in apple. okay? fabulous earnings. that's right. cupertino is delivering. d.c. may not. repatriation, icing on the cake. how about if you thought it was worth bailing on alphabet or

facebook? wouldn't you have tremendous seller's remorse after these monster quarters? you should have or else maybe you just don't care about money. how about hasbro? what a natural stock to sell after mattel missed its quarter. why be in something that might be hurt by dborder taxes? but then you see the quarter today, and you listen to the ceo tonight -- and you will, and you start things what the heck? did i sell the stock of hasbro because trump criticized a federal judge? did i dump it because trump may not be able to get all the legislation through? maybe he made a couple wrong phone calls. whatever the reason, it was wrong. there have been so many good quarters and so many quarters that at first glance looked weak but then turned out to be solid. mcdonald's and ibm. upon further review, they turned out to be buying opportunities. these earnings are so important because while you may hate the way things look in washington no matter what your political affiliation, the companies themselves have been the stars of this earnings season, not the president.

look, i totally get how you might want to freak out. things are happening at an unprecedented break-neck pace. i checkmy real donald trump twitter file the moment i rise and the moment i go to sleep. you've got to. but you can't let washington paralyze you when companies are doing so well. you can't just dump stocks because you're angry at trump or frustrated that trump's not getting his way. that presumes the stock market is some kind of referendum on washington, on trump's presidency. instead of pieces of paper that give you an ownership stake in individual companies. here's the bottom line. before you say, i can't take it anymore, this correction has to happen, let me say that you should indeed sell what you don't like. and if you got a profit and you want to take some, but only so you can buy what you actually do like if we get the kind of panicked political selloff that so many expect, but maybe, just maybe won't happen. andre in oregon, andre. >> caller: jim, love the show.

>> thank you. >> caller: so right after the election, i bought some american outdoor brands company stock, and just like the patriots in the first half of the game, they've been kind of in a rut. do you see it rebounding? >> yeah, that's a tough one because it's retail in the end. you know what? yeah, i actually don't want to -- you know what? that stock is too low. geez, that sells at an incredibly low price to earnings multiple. you know i've been thinking when i say it's retail, in the end you're buying guns, and it seems like all anybody bought was iphones, maybe some cars. i want you to stick with it. i think it's too low. i think you should stick with it definitely. wow, look at that. that's just way too low. holy cow. ken in california, please, ken. >> caller: hey, jimmy, i got a big hermosa beach booyah for you, man. >> i'll take it. >> caller: i listen to you every night. drives my girlfriend crazy, not in a good way, though. listen, my stock is a little indy, financial indy, lpl

finance. i like these guys for three reasons. number one, possible deal changes the gaylme. trump's trying to change this stuff. that's number one. number two, we've seen a lot of these brokers. they're moving from the warehouses, and moving to places like raymond james for the payouts. it seems like assets are up. the market's up. their fees are up. you know, i rode amer price -- >> this is a great situation. you zroent to convince. i think this is a great situation. >> caller: m&a going on. what do you think? >> i think it's good. i think everyone in that space is good, though. i'm not as gran yew lar as you. you've done a lot of work on it. but that's a good situation. all right, sure. you can wait for a trump related correction. but the more you wait, the more you see how earnings are pretty darn good, and a correction may be just a chance to buy.

on "mad money" tonight, let it go? not for hasbro. i'm sitting down with the ceo to see if it can keep the toy story slash entertainment story going. then advanced micro devices deliver aid knockout quarter last week, and the stock's been flying since. tonight i'll tell you if its revival is for real. and is alaska airlines stock path pointing north? after its acquisition of virgin america, i'm eyeing the company to see if it can continue gaining altitude. 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. torrhun.

look at the stock of hasbro go. last friday's game plan, i told you i expected fantastic things from the world's largest toy maker when it reported this morning. i'd love to say i told you so even i didn't realize the

numbers could be this good. hasbro has a stock we've liked for ages, in part because the country as a valuable partnership with disney. all the marvel comics, frozing, as well as the entire sniz princess line. hasbro has been able to take its older brands and keep them relevant. just look at these numbers. this morning, hasbro reported a staggering 25 cent earnings beat off a 1.27 basis, substantially higher than revenues, up 11 percent year-over-year. historically they've been focused on making toys for little boys. this quarter it was their girls business that killed it thanks to the fact that they poached the disney doll business from mattel. stock shot up $11.68. more than 14% today. a lot of shorts had to cover on this one. this game was gettable. we spoke to the ceo in july when the stock got hammered right after a solid quarter. since then the share price has

rebounded. in short, if you paid attention to that interview, you would have snag the yourself an 18.2% gain in less than seven months. let's check in with brian goldner. he's the chairman, president and ceo of hasbro, learn more about the quarter. mr. goldner, welcome back to "mad money." >> hey, jim. how are you doing? >> i got to tell you this brought a smile to my face because you did say when you came on that look at this roadmap we have, and it was a roadmap about experience, experiential about story telling and about entertainment. people kept thinking it's a mall stock, another supplier. you laid it out. why don't you tell our viewers how much the era of entertainment is wrapped up with hasbro. >> you're right. we really are in an era of open field running as you said on friday. it's all about our brand blu blueprint. we use proprietary consumer insights to give us a real clear sense of what audiences and fans of our brands really want. they help guide us in our

product development and in our story telling. we create immersive entertainment experiences around those brands. so you look at our gaming business. it's up 23% for the year. our franchise brands are up. nerf business is up double digits and it's all about engaging the consumer across story telling and innovation. a lot of digital engagement. we do it all around the world. our international business category for category and region for region, we're up considerably. >> i thought it was terrific the way you're now going to break down by games, emerging brands, franchise partners. much clearer than looking at a certain line of toy because that doesn't capture the greatest of what hasbro is offering. >> it's true. we also felt like it wasn't contemporary. it's not the way we look at our business to look at boys and girls anymore. so many of our brands are gender inclusive. if you love star wars, you're a boy or a girl. you could be anyone. if you love transformers, this year we have a big movie coming.

we have fans of all ages and sizes and we felt it was more reflective to look at the business the way we are now, in emerging brands and look at our partner brands and to look at gaming in our franchise brands. >> you've been phenomenal in awardsing your shoulders a 12% dwind increase. repatriation of capital could mean more for shareholders. >> certainly we look at a full capital structure. our board is very involved in the thought process around our dividend. you look over ten years, or dividend increase is 14%. we also returned money to shareholders with our repurchase of stock. last year we bought back $151 million worth of stock. it's buying in the overhang of the stock. so we look at a combination. but first and foremost what we like to do is invest in our business. we want to invest in our business for the long term. the investments we made three or four years ago are the ones that are paying dividends today as we go out around the world.

as we build our story telling capabilities, just this past summer, we bought an animation studio in ireland. it's going to allow us to scale our animation capabilities and a tax advantage geography for animation. all those things matter as we think about the business. >> when you say differentiated story telling, i think some of our viewers would say, wait a second. in the end, it's dolls and games. but it's not. you're doing something different because other people have had poor luck doing just games. so what is the differentiated story that you can tell our viewers? >> well, so what's interesting about our games business, for example, is we do a tremendous amount of social listening and social scraping. so we're looking at the trends that are actually going online. how are people playing today? we're finding little ideas, and then we're expanding upon them. we're then giving those ideas back over to the consumer, and then they're basically filming themselves providing a lot of the user-generated content that

inspires other people. then of course we have great fans in jimmy kimmel or ellen, and people who will play the games on their shows, and it just continues to foster this conversation and engagement around our games as an example. transformers, obviously we have more episodic programming. we do it across a number of dem oh graphs. we even have fan oriented entertainment that we stream on youtube. we're thinking about every modality of the story telling. some of it's user generated and some of it is episodic programming or major motion pictures. >> also we always have to keep an eye out on the movie release schedule. in march, you've got beauty and the beast, spiderman homecoming opens july. november, these are all going to be impactful, right? >> of course. we also have two of our own movies coming this year. transformers at the end of june. and then in october, in

partnership with lion's gate, we have "my little pony". it's our first animated film coming to theaters all over the world. you're right. it's a great lineup, and maybe we need a dancing groot from guardians for your set. >> you got to come here when you release your own, and we'll run a clip of it. and it will be terrific because i want people to know about the hasbro story and be in the stock. brian goldner, chairman and president of hasbro. great to see you, sir. this man laid out the story when he was here and the stock was down horribly. boy, i feel strongly about it even today, even after this run. "mad money" is back after the break. >> announcer: coming up, as shopping moves online at lightning speed, can brick and more star stem the tide. when retailing retreat, what will the granddaddy of department stores do to turn their fortunes around. cramer makes sense of the mall when "mad money" returns.

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what a remarkable comeback. i got to tell you, it seemed impossible that they could turn things around. it looked like the game was over. deficit was too large, franchise too far behind. but then they did it. a stunning performance that almost nobody saw coming. i'm not talking about the patriots' incredible comeback from behind, no! . not the overtime win against the falcons. i'm talking about the stunning turnaround in advanced micro devices. amd for short. for years amd was seen as a second tier semiconductor company, maker of processors that really couldn't compete with intel. and a maker of graphicships that lagged forever behind nvidia, the red hot chip maker that was the best performing stock in the s&p last year. i used to think that maybe intel kept these guys alive to avoid monopoly prosecution by the

justice department. however, after years of seeing its stock bounce around in the low single digits, amd started in 2016 trading at just $2.87. the darn thing managed to come roaring back with the stock trading up to $11.34 by the end of last year. do you know that was a remarkable 295% gain. >> house of pleasure. >> since then, it just kept on running, climbing to $13.64 as of today in part because the company reported an amazing quarter last tuesday. and then today it got boosted by a super positive piece in barron's over the weekend, one that sent the stock up another 11% in this session. >> hallelujah. >> so how the heck was amd able to pull off such a remarkable comeback? this is an incredible story, people. first of all, you have to understand that a big reason that amd stock has rallied so hard over the past year is because it spent roughly 18 months getting obliterated,

falling from $4.80 in the summer of 2014 down to $2.87 at the end of 2015. the reason for the decline? the company was struggling desperately to find revenue growth because back then the vast majority of its chips were linked to the personal computer and this business was getting crushed by competition and left for dead. the margins were hideous too. the balance sheet was awful. but then we got 2016's miraculous comeback, much like tom brady in the second half of the game, amd stopped throwing interceptions and started playing like what we know. best of the business. the real driver here, the chip maker pivoted away from pcs and into some new much faster growing areas. data centers, virtual reality. while at the same time becoming a lot more competitive with nvidia in the gaming space. altogether these three areas represent a $53 billion total addressable market or tam. amd had lagged beyond long time

cramer fave nvidia. but when it comes to these video games chips, they're the only players of any real scale. and with recent roll on of the latest line of chips, the company's gaming business has started to pick up speed. how about the data center? it's got this zen line of server processors and they're starting to give intel a run for its money. finally there's the rapidly expanding virtual reality space where the company is now a supplier to facebook's oculus. that's one of the fast ef growing vr platforms out there. what a win. so put it all together, and amd is really been able to turn around its numbers, going from double-digit sales declines in 2015 and early 2016 to double-digit increases in the last two quarters. this is why i said micron, the commodity chip maker, should try tow acquire amd a month and a half ago in order to get more exposure now that the balance sheet was all fixed by amd. i think it would still make sense, but that's not what we're talking about today. why? because after this quarter that the company reported last week,

i actually care less about micron buying amd and more about you buying it. granted i've been recommending this one for seven months now to the point where you've got nearly a triple if you've listened to me. but i feel like it's got more room to run after it cools down a little bit. let me tell you why. first of all, last tuesday night after the close, amd blew away the numbers and reported a quarter that was as miraculous as the patriots' late game comeback last night, only without any of the half serious deflategate jokes. going into the quarter, their stock was actually down 8% for 2017, in part because we had gotten some weaker than expected personal computer numbers but also because the darn thing had run so much, that it was due for some profit taking. nvidia had the same thing. take a look at the course of nvidia at the end of the year and then coming back down. when we saw amd's results, anyone who dumped the stock last month, boy, they must have experienced an acute case of seller's remorse. not only did the company post a smaller than expected loss with earnings down by a penny instead of a two-cent loss wall street

was looking for, but more important its revenues came in substantially higher than anticipated, up 15.4% year-over-year. head, getting there. most stunning of all, the company's cash flow from operations more than doubled, climbing to $188 million, up from only $90 million the year before. oh, and shocker, amd now has a decent balance sheet. for a long time this company was hobbled by debt but in the last year, its debt has shrunk because of some refinancings, management guidance was a lot higher than the analysts were looking for. if they could deliver at the mid point of their forecast, we could be looking at an 18% sales gain. this is an unbelievable situation. it's almost like we're talking about an entirely different company. amd's computer and graphics business was on fire, up 28% year-over-year thanks to stronger sales of both

processors and graphics chips. mean while their enterprise in semiconductors saw its sales increase last year although that number should accelerate in the not too distant future as they're spending a lot more money on research and development. and management's commentary on the conference call, incredibly bullish. here's a snippet from lisa su, the fabulous ceo who has masterminded this turnaround. she said, and i quote, all of our work the past two years has been designed to strengthen the technical, operational, and financial foundation of the company. we entered 2017 with strong revenue growth and margin expangsz opportunities as we prayer to launch or zen-based cpus and vega that can return amd to the high performance markets where we have not materially paerptded in recent years. things are only going to get better going forward thanks to high-end new processors and graphics chips that the company

is rolling out very soon. in short, not only is amd -- is this rally amazing as it is justified, but it also seems like it should be sustainable given all the new chips the company is launching in the first half of this year. plus we've seen how the processing power from nvidia's graphics chips has become an essential kpoenlt for machine learning and applications and i think amd is now doing the same thing. my one concern is that the stock has soared into the stratosphere today, climbing more than 11% off an extremely positive story in barron's. amd's sweeping changes could elevate it in cloud computing. shares could double in a year, end quote. i agree with that analysis, but i hate to chase stocks. i mean i really do think it could go up a lot, but it's not my style to come in above an 11% gain. thanks to the leadership of lisa su, amd has pulled off an astonishing turnaround. i think the comeback is far from over as the company expands.

but given the stock's spectacular run, i think you have to wait for a pullback before you do any buying. and considering that it sold off early this year for no particular reason, i'm betting you'll get a better chance to buy the stock of amd. tom in virginia, tom. >> caller: hey, cramer. >> yo. >> caller: i remember watching my dad when i was younger, and i'll admit it was torture, but now i'm an avid follower. i love the show, man. >> thank you so much. >> caller: i'm calling about integrated device technology, i dti. i just want to know where you see this coming going in the future with all the wireless charging in phones. >> the wireless charger is what's kept people in the stock. we keep thinking it's going to happen, going to happen. then the company reports and we don't really like it. the stock sells down and then the company comes back because we hear about wireless charging. overall it is so inconsistent, i just can't go there. i'm just not going to go there. i prefer -- there many others in the sector i prefer, including

broadcom. nxpi, which was a great piece this morning from morgan stanley, but you don't need the qualcomm deal, and nxpi is one we've been holding. club members know that i've said you don't want to sell the stock even though it's got a bid. vince in texas, vince. >> caller: hey, cramer, this is vincent from texas, and i want to say thank you for all that you do for us home traders. >> thank you. >> caller: i have an interesting question upon micron. >> okay. >> caller: since the analyst day has been going on, i'm wondering if it's because of the ceo retiring. >> i think the ceo retiring took our breath away. but remember going down is a relative issue here. micron went from $24.70 to $24.34. that's not going down. you have to be a little more patient. this has been a great stock. it's consolidating. that's what id worry about what will happen with amd. i don't want you to jump in. i think you've got a better

chance. you want a comebackment i think the turnaround is just beginning. get in often a pullback, though, because it's up heated off that quarter and off the article. much more "mad money" ahead. is it time for you to start booking a new position in the airline space? i'm eyeing a red hot domestic player that's taken off. then at this point it feels like macy's needs a miracle on 34th street, doesn't it? how are the company's struggles reverberating throughout the stock market? i'll tell you which stocks could be left reeling. and all your calls rapid fire in tonight's edition of the lightning round. so stick with cramer. what's crititing l wh tm itorll c $. errt lk to urom

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let's talk about one of the hottest stocks in this market. alaska airlines, alk for all you home gamers. now, the whole airline cohort has been pretty strong since the election, but last week most of the group got slammed as people began to worry that all the airport protests in response to the president's immigration rules might put a damper on air travel. but alaska airlines, it barely got dinged. this thing is still less than two bucks off its all-time highs. it's up more than $22 since trump's surprise victory,

climbing from $73 to $95 in just three months. the reason for this astonishing strength, look, alaska airlines has always been one of the best run regional airlines. for decades, i have hated this whole industry. >> sell, sell, sell. >> because these companies were constantly pushing each other under thanks to relentless price competition. and until a few years ago that was consistently the right call. but even when the major airlines were struggling, alaska air was thriving. for ages this was one of the only stocks in the group that i would ever recommend owning, along with the ever profitable southwest. when the show started, i thought alaska was a good one because it's out of the way, not a lot of price comp. then the whole sector started to roar and that was thanks to a wave of huge mergers. it turned this business into a slap happy oligopoly. suddenly alaska air was one of the better houses in a good neighborhood. however, there's also a specific

catalyst that's been pushing this stock higher of late. about ten months ago, alaska air announced that it would acquire richard branson's splashy u.s. airline virgin. the idea here. virgin america would give alaska air's predominantly west coast-based network some major inroads into the east coast, also allowing for some major cost cuts. we know that mergers have been the life bloods of these airlines, and this virgin america deal finally closed in mid-december really intriguing. so what do we make of alaska air now that's it's gobbled up virgin? can it's share price continue to roar higher or did it already run too much in anticipation of the takeover? short answer, uh-uh. not too much. i think alaska air is still work buying. first of all even before the virgin deal, this was already an excellent company, a low cost carrier that consistently got high scores for consumer satisfaction. >> hallelujah.

>> alaska air has spent years relentlessly cutting costs in order to compete with the cheapest of airlines, so they can offer a nice discount versus the cost of flying on the majors. think delta, united, continental, american. even better, for ages alaska airlines was something vanishingly rare. it was a growth airline. until a few years ago, growth airlines were an endangered species. but alaska air still managed to more than double its revenues over the 12 years before it announced the virgin america deal. extraordinary. now, they also have a voracious buyback and uniquely for an airline, it has a history of friendly labor negotiations. friend labor relations thanks to the company's generous performance-based pay program. one last thing about the old alaska airlines. since 2010, this company has been focused on aggressively diversifying away from the west coast, expanding in the more transcontinental markets as well as flights to hawaii because delta had been beefing up its competitive presence out there, particularly in seattle, alaska

air's home base. which brings us to this virgin america deal. with this acquisition, alaska air has become a power player on the left coast. for example, before this merger, alaska air only offered service to one of the top ten airports out of san francisco. now, though, they fly to all of the top ten, from san francisco. as the ceo said when the deal was announced, and i quote, it gives us a shot at being your go-to airline if you have anywhere up and down the west coast. in fact, with this acquisition, we'll have the leading market share of airlines operating on the west coast, end quote. it also bolsters their exposure to high traffic slot airports. that's like reagan national, jfk, laguardia. how about the numbers? alaska air has projected they'll see $225 million in annual synergies once they're finish the integrating virgin america. better connectivity, improved efficiency. management has said that they expect the deal to boost the earnings per share in the first

full year, excluding one-time integration costs. perhaps best of all, the deal gives alaska air the scale to compete with delta, american, united continental, and southwest, the four airlines that dwarf the rest of the industry thanks to consolidation over the past dozen years. alas alaska air, you see the great tail? i love that. unlike the majors, it has only minimal international exposure which means you don't have to worry the impact of the strong dollar or the ultra-low cost careers that are now preying on some of these international routes. while investors were somewhat leery of this deal, why not? i mean the price tag was a 47% premium to where virgin america's stock went out the day before. i know i blasted that thing, but it didn't take too long for the stock to come back into vogue on the fashion show of wall street. why? because alaska air keeps delivering excellent numbers, a series of earnings beats with traffic increasing in the

mid-single digits. this morning bernstein research came out with a very positive piece about the airlines, one where they upgraded delta and american while maintaining their outperform railing on southwest. the reason? bernstein sees the business picking up and they also believe the majors will be disciplined about adding new capacity going forward. this capacity issue is huge. in the past, the airlines have almost always self-sabotaged. when times are good, they add new planes and suddenly the whole industry is caught in a vicious price war. but if they're going to be careful about adding new planes this time, then we can avoid the competitive death spiral and the stocks can go higher. however, bernstein was only focused on the majors, the four major airlines. i very much like southwest. i think alaska air is just as good, perhaps even better if you're looking for a smaller player with faster growth and hardly any international exposure. and, look, while alaska air is slightly more expensive than most of the big players, trades

at 12.3 times earnings vrs 10.9 for united continental, it's also cheaper that southwest. plus with the virgin america deal closed, this is the most catalyst-rich airline out there. i got to tell you, you go the to get in this one. if you're going to go, you got to get in before the company's upcoming analyst day in march. one caveat. alaska air reports on wednesday and given how much this stock has run since it last reported in late october, i think you need to be prepared for the stock to pull back even if the results are terrific. my recommendation, put it on a small position before the quarter and then using any potential weakness to buy a lot more on the way down if something goes wrong. here's the bottom line. don't be thrown off by the airport protests last week over the president's now struck down at least for the moment immigration order. the airlines are in terrific shape here and if you like domestic growth, alaska air may be the best of the bunch. just remember they report on wednesday, and i bet you can get a better price if you're patient

and wait for it to come down. stick with cramer. ♪ unique dignefo hathen ♪ inoducing the first-fiti q0 oss.

>> 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." let's start with linda in michigan, linda. >> caller: hi, jim. i love your book and your show. what's your opinion ak steel? >> not my favorite. i like nucor. i just want to stick with the one that has been so good for so long, which is nucor. jim in michigan, jim. >> caller: yes. jim, do you have an opinion on the biotech stock exolus. >> i never knew it had gotten so high. we liked it much, much lower, but it's got a great speculative book of business. remember, it is speculative. that's really important. i don't want anyone to confuse those with merck.

let's go to nash in north carolina, nash. >> caller: greetings, jim. from the bottom of my heart, special thanks to you and your entire team for doing a fantastic job. >> we have a great team. >> caller: my question is for the rite aid stock, the walgreens rite aid merger deal has been extended to july. >> i think you got to steer clear. look, my charitable trust owns walgreens. that is the winner either way because they just negotiated the price down for rite aid. i just think. >> don't buy, don't buy. >> just don't fool around with it because we don't know what the ftc is going to do here. let's go to christina in new york, christina. >> caller: hey, jim, how are you doing? >> i'm good. how about you? >> caller: good. the stock i'm calling about today is box. >> aaron levy is doing a good job. that was a good quarter. next quarter i think is going to be better. i continue to think it's right. the market cap is very strong there. 17 goes to 20. how about haskell in new mexico, haskell. >> caller: hello. thank you for taking the call.

that was an amazing game last night. the stock is american airlines. >> all right. american airlines is at the right level. i know the bernstein upgrade caught people by surprise. i like alaska and i like southwest, but i think american, that's a good level to get involved. how about gunther in florida, gunther. >> caller: booyah, mr. cramer. >> booyah. >> caller: i watch your show now for more than ten years. >> thank you. >> caller: i watch actually from the day i came out. every time i have time. it's very impressing. >> thank you. >> caller: i have one question. what do you think about corning incorporated? >> corning's had a big run. i know they're deeply involved with apple, which you know i say own, don't trade. corning has had a big run, and that concerns me because it's been a hit or miss stock. i'm going to say stay away from it. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round! [ buzzer ] >> announcer: the lightning

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the reverberations from the decline in the department store are being felt deeply throughout the whole retail sector, and those woes cannot be dismissed as one-time only. for example, the latest in the hammer and the nails in the caphen story is the perfume and

makeup which had been the best of the best. if you go over the estee lauder conference call from last week, you'll hear that other than a drastic dropoff in the middle east and turkey, the department store really cut into the company's growth. estee lauder cited department store weakness in its categories as one of its bigger problems even as i love the makeup business because of the selfie, instagram, snap generation. it's pretty clear these department stores like macy's have rapidly become a far smaller part of the cosmetic industry's growth. now, makeup is selling well elsewhere and listening to the lauder call did make me want to go by ulta beauty. that chain was highlights as one of estee lauder's best venues. the implications here are horrendous for a host of different companies. your face is a department store brand that's taking it on the chin right now.

i know pvh has been having some good moments and bad ones as has a hefty bids overseas that could save it, but tommy hilfiger has to be hurting from that last holiday season. meanwhile newell brands declining, and that stock which is owned by my charitable trust just got clobbered today, in part again because of flagging mall thesis. that thesis is everywhere. needless to say it doesn't bode well for kohl's, for fossil, and the speculators in kate spade. they better be right about a potential deal, or they're going to get hammered too. only hasbro, whose ceo we heard from earlier seems to have bubbled this entire trend. i'm not even talking about the possibility of a border tax that would bang all the retailers as they're all huge importers. the oddity? the rumored desire of hudson's bay to buy macy's itself. the department store sales are so weak that it's hard to get your arms around why anyone would want to acquire it. that is until you go back over

the presentation by starboard value a couple of years ago at cnbc's delivering alpha conference where the activist hedge fund talked about the incredible value of the real estate macy's owns. macy's was at 72 when they made the presentation. now it's at 31. even after the hype about a possible fire sale, it seems like a two for one split. uh-uh. all i can say is the real estate hasn't gone down in value since that talk. in fact, in most of the big city stores, it's gone up since starboard's presentation. so has the loosening of credit. that's why i think hudson's sees macy's as a real estate play that can be developed without much trouble because it has other stores it can shift the business to. so what will happen? i don't know. however, i think selling itself to hudson's bay may be the only way out give the secular nature of the decline and the fact that a quick turn in the company's fortunes now seems highly unlikely. they're worth a lot less in sales just two years ago when

starboard made its bold projections. the company's franchise has gone down in value. the real estate has gone up. who can blame macy's if it wants to sell out. the departure of the ceo, part of a long line of retail bosses who can't figure it out, including may se's itself. maybe they can't figure it out because there's no good answer for bricks and mortar, and the parts, especially the real estate in macy's case, may be worth almost as much as the whole. stick with cramer. ulasound tecolbp eng u robot

so then ct repairrosi fore it evev becomemeprobm. beusustys never ing satisfied. and d ways working to beter. ♪ beusustys never ing satisfied.

look i hate to chase but advanced micro, alaska air, hasbro, these are the kinds of stories that if we do get that market wide selloff that everyone keeps talking about, those are three you'll want to be in. 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!

♪ >> narrator: in this episode of "american greed"... efraim diveroli, just 18 years old, says he is doing his part for the war on terror. [ explosion ] no, not on the battlefield. in his apartment in miami. he's an online government contractor supplying weapons and ammo to the u.s. army. and america's wars are making him rich. >> the kid made $1.8 million, and he showed me his bank statement. and i... that blew me away. >> narrator: what he delivers to the front lines is the cheapest equipment he can find, including some that is damaged and unacceptable. >> this guy is getting rich off