>> eww. mexico. also upsetting people. >> sore loser. trump in michigan. what does it mean? it means forewarning. >> melissa lee. thanks for watching. "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 and teach. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc or tweet me @jimcramer. you can't help it. some days the market totally derails from the fundamentals and becomes entirely dependent on outside events. today is one of those days.

because the fed has spoken, and the fed did its best to do exactly what most people want except for the bears. hence the rally with the dow gaining 113 points, s&p gaining 0.84%, nasdaq advancing 0.74%. you may have heard a ton of verbiage today about what the fed or didn't do. it kept in the word gradual when it talked about future rate hikes, took out the word only, forecasting two more hikes making three for the year which is not surprising. in short, the fed basically did exactly what they said they would do, and without a surprise, the market soared. >> hallelujah. >> so why does the market rally on a non-news event? if an tornado entity like the fed simply does what people expect, why the heck is that greeted as positive by both the stock market and in some ways more important the bond market where interest rates went down, down hard? nah, that's the wrong way to

look at it, people. what happened today is the fed didn't surprise anyone. there was a fear that the fed could say it needs to raise rates with alacrity because of inflation picking up. that would have slammed the bond market too. the fed could have said it sees the economy accelerating. inflation is kind of under control, so we'll raise three more times this year, not just two. a statement like that would have moved the bank stocks up. they were amojs today's weakest performers. but it could have sent the industrials down on fears the fed would throw us into recession. maybe it was too trigger-happy. or the fed could have raised rates by 50 basis points, shocking everyone, telling you it sees president donald trump triggering growth with inflation, so they have to rein him in and act as a counter to the white house. that would have been totally toxic. and a strong sign that the fed perceives itself as a bunch of grown-ups lining up against all the tax reform, meaning budget busting initiatives that trump favors. hey, listen, those were all

possibilities. they were outside possibilities but they were possibilities. and when they didn't happen, buyers were relieved, and they came in strong, took everything. yep, the fed tried to figure out what would be the least impactful, most informed action it could make with the least surprising statement, and they delivered it, unleashing a lot of pent up cash. now, let's talk about reality for a second. in the last few weeks, we've interviewed a slew of executives on this show about how their businesses are doing. we spoke to one of the largest aggregate companies called stone, martin marietta, deeply involved with the construction of big projects and roads and their order books are bursting. coo ward nye says it's about as great environment as he's seen. we spoke to the ceo of u.s. concrete. he says business is quite simply terrific. you pour concrete when you choose to build something big that puts people to work. infrastructure, headquarters, tall buildings. i was shocked at how positive

things are. we discussed the state of the state, meaning the united states with greg hayes, the ceo of one of the large of the conglomerates in the world, united technologies. he indicated that orders were way up for elevators, heating, ventdlation and air conditioning equipment. what does that say? it says non-residential construction is going gangbusters. in fact, the biggest gaining factor, united technology needs more workers. remember, non-residential construction means big business. we spoke to one of the largest makers of equipment for restaurants, wellability, and its ceo told us that business is very good. okay, not out of control great but very good. then we talked to the ceo of pro-lodgis, among the largest distribution warehouse companies in the country with a fabulous read on everything commerce, especially e-commerce. he couldn't have described a more robust environment. in fact, it's about the best demand level he's ever seen and it's getting better. the big issue will be building out enough space to meet his customers' requirements. then last night we spoke to the

ceo of nucor, the largest steel company in america. he was incredibly bullish of how business is shaping up for 2017. meanwhile, of course, behind the scenes, i'm constantly talking to ceos, as many as i can in everything from banking to technology to basic industrial. they're not on air, but they've all echoed the comments from the ceos i just mentioned. now, understand that's the reality. it's incredibly good as we've tried to present a full panoply of what goes on in actual business in this country. but remember last night i told you that perception can sometimes trump reality, and i like that double trump entendre. if the fed said anything that indicated inflation was running hot or that the government, meaning trump, might ignite too much growth so it has to be kept on a leash to avoid labor shortages, then all those positive ceo interviews, they would have been rendered moot. what would happen?

sellers would have come into the market. why? they would say that whatever commentary you heard on "mad money," that was all in the past, and now the future is gloomier, and stocks trade on the future. traders would dump these stocks because of a belief that their executives don't understand that the fed is now the enemy, not their friend. and others would say, look out. janet yellen and the fed are declaring war against trump because they're concerned he's all about busting the budget and giving huge tax breaks for the rich that we can't afford. we got none of that. instead, what i regard as a predictable statement by a group of predictable people who want employment to keep improving predictably. that's predictable. plus i should add it's a nice buck 28 rally in oil after hitting our $47 down side target. many investors can take action and buy the shares of companies like the ones i mentioned

because their projections are liable to come true now that we know the feds isn't getting in the way. at the same toorks because the fed told us that inflation is not really a factor, then interest rates came down because there are always people who take their cue from what the fed said, and the fed basically indicated bonds are a good buy. why do i say that? because in an environment with moderate growth, bonds are worth buying at these level. so the bond market equivalent stocks got bought too, the ones with the higher yield. too good to be true? no. it simply reflects that fed chief janet yellen is thoughtful, rational, and doing the right thing for all financial instruments and far more important, for actual businesses like the ones i mentioned. she wants more people to work. i think this rationality when coupled with the current logjam in washington over the repeal and replace of affordable care means we can afford to wait for lower corporate taxes and

repatriation. it's okay they're auto out in t now. ple buyers field emboldened with a rotation into the stocks of the interest rate sensitives and then the most beaten down groups, mainly the minerals and the oils. proving once again that you shouldn't panic tiny a rotation. you simply need to let it run its course and then start nibbling. here's the bottom line. a couple of days a year we are totally hostage to the fed. it used to be all the time. now it's just a couple days. today the fed set us free, set us free to invest in reality, banish the perception that it wants to derail stocks, bonds, and the economy itself. and that's how you get one of the biggest rallies of 2017. alex in california, alex. >> caller: booyah, jim. how are you? >> i am good there, chief. how about you? >> caller: i'm fine, thank you. i'm calling you from lakewood, california. i watch your program in the morning. you guys are funny. >> you know, we do our best. what's going on?

>> caller: i wanted to ask you this question regarding the rate hike. how it's going to affect the banking sector, domestic banks and international banks, and what do you think of credit suisse in long term? >> i like credit suisse. i prefer actually -- i actually like barclays more for european banks. here's what i have to tell but banks. initially they go down because some people are looking for three rate hikes and then they go back up. so just like i told you to buy the oils when it hit the $47 down side target, a couple days will buy the banks. they'll be right again. as a matter of fact, for action alerts, my charitable trust, we're telling club members that maybe it's time to put some money in the banks if they go down again. let's go to phil in high home statement of new jersey, phil. >> caller: booyah, jim. how are you? >> i am good. how about you? >> caller: good. i'm looking forward to spring, looking forward to our fighting phils. i can't wait for them to play. it will be something positive. hopefully we have something to look forward to this year.

my question to you is about black stone. about two years ago i purchased black stone around $33. since then the stock has done nothing but go down. back in february, it reached $31, and then it pulled back again and recently came back up again. some analysts said action is going to double. >> i agree with you about the fighting phils. it's fun to have them back. i'll tell you this, i think you got a great stock there. i think the stock market is allowing some companies to come public, and that will make black stone do better. i think that the stock is a buy here. let's go to leanne in maryland, leanne. >> caller: hi, jim. thanks for taking my question. >> sure. >> caller: i have stock in spectra energy and it has merged with, ebrege. what do you think of enbridge? >> i like it so much. i think it's such a great company. yields 4%. it's got growth.

i just think -- i got to tell you i think the world of that company, and i wish they would come back on. remember al monaco? i'm going to call him after the show. say come on, man, let's get together. probably waiting for that deal to close. we're now free from the fed, free to invest in reality, free to find a brul market somewhere. i'll help you out. on "mad money" tonight, nearly 30 million americans live with diabetes. but as companies introduce new weapons to battle the disease, which ones could be the victor? then last month we found out part time ceo jack dorsey purchased about $7 million of shares in the company but the stock hasn't been moving much. i'm going through the patterns of insider buying. and janet yellen and friends made moves today. is now the time to return to the regional banks which were down today? i'll good some insights from one of the top players in this market. so stay with cramer. >> announcer: don't miss a second of "mad money."

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comcast business. built for speed. built for business. presuming this obamacare repeal and replace bill doesn't make it through congress in whatever current form that it's in, something that now seems increasingly likely, what parts of the health care cohort could be work picking at here? i always like to fall back on long term themes and unfortunately some of the best themes out there are chronic diseases that keep afflicting more and more people. take diabetes. currently more than 29 million americans are diabetic and another 86 million are pre-diabetic, meaning they're seriously overweight and at risk of getting type 2 diabetes. given the rise of the stay at home economy where it's easier than ever to just sit on your couch, order everything you need off the web, watch netflix, play

video games, i think these numbers are only going to get worse, not better. i bet those mall worker numbers -- you know those people walking around the mall, i bet you they're down big. now that "mad money" has entered lucky year 13, i want to remind you about one of the things i think we do best, which is to highlight ideas, show you various ways to play them, and then teach you how to evaluate these stocks for yourself so that you can do your own homework and get comfortable with them. this show's a starting point. when it comes to diabetes, i've got three favorites, and they have all different pluses and minuses. there's dexcom, dxcm, insulate, and eli lilly, lly, a traditional company. dexcom is a specialist medical device company that makes continuous glucose monitoring systems. basically they have a little patch sensor that you put on your skin. it reads your blood sugar levels

and then transmits the information to a wireless receiver that tells you everything you need to know. the receiver can be as simple as your cell phone. that's a huge step from the old ways of doing things, which involves pricking your finger with a needle perhaps a dozen times a day if you've got type 1 diabetes. now, i've been recommending dexcom pretty consistently for the last six years. over that time, the stock has given us a fabulous nearly 500% gain although over the past couple years, candidly its performance has been more choppy. that's a polite word, as the medical device stocks have rapidly swung into and out of favor with the wall street fashion show. still dexcom's growing rapidly and earlier this year we learned that medicare would start paying for their latest device. it's the only continuous glucose monitor on the market that's getting medicare reimbursement, which is a very big deal. the stock exploded higher on the news in january, but i wouldn't be surprised if it's got more room to run. the reason? first of all, even before that great medicare news, dexcom

already had very strong revenue growth. this stock is measured by revenue growth. it's up 31% in the latest quarter. while that was a bit of a deceleration from its growth rate the year before, we have to expect the growth will reaccelerate as the company starts to get medicare and medicaid business. while that decision wasn't a surprise, the government's timing sure was. coming a year to 18 months before anyone else expected it, including the company. what else? dexcom's collaborating with google life sciences. that's part of the big alphabet complex to come up with smaller devices and make better use of the data that they already collect. next year dexcom is planning to launch the next iteration of the monitoring system. this is the g-6. so far the accuracy numbers we've seen from this thing are incredibly impressive. nevertheless, every stock has its potential down sides. that's important. we got to focus on those too. dexcom is no exception. remember, i want to teach you how to evaluate stocks here, which means you need to know both the good and the bad. in dexcom's case, there are

ongoing competitive concerns surrounding a major opponent. what a competitor, medtronic, which came out with an art official pancreas, basically a monitoring system like dexcom's combined with an automated insulin pump. i think getting medicare reimburse. more than cancels out the damage, but it's something you need to be aware of. the other problem is dexcom is not yet profitable although that's because the company keeps spentdsing aggressively to invest newer products. i'd be more worried here if dexcom didn't have such a clean balance sheet. one last worry. obviously if the gop does manage to pass this current obamacare replacement bill that will cut medicaid spending, that's very bad news for dexcom and really almost the entire health care sector although it sure isn't acting that way. the sector has been strong. i'm not trying to be political here. it's not worth it. just the fact that fewer people with insurance means fewer customers for dexcom. how about insulate.

if dexcom gives diabetics a better way to measure their blood sugar. insule terks gives people a better way to control it. a light weight wearable insulin pump that helps diabetics deal with their disease in a much more efficient and painless way than traditional ins list injections. plus if you're wearing an automated insulin pump, you can't forget to take your insulin, which is something that can be a serious problem for people with diabetes. combine the pod with dexcom's monitoring system, as many patients do, and you've got something very close to medtronic's so-called artificial pancreas except you have to fine-tune it yourself. remember, i told you medtronics is good. insulet makes a superior product compared to its competition. they're install base is growing by leaps and bounds, up 25% since last year. the company has got a number of partnerships outside of diabetes with businesses that want to use their drug delivery technology. amgen, which by the way has an important analyst meeting

friday, they use it for chemotherapy. on the other hand, the pod still doesn't have medicare or medicaid coverage unlike the vast majority of disposal insulin pods. although given the recent dexcom decision, it's possible the government might change their mind, move faster. plus they're also seeing competition from med tron although they don't seem all that worried about it. just like dexcom, insule terks is not yet profitable. altogether, i'd say it's more speculative. finally there's the non-speculative one, eli lilly, one of my favorite big pharma names. this includes everything from long acting insulin to treatment for insulin comas to insulin analogs, pancreas stimulators and drugs that lower your blood sugar. very useful for people with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes or cardiovascular problems. that's just what's on the market. lilly has got even more diabetes treatments in its robust pipeline. while diabetes is king of eli lilly, accounting for 25% of the company's sales, it's far from a

pure play, which is both a positive and a negative. on the one hand, lilly is a gigantic pharmaceutical company with a pipeline that spans alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease and more. it makes it hard for any one product to move the needle. alzheimer's notoriously difficult to treat and lilly is staked a little too much on the disease. back in november, the stock tumbled more than 10% after we learned one of the company's alzheimer's drug candidates fails some of the tests it needed for a big phase 3 trial. i think the risks are kind of baked in but the stock's been strong, and you got to know what can go wrong when you're investing in big pharma. the other thing is that lilly is expensive for an old line pharmaceutical company. it trades at 21 times next year's earnings. pfizer trades at just 13 times earnings. allergan trades at 15 times earnings. i own that one for the charitable trust. you can follow along which joining the actionalertsplus.com club. i like lilly, but i keep waiting

for it to come down. it's had such a big run in the last three months. a lot of it by the way is because of diabetes. i prefer you waited for a pullback before pulling the trigger. so here's the bottom line. treating diabetes is going to be a huge story for years to come, which is why i want to give you multiple ways to play it. dexcom and insulet both have exciting technology, although i prefer dexcom here. eli lilly has the best diabetes franchise of all the big pharma names. it's certainly the most stable way to invest in this terrible but definitely long-lasting trend. much more "mad money" ahead. what do allergan, jpmorgan, and wynn resorts all have in common? i'll reveal it and tell you how it could help you make money. then it's a texas bank that survived all the downturns in the energy sector. how did colin frost do it? i'm going to sit down with the ceo. and does fang still have its bite in this market? yes, i'm eyeing facebook, amazon, netflix, and alphabet to

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tonight we learned that elon musk is buying $25 million worth of tesla stock as part of the $250 million stock offering to shore up that company's finances. even though that's a huge amount of stock coming to the market, musk's buying on the deal has the stock trading up in after hours. and about a month ago we found out that twitter's part-time ceo jack dorsey had purchased about $7 million worth of shares in his own company. since then, though, twitter stock has actually drifted lower. maybe it's too soon to tell but i've got to say that twitter needs to figure out some things before i could recommend it as an investment. i bring these purchases up because insider buying is one of those things that frankly can be

difficult to interpret. insiders, meaning executives and board members, often sell stock for many reasons. maybe they think it's going lower, but it's just as likely that they need the money or want to be diversified or doing some estate planning. hey, you know, bill ackman sold all that valeant. that wasn't so smart. well, it wasn't so smart to buy it on the way down. however, insiders usually only buy their own stock because they believe it's going higher. and more often than not, they're right. think about it. who knows a company better than the people who are running it? just look at some of the most notable insider buys from the last year. let's start with allergan, the fast-growing drug company that we own for my charitable trust where you can follow all of our moves before we make them by joining the actionalertsplus.com club. allergan's focused on a bunch of different markets, eye care, medical aesthetics, dermatology, gastroenterology, urology, women's health, and central nervous system drugs.

you might know them as makers of botox, which treats both wrinkles and migraines. allergan has had a rough time over the past couple of years. first pfizer tried to buy the company and then the regulators invented a new rule that scuttled the deal, causing the stock to get hammered. then in the lead-up to the election when nearly everyone thought hillary clinton would win and crack down on drug pricing, the stock got slammed again even as allergan was on its best behavior in terms november raising prices too aggressively. then when they reported before the election, the company missed on both the top and bottom line. even know they dramatically expanded the buyback, the stock got annihilated, fell as low as 184. this is when brent saunders, allergan's terrific ceo, steps in. on november 21st, he disclosed that he purchased nearly $1 million worth of allergan stock at $189 a share. now, we've had saunders on the show many times, and he was very clear that his company wasn't getting the credit it deserved for its phenomenal pipeline,

including six new products coming out this year that have the potential to be blockbusters. saunders' insider purchase was a statement buy. the statement being that his stock was just too cheap. sure enough, since then allergan stock has been off to the races. it's rallied more than 27% from where he bought it in part because the company delivered a blowout quarter last month with very strong guidance. if you took your cue from saunders, you made a lot of money and it hasn't even been four months yet. how about jpmorgan? 13 months ago when all the bank stocks were still languish be as the prospect of more ritd hikes seemed very distant and investors worried a clinton victory would impower the anti-banking wing, ceo jamie diamond stepped in. he spent $26.6 million of his own money to buy 500,000 shares after the stock had fallen to its lowest level in over two years. 53 plt $07. dimon insisted his stock was far too cheap and whether the news of his buy broke, it jumped more

than 8% in a single day. that was only the beginning, though. since we learned of dimon's insider buying, jpmorgan's stock has rocketed more than 70%, and it's currently trading at an all-time high of more than $91 a share. when d when. >> when that happens, the banks instaptly start making more money off your deposits. he may not have anticipated donald trump's victory, but there's no denying positive attitude toward deregulation has been a good thing for the banks. on then there's restoration hardware. we don't talk about that one much anymore. starting in october of 2015, this stock went into free fall, ultimately plunging from over 100 bucks down to $24 last year. restoration was losing share to its competitors, had some major

delays with a new product line it launched, all sorts of problems. disappointments, and you can see why the stock has been bouncing around 20s, 30s for the last ten months. but on july 18th, ceo gary friedman came in, and he bought nearly 33,000 shares at an average price of $27.59. he believes this stock had been overly punished and when the news broke, restoration hardware rallied more than 7% in a single day. the stock initially ran up 42% from the price friedman paid to its peak in early december but then reported a less than stellar quarter, gave back some of the gains. still, rh remains up 27%. i bet it goes up tomorrow with the strong quarterly report williams sew mow no issued tonight. let's not forget what may be the best insider buy in recent memory. wynn resorts. remember, wynn has a ton of exposure to macau, the chinese gambling mecca, but with the communist party's anti-vice crackdown, the once fast growing

macau casino business went tiny a hideous decline. as a result, wynn stock got pummeled. it fell down to 50s early last year. but in december of 2015, ceo steve wynn decided his stock had become a bargain. he purchased more than a million shares at $63.61. then in january of last year, he bought nearly 573,000 shares at an average price of $55.62. these were huge moves and they turned out to be some of the best called shots i have ever seen in my career. steve wynn might as well have taken out a billboard saying my stock is ready to roar. sure enough the gaming market turned around a few months later and wynn is now at 104 bucks. it's up 65% from steve wynn's initial purchase and up 88% from its second big buy-in. he sure didn't hides those. he told anyone. ceos generally understand their

business better than anyone else. so whether they plow millions of dollars of their own money into their stocks, it's usually a very positive sign. so then what do we make of the fact that ceo jack dorsey shelled out that about 7 million bucks on his own stock a month ago or that elon musk buying stock on his own recovering today? i say not clear yet. i am concerned that dorsey's a rich part-time ceo. he's also ceo of square, which is really pretty ridiculous when you consider how poorly twitter is performing. maybe his buy is much ado about nothing. musk is a bit of a showman, but it does instill a degree of confidence in the future. let's put it this way. neither man needed to buy, but with both, i want to wait and see because neither company is making money, and there's a lot more that could go wrong with these two companies than the others we have gone over. so let me give you the bottom line. as we've seen over and over again, when a trusted ceo makes a big insider buy, it's usually a good idea to buy the stock right along with him. history says that the same will happen to tesla and twitter.

all i can say is call me skeptical, but i'm less skeptical than i would be had they taken a pass or of course sold stock at these levels. big bill in kentucky. >> caller: jump, it seems success in the a new software company can be a fleeting event. do you think a few of these software ipos will affect fillio, and does twilio have any a moat? >> yes, i think twilio does have a moat. it's the backbone of a lot of different companies like uber and airbnb, net floix, it went all the way up, went down and there's a lot of stock that shorted trying to weigh on t. i like twilio here. i think it's a good company. i know its stock could go down another 10%, people say, oh, cramer is a joker, but i do like twilio. when a trusted ceo makes a big insitar buy, take the hint. but do your homework first as always and remain skeptical. there's much more "mad money" ahead. it was one of the banks that

everyone shorted, but that proved to be one of the worst mistakes to make. tonight i'm talking with the ceo of cullen frost to see how it defied the odds. you're not going to want to miss then. then, it's a birds, it's a plane. no, it's fang. i'm telling you why seeing is believing when it comes to the super strength in the cohort. and all your calls rapid fire in tonight's edition of the lightning round. stick with cramer.

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now that the federal reserve has done exactly what everyone expect the them to do, raising interest rates by ai quarter point today, what does it mean for the regional banks? even though janet yellen said rate increases would be gradual, all the financials will ultimately do better when the fed's fund rate goes higher. it's just that some of the regionals are exposed to other

factors too. take cullen/frost bankers. this is a nearly 150-year-old texas regional bank based in san antonio and corpus christi. just over a year ago, many investors jumped ship because you can imagine it's got some oil exposure. maybe some people think too much. and a lot of people were worried at that time that maybe many of these marginal energy producers might default on some of their loans. since then the price of crude has bounced back. cullen/frost's stock has rebounded along with it, rallying more than 60% over the last 12 months. even though oil rallied nicely today, it's come down hard from where it was trading in the mid-50s note too long ago. based on the company's latest quarter, exposure to bad loans remains very low. pretty much better than all the other banks in that region. this stock has had a big run. does the stock also need oil to rally too? let's check in with phillip green, the chairman and ceo of cullen/frost bankers to find out more about his company and kwr

it's headed. mr. green, welcome to "mad money." have a seat. >> thanks for having me. >> i'm thrilled your hear because last year when everyone was saying, oh, cullen/frost is in trouble, i said you guys don't know the history. when penn square had trouble in the 80s, they didn't have trouble. you guys ended up doing great despite the fact that oil went down. >> thank you. just as you said earlier, we're a 150-year-old company. as a result. we've got a great culture and a mission statement that says it all. we'll dwroe and prosper building long term relationships. and the key word in that is relationships. in a sense, we're making energy loans, but we're really making loans to people that happen to be in the energy business, and that's key. when oil was at $26 an investor told me, he said, phil, greed and fear drive the market. right now, fear is driving the bus. so, you know, it was a tough time. but i think the market got two things maybe wrong about us, and i'm not blaming them. i've been in the same place if i

were them. number one was they overestimated the impact on the texas economy when oil went down the way it went down because it went down about the same level it went down in the 1980s. so they thought, well, same impact in the 1980s is going to happen. well, it didn't happen because texas is so much more diversified than it used to be. >> good point. >> the second thing that happened, i think, and that they missed was that they overdiscounted our ability to work with our customers to deleverage, and their ability and willingness to deleverage. when you've got relationships and it's not just transactions, you really have the opportunity to make it -- >> i know other people -- other bankers were late to the party. they came in. they did lend to the marginal guys. you always had the guys that you know. now, at the same time, we have the federal reserve raise rates today, and you've got in your last quarter, you weren't sure how many times they were going to raise. you talked about only once. now with three rate hikes on the horizon, well, one, and then plus two more, that's pretty good for cullen/frost.

>> i agree with you. it is good for us. we didn't know what to expect with the fed. last year we kind of believed what they were saying. we plugged in for three rate increases. so we got one in december. this year as you said, we only had one increase plugged in, and, you know, when you look at the impact of a rate increase, you go back to that december rate increase and you didn't really have that much change in deposit rates in much of the banking industry. as a result, the impact of that to us was like $20 million pre-tax. it was 20 cents a share, so a big deal for us. we only have one factored in for this year and it was in november. so the fact that you have additional ones are positive to us, and we pretty much in our last earnings call had affirmed what the street estimates were for us. >> right. >> with that one rate increase. >> now, you also talked and said continue to post solid financial results. increase our dividend 23rd consecutive year. grew our portfolio, and you.

>> we saw really good long growth in the fourth quarter. in the period of time since the end of the year, we've continued to see strong loan growth. >> do you think deregulation, what do you attribute the better feel? this is what i'm really trying to get in all the business people i talk to. >> i'm a fan of your show, so i see the ceo interviews and i want to tell you that i agree with what you're hearing is that the attitude is markedly better. >> isn't it incredible how much different it is? >> you know, one thing we do in our company, and every year it's traditional the ceo goes out and visit every location in our company, okay? and you shake hands. you tell them merry christmas, thanks for what you're doing because people are the most important thing. they're all we have. without them, we're just lease obligations, right? >> right. >> so it's a lot of work because i visited over 150 locations in

december, but you hear things and you learn things. and the thing i heard most clearly -- and, remember, this is in late november and december, was that it's turned that we're seeing so much momentum from our customers, particularly the smaller customers and the midsized customers and that customer that was waiting to buy that equipment for six months calling us up and saying, hey, we want to move forward right away. >> let's leave it on that note because i really like that note. it completely fits what we're hearing from a lot of great business people. that's phillip green, the chairman and ceo of cullen/frost bankers. really one of the best banks in the country. "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." i want to start with patrick in alabama, patrick. >> caller: jim, what's going on. roll tide to you. >> sweet home, man. what's up? >> caller: looking at applied

material. >> oh, man, applied material i like. lam research, and i like kla-tencor. there's three for three. i gave him a couple bonus picks. bill in new york, bill. >> caller: hi, mr. cramer. how are you? >> all right. how about you, bill? >> caller: good. can i call you jim? >> why not? everybody else does. >> caller: great. i was hoping you could share your thoughts on criteo. >> i think it's had an amazing run. i would ka-ching ka-ching given the fact i don't like the -- you know, this is an advertising. you don't want to be against google and facebook. actually more google. i do like the company, but the stock's moved too much. how about sebastian in florida, sebastian. >> caller: good evening, jim. how are you doing? >> i'm good. how about you? >> caller: great. i've been trying to get a hold of you. what do you think about micron coors. >> i think the numbers are coming lowers still.

it is down so much. wait for a bounce before you get rid of it. how about t.j. is alabama, t.j. >> caller: booyah, jim. >> booyah. >> caller: my stock is chemical corp. >> people want to be in this uranium so badly. too speculative for this guy. >> caller: let's go to bareth in california, bareth. >> caller: hi, jim. how is it going? >> good. how are you? >> caller: i'm good. i want to get your thoughts on tableau. >> no, no, no, no. it's a faux cloud company, frankly. i'm not there for that one. i need to go to ryan in north carolina, please, ryan. >> caller: hey. booyah, jim. >> what's going on? >> caller: not too much. i've got aaoi. >> optical semiconductors. i got a little nervous because of the finisar. we're going to stay away from the group. it's had too big of a move.

how about we go to ed in west virginia, ed. >> caller: hi, jim. i'm calling from huntington in wild and wonderful west virginia. >> i love huntington. been there. it's beautiful. john chambers is not far from you. >> caller: since smith & wesson diversified and became american outdoor brands corporation, it's pulled back significantly. what's your opinion on aobc? >> i'm blown away by how badly the stock acts. i didn't think the quarter was that bad. what can i say? i liked it at $23. i can't tell you i dislike it at $19. i'm just kind of shocked it's so bad. it's not that bad a company. holy cow. let's go to jill in virginia, please, jill. >> caller: hey, jim. i'm calling about chicago bridge and iron. >> i love the infrastructure, but it's got to be delayed. we heard from u.s. concrete. he said no spend until 2019. that's too long to wait. i say to chicago bridge and

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fang! it keeps coming back to fang. i'm talking about facebook, amazon, netflix, and google and how they keep winning and winning and then winning again, which is why the acronym i coined four years ago last month

has such incredible staying power. i don't think people realize how hard it is to stay on top in the tech world. when i broke into this business, tech was all about bunch, which was burrows, uni vac, ncr, control data, and honeywell. they were all aligned against ibm. most people probably haven't even heard of the b or the u or the c. but i bring up bunch only as an example of what typically happens to tech. the hottest don't stay hot, which is what's so amazing about fang. and when i came up with those four letters that were so handy, i did so because the stocks wouldn't quit in a sluggish environment, and i just wanted everyone to focus on them. now they aren't quitting in a strong environment. i don't know if you've watched the sinking snap, but a lot of that weakness has to do with relentless innovations or some would say copies of snap by facebook's instagram.

zuckerberg and company simply weren't going to let snap encroach on their territory successfully. more important, the ad dollars keep going their way. i read this important piece in thestreet.com last night which talked about how there may be more ad money coming to the web from newspapers, magazines, radio and to some extent television. but it's increasingly going to just facebook and google. facebook because it's ads are so tastefully integrated and targeted and google because you use it at the all-important point of purchase. but google now alphabet is becoming much more than just an online advertising play. it's in first place in autonomous cars because it's logged the most miles by far and has the fewest percentage disengagements. that the metric the california department of motor vehicles uses to judge how often driverless cars needs to revert to drivers. witness the $400 million snap is paying them each year. these are definitely not ad supported businesses. same goes for the cable like

charges that alphabet pant of wants to put through for its youtube channels. then there's amazon, which continues to exert its dominance worldwide. i can only imagine the glee with which amazon greeted this inclement weather, right? stay at home people order. more customers, more money. it's become the unstoppable force that's destroying not just individual retailers but whole malls. the stock gives you a chance whenever investors panic and sell in a weak quarter, like the one they just reported. notice amazon is down nicely back above that last earnings related dip that i told you to buy. speaking of unstoppable and underrated, did you happen to see the sell to hold upgrade, lame upgrade from jefferies today on netflix? ouch! jefferies had been telling people to stay away from the stock for ages because the firm was concerned about competition from local players, high churn, and potentially flatter growth trajectory. wrong. jefferies managed to upgrade using a survey of potential

german and indian consumers saying that growth opportunity is larger than they expected. no kidding. they raised their price tag. get this, for this $145 stock from $95 -- that was their target? -- to $135. one of the hallmarks of this market is the endless skepticism toward even et best of operators and the greatest of secular growth trends. fang's got both, hence the kriblg outperformance of facebook, amazon, netflix and google now alphabet. most amazing? they're not just as good as when i dreamed up the acronym. they're better. stick with cramer.

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we're a fed free zone starting tomorrow, and we'll kick it off with oracle, which had a very good quarter tonight. that's good for tech. 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!

>> welcome to the shark tank, where entrepreneurs seeking an investment will face these sharks. if they hear a great idea, they'll invest their own money or fight each other for a deal. this is "shark tank." ♪ for the modern outdoor adventurer. hello, sharks. i'm anton. i'm roberto. and i'm ardy. our company is oru kayak, and we're here seeking $500,000 for a 12% equity stake.