higher. >> grasso. >> i had a conference call with zenga today. >> that does it for us don't go anywhere, "mad money" with jim cramer starts right now. my mission is simple, to make you money i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now >> hey, i'm cramer welcome to "mad money. other people want to make friends, i'm just trying to make you some money my job is not just to entertain but to educate, teach you so call me at 1-800-747-cnbc. for two straight months, this market was driven by fomo, fear of missing out that's what happens when you watch stocks go ever higher and you decide, oh, what the heck, i

want in. i can't afford to miss this move oh, boy. those were the days. we sure don't have fomo anymore, do we? instead, after another ugly session where the dow lost 133 points, getting to be a pattern, s&p declined 5.6%, nasdaq fell 0.93%, we've got fobs, fear of big sellers and that f.o.b.s. is putting pressure on the whole market there are all sorts of innocuous reasons why an individual might sell stocks but we're not talking about individuals here we're talking about institutions and you may not be an institutional trader so why do institutions sell? because they believe stocks are headed lower and they want to get out before everyone else does managing money in this kind of environment is a little like going hiking with your friends and then getting attacked by a bear you don't need to outrun the bear to get away unscathed, you jut need to outrun your friends. we know there are big sellers fleeing here the question is, what are they running from what's the bear? well, for starters, the markets went up so much over the past couple of months that there are

plenty of money managers who simply want to take profits and they don't want those big gains to go away, that would be a cardinal sin to get these big gains and give them away so what are they doing >> sell, sell, sell. >> now, it may not sound very frightening, it's just some hedge funds ringing the registerer, right? but you know what? sometimes i really got to just muse what i know about what goes on in this world and talk about something that happened to me, to explain the fear of big sellers. see, way back in august of 1990, when iraq invaded kuwait, kicking off the first gulf war, my hedge fund had been long on a lot of oil stocks. i didn't know anything about iraq my trading partner, karen, knew less she just knew that the stocks were acting too well to be ignored so she bought them we were at martha's jivineyard when we learned about the iraqi invasion karen sold all our oil stocks that very morning. great trade. why did we get out

once the war started, the easy money had already been made, she said she had f.o.b.s. she was fearing big sellers in the oil. for the next five months we just day traded because like everyone else we had no idea what was going to happen so we didn't want a lot of exposure to the stock market could have been dangerous. but i did know one thing once the united states got involved in this war, we were going to win this war and we were going to win it fast, okay? in retrospect, that may sound incredibly obvious however in 1990 there were worries about the war. weheard endless stories about how elite iraqi troops could go toe to toe with the u.s. army. that's what we heard listening to the media coverage, you would have thought we were headed into a tough flight -- tough fight. you know, a real slog, maybe even a world war i like slog so karen said we needed to use the pessimism to our advantage as the averages went lower and lower and lower going into the last part of the year, in part

driven by fears of a drawnout war and in part because of tax law selling we used that weakness to buy a ton of options on my favorite stocks. i picked dozens of stocks that i loved and put all sorts of calls in, i had it loaded for bear. particularly on those high flyers of those days when we got near christmas, she said, enough already we're out of here. so we're out of here she said, we're done we've done what we have to do, we're closing up shop. we went to st. john's, stayed at a hyatt, waited for the war to begin. we almost bought a timeshare, we were there for so long two and a half weeks later, the firing started karen asked me how long it would take for us to win i said about a week. so she booked us a plane home. made me sit on my hands. we waited five days. as soon as it became clear that our army was vastly superior to iraq's, we sold everything everything it didn't matter how much it was up it didn't matter whether i thought the prospects were great. i remember begging her to let me keep my calls on home depot and

merck. she said, fine, go get me a soft pretzel and a diet coke. when i got back, those positions were gone too. why did we dump everything simple she said, everyone knows what we know we have no edge. so it was time to ske daddal in other words, we had to get out before everyone else who was dumber than we were finished buying we had to sell them our stock because eventually they too would turn into gigantic sellers and once they realized that the easy money had been made, they had been wrong and we had fear of big sellers now, i don't want to sound like cal in east of eden, a war prof profiteer, but karen's f.o.b.s. instinct was right we were already out so we took an extended vacation where we did some periodic day trading. almost never owned a stock overnight. ended up having a huge year and closed the fund in february of that very year yep, february. i didn't work. i had most of the days i didn't work between february and

december i spent more time gardening that summer than working. i used to hang out with pop constantly in his office i read more books and saw more movies that year than any other time since i was a kid right now, i see monster semiconductor stocks, they reload every day there's nothing really wrong with those stocks but they ran dramatically money managers want out because they're worried about a wave of bigger sellers than they are look at general electric that stock was up huge going into yesterday's meeting, but ceo larry told a discouraging story and the stock got down nearly 8%. the stock had rallied so far so fast from the bottom before today. so you had plenty of investors who simply wanted to ring the registerer before the big institutional shareholders started selling once they realized that 2019 would be a real bummer of a year. i said, fear of big sellers everywhere how about the cloud kicks. they were flying high going into workdays but when workday went down on what was an amazing result, people, that was the

signal to hedge fund managers that it was time to start fearing their fellow investors, their fellow bears, and they wanted to outrun the other guys. then the drugs and drugstore stocks, these names are so horrible after being so great for so long it seems like the sellers don't even care at all about what price they get. they're really worried about other, bigger sellers who may want out in the not too distant future for whatever reason you know what, the exception proves the rule here, f.a.n.g. f.a.n.g. is working, particularly facebook and alphabet what sets these apart? well, they haven't done much you don't need to fear big sellers when there aren't big profits. so, when does it end i would argue that it might not end until you have stocks without much profits, and that's where we usually bottom in this kind of environment, unless we get a trade deal, in which case the market will roar back and people will have fomo again. right now, there's no fear of missing out in this market it's all about fear of big sellers, which is why, for the

moment, things are looking pretty ugly. i did caution on friday's game plan, i had a -- i had f.o.b.s it won't always be like this but it's always worth remembering that i was trying to hold on to my favorite stocks, remember that, in 1991, my precious shares of home depot and merck only to discover that in the time it took to get a hot soft pretzel and a cold diet coke, they were gone and it was right that they went luke in texas, luke. >> caller: hey, jim. first time caller, love the show >> thank you, man. what's up? >> caller: my question today is on tesla with the electric vehicle market becoming increasingly competitive from players such as volvo and ford, and even the recent partnership between mercedes and bmw, tesla's $110 off their all-time high. and released their new model y on march 14th. is tesla a stock where you feel comfortable buying, jim? >> first, i want to belittle some of the chowder heads who

went on twitter keep saying that, listen, i kept them out of it i didn't like it at $50, went down, went back up and i said, you know what? it's jump ball tesla, you do whatever you want because if you love the car, you want in on the stock and i feel that way. if you love the car, i'm not going to talk you out of the stock. i don't like the balance sheet i think the man's a visionary. curtis in kentucky. >> caller: hey, jim, boo yeah. thanks for the opportunity to take to you. my name's curtis and i'm calming from fort knox, kentucky my question is about blackberry silence. i bought a large amount of shares upon hearing their -- last month they seem to be firing on all cylinders at the moment with their software and cyber security business especially with their dealing with verizon today. is blackberry silence reinvigorated or reinvented? i'd love to hear your thoughts and recommendations. >> you're absolutely right about the intellectual property. it's just fantastic. second, i've got to tell you, when you mention verizon in the same sentence as blackberry, what i say is go buy verizon

vz is very, very good. as a matter of fact, it's better than operation grand slam. how about paul in texas, please. >> caller: hi, jim thank you for taking my call i appreciate you and the work you do >> thank you. >> caller: my question is in regards to lumber liquidators, the stock price and how it's been beaten up over the years. has the stock bottomed or do you expect lumber liquidators to provide stronger guidance after announcing their fiscal year 2018 results and do you think there will be something there to give the stock some positive momentum >> like special agent sam gerard, i don't care what i hear is you want to own home depot, i videotape about home depot, you can follow along by joining action alerts plus.com club. i would feel great if home depot went down and i could buy more i don't know what i would feel if lumber liquidators came down. too dangerous. how about dale in new york, please. >> caller: jim, thanks for

taking my call i would like to talk about at&t. they should have been in everybody else's portfolio and now they're hovering around $28 or $31 a share for 6 months. it's like they're trying to find their identity >> it is. >> caller: entertainment business with time warner and the justice department comes after them and the justice department loses and the stock still doesn't move now, they -- >> they need to pay down debt. they have to pay down debt they have to pay down debt i don't know if they mentioned it, but they've got to pay down some debt. if they do that, the stock is going to go up that's what has to happen right now. the really good, the really good acquirers start paying down that debt immediately right now, we got a fear we have a fear we have a fear of big sellers. f.o.b.s. and it's coloring everything, including a lot of good stocks on "mad money" tonight, with news that dollar tree is shaking things up and rebanering hundreds more, is this stock still a bargain after its giant

move today don't miss my ceo exclusive. and bristol meyers joins me tonight. and clean-up on aisle 3. last week's news that amazon's planning to open dozens of grocery stores caused stocks in that space to sell off again are the worries warranted? i'm browsing the aisles so stay 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 who says our bank isn't tech enough? everyone, look at your phones. the design thinking, the digital engineering,

security, blockchain, and we will be first to market! yes. when we do we launch? unfortunately, in 2 or 3, hours. why the delay? cognizant is helping banks use digital technologies at scale to advance speed to market. hey, how ya doing? uh, phil. are you guys good with brakes? we're ok.

just ok? we got a saying here. if the brakes don't stop it, something will. that's not a real saying. it is around here. i wrote it. just ok is not ok. especially when it comes to your network. at&t is america's best wireless network, according to america's biggest test. now with 5g evolution. the first step to 5g. more for your thing. that's our thing. want more from your entejust say teach me more. into your xfinice remote to discover all sorts of tips and tricks in x1. can i find my wifi password?

just ask. [ ding ] show me my wifi password. hey now! [ ding ] you can even troubleshoot, learn new voice commands and much more. clean my daughter's room. [ ding ] oh, it won't do that. welp, someone should. just say "teach me more" into your voice remote and see how you can have an even better x1 experience. simple. easy. awesome. ♪ look at the stock of dollar tree world today here's a company that for a long time seemed to have trouble getting its act together dollar tree acquired family dollar, the lowest quality player in the dollar space if i say so myself. this year, activist investors at starboard value took a position in the company and started pushing for a sale of the family dollar business but dollar tree had a plan to turn things around by renovating these lower quality stores and closing the

irredeemable, low volume ones so i counseled patience with this team give them a little more time they reported inline earnings but their enterprise sales came in stronger than expected, up 2 2.4% and while management's appearance appeared to lay the first claims there's a lot of noise in these numbers including the assumptions that the tariffs on chinese imports rise to 25% the company is stepping up its renovation efforts, going to remodel thousands of family dollar locationins. put it all together and you have one exciting story to tell which is of course why the stock went up 5% today. let's check in with the president and ceo of dollar tree he predicted this. get a better sense of how the quarter's going. welcome back to "mad money." good to see you. congratulations. >> thank you >> okay here's the key thing can you have a family dollar

that has any wow factor? >> absolutely. and as we talk about in our plan on how we're going to renovate these stores, it's built around three things, get the basics right, great-looking store, great product, inject some family dollar wow items in there but the magic dust is exactly what you talked about, can we put some dollar tree items in there that's a surprise for the customer when she walks in the store. >> well, that's what we like, and i have to tell you, when i go to my family dollar, i know exactly what i'm going to get. when i go to my dollar tree, when i walk in, i never know what i'm going to get and that's part of the hunt >> it is it's thrill of the hunt, that's what we've built dollar tree on for all these years and our customers know everything's a dollar but they're going to find something new every time they come in. >> okay, everything's a dollar but you're open to other ideas i bet you we'll be testing some things that maybe $1.05. >> i doubt it but seriously, what we put into the release today, we've tested before this is not a -- this is not something that is strange to us.

we want to get off the table, of course we're going to test and we're going to test things that stick to the brand and dollar tree is known for a wow first and foremost in the dollar price point and what can we add to that. >> how about h 2 >> h2 is our name, internally, for the renovation program and for us, it's a thousand stores that we're going to renovate some last year but we're really thrilled with the 10% lift we're getting in these stores. it's more footsteps. >> so look, you're a retailer from way back. our viewers at home might think, 10%, what's that given your cash flow, what does that mean? >> well, today, the combined enterprise generates over $2 billion of cash flow. we put $1 billion into our stores we invest in stores. we're a growth company we build stores. we are putting a lot into our renovated family dollar stores andwhat this lift does, you take a fleet of stores and add 10% of volume to it, well, it

works pretty well in these small -- >> so you're able to pay the balance sheet to pay down. a lot of people are worried about how much you pay i can't believe how much you spew these last few years, how much you were able to buy -- debt you could buy back >> we did. listen, we paid in about $9 billion and we took on debt and we paid down about $4.3 billion so far and we've been very methodical our rates have gone down because we've paid down rates while the world's gone up. >> now, let's speak about the chinese tariffs. you were here last time, you told us not to worry because you know how to source but you still were very conservative what happens if there are no tariffs? >> interesting we went into it not knowing. our plan this year is that 25% tariffs is going into the latest tariff rounds. if that doesn't happen, listen, as always, we're going to be retailers, some of that will come to the bottom line, but i always caution our folks, we're going to drive footsteps into dollar tree and family dollar and that's some of the sauce we may need to do that. >> okay. my late father always said, could you ever find out, how can

they charge a buck for something i'm going to pay 3 bucks elsewhere? movie candy is $4. how do you charge a buck for that >> i keep asking our buyers that how do you do that >> these are my faves and i can't figure out how you only charge a buck. >> sometimes we don't have to argue about the retail at dollar tree, it becomes a one-way conversation, how much are we going to pay >> well, have the kind folks at starboard called you and congratulated you. >> we have, listen, we've engaged with starboard we haven't engaged shareholder, we've gone back and forth. listen, what we've tried to lay down is that we think there's lots of value with our plan, number one, and we talked an awful lot about our brand at dollar tree. it's a brand it's not just transactional, price and item >> now, did you -- were you able to demonstrate unequivocally that the same store that is a family dollar, when it is rebranded, dollar tree, literally more people come or do they spend more or both? >> it's interesting. it takes folks about six months

to figure it out we took the name off and now it's a dollar tree, but footsteps come in and average transaction goes up just like it does at dollar tree year after year after year. >> well, you know, what do you do with the fact that my dollar tree in neptune is so much nicer than the family dollar the manager of the dollar tree, until you guys merged, he was questioning family dollar. >> you're talking about two important things in retail what's the format look like. but the people is what makes the difference and we have always focused on that dollar tree, it's what we're doing at family dollar too >> next big holiday because i know so much of what you do is involved around seasonal things. >> of course there's st. patrick's but we have a lot of pink and blues and yellows up here trust me, easter is out there somewhere, despite the snow you have on the ground >> and you promise me you're going to have enough blues for july 4th this year at my dollar tree >> count on it fourth of july is going to be the biggest one ever >> it sure is.

congratulations. you sat here you said what was going to happen and you delivered and i love ceos who do that. that's gary philbin, the ceo of dollar tree and the president, i've got to tell you guys, the stores look better than ever "mad money" is back after the break. >> announcer: coming up, is amazon going to eat your lunch will the tech titan's big news on groceries starve this hungry sector find out when "mad money" returns. oh, wow. you two are going to have such a great trip. thanks to you, we will.

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♪ can you believe it's only the beginning of march this new year has been so hectic that the things that happened two months ago already feel like they're from another era just think about the deal to end all deals, bristol meyers taking over selgin. that was like two months ago when we first learned about the transformative acquisition, wall

street was highly skeptical. a lot of investors were worried that the deal was being done out of desperation on both sides merck has a competitive cancer franchise that's competitive celgene has a lucrative patent but ceo giovanni, i thought, told a compelling story when we spoke to him at the jpmorgan healthcare conference. stock's been up and erased those losses not bad. but there's a new wrinkle. first wellington an 8% shareholder doesn't support the transaction. risky and expensive. suggests there are better ways to create shareholder value and earlier this week, an activist firm, these guys are all over the place, took a position in bristol and published a letter arguing the celgene deal was poorly conceived bristol-meyers released an updated slide deck highlighting the virtues of the celgene transaction. starboard fired back let's take a closer look with

the chairman and ceo of bristol-meyers and get an update on where the celgene deal stands and why it makes sense for you if you're a shareholder. welcome to "mad money. good to see you. have a seat. now, this has gotten very difficult for -- we have many, many viewers who own shares in bristol-myers. just trace out the rationale about what this does for the bottom line for bristol-myers shareholders >> jim, i'm very excited about the deal it's a great deal. the transaction is strategically very strong. it creates the number one company in oncology, number one cardiovascular franchise, very strong presence in autoimmune diseases it generates value for shareholders from day one, and it provides a path to sustainable long-term growth for bristol-myers skib we're going to be launching six new medicines. >> i think it's important that you point that out because all i

hear from some of these unhappy shareholders is that, look, celgene's just -- they never talk about the five late stage products with near term approvals that i don't think were in the stock, so to speak, given the price to earnings multiple >> the five products are either best in class, first in class, we're going to be launching in the next 12 to 24 months they are derisked, three of them, from a clinical perspective. so, you know our industry very well, jim. it's all about bringing new, innovative medicines to patients we have a great opportunity when we bring the two companies together to bring even more medicines to patients. >> one of the things that's irritated me about the critics of this is i say, who would know more than giovanni you guys know how to do deals. you've been through patent cliffs and triumphed over them >> yes, absolutely so, first of all, when you look at our sales today, 60% of our sales at bristol-myers squib come from products we've launched in the last five years. we've managed successfully the

portfolio before and we know when products end their life, we lose patent and that's why you need an r&d engine that generates more innovation. that's what this deal is all about. >> i know you talk to your shareholders and you're equal to all of them and 8% shareholder, wellington, is saying there are better ways to create value for shareholders have they told you about better ways >> we do talk to all shareholders and they're important to us and wellington is as well we disagree with them. i believe this is the best deal for us we have looked at the acquisition of celgene and we are acquiring a number of promising molecules in the pipeline as i said, we will be launching phenomenally fi potentially five in the next two years but there is more than 20 in phase 1 and 2 clinical trials this is the best deal for

bristol meyers squib >> i'm going to ask you a question were you approached by another company and rather than become part of that company, you decided to stay independent and bought celgene for a ton of money so that any potential acquirer would no longer pursue you? >> jim, let me be very clear if there had been an acquirer, we would have disclosed it this is not a defensive deal this is a great deal because we are creating an even stronger bristol-myers squibb >> it does seem to me that the amount of money that celgene is going to make, you stole the company is the way i look at it but that's okay because they want to get together too what does the -- is it -- do people -- the shareholders make money within, say, 18 months if this deal closes >> first of all, it's a creative day one from an eps perspective, it's 10% accretive right away and it creates a lot of value for shareholders and the good thing is, the deal begins to

generate value right away because we are going to be launching medicines from the very beginning >> now, when you sit down with your scientists and you say, look, this does have a real patent problem, does anyone say there may be some things that won't make it so it goes to zero when it goes off patent? >> i think that as every medicine, it will lose patent. we looked at it very carefully it was a big part of our due diligence. we became comfortable that under many scenarios, the deal generates value for shareholders of bristol meyers squibb but what really excited us and what excites me is the pipeline because our industry is about new medicines to patients, we'll bring more new medicines to patients faster and that's how you generate value in our industry in the long-term. this will be a great company >> okay. a lot of -- i know bob, previous ceo, for a long time coached his daughter in soccer at summit. one of the things he always told me was watch the pharm teams,

watch the companies that we're buying shares of because if they're any good, we got a great call on them have you looked at that farm team >> we have and one of the great strategies of celgene was to create a network of alliances with biotech companies we do that as well at bristol meyers squibb and that's another element where we're complementary as a company and we will have an r&d organization that balances internal innovation, what we do very well, with great scientists from both companies, but also an extremely -- that's the power of combining the two companies. it's all about science >> i was there when bob bought receptos is there something there >> one of the big part of the due diligence with it was on the receptos receptos product. >> i thought that was big. i might have been wrong. >> and as you know, celgene has said they're getting ready to

refile that. we believe that's an important part of the pipeline it goes beyond ozanimode but obviously that is an important part of our pipeline so it's about new medicines to patients. this is a great company, it's a great transaction, and i am very excited about it >> well, i'm very sad that you came here to explain it and i want everyone to go if you're a shareholder at bristol-myers or you're thinking about it, there is more to read about this it's written in english. it is not written in scientist and i think you'll come to the conclusion that i did, that this is something that bristol should do that's giovanni, the chairman and ceo of bristol-myers "mad money's" back after this.

♪ every time amazon tells us that it's gunning for a particular industry, people freak out. everyone just assumes that amazon's the retail death star so any companies in its line of fire will be blown to smith smitherens these usually turn out to be

buying opportunities once we learn amazon's buildout is going to take longer than expected or the damage to the competition isn't as bad as we thought or amazon's not even interested in the thing. we got to do some teaching tonight because i got to get this lesson into your heads. you know it happened again last friday it's the same old too familiar pattern, reports surfaced that amazon would be expanding more aggressively in the grocery space and of all the supermarket stocks, they got slammed amazon already did this to the supermarket industry back in 2017 when they acquired whole foods. the whole section got wrecked. the grocery stocks remained depressed for weeks and months but then they started working their way higher again, ultimately posting some impressive gains off their lows. we've seen it with the supermarkets and the auto parts retailers and the drugstores and now we're back to the supermarkets again don't get me wrong amazon's not some pitiful, helpless giant they're the most terrifying competitor on earth but the market often behaves as though they can wreck an entire

industry overnight and that's not the case i think it's important to explain this pattern again because it's all too easy to work yourself up into an unnecessary panic. first, though, let's talk about amazon's latest shot across the bow of the grocery space "the journal" reported amazon -- notice i said reported -- i didn't say amazon said, t"the journal" reported that amazon is planning to open dozens of grocery stores across the united states starting with los angeles. at this point it's not clear if these will be whole foods stores or amazon branded. why did they buy whole foods if they're going to open a competing chain? but we know that they're focused on major cities and we know the company's thinking about acquiring some of the smaller regional supermarket chains. i'll admit that's not a headline you want to see if you're in the grocery business, not at all to make matters worse, they published another piece talking about amazon's plan to take market share in the beauty products retail space. beauty products are some of the

highest margin merchandise out there. the market was more restrained about crushing the stocks in amazon's cross hairs, kroger got hit, down 4.5% and walmart shed 1.1%, the rest of the group barely got dinged but the beauty products news hit on monday and that took down cvs everybody takes down cvs and ulta beauty. let's understand each other that cvs has a host of other issues that are going to be cleared up. nobody listened to this guy. if you're worried about these stocks, history says it's a mistake. over and over again we see the same pattern supermarkets got slammed in the summer of 2017 be amazon's whole foods deal by october of last year, when i last checked in with the supposed victims, kroger, costco, sprouts, farmers market, they had rebounded by 20% to 40% from their post-amazon interference lows. at the time, i warned you away from sprouts, which turned out to be the weakest performer during the marketwide meltdown but they've hardly -- they're hardly the only amazon survivors. we've seen the same thing happen with the auto parts retailers, one that's really steamed me

because i didn't believe amazon could eat up these guys. amazon set its sights on the do it yourself market and the group did get obliterated, down anywhere from 37% to 53% from peak to trough amazon just amazon. but in december of 2017, i recommended the auto parts group their stocks had become too cheap to ignore. since then we've gotten phenomenal gains even though the company has recently reported what was widely viewed as a disappointing quarter, i thought the stock was absurdly cheap, selling for less than 13 times earnings plus management roland out an extension of a long-term buyback part of an amazing history that i have to talk about later because it's so huge how has auto zone done since then i circled back october 1st before the whole stock market fell off a cliff thanks to an overly hawkish federal reserve

nevertheless, auto zone stock has kept chugging, up 21% since i told you to stick with it 5 months ago while the s&p 500 has lost 5% over the same period and you know what? even with the stock trading here at its all-time highs, i think auto zone remains fairly inexpensive at 15 times earnings not bad. however, the point here, it's not whether auto zone's cheap. the point is that companies can do fine, even when amazon's trying to take market share. azo has been a fabulous performer and i have one more for you, one more example that i think is extraordinary let's talk about cisco last july, a publication called the information, i may check it out now, posted a story titled amazon web services targets cisco in networking. the thrust is pretty self-explanatory, isn't it amazon is already the dominant player by far in the cloud services industry. if you need hosting, go to amazon web services, aws, we had andy on. the company's eyeing parts of

the cloud space it doesn't already control like the $14 billion global market for data center switches that was the supposition the piece explains that amazon's think about selling its own working switches and this hardware would directly compete with cisco's core business so what happened like we've seen with every other story about amazon, even thinking about entering a new industry, the stocks got hit cisco shed 4.1% that day juniper fell 2.3%. i was scrambling, calling everybody, finding out if this stuff was true well, if you panicked on that news, which i told you not to, you got a serious case of seller's remorse a few days later when we started to hear some pushbacks on the information's reporting. jpmorgan published a note saying amazon's plan to launch a commercial switching product within 18 months and they tried to undercut the existing players on prices they always do, but the piece also pointed out that amazon web services would only have a limited impact on the

networking equipment space they're talking about data center capital spending from large enterprise customers, maybe $2.5 billion opportunity and that had been my supposition too. a few days after that, market watch breaks the news that amazon web services may not be building any switches for external sale at all it was a nothing burger. >> announcer: the house of pain. >> for those who sold. if you brought cisco in, get this you now have a 24% gain, better than the 8% advance in amazon itself regular viewers know i'm a huge fan of cisco which is transitioning into less of a networking player and more of a well rounded purveyor of hardware and software. now let's bring it back to the grocers. while target didn't get hit that hard, i think it's important to point out that the stock roared higher after yesterday when it reported that fabulous quarter so it worries -- if worries

about amazon kept you out of target, you're probably kicking yourself bottom line, kroger reports tomorrow morning costco reports tomorrow morning after the close. tomorrow morning i don't have a great read on how they'll do, but i do think you should listen to what the companies have to say, rather than just assuming that either roadkill and if either stock gets hit on a good quarter, you might want to consider buying them into weakness it's certainly been the historical pattern "mad money" is back after this

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and then the lightning round is over are you ready? for the lightning round, let's start with jeff, please. >> caller: yeah, hey, how's it going, man >> it's going pretty well, how about you. >> caller: pretty good it was just my birthday yesterday and i had some extra funds that i got from my folks and i was thinking about throwing it down on some funco >> okay. we have -- we like funko very much because they had a blowout quarter and i know it's got its short sellers but i think it's pretty good. let's go to mike in new jersey mike, mike, mike. >> caller: whoo, boo yeah coming to you, what's happening, captain. >> not much, how about you there, chief. >> caller: not too much. i'm into therapeutics, want to see what's happening >> it's a really good spec when i did my biotech bible for

thestreet.com and it came up aces but nothing's happened since. i don't know why i like it. let's go to phillip in new york. >> caller: i like your opinion and qep resources. i own the stock and they have an offer on the table at $8.75 a share. and at the close, the past couple days, it traded on very high volume. should i buy or sell or hold this one >> i do not know about that. you know, i know it's a vantage. i've got to do work on the acquisition. i will tell you, typically, i say ring the registerer. there's only been one deal i've said to hang on to for years because i thought they lowballed it but otherwise, sell, sell, sell jesse in pennsylvania. >> caller: boo yeah, jim, what's going on >> not much. hanging out. how about you. >> caller: i'm -- i was calling to see what you thought about turning point brand.

>> you know, i'm going to say something bad. i don't mean to because i'm not recommending the stock but when gottlieb, whom i love, the fda, when he left, great news for tobacco because this man was on a mission. we have so many people dying of lung cancer in this country and he wanted to stop it he was a great man, and that's why turning point's been strong and that's just terrible i don't want to recommend that stock. i didn't mean to the other day when i did off the charts. that was someone else. let's go to andrew in new jersey >> caller: andrew a big boo yeah from new jersey. jim, i have sirius xm radio stock. >> stock has lost its mojo because auto sales have lost their mojo i've been behind this since it was a little baby. i am losing patience we need to see car sales pick up or how about if we go to alley in maryland. >> caller: hey, jim, how are you. >> real good, how about you? >> caller: i'm great i just wanted to give a quick

shoutout to my business teacher, mr. march. >> we love him rocks. >> caller: yep and i also had a quick question about fedex. what do you think about that >> the transports, we talk about nine straight days, this, that, so horrible, must be bad, why doesn't the fed stop tightening. i like fedex i know it's got ten down i think it has 30 up we'll take that risk-reward any day of the week. lightning round! >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade (indistinguishable muttering)

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♪ if you're not so hot supports my memory this market has one huge positive going for it buybacks i've never seen companies buy their shares with such reckless abandon in my career some of it's related to the tax cut leaving businesses with more money sloshing around but other repurchase programs seem to be driven by something else

their stocks got too cheap during the december bear market so lots of companies took advantage of that weakness to buy back a ton of shares the best example, home depot which we purchased $4.5 billion of stock in the fourth quarter that's $500 million more than what management had been planning that's a real commitment and it sends a signal that the company's feeling good about its future given that home depot has total discretion when it comes to their buyback program, you have to figure they'd pare it back, not increase it. if they're really concerned about the way things were going. that's a major reason why we started buying home depot for my charitable trust which you can follow along by joining the action letters.com club. good conference call next week of course it's not like this is new behavior home depot has shrunk its share account down to 1.12 billion shares today that's an extraordinary 18% reduction. it's almost like the company's very gradually trying to take itself private i think the buybacks will continue because home depot doesn't open a lot of new stores instead, the company plows the cash into improving existing

stores and rewarding its shareholders i bet there's a huge gardening season so i recommend bringing in some in here and that's just one example. lately we've heard from a ton of retailers, some of which are spending big to reinvent themselves yet they still have plenty of money left over. target's putting up billions of dollars to make itself into a fantastic digital paradise i don't know if you heard brian cornell the other day, wow while adding more small format stores even after that all, the company's buying back stock hand over fist, five years, share count, reduced, 17%. kohl's has an aggressive new store expansion. the market hated these stocks today and i got to tell you, perhaps the best thing that kohl's has going for it, it's shrunk its share count by more than 25% in the last few years the analyst on the conference call seemed to be freaking out

it was a fashion miss. those happen what doesn't miss t buyback. in five years, ross has reduced its shares by nearly 15% that's a growth stock. maybe that's why the stock shrugged off this morning's closing. management seems poised to reload it real soon. the electronics chain may have quarters where it fails to deliver but best buy has layered on some terrific high margin services plus the company is on buyback, retired 17% of the shared gap in five years, recurring pattern. what makes these buybacks extra special is that all these companies have both sales and earnings growth. it's not always easy to walk and chew bubble gum in this business bed bath & beyond has repurchased a ridiculous amount of stock but they might as well have shoved that money into the pizza oven at my wife's new restaurant in brooklyn yep, that stock's been a terrible performer amazon keeps crushing the business the core issue, though, is that if you want to sell the retailers here, you have to reckon with the fact that you may end up being selling your

stock to the companies themselves and historically that's been a very bad move. look at auto zone, fabulous outperformer that i mentioned earlier in the show. the thing has been a juggernaut. retired more than 24% of the share count since 5 years ago. i know it's tough to feel sing w sanguine about the market right now. it's palpable and pervasive but these retailers are true believers. that's why they keep buying back their own stock and it's why i think the best front retailers can be excellent long-term investments as long as you're willing to be patient and let their buybacks work for you. stick with cramer. that we just hit the motherlode of soft-serve ice cream? i got cones, anybody wants one! oh, yeah! get ya some! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. ed! ed! we struck sprinkles! [cheers] believe it.

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look we have fewer big sellers, the stocks went up fast, now the sellers are in charge wait wait, wait, wait i like to say this, there's always a bull market somewhere i promised i'd find it for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer and i will see you tomorrow - yes! let's do this!

- your wish is our command. male announcer he's a small town choir director. - my wife and i, we're both teachers. - he puts his whole heart into everything he does, and that's what i love about him. announcer: looking to hit the highest of notes... - whoo! [grunts] it's a lot of money, and it could change my life. announcer: and when the banker challenges him one on one... - she wants you out now. - the curtain's going down on you tonight. announcer: bryce gage may surprise everyone... - that's a good board. - that's a lot of money. announcer: by showing off his game. - he's going to slam-dunk this $1 million. - whoo! yeah! - we're with you all the way. [cheers and applause] - [whistle blows] pick a case. - yes.