>> shields go longer >> i watched you talk so many times, mel so good. devon energy, dvn. >> flattery is everything. no, just kidding thanks for wchg asatin"ft money. "mad money" with jim cramer starts right now my mission is simple -- to make you money i'm here to levelthe 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. i don't want to make friends, i just want to make money. my job is not just to entertain but to educate call me or tweet me. sure, we only had a few quarterly reports so far in the season but the ones we have had must be

considered knockout blows to the crash landing recession piece that's dominated discussion for well over a year now and that's why the dow jones gained there was a widespread perception that the market was going to crash in order to slow down the economy and crush inflation, powell would have to cause a recession. you couldn't cram down ten rate hikes in a row, including very big ones, without the economy falling apart, right seems logical. plus, if there are any doubt that a recession was inevitable all you have to do is look at the yield curve. rates are far lower than short rates. long term rates lower than short rates? economic that is an imminent sign of a recession. and it s but it is also sign of

false positives. everybody figures severe slowdown is a sure thing that's you always heard about the hard landing, meaning, that the economy was like a plane or a train about to crash now turns out that the orthodoxy is failing it's true believers right now are wondering. they keep getting it wrong first it was housing when you raise the cost of financing, you decrease the cost of a home. we thought so. but there is a severe housing shortage discussion. we might have five million homes excess demand. five million homes we need to raise the prices up 40% in the last five years. each time the fed raised rates, it was supposed to cool the housing market it stood next to nothing people went to sell old home and they refinance with ultra low mortgage rates during the depths of the pandemic. the main buyers are cash buyers. they don't even care about rates. rates are irrelevant to them yes, there is so much money sloshing around in residential

real estate. the actual price of a home doesn't show up in the cpi it reverberates throughout the system it's been a huge cause of inflation. als also, a seemingly intractable one. we did get a rent number recently that indicated that rents have stopped going up which suggests that maybe there are enough units, rentals around that we have that we know the stocks and home builders should have been the worst performers out there but they are the best performers because of the housing shortage. that adds insult to injury we got numbers today that show a down tick in forbearance an impossible figure given that rates go higher when we're actually supposed to get a down tick -- an uptick in the false, no the a down tick higher rates is when people default. we have no people to force from their homes because everybody's paying their mortgages on time or, of course, they're paying it

in cash. then there is the transports i'm confident in the dow theory orthodoxy. so it's vital to see the at the present times -- see the transports hitting new highs you're not supposed to get this ind coo of action. we expect to flush the commerce. and that just hasn't happened. i know that some of this strength has to do with the strike at fedex. you can't ask the transports you just claim it. delta air reported last week a clean beat raise don't get caught up in that. i think kiit can go higher j.b. hunt reported higher. tomorrow could be a tougher day for the group. more bullish data. we had a call from pepsi

they mentioned multiple times there is no trade down in price. this is interesting. because it's not supposed to happen for ten rate hikes. you're supposed to have a trade down the consumer usually won't stand for such increases at this point in the cycle pepsi said there is no problem there is nobody to buy the house brand of soda. the real doubts about the recession thesis is thrown by the banks. juggernaut growth this quarter, the strongest quarter i've seen since they managed the place in what we call the corn cher is right down there i kid you not. j.p. morgan is the savior of the finance system again just like it was in the 1900s. they made a lot of money this time with first republic. they are already killing it with that franchise filled with millionaires that collapsed during the mini crisis earlier this spring. they bought this thing for what looked like, i think, pennies on the dollar then we got our report from wells fargo same day that was

just stellar the company is making a huge amount of money with the margin. 10e% we thought, no. turned out to go to 14%. now given the mini crisis in banking, but not in wells. it wasn't allowed to be as free with the money so they were flushed with cash allowing them to crush it. plus, remember the big commercial real estate crisis? wells analyzed every one of the office buildings and came away sanguine and i trust wells. i trust charlie sharp the ceo. the regionals were all up to day and may have been deposit donors we don't know yet. you know, i'm beginning to wonder whether they're dangerous. we knew that there had to be another shoe that was going to fall in the banking crisis and that was supposed to be schwab which has a banking business on top of the famous broker's business it is supposedly the banks and bond holders were dangerous. i kept insisting this wassen an

absurd worry as the company itself is never in doubt no, no one liked banking crisis. sure enough, the short sellers were all over it the brokerage business meant nothing to them. betting this little bank appendage to the brokerage led to real run on the story firm. no not only was there no run, but schwab's brokerage business, the oil and line business showed massive inflows. i think this is just stellar stock even though up 12% kit go higher. this is how low this had fallen. that's how great this franchise is they're the largest commercial bank in the country, bank of america. credit is strong and flush with cash if the bears were right about the inevitable recession, it would be opposite. a strapped consumer strapped for cash, hanging on by finger tips. it was a well overdone crisis. not to be outdone, morgan stanley is proving the new model

of asset gathering made it up $200 billion in year to date this investment bank made an immense amount of money without much of an ipo market or even an m & a market morgan stanley mentioned things are getting better on both fronts the cfo said across investment at client activity, trended positively as the quarter progressed the preannounced m & a backlog grew throughout the quarter with a potential plateau in rates and lower implied volatility client dialogue is currently active we know what that is called. that is called a great cadence that's what sent this charitable trust name going up 6% higher. bottom line that cling to the notion that we're about to enter a recession must find all of the examples daunting if not depressing but earnings season is shown the recession thesis doesn't hold up under close scrutiny

even if so many so-called experts tell us otherwise. lori in massachusetts, lori? >> yes cramer hi >> hi, lori. >> i'm from boston how are you? >> i'm good. how about you? what's up? >> okay. so my question is today about carvana. so i bought some today at $39. and then after hours, i see it trading at $35 so i bought more >> okay. >> let me tell what you i think. we don't know. we don't know what happened. why? because carvana is going to move up the earnings to tomorrow. that is far in advance of what we thought people are saying, well, it must be bad, i say i don't know sometimes, lori, the best words in the language for stocks is i don't know and this is one of those how about james in south dakota?

james? james, are you with me >> james >> anthony, i'm sorry. it's anthony i'm sorry. my bad what's going on? >> actually, i'm -- i own micron and i'm worried that they're being left behind by all the other semiconductors to be honest with you. >> well, i have to tell you, the way -- this is one -- let me tell you the way this one works, anthony. micron bottoms well in advance of when its business is good sanjay made a point to me over and over again, we're not at the bottom yet but you have to anticipate the bottom that's the way micron works. and it is $64.94 i say you're okay. but be prepared to buy more stock at $60 the tide is turning in favor of the bulls the bears clinging to the recession thesis

they are running out of ammo [ gunfire on "mad money" tonight, we're continuing our series on the enterprise software stocks that you never, ever see yourself they're making a ton of money and second tier winners who continue to thrive hey, one of them is going much higher much, much higher. then we entered earnings season with a fairly confusing backdrop for the broad market what can investors expect for the major averages as we get inundated with major charts. it's pretty interesting and different from what i thought. and boubsncing off the lows, i' checking into another company. so stay with cramer.

as i've been saying all week, we're running a series of the cloud come back stocks that have become the hottest groups in the market even those people that want to call it the magnificent seven. last night i highlighted the four best performers in the cloud software cohorts tonight i want to walk you through the fifth through eighth biggest winners here because we can't ignore some spectacular rallies. you need to know these stocks, even the eighth best performing cloud stock is more than double from the lows.

we had some of them on i want to repeat them. i need you to know them. we're going to start with the fifth strongest cloud name, c confluent. after speaking to the ceo, a he really impressive guy, i found it a lot harder to stay patient. he told a terrific story about the data ecosystem mainly any software company that can help its customers organize and analyze or store data has been thriving. you need mountains of data to train these generative ai platforms. the platform enables what they call data streaming. which is a great data base and storage model. i won't claim to be an expert in technology but when i look at the growing roster of blue chip customers and it's like everybody, i'm a believer wall street clearly agrees that's why the stock is up he now 128% from its lows ♪ hallelujah ♪ this is good it is still down 60% from the peak in late 2021. that means there is still more

movement here. but like with all cloud come back plays i mention, the real key here is that after spending like a drunken sailor in the old days, con fluent finally got that relito talk about. they're not breaking even yet. they expect them to turn a profit about it fourth uarter. imagine they pull that off i look at manage nent ment and k they k i think the stock will have more upside i really like confluent. now how about the next one it is called asanna. the stock up 109% from the lows. that said, it is still up 84% from the peak in november 2021 all the way down to 11 as it was

at its lows in january it is still only a 23 and change that is a nice double. but look at how much upside there might be and it's not even expected to break even profitability that is not my cup of tea. i have not heard a convincing argument where asanna's software is essential sure, the company sim proving. you can say that about a dozen -- dozens of cloud names that are up huge from the bottom assana, it fits the numbers but it doesn't fit me. next up, another one i'm confused by. it is more of anindustry maker for residential property owners. landlord software. but it's the wisdom tree cloud and the stock is up 10 #% from the lows last fall

they surpassed the previous peak it made a new all time high yesterday. this is a real weird situation jason randal resigned suddenly in march the stock caught fire. interesting. in any case, this is another name that i wave you away from while there is some slight year over year improvement for projected for 2023, the company still deeply unprofitable. they're expected to lose $1.86 per share. the cash flow is moving in the right direction. but still barely positive. however, i feel a lot better about the eighth strong. that is called gitlab. this is weird. it only bottomed a few months ago. it more than doubled off of its lows even as it remains down more than 60% from the 2021 highs boy, they're down so much. those were set weeks after the company became public. the platform helps engineers and developers create secure and

operate their own software now you might have heard something, this is another term that comes up constantly i won't spend a lot of time. it is called devops. our teams within an organization that combine software developers and operations personnel gitlabs calls itself a devsecops platform add security to the mix. you read through all the analyst reports, they call it that here's what's really need to know the pla the form helps businesses create software easily and quickly through the use of open source repositories and then assists in managing sof software once it's deployed in the field. it is formerly called github when acquired by microsoft developers can use github more seamlessly with other microsoft tools. but we've also seen microsoft's acquisition of github described as a positive for gitlab, the one we're focused on it validated the business model.

how has the stock run so much over the past 2 1/2 months there is a gradual -- there is a broader recognition that gitlab software is incredibly useful in generative i sachlt. o -- ai. what they do is software development. that is sless sophisticated coders you just talk to the thing and then ai can do the nitty-gritty of actually writing code i that i is sophisticated. for this software development process, although obviously, microsoft's github is way ahead of them on anything ai related m microsoft has that edge on ai. the second positive is gitlabs financials improved dramatically smaller than expected loss management raised the full year forecast they expect to lose money this year it will be a smaller loss than people anticipate. if you believe the analysts, gitlab has a positive earning for the first time ever in the

fourth quarter hey, look, if they can really pull that off, the stock is going to keep running. they've been able to roar mainly tha thanks to the wall street fashion show they're less worried about inflation and the fed right now. they find growth stocks that are much more appetizing and they were just a year ago and i'm not sure about this. but at the same time, many of these cloud names have also worked hard to control the spending that's what i'm sure about that is still the thing that wall street likes most these companies are much better than they used to be and i'm looking for companies showing profitability now even though the ones i gave you don't necessarily fit that cry tear yacha though it's a lot easier to get your head around. they're consumer facing and making a ton of money. you can't ignore the cloud stocks so many of them may be worth owning tonight's batch, i like this gitlab it is confluent that i think is

the big winner stay tuned to confluent and also stay tuned the rest of the week. i have tons of ideas about this newly red hot group. take away tonight, confluent "mad money" is back after this we've got one hope. a bomb. 4... 3... 2...1... they just fired a starting gun.

at morgan stanley, old school hard work meets bold, new thinking, ♪ to help you see untapped possibilities and relentlessly work with you to make them real. ♪ there are currently more than 750,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the u.s. the google cybersecurity certificate was made to fill that gap and help grow the workforce that's keeping us all safe.

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♪ the biggest ideas inspire new ones. 30 years ago, state street created an etf that inspired the world to invest differently. it still does. what can you do with spy? ♪ ♪ much of the economy is any better than it has to be in this fed tightening cycle stocks have roared from the lows last fall. i think lots of reasons to feel constructive about the economy also lots of reasons to worry that the fed may keep raising interest rates more than wall

street wants in order to fully stamp out inflation. most of the ceos i speak to fear that at times like these, i like to put my subjective assessments out. taking them out of more -- and let's do a more quaun take theive approach. jessica is a brilliant technician she was the first woman on the active trader desk at fidelity before becoming the director of merrill self direct. now she is director of product and education at options play and being a co-host of the new market maker podcast which is financial literacy program for women. a little over a month ago she told thus market had a lot more upside that turned out to be dead right. i had to go back to her. right now overall stronger earnings season. but she still sees vulnerabilities in it for the stock market in her view, the s&p 500 is likely to rally 82 points from here to 4,637 where it peaked on

march 29th of last year. she thinks this move could run out of steam i found that surprising. i had to bring it you to how about the nasdaq 100 that is a tech heavy index leading the index all year everybody complains this is a narrow rally the nasdaq 100 shun hitting a major ceiling of resistance. and the way you can tell that is look at that you see the resistance the first lower or high we got in the spring of 2022. in fact, with a combined 276-point gain for the nasdaq 100 over the past few days, we popped up above the high end of the range.

given this is a weekly chart, what matters is where we close on friday. this is an area we tend to get flooded with new supply. something that overwhelms demand remember, this is a market if supply comes in heavier than demand, things go down in price. it is called rebalancing people that run the index want to make it so that the similarly used companies have less weight, room for others. they say that will incur -- that will spur a lot of our official selling. creating more downward pressure on the nasdaq 100 and best components i question whether there is factored into the market why is she so worried about this resistance area. they shi it's an inflection point. it is caught between the level where it first made a lower high and the tech bear market went into full force last year. and then on a higher end, it's right under the level where it peaked in the second to last higher high of the 2021 bull

market see, she is just trying to describe that versus here. they should hold on to the past two gains, the last two days which i said was very, very strong give us a close above that hurdle the next hurdle doesn't come up until 16764 which is pretty high that's 900 points. but the nasdaq 100 can't break out to the upside. she is worried that the true floor might be down roughly 1500 to 2,000 points. that could be just horrible. now how about the s&p 500. given all thand wringing, this s something that wasn't a problem today. take a look at the weekly chart of the s&p 500 this is presented as an equal weight index this is like the regular s&p 500 except very -- every component is weighed the same. means the mega cap companies have a lot less impact shows you the true breadth of the market when you look at the s&p 500 equal weight index this is a lot

broader than it is givencredit like the nasdaq 100, she thinks this is at an inflection point this turned out to be very positive when it broke through the levels last earnings season. they were basically heading side ways here. the s&p 500 equal weight making lower lows, something that still, she says, a bullish setup. the s&p 500 has a floor support of 3,312 okay that is down more than 200 points from here that is the 61.8% retracement

key number of last year's deand also lines up with the s&p 500 higher h higher in the spring of last year it is around 35, that is another level we broke let me get this. we actually broke through this level today. the s&p 500 can stay above this line through the week, this will be a much more bullish chart so that's -- if you ask me all the take aways, we have to stay above this number for her to feel more confident. even if we don't hold here, they expect a breakout by next week or the week after. she is more confident about next week but that's when the nasdaq rebalancing happens. she is worried about that being a drag on the market if you stay above the key resistance level i showed you, they think s&p 500 is work back to the highs from late march of last year around 4637. that's up 82 points from here. again, major move.

okay here's the bottom line the charts interpreted by jes jessica who is red hot this is the big broad s&p 500 can probably keep working its way higher although is a very tricky moment. real possibility we're in the wrong direction. sure, we always have to be careful during earnings season this time you have to have more caution than usual remember this is from a bull who gave us and called right a very good move the last time we spoke to her let's take some calls. let's go to joe in michigan. joe? >> yeah, this is joe in michigan hi i have exxonmobil stock. it is down 15% from 52-week high i get 6% return on that. i bought it at $60 cross basis

now the stock is about $101. should i hold or sell? >> and what stock is this, i'm sorry? >> exxonmobil. >> oh, i want you to hold exxon. i love this deal they're doing they're going to be the number one in carbon capture. i think there is a lot of people who are drawn to oil company much it's a story that is doing the most of any oil company to make it so the environment's better i know you might think that's not what's going to drive the stock. i think it will. i think you should buy it. nancy in virginia? >> hi, jim this is nancy. and i am an investment club member and a long-time listening to you >> thank you, nancy. >> back in the early '90s. the. >> oh, my god. i've been around what's going on? >> thank you for everything you and your team do >> you're welcome. that's a great team. thank you. >> my question is to you regarding airbnb i'm currently sitting on a 32 a

share profit in the stock. i'm starting to feel a bit nervous and wonder if i should ring the register. >> i'm going to say number i did a lot of work on airbnb last night because i want to do a member of it thank you for being a member of the club i did want to buy this i wanted to buy it badly for the club i think it's not done. i think the move is real i think that it should be up every bit as big as marriott if not more that is my compare all right. the charts is interpreted by the once incredibly bullish. suggest that the s&p 500 could keep grinding higher from here while the nasdaq 100 is at an inflection point both cases, best to be cautious though, especially as earnings season gets under way. i'm a tad more bullish i understand much more "mad money" including my exclusive with the enterprise software play of splunk. i'm getting the latest from the

ceo. and then downgrade from pepsi. what is that i think the story is better than the analyst does i don't like the downgrade then, of course, all your calls, rapid fire, tonight's edition of the lightning round. so stay with cramer. i remember being on aau trips, high school games. my mom would always say, "you need to fuel the body and you need salt." i would always be the kid not cramping, ready to go. fast forward 20 years and i go from eating salt out of my palm to drinking lmnt.

the best advice i ever got was to invest with vanguard for my retirement. the second best? stay healthy enough to enjoy it. so i started preparing physically and financially. then you came along and made every mile worth it. hi mom. at vanguard you're more than just an investor, you're an owner. helping you prepare for today's longer retirement. that's the value of ownership.

right now i want to talk about a company that didn't quite make the list despite having a real nice run off the lows and that company is splunk this is a software outfit that collects data, analyzes machine

generated data to prevent security it breaches or application issues it's been lost for years under the previous management. he is money. ever since the got tom this october, they rallied 68% including up 14% gains since we last spoke to him. splunk is holding a conference in las vegas they made a slew of announcementes about new products really special customers i want to make sure you're up to speed. take a closer look with gary steel, the president and ceo of splunk welcome back to "mad money." >> great to be here. >> this comp 23 sounded like you made major news. i want to have people understand you had this great stuff you're doing from carnival, a company we followed endlessly. i just think that might be a good opening for you to be able to say some of the great things

that splu nk does. >> for all carnival, all the passengers have an amazing experience it is everything from all the customer facing applications to ensuring that they're always secure and they don't have cyber related issues it's been great partnership with carnival >> i also think, geez, the list you gave us is extraordinary but you do work with one of the most controversial companies right now. they're doing a major reorganization and that is fedex. i happen to love the ceo and have done incredible things. how you are helping fedex grow right now? >> you know, it's really interesting. they joined us on stage here in our user conference. they told a story about how much of splunk underpins the systems to make sure they're up and running from a cyber point of view and making sure that the applications always are up and running. >> now that's very important, obviously. they're like a 24/7 and they're also competitive against ups so what would you do, find out

that something isn't delivered properly or just find out there is an errant delivery? >> it's really about ensuring that they're well secured. giving them visibility across the cyber environment as well as helping them ensure that the applications are all up and running. all of that information about those applications goes through splunk >> you put on a very good case for internal and external use of ai >> i want to know what serious work you're doing in ai? >> we announced splunk ai. being able to generate our native language that allows you to use our product much easier and give the users recommendations what to do next. so we're focused on how do we simplify users of splunk and how do we make the day more product

sniff we're really excited about that potential >> well, we're very big believers in microsoft's azure of we've seen this thing grow. it's amazing you now have a hookup with them. i think it's important for your business >> we're very excited to be here at the conference announcing a partnership with microsoft to deliver splunk in azure as a service and effectively, immediately, our customers that want to use the microsoft azure credits, they can do so. super excited about the partnership. we think it will break great value to all of our users. >> i know i have to understand when i don't understand something. you seem very proud of your spl splunk edge heb. i don't understand why it is important but it is to you >> no, so edge hub is a very cool capability that allows us to take information out of manufacturing environment. think factory floor, shop floor, machine rooms, where it's traditionally hard to get visibility from the environments and you bring that into your it

environment. so you can stream data out of the environments directly into splunk to make decisions about what's really happening. now we're doing this through a small device that lives in those environments, that comes with a bunch of sensors it's a very cool way for us to help drive our software business. >> that is something that i know jenson long from nvidia told me would happen there would be -- people would adopt it for internet things to be able to conquer an issue of waste that can be conquered before it leaves the factory so you're involved with that too? >> we want to help people bring the whole manufacturing environment into the fold where they have the visibility they have it. >> you were named co-chair of the aspen cyber group which talks about what we can do to protect -- it's a government group. how endangered are we really, gary i'm seeing everybody being hacked i mean everybody in the government being hacked. and we know we have active

enemies. will really active enemies right now. >> 100%. i think in this very interesting geopolitical time it is extremely important that we cooperate across the industry and that there is public-private partnerships between private companies, public companies, and the u.s. government. this can lead to real material results. >> i felt for a while that splufrpg is out there not parm of the firm. i think you brought it into the firm how do you feel that you got more than just your feet wet at the organization about what splunk can offer customers >> no. i'm super excited. it's been 15 ms. for me. -- 15 months for me being here at the user confidence reit rates the passion that people have for spluf spl splunk and the value we can deliver.

we're focused on delivering efficiency >> i know you have i'm betting on this one ever since you got there. i'm going to thank gary steel who is the president and ceo of splunk off of his business user conference "mad money" is back in two

it is time for the lightning round! [ mumbling ] play the sound and then the

lightning round is over. are you ready? talk about lightning round i'm going to start with michael in tennessee michael? >> boo-yah >> boo-yah what's happening >> i am long time listener, first time caller. i would love to hear your thoughts on a long term hold for a stock asts thank you. >> it's not going to fall prey to that idea that bad stock is going to be better long term i don't want you to touch. that i like better companies including one that reports soon and that's tesla how about joseph in washington joseph >> boo-yah i think real estate which owns life science buildings has been dragged down by the broader office suite sector. trading about 13 times and management hiked dividends jim, do you think the risk reward on alexandria real estate sounds attractive? >> alexandria real estate is one of the best investment trusts.

i would rather see you in frt which i think does a better job. i think he is the man. tom in ohio. tom? >> hello >> tom >> yes cramer tom from cincinnati. >> bring it, tom >> long time club member >> excellent. >> viewer. buy, sell, or hold >> ever since the ceo passed away, i haven't liked sentine. he was the driving force he is now gone he was a great man we own humana and that's the one i'm sticking with. it's not great because of high medical loss ratio that everyone is so worried b let's go to tyler in california. tyler? >> hey, big boo-yah from california how you doing, jim >> i'm doing well. how about you? >> i'm good. thank you. i think i found a gem that has a backing of warren buffett and

deals with cloud technology for small and medium businesses, what do you think of stone stne >> i think it's okay i think a series of very good stocks on my enterprise software show we're doing a whole bunch of them any one of my enterprise software segments is better than yours. i'm sorry. i have to be blunt about it. let's go to jim in michigan. jim? >> big jim how you doing? >> i'm doing well. what's going on? >> hey early 2009, we had a tough economy. i brought you insight pharmaceuticals. down to $3 i said this was a great buy. they had things going on and the stock went from $3 over to $100 a share. >> right >> i haven't played. should i be buying more insight? >> look, you brought it. i think it's a good company. it has been on a real bad down turn

but i do think that's the kind of speculative company that is, woulding right now it doesn't lose money. so i'm okay it with. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round! >> lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade coming up, is pepsi the right call for this generation find out why a recent downgrade has cramer too busy to be fizzy. next - i got the cabin for three days. it's gonna be sweet!

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the other day pepsi, one of the best of the package food companies there is maybe the best caught a downgrade from a solid analyst who said this is about as good as it gets the story is fully reflects everything that can go right for pepsi and the stock price for perfection now i hate this kind of call and i'm going to tell you why. first, the cost of growth rates, this analyst makes out he may be right. i know that when the consumer staples begin to reflect a lot of positives, the price to multiples to end get too high for comfort. pepsi stock sells at 23 times next year's earninged. i bet that feels a bit nosebleedish will everything stay the same? is this truly as good as it gets i find that very hard to believe. pepsi's management is so good, clever, and competitive that i

just can't see them being totally hostage to the business cycle or the cost of labor the stay at home snack habits. when i first met the ceo and he had a solid 4% growth rate and spent a lot of money on buy back he told me he thought he could get the pepsi growth engine to 5% in part by spending to get that growth. i said he was a dreamer. how he could best 4% growth if the company is stretched to accomplish he told me just i wait and you know what? he didn't do just 5% this quarter he did 10%! raising the growth rate from 8%. you are going to say a lot is coming from price increases. something pepsi can't get away with prices must be rolled back as inflation cools. to which i say, how do you know? frito-lay is kicking butt around the globe, not just at home. pepsi is taking share like it's never done before. i expect the cost to go down as pricing even kcreeps a bit up.

why not? this is no longer the old pepsi and frito-lay. they have done a remarkable job building brand equity. its a machine that pours money into the global growth markets why should we assume that's over pepsi hasn't even taken on the tough yesterday and thinned out the disappointments of the portfolio. i think the downgrading analyst -- here's what he doesn't realize. he is a fan tass tick manager doing amazing things with pepsi and frito-lay and even the bulls like me never thought possible i can only imagine what will happen when he turns his attention to chronic underperformer that is quaker or the underachiever that is gatorade especially when they might be able to engineer a takeover of krel celsius. that is the hottest drink in the universe do you know what celsius now is almost double that what is incredible is that when pepsi invested in this energy drink, thern really almost unbelievers, except for me

i liked them a lot of people thought storty couldn't possibly get better back then, too they were dead wrong wall street's riddled with top callers from big time strategist who predict a collapse over and over and over because of the inverted yield curve to tech analyst who's have endlessly insisted that apple has no more growth engines that called nvidia another ai play even though they didn't a group that jenson long was really up to great stuff. sure, there are tops we saw huge one in intel and plenty of tops in banks in 2008. we saw tons of tank tops in 2021 those of us who have been around long enough still marvel that digital equipment isn't the dominant tech company. and we've seen food companies fall by the way side remember when hanes traded at $70. it's now at $12 and change i say when you call a top or say something is as good as it gets, you better know something meaningful about management. maybe great leader is retiring, maybe something is going

terribly wrong nobody else sees it. without those, i think the as good as it gets call is a very risky call to make when a company has great management at the helm like the management at pepsi. i like to say there is always a bull market somewhere, i promise i'll find it for you here on "mad on last call, tesla on the hot seat and should investors prepare for a rude awakening. at&t firing back over reports of dangerous lead in its old cables. a far more devastating series of union walkouts loom for the entire american economy. powerball hitting $1 billion but the winning ticket may not be all it's crept up to be. call it swift no mix, how much is taylor swift boosting

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