ishares silver >> taking a break from us tomorrow, but back on friday yeoman's work. >> thank you for the coffee, by the way. >> i love you. gilead, tyler. >> all right pleasure to be with all of you thank you for steering us through the nvidia nvidia maels. "mad money" with jim cramer starts -- 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. i'm just trying to make you a little money my job is not just entertainment but to teach call me or tweet me at jim

cramer the consumer is mad as hell. over the last few days we've heard the consumer is either tapped out perhaps by inflation or spending too much or has gotten to the point where she doesn't want to spend anymore unless it's on travel. even nvidia we've got growing uncertainties. money managers are increasingly putting their dollars on tech stocks the consumer, who can blame nem for wanting to buy artificial intelligence stocks, and that's why the dow only rallied 180 points and the tech heavy nasdaq pulled down at 1.59% it's not easy figuring what went wrong with the consumer, but let's start with the evidence. first we have chains like macy's terrific ones saying the consumer suddenly has debt probs we haven't seen since 2019 something far more telling than actual earnings, i always watch same store sales because they're like blood pressure that give

you the true health of retailer. put simply, the much lower end wal-mart is doing better than the higher end target. i think target had its way with wal-mart for a very long time. that allowed them to charge more no more. you maybe hadn't been to a wal-mart lately, but in this environment wal-mart happens to to be a perfectly good place to shop with prices being rolled back to pre-high inflation levels meanwhile target seems to be testing the waters with higher prices the food section actually i'm not kidding reminds something out of whole foods second, hardly a day goes by where you don't see a negative story about tapestry they certainly aren't paying up for expensive shoes for nike, and i'm not saying that just because nike stocks have been down for ten straight days i'm saying that because

footlocker reported an inextremely painful quarter today. which makes me think there might be excessive nikes kicking around are jordans too expensive? yes. the only company that has decent numbers right now are price stores like ross or tjx. it's their time. we're getting the same vibes from the auto companies because there's probably a sense auto loans are too expensive and the cars are a ripoff. we're back in a urld where it's cheaper to fix your car than by another one whether new or used. auto zone is such a bargain. new cars are too expensive, used cars are too expensive in that kind of environment, yeah, you've got to go to the zone next, people have been priced out of housing except the very rich who can pay are cash for a new home a quarter of a million people who just bought million dollars

houses from tols housing just paid with cash i expect we'll have to deal with excess inventory as we get a lot of apartments coming online. expedia wouldn't be putting up better numbers if that was the case and american express stock wouldn't be languishing and holding onto that level. it's kind of like by its fingertips there's a sense from the restaurant world that a term called premiumization, the desire for the consumer to pay top dollar for the best of the best including liquor is over, kaput. sure, people want to travel but they no longer want to spend a lot of money when they travel. that's another change from not that long ago. how bad is it all getting? we're seeing reports general mills has seen sales slow in its blue buffalo line of premium pet food even dogs and cats are starting to trade down or at least pet owners are i mean really do you think they

know the difference between milk bone and blue buffalo? what's premium cat chow anyway they don't expect michelin cat food for heavens sake. highly unusual most home owners are stuck in their homes for the duration given the intractable trading a 3% emergency from a 8% one. williams sonoma a very big quarter and a very big short squeeze on its deals that's about it. with all that most money managers saying you know what forget it, the consumer is too fickle we've got to start staying away from their stocks and go back to what we wanted, techs. let's pick up some underowned apple. can you believe it for the first time it's underowned let's get some amazon because

the market is oversold every time you hear retailers cracking down on theft it means more business for amazon because the brick and mortar outfits have to put so much stuff under lock and key to prevent it from being stolen amazon, it's almost faster than a service person at these joints i don't know about you but i always get tired of waiting and i hate apologizing when i'm the one paying last but not least there's nvidia, yeah, nvidia which is soaring as usual and after hours. good to have, right? because they're supporting another stunning quarter after the close. i always tell you you should just own nvidia, don't trade it because the stock often ends up much cheaper in retrospect sure enough they gave you that colossal earnings speed again fueled by unexpected sales, up 100% year over year. that's a good number wall street was only looking for 12.5 billion that is just stunning.

last time the analysts undershot by 4 billion, this tame they still undershot by 12.5 billion. turns out making the best chips that can power all this the fastest and the ones that generate low heat, pretty good darn business. when the consumer is tapped out or at least more frugal than used to be, money managers don't wait around. they flee. they park their money in, yes. they park it into nvidia and this is nvidia number 2 because nvidia number 1 passed away that's okay. johanson wong gave nvidia wagyu a card that's where the money is. they're on fire again. go figure.

molinsky >> cramer. i realize i've had 25 years conversing with you so thanks for that obviously a founding club member >> fantastic phenomenal >> feel free to pen a new book let me know to preorder. >> i'm working on a new book i've got everybody cooking on it i mean unbelievable the crew i've got what's up? >> awesome so i know i speak for all readers and viewers, thank you for everything you do, thank you for making us more money and more importantly thank you for not losing us money. >> you can't just brag about the winners. what's up? >> that's right. nobody gets a home run let's get to it. we know the top 3 percenters, all the consumers they're either hitting down, skipping or ala target helping it shrink, that's a new term apparel everyone's got to eat.

so we've had the best macro environment for private label food brands and yet the number one producer tree house foods can't get out of its own way >> let me tell you, i've decided this company that great. i think it should be delivery right now and it's not delivery. i say it's nay on the tree house nay. let's go to robert in georgia. >> booyah. >> this is rob from griffon, georgia. i'm a first time caller but i've been watching your show since 2008 >> 2008. holy cow, i didn't know i was on then what's up? >> i got you right after the crash. >> i was heavier then. >> i also stocked on a pull back after you highlighted about a week and a half ago, but it's been dropping since then

is the housing concerns the reason for this down and should i buy or hold? the stock is still just first choice >> i like the builders first choice it did pull back, but lows had a good quarter i like builders first choice and i really love ragu, nvidia cramer of course nvidia and friends will you find opportunity in the august losers. you don't want to miss my five biggest ideas. i'm going off the charts with larry. and by the way i'm also talking about dick's sporting goods lost a quarter of its value yesterday. want to term whether that's a buyable dip. and yes we're playing poker with none other than chairman pal stay with cramer

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every day this week we're highlighting some of the worst performers of august in the s&p 500. the ones i think could be worth buying at a weakness while the market is tricky right now its ret row spect we'll look back on this moment as a speed bump given how oversold we are i'm going to teach you how to treat them as opportunities not

as a panic i've got five good ones, five more let's start with charles schwab, the online brokerage firm with a stock down 12% in august i talk about this one a lot this year because schwab has a small bank within the company with some unrealized bond losses, so it always ends up being clobbered like the regional banks like it was this spring. it doesn't make a lot of sense whatsoever there's not a lot of tie in. i padded this one when the stock jumped down to 51 in may and sure enough jumped back up after highs this month after putting a great quarter. bond yields are up sharply this month which is bad news for the regional banks with distressed bond portfolios. again a group broker like schwab in with those banks, but traders keep doing it. then yesterday the stocks tumbled nearly 5% and schwab said they'd be closing some offices and laying off some

people in order to save at least $500 million a year at the same time they announce a multibillion dollar bond offering i think that's nuts. schwab is still in the process of integrating td ameritrade which it acquired three years ago. as for the bond offering i don't mind one bit they're raising capital, as long as they're not selling common stock, which they aren't every time schwab has been beaten down by regional bank warriors, it's been a good buy next up there's a stock that's dogged me and my personal trust, the charitable trust it's just my personal stock picking has been called into question on this one i don't like it. it's ge health care. medical equipment like mri and ultrasound machines which was spun out of ge earlier this year initially this stock valued like crazy. i didn't buy into that

it's pulled back it's down now nearly 12% since the beginning of august, and we keep buying it just for trust i can't own personal stocks. we own ge health care huge now and i am flummoxed by the recent decline. since then there's been no company specific negative catalyst here. the best i can figure is care s get closer to the presidential election usually when health care comesm pharma or the manage care providers not the equipment companies. i think sooner or later ge health care will allow its company to decouple from the rest of the group. their profit centers for whatever facility they're sold into, and i've already told you the numbers here are excellent and getting better after that last quarter longer term i think dpge is a major winner, up because you need repeated mri scans to know whether they're working. how much do i like this stock,

look we've already bought some for the travel trust earlier this week. what more can i say other than you shouldn't wait to buy this stock. i think you're going to get a major chance foopick it up at a ridiculously cheap price it's not moved one wit since we said buy it except down. this the special chemical company with a major lithium business lithium is notoriously boom and bust industry. the stock surged from 185 to 287 at its highs last month. it's giving back almost all its gains since a nearly 10% decline. wall street is falling out of love with evs, electric vehicles consumer demand seem tuesday be waning and the cost of scaling the evs is proving too high for traditional auto makers. i get why people worry but this is still a major growth area they just make lithium for the batteries. the way i see it earlier this month the company reported a

magnificent quarter. they earned $7.33 per share. and they massively raised their four-year forecast at these levels they announced sales roughly seven times the earnings guidance, but no one seems to care because analysts are convinced 2023 will be our last good year and it seems expensive on 2024 and 2025 projections. my view. i'm a believer in lithium long-term. i still think we're headed for an leckric vehicle future. even if it might take a good bit longer than we hoped, which is why i like the old-fashioned pipelines. the thing you need to understand, though, is that anything related to lithium has had huge swings. you have to be prepared to sell it into strength and hold your noise and buy it back into weakness right now we've got weakness this is trading vehicle. what's next? okay, after a strong start to the year the semiconductor

cohort has cooled off recently with some notable exceptions when you look through august's biggest losers nxp semi comes up more than 20% industrial, two groups hurt by the slow down fears. plus investors are worried about a uaw strike which could lower production and therefore lower demand for nxp chips i think it's shortsighted because even if there is a strike, it won't last very long. eventually the white house would intervene and force a compromise rather than letting a major american industry freeze for an extended period of time. doesn't hurt they reported a very solid quarter with excellent guide nsz so good it sent the stock up 4% the next day from 210 to 220. thank tuesday it recent sell-off it's back down to 201. so you're getting that quarter for free and then some finally, how about some love for a tremendous machinery company called illinois tool works, a

maker of specialized industrial equipment that i like to think of as a manufacturered manufacturer itw is being club thanks to its auto exposure with the stock down i'm simply not worried about itw even if united auto workers goes on strike next month the company reported the same steady earnings beat it always gives us on august 1st now, a couple days later illinois tool works announced it's boosting its buy back organization to $5 billion which is equal about 7 million of its market cap and also raised the dividend 7%. you only raise your dividend when you're confident about the business this is one of the best run companies i follow as far as i'm concerned all that's happened with this stock and august correction is that illinois tool works has gotten

cheaper. what's not to like the bottom line with five new names we're now up to 15 august losers imparting current weakness especially this one this is the one that's driving me crazy i'm going to be right on this one, i know it i wouldn't be surprised if fed chief jay powell causes another leg lower after his piece on jackson homes on friday. that's why i'll give you five more of these tomorrow night are good stocks. mad money is back after the break. >> coming up we always hear about rates. today cramer tackles the fed and cold hard cash next

the last few weeks have been brutal for the stock market even as we finally got a nice update

today. we're in a tricky moment because we've got a number of signs that business might be slowing down as i said at the top of the show but at the same time the federal reserve still seems eager to keep raising interest rates repeatedly in order to truly wipeout inflation. in moments like this especially because it's on ugly tape until today, it tends to color your judgment, right? so it's harder to be optimistic when august has been this bad. that's why tonight i want to take your emotions out of play, okay, by going with a more qualitative empirical approach we go to larry williams, the market historian who's been the top expert in the space since i was a teenager larry has written over a dozen books and created proprietary technical indicators, many of which are named after him. came on the show at the beginning of the month in chart week and predicted things might not be so high until mid-september. don't forget april 2020 when every other expert was

thinkingtist the end of the world and we might be stuck in lock down indefinitely williams made the boldest contrarian call i've ever seen he told us lock down would end within weeks and the economy would come roaring back, taking the stock market with it, which is exactly what happened and one of it greatest calls of my life. right now there's a ton of negativity, right? but williams has noticed a positive sign nobody talks about anymore. remember he was negative when everyone was positive. what's changed it all comes down to of all things the money supply. back in 1964 an economist named burl sprinkle published a book called money and stock prices where he analyzed the relationship between the change in money supply and action in the stock market he concluded since world war i get this the dow jones industrial moves systemically with changes in the money supply now, that's not perfect. but this is a seminal text and

we don't talk about it enough. from an investing perspective he made a pretty persuasive case the money supply was the true determinant of both economic growth and inflation that's definitely not the whole picture, but changes in the money supply are certainly important. how important? i'll show you how this methodology works. larry ran the numbers on the relationship between the 12 month rate of change and m2 which is measure of money supply in black and the dow jones industrial average in red. if you haven't taken an economic class recently, m2 is one of the ways the fed measures the total supply of money out there. it includes the cash people have on hand, every penny in checking and savings accounts and other short-term savings vehicles like retail oriented mutual funds organically it changes based on bank lending every time they lend someone money they expand the money supply the federal reserve tries to

manage the money supply usually by buying or selling bonds when the fed raises interest rates like they've been doing, that shrinks the money supply. a lot of people would say, listen, the money supply has gotten so low, it's dangerous. wait a second. when you look over the chart of the 12-month change of the rate in money supply meanic not the supply itself but the rate of which it's increasing or decreasing and plot it against the dow jones industrial average you can see why williams take this so soreiously because they do move almost in lock step at least in terms of direction. from 1960 to 1986 he circled two rates of change from the bottom. every single time once the money supply started expanding again, it led to massive multi-year rallies in the dow this is really shocking to me. okay, you have the dow in red. every time you can get it -- remember we want an indicator that gives us a few boys before. this is perfect.

i want you to check out the same charts from the mid-80s. every time the money supply rate of change bottoms, stocks soar looks like sprinkle's thesis from back in 1964 has held up insanely well. money supply goes up, boom, goes up, boom, goes up, boom. not bad. the look, this continues through the '90s and let's take a look '90s from 2008 during this period there were seven occasions when m2 rate of change bottomed and shot higher. six times out of seven the dow rallied. the only exception was 2000 when the dot comcrash hit that was generous and nothing else like it the money supply kept expanding during this period yet the dow didn't see much of a rally a lot better thanthe tech halv nasdaq again, money supply black, red every time except 2000, got it wrong there. but again that was a problem with the dot combomb

three moments from the rate of change in the m2 money supply reflected. the first two were close together 2008, 2009. down on the bottom between those two moments after a second bottom of m2 rate of change stocks gained a tremendous run higher so it nailed it here you had to deal with this, but it did nail it and then it nailed it here and then finally, wow. most recently the m2 money supply made an up side reversal in early 2019 where after the dow jones industrial declared victy -- we've got that -- in its last fight against inflation. so from the early '60s to today, we've seen this pattern play out 21 times and this was a fabulous buying opportunity of 19 of those occasions. 21 -- 19 out of 21 only time it truly didn't work

was 2000 in 2008 it worked although you might have had a few months early if you bought stocks in the first upturn in the money supply rate of change rather than waiting until 2009. nobody's perfect because the 12-month rate of change in the m2 money supply has now moved up for two consecutive months remember what we're measuring here is acceleration or deceleration if you wait for the actual money supply to start increasing, the history shows you would have missed out with tremendous gains. right now the money supply is still shrinking but shrinking much more slowly over the past couple of months that's the rate of change. williams says we could be looking at the beginning of another mammoth multi-year rally in the not-too-distant future. he said patience, patience, patience bottom line i know people are very -- the charts determined by larry williams showed the

12-month rate of change in the money supply is finally moving in the right direction, and that's been an incredibly reliable single for the stock market beat going back over a century, definitely worth keeping in mind in this incredibly oversold market would you look at that who knows. let's take some calls. let's go to barry in florida barry? >> hi, jim, thanks for taking the call i'm a club member. >> thank you for being a member of the club. thank you. thank you for being a member of the club go ahead >> okay, you're welcome. i'm glad to be a few weeks ago actually you had done a series on stocks that might benefit from the president's and congress' program, and i created a little fund with a series of those stocks today's an interesting day to be asking this question but it was confluent of the one of the stocks i put into that group that i had to lead them out in

confluencing and -- >> i like confluent, they're very well run. we think this is pretty good stock. we have them on and i thought they knew what they were talking about. very good job. i think you have a winner. i like it. let's go to jim in florida >> how you doing thanks for taking my call and i appreciate it. i'm just curious i like wingstop. why would the management go for a $250 million buy back as opposed to what they did a couple years ago and just put out a $4 special dividend? >> different management doing different things some guys want to do different things for the capital than others, and that was a freedom of choice. let's go to leroy in washington. leroy. >> hey, jim, thanks for taking my call. back in 2020 i bought honey well it hasn't done much, thinking about selling it >> no, no, no the travel trust

owns it. if we were going to buy mortgage we bought some the other day we've got a new korea. ever since it's retired it's been real bad. i don't think that's going to last forever i think he's going to make his mark and the mark is going to be a good one the rate of change of money supply is moving in the right direction and going back over a century looks like larry's patience is going to be rewarded much more "mad money" ahead including my post earnings take. dick's spording good is the post earnings red flag. give you my take what does jay powell's agenda have to do with a deck of calls. rapid fire in tonight's edition of the lightening round.

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what in the world went wrong at dick's sporting goods? it caused the stock to lose nearly a quarter of its value in a single session. how bad does a quarter have to be to give you a 24% decline? well, it was a bad quarter, a bad quarter. they missed expectations across the board but mainly on the earnings front where they made $2.82 per share wall street was looking for $3.78 per share. the earnings were down 3% year

over year. at the same time dick's slashed their forecast. they were talking at $13 and change, and now they're saying less than 12. so this was a bad quarter. i don't know. it wasn't 24% bad, okay? down 24% on that? when you drill down the same sort of sales were a little soft but the total revenue is basically in line with expectations. dick's is one of the few retailers out there putting up year over year sales growth. there were legitimate positives. dick's is gaining market share and talked significant acelebration sales for july the final month of the quarter so the cadence was good, but the margins were truly ugly and the gross margin came in at 34%. analysts were looking at 36.6%. when the ceo blamed excess inventory, much of which she had to discount heavily to get it out the door but she also blames shrink which is retail speak for

theft. we know theft has been a persistent problem for all retailers and it's not one stores can really solve themselves. retail theft is less ordinary shoplifting and more organized crime. if we're going to stop it, we need to see a coordinated law enforcement effort to target the places where stolen merchandise gets resold. too many online marketplaces don't seem to care about where their stuff comes from. every single one of us, every single law-abiding citizen, it is a tax for all of us who actually pay for merchandise at the register. for now though the damage from theft was baked into the estimates. how about excessive inventory? dick's took a painful hit by heavily discounting its merchandise to unload it. i think that's the right strategy. you need to get rid of this stuff. i'm encouraged by the fact the inventory was down 5% at the end of the quarter. it means dick's is solving the problem right now. so those are the issues, the

real. do they justify nearly 25% decline of the stock over the last couple of days? i don't think so. first let's start with the obvious reason. dick's sporting goods lowered, that means it got cheaper. before it was selling at 11 times earnings and now it sells at 9 times earnings. you can argue we can't trust the new guidance given the magnitude reported but can also argue the forecast is derisk after the big number cut accounted for the problems of theft and excess inventory. don't forget this one has a nice dividend. i'll take that. so i don't think this stock should have been hit this hard, but that's not necessarily a reason to buy it down here. you need a thesis, a reason to be bullish longer term. fortunately dick's has that, too, although it sure didn't get more credit frt it this week. why do i stick my neck out on this one? first, dick's is rolling out all

these 100,000 square foot palaces. they're called house of sport stores. they've got enormous foot areas including separate spaces for cleats where they have artificial turf where you can try them and put them on, pretty cool. hitting cages for golf equipment and even rock climbing walls. these aren't just stores, they're experiences. they also adjust them depending on the region. for example, one of dick's house of sport locations in minnesota they focus on fishing equipment. according to management these housing sport locations are already yielding powerful results. although they haven't been more specific than that. remember dick's said july was the best for the quarter. so far in august they've opened two more bringing the toment to 12. i think the numbers could get a tremendous boost from these places because they are that large. dick's golf business including golf equipment sales at their flagship stores and golf galaxy

stores which are entirely dedicated to golf equipment and apparel. sports added millions of new players over the past few years. look, everybody watches this thing now. dick's is clearly pleased with the business. they've opened seven new golf galaxy performance centers this year and have another ten planned for next year. finally there's one more positive that i never hear anyone talk about and i have a feeling it's worth a heck of a lot more than people realize. dick's has built an app for sports. it's a sports for team keeping and team management. it's more than marketing people. as we learned about game changer i increasingly feel this tech platform could be -- forgive me -- an actual game changer for dick's. might even turn into a major moneymaker for the business.

i think it's worth a lot of. in yesterday's conference call we learned game changer's business is, quote, rapidly growing and profitable, end quote. that was interesting but who knew it was profitable? i don't think it'd be making money. after doing some of our own reporting on the subject we know game changer is highly thought of. some of our sources say it could even be worth a lot more than a billion dollars. if that's true it's a significant development given the entirety of dick's is worth $9.5 billion. and i'm sure that doesn't include any contribution with the game changer app because wall street doesn't seem to notice it exists. but i'm sure a lot of people following sports knows it exists. here's the bottom line. dick's reported a bad quarter, losing a quarter of its value over the past two days. i agree it wasn't good, but now it's down 25% bad?

that's wrong. that means you are getting a buying opportunity here. i think the problems with dick's are now baked into the estimates while the longer term growth opportunities are being ignored particularly this game changer app. and for all that you also get a 3.6% yield. what's not to like? "mad money" is back after the break. >> coming up, cramer wants to hear from you, your calls on a thunderous lightening round. next.

it is time for the lightening round.

and then the lightening round is over. are you ready? let's start with james in california. james. >> yo, booya. >> booya right back to you. what's happening? >> thank you for twrour passion for the markets and your support for the greatest franchise on earth, the philadelphia eagles. go birds. >> go birds! >> i actually like it and that's because my friend tells me golf is hot. i'll sing you at wing foot at the 19th hole. no, not really. let's go to michael in delaware. michael. i want to send a message to michael. come on, michael. >> i couldn't think you're speaking to sean, cramer. >> oh, that's my bad.

>> i'm calling about super group want to know your thoughts. >> yeah, i'd like to like it but i've got it tell you it sells at four times earnings which means there's something going on that i don't know. let me come back and to some work on it. it cruised to be a company i talked about a lot but we're circling back to it. now i want to speak to michael in delaware. now, michael. >> booya, jim. this is born and bred michael in delaware. shares have plummeted from the high 30s to low 10s in less than two weeks. they'll get settled disaster relief and -- >> this reminds me a bit too much of pacific gas and electric. i think you've got to be very careful here. i don't want to play it for the bounce. it's way too risky. how about we go to rile ein texas. riley? >> hi, jim, this is riley from texas and i need to get this off

my chest. and the lightening round is over. are you ready? i need your opinion on-air test systems. thank you. >>ia know i don't know this company either. let me do some work on that one, too. we've got to do some studying. we can't just say, yeah, we don't play that game. how about we go to steve in arizona. steve? >> hello, jim. i'm planning on making investment in at&t for the next five years. >> finally an easy one. that stock is horrendous. thank you for giving me an easy one. i know easy when i see it. i'm back on the turn up truck, though. richard in california. richard! >> hey, jim, how are you? >> i'm good. how about you? >> good. today i'm calling about radnet.

>> we love that company. i like it. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightening round! >> the lightening round is sponsored by td ameritrade. coming up, you play the hand you're dealt. is jay powell holding aces? cramer deals them up when we return. you ok, man? the internet is telling me a million different ways i should be trading. look! what's up my trade dogs? you should be listening to me.

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maybe it all depends on the cars. jay powell is going in with a strong hand, i think strong enough to beat inflation but he can't be sure. basically right now powell's playing poker. the five card draw kind. the way i figure, he has two pair. first card, he's been able to beat retail, right? that's what this earnings season has shown us. he's got this king because as far as i can see the only retail winner so far wal-mart because they're rolling back prices and

tjx. expensive premium goods aren't selling. that's a high card. then powell's got autos. yeah, he just drew that second king with a high on fault new cars because auto financing has become so expensive. little alternative as used cars don't offer much of a bargain. i'm predicting there'll be price breaks galore, though. how about lending? we're finally getting the crack down on lending we predicted when the regional bank crisis happened back in march. many loans are turned down and nothing slows the economy like reducing access to credit. many businesses that want to expand won't be able to. i think powell would like to see more creative destruction at this point, more merger induced layoffs. d.c. is doing everything in their power to prevent the companies from merging which means the rationalization we normally just see just hasn't happened. i think powell is showing a queen purely because of the lending crack down. so far so good.

finally, wage growth is slowing down, too. it's possible for companies to hire people less expensive on a year ago. it's killing what was a part of inflation. it's still easy to get a job but not a higher paying one. wage inflation going in the right direction for him, and that is a queen for certain. powell's got a card to throwback. he can throwback the ace. remember this is a five card draw. he hasn't been able to stop the price of housing from going higher. he's taken rates up big but he's talked about a terrific quarter. higher rates meant sellers are afraid to put their houses on the market. they don't want to lose their low interest mortgage. so he doesn't have much risk returning that card to the deck and drawing another. here's the problem. powell doesn't know if it's a winning hand or not. his two pair could potentially be the hand of inflation. here's the hand of inflation by the way as a matter of course. if he draws a full house with that next card, he might crash

the economy. again, if he draws any card but a king or a queen, he can stand pat and who knows when it comes to this fall. a full house is very hard to beat, which seems to me -- we have to see how he's going to do. i'm playing with a brand new deck because it was impossible for me t and we don't wa you know what? here we go. this is what inflation has drawn. queen, ace, jack -- so far so good. jack, okay. inflation has got a pair. and inflation has got two pair. that means it's going to be very tough. we don't want to have to depend on the cards, but if we did we know inflation has got an equal hand.

no wonder he may have to play a little more hardball to draw a better card. i think he's doing fine. i think he's still going to beat inflation, but you know what? isn't this the real problem? two pair doesn't beat two pair. i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere, and i promise to find it just for you. last call starts now. right now on last call, the bizarre state of the housing market just got even more bizarre. why some experts are scratching their heads. hollywood studios striking writers fuming over a new proposal. from black and white to nothing but green. one retailer defined the slump and it is skyrocketing right now. the name ahead. can you guess? shelling out to dine out. why americans could be hitting a wall at restaurants and what we need to do to keep it doing. return to office o