stock, c.q thank you for joining us >> thank you, guys really good to be here, had a lot of fun, as always. thank you for watching "fast money. as you know, "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. welcome to cramerica other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to save you a little money my job is not just to explain, educate but put days like today into context so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc or tweet me @jimcramer most of the time traders have the memory of a mayfly many of them couldn't even tell you what they bought or sold two

days ago but one thing they do remember is a trip to jackson hole. oh, they hated it. took them three months to get over the experience and incredibly they didn't even go i'm talking about fed chief jay powell's trip to jackson hole last year, when he lowered the boom on the whole market he told us the economy was way too hot. we needed higher interest rates for longer if we were ever going to beat inflation. from that late august vacation through october 13th the entire stock market got laid to waste as so few people had seen powell's sucker punch coming [ boos ] so it year on the eve of powell's jackson hole speech we still don't have inflation -- traders expect him to come out swinging yet again that's why they sold off everything again today, especially tech. they don't want to be put through the meat grinder once

again which is what they're now expecting. it's why they got such a break when the market opened up because of nvidia. that's why everything got crushed today, dow tumbling 374 points, s&p plunge 1.35% nasdaq plummeting a brutal 1.87%. >> the house of pain. >> traders are willing to sell at any price to avoid repeating last year's jackson hole experience >> sell sell sell! >> can you blame them? jay powell's a man of reason but he's got to be in shock that his tough on inflation strategy hasn't done much harm to the actual economy normally the fed tightens like crazy you get mass layoffs, stores closing left and right. a year ago so many money managers figured by this point in the rate hike cycle powell could declare victory in the war on inflation and finally stop tightening we were very optimistic before that last trip to jackson hole one year later traders are throwing out stocks even great stocks like nvidia which had a remarkable quarter last night. they're getting on their knees and they're praying that they won't get fooled again but if you want to be an investor, not just a trader, i think you need to take a longer-term view it's true the economy is running too hot a year ago but so was

inflation. now a different situation. the economy's running hot but inflation isn't. in fact, inflation's slowing some people say slowing dramatically and doing so without wrecking the entire economy of course it's not uchl. home prices still up 40% from 2019 although now it looks like they finally may be headed lower. mortgage rates are so high we may even get a buyer's strike while houses and apartments are getting built. something that could lead to much lower prices than we've seen in a long time. cars are pretty much the same place. remember they had supply chain problems no more. and they need to be discounted to move them off the lot the auto companies are bulking up production because they expect some tough union bargaining so tough that president biden the most pro union president in living memory might need to crack down and side with management just to keep the industry running if biden steps in soon after the september 14th bargaining deadline then the auto companies will have way too many vehicles in the lots because they're pumping them out like crazy. ahead of the possible strike and then prices will have to come down even more than they already have and again powell will win that battle but you know what?

lower housing and car prices were supposed to happen last year, not this year. it took way too long and i think powell can't leave anything more to guesswork at this point he's got to be sure he's going to win maybe he'll be appeased that wages aren't going higher anymore, at least at the starting level you can't job hop your way to wealth in this environment but is that enough for powell to declare victory against inflation? not so fast. weren't wages supposed to be going down right now wasn't there supposed to be awave of bankruptcies, not just bed bath beyond but dozen of them shouldn't we have had department stores turn into pickleball courts that's how it's supposed to play out when the fed takes it -- but it hasn't happened instead we're struggling with mild to moderate inflation rather than skyrocketing infl inflation. the risk is complaining margaritas made with casa deazwul now cost $90 rather than $70. the regular coffee drinkers trying to figure out how coffee got to be -- and how come they

have to fly to iceland to get to europe because regular tickets cost as much as first class did a year ago. powell has to go into the breach and many have decided history's got to repeat itself so they dumped nvidia et al. that's how this market reversed from splenda highs this morning. it wasn't about some piece of hair on the amazing quarter nvidia got last night. although a lot of people made up stories. nor frank shootman who chided the analysts i think he thinks they're a bunch of dopes probably not that was mean. you can't blame powell for wanting lower inflation. that's the job you can blame the mayflies for taking profits out of fear, though there sure was a lot of it they might not even know what they're selling. they're really just dumping the s&p 500 futures and it might not occur to them that the s&p's heavily weighted toward the mega caps these traders don't have time to learn the stories. i know this because i'm a bit of an anthropologist of the hedge fund species i know they go out many nights a

week and see and do things i wish i had their lives and they eat a lot of expensive dinners where they don't even look at the bill because that would be poor form did they read what he said on snowflake's earnings call? it was too late. they had gone out and had such a good time. did they listen to jen simon on nvidia's call? no they had somebody else did they bother to check out what mary dillon said when she launched the nuclear warhead on the heads of foot locker's shareholders nah. they just looked at the calendar and laid off the risk to their portfolios by selling futures as a hedge. me, i'm stuck with a charitable trust. but i have to know the stocks. the trust has one mantra that was really important today, which is own nvidia, don't trade it that goes right along with apple. own apple, don't trade it. we're exposed to long-held positions for the trust. and as we told members of the cnbc investing club we own pieces of good companies we don't trade them. we don't own the futures we don't sell the futures.

when these stocks go down we get to buy more of these pieces of companies and we do it at a discount and we think powell's speech from on high just might be the chance to get into some of our favorite stocks and get a little more exposure to the broader economy, meaning the stocks might get hit tomorrow but their businesses will do just fine regardless of what the fed actually does. even if powell says he needs to take rates to 6% to beat inflation, the secular growth stories that we own will be unharmed i say bring on 6% if that's what it takes you see, what powell's failed to do is break the inflationary mindset. he hasn't yet crushed the idea that you need to buy stuff now because the price is inevitably headed higher. here's the bottom line i think powell's goal is to create an environment where if you wait things will only get cheaper. and because we aren't there yet he's not done slamming the brakes on the economy. then next year he can declare victory in the war against inflation which would be a huge win for the stock market but you have to anticipate that. you have to take some pain now to get the gain later. sadly, how the big money is lost

and then made costs a lot of pain initially oh, but it is nirvana when we get there. >> the house of pleasure >> harish in south carolina. >> caller: boo-yah, jim. listening to you since last 15 years. you're giving best advice. made good money. and also i'm a club member very good question about what is your thought process for long-term as well as short-term on mongodb >> it does all the great things you want it does automating, monitoring, deployment when i hear things like that, you know what i say? go buy the stock of service now. let's go to michael in california michael. >> caller: boo-yah, jim. thanks so much for having me on your show. >> of course, michael, what's up >> caller: i was wondering what you think of the broadcom stock after its merger with vmware

is it a buy or is it a sell? >> broadcom today, we did it we pulled the trigger. for the charitable trust and members of cnbc investing club know the reasons. and i suggest you subscribe. and you get all of them. one great piece of thought pattern that we put out today. let's go to soheil in new jersey >> caller: good evening, mr. cramer thank you. thank you for everything you do. a lot of insights on the market. >> thank you >> caller: end of summer almost. is there hope for amc? >> well, amc's a cold stock. that means -- what do we call them we call them controlled stocks they're controlled by people that are way out of our hands. and i've got to tell you, if you ask me, if it wasn't a controlled stock i'd want to own it but there are people who can take it up at a moment's whim because we have a lot of people in the market who don't play it by the same rules as i do. they have their own rules and i appreciate that. and i wish them the best of luck the market is preparing for

powell's speech tomorrow and i want you to prepare for whatever he may throw at you his words could be just what we need to get some of our favorite stocks in at lower prices. on "mad money" tonight we're wrapping up our series of beaten-down names by revealing the final five stocks that have lived in the doghouse during the month of august. i think they could all be worth looking at here. then wall street is worried about the state of the consumer. so is there still money to be made in the retailers? i'm revealing one corner of the retail cohort that i'm still a big fan of and yes, you called me and i'm seeing if cramerica had the right ideas and people had horse sense when they came up with these when i do my homework. so stay with cramer. >> announcer: don't miss a second of "mad money." follow @jimcramer on twitter have a question? tweet cramer

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i know this has been a brutal month so do you. we saw that again today when the averages totally rolled over with even the sainted nvidia giving up all of its gains despite reporting an insanely strong quarter last night. but whatever the market gets hit, you know, there are always buying opportunities even if you think we're looking at more down side once we hear from fed chief jay powell tomorrow at jackson hole he can use this period of weakness to actually buy the best beaten-down stocks and even lower levels that's what we do around here. that's why i've spent all week highlighting the worst performers in the s&p 500 for august not the best but the worst

in order to put out my favorites. and tonight i've got five more for you. we'll start with american airlines i hardly ever talk about that. riding the travel boom all throughout the spring and early summer but it pulled back more than 23% from its highs in early july including a 13% decline in august alone every airline's been under pressure because a bunch of new domestic capacity's coming online just as consumers are really starting to feel the pinch from higher interest rates. boy, talk about deja vu. american airlines always got dragged down by worries about its negotiations with the pilots union. yeah although the union finally approved a new contract earlier this week. going to cost the company some money but it could have been a lot worse for the business management seems to think they can offset those higher wages because they didn't raise their full-year cost per available seat mile forecast yesterday, even though they said costs will be higher in the third quarter i'm regarding it as a mixed story. how about the industry-wide worries? i think they're somewhat legitimate

but these are domestic concerns. that's why i recommend circling the wagons around the airlines with the best international exposure for that that's united, delta, and yes, american. while it's my least favorite of those three american sells for less than five times this year's earnings estimates wall street clearly thinks the numbers are about to fall off the cliff or at least not be met. if they hang in there kind of close to where they are right now i think the stock is going to go higher because it's got such a cheap valuation next up is another household name bank of america. down about 11% in august thanks to fears of slowing loan growth and new banking regulation 11% is a lot for bank of america. i think you're getting an opportunity to buy one of the best nationwide franchises at a terrific price and i have not pushed this stock for a very long time remember, every time the fed tightens bank of america instantly gets higher net interest margins making them more profitable. at these levels the stock sells for less than 1.3 times its tangible book value a huge discount versus its long-term average. look, i understand worrying about the smaller regional

operators but i'm not worried about bank of america. how about another that i don't talk about because these are coming down so hard i'm talking about them tonight electronic arts. that's the video game publisher with the stock that's down more than 12% month to date wall street wasn't thrilled with thissar most recent quarter, not because of their results which were solid but because the guidance for the current quarter came in light. i'm more focused on the fact that ea actually raise the its full-year earnings forecast. i think they've been doing pretty well given that this has been a tough environment for the video game industry. plus you need to consider the scarcity value of ea now that it looks like microsoft will be able to buy activision blizzard. personally i do prefer take 2 interactive. that's strauss zellnik doing a good job the other publicly traded video game publisher but ea certainly enticing down here trading less than 18 times this year's earnings estimates it's a growth stock. much cheaper than take two then again take two might have a new grand theft auto title coming out next year and that's what people are excited about.

fourth is a lower profile company i don't talk about enough it's called ball corp. they make metal packaging for food, beverages and household products soda cans. here's a stock down 10% in august and it's done almost nothing all year the campus is tough in a world where aluminum prices are down 45% from their highs last year gives them less pricing power. so why bother with this ball corp.? first of all, these guys operate in what's basically an oligopoly, meaning very limited competition. for example, they've got roughly 40% market share in metal packaging across every region where they do business that is staggering a lot of price control here. second and more important, ball corp. just announced just now the sale of its non-core aerospace division last week b.a. systems taking it off their hands for 5.5 billion in cash. that is an excellent number. they're planning to use the proceeds to pay down debt and buy back stock going forward, this will be a simpler, more focused story. i never really liked the fact that they put aerospace with the packaging business i like aerospace a lot but ball

never got much credit for its aerospace unit because it was buried within its packaging business finally let's round out this series with one more beaten-down industrial name we have liked and had on the show and that is cummins. that's the terrific engine maker. especially for heavy-duty trucks lately i've been recommending cummins because they've made major strides into hydrogen-powered engines, which is the long-term -- well, let's just say hope for big truck engines. it's going to take a long time for that part of the story to play out but they've already doing plenty in hydrogen right now, building huge electricolizers which are machines that produce pure hydrogen by splitting up water molecules. when lindy announced the huge hydrogen production plant near niagara falls they bought the frej cummins that's how you have to go. don't forget there's a lost money from the so-called inflation reduction act going into clean energy sources, and it doesn't get cleaner than green hydrogen that said, cummins reported a not so hot quarter three weeks

ago. management sounded a bit more cautious than i'd like certainly more cautious than some of the peers in the trucking industry. that's why the stock's been hit so hard this month and the slow motion collapse of china certainly hasn't helped either however, i think the worries about the core engine business are already more or less baked into the stock given that cummins now sells for less than 12 times this year's earnings estimates. and i'm simply too excited about the longer-term hydrogen opportunity to get too worked up about management's conservative commentary on the heavy-duty truck industry that's why i endorse buying cummins on weakness. here's the bottom line while most investors have spent the week petrified of jay powell and what he will say tomorrow, we're giving you 20, count them, 20 stocks that might be worth buying into any bout of weakness so please check out these august losers and see if they might make a good addition to your portfolio. there are too many for me to point at right now and tell you to buy that's how many great values

there are. "mad money's" back after the break. >> announcer: coming up, off price but on a tear? the discount retailers lighting up the market. when we return this is cynthia suarez, cfo of go-go foodco., an online food delivery service. business was steady, until... gogo-foodco. go check it out. whaatt?! overnight, users tripled. which meant hiring 20 new employees - and buying 20 new laptops.

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over the last couple weeks we've heard from a ton of retailers. for the most part they're not in that good shape. but there's one segment of retail that does very well when everybody else is doing badly and that's the off-price chains. think tjx, ross stores, burlington or ollie's bargain outlet roughly a year ago we bought tjx for the charitable trust there was a glut in retail allowing tjx and its off price brethren to pick up merchandise from struggling stores at bargain basement prices. i pounded the table a little over a year ago. since then tjx and ross are um

29% and 28% respectively and olly's up 10 perts trouncing a 3% gain in the s&p 500. only burlington stores has lagged down roughly 8% the bulk of that decline came today after the company reported an ugly quarter. tjx ross and burlington have all now reported and it's important for you to understand what they're saying tjx kicked things off last wednesday, turning in an excellent set of numbers on the same day that target imploded. tjx had -- they gave you 6% same-store sales growth, more than double what the analysts were looking for, but tj maxx, one of their divisions, and marshals, another, leading the way. they're seeing higher traffic everywhere home goods even had a 4% same-store sales growth when wall street was expecting only 1.3% the home goods category is not in great shape so the fact that tjx's home goods could put up spoz numbers i thought that was very encouraging. best of all tj x-raysed its full year forecast across the board that's extremely positive. on the conference call ceo ernie

herman, who by the way is the least promotional of all the ceos that i follow in retail, he took a terrific story about how his company can thrive in any macroeconomic environment. if you're ai retailer excess inventory is the bain of your existence. you have to unload the old stuff before you can bring in the new stuff. tjx will take it off your hands and then add a little markup and sell it to its value conscious consumers. no one the stock's up more than 3% since the quarter ross stores turned in a similarly strong quarter last thursday, 5% same-store sales growth while the amount are looking for .7%. not bad. big earnings beat too. looking for management issued modestly better than expected guidance for both the third and fourth quarters although even after raising numbers across the board i think ross still being pretty conservative with its forecast now, ceo barbara rendler, another non-promotion motional ceo, explicitly said she wants to take a cautious approach to planning an environment where most consumers are struggling with higher costs. i wouldn't be surpriseed if there's more upside. the only fly in the ointment,

boy, was this burlington which reported a widely panned quarter this morning that sent the stock down today's an ugly day. i think it would be a little less if today hadn't been so horrible but burlington's numbers just weren't that bad they were certainly not 9% -- down 9% bad. these guys had 4% same-store sales growth analysts were looking for 3.1% that's good. smaller beat than we got from tjx and ross it's still a beat. total sales were in line on the earnings front burlington posted a 16-cent beat off of 44-cent basis. in short, the actual results were pretty good so what did the stock in at first glance it seems to be related to the company's guidance but there are some -- first burlington's third quarter guidance looked pretty darn good they're expecting 5 to 7% same-store sales growth i like that much better than what wall street was looking toar and they're guiding for much higher than expected earnings too however, and this is what got them, burlington still trimmed its full-year outlook for certain topline metrics. begin the third quarter guidance is so good that implies they expect bad things in the fourth

quarter and that's a key quarter. management lowered their high end of their full-year same-store sales forecast. they lowered their full-year revenue forecast and they narrowed the range of their full-year earnings forecast, although that's natural. it's mutual. look, we obviously don't want to see full-year guidance cuts ever but those slightly lowered numbers really didn't seem that bad to me. and that brings me to what i think is the real reason that burlington's stock sold off today besides the fact that the stock market was not so good it was management's tone on the conference call. in my opinion the ceo was just too tough on his own company in the morning conference call, repeatedly saying long-term same-store sales numbers were below management's projections, then painting a very dire picture of the state of the low-income consumer. he said there's not enough tradedown from higher income consumers to make up for the weakness among lower-income consumers. long story short burlington typically does best with lower income customers who are stretched at the moment because of inflation

their plan for the year assumed a tougher economic environment resulting in some trades down from higher income customers who could make up for the weaker contribution from the core low income customer. but while the low-income group is doing poorly the economy is a little more resilient than burlington expected. so they haven't seen the tradedown from higher-income consumers that they've been expecting. that's the story and that's why they're cutting the full-year numbers. but i struggle to see why sullivan went into such detail about how poorly his company did, even issued a mea culpa for getting things rolling in reality the numbers looked pretty darn good as i see it there's nothing wrong with burlington stores the only thing management's guilty of is tmi, too much information. it was their yoef kill explanation that hurt the stock today. was very surprising. in fact i'll say this, even though tjx is my absolute favorite off price stock even though ross stores is better operated than burlington i think burlington can be bought into weakness the only serious problem is management holds itself to too high a standard. and that's a great problem to

have bottom line here, when the rest of retail struggles the off-price chains tend to make out like bandits i've been recommending the whole group aggressively for a year and i think they remain terrific buys tjx and ross stores are straightforwardly high-quality stories. i think burlington's become a misunderstood comeback play with a stock that has simply come down too far too fast to ignore. i want to go to jerry in missouri jerry. >> caller: hey, jim, thanks for taking my call >> of course, jerry, what's going on >> caller: hey, restaurant i've been amazed with and to me that's an enormous following recently missed their quarter. do you feel like once this is corrected that portalo's will zoom to their new highs? >> i think portillo's the price to earnings multiple is too high this was private equity and the private equity kept dumping the stock every time the stock went up so i think what happens, people said the hell with it, wake me up when they're done selling, because otherwise they just keep crushing it. memo to private equity, come on.

have some horse sense. let's go to ann in indiana ann. >> caller: jim, i'm a club member with horse sense i hope >> fantastic and let's see whether you do, but i'm sure because you're a member you've got it what's up? >> caller: so i wanted to circle back about your article about starbucks. >> right >> caller: and potential or suggested use of ai, you know, at a starbucks there are all these labor-intensive businesses, like what are these ceos waiting for are they scared or do they just -- does it just take time to develop like chippy at chipotle or whatever >> you raise a great point he's already done a lot of things you don't know. he has made it so you can do cold brewed -- i would say almost a factor of ten times versus what he had before. he has to struggle so much with how bad the technology was there to begin with that he hasn't even gotten to how good it is yet. so i think you're right.

and it's another good reason to own the stock. why do people hate the stock it's 27 times earnings and it's a really bad chart we almost bought some today. i think it's in good shape i like your thinking let's go to sal in new jersey. sal. >> caller: boo -yah, jim. how are you? >> i'm good. how are you? >> caller: good. i bought top golf callaway this year and i've seen it decline about 20%. my question to you is should i keep my holding or should i look to sell? >> no, no, don't look to sell. i actually think it's a pretty good situation the stock's come down a lot. it's a good company. golf is actually doing quite well i think you stay long. you might even want to think about buying some soon anyway, off-price chains as i've said before are the big winners versus the rest of retail. particularly with retail struggling and tjx and ross stores are still fantastic buys at these levels but i also think it represents the best value after this giant

decline. i'm turning in my homework on vistra and coursera. then from health care to oil and gas how is it so many sectors have become uninvestable i'm listing the reasons and i think you'll understand. and all your calls rapid-fire in tonight's edition of the "lightning round." so stay with cramer.

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whenever you stump me with a name that either i don't know or haven't followed too closely, i don't just cuff it i always circle back after doing some homework. we've got two of them. about a month ago george in massachusetts called and asked

about a company called vistra which is a mid-size electric utility with a generation business i didn't recognize it because it's got a complicated story back in 2007 a texas power conglomerate known as txu was taken private in one of the last big leveraged buyouts before the financial crisis loaded down with excess debt the company, which had been renamed energy future holdings after the lboish ultimately folded in 2014 as part of the bankruptcy resolution process they spun off tcbh which then changed its name to vistra in 2016. historiry aside this is an electric power generation and distribution company they have both a regulated utility business in texas and unregulated power production business across the country. in recent years vistra's made major investments in renewables, nuclear power, and energy storage. in march we learned they're buying energy harbor, that's a provider of carbon-free base load electricity for 3.34 -- $3.43 billion in cash and stock.

wall street loved this deal. vistra's stock jumped 24% over the next couple of days. even without energy harbor business is good vistra reported a strong quarter a couple weeks ago, very encouraging numbers. the stock's already run up nearly 30% for the year, although if everything goes right it could have more upside. the bull case for this one isn't complicated. vistra stands to benefit from the all new and modified energy tax credits in the inflation reduction act. they're getting nuclear and solar production tax credits and battery storage tax credits. could take a little while to play out but vistra's paying you to wait with a very solid 2.75% dividend yield. plus management's been pretty aggressive about repurchasing their shares get this, they bought back $2.9 billion worth of stock since november of 2021, meaning these guys shrunk the share count by roughly 24%. it's like this company's taking itself private i think the closest comparison to vistra could be cramer fave constellation energy, the nuclear focused power producer

that was spun off of excelon early last year. while vistra has a lot less nuclear exposure than constellation, which is almost a pure play, the stock's much cheaper. that said, i'm not ready to make the leap and endorse vistra over constellation, which is a much more straightforward story that we know and love but here's what i'll say if vistra wants to come on the show and explain why the stock's the better option, we'd love to have them on consider it as an open invitation next up, back on july 31st, taj in california asked us about coursera, which is an educational software play. i tend to not like these companies. this one has a platform that connects students, teachers and institutions to what they call, and i quote, relevant educational content, end quote like so many other enterprise software plays coursera's been on fire since 2023, up close to 40% year to date but you've got to put this in perspective because also like every other enterprise software play the stock crashed in 2021

and 2022 in fact, coursera was a member of the ill-fated ipo class of 2021, even after its recent run the stock's still down over 73% from all-time highs set not that long ago right when it came public. a lot of the stocks during that period, in a three, four-day period that's when they hit their high and that was all over so what's the basic story here coursera has three operating segments 56% of their revenue from the consumer division where they sell access to digital classes on the platform. everything from certifications of single courses, specializations, catalog, wide sbringss they get another 34% of their revenue from the enterprise division, which is in the business of selling subscription licenses to businesses and other organizations so that their members can enroll in courses. finally the last 10% of their sales come from universities that contract with coursera to deliver their bachelor's and master's degree programs if you're a professor trying to put your lectures online at least within the schoolwide network there's a good chance

you're using coursera. considering the nature of its business coursera came back at the perfect time in march of 2021 this was when demand for online learning was on fire because we'd only just started getting access to our covid vaccines back then online degrees and certifications looked like the future, whether we liked it or not. so coursera's stock soared 36% on its first day of trading running from 33 to 45. four days later the stock soared all the way up to 62 and change. and that's where it peaked the next 18 months it went lower and lower and lower before bottoming in the high single dim digits, hsts of course to the company's credit they put together several quarters that were either good or just how about not as bad as feared, depending on your perspective. taj in california called about coursera a couple days after the company reported very strong second quarter

so strong that the stock rallied 20% over the next two days on the consumer side they added 5 million learners for the 11th straight quarter so demand for online credentials never really went away at the same time their university business grew at a double-digit clip. thanks to the strength coursera could raise its full-year forecast they also talked about how they're taking advantage of ai with their new vifrlt virtual learning partner coursera coach that lets students ask the computer questions and get relevant personalized answers. they say they're getting a lot of demand for ai generated content for businesses and universities where do i come down look, i can't get behind the stock here, at least not yet why? well forget, starters coursera's not yet profitable and it's got negative free cash flow. that's a no for me there are so many good companies with actual earnings that trade at reasonable valuations, particularly at this most recent sell-off why the heck would you want to chase something that's still losing money second reason, we've got 3.5% unemployment that's the lowest since the 60s,

when jobs were plentiful fewer consumers will pay out for digital classes that might help them find work they don't need help and the prospective employers will pay for the stuff if it's necessary. but even if coursera starts turning a profit and the labor market softens, i'd still be reluctant to recommend this one because i just haven't that much faith in it as i said at the top, the ed tech space we've seen small er companies like 2u and shay when it comes to consccoursera,t i'm not going to tell to you buy vistra or skorsera but i'd love to hear from vistra's management if they'd like to come on the show and present it to cramerica. keep trying to stump me. i love learning about these new stories, especially even the ones i can get behind. but i don't mind the ones i can't get behind either. "mad money's" back after the break. >> announcer: coming up, cramer wants to hear from you your calls on the thunderous

"lightning round." next wealth-changing question --

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it is time it's time for the "lightning round" on cramer's "mad money. play until you hear this sound and then the "lightning round" is over. are you ready, skee-daddy? time for the "lightning round" on cramer's "mad money." we're starting with brendan in new jersey brendan. >> caller: hey, cramer how are you doing? >> i'm doing well. how about you, partner >> caller: oh, wow the last two days have been crazy. >> nuts. >> caller: i've been following

super microcomputer. >> they're sending nvidia down in after hours i'd rather see nvidia. by the way, nvidia you own it, you do not trade it. let's go to adam in illinois adam >> caller: hey, jim. here's a hardy boo-yah from cubs country from a club member a grateful club member >> thank you >> caller: i've got a question you're welcome and thank you. i've been poking around trying to find value on the software infrastructure side to benefit from this ai gold rush and i came across extreme networks >> i've got to tell you i think it's fine. it's just one of many companies that is not proprietary enough for me to be able to recommend especially at this point when people want to -- let's go to mandy in maryland. >> caller: hi, jim thank you so much for taking my call >> no problem, mandy happy to have you on the show. >> caller: thank you thank you. i would like to do a shout out

to your crew and thank you a also -- it has been a very rough august for me. >> of course >> caller: i have got 40 shares of zbh >> that's a tough one. they did not have a good quarter. when they don't have a good quarter there's no stopping they're on the move. you have to circle the wagons and buy ge health care every time it goes down a dollar and a half the charitable trust wants to buy it because it is that inexpensive let's go to dustin in colorado dustin >> caller: boo-yah it's good to hear your voice, man. >> same, man what's up? >> caller: well, like the vegetables in your garden is sunrun ripe for the -- >> sunrun is run r one of the solar companies, only first solar seems to be making the cut here and that's the one i would recommend. let's go to christopher in

california christopher. >> caller: ba-ba-ba bah-boo-yah. >> stuttering boo-yah, always welcome. that's going on? >> caller: what's your idea about ticker symbol nrg? >> nrg's good. i've got to tell you i like this new gang that runs southern, s.o., with a 4% yield and a lot of nuke. i think that's the way to go how about we go to charles in maryland charles. >> caller: yes good afternoon, mr. cramer how are you today? >> all right how about you? what's happening >> caller: good, good. a quick question regarding the area and arena of water shortages and water desalinization what are your thoughts regarding that whole arena in terms of investing as an industry and more specifically eco lab what's your thoughts about that >> i think they're okay. i'll tell you something, i know it sounds a little far afield but cintas has a similar business i think cintas is the way to go. by the way, that stock was on fire yesterday obviously everything's on fire

started going down today but i think cintas is better let's go to jonathan in pennsylvania jonathan >> caller: boo-yah, jim. jonathan from p.a. thank you to you and your amazing staff for the priceless education. >> best staff. what's up? >> caller: it was great to meet you at the event calling about an insurance company with mortgage title and financial indemnity exposure and i want your advice on two things one, the best way to uncover insurance companies' combined ratio. >> yes >> caller: and if you think old republic is safe or risky. >> when we talk insurance we talk chubb evan greenberg knows more about insurance than anybody in america. i would even challenge warren buffett's team i think warren might even agree with that. the one is chubb c.b. i'm going to tony in texas >> caller: hey, jim. i wanted to ask about indy

semiconductor and if it's a good buy because it's priced the sell ratio is high but revenues pretty lofty next year >> boy, this is self-driving self-driving has hit a snag. i'm not going to recommend a self-driving related semi company. just not here right now. losing money mark in wisconsin. >> caller: dr. cramer. >> yes >> caller: i've got a company here for you that i think their routers and switchers would complement ai and nvidia's chips. the ticker symbol is net >> it does trade with nvidia i actually think they're much cheaper and not as complementary a play is cisco, csco. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the "lightning round"! >> announcer: the "lightning round" is sponsored by td ameritrade

>> announcer: coming up, how did so many sectors become uninvestable cramer looks into the secular beatdown weighing on portfolios everywhere next

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how did so many sectors become uninvestable in this stock market it kind of snuck up on us. the first and most visible were the financials, formerly the largest group in the s&p 500 we used to have pretty good support for this group back when we had ultra low interest rates. the banks could take your deposits and park them in longer dated treasuries to pick up some extra yield but then the fed raised rates so rapidly the bond portfolios got crushed leading to i ahandful of regional banks to go under, the most important being silicon valley bank and first republic

silicon valley bank died from the twin horror of poor investing on the yield curve and a miserable set of clients who took their money, ran and announced it all on twitter. that caused an old school bank run. first republic also had a run but of a different sort. it tried to raise capital and failed which led to i atakeover by jpmorgan in a deal that was busted by the authorities because it was the only way to stop the bank from going under final nail in the coffin was when toronto dominion failed to acquire first horizon. it got scrapped in early may t.d. hit some regulatory snafus itself we knew merge yernz wouldn't be able to save the group anymore since then a regulatory clampdown on growth and insiftence on higher capital requirements has made the bank stocks much harder to own. just actually almost impossible. second is retail laid low by shrink, which is retail speak for shoplifting there's so much stealing going on mostly because it's so easy for professional criminals to unload this stuff online, just sell it to a dozen online

marketplaces that don't check where anything came from i'm stunned that the federal government hasn't done anything at all against these marketplaces that have made shoplifting so lucrative they want to kick it to the locals, the locals want it to the federals so nothing gets done almost every retailer suffers from it and few have any way to cope just today dollar tree there's no hope there. you can only invest in a handful of retailers who have it under control. mainly the off-price chains. they seem to know how to do security and the club, costco you don't want to steal from a company you belong to. as does the fact that it's much harlder to steal stuff in bulk, that's why we tone for the charitable trust third the health care stocks have become disastrous a relatively unknown proechgs in the i.r.a. gave the federal government the power to negotiate prices with medicare and medicaid that's something the drug companies hated it's put a hid lid on the group and the upcoming election makes the pharma industry a pinata meanwhile stocks are struggling to come back from their covid

era there's also a snag with jet engines from rtx the company formerly known as raytheon that's kept it from going higher as for defense even with the war in ukraine industry is not getting the money it needs to expand fifth the consumer package goods company cpg they have gotten the bent of an improved supply chain but it appears that's one and done making it hard to support higher valuations for their stocks and by the way their dividends aren't big enough to support against how much bonds pay for you right now. so even the best ones are going down nobody cares they're making fortunes right now because it's perceived as a blip especially when you can get 5% on short-term money six oil and gas has a limit on it because president biden is the furthest thing from pro fossil fuel president i've seen in my entire life. hard to invest in a group the white house is gunning for even if they're doing it to save the environment. sure there are some special situations that are working but not enough to keep the proverbial index balls near. hence the default to tech. nearly every other major sector is so hard to own and tech's so

easy well, not today p but you know what i mean. and portfolio managers always go with what's easy they'll be back buying tech the moment we get through this federal reserve jackson hole meeting and we get an all clear sounded. i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere i promise to try to find it just for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer se right now on last call disney may have had its for espn. it's a doozy. breaking developments also breaking. maui county now suing local utility, hawaiian electric, over the deadly wildfires. sweeping allegations. something unexpected, it revealed about us energy independence. we'll show you the new sandwich king. who the heck is roark capital, why are they spending $10 billion to buy subway? you won't believe what else they own.