my mission is simple, to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere, and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to make you some money. my job is not just to entertain but to educate and teach you. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc or tweet me @jimcramer. today should have been a day where we focused on earnings and earnings alone, and we had some big ones, some good ones like mcdonald's and some okay ones like general electric that were important to the broader averages. dow only dipping 17 points. s&p falling 0.01%. nasdaq gaining 0.3%.

that's precisely where i want to start my game plan for next week, with a potential deal, namely at&t buying time warner, something that david faber said could happen as soon as monday morning. judging by the huge leap in time warner stock, it's entirely possible this monumental possibly $80 billion deal could be announced 48 hours from now. that might be followed by another expected deal, qualcomm potentially buying nxp for $110. if these deals occur it will be a wild monday that might distract us from the biggest earnings week of the year. they could send ve cbs as well as all the semiconductor stocks that are small enough to get a bid, and i'm talking about everybody from skyworks to micron. consolidation is a way of getting the bullish juices flowing. but let's not ice earnings. monday morning we hear from kimberly-clark and vf corp. the market wasn't crazy about their quarters last time around. i think we're looking at these companies way too short-term because over time they've given

and dividends. but the market is in a "what have you done for me lately" mode right now, and the answer is not enough. maybe the narrative will change, especially with vf corp as longtime ceo eric wiseman passes the baton to steve rendle. speaking of passing the baton, sad to see charlie scharf depart from visa, but maybe we'll get a sense of what new ceo has to stay about the next steps for is titan. not to make too much of this new ceo/old ceo stuff, but caterpillar kicks things off on tuesday morning with outgoing ceo doug oberhelman presenting the numbers. i've got to tell you i think doug has done a terrific, heroic job of managing the downturn that wiped out many other infrastructure and commodity related companies. i actually expect a pretty decent quarter. the industrials have fallen out of favor with investors because

may be a little more immune to a slowdown, and it's 3m. that reports before the open. the ceo has been able to reinvent the company through ingenuity. i think the pace of new product launches will drive earnings, but it's still cyclical. it could still be under pressure. tuesday, few companies are more venerable than procter & gamble. it's done a lot of shuffling, but is it enough? i don't think the stock will power higher unless we hear more organic growth. we also hear from under armour. this stock has spent an awful power plays. i wonder if this isn't the quarter that can break the spell in a positive way. after the close tuesday, we get results from the largest company on earth, apple. and you know i expect a good number, and i always tell you don't trade it, own it. aided by an increase in the service revenue stream that comes from so many different offerings that they now make available to iphone users, last quarter apple talked about people switching from competitors, even talked about samsung. i can only imagine it will give

7's spontaneous combustion issue. apple overshadows everything. we know that. but we'll also hear from chipotle. i think many people are jumping the gun on the recovery here. while i've said the stock is putting in a bottom in part because of an aggressive buyback, we know from the history of past health scares that you may have to wait longer for a comeback. the work we have done shows it takes 18 months for a restaurant to get back on track after the kind of incidents that marred chipotle, which means the stock most likely won't begin to run until the middle of next year. i do think, though, that patience will be rewarded. oh, and i'd be remiss not to mention at&t itself because it's supposed to report after the clos the company itself is doing well or if they need to buy time warner because of a potential slowdown in sign-ups. losing some business to sprint and t-mobile. wednesday starts with boeing and i urge you to wait for the conference call before you trade it. there's a widespread perception that the aerospace cycle has run its course.

peaked, namely the wide bodies where there's a growing glut of planes. narrow bodies, though, they can't make enough of them. now, we don't know how boeing is faring in terms of its makeup of that order book. that's why i say wait to hear the granularity of the conference call because if you get a good headline number but then they talk down bodies on the call, the wide ones, the stock could be opened up and then go down. i know comparison's erroneous, but they always seem to be made when we get results from coca-cola as its former doppelganger pepsico blew away the numbers when it reported. co pepsico is up nearly 6%. i think the comparison no longer relevant because pepsico's snack division now overshadows the beverage business, not so with coca-cola. what could change coke's trajectory? we're going to have to wait and see. i don't see anything on the horizon now, though. we also hear from norfolk southern on wednesday. i find the rails fascinating. csx delivered a superb number

account. either way, nobody gives you a better read on the u.s. economy than the rails. we'll listen in. thursday has got a gazillion companies reporting, but i bet only three will capture the attention of all participants. three that report after the close. alphabet, amazon and twitter. i think alphabet, formerly known as google, has started to rekindle the mutual affection between itself and wall street, starting with re-ignition of the revenue stream from youtube. if you get that thing humming, it takes a lot of pressure off the mechanics of search pricing. like everyone else, i' amazon. heaven forbid if it doesn't give us one. and also like everyone else, i'm expecting a worse one from twitter even as the stock ran up again today in expectation of still one more takeover bid. hey, listen, if they're buying time warner, i'm sure someone is going to craft a rumor story about twitter. it could be a real shocker if twitter sees a re-acceleration of user growth or some good numbers off of that nfl

happened in what seems like an aborted auction. will they discuss it? will salesforce's name come up, or will they give us the heisman when it comes to the takeover talk? if i were on the conference call, i've got two things i would ask. what are you doing to control the troll problem, which i believe has severely limited the worth of the company, and two, how many of your 300-plus million users are actually individuals with multiple accounts? i know i have trolls who have reappeared over and over and over and over again under new names. does twitter count them each separately? pretty interesting question, isn't it? friday is oil day, exxon and chevron. both companies have weathered the low price of crude with aplomb, but neither has done any big acquisitions. do they believe in the opec deal come november? do they see a continued price recovery? are they increasing their capital budgets? that's something that would make you want to buy schlumberger,

quarter. stay tuned, but that may be the trade for next week. here's the bottom line. we only get four weeks of the year where this many companies report, and because the bandwidth of wall street is so stretched, lots of mistakes get made. don't get taken in. before you act, listen to the conference calls. look at some notes, and be sure you know what the heck you're doing. believe me, there are plenty of people who will take action on the first bite of all these companies, and very often, they'll turn out to be just plain wrong. mark in massachusetts. mark. >> caller: hi, jim. a big boston baked bean booyah to ya. >> that's nice. what's shakin'? >> caller: i'm currently in 8point energy, and being that sunpower and first solar have a partnership with them, i'm wondering how the class action lawsuit could impact 8point energy. >> geez, i don't know. look, i got to tell you. the best thing you can do here is stay away from all of them. it's just not the right place to

really take that one off the table. how about ellis in arkansas, please. ellis. >> caller: yes, jim. my stock is ppg, and i just wanted to know why the warning came out two weeks early before the financial report and it dropped 8.3%. why didn't they wait till the financial report come out to try to do this? >> ellis, i'll tell you they didn't because they're an honest company, and the estimates were mu company reported. it was the right thing to do. they felt they had to pre-announce. bruce kamich from realmoney.com wrote a pretty negative piece about the chart. i will say this. it is highly unusual for this company to miss. it hasn't missed in many years. it's been a solid straight shooter, but it's not at the right level. i think it's got to go down a little more before i can get excited about it. ray in south carolina. ray. >> caller: yes. hey, thanks for taking my call, jim. >> of course. >> caller: i bought allergan about a year ago for 293, at

i kept it, and i just watched it drop. when it dropped to 230 back in, i think, march of this year, i bought again. same thing. now, in your crystal ball, should i keep it? should i dump it? >> my charitable trust owns it. you can follow along. we always do a roundup at actionalertsplus.com. in it, we are saying we don't expect anything near term to happen. because of the election, this is just a very tough time to own the drug stocks. we think brent saunders is putting together a powerhouse. what happened before was allergan got caught up in a pfizer merger that the government nixed. i don't think the government should have nixed it, but that's neither here nor there. allergan, i think, treads water. you can't really have a big position in a drug stock going into this election. all right. we've got the busiest week of earnings season ahead of us, but don't get overwhelmed. listen to the calls. do your homework, and think carefully before doing any buying or selling you might regret later. on "mad money" tonight, two companies, two comparable quarters, two totally different

i'm dissecting the response. then is the action in boston beer company driving you to drink? with analysts split on the company's prospects, i'll help take the edge off. and i'll tell you if you can still pour some gains into your portfolio. and can autozone kick into high gear? this stock has been in the red zone lately, but it outperforms the s&p. is it still a buy? i'm putting you in the driver's seat. so stick with cramer. second of "mad money." follow @jimcramer on twitter. have a question? tweet cramer, #madtweets. send jim an e-mail to madmoney@cnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-cnbc. miss something? head to madmoney.cnbc.com.

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can be simple and straightforward but other times it can be down right confusing. the banks for example are all pretty straightforward. they all reported strong numbers. however, other groups have been decidedly more mixed. especially the rails and the industrials, where we're getting incredibly divergent performances from companies

most puzzling of all is when two companies report very similar numbers, but then their stocks do wildly different things. we got to talk about this. i want to talk about one of these situations so you understand better how the stock market works. specifically i'm referring to danaher and illinois tool works. two excellent industrial-focused companies that reported fairly comparable quarters yesterday even as their stocks reacted by moving in radically opposite directions. while many industrials are reporting, these two are terrific real-life examples so i can school you on this, teach you, help you understand the process of stock valuation and evaluation. how do you explain the market's response to these two companies and can it tell us anything about the way earnings are being graded this reporting period? first a little background. the danaher of today is vastly different from the one of a year ago, thanks to the company's recent breakup. the old danaher was a diversified industrial operating a host of industries from dental products to life sciences to environmental identification, automation technologies. over the summer, the company spun off almost all of its industrial-facing businesses as

the new danaher kept the life science, dental, environmental, and product id businesses. it's still a conglomerate but a more focused one. how about the great illinois tool works? this is more of a smokestack stock as the company makes specialized manufacturing equipment. illinois tool works serves a variety of end markets from deep sea oil rigs to aerospace, infrastructure, health care, construction, autos, and even wind turbines and electronic devices. i should mention that i've been a fan of both these companies their stocks had behaved during this earnings season. that's why i had to dig deeper. it didn't make sense. when you look at the numbers they're very similar. danaher reported a modest five-cent cent earnings beat off an 82-cent basis with in line revenue, slightly stronger than expected full-year guidance. illinois tool works reported a modest one-cent earnings beat off a $1.49 basis with, again, in-line revenue and slightly raised full-year forecast. it could have been the same. now, granted danaher's numbers were a little bit better than itw's, but in broad strokes these quarters were incredibly alike. yet danaher rallied 3.9% on the

so how do we make sense of this action? why did the market like the results from danaher even as it spurned the seemingly almost identical results from illinois tool works? these are the things that always consume people that i get asked about all the time because they're confused. we're solving that. with most things in life, there are obvious reasons and the real reasons. first off, it's important to note that the stocks had performed very differently going into their quarters. danaher was up more than 9% for the yeef nicely outpacing the s&p 500. the fact is that illinois tool works was up an astounding nearly 25% for the year, and that's a tremendous run. so all else equal, if the expectations are higher, than the stock's post-quarter performance is likely to be weaker. illinois tool works definitely had higher expectations by judging from that almost 25% run up. at the same time danaher's numbers were somewhat better. one more obvious explanation. unlike danaher, illinois tool works provided organic revenue guidance and their forecast of flat to 2% growth for the next

for illinois tool works. it would have been great for a lot of other industrials we talked to. they were punished for providing more transparency in a way. everything i said is true, but there's another deeper reason for the disparity between danaher's stock performance yesterday and itw's. at the end of the day, investors are starting to sour on this industrial cohort as a whole. that's becoming a theme of this earnings period. think about it. we've seen this performance from united technologies, honeywell, generaec softening and the federal reserve looking like it's going to tighten in december, the industrials become less attractive because they need at least a better economy to produce decent numbers. illinois tool works is about as industrial as it gets. but danaher because of that recent spinoff has successfully distanced itself from the group. when danaher spun off fortive over the summer, the idea was to make the remaining business less cyclical, less industrial, more of a consistent growth play. fortive got nearly all their industrial divisions. the danaher of today is really

than anything else. and when the company reported yesterday, all of its businesses, every one, delivered slow and steady numbers. core revenues grew by 3%, dental division up 3.5%. diagnostics was up 3%. that's some real growth, and now danaher's stock is finally getting credit for it. as president and ceo tom joyce put it in the conference call, so to wrap up, we're pleased with our performance in the current macroeconomic environment. we taken to reshape our portfolio positions us well for stronger growth and value creation, end quote. i think he's absolutely right. danaher has made itself less cyclical, and that puts them in a very good position right now. illinois tools, it's a quintessential industrial. they have seven segments and while the company saw marginal expansion at most of them, the

three out of these seven businesses. another one was flat. three more saw revenue contractions like the welding division. really when you draw down, these two quarters had less in common than it might seem at first glance. fabulous company but one with super expectations that in the end is still an industrial. so here's the bottom line. just because two companies in roughly the same category report seemingly similar numbers, that doesn't necessarily mean the situations are analogous. with danaher and illinois tool works, you need to understand the context. the industrials are falling out of favor on the wall street fashion show. i think we'll see that next week

off its industrial businesses while illinois tool works was punished for being a pure industrial, for being itself. now, look, i like both of these companies and their stocks long term, but for the moment, you got to stick with danaher because it's become more of a life science play, something much more to the market's liking than a plain old industrial, even one as great as illinois tool works. we've got much more "mad money" ahead. i'm poring through boston beer company's latest earnings to see if you should be doubling down on your drinks, sam. then got car troubles? so does autozone. after being a market darling for years and a huge favorite of cramerica, the stock's been stalling. maybe it's time to cut bait. and what do we do with microsoft and mcdonald's? what do they have in common?

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okay. what the heck just happened to boston beer, the brewer best known for making sam adams, hence the ticker sam. last night the company reported a flat out disappointing quarter, i mean just plain ugly. i promise you there was nothing to like here. yet after opening down more than 6% this morning, boston beer's stock pirouetted. executed a sg its gains, the darn thing ultimately closed up $6.70, a 4.92%. it's one of the bigger winners of the market. it was astonishing. look, when you see a stock roaring higher in spite of an awful quarter, it's always worth digging deeper. in the case of boston beer, the numbers -- they're miserable. the company earned $2.48 per share. wall street was looking for $2.60. their sales were much weaker than anticipated. shipment volumes declined by 12%. the gross margin shrank by 90

oh, and they cut their full-year earnings guidance. really the only positive was that management has essentially discontinued their marketing budget for the rest of the year. basically they're sacrificing the company's near term results in order to reset, hopefully reinvigorate the business somewhere down the line. that's not much of a positive. the stock was looking down big. but after it got hammered in the morning, buyers nevertheless swooped in, and their bullishness allowed boston beer to close up pretty substantially. what drew them in? in part i think the move has elements of what we call a short squeeze, right? going into the quarter a lot of money managers had bet against the stock of boston beer. in fact, the shortage was a very high 19%. when the quarter turned out to be bad, some of the short sellers decided ka-ching, ka-ching, let's ring the register and cover our short positions. that means take a profit in

in this case, though, there weren't enough natural sellers, people who panicked or didn't like the quarter, to offset the short covering. so those short covers had to go take the stock higher to find the supply they need to cover their short and close out the position. on top of that, boston beer got a boost from a bloomberg piece that suggested it might be an attractive takeover target given the stock has come down so dramal months. we know there's been a lot of consolidation in the beer industry. however, if you really want to understand today's crazy reversal, and i know i did, you need to know where the bulls and the bears are coming from. and it just so happens that last month we got a compelling look at both sides of the equation, both arguments from a pair of dueling analysts. first credit squeeze came out and initiated a coverage of boston beer with an underperform rating. that's wall street speak for sell. less than a week later, william blair fired back a response initiating coverage on the stock with an outperform, wall street

battle royal that i found very educational. i hope you do at home, especially since the argument over boston beer played out pretty dramatically just today with the bears on the verge of victory this morning before the bulls turned things around and stole the prize, at least for this one session. first some context. for those of you who don't know boston beer, this is the largest craft beer brewer in the united states. and while they get the majority of their sales from sam adams, okay, the company also makes hard ciders and flavored malt beverages under angry orchard and twisted t an before i started this piece. on top of that, they have a craft beer incubator where the company invests in smaller brands. now, for many years boston beer was a beloved stock holding. from the generational bottom in 2009 through january 2015, the darn thing seemed unstoppable, roaring higher year after year. but around 18 months ago, investors realized the growth seemed to be slowing. since then the stock has lost an astounding nearly 50% of its value, and that is exactly what happens to growth stocks that lose their momentum. i'm always trying to teach you

drill down into the bull/bear thesis. william blair laid out the case when they initiated coverage on the stock with an outperform. to these analysts boston beer is still pioneering. they think the company is well positioned to take advantage of the opportunity here. basically boston beer is larger than any other craft brewer, but it's still small enough to be focused on this one particular nearby. what about the problems the company has run into over the past 18 months? the company acknowledges that boston beer sales are shrinking, but they believe boston beer has a chance to start growing its new distribution channels like convenience and drugstores, coming out with better markets, releasing new products, all pretty positive. what about the fact that smaller, trendier craft beer brands seem to be eating sam adams alive? i mean you make a good beer, but it's hardly the epitome of cool anymore. nevertheless, the bulls at william blair think that boston beer can ultimately use its scale and distribution network to fight off many of its smaller competitors. personally, i put a lot more credence in the bear thesis as outlined by credit suisse when they initiated coverage on boston beer with an underperform

sam has been losing market share pretty dramatically in the craft beer segment. the analysts here view boston beer as a victim of its own success. they were an early mover in the craft beer space with sam adams, and lately that space has gotten so hot that the number of producers have exploded with more than 4,000 independent craft brewers in the united states. the influx of new brands has really hurt them and perhaps more important, all these independent brewers have called bostonr' i mean let's be honest. unlike the days before the craft beer proliferation, nobody's going to be impressed if you go tiny a bar and say, i'd like a sam adams. in this kind of business, that does matter. trendier, the cooler you are. this isn't trendy. now, the bulls clearly won today since the stock rallied in the wake of an ugly quarter. when i look at both sides of the argument, i worry boston beer could go lower. a little cheaper than bud and more expensive than molson coors which sells for 20 times earnings.

boston beer's numbers are in decline, whereas constellation has terrific growth, including amazing numbers from ballas point. even though boston beer managed to rocket higher today after lousy earnings and a big decline in pre-market trading, i am siding with the bears and credit suisse on this one, not with the bulls at william blair. why pay up for boston beer when you can get the far superior constellation brands for the same valuation? just so you know, that is modelo and corona plus thas as for the argument it could be a takeover target. you know i never recommend stocks sew solely on a takeover basis if the fundamentals are in decline. and that is definitely the case with sam.

ron. >> caller: hey, jim. happy friday to you. >> oh, man, i'm glad it's friday. how about you? >> caller: i'm doing great. thank you. hey, i got kind of a two-part question for you. how would you feel a donald trump or hillary clinton presidency would influence grocery stocks like kroger, whole foods, et cetera, and what impact do you feel a regime change will have on food prices? >> none. these are very separate. we got to draw the line right here.

stocks, they do not trade off elections. the domestic markets, they are entirely about competition with each other and the fact that there's food deflation. neither candidate could be able to control that. so the answer is there are many reasons to buy or sell those stocks, but politics, thank heavens, it isn't one of them. all right. looking to give your portfolio a nice buzz? even after today's move higher, i'd steer clear of boston beer company. pour yourself some constellation brands instead, modelo, corona. much more "mad money" ahead. with the average american car now over 11 years old, is it time to hop in for investment in the zone? buckle your seat belts. i'll tell you if the company is still on track. then best week ever. well, it seems like it's been ages since so much good news hit the tape on a given day. i'm taking you through all the action and telling you what's

and a thank god it's friday edition of the lightning round. so stick with cramer! is that ice-t? nope, it's lemonade. is that ice-t? lemonade. ice-t? what's with these people, man? lemonade, read the sign. lemonade. read it. ok. delicious. ice-t at a lemonade stand? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money marin saved by switching to geico.

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what do you do with a stock with a long term track record that seems to have lost its mojo? and that's the question we need to answer tonight when it comes to autozone, the nation's leading auto parts retailer. with more than 5 s this one has long been one of my favorites. it's been a fabulous story, in part because of the average car on the road is now 11 years old and thus needs a lot of maintenance. and in part because the company has had a voracious buy back. if you bought autozone three years ago, you'd be up a terrific 73% versus a 23% gain for the s&p 500. if you bought it two years ago, you'd be up 45% versus just 12% for the s&p. however, over the last 12 months, it's starting to feel like autozone has hit a wall and

hit. the stock's up just 1% for 2016, lagging the 5% gain in the s&p. so we have to wonder has the autozone rally run out of gas? or is this a high quality stock that's simply pausing to refuel before it resumes its march higher. before we can understand why it appears to be languishing, we got to know what made the stock such an incredible outperformer for so many years. as ceo and he's the one who masterminded the company's renaissance. he focused on improving the do it yourself business, selling parts to people who do maintenance on their own cars and kick started the company's commercial business, selling parts to actual mechanics. he continued the habit of buying back massive quantities of stock, retiring the float. for years autozone had one of the best buy backs in the whole stock market. the combination of those repurchases and the company's

share price moved steadily higher year after year after year. however, in addition to being good, rhodes has also been lucky. now, you know i always say it's better to be lucky than good. but really it's best to be both. autozone has benefited enormously in the monster recovery in auto sales since the great recession. there are more and more vehicles on the road that need to be serviced. at the same time, many americans are hanging on to thd a lot either don't want to or can't afford to shell out the money for a new one. so for the past five years, the average car on the road in this country has been more than 11 years old, and they keep getting older. old cars need more maintenance, more spare parts, and you buy those spare parts at autozone. plus ever since the price of oil collapsed in 2014, consumers have been operating at a low gasoline price environment, which translates into people doing more driving. we got statistics to back that up. again, the more miles you put on

that's why autozone's stock was such a juggernaut. so what the heck has happened? has this former market darling lost its luster? okay. after putting up some solid numbers for ages, autozone's last two quarters have been, i have to tell you, somewhat disappointing. in late may they reported out a flat out earnings and revenue miss with 2% same-store sales. now, some of that was because oil prices had gone from a tail wind to a head wind, with the rebound in crude from the february lows. and it's not like they were alone. o'reilly automotive, they're pretty regular. advanced auto parts has been a good one. of course one suboptimal quarter is the kind of thing you can dismiss as a one-time occurrence. but a month ago autozone reported some more suboptimal results while the company managed to deliver a small earnings beat, the revenue came in a bit light and the same-store sales, flat out disappointing. up only 1%.

increase. the problem? over the past five years autozone got a big boost as it start the serving commercial customers at more and more of its stores. but now that rollout is almost over. 83% of their locations are now set up to serve commercial auto mechanic customers, so the same-store sales growth has slowed. however, it wasn't all bad. management said trends had accelerated near the end of the quarter and into the next one. they also pointed out that part of the slowdown here was simply weather related. cars don't need as much mild. what else is weighing on the stock? a number of analysts are worried that autozone's focus on the do it yourself business could hurt them going forward as cars become increasingly complicated with more and more electronic content, making do it yourself maintenance a lot more difficult. how often do we talk about the connected car? but autozone remains confident that some hobbyists will continue to fix their own cars even if there's a slowdown in do it yourself. the company has aggressively

business as the do it yourself thing fizzles. that's part of the reason why autozone has been laser focused on rolling out two key initiatives to bolter its commercial same-store sales. the company is doing more to ensure that key items remain in stock so that professional auto mechanic customers don't walk away from the stores empty hands. 1,900 of autozone's 5,300 locations are receiving deliveries at least three times a week and they plan to roll out this program at another 1,000 stores. the sec initiative is the mega hub concept, super size stories that carry twice the number of products. the point of these mega hubs is they can serve as distribution locations and 3,000 stores have access to mega hub inventory with more coming. yes, autozone has challenges, but they're also taking steps to meet those challenges. in the end, i default to the numbers. in the most recent quarter, autozone posted 3% revenue growth, which is admittedly down from 6% to 8% range from last year, but their earnings per share still increased by 12%. while that's down from 13% growth the quarter before, it's still pretty darn good.

kind of earnings growth when business is slow and their same-store sales rose by 1%, can you imagine how well they'd do when business improves? plus a big part of the recent slowdown is simply because the company finished lapping some very easy comparisons in terms of gas prices, something that affected the whole industry and based on management's comments in the last conference call, it sounds like things are already picking up. so, yes, i still like autozone, the company. and autozone, the stock, it's inexpensive, selling at just 16.4 times earnings. auto parts retailers even though this one has the best growth. plus it still has got that voracious buyback. look at this. from 2011 through 2015, this company retired 17 million shares for $6.7 billion. that is huge. considering they have just 29 million shares outstanding now. that's why i say it's probably

even though it's reported a couple of shake quarters, remain a believer in autozone. this is one of the few parts of retail that can't beat amazon, and sooner or later, i bet autozone resumes its long march higher. "mad money" is back after the break.

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sell, sell, sell. we'll play this sound -- [ buzzer ] -- and then the lightning round is over. are you ready, skee-daddy? it's time for the lightning round on cramer's "mad money." we'll start with don in california. don. >> caller: hey, jim cramer. thank you for all that you do for us smaller investors. >> excellent. that's what the show is about. it's about you. what can i do? >> caller: as i lay around rehabbing from my broken leg, i have plenty of time to watch my stocks. i am a long time action alerts member, and on my own i've accumulated a good size poon it's no secret that the biotechs are under pressure. i don't think celgene price gouges their customers. so before next week's earnings, what do you think? >> first of all, thank you for subscribing to action alerts where we address all the stocks my charitable trust owns and then some. second, celgene reports next week, and you are absolutely right. i don't think they do any gouging bob hugin or under the

they've been very straightforward. however, it is an election year, and i have not been pounding the table on any of the pharmaceuticals until after it's over. but i suggest taking no action. it's too low. how about kenneth in florida? kenneth. >> caller: how are you? >> i am good. how about you, kenneth? >> caller: oh, i'm great. i'm so happy to speak to you. you ought to be running for president. >> well, thank you. i'm running for president of cramerica. what's up? >> caller: >> not great hotel chain, not going to recommend it. if you want to be in the hotel, business, it's going to be marriott after that merger. but i don't like the business in particular because i think a lot of people believe airbnb is coming after them. may i suggest you buy expedia, which owns home away and is very good. how about don in florida? don. >> caller: jim, i'm calling you from vero beach, florida. i watch you every day. >> thank you. >> caller: my question is frontier, ftr.

going down. verizon quarter not that good, but i still think it's okay. i think that as it gets to 5% is a better deal than frontier. i'm not done. i am taking jerome from my home state of new jersey. jerome. >> caller: jim, my stock is lg homes. >> yes. i know lg. it's okay. i think the home builders frankly are too hard to own right here, right now until we find out more clarity about interest rates between here and year end. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round! [ buzzer ] >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade. booyah, jim cramer. i'm from south beach, florida where the women are as hot as jim cramer.

>> i don't know whether to thank you or not there with the hot as a pistol there or whatever. >> booyah, jim, double booyah. >> hi, jim, the oracle of cnbc. >> oh, no. >> i love you for coining new phrases like people are kooky. >> caller: you and i share a birthday. i am one day, 24 hours your senior. >> excellent. you're 48. >> and of course slap it on the meanest place on earth. oh, i'm sorry. slap it on twitter. i'll tell you why talk of possible democratic -- [ buzzer ] >> i'd like to finish the show, and then you can go do whatever you want, which is obviously not the show. red 97! set! red 97! did you say 97? yes. you know, that reminds me of geico's

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reynolds is worth chasing up here. i'd say i missed it. move one. my "squawk on the street" colleague, david faber, always breaking new ground, made it clear that qualcomm and nxp semiconductors have come to a $110 deal. to me, that was a little disappointing for nxp shareholders, including my charitable trust, which you can follow along at actionalertsplus.com. but remember this stock was indeed at 80 not that long ago. huge win. then incredibly the consolidation continued. as david indicated, where time warner story, there could be fire, maybe as soon as this weekend. just think with reynolds, nxp, time warner, the merger-related bid underneath makes the market a lot more easy to bet with than against. then there's the upside and downside of earnings. one that announced today was microsoft, mr. softy, which delivered a quarter that showed incredible cloud growth.

might have a real competitor, maybe even a superior one to its amazon web services business. hence why the stock rallied 4%, all-time high. i remember when ceo satya nadella came in and talked to me about doing $18 billion in cloud revenues in a couple years' time. i thought he was being aggressive. yet microsoft's cloud business is now on track to hit $20 billion -- not $18 billion but $20 billion by 2018. i think he's going to pull it off. the man is continually underestimated, but not by me. speaking of underestimated, did you see mcdonald's roaring up today 3%? that move makes perfect sense as steve easterbrook, the ceo, delivered 3.5% same-store sales growth, an astounding number compared to the 1.5 figure that the naysayers, who don't he's accomplished, were looking for. easterbrook has re-energized the most important constituency, which is the franchisees. while people keep thinking the breakfast all-day menu is all he's got up his sleeve, i can safely say you ain't seen nothing yet. much more technology and innovation to come. do not ring the register. you know what else is worth hanging onto? alkermese. last night the drug company announced some very positive data on its breakthrough antidepressant that works when other medications have failed and, even better, doesn't produce weight gain.

markets out there. major props to richard pops, the ceo, for pressing forward relentlessly on this drug when others had given up on it. even up $12 or 28%, you know, i don't think the stock is done going higher although profit takers will no doubt swarm in eventually. but it wasn't all fair weather. my charitable trust may own nxp semi and feeling good, but it also owns general electric. at g.e., the orders were down 6% while the revenue disappointed. not disastrous, but certainly nothing to cheer about. i remain committed to it, but if the stock didn't have a decent yield, i bet it would go lower. three he verizon, union pacific, and travelers. for verizon, blame more aggressive competitors like sprint and t-mobile. you know i like those two. they've won the hearts and minds and more importantly the pocketbooks of the millennials with their radical advertisements and low prices. union pacific, people got too excited about a turn. too early. travelers, wow. this stock's been shelled mercilessly because of what's

for years automobile fatalities were on the decline. that is until texting came along. it's the scourge of the highways, and insurers including travelers simply weren't ready for it. they still aren't. what a couple of days. i bet this counts as calm versus next week, when the earnings season kicks into even higher gear. stick with cramer. how do you become america's #1? start by taking care of families for 70 years. earn the trust of 32 nfl teams. be there for america's toughest and help, when help is needed america's #1 isn't a status earned overnight.

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okay. look, if this time warner deal doesn't happen, this market's going to be in a little bit of trouble. that's how much hype there is. time warner is indeed, i think, worth $110. the stock is up 10, and everybody is presuming a done deal. nxpi/qualcomm, that $110 price, i'd tell you it's not that disappointing because the stock

bull market somewhere. i promise to try and find it just for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer, and i will see you monday! you next time! ashley: it's date night. and although less frightening than picking up the tab-- today is free, lucky enough. oh, thank god. ashley: --coming up with fresh ideas on what to do can be a bit daunting. do you think you could survive here in the wilderness? yeah, i think so. i think we got this. ashley: so tonight we're hooking up with some of tv's hottest bachelors. h, you just smacked it. you like that, right? ashley: when date night gets unconventional. what's going on in there? and we're in! ashley: next on 1st look. [music playing]