because we have this bizarre confluence of so many companies' prospects fading at exactly the same time that a parade of federal reserve officials came up with a need to raise rates. when you see stocks of hive-quality companies like mmings or macy's, anan rdstrom tonight joining in with a really hideous repo, the last thing you would expect is for a grownup federal governor or president to squawk about the need to -- when copper is trading at levels not seen in years, when aluminum and iron are plummeting, kind of crazy r people in positiononof power to keep talking about how we desperately need to raise interest rates, raise them. it's positively counter intuitive. with oil once again about to challenge the $3 level, who would think a lot of federal reserve officials would grab a

microphone and say these the -- against inflation. i'm sorry. what inflation? i see deflation almost everywhere, except in wages. but clearly thatats all that matters to the fed, because by any other calculus, everything else is going down, except for make bone-in chicken and all-natural beef. two pretty niche commodities, unless you own a restaurant like i do. if you didn't know any better, you would think these fed policy makers will talk about the need it's a recipe for declining stock prices, and that's what you're getting. no matter, like i've told you repeatedly, as soon as the fed got the ammunition to raise rates in the form of last

friday's very strong employment number, this market would go from being intermittently bearish, with a somewhat popotive backdrop to oututght beararh. some some pockets of strength hand some pockets of excessive negativity. that's exactly where we are right now. remember, the fed has no mandate to preserve your stock portfolio. i have they critics who sayivity stocks who want higher to to give your portfolio a boost. that is just totally untnte. i absosotely do favor higher stock prpres, because more of you own -- i like stocks savings vehicles. i don't want you to lose money. hey, that's my bias. however, i also don't want inflation to come roaring back. even if stocks go higher, you won't do well in a raging inflation environment, simply because your purchasing power

there's a very easy test that i use to assess the stock marketet which is what we care about in cramerica can handle a rate hike. the text, simp. is the economy so strong that it will slope, but not derail the good things that happened, will it be this this. >> all aboard! >> or this? [ train whistling ] i think when we have the situation whererprices are coming down for so m my good goods whether it's the retail or supermarket, you don't need to be worried about a inflation. unfortunately i'm not hearing these concerns from any fed officials that spoke today. the fed feels sanguine everybody knows them now.

it's facebook, amazon,n,etflix and google now everybody the more portfolio managers pile into these names, the less i like them. now, let me introduce you to into the situation that will work. it's a niche situation. it's stocks that reflect not negative, but too much negative d can be bought eithth for trader investment, exhibit a is kohlhl, where i shop for sogs or slacks. but anyway, i got a very nice kohl's from my house, nice place. seven months ago. $25 up in six months. accelerated with the

got clobbered again. the market figured as bad as macy's was, it would tore -- and when kohl's delivered, the stock zoomed. yeah, we got too negative and it took off. macy's does have more hurt by the strong dollar, i have nener en one of those leaders holding up a yellow flag or one of those umbrellas, with going into the kohl's. i think that it would -- shockingly bad -- i clearly didn't spend enough when the wife took me there two weeks ago. i did damage to myself, but now everybody else is getting

damaged. hey, how aut that popeye's louisiana kitchen. we had the ceo on today. i think the pharmaceutical companies could soon fit the bill. if there's a fed-engendered slowdown, they'll be are you ready skee-daddy? bristol-myers. it's a stock that n be punished by rhetoric and the fact that it's a member -- but bristol-myers is down almost 10%, and i want you to keep a eye on both general mills and kimberly-clark. they reported terrific quarters, with the recent of the market. in fair they're in consolidating industries. plus the raw costs, they're ought plplmeting. theyeyave less exposure tohe strong dollar. finally let me give you another one.

they went down today. oddly i believe as we see more and more challenges, you'll begin to be questioned about spending more on defense. in the nest 4,270 debates, i'm telling you this is what we're going to talk about. we don't have enoughghircraft power to project power in southeast asia. we made our army about as lean as it could be" going into every presidential trip over each other how they need a stronger army, navy, and air force. it's a fact we must accept that stocks will get punished by all d chatter, all, not,t,o matter what happens with commmmities or even the data. fed wants rates higher. we're on the lookout for stocks being overly punished by some sort of mistaken group think.

being meteed out, we'll point them out before they round. it's a harder way to make money, but still a way. here's the bottom line. we'll get through this period like the other 26 times since we bottomed back in 2009. that's something you can count on. jay in texas, jay? >> caller: hey, jim, happy new year, boo-yah jim bo. >> i'm all over that. what's going on? >> caller: my son and myself we're longtime followers, first time caller. i'm also a -- and my son goes to -- with a finance degree. >> fantastic. >> caller: we do some analysis of reading your books, and we have a q qstion on hain celestial. >> i think the world of simon and hain, but when a company does not deliver the kind of

itself wants, and ifsh irwin simon was disappointed. if he's disappointed, i'm disappointed. you have to wait for the next quarter to see if things get better. it's a great long-term investment because of natural and organic, but i cannot be jumping up and down say buy haha he was disappointed on, except r proteal. alex in ohio? >> caller: boo-yah, jim. >> boo-yah, alex. >> caller: i appreciate you. i'm a big fan. i don't know how you do what you do, man. >> sure trying. it's a tough day. >> caller: the question you have is regard to jetblue. is it a good pickup for the long term? if it were down a couple bucks. the thing hahabeen a horse, an absolute horse, t it hasn't come down enough for me to say i like it more than delta.

i still like southwest more. jetblue has been a winner, but i need it to come down before i can pound the table. already the market is getting punished for certain, but some stocks are getting overly punished. it's almost like they're falsely being condemned. keep an eye on these. they wililcome back. we always s t through it together. c'mon, whehehave we not? grubhub is king when it comes to delivers delicious dinners, but the stock seems familiarished to me. then macy's got slammed yet. i'm telling you why the bear case extends far beyond the maul. plus what's next? can it continue? eifert the ceo. sosotick with cramer! don't miss a second of "mad money." follow on twitter, have a

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what the heck has happenededo grubhub? here's a aompany with the numbmb one online food ordering platform, and can't make it through the workweek without yourself lunch. when grub hub became public back in april of last yea the market went ga-ga for that stuff. hallelujah the darling of the high-growth internet space. we were told they said disruptive technology. that's transforming long stagnant restaurant takeout businesses. and they transformed the way many of us ordrd food. so much easier to do it online than to pick up the phone, except for here, because we don't let our food travel. so fast forward to today. alternates more that a year and a half after the ipo, it's become a total dog, with a stock that's down more than 30% year to date. 30%? in fact it's not trading a

when, and perilously we need to ask ourselves something -- has it been punished too much? that it's become a relative bargain? or has the narrative here changed? making the stock a lot less attractive than people initially thought? even though it's going down, your worst nightmare, you're a value guy? let's begin at the beginning. all the excite started less than a year before the ipo, when the old d -- that can let yououse the web or your phone, to get takeout or deliveries in hundreds of cities nationwide. in addition to the grubhub/seamless business, they own dining in and restaurants on the run, local companies it acquired earlier this year, and owns all menus.com, both on online repose torrie of is menus. plus the company has its order

hub business, by improving the online ordering and delivers process. when grub hub finanay became public, this -- this thing actutuly soared 30%. on its first gale of trading, a red-hot internet stock. the bull case was pretty straightforward from the get-go. we heard how grub hub was a disruptor in a fragmented industry. the company talked about how it's total addressable market could be 61% of all restaurants in the u.s., and given that when ub hub became public, only 5% actually occurred officer the ternet? ll, it was pretty nanaral to assume this would be a very good long-term growth story. at the same time grub hub had all the share in the online delivery business, serving over 30,000 restaurants, 4.3 million users, numbers that haven't only

so back then, they concluded that they had built a defensive, sustainable and increasingly profitable business propelled by some phenomenal apps, and a big motor around it. plus like so many other companies, it wasn't hostage to advertising. this wasn't a stock shahhic only judge on page views or eyeballs. >> the restaurant pays them a commission worst at least 150%. show higher on the, out of the gate, grub hub average commissions were 14.2%, the revenue growth here looks spectacular, up 85% in the first year it became public. so it's no surprise that grub hub worked its way higher, rallying up to $74 when it peakeded. $47, but then we reached late

april of 2015, and since then grub hub has plummeted down to where it is now, it's almost cut in half. it's been a nightmare to own. >> so what exactly went wrong? >> first of all while it's expanding rapidly, it's slowed pretty dramatically, and you know how these growth guys hate that. for exampl in the last quarter, grub hub 38% revenue growth, but still down big from the 47% growth in the previous quarter, not to mention their fabulous 75% growth rate the year before. that's a major deceleration. remember, we like accelerating growth, and it makes you -- thing about most mates or uber--eats or even, yes, whoa, amazon might finally be taking a toll on the company's business. it's been trampled by a seemingly endless -- which came to a real crescendo when the companreported a truly

disappointing quarter at the end of october. i mean, the stock plunged 23% in a single session. wall street is now acting like grub hub is road kill. and at thinks levels, the stock still trades at 23 times next year's estimates. it's a reasonablblestimate, as long as the estimates don't keep being cut and there's no certainly about that. what was so terrib at the most recent quarter? it missed both the top and bottom-line estimates, but also back the company spend -- these are just 9 headlines. dig deeper. it starts to look look every aspect of this business is decelerating. grubhub's take rate, the commission he get from each quarter was supposed to be growing. when grubhub came public, a lot -- might approach 20%, but it's stuck at the level for ages.

what else? the active user base is still growing. that growth race hag steadily decelerated. it increaseded by 41%, i know, sounds good year other over, down and 46% the quarter before that that should have given the number the boosts, right? you buy more and more business, in absolute terms, expanding a user base, it's impressive. relative to the whicicis what matters, it is disappointing. perhaps worst of all, grub hub's daily orders, increased by just 22.5%, down from 33%. grubhub can say it was caused by allergy gists, buzz there's a clear trend, showing that grubhub's ground is indeed growing. a nightmare for the owners of the stock, which brings me to the other things that are unnerving investors, grubhub has

business, and into the delivery spspe, with actual driveve to take the food themselves rather than leaving everything to the restaurant. managementndicated they'll be d spending $10 to $20 million to build out the delivery capacity next year. they're already delivering in 30 markets. with plans to move into 40 more. they've been vocal about the lowest delivery foos out there. the economics might be legislate ace tractive that is the easy to understand onlnle ordering biz. and it's the only way to fend off the rising competition from the likes of uber and, yes, post -- this company's earnings, the competition is too steep. when grubhub went public 1 months ago, let's just say there wasn't a lot of competition, but

now there's a lot in this online food delivery space. you can see it in the decelerating growth rate. maybybgrubhub can turn thihis to see if the growth here can stabilize. flyer has now entered the danger zone, making it way too risky for this guy. ahead. macy's just impacted the wrong. troubles me. when it comes to ordering popeye's i say treat yourself, but it could also be a treat for your portfolio. i have the ceo, and also homework that could help make you money.y. two new names. stick with cramer. i took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. yeah...but what about mike? it works on his cough too. cough! it works on his cough too. mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs for 12 hours.

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wills suddenly become again a quandary. is weighs on this market, and weighihi on it hard. we know for months now, perhaps even this entire year, hedge funds which trade a relationships have sold is the stocks, sold them whenever out has plummeted. if oil is going down, the economy is not stroke enough.

back in the soup. this is oil as barometer of strength oar weakness dicot mick that kicks in every time oil goes below $45. i haha always thought the e esis behind the trade is a tata wrong-heheed, because the vast majority, close to 85% are inseriously correlate lated to the price of out. here's the issue, though, when you see the stock that's about macy's or nordstrom get really pummels? right before your eyes, and thth do benefef, you get thrown off. one of the great undercurrents

gasoline prices would translate to higher purchasing pow and for better earnings in a service economy. but the delivered says not so fast. that declining gasoline send adding up. that's what made these last few days so jarring. we know it's bad in the real wowod. it's like attacks. sure macy's and nordstrom got hurt by warm weather, but in the end it doesn't seem toby hilping anybody in reality, even though we know in theory it has to be. i guess you could say that cheaper oil has become a pox on both of stock and real world houses. worse yesterday, the saves grace of oil has that the winners with good balance sheets would start scooping up the loser and takeovers, the deal that was on everyone's lips was exxon, the biggest would buy anadarko, apc,

now that the gulf claims are at last behind anadarko, the big oil spill had acted like a poison pill for this company. w that it dissolved -- there re lots of reports that exxon would strike. instead we learned one 36-hour very strange news cycle that anadarko, again a good company, can approached a rival, apache, with an all-stock bid. felt compelled to issue a release. the result, apaches stock which had spsped on the rumor god d crushed on the negative ananthat anadadko had walked away. didn't matter. the selling continued. a tough group. nonjed did we lease the commodity bid, we lost the takeover story. we were in a different posture. retail clearly not coming

believe me lower oil is causing a lot of t t lower prices you are seeing, sosohat happens now? what do we want in especialtily if it doesn't seem to be helping anyone, and definitely hinders all the companies that have become public, especially the master limited partnerships. unfortunately the economy doesn't seem strong enough to take the oil higher, plus it looks lie isis, which would always bess a geopolitical disruptor could be on the run because of the russian and kurdish fighters. lower oil l r docksically becomes partrtf the bear case, not the bull case, and only exacerbating the fears that are out there less the fed sends us back into the abyss of no growth. can oil hold 40?

bucs, but while it goes there expect more pain. that's the nature of the oil patch, and today was one of the nastiest sessions of 2015, and i'm putting it at the feet of the cocoapse of oil. ken in arizona, ken? >> caller: hey, jim, how are you? >> aisle real good. >> caller: kendall morgan, wondering if there is any correlation pricewise to the decline in the price of oil. i don't think there should be. secondly if these statements by bullard, dudley, lacquer and those at the fed talking about projected increases are playing into this thing? >> they sure are. i know rich kinder is the chairman, he's been buys stock, but the last quarter was not that good. and they're all part of etfs and they're e l going down.

onil reason why you own the stocks typically are for the distributions. kinder morgan, it's wait and see. luis in north carolina? >> caller: yes. thanks for taking the call. >> how are you? >> caller: good. people remodel and buying their homes need to put furniture in it. i'm looking it the -- a little worrisome, but interest rates are probably going up. i know you like this company, were your favorites, the ceo has been on the show. the chart is showing. the conference call right in the middle othe holiday season. tell us what we need to see going into it. >> you're not going to like what i'm about to say, but i'm a devotee, and he's urged people that think short term, they should go.

multiple years. those who are along for the ride i think will win, but those who are buying it for a quarter, worried right now, they shouldn't be in. he's telling y y, unless you're willing to think long termrm don't over restoration hardware. i like his thinking. oil is weighing on this market in a weird and bizarre way, but i think we can still expect more pain from declining oil. much more "mad money" healed. could the latest quarter from popeye's louisiana kitchen be just what your portfolio is craving? them i'm celebrating throwback thursday by revisiting some of the questions, and your calls. rapid fire in tonight's edition

stick with cramer. we know that this has been a difficult time for most restaurant stocks, but at least one of the laggards seems to have gotten its groove back. >> i'm talking about plki, the very well-run fried chicken chain with 2,475 locations, most which are in this country, but a growing number overseas. popeye's has had a tough year, the stock, not the company. it's down 9%, then the company reported some tremendous

beat off the 47% basis, strong global same-store sales growth, up 6%. management also raised the early -- hence why the stock vaulted 39 about the $41. even after today's run, popeyes is only about four bucks above its lows. we have to wonder other not if it can clear climbing. i wouldn't by surprised if it continues to rally. so let's check in with the ceo of popeye's to learn about the quarter, welcome back to "mad money." >> thank you, jim. good to see you. >> everyone was saying every chain is versus trouble. you do four times that. what did popeye's do differently? >> we covered the country with exciting reasons to come in. we had a report market share of

restaurants. that was up two points versus a year ago. it's a competitive category. this was a winning quarter. you talked about chile and peru, and can you put mohr restaurants there? >> absolutely, jim. there is more around the world. we're in about 28 countries, and some are in 60. some of some exileding stories where the brand has proved to be successful, and we're excited to open those markets? >> one of the pillars is to accelerate risks, yet at the

need superioioreal estate. a bunch of the restaurants have told me we're beginning to run out of interesting good real estate spots. are you able to find the good real stade? >> yes, you're right, but it's a competitive world. there's more competition. you have to have the sales there our units are opening up noror of a million six. the under economics are excellent. that allows them to pay more for real estate. >> we're in a moment where a lot of people are worried about labor costs. labor costs for your franchisees are are they starting to feel a pinch?

from that appointed forwarar the net effect has been about one%. we've been able to take careful and collective pries to offset that. look, everyone likes organic, natural, healthy. great buzz words, but we've been seeing some of the healthier guys not put up big numbers, and guides who are good treats going a bit better. is there a shift back where if i'm going out, i'm going to have something i i ally like, even if it's not nececsarily something the best word for me. >> what we see is people enjoying flavorful food, so our new products, like it's spicy

you're not eating that at night. so i think you've got to keep the excitement high for people so they can make a choice of something really flavorful and good to eat. >> last question, you have a buyback. stocks in the groups obviously you're doing better, just keep buying back stock and take advantage of it? >> well, absolutely. we were excited to report that our board approve that $200 million authorization. we think that tells yoyohow confident we are in our future, jim. >> it sure does. it was great to see some company's stock pop on good news. cheryl bachelder, congratulations on a good quarter. great to see you. not everybody is struggling. "mad money" is back after the break. same detergent. but only jill ends up with wet, spotty glasses. kate adds finish jet-dry with five power actions that dry dishes and prevent spots and film, so all that's left is the shine.

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it is time. itis time for the lightning round. buy buy buy or sell sell sell. before this sound and then the round is over. are you ready, skee-daddy?