“There’s an incredibly jarring gulf between stock prices and reality,” the “Mad Money” host said after a day that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average drop 1.3%, the S&P 500 fall almost 0.9%, and the Nasdaq give back 1%.
Bond yields pushed higher, wiping out the declines that followed Wednesday’s announcement from the Treasury Department of a plan to subdue market rates. Earlier this week, the 30-year Treasury yield topped 5.33%, a level not seen in nearly two decades. Inflationary concerns, exacerbated by Iran war-elevated oil prices, are to blame.
Cramer spoke from the construction site of Micron’s massive new semiconductor fabrication plant in Boise, Idaho, where thousands of workers are building facilities that will eventually produce memory chips needed for artificial intelligence. He pointed to the project as evidence of the strength he sees in parts of the economy, even as stocks contend with worries about the state of the consumer, higher oil prices and elevated interest rates.
“Unfortunately, though, you can’t take your eye off the broader market even if you think, as I do, that Micron’s stock is radically undervalued,” Cramer said. “In the end, we always have to look at stocks through the market’s prism.” Cramer’s Charitable Trust, the portfolio run by CNBC’s Investing Club, owns shares of Micron, which actually surged on Thursday. While still way up for the year, Micron is off about 20% from its June all-time highs.
Walmart‘s latest earnings report added to Thursday’s negativity. The stock lost 9%. While the retail giant missed Wall Street’s expectations for quarterly comparable sales and the company’s sales guidance, Cramer said the quarter was more complicated than the headline numbers suggested. Higher gasoline prices weighed on consumers late in the quarter, as Walmart continued to prioritize low prices and market-share gains over maximizing near-term profits. Gas above $4 a gallon leaves consumers with less money to spend elsewhere, while the ongoing conflict with Iran makes it difficult to know when that burden will ease.
Rates were another concern. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Thursday his plan to increase purchases of longer-dated government debt could exceed the top end of the $4 billion range floated the day before. Cramer questioned whether the move can meaningfully ease borrowing costs given the size of the national debt. “When America has $40 trillion in debt, a $4 billion buyback has the Treasury Secretary looking like the Little Dutch boy with his finger plugging the dike,” he explained.
Those pressures make it harder for even strong companies to escape the broader market narrative. While Cramer sees Micron’s massive U.S. investment as evidence of a powerful manufacturing and AI boom, he said the health of the consumer ultimately matters more to the economy.
“As much as I’d like to say that what’s behind me — raw, American manufacturing might — is what matters … two-thirds of this country’s economy is service-based,” Cramer said. That leaves companies such as Micron caught between strong underlying demand and a market preoccupied with macroeconomic risks.
“Micron’s stock finished up 4%. That’s terrific American exceptionalism at work,” Cramer said. “The problem is there are another 499 stocks in the S&P 500 and the prism made a lot of them look downright awful today.”
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