Santa took his time getting to Wall Street this year, but Jim Cramer told his Mad Money viewers that it looks like the so-called Santa Claus Rally started on Monday and has been delivering gifts to investors all week. And as the year draws to a close, Cramer took a look back at some of the best — and worst — gifts of the year.
Top honors went to Pfizer (PFE) – Get Pfizer Inc. Report, for not only meeting our vaccine needs, but also giving us an at-home pill that can knock out symptoms in 89% of Covid cases.
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Next was chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) – Get NVIDIA Corporation Report, which saw its shares rise 127% for the year. Nvidia is leaving the industry in the dust as it powers forward its best chips for gaming, autonomous driving, high-performance computing and more.
Cramer gave props to Tesla’s (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report Elon Musk for remaining the king of electric vehicles and propelling them into the mainstream. Jim Farley at Ford Motor (F) – Get Ford Motor Company Report deserves credit as well, but it will be a long time before anyone dethrones Musk.
Cramer also called out Devon Energy (DVN) – Get Devon Energy Corporation Report and Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) – Get Pioneer Natural Resources Company Report for getting disciplined and responsible about oil drilling, while at the same time rewarding shareholders.
Finally, Cramer said Apple (AAPL) – Get Apple Inc. Report once again proved the naysayers wrong, which is why he continues to recommend owning, not trading, Apple.
Who deserves coal in their stockings this year? Top honors went to China for cracking down on capitalism and destroying their companies that trade in the U.S. The next lump of coal went to SPACs, Those special purpose companies that run roughshod over IPO regulations and do nothing but erode confidence and lose investors money.
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Also on the naughty list this year was Biogen (BIIB) – Get Biogen Inc. Report, for its Alzheimer’s drug; both the CDC and NIH for confusing the heck out of the public with its COVID guidelines; and finally, AT&T (T) – Get AT&T Inc. Report for wrecking a perfectly good company so badly that it was forced to cut its dividend.
Executive Decision: Boxed
In his first “Executive Decision” segment, Cramer spoke with Chieh Huang, co-founder and CEO of Boxed BOXD, the online retailer that just went public via a SPAC merger that sent shares up 10.6% on its first day of trading.
Huang recalled his conversation with Cramer in 2017, when he promised to go public. Today, he was very pleased to have fulfilled that promise. He said over the past few years, Boxed has both grown and diversified its offerings. Nearly 25% of their business now comes from businesses.
Boxed also has a lucrative and growth software component, Huang added. Like Amazon (AMZN) – Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report, Boxed makes its software platform available to other vendors in Asia and the Middle East and has been seeing a lot of success.
When asked about his decision to come public via SPAC rather than an IPO, Huang admitted it was a difficult decision to make. The company netted around $198 million from the SPAC merger, he said, and they are very fortunate to be one of the few good SPACs that has made their shareholders money.
Finally, when asked about competition from the likes of Costco (COST) – Get Costco Wholesale Corporation Report, Huang noted that 70% of Boxed customers live deep in the suburbs or in rural areas that are not well served by big box retailers.
The Spate of SPACs
As Cramer mentioned at the top of the show, 2021 has been the biggest year ever for special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. It’s also been the most disastrous, as only the SPACs themselves make money, while the companies they merge with, and those that invest in them, often rack up huge losses.
Of the 193 companies that came public via SPAC this year, there are a few notable gems, like Boxed, and Cramer was able to identify a handful of others as well.
There were a ton of electric vehicle, battery and charging company SPACs this year, along with many companies that are years away from even producing a product, let alone profits. None of these companies work in a rising interest rate environment.
But there are companies like MP Materials (MP) , which mines rare earth minerals and makes a profit doing it. Cramer also recommended Matterport (MTTR) for extreme speculation. Investors may also want to consider auto lending technology company OpenLending (LPRO) , along with Blue Owl Capital (OWL) which helps with business lending.
Outside of these few exceptions, Cramer found little positive to say about this wave of SPACs.
Executive Decision: Celadon Financial Group
For his final “Executive Decision” segment, Cramer spoke with Daryl Hirsch, CEO of brokerage firm Celadon Financial Group, and Suzanne Currie, managing director of the Celadon Foundation, to learn more about the company’s charitable giving. A portion of every commission at Celadon flows directly to their foundation.
Currie explained that up until now, giving stocks to charity has been a time-consuming and onerous process with lots of regulatory hurdles. But Celadon has created a technology platform that expedites the transfer and liquidation of stock donations, making it easier to contribute.
Hirsch said that Celadon’s goal is to “do a little bit of good” in the world and the collaboration with their foundation has seen a lot of interest so far. Commissions are “slim,” he said, but they are not in the race to zero like some brokerages are and that gives them the ability to create programs like this one.
Look to Small Business for Employment Outlook
In his “No Huddle Offense” segment, Cramer said the markets spends too much time fretting over the government’s employment numbers and not enough time paying attention to Paychex (PAYX) – Get Paychex, Inc. Report, the nation’s second largest payroll processor and the only company with its finger on the pulse of small business.
As we heard earlier this week, Paychex provides services for small businesses and they know who’s hiring, who’s going out of business and everything in between. So while bigger companies may continue to struggle, small business seems poised to rally, especially now that Covid treatments may lure workers back to work.
Once enough workers return, our supply chain woes could be solved and things could finally return to the way they were in 2019 before the pandemic began. That, Cramer concluded, would be a very happy way to usher in 2022.
Lightning Round
In the Lightning Round, Cramer was bullish on Penn National Gaming (PENN) – Get Penn National Gaming, Inc. Report, Vericel (VCEL) – Get Vericel Corporation Report and Nextdoor Holdings (KIND) – Get Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. Class A Report.
Cramer was bearish on Plug Power (PLUG) – Get Plug Power Inc. Report and BP Midstream Partners (BPMP) – Get BP Midstream Partners LP Report.
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