Jim Cramer Prefers Lam Research (LRCX) Over Applied Materials But Cautions About Risks
Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC said that President Donald Trump's new tariffs were much worse than expected. Cramer believes investors were getting 'tired' of worrying about the tariff threat and went into a 'bring it on' mode ahead of the Wednesday announcement.
'Regular viewers know that I've never been a huge fan of free trade. It would be fine if everybody plays by the rules, but we're the only country that plays by the rules. I want fair trade instead, which means tariff those who tariff us just as hard. Of course, I've been hoping for reciprocal tariffs, and that's what we allegedly got, even if they were far more severe than I'd hoped for. With reciprocal tariffs, we hammer specific countries for putting up specific trade barriers or subsidizing specific industries. While we got reciprocal tariffs, I never expected them to be this high, nor did many other people. From Wall Street's perspective, Trump might as well have used a meatax, which is what we were most afraid of. The term reciprocal meant nothing in the end; the term punitive is more accurate.'
Cramer Calls China an 'Insidious Octopus'
Cramer called China an 'insidious Octopus' and mentioned how the country used several 'loopholes' to enter the US and European markets. However, he believes the tariffs will result in higher prices for consumers. Cramer said Trump does not 'care' about falling stock prices or rising consumer prices.
'Trump doesn't seem to care about the stock market this time around. Why should he care about certainty, which I've said over and over again is what makes investors happy? He's not trying to make investors happy. He's not about happiness for us. He's about making these countries bend to his will, and if it causes inflation, then it causes inflation. He never promised you a rose garden stock market, and I sure didn't see one in the Rose Garden today.'
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In
For this article, we picked 10 stocks Jim Cramer recently talked about during his programs on CNBC. With each company we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A technician operating an automated semiconductor processing machine with laser accuracy.
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 58
Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC said that he prefers Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ:LRCX) over Applied Materials.
'All right, Applied Materials is number three. After, I like Lam Research, and then I like KLA, and then I like Applied Materials. They have a lot of China exposure that makes people very, very worried. I think Tim Archer from Lam is a better one if you want to be in capital equipment, but I've got to tell you, capital equipment is so tied up with China that I can't just get behind it anymore, even though I love these companies. We've got to straighten things out with China.'
Columbia Seligman Global Technology Fund stated the following regarding Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
'Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) was a disappointing position for the fund during the quarter, despite strong long-term returns for the company stock. Escalating tensions between the United States and China have impacted Lam's returns as U.S. restrictions on high-technology exports to China, particularly advanced AI chips, have been a major negative for chip providers. The company was impacted by the U.S. election and a victory for former president Trump raised concerns around potential tariffs for semiconductor manufacturing equipment during his next term.'
Overall, LRCX ranks 4th on our list of top stocks on Jim Cramer's radar as Trump tariffs wreak havoc across global markets. While we acknowledge the potential of LRCX, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than LRCX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Breaking: S&P 500 and Nasdaq Hit Record High Despite Intel's Slump
July 25 - Wall Street kicked off Friday's session on a high note, riding the momentum from fresh record closes for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, gaining 0.24% and 0.14%, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average crept up 0.2%, while its benchmark siblings notched similar gains, signaling broad market optimism. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with NVDA. List of 52-Week Lows List of 3-Year Lows List of 5-Year Lows Financials and Industrials outpaced their peers, buoying the rally, even as Real Estate trailed behind. In the bond market, U.S. Treasury yields barely budged: the 10?year ticked up one basis point to 4.41%, and the 2?year held steady near 3.91%. June's durable?goods orders fell 9.3% to $311.8 billion, less severe than expected, hinting at pockets of resilience in manufacturing. Against this upbeat backdrop, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) stole attention with an 8.5% slide after its Q2 earnings missed the mark and its Q3 outlook fell short. The chipmaker also revealed plans to trim its workforce by 15% as it reshapes operations. Friday's trading juxtaposed soaring benchmarks with mixed corporate results and softer economic signals, leaving traders balancing exhilaration over new highs against caution over lingering headwinds. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nvidia Reaches New Peak as Google Lifts Cloud Spending Forecast
July 25 - Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) hit a fresh intraday high Friday, edging up 0.5% to $174.53 in early trading, on track to close at a record if it holds. The GPU pioneer gained momentum after a 1.7% pop Thursday, as investors brace for a wave of tech earnings next week. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with NVDA. Wall Street sees Nvidia chips as the go?to for AI model training, and expectations remain lofty. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) underlined that demand by lifting its 2025 capital?expenditure forecast by 13% to $85 billion, signaling more server and data?center builds, including Nvidia's gear. While Google touts its custom TPUs, it still backs GPUs to meet broader cloud needs. Ben Reitzes of Melius Research states that Google Cloud is currently capacity constrained but anticipates subsequent growth in the second half because Google can deploy more capacity. Such a dynamic would fuel a long-term market of Nvidia sales and other conglomerates, such as AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), which would be able to sustain an AI-fueled GPU demand. As significant Nvidia reports are still ahead, its stocks might remain unstable, but the boom in AI infrastructure does not appear to have reached its limit. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio


Chicago Tribune
9 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
President Donald Trump wants to play global peacemaker. Derailed Gaza ceasefire shows how daunting that ambition is
WASHINGTON — The United States cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks this week plunges one of President Donald Trump's pushes to solve global conflicts into new uncertainty. The derailing of talks to solve the 21-month Israel-Hamas war is the latest blow to Trump as several of his efforts to broker agreements for fraught conflicts and complex global threats have stalled. Though the Republican president has only been back in office for six months, he has sought to be known as a peacemaker. In some cases, he has set ambitious goals that have fallen short, like a promise to end the still-ongoing war in Ukraine before he took office. Trump has said he's seeking the deals to stop destruction and loss of life. But he has also been open about his ambition to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, prompting some of those seeking to cultivate favor with Trump to nominate him for the prestigious recognition. Here's a look at where some of Trump's efforts to strike peace and security deals stand. STATUS: No major breakthroughs in recent talks. THE BACKSTORY: Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday that the U.S. was bringing home its negotiating team from Qatar, where talks were ongoing, to assess its next steps. Witkoff said the move was made because Hamas was not showing 'good faith' toward reaching a ceasefire, but U.S. officials did not offer specifics. No major breakthroughs have occurred despite weeks of talks in Qatar, along with a visit early this month to the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Witkoff said the U.S. would 'consider alternative options to bring the hostages home,' but U.S. officials did not answer questions about what those options could include. When asked about next steps on Friday, Trump told reporters that Hamas didn't want to make a deal and said, 'I think what's going to happen is they're going to be hunted down.' STATUS: War still going on. THE BACKSTORY: Before he returned to office, Trump repeatedly said he would solve the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours — and even before he was sworn in as president. That didn't happen, and both sides remain far apart on reaching an agreement. Trump has become increasingly critical of President Vladimir Putin in recent months and is losing patience with his continued offensive in Ukraine. But Trump has resisted backing a bipartisan U.S. bill to impose steep sanctions on Russia, instead giving Russia 50 days to accept a peace deal or face sanctions on its energy exports. The delay has given Russia a window to continue a stepped-up offensive in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week reiterated his willingness to meet face-to-face with Putin to end the conflict. Russia has rejected the offer, saying the countries are too far apart. Lower-level Ukrainian and Russian officials met Wednesday for talks in Istanbul, but no breakthroughs were announced. Putin has said any peace deal should include Ukraine withdrawing from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022 but did not fully capture. He also wants Ukraine to renounce its bid to join NATO and accept limits on its military. Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected those terms. STATUS: Open conflict ended for the moment. Many unanswered questions remain. THE BACKSTORY: Trump was able to broker a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran after the U.S. joined Israel in launching strikes on Iran's nuclear program. But the status of Iran's nuclear program is another unanswered question for the Trump administration. While the recent U.S. and Israeli strikes dealt a blow to Iran's nuclear capacities, the United States has still not struck an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program. An Iranian diplomat said Wednesday that his country was ready to engage in talks on its nuclear program with the United States, but only after Washington takes meaningful steps to rebuild trust. Meanwhile, Iran has opened the door to a separate yet related negotiation track with Britain, France and Germany, three of the remaining members of a 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew the United States from in his first term. Foreign ministers from the four countries met in Istanbul on Friday to discuss European threats to reimpose sanctions on Iran if there is no progress on a deal to limit its nuclear program by August. While deals in some of the most pressing conflicts have remained elusive to Trump, he has helped to broker agreements in the months he's been back in office. RWANDA-DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: In June, he invited leaders from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the White House to sign an agreement seen as a major step toward peace after decades of conflict. The U.S.-brokered deal emphasizes the two neighboring countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity and includes a commitment to end hostilities and backing of armed groups. The deal also helps the U.S. government and American companies gain access to critical minerals in the region. INDIA-PAKISTAN: In May, when a series of military strikes brought longtime nuclear adversaries India and Pakistan closer to war, Trump's administration intervened. The nations agreed to stop fighting after the U.S.-led talks, and Trump said he would work to provide a 'solution' to the long-running dispute over the Indian-controlled Kashmir region. The ceasefire has held, but it's not clear what progress has been made on any long-term agreement. Last month, Trump had lunch at the White House with Asim Munir, Pakistan's army chief. SYRIA-ISRAEL: Earlier this month, after Israel intervened in fighting between Syrian government forces and rival armed groups, Trump's special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, announced a limited ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria. Barrack, who's also the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, said he met in Paris on Thursday with representatives from both countries to discuss de-escalation. Barrack said on social media that 'we accomplished precisely that' and that both sides committed to continuing the effort. Israel's intervention, however, caught Trump off guard and stymied his administration's push to get both countries to reach a full normalization of diplomatic relations.