The charitable trust Jim Cramer runs is holding more than 15% cash, which he says is extremely high measured against the 25 years the trust has existed.
The companies reporting are doing well. Dell delivered what he called one of the best quarters he has ever seen, and none of it mattered on the day: oil rose more than 5%, interest rates rose with it, and the market fell anyway.
"Higher oil's like a tax on the entire system. It increases the price of your commute. It impacts vacations. It jacks up ticket prices. It infiltrates construction costs. It's insidious and omnipresent, and it's getting worse."
Cramer runs the money he is describing — the charitable trust behind the CNBC Investing Club, which owns Nvidia and Apple among others — and he set out on air the three changes he has made in it.
I listened to the full segment so you can skip it. 19 minutes of audio, 14 minutes of reading.
Here are the 8 takeaways that matter.
🎙️ Host: Jim Cramer, who hosts Mad Money and runs the charitable trust behind the CNBC Investing Club
👥 Also on: six callers, including Randy in Rainier, Washington, Chris in Connecticut, Gary in Bloomington, Illinois, and Jim in Pennsylvania
📰 Published: 1 September 2026 on CNBC (Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer)
🟢 Spotify | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 CNBC | ⏱️ 19 min | ✅ Time saved: 5 min
Key Takeaways
A single chain — Iran, then oil, then rates — is now enough to sell the whole market regardless of earnings He says it can repeat for days, weeks or months, and that the short answer to whether it can is yes
The trust is holding more than 15% cash, extremely high by its own 25-year history
The new Fed chief sounds to Cramer like Paul Volcker, who took rates to 20%
Data center exposure is being cut and replaced with health care until the election is decided His reasoning is political rather than financial: these projects are unpopular, and the vote is in November
Nvidia has become the banker for the AI build-out because the banks will not lend to its customers Many of the companies it backs are not investment grade, and it can repossess the chips
Nvidia's stock is up 8.2% since late October while the S&P 500 is up 10.7%, despite a huge increase in its sales outlook
His prescription is a half-trillion-dollar buyback, aimed at a tenth of the company The model is Apple, where the share count came down by about 44%
1. The oil to rates chain
Cramer's account of the day was that the market did not sell off on anything a company did.
The scoreboard, in his words: "Dow lost 419 points. S&P dropped 0.1%. The Nasdaq fell 1.3%."
The sequence he says produced it starts overseas and ends in the stock market. "Tensions with Iran heat up overnight. The president lets loose missiles and tough postings to retaliate. The price of oil then rallies more than 5%, causing interest rates to shoot up." He said the mechanism is that oil raises the price of money, which is another name for interest rates, and that the selloff follows Asked by himself whether this can keep happening, his answer was that it can, for days, maybe weeks or months
He listed the things that were working and said none of them was enough. A new Novartis drug for multiple sclerosis; Sempra recovering from bad news out of the California legislature; an aerospace name rallying once investors decided Elon Musk could not damage the business-aircraft market; robust health insurers; strong dollar stores; and a welcome for Apple's new chief executive, John Ternus, that took the stock up 2.6%
Dell was the exception that proved his point. "One of the best quarters I've ever seen." He said it should change minds about Dell and possibly about technology, and that it still could not lift the market
2. Warsh sounds like Volcker
The Treasury's attempt to break the chain is not being believed. "It's a nasty chain, one that the Treasury Secretary hoped to stem by buying back long term bonds."
Cramer gave two reasons the bond market is not buying it, and the second is the new Fed chief. "The bond market doesn't take that seriously, though, in part because higher oil prices are incredibly inflationary, but also because this new fed chief, Kevin Warsh, he seems eager to stamp out inflation, even if that means raising short term rates."
The comparison he reached for is the most aggressive one available. "You know, funny thing, when he spoke on Friday, this fed chief sounded a little bit more like the much revered Paul Volcker, the Fed chief who took rates up to 20% in the early 80s." "Volcker was willing to cause a ruinous recession as long as he could get inflation under control." "I sense that Warsh wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing if necessary." He offered the reputational arc as the reason a Fed chief would accept it. "Remember, at the time, Volcker was the most hated man in America, but by the time he passed away, he was considered a hero."
3. Oil is a tax on everything
Cramer spent several minutes teaching the audience how a higher oil price reaches a grocery bill, which is the part of the argument he says people underrate.
The world's strategic petroleum reserves are running low after months of conflict, and refineries have been running past the point where they are normally shut for maintenance
Most of what is sold in shops is trucked in on expensive diesel, truckers pass the cost to the supermarket, and the supermarket passes it to the shopper. That, he said, is why the dollar stores are thriving
The summary of it is the line he used to open the whole argument. "Higher oil's like a tax on the entire system. It increases the price of your commute. It impacts vacations. It jacks up ticket prices. It infiltrates construction costs. It's insidious and omnipresent, and it's getting worse."
He said the day's oil move was close to a full retracement of the war's effect. Oil is going almost all the way back to where it was at the beginning of the war, which he said makes sense given the state of the reserves
4. Raising cash above 15%
Cramer described the three things he is doing with the trust and called them draconian.
First, cash. "First, we've raised our cash position for the charitable trust to more than 15%, which over the 25 years of its existence is extremely high." The reason is that nobody can time the provocations on either side — mined harbors and missiles at tankers on one, posts and strikes on the other
He gave his own arithmetic for what each kind of escalation costs the market. "At the same time, we don't know when our president will post something provocative, which is equal to about a 1% move in oil or a few basis points of interest points and a quarter of a percent decline in the market." "When the president responds militarily, you get about a 2% increase in oil, many more basis points for Treasury yields and a half percent decline in the major averages, particularly the Nasdaq." "We had more than 5% move in oil today, and rates rose all over the world and our markets were clobbered."
The seasonal point is stacked on top of the geopolitical one. "Oh, I wish it weren't this cut and dried, but we simply aren't in an environment that's conducive to big capital gains, especially during September, which is historically the weakest month of the year."
Second, a sector switch made for political reasons. "Second, we want to slim down our data center exposure and replace it with more health care." "Rightly or wrongly, these things are very unpopular. If the anti data center cohort wins in November, we'll be glad we lightened up." He said he sold one of his favorite AI infrastructure holdings that day expecting to buy it back lower, and that he will not let a gain turn into a loss
He is not selling the two he treats differently. "We still have some semis and we own and not trade Nvidia and Apple, but we're not fools. We can read a screen. These stocks are all heavy, meaning there are sellers every step of the way." Health care, by contrast, he described as levitating regardless of the news
Third, be ready to spend the cash. He said the moment to put trust money to work is when everyone else feels the way he does, and that there are far more negative people about now than there were
His closing warning was about who has stopped being paid. "And the dip buyers, especially those involved with artificial intelligence, now go unrewarded."
5. Nvidia as the AI banker
Cramer turned to the deal announced that day and used it to explain what Nvidia's balance sheet is actually doing.
The structure, as he laid it out: "Anthropic inked a $35 billion contract with Nvidia backed neo cloud Lambda." He added, "Nvidia owns the lease to the center. The complex is being developed by former Bitcoin miner Hut Eight."
The reason Nvidia is inside all of it is that no bank will be. "Why does Nvidia have to make all these investments in backstops? Because the companies involved just couldn't go to a JP Morgan or Bank of America and ask for multibillion dollar loans. They wouldn't get them. Many of the companies Nvidia backs are not investment grade."
What lets Nvidia take a risk a bank cannot is the collateral. "The chips retain their value. Worst case scenario, they repossess the GPUs, maybe even for the same price they sold them. No bank could think like that, though. So Nvidia has become the banker for the AI data center build out."
He defends the arrangement and concedes it is not working as communication. "In my view, Nvidia simply extending credit against merchandise that can and does retain value." "The more complex these deals are, and this Anthropic, the Lambda to Hut Eight arrangement is real complicated, mind numbing, the less Nvidia is going to get credit for it."
6. The stock won't respond
Cramer walked through three announcements and what the stock did after each, to argue that good news has stopped moving it.
October 28 at the Washington GTC event, on the order book. He quoted Jensen Huang saying, "I think we're probably the first technology company in history to have a visibility into a half $1 trillion of cumulative blackwell and early ramps of rubin through 2026." The reaction: "Nvidia's stock gained 5% that day, climbing from around 191 to 201"
March 16, at the regular GTC, on the year after. The quote he read was, "I'm here to tell you that right now, where I stand a few short months after gtc, dc, I see through 2027 at least $1 trillion." The reaction was smaller: "The stock gained 1.6% that day, moving from 180 to 183"
Last Wednesday, from the finance side. "CFO Colette Kress said revenues would be up 70% in fiscal year 2028, which is 2027." She also said Nvidia would be on track to grow 100% but for supply constraints. "Stock rallied 8.7% in response last thursday, but since then, it's given back more than half of that gain overall."
The scoreboard against the index is the point of the exercise. "From the close on october 28th to today, Nvidia stock is up 8.2%. The S&P 500 is up 10.7%. Yes, Nvidia has underperformed despite that gigantic unheard of leap in sales."
His conclusion on the valuation. "I think it's absurd that Nvidia has an amazing order book and huge profitability, yet it trades at just 23 times this year's earnings estimate" "I think it's radically cheap." He acknowledged the bear case he rejects: that Nvidia is lending to dicey outfits and propping up companies that should not exist
7. Quintuple the buyback
The existing buyback is real and, on his numbers, too small for the size of the company. "It's been buying about $20 billion worth of stock a quarter and $99 billion remaining on its share repurchase authorization, at least at the end of the quarter." "But that's not a lot of money when you're dealing with a $5 trillion company that's practically printing money."
The precedent he wants copied is Apple's. "Instead, Wall Street wants somebody to take its money and come in with the biggest buyback in history. Something to rival what now former CEO Tim Cook did at Apple, where he shrank the share count by about 44%." "See, Apple realized there was no better investment out there than Apple. Right now, I believe there's no better investment for Nvidia than Nvidia."
The prescription, in full. "So if I were Jensen, here's what I'd do. I contemplate quintuple the buyback authorization, quintuple it, announce a monster half trillion dollar buyback, repurchase a 10th of the company in a fairly aggressive fashion every day." "Get bigger on the down days. Take advantage of the selling reload when finished." "And I think they could afford the level of buyback without scaling back their investments."
He was explicit about who he is criticizing. "My plan is not an indictment of the company. It's an indictment of the market. Wall Street's not valuing Nvidia correctly."
His sign-off on the idea. "Mean it, show it, do it. It might be the best investment this amazing company's ever made."
8. The lightning round
Six callers reached him across the hour. His answers were unusually cautious, and he said why: in a market this volatile, keep expectations low, because buying the dip is no longer being rewarded the way it was.
Applied Materials, from a caller who bought at 540 and again at 490. "Now this stock is now down 300 bucks from its high." Cramer told him to start a position rather than average down blindly: "I would put some on here and then wait till it's down 10%."
Velo3D. The caller cited a 52% jump in year-over-year revenue, raised guidance, projected positive EBITDA in the second half and ties to SpaceX. Cramer was unconvinced. "Okay, they have not had the revenue growth that I thought they should have. And that's why I think it's at 11." "You can buy about a quarter position because it is a good spec, but I don't want you to get bigger than that until we find out why the revenues aren't growing more."
KLA Corporation. "I think it's a great company. It is up 40% for the year. Its price earnings multiple is still too high." "Because these are all semiconductor capital equipment companies that I've been talking about this evening. They're extremely volatile."
General Dynamics. "You're not going to go wrong with General Dynamics buying it here at 20 multiple." He would start it rather than complete it: "I wouldn't put it all at once because remember the budget deficit is going to have to be controlled at a certain point and it's going to include military." It is not his pick of the group. "My favorite group remains Lockheed Martin and Jim Taiclet."
Caterpillar, from a caller who said he did not know how to value it with AI moving around it. Cramer said that uncertainty is itself the answer. "They're looking and saying, oh, it's a 28 times earnings. I'm used to trading at 16 times earnings. I don't know if that's right. Why don't we sell it. We can buy it back."
Marvell Technology. He said the company reported an amazing quarter and then pushed its big win out to 2029, and that its analyst meeting in early October will settle what happens next. "I don't feel comfortable until I see what they say."
Bonus Insights
Cramer opened the hour by saying his job on a day like this is not just to entertain but to teach, and the oil-to-grocery-bill walkthrough is what he meant by it
He said the market may not have deserved the rally off the late-July lows, and that days like this one are changing his mind about it
On the macro overwhelming the companies: he said the AI trade is rough because of the macro backdrop rather than anything company specific, and that the micro is still strong
The three guest interviews in the same programme — CrowdStrike's George Kurtz, Dell Technologies' David Kennedy and Palo Alto Networks' Nikesh Arora — are written up separately
Cramer's bottom line is that the market is being run by the price of oil rather than by the earnings, that he is holding a lot of cash until that changes, and that the best company he covers should stop waiting for Wall Street to value it correctly and buy a tenth of itself instead.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Nvidia (The subject of Cramer's central argument: the banker of the AI build-out, trading at 23 times this year's estimate, which he says should announce a half-trillion-dollar buyback)
Anthropic and Lambda (Anthropic's $35 billion contract with the Nvidia-backed neocloud, the deal Cramer uses to explain why Nvidia is financing its own customers)
Hut 8 (The former bitcoin miner developing the complex, and another company Nvidia is backing)
Apple (The template for the buyback: Cramer says Tim Cook shrank the share count by about 44%; also the stock that rose 2.6% on John Ternus's welcome as chief executive)
Dell Technologies (The quarter Cramer calls one of the best he has ever seen, and his evidence that good results are not enough to move this market)
J.P. Morgan and Bank of America (The lenders Cramer says would refuse the multibillion-dollar loans Nvidia is effectively making instead)
Applied Materials, KLA and Velo3D (Three lightning-round names; he is cautious on all of them and calls the semiconductor equipment group extremely volatile)
General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin (Defense: he would start General Dynamics at a 20 multiple, but Lockheed Martin remains his favorite in the group)
Caterpillar (His example of a stock money managers sell because they cannot work out what it is worth with AI in the picture)
Marvell Technology (An amazing quarter followed by a big win pushed out to 2029; he wants the October analyst meeting first)
Novartis and Sempra (Two of the individual stories he said were working on a day when the index was not)
CNBC Investing Club (The membership whose charitable trust holds the positions Cramer describes moving)
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