On a strong day for markets in which the Dow Jones industrial average crossed the 25,000 mark, CNBC's Jim Cramer wanted to check in on what exactly is driving this "beast market."
"You get a market in beast mode like this one, you've got to feed the beast. And you can't give it the same menu every day," the "Mad Money" host said. "This tape not only manages to feed the beast every day, it gives the monster that is this market exactly the kind of well-balanced diet it needs to keep roaring."
After a healthy rally in industrial stocks involved in everything from machinery to aerospace to oil to shipping, Cramer said the beast would need a break from devouring these names.
After all, a rally driven only by a select group of stocks tends to trade narrowly and be expensive, two factors that scream bad breadth — in other words, poor variety — to money managers.
So as the market's menu of stocks shifted on Thursday, Cramer took to the tape to pinpoint the morsels that came back into favor on Wall Street.
Dominion Energy CEO bullish on latest deal
Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell told CNBC on Thursday that Dominion's acquisition of South Carolinian utility Scana would set his company up for significant long-term gains.
"We're investing for the long-term in South Carolina," Farrell told Cramer. "Scana's a very good company. It's got very good growth in its electric and gas utilities. South Carolina's a wonderful state to do business in. We're already there with a pipeline business and some solar farms. Great prospects ahead."
On Wednesday, Dominion announced it would buy Scana in an all-stock deal worth nearly $15 billion. The merger will help Scana stem customer and shareholder outrage after a $9 billion nuclear project gone wrong, which resulted in Scana's former CEO stepping down.
Farrell said that Dominion would absorb nearly $1.7 billion in costs from the uncompleted plant that were not yet reflected in customers' utility rates.
Cramer's 'trade war' playbook
With the U.S. Department of Commerce on the cusp of deciding whether to place tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Cramer wanted investors to be prepared for the fallout.
"We're at a major crossroads when it comes to trade policy in this country, and I think you need to seriously consider the protectionist course of action before you decide to buy international stocks with foreign exposure," the "Mad Money" host said.
Cramer expected President Donald Trump to move quickly if the Commerce Department, led by Secretary Wilbur Ross, recommends tariffs for purposes of national security.
Chinese "steel dumping," or the practice of keeping costs artificially low to stymie competition, has become a central concern of Trump's trade policy.
Planet Fitness CEO: A 'true competitive advantage'
The franchising power of Planet Fitness seems to know no bounds and is becoming a clear driver for future gains, CEO Chris Rondeau told CNBC on Thursday.
"We've been growing rapidly since we started franchising in '03. We finally hit our 50th state just last month, in Hawaii," Rondeau told Cramer. "Our scale now is a true competitive advantage."
With 1,500 locations and over 10.5 million customers across the United States, Planet Fitness has established itself as the country's largest and fastest growing chain of fitness centers focused on first-time gym-goers.
"We've been opening about 200 [locations] a year for the last couple years here and plan to do so in the upcoming years," Rondeau said.
And when it comes to low-cost competitors — even Planet Fitness' premium plan costs a modest $21.99 a month — the CEO said the real rivalry isn't about being affordable.
"They're really doing the old model. They're not catering to the first-timer kind of gym user," he said. "It's not about being affordable. It's about being judgment-free and being comfortable so people can come in and give fitness a try."
Lightning Round: Get a load of GRUB
In Cramer's lightning round, he zoomed through his take on some callers' favorite stocks:
GrubHub: "I think that this is indispensable. This company is indispensable. And they also won like Planet Fitness won. I think GrubHub's a buy. I think they're very smart guys."
Square: "I think Square's run a lot. It's got to kind of bide its time. It's too linked to crypto, not enough linked to what it really does, which is [to] help small- to mid-size businesses do well. It's got to get out of the crypto world."
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