As the year draws to a close, CNBC’s Jim Cramer revisits the questions he asked at the beginning of 2025, reviewing the macroeconomic and sector-specific forces that helped shape market movements.
“Before we can understand where we are going, we need to know where we came from,” he says.
Here are the answers to some of Cramer’s 2025 questions.
Was the labor market still tight? Kramer said the labor market was clearly not tight, explaining that the unemployment rate rose from 4.0% in January to 4.6% in November. He continued that job creation weakened in the second half of the year, noting that job growth was actually negative in June, August and October. He said one silver lining to the softening labor market was that it allowed the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. What impact has the Trump administration had on stock prices? Cramer said President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policies initially caused the index to plummet, but the market rebounded once many tariffs were postponed or reduced. He added that President Trump’s big bill hasn’t had a big impact on the market yet, and that the longest government shutdown in history doesn’t seem to have a big negative impact on stock prices in the long run. “There’s always a lot of controversial things going on in Washington,” Cramer said, but he suggested that much of it doesn’t really have anything to do with stocks. How has the consumer discretionary sector held up? Kramer said it appears “the debate is still raging” when it comes to the state of consumer spending. He went on to add that consumer sentiment was not very strong, with consumers appearing to be depressed in the middle of the year. However, the market has started favoring consumer stocks in recent weeks after several major retailers reported strong earnings results, Cramer continued. The busy Black Friday season and further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve are also providing tailwinds for the group, he added. Will utilities be able to meet the growing demand for electricity? Kramer said that as artificial intelligence continues to develop and data centers proliferate, utility stocks are “into growth mode again with all this power demand.” He said he has a pretty good feel about the group, even though it’s up more than 12% for the year. How have AI infrastructure deals evolved? Kramer noted that the sector has “grown beyond anyone’s imagination” for much of this year. But Wall Street is balking at the large infrastructure investment commitments made by many hyperscalers. He suggested that this “new, more discerning phase will ultimately be good for the market”, despite the difficulty in identifying winning stocks within the group. Which robotaxi came out on top? Waymo was the clear market winner, Cramer suggested, with Tesla’s robotaxi division making relatively slow progress. Kramer wondered if the robotaxi market could become a duopoly, or if another competitor would emerge.
