Every time that familiar lightning bolt flashes across the screen and the phone lines light up, you know something fun is about to happen. There’s just something electric (pun absolutely intended) about Jim Cramer firing off rapid-fire opinions on stocks that viewers throw at him. No slides, no 20-minute monologue—just pure, unfiltered gut calls. Last night’s session on December 11, 2025, was classic Cramer: some enthusiastic “buy, buy, buy!” moments, a couple of polite “no thanks,” and a few reality checks for the dreamers.
I’ve watched these Lightning Rounds for years, and honestly more for entertainment than homework, but every once in a while he drops a take that actually moves my own watchlist. Last night had a few of those moments. Let’s unpack what he said, why he said it, and whether it actually makes sense in the current market.
Cramer’s Biggest Enthusiastic Buys of the Night
MercadoLibre – The Latin American Amazon That Keeps Delivering
When a caller asked about MercadoLibre, Cramer didn’t hesitate: “That is such a good company… buy, buy, buy!” And honestly? Hard to argue with him here.
MercadoLibre has basically become the everything-store for Latin America—ecommerce, payments (Mercado Pago), logistics, credit, you name it. While many U.S. investors still treat it like some exotic emerging-market play, the numbers tell a different story. The company has been consistently taking share in a region where online penetration is still growing fast. Add in sky-high inflation in places like Argentina (their home market) and suddenly having a dominant digital payments platform looks genius.
In my view, the most under-appreciated part is how sticky the ecosystem has become. Once someone shops on MercadoLibre, uses Mercado Pago, and maybe even takes a small merchant loan, they’re not switching to a competitor anytime soon. That kind of moat is exactly what long-term growth investors dream about.
“That is such a good company [buy, buy, buy!].”
– Jim Cramer, December 11 2025 Lightning Round
- GMV (gross merchandise volume) growing 30%+ year-over-year in USD terms
- Fintech revenue exploding as digital wallets replace cash
- Logistics network now rivaling Amazon’s in key countries
- Still trades cheaper on forward earnings than many U.S. tech darlings
If you’ve been waiting for a dip to start a position, the recent pullback from all-time highs might actually be the gift.
NRG Energy – The Nuclear Comeback Story Nobody Saw Coming
Next up was NRG Energy, and Cramer was equally enthusiastic: “[buy, buy, buy] I like the nuclear component there, I think it’s a very well-run company.”
Let’s be real—utility stocks aren’t usually the ones that get investors excited. But NRG isn’t your grandfather’s electric utility. After years of being a pure-play power generator (mostly natural gas), they’ve quietly positioned themselves at the center of two massive trends: data center power demand and the nuclear renaissance.
Everyone talks about Microsoft or Amazon signing massive renewable deals, but someone still has to keep the lights on 24/7. Nuclear fits perfectly—carbon-free baseload power that tech giants love to brag about in their sustainability reports. NRG’s recent moves to extend life on existing plants and even explore small modular reactors suddenly look incredibly timely.
Add a decent dividend yield and a management team that’s been aggressively buying back stock, and you start to understand why Cramer lit up.
Bitcoin – Just Own the Real Thing
One of the cleaner calls of the night came when someone asked about Strategy, widely assumed to be MicroStrategy given the context. Cramer’s response was blunt: “I think you should just own Bitcoin. I don’t want any derivative of Bitcoin, I just want Bitcoin.”
This is actually refreshing to hear. The crypto space is absolutely littered with companies that own Bitcoin on their balance sheet but trade at absurd premiums (or discounts) to their actual holdings. Sometimes you get extra leverage, sometimes you get extra headaches when management decides to issue dilutive convertible notes. Why bother?
Direct Bitcoin exposure through spot ETFs has never been easier or cheaper. You get exactly what you want—pure price exposure—without paying a CEO salary on top.
The Ones That Got a Hard Pass
Not everything got love, of course.
When Dexcom came up—the continuous glucose monitoring leader—Cramer was surprisingly cool: “…I don’t want to own this stock.” That one raised my eyebrows because Dexcom has been a multi-year winner and the diabetes market isn’t going anywhere. Perhaps competition from Abbott, insurance reimbursement noise, or just valuation concerns? He didn’t elaborate, but the message was clear.
AST SpaceMobile also got the classic speculative warning: “The space stocks are plain and simple specs… you could lose a lot of money.” Fair. Building a satellite phone-to-satellite network sounds amazing on paper, but execution risk is massive and cash burn is real. If you’re playing it, size it like you would a lottery ticket.
What This Lightning Round Tells Us About the Current Market
Stepping back, the mix of calls actually paints an interesting picture of where we are in late 2025.
- Continued love for dominant tech-enabled platforms in emerging growth markets (MercadoLibre)
- Growing comfort with “old economy” companies riding new megatrends (NRG and nuclear/AI power)
- Preference for direct asset ownership over leveraged proxies (Bitcoin)
- Skepticism toward high-expectation speculative stories (space mobile)
It feels like classic late-cycle rotation with a tech twist—still rewarding strong compounders and structural winners, but getting pickier about valuation and execution risk.
My Personal Takeaways as an Investor
I’ve learned over the years not to treat Lightning Round calls as gospel. Cramer himself says these are quick opinions, not research reports. But when he’s consistently pounding the table on something over multiple appearances? That’s when I start doing homework.
MercadoLibre and NRG both fall into that “he’s liked them for a while” bucket for me. The Bitcoin comment was the cleanest distillation of a view many professional investors have quietly adopted—why pay extra for someone else’s Bitcoin treasury when you can own the asset directly?
The Dexcom skip was the one that actually made me pause and dig deeper. Sometimes those off-the-cuff “no” answers end up being the most valuable signals.
At the end of the day, Lightning Round is theater—but occasionally the theater gives you a peek behind the curtain. Last night felt like one of those nights.
Whether you agree, disagree, or just enjoy the show, moments like these are why markets stay fascinating. One minute you’re nodding along, the next you’re second-guessing your entire thesis. And honestly? That’s exactly how it should be.
