OOPS! CNBC’s Cramer Called SVB Stock a Winner Before ‘Biggest Bank Failure’ Since 2008

March 10th, 2023 4:51 PM

Yet another of CNBC host Jim Cramer’s hot stock market takes just fell harder than President Joe Biden stumbling up the steps of Air Force One.

Cramer listed his top ten biggest stock “winners of 2023” during the Feb. 8 edition of CNBC’s Mad Money. In the ninth spot for Cramer was Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company, SVB Financial Group. Cramer characterized the institution as a “merchant bank with a deposit base that Wall Street has mistakenly been concerned about.” In Cramer’s ludicrous view, the stock was a good buy because “being a banker to these immense pools of capital has always been a very good business.” He bizarrely called the stock “cheap,” despite it trading at around $320 a share at the time. Cramer said he thought the “fears were not justified. It’s a very compelling situation.” It wouldn’t take but a month for his take to implode. A March 10 CNBC story headline read: “Silicon Valley Bank is shut down by regulators in biggest bank failure since global financial crisis.” The SVB collapse, per CNBC, “a key player in the tech and venture capital community, leaves companies and wealthy individuals largely unsure of what will happen to their money.” Oops.

In fact, wrote CNBC, “The last U.S. bank failure of this size was Washington Mutual in 2008, which had $307 billion in assets.” SVB reportedly had $209 billion in total assets at the end of December 2022.

Watching Cramer live-tweet the stock crash on March 10 was painful. Cramer entered into the trading hours appearing chipper at 7:18 a.m.: “Watch SIVB common. It is climbing despite endless bear raids....” But it didn’t take long until his positivity took a nosedive. At 7:57 a.m, Cramer scare-tweeted: “SIVB breaks price that i did not want to see....” Then at 8:12 a.m: “SIVB at $35... wow.” “[W]ow” is right. It takes an enormous amount of failing effort to meme oneself as the Paul Krugman of stock market analysis. 

CNBC reported that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. closed SVB and took control of its deposits. “The closure of SVB would impact not only the deposits, but also credit facilities and other forms of financing. The FDIC said loan customers of SVB should continue to make their payments as normal,” according to CNBC.

Cramer blowing another call is just a running joke at this point. This is the same Cramer that got notoriously punished two days in a row for his ridiculous inflation predictions last year. 

Time to hang it up Cramer.

Conservatives are under attack. Contact CNBC at cnbcnewspr@nbcuni.com and demand it distance itself from Cramer’s wild stock takes.