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It’s that time again! “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer rings the lightning round bell, which means he’s giving his answers to callers’ stock questions at rapid speed.

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Amazon (AMZN) could potentially spin off its Prime streaming unit as a separate company, CEO Andy Jassy said Wednesday. During a wide-ranging interview at the The New York Times’ DealBook Summit , Jassy said that “overtime we have opportunities to make our Prime video business a standalone business that has very attractive economics.” Jassy also defended the Club holding’s decision to “streamline” costs by laying off thousands of employees , highlighted shifts in consumer spending amid an uncertain economy, and made clear Amazon’s intention to continue expanding into the health-care space. The Club welcomes Jassy’s comments on reining in costs, as well as its measured approach to building out Prime. Layoffs and expenses Jassy said Amazon’s recent decision to layoff roughly 10,000 workers is part of an effort to generate more efficiencies across the organization. But he said “it wasn’t wrong to double down” by hiring more employees when business was booming during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Jassy said he had no regrets about the company’s pandemic strategy, including the company’s push to build out its infrastructure to meet burgeoning demand. At the same time, he acknowledged that when adding headcount it’s important to consider any sudden changes that could arise, even when a business is performing well. Amazon, whose headcount ballooned during the pandemic, has seen growth slow as macroeconomic headwinds have mounted over the past year. Consumer trade down Growing economic uncertainty means consumers are more mindful about where they’re putting their cash and increasingly looking for deals, Jassy said. “People care a lot about getting a bargain right now.” He added that in discretionary categories like electronics, consumers are trading down to more economical models. “In difficult and uncertain economies, we found over time that consumers are very careful about who they choose to partner with, and they go with companies that are going to take good care of them and provide a great customer experience and that has always been something that we have focused very squarely on,” Jassy said. Streaming Amazon’s Prime Video, one of the fastest growing streaming services, could be a standalone business one day, Jassy said. The unit has been bolstered of late by its Thursday Night Football broadcast and new Lord of the Rings series. “Our Prime Video offering is an important ingredient…increasingly you see more and more people signing up to Prime because of the video content,” he explained. Jassy said Amazon will continue to invest in sports calling it a “unique” asset that drives Prime subscriptions. Amazon in healthcare Amazon is taking steps to build out its nascent pharmacy business, Jassy said, a move that enhances the company’s mission of being a one-stop-shop where customers can find any item they desire. “For a long time our customers wanted us to have a pharmacy offering and we’ve built something there [but] we’re still in the relative early days,” he said. At the same time, Jassy said the health-care system in the U.S. is in “dire need of being reinvented” and hopes Amazon can be a part of that reform. Amazon in July announced plans to acquire primary health-care provider One Medical in a deal valued at $3.9 billion . Bottom line It’s positive to see Jassy recognize that Amazon is overstaffed and overbuilt on infrastructure. The stock, which has declined more than 42% year-to-date, typically responds favorably in the harvesting phase rather than the investing phase, providing a glimmer of optimism for Amazon shares in 2023. Meanwhile, Jassy’s comments about consumers trying to stretch their dollars is not a surprise, given inflation has eaten into many U.S. discretionary budgets. Lastly, it makes sense that Amazon wants to build out Prime Video, and we’re pleased to hear they plan to do so in a disciplined manner. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AMZN . See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. More

Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

CNBC’s Jim Cramer urged investors to use the market’s rally on Wednesday to recalibrate their portfolios.
“Use this moment to pivot yourself. Get out of the stocks I’ve been railing against for a full year,” he said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer urged investors to use the market’s rally on Wednesday to recalibrate their portfolios.
“Use this moment to pivot yourself. Get out of the stocks I’ve been railing against for a full year,” he said, adding, “Get into the stocks of companies that make things and do stuff at a profit and return some of that to you.”

Stocks rose on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the central bank will ease back its brisk pace of interest rate increases as soon as December, though he maintained there’s still a way to go before prices stabilize.
Cramer reminded investors that while Powell’s remarks bode well for investors hoping the Fed will engineer a soft landing, it doesn’t mean that the macroeconomic headwinds battering companies’ balance sheets have disappeared.
In other words, investors should still exercise caution and avoid companies that are on the path to continue hemorrhaging cash.
“If your company has just laid off a bunch of people because it’s losing so much money, that’s not where you want to be. If your company doesn’t return capital because it doesn’t have any capital to return, that’s not where you want to be,” he said.

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Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings said he wishes the company had “flipped” on advertising earlier.
After resisting the idea for years, the company said in April that it was “open” to the idea after coming under pressure because of its slowing subscription growth.
The offering launched in the U.S. earlier this month for $6.99 per month in partnership with Microsoft.

Reed Hastings, co-founder, chairman, and co-chief executive officer of Netflix, arrives for the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S. July 6, 2021.
Brian Losness | Reuters

Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings said Wednesday he was slow to come around to advertising on the streaming platform because he was too focused on digital competition from Facebook and Google.
“I didn’t believe in the ad-supported tactic for us. I was wrong about that. Hulu proved you could do that at scale and offer customers lower prices. We did switch on that,” Hastings said at The New York Times’ Dealbook conference. “I wish we had flipped a few years earlier on that, but we’ll catch up.”

Netflix had for years resisted the idea of allowing advertising on its service. But after coming under pressure because of its slowing subscription growth, Hastings said in April that the company was “open” to offering a cheaper option with ads. The offering launched in the U.S. earlier this month for $6.99 per month in partnership with Microsoft.
The reversal came after some convincing from Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann, according to Hastings.

“The big thing that I missed is I was on the Facebook board, so I bought in for a decade to the belief that systems relying on data were going to be able to do higher CPMs than anyone else,” Hastings said, referring to a marketing metric used to calculate the cost per advertising impressions. “So Google and Facebook were going to mop up the world — and they have in non-TV advertising.”
“What I failed to understand is that there is a lot of TV advertising that now couldn’t find the viewers because the 18- to 49-[year old] segment had moved on and were not watching linear TV,” he said.
Advertisers were “desperate” for avenues in connected TV and internet, Hastings said, but Netflix was still on the sidelines.

“We didn’t have to steal away the advertising revenue. It was pouring into connected TV. The inventory was there,” he said.
Hulu, Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max, NBCUniversal’s Peacock, Paramount Global’s Paramount+, and others already offer cheaper, ad-supported options. Disney+ plans to launch a cheaper, ad-supported tier, while also raising prices for its commercial-free option and other streaming services.
There are also free streaming services, such as Paramount’s Pluto and Fox Corp.’s Tubi, which make revenue solely through advertising. Recently, Fox said Tubi’s ad revenue, which grew 30% in its most recent quarter, lifted its earnings.
Netflix’s foray into advertising is an effort to lure more subscribers. The streaming service had hiked prices for its subscribers earlier this year, which bolstered revenue but was partly to blame for a loss of 600,000 subscribers in the U.S. and Canada during the first quarter.
Globally, Netflix had about 223 million subscribers as of Sept. 30.
The ad-based partnership with Microsoft, though, isn’t a precursor to a broader takeover, Hastings said Wednesday.
“It’s not normal to do commercial deals with companies you’re trying to acquire. It makes things more complicated, not less. So that was like zero of the motivation,” he said.
Hastings did acknowledge he had eyes for a different acquisition: Wordle, the popular daily word game that’s now a part of The New York Times gaming suite. The game, which gives players six guesses to match a five-letter word, exploded in popularity earlier this year.
“I berated our M&A team that we didn’t buy Wordle,” Hastings said Wednesday.
Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is CNBC’s parent company.
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.

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The House passed legislation Wednesday that would force a tentative rail labor agreement and thwart a national strike.
A separate House vote added seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement.
Biden has said he’s reluctant to override the vote against the contract by some unions but that a rail shutdown would “devastate” the economy.

A rail employee works a Union Pacific Intermodal Terminal rail yard on November 21, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images

The House passed legislation Wednesday that would force a tentative rail labor agreement and thwart a national strike. The bill now goes to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has promised swift passage.
The House voted 290 to 137 — with 79 Republicans joining 211 Democrats — to pass the legislation, which approves new contracts providing railroad workers with 24% pay increases over five years from 2020 through 2024, immediate payouts averaging $11,000 upon ratification, and an extra paid day off.

Eight Democrats and 129 Republicans voted against the legislation. 
In a separate 221 to 207 vote, the House also approved a resolution to provide seven days of paid sick leave in the contract instead of one, which is rail workers’ main disagreement with the current deal. As it stands rail workers don’t have guaranteed paid sick leave.
The vote comes after President Joe Biden called on Congress to intervene in the stalled talks between railroads and some of the industry’s major unions. He met with the four House and Senate leaders Tuesday in an effort to avoid the economic impacts of a rail strike, which the industry forecasts could cost the U.S. economy $2 billion per day.

Biden has said he’s reluctant to override the vote against the contract by some unions but that a rail shutdown would “devastate” the economy.
“This overwhelming bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives makes clear that Democrats and Republicans agree that a rail shutdown would be devastating to our economy and families across the country. The Senate must now act urgently,” Biden said in a statement.

Railways and their labor unions had until Dec. 9 to reach an agreement before workers promised to strike.
In a statement Tuesday, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said passing legislation to enforce an agreement denies them the right to strike and will not fix the problems or concerns of railroad workers.
The union said it was calling on Biden and any member of Congress who “truly supports the working class to act swiftly by passing any sort of reforms and regulations that will provide paid sick leave for all Railroad Workers.”
According to the Association of American Railroads, an industry group, a presidential board created to help resolve contract talks reviewed the union’s request for additional paid sick days and instead offered additional salary.
“If the unions are interested in a holistic discussion for structural changes as it relates to their sick time, I think absolutely the railroad carriers would be up for a holistic discussion, but [they] have not done it in the zero hour,” AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies said at a press conference on rail preparations.
Each union has its own sick day policy, according to National Railway Labor Conference, or NRLC. If an employee is sick, they need to be out of work between four and seven days before they collect their version of sick pay.
The tentative labor deal grants workers one additional personal day, for a total of three personal days for railroad workers. A worker must provide 48 hours notice to request a personal day. The measure approved by the House Wednesday would add paid sick leave to the agreement.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on social media before the vote that the tentative agreement did not go far enough.

Strike prep curtails trade

Even the threat of a strike can have impacts on rail movement.
According to federal safety measures, railroad carriers begin prepping for a strike seven days before the strike date. The carriers start to prioritize the securing and movement of sensitive materials such as chlorine for drinking water and hazardous materials.
Ninety-six hours before a strike date, chemicals are no longer transported. According to the American Chemistry Council, railroad industry data shows a drop of 1,975 carloads of chemical shipments during the week of Sept. 10 when the railroads stopped accepting shipments due to the previous threat of a rail strike.

Arrows pointing outwards

Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute, said railroad carriers have told their members that ammonia shipments, a critical component for fertilizer companies, would not be allowed on the rail starting Dec. 4 if a labor agreement isn’t reached.
“It traditionally takes five to seven days for the supply chain to catch up when you have a shutdown,” said Rosenbusch. “Fertilizer manufacturing would have to be curtailed.”
The four major railroads typically move more than 80% of the agricultural freight traffic, according to the National Grain and Feed Association.
“We are looking for alternatives now to position our product,” said Mike Seyfert, the association’s president and CEO. “We have zero elasticity right now. There are zero drivers, and the barge situation with the low water levels has only added to this challenge.”

Collective bargaining’s future

Brendan Branon, NRLC chair, told CNBC that Congress, in voting on the labor deal, is also weighing in on the future of collective bargaining. He urged Congress to follow the recommendations of the Presidential Emergency Board, which Biden created in July to resolve the ongoing dispute between major freight rail carriers and unions.
The board crafts its recommendations under a principle known as pattern bargaining, which is the process used by trade unions and employers where demands and entitlements are made.
“Pattern bargaining promotes stability in collective bargaining, and it encourages settlement,” Branon said. “There’s any number of arbitrators and PEBs who have recognized that this is not only acceptable, this is the most appropriate form to settle complex negotiations, especially multi-employer, multi-craft agreements.”
Branon said a number of industries including the railroads have developed a set of clear practices in bargaining, and the additional negotiating by the unions after the tentative agreement departs from the framework recommended by the PEB.
“Departing from a pattern would establish a precedent that there’s still a better outcome achievable, and I think it would pose significant stress and risk for collective bargaining in the future for the railroad industry,” he said.

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The CDC will expand polio wastewater surveillance to select communities with low vaccination rates outside the New York metro area.
The CDC will initially work work with health officials in Michigan and Philadelphia to identify communities with low vaccination rates and begin testing sewage the in those areas.
The decision to expand polio surveillance comes after an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County, New York, was left paralyzed after contracting the virus over the summer.

A research assistant prepares a PCR reaction for polio at a lab at Queens College on August 25, 2022, in New York City.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images

The U.S. will expand polio wastewater surveillance to communities with low vaccination rates outside the New York City metro area, after an outbreak over the summer left an unvaccinated adult paralyzed and raised questions about how widely the virus may be circulating.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a statement Wednesday, said it will initially work with health officials in Michigan and Philadelphia to identify communities with low vaccination rates and begin testing sewage the in those areas. The CDC said it is in preliminary discussions with other state and local health departments about expanding testing to other areas of the U.S.

Federal health officials will also expand sewage surveillance for polio to counties that have possible connections to the communities in New York where the virus is known to be circulating. The CDC said the expanded surveillance program will help determine whether poliovirus is present in other parts of the U.S. and direct efforts to boost vaccination rates in communities that are risk.
The sewage testing will last at least four months once initiated. The CDC described the expanded surveillance program as strategic and limited in focus to certain at-risk communities.
The decision by federal health officials to expand polio surveillance comes after an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County, New York, was left paralyzed after contracting the virus over the summer. The CDC considers a single case of paralysis from polio a public health emergency because it’s so rare and indicates the virus is spreading throughout the community.
Public health officials subsequently confirmed the virus was in fact spreading widely after sewage samples from five other New York counties tested positive. The Rockland patient did not travel internationally, which means they almost certainly picked up the virus from someone else in the community.
The virus spreading in the New York area is related to a strain used in the oral polio vaccine. The U.S. stopped using this vaccine more than 20 years ago because it uses a live but weakened virus that in rare instances can mutate and become virulent again, posing a threat to the unvaccinated.

Other countries do still use the oral polio vaccine because it is cheap, effective, easy to administer and generally safe. The U.S. uses an inactivated polio vaccine administered as a series of shots. It uses killed virus that cannot replicate or mutate.
Although the Rockland County patient is believed to have caught polio through local spread, the chain of transmission likely originated abroad from someone who received the oral vaccine.
The CDC said the risk to the general public is low because more than 92% of Americans are vaccinated against polio. The vaccine is very effective at preventing severe disease and paralysis, though it does not stop transmission of the virus.
The oral vaccine is very effective at blocking transmission and is typically used to crush outbreaks. The CDC is holding discussions on possibly introducing a newer version of the oral vaccine, which is more stable and carries less a risk of mutation, to address rare outbreaks such as the one in New York.

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The Department of the Interior under the Biden administration is providing three Native American tribes $75 million to relocate from coastal areas at risk of destruction, a decision that comes after tribes across the country competed for the first federal grants designed to relocate communities facing climate change threats.
The Newtok Village and Native Village of Napakiak in Alaska, as well as the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington state, will each receive $25 million to begin relocating buildings inland.
Tribal nations have lost 99% of their historic territory and the land they were left is typically more vulnerable to climate-related disasters like heat waves, wildfires and drought.

Schoolchildren walk beside severe erosion of the permafrost tundra next to their school at the climate change affected Yupik Eskimo village of Napakiak on the Yukon Delta in Alaska on April 18, 2019.
Mark Ralston | AFP | Getty Images

The Department of the Interior under the Biden administration is providing three Native American tribes $75 million to relocate from coastal areas at risk of destruction, a decision that comes after tribes across the country competed for the first federal grants designed to relocate communities facing climate change threats.
The Newtok Village and Native Village of Napakiak in Alaska, as well as the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington state, will each receive $25 million to begin relocating buildings inland and away from rising seas. The administration is also awarding $5 million grants to eight more tribes to help them plan for relocation.

Historically oppressed and disenfranchised tribal groups across the U.S. are more exposed to the effects of climate change. Research published in the journal Science found that tribal nations have lost 99% of their historic territory and the land they were left is typically more vulnerable to climate-related disasters like heat waves, wildfires and drought.
The federal government is now beginning to relocate entire Native communities in order to adapt to climate change and minimize the damage from future climate-related disasters. A Bureau of Indian Affairs study from 2020 estimated that up to $5 billion will be required over the next 50 years to address tribal relocation infrastructure needs as the climate changes.

Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland delivers opening remarks at the 2022 White House Tribal Nations Summit at the Department of the Interior on November 30, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Pete Marovich | Getty Images

“We must safeguard Indian Country from the intensifying and unique impacts of climate change,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “Helping these communities move to safety on their homelands is one of the most important climate related investments we could make in Indian Country.”
The administration announced the awards during this year’s White House Tribal Nations Summit. Earlier this year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs hosted a competition in which tribes applied for up to $3 million in relocation funds.
Tribes in Alaska are especially at risk of infrastructure damage due to encroaching waters, coastal erosion and extreme weather events, the Interior said.
The administration’s smaller planning grants were awarded to tribes including the Native Village of Point Lay in Alaska, the Yurok Tribe in California and the Chitimacha Tribe in Louisiana.

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Apple (AAPL), Constellation Brands (STZ) and Ford Motor (F) were subject to Wall Street research on Wednesday. Here’s the latest analyst commentary on these Club holdings, along with our view. Apple Analyst take: Baird lowered its estimate for iPhone manufacturing in Apple’s fiscal first quarter by 8 million units, citing persistent challenges at an assembly plant in China . As a result, analysts at Baird cut the bank’s forecast for total revenue in the fiscal first by 5.6% and revised its iPhone revenue estimate down by 9.6%. Nevertheless, Baird maintains a positive outlook on Apple’s long-term growth prospects due to its strong ecosystem of products and services, solid cash flow and “high quality” balance sheet. Baird maintains an outperform, or buy, rating on Apple’s stock and a price target of $170. Apple was trading up around 1.7% in midday trading, at $143.59 a share. Club take: China’s Covid-19 lockdown measures have posed a risk to Apple’s iPhone manufacturing, but we believe it’s a temporary one. There is no immediate solution to the production setbacks in China but we’re hoping Beijing will more quickly reopen the economy, allowing iPhone production to get back on track. We acknowledge there’s a possibility short-term iPhone demand could be impacted. However, given the company’s loyal customer base, we believe Apple can make up for lost iPhone units in the coming quarters. Constellation Brands Analyst take : Americans’ alcohol preferences are shifting toward premium products, including spirits and wine, and away from middle-of-the-road beer, according to a new research note Wednesday from Bank of America. Constellation — a leader in premium wine and high-end imported beer — is one of the three largest players in the U.S. alcoholic beverage market, behind Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) and Molson Coors (TAP). Two of Constellation’s beer brands, Modelo Especial and Corona Extra, rank in the top ten in the U.S., with the former being one of the fastest growing beers in the country, according to BofA. Constellation was trading up 0.58%, at $255.11 a share, Wednesday afternoon. Club take: Constellation’s strong portfolio of brands makes it a popular choice for consumers. It continues to strengthen its position as the No. 1 high-end beer supplier and No. 1 market share gainer in the U.S. beer market, allowing the alcoholic beverage manufacturer to benefit from a consumer shift to premium drinks. The company is also making strides in wine and spirits by upgrading its portfolio of brands. While no single company is immune to an economic downturn, we think Constellation can serve as a defensive play in a slower economy, with consumers largely maintaining their alcohol consumption preferences in any type of economic environment. Ford Motor Analyst take: Citi raised its price target on Ford to $14 from $13, while reiterating a neutral rating on the stock. Analysts at Citi made the revision based on the automaker’s updated estimates, balance sheet inputs and improved auto free cash flow. The analysts said these factors support a “modestly higher” price-to-earnings multiple target, with room down the line for multiple expansion. Ford was up 0.76% Wednesday, at $13.86 a share. Club take: Ford has benefitted from higher pricing power as a result of supply chain challenges impacting production. In the company’s third-quarter results , Ford delivered an earnings beat and generated strong free cash flow, a key reason we continue to hold the stock. We also like the 4.37% dividend yield Ford provides shareholders. Importantly, we believe Ford’s commitment to becoming a leader in the electric vehicle field is a long-term growth catalyst for the company. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AAPL, STZ, F. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

The Apple Inc. logo is displayed at the company’s store in the Omotesando district of Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, June 3, 2020.

Apple (AAPL), Constellation Brands (STZ) and Ford Motor (F) were subject to Wall Street research on Wednesday. Here’s the latest analyst commentary on these Club holdings, along with our view. More