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Cramer: Top sector you should pile into as the economy strengthens

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Jim Cramer has been preaching to investors that the market's recent strength has less to do with who is in the White House, and more to do with an improving global economy.

Whenever there is an economic expansion, one of Cramer's top sectors to pile into is the chemical industry.

"This is one of the most cyclical businesses on earth, so when economies around the world get stronger, the chemical companies tend to see their earnings rocket higher," the "Mad Money" host said.

Two of Cramer's favorite names in the chemical space are Albemarle Corporation and FMC Corp, and he thinks they are too good to ignore right now.

Watch the full segment here:

Cramer: Top sector you should pile into as the economy strengthens
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Cramer: Top sector you should pile into as the economy strengthens

Albemarle makes technologically-advanced specialty chemicals used by various industries, including lithium used for recharging batteries. Cramer noted that the lithium business has been booming, thanks to an increase in hybrid and electric cars.

The company reported earnings last week, and reported a blowout quarter, complete with an earnings beat and a massive beat in revenue. Even better, management gave strong guidance for the full year, much higher than analysts expected.

Citigroup downgraded Albemarle to "neutral" in the wake of the post-earnings rally, citing that the stock has become too expensive. However, Cramer was willing to take the other side of the trade on this one.

FMC is a diversified chemical company that serves the agriculture, consumer and industrial end markets. It makes generic and off-patent pesticides and herbicides, along with food ingredients that provide texture, color and restructure. It also has exposure to the lithium space, though FMC's exposure is smaller as a percentage of the overall company than Albemarle.

Cramer considers FMC to be a play on crop protection, as it gets more than 70 percent if sales from its agriculture division. Within that agriculture division, it gets approximately 40 percent of sales from Latin America, which is a big deal since both Latin America and Brazil have been making a comeback.

However, the last time FMC reported in February, Wall Street considered the quarter to be a disappointment, with earnings and revenue missing estimates. Even worse, management provided guidance for the following quarter that was much weaker than analysts expected.

When Cramer dug into his homework, he found that the positives were overshadowed by weak headline numbers. And while the guidance was subpar, its full-year earnings guidance for 2017 was solid.

In fact, back in 2016, FMC provided a weak outlook and then the company beat its own forecast. That led Cramer to suspect that management is simply being conservative with an under promise and over deliver approach.

"This is a great time to be a chemical company … and even better time to be in the lithium business, which is why I want to reiterate that both Albemarle and FMC Corp are worth buying right here," Cramer said.

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