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Cramer: 2 groups immune to the claws of the bear

Cramer: 2 groups immune to the claws of the bear
VIDEO6:1806:18
Cramer: 2 groups immune to the claws of the bear

Jim Cramer sees bears roaming through the market, sinking their vicious claws, sector by sector. First, it mauled healthcare. Then it hit the oils, followed by international industrials and now the restaurants.

"The averages may be having a great month, but underneath, there is plenty of pain," the "Mad Money" host said.

This is why Cramer took it upon himself to figure out what groups are currently immune to the prowess of the bear.

It all came down to two big obvious groups — auto parts and defense stocks. O'Reilly Automotive blew analysts away on Thursday when it beat estimates and raised guidance. Cramer considers it to be the most consistent company in the industry, yet somehow analysts are always blown away with its earnings.





The most amazing part about this to Cramer is that many other companies within the same group, such as AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts and Pep Boys, are all trading at their highs as well.

"That is very rare. Most retailers don't trade together like this," Cramer said. (Tweet this)

There are two secular tailwinds to the sales of these companies that have allowed this to occur. First is that cars are older, as the average age of a car on the road today is 12 years old. The second is the high price and large debt load that someone takes on when they do want to buy a new car.

Cramer gauged the strength of the sector by looking at the worst company in the group for both sales and earnings. In this case, Pep Boys took the prize as the underperformer of the group. Then Japanese tire company Bridgestone paid a whopping 23 percent premium over the stock price to buy it. In Cramer's perspective, that could only happen in a strong sector.

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The second bear-free group is the defense sector. It tends to be overlooked, but is actually in the midst of a powerful secular trend. There is a growing demand of nations around the globe to bear arms, especially now that the U.S. is acting less like the world's policeman. Cramer interpreted the general sentiment as being the end of the U.S spending big money on defense.

However, Cramer believes that candidates for presidency now must recognize that more has to be spent on defense and that budget limitations are over. The bullish thesis extended to Northrop Grumman, which just won a gigantic contract to build a next generation bomber. As a result, even its competitors Boeing and Lockheed Martin ran up in anticipation of the big deal and haven't given up much of their gains.

"Som there you have it: auto parts stores and defense. Two resilient bull markets where bears need not apply unless they want to be stampeded underfoot by voracious buyers," Cramer said.

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