President Barack Obama gathered support for his stimulus package from the CEOs of 12 publicly traded companies. All of them came out for the bill, which the House passed on Wednesday. Now Cramer’s wondering if that support came at a price. Will these chief execs and their firms benefit more than others from Obama’s plan? Was being picked by the president enough to bless their businesses? And if so, are the stocks worth buying?
To answer these questions, Cramer pulled together a special Lightning Round, based on Mad Money fave Clint Eastwood flick The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. See below to find out who’s who – and watch the video for the full effect, Western theme music included.
Google, Eric Schmidt – Good: Google delivered a strong quarter, the stock’s cheap and company’s performing well given the current economy.
IBM, Sam Palmisano – Good: “IBM, right here, is a buy,” Cramer said, after the company reported a strong quarter and offered good-looking guidance for 2009.
Motorola, Greg Brown – Ugly: “This stock has hurt more people than any other stock I know.” Qualcomm’s a better pick, as is Research in Motion.
Honeywell, David Cote – Good: Since Honeywell is “one of the few industrials that absolutely is still doing well,” even though the company is expecting a tough 2009, Cramer’s bullish.
Jet Blue, David Barger – Ugly: Cramer hasn’t in the past, nor will he ever, recommend an airline stock. JetBlue, too, is ugly.
Micron Technology , Steve Appleton – Ugly: “This is absolutely one of the worst stocks in the book.” Sell, sell, sell, Cramer said. Micron’s ugly.
Edison International, John Bryson – Bad: Cramer likes utilities, but only if they offer decent-sized dividend yields, which Edison International does not. Go with Con Ed or Duke Energy instead. Or even AT&T and Verizon, who both payout more than 6%.
Xerox, Anne Mulcahy – Ugly: Xerox has been “a complete and utter disaster,” Cramer said. This once-great company isn’t living up to its name, so stay away from XRX.
Eastman Kodak, Antonio Perez – Ugly: Layoffs, struggling hardware, digital and printer divisions, a tenuous balance sheet, a dividend that’s in doubt – “The company is in doubt,” Cramer said.
Applied Materials, Michael Splinter – Bad: There’s no demand for AMAT’s products anymore. So little, Cramer said, that this company’s “been left behind.” Even its solar business is suffering now that oil and gas prices are so low.
Corning, Wendell Weeks – Bad: Here’s another company suffering from lack of demand for its products. Corning makes glass for LCD TVs as well as the fiber being used by phone companies are part of their telco build-out. The stock may look cheap, but Cramer sees no catalyst on the horizon for GLW.
Aetna , Ron Williams – Bad: Aetna’s had a big run, the whole health-care maintenance group has, and Cramer thinks that’s about to end.
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