Mad Money: Cramer: Four Reasons to Be Positive - Mad Cap Recap

FEATURED SLIDESHOW

  Who Is The Worst CEO?
Mad Money needed new inductees for its
Wall of Shame, so we asked viewers for
  nominations.

MAD MONEY FEATURES

PODCASTS
Watch the Lightning Round whenever and wherever you want.

OFFICIAL MAD MONEY WIDGET
Grab this all-in-one application and get recaps of the show sent right to your desktop or blog.

CRAMERS SOUNDBOARD
Admit it: You've always wanted to hit the "They
know nothing!" button. Here’s your chance.

CHECK OUT OUR PHOTOS
Check out Cramer on set, back to school, behind the scenes and more.

SHOP FOR MAD MERCHANDISE
Buy Cramer books, bobbleheads and other Mad Money merchandise.

RING TONES
Pick up the phone! It's Cramer! New Mad Money sounds for your cell phone.

TEXT MESSAGE ALERT
Mad Money's mobile. Get show highlights sent to your phone.

Text Size

Mar.06

6:51 PM ET

Friday, 6 Mar 2009

Cramer: Four Reasons to Be Positive

Posted By:Tom Brennan

Sectors:Technology | Semiconductors

Cramer searched long and hard to find ways in which the market has improved since December, and he managed to scrape up a few key points. Granted, the U.S. economy and markets are in tough shape right now, so there’s little to feel good about. Citigroup [C Loading... () ] has dropped to $1. Unemployment has grown to 8.1%. The White House’s spending plans are hurting entire sectors. And those are just a small part of the systemic problems we’re facing.

So let’s latch onto any good news we find, such as resilience in retail. Wal-Mart’s [WMT Loading... () ] February same-store sales were better than those in December. Family Dollar [FDO Loading... () ] and Big Lots [BIG Loading... () ] also have said some positive things recently. If we were truly in a recession, Cramer said, even these discount stores would feel the pinch.

There’s also reduced inventories in semiconductors, which firming up some of the sector’s stock prices. Analysts just raised estimates for Qualcomm [QCOM Loading... () ] because the cell-phone chipmaker is doing better than expected. The problem here, though, is that this is no indication that the end markets are improving. In fact, Hewlett-Packard [HPQ Loading... () ] CEO Mark Hurd said they weren’t. Still, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange semiconductor index [.SOX Loading... () ] was up over a truly miserable December.

A couple of other positives: copper inventories are down, oil’s decline has stopped, and metal prices are on the rise – all signs of increased demand. And the fact that these commodities are fetching higher prices than in December is good news, Cramer said. This means there is economic activity going on somewhere. The fact that it’s happening in China and not the U.S. might dishearten some, but it’s welcomed stimulus regardless.

Lastly, there are still companies increasing their dividends even in this horrible market. Both Coca-Cola [KO Loading... () ] and Kimberly-Clark [KMB Loading... () ] did just recently, and the underlying businesses are strong enough for us to trust they will make those payouts.

Beyond these few trends, though, things look bleak. Job losses, failing banks, a 40% decline in car sales, wealth destruction in the markets – they all outweigh those positives. And Cramer doesn’t think anything will change until President Obama reprioritizes. It’s not that the Mad Money host disagrees with the White House’s agenda. He just thinks it’s killing our chances of getting out of this mess. Obama should focus on creating jobs and stabilizing housing, and Treasury Secretary Geithner should come out of hiding and offer a solution to the financial crisis.

Without those things, Cramer said, we’ll just have to accept that things have gotten worse since December, not better.

Cramer's charitable trust owns Qualcomm and Wal-Mart.

Questions for Cramer?

Questions, comments, suggestions for the Mad Money website?

Tools:

Print Email

Previous Post Back to Main Page

ADD COMMENTS

FEATURED SLIDESHOW

RECENT POSTS

MAD MONEY FEATURES