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The bulls are looking a bit selfish these days, Cramer said on Thursday. They want what they want and they want it now. Let’s see some stability, they say, but not too much. Unemployment needs to come down, they demand, as long as it’s not too great a decline. And consumers need to start spending, though they shouldn’t open their wallets too wide.
Why the seeming contradiction? Because the federal spigot would be turned off if the economic picture got too bright. Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would kill the stimulus that has helped to drive stocks higher, and the bulls would no longer have an investment strategy.
Cramer’s point: You can’t buy stocks that work during a recession and those that work during a recovery at the same time. Any market move that benefits the former will inevitably hurt the latter, and vice versa, especially now.
There’s the potential for another lose-lose situation here as well. If economy turns up and Washington stops its spending, then the industrials, banks, techs and oils get dumped for so-called safety stocks, meaning the health care, food and drug companies. And Wall Street will favor these safety stocks just the same if the economy tanks.
So what will it take to get investors to buy companies that depend on a strengthening economy? Pricing, Cramer said. Caterpillar [CAT
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] may be too expensive at $34, but at $24 the stock is much more attractive. The same goes for Nucor [NUE
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] at $40 rather than $47 and Morgan Stanley [MS
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] in the low $20s instead of at $28. At these lower prices, earnings weakness and a tough market are less of a concern. But there’s no point is paying up for these stocks until those concerns are off the table.
Watch the video for more on the bulls’ dilemma and for Cramer’s call on Target [TGT
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Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC
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