Bad Jobs Report? Buy These 7 Growth Stocks

Whispers about Friday’s unemployment number, whether good or bad, pushed and pulled the markets in either direction today, Cramer said during Mad Money. This alone has him thinking that a miss tomorrow, meaning fewer-than-expected jobs have been created, will cost the Dow “an awful lot of points.”

Therefore, investors must be prepared. And the best way to do that – aside of owning accidental high-yielders and staying diversified – is by owning what Cramer called the C.A.N.D.I.E.S. stocks. These are the high-growth stocks that rallied the hardest yesterday, when the Dow snapped back 226 points after a 100-point loss the day before. They even held up well against today’s erratic moves, and Cramer thinks they offer the best protection against Europe’s debt woes, China’s government-mandated slowdown, what seems like an anti-business US Congress and even BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

So who are the C.A.N.D.I.E.S.?

• Chipotle
• Apple
• Netflix
• Deckers Outdoor
• Intuitive Surgical
• Express Scripts
• Salesforce.com

Cramer has spent a lot of time talking about most of these stocks, but on Thursday he wanted to reintroduce viewers to Intuitive Surgical and Express Scripts.

Intuitive Surgical makes the da Vinci Surgical System, a robotic device that allows for minimally invasive surgeries that get people out of the hospital faster. Cramer had thought the da Vinci cost too much and that that would hurt the company. But that hasn’t been the case. In fact, the machine has been widely adopted by hospitals, which credit it with saving lives and patients’ time while saving and making hospitals money. ISRG may trade at 33 times next year’s earnings, but keep in mind the monster 25% growth rate and earnings estimates that Cramer thinks are too low.

Express Scripts works because dedicated health-care investors see it as one of the few pharmaceuticals-related plays they can own right now. That’s because the company manages costs and keeps drug prices down for health-maintenance organizations, businesses and unions that provide health care. Express Scripts’s growth rate registers at a more-than-healthy 20%, though the stock is trading at just 21 times earnings. That means ESRX is very cheap.

Cramer thinks these C.A.N.D.I.E.S. are the best way to survive the market’s recent sharp decline, as they rebound quicker than other stocks. Investors should buy them on weakness, slowing building a position as the share prices come down. He also recommended using deep-in-the-money call options on these names as well for those who feel comfortable trading them. (Read Getting Back to Even for more on that.) And for younger viewers watching Mad Money, they could simply buy a couple of these stocks with must less worry. If the investment doesn’t work out, they have their whole lives to make the money back.

“Yes, C.A.N.D.I.E.S. are expensive,” Cramer said. But they “come back fast, come back hard and give you the confidence and the satisfaction needed to stay in the game.”

When this story published, Cramer's charitable trust owned Apple.

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