Jim Cramer thinks that all this hoopla on Wall Street about the Dow Jones industrial average hitting 20,000 is silly.
"I almost feel like we are being drawn to this number like zombies from 'The Walking Dead.' I wish it didn't feel so inevitable because it's stretching the valuations of way too many stocks," the "Mad Money" host said.
Nevertheless, Cramer did dig up a scenario that could take the Dow to 20,000 even if it could be a bit too optimistic. He listed seven stocks that could take investors to that magic number.
No. 1 is Disney. In addition to "Star Wars Rogue One" blowing out box office records and better theme park attendance, Cramer is also seeing signs that there is something happening at ESPN. If so, the stock could head to $110, he said.
No. 2 is DuPont, where CEO Ed Breen is working tirelessly to merge with Dow Chemical. If regulators approve the deal, Cramer expects the stock to shoot to $80.
No. 3 is Home Depot, which could benefit from lower corporate taxes and deregulation under President-elect Donald Trump. Deregulation could mean more construction, which could give the bulls a good story.
No. 4 is IBM, which trades at just 12 times earnings, versus the average of 20 times earnings for many stocks of the S&P. With IBM moving aggressively to the cloud, analysts with a "sell" or "hold" rating could upgrade it, Cramer said.
No. 5 is UnitedHealth, and Cramer said it doesn't need to do anything. With the competition so busy merging, they could take their eye off the ball and give United a boost.
No. 6 is Wal-Mart, and investors want to gobble up this stock with the assumption that it could break out and Jet.com could do well in 2017.
No. 7 is Microsoft. Simply, the market likes the cloud again; it likes big data and it likes gaming. Microsoft has all of those things, and it could be a winner on repatriation and lower taxes.
"Notice how so many of these are simply based on stories, not numbers. The truth is, I don't think we have the fundamental groundings to reach [Dow] 20,000—at least not next week—which means only these ephemeral stories can get us there," Cramer said.
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