Cramer Remix: The dollar could get too hot as the economy warms up
Ever since Election Day, Jim Cramer has noticed Wall Street using an entirely new rubric to analyze companies: is it or is it not a Trump stock?
A Trump stock refers to the probability that a company could benefit or be punished dramatically from the President-elect's agenda. Typically the assessment is done under the microscope of Trump's business tripod of lower corporate taxes, repatriation of foreign capital and deregulation.
One stock that has rallied immensely since Nov. 8 is Whirlpool, the maker of big appliances such as washing machines, dryers, dishwashers and ovens. The stock was on a real roller coaster in 2016, and took off since Election Day, up 20 percent.
"The pros outweigh the cons here, meaning, Whirlpool is more of a Trump stock than a non-Trump stock," the "Mad Money" host said.
If Trump can pass his pro-growth agenda and the U.S. economy accelerates, than interest rates will keep rising and the dollar will go even higher. This was a worry for Cramer, as Whirlpool could take an even bigger currency hit on international sales.
One formerly-despised group didn't need Trump to rebound, as it started to rally even before his surprise victory. And it has only become stronger since then.
The agriculture business has come roaring back, including FMC, which has rallied more than 75 percent since lows last February.
FMC is mostly a chemical company that caters to the agriculture market, and also produces lithium, with a health and fitness aspect. However, 70 percent of sales are from agriculture chemicals.
"FMC is still cheap here and it is worth buying into any weakness as we head into their next earnings report in less than three weeks," Cramer said.
One of the most powerful read-throughs for Cramer was in technology after Netflix reported a strong quarter on Wednesday night, adding a record 94 million customers. The news sent the stock up 8 percent in after-hours trading.
And when Netflix goes higher, Cramer expects FANG to get a lift, too. FANG is his acronym that stands for Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, now Alphabet.
"It is a fact of life in earnings season—Trump or not," Cramer said.
Software analytics play Splunk has an operational intelligence platform designed to make machine data more accessible and useful for clients. Cramer referred to it as the "Google of data mining."
Unfortunately, the stock hasn't moved much lately because even though it reported a robust quarter, Splunk is the kind of growth technology stock that investors gravitate to when the economy is anemic. So, when investors think the economy is accelerating, money managers turn their attention to cyclical stocks instead.
Cramer spoke with Splunk's CEO Doug Merritt, who explained why the product is uniquely differentiated in the industry.
"You've got this massive data coming in that is not structured in any way. Trying to ask it questions and have it format itself so that you can answer random questions is a very difficult piece, and that's why our customers … are all fanatical," Merritt said.
The question of whether an investor is nimble enough to get back in quickly after selling a stock is one that has plagued Cramer his entire life. Even selling Bank of America at $23 a share with the intention of getting back in at $20 or $21 is risky. And for a hedge fund manager, they better be good. That is what investors pay them for.
Good trading means knowing when a stock has gone up too much and to leave it alone. And when it goes back down, buy the stock back at lower prices on the bet that estimates will need to come up if the Federal Reserve plans to raise rates, Cramer said.
"Bank of America's shareholder base is not monolithic," Cramer said. "You will always have investors, people who believe in fundamentals and listening to the conference call and figuring out what to pay for the stock based on how much the company could earn."
In the Lightning Round, Cramer gave his take on a few stocks from callers:
Harley-Davidson: "I don't know how the quarter is going. I think the brand is terrific, it has great brand equity. I do feel that you can own it for the long term, but the short term it has been a rocky performer."
BB&T: "I think that this one is going to come down a little bit because the group is for sale. And when the group is for sale it tends to trade all together. Wait a point or two, and then you can pull the trigger because I really like BB&T."