Cramer: Early Sign of Froth in the Market
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For the first time in a while, Cramer has spotted a significant caution sign in the stock market.
"I think Thursday was the first truly speculative day in a while," Cramer said. "I'm seeing a first glimpse of froth." That is, the Mad Money host has identified a development that suggests to him that the market may be getting ahead of itself.
Specifically, Cramer doesn't like the biggest gainers in Thursday's session. In a healthy bull advance, companies that benefit from an uptick in global growth should be among the biggest gainers. Typically that's companies in sectors such as the industrials or or technology.
However, on Thursday Tesla, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Barnes & Noble were among the day's best performers. And performed they did. By the end of Thursday's session Tesla gained 24%, Green Mountain gained 27% while Barnes and Noble gained 24%.
That gives pros like Cramer cause for concern because all 3 of these stocks have issues.
As a maker of electric cars pros consider Tesla to be extremely speculative simply because electric cars haven't caught on entirely; pros also worry that fortunes are overly-tethered to the K-Cup, and they fear that the brick and mortar strategy of Barnes & Noble may be challenged.
Often times when stocks such as these advance, it suggests pros are scouring the market looking for laggards. However, because of the on-going issues outlined above, stocks such as these may not deserve a significantly higher premium.
And to make matters all the more concerning, Cramer is seeing similar patterns play out elsewhere in the market.
"Check out Micron, the commodity semiconductor player hasn't been able to break out above the ten dollar range in ages," Cramer said. However, it broke above $10 on Thursday. "I worry that investors sent Micron higher simply because they had already sent every other member of the semiconductor index higher."
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When faced with this kind of market phenomenon, Cramer thinks it's always prudent to step back and pause. If global growth stocks resume leadership, then Cramer thinks Thursday could be a blip on the radar. But if they don't, then he'll start to wonder if the market could be at an inflection point.
"When I have seen these kinds of speculative leaders, I say to myself, that we are now on the red hot griddle moment of the advance. That's the one where you can put a couple of sunny side ups on the hot stove and cook em in ten seconds, but you leave them on a second more and they burn to a crisp."
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