Stop Trading!: Cramer Reacts to Kass' Citi Call

A longtime bear on the financials has changed his mind, it seems, predicting Citigroup could quintuple over the next three to five years.

We’re not talking about Jim Cramer, though. Seabreeze Partners founder and President Douglass Kass, also a columnist at TheStreet.com, is widely known for his “unrelenting negativity on this group,” Cramer said, but is now bullish on Citigroup , Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

“There is a chance that this is a generational opportunity to buy the bank stocks,” Kass told Erin Burnett during a “Street Signs” interview.

Cramer isn’t sold on the idea yet. “So many things have to go right” – a better housing environment, stabilization in employment, better management at the bank – at Citi for the stock to make such a big move, he said.

Most of the market’s firing on all cylinders – except the financials. So “if he’s right,” Cramer said of Kass, “you're going to have a rip, snorting bull here.”

Switching gears to a stock in Cramer’s charitable trust. Glassmaker Owens-Illinois could make a comeback as consumers become more aware of potential toxins in plastic bottles.

Cramer also urged viewers to “stick with Mastercard,” even though MA is up almost $24 Thursday.

Joy Global is up $2.43, or 3%, after a “monster good quarter.” Cramer said he thought the stock would have been up $8 if only the coal sector – Joy Global’s biggest clients – wasn’t down today.

“Joy Global is the answer,” Cramer said, “to getting the Saudi Arabia of coal” -- the U.S. -- “back in its rightful place.”

Be sure to watch Joy Global CEO Michael W. Sutherlin Thursday night on Mad Money.

Jim's charitable trust owns Owens-Illinois.

Jim Cramer is the TheStreet.com's largest shareholder.

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