We've been banking on a trillion-dollar stimulus plan from Barack Obama to help move what we've been calling the Obama infrastructure stocks. So does the fact that Obama announced a less than spectacular stimulus package that could only go as high as $850 billion over two years hurt our Obama infra thesis?
Well, the Obama infra stocks certainly took a hit Thursday, although the disappointing outline of Obama's stimulus plan wasn't the whole reason, as Jim explained the big three reasons for the day's decline. But the names we've associated with Obama's infrastructure stimulus plan like Caterpillar, and especially the steels that go into roads and bridges like Nucor and U.S. Steel, took a real bruising.
The stocks we've identified as the best Obama infra plays, on the other hand, didn't get beaten up as badly as the more peripheral names. Martin Marietta was off just 40 cents, Vulcan Materials down $1.39, and AECOM down just 49 cents. That's nothing next to the shellacking Caterpillar and the steels took, like they got hit dead-on with a V2 rocket.
On a day when the market was down big, and Obama's stimulus plan came in below expectations, our top Obama infra stocks were down small. That suggests to me that the Obama infra play is still on, although you'd better be careful when you buy any of these stocks and be prepared to buy more if they go lower.
Cliff Mason is the Senior Writer of CNBC's Mad Money w/Jim Cramer, and has been that program's primary writer, in cooperation with and under the supervision of Jim Cramer, since he began at CNBC as an intern during the summer of 2005. Mason was the author of a column at TheStreet.com during 2007, which he describes as "hilarious, if short-lived." He graduated from Harvard College in 2007. It was at Harvard that Mason learned to multi-task, mastering the art of seeming to pay attention to professors while writing scripts for Mad Money. Mason has co-written two books with Jim Cramer: Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Richand Stay Mad For Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer). He is 100% responsible for any parts of either book that you did not like.
Mason has also had a fruitful relationship with Jim Cramer as his nephew for the last 23 years and will hopefully continue to hold that position for many more as long as he doesn't do anything to get himself kicked out of the family.
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