Jim Cramer Blog

Equities rose on the day, with all three major market averages solidly in the green. The Dow closed up 100 points, helped by the end of a strike at General Motors (NYSE: GM - News). The Nasdaq, meanwhile, finished up 16 points, while the S&P tacked on 8 points. Oil initially fell after weekly inventories levels unexpectedly rose, but rallied to close up 77 cents to $80.30 a barrel. The price of gold slipped on the day.

In economic news, the Commerce Department reported that demand for durable goods nose-dived in August, with weakness across most categories. Orders fell -4.9% for the month, worse than the -3.5% drop economists were expecting. It was the biggest decline since January, and comes on the heels of a large 6.1% gain in July. Crude oil inventories, meanwhile, unexpectedly rose last week by 1.8 million barrels to 320.6 million barrels. Analysts were expecting inventories to drop by -2 billion barrels.
Topping the headlines today, the United Auto Workers (UAW) and General Motors agreed to a tentative contract early this morning, ending a 2-day strike. As part of the contract, the two sides confirmed that GM would fund a newly created trust that the UAW will run to administer retiree healthcare benefits. For its part, GM will continue to offer some job guarantees. The UAW hopes to strike similar deals with Ford (NYSE: F - News) and Chrysler. Shares of GM spiked 9.4%.
Shares of defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LM - News), General Dynamics (NYSE: GD - News), and Raytheon (NYSE: RTN - News), hit or flirted with all-times Wednesday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was meeting with Congress today to request an additional $45 billion to cover military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan. If approved, Gates' request will raise initial 2008 budget-year war projections by nearly a third to $190 billion.
Shares of Vonage (NYSE: VG - News) fell below a $1 after a jury found that it infringed on six patents held by Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S - News). The VoIP company was ordered to pay Sprint $69.5 million in damages. Vonage said it will seek to try to have the Sprint judgment overturned. Earlier this year, Vonage lost a patent infringement case to Verizon (NYSE: VZ - News) for $58 million plus royalties. Today, a court upheld two of the three patent infringement charges in a separate verdict.
In M&A news, Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ - News) and Borse Dubai raised their bid for Swedish exchange OMX to $4.9 billion, a 15% increase over their previous offer. The exchanges also made agreements with several large shareholders that combined control nearly 19% of OMX to now secure half of OMX's shares. The moves were made in response to The Qatar Investment Authority increasing its stake in OMX, which could indicate it may try to block the deal. Elsewhere, Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC - News) shares rose 7.7% on rumors that the investment bank is close to selling a minority stake in itself. Among the potential suitors named include a Chinese bank, HSBC Holdings, and Warren Buffett, among others.

By the BullMarket.com Staff

Labels: BSC, F, GD, GM, LM, NDAQ, RTN, S, VG, VZ

Watch TV, Make Money: Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD - News), PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP - News), General Motors (NYSE: GM - News), Disney (NYSE: DIS - News), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG - News), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX - News), Garmin (NasdaqGS: GRMN), Diamond Foods (NasdaqGS: DMND)
While many people tune out commercials, Cramer has noticed that the Superbowl' s main advertisers have great long-term gains, especially the top three: BUD, PEP and GM. "Despite GM holding the group back, if you owned these stocks for the last 20 years, you'd be up 739% vs. the S&P 500, which has been up 487%," he said. In addition, Pepsi, Bud, DIS, PG and TWX saw an upsurge in their stocks 3 months after their Superbowl commercials appeared last year. However, Cramer warned investors to watch out for poseurs who buy expensive advertising time they can't afford, and urges doing homework on stocks before buying. Cramer prefers companies which grow consistently rather than GRMN, and he doesn't think DMND will reap much benefit from its ad, given that it is a small company, but he likes the fact that it is involved in the healthy food trend, and thinks it will go higher. Cramer's favorite Superbowl advertiser is BUD.
Business is Booming: Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - News), Legg Mason (NYSE: LM - News) and T. Rowe Price (NasdaqGS: TROW)
"Gaming the whims and needs of aging baby boomers represents the single greatest secular growth theme out there!" declares Cramer who believes that his generation is not only interested in having hard bodies and wrinkle-free skin, but is also "working longer, living longer and investing longer." One of the best ways to play boomer retirement is to benefit from the repositories of their money, says Cramer, who likes Goldman Sachs, but prefers pure asset managers such as LM and TROW. Of the two, Cramer prefers TROW because it puts more money into equities, whereas LM is "bond heavy."
CEO Interview: Roy Vallee, Avnet (NYSE: AVT - News)
Roy Vallee said that "a lot of hard work" went into Avnet's remarkable quarter, and when Cramer asked the CEO how the distributor had a stronger performance than its clients, the semiconductors, Vallee said that the company's broad base across various industries was responsible for Avnet's success, as well as its worldwide team effort. Cramer declared AVT's story "fabulous" and said that he should have included it on his list of tech stocks that are safe to own.
Published by SeekingAlpha

Labels: AVT, BUD, DIS, DMND, GM, GRMN, GS, Hot Stocks, Jim Cramer, LM, Mad Money, PEP, PG, TROW, TWX

Hot IPO: AeroVironment
Cramer says a good way to make money fast is by picking up the next hot IPO which he identifies as AeroVironment, an umanned surveillance aircraft company which is supposed to go public in the next week and to trade under the symbol AVAV. The Pentagon has been "pouring money" into this company whose products have been combat-tested and can be used for border patrol and to reduce casualties during wartime. While AeroVironment has some competition, it is the only company to produce a spy plane that weighs less than a pound. Cramer told viewers not to worry about the effect the Democratic Congress may have on this company, because it has "deep military contracts." Cramer suggests picking up the stock under $20, and discretionary buying until $25, which is a good sell price.
Playing it Safe: Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED - News) and Southern Co. (NYSE: SO - News)
For conservative investors who want consistency for retirement savings, Cramer suggested ED and SO as bond-replacement stocks. These stocks have high dividends and low risk and can yield the same income as bonds, but with some upside potential. He also recommended these stocks over bonds because their dividends are not taxed as heavily as bond income.
All Ears: Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN - News), Coach (NYSE: COH - News), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX - News), Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC - News), F-5 Netw0rks (NASDAQ: FFIV - News), AT & T (NYSE: T - News), Legg Mason (NYSE: LM - News), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - News)
Next week will be one of those weeks during which it will be hard to make money because there will be so many companies reporting there earnings, so Cramer suggested not acting but listening to conference calls. On Monday, Cramer would pay attention to TXN which is the "crystal ball into the world of technology." Although a good quarter might reverse the tech slump, Cramer doubts that it will. Coach's call on Tuesday will give insight into the world of high-end, luxury stocks, and Cramer also suggested checking out UTX's statements. On Wednesday, Cramer would listen to NSC and to FFIV for information about high-growth, high-multiple stocks. Cramer calls AT &T a "terrific company" and on Thursday's call, he would listen to what they have to say about wireless and cost synergies with the closing of their Bell South deal. On Thursday, Cramer is interested to find out if Legg Mason has gotten its act together after the lack of integration of funds they acquired from Smith Barney, and to see what MSFT, one of tech's few sole survivors, has to say about XBox 360, Zune and Vista.
CEO Interview: Steve Ells, Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG - News):
When Cramer asked Steve Ells if CMG could continue its "fabulous" performance, Ells commented that "customers are going crazy" for the restaurants because of their food, service and atmosphere. "We are opening up 95 to 105 new stores because we find great real estate and managers for that number." Responding to Cramer's question about rising food costs, Ells said that he doesn't see an immediate effect; "we're going to keep our eyes on it."

Published by SeekingAlpha

Labels: CMG, COH, ED, FFIV, Jim Cramer, LM, Mad Money, MSFT, NSC, SO, T, TXN, UTX

Hot IPO: AeroVironment
Cramer says a good way to make money fast is by picking up the next hot IPO which he identifies as AeroVironment, an umanned surveillance aircraft company which is supposed to go public in the next week and to trade under the symbol AVAV. The Pentagon has been "pouring money" into this company whose products have been combat-tested and can be used for border patrol and to reduce casualties during wartime. While AeroVironment has some competition, it is the only company to produce a spy plane that weighs less than a pound. Cramer told viewers not to worry about the effect the Democratic Congress may have on this company, because it has "deep military contracts." Cramer suggests picking up the stock under $20, and discretionary buying until $25, which is a good sell price.
Playing it Safe: Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED - News) and Southern Co. (NYSE: SO - News)
For conservative investors who want consistency for retirement savings, Cramer suggested ED and SO as bond-replacement stocks. These stocks have high dividends and low risk and can yield the same income as bonds, but with some upside potential. He also recommended these stocks over bonds because their dividends are not taxed as heavily as bond income.
Related: Geff Considine discusses ED and a low-risk portfolio.
All Ears: Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN - News), Coach (NYSE: COH - News), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX - News), Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC - News), F-5 Netw0rks (NASDAQ: FFIV - News), AT & T (NYSE: T - News), Legg Mason (NYSE: LM - News), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - News)
Next week will be one of those weeks during which it will be hard to make money because there will be so many companies reporting there earnings, so Cramer suggested not acting but listening to conference calls. On Monday, Cramer would pay attention to TXN which is the "crystal ball into the world of technology." Although a good quarter might reverse the tech slump, Cramer doubts that it will. Coach's call on Tuesday will give insight into the world of high-end, luxury stocks, and Cramer also suggested checking out UTX's statements. On Wednesday, Cramer would listen to NSC and to FFIV for information about high-growth, high-multiple stocks. Cramer calls AT &T a "terrific company" and on Thursday's call, he would listen to what they have to say about wireless and cost synergies with the closing of their Bell South deal. On Thursday, Cramer is interested to find out if Legg Mason has gotten its act together after the lack of integration of funds they acquired from Smith Barney, and to see what MSFT, one of tech's few sole survivors, has to say about XBox 360, Zune and Vista.
CEO Interview: Steve Ells, Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG - News):
When Cramer asked Steve Ells if CMG could continue its "fabulous" performance, Ells commented that "customers are going crazy" for the restaurants because of their food, service and atmosphere. "We are opening up 95 to 105 new stores because we find great real estate and managers for that number." Responding to Cramer's question about rising food costs, Ells said that he doesn't see an immediate effect; "we're going to keep our eyes on it."
Published By SeekingAlpha

Labels: ATT. T, AVAV, CMG, COH, ED, FFIV, Jim Cramer, LM, Mad Money, MSFT, NSC, SO, TXN, UTX

Most Under Priced Calls: These are the most under priced calls of all stocks in our database. While the Equities Explosion List finds groups of calls for individual equities that are under priced, this list finds the most under priced individual calls. Thus, the options listed here will tend to be more severely under priced.
Legg Mason Jan 100 Calls (NYSE:LM - News). LM's PowerRating is 4.
Most Under Priced Puts: These are the most under priced puts of all stocks in our database. While the Equities Explosion List finds groups of puts for individual equities that are under priced, this list finds the most under priced individual puts. Thus, the options listed here will tend to be more severely under priced.
Las Vegas Sands Jan 90 Puts (NYSE:LVS - News). LVS' PowerRating is 5.
Most Overpriced Calls: These are the most overpriced calls of all stocks in our database. While the Equities Implosion List finds groups of calls for individual equities that are overpriced, this list finds the most overpriced individual calls. Thus, the options listed here will tend to be more severely overpriced.
Sears Holdings Mar 165 Calls (NASDAQ:SHLD - News). SHLD's PowerRating is 7.
Most Overpriced Puts: These are the most overpriced puts of all stocks in our database. While the Equities Implosion List finds groups of puts for individual equities that are overpriced, this list finds the most overpriced individual puts. Thus, the options listed here will tend to be more severely overpriced.
China Life Insurance Company Jan 55 Calls (NYSE:LFC - News). LFC's PowerRating is 5.
Stocks with Abnormal Call Volume: These are stocks which showed unusual call option volume not easily explained by arbitrage operations. The appearance of a stock on the Call Volume Alerts list suggests a possible takeover, extraordinarily good earnings report, or other news which may favorably affect the stock.
Medarex (NASDAQ:MEDX - News). MEDX's PowerRating is 7.
Stocks with Abnormal Put Volume: These are stocks which showed unusual put option volume not easily explained by arbitrage operations. The appearance of a stock on the Put Volume Alerts list suggests an extraordinarily negative earnings report, or other news which may negatively affect the stock.
Midway Games (NYSE:MWY - News). No PowerRating available due to trading history being less than 200 days.
Abnormal Put/Call $ Volume: These stocks have the highest dollar put volume in relation to their call volume. These high ratios are indicative of extreme bearish sentiment in the underlying stock.
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY - News). LLY's PowerRating is 4.
PowerRatings are courtesy of PowerRatings.net
Published by TradingMarkets Research

Labels: LFC, LLY, LM, LVS, MEDX, MWY, SHLD