Jim Cramer Blog

Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW) announced its decision to raise prices on all products by as much as 20% by the first of June to deal with rising commodity costs. The Short Term PowerRating for DOW is 7.
Hedge fund manager David Einhorn claimed that the $6 billion raised by Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) will not be enough to cover the company's credit-related losses. The Short Term PowerRating for LEH is 5.
Reporting earnings before the bell on Thursday, Costco (NasdaqGS:COST) is expected to announce earnings per share of $0.65. The Short Term PowerRating for COST is 5.
Shares of Dryships (NasdaqGS:DRYS) were up more than 9% on Wednesday as the business of transporting commodities across international waters continues to benefit shippers. The Short Term PowerRating for DRYS is 7.
Fears of sluggish advertising sales growth led investors and traders to sell shares of Viacom (NYSE:VIA) on Wednesday. The stock was down by more than 4% on the day. The Short Term PowerRating for VIA is 5.
Dell (NasdaqGS:DELL) is scheduled to report earnings on Thursday after the close. Analysts are expecting EPS of $0.33. The Short Term PowerRating for DELL is 5.
Expedia (NasdaqGS:EXPE) moved higher by more than 4% on Wednesday as speculation grew that Barry Diller, chairman of the company, would seek to take the company private. The Short Term PowerRating for EXPE is 4.

Labels: COST, DELL, DOW, DRYS, EXPE, Hot Stocks, LEH, VIA

Yahoo Inc. will be the exclusive provider of search ads at MTV.com, Nickelodeon.com and other sites run by entertainment company Viacom Inc. under a multiyear partnership announced Tuesday.
The deal initially covers 33 Viacom sites, which also include VH1.com, ComedyCentral.com and BET.com, and has the potential to expand to more than 140 others.
Yahoo is in a battle with search leader Google Inc. and other companies over the lucrative keyword ads, which are generally text ads targeted to a user's search terms or the contents of a Web site.
The ads will be powered by Yahoo's newly launched search marketing system, known as Panama.

Labels: VIA, Viacom Inc., Yahoo Inc., YHOO

MTV owner Viacom Inc. said Tuesday it has sued YouTube and its corporate parent Google Inc. in federal court for alleged copyright infringement and is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
Viacom claims that the more than 160,000 unauthorized video clips from its cable networks, which also include Comedy Central, VH1 and Nickelodeon, have been available on the popular video-sharing Web site.
The lawsuit marks a sharp escalation of long-simmering tensions between Viacom and YouTube. Last month Viacom demanded that YouTube remove more than 100,000 unauthorized clips after several months of talks between the companies broke down.
In a statement, Viacom lashed out at YouTube's business practices, saying it has "built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others' creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google."
Viacom said YouTube's business model, "which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws."
A representative for Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other media companies have also clashed with YouTube over copyrights, but some, including CBS Corp. and General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, have reached deals with the video-sharing site to license their material.
Universal Music Group, a unit of France's Vivendi SA, had threatened to sue YouTube, saying it was a hub for pirated music videos, but later reached a licensing deal with them.
Viacom filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and is also seeking an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from using its clips.
Google shares dropped $3.96 to $450.79 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, while Viacom's Class B shares rose 25 cents to $39.82 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Published by AP

Labels: CBS, GE, GOOG, VIA, VIA-B

Global Santa Fe (NYSE: GSF - News): Cramer is amazed that this stock is so low. He translated the conference call to say 'You know want? We're fed up with Wall Street. We'd rather be private. Our contracts are worth ten times the price of our darn stock.' Cramer predicts the stock will rise from $57.
Viacom (NYSE: VIA - News): Viacom reported a great quarter that might have gone unnoticed because of its complaints about subprime lending and the yen carry trade. The company "broke all the rules" when CEO Philippe Dauman gave forward guidance in the conference call; "he let the cat out of the bag. He said the next quarter is great... that's money in the bank!" Cramer said, and would buy the stock up 71 cents Friday at $39.28.

Labels: GSF, Jim Cramer, Jim Cramer's Stop Trading, VIA

GlobalSantaFe (NYSE: GSF - News), Charter Communications (NasdaqGM: CHTR), EchoStar Communications (NasdaqGS: DISH),Viacom (NYSE: VIA - News)
Cramer commented that, in the drama and trauma that was last week's market,"There was tons of information that was totally overlooked" on conference calls, and he urges investors to do their homework and to review the conference calls of GSF, CHTR, DISH and VIA. All of these companies said important things that were ignored. He disapproves of a "scalping" approach to trading which investors use to fade the open or benefit from sudden market moves, such as a fall in U.S. markets due to an overseas event. Cramer calls this a strategy for underperformance. What is needed is homework, says Cramer, and he adds that every investor needs to ask;"Which stocks do I like on the S & P down 1%?' and circle the wagons around those stocks."
Published By SeekingAlpha

Labels: CHTR, DISH, GSF, VIA

Labels: CAT, DD, ELX, Jim Cramer, Mad Money, MSFT, UTX, VIA, WHR

On the Mend: Viacom (NYSE: VIA - News), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX - News)
Cramer says that a broken stock can make a comeback only when the company is prepared to do something drastic to prove that profits are its chief concern. He is bullish on Viacom since it announced that it is cutting 250 jobs at MTV. Cramer compares this scenario to TWX's rise after selling of 18 of its magazines. The mistake Viacom has made, according to Cramer, is that it was being run like a growth company even after it stopped growing, and "became a victim of its own success" by its almost exclusive focus on a younger demographic. Since the company is more concerned about profits than growth, Cramer expects the company will deliver and adds that it is trading at a "big discount."

Lamson & Sessions (NYSE: LMS - News), American Standard (NYSE: ASD - News), Home Depot (NYSE: HD - News)
Cramer discussed the "damned up flood of money in private-equity firms" and commented that if he were working at a private equity firm, he would want to buy LMS which is a gift at $28.25. Since the raw cost of PVC piping, one of LMS' products, is "dropping like a rock," the company should benefit, and its shortfall has already been priced into the stock. LMS is part of Cramer's "private equity dream" which includes ASD's plumbing business and HD's building and supply company. If a private-equity company purchases these three, it can form a "plumbing and construction powerhouse" that could go public in a few years.

Hit or Miss: Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR - News), General Electric (NYSE: GE - News)
Cramer cited a Financial Times article reporting the most earnings misses this quarter since the third quarter of 2004, but he said that an earnings miss is not a reason to sell a stock, but can even be an incentive to buy or to hold, since most of the time, a poor report is already baked into the stock, as was the case with WHR. Cramer likes WHR because it and GE have a "virtual monopoly" on washers and dryers and that it has integrated its acquisition Maytag well. Cramer warned viewers not to buy after hours or before doing research on the stock.
CEO Interview: Michael Wilson, Agrium (NYSE: AGU - News)
Cramer commented that while many fertilizer companies see "capacity come on and new plants being built," he doesn't notice the same thing happening with AGU. Michael Wilson responded that progress has been slow since few anticipated the tight market, and the company hasn't been building new plants. However, fertilizer demand "is a major global phenomenon," he added, and the company already has 500 retail stores. Cramer is bullish on Agrium because he believes in the agricultural complex.
Published By SeekingAlpha

Labels: AGU, ASD, GE, HD, Jim Cramer, LMS, Mad Money, TWX, VIA, WHR