Monday, 02/11/08
Posted 02/11/08,  11:19 pm ET

(Scroll down to see Jim's comments below)

 
 
Today's date:  Monday, 02/11/08

  Dow Jones: 12,240     +57
  NASDAQ:   2,320     +15
  S&P 500:   1,339       +7
 
 
 
  Happy Birthday to 
  Jim Cramer!! 

Feb. 10, 1955 -- A Powerful 53!
( NOT 64... )
 
First Segment
 
 
Opening Segment 1 Title: 'Dow For The Count'

.  .  .  .  .

Featured Stock(s): No specific stock picks. 
See full comments below...



See Opening Segment 2, below...

        
JJC:    Yesterday (2/10/08)... I turned 64... (actually, he turned 53)...  Better be a young looking 64-year-old, than a young 53-year-old... And it looks like Dow Jones has decided to give me the worst birthday present ever...

This morning, they gave me yet another reason to stop quoting the Dow Index... to stop treating it like it represents the market...  Because the guys at Dow Jones made it perfectly clear that they either don't have a clue... or they're deliberately trying to make the Dow Jones Industrials Index as unrepresentative of the economy as possible!...

And I am 100% convinced that they're ruining this once-great index, just to spite me as a belated birthday present...

They had an opportunity, because Altria (MO*) is getting split up, and has to come out of the index... They had an opportunity, so that the Dow better reflected the way things are going in this economy...

I like to look forward, not in the past...

.  .  .  .  .

There are three big themes that I think any responsible person would want to emphasize, if they want to nail the future... 

The growth of the natural resources sector in importance... and that includes oil...

The strength of companies that sell beyond our borders... the rest-of-world (i.e., ROW)...

And, of course, the decline in worth and size of the financial sector...

.  .  .  .  .

So, of course, they do almost the exact opposite...  but let's not act surprised that the new management really bungled this one...  C'mon Rupert (Murdoch)!...  You know this stuff cold!  Make the real changes!  Get rid of the negative-ness...

.  .  .  .  .

As of February 19th, Honeywell (HON), the quintessential ROW-er, with a management team that has totally embraced the idea that exports are the future...  will be kicked off the index...

Sheer genius, if you're trying to make the Dow Jones Average irrelevant...

In one fell swoop, they remove a stock that represents one of the three big themes they should be enshrining...

And what do they add to replace MO* - which had to go... and HON - which should have stayed?...

We get Chevron (CVX) and, of all things, Bank of America (BAC)?...  a financial...  I guess the sector's shrinking so fast, they figured they had to add another bank...   What better way to destroy the Dow?... 

.  .  .  .  .

I'd say they had a fantastic opportunity not to add another financial, but to drop one!... American International Group (AIG)!...

We do not need still one more totally opaque, hard-to-understand financial like BAC... who knows what they actually own...  joining the Dow.  We need AIG out...

And, while we're talking about this travesty masquerading as an insurance company, I should do the responsible thing, and put AIG where it belongs...

Not on the Dow, but on the Mad Money Wall of Shame!...  with the newest member right here...  I'm adding the CEO, Martin Sullivan who, the way I see it, has shown himself to be completely over his head...   and, frankly, he gives incompetence a bad name...

I'm just glad I threw AIG in the Sell Block, back on December 13th...  which could have saved you from a 21% loss, even though it was a heavily-criticized decision to put it in the Sell Block...

If Sullivan doesn't already feel like he's got egg all over his face, let's put it there!... (Jim then threw an egg at Sullivan's picture on the Wall of Shame)...

.  .  .  .  .

If anyone at Dow Jones had wanted to make the Dow more relevant, they would have dropped AIG and added Google-licious!...   Google Inc. (GOOG)...  another great example of a company that's doing business with the rest of the world... 48% of their sales coming from overseas for the last three quarters.  This one is clearly here to stay...

While we're at it, if anyone from Dow Jones is listening, it's time to dump Pfizer (PFE)!...  Pharma is another example of an incredible shrinking sector, yet they've got PFE, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Merck (MRK) in the Dow...

Why not replace PFE with a stock that represents a sector that's actually growing... Ag!... (agriculture)...  and why not add a Monsanto (MON) or a Deere (DE)...  Although, MON is more likely to be the Seed World centerfold next month...

And don't forget, this Dow Jones index contains both
Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T)...  Isn't that a little much?...  There are only really two telcos in this country, and both are in the Dow?...  Quizzacle?...

What a great moment to replace one of them... I think VZ...  with Cisco (
CSCO), a telco equipment provider that's also a rest-of-worlder...

.  .  .  .  .

Now, I know that all the money's indexed to the S&P, not the Dow, so it really doesn't matter.  It's just an exercise...  but the bottom line is... 

.  .  .  .  .

 

The Bottom Line!:     As long as we're treating the Dow like it seriously represents the market, the Dow Jones might as well make a serious effort to make sure it does just that... At least they gave us a good reason to throw eggs, and make a mess!...  Which is my perogative when I'm 64!...


[See Jim's 2nd Opening Segment stock picks below... ]

 

 

 



See all of tonight's stocks' latest quotes on Yahoo! Finance


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Stock Snapshots - Includes all stocks mentioned above

 

 

 

Jim
Cramer's
rating on
this stock

STOCK
SYMBOL

Closing
price
that
day

Opening
price
next
day

Full Company Name/Comments
(see comments above for each)


na

na

na

na

         

 


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Second Segment
 
 
Opening Segment 1 Title: 'Military Precision'

.  .  .  .  .

Featured Stock(s): Raytheon Co. (RTN*)

See RTN*'s official website here.

See the Yahoo! Finance profile for RTN* here.



See Opening Segment 2, below...

        

JJC:     It's easy to feel like the Wall Street insiders have an edge over you, when you're investing as a homegamer...  that they know more...  that they have more resources... that the game is rigged...  and the pros will beat you everytime...

But that's simply not true...

Believe me, we wouldn't have much of a show, if that were the case...

And it's not true, because when it comes to what goes on in Washington, you'll do better by reading the Washington Post... than you'll ever do by listening to some of these analysts...

.  .  .  .  .

They all the defense budget could not possibly be as big this year as it is...  and could definitely not be big next year...

Just a week ago, on the 4th, Goldman Sachs came out with a note on defense spending that really freaked out everyone... including me!...

The note had an ominous line...   'Early indications of slowing growth in defense spending...'

That was the concensus on the Street... that defense spending would disappoint...

And, once again, when it came to Washington, the Street got it wrong!

.  .  .  .  .

Today, we learned in a big frontpage article in the business section of the Washington Post, that the defense budget is huge...

Bush is asking for $515 billion in 2009...  That's a 7.5% increase over the 2008 defense budget.  That's just a low-ball number, according to Fred Kaplan, over at Slate...  I like it.

Our defense spending next year will come closer to $713 billion...

This blindsided Wall Street, which consistently under-estimated the President's insistence on keeping defense spending high.  We're the world's policemen and the fact that Congress is totally in the pocket - or maybe in the wallet, to be more accurate - of the defense contractors...  

.  .  .  .  .

The analysts covering the defense contractors just added no value here...

They had us worried about program terminations, when the actual budget that came out didn't terminate a single program!

.  .  .  .  .

Now that the overall defense budget for 2009 is much bigger than the analysts thought, hey... do you mind if we try to make some money off of it?...

And we'll do that by exploiting one of the other big ways that analysts screw up...

.  .  .  .  .

The analysts know that the defense contractors are in bull-market mode...   But, if you're an analyst covering the defense contractors, you can't just say everything is a buy... You have to be more negative on something.  Otherwise, it just likes you're being rigorous...

Even though I think the most rigorous thing, in reality, would be to tell everybody to buy every defense stock...   they can't do that.  They can't just say everything's great...

Which leads us to Raytheon (RTN*)...  one of our favorite stocks on this show, and something owned by my charitable trust...

In fairness, I did schnitzel a little...  I schnitzelled a little RTN*... I cut it back, off the table...  but that's only because it had had such a great run.  My position in the stock was so big that it would have seemed piggish, and we know what happens to pigs who don't sell... 

.  .  .  .  .

The analyst at Goldman downgraded RTN*, based on the specifics of the company... they were worried about free cash flow.  But the specifics of the company have nothing to do with why RTN* works...

It went up, because the sector - as a whole - was strong...

Unfortunately, again, if you're an analyst, you can't just say that even the worst house in the defense neighborhood is better than the best house in pretty much any other neighborhood...

There are reasons to like RTN* specifically... like the fact that it's got the highest international sales in the group... and, on Mad Money, you know we're all about the international or, as we call it, ROW... rest of world...

But I think the best reason to like the stock is that it's not getting the love it deserves from the Street, and that gives you an opportunity to buy it lower than it should be.

.  .  .  .  .

The Bottom Line!:     The analysts just can't get national security right.  Only the press can... and I say that means buy Raytheon Co. (RTN*)... although, I wouldn't necessarily pull the trigger here, okay?...  Wait for a pullback.  It just went up on this "sell" to "hold"...  I think you can get RTN* for less.

 

.  .  .  .  .

[See Jim's past comments on Mad Money about Raytheon (RTN*), pre-searched for you here >> ]   



   
 

Stock Snapshots - Includes all stocks mentioned above

 

 

Jim
Cramer's
rating on
this stock

STOCK
SYMBOL

Closing
price
that
day

Opening
price
next
day

Full Company Name/Comments
(see comments above for each)


RTN*

67.05

67.25

Raytheon Co. (RTN*)

         

 

 

Go to the LIGHTNING ROUND from tonight's show here >>

See current quotes on Yahoo! Finance from tonight's show stocks here >>

Symbol keys:

A Charitable Trust stock. - An asterisk next to a stock symbol indicates that Jim mentioned it is a stock that he manages within
his charitable trust portfolio.  You can see the complete portfolio
of stocks here >>

Thumbs up - indicates he would buy the stock or, at the very least, not sell the stock.  We do our best to interpret Jim's opinion on stocks, as we think it is indicated by his comments during the show.  Please read his comments to decide for yourself.

Thumbs down - indicates he has said not to buy or to sell the stock, based on his comments  We do our best to interpret Jim's opinion on stocks, as we think it is indicated by his comments during the show.  Please read his comments to decide for yourself.

Back up the truck - indicated by Jim, when he says the stock is so good, that he would do a 'mon-back' on the stock... In other words, this is the sound someone would say to a truck driver, "Come on back... " as he is "backing up the truck" to load up on his cargo.  Translation for buying stocks:  This recommendation by Jim indicates that, after you do your own homework on the stock, you should feel comfortable loading up on it, as it is in a good position to be bought at this point.

Stumped. - Of the 2,000+ stocks that Jim Cramer has in his head, for which he has an informed opinion, he sometimes comes across a caller with a stock he does not know well enough to opine on...  He then indicates he is stumped and will have to come back to it, after he does some homework of his own on the stock.  This usually occurs during the Lightning Round, when Jim does not know in advance who is calling, or what their stock question is about.
 

 
Definitions of key phrases used by Jim, known as "Cramerisms":

Definition:   'Pull the trigger' is Jim's phrase for making the decision at that point to trade - either to 'buy' or to 'sell' (although he usually uses the phrase for buying), as if to say you should feel comfortable enough to make the final decision without looking back...

Definition:   'Ring the Register' is Jim's phrase for selling a stock, and making it a final sale, that you should not look back on.  Put it behind you.

Definition:  'Let It Come In' indicates how you may wait for it to pull back, or have the stock price come down briefly, as your chance (after letting it come in) to buy the rest of your position (i.e., total number of shares you own in that stock).

Definition:  'backing it up' or 'doing a 'mon-back' is Jim's phrase for the metaphor of backing up a truck to load up on a stock by buying it.  'Mon-back is short for the imaginary worker saying, 'Come on back...' as the truck is backing up to receive its load... Notice that we use the little truck icon to indicate where Jim has mentioned this.  Translation for buying stocks:  This recommendation by Jim indicates that, after you do your own homework on the stock, you should feel comfortable loading up on it, as it is in a good position to be bought at this point.
  See more "Cramerisms" & other financial phrases here >>
   
Helpful Websites:
  See the stocks currently known to be in Jim Cramer's
Charitable Trust at:

jim-cramer-charitable-trust-stocks.com

 
See the stocks currently known to be in Warren Buffett's portfolio
of stocks at:

warren-buffett-portfolio.com

 
  Stock Homework 101:   This is an excellent upcoming site that provides resources and links to help you do that homework that Jim Cramer recommends after hearing his suggestions...

StockHomework101.com

This site is coming soon.   Thank you.

 
  FastMoneyRecap:   This site will be a quick summary of recommendations made by the great Fast Money TV show crew, that will offer you a unique service, to compare their picks to Jim Cramer's past comments about those stocks.

Fast Money Recap - Trades for next day...

Compare these picks to Jim's comments for the same stocks.

 

 

   
   
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