Another day, another hour of Jim Cramer.
I committed myself to watching CNBC's Mad Money all week long. Maybe I should have stopped at the first three words of that sentence. However, even the baron of boo-yahs requires a second opinion. I'm here to help.
Last night's show was a good one, lacking Monday's contradictions and Tuesday's bait and switches.
One of his first callers asked for Cramer's opinion on a pair of utilities. Rather than render a bullish or bearish opinion on the companies, Cramer suggested buying a utility mutual fund instead. Yesterday's collapse of Great Plains Energy (NYSE: GXP ) , after the company slashed its dividend in half after posting disappointing quarterly results, clearly made an impression on Cramer. When you buy a utility stock exclusively for the yield, it's hard to bounce back when a stock takes a 21% dive in a single day.
I found myself nodding along with Cramer's advice. It frightened me.
He then interviewed a pair of CEOs. St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ ) CEO Daniel Starks offered his opinion on why a company that makes medical devices like implantable defibrillators and pacemakers is recession resistant. Cramer calls it the "best of breed" in its field, ahead of rivals like Medtronic (NYSE: MDT ) and Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX ) .
The second corporate chieftain was VF's (NYSE: VFC ) Eric Wiseman. Cramer sees VF as a sharp play on retail since VF is both a chain operator and a supplier to other merchants with its brands like North Face, Nautica, and Wrangler. The company sports a healthy 4.1% yield and has hiked its dividend for 36 years in a row. Beyond the irony of showing Brett Favre's Wrangler ad in the background -- on the same day he became an iffy spokesman by announcing his retirement after giving the New York Jets just one year on a squandered draft pick trade -- I found myself agreeing again with Cramer. Curses, Jimbo!
The lightning round was a blur, as it always is with Cramer. He panned more stocks than he liked. When someone brought up a bank stock, he once again repeated that the only banking plays he is recommending are Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS ) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS ) . Why are folks even calling up with other banks?
I disagree with Cramer here. Finally! I think any reasonably priced bank that has refused TARP money is worth researching. All of the rest are doomed to meander.
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