Most Wall Street professionals haven’t experienced a bear market of this particular nature, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Monday as stocks recovered from their Thanksgiving-week declines.
“The simple fact is, these days, most money managers can only remember the systemic risk kind of bear market, like the one we had from 2007 to 2009,” the “Mad Money” host said, referring to the multi-year breakdown spurred by the financial crisis.
“They haven’t seen a Fed-induced-slowdown bear market like this one,” he continued. “They haven’t seen an end-of-cycle bear market where stocks just keep going down and down and down until the sellers finally exhaust themselves like this one, or because the macro factors finally turn around.”
This kind of bear market has led to dramatic declines in high-quality stocks like Nvidia and Goldman Sachs, which is owned by Cramer’s charitable trust, the longtime stock guru noted.
The macro factors that could save stocks, he said, would be a fresh trade deal between the U.S. and China, which some anticipate could come this week when President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping cross paths at the G-20 summit, or a pause in the Fed’s interest rate hike schedule.
“Until then, I don’t know,” Cramer said. “Get used to the pain.”
Monday’s reversal in the stock market could be the start of a bounce for the largely oversold equity cohort, according to Cramer.
Stocks got “very oversold” on Friday amid a plunge in oil prices and technology-led weakness, he said, noting that the paid S&P oscillator he follows hit the minus-5 level during Friday’s trading, a signal that the selling was too rash.
“That’s the crux of this move,” Cramer argued as the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its best day in over two weeks. “In this particular bear market, we’ve had three significant declines where the oscillator’s gone below minus 5, and each time, the selling got too aggressive and it’s produced, roughly, about a 5-percent bounce.”
So, according to history, the move isn’t over, Cramer said. Still, investors should “never confuse a bounce with a sustained move” higher, he said, reiterating his call that stocks are still in a “bear market.”
Click here for the factors that Cramer thinks could prolong Monday’s move.
Investors can’t own shares of United Technologies without considering the threats that interest rates and tariffs pose to its business, Cramer said Monday.
Speaking after Chinese authorities approved United Technologies’ purchase of aircraft parts manufacturer Rockwell Collins — the final hurdle in a 14-month-long process — Cramer said that prospective buyers should watch out for the external risks to the industrial’s business.
“You can’t own United Technologies in a vacuum,” he said. “At the end of the day, the stock’s still hostage to President Trump’s negotiations … with China and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions.”
But the company’s Monday announcement of its intention to break its key segments into three parts and the completion of its Rockwell Collins deal “could be a major boon for you, the shareholder,” Cramer said.
Click here for more of his analysis.
As U.S. consumers scoured the web for Cyber Monday deals, Cramer found some bargains of his own in the downtrodden retail sector.
Cramer said on Monday that he liked Macy’s, Kohl’s, Target and Amazon at these levels. He noted that recent weakness in the retail cohort — much of it tied to worries about the Federal Reserve’s impending interest rate hikes and the Trump administration’s tariffs on China — has already been “baked into some of the really good companies.”
“Any positive developments from the Fed or the Chinese [are] going to send these things roaring,” he told investors. “It’s all about assessing the risk-reward, and some of these names, I think, have become a lot more attractive.”
Click here for his full analysis.
Gym operator Planet Fitness’ burgeoning equipment retail business stems from its commitment to staying on the cutting edge of active-lifestyle offerings, CEO Chris Rondeau told Cramer in an exclusive interview on Monday.
“We never want to be out-newed,” said Rondeau, whose national company now boasts 12.2 million members. Nearly 45-percent of Planet Fitness’ client base are millennials, he added.
Aside from the money Planet Fitness makes on its affordable, $10-a-month membership fees, the company has now taken to selling equipment that gets left behind during its “re-equips,” or times when franchisees are required to upgrade older equipment, Rondeau said.
“Unfortunately, this industry, a lot of it’s been lacking [capital expenditures]. You go to a 10-year-old club, it’s 10 years old,” the CEO told Cramer. “We require our franchisees to re-equip their stores every five [to] seven years so everything’s new.”
Click here to watch his full interview.
In Cramer’s lightning round, he rattled off his answers to callers’ stock questions:
Iqiyi Inc.: “It’s $20 [a share], right? What I would do instead of buying a share in that [is] I would go to Geno’s and I’d buy four cheesesteaks with whip, because those are going to keep longer than IQ. Do I make myself clear?”
Stanley Black & Decker Inc.: “We don’t care where a stock came from, we care where it’s going. I agree with you [on the] long term [prospects]. Short term, you’re going to have tariff issues, you’ve got the president … in the White House saying all sorts of negative things, so just understand he and the Fed both are fighting it. OK? They don’t want you to make money here. But the company itself is trying to make you money.”
Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Kohl’s and Amazon.
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