Loading...
Symbols:
Authors:

Clueless - Cramer's Mad Money (10/8/08)

by: SA Editor Joan Wickham October 08, 2008 | about stocks: AA / DOW / EXC / GNK / HNZ / KMP / NSC / PFE / PKG / PM / PVR / PWR / SO / T / TSM / USB    

SA Editor
Joan Wickham

About this author:
Become a Contributor Submit an Article
  • Font Size:
  • Print

Stocks discussed in the in-depth session of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program, Wednesday, October 8.

Too Little Too Late

Jim Cramer told viewers that the worldwide interest rate cuts today were simply too little, too late to help the markets. Cramer said the rate cuts should help banks in the short term, but they are far too late and shallow to make any difference for stocks in 2008. Throughout the financial crisis, he lamented, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been "clueless" and so incredibly behind the curve that he should be fired. Cramer compared today's markets to that of 2003, when then Fed Chairman Allen Greenspan took short-term interest rates to just 1%. Back then, he noted, there was no financial crisis of epic proportion, no credit crisis and no housing crisis. Yet today, Bernanke expects the markets to be fixed with just a mere 1/2-point cut. Cramer acknowledged today's rate cuts represent a huge influx of cash and are a step in the right direction, but he said it would still take two years for the markets to recover. He called for several more rate cuts to completely remove the chance of a depression from the table. In the near term, Cramer advised viewers to be cautious and stay in a capital preservation mode. He told them again to sell into any strength in the markets and to continue to raise cash throughout the remainder of 2008. "Put any money you might need for purchases in the next five years into a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insured savings account," he said.

Wind and Energy - Quanta Services (PWR)

Cramer checked in with Quanta Services chairman and CEO John Colson, to see if this wind and energy play is still blowing strong in a crumbling market. The company builds transmission lines for energy, cable, natural gas and telco firms, and also does hurricane cleanup. Cramer last recommended Quanta, which his charitable trust owns, on July 15 at $29 a share. Since then, the company's shares have fallen to under $19 a share, and that has Cramer worried. Colson said Quanta has not been affected by the market meltdown, noting its business has been going strong. He said the recent wind tax credit extension passed by Congress will help Quanta, which builds and maintains power lines and switching stations for alternative energy projects. Colson said Quanta's fundamentals remain strong, and he's seen no cutbacks or cancellations of any wind power projects. He reminded viewers that utilities build wind farms for their renewable and low-carbon benefits and those benefits are not affected by the daily price of oil. He said the company expects to see $150 million in revenue this year from wind and renewable sources and strong growth going forward. Cramer said Quanta is much better today than it was when he recommended it in July. He attributed the decline in the stock price to nothing more than relentless hedge fund selling, noting a huge 3.8 million share block that crossed the ticker on Tuesday. So Quanta is looking like a classic case of broken stock, rather than broken company. And that situation is usually a buy on Mad Money.

Am I Diversified?

Portfolio One:

  1. US Bancorp (USB)
  2. Kinder Morgan (KMP)
  3. Southern Company (SO)
  4. Pfizer (PFE)
  5. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM)

Cramer congratulated the viewer for an excellent dividend-paying portfolio that'll likely make money while all others lose money.

Portfolio Two:

  1. Genco Shipping (GNK)
  2. Penn Virginia Resources (PVR)
  3. Heinz (HNZ)
  4. Norfolk Southern (NSC)
  5. Packaging Corp. of America (PKG)

Cramer said this portfolio was diversified and ready for a rough market.

Portfolio Three:

  1. AT&T (T)
  2. Phillip Morris (PM)
  3. Exelon (EXC)
  4. Dow Chemical (DOW)
  5. Alcoa (AA)

Cramer said this portfolio is diversified but is losing money. He's also not a fan of Alcoa or Dow Chemical after their recent acquisition.

Seeking Alpha publishes a summary of Jim Cramer's stock picks every day including: Mad Money Recap, Lightning Round and Stop Trading!

Get Cramer's Picks by e-mail -- it's free and takes only a few seconds to sign up.

Seeking Alpha is not affiliated with Jim Cramer, CNBC or TheStreet.com

Related Articles

This article has 16 comments:

  •  
    Oct 09 12:28 AM
    So the first part of his show was spend chastising Bernanke and admitting that stocks were to be avoided, while the rest of the show, and his programming schedule for the remainder of the year will have him touting one sector after another. If he remains true to form, he'll push each sector after it has already moved while telling his viewers to sell any sector that has bottomed. The man's a menace. I'd love to know how many investors he has bankrupted over the past year-and-a-half, that he has known we are in a bear market cycle.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 08:29 AM
    Ideas are powerful tools. Thanks for the info. Watching stocks still doesn't cost anything!!!
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 08:46 AM
    Correct me if I'm wrong. On July 30/08, James Cramer announced on CNBC that the markets had bottomed out and we were in a new bull market. Since then the markets have fallen off a cliff. Booyah that,
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 09:09 AM

    Cramer is the entertaining comic who started believing his own drivel..

    ..mistaking a bull market for brains.

    ..suddenly, look ma.. no clothes !
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 10:00 AM
    Cramer is clueless. Finally, the public has caught on. He should be taken off the air.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 10:04 AM
    Cramer has done damage to everyone's portfolio thanks to his raise cash recommendations after the market has already tanked. If you follow his other recommendations like buying Russian stocks you realize he is right about half the time. He also conveniently forgets his bad picks and touts the ones that were right. But on the overall economic problems he's been right on.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 10:10 AM
    If he's so bad, why do you guys watch? Sounds like a bunch of sour grapes to me. Cramer is about "How" to work the market, not necessarily "what to buy-sell." If you have enough bucks to trade, you ought to have enough sense to do your own dd with Cramer as just part of the info mix.
    All of which he tells his audience every day.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 12:08 PM
    It is amazing the way people blame Cramer for his mistakes. He always tells his viewers to do their homework. I watch because I find his analyses of individual stocks informative, NOT definitive. While his shtick is laid on too thick for my taste, his literary, historic, and philosophic allusions amuse as well as inform.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 03:58 PM
    I agree with 'Afterthought'.. I watch Cramer just as I watch CNBC, Fastmoney, Bloomberg and read SeekingAlpha for ideas. Anyone stupid enough to take **anything** on any of these venues deserves to have his or her head served on a platter.

    First: According to Hulbert, Cramer's track record is no better or wrse than any other 'market shill'... I think Fischer and a couple of others had better hit rates.

    Second: Buying is easy. Where you put your stops is as important. Cramer does not provide entry and exit points.

    Thirdly: Can anyone be that stupid as to think that our stock market drop is a Cramer related issue. The DOW just dropped another 400 points. We are now well below the magic 10K. The market is not paying any attention to Cramer. What we have is a defective administration, a bunch of liars and crooks in our banking system and a global meltdown. (By crooks, I mean people like the management of AIG that were begging the Fed for tablescraps one day and dropping $400,000 on a party for their management the next.)

    Fourth: I don't care what your position is in this market yesterday. If you can't change your mind tomorrow, then kiss your stack goodbye. Yes, Cramer was calling for a bottom just weeks ago. Maybe I blinked and missed that bottom, but all I see is an elevator going down. All I have heard since last December for almost anyone is "The bottom is almost here!" (You want to kick someone.. Kick that gass-bag Larry Kudlow). Cramer was probably the last guy to come out and call a bottom. Of course, all those other gung-ho types are now changing their minds now. So, he was wrong. What do you want him to do? Pull a Dubya and sit on his thumbs!

    Geeze!

    jegan
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 06:53 PM
    I don't watch Cramer because I work for a living.

    Having said that, it's just a TV show. If you're going to invest, do your own research.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 10:34 PM
    Completely agree with John and Afthought.

    Cramer has some good overall fundamentals of investing to learn from, as managing a hedge fund hes in the know about some stuff as he still has connections, and obviously the actual trading he did was decent enough that the people he managed money for haven't completely (including the former governor Spitzer).

    If you listen to his calm(er) and rational part(s) of show its actually pretty informative and entertaining. The lightning round is bs. But claimed and still claims that you shouldn't just go out and buy a stock cause some guy on tv said so and that includes him. So hes been wrong, who hasn't. He said his willingness to be flexible and turn on a dime and not be stubborn in your beliefs with investing is important.. and hes right. Always question yourself and always be ready to turn on a dime. That doesn't nessicarily make you a hypocrite.

    He clearly forgot that.. and he claimed at times he has forgotten his own mantras and uses the reminders to tell people to learn from his mistakes. I think hes definitely not really seeing it like he use to cause his show is his main investment now. His show will also do better during economic upturns as well when everyone wants to be an investor... so yea hes definitely got an incentive to deceive himself more than ever before. All in all i don't' get all the hate.. the guy is pretty smart, entertaining, and does alot of grunt work for you. Hell he had a whole show that gave all the different companies involved in making wind turbines. I wouldn't have been able to figure that out without spending hours. And they you can use that as a jumping off point.

    Criticism is deserved but the amount of hate for the guy seems like its just cause he shouts and can be annoying. I use to rag on the guy too.. then i actually listened took his book out from the library and read it (basic but decent). He got me back into investing after 4-6 years of not doing it... and at least some of what he said should be at least heard as it actually is pretty good.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 10:35 PM
    er no edit. Haven't completely or even remotely talked bad about him. I don't know about you but if my friend lost me a shitload of money i wouldn't go on his madmoney show or anything else.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 09 11:27 PM
    I saw Cramer on Fox's O'Reilly and he said sell all of your stocks unless you don't need the money for five years. Five weeks ago he said we had hit a bottom and it was time to start buying. What is he going to say five weeks from now? This guy is a moron and is dangerous to the inexperienced investor.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 10 04:38 PM
    I have said it before.. entertaining he is but he is a smart guy. He preaches insessently do your homework as if to put a discalimer in. I take it that way and after following his lead...meaning doing my homework, I can make somewhat rational investments in this extremely irrational market.
    Hey, no denying it.. he called an 8400 market and its been met and bounced all around it. I hear so damn much about him saying buy this and sell that. Do you really think he does it to continue to make his cronies a grip of cash? He said if you need the cash within the next 5 yhears take it out and put it in an FDIC protected market. I think he is an entertainer.. I said it before.. but also a bit of an educator. I have learned how to read P/Es, PEGs , along with a better understanding of the fundies, metrics and all around blance sheets of companies and I listen to conference calls. I have learned to pay close attention to what the CEO is saying. even though we have been douped by lies. Who could know. The best have been fool. The Icahns of the world admit they are scared and real concerned but well invested to protect themselves just the same. So as far as Cramer goes.. take what he says and then do your homework.. learn a bit along the way and feel a bit more confidant if you dare to.
    I will continue to watch him because he will teach. If you are pissed because he said something and you bought it.. as he says tips are for waiters..and without researching that stock.. how can you point fingers. Another favorite; the only free lunch is dividends. It makes sense. I also learned that from him. I am willing to bet that 95% of bloggers here have divvy paying stocks. Whether you got it from him or somebody else ( and better yet, whether or not if you even admitted you got it from him).. you cannot deny he does give out some decent info if you filter through it. And I am not even one of his fans..although I will watch his show. I'm just a hard working red blooded all-american guy trying to get it done daily.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 12 10:13 AM
    PLease do not blame JIM. He is the best guy and honest in wall street..He may. be wrong but not trying to cheat the small investors.He is telling the truth from his heart.. Blame to croock hedge fund, sec. chairman, market maker.

    Our sec. chairman should be fired immediately.
    Reply
  •  
    Oct 15 10:17 AM
    I think cramer has lost it..... and if anyone bets on the advice of a raging lunitic, any of them, they are destined to be in the poor house..get yourself a financial advisor and stop depending on someone who is in the business to make himself money and entertain an audience. the world is still going to be here tomorrow, good lord willing, dont follow stupidity.
    Reply
More Comments on USB ยป
More by SA Editor Joan Wickham
Investment Resources
Money Managment
Research
Seeking Alpha provides these ads as a service to its leading contributors
Articles on related themes
Cramer's Picks
Today's Market
Bonds
Dollar/Currencies