Sometimes, there are days like Monday, when CNBC’s Jim Cramer sees the stock market’s “rocket ships” fly too close to the sun.
“We actually had two rocket ships at work today: FANG and ‘Rocket Man’ himself, Kim Jong-Un, a nuclear menace who’s now become the short-sellers’ best friend, this time with his pronouncement that our flyovers of North Korea amount to a declaration of war,” the “Mad Money” host said.
While FANG, Cramer’s acronym for the stocks of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, now Alphabet, may have fallen out of favor with investors for climbing too much of late, some more uncommon stocks started to rally ahead of North Korea’s latest statements.
For example, oil stocks surged as the commodity topped $52 a barrel, even though the low $50s are usually where crude prices hit a ceiling before falling again.
“We know the oils are rallying, but there’s more to this move than just the strength in crude,” Cramer said. “We’ve heard rumblings of mergers in the drilling business. After so many years in the price-cutting wilderness, it’s about time these companies thought about combining forces.”
As the Senate tries yet again to repeal and replace Obamacare and President Donald Trump tweet-blasts the National Football League, Cramer wonders who wants tax reform less.
“The White House seems like it still hasn’t figured out what rates it wants, let alone what could possibly pass. They might as well be working from two different countries to solve the tax issue, and it’s incredibly clear that Congress can’t possibly tackle two things at once,” Cramer said on Monday. “Getting tax reform done in September turns out to be a pipe dream.”
Cramer said it would be “fanciful” to think that the so-called Big Six — House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn — could agree on much in the way of taxes.
Even as Republicans reportedly plan to release a tax reform framework this week, still-unresolved between the six leaders of the GOP-led tax overhaul are matters of expensing, effective tax rates for the country’s richest households and how to fund the cuts.
Recent statistics show the number of Americans invested in stocks declining, but Stockpile Co-founder and CEO Avi Lele told CNBC his fractional share trading platform can help change that.
“[In] the last eight years, the tide has been rising. [The] stock market has been doing well, but most of us don’t feel rich, right? Because our ships have been in dry dock. They haven’t been in the water,” Lele told Cramer in an exclusive interview on Monday. “And here, to get into the market, I think the easiest point of access is to invest in something you know, something that you love.”
Lele’s privately-held company is a clinic in making investing more accessible: it makes gift cards, sold online and at various physical locations, that function as fractional shares of stocks.
Finally, Cramer examined the bull and bear cases for the stock of BioTelemetry, a small-capitalization medical device company known for its heart monitors.
The company made a turnaround in early 2016, delivering consistently strong earnings results and making a series of acquisitions. But the bears struck in September 2017 with a scathing report from Off Wall Street, giving BioTelemetry’s stock a $21 price target and a “sell” rating.
“The bearish argument boils down to a pretty basic thesis: they believe the company’s cardiac monitoring services division, which made up 80 percent of the business last year, is losing market share. It’s just that these declines are being obscured by the company’s many recent acquisitions,” Cramer explained.
But more bullish voices from Lake Street and Dougherty and Company chimed in, attributing the company’s slowing revenue growth to Medicare cuts that will soon be reversed.
Dougherty analysts said they expected BioTelemetry’s volumes to grow by the high single-digits for the next few years, recommending the stock and giving it a $40 price target.
“I’ve got to side with the analysts who’ve been covering the name for years rather than the naysayers at Off Wall Street,” Cramer said. “BioTelemetry had run a great deal, but thanks to the sell-off, I think you can get into the stock at a discounted price. I think it’s worth buying, cautiously, of course, because it’s for speculation only. It’s a small-cap stock, even as the newfound negativity has created what may be an excellent buying opportunity.”
In Cramer’s lightning round, he rattled off his take on some callers’ favorite stocks:
Valeant Pharmaceuticals: “We’re going to just say, ‘Don’t buy.’ We like everything that [CEO] Joe Papa’s doing. He’s cleaned up the balance sheet. I think the thing could be OK. But I’ve still got so many drug companies that are down on their luck right now, I can’t go for that one.”
CenturyLink: “I’ve got to throw the flag on that one. Why? Because I do believe that, in the end, that huge yield of 11 percent is a red flag and it worries me.”
Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Facebook and Alphabet.
Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – Instagram – VineQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? madcap@cnbc.com
Source: Tech CNBC
Cramer Remix: What’s really behind the rally in oil stocks