As the bull market surged higher amid Republicans finalizing their tax bill, CNBC’s Jim Cramer took the temperature of the market to see if the strength could continue.
“We still don’t even know what’s finally going to happen in Washington, but as I told you last night, we’re in a ‘damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead’ moment … because of corporate earnings — witness the pin action from Costco and Adobe,” the “Mad Money” host said.
With even Congress unable to stop the averages from reaching new highs, Cramer turned to the stocks and events he’ll be watching next week.
On Monday, Cramer will be focused on European inflation data, which could alter the fate of long-term U.S. interest rates. It’s also tied to one of Cramer’s biggest market fears.
“I know it’s crazy that what they do over there really matters over here, but my biggest worry about this market is that the banks aren’t making enough money from lending. And why does that matter? Well, that could cause a slowdown in 2018 if we aren’t careful,” he said. “[It’s] the last thing we need when the Fed is tightening. That’s how you get a recession, for heaven’s sake. So we’re in this nutty position of wanting more inflation in Europe if we want to eliminate a major risk to the market’s continued move higher.”
For those looking to winterize their portfolios, Cramer recommended looking no further than two cozy coat makers.
“I want to highlight two of the most prominent winter weather apparel plays. I bet you know these: Columbia Sportswear … and its new challenger, although I think there’s room for everybody, Canada Goose, which came public earlier this year,” he said. “Both of these stocks are on fire.”
After some serious gains — Columbia ran from the mid-$50s in August to over $70 on Friday and Canada Goose has seen a 64 percent gain since Cramer recommended it in March — Cramer wondered if they still have more room to run.
As the GOP released its final version of the long-awaited Republican tax overhaul, Cramer told a caller that mid-cap stocks would “absolutely” benefit from the bill.
The proposed plan would include tax cuts for corporations, lower rates for individuals and altered tax deductions.
Supporters of the bill argue that corporate tax cuts will spur business investment, hiring and economic growth.
“Mid-caps tend to be domestic, so you’re not dealing with companies that have far-flung operations that won’t benefit from a lower corporate tax rate,” the “Mad Money” host said. “I think you’ve got real horse sense.”
When asked whether he could make sense of how Washington is handling the issue of health care, Michael Neidorff, the CEO of health insurance giant Centene, offered a curt response.
“No,” the CEO told Cramer in an exclusive interview Friday. “What I understand is we’ve moved from policy to politics.”
But the upheaval over health care and taxes won’t affect how Centene does business, Neidorff said.
“We continue to maintain that we’re going to deal with the facts as we have them today, because there is no clear direction where it’s going. It moves from second to second, one vote to one vote. It’s just impossible to figure out,” he told Cramer. “But it’s worked for us [to] do what you think is right at the time. I had a panel today on the [Affordable Care Act]. Incredible. We all agreed keep moving down the line. We will fix it.”
When Elon Musk vowed to fix Australia’s power problem by building the largest lithium ion battery plant in the world, Atlassian co-founder and co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookers took him up on it — to the tune of $50 million.
Even though the $50 million price tag on his bet with Musk was nominal, Cannon-Brookers didn’t expect the Tesla and SolarCity CEO to fulfill his promise.
“Was he really serious about this?” Cannon-Brookers said as he recalled the story with Cramer on Friday. “Elon said he was, and I helped behind the scenes to kind of make sure that they got connected with the politics and the money and we now have the biggest battery in the world sitting in South Australia. It’s three times the size of any battery man has ever produced.”
“He got the deal done in under 100 days, so he won the bet,” Cannon-Brookers added.
In Cramer’s lightning round, he shared his take on some callers’ favorite stocks:
Skyworks Solutions Inc.: “It’s overdone on the downside. I’d pick it up in the low $90s.”
PayPal: “Buy, buy, buy! [CEO Dan] Schulman’s just delivering and delivering and delivering.”
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Source: Tech CNBC
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