Normally, markets are rattled after events as shocking and deadly as Sunday night’s mass shooting in Las Vegas, the largest in U.S. history, take place.
But CNBC’s Jim Cramer himself was rattled when stocks, along with the three major indexes, hit all-time highs Monday morning as if the world was as stable as ever.
“This stock market is about as un-cynical as you can get,” the “Mad Money” host said. “As we kick off the fourth quarter, I see rallies in stocks that only go higher when people believe in progress and the ability of companies to navigate their way through troubled waters despite the dim and, frankly, baffling news flow.”
For one, President Donald Trump belittling Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Twitter for “wasting his time” negotiating with North Korea should have sent markets reeling, but instead, they shrugged it off and surged higher.
Violent outbreaks in Barcelona, Spain over a referendum for Catalonia’s independence should have also stirred investors out of fear for the fate of the country, but had little impact on stocks.
And a shooting like the one in Las Vegas should have stopped trading dead in its tracks, or at least sent markets down, Cramer said. Instead, they rallied.
“The stocks rallying the hardest say that things are going great, so we have to note how true believers are frantically putting money to work right into the face of domestic and global uncertainty,” Cramer said. “Let me go over the examples of what I’m talking about, a lack of cynicism on Wall Street, as these dreamer investors keep dreaming and the hard-nosed traders find areas to exploit to the upside despite all the uncertainty around us.”
First, Cramer turned to the case of General Motors. As the reality of self-driving vehicles approaches and ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft encroach on individual car ownership, many analysts took to writing off the auto manufacturer, saying it would falter under the pressure.
But the automaker’s plans to launch an autonomous car fleet by 2020 and introduce 20 new electric car models over the next 6 years turned Wall Street positive on Monday.
“Suddenly, instead of ignoring or dissing the stock of General Motors, investors are clamoring for it,” sending the stock up 4 percent on Monday, Cramer said. “The valuation had been suppressed by these long-term worries. Now it’s being advanced by them.”
Or take Disney. In his game plan for this week, Cramer said that if cable giant Altice didn’t drop Disney programming in their contract dispute, people would realize that Disney’s business may not truly be in jeopardy.
“This is a market that embraces the simple, and [Disney’s] stock is running because Altice basically gave in. In another time, this contract dispute would’ve been viewed as unimportant. Instead, it’s a clarion call to buy shares of this iconic American company,” Cramer said.
Several analyst notes on Monday also suggested that activist investor Nelson Peltz may win his months-long proxy fight with consumer packaged goods colossus Procter & Gamble.
“That could be enough to carry the day for him,” Cramer said, noting that the analysts think Peltz will double down on his efforts if he doesn’t win a seat on the company’s board. “The term ‘win-win’s’ being batted about a bit. That’s another sign of how this market embraces the positives and sees a glass half full as three quarters full — at a minimum.”
Even as some technology stocks are falling as the averages hit new highs, Cramer said the secular rise of the market must have been based on fundamental progress rather than insensitivity to the turmoil at hand.
“Here’s the bottom line: while there are tons of reasons that hope seems to be squelched in real life, it still springs eternal almost daily in the stock market,” the “Mad Money” host said. “Today’s performance simply reflects that belief that things are getting better in the corporate world, even as it seems so grim in the actual one.”
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Source: Investment Cnbc
Cramer: Here's what's driving the market higher despite tragedy, turmoil and terror