CNBC’s Jim Cramer told investors to hang on to the stock market’s “benign” action on Friday ahead of another potentially raucous week of earnings.
“You combine a good, not too hot, not too cold non-farm payroll number from the Labor Department that had little wage inflation, throw in some blockbuster earnings and voila, you get the kind of benign action that gives you multiple opportunities to make money,” the “Mad Money” host said.
From the skyrocketing shares of Apple and the stabilizing health care space, Cramer saw plenty of opportunities in Friday’s market, but wondered if they would follow through to next week, which will get an earnings report from Nvidia on Thursday.
Even though this Cramer-fave semiconductor stock has run so much, Cramer still sees a lot to like, particularly given the strong demand for chips for self-driving cars and graphics processors used for gaming systems like the Nintendo Switch.
“But the stock does have a habit of trading down after it reports, so I want you to wait until we hear the conference call before you do any buying,” Cramer said.
When the stock market acts unexpectedly, Cramer says you just have to roll with the punches, like investors did with the stocks of Activision Blizzard and Starbucks on Friday.
Both companies reported their quarterly earnings after Thursday’s bell. Activision Blizzard, the video game giant behind “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” beat analyst estimates and raised its full-year guidance. Shares popped in early-hours trading on the better-than-expected results.
Meanwhile, shares of Starbucks shed more than 3 percent after the coffeemaker reported a revenue miss, slowing domestic same-store sales and slashed long-term guidance.
“But when the market opened this morning, Activision Blizzard’s stock collapsed while Starbucks’ stock soared,” Cramer said. “How the heck is that even possible? Well, you see, it’s all in the expectations.”
After DuPont spun off paint manufacturer Axalta in 2012, the new stock initially spiked before spending a year trading sideways. This year, AkzoNobel expressed interest in buying Axalta, and Axalta’s stock surged.
It’s no secret that Cramer loves corporate breakups, but spinoffs, when a company separates from a smaller, undervalued segment, are slightly different.
“Look, not every spinoff is a success. I mean, it’s just not that easy, right? But if you know what to look for, a good spinoff can often became a big winner,” the “Mad Money” host said. “So let’s talk about what works in a spinoff, what leads to an Axalta-type situation, and who could be the next Axalta.”
With semiconductor demand sky-high across industries, Integrated Device Technology President and CEO Gregory Waters told CNBC that his company has invested its way into automotives for its “next leg of growth.”
“We’re bringing out new devices, like all sorts of smart-senses for automobiles. We’ll introduce devices in early next year that take these complex safety avoidance, autonomous-driving-type devices and reduce that to a set of chips that’ll fit in the palm of your hand,” Waters told Cramer on Friday.
So many of the current electro-mechanical systems that power in cars and other forms of transportation are large, unseemly and very costly, Waters said.
“Those things cost just south of $10,000 per copy. So they’re never going to make it into the high-volume transportation. We are working on a set of devices that will take, for instance, what’s called this Lidar technology – think of it as kind of an optical radar – and reduce that to a cost point that, to an automobile manufacturer, will cost between $100 and $200 bucks. And at that cost point, this stuff goes everywhere, not just cars,” the CEO said.
From farm equipment to drones, chips like Integrated Device Technology’s will be pervasive as the need for semiconductors grows, Waters told Cramer.
“We think this segment has legs,” he said. “I think the imagination for what’s going to come to cars and transportation in general is just starting, and we have just entered that as another leg to the growth stool.”
In Cramer’s lightning round, he shared his take on some callers’ favorite stocks:
Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes: “It’s up 193 percent. I would probably say it’s up too much. You have to wait for a pullback on that one. We can’t chase that. It’s just not disciplined enough, I’ve got to be honest about it.”
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc.: “We kind of like it. We like it. But remember: really risky and long term.”
Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Apple, Nvidia, Activision Blizzard, Starbucks and DowDuPont.
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Source: Tech CNBC
Cramer Remix: Why you should wait to hear Nvidia’s earnings before pulling the trigger