Cramer Remix: Your No. 1 stock for when Trump can’t get anything done
As investors move to secular stocks in the wake of White House unrest , Jim Cramer said shares of Amazon (AMZN), which tipped above $1,000 on Tuesday, are prime for avoiding political stock risk.
"It's not all the magic number 1,000, though," the " Mad Money " host said. "Remember, Amazon is the ultimate non-Trump stock."
In fact, what attracts investors to stocks like Amazon's is they seem like they will grow regardless of whether President Donald Trump's economic agenda is fulfilled or not.
Cramer argued that lower corporate taxes would not move the needle much for Amazon, since the company does not need to make more money right away to continue its global expansion.
Bringing back cash from overseas, otherwise known as repatriation, would likely not interest the e-commerce giant either because of its focus on growing international operations.
And deregulation does not affect the not-very-regulated Amazon, though Trump's hardliner stance on some of the United States' trading partners, like Germany , could bring tariffs on some goods, which could cause the company to lose money.
"In short, Amazon is a stock that performs better than a lot of others when it seems like Trump is incapable of getting anything done, and we just need to adjust to the status quo of slow growth with two interest rate hikes from the Fed , including one possibly coming next month," Cramer said.
While Amazon is perhaps an over-appreciated tech stock, Cramer also takes pleasure in finding under-appreciated names like Autodesk (ADSK), a computer software company serving an array of industries from engineering to entertainment.
The stock of Autodesk has run up about 95 percent over the last twelve months, a rally that made the "Mad Money" host want to take a closer look after pounding the table on the stock in February.
"Would I take more profits? Well, Autodesk is hitting its targets. The subscription business continues to grow rapidly. [The] piracy crackdown is working. Basically, it's on track to be a pretty compelling growth story," Cramer said.
But the stock is very expensive, trading at 12 times sales — "nosebleed territory," by Cramer's account — so much so that any hit to the $113 stock price could send it tumbling.
"I am still a huge fan of the stock of Autodesk and the company, but if you bought the stock after I recommended it in February, I'm blessing taking some off the table," Cramer said. "Given the long-term growth targets, I'd hold onto the rest. And for those who don't own any? When we get the inevitable Nasdaq pullback, keep this one on your shopping list. Why? Because Autodesk a winner."
Firms that do business overseas have been breathing sighs of relief as the U.S. dollar trends lower , but Cramer's charts suggest that the decline may not last.
To find out more about the currency's movements, the "Mad Money" host turned to the charts of Carolyn Boroden, the technician behind FibonacciQueen.com and Cramer's colleague at RealMoney.com.
First, Cramer examined the weekly chart of the U.S. Dollar Index (STOXX:.DXY), which measures the greenback's value against other foreign currencies.
Boroden noticed that the dollar index has been hitting higher highs and higher lows for some time, a sign that the dollar could be gearing up for a rally if it holds those lows.
"Perhaps more important, Boroden sees three major floors of support for the dollar index, all of which run from 95 to 96 and change. Given that it's currently at 97, there's no question that these support levels are indeed holding," Cramer said. "As much as we might want a weaker dollar, the charts seem to suggest that it is not in the cards."
With stocks pulling back modestly as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slip from their 7-day rallies, Cramer said one index will prove whether the rally still has legs: the Dow Jones Transportation Average (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJT).
The "Mad Money" host noticed that the group has been trading lower since its March 1 peak, which he attributed to the narrowing of the overall market rally as investors move to faster growing stocks.
Looking closely at the stocks that make up the transports index, Cramer found a few key trends .
"The first thing you notice with the transports is how few stocks are really doing the heavy lifting of the plus-13 percent, and two of the best performers are related to each other: the railroads CSX (CSX), up 50 percent, and Norfolk Southern (NSC), up [15 percent]," the "Mad Money" host said.
Other leaders in the group, however, were sparse.
Philip Morris International: Smoking in a Smokeless World?
In light of the World Health Organization's World No Tobacco Day, Cramer addressed one "sin" stock, cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris International (PM), to track its unexpected gains.
Although the world is largely moving away from smoking cigarettes, Cramer said that Philip Morris has been very well managed, with its stock rallying over 30 percent year-to-date.
As the tobacco industry consolidates and innovates to hold on to a retreating audience, Philip Morris has developed its own smoke-free tobacco platform, iQOS, a growth product that has gained popularity overseas.
The "Mad Money" host said that he might like to see Philip Morris and Altria (MO) merge, undoing their breakup from a decade ago. He said the move could be helped by deregulation from the Trump administration.
"That may not be so great from a public health perspective, OK? but this is 'Mad Money' here. It means the United States will likely become a much less toxic place for the tobacco companies to do business, so it's easy to see why Philip Morris might want to gobble up Altria in order to get some gigantic U.S. exposure," Cramer explained.
And the company pays shareholders a healthy dividend of roughly 3.5 percent, an attractive benefit compared to bond yields, which have been slammed in the past several months.
"Here's the bottom line on this very tricky, hard-to-understand story: Philip Morris International is on the upswing, and it's on the upswing for good reason — the company's smokeless tobacco technology is taking the world by storm, it's got incredible momentum, and the business is on track to grow its earnings nicely even as the core cigarette business continues to shrink," Cramer said. "The stock's had a big run, but I think it's worth buying, particularly into any weakness the next time we get a nice worldwide pullback."
Lightning Round: In Retail, it's a Dog-Eat-Dog World
In Cramer's lightning round , he rattled off his take on caller favorite stocks, including:
Camping World Holdings (CWH): "I've got to tell you, I think it's well run, but boy, there is a lot of competition in that space, which is why the stock has been under pressure. I can't recommend a stock when there's that much competition. It's just a dog-eat-dog world in that segment right now."
Dycom Industries (DY): "I don't know, man. That was not just a regular [earnings] miss. I would hold off on that one. That was a nasty miss. They've got to a better quarter before I would commit to that."
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