CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday said the market has fooled the bears as stocks continue to power through adversity.
The major U.S. indexes all traded higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite rising about 0.30% and the S&P 500 moving north 0.05%.
“You’ve gotta admire the resilience of this market,” the “Mad Money” host said. “On a sedate day … what stands out to me is the incredible resilience of so many stocks that you expected to get hammered overtime.”
Boeing
Boeing has had its share of negative news coverage in the wake of a second crash involving its top-selling 737 Max plane. Still, the stock is up more than 18% in 2019.
Cramer noted that airlines have pulled orders for the airplane and that he expects Boeing will likely guide down because of it when the company reveals its latest quarter earnings a week from Wednesday.
“That’s when I expect the buyers to finally pause — not the buyers of the plane, but the buyers of the stock,” he said. “Now, if you want to own Boeing, I’d wait for that pullback. But the fact is, this thing has been ridiculously resilient.”
Apple
Apple’s stock has nearly reached $200 again after widespread selling, Cramer noted. Shares bottomed at $142 in early January after the iPhone maker preannounced that sales would be weak. The host said the recovery wasn’t powered by any news that confirmed sales improved or that the United States has settled trade issues with China.
Cramer reiterated that it’s a stock to own, not trade.
“And with today’s announcement of a truce with Qualcomm, my biggest worry had been that Apple would be late with 5G. It’s no longer an issue, ” Cramer said.
Shares of Apple rallied 0.1% Tuesday, compared to 23.2% at Qualcomm.
“I smell a downgrade of Apple tomorrow morning,” he said.
Nike
The stock was hammered after its last earnings report, which included weaker-than-expected sales in North America. Now the stock is within a point of where it fell from. Even with lingering China trade issues, Nike has an advantage in the country given its ties to China’s sports ministry program, Cramer said.
He thinks the athletic apparel company will have strong results in North America and Europe in its next earnings report because of better weather.
“They’ve come on strong in Europe and I am betting the U.S. will rebound this quarter,” Cramer said. “So Nike definitively deserves the benefit of the doubt, but it’s still kind of amazing … The stock’s getting it, although it was a delayed reaction.”
Caterpillar
Cramer pointed out that UBS double downgraded the stock from buy to sell in late February, but Caterpillar closed Tuesday at $142.03. That’s nearly 3% higher since UBS made that call.
The host said he wondered if the company would get hit with some bad news following the bearish indication. Instead, the water has been calm.
“In fact, the stock’s saying that Caterpillar will report a good quarter next week. Of course, stocks turn out to be wrong all the time, but I think CAT is worth owning,” Cramer said.
Home Depot
Home Depot’s stock plummeted from about $188 to $180 after the construction retailer delivered a weaker-than-expected outlook in its most recent earnings report. Cramer said, however, that he thought those results were misleading. He pointed to a few factors, including the housing market.
The stock is up nearly 20% this year and closed north of $204 on Tuesday. Home Depot delivers its next quarterly report in a little more than a month.
“If you were waiting for the company to give you some sort of all-clear, which many of you are, well I think you’ll get it when they report again because it’s lawn and garden season. But you have waited too long,” Cramer said. “Maybe next time give management the benefit of the doubt.”
Five Below
Five Below’s stock fell from about $129 in March to $117 in early April after the discount chain forecast earnings per share 8 cents below Wall Street projections.
Regardless, the stock touched an all-time high of $138.99 during the trading day.
“Talk about resilience,” he said.
Facebook
Facebook was back in the news again after an NBC News report said top brass at the social media giant considered finding “real market value” for sensitive user data, information the company has said it would protect.
The issue appears to be wrong, but the people who should care don’t care, Cramer said. Advertisers are still leaving platforms like YouTube for Facebook’s offerings.
“The truth is, as we’ve learned over the course of the past year, can we just put an end to this: none of these stories matter. It’s about earnings per share. The people who should care about Facebook and its privacy, they don’t,” he said. “The biggest issue Facebook has: they don’t want their ad rates to get out of control. Now that’s a high-quality problem.”
