Pfizer Offers No Reason to Pounce

Hey, Pfizer's (PFE - commentary - Cramer's Take) down so low, it doesn't go down on bad news like the Bextra withdrawal!

Whoopee! Yippee! I guess we should buy it.

I used to say and think stuff like that. I used to draw that conclusion. I used to be able to be the "contra man" on that kind of trade.

Not anymore. You see, there's a problem: It is not enough to note that a stock doesn't go down on bad news. You also have to be able to identify what could go right, what could send the stock higher. So many times I have bought stocks that "stopped going down" only to discover that a month later, nothing had happened. Two months later, nothing. And so on.

Just last night, I had Farooq Kathwari, the excellent CEO of Ethan Allen (ETH - commentary - Cramer's Take), on "Mad Money." He was giving me a brief about his stock and how cheap it is. I had noticed the other day that he had done a guidedown and the stock didn't go down. At another point in my career, I might have started a position on that alone.

But this market's too tough and demanding for that. You instead have to note that Ethan's doing about as well as can be expected when the Fed is tightening rates. You have to remember that and check in again when the Fed's almost done tightening, because then there's something that could make the stock move higher: the end of the tightening cycle.

What can move Pfizer higher? I don't see a lot in the pipeline. I don't want to own a drug stock for the sake of cost cuts or slimmed-down headquarters. I want growth. I can get more growth from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - commentary - Cramer's Take), which offers just as good leverage to a slow economy and more upside from products.

---

James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS by clicking here. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to [e-mail]. Listen to Cramer's RealMoney Radio show on your computer; just click here. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" at 6 p.m. ET weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get his second book, "You Got Screwed!" and click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict."