Opportunity Beckons in Consumer Stocks

Just as the decline in bond yields provoked no bullishness, now the decline in natural gas and gasoline prices seems to mean nothing to people.

That's wrong.

Casual dining and retail have been hurt very badly by the climb in energy. So has travel. You got some real declines in this group, save Chipotle (CMG - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Jack in the Box (JBX - commentary - Cramer's Take), which are stories that have a lot going for them. You also saw mall traffic drop, judging by the same-store sales numbers.

Now, I know nothing bums people out more than not being able to sell their home. But no matter what, we are not a nation of people who are constantly trying to sell homes. In fact, 5.75 million homes isn't even that bad. In the two horrid and overvalued years, 2005 and 2006, we did 7 million homes. Those were uncharacteristically robust sales years.

Understand that I am not saying that a 1.25 million decline in home sales is healthy. Nor is the 16-year high of unsold homes -- brought on in part, by the way, because the homebuilders, despite their protestations, are still putting out a ton of homes.

I am saying that gasoline and heating matter, too. Those are costs that people face every day and everyone faces them, not just the 1.25 million people who might have been involved in a housing transaction but haven't been able to close. We are a big nation and we have a lot of consumers who don't get affected by every issue.

The odd thing here is that when the energy stocks get hit -- and they do get hit off the decline in gasoline prices -- the market gets hammered. Today is a day where the hammering is more Exxon (XOM - commentary - Cramer's Take) than Toll (TOL - commentary - Cramer's Take).

I think that the decline in energy is pretty amazing, especially coal and natural gas. These used to be important before the ethanol fixation. I know that natural gas futures are signaling higher prices down the line, but they haven't happened.

ALL JIM CRAMER BLOG ENTRIES | POST A COMMENT | READ COMMENTS  

---

Jim 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. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order his 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." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column by clicking here.

TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Traders' Library under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Traders' Library purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.