Why Own the Semis?

Trying to figure out the reason why the semis have been strong. We've had a slowdown in consumer goods away from Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) that use semis. There's a sense that the cell phone business -- away from Apple -- is not so hot. The idea is floating around that televisions are not great. And most of all, there's the unbelievable inability to find new markets that make the group hot ... ever.

I have to tell you that the Texas Instruments (TXN - commentary - Cramer's Take) midquarter update was truly just a blah-blah-blah session. I can't think of a single reason to own the thing. They buy and buy and buy their common back, but they still have a ton of stock outstanding and don't give you that good a dividend. There are a ton of companies in their space, and they have nothing special.

I want to contrast this company with the companies that are working -- the rails, like CSX (CSX - commentary - Cramer's Take); the fertilizers, like Potash (POT - commentary - Cramer's Take); the machinery companies, like Caterpillar (CAT - commentary - Cramer's Take); the natural gas companies, like XTO (XTO - commentary - Cramer's Take). There is nothing proprietary about the business of Texas Instruments and no growth, either. I am really struggling with this group, including the semi equipment stocks (away from Applied Materials (AMAT - commentary - Cramer's Take) because of solar). You get nothing here other than weak-dollar boosts, and when you factor them out, you get nothing at all.

I just can't think of a reason to own any of these.

Random musings: Watching MercadoLibre (MELI - commentary - Cramer's Take) move up, that's got the mojo again for certain. ... Ag is not quitting, no reason why it should. ... Medco (MHS - commentary - Cramer's Take) will have no competition from UnitedHealth (UNH - commentary - Cramer's Take) that I can see. That's another reason why it is up beyond the Jefferies upgrade. ... Parker-Hannifin (PH - commentary - Cramer's Take) has consistently delivered, just like Eaton (ETN - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Honeywell (HON - commentary - Cramer's Take) and United Tech (UTX - commentary - Cramer's Take). At last it gets respect. At last. Great quarter by a great management. ... Infrastructure plays like Jacobs (JEC - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- great quarter last night! -- and Fluor (FLR - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Foster Wheeler (FWLT - commentary - Cramer's Take) are so right, especially when you think about the big petro, petrochemical and refinery orders that are coming their way.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Foster Wheeler, XTO and UnitedHealth.

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