These Downgrades and Upgrades Don't Make the Grade

Are downgrades too powerful? I was on the Ford (F - commentary - Cramer's Take) call, and it was a good one. Conservative. Lots of good in the pipeline. It is a real turn. Bear downgrades it, so sayonara. Makes no sense to me.

The guy is wrong. A real turn -- go listen to the call -- could be in its infancy here, and it doesn't depend on America, and the company has a ton of new product cycles.

The Raytheon (RTN - commentary - Cramer's Take) call is equally as nettlesome. The call was about how Raytheon had outperformed the group so it was time to go. It did not say that it should be sold, and the price target wasn't lowered. Doesn't matter. People are dumping it as if there were a shortfall.

I feel the same way about the Altria (MO - commentary - Cramer's Take) "downgrade," which is a conviction pull by Goldman. You have consumer confidence falling off a cliff. You sell a tobacco stock off of that? That's the right thing to do?

Meanwhile, the upgrades of the retailers, after a huge day yesterday, seems totally reactive. That's the "I got to get on this horse" call.

To me, that's the height of dubious thinking.

These upgrades and downgrades are dross; they are all over the map.

I think they can make you no money.

Random musings: How can there be a short squeeze in Fannie Mae (FNM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Freddie Mac (FRE - commentary - Cramer's Take) when they need to raise equity? How about because there is a squeeze in FirstFed (FED - commentary - Cramer's Take), which is even worse than Fannie and Freddie? ... Transports never stop, not YRC Worldwide (YRCW - commentary - Cramer's Take), which is rallying now off after a loss. ... Can Lowe's (LOW - commentary - Cramer's Take) turn be for real? Or is that $600 coming at you as business is terrible there? ... When tech is good, EMC (EMC - commentary - Cramer's Take) does nothing. When it is bad, it goes down. A most hated stock...

At the time of publication, Cramer was long EMC, Raytheon and Philip Morris.

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