Best Buy Tells You Where to Put Your Money

Superstars Lose Their Shine

Speaking of trickling down, the consumer-electronic suppliers, who were superstars for the last five years, are likely to see some pushback from their customers as consumer-demand growth has slowed. Corning (GLW - commentary - Cramer's Take), a stock I've traded/invested in on both the long and short sides, might be an interesting play on this theme, and the stock is down today because I'm not the only one connecting these dots. Corning's a great company, though, and I'd rather focus on other, more-incompetent electronics suppliers, such as Genesis Microchip (GNSS - commentary - Cramer's Take), which is seeing forward-looking estimates decline steadily.

Keep in mind, too, that Best Buy claims to still be taking market share from its competitors. That means Circuit City (CC - commentary - Cramer's Take) and others are likely going to show barely discernible same-stores sales growth in coming days and weeks.

Where to Put Your Money

The bright side to Best Buy's punk quarter? Total first-quarter online revenue grew more than 20% compared with the same quarter of the prior year. That, even after the WSJ and others have lately decided that the declining second derivative of online sales growth has turned negative, is some seriously meaningful growth.

Three percent vs. 20%. That alone underscores why I'm sticking with Internet-boom suppliers, such as Riverbed Technology (RVBD - commentary - Cramer's Take) (of which I need to take, say, 20% off the table), as well as beneficiaries, such as New York Times (NYT - commentary - Cramer's Take), and distributors, such as Google (GOOG - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- rather than fighting the troublesome real-world consumer.

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At the time of publication, the firm in which Willard is a partner was net long Riverbed Technology, New York Times and Google, although positions can change at any time and without notice.

Cody Willard is the manager of CL Willard Capital Management, LLC. He is a regular guest on Fox News, CNBC and other networks, and he writes a monthly column for the Financial Times. He is also an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and the author of TheCodyReport.net, a monthly stock market newsletter. Willard appreciates your feedback -- click here to send him an email.