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Cramer's Wall St. Confidential: More Room to Run

TheStreet.com Staff

01/03/07 - 02:14 PM EST
The most interesting trend now is that finance, drug and tech stocks didn't have a "good enough" year vs. other groups, Jim Cramer said on TheStreet.com TV's Wall Street Confidential video Wednesday -- and now they're getting the love.

Because a lot of these stocks tread water and then had a "bad last 10 days" in the market, Cramer told Wall Street Confidential host Aaron Task that they're seeing some inflows and getting a boost. At the same time, money is flowing out of oil because it seems people are really starting to believe that global warming is here and it's never going to get cold again, he said.

However, if the East Coast had gotten Denver's cold weather instead of being unseasonably warm, Cramer said he believes people would be seeing a "whole other pattern" in the market.

In terms of tech, Task pointed out Goldman Sachs has been downgrading some stocks in the sector.

Cramer responded by saying that although January has historically been a "tough time" to own tech stocks, he believes the trend will be "flipped" this year because of a "tremendous" PC marketing surge.

Goldman Sachs is relying on the past, but there is finally a catalyst here with Microsoft's (MSFT) Vista product, he said. Therefore companies such as Best Buy (BBY) and Office Depot (ODP), which "advertise like mad," are shifting their advertising dollars from big-screen TVs to PCs.

In other topics of discussion:

Cramer advised people to sell Home Depot (HD) and buy it back at a cheaper price. Although market players are saying the retailer has become a target for a leveraged buyout, this is untrue, he said.

"Home Depot is too big for an LBO firm to fix it," Cramer explained. "The main thing about Home Depot is that it was run as a financial company by [former CEO] Bob Nardelli ... in a competitive market where Lowe's (LOW) and Costco (COST) are more fun to go to."

The company needs to spend more on merchandising and marketing the stores, he continued.

Wal-Mart (WMT) is another retailer Cramer believes people should sell. The problem at Wal-Mart is that no one wants to shop there, he said. "Underinvesting in the stores and trying to save its bottom line is not a way to save a retailer."

He said he would rather own Target (TGT) or apparel retailers. But Cramer warned viewers to avoid apparel companies selling warm winter clothes.

Taking a look back at the past year, Task called 2006 a "blockbuster" year and said that although not a lot of people expected it to be so, Cramer did.

The way to look at the current market, Cramer said, is that it's been good for the past five months. Because stocks really "took off" in July, he said he believes there is enough momentum from that period to carry it through for another six to seven months.

"The lesson of last year is that the worry should be that you are not bullish enough," Cramer said.

Right now inflation is low, profits are high and there's a good possibility the Fed could cut rates, he went on to say. "Being careful could be reckless here."


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