Don't Let Mortgage Mess Cloud the Opportunities
Jim Cramer
03/09/07 - 09:18 AM EST
The
New Century (NEW Quote) death rattle will no doubt weigh on everything from
Citigroup (C Quote) to
AIG (AIG Quote) today. That's because the instruments the bears use to profit from the storm hurt everything financial and because the bears want to get their financial shorts on ahead of the reporting of
Bear,
Lehman and
Goldman.
Which is why it pays to avoid that battleground entirely and look to trade tech or health care.
Although I dislike the semis, the bulls have
National Semi (NSM Quote) to drive up
Texas Instruments (TXN Quote),
Linear Tech (LLTC Quote) and
Microchip(MCHP Quote). That could be a buck or two there.
The health care cost containment plays --
Medco (MHS Quote),
Cardinal (CAH Quote) or
United Health (UNH Quote) and
Wellpoint (WLP Quote) -- would be a good place to go. I noticed the rails kicking up.
And the drillers, courtesy could weather, have been an excellent gig to work in.
Sometimes during the day it bothers me that there isn't a network talking about all of the other ways to win that are silently going on all of the time. Extrapolating the winners is an obvious game to play but extremely helpful for home-gamers. Endless prattle about
Washington Mutual's (WM Quote) next isn't nearly as helpful as non-prattle about how
Pemex has to drill deep water and
Exxon's becoming a believer in the higher oil price scenario.
Global SantaFe (GSF Quote) and
Transocean (RIG Quote), with rapidly rising rates, seem so right, despite the insistence of analysts that the best is now behind them.
Battlegrounds can be dynamite places to play, if you are playing with paper. Isn't
Accredited Home Lenders (LEND Quote) a coiled spring if it can produce its 10-K? Isn't it a dead duck if it can't?
That's the kind of thing that inspires fear only, and is a sideshow to the multitude of stocks going higher.
I just don't want to get confused about the main chance.