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Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Old-School Tech

TheStreet.com Staff

Click here for an archive of Cramer's "Mad Money" recaps.

In the past, the group that was usually sacrificed during a selloff was tech because it was too risky to hold on to, Jim Cramer said on his "Mad Money" TV show Thursday.

"Today the reverse is true."

Just look at Intel (INTC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Texas Instruments (TXN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Cisco Systems (CSCO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Microsoft(MSFT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) as proof, Cramer said.

In the old days, these stocks were the least secure, but now they have so much cash that not only do they not need to borrow, but they also have the potential to make big buybacks, he said.

Plus, historically these stocks have outperformed in the fourth quarter of the year.

Out of the tech stocks, Cramer said he's been close to Intel for years. In fact, in the 1990s he was a self-proclaimed "Intel-aholic," after which he fell off the wagon. But now he's back on and believes that people should consider buying this stock.

"You want Intel now," Cramer said, because August has historically been the bottom for the tech cycle. It's cheap and flushed with cash, and its growth rate is accelerating, he said.

And not only is it cheaper than Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), but it's also the "much stronger part of the duopoly," Cramer said.

Tech is "safe and seasonably right," and Intel is the tech stock to buy, he said.

Rave On!

A lot of people said Jim Cramer's Friday rant on CNBC's "Stop Trading!" was too over the top.

However, after taking a look at the chaos in the market Thursday, Cramer believes that maybe he was the "most responsible guy out there." Bonds that should sell at 80 cents on the dollar are selling at 20 cents on the dollar, he said. They're not well rated, and there's not a buyer in sight.

Cramer said he wants Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to go to a bond desk. Then maybe he'll understand how difficult the situation is. "Bond traders are afraid," he said. "AAA-rated mortgage bonds are trading horribly or not at all." These are good pieces of paper, yet they've been marked down, Cramer said.

In the midst of all this, how is the Fed worried about inflation? Cramer asked. This is as deflationary as Cramer said he's recently seen. He's been begging the Fed to cut rates to help alleviate the credit crunch, and while the Europeans, it seems, have heard him loud and clear, Bernanke has not.

"My rant was the rant heard around the world," Cramer said, and Europeans share his concern over the mortgage meltdown ripple effect. "The only one who hasn't heard it is Chairman Bernanke himself," he said.

Last week, Cramer told viewers that the market's short-term direction would be determined by the Mad Money Madness Index. He's since been using this group of stocks to measure the stress points in the system.

If market players owned any of the stocks from the Index and haven't sold them yet, they are being greedy. Sell MGIC (MTG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), MBIA (MBI - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), KB Home (KBH - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Blackstone (BX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Centex (CTX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Beazer Homes (BZH - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Washington Mutual (WM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), he advised.

"Greed is not good," Cramer said. "The market makes you pay for it."

Flashy SanDisk

If there are a couple of days when the market isn't "horrible," then SanDisk (SNDK - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) should run, Cramer told viewers.

After all, flash memory could be in a position to overtake traditional disk drives, and Apple (AAPL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) has been using a lot of flash, he pointed out.

Cramer said he likes it here for a couple of reasons. First, the Flash Memory Summit finished up today in California. The conference, he said, included the presence of such companies as Intel and Dell (DELL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), both of which are optimistic about flash memory.

Plus, at the conference, Chairman and CEO Dr. Eli Harari said things are great. This, Cramer said, reminds him of how Cisco CEO John Chambers said it was a very exciting time for his company.

It's Dr. Harari's way of saying the company is going to have a great quarter, he said.

Cramer welcomed the CEO to the show, where he said that "the industry is definitely in a very exciting time." Flash is everywhere you look, he said. During the last six quarters, the price of flash has come down significantly, which has had a positive impact on the acceleration of the market.

"There's no question that flash memory today is the fastest-growing market within the semiconductor market," Dr. Harari said. "And I do not see it ending anytime soon." SanDisk was up $1.18 Thursday to $56.46.

To view Cramer's interview with Eli Harari, please click here.

Lightning Round

Cramer was bullish on Corning (GLW - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Microsoft (MSFT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Oracle (ORCL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Campbell Soup (CPB - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Invitrogen (IVGN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Nastech Pharmaceutical (NSTK - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Schlumberger (SLB - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Cameron International (CAM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Expeditors International (EXPD - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Allegheny Tech (ATI - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Progressive (PGR - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Prudential Financial (PRU - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), MetLife (MET - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and AllState (ALL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).

Cramer was bearish on CommScope (CTV - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Southern Copper (PCU - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Coach (COH - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Tribune (TRB - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Titanium Metals (TIE - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).

For more of Cramer's insights during the Lightning Round, click here.

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