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Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Power Up With Shaw

TheStreet.com Staff

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Infrastructure is in a long-term bull market and its sweet spot is nuclear power, Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Thursday.

Infrastructure is one of the five long-term bull markets Cramer talks about in his new book, Stay Mad for Life. Earlier in the week, he mentioned aerospace and defense, oil and mining.

Cramer said infrastructure stocks are attractive because of the growing demand for oil refineries, complex fuels, roads, tunnels, bridges and power plants. In particular, he singled out the strong global demand for nuclear power, especially in China and India.

He said the single best stock for nuclear right now is Shaw Group (SGR Quote).

The company reported a "beautiful" quarter today, with revenue up 40%, and has an enormous backlog with many projects in the pipeline, he said. The backlog, up 57% year over year, is almost triple the size of the company, which has a market cap of $5.1 billion, and shows just how great Shaw Group's future is looking.

Shaw Group is a pure play on power and is even better than ABB (ABB Quote), Cramer said. Plus, the company has a great clean-air business.

"Given its diminutive size, I would be shocked if it was independent a year from now," he said. "But anyhow we like this one for the long haul."

A Hedge Against Inflation

Cramer said he likes gold stocks as a hedge against inflation.

The two gold stocks he would buy here are Yamana Gold (AUY Quote) for growth and Barrick Gold (ABX Quote) as the more conservative play, he said.

If people have 10 stocks in their portfolios, they should consider owning one of these, Cramer told viewers. Moreover, these are stocks people should hold on to, even if they don't produce immediate upside surprises, he stressed. If people start seeing inflation, they will be thanking their lucky stars they own an insurance.

Barrick, Cramer said, is digging, buying and processing gold at a time when most other gold companies have stagnated. It's great insurance because Barrick hasn't locked its gold prices in advance, he said.

Then there's Yamana Gold. He said the company has a big mine in Chile, which should help it raise output.

Year of Natural Gas

"Coal is no longer king," Cramer told viewers during his "Sell Block" segment.

"We've been coining money in coal," particularly with Peabody Energy (BTU Quote), he said. But now it is time to start letting go of BTU.

The government is about to pass a new energy bill, Cramer said, which will over time make coal stocks "untouchable." The bill requires a carbon sequestration, which will dramatically increase the cost of burning coal in the U.S. He said it looks like the bill is going to pass.

This sell block also includes Arch Coal (ACI Quote), Massey Energy (MEE Quote) and International Coal (ICO Quote), he added.

People must scale out of coals and get into natural gas because "2008 is going to be the year for natural gas," Cramer said.

He said he likes XTO Energy, which he owns for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, Apache (APA Quote), Anadarko (APC Quote) and ConocoPhillips (COP Quote), another Action Alerts PLUS name.

"Sell the coal into Christmas," Cramer recommended. "I'd rather see you have coal in your stockings than in your portfolio."

Ready for Launch

GeoEye's (GEOY Quote) Matthew O'Connell joined Cramer on his show, where the CEO said his commercial satellite imagery company now has an official launch date for its third satellite.

Currently the satellite is going through final testing and will be launched this April, O'Connell said.

Furthermore, the team behind the operation is first class, he said. General Dynamics (GD Quote) built the satellite, Boeing (BA Quote) is doing the launch and ITT (ITT Quote) made the cameras, O'Connell said. "We paid up to get a great team."

Cramer said GeoEye is a great speculative stock and is going to stay a great speculative stock. He believes the company has a great crew, and the launch should go well. Let's stick with it here, Cramer advised.

Lightning Round

Cramer was bullish on Vodafone (VOD Quote), Verizon (VZ Quote), Unilever (UN Quote), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI Quote), Hologic (HOLX Quote), FCStone Group (FCSX Quote), Best Buy (BBY Quote), Costco (COST Quote), Sonic (SONC Quote), Diamond Offshore (DO Quote) and Transocean (RIG Quote).

Cramer was bearish on LHC Group (LHCG Quote), Broadcom (BRCM Quote), Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) and Centex (CTX Quote).

Want more Cramer? Check out Jim's rules and commandments for investing by clicking here.

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