Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Dec. 4
Scott Rutt
12/04/08 - 08:03 PM EST
Click here for an archive of Jim Cramer's Mad Money recaps.
With stocks getting cheaper by the day, Jim Cramer told the
viewers of his "Mad Money" show Thursday it should be wedding season
on Wall Street, with the few companies that have cash on hand buying
up their rivals at unheard of valuations.
He offered up not one, but
two, more shotgun weddings that make perfect sense in this
deflationary environment.
Cramer said yesterday's announcement that
Johnson & Johnson , which he owns for his
Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, is acquiring
Mentor (MNT Quote) and
Omrix BioPharma paved the way for forward-thinking companies to snatch
up their competition.
Next on Cramer's matchmaking list was
Illinois Toolworks buying up
Manitowoc (MTW Quote).
Last April, both companies were in a bidding war for Britian's Endois,
a battle which Manitowoc eventually won. But Cramer said in the
sweetest act of revenge, the once mighty Manitowoc, which once traded as high as $50 a share, now trades at a lowly $6 a share.
Illinois Toolworks is now in a position to buy Manitowoc,
including Endois, for just $900 million, or less than half of what it
would have paid for Endois alone last year.
Cramer's second match made in heaven was sports apparel giant
Nike (NKE Quote) buying
arch rival
Under Armour (UA Quote).
Under Armour is another company hit hard by recent declines, with
its once $67 stock now trading at just $24 a share and a marketcap of just $1.18 billion.
Cramer said Nike can afford it since it spends a whopping $5
billion a year just on buying back its own stock. He said Nike would
be much better served using this money to snatch up Under Armour.
Cramer: Dow's Hit its Low |
| |
Why would Under Armour sell? Cramer said Nike offers Under Armour
international distribution, something it has been
struggling to achieve.
Given a $30 valuation, Under Armour
shareholders would also receive a 130% premium over its original IPO
price.
A Glimmer of Hope
Cramer brought in Bob Toll, chairman CEO of home builder
Toll Brothers
(TOL Quote), to get his latest read on the state of the housing market. Toll
Brothers recently reported an earnings miss, but beat expectations on
sales and ended the quarter with $130 million of free cash flow.
Toll said he's encouraged by the many programs the federal
government has in place to stabilize the housing market, and feels
the programs just need a little marketing to get the word out to home
buyers. He said with mortgage rates headed to 4.5% and prices down
hard, it may be possible to have a strong spring season next year.
When asked about credit availability, Toll said his company has
lots of money to lend, but only to those buyers with good credit and a
down payment. He said the industry would benefit if the government went even further and offered a $20,000 tax credit for home purchases.
Toll also said that while quality land to build on is getting
cheaper, it's not yet at a point where he's pulling the trigger to
buy. He said that overall, Toll Brothers still rates the U.S. housing
market a "F". He said the market is a lot worse off than it was six to 12 months
months ago, but may be nearing a bottom as it can't fall much further.
Cramer reiterated his call of a housing bottom in the summer of
2009. He said that Toll Brothers would be the first stock he'd
consider buying in the sector.
Sell Block
In this segment, Cramer said it's time to
start selling and buying mortgage backed securities. He laid out
his plan for a so-called "Federal Mortgage Investment Package" as the
the country's way out of the mortgage crisis.
Cramer said one of the biggest roadblocks to economic recovery are
the billions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed bonds that are
virtually illiquid in the current markets. The government's TARP
plan, which was originally sold to Congress as a fix for the problem,
sadly did not. But Cramer said his plan will.
In its simplest terms, Cramer said the government needs to set up
a trading desk to both buy and sell mortgage backed bonds, and in so
doing, reduce the spread that the trouble assets have been facing.
He said the spread, or the difference between what buyers and sellers are
willing to pay, is the real problem.
In the current market, the deal stalls if a seller offers 50 cents on the dollar
for a bond, and the buyer wants 30 cents. But under Cramer's plan, the government would step in and offer 39 cents and sells
the bond to the buyer for 41 cents.
By reducing the spread, the
credit markets start flowing and the government makes a tidy 2 cents,
which Cramer said should be split between the FDIC and Treasury
departments.
"The spread is the real enemy," said Cramer. Under his plan, the
spread is no longer an issue, and the government can even make a
little money. Only the government, he said, can afford to buy and
hold these bonds, and with prices so low, it'd be hard not to make a
profit.
Outrage of the Day
In this segment, Cramer took aim at incoming
Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner, who said earlier in the week that FDIC
head Sheila Bair should be removed. Geitner claimed Bair was "not a
team player," which is precisely why Cramer said she needs to stay.
Cramer called Bair an honest, independent breath of fresh air and
commended her work to push an opposing viewpoint since Treasury
Secretary Hank Paulson did little to save the economy over the past
year. Bair, he said, is the only one with the knowledge to fix
things.
Switching gears, Cramer removed
Fortress Investment Group President Wes Edens from his "Wall of Shame" list of
the worst CEOs. With Fortress shares trading at a mere $1.89 a share,
Cramer said he's made his point about Edens' inability to save the
company.
Lightning Round
Cramer was bullish on
Teck Cominco (TCK Quote),
Terra Nitrogen (TNH Quote),
Celgene (CELG Quote)
and
ITT Industries .
He was bearish on
Agrium (AGU Quote),
Medtronic (MDT Quote)
and
Boeing (BA Quote).

P/>Want more Cramer? Check out Jim's rules and commandments for investing by
clicking here.
Read more of Cramer's Mad Money Lightning Round insights.
For "Mad Money" performance statistics and other links, check out Mad Money stats