Cramer's Wall St. Confidential: Dow Breakdown

Moving on, Task commented that the retail sales number, which was released this morning, showed that the specialty retailers had a bad Christmas, to which Cramer responded by saying "there is a secular change in retail" currently going on, where the high-end is "booming."

The "aspirational retailers," whether it be Guess? (GES Quote) or Costco (COST Quote) is where the action is, he said.

However, because the retail results were "mixed," Cramer said he doesn't want to put too much emphasis on them. "There is no monolith to retail -- there is some good and some bad."

Cramer said he believes Home Depot (HD Quote) is going to be one of better performers in the Dow Jones this year. But at the same time "the stock can't sustain a 2-point gain until the numbers turn," he said.

Although he likes Home Depot because housing is bottoming, Cramer said he likes Lowe's (LOW Quote) better.

In a "Lightning Round" session, Cramer called Wal-Mart (WMT Quote) "awful."

He said he believes Alcoa (AA Quote) will get a buyout and Altria (MO Quote), which he owns for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, will split up.

"People don't understand that because Altria has held back its buyback, it has a tremendous amount of cash," Cramer said. "It's at its 52-week high without a buyback -- it could be really big with it."