Jim Cramer's Stop Trading! Sell Thornburg
08/01/07 - 03:03 PM EDT
Don't buy the homebuilders for a bounce here, Jim Cramer warned Wednesday on CNBC's "Stop Trading!" segment.
Cramer said that the market is oversold and that many of the homebuilders and mortgage stocks are probably being hit harder than is justified. But he still wouldn't buy names such as Beazer (BZH Quote - Cramer on BZH - Stock Picks) or Thornburg Mortgage (TMA Quote - Cramer on TMA - Stock Picks), because "who needs it?" Cramer asked. Cramer conceded that the market has turned into a "one-trick pony" whose response to even the slightest rumor is to sell the financials en masse. But he said investors should still avoid the entire sector, because there are industrial companies and tech names out there "doing fabulously" -- so why not buy them instead and be spared the drama? You need to be "prudent," Cramer said, and "preserve capital." He said some of these stocks, namely Citi (C Quote - Cramer on C - Stock Picks) and Countrywide (CFC Quote - Cramer on CFC - Stock Picks), may be worth buying if the Fed cuts rates sharply to stave off a financial crisis. But in the meantime, Cramer said he worries more about Fed chief Ben Bernanke's anti-inflation obsession than about missing a few points in any rare financial rally. Cramer said an 11% selloff at MasterCard (MA Quote - Cramer on MA - Stock Picks) is "probably overdone," but he was lukewarm about buying it at a recent $140 and change, given how far it has run. Cramer said he doesn't want any part of Macquarie Infrastructure (MIC Quote - Cramer on MIC - Stock Picks), which, despite being a play on global termite growth, is "a black box," Cramer warned. "Who knows what they have?"


