Jim Cramer's Stop Trading! Buy Altria

Buy Altria (MO Quote), Jim Cramer said Thursday on CNBC's Stop Trading! segment.

Cramer said recession fears and worries about financial stocks point to the need to buy consumer staples like cigarette maker Altria and soft drink companies Coke (KO Quote) and Pepsi (PEP Quote).

Cramer cautioned investors to stay away from mortgage stocks like insurer MBIA (MBI Quote), because housing prices are far more important to the consumer's health than job numbers. Cramer said an unwarranted faith in the apparent strength of U.S. employment was behind the collapse of two hedge funds at Bear Stearns (BSC Quote) this summer.

"Employment has been a false indicator for this economy," Cramer said.

Cramer likes Carnival (CCL Quote) better than Royal Caribbean (RCL Quote), because Carnival has moved its ships to Europe to cash in on the stronger economy there, and likes NCR (NCR Quote) to buy into the coming spinoff of its holdings in Teradata (TDC Quote).