Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: The Big Bang

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"The bear market has ended with a bang," Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Monday.

The demise of Bear Stearns BSC, he said, signaled to investors that it's finally safe to get back into stocks.

The beginning of the end occurred a few weeks ago when the situation looked pretty bleak for the markets. At that time, Cramer said, it looked as if both Freddie Mac FRE and Fannie Mae FNM were going under.

Cramer: Want to Beat Me Up About Bear? Bring It On!

"Things seemed to only get worse with every interest rate cut the Federal Reserve made," he said. And then the failure of Bear Stearns occurred and made investors jittery about their money, Cramer noted.

"But now," said Cramer, "things look very different." For starters, he said, both Freddie and Fannie are back on their feet with the backing of the U.S. Treasury. The bulk of the bad home loans, Cramer predicts, will reset at lower interest rates within the next six months and cause home prices to stabilize.

Cramer also sees banks finally starting to lend money again, as interest rates are low enough for them to make money.

Cramer advised investors to start buying back into stocks slowly. He continued to recommend buying growth stocks with good dividends, but he also recommended retail stocks, technology stocks and even some strong financials.

He likes EMC EMC, a stock which he owns for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, and IBM IBM in the technology space.

He also recommended Apple AAPL and Research In Motion RIMM on any weakness.

And he favored Goldman Sachs GS, another Action Alerts Plus stock, as well as JP Morgan JPM in the financial sector.

Just One Hurdle to Go

"Justice has been served," said Cramer, referring to the Justice Department's decision to approve the merger between Sirius Satellite SIRI and XM Satellite Radio XMSR.

The merger still requires approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an agency which Cramer lambasted as the "Federal Cartel Creators".

According to Cramer, the FCC's one-year, 35-day approval process is a travesty of justice and only denies consumers more choice and lower prices. He once again urged viewers to visit the FCC's Website at www.fcc.gov to voice their support for the merger.

Cramer puts a $5 price target on Sirius if the merger gets approved.

Big Growth Plans

Now that the market's bottomed, Cramer recommended Costco Wholesale COST as his favorite retail stock. "The analysts on Wall Street," he said, "are just too negative on Costco."

"This company is best of breed," said Cramer, who welcomed Jim Sinegal, President and CEO, of Costco to the show for an update on the company's outlook.

Sinegal responded to criticisms that the company's labor costs are too high by saying his company pays its employees a fair wage to produce good results.

He also sees a lot of room for growth at Costco, both domestically and abroad. He said Costco could double its footprint over the next 10 years.