Cramer's 'Mad Money Recap': Waiting for the Housing Turnaround

Cramer told viewers that for him, the jury is still out. He did not hear any reasons to buy homebuilding stocks. Instead, he gave them a "don't buy."

The Lure of Glass

Cramer once again recommended bottle-maker Owens-Illinois OI as a green stock that is taking advantage of opportunities around the world.

He last recommended the stock back on March 18, 2007 at $53 a share. Since then, the stock spiked to a high of $61 before retreating slightly.

Owens-Illinois recently reported a blow-out quarter, beating Wall Street estimates by 29 cents a share, and delivering $1.08 a share in earnings. The company also raised free cash flow guidance for the year and pushed through a 7% price increase to its customers. However, despite all of the positive news, shares sank on the news.

Cramer explained that while the bears have been circling Owens-Illinois, concerned with rising raw material and energy costs, many of them fail to realize that much of these costs have already been passed onto customers. He welcomed Albert Stroucken, Chairman, President and CEO of Owens-Illinois, to the show to confirm his thesis.

Stroucken said demand is increasing worldwide for low-cost packaging and that bottle recycling is very widespread in low-income countries. He also discussed how health and environmental concerns over plastic bottles may swing public opinion back towards glass bottles in the near future.

Stroucken also said that his industry suffers from old processes, some of which haven't changed in 50 years, which leaves significant opportunities to use innovation and technology to increase productivity and decrease costs.

He explained that although Owens reacted too slowly to the rising raw costs, it is now focused on new initiatives.

A Matter of Wine

Cramer welcomed Gary Vaynerchuk, author of the new book 101 Wines to the show to discuss the wine business.

Cramer likened the wine business to the stock market, saying there are many hidden gems on the shelves that are underpriced and many others that significantly overpriced.

The two discussed wine and spirit maker Diageo DEO. Vaynerchuk said that Diageo is excellent at branding and thus is more levered to spirits, where brand names matter more.

Cramer asked about Constellation STZ, which Vaynerchuk said is the opposite of Diageo, and is very levered to wines. He said he was a bit concerned with the company since they don't build brands and instead prefer to buy existing brands.

Vaynerchuk said he's a fan of Fortune Brands FO. He said the company has a knock-out with its Jim Beam brand, but is not levered to the wine market.

When asked about Brown Forman BF-B, Vaynerchuck said that company is unstoppable with its Jack Daniels brand, but is a mess when it comes to their wine marketing. He wanted to see more buzz and more sex appeal from the company.

Vaynerchuk also expressed concern that none of the major wine players embrace Web 2.0 social networking to create buzz for their products. He felt this was a big mistake and a huge missed opportunity for all of the companies.

Mad Mail

In this segment, Cramer told a viewer that he's concerned with recent spikes in Marvel Entertainment MVL and Hasbro HAS ahead of the smash hit Ironman and recommended taking profits in those names.

Cramer called True Religion TRLG a cult that's willing to pay anything for the company's hottest products, but did not recommend the stock at these levels.

Sudden Death

Cramer was bullish on CVS Caremark CVS.

Cramer was bearish on Walgreens WAG and QI.

Lightning Round

Cramer was bullish on North American Palladium PAL, Genco Shipping GNK, McMoRan Exploration MMR, Arch Coal ACI and Pepsico PEP.

Cramer was bearish on Holly HOC, Systemax SYX and OM Group OMG.

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Jim Cramer writes about all the stock trades in his charitable trust for TheStreet.com in Action Alerts Plus. Recent stocks he's traded in this account include Schering-PloughSPG, Yamana GoldAUY and Inverness MedicalIMA.

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