Cramer: I'll Be Clear -- NUE Is a Great Stock

05/29/08 - 04:58 PM EDT

Jim Cramer

I am not being forceful enough on Nucor (NUE Quote - Cramer on NUE - Stock Picks). When the best steel company in the world -- sorry, U.S. Steel (X Quote - Cramer on X - Stock Picks), I love you, but NUE has been run well since Day One, and X has only been run well since John Surma got in -- prices a deal way in the hole and then it goes down from there, before rallying back over the print price yesterday (the price of the secondary of 25 million shares) and once again dipping below it, well, that's opportunity. That's XTO (XTO Quote - Cramer on XTO - Stock Picks) at $55. That's Freeport (FCX Quote - Cramer on FCX - Stock Picks) in the $60s -- two in-the-hole secondaries that got back above the print price and then went crazy to the upside. That's the pattern of greatness out three months, even if it is a recipe of pain out three days.

Think about it. Everyone who wants NUE has been able to buy it at prices it should never have been. The only people who are left are those non-traders who haven't panicked out. The numbers are too low. Steel remains in short supply -- check the terrific piece in The Washington Post yesterday -- and Nucor is protected from sky-high scrap prices by its recent acquisition.

We don't get these situations often: a high-quality company prices a secondary that is down a lot already and it goes lower. But in my experience, unless you jump up and down and shout it from the rooftops, people miss it.

If you are a bull on steel (as I am), this is a great chance. Sure, yesterday was better. However, anything around the $73 print price is a win in my book now that most of the weak hands were shaken out by the decline.

I'm salivating at the prospect of buying this incredibly oversold story with the better balance sheet than it had before.

How great is Nucor? I liked this company even when the foreigners were dumping. Special dividend, fairly consistent earnings from a steel company. What's not to like? Great moment to buy.

Random musings: MasterCard (MA Quote - Cramer on MA - Stock Picks) and Apple (AAPL Quote - Cramer on AAPL - Stock Picks) remain the keys to this market. Either can ignite a rally. It's MasterCard's turn today with a magnificent quarter. What a stock! ... Should First Solar (FSLR Quote - Cramer on FSLR - Stock Picks) be falling like this? The group's out of favor. This one's a momentum stock -- it's going to get clobbered with the cohort even if it is better than the cohort.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Freeport-McMoRan and XTO.

Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. To order Cramer's newest book -- "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)," click here. Click here to order "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get "You Got Screwed!" and click here for Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he appreciates your feedback and invites you to send comments by clicking here.

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