Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: The Fiction of Clean Coal

Cleaner Coal

Cramer recommended McDermott (MDR Quote) as as his favorite "cleaner" coal stock and one of his "new tech" companies that are working on the world's biggest problems. "McDermott is perhaps our best hope for cleaner coal," he said.

McDermott's primary business is retrofitting and upgrading coal power plants. "This company's business is about coal, coal, and more coal," he said. "They're in a life or death battle to make it cleaner."

The company makes both scrubbers and boilers for coal plants, with scrubbers accounting for 35% of its backlog, parts and services 30%, boilers 20%, and nuclear power products 15%.

While McDermott does have ways to remove carbon dioxide emissions from coal, the technology it employs removes only between 12% to 15% of the carbon dioxide, far from the "magical" 100% being touted as right around the corner.

But Cramer said that with a new president in the White House, coal standards might finally be implemented that would allow power companies to upgrade their facilities and create a windfall for McDermott.

Cramer said he also likes McDermott's offshore drilling business. The company recently entered into a joint venture in China to build ships used in the support of offshore rigs. That venture, said Cramer, already has a $5.4 billion backlog.

He called McDermott a "twice blessed" company.

Avoid Bank Stocks

In the "Sell Block" segment, Cramer referred to what he called Goldman Sachs' "hit list" of troubled banks, as well as several others, and told investors they simply cannot own them.

He said the arguments made by Goldman offered persuasive reasons not to own these bank stocks.

According to the Goldman report, banks needing additional capital will soon be forced to destroy their stock values in order to stay afloat. The report cited four reasons for this situation, all of which Cramer agreed with.

First, credit losses won't peak until 2009. Second, it's getting harder and harder for banks to raise additional funds. Third, the consensus earnings estimates for many banks are still too high. And finally, the yield curve may be in jeopardy as the Federal Reserve hints at possible interest rate hikes.

Cramer said with all of these pressures weighing on the bank stocks, now is the time to sell.

In particular, Cramer is worried about Bank of America (BAC Quote), Citigroup (C Quote), EastWest Bancorp (EWBC Quote), First Horizon (FHN Quote), Huntington Banshares (HBAN Quote), KeyCorp (KEY Quote), Marshal & Iisley (MI Quote), National City (NCC Quote), Popular (BPOP Quote), Wachovia (WB Quote) and Washington Mutual (WM Quote).

Great Timing

Cramer welcomed Floyd Wilson, chairman, president and CEO of Petrohawk Energy (HK Quote) to the show to discuss his company's outlook.

Wilson explained that drilling for natural gas in oil shale is an expensive and technologically cumbersome process, but the promise of what it can deliver is great. He said that the technology wouldn't be feasible with drastically lower oil prices, but he don't foresee prices ever dropping that far again.

Wilson said that Cramer's views on natural gas have been "spot on." He said the U.S. has an abundance of gas available, adding it's a clean and cheap alternative to foreign oil.

Cramer told viewers to buy on any weakness in the stock.

Sudden Death

Cramer was bullish on Merck (MRK Quote).

He was bearish on Tyson Foods (TSN Quote).

Lightning Round

Wal-Mart (WMT Quote), Costco (COST Quote), TJX Companies (TJX Quote), Urban Outfitters (URBN Quote), Qualcomm (QCOM Quote), General Steel (GSI Quote), United States Steel (X Quote) and Reliance Steel (RS Quote).

Cramer was bearish on GeoEye (GEOY Quote), Hershey Foods (HSY Quote), Sears Holding (SHLD Quote), Dana Holding (DAN Quote), Gran Tierra Energy (GTE Quote) and American Capital Strategies (ACAS Quote).

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