Jim Cramer's Best Blogs

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Plenty of Good
Posted at 9:42 a.m., Jan. 21, 2009

IBM's (IBM Quote) terrific. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ Quote) wasn't nearly as bad as the press makes it out to be. It was hardly a disappointment. Abbott (ABT Quote) delivered solid numbers. Forest Labs (FRX Quote) was better than expected -- despite today's Goldman downgrade. The big mineral producers, BHP (BHP Quote) and Rio Tinto (RTP Quote), are cutting back mineral production to the point that Freeport (FCX Quote) should be bought, not sold, despite today's downgrade by JPMorgan. The Baltic Dry Index is back over 900, signaling the mineral companies' actions might cause an uplift in prices.

It goes on: Wal-Mart's (WMT Quote) still delivering positive numbers despite the First Boston downgrade. Northern Trust (NTRS Quote) beats numbers, as did (believe it or not) JPMorgan (JPM Quote) -- remember that, even as it succumbs to selling brought on by the ProShares UltraBear Financials (SKF Quote) ETF, as it is the largest weighting. Altria's (MO Quote) coming on strong, and General Mills (GIS Quote) has bounced back from the selling that occurred after it reported its great quarter. China's up for the year. United Tech (UTX Quote) just delivered a number that sure seems not so bad, and in this environment of negativity has to be considered good. Research In Motion (RIMM Quote) has excellent sales. Apple (AAPL Quote) should be much lower, shouldn't it? But it hangs in there because, alas, it is cheap, as I think we will find out later today. Intel (INTC Quote) didn't get blitzed despite all of this negative news. I think the dividend is supporting it, but the fact is it does support it, and I can't ignore that. If IBM's good, I expect Hewlett-Packard (HPQ Quote) to be better. I wonder if the bad in Google (GOOG Quote) gets factored in from some level around here. Chrysler's got buyers. GM's (GM Quote) numbers weren't disastrous. Cisco (CSCO Quote) shouldn't be this low.

Many stocks are back to where they bounced well, those that are plus-4% yield, and I see them bottoming as we trade. I am a buyer of these accidentally high yielders.

In fact, the only area that's killing us is the financials, and we are almost out of points and percentages to continue the bank downside that is motivated mostly at this point by the SKF.