Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Bull Market, Better Economy

Cramer said Apple could easily prop up its shares with a stock buyback or a dividend boost or a transformative acquisition, but so far management hasn't hinted at any of those, leaving analysts to focus on increased competition and supply constraints. He said the stock has certainly overshot to the downside but may not yet be at its bottom.

Lightning Round

In the Lightning Round, Cramer was bullish on Research in Motion (RIMM), Salesforce.com (CRM), Realogy (RLGY) and Mattel (MAT).

Cramer was bearish on NetSuite (N), Allegheny Tech (ATI) and JC Penney (JCP).

Overcoming Low Expectations

In his second "Executive Decision" segment, Cramer spoke with Rick Hamada, CEO of Avnet (AVT), the tech component supplier that reported an 18-cent-a-share earnings beat today, sending its shares up 6.9%. Shares of Avnet are up 21% since Cramer last spoke with Hamada on Oct. 26.

Hamada explained that at the end of the third quarter customers were becoming increasingly cautious about their businesses, which is why Avnet set low expectations for the fourth quarter. But after deferring and delaying purchases in that third quarter, many orders came in during the fourth quarter, allowing Avnet to beat lowered expectations handily.

Hamada also credits Avnet's adjusting of expenses and reduction of inventory as drivers that allowed the company to have enough working capital to fund the growth seen in the fourth quarter. Avnet was also able to buy back a lot of company shares, he added, at around $28 a share.

When asked about the tech market overall, Hamada reiterated Avnet serves a broad industrial customer base and is now seeing strength in many areas. He said while the third quarter was weak, many companies adopted the "use it or lose it" mentality when it came to their IT budgets towards the end of the year.

Cramer remained bullish on Avnet.

No Huddle Offense

In his "No Huddle Offense" segment, Cramer opined that if Apple ever wants to get its mojo back, it needs to pay attention to the younger generation, which is now seeing the company as old and stale.

He said while Apple may not yet be in the same situation as Tiffany (TIF), Coach (COH) or Microsoft (MSFT), which have no relevance to the younger demographic, it is certainly not as cool as Twitter or Netflix (NFLX).

Apple needs to pay attention before it's too late, Cramer concluded.

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-- Written by Scott Rutt in Washington, D.C.

To email Scott about this article, click here: Scott Rutt

Follow Scott on Twitter @ScottRutt or get updates on Facebook, ScottRuttDC

At the time of publication, Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS had a position in AAPL, BMY, SLB.

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