'Fast Money' Recap: Google Shocks

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Google's selloff in afterhours trading on Thursday centered on the absence of CEO Eric Schmidt in its earnings conference.

Jim Goldman, a reporter for

CNBC

, said on the network's "Fast Money" show that the company said his absence was part of a "streamlining process to let others take care of the message."

Those comments, though, failed to stem a slide in the stock, which was down more than 4% in afterhours.

For a breakout of some stocks from a recent "Fast Money" TV show,check out Dan Fitzpatrick's "3 Stocks I Saw on TV."

Karen Finerman said the market skepticism over Schmidt's absence was deserved, adding the company could have handled it better. Joe Terranova called the company's explanation "lousy."

Pete Najarian said the addition of employees and increased spending also may have played a role in sending the stock down on an earnings report that he characterized as generally positive.

Tim Seymour felt the market overreacted to Schmdit's absence and undeservedly punished the stock after the company beat estimates. He also downplayed the impact of Google's problems in China, saying the company hasn't been "kicked out."

Melissa Lee, the moderator of the show, brought in Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Financial, who was in on the conference call. Gilllis said the company's explanation did little to put down suspicions about a possible leadership change or a succession occurring.

He said it was also poorly timed as Google moves into a historically weak quarter and faces competition from Apple, Facebook and other players. He also said the company has been involved in a lot of initiatives recently that haven't panned out. He sees the stock sinking to the "lower side of the range."

The Google story came on another good day for the markets with the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

rising 21.46, or 0.19%, to 11,144.57, while the

S&P 500

gained 1.02, or 0.08%, to 1,211.67. The

Nasdaq

added 10.83, or 0.43%, to 2,515.69.

Lee moved on to another story involving Carl Icahn raising his offer for

Lionsgate

(LGF)

from $6.20 a share to $7 in an offer valued at $826 million.

Finerman said the Icahn move was to be expected because his original tender wasn't going anywhere. She said the bidding may go higher because Icahn is "bidding against himself" and the situation won't be resolved until the two sides begin negotiating.

Shifting to the global growth story, Najarian said the coal and steel sectors still have some room to run. He especially liked

Arch Coal

(ACI) - Get Report

and what it doing to produce cleaner coal.

Seymour said some of the coal trades look long in the tooth and favored moving into infrastructure plays like

Deere

(DE) - Get Report

and

Caterpillar

(CAT) - Get Report

.

Terranova reminded the panel of the natural gas play. He said he would stay away from the spot price of natural gas and

United States Natural Gas

(UNG) - Get Report

and look for longer-term exposure over the next 12 to 18 months in stocks such as

Devon

(DVN) - Get Report

and

XTO Energy

(XTO)

.

That prompted Najarian to mentioned the integrated names in the natural gas space like

BP

(BP) - Get Report

and

Exxon

(XOM) - Get Report

as ones that could deliver "more bang for the buck.

For another view of the market, Lee brought in Hilary Kramer, chief market strategist for A&G Capital, who believes the market is a critical point. She said the S&P 500 has reached a critical point after an incredible run, where it could pull back 7% to 10%.

She offered two of her favorite stocks:

DineEquity

(DIN) - Get Report

which could she said could hit $55 when it reports its earnings, and

VMware

(VMW) - Get Report

which she sees heading to $62 and $6 when it reports earnings on Tuesday.

Anthony Scaramucci came on the show to toute a hedge fund trader's pick:

Carmike Cinemas

(CKEC)

. He said the company boasts 2,400 theaters in 37 states, 25% of which are equipped to show 3-D movies. He said his company has a 12- to 18-month price target of $23 to $25.

Although the stock is already up 300% over the past 52 weeks, it is generating a lot of cash, he said.

Continuing on the global growth story, Lee brought in Joseph Carrabba, CEO of

Cliffs Natural Resources

(CLF) - Get Report

, whose shares are up 60% so far this year. He painted a bullish picture of the company, with iron ore volumes up 75% in North America, the coal business up 100% over last year, and higher prices for iron ore and coal.

Looking ahead at upcoming earnings, Najarian said "everything is clicking" for

General Electric

(GE) - Get Report

. He said it's innovation never stopped, has good cash flow and doing well in the industrial and technology sides of its business. He said the stock should perform well based on recent options activity.

Finerman said much of the good news has already been priced into the stock of

Bank of America

(SYMBOL)

, which reports earnings Friday.

She expects the bank's credit quality will improve but she said that has probably been factored into the pricing.

Both Najarian and Seymour said

Citigroup

(C) - Get Report

crossed a major psychological point when it moved above $5 today.

Terranova said the stock will soar once the federal government sells its huge stake.

Stephen Weiss, founder of Short Hills Capital Partners, discussed what he feels is a gem of a shipping stock:

Frontline

(FRO) - Get Report

.

Weiss said all the company does is ship oil. He said the company is well-positioned to take advantage of China's need for tanker capacity for the oil it needs to import for its fast growing economy.

He said the stock is being held down by the opinions of 25 analysts who cover the stock, with nine rating it a sell and seven rating it a hold. He said once reality catches up, the stock will move higher.

In the final trades, Seymour said he liked

Forest Oil

(FST)

. Terranova said to short

Sonic

(SONC)

. Finerman liked

Corning

(GLW) - Get Report

. Najarian liked

Ford

(F) - Get Report

.

-- Written by David Tong in San Francisco

To watch replays of Cramer's video segments, visit the Mad Money page onCNBC

.

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