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There's Pulp Fiction the movie and pulp fact, the smart stock play, Jim Cramer said on Thursday's "Mad Money" TV show. In a celebration of rain forest depletion and making some cold hard cash, Cramer said that there's a coming paper rally. Pulp inventories are low and as inventories tighten up, paper prices will have to come up. Where's the demand that will propel the cycle? "This sort of demand, it always comes from China," said Cramer, adding that the country is blowing through 41 million tons of paper a year. But he said International Paper ( IP), the big American name, is not the smart play. "Don't go American ... go Brazilian. In Brazil they have that whole darn rainforest to chop down," Cramer said. That's why Brazil's No. 2 paper company, Votorantim Celulose ( VCP), is his stock pick in the sector.
The biggest Brazilian paper company is up 8% this year, while Votorantim Celulose is down because it posted disappointing earnings. But Cramer said the past is the past, and that this is a broken stock, not a broken company. Moreover, Brazil's economy is growing at a rate that makes the macro environment good for business. It's impossible to ignore the fact that there's anti-U.S. sentiment brewing in South America, so Cramer recommends looking at companies in Brazil and Chile. He said to steer clear of Peru and Argentina.
There's Pulp Fiction the movie and pulp fact, the smart stock play, Jim Cramer said on Thursday's "Mad Money" TV show. In a celebration of rain forest depletion and making some cold hard cash, Cramer said that there's a coming paper rally. Pulp inventories are low and as inventories tighten up, paper prices will have to come up. Where's the demand that will propel the cycle? "This sort of demand, it always comes from China," said Cramer, adding that the country is blowing through 41 million tons of paper a year. But he said International Paper ( IP), the big American name, is not the smart play. "Don't go American ... go Brazilian. In Brazil they have that whole darn rainforest to chop down," Cramer said. That's why Brazil's No. 2 paper company, Votorantim Celulose ( VCP), is his stock pick in the sector.
The biggest Brazilian paper company is up 8% this year, while Votorantim Celulose is down because it posted disappointing earnings. But Cramer said the past is the past, and that this is a broken stock, not a broken company. Moreover, Brazil's economy is growing at a rate that makes the macro environment good for business. It's impossible to ignore the fact that there's anti-U.S. sentiment brewing in South America, so Cramer recommends looking at companies in Brazil and Chile. He said to steer clear of Peru and Argentina. Get Refined With ENGlobal
Now there's a way to make money off of oil refining and a way to lose it. Having employees die in refinery explosions, as BP ( BP) has done, is certainly a way to lose money, Cramer said. That's where his stock pick of the day, ENGlobal ( ENG), comes into play. The little-known company has an engineering division for maintaining and constructing refineries and makes machinery for oil refineries. In Cramer's mind, this is the pure play for America's refinery infrastructure, which is aging and at risk of endangering more workers. And while the stock is not a Hurricane Katrina play, there are hurricane factors that will give the company a lift. There's a lot of Gulf Coast refinery rebuilding for ENGlobal to get in on; and the machinery that was operating after the hurricanes was running at full capacity. "If machines run at full capacity ... they will explode," said Cramer. Cramer sees some downside, given that ENGlobal has made nine acquisitions since 1998. Acquisitions made at that pace are often covering up a slowing core business. But he said it's not too much of a threat, since the company's margins are still expanding despite all the acquisitions. A caller pointed out that Halliburton ( HAL) is the best of breed in the sector, but Cramer stood by his decision to anoint ENGlobal the pure play. Halliburton has had a magnificent run, Cramer said, and will likely split into two parts: oil services and engineering. When that happens, he said to buy the engineering division and sell the oil services unit.ev3 Check
Viewers know that Cramer likes small medical device companies, but ev3 ( EVVV), a company he had given the thumbs up to, had him thinking twice. But special guest Herb Greenberg, a commentator with MarketWatch, calmed his fears. The only thing wrong with ev3 is the fact that it bought 30% of Micro Therapeutics ( MTIX) and lost a third of its value in the process, Greenberg said. But it's still what you want to see in a medical device company because it has a multitude of products for a lot of niche medical devices.Play Domino's Like a CFO
In more investing tips, Cramer said that the world of insider trading is no different from any other. It has important and unimportant moves, and if a chief financial officer makes the move, it's time to take note because these are the guys who know the business inside and out. Case in point: Domino's Pizza ( DPZ). The company's CFO, David Mounts, bought 10,000 shares in two days, and Cramer said its because no one knows how cheap Domino's is better than Mounts. The company is growing in line with Papa John's ( PZZA) but has a lower multiple, and the CFO knows that a change will soon come. ITT Industries ( ITT) provides another example of CFO-buying to watch. CFO George Minnich bought up to 2,000 shares in ITT, which makes industrial water pumps. The stock is below where it was before Hurricane Katrina, and with an entire region of the country still drying out Cramer said the stock should go up.After-Bell Reverberations
Cramer ended the show with a couple possible buying opportunities in Bausch & Lomb ( BOL) and Wal-Mart ( WMT). After the bell, Bausch & Lomb restated earnings due to improper conduct at its Brazilian unit, while Wal-Mart lost a labor case in California and will be forced to pay $172 million in damages and compensation to about 116,000 current and former employees for denying meal breaks. Both stocks dipped in after-hours trading, but Cramer said that the news will not matter in the end because it has no effect on the numbers.Lightning Round
Cramer was bullish on Motorola ( MOT), Charles & Colvard ( CTHR), Questar ( STR), Corning ( GLW), Hi-Tech Pharmacal ( HITK), AMR ( AMR), Premium Standard Farms ( PORK), Navteq ( NVT), SiRF Technology ( SIRF), UPS ( UPS), Vertex Pharmaceuticals ( VRTX) and Homex ( HXM). Cramer was bearish on Chicago Mercantile Exchange ( CME), Amazon.com ( AMZN), Best Buy ( BBY), Smithfield Foods ( SFD), FedEx ( FDX) and VeriSign ( VRSN). For more of Cramer's insights during the Lightning Round,Want more Cramer? Check out Jim's rules and commandments for investing from his latest book by clicking here.