Search Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" trading recommendations using our exclusive "Mad Money" Stock Screener.
NEW YORK (
TheStreet) -- Take Washington off the table and the news out of the markets is actually pretty good, Jim Cramer said on
"Mad Money" Wednesday. Cramer said that sometimes the positive news is even good enough to shake off the negativity and offer up a nice rally such as we saw today.
Investors should still be playing it cautious, said Cramer, and selling into strength to raise cash. But at least for today, investors should also take a moment to appreciate the many things that are actually going right in the market.
Take autos. Cramer said
Ford (
F), a stock he owns for his charitable trust,
Action Alerts PLUS, offered up a better-than-expected quarter and could eventually even see levels not seen since Europe's woes first started wrecking havoc on stocks. There's also a lot to like in tech, Cramer noted, with Ciena ( CIEN) reporting that telco spending is on the rise. That'll be good news for Cisco ( CSCO), JDS Uniphase ( JDSU) and others. Even lowly Apple ( AAPL), another Action Alerts PLUS name, was able to get an estimate bump. Retail and apparel continue to deliver as well, with Dollar General ( DG) finally answering the question, "Where did all the shoppers from the other retailers go?". Apparel maker G-III Apparel ( GIII) saw strong sales, and that strength spilled over to Cramer faves PVH Corp ( PVH) and VF Corp ( VFC). Other stocks on the upswing included Netflix ( NFLX), Zillow ( Z) and Amazon.com ( AMZN). Investors still need to approach the markets on a day-by-day and case-by-case basis, Cramer concluded, but there are at least some areas worth looking into. 3 That Deserve Success
Sometimes too high is not high enough, Cramer told viewers. That's certainly true for stocks LinkedIn ( LNKD), Yelp ( YELP) and Zillow, all of which had strong IPOs back in 2011, followed by a short period weakness, before shrugging off the naysayers and propelling themselves ever higher. Cramer said that many thought LinkedIn was a fad in 2011 but since its lows revenue have increased 400% and earnings could double again next year. Zillow also proved the naysayers wrong and has been posting remarkable growth since its IPO in July 2011.
Then there's Yelp, with its spectacular revenue growth over the past two years, growth that has propelled its shares to a permanent position on the 52-week high list. Cramer said all three of these companies deserve their success because they represent the holy trinity of social, mobile and cloud computing, the three things for which investors are salivating.
More of Cramer's Team
Continuing with his fantasy stock portfolio honoring the start of football season, Cramer offered up his picks for wide receivers, defense and kicker.
Cramer said his wide receivers not only have momentum, they know what to do with the ball. That's why Amazon.com,
Netflix (
NFLX) and
EOG Resources (
EOG) made his team.
Amazon has a long-term track record second to none, he said, and has long-term ambitions. Netflix may be expensive by any metric but its "cult" status continues to propel its shares higher. EOG may not be as sexy as the other two but its exposure to America's oil shale makes it a big winner.
On defense, Cramer went, not with a defense stock, but
UnitedHealth Group (
UNH), the health care provider that can flourish even if the overall economy isn't working.
Finally, as his kicker, Cramer said
Celgene (
CELG) made the cut. This drug maker has a robust pipeline and makes every shot at FDA approval count while also being able to easily shake off any shots that miss the mark.
Lightning Round
In the Lightning Round, Cramer was bullish on
ServiceSource International (
SREV),
Rockwood Holdings (
ROC) and
Chevron (
CVX).
Cramer was bearish on
Annaly Capital (
NLY),
Baytex Energy Trust (
BTE),
ExOne (
XONE),
Public Storage (
PSA),
Dole Food (
DOLE) and
Exxon Mobil (
XOM).
Executive Decision: Moshe Gavrielov
In the "Executive Decision" segment, Cramer sat down with Moshe Gavrielov, president and CEO of
Xilinx (
XLNX), the programmable logic chipmaker that's seen its shares rise 22% since Cramer last spoke with Gavrielov on March 6. Xilinx currently commands 50% market share for its chips. XLNX is another Action Alerts PLUS holding.
Gavrielov was upbeat on Xilinx' outlook, saying the current uptick in business is being driven by his company's strong product portfolio and the expansion of wireless technologies in China. He said Xilinx foresees a lot more growth.
One of the areas Gavrielov is excited about is the next generation of autos that will include smarter assistive technologies to improve safety. He said things like lane assist and assistive braking will be rolling out in Europe and Japan first, followed by the U.S. shortly thereafter.
Xilinx is also a big player in the smartphone revolution, helping devices deliver smooth video to consumers. Gavrielov said Xilinx technology is behind many of the carriers' transition to advanced LTE that can support video and other stream technologies.
Cramer said Xilinx is a company that's doing a lot of things right. With 2014 shaping up to be a big year for the company, he remains a buyer.
Am I Diversified?
In the "Am I Diversified?" segment, Cramer spoke with callers and responded to tweets sent via Twitter to
@JimCramer to see if investors' portfolios have what it takes for today's markets.
The first portfolio included:
Under Armour (
UA),
Cogent Communications (
CCOI),
Home Depot (
HD),
IMAX (
IMAX) and
Berkshire Hathaway (
BRK.B).
Cramer said this portfolio was "just perfect" in terms of diversification.
The second portfolio's top holdings included: UnitedHealth Group,Home Depot,
Starbucks (
SBUX), Apple and
Adobe Systems (
ADBE).
Cramer said this portfolio needs a stock like
Boeing (
BA) to replace Apple, which is too similar to its tech counterpart, Adobe.
The third portfolio had:
SiriusXM Radio (
SIRI),
Qualcomm (
QCOM),
WhiteWave Foods (
WWAV),
MetLife (
MET) and
Blackstone Group (
BX) as its top five stocks.
Cramer said that he considers MetLife and Blackstone to be different enough to bless this portfolio as diversified.
To watch replays of Cramer's video segments, visit the Mad Money page on CNBC.
To sign up for Jim Cramer's free Booyah! newsletter with all of his latest articles and videos please click here. -- 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
