On Thursday, Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, shared his thoughts on the current state of the stock market, explaining that until things become more balanced, we are likely to continue experiencing what he referred to as the “Walmart White House” scenario. In this environment, he explained, there are consistently lower prices for the Dow Jones, the S&P, and, more “savagely”, the Nasdaq 100.
“Let’s say you believe that the stock market is a good proxy for the state of a country. It’s not perfect, but it certainly reflects how investors feel about America and its future trajectory. But judging by the averages, maybe we should be embarrassed or even mortified because we’re doing so much worse than similar countries, including countries that we’d written off years ago.”
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The answer, according to Cramer, lies in the fact that several European nations are faring better at this moment because these countries have central banks that have been consistently lowering interest rates in an effort to stimulate demand. On top of that, Cramer emphasized that individual European countries are taking proactive steps to jumpstart their economies.
“Now, we all know what’s keeping our stock market down. It’s being sacrificed on the altar of uncertainty and confusion about punishing our trading partners for allowing illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling, in fairness, and also of course, tariffs.”
He reminded viewers that President Donald Trump campaigned on border security, not on boosting stock prices, so in that sense, he is following through on his promises. However, Cramer expressed frustration with how chaotic and difficult to comprehend the current policy landscape seems.
Many people, Cramer noted, believe that the market will not improve until the Dow sees a significant drop of 10 to 15%. He has been attempting to guide viewers through this difficult time, but he also questioned how much longer the disparity between the U.S. market and those of its allies can persist before it becomes too significant to ignore.
“I think we’d be in better shape if Trump rolled out the tariffs more gradually with a clear trajectory of where we’re headed rather than these endless intermittent volleys of Katyusha rockets.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 73 stocks that Cramer was bullish on during episodes of Mad Money aired in January. We narrowed the list to 10 stocks that were most favored by analysts. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their average analyst price target upside as of March 6. We also mentioned the hedge fund sentiment around each stock, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s Q4 database of over 1,000 hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Jim Cramer and Analysts Like These 10 Stocks
10. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Average Price Target Upside: 34.01%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 339
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was mentioned in a bullish comment made by Cramer in January when he said:
“Amazon, I’ll tell you, this is a multi-year move. We’re not to look at it on a quarter-to-quarter basis. I think it’ll be higher long term. I’ve been behind it now for 20 years. I’m not changing my view.”
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is a well-known name in the global tech industry, providing a wide variety of services such as e-commerce, advertising, and subscription-based offerings. The stock has a consensus Buy rating from 75 analysts with an average price target of $270 and an upside of 34.01%, as of March 6. Over the past 12 months, AMZN stock gained more than 13%.
9. Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK)
Average Price Target Upside: 36.16%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 45
Similar to the other stocks on this list, Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) received bullish comments and ratings from Cramer and analysts alike. In January, Cramer stated:
“There’s always a bull market somewhere and right now it’s flying at 30,000 feet high. My favorites are the two most profitable, that’s [Delta Air Lines] and [Alaska Air Group].”
Alaska Air (NYSE:ALK) operates airline services, offering scheduled flights for passengers and cargo with Boeing jet aircraft. Additionally, on March 3, JPMorgan increased its price target for ALK stock to $89 from $85 and kept an Overweight rating on the stock. The firm believes that Alaska will consistently be grouped with the Legacy peer group and should be valued accordingly.