Cramer Remix: This market can’t stabilize until Apple does

Home Main Cramer Remix: This market can’t stabilize until Apple does
Cramer Remix: This market can’t stabilize until Apple does

Ten things need to change for the stock market to come back from its Monday declines, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said as high-profile technology stocks Facebook and Apple led the major averages lower.

“When does this rout end? When do the buyers come in? When do the sellers finish?” he wondered aloud on “Mad Money.” “Frankly, we don’t know, and that uncertainty is what allows this roving bear market to keep tearing us to pieces.”

One thing that would stem stocks’ declines would be a turn in shares of Apple, Cramer said. Stories of the iPhone maker’s alleged sales slowdowns, like Monday’s report from the Wall Street Journal, are getting “repetitive” even as many investors treat them as new and crippling revelations, he said.

“This market can’t stabilize until Apple stabilizes,” said “Mad Money” host, whose charitable trust owns Apple shares. He added that chart specialists have been saying that “it’s all over but the crying” for Apple’s stock.

“My view? Apple is a long-term hold, with its huge installed base giving the company’s service revenue stream a lot of room to grow, which is why you own it [and] don’t trade it,” he said. “However, I can’t blame any big accounts for dumping it and, at least short term, I wouldn’t expect the stock to bottom until some of the analysts start downgrading it.”

Click here for the other reasons that stocks are falling and what it would take for them to turn, according to Cramer.

Cramer wants to see cold, hard proof of a turnaround in beer maker Molson Coors’ North America business before recommending its stock to investors.

“Molson Coors is definitely getting its act together, but I want to see some signs of real improvement in the core business before I recommend this stock as an investment,” Cramer said. “But if you want to buy Molson Coors purely on speculation that the thing has really turned around? Well, as long as you’re prepared to lose a little money, be my guest.”

Molson Coors, the parent of Coors, Miller, Blue Moon and an assortment of other beer brands, has been struggling since late 2016 as consumers started to shift from mass-market beers to craft brews. From its 2016 peak to its 2018 trough, Molson Coors’ stock lost roughly half of its value.

Click here for the rest of the company’s story and why Cramer’s still wary of its latest step toward recovery.

The Trump administration’s mixed messaging on trade with China could result in increased tensions between the United States and the People’s Republic, Cramer said as the major averages endured a technology-led sell-off.

After hearing the hard-line stance embraced by Vice President Mike Pence in his Oct. 4 speech at Washington’s Hudson Institute, Cramer worried that what seems like dealmaking could actually be a long-winded strategy to destabilize China’s socioeconomic position.

“It’s hard not to get the impression that this administration cares more about trying to destabilize or even topple the Chinese Communist regime than it does about negotiating a fairer trade deal,” Cramer said on “Mad Money.”

Click here for what he thinks could throw a wrench in U.S.-China trade talks.

Business at Boot Barn, an apparel retailer selling Western-style clothing, footwear and accessories, shouldn’t be drastically affected by tariffs on Chinese imports or falling oil prices, President and CEO Jim Conroy said Monday.

While the California-based company, which sources roughly 8 percent of its private-label products from China, and its third-party suppliers are seeking alternative manufacturing sources, “China has a compelling position” in the trade landscape, Conroy told Cramer in an exclusive “Mad Money” interview.

“Things are manufactured there for a reason and I think their productivity is strong,” he said. “My personal view is they’ll figure out a way to continue to be an importer to the U.S.”

Declining oil prices haven’t been a huge pressure on business, either, the CEO said. A large portion of the company’s 200-plus stores are located in Texas, the United States’ oil hub.

“I think the exposure to oil for Boot Barn is a little bit overblown. If we went back for the last eight years, our same-store sales have comped, on average, 8 percent, and that includes a precipitous decline in oil,” he said.

Click here to watch Jim Conroy’s full interview.

In an economy where consumers are increasingly paying up for quality, Cramer was intrigued by a “premium” newcomer to the public market: Yeti Holdings, a maker of high-performance outdoor gear that went public in late October.

While shares of Yeti have been trading below the company’s initial public offering price, Cramer said the company simply went public at the wrong time. To the high-end drinkware company’s detriment, its IPO happened in the midst of a marketwide sell-off.

“Yeti’s got a turbocharged growth story. The company’s sales have vaulted from [under] $90 million in 2013 … to just under $640 million last year — that is a 63 percent compound annual growth rate, faster than almost any tech company I follow,” Cramer said.

And although Yeti has yet to prove its consistency, the “Mad Money” host was impressed by its ability to defend the premium price points for its products.

“Bottom line? Yeti Holdings is far from perfect, but it’s got a great outdoor brand and its IPO was so poorly timed that I think the stock is a real bargain,” he said. “Yeti? Call me a buyer.”

In Cramer’s lightning round, he flew through his take on callers’ favorite stocks:

Intuitive Surgical Inc.: “I’m with Intuitive Surgical and I say buy, buy, buy! We don’t have to give up on everything in this market.”

Lululemon Athletica Inc.: “Oh, boy, is this a controversial one. Because I think they’re doing well, but I’ve got to tell you, high-multiple anything – including apparel – is being sold. I don’t want to sell it. I don’t want to sell it, but I’m trying to give you both sides of the story.”

Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Facebook and Apple.

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