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Jim Cramer's Mad Money Lightning Round
  Stock Picks for the Week of 11/17/08 
See all specific stock picks and comments below...

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Lightning Round Stock Picks and Comments for:
Monday, November 17, 2008
(see all Lightning Round stock picks/comments below for this night... )

   

Jim's
rating on
this stock

STOCK
SYMBOL

Closing
price that
day

Full Company Name & Jim's Comments:

AET

22.80

Aetna Inc. (AET)

Jim:   No, no, no, no...  We don't like the managed care business.  We don't like pharmacy benefits.  If we're going to get into that, we might as well buy Express Scripts Inc. (ESRX), or like Quest Diagnostics Inc. (DGX), which are the only two that seem to have a pulse in this industry.  No, we're not going to buy AET, and we're not going to buy Humana Inc. (HUM), and we're not going to buy WellPoint Inc. (WLP), we're not going to buy WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (WCG), we're not going to buy CIGNA Corp. (CI)...  We're not going to buy anything in that industry, especially now that Obama is president... whom I think, if you were in that industry, you would be so fearful of, you would think he's going to make them non-profits...  Wow....

 

ESRX

58.23

Express Scripts Inc. (ESRX)

See AET comments above for:
ESRX

 

DGX

46.20

Quest Diagnostics Inc. (DGX)

See AET comments above for:
DGX

 

HUM

29.22

Humana Inc. (HUM)

See AET comments above for:
HUM

 

WLP

34.06

WellPoint Inc. (WLP)

See AET comments above for:
WLP

 

WCG

9.43

WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (WCG)

See AET comments above for:
WCG


 

CI

12.18

CIGNA Corp. (CI)

See AET comments above for:
CI

 

MER

11.78

Merrill Lynch (MER)

Jim:    Bank of America (BAC) (with whom MER is merging) is making a big investment in China now.  I don't know what to say...  Do you know... I will say this... that Stan O'Neill wrecked that company, alright.  He wrecked it.  He did.  Alright, he "allegedly" wrecked it?...  What am I supposed to say?  He might have wrecked it?  He possibly wrecked it?  There.  How about, Stan O'Neill may have not helped it as much?...  I mean, what they did with that company... that is a great American company, for heaven's sake!  Merrill Lynch is a great American company, and they destroyed it!  Management destroyed it!  And where's the investigation of them?


 

WY

31.88

Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY)

Jim:   They're breaking it up into a lumber trust.  I think it's okay.  But, you know, everybody that you get...  No, it's okay, for heaven's sake.  It's okay.  It's okay.  I believe it's okay.  Look, I'm not...  I'm stunned by how bad stocks are.  I'm just stunned.

 

FRO

29.86

Frontline Ltd. (FRO)

Jim:   I have switched...  The only one I'm recommending now is Nordic American Tanker (NAT)... that's Herbjorn (Hansson, the CEO)...  By the way, the Baltic Dry Freight Index...  here's something that looks good along with China...  the Baltic Dry Freight Index has actually been good for a couple of days.  There are really only two things in the world that are any good right now.  One is that China was up 15% last week, and the other was that the Baltic Dry Freight Index had seemed to bottom.  Let's stay close to both of those, but I'm recommending NAT right here.


 

NAT

34.29

Nordic American Tanker (NAT)

See FRO comments above for:
NAT

 

CBI

7.43

Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI)

Jim:   They missed the quarter...  they missed the quarter really, really badly, and you know, someone ought to just go and whack...  ABB Ltd. (ABB) or Bectel, which is private, should just go buy every one of these.  They should go buy Shaw Group (SGR)...  I mean, Fluor (FLR) could do it...  they should go buy SGR, they could buy Foster Wheeler (FWLT*), they could buy CBI, they go buy Jacobs Engineering (JEC), they could go buy McDermott (MDR)...  Every one of those would cost like the price of Fluor, six months ago.  I mean, I've never seen just an industry just detonate like this.  So anyway, JEC did have the worst quarter of all of them though.


 

AEE

33.89

Ameren Corporation (AEE)

Jim:   Believe it or not, it's a little too aggressive for me.  I'm going to retreat to Duke Energy (DUK).  I mean, look, you get 5.98% (yield) with DUK, and it's much more consistent than AEE.   But I like your idea and I like utilities very much, but I'm going to send you to DUK.

 

DUK

15.39

Duke Energy (DUK)

See AEE comments above for:
DUK


 

TAP

41.71

Molson Coors Brewing Company (TAP)

Jim:   I did a piece today for RealMoney.com...  and it said that that was one of nine stocks that actually had a good looking chart in the chart book that I read every weekend...  And, in that chartbook, was a chart of TAP.  And it was good.  No wonder.  Aluminum has come down, hops has come down... and they're breaking up Anheuser-Busch (BUD)...  I think they're making them get rid of some brands...  That stock is a stock that I want to buy right here...

 

CAG

15.25

ConAgra (CAG)

Jim:   No, no... man.  I've got like a dozen food companies that are doing well, including Campbell Soup Co. (CPB), mmm, mmm good, and General Mills Inc. (GIS*), which I own for ActionAlertsPlus.com and you come on with the one food company that I am not in to...  No.  I want to sell CAG, sell, sell, sell... and I want you to buy Ralcorp Holdings Inc. (RAH)... boy, they are having good numbers...  


 

CPB

37.66

Campbell Soup Co. (CPB)

See CAG comments above for:
CPB

 

GIS*

65.52

General Mills Inc. (GIS*)

See CAG comments above for:
GIS


 

RAH

67.99

Ralcorp Holdings Inc. (RAH)

See CAG comments above for:
RAH

 

[verbatim recap]


[ End of the Lightning Round segment ]
 

     

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Lightning Round Stock Picks and Comments for:
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
(see all Lightning Round stock picks/comments below for this night... )

   

Jim's
rating on
this stock

STOCK
SYMBOL

Closing
price that
day

Full Company Name & Jim's Comments:

CMI

21.05

Cummins Inc. (CMI)

Jim:   I had Paccar (PCAR) last night... today it's CMI.  Maybe someone will hit me with Navistar (NAVZ.PK). Boy, Navistar's bad.  All of these are owned by hedge funds.  All of them are... near term, there's a slowdown, you don't buy...  You're not supposed to buy these into a slowdown.  I hesitate to use genuine Wall Street jibberish and say hold onto CMI for the long term.  Anybody who remembers when we went out to Indiana (University) with Cramer-fave, Mark Cuban...  and listen, he's still Cramer-fave, Mark Cuban, okay...  we know that CMI is a great company, but it cannot be a great stock going into a serious recession.  So, I've got to say don't buy...  don't buy, don't buy...   We'll play it all over again, we downgraded all the cyclicals.  They've done nothing but go down.  We'll hit them again when the time is right.  The time is still not right.

PCAR

26.01

Paccar (PCAR)

See CMI comments above for:
PCAR

NAV

19.40

Navistar (NAV)

See CMI comments above for:
NAVZ.PK

PEG

29.11

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PEG)

Jim:   I like that.  I like PEG.  I pay them my bill.  You know, I know it pretty well.  I still prefer Duke Energy (DUK).  I think DUK has better and greater growth prospects.  So I like DUK over yours.

DUK

15.68

Duke Energy (DUK)

See PEG comments above for:
DUK

PHG

17.07

Philips Electronics NV (PHG)

Jim:   Sport, I'm with you...  I'm with you.  It's got a 6% yield, beneficiary of a stronger dollar.  I think that company's doing fine.  It's got a great pastiche, if not a mosaic, of businesses.  I think that stock should be bought...  buy, buy, buy!  It fits my criteria of big dividend.  It has a little bit too much industrial... but I think that it was a small dividend... it was a puny dividend and a puny yield, and the stock has come down so hard, so fast, that it now has an accidentally high yield, and that makes me want to pull the trigger!


BAC

15.19

Bank of America (BAC)

Jim:   I am puzzled...  I am puzzled, because I did not want to see that investment in China.  I want the Chinese to invest in us... not us invest in China.  But who am I to question Ken Lewis?  He got the Countrywide.  He has done a lot of smart things...  God, I hope he's right.  I hope BAC works.  It just seems like they've taken on an awful lot.  It's one of my Fortress Banks... but the Fortress Banks are feeling lately like Kinderhook in Beau Jest...   I'm not backing away from BAC, but it just...  I just wish that $7 billion had been put here, not there.  I question that.  I question Ken Lewis on that.  He's always welcome on the show and he's a terrific guy, but I question that.

CREE

17.89

Cree (CREE)

Jim:   Too risky.  Too gadget-oriented.  I'm not going to go there.  I think that is too difficult a stock.  May I once again remind people that I have liked Hewlett-Packard (HPQ*) and own it for ActionAlertsPlus.com, my charitable trust, and I salute Mark Hurd, who is always welcome on the show, and is a terrific guy, and who has done a fantastic job.


HPQ*

33.59

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ*)

See CREE comments above for:
HPQ*

ISRG

123.51

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG)

Jim:   Nope.  Wrong stock for this environment.  That's a bull-market stock.  It's a concept stock that they're going to sell machines to the sky.  You can't do that anymore.  It's like First Solar (FSLR).  No.  It's just...  I mean, it's not as bad as Garmin Ltd. (GRMN).  It's not a commodity.  But I can't recommend that high-multiple stock.  It doesn't work.  It does not sell at or near cash, it doesn't have an accidentally-high yield, and it is not recession resistant... because there are many countries in this world that are going to cut back on expensive medical equipment, even though they shouldn't.


GRMN

17.35

Garmin Ltd. (GRMN)

See ISRG comments above for:
GRMN

SYY

23.04

Sysco Corp. (SYY)

Jim:   Problematic on the short term, because I see many restaurants in trouble.  I think that is a challenged business.  SYY has a fabulous food service business.  By the way, I have been recommending SYY, literally, for last 20 years.  I cannot do it now, because things are bad.  And let me just add, by the way, that
the Dow went up in the last 20 minutes... totally unnerving... it gives you a total sucker-play rally to come in... because people now think we have a "triple bottom."  It's stocks like SYY that make me nervous.   Because SYY is a great American company, but the stock can't move because the restaurant business is bad, and it keeps me being as bullish as the futures traders, and the last-half-hour manipulators would like us to be.


     

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