Jim Cramer's Mad Money In-Depth, 1/2/08: A Look Back, A Look Ahead

Stocks discussed in the in-depth session of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program, Wednesday January 2. Click on a stock ticker for more analysis:

Picks for 2008: Altria (MO), Goldman Sachs (GS), Halliburton (HAL), Cisco (CSCO), Amazon (AMZN), Research in Motion (RIMM), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), NYSE Euronext (NYX), BioMarin (BMRN), Rite Aid (RAD), Level 3 Communications (LVLT)

Cramer says 2008 will be the year for MO when it splits into global and domestic companies. Although he's liked GS consistently, Cramer says Goldman is a good stock in a bad neighborhood, and even though the Fed may come to the rescue this year, he can understand why an investor may want out of GS for the time being. Cramer has also been a fan of HAL, but he hinted at a new natural gas play he prefers and said he will unveil the mystery company on Thursday's program. Despite Cramer's past bullishness on CSCO, he thinks it will be a "marginal performer" in 2008 and says the four horsemen of tech (Google, Apple, RIMM and Amazon) will ride again. 2008 will finally be the year people recognize the greatness of NYX and realize it is "more of a play on Europe," Cramer said, and expressed confidence in CEO Duncan Niederauer. He commented on BMRN's good pipeline, but said he needs to wait and see a couple of quarters before blessing RAD again. Since video is proliferating on the internet, LVLT should see an upside and noted its CEO, James Crowe, has returned after an illness.

A Look Back at 2007: Yamana (AUY), Savient Pharmaceuticals (SVNT)

While the first trading day of 2008 was less than impressive, Cramer urged viewers to look for the bull market, and added that gold is good (his favorite of the group is Yamana) as well as ethanol, oil and infrastructure. Cramer notes his picks last year beat the S&P and for value, he liked Halliburton, Goldman Sachs and Altria. For growth, Cramer picked Cisco, NYSE and Apple in 2007. Speculative picks included Savient Pharmaceuticals, Rite Aid, Biomarin and Level Three Communications. From his successes, Cramer learned to stay with winning stocks; "As long as Apple keeps growing at 30, I'm on board," he said. He added the worst stocks in a strong sector may be worth buying and boring stocks like Altria can "beat the averages handily."

When at First You Don't Succeed…

Cramer's failures included Rite Aid and LVLT, but he noted that both rose significantly before dropping; "when you have a gain in speculative stocks, you have to sell them," he said. Cramer also regretted buying stocks with balance sheets as bad as LVLT's and RAD's. From GS, Cramer learned that even the best stocks in a failing sector can get sucked down and NYSE taught him the painful lesson of not being a market contrarian. He added some stocks, like Apple, are worth paying more for, and resisted making broad, general predictions for the year ahead because the market is currently volatile. "Learn from my mistakes in 2007 and you'll do even better in 2008," Cramer said.

Mad Mail

When a viewer asked Cramer to define buying on a pullback, he replied 8-10% is the ideal range.

Seeking Alpha publishes a summary of Jim Cramer's stock picks every day including: Mad Money Recap, Lightning Round, Stop Trading and his Wall Street Confidential Picks.

Get Cramer's Picks by e-mail -- it's free and takes only a few seconds to sign up.

Seeking Alpha is not affiliated with Jim Cramer, CNBC or TheStreet.com

Comments

[jimmy Turano:]

I do hope Cramer has a very successful year with his stock picks. Millions of viewer's purchase shares that he suggests without any knowledge of the stock market. Although he states do your homework, and review the stock often, investors in general are lazy. This is their fault not Jim's, yet
the finger pointing is inevitable because he is on stage not them. He accepted the position and must
remember, that all eyes are upon him. However, I
believe as he stated, that "you must learn from the past", that himself should slow down a bit and be a little more cautiously optimistic about his statements regarding his stock selections.
Otherwise the factor of health becomes an issue
and can lead to unnecessary stress which can take it's toll on anyone.
So Good luck and have a bull year Jim
P.S. Maybe you should have a panel of experts on your show, like Fast Money.

2008 Jan 03 09:46 AM

[CramerSucks:]

Jim Cramer is an idiot. He flip-flops like crazy. If he was a real analyst he'd say stick with Cisco and the market will finally get it right in 2008. Cisco didn't underperform financially in 2007...the market failed to value it a reasonable multiple. If Cramer doesn't think the market will eventually correct itself as a rational value-determining mechanism, he should just literally start throwing darts at stock lists on his show.

2008 Jan 03 02:08 PM

[Cramerisoff:]

Jim Cramer is a flip flopper and he doesn't know what he is talking about - enough said.

2008 Jan 03 04:13 PM

[Cramer pump...:]

Very different story on RAD and LVLT from original tout, recall that these were to be two really big winners for '07. I think he's a much better clown than stock picker. I nominate Cramer for the Red Skelton re-incarnation award of '07. Now that would be great if he were on NBC and not Cnbc.

2008 Jan 03 04:28 PM

[skeptical:]

I don't understand how Cramer came up with a 16% + return on his picks in 2007. Apple was up 150%+ & he had another good winner but lost 50% in LVLT & Rite Aid. Did he put equal $$ into each of his picks ?
What methodology did he use ?

2008 Jan 03 07:53 PM

[Pres:]

Last week on TV, a comment was made about CIT having a busted convertible yielding 12.5%. I can not find it among CIT's bonds. Jim Cramer agreed that it was a good idea.

2008 Jan 10 04:00 PM

[Pres:]

Any comment on the CIT Bonds or what was the company referred to with the busted convertible bond

176302

2008 Jan 10 04:05 PM