CNBC’s Jim Cramer said that two persistent market foes are making stock investing increasingly difficult — but that doesn’t mean investors should head for the exits.
We’re talking about oil prices and bond yields, which have been the keys to the market. When they’re up, stocks are done. It was no different Monday.
Stocks fell as Treasury yields jumped to start the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 347 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively. The market did come off session lows around midday as crude retreated following reports that President Donald Trump was open to providing Iran sanctions relief on nuclear matters. However, enough damage was already done to keep stocks in the red at the close because oil had been soaring earlier in the session when Trump was far less encouraging.
Trying to decide whether to abandon the stock market based on every twist and turn in oil or bonds is not the answer for long-term investors. According to Cramer, becoming more selective about which companies can continue delivering in a tougher environment is key. “You have to see what companies have demand, pricing power and scale,” he added. “If they have all three, they won’t be as impacted by the higher interest rates courtesy of the war with Iran.”
Cramer pointed first to Meta Platforms and Intel, two stocks he said “fit the moment.” Both are entering new product cycles with strong underlying demand.
At Meta, he highlighted Muse, the company’s new personal artificial intelligence assistant, which he said could eventually reach billions of users. “Meta crushed it with this and I bet it’ll have much more market share than OpenAI, which remains niche compared to the house that [CEO Mark] Zuckerberg built.”
Intel, meanwhile, stands to benefit from growing demand for central processing units to power AI agents. Cramer praised CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s more disciplined approach to spending and efforts to revive the chipmaker’s foundry business. “I have total faith that his plan to return Intel to greatness will succeed.”
Cramer also highlighted Microsoft, which he said “quietly is becoming a force via Co-Pilot,” and Apple, which he expects to benefit from the launch of its first foldable phone.
Outside technology, Cramer noted energy as one of the few areas benefiting directly from higher oil prices. He singled out Chevron for its global production footprint and balance sheet, Enbridge for its roughly 6% dividend yield, and Enterprise Products Partners for its exposure to natural gas.
While acknowledging that opportunities are harder to find in the current environment, Cramer said there are still stocks worth owning. “In these moments, you try to find the stocks that work in the turbulent negative environment we find ourselves in.”
“You do not abdicate; you do not say, ‘We are in an impossible situation.’ You double down on the winners,” Cramer concluded. “The ideas are out there.”
Cramer’s Charitable Trust, the portfolio run by CNBC’s Investing Club, owns shares of AAPL, INTC, META, MSFT.
