CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday suggested the market may not be as grim as some on Wall Street fear, pointing to gains attained by stocks across a range of sectors.
“It’s terrific to see such a broad mixture of stocks winning here, from ones that can run in a recession to ones that can rally hard in a robust economy,” he said. “What it tells me is that the market may be far healthier than we think, and this backdrop simply isn’t as bad as many would have you believe.”
The indexes finished another day in the red as investors respond to new tariff policies from the White House. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.37%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.33% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 0.53%.
Cramer noted the decline of Big Tech names, but he’s not ready to “say goodbye” to the sector because stocks have been such long term winners. When he looks at this year’s high-performing sectors, he said he’s “struck by how they represent a wide array of groupings that aren’t tethered to any particular economic worldview.”
For example, energy stocks like Chevron have notched gains. Cramer thought the group would be hurt by President Donald Trump’s efforts to expand drilling as well as any economic slowdown. He acknowledged that the demand for natural gas remains strong. Plus, the power needed for energy-guzzling data centers is also propelling these stocks, he speculated.
Cramer also pointed to runs in healthcare stocks like CVS, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Cencora, which he called “textbook slowdown stocks.” Their performance could be indicative of fears that tariff policies will cause a recession, Cramer said.
On the other hand, financial stocks like Brown & Brown, Arthur J. Gallagher and Intercontinental Exchange are also doing well, Cramer pointed out. He concluded that their rally supports his theory that the market’s theme isn’t strictly recession because many of these companies rely on credit, which sours during a recession.
“The leaders for the year, indeed, are very strange,” Cramer said. “Counterintuitive.”
