By Stockpickr Staff
Updated at 2:11 p.m. EDT on March 31, 2009
A busy weekend for lawmakers resulted in a dismal Monday for investors.
First, it was announced that the White House rejected General Motors' (GM) and Chrysler's restructuring plans and is now pushing bankruptcy for one or both of the companies. Shares of GM were down 34 cents, or 12.6%, at $2.36 in Tuesday afternoon trading.
Meanwhile, during an interview on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner indicated that banks will likely need significantly more capital. Investors, fearing that the financial crisis is not over, booked profits from the recent weeks-long rally. Financials were down more than 9% for the day, leading the Dow’s 250-point loss.
With this in mind, we thought we'd take a look at some of the stocks people have been searching for on TheStreet.com and see what Jim Cramer's had to say about them lately.
These stocks could be in the news for a number of reasons. Some require immediate attention; while others may not. Regardless, it never hurts to hear what Cramer (or any of the other professional investors on the site) has to say about them. The key is to gather as much information as you can in order to make the most informed investment decisions you can.
In a recent post to his RealMoney blog, Cramer had this to say about Chesapeake (CPK) and other natural gas companies:
"The most vulnerable group in this selloff it is the natural gas contingent. The price of natural gas has been cut in half and then cut in half again from its high. I do not know how many of these big natural gas companies -- Chesapeake, Anadarko (APC), Southwestern Energy (SWN), Cabot Oil & Gas (COG), Ultra Petroleum (UPL), XTO Energy (XTO) and Devon (DVN) -- can make their earnings with natural gas at $3.60/MMBTU and going lower because of the end of the winter heating season.
"We are at six-year lows, but the incredible commodity declines shows me that there are still speculators trapped in natural gas that must liquidate positions.
"Many of these stocks last week rallied on the hopes of a new wave of consolidation, kicked off by the purchase of Petro-Canada (PCZ) by Suncor (SU).
"I am dubious at the prospects of mergers in the big American natural gas players mostly because of the dominant personalities of the people who run these companies. They are fierce competitors and huge believers in their companies -- consider all of the stock that Aubrey McClendon had to sell because he used so much money to buy stock on margin.
"At $3.60, many of the new plays on natural gas could be marginal. Plus the big nat-gas land grabs from two years ago now feel downright foolish.
"Everyone's justifiably worried about first-quarter earnings given the world economy's huge downturn.
"The cohort with the biggest risk is this one, and the rally has brought many of them to unsustainable highs.
"I would be a seller of every one of these stocks. If you want exposure, pick an integrated with a dividend like ConocoPhillips (COP) or Chevron (CVX). Even these are too risky after huge runups."
For more of what Cramer's had to say about Monday's top-searched stocks, including Whole Foods (WFMI), D.R. Horton (DHI) and International Paper (IP), check out the Cramer's Take portfolio on Stockpickr.
(Editor's note: At the time of publication and/or original publication of his posts and shows, Cramer owned Chevron and ConocoPhillips, for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust.)
Who's on Stockpickr Answers? Dan Fitzpatrick will be on Stockpickr Answers on March 31 to respond to investing and trading questions posed by members of the Stockpickr community. Not a member? Join the Stockpickr community today -- free.
P.S. Where is Cramer putting his own money? Take a free peek at his personal portfolio to see all his buys and sells by clicking here. When you do, Jim will also send you exclusive email alerts telling you everything he’s about to add to or shed from his Action Alerts PLUS portfolio -- before he makes his trade.
