Lehman Brothers (LEH) shares tumbled to a nearly 14-year low on Friday. The investment bank is struggling to find a solution to the worst crisis of its 158-year history.

As Lehman Brothers' stock and bonds plunged, other financial stocks were also feeling the heat. Merrill Lynch (MER), one of Lehman's rivals, is also got hit.

Meanwhile, amidst hurricanes, failing banks and politics as usual, the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers reported that consumer confidence soared unexpectedly to an eight-month high in September. The survey indicated that recent lower fuel prices and optimism about the economy led to the biggest monthly jump in consumer confidence since January 2004.

So maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel after all.

With this in mind, we thought we'd take a look at Friday's most-searched stocks on TheStreet.com and see what Jim Cramer's had to say about them recently.

These stocks could be in the news for a number of reasons. Some require immediate attention; 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.

Ford (F), Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco (CSCO) and General Motors (GM) all spiked in this tough environment, but we are going to break down Foster Wheeler (FWLT).

In a recent post to his RealMoney blog, Cramer wrote:

"Now Foster Wheeler strikes back against the hedge funds gone wild with a buyback of one-eighth of the company. Last night, Potash (POT) announced a huge buyback, although with the selling pressure in that name, it won't matter. But Joy Global's (JOYG) buyback of two-fifths of the company seems like it triggered something in these commodity players' execs' minds -- maybe at last there is an end to the ridiculous nature of these totally erroneous declines.

I think McDermott's (MDR) next; it has huge cash, not a big market cap and no debt. KBR (KBR), with $1.6 billion in cash, $3 billion in market cap and no debt, is also a candidate.

Now, I know there is a perception that these stocks will have no growth as oil work inexorably back to $70 -- if it gets there -- but these companies reflect that now, and their order books make it so that someone like a GE (GE) could buy them all and roll them into a mighty infrastructure division.

I think that Ray Milchovich, the retiring CEO of Foster Wheeler, just couldn't believe that his stock could be cut in half with all of the orders he's got. Same with Joy Global.

Time to take the stocks out of the hands of the hedge fund managers gone wild -- it's ridiculous that 50% of the market capitalization has disappeared overnight without any diminishing of their core businesses and with a decline in the price of the steel they have to price to get the business."

For the rest of Cramer's takes on Friday's most-searched stocks, including Research In Motion (RIMM), First Solar (FSLR) and eBay (EBAY), check out Cramer's Take on Top 10 Most-Searched Stocks.

(Editor's note: At the time of publication and/or original publication of his posts and shows, Cramer owned Foster Wheeler for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust.)


Posted on Sept. 14, 2008