Several outperforming stocks have bucked macro trends
- Deep research on an individual stock will guide investors far better than relying on macro strategy to pick investments, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said.
- Strategists sometimes don’t have the bottom-up view that investors need to succeed, Cramer said.
- The “mosaic” may not make sense, but the individual components do, Cramer continued.
Investors should be wary of bearish strategists who choose a macro view and instead focus on individual companies, CNBC̵[ads1]7;s Jim Cramer said Monday.
“You always hear about missing the forest for the trees, but when you’re picking stocks, it’s just as important not to miss the trees for the forest,” Cramer said.
In a market where idiosyncratic performers abound, following one-size-fits-all macro advice can confuse investors, Cramer says. Therefore, it is crucial that investors focus on the specifics of each individual company instead.
Cramer pointed to big performers in countless industries who would have been written off by the same bearish strategists.
Investors can expect industrial and housing stocks to suffer given the continued rate hikes, Cramer said. But industrial names like General Electric or Cummins have done extremely well, as have residential names like KB Home and Lennar, Cramer said.
It’s a similar story with healthcare names like Abbott Laboratories and Medtronic, Cramer continued. Consumer names like Campbell Soup and PepsiCo “are all looking good right now,” Cramer said, to say nothing of big tech names like Nvidia and Meta.
“Individually, you can make a case for any of these groups,” Cramer said, “but collectively, the mosaic doesn’t seem to make any sense.” That’s why it’s so important to get to know a company deeply before investing in it, and why investors can’t rely on broader macro strategists to make judgments about individual stocks, he said.
