Cramer's Morning Take: Jobs & Energy Stocks 4/4/23

Jim Cramer (0:01)

Hey, it's Cramer, and this is my morning take on the market from today's CNBC Investing Club Morning Meeting.

We had some numbers just a few minutes ago called the jolts, and we also had some factory orders showing that there is a deceleration in the economy, and it immediately caused interest rates to go from being up to being down. And I think that's going to impact an otherwise directionless market.

Jeff Marks (0:25)

Yeah, a little bit of a flatter start today, but I guess the market is viewing that as bad news is good news in terms of maybe we're nearing the end of the Fed tightening cycle.

Jim Cramer (0:35)

Right, this jolting.

Jeff Marks (0:36)

But the market taking it is negative.

Jim Cramer (0:37)

The way that you have to forget these terms, I hate to use these terms. The government put a survey out about whether it's harder to get a job than it was before, and it's getting easier. But it's getting, there's more slack in the system. There's been no slack. This is a measure of slack.

Is it making it so that wages are going to go up or down? The indicator came in and indicated wages could stabilize to go down, and that's what you need to think about.

Jeff Marks (1:01)

And adding another wrinkle to this all is oil is extending its gains after that surprise cut by OPEC over the weekend. So add that in for another inflationary factor. You can see up a slightly little bit more earlier.

Jim Cramer (1:16)

But at the same time, given our style, you know what our style is when we get this overbought. We look through our portfolio and we decide what we think is surfeit, what you don't need, what you think should go. And remember, we always do that away from the field of battle, which is why we downgraded Devon to a three, betting that there will come a time to sell it. And we've got it. That time has come.

It turned out to be, in total, a very, very good investment.

Why did we not stick with it? They missed the quarter in the way that I found on Palo Alto. Right.

Jeff Marks (1:44)

Capital efficiency problems. Their CapEx budget for 23 higher than expected.

But that was coupled with lower than expected production. So, a bit of a double whammy there compared to Pioneer, who also felt it on the CapEx side, but their production outlook was higher than expected.

Jim Cramer (2:02)

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