With U.S. investors laser-focused on the White House’s tit-for-tat trade dispute with Beijing, CNBC’s Jim Cramer wanted to hone in on four stocks in the market that are most resilient to trade tensions.
The lucky few? The members of FANG, the “Mad Money” host’s acronym for the stocks of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, now Alphabet.
“In one of the great coincidences in stock market history, FANG’s got nothing in China,” Cramer said Thursday as stocks rose in a day of recovery from the U.S.-China dispute.
“All four are accidentally anti-Chinese stocks, and that is perfect for this market,” he added.
Facebook, for one, is blocked in the People’s Republic, where the government has been loathe to allow the social media platform to do business for fear of the free speech and social unrest it could encourage among users.
Amazon’s major Chinese obstacle is its counterpart, Alibaba, a comparably massive e-commerce player already established in China that makes even the world’s richest man, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, obsolete.
Netflix, like Facebook, is also blocked in China.
And Alphabet, the parent company of Google, withdrew its business from China by choice as a way of protesting the government’s heightened focus on censorship.
“They literally leave billions on the table as a matter of principle,” Cramer said of Alphabet. “Still, Alphabet’s lack of China exposure right now makes it a better stock than if it had China as a major market. Ironic, isn’t it?”
Some other factors that make FANG this market’s lucky few? Consider the technology giants’ secular growth — growth that doesn’t rely on the rest of the global economy — and economic immunity, the “Mad Money” host said.
For example, both investors and Federal Reserve officials have expressed concerns about inflation rising due to tariffs, oil prices and growing freight costs. But when it comes to FANG, the market’s biggest worries become minor issues.
“If you were going to design four large companies that would be relatively immune to inflation, they’d look a lot like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet,” Cramer said.
So when it comes to Facebook and its Instagram momentum, Amazon and its newfound pharmacy business, Netflix and its seemingly endless overseas opportunity and Alphabet with its wide array of businesses, Cramer was actually bullish on the stocks many investors see as far-too-expensive investments.
As of Thursday’s close, shares of Facebook were up 3 percent at $198.45; shares of Amazon were up a modest 0.34 percent at $1,699.73; shares of Netflix were up 2 percent at $398.39; and Alphabet’s Class A shares were up 2.24 percent, at $1,141.29.
“I know nothing lasts forever, and it’s easy to see why these FANG stocks are reviled for being too high, too fast, too rich, too whatever,” he said. “But that’s been the case ever since we coined the term five years ago. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be the same five years hence.”
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