Jim Cramer: Buy Facebook, Amazon and AMD instead of chasing airline and cruise stocks

"Mad Money" host Jim Cramer said the surging airline and cruise stocks need economic tailwinds to justify their valuations. But he said companies like Facebook, AMD and Apple create their own and can go much higher.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday urged investors to be wary of piling into airline and cruise stocks, two sectors that have been surging as the U.S. economy reopens from coronavirus-related closures.

Instead, the “Mad Money” host said, people should look to companies that are less dependent on a smooth economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, such as Facebook, Amazon and AMD.

Cramer said he understands investors may feel the U.S. economy has reached its lowest virus-era level, but argued that airlines, in particular, will struggle to get back to meaningful revenues to justify their soaring stocks.

The NYSE Arca Airline Index, which tracks 16 airlines that mostly are in the U.S., closed more than 7% lower Tuesday but remains up more than 30% in the last five trading sessions. It’s up about 67% in the last month.

“When all your planes are full, man, you’re making a fortune. But when you’re in a recession — even if you’re coming out of a recession — you don’t see tons of full planes,” Cramer said. “And that’s before we even account for the impact of the virus, which will have a chilling effect on air travel until we get the vaccine.”

But Cramer said it is a different picture for the likes of Facebook, Amazon and AMD, as well as Apple and Nvidia.

These five companies have “powerful internal engines that will let them sail without a tailwind,” he said. “You want the stock equivalent of a steamship, not a sailboat that’s at the mercy of the economic weather.”

Shares of Facebook rose more than 3% on Tuesday, a continuation of a strong run for the stock since the company announced Facebook Shops last month, Cramer said.

“At a time when people are understandably reluctant to shop in person, making it easier to sell things via Facebook and Instagram was a brilliant move,” said Cramer, who noted he has been a fan of the company since it began to cater more to the small- and medium-sized businesses that use its services.

In a similar way, Cramer said, Apple set a new all-time high Tuesday for reasons unrelated to the economic reopening or growing sales in China. Rather, he said the usage of Apple Pay has taken off due to the pandemic as people want contact-less payments.

“At the same time, Apple’s service revenue stream is growing by leaps and bounds,” he added. “It shows no signs of stopping, even as the pandemic gets tamped down.”

AMD’s stock, up 22% this year, rose more than 6% on Tuesday to $56.39. The reason? The semiconductor company’s chips were selected by Nvidia for its next-generation artificial intelligence system, Cramer explained.

“It is huge. Still, it’s Nvidia’s system, which is why that stock roared, too,” he said. “Artificial intelligence [has] no need for a tailwind.”

Amazon’s business surged due to the coronavirus, but Cramer said there is more room to run thanks to the recent investments the e-commerce giant has made. “Again, that’s not an economic tailwind, it’s an internal tailwind of Amazon’s own making,” he said.

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