Food and consumer goods stocks are poised to keep running, Jim Cramer said Friday, at least if no external news drags down the entire market.
The resilience of snack and packaged-goods stocks will hold particularly true as debt-ceiling talks flounder, he added.
In that context, a few snack stocks have proven “remarkably inelastic,” Cramer said, and in his mind, these are ones to buy as people take comfort in well-known brands like Oreos, Colgate and Campbell Soup, amid uncertain times.
“People aren’t abandoning these brands despite gigantic price hikes put through because of Covid-generated shortages of all sorts of businesses,” Cramer said. “It’s defied many of the analysts who thought consumers would balk. They haven’t, which is fabulous for the stocks because the analysts got it wrong.”
Toblerone maker Mondelez hit a new 52-week high Friday after posting first-quarter results that exceeded expectations on the top and bottom lines.
Colgate-Palmolive also rallied following an earnings report that topped revenue expectations. The company also raised its annual sales forecast, noting solid demand for its pet nutrition products.
Cramer also saw the same promise in General Mills, which hit a new 52-week high Friday, and Procter & Gamble, which beat earnings and revenue expectations last week.
“Even as these consumer-packaged good stocks have run a great deal, I don’t think it’s too late,” Cramer said. “I think they can continue to beat and raise numbers for some time to come.”
