On tonight's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer said his new weekly feature will be European stock picks. The markets in Europe are hot despite higher taxes and rising interest rates. The Netherlands has Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG), and that is one of Cramer's top picks for the series. The company was a dead money stock a few years ago without much going on. He thinks the company is worth 20% more than it is listed at right now. It has four segments and the non-core operations and investments/stakes that could be worth another $10.00.

This call is hard to argue with, even if you take the 'anti-Cramer stance no matter what. The company still has billions of dollars worth of other public companies. It has been able to keep winning medical equipment business and its green business initiatives have been getting good press.. It has even been able to hedge its currency risk with business in the US and the weak US Dollar. Lastly, this large cap is fairly liquid and widely held for an ADR. Shares did trade down almost 2% today after earnings were released, so barring any major downgrades tomorrow the specific event risk has largely been taken out of the stock.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

On tonight's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Cramer said you don't need to worry about next week: You need a roadmap for six months. Growth is back, and growth stocks are the ones that will keep running. Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) blew out estimates, ran $30, and then ran another $15 ... AND STILL HAS LEGS. Cramer said tech is just now starting to hit its seasonal sweet spot. You have to pay up for growth stocks, and "the next RIM is ... RIM." American Tech stuck a $300 target on R-I-M. He's sticking with his 4 Horsemen of Tech.

I do want to bring up one point about this. All of these growth stocks are on a total tear and it is obvious. What is amazing is that they hardly take a brake. In some instances it is feeling like the late 1990's pattern and in other instances you just have to understand that there are only a few major growth engines out there right now. Traders are obviously paying up for this, so how high will they keep going? If Cramer's right about the "sweet spot of the tech calendar" then these will continue. If he is just catching the top of a trend and following the momentum, then you know what will happen. It's too hard betting against momentum stocks today.

Jon Ogg is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

On tonight's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer hosted his first live episode in more than one week. Tonight, he noted that some of the scare and fright he heard while he was out was too much: the sub-prime blow-up, rates could hit 5.5%, a fed tightening may occur, Bear Stearns may drop, the buyout craze was over, oil prices rising, housing....and more. He said if you got scared out because of the main negatives then maybe you should not be a stock owner. He thinks you have to own tech. He thinks listening to the bears is how you miss all the market moves. Metals, tech, aerospace, infrastructure...these are all great markets, and you shouldn't let the press scare you out.

O.K. you get the picture. Cramer spent more than a couple minutes being sarcastic. Sometimes I agree with Cramer, and sometimes I do not. But tonight felt more true than it did false. If you looked at all the negativity over the last two weeks and realized the market didn't melt down then it is hard to think it will after the news has mostly or partly passed. So he's probably keeping his 14,582 DJIA target for year-end and he's still positive on his other top 9 picks for the year.

On tonight's Mad Money on CNBC, Jim Cramer had his normal 'Speculation Friday' and talked about CV Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CVTX) as a speculative biotech and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) as a speculative tech pick.

Cramer said CV is a huge battleground stock that makes small molecule drugs for respiratory diseases. Last month 36% of the float was short, but he thinks the bearish case just doesn't hold up. Cramer thinks the stock could explode into the $20's because of earnings, and could also be a takeover play. Its Ranexa drug for angina is the driver now, and it could get approved as a diabetic treatment down the road. It has a drug up for potential approval next year to detect cardiac disease.

Cramer is still anti-tech for the summer, but likes NVIDIA. He said this just hit a new-52-week high. It's one of the few winners in the PC-supply chain because of high-end graphics chips that are taking market share from AMD's (NYSE: AMD) ATI unit.

CV Therapeutics lost $2.95 EPS for fiscal 2007 and expected to lose $1.31 in 2008 fiscal EPS. This stock closed up over 5% today, and shares went up another 6% after-hours and after-Cramer to $12.08. Its market cap at the close was $675 million and the 52-week trading range is $6.43 to $14.67. For a history lesson, this has been public since 1997 and shares reached north of $80.00 back in 2000 to 2001. This is one we can look at from before Cramer gave it the nod, and if we trust a "sometime in 2008 time frame" then we can look at the JAN-2009 closest out of the money call options, or the $12.50 strike. These didn't trade today, but the closing levels looked to be $2.90X$3.20 with only 507 contracts in the open interest. With that 36% short interest and an almost 30% price-premium in longer dated LEAP options you know some speculating is going on in the stock.

As far as NVIDIA is concerned, there's a reason it is at a year-high: it is still taking market share. Many analysts believe that NVIDIA will have better chips than ATI for the next four to six months and maybe even longer. The stock was up big today, but investors should be careful about jumping on the bandwagon. Sure, stocks at their highs tend to go higher....until the painful turn that can't be predicted.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

On tonight's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer dedicated the night to China. He's not gung ho on Chinese stocks, but he's willing to review some of them. (As a reminder, Cramer said he doesn't like investing in China, he doesn't trust China, and he thinks it is overvalued.) He has forecasted an imminent 8% to 10% pullback any time, because, he says, the market is overheated. After you get that pullback then you can buy the stocks, but he advises not to do so now.

As a reminder, Cramer said he wouldn't cross the river with his charitable trust to invest in China, even if there was a 20% pullback in the market. But Cramer does have some picks; he has three solid steady plays and two speculative stock picks.

The 'solid plays':

• CNOOC Limited (NYSE: CEO) is China's nationalized oil play, the number one offshore, a large player in Indonesia; it is 67% government-owned. Under the production sharing, the company gets the mandatory rights. As long as oil stays high this one is a winner, he thinks. ADR's have a $45 billion market cap; 3% dividend yield.
• China Mobile Limited (NYSE: CHL), says Cramer, is the winner in the Chinese wireless market with 68% of the mobile users in China. The government owns the majority of the company. It has been on hold because of rumors that China Telecom might enter wireless; it has 1.9% dividend; $191 billion market cap.

On tonight's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer said that he wants to address the board of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) because they are sitting on a goldmine: Since the stock is unchanged since 2000, you have to question the whole financial services supermarket strategy, and Chuck Prince needs to go too. Cramer says the one-stop shop doesn't work and they can unlock value by breaking it up. He said it would go from $54 to $63, or 17% upside. This is on top of the $5 if Chuck Prince would leave, or if they could even do a restructuring. Cramer bought shares for his trust and here are the five units it would become: Consumer business; international consumer business; global markets; alternative investments; transaction services.

Cramer did note that this is not inevitable at all and he is not sure it will really happen. What he left out was that just last week Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, its largest shareholder, just announced that he was opposed to breaking the company up for a longer-term strategy. I have been vocal about Chuck Prince needing to go as long or longer than Cramer, and while Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal gave a vote of confidence to Chuck Prince I am not yet inclined to believe that he won't fire him. It starts feeling like Cramer is giving any strategy that might make a self-fulfilling return for his holdings, although he wouldn't be the first to do that.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

I was invited to comment on an article in the New York Times about Jim Cramer and his apparent inability to fully grasp why so many of us don't like him. The piece serves to give grand exposure to one of the main reasons that I myself don't like him. Come with me now on a short tour of words.

The first word I'd like to address is "torpedo". That is the word which Cramer used to define wealth building as a hedge fund manager. It works like this: Find a stock which is heavily overweight with little support, and sell it short. Organize you buddies to your way of thinking, then short more shares to send the longs scampering. Then move in your bears and suck up your bets.

Next, let's move to Jim's claim that his television show has, "allowed me to express my innate insanity, in all its glory, to everyone who might be interested." That's a fine statement for any individual who is willing to stand by it but Cramer also stated, "there seems to be a market for this kind of idiocy." So he flaunts his ability to act like a goon but then comes back to indicate that it really does go against his grain.

Then the man issues a statement as poignant as, "I remain completely and utterly repulsive to myself... I'm an arrogant jerk." Be that as it may, someone really should send that man for some counseling. If I'm not mistaken, that statement (or something similar) is warned about within the first three chapters of the psychology text book How To Recognize Suicide Bait . Add an additional quip such as "I wake up in a pool of self-loathing", and we have reason to remove the garage door and to take all sharp objects from the house. If I recall my law enforcement schooling, isn't "self loathing" that stuff they make serial killers out of?

Now if Cramer was to read this, and I'm near certain he won't, he'd probably come up with some meandering explanation that I've taken his statements out of context and that his words weren't meant as literal. Therein lies the single biggest reason why I cannot stand Jim Cramer. He has proven to me in plain fact and by his own text that you simply cannot trust one word that comes out of his mouth. Yeah, he's rich all right, but at what cost?

Carlos Slim may be the second-richest man in the world, but he's tops with Jim Cramer.

The "Mad Money" host sang Slim's praises at length tonight on CNBC. He even said the shares of Slim's company American Movil S.A.B. (NYSE: AMX) are a buy even though they are trading at a 52-week high. The company has 80% of the Mexican wireless market and is expanding in Brazil.

Keep in mind that American Movil is up almost 100% off the lows of the year and the company has a market cap of $90 billion. This isn't exactly an unknown stock nor is it an unknown investment.

"Como se dice, el Cramero?"

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

On today's STOP TRADING segment on CNBC, Jim Cramer said many medical stocks have bottomed out; even some where he had been "long and wrong."

St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ) would be an ideal buyout candidate if you believed the bad news was priced in the shares, according to Cramer, who urged people to buy both options and shares. Cramer even said Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Boston Scientific Corp. (NASDAQ:BSX) might be worth considering since their shares aren't being hurt by negative news. He has been defending Amgen for some time. Here is something he noted on it back in late January when he helped push it up to $70.85. Shares are now down to $60.00 and have dipped down close to $55.00. Boston Scientific and St. Jude are both up more than $2.00 from their lows.

His positive call on Boston Scientific has proven right. The question is whether lightning will also strike with St. Jude, up about 14% this year.

Cramer noted Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ:COST) and Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:SHLD) positively. He remains negative on homebuilders, arguing that increased housing starts results in more inventory they can't sell.

On last night's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer said he had a stock that can offer some insulation and even some profits from the blow-up in subprime: Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY).

The CEO, Mike Farrell, predicted the subprime mess and stuck out his neck to reposition his company to profit. Cramer said it is a liquid stock, and claimed he hasn't always been right about it because he doubted it when he shouldn't have. NLY has a 52-week trading range of $11.83 to $15.90, and shares were up 3.5% at $16.11 after hours. Cramer just interviewed the company on a video on the evening of April 10 when the stock closed at $15.64. It closed at $15.55 the next day and closed unchanged at $15.55 yesterday.

Cramer also said that he has a paper trade based on recent events. The ex-Treasury head John Snow at Cerberus is benefiting from the Chinese coated free sheet paper tariff, but Sappi Ltd. (NYSE: SPP) is the one that will benefit from this. The tariffs are intended to be used for magazines, yearbooks, and the like. Sappi is South African, but they are the largest in the U.S., and most of the other companies doing this are private. Cramer thinks it is a trade rather than an investment. SPP rose 2.9% to $17.27 after Cramer called it, above its $17.08 high over the last 52-weeks.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Michael Farrell, Chairman and CEO of Annaly Capital Management Inc (NYSE: NLY), is Jim Cramer's go-to guy when discussing the mortgage mess. Last night on Mad Money, Farrell said the subprime mess is only in the 3rd inning and has a lot more time to play out.

Annaly participates in the prime space and is not as affected by the subprime blow-up. But his words are worth listening to when looking at the entire mortgage industry. DR Horton, the Texas-based homebuilder, results support his view. Yesterday, the homebuilder reported net sales were down 37% and its cancellation rate dropped 32%. The results for the homebuilding industry remain weak and a quick rebound remains elusive.

As we have been blogging for a while, the subprime will take a while to play out. Continue to stay away from this sector.

The New York Times [registration required] reports that some viewers of Jim Cramer's Mad Money are mad at Cramer for recommending they avoid Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN), whose stock price has tripled since Cramer's negative call on March 28.

Last time I was on CNBC, I mentioned that Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) might be a buy because, at a PEG of 0.84, it was cheap relative to its expected earnings growth. This comment prompted an attack from the anchor who informed me that Jim Cramer was negative on the stock. I proposed to the CNBC producer that I would be happy to do a show with Cramer in which I took the opposite position on every stock he discussed. Viewers could then vote on whose position they found most convincing and results could be tracked afterward.

Meanwhile, Dendreon rose after Cramer dissed it because on March 29th, Dendreon's prostate cancer vaccine, Provenge, was endorsed by an FDA panel, putting it a step away from approval. Dendreon's stock price has since more than tripled, closing on April 5th at $18.05.

I think investors should view Cramer primarily as an entertainer. And I agree with Kevin Michaels, 27, a Canadian who runs a Web site, CramerWatch.org, who thinks that investors should do their own research. Meanwhile let me know what you think of my idea for a show challenging Cramer on his stock views.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns shares of Citigroup and has no financial interest in Dendreon.

When I read on our sister blog TV Squad that CNBC was developing an animated show, I couldn't believe it. Then again, this is the same TV network that thinks Donny Deutsch is a talk show host and that Maria Bartiromo is a journalist. Anything is possible.

Just to be clear, I am talking about a cartoon. Not the type of "animation" that viewers of Jim Cramer's Mad Money show regularly enjoy. I used to work for The Street.com, the company he co-founded, and I can tell you from firsthand experience that Cramer is almost as energetic in real life.

Getting back to the cartoon, CNBC's show is based on a comic strip called CEO Dad. I checked out the strip's Web site and found it amusing in a Dilbertish sort of way. The strip features the adventures of Frank Pitt, "President and CEO of Pitt Packaging International, the third largest manufacturer of Styrofoam peanuts in Bucks County, Pennsylvania."

I'm not smart enough to predict whether CEO Dad will be a smash hit. I didn't think Sanjaya Malakar would last on American Idol and the appeal of Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX) shoes eludes me.

This got me thinking what could be next for CNBC. Perhaps a musical version of Squawk Box? What about Cramer action figures? The possibilities are endless.

Southern Copper Corp. (NYSE: PCU) has quietly been putting on quite a show lately. The stock has been setting new highs on a daily basis for the last week or so and last night Jim Cramer got back on the train.

Cramer used to be a big fan of PCU but changed his tune back on November 10 when he decided that the copper industry was about to top out and decided to get bearish. PCU closed out trading on November 10 at $53.04.

Unfortunately for our Mad Money friend he has been missing out on quite a party as the below chart illustrates:



Today the stock is trading up another 2.0% to $63.74 and set yet another new 52-week high earlier in the session at $64.32. Pretty impressive... thanks for the endorsement Jim!

The company said earlier this week that it is planning on boosting its total copper output in 2007 to about 700,000 tons! That should keep the copper-hungry Chinese happy, as that seems to be the country with the greatest appetite for copper these days.

I love this stock. I have been a fan of PCU for years, mainly due to its impressive dividend yield which is currently running at an annual 11.2%. You just can't beat that, and watching the daily new highs just adds the cherry on top for PCU shareholders.

For those of you who seek out high dividend plays, this is definitely a stock that you should check out.

[DISCLOSURE NOTE: PCU is a long term holding in my personal portfolio.]

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

My fellow Blogging Stocks writer Brandon Barker wrote a piece today entitled "Why Jim Cramer Should Not Be Taken Seriously" and he makes a strong case. In fact, I agree with everything that he wrote. I think it would be naive to think that you can make money by following Jim Cramer's (or anyone else's) picks. Jim Cramer himself wrote in his book Real Money that "tips are for waiters." So what is Jim Cramer's show good for?

Mad Money, more than any other show on television, is an entertaining and educational introduction to how the stock market works. A novice investor can learn about valuation, catalysts, the Wall Street PR machine, and economics from watching his show. In last night's episode, he explained what a short squeeze is, something many retail investors are not familiar with.

And as for his picks (which, admittedly, make up the bulk of the show), what are investors to do with those? I treat them the same way as another stock tips I receive. If it sounds interesting to me, I'll dive into the 10-K's and 10-Q's and proxy statements and make my own decision about the stock. Places that provide commentary and stock picks (like the Investors's Business Daily, The Motley Fool, and CNBC) are time-savers. I just don't have time to do my own bottom-up research on every stock there is (as much fun as that would be). So I look for ideas from a variety of sources, and then do my own research on the ones that are interesting. If you read Cramer's warning in his new book (Watch TV, Get Rich) about "investing on borrowed conviction," I think you will see that Cramer wants people to do their own research. He even tells people to spend an hour a week researching each stock they own.

I think the best thing about the show is that it brings new investors into the fold. I can watch Mad Money with friends who don't invest at all. They can understand it (or at least, most of it), and a few may even decide to start investing. They can save a few bucks from each paycheck and open a brokerage account. Jim Cramer makes investing fun for the masses, even if it's not completely pure or the best way to do it. Many fitness experts dismissed Richard Simmons as a charlatan (among other things). But a lot of people lost a lot of weight with his videos and Deal-a-Meal. And I really believe that Jim Cramer will make a lot of people millionaires just by getting people to save more or take money out of the bank and put it in the market.