You want to own ‘great American companies, not junk’

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday looked ahead to next week’s pivotal market events, including a busy slate of corporate earnings reports and a meeting of the Federal Reserve’s policymaking arm.

The “Mad Money” host’s comments came after the Nasdaq Composite concluded its worst week since October 2020, falling 7.6% over the past five sessions.

Cramer said if investors pay attention to the companies he highlighted on next week’s earnings calendar, they may be “appropriately surprised at all the money these great American enterprises are making.”

“But as for the not-so-great American enterprises, like the SPACs or most of the recent IPOs, they’ll be stuck in the house of pain for the foreseeable future,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going to cause the market to turn around. I am saying if you buy great American companies, not junk, you tend to do pretty well historically.”

All earnings and revenue estimates are from FactSet.

Halliburton

• Q4 earnings before the bell; conference call at 9 a.m. ET Monday
• Projected EPS: 34 cents
• Projected revenue: $4.09 billion

Cramer said he believes Halliburton’s conference call is a must-listen for energy investors. Specifically, he said he’ll be looking for management’s commentary around drilling and whether the newfound discipline in the oil industry is starting to show cracks given the price of crude. That discipline was a key reason for the strength of energy stocks last year, he said, as well as their strong start in 2022.

IBM

• Q4 earnings after the close; conference call at 5 p.m. ET Monday
• Projected EPS: $3.30
• Projected sales: $16.07 billion

Cramer said he’s expecting “very little” from IBM’s quarter, given the distinct circumstances surrounding the company’s spin-off of its infrastructure services unit, Kyndryl.

General Electric

• Q4 earnings before the open; conference call at 8 a.m. ET Tuesday
• Projected EPS: 85 cents
• Projected revenue: $21.31 billion

Johnson & Johnson

• Q4 earnings before the bell; conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET Tuesday
• Projected EPS: $2.12
• Projected sales: $25.29

Both GE and Johnson & Johnson announced significant break-up plans last year and their respective stocks didn’t react well, Cramer noted. Considering that fact, along with the general negative sentiment hitting Wall Street right now, Cramer said investors can afford to take their time to analyze both companies going forward. “Neither one is going to run away from you,” he said.

Lockheed Martin

• Q4 earnings before the open; conference call at 11 a.m. ET Tuesday
• Projected EPS: $7.16
• Projected revenue: $17.66 billion

Cramer said Lockheed Martin is favorite company reporting Tuesday morning because of the geopolitical situations involving both Russia and China. “Let’s see what CEO Jim Taiclet has to say,” Cramer said.

American Express

• Q4…