Several outperforming stocks bucked macro trends

Investors should be wary of bearish strategists who take a macro view and instead focus on individual companies, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Monday.

“You always hear about missing the forest for the trees, but when you’re picking stocks, it’s just as important not to miss the trees for the forest,” Cramer said.

In a market where idiosyncratic performers abound, following one-size-fits-all macro advice can leave investors confused, Cramer says. This is why it is crucial that investors focus instead on the details of each company.

Cramer pointed to outsized performers in a myriad of industries who would have been written off by these same bearish strategists.

Investors might expect industrial and homebuilding stocks to suffer given continued rate hikes, Cramer said. But industrial names like General Electric Or Cummins have been extremely successful, as have housing stalwarts like Knowledge base home And LennarCramer said.

It’s a similar story with health names like Abbott Laboratories And Medtronic, Cramer continued. Consumer names like Campbell’s Soup And PepsiCo “All of them are looking great right now,” Cramer said, not to mention large-cap tech names like Nvidia And Meta.

“Individually you can champion any of these groups,” Cramer said, “but collectively the mosaic doesn’t seem to make sense.” That’s why it’s so crucial to get to know a company deeply before investing in it, and why investors can’t rely on broader macro strategists to make assessments on individual stocks, he said. .