Mad Money Machine

HAL now pal?

Halliburton Company (HAL) is one of the stocks in our portfolio of select Cramer featured stocks. It closed at about $30 today.

On today’s Real Money radio show, Jim Cramer said the following (excerpted from his web site):

Last Friday Cramer said he issued an alert to his Action Alert PLUS subscribers that people should declare victory with Halliburton (HAL) and sell it when it was at $37, even though Cramer could not sell it for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS.
From last Friday, the stock is down seven points. This is a company that has lost $8 billion in market capitalization even though Halliburton reported an earnings report that was great, Cramer said.
People are now starting to make up things to make some rational sense out of this irrational behavior, Cramer said.
But don’t listen to the headlines. The fact of the matter is that the infrastructure business is really strong, and it is not connected to housing, Cramer said.
In the meantime, Cramer told listeners to wait for sellers to give up and throw away the stocks, and then pick them up.

I am not a subscriber to Action Alerts Plus. And even if I were, it would not be fair to the non-subscribers or to Jim for me to tell you what he says in it. Furthermore, as a normal member of the Mad Money viewing public, I’m representing what most people see on TV.

So… last Friday was July 14th, right? Well, on Mad Money on July 18th he said this in response to a Lightning Round caller:

Halliburton: “The bears have this stock … in their paws. … I’m not backing away from my charitable trust. … But understand the forecast is still pain.” And the stock is listed in his Bullish section of the website for that day.

I took this to mean that we shouldn’t back away either. Note that he did not say sell it at $37. Is he saying sell it now? What do you think we should do with it in the portfolio? Interpret it as a sell? Interpret it as a hold (since Jim still holds it in Action Alerts Plus portfolio)? Lemme know. Leave me a comment right here.

If you say sell, then we will adjust the portfolio to reflect Monday’s price at 10:30. (But it won’t show up until I get back from vacation on Wednesday).