This last week of April is bringing us another round of the market volatility that we’ve been seeing all year. Conditions like these – featuring sharp swings both up and down – are confusing but not necessarily bad for investors. There are opportunities to be found, and that’s the key point in the view of CNBC’s Jim Cramer. In fact, Cramer is not shy about making two specific recommendations for investors given today’s market conditions.
Cramer is recommending airline stocks. Not the smaller discount carriers, but two of the big names among the major players. He believes that these airlines, with their long-term reputations for bringing returns through strong revenues, are the way to go right now.
“There’s always a bull market somewhere and right now it’s flying at 30,000 feet high. My favorites are the two most profitable. Just remember to ring the register gradually on the way up, because remember, these are airlines. They tend to be a very boom and bust industry,” Cramer opined.
Morgan Stanley analysts have looked into the engines of both of those airlines. Let’s see what they have to say.
Alaska Air (ALK)
For the first Cramer pick we’ll look at Alaska Air, the sixth-largest airline in the North American market. Alaska got its start in its namesake state, but is currently based at the Seattle-Tacoma airport in Washington State, near the geographical center of the North American Pacific Coast. The airline serves Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, including the Canadian province of British Columbia, and points further south on the West Coast into Mexico. Alaska Air functions has both a full service airline and a connector carrier, and has an excellent reputation for service safety.
In part, that safety reputation is built on its habit of keeping the air fleet up to date. In March of this year, the company announced that it had negotiated new terms with Boeing on its previous agreement to purchase new aircraft. Under the updated agreement, Alaska will switch its purchase to include newer model 737-10s, with larger capacity, and 737-8s, with longer…
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