Jim Cramer’s 5 Stock Q1 Recap: S&P 500 Winners vs. Nasdaq 100’s Worst Performers

4. Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW)

Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW) is among the stocks in focus as Jim Cramer reviewed the S&P 500’s top performers and the Nasdaq 100’s biggest laggards for the first quarter. Cramer said that the stock could pull back in case the war ends and the Strait of Hormuz is opened. He said:

Let’s talk about the next group, the companies that benefit from Iran’s shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. You got LyondellBasell, it’s up 86%, it’s plastics, Dow, up 78%, polyethylene chiefly, well, they make a lot of others, but that’s really the driver, the third and fourth best performers in the S&P. These are two commodity chemical companies, and their stocks were some of the worst performers in the index last year, but they were already starting to bounce back in January, weeks before the war with Iran kicked off, because everybody thought we’d get multiple rate cuts this year, and that’s true for textbook cyclical stocks like the petrochemicals. Turns out they benefit even more from petrochemical shortages caused by the Iranian government. I think Dow and LyondellBasell might be at risk of a pullback if the war ends and the Strait reopens. But then again, there’s a real possibility Iran will keep the Strait closed after we leave just to show us they mean business. I don’t want to, I really don’t want to mess with these… I think you should kaching kaching.

Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW) develops chemical and material products used in packaging, construction, transportation, and consumer industries.