Jim Cramer: Is Lowe's Now the 'Papa John's' of Home Improvement?

Staggering misses from both are going to come on hot against various names in the remodeling area.
Stocks quotes in this article: LOW, HD, PZZA, DPZ, SWK, PPG, SHW, MAS, FBHS, AMZN

Lowe's (LOW) blows it?

Does it show a slowdown in home spend, the great area of Q4?

Is hardware down? How about flooring? Kitchen and bath? Are people done investing in their homes?

Or are they done shopping at Lowe's and Home Depot (HD) has at last pulled away from it so strongly that we have something similar to what happened in pizza last night with Papa John's (PZZA) versus Domino's (DPZ) ?

These staggering misses from both are going to come on hot against one of the most powerful trends we have seen: remodeling.

Instant takeaways? Be careful Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) . Really watch out for PPG (PPG) , which got pushed out because of a new exclusive with the aggressive Sherwin-Williams (SHW) . Query whether a stake's been stuck in Masco's (MAS) heart -- remember that's paint too, not just kitchen and bath.

Worry about Fortune Brands Home & Security (FBHS) . And even focus on the smart home with yesterday's acquisition of Ring by Action Alerts PLUS holding Amazon (AMZN) . The latter is hard to figure but will be figured negatively for the entire aisle of doors.

I say this is NOT a game-changer. But things are fragile. It could be more zero sum than you think.

But nobody's going to think today.

That's way too hard.

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TAGS: Investing | U.S. Equity | Consumer Discretionary | Technology | Industrials | Earnings | Markets | How-to | Jim Cramer | Stocks

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