In his first "Executive Decision" segment of Mad Money Thursday night, Jim Cramer spoke with Marc Bitzer, chairman and CEO of Whirlpool (WHR) , the appliance maker. The company posted mixed results after the close of trading Thursday.
Bitzer explained that he's built a different Whirlpool for a direct world. Whirlpool is no longer a cyclical, boom-and-bust company, he said. In fact, Whirlpool has delivered four years in a row of record profits.
"The shortages are real," Bitzer responded when asked about their challenges. There are labor shortages, component shortages, chip shortages and transportation issues, all of which are causing delays.
Turning to the topic of inflation, Bitzer said that too "is real," but has been something Whirlpool is able to deal with. He expected the challenges to carry over into next year.
Let's check out the charts of WHR.
In this daily bar chart of WHR, below, we can see that prices made a new low for the move down this month and trade below the declining 50-day moving average line. A bearish dead or death cross happened recently as the 50-day line fell below the 200-day line.
The On-Balance-Volume (OBV) line peaked in early May and is still pointed lower. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) oscillator crossed to the upside from below the zero line. This is a cover shorts buy signal and the indicator remains well below the zero line.
In this weekly Japanese candlestick chart of WHR, below, we see a picture that is struggling. Prices have been trading below the cresting 40-week moving average line. The weekly OBV line turned lower from May telling us that sellers of WHR have been more aggressive. The MACD oscillator is crossing below the zero line this month for an outright sell signal.
In this first Point and Figure chart of WHR, below, we used daily price data and see that the software is projecting a possible bounce to the $235 area.
In this second Point and Figure chart of WHR, below, we used weekly price data and here the software is projecting a downside price target in the $167 area.
Bottom line strategy: The charts and indicators of WHR are not strong enough looking for me to recommend entering the long side. Stand aside for now.
