Investors should follow the post-dot-com-bubble playbook

With industries like technology and consumer discretionary driving Thursday’s market meltdown following President Donald Trump’s rollout of new tariffs, CNBC’s Jim Cramer points investors to the same sectors that rose after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000.

Stocks cratered on Thursday, with the Dow falling nearly 4%, the S&P 500 shedding 4.8%, the Nasdaq plunging almost 6% and the Russell 2000 losing 6.4%. Still, Cramer said, there are some companies that will do better than others in the era of Trump tariffs.

“You buy stocks that have a couple of important characteristics, encapsulated by this one sentence: You want stocks of domestic companies with pricing power and with no slackening in demand or credit risk that do well in a slowdown,” Cramer said.

Cramer highlighted companies in health-related industries such as drug distribution, insurance and pharmaceuticals. He said pharmaceuticals especially offer “slow and steady” growth that will hold up in the new market. Among the names Cramer recommended were Cardinal Health, Bristol-Myers Squibb and UnitedHealth.

Utilities, lower-priced retailers, telecommunications and consumer packaged goods will also do well in a slower economic environment, Cramer said. Some of his top picks in those sectors were Duke Energy, TJX, AT&T and Procter & Gamble.

Companies in financial technology, like Intercontinental Exchange, and real estate, like Ventas, that have little-to-no credit risk are also attractive stocks right now, Cramer added.

While many of these plays are from the post-dotcom bubble strategy, Cramer also noted companies that might specifically benefit from the Trump tariffs. Defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin could potentially see gains if countries looking to appease Trump place large orders with those businesses, Cramer said.

It hurts, Cramer said, to turn away from sectors that have soared in the current market, like tech and enterprise software. But the April 2000 playbook is back in charge, he said, and that limits the options for investors.

“I know that there’s nothing more exciting to invest in than tech, and tech will have its chance again in the future,” Cramer said. “You now know what worked back then. And I bet the same groups will work once again.”