Cramer’s advice on picking stocks right now: Choose top-tier stocks

By CNBC Jim Cramer said on Monday he is not too concerned about market breadth is weak, especially ahead of the Federal Reserve’s final policy-making meeting of the year and a potentially more hawkish stance from the central bank.

“We can make money with a narrow market or a better breadth market. We just have to realize that as long as we have good earnings, it can be done and we have the Reserve. The Federal Reserve isn’t disastrous for the economy, assuming that’s still the case on Wednesday, … then there’s going to be plenty of studs to choose from,” “Mad Money” said the presenter.

Cramer emphasizes the need to own top-tier stocks, or “rivets” as he calls them, because there’s more of a chance that the Fed will move its interest rate hike schedule.

“Don’t go too far off the beaten path for now,” he said. For example, he said there are emerging companies engaged in marketing and database management, “although we already have better versions of the same thing like Sales force, Shopify or Oracle. “

“These better versions have much cheaper stocks – they trade on today’s earnings, not tomorrow’s sales,” he said, adding that is a particularly important criterion for investors. Stocks succeed in a higher interest rate environment.

In fact, if the Fed engages in a hawkish bias, Cramer said investors will “have fewer winners to choose from. There will still be backers, but the supporting cast will be smaller and many other players won’t be as effective – they can even turn out to be negative.”

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