Why is Jim Cramer Holding His Breath on Apple?

Jim Cramer is choosing to hold off on making any kind of recommendation on Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock until the iPhone maker is done announcing December-quarter earnings in the middle of this week. Apple is scheduled to report fiscal first quarter earnings on January 23.

“I want you to be ready to buy some stocks into weakness, namely Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), 3M (NYSE:MMM), and especially Honeywell (NYSE:HON),” Cramer said on CNBC. “The rest, including Apple, just sit back and listen, and then we will make the decisions, not before the quarters.”

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Like several other investment experts, the “Mad Money” host believes Apple’s sales and earnings performance during the holiday quarter, traditionally the company’s strongest, is its most critical in years. With the stock already down more than 6 percent this year and a little less than 30 percent since reaching a record closing high in September, positive news has become a precious commodity for Apple.

Apple vs. the Nasdaq until now in 2013: