Cramer: We don't need to like the bankers, just their earnings

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Bankers do not necessarily have to be liked — people just have to like their numbers, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday.

“The bankers are still regarded as gangsters on Capitol Hill. I just want them to put on a good show when they start reporting earnings in 48 hours,” the “Mad Money” host said. “If they do, all will be forgiven, at least on Wall Street, and their stocks will roar.”

Earlier, the top brass of the biggest U.S. financial institutions appeared before the House Financial Services Committee, where lawmakers grilled the CEOs with questions about the financial crisis a decade ago.

Cramer called it a “travesty” that no one was sent to prison for their roles in lending practices that helped caused the meltdown in 2008. But most of the bankers at Wednesday’s hearing, he pointed out, were not running their respective companies at the time of the crisis.

“We’re not in danger of another financial crisis, this Congress is too divided to pass real legislation,” he said. “So all we’re left with is political theater, which means we can ignore Washington and focus on what’s happening at individual companies.”

Cramer turned his attention to the approaching earnings season, highlighting that Delta Air Lines delivered first-quarter numbers Wednesday that were even better than its preannounced figures.

But the host circled on his calendar the financial institutions that will report earnings later this week. J.P. Morgan Chase, PNC Financial, and Wells Fargo all report before the bell Friday.

Cramer said he wants to hear that the banks are producing dividends on bank deposits, regardless of economic slowdown, and that businesses continue to expand.

“We want to hear that there’s no pick up in bad loans. More bad loans would be a sign that we’re headed into a recession,” Cramer said. “You don’t want to see that at a time when the inverted yield curve has already given the bears a lot of ammo that we’re gonna go into one.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added more than 6 points to its index during Wednesday’s session. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained more than 0.35% and 0.69%, respectively.

Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of J. P. Morgan Chase.

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