JJC:    Every day this week, I'm going to be talking to you about Ketchup... No, not Heinz ketchup... No... the "Ketchup Trade"... stocks that are lagging behind their sectors... that we believe will catch up, because the underlying dynamics are there. They just haven't kicked in yet.

The great thing about the Ketchup Trade is that it's so easy to spot... The group starts moving higher... and one stock lags behind. As long as that stock's fundamentals are sound, and it's group is moving up for the right reasons, I think it should be a good buy.

Today, or Ketchup Trade is all about tobacco, and a longtime Cramer fave tobacco stock, UST... which you probably recognize as Skoal or Coppenhagen... chewing tobacco.

This company is smokeless tobacco, meaning snuffs and chewing tobacco...

Lately, UST has been lagging the lagging tobacco cohort... but the tobacco cohort is doing better.

Even though I think tobacco is exactly what you want to own in this recessionary environment... people don't generally stop smoking, or chewing as the case may be, just because they lose their jobs. In fact, they may consume more of the stuff to deal with the stress.

I consider tobacco to be the ultimate secular growth play, because its customers are, frankly, addicts... and addicts are just less economically-sensitive when they need a fix...

The tobacco stocks generally work in a low-growth, low interest rate environment like this one, and they tend to have high yields. UST is no exception. 4.7% dividend yield, which is about as safe as you get by the way... it spews off a lot of cash. It's a whole lot better than you get in cash... let's say, in a CD... a 1-year CD gives you 3%, and that's without factoring in the favorable taxation on dividends you receive... You only pay 15% on those dividends... plus you get the potential upside a stock has that a CD or a bond will never give you...

If you're a conservative investor, UST is a great place to park your money...

But we're not looking for yield alone... we're looking for upside... because, remember, these are Ketchup Stocks...

UST's been stagnant lately on worries about competition. There's been some number cutting and I think the number cutting is, frankly, overdone...

I think that either UST will catch up on its own, or will be bought by Altria (MO*) to boost its growth. Either way, the company's paying you handsomely to wait... a 4.7% yield... and an incredibly bountiful buyback... It's got 21.9 million shares left in its repurchase program. It could buyback 14.6% of the total shares outstanding. That's enormous.

A buyback that size could seriously increase its earnings per share, just when the Street is cutting numbers...