What It Will Take to Shake the Market Out of Telecom

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If peace breaks out in the Middle East and oil returns to $20, will anybody care?

Don't fool yourself; it would be huge. Southwest Air (LUV - commentary - Cramer's Take) at $17 would seem ridiculously cheap. United Parcel (UPS - commentary - Cramer's Take) at $60 would be a gift. The International Papers (IP - commentary - Cramer's Take) of the world would tack on a quick 10 points. Restaurants, the group the intelligentsia loves to hate, would receive still another boost. (I wouldn't short this group unless Cosi, the newly slated Panera-lite (PNRA - commentary - Cramer's Take) IPO, fails to go to a premium.) And who can tell how high Disney (DIS - commentary - Cramer's Take) and American Express (AXP - commentary - Cramer's Take) would go on that scenario?

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Yet nobody pays much attention to that possibility because the overall market has that too-much-tequila-hangover look. I keep wondering when JDS Uniphase (JDSU - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Oracle (ORCL - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Corning (GLW - commentary - Cramer's Take) and WorldCom (WCOM - commentary - Cramer's Take) won't matter. At what point is the radar screen made up of TJX (TJX - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Ross Stores (ROST - commentary - Cramer's Take) and not Tellabs (TLAB - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Ciena (CIEN - commentary - Cramer's Take)? Could it be when the market capitalizations of the techs finally reach reality? Could it be when the Nasdaq booth in Times Square stands empty?

If that's the case, the answer is that the post-tequila nightmare (a cinco de mayo theme, that) will last well into next year. And we still won't care about the new highs when there are 400 of them rather than just 200, as there were last Friday.

I know I run the risk of sounding like I'm scolding by harping on the Commerce Bancorps (CBH - commentary - Cramer's Take) instead of the communicopia, but so be it. I still live in a world defined by winning, not losing.

The struggle to get there is complicated solely by the insistence of some other clown in tech -- this morning's bozo being the fellow at ASM Lithography (ASML - commentary - Cramer's Take) who sees the light at the end of the tunnel -- putting the spin on the bad news once again.

Random musings: I'm going to add a new name to my Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, so members, stay tuned. The last few additions have been red-hot, just red-hot, so you will want to act immediately if you have cash. Certainly act ahead of me, because I get to buy only after you have seen the email. If you're not already a member, sign up now so you don't miss my new addition.

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James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. At the time of publication, Cramer was long Commerce Bancorp. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to [e-mail]. Click here to get Cramer's book, "Confessions of a Street Addict."