WaMu Comes Through

The worst one just did the best! No doubt about it, the Achilles heel of financials, Washington Mutual (WM - commentary - Cramer's Take), reported what looks to be a good number.

And it boosted the dividend. I said "looks to be" because there are so many lines of earnings in a bank, that I figure some enterprising reporter or short-seller will find something subjective that he doesn't like.

If there were a bank that should have blown up -- like if there were a broker that should have blown up, as in Merrill Lynch (MER - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- it was WM, always held out to be a crummy lender that would lend to a leaf if it blew in the window.

Now, in what will no doubt be hailed by the bears as nailing shut the barn door after every deadbeat got a loan, WM is tightening standards.

I care about this because one day we are going to work off our inventory of homes and we will be able to cordon off the bad mortgages to 2005-06.

IBM (IBM - commentary - Cramer's Take) reported a good number and so did Citrix (CTXS - commentary - Cramer's Take). Can't be happy about the eBay (EBAY - commentary - Cramer's Take) guidance, but that company has proven to be conservative time and again.

What matters is that WM stomped the bears. Depending on your view, you can use the early-morning squeeze to get out of your financials, or you can dig your heels in and take some pain, like this seasoned pain-taker.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned in this post.

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