The Gloomy Consensus Bet's Still Right

Squeeze?

DuPont (DD - commentary - Cramer's Take) better than expected. Countrywide (CFC - commentary - Cramer's Take) puts up numbers that don't seem bankruptish. We could have a day's respite from the gloom. We certainly are owed one, at least in Nasdaq land.

Plus, when you go out with people from the trading desks, you are overwhelmed by the negativity.

Last night at a buy-side/sell-side dinner, a smart guy I know who loves the short side tried to make a case for some down-and-out airlines and retailers. He's a price guy, meaning that he believes everything has a price and that you have to start looking at a Lowe's (LOW - commentary - Cramer's Take) here or a Macy's (M - commentary - Cramer's Take) because if you start buying now, put some on, you will be getting a pretty decent risk-reward ratio.

I thought people were going to throw things at him. He was immediately ridiculed as someone who didn't understand what's out there, the collapse of consumer spending as evidenced by Brinker's (EAT - commentary - Cramer's Take) Chili's, AT&T (T - commentary - Cramer's Take), Family Dollar (FDO - commentary - Cramer's Take) and all of the other usual suspects Tuesday.

The lone long persisted, pointing out that Chico's (CHS - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Talbots (TLB - commentary - Cramer's Take) have come down so much. (The latter has a suspiciously high dividend for a retailer and is clearly having a hard time.) He argued that there is some brand value.

Everyone laughed.

Now, I would tell you that every company he mentioned at this dinner probably will miss numbers. We know from the action in every company that has missed numbers that there are endless sellers, people who genuinely just discovered that they were on something gone awry.

But the universal nature of the scoffing at him made me take notice.

Now, if you had said anything, word one, positive about housing for the last 18 months you have been hounded, and the hounders would have been right.

ALL JIM CRAMER BLOG ENTRIES | POST A COMMENT | READ COMMENTS  

---

Jim 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. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. To order Cramer's newest book -- "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)," click here. Click here to order "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get "You Got Screwed!" and click here for Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he appreciates your feedback and invites you to send comments by clicking here.

TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Amazon.com under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Amazon.com purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.