Our RelentlessUp-and-Down Pattern

It feels like earnings season no man's land, where we can't go too far forward or too far backward. We are back on bank watch, meaning, "How bad is it at Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Cramer's Take)?" and "Why does Wachovia (WB - commentary - Cramer's Take) act so badly?" and "What is WB worth if WaMu (WM - commentary - Cramer's Take) needed so much cash?"

Lehman's (LEH - commentary - Cramer's Take) back. How can that be? How can that firm be back on the radar screen, and what is the opaque nature of the disruptions? One of these was an "enhanced" fund, and you don't enhance a fund with nice clothes or Botox -- you do it with leverage. Why it was not liquidated earlier is similar to the mystifying way that Goldman (GS - commentary - Cramer's Take) was liquidating Chrysler (DAI - commentary - Cramer's Take) paper at 69 cents to the dollar the other day.

Things get better, they get worse. That's the only pattern that I can see.

So you play for some individual names. I highlighted Merck (MCK - commentary - Cramer's Take) last night as a fantastic opportunity because of approvals and earnings power, a stock that I would be building a nice position in for posterity, or as close as you can get to posterity.

I mention it because it is precisely the kind of stock you buy when you have little hope that Congress or the administration is going to do anything right on housing or the ethanol obsession. That's when Merck works.

I like it as the antidote to the chaotic bouncing we now seem to be witnessing.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Goldman Sachs.

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