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RealMoney.com: Jim Cramer Blog
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IBM Suddenly Becomes Relevant

By Jim Cramer
RealMoney Columnist

1/21/2009 3:47 PM EST
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Never thought IBM (IBM - commentary - Cramer's Take) could have this kind of halo effect. After all, it is IBM, a company of heightened irrelevance that can't be extrapolated very far without being too bullish and over-emphasizing its strengths. I had it at a corner of my screen I barely look at, and I have put it straight at the top. Big Dow stock -- encouraging.

 
At heart, IBM is a consulting company that gives away hardware. It is the model that Hewlett-Packard (HPQ - commentary - Cramer's Take) has embraced -- that stock should be up more -- and the fact that it can be as bullish as it was is really more of a case of corporate outsourcing than anything else.

Yet, it is and will always be a barometer of some spending, and I have to believe that it will spur some sentiment about tech spending. If I were an analyst recommending Cisco (CSCO - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Microsoft (MSFT - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Hewlett-Packard or EMC (EMC - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- which already endorsed estimates, or Oracle (ORCL - commentary - Cramer's Take), I would be pounding the table to buy off of IBM, but I imagine that some of these people are sidelined until we hear more from Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) tonight and Google (GOOG - commentary - Cramer's Take) tomorrow.

Until today we only had Research In Motion leading us. You know how I feel about leadership. I am happy to have tech do the job.

It's hilarious how people still want to own tech, but it's less funny than it used to be, given the collapse of the financial sector as a large part of the S&P, leaving a lot of room for tech to grow as a percentage.

I don't know a soul who thinks there is anything going on in information technology ... until today. For the first time in a while, anyone short tech feels scalded.

When you consider that anyone who is short oil is getting burned, we have a sense that, once again, there's some place to make some money.

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Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman 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.

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