What to Do Now

Is this the go-down-stay-down moment that you need to get more people in? Is this Day 2 of it, where we go back to where we were at the low yesterday and then take it out?

Hard to tell, but we have gold and oil going the wrong way and tech not responding positively. There was a terrific story out of Australia last night, for example, which talked about how Cisco (CSCO - commentary - Cramer's Take) might getting a share of a $30 billion stimulus for cell phones. Surely that's not mattering today. Research In Motion (RIMM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) don't have it so far today, and that's a sign of exhaustion because these have been reluctant to quit, and I am surprised that the big buyers aren't back yet. But the biggest contributors to the S&P 500 decline are Exxon (XOM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Chevron (CVX - commentary - Cramer's Take), and the two ex-dividend plays AT&T (T - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Verizon (VZ - commentary - Cramer's Take), which would indicate a bit of a benign selloff.

Given that the bank stocks are all fits and starts and the oil stocks don't have it and bellwethers Cisco, Apple and RIMM don't have it, we have a situation the opposite of yesterday, which was set up to rally all afternoon. I suspect the ProShares UltraShort Financials (SKF - commentary - Cramer's Take) will be used heavily today to get those pesky bank stocks down.

So what am I doing? Letting some oils go after a big run to set up for a retest of the low $40s. Watching the industrials for an entry level -- too high now but a heartening situation developing in Emerson (EMR - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- and betting on a contained downturn despite the equal-opportunity bashing of Mark Faber and George Soros. In other words, I'm looking to buy a little lower, but not yet.

In the meantime, the rotation into the staples continues. I have said and I reiterate that Pepsi (PEP - commentary - Cramer's Take), Coke (KO - commentary - Cramer's Take), Abbott (ABT - commentary - Cramer's Take), Celgene (CELG - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Gilead (GILD - commentary - Cramer's Take) are buys.

And to those who send me hate mail because the market is down, of course it can go down; the issue is whether it will go back up. I am saying yes, not today maybe, but I simply do not expect a massive selloff -- just the benign selloff that is reasonable after the rally.

Random musings: First Niagara (FNFG - commentary - Cramer's Take) marks the beginning of the disposals that will determine the next group of strong regional banks. Look for FirstMerit (FMER - commentary - Cramer's Take) to be in the running for some deposits, too. Both should still be bought.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Chevron, Pepsi, Abbott, Celgene, Gilead and Cisco.

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