Commercial Real Estate Finding Its Way

Genworth (GNW - commentary - Trade Now) is igniting the insurers again. This back-from-the-dead company did what you always want: an in-the-hole secondary that works immediately and is additive and makes the business more viable.

Genworth remains, like Principal Financial (PFG - commentary - Trade Now), like Hartford (HIG - commentary - Trade Now), on the critical list, but the critical list gets less critical every day because of all the good news that people refuse to recognize bout the REITS doing well and the Treasury Department allowing the real estate people to massage the tax code to their advantage.

People have to understand that there is now a virtuous circle going on with commercial real estate and annuities. The insurers had taken the money from annuity customers and put it in the stock market and commercial real estate. They were not hedged in either, so the whole edifice was coming down.

Now we are in the opposite situation: The stock market has rallied enough to cure the potential withdrawal problems, and the commercial real estate market is coming alive because of deals that can take advantage of the decline in values from 2005 to 2007 and let solvent iShares Dow Jones Real Estate (IYR - commentary - Trade Now)-like acquisitions occur.

When you take away the worries about the stock market and the commercial real estate market, you take away the worries about redemptions and the core book of business. And when you get deals like Genworth, you know there is plenty more money out there for other plays that need it.

I would also urge people to remember that the worries about Huntington Bancshares (HBAN - commentary - Trade Now)/Regions Financial (RF - commentary - Trade Now)/Zions Bancorporation (ZION - commentary - Trade Now)/Comerica (CMA - commentary - Trade Now) can also be cured like Genworth. You simply need to do a deal in the hole. The buyers will come.

And the problem begins to get ameliorated.

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

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