S&P Vehicles Bear Brunt of Bad News Selling

Let's see, what hasn't happened? We have no reports of aliens attacking us. We have no reports of giant asteroids streaming toward the Brooklyn Bridge. There hasn't been a Three Mile Island disaster lately.

I don't mean to be facetious. It does seem that everywhere you turn you hear bad news, and that bad news necessarily translates into lower prices through selling of the S&P 500 futures.

And it is S&P selling. Lots of the generic pressure I see on the market stems from futures here, not from individual capitulation. Sure, there are specific stories: General Motors' (GM - commentary - Cramer's Take) dividend could be in trouble, according to Banc of America. Viacom (VIA.B - commentary - Cramer's Take) didn't deliver superior fourth-quarter results. Vivendi (V - commentary - Cramer's Take) has made USA Interactive (USAI - commentary - Cramer's Take) heavy with its financing. El Paso (EP - commentary - Cramer's Take) is in huge trouble.

But today's weakness is more related to the overall ennui that comes from hedge fund managers positioning themselves with puts, individuals pulling out of the market through index funds and a sense that nobody can take any more of this punishment.

Some stocks are strong enough to buck it: Clorox (CLX - commentary - Cramer's Take) off that good quarter, Coke (KO - commentary - Cramer's Take) off a decent quarter. But for the most part, it's unmitigated S&P selling in a relentless water-torture way.

Nasty, isn't it? Nastier than if the whole thing would just crescendo down. That's the one thing we haven't gotten, and that's the thing we really need. It might just happen in this slow-motion form, a retest of October's lows, as we had in January 1991 ahead of the war. I'll take it. But it sure would be a pleasure if we could speed up the process a bit. Guess that's too much to ask for right now, though.

Random musings: Found myself reading an excellent article by Donald Luskin about how The New York Times may not have gotten the Ken Lay story right. As someone who piled on to the Ken Lay pillory armed with the Times' reporting, I found it eye-opening. Luskin has some provocative points to make and I find myself agreeing with him more than not these days. Don't be surprised if he pops up on "Kudlow & Cramer" in the near future. Maybe he's just too provocative to ignore!

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James J. 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. At the time of publication, Cramer was long Viacom and USA Interactive. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS by clicking here. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to [e-mail]. Click here to buy Cramer's latest book, "You Got Screwed!" Click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict."