I'd Sell the Insurers

Annuity stocks, insurance stocks, leasing stocks, all possible TARP beneficiaries ramped last week, and while I am a big believer that many companies don't deserve to give back those gains, there's a bizarre relative strength to some of these stocks -- CIT (CIT - commentary - Cramer's Take), Principal Financial (PFG - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Lincoln National (LNC - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- vs. what I would expect. Prudential (PRU - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Met (MET - commentary - Cramer's Take) are down, but they aren't down as much as I would have anticipated either. Hartford's (HIG - commentary - Cramer's Take) getting hit, for certain, but that's the weakest of all. I am not counting zombie Genworth (GNW - commentary - Cramer's Take).

This group's got a huge headwind against it -- the crummy market -- because they have not denied that they are hedged poorly against those declines. Many have big exposure to commercial real estate, which everyone knows from looking at the REITs is the next shoe to fall. They also have difficulty getting new money in, because, alas, why bother if they can't deliver?

I am no different. I just took another life insurance policy last week because I worry about my insurer, which fortunately has given me personal assurance that the firm has kept policies firewalled from other problems. I don't want to take any chances, though. Not with life insurance.

This is the group I would be avoiding without more clarity. I don't like the quickie purchases of tiny banks in order to get coverage. It is so revoltingly transparent that I simply don't believe that they will get all the relief they need.

Many stocks seem like buys to me when we get back to 8000, some seem like buys to me now -- and I am making some buys today for Action Alerts PLUS after being a big seller last week -- but these stocks? They seem like sales, and I would dump them.

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

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