Not long after today's open, I got pinged by a bunch of people telling me that the financials weren't all that bad, despite the disaster that is AIG
(AIG)
. (How about what a travesty it was that AIG bought so much stock back so much higher? No wonder Hank Greenberg sold so much! The stock was being propped up!)
I don't even know if I care anymore. This is a market led by oil and gas and, second, by tech. The financials haven't provided any leadership in ages.
When Goldman Sachs
(GS)
and Lehman
(LEH)
and Washington Mutual
(WM)
go up, I yawn. I want Exxon Mobil
(XOM)
and Deere
(DE)
to go up. Those are make-or-break names. When Mosaic
(MOS)
and Schlumberger
(SLB)
go higher, I know we are OK.
But these financials are just dead men walking. They can't rally for real and are all just various forms of ETF short squeezes. (Except Bank of America
(BAC)
, which can't even get a squeeze going because of that Countrywide
(CFC)
deal.)
Frankly, I don't even believe the financial rally can last. The earnings power and the dilution will be too great. And who cares if Citigroup's
(C)
Vik Pandit talks a big game? That's all he does.
I do think the worst is over with the financials.
But I also think it is a dead group and will be so for a long time.
Don't get excited because a couple of them have caught a bid.
It just doesn't mean much at all and never seems to last anyway.
At the time of publication, Cramer was long Goldman Sachs.Jim 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. 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.
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