A nice drop in the number of bulls and a nice increase in selling pressure has given us this especially nice day, despite the fact that we are going to be spending much more at the pump than we believed.
To me, this market's saying that the Fed has a habit of tightening until a crisis, and Katrina is the definition of a crisis. There's simply no way the Fed can ignore it. It is too big and it is going to cause too much of a slowdown in its own right to make tightenings seem palatable.
We are at a place where the Fed's actions are going to be criticized, and we have a Fed chairman who is finishing his career. We are going to need liquidity to rebuild and we are going to need liquidity after all of the stretched insurers pull back, which is what is going to happen now.
This rally is a "Fed's done" rally, period. Because otherwise, all you'd be hearing today is that Katrina brought in more than a storm, it brought in a recession, too.
Random musings: Don't overlook Jarden (JAH - commentary - Cramer's Take) as a hurricane play because it has Coleman, with its line of outdoor stuff that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will have to stock up on and give to the homeless. That will happen, my sources say.
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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. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for ActionAlertsPLUS by clicking here. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column by clicking here. Listen to Cramer's RealMoney Radio show on your computer; just click here. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" at 6 p.m. ET weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get his second book, "You Got Screwed!" and click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." Cramer appreciates your feedback and invites you to send him an email by clicking here.
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