Get Generous Gains in Scarce Resources

Scarce resources continue to rock. Take Inco (N - commentary - Cramer's Take). You have to be impressed with that stock's performance on this hideous day. Up a buck, all on a little 3-inch story buried in the C Section of The Wall Street Journal talking about how a Japanese metals company might have to start breaking ground on some more nickel facilities because of demand from China.

We're short nickel. No, not short the stock, Inco; we don't have enough nickel to meet industrial demand.

Or BHP Billiton (BHP - commentary - Cramer's Take), look at that company. It went down a couple off of a suggested "top" in coal for steel and "top" in aluminum, but there are enough scarce resources under that one roof to make it stay where it is on a bad day and go higher on a good one.

Refining capacity. Tight as a drum. Gulf of Mexico oil, wanted by foreigners, wanted so much that we buy anything off of the acquisition of Spinnaker (SKE - commentary - Cramer's Take) by Norsk Hydro (NHY - commentary - Cramer's Take) that isn't nailed down. I sat with that Houston Exploration (THX - commentary - Cramer's Take) for a year and it never had a move like today. Even lowly worm Cimarex (XEC - commentary - Cramer's Take), which I own for ActionAlertsPLUS, is up.

And of course, there's Chesapeake (CHK - commentary - Cramer's Take): the cheapest independent natural gas play around.

Scarce resources are what is working. Everything else seems just like a trade.

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At the time of publication, Cramer was long Cimarex Energy.

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. 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.