Sign of Data-Shufflers' Dominance

Little item, big statement. Next week the S&P 500 will give Louisiana-Pacific (LPX - commentary - Cramer's Take) the boot and replace it with Fidelity National Information Services (FIS - commentary - Cramer's Take).

We old-timers remember LP as one of the major companies out there, just a behemoth of wallboard and wood, one of those companies that was instrumental to the U.S. economy. Housing starts good? Buy LPX. Housing starts bad? Short LPX. Oriented strand board strong? Buy LP. That this company could be relegated to the S&P madcap after its years as the other standard bearer in wood products, beside International Paper (IP - commentary - Cramer's Take) now that Georgia-Pacific is private, can only be described as an incredible minimization of companies that make things in the eyes of the market, for the S&P people respond only to size.

But in some ways, it's not as significant as the decision to add Fidelity National. This company is one of what would seem to be hundreds of paper-pushing companies we have in America. It is a data-processing company with a mortgage bent. Could we get more of those? How many data-processing companies do we need? Every day it seems I get asked about data-processing stocks, and they're all a blur. They do nothing but shuffle data from one place to another.

We're now a nation of data-shufflers, not builders, and the market loves the consistency of data-shufflers vs. cyclical companies that make things. It's disappointing, but like brokerage, like credit cards, like servicing mortgage rights, it is what we do.

Random musings: Are you clicking on the "Ratings" link in our tickers yet? What are you waiting for? This is a prime chance to get help with your homework. Get another view on a stock. For free. TheStreet.com Ratings has collected tons of information on and given a grade to virtually every ticker you'll see on our sites, and we've made it all available to you. So get clicking! (Look for the "Rating" hyperlink that follows a company's name in the text of our articles, columns and blog posts, or just go right to TheStreet.com Ratings area of our site.)

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

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