Nothing Beside Remains

We have totems in this market. In tech it's Oracle (ORCL - commentary - Cramer's Take), Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Research In Motion (RIMM - commentary - Cramer's Take). Three for three, although I like all three on the way down. Oracle and RIMM have lowered expectations to beatable levels. I have suggested again that all you should have left is a quarter of your Apple position, but it I still too early to buy it back. All of those other techs follow those three -- including Google (GOOG - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- and I don't want to buy them. (Picking at RIMM makes sense here.)

In banking, as long as Goldman (GS - commentary - Cramer's Take) held in you felt good, same with Wells Fargo (WFC - commentary - Cramer's Take) and USB (USB - commentary - Cramer's Take). But they are all down today, so it is hard to buy any of them with those down.

In oil and gas, we don't like to buy when Conoco (COP - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Exxon (XOM - commentary - Cramer's Take) are down, although the comeback in natural gas is looking very much for real.

Proctor (PG - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Coke (KO - commentary - Cramer's Take) make you feel awful, and even the yield plays -- Kimberly (KMB - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Glaxo (GSK - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- are getting hit.

These are soft leaders to begin with.

Retail? Wal-Mart's (WMT - commentary - Cramer's Take) down, so who the heck wants to buy that group? Bed Bath & Beyond (BBY - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Autozone (AZO - commentary - Cramer's Take) aren't leaders.

And then there is Nike (NKE - commentary - Cramer's Take), which is without a doubt the most visible player in cross section of companies -- sporting goods, apparel and discretionary spending.

Just nothing to cling to, which is why you have to wait until another level down to do any buying.

Random musings: I do not trust either Merrill (MER - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Lehman (LEH - commentary - Cramer's Take), and both still have huge real estate exposure that they seem unable to own up to. ... The Goldman call is so aggressive and so low that it does seem pretty late, but this is a better late call.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Goldman and Wal-Mart.

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