Gloomy Earnings Reports Cast a Long Shadow

Oh my, are they killing them tonight. Now we are seeing why you don't buy tech in the summer, why "sell in May and go away" has worked for that group, as these earnings from Texas Instruments (TXN - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Sandisk (SNDK - commentary - Cramer's Take) are just dreadful.

These are just commodity plays, and they have nothing special to hang their hats on. The "private matter" Steve Jobs health issue cost Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) about 5 bucks immediately. And I sense that the whole group will be under an immense amount of pressure. I am trying to buy only one tech stock for Action Alerts PLUS, and that is Qualcomm (QCOM - commentary - Cramer's Take), and tomorrow I bet I get it very cheap. (I am the most underweighted in tech that I have been since I started my charitable trust.)

Over in pharma land, Merck (MRK - commentary - Cramer's Take), so beaten, so bedraggled, so in shock perhaps from the study of Schering-Plough's (SGP - commentary - Cramer's Take) Vytorin, which this time showed some cancer risk, just pulls the whole estimate for next year. Pharma has been making a comeback, and I would be anxious to buy some Abbot Labs (ABT - commentary - Cramer's Take) on a pullback. (Please click here if you want to see what I am saying about SGP.)

Finally, in the ugliest of uglies, American Express (AXP - commentary - Cramer's Take) reports a number that it surely should have preannounced. It is not out of sync with what the other banks are saying about credit cards; it just doesn't have that deposit base to shore things up. Nasty.

It's too bad for earnings, because otherwise we would have been singing praise for the "Brocade (BRCD - commentary - Cramer's Take) to buy Foundry (FDRY - commentary - Cramer's Take)" story for a nice premium. That would move the needle back up though with this wretched earnings news

Altogether, a horrible night that will lead to a miserable day and a reminder to all who sold oil and gas that the reason we owned them to begin with was earnings!

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Abbot Labs, Qualcomm and Schering-Plough.

ALL JIM CRAMER BLOG ENTRIES | POST A COMMENT | READ COMMENTS  

---

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. To order Cramer's newest book -- "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)," click here. Click here to order "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get "You Got Screwed!" and click here for Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he appreciates your feedback and invites you to send comments by clicking here.

TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Amazon.com under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Amazon.com purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.