A Confluence of Factors Drags Us Down

Who would have dreamed up this day, with oil futures going up but the oil stocks going down and tech down too because of the big new knowledge that Europe and Asia are soft, thanks to Dell (DELL - commentary - Cramer's Take)?

That unravels the whole mark-up effort from yesterday and makes it so we are paralyzed, awaiting a hurricane that might not be a hurricane and more corroboration from some other companies that Europe and Asia are weak. Not only that, but the chartists were loving Dell, so now they are joining the fundamentalists in selling off all of the Nasdaq.

If you throw in the mix a vice presidential candidate whom no one ever heard of and a speech by the other candidate last night that cannot be considered stock market or business friendly, you get, well, what you are looking at.

Some of these oils, notably National Oilwell Varco (NOV - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Occidental (OXY - commentary - Cramer's Take) as well as Transocean (RIG - commentary - Cramer's Take) are signaling a big decline in oil without a hurricane disruption, and no one wants to buy them without some sort of sign that the hurricane is headed the rigs' way.

When you think about it, the decline in NOV, the nation's largest rig builder, ahead of what is supposed to be a rig-destroying storm, tells you pretty much all you need to know about the real bets being played away from the futures.

Ultimately, tech had been a fabulous hiding place. That went out the window with Dell, and it is hard to imagine something allaying those fears when we get back from the holiday weekend.

Random musings: I am on fence on Governor Palin. At least it's something new from someone old.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long National Oilwell Varco.

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