You Can Leave Home Without Amex

The fundamentals at American Express (AXP - commentary - Cramer's Take) were sound.

Until they weren't.

When American Express reported its upside surprise, the shorts scrambled and covered. (By the way, Doug Kass was long and then sold and shorted AXP, paying for 10 lifetime subs for RealMoney.) Why not? The company looked like it could weather any storm.

Now we know that without a deposit base, it needed federal intervention because of the "unusual and exigent circumstances."

If the activity in Morgan Stanley (MS - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Cramer's Take) after the unusual and exigent circumstances brought them to the Fed is any indicator, you would do well to sell any bounce that AXP can generate.

Here's my take on AXP. Let it come in. Wait until you can figure out the franchise value of the card, and then you might have a trade, because the brand name is worth a great deal.

But my prediction is that you will have to do a whole lot of waiting, because this 3% yielder has to go down quite a bit before it hits terra firma, which I figure might be the accidentally high yield of 4%.

In other words, stay away.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

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Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman 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.

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