Don't Underestimate Options Expiration

You have to wonder, on a day like today, how much of the last two days' selloff was related to options expiration. I am saying that because if you look at some important stocks like Oracle (ORCL - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- great, great quarter -- Exxon Mobil (XOM - commentary - Cramer's Take), Chevron (CVX - commentary - Cramer's Take), Procter & Gamble (PG - commentary - Cramer's Take), Wal-Mart (WMT - commentary - Cramer's Take), McDonald's (MCD - commentary - Cramer's Take), Research In Motion (RIMM - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- another outstanding sales quarter - and Verizon (VZ - commentary - Cramer's Take), you are seeing some true anti-strike gravity occurring. It takes a huge amount of effort to get a stock like Verizon go to the higher strike. A breakout by Wal-Mart here from that $55 strike would be remarkable.

Most of these stocks were pinned last night for this morning's expiration, and now that it has passed, they are unleashed.

This move is especially important because it was possible to craft a very ugly day: the big downgrades of the banks, a possible follow-up to the General Electric (GE - commentary - Cramer's Take) ratings review and the endless earnings disappointments we have seen.

We had lost almost all of the Bernanke move between Wednesday and Thursday's sessions. We are now getting back on track. We did get the auto money and a big plea for the additional TARP release. But that's not enough to explain this kind of strength. You can never underestimate the impact of expiration.

Looks like this one was more important that I know I thought.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Chevron, General Electric, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart. Jim Cramer is a featured commentator for CNBC, which is owned by General Electric; as part of his contract, Cramer holds restricted shares in GE.

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