Spreading the Plague

Some stocks act just plain sick. Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Cramer's Take) acts real sick. It acts like something's lurking, something terrible.

General Motors (GM - commentary - Cramer's Take) acts like death. It's just a miserable stock and it colors a lot of trading. Ford's (F - commentary - Cramer's Take) no better. (GE - commentary - Cramer's Take), amazingly, lifted itself up from the sickbed to go up a couple of pennies today, but it acts as if things are just dreadful.

Target (TGT - commentary - Cramer's Take), JC Penney (JCP - commentary - Cramer's Take), Nordstrom (JWN - commentary - Cramer's Take) and, worst of all, Macy's (M - commentary - Cramer's Take) act as if their sales are plummeting and their dividends ate halving.

These stocks color the tape every day. They make you feel as if you are one step ahead of the apocalypse.

Now, I know I should take solace -- a quantum? -- that these stocks are not at their 52-week lows. In fact, in many cases, the lows are so low that you almost can't believe you lived through those dark November days. I mean Macy's was at $5! Nordstrom at $6! Penney at $13! But those prices lasted for an instant; I bet almost nothing traded there.

But what those prices did was makes people feel like we are endlessly "basing," and it makes them feel good as even if you owned these stocks, you feel terrible. This is that "volatility's calming down, that's the best thing that can happen."

On days like today, I worry that we are replaying 1929, where we fell hard then had a nice run back and then simply drifted back down pretty endlessly. No, I do not think we will take out the lows but there are individual stocks, like GM, where I regard the common as worthless and there are individual retailers with very high yields -- at least for retailers -- that are a tell for potential cancellation.

On a day like today, when I am sure the bulls could say "They couldn't crack 'em!", I just look with disgust and conclude, "Man are they wearing people down."

That's my only real takeaway and it is, alas, a discouraging one.

Random musings: Getting the most feedback I can recall off an article that has appeared here -- the one by Eric Oberg (part 1 and part 2), the former Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Cramer's Take) managing director who questions the worth -- I say the worthlessness -- of the ProUltra ETFs. A must-read, and I believe it will continue to be so with some follow-up coming tomorrow. Watch these spaces to catch up.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long GE and GS.

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