Adding It Up

Drill-down time: is this an acceptable second day so far to the rally if you are a bull? Is Doug Kass right to think the action is constructive? Let's count 'em down:

1. GOOD: The banks are doing what I hoped. They got clocked a bit after a strong opening and are now recovering thanks to JPMorgan (JPM - commentary - Cramer's Take) CEO Jamie Dimon, everyone's favorite bank executive. He also nailed mark-to-market right as an unfair judge of health of a bank.

2. GOOD: Tech -- as defined by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ - commentary - Cramer's Take), IBM (IBM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take), Google (GOOG - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Research In Motion (RIMM - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- are holding in perfectly, with Apple getting hotter, perhaps because of short-covering or perhaps because of the new cheaper iPod, although that's probably not enough to move the needle.

3. GOOD: The all-important farm group, which the bulls want to see run, is having a huge second day, and I like to see that happen.

4. GOOD: Copper and mineral stocks are working their way higher still, so there's less a chance of depression.

Now the other side:

1. BAD: Gold reversed and went up. Agnico-Eagle (AEM - commentary - Cramer's Take) is soaring; don't want that. Worrisome.

2. BAD: Oil reversed; we don't want oil to go down. It's important for the big guns like Chevron (CVX - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Exxon (XOM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Occidental (OXY - commentary - Cramer's Take) as well as for the temperature of the economy, because oil has to be strong if we are going to believe that a depression is off the table.

3. BAD: The infrastructure stocks rallied at the opening and then turned down, courtesy of Fluor (FLR - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Foster Wheeler (FWLT - commentary - Cramer's Take). Ugh, that group, a onetime fave, was starting to get traction.

Remember what we don't need to see, as Doug so eloquently stated, a big second-day rally! That's unrealistic. The rally was so huge with so many stocks up so much that it would be odd, after all of the losses we have had, for the market to rally big again. That would just signal to me that the whole darned thing is a short squeeze, and that you should be prepared to get your head handed to you.

I think the ledger right now stacks up to Doug's thesis.

Staying mentally long -- "mentally" because I don't trade for Action Alerts PLUS.

Random musings: Of course I am looking forward to going on to Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. Who wouldn't be? It's an incredibly funny, sophisticated show. Am I scared? You bet I am -- it's not my house, it is his, and I have to believe it will be like being put in the Western region, 16th seed for a Big East team. I'm no bracketologist, but I doubt the crowd's going to be packed with away-team fans!

At the time of publication, Cramer was long JPMorgan, Chevron, Foster Wheeler and Hewlett-Packard.

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