Hold Your Nose and Buy

Nothing's more difficult than stepping up and buying some Marshall & Ilsley (MI - commentary - Trade Now) or Huntington Bancshares (HBAN - commentary - Trade Now) or Fifth Third (FITB - commentary - Trade Now) or Regions (RF - commentary - Trade Now) when we read that it is precisely their kind of commercial real estate portfolios that are in the cross hairs of both the regulators and the defaulters.

But these companies look to me like Hartford (HIG - commentary - Trade Now) at $12 or Principal Financial (PFG - commentary - Trade Now) at $10 or Genworth (GENW - commentary - Trade Now) at $4. The capital markets were open and receptive to those three annuity/insurers, and I don't even think they are as good as the banks I listed because they don't benefit from the yield curve, which is bountiful and apparently will stay bountiful for now. And yes, these can grow their way out of their holes.

The reluctance to buy these stocks is simply because they are crummy, but crummy's king here, which is nauseating to people.

This can be a nauseating market, but what happens if Huntington reports a really good number based on net interest margin? What if Fifth Third does a big deal in the hole and then says, "We are fully reserved"?

It's a fact of life that bad can get better, and that is what drives stocks.

Is it that simple?

Kind of. Enough to do the job.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.

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