Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Red Zone Defensive Plays

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Don't expect the "absolutely brutal" action we saw in the stock market today to be over just yet, Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Tuesday.

"But before we damn the whole market, let's remember what were damning," he said. "The mortgage weakness has spread to the market so quickly because traders are closing out of everything."

Instead of distinguishing between stocks, market players are selling all of the stocks in the S&P 500 or anything related to it, Cramer said. Although the subprime loan issue is "a problem that is not going away in that sector [the subprime mortgage lenders]," it is wrong for the Street to be so indiscriminate, he said.

No lender in the subprime mortgage market can be immune from the illness that is subprime, but other stocks could recover, Cramer continued. The market is in the "grips of a commodity selloff," and it sent almost all stocks down today. But if the mortgage and housing markets are decelerating, food and drug companies are not worth selling here, he said.

The whole market went down because scared investors wanted out of stocks, Cramer said. And even though they shouldn't have, all defensive stocks went down today because they are all stocks first and companies second.

However, if housing collapses, the supermarkets and the food, drug and utility stocks should do well, he said. "I think you're getting one more opportunity to play defense."

Things are a "tad tricky" here, though, "because the future on the commodity that has captured stocks -- the S&P 500 -- expires Friday, so I expect very little upside in this group until Monday," Cramer said.

People need to "let the commodities settle" and go back to the supermarket aisle in three days to pick up some Kroger (KR), Colgate-Palmolive (CL) or Kimberly-Clark (KMB), among others, when these buys are "driven down by options selling," he said.

"Every sector got trashed today ... and that's plain wrong," Cramer said. "You have a chance to pick up great merchandise at low prices."

To see the Stockpickr portfolio of Red Zone Defensive Plays, click here.

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