'Fast Money' Recap: Commodities Comeuppance

U.S. stocks sold off steeply in the afternoon Wednesday after hesitant trading close to the baseline. The Dow and the S&P 500 each lost 2.4%, and the Nasdaq dropped 2.6%.

On CNBC's "Fast Money" TV show, Tim Seymour said there's a rollover out of commodity names. He noted that the yen moved 80 basis points today. The commodities trade is a crowded trade, he said. He was bullish on some Eastern European gas names, but said he believed there was a lot of "fluff" in plays on Potash (POT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Monsanto (MON - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).

Jeff Macke advised viewers to sell the U.S. Oil Fund (USO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) ETF and the streetTracks Gold Shares (GLD - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) ETF.

Give those names a break, he said. As the Federal Reserve thinks of other means besides lowering interest rates to solve the liquidity crisis, commodities won't be as good of an inflation play, he said.

Pete Najarian said that the market is prone to overreactions and was irrational lately.

Guy Adami recommended buying Potash and Monsanto on dips.

On speculation that Merrill Lynch (MER - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) was suing mortgage insurer Security Capital Assurance (SCA - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) to force it to ensure its mortgage-backed bonds, Najarian noted heavy put activity for Merrill. He said Merrill isn't a Bear Stearns (BSC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), but its writedowns could be pretty huge.

Morgan Stanley (MS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) beat banking champion Goldman Sachs (GS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) in most major categories when it reported earnings today.

Adami said he thinks investors can own Morgan Stanley at these levels. Macke suggested selling, saying the stock would pull back later. Najarian praised the investment bank for spectacular earnings but said "you have to take profits" because there's a lot of negativity in the market right now.

Seymour said that UBS (UBS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and some of the European investment banks may still have problems to report. He advised staying away from the financials.

Nike (NKE - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) reported earnings today. Macke said he simply loves Nike.

Visa's (V - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) initial public offering priced above the range today. Adami said Visa will go lower to retest IPO levels. He also suggested taking profits in MasterCard (MA - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr). Wait for Visa to come back down, he said. Macke agreed.

Amgen (AMGN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) hit a seven-year low today. Najarian said that anytime something goes right for Amgen, bad news soon follows. After moving forward with its anemia drugs last week, Roche appeared on the scene to also sell anemia drugs. He said Amgen is not a takeout target and its pipeline doesn't look good. He suggested that viewers take a look at ImClone (IMCL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr). Jeff Macke said that Pfizer (PFE - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) needs to buy a drug company.

Starbucks (SBUX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) announced it would begin selling energy bars and drinks. Macke said the company is breaking his heart. Najarian expressed skepticism about a turnaround story for the coffee shop. Adami said investors could buy Starbucks with a stop out at $16.70 for a trade.

To talk about problems in the commercial and investment banking space, the "Fast Money" crew welcomed Jeffry Harte, managing director in equity research at Sandler O'Neill, to the show. Harte said he only has one buy-rated banker-broker. He advised extreme caution in approaching the banks. He said investment banks are more attractive than commercial banks because differences in accounting practices cause investment banks to feel pain more quickly.