Cramer: Oil, a Mysterious Play

Here we go again with the oil jam up to take the market higher on a thin day. This process of taking the oils up on a day when oil is down huge is one of the great mysteries of all time, for a couple of reasons:

1. How in heck can Chevron (CVX Quote), perhaps the most levered to crude of the majors, be up when oil is down, unless it is part of a larger buy program?
2. How can Exxon (XOM Quote) have a 50% gain in less than seven weeks even though oil's down pretty much every week? This stock wants to break into the $80s.
3. While we hear of colder weather coming, how can natural gas stocks rally huge on one of the worst skeins of natural gas pricing in a while?

I wish I had the answers to these anomalies. Instead, I retreat to the price action, which tells me that the underlying futures are about to turn and bottom.

But it also prompts the question of what kind of program, what kind of theory forces oil up, particularly the Dow oils, as a tell of where the overall market is going, as it did for the last two days of gains?

It's so counterintuitive that it is glaring, but at the same time, completely playable.

Random musings: Closing down for a bit at Cisco (CSCO Quote) to save money? What does that mean for the companies doing poorly in tech? Closing down for a month? A year?

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Cisco.

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Know what you own: Cramer mentions oil. Other companies that may be affected by the price of crude include BP(BP Quote), Shell(RDS.A Quote), ConocoPhillips(COP Quote) and Marathon Oil(MRO Quote).

This column by Jim Cramer originally was published on RealMoney. It's being republished here as a bonus to readers of TheStreet.com. For a free trial to RealMoney, click here.