Jim Cramer's Portfolios of the Week

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By Roberto Pedone

PEWAUKKE, Wis. (TheStreet) --According to Jim Cramer, housing stocks are the key to this market. Cramer pointed out that the charts of the housing stocks are showing that the group is the weakest area in the markets. Why is this happening? One potential explanation could be that housing stocks are tracking employment and news flow, and both are very bearish. Another reason could be the $8,000 first-time home tax credit, which has yet to be renewed.

Cramer doesn't think the tax credit is as important as the historically low mortgage rates. However, he said the key to the housing bottom is for homebuilders to combine or falter. Right now Cramer thinks the latter is occurring.

What's even more important for investors to know is that the last move up in the markets was led by the housing stocks, or the PHLX Housing Sector index. Cramer said that if this index starts to go down, it could take the entire market with it. He advised investors to short or buy put options on names such as Fortune Brands(FO Quote) and Masco(MAS Quote), because these stocks have moved too much.

Recently, Cramer found opportunity in Chinese growth stocks, stocks for the next 59 days and real estate investment trusts that must be sold. Here are some Cramer highlights from over the past week as aggregated from his "Mad Money" TV show, the "Stop Trading!" segment on CNBC and his RealMoney blog posts (these blog post require a RealMoney subscription).

Cramer's Stocks for the Next 59 Days: Cramer sees opportunity in a number of stocks that professional money managers could rush into before the year ends. In an Oct. 6 blog post, he wrote: "Believe me there is nothing worse than being on the short side of the market when you only have 59 more days to generate performance." The Cramer's Stocks for the Next 59 Days portfolio includes Apple(AAPL Quote) and Salesforce.com(CRM Quote).