<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="625"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td width="90%">By Jim Cramer
RealMoney Columnist
4/30/2010 6:00 PM EDT
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Is it over yet? The bloodletting? Can I open my eyes? Is the pain through? The towel thrown? <table id="rmystoryad336" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="336"><tbody><tr><td align="center"> <!-- begin ad tag (tile=2) --> <script type="text/javascript"> if (typeof ord=='undefined') { ord=Math.random()*10000000000000000; } document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/realmoney.com/;tile=3;sz=336x280,300x250,336x850;ord=' + ord + '?"> <\/script>'); </script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/realmoney.com/;tile=3;sz=336x280,300x250,336x850;ord=7654621917758244?"> </script> <noscript>
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</td></tr></tbody></table>I know we were down only 1.7%, but it was the nastiest down 1.7% I can recall. You don't get Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Trade Now) down 15 points and not think there's trouble. You don't get the oil drillers relentlessly going down as if the Oil Service HOLDRs (OIH - commentary - Trade Now) is casting a pall over the innocent and the guilty. As much as the cyclicals have been winners, they gave back more in two hours than they made in a week. It was downright frightening in the last half hour, as you could see the players head for the exits even as the ETF and futures selling kept sending stocks down relentlessly.
I think that we need a resolution of a couple of issues, and I have to tell you I don't know when they will be resolved, and that worries me. We need some sort of sense that this oil spill won't go on for months, and we need some sort of understanding that Goldman Sachs is worth something, anything, and that there is a way out for the firm besides total annihilation, which is what it seemed like today on a simple and expected story that the Justice Department is looking over the evidence.
You know what's strange? For a variety of reasons, I know how the Justice Department works, and I wish that Goldman Sachs had simply come out a month ago and said the authorities are looking into our trading and we are going to cooperate with them and make changes that they think necessary. Anything but what we have seen so far since that Wells submission that was kept secret because of its alleged immateriality.
Without some end to these two nightmares, we have two important groups, banks and oils, getting clobbered, and they are natural leaders. Tech stopped going up about a week ago on good numbers. I was actually shocked that Skyworks (SWKS - commentary - Trade Now) could rally, although the gross margins were a thing of beauty. I was also amazing that Akamai (AKAM - commentary - Trade Now) didn't get obliterated after a good gain. Nothing would have shocked me today, given how scarce the bids were.
Anyway, I was very glad to see the day end, because it is hard to imagine a more hideous 1.7% decline.
Nauseating. But given that all of the indices still finished in the black for the month and that we will have to endure a ton of "sell in May and go away" stories, I guess it could have been worse.
Random musings: For the latest on the ongoing federal investigation of Goldman Sachs and reports of a criminal inquiry, see the coverage on our flagship site.
At the time of publication, Cramer was long GS.
RealMoney Columnist
4/30/2010 6:00 PM EDT
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Is it over yet? The bloodletting? Can I open my eyes? Is the pain through? The towel thrown? <table id="rmystoryad336" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="336"><tbody><tr><td align="center"> <!-- begin ad tag (tile=2) --> <script type="text/javascript"> if (typeof ord=='undefined') { ord=Math.random()*10000000000000000; } document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/realmoney.com/;tile=3;sz=336x280,300x250,336x850;ord=' + ord + '?"> <\/script>'); </script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/realmoney.com/;tile=3;sz=336x280,300x250,336x850;ord=7654621917758244?"> </script> <noscript>
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</td></tr></tbody></table>I know we were down only 1.7%, but it was the nastiest down 1.7% I can recall. You don't get Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Trade Now) down 15 points and not think there's trouble. You don't get the oil drillers relentlessly going down as if the Oil Service HOLDRs (OIH - commentary - Trade Now) is casting a pall over the innocent and the guilty. As much as the cyclicals have been winners, they gave back more in two hours than they made in a week. It was downright frightening in the last half hour, as you could see the players head for the exits even as the ETF and futures selling kept sending stocks down relentlessly.
I think that we need a resolution of a couple of issues, and I have to tell you I don't know when they will be resolved, and that worries me. We need some sort of sense that this oil spill won't go on for months, and we need some sort of understanding that Goldman Sachs is worth something, anything, and that there is a way out for the firm besides total annihilation, which is what it seemed like today on a simple and expected story that the Justice Department is looking over the evidence.
You know what's strange? For a variety of reasons, I know how the Justice Department works, and I wish that Goldman Sachs had simply come out a month ago and said the authorities are looking into our trading and we are going to cooperate with them and make changes that they think necessary. Anything but what we have seen so far since that Wells submission that was kept secret because of its alleged immateriality.
Without some end to these two nightmares, we have two important groups, banks and oils, getting clobbered, and they are natural leaders. Tech stopped going up about a week ago on good numbers. I was actually shocked that Skyworks (SWKS - commentary - Trade Now) could rally, although the gross margins were a thing of beauty. I was also amazing that Akamai (AKAM - commentary - Trade Now) didn't get obliterated after a good gain. Nothing would have shocked me today, given how scarce the bids were.
Anyway, I was very glad to see the day end, because it is hard to imagine a more hideous 1.7% decline.
Nauseating. But given that all of the indices still finished in the black for the month and that we will have to endure a ton of "sell in May and go away" stories, I guess it could have been worse.
Random musings: For the latest on the ongoing federal investigation of Goldman Sachs and reports of a criminal inquiry, see the coverage on our flagship site.
At the time of publication, Cramer was long GS.
