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By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

 

It's not so bad. It's just bad enough that maybe something good will happen. That's my feeling about the U.S. economy right now.

 

It's not so bad, because we have ever-so-slightly falling jobless claims, better balance sheets for companies and lots of profitability, with some companies doing extremely well. But it's bad enough -- because we are not creating jobs and not seeing any loan demand -- that I think Washington will do something.

 

We saw the beginning of that on Tuesday, totally obscured by the selling of stocks. We saw a bank tax go away, we saw the rumblings of cap and trade put on hold, and we saw the makings of a breakthrough in extending unemployment money.

You know what these moves smell like to me?

 

Amazon (AMZN) struck a deal this week to sell its Kindle e-readers in stores at U.S. airports.

 

But don't think this is a big innovation from Amazon. It turns out many airport retail outlets selling Apple (AAPL) products are now stocking the iPad, too.

That means that despite the Kindle’s dominance of the e-reader marketplace, it may already be playing catch-up with Apple’s newest gadget when it comes to airport sales. (A tip for foreign travelers: Dixons Travel at London's Heathrow airport was discounting iPads 20 pounds this week while supplies last!)

 

Traders have been watching the 2500 level on the Shanghai Composite Index closely for the last week.

And today, they got the price action they feared. The index dropped another 4.3% on the day to close at 2427.

That's below both the psychologically important 2500 level (Yes, the market does seem to react to round numbers. Nobody ever said investing was a science, or even especially rational) and below the 2481 level that signaled support on the charts to technicians.

 

Large-cap blue-chip stocks bounced back nicely in the beginning of June after a rough market in May. Then these stock picks gave it all back, with most large-cap investments looking to close out the month about where they started. In a rocky investing environment, it's hard to find advice that produces profits that stick -- even in low-risk large-cap stocks.

 

Unfortunately, some investors are throwing good money after bad by refusing to unload their battered blue chips. That’s why investors should consider dumping these large-cap stocks.

 

Traders for BP (BP) used to be hot stuff. The company was known for aggressive, all-in bets in the energy markets, a strategy that paid off in the billions every year.

But now, the markets have decided that BP stinks to high heaven, and they're clearing a wide circle around the company's traders.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has stopped making long-term contracts with BP, The New York Times reports. BP's credit rating has been downgraded to just above junk status, making life much harder for traders who don't have the money to bet with like they used to. 

It's apparently really easy to get approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell stock. If you're from Russia or Ukraine, that is.

One shell company, whose sole employee was a 79-year-old massage therapist in Ukraine, filed paperwork last year with the SEC to sell stock. The company had no revenue and $100 in assets, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The application was approved in eight days -- and there are questions about whether it was even read. Eight other startups in Ukraine and Russia have also been green-lit in the past two years, offering plans to rent bicycles in Kiev or sell cars in Siberia, the Journal reports. 

Burger King Holdings (BKC) stock has been anything but flame-broiled over the past year.

Despite a juicy spike in Burger King stock this spring along with the rest of the market, the shares have left investors with a bland taste in their mouths since the beginning of 2008.

In the fast-food wars, the Big Kahuna is still McDonald’s (MCD) (see 5 Reasons to Buy McDonald's). So should investors forget about BKC altogether and sell the stock? Here are three reasons to step away from the table and leave Burger King:

 

Agricultural Bank of China priced the Shanghai portion of its initial public offering Tuesday at 2.52 yuan to 2.68 yuan per share. The Hong Kong portion of this IPO priced last week. 

Tuesday's announcement keeps the deal on track for a mid-July offering. (I've repeatedly called this IPO an indicator of whether China's banks will be able to raise all the capital they need, and a way for investors to decide if it's time to buy China's stocks. For more on those ideas, see this post.)

At the indicated Shanghai and Hong Kong prices, the offering would raise about $20 billion. That's at the low end of the $20 billion-$30 billion range projected for the IPO a few months ago. But that's still enough for me to call the offering a qualified success.

 

By Stan Luxenberg, TheStreet

 

When the BP (BP) oil rig exploded, energy stocks sank. Among the worst performers were companies that depend on offshore oil fields.

 

The losses attracted the attention of Robert Stimpson, manager of Rock Oak Core Growth (RCKSX). Stimpson bought shares of Transocean (RIG), owner of the damaged platform. The fund manager also grabbed depressed shares of Weatherford International (WFT) and Schlumberger (SLB), leading providers of services for oil fields.

 

"Today, energy stocks look as unloved as financials were in 2008," Stimpson says. "Financials staged a huge rally off their lows, and eventually energy stocks will also rally."

 

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

 

Down, boy, and stay down. Open down. Be down. Don't rally. Wash sellers out. Please.

 

There, I talked to this market like the dog that it is. We need to wipe out every last bit of optimism here about anything -- China, Germany, Europe in general and certainly the United States. We need stocks to go back down to reflect a collapse in Spain, the lack of a soft landing in China and a split-up of the euro.

 

In short, we need what took us to Dow ($INDU) 9,700 and S&P ($INX) 1,050, which is precisely where we are headed.

 

Updated at 4:36 p.m. ET, Tuesday

Tesla Motors (TSLA) zoomed out of the gate Tuesday, closing at $23.89 per share, 40.5% above its $17 offer price on its first day of public trading.

This closely watched IPO was a success, especially in a day filled with broader market turmoil.

• See what a better broker can do for you

But is opinion starting to turn against this company? After all, it hasn't made a dime of profit and it has only one car -- a pricey model that few people can afford (a lower-cost model is in the works).

 

Paul Krugman of The New York Times has a much-discussed column this week saying we are in "the early stages of a third depression."

There have been only two depressions before, he writes: the periods following the panic of 1873 and the financial crisis of 1929-1931. The slump we're heading into probably won't be as bad as the Great Depression, he writes, but the cost will be immense.

He blames lawmakers for the coming depression, saying that those in power around the world are preaching financial belt-tightening when the real problem is that we're not spending enough. 

What's slightly bigger than an extra-large pizza and weighs as much as a refrigerator? The world's largest gold coin, which sold Friday in Austria.

The 2007 maple-leaf coin (pictured) weighs 220 pounds and is 21 inches in diameter. It was up for sale at the Dorotheum auction house in Vienna, reports The Associated Press.

• Is gold the latest bubble?

As the gold frenzy hits a fever pitch, Spanish precious-metals company Oro Direct bid $4 million to win the coin. No word on what the company plans to do with its prize.

 

High-yield dividend stocks are in favor on Wall Street right now as investors look to insulate themselves from recent market volatility. But what happens when these stocks actually end up losing you cash instead of protecting your portfolio?

If you’re losing a significant amount of money as the share prices of your income stocks dive, then it might be time to pull the trigger and sell these dividend duds. After all, there are a host of high-yield stocks out there, so why should you settle for one that offsets your quarterly dividends with regular losses in share price?

To help you identify which dividend losers you should cut loose, here are three high-dividend stocks that just aren’t worth holding on to right now:

 

"If you have a rock, hide under it." That was the advice of one fund manager at a recent Morningstar conference, reports Eric Schurenberg at CBS MoneyWatch.com. I feel better now, don't you?

The economy is on shaky ground, the markets are a mess and investors are wary of getting burned. Some experts at the conference were clinging to the one life raft they could find: Dividend stocks.

"The big steady-going consumer companies and manufacturers that make up their universe lagged the rally since the March 2009 low, so that they are arguably undervalued," Schurenberg writes.

What dividend stocks are getting praised?