Stocks need more good news for rally
After hitting a wall of skepticism before Wednesday's close, the market is waiting for more positive news.
Wednesday was an odd day of no particular consequence. Yet at the same time, it felt ugly in part because we have almost come to expect a decent performance.
In fact, it was a day when you could have lost a lot of money buying at the high and when stocks really broke down at the bell.
I reiterate that I think the sell-off was related to options expiration and that hiring, which is crucial, is getting better, not worse. That's the immunity from the illness of Europe that so many people keep keying on. They should be keying in on good industrial production and retail sales, but you can go up for only so long on those two.
I was particularly shocked at the declines in a couple of stocks I am following for our ActionAlertsPlus portfolio. PNC (PNC) and WellPoint (WLP) were just savaged in the last few minutes of trading on no fundamental news. Left me scratching my head about how thin the market really is and how I wish I were down there at the bell buying.
I think we're at a moment of skepticism: waiting for the House to vote, waiting for some sign that the president is a true business partner, waiting for more jobs to be created.
It's as if we have run far as we're going to go until we see some more positive signs (even though retail sales and industrial production should have been enough).
Again, I don't think it's too consequential, but I was struck by the gigantic declines that came out of nowhere in the last half hour, and I'm betting they will stabilize by Friday's expiration.
At the time of publication, Cramer was long PNC and WLP.
Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman of TheStreet. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO.
Follow Cramer's trades for his Charitable Trust.
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