• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Doug Kass
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Stocks

Some Stock Moves Just Don't Make Sense

We're seeing market reactions that defy explanation.
By JIM CRAMER Aug 05, 2014 | 02:02 PM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: TGT, GCI, ACT, AIG, NFLX, TSLA, AMZN

We want order where there is no order. We want satisfaction when we have nothing to be satisfied about. We want conviction when you can't have conviction. We want certainty based on specific patterns, and the patterns aren't holding up.

That's how I feel about today's lack of coherence and clarity.

For instance, we fear something big happening in Ukraine. Yet gold is not going up, it's going down.

Second, we know that several hot spots for oil, notably Iraq and Libya, have gotten to the point where we have to lower estimates of production. But oil continues down its merry old way.

Third, we have gasoline coming down and down hard, but we have Target (TGT) bemoaning the challenging environment. Given gasoline's decline and the rising employment picture, we have to ask, what the heck is challenging about that?

We have companies with stocks that are reversing and reversing rapidly. Gannett (GCI) rallies up 3% in the premarket, trading on a remarkable restructuring. Then it plunges as if the company did nothing to bring out value. Actavis (ACT) delivers a terrific quarter with conservative guidance, and it gets clocked, and then it reverses up 5 points for no particular reason. American International Group (AIG) reports a sharply better than expected quarter, and it rallies 3% in after hours, and then it gives up the whole gain and then some.

Meanwhile, the expensive stocks, the ones with great growth but super high price-to-earnings multiples, namely Netflix (NFLX) and Tesla Motors (TSLA), act fabulously, and Amazon (AMZN) is barely down on a pretty miserable day. They are market leaders with no one following them.

We try to make sense of these, and we come up with one common theme: They don't make any sense. They are random moves not deserving of explanation.

As is often the case on an incredibly sleepy day in the doggy month that is August. 

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

Action Alerts PLUS, which Cramer co-manages as a charitable trust, has no positions in the stocks mentioned.

TAGS: Investing | U.S. Equity | Stocks

More from Stocks

Does the Big Bounce Mean More to Come? Let's See What Drove the Move

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
Jun 24, 2022 4:42 PM EDT

Much of the rally can be attributed to structural reasons, not fundamentals, technicals, or even macro ones.

MongoDB Is Poised for a Rally

Bruce Kamich
Jun 24, 2022 2:15 PM EDT

Here's our initial upside price target for MDB which provides a general purpose database platform.

See That Down the Road? It's the Big 'Green' Bubble, Ready to Pop

Jim Collins
Jun 24, 2022 1:30 PM EDT

Environmental, social, and corporate governance has created a monster and gullible investors should hit the brakes on their EVs and run from the Washington technocrats while they have the chance.

When Times Are Tough, These 3 Mega-Caps Should Deliver the Dividends

Bob Ciura
Jun 24, 2022 1:00 PM EDT

Here's why in recessions and bear markets, the right mega-cap stocks can offer security -- and good yields.

Atlassian Is Now in the Latter Stages of Its Decline

Bruce Kamich
Jun 24, 2022 12:22 PM EDT

Let's check the charts and indicators.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 08:55 AM EDT JAMES "REV SHARK" DEPORRE

    This Weekend on Real Money

    The 10 personality traits of successful traders an...
  • 12:08 PM EDT STEPHEN GUILFOYLE

    Stocks Under $10

    As a Portfolio Name Agrees to a Merger, Here's Our...
  • 10:44 AM EDT PAUL PRICE

    My Very Best Pick for the Next 12 Months

    American Woodmark . It rarely gets better than th...
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2022 TheStreet, Inc., 225 Liberty Street, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login