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  1. Home
  2. / Investing

Jim Cramer: An Absence of Negatives Is a Real Positive

This is what the market looks like when the Fed says nothing and the president isn't ranting about something.
By JIM CRAMER
Oct 16, 2018 | 12:46 PM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: JNJ, GS, UNH, WMT, AAPL, ADBE, MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL, MS

This is what the market looks like when the Fed says nothing and the president isn't ranting about something involving Jay Powell or China.

You wouldn't get this straight up move but as I explained in a video with Katherine Ross this morning, yesterday we hit minus seven on the S&P's proprietary oscillator, which is about as negative as we have gotten during this period and that means you have to find something to buy no matter what. Normally I would be recommending selling something here but the oscillator says "no," stay the course. Let it run. There's been enough damage and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) , Goldman Sachs (GS) and UnitedHealth (UNH) are all good and Walmart (WMT) is terrific.

This market is ridiculous. Initially Walmart was down off of the numbers because they weren't adjusted for Flipkart but because everyone's so negative. JNJ had a terrific quarter and the negativists seized on medical devices which was, again, subpar, rather than looking at drug approvals. United Health boosted its earnings forecast big and had a fabulous medical loss ratio and that didn't fly when it was reported.

And now people are coming to JP Morgan and realizing, hmmm, maybe it wasn't that bad after all.

Now, again, I want to stress that when the president doesn't bash the Chinese or Powell doesn't say we need three rate hikes no matter what comes in 2019 -- even as no aggregate data is as strong as it was a few months go -- you can rally and rally hard. The oversold condition allows you to have DAY ONE of the rally.

Plus, lets remember there was a big sell program that struck in the last few minutes of the close and after and it involved Apple (AAPL) , Adobe (ADBE) , Microsoft (MSFT) , Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) . There was a huge short base set-up in these names for the first time.

And then Adobe affirmed its forecast but it was really an affirmation of a guide-up and Adobe is that important to the market.

No one said anything about China weakness with Apple. Morgan Stanley (MS) was whistle clean. Goldman didn't screw up the call.

An absence of negatives is a real positive, again something that matters only when you are ridiculously oversold as we are now.

Random musings: If you want in to a high quality cyber security stock on weakness that I think is unmerited take a look at Realmoney. com.

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

Jim Cramer and the AAP team hold positions in Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs, UnitedHeath, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet for their Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio . Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells shares of these companies? Learn more now.

TAGS: Investing

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