It's easy. Short the market and short some more on any bounce. That seems to be the way to play this market of late. Another vicious down move has left investors rattled once again.

You can point to a number of rumors or reasons, but at this point, selling seems to be causing more selling. There is fear everywhere.

Take your pick: Prizer (PFE), Morgan Stanley (MS), Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), General Motors (GM). All crushed, along with most other names.

IBM (IBM) even reported some positive news, demonstrating in a surprise announcement that it was still very prosperous in the third quarter despite the worsening economy. The result: down on the day.

With this in mind, we thought we'd take a look at some if the stocks that people were searching for on Thursday on TheStreet.com and see what Jim Cramer's had to say about them recently.

These stocks could be in the news for a number of reasons. Some require immediate attention; others may not. Regardless, it never hurts to hear what Cramer (or any of the other professional investors on the site) has to say about them. The key is to gather as much information as you can in order to make the most informed investment decisions you can.

In a recent post to his RealMoney blog, Cramer had this to say about IBM:

"Tech's loved in the last couple of days, mostly because it has been so oversold. Today it's the IBM effect, and it does seem a little silly because the problems ailing tech are consumer-oriented and IBM has no consumer orientation.

"I have liked Apple (AAPL) and Research In Motion (RIMM) -- right for a long time, really wrong lately -- and they can rally simply because they, like Qualcomm (QCOM), are giant tech names that are compressed to a ridiculous point given that the earnings are not falling apart.

"But Intel (INTC)? Does anyone know how they are really doing? Cisco's (CSCO) down, and that one I think is doing well, so we have a bit of an anomaly on that one.

"My take is simple: This group is the one that is driving the averages higher, and the financials keep it going lower. I want them to reverse and then I will like the market more! The only safe name? IBM! I would buy that one only up a couple. I am sure the tech analysts will be all over it tomorrow."

For more of what Cramer had to say about Thursday's top-searched stocks, including Verizon (VZ) and GameStop (GME), check out the Cramer's Take portfolio at Stockpickr.com.

(Editor's note: At the time of publication and/or original publication of his posts and shows, Cramer owned Cisco and Morgan Stanley for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust.)


Posted on Oct. 9, 2008