Stocks finished down Monday as heightened geopolitical concerns and continued worries over a weakening global economy dominated headlines.

Two of the session's biggest losers were The Dow Chemical Company (DOW) and Rohm and Haas (ROH) Both stocks fell after Kuwait's government announced they were pulling out of the joint venture with Dow Chemical. Low oil prices and global financial concerns were sited as reasons.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq dropped 19.92 points with large-cap tech stocks such as Cisco (CSCO), Blackberry-maker Research In Motion (RIMM) and Microsoft (MSFT) contributing to the loss. Apple (AAPL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) were exceptions, both finishing up for the day.

Energy stocks were some of the best performers, including Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY), as oil climbed on Middle Eastern supply concerns.

With this in mind, let’s look at the most searched stocks on TheStreet.com from the prior trading day and find out what Jim Cramer's take is on them.

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.

For more on the collapse of the Dow Chemical Company joint venture, we turn to Cramer's take on the subject:

"Deals aren't getting done, and that means that we are sinking further into the notion that there is no real value at these levels -- or at least the dealmakers don't think there is.

I am talking about the astounding collapse of the Dow Chemical (DOW) deal coupled with the concomitant potential collapse of the Rohm & Haas (ROH) deal. The Kuwait walk-away says, "We don't have the capital to complete this," which is astounding given the endless proclamations that the deal is fine from both sides.

What worries me so much about this deal is that Dow Chemical is the biggest user of nat gas in this country, so it is actually a gigantic beneficiary of what is going on. The company is hardly on the ropes. The chemicals that the deal was supposed to make also were beneficiaries in cost.

My takeaway: The only support in this market comes from yield for now. The targeted measures like LIBOR might be better, but the money's not there to fund anything, including allegedly done deals like this one. In many ways this is a real negative. If the Kuwaitis can't do a deal with a company that has sworn by the transaction to the point that it based another whole transaction on it, my bet is that there will be no deals come the new year, even though we universally think that stocks are beyond cheap given their declines."

For the rest of Cramer's take on Monday's top-searched stocks, including Sony (SNE), Yahoo! (YHOO), Disney (DIS) and Petrohawk Energy (HK), check out the latest Cramer’s Take portfolio on Stockpickr.

Posted on Dec. 30, 2008