Investors were spooked on Wednesday as bleak broad-based corporate outlooks and dismal employment data dominated headlines. Stocks experienced their largest drop in more than a month, with the Dow finishing down 245 points.

So what happened?

First, three huge companies in three different sectors all announced profit warnings. Intel (INTC), the world's largest chipmaker, lowered its fourth-quarter estimates for the second time, citing waning consumer demand. Alcoa (AA), the Pittsburgh-based aluminum giant, announced plans to cut more than 15,000 jobs and cut output by 18%. And media company Time Warner (TWX) said it anticipates a loss for the year.

Meanwhile, ADP, a private employment service, reported that the U.S. private sector shed almost 700,000 jobs in December, far more than estimated.

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

These stocks could be in the news for a number of reasons. Some require immediate attention while 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 the impact of oil on the market:

"The buyers haven't cared about the fundamentals to date. Not one bit. But the bad news is right in our faces today with the two areas that have been red hot: basic materials and tech. The reverberations from Alcoa and Intel are stressing things.

"Yet, amazingly, I don't expect it to matter all that much. The money inflows and the 'I told you so' factor is really with us.

"In fact, I believe that the oil decline is more important for the "feel" of the market than Intel and Alcoa.

"I want to emphasize, as I did on last night's show, that China, not the U.S., is the place to be for leverage. Intel's got some China exposure and Alcoa's been backing away from China. I also mentioned that Alcoa remains the worst-run mineral company in the world.

"All that said, I expect the rotation, which Exxon (XOM) told you was out of gas yesterday, will return the bias to the soft goods.

"Meanwhile, the small-caps will outperform first, in part because they were slaughtered last year, just slaughtered, and they remain the rebound candidates once the smoke clears, except the ones in tech, which are typically Intel derivatives in the end.


"Random musings: Please, please take still more Monsanto (MON) off. I want you to be playing only with the house's money at this point. This was my first options trading call in ages and I hope you did it. ... Doug Kass' Madoff call on the Russian angle? Incredible. I don't know how he does these surprises. If you haven't scrutinized them yet, what are you thinking?"

For more of what Cramer's had to say about Wednesday's top-searched stocks, including Wells Fargo (WFC), Goodyear Tire (GT), Hartford Financial (HIG) and Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS), check out the Cramer's Take portfolio on Stockpickr.

Posted on Jan. 7, 2009