7-18-08

The clouds have parted -- at least momentarily. Wall Street rallied on Wednesday and closed at a three-month high. And then we had some follow-through yesterday.

Stronger-than-expected quarterly results from big names such as Wells Fargo (WFC) JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and United Technologies (UTX) offered investors some reassurance about the health of the economy. Merill Lynch (MER) also rallied hard on earnings. Results on Thursday suggest that investors had arguably been overly bleak in their assessment of the economy.

Coca-Cola’s (KO) second-quarter profits dropped 23%; however, the company attributes this to a one-time change related to its bottler. Coca-Cola’s revenue rose 17% to $9.05 billion from $7.73 billion a year earlier.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices fell for a third consecutive day on Thursday. Some are arguing that the drop can be attributed to a slowing U.S. demand. Despite the three-day slide of over $17 a barrel in floor trade, prices remain about 75% above where they were a year ago and up about 35% from the start of the year.

With this in mind, we thought we'd take a look at Thursday's most-searched stocks from TheStreet.com and see what 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.

Despite Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and even Zions (ZION) headlining the after-hours on Thursday, we thought we’d kick it off with Bank of America (BAC) and the financials.

Cramer recently wondered if the financials can hold on as evidenced in the below post to his RealMoney blog:

“Can the financials hold on? I think that's too hard, of course. I do believe that they just need to go up for a couple of days so the companies have the ability to raise cash, that's the real issue.

Many of the banks that are rallying need cash. They should be canvassing private equity to find buyers to see if someone thinks the move is for real. Some should be issuing stock right here.

Still others should use the strength to make calls to save themselves and get buyers for themselves.

This is one of those moments where the shorts are on the run. That's when these companies need to play some defense and get some buyers in.

If they don't, it will be one more lost opportunity, because with Wells Fargo you just saw the best quarter you are going to see from these banks.

One other thought for those who are short: Bank of America will declare its dividend, and that will cause more short panicking, because it is really big.

The SEC's rules plus the short squeezes are an opportunity to recapitalize right now. The banks should take it.”

For more of Cramer’s opinions on yesterday’s top-searched stocks, including Vale (RIO) and Transocean (RIG), check out the Cramer's Take on Top 10 Most-Searched Stocks portfolio at Stockpickr.com.