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Waiting for Opportunities

In this soggy market, it's best to stay sidelined with lots of cash. 
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I just sent Matt Horween, my colleague and co-conspirator on Real Money, an email when the market was down 25 points asking, "Why the heck aren't we down more given the bond selloff?"

His answer, 10 minutes later? Now we are.

So it goes. We have a soggy market and the bonds are making a run for 3%. The banks are being penalized for the slowdown that's expected in mortgages but not benefiting from a yield curve that could mint them big money.

Industrials have run a lot, but we have no new information to trade off of. Tech's a mixed picture, although it is beginning to feel a lot like the old days with only Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) going up. Retail's trying to make a stand and I think it could be a successful one given how low the group's gotten. But I think people would rather play $77 for Home Depot (HD) knowing it is good than $75.50 not knowing anything at all.

It's funny, Stephanie Link, co-manager of the Action Alerts PLUS trust, and I keep going back and forth looking for stocks to buy. This is something you should be doing since the Dow Jones Industrial Average has moved down for four straight days, but so few stocks jump out at us. It's been water torture. Unless you get a big break nothing seems to jump out -- and the big breaks come because something's very wrong.

So, we stay sidelined with lots of cash. Wait for opportunities, like the oils, which have been coming down, but not down big enough, or the financials where the logic is exactly the same. 

Action Alerts PLUS,  which Cramer co-manages as a charitable trust, is long AAPL.