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"The Bears Are Running Out of Ammo"

By Jim Cramer
RealMoney Columnist
2/3/2010 10:22 AM EST

"We've got 24 hours of canard destruction -- remarkable destruction. I don't even know where to begin, but so many reports have come out in this time frame that I am beginning to think we have an out-of-control set of positives out of nowhere.

First, wasn't media -- all media -- supposed to be dead? Time Warner (TWX - commentary - Trade Now) and News Corp. (NWS.a - commentary - Trade Now) just reported two of the best numbers I have seen this period. Time Warner's dividend boost? Come on ... remarkable. News Corp. is just a case of superior content, superior assets and soon-to-be superior movies. New York Times (NYT - commentary - Trade Now) stock, written off for dead, is an S&P leader today. These moves on top of what looks like a true bottom in Gannett (GCI - commentary - Trade Now) -- I know it's supposed to be a wasting asset, but it's one that makes a ton of money wasting! -- make me want to look at a group that I, like many others, simply threw away a couple of years ago. Conventional wisdom busted.

Cable was supposed to be slowing, signups going down. Did you see Comcast's (CMCSA - commentary - Trade Now) numbers? It is speeding up. Verizon's (VZ - commentary - Trade Now) FiOS is doing fine, too. So is DirecTV (DTV - commentary - Trade Now). How in the heck can that written-off industry be coming back?

Then commercial real estate. An article in the papers today talks about how the commercial REIT managers are lamenting that they raised so much equity money with nothing for sale. Of course, the article doesn't point out that most of these companies had to do so because of indentures. But it does raise the question, where are the defaults? Why haven't we seen them? If there is money and there are banks that have to get rid of bad loans or bad commercial mortgage securitizations, you would think that the buyers could be connected with the distressed sellers.

Don't get me started on housing. I have been saying forever that things are roaring back and that the brokers in the country are doing gangbusters business. Turns in western Florida, Nevada, California and lately New York -- yes, you read that right, New York -- are producing some truly impressive returns for all involved in real estate. That industry will soon be in boom mode, where it won't need incentives to move. That is what happens, you know.


Autos? Dead since "Cash for Clunkers"? That's what was supposed to happen. Of course, it turns out that the "Cash for Clunkers" month was the slowest in the last three months for Ford (F - commentary - Trade Now), and that's before the Toyota (TM - commentary - Trade Now) recall (which, by the way, is going to be far more crushing to Toyota than people realize ... unless they own one of the recalled cars, as I do.)

Finally, let's face it: Banking's on the move, and the knock that regional banks are the real weakness in the system is just plain wrong. The regional bank reports were the best of this period, everyone from Huntington (HBAN - commentary - Trade Now) to Fifth Third (FITB - commentary - Trade Now) to Marshall & Ilsley (MI - commentary - Trade Now) to PNC (PNC - commentary - Trade Now). (Speaking of PNC, the secondary announced last night was priced in less than 24 hours. Amazing. I think the stock could be up big today.)

Anyone who watched the ridicule of Paul Volcker yesterday knows that his Financial Nostalgia Reform Act isn't dead in the water -- it was never born. Can I just be political for a second and point out that President Obama really got this one wrong and it was just total pique unbecoming of the office post-Massachusetts. I don't think a single one of the president's close advisers was for this one, knowing (as even Sen. Shelby knew) that it was the businesses that ran afoul of the Volcker rule that saved Goldman (GS - commentary - Trade Now) and JPMorgan (JPM - commentary - Trade Now) from the fates of Wachovia and Washington Mutual and Lehman and Bear.

So, take counsel of fears. But recognize that the most dangerous areas of the market coming into the 2010 period -- the perceived dangers -- have disappeared.

And it is only February.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. "

(in www.realmoney.com)