The sell-off on Wednesday was absolutely hideous, but in Jim Cramer’s opinion — it wasn’t bad enough.
“It’s not panic; it’s methodical. It’s not nuts; it’s algorithmic. It’s not erratic; it’s actually in sync with the rest of the world,” the “Mad Money” host said.
As of Wednesday’s market close, the S&P 500 was down 9 percent for the year. At one point during the day it was down 12 percent, which was painful for many investors.
“All that decline means is that our stock market is pretty much in line with many of the other markets around the globe,” Cramer explained.(Tweet This)
“We can’t get a washout, the whoosh we need to banish the weaker hands and have all the selling dry up until we go lower.”
Money managers are global in nature and make decisions based on the value of stocks in entire countries and continents. Given that the average stock in the S&P trades at 16.3 times earnings, the U.S. is more expensive than other countries. Therefore, it made sense to Cramer that the U.S. stock market would be down so much.
Every other country in the world right now is in crisis mode and has banks and politicians trying to stimulate the economy. Meanwhile, theFederal Reserve is busy trying to figure out how to slow down the U.S. economy.
Read more from Mad Money with Jim Cramer
Cramer Remix: Is Netflix stock still binge-worthy?
Cramer: Charts showing a huge S&P correction could becoming
Cramer: Your only hope for this treacherous market
The German stock market is down 12 percent for the year, and Cramer thinks it might be better off than the U.S. right now because Europe is easing, and Germany’s numbers are looking good.
Therefore every macro-oriented money manager is probably shorting the U.S. stock market and going long for a country like Germany.
“That’s the logical thing to do,” Cramer said.
The S&P also bounced from key levels of support on Wednesday, especially around 1,830. Sure enough, the buyers came in.
“I wish they hadn’t. We can’t get a washout, the whoosh we need to banish the weaker hands and have all the selling dry up until we go lower,” Cramer said.
Ultimately, stocks in the U.S. aren’t cheap enough, so, they are stuck in no-man’s land. Cramer thinks this market needs to see some sort of a fundamental change before worldwide investors feel comfortable putting their money into the U.S. stock market.
[“source-gsmarena”]
