Jim Cramer urges patience before buying stocks this week. Here’s why

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said investors shouldn’t read too much into Monday’s stock moves, suggesting more important information to guide strategy will come later in the week.

“What should matter to you is how individual companies are doing, and today we had nothing that smacks of actual fact about what stocks are going to do,” Cramer said. “When we get earnings, as we do later this week, oh boy, then we’ll have some reason to break the moronic bond-to-stock linkage that frankly has plagued us for many, many months.”

Cramer suggested that bond yields pulled back from their highs because of prominent hedge fund manager Bill Ackerman’s Monday post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Ackerman revealed on the site he had covered his bet against long-term Treasurys, citing geopolitical risks such as the Israel-Hamas war. He also asserted that “the economy is slowing faster than recent data suggests.”

To Cramer, this kind of move is not something investors should hedge their bets on. He noted that certain travel and leisure stocks — such as Airbnb and Carnival — managed to rally today, which isn’t typical for a weakened economy also influenced by war.

Cramer recommended investors focus on their stocks’ earnings reports and whether they can perform well when interest rates are high and there’s tension in the Middle East.

“That gauntlet is very challenging; it requires either incredible conviction, or a very oversold market, or both, to make it worthwhile to start buying,” he said. “That could happen, I just don’t think we’re there, which is why I recommend something that’s quite prosaic, if not just outright boring: Perfect moment to sit on your hands.”