GoKawiilDespite a growing list of reasons to worry about the market, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Wednesday that he still sees enough reasons to remain optimistic.
"Long-term, it really doesn't pay to be bearish.," the "Mad Money" host said, noting the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed from 853 on Sept. 9, 1981, to above 52,000 today.
Cramer, however, did acknowledge that the risks are mounting with higher oil prices beginning to weigh on consumer spending. "The Street was quick to send down anything retail, anything that's sold in retail and anything else discretionary, like monthly cable bills from Comcast, were crushed. Staples and plain old food stocks got hammered. Home goods, hardware smashed," he explained. Comcast shares lost 6.6% on Wednesday. Procter & Gamble and General Mills lost 2% and nearly 1.6%, respectively, while Stanley Black & Decker lost nearly 2.3%.
The Dow lost nearly 0.8% — a bigger percentage drop than the S&P 500 's 0.5% decline and the Nasdaq 's drop of just over 0.6%. All three stock benchmarks extended their losing streaks to three in a row.
Still, Cramer pointed to three reasons he's not ready to bet against the market: strength in AI stocks, resilience in the banks and the possibility that high oil prices could eventually ease.
Cramer said the AI trade continues to hold up. Data center stocks, particularly semiconductors, rallied Wednesday despite broader market weakness, showing that many of this year's biggest market leaders remain intact.
Bank stocks were also strong. Cramer called their resilience "a little counterintuitive," but said it suggests higher energy costs have not yet significantly damaged Americans' savings or the broader economy.
Cramer said the market's biggest headwind could ease if mounting economic pressure leads to another shift in the outlook for the Iran conflict. He pointed to late July, when Brent crude Donald Trump paused U.S. airstrikes to give peace talks "some space." Crude subsequently fell, helping relieve pressure on stocks.
That doesn't mean Cramer is dismissing the risks from higher oil. He warned that sustained prices above $100 per barrel could increasingly pressure consumers and the service economy. But he's not willing to turn those concerns into a broader bearish call.
"Just when you get too negative, like we did in the last week of July, the narrative changes, typically for the better," Cramer said. "Historically, it pays to figure out how things could go right, because more often than not, that's how it plays out."