Falling oil prices are the key to the U.S. stock market right now, but the plunge will be irrelevant in the near-term,Jim Cramer said Monday.
"What I did was look at the last four times that oil fell 6 percent or more within a one-to-two day period, and that day is always impactful for the S&P. if you look two weeks later, there is zero impact; no correlation whatsoever," Cramer said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."
U.S. crude prices fell as much as 6.8 percent after world oil producers failed to agree on a production output freeze on Sunday. In early morning trading, WTI was down about 3.5 percent.
"Oil's trading that day is the key to that market, and then if oil goes up subsequently, the market can go up. If oil goes down, it doesn't really impact the S&P as much," Cramer said.
U.S. equities reversed losses after a lower open Monday.