Cramer on market plunge: Coronavirus impact on companies could be 'more severe than thought'

• The global stock market sell-off on the widening outbreak of coronavirus beyond China indicates further negative effects on U.S. multinational companies' earnings, CNBC's Jim Cramer said.
• Cramer tweeted just before 5 a.m. Monday ET that he wanted to "deal with the facts" and not engage in speculation.
• "If you call it an overreaction and it gets worse, you are a fool, if you say it's only going to get worse then you are a fear-monger," he said on Twitter. "We have lost containment. Now we need to slow it."

Jim Cramer on CNBC's Halftime Report.

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

The global stock market sell-off on the widening outbreak of coronavirus beyond China indicates further negative effects on U.S. multinational companies' earnings, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Monday.

With U.S. stock futures pointing to a more than 800-point decline at Monday's open for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Cramer tweeted just before 5 a.m. ET that he wanted to "deal with the facts" and not engage in speculation.

Jimmy Chill knows if you call it an overreaction and it gets worse, you are a fool, if you say it's only going to get worse then you are a fear-monger. So let's just deal with the facts. We have lost containment. Now we need to slow it.

Later in the premarket, the Dow regained some of the lost ground.

Coronavirus cases spiked in Italy as the euro zone's third-largest economy grapples with the largest outbreak outside of Asia: more than 150 reported cases and four deaths.

South Korea's cases climbed to more than 830, with seven deaths.

Global confirmed cases rose to nearly 79,500 with over 2,600 deaths — still with the vast majority of cases and deaths in China where the COVID-19 virus originated.

Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money," said the global nature of the outbreak makes it tougher to address.

Cure, Not yet.. Prevention...not yet... But death rate lower than the media wants to make out. However, the commercial effects—my job—could be more severe than thought...

We will get through this.. I know I have been very negative about many stocks.. I still can't be that positive given that we have been very successful keeping travelers from China out of the U.S. but now many other countries have COVID-19.

On Friday, Cramer was already warning that the market was not taking the coronavirus seriously enough as major U.S. companies including Apple, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble sounded the alarm about dents in profits down the road.

"The virus is totally underrated," Cramer said at the end of last week.

"What I think is a little too premature is they all presume that it is going to be solved within a foreseeable time frame," he said Friday. "At what point do we say that many, many companies are going to be hurt by the virus [and] we're paying too much for stocks?"

Intensifying outbreak concerns sent the Dow down 227 points or 0.8% on Friday, breaking a two-week winning streak.

Cramer also tweeted about Warren Buffett's comments on CNBC on Monday morning. The billionaire Berkshire Hathaway chief said he sees Monday's market slide as a buying opportunity because he looks at a long time horizon.

I think that Warren will be right, of course, because it is pretty hard to be wrong when you can outlast any decline... You can always wait.. It is not a sin to wait...

Earnings warnings mean nothing to Warren and that's terrific. I think his view can't be wrong... Ever. That's fine.. he's been right. He will be right. But maybe cash will give you a better entry.