Stop Trading!: When Safety Stocks Aren't Safe

Traditional safety stocks don't work in this environment, Cramer said during Friday’s Stop Trading!.

The typical investing strategy on a day when the Dow’s plummeted 337 points is to buy food and beverage or personal-goods stocks. But record oil prices of almost $139 a barrel have forced Wall Street to reconsider that approach. Companies like Clorox , Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble – normally safe harbors during a market storm – are seeing much higher raw costs because their products are either made of or are wrapped in materials that are largely made of oil or petroleum.

“The natural place to hide has been taken away,” Cramer said.

Even Pepsico, which has done its best to move from soda to snack food, is suffering cost increases because of the pressure ethanol is putting on food prices. The only food company up today, General Mills, is barely off its high, making it a less attractive buy.

Don’t think record oil means it’s too late to buy oil stocks, though. No one wants to be the last person to the party, but analysts haven’t even started raising estimates on companies like Nabors and Halliburton. And as Cramer said, “You don't sell until they start raising numbers.”

Recently IPO’d Intrepid Potash hit a 52-week high today, and “I want to buy it still,” Cramer said. “I think IPI's about to rip.”

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