How in the world can Jim Cramer make sense of the resilience he is seeing in the market?
At times like this, the market reminds Cramer of a game of football. The National Football League uses a term called "next man up" when they expect a player to go down from injury, so they put another player in the line-up to get things going again.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is chalk full of man-up situations, especially on Thursday.
First man up? Wal-Mart. Many have written off this company as a stuffy old chain that is behind the times. But investors rallied behind the company Thursday following its earnings beat, which showed CEO Doug McMillon didn't see a stuffy chain store, sending it 4 percent higher.
J.C. Penney has made a valiant turnaround effort, but is the stock worth buying at its $7 share price?
Jim Cramer knows that J.C. Penney is really are trying, but would a $61 Macy's make more sense?
Investors find J.C. Penney attractive, simply because it is $7 and they think they cannot lose at that price. CEO Mike Ullman is still trying to clean up the mess of previous management by rebuilding customer trust through the introduction of inexpensive private label brands and by focusing on building morale.
It's a good try, but without a dedicated technology strategy Penney just cannot compete in the same playing field as a Macy's.
Cramer thinks investors should stop waiting on J C Penney to make some sort of big transformation. They are better served waiting for Macy's to come down a bit, and then riding that stock all the way into the holiday glory days.
Read MoreCramer: JC Penney vs. Macy's throwdown
What do you do when you're looking for a stock bargain, and you're not sure where to start? Jim Cramer has a few tricks up his sleeve.
"If a company shows you that it believes its own stock is cheap, then that can be a pretty good indicator that it might be worth buying," said the "Mad Money" host.
One word: buybacks. This really puts a company to the test and makes them put their money where their mouth is. Sometimes just buying a stock because you know the company will be right alongside you gobbling it up is enough of an indicator that it is worth owning.
One more example of a stock that holds its own is long-time Cramer fave, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. This company has recently gone through a wholesale rebranding and major modeling efforts for its chain of 2,315 chicken restaurants. And boy is it paying off.
On Wednesday, the company reported a 1-cent earnings beat from a 41 cent basis,and same store sales up 7.3 percent. Management raised its full year earnings and same store sales forecasts, which sent the stock rising 7 percent on Thursday.
Cramer spoke with Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen CEO Cheryl Bachelder to find out if it can continue rising, and take share from the high end restaurants as well.
"Recently I was in New York City eating at a very fancy restaurant with fried chicken and champagne. And the woman at the table next to me said 'Don't you think Popeyes is better than this?' and I just laughed. Our chicken is so good, it stands up to the finest dining table. And that is what our guests love about it," said Bachelder.
Resilient stocks continued to resonate with the "Mad Money" host in the Lightning Round:
Autodesk: "It had a great quarter, and I feel like we missed it, frankly. I was waiting for a pullback, but it was a really really good quarter. I liked it."
Chicago Bridge & Iron: "There was a slam job that was done, and I didn't really appreciate it. But the problem is that this is deeply linked with the West Texas and Brent oil and as that complex goes down the stock will go down too."
Read More Lightning Round: Autodesk, Ariad Pharma and more
Sometimes when a stock has been struggling, Cramer thinks it is a good idea to circle back and see if there could be a good entry point. FleetMatics Group was recently downgraded by Bank of America, and sent the stock tumbling almost five percent on Thursday.
Cramer sat down with FleetMatics CEO, Jim Travers, to find out if this stocks resilience could have it bounce back into action. FleetMatics is the cloud based software platform, mainly helping customers improve efficiency of fleet vehicle routes. A customers savings could be up to ten times the amount of the subscription over the long term.
Could the challenges in the local environment pull the stock back down, or will business pick back up with the lower price of gasoline?
"There are a number of significant things that we see as barriers. First of all the value of the data that we are collecting, we now have over 523,00 subscribers, and we are collecting this data real time. So the real value of what we are providing that customer, is the historical information about what is trending about what is happening with that asset that mobile worker over time. As we build the scale of our data base and that knowledge, it's a unique advantage back through our system to give that customer insight that a small business that is just starting up that is trying to compete with us does not own," said Travers.