5 Stocks Powering This Market Higher

When the Dow soars 149 points and the S&P 500 ticks up 1.4%, there are always “generals” behind the move. These are the companies that drive the stock army higher, Cramer said Wednesday, “and we like the market much more when the right generals are leading the charge.”

The industrials definitely played the role of general in today’s action, as that group shot past the lows they saw before last week’s 1,000-point collapse in the Dow. But there also were five other “stratospheric growth stocks” responsible for the gains we saw: Apple, Deckers Outdoor, Salesforce.com, Intuitive Surgical and Chipotle. Cramer called them “Marine generals” because they are “swift, quick-punching forces” that blaze a path for others to follow.

“When you get these stocks really running,” Cramer said, “they’re a clarion call to all sorts of growth equities that often hold the key to bringing huge new money into this market.”

Basically, these companies have the solid fundamentals and secular growth stories needed to bring cash in off the sidelines. And if they take out their highs, the rest of their cohort should, too.

Granted, AAPL, DECK, CRM, ISRG and CMG aren’t all buys right now – like Intuitive Surgical, with its high price-to-earnings multiple – but they are “fabulous barometers of the market’s health.”

“And right now it’s in great shape according to these swift Marine generals,” Cramer said.

Watch the video for Cramer’s full report on these five companies.

Cramer’s charitable trust owns Apple.

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