With the bulls concerned that the market rally may not be broad enough, Jim Cramer was delighted to see a number of signs today that told him that was not truly the case.
"A lot of investors have been worried that this market was too narrow, that it didn't have what we call the breadth, the breadth needed for a sustained advancee," the "Mad Money" host said. "But today's rally was about as broad-based as we've seen all year, so it's got to be a tad disconcerting to the bears who are betting we are on the verge of a sharp downturn because of a previous lack of upside participation."
After railing against the Dow Transports and categorizing their declines as a sign of overall weakness, Cramer noticed some performing better than expected on Thursday, including the stocks of FedEx and UPS.
"Today, the transports gave us exactly what the bulls want from this all-important group," Cramer said. "Now, we did hear a lot of activist chatter when it came to the long-faltering UPS ... but it was the dramatic move in FedEx, up more than 4 points, that made me feel like we shouldn't give up on commerce in this country, at least not yet."
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The railroad, trucking, and freight sectors saw assorted winners as well, a signal that the transports may be gearing up for a market that is full speed ahead.
Retail stocks also came to support the rally, with Dollar General delivering a much better-than-expected earnings report that sent the stock soaring. Cramer noticed the action in Dollar General's shares pulled Dollar Tree shares up with it, despite Dollar Tree's earnings miss.
Home Depot's stock also turned up after a slight post-earnings decline, pulling Lowe's stock up with it.
"I'd be a buyer of Home Depot right here, right now," the "Mad Money" host said. "It probably shouldn't have even been down in the first place."
Meanwhile, shares of department store Kohl's and bargain outlet Ollie's jumped 2.3 percent and over 6 percent respectively, signaling that brick-and-mortar stores may not be crumbling just yet.
And some of technology's biggest names took a breath, allowing lesser-known tech players to come to the fore.
One example was unsung Cramer-fave Box, a cloud content management play that reported a stellar quarter and saw its stock run up nearly 10 percent.
"That's deserving for this cloud content management platform, although that rubric really sells the company short," Cramer said. "Still, I like the irony of the short-selling analogy, because there's a huge cohort of bears who have completely shorted this stock all the way up. They didn't understand [its] ability to generate 30 percent growth."
Networking equipment company Ciena also saw an over 15 percent rally in its stock, a sign that spending in that space may be on the rise.
"Isn't that a nice break from the endless leadership of the high-flying NVIDIA, which finally saw its stock do nothing today?" Cramer noted, adding that Palo Alto Networks' over-17-percent run showed the cybersecurity name is finally "back in the winner's cycle."
Along with a number of other daily winners in the food, construction and biotechnology sectors, Cramer also tracked the rally in the casino stocks, Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, and MGM Resorts, which posted the best numbers out of Macau in three years.
"Now that the People's Republic of China has eased up on high-rolling gamblers, it was only a matter of time before these stocks returned to form," Cramer said. "I like them all. I prefer Wynn, but MGM's good for low risk because of the growth it's got in Vegas."
Overall, the market seemed to pick itself up on Thursday as its leaders stepped aside and exposed underlying strength in what were once some of the most worrisome segments.
"The rap against this market was that it was all FANG all the time, with a smattering of cloud and some Tesla. Today, the rally got broader, much broader, and that has to make you feel a little more confident that stocks can keep going higher, even after this year's first five months of positive returns" Cramer concluded.
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