Cramer: Weak earnings led to dud 1Q

With only two days left in the first quarter of 2015, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Monday that the quarter was poor mainly because of one factor: poor earnings.

"We came in with such optimism, and the earnings really hurt us. A lot of that is the strong dollar, but the earnings have been … disappointing. I think the averages have really reflected that," Cramer said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

U.S. equities snapped a four-day losing streak on Friday as they closed slightly higher. Stocks looked to capitalize on that as during Monday's trading session as the Dow Jones industrial average opened about 190 points up, or about 1 percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite also opened nearly 1 percent higher.

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The dollar also traded about 0.3 percent higher against the euro at $1.085, while the dollar index was up nearly 0.5 percent at 97.73.

Nevertheless, poor earnings was not the only factor that drove down the market this quarter. "The M&A market really never impacted," Cramer added. "I mean, Kraft does a deal and [there are] not a lot of tailwinds. IPOs were really non-existent this quarter. This was a dud quarter in a lot of ways."

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On Wednesday, Kraft announced it would merge with H.J. Heinz, thus creating one of the five largest food companies in the world. The company's stock has risen about 9 percent since the announcement, according to FactSet. Click here to see where the stock is trading now.

DISCLOSURE: Cramer's trust did not own Kraft stock when this article was published.