The Market Shows Its Vital Signs By Jim Cramer RealMoney.com Columnist 5/15/2008 6:38 PM EDT

Oh, man, a melt-up. A good old-fashioned melt-up into expiration. They tried to do it yesterday but lost Apple (AAPL) , MasterCard (MA) and Research In Motion (RIMM) . Today the bulls were better. They roped in the troika, plus they spun up the techs, the retailers, the financials and the fuels.

Remarkable day.

Today is another day when it is obvious, as I would have said when I was short, that "the fix is in." I used to call it "the hidden hand," meaning the buyers who just came in to wreck all of my marvelous shorts. We can blame it all on expiration or we can admit that the buyers are coming back because some positives are getting done.

Good things are happening. Deals are closing. Takeovers are occurring. Bond deals are working. Bankruptcies are being avoided. And the press is negative just when it should be positive. There was this story today in the Financial Times about how the Clear Channel (CCU) closing was bad for deals. Huh? That deals will now be tougher to do.

That's the exact wrong takeaway. Totally wrong. The fact that the deal got done at all is what matters.

And it is real done.

Most of the financial negatives over the last few months revolved around deals not be able to close or around housing. We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in housing -- I really believe that -- and I believe that Washington's meddling is actually going to be positive this time around. (I am still a skeptic about the $600, but the retail buyers aren't!) It's not all good, obviously.

Nordstrom (JWN) and Kohl's (KSS) miss after the bell. Oil's too high. Etc.

But things are better out there. This is what happens when things are better.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in stocks mentioned.

RELATED STORIES
I'd Hold Off on Retail
Let Wind Propel You to 'Beat the Street' Victory
Icahn's a Pro, Yang's an Amateur

Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. To order Cramer's newest book -- "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)," click here. Click here to order "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get "You Got Screwed!" and click here for Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he appreciates your feedback and invites you to send comments by clicking here.

TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Amazon.com under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Amazon.com purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.

Read our conflicts and disclosure policy.