The stock market certainly feels better to Jim Cramer, but the question still remained if it is actually better. To determine the progress, he turned to the market-bottom checklist created back in January to determine if this market really has what it takes to provide a sustainable rally.
No. 1 The Fed must provide clarity on where it stands for rate hikes. Based on the recent commentary from James Bullard and Bill Dudley, Cramer will check this one off, as long as there isn't a strong employment number Friday.
No. 2 Political uncertainty must be resolved. Barring something extreme, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump appear to be the leaders. That means investors can now resume preparing their portfolios for either eventuality, which means a this box is checked.
No. 3 China must get better. It's actually gotten worse, but the Baltic freight index as gone higher and there is a big meeting in China this weekend with an expected stimulus. This one is a half-check.
No. 4 Commodities must bottom. With copper leading the rally in commodities, Cramer is feeling more confident. Check.
No. 5 Oil must stop going down. Oil stocks have stabilized and even with a large increase in inventory on Wednesday, oil still went higher. Check.
Though the list continued down to No. 14, Cramer felt confident with the progress made in the past few weeks.
"You are never going to have all the planets align at once. But there are enough checks and half-checks for me to say that it makes sense to buy the dips in this market," Cramer said.
As for the rips, Cramer recommended not to sell them because they could be real.
Read More Cramer: Safe to buy the market dips again
Honeywell International (NYSE: HON) on Tuesday dropped its merger bid for United Technologies (NYSE: UTX). Now Honeywell CEO David Cote says his firm will walk away without going hostile.
"I can say that at $108, this is already an incredible deal, or, I should say, was an incredible deal," Cote told Cramer on Wednesday. "... There was a lot of value there already, but if they don't want to do it they don't want to do it."
Cote also said that, had the deal been successful, he would have considered serving as CEO of the combined company.
"It seemed to me that just reputation wise, investors would feel more comfortable if I was doing that," he said. "And I said I would be willing to do that, even though I'm 63 and a half."
United Technologies did not immediately return a call for comment.