Yes, the market has bottomed-Jim Cramer

It smells to me like something, in fact many things,” he said, “have at last changed for the better.”

“I am indeed sticking my neck out right here, right now,” Cramer continued, “declaring emphatically that I believe the market will not revisit the panicked lows it hit on July 15. and I think anyone out there who’s waiting for that low to be breached is in for a big disappointment and [they’re] missing a great deal of upside.”

Cramer pointed to five specific clues that proved to him that the market was about to turn up.
One is that the negativity is so bad we might be at the point of total capitulation. The investors Intelligence Survey reported a 30% bull-50% bear ratio. Fifty percent bearish! Who’s left to sell? That kind of despair and disbelief has historically been a sign, Cramer said, that the darkest part of night was ending and dawn was near.

Then there was the power move by Merrill Lynch,whose newly issued stock is up more than 10% from its offering price. Merrill showed the rest of the banks that they, too, can unload all that bad paper, the CDOs, and cut a deal with the bond issuers to repair a much-damaged, and very important, business relationship.

Also, plenty of couples have proved through recent earnings reports that they’ve been able to handle the commodity inflation that plagued the market for so long.How’d they do it? Price increases. And now that raw costs have come down, Cramer’s expecting a load of upside surprises because those price increases will stay put. (Cramer said the decline in gold just serves to verify the commodities crash.)

The last piece of the puzzle is the housing bailout President Bush signed into law this morning.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced it will continue to protect 19 banks in danger of having massive hedge funds short sell them into the ground. This is key because, as Cramer said, it’s this protection that allowed for the Merrill deals to happen. Now other banks are safe to proceed with their own deals, and the market rally can continue.

"My bottom call isn’t gutsy,” Cramer said. “I think it’s just a smart call that all the evidence points toward.”

“Bye, bye bear market,” he said. “Say hello to the bull and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
-CNBC