Jim Cramer credits strong earnings from Tesla and United Rentals for helping lift the market

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said that Thursday’s rally is thanks to a batch of strong company earnings.

“I’ve said over and over again that during earnings season, what matters is companies and the CEOs with the smarts to direct them,” he said.

Stocks rose on Thursday as investors digested the latest batch of earnings and new gross domestic product data showing the U.S. economy grew by a higher-than-expected 2.9% in the fourth quarter.

Cramer said that contrary to what many might believe, the economic data didn’t drive the trading session’s rallies.

“That’s a classic misdirection play — just totally wrong. It’s stale. It doesn’t count. We’re in earnings season, for heaven’s sake,” he said, adding, “Stocks did well today because many of them delivered good numbers.”

He went over several examples of corporate news and earnings reports that fueled Thursday’s gains:

“It’s very confusing if you’re on permanent negative autopilot because you only pay attention to the [Federal Reserve]. If you watched the individual companies, these moves would be a lot less surprising,” Cramer said.