Jim Cramer Sounds Optimistic Note Amid Brutal Economic Numbers: We May Have Hit ‘Peak Inflation’

Despite grim economic numbers out Tuesday, CNBC’s Jim Cramer believes the worst of the slump might be over.

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Cramer believes that the rise in the Dow Jones index after the release of the March inflation number — up 8.5 percent year-over-year, the highest one-month number since 1981 — indicates that Wall Street thinks the U.S. economy has weathered the storm.

“Overall, I think people are going to start making – and the market’s making a case – that this is the last bad number,” Cramer said.

Though he pointed out numbers in several sectors and stated that “things are still very inflated,” the CNBC analyst also noted that used car prices and average hourly wages are down — which he believes is a sign that lower prices in other areas are likely to follow.

“The market’s telling you what it thinks,” Cramer said. “Which is, maybe this is peak.”

He added, “Freight is going in the right direction, used car going in the right direction. You don’t have food going in the right direction yet. Hourly wages may be peaking. You have mortgages obviously making a slow down … I can make a strong case we may have peak inflation in a lot of different areas.”

Watch above, via CNBC.