Financial and industrial companies should become investors' best bets in 2014 as the country's employment picture brightens, CNBC's Jim Cramer said on Thursday.
"The interesting story of the fourth quarter will be the interesting story of the first quarter," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." "There are not enough quality industrials or shares of industrials around."
Cramer named companies such as 3M, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific Corp. and FedEx as stocks with momentum as the markets try to roll over a banner year into 2014. Cramer said chemical company DuPont represented a "Teflon" stock. He added that banks have "plenty of stock left."
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"This is extraordinary," Cramer said. "This is where people want to be."
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Another "must watch" is Apple, which was downgraded Thursday by Wells Fargo to "market perform" from "outperform" because of valuation concerns and potential margin pressure when the tech company releases a new iPhone this year.
Cramer said he still considers Apple a buy.
(Read more: Top 3 tech stock picks for 2014: Pro)
"What's interesting about this downgrade is it's filled with positives," Cramer said. "It talked about how the new watch is coming out. They have a lot of new products. Holidays appear to be strong. They had a great quarter."
Cramer added: "A lot of people got Apple confused and they upgraded and downgraded wrong. Stay close to the facts. They had a great Christmas."
Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Apple and Bank of America.
—By CNBC's Jeff Morganteen. Follow him on Twitter at @jmorganteen and get the latest stories from "Squawk on the Street."
