2025 Bank M&A Outlook, Earnings Leaders: Tech & Health 12/27/24

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Jim Cramer (0:59)

It's Jim Cramer here. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC Squawk on the Street. Don't miss a minute of the action.

Sara Eisen (1:07)

Good Friday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I am Sarah Eisen with Brian Sullivan here at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Carl, Jim and David, all have the morning off. Take a look at futures this morning. As Andrew just noted, headed for a lower start on this final trading day of the week. Dow futures down almost 200, NASDAQ futures down 110 But we're still looking at really nice gains for the week. Talking about more than 1% gains, actually 1.8 for the S&P 500 going into today. NASDAQ up more than 2% for the week. Treasuries kind of mixed. We saw some buying earlier. It looks like that's reversing. Our roadmap begins with renewed geopolitical risks for stocks, South Korea and German political turmoil, plus rising tariff and trade concerns. We're going to break down what investors need to know ahead of these final trading days of 2024

Brian Sullivan (1:53)

All that ahead, plus Netflix setting some new streaming records for its NFL Christmas double header. Beyonce, to your point, Sarah.

Sara Eisen (2:01)

Yes.

Brian Sullivan (2:01)

I think driving a lot of the viewership, we're going to give you those numbers ahead. Shares of Netflix down a little bit ahead of the open. Open AI laying out its for-profit plan, saying it, quote, needs more capital than imagined, which is interesting because I can imagine a lot of capital.

Sara Eisen (2:19)

Turns out it's expensive to make AI. Turning to the markets, though, the 10-year yield holding just above 4.6% this morning with the S&P and the NASDAQ on pace for another week in the green, as mentioned, we are barely positive for the month of December, at least if you look at the S&P, but for the NASDAQ, we're up more than 4%, which speaks to the divergence and the continued leadership by MegaCap Tech. Brian, what I think is interesting this morning is the turmoil overseas. I mean, there's news there on the political field.

Brian Sullivan (2:49)

I know, but, and it says Anchor's Chat, so let's chat. I think it's good for America.

Sara Eisen (2:54)

That's what you do.

Brian Sullivan (2:55)

No, I think it's good for the United States and something we've talked about before. Listen, Germany was the fourth biggest economy in the world. It was the heart and soul of the industrial Europe. It's had its struggles. I've talked about that for three plus years. South Korea, okay, a lot of semiconductors, a lot of big ships, LNG ships. But I wonder if all this turmoil, in the, you know, sophisticated capital markets of the world, sends money here.

Sara Eisen (3:21)

100%.

Brian Sullivan (3:22)

And benefits the United States.

Sara Eisen (3:23)

That's been one of the stories of the year. In fact, so here's some of the headlines, just to run you through what's happening. South Korean lawmakers impeached the acting president.

Brian Sullivan (3:32)

Why would anybody want to be president of South Korea, by the way? They all end up in jail, missing or worse.

Sara Eisen (3:38)

I'm not sure about that. Well, what happened was.

Brian Sullivan (3:39)

The last seven or eight.

Sara Eisen (3:40)

The last president, remember, had that short-lived martial law order, plunge the country into political turmoil. There was an acting president here, not able to fulfill parliament, and so now he's out, and now the deputy prime minister and finance minister is going to be acting. It's a mess. You can see it in the South Korean stock market. You can see it in the South Korean won, the currency. And then in Germany, too, some similar sort of unfamiliar chaos when it comes to Germany on the political front. And so the president has dissolved parliament there, called for a snap election on February 23rd. After Olaf Schultz, the prime minister lost a confidence vote there.