9AM Hour: Memory Chips Rally, Anthropic's AI Boost, Trump's Message on Iran War and Gas Prices 8/17/26

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

How do you turn your strategy into action and action into impact? Bold leaders do it through transformative strategy and transactions, ones that work in practice, not just on paper. At EY Parthenon, we use an investor mindset to help you create value. How?

By combining deep sector experience with AI powered technology, so you can reimagine your business for tomorrow while building it today. Shape your future with EY Parthenon. Learn more today.

SPEAKER_2 (0:30)

Trading at Schwab is now powered by Ameritrade, bringing you an expanding library of education with even more ways to sharpen your trading skills. Access new online courses, insightful webcasts, articles, engaging videos, and more. All curated just for traders. Plus, guided learning paths with content designed to fit your unique interests, and no sifting to find exactly what you need, so you can spend your time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more at schwab.com/trading.

Carl Quintanilla (0:57)

Market moving insight and analysis. Join Jim Cramer, David Faber and me, Carl Quintanilla, on the opening bell hour of CNBC Squawk on the Street.

Good Monday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. David Faber has the morning off. Bulls coming off three weeks of gains, but we are braced for another pivotal week of earnings. Audit Walmart and Home Depot, among others, yields new cycle highs today, 10-year 471, long bond near 5-3. Brent Oil still close to 90 as that MOU between the US and Iran expires today, and the president threatens to bomb Oman. A roadmap begins with Sandisk and Micron though helping to lift the tech sector. According to the Journal, the Commerce Secretary urging Apple not to buy some of those Chinese memory chips as it prepares for an IPO. Anthropic reportedly posting quarterly revenue up 14 fold from a year ago. And of course, the Iran war, gas prices in focus, the president urging Americans to accept paying $4 a gallon at the pump.

Let's begin though with the markets. Techs on track for a positive start at the Open Gym as August has taken off with the tear as we know.

Jim Cramer (2:10)

Right, at the same time, you got it brody today, you saw that bonds were actually tamed. And then this Oman interview, Fox, and next thing you know, interest rates are even higher.

It's very hard I think to climb with interest rates higher, even if we're looking at Anthropic, even if we're looking at Sandisk. It's just difficult because in the end, interest rates disrupt everything.

Carl Quintanilla (2:36)

I know, and ads coming after a tepid CPI, Tame PPI, a jobs number that was negative, and the worst retail sales since 2005

Jim Cramer (2:47)

At the same time, though, we know that the government certainly had a bit of a hold there in terms of what it needed to raise, and I just get the sense that there's this overall recognition that there's so much to borrow that it's overwhelming the markets. It's finally happening, and I don't feel like that we should ignore it. I mean, people ignored it on Friday, and suddenly there was this big turn, and it's like, well, aren't people, do people not see this happening? I mean, like, we, I saw this happen in 1996 and seven, and it's like, who cares, who cares? And then one day they care.

Carl Quintanilla (3:20)

That's usually how it works, and we should always point out it's not just a US phenomenon. Japan today, their 10 year, that's a four decade high. France, similar situation, Jim.

I mean, this is sort of the interesting conversation at the moment, that what is credit seeing that equities are not, if you know what I mean? You look at some spreads of CCC borrowers, for example, kind of blowing out.

Jim Cramer (3:43)

Right, and I know that the private credit, once again, FT, I mean, I find these articles kind of like, you know, DA probes, rackets or something. So you can constantly see them, and they're almost evergreen. But I come back and just saying, we just have so, I mean, look at the piece, the pyramid piece about the borrowing, the pyramid piece, I love that.

Carl Quintanilla (4:02)

I think we actually built the graphic for the viewer.

Jim Cramer (4:04)

I remember the guy charges you right here, and then there's another guy, and you think that they're all official.

Carl Quintanilla (4:09)

This is in the journal today, and the argument is that the actual amount of sort of declared AI spend is much larger. It doesn't account for, and this is by the way, this chart does not include Oracle or SpaceX.