Buffett Bets on Japan, Alibaba's AI Launch, Bitcoin Surpasses $30,000 4/11/23

David Faber (0:00)

Market Insight and Analysis. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

Carl Quintanilla (0:05)

Good Tuesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer. David Faber is back at post nine of the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks biting their time ahead of CPI tomorrow.

Bond yields continue to rattle around in a range. 10 year three, four got some dollar weakness. And with that Bitcoin back above 30K at 10 month high. A roadmap begins with stocks treading some water here. Investors awaiting key reads on the economy.

And New York Fed President William says he sees no signs yet of credit tightening.

David Faber (0:33)

Plus Warren Buffett is boosting his stake in Japan's big trading houses and says he may buy more.

And Alibaba, well, it is getting into the AI arms race. Perhaps no surprise there. China also slapping security reviews on AI products in the country.

Carl Quintanilla (0:50)

Let's begin with the markets ahead of tomorrow's CPI data. Jim, everybody's taking a crack at it.

JP Morgan, for one, though, sees Core up five tenths. That'd be four months of accelerating gains.

Jim Cramer (1:00)

Yeah, we don't want that. We don't want that. That would be, it would just make it so he has to raise again. I'll listen to what William said. What numbers is William's looking at? We got numbers in the last two weeks which basically says there's been a full off in loans that's rather dramatic.

I think that every bank is worried about it, a bank examiner, because the bank examiners are worried about their own jobs, because what a bad job they did in San Francisco. So David, I gotta tell ya, anything that makes it so that the credit is tighter, makes it so the pal's job's easier because you're not gonna expand and there's not gonna be as many job openings.

But there's this otherworldly group of Fed people who don't think that Silicon Valley Bank happened or they think it doesn't matter.

David Faber (1:48)

Yeah, why would they think that?

Jim Cramer (1:51)

Well, because they know nothing? I don't know. Why would they think that?

I can't get in the heads of people who are wrong.

David Faber (1:59)

Okay.

Jim Cramer (1:59)

It's very difficult for me. I just say on the Cincinnati.

David Faber (2:03)

We are gonna get bank earnings in the not too distant future as well.

Jim Cramer (2:05)

Yeah, well, I could explain some things.

David Faber (2:06)

No, it'll be interesting to see some of the commentary around that in terms of credit conditions.

Jim Cramer (2:10)

Yes.

David Faber (2:11)

From some of the bigger banks. It'll also be interesting to see from some of the other banks just how serious things were during the quarter.

Jim Cramer (2:19)

These are the regional banks that are selling now below the price journeys below the money centers. There they are right there. What do you think of that? They always sold under premium.

David Faber (2:27)

Yeah, well, I mean, we know the reasons, right? And the question will be, is it sustainable in terms of their cost of funds? And will it be up for a long period of time? And to your very point, given that there is gonna be perhaps tightening credit, are they gonna be able to actually make loans that continue to generate a significant spread for their business?

Or is it gonna be a sort of a tougher period for some period of time?

Jim Cramer (2:48)

I thought these could be hard to get credit. I mean, Carl, this expansion, the biggest problem has been wages, right?

So if you were able to just make it so that your business is cooling off, well, that's going to leave a bigger pool of employment. And so far it's been connected with Silicon Valley. But I think it's about to go mainstream.

Carl Quintanilla (3:08)

Yeah, some of these, you know, we got this NFIB data, the independent business sentiment, basically. Good time to expand.

Lowest read in 30 years if you take out one month in 9

Jim Cramer (3:20)

These numbers, I mean, like the lowest the feds ever seen and fewest loans. I mean, but they're not looking, what are they looking at? I mean, I think they're looking at that we're like still in the threes and the big employment number.

They think they want that. I guess they want more unemployment.

David Faber (3:39)

Jeez. I guess. I mean, I will say, listen, it's been a relatively quiet couple of weeks. Of course, I haven't been here.

Jim Cramer (3:46)

It was like unbelievable. It was like the inferno here when you weren't here.