Dow Hits Record High, Nvidia's Big Week, FTC vs. Kroger-Albertsons 8/26/24

David Faber (0:00)

Market Insight and Analysis. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Good Monday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm David Faber alongside Jim Cramer. We are live from Postline at the New York Stock Exchange. Carl has the morning off. And then look at that. Joe was preparing you for this moment.

Jim Cramer (0:18)

Yeah, I like that.

David Faber (0:18)

We are going to look at those futures. And you can see they haven't changed very much from when Joe just did them 30 seconds ago.

Jim Cramer (0:24)

No, it's incredible.

David Faber (0:26)

It's incredible. Let's get to our roadmap. That's also incredible. It begins with the Markets Post-Powell and Jackson Hole, of course, those comments from the Fed share, adding to investor optimism. Well, we're getting a September rate cut. I think we're pretty certain on that. How big is the question? Also ahead, the spotlight. This week, it's all about Nvidia. Wall Street is gearing up for the company's quarterly results due out after the bell on Wednesday. So we still have a couple more days to talk about them.

Jim Cramer (0:52)

We don't need a countdown. I mean, if we're going to put like post...

David Faber (0:55)

How about a countdown clock?

Jim Cramer (0:57)

Solana, which is a coin no one trusts or believes in. Well, I'm sure someone...

David Faber (1:00)

I got to finish the rundown.

Jim Cramer (1:01)

I think we ought to put Nvidia...

David Faber (1:03)

You finish the rundown. Because we want to also talk about Kroger and Albertsons. Jim and I talked a lot about this deal previously, but now it's heading to federal court. The FTC, of course, trying to block the merger, and it's worth spending some time on.

Jim Cramer (1:16)

Oh, yeah.

David Faber (1:17)

But the first thing that we're going to spend a little time on is the markets, of course, following Friday's rally. That was sparked by this comment from Fed Chair Powell, Jackson Holt.

Jerome Powell (1:27)

The time has come for policy to adjust. The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.

David Faber (1:41)

All right, you are out on Friday, enjoying a well-earned summer Friday.

Jim Cramer (1:44)

Thank you so much.

David Faber (1:45)

Give us your thoughts in terms of the market reaction. Obviously, we're getting a cut in September. There's virtually no doubt about that. There is still some debate as to whether it's going to be 50 basis points or 25

Jim Cramer (1:56)

Well, I will say that there was a belief coming into the meeting that it paid off maybe to be short because there would be actual movement, but not big movement if we had the comments that says he was definitely going to cut. Well, it turned out that the short play was wrong. I think this short play was wrong because what he's really saying is employment. Employment is the issue. And when it's employment, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get a tightening, a cutting that is done on an emergency basis. It's a cutting done, we were talking about this morning, on Frank Holland's excellent show, on a celebratory basis. And I think that that means things are good. We do not want emergency cuts. Those are horrible.

David Faber (2:42)

Right. And we're not going to get those.

Jim Cramer (2:43)

No, we're not.

David Faber (2:44)

But we are going to get a cut.

Jim Cramer (2:46)

Yes.

David Faber (2:47)

I assume you believe 25?

Jim Cramer (2:49)

I think 25 because I think that there's a lot about J-PAL, which is to say, look, there's no panic. We can do 25, then we can do 25 J-PAL does not pay attention to what we do.

The parlor game of 25, he's above that. When I say he's above that, he has his view, he has a long-term view of the economy, of actual economic style economy, what should be done. And he has a long-term view about the role of the Fed and the Fed being a stable force. And 50 is not stable.

David Faber (3:22)

Right. 50 again would be something people maybe say, whoa, wait a second. Have we underestimated just how bad things are?

Jim Cramer (3:27)

What does he know that we don't know? And he doesn't like that. I think one of the things he's really kind of gotten right, that the last two Fed chiefs haven't gotten right is, what you can do is you can say don't for weeks, and then you take action, but you don't take action that indicates that things are terrible.