Fed Decision Day, Hot PPI and Oil Prices Weigh on Stocks, Jensen Huang on "The Next ChatGPT" 3/18/26

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Thy ticket, Lady Jennifer of Coolidge. Well, many thanks, good sir.

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David Faber (0:17)

With the times?

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Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right?

David Faber (0:23)

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Jensen Huang (0:27)

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Jim Cramer (0:45)

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.

Carl Quintanilla (0:58)

Good Wednesday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer, who's back at Post 9 David Faber here at the New York Stock Exchange. Oil spiking here on reports that an at-gas field was attacked in southwestern Iran this morning. New fears that upstream infrastructure may increasingly be in military crosshairs. Futures as a result lost their gains. Hot PPI didn't help. Up nearly 4% now on annual core. That's the biggest jump in a year. Our roadmap begins with decision day for the Fed. The policy maker's statement is going to be in focus. What it might say about inflation in the wake of the war.

David Faber (1:31)

Also ahead Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang tells Jim that the AI agent open claw is quote, definitely the next ChatGPT. And speaking of AI, the Trump administration responding to an anthropics lawsuit, this in a court filing, it defends the Pentagon's decision to essentially what we call blacklist the company.

Carl Quintanilla (1:54)

Let's begin with the markets though, as the street awaits the Fed decision today and the statement this afternoon. Jim, a little of the more immediate story is this upside reversal in Brent back to 108 and a lot of firms not rule a city, not ruling out $200 Brent.

Jim Cramer (2:07)

Well, one of the things we thought was when Israel struck an oil facility, that was really the moment where a lot of people said, okay, this is out of bounds. And we heard sort of out of bounds and it wouldn't happen again. And now it's back, this time natural gas. It does seem like the president is more emboldened. Israel seems more emboldened because this is bad for the market. But obviously, David, the bad for the market means absolutely nothing.

David Faber (2:39)

What do you mean by saying that?

Jim Cramer (2:40)

They're not looking at the stock market when they're buying. Well, the US bomb is natural gas.

David Faber (2:46)

No, no, but it's funny, Jim, because the conversations I had this morning were about how things seemed to be relatively muted when it came to the war and the sense of the impact on the market. And, you know, the conversations were along the likes of maybe there's no more big surprises. And so we're now focused yet again on what we've been focused on, which is AI., maybe a bit of private credit thrown in there for some fun and a number of other things. But immediately, that was before we got these reports. So that was, I don't know, 45 minutes ago, an hour ago, is having that conversation.

Jim Cramer (3:18)

Well, look, I mean, this morning at 3 a.m., the futures look like it's going to be the greatest day in history, a big follow through.

David Faber (3:24)

Right.

Jim Cramer (3:25)

And then you come in after the, well, first when you see this attack, but then you look at the PPI. Now, PPI, typically, we do not have it be major, but it happens to come the same day as a Fed meeting. And it's very hard for someone not to be off the cuff at the Fed and say, jeez, I don't know. I don't know if we can cut here.

Carl Quintanilla (3:44)

Yeah. Annual headline has gone from 3 to 3.4, and then the ex food and energy 3.9, Jim. We'll get dots today. I'm not sure what they can promise. But you don't think this should be the market mover it is?

Jim Cramer (3:58)

No. I mean, look, I've never really trusted PPIs do it. And if you go over the PPI, the actual numbers, it's actually pretty funny because, wow, February advance in the index for final demand services. What brought it up? Traveler accommodation. Traveler accommodation. I mean, if that's... Most people in this country can't even afford to go on a plane that had bastions running at Delta, which was an amazing... Yeah, that was like of the interviews yesterday. The one that really changed things was the idea that you could buy airline stock with oil on a hundred and eighty.