Fed Decision Day, Israel-Iran Conflict, OpenAI CEO: Meta Tried to Poach Staff With $100M Bonuses 6/18/25

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Jim Cramer (1:01)

Market insight and analysis. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC Squawk on the Street.

Carl Quintanilla (1:07)

Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with David Faber and Sara Eisen at post night of the New York Stock Exchange. Cramer has the morning off. Pre-market pretty stable as we await today's Fed decision and watch as Israel and Iran trade fire for a sixth day. Oil is back above 75 but bond yields mostly lower as jobless claims four-week average is the highest in almost two years. A roadmap begins with some geopolitical risks. Wall Street is in this holding pattern as the president calls for quote unconditional surrender while Iran warns that any US intervention would quote lead to all-out war.

Jim Cramer (1:40)

Plus Big Tech's AI push, OpenAI CEO saying Meta has offered $100 million bonuses to poach talent while Amazon's Andy Jassy tells employees that AI will shrink its workforce in the coming years.

Sara Eisen (1:52)

And a big win for the crypto industry, the Senate passing a landmark regulation bill setting a potential pathway for private companies to issue digital dollars.

Carl Quintanilla (2:03)

Let's begin with the markets focusing of course on the Israel-Iran conflict and today's upcoming Fed decision. I'm not sure which topic we want to tackle first. We do have this speech by the Ayatollah saying that quote war will be met with war and a lot of the debate right now stateside is whether or not the Oval Office is weighing joining in on some of these strikes.

Sara Eisen (2:23)

Yeah, I love the post from President Trump, the so-called supreme leader. He called for, President Trump called for unconditional surrender and the Ayatollah said that his country will not surrender. So that's basically the latest. We know that President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by telephone yesterday, according to a White House official. We know the US military has been building up forces in the region in recent days. The Pentagon says that it is purely defensive at this point, but definitely gives the president the option and puts them on the on the footing to join the Israeli attack. And that's the big question, right? We know that there was a meeting between President Trump and his national security team overnight.

So the question now is, what next? And at this point, it's just speculation. And the market has really calmed to the idea of the speculation and the saber rattling between Israel and Iran. I think until something more substantial happens with the US., if it happens with the US in terms of joining this war.

Jim Cramer (3:21)

There is a narrative amongst those who are positive or at least willing to be that should we strike, should it be successful, that you would actually have a lot of positive things occur and therefore you cannot really be short this market and you have to be prepared potentially for a rally. Who knows? As I like to say, nobody knows anything and certainly here it's very difficult to obviously determine what will happen.

Sara Eisen (3:45)

In other words, it would be a good thing for the world. Correct.

Jim Cramer (3:47)

And but even more so would actually end up being a good thing. Forget the world. We can debate that forever. But for the markets.

Sara Eisen (3:54)

Sure. But also for the world. I mean, I do I do think it's interesting all this political pressure that's coming even from the Republican parts of the Republican MAGA party, you know, about whether it's really America first for the US to join the it's hard. I think it's hard to make that argument when you have a regime that's calling for death for America, that's building nuclear weapons.