Hot PPI, $110B for OpenAI, CoreWeave CEO Exclusive, Paramount Wins Battle for WBD 2/27/26

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hi, I'm Kelly Cavagnaro, Managing Director, Head of North America Institutional Distribution. At Janice Henderson Investors, we believe working together is the way to work better, like combining your portfolio plans and our in-depth strategy, your valued assets, and our valuable insights, your mission, and our vision, working in harmony to seek the right investment opportunities. Janice Henderson Investors, investing in a brighter future together.

Andy Jassy (0:30)

Your ticket, Lady Jennifer of Coolidge.

SPEAKER_1 (0:33)

Well, many thanks, good sir.

SPEAKER_3 (0:35)

Here is my Discover card. They accept Discover at Renaissance Fairs? Yeah, they do here.

SPEAKER_4 (0:42)

Discover is accepted at the places I love to shop.

SPEAKER_1 (0:45)

Get it with the times.

SPEAKER_3 (0:47)

With the times?

SPEAKER_5 (0:48)

You're playing the lute.

SPEAKER_4 (0:51)

Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right?

SPEAKER_6 (0:53)

Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen Report.

David Faber (1:00)

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

Carl Quintanilla (1:06)

Good Friday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer, David Faber at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. We close out the month of February with some pre-market losses. Dow may not hang on to that 10th monthly win streak. A lot of drama today in AI, media, private credit, and inflation as January core PPI runs hot.

But the 10-year falls below 4 Our roadmap begins with this last trading day of the month. S&P is on pace for the worst monthly performance since April of last year.

David Faber (1:36)

Plus OpenAI, you just heard of course Sam Altman, Andy Jassy. They close a $110 billion funding round. It includes Amazon, of course, Nvidia, and SoftBank as we've been reporting. OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Amazon's Andy Jassy just finished speaking with CNBC a few moments ago about that partnership. Paramount Skydance is the winner for the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery. Netflix bowing out will have all the details on what to expect from here.

Carl Quintanilla (2:06)

Let's begin with market reaction. First to the hot PPI number, Jim. Core PPI, 3.6, that's going to be the biggest gain in almost a year.

Jim Cramer (2:14)

Yeah. Look, it's disappointing. But I do look to the bonds, the bonds of the ultimate arbiter and they're either dismissing that number, or saying that we're in a rockier time. I'm going to go with dismissing that number. I don't believe that core inflation will be as bad six months from now. That number is bad. That number is bad. And you could say, well, listen, Jim, you've fallen prey to the president and to Kevin Warsh. I just see in individual aspects of CPI, where I think we hit it hard, things are getting better. Things are getting better in rent. We see natural gas come down. Almost all the foods that I follow have come down.

Carl Quintanilla (2:51)

I bet, I mean, oil today above 67 It's going to take you back to August. We're probably going to get a three-handle on retail gas next week.

Jim Cramer (2:59)

Well, look, oil, I still believe, and I know that this is something that a cynic would say, are you crazy, that there is a lot of oil in the world and that this is because of the Iranian tension. And that's why I'm betting that oil will go back. Look, I am a creature of the tenure. And when the tenure goes our way, and that means when it goes under these levels, I think there are so many things that are great that can develop, that gives worse the opportunity to cut the short end. I like it. David, I gotta tell you, if you had told me two months ago that OpenAI would get this money, I would say yes, hallelujah, they're not gonna be the Achilles heel. If you told me there were gonna be giant deals like this, Paramount, I would say holy cow, M&A's back. Instead we have the market down huge. What is wrong here?

David Faber (3:49)

Well, I mean, there's so many different things coming at us this morning, I think, trying to sort of make sense of them all is not that easy.

Jim Cramer (3:54)

You're supposed to say, oh, that's all bad?

David Faber (3:56)

No, I mean, that tenure, by the way, what is that reflective of? Is that good or bad? I mean, are there credit issues starting to happen? Is there a flight to quality in some way happening?

Jim Cramer (4:05)

Well, when you see this on the PPI, you could say that there is flight to quality. I come back and say it's an awful hard part.