Inflation Data Rally, Micron's Surge and the AI Trade, Trump Media Soars 12/18/25

David Faber (0:00)

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Carl Quintanilla (0:45)

Market Moving Insight and Analysis join Jim Cramer, David Faber and me, Carl Quintanilla, on the opening bell hour of CNBC Squawk on the Street. Good Thursday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer and David Faber at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Futures are rallying here on a much better than expected CPI print for November and October. Only two tenths for those two months, and that is the lowest annual read on core since 2021 Markets pricing in a little more Fed cutting for next year, now up to 62 basis points. Our roadmap begins with the latest inflation print coming in cooler than expected. We'll talk about what it means for the Fed and the markets.

David Faber (1:26)

Sure, so Micron are soaring this morning. The company posted blowout earnings, gave a bullish outlook. It said it expects record revenue thanks to strong demand for AI related products.

Jim Cramer (1:37)

We didn't know it.

David Faber (1:39)

And we're also keeping an eye on shares of Lululemon. They appear to be rallying in the early trading here. The largest, biggest activist, Elliott Management, takes a relatively small position for them, but it's a billion dollar stake and they are pushing for changes at the top of the retailer.

Carl Quintanilla (1:54)

Let's begin with this market reaction to CPI. Shelter carrying an awful lot of water, which is kind of a consensus view, Jim, going into 26

Jim Cramer (2:01)

Yes, you gotta go with what Lennar is saying, too. Giant home builder. Duff tales with this.

You go to Gemini, you put in Lennar, you put in home prices, Lennar, and you'll see way back, all the way back to 2019, before there was inflation. You know, but this is the 40% inflation in housing, David. Done. Okay, so then you look at CarMax, you look at cars, 8% decline, done. Then you connect the dots with this CPI, and we are almost all the way back to Liberation Day, and the direction is amazing. Then we have a president who was on TV saying, listen, don't worry, little late maybe, but he's gone.

David Faber (2:41)

What do you think about analysis? Whatever you said.

Jim Cramer (2:46)

There you go. I say it here, it comes out here. It's not supposed to be the way it is. Hey, look at me, you can go right to Sanjay. Who might be rated for not coming on?

David Faber (2:54)

You want to just move past CPI like that?

Jim Cramer (2:57)

Well, you left me on the track.

David Faber (2:58)

I got nothing.

Jim Cramer (2:59)

What do you want? What am I doing? I'm balancing? All right, go where you want to go.

David Faber (3:03)

No, I got nowhere to go. I'm following you. Is there anything you want to add about CPI and or our esteemed colleague here, perhaps?

Jim Cramer (3:10)

The only thing I would say is that memory prices are going up.

Carl Quintanilla (3:13)

Well, yeah, I mean, there's going to be wrinkles. We'll get to memory and Micron in a second, but heating costs are going to be an issue. The story in the Times today, it's going to cost about $1,000 for the average home to heat their home this winter, and that's 9%. I think energy overall utility is up 13% since the presidential office.

Jim Cramer (3:33)

There is an oddity. Natural gas is a plentiful supply, even with all the exports. That's an incredible figure, given the fact that we probably have the most we've ever had.

David Faber (3:44)

And we're exporting the most that we ever have as well, of course.

Jim Cramer (3:46)

I don't know. I mean, I think that the president has to talk about gouging because that's a natural thing to talk about. Natural gas gouging, and then how we need to have a check cut to the cattlemen so that steak can come down. And then he's home free because you got cars, you got housing.