Inflation Watch, Major Changes at Liberty Media, Trump Transition and Elon Musk's New Role 11/13/24

Jim Cramer (0:00)

It's Jim Cramer here. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Don't miss a minute of the action.

Carl Quintanilla (0:07)

Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer, David Faber at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Futures holding some gains here after the first red S&P day in six. CPI in line pretty much across the board, although year on year headline ticks up to two six. Our roadmap begins with the October inflation coming in as expected, but ending that cooling streak. What could the latest reading mean for the Fed's rate cut path?

David Faber (0:31)

Plus a lot of news at Liberty Media, Charter acquiring Liberty Broadband and an all stock transaction, and CEO Greg Maffei will step down. John Malone going to be returning as CEO. We're going to break down all those details. SoftBank said to become NVIDIA's first Blackwell chip customer with plans to build Japan's most powerful AI supercomputer.

Carl Quintanilla (0:53)

Let's begin with the markets and CPI this morning, as we mentioned. CoreGym, 3-3 year-on-year, actually rate December cut odds went up a little bit this morning.

Jim Cramer (1:01)

Yeah, I mean, look, it's really housing. Housing is responsible for a big chunk. 65% of the total 12-month increase, all items, less food and energy. This is the stickiest one. A lot of other things went down a lot. I'd point that apparel had been really bad, and apparel is now really good. A medical care bed, a motor vehicle, insurance, 14%.

David, you and I should go in that business. But what I'd like to say is that we have become way too day-to-day when it comes to bonds. And I'll use the example of Home Depot. I mean, yesterday Home Depot reported a really good quarter, and October's accelerating. There's a clear breakout. So the stock goes from 412, 420, and then plummets to 403, finishes in just a little bit again, then finishes at 403 If we're gonna play that game of looking at these bonds every single day, then we're just gonna become traders. And I may suggest, if I can, that maybe things are with tax rates lower, with more optimism, price journeys, multiples increasing. You buy stocks like Home Depot when they come in.

Carl Quintanilla (1:57)

So you prefer to think about things rather than tariffs, labor supply shrinking, anything like that?

Jim Cramer (2:05)

I just think that-

Carl Quintanilla (2:05)

Higher deficit spending.

Jim Cramer (2:07)

I think the price journeys, multiples, on things involving, say, housing, where I think rates are still coming down. We talked about that, the percentage of people who think there's a cut obviously went up after this. But I just think we should be looking back and saying, you know what, we're going to pay more for a lot of companies that we were, that we felt we shouldn't pay more under vice president tax.

David Faber (2:26)

So you're willing to pay 26 times earnings for Home Depot, even though it's not really growing?

Jim Cramer (2:31)

Oh, they did add up some stores, and they did.

David Faber (2:33)

All right.

Jim Cramer (2:33)

Okay, well, you know they've always been cherry about order.

David Faber (2:36)

26 times for, I'm just trying, you know, for not a lot of growth, Jim, in that last quarter.

Jim Cramer (2:40)

David, this is the inflection quarter. This is finally when things can get-

David Faber (2:43)

It's a great company. I'm not saying it's not a great company.

Jim Cramer (2:45)

I mean, if you take a look, my chapter, so we can talk about it tomorrow at a meeting. But this is the quarter that we began to think maybe there could be a turn. Now, just so you know, one of the things that Ted Decker, he's the CEO, he is not anybody who would come out and say, you know what, this is the bottom. He requires, he allows other guys to do it. But I felt that this was really a great opportunity if you felt the CPI would be, because we get this basis that's so good, I just feel like that this is the kind of stock that could be back up 10 again.

Carl Quintanilla (3:17)

Interesting. We did get mortgage apps down half a point, and 30-year fixed went back up to 6.86.

Jim Cramer (3:24)

Right, well, I think that when I look at the CPI, I come back and say, housing is the worst. And I think that one of the things that we now realize is if they cut, then rates can go down. Ted Decker on the Comp School says, if we could get to 6%, we could have a giant amount of business being done. So that's why, David, I don't think the multiple is so high. But if you think we can drop to 6% on the mortgage, you must be Long Home Depot. You must be.