Jobs Report Beats, Tech's 2024 Start Not "Magnificent," Middle East Conflict Impact 1/05/24

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Carl Quintanilla (0:29)

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 Friday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. David Faber has the morning off. Stocks do look to open a bit lower on the back of the firm, December Jobs Read. 216, the highest print since September. Wages run a tad hot. 10 year touches 410 before backing off. That's where our roadmap begins, the Blowout Jobs Report, US payrolls up 216, in December, better than expected. The ongoing tech turbulence, NASDAQ riding its longest losing streak since October of 22 And we continue to monitor developments in the Red Sea as shipping giant Maersk diverts its vessels away from that area now for the foreseeable future.

Let's begin though with the market reaction to the jobs number, Jim. We mentioned the better print, but some revisions, household surveys getting some eyeballs.

Jim Cramer (1:23)

Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. That's the story. The revisions offset what you're seeing, and that's why the interest rates immediately jumped up and then it got back off a little. I think it's interesting, government, 52, 000, that was a big delta.

Health care has just been strong, 38, 000, but we have construction to stand up a little bit. And then leisure and hospitality, which have been red hot post-COVID, is unchanged.

Retail is okay. And then I find that average hourly earnings, pretty much the same. This is not nearly as negative as when it first hurt. Negative meaning interest rate shoot up. I think when people pull apart the numbers, they say, that's a little too hot, but let's take off the six rate cuts. Let's go back to three rate cuts.

Carl Quintanilla (2:02)

Maybe LFPR is the most concerning. Why would we have participation drop by the most since January of 21?

Jim Cramer (2:09)

I don't know.

That's, you know, sometimes you look at these numbers and say, okay, look, I gotta learn more about it. I don't wanna cuff it. I was surprised at that.

I was surprised. Look, I think Carl, in the end, there was just this camp which just said it's gonna be really weak, and then there was this camp which said it's gonna be weak, but there wasn't a camp which just said it's gonna be okay. And so the okay camp is now scrambling to sell Mag-7. Sell Mag-7. I mean, it really is like that. I mean, the okay camp just says, wow, I can't stay in the Mag-7. I better go into the, there was a great piece this morning that got removed from the journal. It's like, the amount of money going into cash is extraordinary because cash is extraordinary. You can get like five. You can make a lot of money with five and not have to worry, of course, if they cut rates immediately, but they're not going to.

Carl Quintanilla (3:00)

The flow dated today is interesting. B of A, biggest purchase of money market funds since November, another 57 billion, right?

Jim Cramer (3:08)

I thought that was incredible. Very little in stocks, a little bit more in the bonds, which again, that's just Mag-7 sell by rest.

Carl Quintanilla (3:15)

So you think the jobs print is a push, so to speak?

Jim Cramer (3:18)

I think it's more of a push than people realize.

I think that what we're gonna do is get away from the camp, which says there's multiple cuts, which is good, because that's not Powell's camp. I don't know whose camp that was.

Carl Quintanilla (3:28)

It's the wishful thinking camp.

Jim Cramer (3:30)

The wishful thinking camp. And those people, they should just go somewhere else. They should do some other game. I mean, they really shouldn't. I mean, you gotta deal with reality. The economy is not that bad.

And the only thing that happened is we got rid of hire for longer.

Then we had the job plot. I mean, it's like, jeez, we had these jolts. I find this uptire, because all they're really saying is, look, if it's weaker, we're gonna cut, but we don't want to cut too fast because that's the big mistake you can make.