John Malone Exclusive, Disney's Earnings Beat, Market Win Streak Watch 11/09/23

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Carl Quintanilla (0:31)

Market Moving Insight and Analysis join Jim Cramer, David Faber and me, Carl Quintanilla, on the opening bell hour of CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

Good Thursday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer at Post Night of the New York Stock Exchange. David Faber's live at Liberty Media's Investor Day in New York. A lot from David all morning long. Meantime, S&P going for nine gains in a row today.

Longest win streak in 19 years. To do it, Bulls will have to navigate a 30-year bond auction. More feds speak, including Powell, and a wave of media consumer earnings. Our roadmap's gonna begin with that extended win streak for the S&P and Nasdaq. How long can that rally continue?

David Faber (1:17)

Also ahead, Disney is one of this morning's biggest gainers on better-than-expected earnings and bigger cost-cutting plans.

You're also gonna hear from John Malone and what he has to say about Disney and streaming and so many other topics. It's our annual sit-down and exclusive interview with a man who's been at the center of media for 50 years, Liberty Media's Chairman John Malone.

Carl Quintanilla (1:42)

Meantime, let's begin with Disney rising on that profit beat. The company also said it plans to increase its cost cutting measures by an additional $2 billion to a target of 7.5 billion. Bob Iger did join CNBC yesterday to talk about the quarter, including the company's growth in subs.

Bob Iger (1:59)

We do expect subscriber growth to continue, but we're mostly focused now on delivering profitability by the end of fiscal 24

We had a great quarter, as you just noted, adding seven million core Disney Plus subs. That was really the result of great content.

Carl Quintanilla (2:15)

Jim, they keep that Q4-24 profitability target.

Jim Cramer (2:18)

Yeah, I think there are a lot of things good here. There have been a feeling that a $5 million cost takeout wasn't enough. This is from what I regard as the, let's call them the Peltz promoter faction, from Ike being the largest shareholders, sold Marvel. Now, this is what's really important to me, is that the cash flow is so great, I'm now looking for a buyback as soon as next year.

A good dividend, I like what I hear. These are surprising. Because they have the cash flow, I no longer think they have to do the strategic alliance I talked about yesterday with a gun to their head.

I actually like, rather than just presumed to be Apple, I think Amazon could be in play as someone who could be a partner for them. So I saw many things that are good. David, you may think I'm too bullish, but I'm all in. I'm all in Disney.

David Faber (3:05)

I'm trying to understand, though, what was it that gives you this confidence, Jim?

Jim Cramer (3:12)

I believe in the cost cut. I was very worried about cost cut, David. I think that there were a lot of people who felt that it just wasn't possible.

But when you have a combination of Disney Plus starting to get in a lot of subs, and the idea that maybe there were more fat than we thought, I'm in. Now, David, earlier this week, I defended the Disney position I have for my travel trust.

I needed this windfall, and I am calling it a windfall. I think it's precisely what Mr. Pell's thought could happen, and I think it's going to happen. So I like it, David. I believe. I believe.

David Faber (3:51)

Yep. Yep. Listen, there has been a lot of overhead there that others have pointed to when you compare Disney's cost structure with some of its competitors, for example, Jim. There's never been a question as to whether there might be more to cut, and so I think coming into the quarter, there was at least a hope that the cost cuts would increase, and they have, obviously, to $7.5 billion now, and that's significant.

Whether you can expect a buyback even next year, I mean, there's so much still to come. You've got obviously, they had growth in subs, right? What was it? $7 million at Disney+, which is good, but you've got to get to profitability. It does appear, though, that perhaps the biggest losses, I mean, for Paramount, it was last year now. For Disney, it will either be this year or last year.