Live from Goldman’s Communacopia, Regulatory Headwinds, AI Market “Skyrocketing” 9/6/23

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

What's on the horizon for financial markets?

At P-Gym, it's a question that over 1,400 investment professionals relentlessly research in pursuit of your long-term goals. Specialized across asset classes, but united in collaboration, our teams provide global and local expertise. Our investments shape tomorrow, today. Pursue your tomorrow with P-Gym, a leading global asset manager.

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 Squawk on the Street.

Good Wednesday 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 is out west, live from Goldman's Commutacopia Conference in San Francisco. A lot from David later on this morning and just a few minutes. Me time futures add to the sell off yesterday on the Russell, at least, on these concerns of slowing growth, higher rates, higher oil, getting a slight reprieve on those fronts today. Ten years still, four and a quarter Brent back below 90 A roadmap begins with the Fed, expectations after a slew of data. Boston's Fed president, the latest to call for patience while warning that further hikes may be necessary. More regulatory headwinds picking up for Big Tech with the FTC set to sue Amazon, DOJ versus Google and the EU cracking down on these so-called gatekeepers. And then AMD's Lisa Su says the AI market is skyrocketing. Who is set to benefit the most?

Speaking of which, David, it sounds like that's a heck of a way to kick off the conference.

David Faber (1:35)

Yeah, Lisa Su will get to her comments from yesterday. Of course, we've got a lot of speakers here today and we're also going to be able to sit down with John Stanky, of course, the man who runs AT&T, talk about the environment for wireless right now.

Bob Bakish from Paramount, plenty of things to discuss there including the writers and actors strike, not to mention that dispute between Disney and Charter. I'm sure Bob will have some thoughts about that.

Mike Sievert later today from T-Mobile and then tomorrow David Solomon. Of course, it is a Goldman conference and he will be my guest as well following a spate of somewhat negative stories about Mr. Solomon a couple of weeks back as you guys know. Also be monitoring what's going on at the conference, Carl. Brian Roberts, of course, the man who runs Comcast will be one of the first presenters here this morning at 7.30. Certainly going to want to see what he has to say as well about any number of different issues facing that company and the broader landscape.

Jim Cramer (2:30)

She's David. I mean, we should all be out there. What are we doing here? I mean, doing our fantasy drafts. I mean, that's unbelievable what he's got going.

You're going to have some unbelievable interviews and I can't wait to, especially because David, wouldn't you say that the dispute between Disney and Charter is somewhat existential?

David Faber (2:49)

It does feel significant. There's no doubt about it, Jim. I think it's funny because it broke last week and it may not have gotten quite as much attention as you otherwise would have expected.

But it's starting to pick up. I know as a Jets fan, for example, it just occurred to me that Monday night football is not going to be available to me, and that's going to be a problem.

So I do think that you're going to... Chris Winfrey, relatively new CEO at Charter, is going to have a big decision to make. But the question that you raised, saying that word existential is, the video business barely makes any money. It makes some, but it doesn't make a lot. And this may be that jumping off point. That's the question we're asking. And then, of course, that would be bad news for the overall bundle yet again. One reason why Warner Brothers Discovery stock, Paramount stock and Comcast stock, by the way, even though we're on both sides of this, have been down in recent sessions.

Jim Cramer (3:41)

Yeah, everyone has to balance it. I mean, if there was a Phillies game on Comcast, but you got to pay a little extra for Peacock.

There's Big Ten, a Michigan game. We just saw a walk-on from Michigan who was feted by Delta.

I think, David, one of the things you've got to look at, besides the fact that the Bills have an unbelievable defense and that game has significance, is Texas, Alabama, US. Open Finals versus what I'm hearing, which is that Charter was saying, listen, fine, we'll do a deal, but we went ESPN Plus and we went Disney Plus and we want to give it for free. David, that could be like $4 billion in spend. I mean, this thing is, I know that you're not directly involved in this, but I think every one of the people that you're speaking to has to know that if this is where we're going, is the customer going to be angry at Disney or at Charter?