Market and White House Reaction: Jobs Report and End to the Port Strike 10/4/24

Carl Quintanilla (0:00)

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, David Faber at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Future is getting a boost today from a blowout September jobs number, 254,000 beats even the highest estimate on the street. Unemployment down for a second straight month to 4-1, got some positive revisions. A road map is going to begin with the stabilizing labor picture. Far more jobs added than expected. What that could mean for the Fed's rate cut path ahead.

David Faber (0:35)

Plus the port strike comes to an end, but the container ship backlog remains. We're going to be joined by a key White House official who helped both sides get to that deal. And of course, we're keeping an eye on EVs. Tesla's got a debt sale. The EU slaps big new tariffs on China-made cars. And Rivian shares are under pressure this morning after that company cut its guidance.

Carl Quintanilla (0:58)

Let's begin with the market reaction to this jobs report. Household survey, Jim, up 430 And we say 4-1 on employments. Actually, 4-0-5-1.

Jim Cramer (1:08)

It's a strange number because we do see these areas, the pockets of great strength. But they're the ones that usually find when things are slowing down. I mean, healthcare acts 45,000 jobs.

I thought this was interesting. The average workweek for all employees is down 0.1. David, even though the wage increase is 0.4, maybe that's why people just kind of say, you know what, this is a good number. Good number for the stock market because we're not having, we're not having a stagflation.

David Faber (1:35)

All right. Well, yeah, go back to that for me because you see a number like this, which is far ahead of expectations. The unemployment rate falls immediately. We look at the 10-year heading towards 4% again, and yet the market is up. Am I wrong to have thought, hmm, I would have thought futures might be not quite as strong, and if they are as strong, what's the reason?

Jim Cramer (1:58)

I think you're right. I'm looking at, there's so many anomalies here. Be healthcare. It's all right. But food services and drink plays up 69,000. I think people are saying, you know what? The most recent rap was that things were going to slow down, and they didn't. Carl, I wonder if there was any number that would have been bad as long as... I mean, this was not a great number for the thesis, which just says the Fed's winning. It is a number that says, you know what? The Fed is doing it measured, and therefore, we're not having any sort of recession on the horizon. Also, by the way, we did see rates go down big off of what happened.

David Faber (2:35)

It's a Larry Fink number, not a Jamie Dimon number. You know what I mean? Remember, Dimon, of course, he said the economy is still strong. One count is eggs, right? As for soft landing, whereas most recently, and I'm just taking a look here, said the amount of easing that's in the forward curve is crazy, and he believes there's room for easing more, but not as much as the forward curve would indicate.

Jim Cramer (2:58)

Well, look, I guess what we're set up for is, as long as we don't have a recession, stocks go higher, and this is not a recessionary number at all. Wage increases, I don't know. I mean, you get a wage increase like we had about the ports that we're going to talk about, and that's the kind of increase that is stagflation. So I don't know how important the ports contract's going to be, but I know we got to talk about it with labor.

Carl Quintanilla (3:25)

Yeah, we're going to talk about the tentative agreement and what they appear to be zeroing in on, although we will also talk about some of the automation and efficiency gains which the shippers hope to get. You mentioned wages, four-tenths. It's a tenth hot, but it's also a tenth lower than prior.

Jim Cramer (3:42)

Right. I mean, look, did I think that as soon as I saw rates shoot up, that the S&P would go up, that's very atypical. That's why I'm saying this, the anomaly here is pretty strong. You're right. If rates go up like this, we shouldn't have a great stock market.

David Faber (4:03)

Well, it puts into question to a certain extent, what you're going to get and when you're going to get it from the Fed, or does it? By the way, that question will be asked how many times today in the next eight hours?