Nasdaq and Big Tech's Record Highs, Tesla Hotter In July, Paramount Soars 7/3/24

Jim Cramer (0:00)

It's Jim Cramer here. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

Rick Santoli (0:04)

Don't miss a minute of the action.

David Faber (0:07)

Good Wednesday morning, and welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm David Faber with Melissa Lee and Mike Santoli. We're live from Post 9 at the New York Stock Exchange. Jim and Carl have the morning off. We have an abbreviated trading session today ahead of the 4th of July holiday. Market closes at 1 p.m. Eastern Bond Markets, and that's the stock market, yeah. And we end trading of bonds an hour later. Let's take a look at futures.

As you see it right there, we are looking for a bit of a down open. Let's get to our roadmap this morning. It does begin with that big tech rally, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, all at new all-time highs. Tesla also notching its longest winning streak since last July.

Plus the Skydance dance, it's back on with Paramount share Redstone's now backing a deal she previously rejected. We'll give you my latest reporting. That's in just a few minutes.

Melissa Lee (0:55)

And Southwest Airlines adopting a poison pill to fend off activist Elliot management.

David Faber (1:00)

Let's start with the markets though in record territory and new milestones for the tech sector. Great to have two of the greatest in terms of discussing the markets with me here on set.

And yeah, you, both of you.

Mike Santoli (1:16)

Well, this is looking at who else besides her, I guess.

Melissa Lee (1:20)

Far from it, far from it.

David Faber (1:22)

And so I'd just love to throw it over, get a sense Mike as to what your thoughts are, given what we've seen so far this week. Don't seem to be taking a lead perhaps in the bond market as much as we have the last two days, perhaps?

Mike Santoli (1:31)

Not as directly. Although yesterday the bond market sort of calmed down a little bit, yields receded from the prior day's gain. It seemed to open the door. Yesterday's action was really slow in building. Late in the day, we got this rally up. It was pretty much led by a handful of the mega caps. And what is interesting too, is that the laggard among the mega caps get their turn. And that's what has been the story. Nvidia was down again yesterday, and Amazon, which of course has broken through the $2 trillion market cap level, but has really done very little point to point for three and a half years, or three years, let's say.

And therefore has this catch up potential. And of course, Apple has gotten this little bit of a move too. And it's essentially been the formula. It's a very split market still.

The S&P is up 6% since the end of the first quarter. The median stock in the S&P is down about 1% over that period. So you still have this critique that it's not fully an all-inclusive rally, although yesterday a little bit broader. Some sensitivity to signs of slowdown, some sensitivity to signs that the continuing jobless claims today remain somewhat elevated.

And it just creates this friction about, is the Fed going to stay more patient than the investors can wait? You know, that's kind of the story.

Melissa Lee (2:41)

I mean, what we've heard in recent days from Fed officials is this concern about the tipping point where increasing joblessness will lead to a higher unemployment rate. We heard that from Mary Daly of San Francisco. We heard that from Jerome Powell yesterday in Cintra.

And so there is that that sort of worry. And in that sort of playbook where you want to be a little bit more defensive, do you still go to the, you know, the stalwarts in the market? And that would be, of course, big tech. And you also have to wonder how much do politics have politics been playing into this whole thing? And I know that we're not political as a channel, but, you know, I know, seriously.

But as, you know, more traders come around to the idea that there could be a Trump presidency in store and there is a prevailing sense that that would be better for the markets in general. I wonder if you then say, you know what, big tech has another sort of breath of air.

David Faber (3:31)

Although things haven't gone too badly over the last few years during the Biden presidency in terms of the markets, and there was an impact. We were talking about it, obviously, in the bond market in the sense of a Trump presidency, which at this point certainly seems more likely than not conceivably would lead to even more spending, which at some point we could have a reckoning To me, that's where the trade has mostly been concentrated is in the bond market.