New Market Milestones, Taiwan Semi Boosts the Chips, What to Expect from Netflix 10/17/24

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 Thursday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer, David Faber, at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Stock's gonna flirt with all time highs once again as retail sales, ex autos, comes in best since March. Taiwan Semi ups guidance, reignites the AI trade, and jobless claims fall by the most in three months. Got the 10 year 407 Our roadmap begins with these records on a roll. The SMP is within striking distance of a new high and the Dow is set to extend its rally, already setting two milestones this week.

David Faber (0:37)

Plus, of course, we are watching the chips. Taiwan Semi is bullish on its outlook, particularly because of the AI boom, which it says is real and profitable. Higher medical costs continue to batter many health insurers. The latest, Elevens Health, reports a profit hit, citing, quote, unprecedented Medicaid challenges.

Jim Cramer (0:57)

Yeah, it's sick and done.

Carl Quintanilla (0:59)

Let's get to the markets and this continued record run here, Jim, as we look for 47 all-time highs this year. What's the bigger story, Taiwan Semi or retail?

Jim Cramer (1:08)

Well, I got up for Taiwan Semi, so I'm gonna say that. In the middle of the night, they come out and they basically refute everything you heard from ASML, where the CEO was saying that everything away from AI is sad. That was a pathetic conference call from ASML. And this one was the exact opposite. And there's comments that are just extraordinary. I'm gonna go right to the top. Wei WI says, our customers demand, customer that's single, the Pus.V.S. Demand for far exceeds our ability to supply. There it is, NVIDIA. So you have NVIDIA, which is gonna be the world's largest company soon, blowing out the numbers, obviously. They're all agreeing that AI is incredibly strong. The rest is not that strong.

David Faber (1:47)

And David, what I can tell you, not enough to even increase capacity to fold, it's said.

Jim Cramer (1:53)

They can't, they can't. What I can tell you is, given the fact that NVIDIA has become the bellwether, you're not gonna be able to beat the verification away from Jensen, unless you look at Taiwan Semi. So I just think that you can get up, you can see the stuff, the 230, 330, the report of call, and then look at the reaction. So when you have the semis going after yesterday's shortfall because of ASML, and then I'm gonna add Blackstone.

David Faber (2:26)

Finance, tech, those are the leaders of this rally.

Carl Quintanilla (2:30)

forget industrials, all time high, on a cap and equal weight.

Jim Cramer (2:33)

We haven't even heard from them yet, they're going up. But so far this amazing earning season, if I have tech and I have banks, what do I need? What do I have to have? Utilities for the leader yesterday, get that. But that's of course nuke.

David Faber (2:47)

That's the nuclear.

Jim Cramer (2:48)

Yes, nuclear. You always said it was going to come back.

David Faber (2:50)

I always said that. I did. For years I've been talking. Noah, we wanted it to.

Jim Cramer (2:54)

No, I'm not kidding. How many times have you sat here and said, it is the cleanest, can't believe we've been in it.

David Faber (2:59)

Years. Years. When it comes to at least addressing carbon, of course, and it because it for years, nuclear was not included. It's like it's solar, it's wind. Like really?

Jim Cramer (3:09)

I know.

David Faber (3:10)

Back to ASML, back to TSMC because that's certainly a driving force in the market. I mean, Jim, obviously, you hit it right on there. The AMD and Nvidia were down a couple of days ago in part because this ASML warning, even when they said it wasn't AI related, a lot of people didn't believe them.

Jim Cramer (3:26)

Exactly right.

David Faber (3:27)

Because the guy down was so big, they're like, we don't know what's going on there at ASML. Then it's followed by this huge number from TSMC, as you pointed out. The chips are more expensive, so the average selling price goes up for TSMC because the margin, even if it's fixed at the same percentage, it's just a bigger number.

Jim Cramer (3:47)

Right. Oh, so right. I did love the fact that what they basically did, they actually reiterated what Janice has said, which is there's an insane demand. And you'll see AMD Club name, but now they work at Taiwan Semi. Marvell Tech, where the CEO bought a million dollars with the stock called just last week. That is Taiwan Semi. So you have this weird, we never used to think that we'd had to get up in the middle of the night for Taiwan Semi. We get up for Nestle's, which reported a terrible number.