Nvidia on Deck, Palo Alto Networks Plunge, Live: Brian Moynihan 2/21/24

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 Wednesday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer. Almost as dead as David Faber here post night of the New York Stock Exchange. David has the morning off. Futures a little jittery this morning amid the ongoing sell-off in semis, meaning Nvidia tonight is key. Meanwhile, Palo Alto, Vertiv and Teladoc cutting guidance. Our roadmap begins with Nvidia out after the bell, a day after the stock saw its biggest drop in four months. Palo Alto is plunging more than 20% pre-market as they lower their full year guidance. And then later this hour, a CNBC exclusive with B of A chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan.

Let's begin though with Nvidia under some pressure again ahead of its big earnings tonight after the stock suffered its biggest one day drop in market cap during yesterday's session. And last night on Mad Money, Jim did reiterate its bullish stance on the company by comparing Jensen Wong to one global superstar.

Jim Cramer (1:06)

Jensen is the CEO equivalent of Taylor Swift.

I'm not joking. I'm dead serious. Whatever happens tomorrow, do we really think it's make or break for Nvidia up or down the A or A? No way. Nobody's about to call a top in Taylor Swift. So why the heck does everyone seem to want to call a top with Nvidia?

Carl Quintanilla (1:22)

This morning, Jim, you say he's not sweating the quarter.

No. He's working on something more long-term.

Jim Cramer (1:26)

He's sweating the March keynote, which is something that he does a deep dive every year. This one's going to be, well, there'll be a virtual, but you have humans. And that's what he thinks about, which is a five to 10 year plan. Now he has to deal with the quarter because he is human.

Taylor Swift has to deal with her appearances in the box with Kelsey because she's human. But what really matters here, and then people have to understand, is that if you think that AI is a short, if you think it's degenerative AI, if you don't think that there's really anything to it, then you should sell.

Because Nvidia is what makes it all happen.

I have said own it, don't trade it. And the only other stock I've ever said that about is Apple. Because I need to restrain myself. I find myself from, there was someone in the journal yesterday who quoted me as saying in 2017 that he bought this stock. And I looked it up, what did I say in 2017? That's when I named my dog Nvidia. So it's like, you know, it tends to resonate. But I think it's really important people understand that this is not nearly as important for Jensen as it is for everybody else, this National Nvidia Day. And you know, Colette Crest, who's the amazing CFO, will come on. It'll be very straight. There'll be a line which says that China's a problem, and if we don't get China by 2025, then we're in trouble. And tomorrow you'll hear, that's what people say, the reason why it's down is because they said China trouble. Because that's what happens to the stock.

I caution to say people, you have to understand there's something between plunge and explosion upward. And that's what happened in the second half of last year. And I think that that's, you know, they're not gonna catch this thing.

Carl Quintanilla (3:02)

Yeah. Can't you be a believer though in the long-term story and still have your eyes open to digestion by hyperscalers?

Isn't that part of the story tonight?

Jim Cramer (3:11)

Yeah, and I think if you go to, Jensen has many partners.

But one of the more, I would say, tempestuous one is Snowflake and Frank Slootman, where Jensen went to see to the Slootman Festival.

Everyone has a fest, we should get festivals.

And one of the things that happened was that Jensen was, came in peace, as he said. And Slootman basically attacked him, saying, listen, you're charging too much for these things. And people are gonna rent this rather than spend the money because they don't really know what they're spending on. And I think that's true for a lot of companies. They don't, they wanna get them. Sovereign Nations, what does Sovereign Nations know? They take a big chunk of these. But I think if you, there were some of you said, listen, maybe there's too many H100s out there. Well, that's why it does the H200. But it is mine.

He's working on the H500. And that's what people don't get. That's why I compared him to Taylor Swift, who drops an album, why she's doing an album, which you can buy in vinyl for like three times the cost. And I just think that that's what you have to view him as. You have to view him as, it's just a continuum. I remember when I went to his office and there was this thing behind me and it was calculating furiously. I said, what's that? He goes, well, this is how fast you have to go to land a man on Mars. And when you get really close to Mars, you have to stop and then you have to take it back up. And I got to calculate exactly what we call a soft landing on Mars. I said, well, why are you doing that? He says, well, why wouldn't you do it?