PepsiCo CEO Exclusive, GE Aerospace and the Earnings Parade, Trump-Powell Buzz 7/17/25

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Carl Quintanilla (1:02)

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 with Jim Cramer at post nine of the New York Stock Exchange. Faber has the morning off. Futures were mixed as the data runs hot today. Retail sales, second best print of the year. Jobless claims down five straight weeks to a three month low. Yields are higher across the curve as we get one last day of Fed speak before the blackout begins tomorrow. Our roadmap begins with the earnings parade, GE Aerospace, Taiwan Semiconductor, United Airlines, and many more. The president says he's unlikely to fire the Fed share as bank CEOs now defend Fed independence. And Pepsi with the beat, although US demand is weak. CEO is going to join us live in a few moments, talk about earnings and the president's comments about Coca-Cola.

Let's begin with the earnings though. Jim, there's a lot too and you call them halcyon in some cases.

Jim Cramer (1:58)

Yeah, we've had two quarters now that really kind of are shockingly great. This GE number today, we spoke to Larry Culp, the CEO. He's not even done. There's much more. And yet, Phil and I, Phil Labeau is the best in the business. Going back and forth about how amazing, we just can't believe how amazing it is. And then yesterday, unhurled, unsung, but I'm going to change that. Johnson & Johnson. Yes. Johnson & Johnson delivered a quarter. I counted 15 separate surprises, line by line, 15 different things that they beat on, all sorts of different metrics. It was such a tour de force that you'd think to yourself, is something happening in corporate America that is where everyone's been unleashed? I asked about artificial intelligence in GE, and sure, there's some, in large numbers, there's some. I asked for artificial intelligence in J&J, and there's some. But what there really is is just, there's some companies whose price journeys multiples are too low, that are just delivering amazing numbers. I go back to something that Ted Pick was talking about in his amazing conference call.

He's the CEO of Morgan Stanley, and I think he's a very, very smart man.

He is talking about that the boardroom is adjusted to Trump. Boardrooms are adjusted to these things. And they're adjusted in a fashion that is quite extraordinary. They're ready. And I think that the other day I said that the institutions on Wall Street aren't ready. They don't seem to realize that the CEOs have figured Trump out. And for the most part, I know this is something that there'll be people who hate Trump, won't want me to say, for the most part, they're really happy.

Carl Quintanilla (3:43)

Well, Jim, corporates thought they understood him in January, and then they got surprised in April. Now they understand him again. What makes you think they won't be surprised again?

Jim Cramer (3:52)

Because they're working with him now. They're talking to him. And I think it's harder to have a dialogue than to have no dialogue. I think that they were quite surprised. I think they thought they had Trump won, and they were very smug CEOs. He came in, he said, listen, it's not going to be like that this time. You're going to work hand in glove with me.

One of the things that Larry said very, very carefully to Phil in the interview was that, look, the president understands his plans. And when I spoke to Larry, just, look, you know, Jim, you have to understand, it's a different world. To a person, not to a man, to a person, they're all starting to come clean about Biden, saying that they had no relationship. There was nothing. It was really very, in many cases, frightening that that president didn't care at all about them. This president wants to speak to them.