Rebounding After the Sell-off, Micron CEO Exclusive, WBD-Paramount Watch 12/21/23

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

What's on the horizon for financial markets?

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Carl Quintanilla (0:31)

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 Night of the New York Stock Exchange. David Faber at Morgan Stanley's HQ, where I'll have an exclusive with CEO James Gorman in the next hour. Meantime futures bounce from Wednesday's spill. Worst day for the S&P since September. This morning's data fairly dovish. Final Q3 GDP. Philly Fed both miss. Tenure 383 is a new cycle low. A roadmap begins with this halted rally, but futures do point to a rebound.

Micron riding the AI wave. Shares on track for the highest close since early 22 And Sanjay Mehrotra is going to join us this hour. And Warner Bros. Discovery early talks about a deal with Paramount. Of course, we will discuss.

Let's begin, though, with David ahead of his interview with Morgan Stanley's James Gorman. We mentioned yesterday, David, so many different avenues to tread with James today.

David Faber (1:30)

Yeah, you know, listen, it's always an interesting opportunity, Carl, to sit down with somebody who's been running an institution as Mr. Gorman has here at Morgan Stanley for let's call it the last 14 years and has obviously had a significant track record of success over that period of time. The stock certainly outperforming, for example, their chief rival, Goldman Sachs and many others in the group as well. One way that we judge. But, you know, it'll be an interesting opportunity to sort of talk to him, have him be somewhat reflective, I hope, in terms of those 14 years, how things have changed, how they haven't, and what his views are of sort of where the industry sits right now and where Morgan Stanley sits in terms of how he's leaving this institution. Obviously, leaving the CEO role, as you guys know, but will remain as executive chairman for roughly another year or so. But still a significant exit, so to speak, from the financial services industry, and we're certainly happy to have the opportunity to talk to Mr. Gorman about that. As you said, Carl, in the next hour, we'll be walking the street.

Jim Cramer (2:25)

You know, David, it will be so good to hear about someone in the industry. You said, we're going to get out of all the controversial things, that they don't work, all the things that people, the high-fluten things, the government doesn't like them. And he had that vision, David, and that vision really paid off, didn't it?

David Faber (2:43)

Yeah, I mean, you know, there were opportunities, and he took advantage of them, is the way, certainly one person who knows Gorman well and worked with him for a long time, sort of put it to me, Jim, you know, whether it was the opportunity obviously to take in Solomon Smith Barney and or some of the others and transform really this institution to a certain extent as a result of those deals and then execute, right? That's always the key part. You got to take advantage of your opportunities and you have to actually execute on them. And I think it's fair to say, I know you believe that Gorman did both.

Jim Cramer (3:14)

Oh, yeah. No, I'm a total believer. It's a huge position for my travel trust. And it's really because of Gorman's leadership that he understood that he is going to be an asset gatherer. He's really one of the great private money gatherers. And it's the division that everybody now wants.

And he had the vision to understand that it was worth leading with.

A lot of people really screwed up. This guy did not screw up. And sometimes, you know what, David, that's all it takes.

David Faber (3:41)

That's true, particularly Carl and Financial Services.

As we well know, it is 15 years ago, but that memory of the global financial crisis is still with us. So, yes, we do understand that.

Carl Quintanilla (3:55)

Yeah, we've been tracking some of the top picks for 2024 Today, Evercore, B of A, KKR and Morgan Stanley.

Jim Cramer (4:03)

Well, I'll tell you, his performance has only exceeded, David hoped to bring it out, by his humility. I mean, this is a person who came from very humble galleys, but it was like really humble. You know how people are always like humble when you're at Wall Street means you only have three houses?