SOTS 2nd Hour: Tech Stocks Sell-off, Home Depot Results and Is the AI Hype Over? 02/25/25

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Jim Cramer (0:59)

It's Jim Cramer here. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Don't miss a minute of the action.

Sara Eisen (1:13)

Good Tuesday morning. Welcome to another hour of Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen, here with Carl Quintanilla, David Faber, live as always from Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Take a look at stocks under pressure again today. Lost the momentum toward the close yesterday, and we're down four-tenths of a percent. Tech getting hit the hardest again here, with the Nasdaq down one percent, and the Dow hanging in there up 41 points. Treasuries are a story, because we are seeing this big bid for bonds, with yields lower. Look at the 10-year, down to 4.3 percent.

The two-year yield just below 4.1 percent. This has become the new benchmark. We know that President Trump watches it carefully, and so does the Treasury Secretary. We're 30 minutes into the trading session. Here are some movers we're watching. NVIDIA is down again, on pace for a third down day. Tesla also under pressure again, down about 4 percent right now, lower for a fourth day in a row. Shares of hims and hers health plunging. Earnings beating estimates, but gross margin fell short, raising fears about the company's GLP-1 business. More on that stock and what the story is here later on in the show. Also watching Craig Dr. Pepper rallying after a top and bottom line beat, with net sales up more than 6 percent.

Carl Quintanilla (2:23)

Stocks reacting here to some numbers on consumer confidence. Let's get to Rick Santelli. Hey, Rick.

Rick Santelli (2:29)

Yeah, markets are pretty smart. They stock market going down. Headline confidence coming in at 98.3. That's February from the Conference Board. We're expecting a number over 102 Sequentially, significantly lower than 105.3 in the rear view mirror. And it is the lightest level going back to June of last year. Now, if we look at present situation, a bit of a different story. At 136.5, it's a little better than expected. And it's better than what was in the rear view mirror. But we see a revision. Last month moves from 134 and changed to 139.9. So once again, it becomes sequentially lower. If you look at what lies ahead in form of expectations, 82.2 in the rear view mirror, which makes 72.9 the weakest level since June of 24 Now, Richmond Fed, the manufacturing index, I thought we'd be looking at 16 consecutive negative months in a row. Not to be. We got a positive number here. Moves up to 6 That's the best level going back to, wow, April of 22, April of 22

And if we look at Richmond Fed business conditions or the service side, positive one, a bit of a disappointment, but it is the fourth consecutive positive number in a row. We see that the stock market, of course, moving lower on this, interest rates moving lower, and we can say that the slowing economy is the reason for interest rates moving down, but many are saying it's a flight to safety, a safe harbor trade, which is really ironic, because if uncertainty is the reason the equity markets are moving lower, why should there be any less uncertainty in the future of treasuries, the types of issuance or the debt? So at least at this point, the old rules on treasuries seem to be working. Whenever there's nervousness, ongoing inequities, seems like the best hedge is buying treasuries. Sara, back to you.

Sara Eisen (4:27)

Okay, Rick. Thank you very much. Rick Santelli. I think one thing is for sure. This market has moved pretty quickly from worrying about inflation to worrying about growth, and you see that reflected in the bond market as well, down to look below 4.3 on the 10-year. It is somewhat good news for the overall economy though, to get buying of bonds because we've had rate pressures, mortgage rates have been super high. We felt it in the auto loans and everything else. That's why we know that the Treasury Secretary wants lower rates. Well, guess what? We have a growth scare and that's what they're getting right now. I don't think the consumer confidence numbers help in light of the University of Michigan consumer confidence numbers, which also were worse than expected. Just to get it confirmed in two different releases does make you wonder about whether that uncertainty is creeping into the minds of consumers.