Trump Slams China on Tariffs, Tamer Inflation Data, Bulls Rule in May 5/30/25

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Jim Cramer (0:59)

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

Carl Quintanilla (1:07)

Good Friday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer, David Faber at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. We close out the month of May with more tariff whiplash. The president on China says, quote, no more Mr. Nice Guy, as the treasury secretary says talks have stalled. Meantime, core PCE 25 year on year, that's the lowest in four years. A roadmap begins with the president saying China has violated its deal with the US on tariffs, as Trump's tariffs are reinstated by a federal appeals court for now.

David Faber (1:35)

And as Carl just said, last trading day in May S&P and NASDAQ are on track for what would be the best month they've had since November of 2023 despite all of this macro uncertainty. We're going to discuss if those gains can keep coming. And the biggest tech antitrust case in more than two decades is wrapping up today. This is Google awaiting its fate from a judge's ruling. We won't get the ruling today. We're getting the final arguments today.

Carl Quintanilla (2:01)

Let's begin with the markets navigating these developments surrounding tariffs. About an hour ago, the president out with a lengthy post on Truth Social, which ends with him stating that China has totally violated its agreement with the US on tariffs actually happened just as James and Greer. Jim was on Squawk. Greer tried to elaborate and argue that the countermeasures have not come off the way the US understood they would.

Jim Cramer (2:24)

Yeah, I felt bad for him because this happened at the same time. And I wasn't sure whether he had the full up front of what the president was saying. I mean, to me, the president, if he were not so mercurial, what you would say is, okay, well, whatever state of execution he gave China, that's about over. But David, when I contrast this with Secretary of Treasury Besson's more calm voice, I come out with something which just says, is this the prelude to a call to Xi?

David Faber (2:53)

I don't know. And I'm not sure anybody knows. We can all sit here and guess. I think the one conclusion would simply be what we also stated yesterday, which is this continues to create an environment of some uncertainty.

And you wonder, what is it going? What is as a result of that will not get done or will be paused in some way? It's unclear. Activity remains higher, perhaps, than many had thought given what has been an uncertain environment for so long. But yesterday, for example, we get a ruling from a court that says, no, these tariffs are not legal under the definition you're using in terms of that emergency power because that doesn't seem to be proper. And then it gets stayed. That's one day. And then today, we have China, a potential reversal. So that's the environment you've got to deal with as an investor, as a CEO, as an allocator of capital, as all those things.

Jim Cramer (3:44)

Well, I know we're going to go to Gap Inc. later on, Richard Dixon on the show. But the notion of these tariffs such a fluid situation that he didn't know whether he should take his numbers down or hit that it could be 250 million, it might be nothing. Then you get Costco. And Costco just says, OK, listen, we're going to do whatever we can to mitigate. And they are not going to raise price. But all that I hear from every company is we're doing everything we can to make it so that we don't raise price. I don't get the sense that the president understands the turmoil that our retailers are experiencing this for.