Trump Transition and the Musk Effect, Nvidia Under Pressure, CVS Board Shakeup 11/18/24

Jim Cramer (0:00)

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.

Carl Quintanilla (0:07)

Good Monday 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. Take a look at the pre-market. Bulls trying to protect some of this post-election rally, which about half has been undone in the past week or so. Big week for retail earnings, of course, and Nvidia on Wednesday. Our roadmap is gonna begin with some exciting stuff. We'll talk about stocks and the markets and earnings and the Trump trade. David?

David Faber (0:33)

Yeah, we will. Elon Musk in the post-election boost for Tesla as well. Those shares were up sharply in the pre-market and Nvidia shares are also under pressure. As you heard Joe just mention, according to tech publication, the information, the company has asked suppliers to change the design of the server racks for its new Blackwell AI chips due to overheating issues. We'll have more on that as well, guys.

Carl Quintanilla (0:58)

Let's begin with Elon Musk in this post-election. The boost for Tesla shares are up sharply in the pre-market. According to Bloomberg, some members of the Trump transition team are looking to create a new federal framework that would essentially ease rules for full self-driving. Jim, the report goes on to say that they're apparently going to be a top priority for DOT.

Jim Cramer (1:17)

Right. I think that we have to recognize that there are a lot of things that are coming out of Washington that sound really authoritative and sound like basically their layups.

And then you have this problem that these were all things that were left to the states and the cities. So suddenly the federal government is trying to claw back something. And David, you can't do that. Unless we're a federal system, but we have left certain requirements about everything from insurance and vehicle inspection to the states. So you can't just like say, you know what? This is a federal issue and we're going to let people drive these cars. It just, it won't, the government will be sued, it won't happen. It's just something to talk about.

David Faber (1:56)

Okay. I feel like we did that a lot during the first Trump administration. We would talk about a lot of things because he tweets something or whatever, and then it would never actually happen. Is that, do you put that in, do you put this in that category?

Jim Cramer (2:09)

Well, I think it's a little, you know, a little more firepower because you have Musk in there going for it.

David Faber (2:14)

Yeah.

Jim Cramer (2:14)

In the end, you know, we do have a regulatory framework and the regulatory framework cannot be blown up as easily as if we're going to say, you know what, we're going to frack on national land. It's not like that. You know, we're not going to, there's no national land we're going to drive on. Remember, I posed to you last week that the interstate highway system is indeed federal, but the lead up to the interstate highway system is controlled by the states and by local government. So you can't just, so yes, I'm going to say that even though this has more authority, this isn't what's going to make it happen.

David Faber (2:49)

That said, Mr. Musk seems to have significant influence at least at this point. Now, whether that will be maintained, grow, diminish, I don't know. But certainly he does seem to be involved based on the reports that we all read in a lot of the decision-making that is going on, including the appointment of, for example, the Treasury Secretary, the debate for which continues.

Jim Cramer (3:13)

Well, look, I had the CEO of Energy on last week. The Energy has got nukes. And we were talking about how great it would be to have a nuclear power grid and how terrific it would be. And it looks like the new Energy Secretary might even like that. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because we're stuck with this system since the Federalist Papers that you can't really throw out. I mean, Carl, we can all talk about it as if there is no government other than the Federal government. But in the end, I don't know if we're doing our viewers a disservice and just saying, look, this can happen. I do believe that Tesla's self-driving is terrific. And it should have every right to be. But that doesn't make it.

Carl Quintanilla (3:54)

Sounds like you're really underestimating their resolve, Jim, in undoing huge pieces of the administrative state.