Walmart Beats, OpenAI's Altman and Anthropic's Amodei Talk Exclusively to CNBC 2/19/26

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Dario Amodei (0:28)

Thy ticket, Lady Jennifer of Coolidge.

Jim Cramer (0:31)

Well, many thanks, good sir.

SPEAKER_4 (0:33)

Heareth my Discover card.

SPEAKER_5 (0:36)

They accept Discover at Renaissance Fairs? Yeah, they do here. Discover is accepted at the places I love to shop. Getteth with the times.

SPEAKER_1 (0:45)

With the times?

SPEAKER_6 (0:46)

You're playing the lute.

Dario Amodei (0:49)

Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right?

SPEAKER_7 (0:51)

Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen Report.

Carl Quintanilla (0:58)

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, David Faber at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Little queasiness in the pre-market, as Walmart does guide below for the full year. Oil hits a seven-month high amid some of these tensions in the Middle East, and some other headlines dinging private credit today. 10 years back to $410 at a one-month high. Our roadmap begins with Walmart. Retail giant posts a strong quarter, but earnings outlook does fall short of estimates.

David Faber (1:38)

Plus OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei. Speaking exclusively with CNBC about the AI landscape. And we are watching the private credit sector reports that Blue Owl permanently freezing redemptions in one of its key BDC funds, for example, pressuring that stock a bit.

Carl Quintanilla (1:58)

Let's begin with the markets on track for a lower open after posting some gains yesterday, Jim. Aztec did sort of reassert itself. Would you put it that way?

David Faber (2:05)

Yeah.

Jim Cramer (2:05)

I mean, look, there was this period between 3 and 340 where it could have gone either way inside the rally. A lot of things key off of NVIDIA. This morning at 4, the market was looking flat. And I don't know what happened between 4 and 440, other than if you read the New York Times, it had the outline of every single ship and exactly how close we are. David, I think that we're all kind of unrealistic. Tomorrow, all we're going to talk about is what are we going to do with that gigantic armada that we have. Because it doesn't seem like the president gets an armada together and just says, hey guys, we're going to be together. It's not war games.

David Faber (2:41)

Why are we talking about tomorrow?

Jim Cramer (2:43)

Well, because I'm trying to anticipate what people will do.

Dario Amodei (2:46)

Nice tie.

Jim Cramer (2:47)

First, I thought I needed a pink shirt. Thank you.

David Faber (2:49)

Very pretty. There is a focus on this. Obviously, the Journal devotes a lot of column inches to it today in terms of detailing all of the armaments that are now in place and will be. But it still remains very much unclear what military action, if any, will be undertaken.

Jim Cramer (3:07)

Well, they obviously have to do some giving. Gold goes up again. This Bitcoin, what does it correlate with? It's down again. What does it correlate with?

David Faber (3:16)

Risk assets, right?

Golf? Not a store of value. Golf?

Jim Cramer (3:20)

That's part of Versant?

David Faber (3:22)

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_7 (3:23)

Yes, a great part of Versant.

David Faber (3:24)

That's true. I don't know. You tell me. What does it mean, by the way, that it doesn't seem to correlate with all the things it was supposed to because it's obviously not digital gold or a store of value, at least not being treated that way right now.

Jim Cramer (3:35)

It trades with worthless stocks. Anyway, I only bring it out because tomorrow I think is when people are going to say, you know what, it's no longer, that Joe Ford is no longer off Gibraltar. Now it's next to Israel. And what do we have to do? I wish we had thought about it yesterday. So I'm just trying to put it out there today.

Carl Quintanilla (3:54)

No, it's on the mind of the market. We have more air power there now in theater, as they say, since the Iraq invasion of 3