Walmart Falls on Earnings, U.S.-EU Trade Details, Disney Launches New ESPN DTC Streaming Service 8/21/25

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Jim Cramer (1:02)

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 (1:09)

Good Thursday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with David Faber, Sara Eisen at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Cramer has the morning off. SMP's eyeing a fifth consecutive day lower, something we've not seen since January. As Jackson Hole kicks off, September rate cut odds actually decline a little bit.

Walmart says its own tariff-related costs are rising. With each passing week, we'll get to all of it. Our roadmap begins with Walmart shares under pressure after saying tariff costs continue to jump, but the retail giant is raising its outlook.

Sara Eisen (1:39)

Plus, the US and the European Union are revealing new details about their trade deal, including tariffs on pharma and semiconductors.

David Faber (1:46)

And Disney's new ESPN flagship streaming service launches today. What is at stake for the company, for its investors? I'm going to have an exclusive with the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, and the Chairman of ESPN, Jimmy Pataro. That will be in the next hour.

Carl Quintanilla (2:00)

Let's begin with Marko Reaction to Walmart's results and guidance. COPS here are pretty steady and solid in the fours. Four six is a beat. They raised their guidance for the year. Some of the commentary coming out of the call, and I know you spoke to the company, does sort of pivot around their own costs and how they expect it to be increasing in Q3, Q4.

Sara Eisen (2:20)

I mean, if you strip out a lot of one-offs, which is why you got the earnings missed, they had, you know, increased insurance costs around labor and stuff like that, then it's very, it's solid growth. And actually, if you strip out all the one-offs, it's operating profit that's growing faster than sales, and the underlying sales trend is actually quite good. 4.6% US comps. I mean, yes, they had a high bar, 1.5% transaction growth, ticket growth, 3.1%.

And here, I thought was the highlight, e-commerce growth, up 26%. The prior quarter was 21%, so an acceleration there, in part because advertising is really rising steadily. That was like a 50% gain. But I did talk to the CFO, John David Rainey, and what we talked about was the strength they're seeing. They continue to gain share, he told me, with high-income consumers. They don't call it trading down, but clearly they're expanding their customer base there. We talked about the e-commerce growth quite a bit. He said, we expanded our offerings there, doubled profitability in e-commerce, a third of online transactions that they're seeing. Customers are paying more for expedited service. So they're really trying to work on their service features. He said, by the end of the year, we'll serve 95 percent of America in under three hours. That was a new stat. Just in terms of just how fast they've been able to move when it comes to supply chain and logistics and delivery. On the consumer, what we talked about, the gaining share, also, he said, there's been an uptick in apparel and fashion demand. General merchandise gross with low single digits, that's actually an improvement. Carl, he said, the consumer's relatively consistent and resilient, and that speaks to the fact that you can't see wallets that pressured when they're seeing the kind of growth they're seeing in general merchandise.

David Faber (4:02)

Sara, stocks had a very good year, up 36 percent over the last 12 months. That said, it looks like it's going to open down. I'm curious as to why.