Wholesale Inflation's Big Drop, Amazon CEO's Annual Letter to Shareholders 4/13/23

Carl Quintanilla (0:00)

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. Bit of an echo of yesterday.

Only this time, it's PPI that comes in light down half a point. Year on year up to seven, jobless claims also a little higher than expected. A roadmap begins with the continued signs of cooling inflation, wholesale prices notching their biggest drop in three years while Mary Daly says the Fed still has more work to do.

David Faber (0:33)

Plus Amazon CEO warning of short-term headwinds for its AWS business, but says he remains confident that he can get company costs under control.

And Apple continues that pivot out of China, at least when it comes to manufacturing. It is boosting its manufacturing investments in India and Thailand.

Carl Quintanilla (0:52)

Let's begin with the market reaction to this morning's PPI data. As we mentioned, Jim, up to seven year on year, we all remember that 11 handle not too long ago.

Jim Cramer (1:01)

Right. The trajectory is so positive. The rhetoric is so bad.

It's almost as if the Fed people are saying, look, we're not seeing the numbers we want.

And then you say to yourself, okay, so do you think that you can literally go from plus 11, whatever, to minus two? Why don't you be a little realistic and take a look at the trajectory and say, you know what, we gotta wait, trajectory is going our way.

And David, one of the things that I've seen, I mean, the dogmatic nature of the Fed is very opposite of what I would have said they were when they were a little more data determined. I think they feel like they got burned on being data determined, and instead they just had to have a hard line.

David Faber (1:41)

When did they get burned? When they didn't move quickly enough to raise rates, you mean, in terms of being data dependent?

Jim Cramer (1:46)

You know, that early, that winter spike up where, if February's very strong.

David Faber (1:50)

Right.

Jim Cramer (1:51)

If February surprised them, and they, I don't know why, I mean, the long rates went down, the mortgage rates were good, I mean, jobs were pretty plentiful. But I think that February made them feel like, you know what, we're going to have to change the way we look at things.

We're going to have to say that things are strong until they're not. Because we looked foolish and we looked less determined than we should have been in February.

So, I mean, you're stuck with this fighting last war dogmatism, and it could hurt the economy and the stock market.

David Faber (2:22)

Okay, although you were getting more positive on the market a little bit I thought earlier this week.

Jim Cramer (2:30)

Well, I mean, I am positive on the market simply because I like the setup.

David Faber (2:34)

Okay.

Jim Cramer (2:35)

We're going into earnings and, you know, everyone's kind of just sitting in their earnings periods. I mean, I was listening to this morning, to Frank Holland this morning, and Gene Sinchez was on.

It's like, okay, earnings will be down 5 to 7 percent. Okay, so where did that come from? Where are they going to be down 5 to 7 percent? I mean, here, I got this.

David Faber (2:55)

Right. Your point has been that half the S&P is potentially a bargain.

Jim Cramer (3:00)

Yes. And I just find that we don't want to get caught up too much in what Mary Daly's saying. Was she San Francisco Fed?

She had her eye on the prize, right? Now, which one did she scrutinize? Was she on Silicon Valley Bank? Was she on First Republic?

I mean, which one did she drill down on? The mint? You know, they got a mint out there. The coins.

David Faber (3:22)

I mean, they are so consistent to coins.

Jim Cramer (3:24)

I mean, the guy who does the mint coins. I mean, the quarter looks like the quarter every time. They can put out quarters from now to the cash come home. They all look the same. So maybe she's got some game.

David Faber (3:34)

You're gone out there now, but come back to rates. So what, 25 basis points is going to scare you if we get another 25 or you feel as though what?

Jim Cramer (3:41)

Well, look, I wouldn't be crazy about 25 because I don't want to see banks.