Wild Ride for Stocks, Trump's New Choices, Suspect in Killing of UnitedHealth CEO Pleads "Not Guilty" 12/23/24

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Jim Cramer (1:01)

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.

Sara Eisen (1:08)

Good Monday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Sarah Eisen here with Scott Waffner at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Carl, Jim, and David all have the morning off. Take a look at futures as we kick off this holiday shortened trading week. Remember, half day trading tomorrow, market closed Wednesday, then open for full day, Thursday and Friday. We've got a full day today as well. Futures are a little bit under pressure. Dow futures down 200, S&P down 11, and NASDAQ down a little less so. Our roadmap begins with the markets. The S&P 500 coming off its best day in a month and a half, but it's worst week since the election.

Scott Wapner (1:42)

Also ahead, President-elect Trump reacts to the post-election attention Elon Musk has been receiving. Plus the weight loss drug wars, Novo Nordisk shares rebounding after Friday's 20% slide and Eli Lilly is rising after the FDA approves upbound for the treatment of sleep apnea.

Sara Eisen (1:59)

We begin with the market after Friday's big rebound rally. You want to start with the good news or the bad news for the bulls?

Scott Wapner (2:06)

There's bad news?

Sara Eisen (2:07)

Well, the bad news is that under the hood, there are signs of decay. Eight of the 11 S&P sectors are in negative territory for the month of December. Treasury yields have marched higher and so has the US dollar. And so you could argue that stocks have more catch down to keep up with it. That's the bad news. The good news is we're in the back half of December. And typically, the second half of December is historically very strong. It's been up 83% of the time, in fact, in presidential election years, according to Bank of America. Also, tomorrow begins the so-called Santa Claus Rally, which is the last five trading days of the year and the first two of next year. This is trader almanac stuff, historical stuff. But typically, that is a very strong period on average, adding 1.3% during that period.

Scott Wapner (2:51)

I got a stat of my own. You want mine?

Sara Eisen (2:53)

Go for it.

Scott Wapner (2:53)

All right, bespoke today, breath in the market, which has been decidedly negative, has finally turned positive. So we did have 14 consecutive days where we had more down stocks than up, right? But we finally reversed that. To your point about the Fed and rates, I mean, we still know that cuts are coming, despite the tantrum that happened on Wednesday afternoon after Powell spoke. And Goolsbee reminded all of us on Friday, didn't he?

Sara Eisen (3:19)

Yeah, he's still dovish, but that was the wrong person to talk to because he's always dovish and he's always fighting for rate cuts.

Scott Wapner (3:24)

He's going to be a voter though, right?

Sara Eisen (3:25)

He's going to be a voter next year, important. But I think the message from the market was that it was a confusing message from Powell, even though it shouldn't have been. The market already had priced in two cuts for next year, and this was just the Fed catching up to the market. The market had already bullied the Fed into cutting rates at a time where maybe it shouldn't have been and it got the rate cut. So the market sort of tantrum on the Fed is more confusing to me because it was a delayed reaction, the bond market was already telling you that. Bond yields have gone one direction since the Fed started cutting rates in September, and that's higher, which is a little counterintuitive and is not really supposed to happen, which signals a few things. We've had a better economy, that's good. Inflation has been a little bit sticky on the way back down to 2%, so that's something the Fed has to watch out for.