Wrapping Up May: Inflation Watch, Dell Plunges, Musk Pay Package Update 5/31/24

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 Friday 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. Futures are pretty steady as core PCE comes in. Somewhat friendly, as expected, the softest monthly gain since November, softest annual gain in about three years. 10 years, almost back to four and a half as we head into a Fed blackout. Our roadmap begins with the Fed's favored inflation gauge. What core PCE does mean for rate policy.

David Faber (0:32)

Tech and AI also in focus. Dell has been a red hot stock. It is down double digits of this morning. Margins perhaps being one reason why, even though it did exceed analyst estimates.

And we also have Clark Proxy Advisory Firm, ISS, joining Glass Lewis. It is recommending Tesla shareholders reject Elon Musk's paid package. Massive paid package, of course, as it is.

Carl Quintanilla (0:55)

Let's begin with this market reaction to the PCE data. Jim, a lot of chatter about 0.249 and what rounding down means.

Jim Cramer (1:04)

We're back. We're back in terms of the sense that we had this little period where we thought that maybe things had popped and gotten tougher.

And some conference calls we've been hearing, you know what, we thought we were going down, trending down inflation, looks like we're trending up. I think we can go back to the, we're okay. I mean, David, you know this number, which of course we always have to say is the Fed preferred gauge.

David Faber (1:26)

Yes.

Jim Cramer (1:27)

It does signal that maybe the trajectory, the slow unwind of inflation is still happening.

David Faber (1:36)

Good, I'm glad.

I don't have anything to offer. I mean, what can I possibly offer that would be insightful?

Jim Cramer (1:45)

That's the great way to start a show. Imagine if you started a football game and Tony Romo said, you know what, I have nothing to offer.

David Faber (1:50)

You know what, I got lots this morning. None of it has to do with this.

Jim Cramer (1:54)

Well, you have mostly Lionsgate studios.

David Faber (1:56)

No, I don't have that. Top of the morning to you. Yeah, I don't have Lionsgate, but we got Dell to talk about, we got MongoDB to talk about, we got activism to talk about.

Jim Cramer (2:05)

Okay, we have all the, but I'm just saying that the backdrop to what we're talking about got incrementally better. That's all I was really saying. I didn't mean to be attacked. I didn't mean it to be kind of a white post. I wasn't attacked.

Carl Quintanilla (2:18)

Three month annual ice goes to just below three and a half, Jim, that is lower than the last couple of months, still higher than the back half of last year.

Jim Cramer (2:27)

That's the problem is we've got to get back to it. Look, if you're one of those people who says rate cut this year, you got to get back to where we were when Jay was really happy with things. But when Jay said over and over again, we've got to get three months. Well, I mean, I could argue that this is just month one. We got to start the clock again.

They are in no hurry. I still think that I fed president Neal Kashkar really did express what is on many people's minds on Wall Street, which is, hey, listen, it didn't hurt our economy until we see, this is my view, until we see 4.1, 4.2 unemployment, then just go about your business.

Carl Quintanilla (3:07)

Yeah, I know we always cite Yardeni, but he did look at claims yesterday, below 220 yet again, and says next Friday, probably gonna be sub four for a record setting 28 months in a row.

Jim Cramer (3:19)

Well, I mean, only of course on Wall Street do we not celebrate the greatest streak in our country's history of hiring, which is really incredible.

It's funny, I know we're gonna discuss and I'm not ever comfortable discussing politics, but if you didn't have an election year, I think you would say, Europe, they're doing terribly and they're talking about cutting. We have an economy, let's see if David bites into this. David, we have an economy that creates jobs that the founding fathers would have said, you know what, we got this thing down right.

David Faber (3:53)

It's true.

Jim Cramer (3:53)

You know, like Hamill and stuff, it's like Jefferson.

David Faber (3:55)