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It's Jim Kramer here. You're listening to the opening bell on CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Don't miss a minute of the action. Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Kingston here with Jim Kramer, David Faber at Post Night of the New York Stock Exchange. Futures are steady as CPI does come in light below 3% year on year, first time since 2021. That's two dovish prints this week as we wait retail sales tomorrow. Our roadmap begins with the inflation picture. Consumer prices in line month on month as well, likely keeping a rate cut on the table for September. Plus it is the biggest deal of the year, Candy Giant Mars acquiring Kelanova, equity value around $30 billion, $83.50 a share. We're going to break down the details around this snacking deal. And shares of Nvidia continue to rebound. Up double digits for the week already. That's about $400 billion in additional market value in just four days. Let's begin with this market reaction to CPI. 2/10 month on month is in line, although Jim unrounded 1, 5, 4, 9 is a kind of a dovish 2/10. Yeah, look, if it's all shelter and we just saw some really good numbers, by the way, for a mortgage and refied, then maybe that takes care of itself. I think what's happened is that housing has finally gotten to the point where people are saying, wait a second, it's a game of chicken. Maybe I should kind of let it go right now. I think we all know people who've been saying, I can hold, I can hold you kind of like a brave heart. And now they realize, well, wait a second. If I wait a second longer, maybe it's going to fall. And then once it falls, David, it really falls. It falls. Once it falls, it falls. Well, it falls like Niagara Falls, not Victoria Falls, but it falls. So bigger falling. Bigger falling. Yeah, well, no, no. I mean, look, we are building a bit of an inventory. And in some parts of the country, the inventory is worse than others, particularly places that were very inflated, Florida, Arizona. So you're starting to see people say, you know what, maybe I want to take it. Now, I get this because home people had some incredible stuff to say about the golden lock up from rates. In other words, these rates were like so low that people have mortgages 2 and 3 golden handcuffs. And now they're saying, you know what, people are starting to have families. And they can't stay in these homes, even if they have. What are you doing? I'm like talking to you. I'm just futzing with my wire, you know, Carl, while he's futzing with his wire. I mean, there's a lot of people who are just saying, you know what, I have to have a bigger house. I can't really care all about a percent and a half. Even if you don't move, Jim, refies today up 34 and a half percent. That's the best since May of 22. And we're going to, by the way, Home Depot did finish off paper being down 15. And one of the things that you've been waiting for is home equity loans because the amount of equity in people's homes since 2019 is extraordinary and it's being tapped into. Which would mean what? Good for consumer spend in the way. It's going to be like we're talking about a weakening consumer. That's what we talk about every day now. Right. Remember, we're at the fulcrum where if you start cutting rates, people will then tap into the one, I think, the asset that they have that is appreciated. Yes. You know, when you have an asset that's appreciated giganticly, as Home Depot said last night, yesterday morning. Well, I mean, you want to use it, but you don't want to use it if you're getting 8% on a HELOC. But if you can get a good price on that, then you can start doing things. You can remodel. You can renovate. That's very important. Right now, all people have been doing is painting, buying some grills. But you can remodel or you can maybe trade up. Airfarers, we're down here on year. Use cars, insurance. Wow. We're still the wrinkle. I am the going up one. Starting to see some ads for cheaper insurance. And I'm quite aware of them. Some of them are on our network. So I see them. I watch our network. Not buying your insurance. Not the gold mine under your house. No, David, that has much more to do with the idea of sitting on a gold bank. If you die immediately, somebody really wins. Somebody wins big. Right. No, that's it. That's it. That's it. Form a gambling and we're probably going to talk about flutter. Actually, I am going to. You are? Yes. And draft Kings. We'll wait to do that around the bell and explain why those ads may be up this morning. So as far as what investors' playbooks look like now, B of A, great piece today out of Savita saying, and very much rhyming with what you say, Jim, which is if you're going to broaden beyond Mag 7, look to the equal weight, not the Russell. Yeah, look, the under that was such a good piece. I mean, sometimes you see these pieces and you say, this thing, the recent pullback, the S&P 500 equal weight is trading at an extreme discount, the SP 500. It just seems like you have to kind of do it. I mean, when you see a piece like this, it's really a pleasure because it says, I got to start thinking like that. I got to start looking equal weight. But I also have to tell you that when I see an video underneath it going up, David, you know, I think they can't, they just can't get away from it. You can't keep. You can't keep up. What do you make? What do you make of that significant rebound that we've seen in the stock in the last, let's call it four sessions? Well, okay. I think that there was an article in a publication that came out over a weekend. I'm not going to mention the name of the publication, which said that their major product, Blackwell, could be very late and that that is going to set back the hyperscalers, the tech titans. I have, as I said from the day that that story came out, not been able to verify a single word of that story. Not one. Many people respond, or those who are supportive, responded immediately, saying it's not a demand issue anyway. So even if Blackwell is delayed, you just sell more H100s and a very high one at a very high margin. So you think the stock got hit on that? Yes, I do. And it was kind of, look, you've been around. You guys have been around. Sometimes there's stories to come out and they cause a ruckus and they're very hard to check out because it's quiet period. Now, look, I have a great relationship with the video. I'm proud of that over multiple years. One of the things I'm proud of is that they won't tell me that. They said, listen, we're in the quiet period. And then you say, well, you know, guys, I just need to verify. No, we're in a quiet period. And after a while, you realize they're not budget because that's not who they are. So they were pitiful, helpless, giant. When that article came out, not only the United States at one point under President Nixon, and I do feel that that's what got it. Main time you got this Foxconn profit beat, profit up six, reiterate the full year guide, demand for AI servers, some commentary about the GB 200. Yeah, look, yes, that is a very expensive piece. But development apparently on track. Right, it's on track. And I think that when you see stuff like that, you keep saying, okay, then why did some publication come out and say that everybody's going to be hurt by this being off track, knowing that you can't refute that story. So I can't refute that, which you may be incredibly frustrated because everything that I've been told was Jim, it's on plan. From the last time we said it, nothing changed, but we can't talk about it. We're back to Blackwell now. Well, yeah, because the Blackwell- Okay, just making sure I just wanted- No, because Blackwell, they had come out with a plan. They didn't say it was going to ship in volume. They didn't. They never said it. So suddenly you have this full straw man. They're going to ship in volume. It turns out they're late and it's going to crush Google, even worse than Canner. Jonathan Canner from Andy Trust. Is he coming on today? He seems to come on every day. Every other day. So he'll be on tomorrow with us? Yeah, he will be. Jonathan Gray is going to take a day off. Jonathan Gray does not come on. Jonathan, the reason why the interview was so great is Jonathan Gray husbands himself. Yes, and also he can discuss things across a broad variety of topics. Jonathan Canner is much more focused on anti-trust. He must have read what warnings on horseback. What happened? Did he- The Bumu's party? I mean, what did he read? Did he, like, real those moments when Teddy, when Chiar, was going after Standard Royal and created one of the greatest value creations in the history of breaking up Standard Royal? Maybe. Maybe that is what inspired him at the D.J. We're going to talk more about, of course- Is that another round of the bill? What can I talk about right now? Kelanova? Yeah, we'll talk Kelanova. Let's get to the biggest deal of the year. At least enterprise value-wise, when you add in debt, it gets around $35 billion. When you do equity value, at least based on the number in the merger agreement, you need somewhere closer to $29 or so billion in equity value. That's not what shareholders care about. What they care about is $83.50, and you can see trading pretty tight to that in the early going here. You are going to get a number of dividends at $0.57 for each quarter. So add that in at least a couple, if not three of those, and you're getting closer to $85. It was a significant premium to the closing price prior to reports of the potential of a transaction, at least talks between Mars and Kelanova. They're talking all about snacking. They're lining up their various snacking portfolios. Obviously, for Kelanova, we're talking about a company that was not that long ago split off. Remember, Kellogg is now just those serial businesses domestically that everybody knows well, but this is the growth business, so to speak, whether it's Cheez-Its or Pringles or Pop Tarts or Eggo Waffles. You get the picture. There's some of the look in terms of what... And Mars is a huge company, private, as we know, but enormous with what, $15 billion brands alone. These guys have a couple, and they're getting bigger in snacking. Now, as for the deal itself, they signed the confidentiality agreement back on July 4th, August 2nd, sort of on documents and things of that nature. I've talked about the presence of an activist in these shares for some time. It was actually early in the years. Long ago, it was February that TCIM got involved there. My understanding is they were certainly threatening to go after board seats. They wanted operational improvements, but I think the real hope was that this thing would get bought. When I checked with a lot of bankers at the time, though, Jim, almost uniformly the bankers that I approached who know this area were like, "No, timing's not right. You know, an activist gets involved, but really they don't understand how it works in terms of companies when they're ready to do a deal and they're not. And so whether it's Mars or Mondalees or Hershey, those were sort of the names that were most likely to at least be interested. I was told no. And of course, the number of months later, yes. And in fact, this deal is now done again, the largest of the year. And Mars is private. So, Kalanova becomes part of an enormous private company. Well, David, I think it's great that you mentioned stress that private. And the reason I say that is because Smucker Boy hosts this. Smucker is a pretty good company. Yes. And forever it's going to be tagged as the deal that was flying the face of GOP dashboards. And also, by the way, at 18 times, that set a bar that was quite high in terms of the multiple. I should point out the multiple here, closer to about 16 and a half times EBITDA, which is what many had anticipated might be a number that a lot of those who play these things thought maybe we'd get mid-80s. And frankly, we more or less did when you include dividends. But that hostess multiple also, Jim, was quite high. No, that was not a good deal. I feel that they haven't, you know, hasn't hurt them, but the stock does nothing. David, I have to tell you, when I look at their portfolio, initially I said, "Oh my god, did they just sit there and buy like the absolute worst snacks?" It's the opposite. They have, they're going to dominate a section of the market, which is the kind bar and neutral green bar, which is somewhere you want to be, because that is not a GOP dash one enemy. By the way, on the subject of antitrust, there was some question as to if there's a snack bar overlap, if there's anything-- Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm just saying you look at a deal like this, you just always take into account, is there any antitrust risk? There doesn't seem to be much of any except in that one area where they would control at least more than a quarter of the market. They throw pop towards in at the, by the way, they actually have, you know, they've got some things that are, I think, are export, very attractive, but they also are going to own the cracker oil. The crackers are good. I mean, you can surround risk if you want to. Remember when you're didn't have enough money and you make that mock-up? Ritzvatt are delicious. I will just tell you. And so many different varieties. We're going to talk to both of them, both sides in the 11. That's going to be so great. And Mars doesn't talk very much. Not at all. This is their biggest deal, bigger than Riggly, back in 18, wasn't it? He's a hitter. This guy, the guy from Amazon. Oh, wait, and the Mars family very involved, too, Valy and Mars, they're still very much involved. At the moment, I'm going to be looking forward to that. Can I give you one other answer? Kay Helene hits the bid, unclear. I think Hershey, at least, was trying to see if they could mount something. I don't want to go too far on that, but it doesn't appear that there's going to be any other bid here, particularly given what is at least the price that came in, more or less, where it had been anticipated. Not the 18 multiple, but some that hope for. But she's it, obviously, fits in with this cracker theory. But the one that is really interesting is Eggo, because the frozen food aisle is considered to be denizens, Gen X, Mario. You can make them at home. Now, I remember when this thing was conceived in the early '80s. And you were there for the genesis of Eggo? No, but it was one of my closest friends, my lost track of Adam Stakliano, one of the great brand managers of our lifetime, was on it. He was on it, and a lot of people felt like, are you kidding? I remember what he purchased. What is it about frozen waffle? I said, well, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You make waffles. Well, David, now look at it. They showed they showed you. They showed. Stag. Stag was Adam. If you're watching, congratulations. We'll talk more about the impact of GLP ones, because this flies in the face of GLP ones. Well, yeah, it does. But in the meantime, it was at least something to talk about. I thought we'd have to just talk about the CPI for 17. I think you've spoken off about that. Thank you. It's a good number. Good way to lead. There's a lot more, too. When we come back, a former Google Chief Eric Schmidt takes his old company to task over its work-from-home policy. Of course, we'll talk about these reports about DOJ, the AI event yesterday. Take a look at the pre-market. Interesting to see CPI not really moving the needle much in either direction. Future is pretty steady. Squawk on the streets back in a minute. Walmart Plus members save on meeting up with friends. Save on having them over for dinner with free delivery with no hidden fees or markups. That's groceries, plus napkins, plus that vegetable chopper to make things a bit easier. Plus, members save on gas to go meet them in their neck of the woods. Plus, when you're ready for the ultimate sign of friendship, start a show together with your included Paramount Plus subscription. Walmart Plus members save on this plus so much more. Start a 30-day free trial at walmartplus.com. Paramount Plus is central plan only. Separate registration required, see Walmart Plus terms and conditions. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Imagine earning a degree that prepares you with real skills for the real world. Capella University's programs teach skills relevant to your career so you can apply what you learn right away. Learn how Capella can make a difference in your life at Capella.edu. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has a complaint about the company he used to run. He suggests the tech giants remote work policy has contributed to its struggles in AI. Schmidt's comments were made during a discussion at Stanford. The University School of Engineering released this video of his remarks yesterday. Google decided that work life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning. And the startups, the reason startups work is because the people work like hell. And I'm sorry to be so blunt. But the fact of the matter is if you all leave the University and go found a company, you're not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete against the other startups. Some argue Jim, this took a little shine off of the AI event yesterday. Yeah, look, I think that I think he's right. Look, I say, I mean, there are two different kinds of work. There's the work where you decided, all right, listen, I'm going to roll with dice, be on my own, do this kind of thing. And then there's where you come in and you wear a suit or you wear like shorts. I don't know. And they say, you look, you work at home, we don't care. And I think that the collaboration at this level is everything you have. If you're on your own, you're not going to collaborate. I don't know how it works. How's it work? We've been saying this for years at this point. It doesn't matter. I mean, Friday certainly or a day that most people do not come to the office, I think it's fair to say in this country. That said, a lot of companies are back to at least expecting four days a week, which probably gets it done for the most part in terms of accomplishing the things you're talking about. But Google is not that, not that place, as much as they may have wanted many of their employees to come back. They've been at war in a sense with their employee base in terms of working remotely and not. And, you know, we have all question how you can have a sense of urgency in an organization in terms of attacking something such as a huge sea change to your business's AI by all just sort of been, you know, not together. By the way, we should point out those comments were from some time ago. Stanford just released the video and that's why it's getting attention. But as you might imagine, Stanford's not in session right now, don't believe so. That was from a number of months ago as our understanding. But it is now being made public. I'd like to know whether the athletes from Stanford who meddled, did they all get together? Because they don't seem like they didn't work front. Ledecky would be one. I think Ledecky probably worked Friday with a glass of milk on her head. As for the DOJ reports, Jim, I know you've been all over the notion of a breakup and what do that would do to overall value? Well, would that be terrific? I mean, if John, if John the Cannon wants to, I mean, maybe he switched to the Bulls. He's been on the bear side. Because, you know, first of all, you have Waymo in there. No one even knows what Waymo does. You have the other bets. Maybe they'd be worth something. The search is such a good business. On the last conference call, they completely blew what YouTube was worth. Maybe if someone was really just a great spokesman for YouTube, we would know they were doing. I think that their PC or you could Android is great. This thing is so terrific that it should be broken up into five or six companies. And it would be, you know. So T.P. Huh? So T.P. I think that can or use a price for the parts. He's a price target at 200. Yeah, he's right now. He had been a sell. It was a double upgrade. We should make the point that what the DOJ wants is not necessarily what the judge would recommend as a remedy. Not to mention, of course, the appeals process is going to stretch out over years. So there is unlikely to be any significant conclusion to the victory by the US. Well, it almost seems like it's a race against the clock. It's almost like there's an election. And maybe these people won't be there so they ought to do it now. Yeah, we also always make the point that the technology ends up moving past the remedies. Oh, okay. So if you who uses Google when you use meta AI, meta AI is I got to tell you guys, don't don't you the less AI available on WhatsApp. Are you aware of that as well? Yeah, it's everywhere. Yeah. But I got one meta AI maybe 20 times a day. And I've only had one miss, almost one who was a llama. Yeah, it's powered by llama. They have all the information in the world. It's so good. Really? I guess you're an open source. How tell I got out of Stagliano, the man, the man behind Lego, my ego. David, my ego. Hey, man, I still eat life cereal. Mikey Mikey likes it. Life. Yeah. Is that General Mills or is that is that? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Quaker. It is course. It's Quaker. Yes. I put Tony the entire my tank. So that every morning, like I am literally in as fascinating as this is. They're making us go to break. Can you believe that? I can't wait to talk about our cereal choices. We'll get Kramer's mad dash count down to the opening bell. We'll get to a bunch of other names today that got some news on till Ray news out of Victoria's secret. Avon. A lot more. Stay with us. Walmart plus members save on meeting up with friends. Save on having them over for dinner with free delivery with no hidden fees or markups. That's groceries plus napkins plus that vegetable chopper to make things a bit easier. Plus, members save on gas to go meet them in their neck of the woods. Plus, when you're ready for the ultimate sign of friendship, start a show together with your included Paramount Plus subscription. Walmart plus members save on this plus so much more. Start a 30 day free trial at walmartplus.com. Paramount plus a central plan only. Separate registration required. See Walmart plus terms and conditions. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B. But with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linkedin, the place to be to be. Generally helping tech sentiment, arm and micron, a CMI and video. The top four on the NDX at the open. That opening bell is coming up in four minutes. Don't go anywhere. We'll come up with a piece of paper. Downgrading Pol T home. Very good home builder. Just look, Florida. Very concentrated there. They have a lot. Florida resil inventory rise has been more below normalize levels nationally. But now look at this. It's at 4.6 months compared to 2.8. So inventory going up in the Florida market. If you're in that market, you're saying, oh my god, I think I might have missed a cop. And that's how you get a real cop. Let's get the opening bell here in the CNBC Realtime Exchange. You're the big board. It is realty income celebrating its 30th listing anniversary of the NASDAQ. It is the Microsoft and their summer mentorship program. I've been recommending a realty income program in time call because a lot of our viewers watch a show and they want monthly income. And realty income is a monthly dividend. Really kind of great. Brett's filling in here pretty evenly, Jim. About 10 point shy of the 50 day on the S&P. Some argue that's going to be an interesting test. Wow. I mean, what do we hold the 200 before? I think there's a lot of technically driven stuff. And that was because we didn't understand why we were going down to begin with. And when you were away, David talked about the end carry trade. And we just sat here and laughed. Because what it really is is about money matters. It's something complacent and they're for wrong. And then they started flailing over the place, you know? RK goes. How you doing? Oh, gosh, RK goes. But here we are a little more than a week past that and things have calmed down greatly. Obviously that VIX print that was really pre-market of 63.2. It wasn't really real. It was high. It was. It was. It was. It was. And it's obviously not nearly as high at this point. And video continues. It's a scent, Jim. Well, is there some of the shorts we have to stop in video? The shorts have to try. They got they have articles about negative about Nvidia. They talk about black while being negative. They talk about everybody who buys their stuff, not doing well. And I come back and say, well, the guys, the biggest buyer is Meta. How's Meta doing as a stock? How's Meta AI doing? That Mark Zuckerberg decided, you know what? I'm going to win this. I'm going to win this. And why do you think, I mean, everyone thinks that, oh, Amazon's got to spend because of Google. No, they got to spend to keep up with Mark. And they'll tell you that offline. It's like, oh my god, you know what? I got to catch up to Mark. It isn't like they're all just sitting and saying, we need mutually assured destruction of our bottom lines. This is this guy in his conference call, talked about Meta AI. And anyway, who's been on it since then has not come back to the rest of it. It's so good. It's funny too. It's funny. It has a sense of humor. We all need, we all need you. Really? All those things. That's not easy to do. You know, if you go on the onsite, that is a great one. They have a bot. I told him, I said, I'm tired of getting the little pebbles in my shoe. Do you have that new one with the no pebbles that goes, like, yo, it's just, oh, the pebbles in the shoe. You weaned out with that, but we understand. I mean, I'm talking to these bots and they're much more much better than human. Remember when like the bot was like, when you knew you were talking to a bot? I was asking, I was asking Mr. Hoffman from one, I said, am I talking to a bot or a human? He would not. We're not available. Interesting. They're polite. By the way, you see Amazon, when Amazon reported, everybody hated it. It was because on the day of the attempted assassination, President Trump, the numbers went down at the end of the day. And because they claimed that people were watching the Olympics, so therefore they weren't shopping. Well, guess what? They were watching the Olympics. The Olympics are now over and Amazon is now up eight points from where it was when it fell at day. The Olympics, Carl, as you know, had the attention of the country. You didn't shop as much during the Olympics. Time, time, average 30.6 million viewers a night. Wait a go. 80% up 82% from the prior summer game. Do you think that's really going to help the stock price? As captivating as they are, do you think that you went on Amazon and said, you know what, I'm going to miss the end of the surfing thing, because I need to pair shoists. No, but they do have these things called advertisements. And I typically have my computer with me and when I'm watching television of that type, and then I take advantage of those breaks to do whatever I want to do. Not everybody does that. I think you can do it pretty quickly on Amazon. By the way, the doorbell would ring by the time you're done watching the Olympics. Well, that's the white belt. That's the white belt. What reason? CVS. Yeah, it's incredible. That's not their goal. That's not their goal. Jonathan Kanner. That's not their goal. Jonathan Kanner. They don't want world domination. They just want to do well. Jonathan, the Apple phone, please don't hurt me. Please don't hurt me. I like the Apple. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm in Jonathan right now. As they share the grocery industry, they're just a sliver, right? Yeah, Jonathan, you want to break up Google? Good. I got that AI. I don't need Google. I don't need this search, but please can't let me keep the YouTube package with the football. Can I keep that? Sure. Thank you. You can keep that. He's a surrogate for the Justice Department. And how about the GitHub of Squad? How's that doing? Who would it want me to text? Don't you remember when Bobby Kennedy had to get half a squad? These guys have to get big text squad. Do you think they call it Titans? Do you think they call it hyperscalers? No. No. No. All right. I'll change it up here, guys, and talk a bit about DraftKings and Flutter, the owner of FanDuel, because there'd been a lot of concern amongst investors about a potential additional tax in states such as Illinois. And in fact, DraftKings at least had broached the idea of of charging a additional charge, a surcharge to users in states that had additional taxes. In an 8K yesterday, they said, "We're not moving forward with the tax-related surcharge." They dropped that plan. And Flutter, for its part as well, came out with a response, basically that a lot of investors say makes sense. You want to charge more in a particular state while we're going to decrease marketing in that state. And therefore, people may not make as many wagers. And your overall revenues in terms of taxes may go down. So the response from Flutter and potentially DraftKings to these increased taxes appears to be not that we're going to have a surcharge, but that we're simply going to spend less money to get people to gamble in those states. So your income overall will go down. You can see, wow, look at the impact that's having on shares with Flutter. Again, the owner of FanDuel and also DraftKings is up nicely, Jim, as well. Joe, can you've been down a lot? Yeah, of late. Look, I think that gambling is something that we don't talk enough about, because gambling is what makes us so that the fourth quarter of football is worth watching. You normally would turn it off if it's a blowout. But now you watch. Not everybody seems to be there. We've also talked often about the melding of gambling and investing. You've talked often about the Robinhood platform, the zero-day options, the fact that the same cohort that is betting on games often seems to be betting on whether NVIDIA's price will hit a certain level by the end of the day. Right. And there doesn't seem to be much difference between those two kinds of wagers. No, they're not. Remember, you can do daily fantasy in some states that you can't do a ton of gambling. It's a great gameplay. Daily fantasy. No, I mean, a lot of it. I've worked with full disclosure. I've worked with FifthKings. I have to deal with them. I think they're terrific. I did get today high ski daddies. That's my name, the ski daddies. We are writing in regard to the bet you placed on this past week on a golf tournament. Perhaps that was sent wrong. I did not bet on golf. Just, you know, I don't bet on golf because I don't know any about golf, but that's what you got. That's what you got there. But you look, I used to have Kings. That's what I play on. Yeah, I played that daily fantasy against my kids. I love it. I don't win because I don't throw it. Other news this morning, Southwest Airlines has responded to that proxy fight from Elliot. You know, it's funny, yesterday this time, and we should talk, of course, about Starbucks and Chipotle yet again, after that incredible move in both stocks yesterday on the ascension of Brian Nickel to the CEO job at Starbucks. But I mentioned Elliot because of their presence in Starbucks. The fact that they haven't run that many proxy fights, well, they're involved in a doozy now, for sure. I mean, we're talking not one, not two, not five, not how many, how many, 10, 10 out of 15 and 10 director nominees. These, these are hitters. This is not these are hitters. They've got someone in operation experience. They've got someone in tech, labor relations, general transformation, government. I was quite impressed with who they have. They impressive. Elliot owns about 11% less di looked at. They obviously oftentimes they take these stakes through derivatives, and then they actually convert to the to the stock itself. But they own a lot of the company, and they really want managed. They want the whole thing. Right. They want to control Southwest, and they want this management team gone. If you survey the large holders, I think they may have a leg up here, because this actually happened. You think they potentially win? I think they win. Southwest statement responding says since LA launched its campaign, the board has consistently sought to engage constructively and in the best interest of all shareholders, and they say, Elliot's dismissed those efforts at every time. Look, I do think that if you look at the stock, and you look at what we know as the stories, they do have a big analyst meeting coming up, and if they end up saying, "Listen, we're going to do what LA wants," then I think it would be different. But this is pretty contested. Actually, it's very ugly. Let's just put it down. It's very ugly. And the people who are involved, anyway, look, the David Kuss, former CEO of Virgin Air, the hitter, Sarah Feinberg. I mean, people know her, former senior official-- All transportation regulators. Just terrific, okay. Yeah, federal railroads, yeah. Nancy Talfour is a board member of META. We have the total hitter again. Soretsky had 100% of this former CEO of WestJet. The stock appreciate 100% of underneath him, and Patty Watson is a great technology transfer turnaround. What can I say? These are not dice rolls. And then when you go look, go ahead, when you look at the-- On the board of Southwest, yeah. It's not-- I don't think that they have the hitters that were connected to the businesses as well. They're nice people. Herb Kelleher would probably not be happy about this where he's still here. I mean, she works at Chasey Penny, and former president of Joanne Storrs. Do you think that's the connection? It will see whether they reach some sort of a settlement, or whether this thing goes to a full proxy fight. But again, to the point, again, as for the most-- This is the most important activist, Elliot. And they don't engage in proxy fights so often, in part, because a lot of times they get kind of what they want. Now, in the case of Starbucks, of course, as I reported yesterday, it's unclear that they had nothing to do with who they reached out to or anything else. Their presence there, their significant shareholder ownership, certainly may have lit a fire under the board in some way that might not otherwise have taken place. Stocks down a little bit today, Carl. But that move yesterday was truly extraordinary. Both in Starbucks, move up, and in Chipotle's move down all because of one guy. Well, he's struggling. I got a little overheated at the end of Starbucks. My shower will test on it. I just want to-- just go back for a second. Look, there's some good people on the Southwest. You're changing the subject already? No, I didn't want to pick a one person. Ray Blond, and she just saved the letter. I didn't want to pick a one person. That like, brinkers, and they don't have brinkers doing days. Simple eat. I'm just saying they're just not-- they're not as focused. And they're not as airline-ish. All right, we're talking about Starbucks into Chipotle, that's why I was-- No, I just had to finish my phone. I went to someone to say, "Jim, just figure it, sing it out one person. I didn't want to be rude." Now, let's go over Starbucks, whose Starbucks is really important. OK, there is a belief that the real problems with Starbucks are about mechanical stuff. And it's interesting, because the thing that Luxman was supposed to be good at was the mechanical. And I find that this is a repudiation of a process and of a person that just didn't seem to click at all. And Carl, the first thing people would tell you on his side-- he didn't have a side-- is that he died on the aprons. The first thing he did was get to know as many bruises as possible. But maybe that was the forest trees problem, because what really mattered was getting people in and out. I got upgrades today for Starbucks out of Stiefol and Deutscher. A web bush actually ups Chipotle after that performance yesterday. A lot of snark about McKinsey CEOs, Jim yesterday. Interesting, yeah, speaking of Narrow Simmons. Yeah, there is a backlash, absolutely. And now, look, McKinsey, everyone knows someone just-- look, bring him McKinsey and do a good thing. The way these are places where they have a lot of smart minds. But yes, there was one in the Herlon Street for the interview that I did with Locksman. We did. It mentioned that he came back with McKinsey's speech, which David, I guess, is like, I don't know. What does McKinsey speak mean to you? I don't speak McKinsey's speech. You're illiterate in McKinsey's speech. I am illiterate. You could learn to go and do a lingo. Yes, the lingo has it in the new Google. I'm sure they have their entire lexicon. I haven't been in an AI yet. It's best practices. It's best practices. Yeah, what are your best practices? It's sterile. Are you a culture-- a culture-- what are you? A culture cleanser? I know a culture. I work seven days a week. I don't know what the hell that guy who dropped out of Google's thinking. That's me. Jim, you mentioned Brinker. Where Chili's comps are up almost 15, but this guidance on the full year had them open. I think this is now the worst-- would be the worst day since May of last year. Yeah, I've got them one. And I want to spend some more time on that, because they've really done a lot of things that are right. The stock has gotten very, very-- can you say it's overheated? I think the numbers were fine. It's been the one that survived, because they've got the under $11 meal, a smash burger, which is really fabulous. So I don't want to give up on them. I think that there's a lot-- that the hotmen has done a fabulous job. I'm going to do work on this, because-- You should do work on it, because it's down 15%. It's not like a 3% to come on. I'm like, no, I'm going to just win. No, but you're going to have more of this-- You're like treating it like it's nothing. This thing's getting crushed right now. No, I'm saying that maybe it's wrong that it's being crushed. By the way, the guidance-- the implied guidance on comps for the full year, down three to five, streets down three. Yeah, look-- So it's not a-- No, it's not. It wouldn't be a wide miss. No, and look, it's-- There's a lot of positive commentary about it, and I think that this is one where you should give them the benefit of the doubt. Hotmen's done a fabulous job. Now, someone from a former bringer person's on the board of Southwest, David. If you really want to be arcane and obtuse, like the Warden and Shawshank, if you want to be that way. But I don't-- I think the bringer-- Get around the-- I don't-- I'm going to listen to the conference call. You should. Damn. Because, you know, that's what I do, David. I do know you do it. Typically, you've already done it. Well, it hasn't happened. It's hard. It hasn't happened. But no, Carl, this is the-- Now you have your AI bop do it for you, don't you? I-- you know, that's not who you're speaking to right now. Um, I don't want-- sometimes a guy, like Kevin Hoffman, has turned this thing around. So we got to spend some time before we throw them under the M104. That's a bust. Just a kitchen. Thank you. Actually, I know that. I know that line pretty well. All right. What, the M104? Yeah, because it runs up-- runs up Broadway. I didn't know he ever-- Well, I didn't know he ever-- But the backdrop remains the same. And that is they are going to have to adjust some pricing if they want to drive traffic. Geez. And, you know, they have the cheapest margarita in the country. They did switch. Uh, they have a lesser-- a lesser tequila. Uh, the largest serve in parties. Um, but no, I mean, I-- I didn't-- I found this hard because I know that they've got prices that were almost converged with McDonald's. And this is sit down. But we'll find out. I mean, if it was a price too far, he'll just say it. Kevin Hoffman will just tell you, look, I didn't do this right. He's from the school of-- he's from the school of transparency. How about that? Uh, as for the broader market, Jim, we mentioned this attempt to get back to the 50 day. Other thing is that September has not been a good month for the S&P the last four years. The average returns down almost three. Yeah, you've got to skid out on September. If you do this, you know, this selling day is completely idiotic. But there's no dating. There's no, you know, Ogden dating for September. You know, e-commings. No e-commings dating. You know, the-- I see. Yes. And you've got a club meeting today, right? Yeah, and I've got a immediate noon. And we're going to-- I'm actually going to give grades out. To the companies, based on their quarters and their coverage goal. And it's kind of like not great. It's kind of like when my father wouldn't let me have dinner, because I've got to be in fourth grade. Really? You don't think the beat for the season for the quarter has been-- I think some-- I think the combination of what some of these companies had to say on their calls and how they did was suboptimal. And I'm going to call them out. Why not? I mean, I had given a D to-- In my first draft, I had given a D to Starbucks. But you know what? They now are in incomplete. They're good. D. I gave them a D. You don't think it was overdone yesterday that 21 plus percent was in the chairs? It was overdone. It was overdone based on one guy and what he conceived. No, he was overdone. He will accomplish as many accolades as come in for him. But you have to remember where the stock was before the complete cataclysm of quarters. You know, the stock was hanging in. Right. And I think that when you look at this man's reputation at Chipotle, where he came in, remember, people felt that Chipotle was like, "Let's go back a little bit of stocks that we had guys." Yeah. No, I wanted to look at more than a one week. And I knew Brian from-- I mean, Brian has been around for a while and he has been in a lot of places. He's from that great coaching tree, that young coaching tree. They, you know, were just pretty good. Although others pointed out yesterday that Chipotle turned around was about a food safety fix. This is a lot, a lot more than that. Well, I think that when you took-- If you go look at the lab, go on the last conference call. And this is just typical of their fantastic conference calls. There was a tremendous amount of time talking about taking 28 seconds off of the transaction and how there was a Boston Chipotle that had taken 28 seconds off. And it was being held because you see the really good managers, when you have something incremental that's good, they held those people. Because how much did it cost for Brian Nickel to single out that Boston Chipotle? How much did it cost? Nothing. Yeah, then why don't other CEOs think about pointing out people who do well and divisions to do well within large companies? It's a great point, Jim. I agree with you. What's it cost? Completely, nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Bob Rubin with some people. Let's people up. I gave people happier. Yeah, it does. Well, you know what it's-- Morale. Morale is important. Very important. They teach you that at McKinsey. Yeah, they do. Mm. Oh, I got to-- They don't call it Morale, but they got some other name for it. All right, we didn't mention Victoria's Secret up 20% on this Hilary Supers. I think it's like a total hitter. Former anthropology to your point. Yes, and plus, I mean, that's a spin. Those guys have not been great. So to get a real operator, there's, again, it's a coat. And so a seasoned operator. Really terrific. And I don't think McKinsey did. As we go to break, watch bonds. We got the big print out of the way for today. A CPI came in a little tame. Not much else on the dock, but of course, retail sales tomorrow will be another barn burner. We'll check that out with the 10 year right around 3-8-3. Stay with us. Got that news yesterday from Tilray. And tap acquiring four craft beer labels on behalf of Tilray. It's going to boost their brewing portfolio by some 30% as we watch that space. We're going to talk to Erwin Simon about that later on this morning in the 11 AM hour. For the time being, a bit of a muted open. S&P down about three. Dows up 67. Don't go anywhere. It's time for Jim and stop trading. I think you see the Intel is trying to sell everything. It's not nailed down. They sold down. Sold 1.18 shares, a million shares of ARM. It looks like they might have raised about 147 million now. That's according to Bloomberg. The thing that I would point out is just that they're trying to sell at the end of that mobile eye. They're raising cash. And they're raising cash for, you know, I believe because they must raise cash to get that balance sheet that they must raise cash. Trying to see what the last one handle is on Intel. By the way, ARM, I think it's a pretty good company. I mean, Renee Haas is doing a good job there. One of the cornerstones is not that you have to keep that, but I'm just saying that it's a sign once again that they've got to do, they have to take a lot of action. How about that? How about tonight? OK, I have Kevin Hoffman that's David. Might want to know if that's the CEO of Brinker, and I'll have to do some work. Yes, it will. And then Strouse Zelik had a really good quarter take to. And I think that that's, remember, you're on the verge of Grand Theft Auto 6. So that's when you're supposed to buy it is right now. And I believe that. And I didn't play, you know, they have some games. You know, what I really, it's my cows. Not as kids. It's my wife. It's my cows so long. I got to sit here and look at you. And one of them was pregnant. You got a new baby. The cows. I'm not in touch. The cows. But you can't, there's me. OK, so that's what I'm looking at also. So I have cows. Wait, wait, wait. And I'm not. It's nice because when their teens, they don't want to talk to you anyway. No, and once you name them, you can't either. That's the real problem. You name them, you can't either. Because one of those would take care of a family of four for you. Lucky Beau Vines. Totally. We'll see you tonight. Mad money, 6 p.m. You've been listening to the opening bell on CNBC's Squawk on the Street. All opinions expressed by the Squawk on the Street participants are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC, Universal, or their parent company, or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet, or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed on this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy. But only as an expression of an opinion. Such opinions are based upon information, Squawk on the Street participants consider reliable. But neither CNBC nor its affiliates and/or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Squawk on the Street disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com/squawk on the Street disclaimer. 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Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer and David Faber discussed market reaction to the latest batch of inflation data: The Consumer Price Index for July matching consensus estimates.
Mars agreed to acquire Kellanova in a deal valued at nearly $30 billion, putting snack brands such as Snickers and Cheez-It under one roof. A double dose of Google: The Justice Department reportedly
considering a breakup of the tech giant. The anchors also reacted to comments by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who slammed the company's remote work policy. Also in focus: Nvidia's four-day surge,
a follow-up on Starbucks and Chipotle after the coffee chain's CEO shakeup, Southwest responds to Elliott's push for board seats. Chili's parent Brinker tumbles on earnings, shares of DraftKings and Flutter in rally mode.
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