Carl Quintanilla and Jim Cramer led off the show with tech as a market bright spot: Sandisk, Western Digital and Micron rallied after The Wall Street Journal reported Commerce Secretary Lutnick urged Apple not to buy Chinese memory chips. The anchors discussed Anthropic amid reports its revenue has skyrocketed as the AI startup prepares to go public. President Trump&#x27;s comments on the Iran war also in the spotlight — from his warning to Oman to him urging Americans to accept higher gas prices. Also in focus: The beaten-down names Cramer believes you should buy now, Nvidia&#x27;s $21 billion SpaceX stake, OpenAI&#x27;s president on recent executive departures, Disney&#x27;s CEO on the company&#x27;s stock slump, Situational Awareness meltdown fallout.<br><br>Squawk on the Street Disclaimer<br><br>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

9AM Hour: Memory Chips Rally, Anthropic's AI Boost, Trump's Message on Iran War and Gas Prices 8/17/26

Squawk on the Street

[SPEAKER_04] Market Moving Insight and Analysis. Join Jim Cramer, David Faber and me, Carl Quintanilla on the opening bell hour of CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Good Monday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. David Faber has the morning off. Bulls coming off three weeks of gains, but we are braced for another pivotal week of earnings.

[SPEAKER_04] On a Walmart and Home Depot, among others. Yields new cycle highs today, 10-year 471, long bond near 53. Brent oil still close to 90 as that MOU between the U.S. and Iran expires today and the president threatens to bomb Oman. Our roadmap begins with SanDisk and Micron, though, helping to lift the tech sector. According to the Journal, the Commerce Secretary urging Apple not to buy some of those Chinese memory chips.

[SPEAKER_04] As it prepares for an IPO, Anthropic reportedly posting quarterly revenue up 14-fold from a year ago. And, of course, the Iran war, gas prices in focus, the president urging Americans to accept paying $4 a gallon at the pump. Let's begin, though, with the markets. Tech's on track for a positive start at the open, Jim, as August has taken off with a tear, as we know.

[SPEAKER_07] Right. At the same time, it got up early today. You saw that bonds were actually tamed. And then this Oman interview, Fox, and next thing you know, interest rates are even higher. It's very hard, I think, to climb with interest rates higher, even if we're looking at Anthropic, even if we're looking at SanDisk. It's just difficult because, in the end, interest rates disrupt everything.

9AM Hour: Memory Chips Rally, Anthropic's AI Boost, Trump's Message on Iran War and Gas Prices 8/17/26

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

9AM Hour: Memory Chips Rally, Anthropic's AI Boost, Trump's Message on Iran War and Gas Prices 8/17/26

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.