Squawk on the Street – Episode Summary

Date: January 13, 2026
Hosts: Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer, David Faber
Notable Guest: Dave Ricks (CEO, Eli Lilly)
Location: NYSE floor & J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference, San Francisco

Overview: Main Theme and Purpose

This episode covers three primary market-moving stories:

• Department of Justice (DOJ) Probe into Fed Chair Powell: The political backlash and implications for Fed independence.
• JPMorgan Chase Earnings Beat: Analysis of the bank’s strong quarterly results, Jamie Dimon's commentary, and the latest in financials.
• Healthcare Innovation at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference: Exclusive interview with Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks on obesity drug breakthroughs and market strategy.

The hosts deliver sharp commentary on current events, key earnings, and major trends in financial markets and healthcare innovation, with a particular focus on the intersection of politics and markets.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Markets React to CPI and Fed Independence Concerns

Timestamps: 01:06–05:58

• CPI Report: December’s Consumer Price Index reading was “softer than feared,” alleviating concerns about a sharp market sell-off.

  • Jim Cramer (02:25): “Shelter still too high. Food at home still too high. Surprising break in used cars… But we think the energy could come down. This was a very soft number.”
  • Carl Quintanilla (02:47): “The only hole in the donut might be grocery 2, 4 year on year. 7, 10. That’s the biggest monthly gain in about three years.”

• Persistent Food Inflation: Cramer ties grocery inflation to tariffs on imports, especially from Brazil, noting beef/cattle’s central role.

  • Jim Cramer (02:58): “Cattle is a principal source of food inflation. I’m surprised the President hasn’t addressed it yet.”

• DOJ Probe & Political Pressure on Powell: The roundtable decries what they call politicization of the Justice Department and the chilling effect on Fed independence.

  • Jim Cramer (03:51): “You don’t want the Justice Department to be a farce or a joke…it tends to be a really important arm of government. But right now, it just seems like a kind of a hack, hack group.”
  • Carl Quintanilla quoting Sen. Kennedy (04:42): “We need this like we need a hole in our head. Everybody needs to take their meds.”

• Market Reaction: Despite the controversy, there was little immediate market response.

  • David Faber (05:58): “The reporting yesterday…not really that much of a market response to all of this.”

2. JPMorgan Earnings, Jamie Dimon’s Comments, and Big Bank Trends

Timestamps: 08:11–11:45

• JPMorgan Delivers a Beat: Strong trading revenues in particular.

  • David Faber (08:25): “The bank beat estimates thanks to better than expected trading revenue.”

• Jamie Dimon on Fed Independence: Dimon defends Powell and warns against undermining the central bank.

  • David Faber paraphrasing Dimon (08:25): “Anything that chips away at that [Fed independence] is probably not a great idea…will raise inflation expectations.”

• Investment Banking Lags, Loans and Equities Shine:

  • Jim Cramer (09:29): “Investment banking. Disappointing. Now, is that some sort of timing issue? …But otherwise, everything else clean.”
  • Carl Quintanilla (09:57): “Loans up 9. Equities a huge beat, obviously, up 40.”

• Risks of Credit Card Caps: Dimon warns that capping APR on credit cards would have drastic effects on lending.

  • Jim Cramer (10:14): “It’s the end of credit as we know it…You have to pay higher interest rates because other people are defaulting…Is it uxorious? For the people who didn’t understand the process, absolutely.”

• JP Morgan steps in for Apple Card: Goldman Sachs exit recalled with a dash of humor and “I told you so.”

  • Jim Cramer (11:17): “Anyone who used that car realized that you were rooted to a call center in Mississippi who had no idea what they were talking about…because Goldman didn’t want to get its hands through the credit card. And I don’t blame him because, man, that business sucks.”

3. Healthcare Conference: Obesity, the GLP-1 Race, and Innovation

Timestamps: 12:19–19:43, 35:12–43:38

• Obesity Drug Price Wars & Accessibility:

  • Novo CEO on Accessibility (15:09): “If you want to really make this accessible, then you have to put it at a price where everyone can afford.”
  • Jim Cramer (15:27): “Prices…maybe this could be $1,000 a month break. The treasury competition does work, obviously. Lilly and Novo.”

• First Mover vs. Product Quality: Cramer and Quintanilla question whether first-mover advantage on pills really matters in a market where patients (and doctors) rarely switch brands once treatment has started.

• Industry at a Patent Cliff: Multiple companies face upcoming patent expirations, especially Merck with Keytruda, raising pressure for new blockbuster drugs.

  • Jim Cramer (17:45): “A lot of these companies here are really talking about Patent Cliff…It does make you remember that this is really one uncertain business…”

• GLP-1 Competition & Manufacturing as Moat: The field is already crowded, but scale and production are differentiators.

  • Jim Cramer (19:11): “You want to be like [Lilly]. Because what they have is manufacturing. They have half. They have skill, they have scale. Everybody else is just kind of got [a] press release.”

Eli Lilly CEO, Dave Ricks, Exclusive Interview

Timestamps: 35:19–43:38

• Innovation and the Path to $1 Trillion Valuation:

  • Dave Ricks (35:36): “We sped up the R and D cycle and we really bet on ideas that we think could scale and reach a lot of people…most common disease is obesity. So that’s driven us to where we are now.”
  • Jim Cramer (35:19): “He’s got a trillion dollar company, the only one…not into tech.”

• Obesity Pill Market Dynamics:

  • Dave Ricks (36:59): “The thing that's very attractive about the orals…is [they’re] more accessible…today in the US…about 10% in to the market. The real thing that orals will do…is expand the reach of this class so more people can have access.”
  • Jim Cramer (37:45): “Injections require an injector, they require a cold…A pill once a day has got to be far more lucrative for Eli. Will it?”
  • Dave Ricks (37:58): “Margins are good…we created a whole new molecule…a Difficult scientific feat, one I think no one else has done yet…”

• Scaling Supply Globally:

  • Dave Ricks (39:18): “We have some of our new plants up and running, but actually the majority…not online yet…We have a pretty big lead over everyone else in terms of that capital base.”

• User Adherence and Maintenance:

  • Jim Cramer (40:00): “Injectables…people get tired of ching ka ching, but they may not get tired of the pill because they won’t even notice they’re taking it.”
  • Dave Ricks (40:10): “The third thing…which is the maintenance phase…We produced some data…pretty compelling that showed people who lost weight were able to keep it off switching from either the competitor’s products…This would be a great option…to graduate from an injectable once they reach their weight loss goal to maintenance…”

• Beyond Obesity: Incretins for Behaviors and Other Conditions

  • Jim Cramer (41:01): “There are things that are human nature…this can adjust opiates, which I start thinking about fentanyl, smoking, drinking. Do you really see one day when this will affect those?”
  • Dave Ricks (41:29): “We hope so…We are going to take on opioid use disorder and even other brain diseases like consider bipolar disorder and other neuropsych conditions that appear to be modulated by the same pathway.”

• Lilly x Nvidia Partnership:

  • Dave Ricks (43:15): “We’re putting together dozens of computer scientists from Nvidia, biologic and chemical scientists from Lilly…We’re going to make new models to model the human biology and hopefully have some real breakthroughs in several years.”

4. Tech Alliances, Small Caps, Boeing, and the AI Power Challenge

Timestamps: 23:17–34:01

• Google & Apple Team Up on Siri:

  • Jim Cramer (23:27): “This combination being Google and Apple is really starting to get people to be concerned about the power of Google again.”
  • Jim Cramer (24:41): “Google has to do some heavy lifting…they’re taking over. Siri before it was just the foundation was let’s use Google for search. I think Google stops here. I think out but goes straight shot to 400. Straight shot.”

• Market Broadening to Small Caps:

  • Carl Quintanilla (22:47): “Check out how the stock rally has really broadened out…especially small caps.”
  • Jim Cramer (25:37): “A lot of these Russell 2000 moves have fizzled out…turns out that they’re not buying anything that belongs in an investable safe category…”

• Boeing Gets Its Groove Back:

  • Carl Quintanilla (26:46): “Delta, which we’ll get into the numbers. That’s an order for as many as 60 Dreamliners.”
  • Jim Cramer (26:57): “Boeing reported a really great quarter last…I mean, David, you know Ortberg, he turned out to be a cruel taskmaster, a tough guy, a humorless. Maybe that’s what Boeing needed.”

• Data Center Power and Nuclear Hurdles:

  • David Faber (29:45): “Zuckerberg…planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade…can’t overstate the enormity of those numbers…the equivalent of powering tens of millions of homes.”
  • Jim Cramer (30:25): “We don’t want gigawatts per share, we want gig of money per share. I don’t want huge nuclear plants to power Ray Bans…There is enough power has become the gating factor.”

• The Problem with Building Nuclear Plants:

  • Jim Cramer (33:04): “I think that there’s so much safety risk built in that you can’t build them as fast as you’d like…If everyone’s building a nuclear power plant, where are you going to find the people who know how to do it?”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jim Cramer (03:51): “[The Justice Dept.] just seems like a kind of a hack, hack group of people…You can’t criminalize everything…Jay Powell does not belong in jail.”
• Sen. Kennedy, as quoted by Carl Quintanilla (04:42): “We need this like we need a hole in our head. Everybody needs to take their meds.”
• Jamie Dimon, paraphrased (08:25): “Anything chips away at the Fed, independence is probably not a great idea.”
• Jim Cramer (11:17): “[Goldman Sachs] didn’t want to get its hands through the credit card…that business sucks.”
• Jim Cramer (25:37): “A lot of small caps, good companies—and a lot of these Russell 2000 moves have fizzled out.”
• Dave Ricks (35:36): “For a long time the industry was focused on specialty medicine, small markets…we focused on common diseases and of course the most common disease is obesity. So that’s driven us to where we are now.”
• Dave Ricks (41:29): “We are going to take on opioid use disorder and even other brain diseases…appear to be modulated by the same pathway.”

Important Timestamps

• 01:06 — Show kicks off with CPI and inflation discussion.
• 02:25 — Jim Cramer analyzes CPI sector breakdown.
• 03:51 — DOJ’s Powell probe and Fed independence debate.
• 08:25 — Jamie Dimon defends Powell/Fed independence; JPMorgan results.
• 11:17 — Goldman exits Apple Card; reflections on the credit card business.
• 15:09 — Novo CEO on making obesity drugs accessible.
• 17:45 — Patent cliffs for pharma firms.
• 19:11 — The state of GLP-1 competition and manufacturing scale.
• 23:27 — Google and Apple alliance on Siri.
• 25:37 — Small caps rally and related caveats.
• 26:46 — Boeing’s 60 Dreamliners order.
• 29:45 — The scale of AI data center power needs.
• 35:19–43:38 — Dave Ricks’ (Eli Lilly CEO) exclusive interview.
• 44:36 — Wrap-up and preview for future episodes.

Conclusion

This episode offers a lively mix of real-time market analysis, political and regulatory commentary, and in-depth coverage of healthcare innovation, highlighted by the exclusive interview with Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks. The discussion underscores the intersection of politics and markets, the challenges faced by traditional and tech sectors alike, and the transformative impact of breakthroughs in medicine and AI.

Whether focused on the DOJ’s unprecedented moves, the state of earnings and competition in banking, or frontiers of medical science and drug development, the hosts maintain their signature wit, skepticism, and commitment to arming investors with timely insight.