Market insight and analysis. You're listening to the opening bell of CnBC, Squawk on the Street.

Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Kintanao with Jim Kramer

at post-9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Faber has the morning off. Oil back above 87, despite

expectations for the largest release of strategic reserves in history. We should be learning

more in a few moments. Meantime, more attacks on ships in the Gulf today. Futures do go red on a CPI print that was

in line, 2.5 on core, but some argue it may be the last cool report we get for several months.

Our roadmap begins with oil ticking higher as traders await this potential historic IEA reserve release.

Larry Ellison downplane software apocalypse fears as Oracle shows strong AI demand and more pains

for private credit. JPM reportedly tightening some lending criteria, marking down some loan

values. Let's chat some CPI, Jim. Not bad. Some weird pops in things like apparel up one plus. That's the biggest in several years. Look, I just don't understand how they count that because let's say we're here and we're asking about companies. Well, one of the leaders, it's Ross Stores, it's T.J. X. It's Burlington. And I don't know where they're going. Coals have big markdowns. Macy's maybe not the sales to be expected. Walmart's always the cheapest in clothing. Target has indicated that they're going to hold prices down. So I look at that and I think, well, what are they talking about? What apparel? Brioni? Bioni went up. They did go up. Bionni went up substantially. Yeah. Supercore 275 is up a little bit from the prior

Right You only went up. They didn't go up. You only went up substantially. Yeah. Super Corps 275 is up a little bit from the prior. Right, but Shelter. Shelter is good. Yeah, at three. It's still reflecting, Jim, year-on-year gas down six, right? But that's not going to last.

Right. And electricity utilities weren't good. Now people are going to say that's data center, even though if you're

in Texas, it's not, but if you're in Virginia, it is. Look, I think the most important thing about

this number is it's not important because it's coming up that matters. And I look at oil today,

and I just say, okay, everybody has a good excuse to raise price. Everybody. And you always

want an excuse. You always want to be able to say,

hey, sorry, it's oil. When you don't have that excuse, what happens is Costco comes in and

rects your margins. But there can be no wreckage of mortgage, margin when you have these kinds of

oil numbers. We're starting to hear things like the Democrats, say, suspend the federal

gas tax. People have suggested maybe we at some

point limit exports. Are there other solutions you think will work? Yeah, it's funny. I've been looking

at that elimination of exports and thinking about the new refinery, which of course will be built over a

...