Transcripts For CNBC Squawk 20240704

Right now, there is nothing that is earthmoving. That is a great way to lead off the show. I have unbelievable stuff. Okay. Lets get to our road map this morning. It does start with apples ev aboutface, reportedly abandoning its decadeslong efforts to develop an automobile, turning its focus to generative a. I. Shares have underperformed so far this year. Continued signs of a robust economy, healthy Consumer Spending certainly one reason why and goldmans ceo thinks a soft landing is uncertain. And the doj turning its focus to Health Insurance. It is launching an antitrust investigation of the giant. Unh. Unh is really under siege. Its a Great American company. Its under siege like almost no other between the hack and the Justice Department. Well talk about that. That said, its doing pretty well for a company under siege. Lets talk about another company thats done pretty darn well for a very long period of time. That is apple. Of course, youve seen these published reports. Any number of them, by the way, at this point. So, we do believe it is the case that they are scrapping whats been that really decadelong effort. I cant believe its been that long since we first started hearing about it. Yeah, were going to build potentially an ev. Sources have told bloomberg that some of the employees on the project are going to be transferred to the a. I. Division, of course, generative a. I. Becoming so important, tim cook saying as much recently, jim. Give me your broader thoughts and well talk about apple itself, which there continue to be some questions about in terms of at least the overall performance of the stock this year. Sure. Happy to go over that. Look, i think that they were making a major bet that they were going to wait for a major tech breakthrough, like the robo taxi, but in the interim, they were thinking about the consumer, but they could only feel like after cruise, the debacle that has been cruise, and the fact that the level 4 av from waymo has not been commercial, that they should not do this. The time is not ready for it, and there may not be a time within the near future that is worth focusing on this. In other words, its just not economic. Its not commercial. Right. And that was determined. We could sit back and say, why dont they want to be in something thats not commercial . I think that what they dont want to do is be like alphabet. What does that mean . Doing waymo for how many years and not producing anything that is giving you a profit. I mean, ive been in waymo. Ive been in cruise. I felt safe in cruise, and ten days later, they pulled it. Waymo, they were advertising that i could take a waymo from the airport to a certain place a couple years ago, and it didnt geographically sh wasnt allowed to go to another place. Theres real constraints. Were not ready to spend far further away than we might have anticipated, even sitting at this desk five years ago when i remember talking about it with great enthusiasm, and it was coming, and it was coming. I can remember this conversation i had many years ago with travis from uber telling me, oh yeah, looking down at new york, because we were up its all going to be automobiles without drivers. Were not going to need parking garages anymore. It was a failed vision. Hospital emergency room visits will be down. Failed vision. It will come, though, at some point. Yes, but why should apple apple is not a company that is focused on its stock price, but they are focused on whether somethings commercial. I dont know about the a. I. Shift. I mean, i think that, what are you going to do, say were going to send all those people to ford . Theyre not going to do that. I think this is a reason to like apple, and as you notice, apple was at 179. 50 when this news broke. It dropped to 179, and then it went to 181, then 182, because there are a lot of people who are saying, you know what . Apple is not as efficient as what weve seen from meta. And alphabet is the least efficient. Now, some people feel that the long knives are out for alphabet, and im part of it, and i dont mean to do that. I think its a great company. I think that theyve chosen to be have a part of their business thats never going to be commercial. And i dont think thats the right way to approach this. Well, its interesting you bring up alphabet, because there has been i mean, deirdre bosa did an excellent job yesterday encapsulating a lot of the concerns out there. Theyre not as much focused on waymo and or projects that have yet to generate any return on invested capital. Its much more concern about the core business, and the lack of urgency that some see at alphabet in terms of dealing with generative a. I. Moving forward with it. Obviously, potentially, disrupting what has been one of the greatest businesses, as i said yesterday, in capitalism that weve ever seen. I go to copilot, where i used to go to google search. You do . Every day. I still go to google search. We all do, of course. But not for something thats complex, because i know it will send me to something thats advertised anyway. Again, theres a response to all of this, so i dont want to make it seem as though its a onesided argument. Of course its not. But there are those who say, look what zuckerberg was able to do at meta because hes the founder and when he says go, they go, and the year of efficiency, the pivot that he took. Look at what elon musk can do at tesla. Youre talking about people who are intensely competitive and rigorous, and people do not feel that alphabet is like that. Thank you. Its not founderled. Your two founders are checked out. Remember they had two Health Care Companies within one, and they were having a faceoff like lord of the flies. What are they doing . Do we look back at this moment if its the moment they listened to the media, yes. This is a moment where its incredibly hard for did you have sunday ticket . No, no. I want you to compare that you do next year. What andy jassy did with thursday night football on amazon using analytics, making it so its incredibly exciting, of which jassy and i went over this when i interviewed him. Its amazing how much he cares to the detail because hes so competitive. And then look at the throwaway nonsense that google did with the nfl. Yeah. Running pictures of cats in the final quarters when they could have done ads for draftkings. They leave more money on the table than almost any company ive ever seen. And theyre not efficient, by their own by their own admission, theyre not efficient. I mean, lets do drones, lets not do drones. Lets do balloons, lets not do balloons. Lets do robots, forget robots. What is it . There are universities that are run more rigorously in terms of at least focusing on the p l . Thank you for yeah. I dont want to focus on that stuff because thats private. Some People Choose to make those discussions public. I make them private. I dont know what youre talking about. The discussions about issues involving free speech. Oh, all right. Well, we dont need to go there right now. Lets get back to apple. Sure, i think apple, win. Google, no. You got to do that sometimes, and lord knows they have the billions to spend. Well, okay, so, look at a headline we have now. Apple shares down 5 . I have made my career based on two things. One is own it, dont trade it, nvidia, and own it, dont trade it to apple. Even the naysayers, whoever the hell they are, have had to admit i have two courses. This thing is secretariat. I went to secretariats grave to pay homage. As you should. Greatest horse in history. Im not worried. There has not been significant Revenue Growth in a long time. Theyre only as good as the iphone thats out there right now. Services a, an incredibly important business. I think were going to be looking at watching masters of the air on our vision pro. I like the strippeddown apple sports app that just came down last week which gives you an alert that your team is close, maybe you should put it on. I like that. I like that a lot. Im not sure i need it to see it for mets preseason games. True. Maybe the only season that matters. Dont be so down. Sorry. I just think that apple comes up with things because say eddy cue wants something, and you can do it. Theyre entrepreneurial. All right. Down 5 . Now im really freaking out. By the way, i wish they had developed a car. Apple play is great, but the i mean, there are a lot of car makers, particularly out of germany, i would posit, that make amazing cars but when it comes to the interface with the consumer, they havent figured that out yet. I was looking forward to apple taking over the whole control. We havent even mentioned audi, mercedesbenz, and you know who. Right. I havent mentioned them yet today. Why not . I figured its 9 09. I figured id mention jensen at 9 10. There is that drinking game. There is a jensen drinking game. They tweeted it yesterday. Its so repulsive. And i said, how do these guys wake up in the morning . They should take the glp1. They missed it. The first ten minutes is over. They dont watch until nighttime, apparently. Can we go back to apple down 5 and say, you know what . Swapping out of apple into ethereum. There you go. Ethereum. And im going to start an etf. Okay. Cramer etf ethereum. Make a fortune. Absolutely. Why would you ever be in something that could go down when you can be in something that can only go up, ethereum . Hopefully our viewers understand sarcasm. Im not sure. Sometimes its tough. Im not sure its sarcastic. What do you mean . Do you think ethereum is really going to go down an amazing granted, she does a fantastic doc tonight, and we want to watch it. I think its tomorrow night. Shoot. Yeah. Sorry. That was bad. But, you know, she mentioned, look, there could be a any minute, we could have an etf for ethereum. So, then, this plays out again. Look, im sorry. I mean bitcoin 60,000. Put up a chart of bitcoin versus apple. Lets just tell it as it is. Bitcoin versus apple. We could do a bitcoin show, and everyone whos under 26 would tune in, and you know what . We could then go to colgate and procter and make a fortune, because thats who theyre trying to reach. I like the way youre thinking, son. Im so right on this, its repulsive. All right. Apple cancels ev. No. Have you looked at bitcoin today . No, i never look at bitcoin. There you go. Look. You want theres underperformance, okay . Okay. Its depressing. I dont want to what has bitcoin ever done for mankind . Do you have a bitcoin phone . Watson, come here, i need you. Well, coming up, United Health care is apparently in the dojs crosshairs. Were going to explain that. We got about 18 minutes before we get started with trading at the New York Stock Exchange, and we are looking for a lower open as you can see right there. All the moneys going to my ethereum etfdad. T futures. Well be right back after this. Power e trades awardwinning trading app makes trading easier. With its customizable options chain, easytouse tools and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. E trade from Morgan Stanley power e trades easytouse tools make complex trading less complicated. Custom scans help you find new trading opportunities, while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. E trade from Morgan Stanley you know doug, ever since switching to workday youve been a real rock star. Rock star . What do you know about rock stars . Billy idol . I mean wheres the skintight leather . My shoes are leather. Wheres the unnecessary zippers . That thing billy, rock star is just how doug feels when he uses workday. Thanks, rory. Ill show you rock star be a finance and hr rock star. Workday. For a changing world. Billy idol just stole your golf cart keep an eye on shares of United Health care. They are moving lower in the premarket. I want to take a look and see. Yeah, i got them down about ten bucks. Wall street journal reporting the Justice Department has launched an antitrust probe into the nations Largest Health insurer. Actually, it was reported by some upstate new york local. I thought you might have talked to that reporter. I love that, because i start in newsletters. Someone had a big scoop. When the journal said it was reported by you, which they did, but sources are also telling the journal that investigators have been interviewing Health Care Industry representatives about several issues. That includes relationships between the companys jietd Health Care Unit and its Optum Health Services arm. They have some 90,000 physicians as part of that, jim. Theyre also dealing with this huge cyberattack on their change health care business. I dont think they its not good. Mainly from google, but the main thing is theyve brought in nikesh arora from palo alto networks, and palo alto, obviously, when you bring in palo alto, it may be that they dont have a handle on it. Yeah. And palo altos got to get a handle on it. I think were in an era, david, where the nation states and the ecommerce criminals have the edge at this very moment. You do . Why do you think that . Because theyre overwhelming. Theyre hitting everyone. Not everybodys got is prepped. I mean, if you dont have a soup to nuts on premier league cloud, just, incredible hypershield, i dont know. I think jamie dimon is probably the guy we should talk to about this, because i think hes the one that has done the most in terms of figuring out what a. I. Can do. Yeah, when he was talking about it with leslie picker the other day. Thats very good. Back to nikesh has been brought in. Theres so many things i want to ask you about, including the thing from palo alto. But lets get back to unh for a minute. Do people know how big unh is . I dont think they do. Its a half a trillion dollar market cap, roughly speaking. 480 billion this morning. And the optum a lot of people felt it was an advantage. I cant speak for the Justice Department, obviously, but i know that there are people who could argue and say, their Business Model is this is, again, the doj. We obviously have become accustomed to a more muscular antitrust enforcer over these last three years. Weve talked more often about lina khan at the ftc, but Jonathan Kanter is kanter is a serious heavyweight lawyer. This case is one i want to know about. Look, if i were at alphabet, i would be very concerned about his case that hes bringing in terms of advertising. Especially with pubmatic. These cases take a very long time to develop. Ultimately, if you ever do get there and they succeed, you could be talking about either sanctions of some kind or breaking the company apart. And if trump came in, conceivably they might not drop the investigation. Theres a trump investigation trump started in the Justice Department against alphabet. Thats the one about the phone. I think, you know, there is a expectation, if theres a trump administration, that regulatory would become less involved. But that said, more unpredictable. But david, you spent a lot of time with the person who is in charge of antitrust under trump, who was a very serious absolutely. And i dont think you thought he was political. No. I didnt. Hes a serious guy, rigorous guy. Some people will question he obviously will defend to the end their decision to litigate the time warnerat t deal. Wow. And whether that was there was some political motivation there. Obviously, he has said many times, absolutely not. They lost. Lets go back to United Health. Is the is it the Business Model that they tie up everybody . See the eu last night against microsoft . No. Saying their cybersecurity is a bundle product and if you take their cybersecurity, you cant go over and say, take crowdstrike. A serious, not usual shakedown, eu. Its not like, write a check. Yeah. So, i dont know. Maybe were getting if its the Business Model of United Health, which i always thought was the greatest Business Model in the world, because they have all the data, well, theyre crushing everybody. They do have the data. They say that optum is completely at arms length. Kanter doesnt want to do tv. At some point, theyll come public, and maybe hell do something. Right now, its just reports, starting with that upper Hudson Valley news. Better than humana stock. Yeah. Health insurers always win, and we lose. Yeah. Although we dont have them as our insurer here at comcast. I dont know what it is. Independence blue cross its incredible. You go and no doctor takes it. Its amazing. This is the most its the biggest fiasco, and its called medicare. I had one yesterday. The doctor says, i dont take medicare. I said, no one takes medicare, dont worry about it, i have my charge card. Luckily, youre able to afford it. Steve squeri, i got rid of medicare, i use amex. Stop reminding us how old you are and start thinking about your mad dash. We get started with trading about nine minutes from now. We are expecting a lower open. More squawk on the street straight ahead. S our business. We need to scale with customer demand. In real time. jen so we partner with verizon. Their solution for us . A private 5g network. ella we now get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. marquis with a custom private 5g network. Our customers get what they want, when they want it. jen now were even smarter and ready for whats next. vo achieve enterprise intelligence. Its your vision, its your verizon. This thing, its making me get an ice bath again. What do you mean . These straps are mindblowing they collect hundreds of data points like hrv and rem sleep, so you know all you need for recovery. And you are . Im an investor. In invesco qqq, a fund that gives me access to. Nasdaq 100 innovations like. Wearable training optimization tech. Uh, how long are you. Im done. Im okay. Powering Sustainable Growth in a changing world. Powering Financial Solutions that transform industries. Powering innovation with access to capital. Powering critical decisions with precise data and insights. Powering seamless execution in evolving markets. We deliver our entire global bank to power new possibilities for you. Barclays corporate and investment bank. Powering possible. This looks like an actual farm. It looks cute on the app. [farm animal sounds] meanwhile, at a vrbo. When other Vacation Rentals arent what theyre cracked up to be, try one where you know what youll get. Opening bell six minutes from now. Lets get in a mad dash. Were standing today. I like that picture. Eh. I like it. Lets talk tjx. The quiet giant retailer. Thats what i wanted you to say. And i didnt do it to prompt you, but it has a huge retailer. Just so you know, it has marmax, home goods, tjx, these are gigantic, Gigantic Companies and they reported, and you know what . The numbers were very good. Theres an 11 00 Conference Call. This is the arc of tjx. Initially, numbers come out, and you see the earnings per share, and you see the revs, and theyre terrific, much better than expected, and then you see the forecast. The stock goes from 100 to 102, than back to 100. 50. Under 100, goes to 99, and tomorrow, everyone raises their price targets, goes to 103. You dont need anything. I just gave it to you and i gave it to you without jensen or minijensen. We had a very strong finish to 2023. This is a quote from the company during the and start the new year in a position of strength with the First Quarter off to a good start. Their guidance for the First Quarter eps, 84 to 86 cents. Streets thats look, if you look at lowes, everyone said it was a disappointment. Thats all generated by, you know, a. I. Now, the stocks up very big. Hd, lot of people say, thats disappointing. Up big. If you actually listen to the Conference Call, you would have known theyre doing better than we thought. This one too. Conference call at 11 00, theyll be talking about how well they do. Its just if you take a look at this, this chart is as the reason why i was as, lets say, as arrogant as i could have been about what the stocks going to do is because this is all it does. Every single quarter, it does exactly what i describe. So im trying to get people to not sell it at 98, because tomorrow, all the analysts are going to say, raise price target, tjx. And to your point during the break, you and i will go to tjx and getsome slacks for 14 bucks. There is one right here if our viewers dont already know that. 11 00 a. M. Conference call on tjx. There isnt a line they didnt beat. Oftentimes the stock responds after the Conference Call, but they never talk. Ever. Never going to see the ceo. Never complain, never explain. Were back after this. The economy is simply not working for millions of hard working families. Theyre working harder than ever and they still cant make enough to get by to afford food and medicine to even keep a roof over their heads. We need to build more housing thats truly affordable. We need to address this terrible epidemic of homelessness. We need to invest in good paying jobs, union jobs and investments in our future. This, this is why im running for the us senate. Im adam schiff and i approve this message. See that . Thats like the gap in my Health Insurance. Gap in your Health Insurance . Yeah, it didnt cover everything when i got hurt. Good thing i had aflac. Hmmm the cash i got from aflac helped pay for medical expenses, groceries, rent. It really helped close that gap. Go, go, go yay go aflac go duck get help with expenses Health Insurance doesnt cover at aflac. Com wish we had aflac on our team. You can announcer the opening bell is brought to you by nuveen, a leader in income, alternatives, and responsible investing. Latest report shows Fourth Quarter Economic Growth revised to 3. 2 . Most were expecting to come in at 3. 3 . So, think about that. And heres the opening bell. Going to be a lot more red on there. Here at the big board, goldmansachs, and at the nasdaq, critical metals, lithium mining company. Lithium prices have declined dramatically in part because of what appears to be a slowing growth. Correct. Of the sales of evs, although people argue about that. They do a spac now. That would be something that i am sure there will be some people who want to buy. I dont find myself interested in that. Works really hard to figure out what they own and what they dont. These are two equity offerings that i will probably pass on for my travel trust. You pass on a lot of things for your charitable trust. Can it make money . Is it good . Those are two incredibly important criteria. Yes, they are. Yes, they are. I agree with you. Thank you. You and i are in agreement. Ge has a terrific note out this morning. Really one of the great notes. Jeffries, talking about the investor day upcoming, march 6 and 7. Just saying amazing things. We never talk about how great larry culp has been doing. I dont know if we never talk about it, because i feel like you mentioned it a number of times. Oh. But it is worth im a broken record . It is worth focusing for a moment on really what has been an amazing turnaround. Thats my point. That said, you are never going to get back to now, by the way, if you added up some of the value of the of health care, which has been jettisoned. What is it s . You get 21 bucks on that. You do get back listen, ge itself now, 167 billion market cap. It has been a great performer. Culp has i think the amazing thing is i used to go out for lunch with him, and i said, this is for novo, which is the wind, energy, black hole. At the same time theres this esg backlash, at the same time that people are saying, we have to be more worried about national security, and we have to worry about windmills. This thing is like i thought it was like don quixote. Its a powerhouse. What is the jeffries note pointing to in terms of the positives . It says that aerospace is great, and i think its got a better its run better than boeing, and you can take that from me. Im a genius on that. Yes. I have the professor, mary ann, the millionaire and his wife, all agree. They are talking about mobilizing military. Capital deployment in the next leg. Its a very exciting story, because dividend raise and buyback coming march, perhaps. When is the when is the investor day . This is investor day, march 6 and 7. Two days. Yes. April spend is for novo, which is a really wellrun that i told larry, you got to be kidding me. Creating ge as more or less a pure play on aerospace. And military aerospace, and i think that people are going to one of the reasons why the stock has been incredible is obviously people feel that rtx technologies has been hurt. Problems they have had. And i dont think i have to talk more about boeing, because we used to do that in the same way we talk about, i dont know, jensen. Yeah. Those should never be in the same sentence. Not at all. I take that back. Larry culp. I can remember our first interview wasnt the greatest when they were still having huge issues with the gas turbines, with that whole side of the business that was losing so much. The acquisition in europe was not but that wasnt him. No. He dismantled hes a person who i felt did root and branch. I think he did the bishop tutu way to approach things. Most people dont. Most people say, i dont need to look back, and those are the people who fail. The people who dont look back are people who lack any sort of desire to deal with the pain of an institution thats been destroyed. Larry, no. Positive for ten years now. Hes getting there. The patient will win with larry. He came from danaher. Danaher has come back. It has been coming back. Dana d danaher, which seemingly never had a bad year, had a few in terms of stock performance. Like t. Mo with covid. They spent a lot of money, bought the division from ge that was the high end not the ge health care. By the way, ge health care, travel trust owned, number one performing Health Care Stock in the s p. Gehc. There it is. They actually look at that, will you . That includes the remember the deal, one of the earlier deals, thats in there, i think. This is contrast mri, which is the way to deal with its loaded with a. I. So, what happened, its actually real a. I. As opposed to the joke a. I. We keep hearing about. When you Say Something like that, what do you mean . When you Say Something like real a. I. As opposed to the joke a. I. . Lets say youre doing a contrast mri, and it shows you that theres a bump. Theres a , lets say theres te cyst. It will tell you what are the odds that cyst may explode. So, then, you have to take it out or not. Thats thats contrast a. I. Relying on generative its generative a. I. It is . It is generative a. I. It is . How is it generative a. I. . Its a. I. , not generative a. I. Its just a. I. Peter came on, a terrific ceo. Pete. And he talked about the idea of what you do is you try to figure out whether something is going to go wrong, and before it was guesswork. It would be like, wow, the doctor might say, that looks bad. Now, we have maybe you should do the operation, maybe you shouldnt, based on generative a. I. Right. I think thats an important advancement in health care. Okay. Thats generative a. I. That i think makes sense and helps the system. Thats all. Thats when jensen had in mind when he thought about the digital twin. Now, david, we have not talked not about the digital twin. You lose everybody when you talk about the digital twin. My wife has something to say here. Nobody understands what youve been talking about for years here with in digital twin. My wife has said, no more baconator, why . Because they raised the price. She doesnt want to have to think, oh, its 2 00, i can get it. And she said, by the way, just so you know, its market versus limit order, baconator. All right. Lets move on to ebay, shall we . Slightly better than expected. Come on. Youre over there, the stock is up even. You bring up ge. Now you bring up this thing. Its advertising. Revenue is up 2 . Thats advertising yes. Advertising is a very important component of all of these businesses. We talked about amazon. Walmart, 3 billion in advertising. Just imagine what costco does, if they even bother to charge for their ecom once they get ecommerce. I dont think of costco in the same way in terms of their no, because costco wants you to go to the stores. Right. So, they would conceivably have a significant ad business if they had a significant ebay was nice. It did the number. Im very excited for them. Youre not excited at all. Ill move on. I can just tell from your tone. A lot of its the german c to c initiative. How about the draftkings . We have a lot of things. David, i want to talk about the one thats most important that no ones talking about except for you yesterday. Heres a loop capital piece about dell, upgrading, but dells got legitimate position in gen a. I. And theres a big pc refresh cycle, because as jensen would tell you, this pc is history. Its an inteldominated pc, which therefore means, forget about it. And what does it mean for the future . You talked about it, but i think its worth coming back to, in terms of what this pc of the future you discuss is going to actually do for us. I want reservations for four. Im making reservations with my pc, new world. I want reservations for four at a restaurant that i have liked as you can tell from what i have been doing, and i want it made at 7 30. Thank you. Done. Done. Thats what jensen says its going to be. When is this pc going to be available . In the fall. Fall of this year . Yeah. And whos going to make this pc . Hp and dell. Whos going to power that pc . Jensen and amd. Most of thats going to be amd. Thats why lisa su can never be counted out. And where is intel in that equation . Theyre incredibly nice. Inkrcredibly nice. What about apples m2 chips . I think, well, you know by the way, theyre continuing theyre moving people back to our first story of the morning into generative a. I. Efforts from this apple doesnt talk. They dont tell us. Id like to know what happens in the next episode of masters of the air. Forget about it. It looks unbelievable on vision pro versus tv. Are you still using your vision pro . No, i went to get my vision pro, and they told me it would be ready, and it wasnt. I complained on twitter about that. Right. But i think that its a product that is in short supply. South florida was in short supply. People think its a dud. Those are people who just say things. They didnt actually go to Different Stores to try to get them like i did. Right. Very important. This last episode was very jarring, by the way. You got any interest in bumble . Yes. They fired 300 people to become better. Yeah, well, shrink to grow. Yeah. Are we on air . Yeah, were on air. Because bumble was horrible. Yeah, it wasnt good. I mean, they cut 350 people but they said its going to be better. Does that mean if they fire everybody its really going to be better . The dating apps overall have been under pressure. I mean, look at match group. Im not going to look at match group. My wife will divorce me. I tried that, by the way. Bad thing. Its bad. Im not sure youre the demographic theyre looking for there, jim. Is that true . Is that like well, youre basically in a demographic that nobody es looking for. Yeah, exactly. When i look at bumble, theres a piece today thats positive. Revolve . Some of these companies came public during this moment and the stock look at the longterm chart of revolve, not so good. I do want to point out that Urban Outfitters, buried within the quarter was unbelievable numbers from their clothing thing they have. Its doing incredibly well. Nobody cares. Im going to spend some time on it. This is an ugly day, david. We should be talking about ugliness. The s p is down, what, 0. 25 . Not particularly ugly to me, but nasdaq is down almost 0. 5 . Have you looked at ethereum . No, i havent. But theres an overall look at the market. You want to talk starbucks at all, jim . I think it was they the united with the workers united, theyre beginning discussions on what theyre calling a Foundational Framework, whatever that means. Good. They better get the Foundational Framework of the afternoon cold drink. Thats what i care about. This is an overhang, and a lot of people feel its good, but in the end, what we want from Laxman Narasimhan are good numbers, not good taste. It hasnt gone particularly well so far. A number of things, completely out of his control, as you said. The protests. The protests. Its an alleged jewish company, which its not. Its not. Everyones afraid to talk about it. Thats what happened. I dont know what that means. That has impacted them. That hurt sales. And of course, china, great piece this morning about the buildings that people dont seem to be gravitating toward. The chinese consumer, very weak. By the way, comimoney coming ou china, going into japan, is behind a lot of the big rally in japan, and the chinese can just sell our treasurys, but theres a belief that china financed the war in ukraine by taking all the russian oil. Yeah, well, indias always taken some of that oil as well. Not great. Sanctions have not been particularly effective, have they, in preventing the russians from continuing their war. Take a look at the nikkei, which did hit new highs for the first time in since 1989. By the way, they could t not done going up, i think. Japan . Theyre doing quite well. Fund flows out of one country into another, these big country funds. And they are very large countries. Hess came back and said, we got no issues. That was late yesterday. The story we led with yesterday, the dispute between exxon and chevron about a right of first refusal. Hesss language was very strong, just saying, no way. No way were closing this deal. Im just sorry im looking for it right now. We believe the road for preemption provision does not apply to the hess merger due to the structure of the merger. Its a reverse triangular merger, by the way. And as described in the s4, theres no possible scenario in which exxon or the Chinese Company that owns the remainder after the 45 exxon, 30 hess, they own the rest of it, could acquire hesss interest in guyana as a result of the transaction. You do see a positive response to that language. Were going to keep an eye on that, though, because its an interesting one. Another one i mentioned yesterday that im continuing to keep an eye on because it is in the realm of m a and some small group of viewers care is endeavor. They reported numbers, Fourth Quarter full year, 2023 results, 5. 960 billion in 2023 revenue. Obviously, they launched tko holdings, which reported the day prior. On their call, they didnt take any questions. They were like, we have potential pending transaction. They dont, as yet, have a bid. But were not going to take any q a. I got another update for people if they care, which is this things taking a long time. We know that. Its taken longer than anybody had anticipated for silver lake, which controls 71 of the vote in the company and is the only potential buyer here and has indicated it will make a bid previously. Its taken a very long time for silver lake to make that bid. As i reported yesterday, expectations from the special committee side are a bid will be made. It has not yet been so. Im hearing today from people familiar with the situation it will be at least another month before said bid is made. Another month . Yes. Doesnt even mean, necessarily, that theyll reach a deal, although one would expect they have some sense in terms of where theyd like to be in terms of price. Jim, you can come up with any number of reasons as to why. One thing im hearing is any number of the silver lake funds through the years have invested at Different Levels and different parts of the capital structure at various entities associated with endeavor, whether its mme or now, tko. Theres a question of some litigation thats coming up in april, although some people dismiss that. Financing. Im left wondering i dont get it. Going to be another month. Thats all i can tell you. I want questions answered. Can i give you two that are positive . Yes. Okay. First, a real solar company. A lot of the other others, enphase, stephens reports on, turned out to be more financing plays. First solar is a commercial play. Thats what we like on mad money. Then we had chip bergh and then michelle gass. What was the news on first solar . Great quarter. Okay, thank you. Levi strauss is up substantially since they were on. And then contour brands, disappointed, so we have a new winner and champion of jeans, and it is levi strauss, not contour brands. What is contour brands . Lee, wrangler. Okay. I didnt realize that. Yeah, and look, weve got vf corm. I thoughtthat was vf corp. They bought them off. How do you i dont even i couldnt even tell you what i had for breakfast this morning. How do you remember that stuff . Its amazing. I dont know. Wesson spun off by conagra. There it is. Look at how they spell kontoor. Right there. Kontoor has been doing well. Im unhappy with them. Is levi now the one people like . I think wesson versus conagra is another painful one. These are companies that spin off other companies, and maybe the spinoff is not worth investing in. Or its better. Kontoors numbers were disappointing, and i have to dig deeper on that. I dont really remember was the spin done is that a nogrowth business . Did they settle a lot of debt on it . Vf corp. Is vf corp. Has been having its own issues. They brought in bracken darrell, who, by the way, is logitech but also pg. We have people that will get to the bottom of it, but vf corp. Has been very difficult. I have to get into asics because theyre being used aggressively for bitcoin right now. What, what . David, i want younger people to watch us. I dont just want to talk about blue owl all day. Blue owl has been great. Good piece about them. Blue owl, alternative asset, private credit. We dont talk about that enough at all. Take a look at the owl, man. The private credit piece today, there was a private credit, you got to own. Which one was private credit today . I dont know. Every day, theres a private credit. Let him deal with all that stuff. Were going to the bond report right now. Apollo upgraded. I think apoll os chariot is on of the scariest rides ever. Check out treasurys, tenyear. Thats where it was yesterday. We havent moved at all. All right, well be right back. Your shipping manager left to find themself. leaving you lost. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. Indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. Visit indeed. Com hire rylee from rylees realty hi this listing sounds incredible. Lets check it out. Says here it gets plenty of light. And this must be the ocean view . Of aruba . Huh. This listing is misleading. Well, when at t says we give businesses get our best deal, on the iphone 15 pro made with titanium. We mean it. Amazing. All my agents want it. Says here. inviting pool. Come on over too inviting. Only at t gives businesses our best deals on any iphone. Get iphone 15 pro on us. laggards on the nasdaq. Thats because of investigation about china, by the way. You heard that. Amd which we mentioned earlier, also a laggard. And theres alphabet up. Mongodb mongo. Its a real company. I know. Get ready for stop trading, will you, jim . With robust chag and analysis tools, including over 400 technical studies. Tailor the platforms to your unique needs with nearly endless customization. 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Oh, and all on the most reliable 5g mobile network nationwide. Wireless that works for you. Its not just possible, its happening. Lets do some stop trading. Yesterday mark was on squawk and they reported a quarter that did not meet standards and the stock got hit badly. Its trying to claw its way back. But i would point out, this is important for your world. Sales for the hostess business remain under pressure. I put that against the documentary tomorrow night, because glps would be in the sweet spot, ha ha, of what you wouldnt want which is twinkies. We did it right at this time yesterday ended up stock was up 100 . Thats between viking, the its up again. The cruise ship line versus viking therapeutics you make the call. A pretty good week right there. 151 . Phase two is not as good as phase three that lilly has but it doesnt seem to matter people cant get enough. Dutch is doing another offering, this time you cant go from viking to dutch bros. Im talking about the secondaries going on right now. No, viking is a primary. What do you have on the show tonight . I dont know. I have sales force and snowflake. Thats right you have benioff and slootman. Yes. Are they together or separate . Theyre coming on separate. Yes. They have different reports tonight. Key report after the bell both . Slootman i said, listen your forecast doesnt seem to do what the company thinks. He said, jim, the forecast is the forecast. That was the end of that. Yeah. I was shaking at the end. He scares you. Flying dutchman. Dont be intimidated by slootman. How can you not. Be strong. I will. I promise ill be strong. All right. Stocks are under pressure this morning. Keep an eye on the market, keep it here. I got the cabin for three days. Its gonna be sweet what . Im 12 hours short. Have a fun weekend. Unnecessary action hero unnecessary. Was that necessary . No. Neither is a blown weekend. With paycom, employees do their own payroll so you can fix problems before they become problems. Hmm get paycom and make the unnecessary, unnecessary. See you down the line. Best thing ive ever done. Thats what freddie told me. It was the best thing ive ever done, and really . Yes, without a doubt i dont have any anxiety about money anymore. Great people. Different people, thats for sure, and all of them had Different Reasons for getting a reverse mortgage, but you know what, they all felt the same about two things they all loved their home, and they all wanted to stay in that home. And they all wanted to stay in that home. [announcer] if youre 62 or older and own your home, you could access your equity to improve your lifestyle. A reverse Mortgage Loan eliminates your monthly mortgage payments and puts taxfree cash in your pocket. Call the number on your screen. Why dont you call aag. And find out what a reverse mortgage can mean for you . [announcer] call right now to receive your free noobligation info kit. Call the number on your screen. Good wednesday morning welcome to another hour of squawk on the street im sara eisen, with david faber, live for you as always pr frompost nine of the New York Stock Exchange carl is on assignment. Stocks under pressure, down half a percent or so for the dow, s p 500 down a third of one percent. Helped in strengths like energy, the banks are doing well today. So are industrials. Technology is at the bottom of the pack. Thats why the nasdaq is a little bit lower today, despite recent strength. Nasdaq composite down more than half a percent as we speak. Looking at treasuries. A light data day were going to talk about the revision to gdp. Theres some buying of bonds, the 10 year yield below 4. 3 . Here are three movers were watching. Shares of e bay are rallying this morning. G guidance topping expectations there. Bitcoin jumping above 60,000 for the First Time Since back in november of 2021. Bitcoin now up more than 40 so far this year. Also keep an eye on United Health. Reports the Justice Department has launched an antitrust investigation into the health care giant more on this story ahead on the show. David, lets dive into gdp. Even though its a second look at the Fourth Quarter were hyper focused on these economic numbers to try to figure out which direction were going and really what it says about the consumer. We learned the economy in the Fourth Quarter grew 3. 2 , a little less than 3. 3 . Still above trend growth. Nominal growth if you take out inflation, its in the high 4s. All the more impressive given that the Federal Reserve has sharply raised Interest Rates. And to slow down the economy and to cool off inflation and were still in good shape. The other positive news here, the positive story in the revision is on the consumer. Consumer spending which we know is the engine revised up. 3 increase in the Fourth Quarter instead of 2. 8 . Another decent sign that sets us up for what could be another Strong Quarter of growth. The reason for the revision had to do with the inventory, the build was a little bit slower than the initial gdp report suggests. But and then it also ill mention it not a huge deal but the number, the deflator in these numbers, the inflationary read in these numbers, higher revised to 1. 7 from 1. 5 and the core number revised to 2. 1 from 2 . Not too dramatic and we get the main pce tomorrow for january. 8 30 tomorrow . Yes. 8 30 tomorrow. But you could look at it as stronger consumer picture, hotter inflation picture. We need to see more evidence. Again it goes to the theme right now from the fed this is market we need to see more evidence of whats happening with the economy and the inflation picture. Yeah. Rates havent changed in the last 24 hours. The ten year right where it was at 4. 299, for example. You like to monitor various quotes from companies in particular those reporting earnings from their Conference Calls, always helpful. I know we had tjx out. We were talking about it this morning but you are getting a sense for the consumer, not to mention you mentioned ebay in your coverage of some of the stocks moving. I think its worth diving into all of these. I want to start with the cfo of walmart who i spoke to yesterday. Walmart reported last week but i wasnt here so i wanted an updated view of whats going on with the consumer. Obviously walmart had a good quarter so theyre benefitting from this environment but i wanted to share the tidbits of what he said, which is basket sizes are down a couple of percent from a year ago. Consumer is stillstretched and choiceful. When they say still stretched what is the still referring to to . From last year. They dealt with it. Lower forces and inflation have been bearing the brunt of the higher rates and higher inflation. Theyve seen that. Examples are on large ticket items consumers are waiting for promotions, for instance. It doesnt mean theyre seeing anything recessionary in terms of behavior. I think it speaks to not everything is necessarily booming. And two other things i wanted to note he said. On the january retail sales which everyone is trying to figure out the weakness he thought it was weather impact. Saw it at walmart too and the rest of the month looked okay. And the last five days tax refunds were down 20 , which impacted shopping days in the last five days. Gives awe sense of the sensitivity of the consumer through the cross currents moving through the economy. Interesting. If youre tjx and off price, its a Good Environment where consumers are prioritizing and having to be more choiceful, to use a walmart word. The tjx release, Comp Store Sales increased 5 . We know another Strong Quarter. It was a Strong Quarter but we should point out the call begins at 11 00 a. M. This morning. Thats why we took from the release. It was above what they expected. Saw growth at every division driven by customer transactions which underscores our confidence in our ability to gain market share. Very strong finish to 2023 and start to the new year in a position of strength with the First Quarter off to a good start. But again, its not like rising tide lifts all boats. Heres what the ebay cfo had to say about where spending is strong and where its in the as strong. Softer demand for discretionary goods during the beginning of q4 consumers are elevated inflation and higher Interest Rates in our key markets. Shoppers were more discerning in their purchase behavior as we approach the holidays. However we start to see our business immatprove towards thed of november, particularly in the u. S. , by consumers looking for value to stretch their holiday budgets. Theres the word value and stretch. So theres a theme. Theyre spending but theyre trying to spend wisely. And ill just leave you with Urban Outfitters and the ceo on that Conference Call to help without with the spending environment. Turning to the health of our customers. We believe they, as a group, are in good shape. Theyre not as exuberant as they were first coming out of the pandemic. They dont have as many weddings and events to attend. They are less apt to move and have recently refurbished their living spaces. So demand for categories like dressier footwear and Home Furnishings are trending softer. But they do enjoy a secure job and earning more money than ever. They tend to be optimistic. Want the latest fashion and are willing to spend some of those extra earnings to enjoy them. That was the ceo of urban, richard hain. Which i think encapsulates whats happening with the consumer right now. They do enjoy a secure job earning more than ever. Doing surveys . Or is he just listening to us . A little bit of both. But you can see, look, from their customers spending we talk about it all the time, spending on experiences, cruises, things of that nature continues. Theres a post covid thing. There are fewer weddings than right out of covid so they dont need to buy dressier shoes and they spent on their home. The final consumer data point ill give you as it relates to the macro environment comes from a bank of america, the management team. There have been all these financial compensation. Yes. So bank of america said average clients have 24 more in their Checking Account relative to 2019 and the average client has about 16 more in their savings account relative to 2019. So the numbers are still elevated. Theyve come down and come down at certain income levels faster than others. Thats a big number. Thats pretty good. Should have been your lead. I liked the other color. I liked it too. Its more nuanced. I like it all. I look forward to this every day. I do too. Every day i look forward to this. I learn so much. Moving to apple, perhaps well learn something here as well. Its been an under performing at least in the mag 7 so far this year. The tech giant getting ready to meet shareholders theyll have a meeting in a couple hours from now it comes from reports saying apple is winding down the electric car project. This after ten years. Shifting some of the people on that effort to a. I. Lets bring in a panel here. Gill lori, a neutral rating on the stock. Dan ives, of course our viewers know, he likes apple, has a price target of 250. And dan, just give me your quick take on this reported move out of autos. Weve been waiting and waiting. Not that we ever thought wed see a car, and potentially taking some of those resources and putting them into generative a. I. Efforts. Yeah, they had ripped the bandaid off. It was clear this was putting good money after bad. Investors want to see them focused all in on a. I. This is something thats been a painful period going through in terms of starts and stops on the ev initiatives. I think the writing was on the wall. The smart move for cook and cupertino. I think its a step forward and puts the chapter in the past. Gill your thoughts about the move as well . When apple originally tried to get into the car market they thought it would be a winner takes most market where they could get 50 margin and most of the value in the car would be in the computing platform. That was because tesla was having such Great Success and it was easy to extrapolate that. As we sit here today, in the ev trough of disallusionment, they see the car market is still fragmented, most of the value is not yet in the compute. They cant get to 50 margins there. So theyre stepping back and investing in a. I. Which has far more potential for them, especially in the next few years. Do we have any sense, dan, of how much capital they put forward for this endeavor over the years . Its billions. It could potentially be up to 8 to 10 billion in terms of what they actually spent. For apple, theyve been there before where they spend for products that never left apple park. But this was an initiative that cook and i think within apple they thought it was going to launch. But as gill talked about, writing was on the wall, and theyll talk about it at the shareholder day, all focus on a. I. Because as a. I. Comes to the apple e ccosystem, that to me i the golden goose. Thats where they monetize. Youve been talking about that. Of course we havent really seen any true evidence of it. You expect that towards the second half of this year, right . Were going to see something when it comes to this effort . Yeah. Its two components. One is the app store, the a. I. App store theyll talk about that at wwdc in june, thats going to be a separate app store for a. I. And the big one is going to be incorporating a. I. Into iphone 16. I think that combo speaks to now what youre seeing across the board in coupeupertino, all hann deck when it comes to a. I. I want to get back to the shareholder meeting. You say there should be a focus on perhaps capital return. Why . Apple can return a lot more cash than it is right now. Right now talking about half a percent dividend yield and two and a half percent of the market cap they bought back. Far more cash, while theyre growing low Single Digits they should be returning more cash. And i want to build on what dan said about a. I. What we need to hear from them isnt just incremental things like photo touchups and auto complete and text. What we want to hear is about an assistant. I want to say, hey, apple assistant, book me a restaurant tomorrow night with my boys near the concert venue at around 7 00 and it can do that. And apple is uniquely positioned to do that. And to dans point, it needs to be tied to the iphone 16. If that can run on previous versions of the iphone it will be hard for them to get a big upgrade cycle from iphone 16 so those are the things well be looking for. Finally, dan, just to zoom out on the decision. I know you cover tesla as well. I wonder if it says something about the softer ev demand environment that we have been talking about and wondering about and all auto makers have been pivoting towards in the u. S. . Its clearly some dark days for evs. Were seeing that globally. The price war has contributed. I think its also an indirect nod to tesla. Tesla has the strong hold to the market as well as byd in china. This is another dark cloud over the overall ev market. But i think the Glass Half Full could potentially be tesla with apple not eventually coming to the market. Why isnt the stock up. Didnt investors view this apple project kind of bearishly . Look, they did. But i think investors want to see, as gill talked about, you want to see from the shareholder meeting, see in the coming months, its all about a. I. And the renaissance of growth on the iphone. Thats why it continues to underperform. But i think a year from now, looking at a 4 trillion cap as a renaissance to growth happens in cupertino. Right. Im looking forward to the day i can tell my phone to make reservations for me. Still cant get into the really good restaurants, right . Wont be able to do that because theyre hard to get into. You think the chat bot can beat the system . Didnt work for sneakers. That would be an app. Thank you for a good conversation, guys. Appreciate it. You just have to know the right people, david. As we head to break, our road map for the rest of the hour. A red hot region outside the u. S. Thats outperforming. Chinas real estate re reckoning. The one City Investors need to focus on to understand whats happening over there. Starbucks agrees to talks with a workers union. Whats next for that . The dow down 144. Well be right back. Sports tech like this Smart Fitness mirror. Im also mr. Leg day. 1989 anyone can become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq, a fund that gives you access to nasdaq100 innovations. I go through a lot of pants. Before investing carefully read and consider Fund Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco. Com. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Small caps notching the longest winning street of 2024, the russell 2000 up around 14 . The gdp downgraded to 3. 2 still strong. The next guest is looking overseas for growth. Rouche sharma joins us now. Looking at the u. S. And india, tale of two markets. We have seen strength from india, mexico, japan, a lot of overseas markets, are the opportunities better outside the u. S. Even with the growth were seeing. India has demonstrated that. If you look at the decade. Its remarkable. The size of the india market is dwarfed by the United States. The United States over 50 trillion, no market in the world anywhere close to that. India about the fourth or fifth largest with a cap just over 5 billion. But having said that, there are 180 companies in india that have tripled in value or more in this decade, more than you see in the United States. So theres a lot of breath in terms of whats happening in india. And the u. S. Case has been very concentrated with megacaps dominating. But some of these other markets youve seen a lot of breath. You mentioned about japan, that market is finally coming alive after having been dead for so long. And mexico. And places like eastern europe, you have poland, greece, registered strong returns. Of course nothing beats the United States because of the size and performance and what america has been doing and its now nearly 50 of Global Market cap but still the opportunities abroad look interesting. And demonstrated in a couple of cases to be pretty good bets. You write in your peace about ie piece about a. I. Thats a big component in the u. S. Do you get that elsewhere or do you have to come to the u. S. Market to get the a. I. Lift. Thats the main reason why the u. S. Market still keeps outperforming so many other global peers. Its very narrow, concentrated, a lot about a. I. And yes, the current is all about a. I. If thats what you want to play, the u. S. Is the place to be. Theres taiwan, which is also relatively well but thats also on the back of a. I. But yes, if your vision or your thing in life is that this decade or the future is only about a. I. , then america continues to look exceptional. There has to be warnings about india. 85 billion options purchased in 2023. Eight times the volume that we saw in the u. S. And People Holding a contract for half an hour. That sounds like a speculative bubble for me in some ways. Yes, thats also going on in india. The india market is probably the only one thats more expensive than the yiet. So those are quite remarkable statistics. And even some of the retail mania. Thats what happens in bull markets. You get signs of excesses and india is susceptible to a correction. But i think the point about india is that a lot of Foreign Investors have not participated in this rally. The entire rally in india is driven by domestic investors. Not much more participation because Global Investors including those in the u. S. Are so caught up in whats happening here in the a. I. Frenzy that theyre sort of missed out on whats happening globally, including in india. So yes, there are pockets of excesses, which we have here in the u. S. But i think people just have given too much to the natural markets and for good reason you can argue but im trying to point out, listen theres a lot internationally as well in india. There are also elections in india and the u. S. And a lot of these places this year. Do you expect politics to be a headwind or tailwind or neither . In india, the election seems to be a done deal, everyone expects modi to get a third term. The United States its remarkable, we are here in terms of a few months away from the election. You have a lot of people who think democracy is in danger and those alarmist calls and yet the market doesnt really seem to care. Theres not much theyre pricing in about the election. The markets are sort of taking the view, listen, it doesnt matter who comes and the institutions are strong enough. The basic trajectory will be determined by americas companies. So its a remarkable bet. I am concerned as far as american is concerned by the fiscal trajectory and the complacency there. Americas fiscal position today is an outlier. No other country in the developed world with a fiscal deficit as wide as america and americas debt situation is only comparable to possibly italy in the entire developed world. I think that deserves some attention quickly. Markets starting to Pay Attention to it, thank you. Appreciate it. Up next we reveal our new cnbc Game Changers list. 50 trail blazing women transforming business and philanthropy, very excited for this. Were back after a quick break. Wall street forecasts over 100 billion in sales for antiobesity drugs known as glp 1. But these treatments are largely administrated through cumbersome injections. Enter Lexaria Bioscience with their patented oral delivery technology. Early studies were glp1 suggest reduced side effects and better blood sugar control with reduced spikes. Lexaria bioscience. Transforming the future of glp1 drug delivery. So this is pickleball . Pickle ah, these guys are intense. With e trade from Morgan Stanley, were ready for whatever gets served up. Dude, you gotta work on your trash talk. Id rather work on saving for retirement. Or college, since you like to get schooled. Thats a pretty good burn, right . Your record label is taking off. But so is your sound engineer. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. Indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. Visit indeed. Com hire ah, these bills are crazy. She has no idea shes sitting on a goldmine. Well she doesnt know that if she owns a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. Even a term policy. Even a term policy . Even a term policy find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. Investment opportunities are everywhere you turn. But at t. Rowe price, were letting curiosity light the way. Asking Smart Questions about opportunities like advances in healthcare. And how these innovations will create a healthier world tomorrow. Better questions. Better outcomes. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Today we are introducing cnbcs change makers list. Julia boorstin has the details. I know you and the team are working hard on this. Really excited to hear about it. We are so excited about cnbcs change makers, women transforming business, it highlights 50 women innovating and driving change across the industry. Demonstrating new models for leadership. Change makers spans 17 sectors, including 15 startup ceos and founders. 11 Public Company ceos overseeing a combined market cap of 170 billion. Five women deploying technology to jump start philanthropic impact and four women shaking up sports. Each has accomplished a meaningful achievement within the past year, securing manufacturing capacity for a life changing drug to repurrepu repurposing plastic waste, to driving new value in sports and media. They demonstrate, transformation, growth, innovation and impact. They are driving change through new approaches to old problems. Aligning purpose and profits. These women are taking new approaches to solving problems. And some are creating entirely new industries. Showing a knew diverse paradigm for what success look like. Their stories are inspiring and surprising. Demonstrating their innovation and resilience. What i love about it, first of all there are a lot of great ceos on here but there are also cfos on here and other women. I constantly im sure you do too after your book, im hearing i want more diversity on my board but its so hard to find women in the ceo role. It puts some fresh names and ideas on the map. We put out an application process and drew over 700 applications. We had companies with evaluations of over 100 348d j 100 million just to make sure we were getting a size, and then we had an Advisory Board to get a sense of the womens reach and attributes to identify change makers. People leading in new ways or driving change across industries. And we put together all of this data in an algorithm. And so what we were trying to do here is identify women driving change. Not only in their own companies but also across sectors. And you did it. Thank you, julia. Julia boorstin. Thanks, david. After the break, the rising risk of commercial real estate and how Artificial Intelligence perhaps may come to the rescue. Plus the doj is reported to be taking a close look at United Health care, starting an antitrust review of that company. Give you the details, dont go anywhere. Democrats agree. Conservative republican steve garvey is the wrong choice for the senate. Our republican opponent here on this stage has voted for donald trump twice. Mr. Garvey, you voted for him twice. As your own man, what is your decision . Garvey is wrong for california. But garveys surging in the polls. Fox news says garvey would be a boost to republican control of the senate. Stop garvey. Adam schiff for senate. Im adam schiff, and i approve this message. Welcome back. Im dominic chu with your cnbc money minute. Members of two gop house committees are grilling hunter biden today. The younger biden had rejected participating in the closed door deposition for months, arguing it should be public. Just last week james biden, the president s brother told lawmakers that his brother was never involved in his work. The federal Aviation Administration is to giving boeing 90 days to come up with a plan for Quality Control after a door plug blew out minutes into an Alaska Airline flight. Bolts needed to secure the panel appeared to be missing. A physician is examining President Biden at walter reed for his annual physical. The white house said it will release a summary of the 81yearolds Health Record today. The president s doctor found last year he was healthy and fit to execute the duties of the presidency. David, back to you. Dom, thank you. Data center usage and demand have skyrocketed. This as a. I. And generative a. I. Is driving costs higher. This as Worldwide Spending on a. I. Solutions expected to grow by what may be more than half a trillion dollars by 2027. Joining us is the chairman and ceo of author equities, managing some 20 billion, including data centers as well. Joe, nice to have you here. Thank you so much. I feel like a lot of the executives we talked to want to change the subject from office, how about data centers. To be fair its growing very quickly. I wonder with so much capital chasing it whether the returns are going to be there still. Yes. Very much so. Why . The same reason you see the movement of the stock price of nvidia and anything a. I. Related. The appetite for this new technology or the advancing of the technology is ginormous. So the Capital First goes to a funnel. First it goes to those companies. First it goes to creating those chips, ets et cetera, et cetera. Then the need Real Estate Wise for the data centers and the storage. And thats really only begun. Even though theres so much interest from Real Estate Investors for data centers, theyre sort of afraid of it. They dont understand it. They hesitate about it. And last but not least is the scale. We had one project weer doing in madrid. The original budget was on the same piece of land was to develop 400 Million Euros worth of spending for the development. On the same property because of the demand from our potential tenant, the same site, its going to be about a 2. 6, 2. 7 billion euro project on the same piece of land. Because theyre doing so much more there . So much demand. I see. Particularly, theres about 14 tenants out there the most voracious users but everybody youre talking about thats cloud related, Cloud Security related, chip related. Theyre the ones creating the demand. With obviously the cost to capital is a lot higher now than it was. With ten year money 5, 6 , arent cap rates going up too . What it is is what we look to do is play where the growth is, focus where the growth is. I think what people dont realize when you invest in a market like say the Office Market is you have to mark where the fundamentals, the rents are coming down and costs are going up. At least whats exciting in terms of the data center side of the world, the costs are going up but the demand is voracious. You look at it from a global point of view, one of the things i said actually i think on your show a lot of years ago, i said one day youre going to see in this bipolar separational world youll see amazon stop doing business in russia and apple not being able to do business in a china. What that means is that separation, now theres a race to bring the chip jobs home and accelerate those manufacturing of chips for that sort of race that creates more data center needs. So the bottom line is demand more and more for rent makes up for the greater cost of the real estate. Just need to find the Real Estate Investors willing to plunge into something thats not traditional real estate but also has the technology to it which is not the wheel or deal types youre talking about it like a newfound thing. Blackstone i think its the largest component of what is the largest real estate portfolio there is. Its not Like Data Center investment has not been going on for some time. They only pivoted to that space 10 or 14 years ago. Before 14 years ago they werent. Whats amazing about blackstone, particularly john gray, theyre the pioneer. So theyre doing it but not a lot of people have the size of checkbook to write a check for a 2. 6 billion project. Thats just one project i gay you an example of gave you an example of, the other project is 4. 6 billion. Theres a limited number of investors who have the ability to put that out. So blackstone is ahead of the curve theyve always been ahead of the curve. I respect them greatly. Im an investor, a fan and regular friend of the senior team up there. Not a lot of other capital chasing it to the degree they are. Still a humongous market. I saw a project announced in mexico excellent point. The world is a bigger world than it used to be. We think of the world in a western limited nato, et cetera. But theres a world out there of emerging markets and growing countries. Mexico is one of them but yes, mexico is an Incredible Opportunity in almost every asset class i think probably the largest and most active developer in that country in the last ten years and all from groups, and i would say probably one of the most exciting is Industrial Real Estate and data centers. Because theyre later coming to the game but still have that voracious appetite. Thats why you see the world changing back to what i was starting to say. China doing less business with america, looking to go to the emerging markets, whether its ourselves, america, or china were both also competing for those markets. I want to come back to office, though, and get your take. In terms of where you see things going. Are you going to have a lot of stressed properties on your hands in terms of needing more equity and or how that portfolio looks from you from that perspective . I dont know if we were smart or just lucky. But weve been folks that are constantly pivoting and moving to where the demand is. So we evolve the business as Commodity Office guy, then Technology Office developer, then to a life science biotech user and because of the highs of covid we exited that, might look to revisit. While we have a little bit of pain here and there, some Legacy Assets over all blessed we had to free up the capital to chase industrial to be able to chase data centers. So sort of the need for capital. Can you change office can you Repurpose Office buildings into data Center Buildings . Theres probably a supply problem with the data center and demand problem on office. Excellent question. Its not just data centers its everything thats happening should be revisited. I was talking to a friend who was telling me the challenge he had in new york city looking for a short term space. I said office, take one of those Office Buildings and turn it into short term office space. The answer to get what youre saying, is really a pocketbook to be able to do it. Right now the Office Market is so beaten, theres so much its even worse than what you might think the exaggerations are. It really is much, much worse. It hasnt even played out through the system yet. Because theyre now currently zombie owners i owe more to my bank than the office is worth. How hard are those guys working on it . They dont have the pocketbook to reinvent it. So we need to see that wash through the system before its ready to come back and regenerate to its highest, best use. Which might be data centers. There you go. Well done, ending on your main point. Joe, thank you. Appreciate you taking the time. Lets turn to the china Property Market and how theyre dealing with their own real estate reckoning. This is a slow moving train wreck. Eunice yoon joins us from beijing. Whats the latest . Reporter sara, chinese authorities as you said are hoping for a recovery in the Property Market. But as i found out this week, on a trip, it that might be a lot to ask for. Thinking of buying a home in china . Maybe not this one. This Housing Development was built in 2011 but most of them, like this one, have never been occupied. As you can see, theyre not well maintained. Here in the city of nan tong, unsold apartments are everywhere. Half of the near 800 in this complex. Research firm rhodium estimates as many as 26 million. In nan tongs case, people thought they would move from the cities. But it was bypassed as buyers chose apartments closer to shanghai and because of the demographic decline, the population is declining. Local projections forecast it could take five years to find buyers for the new unsold apartments. And a bad job market have slowed sales. Reporter in 2019, this building would have sold out in two months. Today theyre hoping for two years. The fear is many of the homes will never sell and remain a burden on the real estate market. Some of the homes are empty because people bought them as investments but never intended on living in them. So the developments can feel pretty lonely. Great reporting. Thank you, eunice yoon in beijing. After the eabrk starbucks set to begin talks with the workers united union. Theyre going to discuss bargaining agreements and the like. Well give you the details next. Dont go anywhere. For 88 years, Morgan Stanley has offered clients determination and forward thinking to create the future. Crowd stop it . Only you can see. American announcer rose, back in the winners circle. [crowd cheers] [music out] new projects means new project managers. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. When you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. Visit indeed. Com hire and get started today. Starbucks is raising wages for workers at unionized cafes. Getting pay hikes their nonunion coworkers collected. The move signals a thaw in negotiations going on for years between the coffee giant and the yun union. Starbucks saying it would provide credit card tipping a benefit available in nonunion stores for a year. Its a gesture as they are changing the position and going to come to the table and negotiate at collective bargaining we dont know what thats going to look like or mean but i think its a big notable change. This is not the Howard Schultzs starbucks. Theres a new ceo, been there for a few months, spent time in the cafes and clearly hes bringing a different attitude when it comes to working and now seemingly embracing these unions. The other only context i would note take a look for some reason at Howard Schultz there. No longer on the board. Big shareholder. Boycotts of the company in part that have taken a hit as a result of his association, right . I guess. The middle east. Yeah. The middle east stuff. A lot of western brands are dealing with this. They are, but in particular, starbucks is taking the brunt of some of this. They had to sue the union because the union came out in praise of terrorism after october 7th. The bottom line, theres an interesting new attitude from ceos, satya nadella, video game employees at microsoft. And ive just noticed, its a little bit of a different attitude than some of the other big tech companies, which have really pushed back hard. Lets bring in kate rogers. Zb amazon, kate rogers has been covering this story for a while over at starbucks. This is certainly a really big move here between the union and starbucks, agreeing to this framework. I want to make sure that we drive home, this is starbucks committing to extend some of these tenurebased annual raises to employees in unionrepresented stores, and also offering the credit card tipping option that was given to their nonunion stores back under Howard Schultz in 2022. At the time, schultz and the Starbucks Team said that they couldnt make unilateral changes at unionized stores, because contracts needed to be negotiated, if the union was going to be able to access some of these new benefits instituted under schultz. Remember, the union has organized store by store individually, so starbucks needs to negotiate these contracts at individual stores. They are just under 400 locations that have opted to unionize of its 16,000store, including licensed locations, footprint across the United States. The fact that the two are agreeing to what theyre calling a framework for collective bargaining is significant. And a good faith move on behalf of starbucks in putting forth access to these benefits for those union locations. Okay, kate, thank you very much for the additional context there. The microsoft, i think you should clarify, theyve been neutral on the Unionization Efforts inside microsoft, as opposed to what you say, google, apple, amazon. Right, amazon, its much more in the distribution centers, where the efforts have really been made. Well, next hour, we have a good interview, well talk to the ceo of kroger, rodney mcmullen, first time hell react to the suit to block the 20 billion to buy albertsons. How he plans to fight back and what he makes of that complaint. Really important for them, obviously, as they go to court, its going to be some time. I dont know that we have a date we dont, but, yeah, because if they were to lose, sarah, as you pointed out, theyre in a difficult position in terms of competing. Its a competitive environment out there. And that gets to the core of the case. At the core of their argument being, were going to be more effective in competing against the walmarts and costcos of the world. But the ftc, youre buying your biggest competitor and thats going to hurt consumers and workers. Antitrust figuring prominently in a lot of discussions were having. United health care another example of that this morning. Well take a quick break and back in two. access to opportunity isnt always equal. But at the massmutual foundation, we believe tha you know, it doesnt really matter what we believe. What matters is what ruth, marcus and michelle believe. That kendall believes he has a say in his future. That these neighbors believe theres opportunity in their neighborhood. At the massmutual foundation, we dont believe. We know things get better when we invest in each other. ah, these bills are crazy. She has no idea shes sitting on a goldmine. Well she doesnt know that if she owns a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. Even a term policy. Even a term policy . Even a term policy find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. We were just talking about antitrust. The doj is going after United Health care, starting an antitrust review of the company. Eamon javers here with more details. Good morning, eamon. The wall street journal is reporting dhapt of justice has opened an antitrust investigation into health care giant, United Health. According to the paper, doj investigators are interviewing Health Care Industry players and have asked about relationships between the companies United Health Care Insurance unit and its Optum Health Services arm. The department of justice and united tell cnbc they have no comment on the report today. The news comes amid a very Aggressive Department of justice antitrust push, as the government examines proposed deals such the Disney Fox Warner brothers streaming plan, insiders also speculating that doj could launch a new case against apple in coming weeks, as well. Well have to watch for that possibility. And for United Health, the news adds to a tough week. On february 21st, the company says it identified a suspected nation state hacker that had gained access to some of the companys change Health Care Divisions Information Technology systems. That attack is impacting operations, but is not expected to be material to the stock. So some struggles here for the company, and as you look forward at the overall antitrust picture, guys, you have to think about the Biden Administration now in the last year of its first term, you can imagine theres pressure over at doj to wrap up as many of these cases as they can, before we get too close to the election season. Yeah, of course, they do tend to take a long time, as you well know. Eamon, thank you. Mojarsean ve. Our live market coverage continues right after this. Youve been a real rock star. Rock star . What do you know about rock stars . Billy idol . I mean wheres the skintight leather . My shoes are leather. Wheres the unnecessary zippers . That thing billy, rock star is just how doug feels when he uses workday. Thanks, rory. Ill show you rock star be a finance and hr rock star. Workday. For a changing world. Billy idol just stole your golf cart good wednesday morning. Welcome to money movers. Im sara eisen with mike santoli live today on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. This hour, the ceo of kroger responding to the ftc on the agencys block of its albertsons merger. Plus, the ceo of bny mellen ahead of pce Inflation Report tomorrow and what he expects from the fed. The ceo of cava on a huge earnings beat and samestore sales surge for the quarter, a lot higher than the market was expecting. For sure. Major indices right now are still under some pressure, but rising towards the flat line. The s p 500 is almost back to