Down about 118 points, nasdaq opening down about 117 points. S p 500 off by 16 points right now. Take a look at treasury yields. The 10year at. 93. The 2year at 2. 863. And crypto prices. Weve been talking about crypto quite a bit these days. Up about 4 this morning. Its crazy. And take a look at ether etf. Thats surging too meantime apple is canceling its electric vehicle product. That thats accordinging to those that know. Many employees will be shifted to the Artificial Intelligence division. Apples ceo apple and ceo tim cook have never acknowledged the electric car publicly but referred to working on e autonomous systems. Theyve never been open about this but are now scrapping it. People are looking at it as a major failure. I dont look at it that way. I think what was happening is there was an internal battle inside apple whether to even go this route and i think tim cook was always on the fence. You mean a failure for evs, not just apple. I think the failure of evs right now has almost no impact on this. Thats what i mean. If you just read the headline and youre a person who thinks that that this transition is rushed and not going to work, you would by like, see . I would want to know the real story behind the story. The only real story behind the story is theres always been a debate behind the company. Frankly, could you ever capture any margin on a vehicle that looked anything like the devices in the margin that theyre capturing on this. It would be margin dilutive. Remember when data was the new oil. You wanted to own the car because if you had the car, you wither going to know where your customer was at all times. By the way, if you have the phone, you know where your customers are. By the way, apple doesnt like to play around with it like others do. Its very interesting to think of it. You dont think the ev market overall has anything to do with it . I think that its one reason, but i think the other reason is apple has been left behind, left out of the ai party almost entirely. When you think ai player, apple does not come to mind. Its a big step from making iphones. It wasnt going to fly or be autonomous. Thats the future. I think they are behind, but i think youre going to see when they come out with their new ios in june, youre going to see all sorts of ai in there. But the resources are significant in terms of people, in terms of cash spent, in terms of mine share of the corporation. Gm said they were not going to make evs, would that be a commentary on the overall ev plarkt for you . Part of the edge of the whole thing was, okay, were going to go map the world. They need to do that to begin with. In the process of doing that, thats going to help our maps. Were going to do apple carplay, which is in virtually every car in the world. Even the way they approached developing the car was always a hedge with the idea that, you know what . If that doesnt happen, were going to get ten things out of of it at the same time. Hes big meaning tim cook on not the goggles but the vr headset. Not just that but ar . Ar. That was a huge part of it. You wouldnt do it just to do it. When you look at how difficult it is with tesla entrenched where it is. They were going to do it with a partner anyway. I mean, how much that would be a money pit for apple to try i mean, look. Rivian is so wellbacked. Amazon, ford initially. Deep pockets and yet it cant seem towork itself. This is not eve in the make nif isnt 7 anymore, tesla, is it . If its not in the magnificent 7 . The fact that it was in the magnificent 7 is a striking and amazing thing. A company that had a combined capital of the big three . Which didnt always make sense either. It should be a big market. You think it would replace it . It should. Will it . Im not convinced and apple is not convinced either. All right. In other apple news, they met with the Justice Department to persuade it not to file an antitrust agreement next it. Apple lawyers met with assistant attorney general jonathan kanter. Theyve been probing since 2017. Theyre trying to impede rivals from effectively competing. Also with rival and unitedhealth. I think were overdoing it. They definitely everythings on the red. But in this case, dont you think if you own a Doctors Group and you own insurance and you own you think that theres something there. I think that in health care, theres some incestuous dealings that might that you probably could look at. Do you think so, sorkin . United in health care. Dont you think theres some arrangements . Unfortunately, yeah. Yeah. Kroger i dont know why people make the case if youre not near a walmart and theres only a couple of supermarkets in your small town, maybe it makes a difference. Youre advocating for this deal. I think the walmarts of the world are the real competitive threat toward monopoly. Its not kroger and albertsons getting together. How do you work it . I dont know. Wasnt your dad an antitrust he was. Have you talked with him about it . I have not talked about this transaction. I think he would make the argument this is anticompetitive. With margins of 1 in that business probably, right . Because again part of it is the business isnt just selling the food the way you think it is. Its selling the shelf space. I mean the shelf space is really sold. People forget that when you walk into a store, most of these companies in some cases theyre paying for shelf space. Thats a whole different business. And if youre the only if youre the app store, youre the only place in town. You know its for the unions that need them to offset each albertsons against each kroger at contract time. We can talk about unions, but i dont think were going to have time. We can talk about the big starbucks story, starbucks is about to to its grand capitulation. Its reappeared. Oh, my gosh, that never happens. Lets talk real quick. Starbucksion yiezed employees are going to receive pay hikes. This was potentially a thank you in negotiations between starbucks and unions representing some baristas. They also say theyre providing some stores with credit card tipping that was only available to nonunion stores. Now its a function of lets get together, try to get these lawsuits put to the side, and lets try to negotiate. There are only f4 . This to me potentially lays down the carpet and says unionize away, which is completely at odds. Almost the antithesis of what Charles Schultz wants to do. Once you get a union between the workers and the company, that it breaks the entire ethos of what the company is all about. Kind of like delta versus united. It goes back to delta versus united. Youre a union bashr. Im not a union bashr. Youre a realist in this case. But i dont know if im going to be flying with united any time soon, but the difference is when youre on a delta flight, first of all, the satisfaction is through the roof and Customer Satisfaction has done quite well. Whats amazing, the people that work there are super happy. At 12 15 if a seatbelt is missing and its missing and someone has to be at lunch, someone will wilgo do it. United will say, its lunchtime, lets delay it. Am i adding hours . The entire mental framework and construct with how you work within the context of being at one of those Airlines Versus being i think that that is what people inside at least the management of starbucks fear. Let me do one more thing. Credit card tipping. Youre getting chinese food. Youre picking it up. Takeout. 10 , 15 , 20 , what do you hit . Other and i go to zero and i say i had to get you to say it. I find it offensive. Its everywhere. There are some place where i told you what happened to me at newark airport. I went to a Self Checkout and you scan the item yourself and put the credit card in and the theme pops up and says what tip would you like . Yeah, you get the tip. Maybe you get the tip. With a. I. , youre tipping the ai bot so wehe can take his ai girlfriend out. To an ai movie. Coming up, an optimistic tone in washington. Did you see it . Theres a fireplace and the Vice President was there and there it is. Oh, my god. Im describing it. Anyway, odds are i would get a deal sitting there sipping some hot chocolate. Looks good befe e orthend of the week. Also later, something is coming up, but its andrews taxi cab announcer this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. Visit bairdifference. Com. To help you see untapped possibilities and relentlessly work with you to make them real. You always got your mind on the green. Not you. You your Business Bank account with quickbooks money now earns 5 apy. thats how you business differently. Intuit quickbooks. The all new godaddy airo helps you get your Business Online in minutes with the power of ai. With a perfect name, a great logo, and a beautiful website. Just start with a domain, a few clicks, and youre in business. Make now the future at godaddy. Com airo you got this. Lets go. Gobble gobble. Ive seen bigger legs on a turkey rude. Who are you . Im an investor in a fund that helps advance innovative 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. In michigan trump ibiden haf the vote. Trump is expected to win by a margin of 68 to nikki haleys 26 . He said hes already looking ahead to the general election. Congressional leaders from both parties striking an o optimistic tone after a white house meeting yesterday. Speaker mike johnson is expected to put forward legislation that would keep the government fully open. The details are unclear. There are some bizarre sticking points. Did you see some of the weird sticking points whether veterans who want to buy a gun get reported to some background check . I mean its very arcane whats in these things and the details, and you wonder why we dont get anything done sometimes. Everybody has something they want. Congress has until just after midnight on friday to fund the departments veterans affairs, one of the things in there. There are essentially other agencies that have been operating on temporary extensions. The deadline to fund the rest of the federal government is a week later on march 8th. Joining us to talk about all of the Political Risks in the market, the head of policies and politics with wolfe research. It had to be before that meeting yesterday. So that meeting is for example, you said the odds are increasing for a shutdown and things arent looking good, and then this morning shutdown risks receding. Washington post, a deal in sight to avert closure. You were probably surprised at the progress made at the white house yesterday. We never thought there was going to be a long shutdown. It was do we get a lapse . I think johnson made it quite clear in the last few goarounds of this that he thinks shutdowns are not good for rchs politically, and that he does not have the appetite for a big knockdown dragged out fight. Hes probably on track for getting things done before the deadline, but its still not a forgone conclusion. I dont know that the situation has changed that much. I think the risk of a shutdown that makes any risks to the markets remains low, has always remained low. This was kind of a question, can they color inside the lines or run a little bit overtime . When you hear about one of the sticking points is the minutia and how much to spend on the program for whims, infants, children, that was a major problem because i guess 7 billion has been ear marked. 6 billion has been ear marked. They want another 7. Not watching the sausage being made, how do they come to agreement . Its a dollarsandcents negotiation. The rest of the sticking points as you mentioned before are more a set of conservative policy writers around abortion access, gun rights, visavis, veterans. Those have been the main sticking points. The question is at what point does johnson turn to his right wing and say, sorry, were coming up empty on what youve wanted to do for months and months and months. Its always been inevitable that it would not make it into the bill. Its less of a real negotiation than you might think. In some of those cases theyre talking about this stuff a lot. The biggest decision is when does johnson actually turn to his right flank and say its time to move on from the government levels we agreed to months ago. Then were back to the real world and were back to ukraine, the border, and israel, and the right flank is still there. Ukraine is just on everyones lips at this point. Some of the anecdotal evidence coming from there, no bullets, no ammo, its pretty dire. The pressures increasing on mike johnson, but how does that work with theaforementioned right flank or the people that dont want to do it . Right. Its a very similar dynamic where if you put the supplemental defense spending bill with israel, indopacific funding on the house floor, it would pass easily. Its a question of the intrarepublican caucus politics, when he is willing if hes willing to go ahead and allow a vote on this thing. But for the substantive support, its pretty clear its a tough vote for house republicans, even people who are broadly supportive, dont necessarily want to have to go on the record and vote up or down. So, you know, hes been dragging his feet on it. Hell continue do so. Thats going to drag late march at the earliest. Thats something hell be hoping to deal with march 22nd if not longer. Everyone else at that meeting was putting as much pressure on him as they possibly could. Its just not a priority. Hes trying to get the funding government bills through. From his perspective, the game here is keeping the lights on. Some of these issues like ukraine funding despite the reports from the front lines are not you know, i think hes not indicated hes ready to do it. Both sides are grasping at that the border political football. Both sides are painting a narrative that would benefit them, all leading up to the november election. So i dont know how that getting up. With ukraine, tobin, i mean i can see some of these guys and gals are philosophically opposed to not knowing where the moneys going, but are there some that really want to eventually do it, but theyre just dragging their feet a little bit because it makes a if they really think its a good thing to do, that we need to do it, just dragging your feet to make a political point, its like kind of like nero, isnt it . Fiddling while rome burns. If you want to physically do it, you cant eff around if you really want to succeed. Theres a song, hope yes, vote no. Thats where a lot of republicans are. There are plenty of people who would be happy with aid to pass wu dont want to vote for aid. If johnson puts it on the floor, its going to pass with many more democrat votes than republican votes. Theres lots of strategy like were waiting until some future time when its going to work better and more everyone looking at political incentives with the threats of most members of congress coming from primaries than the general electorate and saying, its a tough vote id rather not have to take. I think youre hoping johnson will eventually decide hes willing to bear the backlash from the right, put it on the floor, pass the vote with more votes. But ultimately be relieved that it got done. Its amazing. Tobin, do you like your job . This is the best system in the world that we have, and yet this is what it is. Its hard to fathom sometimes, isnt it . Yeah. Not a great time in washington. Certainly no way to run certainly no way to run the most powerful country in the world, but this is what we have to wo, with. You probably say that a lot. To be a like a little engraving here, it is what it is. Tobin, thanks. Wolfe research. Good to have you on. Coming up, Warner Brothers discovery standing down. Im not sure they were standing up. Were going to dig into the story that has everybody in media land. At cdw we get your teams work in different places, in different ways and across countless different networks. So how do you get everyone on the same page . Microsoft surface devices, orchestrated by cdw. They adapt to each user and deliver multilayered security, so your workforce gets seamless experiences wherever they roam. For devices that fit your unique workforce, trust Microsoft Surface and it orchestration by cdw. People who get it. 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 [storms sound] whatever weather comes your way [wind and snow sounds] weathertech has you covered. [bird chirping] [laughing] with our laser measured cargoliners. No drill mud flaps and floorliners. To secure your phone dont forget the cupfone. Order yours today at weathertech. Com. You never know when its gonna be a weathertech day. Perfect weather today. Why choose a sleep number smart bed . Can i make my side softer . You never know when its gonna be a weathertech day. I like my side firmer. Sleep number does that. The queen sleep number c4 smart bed is only 1,599, save 300. Shop now at sleepnumber. Com box. Warner bros. Discovery is no longer in talks with pair mount global. Joining us right now is pucks matt bellamy. Im sure some of the same sources tried to talk to you. Is it your sense this was really in the offering to begin with . No. I think both of these companies are exploring whatever there is to explore at this point, looking at whoever it is theyre looking to talk to, but the sense is there was not some big, you know, big, big ruck to do a deal between these companies. It with us exploring, talking. Frankly it was surprising that sources would say it was off just because it was never really on to begin with. Im with you. Im with you. Let me ask you this. Lets talk about the chessboard. I dont know which of the pieces on the chessboard right now you think is most interesting, but if you wither to play out the chessboard over the next 12 months, how do you see the possible permutations . I think the most likely and i know im in the minority on this. I think paramount goes to david ellison, skydance, and the redbird group. Theyre the only ones that are serious about this. Theyre in the middle of diligence. This is Larry Ellisons son. They have companies behind them, tencent and others. Paramount would be smart to do a deal with them. This is a company that wants to keep the studio, sell off other stuff, and is willing to pay a premium. It may be there, it may not. We dont know what that is. I think warners has to look to comcast and see if Brian Roberts is looking to do a deal with them, or i think they try to chug it out and hope that this ad market gets better