Plus the ceos first interview in four years. Gen zers are looking for trade schools rather than colleges. Lets start with the markets, though, dom chu, what are you seeing . Were seeing some markets near the highs of the session. So green pretty much, but maybe just fractionally so. So, nothing terribly crazy, but still in the midth of this winding down, still a lot of volatility, but markets are generally holding up. The s p 500 is at 5204, up 17 points are or about one third of 1 . At the highs we were up 21, then down around seven point below, so theres the range the thats are nasdaq, a quarter percent gauge. 16,342 is the last trade there. Theres still a big focus on tech, with the semiconduct trade. Arm holdings, those shares are down 3. 5 right now after a generally positive Quarterly Earnings report, comparability is being parsed out, but revenues are 47 higher than last year, and thats in part for demand for a. I. Again, it was down 8 at the lows of the session, so well off those session lows right now. And, there are a lot of earnings volatility stories out there today. Kelly mentioned beyond meat. Theres other out there with huge moves. I know well be talking about those in the last hour or two. Shopify down huge yesterday, affirm also down huge on earnings. Theyre trying to find some stabilization there, and theres at some point at which stocks fall enough to become at least more compelling risk reward value trades. Analysts have taken up shopify and Affirm Holdings today, so well see whether or not the down side is enough to find some value in some of these beatenup names. Will roblox be next . Well find out, thanks, dom chu. The big question is whether this trends can continue. For more, lets kick things off with steve liesman. The cnbc nrf retail monitor showing that Consumer Spending moderating, but mostly in the food sectorened ao and restaurants sectors. He retail monitor from data gathered by Affinity Solutions shows our headline index, e. Autos and gas. The yearoveryear decline, 0. 6 , down from 2. 7 , to the plus side with six areas down and six up on the month. Seasonal factors could be at play here. E easter was in april last year, this year in march, and less weekend in the month. By sector, building and garden supplies were up strongly, and furniture and home furnishings, gas station sales were also up, a result of higher gas prices, but theres restaurant and bars both to the negative side. Unemployment remains low, following a period where they were negative for two years, real other adjusted inflation having positive, almost a full year, so consumers have the where with jaw to spend, but they may be shifting spending choices away from higher prices toward those where they find more value. The u. S. Economy could be in the crisis of some backlash by consumers when it comes to higher prices, at least thats the takeaways from Earnings Call that could mean a falloff in sales or margins if prices fall. Kelly, back to you. Steve, thank you. Dont miss steves exclusive conversation with neel kashkari, and chicago feds austan goolsbee, thats tomorrow at 2 00 p. M. From chicago. Theres a birds eye viewer from steve. Starbucks shocked the street with a surprise drop in seamstore sales, leading to the stocks biggest postearnings drop since 2000. Mcdonalds missed on the bottom line, saying theyre adopting a street fighting mentality. Different story for uber and l lyft. Lyft, and airbnb gave weaker guidance. Planet fitness, theres a mover today, disappointing guidance after missing estimates, the company citing a shift . Customer focus to get this, savings, and to covid concerns. That stock is up 8 , though. Worth noting, lifetime fitness posted strong membership growth, though that is customer case older and more affluent. Our next guest is joel r rambolt. Hi. Explain to us what you think is going on here with so much mixed commentary. Every cad gory of retail is saying inflation grepressures. Were seeing from wellknown facts around fuel and driver shortages. All of that puts upward pressure. Were controlling what we can control. We focus on being operationally excellent, driving costs, finding wastage, grinding it out wherever we can. Whats the mix of price and traffic in your numbers these days. What we are seeing can growth in customers. Our counts are very, very healthy. Where the pressure comes is in basket size, we are alls focus on everywhere we can take costs out, and turn it back on prices, particularly as a private brandled company, were very well positioned for that. Much harder than they have in recent years, so thats very favorable for us. Were able to offer the same quality or in many cases better quality as a much better price, for a lidl shopper been than accounts very favorable for us. The traffic equation continues to be strong. In other words, peoples average transaction price, for lack of a better word, is it down, flood . Up slightly . Its under pressure, right . Were having to do a lot of work to keep that number where it needs to be. Its logical. Weve seen relatesly that the American Family in a month has gone from visiting about 17 supermarkets a month a few years ago to almost 21 Grocery Stores a month. Theyre not doing that because they enjoy gassing up the car, they think they can get a better deal going to multiple outlets. Were not heavily promotional, were everyday low price, every single day they should be able to get the very best price on the items that are counting on us for. We heard from planet fitness, they think theres a shift in consumer focus to savings. Dine brand says the lowerend consumer is more aggressively managing their check. Would you say that thats the same phenomenon youre exper experiencing . Are you benefiting from any trade down . Were looking at that in a number of ways. U. S. Families are spending more of that is disposable income on food than anytime in the 80s. Theyll be much more focused on what they buy and hour they spend. Particularly on the things that are most important, the thing that drive their decisions about where to shop, which is fresh product. You see fresh produce, pressure gamely, those are areas where we excel, and those are areas where customers are taking a really hard look. I would say that perhaps deflation, but the price hikes have slowed, and that part of the markets, i dont know if thats keeping people from seeking owl the value, or if they are still are. No, weve seen very Strong Customer traffic. Theyre still under pressure in a lot of categories. Again, the private brand equation is exceptionally strong. The things we do every day to drive costs down and you know, were relentless about putting downward pressure on prices. Sometimes we have to go up, but over time, in inflationary sometimes and less inflationary times, lidl will have the best prices. You dont have to compromise. We do that by being relentless about operational efficiency, and being a private brand fee. Hearing what youre talking about, i put you more in the camp of experiencing some kind of softness with the lowerend consumer. Am i right about that . We talked about the number with the most disposable income. When you look at it by quinntile those number are much, much higher, so those are the customers of being focused on what did i pay last year what thats where that behavior is most concentrated and where its sharpest, but we see it across the board. I was our touring stores yesterday, very different socioeconomic situations, very different Household Incomes around those stores, and we see a similar situation across all of them. Theyre all still feeling the inflationary pressure. Joel, we appreciate you joining us this morning. Rick santelli is out in chicago tracking the action. Its the last option, the long zest maturity, and the smallest in size at 25 billion, also the best of breed the yield 4. 635, the one issued market right at the end of the dutch auction process was trading 4. 642. So, it was in the basically 0. 75 of a basis appoint, so pricing was good all the metrics were quite stellar, except for one. Did it cover better than a ten auction . Direct bidders, almost at 20 , those are insurance companies, and the dealers taking less than a the only light spot was indirect bidders, including foreign interests. It really was best of breed. Amin news is what i gave it 30years bonds, you can see the yield is falling kell about, back to you. A sigh of relief thank you, rick. You heard the sounds of weakness there from lidls ceo the Utilities Sector was the only s p sector in the green in april, and its off to a start again. Its up is 1 year to date, and not traditionally a great sign at the same time, were seeing some of the growthy names following. We mentioned shopify earlier, could this dynamic be a sign joining us is david bonesen, chief Investment Officer at the bonson group do you have concerns about the market broadly speaking . First, ive been missed, welcome back. Thank you. Growth is what you always want to invest in, its just that the growth youre paying for youre having to over pay, and what a lot of the names were talking about experiencing weakness, they cant be called growth stocks, when it is only thing thats grown is how much money they lose. Beyond meat is now a 7 stock, and each year their losses went higher thats where some of the quality of the growth names is not exactly the same from some of these big temperature names that are really big growth, really big money makers, but i simply criticize that price, that are valuation. Maybe theres two the other signed would be if the economy is growing so that would obviously big a bigger problem for the market. Which of the two, do you think it is . I think in this case its simply the valuation in other words, bond yields havent really moved for about a year its gone a little higher, but it stayed here in this 4. 5 range, so that valuation issue good growth relies on direction. The direction hasnt worse jd. Its just floodlined its not like yields are strongly higher 9 p e is actually higher. The market multiple is 21, 22 sometimes forward earnings, so i think it has to do with the fact you get to a point where it isnt a good Value Proposition to buy something good today at as much as a high price, with the expected rate of return is so minimized i think thats the economics run into i mentioned utility stocks, where are you making the most money to find some stocks where you can get a good valuation on a pullback what are you up to were Dividend Growth investor, so we tend to be bottomup focused. Theyre all done very, very well for us, and frankably the blended multiple is less than 15 1 2 times, so i dont think theres the same valuation with a lot of the rag and especially differentoriented Sectors Energy to me is still a compelling space 40 returns year over year cant happen all that often, but people say the defensives are a bad sign, but consumer staples, utilities, health care, real estate all trading done would be a bad sign theyre not. I think its a bottomup market in Dividend Growth could utilities, as everyone is saying, kind of an electricity demand secular winners as oppose to do a sign of a slowing market yes i think American Electric power, aep, happens to be only the good utilities we own, we have a good position in it, but thats not a comment on the sect off. You can apply it to other things besides utilities. Its the things that people have to have, no matter what, where theres a good balance sheet, good recurring cash flows. You dont have to worry as much about what bond yields are going to do, what the fed will do. It becomes much Less Headline driven, and youre going to stake a further timeline in the way you approach the investment thesis. Quickly your picks are almost all 2349 healthcare space. What inning are we in it seems like theyre becoming consensus favorites. Well, gilead certainly is not. It is down quite a bit and out of favored i think you have a juicy dividend, tons of cash on the balance sheet, a favorable financial metric, and then you just need time and youre hanging on to it apparently their stage 2 results for the weightloss treatment went so well, you get a call option on them holding the whole ozempic fad. Were not going to let go of it without hanging out there. David, thanks for your time appreciate it. Thanks, kelly. Coming up, beyond meat you are seeing red after disappointing First Quarter results. They have recently rolled out a healthier version of their burger we will have the ceo how its going in his first live tv interview since the depths of the pandemic and a massive run into the print, and the boom in gen zers going to trade schools rather than a Traditional College or university the exchange is back after this. Announcer this is het exchange on cnbc. A slow network is no network for business. Thats why more choose comcast business. And now, were introducing ultimate speed for business our fastest plans yet. Were up to 12 times faster than verizon, at t, and tmobile. And existing customers could even get up to triple the speeds. At no additional cost. Its ultimate speed for ultimate business. Dont miss out on our fastest speed plans yet switch to comcast business and get started for 49. 99 a month. Plus, ask how to get up to an 800 prepaid card. Call today welcome back to the exchange. Shares of beyond meat are falling 13 today after reporting disappointing q1 results. It reported a wider than expected quarterly loss, and that marks the eighth straight quarter of downward momentum in that category. Despite the weakness, they expressed confidence for their fullyear revenue in line with 2023 ethan brown, along with our cale rogers, whos been following the company closely. Kate, kick us off. Thanks, kelly, and ethan, great to see you. Thanks for having me. Sow hose the revamping being received and why do you feel this will be the turnaround catalyst . For the folks going through the door, you were going to experience Something Like youre doing something disruptive, a push decrease ban in general turbulence for civility. We have certainly experienced that, but what we did during that crucial period was to look deeply at how to improve this very strong value that we already have around health what we did with the beyond four, we put together a consortium to hell us take our health values to another level with the beyond 4, whether its the use of avocado oils, and its scrammed tick reduction in saturated fat levels, with only two grabs, the inclusion of red lentil proteins, or for a ra bean, brown rice and peas, it got the xipt of the american heart association, but the American DiabetesAssociation Clean label project that certified the products in, sore we were ebl as to communicate theyre extremely healthy. If you want to do something for your card rho vascular system, these are the products to be having, these are the products to have at the center of the praise for dinner, leverage, et cetera, et cetera. Coming back with that healthy message, and the reception were receiving, we also developed even better sensory experience for the consumer were looking forward to it. So far, so good. This also will be a higherpriced, more premium item in this environment for consumers, does that consume you at all why do you feel they will opt to spend more on this if you look at what were doing, and this is a pivotal year for bemonday yond meat. We have consolidated our products network, so well see a much better cost of goods sold and ability to control quality, but were also raising price to restore margin thats all toward our path toward profitability warmup key focuses is bring it into a profitable state. Doing that from a pricing structure was very important because it has such a Value Proposition, it worn be an issue for consumers. We probably were the last to do any pricing in the category. Ethan, its kelly. I was going to ask, the gross margin was disappointing, under 5 , its raiser thin and the losses are disappointing to the investors. When will you start to consistently post the profitability where people might want to give your stock a Second Chance i think now is an important time to come into the company. Were crossing back into the positive margin, bringing operating expenses down. We continue to improve the overall efficiency of our operations, and we have a compelling promise for the investo ares we have the backing of these association and clean label projects, so to the extent you want to get back in, i think its an excellent time to look at it. Were certainly on much better footing than 12 months ago. You have your grossly plan with this platform im wondering what the restaurant plan is that was a big part of the initial rollout will we see the new burger there anytime soon yes, you will well have a new burger rolling out to Health Services weve had some great meetings on the qsr side here in the u. S. , but i want to call attention a bit to whats going on in europe i think that gets overlooked because so much of our Financial Community is here in the United States yesterday mcdonalds announced their famous meal program in germany thats features the beyond plant burger, but were also featuring the nuggets thats a big campaign. Theres a lot of promotional support from mcdonalds the press release is how theyre helping people to make these choices toward a plantbased diet weve been working have very hard, and theyre a terrific partner for us in europe here in the u. S. , i think youll see throughout the balance of this year, some additional activity, but right now were fork cussed on creating great products, whether its in the retail aisle or in food service, and making good progress. Ethan brown, thank you so much for joining us. Dont be such a stranger, ethan, first interview in four years. Thank you very much. Theres been a wall street journal report that t mobile and verizon are in talk to buy and split up the company u. S. Cel cellular shares of both stocks are sharply higher in the range of 5 to 6 . Coming up, well get a gauge on both work and play, with the action, story and play its cinomg up in todays Earnings Exchange. When it comes to investing, we live in uncertain times. Some assets can evaporate at the click of a button. Others c