Full force remember this name game stop, its shares are surging after famed meme stockholder Roaring Kitty posted for the first time in roughly three years. Busy day, i guess, huh lets begin thats not fair, sorry. Lets begin with the market setup. The dow is ride ang eightday win streak investors crowd into soft landing trade ahead of crucial inflation data. Okay. That makes it sound like if the datas bad, theyll crowd out. Ive been watching the stocks are going up. Its not the ones that are on profit going up. Theyre going down whats going up are the Profitable Companies we keep seeing that. David, i do think if gamestop is the leader today, that would signify perhaps the expectation lative peak, and i didnt know we were in a speculative hike. Im not sure we should draw too many conclusions with what may happen at gamestop, but its fun to look at an old name we used to talk about years back. When you go to twinner, you have the pin piece you know the old piece about 100 sure, and if im listening, you think, wow, this is a great situation. Thats what got it going to first time. Thats amazing. David, if you post a picture of a couple of lazboy recliners and paramount, that thing goes to 22. Oh, boy, paramount, yeah. Thats its own saga. Isnt it . It is. There you go. Look at it. Diamond hands. Is that i dont know. Im looking at all this research and theyre saying were spending millions and all we have to do is put a chair up . There was a nice gain over the weekend amid cpi coming our way midweek. Steeple, 5 points down. I have that note in front of me mid quarter correction they talk about sustained pce inflation the fed seeks. They call it a pipe dream. Meantime i go over, david, sections of the economy, and everythings down a little bit, and that does not say to me pipe dream. Right. It just says to me steady as she goes pipe dream implies its never going to happen. I think its a pipe dream, that piece. I might be pipe dreaming that pipe dream. Weve been talking for weeks about brown shoes, the economy and the consumer, mid to lower end, but even signs above that not as much in experiences we talk about it so often. But reflected in any number of earnings that we saw, although, again, not all across the board, jim. Right. So i dont know what we get this week that can sort of help confirm or deny. This should be a piece for the investment club. One of the things i saw was i was looking at autonation and carmax and then, of course, reading the homebuilders theres not enough used cars out there, and there are not enough used homes out there its kind of interesting, isnt it, that we all lack use this is so covid that we lack use. Weve always had a lot of used cars around. There was a used home component. And theyre just gone. The used home being an existing home, same thing. Just trying to be a little making sure people know. More cinematic. I like that no, i like that. Nobodys selling their used homes right now. Theyre living in them theyre using them. Somebody approached me for the second time on my 2006 lexus wagon and made an offer from me. Second time. I mean, im not a car dealer you mean out of the blue, youre just driving the car and they say, id like to buy that from you yeah. Oh, thats fascinating. This is a big part of ed darnellys noerkts and hes looking at boomers done paying college tuition, done paying their Mortgage Loans with 40 of homes mortgagefree and they say theyre going to spend the rest on themselves. He points out many are buying large ticket items like light trucks in cash. Really. That should reflect on ford stock. Have you ever gone to a Hardware Store and had to buy epoxy i keep trying to its epoxy. Its not elmer Somebody Just stuck it there. Yeah. So it doesnt matter how many baby boomers buy light trucks. How many baby boomers does it take you already own one of those trucks. I have a maverick, and i enjoy it greatly youre not going to be able to get that from me. No . If i made you an offer i have like 7,000 miles on it. Thats it nobodys coming up to you and asking to buy it. No. How about mcdonalds friday and a 5 meal. Is that getting you going . We dont know although, the company does kind of indicate that somebody got ahead of the story, but this is what im waiting for im waiting for the companies that raised prices too much and own it and start rolling back, and that would be the beginning of the major rollbacks because mcdonalds burgers have gone up hugely since 2019. It shows theyre absolutely in sympathy im looking for inflation fighters and inflation lovers. Are you a lover or a fighter mctonlds is a fighter. I would be curious who the lovers are do you got any in mind oh, yeah. Why dont you just wait a second, partner. Youre not going to do it again, are you i love dutch brothers. Dutch brothers. I had them on theyre 10 c do we know ticket versus travel it was about it was a little bit more weighted toward tipping, but they had a lot of traffic. And theyre expanding nationwide they think theres room for 4,000. How can there be room for more coffee outlets . You know, david, thats a great question i think the ones that are exist having a lot of lines. Because of too much mobile ordering absolutely. So nobody goes there anymore because its too crowded o yogi hes really yogaing his view. Lets just go over this. Dutch brothers is price. They come in under some of the big guys, but theres a block for sale thats crushing me. 13 million share block i dont know what that is. I dont believe that 13 million shares, thats not possible since thats like the whole stock flow anyway, carl, thats where i am on this. Lets talk chips softba softbanks arm plans to launch ai. I believe that ai is absolutely not a hype cycle. I think ai is going go be able to unleash capabilities and innovations we have never seen before one of the areas im most excited about is biosearch when you think about what it takes to simulate a drug or a protein, how difficult that is today, advance Solutions Going forward will enable that arm will be right at the heart of it. Were going to get a report on apples gpt on the phone. I was reading the comment that its being called the golden goose its the exclusive openai and chatgpt f i cant get in the way of a man who wears a pink jacket. Are we moving on . Lets be careful. The chip is up against nvidia. David, i look around youre the only person who has not partnered with nvidia. How are you dealing with that . I do go home every night and think what are we doing wrong . Family, what are we thinking faber has partnered with nvidia, sources say. I like it. Well, were going to design something. Dont get more specific than that well just leave that within the speculation. Its designing something. And were going to send it off to a contract manufacturer when we design it, whateveret is. Heres what you do. You want to say youre partnered with recurgen pharmaceuticals. The company thats most linked other than you is a 50 million stake. Thats a jenson name they apparently had a great meeting with them, put money with them. And you can see they put together a deal with nvidia. So, david, you want to crash that. Okay. Ive got a lot of things to do. Meantime jeffreys gym goes up hsbc goegs up. They talk about may 22nd is when the report will be good. Theyre worried about october and october. He was in the front row. Kind of like ed sullivan remember how they used to put people in the front row . It was a really big show. Michael dell. Yes and his partnership. To phen straight means throwing somebody out of the window. I love that i just wanted to use the word. When we come back, the Biden Administration planning to pressure the chinese ev makers futures are taking a crack at alltime highs dont go anywhere. Im just a regular person. Some people say, why should i take prevagen . I dont have a problem with my memory. Memory loss is, is not something that occurs overnight. I started noticing subtle lapses in memory. I want people to know that prevagen has worked for me. Its helped my memory. Its helped my cognitive qualities. Give it a try. I want it to help you just like it has helped me. Prevagen. At stores everywhere without a prescription. Tamra, izzy, and emma. They respond to emails with phone calls. And they dont circle back, theyre already there. They wear business sneakers and pad their keyboards with something that makes their clicketyclacking. Clicketyclackier. But no one loves logistics as much as they do. You need tamra, izzy, and emma. They need a retirement plan. Work with principal so we can help you with a retirement and benefits plan thats right for your team. Let our expertise round out yours. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Biden is expected to quadruple tariffs in the next coming days. In the meantime stories about ford cutting stories from battery suppliers. Theres a piece of information about the tesla and whether the model 2 is ready to go in the pilot. Thats scrapped, a cording to information. I thought it was interesting the seeker comes public on friday. And this was in the wind that would happen all that happens is the stock could go even higher im trying to figure out what is the american investor game plan toward this. What is it why is the stock even more if the future is not coming here, nobodys coming here especially given the risk potential for even more in tariffs. Zeker, since we had the cfo join us last week, theyre higher end and obviously around the world to the point you made. Its not just the chinese domestic market. Its other markets outside of china that dont have their own automakers, and they talked he talked about significant margins. I dont know 15 if i recall. Carl, 15 operating margins, which is not terrible. I loved the interview, and i do think the cars and trucks were fantastic it doesnt have to be. It doesnt have to be have this market in order to be successful it can be any market so the idea you might want to invest in it even though it doesnt have u. S. Its a reflection of trade policy overall and how its changed. Remember it was about lowering the costs for things in the unite ed states. Thats different now but were not going to pay less for our automobiles. No, no, were not in my interview, i said to him, look, this is how we get cooperation. I mentioned my father worked for the chinese and how great it was and if we were to have if xi would see this, i think he could say, you know what i the u. S. Markets are open ive got to be a little more, lets say, less antagonistic because hes antagonistic. Why doesnt he see what weve done here. The cfo obviously was inclined to agree thingscould be better but i just felt very batley this doesnt matter if we open to markets. It just doesnt matter my short hills mall apple voted against the union. I saw that. That was pretty interesting its a great store, not that im proantiunion but, look, the stores fantastic. Im glad people feel like they dont need the union, but if they have the union, maybe its because theyre overworked its e entirely possible weve seen whole chains where people feel theyre overworked. Yes, we have. Yes, we have. Yes, we have. Im trying to go through my mind some of the Union Efforts amazon and starbucks have largely failed. Well, look, unions, its a tough issue. I mean when i was a member of my union, i remember calling a wildcat strike and everyone got fired, you know. We made our point. And you didnt have jobs. We made our point. Well done then we went to jp stevens, and we showed them oh, they shut down right after that all right, so maybe it was sub optimal. Well get cramers mad dash, the countdown to the opening bell well see if we can get each on the drawdown from the past few weeks. St wh ayitus business. Its not a ninetofive proposition. Its all day and into the night. Its all the things that keep this world turning. Its the gotos that keep us going. The places we cheer. Trust. Hang out. And check in. They all choose the advanced Network Solutions and round the clock partnership from comcast business. Powering more businesses than anyone. Powering possibilities. As we start trading in about seven minutes from now lets talk about micron. There are many multiple pieces why its so good. This is salient. This time its not going to be the same peak, trough, peak, trough, because of the high bandwidth memory chips that theyre doing, which is, of course, ai what it says, david, is the cycle is truly different thats historically been a dangerous thing to say but i know the company well, and i think theres a lot of truth to it. Theyre ahead of evidence about e everybody else and theyre made in america, which is great. This is a very powerful piece, which tells me the stock is going to go much higher. Its going up. Really . Even with the volatility its cyclical theyre saying, look, its been like this. But this time its going to be like this. If thats the truth, the stocks going to converge. Its all because of ai. Because they have the high bandwidth memory chips you need that to do great with everything thats coming memory is more important for semis in the new world i really like it they say moores law is dead in this piece thats something jensen has said. For years. Thats not what intel says. Theyre doing this apollo thing and rumored to be in ireland for 11 billion. Yeah, thats financing frontal boundary their chip manufacturing around the world. I went to one my wife is a river dancer, so look out she can river dance. No kidding. The things we learn. And i thought i knew him well. By the way, you can catch us any time, anywhere by listening to and following the sqsquawk on e street opening bell podcast who wouldnt want to do that. Right. Were back after this daughter hey, dad. Dad hey, sweetheart. Daughter what are you doing . Dad im gonna clean the fence. Daughter its a lot of fence. Dad you wanna help me . Dad aim at the wall, but get closer. Daughter gasps what the . daughter alright. Dad side to side. When you work with someone who knows a lot and cares even more. You can do this. Youre unstoppable. wow. Are you kidding me . You can do this. At truist, we believe the same is true for banking. Stanley. How to look at the future downshift. They say the market doesnt appreciate as strategy increases. I agree walmart has been stuck at 60 thats fantastic opportunity pepsi moved up coke broke out mcdonalds with the 5 burger will be big. Wayfair, i think, theres no theres no hair in the wayfair deal wayfair did well during the pandemic and its continued do well, but so has william sonoma. Youve got high end and low end. The only one is rh because their price point is too high. Colgate, wow, what a horse that is. Yeah, colgate has had a great year so far as a stock anyway. Theyre running a lot of different techs. Yeah. That wall m walmart is coming thursday lets look at the opening bell and the big board. Its the chamber of commerce [ indiscernible they could do a good job. I go to a lot of walmarts with my kids. People dont seem to realize walmart has become kind of a chic place to go its reverse chic admittedly, but they have a lot of inexpensive but highquality fashion, so my daughter, my fashion daughter went there. Its like, holy cow. 9 for something that might be 870 if you dont get it right. We talked about it on friday. They said they normally dont up guidance on comps coming out of q1 so member be a little cautious. Wow, that would be a great opportunity to buy theyve rolled back prices i bought a dickeys jacket i saw for 100, i bought it for 25. Quite incredible values. Well done. It was one of their featured rollbacks like the old days where theyre selling the stuff seemingly at cost. Its so excited. Have you seen the journal story about tee mum holding back in the United States this is whats hurt some of the online companies. Temu has spent 2 billion dollars on its advertising and alphabet last year, so the idea that theyve paired back their budget in the u. S. , that said these are Global Platforms theyre doing a lot in europe, but the journal story was interesting saying things have flattened. I mean the growth is still there, but nothing like it had seen previously, and theyve cut back in terms of spending and markets here in the u. S. Market as well. They provide very cheap goods. Do they ever. But temu was a boon for amazon because if you ordered stuff from temu, its open about when it comes, but with amazon, they give you the day i want to recommend a stock off them that is much better a much better play, and its waste management, the wm. Didnt you have them long the last couple of weeks yes, but this goes right from your house to landfill, and i think we should send it right to wm, and it will raise their quarters. From chinese factories to our landfills. Its an old story. This is kind of a redux ive ordered stuff and its amazing. One of the biggest mistakes. It was a very bag mistake, a very illadvised mistake to buy that bathing suit. I thought it looked kind of oh, yeah. Speaking of journal stories, it was the advertising spend story about advertising on a retailers website and how that model will overtake traditional tv span next year . These with all articles where we say tv is now radio, radio is now newspapers without a doubt, the money issue the up front season, the old up front season, which seems odd they still have these events, but its nice, amazons website and we talk about it, what an important component its become of the companys overall earnings to carls point, and the story was basically saying thats where many are choosing to spend their ad dollars there or even walmart. Com and or the digital advertisers. Obviously you want to be on the Meta Platforms and alphabet and youtube, but not the traditional income. You have an idea like alphabet, which is doing incredibly well. Football, nfl, live games, they want to put money in. Wingstop, theyve been doing a lot of traditional yes do they pull back if the pacers win . I dont know, jim. I knew that was coming. Does brunson play we played seven guys. Basically the sprockets fell off early. I do think thats the one thing that transcends, which is why weve gotto keep front and center, the nba contract. Whats your take . Nothing beyond what im hearing. You dont want to foment on anything youre going to get different spinsfrom different constituencies in terms of the performance of the contract, the performance of the nba is it all year do the games really rain all year right now, people really watch the playoffs. I watched columbus. It was like one of the greatest games ever. What are you spending money on is it worth it i think the most interesting component is warner bros. Discovery as we reported last week will compete for the matching rights on the amazon pack and as opposed to potentially the amazon package . You were here. I know. Im just trying can i make it exciting. Youre pretending you hadnt heard. Bingo. As whats being recorded to be a cnbc deal to acquire those rights. I will tell you the peeft last week its a winwin for zaslav, how can something be a winwin . They say its a lose lose it death penalties who youre talking to i can talk to people who say why its a winwin and others who say, no, its a lose lose. Amazon investing in 1. 3 billion in jobs in france and theres a chip story in the journal. It was positive for amazon and use this great moment. That is smart. There are people who are going to say, wait, we dont want them here, and theyre here, what do we do, and at the same time amazon is saying, here, why dont you take these jobs. Amazon doesnt do anything for the fun of it. Thats going to be very good the apollo to expand for intel, and intel is expanding everywhere, so far its empty calories. Theyre building a lot. This deal thats reported where apollo is helping to finance the construction of the chipmaking abilities, its because intel doesnt have the ability to do it on its own and i would reference august of 2022 in which brookfield,al one of the giant alternative managers we talked about, leased with some frequency we should talk about them as they start to dominate the financial landscape, but they did a deal with intel in which it provided 15 billion for a 49 stake in their manufacturing campus in champion, arizona. So intel retains the majority position of 51 , but this is how they bring in the outside capital. And then you basically split revs coming out of this thing once its up and running so its a model that has been potentially rep play indicated by apollo and intel for this facility in ireland. Guys, weve got one thats going private. Squarespace. Whats interesting here, a couple of Different Things one is when you take a look at squarespace, it went public about three years ago. Its gone below. Its not alone, jim. There are a number of companies. Endeavor comes to mind they were public before they said, were done with this public thing and were going back to private hands. Squarespace, the market capitalization is up from where it was, but the revenue is flat from where it was. Its been up since 2020. If you go to the website, which is one of the most poorly designed websites ive seen, i think that i looked at them we went to w. E. X. Wicks, im sorry. Go to wix. Com. Wicks is just joyful its how you design your website, your business we went to wilcks, and for very little money, you can get help for a website. You get an artist. We used them for our restaurants. You cant own a Liquor Company a restaurant in this compuntry, bt wicks is a fabulous, fabulous design company. And spare spoois has been looking to establish themselves online for the last two decades. The companys largest share, anthony casselina is going to build equity it sold at six times the sale, so youre talking six years worth of the companys sales the final thing i would mention that sort of was notable but perhaps not as notable as it was a few years back when we first focused on it, private credit is financing the deal i dont have the term, but its blackstone, blue owel, and aries. Theyre stepping up for palmyra, the company thats taking this company private. The ebitda is good. But you have to mention the prevalence of private credit as being something where people are wanting to go. When you get with younger people, except for my kids, they want to go into private credit they say, what are you up to private credit. Do they say it like that . Yeah. They say it prievd vate credit. They dont want to let on, but they want me to know about it. Last week mark rowan last monday talked a lot about that theyre one of the giants in private credit, apollo, of course, in part through their insurer. But they also talked about the fact that there are 4,000 public companies, not 8,000, and how important the private markets are and are going to continue to become and this is another side of it. When youre taking it out, the companies that went public three years ago are taking it back to private. Private credit is a giant and is only growing if rates go back to a very low level, i dont know that it will continue to offer quite the same opportunities, although, maybe it will. Its got a spread. You can potentially get double digit returns. You had a nice day today if you owned it i understand if you cant hold it the whole way. You mean square space. Yeah. You were sitting on you were at at the end of the year, you were at 27 now youve got this price, and, you know, you didnt know you were sitting on a gold mine. We got a brief because of gme. You call out, and heres what theyll tell you nothing. Nothing. Maybe we should give ryan cohen a call. This is Roaring Kitty. With the chair. Right in the study with the sorry. Colonel mustard. This will take you back, jim, i dont know, maybe june or july where you can maybe foment second time im using that you can create something to make it so you have a thesis. Theres a thesis. All i know about Roaring Kitty is from the movie, dumb money. Which you starred in. I haed a major role in, yes during the course of the movie, his thesis it never came down to dont tell me youre going to fundamentals no, it didnt come down to fundamentals. Youre so oldfashioned this is a breakout. Okay. Yes now, you know youve got a fellow travel lore in ryan cohen whos the ceo whos not going to say we dont understand why this is going up, although, he should because it has nothing to do with him, i hope i hope. Meantime, guys, airlines are definitely worth watching. Oh, yeah. Hsbc talked about united and delta. It doesnt denote any decline or slowdown in travel. Travel has been disputed because Domestic Travel has not been that good overseas travel is holding up. Its kind of a rolling situation of how far away you are from when you had covid i Like United Airlines and delta. I think its very interesting that once again southwest air is held up because of the boeing problem. Meantime youve got gasoline prices down three straight weeks, jim the average now of 3. 58 will take you back to april 8th. Extraordinary morning talking about how chinese demand for gasoline down because of the ev market. No one is ready for that who am i to dispute that speaking of oil and gas, Chuck Schumer is counting the alarm when it comes to chevron and hess weve talked a great deal about the hostility currently in place between chevron and exxon over the joint operating agreement that hess is party to in diana theyre going arbitrators. Its uk law. Theyve got a third arbitrator chevron is competent in its position, as does, of course, exxon as well. But this was weird why not . With a trump reference to big oil . I dont know. Why is Chuck Schumer saying this now, do we know . Any ideas . Frankly, it mystifies me. Im mystified. Made the point a number of times if the deal were to break, hess stock probably goes higher as youre not seeing any Real Movement or dislocation in terms of this credit i would also add a week or two ago i was talking about a number of shareholders in hess who were somewhat disconsolate with the idea that there was no real premium in this deal and at least thinking about writing letters and trying to find comparables. That never happened. I think the letters were written, not sent. Not that it would have necessarily been able to amount to true opposition, but it doesnt appear that effort has really happened. Elliott would have been the most likely, knowing that hess had taken a proxy fight a number of years ago and they didnt. Did you look at the wall street journal editorial about throwing the ftc under the bus i didnt see it, no. Scott was the ceo of pioneer, very widely respected man. They have letters. They would try to fix price. The people i deal with say he was in communication at all times, but the journal said this is classic of ftc. It seems like exxon was not necessarily standing up for it. They just wanted to get the deal done. They wanted to get the deal done. As we go to break, watch the bonds. Pretty light except for mester well get ppi tomorrow. Equities are green c com services are coming down were about 30 points shy. Stay with us announcer the bond report is brought to you by pimco, a Global Leader in fixed assets income between numbers and peo. Whats right for the business and whats best for everyone who depends on it. Solving todays challenges while creating future opportunities. It takes balance. Cla cpas, consultants, and wealth advisors. Well get you there. What is cirkul . Cirkul is the fuel you need to take flight. Cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. Cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. Cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul. Com. [thunder rumbles] the biggest ideas inspire new ones. 30 years ago, state street created an etf that inspired the world to invest differently. It still does. What can you do with spy . [thunder rumbles]. Watch ge today down a bit although jpmorgan does reiterate an overweight they were at 148 and go up to 175, as they boost some of their target multiples in the aerospace space. The dow up 113 were close to 5230. Oprangitjim is coming up next. Ord. Tonsillitis nostril uhuh. Bill uhhuh. Hiphop limping mmhmm medical bills uhhuh pancakes cash who pays you cash when you have medical bills . Grrr no idea. [tapping] gap the gap left by Health Insurance . Who pays cash to help close that gap . Aflac oh, aflac get help with expenses Health Insurance doesnt cover at aflac. Com pictionary . so this is pickleball . Its basically tennis for babies, but for adults. It should be called wiffle tennis. Pickle yeah, aw whoo these guys are intense. We got nothing to worry about. 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 . Got him. Good game. Thanks for coming to our clinic, first ones free. 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 a slow network is no network for business. Matc thats why more chooseon. 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. From the company with 99. 9 Network Reliability and advanced cyber security, its ultimate speed for ultimate business. And its all from comcast business. Lets get to jim and stop trading. I like zelman on housing and i think its very interesting it went to a sell on kb homes kb homes did really good and all the Home Builders traigds together interesting to see if this takes a dive a lot of people liked kb for a long time. I think kb is very good. Tremendous handle in california. I disagree with the sell piece, but i disagree selling homes because i think there are too few homes being built and they do well. Do we know what her thesis was . Theyre not readily accessible i just felt it was important to bring it to light because what a group that has been and theres just no stopping the Home Builders shes been good at picking peaks. I like the group way too much to go against any of them toll is my favorites, by the way, because they do high end and i like lennar very much. Yeah i think d. I. Horton is good. Toll is just doug yearley has been extraordinary. How are you going to start the week off tonight the gig economy, we had a number of reports about gig economy stocks, theyre not all equal and i think theyre presented to be equal and were disagreeing with that. What day today would have been a quiet were not in Earnings Period but the research has been extraordinary into yeah. Interesting seeing meta and alphabet both down thats got to be on that story we discussed. Yeah. Cutting back on marketing spend here. Rene has gotten back to me, rene, the fellow who runs arm. Yeah. No comment on that story that makes me think the arm ai chips story. The nikkei, out of japan. But maybe we can focus on i know youve got good sourcing there. What are you laughing at deep throat or something around the world i have good sources. I know youre out of town friday i know where youre going. Yeah. Youre going to see salt arent you no. Ill plu that game all week. Well see you tonight, mad money, 6 00 p. M dow up 100 quick break s gitoing for nine straight gains stay with us meets bold new thinking. To help you see untapped possibilities and relentlessly work with you to make them real. Municipal bonds dont usually get the Media Coverage the stock market does. In fact, most people dont find them all that exciting. But, if youre looking for the potential for consistent income thats federally taxfree. Now is an excellent time to consider Municipal Bonds from hennion walsh. If you have at least 10,000 to invest, call and talk with one of our bond specialists at 18003764376. Well send you our exclusive bond guide, free with details about how bonds can be an important part of your portfolio. Hennion walsh has specialized in fixed income and Growth Solutions for 30 years, and offers highquality Municipal Bonds from across the country. They provide the potential for regular income are federally taxfree and have historically low risk. Call today to request your free bond guide. 18003764376. Thats 18003764376. And theyre all coming . 18003764376. Those who are still with us, yes. Grandpa whats this . Your wings. Light em up gentlemen, its a beautiful. Day to fly. Good monday morning. Welcome to another hour of squawk on the street. Im sara eisen with Carl Quintanilla and david faber, live as always from post nine of the new york stock exchange. Take a look at stocks here in the early action higher a little bit. S p up a little more than 0. 1. Its a broad base in terms of the gains today. Only sector lower is communication skfrsz and we have at the top of the list real estate, alphabet, meta, netflix, tmobile weighing on that sector but everybody is higher. Utilities, real estate, Consumer Discretionary at the top of the market nasdaq is up 0. 2 adding to gains we saw last week take a look at treasuries right now. Part of the story they have been bid and the yields are lower thats continuing today. The sorry yield 4. 47, 3 , we have a more interesting week of macro data the twoyear yield 4. 8 30 minutes into the trading session here are three big movers were watching. Big tech player insight, announcing a 2 billion stock buyback, shares down on the year with the pop today we are keeping a close eye on gamestop which has been soaring. The stock has been halted now several times in the last 30 minutes. It halted once again right now one gamestop one of gamestops backers returning to social media, keith kill, known as Roaring Kitty highly recommended movie. 110 . This is a deja vu of the meme craze up 110 . Were going to talk more aibtz about this in a bit. Intel in advanced talks with Apollo Global for more than 11 billion in cash to build a new plant in ireland i mentioned its going to be a bigger week of economic data, bigger than last week and the high light is wednesdays cpi report interestingly this doesnt always happen, we get ppi, wholesale inflation before cpi usually it comes afterwards but this time happening before, which means it might be market moving because were trying to get a sense of whether cpi comes in inv inline or lower than forecast. The expectations around 3, last few months at 0. 4. Core month over month inflation and thats what were hoping the fed is hoping, investors are hoping, we gate 0. 3 or even better a 0. 2 increase in month over month inflation so the fed can move with rate cuts and investors dont have to be so concerned about inflation flaring back up, which we did see in the First Quarter as far as what else this week, were going to get key earnings from the consumer. Retail is very much in focus now at the tail end of earnings season home depot and walmart later in the week i made two charts to sort of preview what were going to get today. On inflation, High Frequency economics in the note last night laid out the fact that its been slow progress and a slow moderation in core prices right now. We have the total cpi in blue which you can see its come way off the crazy levels of 8, 9 in the cycle, but its kind of stagnating there and has remained sticky and same with core which strips out food and energy in the orange line and thats what the fed needs to see more progress on thats been the problem. What components have been the key problem as a part of that overall . Services we know, right hasnt been goods. Goods has come back down its services and whats inside of services is things like insurance, health care, auto insurance, but, you know, when you talk about these numbers, and i just want to make something clear, which is, you think food, which we spent a big portion of our budget on, its now growing 2 , 2. 2 from, you know, the year before, which sounds more benign, but the numbers are 25 to 30 higher than they were in 2019 so which is just to say this is still a factor in terms of the soft data, the surveys like the consumer sentiment, like Inflation Expectation that we got in the university of michigan, like polling numbers against president biden. People are still paying. Electricity costs are 30 higher than in 2019, even though weve seen the trend moderate in recent months. I wanted to mention that note because if you look at the overall level its a different story. Right we continually hear, especially when it comes to polls, for example, its even though it has moderated, when you compare as you did to 19, the last five years, prices are up a lot the question whats the underlying economy doing is the labor market really cooling . Theres evidence jobless claims last week, payrolls data, for the prior month. Well wait and see as far as the consumer is doing, also a mixed picture more anecdotal data or mentions in the earnings about weakness at the low end heres the bank of america spending numbers in april. And they still remain pretty strong and they broke it out into services, which is, obviously, the strongest part of the economy and the inflation problem, including restaurants thats at the top there very high, and it has not come down even retail exrestaurants you can see april still looks pretty good so ill be very curious to see what some of the more benchmark kind of Companies Like a walmart or home depot, how they characterize spending. Theyve been more cautious lately in recent earnings what theyre seeing from the consumer and so have a number of retailers. We will see retail sales a full print this week the s p coming off three straight weeks of gains, after three weeks of losses, and now less than 1 from new highs. The dow coming off the best week of the year. Four positive weeks in a row more about whether the rebound rally can continue barclays head of equity strategy has a target of 5300. A lot of chatter this morning about whether or not people are lightning up for a friendly cpi print this week. Are they betting too much on that well, what i would say is that the returns ta maturity to cpi is extremely high and negative in other words, if you look at a good print, in other words inflation is slowing, the market is going to rally a lot. Or react a lot if it goes the other way, then we have a very different problem, which its going to fall a lot i think in aggregate, even though s p sensitivity to world macro factor, the sense remains high the driving the markets and 10year rates and eventually percolate into evaluations for equities i think its whats were keeping our eye on. There are some notes on the street today arguing that when the signal is the greatest, it still points to disinflation and where signals are the noisiest it points to upside risk on prices i wonder if you think thats fair statement you know, listen, the reality is a big part of the inflation battle of either part, if i can say that, has been won, but we are sticky at this point 2. 8 core pce because its what fed cares about. In our view that decline or improvement has indeed aided what we think the fair value of s p outside of tech, the market is for that, almost 1. 5 times. I think we are still in a territory that is unclear. You were talking about the consumer segment, one of the interesting things is, you know, while people are talking about where inflation will go, one of the concerns which has cropped up is the stagflation, where, you know, growth slows and inflation remains high we think thats exaggerated, but, you know, i think its going to show up in margins and, you know, lets see whether we make some progress on inflation going forward. Just given the biggest the big runup weve seen so far this year in stocks and now its 9. 6 for the s p, what is happening to earnings expectations from here and where do you think theyre most mispriced . What kind of sectors i would say the earnings season has been extremely good, because of multiple parameters if you look overall, for the biggest driver of this is big tech forward revisions are up over 17 . Its a pretty stunning after the kind of results they posted. The rest of tech outside of big tech is up 6. 5 . For the rest of s p outside of tech its up around almost 5 . I think the earnings revisions are going in the right direction, which are somewhat sort of what we saw in q1. The question really is, as we go forward, outside of tech, will the margin pressure be handled appropriately by companies because that is a lingering concern and it is centered around the fact that the u. S. Economy has been pushed forward with consumption and the consumer so any cracks in that, thats going to start showing up i think the consumer segment like we noted earlier there is concern for companies those who posted good numbers, concern about demand waning and the ability to hang on to pricing. Finally, are you under any do you feel any pressure to raise your s p earnings target for the year given what earnings season has done . Not at this point we want to wait a little bit longer if you look, carl, where it is coming, from its almost all coming from tech and outside of tech, it is really, you know, kind of marginal what we want to see is a broadening out to some extent. We are happening big tech continues to drag the market up. But we need to see it broaden. I would say that we are not the risks are clearly to the upside so our base case for s p remains at 5300 and we have an earnings number of 225, which is about 8 less than the consensus is in the big picture, consensus has not changed dramatically, even after q1, so no, we are not in a hurry to change our earnings numbers until we see how the rest of s p outside of tech is able to handle the ongoing sort of modern issues. Right and a lot of that depends on what rate dozen from here. Thanks as always, appreciate it over at barclays. Thank you for having me. As we head to break heres our road map for the rest of hour Roaring Kitty is back and so are the meme stocks, gamestop surging today halted for volatility. Its a red hot trade in this market up double digits outperforming every sector in the last month and setting new highs, what that is and well get some top picks from one of the streets top analysts. The cftc planning new derivatives to bet on econeltis. Rossen benham will join us stay with us youre a rock star. Were all rock stars. Oooo look look at my data driven insights, im a rock star. Great job putting finance and hr on one platform with workday. Thank you guys, can you keep it down. Im working. You people are guitar noises . Hand over the air guitar. Ive got another one. And theyre all coming . Those who are still with us, yes. Grandpa whats this . Your wings. Light em up gentlemen, its a beautiful. Day to fly. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Check out shares of walgreens getting a pop on reports the company has contacted potential buyers for its uk based drug chain boots, right there in the name well keep an eye on that stock which has been challenged, david, last year or two. Very much so for quite some period of time actually. In fact, that deal not a great one for the company. Take a look at that stock, though, and it had been up when sara was doing it at the top of the show 110 . The meme trade may very well be back Roaring Kitty, remember that name of wall street bets fame, returned and shares of gamestop is up as a result. Stock halted seven times since trading got under way just in 45 minutes. So i dont know if its halted again. Over to kate rooney, just tell us what youre hearing and whats going on here, kate. Hey, david. This is keith gills first online post weve seen in three years, Roaring Kitty as hes known, was really the pied piper of the meme stock frenzy in 2021 and led the traders to gamestop. Short squeeze posting a cryptic photo of someone leaning forward in a chair that was enough to send gamestop up, as we said, more than 100 it has been halted for volatility robert sent out a note, since trading activity for gme has only been ten minutes, the rest of the day has been halted and with just ten minutes of trading the stock did 3. 5 times the normal volume. Its not just gme, other socalled meme stocks like amc are catching a bid it is one sign of overall Risk Appetite increasing. Youll see that showing up in the options market, especially for the most volatile corner short maturity, once reserved for professional traders, zero days to expire options have climbed in popularity among everyday investors, these are oneday bets on the direction of the market which could offer outsized returns, rewards and also outsized risk last week retail activity in zero dt options as known, saw the biggest weekly sales since the beginning of the year. Thats according to jpmorgan they are making up a larger slice of Overall Option trades there has been less buying of some of the safer proxies for cash vander Research Points out slowing flows into money market funds after the surge of inflows as rates started to right, says all of the new Risk Appetite is a function of chasing rising risk asset prices. Tax implications, tax related peak real estate bearishness in the rearview mirror. Real estate has been rotating more aggressively in the single stock. On gamestop, im not saying this has occurred, keith gill, aka Roaring Kitty could have gone into the options market, bought shortterm dated options youre referring to, and then put out his tweet with the chair, and then i mean, enormous gains, right he could have bought the 30s i guess . I cant imagine those cost very much a day or two ago. Very well could have. Youre seeing more options activity in general. Zero dte jay clayton at a Conference Last Week called that gambling, called out some of these really risky pockets of the market, and this is in no way indicative of the average retail trader, but you are seeing this prevailing corner of the market still willing to bet on a stock like gamestop which really theres no fundamental reason why the stock is moving. It is seeing essentially a gamble here. Definitely some flashbacks going on today thank you. Kate rooney, watching gme. Still to come a read on real estate and the consumer ahead of a slew of data out of depo, walmart and others, what investors need to know after the break. Do you have a Life Insurance policy you no longer need . Now you can sell your policy even a term policy for an immediate cash payment. Call Coventry Direct to learn more. We thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. But we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. Our friend sold their policy to help pay their medical bills, and that got me thinking. Maybe selling our policy could help with our retirement. Im skeptical, so i did some research and called Coventry Direct. They explained Life Insurance is a valuable asset that can be sold. We learned we could sell all of our policy, or keep part of it with no future payments. Who knew . We sold our policy. Now we can relax and enjoy our retirement as we had planned. If you have 100,000 or more of Life Insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. Dont cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what its worth. Visit coventrydirect. Com to find out if your policy qualifies. Or call the number on your screen. Coventry direct, redefining insurance. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Credit delinquencies showing mixed signs when it comes to the strength of the consumer senior economics reporter Steve Liesman joins us with some of the new data what does it show . We have fresh data, sara. The april read from equifax shows credit delinquencies on Consumer Credit ticking up to the highest level since may 2020 remaining below the prepandemic average at well below 2009 the combination of low to the consumer real estate and Student Loans offsetting higher auto and bank card delinquencies, all areas up compared to a year ago. Its autos and bank cards that are above those prepandemic levels mark zandi writing households are under Financial Stress bus the worst is at hand delinquency is peaking as inflation is abated and real wages are rising credit standards have tightened. Delinquency rates high fres lending in 2022, 2023 a better class of debt because banks tighten credit because it has fewer problems right now going on, wells fargo tracks delinquencies from the bank side and theyre running about 20 above 2019 levels. You can see there amexbest in class discovery delinquencies faring best in the group the rate of increase looks to have slowed. Donald who covers the Consumer Credit companies for wells fargo tells me, the Second Derivative is turning, delinquency pressures are easing, its jobs that keep everything together, and were just not seeing a lot of corporate layoffs now, points to the decline in year over year dlin quincys at capital one and city, evidence to him the cycle is peaking, and he thinks there may be some value in some of these names he covers because theyre trading with anticipation of worse outcomes as he said, all bets are off if the employment rate rises sharply, unexpectedly. Fed rate decisions will matter to low income debtors. The question is, does the fed start cutting before theres more of a serious credit problem in the economy, sara yeah. I guess they would want to get ahead of that for sure Steve Liesman. And that gets us to the busy week ahead of us when it comes to the health of the consumer. Earnings from home depot and walmart, cpi data, Real Estate Sales on the way more on the state of the consumer joining us at post nine is jan kniffen, ceo of jay rodgers kniffen world enterprises. Nice to see you. Do you worry about rising delinquencies and the health of the consumer in the u. S. Worry, yes, i worry, but i dont think theres anything really wrong with the consumer its just what they said in that cut. Jobs, jobs, jobs they have a job, they think theyll keep it and if they lost it they could get another one and a raise on the way in the door as long as they believe that, theyll keep spending, unless they get way too indebted and their ability to pay back is no different than 2019. The consumer looks fine. There are pieces inside the consumer, the lower end is getting pressured. Were seeing trade down. All the things that say its a little weaker but not much weaker 2023 was a good year, 2024 is a good year. First two normal years since 2019, the consumer right now looks fine except what we heard from earnings season is pressure on the lowend consumer, cumulative impact of inflation, higher interests there were weather concerns and a covid concern, you know, in a few earnings reports so is there mismatch between the data and what youre hearing and seeing from companies . No. I dont think so i think theres winners and losers if youre walmart look at restaurants. Home depot right. I know starbucks was the worst in show but they showed lower comps. Theyre on the wrong side inflation in experiences is running 4. 5, 5 . Goods are zero or negative if im a consumer i look at it and go, youre a restaurant, youre stabbing me here. Gosh, the sweater is the same price as last year maybe ill buy that. Were seeing the consumer say to the restaurants, i will not pay your prices. In the other side of the business, goods are not inflating. The consumer is saying, hey, this is the same price as last year and this is great its grocery inflation is still a little high, but its very low compared to where it was but like my discretionary goods the consumer is going this is a bargain now. When you get umich on fridays do you discount it are those Sentiment Survey models broken because of politics or Something Else the consumer is not happy, but its not with retailers. Its with the rest of their life and you always get those kind of reads when the consumer is not happy. I wouldnt want to be a politician because the consumer is not happy the consumer has said dam the torpedos, full speed ahead my life is getting better. Im not tied down anymore. I can go any place and buy anything i want, and i have the wherewithal to do it my Borrowing Capacity is still there, and i actually have a little bit of savings left, not all that stuff that came during the period of we gave everybody money, thats burning out, but its not gone. And were just as healthy as 2019 to be able to pay back. Theyre going to keep spending unless somebody says your job is going away and they havent said that. Even with rates where they are . Just to reiterate that, because they have been higher certainly than theyve been for some time for quite a period of time now Interest Rates on credit cards are the highest theyve been in a very long time theyre running 21 . They were 14. 25 when we came into the pandemic. That is a problem and if the fed stays with it long enough theyll finally crack the consumer but they havent stayed with it so long yet. Ive been saying for months now, we need to lower Interest Rates. We dont need to go back to zero we need to take about 150 basis points off the table, six cuts i will be glad when they start when they start two things will happen the consumer will feel better and start to get easing there, and well get some relief on all the other parts of the economy this is putting pressure on. Well see deals start happening again, and well see people start to refinance some of that real estate that thats going to crack the economy if we dont start getting easier rates how do you navigate retail or consumer stocks right now . Pretty big divergence if youre in the restaurants say or a tesla or one of the weaker areas, its been not great performance this year but there are big winners as well. Does it depend on the category, the income how do you navigate it my favorites are walmart, home depot, costco, Dicks Sporting Goods theyre huge, well capitalized, they can borrow money if they need to. Its not a big issue for them. The consumer is with them right now. Theyre winning the game on market share if youre not well capitalized and youre getting hurt by Interest Rates and you cant reinvest in your business youre going to start losing market share. Weve seen, you know, the Dollar Stores go through and close all of those stores. Why . Because walmart is putting downward pressure. Weve seen target struggle because walmart is putting upward pressure. Theyre bringing in a more affluent customer. So the big players, good time to be a big, well capitalized, Strong Player in retailing because you can reinvest in ai and you can reinvest in tech and the littler guys wont be able to. Or luxury best performing retail stock this year, ralph lauryn up 70 . That was on my list i gave you. Tapestry, i would love to see them get the deal done. Also up double digits this year. Im a big fan of branded, strong brands, brands are winning. Thats right across the board in that aspirational and upper end. Thank you very much good to see you. You, too. After the break the chair of the cftc is going to join us to discuss new rules that would ban derivatives used to bet on u. S. Elections or other potentially marketmoving events back after this. Welcome back to ssquawk on the street. Im bertha coombs. Donald trumps former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is on the stand right now in trumps new york criminal hush money trial cohen, who is a key witness, will testify about paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 president ial campaign to keep her quiet about an alleged affair. With the then candidate donald trump. Hes expected to be on the stand for days meanwhile, jury selection is under way in the federal criminal trial of senator bob menendez also in new york changed with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in return for official acts the new jersey democrat and his wife nadine who has been charged in the case as well, have both pleaded not guilty. Russian president Vladimir Putin replaced his defense minister Sergei Shoigu with an economist. The kremlin said the change was needed to rein in russias growing Defense Budget amid the invasion of ukraine. Putin reappointed shoigu to run russias security council. Back over to you, david. Thanks. Regulators have advanced a plan to ban derivative contracts based on political elections and athletic competitions in an effort to distinguish between galp gambling and the Financial Markets. More contracts were listed for trading in 2021 than had been listed in the prior 15 years combined joining us cftc chairman Rostin Benham why the need to do this essentially to say that outcome of a political election should not be listed if thats the case thanks for having me. You know, you said it right there. Weve seen an exponential growth in the listing of these event contracts and the ones around election with Election Integrity on the line, questions about Election Integrity and the way news travels these days, i dont think we have any room for error when it comes to listing election contracts on Financial Markets. We dont want to commoditize elections. This puts the cftc in a very uncomfortable position of being an election cop, being, ive said many times for over many years at this point, i dont think thats what congress intended, and were just moving forward with a rule at this point that is pretty consistent with our position over the past decade, if not more, about how we view election event contracts, both gaming and more importantly, not in the public interest. Yeah. If i want i mean arent there any number of gaming platforms that i can bet anything i want to certainly on the outcome of an athletic event and things that occur during it, not to mention even political events as well . I can use an example of what goes on in the uk. Most of the election type of gambling is, in fact, sanctioned as gambling. Its not sanctioned as Market Regulation or sanctioned or regulated by a Financial Market regulator. We have to distinguish those two things and i think its important, given the importance of elections from a states rights perspective, if folks want to see this move forward, the issue is going to have to be addressed at the state level from a federal perspective and financial regulatory perspective, we dont want to, again, commoditize elections, because it raises issues around the democratic process and Election Integrity, and puts a market regulator in the position of being an election cop. Why have these contracts proliferated so much over the last few years given the ability to gamble, so to speak, on other platforms for the same purpose david, its great question, and something ive been talking about over the past three or four years since becoming chair. Its technology disruption, its consumer appetite and Consumer Preference shifting. We saw this, obviously, with gamestop, reddit, we saw a lot of appetite increase in the futures market back in 2020. There is just an increase in the demand for exposure to Financial Products, and with the access basically becoming very easy with phones, and technology disrupting traditional models of market participation, this is why i think were seeing such a huge influx in growth. You know, for better or for worse, we have to draw lines around where we want to see exposure and where investors should be able to get exposure into Financial Markets but we have to draw lines as i said where theres going to be issues that potentially denigrate the democratic process and call into question our electoral process. Its sara, just on the why. I find these betting sites on elections helpful because the polls were nonsense and the predicative markets to politics were more helpful in figuring out sentiment, and where the mood is going. So are you concerned about misaligned incentives, election interference i dont understand wthe why. In terms of what are better polls or markets, i believe in markets, i believe in free markets and price discovery. Our Commodity Markets are integral to both price discovery and risk management, but drawing lines around where we have to as a regulatory community, as a government and a country, i think whats in the best interest of our democratic process, we need to be very careful about what we permit and prohibit ultimately, as i said earlier to david, if you think about where a lot of these contracts exist, they live within sanctioned gambling as opposed to Market Regulation and you and i had this conversation i think a few months ago if there is allegations of fraud, or manipulation, through news, which can happen very quickly because of the way news travels, through different mediums, including social media, and we have a listed derivatives contract, that has an underlying on a local, state, or federal election, we will have to investigate it we will have to become the cop in terms of elections. That is something that i think we have to be very careful of and something that the cftc quite frankly does not have the expertise in also, ill use an example, 2020, allegations around the hardware, the voting machines, and whether or not there was fraud in that space. Again, not judging whether there was or wasnt, but the bottom line is f we have listed derivatives on an election, again, local, state, or federal, we have to investigate whether or not there was fraud or manipulation in those markets because that alleged fraud in the way the sort of investors and the general public view that allegation, will have an impact on our markets and essentially affect price discovery this is a bridge too far, i think, for what congressional intent was this is a bridge too far for what the cftcs expertise is, and again, i will just reiterate, this will undermine the electoral process and democratic integrity at a time where there is a premium on that we need to be careful from what we allow Financial Markets to do or not do, regardless of what the pricing mechanism is and how beneficial the price discovery might be snooze russ, you mentioned gamestop a few russ, you mentioned gamestop and we had a report from kate rooney about the stock today, and the short derivatives, options contracts, as well, and, you know, which in many ways can be gambling once again given how incredibly short the duration is, any thoughts in terms of how they sort of play into your purview . They dont fall ill looked into this exhaustively over the past year or two, as weve seen these zero day options proliferate, they dont fall within the cftcs jurisdiction because of what the underline is, but from a Market Regulation standpoint, market resiliency standpoint, were certainly looking at this. This is very consistent about Consumer Preference and appetite shifting, more access to markets and demand for Financial Products we have to keep an eye on it its all about information, disclosures and education. These are highly risky, highly volatile products and you need to know what youre doing, otherwise youre likely going to lose money weve done examinations around this space and more often than not, investors are losing money. All right russ, were going to leave it there for today. Appreciate you taking the time thank you. Thank you still to come this morning, utilities sitting at fresh highs after their best weeks since 23. Well get top picks from one of the streets top analysts in the space coming up next a whole lot more on a different commodity seeing gains that is gold when the ceo of wheaton joinmeyovss on mer with his predictions for the markets at the top of the hour we are so excited to welcome you to our community. Today is all about you. utilities coming off their best week since november sitting at new highs are there names to watch from here Wolf Research analyst Steve Fleischmann ranked one of the top utility analysts over 15 times in the all America Research team poll and joins us now. Love a good sexy utilities segment, steve what still looks what still looks appealing here when you break it down into, i dont know, power, versus renewables there are a lot of different categories within the overall utilities basket. Yeah. No, its nice to see utilities acting better again. I think the market is appreciating some of the defensive qualities for the first time in a while and we do have, as you call the sexy theme, in data centers as a play on the, you know, increasing growth of power demand to fuel data centers thats been a lot of focus across power names like Constellation Energy and visra we like a lot, nextera and the renewables area, and then theres a whole bunch of utilities with exposure, its more modest, but, you know, several of them have a quality, you know, at a reasonable price like ppl, and the like its thats really been driving i think the increased interest in the sector. You think its the increase in the funds versus the rate story . Rates have actually gone up, not down, so its in theory, it was all about rates, utilities should have been weakening over the last couple months, but in our opinion its more about the market playing offense or defense and for the first time in a while, theres been a little interest in having defense in the portfolio, not just offense, and then, frankly, with the data centers theme and increasing power demand, utilities now give you a little bit of both. Defensive business model, but also a play on a growth area. On the larger question that has come up a lot lately, i would love to get your take. Are our nations utilities going to be up to the task of providing the power thats going to be needed to power all of these addata centers that are going to provide generative ai for the world . We think they will be, but its a challenge there are a lot of impediments in terms of equipment supply, siting, and utilities live in different time zone in terms of the pace they do business, than tech, and the two are needing to kind of marry up with each other and its not so simple so i think it will be a challenge, but we do think the sector overall will be up to it. And the capital will be there for the necessary capacity that needs to be created . Yeah. We do think the capital will be there. Investors have been worried about cost of capital going up in rates, but that is a risk but the capital availability, you know, we think is there, and utilities, at least, are supposed to be able to recover higher cost to capital in their rates to customers so capital is there. Its just a matter of can it be deployed in time and do the costs go up. Whats best idea in the data center plays so from a power standpoint, we mainly play two stocks. Constellation energy which is the Largest Nuclear company in the u. S. And really kind of thats the dominant part of their business and nuclear gives you both clean and reliable and as they said, i think on their call last week, you know, you need fulltime power excuse me you cant have parttime power supporting fulltime economy, so thats a big focus of their business and theyre protected also by some of the new ira tax credits in terms of a floor price on the power vistra gives you some nuclear and a play on the growth in texas where power demand is booming and power prices are have gone up a lot so theyre a play on that. Got it. Steve, thank you for joining us with some of the top ideasin the sector. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Speaking awful this openai holding a big event today. 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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. You ready . Showtime. This is gonna be epic. [ barking ] its what the poster said. Do you want to make out or . Nope. I meant yes. Hes a bon garcon. I give amazing spongebaths. Can i get a room . [ chuckling ] chefs kiss. Stocks are higher, a little bit. Weve lost a little bit of gains here the s p the nasdaq is up a little more than that. Some sectors turning red in the last half hour, including energy, health care, industrials and financials you still have Information Technology going strong, hence the rally in the nasdaq. Names like apple up almost 2 . Some chip names are higher hb, adobe, palo alto stocks on gamestop have been halted well off the highs and still soaring, 62 w Roaring Kitty is back. David, we should bring back your role in the movie. Yes, the dumb money movie, which your interview was the highlight for me. With gabe but you should watch that movie, if you havent, to understand whats happening. It actually does have an explanation at the very least of sort of the army of people that followed mr. Gill into the stock and kind of went to war, so to speak, with the professionals on wall street, led by the likes of, of course as we said, gabe plotkin, whose fund suffered significant losses on the fundamentals, mr. Gills argument never seemed to be really focused on the true fundamentals, at least best i could tell although he did work there, which i learned in the movie, right . He was a salesman. But you know, carl, and now youll have people saying, fed should raise rates or the feds not tight enough because thats what washed out the first retail mania we got higher Interest Rates were still at levels we havent seen in 20 years and were still getting speculative action meantime, openai set to announce new product updates in a few hours. Sam altman teasing, quote, they feel like magic. Lets get to steve kovach with more on what to expect. The summer of a. I. Is kicking off this week, developer Conference Season starting tomorrow for google, microsoft and apple. First, we hear from openai thats, of course, the startup that forced those giants to reorient their businesses around artificial intelligence. Its a Virtual Event happening today at 1 00 p. M. Eastern you can watch it on youtube. Heres what were expecting, though sam altman on x last week knocked down the reuters report. Openai was going to launchits own Search Engine to compete with google and others instead the information reported openai will develop a new assistant like a chatgpt, alexa or siri. And it can interpret images, sound or text. Altman said in his teaser, it feels like magic to me seems like openai is trying to frontrun the announcements from the three giants i mentioned earlier. The verge reported google may show off an improved assistant powered by its gemini a. I. Model. The New York Times reported on friday apples siri is going to get a huge generative a. I. Update as well plus bloomberg reported apple is very close to securing that alleged agreement to use openai tech for a. I. On the iphone and apples also reportedly talking to google about a similar agreement. Well get a good read on all of that in just a few hours with that openai announcement, guys you know, they obviously have a lot of competition, as you pointed out, openai, even from microsoft, which they partnered with in other areas theyre still competing with, not to mention metas lama 3 and things of that nature they still have enormous needs for capital as well. Thats true when you think about these the competitive dynamic between openai and microsoft, microsofts totally cool with that for example, they have an enterprise version of openai that competes directly with the copilot microsoft is offering again, all this stuff is happening on the azure cloud so microsoft benefits from that, david. Right, of course, it all comes back to the cloud. To the data centers and our previous guest about power and electricity. Steve, thank you, steve kovach well await the announcement, the official announcement from openai. Keeping a close eye on our markets as well. The s p back down to flat. 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Good monday morning. Welcome to money movers. Im Carl Quintanilla with sara eisen live on the floor of the new york stock exchange. Bimos Wealth Management on how to play crucial data. Can gold continue to make new highs . Coming off its best week in the past five. The ceo of wheaton