Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Alley 20240714

Good thursday morning. Welcome to squawk alley. I am Carl Quintanilla with Morgan Brennan and jon fortt at post nine of the New York Stock Exchange getting close to new highs well start with facebook. Mark zuckerberg goes to the hill today. Were getting news out of the company on new ad formats as well Julia Boorstin has both those stories. Good morning to you Mark Zuckerberg is making the rounds in washington, d. C. , meeting with legislators, looking to regulate two areas, one, facebook privacy policies, two, responsibility for inappropriate, manipulative content on its platform. Zuckerberg met with democratic senator cantwell and also attended a dinner with mark warner and senator blumenthal also joined take a listen. I was impressed by a number of the ideas and interests of facebook in advancing privacy on the internet but i hope that we also can continue the conversation zuckerbergs meetings span the aisle, he is meeting with republican senator moran, and supposed to see hawley and lee as well. Senator Warners Office saying they discussed responsibility and what steps congress should take to encourage competition in social media zuckerberg works to remake lawmakers perception of the social giant, the company is trying to make ads more compelling, today announcing three new ad formats, launching video pole ads in the facebook mobile feed, following polls and instagram stories, launching augmented reality ads that enable people to try on makeup or sunglasses within an ad, and new ads that allow you to try a game to try paid down loads of games. Facebook is trying to move away from news feed, use tools like games and filters that users are already embracing and put them in ads carl thank you for that. Julia bore st Julia Boorstin thank you. Senator warner, good to have you back good morning. Thank you, carl is this true that this sort of organized dinner meeting was at facebooks request . They did request. I have known zuckerberg for some time i wanted mr. Zuckerberg though to hear directly from other senators the seriousness of their concerns i have been sparring with facebook on a host of issues the last couple years. I want them to hear this does not come from a single group of senators, that it is broadly based, bipartisan, the wild wild west days of social media have to come to an end, and we went through a series of areas where i think were going to need some level of regulation and legislation. Yeah. We touched base with you several times as various ceos have come to hearings. Whats new about this one . Well, i think there may be perhaps a little more humility coming from facebook remember, it was about a year ago mr. Zuckerberg appeared in testimony, you know, and theres been quite a few whacks on facebook and google and others over the last year theyve also received the largest fine in ftc history, i think 5 billion, so mr. Zuckerberg said that he is willing to work with us on legislation. The challenge to a degree is can we get some of the legislation to the floor i think were way behind already, behind europe and states like california on privacy legislation. I also think we need legislation that would ensure that users, we have a right to know when we are being communicated with a human being versus a bot we need to have the ability to know what data is collected about us, how much it is worth and if tired of facebook, should be easily able to move data from facebook to a new platform but still be interoperable with friends that remain on facebook. There are areas to drive more competition, areas the United States could reassert Technology Leadership which unfortunately in social media we seeded to the europeans and states, and my hope is over the coming weeks well see whether these meetings translate into the legislative proposal that i and others have, and facebook will say we affirmatively support these efforts. Senator warner, senator blumenthal used the word impressed about last nights meeting. Is that the same word you would use . I would say Mark Zuckerberg is a very smart, thoughtful guy, but there has to be acknowledgment that self regulation or that all of the wisdom in the world resides in Silicon Valley is not cutting it with the American Public and the good news is that, for example, every bill i outlined, i have a republican cosponsor this is not a partisan sponsor, it is a future, past issue those of us that want to remain a Technology Leader know they have to put new rules in place i hope that not only we see this from facebook but we see it, we need the same collaboration from google, from twitter, and a series of secondary platforms cl where a lot of hate speech moved. Senator, you mentioned privacy, transparency, data collection, data portability, issues of competition. What can the senate realistically get done especially as we approach an Election Year . Well, thats where the burden, i cant really blame that on the companies, i have to blame it on us i mean, throughout our history, america post sputnik has always been the Technology Leader and we set the rules of the road and the rest of the world has followed so i think it is incumbent upon me and my colleagues to kind of put together the coalitions, and they are bipartisan, and convince the majority leader, let us have a chance to bring this legislation to the floor. Frankly, i think most bills would get 70 to 80 votes, doesnt touch an area around election security, we also spent time there how do we make sure we have the appropriate disclosures on political ads, the same on facebook and google as if you advertise on cnbc. This is not Rocket Science and lordknows, we shouldnt make protection of our democracy a partisan issue we wouldnt make protection of the Financial System a part of that, we have to put pressure on the leadership to let us have a chance to bring these bills to the floor. Is that issue one, whats the top one if you rank them of the issues you bring to the floor first . I think with the election less than 18 months away, election security, privacy, and then the host of transparency procompetition issues what i would hate to have happen is for us to say okay. Lets take a small ball, get it done, say we dealt with this issue. This will require a comprehensive approach and frankly, companies are getting the fact that the longer the federal government delays because the government will act, the longer we delay, all theyre doing is the bar is being raised as other European Countries or individual states or nations around the world put regulatory regimes in place theyre simply raising the ceiling to a new floor senator, whether it is congress, state ags, ftc, doj, how do you explain to investors who is driving oversight, how do you convince them there are no keystone cops overlap . I would argue that we got the opposite right now you know, companies of this size that have this much power on our daily life, our political life, our economic life, the fact theres no regulatory entity is remarkable the ftc is fairly toothless, hasnt stepped up, taken on this responsibility if we dont want quilt work of different rules in every country, different rules in every state, then it is incumbent on congress to act if you want to give that assurance to the investor community, once we set the rules of the road, i think it will give predictability. I hope the companies, and i think theyre getting this, would kind of lean in and bring their own set of pressure to bear to say hey, lets negotiate and get this legislation to the floor. It is just about writing a check . Ftc made a big deal about record fines. 5 billion sounds like a lot of money and it is a lot of money but it is not when it is a fraction of the revenues made on a quarterly basis by facebook. These companies, and i celebrate their success, im not dismissing that success, but if you can take the 5 billion fine around the Cambridge Analytica issue where peoples data was misused, users were not informed, if you can somehow build into your Business Model that once a year you have to pay a 5 billion fine, but youre not going to change your business practices, thats not a good solution for consumers, investors, and im not suggesting that thats what facebook is proposing, but weve got to make sure that with penalties come real teeth, and unfortunately with enterprises this large, 5 billion, it is still just a slap on the wrist senator, recent remarks from you at the pan america symposium, western companies that help authoritarian regimes build censored adds or walls are as big a threat as government actors was there someone in mind when you made that comment . One of the companies, google that was willing to work with 10 cent, maybe it was padu, work where the communist party is trying to use their Tech Companies to create a social Credit System that monitors citizens of china, surveillance state that would make orwell 1984 look like childrens play, and some of the companies who i think their founders sometimes make grandiose statements about good they want to do, that rhetoric needs to match reality, particularly when you partner with china trying to use technology to create a surveillance state, and frankly taking that surveillance state and trying to export it now to other countries around the world. So i do think they need to be held accountable. Senator, just to shift gears here on a day when huawei is unveiling a 5g flagship phone without google licensed apps, officials from the u. S. And china rekindling trade talks, what do you think that relationship long term should look like between huawei and both the u. S. Government and u. S. Tech companies . Well, this is lets step back a second. We were kind of of, we, the government and for that matter american Tech Companies were caught off guard with the ascent of huawei. Here you have a company that puts out some pretty good product, totally subsidized by the Chinese Government, allows them to put product in the market as a discounted price, and this company at the end of the day is not responsible to shareholders but responsible to the communist party. You can look at chinese law that validates that so the idea that we can just allow a market based solution and the best company win isnt going to play out in 5g. You think of the internet of things connected to devices on a 5g network, we have to have security huawei, because it is a distributed network, needing software upgrades, you cant guard against the ability of the Chinese Government to put that m malware at a future time. Net strea time we dont have a horse in the race there are great companies, none of them american companies, and i think what we have to do is frankly, and a lot of colleagues agree, the American Government may need to invest or in collaboration with allies, try to make sure theres an american or western alternative to huawei that we can match in quality and in price and to make sure as the australians have done, we need to say to other countries, do you really want to do business with a company thats going to have your hole Telecommunications Network in that home country, theres no independent rule of law or independent judiciary. I think any country that are allies that welcome an open democracy ought to think twice, but so far even if we put notice out, we have not been able to say heres what we propose as an alternative solution. Senator, thank you for helping our viewers stay as close to the process as possible look forward to talking to you soon thanks again thanks, guys. Looking beyond faang for tech stock opportunities, one of the new conversations about Silicon Valley elite today leslie picker has more on the picks. Hey, morgan, wide ranging conversation delivering alpha about tech investing wrapping up, panel included glen hacher, and Asheville Williams of the Florida State board. The talk focused largely on the state of the public versus private markets. Cooper says any gap between the two has been narrowing look where valuations are today relative to three, four years ago, we used to have a bigger disconnect between public and private. Whats happened, Public Markets have gone up, much greater parody between private and Public Market values it is not necessarily froth or lack of froth, theres more r h rationality. He sees a path to profitability for ridesharing companies. He says disney is his largest holding. The conversation honed in. One thing thats interesting is proportion alternate route of the remedy or crimes need to be off. Youre driving down the freeway, going 68 miles per hour, getting threatened to be sent to jail. They want to break up companies. Start with shouldnt we break this up, that seems to be crazy for some of the behaviors that i think are being put under the microscope we work specifically, the panelists seem to think concerns surrounding we work are largely overblown, they did speak about unique issues surrounding Corporate Governance worth noting, he is an investor in softbank, weworks largest investor thank you, leslie. Jeff bezos, speaking at the National Press club in d. C. , making an announcement on amazons Carbon Footprint. Ylan mui has more. Amazon will embark on a new campaign to meet goals of the Paris Climate Accord ten years early, calling this climate pledge amazon is the First Company to sign on, and for amazon, it means moving from 40 Renewable Energy sources to 80 by 2024. And 100 by 2030 theyre buying 100,000 electric delivery vehicles that they expect will be ready around 2024, spending 100 million on a Reforestation Effort with nature conservancy. Amazon under growing pressure from employees to reduce its Carbon Footprint we expect some 1500 employees to protest on the issue tomorrow, and i asked bezos how much the company is willing to spend to meet the goals he said this is not about a dollar figure, more about encouraging ingenuity. You can invent your way out of any box thats what we really want to do we want to be leaders, role models we have been in the middle of the herd on this, and we want to move to the forefront. I asked if he was trying to sent a message to the white house. President trump pulled out of the paris accord he said he is not trying to make a political statement, but that the company will take a hard look at whether it contributes to candidates he says are climate deniers. Interesting stuff thank you. After the break, remember this this is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans. That is billionaire robert smith. He joins us on that moment and the ipo he is spinning off this morning, king identity stay with us billionaire investor vista equity cofounder robert smith ringing the bell with Ping Identity, spinning that off to its own ipo a few minutes ago. Shares have been surging in early trading. You see it up more than 30 at the moment i sat down with smith and the Ping Identity ceo earlier to talk about donations made to the class of morehouse that went viral. How it inspired others to do more of the same take a listen. I didnt expect it to be as global and frankly i was hoping it would create more of what i call Ripple Effect i was back from a meeting two days ago, wont tell you where, but group of cios that work for a pension fund for a religious charity. There were seven cios in the room, chief investment officers. What happened is listen, because of what you did and leadership, theyre now dedicating Energy Efforts and capital to alleviating Student Loan Debt for schools in the communities they serve i was touched by that. I get stories like that all the time, you inspired me. Now were seeing institutions taking that level of inspiration and doing something about it it is quite exciting. I asked him if he figured out how to get this money to the students, to relieve the debt. There are a lot of questions how this would happen, people have taken out loans in different ways, done different things. He said not only have they figured it out, theyve taken it, exporting it, giving it to other historical black colleges and universities as well to do that same sort of thing if another billionaire shows up. The thing i find interesting, showing the video now, he says this is my class has he created an open line of communication to all of the students he is alleviating the debt of . Is there a mentorship aspect to this too i dont know about that, open line of communication to the entire class, that would be a lot of communication, but he did talk about the various types of mentorship and levels of that within vista equity portfoli that he has built in hes talked in the past about how theyve given aptitude tests. It is pretty open. Ibm originally developed it. He has people that worked in verizon stores, delivering pizzas, working at Vista Equity Partners making multiples of what they made before. One salesman making a quarter million, had been working at verizon. Opening up opportunities in that way. I talked to him about what some call the war on wealth now, and what he thinks the message should be about, and he really talked about capitalism, the importance of opportunity and people going out there, building businesses like Ping Identity and opening up the opportunity for that something that langone, R Robert Johnson and others would argue for as well. I wonder if he believes the white house has his back on this we didnt talk specifically about the white house, we talked about technology though and his moves in tech, including Ping Identity i asked him, he said a couple years ago he had never lost money on a buyout deal i asked is that true, he said it is that string continues. Ping identity is the latest. I talked to the ceo about that companys debut as well. Take a listen. Were cash flow positive on an unlevered basis, we have a recurring business we sell the most Mission Critical Identity Security to the Largest Global enterprises around the world were often referred to by customers as tier zero infrastructure, which means it can never go down, surgery wont happen, planes wont fly as a result of that, i lived through multiple down turns. I can appreciate, the economy has been very good for awhile now here in the u. S. , i can appreciate some of the sentiment that cycles come around. Ping identity was built to last. And vista is holding on to 80 of Ping Identity so this is going to be a controlled company doesnt always do that remember, a year ago, they sold marketta to aadodobe part of the reason he is very much in the green. Paying the price coming into trading, looks like theyre doubling the investment versus what they made in 2016. Money still at work all right when we come back, kobe bryant joined us this morning, we get involvement advice, talk about his favorite hot sauce, one of his investments well explain after the break. Stay with us markets. The business of trading goods and services. Nasdaq operates among the largest markets in the world. And our Technology Powers markets from indonesia to chile. Great markets are built on a foundation of trust and integrity, forged through leading Edge Technology and a smart regulatory framework. As technology advances, regulation must keep pace to allow the markets to evolve. Today we see an opportunity to modernize regulation, to make markets more accessible to investors and entrepreneurs of all sizes. From the graduate buying her first stock, to an institution investing in thousands. The markets belong to everyone and stand as a symbol of economic advancement, social progress and limitless opportunity. Thats the tomorrow that we envision and to get there, well have to rewrite it today. Liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, hmm. Exactly. So you only pay for what you need. Nice. But, uh. Whats up with your. Partner . Not again. Limu thats your reflection. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, Liberty Bryant joined us earlier this morning to talk about his venture fund brian stibel. Since publicly announcing the fund here, he shared some Top Investment advice and how he is advising fellow athletes to get them into the game take a listen. We continue to grow, make smart decisions, make Smart Investments across the technology, media, data space. Heck of an opportunity had a great time with our entrepreneurs and building our relationships with investors, and here we are today. My biggest concern and fear for athletes getting into the investment game, looking for unicorns and homeruns all the time it is important to be patient. Invest in things you understand, get your arms around, can help grow, and take it from there Bryant Stibel portfolio has names like epic games, Popular Consumer brands like cholula hot sauce. People dont realize how involved he is telling the story behind the brands, advising their ceos how to shape the narrative of their path. Kobe versus shaq, different strategies to post basketball wealth shaq doesnt exactly have his own investment vehicle, but his face is all over everything. Whats your assessment who is dunking on who . Between kobe and shaq we had shaq on a couple weeks ago. I would say kobe is more active for sure. Shaq is on the board of papa johns, but kobe is spreading his knowledge across 18 companies in the active portfolio. 28 they have been invested in, three have gone public dell and alibaba. Fascinating he is bringing in other athletes and trying to school them on investment as well we heard reports for many years about folks that mismanaged their new found wealth the idea of passing this on, bring others in definitely notable. Wonder if kobe uses gold bond foot powder. They played together. Dont forget kind of played together, they did. Didnt always get along. European markets are set to close. Dom chu has that breakdown for us. Gold bond foot powder or not. A lot of green on the screen, boosted mainly by Financials Bank of ireland, commerce bank, a number of italian banks rallying by 3 or so in trading. But slowdown concerns continue to fester. Oecd cutting the growth forecast 2. 9 down from 3. 2 four months ago. It would mark the slowest pace since 2009 concerns weighing in some sentiment. They further warn a no deal brexit scenario would shave off 3 of growth, pushing that country into a possible recession. You take a look, mention that against the bleep backdrop look at the latest Monetary Policy decisions, norway bucking the trend earlier today, delivering a fourth rate hike over the past year Swiss National bank and bank of England Holding rates steady you look at that weak august inflation data, trade wars with china, and tensions there, and ongoing brexit concerns, all weighing on bank of england and policy makers governor mark carney striking a dovish tone, adding a no deal scenario, even delay to brexit would slow growth, raise prices as well. Rate decisions are key around the world. Morgan, back to you guys absolutely. Thank you. Lets get to sue herera for a news update. Good morning. Here is whats happening canadian Prime Minister justin true doughs campaign trying to move out of scandal over a costume at a party two other similar incidents also came to light. With the election a month ago, trudeau apologized, asked canadians for forgiveness. I take responsibility for my decision to do that. I shouldnt have done it i should have known better it was something that i didnt think was racist at the time, now i recognize it was something racist to do, and i am deeply sorry. A new study shows ecigarette use in teens doubled in the past two years. Researchers from university of michigan looked at data from 40,000 teens and over a quarter high school seniors, 20 of sophomores said theyve vaped in the past month General Motors recalling more than 177,000 chevy malibus from 2018. Youre up to date. Thats the news update back downtown to you rough week for gm my goodness. Thank you. Getting a check where we stand across major averages. The dow up 108 points, s p 3020. Less than 1 from fresh record ckn gh ba ia moment at verizon, were building the most powerful 5g experience for america. Thats why the nfl chose verizon. Because they need the massive capacity of 5g with ultra wideband, so more screaming, streaming, posting fans. Can experience 5g all at once. This is happening in 13 stadiums all across the country. Now if verizon 5g can do this for the nfl. Imagine what it can do for you. Ive done all sorts of research, read earnings reports, looked at chart patterns. Ive even built my own historic trading model. And youre still not sure if you want to make the trade . Exactly. Sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. Is there a cure . Td ameritrades trade desk. They can help gut check your strategies and answer all your toughest questions. Sounds perfect. See, your stress level was here and i got you down to here, ive done my job. Call for a strategy gut check with td ameritrade. [spokesman] if youve tried colleg group cheering shed, snhu lets you transfer up to 90 credits toward you bachelors degree. [woman] it doesnt matter how old you are, you can do it, you can finish. [spokesman] finish your degree at snhu. Edu mr. Zuckerberg said hes willing to work with us on legislation, the challenge to a degree has been can we get some of this legislation to the floor. I think we are way behind already, behind europe and states like california on privacy legislation. I also think we need legislation that would ensure that as users, we have a right to know when were being communicated with by a human being versus a bot, and make sure we have the ability to know what data is being collected about us, how much it is worth and if were tired of facebook, we should be able to move data from facebook to a new platform but still be interoperable with friends that remain on facebook. That was senator mark warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence committee joining us moments ago Mark Zuckerberg meets with lawmakers on capitol hill. For more on facebook and big tech, bring in henry blodget, and paul holland, general partner of foundation capital. Good morning to you both henry, ill start with you senator warner laid out a lot there in those comments we just played how likely is it do you think that we get some sort of legislation and soon i think there will definitely be legislation i think this is Mark Zuckerbergs life the next ten years. And google and others can build the most powerful media and Communications Platforms in the history of the world, a lot of ramifications of that, the government is starting to get involved they didnt get in front of the issues fast enough on their own, now theyre going to get regulate ed regulated. And now theyre in front of the people that are going to do it do you think this is a turning point for someone like Mark Zuckerberg to meet with some of his fiercest critics in congress, having conversations, trying to get ahead of regulatory change . You nailed it i think all these groups they built incredibly powerful organizations and companies and they have a huge role in society now. And theyre behind the curve and really have been caught to some extent by surprise on how quickly some of these sort of governmental organizations, particularly europe and china, have gone towards more work around privacy and Consumer Protection henry, i am skeptical i asked senator warner what can the senate realistically get done and what would he pri prioritize he did say election security, but the way Mitch Mcconnell versus the democrats has been going, i question whether they can even get that done this would seem to be somewhat bipartisan, not just democrats that are at least worried about whats going on. Look how regulated other industries are, telecommunications, original Media Industry before these companies came, utilities, unbelievable legislation around what they can and cant do this will take a long time theres not some blanket law that will suddenly fix it forever, but these issues will keep coming up my guess is congress will keep doing Little Things to head them off. Paul, if we get some sort of legislation here, i realize a lot of it could and would center on the big Tech Companies, is there concern you could see regulatory creep i ask that, if you try to stoke competition and innovation, could make it harder for Small Companies to become more formidable competitors i think what youre going to see is a dynamic that occurred over a long period of time now youve got opposing forces here. Theres sort of the west, tech no optimism, idealistic look at the world, lets put products out there, people like the products, theyll use them, including social networks, more of the east, henry did a good job paraphrasing the notion of were all used to being regulated, you should be regulated, too, and youve also got young versus old i cringe every time i hear a politician attempt to try to capture something around new technology and how theyre going to regulate new technology, go back to the internet as a set of tubes comment that we used to get from congress. It is not Just Companies that are behind on this the bureaucrats and regulators fall behind on new technologies that come out. Eventually they catch up once they catch up, entrepreneurs figure out another new line to open communications and products out to consumers. And the cycle happens over and over again i think this is the latest version of it. Turning now to bob iger, an excerpt from his coming memoir, saying if steve jobs was alive, disney and apple would have likely merged. Now you have the two Companies Fighting over content in an ever crowded streaming space. Henry, we had this debate over and over about whether apple if they meaningfully want to get into content, make a splash with streaming, maybe they should consider an acquisition. Does this close the door on what could have been one of the most talked about possible acquisitions over the years . We would have merged, lets say what actually would have happened apple would have bought disney and there would have been one ceo, i would respectfully suggest steve jobs, and i would say as an apple shareholder, thank goodness they didnt do that it would have been a badd idea then, would be bad now why apple doesnt need a massive content company. The mexico they d the moment y do, they want a big deal with disney, do a business deal vertical Integration Strategy that media and Distribution Companies tried from dawn of time doesnt work that well. You think antitrust would have gotten in the way i think it would have been a bad idea i think ultimately steve jobs was extremely smart about these things, he would have realized if i buy disney, want Something Big with time warner, put myself in bad position. It doesnt make sense. It doesnt make sense. People want it to, it doesnt. Paul, is it an example of apples discipline i think it is exactly right once again, henry nailed it. Apple is one of the most disciplined if not the most disciplined company on the planet in terms of how they operate. You look at Something Like itunes, that was a Small Company acquisition made nearly 20 years ago thats now blossomed into being a big part of the business, app store and all of the other things that happened there. Apple makes relatively small, important but tactical acquisitions had they diluted their brand, power, Global Logistics advantages, all of the other things they do so well in a very difficult space, providing hardware and software, best in the world at doing that, anything they would have done to buy somebody in the content side, especially a fading media company, would have been a complete disaster. I completely agree with henry. I would have been very disappointed had i owned shares in apple had they done that deal had they done that deal, steve jobs would have run the combined company. Maybe it would have been Something Interesting as a result of that, but thats not the way history played out. Im not sure steve jobs would have bought this, but interesting to me that bob iger seems would have sold disney thats interesting one that we can speculate on, but well never know henry, paul, thank you for joining us today thank you a lot more to come, especially from delivering alpha. A lot of headlines and j and a sit down with the Vice President. What are you watching . The fed jay powell gave us views, the market still got a bad case of trading blues. It is all about the fed after the break. So servicenow put your workflows in the cloud, huh . Mmhm. Your employees must love you. Thank you. Ah, you could say that. So how are things with you guys . Great. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Lunch next week . Terrific. Say hi to the team. Will do. Call my office, i will. Sounds good. Alrighty. Servicenow. Works for you. Woi felt completely helpless. Hed online. My entire career and business were in jeopardy. I called reputation defender. Vo take control of your online reputation. Get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender. Com. Find out your online reputation today and let the experts help you repair it. Woman they were able to restore my good name. Vo visit reputationdefender. Com or call 18778668555. By the way, shes the it wasnext mozart. G day. As usual we were behind schedule. But sophies enthusiasm cannot be dampened. Not even by a runaway donut. We powered through it in our toyota prius. Because a stars got to shine, no matter what. Its unbelievable what you can do in the prius. Toyota lets go places. What a news day. Lets get the santelli exchange. Rick hi, carl. Yes, obviously the late great Robert Palmer song, doctor, doctor, give me the news, it is not really a joke. Many look to Central Banks as the doctors of the economy, maybe the economies need to be on a couch almost as if theyre therapists to some extent, trying to hold our minds in the right areas as they try to find their way there was actually a lot of yes personally thought jay powell did a great job because he didnt give too much information out thats going to pen him in a tight boundary as things change. Really the motto of this is, first do no harm i cant believe how appropriate that would be with regard to not only our central bank policy, which is light years better than much of the competition, but especially for europe, the bank of england by the way, bank of norway raised realities kudos to them. Yesterday we didnt hear any data dependent thats pretty much been gone preset is also gone and thats really a very good thing presets never good when it comes to Central Banks past chairman and chairwomen have had very much preset paths. And even though in some cases arguably it might be the best path to take, i certainly dont think it is at this juncture so what does that leave us with . It leaves us with we take it one meeting at a time. Although that may make many nervous, i think if you pair that with this, its a great idea now, obviously, they lowered it a quarter of a point i am still in the camp that we now have seven quarter point bullets to lower should there be issues, but the issues havent appears in my opinion. Were hearing some positives now about negatives. Weak bank. Weak economy were hearing this from other Central Banks and representatives in europe and japan. And thats really a good thing i think jay powell and company have done a great job maybe to open the eyes of other Central Banks and maybe the administration gets some credit. Not for all the issues about how theyre pressing the fed but the notion that these really are currency wars. Of course, the Biggest Issue yesterday, fed Balance Sheet i glean that jay powell wants to naturally grow the fed Balance Sheet and thats great when you do it unnaturally to qe youre at odds with the fact you dont want an inverted curve for you technicians out there a key close for the week today why . Because this has been a breathtaking move that started the day before the last fed meeting and on that day, were trading around 206 in a tenyear note then on the 3rd of september, we had this wild ride that gave us 146. You know what the midpoint of that is . Its 176 weve been hovering there all morning. Now if you close above it, its no guarantee youll do better. If you close below it its no guarantee youll do worse. He has a technician on a weekly close. If you are looking for higher yields youd be better served in your strategy should we close above that midpoint. Morgan, back to you. Rick, thank you legendary investors jim and leon sitting down with scott wapner delivering alpha and dom chu has the best idea. Morgan, those comments have concluded right now on the delivering alpha stage is Vice President mike pence just before then we are seeing some reaction in shares of davita those shares are hovering near their worst levels of the day on negative comments from noted shortseller jim chanos with regard to why he now says hes shorted it and has been for a couple of years now. Folks have inferred from some of his comments that he did not like some of these kidney Dialysis Companies out there but now hes saying it for the record at delivering alpha he also is challenging Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett on why berkshire is the single largest shareholder with a 24 stake in davita wondering why theyd back a company like this. All those comments leading to some down side for davita shares thats the latest from the delivering alpha desk. Ill send things back over to you guys chanos lit it up and so did cooperman talking about Elizabeth Warren well get to that after a short break. Not too high from alltime closing highs on the s p for that youd need about 7 more points squawk alley back in three minutes. At Southern New Hampshire university, we believe in education built for all people. [woman] snhu was the best experience of my life. [man] without snhu, i wouldnt be the leader i am today. [woman] i graduated high school 19 years ago. I still finished. [man] in the military, you feel that sense of accomplishment. Thats what snhu is. You will march from this arena and say to the world. I did it. [woman] you did it. I love you. [graduate] i love you too. Welcome back to squawk alley. Airbnb announcing it will go public, but next year in 2020. Diedre bosa has more on this from San Francisco hey, morgan its not unexpected. Weve been talking about airbnb being a highprofile ipo of next year the Company Coming out saying it is indeed intending on going public next year the company is more than ten years old. It was last valued at 31 billion. Its early investors read like a whos who of Silicon Valley. Sequoia, horowitz, graylock. As well as a lot of the big mutual funds and major banks that have been in this company for some time. We dont know a ton about its financials but we know a few things the company said it is ebitda profitable over the last two years. Earlier it said it achieved 1 billion in revenue in the second quarter. We also have heard rumblings that airbnb could be a good candidate for a direct listing as of march 31st this year it had 3. 5 billion in cash on its Balance Sheet. And this isnt a company that is burning, as far as we know, burning money at the same rate as other big Economy Companies like in the ride sharing space so certainly airbnb will be an interesting one, and well wait to hear more about the timing for next year. Thank you and Vice President mike pence on stage with our joe kernen at delivering alpha the vp says the u. S. Economy still in great shape take a listen. American economy is booming absolutely undeniable. Since election day 2016, more than 6 million jobs created by businesses large and small unemployment at 50year low. Wages are rising at their fastest pace in more than a decade one fact after another and as we travel around the country, the enthusiasm, the confidence and, you know, a soaring stock market improving the pension and retirement of working americans. And the Vice President also asked about negative Interest Rates or zero Interest Rates if he supports that idea said he supports the president who has argued for them in some cases the other big news was Lee Cooperman of omega talking about various stock picks saying if you find a cheap stock ten years into a bull market, theres something wrong with the stock and then on the prospect of Elizabeth Warren winning the white house said, i believe this is a quote, they wouldnt open the stock market if she won given some of the perceived threats she has toward wealth, big business and corporate america. Seems a bit hyperbollic, doesnt it lee likes to light the flames all right meantime, weve been on ipo watch. We had Ping Identity here up 25 . At the nasdaq, data dog just opened up for trading as well. Thats up more than 51 . So the ipo pipeline continues. S p, 3018 right now. Were on record watch. Yeah. On a week for quad witching which typically does pretty well well see if that continues into friday lets get to the judge and the half. Carl, thanks. Welcome to the halftime report. Im scott wapner live at the ninth annual delivering alpha summit here in new york city were speaking with the most influential names in the investing world today. Getting their best ideas in the market as well we have a big hour ahead jim chanos here. Hes revealing his next big trade. Cliff robbins has been crushing this market. Hell tell us how hes been doing and what you can do. Joe terranova, shannon alongside me lets kick things of