Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Alley 20240714

Good monday morning. Welcome to squawk alley. I i am Carl Quintanilla with Morgan Brennan and jon fortt senator Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell is going to talk trade, usmca and more. A big hour ahead. First we begin with ipos, and performances for recent debuts after a hot start to the year, we close out the last trading day of the quarter uber and lyft down more than 30 , slack down almost 40. And this morning, wework officially pulling its own ipo cnbc contributor, New York Times columnist kara swisher joins us holy canoli has it been a rough quarter for ipos how do you see it, as a resetting or private market valuations coming back to earth . I see it as math. Math wins. Thats what professor gallaway was talking about when we talked about wework and other ipos. I think investors, there was a fire wall broken by wework, untenable for most investors, and it extended to other companies which have Balance Sheets that are problematic. Even if theyre great businesses and brands, theyve got to get their arms around economic models that are sustainable. Thats what wall Street Investors are looking for at this moment in time at least fred wilson coming out, making the argument that Gross Margins are really what matters, especially when you see what has performed well and hasnt in terms of whats gone public in recent months, do you agree . I think this is what they have been pedestrialing, growths important and it works for some companies. How revenues and expenses are in line when revenues rise and expenses rise at the same time, youve got a problem. How are they going to deal with this, how are they going to cope with the idea these losses could go on for a long time before they figure out the economic models growth is one thing and it is critically important, i agree with bret, but investors are less tolerant. Thats put out by Silicon Valley and others for a long time now. Is this the end of the softbank led era in Silicon Valley of investing in Late Stage Companies that dont have a clear path to profitability but have a story of World Domination you could put uber and wework and a bunch of others in that basket. I have a story of World Domination, no one is paying for my stock thats not really the point. Softbank came in with enormous amount of money and wasnt equal to the Economic Opportunity yet. The question is whether the businesses can get on a ground where they become enormously profitable thats always been the bet just the way everyone says they were going to be like steve jobs, everyone wanted to be the apple of or amazon off the question is there might be just individual Companies Like this look at whats coming on airbnb, interesting to get a look at their growth and bottom line they seek to go public next year, for example. Our eyes on airbnb obviously. One other example endeavor doesnt fit that scenario. Why are they nervous, is there a danger the market will overcorrect . They had problematic numbers too, again, it is math math is math so they had some numbers that showed a lot of lack of profitability. There are some businesses that are really interesting but disp disparate, and then of course control. Control on the part of its founders those are all the elements of wework, of this one, several others and although you look at peloton which is interesting business, a subscription business, think of themselves as a media company, that got hit too so theyre all getting hit because of issues around profitability and nervousness of people to come in, pay for softbanks overspending, why should you reward that necessarily. Kara, what do you think this says to perspective vision fund two at softbank, whether it is wework or uber, and i guess on the heels of that, if it is bearish for raising money for a second fund, what does that do to the capital lost from private markets in general i think a lot of venture capitalists havent liked what softbank is doing, you hear them complain about it off the record, think a lot of investments are ill advised, especially in terms of size, they overinvest for a big stake. I think theres a little relief on the part of venture capitalists seeing way too much money and power among founders, way too much give aways to founders so i think they would welcome this, if theyre being truthful with themselves. Nobody likes what softbank has done that i heard of among the regular vcs in Silicon Valley. Turning to google, and more questions over users data control. House antitrust investors looking into google plans to use new internet protocol, saying it could give them a competitive advantage. Of course, doj is already pursuing antitrust review of the parent company, alphabet but the argument here, kara, google would say theyre implementing new technology to improve User Security and privacy, the flip side, Internet Service providers saying this is going to hinder competition further. Who is right i think this is interesting this is a situation where google is trying to do something to ensure more privacy, more safety because of the plethora of scams on the internet, and to make the internet pages more secure at the same time, doing so it looks like it is trying to assert more control. The problem is with all these companies, facebook or google does something, nobody trusts them they think theres some Business Opportunity that zeros out everybody else i think whats interesting, they can be doing a good thing, nobody thinks it is a good thing, or thing down the line they have some other plan in place that will solidify their power over not just search but the dns, domain name system. Theres been a lot of question, who gets the data, whether the companies have access to data that google has. Again, nobody trusts the big giant tech companies, most specifically facebook and google, to do the right thing, even when they might be doing the right thing. Practically speaking this isnt much different from what apple is doing, the signing with apple, people argue they have pockets of dominance with the app store. I feel like it gets a little ridiculous, everything these Companies Want to do because theyve got so much power, because yes, theyve had behavioral issues in the past, even something good like this comes up for scrutiny. Sure fire fox, mozilla is moving ahead, apple is aggressive with security on safari might do the same everybody implements this, does that take this issue away from google i think it is fine for Justice Department to look into it, they certainly should. I have been interviewing regulators, commissioners at the ftc. One of the things is a lot of post act, after things happen, they look into them. It is not the worst thing in the world to start looking at this early and making certain that theyre being done for the right reasons, and when they get complaints, they should look at them obviously competitors are worried about these companies. No matter what they say, it is like speaking of wme, old hollywood expression, hello, he lied thats the problem they face i agree with you probably safety regulations need to be much stronger across the internet and obviously facebook, google, apple have to play a big role apple gets a bigger break probably than google or facebook, but in general the distrust is one of the bigger problems so who do you think, kara, speaks out in defense of legitimate innovation that is going to obviously benefit the company of origin, but that might be suspect among regulators or those of us in the media that talk about this every day. Mozilla supported google strongly they usedto have a tight relationship with Google Mozilla supported them and others, the eff is supporting this move as being more safety, but i think again it is not wrong to be concerned about another place on the internet that a company like google, maybe they become the only dns service or whatever. There are all kinds of questions. It is important when any of the companies do anything, whether google or facebook, the Supreme Court of content which i am writing about tomorrow in New York Times, theyve got to be very careful to be sort of as transparent and clear and making certain that theyre not being advantaged as possible i think they have to do this Going Forward because everybody assumes the worst of these companies. Kara, always great to check in on the latest tech headlines. Appreciate you coming on after the break, senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell. Back in two. Your daily dashboard from fidelity. A visual snapshot of your investments. Key portfolio events. All in one place. Because when its decision time. You need decision tech. Only from fidelity. You need decision tech. Stand up if you are first generat crowd cheering ent. Stand up if youre a mother. If you are actively deployed, a veteran, or youre in a military family, please stand. The world in which we live equally distributes talent, but it doesnt equally distribute opportunity, and paths are not always the same. Im so proud of you dad. [man] i will tell you this, Southern New Hampshire university can change the whole trajectory of your life. uplifting music ukraine, impeachment, the ongoing trade war dominating headlines out of d. C thats not stopping Republican Leadership from focusing on other issues senator Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell is out with an oped, calling or democrats to move ahead with the u. S. , mexico, canada trade agreement good to have you with us. Glad to be with you. Your piece is sharply worded. It does make me wonder whether or not you think passage is in jeopardy here. Well, you know, it is a tough thing for pelosi she as you know opposed trade Promotion Authority back when president obama was in office. I actually helped president obama get trade Promotion Authority over the opposition of pelosi and reid at that time, so shes not protrade to begin with on the other hand, the argument for usmca is very, very compelling you know, 176,000 new jobs, 68 billion increase in Gross Domestic Product we have 12 million jobs already related to our trade relationship with canada and mexico so i think it is going to be pretty hard for her not to take it up, even though voting for a trump trade deal i gather is a bitter pill for them she was on our air with jim cramer last couple of weeks, said she hoped she was on a path to yes regarding usmca she made some comments last week suggesting even with the inquiry in the house that she can continue to work with the white house on some legislation. Can the House Democrats not chew gum and walk at the same time . I sure hope so. Right now, they have a thin record of making something become law the way you make law, it has to pass the house, senate, be signed by the president. They have been marching through their whole array of leftwing proposals. Obviously those are not going anywhere in the current divided government if she wants it to be said that she did nothing in the next two years but try to impeach President Trump, thats a position were happy to argue about. We think we ought to be able to do more than just create controversy here senator, good morning your critics would say youve done as much as any modern legislator to extract political leverage from votes that were once routine, 8 years ago, you and the rest of the Republican Leadership used debt ceiling legislation to advance your partys political goals. Three years later, nearly happened again why is this any different . Well, look, during the obama years i made three major deals on taxes with joe biden. Three very significant deals so when you have divided government, you need to look for things you can agree on and do those. And i dont see much of that happening right now so i know the house has been on this impeachment addiction since the day the president was sworn in, but i hope they can turn their attention to something else. Usmca ought to be right at the top of the list, it is good for the American People. Senator, just to dig into that a little more all of the action in the room seems to be going to the impeachment inquiry. What does it do to congress ability to legislate, even getting funding for fiscal 2020 federal budget which begins tomorrow well, we did reach an agreement on a bipartisan basis on how much the government is going to spend both this year and next and i think well be able to honor that agreement, it has not been as smooth in implementation as i hoped we are working on getting Prescription Drug costs down there are other issues that we can hopefully reach some agreement on if i were the speaker, i wouldnt want to go into next years election having it said all you did for the whole congress is harass the president , try to remove him from office. That said, senator, what does happen in the senate if the house gets through with the inquiry, decides to impeach President Trump . Well, under the senate rules we are required to take it up, if the house goes down that path and we will follow the senate rules. There have been some discussion about people literally going back to the constitution, arguing theres no mandatory act on behalf of the senate looking back at an interview you gave in march saying you would have no choice but have a senate trial if the house passed an article or more. Youre saying if they did, the senate would move ahead. It is a senate rule related to impeachment that would take 67 votes to change i would have no choice but to take it up how long youre on it is a whole different matter, but i would have no choice but to take it up, based on a senate rule on impeachment. Senator, i want to go back to trade for a moment theres been this trade war going on with china in particular you talked about the importance of usmca to jobs are you feeling comfortable with the way the president is pursuing this policy with china and the American Farmers ability to buck up under that . I would sure like for it to reach some resolution soon it has been very tough on american agriculture as you know, my party is very deeply based in Rural America and small town america i hope the president can get a good outcome here. The chinese have been stealing our intellectual property and not playing by the rules a long time i admire what he is trying to do but i hope we can get a conclusion to this soon. Rural America Needs it and Rural America also needs the usmca. I mean, this is a big deal for american agriculture to get the new and improved deal with canadians and mexicans as well senator, i want to go back to the rules around impeachment, if this is something that does come up in the senate theres been speculation that you might seek to change the rules, have those practices changed. Just to confirm, you are saying you would not do that . No, the Senate Impeachment rules are very clear the senate would have to take up an impeachment resolution if it came over from the house okay. And then theres also been reports from the Washington Post that you are the person that urged the white house to release that call transcript between trump and the ukranian president. Is that actually the case, and if so, do you feel that was the right move im sorry, i had a hard time understanding what you were saying what did you say there was areport last week from the Washington Post that you were the person that urged the white house to release the transcript of the call between President Trump and the ukranian president. Was that actually the case, and if so, do you feel that was the right move in hindsight . Well, i did say on numerous occasions i had called the secretary of state and the secretary of defense wondering what the hang up was onGoing Forward with the aid to ukraine, which i very much supported, and i was curious as to what the delay was, but at least it all ended well fortunately the aid was released, i think that was an important step for our ukrainian friends. Possible curbs on investment in the u. S. And china, the last few days focusing on the treasury theres been increasing of oversight of chinese and Foreign Companies that list here in the u. S. Do you support such legislation, and how does it speak in general to how lawmakers in the senate are thinking about china in the future were worried about the chinese and their involvement in this country in some respects, but the Treasury Department made it clear theyre not interested in delisting if you will Chinese Companies from u. S. Stock exchange or from doing business in the country. That could end up hurting us and whatever tactics we use with regard to china need to not be ones that punish us. If we get an actual trade deal between the u. S. And china, what would that do to all of the legislating around that country now, including chinese Companies Like huawei. We are concerned about huawei, no question about it there are National Security concerns here that we have to balance with our commercial interests. We dont want obviously to make it more difficult for American Companies to do business in china and for Chinese Companies to do business here, but these National Security implications are important. Huawei was right in the cross hairs of what were talking about here, thats a good example. When it comes to your oped today, you talk about House Democrats picking fights, running out the clock, using delay tactics, but you yourself talked about being the grim reaper for bad legislation on the house side, whether it is medicare for all or other things could you blame pelosi if she came out and said i will be a grim reaper myself i am talking about things we can agree on usmca is something we can agree on i dont expect her to take up measures that we think are important all by ourselves, meaning the republicans, nor will i be taking up this whole litany of leftwing proposals they have been passing in the house. Thats not designed to make law. Thats designed to take a position and they made it clear, todays Democratic Party is on the far left of virtually every issue. But we do have divided government when the American People elected divided government, they say why dont you look for things you can agree on and do those. Usmca is right at the front of that list of things we ought to be able to reach an agreement on that are good for the American People thats not the kind of thing seems to me we ought to be slow walking or refusing to take up the stock market would argue that infrastructure is not far behind and weve had multiple years of hope that Something Like that could also be attained is that dead no. Were going to do a transportation bill maybe later this year, it probably wont be as bold as the president was talking about because it would inevitably if it were that bold involve a whopping gasoline tax increase which is very aggressive, hits medium and low income people hard we will do a transportation bill on the size of traditional every four or five year transportation bill. Senator, i want to ask about Election Security. You recently threw your weight behind more funding for Election Security saying that theres been more than 600 million allocated to that since fiscal 2018 is that enough the right piecing spending how are you gauging, given all of the threats, particularly digital, that the United States faces, whether we are secure enough in our election yeah. First of all, the 2016 election when president obama was in office was not handled well at all. We know the ramifications of that what people refuse to talk about is how successful the 2018 election was the Trump Administration did a terrific job of pushing back in 2018 where were all of the stories about election interference . Nonexistent. What i am in favor of and have consistently been in favor of is giving states enough money to do the job. What i am against, what were not going to pass in the senate is an effort to take responsibility away from the states that under our constitution are responsible for conducting elections we want to provide assistance, the 600 million, the additional 250 on top of 380 million we did last year will provide additional assistance for states always been in favor of that, still in favor of that thats what were going to do. Will there be oversight as well at the federal level to be sure the money is spent in a way that truly does secure the elections or are you advocating giving states money, expecting them to do the job to whatever standard they see fit . Department of Homeland Security did a terrific job in 2018 working with the states, and they know what theyre doing. It was very impressive we had a classified briefing for all senators by the administration on the 2018 election behind closed doors, there was bipartisan applause for the great job they did in 2018 then our democrat colleagues walked outside and told the press exactly the opposite look, 2018 was a big success story, i am convinced were ready for 2020 any foreign country that messes with us will have a serious problem in return. Finally, leader mcconnell, i know the focus is your piece about the usmca, but when the president is tweeting about attacking the whistleblower or suggesting that adam schiff should be arrested, tweeting about civil war, do you have a view of his rhetoric in the last 48 hours look, what i want to do is spend our time accomplishing things for the American People usmca, leader mccarthy and i pointed out in the wall street journal today is something we can agree on, something we ought to do. It makes a difference for the American People. The house wants to spend they spent the last three years harassing this president and i gather were going to get another chapter of that with the impeachment episode, but we need to find other things that actually make a difference for the American People and try to accomplish as much as we can thats what i want to do and thats what were in the process of trying to encourage the house to do by taking up usmca leader mcconnell, we dont get to have you on air that often. Good to have you hope youll come back. Thank you sno senator Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell. Delivering people to the moon and mars. A closer look at elon musks new mega rocket next and apple up nearly 2 off the back of a price target raise at jpmorgan. A lot of squawk alley still ahead. Stay with us see thats funny, i thought you traded options. Im not really a wall street guy. Whats the hesitation . Eh, it just feels too complicated, you know . Well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. Jj, will you break it down for this gentleman . Hey, ian. You know, at Td Ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until youre comfortable. I could be up for that. Thats taking options trading from wall st. To main st. Hey guys, wanna play some pool . Eh, im not really a pool guy. Whats the hesitation . Its just complicated. Stepbystep options trading support from Td Ameritrade thats what happens in golf nothiand in life. Ily. Im very fortunate i can lean on people, and that for me is what teamwork is all about. You cant do everything yourself. You need someone to guide you and help you make those tough decisions, thats Morgan Stanley. Theyre industry leaders, but the most important thing is they want to do it the right way. Im really excited to be part of the Morgan Stanley team. Im justin rose. We are Morgan Stanley. Welcome back, everyone i am sue herera. Heres your cnbc news update at this hour. California will let College Athletes hire agents, make money from endorsements, defying the ncaa, setting up a likely legal challenge that could reshape College Sports governor newsome signing the law. A new law barring teenagers buying tobacco products, including electronic smoking devices goes into Effect Tomorrow the law raises the age to 21 theyll focus on sellers of the products, not the underage buyers. The fda warns pet owners to throw away performance dog frozen raw pet food bought after july 22nd. A sample tested positive for salmonella and list teeria and dozens of current and former World Leaders attending the Funeral Service of former prech president chirac in paris. Macron was in attendance along with putin and former president bill clinton you are up to date thats the news update this hour back downtown to squawk alley. Jon, i will send it back to you. Thanks, sue european markets closed a few minutes ago. Seema mody has the action. A bold call from jpmorgan, they upgraded european equities to overweight, downgrading u. S. Stocks, citing a tactical window opportunity. They point out european stocks have underperformed the u. S. By 20 Percentage Points since last may. Stocks in europe are lower across the board for the month, there they are, higher for the month they clocked in the first gain since june, stocks in germany, france, italy up 3 to 4 in september. Thats partly due to the ecb and weaker euro which trades at a two year low against the u. S. Dollar big stand outs in europe easy jet, travel operator tuey up 17 to 19 . Inflation dropping to 0. 9 from 1 in august, and unemployment fell to 4. 9 near record low. The question is whether well get some fiscal reform from the german government, likely a Big Conversation as we kickoff a new month. Carl, back to you. Thank you very much as we mentioned, last trading day of the quarter look at the best performers for the dow. Apple, depot, nike, walmart rounding out the top five. More squawk alley in a moment. Coming out of the infrastructure discussion, dow up 135 we are worried about the chinese, but they made it clear theyre not interested in delisting if you will Chinese Companies from the u. S. Stock exchange or from doing business in the country that could end up hurting us and whatever tactics we use with regard to china need to not be ones that punish us. That is senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell who joined us exclusively moments ago, echoing comments from white house trade adviser peter navarro, also on cnbc earlier. He characterized recent reports of restrictions on Chinese Companies as quote, fake news. Guys, good morning we also talked to the majority leader about usmca, the oped pushing the democrats to go ahead and get that approved and passed into law. How big an impact would it have if that particular trade agreement went through as far as markets are concerned . Probably more of a psychological impact than direct impact what is amazing to me, i travel every week, on the road, talking to our investors, a lot of people who are more on the hard line side of trade, think were doing the right thing with regard to tariffs have often said to me, were beholden, we passed nafta or usmca. When i mention it is not yet ratified, a lot of people dont realize that theres been a perception we dealt with some of the trade deals and gives us a better bargaining position with china so i think the reality of Something Like that getting passed i think might give a psychological boost that maybe were back in the drivers seat. Taking a look at the markets overall, the s p, were close to where we were exactly a year ago, within a couple Percentage Points do you think that perhaps markets are too investors are too pessimistic . Where do you see things going for the quarter to close the year i think on a near term basis, investors remain fearful i think most Institutional Investors that are primary clients really miss the recovery in september because they were too negatively positioned in august and they have memories of what happened in the Fourth Quarter last year. From our lens and based on conversations were having when we meet with clients to talk with clients, most of our institutional clients are sitting on their hands with respect to the usmca, we think it is a positive yes, shes right from a psychological perspective, i think it strengthens north america overall, i think people need to understand that mexico is the second largest deficit in terms of trading deficit with the United States, opens up an opportunity to make that Even Stronger but remember, to canada where i am today, u. S. s number one trade partner, we think this could be positive for north american stocks and canadian stocks, as asset flows come back to the United States and canada, especially considering the momentum and volatility on a negative basis with respect to both emerging markets and europe whats your expectation for Fourth Quarter we think back to what it was looking like q4 of 2018. This year we have tariffs on more goods coming in from china now, plus we have even more tumult and activities out of d. C. Do you expect another volatile end to the year . It is possible. Obviously weve got proposed additional rounds of tariffs going, and i think as we get to Third Quarter reporting season what were seeing and what contributed to volatility in august and back in may has been a lot more meat put on bones by companies of what the trade war and tariffs impact is on their own bottom lines, whether theyre at profit margins, passing it onto the consumer Consumer Confidence weakness the past month was to some degree tied to trade. Consumers are starting to reflect that not only are reports for Third Quarter, Conference Calls around them, forecasting on the part of companies and establishing i would say kind of an opportunity for analysts to look into 2020 from an earnings perspective, a lot of and lists i talk to, even though i dont look at individual Companies Say they havent done much with 2020 earnings because of that ongoing trade uncertainty, especially with regard to the next two, mid october, mid december. If you could lay that scenario out, it would be clearer to judge what Fourth Quarter will look like. Brian if looking for land mines for q4, you can look at trade and the consumer, but some suggest that it might be wild cards like whether or not ipos can continue or why the repo rate remains muted elevated but muted is there a chance it could come out of left field . Theres always the canary in a coal mine. Maybe rates are headed higher, most people are not positioned accordingly for that, thats why we continue the financials and Money Center Banks particularly, we think most people are underinvested there. We think there could be more geopolitical risk and fundamental weakness from europe and emerging markets that most arent accounting for. All you hear the last couple weeks, everyone is bullish on europe again based on valuation. We dont buy them based on valuation, but fundamental reasons. I think the tariff situation Fourth Quarter could add volatility, but i think it is going to be one of the periods we want to be stock pickers, not asset aloe klocators, we want td to favorite stocks on weakness, hold them longer term in a lower turnover portfolio i know you watch individual stocks i was looking back through tech in the last quarter, as a sector, semiconductors seem to have had a great quarter, micron, lamb research, western digital, they had a rough week do you think the particular choppiness, the trade related, might have impact on a sector that tended to be responsive to headlines over the past year we actually took tech from a multi year overweight about a year ago down to market perform. Thats just really a neutral position at that point it was mostly a function of valuation of some high flying names, risks associated, and concerns headed into Fourth Quarter broadly for the market now i think factors are becoming increasingly important and i think sort of looking ahead at the stability of Earnings Growth beyond the next quarter, that kind of time horizon, relatively low volatility, that outlook into earnings thats fairly stable supports some of the not necessarily pure cyclical areas but areas you see growth in a relatively slow economic environment. I think youll find them in sub sets of technology, no question. All right well take a look. Thank you. Thanks. Coming up, surprising beef between spacex and nasa. Well explain that next. Lets get over to the cme group, get the Santelli Exchange hey, rick. Good morning, carl. Sometimes when youre really, really hungry, even if youre one of those people that work out, watch what you eat, but if it isnt convenient, sometimes junk food does the trick many times when you break with Healthy Foods to satisfy a rough hunger, you regret it because theres payback. Same can be said for high yield or the junk food of the Securities Markets what im getting at here is that the european sector is so overgrown with negative rates that this past september through a couple of industrial or high yield junk deals, hugely oversubscribed for, this is something we need to monitor in the end, that hunger to find anything in this wilderness of negative rates, even high yield industrials, just goes to show us one of the key tenet s or strategies, that is to move investors into an area you deem them to play versus somewhere else, whether it is quantitative easing, you know, tina, there is no alternative, stocks become the investment de jure because Central Banks altered the credit appetites of investors by taking over a sector, fixed income sector in particular if we think about the fact that italy, for example, and we all know the issues politically and financially with italy, Third Largest economy, they had an auction last week, yields for five year were close to 25 basis points for 10 year, mid80s, and the secondary market even lower yields we all know intuitively italy doesnt deserve those yields but at the end of the day, Christine Lagarde is coming into power, and she is as many pointed out part politics, part financial. And this is the perfect, perfect set of requirements at this point because germany and their fiscal policies that we all heard about, we want them to put more stimulus into the system. But they have really so far tried to fight it. The most common story last week in any of the big newspapers was the fact there were many germans and ecb officials kind of jumping away from this policy. German savers and German Economy had enough subsidizing of europe but theres no place to hide Christine Lagarde will find ways to bring germany to the table. But in the end, Biggest Issue is the exit and many think euro bonds is the answer. We need to contemplate how reconstituted paper in europe will play out. Notice many think global rates bottomed all the topics today lead me to the same conclusion. Investors turning back to the stock market speaking of tina to find outsized amounts of Dividend Income. Why Consumer Discretionary stocks dom chu explains that. Thats because that sector is better than the overall market you look at the s p 500 versus Consumer Discretionary sector, that sector is slightly outperforming the broader s p 500, and at the worst, market in line where can you find Dividend Income in this kind of environment . We decided to look at some stocks within that sector overall that had positive three month price performance, positive one year price performance, and a yield dividend wise thats greater than the ten year treasury 1. 7 now these are some names that came up among the 7 that passed that screen, home depot which satisfies all of the elements, yields 2. 4 on the dividend side of things. Target nearly 2. 5 . Mcdonalds around 2. 3 . Whirlpool, a Home Products and Home Appliance company tops that list. 12month price appreciation and is the highest dividend yield. Whirlpool, these are the types of stocks some traders are looking at with regard to scoping out the Dividend Payments when it comes to Consumer Discretionary. Thanks. The unveiling of elon musks grand vision to bring people to mars. A closer look at space xs new starship. I think we should really do our very best to become a mult anet species and extend consciousness beyond earth, and we should do it now. Welcome back. Meet starship. Elawn musk and space xs new mega rocket making its debut on the texas coast. The 165foot spacecraft is the first assembled prototype and being developed to send cargo and passengers up to mars. Elon musk spoke about the opportunity. Of course, we can go to other places in the solar system like saturn. And the credible thing that we need to focus on is the fastest path to a selfsustaining city on mars. It will be reusable. Its a feature referred to as the holy grail. It can fly into orbit to the moon and to mars and then make its return back to earth. That is the game plan with starship. The rocket will be powered biep a booster with the entire structure towering more than 38 stories. Musk says starship could reach orbit within the next six months and people could be aboard within the next year, an aggressive prediction considering it has yet to launch astronauts for nasa yet looking even more unlikely to happen in 2019 which is perhaps why nasa administrator took a shot at space x and elon musk ahead of the event tweeting that commercial crew is years behind schedule. Nasa expects the same level focussed on the investments of the american taxpayer and that its time to deliver. Musk did respond and noted that only five percent are focussed on the new starship project right now. Certainly making a lot of headlines. This is a rocket that has been in development really for the last three years under different iterations and different names as far as commercial crew is concerned. That is the Government Program that space x and boeing are bogboth a part of to bring astronauts to the International Space station. I think it speaks to how much space x does have going on right now. And how much elon muchk likes making aggressive predictions. Absolutely. Thats the shocking for investors is the guy, he delivers some big stuff and also talks a really big game. As big as he delivers, you have to try hard to talk a bigger game than you deliver. Is it a bad sign that nasa is kind of poking him here on commercial crew . I think it certainly raised eyebrows and seen as unusual given the fact that commercial crew has been delayed over the years but because of congressional funding and issues within nasa, as well. I do also think that just speaks to the fact that you have folks that are running some of the Government Agencies that are trying to cut costs, implement reforms and find a better way to make the programs happen especially if were going to get to the moon by 2024. He was challenged on thez predictions about next year. Thats for sure. Squawk alley is back in three minutes. Dow is still up about 140. Dont go away. But were also a company that controls hiv, fights cancer, repairs shattered bones, relieves depression, restores heart rhythms, helps you back from strokes, and keeps you healthy your whole life. From the day youre born we never stop taking care of you. Later today, do not miss former uconn Prime Minister David Cameron on the closing bell right after the market closes right here on cnbc as we close out the month and the quarter. We get more fresh brexit headlines this morning. Lets get to melissa lee in the half. Stocks pushing higher on this last trading day of a wild quarter. Well get ready for the home stretch. Its 12 00 noon and this is halftime report. The bulls trying to close out with a bang as investors brace for earnings season. Will it keep the rally rolling on apple the best performing f. A. A. N. G. Stock up 40 . Its our call of the day. Energy, the worst performing sector this quarter and this year. But its been on a tear this