Transcripts For CNBC Squawk 20240704

Yesterday. 4. 23 . If you check out the price of copper, copper ended at the highest settlement since october of last year. This morning, it is off 1 . Watching that copper closely because it is a signal of expectations for global manufacturing. Japan central bank raising rates for the First Time Since 2007 and ending the other easing measures. This is the longest easing from any central bank. They were the lfirst to go in ad the last to come out of the easing. It raised the rate to 0. 1 . That was up from negative to 0. 1 . The yen trading at the lowest level of the year compared to the dollar. The central bank abolishing the yield curve control policy for japanese sovereign bonds. The central bank said it planned to purchase government bonds worth broadly the same amount as before. It will scale back asset purchases and qt. It is not really aggressive if you are talking about zero to 0. 1 . Backing away from the eightyear experiment. Experiments are not eight years. The new normal. It wasnt really a great thing. With the experiment that is not working, you dont let it go eight years. They did. Thats what they called it. Think about it. Money needs a cost or nothing really works. Theres no way to price anything. The experiment tried around the world. To lesser extttextents. You get paid to buy a house . We have nut jobs out here in times square. Never mind. We are watching shares. The show outside the show. We are watching shares of unilever. It will split off the ice cream unit which includes ben jerrys and magnum. It will impact 7,500 office based jobs globally. Unilever says this will allow it to focus on four distinct divisions. P beauty and well being and personal care and home care and nutrition. I guess ice cream did not fit in the nutrition . Thats for mayo. Ben jerrys almost invented woke. Long before woke was cool. Ben jerrys was woke. Every time i read a news story about ben jerrys yummy flavors. They did. What is your favorite . Cherry garcia . I dont know. I havent had it lately. I cant eat ice cream. They have some really good flavors. Ice cream is my enemy. I would eat it all the time. Thats what Marlon Brando liked. He liked it so much. If you let yourself go, you would make a milkshake. I would bathe in this. Get me a bathtub and a straw. Thats an image for you in the morning. Ill wear a suit. A bathtub and a straw. No weight limits. I wouldnt stop. That is sick. Yeah. In washington, u. S. Lawmakers and the white house reportedly reached a handshake deal to keep the government funded through september 30th. Now they have to race to make it o official before the friday deadline. The deal came last night after the agreement on border spending at the department of Homeland Security which was the final sticking point. No details were available, but the legislative text is expected to be published tomorrow. Maybe not surprising to reach a deadline that comes like this, but there has been so much pushback. This pushed out kevin mccarthy. We will wait and see what the text says and the reaction. Will we ever have something longer than months . It has gotten worse year after year. Now to the tiktok bill. U. S. National Security Officials holding a closeddoor briefing tomorrow for senators on the commerce and Intelligence Committee focused on the threats reportedly posed by the chineseowned platform. It is hosted by the chairs of two committees. Marc warner and maria cantwell. Members on the committee will be there. We had ted cruz on last week. The fbi and officer of the National Intelligence department will be in the meeting. And senator manchin told Brian Sullivan he supports the bill to ban. We cannot go and gather information in china. If we cant reciprocate in a country, there is something wrong. That tells you everything. Other than that, everyone knows they are using that information to ill nfiltrate our markets. Senator manchin said tiktok will be an American Company or they will change their business model. United health group has paid out more than 2 billion to help Healthcare Providers affected on the cyber attack change health care. The advances will not need to be repaid until claims return to no normal. The company is making significant progress in restoring the services impacted by the attack. That was a while ago. It has been at least three weeks since that attack happened. Change healthcare offers eprescription software. It left many unable to fill medications or get reimbursed by insurers. This is a crippling scott was with us last week and he said they are responsible for billing systems. He said they have to go down and check everyone of the issues to see what was impacted. That is why it is taking so long. I like this shot today. Im not sure why. We look good. Is that what it is . We did coordinate. Maybe thats what i noticed. A. I. This is the area in terms of cost savings and good for humanity. Healthcare should be what we focus on. Speaking of a. I. , we will talk about this new mr. Blackwell chip. No one knows what im talking about. You do. I only knew about it when you jogged my memory. It took me a while. Mr. Blackwell died 16 years ago. In his 80s. That used to be every year he would wait for mr. Blackwells list. This is called the blackwell. In fact, you take a gpu 200 rack scale system and you put 36 grace blackwell super chips on this baby and you get 30 times the performance and 25 times less cost and energy for a. I. That sounded really good. Fing a it did. I took latin in high school and i understand latin more than i understand what i just said. And i dont remember anything from four years of latin. Comp coming up, we will talk about the mr. Blackwell chip with the nvidia ceo revealing the new generation of chips in the packed arena. And later, dan sullivan will join us live from sera week. The Energy Conference in houston. Announcer this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. Visit bairddifference. Com. Inging you an elevated experience, tailormade for trader minds. Go deeper with thinkorswim our awardwining trading platforms. Unlock support from the schwab trade desk, our team of passionate traders who live and breathe trading. And sharpen your skills with an immersive Online Education crafted just for traders. All so you can trade brilliantly. At pgim, finding opportunity in fixed income today, helps secure tomorrow. Our timetested fixed income suite, backed by over 145 years of risk experience, helps investors meet their goals. Pgim investments. Shaping tomorrow today. 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 you can make money the hard way as a bullfighter matching your job description. Or a human cannonball. Or save money the easy way, with xfinity mobile. Existing customers can get a free line of our most popular unlimited plan for a year not only will you save hundreds but youll also be joining millions who have connected to americas most reliable 5g network. Sure is a lot safer than becoming a stuntman for money. Get a free line of unlimited intro for a year when you buy one unlimited line. Visit xfinitymobile. Com today to learn more. Nvidias a. I. Developers conference is under way. Ceo jensen huang unveiling the newest chips at the packed house in san jose yesterday. Hopper is fantastic, but we need bigger gpus. So, ladies and gentlemen, i would like to introduce you to a very, very big gpu. This is hopper. Hopper changed the world. This is blackwell. Told you. Actually, the guys name is david harold blackwell. It wasnt richard blackwell, the fashionista. The gpu has advantages in terms of performance and energy usage. Anybody who is anybody will get this new line and upgrade from hopper. Cisco, dell, hp, lenovo, super micro will deliver Service Based on the blackwell lineup. Our next guest is the tech investor who might understand this. He owns nvidia and joins us now. Paul meeks at harvest portfolio management. I dont know what you are, paul. Do you have an engineering degree . For our viewers to understand, obviously, becky and i are up to speed on this. Can you just make it easier for people that may not be as in the loop as us of what is going on . Joe, before the commercial break, you went through the specs and you sounded nerdy. It is a larger and physical gpu. It uses two die techniques from taiwan semiconductor. You think about it. It will provide about 5 x the performance of the latest h 100 hopper chip. Eventually, more and more horsepower. They are making a bet that theres going to be a never ending desire for these chips as we continue to build out the large language models. We will see what happens in about three hours today as they will have a meeting for the wall street analysts like me and we will be able to get some guidance to the financial impact. Although the specs here are impressive, but they already have about 90 market share in the chips, the gpus are building large language models. Maybe this brings a greater profitability, but they are essentially already owning the pie. What they announced yesterday was snappy. Next, we can get into the nim software they announced. What we need to hear is for them to keep their Technology Lead specifically over advanced micro devices. At least last night or yesterday afternoon, i think they checked those boxes which they needed to check because the stock is up fivefold since the introduction of chatgpt a couple of years ago. Better margins or better profits on a stock that people say is not that expensive relative to other technology stocks. The stock is off a little bit, but that could be the runup which was so significant. You said software is also talking about the omniverse . There is more than the blackwell technology that was introduced . They offered software for inference. In the a. I. Supply chain, you start with the large language model building. Thats whats going to continue to happen for another year or so. You take all of that great data that you crunched and you try to create some patterns that could be used by folks. What they want to do is make sure since they already own the pie for large language model building that they keep their lead in the next stage inference. They announced nim software. M nim. This will charge 4,500 per year for a license fee to better use their chips in the inference stage which is the next stage of a. I. The price point is not going to drive revenue like the chips did, but the nice thing about the Software Licensing model is there are no hfmanufacturing costs. Pound for pound, it is more profitable. It is not a onetwo punch that is necessary. The idea they will be more than a chipmaker. The idea you could become more like a microsoft or somebody with the Software Aspects to that. That changes the equation to some extent and the profitability of this company. Becky, thats a great point. What theyre trying to do is become the a. I. Ecosystem. Kind of like apple successfully did with the Walled Garden. You had to have the phone and the watch and the earbuds. This is what nvidia is trying to do here. Build a Walled Garden ecosystem in a. I. That will be durable for years that doesnt just include several iterations of the fastest gpus, but software and other items in the bundle. They are trying to copy that apple Walled Garden playbook. We have been told the training part of deploying the a. I. System is where you use the high level chips. Inference maybe with compepetitn because you need a big Computing Power . I dont understand it. Do you eventually get done with the training where you will not need successive generations . I dont know what comes after blackwell, but it reminds me of moores law. Im sure the next one that they design is going to be 30 times more powerful than blackwell which was 30 times more powerful than hopper. Is that still happening . We need training forever and also inference . Both of those aspects of a. I. And a. I. Rollout will go on at the same time forever . Joe, thats a really good point because if there is an end to the rainbow and large language model building, you are right as we get into frinferenc but you still need gpus and that is where somebody with micocro strategies can step in. They are trying to proptect the moat software. Once we get through the large language building is that they conquered that step, but what happens with step two . There will be other players. These products will never been c commotized. It is not a worry of what nvidia does this year, but do they drastically slowdown at some point . If you feel that is the case, you have to sell the stock. Paul, well end it there. You remember mr. Blackwell . That was a nice History Lesson from you, joe. I did not. He had a worst dressed list. In the old days, he designed stuff for jane mansfield. Toward the end, he would public this list. Lindsay lohan. She went from adorable to deplorable. Im just looking at it. As did her career after that. He said oh, no. Here is something about camilla. She looked at a mirror and watched it crack. He was funny and snarky. This has tnothing to do with th blackwell chip. It has the same name. Paul meeks, thank you. Isnt that cool . We have a new director . My picture is where im supposed to read the teleprompter. Thats too many joes. I can look over here. Later in the show, we will get a live report from the nvidia conference in san jose. At 10 15 a. M. , jim cramer is speaking with jensen huang in a cnbc exclusive interview. Well be right back. You always got your mind on the green. Not you. You your Business Bank account with quickbooks money now earns 5 apy. thats how you business differently. Intuit quickbooks. The future is not just going to happen. You have to make it. And if you want a successful business, all it takes is an idea, and now becomes the future. A future where you grew a dream into a reality. Its waiting for you. Mere minutes away. The future is nothing but power and its all yours. The all new godaddy airo. Get your Business Online in minutes with the power of ai. Wielcome back, everybody. The fed is expected to start cutting rates this year and that could mean billions of losses on lowinterest bonds according to the study. The report from hugh son is our cnbc banking reporter. Hugh, this is really concerning to think about what comes next. Why dont you explain the situation and where the banks are right now. Reporter good morning, becky. Great to be with you. Just to be clear, the fed cutting rates is going to on the margins help the situation. The issue right now is that there have been 10 or 11 Interest Rate cuts in the past two years or so. Therefore, they are unrealized losses on banks held to Maturity Portfolio in terms of bonds and the mortgages they issued that were done under low Interest Rates. Those are unrealized losses. They are sitting on the Balance Sheets. People forgot about it. Those are still there. That is still adding pressure. On top of that, if you screen for the banks which have the most commercial real estate exposure, some 300 of real estate exposure versus capital levels, you have 282 banks that screen for those that have high cre and at the same time compromised capital levels. The analysis is these are banks just Like New York Community bank did that need on raise capital and need do it within the next year or so. They can raise that capital with private equity or try to link up and get acquired by a stronger bank. The issue we know is last year was a 40year low in terms of bank m a deal volumes before inflation adjusted basis. We have a situation, becky, where you have a lot of banks which are wounded, but not getting relief they need. Hugh, the reason this has flown beneath the radar is the banks are smaller and new York Community bancorp. How big of a problem does that pose to the Financial System . Reporter i think the good news is systematacally speaking, new york commukmucommunity bank moving with assets. Great bulk of the inn s substitutions are facing the stress. There were banks found to be moderately sized regional banks between 10 and 100 billion. The Federal Reserve chairman jay powell has said there will be Bank Failures as a result of cre. It will happen. One point of this analysis is to say across the universe of 4,000 banks, where are the issues . To your point, they are in the middle to smallsized banks which is less systemic. I think the issue is the Smaller Banks support communities away from the coast. If they are zombie banks because they are not allowed to raise capital, they cannot engage in mergers with stronger competitors. You are hamstringing the Economic Development in the communities. I guess the other question is the fed must be aware of this as well and how much pressure does that put on them for rates . Reporter there is a multidimensional issue. I dont think they will ultimately say we will put the cart before the horse in terms of what is the priority. You have a cohort of banks of the 4,000 banks in the country which will run into the country. You have regulator as aware of e situation. They are issuing mra and mrbas with the under the radar report saying you have to raise capital. That is the strategy. They hope to be able to do this. They hope to be able to cajole them to raise capital to improve the situation. To do so in a way that doesnt cause anything. Hugh, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Reporter thank you, becky. Reddit out with the regulatory filing. The social media it received a letter from nokia and nokia claiming that reddit infringes on the patents. Legal disputes in the area, even if unfounded, can be costly and may impact the business. Wow. Nokia. Who knew . Coming up, the white house set to announce chips act funding for intel. We will tell you what to expect next. As we head to break, here is a look at yesterdays s p 500 winners and losers. Wealthchanging question are you keeping as much of your investment gains as possible . High taxes can erode returns quickly, so you need a taxoptimized portfolio. At creative planning, our Money Managers and specialists Work Together to make sure your portfolio and wealth are managed in a taxefficient manner. Its what you keep that really matters. 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Thank you, boring. Good morning. Welcome back to squawk box. Were live from the Nasdaq Market site in times inquire. Fut square. The dow futures are down 27 points. That is half the losses we saw a half an hour ago. S p off 5. This comes after all three ackno averages were up yesterday. President biden expecting to award intel a multibillion dollar chips act funding package. We havhave Megan Cassella here h more. How do we know if we, as taxpayers, get our monies worth . That is the question i have been asking. It will take years. They passed this act a year and a half ago. We are about to see the big award rollout this week with intel. That is the preliminary set of terms. They have to vet and they have the regulations attached. They are doling out the money as Companies Reach milestones. It takes seven years to get a fabrication online. We agree to bring chips online. I hope the government picks the right companies and winners. We have seen amd eat intels lunch in recent years. How do we know . Will they make sure we get a return . If it is government money, is it here and is anyone minding the store for the governments investment . They will say they are doing that now. That is because they want to make sure this is not just a hand cr handout. It goes the other way with criticism of are you not letting the free market work and making sure that companies are jumping through hurdles to fulfill your agenda . And it is slow. This takes a long time. Some of the companies complaint is where is the money . The bill was signed into law and trumpeted as a success so longing ago, i cant remember the date. The companies have said where is the money . How do i get the process started . I dont want to be cynical. Its early. You usually arent. I dont want to be cynical. The Biden Administration is infected with esg mania. If you dont have child care, you cant get any of this. I dont know how unions are provided. I dont know what provisions are here for you to get the money. That is not free market either. Thats not marketbased enterprise. That is why it has been slow. Companies have been pushing back and Gina Raimondo talked about the climate regulations for chip making with intel. Gina raimondo has complained . She has pushed back slightly. She is bringing it inhouse to commerce. August of 2022 when it was signed and we are about to see the first announcement. Two years . Thats why it takes so long. Problem with governmentbacked initiatives. You notice whenever we have spokes people on, they dont spend money in washington. They invest it. Everything they are doing there is investing. That is the buzz word. 10 or 20year plan. Investing in our future. To infrastructure, sometimes that is the case. I will say to your point that child care is not infrastructure is a fair and valid point. Anything the government spends money on is called infrastructure. I will say one thing they are doing is Gina Raimondo wants to pr prioritize projects with a return. She wants to bring chip adv advancement to the country by the end of the decade. That is not that much time. We are at 0 right now. She wants to prioritize the quicker project. We have seen a plan in japan which was started after our chips act and they have come online. Thats what were competing with. It is easier to move quicker elsewhere. Im glad you are down there watching. Will you try to incorporate my point of view . Ill tell help. Just while you are down there. What about . We tried everything. What does work best is when the private sector makes the decisions. Maybe it is different this time. It will be interesting tomorrow. What do we hear from Pat Gelsinger . How restrictive is it . We will start to get some answers. All right. Keep us updated. Im optimistic. How is that . You sound that. Megan, thank you. When we come back, an update on the Supreme Court case concerning social Media Censorship of the government. We will talk to marc lore. The entrepreneur behind diapers. Com and sold to jets. His new venture is wonder. It ia s big investing round. Well have him here to talk about it. Squawk box will be right back. More efficiency. More benefits. More growth. When you realize you can give your people everything, and more. Thank you very much. [applause] ask, now what . Heres what. You go with prudential to protect, empower and grow. With everything you need to deliver, you guessed it. More. One more thing. Whos your rock . Learn more at prudential. Com [busy street sounds] tosca, act ii vissi darte artist maria callas orchestra del teatro alla scala, milano hey, im at gate 6 wearing a gray shirt. Ill pick you up in 2 minutes. everybody get down unnecessary action hero missing punches . Unnecessary check reversals . Unnecessary time sheet corrections . Unnecessary unentered sick time . Unnecessary go unnecessary go unnecessary when you can take this phone, youll be ready. Make the unnecessary, unnecessary. Let your employees do their own payroll. The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday on social Media Censorship claims against the government. The court likely rejected the federal government from urging social Media Companies from misleading posts on the platforms. At issue, the republicans from missouri brought the case unless some claim that facebook he suppress views. The court faced sympathy across the justices. The justices claim if they suffered harm giving them right to sue and expressed skepticism of the social Media Companies amounted to restraint. When we come back, we will talk to marc lore behind diapers. Com. That company was sold to amazon. He sold jet. Com and he has a new venture called wonder. We will explain it to us after this break. As we head to the break, check out bitcoin price which is down sharply. It is down 9 for the week and today down 6 . This is a volatile move. It iats 63,000 today. Squawk box will be right back. Announcer executive edge is sponsored by at t business. Next level moments need the next level network. Rylee from rylees realty hi this listing sounds incredible. Lets check it out. Says here it gets plenty of light. And this must be the ocean view . Of aruba . Huh. This listing is misleading. Well, when at t says we give businesses get our best deal, on the iphone 15 pro made with titanium. We mean it. Amazing. All my agents want it. Says here. inviting pool. Come on over too inviting. Only at t gives businesses our best deals on any iphone. Get iphone 15 pro on us. this is our future, ma. Godaddy airo. Creates a logo, website, even social posts. In minutes how . A. I. impressed ay i like it who wants to come see the future . get your Business Online in minutes with godaddy airo welcome back, everybody. Restaurant and food delivery startup wonder closed a 700 million funding round and that includes new and existing investors and 100 million from its own founder. Joining us on the set is ceo, marc. Its great to see you. Great to see you too, becky. When you first started wonder, lets describe what it is, by the way. Its something that appeals to working moms because it will be easier to order pretty decent food in a quick turn around time, less than 30 minutes to prepare it and get it delivered. Yeah, we are focused on the next Generation Food delivery where we own all the restaurants and manage to put 30 restaurants in a 2,800 square foot kitchen, hot and greattasting food. When you started this, it was a few years ago and i remember the original concept, and it was going to be a food truck that drove to your house and cooked it for you in your driveway and delivered it. Yeah, the truck is what was going to innovate where the driver cooks. We took that technology over the last five years and managed to put 30 restaurants in 2,800 square feet with no hoods or gas, and its lightly skilled and trained labor and little waste. The model is, you know, economically great and customers love it. What changed from going to the trucks to saying we are going to create the super restaurants, essentially, and get it right to the customer . We experimented with the brick and mortar, and when you are digging for silver and you find gold, you have to take the risk and move to the Better Business model. Thats what we did. How many locations do you have right now . In the last year, and we have 11 locations now and are opening 25 this year and 55 next year. Thats pretty expansive, pretty quickly. 700 million Capital Raise is nothing to sneeze at, and where did you go to get that, and 100 million coming from your own pocket . Yeah, a great support from inside investors, and forerunner, alpine, and we had great support there, and new great strategics in nsa nestle, and most of the money was going to ai companies, and i feel great about raising 700 million and now we are off to the races and down to the execution. I think that says something for an experienced entrepreneur, and if anybody was going to put money behind anybody, i assume that would be you. Good founders will get funded. You have to put the time and work in. I am trying to figure that out. 2,800 square feet yeah, did you say no gas . How is that possible . All electric . All electric, yeah. I thought chefs cant do this no gas type all the technology we built in the kitchen is somewhat automated, and it says get the steak in the refrigerator 2 and put it on conveyor 3 if you do need a burner, its always we own all the restaurants, and theres no royalties and the tech and delivery net wwork, an when the food is finished, it goes in a hot bag and to the courier. Customers are getting multirestaurant ordering capability, and you are getting it fast and hot and its high quality. We can replicate the food of fine dining restaurants, and we call it fastfine. We have bobby flay, and Michael Simon taco bell for me is already a fast fine. You have maybe a different palate, maybe . When you say its a steak, its an actual steak . Yeah, like if you were eating in a steakhouse, or italian, and literally just about all types of cuisine in one spot and fast not changing its like a local restaurant. You need to know which one you want, dont you . Yeah, on the app, theres 30 restaurants and you pick the one you want. It may not be a sitdown . These restaurants we have acquired, and partnerships with famous chefs or we could buy the rights to it, and we just opened up inside a walmart, and its going to 10 restaurants in there and you have your choice of all these different restaurants in what used to be a subway inside a walmart. And your walmart experience helps to get the relationships to do these things. How soon until you are profitable . The units themselves are turning profitable in six weeks. The unit level, profitable getting to double digit profitability good people no problem hiring great people for this . Right now, this is its expensive, though . Yeah, as a startup, if you want to come and work at a startup that is growing up stock . Yeah, and we have our target on an ipo in five years, call it, and we are heading with the capital and we are down to the execution. Thank you very much for coming in. Thank you, becky. Check it out. Thanks, joe. Coming up, turbulence in the skies. The Airline Industry hit by a odries of mishaps while boeing pruction woes could lead to higher travel prices. Oscar munoz joins us in the next hour. Squawk box is coming right back. Dad, dont forget about my new cleats. Sweetie, i cant make it to dicks this week. Have you heard of dicks. Com . Have i heard of dicks. Com . Girl lets go lets go have i heard of dicks. Com . screaming whoa. Dont overthink it. Lets go shopping. Anyone impressed with how fast that was . good morning. Futures are lower this morning as the fed kicks off a twoday policy meeting, and were watching for that. Watching the futures. And nvidia unveiling the latest ai chips, and investors are va evaluating this morning. The second of squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everybody, and welcome back to squawk box right here on cnbc. We are live from the Nasdaq Market site in times square. I am becky quick along with joe kernen. We have breaking news to share with you this morning. Check this out, folks. Filmmaker, George Lucass throwing his support behind walt disney ceo, bob iger. Lucas, who received 31. 1 million disney shares back in 2012 is currently the largest individual investor in the company, multiple sources have confirmed to cnbc, its not a wellknown fact, but lucas is the largest shareholder and in a statement provided to cnbc, lucas wrote, creating magic is not for amateurs. I was delighted to become a disney shareholder because of my admiration of its iconic brand and bob igers leadership. I have voted all of my shares for disneys 12 directors and urge other shareholders to do the same. Disney lined up a number of highprofile endorsements from disney to jamie dimon, and the support from lucas, that endorsement is key because of his standing in hollywood. Lucas wrote and created the star wars and Indiana Jones franchises, and he helped develop the tools, so what he says matter. Its key that lucas said he was relieved from bob iger came back and that that is why he remained a significant shareholder. I think thats pretty important in going through this. This has been a hardfought battle already, and that proxy battle ends on april 3rd, and thats when we will see what happens with all of this. Lucas said he is bidding all of his shares and recommends others do the same. There would be Tax Implications oh, sure. We what we can glean is he is the largest shareholder. You have had pretty significant shareholders that have come through, and pearl mutter, who used to be the chairman at marvel, and there were three big deals bob iger did. Seems like he overpaid but didnt. 55 billion if you combine pixar, lucas and usually they dont get anything even from the franchises and wont tell you the profitability of these things, but did go out of the way to state 15. 5 they spent on those were made, and fivefold increases in the toy story franchises. Those three, it shows you a little bit about how profitable those deals have been for the company. I remember. It seemed like steve jobs took him to the cleaner with pixar i think that was the largest individual shareholder, and she owned a bigger stake because of the pixar investment. I dont know about pixar anymore. They have another toy story coming out. They do . Yeah. I dont know if anybody could of at this point it was the ground breaker in animation. Again, this is the next step in the saga that has become the proxy battle. I think bob iger has pulled out all the stops and wants to make sure shareholders understands his view from this, and a lot of times you have companies that play above the fray on these things, and that has not been the case here. My guess, i dont know anything but my supposition would be that bob iger came from retirement from this, and doesnt want to deal with a investor and somebody he has not gotten along with on the board. I am still working my way through this espn piece, man. A lot of all media has really daunting challenges. They are actually talking about this guy, and runs espn as a possible successor, and not the leading successor to iger in 25, but somebody you would need to consider. Depending on what is happening in espn between now and then. You said they lost 30 million subscribers . Something like 30 million, and profitability is down. Espn was the crown jewel all along and what do you do with it . You are right, its indicative of the industry. We dont know the name of it, and it would be nice if you get the name so we dont have to explain what we are talking about, but for the fox, and Warner Brothers and sport streaming enterprise, we need a name so we can talk about it and i am sure theres lots going on behind the scenes. I would imagine. In the meantime, the Federal Reserve is set to kick off the twoday policy meeting today. Futures down about 75 points. The nasdaq down by 70. Joining us right now is emily roland, and do you have any wagers on where you think they will come down . Yeah, the fed is very likely to hold rates. They might suggest one fewer cut than what was suggesting in the december summary, which was three rate cuts, and maybe we will see two. Over the course of the year so far it feels like there has been a lot of risk taking in markets, and it feels like spring break is permeating investors right now, and powell may need to come in tomorrow and break up the party and have more of a hawkish bend. And china was in deflationary mode, and now all of a sudden we have stimulus across monetary and fiscal policy, and one of the biggest beneficiaries is things like copper prices, and when we have rising Industrial Metals like coppers and it causes a reacceleration in inflation, and that is complicated the feds job tomorrow. If you look at the treasury market, it seems like that market kind of figured out that fewer cuts are coming and it will take longer before they start, and we have seen yields pick up substantially. Equities are not there, and i am trying to figure out how much of that is the delayed reaction and not really paying attention to this, and theres still so much enthusiasm around nvidia and the entire ai story, and just in terms of innovation and what might happen. Yeah, we think its the second one, becky. You have seen this environment in which risk assets have made no attention at all to the Macro Economic backdrop. We have seen rates back up and the strengthening of the dollar which is being accelerated this morning on the bank of japan news, and markets shrugged it off. There has been an everything is awesome sentiment baked into the markets. You are continuing to see the economy do okay, and q4 earnings were just good enough. We look at technology in particular, and even though the valuations are very much extended theres no fundamental problem with the tech sector. You look at q4 earnings around 90 versus 75 for the market, and a magnitude of those beats higher than the market, and the challenge, of course, is its tough to argue that ai chips are not overbought at this juncture, and investors are continuing to ride that momentum wave, and thats what is causing the continued resilience across risk assets. I guess if you were to tell an investor where to lean and what to do, what are you thinking . Are you feeling good about things or feeling yes. Nervous . Feeling good . Okay. Sorry, i was responding to your producer. Oh. They are not downgrading, and we like great return on equity and cash, and we are seeing that in tech and you have to diversify in other parts of the market to manage that trade risk, and we look at health care stocks, which have been left behind. They are now trading at a 10 discount to the broad market and should benefit in a period where Economic Growth continues to decelerate. We also think areas on the value side like energy deserve a look right now. We have seen, again, with chinas growth impulse, we have seen demand for energy pick back up. We have seen supplies limited there. Emily, thank you for your time. We will see you soon. Thanks. Coming up, how American Business can bring the country together. Forme former hewlett ppackard will jn us for ias. De is boeing slowly breaking the airline business, and airline ceo munoz joins us to talk about the latest Airline Mishaps when we come back. My shoes are leather. Wheres the unnecessary zippers . That thing billy, rock star is just how doug feels when he uses workday. Thanks, rory. Ill show you rock star be a finance and hr rock star. Workday. For a changing world. Billy idol just stole your golf cart the next guest putting out a call to action for American Businesses, and were bringing former president ial candidate, and founder of the williamsburg foundation, and thats planning to commemorate the 250th birthday of the United States. Good to have you on this morning. Good morning, joe. Good to be back with you. Thanks for having me. So many different angles to take on this, carly. I will not allow my usually somewhat skeptical and cynical viewpoint to take over here because we dont have any choice. The alternative to not doing what you are saying is to not do nothing. Heres what i will say. The United States should celebrate its great Business Community that we have here, and the Business Community should also celebrate being part of the greatest country in the world. Thats how we should start. Lets start there, joe. Because its the right place to start. By the way, i also have the great privilege of serving as the National Chair for virginia 250, and i wrote an oped for fortune that talked about the most vital economy in the world, and it started when the Virginia Company said to settlers you could own a piece of your work, and private property was enshrined in the constitution, and we have a system of government that encourages risk taking and tolerates failure as well as success, and thats why its the most vibrant economy in the world. We will be 250 years old in 2026, and when we tell the whole story of our history, its unifying. Its a difficult story in many ways, and a celebratory in many ways and a redem thattive story. To your point, they need to be part of the celebration. I dont even want to do any buts, but i got a lot of buts. First thing i was going to do is introduce you to arthur brooks, because hes swimming uphill for years trying to make people happy and heal our country and the divisiveness and it has just gotten worse, and i say arthur, whatever you are doing, do something else. Hes internally optimistic. Heres a but. When you saw the state of the union, do you think President Biden has a healthy look of the economy . Everything business does is wrong according to the Biden Administration. Why should business turn around and try to help out in that point when they are not appreciated at all . Well, of course there was much about the state of the union that was a bit depressing, i thought. The divisiveness, and the lack of decorum. There were many things i could say about that state of the Union Address theres a lot of buts. Let me start with arthur brooks, who i know well and admire greatly. Heres what i know, setting politics aside, which is toxic and divisive, and most americans want to know our whole history. Thats not just me talking and its my experience here at colonial data, and americans want and are willing to learn about our history, and just as 23andme and all of these ancestry. Com, why are people so interested in where we all come from . We know that if we dont know where we come from, we dont know where we are. Thats most true of a nation that is not determined by ethnicity or religion, but instead by a set of ideals in government, and 49 of americans dont believe its important to live in a democracy, and many cannot name a Single Branch of government. So when we as a nation dont know who we are, and we dont is what the data said, then we become more toxic and tribal. We have 450 Million People here, and this is a unifying moment, not a divisive one. We dont let politics interfere. That would be a good way to do it, but i look at the last five years and the efforts of the sg and when companies have, and depending on their own ceos, they have gone on the other side of all these issues. A famous ceo of a huge company that said he feels like a willeda beast now. He said i will stay in the pack and not go and get eaten. When you get out of the pack, you will be eaten. The super bowl ads, they didnt want to alienate anybody, and they learned their lesson and how do you get corporations to do that and not ram things down throats. When ceos or heads of institutions take a certain position on a policy, yes, they can get their heads handed to them. What we are talking about here is businesses engaging in the full discovery and celebration. Its not political. The story is the story. The history and the history. Let me just give you an example of how to wade through this. I will tell you three things factually true. The writers of our constitution, our bill of rights and the declaration of independence, all virginians by the way. They are all cancelled, carly. How do you do this when they are all cancelled . Joe, if you let me finish, i would tell you. Go ahead. All virginians, all slave holders. They did not think the rights they espoused did not belong to anybody other than white male property owners, and the words they wrote changed the world forever, and have also been the inspiration for Movement Towards equality, Human Dignity everywhere, and we must acknowledge those and my experience tells me when we acknowledge the whole story. Its a moment for the country to come together and say, yes, the founders are imperfect and flawed, and their call to liberty was not just of the enslaved but of the native americans and yet ours is a re redemtive story. Business is a big part of that. I think you can see that without any hesitation, and nobody can argue with that. You see why i had so many buts, because good luck and godspeed and it needs to be done, and i agree with you 100 that we have to do it that way, but its going to be a difficult fight for something so that seems so natural to celebrate, the 250 years, and you will have people that if you are going to be patriarchal i dont know. So many of the terms go ahead. I really appreciate you having me on, and i appreciate you asking me the difficult questions because your questions are the questions of many, and i hope that as a result of our few minutes here you will no longer be a naysayer you have good answers, carly. You would be president if you had such good answers a couple years ago, and you convinced me, we have no other choice. We have no other choice. You cant just throw stones and say its not going to work. Thank you for coming on today. Thanks, joe. Thanks for having me. When we come back, we have a look at this mornings premarket movers, including nvidia. The futures right now continue to be under pressure. Nasdaq futures now down close to 100 points, about 95. Dow futures down by 85, and the s p futures off by close to 20. Squawk box will be right back. Helps investors meet their goals. Pgim investments. Shaping tomorrow today. You know whats brilliant . Boring. Think about it. Boring is the unsung catalyst for bold. What straps bold to a rocket and hurtles it into space . Boring does. Boring makes vacations happen, early retirements possible, and startups start up. Because its smart, dependable, and steady. All words you want from your bank. For nearly 160 years, pnc bank has been brilliantly boring so you can be happily fulfilled. Which is pretty unboring if you think about it. Unnecessary action hero. The nemesis. It appears that despite my sinister efforts, employees are still managing their own hr and payroll. Why would you think mere humans deserve to do their own payroll . Because their livelihoods depend on it . 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Off half a percent, around 25,000 shares of volume, and its getting a fresh 126 target price. It was at equal weight before with an 111 target. And they are talking about fewer headwinds from potential legal liabilities down the line. Joe, 3m up half a percent, and we will see if that can keep a positive momentum for the dow. It has been an underperformer as of late. Did i talk to you i was taking my kids to school. Did you see clarks putt lip out. It was not even just a lippout it started down the drain. It was all the way into the hole. It was like the earths rotation came into play. And schauffele i thought he was going to win. I played with him for two Straight Days in pebble, and he was not my partner just the story lines. I love the fact that you have Scottie Scheffler doing what he has done, and then its like the new tiger phil. Yeah, and schefflers spring, you know how his back foot slides out . I do that naturally, and i do it and almost miss the ball. He does it and its solid every single time. I am unbalanced but it works for him somehow. I would say Scottie Scheffler is a good hitting ball striker, and i am working on that tempo. Got a good mental attitude, too. Gold medal winner, and not everybody can say that. Thanks, dom. Coming up, oscar munoz on the state of airline safety. Lighter, breaking news on disney and its fight with nelson pelts, and the largest shareholder, george lucas, is backing bob erig. More on the board battle and leadership, the magic kingdom, in just a few minutes. Squawk box will be right back. Welcome back, everybody. After a series of mishaps on multiple planes in the last few weeks, United Airlines said they will launch a review of the Company Safety and procedures. Joining us, oscar munoz. We have seen a number of concerning issues come up lately, issues with the planes. Joe asked the right question yesterday, is this new, the number of incidents that are taking place or are we just much more attuned to it and able to pick it up and track it all better on social media i guess i will ask you as the former ceo, are these more instances than when happening when you were ceo . I think theres always occurrences, right . We had a very bad run with several issues and that doesnt usually happen and its unfortunate, and its all unrelated, and with boeing, and i think the company immediately acknowledged the fact if there was any concern, were going through the review process. I think things do happen. Are they happening more often than not . I dont think thats the case, and i think the company has taken the right measures to ensure safety and we all know this, safety is the most important thing we do in that industry, other than getting you there ontime. What is happening . Some of the instances, the Alaska Airlines was on the brandnew plane, and you can say thats a boeing issue, but for a boeing plane that is two, five, 10yearsold and beyond, then its a concern about Maintenance Issues . It is. For instance, some of the events, one was just getting off the tarmac. That was not a plane issue and it was a pilot issue. The wheel was the most concerning for that, and thats clearly a Maintenance Issue that has to be worked through. What happened . The investigation will certainly figure out what the issue specifically was and they will put training around that. Again, i think its still one of the safest ways to travel and what is going on is that, to your point earlier, theres a heightened interest. The boeing situation clearly magn magnified every incident, and everything that happens small or significant will be in the presss eyes and we will be here talking about it, like everybody else. Oscar, last year there were more close calls on runways than we have seen in the past. Thats documented. You can look at the number of instances, not just the videos we saw from these things, but there were more close calls on runways, and that had reviews going back and authorities look into it and saying we have to figure out what is happening here. Part of the blame was put on the idea that we have extended and expanded the number of flights. We are doing it at a time when you have newer pilots that have come through, and maybe not at the same experience level we have had in the past, and i guess the same questions can be asked about maintenance. Are we feeling the strains having gone through the pandemic where there were no flights and things got shreuplimmed back ins of the workforce, and all of the people in the businesses trying to travel at this point. Yeah, theres always kind of a cycle, right . Sure enough there was a lull and a lot of new people come into the environment, and they are all very well trained specifically on the issues of safety. The volume of flights i dont think is necessarily a factor, although obviously theres more of it. I think by and large, the Safety Training that people are doing will be, you know, supportive of keeping us safe, but at the end of the day i think were getting concerned with the issue because of the boeing situation, and that has magnified the issue, and incidents come up and it hra looks like a trend of some sort pf the maintenance folks are good at what they do, and there will be some issues that raise from time to time, and, again, i think you will see very much a decrease over time, as, for instance, united and the training they will have on this. Oscar, thank you for your time. Coming up, hollywood legend, george lucas, throwing his support behind ceo bob iger, and nelson peltz, the largest individual shareholder. Squawk box coming right back. This is realtime insights. I am here with tim tracy. We are seeing ai disrupt nearly every industry. How are you seeing it impact the way p. E. Firms invest . Private equity firms have not applied capital like they have done in the past, and they are under increasing pressure to leverage ai to make more efficient and effective decisions. How does that translate into creating value . These firms can leverage ai to evaluate the portfolios they currently have, and use Predictive Analytics around pricing of goods and services and also evaluate the Competitive Landscape for better marketing. Talk more specifically about how your clients are leveraging ai . We are working with two clients right now looking to increase their assets by 20 to 30 , and they can increase their workforce in the same amount, and it could Leverage Technology in their existing workforce. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise. Thank you. Filmmaker and hollywood legend, george lucas, is throwing his support behind disney ceo, bob iger, between the company and nelson peltz. Lucas received many shares and is currently the largest individual investor in the company. Multiple sources have confirmed that to cnbc. Barton, what do you think . This is a pretty big heavyweight coming out in support of bob iger . Sure. I think theres so many things that are just rolling in iger and the disney boards favor with peltz and other activist, and the fundamental performance has been improving, and the stock has been recovering nicely. Now kind of the cherry on top is a prominent hollywood figure and somebody core to what disney is now supporting iger in the current director slate. At this point i would be very, very surprised if peltz was successful in the proxy battle. Is this something that changes, or did you think that this really does this swing the needle that much or did you think that was the case before . I think the most important thing is the business trajectory has been approved and the stock price is reflecting that. If somebody like lucas has come out against iger, that would be a difficult situation. But thats not where we are, so i think that things are for now looking better for disney and iger and the board. The question i would have is longer term. I know that, you know, they are mainly a think park business and they have a lot of exposure to pay tv, and those difficulties, the cord cutting, thats not going away. The movie business is more difficult than it was, and while they are doing better now, if they dont sustain the activist will be back, so there may be a sequel to this story. Do you think theres a solution to be found in the cord cutting business, because thats something much bigger than just a disney problem . It is much bigger than just a disney problem. Our belief is ultimately the entertainment con tkpwhraupl runts, the stations like abc, and the fox and fx cable networks, those are businesses that are going to be declining and it might fit best within the portfolio of somebody that focuses on that, private equity or something of that ilk, and the sports businesses are going to trend towards the big platforms that have the money and Balance Sheets and Business Models that are kind of next generation, so i think its going to be difficult longterm for td conglomerates, and so splitting off with those businesses are going to be difficult, and i dont think disney is going there today, but if the activist come back there could be more focus on that in the future. I dont know if you saw this story, i just saw it earlier this morning, and its about mr. Beast who is an internet sensation signing a deal with amazon prime for a game show and the prize is 5 million, and i thought, wow. Is that the future . Totally the future. I have kids and anybody who has kids understands mr. Beast is much, much bigger than anything you are going to find on tv. Thats huge for amazon. Thats an arena where, you know, amazon can write the check and amazon can monetize it, and disney is not there today. More of that in the future, and thats what disney is swimming against if it wants to compete in this type of venue. All right. Thanks a lot for joining us. Great, thank you. Coming up, the university of tennessee could be changing the business of College Athletics across the country. We will hear from that states attorney general, next. Te satlar,enor dan sullivan sounds off on President Bidens lng pause. Squawk box will be right back. Theyre waiting for you. Hey, do you have a second . Theyre all expecting more. More efficiency. More benefits. More growth. When you realize you can give your people everything, and more. Thank you very much. [applause] ask, now what . Heres what. You go with prudential to protect, empower and grow. With everything you need to deliver, you guessed it. More. One more thing. Whos your rock . Learn more at prudential. Com business. Whos your rock . Its not a ninetofive proposition. Its all day and into the night. Its all the things that keep this world turning. The gotos that keep us going. The places we cheer. And check in. They all choose the advanced Network Solutions and round the clock partnership from comcast business. See why comcast business powers more Small Businesses than anyone else. Get started for 49. 99 a month plus ask how to get up to an 800 prepaid card. Dont wait call today. Of. Our next guest is taking on the ncaa, suing over its rules on student athletes financially benefiting from their name, image, and likeness, or nil. Lets welcome tennessee attorney general, jonathan skermeti. Tennessee and virginia both filed suit in january against the ncaa saying their nil rules are anticompetitive and a violation of principal antitrust law, a federal court has granted a preliminary injunction in the c case. Thanks for joining us. Both sides, mr. Attorney general, are digging in, it seems. And i dont know how this flo finally plays out. The amount of money were talking about, i think is 17 billion. Wouldnt exist without the players. Thats exactly right. But it funds all the other sports at the school. We have to think about all the ramifications, but make your case. Sure, the bottom line is, we wouldnt have College Sports would college tlathletes. Theres enormous money involved in this and everybody else involved is getting rich. But these kids, most of whom are not going to go on to play professionally are putting their bodies on the line, theyre working hard, providing incredible value and not getting anywhere near the return on that that they should, given their contribution. The money is there, people are willing to pay them, and we have this archaic set of rules that has disadvantaged the kids and really distorted the way College Sports work. Do you think what happened at dartmouth or pending at usc, perhaps, will there be how will the courts decide on unionization for College Athletes . Well, i dont love the chances of any Administrative Law decisions that get made under the current administration, especially in the labor context, so legally, i dont know where theyre going to go, but i think because the value involved varies so widely from conference to conference and schooltoschool, and sport to sport, that unionization is not the cleanest way to do this. You know, i think its going to create a lot of obstacles to the schools continuing to provide the spectrum of athletics that they currently do. Given all of the interested parties and constituencies, in your view, how should we do this . Well, i mean, the immediate goal is to get the lawyers out of it and let the people who understand athletics get back in the drivers seat, and that means not being engaged in anticompetitive conduct. I think nil is great, because it doesnt necessarily involve the schools. You can have these external collectives. Theres no title9 implications from it. Its really just the value that the players have as marketing forces and so, youre able to respond to the fact that some players are more popular than others. Some players have better name recognition than others. You can reward the ones that are really out there without radically reinventing a system and creating a whole new set of burdensome rules within each universitys athletics department. So what did the ncaa tell the university of tennessee . What happened there . There was recruiting, or whats the crux of this issue that youre dealing with . So the outline of it was, there was an alleged recruiting violation. There was never a notice of allegations presented to the university. Our lawsuit went in shortly after the rumor broke that this was coming. But i think the idea is that there was some sort of collusion between the nil collective and the university, you know, the problem with the ncaa is the rules are so micromanagy that one little inadvertent conversation can carry incredible consequences for a program, it can really hurt kids, who havent done anything wrong. And the arbitrariness of enforcement just deprived the institution of legitimacy. I mean, ive never been as popular as when i went up against the ncaa. Do you think ncaa has a future . Because i have heard people raise questions about that . I think its hard to imagine that for a bowling team or a rifle team, that theres a lot of competition, that the conferences want to take that over. I think with respect to football and basketball and baseball, its a real question. I mean, there may be a future for the ncaa, but you can really envision a more conferenceoriented future, especially given the amount of money involved, that seems like the schools might be interested in directing more of that into places they have tighter control. Oh, man. Were going to be talking about this for years to come, i think, mr. Attorney general. What do you think university of tennessee really wants to happen for all of this . Its very lucrative for colleges, isnt it . The no to not compensate the athletes. I mean, its lucrative in the short run, but the athletes deserve it. Theyre providing incredible value. You go to the stadium, it is rocketing. Every home game contributes hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the east tennessee economy. I think the school wants fair, clear rules that are enforced in a reasonable way. They are not looking to host the students. Theyre looking to provide a foundation for College Athletics that brings the university together. That keeps the alums interested and engaged in the university, that contributes to the community. But they dont need this enforcer out there just playing whackamole, picking winners and losers and imposing incredible penalties on them. I think thats what the problem was that drove all of this. And university volunteers, you think elite 8 . Sweet 16 . Do you have any im trying to fill out a bracket. And ive bet on them and won before, but then ive lost pretty badly a couple of times. How do you know on any given night . Do you have a way i can you know go ahead. Theyre a special team, they had a rough, rough go against Mississippi State, but i hope that puts a chip on their shoulder, i would get them at least to the elite 8. You saw what happened with houston, a crappy team they werent crappy, but just on any given night, thats why they play the game, i think. Its the beauty of the tournament. All right. I might not fill out a bracket this year, im so lost. Mr. Attorney general, is that legal . Am i in trouble for i dont want to get involved. I dont want to ask you. Just, thank you. Good to have you on today. Thank you, have a great morning. You too. Still to come, we have much more on nvidias latest ai chip. That stock right now looks like it is down in the premarket, down by about 1. 8 . And alaska senator dan sullivan will join us live from the energy week in houston. Squawk box will be right back. Lets check it out. Says here it gets plenty of light. And this must be the ocean view . Of aruba . Huh. This listing is misleading. Well, when at t says we give businesses get our best deal, on the iphone 15 pro made with titanium. We mean it. Amazing. All my agents want it. Says here. inviting pool. Come on over too inviting. Only at t gives businesses our best deals on any iphone. Get iphone 15 pro on us. you know doug, ever since switching to workday youve been a real rock star. Rock star . What do you know about rock stars . Billy idol . I mean wheres the skintight leather . My shoes are leather. Wheres the unnecessary zippers . That thing billy, rock star is just how doug feels when he uses workday. Thanks, rory. Ill show you rock star be a finance and hr rock star. Workday. For a changing world. Billy idol just stole your golf cart this is our future, ma. Godaddy airo. Creates a logo, website, even social posts. In minutes how . A. I. impressed ay i like it who wants to come see the future . get your Business Online in minutes with godaddy airo good morning. The fed goes to work, central bankers ready to kick off their latest ratesetting meeting. Meanwhile, nvidia dazzles the tech world with its ai technology. What could the companys new chip mean for the rest of the magnificent seven . And the shareholder strikes back. Hollywood legend george lucas throwing his considerable support behind bob iger and disney in its fight against nelson peltz. The final hour of squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to squawk box right here on cnbc. Were live from the Nasdaq Market site in times square. Im becky quick along with joe kernan. Andrew is off today. Its 8 00. Were getting closer to the opening bell, just about an hour and a half away. And we have seen the futures in the red all morning long. Dow futures right now off by close to 75. Nasdaq down by just over 100 points. The s p futures down by 20. This is happening as we keep an eye on treasury yields, as well, and right now, it looks like the tenyear, the tenyear yield still at about 431. Twoyear is at 471. And of course, weve got a lot happening this week for those markets. I knew what i was remembering was that houston just got blown out. They lost by 30 points. I couldnt remember who it was that beat them, but i did not mean to imply iowa state was not good. It was iowa state. And theyve been peaking. And theyre a number two seed. And im thinking about taking them deep into the tournament. I cant remember who does some of the upsets. It was Mississippi State beat tennessee, as he just said, and theyre not crappy either. Theyre all fantastic. But to have houston to have houston blown out by 30 points, when theyre, i think, number one. Liesman, i dont know if youre watching. The fed kicking off a meeting today. I dont think liesman does brackets, does he . Hes busy. Hes got a lot of other hoibbie we dont want to go into. Fishing. A press statement is scheduled for tomorrow. Senior economics reporter Steve Liesman joins us now with the latest installment. Is that today . The cnbc fed survey . Really . Yeah, yeah. No one told me. No one told me. Would you tell me when my bracket would be due if i were to do one . You can press cant you just press the thing, becky, to have all the top seeds picked if you want. Ive done brackets in the past, they have not been pretty. But you know what is pretty . The results of the cnbc fed survey, suggesting a year with a little bit more growth, a greater chance of a soft landing, but maybe somewhat less easing from the fed. Here are the feds expectations from the survey. 100 see no cut in march, 100 see no cutin may. 59 have seen that first cut in june of 2024. 52 see a soft landing. Thats the first time weve been over 50 and up from 47 in january. 460, as the year of the 2020 funds rate. And january 2025 is is when the fed will end quantitative tightening up from november in the past survey. A little bit later than previously forecast. Forecasters have settled into an outlook for cuts. Every other meeting, you can see that in the graph, starting in june. Percentage goes up, down, up, down. Thats how they fit three in with that 75 in december would be the last cut. Maybe thats powell skirting around the election right there. There was concern, especially in the survey, that fed officials at this meeting could forecast just two cuts in their new projections, thats compared with three in the feds december outlook. Guy lebast, can said the last two months of slightly evaluated inflation readings have slammed the door on rate cuts at the moment. There is a high probability the dot plot will include two rate cuts in 2024. The qt timeline, it was lengthened, august 2024, is when the fed is expected to announce it will be done reducing its bleat. January 2025 is when it will end it. And it will bring it down by about 1 trillion on the balance sheet, or total, and Bank Reserves would come down by about 700 billion to 2. 9 trillion. Thats the expectation in the market right now. Risk overall seemed balance. The fed will cut too late, 50 are most worried about that. The fed cutting too soon, 46 worried about that. And those results kind of echo what fed chairman powell has been saying and probably is going to say tomorrow about the risk being balanced between the inflation and the employment. The question for equity markets, joe, in the months ahead, just one of the questions, obviously. If inflation remains high, is better growth a good enough offset for what may be less fed easing than previously thought . Yeah, i dont know why it took us so long to maybe question the linkage between growth and inflation steve. Because now we talk about it all the time. It would be great, it would be a Perfect World if you have good growth and it didnt spur inflation. And i dont think, its like the night and day, one doesnt always follow the other. We just think a Strong Economy means people can ask for more money, i guess. I think thats right relative to the slack in the economy. It is fair, though, to kind of talk about last year, it didnt work so well. This year, maybe its going to be a little bit more in line with ooeach other. If youre going to have this strong growth, you may not have the progress you previously had on inflation. And something that was wrong last year could end up being right this year. And i think that economists need to be humble, and anybody predicting the future, okay, so the postpandemic connection of the two was really rather tentative, but this year, i dont know. Maybe that connection comes back. If we can have stagflation, that just proves it, right . If we can have high inflation and a recession at the same time, that just pruoves, its nt necessarily just a Strong Economy that causes inflation. It is interesting, joe. And if you read this online, if you get a second between the brackets and stuff, that the i dont think so. That the amount of growth thats predicted is theyre not predicting this big slowdown anymore. Every quarter they had predicted one that didnt have a one in front of it in terms of gdp growth. Theyre much more optimistic. Theyre not falling into the trap of, theres going to be a recession around the corner. They backed away from that, and the growth is below potential is really very modest now, which is really good news. Thanks, steve. Sure. Ill look, promise. Joining us right now is ellen accid zentner. I think what steve just described might describe your viewpoint on some of these things, inflation looks a little bit worse, but you dont things have drastically changed for the fed. I dont think so at all. First thing, were all on pins and needles going into this meeting. I do brackets and its called the dot plot for the fed. This feels like march madness for economists. We go into this meeting and forget that we got great news on the labor market, where you had this concern you were going to have this runaway jobs gains, and we evened that out. And you get into the inflation data, and if you dig into it for exactly what the fed is focused on, there was a very big reversal in Core Services ex housing after january. So does it answer the question definitively that this reinflation is temporary, no, but it doesnt tell you that youre wrong yet on the refl reinflation and acceleration being temporary. I think that this is going to be a meeting that theres much less fanfare about, at the end of the day. When the dust settles. I think we trim the low dots, trim the high dots, we bring the committee closer together, but we still end up with a threecut median. So you dont think the two cuts even roger ferguson, we spoke with yesterday, the former vice chair of the fed, said hes even penciling fin two cuts for this year. Its a close call. When you only have two people that need to move and to move the median higher. And i think that the market could take signal from the fact that even just getting a better balance between two and three, even if the median stays at three, that will tell the markets, well, theyre kind of moving in that direction of less. But i dont think theres anything definitive going into this meeting. And for the fed, youvt a lifetime to deliver three cuts. It feels like a whole year of data has happened and its only march. So they have a long time to deliver those. And they dont need to think, oh, my gosh, my forecast is completely wrong. The dots are going todepend on how those forecasts change. We think growth comes up, and we think Inflation Forecasts stay the same. So talk about supply side of the economy, this is another great story this year. Weve been out in front of this immigration story, because it explains, it goes far in explaining why you had such fast growth last year with decelerating inflation. Youve got very strong immigration numbers this year as well. Which is running a little bit ahead of last year. And the supply in the labor market is incredible. This is how you get slower wage growth, strong job gains, further deceleration and inflation. One thing you are a little concerned about, though, is that political strife and outcomes have really risen on the consumers mind. I think you pointed out, theres a vary that showed that it was number two, only behind inflation. Yeah, yeah. And, you could say, is that typical of an Election Year . Yeah, but not always. And so when i think about, you know, what are risks to the economy this year, from a domestic perspective, weve got an election coming up, that could be another close one, economists dont like it when half of the country disappointed on the day after the election. You want it to be a landslide in one direction. The majority of the country is happy with the outcome. And i go back to bush gore in 2000 when it took so long to know who was going to be president. I dont want that to happen this time. It could lead to people stop spending . They did stop spending then. Yeah. Ellen, want to thank you for coming in. Thanks. Good talking to you. Coming up, alaska senator dan sullivan joins us to talk energy, specifically why hes mistti or id e ben adniraonvethat key decision that it made on natural gas, were coming right back. And theres not a no look pass, double double, or buzzer beater he wont wax poetic on. Ad nauseam. But oh how he can nail a Software Solution like the best high screen pick and roll youve ever seen. You need ron. Ron needs a retirement plan. Work with principal so we can help you help ron with a retirement and benefits plan thats right for him. Let our expertise round out yours. Oh, its cold outside. Time to protect your vehicle from winters wrath. Of course, the hot sun can be tough on vehicles too. You need weathertech. Laser measured floorliners and cargo liner will shield the carpeting from sand and snow. 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Our next guest is set to speak at the ceraweek Energy Conference in houston today and is planning to deliver a letter to President Bidens climate czar, criticizing the white houses decision to temporarily freeze new liquid natural gas export approvals. Joining us now alaska republican senator, dan sullivan. Its not john kerry anymore, senator. Who is it now . I dont even know who you know what, dont even thats the by the way, good morning to you. Podesto. Yeah, and hes supposed to be confirmed by the senate. We passed a law that said any czars have to go through senate confirmation. I think podesta is ignoring that, but thats a whole another story. You need a new name. Thats from a country that were not very happy with right now. Exactly, exactly. Actually, with the way some of them act, maybe that is a good name. What was so figure it out for me. What ive been told, the bottom line is a pause doesnt hurt the industry that much, and it allows and we know what it is. Its silly season. We know exactly why the Biden Administration did it, because they can throw a bone to the climate lobby and maybe shore up some of those votes for november. Youre 100 right. And this is once again the far left wing of the Democratic Party driving American Energy security and American National security policy. And thats the huge mistake. You know, i was over in munich recently for this munich security conference, coled a delegation of 12 u. S. Senators. And i will tell you, our allies in europe, the germans, so many others, were apoplectic about this pause. The idea that somehow this is not going to harm our interests is completely wrong. Ill give you a really strong example. Almost on cue, after this pause was announced, russia, qatar, iran were saying, hey, we will offer longterm lng contracts to americas allies, so this notion that somehow its not hurting our National Security is wrong. The deputy secretary of energy testified a couple of weeks ago, hey, our allies were, quote, fine with the pause. Our allies in europe, our allies in asia, are not fine at all. And it undermines our National Security at a very dangerous time on one of the most important strengths we have in america, relative to the dictatorships who are on the march. And thats American Energy. And youre 100 right, joe. They have done this for domestic politics and election politics, but not National Security or energy security. I dont even think that you can point to the rationale. If you had to ask john podesta what was the rationale for this, would he sit i think its just leaving fossil fuels in the ground. Isnt that even though natural gas is probably the cleanest way to do it. Even though if you dont use natural gas in some of these countries, theyre just going to have to use coal. So really, its not even logically consistent with what youre trying to but wlahat it . Just a kneejerk, lng is a fossil fuel, is that really the rationale . That is the rationale. When the president announced this pause, he said, were doing this to, quote, address the climate crisis, the existential threat of our time. I actually think dictators on the march like xi jinping and putin is a much bigger threat of our time. But heres an important issue. Even if thats what theyre talking about, climate, look at this chart. I like to bring this chart. I dont know if your viewers can see this chart. It shows from 2005 to 2020, the United States, by far, right here, we are the leader in Emission Reductions by far of any major economy in the world, and you see china and india at the other end of this chart, right here. Their emissions are going through the roof. Why are we the leader . We are the leader because of the revolution in the production of natural gas. So even if its that, if their concern is about emissions, stopping the export of clean burning american lng to our allies in europe and asia will harm global emissions. That is a fact. So even their rationale that they state is completely wrong. This is, again, thrown a bone to the far left during an election season. Thats the soul reason they did it. They might still say that they should keep it here or it shouldnt be exported. Theyll throw in some economic reasons, as well. But we know that energy is a Global Market and, you know, we export, we import, we export, oil goes out, it comes in. Luckily, were now exporting a lot of, you know, able to export a lot of fossil fuels since were the biggest producer again, which is in spite of, i think, a lot of what the administration has done. Its because of price. If you get to 80 a barrel, producers are going to produce. Thats all it is, its in spite of. Ill make one final point with regard to our allies. Like i mentioned, when i was in germany for the munich security conference, we met with the chancellor of german, the foreign minister of germany. You know, two years ago, 50 of germanys Industrial Base in terms of energy, power generation, came from russian gas. 50 , and within two years, they completely got off russian gas, which most people didnt think that they could do, and they did that because of american lng. And so now these countries are saying, wait a minute, you have helped us, america, but at our time of need, youre now going to cut us off. And as you know, in this business, you need longterm certainty. And this is the exact opposite of longterm certainty. We are once again driving our allies into the arms of adversaries like russia, iran, qatar. Its a huge mistake. Yeah. You did not meet with helmet cole, i assume. Strike that. Strike that. Strike that remark, senator. Strike that. I think i said the chancellor, we met with the chancellor schultz. Okay, the other guy is dead. Still dead. Unfortunately, and with regards to his family and everything, have it back in 2017, i think. But thank you, senator. Good to have you on this morning. Thanks, joe. Okay. When we come back, were going to take you live to the center of the tech world this week. Nvidias ai extravagantza in california. Weve got some updates on new vaesuct announcements and chip adnc. That is when squawk box returns. Next. Stop. We got it . No. Keep going. Aga. [ sigh ] next. Next. If you dont pick one. Oh, you have time. Am i keeping you from your job. Next. I dont even know where i am anymore. Stop. Do we finally have it . Lets go back to the beginning. Are you. Your electric future. Customized. The fullyelectric audi q4 etron. Remember when i said we need to screen for colon cancer . Was that after i texted the age to screen was now 45 . [both] because i said cologuard® hey there where did he come from . Yup, with me you can screen at home. Just talk to your provider. [both] well screen with cologuard and do it my way. Cologuard is a oneofakind way to screen for colon cancer thats effective and noninvasive. Its for people 45 at average risk, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your provider for me, cologuard. Nvidia rolling out what it sees as the next era of ai commuting. Kristina partsinevelos is live at the companys tech conference in san jose. Kristina, what can you tell us . Bigger is better in the ai world. Nvidias ceo jenison wong telling an audience of 16,000 people yesterday, including celebrities from george lucas to Kendrick Lamar that graphic processing units used to power ai systems need to be bigger. That comes in the form of nvidias next generation ai platform called blackwell, named after math pioneer. The new blackwell b200 chip will provide more training performance, more inferencing power with improved power efficiency when compared to the previous generation. For example, the h100 that we often talk about. These new chips will be manufactured by tsmc and are supposedly set to launch later this year, but we didnt get an exact day. Aws, google, glad, microsoft, azure, oracle, cloud, all customers who have signed up for this new platform and new chip, but at the same time are racing to build their own inhouse chips. On the software front, nvidias enterprise ari offering is a Software Subscription designed to help Companies Deploy ai models with their gpu. It should cost roughly 4,500 per gpu, per year. Its not going to be cheap, but does provide a reoccurring source of revenue for nvidia and makes switching cost as a lot higher. Nvidia wants to be your onestop shop. Stock reacting down 2 this morning and saw a selloff just post the event. Much of this news was somewhat priced into stock. The stock has been up about 82 in the last two months. There were no specifics around the chip pricing, margin impact, or even the supply chain. So those are some factors as to maybe why youre seeing the sell the news kind of event. Jim cramer, theyre setting up all the way down behind me, will have a sitdown with jenison wong today on squawk on the street as well as mad money tonight and tomorrow. Becky . Kristina, i guess that big issue, though, the idea of them becoming much more than just a chip company, adding software to the mix. Thats a pretty big transition, potentially. Yeah, so theyve always had Software Part of the mix, but now its just a different steps, layers, so that youre not only using their cuda Developer Software program, but their ethernet cables, their cpus and gpus. So its the entire ecosystem. And an opportunity for customers to stay put makes it a little more difficult for others and it puts them in that higher up spot in the moment. The stock is still up really high, mentioning the 2 drop, its really climbed astronomically. Folks, we have breaking Economic Data and it will be with us right after this break. At pgim, finding opportunity in fixed income today, helps secure tomorrow. Our timetested fixed income suite, backed by over 145 years of risk experience, helps investors meet their goals. Pgim investments. Shaping tomorrow today. Steve liesman is back with breaking housing data. Hey, steve. Hey, joe. Nice beat on the housing starts, up 1. 5 million in the month of 1. 252 million, in the month of february, against a forecast of 1. 43. It looks like january, maybe plus or minus a little bit, but it was 1. 3 million. I really think this is showing you that what happened in january was in part over the whole economy that you had some severe weather, that hurt especially in the housing market, but other areas, as well, so things came back smartly in january. Permits up as well, 1. 518 million for a gain of 1. 9 . And Single Family starts, a lot of action there, 1. 1 multiple, 392,000. Ill leave it there, joe, other than to say this is a good report, down in the northeast, though, down in the west, but up in the midwest and the south, in terms of the regional breakdown, but this does seem to be a bit of a snapback from the january perhaps weatherrelated do downturn. Maybe a little bit of help from Mortgage Rates, well ask diana about that in a second. But i am interested to know whether or not this is something the broader economy will follow along with. Okay, good. Hes with us right now, diana olick joins us now with more. What about it, diana . Well, joe, i think its like steve said. This is a really nice bounce back in february. We did have weatherrelated issues, and i think thats why you saw northeast and parts of the west have a difficult time with the starts there, are seasonally adjusted. What i will say, the singlefamily starts, which is what were really watching, thats where we have the supply problem, they were up nearly 12 monthtomonth on starts, up and 35 year over year. Multifamily, were not looking for so much more construction, because we already have an oversupply of that. But when you talk about the Mortgage Rates, which steve was bringing up, Mortgage Rates did pop up a bit in february, off of their lows that we saw in december and january. We were back up around 7 in february. But when you talk to the builders, talk to lennar, talk to, you know, any of them who have reported recent earnings and have seen what theyre seeing now, thats theyre buying down the Mortgage Rates into the 5 range, so theyre able to get buyers in the door. Theyre also saying there continues to be very strong demand. We saw that in the Builder Sentiment number, which jumped back into positive territory in march. That was the first time that happened since july. The builders are reporting that they are seeing more buyer traffic, theyre getting more contracts, and they say that demand was, quote, brisk. Its just a question of, can you get the buyers in a rate that was acceptable and affordable to them. Apparently the builders are able to do that when they buy them down to that 5 rate. Youre seeing that in the starts. We have a Spring Market now starting on the existing side, and still very little supply on the affordable sides, for existing homes. And the builders are benefiting from that. Joe . Okay, great thanks, diana. Our next guest is here to weigh in on the recent blockbuster legal settlement by the National Association of realtors. If approved by a federal court, that deal would eliminate the Industry Standard 6 sales commission, and put money back in the pockets of home sellers. Joining us is the ceo of sirhan. Lets just talk about that. I am so confused by everything ive read around that, what this means. Youve probably sent a lot more time trying to analyze it. Whats trying to happen here . It can be very confusing. The lawsuit alleges that the National Coalition of rulers and what the settlement does is that it really acknowledges that the traditional brokage model has to change, and i think, listen, i think we all agree that there should be that free market conversation around compensation. And so, what will happen, starting this summer, nothing changes for right now. Around the country. But what will happen starting this summer is that buyers and buyers agents, if they elect to use one and sellers and Sellers Agents should they elect to use one, because youre not obligated to use a Real Estate Agent in the United States, and youre not obligated to pay 6 , 10 , or 1 . Those fees are what the market has commanded for decades. Its kind of standard. And its standard because people dont buy homes every day. So by the time you figure out whats happening, you get to the other side of this. Look, i think there are times when ive absolutely needed a broker. Other times where i have not. And its not easy to figure out or to negotiate. If everybody thinks that this is the way it should be done, why did it take a lawsuit to get us there . Oh, i am all for market transparency. And what frustrates me the most, just kind of to what youre saying right now, is that the told guard in this business has spent so much time, so much money on lawsuits, just like that defending where theyve been, instead of trying to build to where were going. I think what happens now is new Business Models. I think theres new opportunity what do those models look like . What happens . I think theres going to be greater versatility in how you work with your agents. And whats interesting for me is if you look at over the past ten years, regardless of this lawsuit, all of the new technology, Artificial Intelligence, websites, ibuying, zilzillow, et cetera, humans buying and selling homes have elected to use realtors more because its so complicated. Part of it its in a the tight market, if youre in a tight market right now tricyingo find a house, by the time its on zil low, its gone. You absolutely need a broker in a tight market where houses are moving quickly. You need a broker if youre moving to an area youre unfamiliar with. You need a broker if youre a firsttime home buyer and dont know the risks ssociated, you dont know your rights, you dont know what you can and cant ask for along those lines. Correct. And what youll have now is Greater Transparency, which im a massive, massive proponent for. Its one of the reasons why i start mid own company. I looked around at what my competition was and a place that i could go as a realtor myself and i couldnt find the transparency that i wanted. And i think Real Estate Agents are paid in a correlation with their value that they provide to their customer. And thats what youll see more of going forward. If a buyer wants to use a buyers agent, there is going to be Greater Transparency. Meaning what . The buyer says to the agent, okay, ill take you on as my agent, you can show me places, but im only going to pay you x percent or ill pay you a flat fee . Or if you get me a house in this amount of time, you can get this percent versus if you dont need any of these things, im not going to pay that same level. I think it remains to be seen how this is going to shape out in the open marketplace. These new rules arent going to go into effect float least unti over the summer. My only hesitation, i could have done that before, if i was aggressive enough with a broker. Heres what im willing to pay and this is how this is going to work. There is no obligation to use a Real Estate Agent in the United States. Ive bought places with and without them. Of course. In new york city, everythings a bit different, because were not members of the National Association of realtors in new york city, and there is no mls in new york city. I dont get the sense that its better in new york city. Well, new york city is remember, too that using a great salesperson, Great Service, is expensive, bad Service Costs you a fortune. And so we see thimime and time again. Discount brokages have existed for a long time. You could sell your own home by yourself. Someone just listed their own home in soho, 35 million, for sale by owner. They could use an agent. Maybe theyll sell, maybe they wont sell. But i think Greater Transparency is important to bring our Industry Forward and im for it. Im thrown back to my brokage days. Would a thousand shares be good or would 2,000 be better for you . I understand how you feel. Many of my clients have felt that way in the past, but theyve found, you got it all down, man. You do. Was this like a Dale Carnegie type thing. No, no. Tell me again about the Great Service, bad service actually costs you in the long run, so you should pay more fees up front. Is that what you said . No, no. I think anytime youre electing to use someone to help you, an attorney or a Real Estate Agent it should cost more. I think Great Service can cost more. I think bad service will cost you more in the long run. In the long run. Absolutely. If you make a mistake or if you buy a home in a new market that youre unfamiliar with and you buy in an area, that, oh, shoot, i shouldnt have bought there, i didnt have great advice, i didnt have Great Service, you know, but i think Greater Transparency in the Market Going Forward is exactly what the markets have called for. And like i said earlier, i think everyone is on the same page that compensation should be a free market conversation and thats what youre going to have. I said yesterday that if you dont have those little yellow things everywhere i need to sign, i cant close on a house. So i will if im selling, im using you. If im buying, im using you. If im thinking about selling, im using you. So, you dont need to sell me. You didnt need any of that other stuff. Do you like the little yellow yeah, it makes things have you tried to close in a different city from where youre buying . Uh you are totally dependent on i mean, you need notaries. Its complicated. I couldnt forget it, i couldnt possibly do it. So, you got me for 6 . I wont even squeal. Okay. Listen, home prices, right, home prices are defined by three things, and its not its supply and demand and Interest Rates. I thought you were going to say, location, location, location. Thats part of it. Look outside. Number one, number two and three is repeat number one. I like you better in this seat than maybe when you were a broker. Its supply, demand, and interstates more so than anything else. And we do have a fed decision this week. Ryan, thank you for coming in. Appreciate it. Coming up, the fed kicks off on its latest ratesetting meeting today. Ill give you some more on the break. I have some really good ones for you. After the break, economist judy shelton will join us to talk about the Biggest Challenges is facing the central bank right now. Squawk box will be right back. Stevens dribbles up the court. He stops . For the championship nice shot, marcus sweet, turn simulation off. Tssk, tssk, not so fast. What, why . Did you forget marcus . Forget what . Your chem exam . Uggh . Flashcard time the atomic weight of boron. The future isnt scary, not investing in it is. 100 innovative companies, one etf. Before investing, carefully read and consider Fund Investment objectives, risks, charges expenses and more in prospectus at invesco. Com. Glp1 drugs used in weight loss treatments stand out as the biggest global blockbuster, but these treatments require cumbersome injections. With lexarias patented oral delivery technology, early studies suggest a better way. Rylee from rylees realty hi this listing sounds incredible. Lets check it out. Says here it gets plenty of light. And this must be the ocean view . Of aruba . Huh. This listing is misleading. Well, when at t says we give businesses get our best deal, on the iphone 15 pro made with titanium. We mean it. Amazing. All my agents want it. Says here. inviting pool. Come on over too inviting. Only at t gives businesses our best deals on any iphone. Get iphone 15 pro on us. you know doug, ever since switching to workday youve been a real rock star. Rock star . What do you know about rock stars . Billy idol . I mean wheres the skintight leather . My shoes are leather. Wheres the unnecessary zippers . That thing billy, rock star is just how doug feels when he uses workday. Thanks, rory. Ill show you rock star be a finance and hr rock star. Workday. For a changing world. Billy idol just stole your golf cart news this morning, legendary filmmaker george lucas is throwing his support behind disney ceo, bob iger in the companys proxy battle with nelson peltz. Multiple sources confirming to cnbc, lucas is the largest individual investor in disney. And a statement to cnbc lucas said that he voted all of his shares for disneys 12 directors, and urges other investors to do the same. For his part, peltz has been looking to replace two directors on disneys board with himself and the former cfo, jay rasula. Nvidia shares falling this morning, despite yesterdays ai announcements. But the stock is still up 75 this year. Joining us now for a technical look at nvidia and some other key tech stocks, mark newton, fund strat, global head of technical strategy. I would ask you about nvidia just not being that expensive, therefore, is it positive. I guess that doesnt say much about the charts. What do the charts specifically say about nvidia at this point, mark . Joe, its been very difficult to use either technicals or fundamentals to try to fight this stock, based on reasons of either overvaluation or being overbought. The stock continues to really, you know, as we well know, its been trading at a very parabolic uptrend, has risen, i think, 15 out of the last 18 weeks. And certainly, until you see at least some evidence of this trying to roll over, its going to be very difficult to fight this. I still think that this is going to push higher over the next month. You know, at some point, we will get some evidence or a consolidation, but you know, attempting to try to pick a top on something that has such momentum, really quitedifferent and difficult. I would suggest that really the last few weeks of sort of churning is not all that bearish. A lot of these times, the stocks and or the market can move sideways before pushing higher yet again. Does the law of large numbers, and i guess people have different interpretations of what that actually means, but, does that ever factor into your thinking, even when youre looking at charts that i mean, if something has gone up as much as nvidia, it just seems like the overhead resistance is going to get tougher as time goes on. I dont necessarily disagree with that. I think that a lot of stocks, you know, will be to their Company Benefit to consider stock splits, and that will raise investor interest and having people, you know, have the ability to be able to purchase things that want to be able to buy shares, but at some point, the company is going to be able to not continue to beat and raise to the extent that they have. But when you look at even valuation, its quite compelling at a 2. 9 free cash flow, you know, versus the s p, which is about a 3. 6. Thats really the best valuation weve seen in the last couple of years on a forwardlooking basis. And so that might seem odd given the runup, but the Company Continues to do well. You know, technically, its in great shape. You know, ill simply wait until we see evidence of at least the stock making new multiweek lo s and or a monthly low before saying, its time to move to the sidelines. The story continues to impress, you know, weve managed to exceed expectations wildly. They still have over 90 market share, and really, the only thing thats limiting nvidia is really the supply constraints. These people on the sidelines, and theyre not sure if they want to move because of the b100 or stay really where they are. But my thinking is, you know, wherever anybody is sort of caught offguard like this, and we havent had time to catch up, you know, as the saying goes, sometimes when the horse runs out of the barn, you have to go and catch it. If it doesnt come back. And so, you know, this story very similar in that regard. Thats a good one. Thats like after, you know, when its already left the barn is the one we normally lose. But thats right. In other words, you know, if you remember, the infamous, i keep buying. I dont think the selling will come around for quite a while. We can go with that as well, if you like. Did you hear that . He just did a caddyshack. The guy is soaking wet and goes, i can play, i dont think theres a glow. Theres an nvidia ai glow, everywhere in the markets, isnt there right now . Thats part of the firm tone for the nasdaq, right . Youre 100 correct. Any company that even affiliates itself with ai in any capacity certainly has attracted investor interest. I think this is a, you know, secular wave that really is going to be very difficult fight. So if you cant beat em, join em. I think that really any sort of pullback that we do get, and there is a possibility from really april into may, that aligns with a lot of my cyclical composite projections, but i sense that its still, you know, premature to try to fight trends based on, you know as we talked about, being overbought or having a large price alone. All right, mark. Thanks. Do you want to finish with the quote after that . Do you remember what the reverend said when he threw his club up in the air . Rat farts. Thats right, rat farts. I hope we can say that. I hope so, i was going to say it if you didnt. Thank you. I wasnt expecting that. You seem very serious. Thank you. When we come back, economist and author judy shelton will talk with us as central bankers get set to meet. The futures this morning still in the red. Nasdaq futures down by about 105 points. S p down by 15. The dow off by close to 30. L rht back. Youre watching squawk box. This is cnbc. Were watching the shares of unilever. The Company Announced plans to split off its ice cream unit that ice cream unit includes ben jerrys as well as magnum. Its part of a Restructuring Plan that the company says will impact about 7,500 primarily officebased jobs globally. Unilever says the overhaul is going to allow it to become a simpler, more focused company. Four distinct divisions will remain. Beauty and wellbeing. Personal care, home care and nutrition. The fed is kicking off its latest policy meeting. Our next guest has a new wall street journal oped entitled dont credit the fed for inflations decline. Joining us on the phone, judy shelton, senior fellow at the independent institute. Judy, lets say we dont give credit to the fed. Is it just the end of supply chain issues and it was transitory all along . Is that your point . My point is that if the fed is going to talk now about possibly cutting rates, theyre going to have to disavow their model, because the economy has grown, unemployment has stayed down in spite of what the fed was expecting to happen by raising Interest Rates so fast. I think the model does not adequately take into consideration the impact of people working and the impact of Economic Growth. Neither of those two things are inherently inflationary. If anything, what the fed is doing is hurting supply by affecting Business Investment with high rates and theyre contributing to the fiscal excess which is the real villain behind inflation by increasing Government Debt financing costs. I dont know when the fed is not kind of between a rock and a hard place, judy. Its tough. I dont know what do you think if former President Trump were to be reelected, what did you think of the possible candidates. The three that were mentioned with a search conducted by art laffer was art laffer himself and i think our friend kevin has set or the other kevin, kevin warsh . I dont know if that makes me an Honorable Mention or and also rand, being in the top five considered, ill take those odds. I would say that i have tremendous respect for art laffer. Hes really an iconic figure for me because he was the intellectual fire power together with Robert Mendel as the macroeconomicist that supported the reagan supply side pro growth economic agenda which proved very successful. I think Kevin Hassett did an excellent job heading up the council of economic advisers and continues to be an effective advocate for the kind of progrowth policies i support. I dont know kevin warsh well, but he came up from morgan stanley, in mergers and acquisitions. That might come in very handy at the fed. It has in the past. He advises some pretty smart people in the Investment Community with what were currently doing as well. Hes definitely the most handsome of the three, becky. Wouldnt you . I dont know what youre talking about. Art laffer is fine, and kevin is fine himself. Judy, what do you think art laffer, since you do admire him and know how he thinks, what would he be doing right now . What would he be urging fed chair jay powell to do at this point in time . Well, if you boil down the supply side formula, it is stable money and low taxes. I think he, as i would, and i dont mean to speak for art. I think the problem is the constant ratcheting up and ratcheting down. I would have started a bit earlier after we saw inflation in july of 2021 instead of waiting until march of 2022 for liftoff. But by december, 2022, when they got to 4. 25 to 4. 5, i would have stopped. I w at that point youve normized. At 4. 5 its reasonable. Thats when the fed should quit micromanaging. It should let markets and price signaling sort out how to reconcile demand and supply for loanable funds. I think the fed is too activist. Its the egocentric predicament. They think they have to be always involved in economic performance. Right. We have a pretty good economy without the fed. It wouldnt be hard to get to 4. 5. I know they went up too far in your view. They could make good on that, couldnt they . Not now. Not now. Too late . Okay. Now theyre not only saying that we wont cut until we get 2 , but they also use that tool of paying big banks to keep the money sitting dormant at the fed, and i think if they start to let that loose and make it not such a lucrative deal for the bank, that money, that liquidity goes into the economy too fast. Were somehow running out of time. Judy, well do this again at some point. Hopefully get the shot working. So its more than phone. Final check on the markets before we head out of here. The futures are down across the board. As you can see, its fed day. Its nvidia day. The brackets need to be in by i think tomorrow, dont they . Oh, my gosh. Got to be in by thursday. Theyve got the two playing games. I have nothing to bet on. Make sure you join us tomorrow. Squawk on the street coming up right now. We created a process for the generative ai era, and one of the most important parts of it is content token generation. This format is fp 4. Thats a lot of computation. 5x, the token generation, 5x, the inference capability of hopper seems like enough