Vix at 16. Jpmorgans point this morning was typically, you have the s p down two plus maybe a dozen times since covid. Couple of those were in the depths of covid but generally, its when the vix was about 20 unless we get a shock, maybe the selling is going to end soon if youre looking for why today, theres a slew of reasons. Started overnight in china with weaker Economic Data across the board even though we got a rate cut there, which should be supportive top data in the u. K. And in the u. S. , the data was mixed retail sales, a lot stronger but markets quit trying to figure out whether good news is good or bad news is bad because it keeps the feds hiking rates higher for longer that 1 control group number that feeds into gdp, thats something people were talking about for a monthly gain that was double the expectation and signals the consumer is still in good shape even though we got new York Manufacturing going back into negative territory and showing a lot of pain there you see goldman upping their tracking up to 2. 2 which is still below atlanta fed, which is 4. 1 we talked to seth carpenter at morgan stanley, he said nominal. Tracking 5 for the third quarter. Very strong considering where we thought wed be after all these rate hikes banks, another big story this morning. Its fitchs warning it may be forced to downgrade dozens of banks including Jpmorgan Chase joining us now, dick, great to have you back. We cant decide whether fitch is trying to make out of the box calls to stay interesting and relevant or whether or not there are some serious concerns about loan growth and capital return requirements and so forth. What do you think . Well, first of all, i dont think that any of the banks that failed recently failed because of lack of capital or too few reg regulations. They failed because the regulators, especially the federal reserve, just didnt do their job to cause the managements of banks to reduce their risk even though it was very visible and in order to deflect, failure to act, what they have decided to do is to recommend that banks increase their capital and increase over regulations. As if there was a problem. I think thats whats impacting the banks and stock prices today. It was bad policy and its not good for the economy and it, i hope its never implemented. What do you think the solution is out of this . Is it paving a wider runway to more consolidation and m a forward . Thats whats going to happen but the first thing that has to be determined, which i dont understand, is why they think that the banks through all this did not take risk. They have plenty of capital. They have plenty of banks to support the capital and make loans. Why are you making these changes . The reason they are to try to deflect the buying that they didnt deliver the job and congress and other people have to step up and say dont ruin our economy because of your failure. Its Pretty Simple some other issues relative to Smaller Banks and so on that do need to be implemented but capital is not the issue its other issues that are smaller and less important in the scheme of things in order to keep the economy going so that banks can loan money to individuals and corporations who need it. To grow. Thats the question ive asked. I know you have a problem with the regulators here, but as it relates to this morning which cnbc is getting from fitch, 70 banks potential downgrades including the biggest and strongest like a jpmorgan. What in effect will that do first of all to the banks and to their yields and also to the idea that lending is already tight in this country. Will it make it worse. It will make it a lot worse and its going to increase the cost to the banks because theyre going to have to increase the margins and try to reduce that capital. I mean, pretty soon, the maximum amount of return on equity that a banks going to have is going to be less than 10 . Whos going to invest in Financial Institutions at a 10 roe . Its just not going to happen. It makes no sense and none of these failures have anything to do with too little capital and too little regulation. Do you think the fact that there hasnt been much of a response beyond just calls for higher capital will make this situation worse in the Banking Sector because there are still issues with unrealized losses on the Balance Sheets the fed has been still raising rates as recently as july. Well, yes i said there are issues. And there are issues anytime that youre in a difficult economy, which could go into a recession. You know, it happens all the time we get through these things. But what im saying is we dont need significant increases in things like capital and regulation we need to maybe at the margin make other changes, which you know, we could go into but i dont think theyre important for us to talk about and we could make those but capital is, in my opinion, the banks are well capitalized and evidence of that is we got through all of this and only the banks that were clearly at risk have failed. Nobody else has. Yeah. That in mind, i was going to ask whether or not you think theres any reason to believe we would see an echo, a repeat, of the duration mismatch that we got in march. Well, again, i dont think so because i think, you know, were hopefully pretty close to stopping increases its clear that we got through this in a reasonably good time the economys doing a lot better than anyone expected we may have a recession but most people think its going to be short. I think were in better shape today than we were in march so i dont think well see much of a reflection of that well see couple of items in the journal today about maybe some shopping going on on the commercial real estate front well see what that means for the banks as well. Dick, good to check in with you in the wake of this heads up from fitch lets take you into warning means to the markets and your portfolio our next guest thinks the fed is done hiking rates and says the widely predicted u. S. Recession has been canceled. Joining us now is ubs alignment partners managing director, ali mccartney. Hello. You, too. Yes. I dont know if go ahead. I was going to ask you about what dick was saying and whether you were listening and this on top of the moodys downgrade whether this represents maybe an un un un underappreciated risk. There are a lot of underappreciated risks i was interested in the point about at the tend of the day, why theyre doing it what it highlights is the risk in washington and the partisan risk out there so what weve seen in the last two weeks with fitchs movement, ye yellen coming in and speaking and largely just sort of a surprise yield move last week in bonds is a rerating and a derating in government debt. We think its going to be relatively short lived if you rook look back to history about what the u. S. Sovereign bonds represented. You look at what happened with argentina yesterday. We dont think this is going to be longlived so we view it as a great entry point. Its a cycle when you use the word cyclical, thats it right there. At some point, there will be a recession but in this one, i mean, the consumer is absolutely amazing. And its just, we just keep on going. We just keep on spending we spend from goods to services, but at some point, a 7 Mortgage Rate and a 26 handle plus plus plus on Credit Card Debt is going to pull back and then we need to see whats really going on under the hood. Minus a really healthy consumer. But for now, youre content playing the cyclical trade on the idea were not seeing recessionary so, heres the cyclical, value stocks, small cap. Wherever you go right now thats not big tech, the magnificent seven, has been really un underappreciated and there are a lot of reasons that could be, but when you have times that you can drive a truck through the underappreciation from absolute measures are relative to history for certain assets versus others for example, the russell value versus growth. You have to believe and a lot of investing is believed, is moderation and coming back to that so when you see whats happening or what hasnt happened yet with energy, with industrials, Consumer Staples continue to go, go, go with the u. S. Consumer being the little engine that could, we think whether its simply theres a catch up trade, those seven stocks stay where they are or come down a little, the bottom, the last has come up or whether we have tough times ahead, that is a place we want to be. Ali, as far as positioning goes, what do you think happens once we get through august, through jackson hole everybodys back to work do you see a lot of institutions going to have to put long posit positions back on and does that mean we start chasing about chasing going into q4 . I think were already chasing. You talk about looking at the disclosures coming out of the big hedge funds and asset managers, they havent worked at this point for eight months. So even a couple of weeks ago, our hedge fund desk was telling us there was overinvestment to the ranks they havent seen in a long time. So the question is can equities keep on going if people are legitimately rotating into bonds and if theres a view that we have seen peak rates in cash so you need to get in the market to make longterm, to really make longterm money. Because 5. 4 sounds really great until you realize that the opportunity cost of that 5. 4 , whether its in threeyear bonds or dividend paying equities is significant and is going to be a drag to your portfolio other news out of china more weaker data a rate cut theyre not going to publish now the youth unemployment number, which were awful if your wealthy clients come to you and say should we have exposure to china, what do you tell them . Yesterday in my note, i said there are only three things you can do in the world of ve investment buy, sell, stay and wait for new information. I think chinas one of those where you need to wait for new information. Clearly their consumer isnt as robust as ours we havent seen the stimulus and policy measures for china. Also, youre talking about a huge economic and gdp power in the world. One of the biggest industrial and commodity powers and also has a big stake in terms of what they bring and build into africa so it is definitely something to watch whether youre a u. S. Investor looking to dabble in it or whether youre a global investor, even a u. S. Investor looking to understand what the future of growth rolooks like i the world. Thank you very much got a lot there. We have a lot going on today appreciate it. We do still to come this morning. On running, the company backed by the likes of roger federer. Down double digits despite sales jumping by more than 50 well be joined by the co ceos and Bruce Richards on the opportunities hes seeing as china cut the key lending rate were also going to get his thoughts on the credit markets and why hes still calling for recession in the u. S all that when sqsquawk on the street comes right back ah, these bills are crazy. She has no idea shes sitting on a goldmine. Well she doesnt know that if she owns a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. Even a term policy. Even a term policy . Even a term policy find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. Nice footwork. Man, youre lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. Now you can stream all your games like its nothing. Yes thats what im talking about. [ cheers ] running up and down that field looks tough. Its a pitch. Get way more into what youre into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. Is there Something Else . Were trying very much to focus on our consumers looking at consumer demand, training, innovation products to the market and theyre happy with demand thats what we saw in the results an continued to be strong and we were able to bring inventory down as already announced before so were super happy with the inventory position and the inventory at Retail Partners. Very much focusing on sales and so from really from an operations perspective and where we are with the business and how we feel and q3 and 4, were very, very happy where we stand. Martin, talk about the growth gee graphically or whether its dtc versus wholesale or online versus physical stores whats priority number one right now . We just deliver to six consecutive record quarter so we had 52 growth over all if you look on the currency Interest Rates very Strong Demand across all region of course america from an absolute number is driving Significant Growth we more than doubled in u. K. More than doubled in china and so all the different regions contributing to the growth so very important for us that our direct to consumer channel has been growing stronger than our other channels despite the fact we have seen significant strong growth in our Retail Partners be it in like stakes but also in run Specialty Stores around the world and this has driven our increased guidance for the full year we listed our guidance to 1. 6 billion. We see headwind from the current environment. If our currency would have stayed the last guidance, would have increased guidance to 1. 78 billion so clearly a strong outside confidence in the second half of the year with implied 44 growth rate currently neutral mark, im trying to figure out how big this company can get. I mean, i see the shoes all over the streets of new york city the cloud monsters one of the signature shoes when youre going 50 a quarter, is it new categories, new stores, new geographies . Its to ignite the human spirit through movement. Turns out almost everyone on the planet moves and we want to make them move more no matter what sport theyre in and this is also how we look at the potential. We very much started in running and going into outdoor, into an all day environment. Moving from footwear to apparel. Became a performance sportswear brand. Very much rooted in innovation this is how we do the plant. We create this multichannel and distribution continue to grain share, reaching the right consumers at the right time. This is how it shows in the results in the very balanced growth and we feel in all geographies and channels we have significant room to grow especially markets like u. S. And china. Where we have very much brand awareness. I think of it as a runners shoe and most of my friends who have them are runners or wear them for style because theyre fashionable. Are you saying youre going into other categories like basketball can you really meaningfully take share in those markets that are dominated by nike . Were still very much focusing on the categories that were in right now and you know, running is one of the performance all day then tennis we just entered tennis with roger but then shelton and some of the best players in the world. We feel that we have a lot of room to grow and we very much appreciate that consumers see us as a running brand because thats where we are. Where our roots are and cloud monster became our second most important running shoe we have its showing on the streets and we also appreciate thats being adopted by an all day user because the style it moves to your feet. Tennis got a special shutout on the heels of rolandgarros. Good to see you. See you next time. After the break, china cuts a key lending rate as the Economic Outlook remains uncertain. The hong kong index down more than 1 today. Watching the Home Builders this morning these filings show that buffett and Berkshire Hathaway took a m position in several times like horton and lanar were back in a couple of minutes. What if all i do isnt . Or what if i can do diabetes differently . avo now you can with onceweekly mounjaro. Mounjaro helps your body regulate blood sugar, and mounjaro can help decrease how much food you eat. 3 out of 4 people reached an a1c of less than 7 . Plus people taking mounjaro lost up to 25 pounds. 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But you know what is . Myplan from verizon. Switch now and theyll give you nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv, on them. hero fan this plan is amazing josh allen another amazing plan, backing away from here very slowly. fan 1 that was josh allen. fan 2 mmhm. vo for a limited time get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. A 449 value. Plus, get a free Samsung Galaxy z flip5. Only on verizon. Cor courtney spoke with the cfo this morning. A lot of focus on the outlook. Their earnings Beat Estimates by about 20 cents but the retailer only holding that fouryear forecast steady. They did better on expectations, too, but comparable sales fell for the Third Straight quarter and its likely a foreshadowing for competitor lows for the next part the two have reported comparable sales that have been more closely tracking one another you can see in recent quarters, than in previous years when i spoke with richard, i did ask him about Consumer Spending this quarter and he said i wouldnt call it a deceleration but i would say its continued caution on the part of consumers. When it comes to larger ticket more discretionary spending. Homeowners are still engaged in projects they seem to be deferring larger projects and taking on more small ones that may be a function of higher Interest Rates what contractors outperforms sales to the do it yourself customer was slightly negative over last year ted decker said on the call that the pro project backlogs are still elevated historically, but are lower than they were a year ago. Now, home depot shares up slightly on the results after gaining 15 over the last quarter. That does more than double the performance in the retail etf. The retailer is buying back stocks it is a big buyer generally of its stock so this new repurchase program is slightly below the cadence of previous levels they said at least july comps were starting to inch back toward the unchanged level i wonder how important that is then if youve got thoughts on target tomorrow. Absolutely, carl. Home depot sort of gives us details month by month that may give some analysts some positive thinking about whats to come for the bulk of the year, but it seems like the company is really holding stlong on this year of moderation perhaps its just being conservative but perhaps theyre still worried about whats to come with the Housing Market to your point about target, some softness when it comes to consumers wanting to spend more in discretionary areas, it doesnt bode so well for target. Bes we saw it in electronics, apparel. Target shares are down about 20 over the last three months pretty much an underperformer when youre looking at other competitors or among the big box retailers. So expectations are pretty low for target on the flip side, pretty high for walmart because of how much they overindex in grocery, which has been strong. Whats the key for home depot . Is it home prices . Is that or Broader Consumer . We learned its doing all right. Absolutely. I think thats part of it. I think also home depot always talks about the age of the Housing Stock in this country obviously we talk all the time about how tight supply is so the average age is like 40 years old. Older keeps remodeling, which is the crux of what home depot does and so i think as long as that stays fairly steady, which i believe it will because were not going to see a huge supply of new homes come on the market, i think theres a market there they also talk about how fragmented the home market is, the Home Remodeling market they are the biggest retailer in the area but a lot of those sales still go to the local stores interesting were just getting really this week started on the retail front. Going to be busy it is lets get a news update with pippa. Hey, carl a co defendant in Donald Trumps classified documents case was in court this morning he pleaded not guilty to scheming with the former president to try to delete security footage at the Palm Beach Club after the Justice Department tried to obtain it. Hunter bidens top lawyer asked the judge to withdraw from bidens tax case because of the ongoing legal battle over the plea agreement in the case attorney chris clark says its likely hell be called as a witness because he negotiated and drafted the agreement and he said that would violate delaware professional conduct rules biden was expected to plead guilty to the tax evasion charges and settle a gun charge during a july hearing but the deal disintegrated in court. And the football legend is heading back to knoxville but this time, in the classroom instead of on the gridiron the university of tennessee announced this week that Peyton Manning will join the college of communication and information as a professor. The hall of famer and former tennessee quarterback will join select classes during the year as a featured expert no doubt there will be a lot of demand for those classes oh, yes most popular thank you, pippa marathon asset managements Chris Richards is coming up after the break on why he thinks economists are getting it all wrong when it comes to a soft landing. As for the markets, we mentioned the relief in the tenyear, which fell about ten basis point, but still very moderate healing in equities as the dow is still down 260. Stay with us you got this. Lets go. Gobble gobble. Ive seen bigger legs on a turkey rude. Who are you . Im an investor in a fund that helps advance innovative sports tech like this Smart Fitness mirror. Im also mr. Leg day. 1989 anyone can become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq, a fund that gives you access to nasdaq100 innovations. I go through a lot of pants. Before investing carefully read and consider Fund Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco. Com. We planned well for retirement, but i wish we had more cash. You think those two have any idea . That they can sell their Life Insurance policy for cash . So theyre basically sitting on a goldmine . I dont think they have a clue. Thats crazy well, not everyone knows coventrys helped thousands of people sell their policies for cash. Even term policies. I cant believe theyre just sitting up there sitting on all this cash. If you own a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more, you can sell all or part of it to coventry. Even a term policy. For cash, or a combination of cash and coverage, with no future premiums. Someone needs to tell them, that theyre sitting on a goldmine, and you have no idea hey, guys youre sitting on a goldmine come on, guys do you hear that . I dont hear anything anymore. Find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. European stocks closing just moments ago. The story today is in china dragging down Global Markets including stocks here. We had a surprise rate cut by the peoples bank of china, not enough to lift sentiment in beijing. Industrial output, retail sales growth and other indicators all disappointing. Then that youth unemployment number weve all been watching, which was over 20 , they said theyre going to discontinue it to focus on recalibrating it, which is never a good sign when a number is so bad then they stop reporting it. Thats where were going to start with our next guest who bought debt in Evergreen GroupBruce Richards i point that out because i was wondering if you were getting interested again, bruce, in some of these failing chinese Property Companies great to see you. You, too. Welcome. China is red and chinas going to be in the red for the foreseeable future as far as were concerned. All arrows are pointing negatively it starts with deflation so deflation as the Consumer Price index and Producer Price index lower growth and weaker sales is what were going to see from china but specifically as an investor, forget politics for a second we avoid china at all costs because of not the political side but the fact that theres a creditor, you have no credit rights so after trading in and out of that i was going to say, did you learn that the hard way . No, not the hard way. The easy way as we came out of it fine. As we traded in and out of that, we rethought the position based on Political Risk and more importantly, where the risk is going to be with respect to manufacturing and you look at their import numbers their export numbers all red negative and we invest in other parts of asia, australia, south korea, japan, but at this point, i think its prudent for folks like us and your viewers to start to rethink how theyre going to deploy capital in china. It starts with deflation as creditors. Ends up dont have the creditor rating youve been more negative than economists on the outlook for the u. S. Economy well, first of all, i point out that economists are wrong most of the time but you know, listen you know, its the dog days of summer and weve had the hottest summer on record. Its not only the heat, but the consumer is hot. And the consumers hot we see that in retail sales this morning. Up. 7, which is a monster number we all know that consumer consumption, 68 of gdp. As long as the consumers strong, the economys going to be strong and the one thing that im focusingsed on as it relates to strength of the consumer is not only jobs but wages. Its wages that we focus on because wages up 5. 5 yearoveryear with inflation running around 3 . Means people have more discretionary money in their pocketbook to be able to spend so we expect it, financially, to tighten, as the yield curve is inverted as the fed keeps rates higher for much, much longer than what the markets are expecting. The recession is coming, but its douwn the line. Are we a hard landing . No a no landing no were a soft landing and we expect it pushed out a couple of quarters because the consumer is so strong. At what point do rates get so restrictive that they can afford to start cutting. Look at the fed and what theyve done with their balance sheet, which take it down a little bit but look more at fitch and their downgrade because that allows the debt ceiling to be resolved and the debt ceiling to be erased in terms of the cap on the debt ceiling. So the treasury then issued a trillion dollars in treasuries and since the fitch, since the debt ceiling isnt raised, rates are up 50 basis points on twoyear notes, fiveyear. You think thats i think thats all about supply which is the, which is the result of removing the debt ceiling and the higher deficits and look at this, the congressional budget office. Theyre expecting by 2033, for our debt balance here at the u. S. Government to double to about 50 trillion. Thats about a 7 annual increase of debt being issued. Relative to 2 of 3 cross rate. So that gap is the deficit and fitch downgraded it because of these deficits so while i think the credit itself of the u. S. Treasuries are the best credit in the world by a lot, i do think that supply considerations and the fed are going to keep rates higher for longer and thats what makes it the golden era of credit were getting paid the best rates return on our credit book than we have in a generation earning on a private loan 12 to 14 for taking senior debt risk. Youre not in the camp anytime soon not anytime soon. In fact, todays retail sales or the thought of you know, a stronger economy for a bit longer means the fed is going to keep rates exactly here because it has to break a little bit of that Wage Inflation. While we want to see Wage Inflation because its good for america and its good for americans to earn more wages, the fact of the matter is its a little bit inflationary when you have the wage price pressures we see coming from the excess savings. S i know youre a debt guy and you see opportunity, but what do you think its going to mean for equities equities are a really important consideration. Yes, were debt people but focus on equity market this quarter, we have earnings for the Second Quarter coming in looks like down 4 to 5 . After being down 2 the quarter prior, after being down 1 the quarter prior. So its three straight quarters, ill call that an earnings recession. How strong earnings have been as of late. But you look at the Value Proposition of what we make in our credit book versus what the equity folks are making. Like in the last two years, equities are down 5, 7 and the private credit book up last year up another 10 plus this year so were just clicking away at these higher rates the fed has given us as they raise rates 500 basis points so when you look at the debt return versus the equity multiple and potential equity return from here, its the most disjointed in terms of fun fundamentals where credit has value and equities are really fully priced equities has this goldie locks priced into it wh with that, equities have rallied by a lot what does the individual investor do . You guys are seeing private credit booming but should they have exposure to like a kkr for instance that are going all in theres all kinds of offers to the, to households and to High Net Worth and to individual investors and whether its through the public rates and bdcs or through other products and Fund Managers from black rock to john hancock and others. Theres lots of opportunities to invest and i would advise them to speak to their Financial Advisers and find out what the offerings are because theres some really good debt yields one can get in the liquid markets today. How will you know when credit or debt stops being as interesting relative to equities will it be a structural growth story like ai or when rate cuts come better into view . Yeah, i think rates have to be lower when you go back when there was financial oppression, the fed kept rates forever credit wasnt very interesting high yield was yielding 4 and when you have a credit book like our liquid credit book and others that are 8 and 10 and the private credit books that are 12 to 14 , debts really interesting. Thats the best return for credit weve seen in a generation so when you shave a few hundred basis points, we should come back and talk about it but until that happens, and as long as the fed keeps rates here, were going to be just cha ching,generating those returns through cash flows, through coupons. We also want to talk about another interesting opportunity that youre eyeing amc. Debt around the Writers Strike whats the plan here amc, Great Company and you know, i tried to get into see barbie and oppenheimer twice and have been turned away. Have very little time. Theres a couple of times i can go, sold out ill go before the summers over its a promise but lets talk about amc the age merging with the equity then subsequently doing a ten for one reverse split. That conversion allows management to issue up to 8 billion of equities. Now we dont think theyre going to top the equity market for 8 billion but theyll tap it for a billion to 2 billion so the position we have and we have, its a 2 billion issue. The senior bank loans we bought in the 60s doesnt trade in the 60s or the 70s anymore. Its about 80. You can buy it at 80 you can buy it at 80 an 8. 5 coupon to get better than a 10 yield 25 price pop to mature and with the equity coming in now, we think a billion, 2 billion more equity, the capital structure is stronger and people coming back to the theatre so i wouldnt worry about the Writers Strike that will be settled in the next 30 to 60 days and the Box Office Look Like record numbers to us and in pre covid numbers in terms of revenue so were super bullish think about that we can make a 17 return 10 on the cash. And 25 price pop on price and make this return we think its a high teens return equity like return for taking Senior Bank Debt risk. In a confident capital structure. We think the smartest play for amc is actually buying the bank debt, which is going to par, which has offered these staggering returns very complicated but you explained it well. Thank you. Really good to have you. Nice to see you Bruce Richards of marathon. Still to come this morning, were headed to a floor for a look at some of the biggest movers today big tech getting another vote of confidence from a number of hedge funds on some of these you saw. Well detail some of those trades when squawksquawk on the street comes right back complex. Massmutual. Partnering with financial professionals, benefits brokers, and institutions. jack were standing up for our right to be lazy. Partnering with fina jan professionals, by sitting down. ronald and reclining back lyn we work fulltime and parent fulltime. lyns husband we will be reclined until further notice. andi its our right to let the dishes soak overnight. rob and to mow the lawn. Tomorrowish. ben we proudly declare that yes, we are still watching that. ariel and no, we wont be cooking tonight. damon we, the lazy, are taking back lazy. doreen . By getting comfy on our lazboy furniture. vo lazboy. Long live the lazy. Little over two hours into trading. Lets go to bob pisani still lower across the board were still down nine out of 11 sessions. Thats getting a lot of attention out there. So remember, were halfway through the quarter. Third quarter. The story has been the broadening out story the broadening out story was tech was going to be flatter, unde unde underperforming and other stocks would outperform its starting to fade. This broadening out story. Banks were a big Leadership Group and for whatever reason, the fitch downgrades here, these are all starting to look very, very choppy. Its a head and shoulders pattern if you want to be technical about it we started the quarter, keycorp was ten, went to 13 and now back to ten thats head and shoulders. All the banks are exhibiting these technical patterns here. Theres comerica, another one. It doesnt matter. It was 43 to start the quarter went to 53 its 48. Its not back down to 43, but you get the point. Theyre all exhibiting these choppy head and shoulder patterns not the same with nenergy, but its starting to look choppy ive been noting the move in marathon, phillips 66. Marathon was up 17 out of 18 days the last couple of weeks. Ive been highlighting it every day. This was 115 at the start of the quarter. Went to 150. Last couple of days, this is one of the few two down days in a row. As you see now moving to to 142. Its amazing you cant go up infinitely, but theyre starting to look a little topee as well the Home Builders are all holding up these had amazing runs, lennar and pulte. Up today, buffett announced new positions in the home builder. Existing new home sale owners have held on to their homes. They dont want to sell because of high Mortgage Rates these Home Builders really have been doing very well carl, back to you. Our bob pisani this morning up next bill ackman, hedge Fund Managers making big bets on tech were going to break down me the trades in just a couple of minutes let Innovation Refunds help with your erc tax refund so you can improve your business however you see fit. Rosie used part of her refund to build an outdoor patio. Clink dr. Marshall used part of his refund to give his practice a facelift. Emily used part of her refund to buy. I run a wax museum. Let Innovation Refunds help you get started on your erc tax refund. Stop waiting. Go to innovationrefunds. Com you really got the brows. Nice footwork. Man, youre lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. Now you can stream all your games like its nothing. Yes thats what im talking about. [ cheers ] running up and down that field looks tough. Its a pitch. Get way more into what youre into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. How does some of the worlds richest investors play the tech rally band this ai hype cycle leslie picker for todays tech trade. It felt like to me there were more interesting layers in this round of filings reporter you are right, carl those who leaned into that ai hype certainly saw it pay off in turns of returns tech focused hedge funds were the best performing Strategy Group they study gains of about 15 year to date, about three times the performance of the average Hedge Fund Hedge funds were big buyers of ai plays during the quarter with the group adding, for example, 16 million shares of nvidia and 12 million of microsoft. Among the firms adding new stakes in nvidia, appaloosa bought shares of alphabet, meta, microsoft and nvidia and more of amazon and microsoft by coatue tiger dissolved its stake in apple. According to bofa, the most crowded trade for the fourth month in a row you can see that come true in the filings we dug through, guys leslie, i know we were talking about tiger and the comeback this year generally how has the performance been reporter pretty average. For tech Fund Managers theyve been outperforming overall, though, when you look at some of the bigger funds on an assetweighted basis, the smaller, more niche players like coatue and tiger outperforming part that have is the sector they invest in leslie, thank you goldman is buzzing about blankfein after the break. New natures bounty hair growth. Clinically shown to help grow thicker, fuller hair with just one capsule a day of advanced hair complex. Conquer hair thinning. And fall in love with your hair all over again. Only from natures bounty. Your shipping manager left to find themself. leaving you lost. 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 wall street buzzing about Goldman Sachs again. A report last night, former Ceo Lloyd Blankfein pouring cold water on any possible return to the helm of the bank in the spirit of Howard Schultz or starbucks, saying, quote, i cant imagine returning to the firm my days of working 100hour weeks are over which is interesting to note after the New York Times report on friday that suggested blankfein confronted solomon and asked him to help causing a big stir i know theres a lot of talk about the underperformance lately of the stock. If you go back to when solomon took over, Goldman Sachs has far outperformed jpmorgan by 14 spread a lot of talk about the culture and grumblings of the partners that is a Performance Chart so far and perhaps why the board has been it has been interesting to read the coverage lately and have them mention briefly, the stock is up 50 since solomon joined exactly so people are, well see if the leaks continue its been an onslaught lets get to the judge all right, carl. Thank you very much. Welcome to the halftime report. Im scott wapner front and center this hour, the state of stocks, china weakness, thats a play today. The rise in yields here all weighing on sentiment. The Investment Committee debating the road ahead for your money. Joining me josh brown, steph link and Joe Terranova check the markets. Were red across the board today. And we do have a number of issues yields have been rising. Theres china weakness today were asking josh how much that matters. As the markets a couple weeks in