Squawk on the Street

Apple CFO Steps Down, Bronfman Drops Paramount Bid, Lilly’s New Form of Zepbound 8/27/24

Jim Cramer and David Faber broke down some big news from Apple, including the company announcing its iPhone event for September 9, where it is expected to unveil new models for its phones and Apple watches. The company also announced its longtime CFO Luca Maestri will step down from his role January 1, 2025. The desk also discussed Edgar Bronfman Jr. dropping his bid for Paramount, clearing the way for the $8 billion Skydance Deal. After the opening bells, the anchors also hit Eli Lilly, slashing the cost of its blockbuster weight loss drug, in hopes to boost access and ease supply constraints.

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Broadcast on:: 27 Aug 2024
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In Colorado, our freedoms are everything. Gabe Evans would rip them away. Just like Lauren Boebert, he'd ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest, and overturn the right to marry for same-sex couples. Don't let him take our freedoms. Paid for by DCCC, www.dccc.org, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. What's on the horizon for financial markets? At PGEM, it's a question that over 1,400 investment professionals relentlessly research in pursuit of your long-term goals. Specialized across asset classes, but united in collaboration, our teams provide global and local expertise. Our investments shape tomorrow, today. Pursue your tomorrow with PGEM, a leading global asset manager. Market moving insight and analysis. Join Jim Kramer, David Faber, and me, Carl Cantonea on the opening bell hour of CNBC Squawk on the Street. Good Tuesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm David Faber. He is Jim Kramer, and we are live from post-9 at the New York Stock Exchange. Carl has the morning off. Let's give you a look at futures as we get ready to begin trading a half hour from now. You can see we're set up for a lower open. Nothing happened in the way since I got up at 3.30. Nothing. OK, thanks for that color. Let's get to our roadmap this morning. Begins with, well, we're on TechWatch, AI juggernaut. NVIDIA, have you haven't heard? It's set to report its quarterly results. That'll be tomorrow after the bell. Apple also announcing its succession plan for its long time CFO. Plus, media veteran Edgar Bronfman drops his bid for Paramount, its paranational amusements that clears the way for that $8 billion skydan steel that was already signed up. And Eli Lilly slashes the cost of its blockbuster weight loss drug. It is hoping to boost access, ease, some supply constraints. We will discuss. But let's start with the markets. This is the day after the Dow hit a record close. Of course, as our viewers will know, I don't care about the Dow, what I care about, and what many market participants measure themselves against is the S&P or even the NASDAQ. I was going to say the focus is the NASDAQ. And yesterday was not a good day, really, for the NASDAQ. It's certainly not for tech, and it does seem related to perhaps some concerns about these Nvidia earnings that will be here tomorrow after the close. Twofold. One is Nvidia because people can't game it. So therefore, they want to sell it. That's the mindset. The other is that there's just not enough money coming in. Back to market with a good piece about money coming out of the market today. And what's happened is that typically when you have a Fed cut, you have money going in, and it goes into the hot group. And then it doesn't come out of the not so hot. It actually goes in a little less. So typically, what would happen is is that you would have some upside to the tech stocks, but the big upside is to the General Mills and Colgate, and also to the utilities. And of course, the Toll Brothers. That didn't happen yesterday. What happened is is that it was entirely money out of a sector, and then money into another. There's not enough money coming in, even though rates are coming down. People are stuck in the two-year. They love the two-year. And why not? But there is this belief somehow that as rates come down, people will flee the money markets in which they've been getting a nice return, so to speak. So it leaves versus what they had for the 10 years prior, and will enter the equity markets again. Does that actually happen ever? Is that true? Is it true that that does? Yes, it has. They can flood the equity markets, but you need to have corporate buybacks be bigger than they are. They've slacked off. And then, David, you have to have sudden rate cuts. Because right now, if you have a quarter rate cut, big deal, this is a flood to flood the market. People are not going to leave money markets. No. And we should talk about this in video, because in videos, obviously, way, on everybody's mind, the idea that this one stock and this one report could be so crucial seems fatuous to me. Fatuous because you know that there are some companies that are doing quite well with AI, meta, for instance. You know that there are companies that are trying to do GPTs. You know that there are companies that are awaiting the black well. You know that the demand is high. So what has to happen? I'm going to put the Jensen-Mong question, which is that what does it mean to be constantly so examined, so microscopic that it carries the market? I don't think you expect that. I mean yesterday, I got an email from someone who said, I've had enough. This guy is costing a lot of money, which is very rare, because he keeps selling a lot. Well, it's true. He does sell a lot of stock. Jensen-Mong sells stock. He has a lot of stock. Now, I guess he's supposed to go to his grave with a huge position. I mean, what is the point? There any estate planner would say, you know, good job. You're not affecting the market. You're not just slamming the piece down. But no, I mean, I'm saying that there isn't anything about Nvidia that right now isn't under scrutiny in the long knives. All right, but it may be because it's reasonable. It's $4 trillion, and it was $500 billion, just three years ago. Thank you. Because it underpins all of the AI hopes and dreams. AI hopes. Period. OK, so here's-- And so if, in fact, it does not have the guidance that is anticipated or does not exceed, it will in some way be a reflection of the fact that those hopes and dreams are not going to be realized in at least the time frame that the market somehow expects. I like your analysis. I think that one of the problems is that we can't visualize what Jensen can see. It's almost as if it's an invisible man to us, but he hasn't fully formed. Because when he is a team, a robot team, and he has a team that is just based on basically what humans are like. Because remember, Jensen always says, we can have robots that are not like humans, because everything is designed to be human. But you can make robots. We just don't know what to do with them yet. I mean, if robots are going to just deliver us coffee, we don't have a whole waysick. If they're going to deliver it, Starbucks is pretty good. They can wait online. Could change everything. Could change everything that company. I think that could be what this whole robot thing is about. Is waiting in line behind someone's triple bed, they come to tune it with skin, wet, five pumps? It's not a question of when. I mean, it's not a question of whether this future is coming in some ways, but when, Jim. And the markets are still trying to figure that out and discount that. And that's why we had an enormous rally for a period of time. What happens if-- By the way, Morgan Stanley today, Katie Uberty, who you like. The charts you've seen. And her team. And her team. Our global tech team projects. The Big Four cloud service providers will generate $176 billion of operating cash flow in calendar 2025. And note the average AI CapEx Evita ratio, roughly 40% in 2024, suggesting the hyperscalers' pockets are still deep enough for further spending. Well, look, I think that we have to-- And therefore, don't worry about NVIDIA's upcoming release. The US semiconductor analysts expect to deliver a strong beat and raise, dispel concern, and drive, share price, rebounds for the overall AI supply chain. Those are some pretty bullish words. I know it's very bullish, and I wanted to hang my hat on it. My problem is, is that if you're on a Jensen-Wong call, it's mostly a collect press, the fabulous CFO. There's very little hype in the call. There's very little-- The last call, actually, was the most bullish in video call. It was a little different. What's your point of mentioning that, though? So what do you mean? Well, because the actual tone is going to be incredibly important. When you have this minutiae call, you have to wait. We'll collect press, for instance, say with the possibility of enough cash building that they have to do a buyback of humongous size that could buy back almost 10% of the stock. That could happen. Look at my stream. Ha-ha. You want to move on to Apple? Well, I just say he was the one who said, look, I've got to accelerate to buy that. Right. And he was the buyback of the seller here. Let's turn to Apple since we actually helped this make that term. By the way, it did announce its iPhone event for September 9th. Now, of course, it is expected to unveil that new model, phones, Apple watches as well, the AI compatible model, company also announcing some changes to a C-suite long-time CFO. You just heard his name, Luca Maestri, is stepping down from his role. That'll be at the beginning of next year, John 1, Apple's current vice president of financial planning and analysis. Kevin Porek, who's going to take over as the CFO. First, give me your thoughts on that change at the CFO. Luca Maestri is someone who has a lot of control over pricing, what they do. But what I really love is he controlled that buyback. And he was not just one of these useful idiot buyback buyers. He actually looked and saw the stock was down a lot, took advantage of it. Now, a lot of buybacks are-- I used to run a lot of buybacks at Goldman. And you would have 100 years ago. Actually, no, I think it was when Lincoln was president. You invented the buyback, actually. Didn't you call and say, you guys should maybe reduce your flow, it'll help your EPS. Was that before I invented the limit order? OK, so just so we're sure, all right? OK, you used to run some buybacks for some various companies. By the way, in the CMC.com right now, 20% off the best game in June. When you were at Goldman in the '70s. OK, that's fine. What would happen-- not the '70s, the '80s. What would happen is there'd be companies who'd just say, look, I want you every day to buy 100,000 shares, right? No matter what. And then there were companies who would say, look, use a brain. If the stock gets hammered, go in and buy with both this. The latter, which was so smart, is rarely done. But in this case, that was-- He is someone who understands the moments. And they have an awfully large buyback. And he announced this accelerated buyback. But he didn't call it solar. And half the analysts missed it. But I do think that people have to understand that this guy is not your regular CFO. You know anything about this guy, correct? I mean, again, we are talking about the CFO, the largest company. Candidly, I do not. OK. I know that when I would speak to Luca Mys free, after they're about to announce the quarter. Yes. But for-- He-- you know, sometimes you're in the presence of greatness. I had to tell you that we rarely ever talk about the presence of greatness on the show. The people who just really know what they're doing. Here's a fact. There are some unbelievable CFOs. Jack Hartdon's an amazing CFO. Collette Cresson-- Jack Hartdon, of course, at Chipotle. Yeah. Collette Cresson, a video point. This guy, in many ways, talked about Ritz-Glanty. Now, Ritz-Glanty, the CFO, long-time CFO. He's retiring now. Cosco is retiring, but you loved him as well. Ritz-Glanty, Ritz-Glanty, was the man who just said, you know what? Your price is too high. So we decided to go in with Cosco. No, it is worth noting. The CFO can be extremely important at certain companies. Yes, but we haven't talked about them. They have a great deal of influence at other companies, not as much. Right. Well, there's some people who are factotums. Yes. And then there are other people who are-- I'll tell you, in that Ashkenazi, when she's over at Google, that could be important to the CFO. There's sitting on Apple. Negative. Negative. Yeah. Brose margins up 7%, highly regarded, in the investment community. Whoa. Yeah. What he is? Yeah. He's going to stick around for a while. Look, when I read it to him, I was like disciplined. He's sticking around for a number of months, till the end of the year. Yeah. When I read it, it's disappointably-- I didn't know that the average span of a CFO was 10 years. I did not know that. I didn't either, longer than CFO CEOs. Yeah. I mean, so he did-- that's when he stayed. And Richard Clante was more than 30 years CFO. That's a lot of time. Not average, but also unbelievably good. And by the way, the guy with the hot dog, the dot-- oh, say they have a hot dog deal. I know they do. $1.50, right? Exactly. Thank you. What's in it? When you call your stadium? City field? City field, yes. It's a lovely stadium. It's a lovely game. It's a good field, they're ringing up. But I have to tell you that Costco-- they've not written anything negative about the CFO change. Because they took the fellow from Kroger. Very, very good. We're going to talk a bit more about Kroger, actually. Day one of the-- Well, that's why I wanted to do it. The US government versus Kroger and Albertsons. A lot of other things to talk about here. We will hit Paramount. Probably the last time this week, Edgar Brompton drops his bid for the company. Let's give you another look at futures. We get sort of a trading here at the New York Stock Exchange. 18 minutes from now, we are looking for a lower-- Oh, very, very weak. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Based on nothing. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] It's a show about nothing. It's a TV show. Very similar to a very hit TV show from the '90s. More squat countries, right? In Colorado, our freedoms are everything. Gabe Evans would rip them away. Just like Lauren Boebert, he'd ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest, and overturn the right to marry for same-sex couples. Don't let him take our freedoms. Paid for by DCCC, www.dccc.org, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Whether you're scouring business financial sites or listening to economics podcasts like this one, you'll find there's no secret to successfully managing your company's finances for the future. You just need PNC corporate and institutional banking, whose team of dedicated relationship managers bring 160 years of experience, advice, and an array of tools and tech to scale to any size business. PNC Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865. PNC Bank, National Association, member FDIC. Support for this program is provided by Chevron. The anchor offshore platform is utilizing breakthrough technology to enable us to produce oil and natural gas in the US Gulf of Mexico at pressures up to 20,000 PSI, a new industry benchmark. Anchor is part of Chevron's plan to produce 300,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2026 in the US Gulf of Mexico. Home to some of our lowest carbon intensity producing operations, that's energy and progress. Visit chevron.com/anchor. - All right, let's talk a little paramount. Stock's gonna be down ever so slightly. The news hit last night. Becky Quick actually bring it to people, I think, Edgar Bronfman's statement saying, I'm out, thoroughly explored actionable opportunities for paramount over nearly eight months. Well, actually, I'm sorry, this is a statement from, there it is. Tonight our bidding group informed the Special Committee exiting privilege and very gentlemanly, as he is, Edgar Bronfman. You know, listen, it was an incredible bid for some, but perhaps not for others. As you well know, Jim, I've had my significant doubts in terms of at least the ability to put together a group that could prove it was financeable in such a short amount of time. And that certainly was a concern of those who were advising the Special Committee, not to mention the Special Committee itself. We talked a lot about yesterday, led by Charles Phillips. Can you finance this? Can you actually come to the finish line here with a dollar number that we think is superior to the existing deal? Not to mention that we have confidence you will actually be able to complete. You know, it gets to the point where it was never clear exactly how much money Edgar Bronfman himself was committing. I did talk to a couple of investors after our show yesterday who were committing dollars to this. They were both quite enthusiastic on the prospects of a transaction, sort of the idea of trying to consolidate in the streaming world and what would be left in having a larger flow, collapsing the governance structure. Both of these investors were contributing numbers that made sense to me based on at least what I'm aware of of their net worth. However, they also pointed to some of the other numbers attributed to some of the others in the investor group as saying that makes no sense. The numbers were so far beyond what you would expect was the financial wherewithal from some of these people. And certainly that was not lost on the Special Committee itself. Again, as I said, during our conversation that we had when this first came up when I was not on set that day, Jim, you know, the question always was could he really put together a viable bid to compete against the six largest, six richest man in the world, not to mention something that would give the same amount of liquidity at similar prices to the B shareholders. - Well, what's always confused me, and I remember very clearly what you said, was that you basically laid out the fact that they may not have the money to win. - Yeah. - But they somehow thought they did. Now, how's that happen? How do you go and say you're gonna put a private equity stake in? - That's a good question. - And for the Eagles, for 7 billion, and someone else comes to this at 10 billion, and you just say, listen, my 7 billion is better than your 10 billion. - I think the hope and expectation always was that they would continue to be able to raise the number, but in such a short amount of time, it was harder. Yesterday I reported there was a plan to increase the bid. Well, there was, as I understand it, but of course, in order to do that, you've got to raise even more. And the sources of said financing, I think, were at least suspect in terms of the numbers themselves. And by the way, I do believe, and this is conjecture, that there was a belief on Mr. Brompton's part that Bain would be there, the large private equity firm as a partner they never showed. I would make the point, by the way, there are no private equity companies that showed here. I mean, Apollo was around this thing with Sony. They never came back, never. Bain chose not to participate. I pointed out the fact that KKR, which is an owner of Skydance, is not putting any new equity in. Blackstone never decided to. A lot of them signed NDAs, never showed up for anybody in any way, whether on their own or in partnership. Sort of interesting, isn't it? I mean, you have to wonder if things got to an investment committee at these places, and they were all like, what do you think we're doing here? Did you happen to notice how quickly the linear cable network ecosystem is declining? Well, look, that plays a big role. I think that this was the quarter, the acceleration of the decline. I mean, I really think that we're gonna see numbers that are so bad. And David, do you ever meet anybody who pays the cable bundle anymore? No, I mean, they're stunning. Anybody? Well, I do, and you do, but I'm suckers. Well, I'm probably gonna move to YouTube TV, although that still pays the fees. So, where's my BPD is still fine? My kids say, look, dad, I watch your, I watch your 10 minute broadcast club. On what? Oh, they do? Yeah, what else do I need? I say, no, that's not the point. That's a gateway. That's not unlike what's going on with, with a trizepitite. It's a gateway drug. Now, that said, I did the other day, Jess talked about our viewership, and I got lots, lots of positive response saying, they're still out there. Oh, look, I think it's a good deal. I look at, what do I know? I look, I'm not, I'm deaf, there's not a good deal. I think deaf just will. You cannot get around the fact that the most pessimistic of forecasts about linear cable networks proved to be too optimistic. Oh, geez. Look, I happen to be a big believer that there's a lot of ways to get around, and none of them seem honest to me, and I'm gonna pay my cable bill, because it's honest. All right. What doesn't matter that something's honest. No, it's not that-- It's not that-- There's no other place to roll. Just cut the cord and you figure out other things. There's no entertainment available on the regular cable anymore. It's all streaming. The only reason to watch is news and sports. OK. That's it. Well, what do we do for a living? I don't know. Figure it out. Come up with something like the buyback. All right. He's gonna figure that out. Also think about his med test. Let's give you another look at that face. Hello, look at the futures. We got a lot more squawk on the street place, right ahead. Support for this program is provided by Chevron. The anchor offshore platform is utilizing breakthrough technology to enable us to produce oil and natural gas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico at pressures up to 20,000 PSI, a new industry benchmark. Anchor is part of Chevron's plan to produce 300,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2026 in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Home to some of our lowest carbon intensity producing operations, that's energy and progress. Visit chevron.com/anchor. At EverNorth Health Services, we believe costs shouldn't get in the way of life-changing care. And we're doing everything in our power to make it possible. Behavioral health solutions that also keep your projections at their best, it's possible. Pharmacy benefits that benefit your bottom line, it's possible. Complex specialty care that cares about your ROI. It's possible, because we're already doing it. All while saving businesses billions, that's wonder made possible. Learn more at EverNorth.com/wonder. Six minutes before we get started with trading here from New York Stock Exchange, let's get a mad dash with Jim. You want to talk a little lulu? Yes, August 29th is lulu day. Now, if it weren't for the fact that we have Nvidia, yeah, I know. What happened to lulu? Well, they had a botched launch of a particular kind of fabric that just didn't go well. David, we now have, I mean, everybody's been joining it, Ray J, 400 and 350, okay? Well, it means 270. Cal and 420 and 375. What you have here, David, is a new, we see this happen quite a bit. The analysts were so excited here that they, it's like, you know, you can't go, I'm going 540 to 270 because you look like a total dope unless there's a stock split. But I will tell you, David, this is a little anomalous. I'll give you a little anomalous prediction, please. If they do in line, I think the stock goes up. They have two billion dollars in cash. They can do a hefty buyback. I don't think that they're going to take the sitting down. I think that they're tired of this. They have done this before. They have said, okay, look, we're our inventories are lean and we're back. I think that if they just say, hey, where you think we are, then the short squeeze starts. Interesting, okay. So all the bad news in some ways is-- That's my point. David, they call it because they want to make a fancy term so that nobody at home understands. David, this is de-risk. De-risk, de-risk, de-risk, de-risk. The drawdown has occurred. Yes, oh my god. Yes, don't drawdown. You are a private credit guy, dude. Drawdown, I still just love that stuff. Genesis of words on Wall Street. It was a drawdown, we had nothing to do with it. All right, the opening bells, what do we got? Yeah, four and a half or so minutes away. Don't go anywhere, we're right back. All right, welcome back. Keeping an eye on any number of different names. Not a lot of earnings, of course. We're still waiting for Nvidia itself after the bell tomorrow. A number of different notes, though, of interest. Jim, I don't know if any of them have sort of risen to a level. I want to talk Lily, but I want to give us a little more time. I can't even tell you what it is to watch, okay? There's a piece out this morning about Coca-Cola. Yes. And basically saying that Coca-Cola is the best, it's a more good Stanley piece. Yeah, top pick. And beverages, replacing Pepsi. Yes, and we want to watch that. Because if I'm right about this market, that kind of thing really works. Now, why does it work? Well, because the Coca-Cola has had the momentum to begin with, it's a worldwide company. The dollar's been very weak. It has what I regard as being a franchise run by a person, James Quincy, who is fabulous at his job. So, I mean, when I look at that, I say, wait a second. If that goes up, we have the key to this market away from India. Yeah, they talk about four key Coke advantages versus beers driving their rating. Kind of interesting, including healthier historical volume growth and beers, and a number of other global-- Yeah, but I was surprised to say it's four different games. Yeah. I mean, it's just quite the same. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a text, it's significant. Keep in mind, first, and second. There you hear it goes. Opening bell here is five different games. Take a look at where you have this on the same. You can see that you've all read on that board, given at least what pizza's for it. Doing the honors here, IMG Academy, and Merrill, a bank of American company. They're celebrating its financial diversity program. Oh, very good. Over at the NASDAQ, Ohio-based Littlefield Bank for 10th listing anniversary for that company. Celebration there. David. All right. Can I just, for a second, were you and I very much disagree on something? Sure. You know I'm a huge believer in Cleveland Cliffs. OK. And we got an upgrade today. Perhaps steel, possibly steel prices could be bottoming. I know that when I had Mr. Gonzalez loan, he is absolutely convinced that steel prices are bottoming. If you believe that the cycle is real, the rate cut cycle-- By that. All right. I don't know. By the way, I don't have the kingdom on that. No, you can't record this where they get the function. Yeah, I am-- We've got much more focus on the US Steel transaction. That's why I bring it up. And whether, in fact, Cleveland Cliffs can if they are given the opportunity yet again if the Nipon deal for US Steel falls apart to purchase the company. But I think there is some-- Obviously, I had a large shareholder of US Steel, Mahabharran from Pentwater a number of weeks ago. Now, what did you say was the final thing? There were five there. There were five there's. Yeah, but the deal's done at 50-- Well, no, I'm saying that Nipon Steel, if you listen to either president-- Well, no, no. There's only one president at a time. Well, former president of the world. The current president, Biden. They are without a doubt. So opposed to this. I have to believe-- They both believe-- right. They both believe it potentially will result in jobs, being lost, which seems to be key to their focus. Pennsylvania, obviously, is a swing state. And so that becomes important. That's really important. Jim, there's a lot more to come here, including, as I said yesterday. And I don't think we'd need to spend that much time on it. What Nipon will do to make clear its investment case for the Mon Valley plan in particular, built in 1938 that needs significant updating. Will they come in with a $1.4 billion in additional capital? I remember. Or will it even be more than that? Will you have to rewind those plans? And when will that be communicated? And will it be enough in some way to turn the union from its current partnership, almost, with Cleveland Cliffs? You can't turn that. That is a really rock-solid relationship. And that's why you've got a spread that is so significant to what Nipon has agreed to pay. And the reason I bring it up is because there's very little that the two different camps believe it. True. The Republicans and the Democrats do agree that Nipon steel should not get this. It's interesting when we have now this idea of national champions. You raised this, but did you see what Japan and 7-Eleven-- I mean, you've got Kustard. Why are we not talking about Kustard? This is an amazing-- And yet, Japan also seems to be embracing 7-Eleven as a national champion and perhaps will not allow for a sale there. You do wonder if this is going to play as economic nationalism continues to rise, whether we're going to see fewer and fewer cross-border transactions. Yeah, but we cannot underestimate the size and scale of 7-Eleven. Really, really big. By the way, what do you think is the number one performing 7-Eleven 100? I have all the one in the Hamptons. The one in Montau. And when-- really? Yeah. It's number one. I know that one. I've been in that one. I know you've been in there. That's why I mentioned it. I bought some-- That's supposed to Costco, which by the way, Costco. There's no-- A fabulous note this morning about how they're selling more hard goods, which is very good for Martins. And when are we going to get to Netflix, by the way? I don't know where we are. But the note's saying, Netflix, all systems go, this is the one to watch versus Coca-Cola. If Netflix goes up, then we may be, for a moment, a respite in the selling of tech and tech related. Really, Netflix? Am I out of scale? People should just go buy it. This is a good piece. I mean, go back to it. Let's, you know what, I'm tired of waiting. Let's do Lily. We have to do it here. Oh, well, here. There's a quick-- I'm killing this toy game. Something from that Evercore, raising Netflix price target. Strongest position. Financially, competitively, we've ever seen. Just go buy that. I'm telling viewers right now, just go buy it. All right, let's talk about-- Let's talk to Lily. Let's talk about this change in the way that they're going to be able to give people Zepbound. And the idea, whether it's a price cut or not. I've got some research as well from Evercore ISI. That's sort of weighing in here on Jim. There's no little noris. Oh, I see you've got the same note. Yeah, no but noris was down 3 and 1/2 when this news came out. It's now barely down. By the way, Lily traded at 9.22 at approximately 7.15. And I think that what's so interesting, David, is it's not necessarily clear that it's a price cut now. Well, you and I are both looking at this note. These guys are pretty well known for their research in this particular name. And they say it's not a price cut, at least at Evercore ISI. They say it's $650 without coverage right now for regular Lily. And it's going to be $650 for this current one, self-pay. Because the dosage is different. So file form, $399 for a 2 and 1/2 milligram dose, $549 for 5 milligrams. Those numbers are largely similar to the net prices. But you apparently have to use a file. As they stand today. Which means you have to do like a regular-- You've got to do your own sources. There's an auto injector, a regular needle. Correct. People are scared of needles. I know. And David, I've got to tell you, some wags have actually used the term gateway drug to me. I mean, I think that's really insolent. The conclusion of the very quick piece here from Evercore is, if anything, based on the new changes, you can find evidence on Lily's website suggesting that price may actually get better. Right. But people out there, there's a backlog of injectors. So Lily has not been able to meet demand. Right. Lily also cast against the companies that make they use the term knockoff and counterfeit. I would just say alternatives. Because I've been upgraded by those when I call them knockoffs. They were into me immediately saying, no, Jim, they're not that. But what I think is most interesting, David, is how wrong people were this morning when they took the stock down to 9.22. Because they didn't read the 5 print. And they didn't know it was 2.5. 2.5 does not get you where you want to go. Well, it's half the-- Right. It's half the dosage. So half the dosage for half the price means basically it's the same price. Right. But I'm saying that-- look, it's not crystal meth, for heaven to say. Now, but what has happened here, David, is that you might want to take the 2.5, see the results, and say, listen, I want to go up to the regular dose 5. So that's why the stock's now up, not down. And David, people just don't know how to do like this. There's going to be an endless demand for this drug. There is. And that's because of hypertension. That's what people are doing. And when they get to an oral formulation. Oh, and movies working on oral formulation. And they are ahead of everyone. David Rick said that. David Rick's is one of the most understated people on Earth. But the fact is, is that this is a lifesaving drug. And it's not been presented as a lifesaving drug. If they did, then every single insurance company would have to pay. Congestive heart failure? Fatty liver disease? Oh, it goes on and on. Alcoholism. Alcoholism. It's talking about alcoholism. Alcoholism, if you take two drinks, remember-- sleep apnea. Alcoholic snoring. I mean, they'll tell you that alcohol tastes like-- would you ever wake up and have like an alcohol in your cereal? Well, that's what alcohol feels like at 5 p.m. So I just think people have to watch this thing and not realize that this was really about the injector and how difficult it was to get all the injectors. So let's just go with the semaglutin with the needle. David, needles? People are scared of needles. No, they don't like supplements. Many people do it. But you know, look how the life-- The travails of someone with diabetes. And they have to take it. It's an amazing glucose monitor. I believe that if Apple comes up with a glucose monitor watch, then it's game set match. That's huge. But you have to have longer battery life to do that, because you have to have a 24/7 or have two watches, which I only have all one. I only mention Apple shares they're down, and I'm looking at all the tech tightening so it's being all down again. It's happening again, David. We're not talking about huge percentage declines, but nonetheless, they are all down in video as well. They're wishless. So all megacap, the megacap tech names, we know so well. Some of what we used to call the big seven, the magnificent seven, I should say, all down. So David, isn't it better if they're down ahead of Nvidia rather than coming in hot? That's a good point. I think so. You soften the beach a little bit. I don't like my father's ridiculous nine hot landings. I don't mean to say ridiculous nine hot landings in the Pacific. He says, "It was always great." They would soften the beach so you get shot at less. There you go. That's very strong, huh? That's ideal. Yeah, you just be, there are fewer people who you were with who got shot, who my father would describe, which they, in his right near he died, because he said it was so awful he could never cope with it. Wow. Yeah, so that's what they're doing, the soften the beach. All right, I've been handed a very large document from Hindenburg, the firm that puts out significant research in New Jersey. Lakerst. Right, okay, thank you for that. No problem. This is having to do with super micro. Okay, so should I. And as you might expect, given I've just been handed it, it's a very small type. I haven't had an opportunity to review it, neither have you, Jim. Super micro. But we mention it because this is a firm that our viewers may know is usually associated with shorting a stock, putting out significant research on said equity, and it has an impact. Take a look. Down seven plus. Now on the last quarter, to be fair, super micro has not had an opportunity to respond to this. No, and it's fair that Charles Leon, who's come on me at money several times, I have a chance because by the way, super micro is a company that works very closely with NVIDIA. Right. And they are not partners, like people think. They're HPE Dell, which reports this week, super micro. They're all kind of in this. We're helpers, if you want NVIDIA. Because remember, you can't just order NVIDIA. You don't like call 1-800 NVIDIA. Unlike say, Charles River Labs, you can dial 1-800 Labrad. In Hindenburg says they conducted a three month investigation, including interviews with former senior employees, industry experts, litigation records they've reviewed, international corporate and customs records, and they claim to have found glaring accounting red flags, evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, sanctions, and export control failures, and customer issues. Again, suboptimal. We do not have any way of response, but that is why you seem to stop down. Well, we want to get response, but we also know. And they go on. And then it goes on in there. And you have enough cash. You have enough cash. Because they've been doing these equity offerings, and their growth is so great that they've had to do it. I just wonder at what point companies like this, like what value add are they ultimately when demand slows, and the hyperscalers who already do make their own equipment that incorporates NVIDIA's chips? Do they really need super micro over the long term? - Oh, let's go on the term. - I have a tremendous aberration from Michael Dell. - Okay. - But Dell's stock went up to 170 with the belief that there's unlimited demand. And then when we heard that Blackwell, which is their current iteration, we may not chip in time. - That's NVIDIA's right. - Up in volume. Look where Dell went to. So there's your example of what happens if the demand slows, David. That's what it looks like. That's what you should be prepped for. HPE, same deal. And now, obviously, it's super micro. Now, super micro is somewhat impenetrable. - It's not as straightforward as you think in terms of, you know, that we always talk about the chips, and Amazon's buying the chips, and Met is buying NVIDIA chips, and Microsoft, but it's M and Dell and HP. But if they're putting the servers together, but it's sort of a more mixed picture in terms of-- - Big guys, somehow hyperscalers put them together themselves. They have these companies that do it for them. Then they also buy stuff from Dell and HP, and they also use super micro. - But the big guys don't want to handle it. - The big guys don't want to handle it. And one of the reasons why I'm upset that people think that it's all smoke and mirrors is that if you look at meta, and what meta's done with meta AI, holy cow. Although a few Googles that found on meta AI doesn't have the latest information. That's important. If you go to chat at GBT, this is a good example. I like to go to all of them. Chat at GBT has what's the normal dose of chisepicide. And if you go to meta, meta says it's what we don't really know. I mean, what's good that they admit that he admits it, or she admits it, or whoever admits it. - What's the point you're making here? The point is that Zoperberg, who apparently is claiming doesn't want to be pressure and want something to be a pressure one, but his is still behind. Unless he's doing AI is still behind. >> Yeah, meta AI is really good for like social, like meat, like what's Kelsey's contract like. I mean, and it's not up to date as much as chat at GBT. But David, I find it maliffulous when it's got the right information. >> Such a good point. >> And it has a little bit of sense of humor. It has a twinkle. >> We continue to see sort of this movement again. We mentioned tech, big tech being down. The banks, once again, are benefiting. >> Oh my. >> It was an interesting hurt on the street today, Jim, I'm seeing the saw talking about you to be on the other side of Buffett. We talked about that with Bank of America yesterday. >> That was a very, almost as though they were listening. >> Yeah. >> Part of the contest that I have to stay closer to, I've heard in the streets, but I thought that was very well. Well, yesterday I said, I think it's a buy. They also have that bond portfolio that people don't really like. And that gets cured by lower rates. >> Lower rates help the value there. >> Yes, they do. The market. >> Look David, so quit bomb watching is solar. >> Really? >> Because I regard solar. I actually, now this is something I practice. I literally tried to practice it. I do not want to appear, because I'm not pro-orientized, but solar versus oil. We know that one presidential candidate favors oil, and it's not as worried about climate change. And the other one favors solar. >> Or favors renewables. >> Renewable energy. >> Yes, that's when solar may be the nuclear power. >> So that's what you need, if you really want to play the game, so to speak. Like when Reagan was elected, he was going for a 600 ship navy, okay, which is big. And you could buy any of the shipyard stocks. Anyone. >> Right. >> Well, this is like that. There's no doubt about it. You want to be in solar, if you think that Harris is going to win. Because it went down a lot, when it looked like Trump was going to win. >> Interesting. Remember what that period-- >> It's another play, correct. There's any number of them in there. Fannie and Freddie's another important one, by the way. It doesn't get a lot of attention. Because under a Trump administration, they probably in the conservatorship, and that would help those stocks a great deal. They've been up already, the preferreds, but-- >> No, they're-- >> The drug stocks have been up, and that's odd. Given the fact that both candidates do not favor drug pricing, go higher. >> At this point in the years, it's going to be very close. >> And by the way, J&J's been the horse here. >> J&J is the horse. >> J&J has been the horse. >> You want to talk about the Kroger Albertsons trial at all before we head to the Bond report? >> I sure do. >> Okay. >> Look, I think that the, you know, I think the government has a good case, and it wasn't hurt by the things that Albertson said yesterday. >> Right. >> Kind of like made you feel it, well, huh, you don't want that deal to happen. >> Surging, grocery prices, David, in focus? >> Most, both companies being up is quizzed. >> Well, not necessarily. I'm not sure they're moving on the deal itself. >> No, they're going to be opening arguments. >> The opening arguments were yesterday, as you might anticipate, that was both sides saying their piece. For example, Albertsons' prices in their markets that Kroger competed with them were 12% higher than Kroger. So Kroger's saying, hey, we are, yeah. >> Well, they're not, look, yeah, look, Roger McMillan is here from the very beginning. Jim, if you believe, if you, do you trust me of which I always do, we're going to lower prices. >> Yeah. >> And I believe you will. And if that's the case, well through it. But you need to be thinking only about costing. >> I think this multi-billion dollar deal will keep in place of vigorous competition and access. Check on rising grocery prices and spurs improvements of quality innovation. That's the FTC's Chief Counsel. By the way, I should point out the judge is a Biden appointee, 2023. There is a belief in the investment community, Jim, that if the government can at least just have their expert witness be believable, that there may be, they may be able to prove their case at least as the judge. >> I think they're just going to, don't wanna pre-judge. >> In the same way that Jonathan Cantor, the head of the Assistant Attorney General, it really felt very strongly that the airlines consolidated too much. >> Yeah. >> I think that the argument that you can have a fair disposal of overlap is going to be seen as being facetious. And I think a judge will say, you know what? We cannot do, we cannot stand by another case of spin-offs that don't work. Even though I think the spin-off company, the buyer, could be real. >> Yeah. >> They also own some pigly wiggles. >> Pigly wiggles can never get tired of saying that. >> No, no. >> All right, I'm gonna do a very quick bond report 'cause the music's already playing. >> Okay. >> Check them out, treasuries, how they're fairing this morning, of course. Let's take a look at yield, shall we? >> The Kava getting hit today. This after, of course, was a very strong quarter, but now it appears a number of inside of the city. >> Oh, it was 10, 113. >> You're saying, hey, let's sell a little bit. And that is pressuring the shares. I will point out, given all the crap I give you when you're wrong, that you are dead right on this one. >> Yeah, I felt that the Mediterranean diet was coming in the next week. >> I don't know what you knew, but you were very positive on it when it went public. >> Yeah, I still, I'm still very positive. >> It has been a great performer. >> Buy the secondary, this is ridiculous. It's only your regional and national, you love those. That's what you should be buying. Great concept. It's what people like. It's good for you. It's supposed to brown form in which they don't like. 'Cause it's bad for you. >> Is it bad for you? >> You sure it's bad for you? >> It's bad for you. >> David, we have, we have just total, and it's not, there's just proof. >> All right, all right. >> Well, I'm proof. >> We've got something on the calendar. >> How about Lindy, Dave? >> We're gonna drink when we see. >> Yes, how about Lindy? We didn't talk about that. >> We can't talk about that. >> $2 billion is quite hydrogen. >> We're out of time. Why don't you save it for your stop trading? >> Why are we out of time? >> Save it for stop trading. We're back after this. >> Oh yeah, what do you got tonight on the big program? >> Little observation. When Will Frost is here, everybody hugs him. Nobody hugs me, okay? Let's just point that out. >> It's great. >> I'm making that point. >> There's no hugging. >> Yeah, and Will's kid looks so cute. I send everybody. All right, David, I have Clark Hunt on today. >> Clark Hunt. >> Yeah, who runs the Kansas City Chiefs, one of the top five owners in terms of wealth. What most, he worked at Goldman, a little overlap with me, but what I'll tell you is that today is private equity. We think at before o'clock, they're going to vote and be private. >> And David, after that, it's going to take the place of paramount in your lexicon. >> It's a small group of permitted private equity buyers. And by the way, what they can buy is limited to a very small percentage of each team. >> But do you think a team's going to go from $10 billion to $20 billion in worth, which is certainly a possibility? >> It's actually not a bad buy. >> I'm going to talk about it. >> Private equity would like to participate. And so you do have-- >> Well, remember, not all owners should fit in. Stories in Blackstone, a couple of the other big ones. >> Is there like a permitted list? >> Yes, there's a permitted list. >> I'm going to get that permitted list. >> And by the way, David, just have it in somewhere here. >> The owners are of not of equivalent wealth. So it's entirely possible that one of the owners wants to take more money than others. >> But it would, again, it would to monetize a relatively small percentage of your team. You're not going to be-- >> But create a benchmark. >> Create a benchmark. >> Yes. >> I mean, if you're receiving Lamb's contract, maybe-- >> We're in the 36 mill. >> Yeah. >> Jerry deserves it. It does not name them money. The CD is really good. >> Yeah. >> You can take them the first one. You can take them off. If you get top three pick, would you go for them? First three? Fantasy. >> I mean, fantasy. I told you I don't play fantasy. >> Loot. >> OK. >> Purist. I just watched the game. >> Fantasy is everything. Daily fantasy is the most important thing, the gateway. >> Like, not on Lake Trizapatite, it's at 250. >> All right, we got some breaking economic data. That'll be right after this break. 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