tell us something about at least what the hopes are for these companies heading forward. >> that's right. and we get pce inflationeading on friday, too, but in the meantime, that's going tdo it r us he "overtime." >> yeah, for today. "fast money" starts now. hey, everybody. live from the naaq market site in the heart of new york city's times square, this is "fast money." here's what's on tap tonig can't win them all. the streaks for the dow and with us the market's late-day selloff just profit taking or after a big run or the start of a meaningful pull-back? we'll debate that one. plus, shoe dog or dynamo? shares of nike struggling for much of the year, then rebounding big-time in the past two months. will earnings la up more upside or send the sck back down? and later, reports after the bell that warner brothers discery and paramount are in early talks to merge. we will have the latest and ask

whether a deal would start a wave of media mergers. i'm tyler mathieson in for melissa lee, glad you could join us, coming to you live from studio b at the nasdaq. on the desk tonight, steve grasso, good to see you, steve. karen finerman, guy adami, and julie biel joins us remotely. we start with a sharp late-day selloff. the dow dropping 476 points, with every member, everyone, down on the session. it was its worst percentage loss since way back on october 3rd, and all that after the index had notched a new intraday record ear earlier in the day. all three now the red for the week, puing them in danger i snapping a seven-weerun of winning performance. every s&p sector lower on the day. consumer staples, energy, discretionary, biggest losers there. and take a look at treasuries. the yield on the ten-year

dropped as low as 3.85%. that's the lowest it has been nce late july. so, was all thisction just a run we've had, or is there more maybe trouble brewing under the surface here. guy? is there anything to really worry about here? >> well, i've been worried incorrectly for awhile, so, i'm probably the wrong person to ask you, but steve, karen, julie all have been bullish. i'll say this. one of the things, many things that have concerned me about this market are ese zero date until expri options. with things going higher, nobody seems to keep. volatility's a great thing, when you are short and getting paid, but it works against you. and around 2:30 today, something clearly happened. but when you have it happen on a day where we made a new 52-week high, we test the all-time highs in the s&p and reverse the way we did, you -- even if you are the most bullish person in the world, you have to take notice. today.as on the air at 2:30

it was nothing i said, i promise you. i promise you. steve, what do you think? >> yeah, so, i did take notice of it today, but if you look at it, rates have been falling, think that's a tailwind for th markets, we're coming up to year-end, we've had such an outsized rally, and such a runup, that you would -- i don't want to say you'd be crazy not to lock in a little bit of profit, but i think once somebody sells, everyone else has an itchy trigger finger. it spirals out of ntrol. options related. have been there were a couple of taiwan headlines, just rumors, but if you want a reason to sell, you could find ten of them. >> yeah. julie, was there a predicating event here today that you can identify f why the market turned tail the way it did at 2:30? >> no, i don't think so. it's harto really point to anything and i'm not sophisticated enough to pick up on these micromovements, but what i will say is, you know, you've seen a clear revaluation

in the market that's related to interest rates and what's going to have to take us from here is earnings and fundamentals are what are going to propel the market forward. we've seen the benefits of lower interest res and now the hard work of fundamentals has to take place in order for us to keep pushing higher. >> and how do you evaluate those fundamentals? what do you think is in the cards? >> well, you know, i think t most important point is, if we continue to see good, strong employment, then the consumer remains healthy and most of our economy is okay. but i think the ctors that are showing some weakness, you know, in consumer, it's rely a function of, are you creating value for your customers? and so, in the old days of the pandemic, when we didn't have anywhere to spend our money and we were looking for dopamine, we but now, you really have to . provide value for your customers, and that's even true on the business sector, too. inflationarynvironment, ev n an as prices soften. >> karen, it w some consumer

staples that took hits today, general mills, fedex, not a consumer staple, but a transpt. what are you seeing? >> it's interestg. you know, it's a big move, clearly, within a couple of hours, hour and a halfreally, and if you step back aittle bit, it just takes us to we were friday around lunchtime. it's not that giant in the scheme of things. normally, when you see sething like that, you hear rumors and then you hear something more solid thanumors. we don't have that yet, we were talking in the gen room, do we have anything really specific to point to? no. so, a lot of what the guys have been saying, you know, is it stops or just momentum and people think, all right, that's it, rally's over? i'm always long, so i'm going to be long into this, i'm going to be long after this fall, i think that just out of steam, maybe, though i thought it would last until year end, because i think there's a lot of chasing going on, just to sort of, you know, performance was ahead of most managers. i don't ha a great reason to exbrain it.

>> nobody real seemso. i think we're kind of flummoxed here steve, you mentioned chatter on taiwan that has kind of beenn the -- in the ether. >> right. >> on and off. concerns about what xi's objectives are. he's been trarnsparent about it. >> he has been very transparent. i think this is a one-day event. i think we're going to have that, get back on the bull for the rest of the year, i think ople won't be afraid to rally, probably into year-end. i think you're -- this market is going to be tested somewhere in january. earnings have bottomed for me. people -- what julie said. people have jobs, people are going to be spending money. i think the economy is okay. the market will be tested sometime in january. >> what do you think? >> well, it's interesting. in terms of taiwan,and this comes after the president xi meeting with biden in san francisco, whenever that was. now the headlines are coming out

that president xi said, we're going to take taiwan by any means necessary and, listen, there are all different kinds of news stories here, so, there's clearly something there, something we thought for awhile. if, in fact, that's the case, that's -- i think -- >> that's a me changer. >> that's a bit of a game changer, especially for some of the high-flying technology stocks. so, that is out the. but steve might be right. one-day event. being bullish is being right. but when you see a reversal with the volume we saw at a level we haven't seen in basically three years-ish, you have to take notice. >> yeah, yeah. thoughts? >> just feel like, if there why didn't we hear -- we heard a little rumbling about that three weeks or so ago, whenever that was, that's a long time ago from now to have this all of a sudden -- >> seems to be re-emerging. >> what happened today, and information flows so quickly. if there were something more tangible, we would have heard it. famous last words. >> for more, let's bring in to dwyer. tony, welcome. you yesterday, i believe it was,

put out a note talking about the current extreme overbought condition in the broad equity market. it's as if the market heard you. >> if only i had that kind of power, i'd be on the video on the commercial. >> by the way, welcome. >> great to be here, tyler. you know, it's -- as wre talking in the green room, if i walk up to guy and i told guy a bald-face lie right to him a the next statement i said to guy was, this one's right, i'm telling the truth, you would question it, right so, the note that you're referring to, tyler,e called it, now it's proving time, after you've had a bigally. on october 27th, when the market was poised to set the stage for a rally, what was it tling us then? everybody was thinking it was going to go to 6% on the ten-year, the -- 8 of the 11 sectors were negative on the year. all the indices except for the were down on theear, what was it tellings?

it was time to buy. , we're now on oppose da and we hear th the market's telling us that because it's making new highs and it's rolling that we're going to have a great economy and interest rates are going to continue to go down. the last time it told us something, it lied. so, i don't -- this isn't a comment on fedex, but it was making a 52-week high, it was going up every single day and then they came out with weaker numbers and it's down 11%. >> so, the lie now is? >> the lie could be that everything's great, the economy's a perfect soft landing, powell got it exactly right. you know, they raised rates in a historic way to a generationally levered system. we're at 18 times earnings, colluding the mag seven. so, it's hard after the rally. on october 27th, tyler, it was identifiable. you have never been that oversold on the weeklies we use. you had the bond market at 5% on the ten-year, with three events coming up. a former fed chair was going to tell us what they were goingo issue for treasuries, you had a fed meeting, and you had a payroll report.

what were the odds that janet yellen, a former fed chair, who is determining the maturity duration for the issuance, is going to hurt her own administration with a bad news item? so, the rally was identifiable. it's gone a lot further an i or most others thought. now it's proving time. you have to secret improve. >> who wants to question tony? >> yeah, so -- >> everybody. >> everybody wants to question tony. tony, going to tell you a lie straight to your face. >> i was long going into the rally, but i'm wondering, though, you're talking about 18 times multiple for the, you know, 493, i guess. with rates here, if we use the ten-year as the mathematical peg, that doesn't seem particularly overvalued to me. >> no. i don't think this is a period where you go out and short. i don't know if it's a one-day event or more, but the fed pivoted, and what's interesting about the fed pivot, karen, and this whole environment, is in my career, i've seen it a bunch of time. saddam hussein invaded kuwait and michael milken wrecked the

high yield market. 94, orange county made a pivot. then you had 18 with long-term capital, themade a pivot. then you had the dot com bust. >> you are going way back. >> right. but when they pivot, it's usually when things are really bad. they pivoted after theread been a 75-basis point drop in the bond market yield. after there was a 10% rally in the stock market. so, it's very strange to me how -- why they picked now to pivot. >> you're pointing to the december meeting. >> yeah, the december meeting. now, i -- we had written a piece called "higher for shorter," because when you spike in a levered system to 5%, it's not sustainable. and that meant to us that rates were going to come down more than most folks thought. well, they've done that, and again, it's proving time. if you look back, last october, october '22 to early '23, the current drop in u.s. treasury yields, mortgage yields, and

moody's credit yields is exactly the same as it is today. so, in other words, you've done what you did last year, now you >> the mket, from october e. forward until just last week, when the fed did what it did, or did nothing but said what it said, the market was basically telling the fed, you're going to pivot, right? >> right. and so, just to push back on the, we have to prove ourselves, rates are coming down, we've seen that, but rates also spiked in an uncontrollable fashion to five. >> totally. >> i think this is just the pendulum switching back. that's bullish to me. and earnings have bottomed. so, hasn't the market proved itself? >> it has toll reflect what's happened in the credit market, what's happened in the commodities market. to get that -- rember, a soft landing doesn't mean you stay on the ground. it means you need to recelerate. you need gas to react is rate, you got to open up the capital markets, you got to open up the

corporate bond market, you have to open up secondaries, ipos, you have to create a selng market. there's got to be some way to reaccelerate. you need an improved outlook for money. we have the same improved outlook for money th we had into the rally at the end of last yr, so, we've got -- we've got a point where most people have a mortgage bow 4%, so en at 6.5% to 7%, you can't refi. you need more improvement to really kick start that whole credit cycle. as i said in my note, this is a great start. we've had a great start. now we need that next leg of improvement to get that reacceleration, to get the plane back off the ground. you needull fuel. and that's -- that's what we're trying to get here. >> tony, thank you. have a good holiday. >> great to be with you. happy holidays to you guys. >> took us on a nice walk through history there. >> right, no kidding. ll, we're old. >> let's do some trang here. julie, i don't want to neglect

you there, sitting thereice to your next tree and the lovery environment out there. how do we trade what tony just said or this moment in the market, profably, between now -- and you emphasized, i think quite rightly, that the proof is going to be in the pudding and the proof is in the form of earnings, which are going to start coming out in little more than two weeks time. >> yeah, you know, i think -- it always comes back to the saying, right, the market is always ing to do what's going to make the mostumber of people look stupid. and that was true at the beginning of the year when everyone thought there was going to be a recession. that was true in october when we thought rates were going to stay at 6% and 7%, and i think it's true right now, where we really have to be thoughtful about, what's the market, andhat's the fundamentals? and for a longer term investor, you have to be exposed to businesses that can participate in an upmarket, so, they have enou cyclicality to benefit, if we see a reinflation of demand, particularly on the credit side, but you also want to protect you're withyourself

quality we have a bullier or weaker landing. businesses that have recurring revenue and really strong, regardless of market outcomes, because there's so much uncertainty. it's hard to know which way we're going. >> guy, this has been a good year in the market. the last six to eight weeks have been nothing short of spectacular, really, i mean, people looking at their portfolios, people still get paper statements -- i do. >> you do? >> not that anybody cares, i was the last pson at goldman sac that g a check. they called me into , saying, this is -- you have to get -- you have to get direct deposit. i'm like why? so yes, to your question. >> it's been a pretty good year lately, if you had bonds, you would lock in nice yields on bonds. what does 2024 look like to you, as good, not as good, hard -- would be hard to beat this year.

>> i'm hard pressed to believe it's going to be anywhere near as good that we've seen this year in terms of individual equities and the indices. it just doesn't add ups right now, i think you are looking for 13 1/2, 14 eps growth. gdp, less than 1.5%. so many things to be concerned about. leading economic indicators down 19 months in a row. bank credit is being contracting. yeah, we have a good unemployment data last time, but i think you're going to see the stair step function higher in the unemployment rate. when you have an economy that's driven 73% by people having jobs and buying things, when credit is contracting and jobs may be going away, and you heard it from a swath of companies. look at general mills today. i don't know how that's bullish. we're watching micron afterhours right now. shares of that semi stock on the move after it posted results. we've got details from the quarter next. plus, new reports that warner brothers discovery and paramount are talking about teaming up, merging, that is.

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here between the commercials there. wish you could have been here. welcome back to "fast money," everybody. earnings alert on micron. shares popng after the company reported a top and bottom line beat and gave strong q-2 guidance. the conference call got under way in the last hour. kristina partsinevelos has the latest. and the, quote, very early y, stages of their grow stage driven by generative a.i. revenues and marginsmproved because of higher selling prices for memory chips, and the ceo is expecting those prices to climb in 2024. micron's ceo continued noting inventories for memory and storage are at or near normal levels for most customers across personal computers. they expect unit growth after

two years of decnes in pcs and they have improved smartphone inventories as well as auto and industry. supply could be an issue for customers. mory supply growth for fiscal 2024 plan to be, quote, well below mand growth for both d-ram and nan memory, driving prices higher. and the midas toh of nvidia continues. micronaying it is qualifying its advance high bandwidth memory chips for nvidia gpus, but that means cap x will be higher in 2024 than last year. micron's ceo, though, will be "squawk on the street" tomorrow for more. tyler? >> thank you, kristina. steve? >> micron is up 230% year to date. so, kristina talked about nan and d-ram, that's what micron is known for. if we have to power all of these different a.i. functionality and a.i. companies, we're going to

need a ton of d-ram and nan. i think it's more palablto buy micron versus somebody that's already outperformed. >> you got to believe this is trough quarter. for the record, they p preannounced this quarter, i think on november 28th. so, they were slightly better than the lousy preannouncement, less than a moh or so ago. we're 82 now.sed aund 78, you have to believe this is a trou, and things will get better from here and this is the worst it's going to get and things will reaccelerate, because the quarter by itself was not all that good. it's your belief system that they're going to be at the revolution.f this a.i. >> julie, a thought? >> yeah, i mean, most encouraging thing i saw on this quarter was about gross margin, and that's what really is going to drive this business forward, and it's just a reflection that inventory is finally getting to places where they have some control of pieci pricing.

i think that makes sense. and if you are trading in semiconductors, this makes sense. if you really care about fundamentals, the fact that their easterearnings deteriorat way they did shows that this is a commodity product. i don't think it's that attractive, relative to nvidia. >> julie, thank you. calling them as she sees them. there's a lot for "ft" to come and here's what's coming up next. a real nike swoosh. shares jumping over the last few months. so, can we expect the same sm dunk pformance after earnings? we're running circles around that trade, next. plus, channeling your portfolio's inner animal spirit, as cat pounces on new highs heading into the new year. can the ferocious industrial ocks keep climbing? you're watching "fast money, live from the nasdaq market site in tes square. we're backight after this.

welcome back to "fast money," everybody. nike on deck to report after the bell tomorrow. the sportsware giant sprinting to year-end, now up nearly 40 points -- excuse me, 40%, percent, not points, from its september lows. our next guest says tomorrow's results could tell auge story about valuations in the consumer trade. seigle is with us now.semien nike was a little slow, but the last two months, they've been so good. >> how good are they for making puns? >> there's a lot of work going on here. >> and it will continue, good to see you guys. i think what we're going to see right now, who reports earnings

the week before christmas? so, here, we're going to get the last look on consumer right after all the consumer stocks have uplifted. our whole conversation now, is this market, fundamentals or sent sentiment? interest rates are down, multiples go up, or have numbers actually moved? no numbers have moved. and so, i think tomorrow, we get a good result, i think that nike generally beats, guides down, rinse and repeat. the fundamental.t that, that's the question is going to be, do people want to own it? do they -- are theokay with the multiple? right now, people want to our it. >> what is the multiple now? can't remember. i just did this report with my son on ne the other day, but -- >> it's chged in the last two days. you've gone from low -- high 20s to low 30s to mid 30s to high >> yeah. that. >> and so, that's wh i mean -- >> that's the anticipation? >>nd that's the market, right? with interest rates where they are, you change what you put in your dcm. >> last quarter in september, stock was 89 bucks. inventories were down 10%

against very decent sales growth. even china was probably better than expected. but you've had this run now. margins will improve, but to your point about valuation, is it improved enough to sort of justify this valuation? >> so, last quarter, i'm glad you brought that up -- >> see that, tyler? >> on the head. >> on it. >> the other side of that trade was where lulu was. and so, last quarter, you talk to any institutional investor and they are long lulu, short nike. that was the trade. that's changed. lulu is run even more. and so, right now, i think this conversation, nike gave us a good north america number last quarter so, that should keep going. this is the difficult north america quarte they get through this, it starts geing easier for the rest of the year. >> karen? >>ast quarter, they seemed to get a lot of good ll on what were some nice improvements, but not so fantastic. the inventory issue, which really weighed on them, they sort of got control of that. so, what is the thing that's going to compel them forward? and i'm long. i'm a little nervous about how rich it is.

>> i'm a sell side analyst, which means i need to outpun tyler or go th the it yoms. every sell-side analyst analyst said good but not great. good enough, not amazing. something exactly as you are describing, that's because we were afraid of this quarter. the quarter we're in right now and nextuarter, in north america, we laughelast year when adidas had their problems, right, when you all of a sudden saw a massive vaum. you need to get through that. nike did really we on the back of that this was the fear. and so, what they have suggested and what wholele looks like it's going to be okay right now, you don't have this bottomless pit and that's whapeople were worried about. if they can show that, then we're just going to ask, from a multiple erspective, it's going to be the same thing with the industry as lockng as that's okay, china becomes an opportunity. china went from g anything righ.

but as long as you are okay with the market, the answer is yes. >> thank you so much. good to see you again. appreciate it. let's trade nike. julie, why don't you take the first whack at the big swoosh? >> yeah, no, i think -- i agree, i think for maybe a longer-term investor this is still one of the best positioned names. they really have a brand that makes sense, and i think his points really make sense to me in terms of, you know, if you look at the history of retail, we were benefiting from so mucp buying indiscriminately. now, we're going to see the companies that can produce dif against rated merchandise, even at the same kind of customer cohort, whether it's luxury or the low income consumer, we're seeing more and more divergence, so, we're going to be able to separate the goddesses from the guys. the ones that really deliver value to customers versus the ones that are just also-rans. and that's how retail trades.

typically, you have to eat what you kill and produce what you need to do. i think nike is really unique in its ability to do that over the long-term. >> it has been a style leader, it is the popular brand among k kids, globally, i would say, in all likelihood. >> i any think you're right. the brand is so much bigger than everything else out there. we used to talk about under armour competing. they're down 10% year to date. nike's only up 4%, even though it's ran pretty aggressively. but they have the brand, you know what else is rinse and repeat? north america is strong, china is weak. he said china's been an anchor. all we need is china to improve a little and nike improves a lot. options traders are feeling a little bit bullish about nike's results with a ton of volume in the name today. and mike khouw joins us with the action. what's going on, mike? >> yeah, so, nike's always a pretty busy option, but actually it traded nearly three times its average daily call volume today.

the options market is implying a move of about 6% by the end of the week. higher or lower. but more are betting that it's going to be higher. the busiest contract were the march 125 calls. we saw those trade for an average of $5.71, and that included an institutional buyer of 4,000 who paid $5.70 earlier this months. we happen to own this name and lulu, both on the holly index. >> all right, interesting. and it's great seeing nike rising through the march expiration. thank you, mike. coming up, could there be a ma megamedia merger on the horizon? warner brothers and paramount reportedly in talks to join forces. what it could mean for the streaming landscape, for the studios, and more, next. plus, one wall street firm says it's time to dial nine on at&t. that one's for you, guy. a look at why b of a thinks ma bell is ready to bounce back from the 20-year lows it hit

this summer. phone a friend. tell them "fast money" is back in two. missed a moment of "fast?" catch us any time on the go. follow the "fast money" podcast. we're back right after this.

all right, everybody, welcome back to "fast money." stocks staging a late-day selloff with the dow and the nasdaq snapping nine-day win streaks. the dow falling 475, after notching a new intraday record earlier in the day. it was that kind of day. the highs were high, the lows were low. the s&p and nasdaq both falling a percent and a half. all three indexes having their worst days since back in october. the russell 2,000 small cap index getting hit hard. that group down nearly 2%. and in percentage terms, that is one of the higher of the losses for the day. cnbc's alex sherman confirming earlier reports of merger talk now between warner brothers discovery and rival paramount. both stocks dropping on the news. let's bring in light speed partners cofounder rich greenfield. rich, you've been saying paramount needs -- bless you,

whoever sneezed over there -- >> wow. quiet down there. >> a sneeze from nasdaq. you've been saying that mar point needs a buyer, and that legacy media streaming playbook is not sustainable. talk us through the logic behind this one, and why paramount seems so eager now to put itself on the block. >> you're assuming that it's not just paramount that's eager. i think the entire sector is facing really an existential crisis, right? linear tv is never getting better. advertising is in secular decline, cord cutting is worse than expected. streaming losses are in the billions. i think this is really sort of an ah-ha moment, inflection point, watershed moment, you could call it, for the industry where they're realizing, there is no growth. they are in secular decline mode, and it's almost like in that movie scene where everyone has their hands up in the air where they are screaming running around in circles. they don't know what to do. so, i think you have a ton of bankers, you've seen disney

throw off, hey, we're selling linear tv, then they're not, we're trying to get out of hulu, maybe we'll buy it. now b.e.t., sell that, maybe we won't, we'll merge with warner brothers discovery -- there is nonstop merger. all of that raises one massive question -- how bad are numbers for q-4 for this industry, these companies? and what does next year look like? we've already seen warner brothers discovery numbers originally when they announced the merger between warner and discovery, they were looking at $14 billion in ebitda, they are going to come in between $10.5 and $11 billion. we'll see if that can grow next year. i wonder if the reason we're seeing merger talk is not just that paramount's balance sheet is stretched, but all of these companies are realizing, next year is going to be a heck of a lot tougher. tv advertising is never, ever getting better. and that's probably why. the problem, as you said, putting these companies together doesn't fix the problem. putting more -- linear tv and

linear tv still makes a tough, challenging business. >> well, that's the -- before i slit my wrists at your predictions for the business that we have to work in, i -- i was thinking the exact same thing. how does this make it better if you take two kind of legacy operators and you smush them together? why wouldn't one or both of them be running to somebody else out there, you know who i'm talking about? >> first of all, don't slit your wrists. margins are going to contract, is business is going to get tougher, but it isn't that bad. it's just going to be a declining story. but i think the real answer is, putting companies together is not the right answer. that is not fixing the problem. the problem is, they can't compete with netflix. they need to stop. they need to shut down these streaming services or scale them back. that's what we put out. we wrote a big piece yesterday that the streaming strategies of these companies is flawed. we thought they could go all-in and go in and compete, they can't.

now, it's time, with balance sheets stretched, financials, you know, profitability in decline, these companies need to change course and do it immediately. i don't think putting one and one together doesn't get you more. look at what's happened to wbd stock since the merger, in terms of putting that warner media asset together with discovery. obviously, the stock is down 50% or so, like, i don't think merging is the answer here. even if it can clear regulatory. the real answer is, let's take a dramatically different course in how we approach streaming and let's focus on going back to what these companies are best at, which is making great content. whether it's hbo, warner brothers, make great content. stop trying to be a flatplatfor. paramount plus was a bad idea. let's just call it what it is, it was a bad idea. and it's not working. >> karen? >> rich, it's karen, thanks for being on. it would seem like this should be dead in the water, this idea,

for the balance sheet issues, for other issues. >> bankers like mergers. this is great for bankers. they make lots of fees on this, karen. >> i get that. i don't know if the holders want to do it again, do a big expensive merger, take on a lot of debt, i guess they'd have to issue shares, i don't know that they could borrow cash to do this deal. for a lot of reasons, before we even get to regulatory, which may or may not be an issue. so, you said it's all about content, but content is expensive. what do they do? >> so, first, i also think you're missing one key stake holder in this, the employees. think about how many different mergers and transactions the warner brothers -- go back to the old time warner, which you remember, karen, twx. think about what these employees have been through, the fight with at&t. that is not insignificant, like, this has been too much for too long for the employee base, which is not healthy. but let's put that aside for a second. what should they do?

what we wrote yesterday and i feel very comfortable saying is, they should go back to hbo. like, max is not a core brand, people don't know what it means. i think the idea was good, but it's too late. it's not that it was a bad idea already, it was just too late. go back to hbo. be the best hbo they can be, don't try to be a max global streaming platform. have a small discovery plus for discovery plus fans and then go back to what warner brothers has done forever, which is be an incredible arms dealer of tv content and movie content to the entire industry. and really lean into being an arms dealer the way warner brothers was up until they launched the max strategy. i just don't think with the balance sheet and the state of their, you know, earnings today, they can no longer do the plan that they would have done three and four years ago, and so, i think a dramatic change in strategy is necessary now, and then, on the cable network side, run them for cash. just literally run it out. reduce costs, fire a ton of

employees, and run those businesses for cash. don't try to compete in the streaming wars. >> all right, rich, tough prescription there. thank you very much. appreciate your time. let's trade this stock. i have to say, i was an employee of time warner for the first 22 years of my career. as i look at that company, the old time warner, or warner brothers, i cannot think of an enterprise that has gone through more bad deals than time warner. >> trying to make up for the gaping loss of -- >> this talent, exactly. >> never worked out. >> let's trade this. >> everything that rich says makes me think that netflix is a stronger entity. seems like they're the only ones that have a winning recipe to this. when you look at it on a chart, i actually thought, with the screen actors guild, with that strike ending, there was a bunch of tailwinds for netflix. and i thought those were dissipating. now, with everyone else struggling, it seems as though there's been a second, third, or

fourth wind for netflix stock. so, there's two players in this. disney is a diversified play. it seems to be holding that little bit of a rally off the $80 level. and netflix. netflix by far is the best game in town, everything else, terse area. all right, coming up, we're going to spill the tea on t. that's gen-z lyningo. plus, it could be a rough year in store for the pharma world. the political punching bag this group could become, and the names that could take a hit, when "fast money" returns.

welcome back to "fast money." shares of cat clawing their way to all-time highs today before pulling back amid the market selloff. meanwhile, the rival deere down more than 9% so far in 2023. what could be its worst day since 2015. still both stocks named top picks for '24 at jeffries today. that firm saying machinery could be on track to see upside in the new year. so, will cat cut out the competition or will it be the

year of the deere, guy? >> interesting, i think it was stephen volkman, he commented about caterpillar in november. he's been good, he's been steadfast, and the stock has been extraordinary. despite the fact that, go back last quarter and see, dealer inventories picked up and the stock fell off a cliff. people say valuation is compelling. i think they're going to have an inventory problem. i don't agree. i'll say this about john deere. we've had trouble at these levels a number of times, caterpillar's been sort of parabolic. deere can't get out of its own way. i'd be cautious on both these names. >> all righty. meanwhile, calling all telecom investors. one firm picking a wireless winner for '24. bank of america naming at&t a top pick, saying the stock keeps showing off, proving durable in the face of healthy competition, rising inflation, new competitors. at&t down today, but up 20% since hitting a two-decade low in july. steve? >> yeah, i mean, if you go back on a five-year chart, it's been a declining trend line forever,

so, it's almost like they picked this one on a dare i can't understand how this could be the best idea that they're looking at right now. it's a laggard. it's the mother of all laggards. the stock is down 11% year to date. a dividend yield of 7%. you could lose that dividend yield in a month. so, i wouldn't be buying it for the dividend yield. i would be looking elsewhere for a future. but if people are buying the laggards, you could come off zero pretty quickly. >> all right. well, that's a clear opinion right there, steve, thank you. coming up, folks, a case of the pharma blues. it's been a rough year for the sector, and with an election year just around the corner, more trouble could be ahead. we'll explain why. and david faber will be speaking with morgan stanley's outgoing ceo, james gorman. catch that interview tomorrow morning. "fast moy"om bk tne cesacinwo.

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wireless that works for you. it's not just possible, it's happening. welcome back to "fast money," everybody. big pharma outside of the obesity drugmakers have been struggling this year, and next year's elections could pose another hurdle for the group. cnbc's angelica peebles explains. >> hey, tyler.

two-thirds of voters are describing drug prices as a very important issue that they want to hear about on the trail. and that's according to a recent poll from the kaiser family foundation. the biden team sees this as a winning issue for them. they can say that they -- that last year, biden signed the inflation reduction act, which, remember, that lets medicare negotiate the prices of some drugs. but the problem is only one-third of voters are aware of that policy. so, expect to hear more from biden to draw attention to that issue. and the republicans don't look any friendlier. trump as president pushed for policies like pegging drug prices here to a different country's pay. and desantis and haley are always talking about the need for reform. but despite all the noise, presidential election years actually haven't been as bad for bio pharma stocks as you might think. we ran the numbers and found there's no significant difference in the performance of these stocks compared to nonelection years. and that's not to say that something like trump accusing drug makers of getting away with murder won't create some

volatility. tyler? >> all right, angelica, thank you. julie, what do you see here? and is the political conflict around these companies likely to be a headwind for them? >> yeah, i mean, we saw the impact of that already this year, where there was so much incertainty and so much trading that happened around where cms was going to end up in terms of drug pricing, and so, i think that actually continues, because if you think about the drug manufacturers, they're kind of uni universally despised. they're like lawyers, right? and it's totally okay to hate on them. and i think that's going to be a really easy punching back for both sides of the political spectrum and that's not going to be positive longer term. i would be hesitant to be super invested in them, particularly because outside of glps, you know, they're pipelines are not as robust as they have been previously, so, for me, i'm a little bit hands off. >> steve? and then karen, we'll close it with you. >> yeah, so, a large cap pharma, we have the glp inhibitors,

that's one aspect of it. they are trying, the majors in the pharmacy world, are trying to work their way out of the covid environment, because they were too reliant on the vaccines that -- >> that would be a pfizer, a moderna, and in the glps, talking lilly, largely, among the american makers. >> right, so you can play it with a lilly on the pull-backs, because we still don't know what that path is going to look like. if you really want to go deep water, you go with an etf, the xbi. that's where you see the most m and a and you don't have to be a genius on all the little companies. you buy the etf and hope one of them gets taken out. >> final thought? >> yeah, i'm long. it's been painful this year. i do think it's scary to go into an election year. we'll probably get a chance to buy it better than where i am now, but i think there are so many names in here that are so cheap that are hard for a value girl to stay away. >> all right, folks, we're going to take a quick break, and up next, we'll do some final trades.

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all right, let's give you one more look at the markets today, if you are brave enough.

stocks selling off late in the day with the dow and nasdaq snapping nine-day win streaks, as you see the dow industrials from about 2:30 on, it got real ugly. early in the day, the dow has set an all-time intraday high, but then down the ski slope it went by 1.25%. s&p 500 off by 1.5% and nasdaq, 1.5% on the button, folks. all right, we can move onto the final trade, shall we? julie, why don't you go first? >> yeah, heico recently reported quite good results. really solid double-digit growth. profitability really is there, if you can look through some cost fluctuations, i think this is a good name for you. >> okay. karen? >> yes, i'm going to go with exxonmobil. >> i've heard of it. >> so big, so powerful, so cheap, and if you look at the balance sheet, so good versus where it was, a lot of cash flow there, very -- >> say that about me, so big, so powerful, so cheap. just the way to go.

steve? >> west rock. it's been my final trade for probably 30 times, but this one, you'll thank me for when it doubles. >> legend? >> legend. >> thank you for being with us. psx. >> all my mission is simple, to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there is always a work in somewhere and i promise to help you find it. mad money starts now. hey, i'm kramer. welcome to mad money. mike jobs not just entered -- my job is not just to entertain you but also to teach you. today certainly started out as a good day.