look like, is that going to accelerate? if it does, does that put a soft landing at risk? we're not there yet. we know that the jobs market overall is still very strong right now, but to your point, how is this going to play out, especially as earnings season ramps up and you do start to get cost levers being -- >> we'll see. for now, that does it for "overtime." "fast money" starts now. live from the nasdaq market site in the heart of new york city's times square, this is "fast money." here's what's on tap tonight. grounded. boeing shares slide after the faa orders airlines to stop flying all 737 max 9 planes until urgent inspections are completed. this following the alaska airlines midair emergency friday night. we'll have the latest developments straight ahead. plus, shopping spree. investors buying up names like american eagle and crocs. and later, tiger woods and nike are breaking up. nvidia setting records yet

again, and two traders are ready to reveal their acronyms from 2024. one is flexing, the other has zoo animals on his mind. i'm melissa lee, coming to you live from studio b at the nasdaq. on the desk tonight -- tim seymour, karen finerman, dan nathan, and guy adami. with begin with boeing. shares tumblingal the midair incident friday night on an alaska air jet. that emergency led the faa to grounding 737 max 9 planes until safety inspections of all of them are completed. phil lebeau has been following the story since late friday night. he's here with the latest developments and the ripple effects across the industry. phil? >> we're waiting to see if there is a statement from boeing regarding the news from united, which we'll talk about in a little bit, about united finding loose plugs, or loose bolts in some of the fuselage plugs it has inspected in its fleet. here's where the investigation standing right now. it's all about the fuselage

plugs. these are essentially doors that are not operational doors anymore. they're inside of the fuselage, they're put there by spirit aerosystems, which manufactures the plug and the fuselage. the plane in question, the one that had the incident friday night had three reports of pressurization problems prior to that incident and united, as i mentioned, reporting late today that it has found loose bolts in some of the early inspections it has done of the max 9s in its fleet. in a statement, united wrote, we have found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug. for example, bolts that needed additional tightening. the door plug in question, it's about 65 pounds. and this is -- the one that came off of the plane on friday night in a suburb of portland, landed in somebody's backyard. and there are ntsb investigators going and collecting it.

that will now be sent to washington for further analysis, along with the data recorder from that air craft, as you take a look at shares of boeing. tomorrow's a big one. they're going to be holding an employee town hall at the washington factory. where they build the 737 max. dave calhoun, ceo of boeing, will be there, as will stan deal, who runs boeing commercial airplanes. stephanie pope, new coo, there will be members of boeing's board there. there is no doubt that questions are -- keep cropping up here about quality control. and why there seem to be these persistent issues that come up when it comes to the 737 max. that will be addressed tomorrow during the town hall. also take a look at spr, spirit aerosystems. they make fuselages for the max. they make the door plug. no indication yet that they're responsible for what happened on friday night. but certainly, a lot of questions there, which is why spirit was down, look, melissa,

earlier in the day, premarket, i think it was down 19%, 20%. a lot of questions in terms of what's been happening at spirit, as well as with boeing. >> yeah, other airline contractors also down on the back of just these fears they are associated in some way with the accident. phil, i'm curious, though, you know, when it comes to, spirit makes the plug, loose bolts, who is is in charge? there's an implication that whoever unsinstalled or put the bolts in, tightened the bolts, there was no check afterwards. it seems there would be a check afterwards that would catch loose bolts before it actually goes into flight. >> well, yeah, i -- i think you are making the correct assumption. it's not like they take a fuselage at boeing and say, well, it was built by spirit, everything is fine, here we go. having said that, melissa, if you remember, it was about four months ago, there was an issue with holes that were drilled improperly by spirit aerosystems and boeing had to go back, do some checks, and then correct

that situation, in fact, they told, you know, some of the operators of those aircraft, hey, you're going to have to do some checks to make sure that the bolts are installed correctly. that's a question for boeing. that will certainly come up the next time dave calhoun does an interview in terms of, how many checks are being done on what you get from spirit? doesn't mean that spirit is sending you faulty fuselages, but what kind of quality control is taking place here? because we seem to have this happening on a fairly regular basis. >> given there are so many unknowns still at this point, is it surprising, phil, to you, that the faa approved an initial safety inspection regime, which seems to sort of put to rest some questions about how long the grounding will take place? it seemed to be a path to getting these max-9 planes back into flight. >> sure. no, because i think that's an indication that the faa is fairly comfortable that if these inspections are done as they're laid out and, by the way, we

reached out to alaska this afternoon, alaska has not begun the inspections, nor has united, that's likely going to happen either tonight, tomorrow, they expect it to happen relatively soon. once they get the final, final approval from the faa, the faa would not approve this if they were not comfortable and confident that the system that they're putting in place to double-check the bolts, the installation, is the proper step. and after that, these planes are safe to fly. >> all right, phil, thank you so much. phil lebeau covering all angles of this story. it does seem to be a boeing and spirit aerosystems problem and not an airline problem, indicating this is not a prolonged issue that will ground flights for a long time, guy, but still, how do we think about this, a company whose reputation is really -- i'll put it to question once again. >> not the first time with boeing. we've done this story in different iterations, but we've done it a number of times. i think the question is, how do you trade the stock.

everybody thinks boeing just makes commercial planes, they do. but guess what? $18 billion in revenue last quarter, $6 billion of it was defense. so, this is a defense company, as well. tim talks about that. forget about valuation for a second. and let's just talk about where the stock -- unfortunately, the stock had a huge rally, we rallied up to previous highs, seemingly have failed given today. 50% retracement of the fall low 170ish in this recent high gets you to 220. that's a logical police to start getting long again in the stock. now, i'm not saying you have to race out and buy it. they'll report at the end of the month. if you are looking at a level, 220 makes sense. >> you've traded it in and out of crisis. >> and i'm long it now and i was getting pretty excited about the move forward, because if you think about the catalyst for boeing, they are free cash flow, but before that, there's a couple catalysts out there, including the max certification in china. and, you know, question is, what will this do to that timeline? will that push it back? looking at the response from

credit investors, and sometimes i look at what the bond markets do when there's equity stories, and with boeing, i'm seeing reiteration this is a company that will make $12.5 billion in ebitda with $10 billion in free cash flow, which is what the company looked like in 2018. >> we have a news alert on jetblue. leadership changes. phil, take it away. >> melissa, robin hayes, longtime ceo of jetblue, is going to be stepping down on february 12th. joanna garety, who is the current coo at jetblue and has been in that position for a number of years, highly regarded within the industry, and has done a very nice job at jetblue, is going to be moving into the ceo position. that has long been anticipated that when the day comes that robin hayes is going to step down or is no longer going to be ceo, who is the natural successor? joanna garety has long been considered the natural heir to the job. she will take over at ceo on

february 12th. by the way, robin hayes stepping down for some personal health reasons. he's been at that position for a number of years, melissa, and it's interesting to see whether or not he leaves, he's going to stay on the board, but he leaves as ceo, what happens in the -- in the case that's before a judge in determines of the doj trying to unwind the proposed merger with spirit. does he go out with a bang? or does the judge say, no, i'm going to rule in favor of the doj. >> all right, phil, thank you for the update. phil lebeau with news on jetblue leadership change. how do you start thinking about this boeing story? we've been here before, it seems like, seems like -- there were no casualties, it's not, you know, many plane crashes, it's -- there are differences. >> yeah, i mean, thank god for that, and that plane landing in a suburb, how horrific could that have been? but i think that it gets a little worse before it gets better. and maybethat is the 220 level.

but i looked at airbus today, it was -- i think like has happened in boeing several times before, ultimately, they will get through this and it will be a speed bump. >> this company's lost money for the last five years since they had the two very deadly crashes in 2018, 2019. there's been -- >> i just want to say something. they had covid to deal with this. it was that every airline grounded and didn't order new jets. i think that was the bigger issue. >> in '18 and '19, they had lots of, you know, canceled orders and the like. yes, covid, but again, your point about, like, $12 billion in ebitda, maybe, they've been losing money for years now. even post-covid. wasn't there this huge pent up demand for these planes, the china thing has been a story for a long time and they were longer into covid than we were, but like, to me, this company has, like, really fundamental

problems. there are articles going back to 2018 with those two crashes. so, it is not surprising. this plane has a problem. let's be clear -- >> what plane are we talking about in the 737 max-9? all the 737s? there's a 1,400 max planes that have been delivered today. there's about 200 that are max-9s. the reputational stuff -- i'm not going to argue -- >> when you are booking a flight, do you look and see what plane? i do. i look -- >> do you still? >> 100%. and before this thing happened, there was talk about, like, things in a rudder or something in this plane, like, that are loose or something like that. >> well, for awhile, people will be looking at where they sit and what -- >> there's no question about the emergency exit and the fact that those were the two -- like, two empty seats on the plane only is shocking and amazing. but is this -- is this a manufacturing flaw or is there a design flaw? these things have big implications for the profitability of the company and

how significant this is, and again, this is a company that's been slowly rebuilding free cash flow, and i -- you know, i'm not making light of this. you're all right to point out that they have reputational issues and karen is right to point out, it's a duopoly. they have an order book of 737s, but they are not max-9es. i don't need to jump in there today. >> all right. major averages finishing the day in the green thanks to a boost from big tech. the nasdaq up more than 2%. nvidia, one of today's biggest wi winners, announcing new chips that can power a.i. from homes and offices. meantime, in just the last hour, microchip technology citing a weakening economic environment for customers and distributors. of course, this comes after the news last week from mobileye warning about invenn toirp at the customer level. so, what are we witnessing here in terms of technology? we have the clear winners here, and we have the ones that are really having some troubles. >> i think that's exactly right.

you have winners and -- the winners continue to win. and the nvidia thing, for me, it was a tough -- it was a reach for me post-earnings last quarter to stay anywhere constructive on the stock for a myriad of reasons. here we are at an all-time high. the same levels we traded up to two quarters ago, but i'm glad you mentioned microchip. and on the back of the multi-ordering double ordering we heard last week from nobody yooi. i think that's going to be a probably going forward. i think that there's a lot of that going on. the stock market is overlooking it or discounting it to a point. i would be concerned there's double ordering here. clearly the stock market is not. >> what is the thing you always point to, when stocks go down on the same things -- >> over and over again. >> this feels sort of like that, because microchip with new news. adi trading lower on the same sort of news. the same sorts of concerns plaguing these stocks once again. >> well, clearly, it's a bearish

sign, but i did not say happy new year to guy, which i really -- >> oh, yeah. that's -- >> happy new year. >> that's so sweet. >> what is this, the seventh week of january already? >> it's '25 already. you're right. >> nice job. >> i have to get on the same news. and that's sort of telling of a bear market in a space, right? hopefully there's a divergence there between -- not all semis -- they are different things. and positive news out of, i mean, nvidia, i'm surprised, actually, the magnitude of the response of the stock. >> for nvidia. >> yeah. i'm not exactly sure, they talked about great new prices, we don't know what those are. >> right. >> kind of overdone. >> carter braxton worth pounded the table on nvidia today, to the extent that he pounds the table. but he reiterates his december 19th note, buy nvidia for a breakout and here we are. >> well, there's an argument on the charts, apparently, and there's an argument on the balance sheet, or the income

statement, on the multiples. and there are those analysts that have 25 bucks a share of earnings by '25 and that puts it at 21 times. so, you know, look. the fact is, they still have a significant lead on competition. how much is that lead, how much do the margins start to erode? we don't know. but right now, the company is falling through, and new product dynamics are yet to be priced in. let's stick with technology here. the next guest is betting on last year's biggest winners and butchish on a turnaround in china this year. let's welcome in dan niles. dan, great to see you. happy new year. >> happy new year to you. dan, dan. >> dan, i want to start with a microchip news. i'm wondering, to what extent, if any, are you concerned about this issue of double ordering and some of the weakness that chip makers might experience who feed into automotive and

industrial? >> i'm thrilled to see it, because you have to remember, i have longs and shorts. so, if you look at texas instruments, they went into this downturn early, and what we've been saying for a long time is that each semiconductor company is going to see this at a different time, depending on how much double ordering they had. their ability to meet demand. t.i. was able to meet demand early, so, their revenues have gone down over 10% year over year for four quarters in a row. we actually think there's probably some upside to 2024. for a lot of these other companies like a microchip, et cetera, we think there's downside. so, t.i. was up 3% last year. the semiconductor index was up 65%. so, we have a lot of shorts in the semiconductor space to balance out the long that we have in t.i., counting on the fact that things will normalize and it isn't different this time. >> hey, dan, so, we were just talking about nvidia, which had this bangup year, over 200%,

break out today. so, that was a consensus long last year, it came in as a consensus long in 2024. how are you thinking about consensus in tech? and to the point that mel just made about some of these names that have disappointed, baby with the bath water, we saw mobileye shoot first, ask questions later last week. how are you thinking about investors are positioned and how do you think about consensus here? >> well, i think last year it had nothing to do with earnings. apple's q-4 quarter is down 10% from where they started last year. the stock's up 48%. tesla, eps for december quarter is down 50%, and the stock was up 100% last year. because of the runups into 2024 in our view that there's going to be a soft landing, the fed is going to cut, everything is just peachy, you're going to need companies to start putting up numbers, and with mobileye, the stock went down 25% the next day, when they announced

negatively, you know, we'll see what happens with microchip tomorrow. but i think the rubber hits the road with this earnings season, and so for companies like n nvidia, where you are going to get two more quarters, probably, of massive beats and raises, and you're paying a 28 pe for the stock, we own it. we were fortunate in that we came into today very long that name. and we still think that's a good place to be. you look at other names, for example, nvidia is at 28 times. the market's at 20 times. apple at 27 times. and you go, really, i'm going to pay 27 times for a 5% revenue growth this year? i think that 5% is going to go down, where as nvidia's number is going to go up. so, i think the good news is, this is going to be a stock picker's nirvana, because you're not going to get stocks just because you go, oh, it's apple, it's big, the chart looks good. you have to get the fundamentals right to make money. >> we're showing some of the names you are long, amazon, meta, we know texas, bio tech. chinese internet, that seems

really interesting and quite contrarian at this point. what is the biggest risk in your view, what is your biggest fear about this trade? because some of the stocks, i mean, the fundamentals seem okay, but you know, the environment and just the foreign investment perception of them is terrible. >> well, i'm glad you called it contrarian and not idiotic. i'm pleased with that. but it's the riskiest of our picks in k-web. i'm a big believer in actions speak louder than words, and if you look at china internet s space, the chinese government has been just viciously going after these companies ever since they blocked the financial ipo in november 2020. so, if you look at their equivalent of fang, which is bat, whieven though the governm has been doing this, revenues have gone up 33%. those three stocks have gone down 53%. and the pe is now 13 times on average for those three,

compared to the mag knife sent seven, where you've got it about 34 times or so. and so, all you need is to go from just vicious persecution to just benign neglect and it's going to get better and while i think we've moved into that category, the government is starting to step up and buy stocks and try to support these companies, because they are below the levels they were at the bottom of 2022, but the revenues are still growing. and so, much like you saw last year, very little to do with earnings in some cases, where the multiples just went up a lot, if you can just get some minor view that the government is letting up on this, i think you're going to see the stocks able to rerate a lot higher, so, definitely the riskiest, but also the most upside from valuation, if we just get to a different regulatory regime. >> dan, got to end it here, but thank you so much for joining us. really appreciate it.

what do you make of china here? benign neglect, an interesting way of putting it. >> dan is definitely -- we said he was being contrarian and not -- >> yeah. >> i don't think he's being idiotic. he's being contrarian, and a little bit of tease to my acronym, other than saying something i say all the time. you make the most money when things go from terrible to just bad. we know how bad china is, in terms of the macro. that's not really the story with a lot of these companies. you're not playing -- is e-commerce growth going to shrink 2%? that's not the story. i totally agree with the view he has. >> when we were seeing the images out of china during covid of being people wheeled out on stretchers, you know, sick, just complete ockdowns, that these stocks are trading below those levels. >> well below. >> it's just shocking to think about it that way. >> fxi, 21 1/2 line in the sand. we looked at that chart a number of times. i just figured out what the b is

in tim's bicep trade. dan makes an interesting point, in valuations and growth, how certain stocks were awarded and rewarded. not necessarily living up to those expectations. coming up, we are giving retail a try-on. big moves out of american eagle, crocs and more. and whether or not you should add any of these to your cart, next. plus, all the headlines out of jpmorgan's health care conference, where jim cramer is zill sitting down with industry execs. that and more when "fast money" returns. this is "fast money" with melissalee, right here on cnbc. safe from cyberthreats? absolutely. can we provide health care virtually anywhere? we can help with that. is it possible to use predictive monitoring to address operations issues? we can help with that, too.

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consumer is not tapped out quite yet? we neglected to add lulu, which also raised guidance, but not to the extent that analysts had wanted. what did you think of all this? >> well, she's done just a fantastic job, and i missed this one completely, despite by daughter telling me, you know what's really good, aber com bea. it's not the super skinny half naked people walking around. that worked for awhile -- tim's out of a job, right? >> it was just an ad campaign. work, didn't know. >> she's done a spectacular job, top-line growth, but running it so much more efficiently. the operating income margins are so much better. it's not crazy expensive at 16, 17 times earnings. however, i feel pretty stupid, having seen the stock at, i don't know, a third, a quarter of where it is now, and thinking, eh, i don't know. so, i'm not long that one, lulu is a different story. it is just expensive. they run a great business, but what's the right multiple? it's getting a way premium to market multiple. >> you put a market multiple ,

it's not the a&f from years ago. this is a company that's going to earn a market multiple, $120 stock without batting an eye. and a company with a market cap of $5 billion that does $5 billion in revenue, if you want to throw out there. probably could go higher from here. there's a lot more "fast money" to come. here's what's coming up next. pharma in focus, as bristol myers outlines a product game plan. everything you need to know from jpmorgan's health care conference. that's next. plus, wall street seeing the glass half full ahead of earnings season. but could things be about to overflow? why our next guest says the market needs to cool its confidence. you're watching "fast money," live from the nasdaq market site in times square. we're back right after this.

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we're going to grow the assets we have today, we're going to deliver on our pipeline, and we're going to be strategic about capital allocation, that includes a commitment to that dividend, which we've increased 15 consecutive years. >> that was jim cramer sitting down with the ceo of bristol meyers. the company emphasizing its pipeline, saying it has the potential to deliver over 16 new products from now through 2030. bristol meyers stock down 30% of the past year. jim with a star-studded lineup tonight in the pharma world. in terms of bio tech and bristol meyers specifically, this is a company, they need to have at least 16 new products in the pipeline, because a lot of them

are going off patent. >> i've referred to this as pfizer-lite for 2023. i mean, the performance here has been awful. the valuation is cheap and it might be a value trap. and so, the dynamic is all about pipeline. remember, there's been a have and have not kind of divergence in the pharma space, obviously, right? and bmy is at the bottom end. it's a prove me story. some of the m&a dynamics get people excited. and it is amazing how it feels like it's not the analyst community, people flip a coin on these things. do you make an acquisition that is in a strategic sector, makes sense, they don't overpay, and some are rewarded, some are not. this is a stock to own in '24. i'm sure of it. >> i hope you are right. they announced a deal, $4 billion deal for a bio tech stock. they're in that no man's land, where, they're not going to get bought, and they probably don't have sort of the heft to make the acquisitions they need.

caruna not withstanding. even if they do half of what you just heard him say, seven times valuation, couple turns from that and talking about a stock from $51 to $60, $65, $60 price target, b of a just downgraded the stock with a $60 price target. coming up, is wall street feeling too optimistic? julian emanuel will have the areas of the market that should have some upside. don't go anywhere. "fast money" is back in two. tcut?issed a moment of "fashi" cah any time on the go. follow the "fast money" podcast. we're back right after this. stock up today, sip well, tomorrow. drizly. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ( ♪♪ ) with the push of a button,

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welcome back to "fast money." stocks rallying to kick off the week after snapping a nine-week winning streak last friday. the dow jumping more than 20 0 points. nasdaq climbing more than 2%. >> its best day since november. and the russell 2,000 up nearly 2%, as well, snapping a six-day losing streak. a golfing good-bye in the sports world. tiger woods ending his partnership with nike. the announcement comes after months of speculation that the two would break up. not clear yet where tiger will

end up next. shares of apple jumping 2%. the vision pro headset will launch on february 2nd with preorders starting january 19th. the headset will cost $3,500 with prescription lenses costing $149. and cruding getting crushed. wti down 4% after saudi arabia slashed its prices, renewing oversupply worries. meantime, earnings season will have a tough time measuring up to wall street expectations, according to julian emanuel. happy new year to you. >> happy new year. >> so, basically, everybody's too optimistic when it comes to earnings? >> so, we started celebrating new year basically about seven or eight weeks ago. and from where we sit, whether you think this is a soft landing or you think this is a slightly on the harder side landing, which is our base case, we think there will be a mild recession, very brief at mid year, the fact

is, 11.5% implied earnings growth for 2024 is just, that's high in a no landing scenario. normally, it doesn't necessarily matter, because the expectation is that earnings estimates get walked down, but the amount of enthusiasm, the positioning, the sentiment, really do make things vulnerable here. >> it seems like there could be risk to the downside, people being so optimistic going into this, and even down a rat cheling down to a mild recession, that adjustment could mean greater downside if we weren't so positioned in that way? >> we sort of take a different tack here, melissa. if you think about it, think about the last two years. think about where we are today. we're at the same price in the index we were at the beginning of 2022, at the end of 2023, and

earnings were 219 in 2022, they were -- they'll be 219 in 2023. and we're looking at 221, so, a lot of this has been sort of time wearing off and sort of grinding things down where as if you go down to the stock level, a lot of what we see, sort of what we saw today, the a.i. names leading the market higher and the industry names, where we think there's likely going to be weakness going forward sort of causing this dispersion. >> one big difference, if earnings are the same, we were going into a very big fed tightening cycle and now coming out, and so, that seems to be a big difference. how do you think about that? >> which is why the multiple has expanded the way it has off of the october trough. we know the fed has made it clear that they are behind us. if you look at the market pricing, between five and six cuts this year, frankly, history tells you, you don't want that to happen.

that happens in an environment where growth disappoints to the downside. and again, from our point of view, we don't necessarily think that the growth disappointing to the downside is going to be the major sort of down 20 or down 25 catalyst that you normally see in a recession. it's likely to be much more muted than that, but the fact is that the expectations in general are just absolutely great in terms of inflas coming in, earnings being solid, and growth not disappointing. >> so, julian, over the last 50 years or so, the average peak to trough decline you'll get is 10%, 13%, something like that. if you are expecting the consensus of 11% earnings growth to be flat this year, when you expect to have a greater than a 10%, 12% peak to trough decline, because to me, if last year was all about multiple expansion, and you have to rachet down those expectations at high valuation, that would kind of suggest we're going to have a lot more volatility. >> no, there's no question about

it. you look at last year, peak to trough of a little over 10% from the july high to the october low and the rest of the year, reasonably volatile. we did have a banking crisis for five minutes in march, we'll remember that, but honestly, the normal year, as you said, the normal nonrecession year is more on the order of 13%. so, our view that you can get peak to trough down 16%, 17%, is actually quite reasonable, particularly when you think about the geopolitical and political backdrop. >> julian, thank you. good to see you. happy new year. julian emanuel. i only say it because it bugs you so much, the happy new year bit. i'm way over the new year at this point. tim, how are you thinking about the markets? >> it's hard to argue with where julian is, especially in terms of where, i think the street got very aggressive. what's interesting is that, and dan pointed out multiple expansion. it wasn't multiple expansion at the end of the year when a lot of strategists, a parade of strategists raised their targets

on the s&p. it was eps. and again, it was this eps that gets up to 11.7% growth when the historical is 8.5 when times are good. the one thing i'll say to push back on, hey, we're in the same place, the comps are easy. we're in a world of productivity growth. and i think that you have a case where nobody just mentioned a no landing scenario. i mean, i don't love the economy here, but so far, the sequencing of when this economy is going downhill has been wrong. and it appears to continue to be wrong. >> interesting, unemployment plays such a huge role. but we've had 10, 11, 12 months of negative revisions that people seemingly look path. i don't know what happens in an election year, i'm not a conspiracy theorist, but at a certain point, unemployment is going to start to move up in a meaningful way. that cannot be positive. the "fast money" acronym winner. we've been keeping track. we'll reveal the trader behind

this winning acronym. take a look. you might be able to guess who. and bearish calls ahead of bank earnings which start this week. the baird analyst with more when "fast money" is back in two.

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welcome back to "fast money." it's that time of year where we reveal the new "fast money" trader acronyms. our traders have been working overtime to get them ready, but before we unveil the new, let's look at who topped the tape for 2023. last year's winner was -- the general, jeff mills, his acronym fame was up 72% in 2023. dan nathan was the runner up with tslq, finishing up 45%, followed by tim see your, with lags, which ended higher by 22%. now, unfortunately, jeff is unable to join us today, so, i will accept his win on his behalf. he thanks everyone who believed in him, especially his mother. jeff started a new role with bessemer trust. we can't wait until he can join us back on the desk. >> we have to clap him. nice work. >> all right. let's kick off the 2024

acronyms, we have our runner ups, dan, we start with you. what is your acronym. >> mine is zebra. tim is going to lag me -- >> i did last year. >> here, i want to start with z for zoom. i think this stock is cheap. we talked about it a little bit. a third of its market cap is in cash. the company is very profitable. they have an interesting product. it probably gets taken out by a larger platform company. that is interesting to me. ea, electronics arts. >> in the game. >> largest competitor, activision, taken out by microsoft. this is interesting content, a cheap stock, and i think this could be some part of some sort of combination with a larger media company or a tech baba, i'll let tim speak to this, it seems like a dan name, a tim name, there's a lot of things going over there, and i think the sentiment is really bad. rivian. i think they have enough cash to work this thing out, to get through ev winter, which i think we are going to be in for

awhile. but i think there are going to be other competitors to tesla here and i think they're doing okay right now, they are losing a lot of money, but think back to tesla ten years ago, i'd ask you to do that. and lastly, this is applied materials. amat. as the a.i. story broadens out, reshoring, a host of other things, i think amat benefits from that. that's zebra, people. >> running with the -- >> okay, you say that like you knew -- like, right off the top of your head. >> guy googled it in the break. >> i asked the question and you gave me the answer. >> tim, you are up. >> okay, my act ronym for '24 i bicep. three of the five have been wlwluz losers, but i'll start with baba. this is one where, again, valuation at 7 1/2 times, it's not what you're talking about, but it is cheap. it's $85 billion of $185 billion in market cap cash.

they are still growing 18% a year. and there's so much negativity around china, it's not about the china macro that's going to move this story. the i in bicep is the idvo international etf. it is international blue chip company. i think international has been a loser over the last few years, and i think mean reversion says that and a weaker dollar and a weaker fed is good for international. the c in bicep is -- >> chevron. >> chevron, sorry, lost my notes here. and i'm emphatic about it. i think the oil space is probably the bluest of the blue chips in the space. breaks even at $48 oil on their div. the hess acquisition means they have exposure to probably the sexiest growth asset in production in oil. in e, estee lauder. this is an iconic brand. a company that, i think, on valuation relative to itself, it's actually now really kind of interesting.

trades around 25 times. again, some of this just goes back to china. we know about the weakness there. we know what's going on in discretionary. i think their demo in the u.s. is changing. it is getting younger. there's an exciting space. we've seen in cosmetics, even during difficult discretionary, this is one part of the consumer that continues to spend. and -- >> p. >> p, paypal. this is another loser that happens to be a leader in its sector. all these companies i've mentioned, i think, are leaders. paypal, we know what's been going on. we know there's plenty of competition. there's been question about really just how strong that customer base is, we also know there's been some management changes. i think there's been a lot that's been worked through here. i think there's a valuation that's interesting. and they are a dominant player in payments that i think actually has room to shine. >> all right, so, tim with bicep, dan with zebra. the rest of these guys will have their acronyms later this week. coming up, baird curbing its enthusiasm on a trio of

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♪ ♪ welcome back to "fast money." wall street firm baird curbing its enthusiasm for capital one

and wells fargo. david george is with us on the fast line. >> good afternoon, melissa. >> it sounds like these stocks, significantly outperformed, as you point out, in the notes, it's a valuation call primarily, but how much of this is broader concerns about unemployment going higher, credit quality going lower? >> yeah, so, from my perspective, the upside in a soft landing relative to the downside in a harder landing is starting to become asymmetric. as you mentioned, with respect to employment, we think white collar unemployment in particular is going to go higher, which we think is going to impact both credit quality, as well as consumer spend. in particular, for amex, which we cut to sell today, amex and card companies in particular, melissa, have been beneficiaries of a tailwind coming from its inflation, and as inflation starts to come in, in addition to travel and entertainment, we think is also starting to peak

and amex has been a big beneficiary of those two categories. as those start to slow, we think revenue growth starts to slow and the upside of those stocks is fairly limited in our view, especially given where valuations are currently. >> david, i admire your call. american express went from $142 to $180ish. ten-year yields going from 5% to 4% -- how do yields play into this call, if at all? >> yeah, they really don't, guy. and we were on the show nine months or so ago when we upgraded both of these two stocks in april, as well as eight or nine regional banks, and the opportunity to buy was then. and not now, in our opinion. from a ten-year yield perspective, it's really more yield from our perspective, at least, have more of an impact on regional banks or money center banks rather than cards. card names are funded on the

wholesale market, so, the movement in the fed, excuse me, the movement from a pivot or this move in a ten-year yield isn't really influencing our call, but clearly, it has had an impact on market participants willing to take risk. >> part of your downgrades were of wells fargo, david, i'm wondering, you upgraded that stock back in the summer of 2020, so, what are you seeing here, the story is played out, given the run recently that it's had? >> yeah, not a lot's changed in that 2 1/2 year period. if you recall back then, the stock was in the low 20s, there was a lot of concerns, not only related to the pandemic, but a continuing drip of negative news related to the sales scandals at wells fargo and warren buffett and berkshire was actually selling the rest of their stock at that point. and at 50 bucks, we think the stock is pretty fairly priced. we don't think it's a short here. but a lot of good news, we think, is reflected in wells, as well as the money center banks broadly going into an earnings season which, as you know, is going to start on friday. we think the bar is a much

higher today than it was, clearly, eight weeks ago. >> yeah. david, thank you so much for phoning in. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> david george of baird. he says there probably won't be any catalysts for this earnings season in terms of coming out. >> well, i do think the run, i hate when they run going into earnings, which is exactly where we are, a very big run. it's hard to be super bullish, but i am long. >> up next, final trades. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

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time for the final trade. let's go around the horn. tim? >> yeah, the e in bicep is estee lauder. that's right. i said it. and i think it's an iconic brand out there at a time when i think the earnings power is probably getting better. >> karen? >> yeah, i want to say hello to my dad, who is watching. my final trade, i look for what really didn't work last year, wba, walgreens boots. super cheap. >> dan? >> yeah, tim's b in bicep, my b

in zebra, i like kweb. >> i'm going to wish karen's dad a happy new year, why not? lockheed martin. defense spending is now 60% of the budget. lmt. >> thank you for watching "fast money." 00e you back here tomorrow at 5:. meantime, >> reporter: my mission is simple, to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a more -- i promise to help you find it. mad money starts now. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to very special san francisco edition of mad money. welcome to cramer. i'm just trying to make you money. my job is to entertain and educate and teach. so called me at 1-800-743-cnbc or tweet me at @jimcramer. holy cow don't give up on apple. stop selling them video, please.

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