come back. >> nvidia down 2%. you have supermicro, big air pocket. the rest of the market managing to make up the difference. the russell 2000 positive. supermicro is big. bond yields also slightly easing lower versus their gains in recent days. >> which is helpful, but, also, they've been up for six days in a row and that didn't seem to faze the market either. an exciting fed meeting, as it always is, as we look ahead this afternoon into tomorrow. now courtney reagan and "the halftime report." thank you, sara and mike. welcome to "the halftime report." i am courtney reagan in today for scott wapner. front and center this hour, the state of tech trade with nvidia's developer conference under way, and a critical fed decision hitting the tape 24 hours from now. our investment committee is standing by to break down what's at stake for your money. joining me for the hour today josh brown, shannon saccocia and jim lebenthal. let's give you a quick check on the markets here.

we're about at session highs with the dow jones industrials up about half a percent. the nasdaq composite is the laggard today, down about a quarter of a percent. we do have communications services, the lagging sector, real estate also lower for the session. energy and utilities leading the way. investors digest the news out of nvidia's conference, $868. they have the new a.i. chip. let's just kick this off with even your initial reaction to everything we've heard so far. jim, i'll start with you. are you surprised that we're seeing a little bit of pullback on this news? was it not as, i don't know, as bang-up as the market had hoped to hear? >> i don't think that's what it is at all. it's had a hell of a rally, 75% year to date, 3x the last 12 months. a little bit of profit taking is warranted. you think to yourself, what sort of rabbit can they pull out of a

hat? i'm not expecting them to come up with a cure for cancer on that conference that they do. they did what they are supposed to do. they came up with the next chip that they're going to design, the b-200 that will keep them on the leadingage edge of a.i. they did everything they're supposed to do. as far as it pulling back today, that's kind of noise to me. the stock trades somewhere around 35 times forward earnings. long-term earnings growth 30%. gives you a p.e.g. ratio of 1.2. that's absolutely fine. to summarize, there's nothing fatal that came out of yesterday. some people may think at 35 times, it's too expensive. courtney, at some point, it will be too expensive. at some point that 30% growth rate will fall off. there will be the double and tripling ordering that catches up and they miss demand or something like that. that's several quarters away. that's not something to worry about today this is a healthy profit taking pullback.

>> okay. shannon, what was your take from what we heard from jensen huang this morning? >> i wouldn't disagree with jim. if you look at nvidia, it's the easy button in terms of gaining access to the a.i. trade. although there will clearly be competition, and if we think about the perspective, that inference will be more important, there's obviously going to be, in our view at least, more competition there than what nvidia has in terms of the learning chips, i think one of the things you want to really think about is are there opportunities to garner this exposure outside of nvidia and the semis in particular or even sort of the microsoft and alphabet. obviously we had some good news on gemini earlier this week as well. so i think one of the things it's looking at, to jim's point, the valuation appears justified given the head start, if you will, but this next leg of the a.i. trade won't be quite as easy to determine who the bigger

winners and potentially some of the losers will be. i think you're not probably going to get that dispersion or differentiation until later in the year. for right now, this is a little bit of near-term profit taking. looking ahead i think will be necessary to capture this next wave. >> josh, it seems the analysts are bullish. goldman sachs raising the target to 1,000. we're sitting at 868. susquehanna going to 1,050 from 850. does that feel appropriate for you today even though we're having a little bit of a pullback on the news? >> hey, courtney. i kind of feel bad for people who have just learned this story in the last year as so many investors have. it's interesting. you hear people walking around talking about blackwell chips, who, like, a year ago you couldn't understand the difference between linear computing versus nonlinear or why gpus, whichistorically were developed for video games, had anything to do with a.i., et

cetera. that's where we have an issue. i'm long nvidia. i've been long for a very long time. i'm still bullish on the future, but i think the issue we now have is there's this mass acceptance that they are the platform 80% market share, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. everybody gets that. who are the new buyers? is there enough firepower coming in to add another trillion dollars to the market cap here? because if there isn't, you're talking about price targets of 1,000, 1,050. i want everyone to do this mental exercise with me. on a $950 stock, if it goes to 1050, is anyone throwing a parade? what i like to do with the triple digit and quadruple digit stocks is reduce it by one point and say, this is like a $90 stock going to 100.

like, big deal. i think it's going to be really tough for the pace of gains to continue here. i do feel really bad for people who got really excited about it in the last few months, because i don't know how much is left. this is a company that is pulling forward probably three to five years worth of demand into a single 12 to 18-month time period. they are actively telling governments and fortune 500 companies, say yes today or get to the back of the line. and get what ctos are telling their ceos, we have to say yes. if we end up on the back of the line, our share hold remembers going to think we're schmucks. in that environment, it's not that n vvidia doesn't have opportunities going forward, they are swallowing gulps, it's tough to say it's going from $900 to $1,800. the last thing on this topic, it does remind me of qualcomm in

1999. i think the stock split twice in one calendar year, which is really weird and really insane, and it's not that the bulls were wrong about qualcomm's opportunity in wireless, it's that they priced it all in, a decade's worth, inside of a year. so you have to separate. is the technology amazing? of course it is. is the stock price discounting a lot of how amazing it is? yes, of course it is. >> very interesting take. let's actually get some sound from jensen huang. he, of course, is the ceo of nvidia. we are more than just a chips company. take a listen. >> if you look at the things that we do, we build the chips, the systems, the networking, and so on and so forth. the entire data center practically. all the software that goes into it. and then we sell it in parts. the reason why we sell -- and that is what confuses people. they think that nvidia is a chips company because we sell everything in parts. >> right. >> the reason we do that is so

that our customers can integrate nvidia's technology into their data centers however they like. >> jim, i want to get your reaction to that. do you feel that is part of why nvidia has this edge? >> well, yes, but i think, actually, some of the things josh said are spot on. >> okay. >> which is to say this is not a train that will run forever. the qualcomm analogy up 20 fold in a year and a half at the end of the last millennium, will face the same issues qualcomm faced, any company that catches lightning in a bottle faces, which is to say it has the edge right now. josh's comments about ctos saying we have to buy this now, it's not only what they're doing. they're saying, we have to put in three times as many orders as we think we need, because we're going to get one quarter of what we're going to put in. eventually that will backup and will bite in terms of inventories. that's what's more relevant to me. i don't think, by the way,

that's anytime soon. if we talk about anything leading edge for nvidia right now, this train can run for a little bit further. i don't think it will double over the next 12 months. you have to be prepared, folks, for that quarter that will come, probably three-quarters from now, probably four quarters from now. demand came in softer than expected. it's because inventories have piled up with customers. that will happen. let me summarize again. as much as we want to talk about how cutting edge nvidia is, it will be cyclical at some point in time. not today. >> one thing more on this. >> yes? >> i'm sorry. it should be pointed out this is a $40,000 chip. how many buyers are there? so we know microsoft is really excited to buy as many as they can, and they can afford it. we know alphabet is pretty excited. probably a pretty good bet meta is really excited, and then amazon. look around. it's not as though there are millions of potential customers

here. there are end customers of those platforms that will benefit from how many gpus are installed, but this is not quite the same as estimating, okay, the hand set market, 2 billion people are going to need a hand set phone. look, nobody would say nvidia is not in the best possible position of any tech company for the next five years. like, no one would argue. okay, great, then what? >> really quickly, the hand set -- i'm sorry, shannon. the hand set comment. apple is not growing like it was from 2017 to 2022. it was up 45% a year. the market has become saturated. that's all. i'm sorry, shannon. >> from a competitive perspective, jensen talked about the parts that they can potentially add into the equation. i think where they really have the pole position is in the chips. these other services that they're potentially trying to kind of bucket along with this, he talked about this to be able

to integrate. a lot of the integration work is already being done in different manners. i think it dilutes the earnings impact. it still should be focused on the chips, in my view. >> if we can broaden out and talk about what's going on, we started talking about where nvidia is trading and where it's pulled back. well off its highs, as are many of the other chips. amd is down 21% since the march 8th record high and wolfe research is talking about signs of fatigue setting in. have we seen the top of chips for a while, or is this just something that happens over time? we have to take some profits. we have to take a breath. we have to wait for the innovations to kick in in a real way. >> i think there will be an inflection point where other companies sort of fall into line in terms of being able to amplify and take advantage and monetize this trend. >> okay. >> i think from a cyclical perspective, it's not just a.i., it's the expectation that

economic growth will be stronger than anticipated this year. it was inventories essentially being bloated and now they've normalized. there have been a lot of tail winds for the semi trade over the last year and from a factor perspective, the momentum trade itself, the momentum factor. this is sort of taking a breather or a pause, if you will, is really on the back of what has been a number of different tail winds that have culminated in the rise that we've seen in semis over the last year. >> josh, strategis is talking about the qqq yesterday but many of the stocks are well below their 50-day moving average. you say you feel sorry for the people just catching on to this nvidia idea. if you are one of these folks that has not been on top of the trade, what would you do now? have you missed this moment? >> i've taken profits on nvidia recently.

this thing is up 6,000% plus in the many, many years i've been in the stock and talking about it on the air. to me, i'm not very sensitive to what happens next. sure, i would love it to keep going up. i don't care anymore. i want to be invested in it because it's great. what i've been saying, i think the tech stocks are tired. i think the nasdaq might have seen its high the first half. i do not think that the leadership here can stay as dominant as it has been. we are looking at some unprecedented disparities between performance for the largest technology stocks and everything else. at a certain point the rubber band is stretched too far, and it always snaps back. the only argument you can really make against that is, well, how long will it last?

meaning, if we have this cyclical resurgence in, let's say, small cap value, is it a two-week move or a six-month move? it could be either. i don't know. i'm looking almost everywhere else other than tech. if you pull up the charts of recent things i've put on, they all look outstanding and none of them are dependent on a.i. news. ebay, the nasdaq continues to break out today, c.b. richard ellis is in the midst of a breakout. i don't want to live and die based on how many gpus microsoft feels like buying this quarter. >> fair enough. >> i don't want my portfolio -- i'm not hunting down my next tech stock, and i don't think that's really where the puck is headed right now. there are hundreds of incredible looking charts, stocks breaking out, companies that sell industrial equipment, companies that make hamburgers. it is a target rich environment right now, and you don't need to

be a slave to the big five or to semiconductors. >> jim, the march global fund manager survey saying what josh is saying. the long magnificent seven. they believe, or at least 40% of people, believe in the survey that a.i. stocks are in a bubble. 45% say no. so fairly evenly split. >> and this is extending what josh said, the market is not in a bubble. you can talk about what the market multiple is and it's obviously inflated by the mag seven or portions of it, but if you look at sectors outside of technology, they're doing extraordinarily well. energy is up 10%. on the year to date. and if we weren't talking about nvidia up 75%, we'd be focused on that saying, wow this is great. there are places to make money outside of technology. many of us, i was one of them, went into the year saying we expected the market to broaden and it has. in the first month of the new year, that's exactly what happened. january was a mag seven year. tesla started to fall off, then

apple, et cetera. we're now past that echo point, folks, and this is clearly a market that's broadening. you can look at the equal weight s&p 500 as an indication of that. josh brought up small caps. small caps have not participated. they've shown signs of life, but then they pull back. if you want to skate to where the puck is going, small caps is the place to be. the only reason that doesn't work is if you think there's a recession coming, which, by the way, is not off the table. that's where that doesn't work. >> shannon, last word? >> courtney -- >> let shannon jump in here. go ahead, shannon. >> what i was going to say, if you go all the way back to fundamentally looking at earnings, i think people look at earnings from an absolute perspective. if you look at earnings growth, that's decelerating for some of the mag seven stocks and it's actually accelerating for the other 490 stocks or so in the s&p 500. if you think about that as an opportunity in the next two to three years, you see, again, rather than looking at absolute terms looking at that relative opportunity in terms of earnings growth, which is really

fundamentally what the market should be trading on. >> josh? >> i'm sorry. i wanted to just put some data into this conversation, because i think it's really important. there's no question semiconductors have been huge market leadership, but if you actually look beneath the surface at what's been happening there, right now 60% of the smh etf component are above their 50 day which sounds good until you understand that is the lowest level since last november. we are deteriorating in the internals. now if you look at the fact that 40% of the smh names are down five consecutive days, that is the highest since we got into the start of this year. so everybody learns the theme. everybody gets excited, and then it stops working because it got too easy. it got way too easy. just put semiconductor exposure and you'll make money.

that game is now done. the net percentage advance decline in the smh is negative five days straight. it's the longest streak since january 4th. six straight days will be the longest streak since september of 2023. so, to jim's point, learn a new game. citigroup is at a 52-week high. the xlf is up 7% on the year only trailing communication services. if not for meta, the xlf would be the best performing sector of the year. how many people even understand that? 18% are at 52-week highs. that is significantly above historic levels. so there are other games to play. >> i see that and i think we should probably move on from jensen to jay. so now that the market is through nvidia's developers' conference, to the other big event. we have a fed meeting this week. cnbc senior economics reporter steve liesman with a look at what to expect. hi, steve. >> reporter: hey, courtney.

it doesn't sound like the traders there are much concerned about it, but let me tell you -- no, it's what's on their mind. that's all good. results of the cnbc fed survey saw a greater chance of a soft landing but somewhat less easing from the federal reserve. it doesn't bother josh. 100% according toour fed expectations say no cut in march or may. 59% say that first cut does come in june of 2024. 52% average probability on a soft landing. the first time we've been over 50, up from 47 in january. the year-end funds rate. january 2025 the fed ends qt, that is compared to november in the past survey. forecasters have settled into cuts every other meeting starting in june. so there's march and may at zero. it bum ps up in june. you can see powell, if that's what he does, would be skirting

around the elections there, not that he feels he needs to. there was concern expressed that fed officials at this meeting could forecast only two rate cuts to the new projections. there were three from december. there was also concern that, hey, stocks could be somewhat overpriced for the soft landing with 58% seeing them as somewhat overpriced. 12% saying underpriced. 20% saying they are correctly priced. and here is the outlook for the ten year 4.33. yields are expected to remain high over the next two years. okay, put that all together. respondents, they are looking for returns in the stock market. just 2% upside this year. them think the returns are baked in and just 6% next year. if they're right, big if, because the survey tends to be pessimistic on stocks, but if it's right, then bonds might present a more interesting risk adjust alternative to what could be or what's predicted to be

lackluster stock returns, courtney. >> good stuff. love the survey reactions from these surveys ahead of the meeting. thank you so much, steve. shannon, you are nodding through a lot of steve's report there, and i've been thinking about the inflation readings. hotter than expected. it doesn't seem the market is too worried, but is the fed? >> this is really what we're going to hear after the meeting, and i think, again, this meeting really went from being likely a big event as of november of last year to a nonevent as of mid-january to once begun an event, because we're looking for that clarification or collaboration from chair powell that it's either not a big deal or it is. energy has been a big part of the acceleration in inflation typically. if you go back 18 months, the fed was very clear about wanting to focus on core and not headline, so obviously that would negate an impact, if you will, on the dot plot from inflation. i think the most important thing that steve referenced is that in terms of the pace of cuts and

what we're getting this year following a more programmatic approach, there's been nothing programmatic from what's happening from the fed since 2020. i think it's difficult for forecasters or prognosticators to determine what the path looks like through the end of the year, but it's really about the number of cuts. and soap the two versus three is an important piece. the comments around inflation and the threat of true re-acceleration in the second half, very important. and then probably also important what does the fed think we're going to grow at this year? that could have implications not only for policy but implications for earnings, which i think could negate or offset some of the concerns about rate cuts not quite as aggressive as we thought at the end of the year. >> an important topic. we do need to go to steve kovach. >> reporter: this is microsoft, a big organizational change happening around a.i. i have a memo from the ceo satya nadella announcing the new organization within the company called microsoft a.i., which is going to focus, of course, on

a.i. and specifically co-pilot. that's the digital assistant that microsoft's been putting in every product. of note to lead this group as ceo of microsoft a.i. is best known as a co-founder of deep mind. that's the a.i. company google bought several years ago and has now folded into the broader organization at google working on a.i. so now you have microsoft with another co-founder of that company running a.i. over there. previously suleiman was at inflection. he and his co-founder will report to satya nadella. big organizational change centered on a.i. and around co-pilot. you see shares are about a percent higher now. >> good stuff. thank you very much, steve. i'll turn to you quickly, jim. you own microsoft. now they have the deepmind co-founder running a.i. at microsoft, how does that make you feel? >> it makes me wond aerolittle

bit. i've been saying i'm not that worried about alphabet. you asked me about microsoft, but my mind is on alphabet. >> fair. >> microsoft is in the pole position with a.i. for the last several weeks, even several quarters, google and alphabet have been looked at as the second place runners right now. however, with the news about apple potentially partnering with alphabet on search, that seems to be turning around. so there's this pole position race going on between microsoft and alphabet. i don't really like somebody from deepmind went over to microsoft. i own both of them. i'm comfortable with both of them. up next our "calls on the day." we have ownership and how the committee is playing the names coming up. "halftime" is back in just two minutes. and more. thank you very much. [applause]

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welcome back to "the halftime report." let's go to our "calls of the day" starting with uber. evercore, josh, this is yours. what do you make of this call? >> well, i agree, so this is a long-term position of mine. it's a long-term position of mine. the next five points aren't terribly important to me. if you think about what's gone on recently here, uber hit an all-time high of 81. it's about 8% below that level. maybe this is the dip you want to buy.

there's a ton of technical support down at 62. let's hope we don't see that level again. but uber is selling 24 times forward earnings which is very reasonable given its growth rate. 42% expected earnings per share growth rate this year. 60% next year. so i think the stock is still substantially undervalued in the short term. and in the long term, when i ask myself, does any publicly traded company right now have the ability to be one of the next mag seven, is there another trillion dollar t.a.m.? out there, to me, it's the company that owns the transportation of people and goods. it's globally. i'm both short-term bullish and long-term bullish, and i agree with the call. >> that's a big statement. exxon mobil got a hike at mizuho, bullish on the 2024 capital plan and long-term outlook. a lot of talk about energy with the conference going on this week. jim, you own this one.

i imagine you like this? >> i do like it, courtney. i am bullish on the space and energy in general. i know there's a little bit of hand wringing going on because crude oil is back above $80 a barrel. people talk about it as if it's never been here before. six months ago, during the unfortunate middle east issues, we were above $90. we have been in it for several quarters. the real story to be bullish on is natural gas. what i'm about to say is controversial. i can't prove this, but, i mean, the beatdown in natural gas is something else. we know that the u.s. is awash in natural gas. we know that. we know that it's a commodity, folks. and what happens when you get a glut is the producers pull back, demand picks up inevitably. who knows, maybe it's from europe. i don't know. but what will happen is there will be an imbalance. all you need is a slight boost. to get exxon mobil to continue to rally in the energy space and that's likely to happen. >> shannon, you were nodding

your head as jim was talking. >> the natural gas situation is an overhang for a number of these stocks. however, it's been interesting to see without any real improvement, a lot of evidence of continued headwind for the second half of the year in terms of supply that you've seen the energy trade sort of pick up some steam. and to jim's point, it's not like we're looking at $95 oil. there's enthusiasm whether that's on cyclical stocks or on the economic growth story. there's something here to sort of latch on to. >> energy is a leading sector. crowdstrike saying it's one of the preferred names, redburn raising to $380. josh, you're in this one. >> i think what's going on here is very normal. it's a little bit of consolidation after a huge move. this stock is up 200% since january of 2023. so in, like, 15 months, the stock has tripled.

i expect it to bide its time a little bit here. we don't have any near-term catalysts per se. it's 49% above its 200 day. so, like, give it a breather. perfectly okay here. but, again, i'm a long-term investor, and cyber security is not going to get easier to deal with. it will only get harder. a.i. will be a tool that cyber criminals have at their disposal, and there's going to be an arms race to keep up with that. this is the best performing of the cyber security names, of all the names that exist, this is one that i've owned and will continue to own. george kirtz is an incredible leader for the company and visionary, and i want to stay. i'm long term and i'm not going anywhere. >> all right, got it. crowdstrike is a winner for josh now and in the near term. let's move over to our headlines with julia boorstin. hi, julia. courtney, former trump aide peter navarro reported to federal prison in miami this

morning. before heading in, he said he was the victim of political persecution, that he was proud to serve his sentence. the supreme court denied navarro's last-minute request to avoid prison while appealing his four-month sentence for refusing to comply with the january 6th committee subpoena. the eu's policy chief said he will propose taking 90% of revenues from frozen russian assets and putting them in a fund that helps ukraine buy weapons. an eu official said last week the revenues could reach 20 billion euros through 2027. james crumbley, the father convicted of manslaughter for a 2021 michigan school shooting committed by his son, said his role in life was to ruin the life of the prosecutor. it came from jailhouse calls he made to his sister. courtney, back over to you. >> thank you very much, julia. appreciate that. coming up, the state othf e consumer. why nordstrom is rallying today, plus the setup on nike and

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♪ as the dow is at the height of the session, check out shares of nordstrom as well. the stock soaring on a report retailers are trying to go private again, and sticking with retail, we have two key earnings on deck as well. nike and lululemon both reporting earnings thursday after the bell. so all of this put together got us thinking, what is the state of the u.s. consumer? obviously something important for the fed, too, to consider as they have their meeting this week. jim, i know you're not in nike, but you were at one point. >> nike is a show-me story. i can't believe these words will come out of my mouth, but there is a question of brand supremacy. it's a question to be answered by the company. i don't know the answer, folks. at the september quarter, when they reported -- excuse me, this was the august 31st quarter,

they came through with better inventories, better margins, better pricing. i got in the stock then. it shot up 25%. courtney, i don't know if you wrer, but the analyst community was falling all over themselves. they absolutely tanked it, and then the stock went down and now it's below 100 as we sit right now. the question hangs out there, has nike lost its mojo? i'm not saying it has, folks. i'm saying as an investor who would love to be in the nike of old that did have brand supremacy, i need that question answered by the company in their earnings report when it comes out before i'll take a position. >> wow. josh, i imagine you have some thoughts on nike and lululemon. >> so it's true that the competitive pressure is coming from brands like on are out there, and it's obviously something that nike has had to contend with its entire existence. there have always been

challengers. i don't think that's really going to have a huge impact on a go-forward basis. the trouble for nike is that it's so reliant on the global economy holding up and consumeeconsumers in various parts of the world holding up. here at home it has omni channel ambitions, and they want to be more direct to consumer, which i think makes sense, but it's harder. it's more expensive. it's a bigger marketing challenge, so, you know, if you're up for the fight, stay long. and if you want to do something easier, there are easier stories out there. >> it is interesting what nike has gone through with its dtc, wholesale, pulled back and now is dribbling back into wholesale in some of those accounts. shannon, when you put it all together, are you worried about the u.s. consumer when you have strong brand household names like nike and lululemon, or is that not really what we're asking here? >> i think it's broader. i think you need to differentiate between the stock

specific narrative and what we're seeing from a consumer perspective and really what you should be watching for is any sort of deterioration in middle income consumer spending, and so the high-income consumers remain engaged. middle income consumers for the most part, though their basket has shifted and potentially become a limb less discretionary over the last few months, they continue to spend and be very much engaged. some challenges, obviously geographic concerns and considerations with nike. i think on a go-forward basis, to josh's point, there's always going to be start-up retail competition, but i think it's not -- these specific companies' situations are not as important to me as looking at the underlying consumer strength and the fact that we continue to see spending entrenched within the u.s. economy. >> obviously most of the retailers are wrapped up. many mention inflation in the fourth quarter, the majority of those, and then they turned out some pretty good results but

looking forward very, very cautious. by the way, lulu is one the biggest battleground stocks on wall street. you can check it out on nbc pro. scan the qr code here or go to cnbc.com/propick. we will get the earnings after the bell on thursday. up next the real deal on a steel deal, the cleveland-cliffs ceo sounding off on cnbc. jim's in the name. you knew that already. we'll get his reaction. and coming up on thursday at 1:00 p.m. eastern join the virtual cnbc equity in opportunity forum. we'll talk to corporate leaders. scan the qr code to register or, again, visit cnbc.com/events. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools, like dynamic charting and risk-reward analysis, help make trading feel effortless.

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he does not think a deal from nippon steel to buy u.s. steel will go through because it doesn't have union support. jim, what did you make about the conversation with david faber and/or the deal itself? take your pick. >> the ace card here is the unions. it is political football between president biden and donald trump. when the ceo of cleveland-cliffs got into the deal to potentially buy nippon steel, he has the ace card, the union supports him. the structure of u.s. steel is such the union needs to approve the deal. he still has his ace card. president biden has come out against it. i think the question now, is this a delaying tactic until after the election and then president biden lets the deal go through? however, one interesting component of this, clev

cleveland-cliffs may have gamd thi gamed this out well. the antitrust people i thought would break this up. if president biden comes out and says we don't want the nippon steel to go through, we want it bought by an american company, and cleveland-cliffs is the only potential buyer, how can the administration come in with its antitrust regulations, oh, no, we don't want the deal to go through? that could be genius on the part of cleveland-cliffs. i don't know how this will play out. you do not want to go against lorenzo goncalves. >> i know you're in the name right now, up about 5% on the day. but does anything give you more conviction ahead of knowing what could happen with this deal? >> i think it's a very good question. when you get underneath what happens with u.s. steel, this is a highly profitable company that has spent the last two to three years doing enough capital expenditures to reduce the cost structure of the steel it

produces at a time the automotive industry is spending and onshoring with all the plants being built. so fundamentally outside of the deal with u.s. steel, the company looks very good from a profitability point of view. >> all right. the dow is at session highs. up next, mike santoli joins us for his "midday word." stick with us. "the halftime report" will be right back. more than 600,000 individuals will lose their life from cancer. i'm so interested in not just medicine but also the business of medicine and how we can accelerate progress through cancer by adopting a business mind-set toward doing good in the world.

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♪ we're looks like we're at the highs of the session for the dow here. >> we are. >> broader market -- >> yeah, the market keeps being presented with perfectly good, plausible excuses for why it might want to pull back and says no thanks. even though we haven't gone far this month, march has been a moment of digestion for the overheated leadership groups like semis. today, nvidia fizzling on its big event. yields going up to the multimonth highs. you have the fed maybe going to the slightly less accommodating in their language tomorrow. and the market is sort of like, okay, that's fine. if you tell me the economy has

our back for now, earnings are pointed in the right direction, and there just seems to be a willingness for investors to allow their equity exposures to go up. in other words, they have enough of an appetite, because they have the fundamental cushion in their mind that here we are. it doesn't last forever. maybe the fed tomorrow can say something that spooks the market. but for now, you have had the momentum sectors cool off without it swamping the rest of the market. you know, energy and industrials have beaten tech month today. >> energy is leading the way here. obviously, wti prices are ticking a little higher. >> yeah. you also have sort of like the anti-ai names, the ones that had been laggards because nvidia was stealing all the option share. that can balance a little. so it may be too good to be true forever. but for now, this is working. >> market expectations for the fed tomorrow overall? >> i think we're geared for them to at least give a nod in the

area of inflation is not coming down as fast as we hoped. a few months ago, people thought march would be the first cut. now it's june is the first cut and maybe we will get three and we're okay with that, because it's happening for generally good reasons, which is the economy is hanging in there. kethk d stuff. mi, anyou very much. everyone else, stick with us. "halftime" will be right back. r. our time-tested fixed income suite, backed by over 145 years of risk experience, helps investors meet their goals. pgim investments. shaping tomorrow today.

welcome back. we draw your attention to shares

of nvidia. it's now higher on the session. the ceo talking to financial analysts saying the data center signs is $250 billion a year, a percentage of $250 billion is a lot higher than someone who sells just a chip sort of like that sound bite we showed you earlier in the show. our percentage of $250 billion will likely be higher than in the past, some bullish comments further on some details with actual numbers there from jenson wong there. so interesting to watch this trade. switch around on the day of this big gtc conference that nvidia is hosting in california. let's trade two big winners and loser. the fiscal year 2023, core and main reported record cash flow. any thoughts? >> i'm lined up for the loser today. >> are you? okay. >> can we just jump to nordstrom's? what a sad story. >> why is it sad?

you don't think it's going to happen? >> if you look at a ten-year chart, i mean, it's just horrifying. for ten years, the annual average return on nordstrom's is nega nega negative 8.2%. the demise of malls and in-person shopping, there have been these discussions the family is looking to sell it to private equity. it gives you a little pop and drops off. here we do the same thing again. that's why it's up today. i'm sorry, folks, this is your offering if you're long in the name. stay with us. "final trades" are coming up. ♪(relaxing music)♪ (♪♪) (♪♪) (♪♪) (♪♪) (♪♪) (♪♪)

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rates, there is evidence that we could be getting towards the bottom of the cre situation here in the u.s. >> okay. reits for shannon. jim, take us home. >> walt disney company. no time to go through the fundamentals. just look at the chart. this is just dieing to break out to a new 52-week high. >> as george lucas comes out with support of bob iger. that does it for "the halftime report." "the exchange" starts right now. ♪ ♪ >> thanks, courtney. welcome to "the exchange." i'm john fortman. with green on the green, abandon tech at your own peril says our own market guest. he joins with two tickers to consider from here. and speaking of tech, nvidia announcing extended partnership with data breaks. the ceo will join us for an interview ahead. we'll ask him about that and a possible ipo in the works. and more clues on housing. the latest data and talk to someone wh