week it's thursday, march 28th, 2024. "squawk box" starts right now. good morning welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen andrew is off today. today is thursday, but it is the last trading day of the week and last trading day of the quarter as well. let's take a look at where things stand right now for stocks looks like dow futures are indicated up by close to 20 points s&p futures are flat nasdaq is indicated off 20 points it comes after the rally yesterday. the dow and s&p turning positive for the week based on yesterday's results. you did have the comments from waller overnight that put a chill on things as he talked

about how it will take time and calling for patience before you see cuts from the fed. let's look at what is happening with treasury yields you will see at this point it looks like the ten-year yield is 4.2% the two-year yield is 4.62%. these comments from waller is making people think. >> he wasn't saying the economy looks weaker than expected or stronger than expected he was saying inflation. >> inflation numbers are worrying the data we have gotten recently and he is taking down his expectations >> not sure we're restrictive at this point and they have to be really sure before they cut. if you cut when you haven't gotten it under control, it would be a problem >> then you have to flip and raise. we have breaking news coming out right now on a dow component home depot the company is acquiring srs fo

$18.2 billion. this is a company that supplies professional roofers and pool contractors. that acquisition will accelerate its growth within the residential customer home depot says it expects to complete the deal by the end of the year i got off the phone with the ceo and the cfo. i was not familiar with srs. it was founded in 2008 it has grown every year. in fact, home depot's ceo said it was up last year during our period of moderation home depot slowed after the growth during the pandemic srs is base in thd in the dallaa

>> cash deal >> i don't know. it looks like it will meet one of home depot's goals this year. this is one of the big opportunities because the pro is where you see all of the growth happening. they have been trying to expand on that. in terms of the total addressable market, home depot has a total market of 9$950 billion in a $45 trillion market they think this acquisition will raise the t.a.m. to $1 trillion. looking to close by the end of theyear, they say it will be gap in the first year with the amortization the big issue is going to be what regulators say and whether they stay off on it. decker is saying they don't anticipate regulatory issues with the same customer base, but there is a break-up fee. it will be in the s.e.c. filings

later today. we know the regulatory environment you are looking at here srs is number two in pools home depot is the big one. we will see what scrutiny this gets. >> $382 billion. years ago, that is a lot for home depot it seems they could easily do an acquisition. while were you talking, there was a big market in regular home depot and then the pro >> contractors >> is there something for people who have no ability whatsoever to use home depot? >> light bulbs for you >> here is the normal person that i see then these are really professionals. >> professionals doing a ton of building >> this is a huge market >> the people who are going for light bulbs? >> people who hurt their thumbs. >> need seed for the yard? >> when i hear someone putting

in a bathroom -- >> by themselves >> people do that. putting in cabinetry some people find that an attractive feature for a man to have >> you got lucky with penelope i was looking through the analyst notes yesterday. d.a. davidson cut the rating on lowe's although he loves marvin ellison and the leadership there, he will have a tough time with growth his suggestion in that note was for lowe's to do something with the contractor that has been a strong move for home depot this is going to make home depot bigger >> lowe's seems further from that niche that home depot can occupy so well home depot we saw the stock had been down it has come back with a

convvengeance after the weakness if you go back a year or so. there it is. that was weird >> cash on hand and debt >> they have debt? srs? >> reading through the press release. >> dallas. they know how to build things. >> greater dallas. i was shocked this company was founded in just 2008 that is a fast growth. let's talk about waller. we already have a little bit he says there is no rush to lower interest rates steve liesman joins us with more this is now part two waller said something similar a month ago, steve has it been a month? >> it has been a while he's really the most definitive here, joe. the dgovernor suggesting the fe

would cut fewer tea er times thr and later with the growth and inflation data here is the summary. no rush to cut he said hold at a restrictive level longer than previous cut he is not ready to cut than inflation progress materializes. the fed governor went on to say the risk the waiting to cut is significantly lower than acting too soon >> in the absence of an unexpected and material deterioration in the real economy, i'm going to need to see at least a couple of months of better inflation data before i have enough confidence that beginning to cut rates will keep the economy on the path to 2% inflation. >> he did say a couple of months fed cut rate fell with june trading at 60% it goes up as year goes by

he cannot rule out the june cut if the reports show progress erhe raised the bar. almost every fed official who have spoken in the wake of the recent meeting has shown a cautious move with plicit this . the committee did not overreact to the recent data, but it did react. the question is if chairman powell misspoke or misunderstood. the markets seemed to walk away as dovish. this is one other thing to point out, joe the market is taking it well you hit a record high yesterday. you came off last night in the futures market with the remarks, but i'm guessing that waller really just gave voice to what the market had figured out here.

>> i read specifically to where he is worried about inflation. there was some import price inflation that he mentioned, steve, and what else where are the pockets of where you say sticky inflation where is that? >> there's two dynamics going, joe. you have the sticky service inflation. the housing numbers have not come down yet. and ex-housing service sector has been lousy you have the surge in cocoa and copper and other commodities have gone up you have issue with the red sea and i don't know about the baltimore situation. waller said the baltimore accident is not going to have a big effect the fed's view is it won't have

a big effect on the economy or inflation. you have seen what was a negative number for goods prices and was offsetting the sticky service inflation. it has gotten a little less neg negative >> is this true? he sees core goods disinflation stalling out due to elevated import price increases >> joe, you force me to talk a little bit about something i'm working on and not ready to report on. we do seem to have better global kbr growth we have been importing a little disinflation i have been trying to figure out how much of the stickiness of the inflation has been coming from abroad. china did a stimulus japan is looking better with the numbers. europe has not been as bad as we have previously seen it may be that we had a little

bit of last year from weaker global economies and that impulse could be turning around now. >> we dodged a bullet here, becky. i'm going to read this thanks, steve. >> that is good for u.s. growth, too, joe >> right the numbers are coming out >> the pce by the way, are they on? >> yeah. can we ex-nay on alking-tay about it i guess morgan and steve and rick are all online. it says 8:15 >> is it 8:15? >> full coverage begins. oh, it's in the copy what a concept programming note tomorrow, the markets are closed, but the government is open yeah that means key inflation data will be released at 8:30 a.m 8:30 a.m watch cnbc.com for the key data

afte of the day >> i'm glad we're covering it. >> royal we. we'll be online with full coverage starting at 8:15 a.m. morgan brennan and steve liesman and rick santoli we need it now more than ever with the numbers and news and analysis at 8:15 a.m. tomorrow on cnbc.com. coming up, a new call on tesla. analyst dan ives is here and lowering his price target. he will join us to explain those are big delivery numbers that people rare worried about next week. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. visit bairddifference.com.

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are you kidding me? you got to be kidding me. rolling towards the cup, and it's in the hole! can you believe it? what an impossible shot brought to you by comcast business. how about that alligator? tesla is expected to report first quarter deliveries next week joining us now on why he is lowing his price target is dan ives from wedbush. i don't know it makes me smile, dan you could be lowering your numbers because the stock is at 175 and your target is 315 that would be one reason that's a good start, i think

it is odd you are going down $$1 to 300 and keeping an out perform rating all this sounds too little too late. >> that's a great point. we're bullish for tesla on the other side >> you must be you still have a $300 price target what is that return? 180 to 300 is looking for a 70% return. >> look, we have been here before in other words, there is no doubt. we call it out this is a code red situation for tesla. they are going through dark days in china from the demand perspective. joe, i believe on the other side of this that this is a company not just from the fsd perspective, but from volume that could get 2.5 to 3 million vehicles per year as we go into next year. our point here is you are between two growth waves here. they clearly need to layout a

strategy for investors because this is going to be rip the band-aid quarter off next week i think for musk, i view it as a fork in the road period to handle the investors >> you are blunt first quarter delivery for tesla and we'll find out next week you expect it to be a nightmare quarter because of china and china demand. >> china we originally had that up 3% to 4% it will be down 3% to 4% the issue here is just that game of thrones price war in china with the evs it has hurt tesla. i think the problem is do they continue to cut prices or do they ultimately hold serve and focus where demand could be? i think as much as we talk about fsd and long-term bullish and i believe we are sitting here a year or year and a half from now

at $1 trillion market cap. >> we were up at 300 or 299 or w whatever it was, were you worried about supply and not see the demand issues coming >> where we were wrong is underestimating how bad china demand was going to be >> china demand. >> when i look back, that is what caught us by surprise in terms of just how quickly demands come off, but also with no adult in the room and with two disaster conference calls in a row and they have not laid out guidance or given a strategy you have other noise in terms of the a.i. issues with musk and obviously the delaware comp issue. they have not laid out the strategy where investors are blindfolded playing darts. >> you have a price target in

terms of 300, but do you think we're near a low here depending on what happens next week? >> i think a lot of the bad news -- we would not be bullish if i didn't think this stock -- >> why not put a buy on it >> that is our highest rating. out perform. it is the top picks list we have been through the white knuckle periods before over the years. this is another one that we're hitting. we're just calling it out and get out the strategy to get through the conference call and dark days ahead. >> we have seen when you ask about how you feel about criticism and musk will do what he thinks is right he is in a position to be able to do that. >> no doubt. >> you said no adult in the room will he return to giving the street what it wants >> i think since they lost their cfo in august, it has been a

nightmare on elm street conference call. this is a wake-up call from the demand perspective if they don't lay this out and turn this around, you could not just have darker days, but i believe a lot of investors will start to lose faith in where the tesla story is going although we're between two growth waves that's our point this is a nightmare in the near term there is massive growth on the other side you need to hand hold investors through it no different from jensen and cook over the years. >> thank you, dan. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks for being on set is -- it's holy thursday and good friday and easter we have palm sunday. >> last week >> before that, we had the ash wednesday? >> that was almost 40 days ago 40 days before easter sunday

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correspondent julia boorstin has been digging into how a.i. is disresupting the range of s industries >> becky, art evistins are deal with how they are trying to get out in it front of the a.i. disruption u. ♪ ♪ >> this may sound like demi lovato, but it is not. it is an a.i. song created by youtube's dream track tool part of the google's experiment in generative a.i. the company is partnering with record labels to create guardrails to protect artists' voices from being exploited and being able to profit from the

custom music ♪ >> dream track, tested as an integration into the youtube tiktok rival youtube shorts, allows a.i. songs with the voices of the famous artists nine artists are paid for the participation by youtube from john legend to demi lovato to t-payne. ♪ >> a.i. is crazy ♪ >> i haven't made a song like this in years. >> we demoed the tool alongside the youtube creator part of the initial test we asked dream track to create a song about the stock market. ♪ s&p ♪ ♪ s&p ♪ ♪ you're sweet ♪ ♪ you're going to make ♪ >> two decades after music

piracy faces a reckoning, a new tool is looking to move forward or be left behind. >> we are looking to adapt the technology i think you will see we work to try to understand where the opportunity is and to get out in front of it. >> youtube wasn't the first. the artist grimes invited artists to include her hits. the company is still working on it >> there are challenges and a lot of work we need to do to get to the place where we will be able to fully scale a product. in other words, it might take time before you have the ability to make your own song. >> in the meantime, 100 of youtube crediators and fans are getting a look at the future of

custom music >> one thing that was remarkable about the dream track demo is how quickly it was for the generative a.i. tool to create the music. it is amazing to think what happens when it is available at scale. a custom play list >> it is crazy from the credativ side of things. >> it sounded like john legend. >> i can't imagine the upheaval that has on artists. >> if they feel they own a piece of it and they profit from it and there will be guardrails how their voices are used, they want to get on board. if they feel it is a wild west and people stealing their voices, that is the threat >> how do you make a name and become big >> if you can't beat them, join them. >> it only helps the biggest

names like the concert business now. smaller names. no way to make your name >> still dealing with you saying that sounded good. still trying to figure that out. >> for instantly >> serenade me it was pretty fun. >> okay. >> you said it >> i said it i don't know >> i liked it. julia, thank you coming up, business leaders meeting with china's president xi jinping 'lha twel vehe big take aways next

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good morning welcome back to "squawk box. live from the nasdaq market site in times square. look at the futures. big day for the s&p and the dow. a big gain after what we did see. it turned positive for the week. we had consolidating earlier, but now we're up across the board and up this morning. president xi met with american business leaders on the sideline of the china development forum. joining us now is michelle

caruso-cabrera >> good morning. >> what was the take away of what happened? this was pretty important. >> i spoke with a ceo who attended the meeting overall, the number one thing that was clear to this person was china is not backing away from centralizing its economy. it is not going to pursue pro-market reforms as suggested in the speech by the head of the imf which is a negative. i think a lot went there to hear what the chairman was going to say about the future of the economy. they are trying to send a positive message of the economy. she told the ceos the economy hasn't peaked. a lot of people tell them how they should fix the economy. they know how to fix their economy. the business environment is terrible and they don't want the pro-market reforms that have been suggested when you speak to chinese

officials and ask about the private sector, the response you get back is, oh, we love small businesses in other words, they conflate the private sector with small businesses and go on to say -- >> because it is smaller than the government. >> right they are not stable enough to support the economy. that is why we have to back the big state-owned businesses they like businesses as long as they are owned and controlled by the state. that is not a recipe for growth. >> this was another preaching to them the people have been getting this message where we are going to lecture you and tell you what you need to be doing on some of the things the other measures that come out which is more concerning is the chinese government is not only saying don't tell us how to run our economy and don't tell us how to run our borders

what they said from some of the con versations and pictures i have seen there and what i heard on this is the idea that taiwan is something they see as part of the borders. >> it is a reline. in the same sentence, xi said we don't interfere with other people's borders they should not interfere with others there is a dispute about that. we are on two different strategic trajectories, the united states and china. >> the hawkish take on this and it is not hard to find it in the journal or anywhere today. getting in bed with the ceos and getting in bed with the ccp and at the same time we're worried about china exporting malware into our grids and if we ever do have a confrontation, they don't need to fire a shot at that point. when they decide to handle their

own oversupply of everything over there by dumping crap like they have done in the past they will dump evs when they start dumping evs here like other places, there will be tariffs. it will be a hellish nightmare all these guys are over there and not questioning what is happening because it is a bargain they need to make with the ccp. >> janet yellen made a speech yesterday in georgia highlighting what you said we saw what the chinese did with steel. we saw what they did with aluminum now they are doing it with evs and lithium and ion batteries and solar panels it won't get fooled an gagain. you are right. it doesn't matter who wins in november if the chinese try to export evs, there will be tariffs the ceos, they have to go.

a lot of people invested in china did it starting 20 or 30 years ago when the bargain was different and reducing the role in ngovernment in business they have done all of that which has gone in reverse. now, here they are and this is a different bargain than when they got in originally. they had to go because they invested so much >> they were doing so well they have a huge class of people that are still not up to the standard of living for a lot of the rest of the world. they were switching to a consumer-driven economy. the only way to do that was to continue along with the style of capitalism they had. as you said, no back tracking on going back to the centralized economy. they are not going back to that. the way they will have the economy flourish is at the expense of the rest of the

world. >> the line is 800 million people emerge from poverty another 500 million to go. i would say as we sit here and talk about what they should be doing, xi's response is everybody thinks what we should be doing with the economy then let us handle it >> it is at our expense and the rest of the world's expense. >> two things. when you look at asset allocations around the world and i was speaking with dan ives in the makeup room here at cnbc and he is traveling to asia so much because asset allocation to the united states has increased dramatically because people are not investing in china anymore he has to spend more time over there talking to institutional investors about the united states the united states has benefitted we have been talking about china

finally getting rid of yield curve control and raising interest rates go back 40 years and if you said, japan will crash and it will never recover not for decades. i think we would have thought the global economy would have suffered far more dramatically than it did. it hasn't. will we suffer because china will not grow as much? absolutely so many companies invested so much there look at the resilience of the united states. the market cap of nvidia is larger than the stock markets in europe we have the dynamism here more than any other place in the world. >> i wish we knew the outcome was similar in terms of what happened -- i don't see it i think this is a totally different situation. >> it is with japan, we were not worried about going to war with china, we are worried about going to war. >> it is hard to look at the

economy without looking through that prism first. >> there is pressure from the pharmaceutical industry to subsidize the chips industry, you need to subsidize us it will start to get very exclusive. >> we all getting pulled to the intervent intervention >> that is why it is 11:59 and change on the doomsday clock it's still a three-day weekend. >> you can sleep in tomorrow. >> right until 7:30 we're like 11:59.40. we're that close. >> i feel better than that michelle, thank you. >> pleasure. >> talk to nostradamus >> still dead. tiktok launching a $2 million ad campaign convincing senators in swing states to reject the divest or ban bill. details are next "squawk box" is coming right

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million advertising campaign with a message for snenators in tough re-elections the ad urges senators to think about the five million small business owners which rely on tiktok to provide for their families >> the village is always there for moms on tiktok >> to see all of that disappear would be sad. >> we have to make noise so they don't take away our voice. >> tiktok has reserved tv ad space this nevada, montana, wisconsin, pennsylvania and ohio and data from ad impact shows tiktok bought ad time in new york, massachusetts and minnesota. the ads started running

yesterday. >> very disevvdisindisinngenuous was all shutdown >> a lot of things on tiktok that don't look like it. >> there's a good side of social media. there really is. it helps communities come together there are a lot of bad things. the bigger issue is this is neither of those things. this is what is happening with your personal information. that's the question. >> we have to go after everybody. >> right every single one of the social media companies have a good and bad side on them. >> right. when we come back, we told you how insurers were using information to connected cars to set premiums they are taking your information and selling it to third parties who then in turn sell it to the

insurance companies and tell where and how you have been driving and how fast everywhere. it is almost impossible to get out of these things. i have been trying all week. i thought i did it successfully on monday. i'm not. i'm still battling it. >> speeding up a lot on me. >> nothing happened yet. just wait. i'm told that the new cars coming out next year will have much more personal data. >> who are they ratting me out >> to insurance companies. not all of them. >> announcer: executive edge is sponsored by at&t business next level moments need the next level network. let's check it out. says here it gets plenty of light. and this must be the ocean view? of aruba? huh. this listing is misleading. well, when at&t says we give businesses get our best deal, on the iphone 15 pro made with titanium. we mean it. amazing. all my agents want it. says here...“inviting pool”. come on over! too inviting. only at&t gives businesses our best deals on any iphone.

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welcome back, everybody. now a follow-up to a story we told you about earlier this month. a report in the "new york times" about how auto companies sell data from connected cars to data brokers who then in turn sell it to insurance companies that can

use it to charge you higher premiums i looked into the data privacy settings of my own car to try and disable possible outside monitoring and i wasn't able to do it. i've been trying to do this since monday every day there are more calls back and forth it is really complicated the dealership can't figure it out either i've been on the phone with them every day. our next guest wrote this story for "the times" and after her initial report, general motors said it had stopped sharing driving details with data brokers. joining us right now is kashmir hill, "the new york times" tech reporter and author of "your face belongs to us." and kashmir, i have to say, this story is one that really made me sit up and pay attention because you talk to consumers who had either had their insurance rates jacked up because data was being collected they didn't know about, or in some cases they couldn't get insurance what happened? >> well, this was very shocking for drivers. i think most people assume when they spend a lot of money on this car, what happens in it is

going to stay private. what was happening to people who drove cars made by general motors was that information was being collected about when they sped, how many miles they drove, how many times they hard braked or rapidly accelerated, because they had enrolled some say unknowingly in a program called smart driver and yeah, it was very shocking to them. and they found out about it because their insurance rates started going up and when they asked the insurance companies why, they said go pull your lexisnexis disclosure report. this is a data broker who works with insurance companies and when they did that, they saw all this driving data and the report said where it came from and it was from general motors. >> wow every time i turn my car on, it says -- gives me this privacy warning, your insurance is being sent back and we're watching it. there are ways you can shut it

off in your car, but i have tried and every time i shut it off, it turns it right back on dealt with my dealership i'm with nissan, i dealt with my dealership this week, they can't figure out how to do it without entirely disabling the satellite feed for satellite radio and the gps monitoring they got me to sign up for another app that basically says now if i want to shut anything off, i have to call somebody, fill out forms and mail them in. is this something every car company is doing >> you are not alone, becky. i'm hearing from drivers across the country who are waking up to the fact that their car is a smartphone on wheels and it is doing all the data collection and we as consumers just don't know, we can't see it. and so -- >> can't even shut it off when you try to that's the bigger issue. you send us this thing saying we're monitoring this, if you don't want it, opt out, it is nearly impossible to opt out of the stupid programs and, by the

way, you may say, yeah, your phone knows all that, that's fine apple is not selling my information to third party data hackers. >> smartphones have airplane mode, right? you can turn off the sending of data but with cars, they're just -- most cars there is not an off button that says stop sending data from my car i don't want the automaker, anyone else to know where i'm driving or how i'm driving, and so this is just a huge problem and all the experts are telling me, look, we're kind of at with cars where we were with with smartphones when people did start waking up to the fact they were carrying around a tracking device we got very -- we got granular controls in the smartphone, allow us to more easily control the information leaving it -- that really needs to happen with cars >> i think gm took the right step -- i think gm took the right step by saying they're not going to sell that data anymore. you have spoken to people in washington who are paying attention to this and if car companies don't follow suit, i

think there could be some things they take action on. >> yeah, i talked to ed markey for the story, from massachusetts, and he has been -- as many lawmakers across the country have been -- asking car companies, what data are you collecting, how are you using it, who are you selling it to, and when i told him about these programs and specifically what general motors had done, he said, you know, that really sounds like a violation of the law that protects consumers against unfair and deceptive business practices and, yes, gm, after my story came out announced they're no longer going to be sharing this data with these two data brokers who were selling it to the insurance industry, and they said they're re-evaluating -- their privacy practices. but, yeah, i mean, what these companies were doing was just putting this kind of in the fine print, in the privacy policies that no one reads and that is just not how this should be done >> kashmir, i think you're

shining a light on a very important area for some of these things what do you anticipate happens next because what i was told yesterday is that, you know, wait until 2025, next year you're going to see cars that make this look like child's play, that right now they're only collecting about 10% of the information that they'll be capable of collecting or that -- my car is a couple years old, ones that come out next year literally can collect far more data, chips have gotten better, what happens next? >> cars have hundreds of sensors and cameras, and they're doing all kinds of data collection this benefits us this is why we have cruise control and the ability to know that there is a car, you know, next to us, we get warnings and alerts the fact that you can kind of control your car with your smartphone, that you can find it, there are great conveniences but they do come with this downside where it is just possible to collect so much information about us, and -- >> got to have a camera watching

you the entire time you're driving. >> your car knows how much you weigh because there is sensors in the seat when you sit down because they need to know if there is a child in the passenger seat so the car can turn off the air bags so, it is why we really do need to address consumer control of that data, because when i was talking to drivers, that this happened to, they said it felt like a betrayal. they paid so much money for the car and it just is really outside the expectations of what people expect to happen with their car. >> my car is not going to rat me out. i don't -- it likes the way i drive. >> thanks, kashmir >> really is disturbing. >> it is >> i thought you were my friend. coming up, home depot betting big on the pfeiorossnal market with an $18 billion acquisition. we'll get an analyst and reaction to that deal in the next half hour "squawk box" coming right back

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markets are set to close out the best first quarter in half a decade but the fed's christopher waller throwing some cold water on hopes for rate cuts. we will talk markets in just a moment a historic day for crypto as ftx founder sam bankman-fried prepares to be sentenced for swindling billions from customers. and what americans think about corporate taxes and which candidates would be better for business new data and a fiery debate straight ahead the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq market site in times square, i'm joe kernen with becky quick.

andrew is off this week. here are the futures this morning, which are adding to yesterday's gains which added to the yearly gains actually, gotten a little bit less positive. in fact, the nasdaq is now in the red, down about eight points, but a big day yesterday which turned the averages positive for the week. take a quick look at treasuries, we have some important fed comments, we'll tell you about in a second. not a whole lot of effect on the yield. 4.22 on the ten-year walgreens just out with quarterly results. bertha kocoombs joins us now wih more good morning, bertha okay >> i don't think we have her audio. i don't think we have her audio just yet >> walgreens topping expectations bertha would have told us, posting $37.1 billion in revenue versus $35.9 billion

expectations, but the bottom line may not be comparable on a net basis. the company posting an operating loss of $13.2 billion in the midst of a major restructuring -- i don't want to read this. >> is bertha -- >> are we good >> you go ahead and read this. >> okay, sorry about that. i don't know what happened there. basically the company's in the midst of a major restructuring, joe. on the top line they did beat better than expected revenues, but they posted a net loss of more than $13 billion. and i don't believe that that was baked into estimates that net loss coming at $6.85 per share. but when you look at the ad adjusted basis, taking that out, the earnings come in at $1.20 per share, comparable to what the estimates were for 82 cents a share, much better the net loss as a result of what's going on in the

healthcare division, where walgreens is undergoing a massive restructuring, driven by a nearly $6 billion goodwill impairment charge for their stake in village md, which is closing about 60 clinics, they have been doing that and cutting back as walgreens' ceo has looked to cut costs at the company. if you take that out, sales for the healthcare unit, which includes village md did top estimates and on an adjusted basis. the unit posted break even ebitda or cash flow for the first time in u.s. pharmacy, $28.9 billion in sales were slightly higher than estimates driven by prescription growth. but operating income missed. now, while the change healthcare cyberattack happened during the last nine days of the quarter, no mention of that the real issue was the front of the store, which saw retail same store comparisons down 4.3%,

amid weaker cold and flu demand, lower merchandise sales and a management also cited higher shrink or theft. by contrast, an international boots uk saw sales and operating income above expectations with same store sales up nearly 6% and online boots.com comps up 16.8% year over year the ceo tim wentworth, who took over just five months ago, says the company remains on track to cut a billion dollars in costs this fiscal year, 2024, and he says that he's going to be outlining the results of his strategic review about what might be sold, what else they're going to do, in april. becky? >> bertha, thank you very much you can check it out right now that stock up by 2.25% after those results. some other news this morning, home depot acquiring srs distribution for $18.25

billion. it is going to be doing that through cash it has on hand and also debt. it is going to be accessing the capital markets for that srs is the leading building products distributor that supplies professional roofers, landscapers, and pool contractors. that's pretty key because home depot has the pro, but this would be moving down to smaller contractors and they already have really access to. home depot says the acquisition will accelerate growth within the residential professional customer it expects to complete that deal by the end of the year srs distribution is based out of the greater dallas area. this is a big deal for home depot. the ceo ted decker talking about how one of their three goals for the year has been to grow that share of the wallet with pro they say that's one of the largest opportunities. the other goals they have is to build more stores and continue to grow comps by having better service for customers and taking out some of the friction along the way. as a result, decker is now saying that they are looking at their total of addressable

market growing from $950 billion to a trillion dollars. he says that number is conservative in their estimates. said it will be a complementary accelerator with home improvement and the pro remodeling they expect this deal to close by the end of the year regulators likely to take a look at it. but we will see. there is a breakup fee associated with it that they have not disclosed yet it will be with the s.e.c. filing later today we're going to be speaking with an analyst in just a few minutes about that deal. fed governor christopher waller suggesting that the federal reserve could cut fewer times this year and start later as a result of stronger than expected growth. also inflation data so far this year let's find out what all this means for the markets. jim paulsen is former chief investment strategist for both the lutehold group and the author of the newsletter "p

"paulsen perspectives. did you retire and get pulled back in or is it the newsletter. did you sign a noncompete? why haven't you been on the show, how long has it been, a couple of years? >> it has been over a year, yeah i tell you, joe, i'm still retired. but i just -- this is just one of my hobbies. i just never really totally could get away from the markets, the economy. >> i don't see how you could i'm glad you didn't. i'm trying to -- my memory is actually still pretty good, but the last time you were on, you were much more bullish than the street i remember that. and that's why i was disappointed when you weren't going to be on anymore but i don't remember whether you were bullish for the right reasons. and in the past, there had been other instances where you were right but for the wrong reasons and other times when you were wrong, but had all the right reasons. do you remember what -- do you remember all those times,

commodities, all that stuff. and you were never -- you may know nothing, but you were never in doubt but a year and a half ago, when you were on, you were bullish on the markets. why? >> well, the primary reason, joe, was disinflation. i just disinflation historically has been such a powerfully good force for stock market it does a lot of great things. it takes the pressure off, cost pressures off companies, it raises the real pursing power of households, it raises consumer business confidence. it tends to cause stocks and bonds both to go up as a wealth effect that was the primary reason. i expected rate cuts this last year i did. i think the fed's been super tardy both on the way up with inflation and on the way down. in fact, when i look back historically, joe, at the fed's performance, it is an absolute outlier in post war history.

they raised -- didn't raise rates the entire surge of inflation from zero to 8.5%, and then they cut or they raised rates the entire time that inflation decelerated from nine back to 3% and no one ever has done that before usually the fed is raising rates whe when inflation is accelerating and cutting when it is decelerating they were late to tighten and now late to ease. >> when you were talking, you thought disinflation was going to boost the market, that was after we had already seen the 40-year highs in inflation you thought it was going to come down more quickly than the fed thought. and that basically has happened until recently where it looks like it is sticky. you don't think right now it is a problem and you think waller is wrong to say don't cut right away >> well, you know, one thing that i find fascinating today, joe, is let's look for a minute where we're at

we got this, all this apprehension because we're not at 2% inflation. it is, like, terrorism that we can't get there. and how bad it will be if we don't. here's the reality, we're sitting in the last -- a little over a year, about a year the inflation rate has been 3%, very steady and stable, hovering around that level. wage inflation for the last six months has been very stable, around 4%. the real wage rate has been rising steadily, now at 1% clip. real gdp growth is 3.1% in the last year. employment growth just shy of 2% productivity is at 2.6%. the unemployment rate has been less than 4% for almost two years. and the stock market is up 30% in the last year in earlier times, when we didn't have this 2% fixation, we would call this environment nirvana. that would be nirvana. it has echoes of what greenspan had in the 1990s during his era. that was kind of the data he had

and that's how he got the moniker maestro. and we have so much criticism of everything that is going on, and worry about how it is going to turn out and yet, i think you ought to step back and look at this this is a pretty good environment. and i think it is going to likely stay that way for a while. we're only a little over one year into the bull market and much of the market hasn't even really joined the party yet. there is all this -- money market funds that come back in, there is a lot of good things that could still happen. >> interesting because, yeah, it is, like, 2%, 2%, suddenly that became, like, if you don't get to 2%, i mean, i don't know what would happen the sun might not come up if we don't get to -- there is a feeling that if you don't get it to that point, you haven't really wrung is out of the system and it can come back and go to much higher than -- like, three doesn't sound that bad. it is not that bad but they think that would --

that would portend four or five, six, back to the horrible numbers that we're all still dealing with because it is still in a lot of these prices but we got to go, jim, but it has been too long. >> back to 1980, we have not had a serious inflation outside of the pandemic induced inflation even though unemployment is low, we have been growing strong, we have been unable to produce a series of inflation and that's because we have strong secular disinflationary forces that exist today and without the pandemic we couldn't have done that >> with a.i. and importing disinflation, it could still be coming from other places, jim, so you might end up being right. you're going to -- when are you retiring again we can count on it we can't call you in a month, tell us now. are you back are you sort of back >> i'm back writing regularly and enjoying that and having fun with it. it is a hobby. i'm not back working for anybody. i'm going to have fun and i

investigate -- >> you don't work for anybody. you already got a rep and you can come on here if you call us. >> we missed you, jim. >> yeah. >> it was fun. thanks for having me appreciate it. >> see you, jim. >> saw something he posted on twitter earlier in the week, why haven't we seen him? >> i thought he retired. >> he did, but it is great he's still -- >> godfather 3, pulls him back in. >> we're going to beup at 3:45 forever. >> we are. i was thinking, maybe when i'm 80 or 85, can you and andrew do the 6? and i can come in at 7:00. i was thinking about that. if i'm emeritus or something, like in 20 years. >> can i be emeritus next year when we come back, it has been five months since sam bankman-fried was convicted in one of the largest white collar crimes in history. today, he is back in manhattan federal court for sentencing and later, the doj suing

ous.e last week on antitrust grnd is apple really a monopoly jon fortt weighs in on this week's "on the other hand. perfect subject. we'll be right back. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. visit bairddifference.com.

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i gotta get this deal... that's like $20 a month per unlimited line... i don't want to miss that. that's amazing doc. mobile savings are calling. visit xfinitymobile.com to learn more. doc? welcome back, everybody. former ftx ceo sam bankman-fried is heading back to manhattan federal court for sentencing he's facing up to 50 years in prison while his lawyers have asked for more -- for no more than 6 1/2 years joining us right now is puck's teddy sliffer. joe asked the question when you sat down, you didn't answer it yet, but it is the right one >> go ahead. >> 40 or 6. >> 40 or 6 there are 34 numbers in between. i think the consensus is that this is going to be somewhere between 20 to 30

and in a lot of ways, this is more interesting to me than the trial itself there is no debate that is going to happen about the facts of what crime sam allegedly or -- at this point, no longer allegedly committed. it goes to, like, what is the point of the criminal justice system is it to make sure that someone like sam bankman-fried doesn't come along again and commit some future crime over some future asset class that we don't know about. >> that worked with madoff. >> right, right. or is it about what is fair? and the conception of fairness here is -- reminds you of the college philosophy seminar, but is it fairness about what sam deserves, is it fairness about what happens to victims, is it fairness about what it says about america, or about society? these are weighty questions that aren't easy to answer. >> there is a narrative out there that i think has been put out by sam bankman-fried's side that, hey, the money is all back, everything is here, no

harm, no foul, let us go >> yeah. >> is that true? there were victim statements put in last week. >> it is complicated it depends on whether or not you believe that victims should get the money they had as of november 2022 when this whole thing collapsed or if victims should get the money that they would have today if nothing had happened >> but a lot of these people have had no access to their money and there was a woman who put -- a mother with a disabled child who had no access to her funds and talked about how awful this has been for her. there is no question that sam bankman-fried was using the funds as a piggy bank for himself, for his family, for everyone around him, using those funds freely without any recourse or thought to what would happen to these people whose money was taken. >> yeah, and for someone who spent the last 15 months worrying about whether the money was ever going to come back, there is a traumatic experience obviously as you can tell when you read those letters, but, yes, victims have been made whole, so to speak, in that there is never -- if you had a

bitcoin in november 2022, you're going to have the value of that bitcoin today, but obviously the coin is -- prices increase by 300% in recent months. so, like, it is a question of what is the opportunity cost you lost by, you know, being a victim of a crime. >> it was also -- look, he was clearly co-mingling the funds, lying about it, it was -- there was a big charade put up -- >> and it is interesting because today, questions like that are not going to be debated. whether or not sam intentionally committed fraud or not, that's not -- that's why i find this today more interesting than the trial. because it really relates to the bigger questions about, you know, how do we judge a person like this in society is it about -- i know sam was obviously not remorseful at all really during trial and the judge clearly was agitated with him. but should that matter that's an interesting question does sam's attitude in court

matter that's something that, like, you know, i understand for the judge, you want the guy to be respectful, you don't want him to be so pedantic. >> you don't want them to do it again when they get out. >> sam's team will argue that it is not that he's not remorseful, he doesn't have the emotional iq to -- >> that's a fair point. >> that's why it is fascinating. these questions aren't easy and they're almost not really about the merits >> if he's on the spectrum and not acting the way we would think typical people should act, maybe that's not a fair charge against him. >> and sam's team is going to argue that this is a guy who is 30 years old, and if he is sent away for 40, 50 years, in a prison, you know, his parents have said they fear for his life and, you know, look, this is an argument and they're trying to convince someone to do something that would be nice to their kid, but they genuinely believe that, like, his lack of emotional iq, inability to read people, could put him at danger.

that's why i'm so excited for today, not because you want to, like, watch this public flogging, but i think this is -- you think about the big picture here, about what is the role of, like, a judge, a prison, you know, you have to consider things like is this person going to be safe, should we care about his mental condition, you know, over the next 40, 50 years of his life, or is the fraud so bad, you know, that we should just be willing to punish, punish, punish until, you know, there is no limit to it. >> those are all good questions. if he were to get 20 to 30 years, what would that be with time off for good behavior >> what kind of good behavior are we talking about sam spent the last -- he's been in jail now since last august. we forget. we won't forget today because he's going to show up not in a suit and tie and not look the same as he did a couple months ago. he spent some time in prison, doing some tutoring, i'm sure

this will be litigated for the next -- i'm sure it will get appealed immediately there will be a lot of twists and turns here, but, you know, 20, 30 years, couple years off -- >> i guess that's fair leopold and lowe, one got killed in prison, one got out early for time served after killing a 14-year-old and planning it methodically >> yeah. lives can diverge. the madoff and holmes comparisons will be made a lot today. madoff was sentenced to 150 years but he was old by the point he was sentenced sam bankman-fried, plausibly, if he was on the streets here in new york, could live another 60 years, 70 years. these are really interesting questions about, like, what should the number be given his age, i think will be an interesting question today, because there is somebody who if you listen to sam's side could have a positive impact on the world. >> good question

>> and we have seen far too often people that are out on the streets that are -- >> repeat offenders. >> repeat offenders. it is a rough week for people that are being out there this was not a victimless crime, obviously. but other people are getting out without bail that have done -- and remorse thing, there is a lot of remorseful psychopaths that really aren't -- >> are playing the jury. >> everybody in prison is innocent too, both remorseful and innocent >> it will be interesting to see today on the point of remorse about whether or not sam speaks. it is possible his parents speak. like, today is not a trial on the merits of what happened, but he testified in his defense and it kind of backfired pretty dra n matically. his parents did not take the stand. it is possible they speak today not about what happened, but

whether or not this should be a person that is should be sent a for the rest of his life >> this gives us a lot to think about. i'm going to be sitting here thinking about it. thank you. coming up, home depot acquiring distributor srs in a huge bet on the growing p pro market and pro sales we'll speak toe an analyst abou the deal >> announcer: time now for today's aflac trivia question. what toy was bannefrhed om t national security agency offices for fear it could be used to eavesdrop? the answer when "squawk box" returns. good thing i had aflac. hmmm the cash i got from aflac helped pay for medical expenses, groceries, rent. it really helped close that gap. go, go, go! yay! go aflac! go duck! get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover at aflac.com

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and now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. what toy was banned from the national security agency offices for fear it could be used to eavesdrop? the answer, furby. despite assurances from tiger electronics that the talking toy had no recording capability, the nsa insisted a ban in 1999 big deal news this morning home depot acquiring srs distribution for $18.25 billion. srs is the leading building products distributor that supplies professionals like contractors for roofing, landscaping, pools and more. and joining us right now is michael baker, he's with da

davidson, analyst who covers this company what do you think of this deal >> i think it makes sense. home depot strategy has been to go after the pro customer and not just the pros we think about, but the larger complex pro. that's where they probably have the biggest hole in their offering this plays exactly into that strategy they have been working on building out the complex pro for the last several years and this, to me, takes a big step forward in that. >> the reason i wanted to talk to you is because this week you actually downgraded lowe's it is not because you don't think the ceo there, marvin ellison and his team, have done a great job, you think it is going to be tough for them to continue to improve versus home depot. and your suggestion in your note is they go after the pro segment that home depot has been so successful with. if home depot completes this acquisition, which it thinks will happen by the end of the year, what does that do to the home depot/lowe's comparison >> the call on lowe's over the

last five or six years is that lowe's can close the margin gap versus home depot. they have essentially done that. 85% of the margin gap when marvin ellison got to lowe's has been closed. where lowe's still lags home depot is on the pro side and that's the next step for them. we think that's harder, though, for lowe's to close that gap with home depot than the margin gap was. this deal from home depot puts them further ahead and makes it that much more difficult for lowe's to close that gap they are going after somewhat different pro customers. home depot already built out and has a large market share with the smaller pro. that's where lowe's has the incremental opportunity because they are underpenetrated in the small pro. but because home depot has strong share with that small pro, now home depot is compelled to go after a different customer segment, this larger complex pro, much more difficult business, but we think this acquisition really helps them in that way >> as i mentioned, you downgraded lowe's this week from a buy to a neutral what is your rating on home

depot? >> we're at neutral as well. home depot, fabulous company, but a pretty high valuation and we have seen some weakness in the same store sales over the last couple of years the stock underperformed the market in each of the last three years prior to 2024. it is outperforming a little bit this year, and so it is worth taking a look at, particularly on the acquisition but we have preferred lowe's in the past and lowe's outperformed home depot's stock i think this is an amazing statistic. lowe's outperformed home depot seven years in a row including 2024 they're both at neutral and now there is an opportunity for home depot to regain that lead. >> michael, thank you. michael baker. >> sure. when we come back, we'll look at the premarket movers and then how american land on the issue of whether corporate taxes should be raised, lowered or kept the same steve liesman will join us with the data plus, we have a fiery debate on the topic.

check out the futures this morning on this last trading day of the quarter u' s rhtyolleeig now things are pretty flat. dow futures up by 5. s&p 500 futures really flat. nasdaq down by 18. "squawk box" will be right back. e the ocean view? of aruba? huh. this listing is misleading. well, when at&t says we give businesses get our best deal, on the iphone 15 pro made with titanium. we mean it. amazing. all my agents want it. says here...“inviting pool”. come on over! too inviting. only at&t gives businesses our best deals on any iphone. get iphone 15 pro on us. (♪♪)

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and welcome back to "squawk box. i'm dominic chu. time for your morning movers on this thursday. we'll kick things off with a big bank that shares of bank of america, down right now just about .2% around 6,000 shares of trading volume this is america's second biggest

bank by market value it is getting downgraded by analysts over at hsbc to a hold. it was a prior buy rating. they also raised the target price by a modest dollar to 39 bucks a share. it is a valuation call after a big run over the last six months and 50 plus percent move since the october lows big move to the upside, up 34% they see better opportunities among some of the largest cap bank stocks out there like citigroup, goldman sachs, and u.s. bancorp for more on that head over to cnbc.com/pro, subscribers can get more on that call and big analyst calls now we'll stick with the financials, ally financial, discover financial, and capital one financial. those shares are moving on thinner premarket volumes. ally up half a%. capital one down two thirds of 1%, flat for discover. we know that capital one agreed to buy discover. we now know that current discover ceo michael rhodes is

leaving that company to take that same ceo role at ally financial. rhodes is a retail and consumer banking veteran who worked at bank of america and td bank before joining discover. so watch those shares. and we'll cap things off with a check on newly minted publicly traded social media platform reddit, which is down 5% right now. 125,000 shares of volume following up on an 11% drop yesterday. some key executives including reddit ceo steve huffman have been selling shares since the ipo just five trading days ago according to regulatory filings, huffman sold about half a million shares on monday other top executives combined sold around 776,000 as well. important to note here, that some of these sales were telegraphed early on and expected reddit's ipo, 34 bucks a share, open for trading at 47 on day one. got as high as almost 75 bucks a couple of days ago right now 55 bucks almost on the nose now "squawk box" will have more on all these big stories coming

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time now for the great corporate tax rate debate. and where americans stand on the issue of whether they should be higher, lower or stay the same steve liesman joins us right now with some results from the cnbc all america survey steve, what did you find >> well, it is an issue, becky, not talked much about yet. we're about to talk about it but it is sure to be debated and investors need to watch closely this battle over the corporate

tax rate in which the election is going to play a decisive role president biden wants to ratchet up the tax to 28% from 21% that's where it was before president trump lowered it in 2017 to 21 the cnbc all america economic survey finding that 43% of the public want to keep it at 21 or go lower 45% want to restore it to 28% or even go higher call this an absolute dead heat. a breakdown of the issue shows a little more intensity for the higher corporate tax that want to keep it the at 21 24% want to go higher, including younger voters and liberal voters, there is some overlap there, just 14% want it to go lower. that's the left side of the screen there the most conservative voters, they support cutting to 21 there isn't much popular support for it yet there have been some articles suggesting that candidate trump may want to cut below 21

no public statement. we called the trump campaign they did not respond to our query for this story the party breakdown, a mirror image as we have seen before 78% of democrats wanted it at 28 or higher, 74% of republicans want to keep it at 21 or go lower. what about the independents? they lean a bit toward the democratic side, preferring the current tax rate or higher by a 45 to 36 margin. president biden has proposed this 28% increase in his budget, but it is not going anywhere in this congress. how this settles out will be determined by the presidential election, which party wins congress in november, and, becky, perhaps a discussion about the eficit >> all excellent points. steve, thank you. let's bring in former representative kevin brady, previously the ways and means committee chair and former representative donna edwards i wish we could -- i wish we had clear cut evidence on whether things work and i don't know what -- you two probably disagree on this

i'll start with you, congresswoman. we just cut rates during the trump years on corporations. was that helpful for the economy? was it a good thing? did it work? >> i think that if we could get to where the effective tax rate is, then we might be able to see where it is on the economy but the reality is that even by cutting to 21% we still have an effective rate of about 8% or 9% so, corporations are still able to figure out ways in which they can avoid paying that 21% corporate tax rate and so, you know, i think it is early to tell, but, look, 28% is -- was actually a pretty historic kind of new low we were up in the, you know, 50s back in 1968 when we did all the new deal programs went in. and so, i think it is time for us to kind of level that off,

28% seems reasonable under the circumstances given the historic corporate tax rate and i think, you know, a lot of people look at those headlines when, you know, the releases come out, seeing that corporations basically so many of them just avoid tax altogether and it is disconcerting when the american people, ordinary americans working for a living can't avoid those taxes in the same way. >> key thing, though, the normal americans working for a living are employed by the corporations so philosophically, i wonder if you think there is any merit to the notion that, you know, if corporations are able to compete globally by using a lot of whatever money they're making, whatever the margins are to expand and satisfy customers and hire more employees, it just seems like you could -- you get more taxes from the increased employment from the corporations that are succeeding rather than

trying to hamstring the corporations, then they hire fewer people congressman brady, do you think the tax cuts to 21 worked? >> there is no question. there was immediate and strong growth in investment not just investment, investment here in america. that's why you saw the economy take off by a full point, that's why you saw new investment in the u.s., why you saw paychecks increased in more job opportunities. so, it is -- it is easy to shoot at corporations. what you do is you hit the american economy and you hit workers. also, there is no question, a move to 28% would be something china and our foreign competitors would cheer. it would take america's tax rate, when you combine it with the state taxes, to over 32% that would be second to dead last among our oecd competitors. it would be a higher tax rate than china itself. i don't know how our american companies can compete and win,

both here in america and around the world, when we saddle them with the burden higher than china's tax rate i think this is a huge mistake to raise those rates i disagree with my friend donna about some of those numbers, studies have been pretty easily refuted. but nonetheless, we need american businesses investing in america to drive paychecks and growth >> congresswoman, it is an easy target, especially in this populous world that we're living in right now you look at ceo pay or whatever you want to talk about but when corporations do succeed as well, we're watching historic gains in the stock market, a lot of people have owned stocks, whether in their retirement plans or pension plans or mutual funds or whatever it is. so not only do you employ people, i don't think we want most of our employment coming from government employees. the private sector is where all these tax revenues come from i don't know i don't know if it makes sense

to try to -- i'm not going to use that old term about the goose and the golden egg but the private sector is where we get a lot of our tax revenue. and we should hope for it to succeed versus the rest of the world. >> no question about it. look, i spent a good part of my career in the private sector i don't have any problem with that the question is are you paying a -- really paying a tax rate that results in both revenue for the country and also results in profitability for corporations look, under the 28% tax rate, we had the most competitive companies in the world, here in the united states. had the most competitive economy. it is not going to kill our economy to go back to a 28% tax rate and make it really 28%. get rid of the loopholes that allow people -- allow corporations to avoid these taxes and then i think the american people would be satisfied, government would have enough money, we would be able

to pay down the increasingly pay down the debt and still be competitive in the world >> congressman brady, you know, you could go to zero >> nobody is arguing for that. >> but you could you could argue to go to zero. but what is -- and then we use fair for -- i don't know what the word means for a corporation. and on top of everything else, kevin, it is not -- most of our revenue comes from -- does not come from -- what is it, like 8% >> it is a fairly small margin as you would imagine that's because we have other structures like pass through companies, small businesses that people file their taxes under. but truth of the matter is, these corporations, we have never had a 28% corporate rate it would be a huge mistake to go backwards in this competition with the rest of the world it will certainly shrink the economy. we will see lower paychecks

because of it. and the truth of the matter is, i out of the millions of corporations in america, a small portion of them, less than 1% pay almost 90% of the corporate tax revenue. these are the companies that are -- the jobs are at, this is where the revenue -- record revenue to america is coming from it would be a huge mistake because these corporate taxes land on their workers and i looked at the 28% proposal, and it looks like about half a trillion dollars will land on workers making less than 300,000. so it violates president biden's pledge >> final word, congresswoman, then we got to go. >> look, 2025 is going to be the big tax year i don't think we're going to get anything out of congress this year and so it really depends, like steve said, who wins in the election, that's what's going to determine the future of the tax code >> very good i want to thank you both good to see you.

former congresswoman edwards, former -- both formers we'll see. >> we like that. >> we just had -- >> did you see i'm hungry it is good for -- good potassium, is it not? a little d you can still see it all right. when we come back, the doj suing apple last week on antitrust grounds. is apple really a monopoly jon fortt weighs in next. and a programming note for you. tomorrow the markets are closed but the government is open that means key inflation data still released at 8:30 a.m watch cnbc.com for the key data of the day that would be the pce. personal consumption expenditures online with full coverage stti at arng8:15 a.m we'll be right back.

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the department of justice, 15 states and washington, d.c., suing apple last week on

antitrust grounds saying that the company has a monopoly in high-end smartphones so is apple a monopoly jon fortt here to weigh in. >> no. apple's not a monopoly apple is a lot of things, a control freak culture, obsess ish zealot when it comes to designing products that pring hardware, software services together, but this government sas is slipshot. at core doj argues a monopoly power in the high-end smartphone market, which doesn't exist. basically, a company gets so big no significant competition and can man-handle customers raising prices and providing sub-par service because of no second option apple unique in technology built and maintained an expensive global network of customer-focused retail stores generate loyalty through exceptional service. why it's laughable doj invented the performance smartphone market apple plays high end to provide

high-touch servers in a curate the app store experience safe for customers. apple customers stay because they want to, not hostage to a monopoly competitors google and samsung, thriving in their own right. every u.s. wireless carrier sells those phones from google and samsung. >> but doesn't apple have make or break power when it comes to the mobile apps that don't rely on advertising >> well, becky, on the other hand -- apple is an abusive smartphone app store monopolist you can tell by looking at the evidence the case is a mess, because the government conflated the smartphone dwight market, doesn't have a maply and for paid apps, apple most certainly does think of it this way sure, apple has half the market by units look at higher-end phones and revenue share apple closer to 70%. that figure also reflects

apple's heavy influence over smartphone commerce. people who buy apps and games overwhelmingly using iphones and in the apple app sotore more like controlling what stores sell in the marketplace giving huge leverage when it comes to paid apps in the u.s. imessage, video quality, ridiculous it's a national treasure but i don't want them designs my software i do want most global in commerce apple treat developers fairly instead of taxing them three advertising fees, apps found, ex-horbitant app fees. >> they've built this "store" call it that and the government says you can't decide what to charge them and what you do with your store shelves a strange, strange argument. >> it would be weird if they went in and did the same thing to costco. wouldn't it?

>> or walmart. thinking that. went into an actual store said, no you don't get to tell the customers putting your suppliers, how much they're going to charge, tell them where they'll be on the store shhelves a bizarre thing. >> tie gas in. membership fee and limit what payment cards you can use. >> costco shoppers are fervent loyalists. >> hearing in my ear time to tell you about the "on the other hand" newsletter qr code on the screen. you don't have to type if you like typing do that, too. cnbc.com and both arguments to share and debate, joe, whether i always argue what i agree with most. >> now, i don't think you do after that now i think -- see i think you did it for amusement, throw me off. could be. >> because it's all about you. >> i do think about you. think about it -- >> think about that late at

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>> home depot making a big bet on professional services what about people that can't do anything that's the next bet for me in its biggest-ever acquisition the chain will buy a landscaping pool and roofing supplier for more than $18 million. and sam "don't worr bankman-fri learn his fate could face decades in prison sentenced on conspiracy and from lower manhattan as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. wrg good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square.

i'm becky quick along with joe kernen andrew is off today. today is the last trading day of the quarter, and on this morning we're looking at a mixed picture for futures. dow up by about 40 points. s&p up 3.5 nasdaq down just by about 3 points we continue to watch treasury yields closely christopher waller from the fed making comments last night at the economic club of new york. ten-year yields at this point looking at ten year at 421 two year's at 462. waller comments suggested that he thinks the fed should be waiting longer, based on the inflation data over the last couple months. this morning there is big news on the deal front. home depot buying srs distribution for $18.25 billion including net bet. the briggest acquisition for home depot in the company's history. srs is a leading distributor provides professional roofers, landscapers and pool contractors. contractors a little smaller

than home depot has an in with home depot, a lot of pros go there but tight with bigger contractors. the way to expand this, which has been one 69 cof the companys goals this year, an acquisition like this. more than 2,500 people's in srs. srs believe it or not began back in 2008 based in the greater dallas area. home depot's ceo telling us the acquisition will accelerate growth with residential customers and expects to complete the deal by end fiscal 2025. walgreens second quarter results. company earned adjusted $1.20 a share. not clear if that's comparable to the 82 cents expected by analysts really not going to say. sales topping forecasts but walgreens lowered high end of full year adjusted outlook and took a big goodwill impairment

charge related to provider village md tiktok launching a campaign that could damn the app in the u.s. according to ad impact the company reserved tv ad time in battleground states like wisconsin, pennsylvania and ohio and united health paid out additional billion dollars since last week to providers impacted by that hack at change health care units. total amount of funds advanced by the company exceeds now $3 million. back to the markets talking with katie stockton, founder managing partner and cnbc contributor start to touch on everything, but start with the s&p which has been slowly, steadily -- not even slowly but i don't know if it's melting up yet, but an impressive advance no 2%

pullbacks. >> true. yeah. >> what does that mean, for how the duration of this, and is it broadening at this point >> i think it is healthy as long as it has that broadening trend the breadth incredibly strong. yesterday a great example. nvidia pulling back and yet ratio up to down volume on nyse 6-1. really see a breadth kick-in cumulative advance for nyse a new all-time high as of yesterday. not an excessive breakout. no positive development. generally speaking we want to see the breadth data trending higher with the market i think that contradicts to the sustainability. >> what was your last resistance level that you were on past that -- >> i know. 4819 was final resistance for the s&p 500. >> yeah. >> now it's na so -- >> right. >> i think we were able to arrive at upside objectives.

one from, breakout in q4 around 5220 guess what it's been met. this is a national place for consolidation but don't have indications of that now. momentum you know very, very strong and we can arrive at a more aggressive target from that breakout above 4819. of about 6120. it's been our belief that's more relevant for 235. >> okay. 2025 at this point what is -- within the s&p, or within say, like, even include the russell is it small caps now outperforming? do they still have more work to do to catch up >> definitely have a lot of work to do to catch up. but we have seen some signs of strength in absolute and relative terms. >> is that bullish >> i think also bullish. reflects the breadth expanding to small and mid shows risk appetite and seeing that in other asset classes. generally speaking quite good and not nearly as extended as

its appearance as, of course, s&p 500 would. >> how long would you say gold was in a consolidation phase how many years >> multiyears. yeah something close to -- >> where could we go >> yeah. the breakout above that 2063 threshold is a big deal for us and allowed us to arrive at an objective intermediate term of 2280 not far off. longer term about 2500 for price of gold. we think sort of slow moving ship in that direction momentum there and even now as of yesterday have what looks like we call it a flag breakout. sharp up move consolidation and short-term breakout. >> in a similar vein, i guess, if you believe it. digital profit bitcoin is also na for upside objective? >> true. all-time highs what happens i believe in the uptrend at least. very good momentum the pullback we saw, it looks

like nothing on the chart. pretty remarkable. 17, 18% of down side looks like a -- >> and yeah -- >> now, of course, with it, now, days, had a resumption higher. i feel good about the trend there as well. breakout creates a long-term catalyst for bitcoin, too. always going to be higher beta spread to the 50-day moving average, looked this morning something like 13, 14% versus s&p about 4% be initial support readings. that's just the risk you take. >> commodities in general. we actually, a couple years ago, that one guy on. bald guy said in a super cycle. we in a super cycle? commodities are rallying aren't they? >> and feels s broad waysed we need energy complex within the broader commodity space to kick in in a more meaningful way. >> even though it's at 80? >> yeah. resistance for crude oil around

83 above that we talk about mid-90s. that to me would be more meaningful because still looks like a long-term trading range i thinkstocks are anticipating that kind of breakout. had a really good action bottom-up recently in the energy sector still mostly range-bound, longer term though. not decisive yesterday natgas is nat gas. >> becky likes the cracky hollow bunnies instead of the solid. >> kids don't want the solid. >> i hope people can see a lot of those things crumble -- >> sit on your counter happy and -- >> yeah. >> it's true >> so let's not -- let's talk ten year the ten-year note, then. what's your late effort read on what's happening there because now we -- i don't know if we'll get cuts or not. >> sitting here. >> you can see both sides of it. right? with the end result on ten-year

yields really neutral. a bit of a tug-of-war in the action yields. the consolidation phase, saying we could see maybe four, five out of the ten year. before it rolls over again, but the loss of long-term upside momentum is meaningful behind yields that goes across this spectrum we feel that it's capped in a way. may be more neutral to lower environment characterizes this year part of next, a big statement. >> uh-huh. >> i mean, if we knew 4.5 was it, that says a lot about -- >> make it bigger when -- i actually think mid-3s is realistic for the next year or so. >> telling us where inflation will be there, too aren't you >> yes >> it doesn't look like it's going to rear its head back to 40-year highs causing 7% or 8% -- >> i would say, no not based on what we see momentum just in there. >> maybe ought to cut. >> look -- waller says, to compare, he said he needed to

see at least a few more months' data to feel comfortable cutting. he didn't say "no" to this year for sure feels uncomfortable last months' data going to cut, see a couple months -- >> market definitely likes that. >> show it coming back down. >> just to be safe. >> right i don't know whether the ten year controls inflationary expectations or vice versa sort of the same >> remarkable how ten-year yields used to drive the market last year and now it's nvidia. >> yeah. >> right so the focus changed i think it's really just because it's been more neutral not a directional bias -- >> nvidia's chart -- >> pair rabolic. >> another nma. >> and a syndicator, short-term signal reacted to it over the last two, three days suggesting see another week or two down

side which would be, shouldn't be a big deal but feel like it because it's really not back a pullback, deeper pullback is likely interesting to see how the market fares after that. >> and the market, maybe -- katie, thanks. >> of course. when we come back, we will tuk ab talk about the state of the consumer through the lens of retail mickey drexler joins us and whether he sees deals ahead for macy's and nordstrom. as we get ready to wrap up the first quarter, xrt retail etf showing gains of 8.4% since start of the year. a bit less than the s&p 500. stay tedun you're watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc. rock star. rock star? what do you know about rock stars? billy idol? i mean where's the skin-tight leather? my shoes are leather. where's the unnecessary zippers? that thing! billy, rock star is just how doug feels when he uses

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welcome back to qb "squawk box. futures right now, this is -- uncharacteristic, i guess, for what we've seen for, since beginning of the year, but still early. we'll see. is it thursday it's thursday. feels like a friday. you can see up about 35 points 400 yesterday on the dow not -- not much of a pullback. just a little in the nasdaq. treasuries responding perhaps,

muted to what said governor christopher wallace said no rush to cut interest rates amid what's been some hotter than expected inflation numbers. though in a speech at the economic club of new york yesterday waller didn't rule out entirely cutting rates later this year. >> it's been a pretty big month for retail potential deals involving macy's and nordstrom. macy's agreeing to open its books to a potential $6 billion takeover separately a report said founding family behind nordstrom wants to try taking the company private once again joining us now on these stories and the overall state of retail is mickey drexler. the chairman of alex mill and former chairman and ceo of j. crew you understand merchandizing, the consumer, see where trends are headed look at what's happening with department stores, it's a little

scary. a little stunning. i was in one yesterday and pretty empty. >> i understand to the best of my ability, because this business is never one that's a sure bet so i appreciate that, but every day i learn. my opinion, and i've been a broken record on this for, since i worked at bloomingdale's, my first job. macy's a & s and left i was lucky. i got, the anne taylor presence. anyway, i think that it's -- i don't know who could actually turn, you know, all due respect to tony spring who's a good friend, now ceo of macy's corp., that job, i said to tony, i said, tony, you know, this is the hardest job in the world. >> yeah. >> it is and same with nordstrom's. wh

why? because i think the world is becoming so much more focused, attempting to be more focused on what they stand for, or whatever i did, i do linkedin a few times and i think two days ago i said, how do you feel about 30 cereal choices plus on, in a supermarket? and i said, give me the five best as a customer and inform me. i think it's about simple, focused in the world and do what you do the best. if you look at the companies that are very successful they stand for, at every level of retail, there's got to be a point of view. general merchandise in shops, something i don't know how to do. >> terms of being everything to all people >> everything. it's impossible and then sale, sale, sale in every sector of our industry.

i went into a shop the other day, and i said, a good company i knew well, you can guess, and i said, what's -- i said, what's on sale today? >> yeah. >> 30% off all blazers and i said -- because i knew the woman from my history a bit and i said, what's the deal? 40% off all online and i go to the store as a customer and kind of get screwed. >> right. >> and i spoke to my good friend there. i'm not saying which company, of course it could be one of six. so i said to my good friend -- >> i know. it's running through my head. >> i'll tell you later so i said, you know, that's really not fair. that -- i always call bingo, if you were there when something's on sale, and he agreed, he wasn't in charge of that

strategy, and you can't bifurcate prices you go in this store. >> especially rewarding the shopper who doesn't show up in-person. >> of course she says, you can have 40% often, since you mentioned it. now, that's going -- go online i no who's doing well. who's not doing well because it's out there then i go online and half the goods everywhere are on sale but it isn't sale bingo to a degree in the store 25% off. another store, what's the deal online i was shopping in the mall because i do that. in terms of department stores and our industry, in my opinion, less is more i never have beensuccessful enough -- >> less is more if you're stocked deeply. >> if you're what? >> stocked deeply in what you have i have gone into stores trying

to find something, they don't have my sizes's tell me go online to buy it searching for shoe sizes -- interesti g. >> interesting you say that. we have new merchants in our company and they are investors like people buy stocks you buy goods. the business and then it stops the best 15 styles in our company go well over 50% of the business and among 15, maybe there's 50 styles, and we are out and now it's a huge opportunity for us we have sold out of almost everything that we love, but i blame myself but the merchants, we're not buying enough. and two different merchants known them well, boom, boom, boom, and that's the deal. out of stock out of stock now yesterday or today we marketed a 60-unit buy

we didn't say 60 hand done. and we, it was not cheap it was $300. s 3$350 a sweater it just went out best customer. a new thing. send it to -- we sold 35 out of 60 last night, no returns. so get the goods, and that we couldn't get more of so scarce goods are always good. i'm talking too much. >> mickey, we appreciate your coming in today. mickey drexler. >> oh. that's it? that's my ending i'm talking -- >> stay safe. >> frosted flakes -- honey nut cheerios -- lucky charms -- froot loops -- and cinnamon toast crumple. >> toast crunch. >> only need though five. >> and didn't know there was a flavored cheerio, you wouldn't

ask for it. >> right. >> honorable mention of sugar pops those little -- sugar snaps. >> i eat granola. >> granola >> that's it. >> i like a new brand. sugar-free catalina. the very good and there's no sugar. >> no, no, no. defeats the whole purpose! >> nobody tastes -- >> really? >> i have too much sugar in me. >> are you sure? >> off the cuff. says your a1c is dot, dot, dot. >> oh. coming up, from lower manhattan standing by for sentencing's one-time crypto mogul sam bankman-fried. tomorrow, watch cnbc.comdata of the day, personal consumption expenditures, key measure of inflation. morgan brennan, steve liesman and rick santelli online with that number. the news, and the analysis, starting at 8:15 eastern that's tomorrow on cnbc.com.

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kwshgs welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc seconds away from the new initial jobless claims data and final look at the fourth quarter gdp. the futures. could change based on this got a mixed picture this morning with the nasdaq off just a little dow up and the s&p is indicated higher after all three major averages had big gains yesterday. let's check out the yield curve. check out the ten year two year you can see where it -- 4.23%. two-year note.

4.62%. we've got a -- a hard-working gentleman ready to bring us the data someone who's going to be in on good friday. rick santelli is going to help us with that an important number tomorrow rick, i thank you, for helping out with that. you're at the cme in chicago and probably have the numbers hitting right about now. >> yes good timing, joe looking first at the third time around the block on gdp for the fourth quarter and initial continuing claim start with claims. 200,000 expected 210,000 arrives. boy, very well-behaved numbers that is the smallest since 200,000 third week in february we've had several 210,000s look at continuing claims. oh, by the way, in the rearview mirror, 210 becomes 212. that's what sequential order is now. 1 million 819,000 on continuing claims

very, very close to expectations, and last month, well, last week, excuse me, that popped back over that 1.8 million mark revised back down to 1 million 795,000. also very well behaved third time around the block, 3.4% on gdp. tell you, these revisions, go up 0.2 on third look. seen a lot of revisions the last couple years definitely seem to be taking on a little extra horsepower. 3.4, pretty good number. of course, the quarter before this, look at the last quarter of, third quarter of last year that was at 4.9 finish, but boy, really good when you consider the last quarter pre-covid was 2.6% flavor on that consumption up 0.3 from expectations up 0.3 from the rearview mirror. 3% to 3.3. a very, very solid number herchercen i -- harkening back to the first

number prior to covid, 2.6. an important number to pay attention to on pricing price index. remains 1.6. we predict ed it would be and where it was rearview mirror 1.43 pre-covid personal consumption expenditure price index quarter over quarter. last look 2.1. expected 2.1 moves down to 2%. down to 2% where we actually finished the third quarter last year. pre-covid 1.3. synthesize all the numbers a little better growth we have well-behaved claims and, usually means higher interest rates and that is true not hugely higher. prenumber joy pointed occupy moved up a basis point 423 and change back down to 422. look at the two year, 462 pre-number 462 now. continue to monitor all that is, of course, related to anything that could give us a pricing structure.

that's why, joe, i will be in tomorrow morning markets may be closed. it's an important religious holiday, but we do need to be cognizant of the fact that tomorrow in many ways could be a break or make number for the fed. i know we've had a lot of fed-speak. in the end, smart at mr. waller may be and all the fed officials, they really don't know where inflation's going to be a year from now no matter what they say. market doesn't know. everybody's trying to do their best assessment on the fly that's what markets do, and that, of course, what fed guidance does as well. although i would say that they're aiming to try to find any excuse to ease back to you. >> going to ask about what you thought about chris waller that you kind of touched on it anyway, rick thanks stay with us. for more on the new data bring in alison schrager, senior fellow at the manhattan institute on the "squawk" newsline is jason fermin former chair white house council

of economic advisers, professor at kennedy school and our own steve liesman. steve to you first on what the data rick just gave us. >> yeah. so i wanted to just repeat what we talked about earlier, joe waller's comments, he mad this comment that the job market may not be moderating enough to bring down inflation we certainly don't see that moderation in the jobless claims not only are the jobless claims and continuing claims lower but keep getting revised downward, it seems, on a week-to-week basis. i want to take a quick second, joe, to go from those better inflation numbers that rick talked about in the pc and gdp report the core pce 2% even though deflator steph not up. quick look at price expectations nor pce tomorrow online and talking about this with my friend rick. looking at 0.4 on the headline sorry. on -- month over month

that's up a tick pce prices year over year 2.5 up a tick core down a tick but year over year not expected to change very much 2.8% joe, i don't know. we can talk later maybe because we're online that means i don't have to wear a tie act nd jacket. what's i'm wondering about. >> even on cable can curse. >> even on cable i don't know. >> within reason. >> maybe use some kind of -- yeah. >> yeah. don't go crazy allison, your take on whatever you want to talk about data today is labor really so strong maybe waller is on to something, in terms of inflation being stickier than people think >> well, yeah. i mean, because, these jobless claims, it's great people have jobs labor market is strong and seeing strong wage inflation, but also suggests that this last

bit of inflation will, in fact, be sticky. we are seeing that in higher service prices, which is partially reflecting the fact that you have to pay labor a lot more so i think this is definitely going to suggest that, to me, i mean you everynever know probably the inflation report not great for people depending on fed rate cuts this year, and one hand a really strong economy. gdp is great labor market's great honestly, you know, in the grand scheme of things this is actually kind of a, not a terrible inflation rate. the problem is that the fed really is committed to a 2% target and it looks like -- hard to imagine how an economy this strong, people spending this much, wage inflation high as it is, will get down to 2% easily. >> we had, almost like you're watching jim paulsen earlier, allison. jason i wonder do you agree with that i mean, i know they say 2, 2, 2, it's like, concrete, but it's

been 3 in the past things are going so well is it really -- is it against the rules to move the goal post to 3 saying we're good >> look, two things. one is moving the goal post. i think there's an argument for doing that as part of their framework review in 2025. i'm not sure they see there's an argument for doing that. the second is how you interpret it for example, is it 2.0 or is it 2 those are different things 2.49, that rounds to 2 that's pretty close to 2 if we had 2.4 the inflation the rest of time, just don't think anyone would mind that much. i think this matters because we might be seeing this last mile of inflation, disinflation if that's the case, are they going to feel the need to do that maybe get lucky. march and april inflation numbers may come in great. you know, february -- you know,

we'll find out pce tomorrow. i don't have high hopes for that maybe it will turn around, but if it doesn't, will they actively push the economy down willing to wait for a really long time or going to be comfortable with it settling, you know, in the 2s. >> rick, is that heresy to a strict monetary -- a slippery slope, streaming 4, 4 means 5, 5 means 6. 2.49 if you could guarantee that you'd take it. wouldn't you forever? >> here's the problem, joe they painted themselves into a corner they used tough, tough talk guidance, right after they initially thought we were having a transitory inflation issue they really painted themselves into a corner. if they change that even 0.1 or 0.2, my opinion a hit to credibility. especially if they're ultimately wrong. let's say they say, okay 2.4. 2.3 is it. say inflation ends up at 2.8 or

2.9. even down to 2%. they have painted t ed themselv into a corner. this happens when you have verbal guidance. okay you guide the market in a way where you can, you have a -- an aura about you you know more that you're saying, have all the secrets to the kingdom and it's a facade sorry. might be smartest in the entire world but not suth sayers. paints that in permanent ink, there's not a way out of this. interesting to be flexible i thought interest rates way too low, screwing up, because they never really should have painted any number on it, because pricing was very stable. it's about stability that's really what it's about. yeah i think they missed the boat i'm not sure how they can

extricate themselves at this point. >> look, if you have a dual -- >> go ahead. >> they can go out there and say we have a dual mandate maximum employment and price stability. back when inflation was 4, 5, 6%, absolutely that was the only side of the mandate that matters now you're in a world unemployment rate drifted up a bit. they don't have to say their new goal is 2.5 instead of 2 they can invoke the dual mandate and, no, not going to have a big increase in unemployment to ruin one side of a mandate in order to do a little better on the other side i think that's it consistent with what they've said in the past and by the way, i think all of that communication, both anchor inflation expect aces and it's the reason this inflation -- so much more painless than the disinflation we've had in the past. done a much better job this time better than the fed of ever done on disinflation. >> years and years and years to

be more logical about pricing pressures and dual mandate no, chose to 0 .25%. >> keep rates low, allison keep inflation under control should you cut rates even in the economy is still strong? do you advocate for three, four cuts >> depends what happens to inflation. i sort of -- don't want interest rates to be, you know, well below neutral just to stimulate the economy unless you're in a recession. i mean, that also causes all sorts of distortions to the market, and can cause bubbles and make the economy more volatile i mean, i think if you feel like the work is done there's probably a case to do a few rate cuts to get rates to wherever neutral is. although that's debatable. so, but i'm not a fan of zero rates just to juice the economy, unless you actually really need

it, because you're in a recession or something like that. >> well, i'm told once again we've got to go. everybody have a great, a great holiday. steve, and rick, see you both tomorrow allison, thanks, jason, get your camera shot fixed. would you? actually, that's a good picture. a good picture there. >> working on it. >> and you're not broadcasting from the, that little, that pod? remember you had a -- rented a pod? >> i miss that pod i liked that od. >> all right good thank you all. oh, a great shot that's a good shot we good professional head shots don't look that good. yeah like we talked about yesterday it's a camera. nothing you can do about it. another reminder tomorrow watch cnbc.com for key pce inflation data due 8:30 eastern time online with that number, news and analysis starting at 8:15 tomorrow with cnbc.com. all right.

watching shares of amc the company says it may offer and sell from time to time up to $250 million in class a stock. amc says it plans to use the proceeds to bottlester liquidity, pay back debt and for general corporate purposes among the reasons it cites, low first quarter box office resulting in part for writers and actors strikes last year shares down sharply on this news almost 14% it's a decline of 60 cents becauseing at theed 3 -- $3.74 cents. pushing down on shares that currently exist. when we come back, sam bankman-fried set to be sentenced today. live report from outside the courthouse next. right now as we get set to wrap up the first quarter, a check on bitcoin

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welcome back to "squawk box. futures, there they are again. 38 points on the dow nasdaq -- people watch the entire show. don't they do this every -- >> well, i do. >> you watch entire three hours. nasdaq down 2 1. s&p up and check out price of gold another all-time high this morning ups $15. big moves we haven't seen in gold in a long time. almost 2,230 on gold heard katie said 2,250. sam bankman-fried convicted of

ark s orchestrated largest fraud in history. set to be sentenced this morning. kate rooney is there. >> reporter: sam bankman-fried's parents arriving at the courthouse in the last hour. ahead of his sentencing today for crimes carrying a maximum sentence more than 100 years prosecution recommended 48 to 50 years. they put it understood rules but decided they did not apply to him saying that sentence is sufficiently severe to provide justice and dissuade others from committing similar crimes. bankman-fried's attorneys suggested five to six years, on the autism spectrum and not a villain. harm to customers lenders and investors is zero, they argue, because the money largely recouped blaming the chapter 11 team for that. new head of the ftx in a letter to the judge called statements

categorically false. a metaphorical dumpster fire a debate over losses will be key today. typically larger the loss, longer the sentence. bankruptcy stestate $7 billion n customer assets. they won't get cryptocurrency back meaning missed out on bitcoin's 300% rise since then judge has sole discretion today. the fact sam bankman-fried testified intimidating witnesses and may have perjured himself could weigh on that decision, guys. >> kate, a long discussion about this earlier this morning. i guess trying to figure out where they come down i don't know what you're hearing from people. you've been talking to about this opinion they think 20 to 30 years according to one reporter we spoke with earlier. come down in the middle of the two sides? >> reporter: seems to be the average, becky

i spoke to the lawyer who prosecuted madoff. ensure as long enough sentence not to come back and commit another financial crime. the consensus at this point saying -- other experts said the floor is essentially 11 years when has floor is 11 years that's what elizabeth holmes got. the expectation the multiple decades. in his case, he'll be older, but it leaves a sort of light at the end of the tunnel. there's a hope that eventually, at a much older age, he's going to be released and have some sort of life after this. that's kind of where people are landing on this, but again, the fact that he testified in front of judge kaplan and was seen as perjuring himself on the stand, that's going to be taken into consideration. that was the big risk in him testifying in the first place. that was the gamble, that it would come back to haunt him during sentencing. bankman-fried's demeanor and his kind of reliability and seemingly his demeanor on the stand, i think, is going to be

something that at least legal experts are telling me is going to be huge in that sentencing consideration. >> kate, thank you we'll be watching. coming up, we're going to talk markets and get you ready for the final trading day of the first quarter. and a reminder, you can always get the best of "squawk box" in our daily podcast. follow squawk pod on your favorite podcast app and listen any time we're coming rhtig back for becky to do another interview. sg trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. e*trade from morgan stanley power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities, while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. e*trade from morgan stanley

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a little more than a half hour to go to the opening bell on wall street dom chu is here with a look at some of today's top premarket movers what you seeing right now, dom >> becky, let's get you up to speed on the trading action around the takeover thursday story of the morning that's home depot up just fractionally right now, around 12,000 shares of volume after it announced it will buy srs distribution for roughly $18.25 billion that includes the assumption of debt that would make it the largest ever purchase by home depot and would help it expand its presence and reach amid those so-called pro customers, contractors, handymen, as opposed to retail do-it-yourselves srs is going to combine with

home depot's 2,000 stores and distribution centers also, shares of tesla in focus all week long given the expectation for the release of first quarter delivery numbers next week. that stock is moving right now between gains and losses around 800,000 shares of volume we told you about some of the analysts during the week that have been taking down some of their estimates for those deliveries you can now add tesla bull dan ives at wedbush to that mix. he keeps his outperform rating on the ev giant while lowering his target price to 300 bucks. he's citing, amongst other things, expectations for some of those softer delivery numbers. let's end on shares of estee lauder, which are north of 3% higher the beauty products giant is getting upgraded to buy from bank of america from a neutral it's also bumping up its target price to 170 bucks it was $160 prior.

they're expecting a bottoming of the earnings trend, also new product releases, more balance and growth across different geographies and products by the way, for more on all those other calls on wall street, head over to cnbc.com/pro subscribers there have access to more in-depth analysis of some of those calls becky, back to you >> thank you our next guest says a.i. isn't the only game in town for the markets. for some stocks and sectors to watch as we head into the last trading day of the quarter, we want to bring in the president and chief investment officer from hennion & walsh asset management kevin, you're talking about technology, but not just the a.i. names that we have been focused on where do you see this aftereffect? is this the third derivative of a.i., or is this completely separate >> a.i. has certainly be the tail wagging the stock market dog thus far this year, and it is transformative in nature, and

a.i. will provide investment opportunities for investors to consider for years to come but there are also other transformative technologies that are out there. how about cybersecurity? we've seen an increase in the amount of a.i.-powered cyberattacks out there, so what do you need to work those a.i.-powered cyberattacks? well, you need a.i.-generated cybersecurity, and a company like crowdstrike provides the opportunities for such a thing with their cloud-based security platform i also think in terms of the a.i. race, a company like microsoft may be the ultimate winner, although there will be more than one winner microsoft, of course, with their strategic investment in the openai platform, what they're doing with copilot, the stock pays a dividend of just under 1%, and they have the staying power and the cash in their balance sheet to stay with a.i. and make more acquisitions in that area. >> that says that you're not afraid of stocks that have had big run-ups. crowdstrike is up 150% over the last year. microsoft, up more than 50%.

>> no, i would argue that there's reasons why those stocks have run up as much as they are. of course, from a valuation standpoint, they are a little rich at these levels, but i could make a very good argument over the next five to ten years that companies in the cybersecurity arena, like crowdstrike, and companies devoted and committed to a.i. with strong balance sheets will provide even more upside potential. but of course, becky, a.i. and technology isn't the only area that i believe that's going to lead markets and the economy higher moving forward. >> yeah. health care, too we've only got about a minute left, kevin, but where are you seeing the places that you like within the health care sector? >> sure. health care, you can invest in two different ways, becky. one is through large cap pharmaceutical companies secondly, through smaller cap biotech companies. there's a lot of fascination right now on weight loss drugs or obesity-related drugs, and the large cap arena, how about eli lilly with their zepbound

product or even mounjaro, which is a type 2 diabetes treatment that has weight loss characteristics. the small cap, we like and we hold rhythm pharmaceuticals, a small biotech company that's developing treatments for rare disorders of obesity and other gi-related disorders i think the pace of activity in m&a as it relates from large cap pharmaceuticals buying smaller biotech companies is only going to increase in 2024, and rhythm pharmaceuticals could be a likely candidate for that type of m&a activity. >> kevin, thank you. one more reminder, folks don't forget, tomorrow, markets are closed, but that doesn't mean there's not going to be action happening make sure you watch cnbc.com tomorrow morning that's when we'll be getting that key inflation data for the fed. it's the pce, the personal consumption expenditures that's probably the most important number the fed is watching right now, and that could determine a lot about where things are headed morgan brennan, steve liesman,

and rick santelli will be online with that number, the news, and the analysis that starts at 8:15 a.m. tomorrow morning on good friday on cnbc.com. here we go, last day of the quarter, joe >> do you still have easter egg hunts? >> oh, yeah, i got the eggs yesterday. we're making more eggs today >> 22 and 24 >> you never get too old for this stuff it's so much fun >> you're right. >> happy easter, everybody join us next week. right now, it's time for "squawk on the street. ♪ good thursday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street," i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer at post nine of the new york stock exchange. david faber has the morning off. farewell, q1, it's good to know you. very good, in fact, all-time closing highs, best q1 for the s&p since 2019 the 14th best going all the way back to the 1920s. busy day today with fed speak, ecodata, and some m&a. our road map begins with stocks on track