>> jb this >> give me that chart, patty. what i'm showing you here is a confirmed freakout of shares of charles schwab. i do not own this stock, i may buy it. any way, technically, i love the way this looks. >> good stuff. thanks, everybody. see you on belle. "the exchange" is now. ♪ ♪ thank you, scott. welcome to "the exchange." i'm deidre bosa in for kelly evans. here is what is ahead today. stocks are higher across the board. the dow is on pace to snap a three-day losing streak of ahead of tomorrow's key labor data. what happen it is the jobs numbers misses consensus in either direction? we'll game out all the possible scenarios for the fed and how investors should position. plus, disney notching a win against nelson peltz.

bob iger reassuring shareholders the board is laying out a plan. but peltz telling cnbc that he has seen all this before at the company. so could disney get the magic back? we'll discuss that, too. plus, the magnificent seven is up nearly 2% today. tech is outperforming. we have a rare interview with trace stevens. he'll give us his take on the market and what's next for ai. we begin with market action and over to bob. some optimism ahead of that big number tomorrow. >> yes, there is. just off the highs oh of the day, and it's broad-based rally, 3-1 advancing to declining stocks. a lot is on cyclical stocks, not tech stocks. the dow jones, positive. microsoft today, boeing strong, amazon. a lot of resistance, though.

s&p again approaching record territory. we're 5251. nasdaq is also making a stab at record territory, as well. so markets holding up very well. the key story, is rate stabilization. the ten-year yield is back to the highest level in weeks. it's stopped, so that is a very good sign. a lot of anxiousness about a potentially strong jobs report and the cpi next wednesday. we'll keep an eye on that. i mentioned the cyclicals here. this rally is very broad-based. 72% of the s&p was up in the first quarter. that's a very good number. we see energy stocks hitting new highs. so velero, conoco phillips, some big names all at new highs. materials are at new highs, as well. dow chemicals is at a new high.

new corps, all of them at 52-week highs. another big cyclical group is industrials. day after day, caterpillar, eaton, parker hannathan, all keep advancing. caterpillar partly on the idea that global machinery and construction sales are strong. the others are more global electrification stories. there's an ai play with them, as well. so the bottom line here, deidre, is markets are strong and the advanced decline line is the key to understanding this story. it is not six or seven tech stocks moving the market. >> not like last year. bob, stick around. we're goin ing to bring in stev liesman now. >> just the past hour, tom barken weighing in with some familiar fed refrains. he said it's smart for the fed to take our time, remember that

phrase before toggling rates down. he's optimistic keeping rates restrictive can bring inflation back to target. so let's take a look here at what these themes are. first, understand this. 17 of 19 officials see at least one cut coming this year. those cuts are forecast, they're not promised. cutting is kind of policy, but it's not necessarily the amount of cuts. and so they use phrases like, it's likely appropriate sometime this year to cut. notice that there's no exact time or amount in there. the cutting is data dependant. they use phrases like, if the economy evolves as expected. and they're in no rush to do it. policy is well positioned, they say, and they say we have time. where did you hear that? barken just said it, powell said it yesterday. so now let's talk about when or why or how much will they cut? here's something else to

understand. they'll go faster on sooner if we have a quicker decline in inflation. more and more officials are pointing to the pace of the decline of inflation as something they're calibrating their policy towards. and of course, unexpected economic weakening might hasten those cuts. moving on, why would they be slower lateer? slower progress on inflation. note the economy is not -- a stronger economy not necessarily a reason why the fed would slow down rate cuts. they're becoming more comfortable with the idea that the economy is going to be higher. the job reports tomorrow, the fed is hoping for some slower, but it's pointing to immigration as boosting the labor force where they're more comfortable with these hotter numbers. the next screen here, when you get down towards 100 in this market, remember, we had 265 over the last several months, that's when you worry about this weakening some are worried about. 200 is the consensus, that's your goldilocks number. somewhere in here is a number

two high. i put in 275. that tells you that you're not getting the balancing of the labor market that wage inflation could remain a threat. however, many seem less concerned about the big payroll gains because of what's coming from immigration. deidre, i'll leave it there. >> as you walk back to the desk, bob, that goldilocks scenario with 200-k being the sweet stop. you're on the floor of the new york stock exchange all day, is that in line with what you hear from the traders. what does that mean for market swings? >> it is. what are we dealing with here? a little stickier inflation than everyone anticipated but still a strong economy. the answer is, look at the market. it can handle that. remember, back in december, everyone was talking about six rate cuts. now, we went to three, and we're in the process, as you saw from steve, going to 2 1/2, and maybe even below that. yet we're still sitting at historic highs. it's the economy holding up.

what would cause a big drop in the stock market, like 10%? not 1%. you have to have jobs fall apart. that's not happening. you have to have a big, big increase in the interest rate scenario. that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. or some exogenous shock like an oil embargo or covid. the economy is signaling it might be able to handle more delay in interest rates. >> steve, when it comes to inflation, we talked about this earlier this week, but we've had so many fed speakers over the last few days. anyone talking about commodity prices and the rise in oil? >> no, and one reason is that what happens in commodity and oil don't necessarily translate down to the consumer level. there are buffers. you pay a little more for your wheat. it may not mean that you raise the price of bread the same amount. they are talking about the lessening of goods deflation, such as things like you make out

of commodities. and that then sort of not offsetting the higher service inflation. they really want to see that service inflation come down and they want to see the housing inflation come down. those are the keys for inflation. they remain optimistic. this is the key i keep listening for. they believe in their scenario that inflation will come down this year, and their whole policy for the rest of the year is based on that belief. >> bob, you said the story of the week has been the rate stabilization. however, we still saw this selloff on tuesday, and somewhat yesterday as well. i wonder if you think that that is maybe a warning of some of the upcoming catalysts that we talked about the jobs report, but you saw the tesla delivery numbers sink the stock. do you think the numbers will be a little more volatile going forward? >> tesla is a very stock specific story. generally, the earnings outlook has been extremely table, in

fact, remarkably stable. so i'm not expecting a lot of dramatic surprise on that. what i'm a little worried about is the economic data. people have 220, 240 on the jobs report tomorrow. i think the consensus is about 200,000. you want -- you really want the market to move forward, you want 170,000, something not too far below that. that's the goldly locks number. and on the cpi number, that's another number. i'm more worried about the data. >> steve, does that track with you? >> i've been impressed with the ability of it to hold up against the withering decline in the outlook for the fed. the stock market holds up. i mean, we have had an historic shift. i know if you have the january 2025 fed funds contract that you can put up, what you will see there is what was expected earlier this year or late last year of a 360, i don't know, a

380 fed funds cut. now it's at 4.60. incrementally, the market is more hawkish than the fed was. the fact that he's still talking about all-time highs is remarkable to me. i would have thought the market would have sold off more. it's withstood higher interest rates, and i think that's a story of the economy and earnings. a mistake we make is we think of the market expects x, and so therefore, if it doesn't happen that way, then earnings are going to come down. it's the ability of companies to adapt to a changing situation that maintains their profitability and often unexpected. >> and a strong economy is good for earnings. i want to go back to the first box you had up on the screen there. these rates are forecast and not promised. the market has held up very well. but what does that, you know, what if it goes further down and the market starts to understand that one cut might be on the table or none? >> so then, again, ask what is

the context of that? is that because gdp is stronger? atlanta fed up a half point on gdp for this quarter. we're still below 4%. oddly, the unemployment forecast for tomorrow is 3.8%. americans are working. wages are reasonably high. companies have made a boat load of money in this inflationary environment. you go back to what people thought back in 2020, 2021, when inflation began to accelerate. we thought it was going to hit the bottom line. but that was not the case. companies made money in the inflationary environment. in fact, they did better and professor jeremy siegel predicted all that. >> bob, last word. >> what makes earnings go up? revenues go up. a modest increase is expected this year at 4%, 5%. number two, pricing power. we saw that during the covid crisis. it's getting a lot tougher to do that right now. that could be a little bit of a

headwind. and finally, cost cutting. corporate america, when they get squeezed, turns to cost cutting. i think you'll see that as a last resort for a lot of companies to keep their earnings up. >> and keep their employees on payroll. they don't want to go through what they went through earlier. >> bob, thank you. steve, we're getting some headlines from austan goolsbee. what can you tell us? >> going right in line with the themes we talked about. he said the policy stance is restrictive and these are a little more dovish commentary. he says we need to be mindful how long the fed remains restrictive. he may be emphasizing it a bit. some cautionary sales on the real sign of the economy, he's looking at rising consumer delinquencies, to be careful how long the fed is restrictive. productivity growth has rebounded, and he can't write off the january inflationary

numbers. he's watching that very closely, and he says the data should not knock us off the pard towards the 2% target. he says the biggest inflation danger is the high housing cost, and it would be difficult for the fed to hit that 2% market if housing remains high. core service inflation, the think that powell is talking to, has improved a good deal. i want to show you a chart. take a look at this. he says we're not far there the prepandemic level on that key metric. if you look here, 3.3 in february was the number, down from 5.3 peak in december. before the pandemic, it was 2.5. so 0.8, deidre, are you going to ruin the kingdom for 0.8 on core services? >> good question. let's bring in the cio of matrix advisers. david, what camp are you in, in the idea that they risk by cutting too soon or not cutting?

>> we basically feel they're navigating it quite well, and we're less concerned whether they start to cut in june, july, or august. what's clear to us is the fed is going to be cut thing year, and the economy is strong. we think those two things together allow for a constructive stock market. the stock market becomes obsessed on a day-to-day and data point basis, in terms of is it going to cut or not? then you're going to have volatility. so we think shorter terms are in a trading range with 5% upside or downside. we would be buyers into any dip and we think the year ends higher than it is right now and not spend too much time trying to predict the fed. it's impossible and they change with each data point, and the data points are going to be changing in the next few months. >> david, i had a strange thought this morning. here's the weird idea, the longer the fed remains at a high level, in one sense, it's better

for the market because the more ammunition the fed has to fight the slowdown, which is sort of a long way of saying, at 5.38% with inflationeither stagnant or going down, the fed put looks to be well in place. >> i think that's a great assessment. we think the fed has flexibility, and if inflation is coming down, as we think it is, they're going to be able to lower rates and maybe more quickly when they need to. the only concern we have on the economy right now in terms of interest rates being as high is in the housing market, because it's a very complicated environment. mortgage rates are so high that it's very difficult for people to sell their homes because if they buy a new home, they have much less ability to buy or spend up on that. >> steve just brought up the headlines, talking about housing inflation. i'm asking you about commodity inflation. what do you think is the bigger risk here, david? >> well, we think in terms of commodity inflation, by and large it's pretty manageable.

we don't think oil prices are related directly to the economic activity in the u.s. there's so many other factors going into it, in terms of geopolitical and what's happening in the middle east. we think ultimately right now that oil prices at the higher end of the trading range. we expect some relief over the next few months. while it might hit an inflation number over the next month or two, we think three to five to six months out, oil prices are not going to be a negative for inflation numbers, because we think prices will start to trend down to the 70s. >> one of the things you want to think about, i don't think austan goolsbee is saying this, but should the fed look through the housing component in deciding whether or not it's arrived? because maybe david has a brilliant answer, maybe you do. diana did yesterday, and none of the brilliant housing people i know, is the answer to housing higher or lower rates? >> i don't have a brilliant answer on that. >> nobody does.

you fix the housing market by lowering rates? if you lowered rates, are there more buyers than sellers? here's my conclusion. every seller needs a place to live. so if you increase the number of housing on the market, you don't necessarily increase net supply. every buyer necessarily doesn't -- maybe living on the couch at home. i'm serious about that. so if you make it easier for buyers, i don't know if that helps or not. >> last word to you, david. i want to talk about some of your picks. we have seen this broadening out of the rally this year. but today, mega cap tech hasn't traded on yields, they just moved higher. what do you expect for the rest of the year, are you broadening out? >> we think the market is going to be broadening out. you're already seeing it. we think that continues as the year progresses. we're comfortable with technology, we just don't expect a lights out performance or the rest of the year. but the other sectors that are

doing better are going to continue. buy a broad basket. we like health care, we like financials, we like industrials. we still like some technology, but we're more focused on the lagging technology where some of those stocks are going to catch up. and utilities have been an absolute dog. as the fed starts to lower rates, utilities are going to be a good place to be. >> apple is on your list. interesting pick there. it's been one of the laggards, kind of kicked out of the mag seven this year. thank you very much. let's pivot now to disney. cnbc is tracking the board room battle between disney and activist investor nelson peltz. iger is looking to reassure shareholders about disney's succession plan. >> clearly, shareholders are interested and care very much about succession. it is the board's number one priority. they've been spending a significant amount of time on that. we have a succession committee

that our chairman chairs and james gorman who just joined the board is on. they met seven times last year and will meet more this year. they're confident they'll choose the right person at the right time. >> after that interview, trian told jim cramer he's heard all this before and it hasn't been enough. >> i had no issue with bob. the only issue i had with bob was the succession plan, which, again, is at the feet of the board, not with management. my issue in this fight was with the board. i don't believe the board was doing their job. that's the problem here. if they did, then they would have had a succession plan that works. >> disney shares are up frac shanally today. so will disney and the board be able to meet the shareholder demands? let's ask alex sherman out with a new piece today, laying out

what the company needs to do next. there's a note this morning highlighting a new risk now that this one isle behind us, saying that iger could stay longer than his 2026 contract. do you believe that's possible, and do you see that as a good or bad thing? >> i mean, all history indicates it's possible. he's pushed back his retirement five different times. so the idea that it isn't possible would be turning a blind eye to what's already happened here. >> he's not a spring chicken, though. >> no, he's not. look, i think the spotlight is on the fact that he keeps pushing back his retirement, and he came back in part to write the wrong of succession, in his mind, when he did leave and handed the company over. and that didn't work. and so you have to believe that bob iger really wants to get succession right this time. and that, i think, kind of strains crudility.

but there are ways to stick around the company and naming a successor. he could stay as chairman of the board, which is what he did when he gave up the ceo role. maybe if he were to say, look, i'm going to stick around in that capacity. >> that didn't work out very well last time. >> it didn't. that's why nelson peltz just ran a long campaign to get on the board. ultimately, shareholders, i think, decided that this was a decision between bob iger and nelson peltz and they went with iger, even though succession is a board issue, because bob iger is going to be a major player in deciding who his successor is. and maybe he and the disney board are both kind of eyes open about the fact that they haven't done this very well. so this time it's going to be different. there are two new board members in the past year. it does seem like the board is really focused on getting succession right. to me, the idea that just pick

bob iger and let him stick around, that doesn't jive with what disney has said publicly up to this point. >> let's talk more about what's different this time around. last time, bob iger had a hand in mentoring and training bob chapak. it didn't work out. but chapak took over in the middle of the pandemic, when we were getting the business off the ground. do you think if he's looking to mentor and train someone internally, the set of problems they're facing aside from succession, profitability in that d-to-c business. to you think that makes the chances of a successor succeeding even better? is it going to be different? >> no doubt. because not only are the circumstances different, they just went through the bob chapek era. so there will be lessons learned from this three-year failure they just went through. so you have to think that however they structure this, and

i reported last year that at least the plan last year was bob iger would want -- and the board would want to name a successor. iger would stick around either as ceo until the end of his contract or as chairman. they would name someone early 2025, and he would teach that person. that was the same setup that didn't work before. but this time around, knowing it didn't work, you would have to imagine that the person they picked would definitely be on board with that. otherwise, they wouldn't pick them. or they would alter it a little bit. maybe this time iger could stick around as ceo, but they would name someone as coo or president and name that person successor. >> that would have to come soon. alex, barry diller on "squawkbox" this morning, said it signifies nothing. it was a grand waste of time. you've been covering the ins and outs is. that what you think at the end of all this? >> i mean, yeah, i think that's

a logical conclusion. ike was a disgruntled employee. he thought nelson peltz could run a campaign. ike made a lot of money, peltz made some pony. the disney board stayed as is, but some issues have been highlighted that they will make sure to address to avoid another activist investor coming a year from now. so in some ways, i guess everybody wins. but the end result here is kind of the same as what it was before. >> well, your piece yesterday was very well timed, very apt. now the real work begins. that's for sure. alex sherman, thank you very much. coming up, a rare interview with trace stevens on the state of the silicon valley, artificial intelligence and a new deal his company just landed with the defense department. plus, some of the latest labor market data taking us back to 2019. we'll look at the job market

ahead of tomorrow's report. "the exchange" is back right after this. welcome to ameriprise. i'm sam morrison. my brother max recommended you. so, my best friend sophie says you've been a huge help. at ameriprise financial, more than 9 out of 10 of our clients are likely to recommend us. our neighbors, the garcía's, love working with you. because the advice we give is personalized, -hey, john reese, jr. -how's your father doing? to help reach your goals with confidence. my sister's told me so much about you. that's why it's more than advice worth listening to. it's advice worth talking about. ameriprise financial. (sirens) [due at target in 5!] copy that. make a hard left down the alley. network's got you covered. [please confirm requesting back-up.] -changing route. -go. roadblock ahead. ...back up, back up... reverse! reverse! next level moments, we're 30 seconds out. need the next level network. [north corridor, hurry!]

-coming through! -or 3, let's go. the network more businesses choose. transplant received. at&t business.

welcome back to "the exchange." founder fund is one of the most prestigious firms is behind some of the most recognizable names in tech. joining me now for an exclusive

interview is trae stevens, who co-founded defense firm andril, most recently valued at $8.5 billion, just landed a contract with the u.s. army yesterday, on top of a navy contract. thank you for joining me. trae. let's start with defense. we've seen this trend of government agencies increasingly embracing startups versus the broader, more mature companies that they typically work with. why is that shift occurring? >> i think there's a lot of reasons. we went through this 30-year period after the cold war where the, you know, risks to the country were kind of unclear, where we went through total superiority, and then counterterrorism and countercou counterinsurgency, and now we're trying to figure out who are the people we need to work on the

core problems. a lot of those people have been working in internet companies, optimizing ads and sharing 140 characters with their friends more effectively. we need to draw some of those people back into these areas of national significance. >> i remember at the beginning of sort of one government agency started to look at working more closely with tech companies and google was there, but there was a blowback inside the company, with the employees and the vibe was to not work with government agencies. did it miss an opportunity there, do you think? >> well, i mean, one of the benefits ohs of a democratic soy is you don't have to work on things you don't want to. this is different from the civil/military fusion we see in some of our adversary countries. i have no issue with google employees saying they don't want to work in defense. but it was plausible to believe that globalization worked and the closer interaction with

china, russia, iran were going to draw them into the global community. i think in 2024, it's much harder to make that argument obviously. >> i mentioned at the top the now public companies that were invested in, and we're in this new era of gen ai. we don't even know who the winners and losers are. you look at early stage startups all day. where are we heading? are we going to see incumbents continue to dominate this shift or is there room for the many, many up-starts to get in and dominate some of the space? >> as with any category, there are going to be winners and losers. what you see in the tech space in particular is this kind of movement towards category winners and kind of an almost monopoly like way. and so our strategy has always been quality over quantity. we were investors in deep mine

before it was acquired by google. we have a big stake in openai and cognition, the new ai coding platform. not all ai companies, not all ai founders are created equal. we're looking for density of talent on founding teams. not all of these companies are going to work out. there's going to be a lot of money lost. no different than in any other category than if you're a space tech investor and you don't invest in spacex, you probably lost monmoney. >> and for our audience that look at a lot of public companies that are accessible to public investors, i want to ask you about the ipo market and when they might have a chance. david einhorn sat down with our team at the conference. we'll going to play that for you and i want your take. >> the s&p is making highs, right? we're in a favorable economic

environment, yet where is the ipo market? why aren't companies able to come public? the reason is, companies used to do these things called road shows. they would come to these managers and say hi, i'm the mid-cap manager of the such and such fund. would you like to buy my new stock? if that person isn't there or they don't have any new money, there's no one to buy that stock. so you have a closed ipo market, even in the face of really, really favorable market conditions. >> that was the perspective i haven't heard that often, because i usually sit in san francisco and talk to founders, many of whom believe there's a stigma around going public, that you can't build for the longer term as well as you can if you're private. what do you think of his comments and whether the ipo market is going to open up or not? >> look, the reality is, there aren't that many good grif companies out there. you can name on one hand companies, public or private, doing better than 30% annual growth.

i spend a lot of time talking to growth investors, to bankers in my role as chairman, and there are a lot of buyers. there are people interested in buying attractive growth stocks that have kind of a generational category shifting technology or approach to an industry. so while i think there's probably some truth to, you know, there's not as much new money flowing in at the same time for the right stock, the macro economic condition matters much, much less i would say. >> right. your company, is that a company that is a good candidate? >> not immediately. we're having conversations. i think there's a window that will make sense for us, but certainly not in the next year. >> last question for you. i know you're investor in openai, and it has this unusual structure of being a nonprofit. are they going to be able to actually be public company it is their mission is to serve humanity and not financial stake

holders? >> i don't think there's any inherent intention between being a publicly traded company and doing things that are important for humanity. certainly, the structure of openai is complicated. but i fully believe that the management team there is not only focused on things good for humanity, but they care about shareholders, and i think that's why so many people have lined up, looking to get into the business. i don't think that would be the case if they thought there wasn't a financial opportunity on the other side. >> and the board changeup reflects that. you have some experience from public companies out there. trae, thank you very much for being with us. i always appreciate it. >> you get. thank you. coming up, this apparel company is having its best day since march 2020. we'll reveal it to you and tell you what's behind the boom later on in the show. we're back after this.

(christina) with verizon business unlimited, i get 5g, truly unlimited data, and unlimited hotspot data. so, no matter what, i'm running this kitchen. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. welcome back. i i i'm tyler mathisen. a georgia judge rejected donald trump's fre speech challenge in his bid to dismiss the 2020 interference case against him.

the judge said that he found the statements made by trump and the other defendants in the case were made "in furtherance of criminal activity and not protected by the first amendment." fbi director christopher wray addressing the growing threat of ransom ware and a cybersecurity conference, saying the bureau is investigating more than 100 different ransom ware variants. he addressed the fbi is creating a cybersquad to investigate threats aiming to have a team in every field office in the whole country. and caitlin clark honored as the ap player of the year. who else could have won it? second year in a row for her, making her the fifth player to receive it in consecutive seasons. the scoring leader awaits the final four matchup with juggernaut uconn tomorrow night. that will be big. and the ratings on that game on

monday night blew away practically every other sports event. >> the whole thing on investment in women's sports. >> it's big stuff. coming up, we're counting down to tomorrow's big jobs report with an inside look at the labor markets. the latest hiring trends and worker sentiment from recruiter.com. that's next. giving traders even more ways to sharpen their skills with tailored education. get an expanding library filled with new online videos, webcasts, articles, courses, and more - all crafted just for traders. and with guided learning paths stacked with content curated to fit your unique goals, you can spend less time searching and more time learning. trade brilliantly with schwab.

so this is pickleball? it's basically tennis for babies, but for adults. it should be called wiffle tennis. pickle! yeah, aw! whoo! ♪♪ these guys are intense. we got nothing to worry about. with e*trade from morgan stanley, we're ready for whatever gets served up. dude, you gotta work on your trash talk. i'd rather work on saving for retirement. or college, since you like to get schooled. that's a pretty good burn, right? got him. good game. thanks for coming to our clinic, first one's free.

welcome back to "the exchange." jobless claims rose to 221,000 last week, the highest level since late january. but the labor market remains fairly tight with the sign laid off workers are continuing to find work. what does this indicate about tomorrow's jobs report? joining me now is the chairman of recruiter.com. evan, how likely are we to see that goldly locks number, 200-k? >> look, you know, i don't bet against steve liesman. but the interesting thing is, never do that, right? the interesting thing is, you saw this blowout number in january, but then it was revised down to something that was much more realistic last month. so there's this gap between the

actual job report number, and then what it turned out to be. you know, recruiter sentiment stayed flat at 2.9 out of 5. candidate sentiment dropped town to 3.4 out of 5 to 3.5 out of 5. we saw the open jobs that the recruiters are working on also drop from 12 to 10. so that's pretty significant. keep in mind, it was around 20 open jobs during the hiring frenzy. so there was a lot of hiring going on, the recruiters were working on lots of open jobs. >> talk about where we're seeing the openings. i'm looking at your notes, valuable college education, not what it used to be. >> right. so, again, you mentioned a tight job market. think about if you're going to go fishing in a different pool, i don't need a college education. we saw the need for college education from an open job went to 30% with no degree required. so that usually hovers around 20% to 25%, increasing now to

30%. employers saying i need the talent and skills, and i'll look in other places to fill those roles. >> but then there's the other side of that, right? especially where i usually am this the bay area, in tech we have seen a wave of layoffs, but they're making room for very senior ai researchers, which can be very costly. what are the positions -- i want to know how these are advertised, the high-end ai jobs? >> first of all, fantastic question. in our aura jobs report, we saw ai jobs again increase by 15% from last month, with financial services up again for another month in terms of the ai jobs themselves. so there's a demand for ai jobs. we talked about last month maybe a flipping. i'm laying certain sectors off of tech, but i'm replacing them with other software engineers, moving around in those overall areas. i think the other thing that we have seen that is really interesting is the number one

spot in the open jobs was really staffing and recruiting. so that's a good leading indicator. staffing and recruiting, when you think about hiring more and more people, i'm going to start beefing up my staffing and recruiting jobs. the recruiting the recruiter jobs themselves. i think the other challenge that you're seeing now with what you have on the screen is salaries have sort of not been increasing as much as everyone wanted. so if i'm less inclined to leave a job -- remember, in the pandemic i was job hopping to get a much higher salary. now, 43% of the recruiters report that 43% of the candidates had two jobs in the past two years. so i'm really going to have this headwind of do i want to leave a job, my third job in two years, if you will, for equal pay, maybe slightly increasing pay? so there's really going to be a little bit of hesitation. that's why we're seeing companies try to do more with less. >> right, which has been a theme. evan, thank you for being with us.

>> thank you. this apparel company hiking up guidance on the heels of a strong first quarter. we'll hear from the ceo on what is driving sales. that's up next. don't go away.

(christina) with verizon business unlimited, i get 5g, truly unlimited data, and unlimited hotspot data. so, no matter what, i'm running this kitchen. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon.

let's get to some show and tell. we show you a chart and tell you the story. levi strauss having its best day since the start of the pandemic on an earnings beat. nearly after the company sales came from the website or stores as it moves away from wholesalers. here's what the ceo said last night about that pivot. >> we're seeing phenomenal traction in our direct-to-consumer channel. we were up 8% overall globally. we're up 10% in the u.s. and then the 8% is 25% on a two-year stack. so the consumer is saying they want levi's in direct-to-consumer. but wholesale continues to be a really important channel for us. it's an amplifier of the brand.

it reaches consumers in many stores. we're seeing traction in that channel, as well. >> and coming up on the show, shares of doordash up about 41% this year. why one firm says dash could leave the liking of uber and instacart in the dust. that's next. of uber in the dus. . [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; it's important. we walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. - we've both been taking prevagen for a little more than 11 years now. after about 30 days of taking it, we noticed clarity that we didn't notice before. - it's still helping me. i still notice a difference. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. personalized financial advice from ameriprise can do more than help you reach your goals. -you can make this work. -we can make this work. it can help you reach them with confidence. no wonder more than 9 out of 10 of our clients are likely to recommend us. ameriprise financial.

advice worth talking about. (sirens) [due at target in 5!] copy that. make a hard left down the alley. network's got you covered. [please confirm requesting back-up.] -changing route. -go. roadblock ahead. ...back up, back up... reverse! reverse! next level moments, we're 30 seconds out. need the next level network. [north corridor, hurry!] -coming through! -or 3, let's go. the network more businesses choose. transplant received. at&t business.

♪ welcome back. check out shares of doordash. they're slightly higher after benchmark initiated coverage with a buy rating at $165. the firm bullish on the growing dominance in restaurant delivery, as well as its ability to monetize areas like grocery in the future. mark, thank you for being with us. i covered both doordash and the gig economy space for a long time. what i always like to look at is valuation. when i leash at a dash versus an uber, dash is widely more expensive. so why get in now? >> well, i think dash has proven itself in the restaurant space. it's a two-headed race here, and

characterize dash's three lapse in front of uber eats. in terms of the wild evaluation, i can't comment on that. i don't cover uuber itself. what dash has proven is that they have command of the restaurant delivery space and 3x greater share than uber eats. i think their network -- classic networks effects here, and several million drivers for them, the ability to move that into other areas, such as grocery and brick-and-mortar retail, which i think of good opportunities for them, which really hasn't crossed that i revenue screen yet. >> dash has been making a push into grocery, where the basket size is larger e. which seems,

instacart has become public in the last six months or so. they're trying to compete with each other, and doing that on pricing. how does that trickle down to the bottom line? >> i think that's a fair characterization. i think the challenge with grocery is really you're dealing with legacy systems, number one, that don't afford the best inventory management. i think frankly adapting to online grocery, it's been slow. it's moved up to roughly 15% of total grocery, with the purchase online during covid. that's fallen back to 12%. i think, you know, the differences between cart and dash, cart was certainly front of dash, and has a really strong platform, but they don't have a

real strong user base. i think where dash can offer, i this not only extension to cart's existing grocers, but also build out its own moat is by extending that 40 million user base across, you know, a broader spectrum of retailers. so i think that's one. i think the other piece just, branching out from grocery, is brick-and-mortar retail. they're facing amazon every day increasingly moving to same-day delivery. what dash is doing, leveraging that several million driver network of theirs is providing them the ability to deliver their product the same day. if you're buying a pair of sneakers on dick's sporting goods, or buying a tool set at lowe's, you can get that same day with just a modest subsidy

from the retailer themselves. >> there's another part of that, mark, even though doordash has the distribution, they're nor capital extensive. do you think this will be substantial cost outlay for them? will it ramp up going forward? >> i don't think that will be substantial, no. i think you're leveraging the core network you have today. again, that's -- obviously it's a big network that hasn't proven itself yet, honestly, in those two areas, but i think you have a proven model and -- >> mark, i hate to cut you out of, but we're rung out of time. that does it for "the exchange." tyler is getting ready for "power lunch." i will join him on the other side of this quick break.

we really don't want people to think of feeding food like ours is spoiling their dogs. good, real food is simple. it looks like food, it smells like food, it's what dogs are supposed to be eating. no living being should ever eat processed food for every single meal of their life. it's amazing to me how many people write in about their dogs changing for the better. the farmer's dog is just our way to help people take care of them. ♪ this is our future, ma. godaddy airo. creates a logo, website, even social posts... in minutes! -how? -a.i.

(impressed) ay i like it! who wants to come see the future?! get your business online in minutes with godaddy airo

♪ welcome to "power lunch." i'm sorry about the weather. >> proxy fight is over, but the war of words is not. at least not yet. bob iger and nelson peltz on cnbc, who deserve moss