im symposium in colorado springs, covering what you need to know about investing in the space sector, as more money, government dollars and investor dollars flow into this sector. well, it was a mixed picture for stocks today, with the dow finishing down fractionally, but everything paired losses to finish in the green today. that's going to do it for us here at "overtime." "fast money" begins right now. live from the nasdaq market site in the heart of new york city's times square, this is "fast money." here's what's on tap tonight. google gains. the tech giant closing back in on a $2 trillion market cap as shares hit another all-time high. how alphabet got its a.i. ambitions back on track and how the cloud is powering those gains. plus, charged up. utility companies rushing to upgrade u.s. electricity grids and that is driving power prices higher for you. what could that mean for inflation, as the fed ponders its rate cut path? and later, boeing's backslide as the plane maker faces another whistle blower

claim. cisco surges on a bullish call. and banks get ready to kick off q-1 earnings season. how the rate backdrop will impact their business. i'm melissa lee, coming to you live from studio b at the nasdaq. on the desk tonight -- julie biel, in person, karen fine fin finerman, dan nathan, and guy adami. the nasdaq and the s&p managing to climb into the green, why the dow was slightly lower ahead of cpi. economists expect consumer prices rose 0.3% vert acceleration to 3.7%. we'll get to all of that in just a minute. but we start with a fresh all-time high for google. the tech giant unveiling a new chip to compete with microsoft and amazon at its cloud event in las vegas today. so, what does this mean for google and the race for cloud supr supremacy? at least for today, that meant another 1% gain and a new high, guy. >> well, maybe not losing as badly as we thought a couple months ago when the stock was

cascading lower. but i think it's partially that. i think mostly this is just my opinion, nvidia's weakness is google's gain. i believe that 100%. if rates continue to go higher, which i also believe, i think those high-flying, high valuation names will continue to sell off and i think people will rotate into google like they're doing right now. they report, i believe, on the 23rd of this month. we've said it for awhile. i think you stay with this name into earnings. this is the one out of many of them that you can make a rational case for in terms of valuation. >> very rational case in terms of valuation. i think it's 25th this month, but it's not like they were all of a sudden in the a.i. game, right? they just did such a terrible launch. we talked about that ad nauseam. but it's -- it should be much higher, actually, i think. it's been at this pe, 23, if you back out the cash, it's 22, 21, it should be a much higher premium to the market, when you consider what an extraordinary company this is. and i think also, not only was

the launch not handled well, but i also think the fears of what would happen to the search business, which, obviously, the engine of earnings here, have not come to pass of yet. they could. but -- so, this is sort of the sweet spot at the beginning of their launch. i think we can see a lot more upside. if gemini takes off, gifts anything like co-pilot-y kind of excitement around it, i think there's good upside here. >> i agree. i think the company is so well-positioned. not only do they have the ability to create these chips and know there's just this race to be able to replace nvidia with that pga chips, but they have the data to train on, right? it's in our emails, our calendars, and they need that data for the large language models to be any good. i think they're really well positioned. and with the stock where it's at, it's really compelling to me. >> this is not the reason that i would say google should be up, because of the generative a.i. story. what they need to do is really on this, they need to have some

successful launches, to demonstrate their products is as good as what openai is offering. and so, i don't think this chip does that. what's interesting, the conversation we were having last night, when you have nvidia coming out, you have the other stories grinding, going sideways. people are looking for opportunities on things that are -- we talked about low expectations and poor sentiment last night, i think that's what's going on here. i don't think you're buying alphabet right now because of their ability to better compete with nvidia, you know, and generative a.i., you know, high end gpus or anything like that. as soon as they come out with a product that people want to use and they can charge 20 bucks a month now, something like that, then put it out across their productivity suites and the like, that's when people are going to recognize the relative cheapness, in my opinion. i don't mean to throw cold water on it. last night, we sounded optimistic about it, especially as the idea is broadening out, but for their chips, i don't think that's the reason why it

should be going up right now. i don't know. >> but to the point that the chip business will help the cloud business. >> you think software company is going to do better at designing, like, high end gpus and they will doing software, you know what i mean, that is going to better enable search and defend their -- that's my only point. i'm just trying to kind of push back at a narrative here. i think a lot of people want to be bullish on this name right now, but i don't think this is probably the best reason. >> let's debt to dee idrdre bos she sat down with google's tim currian. >> the chips are supposed to be part of this full ecosystem that's supposed to serve customers in the cloud. i heard karen say that google is trying to create co-piloty excitement, and i think that is right. because the problem with google's generative a.i. has been mixed messaging there was bard, there was duet a.i., and now it's all under the gemini umbrella.

so, they're streamlining it in the way that microsoft has streamlined co-pilot. now, though google has developed the technology to make even chatgpt and any of the other models possible, it hasn't seen -- it's playing catchup in that race. so, at the cloud event that's happening right now, it's really a chance for google and its executive to tell is cloud computing customers what sets it apart. so, when i just sat down with thomas currian, i asked him that question, what sets him part from the hyper scale rivals? have a listen. >> one of them is offering a closed system, they have one model, one provider of that model, they don't even own that model. the other one does not have any a.i. expertise, so, they only offer third party models. we blend both. we have our own models, and we have the expertise to build systems and integrate these models into products.

people can use it. at the same time, we're not taking a closed proprietary point of view. >> he did not name microsoft and amazon, but that is clearly who he's talking about. microsoft, he's referring to with the closed system, and amazon, the one with that a.i. experience. i have to say, this is the most sort of aggressive on the offense that i've seen google exec executives in a long time. he's saying, look, we have all aspects of this. we have the model we're developing, both an open and closed one, plus we have access to all the other ones that people want to use, and it's about that openness and choice, at least for the enterprise customers. covered a lot more ground with tim, and we'll be showing that in tech check and the exchange tomorrow. >> it sounds also like they're aware of other companies scraping data from their websites and they're being a little bit more tough about it, in terms of what those companies can get from their data. >> yeah, and that was part of the product announcements today. something called grounding.

google has such unique access to a database of information, because it has been the gatekeeper to the internet. it has the most up to date. so, that's one of the strengths that they're telling their cloud customers, as well. and as we know, to build these models, you need a ton of data to do so, and everyone's competing right now on speed and accuracy. >> and one last question, d-bo, what has pricing been for cloud? we just heard that alibaba cut its pricing 23% for international customers who use data centers that are housed outside of mainland china. does that put pressure on these other hyper scalers? >> so, i did ask what monty saks looks like, and he said there's customers coming over from other cloud platforms to take advantage of their generative a.i. tools. he says this is new money being spent. he didn't talk about the exact pricing of it, but the idea that it's new income and they're not just changing it and they're going to google because they offer a unique set of these tools.

>> all right, d-bo, thank you. so, does anything -- i mean, you mentioned the chips. they're using nvidia h-100 architecture, right? they are using arm architecture, so, it's not necessarily a, you know, we're pulling the chip-making business entirely. >> i think that's sort of the point dan was making, i don't think that's what's happen. october of last year, they had that 11th hour meeting, the emergency meeting and the stock fell off a cliff? that was obviously a weak point. now, at least, they're flexing a little bit. i think i heard that term. and dave ives talked about it today. they're going to compete with people now and going to take this head on. valuation has always been compelling. there's clearly still a moat there, without question. and i think if other names are going to show weakness, google wins to that. >> and there's other ways that can win, right? we were just talking about, okay, generative a.i. models,

that's one thing. when you think about enterprise customers who want to use these services, they want to use them on these public clouds, you know, google cloud is number three behind aws and behind microsoft, so, all of this stuff is important. so, i don't mean to poo-poo that sort of thing, but ultimately, there needs to be some sort of product that comes out that looks as exciting as gpt 4 or some of the other things that we've seen and they've not been able to do that yet. when all those things start to come together, you'll see an acceleration in the cloud numbers and the like. and you're going to see acceleration in cloud usage overall because of all this stuff. and we had just gotten to a period at one point last year, with aws's growth got down to 11%, 12%. this is a business that was growing 40%, 50% for years and years. and i think people were getting a little downbeat on all these business models until generative a.i. came around. >> if you look at google's business model, so much is really driven on being able to be a nice party to play with and not be completely dependent on aws or be completely dependent

on microsoft. and if you think of their install base of businesses that use their products, right, their google sheets and all of that, being able to insert a little bit of a.i. is going to be really meaningful to their business. and it doesn't have to be that great. google sheets are pretty terrible as a product, but a lot of businesses use them, because they work good enough. and having even good enough is going to be good enough for them to be able to move the needle. >> we made that case for apple, too, in terms of -- they have such a big install base of people that use it. siri is terrible. >> yes. >> but still people use it, because it's on their phone already. >> it is the most frustrating thing, i just asked siri five times, i just cannot believe how bad siri is. i think they need to scrap siri -- it's amazing to me how such a product that cares so much about -- >> you do use it, i hear you using it in the green room. >> yeah. >> the point is that -- you use it because you are an install

base user and -- >> and i hate it and i think it's terrible and i -- yes. you know what's interesting to me about the google multiple, which is so low, microsoft and amazon get a much higher cloud multiple, right? i think that meta gets a much higher advertising -- well, maybe not. and then youtube, i think, gets a lower multiple, and then there's all the money they spend on losing money. so, somewhere in there, there should be a high multiple. we haven't seen it yet. let's turn to the countdown to tomorrow's cpi report. ahead of that release, the dow ended the day virtually flat. the nasdaq grabbing 52 points. the ten-year yield retreating from four-month highs hitting yesterday. so, what are markets telling us about what they want to hear from tomorrow's report? oftentimes, we like to play this game, guy. >> yes. >> if i told you what the report said today -- >> i'd be wrong. >> what do you think the markets would do? because it seems like the markets have a propensity to go

higher when things show a hot economy, and when things show that things are in line or in check, like inflation. >> it's going to go higher, mel. but i don't -- so, a hot number, to me, and i think what we saw at the end of the day, this is just me, what we saw at the end of the day, people squaring up ahead of tomorrow what was the most interesting thing to me is the fact that at one point, the vix was north of 16 1/2, closed below 15. we haven't seen a move like that in the vix in quite some time. yields are interesting. i still think yields are going higher, but to answer your question, a hot number, when i say hot, core is 3.8, is what the street is looking for. 3.8 or higher, and i think the market's not going to like it a lot and you're going to see bonds continue to sell off. gold continue to rally, despite yields going higher. and the s&p sell off on the back of it. >> bank of america says a strong inflation print will send yields to 4.75%, which would be wow, and probably not very good for

equities. >> would normally think that for equities that's going to be problematic. if i think about with my small cap halt, that's problematic for them, too. but overall, i think a hot cpi print just puts cold water on this thesis that we're going -- these market rate cuts are going to completely make it easy to be investing. we've been benefiting from low rates for such a long time, it's like being on a moving walkway at the airport. you have a lot of help. and so, i think we could be losing that help. >> karen? >> i think anything sort of right up the fairway or a little cooler is good, anything else, i think, the market will sell off. >> yeah, it's interesting that you mention small caps. small caps look a lot more constructive to me than the s&p 500. at one point today, i saw all the banks down over 1%, i saw, like, american express down more than 2%, and i was like, i have not seen that sort of price action, you know, in a really long time. nvidia down more than 4%.

this has the makings to be finally like a proper selloff. last week, we had this runup in yields into the all-important march jobs report, isn't that what you call it? >> every release is all-important. >> and then the number comes out, it's hotter than expected, it gets explained away and yields go down. and stocks went up. so, i think about this one, i really do think, though, that if it is hot, i think yields are going to go up. i think the s&p is going to be testing that 50-day moving average. >> ahead of this all-important cpi report, wells fargo securities hiked its year-end price target by 20% to a street high of 5535. chris harvey is behind the call. he's the firm's head of equity strategy. always good to see you. >> good to see you, too. >> you sounded like you reluctantly did this. you really didn't want to do this, but you had to do this. >> you know, it's weird. this won't sound great, but even though we're high on the street, i don't feel bullish. it's not that, wow, multiples

are so cheap, things are going to be fantastic, the economy is on fire, the fed's cutting rates and going to start slashing tomorrow -- no. what it is, people are looking further and further out, they are getting more and more aggressive with their discounting. we're going into that period of greed. the fed is going to add too much accommodation. we're starting not -- we can argue about two cuts or three cuts and when, but they're going to start a multiyear easing cycle. a.i., a.i.'s still that secular story. and at the end of the day, i also think that m&a is going to start to kick up, and if we have a change in either the senate or the house -- or the white house, regulation is going to change. so, when i put it all together, i think prices are going higher, but i don't feel real bullish about it. >> it sounded like, though, that if the three priced in rate cuts go away, that you become less bullish. >> no, actually -- no. i'm -- guy said something that i don't quite agree with. what we've been seeing is, as rates go higher, that's actually good for the market.

because the status quo stays, right? if the status quo stays, growth is good, that's good for growth. that's good for momentum. and it's good for large cap. we start to see rates go lower, well, what works? things that are out of favor. utilities, small caps, more levered companies. so, in actuality, right, why did we -- why did the equity market rally when we went from seven cuts to three cuts? because the status quo stayed. if we start to lower rates, the fed gets more aggressive, then you can start to see the rotation and large caps, to dan's point, large caps start to go sideways, not up. >> totally get that. here's the push-back. what is gold telling you in an environment where it should be getting whacked, with yields going higher and the dollar going higher? gold's making all-time highs seemingly every day. >> that's a great point. and this is something that we struggle with, because i see two trades in the market. i see the momentum trade and i'm seeing a reinflation trade, but both are helped by higher rates, or rates not going lower. right? so, i don't quite know what's happening with gold, but we are

seeing, it's gold, it's silver, it's copper, it's energy. all going higher. there's a bit of a reinflation trade as rates have been going higher. so, i think the achilles' heel for the market is actually lower rates, or much, much lower rates. >> assuming that new target, all the way up there that i can't contemplate, it's predicated on some earnings expectations, underlying stocks in that index, okay? so, all those things we just talked about, higher yields, higher dollar, you know, a consumer that seems to be kind of stretched a little bit here, you know, we can get into consumer credit and defaults and that sort of stuff. at some point, doesn't this all have to be a bit of a headwind to corporate earnings when they have the inability to maybe pass through some of these costs? and this is one of the things that i think kind of spelled the markets a little bit back in 2022. >> it's great, right. so, what happens in '22, i think, is the market ran into a buzz saw with the fed. one of the reasons we struggle

with this 250 number on 2025, one of the reasons we stayed too low for too long is we couldn't figure out the earnings power. and what we realized is, what you're seeing in the market is what you're going to see on the earnings side. the winners will keep winning. you don't need a strong economy. so, you're going to get a market share shift. the winners, the higher profit, the higher growth companies are going to gain more than market share. a.i. is not discretionary anymore. so, those companies will continue to gain. so, you don't need the market to be -- you don't need gdp to be 4%, 5%. you can do it with gdp at 2%, 2.5%, because you're going to get these companies that are highly profitable, a much bigger percentage, and we've already seen it in the s&p 500. the winners keep winning, you don't need that growth. >> chris, what about just productivity and other companies that aren't supplying the productivity, but are using those productivity tools, how much do you factor that in? >> yeah, so, we're not seeing

the productivity from a.i. just yet. we expect to see it. but every single company is saying -- we debated this, is a.i. discretionary, is it not? it's not discretionary anymore. and it doesn't matter if you are seeing the productivity gains today, you will see them tomorrow. you had jamie dimon talk about it as the steam engine. it's not a question of if, it's just when and how we're going to do it. >> chris, great to see you. thank you. chris harvey. julie, in small cap land, are we starting to see a.i. productivity gains? how are you thinking about how a.i. changes how companies operate, how productive they are? >> it's pretty mixed right now. part of it is thinking about how a.i. gets impacted by regulation and all of the reports of hallucinations and things like that. i don't think companies adopt broadly. but if you own a small cap software business, those coders, those engineers and those

product engineers, they are using a lot of a.i. to generate their code, and they are sometimes 10, 20, 40% more productive. and that enables them to be more profitable, come to market, ipo, at better earnings multiples than they had been able to before. >> 5535, you can't -- you can't accept it. it doesn't sit well with you. >> maybe chris is totally right, and that push-back, you know, with the rates thing -- the last time that we had yields at, i don't know, man, when we broke out at 4600, when the market was pricing in six cuts for this year, you know, the ten-year yield was at 4.15, you know? right now, we're at 4.35. we have hot data, we go to 4.55, something like that. i just think that there's a lot of multiple expansion that's going on there, and i want to push back on one other thing. to say a.i. spending is not discretionary, i get that, but you cannot discount the fact that enterprise spending is going to be a thing, you know, that is cyclical, right? so, if you do have issues,

right, as far as earnings are concerned and margin compression and that sort of thing and you cut a lot of jobs already, then ultimately, if your sales go down, you will cut enterprise spending, you know what i mean? so, there will be some cyclicality to this, and we're not experiencing right now, because everybody has to with there. jamie dimon is putting out a 61-page opus comparing generative a.i. to the advent of fire and the wheel and everything else you want to throw in there at once, you look like a real you know what if you are not spending and focused on this, no matter what business that you're in, so, my point is, at some point, that recession that had been sent away, is going to hit, or the fear of it, and you'll see a softening enterprise cycle. >> what was that tom hanks movie that, when he was a castaway? >> oh, "castaway?" >> is that what they called that movie? i could be one of those guys on an island, if my rescue was dependent on siri, i'd be

looking for coconuts and hanging out. no shot of me ever using that. just saying. zero. >> is that a nonsecond by tur? >> that was seven minutes ago. >> it stayed with me. next block, i would have forgotten. >> next block, you will react to chris harvey. coming up, more bruises for boeing. another whistle-blower sounding the alarm on new safety concerns. all the details next. plus, our call of the day on cisco. why analysts are saying this name is too good to pass up, and where they see that stock heading next. don't go anywhere. "fast money" is back in two. this is "fast money" with melissa lee, right here on cnbc. network's got you covered. [please confirm requesting back-up.] -changing route. -go. roadblock ahead. ...back up, back up... reverse!

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her uncle's unhappy. i'm sensing an underlying issue.. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit... unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for.

we've got a news alert for the ratings for last night's men's college basketball championship and the major milestone we saw this year. julia boorstin's got the details. hey, julia. >> well, the ratings for the men's ncaa finals are out, averaging 14.8 million viewers across tbs, tnt, and tru tv. that is up a hair from last

year's 14.7 million viewers, which was the lowest on record. but these numbers were well below the ratings for 2 wthe women's championship. that game between south carolina and iowa brought in 18.9 million viewers on abc and espn on sunday. that was up 90% from the viewers for the prior year's women's game. it was the most viewed basketball game, pro or college, men's or women's, in five years. now, it is worth noting that the women's final aired on abc, so, it was available to more viewers, and the men's game was on cable, tbs, tnt, and ru tv, while the men's final was a late monday prime time slot, it ended after 11:00 p.m. eastern. the women's game was on a sunday afternoon. so, fascinating to see the division there, the gap between the men's and women's ratings. >> julia, thank you. boeing shares down 2% today after "the new york times" reported the faa is

investigating new whistle blower claims. alleging there are flaws in the fuselage of the 787 dreamliner. boeing responded by calling those claims inaccurate, but senator richard blumenthal told "the times" that he is planning to hold a hearing next week. boeing saying deliveries in the first quarter dropped to their lowest levels since mid-2021. the stock is down close to 30% since that january midair door blowout. and when that happened, there were a lot of people who were quick to say this is going to be limited, this will be confined, people will be able to look through this when it comes to the earnings of boeing, and -- what are we thinking about now? >> this sort of reminded me with the bp deepwater horizon. there were some deaths, which is always terrible, and then the -- the rig sank and then, you know, that left the pipe to just spurt

into the ocean for -- i don't know how long it took them to contain this. ultimately, though, the stock did recover. i just -- i just wouldn't be stepping in here, even though -- this is probably the time it looks terrible, you know? it's always darkest before the dawn, but i always think, it's as darkest right after the time it was the darkest, right before now. this just keeps getting darker and darker. if you're a long-term thinker, you have to think at some point, it is boeing, we always come back to the duopoly-ness of it. which is important. >> yeah, it's darkest before it's pitch black, right? that's a little bit what the sensation feels like. you have to have a lot of confidence that they are going to be able to get through all of these problems, and for sure, there's demand. orders were better than expected, and i think that's great, but right, this, like, orchestra of whistle empblowers pretty concerning if you are a long-term shareholder, because if you continue to have these kinds of problems, you are going to be under water as far as

being able to pay out fines and are laeg toir problems. it's really hard to feel enthusiastic about it here. >> i was one of those people in early march when it traded down to this level that thought, okay, double bottom here, here's your entry level. i looked like a gene ius annound he was going to step down. the stock traded up to 196. we're right back here. clearly that's not great price action. still like it. april 24th is the release, but now, if you've been on the sidelines, there's no compelling reason, i mean, now you are just waiting to see what they see at earnings. >> it e's interesting they're talking about the dreamliner. they had a lot of issues with the batteries. that was one of the first issues that really happened. and then we got into the later part of thedecade, we obviously had the plane crashes, the 737 max. seems like they have a horrible culture of quality assurance, after decades and decades, what was the saying about boeing, boeing gets you there. people -- take it to the bank,

that was american-made quality, that sort of thing. that is the question, think about the legacy of this management over the last few years. they cannot choose somebody internal to do this sort of thing. it whats to be someone from external. and it's going to take awhile to get that reputation. there's a lot more "fast money" to come. here's what's coming up next. cisco off the sidelines. one analyst says the stock is about to close the valuation gap. what they say will drive the networking name higher. plus, inflation may be down, but power prices are up, up, up. how infrastructure upgrades are driving the surge, and what it could mean for customers. you're watching "fast money," live from the nasdaq market site in tes sarimque. we're back right after this.

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welcome back to "fast money." cisco soaring more than 3.6% today after morgan stanley resumed coverage of the networking giant with an overweight rating. it was the stock's best day since february of last year. analysts saying the stock is trading near record discount to the s&p and has the potential to deliver double digit returns to shareholders. the $58 price target implies a 20% premium to monday's close. you were a little geeked up about this one, dan. >> yeah, very geeked up.

i like situations like this, where expectations are very low, it's trading really cheap. we're seeing the tech trade kind of broaden out. when you think about analyst upgrades this is a reinitiation, there are only seven rating it a buy. so, if they can get a few things going in the right direction, kind of, i don't know, talk about how they're going to be involved in this generative a.i. boon, we just saw dell join the party, the memory guys join the party, there's no reason that switchers and reuters can join the party. >> they were the backbone of the internet at one point. this is a classic sort of lumpiness. they couldn't make enough, because of the chip shortage and they had lots of chips and they built too much, customers had a lot of stuff, they didn't need stuff anymore. >> not a huge growth story, but valuation is okay. and you can -- i don't know if the crack staff back in ec can do this, but we're in this little bit of a pennant formation, going back to i think june of 2022, the downtrend, and the uptrend probably early '23 or so. looks like we're going to break

out. so, 58 is reasonable, without question, and i'm looking at it, i mean, the real level to get to, if you really want to get to brass tax, is62 or so, which is the high we saw a couple years ago. coming up, cpi stabilizing. electric bill doesn't care. why power bills may keep climbing after the fed gets inflation under control. we have the details next. plus, small caps with potentially big gains. why one trader is seeing opportunity in tech land. and the small but mighty names he or she is picking out. more "fast money" in two. missed a moment of "fast?" catch us any time on the go. follow the "fast money" podcast. we're back right after this.

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welcome back to "fast money." stocks closing little change as investors await the cpi report. the dow closing near the flat line. the nasdaq now on a three-day winning streak. some restaurant stocks getting burned today. cava and sweet green with big drops. starbucks trading near its 52-week low. cpi data out tomorrow. the cost of utility component has risen between 2% to 2.5% for the first two months of year.

so, what is driving these gains, can the fed keep these prices in check? let's ask sophie carp of key bank capital market. sophie, great to have you with us. >> hi, thank you for having me. >> sorry. you make the point that the percentage that consumers actually spend on electricity is very small, 2% to 3%, but everybody uses electricity, obviously, and you open up the bill and you get that shock, so -- you actually have some pretty good news, you think that's going to normalize? >> i think so. yeah, i think there are two parts to your electricity bill. there's a part that pays for the grid and the part that pays for the energy you consume. and the part that pays for the grid is -- it's grown at the rate below inflation historically and we expect it coto grow at lates we low inflation. utilities don't control that, and everybody in the market is just a price taker, right? and so, i think that seeing a

quite substantial price in increases in 2022, 2023, on the back of high commodity pricing, and that's still working its way through the system. we do see some elevated levels of, you know, consumer bills from that. we do expect that to normalize, and for prices to stabilize at these levels, which are very healthy right now. i think the generators are seeing pretty healthy margins, and to the extent we should see incremental demand, which is now currently projected from the a.i., and electrification. there should be a market sons, where more generation will be built or addressed, so we expect to have some runaway, you know, electricity price inflation over the long-term. >> so, in terms of the percentage of that bill that comes from the spend on the grid and the upgrades, how should we think about that component when we're reading about the need to bury power lines, to fireproof poles, et cetera, all the things

that just need to be done in order to bring this grid up to snuff for the new greener economy that will require so much more electricity? >> yeah, i think it's very highly dependent on the region where you're in, right? i think obviously there are higher wildfire problems in california or colorado, where you might have higher need for that type of investment, and that will drive, you know, rates slightly higher, but on average, i think that, you know, in the u.s., the rates are -- in the most of the country, are pretty low as a percentage of annual income, right? so, we've seen most of the country is pretty green on this map, right, even in the higher cost areas, so, the affordability is actually pretty decent. and what we like, right, we like to see affordability being high, because that allows you to make that necessary investment without putting undue pressure on utility bills. and as you -- as you have this

potential growth in demand from a.i., data centers, or just electrification, the more, you know, volumes of electricity is being sold into the grid, the more -- the less pressure there is on rates, so, we like seeing regions with decent growth, be it from industrial commercial customers or residential customers, growing regions like texas. >> and i would imagine in terms of utilities that need to raise money, the debt markets, higher rates are not a good thing, so, which are the utilities that you like the best in this environment? >> yeah, i think, you know, we do like xcel energy. this is a utility that got pennized substantially by the market this year on the back of the wildfire in texas that we all know about. i think, in our estimate, the total property damage will be quite management. we think they will be able to stay on the insurance coverage. and so, the market cap is

unwarranted. and they are an extremely well-run utility with high affordability in minnesota, the dakotas, colorado, and texas. if people are seeking exposure to the data center company, people should pay attention to dominion energy which is coming out of a major restructuring process and covering northern virginia, which is a data center central in the u.s., as well as the constellation energy, which is the largest nuclear operator in the u.s., and is well-positioned to capitalize on the heightened volatility in the energy markets, as well as demand for clean power. >> sophie, great to speak with you. thank you. >> thank you. >> sophie carp of keyen baing. that's interesting, the data center play within the utility sector. >> and dominion, if you pull up a five-year chart, i mean, this thing -- it's not cut in half, but it's probably down 40% from its prior all-time high. i think a lot of that is just

sort of, their nat gas exposure, sell first, ask questions later. if nat gas was to stabilize, which it hasn't for awhile, this could be an interesting levered up play in early may. coming up, a small cap spotlight. bentley systems engineering, a late-day rally today. one of our traders say this name might skwlus have the foundation to build even bigger gains. plus, a huge slate of bank earnings kicks off on friday. jpmorgan, citi on the mar keep. what to expect from these results right afr isteth.randpa (vo) the key to being rich is knowing what counts. it's time. yes, the time has come for a fresh approach to dog food. everyday, more dog people are deciding it's time to quit the kibble and feed their dogs

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welcome back to "fast money." smalca broadly lower over the past month, with the russell 2,000 lagging behind other major averages, but our resident small cap maven is here to highlight some small tech names worth watching. that maven, of course, is julie biel. which names are you looking at today? >> there are a few software names that are starting to really benefit in the ability to use a.i. to make their businesses better. they tend to be vertical software names. so, something like a bentley, which does infrastructure software, and that's all they do, or encino, which is a lot of front office banking software, again, all they do.

so, they have a varery propriety skill set. also, certara. they have a generative a.i. opportunity, where they can start to suggest molecules for researchers to start to look at. so, that's kind of a flavor of the businesses that i think are interesting. >> how are these valuations compared to their larger cap brethren in the same sorts of sectors? >> you know, typically, they have been lower, because a lot of people feel there's more business risk, or they feel that they may have more sensitivity to earnings and what have you, but i still think that longer term, they actually have better growth opportunities in front of them, and so, over the long-term, they should be worth looking at. >> it's interesting, bentley, and if i'm looking at this correctly, it trades like 50 times this year, 44 times next. when i look at the expected growth in both of these, they are 10%, 15% over this year. they're expensive right now, and

the stocks have kind of been -- this stock in particular has been going sideways for months or so what does it take for folks to kind of recognize that growth opportunity going forward? because they're going to have to grow into these valuations and get further expansion? >> if you look at businesses like this that are able to grow kind of low double digits, they still have a lot of margin opportunity. they have been investing up until this point, and so, i think earnings can grow well beyond that, and most importantly this is a business that's thoughtful about capital allocation. so, instead of exploding, you know, you're actually going to see some accretion. and i think that supports earnings growth from here. coming up, focus on financials. banks are feeling the pressure ahead of the first reports. the names to watch next. more "fast money" in two.

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they all choose the advanced network solutions and round the clock partnership from comcast business. see why comcast business powers more small businesses than anyone else. get started for $49.99 a month plus ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. don't wait- call today. welcome back to "fast money." banks kicking off earnings season this friday, with citi, jp goldman, and wells fargo set to report. more on the calendar next week. financials falling today. the biggest losses in the s and p today. american express, one of the biggest laggards after it was downgraded to equal weight. guy, what did you think of

this -- >> i think it makes sense. it is expensiexpensive. it's had a huge run. credit is going to be a concern, now is the time to do it, so -- it's better to be in front of these things. might be a couple weeks early, but i like this call. >> i'm excited for bank earnings. i think jpmorgan, of course, i read jamie's letter -- >> every word. >> every word, right, twice. and it was just, you know, just things like the first republic, how extraordinary that was. 500 -- all sillen dars, getting capital markets business, and i think the economy is good and there's spreads. a lot to like. >> julie? >> i'm curious, talking about the m&a environment. i think we're all waiting to see if that is going to finally come to fruition. a lot of the pe companies have portfolios that are really long in the tooth and they need to trade them and at some point, they have to, regardless of

rates. >> we talked about this last night, the bkx, the index that tracks the large banks, is trading 52-week highs, looks really constructive. everything seems to be going fine, despite the rate, or, at least the idea of higher for longer, but the kre, the regional banking, it's down 10% and really is kind of stuck in the mud. i'm really curious to hear, like, what the differential is between what they have to say, what the rate environment holds for them. >> price to earnings, karen's spot on, but price to tangible book, jpmorgan approaches 2 1/2, and it's pretty close right now, what i've noticed over the last decade or so, that's sort of the pin pl onacle of this thing. and by the way, why doesn't he come on the show? >> he really should. >> we haven't really asked. >> the time he has appeared on this show is when he called in for karen's birthday. >> yeah. >> and that was, like, 15 years ago. 15 years ago or something. >> long time. >> she's blushing again. >> memorable moment. she's got it on loop at home. >> yeah, probably.

up next, final trades.

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ask your doctor or pharmacist about the pfizer vaccine for pneumococcal pneumonia. final trade time and it is so nice to have julie on set. julie? >> certara. 90% of drugs approved use their software or services. >> karen? >> yeah, so, dell had a huge runup to mid 130 something, 133 and change, pulled back $10. not just. pc, refresh. i like dell. >> dan? >> yeah, we're talking about cisco before fr. it's not just about switches and routers. you're going to hear more about that. >> another birthday. >> another one!

>> happy birth day. >> nancy. >> she's blushing. >> she's blushing. >> alcoa continues to go higher. birthday girl. >> she can't get us off fast enough. e'li -- >> hey, i am jim cramer. i'm just trying to make you a little bit of money. call me at one 807 43 cnbc or tweet me. after big wins, stocks can be