it is 5:00 a.m. here at cnbc global headquarters and i'm dominic chu in for frank holland. here is your "five@5." the s&p breaking through the 5,300 mark for the first time. and praising the cpi showing core prices rising at the smallest and slowest pace since 2021. mystery stock revealed. berkshire hathaway's revealing the latest addition to the top ten holdings and that stock is

popping today. plus, cisco shares popping after the biggest slump in years. and ready for walmart as it gets set to release results this morning. it is thursday, may 16th, 2024. you are watching "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc. ♪ good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange." thank you for being with us on this thursday morning. we begin with stocks trying to extend yesterday's record-breaking rally. one that pushed all of the major indices, including the s&p 500, to all-time highs. past 5,300 for the first time ever and the 23rd record close of the year. right now, it looks like things may get extended just a little bit at the opening bell. the dow implied higher 42.

the nasdaq up by 21. record highs to start. this is all after u.s. inflation showed a slight easing in the month of april with core prices excluding food and energy climbing 6.6% year on year or the lowest since april of 2021. on the back of that, treasury yields are falling off hitting the lowest levels in a month. the ten-year yield is 4.4%. the 30-year long bond is 4.492%. it is not just at home, green arrows in asia and europe as well. working to keep things going after indices closed at record highs. we have jp ong with the asia action from singapore. arabile gumede is tracking the early action from europe. jp, we begin with you.

>> good morning, dom. it was a terrific thursday from tokyo to t'aipei. a lot of that is due to the softer dollar giving support to equities across the region. it was so good, that the tokyo nikkei 225 did well despite japan reporting a detraction in the first quarter gdp. despite the i don'stronger yen,s rose. we saw ta gain. there may be hope or relief for the chinese property tsector. there is a plan considered that will let local governments buy unsold homes by the property developers. if it leads to relief, that is

important and benefitting the developers and property tastock across the region. the one issue is ev makers s in china feeling the price war and rising tariffs on chinese electric vehicles from the united states and painting a picture that shows it is very hard to find love if you are an ev maker in china. that is a sore spot across the excellent thursday in asian markets. dom. >> jp, thank you very much for the action in asia. let's switch to europe and the action going on there. arabile. >> dom, what is happening here is earnings taking the headline picture and moving things lower for a lot of the market picture. in fact, we had seen the stoxx 600 across europe hit record

territory. the ftse 100 out of the uk is hitting a record high in trade yesterday. that came off by the time the closing bell hit, but it was higher. overall, the picture was positive. today, however, numbers coming from siemens and bt and easy jet in the airline space and the insurers with the numbers. that has painted a mixed picture and that pushed stocks lower. the cac 40 managed to move l lower. the smi in switzerland is the one looking at gains. we are anticipating a cut in interest rates coming through soon. the anticipation is for it to come through in june. the dollar did not necessarily rally, but still no strength coming through in the euro today. it hasn't necessarily benefitted the euro somewhat. overall, you are seeing negativity across the board. it is only slight, but not following on from yesterday's

rally. dom. >> arabile gumede in london with the market action in europe. thank you nfor that. let's see if the market momentum can continue with ben emons at newedge wealth. ben, this is an interesting dynamic with the regard to the interest rate picture and inflation story and macro economic back drop in america and beyond. on balance, we're at record highs. is this a market that's now come to terms with the current inflation regime? >> it may be, dom. the numbers are hot and mixed. that's what powell said. the market took that on and said, fed, you don't have to do anything. you don't have to hike. there is no surprise. when that is the case, the volatility goes down and that lifts markets. not to mention the liquidity coming back in the system including from the fed. it takes all this risk taking out and right into the markets

which brings yields down and stocks up. they come to terms with inflation which is still high and has sticky elements, but not accelerating. that's why it is positive. >> six-to-eight months ago, this was a market that was looking for or quote/unquote, could be pricing in six or seven cuts in 2024. we went from that to holy moly to we cannot do that or maybe raise interest rates and now we are back to higher for longer and it seems like everything is okay. does jay powell have to move on rates this year? >> they hope they can move on rates. they really want to cut rates. >> they want to cut rates? >> they want to cut rates. that gives them the ability to say we won the battle against inflation. the fed cannot do anything in june, for example, because inflation does show it's still high and has sticky elements.

if they were to lower rates right now with the market up, they may actually exaccelerate e economy too fast and you get inflation rising. i think they're careful. i think they want to cut rates later this year or early next year. >> this is also a market where there are known catalysts happening in the back half of this year. namely a massive u.s. election for the president of the united states. with that back drop, is this a market that can continue higher given what we know about inflation right now? >> i think if you look at what happened from march to april with the 5% dip and we rallied right back up with the inflation number moderated and things looked softer, this is the environment. if we get another pullback, it is another buy-the-dip mentality. i think we are set up for the

year where we don't have anything changing on the fiscal front. we have monetary policy stable and not changing. it gives people reason to buy dips and rally on. >> you get a one-word answer here. your favorite sector in the s&p? >> it is still the energy sector in our case. we feel that is an undervalued sector. it has taken leadership. >> ben emons, thank you. >> thank you. >> for more on what is driving the markets, head to cnbc.com/pro for exclusive insights and analysis for subscribers over there. we have more to come on "worldwide exchange," including one word investors need to know and the mystery stock that warren buffett bought up. and later on, much more on the april inflation surprise and the role housing has to play in that story. we speak with one ceo with a

frontline perspective specifically on residential real estate. we have a veryus by hour when "worldwide exchange" returns after this commercial break. glp-1 drugs used in weight loss treatments are a global blockbuster, even with unliked and inconvenient injections. more human study results for lexarias patented

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." we have a news alert from washington, d.c. the biden administration is taking new steps to protect u.s. solar manufactures from chinese

competition. that is making it easier for projects to claim as subsidies. we will keep an eye on the solar trade today. the annual cnbc disruptor list is out. that is artificial intelligence. more than two-thirds say a.i. is important to the business and requires a lot of investment. at number 11 is octopus energy which is leveraging a.i. to spark the global transition. they are reaching a valuation of $9 billion after two investors raised stakes in the company. joining us from london is greg jackson of octopus energy. this is a fascinating story, greg, for your company. it is a disruptor. it is a crazy unicorn company out there. many people haven't heard of octopus energy although you are

one of, if not the biggest, power generators in the uk. what happened? how did your company grow to where it is today? >> dom, thank you for having me on. in the uk, we have gone from zero to the largest power company in eight years. we did it because we used technology to deliver better customer service and also to drive down energy costs. the reality is renewables are the cheapest form of power we ever had and they are getting cheaper every year. we need huge amounts of digital technology to grab the electricity when it is sunny and windy and use as much as possible at those times. that is why we are heavily focused on not only a.i., but huge amounts of data. >> huge amounts of data and a.i. those are the things that drive

investor optimism today. did you tell us how you deliver that energy to your customers and maybe, more importantly, for the growth of your company, is it replicable in other parts of the world? >> we came from an technology background. we worked out how to use the technology to make energy cheaper. i'll give you an example. when i work with house builders, we build houses with solar p panels and a battery. we guarantee they will never get an energy bill for five or ten years. we don't do it just in uk, but new zealand and germany and about to do it in the u.s. people with electric vehicles, we have a massive intelligence platform called kraken. it matches the time we charge an electric vehicle.

we automatically control the charging by interfacing with the con car or charger. we can fill the car with enough power of 100 miles for $3. in europe or the uk, that would cost $20 on gasoline, petrol or diesel. >> greg, in the future, electricity, or storage of it is key, especially for many countries focus on evs. what are you doggining with you technology that could enable the massive use of electricity not just for cars, but for everything else and how much do renewables play into that? >> the whole insight here is the traditional energy industry can focus on the fact that renewables are intermittent. it is not always sunny or windy.

the incredible thing is when it is windy and sunny, we have more power and cheaper power than before. things like electric cars, you can charge the battery at those times. we use artificial intelligence to forecast the weather and forecast when we will get the cheap electricity and to forecast how much battery you will need. matching the two revolutionizes the system. in europe, the typical car can manage a house for four or five days. as we put electric cars in driveways and garages, we have the battery to power the country for a few days. it enables us to bridge those gaps with wind and sun and pushing the costs down. the other thing about octopus energy is we're famous in the uk and europe as this revolutionary power provider. half of our business is kraken.

the technology we built with big data that we now license to 54 million energy accounts around the world and including now in north america. >> greg jackson, octopus energy. we look forward to see what you do in the coming months and years. come back soon. >> thank you, dom. >> you can see the full list on cnbc.com. coming up on "squawk box," the ceo of exotec. we have an earnings alert and u.s. listed shares of baidu with the first quarter sales growth up 1% year over year. a.i. income down 6% year over year. earnings per share is down. those u.s. shares up 11%.

still ahead, the home grown names in elon musk's way as he looks to dominate the chinese robotaxi market. we are back with that story after this. an “i can solve this in 4 different ways” person. you need clem. clem needs benefits. work with principal so we can help you with a plan that's right for him. you know what i'm saying? let our expertise round out yours. (ella) fashion moves fast. setting trends is our business.

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mystery stock purchase after keeping it secret for three quarters. 26 million shares worth $6.7 billion. that stock popping in the pre-market trade. and burry selling his stake in amazon, alphabet and oracle. adding the gold etf to his portfolio. jd is the top holding after the firm increased the stake by 80%. and david tepper adding boeing. the hedge fund souring on another transport company which is general motors. selling the stake it acquired a few months ago. other sells include corning and whirlpool. when elon musk visited china

last month, he proposed the self-driving technology in r robotaxis. if he gets the go ahead, he will run with stiff competition. eunice yoon is joining us now from beijing. eunice, one company has a big leg up on tesla in that robotaxi race. >> reporter: that's right. tech giant baidu has 500 robotaxis in the city of wuhan. it plans to expand that to 1,000 fully self-terrific robotaxis. we went to wuhan to test the service today. i'm at the hotel in wuhan and i'm going out to dinner and taking baidu's self-driving taxi. you need an app. and the no young children or

infirm or pregnant children or anyone with the bad heart to participate. i need to walk 500 feet to get to the closest taxi. it costs $3, but thanks to steep discounts, that is the same as a regular taxi. we have one. here's the robotaxi. there's a driver inside. the staffer told us to catch an unmanned cab and we need to go to another pick-up point. another showed with another assistant. finally, we got one without a human. no one is inside except for us. we're on the way. we're moving slowly about 30 miles an hour. on the chaotic roads, the robotaxi rode up a ramp and

negotiated around bikers. in an emergency, you press this for help. it took us a bit of time, but we finally got here. the baidu robo service is 24/7. it looks like the car is going off for another trip. what we learned is that this is a true experiment. from the time we called the unmanned cab, dom, to the time we got one, it was four hours. once we were in the car, it actually works. >> there are still things to work out. not just in china, but here in the u.s. with regard to robotaxis and autonomous driving. eunice, chinese president xi jinping and russian president vladimir putin opening russia as a new ev market for chinese automakers. there's been a close tie between

both of those leaders and countries over the last several years. it is now very much about evs in china as well going to russia, possibly. can you take us through the relationship and how you see it developing? >> reporter: i think they have a very, very close relationship. president xi and president putin were able to sign several agreements today. the russian president is going to be here until tomorrow where he will be visiting a border area to really showcase the influence that russia has had in china. in terms of the relationship in the ev deal, of course, for china, they want to be able to export to any market and russia has been a friendly one. up until now, the ev market has been the market for them. china does want to see another market where they would be able to export with countries in the

west uespecially the u.s. >> eunice yoon live in beijing on robotaxis and evs. thank you very much. coming up on the show, one of the final hills that chair fed jay powell and the fed needs to climb. we speak to one who has his ear on major markets around the country. that's coming up next. dissed your achievements, and mocked your ambition. but it's not the critic who counts, and you know that. from the beginning, you couldn't be stopped. ♪♪ breaking resistance with every swing and block. ♪♪ your game plan never changed. ♪♪

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just shy of 5:30 a.m. in new york and there is still a lot on "worldwide exchange." here's what's on deck. back at records. dow and s&p hitting all-time highs and all three look like they could do it again today. the gains are fueled by the latest cpi report, but shelter remains a trouble spot for the fed. what it remains to get the key piece of the puzzle fixed? it's thursday, may 16th. you are watching "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc.

welcome back to "worldwide exc exc exchange." i'm dominic chu in for frank holland. all three major indices hitting all-time highs. s&p surpassing the 5,300 mark for the first time. all of this on the back of the consumer price index report showing easing in inflation last month. right now, u.s. equities are slightly flat. the s&p up 3 to 4. the nasdaq up 29. a number of s&p stocks hit all-time highs yesterday. jpmorgan chase and goldman sachs and qualcomm as well as costco. and as those stocks surged, we are watching the ten-year note

yield at 4.75%. the 30-year long bond at 4.49%. let's check on the top corporate stories with silvana henao. silvana. >> good morning, dom. let's start with cisco. shares are popping after the third quarter reports that topped expectations. beating the street, but revenue was down 13% from a year ago marking the biggest drop in 15 years. cisco raising its 2024 revenue guidance to the range of expectations. and netflix stated the ad-tier hits 40 million users. t netflix revealing it will launch its advertising platform and no longer partner with microsoft for the technology and the rollout set to begin later this

year. and the meme stock tumble is set for a second day. the likes of gamestop, amc and blackberry all lower ahead of the open after falling yesterday halting their two h-day win streak. gamestop and amc are still up more than 120% and 80% so far this week, dom. >> the roller coaster ride continues. thank you, silvana. turning back to inflation and the one key driver of both the headline and core number which is housing and rent, together the cost of housing and gas accounted for 70% of the increase in overall prices with rent increasing under .50% on the month over month basis. it is still contributing to the 5.5% jump in shelter prices last year at this time. despite what was an oversupply of rentals across the country,

thanks to the pandemic-building boom, many mproject managers ar seeing growth with few signs it will cool off any time soon. joining me now is rick, the chairman and ceo of camden property trust operating in more than 58,000 apartment homes in 15 major markets across the u.s. rick, thank you very much for being here. we will talk to you right off the bat about the state of the residential housing market in america. is there any relief in sight for people looking to find some kind of rent stabilization in the coming months and years? >> thanks, dom. there is, absolutely. when you think about single-family and multi-family rentals, it is a strong market, no question about it. rents are coming down across the country. we had the massive demand push that happened in 2021 and 2022.

that backed off in 2023 a bit and 2024. the real story is supply. supply is at a 40-year high right now. the interesting thing is a lot of people thought the rental market would collapse. good news for our company and other multi-family companies is the market hasn't collapsed. it has slowed. rents were up 13% in 2022. they're up 3% in 2023. now we're seeing 1% or 1.5% growth in 2024. that is a significant slowdown. it is helpful for renters and helpful for the fed. the good news is the cpi will continue to fall in terms of the rental perspective with the rents slowing. it is a positive thing for stocks and camden. >> ric, is itsafe to say with the housing market the way it is

right now, with interest rates kind of moving the way they have been ever since the great financial crisis and now with the housing dynamic, there's a secular trend toward renting for americans versus owning? >> absolutely. the challenge you have today in the single-family only market is we're at a big change in terms of what it would cost on a home because of the doubling of interest rates, obviously. what is happening is it is a lot cheaper to rent. it is 60% cheaper to rent than buy a home. it will change as interest rates come down. from the affordability perspective with people pinched on their budgets means it is cheaper to rent than own a home. today, our rent income is at one

of the lowest percentages. we're at 19% of people's income to pay rent which is very low. usu usually, it's in the high 20s. it's in a very affordable product today relative to single-family home. >> interest rates also play a factor in not just how rents are charged and how much people pay in mortgage interest and payments. it effects financing for building products which is what you do. how is that changing your growth plans for the coming quarters and years? >> the interest rates have definitely -- the interesting thing about it is the low interest rates and sort of easy money in the last three years fueled the supply boom. now what is happening is the reverse is happening. cost of capital has gone up so high for developers that developments have started to fall. they fell 53% from a year ago.

most folks believe we're going to go to post-financial crisis lows on new construction. to put those numbers in perspective, we are building 500,000 units annually. that will drop over 200,000 units next year. when you look at housing supply generally, single-family and multi-family, there is a shortage of housing in america. when you stop the pipeline like it has been stopped, you will have an interesting market. you will have a stabilization of rents in the low 1% growth area which is good for cpi and good for the fed and long-term interest rates, but what will happen in 2026 and 2027 and 2028, you have a soft landing and you end up with a strong economic scenario that happens in the out years and you have outsized rent growth and we are back to significant rent growth because there is not enough

supply for thedemand that is needed just to fill households. >> ric campo with camden. come back and see us again. >> thanks, dom. coming up on the show, getting ready for the latest in retail sales for walmart and the stock's 15% run this year. that story is coming back. we're back in a moment.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." turn to walmart as it prepares to report in over an hour from now. the company has generally fared better in inflation periods with the value-oriented prices. even with sales expected to grow between 4% and 5%, walmart has been slashing on areas like the health clinics and laying off hundreds of employees. joining me now is arun at cfra research. arun, this is a big story because it is an economic bellwether for close to 70% of the u.s. economy. what are you watching for out of walmart? >> hey, dom. we are expecting another strong quarter for walmart. this is a lot of positive momentum behind walmart. in-store sales are strong with

the tough economic area. we see strong numbers in grocery with 60% of the business. they have a general merchandise operation and the third-party marketplace. we think the general merchandise is doing well. we still think walmart is getting share in the category. the growth of the online business is helping fuel the walmart plus subscription model. we feel that is the way to attract and retain higher-income households it retained over last few years. lastly, the model is changing. they are getting into alternative revenue streams. it is. >> growing advertising business. it is also getting into data

monetization. i think over the next few years, we see operating margins expand. we are positive for this quarter and this year and the next three-to-five years. >> arun, you talked about a lot of themes and operating silos and divisions. as an analyst, what is the one that you think drives most of the story going forward? is it going to be advertising? mo m monetization? >> i think the alternative businesses over the long term will be focused for investors. right now, they are still relatively small. in the medium term and in the upcoming quarter, the metric is the u.s. business and that walmart u.s. business.

they are about to report in an hour. we are expecting 3.8% comparable sales growth. that is largely driven by transaction growth or traffic. we think walmart is gaining a lot of traffic and market share among the u.s. consumer. i think where we see a slight headwind is in average transaction amounts. people are buying less bigger ticket items which is pressuring comp sales. when people go to the grocery stores, they are putting fewer items in their basket. that shows how tough the economy is right now. although traffic is increasing, we see a delslight decrease in traffic. we expect a slight decrease. >> walmart is coming out in the next hour. arun, thank you very much. see you soon. >> nau. thank you. we have a market flash for you on ast space mobile.

it struck a deal with at&t to bring the broadband direct to cell phones. the deal puts at&t against star link. coming up on the show, turning overseas for talent. the move microsoft is shoring up in the a.i. arms race. cnbc is celebrating asian american and native haiwan h heritage month. >> i come from india where it was about having a child. i had two daughters. for me, it was to lead by example. it was important.

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vladimir putin meets with china's xi jinping and is expected to emphasize the russian commitment to the no-limits relationship signed in 2022 before invading ukraine. japan's economy shrinking 2% in the first quarter. faster than the 1.5% economists were expecting. the lack of growth is playing a big role in the downturn. the bank the japan is facing pressure from the consumers to get interest rates away from zero. siemens keeping the outlook on the year unchanged, but lowering the guidance. revenue could decline 8% this year. the german manufacturer says gains in the u.s. were not enough to offset weakness this china in the second quarter. siemens is shifting away from the heavy equipment manufacturing and selling the motor business for $4 million. coming up on the show, one

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." time for the "wex wrap-up."

warren buffett's berkshire hathaway reveals chubb is the mystery stock. berkshire bought 26 million shares of the insurer worth $9 billion. rival insurer aflac is taking a take in treeline partners for $100 million. as part of the deal, aflac will give treeline some cash it collects through insurance premiums. palo alto network is buying security networks from ibm to provide access to a wider customer base. including the cisco $26 billion purchase of splunk back in march. and microsoft is asking hundreds of the employees in the china a.i. division to transfer outside the country. the move comes as tensions with washington and beijing around the technology continue to

accelerate. and caitlin clark bringing up the temperature with the indiana fever drawing in 2 million viewers during her wnba debut against the connecticut sun on tuesday. that's the largest wnba broadcast audience in two decades and the league's biggest cable audience ever. here's what to watch today. economic data out before the opening bell with jobless claims and housing starts. we have earnings from under armour and deere and walmart. we have fed speeches from michael barr and patrick harker. don't miss tom barkin when he sits down for cnbc's conversation at 10:00 a.m. eastern time later on for "squawk on the street." all three indivisible is

s indices sitting at all-time highs. let's bring in keith lerner at truist wealth. >> dom, great to be with you. it is not a surprise to us. we have been saying for some time that the primary market trend is still higher and the momentum we saw from last year is five straight months of gains and that first quarter as characteristic of a bull market. in april, as the market pulled back, we upgraded to overweight and used that as an opportunity. we think all in all, new highs are characteristic of a bull market. >> this is a scenario where the bull market can be in tact, but it may lose momentum. do you feel the momentum is slowing for the bull market or could it ramp up more from here?

>> when you look back historically, that first phase of the bull market is the strongest. the turn. if you think about the bull market, we have been in a bull market for two years and historically, you tend to moderate from those levels. i'll say this, after you have a strong first quarter, the lrest of the year, you are up 10%. breaking to new highs wis with nasdaq, you see forward earnings with the fundamental underpinning making fresh highs as well. i would say focus on the underlining trend is still positive. i still think we will get more normal pullbacks in the first quarter with the deepest at 2%. we had the 5.5% correction. you normally have two or three

of those a year. >> keith, that brings us to your word of the day. can you take us through what it is and what sectors could be part of the story? >> italked about it already. it is uptrend. we are in the uptrend for the overall market. until the weight of the evidence changes, bull market rules apply. sticking with that primary trend which is using pullbacks as opportunities. as far as the overall market, it is a broader market overall with the sectors. we like areas like technology, financials and industrial. a mix of growth and cyclicals. i would say yesterday, it was interesting with leadership going back to the old leadership which was technology. that is where the earning momentum is the strongest in the overall market. we still think that is a good area. we have a preference for large caps. if you are underweight in some

areas, it is a bit of a catch-up opportunity. >> a two thie-year high for the russell. keith lerner, thank you. "squawk box" starts right now. good morning. meme stocks pulling back as the major indices climb to record highs. we'll show you what's moving right now. berkshire hathaway revealing the stock purchase he kept secret for two quarters. drum roll, please. we will not tell you now. don't get too excited. it did build a big position. details ahead. the debate is on. president biden and former president trump set to debate in june. as early as june and then september. we will take a closer look at the upside and downside risk. it is thursday, may 16th, 2024.

"squawk box" begins right now. good morning. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm kind of a life -- it's 6:00. my aura ring. we need to get the score. we should get a sponsor. >> 85? >> i think it is 80. that's not bad for me. you want 85 or above. i get a crown if i get 85. >> it sounds like college. >> i'm andrew ross sorkin. that's joe kernen. becky is out today. we have a lot going on. u.s. equities today. 42 points higher. nasdaq is up