barkley and the crew on -- in warner media here? >> i have absolutely no comment about that. >> okay, well, i'm going to miss him if, in fact, they don't get the rights. i'm just saying. >> this is an interview i wish we had far more time. >> maybe they'll be on peacock. we'll see. always great to see you, steve. thank you. >> we got to go. join these two tomorrow. "squawk on the street" is next. >> bye. ♪ good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street," i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber at post nine of the new york stock exchange. futures do pop here as may cpi comes in with a goose egg on headline, below estimates and the lowest monthly print in four years. core is also light. ten-year now at a two-and-a-half-month low and the fed is on deck. our road map begins with that cooler than expected inflation print with the fed's latest

interest rate announcement and projection coming later today. plus, shares of paramount under pressure after shari redstone pulled the plug on that deal with skydance. we have a big a.i.-fueled boost for oracle. those shares are up rather sharply on google and openai cloud deal news. let's begin with this market reaction to cpi ahead of the fed's decision and presser this afternoon, jim. man, the internals on this, whether it's gas prices, core goods, insurance -- >> insurance finally broke. there was a piece out last night saying that prop cash broke and auto brakes and those are things we all have to pay, you drive your car to work, and gasoline is front and center and property casual, but also auto. i thought the most interesting one was on page 17. all items less shelter, minus 0.2. there you go. shelter's sticky, and everything else is coming down. this is one where, i mean, david, i got to tell you, if you're the fed, if you're jay,

press conference. hey, guys, i'll talk to you later. right? guys, good to see you. >> do you just say, victory? that's it? >> good to see you, chief. just "chief" them. this is the big win. i would call the game show off, frankly. enough, we won, see you later. go do your thing. jay won't do that, but damn it, i know i can get him to do that. >> "the journal" did say yesterday they're essentially taking the summer off. we're back to 70% odds on september. i think some 50 basis points priced in for the year. >> i think he wants more than just one, but boy, what went with him this time. you've got these great, great things that went down. eggs, turkey, fish, bacon, ham, cheese, veggies, potatoes, canned fruit and veggies. that's fruit cup, david, the del monte. >> it's got a little bit of fruit in it. >> there's gasoline, egg -- i

mean, this is it. so, you don't go out. if you go out, it's still expensive. >> right. >> that's a good list. david, this is what you eat when you're a regular person. >> some people still unhappy about it all, because prices obviously have risen so much in the last four or five years, and they can't seem to get past it. but to your point, that is a very positive signal. >> amazing. >> i mean, we're just coming off friday and that jobs number that was sky high. >> you need the summer off to see what shakes out. and these people who, like, september's on, i mean, what do they do for a living? i'm changing my vote. are they watching -- someone's polling them? david, they should take the summer off. maybe -- don't they have any kids who graduated or anything so they don't have to work? >> i don't know, jim. as usual, i don't know. >> i look to you for help. >> i'm here to help you on certain things. on others, i got nothing. >> you're like jeff probst.

this is the number we're waiting for, carl, because shelter is sticky, but everything else, i don't know what happened with food, but you know, what do we have in life? we have food that we make. we have gasoline. we have insurance. that's what we have every day. we don't shelter ourselves every day. win-win-win. >> as for owners' equivalent rent as jim points out, the three-month average now 4.8%. it was 5.7% a year ago. i'm sure you can expect to hear some discussion of new rents during the presser and waiting for them to filter in. >> good news is that housing's up 30%, not 40%, like it was off of 2019. but that's -- i mean, that's still the thing -- it's just very hard -- i mean, i was looking at brooklyn, for instance. brooklyn's a growing part of the city. we had 8,000 units coming on in the next 12 months. 8,000 units is a lot of units. and it will be interesting to see what else is the equivalent of brooklyn because all these projects were stalled because of covid. so, they're all coming on at the

same time. and you know, the rents in new york city are up, but when you have to absorb 8,000 units within a month, you know, 12-month time, we can't. without rents plummeting in the city. these are all rentals. >> i find that hard to imagine, rents plummeting in the city. i find that hard to imagine. you're talking about a city with, you know, an enormous place. >> yeah, but you see -- >> that has rents at all-time highs, 8,000 apartments is not going to change that. >> it's the marginal that sends it over is what i'm saying. it's what everybody's worried about. >> i hope you're right. >> this was my plan to get the giwannis to be like venice. we said it could be like venice and then president trump declared it a super fund site, ruined the whole buzz. >> you were going to be a gondolier. >> i was going to own a fleet. >> oh. >> even before this print, jim,

refi is up 28. that's the best week since '22. that was with the 30-year going to 7.02%. >> there's a lot of activity. of course, diana covers that beat, but i just do think that -- look, it's going it shall that's going to go the fed's way too. that's last because it requires long-term construction. we also know that housing is intractable because of zoning, and housing is intractable because these guys, like oil, like they're not drilling for oil right now. they're not building homes. they're only building homes for the customer that they already have. that's the first -- you know, david, they'd rather buy stock than build homes. >> yes. >> so, david, what did happen with paramount? >> oh, we'll get to that, jim. but first, i want to give you every opportunity to express yourself about the cpi number. >> i worked all among on this. >> we were talking about what a tough tape it was. >> right. >> now the move's a little different. russell is going to open up a

percent. >> you were unhappy with the market. i will say -- >> the banks are bad. >> to be fair, as i always am to you, you came to apple's defense yesterday morning. >> i spent a lot of time talking to tim cook, and we were marveling that we thought this was, like, an unbelievable upgrade and that everyone -- everyone was going to have to upgrade, and we were talking about wall street and that -- is everyone on a samsung? i mean, it's like musk. somewhat of a suboptimal article, by the way, about musk and some of his relations with people, but i think when i look at this, i say to myself, well, now, the press is coming around. "the journal" had, like, 17 things that you might like act th -- about that. i do think that what's happened here is that there's a realization, all you had to do was say, do i need to upgrade? the answer was, genmoji. >> b of a did do a survey in terms of who owns what in terms of iphone models.

almost three-quarters of the base is at an 11, 12, or 13. >> tim's point. >> it's going to require upgrades to get any of these services. >> he thought, by the way, that the handwriting thing was really important. genmoji, really important. when i send you one about your hair, you can send me one about mr. clean. >> i'm going to be able to personalize my emojis in a much more significant way. is that fair to say? that's going to be very important. it's a -- >> yeah, exactly. but no, i mean, tim and i were, like, are people not -- it was all wall street. and tim's always point is, like, listen, this is a consumer product, and wall street knows about enterprise. they don't know about consumer. what you just said is the most important statistic imaginable. will they upgrade? my daughter, my youngest daughter, has an iphone 5. talk about a museum piece. actually said, okay, dad, this is it. >> it's time? >> time. it is time.

>> she was smart to wait that long. we've been waiting, but i am going to get to paramount, guys. we covered this late yesterday. it's 9:08. we covered it late yesterday. >> no tie or jacket yesterday? >> i went to 30 rock, knowing that i had work to do at around 2:00, and i did not have a tie or a jacket or any make-up, which i found at my age now may be -- >> you and beyonce, the only two people who don't need make-up. >> may be a mistake looking at myself at 3:50 yesterday. why was i on? we were reporting the news that it's over, at least the attempts of skydance and its partner, red bird, to purchase a control stake in paramount and the economics of the overall company as well is done. turned down by control shareholder shari redstone. national amusement saying they had agreed on many of the economics. it was really noneconomic issues. that remains unclear. it's still somewhat unclear exactly what was specifically behind this decision. it was not expected. there was an expectation on the part of those who had been

advising the special committee for paramount's board and the members of that board as well that she would, in fact, be supportive. certainly, she was throughout. she's the reason they formed a special committee in the first place, of course, as we made the point yesterday, and there was a belief in the last few days that they were very close to being done. skydance had met all of the asks, other than a majority of the minority vote, all of the asks of the special committee. remember, we've reported these details many times, but essentially, you're talking about we would have been writing an almost $8 billion check to put $1.5 billion on the balance sheet of paramount, to spend $4.5 billion buying back as much of the b shares at a 50% premium, given the $15 stock price they're willing to come in at. buying the as that didn't remain from nai at 23 bucks a share. none of that is going to happen, and for its part, skydance and red bird, i'm hearing, are done. done, done, good-bye. larry ellison, good-bye. david ellison, good-bye.

>> all the datacenters. it worked so well. >> you work so hard, so long, they had a real plan, and you would have to have a real plan if you were going to come in here, because it's not clear, without a plan, that there's a lot that you really want. i mean, this is a highly levered company, more highly levered than warner bros. discovery. it's being run by three people at this point. you have a control shareholder that needs money. don't forget the michael dell-byron trott firm. that keeps accreting up, that c convertible preferred. at some point, shari redstone, having said no to this may say yes to something else. what that is is very much unclear. yes, there are any number of very wealthy people taking a look. "the journal" reported on edgar yesterday. my understanding is he spends a lot of time living in madrid, but maybe he does want to come back and do something. when you get up really close and do your diligence, i think it remains unclear for many people

around this that you're ever going to get to a number where they were. it did go down from $2 billion for the equity to $1.7 billion, because they took that $300 million and put it towards the b shares. it's rare that you see a turn-about of this type. there's a member of the special committee and the board of paramount, charles phillips, once was president of oracle. >> chuck phillips? what happened? >> he apparently was, you know -- >> he's the best. >> he was not in favor of the transaction. he's been talking to shari a lot, and it may be that his voice was an important one here in terms of helping her come to this unexpected decision, but at the end of the day, it's shari redstone's decision, and for whatever reason it was, and i have not spoken to her directly, emotional as it may have been, maybe deciding that she didn't like getting $300 million less for her stake, even though my understanding is that was agreed to, and she had signed off on

it. ultimately, that -- that she said no. and so, we'll see if anybody else comes along here at some point. i think the key point for shareholders is, it's very much unclear that anybody's going to come along with a deal in which you're actually going to have an opportunity to get liquidity at a premium for as much as half of your stake. that's not part of what we're hearing about. apollo and sony, they seem to be gone. they never showed. and then these other potential transactions, jim, are just for control of nai. >> well, i think you said something really important. rarely happens. has it ever happened? has there ever been a deal, and one individual rejects, even though there's a board of directors? >> this is somewhat unique. if i have to go back, i'm sure i could come up with other things that were very much unexpected, but there is a level of -- is it irrational? it was fully unexpected. it does miake it, i think, in te part of those who would consider trying to do something here as

well, it may give them pause. again, to put this -- you had a control shareholder who endorsed and supported a transaction that she said, i would like presented to the board, form a special committee. they did that. they agreed to terms, which got better and better for shareholders, ultimately, to have her reject it. >> what's the emotional connection to this piece of paper that is conceivably worthless? >> national amusements also owns the movie theaters that have been part of her family for a very long time. a very long time. but she's going to need some money. this is not -- this is not a great situation, and so it doesn't mean that it's over. i hate to think of me having to sit here and bore people yet again -- >> you're not the latest. it's a comedy of errors. >> it won't be for the whole company. here you had an asset that was going to be put in. you had the opportunity to gain some cost synergies, but even more importantly, you had a plan for -- they're running the company. >> mo, larry, curly.

that's who's running the company. david, is this the ward? >> they have a plan. i'm looking for it. they sent it to me. they have a plan. >> now the sell-side is back to, here we go again, as wells goes back to underweight and a $9 target, i think. >> it sure does make zaslov look good, doesn't it? >> yeah, right. although where's the nba stuff? nowhere, right? >> doesn't matter. nbc sports is king. everybody's king. >> well, after the break, jim, mentioned tesla, and we're one day away from the musk pay package note. got some auto news, this piece in "the journal" regarding spacex. d healpo-c, bl stpi anthe fed is on the way. stay with us.

number of headlines involving elon musk today as we're now just a day away from that massive pay package vote, including musk dropping his lawsuit against openai and two of the company's cofounders,

including sam altman. separately, this "wall street journal" piece about musk and his past relationships with women at spacex, detailing some questionable conduct with his former employees. musk has not yet commented on that piece, although wouldn't be surprising to see him say something on x. >> no, i can give you guys a kwik update on where things stand for the all-important compensation vote from least this morning. retail has showed up overwhelmingly. i mean, showed up well. first of all, again, to remind people, there are two votes. one's a reincorporation in texas. by the way, musk can vote his shares in favor of that. you need 51.8% of the outstanding to be in favor. the other is the compensation package from 2018. that, obviously, musk cannot vote his shares, and it's the percentage of shares voted that wins. so, you need 50.1% of those voted. retail has shown up in a

significant way and not surprisingly overwhelmingly for musk, but they're still waiting for the big guys, blackrock, vanguard, state street. all three of these index funds did vote against this plan in 2018. that said, there is an expectation or at least a willingness to say may not go that way this time. obviously, there are any number of different factors at work here. first of all, of course, i'm told they're open to hearing the conversation. the arguments are different. it's retrospective. it actually worked, so you can't say just because they voted against then, they will vote against now. jim, it's going to be up to them to a certain extent. it is very, very close. we may not know until late in the day even, you know, well after the close how they voted and therefore we may start to see some headlines about it. >> so, do you have any analysis of the average price that people have bought post when this company was added to the s&p? >> i don't. >> that and the index funds that

bought it added to the s&p, they're aggrieved. they are not voting for that package. you get tremendous solution. that's my view. there could be consistent people who never sold. it could be like the gamestop diamond thing for all i know, but it does bring to mind that there are a lot of people who definitely bought it at $250 and $200. why would they vote in favor of musk, other than they fear he'll go work for one of his other entities? >> that's the main reason. you vote in favor because you have a fear that he will not be properly incented to remain at the company or focused. who knows if that's true? it's elon musk. the man's capable of doing a lot of things and doing them with intense focus. but that's the fear. and again, it's sort of going to be make or break late, you know, 6:00, 7:00 tonight, perhaps, we'll get some sense. >> wow, tonight? >> tonight. they'll put the votes in late tonight. the index funds.

they wait. they don't want anybody to know. >> are you calling it, we will know something tomorrow morning when we come in? >> yes. we will. >> very big. really big. cpi is big. the fed is big, but in terms of our audience, this is huge. >> meantime, interesting assortment of commentary regarding tesla out of, say, morgan stanley, where jonas argues that the company might make a phone. >> you know, look, this settlement too on sam, i don't know. but here's what i know about it. i know that musk took a huge number of nvidia chips, but that is -- that is all -- that's super computer for car and for the august 8th robo taxi day. >> 8s are lucky in china, as we all know. >> are you serious? whatever. >> making a phone? really? it seems late. >> you also said you have to vote for him. today's the day you vote for -- you see the top of the thing?

i would greatly appreciate your support for the morgan stanley auto and auto parts team, initial auto america survey, will tesla do a vote? i wish i had a vote. >> i know you took note of these eu tariffs on evs today, as much as 38%. >> oh my, that's france exercising hegemony over germany. i can't believe we don't talk more about spain, because the spanish government is so dysfunctional, but spain and france have really emerged as powers in europe. spain is ascendant and we are missing that story. >> interesting. let's go over there and get a close hand look. i spent a little time in madrid and i would happily go back any time. >> who'd you say was living there? >> edgar. >> actually, i'm going to pay homage to catalonia when i'm over there. >> whatever you need to do, we'll get together and go do the show. >> it's an actual story.

they defeated germany. >> and it's an important story. "the journal" has that story, germany needs the chinese market for its automakers. by the way, volkswagen also has its most advanced plant in china, which exports out of that country, so a lot of complication around tariffs. >> we're considered to be the brigands against the chinese. the europeans are much more anti-chinese in this than we are. it's amazing because spain and france don't make a lot of cars to sell there. spain -- what cars in spain? what do they make? >> i'm not familiar with their auto. i don't know. they have great tennis players. >> yes, they do, man. wow. >> that's what i can tell you. >> that kid is incredible. >> alcaraz. >> youngest to win on three surfaces. >> look -- >> what?

balist balisteros? that's a long time ago, jim. >> when we come back, we'll get the opening bell. catch us any time, anywhere. just listen to our podcast and we'll get to oracle, gme, set up for broadcom. don't go anywhere.

[ inner monologue ] i needed some help. good thing i knew someone...

♪ ♪ or... some-thing. [ a.i. copilot ] glad you called, j. [ a.i. copilot ] it's time for an upgrade. awesome. ♪ ♪ [ inner monologue ] i knew what i had to do. because they never stop. no time to waste. this isn't sci-fi. this is precision ai. ♪ ♪

>> announcer: the opening bell is brought to you by nuveen, a leader in income, alternatives, and responsible investing. let's get to a "mad dash." two minutes before we get to an opening bell. >> okay, yesterday on "mad money," tom jordan, who is the ceo of coterra, broke some news. he said there most likely is going to be, and there are talks among a number of the hyperscalers and actual natural gas companies in order to lock in ten-year agreements because it's so important to the datacenters, and when you listen to what larry ellison said last night, listen to anybody talk about datacenters, they need power. why not go right to the source? coterra or maybe eqt, toby rice, they would be the two that i would say might do these deals. these deals would be monumental because it would change the face of how these companies are going to pay for the power.

>> eqt is a blackstone company, we should point out. >> i'll tell you -- >> right? am i wrong? wait, no, no wait. i'm talking to datacenter company. >> gigantic datacenter company. >> yes, yes. >> they might be the company. we don't know who's negotiating the deal on the datacenter, but this is happening right now, realtime. some of these companies are -- these datacenters, david, they use too much power. if you listen to the -- to larry ellison, the size, the amount of power they're using, they would be smart to make deals. right now, ten-years, coterra eqt. why has toby rice been hanging out at the oil and gas tech conferences? very interesting. >> eqt -- wait. eqt does what? >> they're nat gas. >> i got confused by datacenter company owned by blackstone. >> you're right, because blackstone is forward. they have paul jonathan gray work on this one. >> what you bring up is something we discussed numerous times. the power issue for these datacenters. >> power's out of control in terms of what ellison's --

>> let's get the opening bell here and the cnbc realtime exchange. at the big board, it is mac cosmetics. at the nasdaq, leading derivative marketplace cme group. i know you were looking for some e.l. management. >> yeah. i don't know if they have any. horton. the home builders are just on fire today. these are the -- this is a group that has handled everything incredibly well. toll brothers, horton, they're up gigantically. there was a downgrade at lennar today, clearly ill advised and ill timed. the stock is going crazy. >> lot of discussion about fomo this week. got some jpm desk notes. does today's action ratify that view? >> i think so. it started with nvidia churned right through the stock, which is an amazing sign of strength, and then apple fooled all these

people who got short. it's interesting, d.a. davidson, davidson had downgraded -- their first got downgraded. they got a lot of credit for upgrading. this is one today, oracle is really shocking. there are a lot of people who have written articles, by the way, that said that oracle didn't have a good quarter. these are people that should have waited for the quarter to appear or don't know what rpo is because, oh my god, the oracle numbers are amazing. they're up 44% for their remaining performance obligations. 44% is an extraordinary number. katz and ellison, jubilant last night, and justifiably jubilant. that's how strong, david, that what they're doing. and people want their cloud very, very much. google, azure, which is microsoft, they want their cloud. they need it. safra was a tour de force performance last night. >> it was. >> tour de force. >> yeah, it was about the contracts, not the number, right? >> the numbers were a miss. when the numbers came over, there were some -- there's a report -- i don't want to mention the publication that was so wrong this morning because i

really can't stand them, but they were talking about how the numbers were a miss. i mean, look, the only thing that matters is the contracts. and the contracts are -- david, as larry ellison pointed out, they're for training, not inference. that's really huge, because, man, that's a lot of money. there are people who say, can it be bested? wi can they keep it up? safra said, look, my guidance is very conservative. this was a remarkable call. remarkable call. and by the way, broadcom's tonight. and i don't think broadcom is going to be all that bad either, to tell you the truth. avgo from the days when hock tan had -- broadcom is up 38. >> larry ellison, i don't know if he's still at 41%, but he's -- he's up there. >> he must be so upset about the stupid -- >> and i only, it's funny, because he was a lot of the money behind the paramount bid. his net worth has probably gone up way more than what he was

going to spend for that just today. >> he's an amazing guy. he had a great vision here. he had a great vision that he was going to be able to be, basically, the infrastructure as a service business, and my hat is off to larry. once again, he delivered. and of course, safra is just unbelievably good. >> i want to check the latest numbers, but i had him over a 1.1 billion shares. so, do the math. >> i know. wealthy people get wealthier. >> i'm going to check and make sure those are the latest numbers. by the way, other things i need to -- you were talking eqt. i was talking qts. that's the datacenter company, blackstone. >> yeah, i mean, when you were -- listen to davy day trade a lot of times he picks just letters. >> yeah, so i had my "t" and my "q" but had them mixed up. >> i was on reddit. i go on reddit, wall street bets. today, they were featuring the turtle. and i do think that gamestop won

here, the bears are going to be in retreat, because now ryan cohen, which has -- he has total control of the money, has $3 billion to play with, so what i think he would do -- he never listens to me at all or throws me an ice cream cone or good humor, i don't know. but they have the money to write a check to any mall in the world. they do have 4,000 stores. they could get out of every lease, close every single gamestop by my take, for a couple billion dollars and start over. and that's just unbelievable. so, my hat is off to what they did in terms of being able to take advantage of the -- >> to refresh people, they were doing an "at the market" offering led by jeffries. they had been raising money for the company. this, of course, as jim pointed out, since the stock rose dramatically. now, by the way, they did 45 million shares and raised almost a billion dollars. then, they did another 75 million, which they've now completed raising, as you just said, about $2.1 billion. so, you are talking about

three -- jim, you asked me about paramount. is there anything you can remember that's similar to this, a company raising $3 billion? what percent of the market cap was this? >> company's -- is $10 billion. they have $3 billion. they have almost no debt. they have that piece of paper from france. >> they raised 30% of their market value. >> the big issue is the leases. he could, right now, write checks to whoever he has, simon properties, doesn't matter. get out of -- he could pick the 3,000 bad gamestops. he could close them. he can then open another company and this isn't -- this is no longer gamestop. this is spac, so ryan cohen spac, and this will be his chance to really demonstrate that he's a great business person and do chewy too. >> in many ways, you're right. it's a blind pool of capital that he has control ofnow as the ceo of the company. >> with no debt. >> that was raised thanks to a gentleman named roaring kitty. >> right. >> who's virtually incomprehensible when i watched him on friday. >> meantime, jim, you talk about the bears being in retreat.

citron says, no longer short. says, we respect the market's irrationality and calls that livestream an insult to capital markets. >> an insult. the other side of that is, if you're a redditer, like i am, it was -- >> otheh, you're a redditer now? is that what you call yourself? >> my daughters are real redditers. and i said something against roaring kitty, and i got slapped. >> dad you don't get it? >> dad, did you watch "dumb money"? your friend, david faber, is the star of "dumb money. " >> i didn't find it funny or informative. i found it a waste of my time. >> did dave really hang up right before he was going to go on? >> no, it's -- come on, you know, it's fictionalized. >> i think if you look -- >> it's in the realm of reality. >> roaring kitty is the hero of

that movie. >> yes. >> that's what we're all talking about, carl. so, if he wants to have a heineken -- >> he was the hero of that movie. >> that's what's going on. people don't understand. >> they need to know, in hollywood, you need bad guys, good guys. >> the rich people were the bad guys, and that's kind of where people are. i don't know. >> jim, as for stocks, this probably looks to be what could be the russell's best day of the year. >> it's been so neglected. >> home builders are on a tear. >> oh, my, are they hot. it was such a big short being built up, because a lot of people felt that was the way to play a big number. clearly, again, an ill-advised strategy. there's a lot of stories about -- there's a lot of these irony stories. well, it's too dangerous to be short, whatever, and that must be the top. i mean, whenever you do an ironic analysis, wow, everybody's -- nobody's short anymore, that's just -- it's just stupid analysis. it doesn't matter. the market has no history. the market's like a deck of cards here. you don't know. it has no -- it has no memory.

if you play cards -- i can count blackjack cards. got kicked out of a casino. not bad. >> just like rainman. >> i got kicked out of a casino. i was obviously counting. i had water. i sat there for six hours. like, hey, you're winning a little too much. but cards have no memory. this market has no memory. apple's horrible and then apple's the size of a cisco. this is not like any i've seen, because it doesn't matter what happened yesterday. >> it's funny, the control room is right ahead of me or right with me because i was taking a look. apple is up another 1.6%. >> will you look at that horse race? >> top spot in market value right there with microsoft again. >> microsoft is not secretariat anymore. >> the delayed reaction in some way, at least a little bit, to the meeting on monday. >> the presentation was dramatic, important, and a reason to upgrade, except for wall street, all they can think

of is enterprise software, because that's where the darn ipos are, which is how they get paid. that's all they care about is enterprise software because that's every single deal out there is enterprise software, and they can't make the quarter. >> okay. and your point is so they were myopic? >> more myopic than myopic. what they are is pro the consumer -- >> i said myopic. i say potato, you say potato. >> the potatoes were down. >> i saw drawt, you said drought. >> let's call the whole thing off with this guy. >> you're this guying'ing me? he's a redditer now. >> dad, you don't get it. >> the cole porter songbook is better than the gershwin. >> i'll go along with that. only took one guy, as he said. two guys to write a song? what's that about? jim, we got starbucks

joining the value menu craze. >> about time. >> story on cnn yesterday. >> starbucks is a very challenged retailer, and we know that last quarter was a fiasco. i have to tell you that when i -- the volume is -- you mentioned the other day, david, about the volume. the volume is really low. when you look at the run in toll brothers, it's on -- it's on very few shares. i would just be wary to pay up six for some of these stocks. i think that's a mistake. >> jim, do you know this company, rent a kill? >> i think nelson peltz has a big position. it involves killing bugs. >> it does. trian confirm it has a significant position. they say they're currently a top ten shareholder. they've reached out to the company to discuss ideas and initiatives to improve shareholder value, and they look forward to working with their leadership team. pest control. >> does anyone look forward to working with a leadership team

in reality? >> no. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. that's all you got? stock's up 16%. >> ain't got nothing for you, pal. >> you're busy with your redditers. >> if you don't stay up -- he makes fun of me, there's a considerable group of people, millions of people look at reddit. so, i look at wall street bets. i can't not look at wall street bets because then i am not capable of doing my job, which is to try to figure out every single input into what moves a stock, and i told steve huffman, the excellent ceo of reddit, that the demographic that he has is extraordinary. everyone wants that demo. >> reddit, of course, recent ipo. another one is burke, which despite the downgrade at goldman today, jim, is up 2%. >> it's got great momentum. i thought the downgrade was fatuous. these stocks don't trade on eps. >> that's going to be an all-time high in its short public life. >> this is a very strong franchise and a lot of the deals

that came public during this window were good. my favorite is arm holdings, which just keeps winning contracts. they're the apple contract. look at that, up another four bucks. that's a very strong stock. >> how about b of a removing crm from u.s. one list? >> look, benioff is on his -- he's on a sabbatical right now. can't get ahold of him. the stock had a little bit of bounceback from that awful quarter. i'm not going to disagree that this stock is -- we've sold down the position. it's not a big position for us. i think the big problem there is -- and this is the point i'm trying to make -- enterprise software is disliked right now, and what people want is the consumer, not the enterprise software, because the enterprise is frozen because they don't know who needs to be fired because of a.i., so they can't do a seat license if the possibility -- the oracle, regular business, not good. what happens is that the -- most of the ceos say, 1 to 3%, we can't know who we're going to fire, but we are going to let people go. we just have to figure out what the new a.i. means for us, and

that's why enterprise software is so -- >> you've talked about even you are struggling or trying to figure out if this is a cyclical or secular shift. >> exactly. i don't know. i don't know. i do think that in the end, it's possible that jensen's creating -- jensen huang from nvidia is creating a -- the chip, the blackwell, that may allow you to do exactly what salesforce does without salesforce. that's the big issue. it's an existential crisis. which of these companies -- right now, service now, mcdermott is working very closely with jensen, but the idea here is that if you bring in this system, you can do what salesforce does without salesforce. >> that doesn't sound good for salesforce, then. that sounds like it could be an issue. >> man, you are just -- you have the keenest eye for the obvious. >> on it, right? on it. >> you are on it. >> i am on it. >> how's shari redstone? >> shari redstone is a little bit poorer. i do think it's really interesting that larry ellison's net worth has gone up more than

the value of paramount times two today. >> have you been to his island? >> today. >> have you been to the island in hawaii, you guys? >> he would have been there to put more money too. shari redstone has really put at risk her employees and shareholders, i think. >> well, but, there's so many lawsuits already. remember in jim stewart's book, how many lawyers were involved? it's an annuity plan for lawyers. but i think that ellison's worth talking about again, because this man took a big risk in building out all these datacenters, and it turned out that it was one of the great trades that i have seen someone do. when he moved over to cto, i didn't know what he was going go with, and i thought he was going to go with cerner. what matters is that they made a monster bet that we wouldn't have enough datacenters. >> and they were right. >> it was an incredible thing. i mean, amazon's opening -- going to open datacenters in taiwan. >> we're going to talk about oracle cloud more often now? we're going to talk about it closer when we, you know, when

we talk about azure and -- >> david, oci, it's not oracle. it's oci. >> oci. >> meanwhile, nvidia, have we forgotten about nvidia? nvidia is $3.05 billion. it's coming around the far turn. i think it could make a move. right now, it's nose to nose, but you never -- someone could come from the outside. >> right now, apple and microsoft are separated by a couple of billion dollars. >> i know. >> amazing. what a race. >> sea biscuit versus man of war. >> but who's secretariat? >> 18 lengths? how much did secretariat win by? >> in 1974. >> glorious race. >> jim, home depot, up 4%. >> well, it's about time. but you know, they have been hurt because people feel that there hasn't been enough turnover. that's what they're levered o, turnover housing. i think it's a sleeping giant at 2.5 yield. in their spring and their christmas season, so to speak, i like that. and by the way, i thought lowe's had a good number, and people

didn't respect it. marvin ellison doing a very good job. this is a good number for -- oh, good. this is a good number for home depot who bought that srs for a lot of money. turns out i think it's going to be a good investment. >> interesting to see how the market really is today, at least, turning its back on staples and health care and even utilities. >> oh my. i was looking at j&j, and they had a very big plaintiff switch to defense to the j&j side in talc, maybe a huge number of clients the plaintiff had, and i thought that j&j would finally go up, because it looks like their gambit to put the talc suits in bankruptcy could win. but no. the thing is just an anchor to lure, what can i say. >> yesterday, we talked about the banks. they were down. they were the leader. they're now a leader up, except for jpmorgan. anybody know why? i noted -- bank of america's up 1.8%. citi's up 2.3%. >> less levered to mortgage,

more levered to corporate. >> jpm is down 13 cents. just noted that. obviously, it's beleaguered. >> i keep coming back to wells fargo and how much stock charlie scharf is buying, making a big bet that his bank is going to take a lot of the people that you know from these major banks that didn't get to be ceo. he's poaching them. >> well, doug bronstein is over there. he's a very smart fellow. known doug for a very long time. >> like him. >> was the cfo, but obviously, prior to that, was a banker for many years at jpmorgan. >> he's coming back. >> also went out and became an activist investor for a while. >> charlie scharf is so sharp. he's still the horse i want to bet on. >> look at you coming up with a -- >> i'll tell you right now, i thought that microsoft was american pharoah. uh-uh. they ain't no american pharoah. >> was alley dark -- who won every race?

affirm? >> affirm got the goldman-sachs credit card. rumor. >> from yesterday. >> the rumor -- >> from yesterday, it's going to be on an apple. >> that was rumored. max is one of my favorite guys. he is an american or ukrainian originally. >> very smart. as we go to break, dow is up 330. watch bonds, of course, as the ten-year does dip below 4.3%, at least earlier this morning. as for the markets, s&p, nasdaq, all-time high. we got the vicks near an 11 handle. stay with us.

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well, the fed catches a break today with this goose egg on headline, cpi and no

surprise, home construction etf vi ihangts best day of the year. home builders up 6, 7, 8% within the etf. we'll get stop trading with jim with the dow up. don't go anywhere. at enterprise mobility, we guide companies to unique solutions, from our team of mobility experts. because we believe the more ways we all have to move forward. the further we'll all go.

- so this is pickleball? - pickle! ah, these guys are intense. 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?

let's get to kramer and stop trading. >> the small cap nature of apple that it can move like this. we're talking about the ipos. this is a company that does data management and security. she's the recurring revenue here is extraordinary. i think it should be up much more than it's up. it's a really great quarter. it's lost in the shuffle of the big caps acting like small caps. an incredible moment. >> still on overtime with us? >> fantastic. don't forget the cards have no memory, this market has no memory. >> so those worries about narrna narrowing breath can we seat t -- can we set them aside. >> that just means it could go either way, this went the other way. it went broader and let's not forget there's a wave of baby

boomer money. this is a cross generation thing that's happening at this moment. it's a lot of money coming in. i don't want to overdo how special today is but you have the big cap companies trading like small caps. >> the moves, apple alone, incredible. >> you can go with the concentration of wealth. i don't want to go with that. >> apple once again retaking the top spot as the largest market cap company. >> people should buy dell here. people are thinking that oracle can out do dell, that's not true. dell is doing fine. >> how about tonight? >> i'm analyzing jensen huang and nvidia. we should not forget that nvidia is lurking around the turn, possibility to be bigger than microsoft and apple.

yeah, when you look at the amazon amount of money they're going to be spending with nvidia. when you look at what ellison is spending with nvidia, i do not think you can count out nvidia. you're right, you know, the data center costs 6, 7 billion. >> yeah. >> and what's in a data center? some cooling equipment. >> ver tiv. >> vertiv, eaton, dover, nvidia, that's it. some feel ferguson is in there because you have some pipes, maybe. >> but then there's the owners of the data centers. blackstone. digital bridge. >> okay. >> there's a bunch of them. >> call them and ask about my coterra thing. >> sure i'll do that. kept your jacket buttoned the whole time. >> yeah. i have a spot on my shirt, idiot. >> did you call me an idiot? >> i was out of line on that. i was trying to hide the spot

the whole show. >> dow hanging onto a gain, when weom ce back, ross gerber on musk's pay package, s&p, nasdaq with record highs.

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good wednesday morning welcome to another hour of "squawk on the street." i'm sara eisen with carl quintanilla and david faber live as always from post nine of the new york stock exchange. the celebration post cpi after a tamer inflation read, sparks a rally in stocks. the s&p up 1.1%. nasdaq comp at 1.6. looking at record highs for the s&p and nasdaq. look at the nasdaq up 1.7%. who's benefitting the most in the market. real estate is the best performing sector, why? lower rates. those reits in rally mode. technology stocks right up there as well.

big rallies in the oracle up 12.5% which we'll talk about and a number of other tech names as well. the dow is surging about 267 points at the moment. treasuries, sharp rally, lower yields after that cpi data. look at the 10 year down to 4.273%. so early april lows i think we are right now. the two-year yield goes below 4.7. here are our three big movers we're watching. apple pushing to new record highs and reclaiming the title of the world's biggest company from microsoft for the first time this year. today's moves buildings on yesterday's gains when apple added $215 billion in market cap in a single day, shares up 20% in the last couple of months. and oracle, more on what's driving the gains, and partnerships there too ahead on the show. and nelson peltz out of disney

by tryan partners trying a new market, looking to work with management to increase shareholder value. that stock having a move off the back of that. the market having a big move and the headline on today's cpi inflation report is finally, finally the fed gets a fed and market friendly number that is definitively, when i say definitively across the board misses on the inflation numbers. tell you what you need to know here. so overall, inflation for the month unchanged. again, that was a good read. we've been used to month over month numbers of .3,.4. that's something that the market and fed would be happy with. from april, 3.3% was the gain from last year, excuse me, in may, so that was a step down from the 3.4% that we saw in april. the core, which everyone looks

at, core cpi below expectations. we go out all the decimal places on this one. the may number 0.163% on core. the consensus was looking for .3% on core. that was a big miss too. and it was unrounded, the lowest monthly core reading since august 2021. really good progress. i just note one more number to throw at you. which is the super core, we know the fed has looked at it in the past, it's the services number, exhousing because that's what they want to target here. that was negative .047%. that was also very good sign. so basically what happened here? we saw a drop in auto insurance. that was good. that was disproportionately feeding inflation. the first drop in auto inflation we saw since 2021. air fares fell by the most in a

year, good news for flyers. prices of cable, satellite and streaming cost had the biggest drop in 20 years so that feeds into services inflation. >> really? >> yeah. >> no kidding. >> i thought you could explain that. >> i wish i could. >> anyway, it's a relief for consum consumers on that front. >> it's a big bill everyone pays but it's going only in one direction. >> higher. >> yeah. we could see some anomalies. we did see drops. if you look at dispersion, of the 84 detailed components of cpi we tracked, only 24% showed month over month gains in may. that was down from 30% that showed them in april. 27% was the average in the three years ending december 2019. so david, no surprise, we saw big move in the markets on this. sharp rally in bonds. and the odds have been interested. of a second cut this year, so

before the data, it was 38% chance that we get a second cut. right after the data it goes to 72 and right now 88% odds we get a second cut maybe september or november, as well as december. let's see how jay powell talks about it. >> what are the expectations in terms of this report. obviously we can't -- friday we got a jobs number that was in excess of what had been anticipated. >> right. >> he's got to calibrate his language today based on the data, right? >> i think it takes the pressure off him to be hawkish. but to your point they can't put too much emphasis on one data point. we have had two better than expected inflation data reports in a row so it looks like the hotter reads we got in the first part of the year were an ano, ma' ma'am -- anomaly, and saying they know better than to be too

relieved about lower inflation numbers they have to be careful but the nuances are important today as far as how many months of better data they need to see before leaning towards a cut. because the ecb paved the way and if we hear powell talk about that. then markets should stay excited about the ability to do two more cuts especially if the fed feels confident and we'll see more disinflation. you read all the notes, carl. i haven't read one today that says, necessarily, we won't continue to see progress on the disinflationary side. maybe bumpy not a straight line but not sticky flare-ups. >> i would say most of the commentary is summer looks friendly. there has been passing mentions of base effects not being as positive as you move into the back half of the back half of the year. which is one of the challenges we talked about in a december cut. >> the inflation rate went down so much last year. so the moves, the comps are

going to be tougher. it's fed day so nick wells on our data team puts together the then and now, so before fed started to raise rates to where we were now on things like mortgage rates. it's interesting to look, this is how it feeds through, how it affects everybody. mortgage rates, big jump since back in march 2022, when they started. the 30 year fixed mortgage, remember 4.32% now we're above 7%. credit card rates big jump to 20%. used vehicle, this was already march 2022, when there was anticipation of hikes. used vehicles 9.1% to 11.5. this is how it feeds into the economy and what the fed wants to see as progress, lagged impact, stronger, higher rates, hurting the consumer, hurting demand finally seeing inflation come down. if that's the story today then fed has to be really happy.

>> at least we got real wages. positive for 13 straight months. >> even better news. if they can accomplish this inflation coming down, while protecting jobs and wages, that's the ultimate soft landing and win for the fed. >> let's get what investors are expecting from the fed and the market. wells fargo, cio wealth and investment management darryl crock. nice mid year outlook published to today. >> thank you. >> looking at your year end 25 targets not far from where we are right now i guess. >> that's true. we've come so far, as everybody knows. we think the second half of the year gets bumpier than we enjoyed the first half of the year. that said you're starting to interpolate numbers to next year, 12 months forward. so we think you can push up to 57, 5,800 by year end next year not year end 2024. you still get good growth we think the street is too high for

bottoms up, tops down earnings growth. we're in the 6 to 8% camp which we think is doable. the important point here carl is if i look at the first half, 13% year-to-date returns, 90% of it has come from five names. 90%. 40% comes from two names. that concentrated leadership continues. we think that slows down in the back half of the year. we get in that steady state. >> if you were going to trim equities, where would you go? long duration bonds? international em? >> we stay domestic. we just moved energy up to a most favorable been favorable on it for a long time. we think it gives you a second at bat with energy we took the

risk out of the price of brent and wti. still getting energy companies, good energy companies at 12, 13, 14 multiples with a 3, 3 1/2, 4% dividend. and secular bull for energy, the data centers, what defense departments around the world are going to have to spend on energy to build up for geopolitical risks, cyber security. just more demand for energy than there is supply. even if you include brown and green. >> do you think today gives the fed a hall pass for the next couple of weeks? >> it does. sara did a great job covering it. it's a goldie locks cpi number. you have weaker new car prices, weaker prices at the pump, all of that is good for the consumer, on top of better jobs. so chair powell goes. >> says the labor market is holding up, and prices are coming down, a second dual

mandate. if you look at the core, i don't look at it on the year over year numbers but just the 3 month has come from 4.1 to 3.3, that's a big move, .7 in the last three months. >> are investors right to worry? it's by the rumor, sell the fact on the first rate cut? >> i do think that you end up with a little bit of the first rate cut you take some of that off the table, right. it's interesting because now to your point, sara, we're in the second longest period of time from the last hike to the first cut, right. next month will be 12 months from july of last year. the longest is 15 months, june of '06 to september of '07. when that happened, if you go back to track it in history. when the fed is on pause, equities have done very, very well. >> they're excited about the cut. >> as soon as the cut comes, they get what they want. and it ends up oftentimes being bad news.

>> catches the tire, right? so i don't think there's huge decline. usually when the fed is reducing rates, they're reducing because economic growth hit the wall. if we get a soft landing that won't be the scenario this time so you don't see the equities like you've seen in past cycles. but i do think it takes a little bit of the equity energy out of the room. >> right. that carrot is dangling on the stick and has been for a while. congrats on the mid year outlook, helpful today good to see you. >> thank you, appreciate it. tech hitting new highs and the best performing sector today. let's bring in mike santoli with his market take. he's at the telestrator so you know it's a big day. >> lurking behind you. absolutely. let's look at what has been a big driver, which is apple really rising to meet what the broader megacap growth stock universe has been doing. apple relative to the nasdaq 100

this is december of 2021, 2.5 years. here you go, the same spot but look at the ground they made up towards the end. always a handful of the megacaps working. i think it's very useful to point out that apple does not actually need to work for the broader market to work, they go in different directions at times. apple had done almost nothing since december of 2021 until a few weeks ago. it has these spurts about performance but now everything is working. i thought the big question today was we got the green light and therefore the fed, was it just small caps working, everything else for sale? that's not happening. look at the nasdaq 100 relative to the equal waited s&p 500, everyone is complaining about how narrow a market it's been, it has been narrow. everything is going up for a while. then you have megacap growth which is impervious to forces

taking flight and flattening out since late march of the average stock. now you have relief today, those stocks are working, you needed clarity on the macro, you needed pressure taken off on the rate side of things. the question is, whether this is a relief trade or if it's the start of something bigger in terms of a more inclusive market. >> maybe a more confident path towards rate cuts and the fed and market. office reits rallying, home builders up 5%, home furn furnishings. how depressed are the sectors, how much more upside can there be for sectors like this? >> consumer cyclicals -- home builders have been a leadership, it's quirky and we know that, no supply of homes. they have corrected a fair bit. commercial real estate, i point out all the time, that's a market financed at the prime rate or a spread over the overnight rate.

meaning the fed directly impacts the ability of that to afford and get financing. so i think that all makes sense. autos probably get a little relief. i don't think we want to go too far here. we're solidifying the idea we might get one or two cuts this year. i think it was all about the fact that since the march high in the market. a 5% pullback in the s&p 500, talked about how it didn't seem complete, like we didn't flush things out. we didn't at the average stock level, which is why they've done nothing for a couple of months and now we're having more of a green light. the market wanted permission to celebrate lower bond yields and a friendlier fed. >> just more backed up by the data. >> absolutely. >> thank you, mike. see you in a bit. as we head to break, our road map for the rest of the hour. counting down to a crucial tesla meeting where shareholders vote on elon musk's mega pay package. and talk about paramount's

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if you valuetesla as like an auto company you have to fundamentally, it's just the wrong framework. if somebody doesn't believe tesla is going to solve

autonomy. i think they should not be an investor in the company. but we will and we are. >> the ratification of the pay package is about fairness. f fairness to our ceo. if you look at the company the last six years, tremendous value creation and he's led that. >> elon has done an extraordinary job. he's built a transformational company but asking for a $55 billion pay increase at the time you've missed quarterly numbers, growth is slowing down and you laid off 50% of the workforce is i would say hubris to say the least. >> this pay package is ridiculous. i know he's mad he'll say i'm absurd to say that. i'm sorry, elon. he wants to go to mars, let him fly away. >> he earned it, deserves it. >> we do not believe the compensation is commensurate with the performance of the company. >> if he leaves the company i think they're bad shape.

he's critical to that company continuing to innovate and doing new things, like the robotics, like new versions of tesla. >> that was a number of tesla shareholders voicing their opinions on elon musk's pay package. we're a day away. really not even a day away from the vote. as i reported earlier, we should know late today perhaps. the index funds are happening. retail has come in heavily in favor. important they come in at all because that's part of the key, of course, but it's the big index funds that turn this one way or the other. and we don't know as yet. let's bring in the shareholder who voted against the pay package saying musk is an absent ceo, calls it a nightmare, it's lose lose situation. i quoted you so much i don't know if we need you as a guest. you've been a supporter in the past, what was it about the pay package that has given you such

pause. >> it's not the pay package because i did vote for it in 2018, if you look at the progress tesla has made since then, it's been a wildly successful company up to the purchase of twitter. for me it's about the process, this is a governance issue, the reason it was voted down is because the board of directors of tesla is an absent board, they're negligent, they work for elon and it's not an independent board as required. so this company is not run correctly there's nobody to blame but elon and the process you go through when you get a compensation package approved by the board. they didn't do it right. so now we all have to suffer through this and the amount of money is outrageous. on top of the fact that the performance of the company has been horrendous the last two years. that's why i'm voting no. they're creating more problems

and elon and the board should vote on a fair package. >> you cited the reasons they struck it down, saying the board was not independent. but all that said, ross, this was something that was agreed to that 73% of shareholders voted in favor of some five and a half, six years ago. and that he delivered on. >> that's right. >> so looking back, shouldn't a contract and a promise be a promise? >> that is if it was really a contract between two parties. that's the point. it wasn't. it's not a contract. it's not a deal. you know, deal is when two individuals shake hands and negotiate. there was no negotiating process at all, nobody representing shareholders. if somebody would push back to elon and said how about we do half this number, it would have still be an outrageously good pay package and saved shareholders maybe $25 billion but the fact there was no negotiation is the issue. not whether a deal is a deal. he's doing a deal with himself.

i'd love to go to my company and negotiate my own pay package with myself. it would be great and i'm a privately held company but that's not the way companies work and you and i both know that. >> aren't you up on your investment. when did you buy tesla? >> i made a fortune on tesla, bought it ten years ago and a critical supporter of tesla in 2018. if it weren't for investors like me and my firm and several other firms that supported elon in 2018, tesla wouldn't have made it if you all recall. and so, the bottom line -- >> i guess then my question would be, don't you think he's earned it? >> yeah. and i think my investment in nvidia that's done five times better in the same ten years, jensen isn't getting paid this. and elon owned 20% of the company at that time, worth $10 billion and he's personally benefitted to the tune of $90 billion of gaines. when you own your own company

you don't need compensation. you know, it's like a silly thing. so like most billionaires take like $1 salary or no salary at all. i was looking at the precedent of steve jobs when he came back to apple. he didn't own any apple stock so they gave him 7.5 million share option at that time at the market and that was his compensation forever at apple. in the end he never owned a ton of apple, made most of his money actually on pixar. when you look at what's the best for shareholders they should have negotiated a new pay package, which i'm for and one there's a two-party negotiation and i think elon deserves some compensation for the last five years. that's not what i'm arguing. i'm arguing the mess they created for shareholders and the board of directors that sucks, to be honest. they're horrendous, they stink.

>> his behavior and relationships with employees and interns at spacex, what's to be done with that? what does it do on the margin to admiration ratings on the tesla brand which according to a report yesterday is the lowest among those who don't already own a tesla. >> that's right. this is the biggest issue why tesla shares are faltering because elon has damaged the brand and has his personal opinions that he, you know, espouses daily, which is damaging to its core demographic, they're losing sales on every car they're selling because that's the only way to sell them on top of the fact he decimated management which puts him in position he can threaten the company he's basically holding the company blackmail if we don't pay him the 50 billion he's going to leave or something. he got rid of drew and zach and martin, the people running tesla

on a day-to-day basis, that put tesla in a rough situation and that pivots away from selling electric vehicles with autonomy to the new focus on autonomy and robotics which isn't the reason we invested in tesla in the first place. >> finally as i reported it's hard to know which way the votes go. we'll know perhaps late today, late in the day. if it goes against him, what do you expect he's going to do or the board will do? >> if it goes against him, he's an emotional person and i expect him to retaliate against his enemies or whatever he perceives is the injustice to him. i'm not sure where that goes from resigning from the company to doing nothing. that's the risk of the situation. right now it's about a 50/50 chance it passes. if it passes i think it's probably best for the stock on the short term until he has to pay the taxes on this thing for $25 billion and then it's not the best thing.

but i think, in general, this is a volatile time for investors. that's why below erred our position in tesla. in my fund it's less than a 1% position. and ourclients it's still around 2% of our assets. we love the potential of the long-term company but we need a refocused ceo who's going to focus on growing the business not just trying to get paid. look at the effort he put in to get paid, the advertising, pr agencies, phone calls, everything he should be doing to sell cars. he won't do that but he'll do it for his pay. it's so obnoxious and out outrageous, i can't take it anymore. >> can't take it anymore. ross, go get your breakfast. maybe you needed to eat before you came on this morning. ross gerber, thank you. >> thanks. as we go to break, check out the biggest gainers, oracle the top 12% gain along with a slew of home builders in the wake of the friendly cpi print.

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want to get to washington with a news alert. >> good morning, as western leaders head to italy today for the g 7, the biden administration is announcing sweeping new sanctions against russia aiming to put sand in the gears of the russian war effort against ukraine. the new sanctions will help a chet up the risk of secondary sanctions for foreign

institutions dealing with russia's war economy and also the ability to use certain u.s. software and i.t. services. the u.s. government is targeting more than 300 individuals and entities in russia and around the world selling products and services that help russia evade sanctions. there's a number of industry specific sanctions here, including designation of the moscow exchange which operates the largest trading market. now also the commerce department is cracking down on the use of shell companies, designated -- designating specific physical addresses in an effort to stop companies shifting their corporate identities making it hard for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to keep track of which companies they are. so a huge effort here, carl. back to you. >> when they lay out these new sanctions, do they ever talk about whether the sanctions are working? wea whether they are making it harder for russia? there are questions about the economic sanctions and how much

of an effect they're having with russia still in growth mode? >> on a conference call with reporters earlier today, senior officials did not address that they were focussed on thes a pthe aspects of what's news here. there is an argument that says that this has put sand in the gears like the treasury department said of the russian war machine making it more difficult to build the things it needs to build but it has not stopped vladimir putin from continuing to press this invasion and ultimately the question is whether sanctions are ever going to be able to do that when a world leader decides he wants to engage in a war if you can really deter that kind of thinking with sanctions or if this is just about making that decision harder for him to execute. >> i think we know the answer. the answer would seem to be no. >> right. >> thank you. let's look at shares of oracle right now one of the

strongest perform ers we've seen today after we got earnings but it was about more than earnings let's get to kristina partsinevelos to explain why the stock is up so much. i've been figuring out larry ellis' net worth gains, about $17 billion today. >> pocket lint. to your point software has been a hated sector to this point. oracle up 30% year to date and shows cloud names can benefit from a.i. investments. the stock hitting an all-time high this morning even though q4 did miss across most metrics. but it's about the future narrative investors seem to care about. you have the double digit revenue guy for next year, versus the 9% estimate. you have the doubling of the 2025 capex spend. and then lastly the announcement of partnerships with azure, open a.i., google, which is adding

legitimacy to the cloud infrastructure platform. the ceo promising each quarter will grow faster than the previous. it rents computing power and storage to compete with amazon, microsoft, and google. and it's growing. we can see that with the results and what the ceo is promising. it does bring up a key debate, acceleration is coming from reselling gpu capacity, renting power to others versus actual a.i. application in production. i'm asking where are the apps. something mongo db if you look at their earnsings in their call warned about. but oracle is likely to bring in more investors that remained on the sidelines or moved to semis. >> kristina partsinevelos, thank you. let's get a news update with

bertha coombs. good morning. >> good morning, carl. here's what's happening at this hour. no deal yet to end the war between israel and hamas. secretary of state antony blinken said today hamas proposed numerous changes to u.s.-backed cease-fire plan. some that he called unworkable. he did not spell out the changes but said the u.s. and other mediators will keep trying to close the deal. the update in cease-fire negotiations comes as hezbollah fired rockets into northern israel today. the lebanese militant group is escalating attacks to avenge a strike that killed a senior commander yesterday. israel has traded fire with the group nearly every day since the war began with hamas in gaza eight months ago. and basketball legend jerry west has died. the clippers confirmed his passing saying his wife was by his side. the 14-time nba all-star spent

his entire 15 year career with the los angeles lakers winning the 1972 nba title. he later went on to become an executive at the clippers. jerry west was 86 years old. another basketball great. >> bertha, thank you. still to come, this morning's inflation read coming in better than expected as the fed gets ready to re-kriel the latest rate decision at a news conference. a former fed president joins us with his predictions, including the possibility of a rate hike after this. boring does. boring makes vacations happen, early retirements possible, and startups start up. because it's smart, dependable, and steady. all words you want from your bank. for nearly 160 years, pnc bank has been brilliantly boring so you can be happily fulfilled... which is pretty un-boring if you think about it. (♪♪)

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yields are lower on the latest inflation read, consumer prices did cool last month. the question is how will that data play to the fed and the rate path to rate cuts. steve liesman is in d.c. getting ready for the decision and news conference. good morning, steve. >> good morning. this report restores optimism

for not just one but multiple fed rate cuts this year and could influence the color of jay powell's press conference this afternoon. here's a couple of takeaways i took. it supports the temporary view of surge in inflation i had in the first quarter. it's just that progress continues for a second straight month bringing it down. still unlikely enough to guarantee any cuts this year but it's a start and keeps september alive. here's the fed funds futures we're looking at, jumped up to 72 from 55 from september, 84 for november, and december at 96%. take apart the december funds. shows a chance of no cuts, a couple of scrooges there, 23% of one cut but a 75% probability now of two cuts and even some guys taking a flyer, 30% probability of three cuts built into the futures market there. the cpi was good no matter how you cut it.

energy down, that's going to go up and down, we don't care about that. core goods the goose egg there. and did it all with housing not showing any improvement up 0.4%. and the super core, which is services, exenergy and housing and food minus 0.04% that's what powell is watching. we have the producer price index tomorrow, it's critical in setting the pce at the end of the month. we're already seeing forecasts, though, that this pce number could drop as low as 0.1% the lowest since last year. and maybe one piece of good news. with headline inflation at 0, we have the earning report friday up 04. you have the strongest gain in hourly earnings since 2021. >> it's all good news. all of it for the fed as they take the stage today. they are allowed to revise their

dots, their forecast, as early as this morning when they put it out this afternoon? >> i'm interested to see if we get x's or pencils marked in. look, i think, if my math is correct, it takes a lot to go from three cuts forecast in march to one. you have to have a big movement across the committee. that's why i think them still showing the two is the more likely outcome for this afternoon. i could be proved wrong. we'll see if that is one of the things that influences the cpi today, the outlook for how many rate cuts this year. >> i think the consensus is two. look forward to a lot from you this afternoon, steve. our next guest isn't expecting any rate cuts. joining us is minneapolis' former fed president. even after the cpi report this morning? >> thanks for having me on.

you know, one of the main rules you have monetary policy is don't pay much attention to one data point. obviously good news today, but it's not going to shape the fed's outlook and forecast or actions today in a material way. you know, i think the fed is -- >> maybe not actions. but hasn't it been -- april was better than expected on cpi not as good as today's number, a lot of them have dismissed the q1 flare up of inflation and sort of want to buy the disinflationary theme. >> we have two conflicting data po points. we have the end of '23, the second half of '23, looked great, looked like the fed was going to be able to bring it off the soft landing. the first half of '24, especially in the core pce space which is what matters the most just does not look as promising. we've seen core pce inflation lasting six months or three

months in excess of 3. so we're not seeing yet that kind of -- the good news in the core pce inflation rate that i think the fed needs to see in order to be comfortable beginning rate cuts. >> what do you think they need to see? down to below 3%? >> i think it's -- you're going to have to start to see something that looks more like the second half of '23. where you can make a case we're on the downward path of inflation. the glide path back down to two. you can't do that looking at the last six months of data in the core inflation. the fed's biggest concern is they start cutting rates and then have to make a u-turn that would be disastrous. so they're going to be patient about waiting to make sure. it's not about any particular number i don't think as much as starting to see that glide path restored.

>> a lot of people do think they have seen enough evidence that it's coming down. especially when you take out some stubborn factors like rent that, you know, it's hard for the fed to control just given the funky dynamics in the housing market and a concern now would be preserving the economic recovery and not having a hard landing in the jobs report and it feels like that risk has come into better balance. >> so saying a couple of things in response to that, sara. they're both good points. the inflation factor remains the critical one for the fed, to bring inflation back down to target is really themain thing on the objective they have in mind. with that said, i think we are seeing some signs of softness in the labor market. you know, i think the household -- the survey remains very strong but the household survey is definitely showing some signs of weakness.

that could make life very difficult for the fed, i think, in the second half of '24. you can see inflation remaining stuck, not seeing that glide path back down to 2% and at the same time start to see unemployment push upwards. that's -- you know, that's what we teach in class, the standard central banking dilemma, we could see that in the second half of '24. >> do you think the ecb made a mistake going too soon? >> you know, their circumstances are obviously different from here in the u.s. but, you know, it -- i -- just because the ecb has moved does not mean the fed should move. that would be my own takeaway. i wouldn't be sitting here if i was going to the meeting today, i wouldn't be saying we should be moving because the ecb did. i would be looking at the data here in the u.s. and say ago, look, inflation is not yet on that glide path back to 2% we're

looking for. >> not to suggest necessarily they're influenced by the ecb, therefore we should go. but just the psychology of okay maybe we make an adjustment to preserve the soft landing that we have. and then wait and see. and make sure inflation is, indeed, coming down to where we want it. that sounds reasonable? >> yeah. the fed doesn't usually like to operate that way. the adjustment way. they prefer to -- you know, one of the my colleagues once said that it's a big boat. we turn it, we go away from shore and then come back. and i think the fed wants to be confident that we're -- they're going to -- they start cuts rates they want to be confident they're going to keep doing that. i think the -- the vision of we'll do a rate cut and see what happens i don't think is really one that's going to be -- i think it's unlikely to gain much ground at the fed. >> thank you for weighing in

today. important voice. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me on. still ahead, national amusement has said no deal with sky dance. of course they've been talking about a transaction for months. we'll give you the details and what may be next for the what may be next for the company. ameritrade is now part of schwab. bringing you an elevated experience, tailor-made for trader minds. go deeper with thinkorswim: our award-wining trading platforms. unlock support from the schwab trade desk, our team of passionate traders who live and breathe trading. and sharpen your skills with an immersive online education crafted just for traders. all so you can trade brilliantly.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." keeping an eye on shares of paramount. not really doing much of anything. it was late yesterday, late in the trading day when we reported that the long-running deal talks between skydance, its partner, redbird, and paramount and its control shareholder sherri redstone had fallen apart, because miss redstone had

decided that she was not any longer in favor of a deal that she once had been in favor of, supportive enough that she actually asked for and took it to a special committee to the board of directors to negotiate with skydance and redbird. that they did over these many months. and of course, we've been reporting on all the ups and downs of a transaction where they finally did reach a deal. a deal that would have meant roughly $8 billion in new equity, some $2.3 billion being used to buy all of nai. that includes the indebtedness that they would have taken on there. another $1.5 billion put tonight balance sheet of paramount and $4.5 billion being used toll buy out the largely "b" shareholders at a premium, 15 bucks a share. none of that's going to happen. the deal's off because shari redstone decided and apparently changed her view on the merits of the transaction. why? can't say with any certainty exactly why. perhaps because of the reduction in overall value for nai. it had been 2.5 billion, it went

down to 2.3 billion. or said another way, she was going to get $2 billion for her equities. the control shares that are in national amusements. that went down to $1.7. as that money was delivered to "b" shareholders or more money was delivered to them, remember, they were going to provide as much as 50% of those shares with 15 bucks a share, if they chose to tender. unclear, though, beyond that. charles phillips, i've heard his name. a lot of finger pointing. he's a member of the board of directors on the special committee, talking to miss redstone a lot, and apparently talking about what he sees as the opportunity in front of the company to remain independent and pursue the plan that it's three co-ceos have in place to transform the streaming strategy and accelerate the path to profitability. to streamline the organization, reduce non-content costs, to optimize the asset mix and use proceeds to reduce debt. those are some of the goals they have. but sarah, there are many who say, those goals may be hard to reach. this is a highly levered company in a very tough industry, run by

three different people right now. and with a control shareholder that it's hard to get a deal done with, clearly. >> yeah, so is that it? they're going to go at it alone? what happened to all of those other officers that were on the table? >> great question. none of them were for the whole company. none of them involved merging an asset like the skydance studio. and reducing uh indebtedness. other potential things that have been reported on are taking control of nai. and then whatever the plan would be of this new control shareholder. but, you know, we'll have to wait and see if those things can really come to fruition. because once you do your due diligence, once you make an assu aassumption of what the underlying stock would look like, once you come up with a plan, you have to look like you can turn things around. so while you may hear some big headline numbers as a possibility, if you're shari redstone, it's very much unclear to me at least when you get to

the finish line they'll be there. not to mention it's hard to imagine she can be completely relied on, given her about-face here. >> meantime, sell side talks about the stock being back to fundamentals. i assume we'll once again eyeing job cuts. >> and we do again, we have three ceos, just to remind people. brian robins, chris mccarthy, and george cheeks. we may have more on paramount, but i know we have a lot more on this market rally that includes a 4.2% increase in shares of apple. eaat's powering the maet rk we're back after this. investment opportunities are everywhere you turn. do you charge forward? freeze in your tracks? (♪♪) or, let curiosity light the way. at t. rowe price, we're asking smart questions about opportunities like clean water. and how clean water advances

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practically. so, let's get to work. (♪♪) good wednesday morning. welcome to "money anilla with s eisen. it's all about the fed, some cooling inflation today. first up with, drives and mellen, chief fed economist vince reinhart. what this morning's cpi number mean for monetary policy? >> and how is the affecting the