george soros is one of the masters of the universe that really they think they're superior to everyone else. and i've got to be honest, although i disagree with the politics of these young folks, i am so sorry that they got suckered. but it's another lesson on making sure who you follow, the rules of someone who they create these rules for themselves that they, that for you and us, that they live by them. you know, this car carbon tax are the credits and can all of these kinds of things, these are all scams, folks. and and anyone who tells you it's okay to pollute the world but you have to ride a bicycle is just pulling the wool over your eyes. it's okay to be any political party. fierng i'm with you, and i love to see young people get involved. please don't follow someone like george soros or these phony organizations if they don't live by the same rules they're telling you to live by. liz: anybody who tells me not to eat chocolate anyone -- anymore, i drop a mine. [laughter] no! thank you, charles.

breaking news, you guys, check out the dow jones industrials as we kick off the final hour of trade. the bulls have blasted away, at least for the moment, yesterday's 317-point loss. and we're waiting on three of the magnificent seven to report earnings after the bell. in just over an hour, it's apple, amazon and meta. they will open the books on their quarterly numbers ahead of the big reveal, we've got apple up 1%. by the way, amazon up 2.25%. not to mention meta, up 2%. apple to's the only one that pays a dividend, just pointing that out. it's also the only one that is down in the current quarter so far. looking forward, what might that mean for the galaxy of stocks in apple's ecosystem? coming up west virginia got a fox business exclusive with one of them. wireless chip maker skyworks solution, 73 of its business comes from its partnership with apple and the iphone. ceo liam griffin is intent on broadening his customer base. he's here around 3:30 p.m.

eastern time. lots of news to get to for you, we are just over 17 hours away from the january jobs report, and we are looking right now at some stormy weather fronts hovering over the regional banking sector. even so is look at stocks, they're in the green. dow jones industrials, like i said, yesterday lost 317 points, just a second ago it was above that, but right now just up about 315 points. we'll see where we end the session in 59 minutes. the s&p, blowing away at least 53 points of yesterday's 79-point has, and the nasdaq right now up 189, 1.25% move here, not bad. but yesterday it lost 345 points. so the gains not quite enough for the s&p and the nasdaq to erase yesterday's rout which was driven in great part by one particular moment during federal reserve chair jay powell's news conference. that's when fox business' edward lawrence asked a question about the timing of a possible interest rate cut. to which powell replied, a march

rate cut is unlikely. why? if why would he say that? well, in part because the jobs picture has remained robust enough to negate the need right now for a stimulative rate cut. we'll get the fresh read tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. eastern time when the labor department releases the january jobs report are. economists expect the economy to have the added a still-resill cent 180,000 jobs during the month with the unemployment rate ticking up from 3.7% to 3.8. so that looks decent, but fly in the ointment time, new york community bank shares off the rails at this hour. well e, they first jumped the tracks yesterday after crashing 38% on news the regional bank reported a surprise loss, but it also cut it dividend. right now down 8.33% in this final hour. you see the picture worse withenning. it was just over a year ago, just to put this into per spentive, that the regional bank crisis hit taking down three small to mid-sized banks and

swamping the shares of many others. the hit new york community bank has taken over the past 48 hours has pushed shares very close to the lows of where they were back in march during the height of the crisis is. and as we look at a shares just off the all-time low of $5.51 at 5.94, you can see the contagion here. short sellers see an opportunity. financial analytics site ortex noting that the shorts are targeting the small to bid-sized banks in the kre regional a bank etf including valley national bank of car, zions bank, bank of zachs and -- ozarks, and valley national. bank of california down 4%. you see the rest here. kre getting a 2% hit here. at the moment though, the broader market remains relatively unfazed by that and by jay powell's refusal yesterday to definitively say that the u.s. economy is headed for a soft landing. what should all of this mean to

invest ors ors as they look at different stocks or perhaps sectors to buy? we welcome michael fe are rolli, jpmorgan's chief u.s. economist. michael, welcome to the show. thanks for being here. >> good to be here. liz: anything you see here that as you encouraged or even a little uneasy about the economy ahead of tomorrow's jobs report? >> well, i think what's probably most encouraging has been what we've seen in inflation over the past six months which has cleared the runway for the fed to eventually ease maybe not in march, but it's feeling more certain that a they'll ease at least in the second quarter. which, if you have concerns about growth, we are in a lower interest rate environment that should at least put some foam on the runway if the landing happens to be a little bumpier than the soft landing we're all hoping for. liz: yeah. he was pretty clear yesterday, wasn't he? mar is unlikely. that said, you're sticking to your call that we will see the first cut of this cycle at the june meeting? if why not may, for example? >> it could be may.

so between now and may we have three job reports including the one we get tomorrow. if any of those are disappointments, then certainly i think may would be on the table. so in my opinion, we're sticking with june, but, you know, it could definitely see may as an turn. but march -- [laughter] march you're going to have to have something really nasty the happen, i think, to get powell to reverse what he said yesterday. liz: yeah, i think i agree with you. we have viewers who tune in for the first time, and they don't understand why a rate cut comes at a time where the economy looks like it's holding up. why would we need stimulus if we do get decent numbers? and we have seen gdb for the fourth quarter, that first print, looking 3.3%. >> right. so rates right now are around 5.5, the policy rate, it's probable well above what most economists consider as normal or neutral, something like 2.5 or 3%. so even if the fed makes a few little adjustments lower here, that wouldn't be to juice up the economy, it would be more to

say, hey, we've made a lot of progress on inflation, we don't need to be, you know, putting our foot on the economy's neck the way the fed has over, you know, arguably -- [laughter] if you want to put it that way, over the past several months. you know, give a little breathing room for growth now that inflation looks like it's on a much better path. so i would, you know, be a little hesitant to see we're stimulating the economy. i think it's better to say -- liz: just getting back to -- >> yeah, taking back a little restraint. liz: okay. michael, one of the things that he said is very definitively, and i'm not sure he actually means it or believes it, but he felt he had to say it. i'm just anticipating that this might be the way you think or not. when he was yesterday about -- questioned about the economy and whether we will see a recession or a, quote, soft landing which would be more shallow, here's what he said, and then i'll get your thought on it. >> no, i wouldn't, i wouldn't say we have achieved that. i think we have a ways to go. inflation is still, you know, core inflation is still well

above target on a 12-month basis. 12 months is our target. certainly, i'm encouraged and we're encouraged by the progress, but, you know, we're, we're not declaring victory at all at this point. we think we have a ways to go. liz: do you see any kind of recession on the landscape ahead? >> so we're not forecasting recession. we do think growth will be subpar this year, so in that kind of environment it doesn't take a lot of, a big shock the get you from a subpar growth world to a recession, so i wouldn't rule it out, but that's not our base with case expectation. and i would say for powell, you know. >>, if you look at the forecast at least the of the broader federal open market committee, they're also looking for something that might be called a soft landing, so why did he push back against that? look, i don't think he wants to declare victory too soon and then have egg on his face in six months' time if it's not working out so well. liz: or a whole omelet. we know what happens when they thought inflation was transitory it and lasted a9 lot longer.

>> exactly. liz: one of the things we look at and you do too, consumer spending i. it -- it has remained pretty robust. if you could triangulate which pars of consumer spend, because this -- parts of consumer spending, because would that be in resnail if would that be in industrials? heavy machineriesome. >> uh-huh. so consumer spending, there's a couple categories that have been doing quite well. one, of course, is vehicle sales which have benefited from the normalization of inventories. prices are still high, but they're not going up as much as they were prior years with. another area is recreation, recreational goods and products. so consumers still, you know, feeling pretty good -- [laughter] about things and buying, you know, toys and jet skis and things like that. so those are two areas where we're seeing some strength. we're also seeing spending on health care which isn't as fun as a recreational goods, but that's also been doing quite well over the past year. but, you know, ultimate ily i think the strength we're seeing

in consumer spending is just a mirror of the strength we have been seeing at least thus far in the labor market which is why i think tomorrow's jobs report is important not just for inflation, but also for consumer spending and thinking about where that may go. liz: i'm glad you just brought up cars. ford shares just hit a session high. volume is picking up late. that stock is up about 3%. i'm looking at out right now. it is a decent move here. annual high $15 though at the moment it's $12.10. michael, great to have you. thank you so much. we hope you'll come back. >> sure thing. liz: michael finishing eroli. the greatest coaches of all timen't hale help the after lack duck become the g.o.a.t. in the fourth quarter with. we talk to the ceo of the supplemental insurance leader about how a strong dollar hurt his insurance business abroad and how he plans to deal with that in the current quarter. and the g.o.a.t. of formula 1 making a move that's shocking the auto racing world. we're going tell you what that is. the details straight ahead.

and, by the way, here's a look at how some of formula 1's biggest sponsor ises are trading at this hour. they're all higher. american express is one of them. salesforce, dhl, lenovo, paramount p.. pair ma -- paramount's actually flat, had been higher, and we're watching it for a whole host of reasons are. stay tuned, we're coming right back. ♪ ♪ j.p. morgan wealth management knows it's easy to get lost in investment research. get help with j.p morgan personal advisors. hey, david! ready to get started? work with advisors who create a plan with you, and help you find the right investments. so great getting to know you, let's take a look at your new investment plan. ok, great! this should have you moving in the right direction. thanks jen. get ongoing advice; and manage your investments in the chase mobile app. you always got your mind on the green. not you. you!

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the moment despite the company boasting a top and bottom line earnings beat. the insurerrer reported eps of $1.9 93 and revenue of $18.72 billion, but saw full-year net income fall to $1.4 billion. significantly lower tan 2022's $5.1 billion. meanwhile let's get to aflac here, it was hitting an all-time high before yesterday's earnings put a damper on the stock, the company's 5 president everyone crease in -- 5% increase in u.s. sales was on the lower end, and now it's the currency movements, dollar versus the yen, that could hurt aflac's overseas business. between 70-75 of its total business comes from japanese customers if. joining us now in a fox business exclusive, aflac's ceo dan amos if. dan, right now the stock is not a pretty picture. we could put it up right now, it has -- it's enduring its worst drop in four years, i believe. what can you do to turn this

around? if you have an investor audience watching at the moment, what will you say to this? >> well, what i would say is we actually had a strong, strong year with. our operation operationals -- operations earnings were up 10%, we saw sales in squaw pan up 10p 10%. what really took place that affected us the most was our outlook. and we said that in 2026 we originally thought and we made this announcement during covid that we would do $8 -- 80 billion yen. but covid ended up lasting a year longer in japan than it did in the united states. and so a lot of our commissioned agents ended up basically being unable to work and ended up not staying with us. they went to look for salaried

jobs or other places, and we've had to are rebuild that. and that rebuilding took longer because, obviously, a 10%, 11% increase this year in japan was a strong year. it's just simply that outlook going forward. now, you are correct the yen-dollar has some impact on us, but with we hedge a lot of that today, and we have less exposure. but generally there's big movements either up or down in the yen can affect us short term. but over the long run, we've seen it work and be in the same movement as what you would see with earnings themselves which have been good. liz: we were just showing the dollar-yen chart. of let's put it back with up again because the dollar has certainly been strong. it appears though that the yen has been kind of hoeing some signs of life -- showing some signs of life. where do you expect this to go?

and for people who do not study the currency markets, can you make it a simple explanation as to why this matters so much to your stock? >> well, we've seen over the years it has a less and less impact as a we've done hedging that has taken place. but when you see a movement like we've seen from where it was to the 150 and now it's in the 140 level, it varies a little bit. it's going to have an impact on us to some degree. but i think people are looking for sustainable growth with companies for the long term that are consistent in their earning patterns, and we've been able to achieve those objectives. and so that's what i believe that you'll be looking for. for example, our dividend we increased in the first quarter by 19%. and that has been the 41st year in a row -- liz: right. >> -- that we've had a dividend

increase. liz: yeah. >> so our strength continues to be there and continues to you. we've also -- to grow. we've also increased our buyback. last year our buyback was $2.8 billion of our stock. so those the really do make a difference, and i think that's what people look for. and i think there's a little bit of an overreaction here, hopefully, and it will calm down as i've seen that happen in the past. liz: okay, okay. >> and so we need to just keep doing what we're doing and grow our business as we have the opportunity to do. liz: well, you would be buying back shares today, i would imagine, if you think they're already undervalued and now they're down 10%, so is you could do that. dan, i do is have just a question when it comes to all a insurers because i humana and cigna have been warning that here in the united states they are going to have to pay out a lot more medicare, all of that. people are really soaking up a lot of health care expenditures here.

and that, of course, does go on the shoulders of the insurers. but why don't insurers lower, they never if lower or their premiums. of it's always rising regardless. >> well, in our business it's indemnity in nature, and we set exact amounts, and we've never -- as a general, we never have rate increases. what we do is we offer where you can buy additional coverage for additional amount of money, but there are no rate increases involved. as a rule. and so i would tell you that, you know, it depends on what they're seeing from the hospital bills and what are coming forward. we match premiums to what we think consumers are going to have in terms of out of pocket expenses and things of that nature, and that's what we work toward solving the problem of. liz: okay, all right. we'll hold the hospitals' feet to the fire too.

we're happy to do that. [laughter] we've got to bend the cost curve i somehow. dan, it's good to see you. keep the duck employed and healthy. we like the aflac -- >> we sure will. thank you for having me. liz: you got it. let us make a turn here. the families of the three u.s. soldiers killed in jordan by an iranian-backed militia are still waiting for the commander in chief's military response. coming up, we will tell you what the pentagon has just said about it. defense stocks all up since the october 7th attacks on israel by hamas terrorists which then threw the region into turmoil. rtx, formerly raytheon, has gained 32 since october 7th followed by the 21% gain by general dynamics. lockheed martin up 7%. dow jones industrials gaining 329 points, 330 and climbing. let's see if we can see a record once again. we are coming right back with much more. stay tuned. ♪r in ♪

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three u.s. soldiers killed in that drone strike in jordan this week anxiously await definitive word on what form president biden's vow to retaliate will take. if what answers did they get from defense secretary that lloyd austin who held a wide-ranging news conference today? if fox news' national security correspondent jennifer griffin was in the room at the pentagon for that news. jennifer. >> reporter: the president and defense secretary will meet with the families of the fallen tomorrow at dover air a force base during that dignified transfer. today was the first time we have been able to question defense secretary austin since his secret hospital stay and the questions were pointed. if the secretary was con treat and took responsibility -- contrite and and took responsibility for keeping the president and his national security team in the dark about his prostate cancer end anding -- and ending up in the icu. >> but i want to be crystal clear, we did not handle this right, and i did not handle this right.

i should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. i should have also a told my team and the american public. and i take full responsibility. i apologize to my teammates and to the american people. >> reporter: austin walked gin entirely up to the podium, still rehabilitating his leg, a post op complication from the if surgery from prostate cancer which affectsin 6 black men who often are are too embarrassed to get screened. >> the news shook me, and i know that it shakes so many others, especially in the black community. it was a gut punch. and, or frankly, my first instinct was it keep it private. i don't think it's news that i'm a pretty private guy. i never like burdening others with my problems. it's just not my way. >> reporter: the questioning soon turned to the looming u.s. response to iran and its proxies killing three americans.

the pentagon briefed congress in a classified briefing yesterday. there's been a lot of telegraphing about a targeting and responding to the drone strike, so much so that the iranian proxy leaders have left the country. some are back in, in tehran. is the point not to kill any iranian commander s? >> i would just tell you that, you know, we will have a multi-tiered response and, again, we have the ability to respond a number, a number of times. >> reporter: on tuesday night a houthi cruise missile came within one mile of the uss gravely guided missile destroyer, just is seconds away from impact. this is the closest a houthi missile has come to a u.s. warship. if other missiles have been shot down at least 8 miles away from the u.s. ships. the uss gravely used its close

in weapons system to shoot the missile down which is the first time ever that the sea whiz has been used in combat. th president has signed off on strike options which will include iranian proxy targets in syria with, iraq and yemen. we are told it will be a campaign that could last weeks. it will be multi-tiered meaning the pressure will ramp up over days and will include a variety of targets to degrade these proxies and send a message to iran to rein in these groups. liz? liz: jennifer griffin, we'll wait to see what happens. thank you very much. fox business alert, peloton spinning to a record low after warning investors it's still months away from growing sales or even turning a profit. shares of the connected fitness company back pedaling 23% to $4.27 after reporting a fiscal second quarter loss of 54 cents a share. peloton did beat on revenue expectations. they came in with $743.6 million in sales.

the fitness subscription guidance came in higher than expected, that's good, but executives still remain uncertain about how efficiently it can grow paid app subscribers and other new initiatives. ferrari investors revving their engines for a whole host of as soon as -- reasons, not the least of which were its earnings beat on both the top and bottom line. right now we have got the stock up 12.25% right now. we've got this boost as a well that may be helping, mercedes just confirmed within the last few hours that f1 superstar louis hamilton is leaving the mercedes team at the end of this year's season. he's going to replace carlos sains jr. at ferrari. hamilton has driven for mercedes since 2013, so this is big headline news when it comes to formula 1. the move would have him racing alongside charles he clerk who signed a multiyear contract extension last week. ammer's stock, not too shabby

for first day of trading. gains of 1.5% after going public on the new york stock exchange if today. this is the make per of wilson tennis if racket es and and other brands like solomon. again, trading $13.40 a share for a valuation of $6.3 billion. it's slightly below wall street estimates. it used to be a mix company before-acquired in 2019 in a deal that valued it at more than $5 billion and after that big spike if at the open, come town a little bit. we're at 13.21 at the moment. corteva reaping what it sowed. the stock is at the very top of the s&p 500, up 18%, shooting up after the seed maker and agricultural chemical firm reported an upbeat profit in the fourth quarter. it also says it expects sales volume growth in both seed and crop protection segments this year, also a announcing plans to repurchase nearly 1 billion shares later year.

$1 billion, rather. the company that counts apple as a its biggest customers working very hard and successfully to diversify, but skyworks' dependence on the iphone giant actually grew in the last quarter as a well. ceo liam griffin is here to tell us why investors should to not be worried that apple has him over a barrel because he says it doesn't. apple right now in the middle of the dow heat map ahead of its earnings after the bell. but if you go right to the top, it's merck, up 4.25, after a better than expected report on strong keytruda sales. right now we've got merck at an all-time high here. not a bad move for the big pharma. "claman countdown" coming right back. stay with us. ♪ ♪

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hive digital technologies. a leading bitcoin miner and gpu cloud operator is building the infrastructure of tomorrow, featuring a robust growth strategy that aims to double its mining capacity while accelerating gpu-on demand business. hive digital technologies. liz: all right, we are fewer than 30 minutes away from apple's release of its quarterly report, comes after the bell. investors are expecting the it

can giant to report an earnings per share number of $2.10, fiscal first quarter, and revenue of $117.91 billion with $67.82 billion coming from if its iphone segment. but if shareholders are looking at the apple ecosystem for any hints about what to expect, skyworks solutions is a really good name to pick. the semiconductor company which reported results that beat on profit and came in line for revenue this week is best known for its chips that focus on the radio frequency, or rf component design, an integral piece for mobile devices. skyworks' solutions liam griffin joins me now in a fox business exclusive. liam, welcome back to the show. we're thrilled you're here. let's just get the apple question out of the way because you have a bigger narrative than that. but analysts checking their channels of iphone components and sales predicted iphone sales could could see a, quote, significant decline of as much as a something like 15% this year. how are their purchases of your

wireless chips looking? >> yeah, listen, we have a fabulous engagement with the largest customer, some of the best products that we've ever seen have been built with that large customer, and we've been lucky enough to be engaged and make that happen together. but we think that the mobile solutions are going to continue to grow. we really can't live without these devices. and the amount of technology that comes through with each and every generation is spectacular on our side. but we're also very, very focused on other markets, liz, as you know. we have a burgeoning opportunity in u -- iot, in industrial. there's a lot more we can do with the android ecosystem as well. tease are products that we know how to make. we've got to just drive a little bit more of that in the end and the opportunity. we know what we can do. liz: welsh you've got $753 million in operating cash flow.

your sales forecast in line with estimates. i think that that all looks good. i'm just wondering why the stock doesn't respond to what has been a very pronounced effort to expand. i mean, let's not forget the automotive industry that you're really going head first into as well? >> yeah. thank you for that, because that's exactly what we want to do. for some reason though, the mobile ecosystem has been discounted quite, quite some time. it shouldn't be because i don't think people can actually live and work and play in these devices. they're critically important. we're going to continue to drive that and make those products even better and better. we think about the number of use cases that we can put forth in these markets continues to expand, iot devices, infrastructure opportunities, you know, looking -- gaming, all kinds of incredible applications that we support leveraging that underlying radio frequency

technology. and that's hard stuff. these are not, you know, standard semiconductor solutions. these are high liqueur rated, specialized -- highly curated, specialized products that go customer by customer by customer. and that's the theme around skyworks that makes us very, very different. we've spent a lot of money on capital, capital investment, and the upside of that is that's already been paid for. and now what you're seeing is the substantial free cash flow portfolio in position -- liz: okay. >> -- as a you noted. 700 million in free cash flow in the last quarter with. so we're really happy with that. we're going to continue to drive innovation is. we're going to continue to invest in h are -- in re and make it the best skyworks for our customers is and ourselves. liz: i want to bring up a.i., and i you just mentioned going into android phones. samsung is working very hard, in fact, they have just unveiled this a.i.-powered galaxy phone. cell phones seem to be the next

lodge are call runway -- logical runway for chip makers who want to get in and help enable a.i. applications. since i spoke to you99 the -- at the consumer electronics show just a few weeks ago a, have you had any conversations with other companies, other phone makers about doing rf if chips that enable opportunities in a.i.? >> yes, absolutely. we have very good opportunities as we talked about a before. google's a big player, samsung's a big player. we have the android ecosystem as well that can take us to other markets and even some of the lower end players in china can be engaged. and i think all a of that is still in very early innings today. this is going to be a big inflection in technology. it's going to be really, really important. and i don't think everyone's going to win in this market as we go forward. i think the technical bar is going to be raised. the ability to craft solutions as we've talked to you before

about owning those products, owning those factory, customizing, investing in our own buildings makes a big deal. so that's going to open the aperture for us and widening the opportunity. markets like automotive have been really, really significant for skyworks now. and if you look at, you know, the aperture for skyworks in autoa motive two, three, four years ago, there wasn't with much there. now we have a roster of key customers. there's a lot of technology in those vehicles. self-driving eventually will be a big part of the equation. think about that. it's definitely going to be driven with wireless technology. so there's a lot more for us to do and a lot more customers that we want to bring in. liz: right. well, i mean, you guys are throwing everything you have at a it. sometimes it just takes a long time for the investor world to wake up to it. we'll be with watching the stock. liam, please come back. thank you so much. >> absolutely. good to see you again, liz areful. thank you. liz: great to see you. the biden administration's

seeming adversity to mergers and acquisitions has been not great for u.s. businesses that want to buy other companies to grow, but will it also have an effect on wall street's favorite pastime? charlie breaks it next. folks, with this gain of 345 points, the dow jones industrials looking at the eighth record close this year. we have about 15 minutes left, so you've got to stay with us to see if that happens. ♪ ♪ 25th hour to the day, businesses are wondering "what should we do with it?" i'm thinking company wide power nap. [ employees snoring ] anything can change the world of work. from hr to payroll, adp designs for the next anything. he hits his mark —center stage—and is crushed by a baby grand piano. you're replacing me? customize and save with liberty bibberty. he doesn't even have a mustache. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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♪. liz: all right the dow up 317. that is the exact number of points it has to gain to be a brand new record you no up 320. we're watching it very closely, just above that line. biden administration anti-merger between pga and south did i-backed liv gulf. what is going on with that deal? >> i'm not a golfer. last time i was on a golf course i was a kid, 20 years old, one

of ground keeper in new york. and i was trimming the rough patch. what they call it, the rough? liz: we learn something new every day about you. >> that was work when i was a kid. that was last time. if i say something that is not totally golf, golf savvy -- liz: birdie, four, whatever. >> i do know about mergers and acquisitions. here's what i know. these two, the up start liv, backed by the saudis, pif, massive private wealth fund of saudi arabia. untold amounts of money. created their own league liv. it is competing against the pga. they have stolen some of the talent from the pga like phil mickelson and jon rahm i think is name is, others. the pga is freaking out. they there are lawsuits. they did a tentative merger. like the old nfl and afl, when the afl started to taking

players from the nfl, they started to merge, they created a juggernaut, 25 business is the nfl. they see that could happen if you merge these two together with the money from the saudis, money from mga which raised something that will approach $3 billion from people like steve cohen, hedge fund billionaire around john henry who owns the red sox. that came this week, they could create something big. golf has a loyal fan base. it is a two billion dollar a year business that could grow. people want more tournaments. liz: yet the pga is a non-profit. >> sew by the way is the nfl. liz: very true. very true. shouldn't they pay taxes? >> they do pay taxes under different sort of not-for-profit charter so you know. i know a little too much about this for another preen. in any event what's top stopping this thing from merging? i'm told the biden administration is. they are giving the signals, i spoke to two lawyers involved in

the deal. there are is a lot of wall street guys involved in this, raising money for the pga, representing liv. michael klein once the top banker at citigroup. pga is represented by allen and company. the rain group represents the players there is lot of lawyers and bankers in this. two lawyers involved in the deal saying they are getting the cold shoulder from the biden administration, that they are not going to approve it. why won't they approve it? half is the theory of the biden administration, they hate any merger. face it, they have been very negative on mergers on antitrust grounds. i don't understand the antitrust ground grounds on one gulf league. golf cost more? i have no idea. tickets to the masters might be more expensive? i don't get, maybe players -- liz: some republicans don't like it either. this discussion -- >> i don't know,. liz: it went before the senate. >> i saw mostly democrats,

sheldon whitehouse. liz: ron wyden. >> yes, wyden. i see molesly democrats and the biden administration there is antitrust issue an american sporting league will be doing business with the saudis. that always raises issues for past issues, human rights violations that have been alleged and proven that occurred at the royal kingdom but they are an ally of ours and they are big in sort of keeping peace in the middle east. if you get them in the "abraham accords" and everything. they were almost on the verge of recognizing israel before the hamas attacks. there is a lot of reasons to deal with the saudis. my bigger point is, this thing which is an obsession of everybody on wall street because you want phil mickelson competing against tiger who is at the pga. you want the best to be competing. they're not now. it is being thwarted by the biden administration. killjoys. >> monopoly. >> here's the thing, don't you

want phil mickelson to go up against the best in the pga? if there are two different -- liz: i don't know anything about that. >> if there are two different leagues, liz, you are not going to get -- like having, you know, not having kelsey and mahomes compete against the 49ers, brock purdy and who is the guy -- liz: scott scheffler is number one. rory markle roy. >> who is the guy dating olivia cull poe. that is the only reason i know the guy on the 49ers? liz: all i know -- >> if you don't want the best to compete that's what you got. that is what is going on here. glad you care about that. liz: charlie gasparino, closing bell, four minutes away, the dow, right now it is erasing yesterday's 317 point selloff. it is hanging around record territory. like we say it only needs 317 points for the record close. s&p and nasdaq are on the way to

snapping two-dave losing streaks. as we watch all of that, the big news in a couple minutes, biggest names in tech, at least three, meta, amazon, and apple are on deck to report earnings after the closing bell. look at amazon it is really charging higher. it is up by two 1/3%, meta up 1%. meta is moving higher a day after disasterous testimony on capitol hill with the hearing on big tech and online child exploitation crisis. senators put zuckerberg through the paces and awe accused him of children suicides and exploitation. afterward, zuckerberg made this go viral. watch. >> no one should have to go through the things your families have suffered and this is why we invested so much in our new industry efforts to, to make sure that no one has to go

through the type of things your families have had to suffer. liz: he stood up, turned around, after being prompted by senators to apologize to these people. well it is not hurting the stock at the moment. countdown closer david kudla is good with meta and amazon. you're not concerned about potential litigation overhang when it comes to meta? >> no, not really. this is a unique circumstance and you know i think what zuckerberg did yesterday, you know was put through the wringer but when we look across the spectrum if it's meta, if it's google the ad spend that comes in a election year, presidential election year, microsoft with strong earnings, you know, we've talked about "the magnificent seven" a lot last year on the show and you know this year we're talking about the fab five where we've

taken apple and tesla basically out of that group. the other five are up about 8% year-to-date. you know, they're trading at multiples in the 20s and 30s but they should be. they should be trading there for a reason. so we think there's strength in megacap tech, generative a.i. is certainly a strong catalyst for a couple of those. so we think megacap tech is still the place to be. a selloff the last couple days but bouncing back today. liz: would you be adding to your positions if something about these earnings reports after the bell spook the horses momentarily? >> yeah. i think own weakness, you know, if investors, some investors have looked at moving to small cap because of, we had a rally year-end. have moved to value or cyclicals. have moved to overseas. we think large cap u.s. is still the best place to be in 2024.

now, it all depends on each investor. their investor profile, their tolerance for risk but we still think it makes sense to be in technology, specifically megacap tech. it's held up strong into 2024. look we could have a setback at anytime. you know, down 5%, 10% but with the catalysts for these stocks going forward into 2024, a strong companies with a strong balance sheet, free cash flow, they're not impacted by interest rates the way that small caps are. liz: okay. >> great place to be. liz: mainstay's david kudla, always great to have you. [closing bell rings] the balloons are flying. the dow closing at the 8th record of the year. s&p and nasdaq closing at session highs. unable to erase yesterday's entire losses. tomorrow paypal founding coo david sacks. ♪. larry: hello, folks, welcome t