hi, everybody. welcome to "power lunch. i'm tyler mathisen alongside kelly evans. while most sectors fear higher interest rates, banks usually welcome them, but their stocks are relatively cheap the second-best sector this year, we ask today, are more gains ahead? >> president biden at a forte

pl -- ford plant. >> and so-called woke capitalism, now are facing backlash we'll talk about that and more, as "power lunch" starts right now. ♪ ♪ let's begin with a check on the markets. even though the broader market is a little changed, we do have some action in the sector. mike santoli has more. >> a lot of push/pull below the service. the broad market idling, a bit of outperformance by tech and small caps, which of course have been the laggard group take a look at the six-month s&p 500, just to situate where we are. really just gone sideways here for a few weeks. doesn't look too different from what we saw back in february and march with a quick sell-off, stabilization, maybe wait-and-see, and then

eventually did break to new highs. we'll see what's building in here in retail we have some really good earnings, pretty much as everybody expected kind of reacting in different ways on the day walmart is firmer, while home depot is soft they had great runs into last summer they were essential retailer, home depot, just riding the boom, and the shortages, and -- walmart has been consolidating, not doing much of anything, but firming up today media also been in the news, obviously this week. at&t's deal, 24, 36 hours ago, to combine its media assets with discovery. still getting reaction here. at&t further weakness may be getting across that dividend is going to be cut. where is, viacom/cbs is on the up side today, on the idea

there's scarcity, as amazon is reported to be looking at mgm. bitcoin still a big move down about a third from the highs. keep in mind since 2011, we've had five moves down of at least 50%, and of course all did eventually go to new highs. >> mike, real quickly, as you mentioned that, we've been watching the nasdaq coming off that four-week losing streak again, finally today, we're at least getting some buys pressure, if you want to call it that where is it coming from? >> what's interesting is that it comes on the day where the bachk of america fund manager shows that eventually professional investors have turned that can back on the group. it shows you, perhaps, that in fact there's a bit of a sense they've been unjustly left behind, so just making up a bit of that gap. >> michael, thank you. kelly, more investors are

banking on bank stocks this year, the very names that went untouched back in 2020 some $32 billion have poured into broad financial stocks, that's a full-year record set in less that five months. clearly weight is more enthusiastic about these plays, and we do mean cheap the s&p 500 trading at 22 times earnings for 22, compare that ko the banks, they're at just 13 times that so far it looks like it's paying off. year to date the financial sector xlf is up 28% the kre regional banking etf up. the kbe bank etf gaining 32% all of them outperforming the s&p 500, higher by only 10%, with interest rates on the rise and dramatically improved landscape, is it all turning up roses? let's talk about it with mike

mayo at wells fargo. mike, always good to see you welcome. banks are awash in cash, is that ball people's savings rates have gone um, they have gotten stimulus money, unemployment cash and they put it in the bank to save >> well, i'll tell you, the deposit growth at the largest banks has been at a record pace. a lot of that is due to digital banking. so you're seeing this surge in deposits without much loan growth so the ratio of deposits, what banks have available to lend to actual loans is the lowest level in almost half a century so the banks are willing and able to lend as the economy recovers we think it will pick up in a few quarters. >> but the loan demand just isn't there right now. the banks, let's put it

milledly, they are not paying a ton of money for those deposits, are they >> look at the impact. the year-to-year decline in the first quarter, what is called 9 net interest margin, it was the biggest decline in a century that's as a result of the lower interest rates as the economy and banks come out of the this low rate environment, banking should be among the biggest beneficiary. >> so banking has been a big beneficiary of that. should they be a big beneficiary of rising inflation if it doesn't rise too much too fast >> absolutely. we're going from nonexistent inflation, and a bit of higher interest rates, and more normal yield curve would go a long way. in fact, tyler, let me sum up, you talked about how well the bank stocks have performed we think they have a long way to go this is a great time to go a bullish investor i will sum it up as the five cs, one is the yield curve as you're

already talking about. another is credit quality is improving much faster than many had expected the third would be capital markets, which are stronger for longer the fourth c is the return of capital and the expectations of higher different payouts that should happen later this year the fifth c, is what gets my excited, having covered the industry for three decades that would be cost tyler, i will give you the conclusion of my -- our bank conversation this week before it even takes place before the 25 bank ceos even present. the conclusion is, with a little help from plato, necessity is the more of invention, banks are headed toward record efficiency. that's because banks have no choice, competing against big tech, big retail, non-banks with less regulation. that's enabled by a tech revolution the pandemic turbocharged that ability. so, tyler, it's not just about

the yield curve and higher interest rates it's also about this really a once in a lifetime implementation of tech that should take efficiency toward record levels. >> mike, the interesting thing about that is implies, bank of america today said they're going to a $25 minimum wage by 2025, but you could have people competed away to the other industries that you mentioned. >> absolutely. one of challenges for banking is to recruit technologists from silicon valley, but the advantage of banks they are customers, a banking charter with the ability to impact 10, 20, 30 million customers with their efforts. so certainly the ballots between s -- battle between silicon valley and the banking industry, both friend and foe when you

talk about technology. >> over a decade, it sure doesn't sound like a lot you're not predicting massive layoffs layoffs, or are you? what about branches? will that continue where branching will continue closing? >> we released a report in the last week, forecasting up to 200,000 less jobs among u.s. banks. we expect the biggest decline in banking jobs in history, and that's due to the automation in the back office and the digitization in the front office, and ty, that certain stems from a lot less people per branch you're going to see more self-help automated tools. the job that should be growing in the banking industry, anything related to technology or advice that should continue

to grow, as -- they highlighted, so while the absolute number should be reduced. we think the average salary per employee will continue to increase. >> mike mayo, as alleges, great to see you >> thanks for having me. coming up, president biden touring a ford factor, as the company is about to unveil -- and it's the $550 billion cap. even after their recent sell-off we'll be right back. our retirement plan with voya, keeps us moving forward. hey, kevin! hey, guys! they have customized solutions to help our family's special needs... giving us confidence in our future... ...and in kevin's. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected.

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welcome back we're tracking some roe bounds into the ev market lords town motors are up almost 40% that puts the stock into a positive territory for the monday may. take a look there. whether it's merely just a pause. >> that's incredible, dom, thank

you. the legacy automakers aren't too far behind. at the famed ford rouge plant. they'll be building the f-150 lightning, the all-electric f-150, they'll be giving more details. right in -- about the need for the country to do more how we handle the next four to ten years. this is an incredible

facility that's the lightning as you look at shares, they are investing $22 billion through 2025, a good chunk is already been invested, all of that going into the development of electric vehicles by the way, we'll be talking about ford's ceo jim farley thursday morning on "squawk box. we'll talk about the big reveal tomorrow night at the ford headquarters volkswagen is the apparently company of lume bore ginni, which is known for selling cars with great internal combustion engines, they're going electric, with a hybrid model by 2024, a fully electric model, really doing the full transition by the independence of the decade

if that's not a sign that the world is changing, i'm not sure what is. >> i didn't realize they were owned by volkswagen. >> they have, for many years lamborghini had its most profit at -- last court, so with the internal combustion engineer tho engine, they know changes will have to be made, so they're going to go electric >> all right phil, stay right there for more on the transition, and how real the shift is for consumers, we're joined by michelle kreb. good to have you here. what is the significant of the f-150 electric launch, do you think? >> the f-150 is an american icon, a term that's overused, but it's true. ford has had -- the f-series has had truck leadership for over four decades going electric is very important to the brand

>> it's still a small share of the overall market i hear people cite those figures, a lot, wait a minute, if you're building up the stocks, you've got to start somewhere, right sure, it might be 5% today, but it could grow very, very quickly. what could you tell us about take-up rates? or other recent factors, like the gasoline supply-chain issues >> right now it is about 2% of the market, but remember we haven't had that many vehicle to say choose from. tesla was first, but in the next few years, we are going to see an onslaught of electric vehicles, coming in all different styles, prices and size, so then it would be a real quick of will consumers accept them >> that's my question, about the buyers of pickup gravitate towards electric vehicles? >> that's a good question.

there's no market right. will there be one? how big will it be we have an awful lot of players going after that market? who will win the legacy makers? or the upstarts? or will there be enough room for everyone we also can't forget the fleet aspect ford sells to a lot of fleets, and those are going electric >> interesting point which of the two do you think is significant? you're now having most of these evs that can go great distances without a charge, and it allow people to say, look, i don't think i'm worried if i have to go 150, 200 miles, i don't want to be worried if there's a

charging station they're getting past that range anxiety. i think the big question is give me choices i can go into a dealership or go online and say i can buy electrical this price, something comparable with an bench combustion -- if you want to go to electric, you're probably looking at a tesla, and that is not exactly what i want, or i don't want to spend that much what are your other choices? extremely limited. that will change over the next couple years. >> what about, michelle, an all-electric minivan it's interesting to watch, as we move into the light truck segment, that's where you are going to see the prowess or lack thereof of these new technologies on display. >> right, if you think about vehicles like pickup trucks, suvs, minivans, they are not the most fuel efficient vehicles, not the lowest emission, so it

makes sense for those to go electric advance, you think about mini advance that carry a lot of people, advance that transport people around airports, those kind of things, that is where you get a bit hit on the environment. who do you think has the lead, michelle in terms of electric vehicle development. tesla has the first mover advantage and the brand that is associated with it, but phil keeps telling my, hey, watch volkswagen they were raleigh all in on it. >> absolutely. volkswagen that is a partnership with ford. ford is going to use some of the architecture in europe, and that's what we'll see a lot more of honda and gm are partnering, it's kind of hard to decide who is who, and i think it has to be that way, because of cost.

>> is there any reason why you asked about minivans >> just idle curiosity. walmart earnings beat wall street estimates, thanks to strong grossly and -- target is said to report tomorrow. can it lead up to the expectations, or did walmart set the bar too high shopify is popping, as google announces it will partner with the company on a new shopping feature on its chrome browr.se that building you're trying to sell, - you should ten-x it. - ten-x it? ten-x is the world's largest online commercial real estate exchange. if i could, i'd ten-x everything. like a coffee run... don't just sell it. ten-x it.

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$439 a month for 36 months. experience amazing, at your lexus dealer. fox, time for power movers, hershey hitting an all-time high, after hershey's sec the acquisition is focused on the better for are portfolio, as consumers pivot toward healthier options. jpmorgan upgraded that stock, and said to buy the dip as foot traffic in vegas begins to come back shares are up 175% from the

recent lows, and after announcing trial results for its muscular dystrophy drugs, today is good for its best gain in the year, though the stock is still down [ laughter ] that's one of the earliest viral youtube videos it was posted in 2007, now has 880 million views, but going viral is old news. nfts are the new thing the family behind this video is selling it as an nft you have to wonder if this becomes a bear case for youtube and google the auction starts next week, and the appropriately named website, these kids are now 17 and 15 years old. >> really?

that is just nuts. wait a minute here, i don't know how the nft has value on a video that's been out there and presumably downloaded hundreds, maybe million times. >> 880 million views, right? they're saying if they take ownership of it, and don't ask me how the technology work, if they could be compensated in some way for people views it, then you think that they're going to be able to market the video to people who are willing to pay for that. >> nft owner can market is in. >> yes there's clearly more to this and still have them on these platforms. >> that's not anything like what happens in the evans household. >> no, it will be the actual biting and screaming while we

try to resolve it. folks, when we come back, walmart versus -- a move in the cryptospace that mighturise spr you, that's all ahead today on "power lunch." the world's first fully autonomous vehicle is almost at the finish line what a ride! i invested in invesco qqq

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the oil market is closing for the dame dom chu is covering it west texas intermediate or wta crude futures, 1% downside there. brent crude, $68.76, 1% down side driven down by lines out of the ongoing nuclear talks in vienna, where the russian envoy was quoted as saying there has been a significant development in the iran nuclear agreement negotiations only to reverse course after those comments were clarified, that unresolved issues still remain and negotiators need more time to finalize the agreements. that's the key drive there

this morning interest. since this morning, can you see there were much more aggressive to the upside, though they definitely rhymed with u.s. rates. i can see how -- finally, if you look -- and once it and if you

open the chart all the way back to the beginning of the year, it's basically the best levels of 21, outside of the first week of trade, which means, yes, you guessed it, the lowest levels since january. tyler, back to you. >> mr. santelli, thank you very much the red-hot market has esg inve inve investing so-called esg funds to nearly $2 trillion our bests today both using an esg strategy and maybe some stock picks in the esg space, senior vice president and portfolio manager with alliance bernstein and laureen gilbert. to both of you, welcome. i'm delighted to have you with

us we'll have an interesting conversation i'm curious, to you, what makes a stock a decent esg stock hold. i ask that, noting that one of the ones you mention is general motors to some that might seem an odd choice. >> it might seem like an odd choice however, what we have to remember, when it comes to environmental, social and governance performance, we are looking for companies that are on the path to better performance. our perspective is they really are committed to lowering emissions, and emissions focused on scope one, two and three emissions. they're very much -- but they are also committed to reducing the use of energy and focusing more on relying on renewable

energy so when we look at the forecast for what they're expected to do, we find it to be quite compelling general motors would be an example of what we call an esg improver, a company that's having a significant impact, and we believe that will affect their supply chain, as well as their customer it will have an impact. >> laureen, i hear valley basically saying don't let the perfect by the enemy of the good, as you look at the stocks in this space. valley nod, if you've got it right there. there are a lot of peeks that own a lot of this network that have various classes of stock that favor family control.

do you rule them out >> i think you have to look at each company individually. governance is a very important part of esg. esg means a lot of different things to a lot of different people the government aspect does mean we have to look for ford and diversity. diversity is not only male and female gender, balance, but it's also diversity of thought, age diversification, many different aspects. certainly having a sense of what we would call an independent board. so to your point, i think some of the took we are looking at, as far as esg is concerned, may not be in areas listed as well

so industrials, let's say. industrials are not thought of as being esg friendly, but if you look at some specific names like cummins or deere, they are doing sustainability effort to try to improve what they are doing. >> i was trying to get at the question of the dual share class structure, and whether that is sort of a red line foreither o you, valerie is it for you when you see that, do you say, well, i can't really in good conscience put my capital in facebook, because i don't have the voting power there? >> the dual share class structure is definitely a challenge. however, it's a challenge that comes with the territory, so to speak, in a lot of technology companies, because they do have that structure, i believe every single stock you named has a

dual share class structure we look at 23 different variables when evaluating the effectiveness of a board that ranges from the independence of the board overall, to the independence of specific committees, as well as the comp position of the board and diversity and still. also refreshment of the board of directors is important while you have the issue of due all shar, we look more hol holistically and determine if in fact the board is behaving in a way that is aligned with the broad interest of all shareholders, and if we were confidence in that through our engagement with the lead in the independent director or other members of the board, we're comfortable investing then. >> 'we talk about social response, we'll have a segment in a few minutes american airlines, and nike were being

very outspoken, with respect to the voting laws up for consideration. and being outspoken about social movements and so forth pointing out that some of those very same companies are not -- not exactly as pristine as caesar's wife if you know what i'm talking about. nike has labor issues in the far east that have been criticized and obesity. and american airlines for pollutes and so on and so forth. as you look at those, how do you evaluate a company on a social scale, as to whether it's being responsible or at the same time as it's trying to be responsible, it's being hypocritical >> well, i think the one thing we can all agree on with esg, it's making a world in a better place.

so when it comes to esg in the social realm, maybe companies have to be very careful they don't cross a line and become overly political, which then can backlash on them as well i think that's what you're seeing right now with a lot of companies, how do they kind of make that fine line? and then for investors, they're going to have to make their own decisions on where they fall in these topics >> it's very interesting we just looked at your picks there, laureen, cummins engine, john deere i pointed out that valley likes general motors paypal, which seems like a pretty clean operation, and brookfield renewables, i assume that's related to brookfield properties, but i don't know.

through local wind farms, so they have completely offset those energy usages that they have so that's a great way forward. in addition, they are definitely looking at hydrogen, and they're innovators in that hydrogen space, so they're looking at those alternative energy sources, which makes them not only traditionally maybe energy users, but now how can they make the world once again a better place. if you're looking for more names to buy, it will be a time for stock picking for a list of some of those recommendations,

you can head over to cnbc.com/pro, and you will find them there. coming up on "power lunch," what will it take for target to hit its target we have an exclusive look at a new campaign targeting big-name companies. who they are "power lunch" is back after this this is the gap, that opened up when everything shut down. ♪ but entrepreneurs never stopped. ♪ and found solutions that kept them going. ♪ at u.s. bank, we can help you adapt and evolve your business, no matter what you're facing. because when you close the gap, a world of possibility opens. ♪ u.s. bank. we'll get there together. ♪

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welcome back to "power lunch. i'm seema mody target is out with quarterly results before the bell wednesday. the retailer's earnings on the heels of a blowout corner from walmart. e-commerce helps beat on the top and bottom line. can target deliver similar success? quinn, from what i understand, you are long target. would you be buys more shares here ahead of this report? >> no, seema first of all, we're long in a different portfolio. we've been trimming the name as

it continues to rise there is an old saying, you buy the sizzle, sell the steak that being said, my guess is the stock sells off. the trade here is to sell target into the report. >> matt, let's talk value trading. is that expensive? >> on a historical basis, the stock is definitely expensive. it's the same level it saw in 2005 and 2000, the good news, those is that you can't bet a much better-looking chart than this one a lot of different stocks have had higher highs and higher lows since the pandemic in march of 2020 this has been making it for four years. it didn't make a lower low in march of last year if it's a good number better, though, the chart looks good, at

least over the near term >> matt and quint, thank you for more, head to our website and follow us on twitter tyler? seema, thank you very much be sure to tune in tomorrow on "squawk box" with a interview with brian connell around 7:00 a.m. eastern time. up next, a conservative ad campaign, calling for an end to what it calls woke capitalism, hoping it will force companies to reconsider its political stances. we have an exclusive look at the adding, when "power lunch"retur. >> announcer: and now the latest from tradingnation.cnbc.com.

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roughly 180 points or close to it at the lows of the session. we're roughly down 162 points right now. if you're looking for some of the real weaknes names like caterpillar, honeywell as well. keep an eye on those particular stocks. we're also looking at several vice-oriented stocks some of the big movers in brewers. all three are holding on to year-to-date gains with molson coors up over 20% so far in 2021. then there's the pot stocks trading well below their recent highs and staging a bit of a rebound recently, especially today. tilray up double digits or so just so far this week. so keep an eye on beer and maurma

marijuana, kelly. companies and ceos taking political stances has become more common place. now a new ad campaign is taking on what it's calling woke capitalism eamon javers joins us with the details and a look at these ads. right, eamon >> that's right, kelly this group is called consumers research, a conservative organization it's a nonprofit and they're running what they say is a seven-figure ad campaign designed to push back on some of what they criticize as woke capitalism they're sharply critical of ceos by name of american airlines, coca-cola and nike the whole campaign is designed to force companies to reconsider some of their political stances that they have taken the ads will run on cnbc and fox business and in the local stations in the markets where these companies ar headquartered. the financing, and this is an important detail, is not disclosed here so the group is not saying who is paying for all these television ads as you look at some of these ads, they look very much like political campaign ads,

opposition research backed negative campaign advertising, except in this case it's the ceos themselves who are the opposition candidate they're going after american airlines ceo for high pay and taxpayer bailouts. they're going after coca-cola for childhood obesity. they're going after nike for allegations of forced labor in china. we asked all of these companies for comment about this american airlines sent us the statement that they put out back in april when they chose to get involved in this flash p issue around the texas voting laws american airlines saying as a texas-based business, we must stand up for the rights of our team members and customers who call texas home, and honor the sacrifices made by generations of americans to protect and expand the right to vote so they say this is just the beginning of this campaign, kelly. we'll wait and see what this group does following this one, but they say it's a million dollar plus effort to start with. >> it's interesting, because this comes the same day "the wall street journal" is carrying an article about anti-esg funds.

we were just having this whole discussion about the esg investing trend and i think a lot of people have a sense that there's politicization on both sides of the investment coin here and also across corporate america. to me this really kicked off with j.d. vance's critical remarks about corporate america's involvement with voting laws but it seems to have galvanized a group behind him. i don't know if he's personally involved but at least to make clear there is another viewpoint out there and these companies know it's not just one point of view that they are responding to it might not seem like boycotts but i think they're just trying to make their voices heard. >> one of the reasons that companies have tended to try to stay out of politics as much as they can over recent decades is because you fear that you're going to alienate 50% of your customers and nobody wants to do that if you're trying to sell widgets. what's changed over the past

year, though, is that both their employer base and their future customer base, where the growth is demographically is around some of these galvanizing issues an they felt they needed to be there to support their employees who are very much pushing for some of these political stances that the companies have taken and also because that's where the growth is going to be with the millenial generation and the generations behind it. they think that that's the future customer base and they have to be where those folks are going to be. so i think there's a political decision here, but also a demographic and business decision with some of these moves. >> just a reminder to these companies, i would say timidly, that when you stick your neck out on a political issue, whatever it happens to be, that you are opening yourself to blowback of one sort or another from one group or another. it looked from the ad you read there or showed there that the american airlines, they were criticizing its baggage handling and on-time performance, not

anything more than that, and saying effectively, you know, you're not a great airline but when you do that, you're sticking your neck out and you can get whacked. >> yeah, i mean, look, the old saying is politics ain't beanbag. it's a tough business. if you get into politics, you're going to have some of this tough stuff coming at you. this looks like opposition researched financed advertising like you'd see in a political campaign, where they find the worst possible thing they can say about you and say it some of these criticisms as you watch these ads roll out, they don't even have anything to do with the texas voting issue necessarily. it's childhood obesity and some of these other things. it's just we're going to find the most negative thing we can find to say about you that we think will get inside your head and we're going to put it on television in your home television market and try to change the way you think so this is an ad campaign that's very much targeting the ceos and

the c suite themselves and sort of what's in their thinking as much as it is the broader public opinion. >> i think they might also say, listen, the best way to win an argument is to make your opponent contradict themself what they're trying to do is say these ceos are contradicting themselves in the way that they behave eamon javers coinbase moving into the media business we will dive into what's behind the decision and what it could mean for crypto with coinbase town more than 40% 40% from its all-time high don't forget you can watch or listen to us live on the cnbc ap 'lbeig back.

coinbase reportedly planning to launch a media arm. dom chu is here with a closer look. >> tyler, they're also looking to hire a top media editor that's according to a report from axios here's where it gets a little more interesting and complicated. this media operation, according to axios' sara fisher, would report into coinbase's marketing team it may be news and information about crypto but also telling stories that get more people to use its products and derive revenues on its exchange operations this might be just another step towards coinbase trying to add more legitimacy, guys, to their overall brand. >> dom, don't leave us for coinbase. >> i'm not going to leave. i like it right here i like it right here

and besides, i talk about crypto every once in a while, but it's not something that i go full bore into all the time. >> i want to see the dom chu nft, don't you >> what would i do with it i've got to do something crazy and viral, right thanks for watching "power lunch. everybody, dom, we'll check in with you ralater. "closing bell" starts right now. >> welcome to "the closing bell," everyone, i'm wilfred frost along with sara eisen. stocks losing steam as we head into the close the dow giving up an early gain and the nasdaq has turned negative with just one hour left in the session. >> let's look at what is driving the action retailers getting their time in the earnings spotlight kicking things off with a bang walmart, home depot, macy's, all better than expected results more on that in just a moment. housing starts plunging 9.5% in april those starts were still up 67% this year from last year shares of at&t are seeing more weakness today on th