Skip to main content

tv   Tech Check  CNBC  February 1, 2022 11:00am-12:01pm EST

11:00 am
welcome back just a quick check on the markets as major averages hover around the flat line dow ever so slightly higher, up by 36 mopoints s&p basically flat nasdaq down 0.02%. tech check" s starts now. ♪ >> good tuesday morning. welcome to "tech check." today, the nasda posting back-to-back days of 3% gains. if stocks rally, three-day win for the nasdaq would be a record this year. naked and afraid after warning media moves to
11:01 am
discovery. shares sinking after news of the spin-off. and the "times" got a gaming acquisition, though nowhere in the release did it say you should tweet your wordle score every day. >> don't ask. let's start with stocks. nasdaq coming off the worst month since march of 2020, but a huge rally in the last few days to close out january we have a look at what's been bouncing mike, yesterday it seemed like everything in the growth complex was working. today, a little more selective the nasdaq underperforming. >> yeah. today we're digesting really a huge two-day move. really a day's move plus the final hour and a half of friday is kind of where you got most of the upside as typical in these situations, when you have a stressed market, the stuff that bounced the hardest was down the most. the most violent rebounds did happen in some of those really kind of woe begone eras of growth this gives you a good map of where we have been and who knows where we're going. that shows the losses over the last year. this bounce up here, i mean, you
11:02 am
have to get up to, you know -- it's about 50 to get to its 20-day average dead count bounces off and back up to a four-week average like that then we're talking about 62 before you really have anything like a 200-day average, still sloping. we're seeing relex bflex bounceo telling us anything about the return to leadership ipo etf is in a little better position, up a little more today. recent ipos over the last two years is what it remembers vertical decline, a little bounce from there. somewhat less damage, i would argue, is the small cap momentum stocks we have small cap momentum, a race your version of the mtum index. again, it is not as far off the early 2021 highs it just shows you that, really, all we did is people just sort of lifted the pressure a little bit off of these stocks.
11:03 am
now, you know, market wide, yesterday and the day before, the best performing stock were the bottom 20% of performers in the prior six months that 20% slice of the market that did worse over the prior six months was up almost an average of 10% over two days that's like four times what the best performing six-month did. we'll see if it carries into anything else. >> yeah, the most beaten down names, it was remarkable to see how much they were up over the last two days or so. at the same time, mike, you saw those legacy, dinosaur tech names. they were the underperformers yesterday. do you think that means anything, that when you see the high growth complex bounce hard, the legacy names don't, as well? that can sort of switch. it's this growth versus value idea does it mean that some of the same forces are in play? what do you look for to know if we have actually hit the bottom for the growth names >> i think the market has to settle out a little bit and not just be this kind of day-to-day, wide-range, pinball that we've had for a while.
11:04 am
the value versus growth dynamic, as you point out, has operated within sectors yields are dictating the entire story: right now, it is a matter of has the growthiest stuff gotten so sold down that it can essentially track back up toward the middle of its range, just pa because people are not leaning on it as much anymore? broadly speaking, if people are looking for the cheaper versions and the steadier versions of whatever sector they're looking at, yeah, it'll be kind of the older dinosaur tech, as you call it. >> thanks, mike. mike santoli where do we find opportunity in the market? our next guest is bullish on growth names like 5-9 and door dash, repositioning his portfolio within software. global investors founder, eduardo costa. great to see you before we get to individual names, it sounds like you think the trend could be higher from here, absent all these other concerns about the fed and
11:05 am
inflation. >> thanks, carl. thanks for having me on. look, i would -- one of my teachers always said going to the bottom is a fool eegs's gam i won't attempt it the skew is upward, but having lived through the dot com bubble, i do have to say, the environment we're exiting very much has some characteristics that resemble that, in terms of these vast swaths of capital really elevating multiples the way that we've played this is trying to be discerning between the names that we think are going to continue to grow and/or accelerate in this environment, and now have sold off and are trading at very compelling multiples, and the names that still might be decelerating or disappointing. >> right all right. walk us through, how do you get to those that are reaccelerating and the ones we mentioned in the intro, why do those fit? >> so if you look at five nine as an example, the company was -- it was almost taken out
11:06 am
by zoom last year at over $200 a share. it's done nothing by exaccelerae throughout the course of the ensuing months that deal fell through we were vocal in opposing that these guys are incredibly well-positioned to continue to take market share in a market only 25% penetrated today, which is the cloud-based, call center software space you look at a stock that peaked at 20 times revenue now trading at 9 or 10 times forward revenue and accelerating that feels really good to us in our portfolio. you take doordash, on the other side, and this is a company who is about to start seeing -- there are some parallels throughout e-chommerce. they're about to start lapping their difficult comparisons, and that's going to ease so at the same time, they've gone from, in the last three years, 20% shared to over 50% market share of food delivery. they're currently expanding into convenient stores and supermarkets
11:07 am
so we see the opportunity for acceleration coming from those new market opportunities that they're going after. so with the stock having sold off from $240 down into the low $100s, it is a compelling opportunity. we've been adding to our exposure in both. >> eduardo, good morning we've had some investors come on in this environment and say, hey, i don't want to buy anything that's not turning a profit but that leaves out a lot of different things so i'm wondering, and a lot of investors might have a longer-term view than that i wonder, what are the metrics that you use in this environment to gauge quality when we're talking about not only top-line growth but also operational discipline >> that's a very important question because at the end of the day, what we saw in the dot com bubble is that the businesses that -- and the stocks that really ended up taking another leg down were the ones that couldn't sustain their own operations and, ultimately, had
11:08 am
to go back to the capital markets to raise capital, either debt or equity so you look at five9, and people talk about software as being the rule of 40, which is the sum of your growth rate and your operating markets. companies that are above 40 are in the highest rung of quality this company is growing 40% to 50% with 20% margins, so they're operating at a rule of 60. self-sustaining and accelerating doordash has a huge treasure-trove of cash, and they've been aggressive during the downturn, making a big acquisition in europe over the course of the last six months. so they have the financial wherewithal to be leaning in and investing aggressively in opportunities ahead, while peers in different go i doneographiest going to be able to be aggressive. >> interesting you're looking beyond sort of pure net income and comparing
11:09 am
the gig economy space. you also like the chinese names. you said you'd buy kwebb, the basket of chinese internet names at this level. are you confident that, you know, the regulatory pressure from beijing is easing >> that's a tricky question. at the end of the day, the kwebb is down 60% plus from the february 2021 highs. we've seen significant capital flow out of china as investors flee the regulatory uncertainty and now the decelerating macro you know, where we've focused our attention is on the opportunities that we think there are companies benefitting from the regulatory environment, or at least it'll be neutral our biggest position, which we're very excited about, is a company called zto logistics it's a $20 billion company they're the largest player in the delivery space there you know, the government has been very focused on common
11:10 am
prosperity and bridging that income inequality that has been widening in china. so this is a market, the express delivery, that was very competitive in the ensuing 20 months government has come in and regulated pricing. pricing is going up. zto is the leader, both taking market share and increasing their margins in this regulated pricing environment. so we are seeing opportunities that are emerging, and it is oftentimes when investors are fleeing that the pest opportunities are preventi presg themselves. >> yeah, we get a lot of time to talk about the big tmf names in fang, but it is nice to see your work, looking at other areas of opportunity, too, eduardo. thanks eduardo costa. >> thank you now, at&t announcing how it is going to perform its long-awaited separation of warner media, merging with discovery. it will be through a spin-off. the specifics of that transaction are putting pressure on shares of at&t. you can see it down about 4.75%.
11:11 am
discovery is positive after falling at the open. julia has more of the details and the impact on shareholders julia? >> well, john, that's right. at&t said it will spin off warner media in a $43 billion transaction to merge the media properties with discovery. it's a deal set to close in the second quarter now, we already knew that at and t shareholders will own 71% of the new warner brothers discovery company. today, we've learned that that's happening by giving at&t shareholders proportionate number of shares in the new company. 24 warner media discovery shares for every 100 at&t shares. rather thatn giving the opportunity to trade the shares for discounted stock in the new venture. at&t is cutting its dividend to $8 billion, the low end of the $8 billion to $9 billion range expected it comes out to $1.11 per share.
11:12 am
analyst craig moffat telling us this smaller dividend makes sense to allow overlevered at&t to pay down its debt he told us, quote, the dividend is a signal, though, and the signal they are sending is that their business is weaker than they were previously willing to concede. moffat saying the dip in discovery as well as at&t shares, as we see discovery shares are up over 1%, it could be driven by concerns that at&t's retail dividend-oriented investor base will sell their discovery shares we'll have to see how many of those at&t shareholders hold on. remember, it has been quite a roller coaster since at&t paid $85 billion for time warner pack -- back in 2018 of course, this comes amid questions of the growth potential for streaming after netflix guidance was short of expectations also, there's been some new data out about churn even as the streamers spend so much on new content. >> yeah.
11:13 am
julia, there had been so much buzz i'd been hearing the last couple years about at&t's dividend yield so the idea that they're coming at the low end of that, i can understand how that might spook people i guess maybe they have to make a different case now about 5g adoption or, i don't know, something. >> yeah. look, at&t is really focusing in on its 5g, on its mobility, and really trying to streamline what the company is about part of this deal was about paying down its debt so i think the fact that, you know, the dividend did come in at the lower end, i think that does explain what's going on with the stock today but as moffat said, probably shouldn't be unexpected. >> julia, what do you think that look k aing at the warner mediat of this, and you mentioned that streaming has come under pressure a little bit, especially on the back of netflix's result, what do we
11:14 am
expect the new unit to look like and its prospects? >> well, it'll be really interesting, to see how they decide to combine the assets, hbo max, with the discovery streaming assets, discovery plus, and whether that combination can create an a bundle, a new type of asset that can compete at scale with a netflix, with a disney plus. so that's something we are waiting for details on i think there's also this question of sort of how do they approach the theatrical model. we haven't been talking much about amc, which saw a pop on better than expected results this morning what's interesting is, you know, we had warner media decide to s have all its movies be simultaneously released on hbo max and in theaters. that's not happening this year the question is, going forward, how do they decide to handle that exclusivity, and really trying to drive people toward their bundle of content, while also getting that revenue from the theatrical experience. so a lot of questions still to
11:15 am
be determined, as david figures out what this new company will look like. the deal is closing the second quarter, remember. >> julia, great round-up a lot of names to cover, including netflix. we did cover the steep fall post earnings, but it is up 22% since wednesday. it's gone from 351 to 441. 90 bucks in about six sessions unbelievable still to come this morning, deals in the gaming space. cnbc is celebrating black history. exclusive sound here from john's interview with meta vice president for civil rights all that still ahead "tech check" is just getting started.
11:16 am
you're a one-man stitchwork master. but your staffing plan needs to go up a size. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire
11:17 am
11:18 am
this winter, comcast business is helping ma team usa and businessesion. across america stay ahead. keep yours ahead too with reliable connectivity and secure solutions on the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses. and get access to over 20 million wifi hotspots from coast to coast. so no matter what big event comes up, your team can be ready for what's next. get started with fast and reliable internet and voice for just $64.99 a month. or, ask how to get a visa prepaid card with a qualifying bundle. the major indexes now all in positive territory with the nasdaq slightly outperforming the dow and s&p. it was the relative underperformer a few minutes ago. we're also going to get a gut check on workday bemo upgrading the stock to outperform with a $295 price target it is not helping the share price this morning, down 0.5%. the firm impressed by the cloud
11:19 am
software company's ability to sustain revenue growth despite headwinds. they expect 30% plus growth over the next five years. the stock has seen a 13% decline over the last three months but the street remaining largely optimistic with more than 90% of analysts rating the stock a buy, jon. yeah turning now to gaming. sony closing out a month of deals, saying it wants to pay $3.6 billion for destiny and halo creative bungee this is the third major gaming industry move this month following take two's acquisition of farmville maker zinga and microsoft's proposed takeover of activision blizzard. that is facing scrutiny. it's a monster deal. reports the ftc is going to lead the anti-trust review of that deal rather than the doj even wordle has been hit up by "the new york times" for a reported low seven figures joining us now to break this all
11:20 am
down, editor in chief. activision and blizzard is in another category, almost 20 times bigger even than this bungie buy i'm old enough to think marathon when i think bungie, which is old. this is an interesting property, right, for sony. >> yeah. destiny is a reasonable competitor to fortnite and the other mass social gaming experiences. you brought up these companies marathon was a mac game. bungue was a mac developer halo was debuting in '99 they missed it so long they missed it with bungie itself, which went to microsoft in the early 2000s there's a lot more consolidation in the space what is driving it all is the battle for attention, the battle for time especially as these games become commercial platforms unto
11:21 am
themselves people are doing lots of transactions in the games. that becomes lucrative over time. >> wait, did you say apple has to make a move here? it seems like apple's move was the app store. they're getting paid by everybody who wants to be in mobile gaming. i don't know if arcade is quite the answer they were looking for platform wise to take that to another level, but, i mean, with the phones and tablets and all that stuff themselves, haven't they figured that out? >> they figured out that market. they're make aging an investmenn ar and vr. it might be expensive. what you can't do while playing a game, you can't check your phone. as long as the conversation is about netflix and disney plus and streaming, yeah, apple is still in your hand you might be shopping and buying purchases while watching the streamers. you're playing a game, the phone is not in your hand. regardless of a console or ar glasses. i think as apple ramps up its
11:22 am
ambitions in ar and vr, they are going to need a property that gets people gaming consistently, the way all these other companies are finding the biggest properties they can and go after them aggressively >> right same time, we know apple doesn't make those huge acquisitions we've seen from some of the other players. for the ones that might, like an alphabet, there is the antitrust scrutiny where did the surprise come outside of the tech space? disney, someone else who needs the eyeballs, as well, and needs to get into gaming >> yeah. we've already seen netflix has ambitions here those ambitions are expressed somewhat cautiously, i'd say some games on android. i think they need to make a bigger splash. they do need one of these major properties that demands repeat attention. i think you can also see -- i think bob iger recently gave an interview and said, i don't know if that's for us but there's new leadership there. all of the hype is there also, all of the game studios are independent and want to
11:23 am
sell they're looking. the theory of the case here is that you might not be able to compete, even at the scale of a bungie or activision you may not be able to compete with the platforms directly. the theory is bundling and self-preferencing. i think from an ftc or doj perspective, it is dangerous you can run a great game people love and won't be able to compete. that's the tension here. >> gaming isn't just gaming, of course, though, right? everyone is talking about the metaverse, and gaming is this perfect avenue to get there. so, you know, even a walmart and some of the players in social ecommerce may be looking to gaming companies it also raises the question of what's left out there besides, you know, smaller developers and games like the one we saw from sony do you think there's still big plays left, some big deals left in the space >> it depends activision, the
11:24 am
bungie would have been a big deal. >> what about a developer? >> roblox is interesting they have a scaled commercial operation inside of roblox so a path to growth is pretty set. i'm looking at epic, which is going to ipo soon. if those companies can make it, i think there's a pretty good theory that you can have a large ecosystem. those companies can't, and who knows what the underlying platforms are going to do to compete now that they own their own properties, if they can't, i think there's going to be another flurry of gigantic deals on the horizon. >> what is most valuable here, do you think is it the sort of mobile gaming mechanics and data that can be acquired by getting, you know, king and some of the mobile players, or is it the sort of metaverse scale talent of being able to push a whole lot of
11:25 am
pixels and develop really deep stories for, say, a 4k screen, which i guess you're technically doing either way you know what i mean the console level or the mobile level? or is there still that difference >> you know, i think that's a really challenging question. i know you're very focused on the chip industry, right like, the server side of this is a big deal can you move the processing from the device to the cloud, stream these high-rise games to all kinds of platforms, make them available everywhere in a way that, right now, you need a powerful phone, powerful pc, or a powerful console you can break that and actually move to cloud streaming, the dynamics of it change. that hasn't happened yet i think in the moment, what is the most important thing is can you command attention, right this is why "the new york times" bought wordle. it demands attention at midnight every night. that is great to get you to subscribe the "times" games or the "times" itself
11:26 am
can you get attention to netflix? do games can sony get your attention by running destiny as a social and games product? can you transact in that product? because right now, your attention is divided by multiple sources. few of them, apart from six-hour podcasts maybe, few of them can command your attention for more than 30 or 50 minutes at a time. >> decoder has our attention, as does "tech check." nilay, thank you. >> he brought it back to wordle. speaking of gaming, electronic arts reports results tonight along with alphabet and paypal what to expect "tech check" is back in a ment rried... for the family plan. (jane) and then we really expanded our family... for the wireless savings. (ted) it seemed like the responsible thing to do. (jane) and then, just yesterday, my sister told me about visible. (sister) yeah, get unlimited data for as low as $25 a month. no family needed.
11:27 am
(vo) family plan savings without the family. visible. try us for free before you switch. no credit card needed.
11:28 am
11:29 am
welcome back to "tech check. i'm carl with dierdre and jon. this will cost you $500,000. we'll get more on a virtual land grab in a moment. first, a news update with
11:30 am
rahel solomon. >> shares of ups are soaring more than 14%. all-time high. the logistics giant posting record earnings as it focuses on growing high-margin deliveries over sheer volume. ups raising its dividend by 49% and giving full year revenue guidance above estimates 4.3 million americans quit or changed jobs in december. that is a small drop from november's record. job openings rose to $10.9 mil -- 10.9 million home depot wants to add 100,000 part and full-time positions. hom they typically hire 80,000 each spring. a measure of u.s. manufacturing activities, less than expected in january the manufacturing index still hit a 14-month low prices made by manufacturers continue to jump, suggesting that inflation will remain high.
11:31 am
great. jon, balk. >> -- back to you. >> thanks. a company faced tough criticism from civil rights groups on how it handled hate speak, voter suppression, and discrimination on the platform they hired an executive to specialize in civil rights and lead change in the company's products and practices i spoke with meta's vice president for civil rights, roy austin, who is now in the job a year, leading a team of eight. he talked about meta's position on voting laws, what civil rights might mean in a stateless metaverse, and facebook's oversight aborted. how h how he relates to it here he is on the oversight board. >> i think there are challenges. i think it's still early in its tenure i think you can go back for the lawyers out there, you know, mar
11:32 am
b berry versus madison, as the supreme court was establishing its power and what the reach was going on i think it's also just -- there's a challenge, too this is why i say every company needs a civil rights team. and a person who is high level they're on the outside decisions are being made by meta every single day and unless you have people who are part of those decisions, it becomes a little harder. then you also have, and you raised this in a great question early on, you know, the idea of making that change, ensuring the right thing is done from inception, and not waiting until it is already there, then coming back in and saying, oh, you did it wrong because i have to tell ya, it is really hard. then the role of the civil rights team is, you know, when things go into civil rights spaces and areas, we see the oversight board's
11:33 am
recommendation we help to make sure that it is being implemented. we see the company's response, and we make sure we think that the response is actually addressing the problem and addressing the -- what the oversight board is asking for. >> i within the to note here, today marks the first day of black history month. over the next few weeks on "tech check," we'll have conversations with business leaders and change makers also, roots in black history with importance to america, like opportunities in education, diversity in the c-suite, and much more. but, carl, you know, when i was speaking with roy, we covered a lot, including the difficulty of a stateless metaverse and what civil rights really mean and mowhow meta and facebook ar having to shape that and try to shape it from the beginning, because these things are harder
11:34 am
to fix once they're already out there. >> yeah. we talk a lot about this idea, jon, in terms of hiring and jobs and capital availability but we're going to find out in the coming years, d, just what world tech is able and willing to play in all this. >> guys, we've seen in next gene generation technology, like if you don't have diversity and inclusion at the beginning, they can really fall to the wayside and have really important, long-term consequences for how the technology is developed. jon, in your conversation with the metaverse, does it avoid some of the past problems? because they're looking at it at the stage. but the people developing it, the makeup of the tech companies still, unfortunately, isn't that diverse. >> you have the problems, no matter how diverse the people making the software, the people programming the software are because humanity is constantly
11:35 am
changing, right? diversity means a lot more than gender it means lot more than race and our conceptions of it now. it has to do with geography. it has to do with culture, as well so it is difficult work. you know, i pressed him on this on a number of different fronts. they have a lot of work to do, and they're not always getting it right but it is interesting and important, i think, to tackle these issues and we will continue to celebrate black history all february for more, head over to cnbc.com. here now is cnbc contributor david henderson with his personal story, experiencing discri discrimination >> my wife and i had our house appraised twice last year so we could sell it. the second time, it appraised almost $50,000 higher than it did the first time what changed the first time we were home. the second time, we made sure that we weren't. we took down all the pictures of ourselves and our family
11:36 am
one of the most important things you can do to improve the financial futurefor the black community is recognize that discrimination like this ourccs. because you can't fix what you won't acknowledge. a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. oh. their award-winning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. and it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. so it's like my streaming service. well except now you're binge learning. see how you can become a smarter investor with a personalized education from td ameritrade. visit tdameritrade.com/learn ♪
11:37 am
11:38 am
major crypto funding deals under way. alexis ohanian's venture-capital
11:39 am
raising $500 million to invest in startups. $32 billion after a raise from investors including softbank lots of money in the private market, carl meantime, as money pours into crypto and web 3, the metaverse seeing massive inflows of capital robert frank has a laook at how people are investing in virtual real estate, robert? >> good morning, carl. facebook's meta announcement sparking a land grab in the metaverse. topping $500 million last year nearly half of that came right after facebook's october announcement sales in january still holding strong at over $86 million start-ups, big brands all pouring money into this space. the first metaverse mortgage was actually just completed over the weekend. luxury real estate brokers sold millions of dollars of real real estate they're now teaming up with republic realm for the
11:40 am
metaverse. they say younger investors especially see the value >> if i were you, i'd want someone on my side that's going to advise me and make sure i buy something that is quality and is going to appreciate. we can do that for people just discovering real estate in the metaverse. >> now, the most expensive sales so far in the metaverse is a collection of par sellparcels ie sandbox, $4.3 million. token is leasing space back to big apparel and luxury brands. guys, the least expensive parcel of land you can buy right now in the sandbox is $11,000 that $11,000 gets you about 2/3 of a virtual acre. back to you. >> yeah, robert, it's fascinating. here's where i am confused in the real world, there's some spots in the midwest, for
11:41 am
example, or up north, where they're literally giving away actual, real land for free, hoping that people will move there. now, i hear that they're hoping that people will move to the metaverse. certainly not everybody is in there yet. so, a, why is it so pexpensive? b, is there any sense of how much land there is in the metaverse, how many different, like, metaverse platforms actually count as far as, you know -- as valuable land, as far as the real estate folks are concerned? >> yes so there are four big platforms right now when it comes to land. there's de central land, insomnia, and there are a big four all together, there are 270,000 parcels in the four blocks most is the sandbox. the sandbox is 62% of all the land and 75% of all transactions for virtual land right now are sandbox. sandbox are where it's at.
11:42 am
what makes land valuable, it is going to depend, and this is the future bet, on how many people come to each of these platforms and which of them become popular. that's a big unknown right now >> right essentially betting on different metaverses robert, thanks for that. the discussion doesn't stop here tune into "tech check" livestream after the show. i'll sit down with the company who finances metaverse projects and provide mortgages to clients. that's at 12:30 p.m. eastern 9:30 a.m. pacific. goo r itr geo nd toutwtepa tfi the link we're back in two.
11:43 am
i'm mark and i live in vero beach, florida. my wife and i have three children. ruthann and i like to hike. we eat healthy. we exercise. i noticed i wasn't as sharp as i used to be. my wife introduced me to prevagen and so i said "yeah, i'll try it out." i noticed that i felt sharper, i felt like i was able to respond to things quicker. and i thought, yeah, it works for me.
11:44 am
prevagen. healthier brain. better life. municipal bonds don't usually get the media coverage the stock market does. in fact, most people don't find them all that exciting. but, if you're looking for the potential for consistent income that's federally tax-free, now is an excellent time to consider municipal bonds from hennion & walsh. if you have at least 10,000 dollars to invest, call and talk with one of our bond specialists at 1-800-376-4376. we'll send you our exclusive bond guide, free. with details about how bonds can be an important part of your portfolio. hennion & walsh has specialized in fixed income and growth solutions for 30 years, and offers high-quality municipal bonds from across the country. they provide the potential for regular income...are federally tax-free... and have historically low risk. call today to request your free bond guide. 1-800-376-4376. that's 1-800-376-4376
11:45 am
. time for a gut check on nxp. chip maker posting q4 revenue of more than $4 billion, narrowly beating the street for the year, revenue was a record $11 billion that's up 28% year-over-year the ceo also offering a look ahead to the next quarter, guiding to revenue of more than $3 billion again shares started the day lower on those numbers, but they're now, as you can see, about flat fractionallyhigher nxp has nearly tripled since the march 2020 lows, carl. we got some big names after the bell tonight of course, jon, after the break, what to expect from alphabet, as google's parent company gets set to report in a few hours stay with us they have a better finance system than we do. i feel like they might have a better finance system than we do.
11:46 am
workday. how do they make better decisions faster? workday. it's got to be something workday. i think i got something. work... hey, rob, you're on mute. hello! hey, rob, there he is. workday. the finance, hr and planning system for a changing world. workers' comp was about 20% of my total expenses. when we got the quote back from pie, it was a sigh of relief. we saved about 30% when we switched to pie. ask your agent, or get a quote at easyaspie.com. (doorbell ringing) (bustling office sounds) - [announcer] eggzilaration, when the cheesiest guilty pleasure breakfast sandwich starts your day on just the right note. on time, lowest price, or we'll make it right. (chicka-chicka) grubhub.
11:47 am
11:48 am
quartwelcome back take a look at ups, shooting higher you can see it up there, better than 15% earnings, revenue, upbeat outlook, and raising dividend. it is crediting a higher shipping rate and e-commerce demand now, attention turns to amazon returns are out thursday the street thinks the stock is the full package
11:49 am
several calling amazon their top pick for 2022. no sells but shares have underperformed significantly. it is down 10% in the last year, while apple, microsoft, alphabet have all outperformed. that's a big moment coming thursday are investors missing a huge q4, given the strong holiday spending and what is likely strong growth in the cloud business, or will the stock continue to fade to pressure bank of america cut estimates for q1 we will find out this week >> yeah, i think there's over 100 s&p 500 companies reporting this week. alphabet reporting after the bell today our next guest expects strength from google's core search and cloud flat form adoption bullish on youtube's advertising numbers for the quarter. joining us now, colin sebastian, research analyst good morning i want to start with capital allocation what are the chances, you think, that google would issue a dividend, you know, with more than $160 billion of cash on
11:50 am
hand don't they have enough room for a dividend plus investment in cloud, waymo, other mootshnshots >> they do this is a company that is very profitable itcash they have, to their credit, been increasing the level of share buybacks there's certainly plenty of room to do more a dividend would be very well received by investors, personally not holding my breath. >> yeah. it would be unusual. i often ask about plans after the earnings, but they like to invest money back into the business, and that hasn't really changed. i mean, when the founders took a step back they continued to invest in these moon shots like waymo and like their health sciences division, but they're still losing a ton of money. do you think analysts especially when you see interest rates rising and wall street is looking for more profit even though google is very, very
11:51 am
profitable do you think that there's any chance that they scale back on those money-losing moon shots or otherwise see more profitability from them? >> i don't think as a general rule that they will pull back. i think they're evaluating the returns on some of those individual investments and recently they've taken outside money to fund some of the growth for waymo and for the life sciences efforts that being said, they do break that out as part of the segment financials we, on the outside can evaluate the drag on profitability. fortunately, the core search business is so profitable that they can easily digest most of those big investments. >> i was going to say, colin, s some of us are old enough to remember when cost to earnings was an issue and they were taken to task on the call. is the overall market strong enough or are they more disciplined enough to where there's no longer a concern? >> well, you know, it may sound
11:52 am
a little cliche now, but core searches are still driving the vast majority of growth and it is profitable with core technologies like a.i. machine learning i think you all can see what the payoff has been from those investments in engineering and data centers and the like five years ago. i'm certainly old enough to remember that, john, and i think that looking ahead we're not going to see any change to their investment philosophy, and to their credit, it's paid off to this date. carl, what do you think is more likely to move the stock in this environment? youtube results or cloud growth? we saw the cloud numbers out of microsoft have an impact certainly after hours when they gave a guide that looked better than the quarter they just reported, but is alphabet at the point yet where the cloud matters to that extend or is it still youtube around the edges
11:53 am
>> well, it's a great question outperformance in either segment would remind investors that google is not a one-trick pony research and it could be beneficial either way, but between those two, i think youtube probably has the edge. there are questions around google now what is their strategy for metaverse for some of these next-generation virtual worlds and we youtube as a foundation, google has a legitimate shot at being one of those big platforms in those web3 environment. so youtube's strength could help legitimize frustrations for google in those areas and be a benefit to the stock >> colin, we'll see you after the bell much anticipated. >> thanks, guys. appreciate it. >> don't forget to flollow, u wnadrer subscribe wheve yodolo podcasts. "tech check" is back in just a moment
11:54 am
11:55 am
11:56 am
the spac market continued to struggle in january. the cnbc post spac index following 23% last month our leslie picker has a deeper
11:57 am
look at the underperformance hi, leslie >> hey, carl that's right the january volatility hit spacs particularly hard. performance, as you noted suffered particularly for spacs that had already completed their mergers down about 21% over the last month and 23% in january. now those returns do not bode well for the pipeline. 15 use spacs were filed in january, that's the lowest figure since may 2020 before this spac wave took off according to spac insider. there were 12 deal announcements near the monthly lows which is problematic because there are still almost 600 spacs in search of a target to pair with even the lucky few who are closing transactions are facing problems with investor redemptions. on average 82% of shares were reduced from spacs as they finalized deals and that's well above the rate over the last year and near a record high on a
11:58 am
monthly basis, but to some, just when it seems like things can't get worse. there is a buying opportunity. ric richard mashal of 2021 said in an interview that he's been looking into buying some beaten down spacs where he believes the risk has been priced in at these levels guys >> as spacs become better understood and more popular over the last years and perhaps more scrutinized you would think the structure has changed with the way the warrants and promote work are we seeing that at all? i spoke to one company about a spac and they didn't change anything about it. >> it is on a case by case basis, and it depends on the sponsor there. there are sponsors that maintain that traditional promote attaining 20% fees for managing the spac, finding a deal and taking that home with them on the other hand, newer entrants to the market may see that structure kind of shift a
11:59 am
little bit they may have a bit more incentive in line with the shareholders and take less money home and take more home once that spac performs on a more incentive basis, but by and large, we are still seeing, you know, your traditional spac structure and that's something the sec has been looking at, though so i would expect that to shift over time, as well. >> fascinating turn here in the last 12 months or so, less see, thank you. leslie picker. interesting market action. the indices have not moved around a whole lot, but some underperformance in some of the defensive names like health care and staples and utilities. john, we mentioned the active earnings calendar after the bell tonight get some consumer guidance out of starbucks, but clearly amd is one of the main names to watch >> it will, and that's a company where its product leadership has been the story this stock is now, look, a bit more than 30% off -- around 30%
12:00 pm
off of its 52-week high, but then 60% off the low where does it go from here carl, we will have to see. >> yeah. we obviously watch google, as well paypal and other names a i lot to get to. let's get to the half with emily. >> and welcome to "the halftime report." i'm melissa lee in for scott wapner the s&p coming off the worst levels since march 2020. we'll debate the best strategies for your money and get you ready for the wave of mega-cap earnings beginning with alphabet after the bell today investment committee, steve link, and jon najarian co-founder of market rebellion.com. something we haven't seen so far this year. we have the dow up barrettly 19 gains and the s&p 500 up, and this has basically f

39 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on