very strong. >> china probably a part of that too. >> a good point, but we continue to watch it erode in value the wrong time for him, too, given the needs of twitter in terms of cash. lucid shares down, basically to the spac price where it started. churchill capital four that's going to do it for us on "squawk on the street. "tech check" starts now. >> good monday morning welcome to "tech check." carl has the morning off today, out with the old, in with the older. julia has the latest on disney as shares surge on news of bob iger's return. we'll discuss that in a moment plus, more from crypto's man of the hour, disgraced ftx founder sam bankman-fried as he sits down with cnbc for a rare one-on-one, and sharks continue to circle the waters more on what to do with apple ahead of the holidays plus the chi china tech names you may be missing out on a big show ahead, markets start off on the weaker side

the nasdaq down about 1% >> we have to start our feed with one of the stronger stocks because of the news out of disney, shares are popping, as former ceo bob iger takes the reins at the company effective immediately again, and bob chapek heads for the door. our julia boorstin joins us now with the latest. >> well, jon, i'm hearing iger has alreadier started to do virtual meetings and phone calls with executives starting first thing this morning and the creative side of disney in particular is thrilled with this change one source telling me that there is great hope that iger will restore a vision that prioritizes creativity over data another source using the word euphoric i'm also hearing there's been a lot of talk about iger's history of disagreeing with chapek's restructuring back in october 2020, which put creative groups at odds with the group making distribution decisions i'm also hearing that there is an expectation that iger could

move quickly to amend the structure closer to what it was before chapek's restructuring. but on day one, iger's challenges are far bigger and different. not just from where they were when iger left in february 2020, and even when he stepped down as chairman at the beginning of this year, with a far weaker economy. first an ad recession will challenge the company's linear networks and also the new ad-supported streaming service second, a pullback in consumer spending could hit the parks the consumer products division as well as streaming subscription dollars and third, that streaming landscape, it's a lot more competitive than it's ever been, and since chapek raised subscription prices, disney may be a little more of a disadvantage so right now, iger is working on morale, but he does have some tough decisions ahead about how much he's going to be investing in content and where those content investments will be and also how he's going to handle those cutbacks chapek started to

lay out. >> julia, you know i can't resist a contrarian take let me try this out on you bob iger without question, legendary media ceo, m&a track record bar none. vision and taste unquestioned. but is he toxic for disney at this point he seems maybe like a helicopter parent who, you know, got their kid into the best schools, into the ivies, job at goldman sachs after school, but now that kid has moved back home because they can't do anything without the parent is that bob iger he retired four times before he retired, right he was supposed to retire in 2015 >> he didn't technically retire. he talked about it >> he was supposed to go in 2015, and then 2016, and so four different times he was supposed to couldn't leave leaves, said he wasn't coming back now he's back. he says he's going to be gone in two years but that's just enough to do succession, which seems to be the one thing bob iger is bad

at >> jon, i would not use the word toxic. the people i talked to this morning at disney, the word i have heard in various forms is euphoric especially people on the creative side of disney are very happy to have him come back, who is thinking thoughtfully about creative decisions i think bob iger is certainly focused on morale. there's morale that needs to be boosted right now. in terms of the question of succession, the board made it very clear in the press release that came out that iger finding and preparing a successor was the most important thing in addition to stabilizing the company in these very tough and tumultuous and also uncertain times that we're in right now. so i think that there's no doubt that the focus is on succession, and i wouldn't be surprised if within a year we have a sense of who that successor will be there are a couple people who come to mind i have been talking to sources at the company about who might be a good fit as a successor >> did you get any names for talking about people like

dana walden, incredibly well liked. she's on the creative side, she understands the business this idea, she wasn't ready to take over the company right now, but with a couple years she would be perhaps prepared to take over. that's one name i have heard a lot about right now. >> you mentioned the creative side several times, julia. isn't this an issue where creativity is really a side show here the financials are what needs to get into order maybe creativity as a priority was a luxury of a past era when the cable bundle was able to subsidize -- >> you can't call creativity a side show at a content company that's the thing creativity can never be the side show >> but it is, d to c is expensive and that's the reason they're in this place, because chapek is not effective in cutting costs. so i mean, what is iger going to do >> deirdre, creativity can't be a side show. it's all about the content >> i don't we can't say that

>> it's about figuring out how to monetize the creativity this decision that chapek made, a, to make disney plus in the streaming more expensive, and also should disney plus be a general entertainment service? is this going to be about competing more as a hulu and a mass entertainment service >> hear me out of course, creative is always going to be what disney is going to talk about, has to talk about, but the problem now is financials are getting in the way. creativeivity was easy to prioritize when the cable bundle was paying for everything. now, in a d to c world, this is not a profitable business. they can talk about creativity all they want, but the reason this is happening is because the financials didn't deliver. is iger any more likely to do that >> well, yes i think the key thing here, just to separate out some of the things you're talking about here the issue is that the cost of

the investment in direct to consumer is not paying off their losses are high now and the losses in direct to consumer are going to continue to grow. that was the key issue concerning investors i think the key issue is can you invest more strategically. does it make more sense to spend on movies or series. disney is a content company, first and foremost the question is what is the content that's going to have the biggest payoff and the highest return on investment and get the service to profitability faster. >> no one knows the stuff better than you, so thanks. we're going to continue to discuss and debate this, i'm sure our next guest spoke to iger this past january who told her at it time the idea of returning to disney as ceo is ridiculous and you can't go home again, i'm gone joining us now, new york magazine editor at large and kara swisher herself kara, color you shocked but not

surprised which is what we heard by many people >> not surprised i also interviewed him in september at the code conference he was dressed lie a sailor like he just got off his boat from the french polynesia, but i think he was bored i could tell he was bored. he joked about being a house husband. he was doing investing, but you know, he's just an a-plus executive. and you know, chapek has made one mistake after the next, and it disney board had to bring somebody in. i think it's a really smart move and someone who could settle things and find a successor like dana or peter rice could be coming back. he's got to focus on succession, but he calms the waters among activist investors and other shareholders he calms the waters among staff and creative people. and deirdre, i'm sorry, you're completely wrong, content is critical to this company he'll figure out the finances. he may think about some acquisitions there are really interesting possibilities for that could they bye netflix, made a

bid for warner to become bigger. one thing iger said to me is even disney isn't big enough, and disney's to compete right now. so despite the fact they loaded it up with debt, with the fox acquisition stuff, it was still an important acquisition just like the pixar one, et cetera. >> i'm being a bit provocative, but i think there's a method to it over the past 20 years now, if we kind of count on iger's supposed exit in about two years, around 2025, he spent about half that time with one foot either out the door or back in the door. and there's a cost to that, right? if you're a talented executive at disney, who has been thinking maybe you have a chance to move up based on what iger says he's going to do, you have had so many false starts. disney lost a lot of talent because of iger either deciding not to leave or then picking chapek in the first place and now he's coming back

and somebody who is a great option isn't ready yet he had more than a decade to prepare the next generation of leaders. so why -- i mean, granted, yes, he's an excellent executive, one of the best ever if not the best ever at a media company, arguably why do you pick somebody who is really bad at succession to come in for just two years and do your succession for you? is the board abdicating its own responsibility >> well, the boards are panicking now because of the economic issues. but i think he knows that. i think he knows that was a big mistake of his of a pretty stellar career at disney is not to do the succession correctly i think he will do it this time. it's one thing he left behind that wasn't great about bob iger and so i suspect he's going to be focused on that he's got to be he, of course, moved them into streaming which is very expensive. no one realized how expensive this was going to be and how big a fight this is, but if you're

not in this, you're not in a media company if you don't understand streaming is critical to the future. he is much more talent friendly. you can't treat talent the way they did it's critical for this company and lastly, it's really important investors are calmed by him there's a lot of activist investors running around here, and he is someone who compared to bob chapek, can handle them better and lastly, bob chapek had one disaster after the next, and this last earnings call was really, i was sort of shocked by it myself. and it wasn't tenable for him to continue to run. he had lost employees. he had lost investors. he had lost, you know, everyone that was critical in this particular company >> this is really the last time you could have bob iger behind the glass, right and in case of emergency, break glass. >> i don't know. >> going into covid, we're coming out of covid. i'm just saying. >> steve jobs came back.

>> he has to go after two years. >> no, come on all kinds of companies do this howard schultz at starbucks. steve jobs left and came back and left and came back this is not a new and fresh thing. he has to find his tim cook, i ger guess, in a lot of ways and find someone with the operational skills from a business point of view and has good relationships with content that might be dana walden, might be a lot of people it's a very difficult time to run a media company. i even a really good company like disney is going to see trouble in this environment. there could be very interesting things happening and very few people could pull it off, the big things they need to do, like someone who has been here and knows the company inside and out. >> so kara, i'm not disputing content is king, is absolutely critical >> you kind of did, but okay >> i'm saying that how is he better at managing the finance side any better than chapek is? that's the reason chapek is out, after that horrible quarter. some of the creative stuff he did as well, as you outlined

how is iger going to fix this? he moved them into streaming which is critical, but how do you fix the financing there? >> compared to chapek, i could run the finances better at disney than chapek the things he did, that call was really unprofessional, i thought. and he's getting out with lots of money, so it's fine for him, but i think to calm investors is really critical. there are activists around that are really serious you need someone who is serious and trusted by wall street it will give them a little breathing room here. this is a huge dent they have, not the kind of debt that warner disney has, and they can certainly handle it better and they have lots more revenue streams including the parks which have been doing well again, bob chapek insulted annual park goers. i don't know why you would do that he can handle the finances here. he's not considered crazy spensp spendthrift, and he's the one

who put in place the changes to talent compensation that the talent has been complaining about. i found it to be someone who is willing to change and he's also so likable, and i know that's not a small thing in these kind of companies but i think, you know, you saw content people being very happy today. and that's, again, he's got to have a lot of constituencconsti pleases and he's good at pleasing all of them and he certainly can handle the finances compared to a lot of people >> we'll see how it all plays out. kara swisher, thanks for being with us. >> thanks. now, given the murky holiday outlook, can tech hardware names hold up into the new year? why our next guest likes apple here, after the break. "tech check" is just getting started.

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let's get a check on the chips. instel reinstated with a neutral rating as they see, quote, hope at the end of the unnel. price target of $31 a share there. analysts much more bullish on mobile eye with citi and goldman

initiating a bye all three firms highlighted the advantage in the competitive market they popped more than 37% in their debut last month they're down more than 4% since then >> a big week ahead for hardware, dell earnings after the close, hp reporting tomorrow, and questions about what to expect from consumer demand as we head toward black friday here to help us break it all down, morgan stanley analyst eric woodring, overweight on dell, underweight on hp. where do you see this whole ecosystem? because apple, sure, it's been able to command a premium, but now it's supply constrained because of covid >> thanks for having me on i think we do also have to step back here and frame this holiday season, the context of what has

happened over the last two years. we have seen probably the strongest two-year period of pc growth in at least the last decade and so the way that we think about the holidays today is, consumers are not only digesting what they purchased over the last two decades, a lot of which was pcs, peripherals, things that keep you productive or entertain you at home, now you have to factor in macro uncertainty and the fact inflation is eating at budgets, the fact consumers are looking for discounts. so where i want to play is probably on the safer side that is why i am overweight apple. we think about the iphone as the key technology product in our life when we have the discretionary income to purchase something this holiday period, we're going to retrench and buy what is most important to us. we already bought pcs. it's the iphone that we think is just a safer play in this type of environment >> so who is better positioned,

dell versus hp inc., to benefit on the rebound in the pc market based on, does the consumer market rebound first, does the enterprise and commercial market rebound first, and who is better positioned there based on that >> so it's hard to say today whether we're maybe at a bottoming period for consumer pcs. a lot of survey data we do shows that spending intentions continue to deteriorate on consumer hardware and pcs. generally, dell has been a better executer over the last six quarters they gained share in five of the last six quarters. hp has lost share in five of the last six quarters. hp is also relative to dell, overindexed to the lower end consumer chromebookmarket wher dell is maybe overindexed to some of the more commercial

market so i think they both can experience a rebound it's just a matter of who executes, who has product on shelves, and that's going to dictate what happens in the holiday period and what happens in early 2023. again, my ratings would suggest that it's dell that can outperform off the bottom. we also have to consider valuation in this consideration. dell trades at a two-turn pe discount to hp today had been executing all those factors, i put my hands in dell over hp today. >> eric, how does china and the potential reopening fit into the fourth quarter we have seen that 11/11 holiday come and go. i don't think the chinese buy as much over the holiday season coming up, but there's chinese new year next year how does that all play out >> china's challenging right now. there's partially a reopening, partially a closure. apple's largest iphone facility in central china has been shut down or at least limited for about two and a half weeks now

so china is a critical market. i would say not as critical to the pc world there's been a slow shift to kind of a domesticated pc vendor or shipments in the last few years. but for other consumer hardware, again, china's critical for apple. so it's a challenging period i just don't think we need to get over our skis right now, meaning the consumer survey data we look at is just flashing signs of caution i would call out our 2022 smartphone survey we published two weeks ago in china that shows smartphone spending intentions or upgrade intentions are down about five points year over year for the smartphone industry as a whole, down about 3 points year over year for the iphone specifically. a reopening is good, but we also have to watch covid cases. this is the period where lockdowns started to accelerate last year. we just need to be mindful of that >> all right flashing caution

eric woodring, thank you we continue to watch disney shares as they surge, as bob iger returns to take the reins, more on the name after the break. >> first, kate rooney is live from the bahamas and joins us with a look at what is still ahead on the show. kate >> that's right. we're here in nassau i spoke to sam bankman-fried over the weekend some of the changes we're already seeing here on the island as the crypto company ftx collapses. a story that's been dominating headlines back in the u.s., and certainly is headline news and front page news in some of the newspapers here. we have the nassau guardian here, all about ftx and sam bankma bankman-fried. a lot more oth cinup tethbreak.omg ld, you could hire a professor of theoretical mathematics. we all know this equation, right? he'd crunched numbers day and night. that's it. to maximize profitability. morning. i have quarterly numbers that are beautiful. and forecast revenue from every corner

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i'm kristina partsinevelos and here's your cnbc news update at this hour crude oil prices have tumbled to their lowest price since early january. this after the "wall street journal" reported opec plus countries are discussing a production hike up to half a million barrels per day at their next meeting in december >> two major railroad unions taking different paths on labor deals. the smart td union rejected a tentative agreement with management raising the risk of a nationwide rail strike next months the engineers union, the blet, approved its labor deal. the engineers said they would honor picket lines >> in ukraine, president zelenskyy says his rcountry's nuclear plants need protection ukraine says russia once again shelled europe's largest nuclear power plant this past weekend. russia blames ukraine for the attacks. guys, back to you. >> thanks very much for that

>> in a twist fit for the movies, disney ousting former ceo bob chapek and reinstating bob iger as head of the companyarve two years. our own dom chu joins us >> it's one where the valuations for disney have come at a point where we're seeing some of the lowest we have seen over the course of the past five years. if you look at the s&p 500 versus disney, just on a year to date basis, no surprise here that disney and many other media companies have underperformed the s&p 500. you can see disney shares down 36% on the year, the s&p 500 is down roughly 17%, and that gap has grown wider over the course of the last six to nine months if you look at disney, an extreme underperformer but if you put in the broader context of some of the bigger rivals and peers within media, it's not quite as bad with regard to disney though shares have lost a quarter of their value, basically since bob chapek took over as ceo back in february of

2020 meanwhile, comcast, the parent company of this network and other at nbcuniversal as lost about 23% of its value in the same time span and netflix shares are down about 23% as well net flex even more volatile with that green line. disney, yes, underperformer, but media hasn't bib a great place to begin with. from a valuation standpoint, currently, disney shares trade at roughly 22 times next year's expected earnings. $22 on the stock price today for every dollar of next year's expected earnings. over the last five years, in december of 2020, that number was closer to 74 times forward earnings so disney valuations have come down sharply over the course of the last few years, and again, disney shares at 74 times at one point, very rich compared to where we are right now and the analyst take on it, we have seen those expectations come down markedly over the course of the last couple years but we still have a 79% buy

rating for the stock, 21% of analysts have hold ratings the $119.20 target price implies there's decent upside, but keep in mind, at one point over the past year, we had a target price of $211. so the expectations, again, have come down sharply, if you look at those at least target prices. it really does show that there's been a lot more pessimism. it also suggests, guys that bob iger has a very, very uphill battle ahead. i'll send it back over to you. >> well, the man has been known to fly, so we'll see where he goes from here dom, thank you let's continue the conversation with our next guest, big technology founder and cnbc contributor alex canter wits the answer to all of disney's problems seems to be bob iger, every time can it continue to be bob iger >> i think that would be long-term issue for disney in the short-term, no doubt

about it he seems like he's the right person for the company, but bob iger and disney have a co-dependence problem. he's the king of unretiring from the company. that's been well and good. he's 71, he can still do it, but disney needs to find a way to plot a future that doesn't involve bob iger because he's not going to be there forever. today's news underscores how that's been a struggle for the company and that's priority number one for him, to figure this out >> how will we know, how will investors know if disney is on a healthier path, kind of post-iger? because two years is not a lot of time if he's going to undo the restructuring and restructure the restructuring, also get d to c on a firmer footing. that's a lot to do in two years and hand over the baton. >> i don't think he's going to leave after two years. that's what he says. that's the promise, the contract, but if we know one

thing about bob iger, he overstays his timeline at that network. if he end up staying longer than two years that will not be surprising to me at all, especially given what he's walking into a very tough economy i think dom mentioned it beforehand, it's not just disney you have netflix, comcast. look at what happened with ckrn plus yp don't trust him to find a successor in that amount of time . it's hard and really expensive so if bob iger is unable to fix the financial side of disney, is he essentially just buying more leeway, investors are going to give him more time if he is going to step down a year or two years from now, do the same problems just go to the next ceo that chapek faced >> no doubt. and i do think that he is buying some time. you look at the analyst notes. they almost universally praised bob iger taking over and it's going to be now it's going to be really tough for him to say after two years, unless

the economy turns around, that's the wild card here, and we know it's possible. the economy can turn around. people are saying maybe we go into a short recession in '23. if erwe're in a better economy, maybe that's the time to hand it over iger hands it over in february of 2020. he goes immediately into pandemic lockdowns try to run an amusement park business when you can't have people there then you have this yo-yo situation where streaming becomes the most popular thing in the world, then people eventually leave their apartments and streaming goes down and you have now pressure from wall street to rein your costs in because the fed rate is going up that's extremely difficult waters to drop a successor into. so i would say that's the one hope for netflix, maybe in two years or three years or four when iger leaves we'll be in a better situation than we are today. >> are you saying you think netflix actually benefits from this because of all the sort of turmoil it's creating and iger is not going to be able to step down or find a suitable

successor? >> maybe in five years but i think netflix has its own problems in the short term that it really needs to figure out. if you look at the last three, four quarters, netflix is stagnant on growth the one thing you can say about disney despite the losses, it has been growing, and it has plenty of content. and netflix is facing tremendous competition, not just from disney, but from amazon as well. and i don't think disney's problems necessarily cure netflix's disease. >> all right alex from the big technology newsletter, congrats on your subscriber milestone, by the way. good to have you >> thank you so much thank you. still ahead, the latest from the bahamas as headlines continue to swirl around embattled crypto exchange ftx. first, check out the biggest laggards on the nasdaq 100 lucid, jd.com, docusign, tesla, marvell. we'll be back in two thinkorswim® by td ameritrade

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new filings over the weekend showing ftx owes the 50 largest creditors more than $50 billion, and some warn of much more volatility to come our kate rooney flew out to the company's headquarters in the bahamas and joining us now after a rare in-person sitdown with sam bankman-fried. what did you learn >> yeah, dee i did speak briefly to sam

bankman-fried on friday, and despite being ousted from ftx and the company's bankruptcy, he said he's still spending most of his time, still, trying to broker a bailout he declined to talk about some of the financial details we're all wondering about what led to the fed of ftx and a longer talk on record. he's hunkered down in the bahamas in an upscale neighborhood he told me there are billion dollars of potential funding to make customers whole also talked about getting as much value to users as possible. he said he hates what happened and he wishes he had been more careful. he also maintains there are billions of dollars in customer assets available, despite not having access to his corporate email or any ftx systems now to be clear, this is a long shot based on all the conversations with vcs and legal experts, telling me sam bankman-fried would be no different than any third party bidder at this point. legal experts also told me part of him pitching this and wanting

to be part of the solution may help in criminal or civil courts no response from him on that ftx's new ceo over the weekend saying he's exploring potential sale options for ftx you can already see some of the stark differences on this island as the company unwinds the lit up ftx sign when we were here back in august is gone. we also stopped by the headquarters, the parking lot was essentially empty, and security guards shooed us away quickly. we also saw a car leaving the office with four young people. we couldn't confirm if they were employees. we also went to what a plot of land ftx had committed $60 million to build out and ftx at one point had compared that to apple and google's campuses. that is vacant no construction has started yet, and the story is heating up on the bankruptcy side with ftx customer funds caught between delaware and the bahamas we'll see how that shakes out.

the first court hearing is kicking off tomorrow in delaware >> kate, probably no delicate way to ask this, but do you get the sense sam bankman-fried is aware of reality outside of the compound where he is is he aware people expect him to go to jail and that the comments that he's making could have legal implications >> it is hard to say he's clearly been quite vocal throughout this on twitter as well he's been speaking to reporters. so that does call into question if he's aware that some of this could be used against him in criminal and civil cases that legal experts tell me are likely to pile up as the months go on the question about is he -- does he know what's really happening? one thing i took away from the conversation was his focus on that deal. and it seemed to -- maybe it's a way to not let reality sink in and say okay, if i can get this deal done, maybe it will make things right and he seemed to have almost

tunnel vision when it came to that deal and getting that done. but in terms of, he looked pretty much the same, he seemed relatively calm based on everything that was happening. so that was a bit surprising >> about that deal, kate word is reported about a week ago that he was discussing funding from a trio of crypto players. they are rival exchange okx, and tether what is the likelihood that that happens, and you know, what does that do? these aren't exactly the gold standard of investors. >> so it's hard to handicap any investor you talk to say there's really no one out there with a big enough balance sheet or risk appetite you talk about the risk appetite that group may be one that does want to take on that amount of risk and is comfortable with it based on them having some of the same profiles in terms of what their balance sheet may look like, not exactly the same, but similar illiquid tokens. that would be the logical deal, would be another big crypto

player in terms of that actually happening, we don't know, and can't necessarily put a percentage on it, but it seems to be the more likely outcome versus one of the silicon valley investors that got burned investing in ftx in the first place. >> kate rooney, thank you. lots of people -- i wonder why, even if you had the money, would you throw in with sam bankman-fried at this point? i guess we'll see. thank you. meanwhile, there's been a good november for chinese tech stocks the kweb tracking for one of it best months ever more on the key winners and losers you should be watching here next. we're back in two. r healthcare should evolve with you and part of that evolution means choosing the right medicare plan for you. humana can help. with original medicare you are covered for hospital stays and doctor office visits but you'll have to pay a deductible for each. a medicare supplement plan can

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sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. let's get a gut check on twitter. lots of news coming out of elon musk's company musk reinstated former president donald trump's accounts after he was banned back in january 2021 in the wake of the attack on the capitol. this after musk conducted a poll on twitter and about 52% of people said they supported trump's reinstatement. but trump said on saturday he does not see any reason to return to the platform >> meanwhile, twitter which is operating with less than half of its staff than when musk took over is busy with the world cup. which kicked off in qatar over the weekend. elon musk encouraging people to follow the games on his platform, saying watch on

twitter for the best coverage and realtime commentator, but there are a lot of questions about whether the platform can continue operating smoothly during traffic surges with so many employees gone. the guardian reports that a recently departed employee said there is a 50% chance that twitter has a major crash during the world cup. "tech check" is back after this. to adapt in a fast changing world, you could hire a professional pit crew. go, go, go. sorry. nope. okay. fresh donuts - hot coffee! they deliver real time data and business forecasts when you need it. i think it was fine how it was. (air tool sound) to help you stay ahead of the curve... or you could use workday. the finance, hr and planning system that helps cfos

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welcome back china reporting its first covid death in six months, with many wondering what it means for beijing's commitment to its new approach for zero covid. eunice yoon is live from beijing with more. i'm not sure if the more significant thing is that china reported this covid death or if it's -- is the general belief or consensus that this is indeed the first or just the first that's being reported in six months >> well, now we have three reported deaths here in beijing, which is -- this is the first in six months but either way, if it's one or if it's three, it's all raising concerns here that we could see a much more chaotic enforcement of already conflicting covid policies the capital put its largest district where i am now into an effective shutdown, shutting most businesses and putting

schools online this also comes as kwang joe is in a much worse situation, the export hub in the south, and it's put its most populous district into a five-day lockdown and the rest of the city is in what city is what the authorities have described as a silent mode, so an effective shutdown, and this comes after a week when the leadership said they would be easing their covid policy, a stringent approach they take towards covid. at the same time, what we are seeing more and more and what investors are aware of, is this is not a reopening in a way that most of the world might understand it, but it's a reopening with chinese characteristics, so they are trying to get rid of some of the most egregious measures, and at the same time here on the ground it does not feel as though the

policy has changed, and it seems tighter and more confusing because the authorities at the local level want to say they are in line with the reopening rules, and we are not getting clear direction and it's leading to chaos >> mixed signals thank you. the news putting a pause on the stellar run, so here to discuss this is chief economists from shanghai. good to see you. what do foreign investors need to know? wall street has become more bullish, and is there enough to reverse or pause that sentiment? >> i think because the rally has been very, very strong, and i think some of the internets have had the best run on record in a short while, so it is bound to

take profit off the table. and having said that, we are seeing some changes. jd.com's earnings is very strong, and also one of the biggest gaming company in the world is actually getting new gaming license approval from the top, and that has been suspended for almost two years now so for a company that is earning 50% of its earnings from gaming, it's a big deal. we are seeing in general the s sentiments of chinese names warming up, and the rally has been running hard in the past couple of weeks, and that's why it's taking a pause here >> you are pointing to the fundamentals are looking better at some of the tech companies, and looking at the fundamentals for chinese companies is tricky, because beijing is the wildcard,

right? >> that's right. >> and what we have seen in the past few weeks and last few years as well with xi jinping's government, is it more focused on growth or ideology these days >> i think by march of next year, i think it should come in, right, so the -- each responsibilities in the government, it's time for the leaders to work on the economy if you look at the economic numbers this year, it's extremely weak, and i think that export growth has been negative, and export growth domestically has been negative as well. 2023, conseplumption and export are negative, and the government is running out of money so it would make it difficult to sustain the economy, and so i next year the network will be

back in focus. >> it seems like a big coincidence china relaxed the zero covid policy, and a week later there's three deaths report for the first time in six months is there a sense that part of the zero covid policy was reporting zero deaths from covid? >> i think that when you do relate the covid zero rule in the wintertime, some deaths are bound to happen. for china now, because the covid virus has mutated to a much weaker form but more contagious, and for china to reopen, it has to sustain sort of a -- three months, three or four months of a surge in confirmed cases with rising deaths because of that, so there seems to be no way out because the virus is so contagious they locked down the entire

city -- or the entire country or you are just basically lying flat and just let everybody probably get the virus and then get immunity, crowd immunity eventually >> great to get your insights. thank you for staying up for us in shanghai. thank you. >> thank you off the lows a bit for the nasdaq "techcheck" is back in a moment.

as we close out "techcheck," let's get a look at the markets. take a look at some of the laggers, you have jd.com and the work from home daughter hreupbgz, it makes for an interesting setup tonight. >> part of what is interesting, i think, about what name tonight, zoom, it's way down from its all-time highs, of course it's even about 70% down from its 52-week highs. it's still around a $24 million cap market and enterprise.

i don't know there are interesting possibilities there on the mna front and if this company can stabilize. it was not able to buy 59d, and we will see how well that enterprise portion is holding up in this slowdown >> yeah, and we talked about some of the other high growth names, and zoom reached profitability, and etf with the arc ownership, it's waiting in the etf, 9.7%, and zoom is one not being let go of. >> yeah, i don't know if the cathie wood backdrop is bullish or not, and there's a lot out there cheaper than it used to be zoom is a pretty good size, is

what i am saying, and in names, it's not in a peloton position, exactly, after all of this people still using it and no hardware or inventory to worry about. >> that's right. as we head to the next show, the cloud index down 1.8%. let's get over to "halftime report" now. >> welcome everybody to the "halftime report." i am scott wapner front and center stocks are not going up this year according to one watcher. we're trading disney's iger on the committee. joining me on set, and let's check the markets. the nasdaq is down a little more than 1%, and dow is off 54, and 380 is the yield on the ten-year note we're watching all