good day, everyone, and welcome to "power lunch. with kelly, i'm tyler mathisen coming up, a ton of transportation topics to talk about, three major airlines reporting results, plus tesla earning almost 10% after its numbers and elon musk's conference call comments plus, buyback blowback chevron announcing a dividend hike, a $75 billion buyback. shares are up, but the white house is wasting no time in attacking the move for lining the pockets of wealthy shareholders we'll hand that will topic a quick check on the market, green across the day, even the russells, nasdaq leading the way up 1%, the dow up 83 >> dom chu, green like my tie. >> looks like blue today to your point, let's expand on some of that you could argue the biggest headliner and influencer in the markets is tesla, as tyler mentioned, the biggest move higher on the day in megacaps in any sector and second best

performing stock in the entire s&p 500 behind only cva technologies after they topped profit and revenue at the closing bell yesterday investors shrugged off profit margins at the lowest levels in over a year. by the way, since the lows earlier this month in tesla, it's added, get this, $160 billion in market value, so watch that and chevron the biggest percentage gainer in the dow the biden administration has voiced its displeasure with the idea that chevron is returning money to shareholders instead of investing in fossil fuel production chevron has earnings tomorrow. chevron on the green side, but big blue ibm on the downside after a relatively inline earnings report. ibm is the biggest laggard in the dow on a biggest point percentage basis and point basis as well.

kelly, keep an eye on those. back to you. >> thank you we've had a ton of headlines in the transportation space. airline earnings from jetblue, american, and southwest, southwest, by the way, shares down 4.5%, boeing arraigned in court. the department of transportation probing southwest. tesla's earnings beat, and toyota's ceo and president stepping down. wow. let's start with the airlines. phil lebeau with our airline reporter leslie josephs joining us to talk about this. bill what's the standout for you today? what will we look back at as the overarching piece of news here. >> southwest without a doubt this was a much wider than expected loss, and not only that, you can see the lingering impact from the scheduling meltdown the last week of last year in the first quarter it's going to be about a $300 million hit when we talked with bob jordan today, he said that's because people had schedules that got canceled, disrupted, and had to cancel trips in early january. first quarter was slow to begin

with there's your $300 million impact, but things improve starting in march. we'll have to see. we'll see as we get closer to the end of the quarter do their bookings improve? will their customers, who are known for being extremely loyal, do they come back to southwest because there's no doubt this has been a major impact that has lasted long beyond the end of last year. >> leslie, isn't it the brand damage that's been done in part to southwest phil points out that southwest has a loyal customer base, but a lot of that loyalty was squandered there during that meltdown >> and i think southwest executives know this they handed out 25,000 rapid rewards points and that's worth about $300 they say there are a lot of redemptions so passengers will often say i'm never flying this airline again and spring break comes around and they're booking them time will tell they're already seeing cancellations in the slowdown in bookings in january and

february we'll have to see in march >> redemptions, you mean the free points people are using to book fares >> yes they're looking to later in the year, spring break, other holidays are rolling around. >> do many travel agents book on southwest? i was speaking to a travel agent not long ago who said we just don't book southwest anymore >> southwest, you know, they do drive a lot of traffic to their own website. you know, they have been kind of closed off compared with maybe some of the other airlines, a little commission with booking airline travel anyway for agents it's really hotels. >> something they didn't do anyway, book with southwest much before. >> it is possible. they offer packages and things like that, so there is a chance of that. but passengers don't have a lot of choices with airlines anyway. four airlines control more than three-quarters of the u.s. market >> exactly, and they're having a great year so far. alaska up 18%. what to you is the real barometer of demand, capacity, and can this be an area of the

economy that's sort of hanging in there and doing okay right now? >> well, it's not only doing okay, kelly, it is showing that it expects to remain strong. there is no indication that we are seeing the type of slowdown in demand that people have forecasted or warned about, especially with the possibility of a recession now, is it possible that we could see demand slow down if there is a recession, even a mild one in the middle of this year yes, that is possible, but nothing is being shown to the airlines in their forward bookings or in the intentions of corporate america to pull back on travel. so at this point, it remains really one of the healthiest sectors of the economy relative to everything else that's going on >> yeah. and i would point out that their pricing power is enormous. i just tried to book some travel out to tucson, and it literally would cost less to go to europe than to go to tucson from the new york market and back

>> wow >> phil, thank you very much leslie, we appreciate it let's get to the airline trade. david burn is senior transportation analyst at bernstein. welcome. good to see you. a lot of news in the airline world to talk about, but why don't i cut to the chase here. why don't you tell me what airline would be your favorite stock buy right now and why. >> i think it would be american or delta coming out of earnings largely because they have more limited capex needs right now. the biggest equity upside will be deleveraging the balance sheet and both those companies are in a better position to do that contrast that with united where they're undergoing a big modernization program, and southwest, who will be spending a lot to modernize its systems and avoid the disruption we saw back half of december. >> are you surprised american feels more risky i take your point about the deleveraging, but do they look

okay balance sheet-wise at this point of the expansion >> no, but they're going to look a lot better in a year they'll be generating free cash flow this year they'll start to deleverage, won't be spending on capex they're looking at net credit 2017 numbers by the end of this year that may be a little elevated but it will be away from the nose bleed levels we've been at for last couple years on that stock. as that equity profile -- as the credit risk profile starts to come down, i thinkyou'll see some relief priced into that >> even if we head into a recession? i know for analysts it's, like, listen, that's binary question, if we're going into a recession, you throw this out the window. but it would seem to me right now would be the last time you'd want risk with those versus the stalwart, the balance sheets where things take a turn -- and the economy is slowing and maybe that makes that -- calls that thesis for american into question somewhat. >> it certainly is part of the

risk, which is why the stock is trading at four times cash flow for the coming year. but if you think about the potential for demand to stay a little bit stronger for longer into this slowdown, mild recession we're headed into, if we were in a standard recession where the asking issue was high, pricing and utilization was very good, heading into recession, you'd have a lot of to potential deleveraging happening in the industry right now the industry is still running. business travel hasn't recovered. there's still pent-up for travel that has not been fulfilled. and given where prices are, i think you have some trouble of getting pushed off with prices high so travel, remember, is more of an affluent service product. this isn't the type of customer that will be trading down for private label products or filling up a gas tank half full. travel is more of a premium product. those consumers' balance sheets

tend to be a little better if we get to the back half of the year, we start to see the fed easing off on interest rates, i think, i think you'll be seeing that this recession looks unlike any other recession you've seen. a lot of people still going on vacation >> give us a quick thought on southwest. you have it as an outperform what do they need to do, or are they doing it? is this a case of this is a company that's already taken its whooping >> i think the airlines will trade as a group, and it's hard to get stock specific. they have some idiosyncratic issues the earnings results war little less than expected we need to process all that. but from an investment standpoint, i would say they'd be at the bottom of our list only because they have to go ahead and prove the market that they don't have a lot of excess, i.t. spend they need to put into business to prevent some of these problems they took that at the call today. i'm not sure it rang true. >> david, we appreciate you. david vernon

and let's turn now to the auto space we've had some big news there as well great to chat with michael whalen we start with tesla. this one is fascinating because you have a stock up 50% off the lows and people cho who keep insisting this quarter was nothing to look at how are you analyzing it >> kelly, tesla has always been an anomaly in the automotive industry nothing is just sell evs, but elon musk and the fandom they have the most earnings, the positive profits, even though we were lower on evs as well as the price cut theys recently did, it puts so much pressure on traditional automakers like gm and ford, not just make evs but make them profitably, which they are far from doing at this point. >> yeah, still, though, you know, even the headlines yesterday where musk might be trying to sell or to sort of pay down twitter debt, how is he

going to do that, a second -- he says no. what does that mean for him selling tesla shares what do you think is sentiment around the stock after we've gotten through this quarter and the profit concerns that people had going into it? >> you know, they're always concerned about elon and the company, but overall at the end of the day they're an automaker that's done extremely well and we've been seeing investors reacting to that shares are trading in the double digits traditional automakers would like that quick hit and quick increase when they hit a profit like that or when they beat. but right now tesla is still weak when it comes to kind of investors as well as evs in general. we keep talking about evs coming, coming, coming, but at the end of the day, tesla sells more evs than anyone in the u.s. that's kind of coming down a little bit, but they are still the leader outright. >> i'll tell you, when you drive around in this market in the northeast, you see so many

teslas, you'd be hard pressed to find another brand that is as highly represented as tesla is but speaking of another brand that is very highly represented everywhere, and that is toyota, its ceo, akio toyota, has stepped down to be replaced by the person who had been heading up lexus what does this mean for the company and its shares, if you can discern? >> i woke up this morning and i saw that akio was stepping down. it was a very big surprise i think it was a big surprise for many externally. he's 66, though, and he was working with a chairman who is in his mid-70s, and it was kind of decided that it was time. and akio and him have been facing more criticism this year because of electric vehicles and last year and the success of tesla and toyota kind of being not investing in these as rapidly as others.

and this is going to be an interesting transition akio will still be chairman. his name is on the company his namesake his grandfather started the company. but it should be interesting to see what the new ceo does, who was leading a lot of efforts before this, how much they change the plan or if they accelerate that ev plan or what they do. they've been pushing for hybrids, hybrids, hybrids. >> pushing hybrids and plug-in high ybrids on their toyota brad as an amateur observer, it would be lexus is ahead of toyota in terms of evs they have more product or more prominent product, i would say, in that space. >> you know, i wouldn't even -- lexus is such a small brand at this point, but by 2023 they want lexus all electric. that's why the decision for the new ceo internally, everyone told me it would make sense, kind of a natural progegs at this point but the ev plans are still in

flux and trying to kind of shore up that and get investors on board, because when you look at toyota, it is truly a global automaker. switching to all evs is not going to work for that because you have geographic reasons that aren't ready for that. we'll keep seeing the transition and it will be very interesting to see what the new ceo does >> good to see you michael wayland. coming up, we will tackle a trio of tech topics with our panel including ibm, adding to the layoffs we've been seeing in technology, and chevron facing backlash from the white house over its $75 billion share buyback plan

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welcome back to "power lunch," everybody. stocks trading higher today on a strong gdp report, giving investors hope for a soft economic landing but our next guest is preparing for a year of more volatility. let's bring in mike binger, gradient investments president mike, welcome. good to have you with us >> thank you >> are you more sanguine about the markets than negative? i assume you are >> i am. i tend to be more optimistic this year. i think the market is getting more and more comfortable that, just as you said, we'll have a soft landing, that the economy will be okay, that we're not going to go to a lot higher unemployment rates and, you know, we already have a strong workforce, you know, their wages are going up and they're

spending money so i think the market's comfortable that the economy would be okay and earnings will not have to be cut as much as people think in 2023 >> it feels to my uneducated perspective that the market seems to want to go higher whether that is true or not is to be debated, and whether that turns out to be smart or not is certainly in doubt it may be exactly the wrong thing, but it does feel to me that, since midfall or maybe even early fall, the market has been in a more positive frame of mind >> yeah. i think it definitely is, and you're really seeing that right now. i think investors are seeing and feeling that inflation has peaked i think they feel in their hearts that interest rates are not going to skyrocket, you know, out of control i think they feel that the fed is going to do a couple of moderate raises and then pause and see how things are going so all in all, i think the market is really becoming

comfortable that this will be more of a soft landing than some type of recession that's going to take us over a cliff. >> if you, mike, were of the opinion that it might be worse, what should you do >> well, if you feel it's worse, and if you're going to invest in stocks, then i would invest in stocks that are high quality, that were probably beaten up pretty hard in 2022, and i would look for earnings and dividends and cash flow. i mean, it really is just basic investing 101 blocking attack, get back to that high quality name selection >> i see names in here like alphabet you hope they have a fortressed balance sheet, so to speak google, delta. what's your reaction to the chevron news today do you like the idea of returning a lot of this excess cash via buybacks and dividends? would it make you want to invest that company if you're not exposie d to the energy space

already? >> we are invested with chevron and when i see news like that with a huge buyback, a couple years ago the market was very upset with energy companies because they were just, you know, borrowing and spending and borrowing and spending during, you know, the fracking era, when that was all coming out. now that they're returning cash to shareholders, i mean, it seems like some people are upabout that we certainly are not their cash flow is very strong right now, and, you know, i like the fact that they're returning cash to us >> also one of your picks is in the beaten-up reit space, extra space storage. i assume this is being driven by the need to find places for classified documents >> i love your thought there no, that's not our thesis there. but when you look at extra space storage, i mean, they're just a pretty mundane business, but it's defensive, it's durable the stock has gotten up as all reits did in 2022 when rates were going up. i'm of the belief that the rate increasing will be on pause for

right now, so i think this is just a good blocking and tackling defensive type of play because earnings growth has still been positive and it's a lot cheaper than it was a year ago. >> so you don't think rates go higher from here you don't think the fed will raise at least a quarter point, maybe a couple quarter of a points >> oh, no, i think the fed is going to raise a couple times, but i think market interest rates are not going to get out of control and i think we've already, like, seen in the 10-year treasury, i think we've seen the high there on that yield. >> all right, sir. thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thanyou're welcome. buybacks are in the spotlight. the white house is targeting chevron for extra cash on buybacks instead of what they say could be putting the money towards more drilling. agle call) nope. how do we show that we'll stand tall through the storms? nah. (thunder) how do we make our clients feel secure and- ugh...

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welcome back to "power lunch. let's get a quick check on the market where is the nasdaq is up 1.3% as the rise continues the dow is up about 106. tech is outperforming today as you might have gleaned, and that's helping us with a little bit of this dispersion the dow also weighed down by ibm after its earnings last night. let's get a check on the bond markets too. there's the man of the hour, rick santelli live at the cbo. rick >> hi, kelly

yes, maybe we glean a lot from a two-day chart because instead of trading below previous day's trade yields, we're trading above yesterday's yields we're going to get a lot of information, some of the fed's favorite inflationgate activacty if you look at the close going back to the 18th, that sub-340 close, that was a 3 1/2-month low yield close. we've come back a bit. even though many believe rates will keep going down, for tomorrow, look at the bigger charts you want to pay attention to 3.40 to 3.5. you have to pay attention especially knowing we have fed and jobs next week and let's grab a trader and see what they're looking at. david. >> yes, sir. >> tomorrow we have big numbers, personal consumption expenditure, the deflators >> right. >> is there any activity in options that give us a clue as

to what traders are thinking for tomorrow's numbers >> a mixed battle right now, but it doesn't mean all options are down front end, a lot of risk/reward with owning a lot of the gama. expecting something tomorrow or next week. there might be a move. >> they're more concerned about nearby they're not big option plays over longer terps. >> correct they want that instant gratification, or they're nervous and think something is going to happen. >> when we look at some of these options that expire in one day, that accounts for a big chunk of -- >> that's big chunk of it. >> after the number comes in tomorrow, do you think they'll hit volatility hard? >> that's tough because you think maybe possibly, but there's unemployment next week next friday. a couple other numbers next week they don't want to hit it too hard because they want protection. >> basically you want versatility and to be able to be flexible but think they there's

a big move coming. >> correct >> david, thank you. back to you. >> thank you very much rick santelli. energy the best performing sector today helped by a gain in the price of oil, not to mention the price of shchevron's stock. >> chevron up more than 4% and leading the sector higher. a lot of mention with that buyback announcement oil is also up more than 1%. ubs said they see brent topping 100 bucks in the coming months, but there is so much hinging on the bounceback in chinese demand, so you have to wonder what happens if we don't get as healthy of a forecast in terms of their demand as the street thinks we're going to get. on the flipside, if it far exceeds what wall street is forecasting. then we've been watching that gap all week now below the $3 level and falling to the latest since april of 2021.

it does roll tomorrow. the next contract for march delivery is also under $3, so it's not like this is a total anomaly on the under $3 mark >> i think it was last night, i'm going, i wonder if this is what pippa was saying about the contract is coming up and no one wants it because no one can store natural gas unless you're a taker with an lng facility >> ice part of that. but the curve has come down as well there are short-term forecasts were higher temperatures that are indplunsing the price action right now. >> what happens when the contract rolls over? it's at 2.94 per whatever mlb tus, cubic feet. what happens then tomorrow >> well, tomorrow the march contract already trading, it becomes the front one. >> that's the one we'll be looking at beginning tomorrow. >> tomorrow will still see the february 1 tomorrow is the last day on the monday, we'll show the march one. we can show it tomorrow. >> not a lot of difference people saying it's the end of

the contract maybe still called the widow maker. that used to be trade that everyone would just keep crushing you, and we saw things change if the last couple years with the energy shortages. it's amazing to see it come all the way back you have to think it can't get any lower. you just have to think it can't get any lower than where we are now. >> yeah. i mean, i thought that a month ago, and here we are i think that this has take an lot of people by surprise. i think the extent to which we were forecasting colder temperatures and in europe as well there were so many fears around what is europe going to do and then with high temperatures that quickly changed but, you know, relying on the weather, who knows what happens. >> exactly right and storm levels are rising. everything's fine. i a, thanks. let's get to contessa brewer for a cnbc news update five former memphis police officers have been charged with second-degree murder and other felonies in the arrest and death

of tyre nichols. court records show all five are in custody county prosecutors are expected to give more details on the case when video of the arrest may be released that's in the news conference in about half an hour the national archives is reportedly having former presidents and vice presidents to make sure they don't have any classified documents in their possession those requests come in the wake of recent discoveries of documents at the homes of former vice president mike pence and president biden and of course those of donald trump. and a white house proposal will allow people to check hispanic or latino as their race on federal questionnaires. this is the first update of federal definitions of race and ethnicity in more than 25 years. people from the middle east and north africa would also get their own category instead of being more generally categorized as white so this could give us a lot of new details when we look at census results

tyler? >> >> contessa brewer thanks you. ahead, more tech layoffs to tell you about, smartphone shipments are shrinking, and trump signing back on facebook

welcome back to "power lunch. it's time for some tech talk with lots of headlines to digest today. smartphone shipments falling to their lowest level if a decade joining the list of tech giants announcing layoffs weighing on the down cutting 4,000 employees. and meta reinstating former president trump on fc and instagram after a two-year suspension we brought in the heavy hitters, the tech team. we're not going to make any bachelor jokes, i promise. in our studio, john ford, dominic chu, and steve kovak welcome to all of you. the smartphone data. just over 1.2 billion shipped last year. sounds like a lot according to ibc. it's the lowest since 2013 ibc saying there was significantly dampened consumer demand, inflation, economic

uncertainty. it's one thing to say we're coming off the pandemic. there was a surplus. but we've pulled way back now. wow. >> first of all, i am not the father [ laughter ] yes, we have there's a demand issue here. these are shipments, not sales, right? so there's inventory buildup that's an issue in there as well it's apple but it's also other smart fophone maker who is fared worse during this period so the implications for 2023, once we get past the holiday quarter, how long does it take you to work through excess inventory? does consumer spending pick up again, especially given the fact the savings rate is coming down, credit card balances are high, and jamie dimon says the consumer might tap out >> are the phones getting better enough, fast enough to induce people to change >> that's not really the issue, tyler. the biggest culprit in my view is apple because those production snags that we saw last fall that caused all those missed production in china, all those missed sales, one week

from today we report earnings. the number one question in the analysts' notes leading up to that is, is the demand going to carry into this quarter? they literally couldn't make the phones in time for christmas >> if this is a supply issue, not a demand issue, that's bullish. >> but on the apple end -- but the demand is falling on the lower end, the samsungs and those android devices. >> back to the question, if it's not an apple-specific issue, though there are clearly specific issues pertaining to apple, is it not true that people are holding back and holding on to phones longer because the improvements in the phones -- >> that's been the case for years. >> -- aren't as great as they were five, ten years ago >> it's not necessarily about the improvements apple has had a pretty good cycle with the 14, 13. part is the carrier subsidies. what insensitive to-do the carriers have to discount a phone when people aren't buying that much, right if the economy is slowing overall and they're not leaning

into, say, 5g deployment right now, do they really need for that phone to be the salesman for the network the way they did a couple years ago if they pull back on subsidies and consumer demand is waning a bit, that affects whether the consumer feels like it's time. >> the bigger picture is it's all of the supply chain issues and everything else, there is still that macroeconomic backdrop where consumers might feel a little more cautious about spending -- a smartphone these days costs from $300 to over $1,000 for the high-end apple ones if you have an environment you're paying $7 for a dozen eggs, food costs soaring, people feeling like their paychecks are not catching up, it might way on consumer sentiment you get a feeling like if those things -- and by the way, the news cycle doesn't help because every day how many ceos come on our air talking about the word recession, recession, recession, recession. at some point, it's got to be, like, okay maybe i should be a little more careful how -- >> the layoff news >> speaking of layoffs, ibm is

set to lay off about 1.5% of its workforce, about 3,900 folks there you see the stock down 4% today, or $5 it's joining a growing list of tech giants who are doing this >> so, the issue right now is it's almost like a self-fulfilling prophesy for technology or media and telecom in general you have some of the biggest players early on set the precedent. and what that's in essence done is given many of these tech firms -- >> starting with elon musk and twitter. >> this is the idea that this is -- i mean, to kitchen sink it is to be simplistic and crass about it, but this is a quarter you could see a lot of tech ceos coming out and announcing these types of cuts that are not massive in nature and scale but enough to at least kind of right size their cost structure, and they won't face the kind of blowback they would normally see in a normal cycle because every one of their peers is doing the

exact same thing >> what's noteworthy, john, is their stock is down. some of these tech companies have come out with job cuts and the stock responds positively because investors say you overhired, we have to pull back and right size why in ibm's case are the layoffs telling something perhaps the market didn't sense about slowing demand or competition? >> how to put this kind of politely in the sense that any layoff is significant, certainly for the people who are afefectad you hate to see that happen. for ibm, it's almost something you wouldn't even announce in a different economic time as ibm churns through the workforce the reason why the stock is down today doesn't have to do with the layoff unless some people it wasn't big enough. it has to do with what some analysts call earning quality, the fact the software number wasn't as much up as you might have hoped, and plus ibm's helped by the stronger mainframe cycle right now, so that helps on the hardware side but that doesn't necessarily stick around for quarter after

quarter after quarter. so i think, you know, ibm's had a pretty good run. it was up last year where others were not and so, you know, in this environment, maybe the -- >> the revenue was pretty good >> but there were also cash flow concerns, issues with regard to how the cash flows are shaping up and the growth of those cash flows in the future that leads to some analysts and investors taking pause >> ibm, a stock everybody was excited about. to john's point, we're coming off the performance last year, and wo wow, they're bucking the trend of turning things around now that's being called a little boo into question. >> last year big tech got wrecked. ibm of all names outperformed the rest of their peers. >> right. >> we see the stock down today because of this, but, yeah -- >> don't call it too soon. how much tesla is up if tesla is up of course ibm is down >> right >> is tesla staying up, ibm staying down >> some investors look at that 12-month chart and say dead money is a good thing.

>> exactly >> relatively speaking let's talk about what's going on at meta where, like twitter did previously, they're reinstating the accounts of former president trump on facebook and instagram he was suspended just over two years after controversial posts around the january 6th insurrection i guess the question here, there's a couple of process questions, how do they deal with this in the future, but also the question, dom, of in twitter's case, am i wrong, he has yet to come on and actually tweet >> there's an interesting dynamic in that the backlash monk getting kicked off these platforms kicked off his campaign of trying to find alternative platforms and marketing them you think about truth social you think about -- all of these things are in play so what's curious about this is about whether or not, even though the account is able to be reinstated, whether they're active on it, because if they are, they're acknowledging the fact that they wouldn't have had the influence they did without the platforms themselves

>> right >> which i think is strange for somebody who really feels as though they are the ones who are contributing the content to those platforms. >> what does this say, john or steve, about the place that tech companies see themselves as, quote, arbiters of or publishers of political discourse nick clegg, the spokesperson, i don't know what his job is, made the announcement here, talked about facebook not wanting to be put in the position of arbitrating political discourse. >> they've been saying that for years. we've been hearing this since the 2016 election. and i've -- john has too -- we've heard countless discussions with executives at google and facebook about this they say exactly that, can't be the arbiters of the truth. but they don't understand that they're also media companies, and just like we make editorial decisions at cnbc and -- >> i see it that way also. i see them as publishers, truly. >> exactly

but they don't see themselves that way that's where the issue is. for example, looking at when elon musk took over twitter and his behavior just kind of arbitrarily banning people proved that, look, i'm an editor, i'm deciding who gets to pick and choose. and that's what people complained about twitter on the first part these are all editorial decisions. >> section 230 says all these platforms can make their own rules. remember revelry they are allowed to do whatever they want. the more they try to act arbiters the more we hold them to a higher standard >> the business part of this story investors should pay attention so is the narrative on facebook has totally changed at this point do you remember when everybody said it's crazy over there, they don't know what they're doing. that's what they're saying about twitter now. facebook has the oversight board that said facebook needs to figure out what the rules are for kicking people off and bring them back on it can't be indefinite they've made a plan. now they're doing it

all of a sudden it looks like, okay, well, not only does facebook have process when it comes to this sort of thing, their core business, a lot of analysts are turning around saying it's going to be up this year and the question is, is facebook going to keep spending on the metaverse? but if they don't, all of a sudden that core business that was getting all of that criticism, now the heat is on tiktok, right, the heat is on twitter. >> absolutely. >> and it's off of facebook. >> if they took your point and said forget the metaverse, the shares would probably double >> or just spend $8 billion or $10 billion instead of $20 billion. who knows? >> right. >> put up guardrails on everything >> exactly >> all right jon fortt, dom chu, steve, thank you very much. enjoyed it with the white house blasting chevron's buyback te othshs e swreelgth lastn at

let's give you a quick market check with the dow industrials up about a half percent, double that, twice that, or 0.8% for s&p 500, back above 4,000, pressing uptoward toward 4,100 nasdaq doing what it's been doing, moving higher in leaps or

bounds or both, i suppose, and tesla helping there, up almost 10%, 9.25%, still down nearly 60% off its one-year high. but it is up markedly. i read the number earlier, i don't want to quote it because it's not in my head but a double-digit number. >> off the lows in a couple weeks' time. still to come, president biden commenting on the economy and jobs after the white house hu bheonhwords for cvr's geuyback plan.

welcome back, everybody. chevron pledging several billion dollars. the white house isn't, blasting the company for not reinvesting the money for more oil and drilling production. what did the white house say in response toe the news of this big buyback. >> president biden is speaking nearby in virginia, talking of the improving conomy, accordin to the white house, and the president set to announce what he's going to call the invest in america cabinet, six of his top secretaries that will be dispatched across the country in the coming months to talk about

how good the economy is and how it's bucked a lot of the analysts they're going to be doing in contrast to what republicans on capitol hill have proposed and some of the acts they've taken to drive taxes higher or make gas prices more expensive. there's some low-hanging fruit they're taking aim at, and that's chevron's buy ban black the administration has been critical of buybacks for the better part of two years both in public and in private meetings with the ceos, according to people familiar with these meetings, but overnight a white house official releasing this statement directly in response to what the company announced, saying that essentially the company needed to be plugging that capital back into more drilling or returning some of that money to consumer, not shareholders, saying that for a company claiming not too long ago that it was working hard to

increase oil production, handing out $75 billion to executives and wealthy shareholders sure is an odd way to show it. i talked to some industry resources how this statement is being received they said it's expected and it won't necessarily change the company's plans, but chevron like many companies is having issues ramping up production, hiring employee, getting the part it needs to build more rigs, so even if it was or could increase production, it might have a difficult time doing so. >> chevron's a widely held stock, one of the most widely held i've had people emailing me, hey, i'm not wealthy, i own che chevron. i want them to pursue these moves. >> everybody owns chevron. it's interesting that berkshire is the biggest shareholder warren buffett took a position in early 2022 which turned out to be a good move. they quadrupled their holdings

berkshire, vanguard, state street and blackrock, they own the energy indexes and that's why america owns so much the one thing that's important to understand, this is bigger than chevron buybacks are a really, really big business they almost bought back $1 trillion last year in the s&p total buybacks that's bigger than dividends which were 560, $580 billion the reason is wall street loves buybacks it loves them because there's immediate gratification. think about it they're going out and buying shares in the public market and everyone loves that. dividends are stickier wall street likes it because it's flexible. that's the key thing for it. i'll tell you the big problem that's always existed, and we talked about it for years. they often don't lead to any

lower share count. you do that to lower your earnings per share it doesn't happen because many companies simply add more options to employees for their executives and there's a lot of m & a activity they spend an awful lot of money buying back shares recently and just add it on the other end. >> thank you very much b pisani and kayla tow she. >> more "power lunch" is back. stay with us don't go anywhere. g easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools, and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities. while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market.

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welcome back we used chatgpt to write the introduction to our guest interview. buzzfeed is doing it for the same thing, generate content, write quizzes. the company remains focused on journalism by humans what's insulting is the tripling of shares now. it's a teeny, tiny shot shot here. >> a buzzfeed. it reminds me of the debate over genetically modified food. and these are genetically modified pieces of reports >> ungenetic by the way, should we also do a quick check on bed bath? >> sure. >> this is quite a time if you're a small stock with a lot

at stake here. buzzfeed trying to pursue one option, bed bath, for what it's worth having some videographer tilt of its own. shares are down 17%. >> $2.67 all right, folks that will do it for "power lunch. >> "closing bell" starts right now. stocks moving higher as stronger-than-expected gdp boosts sentiment this is a make-or-break hour for your money welcome, everyone, to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen take a look at where we stand. nasdaq up a nice 1.32% thank you, tesla, for that one the s&p down 130 points. the high on the day was 177. energy is the leading sector today after that chevron buyback that was announced consumer discretionary, consumer technology, most of the sectors are green. what's lagging,