developers david? >> diana, thank you. diana olick. with the s&p down about 0.11%, the nasdaq in positive territory. let's get over to carl and sara on the floor good morning i'm carl quintanilla along with sara eisen on the new york stock exchange dan niles calling for rates to rise to 6% as morgan stanley pushes its first rate cut prediction back to early 2024. bob iger's second first 100 days as ceo. michael nathanweighs in. exclusive with affirm ceo max levchin with shares down 70% over the past year, the company cutting a fifth of its workforce earlier this month. the final day of february ending with a bit of a whimper

s&p unchanged. some strength in services and materials. the nasdaq outperforms by just a bit but it has been a down month for stocks the dow leading 4% on the month. investors searching for a turn in sentiment consumer confidence declined again in february. of the 420 companies that reported in the last week, the number of companies lowering guidance doubled the number of those raising. this back drop leading morgan stanley to say they now see the fed delivering the first rate cut in march 2024. previous estimates was for that to happen in december '23. let's bring in cnbc senior markets commentator mike santoli. the cuts get pushed out, but i think consumer confidence, the first real data point we're getting in the month of february off strong january, being a little weaker, could be significant. >> it could be again, consumers' estimation of the present condition is actually better than expected. they continue to say, we're not

sure wages are high enough. the entire macro and fundamental picture has been elongated whether it's the expected earnings erosion, hasn't really accelerated. you had that push off how long this rate-hiking cycle will continue we had a revival of risk-taking coming into this year. there was a change of character in this market and the question is, how much of february leave of that? if you go back to the peak of all the markets february 2nd, things were looking frothy, overexcited. since then you've had the cloud stocks down more than 10%, ark down 10%, heavily shorted retail names, crypto. the question is, could we cool off the overheated stuff while leaving the broader market in a decent place so far, i think you could say so. >> what about the notion earning estimates take a tumble in the third month of a quarter which is why morgan stanley says there's so much risk embedded in march? >> in reporting season and thereafter you have a little bit of a reprieve.

i wouldn't deny it i think the only question is, the market's ability to look through this you know, we talk about it's been the longest period without a new high in the market since 2015, 2016 the market was able to look through that because it seemed like a mid-cycle pause it was not giving way to recession. the fed actually even stopped after one rate hike basically in late 2015 and took a year perform. so, it's a different mode right now. if it becomes this inevitable slide into earnings recession down 20% from the highs in terms of s&p earnings, no, we're not priced for that. again, it's an if, not a when. >> the key reports to watch as we go -- start to get the february data, clearly jobs, which is no sign of calming down inflation, which we need to see start coming down after sort of came up in the month of january. consumer spend -- the fed will be data dependent. and we want to see weaker data, right? >> you want to see weaker data, at least the stuff that drives

inflation. let's remember the tone of the recent run of fed commentary they've not been saying we need to jack unemployment up a lot to get the job done if inflation numbers themselves start to cooperate, then we're looking at the inputs to inflation directly not necessarily the jobs number. now, we'll see if that kind of tone survives the next run of data releases. >> that's certainly the bullard, non-phillips curve. >> exactly. >> and every single fed decade-long cycle has had a massive rethink of the relationship between jobs, employment and inflation so, i don't think it would be weird for them to have to back off that a little bit. the problem is inflation might not get friendlier, even if that context. >> i think if you're seeing wage gains like we're seeing, consumers will continue to spend. >> that's been the question. is that dynamic just so embedded that we have to interrupt you in order to get the job done on inflation. >> mike, thank you mike santoli as we close out a more bearish

february, how should you be positioned for the rest of the year our next guest has been preaching a combination of offense and defense in 2023, predicting we'll see the fed raise rates closer to 6% in the second half of the year. let's bring in santori fund manager dan niles. welcome. if the fed goes to 6%, you still see more pain for the equity markets, which is not quite priced for that. >> absolutely. and i think the reason we see it going to 6% is, don't forget the biggest consumer commodities on the planet has been shut down for three years. in china, exited zero covid in december so, from our perspective, you know, you look at inflation and what it's done it's come down a lot for them by commodity prices during this period of time with china opening up, we actually have our portfolio in a lot of commodity-driven names, copper, aluminum, oil, et cetera i think you'll see by midyear commodity prices start to really pick up as china starts to

consume again. and then don't forget, their consumers are also sitting on about $1.2 trillion in excess savings but they're going to start to spend now that they've been unlocked. so, that's where we see inflation staying strong you've got twice as many job openings as people unemployed, that's going to keep wages strong and that's 25% of pce that drives the fed to 6%. versus expectations of some rate cut that, you know, people had been thinking up until now >> let's talk about how you're positioning for that setup i looked to you and wondering if you were in sexy tech stock, some name we haven't heard of or that's been hammered i see the first one on your list is a three-month t-bill. why? >> as you opened up with, right, our portfolio is a mixture of offense and defense because our belief is as you get into the back half of the year, the positives, $1.5 trillion in u.s.

consumer, excess savings, that's going to be depleted by the back half you'll have inflation pick up. i think you'll see new lows for the s&p 500 as you get into the back half of the year. so, in that scenario you want to have a combination of offense and defense. remember, when we started last year, a three-month t-bill yielded about three basis points now you can get about 4.8% on that and so you want to have some cash on hand, especially if you think the s&p is a good shot of getting to 3,000, which is kind of where we think it will end up ultimately we have health care in there as well, the xlv to give you some defense. we also have offense in there. meta, obviously, that's done pretty well this year. we think it's going to keep getting better based on some of the advantage plus tools they have coming, which is ai-powered advertising. i think that's going to do pretty well. and then we own a japanese bank, mufg we think that's going to do really well as japan gets away

from yield control we have this mixture of offense and defense sitting in the port y portfolio. >> your meta, you're saying it's too cheap at 16 times, they've already taken their medicine, expenses getting under control, contraction on reels aren't there other companies, maybe not of that size, which have gotten cheap and which have at least taken the bull by the horns on expense control and even capex control >> well, the last piece is valuation. so, you've got meta trading at about 15 times the s&p is trading at 18 times don't forget, they lost about $10 billion of revenues when apple put in their privacy change they are lapping that and their new tools are helping them with efficiency for advertising. you put that together and you have to consider the valuation

piece of this. just because something is down 90%, it doesn't mean it's cheap. it just means it's down 90%. if it's profitable, you have a bigger problem in that the market gets worse because the fed has to keep raising rates. those companies are going to run out of money, so down 90% doesn't mean it can't go down another 100% so, i think that's the last piece that people sort of ignored because for the last 15 years, every time the market looked like it was going to stall out, the fed was able to stimulate the market, cut rates further. so, that kept the party alive. well, that's because you didn't have any inflation you have high inflation right now. the fed's got a different playbook and people are going back to the playbook of the last 15 years >> it's a great point. and that lost fed put is so interesting. i got to wonder, i mean, if, in fact, you're wonder about s&p getting to 3k, how does the fed commentary sound at that moment? >> here's the thing, right they've been very clear about

this they need to get inflation under control for the long term. and if you go back to the 1970s, we have this playbook. the fed's looked at that and said, the fed prematurely cut three separate times, including volker, which people forget about, and then inflation took off again. the fed then had to raise rates even higher. that was painful and punishing so, this fed does not want to make the same mistake. so, we've got some charts on danniles.com that show how many jobs there are relative to people if you just big picture think about what happened to the u.s. economy when we got unlocked inflation really took off. so imagine what happens when the biggest consumer of lots of different commodities in the world. china, they've been locked up for three years. they're getting unlocked they're stimulating their economy because they don't want social unrest, which we saw in december that's the piece you got to remember as we get further into this year.

that's going to put a lot of pressure on the fed to keep hiking that's why we think 6% is where you get to and you get no rate cuts this year because of that >> on the flip side, dan, you could have a scenario where the u.s. consumer weakens further and there are some signs in this week's and last week's retail earnings that that's starting to happen that services inflation comes down even if commodities start to rise off china and the fed won't have to do much more >> remember, the services is driven by jobs unemployed. the u.s. is sitting on $1.5 trillion in excess savings that's what we call the tale of two halves first is china unlocking, u.s. consumer having a lot of money to spend back half, inflation picks up, u.s. consumer, that $1.5 trillion, they kind of run out, but inflation is still high

because people have jobs and commodities, pricing is going up that's why we're saying it's the tale of two halves the back half, that's what you call stagflation growth slows down, high inflation. it's the worst environment for multiples that there are and with the s&p at 18 times trailing, that is why we kind of think that's going to have to contract along with earnings contracting. that's why we have this mixture of offense and defense there are some good stock opportunities. we own a lot of names in there that are down. it's not all bad but you need to be careful because i think the overall market's under pressure. >> are you shorting semiconductors and some of these other tech stocks with a pretty bloomy outlook like that >> i'm glad you brought up semiconductors if you remember from last year, we were like there's going to be a massive inventory correction the good news for semis, it's

gone absolutely horrific you talk about pc demand was down 35% or so intel is forecasting down 40% in the market quarter a lot of those companies have gone through that inventory burn we own nvidia. they'll be the biggest beneficiary from ai. we bought intel after that horrific cut to their numbers as well you're going to need more powerful microprocessors doesn'tbenefit as much as graphics that's a name that's been beaten down to 1.2 times book again, mixture of offense with nvidia, a little defense hopefully with intel so, with semis, we're actually leaning more to the positive side where you probably are close to all the inventories in march. all thesis problems started a year ago in march. it's -- that's why i'm saying stock picking, you have to go through the sector to carl's point, there's a space where some stuff has gotten beat up you can look at it and say,

maybe 1.2 times book, even though intel is doing horrifically, going from horrific to just plain bad and that's enough to give you a little bit of stability, hopefully going forward. and the last shoe to drop with their dividend cut, you need some processors, more powerful processors maybe that works nvidia is obviously the poster child for genretive ai even with that high multiple, we have that mixture of offense and defense in semis. >> stock picking, dan niles, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thanks, sara. >> it is an interesting call with the s&p going to 3,000 to see some of the semiconductors rally. >> i like the danniles.com shout out as well. >> shameless, always. >> thanks, dan. still to come this hour, we're grading bob iger's first 100 days for a second time what challenges lie ahead in the next 100 affirm's max levchin will join the show the stock soaring this year but

a 19% staff cut and a tough earnings print, shares down 40% from the highs of '23. what's next for goldman ceo david solomon. we'll get a take on some of the mistakes he says the company made

everything's changing so quickly. before the xfinity 10g network, we didn't have internet that let us play all at once. every device? in every room? why are you up here? when i was your age, we couldn't stream a movie when the power went out. you're only a year older than me. you have no idea how good you've got it.

huh? what a time to be alive. introducing the next generation 10g network. only from xfinity. the future starts now. when i was his age, we had to be inside to watch live sports. but with xfinity, we get the fastest mobile service and can stream down the street or around the block! hey, can you be less sister, more car? all right, let's get this over with. switch to xfinity mobile and save big on the new samsung galaxy s23 series. i should get paid more for this. you get paid when you win. from xfinity. home of the 10g network. today marks bob i guesser's second 100 days as ceo at disney in that time he has initiated a reorg of the company, unveiled $5.5 billion of cost cuts and

ended the proxy battle with nelson peltz and faces a challenging road ahead with big decisions to make, including what to do with hulu and espn, and, of course, eventually finding a new successor. joining us today, michael anyway thonson, who upgraded disney to outperform the day iger returned great to have you back the first 100 days, what's the biggest incremental news he brought us, do you think >> carl, you did a great job describing i think i the reorg was the key decision he saw the company was structured incorrectly there was too much spending going on, conflicts by having this one organized segment dmed and breaking that apart, to us, was key. the company was spending too much, spending too much on marketing and content. when he was announced to come back, we got it right away

from now on it gets harder that was an easy change. he saw that right away from this point on it's about seeing profitability of streaming pick up in the next couple of years. >> is hulu the most important thing on his desk? >> hulu is the most important thing on his desk because, you remember the day when david -- bob mentioned he was open to rethink, either he owns it or sells it, and that is put into a series of questions about how committed is he to broad entertainment spending, is he going to sell hulu, he has to buy back, buy a contract with comcast. that's put a bit of a cloud over the story. we're now waiting to hear more about what did he mean, you know, he's not wedded to but open to any type of changes. that's the overhang. we assumed he would buy in i didn't think there were many buyers for hulu at this point. we'll wait and see what happens. >> what about comcast, our parent company, is that -- do

you have a prediction of which way this goes? >> comcast agreed to have a put. we assumed, you know, and craig moffitt covers comcast, i think he would be upset if comcast then switched and brought in hulu our solution has been there's a pea peacock/hulu joint venture what comcast should do, the long-term progress of peacock and look to get back to disney and create a new company, hulu and peacock. that's what we thought makes sense. i don't think comcast will buy two-thirds of peacock owned right now. that would not be a happy day for the shareholders of comcast. >> finally today, michael, you got paramount presenting and the cfo over there saying they might come in under their projected $6 billion in content spend for

next year, given some synergies they're trying to put to work. does that directionally lead to maybe the street is at this point overestimating aggregate content spend for next year? >> carl, that is -- you know, we've been saying this for a while this year. we're entering this new period, this new phase the content spending, you don't see the returns in terms of revenues it's just not -- it's not been very high returning investments. i think everyone is now under pressure to look back at their spending and say, look, you know, we used to get paid for subscribers, which we thought was ludicrous. that's behind you. now get paid for cash on profitability, that's true for disney, warner, paramount, h hopefully, nbc, you, netflix there's still content spending, probably too much, but people will be rationale about what they're spending on content. >> welcome news to a big part of the investing basis, that's for

sure we'll see what happens in the next 100 days. i'm sure we'll talk again, if not before. when we come back, an exclusive with affirm's ceo, max levchin, after laying off 19% of its staff earlier this month the stock is up 40% already this year we're also watching chevron, boosting annual buybacks to $20 billion, don't tell the white house. those shares under a little pressure overall market is coming back dow is down 71 points. it was down 150 a few moments ago. r supply chain and ryder makes sure you're ever delivering with our portfolio of transportation services from freight brokerage to transportation management, truckload capacity and dedicated trucks and drivers. at ryder, ever better is not a tagline, it's our standard. discover how ryder transportation services can make you ever better.

we all have a purpose in life - a “why.” no matter your purpose, at pnc private bank we will work with you every step of the way to help you achieve it. so let us focus on the how. just tell us - what's your why? your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. 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

the first time you made a sale online was also the first time you heard of a town named... dinosaur? we just got an order from a dinosaur, colorado. start an easy to build, powerful website for free with a partner that always puts you first. godaddy.

tools and support for every small business first. welcome back time for our chart you can't ignore focusing on a biotech company that has news pending. meg terrill has that for us. >> hey, carl this is an interesting story this biotech company is about a $4 billion market cap company, and they have an fda decision

expected today on their lead drug for heart failure normally investors are rooting for a company's lead drug to get approved if you look at the stock, going back to december, the stock surged on the outcome of an fda advisory panel vote, which was negative actually saying the benefits of this drug don't outweigh its risks. what is going on here? well, the company's lead drug showed essentially what investors might call a marginal benefit in this heart failure indication, and they are much more focused on the next drug in the company's pipeline, which is for another heart condition, which they see as a potentially much bigger indication, maybe a multibillion dollar opportunity. that has phase three results expected in the second half of this year. that's a drug called aficamten i was just texting with an analyst saying some suggest the stock may go up today if we see the fda not approve the first drug because investors are hoping the company really focuses its resources and

attention on the next drug in the pipeline we'll have to see what the fda does today and then how the stock reacts. >> that's fascinating. given the reports earlier in the week about pfizer, pharma and biotech getting a lot more attention. your beat's heating up, thank you. let's get a news update with kristina partsinevelos. >> hi, carl. good morning, everyone else. as russia's military steps up its attacks on the front line city of bakhmut, the commanding of the defending ground forces is calling the situation extremely tense. mercenaries from the wagner group are pounding the city as they try to surrender it and cut off its supply lines in some of the heaviest fighting of the war china's spy balloon got a lot of attention as it floated across the country, but a new report says hackers linked to beijing are gathering a lot more information by breaking into computer networks. the cyber security firm crowdstrike says it has detected hackers targeting 39 industries around the world. and speaking of that, dish

network says this morning that what it calls a cyber security incident was responsible for a network outage that took down its websites it says some data was also taken but doesn't know exactly what as it continues to investigate. keep in mind, they announced that their services were down on february 23rd. they're sharing the information with us only today >> thank you. when we come back, chipmakers are scrambling for that federal funding, including this mystery chart, whose shares have risen by more than 60%. we're live outside their headquarters after the break. plus, we're watching shares of zoom. higher after earnings on an upbeat outlook enterprise revenue the big driver there stock up 3.25% with powerful, easy-to-use tools power e*trade makes complex trading easier react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity

a choppy trading session in europe coming to a close here's the story abroad this morning. red hot inflation data out of two key countries, france and spain. french consumer prices rising 7% from last year, in february, highest level since the launch of the euro back to '99. while spain's inflation ticked above 6% the big question investors are asking, will the ecb hike rates up to a record 4% to combat this the market is pricing that in for the first time bund yields continuing to climb. the german two-year now at the highest level since the financial crisis while the

ten-year is also at highs that we have not seen in over a decade i would say the equity markets are weaker there as well on this, but taking it not too terribly that we've had a complete readjustment in the inflation outlook and the rate outlook in europe as well. 4% now, thatrate being priced in they were thinking it was in the 2s a few weeks ago. >> we're getting records -- record readings out of france, 7.2. spain, 6.1 numbers we were wrestling with a year ago thankfully, aren't wrestling with quite as much the 50-basis-point case is much stronger -- >> 50 basis point is priced in in the march meeting from lagarde. food is a double digit increase in some of these inflation reports with energy prices coming down a little bit, especially natural gas the food part of global inflation remains sticky and there aren't many signs it's coming down any time soon. with still a lot of exports cut

off with places like russia and ukraine, even though a lot of commodities had started coming down it's not what we were hearing even from the food packaging companies. >> certainly the guidance out of companies like nestle, we're not done yet. >> we're not done yet. which is how much can the consumer stomach the french consumer has been holding up pretty well despite these inflation numbers. let's turn to semis. starting today chipmakers can apply for a piece of that $50 million in funding from commerce those funds do come with some strings attached kayla is in minnesota at skywater technology, just one company vying for some of these funds. good morning, kayla. >> reporter: good morning, carl. skywater is the david to goliath of the mega caps challenging for a lot of this funding. i want to show you these machines behind me this is essentially a 25-disc cdc changer. inside are wafers with up to 10,000 chips apiece. the machines in this facility behind me are conducting stress

tests to make sure each of those chips can withstand extreme heat when we walked through the facility yesterday we saw them blinking yellow lights, meaning they're idle they want to turn this into a new fabulous which is double the wafers they can produce. in 2019 the company received $120 million from the pentagon to expand here ceo tom sonderman tells me now they need more because they're building out multiple facilities but he doesn't know exactly how much >> we announced the fab, 1.8 million. we have a model for what we can do in this fab, again, hundreds of millions of dollars and your reference to 170 million data point, a multiple of that. >> reporter: the commerce department has said any company getting more than $150 million must provide affordable child care if companies make more money than expected, the government gets a piece

the rules also prohibit using the money for buyback and prohibit foreign expansion for ten years. commerce secretary gina romando said the agency will not be writing blank checks and some companies may find it harder than expected to qualify >> i think the affordable child care piece is so interesting here, kayla. i'm sure it will get criticized, maybe so both sides for bringing social policy into this, but clearly, the administration is making the case that when it comes to the labor force and the economy, we've got a big problem, which is getting our kids taken care of in order for people to go to work and in an affordable and accessible way. >> well, certainly there's already been criticism, sara, that affordable child care was a main pillar of president biden's campaign and many republicans see it as essentially as a back doorway for the executive branch to force the private sector to deliver on this. but when we talked to companies, including the ceo and the head of government affairs here, they

said, that's one of the major roadblocks to actually finding the talent they need to staff these new facilities the commerce department suggested in upstate new york where micron is making up to $100 billion investment, that that investment alone will require three times the child care capacity that the region even has right now clearly, it's a math issue >> kayla, you've been obviously watching this since the entire framework was being built at commerce do these guidelines and, i guess you could call them restrictions, seem to you more restrictive than you thought they would be or less? >> reporter: well, it's certainly much more in depth 75 single-spaced pages is the application. i think one parameter many of the multinational companies are taking notice is this prohibition on foreign expansion for ten years after receiving that funding i think that's going to give megacaps a lot of pause. obviously, they have talked about investing in the united

states as a way to supplement their production and their expansion overseas where the middle class and the consumer base is still growing. and how they plan to thread that needle still remains unclear >> yeah, just one example of how tricky it is to form industrial policy at scale, especially in such an important industry kayla, that's a great angle. kale in minnesota. coming up, affirm's max levchin on buy now, pay later. it's his first interview since cutting 19% of the staff we're watching nclh as well. wider than expected q4 loss, although some of the comments about a strong consumer remain they say they still see record demand, pricing, accelerating volumes for '23 and beyond back in a minute

we planned well for retirement, but i wish we had more cash. you think those two have any idea? that they can sell their life insurance policy for cash? so they're basically sitting on a goldmine? i don't think they have a clue. that's crazy! well, not everyone knows coventry's helped thousands of people sell their policies for cash. even term policies. i can't believe they're just sitting up there! sitting on all this cash. if you own a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more, you can sell all or part of it to coventry. even a term policy. for cash, or a combination of cash and coverage, with no future premiums. someone needs to tell them, that they're sitting on a goldmine, and you have no idea! hey, guys! you're sitting on a goldmine!

come on, guys! do you hear that? i don't hear anything anymore. find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. take a look at shares of affirm, up 7.5% so far on the year -- so far on the year they're up 42% but up 7.3% down nearly 20% in the month of february after announcing sweeping layoffs and a miss across the board in the latest results. with us now in a cnbc exclusive interview, affirm founder and ceo max levchin. it's great to have you back. welcome. >> thank you for having me >> so, it's been a few weeks since that quarter surprised in a negative way just wanted to take your temperature on the health of your business right now. >> business is in very strong

shape. i quoo quibble with the miss across the board point i think we surprised to the point. the entire building is building on reserves while we showed sequential loss or reduction in delinquencies showing we're in total control of the credit outcomes we have so, i think that's a really strong sign. obviously, it's an unfortunate and tough decision i had to make, though i think it's a right one. the company is united behind the push to get profitable in the next 4 1/2 months. and we are pushing ahead >> the gpv growth was weaker what do you attribute that weakness to? that was a disappointment. >> for sure. i think my job and our job is to prove we are in total control of credit credit is always going to be job

number one consumer is weaker consumer is pulling back from discretionary spend. we're not going to overextend our borrowers in pursuit of amazing headline growth. if you look at on a two-year basis, we're still compounding at 65% growth rate i think that's fairly strong that said, trying to hit a number with gpv growth is the opposite focus to our credit and mission, which is to get people responsible and safe access to credit >> max, if you're seeing this kind of degradation in a consumer with unemployment at 3.5%, i mean, are you modeling out what happens to them, if it gets to 4.5%, much less 5% >> we're not seeing degradation. we are controlling credits very, very different we get to set a number of losses that we find acceptable and maximize volume from that position what we have seen over the last year is a certain degree of stress in consumers in the lower safety type of jobs, folks in

the subprime virnlt. we're able to lend to them successfully and control for credit we're modeling all possible scenarios. that's certainly part of the job. we'll continue controlling the outcomes we see in credits, continue printing good numbers, continue pushing towards profitability. that said, we have an amazing structural advantage our loans are really, really short in duration. very different from credit card lines where these lines with personal lines made three years ago. consumer status changes. they are unable to pay back. we get to make a decision about our credit policy every single day as consumers come in and ask to borrow. that's why we're in such good control. >> how would you assess the health of the consumer that you serve right now? and who is that consumer >> you know, we serve all americans, and canadians as well health is still decent there are definitely some pockets of stress in the world of what is called near prime and

subprime borrower. they're struggling a little more they are primarily struggling because of inflationary pressures. their consumables, things they need to buy are a lot more expensive and pulling away from discretionary spending and just trying to make sure they have access to credit to feed their families i think overall they're still spending through some of the pandemic stimuli they are trying to get back to budgeting but no one has a crystal ball on where consumer will end up and we're all rooting for the fed to have a soft landing but we're prepared for whatever outcomes will come. >> have the experiences of the past, say, year and a half, max, made you more averse to having a large part of your revenue through one vendor, having big pieces of your business reliant on one contract? >> you know, i think we partner with the largest of e-commerce

retailers. i'm sure you're referring to one of walmart or shopify or amazon are some of our largest partners they pick us notbecause of any one reason, primarily because we deliver exceptional consumer experience we underwrite every loan we approve every consumer based on their creditworthiness and we don't change late fees or compound interest or other silly things the industry invented to take advantage of them so, those partnerships are strong and based on our underwriting and technological expertise and strength i don't think i need to make apologies for having access to 65% of the commerce by having these successful partnerships. >> the exclusive with amazon expired lately, didn't it? is that a concern? what other sort of partnership opportunities do you see there >> that's exactly the point i was just making. we don't try to lock up our partners we deliver value every single day, and the fact that we are still doing great business with all of our huge partners is a

pretty good proof point that we deliver a lot of value to our merchants and through these partnerships deliver extraordinary value to consumers that need it more than ever. >> you got a very big compliment from dan, an analyst that covers you at mizuho. he says affirm is the chatgpt, which is the biggest compliment you can get right now with all the rage around ai how do you stand on this how are you using it i assume you agree with that statement. >> i think there's many ways to bake the cake, but we like what we have done in buy now, pay later. we are still 11 years in, never charged a penny of late fees we've never screwed a consumer to make a profit, unlike our brethren in the industry we have strong growth, even mod

lated. i wouldn't compare ourselves with one thing of the moment but we do have a north star and moving towards it expeditiously. >> do you ever get nervous when you say things like we have total control of our credit? it's certainly not something any kind of lender would say as an absolute in any environment. >> you know, i think it's my job to lead the company forward as opposed to getting nervous obviously, the way you don't go nervous is you double and triple and quadruple check all the numbers to make sure you can deliver. by the way, it isn't that there aren't any bumps on any given day. it's not whether you can avoid all surprises, it's how quickly and how well can you deal with them in that i have total confidence. i never think twice of praising our technical team or underwriting team. >> how do you think about regulation a lot of talk about increased regulation on buy now, pay later, including from the biden

administration looking at junk fees so, how does that impact you >> you know, the sooner they get to all those junk fees, the happier i'll be. i think -- you know, if i remember correctly, 40% of profits are so -- come from late fees in the world of credit card issuers. at the point of sale, i think americans paid $12 billion in late fees last year. that's a lot of dough coming out of consumers' pockets when they need it most i strongly push elimination of junk fees. i'm excited to see what the administration will do markets move slowly and regulators push them in the right direction when they do the smart things we have seen great engagement from huge percentage of all of our various regulators so far, the engagement has been thoughtful and we will continue to work with them. >> max, appreciate the time today. talking through the business >> thank you so much. >> good to hear from you max levchin of affirm.

also like the shot taken at some of the competitors, not by name, but carna charges late fees in the u.s. and i think coming in the uk as well >> always -- max provides a lot of -- obviously, focused on the company and some of the macro back drop as well. coming up next, a tiktok ban is poised in congress. we'll break down some things in today's "techcheck." speaking of china, tesla's china sales rose last week but are slowing a bit from q4. those price cuts no longer providing a huge boost to demand of course, all eyes are on the company's investor day tomorrow. we're back in a minute hey corporate types. would you stop calling each other rock stars? you're a rock star. you are a rock star. rock stars. please! do you know what it takes to be a rock star? i've trashed hotel rooms in 43 countries. i was on the road since i was 16. i've done my share of bad things. also your share of bad things.

we know that using workday for finance and hr makes you great at your job. but that don't make you a rock star. ted! ted! ted! oh ted in finance. you're a rock star! hey liz in hr? can you do this? unless you work with an actual rock star. you are a rock star! thank you! who's the new guy? hi, i'm ozwald. hello ozwald. give it up for pam. pam, you are a rock- [silence] i wasn't going to say it. ♪♪ for businesses of all sizes, there are a lot of choices when it comes to your internet and technology needs.

when you choose comcast business internet, you choose the largest, fastest reliable network. you choose advanced security for total peace of mind. and you choose a next generation 10g network that's always improving, getting faster; more reliable; and more intelligent to keep you ready for today and tomorrow. the choice is clear: make your business future ready with the network from the most innovative company. comcast business.

a new tiktok bill is set to advance in congress today and that leads us to deirdre bosa. >> reporter: tiktok is one of a smattering of headlines on this theme this morning the u.s./china decoupling in chips, in tiktok, in china supply chain you mentioned tiktok the latest we've been talking about this so much there's another attempt here in the united states and this may gain more traction than the previous ones we've seen.

the best chance we've seen of having a broader band. because of who is pushing it through. the berman rules tiktok has leaned on successfully and this is broader than government devices. by the way, i'm not sure if you saw it, canada moving to ban tiktok on devices. do we see a nationwide ban for the other social media companies. it plays into the broader theme of the escalation of tensions between the u.s. and china we're seeing in so many other places >> i just wonder, deirdre, if they ban tiktok, if that is popular. i know politicians on both sides want to go after china and they're worried about china having our data and propaganda and all of that but there are so many users that would be --

>> this is a truly bipartisan issue, very much less so on the consumption side among the younger demographics they love to use this app. facebook is building up its reels product, using ai, having more success do they use a vpn like in china to get around a firewall or do they move to reels because that's the easiest thing to do the question what happens to the american money that is in byte dance, the chinese company that owns tiktok? you have sequoia, china, ggv, you have tiger global, all putting money into byte dance. what do they want if it becomes banned do they want it to spin off? would the chinese government allow that these are questions we'll be facing if this bill tonight gets

passed >> we've already got this sort of piecemeal government device thing going on in canada, the u.s., now europe today >> right, but it's for government devices it doesn't affect the kids who use the tiktok >> someone will come in to fill that space for sure. >> meta and snap have jumped on word of this type of thing deirdre, thank you deirdre bosa up next, david solomon, ceo of goldman sachs at a crossroads what is next in terms of growth. he laid it out in the nvestor day. check out shares of jm smucker up 11% the past year this morning beating earnings estimates. of particular focus on market expansion from pricing and raising guidance want to know who is raising guidance ckedoopaag fd.

when we laid out our plan three years ago we talked about a number of avenues for growth and opportunity. i think it's absolutely fair that our execution around the consumer platforms hasn't been to the standard we'd like it to be there's still opportunity for us we have some interesting platforms where we built good technology and have good partners and we're working to improve the performance of those platforms.

the real story of opportunity for growth for us in the coming years is around asset management and wealth management. >> david solomon live from the second ever investment day in a conversation with andrew ross sorkin stock down more than 2%, the worst day in more than a month he did say and repeated we tried to do too much too quickly although a lot of their targets on efficiency ratios remain unchanged. >> talked about asset management and strategic options for the consumer business. it's a down day overall but the stock is down almost 3%. another story wall street is buzzing about today, salesforce facing yet another activist investor this is number six. strive capital management sending a letter to marc benioff. the co-founder reportedly writing we seek to deliver a

simple message, stop using your business as a platform for social change and focus on serving your customers alone this is strive it's a pile on it's not going after salesforce's actual margins and everything else. benioff likes to use business as a platform for positive change this is just a cheap shot. >> we'll see what we can tomorrow to wapner and "the half. carl, thank you very much. welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner the final day of a down month for stocks and now big questions about what march might bring we'll debate and discuss with the investment committee joining me for the hour today josh brown, stephanie link, jim lebenthal, kerry firestone the final day of what has been a down month and we're mixed now the dow down 170 there's the s&p down a couple