on the screen, it's back, there it is, you can go to cnbc.com/otoh, as well. morgan, quite a week packed with earnings. we're going to have the jobs number tomorrow, it's huge. for now, that does it for "overtime." >> "fast money" begins right now. right now on "fast," shares of low-priced retailers tanking today as dollar general sounds the alarm. are these stocks telling us the true tale of the american consumer? plus, in the clear? talk of a recession has been put on the back burner, but is the economy really on steady ground? david rosenberg is here to tell us what he sees as red flags. and there's a new blockbuster in town. how taylor swift could give the movie business another big boost just when it needs it the most. i'm melissa lee, this is "fast money," we're live at the nasdaq market site. and we start off with a big

warning from dollar general. shares plunging after the discount retailer slashed its earnings guidance for the year. the company seeing slowing sales and rising inventories as its core customer gets pinched. the stock falling to its lowest level in over three years and not the only retailer under pressure. five below dropped 6% today after its earnings report. and dollar tree, which warned last week about challenges for its consumers was down another percent. are the dollar stores telling the true tale of how strong the consumer is or isn't? guy what? >> well, welcome back, k-fine. >> oh, thank you. >> nice to be with you all. >> remember that, when she was on -- >> of course i do. it was a big push for her to be president of the united states. didn't work. >> next time. >> it was better for us, she's still here. i think it's telling the tale, without question. other people say, you are looking through your bearish lens, i get it. five belong third quarter guidance was a disaster. dollar gen, two consecutive disastrous quarters.

the stock has been cut in half in the last 11 months or so. and what they're telling you is, people continue to sort of trade down. and i think it makes sense that walmart's making an all-time high, given the quarter that we saw them report, and given the fact that walmart wins to all of this, so, yes, i think it's telling the tale of the consumer. no, i don't think -- it's not manifesting in the broader market. i think it's just a matterover time. >> we've heard this from dollar general, people are buying the essentials, rather than the discretionary. >> it's the walmart story, the target story, where their margins weren't as good because they sell higher -- fewer higher margin items got sold than consumables. so, this is the same story again. what's interesting to me is, this stock has traded down on this story a few times, and you wonder sort of, at some point, is it all in? i don't own it, but i was just looking back at the pe history, this is near the bottom of the pe multiple it's traded at in

the last five years. it should be down, for sure, but at some point, guy, you would probably have a better feel for this, at some point, i think it won't go down on bad news anymore. >> so, quickly -- >> they're testing that. >> if we have a longer term chart, we're at levels we last saw in the throes of covid in 2020, march, april of 2020 is the last time the stock, to your point. but visually, it's important to e so it. think about that. karen makes a good point. at a certain level, valuation will take over and you can only tell a bad story so many times, but this is two consecutive bad quarters. maybe this is it, i don't know. at least you're at a level now where you can look at it. >> we're at a point where people are thinking, how many times are they going to tell this bad story and when will we believe them? why should we believe management? there's a credibility issue at this point, as well. >> those are the two things. i would just say, karen's right about the last five years, because it's traded at an 18, 19 times, but the ten-year p prepandemic multiple was 13 times. so, what do you want to put on this thing?

and even at 15 times, and i see the street downgrades. the downgrades are coming. eps downgrades haven't caught up. and the multiple is what's happening here. but i do think if you look at the new leadership, i think there's a lot of question. i think some of this is not the consumer. i think some of this is dollar gen. this is about marketshare ero erosion, efficiency. i'm not going to get out here and tell you the consumer is safe. i feel like everybody here that we've had a lot of evidence of the consumer trading down and the lower end, obviously, under the most pain, but that there's, across the board, this is an issue we're going to hear more about. i'm going to give half of this story to dollar gen, it's their problem, but they shouldn't be trading 17, 18 times. >> and broadening out, you started that, i mean, listen, personal incomes are flattening out. we've seen that in the data, definitely in july. you think about consumer credit up, savings going down, and then you think of the surge in spending that we're seeing, so, something's got to give at some point. if you put dollar gen and dollar

tree together over the last few weeks, you say to yourself, in a very sad, you know, manner, like, there's something going on at the very low end consumer. and especially if we stop seeing wages go up. it's like, you know, some of the stuff, some of the inflation that we've been talking about for two years now is becoming imbedded, and the wage inflation is not going to be sticky on the really low end. that's going to paint a really nasty picture, i think, for a low-end consumer. if i'm at the consumer discretionary, like, above these guys, i'm starting to get a little bit worried. especially as we think about, you know, student loan repayments coming back online over the next couple months or so, we know that back to school was kind of disappointing here, so, to me, i don't think it paints a great picture for the consumer and i think you want to start looking up. we know for the last year and a half, walmart had been the b benef beneficiary. and when the dollar tree and the dollar gen consumer doesn't have anywhere to go, it might be saying something pretty nasty about the consumer right now. >> can we live in a world where

it is truly by fur kated and the higher end consumer is okay, and we're still okay -- >> for now. >> and the lower end consumer will feel the pain, we know that's a terrible situation to be in, but that can be isolated in this economy? can we live in that world? >> i think so. i think that does sort of seem where we are right now, right? when you see, you know, expensive autos, unable to meet the supply -- the demand, rather. there's a lot of evidence, one other thing, though, the market being up. the market being up helps that higher end consumer feel better, feel richer, at least, on paper. one thing, though, another thing that's hurting the low-end consumer is gas. and if we look at what's happened to oil, i -- that's a pretty big move. and so, that -- and they really feel that. that's a much bigger part of their pocketbook, of their spend, than for the higher end consumer. >> you've made a good point, karen, that the adjustment that dollar gen has made in terms of -- wherever the multiple is,

and -- but the point is, the multiple traded higher than it should over the last three to five years, it traded significantly lower before that, but we are in a place where you really wonder what's been priced in here. and it takes it back to target and dan had a view on target, again, that number, they have a clean inventory position, so, talk about target for a second. this is a company that's kind of caught somewhere in between. and somewhere when we know what's going on with general merchandise, we no theknow the pressure, inflation and the dynamics there. so, at some point, this is going to get interesting. i think we're in thoee early innings. i think eps downgrades are coming for everybody in staples and in discretionary. >> september 23rd, costco reports. and that stock is within probably a whisper of an all-time high. valuation in this environment is stretched without question. they might be winning all this, as well. and you're going to find out.

if costco blows it out on, i think, in three weeks from now or so, i think that will, again, sort of reinforce what we're hearing from the dollar stores, makes walmart make a lot of sense, and finds target in this mid where you don't want to be. by the way -- please don't at me, i think 70%ish of walmart's customers now, $100,000 or more in terms of income. staggering number, so -- everybody's moving down. >> you're one of those guys who walks around costco just eating stuff. >> you are judgmental when you say that. you're trying not to be. >> i understand that. >> we want to ample. >> why do you think they're out there? it's not like i'm clipping stuff out of -- >> he is that guy. i hope you're buying stuff, too, man. >> for more on the dollar general weakness, let's bring in anthony. how much of this is a tell on the consumer at large, and how much of this is specifically a dollar gen story? >> i think it's much more dollar gen story than it is about the consumer at large. i mean, look, i heard a lot of

really salient points you made, there are some macro economic headwinds, but dollar general hasn't just missed, you know, the last two quarters, it's four out of the last five. it was a management change and it just doesn't seem like the new gang can shoot straight. so, let's not make this all about macro, i think there are some dollar general specific reasons that they started to, you know, sort of shoot themselves in the foot. >> anthony, absolutely you're right. and it's -- the stock has been punished on the back of that, but you listen to what -- that third quarter guidance from five below was a disaster. dollar tree, not good, as well. a few other stores in that same world that are feeling similar pressure. definitely dollar gen is self-inflicted to a point, but that seems to be bigger than that, in my opinion. >> well, the one other thing and it's kind of macro related, but not macro related, fivit's shri. that's hitting everyone. it's hitting a number of retailer, and that, you know,

yi don't think it's going to get much better, because there are just not a lot of consequences for theft. >> yeah, and i would imagine that, you know, when you're talking about -- hearing the guidance that these consumers at these lower end stores are trading down, that underscores the pressure that they are under and therefore that is the environment in which shrink and some of these thefts happen. >> yeah, i would definitely agree with that, and, yeah, look, one thing that all these retailers are struggling with, whether it is dollar gen, dollar tree, a walmart or target, is that mixed shift towards consumable. those are much lower marmargin. and yeah, i think, i mean, a struggling consumer, unfortunately, is a consume whole is more likely to go for the five-finger discount. >> it's karen, thank you for being on. so, i thought the traffic numbers for dollar general actually wasn't great. how does that compare -- does that sort of go to your point

of, that's a dollar general specific thing? how does that compare to traffic of targets and walmarts? >> yeah, 100%. so, look, the easiest comp, the best comp for dollar general is family dollar, which is owned by dollar tree. family dollar did a nearly 6% comp last quarter, where dollar general had a small comp decline. and family dollar had positive traffic. so, a lot of this is very dollar general specific. specifically, they have been underinvesting in store labor and it's really starting to bite them. >> when we talk about, and think about investing in retail, can we think about it remaining bifurcated or does the economy get to the point where those troubles migrate up the chain? >> here's the thing. retail is a perennial stock picker's market. i'll give you another name that just reported really good

numbers today. ollie's bargain outlet. that's going for a low end consumer. they are executing at a higher level. merchandising has gotten much, much better. i don't think it's necessarily upscale versus downscale. there's a lot of pressure right now on high ticket discretionary purchases, and you saw, you know, best buy, william sonoma, in both cases, the numbers were better than expected. maybe better than feared, but in both cases, they're comps or sales were down pretty significantly, so, i don't think we can just bifurcate it high end versus low end. >> anthony, thank you for joining us. what do you like? >> i've never shopped at ollie's, by the way. >> i feel like that's a "fast money" outing. i love bargains. >> i'd go. >> i think anthony's pointing out that there's a lot of divergence between execution and operational execution and margin and efficiency. and then, there are macro pressures here. i would just get back to where we are on dollar gen,

jpmorgan's note, they took their eps in '23 down to $7.76. the street still at $10 a share. i think there's a lot that needs to be sorted through here, and that's why, think the entire sector becomes difficult to invest in until we see the street and the investor community come around. >> karen? >> well, i do own walmart, i do own target, and a target/walmart spread. i feel like they -- walmart executed the best of the bunch. and so, it's not cheap, though. it is not cheap. the reason for the spread is the divergence between the target multiple, which has been hit, i think excessively so, and the walmart multiple, it's too big of a spread. our next guest warns the end of summer could be a bummer. the fed's doves are getting more vocal, job growth is hitting a brick wall and gdp is doing something it has never done without a recession following close behind. david rosenberg joins us now with more on why september could

lead into a winter of discontent. david, great to have you with us. seems like everybody and their brothers have given up the call for a recession. they have gone into soft landing, no landing camp, and here you are, you're saying recession is still on the horizon. why are you so firm and steadfast in this call? >> well, look, you know, it's -- i've been in this business for 40 years and i think i've seen it all, or mostly seen it all. and, you know, the same consensus that you're talking about was calling for a soft landing all the way into the summer of 2008. and the recession began in december of '07. sol, i think it's just human nature, you know, you had a nice countertrend rally in the stock market this year, and all of a sudden, everybody thinks they have to fit their economic narrative into what the stock market is doing. but the major point i'm going to make is that the recession has been delayed, you could say, but

certainly has not been derailed. and what kept the energizer bunny going this year, i refer to the u.s. consumer as the energizer bunny, is that when we had the excess savings file was real, and everybody seemed to spend all $2.2 trillion, i mean, some of that early on was used to pay down debt, but almost all that money was used for spending. and it continued right up until now. to me, what's really important is the san fran fed, and i think they produce the best research, showed that the batteries for the energizer bunny in terms of the excess savings expire at the end of september, and we know that we're going to have the impact of the student loan -- the debt relief program terming out, staring us in the face. and so, all these stimulus measures from the fiscal side subside, but what we haven't seen the full impact yet is what

the fed has done in terms of the economy resetting to this huge increase in interest rates since the beginning of 2022. those lags still stare us in the face. and you're seeing the strains already, melissa, i mean, look at where consumer delinquency rates are going. that was one of the big themes, nobody talked about it, on what the retailers are saying. the retailers have seen their department store credit card loan delinquency rates are rising. the bank data that just came out, we've gone up a percentage point to 2.8% on delinquency rates. on credit cards. and 20% of the consumption growth in the past year was funded by credit cards over and beyond what the lagged impact of the fiscal stimulus did. so, i think we're going to be in for challenging times for the 70% chunk of the economy called the consumer, and i think that was one of the telling, i think, aspects of what almost every retailer had to say in the past week, is the negative guidance.

that, to me, really stood out. >> rosy, the bulls will say, wait a second, the u.s. consumer in terms of his or her home had ample time to refinance, most of them did, so the interest rate move doesn't really have the same effect that it would have if it, you know, in a different cycle. thoughts on that? >> yeah, i think that -- that's a very static, i would say, economists would call it a partial look at the economy. that they say that all these homeowners have locked in and they're not going to suffer any debt service impairment. for one thing, that much is true, the mortgage side, but a lot of the nonmortgage debt, and remember, consumer credit cards roll over almost immediately, you know, that's over a trillion dollars now of outstandings. that's a -- that's a red flag. so, you're right on the mortgages. but there's other forms of consumer loans. but at the same time, the big impact is going to be what interest rates do to business investment. once again, everybody says,

well, look at the corporate sector, they've all termed out their debt, too. nothing to worry about. no, ma, they basically termed out their debt. that's not the point. when you raise interest rates 500 basis points in a little more than a year, what you've done to the business sector is totally altered the decision to embark on a major capital spending project, because your ceo or cfo and you are doing the calculation of the, say, the expected return on investment benchmarked against your cost to capital. well, that cost of capital just changed dramatically, so, the impact this is going to have on investment, and then on employment, and then, the impact is going to be on incomes, and that's really where the impact of interest rates, it's not on debt service impairment. the debt service impairment is going to come from what the interest rates do to investment and employment. and then what that does to cash flows. so, all these people that say, oh, don't worry, everybody's locked in, they're not looking

at the right element of where the interest rates impact the economy. >> david, great to speak with you, as always. appreciate it. david rosenberg of rosenberg research. i think that's an interesting look at debt and the argument that consumers are okay, because they've got the 3% mortgage and they're locked in. >> yeah, and corporates with floating rate debt, too, are paying a lot more. that's going to hit margins. and he's right to talk about the sequencing of this market. i just think -- no one has been able to really make a call on just how this was going to continue to roll out. i don't think there's any question. we haven't begun to see the consumer fight. and therefore, it's really just been about where in the market you want to be. it's setting up for a place to really want to own health care, which is going to go into this period, after being underappreciated and we know what the head winds are right now. i think it's an interesting time to build those positions. >> so, defensive. >> yeah. >> it's funny, here we are and tim had a great call into

jackson hole on the broader market. and i was saying to you guys earlier today, i mean, i just wasn't seeing it. i just wasn't seeing -- think about the leading end kale or thes, all this stuff we're seeing about consumer, consumer credit, everything like that, but the market is not trading off of any of that. so, now it's bad economic news or slower, you know what i mean, the pace of -- seems good for the market. rates have come in a little bit, the s&p feels like it wants to take out those july highs and make a run for the january 2022 all-time highs. so, nothing that they throw at this market seems to make any sense. we haven't had a 10% peak to trough decline that would have -- i think got a lot of people more comfortable about the multiple they were paying, given the headwinds, that sort of thing. to me, it's funny. i come into september and i need a nice long weekend here, because i don't know how well i'm seeing things, but i just don't see anything that could take it down. there you go, people. there it is. i mean, i'm just saying. think about it. think about the way we broke out of that 4350 level, and then we ran and then we checked back and now it seems like we're going to

take out those highs. i don't know, what's going to do it, mel, you tell me. >> are you out of all your shorts? >> yeah. i mean, most of them, yeah. it's been a hard -- even in a month like august, it was down. we closed the month down and it didn't feel like it, the way it came back at the end of this month. it feels like they want to rip them. coming up, taking a deep dive into broadcom's earnings. the details from the quarter next. plus, two very different market moves. crude cruising higher and bit con's recent rally seems to fizzle out. don't go anywhere. much more "fast money" in two. help make trading feel effortless. and its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market. e*trade from morgan stanley. with powerful, easy-to-use tools, power e*trade makes complex trading easier. react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting

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welcome back to "fast money." we have an earnings alert on broadcom. the chip company beating on the top and bottom lives. kristina partsinevelos with a deep dive on the quarter. >> it takes a lot to impress investors these days, but chip maker broadcom's in line q-4 guidance is failing to impress right now. shares are down 3.5%. the company does have direct exposure to the artificial intelligence cap x push, with its ether net and custom silicon chips, and much of last quarter's demand came from hyper

scaler customers building out a.i. infrastructure. q-3 networking, which includes that a.i. business, now encompasses 40% of total revenue. but that's not all of broadcom's entire business. it is still exposed to other end market segments that are going through what he calls a soft landing, like the wireless business, which he says is stable. and its server storage business, which in q-4 should be down double digits year over year. and if you exclude generative a.i. out of the equation, he expects semiconductor revenue to be flat in q-4. the call is under way. he just finished saying that he expects the vmwear acquisition to close by october 30th. shares down 3.5%, but earlier, it closed at a 52-week high. still an a.i. darling. melissa? >> kristina, thank you. is it a darling, guy? >> should be. k-parts broke it down. but people look at it, $900 stock, must be expensive, wrong. it trades at 20 times next

year's number. it's extraordinarily reasonable. the sticker shock scares you, but don't get fooled by that. market -- all-time high today, it's given it all back. it shouldn't. i mean, this stock is deserved of a higher multiple, but people are not nearly as excited about this stock, which is reasonable, as opposed to an nvidia, which to me is expensive. >> the momentum in cloud is really driving spending and networking, and that's kind of where we're seeing it. the vmwear deal is accretive. and they have pointed out they are still giving back significant amounts of free cash flow to investors. it's not as if they're in high investment or acquisition mode. i tend to agree. there was no way -- everybody expected this to be a beat, and this is what they gave. after the run in the stock, it's going to pull back, but i think you're buying the weakness. >> yeah, dan, in your market scenario, all these stocks should go higher. >> sure. >> especially nvidia. >> it's interesting. what guy just mentioned --

broadcom is expected to have high single digits. trades at 20 times next year's earnings, trades ten times sales. let's flip over to nvidia. expected to have 50% earnings and sales growth. it's got 70% gross margin. they are, like, the thing that everyone needs for training all these models. you are probably better off, i know this sounds crazy, you are probably better off not buying the value here for the time being, and continuing to buy -- this is karen's trade. you're buying the thing that has the most exposure. broadcom will work, too. broadcom wasn't really working until nvidia gave that guidance in late may and it started to work. >> it's as if it rallied that day like nvidia. >> and it still trades at a huge discount because of their exposure and that sort of thing. buy the thing you want to buy rather than the thing you think you think it is or isn't. >> you have been short? >> yeah, i am. i'm also trading, too, so, i'm trying to be tactical with this sort of stuff and i got bailed

out by that selloff last friday with the nvidia thing, because i kind of had a trade on before that and it worked out okay. but i'm out and i'm out in the tesla thing, because it seems like, if we continue to go higher here, it's going to go into mania mode. it's going to feel like late 1999, in my opinion, and that feels like death rattle sort of stuff, so, you better watch your you know what as we get in towards, you know, kwq-4. >> anthony said keister before, didn't you hear him? >> anthony was straight fire there, by the way. >> five-finger discount. >> are you worried about nvidia? >> i did sell some. i do really believe in the story, we talk about it all the time, the picks and shovel of the story, but i also thought that, i mean, that bar was super high, super high. and yet they jumped over it pretty nicely. as we thought they would, though, so, i think that now the bar is even higher, i mean, their numbers are higher, but the expectations are higher, so, i felt like, i'll have a chance

to replace it lower. >> all right. coming up, we're watching more afterhours action in shares of dell, mongodb and pager duty. and crude and crypto heading in opposite directions today. so, what had oil thriving and bitcoin diving? we'll lay out the trades on both. you're watching "fast money" live from the nasdaq market site in times square. back right after this.

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dr. petsworth welcomed these new patients. the only problem? more appointments meant he needed more space. that's when dr. petsworth turned to his american express business card, which offers flexible spending limits that adapt with his business. he used his card to furnish a new exam room, and everyone was happy. built for dr. petsworth business. built for your business. amex business. welcome back to "fast money." the dow and s&p closing out august by breaking four-day winning streaks. both indices unable to hold onto early gains. and though it is up eight of the last nine sessions, it still posted its worst month of the year, down over 2%. afterhours, dell, pager duty

reporting beats on the top and bottom lines. shares of dell are up by about 8%. crude oil getting a bump today. wta jumping more than 2%, on pace for its best week since april, turning in a third straight positive month. and bitcoin erasing all of its gains from tuesday's grayscale win over the s.e.c. let's trade -- karenwhat is your take here on -- were you in qbtc? >> no, i was amused by it. >> you were amused by gbtc. >> i thought, that is good news. i don't know how it gets from here to the finish line, but i do think -- there's still a fairly large discount there, so, i kind of like that trade. >> yeah. oil? >> i like oil. there's certainly some newsworthy dynamics with saudi arabia, whether they perpetuate these kilts that caught people offguard, somehow we're still listening to the russia at the table, which is absurd.

energy companies are not the underlying oil. they are trading because of their balance sheet, and they've been able to repair. and $60 to $80 oil, they're fine. all right. namaste right where you are. we are stretching into lulu earnings. >> oh. >> out with results this afternoon. the numbers from the quarter straight ahead. but first, pot stocks lighting up for a second day, after the department of health made a game-changing recommendation on marijuana. the next guest says it's about damn time, that's a quote, not my word. that's next. "fast money" is back in two.

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welcome back to "fast money." pot stocks burning up again today after u.s. health officials recommended that cannabis reassigned to schedule 3 drug category from schedule 1, where it is right now. the news could be a game-changer for the industry, which has taken a serious hit, as federal efforts to legalize the drug have stalled. here to weigh in on the prospects is the ceo of the company operating cannabis production and retail facilities in 13 states. george, great to have you with us. >> thank you for having me.

>> your stock has moved just an astronomical move in two days. it's up by 40% or so in just the past two days. have you calculated what this means to revenues, to -- to profits? if this were to happen? >> so, if it were to happen, it could be monumental for our company and the industry as a whole. if only one thing happens, the tax structure goes away, it's a massive benefit. so, we're very excited for what just happened, we have been patiently waiting for this moment, and we're very excited. >> so, what is the actual impact, i mean, have you done that calculation or no? >> it's in excess to 100 million to our bolt tottom line. it's a big number. >> george, i agree, and i think there's a lot of work to be done, and a lot of questions about whether this would be just medical market that would get this benefit on the tax side, the adult market is really the growing market. can you talk about just the

size -- i think there's misperception about cannabis, how the addressable market continues to grow. state-by-state, even if washington has been disappointing. state-by-state, including, you know, arguably red states like ohio. so, how are you gauging that? >> so, regardless of what happens on the federal side, our goal has been the same. build one of the best companies in the industry. we've overcome so many obstacles around the way. for us, this is just an opportunity for others to see our company and how strong we are. the path will continue to be the same. we will not change our business model. though, this will make us, if everything goes well here, significantly more profitable in the bottom line. we have big states on the horizon that could switch, florida, ohio, pennsylvania, and there's still so many more states that need to enact medical programs, which will transition to adult use. so, the growth is significant, and this only further helps our company and others like ours, as well as social equity, entrepreneurs in the space.

this could provide them banking and an opportunity to be successful. it's exciting for us and exciting for so many people. >> so, hey, george, you said that you're being really patient, we just had a map up there showing where you guys have a footprint there. what are some markets that i think investors should look at that would be really exciting, you know, to move into. tim just mentioned a state like ohio, it's a big red state. is it red blue, this issue, or state-by-state -- what should investors be focused on if a company like yours were to move in these states, this is, like, go-time? >> so, i mean, the big movements for us are from medical to adult use. connecticut, maryland, big movements from our company. last year, we had new jersey. if we're looking at states that are anticipating adult use transitions, pennsylvania, ohio, florida, massive populations, we have really good footprints in different states, and for us, it's a massive amount of growth. if you look at florida, 20-plus million people, huge tourism

population, it is a massive driver of our business. it will be if it transitions to adult use. we have more importantly one of the best teams in the industry. we have the platform, and we have the experience to be able to make this happen. >> george, what do you think the odds are of this actually happening, the rescheduling? >> i think it's very high likelihood. i think the dea should act upon this. the recommendation has been made, and i think we're going to anticipate very positive news here in the near future. >> george, thank you. >> thank you, everyone, have a great day. >> tim, you mentioned this would be huge for the stocks, we've seen big moves, so, if this actually happened, have the moves taken place? >> so, first of all, i'm long verano, and my temptation, after a move of 40% in two days across the sector, by the way, is one we've seen this before, but what -- what i think is very important, in the past, when we've been betting on washington, as investors, you should never do, it's been about

speculation in a political process that's required in congress. this is about executive order. this is about an fda that was put to work. when the fda comes forward and talks about the science and says, no longer a schedule 1, that's a totally different thing than we've ever had. when i considered the political cycle we're in, when folks are appointed by biden making these decisions, i think that has something to do. i'm not saying it's a political process, i'm saying the fda has a lot of authority and a lot of respect. that's what's different about this. but look, it's not happening overnight, even though the timeline for this could be a lot faster than banking, and some of the other things. federalization, this is not about a national federalization of cannabis. this is about making these companies more profitable, and there's still a lot of debate if this is around just the medical side of the business or the adult side, and i don't think anybody knows, but the implications, the states where it's legal on the adult side, if they move to schedule three and reschedule there, the implication right now, by the industry, and the way it traded, is that the adult market would

be included. >> given the move that they've had already, are you better off waiting and buying it higher if it actually does happen? >> that's a good question. because if you look at the charts on a handful of these companies, we just through second quarter earnings, which were eh. balance sheets are a big thing. two of the biggest companies are back to where they were only six weeks ago. so, if you think about the move lower, and the 40%, we all do this math on the way down. anyway. i think that's right. i think there's still a wall of capital that's yet to invest in the cannabis space, and i think there's a lot to go here. >> all right, coming up, taylor swift entering her box office era. is this the love story movie theater stocks needed, or do they need to calm down? the enchanted details next. but first, the afterhours action, lululemon. shares are up 1.5% after the earnings report. how did this quarter align with wall street expectations? >> oh, that was a good one. >> good, right? full reports, next.

welcome back to "fast money." check out shares of lululemon. they are higher right thousand by 1.4% after reporting a beat on the top and bottom lines. courtney reagan has more on the

quarter. >> so, another mostly better than expected report from lululemon. comparable sales the one miss. the street was looking for growth of over 12%. the retailer's forecasted range for the third quarter for revenue and profit above expectations. gross margin of 58.8%. that beat estimates. operating margin of 21.7%, that's impressive. revenues in north america grew 11%. international grew 52%. greater china alone is a piece of international up 61%. on the call, the ceo said there was really strength across the business, with double-digit sales growth across women's, men's, andcessoriaccessories. he says strong momentum is continuing into the third quarter, as well. a lot to like in this report. it's been a standout and doesn't look like it's turning around any time soon to do anything but that. >> weapon. co yep. courtney, thank you. lululemon, you were in it once -- >> before that, but didn't get back in, i was hoping it would

trade down lower. this is a -- the outlook is really what's important here. so, something different, right? different consumer. good for them. and ingot t got to think they f confident. i just can't get back in with the multiple. it deserves a premium. does it deserve 38 times? it's not for me. too rich. >> you don't think so? >> no. i'm short it 375 a couple weeks ago and i don't think the multiple makes sense. we knew they were going to beat. i know china is an important m market. i'm a little concerned they are moving into new segments, but we're not here to tell anybody it's a broken company. i'm not. i'm going to tell you that i think their ability to grow as fast as they have in the u.s., their best days for the near term are behind us. this is -- this is a 16-quarter story of what this company has done, and the stock has held,

it's right near the top of the range. investors taking a bite out of chewy today. closing on its second worst day on record. but the options market has more. >> that you find funny. >> i do. >> mike? >> so, yeah, we saw it trade about five times its average daily options volume. calls did outpace puts. we saw a lot of short-dated call buying. some of it expiring tomorrow. the most active calls were the 24 strike calls. score all, we saw 2,600 of those trade, that included an institutional block purchase of 900 contracts. that's risking 3% of the current stock price, betting that the stock could take a bounce, and i would point out this could be a stock replacement strategy. somebody that's decided to blow out of their equity.

>> tough one here, man. i mean, this is one we all learned, like, the pull forward, people spending on their pets and the like here, and the stock acts so poorly. and again, the company is swinging to a loss here, and the revenue growth is slowing down a little bit, but it's still pretty decent. it just seems like maybe there's kind of a little more to go and then you take a shot on it. >> trade down also within pets? i ask you as a pet owner. >> we have dodger, we got tom. we got the other one, tiger, you know -- >> the other one. >> there's no trading down. >> those are straight out of, like, the textbook in terms of pets. >> yeah. >> tigger got me a 10 out of 10 -- remember that rumor thing, we were doing the show back in there, remember one day he was doing the thing in the window? >> adorbs. >> we're not trading down. >> all right, mike, thank you. for more options action, tune into the full show, tomorrow 5:30 p.m. eastern time. coming up, lights, camera, taylor. the eras tour coming to the big screen near you. are swifties just the tail the wind the movie industry heres

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welcome to the eras tour! welcome back to "fast money." it's been anything but a cruel summer for taylor swift, seen here performing on the just wrapped north american leg of her eras tour. and now the tour is headed to the silver screen. could the live show become the blockbuster that saves the box office? julia boorstin has a look. julia? >> well, melissa, it certainly should give it a boost. taylor swift is delivering theaters a much-needed fall boost, after many studios have pushed some of their big budget films from the fall until next year because of the lack of actor promotion due to the screen actors guild strike. swift's tour, all 2:45 of it, will be available for fans for a lot less than the cost of a concert ticket. movie tickets for this movie are going to be prized at $19.89. get it, 1989? all the major theater chains will run the movie for four weeks.

regal, scinemark, and imax were up. they are getting a boost, as swift appeals not only to the 3 million fans that attended the u.s. leg of her tour, but also all the others who are fans that could not afford to go. now, swift's concert documentary is set to launch october 13th. that's the same day as "the exorcist: believer", from universal pictures. they put that movie up by a week, so, it's now going to be launched october 6th. the box office overall is still lagging prepandemic levels, and it could really use another cultural moment to boost ticket sales into the end of the year, and if taylor swift can't deliver a cultural moment, i don't know who can, melissa. >> good point. julia, thank you. julia boorstin. it's brilliant. >> brilliant. think about this, right? julia just told us, 3 million americans went and saw the show and they paid through the nose for it. it's only going to be in

theaters and release it on video and then as an album. you have think about the cadence of it, it's genius. and the kid's price, $13.13. you know why 13? a big swifty number. >> like the number, 1989 -- >> first album went gold in 13 weeks. >> 1989 -- you know what that refers to. i don't. i didn't know until five minutes ago. but now i know. i'm good now. >> her birth year. >> yeah. >> girl boss. you should get her on your pod, how she does it. >> okay. okay. we'll reach out to her. >> you don't have to, she's watching right now. come on. >> huge fan of the show. >> it's brilliant, i mean, to take something that's already been -- already happened, right, and to just -- >> at a time when there's new content coming to movie theaters. >> it's brilliant. that's the -- that is taylor's super power -- >> is she not standing with the writers and actors by doing

this? >> oh. >> she's standing with the bank. >> think about this, she's keeping -- going to be keeping theaters in business. >> alive for them later on. >> note how amc didn't rally through the roof on this, as it should have. and that's because they've been too busy jamming their investors and doing reverse share splits and stock's gone from $44 to $12 in the last three weeks. how does that taste? >> she is the rally. where it would have been without this? i don't know. >> there's not enough time to talk about what's gone on there, so i won't. >> multiyear low. >> multiyear low. up next, final trade.

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final trade time. tim? >> almost forgot it. lulu. i am short. it didn't happen. might happen soon. >> karen? >> yes. i had to take some money off the table, but sell some out of the money nvidia calls. >> dan nathan? >> chewy. karen, you have a three-day rule? >> i do. >> a little more to the downside and then you stop it with a 20 to the downside. that's a nasty level. you want to own it above 20. >> breaking news here on "fast money." apparently big shakeup in the met front office. i know steve is a big fan, so,

he obviously didn't call you. >> there should be one in the yankees front office, but -- >> we like stability. devon energy. >> good luck with that. >> thank you for watching "fast money." we'll see you back here tomorrow night for more "fast money." meantime, a special series, "mad money" back to school, starts right now. my mission is simple. to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere. and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to make you some money. my job is not just to entertain but to educate and to teach you to be a better investor. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc or tweet me @jimcramer. tonight i want to share some of my accumulated wisdom, and there's a lo