platform on the business side and on the middle market side and we think overall that this is a really good company but the valuation to us doesn't make sense at this point. >> chad, thanks so much. appreciate your double time today. >> all right. that brings us to the end of the hour. we got keith urban, vince vaughn. >> where do we go from here. >> "closing bell" starts right now. welcome to "closing bell." i'm mike santoli in for scott wapner. this make or break hour starts with stocks finding their footing after overnight geopolitical headlines had the indexes wobbling into the open. a look at our scorecard with 06 minutes to go. the s&p 500 bouncing off its post-election low this morning. that was a level that hit a couple times in the last week or so. up about only a quarter of a point right now. down two-thirds of a percent at the lows. the giants of the nasdaq have been catching a bid driving the nasdaq higher by 0.8. nvidia the biggest upside

contributor to the s&p by far about 25 hours ahead of its earnings release, renders a verdict on the overall ai trade. you can see nvidia up 4.5% right now. mixed signals on the consumer with walmart running to a new high on strong results and guidance while a weak housing starts number and softer quarter from lowe's pressures some housing relate the names. both the 10-year treasury yield and dollar index backing away from the top of their recent ranges, takes some of the pressure off of equities, while the s&p 500 does hover below its closing level from the day after the election. so that takes us to our talk of the tape. the key forces now that will tilt this indecisive market in one direction or the other. here to help us is investment management's dan greenhouse. >> thank you for having me. >> sure thing. we've, obviously, been, you know, a lot of rotation under the surface of this market but in aggregate kind of been on hold for a week and a half as i i guess we try to get clarity on

a few things. any of the reactions after the election or even just the trends before that, do they seem overplayed in the short term? does it feel like the market has it right here? >> i don't think anything has been overplayed. we don't know what policies are going to be implemented or when the tariffs, any larger trade war items, any additional tax cuts beyond an extension, so there's a lot of uncertainty here. i think markets should have rallied in the wake of the election. obviously, that's the most business friendly environment you could hope for, the red wave so to speak. given where we were, not the worst thing in the world. obviously, the markets have gone straight up both equity and credit for some time now. a week and a half of trading is hardly the worst thing in the world. >> i guess, again, i keep coming back to the point that the starting level in many ways was just not as if, you know, we were springing ready to spring ahead, right. >> the market -- >> pull back a little bit -- >> sure.

going in the election people degrossed. we knew this across the street. hedge funds had taken down gross and net exposures. you had everybody have to ramp back up after the election and saw in small caps, mid caps and other election related plays such a strong post-election rally. now that we've settled in and have a better idea the red wave is a thing, the house is called, we can take a minute and digest and see the cabinet appointments and path for policy. >> the thing that it absolutely does, though, it really focuses maybe in excess of attention on these individual possible impacts. i'm wondering the pharmaceutical sector as a whole is down 12% in a month. food stocks getting blasted because of what might or might not have happened in terms of food ingredients and everything. with all the headlines. as was just being said, intuit getting slammed on the hint that we might have, you know, a free way to file our taxes. it just feels as if a lot of these -- this twitchiness in the

market is a function of people thinking like it should be a policy driven market whether it is or not. >> listen, it probably will be. rfk at hhs -- >> in the to mention crypto. >> can't ignore that. rfk at hhs could be a game changer. there's no doubt about it. and i don't want to speak to the validity of the vaccine makers being down as a starting point safe bet to make, but we have to see what unfolds. i highly doubt the way government operates in a sclerotic, molasses type way, makes it very difficult for anybody, be it elon and vivek on the outside, to rapidly affect wholesale change. we'll see. but i will say the idea that you would have these adjustments in a number of names, not just in health care but on the positive side as well, really is, i would argue, justified because in many respects the incoming administration is going to be -- the hope it's going to be a game

changer. if it is, then a lot of these plays have much more room to rally. i will add, though, when we talk about the market as a whole, there's a lot going on that's not just technology, that's not just policy. you have united rentals doesn't stop going up. that's about the broader economy. you've got continuing with the industrials you've got eaton, train technologies, they're not the same but keep going up. there's any number of different slices of the market -- >> that all feels like data center build-out play. >> yes. eaton and the hvac plays are a silo of ai. >> sure. >> even beyond that the otas, netflix, obviously, that's a technology name, but it's really -- >> sure. >> the s&p is up 25% year-to-date. >> there's 200 stocks, 175 stocks doing better than that that are up 45 or 55, 60% and not all ai, they're not all

policy driven plays. there's a lot otherwise going on. >> i wonder on the other side of that, i mean whether, in fact, people are taking their eye off the ball, the housing starts number was weak, been a weak part of this economy for a little while, and it is maybe a little bit of a test of whether that part of the economy can handle 7% mortgage rates? >> yes. the builders are all off -- toll brothers is not, but the builders are off their highs and we did get the sentiment number today which tends to track with activity and it was -- it was doing well. i think it's at a seven-month high. the builders have had a terrific run. mortgage rates at 7% is less optimal than mortgage rates at 5%. but at the same time i think that we've entered something of a steady state here. when you listen to what the builders have to say on their calls and regional data from the nonpublic builders seems like there's still demand even at 7% mortgage rates. how much is on the hopes that in the next year mortgage rates are

closer to 6% than 7%, i can't say, but in general builders have proven they can be successful in an environment of higher interest rates. dedemand is there, not as much as we would like. based on the stock prices they're telling you they've been successful in managing this environment. they're still doing okay. >> let's bring in marcy of merrill and bank of america private bank and brin from talkington. marcy, in a lead up to the election as you talk to clients the message is typically, look, don't really let the election result dictate your investment strategy, and yet we're in this moment where it seems like that is top of mind for everyone and what's an my nating the market. how should an investor think about the policy inputs and broader setup for investment? >> yeah. absolutely. i keep telling our clients for the broad market it's not ability policy.

it's actually about corporate profits. in my view when we look to 2025, that's the number one factor that has the potential to drive markets higher. our view is all 11 sectors get to positive eps growth and join this party by spring of next year. that's going to be a powerful force for the overall market. of course, policy can drive rotations and drive sector views, but i think this is going to be a profit driven market when we think about 2025. so less about multiple expansion, maybe multiples are stickier next year but the market is driven by in our view the potential for lower double-digit profit growth. >> and how does the fed kind of filter into that equation, if you feel as if the market can hold its multiple here, have earnings do the work, and presumably, you know, things like yields and inflation don't get out of hand? >> yeah. i think the risk here now on the policy side is that inflation appears to be a little bit stickier.

you know, cpi and ppe stall out for the last few months. so progress has slowed for sure. so i think the risk is now less fed cuts, higher terminal rates and argue that's what the yield on the 10-year is telling us right now. but the fed is still cutting. i think you probably have, you know, call it three more cuts in the hopper here between now and the middle of next year. so you still have a fed that's recalibrating the policy because the economy is strong, so they're cutting, while profits are accelerating. that's an unusual combination for markets and investors should pay attention to that. >> bryn, you're i involved in the markets in the areas that really have started to run a bit hot, crypto, tesla, a liveliness in certain parts of this market. any feel uncomfortable yet or just what you would expect and hope to see out of, you know, the energy of this market moving that direction?

>> i love your word liveliness. i think that's an yawn statement. i think there's definitely a lot of froth, a lot of speculation. i think you see whether it's crypto specific or the crypto derivative like a micro strategy, the leverage strategy, etfs, seeing 20, 30% moves in a day, and i think these animal spirits are high. ike there's some fundamental backdrop to that. when you have, you know, trump meeting potentially with brian armstrong and i think some of it is i think this deregulation is going to be positive, but also like when tesla to me is up yesterday, because maybe we're going to have national movement on autonomy, well that's really not -- that's not the issue of tesla right now. tesla which i own needs to get their own autonomous ready to get the license. i think animal spirits are alive and well. i think we can have a rally into year end. i think investors need to be mindful that, you know, some of

these stocks do look quite parabolic after the election. >> yeah. that's another great example, bryn, of that kind of reflex move on some kind of a hint about policy with tesla and then uber on the other end of it, and it's sort of a trade first and figure out the details later type of market, which i guess by the way, bull market always run through these phases. >> sure. and i think that when you look at the uber-tesla trade, these are both going to be winners an where you see to me more algorithmic trading, hedge fund repositioning as an investor. i think just because tesla is winning in no way, shape, or form means uber is losing. and so i think that this uber pullback is actually a good entry point. i just bought uber and then sold calls and so i think that's a good opportunity to take advantage from some of the algorithmic trading that to me is short term. >> yeah. i'm sure if you sold the calls before yesterday, you're in good

shape on that one. and dan, i guess the big picture really does all kind of line up in a favorable direction as we kind of all been suggesting here. credit spreads, crazy tight. obviously, earnings growth moving in the right direction. the fed maybe they do one in december, maybe it doesn't matter how much more they do if the economy is going to hang in there. you know, let's go looking for something to worry about. where would you do. >> let's go look. it feels like for the better part of 15 years there's -- people are looking for something to worry about. there's an article in the journal today, it's all quiet. i forget what the story is, but it's all quiet on the credit card default rate. credit spreads are tight here. you're at 80, 90 in ig. wider in high yields. exceedingly tight levels. the financing markets are open, economy doing fine. i disagree with marcy and the consensus on the rate cut path. december is probably 50-50 at

this point say they cut i don't know that they get four ext year or three by the middle of next year. the tariff story, immigration story has yet to play out and what effect that has in a macro sense remains to be seen. you alluded to even then if we don't get the cuts that marcy mentioned or the market is expecting, i don't know that that's that big a deal. we mentioned the things working in the market and brought up tesla as another one, but look at the office reits. josh brown on the halftime show was talking about cbre. pull up a chart, that has nothing to do with anything we're talking about. i mentioned united rentals earlier and a host of industrial and construction related names doing very well. some of that is data center construction and some of that is just construction in general doing well. to the corporate profitability argument this is, obviously, the most important, i don't know that we get any additional corporate tax cuts so when you look at what the financials did post the election a lot of that is on the m&a front, the over capitalization front basel iii is at least held steady, let

alone watered down. a lot of these banks have way too much regulatory capital relative to the market cap but there's all these different plays that can be put to work here whether the fed cuts or not, whether the corporate tax rate cuts or not and the market is benefitting. it's been a couple months where we can say this it's not just ai that's -- >> i would also just point out, i know you like 15 years we've been kind of harping on the negatives but in the 15 years two bear markets, three other near bear markets. >> covid doesn't happen, sure. >> the prices -- one way or the other. >> you're right. >> my point is you couldn't have seen it coming. i agree with that. it's not always close your eyes and expect great things. >> that's fair. and what i am talking about is, we'll use john paulson as the example, it's felt me and i've expressed this on air previously, like everyone is looking to be the next john paulson and that's been the case for the last 15 years.

even when things are doing well, as they were at different points in the 2010 and been in the post-covid environment, there's always people citing the worst particular outcome. well this random mid-cap company said the consumer is weakening. i have walmart that quarter after quarter tells me the consumer is doing fine. you need a million gaps to do one quarter of revenue that costco does or walmart does. as long as those companies are telling me everything is fine i tend to feel they're fine. i would add before i let bryn go, look at the credit card companies. if there's something wrong with the consumer pull up a chart of american express or capital one or visa and mastercard. there's no sign of turbulence. we should be able to say this is a pretty good environment. what sectors will do better and what parts and industries. >> fair enough. marcy, let's go into what parts and what industries. in particular, on the big picture choices among u.s. versus rest of the world,

because that's a pretty clear consensus in favor of the u.s. right now, and then is it actually the broadening trade going to also pull in smaller companies at this point? >> yeah. that's a great question. you know, i think u.s. relative to the rest of the world is a relatively easy call in my view. i think, you know, when we see the profit cycle, again the fed, i do think we'll still march forward and a strong economy. it reinforces u.s. competitiveness and attractiveness especially with artificial intelligence really being a disrupter in 2025 and beyond. what i think about what sectors drive the market i like financials from here. i think they are showing real market leadership relative highs. if you go under the hood of the sector, there's a lot of new highs there. i think that's a real positive. they can benefit from deregulation. and strong economy. i like consumer discretionary as well. you know i would argue the consumer is still showing solid

momentum. my friends at the bofa institute did a holiday survey and plans are up 7% over last year. a consumer that has a -- going on and a strong labor market. for discretionary and utilities, of course, the ai ecosystem, i think, you know, technically speaking small caps are showing some good signs of breaking out. i think we really need that profit story to come through. i think rates stay a bit steady from here as we look at next year. the 10-year rate keeps kind of testing resistance and coming back. i think that will be good news for small caps and then finally someone mentioned it earlier a merger and acquisition cycle will benefit small caps. i think they join the party in a sustained way and i think it's all about the u.s. over the rest of the world in 2025. >> all right. and bryn, round us out here with a -- what you're expecting out of nvidia and also just how

central that might be for the broader market or whether it's going to be kind of filtered through a lot of other factors. >> nvidia is the ai circulatory system, right. we're all really clear if you listen to amazon, google, microsoft, they all implied or explicitly said we're spending more. satya said during the earnings call hardware cannot keep up with demand. so as nvidia being this ai circulatory system i think you're going to hear about dell, hear about what they're doing at nvidia, xai. jensen likes to sprinkle in companies they're working with. i think it's going to be another wonderful quarter. i think everyone knows that the rate of beat is slowing. i don't think any new news. the market pricing in plus or minus 7%. nvidia basically at an all-time high. there's a lot of optimism going into the print tomorrow. if you make a step back the company is eating everybody else

as it relates to the ai space. >> yeah. so it is basically at an all-time high. interestingly it really has been sideways for a few months. we'll see if that ends up having gathered up strength one way or the other. appreciate the time. dan, marcy and bryn. talk to you soon. send it over to kristina partsinevelos for the biggest names. >> super micro continue to sky rocket up 50% over the last two trading days on optimism that the stock will keep its nasdaq listing. the maker named bdo as its auditor and submitted a plan to nasdaq detailing how it plans to regain compliance with the exchange. that's why shares are up 33% just today. shares of c3.ai not far behind up about 23% announce an expanded partnership with microsoft. they plan to speed up the adoption of c3.ai's enterprise artificial intelligence offerings on microsoft's platform. this deal positions c3.ai as the

preferred ai app on the software provider for microsoft azure and establishes microsoft as the preferred cloud provider for c3.ai. quid pro quo. to hear more tune into "closing bell: overtime" with c3.ai's ceo at 4:00 p.m. eastern time. >> thank you. we are just getting started. up next one top tech tells us why he thinks bitcoin will be building towards 200,000 and join us at post nine and make his case after this case. live from the new york stock exchange. you're watching "closing bell" on cnbc.

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advisors. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> big picture, i mean we've had this little burst higher kind of settled back below those levels of last week. where do you think we're set up in terms of the broad index? >> shorter term robust rally, 6100 to 62 by the end of the year. from there next year, low end 6600, high end 7700. the reason being, trend. higher highs, high lows. it's textbook. higher, sloping positive no discerning top pattern. i have to give the trend the benefit of the doubt. >> the market isn't making missteps in that regard. it has been a lot of rotation or maybe some leadership shifts, at least subtilely speaking. where does that kind of play out right now in terms of we've tried to decide if semis are broken and whether, in fact, it's going to be cyclicals over

tech. >> there's a lot of nuances. you have an hour to talk about these parts here. i would say first and foremost, like why hasn't high beta ripped? why hasn't low quality taken off, right. this market doesn't necessarily have those animal spirits they did in 2016. i think a lot has to do with what the equity market is much more mature than then and the economy is different and a fiscal issue as well, right. how do we position? i think we're going to be a little bit more risk averse of the market. i don't necessarily think into next year it's going to be the most robust i would say speculative move but we can continue to grind higher. leadership should continue to be within the financial space. a good-point on the semis. tomorrow is a big day when it comes to nvidia. >> in terms of rescue the trend. >> the stock broke out this month. 140 level. four month consolidation should project much higher. you have earnings and technical things happen for fundamental

reasons. we have to have earnings to confirm the breakout. number two, if you take a look at the smh index and look at it since march you have a head and shoulders top and i think folks will be looking at it like wait, nvidia looks one way, taiwan semi looks like nvidia but the semis don't look like them and they have been weak. tomorrow will be important. i think you've said this before, the market likes shiny things to play with and tomorrow could be a catalyst to get us going. >> to your point that the risk appetites maybe have not been fully unleashed and you don't expect it to be a speculative market, i mean maybe crypto is hogging that energy because that's been an undeniable move and strength upon strength. where do you see that heading? >> i love bitcoin. big bull on it. my longer term count is somewhere around the 200,000, maybe 240. hope i don't jinx it by saying that, but it's remarkable and trending it would. how i get there is a couple ways.

if this year was just a condolledation from a measure move perspective gets you to about 200. the last three years was a consolidation in itself so it's like a base upon a base and that gets you to 300 area. so trend is undeniably strong within the bitcoin and perhaps that will be where we get the speculative excess but also fueling a lot of software stocks as well. they have been strong and taking the strength on semis. >> you think it's feeding off of the actual crypto move or is it just sort of seem to be moving -- >> i have to be careful how i say it. in sympathy but also a lot of the software names in there like the mars of the world are in the -- let's take a step back and think about ark. a big base for two and a half, three years. >> ark innovation fund. >> higher it goes. that kind of makes me encouraged about next year when i see those bases. tie that into the bitcoin, yeah, i think you can continue to see

both. >> i keep pointing out the four-year charts like crazy on so many of these things, right. sort of like mountain down to the -- >> it's important to put it in perspective. right. we get short-term, but if you take a step back, the breakout in bitcoin is a blip on a four-year chart and could project higher. >> do treasury yields, the dollar, any of that at this point if they keep moving higher present a little bit of a challenge? >> yeah. i think so. we're almost at the point when it comes to interest rates, the 20-day rate of change on yields has gotten to a point where equity markets have struggled in the past. number two the dollar bumping against a multiyear resistance. it's supposed to fail and roll over. if it doesn't, how bases work, long-term standing resistance, once that gives way up it goes. a coiled spring. that is probably a good spot to do your macro hedges. you break out the dollar you

like to get yields rip higher and see gold rally on the heels of a stronger dollar as a classic risk off. >> yeah. and then i guess just finally is anything that's moved -- i know you want to stick with the trend but if you look at something that's gone straight down like parts of health care, does it get to a point where it's kind of so bad it's good or so washed out? >> yeah. i think about that. you have to say why are these making new lows. something has to be wrong with staples and health care. why are they doing that. on the other hand like, isn't that a sentiment extreme? like i kind of feel like wow, we should be long financials, but if things start to roll over i could totally see the staples area. i think that may be the setup play for the beginning of next year. some sort of mean reversion into safety. i have the sense that once we get to the 61, 6200 level we will wobble. i could see that part of the market stabilize and then roll over again. >> often a characteristic of january as you get a little bit

of the reversal. >> you get the rally and over bought and consolidate into february and march. that could work through. that's a good point. you get that over sold. >> well, we'll have you back and see if it plays out. thanks very much. appreciate it. >> up next, investors anxiously awaiting nvidia results hitting the tape tomorrow. alpha founder doug clinton standing by with what he will be watching from the report and what it could mean for mega caps. catch us on the go following the osg be pclinllodcast on to your favorite podcast app. we'll be right back. the whole s i got my (bleep) together. you can get your shots together too. ask your healthcare provider about getting this season's covid-19 shot when getting your flu shot, if you're due for both, as recommended by the cdc. ♪♪ with dexcom g7, managing your diabetes just got easier. so, what's your glucose number right now? good thing you don't need to fingerstick. how's all that food affect your glucose? oh, the answers on your phone. what if you're heading low at night? [phone beeps]

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tech stocks outperforming today as investors prepare for nvidia's earnings report tomorrow. let's bring in nvidia shareholder doug clinton founder and ceo of intelligent alpha. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> it's interesting always this sort of underlying confidence in the overall story with nvidia, which is supply and demand. you know, the only game for a certain part of this market. on the other hand all these sort of doubts that filter in whether it's about the pacing of the rollout in the next generation, overheating stuff, whether, in fact, return on investment is happening. how does that all come together into tomorrow? >> i think tomorrow is almost like deja vu. to your point right, the last quarter the issue was blackwell, were we going to get a delay. we did. it was about a quarter. look at what nvidia's stock did

after that, it was well rumored but still the stock sold off 10 plus percent. >> yeah. >> i think going into this quarter the big topic is going to be this blackwell issue with overheating. i don't think this issue is as serious. to kind of put the two in context, the first issue is really about delaying the entire rollout of this product line, overheating issue is a little bit more limited. this is about project the top of the line server product. meta, microsoft, the customers of that product. even if it gets pushed a month, quarter, i don't know that that's going to be that big of a deal for this report, but it could be something we hear more about into next year. >> and then you keep hearing investors crave some kind of visibility to after next year. how much life is behind these demand trends. into that comes this debate about whether things have slowed down in terms of the ai models and what does that mean for the

investment pace. >> that's topic b tomorrow. i expects jensen will get a question about the ai scaling laws, to give the quick 101, is over the last few years, what we've seen in ai model development is the more data that you put into these models, the more compute you use to train the models, the better the models get. very predictable. what we've seen reports more recently from openai, from google is that the most recent models haven't been as good as they expected. it's been a hot topic of debate in silicon valley. sam altman tweeted about it and said there is no wall. maybe we'll see. jensen does need to address that question. that's the 18 to 24 month picture. do we get to a point where the companies need to spend on something other than just compute. >> how is that coloring your view on the broader kind of opportunity set within tech for ompanies that have some leverage?

i'm thinking about microsoft been the stock has been dead money for a while. satya nadella on saying optimistic things about uptake of copilot and things like that. but what are the implications, i guess, of this debate about scaling? >> we use ai to make investment decisions. we're fully bought into this ai trend. what i would say is two things. meta, microsoft, i think they're still both stocks that are in a good position to benefit in the near term from ai. customers are actually using it. meta is using it to drive engagement. better ads. microsoft is selling openai to its cloud customers. but i think if you expand out longer term view, two to four years, we still feel very confident we're going to be in an ai bull market doesn't mean there won't be pullback but we have a long way to go because companies are starting to adopt ai and we'll see those revenues over the next year and after that. >> then you have the policy and regulatory side. you didn't know who exactly all the personnel are going to be or

what the priorities are going to be. does it scramble the picket at all -- the picture at all in terms of whether tech will have more or less leeway? >> a little bit. any time you have an administration change that does beg more questions. we don't know. i think the net of it is this change, it can't be much worse than the regime we had in terms of scrutiny on big tech. i think if you kind of read between the lines of what the current -- or the new administration rather has said about big tech, i think they're balanced in the reality between, you know, making these markets more competitive, but also that we are in a race with other countries to develop ai. we don't necessarily want to weaken our best companies which are our best chance to win the race. >> if most of the priorities are about like hey loosen up the content moderation function doesn't seem that's existential. we have the alphabet news the government might look to separate out chrome.

how does that impact your thinking if at all? >> my guess if there was a betting market, if we go to the poly market, everybody is betting on things now. the odds are it's not going to happen versus would happen. the smart money still won't happen, even if it does happen, we've done math on this in the past, if you look at breaking up some of these components stuck in big tech you might get a value unlock in the near to medium term. for alphabet splitting out chrome i don't know that it's going to be that big of an issue and wouldn't be something to weigh on the stock in the near term. >> i guess the other ones in the cross hairs are ones that have been for a while, right? that's your basic take? >> it is. there's nothing new i think we're going to learn about antitrust and how these companies have acted and -- >> export restrictions on certain chips in play. >> i go back to what was the baseline and are we going to go higher in terms of the scrutiny? i don't think so. at best it stays where it is or

goes lower. >> good to talk to you. thanks. >> thanks. >> up next, we're tracking the biggest movers as we head into the close. kristina with this. >> robots are coming. shares of a robotic firm are up 27%. i'll explain why after this short break.

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it's 16 minutes until the "closing bell." back to kristina for a look at key stocks to watch. >> aplovin' plans to restructure debt by eliminating secured credit agents [ inaudible ] in other words this transition is going to replace their existing debt structure with an all unsecured capital approach why shares are up 7%. shares of sim bottic are soaring after the ai robotic warehouse company posted a revenue beat and offered strong guidance that has analysts clamoring to bullish calls, key bank, all boosting their price targets and shares are up 26%. not too shabby. >> yeah. quite some moves in small cap

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we're back. a programming note, a first on cnbc interview with the ceo of

qualcomm live from the company's investor day coming up on overtime at 4:00 p.m. eastern time today. up next, we'll break down what's behind the bounce in ge vernova when we take you inside vernova when we take you inside the market zone.don't have to w. wer. what's next. ♪ (animatronic santa) ho, ho, ho! (vo) time to move? make it easy with opendoor. sell your home in any season, for any reason. (animatronic santa) look at me! i am festive!

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jerry, you've got to see this. i've seen it. trust me, after 15 walks, it gets a little old. ugh. i really should be retired by now. wish i'd invested when i had the chance... to the moon! unbelievable. stop waiting. start investing. e*trade ® from morgan stanley. we are now in the closing bell market zone. two retail names moving in opposite directions. courtney has the details and seema moody on the deal sending ge vernova shares higher. courtney, a couple big ones we have today. >> we're starting to get the

retailers always at the tail end of the others but right before black friday and the really big delay season kickoff. walmart, lowe's, they both reported better than expected results but the shares are going in opposite directions. walmart posting stronger earnings, revenue, comparable sales and increasing its guidance going into the all important holiday quarter and the retailer noting positive sales in general merchandise the second straight quarter of gains there which turns around 11 quarters of the categories that saw sales fall. the chief officer told me not much has changed with consumers in his view. americans are being disconcerting, spending, but where it makes sense for them. lowe's upping its forecast going into the fourth quarter after slashing it in august. the ceo told me the retailer seeing softness in consumers' willingness to take on those big projects like we heard from home depot, but ellison believes it's deferral, not a conditionslation of the improvements to come down

the line, similar to what we heard from home depot. he sort of said we just don't know when that will come when that deferral will no longer be a deferral waiting for mortgage rates to normalize, whatever that means for him and his customers. doesn't think they're there yet. >> there's a a huge question as to whether there's a sense out there consumers capitulate and say this is the level of rates and i have to to do what i can or if everyone believes the fed is cutting and worth waiting. >> seems like at least the executives of these home improvement retailers seems to think their customers are waiting, no the giving up, waiting. will they be right? i don't know. how long can you wait. sometimes when you need to update a bathroom you have to do it. >> the hope that time will force these decisions. just quickly, too, hard to ignore the continued weakness in the dollar stores and you just sort of wonder if that's a read through from walmart. >> it is so interesting, mike. i want to say this is post the great financial crisis where we kind of saw the thing happen where the dollar stores picked

up shares from walmart when people were using dollar stores more as the fill-in trips and walmart has done a lot of strategy overhaul so in a way it's a little hard to tell. is it retailer specific or does it have to do with the macro economic environment and pinching pennies. i think sales trajectory that walmart has seen is interesting. they noted higher income consumers helped drive the quarter. i'm not sure that's what dollar stores are seeing. >> i was looking, you know, i think 40% of u.s. households are 100,000 or above in households. it's a huge chunk of the market when they say 100,000 and up. >> that is a very good point. that can work -- >> we have to adjust our mental math tricks there. >> our reference for household income has changed over the years. >> thank you. >> thank you. seema, ge vernova, what is behind this move? >> mike the company that has seen the stock rise more than 150% this year is out with a new acquisition woodward's heavy duty gas turbine business, a deal expected to close in 2025 and does provide aftermarket

services for natural gas turbines where ge vernova makes 40% of its revenue, strong growth business, while wynn plays catch-up. the ceo telling me that he's partnering with hyper scalers to provide equipment and access to energy sources to fuel their data center ambitions. recently revealing a deal with amazon's aws. one of the reasons the stock has outperformed it's seen as one of the ai beneficiaries and the stock up another 4% today, mike. >> it is fascinating, seema, given that the business mix of ge vernova and harnessing the ai driven trend has almost liberated it from being kind of, i guess, cast as an alternative or green energy type play which the market is not as fond of. >> you're right. since the spinoff from ge, ge vernova has been smart about positioning itself as one of the players within ai that can help the hyper scalers figure out their energy ambitions and how to build out a lot of their

energy sources across the country because it has that business already in place, 80,000 employees, and a lot of infrastructure there to back it up. >> yeah. no, it is fascinating. it's also a fun game to add up the market caps of the components of old ge and see just exactly how vastly that has outstripped what's before the spin-offs. yeah, it's one of those models that a lot of industrials might be looking toward. thank you, seema. steve, intuit, pretty sharp drop on -- really some familiar headlines in the sense of something that's been considered a threat for a while. >> yeah. that's exactly it. it's not just intuit. it's h&r block, both names falling after the "washington post" reported president-elect trump's department of government efficiency, doge, is considering a mobile app for people to file their taxes. last week trump appointed elon musk and former republican presidential candidate vivek

ramaswamy to run doge out of the government to make cuts by 2026 for the federal government. the irs is experimenting with a free online tool to file taxes that started the is year with a relatively small group. intuit makes the turbo tax software and h&r block has its own software and a slew of human accountants to help people file taxes. unclear how much authority doge will have and what cuts need congressional approval and what can be done by executive order. we see intuit down 5% and h&r block down about 8%. >> it is remarkable given all that you lay out there, first of all the recommendation not coming for a year and a half plus. >> right. >> and not sure what the actual influence those recommendations might have and then we've already had this kind of effort to perhaps given people an option for filing electronically for free. it's just an interesting thing that the market wants to read

through a lot of these little developments with regard to doge and say look out. >> yeah. it's not just the new idea, too. by the way, keep an eye on this. keep an eye on elon musk and vivek ramaswamy's feeds because they're posting ideas of what they think the doge agency can do. right now at the top of elon musk's feed is a tweet about cutting medicaid and medicare. that's on the line too. >> yeah. well, we know what's happened to some of those health care contractors, levered to that revenue. we'll see if the fear is warranted. all right. steve, thanks very much. >> thanks. >> appreciate that. 45 seconds or so until the close. you have the s&p 500 up a bit more than a third of 1%. it hit its low of the day around 10:30 this morning. after that initial stirring about geopolitical headlines the nasdaq is positive up 1rs. nvidia certainly the strongest piece of that, but it has become more inclusive. microsoft went from losses to gains over the course of the

day. market breadth has also improved. more stocks up than down. right now you have, in fact, about, you know, two and a half to one on the nasdaq. small caps up 0.75% and the stock . that's going to do it for the closing bell. we will finish with overtime. >> that's the end of regulation. ringing the closing bell the new york stock exchange doing the honors of the nasdaq. socks climbing back from an early decline spark geopolitical fears. the nasdaq finishing up 1% by big gains for nvidia ahead of earnings which you will get tomorrow here on this show. that is the scorecard but the action is just getting started. welcome to closing bell overtime. >> i'm joining you today from microsoft's developer conference in chic