>> all right, thank you. steve weiss. >> the naysayers be . bitcoin has 100 written all over it. >> okay. we will hold you to those words. don't forget that. joe, what about you? >> i liked kerry talking about natural gas. eqt is the way to play. >> thanks, guys. i will see you on the bell. thank you very much, scott, we will see you then. welcome to the exchange, i am kelly evans. here is what's coming up this hour. nvidia is lower ahead of the chip giant report tonight as tariffs lose over the space, and questions loom over whether supermicro issues could spill over. we have the stories. it's 1.5% at 144 this hour. bitcoin hitting a fresh record high. it is up 35% since trump's winter, and based on the names

being floated for s.e.c. chair, oppenheimer is bullish on the setup from here. we will talk personnel, we will talk all of it. the buy now pay later giant, carnal, filed for an ipo at a time when there has been very few companies going public. a lot of tech unicorns will be watching this one, and the ceo joins us for an exclusive interview ahead. we will talk about the consumer, and partnering up with google pay. let's start with the arkets as stocks are lower. investors are awaiting nvidia's results. the dow is up 90 points at its highest, but now it's a little lower. the dow only down 63 points. the s&p is down half a percent, though. we are talking about a four day losing streak. the nasdaq down three quarters of 1%, the small caps under pressure, and treasury yields are moving higher today. the 10 year is hovering near 4.4%. it's not the 4.5% that has caused more concern, but it's still at a level that could be

putting pressure across markets. you see that level earlier in the session. we have now backed off of that somewhat. now, let's get to the disaster, which is target, down 21% today after its biggest earnings miss in two years. revenue missed expectations, target lowered guidance for the fourth quarter and the full year. ceo brian cornell told cnbc, we expected an uptick in the quarter that did not come. today's losses erasing the year to date gains, and you can't blame the consumer on this one, per se. we just yesterday saw walmart doing quite well, not only in grocery but general merchandise, and sticking with retail, carson block unveiling his latest short position edits in the beauty retailer, elf. elf shares are down 8.5%. he says the company has materially overstated revenue and inventory over the past three quarters to keep up with its growth narrative. you can see shares under pressure as investors digest those concerns.

carson block, himself, joins us fresh off the stage from the investors conference in london. welcome to you, and how did this get on your radar? >> actually, this was kind of a funny one, in terms of how it landed on our radar. we came across, late summer, early fall, an article on e.l.f., talking about how the stock had outperformed nvidia's stock. there was this hype about its growth, and really quickly, we pulled up important data. this is not exotic data. this is not credit card analytics, data services that cost a lot of money. we pulled up import data just out of curiosity and we saw that the imports had crashed, starting in their fiscal q 4 of 2024. yeah, their sales were holding up, supposedly, and they were reporting inventory that blew out. that was really when it was this moment -- i mean, it was

almost like we could put together short pieces in a few hours, really, but we had to do a lot of work to validate that the data was correct and that there were not alternative explanations for it. >> we have reached out to the company for comment. if they do bring that to us in the next few minutes, we will mention it. we have not heard anything back yet. are these import figures from the company itself? >> no. the source of the data is u.s. customs and border protection. there are various database providers that pull this information directly, and so you have to understand that about 80% of what e.l.f. sells, it imports into the u.s. from china. and so, when we looked at it previously, there was a very tight correlation between e.l.f.'s revenue of its u.s. sales of e.l.f. branded product in the imports, and then, all of a sudden in e.l.f.'s fiscal q4,

the imports crashed about two thirds. they were down about 67% quarter over quarter, but the revenue for the e.l.f. products, actually, went up a little bit. so, this data, it's not exotic to obtain, but we had to validate it, so we, actually, spoke with three of their four largest suppliers in china to corroborate whether the sales had fallen in calendar year 2024. these firms account for about over 50% of e.l.f.'s imports, at least, by weight. the one caveat here that people have to keep in mind is that the most reliable data metric that we found for the imports, the stuff that is not extrapolated by the data providers is the weight of the imports in kilograms. when you look at e.l.f.'s balance sheet, where they

report inventory, they reported in dollars. you have to do a little bit of calculation to adjust kilograms and two dollars and dollars into kilograms, but when we did that, we feel that e.l.f. is likely, as of the most recent fiscal quarter, overstating its inventory by about 100%, and more to the point, though, when that happens, that is usually because there is an overstatement of revenue or revenue and profits. we estimate that e.l.f. has overstated over the past three quarters, it's revenue, by probably well over $100 million, probably $130 million to close to $180 million. that is our range based on imports. >> was there anyone on the buy side or the investment world or the company itself, who you talk to to for the other side of the story? i'm looking at the data, and you are saying that e.l.f. imports 80% -- substantially sourced from china.

you are using u.s. imports, and the weight of that as a proxy for demand. your import chart shows that imported demand has fallen off sharply, but that there revenue keeps growing. it would seem to me, if this is brought import data and not specific to beauty products, wouldn't there be a lot of companies where we would have to question how they are growing revenues if import volumes are dropping? >> well, if you saw company were substantially all of the product, itself -- look, to sell something, you have to, actually, have it. the question is, how do they have product to sell and grow sales if there imports have fallen off? if you have a company that imports substantially all of its product and you see the imports dry up, while inventory levels are rising -- that is a key part of the story here. if there inventory was being drawn down, we would say, okay, they are selling it from existing stocks, but they are not. there inventory keeps rising at

the same time the imports of christ. and so, it doesn't seem like these two things can be true. you can't have rising inventory with rising sales, or even reasonably stable sales while you have imports or additions to inventory that are down about two thirds. again, they went down two thirds in one quarter, they have stayed down at that level. there has not been meaningful rebound. the only explanation that would fill the gap is that the stuff they are importing is now such higher value per item, but that has plugged the gap. we did this math and saw, historically, the value per kilogram of what they import, what goes into inventory, is roughly $18-$21 per kilogram. okay, but for their inventory numbers to be correct, we backed into it the value of what they are importing would've had to of gone, suddenly, to $52 per kilogram.

for years, they are 18 to 22. we talked with three of the four largest suppliers in the suppliers account for over 50% of e.l.f.'s imports by kilogram. e.l.f., look, we did talk to e.l.f.. we don't do it openly as muddy waters. we did have a conversation with e.l.f. and asked questions. the top suppliers, those relationships have been steady for years. there has been no change there. when we talked to the top suppliers, they also confirmed, three of the four top suppliers confirmed that they were selling less to e.l.f. in calendar year 2024 than they had been. one of those companies said, e.l.f. had ordered too much inventory in 2023 and they are orking down there inventory, which makes sense, except, that does not match, by any means, the blowout in inventory that you see on e.l.f.'s balance sheet. >> exactly. if their own inventory levels were falling sharply, you could see that happening. i mean, they are down, but maybe

you are saying they should be down. did you look up -- carson, are these import figures from china, specifically? did you look at alto, which buffett has been selling down as well. are there other companies in the beauty products category? i have to think this is pretty broad, to be hit by a sudden drying up and demand of u.s. goods from china, or wherever these import figures are from. >> actually, the beauty space is having real headwinds. that is the thing. e.l.f. is the one exception here. coty competes directly with cover girl. ulta, which is one of the major outlets that sells e.l.f. product, ulta has said that this year, it's store sales should be -2% to 0%. you had l'oreal with a major warning, estee lauder with profit suffering.

those two are blaming it largely on china, but the reality is, everybody else in the cosmetics space seems to be doing very poorly and e.l.f. is doing great. again, does number one prima fascia, that's a little suspicious, but when you look at it, these inventory numbers, they do not match imports. the other thing is, e.l.f., what was helpful to us, because we had to ask -- okay, did e.l.f. suddenly switch up at sourcing practices? does it have a third party now import its product? in fiscal q2, e.l.f. made an interesting disclosure, as this is when it's inventory first blew out. what we think happened was that e.l.f. had over ordered inventory, sales hit a wall, and should they were in q2 with all this inventory, and they came up with this excuse were they said, oh, what accounts for $36.9 million of this increase

in inventory is, we just changed our sourcing practices, so we now take ownership of the inventory on the china side, which we did not before, so now we are showing the value of inventory on the water. okay, but when we talked to an x e.l.f. manager, who dealt with procurements, and also, those suppliers, they all said that e.l.f. was always taking ownership of the inventory on the china side. they were buying, usually, exw, or sometimes, fob shanghai. that means, what they said in q2 about suddenly taking ownership now on the china side, it's not true. they have always done that. they were feeling this stream before, but because they said that, and again, we talked to to internal ir with the company, and asked them whether third parties are importing. oh, no, no, we take ownership on the china side, exclusively. that can't be the answer.

there would be no good reason to do that, also, because, of course, e.l.f. would be losing some margin if it suddenly let a third-party step in and be an intermediary for its imports. >> i encourage the company, again, even if this segment concludes, they have all afternoon long -- i would be curious to say how they would explain this from their point of view. carson, i know i have to let you go, but do you then think there are other areas? what accounts for this drop in u.s. import volumes? are there other companies that might be vulnerable to this? what do you make, given the depth of knowledge you have in china, you probably saw david tepper's comment a few months back, where he thinks you should buy everything in china on this policy turn, and i don't know if you have a broad view about chinese equities or what is going on with the economy right now, but i would love to hear your thoughts. >> okay, first of all, with e.l.f., this appears to be an industrywide issue, where they are all facing issues with end-

user consumer demand, but e.l.f. is the only one that appears to be immune to it, if you just look at their accounts and the fact that they are always raising guidance. insiders have increased their selling of stock, by the way, since what we think is a completely untrue disclosure in q2 of fiscal 2024. as for china, my view on that is, if you get that it is a trade, fine. china is not an investment. it's not investable. every time they start saying the right things, that is to try to make everybody complacent, get money back into the country, and the government is going to do something like, put a bullet in an entire industry, while every american is asleep and they wake up and say, oh, wow, my education stocks have crashed, or dd is not going to go public, or what have you. if you are in it for the trade, i can respect that, but date, don't marry when it comes to

china. >> carson, we will leave it there. thank you for joining us. i know it has been a really busy afternoon for you. doing this presentation, and explaining more on air. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. again, as we get, from the company, from e.l.f., others in the beauty industry, maybe they can shed more insight on this. meantime, bitcoin is having a fresh record of 94,000 earlier today. it almost touched 95,000, we were $11 shy. as the bitcoin options are listed on the nasdaq, it is now one of the strongest trades since trump was elected, at our next guest says the set up for crypto and the other exchanges in his universe is bullish from here based on the names being floated for s.e.c. chair. let's bring in owen lau, senior analyst at oppenheimer. owen, it's great to have you. it's interesting that coin bases down 5% today. what explains that? >> sometimes it's hard to talk

about it day by day, and if you look at the last three months, coinbase and bitcoin has been up a lot. partly extreme on a daily basis, but over the one week, the stock and the bitcoin is up a lot. >> why do you think, not just bitcoin, but all of the exchanges could renovate from the rumored s.e.c. chair we are hearing about? >> i think it comes from the trump administration. the perception right now is, trump will be -- will provide more clarity to the industry on the regulation. whatever he picks on the s.e.c. chair, the person will execute his vision, so that is point number one. trump is widely perceived to be pro-bitcoin, crypto and blockchain industry. i do think that administration and policy will go down to the whole industry and enefit the whole industry, because of

clarity, and that will bring more capital to the space. >> one question on crypto and one on the traditional exchanges. on the crypto side of this, and i take your point that coinbase is absolutely soaring the past couple of weeks, but is there an idea that more competition, bitcoin and etfs takes share away from them? >> yeah, it's a good question. i think you have to think about coinbase, not just listing bitcoin and ethereum. they also list 200 other tokens on their platforms. over the past few weeks, it is a reflection on coinbase being traded on the alt coins. i do think this is a big benefit to coinbase long-term, and that's why you see the stock price go up a lot. it's not just about one or two tokens. it's more about the alt coins and the trading volume. >> what about the rest of the exchange -- exchanges?

we just shut the nasdaq, the cme, for instance. among the candidates, it could be dan gallagher, paul atkins, hester pierce, brian brooks, therese again. what are you going to be listening for as we see who ends up, potentially, becoming the nominee, and what policies you think they might be promoting? >> i think the number one thing is, focus on capital formation. there are some pics, i think it will be more favorable to industries, just like teresa. her name came up last night, and she knows the industry very well, so she could be the top spot. having said that, i feel like the s.e.c. chair has to understand the s.e.c., so they can come in with the message and engage with the industry. one of the perceptions or one of the potential issues we have or we hear about is, there is

not a lot of trust and communication between the industry and the s.e.c. my hope is, i think -- i hope we can change that in the next administration. >> you ever think the administration would go a step too far and do the kinds of proconsumer things that would undermine -- i don't know how they would do that, some kind of disinformation, do you know what i mean? >> it's tough to say. i do feel like those are very smart people and they know what they doing could the names being floated are not the ones we don't know about. at least, some of them are very famous names. we know what they would do in the longer-term. so, i'm not too concerned about that point. i do feel like it's very important, understanding the s.e.c. is very important, and communication is very important for the next leadership it >> yeah, it's not the wolf of wall street. i'm trying to think what would be equivalent for the space. again, owen lau bullish on all the exchanges and coinbase.

coming up, wall street's wait for the next blockbuster ipo, with carna kicking off the process by confidentially filing ipo documents with the s.e.c. we will speak with the ceo about that, plus their outlook for the holiday season. but first, the options market is pricing an 8% move in either direction when nvidia reports earnings this afternoon. the earnings call, is this still the biggest number one market cap company? it's one or two. anyway, the exchange is back after this with much more. stay with us. > is i>>ths the exchange on cnbc.

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less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people. welcome back. nvidia shares are slightly lower ahead of their earnings after the market today, but the stock has soared 191% this year on the a.i. boom. my next guest is overweight, and says it remains his topic. join me now is cj muse, an analyst at cantor fitzgerald. cj, walking through your price target movements here, and so forth. you have raised it to 175 now, yes? >> that is correct. a.i. is still the king. i would expect that nvidia will leave that group higher. tonight, i think $38 billion plus, in terms of revenue will be good enough, and i think we are in a period of goldilocks, where we moved to ces at the beginning of the year.

it is going to give a keynote. they then have earnings in february. where i look for every acceleration to their top line on a sequential basis, and then we go right into their gdc conference in march, where we are going to get the new ruben and other product announcements, so i think for the next four months, nvidia will leave -- lead semi's higher. >> what are you looking for in the actual results tonight? >> from a topline perspective, $34 billion, for october, $30 billion plus. for january is where the buy side is that, and i expect they will do that. it sounds like they were able to free up some hvm capacity, and it also sounds like blackwell, actual shipments should be as high as five to 6 billion for january. when you put it all together, we should get a solid raised by about 1.5 billion for each of the quarters, and then when we get full results for january, it wouldn't surprise me if the

real number is closer to 40 or 41. the numbers will continue to move higher. that's where we will be focused. the second area of focus would be gross margins. i look for them to reiterate the low 70s, and finally, the number that we want to hear, but we probably won't get tonight would be support for a 200 $25 billion data center for 2025. we will have to wait on that, but that is a big number that will drive the meaningful uplift for shares throughout 2025. a little early to get that today. i think the one thing that the ceo, jensen, will ay, is that they are sold out for the next 12 months. blackwell will be the best cycle ever in the history of the company, and in our view, that is good enough. >> it's really incredible to talk about. the issue that i and many has had has never been with the valuation, for me, it's the market cap. it is at $4.5 trillion right now.

if you talk about the company, if the share price doubles without meaningful buybacks, it's not going to be a $9 trillion company, is it? >> well, that is aggressive. with our price target, you are talking $4 trillion plus. could it get there? you know, i wouldn't underestimate jensen and the gang there, but that is a big number, for sure. i would say that unlike the telecom infrastructure boom to support internet, fundamentals have tracked the stock price. if a.i. becomes ubiquitous, we get to a landscape where agi is real, then the number you throughout is not crazy, but obviously, that is looking out, probably, two or three years from now to underwrite that type of number. >> i said 4.5 trillion for the market cap. it is only 3.5. maybe a doubling is achievable. what about supermicro?

they are 9%, share in terms of a customer base there. so many different issues, it's hard for me to tell what is going on and whether that is some sort of worry spot for nvidia. >> that is one of their downstream partners to sell to customers, and the good news is that there are plenty of players there, and given some of the challenges there, that you have seen parts of nvidia repurposed to other players, like foxconn, et cetera. i don't see that an issue, whatsoever. >> cj, it has been a pleasure. is there anything else? look, we had a selloff after the last report, didn't we? it didn't seem to stop the long- term rally. >> i don't see anyone selling after tonight. in fact, if there is a pull back, i think you would see buyers, because the story line, again, over the next four months is so robust, that i don't see a challenge. overall, the group has been weighed by fears of what tariffs and other issues like

that with the trump administration might look like. the good news is that nvidia, right now, pretty much, has a monopoly on the real leading edge, hyper scaled gpu front. i don't see any issues related to u.s. china relations that would cause a hiccup for them. i don't see an issue, and i do think that nvidia will lead the group higher. >> cj, thanks for your time. cj muse with cantor fitzgerald. we have a news alert on mcdonald's to get to. kate rogers has the details. >> reporter: is reporting now, mcdonald's is working on a new value approach for 2025. it will involve keeping the five dollar value meal offer it launched this summer on the menu for the first half of the year, along with introducing a new by one, add one option for a dollar more. that includes a double cheeseburger, chicken sandwich, six piece nuggets and small fries or breakfast options of a sausage mcmuffin, biscuit, or

burrito and a hash brown could that is according to a person familiar with the matter could local value offerings have been in the app as of late, including something they have going on right now, 10 piece nuggets for one dollar. that is part of the broader value strategy. operators are still voting on the offerings, the initiative looks likely to pass, according to two people familiar with the matter. mcdonald's declined to comment. as you can see, the stock is slightly lower, that this is something executives have been talking about for everal quarters. we are getting first details here on what the latform will look like. over to you. >> they saw the target results of thought, you know what? we will keep it going a little while longer. coming up, with the alphabet ceo called to congratulate president trump on winning the election, there was a surprise guest on the line, elon musk, but givenhe th tec tightens many interests, how should investors be thinking about his new role in the trump

administration? that is ahead in tech check.

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good afternoon and welcome back to the exchange. i am tyler mathisen with your news update this hour. preliminary investigations are underway into how two undersea cables carrying internet data in the baltic sea were severed earlier this week. european governments are suggesting sabotage as the motive and the danish military says it's monitoring a chinese flagged cargo ship. data from maritime tracking service, vessel finder, reportedly showed the ship in the area around the time the cables were damaged. california election officials announced today that voters rejected a measure on the november ballot that would've raised the minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2026. opponents of the measure, including the california chamber of commerce said it would've led to higher taxes and pushed businesses to cut jobs. uber is looking to cash in on the thanksgiving travel rush. the ride-share travel service unveiled uber xl rides to and

from 60 global airports. they promise a larger trunk space for families juggling a lot of luggage as a travel for the holidays. back to you. thank you, see you next hour. coming up, karnik could be the next major ipo two-hit wall street, but until then, just announced its launching on google pay. we will speak exclusively with the ceo about that and more after a quick brea ayitusk.st wh .

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welcome back. the by now pay later firm, klarna is filing for his long- awaited ipo, while up and stirs await offering size, shareprice size, and deutsche bank recently valued the company around $15 billion. it will be available on google pay for some online retailers this season, and for all purchases over $35 starting next year, just a month after launching a similar partnership with apple pay. joining us now for more in an exclusive and a new -- interview , the ceo of klarna. do the honors of your last name for me? >> sebastian siemiatkowski.

>> at such a beautiful name, siemiatkowski could >> it is polish. >> siemiatkowski. you've got it. listen, this is a big deal too many, both in the world of those waiting for ipos, the public markets, where there has been so little activity. you saw data bricks in some of these private companies. they are raising secondaries in the private market. jersey mike's sold to private equity yesterday. why go public? i said, why is jersey mike's not going public? they said, why bother, it's a pain. what would you say? >> as much as people want to put it into a macroeconomics context, in our case, it has been very clear from day one that we wanted to become a global fintech, global success in the u.s., users and revenue, but there has to be profit. those requisites have all been met. at the same time, being private

for 20 years, we have tons of investors, obviously, providing some liquidity to them. it kind of makes sense. >> how would you say the landscape has changed during that 20 year period of time? there were probably other moments that you consider going public. why now? >> again, because we did meet the criteria. to us, we have the aspiration to build a global fintech -- i mean, we serve 80 million consumers worldwide, and we think this industry will go through a massive transformation now, accelerated by a.i. and, being a global player in this industry is going to be critical. these criteria were super important for us before it made sense to be public. >> given you have this high- frequency view of what is going on with u.s. consumers, would you say you expected to be a strong holiday season? i'm a little taken aback by targets decline in its result today.

even some of the beauty companies have run into trouble, but overall, the numbers look pretty good. what do you expect? >> definitely, better macro conditions in the u.s. than europe. both markets we have seen have been a little bit fooled by the fact that revenue has looked fairly similar due to inflation, so a lot of the baskets that are sold are the same size they were four years ago. for example, it's pretty much the same, but the truth is, there is less product in that basket for the same amount of money, and what you see with a lot of big brochures, et cetera, they may sell less inventory, but for the same monetary value. and, that is a problem for some of them. if they see less transaction and less volume shifted through their warehouses, that speak slower to scales of efficiency and so forth. they can spread out the cost of the same amount. that is the message from really large retailers, and i think

consumers are struggling. if you just look at the monetary values, you don't see that. you have to look at the items. >> i think that is an excellent point. at least, we are holding steady, but it's not as good as it could've been. the trump administration has floated this idea of capping credit card rate at 10%, and i have to imagine if they did that, that would be a major boon for your business. wouldn't it? >> again, i think i'm happy in a way to hear that specific thing, because that is, actually, true in a lot of european markets. germany, about a 14% cap, france, sorry, i think germany is 20. you have to be a little bit mindful because the people don't cap on the credit cards they may go and borrow elsewhere. you can have some side effects from that. in general, in all of the european markets i've seen, it is, actually, pretty healthy and i don't think it is had adverse side effects. the u.s. stands out, it's one of the few markets where you

have not regulated your interchange cost, which means that retailers are still suffering tremendous cost for payments, and in addition to that, yoha tremendous interest rates on credit cards and people make huge amounts on revolving, which is a very bad product for consumers. interest-free installments that are fixed are much more consumer friendly and healthier alternative. you can say that it's bad, actually, because that may force the banks to realize that by now pay later is better. >> you don't necessarily want that. i take your point. a quick final question, which is not quick. i took notice that you guys have had the most spin outs of any european startup. is it true, like 62 companies have come out of klarna over the years? i don't know if you take that as a good thing or a bad thing. mario drag he had this big competitive report on europe that was filled with really big problems, and trying to figure out how to solve them to keep

europe competitive in the long run. what do you think you might be doing right? is there a lesson that regulators and officials can take from this? >> i think sweden is coming from a place where actual social mobility -- people coming from lower income, like myself, immigrant parents and moving into higher income, has been proven to be ahead of the u.s. for some time period. free healthcare and free education was instrumental for allowing me to succeed and not having to worry about these things, but with that said, unfortunately, competitiveness in the u.s. still beats europe. there are a lot of other reasons why the u.s. is so much ahead, and it is a struggle. there are tons of taxation issues. i mean, it's easier for me to give away more of my company to american entities to european entities, even though america is more socially oriented and wants to support the workers. that is just insane.

i want to give more to my employees, but it's difficult to do so. a lot of these narratives about differences are not necessarily always true, and i think i am seeing major issues in europe, that makes me believe that the u.s. is, unfortunately, going to continue to beat europe. >> we want a good fight. we want more companies like yours to put us on the back foot. sebastian, thank you for joining us. again, i'm excited to hear more about the ipo and see when it hits the public markets here. i appreciate it. >> things for having me. >> sebastian siemiatkowski with klarna. coming up, from rallies to ufc fights to spacex launches, no matter where the president- elect goes these days, it seems like elon musk is not far behind. what that could mean for trump's approach to tech policy, and that is after a break.

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google ceo sundar pichai called president-elect trump to congratulate him after his win two weeks ago, but he got more than he expected. the information reporting that elon musk was on the call, and we have a look at what this means. so, deidre, the team makes a good point. musk does have a lot of competitive interest, google, and what is the significance of that, do you think? >> well, a lot of potential conflicts of interest, and that phone call could be the beginning of a new wildcard emerging in tech, in trump's second administration. that is elon musk. here is where his empire competes. there is generative a.i., the hottest race at the moment. it requires access to chips and talent, but in the structure, energy, areas that you come under government purview. google competes with x on the development of llm's, while

gemini powers google's a.i. apps. there is also way mo versus tesla. that subsidiary has been expanding state-by-state, navigating different regulations along the way. meanwhile, he could benefit from a federal framework, which musk could push as efficiency czar. there is x, formerly twitter, they compete for ad dollars and content, and as x pushes deeper into video they will be increasingly bumping up against each other. musk has used the platform to criticize what he calls google's bias, accusing it of election interference. trump has flip-flopped on his stance toward google, recently suggesting it should not be broken up. we don't know where musk stands on the legal battles at the doj, but this will all come to a head next year as we get the consequences of google's guilty -- would you consider that musk was on that call with sundar pichai congratulating trump, it will be interesting to see

if he has a voice, or if he s a factor in how the lawsuits could play out too. >> i confess, i have not read the whole piece, but i would love to know the details. was he on the call because he was on speakerphone and he was in the room? does he have a hotline where he can just dial up? this was anything more than somewhat of a happenstance, but i don't know. >> we know that musk is by trump's side often. they quoted two sources. they did not have more details as to how musk got on the line, but they did cite one source that said musk -- sundar pichai was surprised, as you can imagine. >> i did not realize they were head-to-head in so many areas. deirdre bosa for tech check. la-z-boy, management warned about continued spending softness. another potential headwind could be tariffs. the shares are lower today. we will discuss it all with the ceo, next on the exchange.

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la-z-boy just posted better- than-expected earnings, getting a boost from strong labor day

holiday sales, though, management still flagged some headwinds, including continued spending softness and dampened demand thanks to low housing turnover. of course, we have looming tariffs, as well, and here to talk about it all in an exclusive interview is la-z-boy ceo, melinda whittington. welcome back. i thought that was interesting about consumer lumpy -- i shouldn't say lumpy to a furniture company, but what are you picking up on? >> lumpy, choppy, you name it. our industry, as you know, really, is driven at its best when there are lot of housing transactions, when people are moving and buying housing, so it has been challenging for the last couple of years. as a company, we have been able to outperform the industry, though. this year, we are growing, compared to last year, just by really reaching out with that consumer. until we start to see mortgage rates come down and more housing availability, housing affordability, a big tailwind for the industry, it will come,

but it's going to be a while. in the meanwhile, our focus is on outperforming and taking share, given the products we have the brands that we have. >> a lot of the analysts we speak with that cover all parts of the housing and building materials industry are aiting for this inflection point, and they think, maybe if we get rates down on the 10 year, maybe that will do it. i don't know hat is going to bring us to an inflection point in housing. >> yeah, we have given up on the crystal ball, as well, but we do know there is a housing shortage out there and we do know, eventually, people are going to start moving again. again, what we are doing is making sure we are messaging to the consumer with high-quality products, so that where there is an interested consumer, we can inspire them and get them involved in the process. we are back to growth, even in a tough industry. >> how would you say your sourcing mix has changed today versus the next trump administration?

how much comes from china? how much is made in the u.s.? >> it's important to note, first of all, for la-z-boy, the vast majority of our consumers are north american, specifically, u.s., about 90%. and, the vast majority of our products are manufactured here in north america, primarily, in the united states. compared to our competition, we are relatively well positioned. there is no doubt, all supply chains are sourced globally, and that includes china. certainly, for woven materials and leathers that are upholstered fabric, but our industry and company, in particular, have really done a lot of work to change that pretty dramatically over the last 10 years and even the last two years, to really have a more broad, global sourcing base. the majority of our products, again, are finished in the united states and north america. it is fabrics and some items

like that, the raw material, the component part is still coming out of china. more broadly, vietnam is doing a lot of work in furniture, so we do a lot of our work in mexico. it's a much broader base than it was five or 10 years ago. >> it so interesting. even if you move to a place like mexico, you could still encounter problems depending on what happens the next two years. melinda, thanks for oining us. i hope to see you again soon. melinda whittington is the ceo of la-z-boy. that is it for the exchange today. tyler is getting ready for power lunch. wi jn on the other side of this quick break. ( ♪) (♪♪) everyone has goals and dreams. and everyone deserves a way to get there. wherever you're going, getting there starts here.

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welcome to power lunch. alongside kelly evans i'm tyler mathisen. two big earnings stories today. target losing 20% after a rough report. nvidia on tech after the bell. we will talk a little more about the target one that is major. >> 20% drop especially after a day walmart did so well in grocery and eneral merchandise. a little bit easier for bit coin hitting an all-time high just shy of 95,000. a few weeks ago 300,000 was set to be a reasonable target. he has raised that. >> bea