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tv   Fast Money  CNBC  December 10, 2024 5:00pm-6:00pm EST

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will be in focus when we get the latest results from a major tech company. >> used to be adobe and oracle reporting at around the same time set the tone because they report off cycles, we will see what happens this time. >> major averages taking a breather again today. that's that's going to do it for us at "overtime." >> "fast money" starts now. live from the nasdaq market site in the heart of new york city's times square, this is "fast money." here's what's on tap tonight. gaga for google. shares of alphabet surging after a major breakthrough. what we know about how this technology could change everything. maybe. and the suspected shooter of the united health care ceo raging ahead of his first court appearance today. the latest updates on the case and how last week's events could lead to more scrutiny of the insurance sector. plus, walgreens in talk to go private. again. and amazon's delivery drones finally take off in phoenix. the details coming up. i'm melissa lee, coming to you live from studio b at the
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nasdaq. on the desk tonight -- tim seymour, steve grasso, guy adami and julie biel. we start with google. they announced its quantum chip willow computed an equation that takes ten to the 25th power years. this is hailed as the next frontier of uber high technology. some hope it can provide answers to space travel to the origin of the universe. but so far, there are no real world applications. still, the break through sent shares of alphabet surging more than 5%, adding nearly $120 billion to its market cap. does this milestone give the megacap a leg up in the big tech race? does it make sense that we added so much in market cap to google for a technology that has no commercial application yet? guy? >> i think what it shows, google's not as far behind the eight ball as the market thought a few months ago, and the fact they are probably still in the pole position, and on valuation,
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you can make a case still despite today's move. and i think that $191.75 is in the cross hair. good for google. there have been some missteps, not necessarily from them, but the market around them, but people are realizing if they want ing value, google is the p to be. >> what's the metaphor for hockey? >> skating to the puck? i think -- i would like to know what you think is going on in the world's most famous arena -- >> i doubt it. >> but google is more important tonight. and yes, they are. i actually think it's warranted, not because we've all just said, it's not that willow, whoever's naming these chips, is going to be a real term dynamic to take on nvidia or amd, but it's a reminder where google sitting in the middle of some really exciting tech verticals. and then as the baird note that we prepped with, it's the largest advertising company in the world, it is certainly front and center as it relates to search and digital ad. and everything in their core
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business is a-okay. but then, you are in cloud compute. you are in areas where i think google, you're reminded at 21 times forward, in a world where all of their peers are now trading at multiples that are probably 20% to 40% higher than they were five years ago, google is at the same multiple, and it could be higher than some of the others. >> do you think that we're giving them a tremendous berth -- if we're talking about a.i., we'd be saying it was pixie dust, right? i mean, think about it. do you think you're giving them more -- >> you think it's pixie dust? >> no, i think it's great, but i think guy started off the right way. where are they going to use it? your entrance to the show, how are they going to monetize it? if this was a.i., we would have been saying a host of headwinds towards this right now. so, maybe it's not pixie dust. but where are they going to monetize? and you know who has been at the head of this and at the head of a.i.?
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ibm was at the head of both. it's outperformed google on a year to date basis, it's quietly doing everything that everyone else is doing, not in a glitzy fashion. so, i think that this runup wasn't too much, that's what you started the show with, i think it was a little too much and you're going to start to see a fade. >> maybe this underscores the value of google, julie, for the things that are not in the valuation, and this certainly was not in the valuation. i mean, this is early -- talk about early stages, google has a six-step milestone road map for kwan come quantum computing. this just shows that there is something in its back pocket. >> absolutely. this is much more of a reflection on valuation than being able to handicap when this is actually going to be economic. it's so much more about, hey, i have missed out on some of these rallies and other a.i. names. i need confidence that google isn't going to get completely left in the dust, particularly since a lot of a.i. chat bots
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have an existential threat to their search business, so, it's really critical for investors, especially longer term investors, to get confidence that they are going to be still in the mix, and that they are working on delivering something that can support and eventually overcome their key search business, which is really where everything hinges. >> is this your favorite mag seven stock? >> i think so. you know, i think people forget that so much of, you know, the strength that we see in openai, really originated at google. and that talent is really pretty critical. so, i think it's pretty underappr underappreciated. i think the core business, they're trying to defend, i think it is in the most peril, in terms of what can happen with more of these chat bots and more search being done away from them. >> yeah, i think that's fair. if you had to rank them, just the top two, think it's facebook google, just in terms of being able to wrap your head around the valuations, and, you know, the stock moves back that up.
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some of the other names, great stories, but some are trading at excessive multiples, to say the least. >> tim? >> i think you have had this debate for six months, really, a.i., maybe it's been a year, has shifted into overdrive, where google sits. and every time there's a challenge to google. look, the biggest challenge to google right now is probably really for the first time, i'm not sure how big of a challenge it is, on the anti-trust side. some of the dynamics that we're running into. but it's not that google is not a leading edge technology company with, you know, it's the greatest incubator in the world what are you doing to monetize that? i don't know. but all the core businesses, to me, they're in the most exciting growth verticals right now. why wouldn't you want to be in this name at 21 times forward when, in fact, again, the reins around the competitive area is beyond that. >> you're choosing ibm over google? >> yes. >> you are choosing ibm over nvidia? >> well, i think nvidia, right,
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so nvidia's top clients are its top competitors, so, the writing on the wall is there. not that i don't think it can go higher, but i think that it's probably run its course right now and needs to pull back. google, ould i choose ibm? i would choose to replace the ibm ceo and get a little bit more growthier and seems like the year of replacing ceos. i -- i don't know. i think they've done a poor job, on paper, i think they're better than google right now, but google, to julie's point, really has to show what they're capable of doing. and they have 85% of search. they need another trick. >> all right. for more, let's bring in "fast money" friend gene munster of deepwater asset management. gene, i don't know about the septillion stuff, all the zeros. what can this do? drug discovery and other things. is this too much to afford, you know, google's market cap today
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for what this could be in however many years? >> i'm in the camp, i think consistent with what most of the panel has said, which is, probably too much for today, i agree with that this is more of a validation point for google's tech, but just to put this in perspective, they started this willow project 12 years ago. so, the potential around this being commercialized is probably ten years away. and so, it's -- it's still a long time. it does speak -- there is a piece where the stock should have been up today, i would have guessed a few percent, because i think it does speak to google invested in the right areas for what will be continuing tech acceleration in the decades to come. this is a google investor is a sleep well at night, similar as waymo. doesn't get a ton of attention, but i think collectively, melissa, i would have expected the stock to be up a couple of percent today. >> gene, i love when you agree with me, so, thank you. i'll ask you this question.
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who should be worried about this? i saw in your note, probably not nvidia, not md yet, but somebody has to be. >> yeah, i think, you know, some of the other quantum companies, there's private companies on that side, but i think on the public side, you know, the worries are probably -- because this is, again, so far away. i think the piece that the rest of the mag seven needs to be contemplating here an nvidia needs to be thinking about is just what are they doing to have some sort of position within quantum computing? it's theory right now, but i think you have to pursue that theory. similar to when aviation was theory before we got flight, i mean, all these things go from projects from the lab and so, i oui sauld the think google is standing alone right now, within the mag seven, in terms of their investments in quantum. >> so, you said ten years away from commercialization, and what do you think commercialization
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could be? what is the field that could benefit the most from quantum computing? >> it's as simple as a.i. just the peer -- you went through the numbers, basically going from an eternity to five minutes. it's hard -- this is the kind of stuff, it's called super positioning, it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the improvements in compute speed. and so, i think probably the biggest beneficiary is just everything that's a.i. ultimately, you have a company like nvidia, if quantum moves from theory to actually a production product, they need to have an answer down the road. so, again, the question, what, you know who is going to be impacted, what's the use cases on these? i think a.i. is probably front and center, and probably health care is one of the biggest areas, initial areas. >> gene, great to speak with you, thank you. >> thank you. >> gene munster, deepwater asset management. we were showing the chart of nvidia, and remember nvidia fell yesterday on the back of the news of the china investigation, so, interesting that it doesn't,
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you know, i can't catch it today, and we have this super computer news. >> well, it's certainly -- this is a trade today about tomorrow. nvidia could be yesterday's trade today. i don't know. but i would look at the semiconductor space. you cannot single out nvidia. i would look at semis, which today hit another important relative value underperformance to the s&p, which takes you almost all the way back to february of this year, which is when they were going to the moon, so, it's -- you know, a relative value chart, s like a reverse head and shoulders. >> we have some breaking news out of washington. >> melissa, leaving a meeting with incoming senate finance chair, our karen james, our producer, caught up with him and got a chance to ask him a couple of quells about his priorities and about this idea of a shadow fed chair. take a listen.
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>> as the president said on sunday, and i am in complete agreement with him, that jay powell will serve out his term and leave the building as fed chair in may '26. >> now, this is interesting for what he said, but also, melissa, i would highlight for what he hasn't said there. he said that essentially they will not be firing jay powell before his term is up, sort of reiterating or re-emphasizing what president-elect trump said on sunday in that interview, saying that he had no plans to replace powell, but bessett is the trump adviser who laid out that plan of a shadow fed chair, nominating someone very, very early to replace powell so that person could, in effect, become the one who lays out advice and who the market is listening to, rather than powell, even when powell is still in office. karen said to him, how do you feel about a shadow fed chair? he says that powell will stay in office, but wasn't completely putting the idea to bed there, so, a lot to read into this, but at least for now, powell can
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think that his job is safe. >> all right, megan, thank you. megan cassella. a key inflation report out tomorrow. november consumer price index out before the opening bell. dow jones expects the number to climb by a tenth of a percent from october. cnbc's steve liesman is here -- >> on the desk. >> on the set. >> in the house. >> he's playing live. >> give him a little round of applause. >> blues on cpi. that's the plug, right? >> unsolicited plug. >> first of all, i mean, to the comments, he's still -- he craftily did not answer -- >> he didn't say no shadow fed chair. >> he just said powell is going to serve the term, which we knew already. >> well, we didn't know that already. i mean, i guess -- >> trump said that. >> well, he ruled out the idea of maybe replacing him, having a big fight over the idea, which is what the president ruled out, but he's not ruled out the idea they could appoint this person ahead of time and kind of take some of the what is it, cut him
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off at the knees in the sense that if your shadow fed chair says something about the future of policy, it removes the forward guidance tool in a sense from the fed chair. now, i don't know if they're going to do that, he was the guy that mentioned it, he did not specifically deny doing that there, and i guess if they get to a point where they're angry at fed policy, they can do that. >> right. back to fed policy, is this going to change the trajectory of the fed in december? >> i think it's a very consequential number tomorrow, and for y'all traders around the desk here, i would say, and the next day. you got to take the cpi and the ppi together. the market is very good at trading it in sum, but in its pieces. so, you want to be careful, like, if you get a hot cpi, but together, we create the pce than's the thing the fed cares about. and that is the expectation, sort of -- the number you read earlier, that 0 .3, fourth one n a row, core cpi. so, that's the notion.
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do you have that other chart that i made ahead of this conversation here, which is the one with the bar chart, and what you see is kind of interesting story. you can see -- no, not that one. >> that is a bar chart. >> you weren't very specific. >> the one about cpi, the core cpi one, we're having fun here, ladies and gentlemen, maybe it's not available. it shows the story of high earlier this year, came down in the middle, got everybody excited it was coming down, and now it's kind of back up about halfway. i don't know if we can do that, do you have it? >> she's pointing at me. while we wait for this chart, we had small business confidence the highest in three years, and they talked about the inflation, wage components. they said that prices are highest they've been since march and they're probably going higher, it's great they're confident, obviously, bodes well for small cap, all kinds of things we talk about, but this says inflation's not coming down, it's going higher. >> well, a couple of things, be a little careful with the small business.
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it's a very -- >> noisy. >> okay. >> there's the chart, by the way. >> oh, well, there you go. >> look at that. it was high before, then somebody freaked out, the parts on the left there, everybody got really happy and comfy in the middle there, and now we're like, oh, is inflation stalling here, and that's what's going to add to the conversation. be careful with that. it has been this absolute surge. i think maybe democrats ought to think about why business leaders are reacting as if boot was taken off their neck. i think that's not necessarily the best way to run your economic policies in the country, it's not -- and so, you get that, and that creates the possibility of a surge in business spending and capital spending. and -- and that creates some concern, but the fed, i don't think, tim, can make policy based on the expectations of people for policies that may or may not be enacted down the road. >> sure. >> okay? now -- >> but this is just another ingredient of many that have been in the stew that inflation isn't getting better.
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you know, what we hear from companies anecdotally throughout earnings season is, there's price pressures. there's certainly service price. we saw it in the ism and we head from corporate america. >> okay. did you see the unit labor cost today? >> of course i did. >> did you see the productivity number today? did it make you smile? >> yeah, i'm always happy to see -- >> make you sweat a little bit less? look, if we have high productivity, we have low unit labor costs, we can run the economy a little hotter without inflationary pressures, okay? and, look. i am getting a lot of commentary from people, especially over this thing, that are saying, steve, you are out of your mind to think that -- i still think they have another quarter of recalibration in them, but now we can go to that four-bar chart, the one with four bars -- >> good chart. >> is sandy going to hate me? >> already does. he said the fed's rate path chart, then -- >> thank you. >> perhaps afterwards you can write the instructions for me.
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he said it's nothing but love for me in my ear. let's talk about this chart. >> yes. >> do it. >> what we see is that 87 -- 84% number, it's too far away, 85% percent of a cut coming next week. then everybody thinks they take a pause. now, the thing you have to realize is that the next two bars represent the probability of the same quarter point cut. so, over the course of march and may, they think another quarter is laid in, so, that's 50. now, i have another chart, ladies and gentlemen, which is the december '25 fed funds futures chart. >> glad he named it. >> how did i do? >> there it is. >> makes it easy to find it. >> let's talk about this. this is 372. let's do the math. that's 28 points to 400 and add another 60, so they think there's 80 basis points built in between now and next year. we get perhaps 50 by march, and then you're done. so, the idea is, the fed does
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this other quarter and then maybe it does two other quarters over the course of next year. that's where it's kind of a proxy for the terminal rate, but that's a good proxy for the terminal rate. what's interesting is, from your -- what i think matters to you guys, the market knows all this. the market has internalized all of this. it doesn't seem to care all that much. i think that -- i did the math, you're up 7.7% at the top from the election, now you're up, what was the number i just calculated, 5.8% -- yeah, 5.9% from -- since the election. you gave back two percentage points. so, the market seems to be okay with this. are you upset by this? >> do i look upset? >> do you ever look upset? you always look happy. >> i'm a happy guy. listen, you know, i think jerome powell -- a couple of missteps here and there. but done a remarkable job. the messaging has been good. we'll see how we get through this. >> we may have -- there's two dissents that i'm thinking
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about. bowman maybe, again, the fed governor. and miss hammock, the new cleveland fed president, she was a little bit on the fence in the sense that she said, i could see another quarter point cut between now and january, so, she was like, do that quarter either now or in january, so, i don't know. you might get a surprise a week from now, in which case i think you do get the extra quarter, though. i think they're still recalibrating. >> steve, thank you. thank you for all the charts. >> really wonderful to come back. >> i didn't really believe that, but we'll -- >> this doesn't happen when i'm remote. i get the charts up right away. >> so you're blaming us. >> i'm not blaming you. just talking about -- >> this is for you, guys. walgreens, boots, get it? surging on reports of a pe deal. what it could mean for the beaten down company. plus, boeing takes off. shares leading the dow as max production goes back online. what it means for delivery numbers and how things look one month after the machint rike. don't go anywhere.
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don't go anywhere. "fast money" is back in two. with empower, we get all of our financial questions answered. so we don't have to worry. empower. what's next.
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nippon steel. nippon saying in reaction, we're confident that our proposed partnership is the best path forward to secure the future of u.s. steel and we've engaged in good faith to underscore how the transaction will bolster american economic and national security by countering the threats posed by china. the white house just issuing a statement, saying biden will continue to see what the process yields and they haven't received any recommendation yet. shares of u.s. steel down nearly 30% since the deal was first announced almost a year ago. it's amazing that people continue to be surprised at this, because it's been talked about so much, but there was a glimmer of hope that biden in the 11th hour would let it go through. >> i think it's a buy on the weakness, because if you think about it, what's trump said? he's against the deal, as well, but he's going to have tax incentives and tariffs to deal with it. that's going to pop the stock. so, all of this is a buying opportunity, in my opinion. >> interesting, you know, it's a day when you saw some of the other global steels rally a little bit, and it's not
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necessarily that the fundamentals are that great. that's really the story here, so, you know, if there is an outside bid where there's value applied to the u.s. business, it's not in the best interest of shareholders to see this deal not happen, in other words, it still should happen and it would be voted on by shareholders, but higher powers. mean time, shares of walgreens notching their best day ever after reports they are exploring with private equity deal. they had previously tried to go public in 2019 when it was worth $50 billion. what a decline, i mean , they have to stabilize the retail pharmacy business. >> disaster. now you want to play a little stock market here, because this is a name that traded -- 32-year low, i think, in the name recently. obviously, you got the bounce today, on probably five times normal volume. the question you have to ask yourself, do you want to play it for another 25% or 30%, which doesn't mean it's fixed, but you
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might be able to get that based on this news and based on probably the short interest, so, again, not fixed, but the stock might be a buy here in a pretty major way. >> julie, what do you think? >> yeah, it's a really difficult situation and, you know, the amount of value destruction that you've seen here is pretty substantial, and, you know, they've not done deals quite this large, and it's a big ship it has to turn around. i do think there will be continued interest from other parties, because it's true, you can split this business off and it probably has a sum of the parts that's compelling, so, i think it's definitely in play, but the fundamentals of this are really tough. it's probably going to limit the buying pool. >> this is a classic private equity dynamic, because there's a balance sheet here that's unsustainable. there's a debt problem and i think this is exactly where private equity will work some magic. coming up, boeing back at it. the company restarting production of its 737 max
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planes. one month after the end of its machinist strike. will the news jump start the stock further? and a violent outburst from the unc ceo murder suspect. the latest details on that, and how this is all casting the spotlight on other players in the health insurance space. you're watching "fast money," live from the nasdaq market site in times square. back right afterhi ts. unhceo. this is our future, ma. godaddy airo. creates a logo, website, even social posts... in minutes! -how? -a.i. (impressed) ay i like it! who wants to come see the future?! get your business online in minutes with godaddy airo
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>> welcome back to "fast money." stocks in the red as investors await tomorrow's inflation data. the dow falling more than 150 points, now on a four-day losing streak. the s&p and nasdaq down a quarter of a percent. the naz sdaq did hit a high in e session. kroger's $25 billion merger blocked with albertsons. reduce bargaining leverage for unionized workers. boeing popping 4.5% on news that the company restarted production of its 737 max a month after the end of its machinist strike. the company also saying it delivered 13 planes in november, down from 14 in october, when if bulk of the strike occurred. and gm shares jumping afterhours following ing an
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announcement to no longer fund its robotaxi effort, instead focusing on personal vehicles. that is the lowest investment grade rating from the credit agency. hmm. >> wow. >> a lot of roads there. >> yeah. what do you want to trade? >> i'll trade boeing. 13 is nothing to do cart wheels on, but down from 56 year over year. nine max, i think, down from, you know, something in the 40s. it's a case where really, to believe in boeing, you have to believe in some beginning of a normalization process in terms of production. because if they are anywhere near, if they are three-quarters of where they were on last year's production schedule, they're going to be cash flow positive. that's the story. this is a company, it's not if it's cheap. it's a profitability problem. i am of the view that this is a story you want to own here and i've said this for a year and been wrong. >> uh-huh. and you said that more recently,
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guy. >> i have. and it's been wrong for months and months. but since that secondary, a month and a half. 143, i mean, you've had this stealth rally that's basically been having quiet and all of a sudden you wake up, it's $164 stock. and, you know, i think it's right up against the 150-day moving average which is somewhat problematic. with that said, you get through it. and we could be talking about boeing in the mid 180s very easily and nothing has effectively changed ther than the stock price. >> gm getting rid of cruise or -- that's a billion dollars, once the plan is completed, in money that it won't spend on cruise, which is a good thing. >> it's a good thing, and gm has actually been one of the shining spots within the automotive industry. everyone compares this to this massive run that tesla had, but you only really have to compare it to ford, and i'd rather gm than ford, but when you look at intel, i think julie said sum of the parts in an earlier stock.
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what isn't intel a sum of the parts story? ceo gone. there's got to be a bid in this at some point. right? i mean -- i feel like i'm holding my breath. >> timing is everything, grasso, so -- >> you look at the chart. i'll tell you, i know you want to go to julie. boeing, what do you think doge is going to go to town with boeing? talk about the inefficiencies and the contracts. 37% of their income is from government revenue. they're going to go at that with a hack saw. coming up, murder suspect luigi mangione yelling at reporters. the latest details on his motives and how the entire health insurance space could be under scrutiny. "fast money" is back in two.
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what's this? she's opening her fidelity app.... to buy that stock... with no fees or commissions... because what does gina got? gina's got the look. that never gets old. talk about easier investing. welcome back to "fast money." new developments in the murder of the united health care ceo. you're looking at lee wee gee mangione being forced into a pennsylvania courthouse while yelling at tv cameras. he's facing extradition to new york, where he faces a murder charge in the killing of brian thompson. bertha coombs is here with the latest on what we know and the growing bab ing backlash for t involved in the capture of the
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alleged murder. >> reporter: that's right, melissa. mangione remains in custody after a judge in pennsylvania again denied bail, following a preliminary hearing. his public defender said that mangione is contested extradition. manhattan's district attorney will seek to force that extradition. mangione had an out burst as he was escorted in. >> it's completely out of touch and it's an insult to the intelligence of the american people and their lived experience. >> he was saying it's completely unjust. new york officials have not shared a motive. senior law enforcement officials tell nbc news that mangione hate a three-page manifesto with him yesterday when he was arrested, where he decried large corporations and united health care in particular, with statements including, quote, i do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done.
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frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. and a note saying he acted alone. quote, to the feds, i'll keep this short, because i do i respect what you do for our country. to save you a lengthy investigation, i state plainly that i wasn't work with anyone. unquote. officials are concerned that we could see others act out, given the backlash that we've seen against employees at the mcdonald's where they had called about a tip about mangione's location yesterday. and the altoona police say the officers who arrested mangione and the department itself have been receiving threats since yesterday, as well. as the deputy police chief says, this is, quote, a very polarized case. melissa, it's really touched a nerve for many people who are frustrated with the u.s. health system and with claims denials that often frustrate so many as they're trying to get care for themselves and their loved ones. >> yeah, i think everybody has got a health care story, bertha, and that's what's really behind
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it all here. bertha, thank you. bertha coombs. let's get more now with john ransom, director of health care research at raymond james. you say that, you know, the health care industry has always been unpopular. united health care in particular has worked through these periods in the past. but is this a little bit different? i mean, we haven't been through a period where the ceo of a health care unit gets assassinated in the streets of manhattan and people are cheering. >> sure, i mean, the old saying that politics is downstream of culture. you know, the culture right now, i think the uncertainty, if you look at the gallup polls, it's gotten more unpopular among republicans, if you look at the polling, it's kind of fascinating. so, we don't know who is going to be occupying these seats next year in congress, but this is an issue, particularly the medicare advantage guys were beat up pretty badly by the biden administration, investors think the incoming trump administration will be a little
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kinder, but i think the bet is a little bit hard to make, because you don't know who is going to be occupying these seats, and also, you do have a more pop ewe lus party and the industry is not as popular as it used to be. >> yeah. what is the biggest risk to this industry? i mean, part of it is the lack of transparency, so, to the extent that there could be forced transparency in the form of some sort of regulation, would publishing denial rates be that much -- that detrimental to the industry? as you sort of take a look at the risks, what are those risks, in your view? >> well, what's interesting, let's take cvs. you had a money manager on a couple weeks ago. cvs's medical loss ratio in their medicare advantage book is up from 85% to 95%. so, cvs is actually spending ten points more and they're losing their shirt, they're losing billions of dollars in medicare advantage. so, if you look at the business risk, it's the fact that medical
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costs have exploded. now, of course, that hasn't bought the industry any good will, but the truth is, these, you know, these insurance companies that people don't like are losing their shirts on medicare advantage and also on some, you know, cvs is losing a billion dollars in the exchanges. so, the risk is that -- that's the risk. it's the medical loss ratio. i think the legislative risk, and this is where i think there's a debate, is have we overused a.i. for things like prior authorization, can we do things to make appeals processes more transparent? you know, could companies be easier to work with? absolutely. and that's the thing i think where there could be some meeting of the minds, i mean you you know, when you get a claim denied, i can't think of anybody that's said, oh, gosh, i feel that was just a wonderful process. and i think lastly, like amas on this warpath on prior authorization for prescriptions, and that used to be in place for very expensive drugs, but the
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trend has increased. prior authorization has grown and grown. i talked to a guy yesterday said, yeah, every one of my prescriptions is prior auth and has to be appealed. i think that friction and maybe the overuse of a.i., united bought a company that replaced some of the human engineering with some robotic engineering, and i think that's where there should be a healthy debate, because maybe that has gotten out of control. >> so, there is an aspect of a.i. gone wrong. i mean, we -- you know, investors are touting a.i. as the great growth trade, and then here we are in an example of an industry that has embraced a.i., in theory, it should reduce cost tremendously because of the paperwork, and it's backfired in this case. do you think companies are willing to roll back? >> let's look at good a.i. i got discharged from the e.r. at 2:00 a.m., i have a police record, i've got something on my file -- they should say, let's get john some help, you know, predictive analytics, get john
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some help. that's using large language models to look across all the data sets to predict where people need help. that's a great example of where a.i. should be. but yeah, do we overdo it on prior auth? i'm not saying we did, but i think that's where we need to -- where we need to have a debate. >> john, great to speak with you. thank you. >> all right, thank you. >> john ransom. what do you think? >> john's right. the good a.i., he's right, but we're light years away from that, we're on the other side of that spectrum. how can we basically ding this claim and not fill this? so, that's the problem. that's why people are upset. doesn't justify anything, by the way. but with that said, unh, despite the fact that competitors are had horrible stock moves, it hangs in there like a champ, so -- you sell this one at your own risk, i think. >> julie? >> yeah, i think it's really much more a reflection, not just of claims, but so much medical debt is really, you know, putting people under and into bankruptcy. that's the number one reason for
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bankruptcies is medical debt. and i think it's just a reflection of how broken the system is in terms of, we pay more for our health care and we have worse outcomes. i really think it's a broader reflection than just claims processing, but yes, i agree, this is a great example of where a.i. maybe isn't perfect. coming up, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a drone. dropping off amazon packages. how the e-commerce giant is hitting the skies once again, and if the program can finally deliver. that's next. plus, how options traders are handling the drop in hims. shares down 6% in today's session. so, what is bendhi that? we'll discuss when "fast money" returns. what's right for the business and what's best for everyone who depends on it. solving today's challenges while creating future opportunities. it takes balance.
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welcome back to "fast money." amazon shares failing to left off today, it comes as the company is officially kicking off its drone delivery program in arizona. the new fleet of drones is 40% quieter than the older versions, which saw some push-back in other test sites. kate rooney is live in fee ninth with the very latest. hey, kate. >> hi, melissa. so, amazon first started publicly talking about this drone project about a decade ago. they are officially now using drones to deliver packages around the phoenix metro area.
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these are meant for smaller items, think of things that fit into a shoe box, they have to weigh five pounds or less and then they drop from a drone about 12 feet in the air. you pay $10 or so extra for a drone delivery to get some of these items faster. they're have been some charges in design over the years. they did cut the noise, they say you by 40%, doubled the range, and through testing have figured out some things, they talked about how to avoid dogs, which you can imagine like to chase these drones. amazon executive david carbon, who spent nearly two decades at boeing, tells me managing air space is really one of the biggest challenges. they did get faa approval in october for the latest mk-30 drones. and the site here is integrated direct wli with one of those sub-same day fulfillment centers. i'm told they're going to be rolling out into new cities next year. the goal, they say, 500 million deliveries per year, within 30 minutes or less. so, far, they have only done thousands of deliveries, they say. and there's a lot more competition.
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walmart is rolling out their own drones in the area. back to you, mel. >> kate, those drones look big. i mean, how much can they actually carry in one go? >> so, it's one box, it's got to be smaller than a shoe box. so, those are things you need immediately. say you're cooking and you forgot an onion. so, it's those small things, health care is really popular, we saw a jenga box, the game, get delivered. it's the last-minute item, and they talk about this really not being right for everything. not everything is going to be delivered through a drone. but it is that sort of last-minute thing. they hope at some point that it's kind of on-par pricing-wise with trucking. you can imagine there are metro areas, it is easier, the network is set up better to have trucks out there. in rural areas, the suburbs here, might actually work with a drone. but you kind of need a yard, a landing pad where you can have a box dropped down. really hard to do in a major city. >> and you have to hope that you don't have a pet or small children underneath a box. >> standing underneath. >> that was one of the biggest
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things. the dogs. they said, actually, the engineers, that -- thought of everything and apparently none of them were dog owners. when they tested in college station, the dog thing kept coming up again and again. they had to figure out ways to hover without landing, if there was a dog, and abort the mission and go back. but they say actually not landing is pretty common. safety is a huge headline risk, so, if there were an issue, that would really set this program back in a big way. >> kate, thank you. kate rooney. yeah, safety, but you can get your jenga right away. >> you really have to have an urge to play jenga, guy. >> jenga emergency. >> if you really need it, you go to uber delivery. it only holds five pounds right now. so -- >> you can't get a really big jenga set. >> never played jenga. >> pull the stick out so it doesn't collapse. >> and then say jenga when you screw it up. >> i don't know how that works. >> jenga!
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a big drop in hims as traders brace for a major court ruling next eek. what the decision could mean for the company and how the options .its are positioning ahe o refaadf itmo "st money" in two., tu amelia, unlock the door. i'm afraid i can't do that, jen. ♪ (suspenseful music) ♪ why not? did you forget something? ♪ (suspenseful music) ♪ my protein shake. the future isn't scary. not investing in it is. you're so dramatic elia. bye jen. nasdaq-100 innovators. one etf. before investing, carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco.com. y'all see this, patrick mahomes is saying goodbye! patrick! patrick! people was tripping. where are you gog!? he was actually saying goodbye to his old phone. i'm switching to the amazing new iphone 16 pro at t-mobile! it's the first iphone built for apple intelligence. that's like peanut butter on jelly...on gold. get four iphone 16 pro on us, plus four lines for $25 bucks.
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welcome back to "fast money." shares of hims and hers, as the fda re-evaluates taking try seven tide off the shortage list. that could have a major impact on the ability of the compounder to make those compounded glp-1s and that would hurt its business. options traders are betting that the ruling may not go in hims' favor. mike, what are you seeing? >> yeah, we see very high implied volatility. big moves anticipated in ims by the end of next week. moves of more than 16% are implied. and we saw a lot of put activity. actually, it was the december 27th 29-strike puts that saw the most opening activity. purchases of more than 3,300 of those took place over a 20-minute span between 1:40 and 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. buyers are betting that the decision could be unfavorable, and that the stock's ne that we saw today could
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continue. >> all right. we've seen this roller coaster of the hims and hers stock. every time there's a little blip of the possibility that it might not be able to compound, it's so fragile, that business model. >> at some point, it's an evidentability, isn't it? based upon what we're expecting from the drug companies and the ramp and everything that we're hearing from them, this was an $8 stock at the start of this year, so, i mean -- you know, if i'm an option player, i'm not sure i want to buy the long-term volume in this. i think it's going to happen. >> $15 to $35 basically in a heartbeat this late august until now. i mean -- i think these are the right strike. i mean, 25 is a 50% retracement of that. they may be a little expensive, but you get that, vol will kick in for you. >> yeah. >> short interest of 15%, it's up 246% year to date, to both of my -- >> panelists. >> yeah, on the side. >> tim, by the way. >> guy. >> doesn't -- >> how are you doing? >> doesn't need that much.
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>> only been doing this 18 years. >> not yet. >> if we make it. up next, final trades.
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time for the final trade. julie? >> noticed some insider buying on a name that i already like, lemaitre. >> tim? >> will local or no willow, i like google, whether it's the valuation, whether it's the growth it's giving you. stay there. >> stephen? >> ibm, at the fore front of quantum computing and a.i. get an activist in there. ibm. >> guy? >> i think willow is a name of michael's wife in "general hospital."
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not a good person, as it turns out, if you've been watching -- >> really strange pull. >> current gh? >> current gh. >> is there current gh? gh is still on? >> do you have a trade, please? >> gilead. >> quick! >> "mad money" starts right now >> "mad money" starts right now. my mission is simple. to make you money. i am here to level the playing field for all investors. there is always a bull market summer, and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now! hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money", welcome to cramerica. my friends, i'm just trying to save a little bit of money. my job is not only to entertain, but to explain what is happening. comment 1-800-743-cnbc. the data center is dead. long live the data center! enterprise software

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