love you, too. agentforce helps retailers prevent fashion fails. it's what ai was meant to be. ♪♪ i'm kelly evans. he is steve leishman. stocks are lower but they are the worst levels of the day. nasdaq down 1.6%. we are wondering what happens to the santa claus rally. apple hitting a roadblock today on the way to 4 trillion. the big tech components of the dow are dragging on the index and the leaders of the nasdaq, we may not know they are in the nasdaq 100. starbucks, pepsi.

>> all of this comes as the 10 year yield is 4.6% off the highest level since may. and then people are buying more stuff. >> i don't think that is really a market mover should not call me crazy. it is a thin trading session. >> the week was not bad. this is the week for yields. >> we had the biggest christmas eve rally for the s&p since 1973 or something like that. that gives us a nice made margin of safety. >> what i looked at what was down, those things had been way it. >> the biggest decline, tesla and things like that. and the ceo named the ceo of the year.

one of the biggest decliners for virtually no reason will tell you it is a market rotation. it could be tensions, rebalancing. >> i have another talent by the way. >> about what? >> the santa claus rally. >> it will be hard to have one without art. maybe just delayed because of that. without art, it will be hard. >> and didn't sing this year. >> true. >> out of respect, we don't need it. >> people are banking on it. i don't want to disappoint people. but it might be a possible reason. >> a great point. the have an issue driving a wedge between trump supporters this week in the past 24 hours. immigration, high school the migration. elon musk and vivek ramaswamy are the co- heads of the doj and they say hello silicon valley needs high-speed immigrants. but the president not so keen on whether we need more of

that. we are taking a look at the issue. megan, bring us up to speed. >> this is over feel like math and engineering. this all started with criticism from far right activists who call that trump appointees advocating raising the cap on the hb one visas and said that stanzas in opposition for the trip america first agenda. the big tech wing pushed back. elon musk saying it comes down to competitiveness and if you force the will's best talent to play from the other side, america will lose. other conservatives chimed in and saying that tech wants differently workers because they can't leave the company without leaving the visa comparing them in that way to indentured servants. the one person that chiming in is trump himself. trump rosies applications one covid it in his first term and tightened the application process a little bit as well. this summer, he said anyone the

graduates from college in the u.s. should automatically get a green card suggesting he might back visa expansion. we are not talking about huge amount of immigration. is 85,000 visas issued each year. amazon applied for more of them in 2024 than any other company. you can see other big names among the top 20 are users as well. tesla applied for 742 of these this year. so the tech ceos have a vested interest in it has ignited a fight over the trump agenda. highlighting some cracks within the party on this. >> it is quite amazing. are these people aware of the demographics and the math that show we have, the number of people 65 and older retiring every year at something like 4 million a year? is that the number? i'm just wondering.

and what is it that they think will solve the problem that we have in the population in this country? >> you are right. we both no and jay powell talked about the importance of immigration in the economy because of the retirees and the aging demographics in the country and we need people coming in because it would contribute to inflation if there was more of a push or a fight. and the labor shortage. we saw a preview of that over the last year or so. what they are talking about is american values and american workers should be able to take these jobs pick the evidence shows more often that these workers, when they are coming in, they are actually creating jobs and they are starting companies like nvidia or tesla and then are creating jobs and hiring a lot of people. so what they are worried about is taking jobs away from americans. what elon musk and the big tech crowd are saying that we need these people here to create the jobs and remain competitive so we can be even more productive. >> very quickly, it is fascinating.

ann coulter essentially gave the union line on why they are against h one be and is part of a bigger story that the republican party has been courting and winning union workers on here they are with essentially a pro one line. >> it is amazing how the politics can get so scrambled. the idea we want american jobs is very much a union line. something you could hear joe biden say sometimes. it doesn't mean it is the argument of a lot of democrats. at this point, elon musk and vivek ramaswamy are saying that it does not have to come at the expense of these highly skilled workers. elon musk went on x yesterday to try to double down and say to be clear, i'm just talking about the top 0.1% of workers because these highly skilled workers make up such a small amount of overall immigration. we have to watch is where trump falls on this. does he feel like he has to

choose either elon musk or his maga loyalists. and many have been loyal to him for years and because of his more hard-line stance. does he find a way down the middle and then what happens to the economy amidst all of this? >> thank you very much. >> let's bring in another steve. >> how skilled is the h-1b? lets as the president and ceo of the conference board and cnbc contributor. thank you for joining us. i did a story about this maybe a year ago. i calculated the following. if there was an austrian clerk and let's say he is educated in the united states and he had a theory about this thing called relativity. he would have a one out of six chance of getting a visa to come to the country. so where are we now in terms of getting the est and the brightest into this country? >> i think you have to go back

to where you started this segment which is, let's look at the fundamentals. the number of people dying in the births. will soon outnumb i think we are at that juncture right now. the only way you are going to grow in population is through immigration. you need population growth in order to grow consumption and in order to grow the base. and then you go to workers. the number is 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day. you are right. the number is 4 million per year. and then you layer on that skill shortage. we have severe skill shortages and most of the s.t.e.m. areas, trade and so forth. you add that up and we need about 6 million people immigrating into this country every year for the next 10 years or so. and then you look at the h-1b visas which are the source of skilled labor and we are limiting that to 85,000 people.

so a tiny fraction of the number that we need. we need, in order to make the labor force the top goal, we need to expand immigration. >> steve, i will take the other side of some of this. one of the criticisms in the back and forth on the tweets is that mosque is advertising for jobs that pay $70,000 a year. that is not the top .1%. those are jobs that you would think at 70,000, are not that highly skilled and should be filled by americans? >> they can't be filled by americans because they are not being filled by americans. we have skill shortages. it is not an either or. we need jobs at every level. and we need some unskilled immigration but we need skilled immigration. it is all over the place as you know by looking at the numbers. the system is broke. they tried to fix this in bush

and didn't get this done. multiple times over the years, they have come at this. i think they are conflating. i think the political issues we talked about are conflating the unchecked southern border issues with the need for controlled immigration. we need immigration. it is really, really important. 20% of the students and most of the elite universities come from international. we are educating the rest of the world. we are not letting them stay here and deploy those in our country when we need those skills. we have to get beyond the politics and we have to get this fixed. >> it is all politics. i was going to ask steve, what are the proposals on the table as far as you know? and what might really happen on this? >> first of all, you have to get rid of this stuff with the southern border. it is just confusing. ceos are aligned trying to stable a visa to everyone not

in the state. allowing people to self nominate rather than having to go through the country. allowing people to come in and bring investment capital if they have it and so forth. allowing not to have limit by country or by nationality or gender or any other measure. look at an terms of who is coming here and what skill sets. check it. do the background check. not importing criminals but getting the skills we need. >> i want to make one more point on this issue. the two issues are very related. the aging of the population and the need for workers. where they dramatically intersect is in medical care. we have this aging population which creates this tremendous need for medical care workers. >> that is what is happening in the uk. a lot of nurses are trained in

africa and they come into the uk in order to work. it brings a dynamic were in africa they say, we need the nurses too. there is a global war going on. there is a shortage happening everywhere. >> the immigration is nice for tesla and amazon but his life or death for hospitals. whether or not the hospitals can even be open because they don't have the workers. >> but the argument -- >> is there a special dispensation for them? >> it is with the healthcare and southern border. >> let's come back to that. i want to get your reaction. another important thought which is related as productivity. because the thought is that we would be more productive and there will are productivity booms. it represents venture puerile poll with a great challenge for 2025 and how to steer monetary policy. look at this. a turnaround with negative numbers after the pandemic. it averaged want to get 5% from the great financial crisis.

this is likely before any ai impact. this is a big deal for how we live in the u.s. economy. the fed has to figure out if it is a short-term blip or lasting thing? could tariffs and deportation the real productivity? and how does monetary policy react? higher productivity means, let the economy run somewhat hotter and it could also mean higher terminal funds rate because the content -- the demand for capital is higher. let me turn to you. let me show you the sources theorized. a lot of people changed jobs in the pandemic so we have people into the better jobs they are more suited for. and we trained a lot of the people we hired. working from home could be a source of productivity. companies learn how to do more with less during the pandemic. and this could be uncounted

hours. it could be very perilous for the fed if you have undocumented immigrants or work from home hours not being counted. or fiscal illusion. steve, first of all, how much do you believe in the productivity numbers these days and how much could help offset some of the immigrant issues we have? >> they are clinching the numbers. they went up. they went down. they have come back. it is all over the place. you wonder, what is the long-term trend? you look back to the 90s. we had productivity growth because of the whole pc revolution. and you at 100 basis points to the gdp every year. it has been stagnant since then. we needed to get back to some sort of breakthrough. ai does that to some extent. it will come and we all know it. it is one through zero. another tech revolution that will allow people to get more

productive. the problem right now, steve is i think the latest a pick up tick is driven by he people who by labor shortages, meaning people in place need to work longer. our studies show that stress and burnout are at record levels. the question is whether this is a sustainable level of productivity or whether it is a blip because of dire need and companies and it will just fall apart nonetheless, it gets back to the original subject which is, we need more skilled workers and we need more consumers in this country in order to grow. you have to have population growing. all of that comes back to the same issues we were talking about. >> i'm going to make a lot of people angry. we are going to have a large influx of immigrants into the country who are unskilled. the best thing you can do for your economy is to train them. isn't that right, steve? >> the best thing to do is make sure they are documented.

>> right. i'm just saying that if they come in and they are less productive and if you make them more productive, you raise productivity. >> you can make them more productive but if they are still illegal and you cannot hire them, it doesn't solve anything. you have to start with the process needed to make them legal. in businesses, we cannot hire undocumented workers legally. people do. they have them in the construction trade and in agriculture and in restaurants. because there is a dire need and people are looking the other way. but it is illegal. e i can verify is checked and we have iced coming in and checking. you need to find a way to make these people legal and have them pay taxes and so forth. and then, as they say in the south, bring them up. make sure they are adding value on the skill set. >> i'm just glad productivity is on the rebound. >> are you buying those numbers? >> i'm not sure. i have studied long enough to

know to be wary. >> i'm glad you are highlighting it. i have more confidence that it is real. here's the problem. you take a long time to know if these things are real. you have to act in the moment with monetary policy. in the 90s, i'm not sure i would have had the confidence to say, yes, this is happening and policy will be such and such as a result. now powell and the fed have to do the same thing, figure it out. >> it might be a watershed moment falling on the productivity. >> when you say productivity is inherently this inflationary? >> in the long run, yes. >> think about it. think about the headlines he read every day. a billion an a i. and the government borrowing all of this money. >> the two combined i think, you have this upward drift. and nothing it is all the productivity numbers but the more productive investments to invest in, the higher the demand for capital which should essentially raise the rate. >> in the 90s, the 10 year

yield went from 4.5, to 7% or something. interestingly, it wasn't a headwind for stocks. it was a reflection of what you were talking about. >> what greenspan said a 96 was to keep rates the same when others were arguing to raise them. he said, i have the productivity. it will take care of the inflation problem. the footnote to that is, it was a confident five to a point -- 5.5%. so a percentage point higher than where we are now. >> we have to go unfortunately. >> thank you for joining us. great conversation. big tech small caps getting the worst of it. we will get a check of bond yields as well. and a surprised uptick in consumer demand. more on power lunch after this!

it all started with a small business idea. it's a pillow with a speaker in it! that's right craig. pulling in the perfect team to get the job done. i'm just here for the internets. at&t, it's super-fast!

you locked us out?! and when thrown a curveball... arrggghh! ahhhh! [crashing sounds] we had everything we needed. is the internet out? don't worry, we have at&t internet back-up. the next level network for small business. ♪♪ i sold a pillow!

z's bakery is looking to add a pizza oven, arissa's hair salon wants to expand their space, and steve's t-shirt shop wants to bring on more help. with the comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee, they can think more about possibilities for their business and not the cost of their internet. it's five years of gig-speeds and advanced security. all from the company with 99.9% network reliability. get the 5-year price lock guarantee, now back for a limited time. powering five years of savings. powering possibilities™. welcome back to power lunch.

a down day for the markets. it is less likely then it was pick the nasdaq down 1.6%. 300 points lower on the dow. and underperforming for what was winning this year. it gives you the mood and flavor. in the bond market, it was lower and no higher. we have rick santelli here to enlighten us. >> i will tell you what. i doubt if the data might be used different but it was light trading in the trade deficit was bigger than expected. wholesale inventory reserves -- reverse from positive to negative. all of that necessarily is good. the biggest issue of all is the yield curve. looking at the two year to date, we settled last year at two year at four and a quarter which means it is up six basis points. looking at the tenure, it was that3.88. it is now 4.61. up 73 basis points.

73 minus six means the spread is 66 basis points steeper and that makes sense. you look at the chart and we are at minus 37 at the end of last year and basically hovering at 29, 30 right now. that is a huge move and it underscores the dynamic most traders were paying attention to all year. they thought that that issuance would push up rates but did didn't want to pick a certain part of the curve so they picked the spread and it was quite profitable. and a lot of basis plains. there is more going on. everybody else and the world is not doing as well as us. and we have a lot of money in the economy. but the two biggest export economies we think of being in the u.s. are china and japan. look at the dollar versus one. a 13 month high. very near. that means the currency for china is at a 13 month low.

look at the dollar yoko en. the dollar is down. 12% on the year. maybe more importantly, the chart goes back 20 years. what is interesting here is how much lower the dollar was pre-covid. it is huge economy. considering germany slowed down so much, the yen this week will be the benefit to the japanese economy. however, if we throw tariffs into the mix, it might make the dollar even stronger. foreign exchange be a big area to pay attention to in 2025. back to you. >> thank you. the next guest says yields are waking through a key resistance level could be big news for growth names next year. weil wl explore that market and the market navigator next. (♪♪)

car, this isn't the way home. that's right james, it isn't. car, where are we going? we're here. (♪♪) surprise!!! the future isn't scary. not investing in it is. car, were you in on this? nothing gets by you james. nasdaq-100 innovators. one etf. before investing, carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco.com do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy - even a term policy - for an immediate cash payment. call coventry direct to learn more. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. our friend sold their policy to help pay their medical bills, and that got me thinking. maybe selling our policy could help with our retirement. i'm skeptical, so i did some research and called coventry direct. they explained life insurance is a valuable asset that can be sold. we learned we

could sell all of our policy, or keep part of it with no future payments. who knew? we sold our policy. now we can relax and enjoy our retirement as we had planned. if you have $100,000 or more of life insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit coventrydirect.com to find out if your policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. to go further,

you need to be ready for what's down the road. as energy demand continues to rise, we're harnessing breakthrough innovations to increase production in the u.s. gulf of mexico. our latest deepwater development, anchor, produces previously inaccessible oil and natural gas, allowing us to deliver the energy we all need today so everyone can follow their own road. that's energy in progress. welcome back. we just heard from rick a little bit about bond yields.

lets dig a gun treasuries and the yield curve. treasury somewhat stable but long-term rates rising. what does it mean? joining us is todd gordon, the founder of inside edge capital. you are trading rates today? do tell. >> kelly. happy friday. i would love the position the portfolio is based on with the macro flow and what intermarket relationships are telling us. adding market perhaps is rating into it incorrectly when you look at the 10 year yield. we are breaking up into four, six. we have some resistance at about four, seven. the long term rates are moving up but the short end anchored is the fed has maybe a 50/50 chance of cutting wants more in may. and a lot of people on its face are reading it as inflationary, slow down protection tariffs.

but getting the yield curve out of the inversion, is that normalizing it on the way up? i think it is leading into some rotation into the growth trade. >> so you are not trading rates. you are looking at the yield curve moves. you are thinking what to trade those stocks? >> absolutely. if you actually look at, let's overlay. the 10 year yield, this is the nominal 10 year yield to the value growth ratio. i'm using the vanguard ratio. if you look at yields dropping, this is like the last 20 years. you will see a good correlation of value growth selling off along with the old. the 10 year yield has started to come back and moving up as we have rotated post covid into growth stocks. growth stocks right now continuing to outperform. how much higher can the 10 year yield gorelationship, we shall

see. i have a hard time seeing the 10 year yield too much above 5%. i would like to see the 10 year, 30 year chill out a little bit. if we can exist with 30, 40 basis points of the curb normalization, i think the growth trade will move in. and what rick said is usually important if you want to get into the minutia of the fact. the dollar moving up but it is being led by the dollar yen along with the rest of the trade. global risk putting the trade back on. i am bullish next year. >> a lot of times people say the use the trade to by or trade growth stocks. so maybe assign people are piling into the trade and creating more momentum. usually when people talk about the yields normalizing, they say, i like the bank. it makes the case. so more traditional area of value. are you going to kind of change or strategy if the curb changes? or will you stick with growth stocks next year almost regardless? >> i really think the 47, 48,

49 is fine. and then as i said, we will have 40, 50 or 50 or 60 basis points. if we get too steep, what will happen? short term rates drop too much or long term go up too much. that could be a problem. i think the best case to remain bullish is hopefully the fixed income market goes sideways and we don't have to talk about it anymore. i feel like post pandemic, we have become yield curve and macro experts. i think best case, maybe it goes sideways and we can focus on good fundamentals and stocks leading the revolution. >> thank you. we appreciate that prospective. good to see you today. todd gordon. >> after the break, another stock getting a huge boost by buying bitcoin. not a decimal point long. we will reveal the name and the power check. and how much is actually owned

after the break.

what if your mobile network wasn't just built to work out here... ...but was designed differently to also give you blazing fast wifi where you are most of the time? reliable 5g, plus wifi speeds up to a gig where you need it most. xfinity mobile. xfinity internet customers, ask how to get a free 5g phone and a second unlimited line free for a year.

. welcome back. time for a quick power check. shares of united health and medicine is turning into a new waiver agreement accenting the deadline for closing the closure. the new deadline is 10 days after the final court decision is issued in the lawsuit or december 31st, 2025. whichever is higher. >> we should check on unh. that is stock that has done terribly over the last month. there will be a ton of regulatory scrutiny as a look to any other combinations or so forth into 2025. >> netflix is saying in a statement that nearly 65 million combined viewers watch the streaming giant nfl coverage. 65 million. good news for netflix. the stock down 2% today. >> here is the answer. kulr technology lower today after climbing 40% thursday. the technology company announcing it but 217.18 bitcoin

worth about $21 million. now about a billion-dollar company. >> to be clear, i do not own shares of kulr or any company trying to engage in this silly strategy. for corporate america, you want to put some bitcoin there. maybe we go the route. >> so you think it is bad? >> we saw this before years ago. remember the lemonade company system that chasing crypto. i want to invest in real companies and if they want to put cash in bitcoin, fine. do what you want. real companies. i know the market cap does what it does because they are buying bitcoin. if you want to buy bitcoin, then buy bitcoin. and quantum computing stocks on a roll. in early december, off of it announced the chip. they are pulling back a bit today but won't make much of a

tent. computing at 1600% this year. quantum computing up 1900%. dug up ua up. this is so truly staged. be very careful with this. >> i was going to make a quantum joke that their stock could be in two places at once. >> i was going to say that i don't know any quantum jokes. >> and a new screener of cnbc pro laying out names for games next year. not all the names are performing poorly. the key is wall street analysts don't see much upside. this includes apple, american express, caterpillar and goldman sachs. that is your power check. let's get over to kate rooney for a cnbc news update. >> the united states saw an 18% increase in homelessness this year. that is according to new data from the department of housing and urban development. officials say more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless. the agency reports that the rise is driven mostly by lack

of affordable housing, devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants and several parts of the country. custom agents seized more than 22,000 counterfeit pennsylvania vehicle inspections . the agency reported the stickers were shipped from israel and were heading to addresses in philadelphia. officials did not say who said the tickets or who was to receive them. no arrests were made. >> the park city ski patrol officially on strike after months of negotiations with the park city mountain parent company. patrollers hitting the picket line. talks broke down between the union and resorts over wages and benefits. it is unclear how long the strike will last. busy holiday skiing season. so definitely one to watch. a down day for the markets. we have top picks to start the new year on the right foot. it out the shopping list. isn't that wt yohau want on a

down day? we will see one power lunch returns. ld buste phone and get you a brand new iphone 16 pro at t-mobile. it's on them. at t-mobile, it's better over here! families save 20% every month. what a deal! to all you new and existing customers, trade in your busted old phone, and t-mobile will give you a brand-new iphone 16 pro with apple intelligence on us. plus, families can save 20% when they switch. t-mobile is one of none. go get that. what he said! [alarm beep] you make it through security so fast, ♪♪ the agents applaud. your travel itineraries are so well written, they're on the best seller list. and you have access to lounges that don't officially exist.

that's why you rent with national, where you can skip the counter and choose any vehicle on the emerald aisle. because travel isn't a competition. except that it is. and you're winning. [sofi mnemonic] can a personal loan unlock your ambitions? oh yeah. borrow up to a hundred thousand dollars to consolidate bad debt and save money for your next goal. take a swing at your kitchen reno... meant that literally. or design your actual dream wedding. consolidate bad debt and fund all your ambitions with a sofi personal loan. go to sofi.com to view your rate. sofi. get your money right. at betmgm, everyone gets a welcome offer. so whether you're courtside trying to hit the over... or up here trying to hit the under. whew! or, hitting that win with your crew. ohhh! yes, see defense! or way up here with a same game parlay. yaw!

betmgm's got your back. get your welcome offer. and play with the sportsbook born in vegas. all these seats. really? get up to a $1500 new customer offer in bonus bets when you sign up now. betmgm. download and bet today. power back lunch. friday, down across the board.

especially big tech and small- cap. those are the biggest declines. despite that, the dow and s&p nasdaq. a big christmas eve rally. remaining largely intact. the next guest is optimistic for the new year. you have to be. jeremy bryant is the portfolio manager at gradient investments. i don't know if this is three stock lunch. i have to get my segment straight. what would your three stock lunch be comprised with? what is on your list on a day like that? >> they are looking at things. there are a lot of things on the markets with valuations rising going from 20 times earnings to 40, 50 times earnings. that is what we are trying to avoid. we are trying to find the stuff that can still grow but valuations have sent not stretch like that. let's start with alphabet. the first one on the contender list. expected to grow on the double digits for the next couple

years. despite a 40% return this year, trading 23 times earning. right in line with the market because of the regulations and the regulatory stuff and the overhang but as a potential on the stock. we see it is more of an opportunity to continue to buy a stock that is relatively cheap. >> it is amazing you can have a company come out. a quantum country company up 20%. they have gemini. it is so interesting how it is not a 30 or 40 multiple kind of company. >> exactly right. the other one i would say is youtube. if you are just looking at saying media growth, where is media growth going? if your talking about the podcasts, everything is going toward youtube. those are the kinds of things. just in and of itself. you can make an argument with alphabet that even if he gets broke up, some of the pieces might be more valuable than what it is currently at now. i think that is what is interesting. >> really quickly about today

and then we will move on to other things. do you make much of the fact that we are having a reversal day. all of the stuff that won this year, is it just a year of rebalancing or is there more to it? >> i think more people are trading today. >> the pre-christmas rally was one of the things. we are offsetting those things. i don't think there is a lot of activity. and what you can take from these movements. you can hear the movements get funky. we don't put a lot of stock in it. but if a stock is overdone, we will take advantage of that for sure. >> i have a question. i just want to read this. when kelly led into the segment, she talked about across-the-board big tech, small-cap stocks. i have some in my portfolio. when i look at the stack side of my portfolio, i feel like they are affected by interest rates too. i feel like i have interest-rate exposure in the stock market

and in the bond market. i don't want that much exposure. is there any way people are getting around the snow? like the small caps, yields go up. like too much interest-rate exposure. >> i think the central theme of that one would be, you have seen what worked when interest rates are rising. people flock back to tech. they can do whatever. they don't need to go out and raise debt. they can do whatever they want to do because they have massive cash flow generation. i think that is where people circled back to. interest rates get a little bit frothy, if you will. and so i think that is what we have seen working and that is what the playbook has been. at these levels, i think it is worth taking a look at some of the stuff that has been were damaged by the interest-rate trend rather than flocking more into the ones that have benefited from it. >> what is an example of that, jeremy? >> companies like waste companies.

if you are an industrial company. or mcdonald's is another one that does not -- it has not done much. it is not affected much by the interest-rate. if you look at waste connections, these kinds of companies have come down in december. there might be some economic activity flowing in there but i think part of that is dividend recurring interest-rate kind of stuff can affect them a little bit more. in my opinion, is becoming more opportunistic as a result of those falling a little bit. >> what else? >> the other one that is controversial but we like it a lot as unitedhealthcare. we think unitedhealthcare is an opportunity at this point right now. at the end of the day, it will be difficult to displace the companies. there could be adjustments that, as a result of the new administration coming in. i doubt single pay healthcare is on the docket. on our side, we think the private insurance companies will give very valuable.

they will grow 8-10% per year and you have, based on the recent reduction in unitedhealthcare, a really good opportunity to be at a good company with a cheaper price. >> what might happen on the policy front that would say, this gets to the heart about the business model? and someone may be hoping to come up with the heart of it. and is the whole incentive structure of healthcare and high levels of inflation so on and so forth and are their things in the work for that? >> there has not been a magic fix for health insurance in 20 years. just getting cheaper care to the consumer that avoids the middle man and all that stuff. we have been talking about all of that for a long period of time. the healthcare system, would we are spending the most and not getting the most optimal care, that seems to be a problem. >> and if they do make them divest, with the tbm more

bearish on the stock or not care so much? >> slightly more bearish. they basically table that to get the budget line across. from that side, there doesn't seem to be a lot of what i would call forthrightness or aggressiveness taking care of those kinds of things. especially since the new administration coming and probably has other incentives and things they will concentrate on out the outset. so this is a tough problem to tackle. the elected leaders could try to figure out the problem. but until then, i think insurers play an essential role in that space and i think right now especially, you can buy them at a bargain opportunity. >> thank you for joining us. we appreciate your time. >> coming up, we will drill down on topics for 2025 and the special stock. including in under the radar cloud player next which is up 18% in the last six months. wl weilreveal the name one

power lunch returns. all will be clear. deadline in five! finished and sent. [sending swoosh] we have tight turnarounds. at&t business helps us deliver. okay! client wants his head bigger. wow, fast response. sent! okay, oop! even bigger. sent. [sending swoosh, notification alert] still bigger. okay, yeah i'm not doing that— [typing noises, sending swoosh] i think it still looks good! [notification alert] oh — even bigger.

the great barrier reef. huh? here we are. oooh. — g'day. — uh, where am i? australia! and you look like you need a vacation. show us what ya got. (♪♪) remarkable. yep! it's amazing. i love it! — what is it? — a wombat. come on! (♪♪) jump! down under, g'day is the start of every good adventure. so, what are you waiting for? come and say g'day. (♪♪) doors can take us to new adventures and long-term goals. your dedicated fidelity advisor can help you open those doors. by helping you create a comprehensive wealth plan, with the right balance of risk and reward. doors were meant to be opened. welcome back to power lunch. time for the three stock lunch. we want to help you start the new year with some games. here with the president of

joule financial. for 2025, is off but lower today on pace to close out its best month since may of 2023 and the most positive year in six? >> first, thank you for having me. we don't need to rehash. but jeremy did it. a nice job discussing. all of it is 22, 25 times earning. relatively cheap for its name. 44 billion in cash. very little debt. all the ancillary components. a phenomenal mega cap name that has not received some of the enthusiasm other names have. definitely the number one mega cap tech stock going into 2025. >> let me touch on that. i was kind of singing its praises five minutes ago. what if they have to sell something where shareholders could not capture the spin out value or something like that?

>> i would find it hard to imagine shareholders not being able to capture any value. if it is sold, it is sold. we would benefit from that. again, it's not like we are going to stop using chrome. i think a lot of people misinterpret some of these headwinds and these risks. again, even if there is a breakup of the alphabet and we have some of the parts, our work suggests ultimately after the shape which would ensue and provide an incredible buying opportunity, some of the parts are extremely more valuable than as a whole right now. i'm not scared of that at all. if we saw knee-jerk reaction on that news and it is probably more than a knee-jerk. it will last a while. it would be glad to own these names in parts. and if they sell chrome, will benefit from that as shareholders. >> if they want to push the company, they should let it stay as is.

i don't want to call it a value trap but. >> you are right. that is what is keeping people away from a tap cap on it. it is that. in a way, you are right. >> let's move on to snowflake. that was the mystery chart cloud name we were referencing which is down for the year. it had a nice signature of 18%. why is this on your list? >> it pulled back after the incredible earnings announcement. it is for people not familiar with the stock. they should dig into it. they help large companies. a lot of the fortune 500 managing and handling the big data on cloud servers. and the partnership with anthropic. this will help them dive into the a i kept. on the surface, the stock does not look cheap. this is a growth name that will put up massive numbers in 2025 and in hindsight, it will look really inexpensive. the pull back here is a gift with our opinion on snowflake. >> and then a four day winning

streak. down 19% in 2024. second negative year in a row. dead money in the oil space. what do you think here? >> i'm going to follow the oracle on this one. i will assume there is a plan. why not just hitch my wagon to his. 5% now for share. i like oil and gas is a contrarian play going into 2025. despite what we think could be lower oil prices. we do think the deregulation gives the profitability possibilities upside year to the name and we do think that there will be kind of a tailwind with this new administration. i will go with oracle and even at a better price than what he has for berkshire. >> you don't think they will just dump it like ibm? >> i don't see that pic i saw a lot of challenges. i did not follow him into ibm because of shareholder repurchasing there that i think

inflated the etf. i stayed away from that one. i was glad to. now i'm an owner of it fast forward to today. this is total speculation but in my kind of notes i have said, i could see him buying this whole company. >> and division of reid in his mouth and tumbleweed, we get say goodbye with a vision of him inching his wagon. development, anchor, produce s allowing us to deliver the energy we all need today so everyone can follow their own road. that's energy in progress.

(♪♪) (♪♪) what took you so long? i'm sorry, there was a long line at the thai place. you get the sauce i like? of course! you're the man! i wish. the future isn't scary. not investing in it is. nasdaq-100 innovators. one etf. before investing, carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco.com

welcome back. we've cut our losses here. the dow is down 564 points at session lows and we're down 267. >> nice comeback. a better way to end the week than we had. a reminder for people, not much happening next week. you have the manufacturing on friday, but not the jobs report. that is january 10th. >> so the manufacturing comes out on the 1st but it will come out on the 2nd. >> it will be the 3rd. not much data. not much fed speak next week.

so just enjoy the ride. >> no, we don't like this. we want all of the data, all of the fed speak. >> it is calm when the fed is not talking. >> have a nice weekend and have a great holiday. >> i think you turned the market around. >> i would not take credit for that. >> get rid of those bonds and start chasing. >> with those companies that buy bitcoin. >> thanks for watching "power lunch", everybody. "closing bell" starts right now. >> welcome to "closing bell" i'm in today for scott wapner. stocks selling off to close out the week, putting the santa claus rally on ice. let's get straight to the scorecard with 60 minutes to go in regulation. a decline across the major averages but we're off the lows of the session. some of the biggest winners among the worst performers. we're talking nvidia and alphabet and meta and tesla shedng