market and the backup we have seen in yields tomorrow. we'll get more macro data including some jobs data, adp tomorrow, minutes as well. the fomc minutes and u.s. consumer credit in the afternoon. so some key reports to watch as we try and make sense of all of this. >> starting to talk more about banks, which makes sense, because us here 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. a late-day selloff as yields hit eight-month highs. nvidia sinks from records. what sparked the moves, and how to trade the action, coming up. plus, meta's moderation moves. mark zuckerberg making a big change to how it monitors content. then, caveat emptor. why the red flag is being raised. and later, fighting words from the ceo of u.s. steel. and we reveal the winner of our 2024 acronym challenge.

i know you've been waiting for that one. i'm melissa lee, coming to you live from studio b at the nasdaq. on the desk tonight -- tim seymour, karen finerman, steve grags grasso, and katie stockton. and as we mentioned, markets closing near their lows of the session. the nasdaq down 2%. the dow going negative on the year. the pressure coming as yields spiked on new economic data, but it wasn't just rates on the moves. nvidia plunging after hitting a new record early in the session. ceo jensen huang just wrapping up an analyst q&a after unveiling his a.i. road map. kristina pers artsinevelos has highlights. >> let's start with supply and demand. they confirmed they are not changing their guidance. they are shipping hopper and blackwell this quarter. they said that they probably will do a bit more, but they weren't going to change the actual number for guidance, and said supply will always be a situation. there's nothing we can build that will be unlimited.

but -- so that's for the hopper. everybody wanted to hear about the data center sales that we didn't get in the keynote yesterday. for future growth, they spoke to two major drivers. the first one is general purpose computing is dead. hand coding is dead. he's saying that all these data centers, which we've heard before, need to be updated. and he was, dare i say, a little bit -- not aggressive, but maybe more affirmative in all his commentary, saying that if you're not putting accelerated computing and machine learning, you're doing something wrong. it makes no sense. he went on to say, if you don't have just a.i. within your system, all of his software engineers need to use a.i. chat bots. they mandate it, and that was a quote. so, he went on to say if you're not incorporating this into your business, into your cars, into, you know, your manufacturing, then you're behind and you are going to lose. that was the tone that i got from this entire q&a. >> he talked yesterday in the keynote, what's interesting, he had this q&a and yesterday he had the keynote. analysts were very bullish in

reaction to the keynote. one of the -- there were a couple of areas, the robot, which, who knows how commercial that can actually be. and the gpus for the laptop. i was wondering for the laptop, that didn't seem like it should be a growth area, i mean, who wants to be in the pc market at this point unless it's a corporate pc. >> well, i guess the argument he would make is they're creating these personal super computers, so that researchers, students can do everything, you know, in an office, in a research facility or a university, for the actual laptops, he did -- and this was an interesting line, he said, i'm going to have to wait to tell you when he was asked if he was going to be entering or expanding within the pc market. so, that leads me to believe that maybe he is going to announce something at gtc in march, or in taiwan. it is a market that won't move the needle for them that much, considering data centers contributes 88% of total

revenues, gaming is about 10%. you know, pcs, we know the refresh cycle has been very slow. look at amd, look at intel. it's a good point. >> the announcements were, i think, as bullish and positive in tone as you could have expected. it seems like a lot of these dynamics and things that were discussed were somewhat long-tailed. what's in it for the market right now for a stock, is it priced to perfection, i don't know. i actually think it's not, but i know that's an easy criticism. there's not a lot here that really is for here. >> there were only two notes that i read today that said it wasn't going to have a near-term impact, because it's contingent on data center revenue. and maybe that's why the stock did sell off 6%, but then the bulls were arguing, no, the company just hit an all-time high. why are we so aggressive to -- or, you know, trying topinpoint a reason as to why it was down so much, why it was a laggard on the dow, on the nasdaq. i think, though, you -- there's

some truth to it. that's what i was missing yesterday. in his commentary, this is the future, and if you're not getting onboard right now. if every single ev is not going to be autonomous, and that's what he said, it's not going to sell. >> good-looking jacket, by the way. >> tom ford, $8,990, currently on sale on the website. he did shift away from the patent -- >> sold out. >> no, i don't think so. >> made a lot of money in the stock that feel, you know, they can -- >> i think a lot of millionaires, i think. so, we can get the invitation on shein or temu. >> so, a couple of things stood out at me. the chat bot, the agents, all of that, but then, the shift into the physical, how manufacturing, writ large, will be absolutely transformed, and how much learning needs to go into that.

which seemed to be sort of setting another stage for maybe not to your point right now, but not so long, and for a long time, that's going to need a tremendous amount of compute. >> yeah, that would utilize their omniverse product. that creates a virtual world to your digital word. if you are a manufacturer or a car, you can literally simulate the real world on your computer and not have to actually stick the car on the street, and you can figure out all of the possibilities. so, that's how you'll get the synthetic data. and so, to your point, that hasn't really i valved yet. so, that will be another level of extra data for large language models to train on. and that's the argument for those that say that scaling is, you know, hasn't hit a peak and scaling law is another debate, there's not enough data, well, in this case, omniverse is going to allow them to provide all of that with the digital twin. and you can do this in a manufacturing warehouse, as well. a lot of companies will have to

deploy this, so you can see where the box is moving, how productive this section is compared to this section, the speed of which products are being executed on a runway, i don't know the word. >> manufacturing line. >> conveyer belt. >> yes, thank you. >> kristina, thank you. katie, what do you make of this action? >> you never wanted to see what we call on outside down day, which is what that day. an all-encompassing price bar so. so, so, we did see that widely today. we feel like the market, with that in mind, is somewhat fragile, and just be really mindful of short-term support level. so, for nvidia, we can see some support around $134 in our work. resistance is pretty evident around 150 on the chart, and this stock has been losing

upside momentum since the summer months of last year, but thankfully, it hasn't led to a breakdown yet, so, we're watching that support close. >> we're a long way from $119, but with nvidia, it could happen overnight. i think what you were talking about, it's almost like back to the future. they're talking about what got them here. so, gaming. we're not talking about their major customers anymore. we were talking about uber and toyota. not microsoft, not google, not amazon, not all the -- not all the things that got everyone excited in the last year. sort of what's a smaller piece of the pie. so, kristina said, data centers are 88%, gaming is at 10%. so, if you look at that, why are we concentrating on gaming and pcs that are a very small piece of the pie, and not the growthy areas? >> to be fair, this is a keynote at the consumer electronics

show. the keynote would have been tailored for that. >> client-side stuff. a much smaller part of their business. i think that's exactly who the audience is. they probably loved the jacket there, that's the kind of people that show up there. >> vegas. >> i think you get people to, it's great to point out the charts, i think, in fact, we all would think about 2025 trying to look through the lens of what happened in '24. first three months of the year of '24 were all about semis. i think it's going to be another great year for semiconductors. i think it's a year where we're going to see the broadening of that semiconductor trade. we started to see that even with broadcom, as we got into the last couple weeks of the year. the trading action here is something to be worried about, especially when you think about how little cash, i think, if you look at fund manager surveys the market overall has, and how much megacap tech led that spurt into year-end, which we know stalled bit. so, i wouldn't be jumping off the train here, but i think you could be short-term cautious. >> you don't look like guy, but you sounded exactly like guy

with the outside reversal, the volume, all of that. so, i get that. i'm still, you know, i still think there's a longer-term story here, so, i'm staying in it. nvidia sold off -- it started to sell off when we got that data at 10:00, which i think was important for the market, not in a good way, right? we get higher rates and then obviously future cash flows get discounted and become smaller. so, that, to me, was a bit of a bummer. i think that rates sort of came back into focus again, they've been, you know, higher, higher, and then, oh, is it going to be a problem? i hope we see rates s flow off. >> it was a big move on the ten-year yield. touching 4.7%. the move coming after the latest ism services data came in hotter than expected. the spread between ten and two years now the highest since may of 2022. so, fears about inflation remaining out there, as something for the market to grapple with. >> so, we've all talked about

this, and if you have higher rates because of growth and you're looking at -- there's a reason why you have higher rates, there's a bullish reason, there's a bearish reason, but we have to remember, qt is still going on, and qt is still supportive of rates. so, you can't have cutting and qt on the other side. that's a push pull, or a tug of war. so, i -- i think the market is on pace to see qt end in march. that's where you could see rates sort of come back in again. >> i think the -- we should be talking about rates today. if you think about a ten-year auction where -- this auction, by the way, was -- it was fine. it was a nonevent in a world where it would have been eventful. yet, we printed the highest yield since 2007. the first auction that's printed that high since 2007. we know back in april, $4.70 was the close, and that's the close to watch today. ism services, we know that's the biggest part of our economy, was robust. the dynamics around the technical components, though, and i think that's the part of this that i think steve is also referring to.

it's not just about growth. it's not just about inflation there are technical come appropriates here. when you think about the administration, what they've articulated in terms of policies, we've walked backer the tariffs, this and that. trump out there saying that rates are far too high. >> too high. >> that's what i heard. not too high. >> right. but we are in a different place in terms of -- if we were worried about inflation remaining out there, the fed is on a cutting path. they may be paused for awhile, but we know that the next move is most likely a cut by the fed, so, is that different -- it's a different prism from which to look at this move in rates, no karen? >> i don't think. >> are you concerned about this? >> i am concerned. i think the fed, what are we at now, two cuts, most likely? >> yeah. >> 1 1/2. >> and i was going to say, they don't seem to be so committed to that, so -- but get to your point, is it inflation for the good reasons or not? i think one of the things that we don't have a good handle on yet is productivity gains.

that can help. that could be the sort of, i don't want to say magic bullet, but that could help, although i am concerned, we talk about it all the time, about this potential tail risk of a terrible auction and getting into a crisis. >> don't you have a powell put again? if things get worse, don't you have the ability to cut rates in a more aggressive fashion? >> if we get unemployment -- >> inflation comes from two things right now, it's energy and shelter costs, and the shelter costs seems like a cyclical battle, because you need rates to come down for shelter costs to come down, but energy, i think, will come down. so, that would be half of it. >> i think it's services. the ism is what has people worried. if you think about the prints that we've been getting, you listen to companies, it's not that there's a scarcity of jobs, the wages and those dynamics, we have a big payroll number on friday. i think wages are going to be flat, coming in at 0.3% or

something. but i do think that this is the part that we can't really handicap here. that's not coming down. they've been very sluggish. we'll see. all right, meantime, katie says it may be time to rotate out of last year's high flyers and into the 2024 laggards. let's go off the charts. katie, certainly, we saw some of that rotation that you're predicting today. >> yeah, i would say that we're already starting to see this rotation, and first and foremost, it's come from software stocks. those were among the biggest outperformers of late, and we've seen a reversal of course in that relative performance. if you look at software versus semis, i agree with you, tim, that semis may resurface as an outperformer. now, in a more neutral tape, maybe that doesn't mean too much, but that relationship certainly seems to have shifted, and that would be from one leading sector into a lagging sector like semis. now, also, we're seeing it elsewhere and it's a bit more defensive in the rotation, where health care specifically pharma has caught a very short-term

bid. and i think that's pretty interesting, also, in relative terms. it seems to be occurring at the expense of the mag seven, for one, and also software. and we're seeing it in defense, so, defense stocks, which have really been under pressure, both in absolute and relative terms, have negative momentum, and yet, they're oversold and they've largely come into very strong support levels. so, we're kind of interested. you see merck, you know, inch above the 50-day moving average. you start to see some of the stocks find their footing and to us, that seems to be a bit of a trade. >> and all this within the prism, for you, that we are due for a correction in the first quarter. >> yeah, you would expect to see those defensive sectors start to outperform at least in relative terms versus the s&p, when you're getting into more skittish environment like we believe we have right now. so, we think that defensive positioning is correct on the sector front, but we've been recommending clients to be hedged, from a top-town perspective, when you see the volatility pick up like it has done.

and that doesn't mean you go buy those pharma names necessarily, but you know, be more open to them as we see them find their footing. >> how are you hedging? >> well -- >> or are you? >> yeah. i mean, i have some qqqs against what's pretty tech heavy portfolio. i have short bonds, which i view as one of the big risks, but i was going to ask you a question about small caps. do you see any hope for small caps? >> you know, the long-term setup on the russell 2,000 index is pretty promising. we didn't see a decisive breakout to new highs. we did get the new highs briefly. but for now, while the relative performance may improve there, we're starting to see a little bit of that, and it is timely, seasonally, to see that small cap effect, or the january effect that sends to see small caps do better than large caps into february. and yet, to me, it's hard to make a strong case for them right now in absolute terms. the momentum has really faltered intermediate term behind the russell 2,000, but that's shared

by the s&p 500. sew, so, it's this broad-based loss we saw in september that i take issue with. >> i always found that when you hedge or go with the underperformers, you lose less money. you don't make anymore money. on a relative basis, the market comes in, everything gets dragged down with it. so, i think the best way to hedge is cash. and you wind up seeing a rotation back into large cap tech again. because energy, 3% of the market, is not moving the market. >> yeah, and tech has such a huge footprint, right? it's become the most essential sector to the market, and that's only grown as of last year. last year was another year in which we saw those megacaps really take charge and outperform, and that influences the sector leadership big time, so, we'll hopefully have a different year this year, i think, with the breadth having shifted. >> i think it's rotation for fundamental's sake. i look at the energy space, and again, you know, oil prices have been largely very stable over the last 12 months. that's great for big integrated.

if you look at the higher quality names, there are ways to play there. the pharma fallout, and again, you look at merck, you know, j&j is another name, which had a lot of overhang from the talc cancer, but tim's pfizer is out there, too, but bristol meyer started to make a move. these are names that i think -- long-term investors are paying really solid divs. that's what the rotation is about. there's a real story. coming up, a rare sell call on apple. why one firm is downgrading the tech giant and why they say no news might be bad news. that's next. plus, steel producers getting scrappy. the lawsuit out of nippon and u.s. steel after their blocked merger, and how cleveland cliffs is getting roped in. the details, when "fast money" returns. this is "fast money" with melissa lee, right here on cnbc. at morgan stanley, old school hard work

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xfinity mobile. xfinity internet customers, ask how to get a free 5g phone and a second unlimited line free for a year. now to our call of the day. apple downgraded to a sell, calling the iphone maker decidedly unattractive. the firm cutting the price target by 14 bucks to $188, that

implies a 22% decline. about analysts citing rich valuations, disappointments in the a.i. upgrade cycle. they say it has the slowest growth, but the highest pe amongst the mag seven. china problems, regulatory problems, the threat of losing the $25 billion a year that google pays it for search. it's a laundry list of reasons to be -- to sell apple here, karen. >> yeah, i agree. i mean, i have a small position, it should be zero or much bigger, but i agree. those are all points we talk about all the time. you have valuation that's high, and higher than it appears, as we have the hardware/software services, much higher for the services. china is a problem, a big -- you know, the new upgrade isn't really -- >> isn't happening. >> at all. >> but it will. >> but i think if google ends up not paying that, somebody else will want to pay it, so, i feel like that -- maybe that's much lower down the laundry list.

but kind of good for them. it's a bold call. i like it. >> it really is. >> the title of the report is caveat emptor, which is one of the great brady bunch episodes -- >> you did it on the commercial. >> greg, your dad was not sympathetic at all and he shouldn't have been. i'm sympathetic to the apple cause. i think, you know, we have a ton of respect for these guys, they're on our show a lot. i think apple has not priced in a whole lot of anything. that's the flip side of this. i don't think apple's priced in the -- the a.i. revolution. i think apple will certainly be the platform and the way most people actually experience a.i. i think apple's proven time and again this really is that install base that is the content that keeps on giving. my goodness. someone was just talking to me again. >> wow. >> the other side of this, can you not tell me we haven't worried about apple in china for a long time? isn't that in the price? don't we know what the growth target is? apple's really underperformed.

>> you know what's not in the target? india, vietnam, all things thailand, malaysia, all things that are the bullish call of them moving away from china, or the dependence si on china, both for manufacturing and for consumption. >> the consumption end doesn't offset the loss of -- >> not yet. but they have another -- india is going to be -- india is number three right now, or number four, three or four, it will be number two or three sooner rather than later, and then you have 2.3 billion of an install base. that's got to be worst something for apple. >> i'm not quite onboard with, it's odd, because we are fairly close together. >> bring it. split them up. >> 33 times earnings is not priced in for anything, if you think of the software portion, which is only 30%. the hardware is 70%. the multiple on that, 20, that would be really high. means the services multiple is trading much, much higher.

that seems like a lot is priced in. >> if i'm going to buy apple -- look at the software companies, i won't refer to where the charts are, but i think -- i'm paying more for apple than anybody else. i'm not going to sit here and argue that apple is cheap, and relative to itself, it's kind of trading in line. i think about the drivers for the megacap tech space around a.i., apple's priced in zero of that. >> what do you see? >> i have to say, it's nice to see a downgrade when a stock is near its highs instead of after the fact, after you've already seen that loss of momentum. so, to me, the stock is poised for a corrective phase, but still within the scope of its secular uptrend. it does look overstretched, it has have some counter indications, for about eight weeks from now. coming up, a steel skirmish. the lawsuits piling up after biden blocked u.s. steel and nippon's deal. what rival cleveland clutches

has cliffs has to do with it. you're watching "fast money," live from the nasdaq market site in times square. back right after this.

welcome back to "fast money." another round in the steel skirmish. u.s. steel and nippon suing the biden administration after their merger was blocked. the company saying the review process was corrupted by politics and the deal was scuttled under false pretenses. the u.s. steel ceo had some choice words about the decision this morning on cnbc. >> i mean, let's face it, god s that this process has been tainted from the very beginning, and we need to fix it. this should not have happened. >> the lawsuits don't stop at the white house. the two companies also suing fellow steelmaker cleveland cliffs, who had tried to buy u.s. steel in 2023, saying the company worked to block their merger. in a statement, cleveland cliffs' ceo saying the lawsuit is a shameless effort to scapegoat others for u.s. steel's and nippon steel's self-inflicted disaster. but reallyspoken commentary. >> and should be. >> he should be. >> and let's face it, it's not like there's a line around the

corner for u.s. steel. >> not at all. >> and it's not 1950 in this country, where they made half the world's steel. i don't really understand this. and i don't understand it from the geopolitical perspective in terms of japan being an ally and a partner that we should show some faith in. but again, this was about making u.s. steel's aging plants and upgrading them and making them better. cliffs doesn't ave the money to do that. so, i -- you know, i don't know. i'd be frustrated, too -- >> i think you'll see a bailout. and you'll see trump, who came in and said i'm going to be -- >> a bailout? >> he's going to figure out how to get them a billion dollars. >> it's got to be more than a billion. nippon was going to put in six. >> that's what they were going to start to put in. if you're going to see tax incentives, he'll do it for through tariffs. he's going to do it through any way necessary. i do see why it's a critical industry, and, yes, japan is a major ally, but they weren't always -- >> we trust japan with military technology and we will not let them come in and invest in our

steel mills on u.s. soil? >> it's about unions, it's about a whole bunch of other things, but i do see the critical infrastructure, i do see the defense sector, and i -- i'm a believer that both of them, both biden and trump got this one right and i still believe, i own steel, and i believe that the industry will be, however you manage it, the word, bailed out. >> but -- nippon steel said they were going to make concessions on the employment side. this isn't about unions. >> i think it's about foreign ownership. >> it's about foreign ownership. >> i mean, i think the reverberations could be much greater than just this one deal. i don't get that. >> of course. allies can no longer come onto our shores and buy companies. >> they're not welcome to help. >> well, i also -- >> our ailing industry. >> i also have a problem with china buying farmland next to military -- >> china buying farmland is far different from nippon steel -- >> i don't think it's that much

different. >> china is not an ally. japan is an ally. >> why would we want to put another country, whether it's an ally or enemy, why would we want to put another country in charge of our steel industry? >> we can't make everything ourselves, right? >> we can make steel ourselves. >> but they can help us, right? >> they can help. i just don't want them owning it. >> i think there's been a lot of places where politics in washington have jumped in and, i mean, there was the old c-nook deal with china, that made more sense to me. the keystone pipeline made no sense with me, with canada? they're basically our brothers. there are places where there's an overstep here in the eyes of politics that are just so misplaced. you'd think that with an eye on politics as usual being such a negative pall in this country, that someone would get the light on this. coming up, meta's new year's resolution. the major changes coming for the social giant, and why the site could start to look a whole lot

like x. the details when "fast money" returns. (grandma) and a million stories to share. (vo) the key to being rich is knowing what counts.

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the s&p down more than a per sent. and the nasdaq leading the losses, down nearly 2%. shares of carvana, up 5%. an lists at rbc upgrading the stock to outperform and upping the price target to $280, saying they see the recent pull-back as an opportunity. and shares of maplebear jumping afterhours. the company set to join the -- >> you love to say that. >> i do. maplebear. it's joining the mid cap index before the market opens on january 14th. let's get meta's moderation moratorium. the mag seven social media giant kicking off 2025 with some major changes, skraping its third party fact-checking program in favor of a community note based model like what x employs. it is also bringing back political content and adding longtime trump ally dana white to its board. julia boorstin has more on this now. big shakeup, julia. >> well, melissa, meta says it aims to restore free expression and says it's replacing it third

party fact-checking with what they call a community notes model, which is similar to x's approach. the company is also allowing more political content on its platforms, it's removing restrictions on subjects including gender and immigration. with policy enforcement now focused on what they call illegal and high severity violations meta is also moving its trust and safety and content moderation teams from historically democratic california to historically republican texas. ceo mark zuckerberg saying the changes will correct the censorship it mistakenly allowed on the platform. this is zuckerberg's latest signal that he's eager to work with the trump min stras. last week, joel caplan was announced to replace nick clegg as head of meta's global policy. and yesterday, the company announced that longtime trump ally and supporter dana white is joining meta's board.

zuckerberg addressing criticism of censorship. trump called him the enemy of the people back in march, in an interview in cnbc. meta has suspended his accounts for two years after the january 6th insurrection, but melissa, seems like they are on better terms now. >> is this a huge cost savings to meta, julia, to not have people moderate content? >> it won't be, if it doesn't work for advertisers. i think there are a number of different factors here. meta has so many different costs, and now, they're going to be having to make sure that the changes they make don't result in there being con tent on their platforms that advertisers think is not brand safe. so, that's a key thing they're going to have to watch here. the other thing i want to point out, they're rolling this out in the u.s. over the next couple of months. and then we'll see how they roll it out internationally. here in the u.s., meta is protected by section 230, which keeps meta from being held liable for the content on its platform. but in the eu, they have a much

more stringent approach to content moderation, and sort of punishment, if you will, if there is offensive or violent content on the platform. so, this is going to be a much more knewens whatted and longer-term project than it may seem initially. and the other thing here is a.i. they're deploying a.i. to help identify offensive con tent in a way that maybe it wouldn't have been able to a year or two ago. >> all right, julia, thank you. julia boorstin. our next guest says meta's decision to dump fact-checking the long overdue. gene munster is with us. great to have you. it feels like the pendulum swung really far to one side. where is it now, with this latest move? >> i mean, it's clearly on the right side of the equation, no pun intended, i think it ultimately is just a remarkable chain of events, turn of events for zuckerberg and the culture of meta. it does lean left. and i think these recent moves,

i think, just speak to his willingness to work with more conservatives. and, so, i think he's sending a message really to the world that he's more open to conservatives, maybe you put those two together, then this nets out at kind of a net neutral type of a platform at this point. >> i mean, julia made the interesting point about advertisers, and, you know, if advertisers feel like their ads are going to appear in a safe sort of environment, then it's not an issue, but if that's different, if it changes with this latest move, then that is going to be a problem. what's your take on that? if everybody is doing this now, if this is the change that everybody's going to make, then isn't that what advertisers have to live with? >> exactly. i mean, you're hitting right. the pressure point. that's what advertisers have to live with, this new dynamic, essentially, of the wild west on these platforms. but at the end of the day, advertisers care about return on investment. and i think that has been a powerful -- they've had this

powerful return, and that's what's causing their advertising business to grow close to 20% for the last six quarters. and so, i don't think that's going away. i think they will maybe have language around wanting to change, but ultimately,ed a verve advertisers aren't going anywhere. i think there is, when i mentioned a pressure point, there's another piece to the engagement. assuming that advertisers stick around, which i believe, there's a nice cost savings here. and julia pointed out, just in the u.s. today, but if you look at the 90 different third parties that meta works with, they spent somewhere between $2 billion to $4 billion a year on con tent moderation, mediation, that adds somewhere between 2% and 5% to meta's bottom line, if they go globally on this. so, this is yet another lever for zuckerberg to play. it's kind of fallen below the main conversation today, but i think this earnings impact is something investors should welcome. >> thanks for being on, gene,

it's karen. so, you talk about the earnings impact. do you see any other side to it, can you quantify what you think might be advertisers pulling away? >> yeah, i think advertisers talk a big talk when it comes to wanting to do the right thing, but at the end of the day, they have to grow their businesses, and again, i think the return on investment with meta is impressive. and i think that, again, speaks to what their advertiser revenue is. i don't see them drifting away here. i don't see the platform going into total disarray. and there's another piece to this, too, that advertisers are going to like, which is, when you take some of these rails off and allow more of this crowd, kind of oversight of the content, it ends up stirring the pot more, and ultimately, when people get stirred up, x has done a great job of this, getting stirred up, get emotional, that increases engagement. and so, this is something that's going to be a slow, positive build, but i think that it can

improve the engagement. >> gene, thank you. always great to get your take, gene munster. zuckerberg in his video statement made the point that, you know, this now lines up with what we see, you can say anything you want on the floor of congress, you can say anything you want on other tv networks, but not on meta? that doesn't make any sense, with what's going on in the world right now. so, here we are, there are advertisers on some of the other networks that lean one way or the other, breaking news. >> yeah, it's -- look, it's fascinating, because you could have made an argument back when the rails were on, when fact-checking, they were doing that to reduce legal risk. gene's arguing that they're reducing legal risk by taking them off. and so, i think it's just -- i think it's another broligarch move. you know what i mean. >> is this a brady bunch thing? >> this is people kissing the ring. and they're doing it, because it makes sense to -- >> it's business. >> all right, coming up, the big reveal of our 2024 acronym challenge winner. we're just minutes away. find out which trader's efforts

took them to the top. >> okay. >> and that was a clue. but first, how mcdonald's new mcvalue platform could help drive growth in the year ahead. top analysts will weigh in next. more "fast money" after this.,4 she did. you were made to chase your passions. we were made to put them in a package.

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welcome back to "fast money." mcdonald's romming rolling out latest acement to get customers back into its restaurants. the mcvalue platform featuring a buy one add one for a dollar option, as well as app-specific deals. the $5 meal deal set to stay on the menu through next summer. for more, lert's t's bring in n setiyan. nick, great to have you with us. >> thanks for having me. >> obviously, we saw some results because of the -- the meal deal being put on the menu in terms of traffic going up, but then it had the e. coli setback. is this to get people back that they lost from that incident? >> i think it's more than that. i think it's really a fight against grocery, and, you know, just the fact that the category of mcdonald's is no exception. took too much pricing over the

past few years post covid, and grocery has taken share. that meal replacement customer, which is almost 30% of transactions in qsr, including mcdonald's, really shifted to grocery, grocery transactions are up 13% versus, you know, 2019, the restaurant industry seeing transactions decline about the same amount. so, it's really a fight against grocery. and i think it's going to work in 2025. >> how do you view these deals? i mean, is it a short-term hit to earnings, a short-term hit to margins, but a longer term gain of -- of market share, or -- or, i mean, how do you sort of assess the impact to the bottom line? >> i don't necessarily think it's going to be a negative for margins. i think they've structured these offering in such a way where it's pretty neutral to food costs, i mean, ultimately, you know, you can't lower the menu prices, but you can drive negative mix. and i think they're shooting for

an average check in the mid 1% range, versus, you know, the grocery of maybe 1% inflation, you know, last year, that gap was over 3%. and so, you know, historically, the median's been 1.6. so, you know, they're going to drive that gap below the median, i think that's going to result in some -- some, you know, gains and transactions that they lost to grocery over the last couple of years. >> hey, nick, it's tim. it's a fascinating discussion, because there's no question how we all feel in the grocery store. but when they initiate or they brought back out the value meal, a few months ago, it was really seen to be an attack within the industry on some competitors who have watched mcdonald's come in this, and the value meal usually stays longer than it planned, and it usually works for mcdonald's. is there a relative value call here on mcdonald's versus somebody else in the sector? >> you have to think this is going to act as a halo for the

entire category. as we've seen in the second half of '24, by the way. we've seen that aggressive value messaging throughout '24. and the entire category has benefited. so, i think this is really a considered fight against getting some of that -- some of the transactions back that the entire restaurant industry lost to -- to grocery, and it's not just qsr, as well, right? we've seen this in casual dining with chili's at $10.99. consider it across the industry to gain some of those transactions back that left restaurants back to restaurants. >> nick, thank you for joining us. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> katie, how does the chart look? >> you know, the whole space has been correcting, so, laggards, and they're not the laggards that are benefiting from that rotation. so, i would say mcdonald's in particular, long-term trading range, downside momentum, not that interesting yet. >> all right, coming up, it is a

moment you have all been waiting for. we've tallied the results of the past 12 months. >> look at that. >> and we have a new champion. we're crowning the winner of 2024's acronym challenge. you'll get this trophy. you won't want to miss it. more "fast money" in two.

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welcome back to "fast money." we have been tracking the traders' acronyms all year and it is finally time to reveal the winner of 2024, but before we tell you who is on top, we have to run through who almost walked away with the win. in fourth place, it is karen's helm. she picked health care, energy, lvmh and meta, which was her big winner this year. she was up 14%. in third place, the chart master, carter's plug. peloton, really pedaled higher in the second half, propelling a 23% gain on the year. steve grasso, the runner up, with sage. most of his picks outperformed the broader market. he was up 28%. but our winner -- drum roll, please. mike khouw, with brave. b for bitcoin gave him the lead, soaring 1 22% last year.

along with his other picks, he was up 34%. mike khouw, congratulations, you are the winner of the 2024 acronym challenge, and the recipient -- hold on. of this illustrious trophy. >> ah, that's pretty. >> 2024. >> yeah, mike. all right, mike. >> he's got a spot picked out for it. >> you feel good about this, huh? this win, mike, huh? >> ah, i do. i actually have to tell you, i felt better about how the acronym was doing through the end of the third quarter and it's only since that time that, you know, bitcoin really took off, but a lot of the other areas haven't been doing quite so well. what we've really been seeing is the divergence in u.s./china rates. that tells the whole story. the emerging markets picture got ugly on the back of that. the value group of stocks has underperformed on a risk adjusted basis, relative to the s&p since then. so, all of that is a pretty funky backdrop, but obviously bitcoin helped carry me through the finish line, even as the

other categories didn't perform as well in the fourth quarter. >> again, congratulations, mike khouw, and by the way, we will unveil the 2025 acronyms starting on monday, and the 2025 winner will get this trophy -- >> that's mike's trophy! >> it's like the banana and the tape. we can tape a four and five there. >> sorry, mike. >> up next, final trades.

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don't worry, we have at&t internet back-up. the next level network for small business. ♪♪ i sold a pillow! final trade time. >> i defer on the chart. i think mcdonald's in terms of what they are doing, long term been a holding. >> after coming in fourth place, i can't believe that wasn't enough, i have to come up with

something else. a little tlt. >> i think everyone should look at the pharmaceutical etf. >> bitcoin, bought it today. >>"mad money" starts right now. my mission is simple. to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere. i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. i'm cramer. welcome. i'm just trying to save you a little money. my job is not just to entertain but to explain about what happens on days like today. rates one, stocks zero. that was the score of