the capital to spare to get down there, they have the capital for the hotel. the public, different story. maybe they made their plans on november 7th, got in there before the big surge? >> we're going to see, the prices really high. temperature, surge. >> we're going to see, but the prices, really high. temperature, not so much. thanks for watching "power lunch," everybody. >> "closing bell" starts right now. >> welcome to "closing bell." i'm mike santoli in for scott wapner. we're live from post nine at the new york stock exchange. this make or break hour begins with stocks on pace to finish a strong week with a flourish. healthy bank earnings and softer inflation readings have revived risk appetites after more than a month of anxious churn. here's a look at the scorecard with 60 minutes to go in regulation. the s&p 500 is trying for its first close above the 6,000 mark

so far this year. right at that level right now. think it was december 26th was the last time it closed above. unlike yesterday when weakness in big tech obscured some underlying strength in the majority of stocks. the mega cap favorites are doing their part to lift the nasdaq composite today by about a percent and a half. the ten-year treasury yield is little changed on the day, but down substantially from about 4.80 to 4.6 in three days or so since that softer core cpi report. that takes us to our talk of the tape. does this week's strong bid in stocks and bonds have the bulls back in charge, and what should wall street expect in the early days of a new administration? let's ask warren. great to see you. thanks for coming on and finishing the week with us. >> thank you for having me, mike. >> so, i mean, obviously, goldilocks, a bit of an overused term, but it seems as if there was a decent mix, the interplay between growth and yields and inflation this week. and i guess we had already had

this internal pullback. what's your read on the week's action? >> i think it's very constructive. so i think really in the next few month, it's going to be dictated by the data. fed action, fed policy is going to be responsive to data. we got really important news, the cpi came in cold. this is what we were expecting. we talked about this a couple weeks ago. shelter disinflation leading the charge. there was also reduced supercore inflation, so that's positive on the fundamental side. it gave relief on yields. you had waller coming out and kind of reiterate some sanity in the forward outlook for fed policy in my view, and so that kind of calmed yields gown, allowed equities to find their footing. in the background, this sell-off, we have retraced going back to january 13th. we retraced the entire post-election rally. if you look at bread and butter sentiment indicators. you get the spread between bulls and bears had gone from extreme

bullishness right after the election to the most extreme pessimism from individual investors since fall of 2023 when the market was making a significant bottom. so yeah, i think it's been a nice sentiment reset, and the near term is going to be pretty constructive for equities. >> i was mentioning earlier that it felt as if as we got to the end of last year, there was a consensus building that it was a buy the election sell the inauguration trade. we actually got the selling into the inauguration. sort of front loaded it i guess after two up calendar years in stocks. i wonder if the acceptable range of how fast growth can be, where yields can get to, exactly when the fed might respond to all that is narrow at this point because you did see, we got a pretty good sell-off on the strong jobs number on friday that had to be rebuilt this week. >> yeah, i think that's true. i mean, i do think we're still in a little bit of a tenuous

position on yield. i think the data is going to dictate things going forward because the data is going to dictate the fed, and the fed is going to dictate the bond market contrary to kind of what i think has become consensus out there that the bond market is moving counter to the fed. i think there is a bit of a narrow window, but i think cpi was so important and waller coming out was important. it gives us at least a clear runway where yields won't go back to i think above 4.8 for the next bit of time. we'll consolidate this move, and if you look back kind of to the things we have talked about in the past, i think really a lot of times with the equity market, it's about the pace of the move higher in yields that gets the market in trouble. so if we can consolidate this move and look back to where we were at the last time the market was at 6,000 post election, yields were much lower. so even though the market is back here at 6,000, yields are a little higher but it's back end filling and rearranging sentiment at the somtime.

i think that's a good road map for the time ahead until we can get more clarity on fed policy. >> yeah, you could even dial it further back and say, you know, one point we thought 3% on treasuries on the tens was insurmountable. you make your peace with that level if nothing breaks along the way. you mentioned waller a couple times. let's actually hear what he had to say and perhaps why it struck the market as fresh information. >> we got a shock with inflation in january and february. they kind of put us back in term of our progress with cutting rates. i'm hoping that doesn't happen again so if, if we continue getting numbers like this, it's reasonable to think that possibly rate cuts could happen in the first half of the year. >> yeah, which is funny because, you know, if a month ago with the s&p 500 let's say a percent up from where we are right now, if you said maybe we have a rate

cut in the first half of 2025, it would have been taken as bearish. now, all of a sudden, this is actually seen as a sigh of relief. >> yeah, absolutely. i think the sentiment has swung so much on the bond side, it's kind of ridiculous to watch. i mean, you had people screaming for emergency rate cuts back in the summer and now saying we don't think we're going to have any cuts from here and the fed is probably done. maybe the next move is a hike. i mean, i think and waller has taken some heat from what i seen on social media and stuff, but i think he's really kind of the bellwether for the fed. if you go back, this whole big market rally that started with the fed pivot really began in november of 2023. it began with a speech that waller gave where he said he was more or less ready to consider a read fed funds rate regime for policy. that was like a turning point. we got much more bullish on equities at that point at 314 research. and so i think it's really good to have him coming out and expressing this view. it aligns with what we think.

we see four cuts out of the fed this year. the path could be a little bumpy in the first half as we get into q2, but it makes sense. what he said aligns with everything that we believe that cpi is likely to move lower. i do think he also highlighted the risk that last year we had residual seasonality in january and february and does that came back to bite us? there's a little bit of nervousness around the earlier data, but for the most part, i see it exactly how he does and it's reassuring to the market. >> how much head room do you think there is at the index level for stocks? you said maybe there's some bumps into the second quarter. how much progress do you expect? >> i think you're in the near term, we make new all-time highs in the near term coming off the inauguration. i think that trump is going to -- there's going to be a revitalizing of positive vibes. sentiment like i said has gotten, it's crazy how negative sentiments has gotten. i mentioning aaii.

cnn feared read is down to 30. a reading of 30. look for that to break above 40. that's like a great indicator. we watch inverse etf volume. it had gotten really optimistic, showing retail participation, and that's kind of reset too. everywhere i look, i see sentiment is set up for a near term rally. i also think with the cpi out of the way, we don't have a lot of pressure from rates, and so i think it's going to be kind of good vibes for the next month, make new highs. i wouldn't want to overstay my welcome. i think we'll have a growth scare, like i said, late q1, early q2, watching the housing data for that, for that epicenter. that's why i see new highs in the near term. >> for everyone's mental accounting,intraday for the s&p 500 is 6099. you have obviously made a new record high. let's bring in kristina hooper of invesco and peter chukeeny to

the conversation. welcome to you both. christina. you also, i guess, thought that maybe this inflation scare was not really going to have legs and maybe you would have this good combination of maybe easier fed and decent growth. where does it go from here? >> absolutely. i think it was an overreaction to the jobs report last week because we saw average howerly earnings moderating. that to me is the most critical inflation indicator we can look at. i think we'll have some good vibes. a lot will be dictated by the policy announcements next week. once the new administration comes in. if it's focused on tariffs, then that could be problematic and create some short term headwinds. if it's focused on deregulation and other pro-growth policies we see animal spirits and the stock market could have a nice rally. >> given the indications we're getting that there will be a barrage of executive orders, maybe it's going to be all of the above, or something to hit

all those boxes. you never know. >> it could very well be. i think, though, that those pro-growth policies, if we do start to see deregulation, for example, that could be a powerful counterbalance to anything that's perceived to be negative. i think the net effect would be positive, and again, would fuel some kind of rally. especially on the heels of that more cool core cpi. >> where within the market would seem to be the sweet spot in terms of harnessing whatever happens with deregulation? if you look at the banks they have been the strongest cyclical area of the market for a while, arguably. that seems a pretty linear path for benefitting from deregulation. just in general, where does it seem like it makes most sense? >> i think financials makes the most sense when we talk about the the deregulation story. beyond that, what we're ikely to see is a reacceleration in growth this year. and to me, at a certain point we're likely to see a discounting of the small caps,

of that acceleration in small caps, in cyclicals. those are most sensitive to the economic cycle, and i would anticipate they perform better. that doesn't mean that tech is left out in the cold. clearly, tech is rallying as a reaction to the ten-year yield and that easing. >> yes, and i guess just the muscle memory of them being the ones you grab for. peter, i mean, are you in agreement that we have kind of this refreshed expansion at this point? that the cycle has more life to it and you should bet accordingly? >> i would agree with a few of the points that warren made. you know, regarding the first quarter. i think it's tough to fight sentiment in the first quarter. what's interesting, though, mike, and we have known each other a while. i tend to play devil's advocate in a lot of cases. what bothers me most, i think, is when i look at sell side research reports, when i hear strategists on shows like yours,

everyone is talking about sentiment and good vibes. and nary a word of valuation or discount rates. if in fact there is growth this year, we have to figure out, well, why is that going to happen? if there's deregulation, that typically means there will be a releveraging and financial conditions will remain loose. perhaps that happens. but it feels to me when you're looking and searching for risk adjusted returns in markets, it's much harder to find them in the equity markets. look, this has been true for well over a year now. but i just have difficulty staying bearish into the second half of the year given how much is priced in to equities in particular. and i would make the same argument, frankly, mike, about high yield 300 basis points on high yield that's pricing in roughly a one year forward of 3%. so we actually need a decrease in the default rate of about 100

basis points. so it's easy for me to stay bullish in the near term, but a little bit tougher for me to wrap my head around that throughout the year. >> yeah, i guess it depends on how you approach it, peter, because the tight credit spreads and high yield and i guess essentially the low level of compensation you're getting for taking that risk is exactly one of the bullish talking points for equities. saying hey, we're not seeing macro stress in credit. that's usually the smart money so why should we worry about it ourselves? >> yeah, i would agree in that five, ten years ago, that might have been my logic. but when you have changes in market dynamics and fundamentals and one of those things is insurance money. and insurance money has come in, and it has really bit up the ig market. and when ig spreads become tighter, even though some insurance companies, many insurance companies won't dip into high yield, it leads to a

tightening in high yield vis-a-vis the relative value. so that's one possible reason why 300 basis points on high yield is mispricing the probability of future defaults, and by the way, mike, it usually does. high yield spreads are usually tightest before the default cycle actually starts. >> right, yeah, it's not as if there's always a super early warning system. i actually think 2007 was rare in the sense of kind of showing you the potential damage on the way. warren, you mentioned in brief that maybe the housing market is not necessarily going to be able to really thrive so much in here. how much risk is there on a macro level and how rate sensitive are we in that realm? >> yeah, i mean, i think that despite the new data today, which i think there was a little bit of an overreaction to how quote/unquote strong that was. most of the strength was in

multifamily, which has been in outright recession. it was 87,500 new starts, which is muddle along territory. what i see is a housing market struggling under the weight of plus 7% mortgage rates and also that data was from december when i think that the full effect of higher rates hadn't come to bear. so i think there's a lot of dry kindling there that is going to be a problem. to me, that's an early indicator, a leading indicator of the economy, and that's how we look at it, that's our framework. so i think if once we get to march, april, there's a lot of vulnerability there in the extent to which that bleeds into the markets is going to come back to the fed. if the fed is reactive to that stress or if they want to push it farther and talk about terminal being higher and let the market run with those narratives. to me, that's where the rubber meets the road for the correction, potential correction in the markets a little later down the road, and it's going to stem from housing.

>> got you. and kristina, you mentioned the sequencing of those policy measures are maybe going to matter a lot. do you think if there really is a lead with broad tariffs type effort, is that something to genuinely fear because the economy can't take it, or is it just, you're going to get a scare, and then we should buy the scare? >> i think it's you're going to get a scare and you should sharpen your pencils and be ready to buy on that scare. because there will be opportunities created. i think it will be very analogous to 2018 where we saw significant volatility but it was very short term in nature. ultimately, the s&p 500 ended down that year but only modestly. we had a strong 2019. i think we could see something very similar shape up this year. i understand that we could very well see some easing in growth in the coming months, but i think it's really critical to be following the labor market. to me, that is the linchpin to this story. thus far, we have seen a very, very strong labor market and i

don't see those cracks forming there in any significant way. but i will be vigilant about that. >> with labor income growing the way it is, the banks didn't seem to have consumer credit concerns in their report. obviously, hard to have the market get in too much trouble if that remains the case. warren, kristina, peter, thank you so much. let's send it over to kristina partsinevelos for a look at the biggest names moving into the close. >> intel shares are surging right now on heavy trading volume following two separate deal reports. semih accurate claims an unnamed company is exploring a potential acquisition of the chip giant. u.s. officials had previously examined the idea of an intel global foundries merger. intel declined to comment on either report. shares are up 8.5%. qorvo shares are rallying after starboard value revealed a significant stake in the company. they have responding saying they look forward to, quote, constructive dialogue with starboard about potential

changes at the company. shares up 13.5%. morgan stanley analyst see robinhood shares as a top pick with a price target of $64. they believe hood or robinhood could participate more aggressively in the crypto space given potential deregulation under president-elect trump. the higher for longer u.s. interest rates could also bode well for robinhood's loan division. shares up over 4%. mike. >> all right, kristina, talk to you in a bit. we're just getting started. up next, the recent volatility in quantum stocks has everybody talking, but what is a quantum computer? kate rooney is taking us behind the scenes with one of the leaders in quantum computing. >> we talk so much about quantum computing. i'm going to show you what one of these computers actually looks like. it's kind of like a chandelier here. not like any sort of normal computer you have probably ever looked at. we're going to tell you why one of the reasons these things have to be stored in some of the coldest temperatures on the

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welcome back. the rally and recent crash in quantum computing stocks has brought this once esoteric technology into mainstream investing conversations. kate rooney with more on what a quantum computer actually is. tell us, kate. >> yeah, so we're here behind the scenes at siquantum, one of the venture backed companies in silicon valley building high powered computers investors expect to be the next transformational technology. and this is really, you have heard the hype. we mentioned it, the industry and all of that is based on potential. the potential to solve some really complex problems, ones that wouldn't be possible with classic computers. it all hinges on quantum physics

so hence the name quantum. it uses quantum bits. they're also known as q bits. that makes it possible to explore multiple problems at once. that could be groundbreaking for things like drug discovery, think of aerospace, encryption, science, energy. and a lot more. so in order to make the physics work, these machines, they have to be stored at some of the coldest temperatures on earth. they're using liquid helium to get temperatures down to negative 455 degrees fahrenheit. that's about as cold as it is in deep space. companies are also manufacturing custom ships to do all of this. siquantum is making those materials inhouse and that's adding to what is already quite a capital the tensive business. also the deep pocketed tech giants doing the same, amazon, intel, nvidia, all raising for a commercially viable quantum computer. you also have the publicly traded names, those names were up as much as 1,000% last year and then nvidia's jensen huang

took some of the air out of that saying it's still going to be 15 to 30 years until these are really impactful. the cofounder thinks the timeline is more realistically within the decade, but he does say skepticism is warranted. these computers are not live yet. it's still all in the test phase. >> massive amounts of r&d, speculative conclusions. you mentioned the extreme conditions. we're talking about the interactions of subatomic particles and it has to be super cold. what ultimately is the power demand? we got through the whole a.i. build out and how much power that's going to suck up. now there's conflicting ideas on this, maybe down the road it might be more power efficient? >> it doesn't seem to be as -- the power demands aren't as high as cooling in entire data centers. these are smaller scale. they're using liquid helium. i was thinking you have to cool

the temperature down because they overheat. it's like you said, you're going down to the particle level. you're sort of manipulating material the size of atoms to really -- >> you have to slow down matter. >> exactly, so that's why it needs to be that cold. but again, not the talent. you have to think about the people. there are a handful of engineers who know how to do this. they're hiring a lot of people from old school energy, oil and gas, that know how to do this. it's sort of a different capital demand, but the talent is something else. they're really hiring from some of the old school industries, and from academia. all of the ceos out here who are doing quantitim and a.i. for that matter, they're ph.d.s, academics and they have been doing this a long time. they have been doing it for more than a decade. >> i know this has been kind of a long lived dream at this point, but fascinating stuff. so since you're in the quantum world, are people calling you shu rodinger's cape?

that's the nerdiest joke. >> quantum kate probably rolls off the tongue better. used to be crypto kate. now it's quantum kate. hope that takes off. >> appreciate it. talk to you soon. kate rooney. >> crypto getting a big boost ahead of president-elect trump's inauguration on monday. tunay micheel is here with more. >> interesting week. crypto up on reports of a report that could cover the crypto advisory council that trump has promised. so bitcoin is heading for its best week since november 15th. the broader crypto market outperforming. coinbase and robinhood, they're gaining. they of course benefit from big crypto trading volumes as well as potential for clearer regulation. bitcoin proxies, microstrategy, mara holdings always having a good day. they do stand to gain more from better regulation. just because it's been more of a

target of s.e.c. lawsuits and alleged banking discrimination under the outgoing administration versus bitcoin. you look at bitcoin, it's been more mark row driven since the december fed meading that raised concerns about inflation that were somewhat disswaged this week. so it's correlation with the s&p 500 has jumped in the past couple weeks. so it moved more around the data releases this week, but joining the crypto party today on optimism about a potential stockpile and investors now expect any announcements from trump next week to send bitcoin higher, so mike, starting as a macro trade and ending with trump at the end of this week. >> it's fascinating because you have this repeated pattern of we expect great messages that are bullish for crypto coming out of the trump camp. the good messages come and the market hasn't already discounted. in other words, usually it's a sell the news prompt. what do we expect out of any potential reserve?

it could mean the government is not going to sell the bitcoin it has. >> we don't have clarity on whether it is a stockpile and we're not selling all of the bitcoin that the u.s. already has. versus if we're going to be buying and how much we're going to be buying and if we're buying in any meaningful amount. it's going to be an interesting quarter because we still do have that conflicting trump crypto trade where we're worried about inflation because of tariffs and other policies that could really kind of dominate the bitcoin narrative, which we saw the post-election rally, and i think that the optimism around the pro-trump crypto trade kind of overshadowed those macro drivers at the beginning of this year. but it's going to be volatile, in terms of actually seeing policy come out of this pro-crypto congress and white house, it could take 9 to 12 month. we'll see. >> plenty of wait and see right ahead of us. the strong dollar hasn't held it back either. that's another interesting way

it has correlations upside down. up next, we're drilling down on energy. what could be in store for that space amid a second trump administration. we'll discuss after this break. >> don't forget, you canat on the go by following the closing bell podcast on your favorite podcast app. the road to opportunity. is often the road overlooked. (♪♪) at enterprise mobility, we guide companies to unique solutions, from our team of mobility experts. because we believe the more ways we all have to move forward. the further we'll all go.

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energy getting another boost today with the sector on pace for its best week since november

8th. those stocks leading the market so far this year, up 10% month to date as a group. joining me now with his energy playbook and expectations under the new trump administration's policies is rob fellow. it's good to see you. i wonder just in terms of trying to connect the dots, what the promise of the new administration's policies are probably more production, maybe lower regulation, and freeing up supplies so why should prices be higher? >> yeah, well, i think your answer is what you talk about every day, which is so a.i. really is redefining the energy sector. it's the first time in my career where i can remember the energy sector intersecting with the technology sector. this is creating a whole new growth opportunity for the sector. we need a lot more tear awatts of power. what that also means is we think we're going to need billions of cubic feet of natural gas as the fuel to generate a lot of those hours. we see a significant

opportunity, especially in natural gas, but in the overall energy sector as the a.i. -- as a.i. merges and develops over not just a few years but really over several decades. >> i mean, as you suggest, that's mostly a natural gas story, right? in terms of directly powering and creating more electricity. how much do you think has already been more or less figured out by the market here? i was just taking a look at the lng plays which i know you have been involved with, cheniere, that stock has rocketed higher on expectations it's going to be even more of a global market. >> yeah, we don't think that really investors have rewarded the energy sector in a lot of the energy infrastructure companies at all or much for the opportunity and the growth opportunities related to a.i. now, remember, there's no a.i. or ei, so there's no a.i. without energy infrastructure. so companies like cheniere, in cheniere's case, they're e porting energy to other countries around the world that may use that natural gas. if you look at cheniere, well,

it's got high quality cash flows, long duration high quality cash flows. a management team that's done an excellent job with allocating capital, so when we look at cheniere and its stock price, yeah, it's done well, but it still has a long way to run with the high quality cash flows, the growth we expect, and even potentially higher growth that could be coming down the road as natural gas is consumed more and more around the world. >> you do mention that energy infrastructure is your area of focus. what other ways would you recommend people position at this point? what are the beneficiaries in the energy food chain? >> yeah, so if you look at a company like williams. it's an energy infrastructure company, a pipeline company, operates hundreds of thousands of mimes of pipelines. one of the most strategically placed pipelines. you never see these pipelines but they're really essential. you look at where the williams

foot footprint is, it's impossible to replicate that. as a.i. centers develop, you're going to need natural gas to generate the power ultimately, so williams naturally will have kind of a first mover advantage, a big economic mote to provide that. that's one example. got a good dividend yield, a little over 3%. it's going to grow another 6%. another example is an energy transfer. energy transfer is trading below ten times enterprise ebitda. you can't find a lot of those discounted stocks left in the market. not in energy infrastructure. it's a 6.5% dividend yield. it's going to grow its dividend 3 to 5%. it's going to benefit from the a.i. and the distribution of natural gas, but also, exporting other commodities like propane, ethane, even crude oil to a certain extent. these energy infrastructure companies, investors are starting to really understand, but what i think investors

really need to understand is how essential they are, how important they are. if you understand that, and you look back at their valuations, they look really compelling and undervalued. >> i mean, energy transfer was a $16 stock on election day. and now we're more than 25% higher than that. what's the, i guess, the pace of potential benefit from what might come down the road in terms of policy that's being discounted by the market here? >> yeah, you mentioned a couple things. first of all, the u.s. is the largest producer of energy in the world. and so the world needs more energy. the world, and so the u.s. will continue to produce more and more energy. we'll still have oil growth and production. we'll still have natural gas growth and production. that will be important. more importantly, exports. the world needs more u.s. energy. so exports have really been -- it will be the opportunity. that's probably where under president trump we'll see a step change. for instance, in lng export,

liquefied natural gas exports. we had a pause on new approvals for future lng exports. that's probably going to go away and set up the natural gas industry to be exporting energy and doubling and probably even more than doubling lng exports between now and 2050. that's going to be probably the biggest impact you'll see from the trump administration. >> all right, well, we'll be tracking, it rob. i appreciate it. thanks for your time. >> up next, we're tracking the biggest movers as we head into the lose. kristina is back with those. >> mike, drug igre stock tumbling on news. and a wall street titan's shares climbing after revealing an eye popping pay package for its ceo. lots of money. those stories and more when we return.

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5%. eli down almost 3%. goldman sachs paying ceo david sullivan $80 million to stay put for at least the next five years. $80 million. the board also plans to raise the ceos pay by 26% up to a whopping $39 million. this according to a new filing. shares of goldman sachs are up 2% on the notion he will be at the helm for the next five years. >> stability at the top, i guess the market is happy to see. thank you very much. we're also tracking shares of salesforce today. seema modi with more on that stock's move. >> reporter: hey, mike. analysts at cowen raising their earnings estimates after conducting an extensive survey on how companies are thinking about artificial intelligence budgets going into 2025. and they found that salesforce ranks right behind microsoft and amazon, referencing general excitement around the company's agent force, its a.i. agent

platform. they also see new tailwinds including opportunities for salesforce to grow inorganically that will contribute to their position in a.i. and investors are willing to be patient with seeing the return on investment for agent force, the stock as you know, has had an epic run over the last year, gaining about 27%. and higher by around 2% on this upgrade. >> inorganic growth, salesforce no stranger to that, buying up other companies seems like part of the plan. still ahead, we'll tell you what the tiktok ban could mean for the rest of the social names. we're back on the bell after this break. contribute to a health savings account to help pay for medical expenses with tax-free money. you an put up to $4,150 for yourself or $8300 for your family into an h bsay april 15th. and your contribution will be tax deductible. for cnbc, i'm sharon epperson.

up next, regional banks rallying today. the kre is up 8% this week. we'll break down what's behind that bounce coming up. and don't forget to ne itun to cnbc's coverage of the inauguration of president-elect donald j. trump monday 8:00 a.m. eastern right here on cnbc. the market zone is next. feel comfortable about tomorrow. massmutual.

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♪♪ we are now in the closing bell market zone. julia boorstin shares what the latest on tiktok could mean for the rest of the social media space. and kevin drier breaks down the crucial moments of the trading day and shares some of his top stock picks. julia, hours later, how is the market viewing the shakeout of this supreme court decision? >> reporter: well, there are still a lot of unknowns and we'll see what the incoming trump administration does. but meta, youtube, s.n.a.p. are seen as well positioned to draw user engagement and ad dollars if tiktok is to be shuttered.

if it were, 29% of users indicated they would reallocate their user time to meta's reels while 23% said they would shift to youtube shorts. that's according to a consumer survey in the fourth quarter. we're seeing those numbers play out in the ad projections as well. meta is projected to be the primary beneficiary of tiktok's ad dollars with the projected $19 billion in incremental ad revenue if tiktok is banned. that's according to wells fargo. ad dollars would then benefit youtube and snap, but as snap is the smallest of these players, by some estimates it would get the biggest percentage boost in terms of ad dollars. it is worth noting that snap shares are down today, likely on the expectation that incoming president trump will save tiktok. back over to you. >> yeah, exactly. a bit of a sell the news response there as people assess the probabilities. thank you very much. leslie, we have moved on from

the big money centers to hear from the regionals. what did they have to say? >> you're right. following the six big banks earlier this week, the calendar now comprises many of the regionals. we heard from truest, citizens, huntington, and regions. truest shares really gaining today, thanks to better deposit performance and better than expected profitability guidance. truest also announcing a half a billion dollar buyback. citizens and huntington's performance a bit more tempered due to some concerns surrounding expenses. regions kind of volatile, largely slipping today in part due to lackluster guidance. but there's a lot more in the pike. fifth third, key bank, capital one, and zions are on deck for tuesday, and comerica will be next wednesday. against the backdrop of all of this company news, of course, is an environment that could be pretty beneficial for regionals. they tend to trade better when the yield curve is steeper. although more so if that's the case due to a strengthening

economy versus concerns about inflation. there's also a notion that smaller banks are entering into a friendlier environment to merge and one with less onerous capital requirements, mike. >> exactly, leslie. it feels like that's one of the things that is behind this very strong bid in the regional banks. this idea that you might have some consolidation. anything we're hearing with any specificity from the companies themselves or even from the analysts about the likelihood of certain mergers? >> reporter: yeah, we have definitely heard from analysts because one of the key trends within regionals lately has been that buyers and companies that are perceived as perspective buyers, regional banks specifically that are perspective buyers, they have been doing better than other companies. that signals to the market that it's supportive of this type of m&a activity taking place, and there are a few reports that suggest that investors buy some

of those in the banking universe. we have heard from pnc, for example, that they are on the prowl for some consolidation and there are others as well. >> it's a good sign people think there would be value creation. leslie, thank you very much. kevin, obviously, we have gotten a firmer start to this year in the broad markets. i know you're a value guy, looking for stock by stock. it feels like it's been relatively easy to identify value, less easy to get paid for it. >> yeah, that's why one of the things we do with our methodology, we're looking for catalysts or events that can surface value in a stock. big one tends to be m&a, takeovers. with the new administration, certainly, they'll have a lot of pro-growth economic policies that are good for everybody but specifically on takeovers they will be a lot friendlier. last year, takeovers were up about 10%, but still well off the peak. we think that's going to

accelerate into this year. and we think that we're going to identify a lot of targets. >> m&a volume as a percentage of gdp, stock market value, really pretty low versus history. what pockets of the market or what individual names do you actually feel like are pretty ripe in this scenario? >> we're looking across the board. we see some areas particularly ripe for consolidation. the food industry, they have struggled of late. there are some headwinds, inflation, just tighter consumer, the threat of glp-1s coming in. we had the calanova deal announced last year by mars. a lot of the bigger food and beverage companies need growth. when they buy that, they look for companies like a simply good foods that have healthier snacking, shakes, and growing areas of the food market. those would be particularly ripe for consolidation. others in the industrial area, we think, are pretty teed up as well. >> just one second and we'll get back to you. we have news out of walgreens

that seema has for us. >> reporter: mike, we're seeing here that the justice department has filed nationwide lawsuit alleging that walgreens knowingly failed millions of prescriptions that lacked a legitimate medical purpose. reading through the filing here, i would point out, shares of walgreens were down about 2% prior to this headline. now down about 2.17%. we'll keep you updated on the company's response. for now, back to you. >> okay, yeah, it seems like a lot of legal action coming out of the executive branch in the last moments here, last few days. kevin, you were saying in terms of smaller food companies, could be tough for larger companies. are you still in the mode of thinking that the average company can continue to outperform because we had so many fits and starts where it looked like the market was broadening out, then we revert right back to mega cap growth leadership? >> we invest in terrific companies, but they tend to be less followed than the broader

market. for us, aerospace is another area. we have seen deals. we had command bought last year. barns group is in the process of being bought. smaller aerospace suppliers like a triumph, those would be good consolidation candidates and they're going to benefit from the ramp of boeing's production through this year into next year as well. >> and what about, i guess, maybe more neglected parts of manufacturing and things like that? think about the auto food chain and all these other areas where there's not a lot of mop-up m&a that's happened. >> there are a lot of opportunities. the water space is one that in particular for us, we have a lot of investments in. mealer water would be a small company that we like a lot. we're hosting a conference with a bunch of companies next month right here in new york. highlighting the opportunities for a lot of those companies. >> all right. previewing it here. kevin, thanks a lot. 30 seconds left in the trading week. it has been a strong one.

the s&p 500 continues to flirt with that 6,000 level. up about 1%. might be falling just short of it right now. the nasdaq composite, the outperformer on the day, up 1.5%. we also have the volatility index going down below 16 below finish the week ahead of a three day trading weekend. that is going to do it for closing bell. we'll send it to "closing bell" with jon fortt. >> well that bell marks the end of regulation for the week, the memorial foundation at the new york stock exchange. doing the honors at the nasdaq and it is a strong end to a strong week as the major averages go out with games across the board. health care was the loan sector to finish the day in the red. that is the scorecard on wall street. but winners state late. i'm jon fortt, morgan brennan is off today.