the price that they can legally, legally is the key sell oil. we're going to be at the ceraweek conference in houston next week, morgan monday and tuesday. huge time for energy. >> yeah. looking forward to that. and i'll see you at 4 p.m. eastern on overtime. we've got the ceo of samsara and a lot more in just an hour. >> can't wait. closing bell starts right now. >> all right. thanks so much. welcome to closing bell. i'm scott wapner live from post nine here at the new york stock exchange. this make or break hour begins with this very busy day in the markets. headlines from washington and right here in new york whipping stocks around yet again. here is the major average picture. and where we stand with 60 to go in regulation. word from the president that reciprocal tariffs could come earlier than expected sending stocks to their lows. however remarks midday by fed chair powell changing the tone. that's how we currently look. we're green across the board. we're going to talk to our experts about all of that coming up. some standouts today include broadcom rising after its own earnings. nvidia is trying to stay positive to that

stock. believe it or not wiping out $1 trillion in market cap from its early year high. just back in january banks are mostly weaker yet again. they have been. we'll watch those today. they remain in the red. bitcoin's lower today hit a turbulent trade in its own right. on that note, we're also expecting the president to speak at the white house today. the digital asset summit. we'll take you there live for that. it does take us to our talk of the tape, the uncertain road ahead for stocks. let's get the view of our panel today. stephanie link hightower, chief investment strategist and portfolio manager ed yardeni is the president of yardeni research. young umar is with bmo wealth management. our own steve liesman is our senior economics correspondent. and steve, i'm going to begin with you, because i feel like we got a fed chair bounce today. and what do you think it was specifically that he said here in new york that seemed certainly seemed to calm markets. >> i think it was a generally dovish take, modestly dovish. he talked about the idea that if

inflation doesn't behave well, we can hold rates. and if we have an unexpected weakening the labor market we can cut rates. didn't talk about raising rates. but overall scott listen to what he said here. when he talks about a generally and very patient approach from the fed. >> inflation can be volatile month to month, and we do not overreact to 1 or 2 readings that are higher or lower than anticipated. as we parse the incoming information, we are focused on separating the signal from the noise. as the outlook evolves, we do not need to be in a hurry, and we are well positioned to wait for greater clarity. >> scott, obviously there's a lot of information to come. he talked about the idea of thinking about the all the policy changes, the administration as a whole, not just one. talk about the idea that tariffs are really something that generally pass through and ultimately was was very kind of not alarmed by what's been happening. you could see what happened. scott. there was no change in the outlook for

the fed funds futures. so we kind of affirmed the market pricing for three cuts this year. >> stay with me, steve. let's bring in everybody else too. i mean, steph, it did not in any way sound like somebody who was all wound up about either, frankly, the state of the economy nor the tariff impact yet. >> yet. >> i think we were looking for. >> an excuse. >> to bounce. >> to be honest with you. we're way oversold. >> we all know. >> about the uncertainties. >> we all know we're in a growth slowdown. we've been talking about a growth slowdown to expect in january, just simply because we don't have the fiscal tailwinds that we had from the prior administration. obviously we're all concerned about tariffs. on off on, off. that's kind of hard and a headache to be honest with you. but we also don't know about inflation. we also don't know about the fed. so the question is how low do we go in gdp. >> we were growing 3% last year. do we go. negative or do we. >> go. >> one and a half 2% i'm. >> in the camp. >> we go one and a half.

>> 2%. >> because there still are a lot of tailwinds in the economy. i look at the consumer and. i think lower rates helps them. lower gasoline prices, helps them. jobs today were not horrible. whisper numbers were. 40 to 50,151. >> it's slowing. >> of course, we're. expecting that. private jobs 140,000. i was very encouraged about. >> wages at 40%. >> and so to. me the consumer is. hanging in. that's the biggest part of our economy. i'm still in the belief we have a manufacturing renaissance as well. scott. we haven't even scratched the surface in terms of. >> onshore and offshore. >> and data centers. >> and, you. >> know, i've been buying. the infrastructure. >> data center. >> companies because. >> they've gotten slammed. >> so i've. >> been. >> looking for opportunity, i haven't i had a little extra cash in the beginning of the week. i am deploying it. i've deployed. >> a bunch today. >> i know you have, and i'll get to that in a minute. but ed yardeni the price action today. interesting. do you think it was the fed chair that turned this market? >> yeah. it was nice to have a voice of reason and calm as opposed to all the noise, to

signal that we're seeing the noise to signal ratio has really gone off the charts. and i think the markets are trying their best to kind. >> of find. >> an island of calm and reasonableness. and i think that's what we got today from the from the fed chair. >> and i think. >> his assessment of the. economy was right on. >> i think the economy is actually going. >> to. turn out to be quite resilient. i mean. >> look, over. >> the past three years, it put up with a tightening of monetary policy and didn't have a recession. and now i think it's going to be. challenged and tested again by all this tariff turmoil. but i think at the end of the. >> day, a lot of this is going to be negotiated away. >> the problem is. negotiations should be behind closed doors where you can't hear all the noise and shouting. you just want them to come out and say, we've got a deal. and so it's messy, but i think we're all going to start getting used to the fact that it's going to continue to be messy. >> it might. and young you. that's a good point that ed

yardeni makes. this could remain messy for a while. so how are investors supposed to navigate that? yes, definitely. >> it's still a high uncertainty. >> high disruption. >> it's certainly the. >> terrorists that are ongoing. >> care of concerns are ongoing, but also. those spending cuts and layoffs. >> that are. >> also a disruptive. >> force in the economy. now, how do. >> you. >> navigate this? >> i think. >> the first thing is to be patient and. >> not try. >> to. >> chase bounces when they happen. we do. >> think that. >> the market will gradually. >> stabilize. >> but it could take some time because. >> we. have a. >> timing mismatch between the disruptions that are. >> taking place in. >> the here and now. versus when the. >> fed might start. >> cutting rates by mid-year. >> and some of that benefit. >> might come into play in the. >> near term. >> we just have to face some. >> of the. >> uncertainty that remains. and looking. >> for opportunities. but i. >> think being patient. >> with opportunities. >> as. >> well is the way to go. >> steve. >> you know, there's been conversation in the market as to whether there is a so-called trump put, whether there's

enough upset at some point in stocks to sway the administration away from some policies in some form or fashion. now, the treasury secretary on our network today said it's not the case. what i'm wondering from you is, since you took what the fed chair had to say today as dovish, whether you think the fed put is alive and well, that if the economy does weaken, they would on the side of doing something because of his view on tariffs, which he thinks are maybe a one time cost increase, at least on the baseline, according to what he talked about in the textbook, so to speak. >> yeah, i mean, that's exactly the way i think, scott, the market is taking this, that when he said that, hey, consumer spending looks like it could be a little bit weaker here. it showed that his concern is more on the growth side than the inflation side. but you don't want to take that bet too far because the issue you're going to have is if there are tariffs and there's an expectation of tariffs, they're going to feed

into the price index. whether there are one time event or another or something that lasts a little longer. the fed's going to have to take some time to figure that out. and powell indeed did mention well, if you have retaliation that goes on for a while. it changes the calculus. and one thing the fed is going to do, and i think we're all going to start doing, is when these tariffs start to feed into the cpi, the key is going to be looking at non-tariff or adjacent goods to see if they went up as well, to see if the tariff issue is spreading into broader inflation. but that's a calculus the fed has to make, and something that powell said will take some time. so you have to be a little careful here about reading too much dovish information into what the fed chair is saying. >> the tough part, steph, i suppose for investors, is trying to figure out when this so-called detox period that the treasury secretary also talked about this morning on squawk box actually ends. also, the fact that the administration has been telling investors that there's

going to be some transition period, whether it was musk with the temporary hardship comment in october, whether it was the president himself this week talking about a, quote, little disturbance and then this today, this morning on this very network from treasury secretary scott bessent. listen. >> there's going to be a. natural adjustment as we move away from public spending to private spending. the market and the economy have just become hooked. if we become addicted to this government spending and there's going to be a detox. >> period. >> what do you make of that comment? what do you think it means for how people like you who are running real money portfolios and trying to be a chief investment strategist for their firm, are supposed to do. what do you do with that? >> it's hard, but i actually agree with it. that's why i mentioned the jobs report number today. with the private payroll growth of 140,000, that's actually kind. >> of. >> consistent with what we've been seeing. it's the government side we know that's going to slow down. >> so you.

>> actually have to look at the quality. >> in. >> my mind of the quality of the job market and really parse through it. and so if the private market and they're still hiring, that's a good thing. and that actually feeds back into. the confidence that companies have. and i don't think they've lost the confidence. maybe it's shaken up a little bit, but i don't see anyone cutting back on capex. and i'm not talking about the hyperscalers i'm talking about across the board. so what i'm trying to do, scott, i don't know. when we're going to bottom. i don't know if i'm going to get the best price, but i'm trying to leg in to companies that had good. earnings and we just got fourth quarter earnings. they were quite good. but some of the stocks are down substantially. and so what i'm trying to do is i go back, do my. >> homework. >> i look where the valuations are and i'm nibbling and i have enough cash to do that because i do think in the long term, when we do bounce the companies that have the very strongest fundamentals and the good earnings, they will be rewarded. >> okay. like wells fargo, like broadcom like gap three stocks that you just bought more of. >> yeah and i bought more. well

i bought wells fargo earlier in the week. and then again today because it was down 5% for like no reason. >> miserable week. well i don't know if for no reason. i mean, it's been a miserable week for the banks. >> it's been a miserable week. but they were really one of the leaders up until this week. right? so they're pulling back. but i still have a lot of confidence in this special situation. story of cost cutting, asset cap. >> lift, and. >> also the net interest income. >> story. >> which i still believe that we're going to see in this year, 2025. and not a lot of people are talking. about it, but the management talked about it bottoming sometime this year, first quarter, maybe second quarter. and that's 58% of their total revenues. and at 1.4 times book value. >> for best. >> in class. good management teamta policy since 2008. we

just adjusted and we're still adjusting to this new and more normal environment. how long does this quote unquote, detox period take for the market to get used to this new world? >> well, i'd like to just shift the focus a. little bit to the looking at the global impact so far of trump 2.0. we just saw that the germans have decided that they're going to spend. >> a lot. >> more money, and not just on defense. we just heard this week that the chinese government intends to stimulate and provide more initiative and more reasons for the consumer to spend over there. so i think there's some actually positive implications of trump 2.0 on a global basis. and that's why i think we're we're seeing that at least in a short term basis, other markets are actually outperforming the us, which is maybe why the us is underperforming, is that we've seen the weaker dollar, we've

seen a stronger euro. investors clearly are looking now at the global situation. and i think the message is actually a pretty positive one for the global economy and for some of these stock markets that have rallied. and i don't know that we're that hooked on government spending. i think argentina demonstrated that if you do take a an ax to some areas of government spending, it's amazing how quickly the private sector responds positively to that. so i think that's what the administration is betting on, and i wouldn't necessarily bet against that. >> young you, do you think we have this period of uncertainty if a detox needs to be had and that your job is going to be made more difficult, trying to navigate the time frame of how long it takes to normalize. >> yeah, i think it's a period of adjustment. i'm not sure i specifically ascribe to the word detox, but i do think there's

going to be an adjustment period. some of the some areas of spending are going to be cut back, some areas of employment are going to be cut back, and it's going to take a while to fill that practical void that's there. but if we look at the market's reaction, i do think by mid year the market's going to be reacting to a fed that's back on track to cut rates, tax cuts that are in line to happen later in the year. so i think there are some benefits that come later in the year. but in the meantime we have a mismatch. and i do think we'll see some weakening in the labor market. even though the headline numbers were decent in this jobs report, if you look under the hood, temporary jobs were down, the number of underemployed were up. and yesterday we also saw layoff announcements spiking a lot higher. so i think we'll see some softness in the labor market. but that will of course spur the fed to start cutting interest rates perhaps more quickly than people are anticipating. >> steve, do you think the initial reaction from the fed chair when he got the numbers? and i think he gets them, you know, better than me a little bit before everybody else does that? it was a sigh of relief

that, you know, they were braced for something maybe a little worse. and even though it was a miss, it wasn't all that bad at all. >> yeah, but a temporary one. mean, i think one of the things that we're all learning is the extent to which federal government spending permeates a lot of areas of the economy beyond just federal government employment. right. so we've talked about this idea of there being government private contractors that do government business. there's federal spending in local government hiring all kinds of places where this exists. so and just one thing about this detox period, some of it makes a lot of sense. if you bring if you reduce federal spending and you end up reducing interest rates, you can create a powerful response in the private sector. but the tariff idea of reshoring, with all due respect to my very good friend and colleague, stephanie, stephanie, is that it's a bit on the come in the sense that you can move to protect existing industries. i don't know that you can move to bring industries

back by creating tariff walls. are we going to bring the textile business back? are we going to bring a lot of these businesses back to the united states? based upon a 25% tariff? i have my doubts about that. and if that's a big part of the plan of the administration and the economic outlook, that's the part i would be a little more skeptical about. >> yeah, we're already seeing it, though, steve. we're already seeing massive movement around the world. everyone has been leaving china over the last several years, and they are moving here to the united states, but they also moved to mexico and canada thinking that was safe. >> obviously in vietnam and thailand. >> i understand, but they are going all around the world. they're going to india. that's why i'm so bullish on india. but you talk to companies that are making the data centers or that are part of the grid restructuring or part of the power, and they are all seeing tremendous. >> backlog backlogs. >> we have not seen in decades. and so that is why i am bullish.

no, i'm not saying, though that the companies are going because of tariffs. they're going to come here. that's the intent of the administration. i'm not saying that that's going to happen, but the companies got so burned during covid, having so much exposure elsewhere, particularly china, that they actually made a plan to diversify around the globe. >> i mean, steve, that's kind of the game changer scenario, as i guess the fed would view it. that is to the heart of the one time price increase versus changing the story on the longer term inflation expectations, which the chair talked about, the difference between the two, which would obviously have a greater impact over the long term, no question towards monetary policy. >> and then. >> my bigger problem with that scenario, scott, and i'm not saying it's wrong, and obviously i hope it's right, you know, that people can bring, bring, bring production back to the united states and that it's also cost effective and profitable

for these companies. my problem with stephanie's example there is that part of the reshoring was nearshoring into what they thought was a relatively stable north american supply chain. and if these tariffs go into place, i guess there's two different sets of tariffs. there's the tariffs that are going to be the putting them into equalization tariffs as well as the ones on canada and mexico. if those go into place, you've raised the cost of the north american supply chain by 25%. and that could mean you've raised the cost of us production by that same amount, because part of us production uses essential parts of canada and mexico. so that's my concern and i hope it works. i just have my doubts about the idea of reshoring into something that you thought was stable. >> well, you do have to consider, though, don't you, steve? the idea of artificial intelligence and the fact that technology in and of itself and

this really transformational technology is deflationary. >> yes, absolutely. but if you think about jobs, though, which is what lutnick was talking about yesterday on our air, he talked about robots. now robots, as i understand it, they can be very productive, but it's not necessarily a job for or massive jobs program. through robots and automation. this gets to a whole issue, scott, which is another day. but to me, the bigger issue when it comes to us jobs has never really been the trade story as much. it's been the automation story, and that's where we're going to go in this country, and it'll be interesting to see where the jobs come from that i'm not against these ideas. i'm hopeful that they could work. i just a little bit skeptical of this idea that all of a sudden businesses are going to make decisions they could have made previously, and now they're going to all of a sudden decide that it's profitable to do that kind of work in the united states. >> no, your your points are well made. i mean, and look, they may

want you to believe that you can have your cake and eat it too. you can bring all of this work back to the us, and even in a fast changing world, through technological advances that you can still maintain or even increase the level of employment in this country that will remain to be seen. and we won't get those answers for a long time. let me let me just get to a couple more things before we have to wrap it up. technology. speaking of and i speaking of, nvidia has lost $1 trillion in market cap almost since its record high at the beginning of january. young you what's going on with tech nasdaq is leading today because it's been down a lot and some more so than some of the others have been. what about that trade. >> well we still like tech for the medium term. certainly tech is going to be the more volatile area. trying to project the trends outward is a difficult proposition. $1 trillion for nvidia is a lot to lose, right? that's real money to anyone. so you know, you know, i think there are going to be more trends that play out favorably for technology than unfavorably. so i think you want to lean into

technology overall as people are deploying capital similarly, similar to what stephanie said, i do think technology should be part of that, but betting too heavily on any one company among these very fast changing trends, i think, is something probably you want to leave to the professionals and really look to diversify among the technology space. >> and what's the deal with this trade? how do you feel about it right now? >> well, i feel like we've definitely seen some of these stocks go on sale. they're definitely cheaper and i think they've got the earnings to make. investors have a good look at them. my view is that we've got a shortage of labor in the united states and around the world, particularly skilled labor. and scott, i agree with your observation that we're going to see a lot of automation, a lot of robotics and humanoid robots in manufacturing. i mean, you know, we keep talking about bringing all these companies back to, to

increase employment, but the unemployment rate is 4.1%. so we really don't actually have all the people out there that need jobs. and we got to worry about that. so, you know, you put it all together and i think the productivity numbers are going to continue to be better than expected over the second half of the decade. >> and you tell him you'll call him back. you're almost done. >> i almost let you go. >> don't worry. all right. we'll just. >> be. >> a second. >> steph, how about that i mean you bought more broadcom right. you put your money where your mouth is i totally get it. but there's been some real upset in that trade. >> oh yeah absolutely i mean even after the move today it's still down 20%. but you know it's interesting. the multiple on broadcom has gone from 34 times down to 28 times. not cheap by any means. but it's coming down and numbers are actually going higher up about 7% after the quarter a beat a raise 300% increase in gross margins year over year. new asic custom customers. i think all the things are going well for

this company. they had a better quarter than nvidia and that that is why i was adding to it. and i think you want to just be selective. snowflake is also on my list next week to take a look to buy. >> okay, good stuff folks. we're going to leave it there. i so very much appreciate everybody being part of that conversation, helping us understand all the events of not only this week, but this fast changing day. thank you steph, of course. thank you, ed young, you steve liesman. we'll see you soon everybody. we still are awaiting, by the way, president trump's speech at the white house today on the digital assets summit. mackenzie sigalos is joining us now with what investors should expect to hear in just a bit. mackenzie. >> hey, scott. so we just heard from white house ai and crypto czar david saxe and remarks that give investors fresh hope that the government is open to a crypto buying strategy under budget neutral conditions. >> if the secretary of the treasury or the secretary of commerce can come up with a budget neutral way to acquire more than they are authorized, they don't have to. but they're authorized to develop those strategies. >> sachs also confirmed that the

government plans to enlist a cutting edge custodian to hold its crypto assets. when asked whether coinbase or another major exchange was in the running, he emphasized that the us is looking for a hi tech firm specializing in custody. we're now about 90 minutes into the first ever white house crypto cretary, the president and top industry leaders are discussing next steps. earlier, we heard from scott bessent, who underscored the administration's priority of bringing the industry onshore and establishing best practices and regulations. we know that a lot of people in that room today want stablecoin and market infrastructure bills passed into law. and then, as you said, scott, president trump is expected to speak any moment now. we'll be monitoring that for any details on this new reserve. >> all right. you'll let us know. mackenzie. thank you. mackenzie. sigalos on the case for us there. let's send it now to kristina partsinevelos for a look at the biggest names moving into this friday. close. hi, christina. >> hi, scott. well, let's take a look at the deal of the day. walgreens is ending a nearly 100. >> year run. >> as a public company. the

drugstore chain announced that it's taking a buyout. and going private. the $10 billion deal with sycamore partners is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. shares of walgreens boots. >> alliance are up over. >> 7% right now. and tariff troubles hitting costco. the wholesale company's ceo said that although the impact is difficult to forecast right now, tariff implications specifically for groceries make margins, quote, much tighter. costco also reporting. >> mixed earnings results. with profit falling. >> short of expectations, although unfavorable exchange rates did play a role. the stock, as you can see on your screen, down over 8%. >> scott. >> all righty. christina. thank you. christina. partsinevelos. we're just getting started here. up next. been a rough week, as we said for tech. now deepwater's gene munster is going to join us. he'll tell us how he's navigating all of it right now. tell us what he thinks is next. for that, i trade. we're live at the new york stock exchange. you're york stock exchange. you're watching closing bell on cnbc. (vo) a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry

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>> for thoughtful living. >> therma. >> he told you plenty of times. tech's been one of the worst performers this week, with the nasdaq breaking some key support levels along the way. for more on where the space is likely to trade, let's bring in deep waters. gene munster, who knows the space pretty well, i'd say. what do you make of all this? >> scott? >> i think this is a first disconnect in two years between the fundamentals of ai and the. >> trading. >> and the. >> fundamentals continue to be strong. >> if you look at. >> what nvidia said, what. >> broadcom said. marvell down. big this week on some uncertainty about where amazon was going to spend a lot of money on ai. >> and so from the. >> highest level. >> i always. >> come back to where i've been as a tech investor is just the fundamentals, and the fundamentals of these companies remain strong. and i'm out here with a prediction that we're going to have two good years left going up into bullish years. it's going to end in a spectacular bursting of a bubble. and what i think of it

when i see this, it shakes my confidence. but ultimately if i focus on the fundamentals, i continue. >> to believe that this is. >> this trade is going to play out. one last piece. you've enumerated this all week, scott, but just as a reminder is that this is common. these pullbacks, 12 of them from 95 to 2000 with.com. this is the second time we've had over the last couple of years. so i put this in the context of this is actually i view this as kind of a. healthy reset of expectations. >> i don't think anybody would argue with you at all that the fundamentals remain strong. it's simply becomes a question of what you are willing to pay for those fundamentals, even if so strong. if, let's say, revenue growth is not as strong as it was, what should you pay for it relative to what you were paying before? fundamental question about investing, correct? >> absolutely. and you hit it right on the head. is this what is the. ultimate growth rate here? and when we think about. >> again.

>> i'm giving a. broader perspective on the ai trade. >> we think that the. >> growth rates are going to be higher for longer. and so let's just look at nvidia as an example. next year. the street's looking for just just over 20% revenue growth, down from like 80% in calendar 25 down to, you know, 20 mid 20% in calendar 26. i think that number can be meaningfully higher, 3,540%. and it seems a little bit out of touch with reality, those kind of expectations. >> but if. >> we're right on that, i think that these stocks will move higher. and just one of the reasons where does that confidence come from is that if you take some of jensen's comments that he had on the last quarter about this, 100 to 1 million x more compute needed to get to reasoning and advanced reasoning ai. and as we went out and talked to people who are building these, their companies in our portfolio, private companies, public companies, it's pretty clear he's on to something. and ultimately, if that's the case and this is going to, i think, surprise some

people is i think that nvidia some of its growth could potentially accelerate early next year relative to the back half of 25. >> well, we said it. nearly $1 trillion in market cap wiped out since the beginning of the year or near so when the stock did hit its high. let's talk about a stock that you've been so closely identified with over the last handful of years. it's apple, obviously, from your prior, your prior life obviously to the knock on apple okay, is that it trades at a premium multiple for non premium fundamentals. you just laid out the case that the fundamentals remain strong. apple trades last i checked north of 30 times its forward earnings. china revenues are 20%. components that are loaded into all of these devices come from overseas where we've been talking about tariffs every single day this week and will be for the foreseeable future. can you make the case that apple deserves i'll use the word

deserves to trade north of 30 times earnings. in the face of what i just described. >> i think the company can trade in that low 30s. and then as the years advance, i think the numbers. >> will. >> ultimately be higher. and that's my case, is that i think that the street numbers are too low. if you look at the iphone growth. >> numbers for. >> fiscal 25, the street's looking for 1%. i think that number could be three. 4 or 5%. they step up. >> for fiscal 26. >> so as we advance through the year, there's going to. >> be. >> more focus on the outyear number. but it steps up to 8%. i think that that's probably the right number. and so i think as a starting point, making the case. >> for the multiples. >> i believe that there is upside to the numbers. where does that come from? yeah, i think ultimately it's i think they're going to find a way to get these numbers higher off this big upgrade pool a couple of years ago. >> let me ask you one last question before i let you go. and it's about tesla, which is near a 50% drawdown from its high. as long as mr. musk

remains as entrenched in this administration and as politically polarizing as he clearly has become, does this stock recover? is it a game changer for how you would view the trajectory of the chart? if all things remain the same and he remains as politically active and activated as he has? >> well, i think the near-term the stock is going lower, and i think this is probably the one company where i'm at the most odds with where the street consensus is. who knows what the whisper is. but i think that probably revenue is going to be down 5% next year. the street's looking for it to be up about 10 to 12% right now. and i think a lot of it's driven by what you talked about. and despite this very dire view over the next quarter, as these numbers get reset, the stock goes lower on that. i still believe this is the best positioned company comes to physical i this is the trophy after generative ai. when we get to everything with

autonomous. >> vehicles. >> robotics, full self-driving. i think that the company is in a great place there. so scott, as a tesla investor, i'm bracing because i don't want to trade around this, but i'm holding it with the full expectations that it's going lower as these numbers reset. mark your calendars for the 1st or 2nd of april when those delivery numbers come out. that's probably d-day. >> all right. >> gene, we'll leave it there. appreciate your time and your insight as always. that's gene munster deepwater joining us. we'll see you soon. up next, city's mythril warriors back breaking down how some of the biggest investors are positioning themselves right now. we're back on the bell right after this. >> this is the emirates premium >> this is the emirates premium economy seat. economy.

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tailored to your holdings. become a smarter investor with the power of cnbc pro, go to cnbc.com. slash get pro now. >> it's been a rough stretch for stocks. the s&p heading for its worst week since september. for a look at how the biggest investors are positioned right now. let's welcome in mythra warrior. she is citi's north america head of capital introduction right here with us back at post. nice. nice to see you again. great to be back. i mean, how would you describe sort of the feeling in the hedge fund world, the big money, what are they doing? >> so coming into. 2025 there's a lot of exuberance. 2024 was a good year. now there's. >> a risk off tone. >> certainly from our clients. our data shows. that coming into february. >> up until. >> mid-february, gross exposures were at a two year high. since then, they've. >> come down pretty significantly. >> but net exposures. >> have come down. >> even more because of uncertainty, because of tariffs. i mean, as you said, there was a tremendous amount of optimism after the election. and at least today it feels like it's

dissipated because of all of the uncertainty. what do you think? >> this is. certainly a result of the uncertainty. >> and it's. a feeling that the. market that. >> trading strategies do well in. and so there's. >> a lot of hedging. >> our stock. >> loan group. >> noted that. >> the last. >> week of. >> february saw the highest short interest year to date. 23% above average. so there's. >> a. >> lot of shorting, there's a lot of hedging. >> happening. >> and there's a lot of trading. around this uncertainty, which is it's a good environment for. >> hedge funds. >> maybe a better word from me would have been delayed rather than dissipated, because there still is optimism. it's just pushed. correct. and in the conversation i had yesterday that i had had referenced before as well with the former dallas fed president talking about the, you know, the animal spirits and doing deals and what people are thinking. it's not. no, it's just not now. correct. is that how you think. >> the correct. >> and larger investor community is thinking? >> well, and. >> you talked about deals. >> one of the things that people were. >> really excited about. >> was the ipo. >> environment. >> the m&a environment. >> and there was. >> a feeling that there'd. >> be. >> this rush of deals that

hasn't. >> yet materialized. >> and there's but. >> there's an expectation. >> that it will still come, maybe delayed, not quite dead. >> but what does that mean for, you know, sector moves and sector rotations and things like the financials and private equity. right. terrible week right. >> i think. >> this is where hedge funds truly have an opportunity to shine. the ability to short, the ability to be nimble, the ability for portfolio construction and sizing. i mean, areas like biotech, that's why they continue to be interest there for active engagement and active investing. right. because you can trade around these names. >> yeah, i mean, healthcare obviously has been the best performing or certainly one of them from the year. what about tech? best our guests. obviously it's the hot topic around wall street. how do you see it? how are your clients looking at it. >> so tech information technology was one of the most heavily sold sectors in our book that we saw in the last couple of weeks, and certainly we're short interest has been really high. so tech is an area where people see it as a trading related approach. it's really hard to have a fundamental view on any given name right now. and so people are viewing that if you can be opportunistic and

trade around names and trade around news, then that's a way to make money. >> when you sit down and i said, hey, we may have to go to the white house for the digital asset summit with the president. there's a lot of interest around that. you said from hedge funds to yeah, tell me more. >> so i think certainly in the digital asset and the etf space in the in the crypto etf space, there's involvement. because again if you can find the arbitrage opportunities there, if you can find the relative value opportunities less of a directional play from hedge funds. but if there's an opportunity to take advantage of the relative value between different assets, then that's certainly an area where we're seeing interest. >> let me talk about volatility though. yes there's been volatility all over the market. need look no further than than crypto and bitcoin. >> yes. and i think it's something where hedge funds feel that they have the right risk management. if you can have the limits the stop losses the portfolio controls then it's a place that you can be active in. >> what do you make of what the treasury secretary said this morning on the on this network about this detox period. right. that we need to go through as if this is not just going to potentially turn around overnight, that the market might

have to go through some uncomfortable period before it feels better. >> yeah. when we speak to our clients, that's the sense that there's going to be no short term cure, no quick fix, and they're gearing in for a long period of volatility. and they feel that portfolio positioning and stock picking and the risk management and the ability to swing gross and net exposure are going to be really important in. >> interesting last month, you know, if you look at sector breakdowns, you say that energy funds did well. relatively well relatively speaking. i mean energy we're we're watching that obviously today closely to tell me more about that. >> i think it's a space where people have been underinvested the last few years, and it tends to be a very cyclical sector where when there is a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty, when there's regulatory moves that happen, and also when there's, you know, when you have geopolitics, that sector is certainly very much in play. and so we're seeing people get active in that space. >> i mean, if energy prices continue to go down though, what does that then you have to be even more active. there could be a reversal in fortune and sentiment, right?

>> one of our best performing hedge funds in the in the energy space were long short manager. right. so your market neutral. so you have the ability to go short as well. >> it's good to have you here. >> great. >> thanks so much for being here. that's mithra warrior from citi north america. head of capital introduction i just want to check on the markets once again too, because it's been really a tale of two sessions. what was an early decline as the president was talking about the potential for reciprocal tariffs going in as early as today, perhaps earlier than expected, for sure. maybe next monday or tuesday when the fed chair spoke midday really had a bit of a calming tone towards the market. again, talked about the strength in the economy, the fact that they felt like they could be in no rush when addressing the issue of tariffs, the idea that, well, if they're one time price increases, we don't necessarily have to do anything. it is the longer term inflation expectations that would certainly be a difference maker. let's go to the white house now as we think we're going to hear from the president now at that

digital assets summit that i told you about. let's go there. >> thank you. >> very much. >> well, thank. >> you very much, everyone. great honor to have you. i know you've all been working very hard and very successfully. and it's a wonderful place. the white house i want to begin. is johnny here from world cup? i want to thank you for this election. and they just had a presentation in the oval office. and i thought this was such a beautiful this is the trophy. this is the big deal. the world cup is the biggest sporting event. and gianni infantino is my friend for a long time. and

during my first term, we worked out a deal to get the world cup. and then because of lots of interesting things that happened, i end up being president. when it showed up, i was always disappointed was goio serve eight straight and said we did it. the we did it the hard way, but maybe the more important way. so i will be with you as president gianni. so maybe you could just make just say a few words and show how beautiful the world cup trophy is. thank you. yeah, sure. please. yeah. >> the famous. >> that's a great key. >> you want. >> to be president? >> well, you go ahead. i trust you. >> so this is the new trophy or the new competition for the. >> fifa club. >> world cup. >> the 32 best clubs. >> in the. >> world with the. >> absolute best. players in the world. and for the first time

in. >> history. >> this competition takes place in the united states. opening game on. the 14th of june, right in miami final. >> on the 13th. >> of. >> july. >> this year in. new york, new jersey. >> but it's not that. >> the trophy is special because it is a key. >> and because, as you can. >> see. >> if i manage. >> to do that. >> this is. >> a tricky. >> it's. no. >> so this is a trophy. >> it is a trophy which represents. >> and that's. >> why i think. it's interesting to show this trophy exactly in this forum, because it represents the past, but it's also. >> projected to the future. >> there is. no other sports trophy which looks like that. it has engraved the history of the game of soccer or football, as we call it. >> the participating.

>> teams of. >> the first edition. the stadiums, the beautiful stadiums in 11 cities in the united states of america where this competition will take place. so at the same time, past, present and projected to the future. and if i may say. >> another two words and then i. >> let you work, i'd like to congratulate the president and the administration for. >> only for the world. >> cup, the club world cup, the world cup and the great work done. but also for this initiative that you are speaking about here, if i may add something in this respect, i'm not an expert at all. but fifa, as you know, is a brand which is globally. >> known. >> a very strong brand. the soccer economy in the world is worth. >> around. >> 170 billion a year, 70% of that, mr. president, is in europe. so imagine the

potential. >> that there is. >> around the world. only in soccer if we develop. and so fifa is very, very interested under my presidency to. develop technical coin to do it from here, from america and to conquer the 5 billion soccer fans in the world. so if there is anyone here who is interested to team up with fifa. >> here we. >> are in the united states of america and we will conquer the. >> world of. >> soccer with comirnaty. thank you very much. >> thank you. that's going. >> pfizer. >> that coin may be worth more than fifa. in the end, it could be quite a coin actually. anyway, thank you johnny. great job. i just thought you should see this trophy because it's really, you know, it's the biggest sporting event in the world. and we have it here and

we appreciate being selected. thank you very much. you do fantastic job. and welcome to the first ever white house digital asset summit. i know that many of you have been fighting for years for this, and it's an honor to be with you at the white house. i want to thank the white house, i and crypto czar david sachs, treasury secretary, this is david right here. in case you don't know, you know david and the man who's doing a great job as secretary of the treasury, scott bessent, who's right here. scott, thank you very much. commerce secretary howard lutnick, wherever you may be. howard. hi, howard. >> how are you? >> he's doing some interesting work right now with all that's going on. he's right in the middle of it and doing a great job. thank you. sba administrator kelly loeffler. and thank you, sec commissioner

hester peirce. thank you. hester, acting cftc chairman caroline pham. house majority whip tom emmer hello, tom. representative bryan steil, thank you, brian, thank you very much. digital assets council director bo hines. good bo, great job and many other distinguished guests. we have a lot of very distinguished people around the table. some of them will be speaking. i want to thank marco rubio also, who's right over there. and we have tremendous people very interested in this subject. and last year i promised to make america the bitcoin superpower of the world and the crypto capital of the planet, and we're taking historic action to deliver on that promise. as you know, around the table. yesterday, i signed an executive order officially creating our

strategic bitcoin reserve. and this will be a virtual fort knox for digital gold to be housed within the united states treasury. that's a big thing. >> thank you. to. >> the federal government is already among the largest holders of bitcoin. as you know, really one of the largest holders in the world with as many as 200,000 bitcoin obtained via civil law and various other forms of law and including enforcement actions. these existing holdings will form the foundation of the new reserve. unfortunately, in recent years, the us government has foolishly sold tens of thousands of additional bitcoin that were worth billions and billions of dollars had they not sold them. but they did sell them mostly

during the biden administration. and not a good, not a good thing to have done. from this day on, america will follow the rule that every bitcoin knows very well. never sell your bitcoin. that's a little phrase that they have. i don't know if that's right or not. who the hell knows right. who knows? who knows. but so far it's been right. and let's keep it that way. the treasury and commerce departments will also explore new pathways to accumulate additional bitcoin holdings for the reserve, provided it's done at no cost to the taxpayers. we don't want any cost to the taxpayers. in addition, my order directs federal agencies to conduct an inventory of all crypto assets currently held by the us government and determine how they can be transferred easily to the treasury. non-bitcoin digital assets will be held in a new u.s. digital

asset stockpile, where they will be managed properly. my administration also is working to end the federal bureaucracy's war on crypto, which was really going on pretty wildly during biden until the election came about aboutsee heard how many people were in favor of it and how many people love it and respect it, but i guess it didn't work out too well for him. people. people understood what was going on and paved the way for groundbreaking innovations and institutional finance. under the bitcoin administration, regulators, strong arm banks. i mean, they really did. they strong arm banks into closing the accounts of crypto businesses and entrepreneurs, effectively blocking some money transfers to and from exchanges. and they weaponized government against the entire industry. but i know that feeling also maybe better than you do. all of that will

soon be over, and we are ending operation choke .2.0. >> that's the president, of course, at the white house digital assets summit underway, where the president did call the united states the bitcoin capital of the world, the crypto capital of the planet. and we're going to continue to monitor that for you and bring you any other headlines. but probably saw the president flanked by some cabinet members. also, microstrategy's michael saylor and the coinbase ceo brian armstrong there as well. again, we'll keep our eyes peeled there and bring you anything you need to know. in the meantime, let's do the closing bell market zone now, cnbc's senior markets commentator mike santoli here to break down the crucial moments of the trading day. plus, two corners of the market hit hard this week. leslie picker on financials. seema mody on software names. michael, i'll begin with you. maybe it was a fed chair who just sort of calmed the water a bit. >> it coincided with him beginning to speak and him

essentially saying, you know, conveying some flexibility, obviously, to not just sort of take any price increases from tariffs to some kind of a reason to get more hawkish. i do think, though, the market has been attempting to get to that point of enough for now. not that we've resolved the big issues, but that 7 or 8% down in 12 trading days, which is what it's been for the s&p 500 really has just sort of swiped away a lot of a lot of the froth and reset expectations to a fair degree. i don't think that we got some kind of really fat pitch on a technical level that says this is a big and enduring low, but a better sign to lift off the lows into the weekend, even if it means it's not all over. i mean. >> you didn't want to go and close below the 200 day on the s&p? no. if you could avoid it, you'd rather not do that. >> and also we did a reverse back to the highs of july. i mean really going back a well a good distance in time to say that we've had this bit of a reset. >> yeah. if there's been a trade, leslie, that's been

pretty upset. it's been the financials. tell us more. >> oh yeah. >> it's been a really. >> ugly week. >> for the banking sector. fundamentally though, the banks. >> are intact. in fact, over. >> the last few weeks, we've gotten a slew of mid-quarter updates from bank executives of a variety. >> of conferences. >> and piper sandler. >> sums up the commentary. >> as. >> being modest. q1 guidance changes. >> no revisions to full year expectations. >> encouraging deposit. >> commentary, customer. >> stability and. >> hopefulness on. >> the. >> new regulatory regime. the piper analysts say, quote, taken together, despite all the renewed uncertainty. stories are on solid ground. at present and there remains the promise of many emerging tailwinds in the coming periods, in. >> our view. >> as for. >> this week's. >> action. they chalk it. >> up. >> to an unwind of the trump. >> trade. >> from which the sector had previously benefited. however. if some of the investor concerns about the economy really come to fruition. that would, of course have a very adverse impact. >> on the. >> banks stock. >> all right, leslie, thank you for that. that's leslie picker. let's talk software now with seema mody. tell us what you're seeing. >> we're watching applovin scott

because tonight we're expecting an update on which stocks will be added to the s&p 500. applovin has been rumored to be on the list. city's trading desk, adding that if the software name is not included, shares could continue to fall. it's higher today by 4%. still down 17% for the week, but today, the worst performing software name is samsara, delivering a more conservative fiscal outlook due in part to tariffs. ceo talking about how customers are prioritizing finding ways to bring costs down this year. it follows weak guidance from crowdstrike and mongodb, two of the biggest losers. this week and next week, the conversation turns to oracle earnings on monday. plus, that tech ceo meeting at the white house, which will also begin on monday. scott. >> all right. seema i appreciate that. thank you. that's seema mody. we've got about 90s. mike, notable names to discuss for a minute. tesla down 10% week to date. what's your thought here? >> a little. i mean, i think you have to be looking at this point for forced liquidation, capitulation type metrics just

because of the depth of the decline. you know, it's funny that stocks are still moving on. the idea that they're going to go into the s&p 500. tesla's barely above where it is four and a half years ago it went into the s&p 500 at that price above 200. so i don't think there's any magic there i think it's probably helpful big picture to have a lot of the meme ified mega caps start to roll. or had they have rolled and just sort of get that out of the market system. the momentum reversal has been profound. it probably hasn't fully gone back to flat from where we started, let's say, a few months ago, but it's all kind of helpful. it's building into this argument that you can make that, you know, we've we've sort of taken enough pain in the short term. the issue with perhaps the banks going down, though, is you want them to get a bid because you don't want it to say that there's something systemic happening that the cross asset volatility with yields and fx is starting to present the possibility of some kind of infection to the capital markets. i don't see it right

yet right now. but you want that not to start. >> you've been watching. >> credit closely. >> and you've had a little. >> bit its. >> wobble widening. >> its a little bit. yeah. >> the bell is going to take us into the. >> weekend at least. >> on a green note. >> that does it for us. >> everybody have a good one. i'll see you on the other side. >> of that. >> what was going. >> on inside? >> that bell. >> marks the end of. >> regulation for the weak women. >> in financial markets. ringing the closing bell at the new york stock exchange. dolphin doing the honors at the nasdaq. stocks turning higher. midday after some. >> soothing words from fed. >> chair powell. but still closing out. >> a bumpy week. >> for the bulls. soft data. >> and tariff uncertainty. >> weigh heavily on the. >> major averages. >> that's the scorecard. >> on wall street, but winners. >> stay late. >> welcome to closing bell overtime. i'm jon. >> fortt with. >> morgan brennan. >> well ahead this hour techs terrible week. we're going to talk about the big drawdown for names like tesla, nvidia and netflix. and if it's time to start buying these dips. >> plus the next wild card for investors. >> ray