>> i think people is haved had enough flexing. charles: enough flex. [laughter] >> bring productivity back to america. charles: one final blow to the davos crowd, this global warning thing. brianna, just 30 seconds, right now the north pole, temperatures are 20 the percentage points colder than normal. >> well, i'll tell you -- charles: -90. i mean, so i know there's a polar vortex, but maybe the global warming story goes away too. >> donald trump comes into office a, and florida gets snow -- [laughter] charles: they said hell would freeze over. i don't know if they meant florida though. a ladies, thank you both very much. all right, folks, the market's side wyomings -- sideways, but anything can happen in the last hour of trading, right, taylor riggs? taylor: you got it. you know, charles, you and i are in the office five days a week. charles: five days a week, that's right. and love it. taylor: have a good weekend, sir. thank you, charles. take a look at wall street, trading a little bit muted today. we're just slightly lower as

we're wrapping up the first week of trading in president donald trump's second term. but all the the major averages all closing higher for the second week in a row. i'm taylor riggs, in for liz claman. we have some other news at this hour. president donald trump wrapping up his first full week in office today by making his first official trip visiting north carolina, an area ravaged by hurricane helene in september last year. it was the deadliest storm to hit the nation since hurricane katrina. trump also then got a briefing on the recovery efforts and met with families impacted by the storm. the president suggesting a reorganization for fema or even doing away with the agency altogether. he is now headed to california to tour the pacific palisades area of los angeles that has been devastated by the the deadly wildfires. so, yes, it has been a hectic week since monday's inauguration. the president sign signing more than 100 executive orders and

executive actions, many dealing with economic issues affecting our nation. yesterday in this hour we got the news that the president signed an executive order to establish a crypto working group all headed up by the crypto and a.i. czar, david sacks. that's where we're going with ed lard lawrence. he got the first interview with that new crypto czar, and he joins us live from the white house on the president's plan to make america a crypto superpower. hey, edward. >> reporter: hey, taylor. just think about this, the president has only been president for 99 hours. you've listed all those things that have already happened. now, in this executive order the president wants to give the crypto industry a path forward. through executive order, he created a work group that will give a clear path of the rules to the road for that a industry. now, that work group will look at what as sets could be regulated by which agencies, making it clear for them to grow their industry, the work group will consider the benefits of creating a national stockpile of digital currency.

no decision's been made related to that, but it will still be studied. and the a.i. and crypto czar, david sacks, will run the work group. >> we're evaluating this national stockpile for digital assets. we haven't created it yet, but we're going to study that issue. so digital assets can be a number of different things, and that's why you need a clear regulatory framework that a says, you know, or which areas are which, what are the definitions. and that's what founders need. >> reporter: so the idea from the trump administration, make sure the u.s. will be on the forefront of the crypto industry. sacks says an important part of that in the executive order, it bars government agencies like the federal reserve from creating a central bank digital currency. here's why. >> what you're talking about there is moving to a central bank digital currency. that'd be run out of washington by the fed and would basically gradually replace cash and catalog everybody's transactions, and it could lead to new laws and dictates about how people spend their money. so i think people are very

concerned that that could be an orwellian path to go down, no one wants to go down that path. and i think we can create stable coins, basically digital dollars, without doing that. >> reporter: and the president in that executive order stopped all governmenting actions against the crypto industry to allow it to grow until the rules of the road can be established. back to you. taylor: we're just happy that you got him out of his silicon valley hoodie. he's in a suit and tie, edward lauren. thank you so much. >> reporter: exactly, thanks. taylor: fox market alert, after a few economic data points this morning that were a little bit lower than we thought. first off was university of michigan. that survey showed that consumer confidence declined in january for the first time in six months. then existing home sales also showed that last year the fewest amount of homes were sold since 1995. still, as you can see markets are closing out the first week under president trump in the green. you see most of the major averages are up 1.5 to over 2%.

let's talk about an individual stock. american express, right? when we think about business, we think about consumers, those earnings were out this morning. revenue up 9 in the quarter. am-ex highlighting the strength of swisses under this new administration if -- of businesses. i spoke to the ceo of american express late last night. he said pretty much early signs are that a this new administration is more pro-business and more rational a regulation. all of that should spur growth. that's what i want to get. let's do it with our floor show, hudson valley investment adviser ceo and cio gus -- and chief investment officer al mcknight. both of you, great to have you. alan, the data points this morning were a little bit weak with some of the consumer confidence. does that worry you at all? >> i think it's a little worrisome just that the consumer may be slowing down a little bit in spending, and in this transition period of trying to

understand what the economic layout looks like. but we still think there's a lot of tailwinds. and to the comments of the ceo of american express, we think it's pro-business and pro-growth which should help the consumer over the rest of the year. taylor: gus, you were talking about a k-shaped consumer and also businesses don't feel a little bit of the pressure that the consumers feel. >> with we ended up having a high-end consumer which american express is pointed toward, and they're doing well. i mean, they're sitting on 5% interest, they're gaining x amount of dollars, they're sitting on a house that's appreciated where if you're just starting out, you're paying more for food. and we think that in spite of all of that, the economy's pretty strong. it's just that it's going to take time for more homes to get put on the market and aleve g8 -- alleviate some of those imbalances. taylor: alan, what is the biggest tailwind in the these equity markets right now? >> we it's earnings, and we're going to hear quite a bit next week with five of the

magnificent seven coming out with earning. as long as earnings stay strong and we see that in patrol through through the course of -- follow through through the course of the year, we think the markets can do well. >> we're at record margins, revenues are better than expected and when we look at small business confidence, it's exploded to the upside. locally, we're at -- we were actually helped to host a local, and this is a small population, of business owners in westchester. and i would say the exuberance is, you knowings off the charts at this point. taylor: you sound like stan druckenmiller who said ceos are borderline bidty at this moment just based on the administration that feels more pro-business than recent years. alan, come to me, though, on maybe some of the headwind. if there's a thing that could derail the market, is it interest rates? is it a fed not cutting the way we thought that they might be cutting? could it be tariffs and the way the market or consumers are able to absorb any price increases if there are even any?

>> we think it's going to be the market trifecta next week which is we have earnings, the fomc and the pce number. if for any reason earnings are weaker than expected, the fomc was to come out and have a more negative view, and finally, if pce was higher than anticipated, we think that'll create volatility and challenges longer term. taylor: gus, it sounds like he's telling me to buckle up. [laughter] >> i think there's going to be a lot of volatility. just think of the weather over this past week. if you were in florida and breaking ground on a home, that stopped. and 25% of our economy is construction, so just think of that that. you're going to get some numbers that are going to be volatile. there's going to be back and forth for a period of time, and you have a new administration and if people or policy. when those people come in, you're going to hear more about health care, what are we going to do, you know, for a whole host of industries, so that's going to cause volatility. taylor: one of those industries we heard from yesterday, gus, is a.i. we could sit on this program, and we've talked all day long about nvidia, meta today saying

we're spending more cap-x than we thought we were because of a.i., but there's got to be a derivative or second derivative play on a.i. what are those? >> one example is sienna. optical equipment. your needs are basically, if you're looking at the pipes that the data goes through, that that has to increase, you need more bandwidth, so companies like that. or cisco, companies that were kind of slowed because you didn't have the telecom company that were buying their equipment. we're seeing an acceleration in that. and then other areas that you don't normally think about, so we end up having power. we keep hearing you're needing more power, so won't a company called chart industries, and we like chart industries. they basically are the ones that make the cryogenic tubes or, basically, the infrastructure for lng. taylor: yeah. >> so if you're using natural gas, that's the company that you want to look at. taylor: alan, are you into big tech or maybe some of these derivative plays that are

underneath the radar? >> we are. we're still in big tech. we still think the earnings capability really high. and, two, on the delivetive effect, you see the utilities as gus mentioned and primarily in the larger utilities where the sheer need for power is only going to grow, the need for day a centers, the power to actually generate those data centers. and so bottom line, we think it's a place that normally you don't consider for growth, utilities, but in this world we think it is. taylor: alan, you also a liked financials, and there was a story this morning that jpmorgan raised jamie dimon's pay to, i don't know, $37 million or something. and what i say is good on him. he is churning out record revenue and record profits for, you know, the fortress balance sheet that is jpmorgan. are those sort of report profits that you just -- record profits that you just saw from the financials into a reason of why you like them? >> they are. and we think the yield curve is going to remain relatively steep, and so we think there's

an opportunity there for not just the large money-centered bank, but the smaller regional banks as well as to your comments earlier about american express. as long as the consumer remains relatively healthy -- and to gus' point, we move away from some of this bifurcation between low income and high income consumer -- the financials can do quite well. taylor: really appreciate having both of you, gus, alan a, thank you both. appreciate it. that was fun. all right, it's championship weekend in the nfl, and if you live in one of those states where sports betting is still illegal, the prediction market that gained fame by letting you bet on the 2024 presidential election, they might have an option for you. cofounder tarek man sour is here in a fox business exclusive to explain how you can bet on this weekend's games. my only remorse is my niners are out. but "the claman countdown," she's coming right back. ♪

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taylor: all right, a new era of sports betting is here. so predicting market start-up kalshi has officially launched sports event platform in all 50 states. you can trade the outcome of this week's nfl conference championships. kalshi is already betting on the philadelphia eagles to beat the washington commanders. meanwhile, kalshi users are pricking, of course, the reigning -- predicting, of course, the the reigning super bowl champ kansas city chiefs will once again get the afc time over the buffalo bills. joining me now is the cofounder, a tarek mansour. we were talking you got your start really in the financial

markets. what drove you to sports? >> yeah. well, i think a little bit of sort of 6-month history, last year we legalized election markets for the first time in a hundred years, and that a skyrocketed the company to explosive growth. we scaled our customer base to millions of customers and, you know, now our markets, the number of markets listed on kalshi has absolutely exploded 10x. we have more than a thousand markets across politics, entertainment, culture, the oscars, weather and as of yesterday, sports. so really on the heels of explosive growth, we're aggressively expanding now. the approach we have as a company is we want to give what the people want. a. taylor: yeah. and the people have spoken, they wanted the election and they want sport ands. before we -- sports. before we talk about that, you mentioned sort of the overall climate. i believe you're regulated by the cftc.

how have conversations with them going and with the new administration in charge, do you think that regulation under that changes? >> i think our approach and i've always been consistent, we spent three years up front getting ready. we didn't launch a single thing doing nothing other than compliance regulation. our approach is regulation and trust up front. and that's only in regulated a market, prediction market, in the u.s. that's our approach, that's always been our approach, and that's consistented today, you know? everything we -- consistent today. and the sports market that we with listed on our cftc-regulated exchange which makes it legal at the federal level. that's why we're legal in all 50 states including california, texas, georgia and others. taylor: i am an old school, old-fashioned girl where sometimes i get a little nervous about the betting. i believe that you should only bet what you're willing to lose. >> yeah. taylor: do you get a little bit nervous though and just sort of about the commoditization of betting? if sort of normalizing it even

though there are probably youngsters out there who may or may not be losing a lot of money? >> look, i think what's exciting about, you know, interesting, really interesting is a better word about financial services is they bring a set of opportunities and risks. a. taylor: fair, yep. >> and it's actually built america. we take risks and those work with out to opportunities. and i think that applies to our election market, our weather markets, our political and sports markets. now, here's the difference, it's very important. on kalshi you're not trading or betting against the house. you're buying a financial instrument existence other participants, so you have a few things that are different and die a namic. one, you can win as much as you can, you don't get capped on wins like traditional sportsbooks. two, you get fair and transparent if odds because the odds are market-driven. like the new york stock exchange. taylor: so we feel like the odds aren't as stacked against me. >> no, it's fair. look, it's whatever the market wants to trade because we don't make our money if losers lose,

we headache money out of small fees we charge on top, and that's the beauty of the model. and the last point i wanted to make is you can also, the point i say is this structure, you know, creates better incentive or less conflicts of interest so that people trade more safely. the cftc has a very strong customer if protection regime, and we strongly believe in that, you know? we need to manage risk appropriately. taylor: you talked about massive growth. where are you going next? >> you know, so right now we're basically, obviously, focusing on this launch. sunday is going to be very -- we've traded millions of dollars, and we expect huge, huge increase sunday. we expect that to 10 to 15x within a few days. you know, look, it's been incredible because our customer base is so large, people are educated now. people have been trading on executive orders signed by trum- taylor: yeah. can we talk about the some of this? i could bet on who gets confirmed or not and what senator votes yes or no? >> yeah.

taylor: you said i could bet on whether there's a bitcoin strategic reserve -- >> correct. taylor: i can bet on the number of executive orders? >> per day. taylor: and i get on the number of people getting deported. >> that that a too. taylor: that is wild. so pretty much if i can bet on anything. >> we don't do war, terrorism, assassination, violence, and we don't do things like a matter os on things that have economic value, things that are important to people. and this is the beauty of the model. people have been kind of pushed to trade things like stocks or options. they don't understand and relate to them, but people care about deportations, it matters. a taye it matter as to the economy. >> it matters to the economy, to people, to their job. the number of executive orders, that's fundamentally an economic thing. if you put the politics aside, the executive orders open up economic opportunity, ask -- and that's the bowl point. taylor: we just have a few minutes left. funding rounds, any plans to go

public? >> it's interesting, i get asked this question a lot, but the reason we started the company, we're obsessed about these markets and, you know, what happened on election night is, you know, people saw the mission that we see which is these markets enable over time to let people put their money where their mouth is. we get smarter about the future which enables us all to bet -- to get, basically, about decision managing. policy gets influenced -- that. taylor: and you're talking about where you named don j. a strategic adviser on your board. >> we have to go, but we have to do something fun to end it. i have eagles at 33%, washington commanders, 10. kansas city at 31 is, buffalo at 29. who are you betting on this weekend? >> i can't trade. you know, i run the exchange -- taylor: i mow, but who in your mind? >> i always like the underdogs. our company is an underdog -- taylor: okay. [laughter] i'm taking that as we're not going for kansas city.

there's really not the underdog. i'm a iron ins' fan, i just -- niners' fan, i just want anybody but kansas city the win. congrats on the success, and we'll be watching this weekend, on sunday. >> great. thanks so much for having me. taylor: make sure you watch the nfc championship game sunday, the commander s versus the eagles, 3 p.m. eastern, noon pacific, and the pregame show begins at 1 p.m., and you know it, it's only here on fox. weight loss drug maker novo nordisk gaining on the stock market scales. we're telling you what the drug can development company is adding to its session today to. and don't miss "the big money show" on monday. we're expanding to two hours. it's very exciting. the the big is getting bigger. brian brenberg, jack key deangelis dagen mcdowell and i have going to have all the breaking market and economic news, but we're now starting at noon eastern only or here on fox business. we're coming right back. ♪ erywhere you turn. do you charge forward?

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the senior debt at about 90-90 cents on the dollar, but they have to convince investors that the company's financials have stableized. it's a story, we're following it, and we'll bring you more headlineses as we get them. all right, take a look at shares of texas instruments. they are sliding after forecasting first quarter profits that were lower than analyst expectations. the chip maker attributing the miss to sluggish demand and higher costs. truist cutting the price target to $195 from 199. my sue hoe cutting if from 200 to 190. novo nordisk, look at this stock, you guys. they're reporting positive results from the new obesity drug. early stage trials showing weight loss of up to to 22 president matches the number of zepbound which is made by rival eli lilly. intuitive surgical slipping in spite of its upbeat fourth quarter report, issuing

lackluster gross margin guidance for 2025. still, citigroup raising its price target from 640 up to 711. deutsche bank upping theirs from about 505 to 585. and one of the big stories of the day, meta's ceo, mark zuckerberg, saying his platform wills invest as much as $65 billion this yearal to expand the a.i. infrastructure. the investment will include building a 2-gigawatt data center and ramping up hiring for a.i. positions. the social networking company also announcing that it will begin limited early testing on its threads app with a handful of brands in the u.s. and japan. and we also just want to say that $65 billion blew away analyst expectations for, like, $50 billion in cap-x, so the spending continues. all right. president trump may have ended those ev mandates work but one -- but one company is letting that rain on their

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anything that floats your boat. including the formula 457 ccs, hope i'm saying that right. it has a price tag of $2 the million. joining us now with a look at what's coming to the high seas or a body of water near you is madison alworth. hey, madison. >> reporter: hey, taylor. yeah, like you said, if you have a budget, you can buy a boat here, you're going to need a big one if you want the queen of the show. you got it perfectly, this bad boy, fully loaded, sells for actually closer to $2.5 million. if you want to take home the floor model, that you can get for the bargain of around $2 the million. obviously, formula hoping to sell this bad boy here at the show. it would help 2025 the sales. i want to give you thest sales looking back to pre-pandemic up the last year. sales have improved. we hit a high during the pandemic, but we're in better shape now. about a 28% increase since 20919. but part of that increase is

because of inflation. volume is still down, especially when you, look at power boats. so taking a look there, last year we sold around 240,000 power boats, but that's still 40,000 less than 2019. but looking ahead to this year, the economic conditions and the policies of the new administration, they could help put sales on a better course. pleasure. >> i feel good about the economy, you know? i think the new administration, stocks are going to go up, money's going to be nowing, and ooh we'll be good to go, good to the purchase high items like these boats. >> reporter: so it's not just boat buyers that feel this way. boat builders are also excitedded by the most recent trump policies and promises except for one policy. the last trump term saw tariffs placed on steel which resulted in a hit to the u.s. boat builders. industry leaders say they are in contact with the administration to avoid that problem this time around. >> a great example was that the

retalia -- retaliatory tariffs that happened in canada, in the e.u., the u.k., we lost a lot of market share for the american boat builder at that time. we need a customized, carved-out approach to really position the american boat builder globally k. and we are looking forward to working with the administration to do just that. >> reporter: so another thing that boat builders have going for them that they really fit into the made in america mode elf -- model. 95 percent of the boats on the water in the u.s. are made in the u.s. and, taylor, i can tell you that 100% of the boats that this american girl gets on, she enjoys. so i will leave are it right here from the front of my future yacht. taylor: you always get the good assignments, madison. my dad owned a boat, and my wonderful producer reminded me of a saying that my dad always said, the best day is the day

you buy it and the day you sell it. otherwise, your money dis appears. madison alworth, we'll leave it there. thank you so much. meanwhile, from boats to cars, tesla right now a little bit lower. you're down about 125. this is -- 1.25% after after the ev maker will begin delivering a revamped version of the model y in march. the model y juniper is about a 25% more than the previous version is. and listen to this, later on this year a $40,000 solar-powered ev is slated to roll off the line. the three-wheel aptera is a 400-mile ev that can capture up to 40 miles worth of free solar energy daily. but not a single one is on the road yet, so how does this car go from pipe dream to pipeline? joining us now, aptera motors' cofounder and so co-ceo. steve, great to have you. you've got to tell me how this thing works. >> hey, thank you for having us.

our secret is really efficienciment -- efficiency. by making a super efficient vehicle, we can use a smaller battery making it more affordable, we can go larger range, and solar technology charges itself up to 40 miles per day. taylor: what about on a cloudy day? >> you might have to charge it less or plug it in every couple of weeks. but for the most part, most americans won't have to plug it in. taylor: do you have backup storage? the whole issue with some of the solar or wind power is on a cloudy or rainy day, there isn't a way to store that. can you store that energy in the battery? >> yeah. it has -- it's like a normal ev except it also has a solar charger on it. think about it that way. most people mug their ev in -- plug their ev in a garage over night if. it just charges itself. charles: -- taylor: that a's pretty incredible. i want to talk about funding. tesla, we talk about just the

alternative market away from gas, combustion engines, has been a success. show you have -- somehow you have elon musk who's been able to raise money and bring it to market. how has the fund raising realm been for you to, again, get this thing on the road? >> well, we've had the largest crowd funding in history, i believe, with this company, over $140 million from everyday people who want to see this vehicle in production. we have that going on right now. we're also going out for an institutional round of funding to get us into production. taylor: yeah. can you talk to me about that institutional round? is it vc? who's interested in this thing? >> chris and i from the beginning said how do we avoid vc, you know, from our experience of the past and how do we use this new tool of crowd funding to really get everyday people as owners into the company instead of, you know, the vcs and their capsules many in palo alto. and the institutional round we're doing right now is a $60 million round x that gets us into the start of production.

taylor: tell me more about that. what is the production timeline and then, you know, we hope eventually a sales and delivery timeline. >> we have about 50,000 orders, almost three years of production backlog, so we've got to start delivering them. we hope to have the first customer deliveries at the end of this year. right now we've finished building our concepts, our engineering prototypes and now we're building the validation vehicles like the one you see behind me. these are the vehicles that will do abs testing, airbag, efficiency testing, all the same testing you expect from a normal passenger vehicle. a. taylor: when do you think we'll see them on the road? >> well,, you're already seeing these on the road right now, just not in customers' hands, but in our hands. but a customer might get the first key fob at the end of this year. taylor: i have a question for you on trump. you know, he's talked a lot about sort of reversing a lot of what biden wanted to do. going back to traditional gas cars. basically giving people choice. he's not mandating that everyone is forted to -- forced to sell

an ev and is every customer isn't forced to buy an ev. he's talked about getting rid of the federal tax credit of about $7500. how are you thinking about navigating this space with trump even in the midst of some of the changes that a may impact your industry? >> you know, we have a simple vision at at this company that every journey should be powered by the sun. and that's what drives us and our customers. so even though we didn't qualify for the other ev tax credits because we're a newer company and a different type of vehicle, we still have almost 50,000 orders. so the people that love this vehicle, that want to buy this vehicle, they're going to buy it despite whatever tax program is or is not in place. we're going to be successful, we're going to put these vehicles if customers' hands, and if there's a tax credit, great, but we don't need it, and we've got the order book to prove that. taylor: and nothing has changed in conversations with investors since the election?

can you hear me? if. >> oh, yeah, sorry. nothing has changed in conversations with investors about that. i mean, everyone's looking at things like the tariffs or tax credits. all those are factors and we'll deal with those factors, but fundamentally we believe the journey should be powered by the sun and so do our customers. if the tax credit is there, that's great, but it's not driving our business. taylor: we so appreciate your time. and i have to say, those things look pretty cool. >> thank you very much. appreciate the opportunity. thank you. take care. that. taylor: all right. meantime, president trump on his way to california as the cost of the los angeles wildfires take another leap higher. we're having details on the fire fight as the weather in so may begin -- socal may begin to cooperate. "the claman countdown," we're coming right back. ♪

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working to contain multiple fires around southern california and thousands orders to evacuate but may be some relief in sight. the forecast calling for rain this weekend, which will help fire fighting efforts. at least 28 people have died since the wild fires broke out earlier this month. meanwhile total economic loss could be staggering. we have estimates in the tens of

billions. fox business' max gordon has been following every angle of this devastation and joining us live now from pacific palisades. hey, max. ism hey, taylor. there's so many devastation and destruction and it'll be really costly to rebuild. these are the scenes president trump will see when on the ground here in pacific palisades in the next couple of hours. president trump has said that he might withhold federal disaster aid from los angeles if california doesn't change its water policies. take a listen. >> i will be the greatest president that crash has ever seen. i want the water to come down to los angeles and go out to all the farmland that's bare ron and dry. reporter: there was spiking demand from fire engines pumping water and rupturing water lines

and burned down homes. california governor gavin newsom critical of trump's response saying he's spreading misinformation and newsom is planning on greeting the president on the tarmac when he lands in los angeles this afternoon. california governor announced $2.5 billion in relief for wild fire assistance and the price tag of the fire is coming into view. according to the los angeles economic development corporation, it's $53.8 billion in property damage based on market value. there's been 2.9 billion in economic loss. now, taylor, you mentioned at the top, we are expecting some rain this weekend and wild that is going to help with the fire fighting effort, a new problem is going to be emerging. landslides and debris flows because of all the fire debris. taylor. taylor: max, we spoke to maurico yesterday, one of the big developer and real estate guys out there and looking at 5-7

years and it'll be a long road ahead. max gordon, we appreciate your work on this. stay safe. take a look at where we are for the week. all the major averages are higher to the tune of 1.5 to gofer 2% and up for the second week in a row. besides the first fomc meeting of the year, there's a slew of economic data. all of that coming up in the next week including first read on gdp and pce for december. joining us to wrap up the markets for the week, horizon investment cio scott ladler. i was told to buckle up with the earning ands fed and pce hawaii are you most looking out for?

>> yeah, that guess is probably about right and it's been like a long short week this week. it's been a lot of information dumped on the market from the inauguration through today. doesn't really get any lighter and next week we get the big mega cap earning ands out of the big tech companies and what people are looking for on that is how much money are they going to be spending in cap x for the ai build up? that's really the number the people will be focusing on. as you said earlier -- taylor: can i talk about that? meta was one of those today. analysts thought they'd spend $50 billion on ai and they said no, no, no, it's $65 billion. the stock didn't react to the downside because is that a "good" investment? >> well, that's what they're going to grapple with, taylor. generally the market doesn't like big cap x spends because it doesn't know how long it takes to earn money out of it. in the case of ai, this is a necessary cap x spend. if you don't, r spend it, you'll be left in the dust and the

market viewing with a different eye than typically viewing cap x with and figuring out how to look at that and how management talks about what the return will be like. how long will it take after you start making money and real money on these investments. that's the crux. taylor: that's my question, ai spend is great and we have chatgpt and real use case for that and seen some ai integrated in healthcare, sure. that's a real use case. if you're telling me it's a 50, 60 billion number, what is that time line where you want to see roi? >> by the time we get to sort of the middle of '27, 26, 27, we'll see how this money translates into the bottom line and the way that's really going to be measured, taylor, is margins. we want to see margin expansion and cap x spending and that's

group productivity and that's the line on which it'll carry. taylor: that's a similar story along with the technology theme. aerospace and defenses in there. with defense, there's a new administration that's coming in and saying, we're looking at cuts, and maybe everything is on the table according to doge why do you like defense? >> for one, we don't think that cuts be on the table for the administration in the u.s.. this isn't really a u.s. defense spending story in outrebounded view. the aerospace defense call is about, listen, we have tram new mexico there now and what if he bullies europe or bullies these other countries into really materially increasing their defense budget. if that's going to be the case, where do these -- what kind of companies and where do they buy this from? the lockheed and raytheon and u.s. based defense contractorsos

and it's more of a called of other countries around the world and material increasing defense spend and result of the pressure and going to may put them on them. taylor: we're going to be planting stars and stripes on mars and elon musk behind him occupy mars and sort of smiling. are any of these space plays as well because we might be going to the moon and to mars. >> yeah, that can be part of the story and there's not a whole lot of places to play in public markets in there but to the extent that you can and going to be expansion natural rights approach type of government and they're going to think big and act big. we've seen that with some of the ai infrastructure boom they've announced with partnership with the public private partnerships

going out. anywhere to get on board, this is probably a good idea. taylor: a sector to avoid is energy and that's f fascinatingo power ai, we need energy, we need nat gas, nuclear, drill baby drill. why would i avoid energy? >> that's a good question and the energy call is going to be more of an oil call than all inclusive energy call and drill, baby, drill is the mantra here. it's great for inflation and great for the consumer, not great for the price of mom motty or equity value of some of the big oil companies. taylor: lowering price, lowering stock prices for energy stocks. >> you got it, you're right we need a lot more electricity generation and going to be the nuclear, coal, or anything else. taylor: avoiding consumer

staples and university michigan surveys showing one of the first declines in consumer sentiment that we've seen in about six months. gobble time it works on a relative basis, relative oturu rest of the market is one-over two things. you need a recession or big time inflation and we've got neither. not doing those frankly and it's not a call to lose money and we don't think it's going to keep up with the rest of what will be a pretty good market in 2025. taylor: i want to end with something a little wonky, bare with me, it reminds me of trump 1.0 and the problem with the massive strength in the dollar and you're a multinational company and translate those earnings overseas and less money on the balance sheet. are you worried about less earnings with the strong dollar? >> it's new answered and it's a concern.

nuanced and it's a concern and we don't want king dollar and sounds good and we want a strong dollar and policies and interest of the united states, but for companies that sell overseas and you're right, it's not the best thing. we want a steady dollar and stable dollar. taylor: yeah, scott ladner, love doing this with you. it was fun and great way to end the week and glad we can do a little wanky sometimes. it's ending the day and section and week or the day at least a bit lore. for the week. larrey: hello, folks, welcome to kudlow. i'm larry kudlow. president trump is on his way to california. perhaps ready to fix gavin newsom's wild fire disaster caused by newsom's climate

socialism. we'll see about all that. plus, mr. trump puts america