>> they are paying a lot of money to acquire ustomers and let people know that espn bet exists . f exposure through espn and its talent and they are relying on that in terms of keeping the upward trajectory. >> very interesting . we have 15 seconds left, let's go make a bet. thank you for watching power lunch. >> closing bell starts right about, pause, now. >>> welcome to closing bell, i am in for scott. we begin with the s&p 500 on the verge of recapturing all of the tuesday sharp drop on the slightly hotter inflation rating with the index now slightly green for the weekend flirting with an all-time closing high set last friday at about 5026. small caps and financials outperforming today, resuming the leaving of mega caps

remember they had that licensing deal with espn bet?loss, the stock is now down nearly 12. stuart: thanks, lauren. "the wall street journal" says morgan stanley is cutting jobs. well, my question would be, which division? lauren: wealth management. stuart: ooh. surprise, actually. why? >> well, because that's where they put so many resources. wealth management is not about taking risk, it's about putting -- taking other people's money, putting fees on it and managing that money in a third party kind of way. it is not like putting up ipos or trading the, this is the business, and i'm surprised -- lauren: do you think it has anything to do with the acquisition of e-trade a few years ago? streamlining? >> it may. but i will also say that goldman sachs was a tough place to work, they cull the worst performing 5% of their work force every year. and maybe morgan stanley is starting to look like that. lauren: quickly on morgan, it would be hundreds of workers. 48,000 work in that a unit, and they have a new ceo now. he took over after james go

says penn may get the biggest boost from the taylor swift effect with women customers gambling on espn bet gained 3.5%. i interviewed all four ceos of the four biggest sports books right here in las vegas. fanduel, draftkings, bet mgm, and caesar's. they all told me they expect record wagers for sunday's game. >> and you got some interesting market thoughts from the players themselves, as well. so it's not as if they're not busy enough here ahead of this weekend. >> reporter: it was thought provoking truly. 49ers and chiefs head to head tackling the kinds of tough questions we save for other wall streeters. what's your expectation of a fed rate cut this year? >> what was that? >> i think they're doing a soft landing. >> timing wise? >> timingwise probably end of the month or early q2. >> i hope it happens honestly. i bought my home last year, so i'm kind of -- i missed the train on that. >> i think toward the later part of this year, maybe q4, we'll see a rate cut. obviously jerome powell has continually fought against that. but i think he's just trying to signal the market not to get too

ceo jay snowden said the results were burned by higher than estimated from motional costs for es espn betch is supposed to launch in new york ahead of football season. well, shack investors are shaking it up here, up 25% right now. $97.83. shake shack sizzling to its best day in two years after its fourth quarter results topped expectations on both the top and bottom line. the fast casual chain said demand remains strong for its burgers, fries and sakes in the face of higher prices with its restaurant the profit margins rising 20 year other year. all i can say is when i see one of these in an airport, i'm so happy. and then i see the line and i get annoyed. twilio shares getting fried for its largest percentage drop of 2022, down 15% after the communications software supplier reported a wider than expected loss in the fourth quarter and forecast slower revenue growth for the current quarter below estimates. tesla shares actually moving higher, but tesla's self-driving feature is the target of one of silicon valley's top software safety advocates. you may have seen the super bowl commercia

liz: the power of espn bet as a competitor with the promotional arm and the widespread opportunity tod how are you kind of working to shore up what you do against that? >> well, i think we have quite an extensive arsenal of promotional opportunities ourselves, the deal with x that we've just is announced, our super bowl ad. we also have a really cornerstone relationship secured just in the last few months with marriott international. we have a relationship with them where they will promote bet mgm to their 186 million marriott bonn voy members, so i think we're well positioned. liz: adam, you are well positioned for a very busy weekend, i would imagine. i know you're going, and i know you said you're rooting for the team that will be best for bet mgm, so that's the 49ers? >> always. whatever's best for bet mgm, that's where you'll find me. liz: adam greenblatt of bet mgm. we'll see you later, thank you. >> thank you. liz: our countdown closer says forget the ma magnificent seven, seriously. keith fitz-gerald loves nvidia, our closer says wait til you hear what he wants you to invest i

very digitally oriented, we'll have things like enhanced statistics, it will be integrated with espn beth espn fantasy sports, so for what will likely be a younger demographic who wants much more inter interactivity as part of their sporting engagement, it will sit side by side with the jv we announced yesterday. >> talking about espn bets. have you made a bet on sunday? >> no. i'm actually just rooting for a great game. >> okay. hugh johnston, we appreciate you waking up early and appreciate seeing you in this new role. thank you. >> thank you. great to be with you guys as always. >> look forward to seeing you again soon. thanks. >>> coming up, a read on consumer spending from bank of america. the firm's latest consumer checkpoint survey is out and we have the numbers. >>> then at 8:00 a.m. eastern time, exclusive interview with the alphabet ceo, company's working artificial intelligence, among the topics that he covers. "squawk box" will be right back. what do you know about rock stars? billy idol? an where's the skin-tight leather? my shoes are leather. where's the unnecessary zippers

espn bets relaunched from penn entertainment.. we were the first operator in the u.s. to be profitable first year. for the full year. listen, that's a huge inflection point for the company. demonstrating we can build a profitable model. in the end we know scale matters. we focus on profit share but it's a combination of both of those things and we're going to stay focused on what we know works. >> the two weeks, almost two weeks, since flutter has launched on the new york stock exchange, have you seen a difference in the kinds of questions people want to talk to you about? i mean, is two weeks enough to see, oh, it does make a difference, for fanduel? >> there's been unbelievable recessitivity from investors. flutter is the largest gaming company in the world and u.s. investors in particular have opportunity to get access to the largest andmost profitable u.s. company, but also getting access to global leading brands, right, growing, cash creative. a great opportunity for investors to buy in and for us, elevates or profile giving

would say the difference is the jv is about viewing the sports on the platforms, and the espn platform is about bettingntary, eventually being able to buy products that you're seeing fas a fan, so thik of an immersive digital experience, and i think the market has in their mindset that espn is a cable channel. espn launched their mobile app well over ten years ago. espn is a digital sports platform, serving sports fans, and we're really excited about the offering next year. >> carolyn, the time you have left, let's move on quickly to some of the other things you continue to focus on, both as a board member at coca-cola and under armour and just in general. generative a.i., we've been talking about it now for the last 18 months. what are you seeing in some of the companies on which you sit, not to mention your other areas of expertise, in terms of its use, what its impact will be? >> coca-cola has been undergoing a marketing transformation. james quincey in his aerngsz call this week, as well as i know he was interviewed on cnbc, talked about the importance of the marketing innovation to the company, an

stuart: i bet you are, good luck, see you later. thanks a lot. espn playoff. details please. ashley: grady will be behind me in the queue. espn has agreed to a 6-year deal worth one.3, through the 2031 season. college football player says there are issues including the format of revenue distribution but the playoff expands from four teams to 12 this season and the deal will pay the cfp $608 million for 7 games, two playoff semifinals, championship game and four other major ballgames. of the tv networks including fox and nbc and streaming platforms expressed interest. although a deal has been reached with espn network could sublicense some of the playoff games to other networks. anyway you look at it, that's big money. stuart: you got it. what do you know about this? taylor swift and kanye west have problems all the way back to 2009 but we are now learning something happened between them during the super bowl. you know what happened? ashley: there's a claim that swift had kanye kicked out of his seat after the rapper purchased that scene in front of a

lose subscribers but they are betting they will be able to make more money from that in the long run. a new sport streaming service and utilisation of its big assets, espnvery much. to china now where the price of goods is continuing to fall, raising alarm about the state of the world's number two economy. china's consumer price index forjanuary was 0.8% lower than a year ago — the biggest contraction since 2009. chinese consumers are struggling with high youth unemployment and the fallout from a real estate crash — hitting demand for goods and pushing down prices. i spoke to mark williams from capital economics — he explained what's behind the drag on prices. this chinese new year coming up — new year's day is on saturday, and the weeks ahead of chinese new year, we often see quite big changes in prices in china, particularly food prices. i think that probably tugged down the data forjanuary a bit. but the bigger picture is, as you say, that china has been in deflation for a while. i mean, it's nearly a year now since inflation was in significant positive territory. so that is pointing to widespread weakness in the economy. there's a lack of confidence

have the super app with content from different providers, you have the espn plus app for the hard-core fan who wants to get into bettingo the interactive features. i think at the end of the day you have the base bundle and it will be able to offer all of these different flavors with up selling possibilities. jonathan: did they give a price yesterday? geetha: they did not give a price. jonathan: still waiting for a price and a name. that is the question for the cfo later this morning. lisa: everyone is gaming out $40 to $50. the details come he will tell us all. jonathan: we didn't get $40 from nowhere. it seems $40 to $50. does that sound right? lisa: it seems like everyone is coalescing around that, so that gives them a free pass. there is how much revenue sharing there will be. jonathan: does this seem like a hail mary quickly thrown together? annmarie: it might be. lisa: they didn't tell any of the sports teams. i wonder what kind of animosity there is from some of them saying, hold on. what exactly are you doing and how could this potentially affect us? jonathan: sports rights, how expensive or not they will be in

betting, etc. we'll see. i mean, you have to be a superfan to get all of it, but e espn has covered every base. the other thing on espn, the last thing is that they said there's more to come in terms of strategic investors, so we expect, you know, whether it's nfl which has been speculated or nba which is possible, we will see. but they seem pretty consistent on that. liz: let's with go to the film business because they did not have a $1 billion movie last year for the first time out of nine if you take out the pandemic year. that disturbs a lot of people, certainly nelson peltz who is the activist investor out there. nelson peltz has a much bigger stake in stock than bob iger does. iger basically sold out of almost all his position. and the board whom at least one member, nelson peltz would like to replace, has very little more than. they barely have ownership here. so doesn't that bode or poorly for disney, and as he -- nelson peltz -- moves toward really making a stink here, do you think it's valid at all, what he's asking for? >> i mean, that is currently the weak link, and we know that. go

betting. that's the gdp of greece. leagues have cashed in, networks too. >> i've got to teach you how to gamble. >> reporter: for decades, odds and points spreads were forbidden topics. now espn i sit here. >> download the app. >> reporter: back at the bar, casual social bettors like billy, andrew, and john revel in their wins. >> what did you throw down? >> $8 for 347. >> you won 300 -- >> it's still early innings, and remarkably there is no federal funding for gambling research, so data is scarce. but survey after survey confirms that of the 50 million or so sports bettors in the u.s., men under the age of 35 are far and away the biggest demographic. for decades, leagues feared gambling would corrupt competition. so far that crisis hasn't happened. but the last five years have given rise to a surge in young gambling addicts. joe ruscillo. >> it had a bug impact. i worked my whole life. i got a check every week, but it would deposit right into whatever app i was using. >> were you interested in the game itself? >> i am a sports fan, but as the years grew on, you become less interested in the game itself and more inventory in the result. >> reporter: and who needs a bookie wh