steve kovach looking to docusign's earnings. 75% say the bulls are in charge as we try to push past 4,300 belief has started to encroach on skepticism. until two months ago we were weighted down about this market. people bought a lot of short-dated recession options. a lot of those expired, worthless for the time being the market just wouldn't quit. therefore, the resilience of the market itself i think has dragged people's attitudes into, hey, maybe this is the real thing, maybe the landing can be soft and the fed is our friend and not our enemy. all that makes sense i think we've lost a little bit of the tail winds of having that skepticism, that reservoir of doubt that sometimes can make prices go higher which means something else would have to take over. i think a further embrace of risk in the credit markets, in small caps, in cyclicals, it can reenforce where we are in the market i am encouraged by the manner in which we've gotten to 4,300 relative to august in august it took three weeks to get from 4,000 to 4,300. it was a squeeze zi, emotional, hey, we got this type move the marke

steve kovach is here with what to expect. >> obviously the headline is going to be expecting this new head set from apple. it's going to be entering a space with google glass, magic leap and facebook's name change to meta. now it's apple's turn to take it on similar to meta's last head set cameras provide a look into the real world and digital images are placed on top of the real world. more important is how apple makes its pitch. no one figured out what this category is for yet. we have bite dances, sony play station for games and two models from meta the quest 2 and quest pro. none of these are blockbuster products samsung is running new software from google and meta's quest also muted expectations for apple sales. analyst estimating apple is only prepared to ship about 200 to 300,000 head sets at $4,000 a pop. if that's true, the head set will not be a significant sales driver for apple any time soon. >> what do you think about that price? what was your first reaction >> look at what meta is doing. they're talking less about the features and more about the price. the thing comes do

steve, thank you steve kovach with the latest for more on what this means for microsoft, let's bringl malcolm ethridge what's your reaction you surprised? >> i'm surprised i thought this acquisition was dead in the water. i'm surprised to see that microsoft has managed to breathe more life into it. i don't know that it's going to be all that additive as a shareholder of microsoft everything gpt related, everything generative ai related and open ai related is going to drive the story for microsoft through the end of this year into next year i think losing out on the activision acquisition could have been one of those things that microsoft looked at a decade later and said there was our opportunity. i don't think near-term shareholders will feel much of a difference. >> this still might be dead in the water. in fact, i think expectations were somewhat low that this would get through the biden administration's ftc >> well the biden administration's ftc is trying to make sure they prove they have teeth there were probably a few of these deals that shouldn't have gone through early that d

steve kovach. >>> sticking with tech, the market breadth appears to be widening, but a handful of stocks s&p gains this year. with the regulatory push, when does the risk become too great for investors? joining me now is stefan slowinski from bnp paribas >> good morning. >> the tech is rallied by the stocks solid earnings the a.i. play in the pre-market amd moving higher in the pre-market i have to ask you with all of the risk, is it priced in? >> i think there are some stocks where certainly they benefit more from the a.i. move the last couple months. we still see value in areas. alphabet is one you talked about and trading on 18 times earnings for 2024 the google cloud business with the a.i. services is break even. you are getting that for free within the google valuation. you have regulatory headwinds, but that has happened for some time the discount allowed for that and that is reflected in the valuation. another area is the enterprise application of space oracle is continuing in high demand now we are seeing a.i. come through. i attended the salesforce a.i. event. they will have pro

that's the way i would put it. >> steve kovach, we're about a dollar or so away interest $3 trillionit another all time hie. >> 1$190.73. the story is the same one we were talking about since we were coupe incupertino. we haven't seen apple close at that $3 trillion market cap. look, it's kind of interesting we're having this conversation because this is actually likely going to be a down year for apple. the last two quarters we've reported, we've seen revenue down 3% to 5%. apple implied for the current quarter that's wrapping up tomorrow, revenue is down. it's hard to see the all-time highs keep ticking up despite a down year for apple. one reason behind that is over $2 billion, according to apple active installed devices out there, and that's 2 billion opportunities for apple to sell you more digital stuff so that is the real key behind the valuation, scott. >> as we ramp up to the fall quarter with the release of the new iphone >> the new iphone cycle will come mid-september we know demand for smartphones and other consumer electronics especially the mack bones have been falling

will not be enough to drive growth above mid single digits joining us this morning is our own steve kovachigh and a market cap of $3 trillion, at least in sight, steve. >> that's right. they keep inching closer and closer to 3 trillion despite this downgrade from buy to neutral from ubs, i'll use their word, they nudged their price target a little higher to $190 this sh is an issue we've talked about from apple, we hear from tim cook, demand is softening. they make a good point in the thesis they lay out saying, look, the most important markets for the iphone is still china, still the u.s. and still europe. while we heard tim cook last earnings call talk so much about the emerging markets, talk about india, that store opening in india we covered a couple months ago, it's just not enough growth there. the growth is on such a small base that it's going to make up for the softness in demand in those bigger markets this also trickles down to services, carl, because without a bigger install base, there's not more people buying apps and and services, apple care i will note, there is some bright

steve kovach is there, and when a headline like this crosses, steve, we need to get context on it >>l file an injunction attempting to block the acquisition of activision. that first hearing was not expected until later this summer this is going to accelerate the case i am told microsoft is welcoming this decision because it's going to get it in front of a judge faster we're understanding right now that it's going to be filed in court in northern california and we are waiting for the exact injunction to come in and see the rational behind it this is still in litigation here in the u.s the uk blocked the deal, and the markets over there, and the other major regulatory agency, the european commission already approved the deal and it's the other two out there scott that need to be worked through before the deal can go through. >> steve, which is why i suggested it can't be viewed as a major surprise, obviously, given this administration's tenure and tone towards deal making steve, when you think about this, so they are appealing in the uk, and they obviously, as steve said, they welcome

let's bring in our own steve kovach who has to somehow make some of these projections, steve, make sensee put that $20 billion in context. most companies would love to have $20 billion in sales for a single product, but to put that in context, apple just last year in 2022, carl, guess how much they sold in iphones alone, over $200 billion so, this is still predicted, according to these analysts and morgan stanley, a tiny fraction. a tenth of the iphone sales. we've seen this so often with products that have come out from apple post-iphone, sure, they sell in tens of billions, hundreds of billions every year but not at the level of the iphone this is still the iphone company, carl, despite the optimism about the ar headset. >> this sing is not going to be cheap. some analysts say it will be $2,500, $3,000. >> i've seen $4,000. >> whatever it is, it's very expensive in a time when consumer spending is strapped. is that coming at a time when everyone is talking about ai, do you think they get to -- they have the ability to change the conversation back to the excitement that once was around

. >> steve kovach, i know you're sitting there with deirdre, and deirdre and dan ives talked about this as fundamentally directed as developers the proof will be what developers will be able to develop for it and whether those products are enticing enough to individual consumers to pay the money. is this really a product aimed at developers, not the general public >> i think the vision is for it to eventually be for the general public right now what we're seeing in these demos is basically ipad apps kind of surrounding you in this virtual space in front of you. so they're showing common apps like photos and movies and having this immersive experience one of the shots they showed someone sitting on a couch and kicking back and watching, scrolling through their photo library, even web brousing kind of in a window floating in front of you these are not new ideas, tyler we have seen this from meta, from some of these other augmented reality headsets, but it's going to take the developers and people here to try this and see if it can level up from what we have seen before i am seeing also, i

cnbc's steve kovach is out in cupertino covering the event steve, this is much more expensive than we thought. did it seem cooler, not as cool as well thought? >> well, i got to look at the device, melissa, but i didn't get to use the device yet, so, they only had it on display in the steve jobs theater, i just got back a few minutes ago after cheque it out and it was on a pedestal there, tim cook came out and did his photo op and showed it off. but right now, no one really outside of apple has had a chance to use it it is hard to tell if it lives toup the promise that we saw in the presentation but what is the pitch, i guess, is the big takeaway from here, besides the price and the release date, of course. and focused a lot on entertainment. the surprise appearance by disney ceo bob iger. that sent disney shares positive today. they were down at session lows until iger appeared on that stage and popped up. and look, it's all about immersive entertainment and this kind of idea that you can kind of wrap yourself into your content, for example, a lot of what they talked about, especiall

microsoft getting its day in court arguing the deal with blizzard we have steve kovach with more on the >> good morning, frank microsoft and ftc will meet for the beginning of the five-day hearing that will determine the fate of the $69 billion deal to buy activision here in the united states. the ftc is seeking a preliminary injunction in san francisco alleging microsoft intends to close the deal before the july 18th deadline. no matter what regulators say. the ftc won a temperaorary restraining order blocking microsoft from making the purchase until the judge's ruling he welcomes the case to be argued in court. now, if microsoft prevails, the ftc will likely drop the abs lawsuit. expect to hear from players involved in the deealdeal, incl nadella and phil spencer and bobby kotick buying activision would give microsoft an unfair advantage in the console market, but microsoft says that is impossible as it is behind sony and nintendo in market shares. ftc says microsoft will gain from activision especially "call of duty. microsoft cut deals with other gaming companies like nintendo to pr

and two bellwethers and it's not consistent with those who say the economy is so strong >> to steve kovachnews alert >> reporter: the information is reporting that google has filed a complaint with the ftv, anti-competitive practices against microsoft for their cloud business the ftc tells me they have not received the complaint yet similar to a complaint they made in the european union that the package of office apps microsoft sells to leverage their cloud product. google is a distant third when it comes to cloud. and then microsoft is sitting there in the middle. we'll have more as we get it >> going to make for a bit of an awkward state dinner with pachai and nadella are at the white house not sitting next to each other. >> if you can't beat them, do better alphabet has not done a good enough job microsoft is the leader and they've done it through excellent strategies >> they're going to figure out some way to resolve it by everybody suing each other so they can all live happily in a big space. >> let's get the news from contessa brewer. >>> the tourist submersible that went missing the

panel here in coopertino we're going to start with our go-to guy on apple you know him by now, steve kovach, he's here with me. there was that one more thing, the classic line. >> they actually said it >> then there was the delivery what are we supposed to think of vision pro >> going into this we were talking earlier what is the message going to be, what is the pitch? it sounds like the pitch is this is a high-end entertaining device i saw one demo they were giving in the presentation where there was a woman lying in bed looking at constellations. they're trying to make this like a luxury product you saw someone watching it on an airplane. bob iger came out and the biggest company in the world is in on this, disney+. >> you saw apple shares, they had a great day. disney shares were negative. they moved positive. i couldn't help but think how these two companies, apple and disney, when it comes to the way we consume entertainment are linked and they have been linked i thought of pixar and steve jobs and cooke and iger coming together again >> exactly disney has some of the hottest content o

barely lower after the ftc is suing the company over a deceptive sign-up process for amazon prime steve kovach. >> this is an interesting lawsuit. it's alleging thattal zone used a lot of deceptive practices to basically at the checkout process to hoodwink people into signing up for prime, making it different to unsubscribe after that happened. the ft dr. alleges they had a code name for this, pro project iliad. it's been severalhours since i was released so nothing yet from their pushback, being the first -- and a huge antitrust investigation, and we're expecting that lawsuit as soon as the summer. that's going to be the big one this one is just special about prime, and what the ftc alleges are deceptive practices. millions of people >> though several investors shrugging that off what about this google/microsoft issue also involving the ftc >> this is a complaint that google has filed, very similar to one that they filed in europe say they have all these customers and they've been leveraging that to get sweethearty deals. >>> when it comes to they cloud providers, microsoft is right there in

steve kovach here to discuss >> with the bird. >> they're going to flip it. >> yeah.s came out from a meeting that mark zuckerberg held with employees. they gave employees a sneak peek at this app they're building it's based on instagram that would be tech spaced twitter comp competitor they see an opportunity with all the issues twitter has been going through, the advertising losses and so forth. they're going to give it a try i will note facebook/meta has a long, long, long history of creating clones of apps of other popular social networks. by the way, they have a perfect record doing it. >> they've been successful at it. >> perfect record. everyone has failed. >> they got stories from snapchat and instagram. >> they put that into instagram. they created an app called lasso that was a tiktok clone. didn't work. >> they have reels. >> this looks like twitter from the screen shots. >> yeah. some leaked screen shots came out from this video presentation it's not going to be easy for meta to pull this off. there's been so many attempts to recreate twitter whether it's

major product in a decade at its annual developers conference this afternoon deirdre bosa and steve kovache scene. dee, let's start with you. broadly, what's at stake for the company today? >> you said it before the break, carl, this is a stock that's trading at all-time highs. beyond that, this has really been the market leadership when we talk about the games, tech has come roaring back and it's been a handful of meg ka caps we call the magnificent seven. what apple has to do is really deliver. there is such high expectations. there's going to be a lot that's announced but it's all about that mixed reality headset apple has to do something different than anyone has been able to do so far, which is bring a device into the mainstream at a time when apple's iphone sales are slowing, this is a new product launch, the first one since 2015, the apple watch. apple has a lot at stake here. it has to deliver and tim cook is going to have to get on the stage and tell us why we need this and why it's mixed reality. explain for an audience, for a group of consumers what that means. and maybe killer

joining us is cnbc technology correspondent steve kovach it's cool to get a set of fresh eyes on this. >> they really do lay out this bullish case, carl like you said, the shift over to iphone pros, which we've seen over the last year there's more expensive models. people are deciding to buy those. even as overall demand weakens this is the problem at the end of last year, carl, where they had all those production problems and shutdowns in china. everyone wanted the pro and they couldn't buy them. that helped contribute to that down quarter they had. we're talking about this $3 trillion market cap milestone, but at the same time, i think what's more important for investors to realize is, these all-time highs for the stock is way more important than any market cap milestone they just keep hitting all-time highs despite the fact that we've seen revenue shrink two quarters in a row. it's going to shrink a third quarter in a row per apple's guidance, maybe 3%, 5% for the rest of the year, the back half of the year, what do we expect? it's going to hinge on that iphone 15 we're expecting i

competition in the ai race heats up here to break it down for us is our very own tech correspondent steve kovachnd cnbc contributor and founder of big technology, alex alex, start with you here. as we talk about this downgrade of egoogle parent, alphabet, i don't know it used to be we were used to google being the overlord and microsoft the underdog valuation wise, microsoft is looking a lot stronger. >> absolutely. and i think, you know, the downgrade wasn't this massive downgrade. they're still expecting 11% growth with the new price target from ubs not like they're killing the stock. but what they are saying is microsoft is pushing this company to be defensive and those defensive moves could lead to revenue slowdown for google for instance, you take generative search, so you now have the first 75% of the window that's all content that google shows you and the ads below. and that could ding the revenue. remember, search revenue for google was up only 2% in the first quarter. this is already a business where the growth is slowing a little bit. you add these ai elements, long-term it could be tr

plus, wells fargo scott wren shares whether he's a believer in this breakout our steve kovach on whyarm on apple after its run. it's been a broadbased one at that. >> it continues to answer the gripes we're at a level given what the s&p 500 has done to where the trend starts to become your friend in the sense that when the market has been up 20% after a bear market, up 90% of the time, 12 months forward. when the markets hit a new 52-week high, 12 months forward. doesn't say a lot about what happens between now and 6 to 12 months out, but it shows you where the bias lies. now within that, you could say the parts of the market that have been leading this year are piping hot going into a fed meeting. it seems like they need to kind of take a break and we'll see how the overall market might respond if we do get that. i'm on the lookout for a couple of things. one is this general sensibility of victory laps, and shaming of the bears. that kind of sentiment that feels like we got this already that might be coinciding with some sort of a short-term breather in the market the other piece of

. >> steve kovach joins us with today's "money minute." >> yeah, twitter's head of trust and safety resignedned social media platform. ella irwin is her name and fought disinformation and removed offensive content and served for roughly seven months as it comes amid a controversy over twitter's moderation of an anti-transdocumentary. >>> also, vimeo will be shutting down tv apps teaching support for roku and amazon fire tv on june 27th with plans to create a, quote, better ongoing experience by using video casting features instead. >>> and shares of verizon, at&t and t-mobile were lower on a bloomberg report to cezanne is in talks to offer low cost mobile service to its prime members. the company is not planning to offer wireless service at this time. still, shares were trading higher because dish would have the most to gain from a possible deal with amazon. you see this a lot, guys, when a company is reporting to have a deal with amazon, stocks move. >> yeah, i need to stop buying things from amazon. that's all i can think of. if i get one more box it's over for me. steve, thanks. >>> the d

steve kovach is here with more on this front. to be looking at, okay, the answer to whether this deal goes through? >> soon, sooner than later it is day four of five of this federal court hearing that will likely determine, like you said, the fate of microsoft's deal to buy activision and this is the big one, guys, ceos of both companies are going to take the stand. activision's bobby kotick testifying in the morning pacific time and microsoft's satya nadella in the afternoon up to now, the ftc and microsoft arguing over the definition of console video gaming and the cloud gaming markets we heard from microsoft's gaming boss phil spencer who framed the deal not around the exclusive console titles but the opportunities he sees in mobile gaming that's the fastest growing gaming market where all the real money is and microsoft wants a piece of it. spencer also testifying microsoft will keep future versions of activision titles, especially call of duty on playstation for at least ten years. as for nadella and kotick's testimony today

the early version will cost $3,500 steve kovach joins us now from our san francisco bureau i said to t hour that i am jealous, and i am jealous of you, too, steve tell us what it felt like? >> let's dive into it and i will take your questions, too first of all, it was a very controlled demo. a lot of features were switched off, and no siri voice control, for example, so it's hard to completely judge the devise but it's a meta version of the headset, and it all starts with the screen on the inside those displays are much crisper than what meta has it looks like real life, almost, and more impressive than the visuals is the audio you can use headsets, of course, but you can use the temples. there's i-tracking on the inside, so you look at what you want to select and make a pinching motion to do that there was a 3-d clip from the latest "avatar" movie, and in facetime you can create an avatar that looks realistic, and the mouthfully moves naturally andrew, you tried it before, and there are meta bavatars and you look like a muppet when you are talking. i felt like i was courtside at a su

. >>> the court thhearing that cod decide the fate of microsoft is nearing an end we have steve kovachre >> they were testifying the $69 billion deal and the judge will likely seal the fate with microsoft and activision saying they may have banned it if the judge grandsts the ftc request ftk ftc was showing microsoft was a player in the cloud world. in the comments, nadella boasted about the gains in the u.s. and can be today and europe. ftc showing an email where nadella wanted to use over opportunity to make cloud streaming more mainstream. it is best for microsoft in the long run that backs up the ftc argument that microsoft is a strong competitive to playstation and plans to turn cloud gaming into the next platform. asking about exclusive games and nadella was against, but has to do with xbox nadella saying the fight over exclusives for each platform saying i have no love for that world. if it were up to him, he would exclude games on consoles all together under eoath, he expects to keep call of duty and kotick says he doesn't believe cloud gaming is good for activision it sold bet

developers conference kicks off on monday and the tech giant is expected to unveil a new vr headset steve kovach look at apple's new reality. if this is ai, this is so 2022 what -- >> we're talking about the metaverse again? what is going on here? >> living in the past. >> let me break it down for you. this is the first major new product since apple watch unveiling back in 2014, that's almost nine years ago, if you're keeping count. entering a space now filled with many attempts to make the next big thing. google glass, magic link and facebook's name change to meta, putting the future of that company into unproven technology and now it is apple's turn how it is reported to work, similar to meta's last headset, there are cameras on the outside to provide a view of the real world on the screen inside then digital images are placed on top of the real world it can also be switched over to full virtual reality and we likely won't get all the details like a price or specific launch day on monday, but more important than what the device is capable of is how apple makes its pitch. no one has figured out

now we await the judge's decision steve kovach has been following the case closely, joins us now withan the chances? >> yeah, what do you think >> i'll tell you what the judge thinks, how about that the ftc and the microsoft last night spent hours quibbling over the facts in this case, in their closing arguments and here's what the judge thinks. sounding pretty skeptical about the data the ftc's expert witness, a harvard economist, provided he tried to prove microsoft had an incentive to remove call of duty from playstation and lure a significant portion of playstation gamers over to xbox. now, microsoft's own economic models and experts disputed that, of course. but now the arguing is over. most expecting a ruling within days because the deadline for microsoft to close the deal to buy activision is july 18th. now, if microsoft wins, it will likely move forward to close the deal here in the u.s., and the ftc may even just drop the case altogether but if microsoft loses, it says it will likely have to abandon the deal and pay that activision $3 billion rate fee. but that's just here in

we have steve kovach with more >> let's start with microsoft like you were talking about.block the purchase of activision the ftc says based on media reports, microsoft could move forward and close the transaction before the lawsuit against the deal which was filed last year, can work through the courts microsoft's date to close the deal is over a month away. if the judge approves the injunction request, it stops the deal before it can play out. the first hearing is not happening until august it puts the ftc in a precarious situation. if the judge rejects the question, microsoft has a slam dunk argument and will likely pr prevail. that is why brad smith is sounding positive in the action yesterday saying we believe accelerating the legal process in the u.s. will bring more choice and competition in the market microsoft in middle of the appeal of the competition market authority in the uk. the court rejected that deal let's say overseas for a bit because google is facing anti-trust complaint in the eu related to the advertising technology which comes from bloom aboutberberg