our steve kovach is at cnbc headquarters with the headlines. steve? >>> microsoft right now launching its first artificial intelligence pcs. these are the surface pro 10 and the surface laptop 6. what makes them different and what isn't a term you can expect to hear a lot this year. they have a special chip inside called a npu that can provide a.i. tasks faster and more efficiently. in icrosoft's case that means co-pilot, of course, the digital assistant, built into windows 11 for business users and microsoft sells the copilot service for $30 per month. with the new a.i. pcs, they claim copilot has better battery life and if you've ever used copilot or another chatbot it can take several seconds or more to spit out the result after you give it a command and this is likely the first of many a.i. pcs we'll see. while they use intel chips. the bottom line, though, this is microsoft's attempt to get more businesses to pay for copilot promising better performances plus time-saving productivity gains for employees. "the wall street journal" earlier this yea

back to you, steve kovach. how concerning, not tiktok, but the china issue for apple where you could say, well, it's 20% of their overall revenues. now i wonder if they need to rethink what their business model will look like because of the loss of sales from china. >> i don't know if it's necessarily the business model, but they can't do anything -- >> the expectations is probably a better way of saying it. >> they can't make consumers feel confident but they can look at huawei, which is taking market share from them, is suddenly back on the market. we used to hear so much. my conversations with tim cook, so many conversations a year and change ago was about switchers. huawei was out of the game for a while and they would see people switch over from huawei from android to iphone. he stopped talking about that. yes, huawei is small, there is more market share there. it's a home grown brand, it's a brand that can play up to nationalistic consumers there. in china, how do they compete with huawei and then go from

steve kovach joining us. steve, what is the latest with the battle? >> this is the digital markets act, frank, known as the dma. it is hours old and apple is testing the limits this morning. the european commission is investigating apple's compliance with the dma which includes fees it wants to charge and kicking epic games out of the apple store. this has lots of rules here with the attention on apple because it is the most profitable and the most resistance to regulations like this. the dma forces apple for the first time to allow third-party apps to reside on the iphone and make it easier for users to choose a default web browser. apple announced how it will comply with the law. that angered companies like spotify and epic which wants looser rules. similar to the mac or windows computers. now regulators will have their say if apple is complying with the new law and if they find apple or any other company in it violation, they could be fined up to 10% of the global revenue. let's put a big number on that. for apple, that would be $40 billion, frank.

steve kovach has more. >> apple has reinstated a develop are games accounting. epic games is the company that makes fortnite, with a long-standing battle with apple. let me explain what's going on here. apple just earlier this week removed the developer's account which epic was able to gain because of the new law in eu called the digital markets act, which went into full effect yesterday. phil shiller, who is in charge of the app store at apple, sent a letter to epic games, saying we're going to remove your account, one, you've been blasting us publicly on social media, deriding our policies. two, you've also been in litigation with us in the united states and australia, and three, you guys purposely broke the rules, which spurred off all this litigation. today, totally reversing course. the ohm thing changed here is digital markets act went into effect. the european commission, within just an hour or so after the law went into effect, the european commission saying we're looking into apple's practices here. apple telling us and epic games saying that he apple h

either way it's great for google. >> steve, thanks. >>> steve kovach.i am curious, what is your take on the up 1.6% for apple? it seems like a ah kind of response? >> yeah, the most important thing is i think it helps with the upgrade cycle going forward. what is the new news and catalyst, and all the points are well-taken in terms of they have been slow to innovate, and weiss made that point, and that's not their game, and it's the user base and user experience is what makes apple special, but it's not getting the lift that maybe some would have imagined because this deal is more leveraged towards google and that's where the opportunity is. >> the interesting thing is, and steve mentioned the lack of innovation at apple, but the bigger question is apple scrapped the electric vehicle emissions which is billions of dollars a year, and what do they do with all that cash? if they are not paying alphabet for the ai, what are they doing with the cash, and so steve is on something, and at some point the market punishes you for sitting on all that cash. they c

steve kovach is with us now. hi, steve. >> yeah, first let's talk about this, more than 100,000 bottles of heritage store hydrogen peroxide mouthwash being recalled for potential poisoning risks for children, the bottles did not have child proof packaging required for products containing certain levels of ethanol. the maker of the mouthwash will offer refunds of bottles sold from 2010 to 2023. >>> and here's a big one for me, guys, warner brothers and legendary entertainment dune part 2 is aiming to end a blockbuster drought with an $80 million opening this weekend. no film has made more than $100 million in ticket sales so far this year, leading to a nearly 18% drop from the same period last year. >>> and good will struck some gold gold here, a pennsylvania store received a rare 14 carat gold lego mask and put it on sale for $14.95 without knowing its actual value. well, that was until it started to receive private sales requests from people, the piece was sold at auction for more than $18,000, which will all go

. >>> up next tracking the biggest movers as we head into the close and steve kovach is back with us. got two executive departures sending shares of two very different companies lower today. we'll reveal those names when "closing bell" returns after "closing bell" returns after this. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >>> 18 minutes till the closing bell, s&p up 0.8%. back to steve kovach for a look at the key stocks to watch. >> shares of computer accessory maker logitech falling better than 6% after they announced their cfo was leaving the company for another job. shares still fell even though they reaffirmed its guidance for the 204 fiscal year which ends this spring and move over to hertz. also slipping today. shares down about 5.5%. that's after its ceo steven sher announced he would step down and gill west, a former delta air lines exec will be the next at hertz and sher took over as the company tried and failed to transition to electric vehicles and was forced to sell thousands of its evs last year due to lack of demand, mike. >> all right, steve, thanks very much. >>> still ahead, a big tech double pla

apple and bidu making slight gains in the report, for this potential partnership, bringing in steve kovach. >> on set. >> great to have you, welcome to fast money land. >> yeah. >> it has to go with the chinese partner. >> it kind of has to. this is just another name now we're adding to the increasingly growing list of companies that apple may partner with, we've heard about the google generative a.i. deal earlier this week, and talking to openai, talking to k co here, and now baidu, similar to a deal with google in the united states and elsewhere, there's regulations in china that is blocking this from, you know, think of it this way, you will not have a google product embedded into an iphone in china, you wouldn't have a facebook product embedded into an iphone in china. that's why apple would have to talk to baidu for this. what we're really seeing here is this feels more like a search thing than it does like some kind of fundamental ios, a.i. thing that's going on. that's because ofthese already existing agreements, and the companies they're talking to, and what they're capable of doin

. >> steve kovach is covering the story and internet law professor at george mason and's a former ftic advisor. steve, begin with you. what's the response from apple about the lawsuits? >> lengthy. let me put it that way. first of all, they're going to fight this. going to fight it in court and say this lawsuit is fighting against their innovation and hamper their ability to make great products people like and point out, talk about global market share a little bit. interesting. this is a u.s. case, but basically trying to make the case we're small. just 20% of the whole smartphone market. android is this global behemoth beyond us. again, u.s. case, as merrick garland just said and also just talking how so many of these allegations throughout the lawsuit basically says, look. you know, everything they are accused of, they have a reason for. all comes back to privacy, security, best experience. that is basically the argument they're making. >> although -- i'm not a lawyer and i really don't even play one on tv. i will say that when you look at the defense that gets made in antitrust case

down 11% our steve kovach joins us now with apple's rough start to the year steve, good morning. >> goodd 2024 on top. we had launched the division pro, returning to earning growth for the first time in a year and the largest market cap in a year a slew of companies have humbled apple this year, sending shares down about 11% year to date, and all of this is happening while its big tech peers continue to climb on hopes of ai let's run down apple's experience so far this year. first we have china's business iphone sales fell 24% in the first six weeks of 2024 from the same period a year ago that's according to a recent report from research and then the eu started enforcing its tough any tech law. they said they're investigating violations of that law which could come with steep fines. then apple canceled its next big thing, the self-driving car, the titan. last week, the doj released its wide-ranging antitrust suit. mark don june 10th that's when apple said yesterday it's going to hold ww d.c., it's annual development conference. if you don't believe me, take a look at this expos, teasing

steve kovach is here with the big story of the morning. nasdaq and s&p off the record breaking session. 20 records set this year for the s&p. dow futures this morning indicated up 50 points. nasdaq futures up 30. the s&p indicated up 6 points. if you are watching the treasury market, for the week, it was a good week for all of the markets. treasuie

steve kovach standing by. and -- stands by as well. steve, let's start with you. let's talk about this acquisition and what it means for microsoft. >> not exactly an acquisition. microsoft is forming a new division dedicated to a.i. is going to be run by a big- name. that is -- he will be the ceo of the new group, that is called microsoft ai. focusing on consumer products, especially copilot, the a.i. tool microsoft has and putting in all of its products. he will be reporting to the ceo, who made the announcement today. he is best known as the cofounder of deep mine. that is the a.i. starter up google bot a decade ago. but solomont has been running a startup called inflection a.i. which makes the chatbot -- inflection has named a new ceo and said it is pivoting its business away from consumer a.i. and instead focusing on making a.i. tools soft were developers. however, it is the one to support the chatbot for current users. but it is not just microsoft houchin one executive year. and inflection a.i. spokesperson tells us microsoft will hire most of the start of 70

here with more on why apple has gone from market leader to market laggard is steve kovach. >> apple started on top of everything. they had to launch the vision pro. returning to sales growth for the first time in a year. the largest market cap in the world. many of them from governments around the world have humbled apple this year. sending shares down 10, 11% or so year to date. all while its big tech piers continue to climb on the hopes of ai. let's run down what's happen sod far this year. you have the china business. may not be improving. we saw this report from counterpoint research that said iphone sales fell 24% percent in the first six weeks of 2024 from the same period a year ago. the eu started enforcing its tough new tech law called the digital markets act. eu said it's investigating apple for violations of that law which come with steep fines. and apple canceled its next big thing that self-driving car project titan. and of course last week the doj unleashed its wide ranging aunt anti-trust lawsuit. what can change things? mark down june 10th on your calendars. apple told us yes

steve kovach joins us now to explain what happened.ust talking about this. >> yeah. >> and the fine they may be facing. so what's going on now? >> it's so complicated, but it's been not even a week since the markets in the digital act in the eu went into effect. we saw apple cave to this today. they'll allow european users to download apps straight from the web. that's huge for apple. if you ever used an iphone, you go through the app store. they allowed other third party app stores on. no, no, no, we can't allow you to download apps straight from the internet. that would create some security problems so on and so forth. but again, we had the european commissioner on yesterday and she even said, we're looking into whether or not apple's idea for complying with our new law is, in fact, in compliance with this new law. and as this pressure sort of mounts, we're seeing the backtracking and changes already before any kind of formal punishment can come down. last week also they quickly reversed the decision to boot epic games off of the app

. >> steve kovach, thank you very much with the tech check. >>> speaking of that china economy side oft steve mentioned, economic targets for 2024. eunice yoon is live in beijing with the specifics on that macro economic environment in the world's second biggest economy. eunice? >> reporter: thanks, dom. well, the targets are more or less the same as they were last year. but because they're coming off of a higher base, they're viewed as more mbitious. so to support growth, the government said that it was going to focus and target a fiscal deficit at 3% of gdp. it will also issue new long-term bonds over the next few years. some special sovereign bonds as well as some local bonds. and the money is expected to be earmarked for major national strategies as well as strengthening security in what they describe as key areas. now, the premier, who announced the targets at the start of the national people's congress, admitted that it will likely be very difficult for china to reach those goals. at the same time, he said that the country would stick with its policy approach of being proactive a

steve kovach joins me now. >> state farm is dropping coverage for more than 70,000 homes and apartmentscalifornia starting this surl. it comes after the state's largest insurer announced it wouldn't write new policies there. it cites soaring costs, the increasing risk of catastrophes like wildfires and outdated regulations as reasons for not renewing the coverage. >>> also, starbucks branded cups recalled due to burning and laceration risks, the recall affects 440,000 gift sets containing the mugs sold during the 2023 holiday season, there have been ten reported incidents of injury due to the mugs breaking or overheating. customers who purchased the affected mugs can return them for a refund. my favorite story of the day, if you need a frosty on the fly, fast food chain wendy's is delivering by drone for the first time, but only in one small town in virginia. doordash is partnering with wendy's and drone company wing to fly menu items within a 2 1/2 hour radius of christians burg. doordash hopes to expand to other places. >> hopefully. frosties by drone, thank you. >>> growing questions

steve kovaches has the latest. >> liking what they're hearing so far in this call.ed results for oracle's third quarter, but some commentary on their a.i. plans appear to be what's sending shares higher. eps, a beat with $1.41 adjusted versus expectations of $1.38. revenue, a slight miss, $13.28 billion versus $13.3 billion expected. the ceo saying in the earnings release, there were new cloud in infrastructure clients bringing remaning performance obligations soaring 29% to $80 billion. that's a record for the company. less than half of those obligations will come in over the next four quarters. now, no formal guidance, but the statement says to expect more of those large contracts to come in. also noting demand surpasses supply. >> thank you, steve. opening data centers opening very rapidly. so, they can't possibly get their hands around it right now. >> look. you can make a compelling case on -- the last two quarters have been disasters, each time the stock, i think, traded, held $100, it happened to be a support level. here we are now. so, valuation, you can mak

steve kovach is joining me. >> yeah, let's start with noork. mayor adams announced that the city is opening prmgt applications to test autonomous cars. but companies need prior experience testing in urban environments to get approval and there must be a safety driver in the car at all times. >>> and ice cube is offering caitlin clark a reported $5 millions to play ten games in his big three league. the hip hop mogul confirmed the offer while responding to a tmz story on x calling it an historic offer. but he said that he was still waiting for the answer from caitlin clark. >>> and the nation's capital is holding on to hoops and hockey. local officials in virginia end ed negotiations to bring wizards. and mayor bowser announced a deal that would keep the teams in washington until at least 2050. back over to you. >> and that is a big deal in washington. i used to live there. big deal. steve, thank you so much. >>> and still to come, play ball. it is opening day for major league baseball, the changes to the game that all fans need to know about. >

let's get to steve kovach with the details. >> the information is reporting open ai is about to rename same altman back to the board. we know all the drama going on hear. he was ousted as ceo, kicked off the board. came back within days. in addition to that, information is reporting several other new board members that are supposed to be made. this is -- i'm reading here, sue desmond heldman, former ceo from the bill gates foundation. nicole seligman, former president of sony, and another name we're familiar with, fiji simo, a top facebook executive. we're still waiting for official word from open ai on this. i have calls out like crazy right now. that is what the information is reporting. i wouldn't be surprise first-degree we hear something official from open ai quite soon here. >> all right, steve, keep us posted. thank you. >>> coming up, some electric trading. first general electric hitting its highest level since 2017, and analysts are taking notice, what wall street is saying about that one. >>> and shares of rivian continues its surge this week, the ev maker revealing just how

we do need to go to steve kovach. >> reporter: this is microsoft, a big organizational change happening around a.i. i have a memo from the ceo satya nadella announcing the new organization within the company called microsoft a.i., which is going to focus, of course, on a.i. and specifically co-pilot. that's the digital assistant that microsoft's been putting in every product. of note to lead this group as ceo of microsoft a.i. is best known as a co-founder of deep mind. that's the a.i. company google bought several years ago and has now folded into the broader organization at google working on a.i. so now you have microsoft with another co-founder of that company running a.i. over there. previously suleiman was at inflection. he and his co-founder will report to satya nadella. big organizational change centered on a.i. and around co-pilot. you see shares are about a percent higher now. >> good stuff. thank you very much, steve. >>> i'll turn to you quickly, jim. you own microsoft. now they have the deepmind co-founder running a.i. at microsoft, how does that make you feel? >> it makes m

steve kovach joins us here. >> apple onin 2024, the largest cap in the world a slew of headwinds, a slew of them coming from governments around the world have humbled apple, sendinging shares down year to date, all the while its big tech peers climb on the hopes of ai. you have the china business, which may not be improving you saw the iphone sales fell in the first weeks of 2024 from the same period a year ago that's according to data from counterpoint research. and the eu said monday it's investigating apple and thinking of steep fines and last week, of about, the doj unleashed its wide-ranging antitrust lawsuit. what will change this? mark down june 10th on your calendars. that's when apple said it's going to hold its ww d.c. annual development conference if you don't believe me, take a look at this ex-pose from greg, apple's marketing boss, teasing an absolutely incredible ww d.c. he capitalized the "a" and the "i." pretty sneaky. apple's put enormous pressure on its to break new ground in artificial intelligence. now after ww d.c. and we get through the summer, apple will release it

we have steve kovach with more on this. >> let's talk about it. apple was the biggest company in the world and first company to hit $1 trillion market cap and $2 trillion market cap and $3 trillion market cap. products are loved. this is a big deal. what is the doj going after apple for? we don't know exactly, but potential things on the table is the app store. this is a big deal in the eu. apple allows its own store on the phone. the only way to download software is through the apple app store. it can jack up prices for software and people don't know about the subscription prices. another thing that is less significant is the iphone is the hub for other devices. payments is a big one. if you are paypal, you would love to be able to use the palpal app and let your customers use your phone for payments. you can only do that in the apple wallet app. we see apple cave to that and allow payment. that is another thing they will go afternoon. >> do you think that is where they need to make the changes? >> we know congress has done nothing. there have be

steve kovach joins us now with more. >> that would be on top of the $2 billion we were talking aboutact better known as the dma only hours old and apple is testing the law's limits. this morning, the european commission, which is responsible for enforcing law, tells cnbc it is investigating apple's compliance with the dma, that includes that it still wants a charge other app developers and kicking epic games out of the app store yet again this week. let's explain what the dma is. it affects companies like apple, google, meta and amazon and there are lots of new rules in here, most of the tension is on apple because it is the most profitable of the group and the most resistant to regulations like this. the dma forces apple for the first time to allow third party apps for its own iphone and make it easier for users to choose things like default web browsers, and make payments outside of apple pay. now, apple weeks ago announced how it plans to comply with the law, which includes new fees for app makers if they want to work on a third party app store. t spotify and epic games want loose

steve kovach joins us. >> i'm back, did you miss me? >> were you on here earlier?. >> who am i reminding you of? go ahead. >> i'm not going to say it. >> president of mexico. >> i'm not going to say. no, so friday morning i was here talking about this lawsuit, and then, you know, we didn't hear from open ai. i did get a look at some of its internal communication that ceo sam altman and his chief strategy officer set out, you know, company wide, obviously concern inside the company. i'll read directly here from what the chief strategy officer told employees, quote, we believe the claims in this suit may stem from elon's regrets about not being involved in the company. so this is kind of what i was saying. >> sour kbgrapes. >> it feels like sour grapes. he was involved in this company, he helped found this company. >> he's going really hard on this as well saying, you know, obviously he has a financial stake in this too, but this also goes back to the question of another claim in the lawsuit of artificial general intelligence, and here in these memos, the executives

steve kovach is here with the big story of the morning.he dow and nasdaq and s&p off the record breaking session. 20 records set this year for the s&p. dow futures this morning indicated up 50 points. nasdaq futures up 30. the s&p indicated up 6 points. if you are watching the treasury market, for the week, it was a good week for all of the markets. treasury yields have come down after the fed meeting was more dovish than anticipated. two-year note at 4.6. if you are checking out gold prices, they are coming back down after topping $2,200. this is leading to the fmoc meeting. this is almost like march. in like a lion and out like a lamb. that is what we are watching today. $2,168. >> we have the same temperature. >> the turtleneck again. i'm freezing. >> it's march 22nd and 22 degrees. >> very cold. >> a mean, angry lion. >> you get the fake spring and back to winter. >> it is the rainy spring around here. >> that is usually april and may. >> april showers bring may flowers. >> once it's june. >> my allergies are kicking in. >> once it's j

we have steve kovach here with more. >> a lot that we didn't learn.man is back on the board plus three new board members. that's the headline there. the summary into the investigation by the outside law firm found altman did not do anything last year to justify the original firing. first, the board members sued the former ceo of the bill and melinda gates foundation and the general counsel at sony and the ceo of instacart and former facebook executive and three current board members are sticking around. brett taylor and larry summers and adam deangelo. as to the investigation of the fi firing is light on details. here is what it is saying. the big one. altman's behavior did not justify the firing by the previous board. they will adopt the governance guidelines, but it is unclear if they nix the non-profit. also events leading up to the firing of altman which said the prior board had the authority to fire him and believed it would help with internal management challenges by doing so. like i said, the board did not realize the disruption to the company

. >> wow steve kovach, thank you. >> flonase >> i use nasonex >> is that the amazon brand?laritin hurts my tummy i use allegra. >> viagara oh, i misunderstood. >> that's you. >> that's me >>> when we come back, much more on the markets the futures this morning are still in the red this is close to where we started the morning. dow futures off by about 90 points nasdaq futures down by 100 the s&p futures down by 18, but of course, markets are coming off the -- the dow and the s&p are coming off their best weeks so far this year you're watching "squawk box," and this is cnbc rylee! from rylee's realty! hi! this listing sounds incredible. let's check it out. says here it gets plenty of light. and this must be the ocean view? of aruba? huh. this listing is misleading. well, when at&t says we give businesses get our best deal, on the iphone 15 pro made with titanium. we mean it. amazing. all my agents want it. says here...“inviting pool”. come on over! too inviting. only at&t gives businesses our best deals on any iphone. get iphone 15 pro on us. (♪♪) >>> let's not avoid what ha