Closing Bell - Closing Bell: 6/29/26

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

From the open to the close, “Closing Bell” and “Closing Bell: Overtime” have you covered. From what’s driving market moves to how investors are reacting, Scott Wapner, Melissa Lee and Michael Santoli guide listeners through each trading session and bring to you some of the biggest names in business.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to closing bell. I am Frank Holland. In for the judge, Scott Walker. We are live from post nine at the New York Stock Exchange. A very nice start for investors on this shortened trading week. Let's get a check of our scorecard with 60 to go in regulation. And look at this. We're just about in the green across the board. You see the Dow is up about 350 points. The S&P up over 1%. The NASDAQ up almost 2%. The Russell, the Russell, the outlier, pulling back fractionally. Shrugging off some weakness. We're talking about the NASDAQ in some of the memory names. And mega caps, they are outperforming with the newest member of the Dow, outfinding. event is surging. We're going to have much more on that in just a moment. All this takes us to our talk of the tape, the market's resilience and what's the next catalyst that keeps all this momentum going. Let's get straight to our panel of experts. JPMorgan Private Banks, Abby Yoder, HSBC Global Research is Max Kettner, and requisite capitals. Brent, of course, is a CNBC contributor. Great to have you all here. Abby, you're right here at Post 9. Let's just start with you. Broadening or return back to MegaCab Tech? Today we're seeing the Mag 7 moving up. The broadening trade, at least if you look at the equal weight, pulling back a bit. How do you see things

shaping up in this last day of the quarter tomorrow? I'm talking about, of course, the second half of the year. Am I allowed to say both? Like, I do think there's an element. You are allowed. Okay, great. I think there is scope for this market to continue to broaden, right? We do have the removal of what was an overhang from a sentiment perspective as it relates to oil, which could help things, like, in particular, I think, like financials. Healthcare has been a standout for, you know, more of a defensive reason, but I do think that you can continue to see that broadening. But also think with the hyperscalers having the worst month of performance in like 10, 15 years, I think there's obviously consternation around the amount of money that they're spending,

the fact that they are going to be negative free cash flow for maybe one, two quarters. But I do think they're going to show an incremental ROI return on investment of their spend in the upcoming two-cue earnings. And there's going to be a reigniting of that trade, I think, as well. Big pull back in the MAG7 last week. I believe the MAX7 pulled back about 6%. But at the same time, your firm put out a note saying the four P's, the lowest, the lowest, level in the last 10 years. So isn't this just a more attractive entry point? I mean, it's unbelievable. I was looking at the numbers this morning. Tech as a sector is trading at 21 and a half times. The market is at 20 times, right? You're only paying a turn and a half more for outsized earnings

growth, right? Or tech. And it's not just the Mac 7. It's beyond tech. We had tech grow earnings 50% this past quarter and it's projected to grow another 50% this quarter. So you're getting a really, really good valuation for outsized earnings growth. All right, Max, I want to come over to you. Abby wanted to know if she could have both at the same time. It sounds like you want to do the same thing. You say you're pro-risk and bullish, but you see potential for a number of pain trades, including a surge in the U.S. dollar,

yields moving to the upside, and also the Mag 7 running a bait in that 4-P-E kind of spiking up. How can you be pro-risk and also see a good chance of the three things that would hurt the rally happening at the same time? Yeah, look, I think when you look at the max 7, I totally agree.

I think we've probably overdone the bearishness a little bit in the last couple of weeks. when you look at the Mac 7, it's not like they've just stopped earning any money. No, they're still making really, really good profits. And of course, even in the AI business, they are already making some sizable games there. So I do think actually, heading into the Q2 reporting season, one of the upside surprises that we could see is that number one on the Mac 7 side,

yes, they're going to confirm the CAPEX numbers, but at the same time, the operating, the underlying earnings are actually still looking okay. I think then a couple of bears will be a little caught off guard when they're saying, oh, yeah, actually, fine, they are spending money on Capix, but they are making the money on top of it. So I think then that really creates a pretty good entry point into the Mac 7. But also, let's face it, in the broader market, when we look at, for example, just stripping out tech,

actually net income consented expectations are at almost minus 4% quarter of a quarter. You strip out energy and materials. Again, it's minus 4% quarter of a quarter that consensensit. is expecting. So I do think actually the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months could be a proper, proper meltup. If that happens, that of course would probably put a bit of output pressure on treasure yields because then we'll really realize this is not just tech. This is not just AI. It's a broad-based earnings and a broad-based growth picture. And that means a 4.4% on the 10-year. That probably should be a little north of four and a half.

So, Max, really quick, I want to go back to one thing that you said. It sounds like you're saying that you see a strong chance of a good ROI for the hypers. But at this point in the trade, wouldn't you rather be with the hardware providers and the Czech writers? No, I think actually now after the last couple of weeks, when we have this downturn in the Max 7, we've just heard how cheap they are. I would actually say into the reporting season,

the proper, proper upside to price potential is more with the magnificence seven, it's more with the hypers, rather than the semis, right? The semis are about confirming the arducing the arducing the upward momentum, whereas I think within the hypers, the potential upside surprises, really, yes, they're still spending this awful lot of money of CAPEX that everyone's really, really scared of since the Q3 reporting season last year. But at the same time, they are making

the money. And let's imagine if they already start reporting that they actually start to make money already on these investments on AI. That on top would be a pretty unexpected positive catalyst. I mean, to your point, MAG 7 earnings, they increase 50% year over year in Q1. Huge growth there. Brin, I want to come over to you. I think you might have our stat of the day. You send us in a stat that Micron earnings are going to

be 18% of S&P earnings this year. So I think you're answering the question of where you want to be with the hardware providers of the checkwriters. I think you want to be with the hardware providers. I mean, the spenders, I think what's happening with META and Microsoft

in particular, because we really have to delineate all of the bag seven, Amazon as well, is that for every dollar of capets, in no way, shape, or form are they earning a dollar in revenue. They are still figuring it out. Meta is still figuring it out. And so while these companies are still, I think, burning a lot of money, you want to, you know, have an allocation to where that money is being spent. And right now, that would be Intel, that would be Micron. That would be AMD, you know, Invidia as well. what's interesting, if I would have told you two years ago, the MAG 7 were down 11% the last month and down 6% year to date. Yet the NASDAQ, the QQs are up 15% for the year. You wouldn't

have believed it. But the reason, Frank, it's so interesting, the total construct of the NASDAQ 100 has changed because now Intel, Micron, AMD are all in the top 10 holdings. And so to me, you can just stay in the cues and not have to make the decision, is Medi going to get their act together is Microsoft. The cues are just like that meritocracy of Micron's earnings is making its way for investors just buying QQQs. All right. So you clearly like the memory trade right now. Today, Micron's down, but just to be clear, Micron's actually on pace for its best quarter ever. Shares are up over 200 percent this quarter? I do want to ask, are you concerned that maybe this trade has already run its course? You know, Nvidia's trying to work around memory,

Qualcomm's trying to work around memory. I would imagine every hyperscale is trying to do the same thing, just to get around that bottleneck. I think what investors, what I look at is the stock charts. And if I look at Sandus, Western Digital, or Micron, the stock charts are a bit parabolic. And so all the earnings are parabolic as well. So we understand that. But really, you need some consolidation where those charts kind of catch up to the stock price. And so I think that's really what we're seeing today.

But it doesn't feel like when you listen to Micron's earnings, like 2028 is when we're going to be like normalizing. I will say one thing, Frank, that could be a hiccup, is there's going to be an IPO of a Chinese memory maker. I think we'll see if the market panics about that. But that company does not have the ability to make the type of memory that Micron, Samsung, or SK is. So I think there's going to be opportunities. But the earnings power of these companies are just here to stay. All right, we'll have to see if that's similar to like a deep seek moment when that company goes public. Abby, I want to come back over to you. You said it's both, all right? So talk to me about the other side of the market outside of AI, because they has almost like half of it at this

point. I'm looking at consumer discretionary today, up almost 3%. What's the catalyst for that? Well, I mean, I do think a component of that is very much obviously tied to oil prices. However, you have this, like, I know we've all talked about this on the show, like, K-shaped economy, where it's like the low-end consumer who's going to benefit from lower oil prices isn't necessarily what's propelling spending. And I think consumer is just a much more idiosyncratic story right now. Like, I think it's very much about which companies were able to navigate these supply chain issues, these inflation issues, tariff issues, that's still a thing, right?

And so which companies have been able to navigate that and keep pretty lean cost structures? So it's not a trade that we want to think about from a broad-based, like, say, XRT, like retail ETF type of trade. So you have faith in the consumer, but you don't want to play it on the retail side. Where can you safely play the consumer right now, in your mind? I think through financials. I think part of the reason that you saw large-cap banks underperform this year, there were a couple of reasons, right?

There was private credit concerns. And then there was also just this overhang from a credit perspective as it relates to the consumer with higher gasoline prices and higher inflation. So I think if I think about how I want to get exposure to a consumer that's doing okay and doing well, it'd really be through the banks, right? Through that lending channel. And the fact that if you have credit fears dissipate, that's when you tend to see banks do really well. And they're the first ones of a report, right? So we'll hear from them. We'll hear from the health of the economy, generally speaking.

And we have a lot of confidence in that. Second half the year, earning season about to kick off. Abby, great to have you here. Max and Brynn, great to hear from you as well. Thank you again. We now want to turn to the Supreme Court ruling that President Trump cannot fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, at least not for now. CNBC Senior Economics Reporter Steve Leesman joins us now with all the details. Steve. Yeah, Frank, in a case watch closely by Wall Street, the Supreme Court decided with Fed Governor Lisa Cook

allowing her to stay in her job and keeping Fed independence for now. But while the need to maintain the Fed independence underpin the Five-Four decision, it only went so far. Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the court, the court decides his application on the narrow ground that the president failed to afford Cook, the procedural protections to which she was entitled by statute. Now, Cook, of course, breaking her silence on the case just after the ruling came out saying, this was never about mortgage documents signed years before I became a Federal Reserve governor. It was an attempt to remove me on a manufactured pretext because I refused. to bow to political pressure and continue to set interest rates based only on what would be best or what best serve the American people.

Now, the case may not be over. FHAFA director Bill Pulte. He brought the initial, raised the initial issue of mortgage fraud by Cook, saying in a tweet that Cook will be indicted for mortgage fraud. Unclear how he knows that. The president saying he will, quote, take action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions concerning the welfare of the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So Cook's, Cook remains in place. The president's ability to fire Fed officials limited. That could be good for Warsh.

The court created something of a high bar for removal. But the president often continues to press his case by whatever means he can, Frank. Steve Leesman, senior economics reporter, thank you very much. We now want to bring in former St. Louis Fed President Jim Bullard. Jim, thanks for joining us. Absolutely. All right, so, Jim, I was looking at the bond market after this decision. didn't see movement in the two-year where obviously it's more sensitive to the Fed,

didn't see movements in the 10-year. In your mind, what's the big takeaway from the Supreme Court decision related to Lisa Cook? I think bond markets were anticipating this decision. The only question mark here is it was a little bit closer, I think, than the market would have anticipated. But still, it was clear that the court had a soft spot for Fed independence. They felt like there was, you know, as Chief Justice Roberts said, you know, historical precedent for that. And they wanted to cite that, especially for the Fed, but not for the other agencies. So that's where this came down. All right.

So Mark it not surprised at all. This is what they expected. I want to talk about some other parts of this decision or what could be the other ramifications, specifically related to J-PAL. Obviously, no longer the chair, but planning to stay on for the rest of his turn. at least for now. Does this impact Jay Powell's decision or the makeup and the sentiment on the FOMC? I don't think it does. I think, you know, he made clear that he was concerned about Fed independence. That's why he was staying on. I don't think that the decision or the reaction to the decision is going to

change that view. All right. What about policy outlook? I think that's what everybody wants to know. All of a sudden, hikes are potentially on the table. Does having Lisa Cook on the FOMC or back on the Fed, at least for now, does that increase the likelihood keep things the same? Because I think that's one of the things that everybody's trying to figure out that what was going to happen with the Fed after this kind of was decided by SCOTUS. Well, I think it keeps things the same. And the committee has clearly shifted to a more hawkish position, their favorite measure of inflation, core PCE inflation on a 12-month basis is well over 3%. When I was on the committee, I always considered 3% very much a red line for the committee that they had to take action to get

inflation at least into the 1 to 3% corridor and then move it down to 2% from there. So I think they're nervous about that. They've taken cuts off the table for now. All right. You don't seem to be very moved by this decision at all. You don't seem to think it has a big impact, but I do have to ask, the fact that there's potential for some other legal action to happen, is that an overhang over the Fed? Well, I wouldn't say it wasn't a big decision. It was a big decision, but it was anticipated to come out this way. But it is very important for Fed independence, and I think the majority was exactly right that if you allow partisans on either side of the aisle to just say somebody did something wrong, you know, a long time ago, and then not have any due process around that,

that that's just firing at will. And if you're going to have firing out of the end, you're going to have firing will, then put that into the legislation and just say you can fire at will. But that's not what's in the legislation. It's only for cause. And, you know, they've made, in some ways, made the only decision they could make, which was sent it back to the lower courts for further review. And that's going to take a long time. So I think for now, Fed Independence is saved based on this decision. Okay. Next Fed meeting coming up in a few weeks. Do you expect this to be at all part of the comments made? Is this a factor at all in this upcoming decision? I don't think so. This has been around for a while. And now, you know, of course, that court waited to the last minute here, I guess. They always announce in June. But this will carry on now for a while, and the drama will continue. But the committee's used to this by now. And so I don't think it'll affect the deliberations on actual policy day to day.

So, Jim, one last question for you. The fact that Justice Roberts was actually part of the majority. Is that a good sign just for Fed independence, if it ever comes back up to the Supreme Court in the near future? The fact that he was on the side of the majority, it was a close vote, as you mentioned, but the Chief Justice on the side of the majority. I do think it was important. I was a little concerned by the minority's arguments. It seems to me that they don't have as much respect for the need for Fed independence. If you look at some of the other economies around the world that don't have independence, central banks. Turkey is a good example of Argentina under the Kirchner government.

You know, you get 100% inflation, 60% inflation, those economies, and it's a real problem. So I think the majority was right here to flag central bank independence as a crucial matter for the nation. All right, Jim Bullitt, former St. Louis Fed President, thank you very much. Great to see you. Great to see you. to turn one of the big stories of today, Comcast. Those shares are up about 6%, but were up as much as 16% earlier on news of its plan to spin-off NBC Universal and Comcast. So Julia Borsten joins us now with a look at what this means for these two companies and for the rest of the media landscape. Julia.

Well, Frank, investors are celebrating Comcast split for unlocking value and opening the door to potential M&A that wasn't possible for the massive combined company. Comcast says within the next year it expects his spin-off all of its entertainment assets, Sky, along with Bravo, Peacock, Universal Studios and Parks, as well as Telemundo, with Comcast retaining a stake of 19.9% for as much as a year after the deal is completed. Now, this is an admission of the lack of synergies from the vertical integration of Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal in 2011. But Wolf Research predicts the breakup won't actually occur, saying this split strengthens the ability of one or both units to merge with peers or competitors, saying, quote, We believe the breakup plan is strategic to Comcast because it is a legitimately good idea

that also strengthens Comcast's negotiating position with partners who will not want to wait one to two years for an otherwise completed spinout to season for tax purposes. Wolf projecting Charter Cox will engage with Comcast about creating a national cable company and that Netflix will make an offer for NBCU and possibly also Sky. Now, Comcast executives shot down the idea that they're doing this for M&A purposes, saying rather this is the right move for each company to create value and monetize their assets. Mike Kavanaugh is set to run the media business saying that the separation today gives each team a clear mandate, a more focused capital allocation framework, and the ability to move faster with partners

who are specific to their businesses. Guys? Julia, thank you very much. Julia Borson with the very latest on Comcast's plans. All right, we're just getting started here on closing bell. Coming up next, the pop and alphabet shares. As it enters the Dow, our McKenzie Sagalos is tracking that action, plus deep waters. Jim Munster is standing by with his take on the state of tech.

We're live from the New York Stock Exchange, and you are watching Closing Bell on CNBC. And we are back on closing bell. Alphabet shares higher on its Dow debut. Our McKenzie Sagalas joins us now with much more Mac. So, Frank, Alphabet shares pushing toward a 5% gain on the day, now on pace to snap a losing streak that has erased close to $600 billion from its market cap since brief. becoming the world's most valuable company last month. But while the Dow edition does give Alphabet a symbolic blue chip badge, it likely won't bring new index buying. The stock is already in the

S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 where most benchmarked money sits. And if anything, recent Dow additions have actually struggled with NVIDIA, Salesforce, and Apple all trading lower 60 days after joining. And beyond index mechanics, Google is facing pressure over its AI monetization strategy. The company reportedly does not have enough compute to meet demand from enterprise customers like meta and is turning to infrastructure rivals like SpaceX to help close that gap. Compute access also becoming a recruiting weapon. The former Gemini co-lead who just left for OpenAI reportedly cited reduced access to chips as part of his frustration and the strain is showing up on Alphabet's balance sheet. Its cash pile is shrinking. It skipped buybacks in Q1 for the first time

in a decade. And it's raised more than 140 billion. in debt and equity as the AI Cappex race gets more expensive. But Frank, day one of the Dow, it is looking strong. Alphabet now one of the heaviest weights with today's surge, helping put the index on track for a record close. Likensi Segalos, the very latest on Alphabet. Mack, thank you very much. We now want to bring in Deep Waters, Gene Munster.

Gene, great to have you. Hi, Frank. All right, so is there a bigger significance to Alphabet joining the Dow? As Mac mentioned, it's not going to really spark any index buying, and of course, Alphabet's already in the SPY. Well, I don't think it's a big impact there, but I think some of the conversation, just having it added, brings up what's been wrong with Google. And I think Mac properly outlined kind of some of the key levers there, concern that they're overspending on CAPEX. They, of course, recently sold $85 billion in equity to increase what they're spending.

And now the street's looking for about 30% growth for their CAPX for Calendar 27. Previously it was about 20%. So I've seen this step up. So I think that, you know, this is symbolic, of course, but I think there's just still this bigger question that the investors are asking. And that is related to, I think, kind of the sustainability. And ultimately, when the return on investment is with this massive spend, that, of course, is a well-traveled comment. And appropriately so because that is what the market is focused on. And that's what, you know, most investors right now, all eyes on the end of July when we start to see that June quarter results.

And so my sense is that if you just look, just kind of take all this in, take max setup all in, is that we're still massively supply constrained, Frank. And I think that that piece, whether it's viewed as a negative in the near term, I think it is a very much a positive sign relative to the broader AI trade, the fact that we're still so supply constrained. It sounds like you're talking about memory chips. You're talking about also just power, land, a lot of the other components, build these data centers that Alphabet and everybody else needs. The recent pullback, as we mentioned before, JPMorgan saying the Mag 7 broadly as a group has the lowest 4P in the last 10 years. Does

that help? The fact that the 4P has fallen back a bit, along with the stock obviously declining. Does it just create a more attractive entry point? Well, I think in the case of many investors, they just want to continue to see things moving towards the high end and the fact that we've had some pullbacks, it probably hurts more than helps. You'd think that it would help. I think we've seeing this dynamic of just a concern, like, are we, in fact, at the top of this? And I just want to make one other comment related to, again, you're talking about valuation. In general, lower valuation is better, but I think when you're riding these growth waves, what you really want to see is the accelerating revenue growth.

And I want to mention, you know, our job is to figure out what revenue growth is going to be in six and 12 months. It's not about the June quarter. And we've learned a lot about just in the last month in terms of what that outlook would be. I mentioned the $85 billion raise from Google, but we look at what was said on the memory side this morning out of South Korea in terms of SK Hinex and Samsung. I just want a quick frame that end because this is very positive

for the AI trade. It's positive for the mega caps. It's basically they're saying those two companies, Samsung and SK Hinex, they're saying that they're going to spend about $590 billion at building chip factories over the next five years, $590, $590 billion. If you looked at the run rate that they had,

and assume that what they did last year grew at 20% a year. So just wicked growth, you would have got to about $400 billion. So that would have been a big number. But now they're talking $590. That's a 48% step up. One last question. You mentioned Alphabet share sale. It's $80 billion, but they did about half of it, you know, last couple weeks,

but they're doing the other half in Q3. It's a different environment in Q3. It's the post-SpaceX IPO, a lot of questions about return on investment. How do you think that $40 billion share sale is going to be received as it comes, up in the next few weeks. Well, here's kind of the surprise here. I actually think that this trade is going to probably take a little bit of breather between now and after we get our June earnings.

And so it might take them some extra shares to get to that other $42 billion to raise that. I don't think that's any indication about where the AI trade is going more broadly. But the big picture is this, is that investors are optimistic, but the bar is pretty high going into this June quarter. And so a unique approach, as you mentioned, to how they're raising that money. My guess is they're probably going to have to issue slightly more shares. But big picture, they're still in an incredible position, one of the best position companies in tech over the next five years. All right.

Alphabet joins the Dowell today. shares up over 4%. Gene Munster, great to have you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Frank. All right, coming up next. Dowell and pays for record close. Rockefeller's Jimmy Chang.

He joins me with his take on the state of the market. And what, if anything, is lurking beneath the surface. Much more closing bell. right after this break. And welcome back to closing bell. Strong start to the week for stocks with the Dow on track for a closing record. Its first close above 52,000. Here to share where he sees the market headed next.

Rockefeller Global Family Office, CIO, Jimmy Chang, Jimmy, great to have here. All right, so impossibly ignore today that we're looking at a record closing on Dow. It's being sparked at least in part by Alphabet. And I'm looking at the S&P right now. Five of the seven mag-7 names are in the top 10 point gainers, not percentage, but point. the index higher. Is it time just to get back into mega-cap tech, specifically the Mag7? As I pointed out earlier, J.P. Morgan, saying the four P.E's at its lowest level in 10 years. I do think after a period of consolidation and some of these stocks having materially underperformed,

they do look like they're in this period of stabilization. For long-term investors, it may be a good entry point. For near-term momentum-driven investors, it's probably not time yet. I do think people would like to get more clarity, especially with the hyper-term. scalers on the further increase in CAPX and what the potential returns will be. In fact, I suspect if one of these companies start to sound more cautious about CAPX, that may actually be well received by investors. Okay. If they sound more cautious about CAPX, you think that would be well received by investors. But what about all the other parts of the market that depend on this CAPX, like the memory trade? Something we're pointing out. Micron down today, but on pays for its best quarter ever.

shares are up about 300% in the quarter. Other names like Sandisk, Lamb Research, aren't they going to be negatively impacted if we hear any caution? Yes, it's a rotational market. So the AI play is kind of bifurcated between the AI cap expenders, which have been underperforming because of the massive amount of cash drain and the concerns over the potential returns. And on the other hand, those who are benefiting from the spending on the receiving side, the picks and shovel, they've been doing great. So if we do get a sense where the spending will become more measured, you will see that rotation back from these semiconductor component companies, hardware networking stocks, back into the hyper-scalers. We're talking a lot about tech right now, but you're saying

underneath all of that, you see a broadening actually churning out. So it's funny, if you look at the charts, the S&P equal weights outperform, the market cap-weighted S&P for like the last two months or so. And you've seen areas, different parts of the market, I should say, kind of spark up. I'm just looking at this quarter, industrials are up almost 13%, but techs up almost 28%. So talk me through this broadening and how sustainable it is in the second half of the year. Yeah, it's actually a healthy market to see the broadening out. I think a lot of people are surprised upon reading all these headlines about AI technology space. And yet what we have is mid-cap and small-cap, outperforming mega-cap and MacCAP and Mac 7 being down year-to-date as a group.

But I do think it's reflecting a fairly healthy economy. Again, that's partially driven by all this massive spending by the hyperscalers. So in a way, the hyperscalers are doing the spending, funding the prosperity, and that's driving up our performance amongst other sectors. But they are in the meantime under pressure. All right. What about the broader economy and consumer spending in particular? What you said about the mega cap and the Mag7 names kind of funding everybody else.

It's kind of similar to a note that Ed Yardinney put out. He says basically boomers are funding. all this consumer's spending, they're giving money to their kids and their grandkids because they have a lot of discretionary income. It is a case-shed economy, and unfortunately it's probably going to persist for a while, and young people are feeling some of them threatened by the rise of AI and how that affects entry-level white-collar jobs. So I do see we need further broadening out. We actually need better job creation. Again, we're seeing pockets of it. You know, if you talk about crafts men needed for HVAC engineers, plumber, electricians.

There's a huge demand for it. But for a lot of people, college educated after four years and a student loan, they're having problem in finding a desirable job. Is there one sector outside of tech or anything tech-related like comm services where you see big upside and people can put their money and get a lot of opportunity? You know, it's not a cheap market, so it's difficult to see tremendous upside unless you're counting on a lot of valuation expansion. If you have a longer-term view, I do think, as a contrarian plate, some of the miners, especially in the precious metal space, have come down quite a lot,

given the pullback in precious metal prices. I do believe if you're a patient over a long run, you know, as precious metal prices start to appreciate again, you can see quite a bit of catch-up. We've seen a big pullback. Actually, gold, I think it dipped below 4,000 a couple of days ago. So what horizon are you talking about when we're talking about the metal space? How patient do you have to be? You probably have to extend your horizon into next year and beyond, because in the near term, the headwind comes from the expectation of a tighter Fed. Kevin Warsh has been sounding very hawkish.

You also have the stronger dollar. And so all those are headwinds. But in the long run, you look at the fiscal trajectory, the continued deficit spending by the government. Ultimately, I would suspect the Fed may find me difficult to extricate itself from leverage the balance sheet to help the economy. Not seeing a lot of precious metal patients as of right now. At Goldax, we just showed down about 7%.

You're at 8 copper, excuse me, silver, down 17%. So a lot of pressure on it now. Jimmy Chang, great to see you. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, coming up next, we're tracking the biggest movers as we head into the close. Our Christina Parts in Revelis is standing by with that.

Christina, good to see you. Hi, Frank. We'll still ahead. We have a multi-billion-dollar space deal sending windstock soaring and why getting booted from a major index to just punishing another. Love those movers next.

Just about 14 minutes to the closing bell. Let's get to our Christina Parts of Nevelace for a look at some key stocks to watch. Christina. Well, Frank, let's start with Rocket Labs, because those shares are soaring. There was obviously an opportunity for a pun there, but 16 and a half percent higher to buy after a deal to buy Eridium communications for roughly $8 billion in a cash in stock deal. Rocket Lab said the merger is going to combine the company's launch capabilities with Aridium's satellite communication networks.

Life outside the Dow is not a friendly place for Verizon so far. telecom giant more than a 5% lower, almost 6% after being replaced by Alphabet in the benchmark index. Also working as a headwin is projected losses for this quarter between anywhere $700 million to $800 million. And last but not least, app loving jumped today, almost 4%, let's call it 3.5. After Raymond James started coverage with a strong buy, 640% price share is at $4.93 right now. The firm is betting on app loving's push into e-commerce advertising with its core ad business, still growing in a baseline, they said, anywhere between 20 and 30%, Frank. Yeah, speaking on that price target, I'll see App Levin growing over the next 12 months by 30%.

So a huge move to the upside again, that's 640 price target. Christina, thank you, and we'll just see you in a few minutes. Yeah. Moving on. Eli Lilly and Regeneron are among the first companies in the U.S. selected for a new FDA initiative. Angelica Peebles has all those details for us. Angelica. Hey, Frank.

Well, the FTA has selected the first seven. seven companies for its pre-check pilot program, and that's a program that's designed to accelerate review of new manufacturing facilities here in the U.S. Now, those companies are Eli Lilly, Regeneron, Amnil, Fujifilin Film Biotechnologies, Solaris, Kriah therapeutics, and Kiowa Kirin. And so this program applies only to specific manufacturing facilities and the drugs that are made there, so it's not the full portfolio. For Lilly, it's the Indiana site that's going to one day make the main ingredient of GLP1 shots and pills. And Lily telling me that it's evaluating, how this program and other federal initiatives may impact the facility's timeline. Right now,

it's currently scheduled to open in 2027. For regeneron, it's a New York facility that it announced last fall. And for Fujifilm, it's a contract manufacturer, if you're not familiar. It is a North Carolina site that I actually visited last fall. And they're already making monoclonal antibodies for customers, Regeneron and J&J there. And they plan to open more parts of that plant in 2027 and 2028. And most of the drugs in this program are complex biologic or genetic medicines, but one that's unique is ammial, and that facility will make sterile injectable generic drugs, and they're going to have a focus on medicines that are particularly vulnerable to shortages. And the idea of this pre-check program is that the FDA will actually preview these facilities while they're still under

construction, and the agency thinks that this could save companies up to 14 months, and usually about six months because you're not waiting until the end once you already have the problems. You're going in sooner, identifying them and fixing them ahead of time. Frank. All right, Angelica Peebles, thank you very much. Coming up next here on closing bell, a record milestone for the SMH semiconductor ETF as we approach the end of the second quarter. That and much, much more when we take you inside the market zone. Stay with us.

Welcome back to closing bell. We got some breaking news out of Washington. Emily Wilkins has that for us. Hey Frank, well, President Trump just now in the Oval Office with a number of pieces of breaking news. First of all, getting to the housing bill, Trump had a very unenthusiastic answer when he asked if he would sign the bill saying that it was a yawn, noting that it had a lot of Democratic support, raising some concerns with that, not really kind of giving a clear picture on whether this bill, which has strong bipartisan support in Congress, is going to actually be able to get his signature or whether he's going to veto it or just do nothing. and let it become law itself, likely sometime next week. He also weighed in on that voter ID Act, known as the Save Act. Now, Trump said that he wants to be able to attach that to something, said probably wouldn't be the housing bill. Of course, members of Congress are looking for other

ways to potentially get that done. And then, of course, weighing in on the slaughter case that we heard from the Supreme Court today, President Trump saying that he likely will not have any additional firings coming from that, but reaffirming that the courts were right to say that he does have the power to name and fire folks from those positions. Frank? Emily, welcome, to the very latest out of D.C. Emily, thank you very much. All right, we're now in the closing bell market zone. Mike Santoli and BTIG's Jonathan Kwinnski. They're both here to break down. He's very crucial moments of the trading day. Plus, Oliver Wrenick, he's standing by live from the CBO Global Markets in Chicago. And our Christina Parts, Nettel. She's back,

track in the moves and semis. Mike, as always, we start with you. Yeah, Frank, me, today is almost a perfect inversion of the recent trend in terms of what's working and what's lagging in the markets. So we went through a week where you had one of the biggest outperformance runs of the equal weighted S&P 500 relative to the market cap weighted in years. And today it's exactly the opposite. So the mega caps wake up. The NASDAQ 100 bounces off its 50-day average. And it feels as if right now. It's really just about sort of the market, getting on more balanced footing, getting into the end of the month and the quarter. Hasn't changed the overall picture, I don't think. You know, the bar is pretty high for earning season coming up, given what's happened with forecasts.

And the overall S&P really has been churning sideways for six weeks or so. Maybe that's a needed digestion or maybe that's, you know, prolonged fatigue here. We're going to have to see. So, Mike, what do you got coming up on O.T? Well, we're going to get through all of those. Those issues for sure. Plus, a deeper look at this proposed Comcast spinoff as well as we've been talking about, whether it's symptomatic of what's going on broadly in corporate America and what the prospects are for those stocks. Yeah, the spin is in these days. Mike Santoli, thank you very much. We get over to Oliver Renick from the CBO. Ali.

Hey, Frank, SpaceX Bulls are alive and well. Options volume has slowed right now trading about half the average since inception. but the positioning is unmistakably bullish. Calls out pace puts more than two to one with traders buying almost four times as many calls as they bought puts today. And of the top 10 contracts by volume 7 are calls and nine out of 10 expire Thursday. Traders are still stabbing at some huge short-term gains.

Right now the second most popular call contract is the 300 strike expiring Thursday. That is a 10-cent flyer that needs SpaceX to casually double by the end of this holiday shortened week. But it's not just gamblers in here when SpaceX hit 155 this morning. We saw one trader sell about 450,000 of those 150 strike puts expiring in January 2027, then by the same number of 160 strike calls, a trade that's already making money as shares rally 6.5%. And by the way, for those that were watching the Rocket Lab story today, options traders there about five times as many calls versus puts, Frank.

Oliver Renick, live from the Cibol. Ali, thank you very much. Now we're going to go back to our Christina Parts and others at the NASDAQ with a look at the semis. Christina. Yeah, because despite a roughly 7% pullback in chip stocks last week, the SMH semiconductor ETF, a great barometer, is still on pace for its best quarter ever since launching in 2000. That would mark a fifth straight positive quarter for the ETF. The pullback that we saw last week looked pretty technical, not necessarily fundamental end of quarter rebalancing from quant and relative value funds. But buyers did come right back in today, although I have to point out memory stuff.

lagging micron mostly, oh, it turned to the upside. Sand is still under pressure, but the AI build out is what's driving this group. Heavy chip spending out of South Korea this morning is lifting equipment names like KLA, Lamb Research, Terodyne, applied materials, which also got a fresh analyst upgrade today from two players. And then on the design side, Astera Labs is the ETF's top performer today. UBS points to improved Microsoft hyperscaler spending expectations into 2026 and beyond. Chips are still cool. Christina, thank you very much. Now, let's bring in BTIG's Jonathan. Jonathan, great to have you here. Good to be here, Frank. All right. So you put out a note today. You said the semi in the AI trade,

it still has meaningful downside. We've been talking about it all day. You see a lot of upside for the rotation. Walk us through your thesis. Yeah, so I think over the last several weeks, if not longer, we've seen areas like biotech and healthcare start to emerge from bases. The equoid health care sector is close to a five-year breakout. Regional banks. even the reeds are poised to break out here. So there's been positive action under the surface. And then back to the semi-I trade, what we had the last two weeks was the Sox index was up 7% two weeks ago into a 52-week high and lost 7% last week. So you kind of had this negative whiplash. The last time we saw a 5% gain followed by a 5% decline off a 52-week high was back in March of 2000 right at the dot-com peak. And before that, it was in mid to late 1995 prior to about a 50%.

percent drawdown. So I think, you know, we're getting this high momentum, sorry, high volatility, and volatility tends to work both ways. And we think the other issue with semis is around micron, which had massive dollar volume in the last two days, over $100 billion in dollar volume. That's one of the biggest single-stock dollar volume of any stock in history. And when we look back over the last 19 prior occurrences of those, about 13 of 19 times, you actually saw 20% decline in the next six months. But every single one of them was down at least 10% over the next six months. So I think there's some risk in the semi-trade here. So I told you what you're saying. By the way, Micron also on Pace for its best quarter ever. Shares are up just about 300%

over the quarter, which is phenomenal. Brin talking and came to us with a really good stat earlier that about 18% of the S&P earnings are actually going to come from Micron. So I understand what you're saying on historical precedents and some of the technicals. But with that kind of earnings power, Doesn't that create a pretty strong tailwind for that name and also just the memory trade in general? Well, look, I think that's the reason why Micron is up as much as is into last earnings report. And the fact that despite that blowout, look, numbers just went up significantly after last earnings report. And the stock, you know, it's rebounded from the lows today, but it was down, you know, meaningfully. And if you think about over the last three days, every single buy, you know, with the exception of maybe

the last couple hours has been underwater. So there's a lot of buyers that know that the numbers are going up, and yet the stock still didn't react very strongly of the last couple days. We'll see. But I think that amount of volume suggests that there's a lot of turnover and maybe the last kind of capitulation for the short term. This doesn't mean it has to be the end of the cycle, but I think, you know, given the run it's had a drawdown into the third quarter of the certainly make sense of us. All right, Jonathan, almost out of time very quickly. In your note, you said Money's finding other places to go. If you were to put hook for an area,

that's not outside and second man, real death. I'm sorry about that. That's just for closing down.