Closing Bell - Closing Bell: 7/18/25

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

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, Jon Fortt, Morgan Brennan and Michael Santoli guide listeners through each trading session and bring to you some of the biggest names in business.

You're listening to Closing Bell in Progress. Thank you, Mike. Looked good? Mike Lawler, Mr. Salt. Well, it should guarantee your district. I mean, you worked hard for New York, right? And you're on television, I'm on television, so this should be good for a couple of points, but... Without you and your couple of friends from New York,

that wouldn't have happened. That was not easy, right? Congratulations, great job. Anna Paulina Luna, Anna, who is so great. I don't, even if she's here or not here, I want to tell you that she has been so great and worked so hard to make sure we got it approved. Ralph Norman. Ralph?

Ralph? What happened to Ralph? Nick Begich. Nick? Thank you, Nick. Good job. Good job. Good votes.

I just saw a great poll on you, huh? Very good. Congratulations, Nick. Andy Ogles. Andy, who's a terrific friend. Beth Van Dyne. Beth? Thank you, Beth. Andy Ogles. Andy, who's a terrific friend. Beth Van Dyne. Beth.

Thank you, Beth. Great job. Thank you. Thank you very much for the great support. Roger Williams, a great baseball player, who also had to take a bullet, unfortunately, but he is a great guy. He was involved in that whole catastrophe,

but he's fantastic and has been from day one, along with a lot of other people that I won't call out because I have no idea where the hell you are. I think I saw Jason here somewhere. Where was Jason? Oh, it's lucky I called him. Ooh, it's lucky. They didn't put your name because I invited you at the last moment, right? He was over there doing some business in the White House.

But you've been incredible in your position. Nobody knows more about taxes and finance than you do, so we appreciate it, right? Is that true, Howard? It's true. Thanks, Jason. Great job. And you'll help out with that other matter. You make him so strong and powerful, right? Along with Deputy Secretary of Treasury Michael Falkender. Where's Michael? Good, Michael. How are you? Good. You'll help out over there, okay?

And Ambassador Ken Howry. Ambassador. Thank you, Ken. Great job, Ken. I also want to recognize some of the countless industry leaders here today, including Brian Armstrong of Coinbase. We've done a good job, Brian. That's a big deal. industry leaders here today, including Brian Armstrong of Coinbase.

You've done a good job, Brian. That's a big deal. Dave Ripley of Kraken. Thank you, Dave. Jeremy Allaire of Circle. It was a big day. Good job. Good job, Jeremy.

Paolo Ardino of Tether. Paolo, thank you, Paolo. Ryan McInerney of Visa. That's a good company. Thank you. Chris Pavlovsky of Rumble. Chris, Chris. What happened to your location, Chris? You're always a front row guy. You're just being nice today, I think. How's Rumble doing? Good? Good. If Rumble's doing good, that means truth is doing good. That's great. You're doing a great job. Thank you, Chris, very much. Vlad Tenneff of Robin Hood. Vlad, thank you, Vlad. Thank you, Vlad. Good.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. These are two smart, handsome guys. They got the whole package. They're of Gemini, but they have the whole package. They have a lot of things, actually, but Gemini is just the one for today, right? They've got the look, they've got the genius, got plenty of cash, and it's great that you're on our side.

You guys are great. I can never tell them apart, but their mother can. I ask, can your mother tell you apart? And the answer is yes, right? Easily or is it tough for her? Easy, I think. You guys have been great. Thank you very much. Great to be with you. Let me say the entire crypto community for years, you were mocked and dismissed and counted

out. You were counted out as little as a year and a half ago. But this signing is a massive validation and even before this signing over the last year, year and a half, I think your stuff has gone up more than any stock, or just about more, a couple of stocks that were pretty good, I will say. But you have, certainly as an industry, gone up more than anybody. Nobody's gained the respect in such a short period of time. But this signing is a massive validation of your hard work and your pioneering spirit and your ability to never give up. Because a lot of people would have given up two, three years ago. So I want to thank you for contributing to the incredible strength of America. This is going to make it stronger and congratulations on this incredible achievement.

You've made our dollar look really good and strong and powerful. It's good for the dollar and it's good for the country And that's why I backed you at an early stage and I also did it for the votes because you did come out and vote I was And they changed tune, you know Biden's team they changed tune right in the middle of the campaign all of a sudden. They loved you guys They dropped all charges. They did have I got you guys out of so much trouble and you know what? I don't think anybody voted for him right because you remembered you remember they were very they treated you very unfairly actually

So it's a great honor that we were involved and And it was it was a tremendous amount of support that we got at the polls. We won Think of it. We won every swing state. We won by millions of votes. We won the popular vote. We won the districts by 2,750. Think of that to 505. Different districts too, by the way. Every once in a while that number can change, but it doesn't change by much.

The map was almost totally red, and you guys were with us right from the beginning. Exactly one year ago This month many of you were with me in Nashville, Tennessee. Do you remember that day? Right? That was a big day in Nashville, Tennessee When we became and I became the first presidential candidate ever to address the Bitcoin Conference and at this time and at that time I was in the Bitcoin conference and at this time and at that time,

crypto builders and founders were under relentless assault by the Biden administration which was trying to crush your industry and crush you as people and go after your families. They were a vicious group of people. People don't realize that they were vicious, incompetent but vicious. Well, Joe was an incompetent guy but he was always known as a vicious guy. I'm not saying that I'm not confident, but I'm confident that I'm not competent, but I'm confident that I'm not competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm

competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm competent, but I'm bring back American liberty and leadership and make the United States the crypto capital of the world. And that's what we've done. And under the Trump administration, this is only going further. You're going to do really well. I mean, I'm so proud of what you've done

in the last couple of years. And very important, on day one, I remember I did this and I said this and I mentioned this name, and I got the greatest applause of the whole campaign. We fired Joe Biden's SEC chair, Gary Gensler. We fired him. But I remember I was making a speech and, you know, it was just a line in speech. And I said, and I will fire Gary Gensler. The place exploded.

I said, I finished that one and I said, what the hell did that guy do? There was, there was a lot of hatred there, I'll tell you. And it turned out, as I got familiar with everything, it turned out you were absolutely right. In his place, I appointed a visionary chairman who wants America to build the future and not block the future. He's going to be unbelievable. He'll go down as one of the greats.

And Paul Atkins, where are you, Paul Atkins? Applause And you know, Paul, the crypto guys, they said, everybody said, not only crypto, everyone, they all wanted Paul for the position. And he's a tough cookie too, he's just, but they actually said, we don't care. We just think he's fair. All they wanted was fairness. And they have somebody that, you're really a champion of the street and you're a champion of the country. You're gonna do a fantastic job.

I saw you interviewed the other night. I watched it about two o'clock in the morning. There was a little thing called C-SPAN, which I don't know how many people were watching. Don't worry, you were on prime time too, but they happen to have a little rerun. I don't want to embarrass you. But a fantastic job, really. You are absolutely so perfect for the job. Congratulations, Paul. And Paul is here today among the commissioners, various commissioners, including Hester Pierce and Mark Yoeda. Hester and Mark Yoeda. Thank you, Hester.

Thank you very much and thank you, Mark, wherever you may be. Is Mark here? Oh, stand up, Mark. Good, thank you. Good job. Good. I'm glad I gave you a second crack you didn't hear because of the thunderous applause for Hester. But thank you. I heard tremendous things about both of you. Thank you very much. My first week in office I also established the first ever presidential working group on digital assets and we have an executive director, where's Bo Heinz? Bo Heinz. Right, Bo? And Bo was a great football player, right? Bo was a great football player, one of the better players in college football.

So I know you're from that also. See? Who would think that I know that? I know a lot of things, Bo. But he was a champion player. I stopped the weaponization of government against crypto and bitcoin, and we ended the lawless operation ChokePoint 2.0.

That was a bad operation. Then I kept my promises to the community and granted a full presidential pardon to Ross Albrecht. Ross Albrecht. And you have no idea how important that name became. It was like a symbol and his mother was unbelievable. His mother was an unbelievable woman. But it was so important to a certain group of people.

And in the truly momentous act last March, I signed an executive order establishing the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve as well as the United States Digital Asset Stockpile. And that's all signed up. With today's signing, we're pushing even further into the exciting new frontier. Just as I promised last year, the Genius Act creates a clear and simple regulatory framework to establish and unleash the immense promise of dollar backed stable coins

This could be perhaps the greatest revolution in financial technology since the birth of the internet itself A lot of people are saying that I don't know. What do you guys think? Yes If you say yes, I'm saying yes. I Think it's great that you're involved, I will tell you. Many Americans are unaware that behind the scenes, the technical backbone of the financial system is decades out of date, many, many years out of date. You know that.

Paul and others are straightening it out. But payments and money transfers are costly and take days or even weeks to clear. Under this bill, the entire ancient system will be eligible for a 21st century upgrade using the state-of-the-art crypto technology. Who would have thought we would have been saying that two years after I really met you for the first time?

The Genius Act provides banks, businesses, and financial institutions a framework for issuing crypto assets backed one for one with real U.S. dollars, treasury bills, and other cash equivalences, really strengthening the dollar and giving the dollar great prominence. And you know, you have this little group called BRICS. It's fading out fast. But BRICS is, they wanted to try and take over the dollar, the dominance of the dollar and the standard of the dollar.

And I said, anybody that's in the BRICS consortium of nations, we're gonna tariff you 10%. And they had a meeting the following day and almost nobody showed up. They said, leave me alone. We didn't wanna, they didn't wanna be tariffed to there. So it's amazing. No, we're not going to let the dollar slide.

If we have a smart president, you're never going to let the dollar slide. If you have a dummy, that could happen, like the last one. If you ever asked him about the dollar slider, he would have no idea. But we can't let that ever happen again. Consumers, vendors, and people all over the world will then be able to use

those stablecoins for ultra-low-cost transactions that are cleared and settled in a matter of seconds rather than weeks and months. And it's really an amazing thing. And with the privacy, flexibility, and decentralization of cash, this revolution has the potential to supercharge American economic growth and empower billions of people to save and transfer in U.S. dollars. It's really all backed by the dollars. It's really a great thing and a lot of, you know, we had a lot of Democrat support, I have to tell you that.

I was shocked any time you get one Democrat, but we had a tremendous amount of Democrat support, which we appreciate and which just shows you that you're doing the right thing. This will increase demand for U.S. Treasuries, lower interest rates, and secure the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency for generations to come. The reserve currency is so important. You know, if we lost that, that would be like

losing a world war. We can never let anyone play games with us. And that's why when I heard about this group from BRICS, six countries basically, I hit them very, very hard. And if they have a form, if they have a really form and a meaningful way, it will end very quickly, I will tell you for them. They for them. They won't be gone very long. I don't think they'll even do it. They're virtually afraid to meet.

I also remain fully committed to my pledge never to allow the creation of a central bank digital currency in America. It won't happen. My first. Thank you. And the other night, I will say, with some of the congressmen and women, they wanted that so badly, that was so important to them. You know, I was impressed that they knew what the hell it was, to be honest with you. Please, sir, please, the central bank, digital currency, you have to make sure, sir. And I'm saying, what do you know about that?

It's amazing the knowledge that people have gained all of a sudden. We had a lot of problems with some of them. I said, we've already got it from the Fed, right, from commerce, and from an executive order. You don't need it a fourth time. Sir, we have to get it. It's amazing. But they knew their subject,

didn't they? And we helped them out. My first week in office, I signed an executive order to ban the creation of a CBDC in the United States. And very soon, I look forward to signing legislation that will codify and ban the make it a permanent law put it in permanence I'm also committed to signing landmark crypto market structure legislation this year to grow the industry we're going to be growing it even more more than people ever thought it's a really hot industry and for a little while two nights ago we were a little concerned because we were a little short on votes. Like I would say maybe we were about nine short.

Nine short at three in the morning. We were about four short at 3.30 in the morning. And we were in good shape at four o'clock in the morning, right? But the people and few people have fought harder for the bill than were signing than some of the people here today. You have been unbelievable. It's our White House AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, who has done such a great job. And I did his, I did his, he has a show now, he's become a showman, but a couple of years

ago, it's probably two years ago now in San Francisco, and I did his show, and I heard he's a very smart guy, and we had a great show, you've kept it going a lot longer, and you got, is that still your highest rated ever show? Oh, he knows what to say. He knows what to say. He knows what to say. He had a rating that he had millions and millions of people. He said, what's going on? But we had a great show.

And I said, you know, that guy's really smart. I said, if I get elected, I was running at that time, if I get elected, we're going to bring him into government in some ways worth a fortune. He's made a lot of money. He's a very rich, he's a very rich billionaire but this is more important, isn't it? This is, me too, you know, it's like, doesn't matter. This is much, I know Howard and I talk about it all the time. Howard could

go back to his wonderful brokerage firm, hire one or two people and it's not the same as, it's not the same as what you're doing, right? The biggest, we're doing the biggest deals in the world. Actually, the deal we're doing now in tariffs is the biggest, when you add it up, the biggest deal ever made in history. It could be a thousand IBMs. I mean, if you think of it, it's the biggest deal ever done. So it's hard to go back to a brokerage firm and make $79,000 commission on the stale of

a sock, right? That's true. But I want to ask David. So David's been fantastic. He's done an incredible job. And I'd like to ask David to come up, say a few words. Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, President Trump. It's a great, great honor to be here. And it's true that I never expected to work in government at all. And then everything changed after President Trump came on my podcast. And I accepted this job as crypto's orb because I thought it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for a president who really wants to get things done for the American people.

And if anything, that's been an understatement. The first six months of this administration have been more successful than any administration in American history, what's been done. It's just been incredible. President Trump has worked at tech speed. We're used to working fast in Silicon Valley, but even this is fast for us in Silicon Valley, the speed at which you moved President Trump. It's really incredible.

And now today, you have another historic legislative achievement that is a monumental step to fulfilling your promise to making the United States the crypto capital of the world. This genius act will unlock American dominance in the crypto industry by creating clear rules of the road. It will update archaic payment rails with a revolutionary new payment system. the U.S. Bank account, which will create trillions of dollars of demand for the U.S. Treasury.

That is the power of this bill, U.S. dollar dominance. This is a huge promise made and promised kept by President Trump. The U.S. bank account will extend U.S. dollar dominance globally by creating a digital dollar that people all over the world can use. For every digital dollar in a crypto wallet, there will be a Which will create trillions of dollars of demand for US Treasury. So that is the power of this bill as US dollar dominance This is a huge promise made and promise kept by President Trump and there's just a few other people I'd like to thank first my family for being here. Thank you

And Bo Heinz who President Trump mentions the director of our crypto council, he really did the heavy lifting here So both eyes want to thank you again. And my chief of staff, Tracy Johnson, as well, who also does the heavy lifting. And Bill Haggerty and French Hill and all the congressmen senators who have already been mentioned by President Trump. So I'll save the time. But it's really been an honor to work with all of you.

This was really a team effort. But most of all, I been mentioned by President Trump, so I'll save the time, but it's really been an honor to work with all of you. This was really a team effort, but most of all, I wanna thank President Trump for accomplishing what nobody thought was possible, and it's true that just earlier this week, the media was reporting that this bill was dead. This bill was dead, and then the media didn't know one thing, that we had a secret weapon. We have a dealmaker in chief,

and thanks to President Trump, he stepped in and saved this bill, and it's because of your vision your leadership your determination your skill that we're all here today So thank you very much President Trump Is that Laura Please come kiss come here. This is our superstar. She was the head of the Republican Party and nobody complained about anything we we weren't integrated. This is Laura Trump married to a young gentleman named Eric. They have beautiful two children but she has been so good she stepped into that

position like it was nothing that we wanted. And she said, Dad, I'd like to go home right now to my beautiful husband and my son and daughter, right? But you did a fantastic job and you worked with a great gentleman, too. He's doing a fantastic job. But I just want to thank you. I just saw you standing back there. I wanted to bring her in.

Thank you very much, Laura. Thank you very much, Laura. Thank you. So, under the Trump administration, I just got back from Saudi Arabia, and we went to Qatar, we went to a number of countries, and I will tell you, the level of respect that this country has now is incredible. The UAE, I tell you what, we had a time there but every leader said the same thing. That was President Trump officially signing the Genius Act into law. Welcome to Closing Bell. I'm Leslie Picker in for Scott Wapner today. Let's send it over to Emily Wilkins who is at the White House with the latest.

Hi Emily. Hey Leslie. Well yes certainly a big day for the crypto industry, a big win for President Trump as well as a number of Republicans and you heard him during that speech really talk about the contrast between the Trump administration and the Biden administration when it comes to crypto and trying to deliver what the industry wants there Interestingly enough though a lot of these companies Coinbase ripple and recent Horowitz They've all actually donated to a pack that has been pretty bipartisan and that pack has had a lot of a lot of power in the 2024 election they donated around 200 million dollars to various candidates and they

just announced that they have a current war chest of 141 million dollars that they plan to spend in the midterms in a bipartisan manner and really what you saw yesterday from these bills is they do have bipartisan momentum that's going to be really critical for a market structure bill that is the one you know the stablecoin bills gained signed into law today but it's market structure that broader bill for digital assets that a lot of these crypto companies really want to see. That one's not at the finish line yet. It's got to go through the Senate. We know there are some challenges there getting the Senate the House to work together making sure

Democrats are on board for passage but there is hope that they can actually start moving forward on that bill maybe near the end of September. Optimistically, maybe passage in October. But as we saw this last week, a lot of things can happen. There were a lot of speed bumps to today and we'll be needing to watch very closely to see if they can get and keep that coalition together to deliver crypto industries the very big win they want. But certainly today with stable coin is something that both Trump and the crypto industry is celebrating.

Emily, how much was this this notion about the dollar dominance being a threat? How much of a role did that play in kind of getting President Trump involved? You had David Sacks, the crypto czar, saying that he was the dealmaker in chief. He saved this bill. President Trump was talking about strengthening the dollar, giving the dollar great prominence. And he said losing the reserve currency would be like losing a world war. So was that, do you think, the critical selling piece that got President Trump more involved in this legislation?

I mean, Leslie, we've seen this story play out a number of times over the last six months. Congress gets very close to passing an issue. There's a last minute group of members who push back and then Trump comes in and is able to get folks to yes. Interestingly enough, this time the issue was on preventing the Fed from creating a central bank digital currency. That's something the holdouts were looking for and pushing for there. I think for President Trump too, the case has been made to him as it has to a lot of lawmakers that when it comes to crypto, the U.S. needs to have a structure in place. Otherwise the U.S. will fall behind.

They talk a lot about jobs. They talk a lot about making sure companies are coming to the U.S. That's been a big, big thing when they've been discussing this, Leslie. Emily, thank you very much. We're going to go back into the signing where President Trump is signing this genius act right now. Which is a big scandal. If that were a Republican it would really be a big scandal but it is one of the great scandals of our time. Thank you very much everybody. All right. That was President Trump signing the Genius Act, something he has called a

giant step in a massive validation for the industry. Coinbase's CEO will discuss the impact of the crypto bills that they will have on his company and the industry coming up at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Closing Bell Overtime. Let's get a check on where things stand, the S&P and NASDAQ hitting fresh record highs before pulling back today. Let's bring in Wharton School Professor of Finance, Jeremy Siegel. He's also Wisdom Tree's Chief Economist.

Thank you, Professor, for being here. Just real quickly, I'm curious your thoughts on the signing of the Genius Act, whether you believe it is a watershed moment for the crypto industry, and whether you think there are additional watershed moment for the crypto industry and whether you think there are additional catalysts that the industry will be watching for. Yeah, it's certainly very important.

What is interesting is actually Bitcoin itself is a threat to the dollar as a reserve currency. I didn't think the BRICS, which he mentioned, them getting together was really any threat at all. But Bitcoin actually has the chance to replace dollars and euros to some extent. So in some ways, there's two things. Now, I love that the tethered dollar part of this bill, there's a lot of good things about this bill. And he's perfectly right. I mean, the financial industry has been in like a frozen state for 40 years. Transfers across nations, across time zones, et cetera, are just way too costly and way

too slow. And, you know, this has an ability to really speed it up. I think this whole question of whether the Fed should do it, I really think the Fed should encourage the commercial banking system to invent a transfer system, which is three, four basis points between merchants, between individuals, between international companies. None of this 2%, 3% that everyone pays on Visa, MasterCard, American Express and all that, it's costing consumers hundreds of billions. So there's a lot of good things here.

I just would want people to remember that Bitcoin has been talked about by many countries as being one of the choices of reserves against the dollar. So we have to make our dollar attractive to be sure. I want to follow up on that because Bitcoin is still a pretty volatile asset at this point in time. You really see it being used as a currency of choice when you have the dollar and the euro as other options. Right.

But don't forget, gold is also up and down. And it is a reserve of many countries in the world. Of course, it used to be the whole base of transactions and the system. Now, the dollar will certainly have that status, but in terms of having a reserve that you're keeping your wealth in, there's a lot of people that are worried about US deficits might say, hey, I'd rather be in gold or Bitcoin or a currency that I think might stand up better. So Bitcoin is an alternative choice to hold wealth, even though dollars certainly still

represents the transactional currency around the world. Well, to your point, you're today Bitcoin is up 26% and the dollar is down 9%. I wanna ask your thoughts on the news that we've seen this week regarding Fed Chair Powell. Are you concerned about the independence of the Fed and what do you think needs to happen from here? Yeah, I'm very worried about the independence of the Fed. And I'm going to say something that I know many people are going to say, what?

This sounds crazy. But I actually think given the pressures, and they're not over, Trump is going to launch in again, that are on pow, that the long-term independence of the Fed may very well be enhanced if he steps down. And I know that that sounds shocking, but let me tell you my reasoning. If the economy goes south, let's say, in the second half of the year, and I'm not saying I'm expecting this at all, and I certainly hope it doesn't. But let's face it, Trump has the perfect scapegoat in J-Pow.

He's going to lambast him. He said he didn't lower the interest rates. That's why we're in trouble. He's not going to blame anything else. And a lot of people can say, yeah, this is his second big mistake after not taking care of inflation. Too slow there, too slow now. He'll fire him.

And what I worry about is he could get to Congress and say, listen, you've got to give me more powers over the Fed. We've got to reduce the power of the Fed. I've got to pick the chairman when I want, how I want, how long I want. That is a threat. Don't forget, our Federal Reserve is not at all a part of our Constitution. It's a creature of the U.S. Congress, created by the Federal Reserve Act 1913.

All its powers deval from Congress. Congress has amended the Federal Reserve Act many times. It could do it again. It could give powers. It can take away powers. Given the current Republican Congress, you know, pretty enthralled to the president, if he wants changes and the economy goes down and it's blamed on Chairman Powell, he'll get them. But then, Professor Siegel, doesn't it matter who then fills that void and whether the market

trusts that they will be acting independently? If Fed Chair Powell were to step down, doesn't it matter more for the sanctity of this kind of independence notion for the Fed? Who takes his place? Well, his independence already has been, you know, greatly diminished. He's only going to be chairman in most 10 more months, and it's going to be less than that, especially if Trump, you know, announces a shadow chairman. Furthermore, you know, there's two good candidates, Kevin Warsh, Kevin Hassett.

Kevin Hassett I know extremely well. Kevin Warsh, I listened closely to his, it was on Squawk Box yesterday morning. I was very impressed with his analysis. I think he would be an excellent chairman. By the way, both of them have actually far more monetary training than does Jay Powell. So I think we're not handing this to a hack.

Yeah, would interest rates go down a little bit faster? Probably yes. Is that a disaster? Really no. I mean, there's many, many economists. I'm one of them, but we heard from Waller. There's several others. And probably the most famous one, the Taylor rule,

which John Taylor, who almost became Fed Chairman, has been the most followed and talked about rule for setting rates, says the Fed funds rate should be in the 3% range. Now, I know Trump has said, do one and all that, and that's not gonna happen. But there is a case. And right now, I think it's so politically compromised, he's

going to go into the meeting and anyone who supports lower rates is going to be considered a Trump lackey. Listen, I want Trump to own this economy. No scapegoat. If he gets to pick someone and the economy goes south, he really doesn't have anyone to blame. Oh, he'll probably try to blame Powell for something in the past. You know, he's still blaming Biden for things in the past. But that won't have the credibility that if Powell does make a mistake here, it would be very bad for the Fed. And if things go well, let's assume the economy booms.

Do you think Powell's gonna get any credit? Do you think the Fed is gonna get any credit? No, it's going to be the big, beautiful bill. It's gonna be Trump's tax cuts, Trump's tariffs, Trump's deregulation. No one is gonna remember Chairman Powell. No one's gonna say he's the one that caused it. So there's no upside.

This is a difficult situation. I mean, I'm not giving good choices here. I'm just saying perhaps the least bad choice, you still serve at the pleasure. Every four years the president chooses you. He chooses every member of the board. He chooses the chair. He chooses the vice chair. So how much independence really is there?

You want to maintain, you know, the ability not to be able to just say, okay, you're the reason this economy didn't well. Nothing to do with my policy. And I'm afraid that if the economy goes south, there will be more and more people that will believe that explanation. Professor Siegel, stay with us. I want to bring in Phil Palumbo, Palumbo Wealth Management Founder and CEO and Wilmington Trust.

Megan Schuh, Megan is also a CNBC contributor. Phil, your reaction to this, do you do you agree that the markets would be satisfied by Fed Chair Powell stepping down and one of the two candidates filling that void in this kind of environment? No, they definitely won't because the Fed has to be independent from the president, from the government. That's the most important thing because their main objective is to keep inflation at 2% and take care of unemployment. That's their main objective. The problem is it's almost like a lose-lose conversation

because everybody thinks the Fed is political, everybody thinks the President's political, and you just can't really win no matter how you slice it. But for the market's perspective, you need to keep it independent. That is super important, and it's always gonna be independent. I don't care what anybody's saying out there.

But the most important thing is the Fed has to continue with his job. If he believes what he believes, which I disagree on what he's been doing, then he continue on that path. He shouldn't be influenced if Trump's saying to cut interest rates, the Fed should not cut interest rates

because Trump's saying to cut interest rates. He's got to do what he feels is best. And he's got to show that to the public that that's the right thing to do. Megan, what's your take? Yeah, well, I mean, we've been looking at the inflation data, and I understand that the

tariff related uncertainty makes this very challenging and that's essentially the issue that the fed is dealing with but on the inflation front- we are seeing really no evidence and we don't think we will see evidence of overall

inflation moving higher because of tariffs for seeing it reflected in higher goods prices- but we are expecting that consumers are in. A an inflation fictigued enough state that they will pull back on services and overall we will continue with the disinflationary environment so regardless of what the political noise is saying- we do expect that will start to see rate cuts beginning in September and then on top of that if you look at real rates and how restrictive the fed is there is absolutely a case- for starting

to ease policy it's just that looming uncertainty that is- really keeping the fed at bay as it relates to starting to cut interest rates again. Professor Segal do you agree with the idea that- you know the fed will ultimately cut

rates and that would lift a veil of uncertainty that's been hanging over the markets? Yeah I do think they they will and then let me agree with our first guess that yeah there would be a negative short-term reaction. I think with the appointment of a good chair that that would fade over time. I think right now there's not a free choice among many of the members that are worried about am I a Trump lackey if I now support lowering those interest rates. I mean it's unfortunate. This is not a good situation,

but it's politically charged right now. And you know for someone as powerful as a Fed chair to be at such odds, continuous odds, with the president does not augur well, in my opinion, for the independence. Again, that independence is extremely important. I'm not trying to say it isn't. And in the short run, it looks like he caved into it. But in the long run, I'm worried that if a real slowdown or even a recession occurs, that the consequence for the Fed would be even worse

in terms of the outcome and the independence. Let's have Trump own this economy. No excuses. If it booms, okay, his policies work. If it doesn't, he has to own it. Not have a scapegoat right there to say, okay, now we know why my policies didn't work. He should have lowered it.

Everyone will say, yeah, we're having a session. Why didn't he lower it? You were the one that said that. Many others said that. It would not be a good position for that. It would not be a good position for Powell. It would not be a good position for the independence of the Fed, and the Congress would not look well upon the Fed in that situation.

Well, the market will be the one with the scorecard here, giving credit and taking credit away. Professor Segal, Phil and Megan, thank you so much for your comments today. A quick programming note, don't miss my interview with Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision Michelle Bowman in her first ever CNBC interview and first broadcast interview since taking that role back in June. That is Tuesday morning on Squawk Box 730 a.m. Eastern time. You won't want to miss it. Coming up,

JP Morgan's Jordan Jackson is back with his outlook for stocks, where he sees the market heading from here. Closing bell is back after this break. Welcome back. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ hitting all time highs earlier today and tracking for a positive week. Joining me now with his outlook for stocks, JPMorgan Asset Management Global Market Strategist

Jordan Jackson. Jordan, thank you for being here. So it seems like you are not expecting a recession over the next 12 months. What are some of the headwinds that could derail that expectation? Well, I think the market is fairly sanguine over the very, very near term, right? We've got potential reciprocal tariffs being put on place on August 1st. That would mark a meaningful increase

in the average effective tariff rate. We're currently sitting at about 15%. If those tariff rates are put into place on August 1st, that would raise that number to around 22%. So a pretty big jump. Not close to the 30% that was roughly announced on April 2nd, but pretty darn close. There's also August 12th that we need to be mindful of as well,

and that's when trade negotiations with China are supposed to largely be announced, and I haven't really heard much development in regards to that. So markets do appear to be, as we flirt with all-time highs, sort of sanguine over the very, very near term. With that being said, as you've highlighted, I would say over the next 12 months, I think markets are gonna be higher than where they are today, probably meaningfully so.

We're concluding our first full week of earnings for the second quarter and they came in above expectations, but a lot of the big names did move lower on the results, perhaps because they had moved so much heading into the print. So it's kind of a sell the news and evaluation concern. How do you think that portends the rest of the earnings season, particularly as we look ahead

to tech earnings beginning next week? Sure, so I think that the word I would describe for the earnings backdrop is resilient. Companies sort of came into this period of certainty really did a lot of cost cutting measures whether it be reducing workforce or putting freezes on hiring, really working with their suppliers to sort of try to either bear the brunt or have some of their foreign suppliers bear the brunt of higher tariffs. And so I think when you look at the broader backdrop, you've got to look at resiliency in some of the earnings.

And I think we'll see that in some of the tech earnings that we get over the course of next week. The question will be as sort of forward guidance, what are they signaling over the next couple of quarters? We continue to hear more of a cautious tone from CEOs with the expectation that the economy is going to begin to slow over the second half of this year. So it will be interesting to see what kind of forward guidance we get that informs our

earnings expectations for the tail end of this year. And hopefully we get guidance at all after what we saw last quarter. It seems like so far we've been getting some numbers. Thank you, Jordan. Really appreciate it. Up next next we're tracking the biggest movers as we head into the close. Closing bell minutes until the closing bell. Let's get to Kate Rogers for a look at the key stocks to watch. Kate. Hey, Leslie, we'll take a look here first at Netflix. That stock is trading lower despite reporting a beat on the top and bottom line. Streaming giant also raising its

full year revenue outlook amid a weakening of the U.S. dollar and healthy member growth ad sales, but with shares up more than 40 percent before the report. Investors not really impressed with what they saw there. You can see that stock is down by more than 5%. And meantime, interactive broker shares higher after that company posted better than expected earnings in revenue for Q2. The company's trading volume in stocks, options, and futures all climbed from a year earlier,

with overall commission revenue up 27%. Those shares are higher by more than 7% right now, Wes. Back over to you. Yeah, another beneficiary of the volatility we've seen. Kate, thank you. Coming up, massive moves for shares of Sarepta. We'll tell you what's driving that name when we take you inside the Market Zone.

Welcome back. We are now in the closing bell market zone. Angelica Peebles is here on the sell-off in Surrepta's shares. And City US equity strategist Scott Cronert breaks down the final crucial minutes of the trading day. Angelica, Surrepta's shares are absolutely plummeting today. What is behind this move? Yeah, Leslie, quite a day for Surrepta. And the main news now is that the FDA will ask the company to voluntarily

Stop shipments of its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy That's according to a person familiar with the matter now The development is coming just two days after Sarepta told investors that it didn't think there was any risk The FDA would remove a levitis from the market for younger healthier patients since Sarepta already agreed to add a new safety warning Remember two teenagers who received the treatment died from liver failure for younger, healthier patients, since Sarepta already agreed to add a new safety warning. Remember, two teenagers who received the treatment died from liver failure, prompting Sarepta to stop shipments for patients

who could no longer walk those tend-to-be-older boys. Then last night, reports emerged that a person who received another one of Sarepta's gene therapies died, and that therapy is still experimental. It treats a different type of muscular dystrophy, but it uses the same method of delivery, and that raised questions about the approved drug, Alevodis.

And that drug is critical to the company's futures and so that's why you're seeing such a sharp sell-off today. Shares are now down about 90% year-to-date, Leslie. Yeah, tragic story. Obviously, a pretty big move in those shares as well. Angelica, thank you. City's Scott Kroner joins me now. Scott, what are you watching heading into the close today? Leslie, I think what we're watching is

pretty straightforward. We got this mix between earnings expectations coming through a little bit better than expected, but you know, you start the earnings season off with the financials and I don't think there's any big surprises that they're giving us, generally speaking, pretty good results. But on the flip side, we're also looking at some of the read through implications of the latest budget bill. And there, I think what we're looking at in terms of some of the tax related incentives

is a net positive for earnings expectations going into the back half of this year. The last part of course is will this persist as we get into the tech heavy part of the earnings season? Will there be enough good incremental news in terms of the AI infrastructure play to support a lot of the price action that's really driven equities off of the post-liberation day lows? Yeah, that was exactly my question. And whether the cross currents that you have between tax policy on one hand and tariffs and the uncertainty about trade

on the other hand, how they're so far netting out in earnings and what your expectation is for the companies that have yet to report. Yeah, so Leslie, in aggregate, our expectation is that we're gonna get a pretty decent boost from these tax-related provisions, okay? But generally, generally speaking, a lot of that's gonna be offset by what we think is coming in terms of

Tariffs with tariffs which are their own form of taxation We've been arguing for some time that tariff issue is a little bit more of a gross margin issue than an inflation issue So they will tend to balance out but company specifics is where it's going to get really interesting on this And I think that's where the discussion from here goes is you hit these new highs in the index which is looking more fully fairly valued the discussions could increasingly go down this path of how persistent is this AI spending tailwind we think we're gonna find that we're still in pretty early endings in this and it's going to continue to support a tailwind for US equities through the second half. So you think the market will coalesce around

growth names, InfoTech and communication services, those remain an overweight for you. What should we be looking for as we see Alphabet reporting next week? Tesla, what are some of the key commentary indicators that you're going to be watching? So it's a very good question. And what I'm going to say is that we got pretty good news from those companies with Q1 results in terms of perpetuation of this cap X spend. So we're going to want to keep an eye on whether that actually is persisting. But at the same time, what we're really looking for here is more evidence that this underlying

theme has legs to it. And by legs, I mean not just one year, but potentially two or three years. Essentially, what's happening with the broader index is you're increasingly pricing in expectations for this spending surge and ultimate productivity improvement to persist. We need to get comfort that that is looking like it's still very much in the line of sight as these big tech players report and give us some incremental detail on that. Yeah, it's gonna be an interesting quarter for sure given all of the policy uncertainty that's still out there

and yet on a fundamental basis. We're still seeing companies put up pretty decent results. Scott, thank you so much for being here today. Appreciate your perspective as we head into the close on this Friday. Just taking a look at the markets, the Dow down about 0.3 percent, the NASDAQ and the S&P looking to close. Essentially, little change today.

The Russell down 0.6 percent. On the crypto side, Bitcoin down more than 1 percent, despite this crypto week that led to the signing of the genius back, which we saw earlier in the show. And on a sexual basis, pretty evenly split. We've got utilities who stand out today, while energy is lower. That does it for Closing Bell. Let's end it over time with Morgan Gremmings.