Closing Bell - Closing Bell Overtime: Pfizer CEO on Drug Pricing, China’s EV Moves and Evercore's Julian Emanuel on Record Highs 2/18/25

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Evercore ISI's Julian Emanuel analyzes the market outlook and what he is telling clients as stocks sit near records. Our Angelica Peebles sits down with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla to discuss drug pricing and industry challenges as the sector readies itself for HHS RFK Jr. Rockefeller International's Ruchir Sharma weighs in on China’s Xi-CEO meeting. Plus, Morgan sits down with Saronic CEO Dino Mavrookas, talking the company's new capital raise and its shipbuilding efforts while Jon talks with Abridge CEO Dr. Shiv Rao on bringing AI to patient care. 

Well, that's under regulation. Irvid Edge Properties ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Mint Incorporation Limited doing the honors of the NASDAQ. A record closing high for the S&P 500 and plenty of action under the surface as Intel leaps higher and Meta finally breaks its win streak. That's the scorecard on Wall Street for the actions just getting started. Welcome to Closing Bell Overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan with John Ford.

And coming up on today's show, Pfizer CEO Albert Borla is going to join us for an exclusive interview on the outlook for the pharma industry with RFK Jr. at the top role in health and human services. Plus, we're expecting earnings this hour from Toll Brothers, Arista Networks, Cadence Design, Devon Energy, and Occidental Petroleum. We're going to bring you those results as soon as they cross. And Rockefeller International's Roshir Sharma is going to join us with his outlook for China as Beijing takes steps to embrace its homegrown tech leaders. But first, let's get to today's market action and this record close with Evercore ISI Senior Managing Director Julian Emanuel. Julian, it's great to have you on. And that's exactly where

I'm going to start with you because we're largely through earnings season here. We know the Fed is on hold. Washington seems to be what Washington is right now. Are you surprised to see us back at these record levels? What drives us from here in either direction? Yeah, so it is surprising that if you look at the news of the last week on the economic front, between the weaker than expected retail sales and the stronger than expected inflation, which, of course, as we know, throughout this almost two and a half year old bull market, the market has focused intently on the inflation narratives and the back and forth there.

It is surprising that that we are breaking out to new highs here, but it really speaks to the resilience of the bull market in general. markets don't end in specifically overvaluation alone and that earning season has proven to have been good and sets the table very positively for 2025. Well, we talked about the fact that Meta has just ended its record winning streak here to finish the day slightly lower. But it does perhaps speak to the role that big tech, mega cap tech, has been playing more recently in this market as it's not just the S&P 500, but the Nasdaq 100 has played a mighty game of catch up and is also trading at record highs. Right. And then actually, if you look at today's tape, the equal weighted S&P 500 did very, very well. Look, if something goes up 20 days in a row, you'd be foolish not to expect

there to be a pullback at some point. But when you look at it, though, the momentum from point to point in this market in general and, you know, going back to sort of the election where some of those election type stocks really ran for days and days and days. That's been a hallmark of this bull market. And basically trying to short things before their time has been a very difficult and painful game to play. Yeah. Yeah. It looks like it's been painful for some folks. Well, Julian, let's let's zoom out and look at the macro again for a moment, particularly when it comes to inflation. Is it plausible at this point to believe that cheaper energy prices are going to wipe out inflation, as President Trump argued during

the campaign? Or is it more plausible that tariffs are going to keep inflation sticky or even make it worse? Well, cheaper energy prices by themselves are not likely to wipe out inflation. And in fact, what you're seeing now is that foodstuffs, coffee, cocoa, eggs, cattle prices are really surging, whereas energy itself has remained, you know, very muted. But what we would say there is the potential for energy prices to remain or perhaps even drift lower if you get a geopolitical outcome that's viewed as favorable by the markets. It changes the psychology on behalf of investors and consumers because energy is the most important psychological input to inflation. So it may not drag us materially closer to that 2% core PCE, but it certainly will put us headed back towards that direction,

which we think is an eventuality. Okay, no rescue from energy, but maybe no doom either. So now to the AI market, which has been a big part of what's driven many of the mega caps, certainly NVIDIA now. What do you think is holding that story up as we look ahead to NVIDIA earnings next week? I mean, the mega caps have kind of been passing the baton between them, even though there's been some broadening. It's not like those big guys have given up the ghost. Well, but again, the bigger picture is every single day there's a new headline with regard to a new AI startup. And in the final analysis is if you

think about the internet revolution, two things went on. As it became clear that it became more important in terms of people's everyday lives, you had this sort of multiplier effect to the use of it, to the business applications. And we're in the stage now where corporate America knows that they have to engage in AI because it is part of people's everyday life. And the deep sink news tells you that the demand is going to rise and that things are going to happen at an all-in, cheaper price. And that is very bullish for the future. Hold on a moment, Julian. We've got Cadence Design earnings out.

Christina Partsenevel has those numbers. Christina. EPS of $1.88, which is stronger than what the street anticipated on revenues of $1.35 billion stronger. They said they had record bookings as well as a record backlog for Q4. The problem that you're seeing with the stock right now really has to do with the full year guidance. So they're guiding well below what the street was anticipating. EPS $6 665, so $6.65 to 675 on REBS of 5.1 billion to 5.22. So that is less than what the street was anticipating. For those, just a quick reminder, Cadence provides the IP for chips. So it's a design company, as the name says. And they had record backlog, but their guidance is a little light.

Back with you. All right. Christina Parts-Nevelis, thank you. All right. Christina Parts Nevelis, thank you. All right. Just to go back to Julian here for a moment, if we still have him. All right. Julian, I just want to get your thoughts

on what we're going to see or what you expect to see in the bond market this year and how much equities are going to take their cue from that. So the bond market, in our view, is roughly range bound. Call it between 5% and 4.3 percent on the downside. But because of the sensitivity and because if you look at this bull market, essentially, stocks have had difficulty with yields above four and three quarters on the 10 year.

And the record between four and a half and four and three quarters has been a bit more mixed. We think that particularly as policy is rolled out and the bond market reacts, you're going to have these kinds of three-step forward, two-step back type gyrations in the stock market that, again, going back to what I started with, long term is fine. And we do think you'll get to 6,800 by the end of the year. But if you're a more active investor, you're going to have to negotiate the landmines around the perception of yields as the year rolls on. Okay. Sit tight because we have more breaking news. This time it's on Bill Ackman and Diana Olick has the details. Hi, Diana. Hi, Morgan. In this regards, a potential takeover of Howard Hughes Corporation, the real estate developer. Ackman had been talking about this in January. He had

a proposal out in January to buy shares of Howard Hughes. But now, 20 minutes ago, he posted on X that he would have a big announcement at 4 o'clock. And the market really rallied on that. The stock rallied on that with people thinking that a deal had been made. But actually, what he put out, however, is yet another proposal to pay $90 per share to acquire 10 million newly issued shares of Howard Hughes Corporation. That is different from the original proposal, which would buy 11.8 million shares for $1 billion and a share repurchase at $85 per share. He had likened this to Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett's takeover of the

company many years ago. But he said he would be taking over a company in a much better position. Again, this is just a proposal. And that's why the stock is now down four and a half percent. I had spoken with CEO David O'Reilly last month about it. He did not have any comment on it. But this was in response to Ackman saying that he, as well as other board members, were concerned about the stock price not performing as well, although he again said that he would be looking to take over a much better company than Berkshire Hathaway was when Warren Buffett took it over so many years ago. So again, another proposal for Howard Hughes, and the stock is down 4.5%. Back to you guys. All right. Diana Olick, thank you. Julian Emanuel, back to you for a moment. Now, what's going to be the fork in the road for this market?

Because you've been talking about how you can't make assumptions about exactly how the market's going to react. You know, it's a bull market. They don't go down easily. But where are where's the next fork in the road, you think, where we're either going to get some data, see some results, and that's going to have a big impact on market sentiment? Well, in terms of event catalysts, you've got them straight ahead. You know, whether it's the March 1st tariff deadline between Canada and Mexico that is has been mooted back at the beginning of February, whether it's the ongoing negotiations with regard to Russia and Ukraine.

There's no shortage of catalysts. But what we would say is most important is this relationship between how asset markets are perceiving policy, i.e., if the bond market stays as sanguine as it has been, that is going to give lots and lots of room for stocks to continue running. But again, the narrative could change given all those catalysts. Oh, by the way, we're facing a March 14th government shutdown. So it really is going to see how investors interpret the various outcomes with all of these different risk points. All right, Julian Emanuel, thank you for joining us to kick off the hour with a record close for the S&P. All right, we've got more earnings to bring you. This time it is payments processor

shift four with mixed results shift for EPS beating $1.35 adjusted per share. That was better than the street expectations of $1.14 per share. Revenues, though, those missed. Those came in soft at $887 million versus street consensus of about a billion dollars. You could see shares are down about 10 percent right now. But the company also announcing another deal that Shift4 will be acquiring Global Blue. This is a publicly traded payments and tech provider that works with luxury brands on automated tax rebates. So this is expected to close in the second half of this year. It's an all cash deal would value Global Blue at $7.50 per common share or a $2.5 billion enterprise value. You can see shares of Global View, which I should note,

tend to be thinly traded. But you can see those spiking 17 percent right now on this news. For Shift4, which has been on something of a buying spree in recent years, this acquisition would propel the company into VAT tax processing, of which Global Blue owns something like 80 percent of the global marketplace. But the company also has a currency conversion business, meaning consumers traveling abroad can choose at point of sale whether to pay in local currency or that of their origin. So Shift4 president and incoming CEO Taylor Lauber telling me that Shift4 has never offered that currency conversion despite supporting 40 percent of hotels in the country. So this is a service that could immediately be rolled out. Quote, it's a new vertical, but it's also really well within our playbook to say we've identified this kind of really critical component of commerce. We're going to own it and we'll cross sell all of these other things that we've done for years, Lauber telling me. Also worth

noting, two strategic shareholders and partners of Global Blue, Tencent and Ant, have agreed to remain shareholders of Shift4 through this transaction. That could give Chinese consumers of those e-commerce players the same access in their apps when traveling abroad in the U.S., for example, as they are used to in China. So perhaps for Shift4, a larger toehold into that demographic and that market, meaning the Chinese consumer with this deal as well. So some big moves on your screen. Shift4 down by about 9% and Global Blue now up 18.5% on this news. big moves on your screen. Shift four down by about nine percent and global blue

now up 18 and a half percent on this news. Big moves indeed in overtime. Now let's turn to Mike Santoli for a look at how investors are weighing the policy uncertainty out of Washington these days. Mike. Yeah, John. So obviously perceived uncertainty on policy is very high. That's what this orange line says. It's actually an index of economic policy uncertainty based on news flow and other factors. What's interesting here is normally when it really goes through the roof. Now, you saw that was during the pandemic when we've literally broken through the top of this chart. But this was after the 9-11 attacks. You see in here the sovereign debt crisis and the U.S. debt downgrade, all those things around the global financial crisis. Usually what was going on was the market was becoming more risk averse.

This blue line, the equity risk premium, very simple kind of view of equities versus bonds. When this is high, it means that investors are demanding a much bigger valuation cushion to own stocks versus bonds. Now, it's an imperfect measure, but the discrepancy here is pretty stark. So the markets have not been particularly disturbed about this idea that there is so much uncertainty. I always feel as if when uncertainty is acknowledged and understood and it's basically focused on a particular group of factors, that means that people have gone some distance toward trying to reconcile the implications. Also worth noting, uncertainty doesn't just mean, hey, we're worried about bad things happening. It could be resolved in a positive way.

But it seems like the market in this case has not really paid the price in advance, therefore maybe not the same kind of climactic buying opportunity for stocks that some of these uncertainty spikes in the past have been, John. All right, I'll take it. Mike Santoli, we'll see you a little bit later this hour. Meantime, we have more earnings to bring you. This time, it's Arista Networks. Those results are out, and Christina Parts-Nevels has the numbers. Hi, Christina. Well, the stock is reacting positively right now on the earnings beat for Q4, $0.65 on revenues of $1.93 billion.

And I should say that the stock is now reversed because it's down 2%. But Q1 revenue guidance came in at $1.93 to 1.97 billion, which is also higher than the street anticipated. The gross margins, the non-gap gross margins for the quarter as well as the guidance higher. The only possibility I'm seeing right now with the stock movement is there's been a big run up into this name just over the last few days because CapEx spending has been so high for hyperscalers. They spend money on companies like Arista Networks because Arista makes the networking cables for data high for hyperscalers. They spend money on companies like Arista Networks, because Arista makes the networking cables for data centers and hyperscalers, etc.

So there's some, I guess, a read-through with this report, but it's pretty much flat, despite the Q1 revenue guidance beat. All right. Yeah. Christina, thank you. From data center networking now to human networking, Bumble earnings are out. Julia Borsten has those numbers. Julia? So Bumble shares are falling and what appears to be very weak guidance shares are now down about 15 percent. Revenues of $262 million, a million dollars ahead of estimates. But it's the company's guidance that really seems to be weighing on the stock. The company guiding to

first quarter revenue in a range of between $242 million and $248 million. That's below the $257 million estimate. Just worth noting here that even though the revenue was pretty much in line, that is down 4.4 percent from last year. Also, total paying users increased 5.3 percent to 4.2 million despite that lower revenue. See, shares now down about 14%. Back over to you. All right. Julia Boorstin, thank you. After the break, an exclusive conversation with Pfizer CEO Albert Borla

on the impact of Trump policy on the pharma industry, expectations for FK Jr.'s tenure at HHS, and so much more. And we're still awaiting earnings results from Toll Brothers after a downbeat day for the homebuilders as sentiment falls to a five-month low. We're going to bring you those numbers as soon as they cross. Overtime's back in two. Welcome back. We have new executive orders from President Trump. Megan Casella has details. Megan. Talking with reporters right now down in Mar-a-Lago. And the biggest executive order

that he signed just now is one that's designed to expand access to in vitro fertilization. So we're still coming through the exact details of what's going on here. But in a post on the social media site, ex-press secretary Caroline Leavitt saying that the order issues policy recommendations to protect IVF access and to aggressively reduce out of pocket and health plan costs for such treatments. And then in the press conference, President Trump saying that the order is a directive to the domestic policy council examining ways to make these more affordable for Americans. So not clear yet on who exactly would be shouldering the cost here, but just a reminder that on the campaign trail, Trump did commit to doing this and saying it would be either the government or

the insurance companies that would be stepping up to foot some of the bill here. For now, we know he's issuing these recommendations to take a closer look and try to expand this access to IVF. John, back to you. All right, I'll take it. Thank you, Megan. Healthcare, one of the worst performing sectors since the election as investors digest what the new administration means for the industry. Major drug makers are reportedly meeting with President Trump this week

at the White House to start a dialogue on key issues. Joining us now exclusively live from the Pharma Conference in Washington is Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, along with our own Angelica Peebles. Angelica. Hey, Morgan. Albert, thanks so much for joining us. Really appreciate you taking the time today. I know it's a busy few days for you here in Washington. And of course, we have a new Secretary of HHS. And just a few days ago, Secretary Kennedy said, quote, we don't have any good safety studies on almost any of the vaccines. And specifically on the COVID vaccine, he said, quote, we don't have good data on it. And that

is a crime. So I want to know what you think when you hear that and what the line for you is on vaccines. I didn't hear this specific statement, but I have heard many statements that he has done in the past about vaccines and clearly we are not in agreement with that. And clearly the entire medical community or academic community or scientific are not in agreement. But I try to focus on the opportunity rather than on the problem. I try to focus on what can we do together outside the vaccines. And I believe with Secretary Kennedy and his very strong focus on making America healthy again, we can find a partner that we can do things that are bolder than other administration maybe could done in the past.

And you're about to become the board of the chair of pharma and you and some of your peers are actually going to the White House this week to meet with President Trump. So what are you planning on talking about with him? And are you going to address some of the cuts that they're making at NIH? And do you worry about those cuts to research? Look, with President Trump, personally, I have very long lasting relationship because of the COVID times and the Operation Warp Speed and that was amended at that time. And I met him several times. και αυτό το καταφέρθηκε σε τότε και με γνωστήσα πολλές φορές. Και έτσι θα συνεχίσουμε το διαλογό που είχαμε σε όλες αυτές τις τελευταίες συνεχές που είχαμε.

Βεβαίως, μιλάμε για την ασκήση των παιδιών και μιλάμε για τι καταστημάτεις μπορούμε να έχουμε σε αυτό το χωριό, ώστε να εξαρτάται η ενεργειακή, η ενεργειακή ενεργειακή. Το NIH και τα σχέσεις που συμβαίνουν εκεί. will flourish. NIH and the cuts that are happening there, clearly it's something that could affect the overall ecosystem, but it is composed from the big pharma, the small biotechs, the medium-sized biotechs, academia and venture capital and equity. So that's probably a little bit of negative, but I hope that many other things will become very positive. And as a whole, I think progress in research will be dramatic in the next few years.

And we have a question back at headquarters. Yes. Albert, it's great to have you on. Thanks for being with us. I realize it's only one piece of a broader portfolio, but it is the piece that continues to get outsized attention, and that is your vaccine portfolio. Vaccine makers like yourself largely shielded from liability. If the products are safe and effective, what is the need to continue to shield, to have these liability shields,

and what happens if those shields are changed or go away completely? If the product is not safe and effective, we'll never get approval from FDA or from the other health authorities. They are very strict when they are approving products, particularly for vaccines, because exactly it's given to healthy people. However, in a system that litigations can flourish, anyone can create a demand that οπότε όσες λιτηγίες μπορούν να φεύγουν, κάποιος μπορεί να δημιουργήσει μια προσπάθεια ότι το αγκάδο στο αέρα συμβαίνει από την βασίλεια. Και με το διευθύνσιο θα είναι, πιθανόν, ένα πιτσί.

Και αυτό είναι, νομίζω, γιατί ο Κύριος, αν δεν ήταν μια διοικητική, administration had passed this legislation that is protecting those that they have approval from the FDA from further liabilities. Albert, some analysts pointing out that a little more than a third of Pfizer's current revenue faces competition from generics over the next five years. Is there a gap between that five-year challenge and the pipeline you're building now through R&D? And if so, do you need acquisitions to fill it? Look, the LOEs, the products that will lose patent

and will face generic competition, they are approximately 17, 18 billions out of a base of 60 plus of sales. That is coming gradually in 26, 27 and 28. And following that, we have a very long period with no significant employees where we hope we will grow. We had proactively taken steps to address this loss of exclusivity by doing significant business development activities. We bought Seagen, we made Bioheaven, those 80% of our investment went to those two companies, and we have created approximately 20 billion dollars of revenues

by year 2030, which means that probably is offsetting the LOEs. In addition to that, of course, we have our launch products and our pipeline. So I believe that following the last LOE, we will more than offset, actually we'll go to aggressive growth with the company's top of the line. So I want to talk about tariffs for a second, because this feels like new ground for pharma. Typically pharmaceuticals have been exempt from tariffs, but this time, at least at this point, it seems like they will not be. And President Trump has actually called specifically for tariffs on pharmaceuticals. So how would that affect you, you know, whether it's China or also the EU, where you do a lot of manufacturing? When it comes to China, it's not affecting us.

As Pfizer, we haven't any reliance on China right now, nor Canada or Mexico. Don't bring no products, not even active substances. Europe is a different story. There is significant manufacturing in Europe as there is in the US. Don't forget that Pfizer has 14 manufacturing plants in the US. So we are waiting to see how that could play out with the tariffs in places that have not been announced yet. But so far, China, Canada and Mexico are not affecting us. Great. Well, that's all we have time for today. Albert, thanks so much for joining us.

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer. John, back over to you. All right. Yeah, our thanks to him and to our Angelica peoples as well. Well, Chinese President Xi Jinping holding a rare meeting with tech executives this week, showcasing a pro-business turn from Beijing. We're going to talk to Rockefeller International's Ruchir Sharma about the implications for investors next. And much more ahead on today's After Hours Action, including results from homebuilder Toll Brothers, as high rates and tariffs weigh on sentiment in that sector. Overtime, we'll be right back.

Welcome back to Overtime. Chinese President Xi Jinping showing off his pro-business stance after meeting with Chinese tech executives this week. Could this be a bullish sign for investing in China? Joining us now is Ruchir Sharma from Rockefeller International. Ruchir, so should investors believe Xi this time? And even if so, for how long before Lucy pulls the free market football again? Well, if you really look at what's been happening in China, the market has been steadily rising and outperforming for the past year, really. And this year that's become much more pronounced following the deep seek news. So I think there are larger forces at work here. Surely what Xi Jinping is doing and saying matters a lot. And one of the more notable statements today was when he said that it's OK for China to get rich first and then to

pursue common prosperity. But the Chinese market had just become far too cheap. And it was trading at a fraction of the valuation of the U.S., let's say. And what we're seeing over the past few months steadily is that that valuation is closing. So in a way, I think too many foreign investors that capitulated on China deem China to be uninvestable, but it's too large a market to ignore. And if anything, under the Trump administration, I think that there is a greater chance of some sort of a deal being done with China, which also the market seems to be sensing. So, much more Xi Jinping here, I think. I'm haunted by images of Jack Ma dancing around like Michael Jackson, not because him doing it was haunting, but because he suddenly

after that, he couldn't do it anymore. Wasn't so happy to be a Chinese billionaire. Is this opening the doors for that kind of period like we had before, where maybe investors felt like they could benefit from the full demographic population possibilities in China? Granted, those possibilities don't look like they used to, but is it really that good now? No, as I said, on China, I've always had a bit of a nuanced view. I still feel from an economic standpoint,

the challenges are great, which is that the debt and the demographics are such in China, where the economy is unlikely to grow on a trend basis of much faster than, let's say, 2.5% or 3%. So, I think that's a major step function change from what it used to be. But it is still the world's second largest economy, still the world's second largest equity market, and there are diamonds to be found in the rough. So, in fact, one of the things that I wrote about at the beginning of this year was that my favorite pay trade in the world was to be long BYD and short Tesla,

because here was BYD, which is such a great sort of car manufacturing company. At that point in time, I wrote about it. It was trading at a valuation of $100 billion, and Tesla was over a trillion dollars, even though BYD's sales were two and a half times that of Tesla, and also that BYD was more profitable. So I think that there are many diamonds to be found in the rough in China, and we need to have some exposure there. But would I sort of say that we should bet everything on China, as some people may think, all because its valuations are cheap? No. But the fact that the Chinese market has been showing signs of bottoming out over the past year, I think is a very important ingredient for emerging markets

broadly, because China going down was not good news for emerging markets. So I think that there are broader implications here. And I think that there is an even grander pattern emerging, which is the international markets are starting to outperform the U.S. after a very long period of time. So in that way, I think that those are the real headlines here. I do want to get your thoughts on the fact that you're the U.S. and Russia just end the first high level talk since 2022. As you see these Ukraine peace negotiations now potentially hanging in the balance, when you think about the impact that the beginning of this war had on global growth, global inflation,

what could conflict resolution mean for markets? Well, for the markets, at least if they do end up having a conflict resolution, that's obviously like a significant positive, particularly for Europe, particularly for Eastern Europe. But we've already come quite a bit of distance on that front. The probability, if you just look at Ukrainian bonds, the way they are trading, if you just do some sort of back of the envelope calculations, they are implying now more than a 50 percent chance of a deal being worked out pretty quickly. So we have moved there. But very clearly that if we were to get a successful resolution of the conflict, the Eastern European markets in particular look very attractive. And

so therefore, my top pick of the year has been Poland, because I think that the Polish market still trades at a P in the single digits. Its growth rate is accelerating. Inflation is relatively under control. And you've got some good companies in there that could benefit a lot from the conflict resolution. So I think that Europe could be a big beneficiary of that. So the pieces are coming together for international investing to make some sort of a comeback here. The pattern, which is China, Europe, in Latin America, we have seen in terms of Mexico, Brazil being quite resilient this year. Argentina was the star story of last year. So these pieces are coming together.

Great. Bashir Sharma, thanks for taking us around the world. Toll Brother earnings are out. And Diana Olick has those numbers for us. Hi, Di. Hi, Morgan. And for the luxury home builder, it was a miss on the top and bottom lines. EPS came in at $1.75 a share versus estimates of $2.04.

Revenue of $1.89 billion versus estimates of $1.906 billion. Also, Q1 deliveries of 1,991 homes. That is short of estimates of 2,060. Now, in the release, CEO Doug Yearley says that while our net income and earnings per share came in below expectations, this was primarily due to impairments and a delay in the sale of a stabilized apartment building in one of our joint ventures. But he also noted, although demand has remained healthy in many of our markets, and particularly at the higher end, affordability constraints and growing inventories in certain markets are pressuring sales,

especially at the lower end we continue to strategically manage our pricing incentives and spec starts on a community by community basis to match local selling conditions we'll see that the average price of a home toll brothers home sold in q1 was nine hundred and twenty five thousand dollars that's a little less than we've seen in past quarters usually around around a million dollars. So not a great report for Toll Brothers, which you're seeing down six point six percent on this news. OK, Diana Olick, thank you. Now time for a CNBC News update with Bertha Coombs. Bertha. John, a big win in court for the Trump administration just now. A federal judge denying a request to temporarily block Elon Musk and Doge stappers from accessing information systems at several federal agencies.

14 states attorneys general had argued that Musk and his team lacked the legal authority to do it. More than 50 billion dollars will be needed to rebuild Gaza over the next 10 years. That's according to a joint assessment released by the U.N., the World Bank and the European Union today, with about 30 billion needed to repair damage to buildings and infrastructure, another 20 billion to make up for social and economic losses. And Citigroup announcing it has set CEO Jane Fraser's compensation for 2024 at $35.4 million. According to securities filings, she earned $26 million in 2023. Morgan, back over to you. Thank you. Up next, more reaction to Toll Brothers results and a broader look at what the big drop off in a homebuild builder sentiment means for investors.

And later, the China lens on electric vehicles. We're going to look at the steps Beijing has taken to pull ahead in the global EV race. Be right back. Welcome back to Overtime. Mike Santoli returns with a look at the decline in home builder sentiment as shares of Toll Brothers fall after posting first quarter results. Mike. sentiment as shares of Toll Brothers fall after posting first quarter results. Mike? Yeah, John, it was a downside surprise on the homebuilder sentiment index today. It really also a pretty depressed levels. There was a little bit of an optimistic pop around the election. That's been about half dissipated at this point. Obviously, aside from just the

affordability concerns and higher mortgage rates, there are some anxieties about what tariffs might mean for labor costs. If this were a price rather than a survey, I'd say, well, that's an indecision pattern where you essentially have this coiling tightly of this level because people are just not quite sure what the next move is. Still at pretty subdued levels. Take a look at the stock markets version of this, which is home builder ETF ITB on a two-year basis has finally just about surrendered all of its outperformance at this point. We'll see if the broader economy and markets can get going without housing being an engine as it did without manufacturing really being a net contributor for much the last couple

of years, Morgan. All right. We'll be watching. Mike Santoli, thank you. Up next, we'll hear from the CEO of defense tech unicorn Ceronic, which is breaking news with us surrounding a major funding round and is comparing itself to one of the country's hottest startups, SpaceX. Welcome back. Earlier this month, I broke the news that Androil Industries is raising more money at double the valuation. Now, autonomous shipbuilder Saronic is also raising money, raising $600 million in a Series C that quadruples its valuation from last July to $4 billion. Now, Saronic already makes three types of autonomous surface vessels, but this capital will mean larger ships and a futuristic shipyard. CEO and co-founder Dino Mavrukas tells me exclusively

the plan is to bring shipbuilding back in a way the U.S. hasn't seen since World War II. Everything we do at Ceronic is built around speed. I mentioned we brought three products to market in under two years. We've raised $850 million in just about two years. That's more private capital than any company has raised that's focused on maritime innovation in the last 50 plus years. Everything we do is centered on speed because we understand the urgency of the problem set. When we look at what has equated to naval power in the past, it's really shipbuilding. The Chinese have invested so heavily in their shipbuilding capacity over the last 30 years that they can outbuild the U.S. in terms of shipbuilding capacity

nearly 250 to 1. That's a very scary stat. That is a very scary stat. They went from 5% of global shipbuilding capacity to nearly 50 percent over the last 25 years. We don't have time to wait. We're doing this now. So military shipbuilding has faced many challenges and delays over the years. What's unique about Saronic is the fact that it's focused on ships that don't need to accommodate humans so they can build more quickly, more efficiently. And the full interview

is available at CNBC.com. And we dig into all of those details right there. So go to CNBC.com. After the break, the China lens on electric vehicles. We'll take a look at how China has managed to pull ahead on EVs and charging technology. And if the U.S. is at risk of falling behind. Be right back. Welcome back to Overtime. Chinese President Xi Jinping hosting tech leaders as Beijing extends an olive branch to the business community, including the head of electric vehicle maker BYD. And China has made a number of strides to become a leader in EV technology. Our Eunice Yun has a look at what those investments look like to EV owners in China.

We're taking this Buick Electra E5 EV out on the streets of Beijing to show you how easy it is to charge up in China. I'm heading to the office and the car has been charged overnight. Wherever you drive your EV, you're never very far from a charging station. There are 143,000 public charging points in the Chinese capital alone. At the office, I have 647 chargers to choose from within about a one-mile radius. I could check on any online map. Rather than plug in near work, I can charge at a park, a hotel, while I stop for soup, or on a grocery run where I met EV owner Liu Xue. Liu recently traded in a gas-powered Audi for an EV.

The chargers are so convenient, she says, it's very easy to plug in for an hour while you do your shopping. The Chinese government is standardizing this plug. So no matter what type of EV you have, you can pull up at nearly any post. The government has been the primary driver of the charging charge. The network of nearly 12 million public and private points across China has been built by state and private companies with incentives, subsidies and other government guarantees. That's critical to the industry's growth, Wenjing told me.

The auto repair shop owner said he switched to fixing EVs after his sales of servicing gasoline cars dropped last year by 50 percent. At first we looked down on EVs, but then the industry got so huge because of the government support, he says. The chargers are everywhere now, slow, fast and super-fast options. I'm at a supercharging station, which means I should be able to charge this EV 80 percent in 15 minutes. So that was more like 15 percent in 15 minutes. So that was more like 15% in 15 minutes. The technology still has some ways to go. Even so, in big cities like Beijing, hardly anyone lives in a private house or has a driveway. So

there's a need for all this public infrastructure for China to convince more people to take an EV home. And President Xi wants to send a message that he does want to lift up certain technologies which he considers to be priority, such as EVs. But there seems to also be some recognition that he needs the private sector to attain that goal. So at a very rare meeting on Monday, he told a crowd of entrepreneurs that he had their back and that they should be free to fully display their talents. The BYD founder was one of those at that meeting

who attended and had a speaking role. John? Fascinating look. Up close, only you can give us. Eunice Yoon, thank you. Up next, the big money at the intersection of AI and health care. We're going to talk to the CEO of a company that just raised a quarter billion dollars to help doctors save time and improve patient outcomes. Welcome back. Let's check in on a few more earnings movers here in overtime. Occidental Petroleum is lower after missing revenue estimates, though it did beat on the bottom line.

CoStar Group is falling as well, It's off to revenue guidance and specialty materials company Celanese is sinking after giving weak guidance as well. Those shares are down 12 percent. Well, a big money raise for a medical tech startup that uses AI to assist doctors with patient care. Abridge this week announcing a quarter billion dollar Series D round of funding. I spoke with Abridge founder and CEO Dr. Shiv Rao about the progress. We're alive in over 100 health systems and we're able to unburden clinicians from clerical work like clinical documentation and able to help them be more focused, be more present with their patients. And what we're able to do now with this funding is really further scale, but also go even deeper into R&D. A bridge competes with Nuance, which Microsoft bought for about $20 billion

three years ago. Rao, who's still a practicing heart doctor, said a bridge will build more capabilities to help patients understand their care and help health systems operate more efficiently. Every single one of these clinical notes that I write as a cardiologist, other clinicians are going to read, and they're going to use that to get a sense of what I was thinking when I ordered a certain diagnostic or therapeutic. But also revenue cycle folks, experts behind the scenes who are going to decide or are going to try to figure out

how much we should get compensated for the care that I deliver, they're going to read through those notes too and make sure that they correspond to all the claims that are getting created and getting pushed to payers. But then, of course, there's the most important person. There's the patient. And they're going to get access to this note. And what we can do is build a bridge between the clinician and all of those stakeholders and create all the different artifacts, but make sure that we're creating that note in such a way that checks off all of the boxes. Some big names, including Mayo Clinic and Kaiser, are among Abridge's customers. Interesting opportunity to sort of rethink health ERP with an AI flavor. Yeah, and we know healthcare is one of those areas that continues to be ripe for disruption

from a technological standpoint. Super fascinating stuff. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we're going to get Fed minutes. We get U.S. housing starts and building permits, which will be interesting given some of the sluggish housing data we've gotten already. And then, of course, we're going to get more earnings. One of the names I'm watching is Ansys, which we know Synopsys is looking to take over. And that deal seems to be stalled due to Chinese regulators. So what does that look like moving forward? Interesting model, digital modeling story there for Synopsys. All of this, you know, kind of paving the way to the big one still to report

earnings next week. That's NVIDIA. Can't help but wonder what different tectonic plates shift around that report. Yeah, we'll have to see. In the meantime, we did get a record closing high for the S&P 500. We got a record intraday high for the NASDAQ 100. That's going to do it for us here at Overtime.