Power Lunch - Dow rallies 500 points to start week on hopes Trump is softening tariff stance 3/24/25

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

Stocks jumped on optimism that President Trump may hold back from implementing some of his wide-ranging tariff plans, and so the U.S. could skirt an economic slowdown from a protracted trade war. We��ll cover all of the angles for you. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tariffs down, stocks up. Welcome to Power Lunch, everybody. Trump tamping down his talk of tariffs, sort of. And that is helping your money at least for now, but we'll hit the big wildcard. Plus, another crackdown on Venezuela, and why Disney may be facing one of the biggest box office bombs in years. And why it's not just that movie.

The box office in general has had one of its worst years in like 30, so we'll have a lot more on all of that. Let's start with the markets, though. we are strongly higher across the board. The Dow's up 473, and that's off session highs of nearly up 600. The S&Ps of 1.5%. The NASDAQ up 2%. And you can see the momentum names, some of the beaten down areas. Those are actually rebounding to the upside. Tesla, up 10% now, Carvana, almost that much. App Lovin. Reddit, those are up seven. Fannie and Freddie are also jumping today on reports. The Trump administration could privatize them. This has been going,

there were some podcasts in recent weeks, stirring these hopes as well. Those show, shares are now trading nearly seven for Fannie's equity, six for Freddie, with gains of about 8 percent today. Let's start at the White House, contributing to some market moves on tariffs and investments as the event with the chairman of Hyundai is also expected to get underway shortly. Megan Gisela is there with the setup and to wrap all of the latest for us, Megan. And there's a lot of latest today, Kelly. Any moment now, we'll see the president alongside the Louisiana governor and the chairman of

Hyundai announcing what's expected to be a $20 billion investment in the United. the U.S. 5 billion of that will be used to build a steel mill in Louisiana. Now, it is worth noting that plans for this mill predate the Trump administration. The company was discussing it in early January before he was in office, but it is still the latest company to head to the White House under this administration to announce a multi-billion dollar investment. And it also comes just after the White House announced on Friday that the UAE would be announcing $1.4 trillion over a decade in the U.S. in areas that include AI infrastructure and energy. But there is this split screen at the same time going on with the tariffs today.

There were reports over the weekend that Trump would be narrowing his scope next week and proceeding only with those reciprocal tariffs on some countries rather than in addition to that the blanket tariffs on things like cars and pharmaceuticals. But first then, a White House official today denied that reporting to me saying that no decisions had been made. And then later, Trump said in a cabinet meeting around noon that tariffs on those sectors would be coming in the very near future. So pushing back on all of those reports that first sparked this rally.

And then to underscore the amount of movement here, we also saw the president today vowing an additional 25% tariff on all goods sent to the U.S. from countries that buy oil from Venezuela. So a major escalation there against China in particular and one that could take effect, he says, next week, guys. So a lot there to digest. Certainly is. Megan Casella. Thank you very much. All right. So let's stay on the topic of tariffs because this on again, off again. in maybe on again, tariff talk from Trump is swinging stocks and your money. So what could the president actually end up deciding?

Joining us now, Anthony Scaramucci, is founder and co-managing partner of Skybridge Capital, somebody who knows how the president thinks. He also has a still relatively new book out called The Little Book of Bitcoin. Anthony, great to have you on Power Lunch. What is, if there's any, rhyme or reason to these tariffs? and what do you think ultimately after April 2nd will be the outcome? Well, it's not necessarily important what I think. I think the market thinks a certain thing.

And let's just explain that brief. I think the market's made a decision that the president has pushed that lever very hard and will retract to something more marginal, which will be beneficial to everybody. I mean, ideally, as an example, in Canada, I think there are some things the administration would like to change on the USMCA deal. And so hopefully there's some hope there that they scale back or tailor back those tariffs

and just tweak the USMCA deal and that would be that with Canada. I think that would be very positive. I think the market is signaling that. So, you know, listen, the president is right about a few things. You have to give them credit for certain things. We want the flow of fentanyl to stop in the United States.

We certainly want to start. stop some of the political things that are going on in Venezuela. And so it's a bludgeoning instrument. I'm not in love with the on again, off again strategy. But if he does get to a conclusion at sometime in the middle of the second quarter that's favorable for everybody, the market will lift from here. And it'll be a pretty nice bull run for 2025. My source is telling me that the tariff on Venezuelan oil buyers could actually be good news for Canada because their type of oil in Venezuela actually competes with Canadian oil. So this could actually be some kind of an olive branch to Canada.

Again, we will wait and see. But to your point, Anthony, letting the markets speak for themselves. That's what we do. We look at the data and say, here's the story. The markets today are pretty optimistic, it seems, about outcomes. Are you? I think so. I think, you know, Kevin Hassard, I think, sort of tip people off last week.

Let's wait and see to April 2nd. I think the administration is trying to create some space here to land these things. Let's call it a soft landing on tariffs that achieve some of the administration's goals while not overly upsetting the market. Remember, I don't think the president wants to ruin the automobile industry in the United States. You're talking about $12,000 to $15,000 per U.S. car if those aluminum tariffs go through in Canada. So I don't, it just doesn't strike me that that would be in his interest,

particularly a lot of those people voted for him. Some of those unions, frankly, went out and endorsed him. So, you know, my guess is they're going to intersect this guys between some tariffing, some worker protection for the United States, possibly an improvement for America on the USMCA deal. And I think the market's sensing that right now, and the market likes it. Yeah, and I like that phrase, the soft landing on tariffs. But I was going to ask also, So if that means the kind of flip side is, okay, on the one hand, we think they're going to work it all out. It's going to be kind of a win-win. On the other hand, it just means we have longer to talk about it.

You know what I mean? Right. Well, I mean, Kelly, he does like that, though. You know, he wants you and I to be talking about it. So is it bad for the market, though. In other words, like, if we say, okay, we think the end outcome is basically that you can ignore it, then at some point does the market start to ignore all of this talk? Or does it then just continue to introduce the headline risk,

Even this afternoon was a good example. Although, again, we shrugged it off, kind of realizing there wasn't much there. I think it would be hard for the market to necessarily ignore it. This is a different Trump administration than the first Trump administration. There's a lot of stalwarts in the administration, sort of what I would have called the establishment Republicans are not in the cabinet, with the exception of Marco Rubio. And so they're with the president in terms of the ideology. So I think the market shrugging and off would be a mistake because some of this stuff could land. And so I, but I do think one thing that is held fast for President Trump in all his time in politics is stock market being a barometer reading.

He's often said that that's a better poll data for him, the performance of U.S. stocks relative to everything else that he would look at from a metric basis. So, you know, the market signaling less tariffs, better for the market. market, better for the economy, better for U.S. autos. And I think long-term, Kelly, better for jobs. I think so. So let's get this right. I do know from the president's sources. I knew from sources out of the White House. He's not happy with certain elements of the U.S.MCA deal. Yeah. Let's get to those what you're not happy with and let's negotiate those on more favorable terms of the U.S. without destroying the whole trading alliance. And for our viewers, MCA, Mexico, Canada agreement, it sort of ripped up that part of NAFTA and brought in a new deal.

You referenced the president caring about the stock market, but, you know, this does appear to be even a more populist Trump than in 2016. Most people don't own stocks or own them passively or very little, Anthony. Do you think this is still a president that cares about the stock market? I do. You can't take away from him his business acumen. You can't take away from him knowing that the stock market and consumer confidence are conjoined.

And there's a positive flywheel between the stock market, consumer confidence, and job growth, long-term job growth. You know, if you looked at those confidence numbers when he was zinging and zagging with the tariffs, Brian, those aren't great numbers. And I'm not saying that we would get a recession. I think it would be too early to call something like that. But what do markets like? They want predictability.

They want clarity. If you were to declare victory in these trade situations and said, okay, that's it for now on the trade situation. Let me focus on the Ukrainian war. I think that would be really good for the market. So, yeah, I think it's all tied together. I understand what you're saying that lower middle income people don't necessarily own the market, but they are still tied to it in terms of consumer confidence. spending allocation and job creation.

Not, you know, I don't know how much you're doing day to day, Anthony, but given the exposure you have to crypto and look, it went up and then now it's kind of consolidated somewhat, are there any opportunities there that you think are interesting right now or in the markets more broadly? Well, listen, we're, you know, we own a lot of Bitcoin, Kelly. I've been very open with people about that. We do own Solana. We have some other tokens like Avalanche that we believe in.

We have a position in something called Ton, which is the. telegram token, which we think is actually going to do very well. There's a, you know, a couple things that we own that we like, Pocodot, but I mean, we're mostly in Bitcoin. So I don't, I don't, I don't think this can be understated. The administration has done a phenomenal job on redirecting regulation and redirecting the growth of this industry. You know, this industry will grow in the United States now, capital and human capital is going to flow into the United States. You know, I had a call earlier today with the tonne executives as an example. They want to put more emphasis on the U.S. because of the regulatory clarity and the friendly

environment. And I could go as far to tell you that the Democrats who honestly are not paying attention, they lost the House and Senate, they lost the presidency. Some of it was related to the stance they took on the crypto. currency people, you know, $250 million went into that campaign in November. 40 million of it went into the Sherrod Brown race. So I think this is very positive. You've seen risk off with crypto because of what's happened in the markets, but take a look at Bitcoin today, up 4%. And lots of demand for Bitcoin in 2025. And we're looking at a

potentially $1.4 trillion with a T-E dollar investment, or at least matching investments from the UAE. it didn't get a lot of attention coming out over the weekend. But that could be a big one. Let's hope it's not Foxcon, too. Let's hope this one really occurs, Anthony. But, you know, I had dinner last week with a bunch of CFOs, and there's a whole alternate take, which I thought was fascinating. Kelly, I know this right up your rally is sort of the AI.

Kelly's really, Anthony, I don't know if you knows, super duper into AI. For me planning. Yeah, the idea being that we're focused on all this tariffs because we want to bring human labor and capital back to the United States, in 10 years it may not matter at all because if we can win the AI race, with humanoid robots and everything else, why do we need to make something in, say, a Bangladesh or a Vietnam or a China

when we can make it here with automation and take people out of the equation complete? A lot of human... That's interesting. A lot of human aspects of that story. It's not all positive, Anthony, but I think the bring the manufacturing back to the U.S. because we actually become cheaper,

but still more profitable. Well, you know, listen, I think it is long-term positive for people. I think any time we've had this type of technological innovation in the world dating back to the Industrial Revolution, it causes some transition in jobs, but it ultimately leads to higher living standards for everybody in the economic strata. So I'm all for that, but I think you're making an even more important point, Brian,

and that is about how integrated these economies are. So let's not fight the last war. The president often talks about President McKinley. that was in the 1890s, this economy is way more integrated with Canada, way more integrated with Mexico and other parts of the world. Let's not fight the last war. Let's focus on where we could be in 2035 with things like AI and U.S.-based manufacturing, which is very promising and will lead to a lot of abundance for the society that I think can be fairly distributed. Again, using free market forces, of course, in terms of the fair distribution.

Did you say Pocodot earlier, Anthony? Did you say Tong or T-O-N? T-O-N. We call it T-O-N, but it's basically the telegram network. It's got over a billion users on it now, and they're ramping up their U.S. presence, and we own that token at Pocod. I've just mentioned the ones that we own just so, you know, we own Bitcoin, but we own a few of these others, including Salana, Avalanche, Pocod, and Tung.

I appreciate it. I think I've caught up and then it gets away from me again. Anthony, thanks for joining us. Appreciate your time. Good to be on you guys. Thanks, Kelly. Anthony Scaremucci, Skybridge Capital, founder and co-managing partner. All right, so let's do a quick RBI, random but interesting on the topic of tariffs because Deutsche Bank did a survey Kelly of companies and investors about tariffs. He's a scale of zero to 10. Zero means no additional tariffs. Nothing new is going to happen. 10 total extreme.

Just tax everybody down. The answer, according to Deutsche Bank, right smack down. in the middle. Twenty-two percent of respondents answered with a five, with most answers coming in between four and eight. Only a minuscule percentage of investors saw either no new tariffs or some other form of extreme tariffs. One does wonder, if corporate America thinks this way, are they planning for this possible outcome and restructuring their costs? That is your random but interesting of the day. Thank you for that. After the break, shares of Liberty Energy are struggling this year, down 26 percent. And underperforming, the rest of the industry. The new CEO joins us next to share their plans for the future and

talk about some of these headwinds. We're back with more after this. I'm probably at my most fearless and battle tested. You know, I've been through enough ups and downs in the business world that I've developed, I think, some pretty thick skin. And also, I just feel much more bold about trying and striving to do things that I believe in and sort of seeing failure as an important way and a necessary part of achieving success. Oh, welcome back. Like we talked about at the top of the show, Trump taking another swing at both Venezuela and companies that buy their oil. Trump's saying that companies that buy Venezuela and crude oil will face a 25% tariffs on what they sell to America. Now, we are not seeing a big pop at oil prices, largely because Venezuela is not the oil powerhouse it used to be.

country producing about 1 million barrels of oil per day down about from 2.5 million, 3 million a decade to 15 years ago. And just about half, that's about half of one big ship of oil per day, very, very roughly. Venezuela oil is also what's called heavy crude, very similar to what some Canadian producers actually make. So if this happens, it could be good news for Canada and Canadian oil. If you can keep track of all things, tariff. Anyway, let's talk about all things. Oil with the new CEO of Liberty Energy, Ron Gusek, he has just rang the opening belt, the New York Stock Exchange,

and took over from CEO Chris Wright, who is now, of course, the U.S. Secretary of Energy. So, Ron, it's a great pleasure to have you on Power Lunch. I think the same question I posed to now Secretary Wright, I will ask you, which is at 13.2, 13.3 million barrels per day, how much more oil can the United States realistically produce? Yeah, obviously I think we work in a world where we've got a commodity driven by supply and demand. The opportunity's there to produce more, but there has to be a price signal to support that.

The businesses that are out drilling for oil every day are going to make a decision to increase that activity based on the opportunity to earn a return on that investment. And so to the extent the price of the commodity supports that, we're going to see some growth there. I think we have an administration now that's working hard to support that. They're trying to remove some of the impediments that we have seen. I think things like permitting infrastructure, LNG, export, all things like that that are going to help support those decisions made by our customers. Yeah, whether we go to 13.5 or 13.2, Ron, you know, okay, a marginal gain. Are we able to add, you know, we still import, what, six, five, six million barrels of oil per day?

Can we add another million barrels a day or whatever, profitably? here in the United States? I think that could certainly be done. I don't know that that's going to be the case. I don't know that we expect to see growth of that kind of scale. We've heard most of the larger E&Ps talk about very modest production growth, maybe a few percent on an annual basis, and in some cases, even flat. But again, that's a function of, I think, where they have choices to deploy capital today.

And so if we continue to make the United States an attractive place to deploy, capital to spend those dollars to drill for oil, then I think we could take another leg up if that was necessary to meet the demands of the global oil market. Ron, it's Kelly here. And again, welcome and congrats. I understand you rang the bell today and everything. So kicking off with quite a bang here. And speaking of which, what do you think when you hear sort of Secretary Besson, as he reiterated

today, saying, you know, yields will come down as the price of oil continues to decline, as the price of energy continues to decline in this country? message maybe for us consumers to hear, but is it a great message for you as a producer to hear? Look, I think for us, it's incumbent upon us to find ways to lower the cost of producing a barrel of oil or an MCF of gas that allows us to be competitive on the global stage. You've seen tremendous efficiency gains from the industry. It's an industry I would never bet against. There are a lot of smart women and men that work here, and we continue to find ways to make bringing a barrel of oil to the surface or producing an MCF of gas lower and lower. administration supporting that through some of the actions that they are taking now. And then it's incumbent upon us as the company's working in this space to continue to find ways to do the same

so that we can be an active contributor in the global market. You know, I'm going to not ask you to talk about your company, but talk about your home country of Canada, Ron. You went to the University of Alberta. You just heard our discussion, I'm sure, about tariffs on Venezuela. Obviously, so much has been made to about our friends up north of potential tariffs there. This is potentially a 25% tariff on countries that buy from Venezuela. So that could include China. So that's a big issue. But you heard my take about this potentially benefiting Canadian oil because it competes in large part with Venezuelan oil.

Was there anything to that? Do you think this could actually be sort of an olive branch to Canada? There's certainly something to be said for that, I think. We have, of course, a meaningful amount of trade, particularly in hydrocarbons between Canada and the U.S. Our refining capacity here in the U.S. relies on some amount of heavy input. And as you correctly noted, there are a few places that can come from. One of those is Venezuela, and Trump has been very clear, I think, about some thoughts there. And an alternative to that is Canada.

We produce a lot of heavy oil north of the 49th, and the U.S. market is an important market for that product. So to the extent we have maybe a discouraging message around importing Venezuelan crude, that certainly I would view it as positive for the Canadian market and the companies up there that are producing heavy oil. Also with that in mind, Ron, we've seen an opportunity for the U.S. to use LNG

as kind of a method of international influence, right? Like if we can replace some of what Russia used to supply to Germany, that could really change their politics and that of all of Europe's. So do you think the U.S. is seizing that opportunity? I do think we are now. Of course, we went through a bit of a pause with the last administration, and I found that to be very frustrating. Natural gas is the fastest growing energy source in the world today. It is the U.S.'s second largest export and fastest growing export today. and we have a tremendous resource here in the United States that we could be producing

and not only consuming here in the lower 48 for power generation and things like that, but also sharing with our partners globally. It is a real opportunity to be a force or continue to be a force in the global energy market, not just on the oil side, but on the LNG side as well. Ron Gusek, he is the president and CEO of Liberty Energy based out there in Denver, Colorado, rang the opening bell. Ron, really appreciate you coming on. Power Lunch. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Take care. And still to come is it time to start thinking outside the box office. Theaters having a really

rough run, and this was supposed to be the year of their comeback. So what does it tell us about the industry's larger fortunes? That's further ahead on Power Lunch. Welcome back to Power Lunch. The market holding on to its gains, but we're off session highs. The Dow was up almost 600 and now up just over 400. The NASXX. still up nearly 2%. All of this helped by an easing in tariff tensions. And what about bond yields? How are they responding to all of this? And where's the downside I'm looking for? Maybe Rick Santelli can answer that in Chicago. Hi, Rick. Hi, you know, we had yields moving up long before 945 Eastern as you look at a 24-hour chart. But at 945 Eastern, very solid service sector,

PMI came out. And that put turbo thrusters, not only Not only did the equities jump, but obviously we've seen big jumps in interest rates. It's been an update across the entire curve. Another big story today is the president would like lower rates. And the way I hear that, many, of course, would believe that's code for to help the housing market, which is mostly long-dated treasury yields. So to that end, look at the 2's 10 spread since the last time and 30-year fix was under 6.5%, a little over 2,000. a little over two years ago, early 23.

Well, the curve went from minus 70 to positive 30, a full percent. Now, if you look at two-year, 10-year, and 30-year mortgage rates on one chart since we're under two and a half percent, it jumps out at you. The Federal Reserve can lower rates, but it isn't necessarily going to flatten the yield curve.

The president wants lower rates, but he also wants a good economy. It's going to be very difficult to deliver. especially when debt and deficits maybe have been one of the driving forces in that steeper yield curve. Brian, back to you. Rick Santelli, we'll see if the housing market does get help. Thank you very much. All right, folks, if you're just joining us, market pulling off a decent turnaround.

NASDAG up 1.5% S&P up 1.4%, all the MAG 7 are higher. But the question is this, is this bump just a blip? That's next. Welcome back to Power Lunch. I'm Simam Modi with your CNBC News Update. The United Nations announcing today it is reducing its footprint in Gaza following the collapse of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. A UN official said that there is growing concern about the protection of civilians in the enclave following a strike last week on a UN compound that killed one worker and injured five. Massachusetts launching an investigation today into Robin Hood's prediction markets hub, which allows betting on March Madness. The Massachusetts Secretary of State telling Reuters the offering is a, quote, gimmick to lure investors away from sound investing.

Robahun telling CBC in a statement that the contracts are regulated by the CFDC and that the platform is proud to offer it to retail investors in a safe and regulated manner. And a police chase backed up traffic in the Houston area for miles today, but officers were not trying to catch up to a human. They were attempting to corral a number of cows that broke loose from a truck on I-45 this after. afternoon. At last check, several of the cows were wrangled, but it's not clear exactly how so many got loose. Kelly, we'll keep you updated. I mean, would anyone there have a lasso? How do you catch a cow with a with a lasso? You catch it very carefully. My guess is Seema, those cattle were on their way to a not-so. My guess is those cattle were on their way to the grocery store, if you know what I mean. I could be wrong, but I would say this, if you're doing that running down 45 and you deserve to live,

Those cattle were going someplace not so good. Those cattle should be sent out the pasture. Live the rest of it. They deserve it. Yep, and they can be an attraction. I'm sure we'll get the full story soon. Not from the cattle. I would love to be the car driving along. Is that a guy chasing it down there?

Did you see that? What's he going to do, tackle it? Yeah, why not? You need a lasso. There you go. Vemont, thank you, Sima Modi. Let's going to check on the markets now with the major average of surging, as the president may be softening his stance on tariffs.

Of course, there's a lot of uncertainty that has. has our next guest turning to Richard Bernstein is turning to gold CEO and CIA of Richard Bernstein advisors. Rich, how have you been? And is that real? Is that the playbook right now? I mean, it's been a great investment. That's a little bit of an exaggeration in that we're turning to gold. We've had some gold in our portfolio for many, many years. We've always used it as a potential ballast against volatility. And it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. So that's nothing new for us. We've always had somewhere between 3 and 5% of our multi-asset portfolios and gold, and that's still true today. So all of that said, what are you really doing amid all of this? I'll use the

U word because when the Fed did, everybody took notice, do you think that we're maybe past peak uncertainty now and we can start to look past some of the noise and drama? Or how are you kind of changing if you're changing things in response to this happened? The cute answer to your question, Kelly, is, are we past peak uncertainty? Is I don't know. Right? That's the cue way to answer that question. But I think, look, there's a possibility that that could be the case. I think, you know, what people kind of miss in the daily discussion is that an investor really doesn't care whether policies are right or wrong, right? I mean, that's something you have over a beer, you know, at the end of the day. But as an investor, that's not your concern. What an investor needs is clear and consistent information so that an investor can make a decision is an opportunity worthwhile or not. And when everything's moving at a very rapid pace and there's no consistency and no clarity, it makes that very difficult. And I think what we're seeing the volatility we've seen in the stock market is just simply the investors repricing

the U.S. stock market for a higher risk premium to account for this uncertainty, right? The same way you'd think that high-yield bonds yield more than treasuries, we're seeing the United States being repriced to account for that extra risk. Is it all about tariffs, Richard? Listen, I know our network, we're just talking about tariffs all the time, and I get it, and I love this company. It's so nice. But I will say that earnings still do matter.

Earnings estimates still do matter. And I do wonder if we see a bunch of companies come out and lower their earnings guidance for the rest of the year at this next earnings season, then what? earnings, I assume, still matter to this market. It's not just tariffs. Oh, absolutely. Bryant, absolutely. I mean, earnings are the key component to stock investing always are.

And I think right now, the dialogue about tariffs. So I think two things. Number one, I think second quarter earnings are pretty much in the bag, right? Or first quarter earnings, rather. We're through March. You know, basically companies know what's going to happen for the first quarter. I think as we look out the second quarter and third quarter, the range of outcomes for that earnings forecast becomes greater and greater. That could be tariffs.

That could be employment regulations. There's all kinds of things that are starting to affect that, you know, say second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter earnings forecast. But more importantly, it's just the range of possibilities that is causing this to happen. So when people say it's just tariffs, I think it's a contributing factor, but I wouldn't say, It's just tariffs. Do you think we're higher at the end of the year and looked past all of this or the clouds darken? Honestly, I mean, I don't know how anybody could forecast that right now. I mean, I'm serious.

I don't know how anybody could make a forecast like that. I don't know how any analysts can come on your shows and say the company XYZ is going to make, you know, a dollar or $1.50 or $2. What's their earnings estimate? Because the earnings estimate could change so dramatically in two weeks. I mean, meaningfully and dramatically in two weeks. So I think that's the issue that's going on here. It's not whether things are good or bad. It's the consistency and clarity that I think the market is desiring right now.

And just like any investment where there's a broader range of outcomes, you demand a higher risk premium that we're seeing in valuation. I mean, we've knocked about three to five multiple points off the S&P since the beginning of the year. I think it's a pretty simple story as to what's happening. Absolutely. When you put it that way, then I agree. Rich, thanks very much. Appreciate you joining us today.

See you guys. Of Richard Bernstein advisors. All right, on deck, why Disney's Snow White could end up being very sleepy at the box office. Welcome back to Power Lunch. Disney's Snow White was released on Friday and opened at just $43 million in the domestic box office. The live remake of The Classic was riddled in controversy throughout the production process. Film has a long way to go after reportedly blew by its $250 million budget. Joining us now is Box Off Media's Daniel Loria.

Now, Daniel, it'd be one point. conversation if we just said, what happened in this case? Was it the DEI blowback? Was it the this was the worst first quarter for the box office in what 25 years? One of the worst? One of the worst. We're on track for a bad performance. Okay, it's not just this one. There was also, we're a couple, a dogman. Captain America. Captain America, thank you, Brave New World, Dogman. It was a super, we've had some horrendous, horrendous numbers at the box office. What is going on? Well, it was always going to be a difficult first quarter. You just named the three movies that the entire first quarter was betting on to have a good performance. Dogman

at the end of January, animated title from the universal side. Middle of February, Captain America, Brave New World, end of March, Snow White. Neither of them overperformed. All of them were modest to a little bit lower on what we wanted. And that created a vacuum of big, appealing titles to really lift this quarter where we wanted it to be. So that's how we're in this situation. Not ideal, But I do think the second quarter, we're ready for recovery. How much of this, listen, there's all the snow white stuff. People are lashing out about the woke stuff, whatever. I have a different theory.

Number one, the movies are old. I mean, they're just, I don't think they're that interesting. But also, we don't see, I don't see advertisements for movies anymore. Somebody else pointed that out watching TV during March Madness. They saw barely any film. It was all for prescription drugs and beer, burgers, and then some erectile dysfunction drug, which they all seen.

It all seems to make sense. But you just don't see ads. I didn't know Dog Man was coming out, and I have a 10-year-old. Brian, I make a living watching movies and making sure that I know what movies are coming up, and I still have to dig around to find marketing elements for these movies. It's a huge issue. The marketing awareness, I don't want to say spend, because the spend is there. It's just hitting consumers, hitting moviegoers, and letting them know, hey, this movie might appeal to you.

This movie's coming out. That's harder, I think, than in any other people. right now. You have a fragmented media landscape, making sure that marketing dollar is optimized is really difficult. And I think that's a big element to this decline that we're saying in the first quarter, not knowing where to spend that marketing dollar Slate awareness. The awareness of movies coming up, I think that's the big challenge for the industry to overcome in the post-pendemic period. I've heard other theories as well about why the box office has been so bleak. I've heard it's just a high cost one, which we know obviously is true. It's a really big outing for a family sometimes.

also the competition with Netflix and TV and just the opportunity to sit at home. So do you think that some of those factors are also an issue? I think cost is a factor for everybody right now, especially where the economy is. Tariffs are here one day, not the other day. Stock market's going crazy. It's hard to find our footing. Movie going, however, remains to be, I think, an accessible experience out of home for a lot of people around the country. We're talking about spending thousands of dollars to go to Disney and people can do that.

But you're telling me that we, you know, that the average kind of more middle-income consumer showing up to the movie, that that's falling off? Yeah, I'm not sure cost is going to be at the center of this equation. It influences. I'll give you some data points. With Snow White over the weekend, 32% of the market share of the tickets came from premium format tickets. That's the most expensive ticket in an auditorium. Your Dolby, your IMAX, the works, right? Usually for a big title like this, we see 40% plus, which tells me what.

The main demographic here are families. So you're not buying one or two premium tickets. You're buying three, four, five tickets. You're going to go for the more affordable regular auditorium. And it's important for audiences to have that option of saying, hey, I want to splurge on this big explosion superhero movie. Not sure how many explosions there are in Snow White, probably not that many. Not enough. Not enough, apparently.

Maybe for something like that, three, four, five tickets plus concessions, you go for the standard ticket. I think that's where the pricing situation comes. I think the only the bomb and Snow White may be the end receipts. Right. Well, that was the most action-packed part of it. You did make the point that what was the movie Disney's Mufasa, the Lion King, opened just $35 million less than this one did, but has gone on to gross more than $250 from positive feedback,

and you're actually seeing some positive word of mouth from audiences in Snow White as well. Thank you at home. Specifically the core demographic here. You have to look at what the female audiences and the audience, under the age of 18, said in exit polling, an A-minus cinema score. The people that this movie's for are liking it. Now, it has to make sure it gets to those audiences, and word of mouth works at that level, while it's still in theaters.

All right, Daniel, really appreciate you coming by. We'll revisit it in Q2 and see if it's a big rebound, like you're saying, Daniel Loria, with box office media. All right, President Trump speaking at the White House, he made some new comments, our hourly comments on tariffs. Megan Gisela, joining us now with that breaking news, Megan. Absolutely, Brian. This is still ongoing in the Roosevelt room at the White House, but President Trump, just a couple of minutes ago, was asked about the reciprocal tariffs coming on April 2nd.

He was asked essentially whether there was any room for negotiation for any countries to escape those tariffs coming next week. And the president replied, quote, I may give a lot of countries' breaks, signaling there that there is certainly negotiation. These are not going to be universal. Every country getting hit at once. To me, that's sort of the latest sign that there could be some softening here coming from the White House and the administration as they continue to develop this plan for next week saying there may be breaks coming for what he says could be many countries. He was also asked about that reporting over the weekend that we talked about at the top of the hour about whether reciprocal and sectoral tariffs would be coming on that day, April

2nd. And he replied, it's going to be everything, but not all tariffs are included that day. Again, signaling that this could be an ongoing process. And he says things like tariffs on autos as well as pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as well, that those will be announced in the coming days or weeks, but not necessarily it now appears on April 2nd. One final point, our Amman Javers is in the room, and he asked the president specifically whether that 25 percent tariff announced today on all countries buying oil from Venezuela, whether that would stack on top of tariffs that are already in place. And the president told him that, yes, it will stack on top of it.

And that is a very significant escalation there, guys. With China in particular, a major buyer of Venezuelan oil, Trump has already imposed 20% tariffs on China so far this term. Now he's saying an extra 25% on top of that will take effect as soon as next Wednesday, April 2nd. So a lot coming out here, maybe some softening on tariffs on one hand, but also a very firm stance, at least towards China on the other. Guys. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, I wouldn't say China's a major buyer. They're the biggest buyer of Venezuelan oil, but it's only about a million barrels a day to do about 65%.

So maybe a half a shipload per day, which a lot of that goes through traders, which you can mask. You could sell to a trader, and then the trader sells it to somebody who then sells it to somebody. But the point well taken that if that 25% is layered on the current 10%, on top the other 10%, they're still caught up in this. That's a lot of percent. I think it adds up to 45, but I did go to an engineering school, Megan, but I'm not a mathematician. Meg Cassella, thank you very much. Right.

Coming up, let us test your big brains with a mystery, chart. That stock is up more than 30% this year, and some believe it could brew even more gains. That's a clue. Brew. Next.