Power Lunch - Dow retakes 50,000 level as Nasdaq and S&P hit record highs 5/14/26

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Major averages move higher across the board as President Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and Cerebras Systems begins trading on the Nasdaq for the largest tech IPO since 2020. Celebrity chef Bobby Flay and NASCAR COO Ben Kennedy also join Kelly Evans & Brian Sullivan on set for exclusive in-person interviews to round out the show. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A monster IPO rocking the markets and making a lot of people really rich, at least on paper. Welcome to Power Lunch, everybody today. The S&B and NASDAQ both at record highs. The dowry takes 50,000. And the biggest U.S. tech IPO since 2020, all this as Trump meets with China's president in Beijing today. Plus, coming up, Bobby Flay. He built a culinary brand far beyond the kitchen from restaurants and media to pet food. But after winning the stock draft last year, he's up against a tougher opponent,

which is inflation. Coming up, how the chef and entrepreneur is navigating the rising costs of food and labor. And start your engines. NASCAR is racing to grow beyond the track with new media deals, younger fans, and a bigger global push. The company's CEO, Ben Kennedy, is here on the business of speed and where the sport goes next. All right, there is a lot to do. So let's get right to it and start with the big breaking news that is making, hopefully, a lot of people, maybe you, really rich today. Sarah Ross's IPO opening way up. It is off its high, but the stock debuting at 350 a share, about 175 bucks higher than where it priced last night. It's not there right now. It's only, and I'm doing air quotes, up $115 a share. There are smiles all around at the company,

the bankers, and at the NASDAQ where it's happening. Let's get right out of Christina Partseneblos, who is there at the NASDAQ, and I would imagine what is a pretty doggone good, mood there today. Yes, the champagne has already been passed around and the crowds are dissipating. But like you said, there was a lot of excitement leading into this. At one point, it was there was 45 buyers to every one seller out there, which is why we had somewhat of a delay. Morgan Stanley wanted to stall because they found the price was a little bit too high initially at $350. Makes sense because now it's dropped to 302 and you don't want all of the investors just getting in at that moment to lose out on shares. But this is a substantial.

IPO. And to your point, Andrew Feldman, the CEO, is sitting on at least $1.9 billion in terms of the money he's making on this. You have Sam Altman, Open AI. He was an early investor, 2017. Same for Greg Brockman. Both, I think Altman's more around $14 million, but obviously that could change based off of what he sells. Nonetheless, it's a company that's getting a lot of attention within the chip world. And Christina, the price we should just point out, it traded on the open when it was briefly halted at 385. We're around 303-305 right now. It's come down quite a ways. Yes, exactly. And so that was just some of the concern. That's just perhaps some of the sellers taking advantage of that 385 price, right? The issue was that there was about 4.3 million shares that

came to market. 30 million were offered just last night. So not everybody's going to be selling their shares. They're going to hold on. There is some risk if you hold on, you know, well into the summer. We talked about it, Kelly, in the last hour, this trickle-down effect of the class B shares, Class B shares can exit starting in August. About 84 million shares will come to market, perhaps, another 80 million in September, October. And these are some of the risks when you have the lockup period expiring. But this is a company that has exposure not only to the cloud world. They're signing a deal with AWS.

I was just told that maybe we'll get more details on the financial terms of that deal in the second half of this year, or their fiscal year. They're also exposed to the nation side, which would be the UAE. And then, of course, the model side, which is Open AI. Open AI signed a $20 billion compute deal with Cerebrus just in January. So that is what they're going to really push on their next earnings called those three buckets. The fact that they're exposed to labs, nations, and hyperscalers are clouds. All right. Thank you, Christina. For now, Christina Parts in Avelis. Let's stay with the chips, the semis. We've got this covered on many AGOs for you.

Stacey Razgon is the senior semi-analyst at Bernstein. Jay Peters is portfolio manager at New Edge Wealth and an NVIDIA shareholder. Both are with us. Stacey, I'll start with you. What does this mean for the industry you cover? What does what mean? The Cerebris IPO, sorry. Well, look, so, I mean, I won't comment on Cerebris per se, but I mean, clearly there's

still appetite for AI. The AI trade is still clearly on, and we're seeing that today. And so, look, I think people need to be reminded that there are a lot of semiconductor names that aren't necessarily part of the data center trade. They might do things like autos and all up and down the. the value chain, but it's created a pull across the whole ecosystem. To be fair, everything in Sandwich almost looks like it's part of the AI trade. And frankly, AI, I would say, has gotten so big it's sort of dragging everything along with

it. You know, AI needs accelerators and GPS, but it needs lots of other things as well. And sort of one at a time, they've been getting dragged into the fold. You know, we went from accelerators, and then we went to semi-cap, and then we went to memory, and then we went to optical, and then we went to power semis. and now, more recently it's CPUs. So almost everything. In fact, if you look at the group, semis as a group were up almost 70% year-to-date.

They're up almost 50% since March, since earnings started. And it's funny because you get questions, how sustainable? Is this a bubble? If you actually look at the drivers of that stock performance, it's all earnings. multiples are actually down slightly year-to-date. All of the movement in the stock prices is explainable by the, the growth in forward earnings expectations. So if you're worried about like bubble,

I think that what you have to articulate is why you think the earnings are in a bubble. But at this point, like the move in the stocks that we've seen is not necessarily irrational, like given the growth. And it's hard. It's all been driven by the AI trade. Yeah.

And Jay Peters on set, don't worry. We're not going to ask you about Sarah Ross. In fact, I didn't even know how to pronounce the company's name, obviously, until yesterday. Same here. I'm still not sure I do.

But when you have an IPO and whatever it, today or whatever company it is, that's doing this well, that's leading CNBC's coverage, right? That's getting a lot of attention. Does it have the power to lift the whole market, clients calling you and say, hey, you know what, I was out? How do I get back in? Or is just kind of a neat news item?

So it is definitely a very interesting company. I'd say, you know, the semiconductor segment, Brian, as Stacey pointed out, has obviously been very hot lately. It's a lot of positive sentiment around a lot of these companies. We're still constructive on the semi-space. We're still overweight in our portfolios. Ultimately, we've kind of focused on the more durable segment, that being the chip equipment companies. These are the companies that obviously produce the machines that make these the most advanced chips.

They tend to have revenues that are driven by a combination of both products and services. Chip equipment spending tends to be one of the places where you see when the cycle does turn, it's where the spending starts to. But I mean, we'll get to that. But I mean, does an IPO like this, this kind of big winner, does it matter to the macro markets at all? Or is it just like a one-off fund story? I think it just underscores, as Stacey said, the sentiment towards all things AI infrastructure right now. I think the hyper-scalers, you know, they continue to increase their CAP-X more than expected. I think the magnitude and the duration of that, of this investment cycle continues to surprise investors as well.

And certainly, as Stacy pointed out, the earnings are accelerating, the revisions are increasing, the multiples are expanding. I think some companies in the ecosystem are probably over-earning right now. And I think, you know, you may want to be prudent and, you know, some of these names are due for some consolidation. I think the long-term story remains well intact. Yeah, I was going to ask you that, Stacey, as someone who's looking through these numbers, talking to management across all these different companies in the space, when does that earnings momentum begin to slow? I mean, you probably need the spending to slow, right?

And at this point, and I'll be honest, like if all the sudden, you know, hyper-scale CAPEX or AI spending or whatever rolls over, like, we're probably all toast. There's probably nowhere to hide. We're not seeing any signs of that at this point. In fact, everything we can see is. suggestions like the only thing we're hearing is that nobody has enough compute. And we're seeing all kinds of things. We're seeing, you know, long-term agreements being put in place in memory, for example, that's something new. And we're seeing massive signs of hugely tight supply.

I mean, you're seeing memory companies with 80% gross margins. And again, I don't know how sustainable that is, you know, but we will see capacity coming online. I mean, but you're, you mentioned the semi-cap. We like semi-cap as well. Like everything you're hearing right now at the end of the day, if you're worried about winters and losers, and it boils down to, you know, we need more chips and more wafers and probably more equipment. We're seeing that supply slowly get built. They actually have to build the clean rooms first, and then they'll bring the equipment on. And as the supply comes online, I think then we'll know whether or not this is sustainable. And the question will be as the supply comes online, does the demand continue to grow to meet it

or not? This is actually what we saw, you know, go back a year or two, you know, when GPUs and things were in tight supply. As that supply eased, it wasn't like they were, it turns out they were not building as the supply eased and got better, the demand picked up to fill it. We actually needed it. That's what we'll be watching for. Like as the semiconductor capacity over the next year or two comes online, does the demand actually grow to meet it? The signs right now, as we're seeing, suggest the answer that could very well be yes, that it will, the demand will rise in the occasion. Stacey, what about with Amat applied materials they report after the bell? Should we expect them to continue the theme? I think so. Yeah, most of their peers have reported already. Numbers have been

fine across the board. The stock movements, you know, on the evening, you know, can go either way. Like, it just, and I would say semi-cap is a popular group, so there's a lot of investors that are already there. But yeah, I think the fundamentals should be fine. Like, you know, aim out, like last quarter three months ago, they actually sort of took their outlook up for the year fairly materially. They'd already been talking about a second half lift, and they kind of pulled that forward. this is three months ago, and they're calling for, again, three months ago, 20% plus growth in their equipment business. And look, I'd expect, you know, the numbers that they report along those trends to be just fine. Yeah, normally we'd be jumping up and down about a 73% year-to-date gain that barely gets mentioned this kind of environment.

Cici, it will let you go, thanks. We appreciate it. Jay, before you do, I want to ask you're a shareholder of Amat, if I'm not missed out of Amat, Amat, Applied, Applied Materials. Does this quarter, I mean, what would they have to say to get you out of the size? stock at this point. So I think you have to deliver on expectations. A lot of these companies haven't able to do that. You know, stock, AMET has run up here in the last six weeks. It does trade a pretty full valuation on 34 times earnings. So I think you need to demonstrate that you are, you know, delivering on expectations. Your gross margins are steady. This is a company also that's leveraged

a little bit more to the memory cycle, which you guys have talked about. About 20% of their revenues come from the big three companies of Micron, Sanchez, Ganeske-Hinex. So I think delivering revenue growth that exceeds expectation there will be key to kind of supporting some of recent performance we've seen. All right. Then there's eBay, which has nothing to do with AI. You could say it has something to do with meme stocks, you know, or Ryan Cohen. So there's a report from the Financial Times now that he may threaten to make a tender offer directly to eBay shareholders for this $56 billion takeover that GameStop wants to make. You're an eBay shareholder. How would you feel about that? So we've been in eBay for a little over two years now.

I think, you know, the company continues to execute very well from an operational standpoint. It's not surprising to see some outside interest. I don't think as a shareholder we're too interested at this point, but I do think eBay continues to deliver on solid results. The overall low double-digit, kind of durable revenue growth, the company continues to be capital-light, high margin. And then, you know, we've talked about a couple of companies in the past, these sort of share cannibalizers.

eBay has bought back about 7% on their shares annually over the last couple of years. Reasonable valuation around 18 times earnings. and this idea of re-commerce, people buying more unique items, collectibles online, continues to grow. I like to say they're eating themselves alive, but that sounds a little more threatening than I intend. Jay, really appreciate it. Thanks. Good to see you again. Jay Peters of New Edge wealth. We've got a market flash on Cisco having its best day since 2011 after receiving more than $5 billion in AI infrastructure and hyper-scaler orders so far this year. They've also announced they'll cut about 4,000 jobs a little less than that this quarter. Right now it stands as the best performer in the S&P, and it's helping the Dow above 50K today, Brian.

All right, got some news in today's bond report as well. Stephen Myron is stepping down from his role. He submitted a resignation letter to President Trump. That's a move that clears the way for Kevin Warsh to take his place. In that letter, Myron warns the Federal Reserve risk pushing unemployment higher than necessary if it doesn't correct what he calls errors in how it measures inflation, saying the Federal Reserve could end up fighting fake inflation, his news, his term, rather, said of the real thing. He adds he is excited by the changes Warsh could bring, including shifts

in communication, balance sheet policy, and a return to what Myron calls the Fed's narrow mandate. After the break, with the high-stakes summit in Beijing underway, our next guest warns China may already be preparing for what it sees as a final victory over the United States. He's here to explain that next. Welcome back. Chinese President Xi Jinping warning President Trump that the U.S. and China, quote, will have clashes if the longstanding issue of Taiwan's independence is mishandled. She added that the issue could even put the relationship between the two great countries in, quote, great jeopardy. Let's head over to CNBC's senior Washington correspondent who is in Beijing and has more for us. Hi, Aman. Yeah, hi, Kelly. That's right. It was that stark warning from President Xi Jinping to Donald Trump on. Taiwan that got a lot of attention around the world on Thursday. We also saw just the typical day of pomp and circumstance here as we saw the president greeted warmly by Xi Jinping, reviewing the

Honor Guard, meeting the children who came out to see him, and then that extensive bilateral session between the two delegations that went on for quite some time throughout the day. The question now, though, Kelly, is what substance, if any, was agreed to behind closed doors? We haven't gotten any particular readout of deals that were agreed to by the White House or by the Chinese side, other than President Trump's interview that he did shortly after concluding the day with Fox News personality, Sean Hannity. The president told Hannity that the Chinese side had agreed to purchase 200 Boeing jets, which he said was a bigger number than expected. And he also said that the Chinese side had agreed to not provide weapons to the Iranians. And he said,

and that the Chinese want an end to the war in Iran, and they want the Strait of Hormuz to be opened. So one of the things we're going to have to see now is whether the Chinese side puts out any statement in the coming hours saying what it believes that it agreed to during the course of this session today. And whether or not we see any commitments by the Chinese to do anything in terms of Iran, the Chinese government has said in the past that they don't want to send military equipment to Iran to perpetuate the war. So whether this is a change in position by Xi Jinping or not, we're going to have to wait and see from the Chinese readout. The president also said that Xi Jinping told him that he does want to continue to purchase Iranian oil. Doesn't sound like that side is going to change on that issue. Kelly, back over to you. Amen, last hour, Derek scissors from AEI said he was surprised that the president had invited Xi Jinping to return to come to the U.S., return the trip favor.

I guess we could call it in September, which is right ahead of the midterm. and he thought might put Republicans in an awkward position who don't necessarily like to see Trump kind of making overtures to the Chinese. What was your reaction to the significance of that announcement? Yeah, it really had to be in September because the other option was in November and Xi Jinping is likely going to be in the United States in December for the G20. So that kind of crowds out that G20 meeting. So if it was going to happen, it kind of had to happen in September. President Trump is committed to doing the reciprocal visit. and he's not as attached to the midterms as many in his party are who are going to be up for election.

This president's not running for re-election anymore. He wants to focus on his foreign policy goals and he's a little bit less concerned about the political timing. It does feel that way. Amen, thanks. Really appreciate it. Amen, Javers. All right, your next guest has held several senior China policy roles in the Biden administration, now at Columbia University. He also penned an op-ed in the New York Times that said this meeting really is kind of just a temporary pause in a long

A longer test of wills. Welcome and Julian Gowardt's. Julian, welcome. What do you mean by that? A longer pause than a test of wills. So for many years, the United States relationship with China has been sort of the story of China as a country on the rise trying to deal with the superpower of the United States. But China has shifted from playing defense to now really having stalemated the United States.

These are two peers that both have tremendous capabilities. And so for Xi Jinping, heading into this second day now of their summit in Beijing, it's really a story of can he buy time, lower tension so that China can keep rising, keep becoming more powerful. And candidly, I think we see from President Trump a very different approach wanting short-term deals, short-term wins. Okay, but you know Xi Jinping very well, I'm sure. Maybe not personally, but you know what he's about. And if you know his history, he's a bad dude. I mean, the dude grew up like. his family was cast out. He lived in a cave at one point. He was beaten by townspeople. Like, he's a tough dude. What does he want? He's also dealing with a demographic disaster in his country, the Uighur situation. What does Xi Jinping want? What's his best outcome? Look, Xi Jinping's best outcome is that he gets everything he wants vis-a-vis Taiwan, that he pushes the United States out of Asia, and that he has the capability for China's economy.

to continue booming and rising as he sees it without the United States being able to sanction banks or choke off semiconductors going to China. So he wants that kind of autonomy and centrality for China. And I do believe that he sees a path to getting it, in part because he believes, I think, against a lot of evidence that the United States is in some kind of terminal decline. And he is telling himself that. Other officials in the Chinese system are telling him that. and I think they increasingly think that the time is on their side. You point to what the Beijing Daily had said when tariffs we first imposed this big tariffs on China a year ago. They argued that China would ultimately achieve the final victory. That's where your headline comes from, which would be unfolding.

This struggle would unfold in three phases. They would initially play defense. Then there'd be more of a stalemate. Then it would culminate in a powerful counteroffensive. You said they think we're in the second phase, the stalemate now. and that the stalemate, I guess in their minds, will ultimately move to a counteroffensive. And I'd like to hear more about that. Yeah, so I want to be clear here that what we're talking about is how Xi Jinping thinks about the world. And when we talk about a stalemate or a counteroffensive, this is not necessarily a military counteroffensive. It's a metaphor. But the core really is, I believe, that Xi Jinping sees the trends of technology advancements,

AI and it manufacturing, as well as the political challenges here in the United States. United States, what China describes as a declining and internally, you know, torn apart political system, that he sees all of those factors favoring China over the long term. Now, these are both very confident leaders. So one of the questions coming out of this summit is, does either leader reassess their self-confidence as a result of what they see in those meeting rooms? Julian Gawartz, senior research scholar at Columbia University, great intite, great intel. Julian, thank you very much. Good to be with you. I got a news alert on the hantavirus.

Anika Konstantino has more. That's right, Brian. So the CDC just reporting now that 41 people across the U.S. are being monitored for hantavirus. There are no confirmed U.S. cases at this point. But the passengers from the cruise ship at the center of this outbreak, some of them are being monitored for the virus as of now. And it also includes people that were exposed to a symptomatic individual

that are also being monitored right now as well. And so the CDC is recommending that these people, avoid going outside and avoid people for 42 days. But at this point, the CDC also recommends that people know that the risks of general public right now remains very low. So we'll continue to monitor this outbreak as it unfolds. Anika, it's Kelly here just to jump in. My understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, this has like an eight-week incubation period in terms of being passed human to human. So I understand if you're on a ship, that means you'd have to be with people for a long period of time for there to be danger.

But in real everyday life in America, I mean, a lot of us might speak. been eight weeks with other people and our families and so forth. So I'm just trying to wrap my head around where the risks lie. That's right. So public health experts, when I talked to them in the past few days, they've really told me that this is very different from COVID. COVID spread more efficiently in the air and is more airborne, unlike this virus, hand to virus. It does require that more prolonged close contact and close proximity with an individual. So that's very different from the cruise ship environment. Obviously, those people are stuck in close quarters for weeks or days. of time and that's kind of unlike real life.

You know, in the case of the plane that we did see, those, you know, these people are being monitored because they were sort of exposed to people that had symptoms. But in this case, the risk of the general public, they say the spread should be very low at this point. All right. I hope to keep it that way. Anika, thank you very much. Appreciate the update. All right.

After the break, what to buy if the Federal Reserve were to actually raise interest rates. Time now for your market navigator is the graphic. says, and President Trump has made no secret about the fact that he expects incoming Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh, to cut interest rates. But with inflation moving up, could the Federal Reserve actually raise interest rates? Joining us now, Skyler Wynan, is Chief Investment Officer at Reagan Capital. Skyl, do you think the Fed could raise rates? For sure, not in the next three or four months, but sometime this fall or next spring, we think they're going to be forced to raise interest rates with where inflation is going. Yeah, maybe just to reverse the kind of bizarre cut they had two falls ago. That said, if they did, what should we buy? What should we own?

Banks in general, but more specifically Wells Fargo, WFC, about $200 billion cash. Their regulatory cap just got lifted less than a year ago, and they're off to the races, raising deposits and growing loans. They're down about 20% this year, way underperforming the S&P and financial. which means there's a lot more room for them to grow this year. Scala wanted of Rigan Capital. Scali got a lot of news today. You're going to leave it there. But we'll get you back on very soon and appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Coming up is the consumer still dining out or are higher prices leaving a bad taste? We'll dig in with chef and restaurateur Bobby Flay right after this. Welcome back. Let's talk a little food inflation with this month's CPI report coming in hotter than expected. Food at home was a problem. 3% year on year, with a majority of key categories from fruits to meat showing gains over the past 12 months. Let's get some insight on what this all means for the consumer with today's power player, Bobby Flay. He's a chef, restaurateur, and entrepreneur. A lot of French word in there.

Bobby, it's great to see you again. Welcome. You know, we talked about how food at home is more expensive, but what are people's options? We were just talking about this. You go to eat out. It's a lot worse. It's awful. And we were just saying, like, even your neighborhood restaurants seems incredibly expensive no matter what you do. And it is what it is. There's really no solve here. I mean, I just think that as every, as usual, it's going to get passed on to the consumer and you're going to have to pay more to eat out. And that's just the way it is. My favorite piece on this was recently, the Wall Street Journal did something about, and I'm not going to get exactly right, but it said, you know, your $150, you know, steak dinner, the restaurant's making $15 on that or something.

I mean, are the margins, really? Yeah. I mean, I, you know, even though, Restaurants are very, very expensive, more expensive than ever. It's still not enough for the restaurant itself. And you're seeing, that's why you're seeing restaurants really struggle across the board. A lot of them are closing their doors and they're hoping to break even. That's not a good business model for any business. So, okay, New York City, the budget of New York City has doubled. Don't worry, I have a point on where I'm going to this.

The budget of New York City has doubled in about 20 years. But the population stayed about the same and the poverty rate's actually up. The point is, where is the money going? So with that, that in mind, for the restaurant, The $150 dinner that you just said they're not getting rich. Where's the money going? Where's it going? It's going to labor.

It's going to cost of goods. There's three buckets. The labor, of course, the cost of goods, the food and the liquor that you buy. And of course, rent. Rent. Insurance. Right. No.

The occupancy cost has always been high in a place like New York City. That's not going to change. I don't think the landlords are going to get big hearts anytime soon. We haven't seen it. I don't think it's going to happen today. However, you're going to see, I think you're going to see less jobs and you're going to see less restaurants open or being able to stay open. So I'm noticing those guys, and I'm sure you're friends with them, maybe, or you know him, David Chang. Sure, of course.

All right. You guys kind of go in similar paths where the physical restaurants have slowed down. And I got something in the mail yesterday from a company called Wonder. Do you get this? Oh, I know about Wonder. Yes. Well, that's, so Bobby Flay flank steak, right? Is part of the, or Flay?

Well, it's Bobby Flay steak. So you're licensing your name and brand to Mark Lour, who founded Diapers.com, made a fortune billion sold to Walmart.com as well. He owns the Minnesota Timberwolves. His new venture, you're licensing your name for that. You sold your pet food company. Is that the way things are going, that the physical restaurant business is what you have to do at the beginning to get your name out there, but it's hard. Well, I think that model is having a hard time staying profitable. And so I'm in the licensed business in terms of like my restaurants. I'm partners with Sears Palace in Las Vegas.

So I have a couple of high-end restaurants out there, Malphia and Brasbury B. But I also have burger places with Seizers across the board as well. So those licensed deals are, they're good businesses. Trying to open a restaurant, pay the rent in a traditional sense, has gotten more and more difficult.

And that's the problem. It really breaks my heart because that's who I am. That's how I grew up in the business, just opening restaurants in New York City. it's gotten harder and harder. Can we talk some stock picks? I'm assuming there aren't restaurant names that would be, maybe there are. Maybe there.

I mean, look at what's happened to Shake Shack this year. Maybe there's some value opportunities there. But we didn't do the stock draft sadly. I know. You know, we're busy. I have a lot. I crushed this year. You were so good.

We just thought, why have it again? We can never replicate. What would your stock picks be? And you, no partnership promos, okay? I want pure. I want to tell you something. Because I do have a little history in your, in your industry. I worked on the American Stock Exchange a long time ago. So I know a little bit about

this. I am an S&P 500 ETF guy and I've been it since 2008. I'm not good enough to pick stocks. And I always tell my friends who are starting to make a few bucks, like they always say, what should I buy? And I'm like, believe in America, go long. Go broad. Go long. Exactly. Because anything can happen to any stock. Absolutely. People think it's a great if they made 60% on a trade. you're like, if you think about this for 20 years, you're going to make thousands of percent compounded on all of this. Exactly. Anyway, you know, but so you look at the markets and when you see things like, okay,

the tech stocks are up 60 percent in six weeks or something, I mean, do you ever try to do any market timing or have you just learned like, that's a fool's air in? I don't ever try to time the market because I know that no one knows. And if no one knows, I certainly don't know. And so I just, if I have a few bucks that I want to invest, I put it into the S&P just no matter what day the week it is. And whatever happens happens. I never feel like I missed it.

Speaking of gambling, I want to talk about... That's investing. No, I know, but I want to talk about Vegas and Seizures. You mentioned it. And my friend, Tomon Fertita, you might have heard about this guy. He's pretty good in the restaurant business. Oh, I can't. You have some inside information with me?

I have no inside information on anything, but everybody knows Tomen and I are good friends. He's now the ambassador to Italy. He's making the play for Seizers. Sure. He's a pretty smart guy. I mean, he hasn't become one of the world's richest men by accident. Is Vegas okay?

How's Vegas, not Sears, but Vegas writ large. If Tillman's betting on it, I got to imagine it's going to be okay because a lot of people are saying Vegas is dead. Yeah, well, I mean, listen, that's people like to jump on things when they can. I think that Vegas sort of took a pause over the last year or so. But I feel like it's already starting to bubble back up. And I think that they're looking forward to really, you know, to get through the summer. and I think the fall is going to be really, really good. There's something.

Have you ever been to Vegas? A few times. You have? Yeah, I went to church. That was, you know, the guy had a microphone. And anyway, you mentioned, yeah. If you've ever been to the one on the strip, it's hilarious. Oh, okay.

It's just, anyway, I did a few other things, too. So going back to your stock picks, as you said, you are a broad S&P 500 guy for 20 years who won our stock draft last year. So you clearly follow more of the market than you're letting out. I mean, is there anything right now? now that you feel either excited about or this is, you know, out of like, I mean, just when you, if I had to make a bet, I'd bet on oil. Really?

Yes. Because I feel like the whole stock market is cyclical. And obviously, you know, listen, I just filled up my car for about $175 the other day. So I know that, you know, gas is up and et cetera. So I feel like at some point it's going to come back to the place it needs to be. Oil. I might know something about that. Talking oil to the oil guy.

Tomorrow we're going to actually be. doing power lunch, partly from a LNG factory in Texas. Wow. Tomorrow. Pending United Airlines getting me out on time tonight, Bobby Flee. Do you have a plane I could use?

No. Didn't ask if he had a plane. I just had a plane I could use. I'm not sure what the no is for. There we go. Bobby, congratulations. By the way, congrats on the sale. Yeah, I just want to talk about that really popular.

Notcho. Your cat. So one of the things I always tell people is, is invest in the things that you know about. I've been a cat guy my whole life, so I started a cat food company called Made by Nacho about six years ago. We merged with a bigger company called I In Loving You, and it's great to be part of something bigger

because they have the resources, and they have the whereabouts to make this happen. So I think we're going to do close to $125 million next year, so it's cat food all the way. Cat food all, getting rich. Cats have been playing second fiddle to dogs for a long time. That's right. There's a reason. They're cats. Well, no.

They sit there and ply your demise. You know what? There's more cats than dogs. I know, but there's just eye and you like, what can I, how can I? I see you're not a cat guy. How can I speak to you? How can I get out of it? Well, it sounds like you will have a plane soon. I look forward to. Cats and what's up. Bobby, thank you. All right.

All right, Bobby Flay, thank you very much. Let's get now over to Angelica People's for a CNBC News update. Hey, Brian. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks told Fox News today that he is resigning, effective immediately. He's just the latest in the string of top DHS staffers to leave recently, including Christy Knoem, Acting Ice Director, Todd Lyons, and Border Patrol commander Greg Bobino. Banks told employees in a farewell letter that it was time to retire and return home to Texas. Senators today unanimously approved resolution to withhold their own pay during any future federal government shutdowns. It'll take effect after the 26 midterms, and like other federal government

employees, senators will get back pay after any shutdown ends. And President Trump's executive order to restrict mail-in voting facing its first test in court today. A hearing set for this afternoon will feature arguments by Democratic Party lawyers who say that it's unconstitutional and would disenfranchise millions of voters. The Justice Department argues the lawsuit and others like it are premature because federal agencies have yet to implement the order. Brian, back over to you. All right, Angelica, thank you. very much. All right up next, we are shifting gears and having some fun. We are welcoming

on set NASCAR's new chief operating officer for the state of the sport to his plans to drive growth. We'll get a big look inside the big business and big money in NASCAR next. Markets, by the way, at record high, Dowback at 50,000, and our parent company, Versant, the proud broadcaster of 10 different NASCAR races this year. It starts August 9th with the Iowa corn 350 powered by ethanol. I did that well. I could do this. And goes all the way to Phoenix in late October. If you've been a CBC viewer for a long time,

you know that I'm a huge fan of NASCAR, as is Kelly's husband, Eric. And we are very excited for this next guest. Ben Kennedy is a CEO of NASCAR, also a longtime former driver as well. Ben, welcome. Good to have you on. Yeah. Thank you guys for having me today.

I love what NASCAR is doing. Now, I'm a road course guy. Okay, so to be fair, I like the, I like the ovals, But I love Chicago, and you guys are going to Coronado in San Diego on a military base, first time ever, going to go left and right. You're going to have all kinds of stuff. What has been behind the change in some of the thinking on races and tracks? Yeah, we put a team together about five or six years ago to intentionally look at our schedule.

What is working today and where are there opportunities for us to innovate and change? And we made a number of changes over the last four or five years. So we built to track inside of a 100-year-old stadium at L.A. Memorial Coliseum. It was one of our exhibition races to help us kick off the 2022 season. Race on the streets of downtown Chicago a few years ago. We had never had a street race in our sports 75-year history. We're able to deliver that. And then to your point, in just a month or so here, we're going to be going to San Diego.

So first ever race on a military base. It's at Naval Base Coronado. And it celebrates the 250th anniversary of our country, 250th anniversary of our Navy, 3.1 mile course, and the Navy's told us they're bringing out all the bells and whistles for it. So it's going to be a show. You got to go. I mean, I would like to go.

By the way, just to go to watch SVG win again on a road course, Shane Ben Gidsbergen. I was going to say as a former racer. You know what I like about Shane is that he's a big dude also. Like he kicks the rugby ball and he's a big dude. People don't know you're like six, you know. No, I'm taller than most, but like you're tall, dude. By the way, former driver, you squeezed into that car. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. You and Michael Waltrip, who's 6-6, I think. I don't know how you all fit in. Michael's a little bit taller than me. I'm 6-foot-1, so I'm definitely on the taller side of the drivers, but my head was up there, for sure. You got to deal also with the media, with us. But we're very nice, by the way, so is Verson.

How's the media changing? What's NASCAR going to look like in five years? Yeah, so we just started a new media rights deal. We have five different partners, so two incumbents that came in, so Fox and USA Sports, which you're going to be. To your point, we'll pick up in August later in the season. And then a few new partners that have come in. So Amazon Prime streams five races in the summer.

We have T&T. They'll take the next five races. And then the CWs come in. And they have taken the entire O'Reilly series. So Cup Series is our most premier series that we have. The O'Reilly series is our feeder series into our Cup series. And then Fox Sports One covers our Craftsman Truck series. We've been to several different races with the kids.

And I mean, I think people would be surprised. It's very family friendly, which I appreciate. There's also something it makes me think a little bit about, which is in a very internet age, and we're all on screens and devices all the time. I mean, the overwhelming physical experience of NASCAR is really something that everybody should behold. I mean, you walk in and the noise, people don't understand. It's so unbelievably loud and it's so fast. And so I think people get a kick out of it. It's one of, again, you used to have hundreds of thousands of people coming for these races, you know, going back 20 years ago. But I could see this also being something that

reminds people of the dirt and the motors and the engines and all of this physicality that goes into putting these races on. Yeah, it's a good point. And it is a sensory experience for sure. All sports are sensory experiences. But when you go to a race, you have a sense of community of all the people that are going. People that have been going for decades, multi-generational families that are going out to races. But when you sit in the seats, you hear the cars go by. You can literally feel the thunder in your chest. And then you smell all of the rubber and tire and oil. and everything that comes along with it. Being a race car driver, you know that experience.

And we tell people, if you can get them to a racetrack for the first time, their hook. So we're really focused on bringing in new fans into our sport, giving them a reason for why to love NASCAR, why to follow a favorite team, follow a favorite driver, and then continue to engage with us. The kids always like to pick their favorite cars.

Like, oh, that's the M&M car or something. But they change, also they change, too. And that's been of, and so I've been on the record as saying that I, and this is not a homework because you're here. I've said for years, Roger Penske, I think, is the greatest business person in America today. With all due respect to Elon Musk, Penske has built multi-billion-dollar companies. It's also a darn good race car team owner, the best we've ever seen. He and I have had some conversations in the past about sponsors and how to get them on the car, in the M&M's car, right?

Tide, right? Back in 40 years ago with Ricky Rudd was the first one to come in with like a consumer brand, which be skull, now it's tied. How does the internet thing change what companies may be interested in putting their money and their name on the hood of a race car? Yeah, partnership is, it's synonymous with NASCAR in a lot of ways. And, you know, we are focused to your point 20, 25 years ago. You could sell a sponsor on a race car. You could slap the decal or sticker on a hood or the side panels.

And now in today's internet age, I mean, we're competing against all of eyeballs. So I think it's really important for us. And we try to do a good job of partnering with. both the league, the teams, the tracks, and the drivers in bundling all of our assets together to be able to go out to the market. And yes, it still includes the decals on the cars. There is a lot of social and digital activations that we include as a part of that as well. One of your most high profile fans is Michael Jordan himself, which is a huge vote of common. He loves the sport. He's also, of course, had some allegations and lawsuits about the way that the business is being

handled. What's the status of that? And do you expect him to stay, you know, an important part of the NASCAR community for a long time. Absolutely. And, you know, to your point, we had a moment in December. Thankfully, that's in the rearview mirror and behind us. But Michael Jordan is a co-owner on 2311 racing, one of our race teams that we have in the Cup Series. They're leading the points. They are leading the points with driver Tyler Reddick. And they also won the first three races of the season as well. That is the first time it has ever been done in NASCAR history. And Michael Jordan has been to a ton of races so far this year. And I,

I really like watching him because he is so into it. He's so engaged. So competitive. Sits on the pit box. He has a headset on the entire race. And he loves it. He really loves the competitive nature of it, but he loves watching NASCAR racing as a fan.

It's great to have him as a team owner as a part of it. And winning does heal some wounds, I think, right? Like, it's like he's winning. And if Tyler Reddick were to win the championship, I don't think Michael Jordan would be unhappy. Yeah, absolutely. Because to see the big, truly joy when his driver wins, and he gives him the hug and Michael Jordan's like 6-6

and Tyler Redick is not. There's a big hug there. There is a big hug, yeah. And Tyler has been an incredible talent in our sport so far. I actually had the chance to compete against him for a couple of years, but he is an incredible talent, 2311 racing. They're a relatively new team. They started just a few years ago and to be winning at this level

and at this caliber against some of the best drivers and teams in the world is remarkable. I just want to see him spin out his other team owner, Denny Hamlin. that goes. Ben Kennedy, CEO of NASCAR. Really appreciate you coming in the studio. Can't wait. And maybe we will make it out for that San Diego race. Thank you, good. Thank you. Thank you. More power lunch on a market high record day right after you.