Power Lunch - How long can this bull market go? 9/23/25

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

Bill Gates-backed TerraPower is teaming up with Evergy and the state of Kansas to explore bringing its Natrium nuclear reactor to Kansas. Melius Research's James West joins to discuss energy and AI. And what should you expect from stocks for the rest of 2025?  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Another record for the S&P 500 going nuclear and one of the funniest people in America right here in studio. Welcome to Power Lunch, everybody. I'm Brian Sullivan, a big hour ahead. Earlier today, another record high for the S&P 500. Energy, a huge part of that. Nearly every energy-related stock is higher Nvidia and OpenAI, inking that $100 billion deal Monday. But now the market wonders. We wonder, where does all that power actually come from? as Doc Brown said in the movie Back to the Future, it can't be done. Can it?

We're going to drill down on that. Plus, we've got a pair of energy CEOs here to make a big announcement. And speaking of power players, comedian, extraordinaire, Sebastian, Manus Calco, in-house, no joke. He and Guy Adami picking the aforementioned Nvidia will ask why, talk about the stockstraft and talk a little comedy, his business, markets and more with he and Guy, that is ahead. Can't wait. But let's start here. With the $100 billion monster energy-related deal that really rocked investors and the markets on

Monday, Nvidia is saying it will invest up to $100 billion at Open AI's data center buildout. There will be so many Nvidia processors cranking all those computers that it could require as much as 10 gigawatts of power. Now, energy folks, it is tough. to understand. It is mushy. It is imperfect. But in a very basic sense, 10 gigs, it's about seven and a half million households worth of electricity, an entire New York City worth of power. To make that kind of power would take maybe three or more big nuclear plants, maybe about 15 huge natural gas units, or about 3,000 of those giant wind turbines. Your next guest, one of the leading voices on energy in America.

His note this morning, calling the power players the strategic assets for AI and that the IPPs, the independent power producers, some of the gassy names like the Baker Hughes and EQT, should benefit from it all. Joining us now is Mellius Research's head of energy and power research. James West. James, thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for everybody. Well, do you think we, first off, can we make that kind of power?

I think we're going to be seeing Vincent starts here on power generation. I mean, we didn't have power growth in this country for 20 years. And now we're having this dramatic surge in growth. And power is the table six, as I mentioned in the note, to AI. If you don't have electricity, you can't turn that electricity into intelligence. And so we're going to build out, we're going to build off fast. We've got a long lead times for many of the critical items. Yeah. And there's, according to Power Magazine, probably your own data, is about 200 power units of natural gas production currently. I don't know how much of that will ultimately be built, James. But when you look at the demand curve out a few years, things that we're hearing from Open AI and Nvidia, how many will we need? Well, we burn the numbers. If you take Jensen's numbers of $3 to $4 trillion in infrastructure, AI infrastructure spending by 2030 annually, that means we'll need to add about 65 gigawatts annually to power. 65 gigawatts.

I mean, we're talking about tens of millions of homes worth of power. I guess I'm being a little bit dense, James, because I was, you know, I expressed my healthy skepticism to these announcements yesterday. You're a power analyst. You're not covering Nvidia or chips. I get it. But when you're hearing these kinds of numbers, what are you and your team talking about? What are you thinking about?

Well, we're thinking how do we get there? First off, we need to upgrade the grid. We need grid stability. We need on-site power generation, whether that's fuel cells or turbines, on-site with data centers. And we need to build all this quickly. So we need all the people and the E&C companies to step in and really higher, scale, and run fast. Is there a part of you that would think, and you can dodge this if you want, James, but

I'm going to ask it anyway, is there a part of you that hears these numbers and thinks the AI industry is writing check? that the power producers, at least right now, can't cash? I think it's possible. I mean, I think that there's going to be some issues where we have blackouts. It's going to be some issues which can push back from local communities because power prices go too high. So I think there's going to be a little bit of fits and starts, if you will, and there will be a point at which we're going to be constrained by power. And that's probably already happening now.

I guess what's interesting is that I'm looking at this incredible demand for natural gas, not just here, not just for AI, not just for data. but around the world, all the U.S. natural gas or shipping to Europe, et cetera, James. And I'm looking at a natural gas price. That's $2.82. I mean, make that make sense. It doesn't make sense, Brian. I think that what we'll see here is we get past the kind of shoulder months and into the winter. I think we'll see more demand for natural gas. As more of these data centers turn on, of course, that demand comes online. And the price signal is going to have to be there that we need to drill for more natural gas. It really can't make a return unless you have probably $4 for aribsie up.

Two weeks ago in Italy, Lorenzo Seminelli, the CEO of Baker Hughes, more than pleased to show me that one of their new gas turbines, you wrote in your note today that you think the IPPs, and I would assume that's the Vistras of the world. Vistra, Constellation, Tallon. Fantastic. And then the Baker Hughes's and the EQTs ultimately are likely to benefit? Baker Hughes, definitely, GEV covered by my colleague, Rob Borthheimer, and definitely EQT because of the biggest gas producer in the U.S. When you look at the power producers, the IPPs, the Vistras, the constellations of the world, some of that power is already obviously contracted to utilities, but some of it is a free agent, as you might say, and they can sell that for the, do you see this ultimately becoming this, this fight between commercial demand and residential demand?

I think it absolutely will be. I think it's already a fight. I think commercial demand is going to win that fight, quite frankly, because they can pay more and they're willing to pay more. And right now the tech companies are scrambling so quickly that even, things like clean energy, which they were focused so much on previously. They're just going to take anything they can, any kind of energy they can get. James West, Mellius Research, must read notes every day, James. Really appreciate your views. Thank you very much. Thanks, Brian. Thank you. All right. So as that new snazzy animation shows, we're going to stay with energy, and we're going to hit some breaking news in the space with you, the state of Kansas.

It's big utility Evergy and the Bill Gates-backed nuclear power company, Terra Power, teaming up, to explore building a nuclear energy reactor in Kansas. And right now, on PowerPlay, we've got the exclusive, both the CEO of Evergey and Terra Power. Joining us to my left is Terra Power CEO, Chris Leveck. And here on my right is Evergey CEO David Campbell. Appreciate to you both. So, David, I'm going to start with you.

Obviously, it's your job to get the power to the people. You just heard that last segment. I heard you saw you both kind of out of the side of my eye nodding to certain things. Do we need nuclear and lots of it to make all of this occur? We do. We have a generational opportunity right now in terms of power demand. The amount of increased demand that we're seeing is we haven't seen in decades. Over the near term, we're going to meet that need with natural gas and with solar.

But we're a nuclear operator today for us to have a sustainable, clean, reliable system, we're going to need to add nuclear to the mix. It's going to be a very important addition to our fuel mix and generation source going forward. All the above is the strategy that's going to work best for customers. And we're really excited about this announcement for the next wave of nuclear to be part of the solution. And let's, Chris, let's talk about the next wave of nuclear because this is incredibly important. A lot of our viewers have, you know, they know about Chernobyl, they've watched the HBO documentary. It's excellent. or mini-series, I should say, it's excellent.

They hear about Three Mile Island, now called the Crane Energy Center. This is not that nuclear. Correct. Explain how what you're doing at Terra Power is different than sort of my generation or my parents' generation thought about nuclear. Sure, and thanks for having us, Brian. And, you know, it's funny you mention our parents because, in fact, the 94 nuclear reactors in the U.S. today

were paid for by our parents and their electricity bills. And, you know, those were hugely capital-intensive plants. And honestly, we've been having trouble getting into new builds in the U.S. even though everyone loves U.S. nuclear plants once they're built. And what's that's telling us is that today's plants are too capital-intensive, and that's the reason we need to move to advanced nuclear reactors, like Natrium or Terapara plant, which, you know, by any objective, the next nuclear power station to go online in the U.S. is going to be Terra Power's

Natrium Reactor in the state of Wyoming. We're scheduled to load nuclear fuel there in 2030. And we're so thrilled that, you know, today to be announcing with Dave and Evergy and Governor Kelly and Kansas, that we're examining, deploying natrium reactors, you know, after our first Wyoming reactor, we're now examining deploying natrium reactors in Everge's service region in Kansas. So, you know, I applaud Governor Kelly for recognizing that, you know, to attract, you know, economic development in Kansas, they're going to need nuclear there. And, you know, I also applaud, you know, David and Evergy for, you know, operating their Wolf Creek plants so safely for the last 30-plus years. That's built the confidence that these plants will be safe.

And it's made Kansas a really welcoming community for new nuclear. However, again, for the economics to work, we really really. need to move to these less capital intensive plants like natrium, which... I think you... Chris, a follow up with that because I think you read my notes or read my mind, maybe from afar, I don't know, because people will point to the votal plant in this U.S. state of Georgia. They had one and two reactors. They added two more. It was like $36 billion, $7 billion over budget, years over budget. And they say, listen, nuclear is too expensive, it takes too long, and it's too dangerous.

You've heard all that. I'm not breaking news to you. So what are the responses to those objections? Sure, sure. You know, I think, again, with, you know, plant performance like Everidgee's plant in Kansas, the safety question is answered, right? In the U.S., there's great public support for nuclear energy. The big obstacle is the CAPEX, and that's where we have to move to the new technology.

You know, Bill Gates and our other investors, by the way, NVIDIA just joined our private investor family. Our investors are supporting terra power in the Natrium Reactor because this plant will need less than half the concrete, half the steel, half the labor to build the plant. So that's really going to improve our ability to deliver these plants at scale. We're going to deliver that first plant in 2030 on a schedule, really, that's similar to natural gas plants today. and we're going to be quickly scaling up. You know, I heard you talk in the previous segment about, you know, those tens of gigawatts we need. Natrium is going to be a fairly large plant, a third of a gigawatt per plant. And it's going to have built-in energy storage as well, which is going to allow it to really, you know,

be optimized for working on a grid that has loads that are changing all throughout the day, as well as wind and solar that are very intermittent and coming and going throughout the day. Well, electricity, David, I don't need to tell you. is complicated. The terminology is difficult to understand. I study it, been doing it for 20 years, and I screw it up all the time. I totally know that. But you know, you look at Wolf Creek, a nuclear plant that Chris just referenced, okay? It's 36% of the state's carbon-free electricity. One in every five bits basically of energy that's being produced is from one nuclear plant, and it's 1.2 gigawatts. When you hear 10 gigawatts of power,

for data centers. What do you think? I think generational opportunity. We have to get it right. But this is an opportunity that's real. And we're talking to a wide range of customers who are really interested in coming to our region to meet that kind of incremental demand. And we've got a pipeline that we say between five and 15 gigawatts. And our total system is 11 gigawatts. We're going to need all the generation sources that we can to make sure we've got a balanced mix for customers over time. Our Wolf Creek plant is a terrific It's clean, it's reliable, it's safe, it's dispatchable.

So renewables are part of the mix, but as Chris mentioned, you've got to depend on the weather for those. The Terra power naturopower naturopower and reactor is coupled with a battery, it's got flexibility. So while we're going to rely on natural gas predominantly over near term, for us to have the kind of 10 gig watt demand increase that we may see in our region, nuclear has got to be part of that long-term mix. And we love that plant that operates today. It's going to take effort. It's going to take leaning in to get that next wave of nuclear built in the United States. But if we don't start now, we're not going to be a position to have it be part of the mix 10 years from now.

So we've got to get started. Take advantage of the opportunity. Glad that Wyoming's got a head start. We look forward to following them and adding nuclearomics as well. 20% of the state's power coming from one nuclear plant called Wolf Creek, David Campbell of Evergey, Chris Leveck of Terra Power. Really interesting discussion on our power play segment. Guys, have a great day. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Coming up, as the song goes, love the one you're with. We'll speak with a strategist who says,

stick with the stocks that brought you to the party, and don't you dare stray. Plus, actor, comedian, and now stock draft competitor and recent leader, Sebastian Manacalco, here with his partner in Prime, Guy Adami, taking a break from his latest tour to join us. We're going to, Sebastian. Not guy that is. We're going to join both of them on Power Lunch coming up in a few minutes. Stick around. All right, time for your daily bond report. The 10-year yield still hovering just above 4.5.

What is it at? 4. something percent. Fed Chair Jerome Powell marking today the latest Fed cut prompted by a slowing labor market and that he sees a, quote, challenging situation ahead for the economy. Fed Chair with about, I think, five meetings left on his term. All right, let's turn now because although most markets are lower right now, they were higher right at the open. And when you're at a record and you go up earlier today, the S&P 500 did hit a new intraday record.

The Russell, by the way, at a new record. Again, the market's down now, but we're up earlier today. And as we just said, Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaking the last hour, saying the labor market is still slowing, sees that challenging environment ahead. You could see them doing this sort of one-on-one fireside chat earlier today. In the meantime, Trump canceling a meeting with top congressional Democrats that just days before the government is set to shut down if a funding deal cannot be reached. But even through all this, your next guest is not too concerned. He still expects a strong end of year rally.

Joining us now to discuss is Ryan Dietrich. He's chief market strategist at Carson Group. He has been long. He has been correct for years. It's like you and Tom Lee and a few others, Ryan, have been sticking to your guys. guns, even when others kind of waffled just a bit, what are you seeing now in the markets that make you continuously bullish? Yeah, Sully, thanks for me back. Appreciate it. So first things first, you know, late September, early October is a seasonal week time. I know seasonals haven't really

worked this year because we've been so bullish, but just big picture when you think about it, we're looking at five straight up months, right? And when you're up these five months going into October, not too surprisingly, October is down on average. Okay, maybe you get a break. But here's what I think matters for the listeners. The fourth quarter still up almost six percent on a median return, higher great majority of the time when you're up five months in a row going into it. There's a lot more to it, Sully. But the reality, momentum is a powerful word, and we still think there's a lot of momentum to this bull market. Yeah, but would you be happy with some kind of a pullback here, Ryan? Listen, I know it's painful. Stocks go down. We saw it in April. It stinks. It's

kind of gut-wrenching, but as somebody's been doing this a long time, I get worried if stocks go up every day. It's just not, that makes me nervous. I'm with you there. We'd love it. We would welcome, say, a 4 to 6% normal, mild correction. Just a couple of things that do have our attention. Put-to-call ratios are some of the lowest levels we've seen all year. As I know you mentioned on your network a week ago, $58 billion to U.S. equity funds, like the most we've seen this year. So there is some optimism coming in with the Jewish holiday from now until early October. Maybe we get a little bit of volatility, a little bit of weakness. But again, it's going to be a buying opportunity in our opinion, led by strong earnings, led by strong

profit margins, led by, again, a stronger consumer. Look at those retail sales last week. We just don't see this recession. Some people talk about a recession still. We're just not seeing it. We'd still use it as a buying opportunity. Yeah, what about corporate buybacks? I think there was a no doubt yesterday, record high. So not only is it, you know, sort of individual investors putting their money to work. Corporations are putting their own massive cash piles to work. You're not kidding. Yeah, we've been seeing that a lot this year, obviously. And let's go back in history and look, yes, there's a point where you buy too much, insiders buy too much or corporations buy too much. Maybe that's a peak. Maybe I'm looking at you, 2021 with all those SPACs. But nonetheless,

we've seen a lot of IPO, seen a lot of buybacks. I mean, the reality, I think the answer to the question, the credit markets are still solid, right? I mean, even when we had the big pullback, the 10% pullback in early April in two days. Credit markets are functioning just fine. So the reality, again, there's no monster under the bed. Corporations are still, there's a lot of deals. Every day you come in, there's like another AI deal out there. Deals are happening. Those are all still net positive to us. Yeah, what's a worry for you then, Ryan? What would be? I kind of mentioned a second ago. You're paid big bucks, I hope, my friend, to worry. Yeah, we do worry about some things. Like we just talked about. There is some complacency coming in there. There is a lot of optimism in certain pockets

we're seeing that. Maybe we could be due for some type of correction. One quick one. Just last week, everyone knows, oh, the market's up, made a bunch of new highs. Only two groups outperform last week. It was technology communication services, right? If you look under the surface, midcaps are lower. We're not seeing, in my opinion, right now solely, the participation that you prefer to see. Maybe again, just saying maybe we could be due for two to three weeks of some consolidation, well-deser pullback. But bigger picture, I think the bigger worry we have is a lot of people still are worried. There's that headline in Wall Street Journal. Now it's like 1929.

That's what worries me. Too many people are listening to these scary headlines. And they've missed a lot of this rally. I don't want them to miss the rest of this rally. Is there any part of you, Ryan, maybe you heard the top of the show that worries about all the AI spend. And what if it can't happen because, you know, in video or anybody else realizes, well, well, we can't make the electricity. So we actually are going to spend a little bit less because those headlines are what's driving those stocks, which are driving the market.

No, you're right. I mean, what is it? 34% of the market is technology now. So clearly that is a potential worry, but that's one thing we've said all year, solely. When in doubt, diversify it out, right? Have a diversify portfolio. Don't just chase the shiny objects. And look around the globe, there's a lot of opportunity, unlike the last couple years, so have a diversify portfolio if tech pulls back for some of those potential concerns, you'll probably do okay, just like in April. We had that big pullback. If you had a diversified portfolio around the globe, it really wasn't nearly as bad as it felt if you're a U.S. heavy, specifically tech heavy. So the bingoes losing by 38 to the Vikings wasn't as bad as it felt? You know, the bagels won seven games in a row and then lost 48 to 10. I don't know if any NFL teams ever won seven in a row and lost like that. Listen, I'm the Chargers fan, Ryan. There's like two of us left, so I feel you, brother. I have no leg to stand on when it comes to that. Ryan Dietrich, really appreciate it, man. Thank you very much. Good stuff. Thanks, Ollie. All right. Your next guest says the Federal Reserve is swinging its rate cut hammer right into thin air.

What does that mean? Why do you care? We'll find out coming up. All right, earlier today, Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, reiterating, there is no risk-free path ahead for the economy and markets. I mean, there, I'm true, there never is. So how do we react and what do we do? All right, so here's what we got for you, Brian, okay? If you take a look at what Jerome Powell said and he signaled,

it's more rate cuts maybe to come this year. We heard from Chicago President, President Austin Goolsby this morning, who expressed some caution and then told CNBC that further moves would depend on economic progress. So our next guest says the Fed's rate hammer is swinging into thin air. And investors should not just assume the Fed can swoop in and just save the economy. So joining us now with that take is Eric Packman, the chief analytics officer over at Ban Creek Capital Advisors, Eric, the swinging of a hammer into thin air. I mean, you're missing and swinging and missing.

This has been a playbook, though, for the Fed and the markets overall. that they can just pump liquidity in and save us from just about anything. This is not the case in your mind. Tell us why. No, I don't think it is. And I think that I'm going to take you all the way back to Jackson Hole just a month or so ago. And I think while everybody was looking for signs on when the next rate cut would be and what the easing cycle would look like, I just stopped in my tracks when I heard this quote.

And I'm going to read you the quote from Chairman Powell, quote, monetary policy can work to stabilize cyclical fluctuations but can do little to alter structural changes. So I went on this, you know, month-long quest of trying to analyze all the data to understand, like, are the nature of our economic challenges right now in the U.S. cyclical or structural? If it's cyclical, then it's probably okay to be bullish, and it's okay for you to have your own view on this. I believe they are all structural and they're all hitting at the same time. We have health care. This country is addicted to health care.

Healthcare jobs have driven 66% of all new jobs, according to the BLS, despite it be only 17% of the economy. And we have fiscal policy starting in 2027 that is aiming to slow all of that down or potentially reverse it. We have the AI effects, which I'm not an expert enough to tell you that it's already impacting the labor force, but it certainly is not a tailwind. we have immigration and policy around immigration, which I am most concerned about. I don't know if the listeners knew, but 8%. That is the growth rate of over the last 18

and a half years of the U.S. born population in this country. The 65 plus growth rate of the U.S. board has been 67%. Well, this is a problem because if you're 65 plus, the labor force participation rate is only 18%. So as people age out and the census.gov expects us to continue to happen, our labor supply will drop further and further and further at least through 2100, because that's as far as census goes, right? And so that's a problem for structural inflation over time. So even if we get all this foreign direct investment, who's going to work the jobs unless our 70-year-olds are working them? And then, of course, we have tariffs as well, and the big unknown around that. These are all structural challenges, which are impacting both labor and inflation, and the Fed has no control over any of them.

Okay, Eric, really quickly, we're running out of time here. What are your suggestions, your picks here? I think that, you know, in the near term, if you want to stay at the craps table, you go ahead and do so. I mean, if this is worse than I think, I mean, maybe you're going to get more rate cuts. But over the long term, if this doesn't translate into economic growth, it's really easy. If we're facing a freight train, just step off the tracks. International doesn't have a lot of these idiosyncratic issues. They don't have the health care issues that we have.

They don't have, not all the countries of the immigration issues. They're just not as severe. And they also is a big valuation discount that you're paying for developed market international. So either passive or even active, international developed markets is where we've really been focusing. Okay. Eric Packman, thank you very much for the thoughts there. International equities is where he would go. Appreciate it. We'll see you soon.

And you know. Of course you know, but do you know, folks, that almost every developed market in the world has done better than the United States? You want to know one of the big reasons why? Why? It's the U.S. dollar. As it goes down, some of those equities go up in value, and they translate into more profits for U.S. investors.

Have you put all your money in like the Slovenian stock market? I don't think it's a craps table, but I would be diversified. How do you say craps table in Slovenian? I don't know. You say, I don't know. You speak Slovenian. It's not just the United Nations. Speaking of gathering in New York this week,

it's also Climate Week there coming up. We're going to hear from the CEO of that mystery stock, up 13% this year, and it's treading its way into the AI race. Welcome back to Power Lunch. I'm Bertha Coombs with your CNBC News Update. The man accused of trying to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump on his Florida golf course last year was found guilty just moments ago on all five counts against him. Ryan Ruth served as his own attorney in the trial. He faces life in prison. Iran's supreme leader says his country,

does not need nuclear weapons and does not intend to produce them. But he said Iran will not accept not being allowed to enrich uranium, the element used in the production of nuclear weapons, and he called nuclear negotiations with the USA a dead end. His comments coming after President Trump addressed the United Nations and said Iran must not be allowed to have nukes, calling Iran the number one sponsor of terror. And NASA says its Artemis II mission around the moon is on track for April 2026, but could leave as early as February.

The mission will send four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the moon as the next step in its goal to land humans on the lunar surface once again. You know, I once got to interview one of the astronauts, and all they wanted to talk about was how we needed to get to Mars. That's longer. That's a lot further away, though. I'm told. Matt Damon survived, though, by growing potatoes. Yes, he did. It works. Bertha Coombs, thank you very much. All right. Meantime, one of the largest

climate gatherings in the world is underway on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Diana Oleg is there. Climate Week with a special guest, Diana. Well, Brian, that's right. I'm here with the CEO of EcoLab. Christoph Beck. Thanks so much for joining us. We're here to talk

of course water, which is becoming a huge part of your business, especially in support of AI technology and of course sustainable water. That's what we're here to talk about. Tell us about the new technologies you're developing, which you've recently announced, and why you're leaning so hard into water now as such a big part of your business. Thank you for having me, Diana, Climate Week. For us, it's growth week because when we think about data centers, one is opening every week, one fab every month as well. They all require a lot of water. We estimate we will need the incremental power of the whole of India by 2030 and the drinking needs of the whole of the United States by 2030 as well. The technology we bring is to enable data centers to power even more AI in the future and the same for microelectronics as well.

It's a great gross opportunity for us. And how is it sustainable? It's sustainable because the new technologies do not use water or mostly no water. When we think about how data centers were cooled in the past, it was air conditioning in a big room, Well, tomorrow it's going to be direct to cheap cooling. You have no water. It's just a liquid coming to a chip, and you don't use any water, and you have much more AI power with it. So you're providing that special liquid technology?

We do provide that liquid technology. We monitor it. We provide the services, and we make sure that it works with the perfect uptime. So we have to talk about the elephant in the room, which is, of course, the huge story of Nvidia's $100 billion investment in OpenAI. That's just going to scale more data centers. Is EcoLab going to get a piece of that? It's a great story. We've been a growth company for a very long time. Water has been our gross drivers for a very long time and high tech, especially so what's happening today. Well, that's

going to mean, as you said, so many more data centers. It's going to be as well many more microelectronics chips that we will need in those data centers. It's a great driver for us. It's more technology. It's more construction. It's more services. And it's good for the country at the same time. And at the same time, your stock is up 15% year to date. How do you see growth when you lean into this water, into the AI, into all the possibilities there, how is that going to fuel EcoLabs bottom line? Our company has been 102 years, a successful company. We've been delivering double-digit earnings quarter after quarter for a very long time. This has been our mantra by finding new growth opportunity. AI is the newest one. Biotech is another one. We won't talk

about this one, obviously so for today, but this is one of the major driver for us in terms of and in terms of earnings as well. That's going to be the continuation of the great ecolab story. And you continue to lean into this possibly for even quantum real estate, quantum data centers where those opportunities are. But you are seriously in the sustainable part of it. You continue to support that. What about in the atmosphere of a president who today, President Trump said climate change is the biggest con ever perpetuated on Earth? For us, it's always been a question of performance. It's helping businesses and unleash growth, make more money, invest more in the future.

When we talk about data center, if our solution helped data center to be powered with no water, it's a good thing for the tech companies. It's a good thing for consumers, and it's good for the environment. Because when you think about most data centers in the future, they won't use more water than a car wash that you have in your community as well. So it's a good deal for everyone. Okay, Christoph back CEO of EgoLab.

Thanks so much for joining us. Brian, back to you. Haven't heard the Car Wash Data Center analogy until just now, but I love it. Diana, thank you very much. All right, coming up, Sebastian Manus Calco and Guy Adami in the house. We'll talk to Sebastian about a success on stage, but also in our Stockstraft where he is hovering right near the top, all with a little help, maybe from the gorgeous. Guy Adami, who's here as well. Big and it's next. Stockstraft update, rounding the turn as we head into fall.

Chef and restaurateur Bobby Flay is in first place. That is followed by student group Wall Street bound and showing up in the third spot is Manus Calco's market movers, comedian Sebastian Manus Calco, and CNBC legend. Stop it. Guy Adami.

Embarrassing me. Let's bring them both up and glad to have Sebastian in the house. Can we clap Sebastian? There are a lot of people. Clap Sebastian in. In a Right tour. He's an Atlantic City at the Ocean Casino Resort the next few nights. He was there.

He came up here. He's going back down before he jets off to Vegas and the win encore. The New York Times recently calling Manus Calco, quote, the hottest comic in America. His stock picks, too, have been pretty hot. Invita and Amazon. There's a mistake. Throw the flag. All right.

I'm in second place as of an hour ago. Yeah, you are. The kids are in first place. And Flay is round. out at third. And I got a little something to say to Flet because we don't want to make fun of the kids. Flet,

stay in the kitchen. Yes. All right. These stock stuff is for the big boys. So I plan on being at the top when this thing is all said and done. It's going to be flambayed. We'll learn how big a spatula is.

We will. So why did we go with it? How much, Guy Adami, how much? Invidian Amazon. Yes. First off, I have no idea how you landed Amazon on the second pick because that should have been like Patrick Mahomes off the board early. Can I tell you what happened?

I'm going to read a text. Can I do this on air? Sebastian texted me on that April 24th. He said, watch what's going to happen. He said, Nvidia's going to fall to me at number five. And in the second round, mark my words, I'm going to be picking up Amazon. And sure enough, I mean, Shakespeare wrote of soothsayers, you're looking at one right there. Because he would have taken Nvidia.

with the number one pick, dropped him at five, and then Amazon was a gift. Is that an Italian thing? Are you referencing Italy again? Shakespeare is not Italian. I know he's not. Shakespeare never set foot in Italy. Do you know this? I learned that on a recent trip. But most of his plays were about a country called Italy, and people were in love, and then somebody died. I was in Verona, the home of Romeo and Julia. Why did you go to Nvidia and Amazon? Well, listen, I use Amazon as a customer, and I like to invest in stocks that I use. Plus, I like the fact that they got one million robots. It's the largest company that has the most amount of robots working for them.

And InVidia, I love what they're doing with AI. They just invested $100 million in OpenAI. And I like the CEO over at InVity with the leather jacket. I trust that guy. What's not to like? And Jim Kramer's clearly watching right now. Jim, obviously a huge member of CNBC's team, but a fan as well. And he says all the time, you don't trade Nvidia, you own it.

And Sebastian heard that, and that's exactly what he did in the draft. Kudos to Seb. I think some of the stocks draft is also, though, about strategy, about picking, you know, like your friend and Collie Tim C. Morrill pickup stocks that are just crushed with the idea that maybe they come back. Yes. Because it's the game. You're busy.

Flying your Ace. By the way, thank you for coming up. We're not close to Atlantic City, no way. I mean, Atlantic City, New Jersey's not a big state, but that's about as far away from here as you can get. So thank you. No problem. How much time you're rich?

How much time do you focus on investing in the market? I watch the markets a lot. I really enjoy it. I like to kind of keep track of my portfolio and what's going on. So, yeah, I'm heavily involved. After Power Lunch, what's your second favorite show in the network? He was saying that before. that because he was saying it in the green room.

He was saying that CNBC's fast money is far and away, his second favorite show after the Great Power Lunch. But you know, you mentioned stocks that sort of on their rear end. Is that a term you use? Probably not. Every year, I speak French. He said to me, Invidius trading 108, it was just 153 in change. We're getting this stock at a discount.

Those were his words, not mine. So he understood this game intuitively long before Tim Seymour was picking up those things on the side of the road. The fact that you paired me with him is, I think, a one-two combination that he haven't seen on the street in years. Why? Well, I mean, the Italian connection has to be brought up. I mean, you know well that Italians do really well with money. What are you laughing at?

What's so funny about that? Why are you laughing at? He's a comedian. No, and he's not being funny now. He's being serious. And let me just say this for the audience watching. As Sebastian knows, and as I have learned over the years, there are two kinds of people in the world, Brian. Do you want to be educated?

They're Italians and the people that want to be Italian. Just throwing it out there. And I can see it in your eyes. You are one of those people. You long to be Italian, but you just can't hang. I also can't change Sullivan. That's unfortunate. Yes, half Belgian, by the way.

Just a good half. You want to continue, though? That's a Goodfellas reference, by the way. Hendry Hill. And by the way, yeah, I am a comedian, but I don't know if you noticed. I put a suit on. He did. He did for this.

At a tie. To be taken a little bit more seriously with my financial advice. So we're not funny today. We're talking. Do you have to return it? That was pretty good. Save that for Atlantic City. No, but it's a serious thing.

I mean, I would imagine that there is some fodder. By the way, if you haven't listened to his stuff, you've got to listen to stuff. What rock are you living under if you haven't heard of this stuff? When he's talking about how it's so true, you know about this guys. You're up there. We're both wise, experienced. Yeah. The size the bath kit gets bigger, the older you get when you travel.

It's half my suitcase now is like the bath kit. There's got to be fodder for you in the financial media. There's got to be something right. Is there anything funny about what we do besides him? Not really. I'm not immersed in this environment. Give me a couple days in the studio. and I'll be coming up with material.

I got to immerse myself in the things that I'm talking about in order to draw comedy from. How much material never makes it? Do you never, like the stuff do you do on stage or on TV, how much is this thrown in the trash? Not a lot, because the material that I do, I'm living my life. Like I just went to my kid's soccer game.

And I noticed that in soccer at the six-year-old level, if your team is wearing sunscreen, you're going to lose. All right? So our team look like ghosts out there. And the other team, the coaches speak in Portuguese. Yeah. To the Bain.

And I'm like, we're done. We're going to get killed. So my material is from everyday life situations, observational type of humor. So I would have to observe you to. But like your stock picks though, Amazon, right? Amazon, comes to your door probably all the time. Yeah.

Right? It's just stuff that shows up. Stuff shows up. Sometimes you get a big box. Sure. And there's a tiny box. And there's a dental floss in it. You know, it's like, I don't know who's packing these boxes on the other.

The robots that you mentioned earlier. By the way, right up, so he's a Chicago guy. So if you go north from Chicago, you get to the great state of Wisconsin. Thank you. And if you go up 94, on the left-hand side, if you're going north, is about a mile-long warehouse, a company called U-Line. and it's one of the richest families now in America, and they're the ones making most of these boxes, by the way. Oh, is that right?

True story. Look at you. Are we investing in U-Line, or is this a private company? They're right next to the Mars Cheese Castle. Of course they are. Where else would they be? Let me say this. I've been around the network for quite some time,

and I've seen people come and go through these hollow doors. The buzz around the studio today, because Sebastian is here, is like I've never heard before. I mean, there are people saying to me as I walked in, You know, Sebastian Madaskalco is here. Yes, I know that. That's why I'm coming to say hi. He is legendary in this.

I mean, people are, I mean, they're like nine or ten people just watching this show right now in this studio, which is in a back room somewhere. It's remarkable. So much so. And thank you for that. You're welcome. Really nice to hear that. So much so. And I don't know if you heard this.

There is whispers of me having my own show called Power Breakfast. And I would watch out. Okay. I think I might have a new home here. You might. Do you know anybody that might be able to appear on power breakfast? Well, you know, there are other power things that happen as well. Probably not for this network.

But with that said, I think it's absolutely genius. I would be too. Listen, you know I love Joe and Becky and Andrew and we're six to nine. But we can carve out some time for power breakfast with though. I think they'd be all four. Just like a quick hit, a quick strike in there. So what are you going to do when? Not if.

when? Inevitable. By the way, Bobby Flay will be on the show in like two weeks. I'm going to said the exact same thing to him, by the way, because he has knives. He also brings knives. Yeah, but he's not Italian, so he doesn't know how to use them. Well, he knows how to use them. What are you going to do when you win?

I mean, how much you're going to brag? I don't like, like, crank call Flea. Yeah, listen, I don't like to brag. I just like my work to speak for itself. What do I, do I win anything? Do I come away with a trophy? There's a belt, I think. It's a belt.

but it's just the knowledge that you've surpassed the other five opponents, that you You beat a bunch of high school kids. No, Brian, that's not, don't do that. That's not fair. What? They're in second place. Yes, and they're good for them. They've done it.

They did extraordinarily well. I think if memory serves, they picked Vistra with the number one pick in the draft. And Uber, I think, right? And Uber. And both have done extraordinarily well. They have done, by the way. And the Vistra CEO is on pace for a $340 million pay day this year, according to Reuters. Good for him.

her. Let me say, you know, you may remember a great film, The Gambler, with James Khan, early 1970s. I prefer the sting with Robert Redford. Yes, rest in peace. But there's a line in that movie, they don't pay you at half time. So the fact that Sebastian is running second, third, whatever, it's immaterial. When this ends in April, he's going to emerge victorious. It's just that simple. And what we're going to do moving forward, and what my plan is, we are going to run the board for the next 10 years. Hopefully after I win this thing, I get to come back, defend the title, and then we'll

really start seeing what I got as far as my financial charge. Do we have like the godfather theme music to play right now? I don't know. What is that even mean? You're going with this whole thing? I see, you know, I might take umbrage at that. I mean, oh, I think that is that a region? Umbridge. That's in Italy

next to umbria. See, you didn't know. Come on. You got to bring it, I bring it every night, Brian. At 5 o'clock, by the way, you can watch. Which you host from time to time. Not by choice. Much to your chagrin. Not by choice.

No, but you do enjoy yourself. There's like Melissa's out, Carl's out. And then they get to me and they're like, you know what, come on. That's not true. It's not true at all. I know. That's not true.

You know, if Mel's out one of these days, maybe traveling, maybe Seb comes in. He should. There you go. Power, fill in. Power breakfast. That's it. Yeah.

What is it fast? Fast Lira. It's going to be great. Guy Dami, Sebastian Manus Calco. Fast Money Live. I dated myself. There's your QR code. And please catch Sebastian.

He is live at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City for a couple days. Then you jet off to Vegas. I think you got one day in Abu Dhabi and your back state side in the great city of Tomecula, California. The wineries are good. We're back right after this. All right, a lot of fun. but let's highlight the most red story on CBC.com right now. Jimmy Kimmel back on ABC tonight, but not on every market.

Next Star Media, one of the biggest TV station operators in America saying it will not show Kimmel's return on its ABC affiliates. Next star in a statement today saying it is standing by its decision to preempt. The show a similar move to announced by Simler, by Sinclair, broadcast group. Yesterday, all right, folks, it's a wild hour, but stocks, they're at session lows. I'll leave it there. Closing bell, pick it up next. See tomorrow. You know,