Power Lunch - Investors wait for Nvidia earnings 11/19/25

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Nvidia reports earnings after the bell. Jeep unveils its new electric vehicle. And what is the outlook from here for U.S. equities? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Happy NVIDIA day, everybody. I am Brian Sullivan. Kelly will be back at about two weeks time. NVIDIA earnings, the market event of the day, the week, the month, and maybe the year, the AI spending spree has been driving stock. So what NVIDIA says tonight might just determine the path of your money, even if you're not directly invested in NVIDIA. We'll show you why. All right. We're going to get to that. But right now, we've got some other big breaking news from the Federal Reserve. the release of the latest minutes of their meeting. Steve Leesman, joining us now live from the Fed. Steve. Yeah, Brian, I would say hawkish minutes from that October meeting

and maybe more hawkish than the market already expected. Many at this meeting in the October meeting suggested it was appropriate to keep the funds rate unchanged for the rest of the year. Only several supported further cuts. These are confusing minutes with a lot of back and forth. Clearly, there was a big debate at this meeting about the October cut and about December cuts. Let me go through some of the headlines. Most were concerned that rate cuts could add to the risk of higher inflation becoming entrenched. Participants, one thing they did

agree on, they generally agreed that there was upside risk to inflation that was elevated, and downside risk to employment was also elevated. On the debate over the October rate cut, many were in favor of lowering the target. However, some of those could have gone either way and supported no cut. Several were against lowering the rate outright. Those in favor, they focused on downside risk to employment and inflation diminishing or being little change. Those opposed to that rate cut said progress toward inflation had stalled, inflation had actually increased, or there was a lack of confidence in the Fed heading back to the 2% target. The Fed debated how restrictive policy was relative to the neutral rate. Some said the Fed was still restrictive even

after the quarter point. Others said that they saw the economy as resilient, financial market conditions were supportive, and there was no clear sign that the Fed was actually restrictive at all. There were obviously strong, differing views about the near-term course of policy, and as I said, there was a huge debate over December, but it seemed, Brian, like most cited, with not cutting rates. That's my read of the minutes, but I will tell you, they were complicated, and some could come away with a less hawkish view of these minutes than I did. confusing, Steve, at the top, and you and I have been doing this a long time. Going back, looking at the minutes, have you seen minutes or maybe even a Federal Reserve that was,

maybe as disjointed or had disparate views as this one right now? I don't remember one, Brian. Of course, my memory is not perfect. I've done this for a very long time. I don't remember a Fed disdivided and having really these different views on essentially the same economic data, I will include in that that they don't have a lot of the economic data they would normally have. And I want to underscore the information that we got just before this show or just before the 1 o'clock show, which show that they're coming out with that November jobs report after the Fed meeting, a week after the meeting, and they'll include some data from October. At a time when what's going on with the job report is so critical,

I actually suggested, Brian, if you read my social media feed on Blue Sky, that the Fed ought to delay the meeting because I think the jobs data is that. that important. Of course, they probably don't listen to me on that, but it's something we're thinking about that how do you do this meeting and figure out with this Fed divided the way it is? How do you go forward and do this without the jobs report of two months? Could they do that, Steve? I know during COVID things change, but outside of a global pandemic, has a meeting ever been moved? Again, I'm trying to think my memory bank is is maybe misfiring, but I can't think of one. No, they've met outside of regular meeting.

meetings, emergency meetings, other meetings like that, interim meetings and things like that. But I don't think they've actually moved a meeting unless there was some reason maybe for the pandemic or something like that I can't recall. But you're right, that would be very unusual than to do it. But, of course, these are unusual times. And I'm still waiting, Brian, I think as significantly as to when the BLS will issue that inflation data. In fact, we almost have more of a blindside on inflation than we do on employment. So all of this is very significant. I will check in a minute, Brian, and I'll send you a text as to What's happened to Fed Fund's probabilities? They've actually sunk in response to the lack of data.

The market backed off its probability of a December rate cut because of the BLS deciding to come out with that jobs report later. So I don't know if these minutes move the ball at all. We had been chronicling, as you remember, Brian, a very divided Federal Reserve. And this shows just how divided perhaps they were not only over October, but over December as well. Listen, they came back and said we just have incomplete data. The government was shut down for a long time. We're just going to take a pause and we're going to wait to see the, you know, the new data comes out. I don't think anybody would blame them for doing that, Steve.

I don't think that's out of the question. And it's not just one month's worth of data, Brian. You could say, look, we're only missing one report. We have a full picture. This will be two months of report. You'll get the payrolls for October and a full November report just to make sure everybody knows. We will not and will apparently never get an October unemployment rate report. That's the separate household survey.

The BLS says it cannot put together. but it says it can put together the establishment or the payroll report that gives us the job growth numbers. It's an odd time, certainly, and maybe odd minutes. Steve Leesman, glad you're there to kind of parse it, break it down and add the insights. Steve, thank you very much. All right, folks, switching gears, you may wonder why we talk so much about NVIDIA. Why do we care so much about one stock? Here's why.

Invidia is the biggest company in the world. By far, it's market cap, just under 4.5. trillion dollars. In fact, right now, InVita, the only company with a value over $4 trillion. You can see it's currently worth about roughly $500 billion more than Apple, which means it's equivalent to basically

being worth an entire ExxonMobil or an entire Netflix more than the next biggest company. This also means it is massively meaningful inside the S&P 500. Nvidia's 7.99% of the entire SPYETF

basically, one stock, about 8% of the entire index. This also makes it widely owned elsewhere. ETF.com reports that Nvidia is part of a stunning 717 ETFs, and inside of that, there are 3.6 billion shares of Nvidia being held by those funds. In fact, six ETFs have Nvidia as 20% or more of their holdings. Nvidia also trades billions of shares per month, and its options volume and importance inside Wall Street and hedge fund.

strategies makes it one of, if not the, most important stock and option in the world. An analysts, they're bullish. Very bullish. Facts that shows that of the 68 analysts that cover NVIDIA, we've got an average target of $237.94, which means the analyst community, on average, sees another 29% upside bottom line. Invidia, better perform tonight, or maybe, just maybe, watch out below. Christina Parts and Ivel is joining us now from the NASDAQ with more on the essential information. Did I set it up the drama around why we care so much about NVIDIA?

Was that set up in a way that adds the heft to an already hefty story? Yes, 100%. The fact that 717 ETFs and the 8% of the SMP, 10% of the NASDAQ 100, it has an outsized influence. And you mentioned the options trading. We follow that as well because it. It gives us a barometer of where the stock is going to go post earnings. We're seeing anywhere between a 6% and 7% swing.

So that's about $300 billion that could exchange hands just by Friday. It's a big deal, too, because just this morning, there's been more options action in regards to people betting the stock is going to go up, which is a surprising change because just over the last several months since August its last earnings report, shares have pretty much moved sideways. You could say that maybe people are moving more into AMD, moving more into broadcom, for example, and perhaps the fear is that there's not as much upside for NVIDIA. Yes, it's the foundation of absolutely every single data infrastructure out there,

but how much more can the earnings grow each cycle? And then the Bulls will say, well, Christina, a lot. Every quarter, they seem to beat by $2 billion. This quarter, they're anticipating to beat by $2.5.3 billion. So there's a lot of bullish, or I guess I say positive momentum going into this name tonight. Yeah, and we know the options market out there and all these options strategies, a lot of hedge funds use. We don't have the window into them that we maybe need, but it's fair to say, Christina, I think, again, tell me if I'm wrong, please, which I know you will not hesitate to do, but the idea that this is a coiled spring, that there's a lot of things we don't know that are under the market hood on this stock that could be activated in the event of an outsized miss or outsized beat. outsized miss. Would a CEO of a company be schmoozing at the White House and then laughing on stage with Elon Musk today? So in terms of an out and the fact, don't forget, we talked about this yesterday, Brian, but don't forget just in October, Jensen Wong spoke to the incredible demand and that they have $500 billion in orders booked through next year. So that is a huge bullish sign for demand, especially when you have hyperscalers that are increasing their capax 66% year over year. You have coreweaves saying that they plan to double their Kepex in 2026. You have sovereign AI deals left and right, Saudi Arabia, the latest example

today. I think there's more of a concrete number of how many GPUs they're going to buy. So that demand portion seems to still be there, but to your point about it recoiling, it's the sustainability question. And you have that one cell. That one cell came from Jay Goldberg, who assumes that that sustainability is not going to continue into the long term. And you can either point to the depreciation of these GPUs. You can point to the, the, the, the, costs and the return on investment really not showing up in the next few years. And then investors starting to get a little scared like this is costing way too much. So these are, that's the recoiling action, which I don't think is going to be in any of these next few

quarters. I will say. I love your point of view. And we're just going to square the demi circle right now if we can, Christina, because for a guy that's running the world's largest company in Jensen Wong, you got to admit the guy has a lot of time to do panels and events. I mean, he seemed in good spirits today, didn't he? precisely why I saw some more retail trading mode jumping the gun and saying, hey, that is a bullish sign if I saw one. The fact that he is speaking very confidently when it's supposed to be quiet period and speaking to the deals that they're signing with Saudi Arabia.

And I bring that up because Saudi Arabia is part of sovereign AI revenues. And I think it was one report. I'm not remembering the name of the report, but they said that sovereign AI could contribute roughly 20% of total revenues for the fiscal year. 20%. That used to be the amount that China contributed with all of these export controls. China's zero now. Maybe that'll change in the coming, you know, months when they get more, they get the green light. And China's like, okay, we need more H20s in our environment. But right now, the sovereign AI is filling that hole. And the fact that Jensen's speaking about it on stage today in a quiet period perhaps speaks volumes.

Yeah, he's giving his, I don't say daily talk, but not far off it, right? Listen, it's Jensen Wong's world. We're just living in it. Christina Parts in Revelis. Thank you very much. We'll see you like a hundred more times in the next couple hours. All right, we also care about the bond market. So let's jump in post those Fed meetings.

Rick Santelli joining us now with the bond report. Rick, I thought it was interesting. You know, you just heard Steve Leach, but at the top saying these minutes were to him a little confusing. The Fed seems divided. I mean, all the data's all the same for everybody. So it's weird to see a lot of the same people with the same data with very. very different conclusions. Yeah, I'll tell you what, I glanced over most of the major headlines

and read through as much as I could before I was on air. And I don't see at all, the hawkishness that Steve sees. Here's what I saw. I saw, likely, not appropriate. That was the term used by many regarding a dee's rate cut. Likely, not appropriate. I didn't read any hawkishness into most of it. And in terms of inflation, you know, the Fed ignored inflation.

for about the last year before the market closed. And during that year, inflation was sticky and hardly moved. And I suspect it's the same right now, but yet they're concentrating on it. And many of the news agencies put out headlines that rates spiked, and they didn't. So I'm a bit confused. Let's look at Fed Fund Futures.

Over two weeks, okay? The more it goes down, the more prices out a cut. Okay? And briefly, it was under 30%. But what I draw your attention to is the right side. It broke when they announced no October job meeting and that the November meeting or the November jobs number would come out after the Dease meeting. That's when it spiked down. But it didn't move anywhere. It actually moved up a little on the minutes. Now, let's look at the twos and tens on a six hour chart and realize they made their low yield

of the session right as stocks open and stocks are green today. Do you see any wild volatility on the right side? I don't either. It's very serious. strange. Now, if we look at a 10 year since the last cut in October, basically rates moved up and now we're moving sideways. And that's sideways between 407 and 417 on a 10 year is where we've been closing every day for the month of November. And today is going to be another one, it seems to me. Back to you. Well said. As always, Rick Santeller, Rick, thank you very much. All right, folks, we also need to get a check on crypto and some crypto-related stocks because it is getting ugly out there.

You've got Bitcoin, Ether Salana. They are all down. A lot of the crypto stocks, micro strategy, now known as strategy, down about 11%. McKenzie Sagalos joining us now from San Francisco. McKenzie, it's been a rough couple of weeks, but today seems particularly bad. Is there anything specific going on? It's really been this perfect storm for crypto, Brian. You've got institutional money leaving.

Liquidity is thinning. And as a result, confidence is unraveling. So that institutional buyer that had really helped to prop up Bitcoin through spot ETF purchases, they're underwater and they're exiting. BlackRock's Ibit, their spot Bitcoin ETF fund on Tuesday, had its largest single-day outflow since it launched. You've got Nansen saying that market depth has fallen 30% in the last month. And that combination of higher volatility and shrinking liquidity has really made the digital

asset market more sensitive to smaller trades. And that's also dragging down the full spectrum of crypto-linked stock. You've got Bitcoin miners in the red, and so are the digital asset exchanges like Coinbase, bullish, and E-Toro. And then the trade that retail investors have favored recently, the so-called crypto treasury stocks, they are also taking a hit. These are companies that hold large amounts of Bitcoin or Ether on their balance sheets and often trade as proxies for those tokens that includes Tom Lee's BitMine immersion,

which is an Ether proxy trade, holds about 3% of the world's Ethereum supply. And then you said it, Strategy, Michael Saylor's company, the biggest, corporate holder of Bitcoin, both of those names are plunging today. Is it possible? And if it's not, just say it. I don't want to put you on the spot, McKenzie. But micro strategy is effectively, to your point, a Bitcoin repository. They buy Bitcoin. The stock goes up. They buy more Bitcoin. Is it possible the opposite is occurring where the stock is down because of Bitcoin, but that may be putting pressure on Bitcoin because the stock or the company has to sell Bitcoin?

I don't know. It's amazing how much confidence matters in terms of the Bitcoin trade. And strategy is seen as the biggest, you know, built-in buyer of Bitcoin, which is a net benefit to the spot market itself. And at this point, usually there's a premium where if you hold a strategy, it's trading at a premium to the price of Bitcoin, and that's gone away. And so that really speaks to a larger erosion of confidence, which is, you know, so much of like the crypto trade,

runs on vibes, whether it's reading the tea leaves of macro moves, what the Fed might do in terms of rate cuts. And so anything viewed as hawkish, and that includes how strategy is trading can weigh on the Bitcoin market. Well, it appears to be today one is weighing on the other, or they're both just being weighed upon. We shall see strategy down about 10% right now, down 58% from its July high. It's been cut more than a half. McKenzie Sagalos, thank you very much. All right, coming up more on your money's lead up and set up into NVIDIA's big night tonight, tomorrow, and the next thing. Your next guest says, yes, Nvidia matters to the market, but he also expects stock buyers to broaden out a bit, and maybe they already have, because here's a fun fact for your big brains.

18 stocks in the S&P 500 have made you more money than NVIDIA this year, and six of them. Micron, Warner Brothers, Pallantir, Lamb, Research, AMD, and KLA. They've actually made you double the money of NVIDIA this year with gains of 75% or more year to date. So let's talk more about this idea of broadening out, not just domestically, but internationally. Brian Levin, his global market strategist at Invesco, joins us now. My only point on that data point was that there are other opportunities in the market. Nvidia's done great. It's made a lot of people rich, I'm sure.

where are you guys, though, now looking domestically and globally? It's actually quite similar to where we were at the beginning of this year, where we expected a broadening of the market and really ran into Liberation Day and recently a slowdown in economic activity. What we're looking for is given policy stimulus in the U.S., other parts of the world, a pickup in economic activity out of what we're categorizing as a mid-cycle slowdown. That's when you start to unlock some of the value.

that exists in markets. I'm not telling investors to run away from growth stocks. I don't believe in an AI bubble. I think growth stocks continue to do well. But there's opportunities, down capitalization, across waiting methodologies, more value-oriented stocks, and to your point, non-U.S., that could perform well, assuming we get to pick up an economic activity. If somebody just bought the South Korean stock market, or if somebody just bought the Brazilian stock market, or if somebody just bought the Mexican stock market, or somebody just bought the Mexican stock market. They have done better than NVIDIA this year. This year, correct. It's kind of like the World Cup. The U.S. is going to do fine. We're rooting for them, but they're probably not going to

win, but there are better opportunities in the World Cup nations. Right, exactly. And the big challenge for U.S. investors investing outside the United States for years had been the strong dollar, the idea of U.S. exceptionalism. So the big thing that changed this year was, of course, the Deep Seek announcement and policy uncertainty in the United States. The dollar has gotten a little bit of a bid here with the Fed unsure of where they're heading. But ultimately, we would expect interest rate differentials between the U.S. and the rest of the world to narrow. We would expect the dollar to not strengthen like it had in the point in the years.

It has today. The dollar index is back above 100. Yeah, because the Fed signals that they may not cut rates in December. Who knows what they're signaling? You heard, did you hear Steve at the top? Steve. I can't remember a more disjointed Fed than right now. So if you're looking at interest rate differentials, how does a Brian Levitt, how does an invest go analyzing a Fed that appears to be kind all over the place? They are a little bit all over the place. But the way I look at it is what's the

dual mandate? And obviously, we're seeing payroll growth weaken. The question, of course, then, is where's inflation coming from and how quick does it accelerate? We know it's going higher because of tariffs. I tell people focus on what the bond market is telling you about expectations for inflation. If you look at break-evens, one year, three-year, five-year-out, very stable, actually drifting lower. To me, that's a bond market telling you, don't worry about inflation, worry about the deterioration and growth, lower interest rates. So I just buy the Brazilian stock market and let it ride, then, Brian? I mean, seriously, what are we doing here? I don't think you want to just own specifically the Brazilian stock market. What you want to look

for is opportunities trading at reasonable valuations and growth sectors outside the United States. Such as? I mean, that exists in many parts of the world. I think, you know, the China tech story continues to be a big one. When you think about a value-oriented market, China is, of course, a big one. You could even see European markets continue to perform well, given, again, what we would expect to see some weakness in the dollar, given the infrastructure and military build that's likely to take place there. Can the rest of the world, though, continue to do well?

Let's, I'm not saying the U.S. market's going down. That's your job, not mine, but let's say the U.S. markets still, okay, but let's say it stalls for a little bit. Can the rest of the world do well if we don't? It could do well on a relative basis, given where starting valuations are. So I think if the U.S. breaks, you'll see challenge throughout the global markets. We sneeze. They're catching a cold. Well, maybe I don't catch a cold, given where starting valuations are.

So the U.S. may have further to go in that type of environment. And again, that's not my anticipation. I think the U.S. markets are going to continue to press higher. What I'm identifying is a lot of investors saying, I'm worried about valuations, I'm worried about concentration, and I want to participate in these markets. There's parts of the market you can diversify into assuming you get an easing cycle and a pickup in economic activity. Some may say those are big assumptions.

That's my base case for 2020. Are you worried at all as a global strategist that the concentration risk is not just too much in America, but too much with AI, maybe too much with Nvidia, that it all kind of comes down to a couple of stocks now? We showed you the stats at the top there. We've never seen a level of concentration of market waiting on a couple of stocks ever in the history of the market as right now. You should always have concerns about concentration. It should always make you look twice at it.

Now, the good news is these are companies. I'm certainly not the first person to say that these are companies that are delivering on earnings. These are well-funded, well-capitalized businesses. But the thing to note for some of these magnificent seven companies, a lot of them had monopolistic business models or near monopolistic business models. And a lot of them were light on the needed investment or the required investment. So their models are changing now. So for a handful of them, they're now making big investment and they're all competing in the same space. So the stories are changing.

But when I look at a company like Nvidia, insatiable demand for chips and, you know, for the ability for them to deliver on. I'm not overly concerned. But yeah, concentration in general, I'm always looking where else can I find opportunities. So I'm not as susceptible if a break in that concentration were to happen. Well, kind of like the World Cup final, get your team together, 4 o'clock, watch CNBC, get some popcorn and watch those Nvidia earnings roll up. Let's do it. Well, in my party, we'll see how the numbers come in. Right? Maybe the party ends early. Brian Levitt, thank you very much, Invesco. All right, while the streets certainly focused and fixated on NVIDIA's results in a couple of hours. Retail earnings. They're also rolling in.

So, do we need to worry about the consumer ahead of the holidays? We'll find out. Next. It is not all about NVIDIA. There's a lot of concern about how retail may do over the holidays. And your next guest says, you need to stay calm and shop on because others are going to do the same. Retail analysts and expert Jan Rogers Niffin joining us now. Jan, you can got my attention with one of your pieces the other day. Why do you think we should not fear the holidays? Well, Brian, this party might end early too, but so far the punch bowl is still out. You know, I follow the CNBC NRF numbers really closely, and we had a pretty darned good October, almost 5%. Down a little bit from September, which was almost 6%, but if we could take 5%

right now and go home, we retailers would be thrilled. All right. So is that going to be everybody? Because I can tell you this much, Jen. I don't know about retail, but I know about retail stocks. A lot of retail stocks have been absolutely crushed. Others are up big. I can't tell what the market is saying about macro spending. Here's what I can guarantee you. It is not going to be everybody. We already saw Target. Target was terrible. They reported a negative 2.7% comp store number just recently today, right? Tomorrow we'll get Walmart's number. Do you think it won't be 4% plus?

That'll be almost 7% percent each point delta from Target. So no, everybody is not winning, but Walmart's winning, and we just saw TjX is winning. Ross will win when they report tomorrow. So we're still seeing strength in the kind of businesses that you guys report in the NRF, CNBC measures, which are the things I follow, which are things sold for holiday. So, yeah, there'll be some people who lose. But in general, the consumer is with us. The lowest in consumer is really struggling. They're having a really hard time.

That 20% of the cohort is only spending 8% of the money. That tells you how bad it is. But you take the top 20%, they're still spending like drunken sailors because the market is really good so far. Let's hope it holds up for us next few days. But in general, we're seeing strength there. Wages are rising faster than inflation. Unemployment's still low. Markets are strong.

Inflation is lower than last year. And the recession is still six months away, just like it's been for the last five years. Yeah, it's like the sign in a lot of bars, free beer tomorrow, but it's always today. We showed Target up today. The stock's down three and a half percent. I'm going to ask my team, guys, can we put up a five-year chart of Target? Because this is an incredible story, and I don't mean incredible in a good way. Target was a $230 stock, Jan, in 2021.

It's now an $85 stock, and the stock just continues to go down. Is Target a symbol of the macro consumer? or is Target its own thing with a target on its back? Brian, you saw my list, right? Walmart's the best retailer in America. Costco's second. Home Depot's third. Moving right along the list, you don't get to Target.

Target was the best retailer in America in 2006. That was a really long time ago. They are struggling. Walmart's taking the $100,000-year household income customer. That's the target customer. Amazon's taking the online customer. That's the Target customer. TjX has taken the fashion at the low end customer.

That's the target customer. Target would have to really step up its game. And even if it does, the competition is really, really tough. Where does this story end? I mean, is this Montgomery Ward? No retailers last forever. I mean, seriously, like I love Target. I love Minneapolis.

I got a lot of friends in the city. wanted to succeed. Is this Sears? Is this Montgomery Ward? What's the future target? Well, we're about to find out. We have a new guy to come in to run it. We'll make some changes. They're investing in the store. I was just in one of their stores that is complete remodel. It looks really great. But the real question is, can it still be competitive in the marketplace? Even Coles is making some changes to get better. But, you know, the new Target store, if you went in, looks good. But it's what, a $5 billion project to make them all look like that? And it takes time and the other guys are not standing still, especially Walmart.

Jan Rogers Niffin, J. Rogers Niffin, worldwide CEO, former department store executive so you know from which you speak. Jan, it's a pleasure. Target, really an unbelievable story. Thank you. All right, folks, the markets continue to sell off. The NASDAQ right now is up about one-tenth of one percent, but the Dow is down about 140 points. I know these are not big declines the NASDAQ, but I want to be clear, the markets were up a lot more. And in fact, earlier today, The NASDAQ was up about 1.4 percent. Obviously, it's been a week. We ended the week last week, weekly.

The last couple of days have been a little bit wobbly as well. And we're starting to see some sellers all come in. Maybe it's those semi-hawkish, as Steve Leesman described them, Fed Minutes. Maybe it's odds that Nvidia is not going to beat earnings in a big way tonight. Maybe it's C, all the above, or D, something else. Either way, we might see a NASDAQ that turns negative here in a few minutes. All right. Coming up.

Speaking of big time holiday spending, maybe you're thinking about, you know, putting a new car under the tree, like in all those commercials? What about that one? That's a Jeep. It's electric. Phil LeBoe with the eye candy on that car next. It's appropriate. The entire car world is in the driving capital of America, Los Angeles. The LA Car Show just kicked off. And while electric cars, they've been kicked a bit. They aren't dead yet. and some big makers are showing off some shiny new hardware. We just got a taste of it. So let's see some more of it. Phil Leboe is out in L.A.

and joins us now. He looks like he's ready to drive off. Phil. Yeah, I would if I could. This is the new Jeep recon. This goes into production early next year, Brian, on sale in the first half of next year, starts at MSRP of $65,000.

So they believe in this market, even with the EV federal tax incentives going away, that there's still a market for this vehicle, especially out here in California, where one out of every five vehicles sold in this state, this year have been electric models. And the expectation is while that market may not grow, certainly not grow like the hybrid market, there's going to be still plenty of demand for a vehicle like this. Very cool, very shiny, got the doors off. You look like you fit right at home. But what about a little more upscale, Phil? What are the what are the Porsches of the world doing? What are the outies of the world doing? Are they showing off their electric offerings

sort of at the front of the display? Or are they kind of tucking them in the back? No, they're not tucking them in the back. I mean, look, electric still draws interest, especially out here in California. You mentioned Porsche. Here's how the world has changed, Brian. They just unveiled the Porsche Cayenne EV. And where did they unveil that today? In Dubai. Now, it's a global debut and you can make an argument, well, if you're going to globally unveil a vehicle, Dubai is a good place to do it. But why not do that here in Los Angeles? That speaks to the pull of the Middle East, where you wouldn't expect electric vehicles to gain a lot of attention, but that's where Porsche decided that they were going to unveil the cayenne today.

Yeah, it's very interesting. Dubai, you got LA, warm weather climates. What would you say, aside from the beautiful Jeep recon that you're in right now, Phil, what's kind of the early theme of this LA Auto Show. What's the hot take? Hybrids, they remain red hot, and especially out here. Look, 45% of the vehicles sold out here were there EVs or hybrids. Hybrids are about 24, 25% of the market. They continue to be in strong demand. The Toyota Camry outsold the Model 3 out here in the third quarter. That speaks to how EVs, while they're still popular out here amongst those who want a green vehicle, Brian, the hybrids remain the vehicle that people want. They have resigned themselves to the fact that the EV market may be a little more challenging

and the offerings may not be that great, but the bottom line is that they are the vehicles that people are looking for. And you can see that in terms of the statistics from the California New Car dealers Association. Look, hybrids have now eclipsed EVs out here in California. speaks to the market overall, not just here in California, but around the country. Yeah, it's really fascinating. I love the Jeep recon there. The doors are off. It's probably a beautiful day in L.A. Don't drive off because you're like inside a convention center. Philo at the L.A. Auto Show. Phil, thank you very much. All right, let's get now over to Bertha Coombs for a CNBC news update. Got Bibb talks to his crew. What beautiful lighting. Meantime, in the headlines, the Kremlin said today, it is open to talk

on Ukraine, but that plans are no longer for a proposed summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin. Comits came as Army Secretary Dan Driscoll arrived in Ukraine to restart discussions about possible peace talks. The Israeli military carried out air strikes in southern Lebanon today, as it claims that militant group Hezbollah is working to reestablish itself in the country. Israeli officials say the strikes targeted Hezbollah infrastructure, including including weapons storage facilities.

And Tesla received a permit to operate as a ride-hailing company in the state of Arizona this week, but the electric vehicle firm still needs more clearance before it can bring its robo-taxie service to the state. Tesla is aiming to bring its commercial driverless taxi service to Phoenix and several other U.S. cities before the end of 2026. Right now, it's operating a robotaxy pilot in Austin, Texas,

with safety valets and remote operators. Brian? Lots of wide streets. Not a lot of people walking either. It makes it a little safer, Bertha Coombs. Thank you. All right, coming up. While the investing world waits tonight to see if NVIDIA gets a hole in one,

we're going to talk actual golf down in Florida. That's a live look at Dominic Chu's explaining how he just missed the putty. What out of 72, but it lipped out. He's got the head of the LPGA next. A new era is teeing off at the LPGA. The tour closing out, its 2025 season at the big CME group tour championship all the way down in Naples, Florida. Dominic Chu is there with the new commissioner of the LPGA. Dom, take it away.

All right. Thank you very much, Brian. Craig Kessler, the new LPGA commissioner. Thank you very much for joining us here on CNBC's Power Lunch. Thanks for having me. What a great honor to be here. So here, let's talk about this right now because this event is the new. the culmination of the LPGA season, it's also a massive purse for women's golf.

Just how much has the game progressed in the last five or six years, and where do you plan to take it in the next five to six? Well, first, let's celebrate. This is the 75th anniversary of the LPGA, remarkable to see how far the organization has come. And in the last five years, purses have escalated dramatically. Our athletes have become global stars, and I think you can expect to see more of that as we carry forward. How much of this is personality driven? This idea that you have to have people that the fan base can identify with and what are you doing as commissioner to help promote that kind

of profile? Our fans crave connections to our amazing athletes. One of the ways to create those connections is to actually tell the stories of our athletes, the sacrifices, the grind week in and week out that they put in on the golf course and on the driving range. What you should expect what fans should expect in 26 and beyond is more storytelling and a broadcast that is more elevated and more exciting than ever before speaking of yeah you made news just yesterday from here down in florida this idea that the lpGA tour is not going to have every bit of its action televised in some format way shape or form on linear television and it affects us at versed media cnbc because we are going to be a big partner in that take us through what that dynamic is

and what it's going to be like going forward. I'm so excited that you saw the news. This is a big deal. Two parts to the story. The first is that every time we show up, whether we play on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, our action will be covered on live TV every single time. It's never happened before.

Most of that will be on the golf channel, but some of those rounds will be covered right here on CNBC, and we're very, very grateful for that partnership. The second piece of the announcement, thanks to our partners at FM and Trackman, And next year, fans will experience the LPGA in a way they've never seen it. 50% more cameras, three times the number of microphones, four times the amount of tracing. All of these things are going to culminate in a really, really exciting broadcast.

Now, for the users and consumers of this content, it's going to be a new experience. What is it like as an LPGA tour commissioner to have to oversee an operation like that? and just how important will some of these partnerships with a company like Versant Media be going forward? And just how do you plan to expand that footprint? Well, let me start by saying it's the honor of a lifetime. I mean, what an opportunity to get to meet with our partners, the business community, with our athletes, with our sponsors. I don't take that responsibility lightly, and I'm incredibly grateful for it. In terms of how to take it forward, I will tell you more than ever before the LPGA is open for business.

For folks who want to be a part of this ecosystem, as women's sports and the LPGA in particular continue to rise, now's the time to get involved. Now, a lot of people may or may not know this about you, but you have a private equity background as well. In a former life, you did a good amount of private equity work. Private equity is becoming a bigger part of the sports landscape. How do you see the LPGA, at least the tour itself, working with some of those new aspects of private financing in the markets? You know, you're right. Having spent a decent amount of my career in private equity, I've seen firsthand the power of growth capital and what it can do to help transform an organization. I think you look at Formula One as a recent success story, and so much of that resurgence was driven by private capital coming in to help take the organization to the next level. We're at the LPGA are laser focused on how to continue our growth cycle, and it's very possible that private equity may be a part of the future. All right. Craig Kessler, the new LPGA commissioner. Thank you very much for joining us here from the the CME Group Tour Championship. Thanks for having me.

All right, Brian, we'll send things back over to you from Sunny Naples. Yeah, it looks beautiful down there. Great stuff. Great event. Have a great time. Tom Chu, Craig. Thank you both very much. All right, coming up, your stud and your dud of the day.

We'll meet the best and the worst in the market right now. The original whiskey style of America is what we started distilling. However, I anticipate vodka actually outselling everything. and the fact that America, no matter when anyone says about the death of the alcohol industry, is still very keen on vodka. We get our labels from the UK. Our design is very unique. The corks we get come from Mexico.

When we started out, we bought all of our glass from the USA. And it just so happens that the company that we bought it from got bought by an Indian conglomerate, offshoreed all the molds, and all of a sudden our costs are increased by 50. And the packaging cost is a significant proportion of the cost of a bottle of liquor. The interesting part of the whiskey business is that you make the product and then it ages for a number of years. You can't just say, all right, we'll just stop making it. Because it's already been made years in advance. And as whiskey demand has softened for American products, partly due to the trade war,

there's an increasing supply of whiskey here that is at all. that is offered at a lower price. So that becomes very challenging for us. Three mile island, if the plant is restarted, remember there's a lot of permitting, a lot of everything that has to go into this, Microsoft will buy that power if and when that crane energy center

slash three mile island is restarted. On the flip side, your dud of the day is also an energy company. It's ever-source energy. It's down over almost 11%. That is the biggest percent decline. in nearly two years. Why is Eversource down? Well, Connecticut regulators, speaking of, turned down a proposed sale of a water company assets. Important to know that Eversource still up,

about 16% on the year, but today, not one of those days. Remember, a lot of this energy stuff, it's all about regulatory approval. And of course, before we go, let's get a final check on NVIDIA, NVIDIA stock. The lucky twos of 2.22% on, by the way, Palo Alto. They're also reporting after the bell. But all the attention going to be on NVIDIA, the CEO Palo Alto, on Mad Money. I'll see you tomorrow.