Power Lunch - Market Anticipates Fed Rate Cut 9/16/25

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

NBA Champion Tristan Thompson joins Brian Sullivan to discuss investing. Goldman Sachs' Alexandra Wilson-Elizondo gives her economic outlook.  And what should you know about investing in natural resource and energy names? It's all here on Power Lunch.    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Federal Reserve's next move, a half a trillion dollar energy problem slash opportunity, and investing like a champion. Welcome to Power Lunch, everybody. I am Brian Sullivan. Kelly is off. We have got an action-packed hour on deck for you. We are just 24 hours away from the latest Fed decision on rates. Everybody on the street pricing in a cut, but is that a slam dunk?

Maybe not. Why one of your next guests expects a little bit of hawkishness tomorrow. Plus, the IEA sounding the alarm on oil and gas. investments. It is quite the turn, and we've got it. Oh, and speaking of slam dunks, this is big. NBA champ Tristan Thompson, he is in house. He's trying to score off the court investing big money to the hottest tech sector is around, and he will join us live and on set. Looking forward to that. Thanks for joining us, everybody. Hope you having a great Tuesday. Let's kick off the show with your money. The markets right now, basically in a holding pattern all ahead of the Fed. There is now

a nearly 100% likelihood of at least a quarter point rate cut. It's 96%, but that's practically all the percent. The Federal Reserve, though, only part of the story right now. And maybe it's actually become too big of a story. You've also got AI out there, capital spending, AI-related capital spending. And by the way, a really nice rally for stocks here and around the world. Let's put it all together with your first guest this hour. Alexander Wilson Elizondo is co-head of multi-asset solutions at Goldman Sachs asset management.

Alexandra, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having. I'd be remiss if we did not start with the Federal Reserve. What is Goldman expecting from the Fed tomorrow? So we're expecting a 25 basis point cut. We do, to your point earlier, think that it should be somewhat of a hawkish tone, however, in the presser, and the most important parts will be, you know, the comments that are coming out of

Jay Powell in addition to where they see the forward dots and where we see some of the dissents, especially considering the composition changes within the Fed and some of the voting constituent. It sounds a hawkish cut is a little weird, right? We kind of got one last year where it's like almost like a hold your nose type cut. It's a little bizarre. I mean, they're clearly going to address the dual side of their mandate and they're going to allude to the fact that things are, you know, both sides of the mandate are under pressure,

which is why they're going to start the cutting process. But, you know, let's be clear, inflation is still at best trending sideways. Now you could argue that the structure and the composition of that inflation is in a better shape. But in no way shape or form, are we close to the 2% target that they're looking to achieve? Should they be cutting into an inflationary environment? I think it's very difficult if you really do have this dual mandate to not start to cut when you see the weakness that we've seen the labor market. Now, that being said, from the June SEP to now, actually the spot data has materialized to what they've called for. So we're about, you know, trending towards a four and a half percent unemployment rate, core PCE around 3 percent.

And they had marked into two cuts. So this is just starting the journey that they had already started to signal towards. And the SEP is, I believe, Wall Street speak, for the statement of economic. projections, where basically the Fed looks out. What do we think is going to happen? I imagine your clients, though, Alexander, what they're going to say is, okay, well, everybody expects a Fed cut. So if we get the cut as expected, what does the market do? Because maybe a lot of the rally we've seen recently is because everybody knows they're going to cut. Yeah. So when we're talking about the market, well, I think the bond market and the equity market will have a different response.

And I'll get into that in a minute. But one of the things that, that the bond market is expecting six cuts, which, and they're expecting them done in this linear fashion, and, you know, it's hard to believe that everything is just going to materialize to look that way. You know, when we do get the cut, again, it's going to be on what's the forward, what's the trajectory from here, and, you know, do we end up having to push out one of the expected market three cuts into the following year? And should that, you know, cause the curve to flatten out a little bit or not? Does it matter? I mean, if they cut in December versus January, do we care? Not really. No, I don't think so. No. So what will be the,

you reference the two reactions. You got stocks over here, you got bonds over here. What is Goldman, what are you expecting from each? So on the bond side, you know, assuming we get somewhat of a hawkish tone, but still the proceeding of cuts, we're expecting the bond market to trade about sideways. You know, there is still. I thought it was supposed to, you know, yields are supposed to go down if they cut rates. But they've already, that's already been correct. We've got six cuts priced in from here. And in Europe, they were cutting rates. And guess what?

Bond yields went up. And then they recently stopped, right? And so the bond market has flattened out in Europe. But on the equity side, importantly, the equity market is trading to different themes. And I think you and I had actually chatted about, you know, $500 billion worth of global CAPX as it relates to AI. We just had a new entrant into the trillion dollar club, one that actually wasn't expected. And I think when you look at, you know, some of the speculative growth that's been considered as it relates to AI,

we just got a proof statement that that speculative growth is actually real growth. And it's, you know, projecting out multiple years from here. So we still see plenty of room in the AI story. But more holistically, when you get cuts that are non-recessionary cuts, typically the market goes up 15% over the next 12 months. And so- Repeat that? Because that sounds important. So when you go into a non-recessionary cutting cycle, the hit rate is, by the way, 100 times out of the last times this has happened.

Even when stocks are at all-time highs, you end up having a plus 15% return on average over the next 12 months. Wow. So it's pretty bullish. Well, 100% of the time is, I think, all the time, right? I mean, I'm not a math whiz, but that seems like a lot. So basically the idea is we get a cut tomorrow, no matter what. what people think, history says. And by the way, what's that disclaimer? History is no guarantee of future results, whatever it is. It may not happen. But 100% or a lot of the time in the past, the markets continue to go higher. As long as it's not a recession, yes. And we don't think

we're in a recession. No. Honestly, you know, one of the things that's been really hard for the market to digest has been these, you know, cross currents that are coming from an economy that we think is actually adapting and not unraveling. And that adapting is coming from all of these structural themes. Very quickly, what's more important? I know the feds, we got the meeting tomorrow. It's at 2 p.m. show starts. Got to ramp up the fervor. But is AI spending more important to the market than the Federal Reserve or no? I wouldn't say it's a zero-sum game. I think the both are equally important. And in particular, when you're looking at some of the winners and losers that have been happening and the income dispersion that you're seeing

with consumption, rate cuts are really important. They're important for people who have floating rate debt. They're important for corporates. It's the lifeblood of the economy. It's going to continue to be important. So is the AI story. And they're also important to presidents, because it doesn't matter what your political party is, you probably want rates lower than higher. Alexander Wilson-Ellizondo, really appreciate you coming on set. Thank you. Thank you. Take care. All right, folks, just a reminder. Tune into Power Lund tomorrow special coverage of that Federal Reserve decision 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific. We've got our all-star panel. We've got Jim Carina, Morgan Stanley, David Kelly of JP Morgan Chase,

Francis Donald of RBC Capital Markets Plus. Former Fed Chair Richard Claredo will join us with his insight and reaction as well. And as we get you ready for tomorrow's decision, we've got our members. Remember, there is a mock Fed panel. There's your very smart group there. Zervos, by the way, calling for a 75 basis point. That's fancy speak for three quarters of one percent. Real estate developer and William Lee, both calling for a half a percent cut, the rest of our illustrious group. Alexander, why aren't you on the mock fed? I don't know. We weren't asked. Maybe next time. Maybe next time. There you go. So the mock fed all sees a cut. David Zervos, who, by the way, is on that potential shortlist as the new chair of the Federal Reserve

sees perhaps a three-quarters of one percent cut. All right. We just talked mostly about stocks. Let's talk about bonds, the Treasury market, ahead of the Fed decision tomorrow. Investors buying longer-term maturities ramping up bets on what they call a steeper yield curve. Take a look at the 30-year yield falling to its lowest level since April, anticipating the Federal Reserve will cut rates for the first. time since that big and some would say surprising rate cut last fall. All right. Up next,

some big money, energy, your next guest, with some power plays in the oil and gas space. Names to invest in now. Next. All right, welcome back. There are two important pieces of news to pull literally out of the ground right now. First, the International Energy Agency is making a pretty big call on oil and gas. It says that companies and countries, need to spend $540 billion per year on oil and gas development or risk shortfalls. The IEA finds that 90% of annual upstream oil and gas investment in the past six years has been spent just to offset well declines and not to meet growing demand. That is a big number.

And it continues a bit of a new focus on oil and gas by the IEA as that agency focuses more in how the world will likely continue to grow its fossil fuel. use, decades into the future you can hate it, but everyone's kind of coming around to that point of view. Another big story today, gold and many of the gold mining stocks, staying as hot as hot rocks. Gold hitting a new record high. The companies that dig the metal out of the ground, they have soared this year. Core mining, Anglo gold up nearly 200% this year, and many are higher again today. So let's now stay with Energy and Natural Resources. So let's now stay with Energy and natural resources. Your next guest thinks that valuations across that space are low relative to the

rest of the market, and that there are a handful of trends playing out right now, whether that be bullish signs for metals on China, macro data, or of course, the growing demand for power due to AI. That makes him think there is big opportunity in natural resources and energy. There's your fancy new graphic. us now for our first new power play segment is Tyler Rosenlicht. He is fund manager and head of natural resource equities at Cohen and Steers. Tyler, first off, congrats on being the first guest on that new segment, no matter what happens in the rest of your life. You could say, kids, I was the first guest on PowerPlay on Power Lunch. So welcome. Good to have you on. Thanks for having me. You're very welcome.

All right. So let's start with this. Shell, it is the top holding in your Cohen and Steers Natural sources active ETF. Last week, I did a fireside chat with their CEO while Swan in Italy. He is very focused on putting Shell back on top. They are already the world's biggest trader of LNG. Why is this the biggest holding in your active ETF? Yeah, you know, we've spent the last few years thinking about what the future of energy markets are going to look like. And we've been thinking about it as this, hey, it's not really an energy transition. It's really going to be an energy addition story. You know, for us, the future of energy demand, it's about population growth, it's about economic growth,

and it's about the energy intensity of the global economy. And the reality is we need to produce as much energy from as many resources as we possibly can. So we start with, hey, we just need a lot more energy production from everywhere. And then it becomes around, well, what sort of energy do we think is going to be advantaged in the next few years? You know, the last couple of years it was all about alternatives. You know, alternatives are great, but they're intermittent and they're variable. And so they don't necessarily provide the predictability, the 24-7-365 power needs that you need for data centers and AI and so forth. And so we've actually seen markets swing back the other direction towards more traditional forms of energy. And the reality

is we think natural gas is really uniquely positioned, right? It is the lowest carbon intensity of their traditional power resources. There's a lot of it here. There's a lot of it around the world. We think natural gas is going to be a key solution for providing energy, electricity into these markets going forward. And we see a lot of value in European integrated energy companies relative to some of their North American counterparts. So it's part of the energy addition story. We think natural gas is a key bridge fuel into the future. And it's a place that we actually see some better relative value versus North American operators. Well, we're going to switch to North America right now. So we're going to talk, but not the U.S.

Let's talk about TC Energy, formerly known as Trans Canada. It's a pipeline company. It's up 24% in a year. second biggest holding in your mutual fund, or the Canadian companies maybe not getting some of the same respect as their American counterparts? What is this? Well, you know, even though they're listed in Canada, they actually own a natural gas pipeline network across both the U.S. and Canada. And when we think about investing in energy infrastructure, you know, it's a supply demand game. You know, what is the demand for pipelines? And then what's the ability to add new pipeline supply? And the last few years, really, the demand has been very strong. The ability to build new pipelines or ad supply has been impaired.

So if you can find markets where, hey, demand is actually growing and the ability to sort of grow new pipeline capacity is impaired, that that's a place that you probably want to start to look from an investment perspective because they're going to be able to generate above average returns, extend the duration of contracts, increase their investment opportunities, and so forth. The other thing with them in particular, you know, when I talk about the energy addition, we're very, very bullish things like nuclear energy, right? Traditional resources like coal, oil, and natural gas, they produce energy when you want it,

but unfortunately they have an emissions profile that we don't really like. Alternatives, on the other hand, you know, they have the right emissions profile, but they're intermittent and variable. Nuclear is the sort of one generation resource that can bridge both worlds. It is predictable, low cost, low variable cost, and it's a lot cleaner. And TC Energy actually has some nuclear facilities in Ontario. that we think the market is underappreciating. So it's a real way to capture a lot of the themes that we've been talking about here.

And again, we think energy infrastructure, natural gas, nuclear, are going to continue to see very strong growth opportunities as the world recognizes the magnitude of the energy addition problem we have. Listen, it's one reason we had their CEO on this show in-house a couple of months ago. Rapping over this one, it's another pipeline company, this one based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Go Golden Flash. top five holdings, or at least was in your mutual fund, that is Williams companies. Now, Williams, the yield is not as high as some other pipeline companies in the United States. So what

makes this attractive enough to be in the top five of your holdings, Tyler? Yeah, if you're willing to take the low yield, it's because you think that there's going to be better growth opportunities out there. So like TC Energy, they have a franchise natural gas pipeline footprint. For them, it's going to be about increasing pipeline capacity investments at very, very attractive returns. We've seen some announcements that are going to facilitate power and electricity into data centers for them, and we think there's going to be a lot more to come there. So in some places, you want higher yield, lower growth than others. It's about, hey, I'm sacrificing some current yield for better long-term growth opportunities. And Williams is really an example of one that

offers you quite a bit of growth. And importantly, growth that we think the market underappreciates. Shell, T.C. Energy, Williams, ETFs, mutual funds, and it's the golden hurricane, not the Golden Flash. That's Ken State. In 10 seconds, Tyler, I had people texting me that I screwed up their mat. That's how immediate live TV is. Tyler Rosenlicht, Cohen and Steers, first guest on the new PowerPlay segment. Tyler, we appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. All right. You're very welcome. Coming up, some Fed-proof picks. Your next guest has trades for no matter what the Fed does tomorrow. All right, welcome back to Power Lunch. Let's talk about tomorrow's big Federal Reserve meeting and maybe one group of stocks that could benefit. It is the subject of today's

market navigator. That is Dom Chu. What is on the market navigator? All right. So as we talk about tomorrow, the Fed is all but certain to cut interest rates by at least one quarter of one percent. But our next guest says that bank stocks are going to stand to benefit from a rate cut and says that in fact the sector has been overlooked and could be ripe for a bigger catch-up trade. Joining us now with this case is Keith Buchanan. He's a senior portfolio manager over at Global investments, the post-Fed decision playbook for you involves the banks. It's no surprise that interest rates are a big focus for those banks. Why these banks and why now? Thanks a lot for having me. We're looking at the banks as part of a thesis as to if the Fed becomes more devish

than currently anticipated by a fair futures market, then that group could stand to benefit more than other groups, particularly maybe not the AI tech oriented trade, but just had a catch-up trade from relative standpoint that we've been really impressed with as the market is priced in, some of this increased dovishness it anticipates. So that becomes part of reality after tomorrow, especially with the rhetoric kind of going forward as a trajectory of monetary policy, that we feel like that group of stocks could really continue a catch-up trade that has enjoyed over the last several months. Keith, that group is expansive. There's quite a few of those banks out there. Which ones in particular, the big banks, the medium-sized banks,

regional banks, money centers, investment banks, which are the best ones to capitalize on now? Sure, we're focused on the money centers. J.P. Morgan is the largest holding in our largest equity strategy right now. We're going best-to-breed. You pay a premium for a stock like J.P. Morgan, part of the rest of the group. But still, at a discount to the market, we feel like the best-of-breed in that group could continue to close a gap on the rest of the market as those net interest margins and income really come into focus. if we have a steeper yield curve, which would be the case in that scenario of the Federal Reserve becoming more and more devious than expected.

And we feel like that J.P. Morgan has the right tools or extract value out of that environment. All right. Money Center banks are the key here. Keith. The other part about this is, as you mentioned, the base case scenario for the markets right now is a quarter percentage point cut. What is the post-fed playbook elsewhere in the market if we do get that quarter percent cut or that kind of lottery ticket, very low-od, larger cut, like, say, 50 basis points? Right. If there's a jumbo cut-up or if rhetoric indicates that that's on the table or could potentially come onto the table in the next couple of meetings, we feel like dollar weakness at that point will be more and more pervasive. Our work is leading us to that scenario if that plays out.

Internationally, we feel like there are pockets of emerging markets that become more and more attractive in that scenario. Also, we're looking at yield-sensitive names and spaces that would benefit from more liquidity in the marketplace. trade. We feel like we'll continue in that scenario. So there's several spaces globally and here in the U.S. equity market. We feel like you can take advantage of a more and more increasingly devish fat. All right. Keith Buchanan, Global Investments. Thank you very much for the post-fed playbook, the banks and maybe some of those big tech, AI and international stocks if we do get a jumbo cut,

hypothetically speaking. You know what I love about you besides not only that you're handsome and you dress very well. And you as well. We often will wear the same ties. Is that you said percentage point, not basis point. I love that because people, 25 basis points, just a fancy way of saying one quarter of 1%. 50 basis points, half of a percent. Because Wall Street will operate in these little sort of like almost penny increments. A basis point is effectively a penny. There's 100 in 1%.

So thank you. Also, 2-0 49ers. Yes. 2-0 chargers. Yes, I know you're going with this. I don't want to jinx it. Two-and-O Rams. Here's the thing.

Of those teams, only one of them is on a backup quarterback with a lot of injuries. still plaguing it right now. So the Niners or two-in-no with both Brock Purdy and Mac Jones. I'm a proud Niners fan. And you, my friend, are Purdy. So pretty. I like that. Still ahead. Rivian, breaking ground. It's $5 billion Georgia plan as it looks to make headway in the EV market. But can the big dreams actually become reality stocks up nicely today? Got Philibault on that next. All right, welcome back. Let's talk cars. Rivian shares with a nice, nearly 7% pop right now. Philibo, speaking with their CEO at the site of a future factory that is going to keep pumping out their electric vehicle.

So is the CEO worried about the end of the federal EV tax credit? I heard earlier, Phil Abo, literally in a field, ask the Rivian CEO that exact question. And he joins us that with that and more down in Georgia, Phil. You know, Brian, RJ Scoringe knows that the EV sales are going to slow down after September 30th. But he expects a dip overall, not just Rivian, but overall in the fourth quarter and then a stabilization in 2026. Is he correct? We'll have to wait and see how much of an impact the end of the federal EV tax credit will have. But they're still optimistic that there is a future for Rivian to grow RV sales or EV sales, excuse me,

especially if they can come up with their R2 model, $45,000 model. They'll begin production next year in Illinois. and then at this facility, they expect to begin production in 2028. And then there's an R3 model sometime down the road and even lower priced model. He still believes that they have a path not only to profitability, but to growing EV sales here in the United States. All right. Don't we had a soundbite there. We do not.

Let's talk about something else because electric cars, different issue. They don't pump gas. But guess what does? Corvettes. And every corveter, about 100,000 corvettes have been recalled due to a year. a fire risk. I guess somebody's Corvette burned down when they were pumping gas, Phil. What exactly is the story here? Investors don't care, but it isn't an interesting story for Corvette owners nonetheless. Well, the Wall Street Journal did a pretty good job of mapping out

how this recall took place, not how the recall took place, but how they mapped the problem at General Motors. Basically, there is a cooling fan within the near the gas tank for the Corvette. that cooling fan was spraying gasoline when vehicles were being fueled up onto the engine. Vehicles would catch on fire when they were at the gas station. It took a while for them to figure out exactly what was wrong. But to GM's credit, like all automakers, when there is a defect like this, they will do a recall. And in this case, they also had to do a stop sale. What's interesting about this, Brian, is people will sit there and say, well, gee, you have a Corvette that cost $100,000.

You would not expect a vehicle fire. But that does happen. And it doesn't matter if it's a $100,000 vehicle or a $25,000 vehicle. Occasionally you will come across that type of an issue. Yeah, and it's not material to the stock. Stocks that about 9-10s of 1%. Not all cars, but a lot of cars have been getting recalled lately. But it is something that just, you know, it's the headline.

We're talking about it. Overall, let's go back quickly to Rivian. A lot of debate and discussion around this sector, Phil. What was kind of to your point? You're there. You're looking RJ Scringge in the eye. What was kind of your takeaway? on this whole thing.

He's definitely got a game plan, and they do have a plan for the next three years, for not only turning a profit, but growing sales. But there's some wild cards out there, Brian. First of all, the Department of Energy has given them a $6.17 billion loan for this facility to be built. Does that ultimately go through? I mean, the Trump administration has made it clear that they will clawback or not grant the full allocation of some loans if they don't believe in the project, the company, whatever it might be. Now, RJ Scouringe, and to the credit of the Georgia governor, Governor Kemp, he was here,

they both believe that the Trump administration will honor that loan. But that's one wildcard that is out there. What happens if there's a recession? If there's a recession, what happens to EV sales? A lot of these things need to, you know, play out over the next couple of years, Brian, and there's no guarantee that you're going to see this plant in 2030 cranking out 400,000 or 200,000 vehicles. But Georgia, I'm told, Phil, leaving politics out of it, I'm told it's a relatively important state for presidential elections. We'll see what happens. Casual Phil Aboe down in Georgia, Phil, we appreciate it. All right, we've got some breaking news right now on social media site, TikTok.

Amin Javers. What's up? Hey, Brian, that's right. We've got a new executive order here from the White House on TikTok. just posted within the past couple of minutes. And what it's doing is further extending that non-enforcement deadline on the law affecting TikTok. This extension now in effect until December 16th, 2025, according to this executive order, which the White House just posted a short time ago. Apparently the president signed this before he got on Air Force One on his way to London,

where he's going to be meeting with the king tomorrow. So new information here on TikTok. That deadline extended until December 16th. All right, good stuff. Amy Javvers, thank you very much. For now, let's get to McKinsey Seagallos for a CNBC news update. Hey, Brian, so a Utah district attorney will seek the death penalty for the suspect in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. He announced seven counts against Tyler Robinson this afternoon, which include aggravated murder, obstruction, and witness tampering.

The DA says Robinson's DNA was found on the trigger of the rifle used in the shooting. The Justice Department sued Rhode Island's education department. Department and the Providence School District today, claiming a teacher recruitment program promotes racial discrimination. The lawsuit takes aim at a loan forgiveness program that provides up to $25,000 in student debt repayments for teachers of color. The Justice Department claims it excludes white teachers and is illegal. And ChatGBTGBT announced new teen safety features today.

CEO Sam Altman says the AI chatbot will try to automatically sort users into two separate versions of ChatGBT. one for 13 to 17-year-olds and one for adults. Some countries will require age verification. The announcement coming ahead of a Senate hearing on the potential harms of AI chatbots. Brian, back to you. Mackenzie, thank you very much.

All right, coming up, from the court to the C-suite, NBA champion Tristan Thompson. He is in the House with his winning strategies. We'll talk about crypto. We'll talk about Bitcoin. We'll talk about, I don't know, Kyle. How you doing, Kyle? Good to see you.

and maybe a little bit about NIL money. Wave, wave, Kyle, it's all good. We're back right after this. Crypto Watch is sponsored by Crypto.com. Crypto.com is America's premier crypto platform. All right, welcome back. You might have seen our next guest grabbing rebounds of the NBA hardware, but he's now marking and running a name for himself off the court

with investments in crypto, AI, and a lot of other things. I'm going to shut up. We're pleased to be joined now by Tristan. Tristan Thompson, NBA champion, investor, and entrepreneur. Tristan, it's great to have you on set. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. All right.

So I'm sure you get pitched all kinds of stuff all the time. How do you make your selections and what are you investing in right now? I mean, for me, I think it's whenever you're investing and doing things off the court, it's got to tie to what your everyday life is, right? It's, you know, every day someone's come with a new idea, hair, this new hair product line up. But for me, and so can't miss. When they say that, be careful. When they say that, it means run opposite direction.

Fair enough. Right? And so for me, it's just like, what are the things, projects, a company that can be part of that can actually help everyday world and help something that touches my heart. So for me, it's a super exciting space to be in, especially in cryptos. Okay. So what are you doing in crypto? Are you involved? I saw you, you made a comment the other day that AI was the ultimate teammate.

Yes. Does that mean? Well, the way I look at AI, it's used as the terms of the teammate. It's someone that can help advance and make what's better. what's wrong in the system. And for me, the first thing I always think about is health, right? The decentralized science, health data, right? There's just so much brokenness and lack of resources for the everyday folks, right?

And for me, for myself, my brother who has epilepsy, in terms of it's called LSD, which is basically, if you grant a scheme of things, one out of 100 people have epilepsy, one out of three million who are epileptic have his form of it, which means it's a very rare and a rare disease. And for him, he's fully wheelchair-bound, does not speak, does not walk. So for me on this- How do you help him, then? Well, for me on this platform, it says, how can I, not just help his life, but help families that are behind me and people that don't have the opportunity, right?

And so I partnered with a company called Axendow, which is basically a decentralized science company that's run through the blockchain. And at the end of the day, it's basically taking your health data and have the palm of your hands, right? Because, you know, for me, we went to multiple hospitals, multiple clinics. And, you know, that whole process is the toughest thing ever, right? And it's, to be honest, for Amari and for me being Canadian, it was probably our Achilles heel being from the Great White North. Because, you know, one thing about universal health care,

because it's universal doesn't mean it's great. Yeah. Right. It's a long wait for things. It's crowded. It's hard, yes. Yeah. And it wasn't really until I got to the NBA and had these resources where there's

Cleveland. We had the resources to come to the United States. Yes. Right. And then be able to a lot of people don't. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And with that being said, being able to be in NBA and meet these great physician,

great doctors and have the access to, you know, get in front of the line and have the opportunity to really see what's going on with Amari. We came to find out and realize this form of epilepsy had because most of the doctors we've met that just say he can grow out of it. Keep doing these tests. We'll just check him and he'll be better. But then nothing ever changed. It only got worse.

Yeah. So you've got crypto. You've got AI. Do you invest in the stock market? I mean, this is CNBC, right? Do you, Invidia? Like, what do you, do you have, like, just kind of a fun? maybe a pool of money that you use to invest in equities?

I mean, listen, the way I look at is that anything you use on a everyday basis, you should have some investment stock in it, right? So whether it's Nike, Tesla, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, those are everyday use cases for me. So I'm definitely going to put myself and have some skin in the game, right? Because I believe the trajectory is that it's only going to increase and get better. And especially if you look at all these companies, I mean, look at it in video. Look at the people that started there are all, I think 80% of their staff are millionaires.

That just shows you that how everyone believed in this, and they part were early buyers and product. That's a good idea. You know what? Somebody's got to be listening to me right now. Let's do a segment from the Nvidia parking lot. I would love to, I remember years ago I went to some hot company and I was going in to see the CEO, and I looked at the parking lot and it was like Porsche, Porsche, Mercedes.

I thought this company is doing well because the employees are getting rich and they're buying nice cars. It's kind of a tell, and I'm very happy for the Nvidia employees and sad for us that we can't own stocks here on CNBC. I want to ask you a couple other things. my viewers know that I'm a Virginia Tech Hokie, so we've gone through some coaching changes. I'm Hokie horns, Hokom Horns. Yes, we're going to get to that. Just take it easy.

Okay. I'm going to ask you. So we know that Hokies have had a change. I've been very aggressive on Twitter slash X about NIL money. You played one year for the Longhorns. How much money would Tristan Thompson make today, not when you're 34, but if you go back in time and the NIL money existed,

How much money would you think you could command in college today? Oh, easily, probably north of $4 million. I mean, there's the one kid at North Carolina, who's with the same agency as me, he signed for $4 million to go to North Carolina, which is crazy to think about this. Is it annoying? I think NAL is good and bad around it, right? I think the good thing is that you're giving the kids the opportunity that come from nothing to be able to have some.

And let's be clear. The school, and I want to be very clear because I've been hot on this. The schools have gotten rich off the back of young athletes. Period, hard stop. We know that. The schools need to share some of the resources with the people to help make them rich, correct? Yes. But man, there's a lot of money out there.

But I think this is where the schools are missing. This is what they're missing, though. Giving the kids, the money is great. But why are you guys not giving them the financial literacy behind it? There's some of these guys that are not even paying their taxes. They need somebody that's going to leave college in worse shape than what we're going to. when they walked in because they're going to have all this money. They're going to spend it because they don't know what to do with it.

They're going to give it to family, take care of others, but not have that plan where, like, if you don't make it to the NBA, if you don't play overseas, you should at least be walking out of this after four or five years, at least up a couple six figures, right? I think because of what these kids are getting paid. So the schools are, yes, you are starting to pay the players, but you're actually giving them a disservice by not giving them the financial literacy and the education behind it, how to make this money grow. I think the agents, some of them would argue that that's, that's.

That's what they do, right? That's what they're supposed to do. By the way, I'm here. If anybody out there wants CNBC anchors to come, pretty smart, we will go and talk to the teams as well. I'm happy to do that for free, by the way, because we can't get paid to give speeches either. But my point is, I think, Tristan, that this money is so outsized. I worry is going to be a lot of weird influences out there. Well, I mean, if you look at it, I think the kids have lost the hunger, right?

I think a lot of kids, you know, for me coming in college, it's like, you know, I'm going to try to be one and done because I'm My goal is to take care of Marry and take care of my family. And the way to get paid was to go pro. Yeah, go pro. Now guys can not have the same hunger. Like, you know, I was the type of guy. I'll be in the gym at 6 a.m. And I'll come back in at 7 after we're done studying all homework

because my goal is to make sure I'm shaking Davis-Stern's hand in June. A lot of these kids now, it's more of a... They're not kids. By the way, Tristan, sorry to interrupt. We have 24 and 25-year-olds that are still in college playing college sports. I want an NBA championship at 24. So this is ridiculous. kids are still in, like they're, this is nuts. It's crazy. These guys are, it's, it's sad.

People say, oh, they're leaving too early. 17, 18, going to the NBA. It's too young. Now you've got people in college staying until the 24, 25. And I don't mean they're going to the military and coming back. I mean, they're still in school because if you can make a few million bucks, why wouldn't you stay? That's true. But I think, I think, yes, that's great what they're doing, but is what's the next step. And I've heard through some rumblings that there's going to be some changes in the NIL where there's, I think now school. are going to be given a cap limit per school and they're going to figure out how they want to delegate it.

The reason why I know this is, because one of my friends is a head coach at an ACC school and he went to University of Texas. He just had Duke before. It's not Virginia Tech. No, it's not Virginia Tech. But it's, he told me. There has to be a cap, right? There has to be a cap.

They have to create a cat space because the money of their feeling is getting ridiculous and it's really becoming, I was talking to some of the coaches. They're like, yeah, my teams look totally different next year. There's going to be 10 guys out. Well, every year, I mean, you listen to the announcers, right? And every year in college football, the announcers are like, well, this player, and last year he played a Duke in the year before that, he was at Texas, and before that he was at, you know, Florida A&M.

Like it, it's, it's, it's, it's, there's kids that are at five colleges in five years. That's, to me, that's unsustainable. We're not preparing them for life. That's what I'm saying. You can't just change everything all the time. Yeah. Right. Do what I want, when I want, where I want it.

That's not how life works. And then you need some diversity, but that's how you sustain a good program, right? I think that's why a lot of these teams each and every year, it varies who's going to be, in the final four. You never know, even in college football. You never know. So whoever has the biggest, you know, biggest NL? Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Last year, Ohio State won the title. We'll go. I know. And it was

they keep rapping me, but I'm ignoring them. I think the payroll in the team was like $20 million. I was only half joking with a friend, and I've got a lot of family members that went to Ohio State. So it's not knock on. Oh, oh, you're sure. I know it. That's not doing it. I know. And by the, yeah, I know. And you just had a tough game against him

Texas. But to say, basically, take the whole team and say, for $50 million, we'll go play for some other team. The entire team should leave. Whoever wins a title this year and go to another school that'll pay them giant sums and the whole team goes to the new school,

puts on a different uniform and wins the title again. Tristan Thompson really appreciate you coming in. No, thank for having you. I really appreciate it. No, welcome back anytime. Thank you very much. I'll be back.

Absolutely. Thank you. All right, we're going to be right back. Time now for a power check and we want to hone in on some big power players. Like Nextera, AMD, which provides a lot of chips for AI. Oh, by the way, in one big car company,

that your guest says the market is leaving in the dust, but shouldn't be. So let's start up with Next Era Energy. Scott Nations, our guest, stock is down 17% over the past year, including a 7% drop over the past month. Scott, President of Nations indexes, what's wrong with Next Era Energy? There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Yeah, it's had a tough month. But it's going to have pricing power when it comes to electricity as far as commercial users are concerned. That means that a stayed business is now a growth business. Congratulations. Because as Meta build, companies like Meta build, all these data centers, they got to plug them in someplace.

Next year, it's going to have battery storage. Its business in Texas is more important than its business in Florida. But at a forward PE of just below 20, it's still a pretty good bargain. Okay. Next up is AMD, and I know advanced microdevices, not as flashy as NVIDIA. but a lot of people think AMD is going to be a beneficiary, a winner of sorts in the AI revolution. How do we read AMD right now? This is also a buy in your right, Brian.

It's not a headline name, and so it's been able to fly a little bit under the radar, forward PE, a little bit below Nvidia, quite a bit below Broadcom. And so AMD is a buy. And right now, seven of the top 10 AI names are using their accelerators, their focus on more efficient chips is ultimately going to be really helpful. Again, this is not the flagship for AI, but that's actually great right now because you get to buy it a little bit of a bargain. Brian, only thing that really concerns me is of the 10 biggest names in the S&P, AMD has the second most bullish option market. That could be a little worse. Yeah. All right, General Motors, we teased it before, kind of saying the market has left it in the dust. G.M. Rather, has had a pretty

good run this year, but the valuation is still really low relative to some other companies. Why do you think investors should be taking a second look at GM? Two reasons, two numbers. Forward P.E. of six and a half, six and a half. And in Q2, tariffs cost their bottom line $1.1 billion. So it's really been forgotten, but it's a great name. All right. Scott, sorry to jump in on you, but you said it all in two sentences. Appreciate we have some breaking news right now. We've got to get to. And that is on TikTok, back to Damon Jarvis in DC. Yeah, Brian, this breaking news comes exclusively from the Wall Street Journal here,

just posted within the past couple of moments. The journal reporting that TikTok's U.S. businesses under this proposed deal between the United States and China would be controlled by an investor consortium that includes Oracle, Silver Lake, Andresen Horowitz, and others. As these talks are being finalized, they say that U.S. investors will hold a roughly 80% stake in the revised company. the Chinese shareholders would own the rest. The company, according to the Wall Street Journal, would have an American-dominated board

with one member of that board of directors who would be assigned by the United States government and existing users of TikTok would be asked to shift over to a new app. The big question here has been what happens to the algorithm that controls TikTok. That's one of the big issues hanging over this whole story because of the national security concerns about the Chinese having control of an app that goes directly into millions of American users, right? So this Wall Street Journal report suggesting that TikTok engineers are going to recreate a set of content recommendation algorithms for the app using technology that they're going to license from TikTok's apparent bite dance.

So that seems to be the solution here, Brian. Back over to you. Amen, Javers. Amen, appreciate that. Some breaking news right there on TikTok. Thanks for watching, everybody. We'll see you tomorrow for the Fed Day. Closing bell starts right now.