Power Lunch - Meta's Historic Winning Streak, Europe's Hot Start to 2025 02/14/25

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

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And welcome to Power Lunch. I am Brian again with Contessa Brewer today. How do you say investing in Europe is red hot in German? Good one. Yeah, we don't know either. But we're going to find out because Europe is red hot. In fact, doing better than America this year. We're going to find out why. And all is well in the world because NASCAR is back. Uh-huh. The head of NASCAR is here to talk about the great American race. And while that dominates your weekend, I know, Brian, let's get a check. on the markets dominating right now. You see the Dow Industrial's off just slightly by two-tenth of a percent. The S&P 500 up just slightly by a tenth of a percent in the NASDAQ. You know what? This is all fairly meh.

Shares of Nvidia slightly higher today, but let's take a look at not only Nvidia, but the impact it's having on other stock in it. And it's 13F Nvidia disclosed a new stake in a Chinese autonomous driving firm that is called Wii Ride. That stock is soaring. Look at that. 73% higher on the day. But serve robotics and Soundhound are just getting crushed because NVIDIA has cut its stake in both of those countries. Soundhound off by 30%. Serve robotics off by

43%. Invita, again, up a little less than 2%. And so I want to be, that was a little bit, came in hot. That was because NVIDIA as like a hedge fund, like an investor saying, we bought a stake in we ride and we've reduced our stake in these other That's right. That's right. And look at how those stocks reacted as a result. Also, I want to point out because Brian may love NASCAR, I love casinos. It's a good day for investors who bet on draft kings and win resorts. Both of those stocks higher on earnings. You've got draft kings up by almost 11 percent, win resorts up the same. And we have a lot more about what's powering those stocks higher coming up. What a perfect day to have you here. We're talking about casinos and you're the most knowledge.

It's like you hit the jackpot. That's a casino pun. I'm good at those. Wow. It's like the pirate pirate cherry. All right. We've got a ton to do today, but we've got to start here. I think this is the right place to start.

And this is arguably, and I'm not, this is not TV hyperbole, maybe it is, but whatever. This is arguably the greatest big cap stock run in modern American history. Okay, we're talking about meta. that is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It is on an unbelievable run for investors. It is higher right now by $1.737. If meta closes higher today, we got two hours, meta will be up, Contessa, 20 sessions in a row.

Let me go through this. One week percent change up 3 percent. Month-to-date change up 7 percent. One month change up 24 percent. The quarter-to-date change up. almost 26%. Wow. Meta's last down day, Contessa.

We're going back and forth now with just stats. Meta's last down day was actually in the Biden administration, January 16th. And get this, here's an RBI for you. Random but interesting. In its 20-day run, Meta has added more than $250 billion in market cap. Put more directly, Contessa, in just over three weeks. Mehta has added more than a Disney in value. All of Disney and more in three weeks.

And what do we think is pushing this higher? No clue. Is it the reports that Meta's about to make a major push into AI-powered humanoid robots? That's not. Definitely not it. First off, that report just came out today. So it doesn't explain the previous 19. That was just my way of working in a little bit of it.

You just wanted to say humanoid robot, I know. But even if you just explained the other 19 people knew, humanoid robots are cool, but they're not a market-moving thing. Meta has been up 20 sessions in a row. It's added to Disney or half a Netflix in three weeks. This is, is it because of based Zuckerberg? He's become all whatever? You mean politically?

Yes, I don't know. Yeah. It's entirely possible that that has some retail traders enthusiastic about the future. AI is certainly part of that. The futuristic robots, I would not discount that because I think if you look at the possibility that AI is going to vastly improve health care, insurance, driving, all these other things. If you add human physical capacity onto that, the possibility that our friends in AI could actually change the world as we know it becomes even more. How do I know that you're not a robot right now? How do I know that you're real?

This could be ex machina. X. Makina, however you want to pronounce the movie. Bacchina. This could be... Are you real? No, I... Very real. Here's my question to you, because you follow these things very closely, and you're very enthusiastic over this run. Is Meta the new Nvidia? Yes. Which was the new Tesla?

So, by the way, folks, we're supposed to have Tim Seymour on this. He is going to be joining us soon. It's not just us talking, but there were some car issues. So we're just waiting for it. If the robots were in charge... If the robots were in... If Tim Seymour... was run by robots, he would be here right now.

All right. Now, we've got to get to a totally different story. That is very serious and not getting nearly the attention. It should. That is a potential full-on war in the Congo. And it's in large part because of technology. Why do we say that? All right, the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is not a democracy,

is the capital of cobalt. Cobalt was literally once a throwaway mineral. You'd mind it. You literally threw it away. It had negative value. But cobalt is now one. that goes into batteries and cars and phones and everything else. And what's happening right now is an army from Rwanda is pushing into eastern Congo,

and thousands have been killed. Now, to be clear, technology is not the only reason for this fighting. It's been going on for a long time. But because money now plays a big role, this fighting has accelerated. Joining us now is Siddhartha Karah. He wrote a book literally about this, a Pulitzer Prize finalist called Cobalt Red. we talked about it earlier this week. Siddhartha, I've been listening to it, Audible.

I want to be clear, I'm not done. I've not finished your book. It is eye-opening. This war that may take place in Congo is a big deal. What do you think ultimately is going to happen in Congo? Because, and I hate to bring it back to money and what our audience cares about, but this is now a critical mineral for technology. Yeah, well, thank you for having me on today.

And as you mentioned, the Congo is home to some of the largest reserves of critical. electronic component minerals in the eastern Congo, southern Congo, that's cobalt, tantalum, tungsten. And these resources are vital to our rechargeable lifestyle and the transition to electric vehicles. They're used in the batteries and microprocessors of these devices. And the Congo is an essential source of these minerals. In the case of cobalt, about three-fourths of the world's supply of cobalt is mining the Congo, but as you note, it's mined in horrific, violent degrading conditions, often causing immense

environmental destruction as well. And we have this Rwanda-backed militia invading the Eastern Congo, and it's in large part about securing control of these very profitable minerals, laundering them through Rwanda out into formal supply chains, and China and Chinese state-run mining companies dominate cobalt mining, again, in degrading conditions that viable. the human rights and dignity of the Congolese people, as well as the destruction of their environment in the Southern Congo. And it all flows into formal supply chains of consumer-facing tech and EV companies. Okay, so who has the influence to go in and stop this from happening? Stop the enslavement of children and the trafficking of people in horrific conditions.

Is it the battery makers? Is it the Chinese that import the coal-balt for refining and then give to the battery makers? Is it other businesses in Rwanda? You know, the NBA recently has expanded its investment there because they know that Africa is a huge NBA market. Who has influence over stopping it? Yeah, listen, we're talking on CNBC, and I think that's very appropriate because I believe it's the market economy that has the most powerful leverage here. I mean, we can't ask the Congolese government, which is cash strapped and running a war-torn impoverished country to try and solve this problem on its own. Chinese state-run mining companies, if they cared about the people in the heart of Africa, they would have fixed this problem by now themselves.

They don't care. They don't care. That's precisely my point. The Chinese have put billions of dollars into Congo. They built roads. They built ports. They built bridges. They got people there. It's an absolute because, and all they want to do is they're going to come in, they're going to bribe all the leaders, right? And this goes back to our foreign corrupt practices act earlier this week, which I think is probably why you're here, Siddharth. But they're going to do all that stuff, extract all these minerals, and not give a, you know what, about any of those 11-year-old kids that is down in a hole in Congo. Digging out. No, they don't care. They don't care. I mean, I've been to the Congo multiple times on the ground. And what you see is the moral clock

dialed back to colonial times under the control of Chinese state-run mining companies. And everyone looks the other way because, as you said, there's so much corruption and bribery taking place. They don't care that children are suffering shattered spines just to dig cobalt out of the ground for a dollar a day, or that the entire environment has been contaminated with toxic effluence from Chinese mining companies, causing a complete public health catastrophe there. It all flows out through Chinese refiners into tech and EV companies, and ultimately, I think we have to stand for what's right. We meaning America and American companies.

We can't point our finger downstream to our Chinese suppliers or foreign mining companies. So President Trump this week described the situation as very serious. And it looks like the State Department has encouraged U.S. citizens to evacuate the area, which is a step. Do you think that that response is too muted? I think the Trump administration has an opportunity to go much farther. I mean, we have seen from one administration after another, half-hearted efforts to solve this problem. And it's not overly complicated. Designing phones and cars is more complicated than getting decent wages and working conditions at the bottom of mineral supply chains.

I think the Trump administration has an opportunity to show genuine leadership in working with the Congolese government and with U.S.-based tech and EV companies to say, listen, it's not acceptable that we are importing critical minerals from the heart of Africa that are mined in conditions. that violate the human rights and dignity of African people. Let's solve this problem. And that gets back to the power of the market economy. Major Tech and EV companies are the big buyers of these minerals. And if they say this has to stop on a verified basis in a public-private partnership with the Trump administration, I promise you most of these problems would get solved very quickly. It would.

I think the only thing that's going to talk here, unfortunately, our money and even more, unfortunately, right now are bullets. And that's what's happening. Arthur Carr, author of Cobalt Red, which I'm listening to right now, an excellent book, must read. Very serious, heartbreaking at times, but a legit big story. Cedar, thank you. After the break, be prepared to collect your winnings if you took a gamble on this stock this week. It's up more than 16% since Monday, thanks to a solid Q4 beat and strong demand.

We'll reveal the name when Power Lynch returns. All right, welcome back, and let's get back to your top story today, and that is Meta's record. run as we hit at the top of the show, and we should probably hit just every five minutes till the end of the day. Meta is on pace for its 20th straight up session. Tim Seymour has made it in. Seymour Asset Management, CNBC contributor, star of CNBC's Fast Money 5 p.m. That's not fair to some really talented people I work with. I love everybody. Thank you. On that program, I'll be hosting it partly next week, by the way. It's a fun show. Listen, 20 days in a row, is it fair to say this is one of the greatest, not the greatest,

cap stock runs in American stock market. It is. And if you think about statistically, it's almost very difficult to do. Relative to the other Mag 6, it's been that much more extraordinary because it hasn't been a great run. It's also more extraordinary when you consider their CAPEX announcement on 4Q wasn't something that in a world of post-deep seek and a world of where we are relying on Mark Zuckerberg, who in the past has talked about the year of efficiency, that 25 is the year all of these long-term initiatives come through, and that actually you get follow-through from the dynamic, which really is, hey, we've invested in AI, reality labs.

It all comes together, and it's all coming together with the stock price. Is there anything that's fundamentally, besides Contestus, humanoid robots, okay? Is there anything that's fundamentally changed on this stock that merits it adding a Disney's worth of value in three weeks? I don't see it. I feel like we had the reference to these robots. Robots scare me, Brian. I mean, I don't like robots in real life or, and I don't necessarily like them as a meta-shareholder because I am actually concerned about this.

But even if you don't like them, if you think they're coming and are going to change the landscape, you could not like them and invest in them at the same time. And I think the monetization dynamics here around robots are less clear than the monetization around the core business, which had 21% fourth quarter revenue growth, FX neutral. The question for investors really has to be the age old. This is no longer with Google the cheap of the mega cap seven or eight. This is actually, it's 30 times trailing. It's about 26 times if you think they're going to do $28 a share in 25. This isn't a cheap stock anymore. And this is a stock that I think at this point after this run is the beneficiary of relative performance versus its peers.

And five, you know, bring up a five-year chart. I know we've got to go very quickly. They changed your name to meta. They talked about the metaverse. you could buy fake land with real money, and that was going to wear these goggles. That died. It was stupid, right?

I mean, it still exists, but the company was like almost left for dead, and now it's up 724% since those lows. How much of this is just pure momentum? Some of its momentum, again, some of it to me is there's been a crowding out within the rest of the Mag 7. I think it's relative value.

But I do think that part of this move has been excitement around the spending on all of these initiatives, coming together in 25, and I think this, you've priced in a lot. Okay, the S&P 500 is up 4% to start the year. It's not a bad start, really. Annualize that, it's doing okay. Okay, for six weeks. Nothing compared to what's happening around the world, and especially in Europe.

You've got Poland up 23%, 17% in Sweden. Germany, 15% just this year. One possible reason is borrowing costs, because for Germany specifically, the 10-year yield is a little more than half of the U.S. year. So what do you make of this outperformance and will it continue? Well, I think some of, first of all, it's really exciting. Germany's outperformed the S&P by 10%. As someone's been investing internationally most of my career, there are moments like this and they don't come often and talk about relative underperformance to the S&P, whether it's, whether it's Europe, whether it's emerging markets.

You know, the story has been over time, you are losing money by investing in these markets. But as we think about what's going on with Germany, I think it's a combination, excuse me, combination of where I think the weaker dollar, the fundamentals around valuations are really interesting. Look at the banks across Europe. We're having a re-rating of our banks here. These banks are 30% cheap to U.S. banks. This is a case where I think the dividends are paying out are more interesting. And I think it's a dividend story that's also part of it. It's almost like a meta in a sense where, you know, the first flight after COVID, I was pretty much on going to Europe, telling the story about how the European economic disaster is coming because of energy and all this other stuff. And Europe's economy isn't good.

And maybe that's the point. The one thing about these European lessons, I think that's important to take away, Tim. And if I'm wrong, I know you'll tell me. It's that this is a perfect example of how stock markets and economies are disconnected. They're sometimes are the same, sometimes they're not. Well, the dollar, if you think the dollar in rates have peak, this is great for EU stocks. I devo is an international ETF I manage. We also have some exposure to China.

Baba and Tencent, again, you know, what's happening there? It's not that the macro in China is good. is that you've seen stories that have been re-rating around fundamentals, and I think sentiment got way too low. Tim, we're going to see you in a little bit, so stick around. Thank you for that. A couple of pieces of tech news that are just breaking within the last few minutes. Let's get to Christina Partesnobulus for more on that.

Hi, Christina. Hi, well, this is a potential landmark deal for U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, Taiwan's TSMC, is considering taking control of Intel's factories. This is according to a Bloomberg report. The Trump administration, we know we've been talking about this, has been in talks recently with TSM with the aim to increase American chip production here on American soil and maintain tech leadership in the country. These early stage talks could, could see TSM operating Intel's U.S. plants with potential

backing from American ship designers and government support so that all of the ownership would not go to a foreign entity. The move comes as Intel faces financial challenges, haven't recently replaced its CEO amid struggles with its expansion plans. Intel, you can see the shares still in the red down 2.5%. They gave back some of their losses earlier. TSM, on the other hand, did jump once that news came out. Separately, completely different story.

Elon Musk, AI firm, XAI, is seeking to raise $10 billion at a $75 billion valuation. That's a massive jump from its previous $51 billion valuation. Key investors, Sequoia Capital, Andrewson Horowitz, Valor Equity Partners. They're all in discussion to participate. And this fundraising round comes as XAI prepares to launch its grok, chatbot and negotiate a $5 billion server deal with Dell Technologies that we spoke about, Brian, you and I just in the last hour or so. Contessa?

All right. Thank you very much. Christine. Appreciate that. Draft King's stock soaring after the earnings call this morning. CEO Jason Robbins laid out an optimistic view of 2025 and really some astonishing numbers from Super Bowl Sunday. $436 million wagered, which set a new record for daily sportsbook handle at Draft Kings

and led to the highest gross gaming revenue. in company history. Hey, that's a pretty good start to the year. Then win resorts on fire fueled by promising business in Macau for Chinese New Year. It's up almost, that's draft King's up almost 12%. Let's move to win now. The performance in Las Vegas was against some tough comps. We heard that there was a notable increase in slot play, something that MGM had talked about as well on its earnings call this week. And this week, that stock is up almost 16% on what was a decent report, but really the most promising piece of news was that in December,

it was the best month ever for booking group business. So that's forward-looking. Hold on. They like slots because the house wins. They're the most profitable for the casinos, correct? Slots are the biggest piece of gambling money for the casinos. It's bigger than

the table games. Right. But listen, the casinos get hit by luck both on table games and in slots, too. You want to talk more about when I win it ain't luck. Yeah, well, you know, You've got to bring it with you, bud. For more on the casino space, let's bring in Chad Bynon, who's the senior gaming lodging, and theaters analyst at McQuarrie.

You got a lot of companies in your coverage universe, and the gaming stocks this week have responded so strongly to their earnings, even though I would care. I don't know. You do this for a living. I would characterize it as, okay, right? Did you expect this sort of outsized reaction? We did not. Thanks for having me, contestant, and Brian.

So an interesting stat is the casino operators have underperformed for five straight years. So heading into this year, our view was expectations are way too low. Obviously, interest rates have the possibility of coming down and that will be positive for evaluations. And these were a few of our top names. So I think it was really kind of an expectations game. And to your point, Contessa, the commentary that we've heard in terms of post-election and then more importantly, the first 45 days in February, that from Draft Kings this morning, that from when

last night was just much, much more positive than we would have thought. And, you know, historically, these companies are going to be somewhat cautious this early in the year. They're going to talk about all the puts and takes. But I think analysts and investors are more positive. So you've seen, you know, double digit increases on the three names you touched on. And we have a lot of, a lot of earnings to go this season. I thought it was surprising how much commentary we were getting on the current quarter on the earnings calls. So, for instance, you got a lot of color around China and what's happening there around Chinese New Year.

What does that, how does that change your models or the way you're thinking about Macau and the rebound that has been sort of lackluster? We're still not back up to pre-pandemic levels in terms of gaming or visitation. How does that, how do you set the scene on that? Sure, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, some of the companies choose to not give in-quarter commentary. Las Vegas Sands, for instance, reported earnings. Last week, the stock popped about 10% on that print, and it's kind of came back down. Now, they're one of the companies that are somewhat hesitant

in terms of giving in-quarter numbers. What we've heard so far is Chinese New Year was just elongated. Generally, there's this pause before Chinese New Year, and then after Chinese New Year, it's kind of the hangover, right? But what we've seen now, it's kind of a multi-week or multi-day period where it's not as much kind of a peak in Valley. It's been a little bit more consistent. And I think that's positive for just the breadth of the market in China. Obviously, there's a number of things that could stimulate that market. We're looking for about 8% growth in Macau for 2025. That compares to, you know, U.S. markets that are going to be somewhere between flat and 2%. the Macau is probably the one that can dial up the most.

What we have seen is the stock prices for the Macau-facing casinos hovering about the same levels that they were around the pandemic. They just have not bounced since then. I want to move to the sports books because the other thing that you heard on the Draft King's call was a question about events contracts. Sportico got some really interesting information from Kalshi talking about the massive increase that it saw in action. during the game. If CalShe and Crypto.com going through the CFTC can offer what is essentially sports betting, but do it without paying the sort of extravagant billions that we've seen from the sports books in terms of lobbying, licensing, legalization, making sure that regulations are up to date, state taxes, which are going up, if they can do all of that, how big of a competitive

juggernaut are these events contracts for the likes of Draft Kings and Fandoul? It's a great question. It's the million dollar question. You know, we always have to remember that the gaming operators paid to have the rights to operate in that state, right? Everyone isn't valid to offer a sports bet there. So that's something that Draft Kings worked really hard for to have that opportunity to offer a contract there. Now, the contracts that you're talking about, they're very different than what we see with regular sports betting here.

We still believe that the gambling industries will try to push down some of these new competitors here. They've done it with things like sweepstakes. They've done it with the underground market. When items like this pop up, they take their time and then they'll voice their opinion, but we do think it could be a small threat but something that these companies just don't have the tech or the license to really impede on Draft King's growth for $25 or 26.

Chad, it's good of you to join us on casinos today. I look forward to talking to you more about the hotel business coming up, which I've just newly acquired. Appreciate that. But you know, it's interesting. The Circa owner told me, he said, look, if that's going to be approved, if the CFTs. I know you did. In Detroit, randomly. Derek Stevens.

Yes, nice guy. He met him and his wife. dinner. Owned circus sports. Detroit. To the more important point is that he says, if it's going to be legal, he's going to get into that business of events contracts. And then it will lower...

What does that mean? I don't know what that means. Events contracts. It's the predictions markets. It's the poly markets, which is not supposed to accept trades from the U.S. And you hate when we call that a betting market. I absolutely... You can't say. Whenever we say that on the air, folks, you get a nasty email from contestant.

Listen, they go... They went in. front of federal court and said it is not gambling. They argued that it wasn't gambling. Go to front of a federal court and say anything. Yeah. All right. Anyway, I'm done with that.

I got a buddy. You've buddyed me earlier too, you a pal. All right. Up next, thanks. A special Valentine's edition of stocks to love or leave. Hmm. Hmm. Welcome back to Power Lunch.

Stocks right now, as you can see, a mixed board, but not a lot of movement here. You've got the Dow off by a third of a percent, S&P flat, and then as that composite up. It was selling that percent. Well, you know, like there's bigger things moving in our world today than the overall markets. You're right, pal. Should we get a check on the bond market now after this morning, surprising retail sales

data. And with us, Rick Santelli. Hello, Rick. Hi, Contessa, indeed. You know, it was a wild week. Core retail sales is just a pinnacle. We had hot inflation, but yet yields went down. Research showing that many believe at the end of the month are read on the PCE's.

is going to be coming in lower. It's been a driving force. Look at core retail sales. That chart goes back two years. We're on pace for the smallest core retail sales since March of 23. And twos and tens, as you see, responded rather dramatically. Now, if you open the chart up to a week, this is very interesting. We are now down on the week, only several basis points in treasury yields,

so we want to very much monitor 4.5% in a 10. That would be an important threshold. And the other big event this week is after that phone call between Putin and Trump, the dollar index really hasn't looked back. It's been moving lower. As a matter of fact, right now it's on pace for its first close since mid-December below 107. So the lowest close of 2025. Contessa, back to you and happy Valentine's Day.

Thank you, Rick Santelli, my friend. I appreciate that. Notice I did not say, pal. All right, let's get to Bertha Coombs for a CNBC News Update now. Bertha. Thanks, Contessa. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said this afternoon she welcomes Elon Musk's Doge initiative to help assess the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program, also known as SNAP or EBT. The program provides food assistance to low-income Americans. Rollins, who was sworn into the job yesterday, said today, outside of the White House that Doge would investigate whether we are giving people a, quote, hand up or hand out.

German authorities say they're investigating a possible Islamist extremist motive for a car attack yesterday in Munich. Police say a 24-year-old Afghan native drove his car into a labor protest injuring nearly 40 people. They've not found evidence that he is linked to any radical networks. And the Vatican gave an update on the Pope's help this afternoon, saying the 88-year-old has a slight fever and started hospital drug therapy but is in stable condition. Pope Francis has been suffering from bronchitis for more than a week. The Vatican says he will skip several planned public events over the next three days as he recovers. We wish him a very speedy recovery.

Back over to you, Brian. Best to the Pope. Bertha, thank you. All right, coming up, how to give your love some solid returns this Valentine's Denny. All right, welcome back. time for a special Valentine's Day edition of three stock lunch where we're giving a second chance, we all deserve one, to three former beaten down stocks and ask our friend, Tim Seymour, whether he loves them or he's going to leave them. Let's have a little bit of fun. Joining us again, Tim Seymour, CIO at Seymour Asset Management and CBC contributor.

Good to be here, pal. Thanks, thank, thanks, Chief. Let's talk about Intel. Shares have been destroyed over the last years, but this week, of 25% what your love of leaving. Let me come in. In the past, I have absolutely had a romantic attachment here. I am leaving Intel. I feel almost betrayed by this one. I mean, this is a story. I understand the news flow over the week. Some headlines around TSM. We certainly know the administration wants, you know, made chips in the USA. The reality is, this is a rudderless ship. This is, we need a CEO. We need a plan. I get the fact that there will be, there should be, there could be a manufacturing relationship with Taiwan on semi. You could have their wafers and their fabs. And this is probably how this works out.

This feels like that move we had on the Qualcomm news back in the fall. I think you're fading this one. And again, I'm afraid. I'm sorry, Intel, I'm leaving you. We need a sound effect. Www, wah, wah, wah. Next up we have CVS health. shares fell more than 43% last year. But the stock is off to a hot start in 2025. It's up nearly 50% this year. And more than 20% this week following the company's strong Q4 earnings report. Tim. I love it. Leave it. Yeah, this is, I'll tell you what, this is kind of a reluctant love affair, not that I've ever had one. But, I mean, I think this is a story where this has been a disaster.

This has been a disaster for probably two or three years and also with its sidekick Walgreens, too. But we just got numbers. I think he probably said a bottom in these numbers. I think the floor's in. I think there's a margin story. I think they've right-sized the business. I think they've had a change in the C-suite. I think Mr. Joyner really is focusing on some of the margin ability out of that, Etna,

insurance business. I think this is actually a turnaround story that I think you can truly love them on. Boeing. That's a stock we've talked, you've talked about on fast money for years. It's also been a disaster. But in the last three months, rather quietly, Boeing has actually been one of the better performers in the S&P 500. Love or leave Boeing. Buddy, I tell you what, you have to be patient in love. And I love this one. And I can't quit this one either. I mean, this is a case where I can't quit you. Look, I can't quit Boeing. And it's the wrong time to quit Boeing.

If you think about it, it's been a cash flow burn story over the last couple years. We know the story there. There will be a major change in 737 production. It's not about demand. I think if you go from 20 to even 30, this is going to be free cash flow positive in 26. 25 will be a year of kind of getting to that place by the end of the year. Then I think this is really a free cash flow machine as you look at in the future. What I hear you saying is that Boeing had you at hello.

Boeing's, look, there's a lot to love there. I mean, there's a lot to be drawn to. And let's just. Well, they only have one other competitor. Well, real competitive. I mean, there's regional jets. Bombardier, I get it. You've got Embrae in Brazil.

But as far as the big long-haul jets right now, it's two games. Yes, but duopoly's not been the reason to own Boeing for the last two years. I mean, the reality is Boeing's got to get their own house in order. I think they've done that. This is a safety dynamic. It's not. The re-rating thing, it's all about free cash flow. This company is burned cash.

It's made no money. And I think that's about to change. You're saying to the air supply, not the hollow notes. I got it. I didn't say that. I'm all out of love, Brian. I'm so lost without you right now. Tim, thank you very much.

Tim Seymour Asset. Thank you. I believe we did that. It was great. Power lunch will be right. I mean, we loved it. We hope you did too. We'll be right back.

Well, we got to look at Tempus AI. Now, Tempus AI is up another 7.5%. Who is? Tempest AI. Well, this is a stock that we first noticed back in mid-January jumped 35% in one day the day they released an AI-powered health app. But they also disclosed, or it was disclosed, that Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House and her husband, own options in the stock. It was revealed by the Pelosi Camp. They have 50 call options to buy Tempice AI at 20 bucks a share. Tempice AI is now at $89.95.

It is nearly tripled in the last month. No idea if they still hold the options or what, but if they do, congrats. They have made a ton, ton of money. Congrats to the Pelosi clan. Now they can 4D. Okay. I don't have anything to say about that. There we go.

All right. Now, otherwise, start your engines. Because this weekend, I'll be doing nothing but sitting on the couch and watching the Daytona 500. The president, you think I'm kidding. The president of NASCAR is your guest to talk about all of it and more. Next. President Donald Trump speaking in the Oval Office at this hour and Megan Kisela joins us now with the key takeaways. Hi, Megan. Contessa, that's right. President Trump is currently speaking with reporters.

It's ongoing now in the Oval Office, but we are starting to get some headlines to bring to you guys. The first topic, the main one that President Trump appears to have been talking about is energy. On the energy front, he just signed an LNG export license, according to an AvalonG export license, according to an This is coming from the wires. He's in there in the Oval Office with both Doug Bergen, the Interior Secretary and Chris Wright, the Energy Secretary, and he's saying that they're going to be opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and taking a bunch of measures that he says will lower energy prices. It also includes working on a pipeline held up by New York, Trump says, that will help bring

down prices. And he says that he will be unbanning offshore drilling on 625 million acres offshore. All of this is something that, again, is supposed to bring down energy costs. Trump has been clear that he wants interest rates to follow once energy prices begin to fall. But a couple other topics moving on from that as well. He's been speaking again about U.S. Steel and this Nippon arrangement that he started speaking about last week. Trump says now that he wouldn't mind a minority stake by Nippon in U.S. steel.

And he says Nippon is looking at an investment that could include debt in that company. He also says U.S. Steel after this will be a real powerhouse. Again, that's coming from the president. And then just one final point. Tariffs, once again, his favorite word, and he says that auto tariffs are coming around April 2nd. For anyone trying to keep track of this timeline, April 2nd is now also the date that we could expect to see some reciprocal tariffs taking place after those studies are done that we spoke about yesterday. So auto tariffs add those to the list. Could be the next round that you see, guys. Back over to you.

Okay, Megan Kisela, thanks for bringing us the big headlines there. We'll continue to follow the impact on the companies that might have exposure to those decisions that the president is making, especially the ones. I know it was anticipated, but the ones about energy. I spoke with the Secretary of Energy exclusively last week or whatever it was. And the ANWR thing was filed in 2017. So we'll say ANWR is the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. See if that matters at all. And LNG licenses, we kind of expected that.

We want to sell more oil and gas around the world. See what happens. Yeah. Coming up, we're talking NASCAR ahead of the Daytona 500. You won't want to miss this. All right. So NASCAR in a big way is, we had the clash, but this is the big race. Sunday is the 67th running of the Daytona 500.

It is the 10th straight sellout and NASCAR coming off a record-breaking year. Here now ahead of the big race, Steve Phelps, he is the president of NASCAR. You got record revenues, you get record payouts, you got a race in Mexico, you got the Netflix special, Steve. I love it all. Who's going to win the Daytona 500? Brian is I can't tell you that because I don't know. What I do like about the Daytona 500, as much as any race we have, every entrant and we'll have 41 this year has a chance to win the Great American race. And I think that makes it really special. It's amazing racing, as you know. I know you'll be watching, Brian, Contessa, I'm sure to be watching as well. I will be watching. You know I'll be watching and maybe even wagering on it. I got to ask you as my first question, like how much is betting increasing engagement of your, of your family?

base? Well, I think betting is a good thing for our sport because I think it makes it stickier, right? So if someone has a stake in the game, if you will, or in the race, and whether they're betting live or they're betting ahead of time, I think just that having skin in the game really allows someone to feel part of it. And I think that's what sports betting does. I think it's no different in NASCAR than it is any other sport. Brian just mentioned that. you have a big race coming up in Mexico. I've noticed, I mean, you've got the NFL expanding internationally, the NBA expanding internationally. Is that the trajectory of growth for the big sports in the United States to start to grow outside of the United States?

Well, it seems that's happening, Contessa. I do think you're going south of the border to Mexico for us in mid-June. It's a really important thing for us. So our cup race will be there. Our Spinity Race will be there. One of our racers was won a couple times in our top series, Daniel Suarez, is from Mexico. So it's a great homecoming for him, but it's bigger than that for us as a sport to go outside of our borders. I think that's an important thing for us. We're hoping that it'll be the first of many outside of the U.S. I'm not suggesting we're not going to become a majority of the race as raced outside of our country. You know, outside of our race. our borders, but it's important that we do that. I think we need global expansion as a sport,

as other sports are looking at as well. So we're excited about what Mexico City can do for us, but it's just one piece of our international strategy. Well, it's not just expansion of physical locations, also media. You've got the first half, called first, third, whatever, Steve, the season, including this race, is on Fox. Then you go to Amazon Prime, then you go to TNT, and then you go to us on NBC. Shout out to my good friend, Lee Diffey and the other broadcasters there. Do you worry at all, though, about that fan that it struggles to find the race, kind of like football. We're like, where's the race this weekend? Oh, it's on Amazon Prime. I don't have that. How much is too much? Yeah, I think for us, it was an important, this is the first year of a seven-year deal

with those four media partners, as well as the CW, which has the full season of Xfinity. I'm excited about it because you think about Fox and NBC and they split the season last year. So we're adding Amazon Prime and Turner Sports. I think it's important to do that because of the distribution. So we wanted a peer streamer. We thought Amazon was the right peer streamer to go with. And then Turner Sports has a mix with TNT and Max. We think that's a good thing as well.

Then obviously having broadcast television in both. the Fox portion of the season and the NBC portion of the season plus cable as well. I think it's a nice mix for our fans. And I do think because we have so many media partners now, it'll be unprecedented promotional support for the sport. And we've seen that heading into the 500. And that part's really, I think you can't overstate that. It's really important to have people find us, watch us, and participate. And that's exactly what we think is. going to happen. What's happening with ticket prices? Our ticket prices are up just slightly. We have a new ticketing partner, which is Ticketmaster. We're excited about what they can do from a data perspective.

So they're up a little bit. We've kind of held prices, frankly, since the pandemic. So NASCAR ticket prices are slightly higher than they were in 2020, but not by much. Well, look forward to. I love to see Suarez, by the way, win this weekend, not just. at the Autodromo Hermannos Rodriguez. Steve Phelps, President of Ascar, thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Fun way to end. Mui bien.

Denada. Thank you for watching Power Lunch. Closing bell starts right now. Now.