Power Lunch - Power Lunch 3/1/23

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

NBC’s Tyler Mathisen, Melissa Lee and Kelly Evans take you through the heart of the business day bringing you the latest developments and instant analysis on the stocks and stories driving the day��s agenda. “Power Lunch” delves into the economy, markets, politics, real estate, media, technology and more. The show sits at the intersection of power and money. “Power Lunch” gives viewers a full plate of CNBC’s award-winning business news coverage, plus a healthy dose of personality from the show’s anchors and the network’s top-notch roster of reporters and digital journalists. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome everybody to Power Lunch. I'm Tyler Matheson. Glad you could join us. I'm alongside Kelly Evans, as usual. Coming up, a busy day on the roads. Tesla's Investor Day, Rivian tumbling after results. And we've got new auto sales numbers. We'll talk to the CEO of Car Gurus about sales trends as that stock is jumping. Plus, big decisions from the FDA and biotech stocks making big moves as a result. We'll talk to the company, a CEO of a company whose drug got rejected, but the stock isn't sinking. But first to check on the markets, which are right now, we're read across the board. The Dow in negative territory by 47. NASDAQ, the worst performer, down three-fifths of a percent on higher interest rates. And for more on the day's big movers, let's bring in Dominic Chu and Christina parts of nevelas.

Dom, you go first. All right. So let's take a look at two stocks and focus right now moving in opposite directions. Shares of 3M right now among the best performers in both the Dow and the S&P 500. This is the industrial giant note from everything from Scotch tape to Post-it notes to commercial. adhesives and coatings. It's getting some help with some incremental developments in a big legal battle it's currently engaged in. In this case, a class action lawsuit where past users of certain 3M earplug products are suing alleging hearing loss while using firearm products.

Today, 3M says that U.S. Defense Department records show that the quote unquote vast majority of claimants demonstrate normal hearing under accepted standards. Now, there's more likely to come in this scenario, but that's what we got here with the shares climbing. So those shares up 2.5%. We're also looking at the worst performing stock in the S&P today. That's Lowe's after America's second biggest home improvement retailer posted mixed quarterly results. There seems to be more emphasis on the decline in sales at established store locations as well as on what's being viewed as more disappointing forecast for that so-called same store sales metric. Also a full-year sales projection that fell below some analyst estimates. So those low shares

currently down about 7% in trading right now. So now let's turn over to Christina Parts Nevelas. you see in from the NASDAQ? Well, Dom, I have a theme today, and it's all about direct-to-consumer brands. Shares of direct-to-consumer healthcare brand. Figgs are plunging almost 25% and, look at 24% lower today on a softer sales outlook, even though previous quarter earnings and revenues top estimates. Also, it appears some direct-to-consumer brands just can't resist opening brick-and-mortar stores. Figgs will open its first store in L.A. in Q3 of this year. Speaking of that, trend, Warby Parker shares are lower as investors continue to digest its quarterly results from yesterday morning. Analysts at Citigroup, Baird, and Telsie all cut

their price targets for the eyeglass retailer. Cities was actually the harshest, I should say, went from a target of $26 a share to $13 the share. The stock is down over 6% today. Lastly, Hymns, or is the brand you know, Hems and Hers, is worth a mention. The direct-to-consumer health care brands still higher today after soaring over 20% yesterday on a narrower than unexpected loss and a very upbeat revenue guidance. This stock is on track to close at a new high. It's up 1.5% right now. Guys. All right, Christina, thank you very much. Christina Parts in Avelas. We begin with several pieces of news in the automobile sector, starting with the event that everyone is waiting for, and that is

Tesla's Investor Day. Phil LeBow joins us now live. Phil, what do we expect to hear this evening from Tesla and Elon Musk? Well, it's Elon's vision for the future. That's what we're expecting to here, Tyler. And some of this is going to be nuts and bolts in terms of what investors want to hear regarding costs, et cetera, and driving deliveries. But overall, when you look at the event today, a couple of things stand out. One, we will hear about master plan number three. Remember, he's had two previous master plans that explain the creation of Tesla, then the growth of Tesla. This is really Tesla going full boat in terms of mass production, really growing the deliveries. Will there be a lower priced model that he refers to? I don't think he's going to show us a lower

a price model, but he may say, look, this is our plan over the next couple of years. And then finally, the focus, as I mentioned, it's going to be on lower costs and higher deliveries. Their market share is a little, basically two-thirds of all EVs in the U.S. are Tesla right now. Now, that's going to come down simply because more EVs are going to be rolling out over the next couple of years. But Tesla does want to increase its deliveries here in the United States, and as part of that, it's going to be focusing on increasing sales, particularly on the lower end of the market. And, and And to that end, we heard yesterday from the President of Mexico that there is a plant that will be announced that Tesla will build in Monterey, Mexico. How big is the plant?

Other details? We didn't get any of that yesterday from the President of Mexico. He says Elon will be talking about that today. Tesla is known at these kind of events for some, and Musk is, for some surprises. Could be a plant. Is there a possibility of a stock buyback? I don't think so. I mean, it's possible, but that's low on the total.

poll in terms of expectations. And what they need most, it seems to me, as a casual observer, is a new model car, number one, probably a lower price one, and number two, they need to get their truck in the game. Well, the cyber truck goes into production later this year, but they really don't ramp up deliveries until next year. And remember, the interesting thing there is, yes, it's a pickup truck, but it doesn't look like any other pickup truck that's out there. It's a lifestyle pickup truck. Will it do well in Southern California in the L.A. area? You bet. Other urban areas? Absolutely. How will it do, let's say in Kansas City, Wichita, might be a little bit tougher.

All right. Yeah, you got that right. Well, and it comes on a tough day with Rivian stock falling fill, and let's turn to that. I think the last check was down 17%. Delivery guidance didn't meet expectations. You know, there's a couple of things to sort of unpack here. Does it actually point to Tesla's strength in this segment, or is it a bit of a warning for the whole? sector? I don't think it's a warning, nor is it an indication of Tesla's strength. You know what it is? It's all specific to Rivian. This is a startup. And when you look at the stock, yes, it's close to an all-time low here. And people are going to focus on the fact that their delivery cadence or guidance

for this year is going to be lower than some we're expecting. Coming in at about 50,000, that's how many vehicles they expect to deliver. Most thought they would say, hey, we're going to deliver 60,000 vehicles. But look, it's the supply chain. It's still challenging. RJ Scorange on the conference call last night was saying, look, you know, we still have some problems here. We are just not at the level of success in terms of ramping up our manufacturing that we're shooting for. That's why they're going to have negative gross margins this year. Now, if you are a Rivian investor or a bull on Rivian, the good news is they are forecasting to be gross profit positive next year. is, can they get there? Ramping up manufacturing is tough guys, and that's what we heard from

Rivian yesterday. All right, let's move on to auto sales overall. It's the first of the month. We get those numbers. How do they look for February? Okay. I mean, look, it's a decent month, but keep in mind, it's a low volume month. January and February are the two lowest volume months of the year. Nobody in the industry, nobody takes what we see in January and February and says, this is what we'll see for the whole year. The sales volume, is going to be about, what, 14.2 to 14.4 million. There you see some of the numbers from Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda. And again, these are in comparison to February of last year. And because it's such a low-volume month, nobody really reads too much into them. We will hear from Ford

tomorrow. And at the end of the day, what you're looking at here is whether or not we see steady increase in demand and sales. And oh, by the way, what's happening with inventory levels? This is where it starts to get a little trickier for the automakers. And what's the read-through, Phil, from AutoZone, Auto Nation, some of the auto-improvement stocks, those seem to be holding up relatively better than the home improvement names. Right. Well, look at what you have with the used car market. I mean, used cars have been red hot.

You have more people than ever who are driving a used car. A couple of years ago, and I have to get the updated data, but a couple of years ago, about 20% of all used vehicles in this country, were at least 16 years old. What does that say about the demand for AutoZone, any of the auto afterparts retailers? People want to keep those used cars running longer. So that's why we're seeing the continued success of those stocks and those retailers. That's a great point. All right, Phil, stick around. We appreciate it. All right, another key auto headline. We're watching shares of the automotive research and

shopping website, Car Gurus soaring on better than expected earnings. Let's bring in Jason Trebison. he's CEO of car gurus. Jason, welcome. How's business? And I guess pretty good because the earnings were good. Yes, thank you very much, Tyler. Yeah, we had earnings yesterday, and we're very pleased with the quarter. We have a very strong marketplace business.

We're the largest marketplace in the U.S. that helps consumers shop, finance, buy and sell cars. And it's a business that drives value to both consumers and dealers. And that had a very strong quarter. We're also innovating a lot in digital retail, which is a key theme in the sector. And happy to talk more about that. If I'm understanding some of the history of your company, it appears to me that your revenue is highly variable up and down. Can you walk me through that and correct me if I'm incorrect about it?

Sure. We think of our business in a couple different pieces. One piece is our core marketplace business, which is a subscription business with dealers, and it allows us to connect high-intent consumers with dealers who have cars that they want to purchase. That's a highly predictable, steadily growing business that's also nicely profitable. A couple of years ago, we acquired a business called Car Offer that is a digital wholesale business, and that's a transaction revenue model. And so that's going to be more variable than a subscription model. And on top of being a transaction model, the wholesale sector in particular has been highly dynamic in the last couple years as inventory has ebbed and flowed with supply chain issues. And so that's what's driving a lot of the revenue volatility that you mentioned.

Would you, Jason, ever move to a consumer delivery model like Carvana, which looked great a couple years ago and now has, now is struggling? So a big push for us is what I referenced digital retail. And the first step of digital retail, retail being when a dealer sells a car to a consumer, a big piece of that is moving more of the transaction online, but maybe not the entire transaction online. So today, only about one or two percent of consumers want to do the entire car purchase online and have it delivered. In fact, about 70 percent of consumers want to do more of the transaction online, but then go into the deal. So we have products today that allow a consumer to shop on our site. They can get a trade in valuation.

They can buy other finance products from the dealer. They can put down a deposit. They can set up an appointment and then go into the dealership and spend an hour completing the purchase rather than four or five hours. That's been a huge success among consumers and dealers. We're also innovating on ways to help dealers deliver cars to consumers, because while it's only 2% today who want it delivered, we certainly I think that's going to continue to grow.

What is the mix, Jason, right now, between new and used cars that you're selling, and how does that compare with pre-pandemic? So on our site, we have the largest inventory of any marketplace, so that includes both used and new. We have, there are about twice as many used car sales in a given year than new. On our site, we add a lot of value to the consumer when they're shopping for a used car, because there's so many more unknowns, how that car should be priced, what condition it's in, because it's a used piece of inventory. So about 90% of the leads that we deliver to dealers are from consumers who are looking for a used car. But if you're shopping across new or used, and a lot of consumers are because they're not sure if they want to buy new or used, you can come to our marketplace and see both. I want to bring in Phil LeBoe for a question,

but before I do that, let me ask this to you very quickly. Do you put used car sellers together with used car buyers one to one? In other words, facilitate that transaction? We do. So we offer, as I said, a value proposition to consumers that is shop, finance, buy, and sell. So on the buy and sell piece, a consumer could buy a car from a dealer. That's what we call a retail transaction. They could also buy a car from another consumer. So that's a peer-to-peer platform that we offer. And it's a great way to find cars that are very well priced. They just don't have the benefit of having a dealer involved. And there's more elements that the two consumers need to figure out themselves. We also have the opportunity for consumers to sell cars. So you can come to

our site today and enter your license plate or your VIN, answer a few questions on your car, and we'll give you a real-time cash offer on your car. Come pick up. up from your house and wire you the money that day. All right. Phil LeBoe, you have a question. Jason, I'm curious as we've seen auto loan interest rates rise over the last year, how much is that slowed down demand in your opinion? Or do you look at this and say people simply trade down?

They were going to buy an X percent or X-priced vehicle. The interest rate makes them move down a little bit. Great question, Phil. I think it's done both. So we see that car volumes, used car volumes are in fact down from where they're were a year ago. No, 2021 was a very active year and used sales, but they're down year over year. We're also seeing a shift on our site of consumers searching for and shopping for lower-priced cars. $30,000 seems to be a trigger point where consumers seem to be more interested in cars under

$30,000 than over $30,000 than they were before. And when you look at interest rates and you think about the monthly payment on a $30,000,000, car with rates where they are, it's getting to be numbers that are just too significant for a lot of people. All right. Thank you very much. Phil LeBow. We appreciate it. Jason Treveson. We thank you as well. I'm wondering, could you sell your neighbor's car to use the VIN. Anyway, coming up, stocks, making some big moves on the back of FDA decisions. And one stock that isn't moving despite what seems like a big setback, we will explain all of it. And bond yields, those are jumping to the 10-year yield briefly topping 4% today for the first time since November. We will check in with a fired up Rick Santelli

coming up on Power Lunch. A busy day for the FDA. The regulator making some key decisions affecting three biotechs, declining cytokinetics, heart drug, approving Riatas neurological drug, and Cyrepta allowed to move ahead with its gene therapy treatment. Meg Terrell, who can pronounce those names a lot better than I can, has more, Meg. Well, Tyler, start with Riata, this is just a huge move for this company. And this biotech stock was actually down leading into this approval that it got yesterday after the market for a rare disease known as Friedrichsotaxia. Now, there was a lot of debate around whether this drug would get approved. There were some questions raised around the efficacy of this drug.

It got the approval. Analysts are saying it's a broader indication than perhaps they expected. And the company priced this drug at $370,000 a year, which was a lot more than Barclays had been estimating $17,000. Though they do note it is expected to be discounted, potentially. quite a bit. So that stock almost up 200% on that news. Now, Surrepta up 19%. That's a much bigger company. They were told by the FDA that the agency is not going to hold an advisory committee meeting for their Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy gene therapy. Now, that is something that investors are interpreting to mean the FDA is pretty positive on potentially approving that drug, which could be more than a $4 billion product for

the company. So that driving that stock up, the decision expected in May. Finally, cytokinetics getting a negative decision from the FDA yesterday on their lead drug for heart failure. However, investors had been kind of split on this one, maybe even rooting for this one not to get approved because they're much more excited about the company's second pipeline drug for another heart condition. The FDA asking for another trial, cytokinetics saying it's not going to run one. It's focused on the next drug in the pipeline, guys. Meg, real quickly, we also, is Glaxo making some progress on this RSV vaccine? Yeah, we've been watching the FDA Advisory Committee on. on its RSV vaccine today.

This is after Pfizer's vaccine for RSV went in front of this committee yesterday, got a positive vote, but it seemed a little bit equivocal, not a total home run. It was seven to four in favor. GSK is getting the vote today, and so far it looked a little bit more positive than Pfizer's, but both looking like they're getting positive endorsements here. All right, very interesting, Meg, stick around.

Let's bring in Robert Bloom. He is CEO of cytokinetics, the firm you just mentioned. Robert, it's great to have you here. And maybe you can explain why, as stat news put it, the market was kind of rooting for you, not to get approval because they think in this case the business and science of the drug are not aligned. Good afternoon. Thanks very much for having me. So as it relates to your question, we did know coming out of the FDA review that there was a possibility that the FDA may reject the application,

and they did. And investors have been very clear that they would like to see us focusing to the second drug in our pipeline, a drug that is being developed for a different heart condition, a genetic one that follows behind a drug that we had a hand in discovering that led previously to the acquisition of a company that we spun out. That company was acquired by Bristamars Squibb for $13 billion. We have a next in-class drug behind the one that we helped discover that led to that acquisition. And we truly do understand that investors are more bullish, more optimistic on that drug for that condition. And we'll be presenting as soon as this weekend data from clinical studies of that second drug, as well as a pivotal clinical trial data set for that second drug later

this year. So I do think investors are far more optimistic about what that could mean for shareholder value. So, so as I'm understanding it, this second drug holds promise and has you optimistic. So what do you do then with the first drug that that did not meet the hurdle? So the first drug, which is a drug for the potential treatment of heart failure, still a very important epidemic in our country, was rejected by FDA despite a positive phase three study. and the FDA told us in a letter we received yesterday that they'd like to see us do another trial to confirm the effects we saw in the first trial.

We are not planning to do a second trial and instead will seek feedback from FDA about what they would be expecting from us and at the same time, we're going to be seeking approval for that drug outside the United States with other regulatory authorities. We are doubling down on our second drug. We recognize that's the most important priority for the company.

And as we'll be elaborating with our Q4 earnings call in a couple of hours, that's going to be the priority emphasis of our investment spending and expected near-term milestones. Meg, jump in. Robert, it's, thank you, Tyler. It's Meg Terrell. You know, thinking about this first drug you've got, you know, you had a positive phase three study. Maybe the benefit was considered margin. But I guess the question is, would this actually help patients if it got on the market

and understanding that there are limited resources for biotech companies of your size? What happens to this drug? I mean, is it an opportunity cost that here in the United States, it's possible. Patients just won't get access to something like this. Yeah, so Meg, you and I have known each other for a long time. And as you know, we've been working on that heart failure drug for over 15 years in clinical trials, over 30 clinical studies, including a positive phase three study, and that phase three study was conducted in over 8,000 patients in 35 countries.

It met its objective, but FDA determined that that alone was not sufficient. We do believe, and heart failure experts have weighed in on this through articles and editorials and also in social media, we do believe that this heart failure drug was deserving of approval. plays a role in the treatment of patients who largely cannot take existing standard of care therapies because of safety or other issues. And the efficacy of this drug in that clinical trial proved to be on top of standard of care. So we'll try to understand best what FDA is seeking to communicate to us. And in the meantime, we'll seek approval outside the United States. and as I mentioned before, we'll double down on what are the other drugs in our pipeline,

including the one for HCM, a genetic disease, a different heart condition. Right. And of course, that is the similar drug to the one you mentioned before that was acquired for $13 billion by Bristol-Myers Squibb. So I guess the question is, Robert, are you having M&A conversations with any big potential acquirers yourself? So obviously, I can't be commenting on something like that in a, forum such as this, what I will say is we're prosecuting this program emphasizing where the science can translate to potential new medicines for patients. That's what we can control. That's what we're all about. And as CEO, that's what I need to make sure our company is doing well.

Robert, thank you so much for being with us today. Mr. Blum, we thank you. And Meg Terrell, as always, great to see you. Thank you as well. For the head on the program, closing the gap, CNBC releasing its Women at Work survey with momentum. The results showing this stunning weight of economic and social issues driving women at the VP level and above to leave their jobs more than ever before. We'll explain why when we return. Welcome back to Power Lunch, everybody. A little more than 90 minutes remain in the trading day. Let's get you caught up on stocks, bonds, commodities, whatever else there is.

And we'll begin with Bob Bizani at the New York Stock Exchange. Hey, Bob. Hey, Tyler, we are starting March like February ended, which is not good. These ISM numbers for February, not helpful. We're showing higher prices pay. We've got to get these inflation numbers down. The market's going to have trouble advancing without it. Let's look at the S&P 500. We're at very critical support level. The 200-day moving average is 3940. Yes, that's important because we've been above that average for months now. Both of them say, well, we still have positive momentum. We're above the 200 day. We drop below that. You have a lot. lot less technical support for the market. And again, that's very worrisome. So here's the problem with stocks. There's two problems. There's a technical problem. We don't have any momentum. No sectors, not technology, energy, whatever. Consumer staples are actually showing any positive momentum. So a lot of people are on the sidelines. The other is a fundamental problem. The earnings are in trouble right now, especially amid the higher interest rates that we're seeing. So remember, we've seen earnings come down for the last several months. They're about one and a half percent

for the S&P this year. That's pretty measly. But it only started with, expectations to be up about 5% for the year beginning on December 1st. Here's the problem. This is a very slow descent down, but it's based on the soft landing idea. It's based on the idea, and this is the scenario right now, that we're going to have lower inflation and moderating rates, and that's going to mean we'll have stable earnings in the second half of the year. But wait a minute, that may be wrong.

We may have higher inflation and higher rates. If that's the case, forget about it. We're going to have lower earnings in the second half of the year, and this is what the stock market is grappling with right now, why we can't get any traction at all. The Bulls say, cheer up, Bob. We're still up year to date, 2.9%. Okay, that's true. February was lousy. By the way, Kelly, the 60-40 stock bond portfolio up 2.7% this year. Back to you. They'll take it. Bob, thank you very much.

Now let's get to Rick Santelli in Chicago where the 10-year yield giving us some headlines, Rick, up of 4%. Yes, it's all about tens, tens, tens today. Look at an intradate chart. Basically, we're coming back for a second bite of that 4% level. But really, it's taken quite a while. Let's look at a two-week chart. We've been very slow trying to climb up on the longer dated treasuries.

Just consider this. That's a two-week chart. Just in one week alone, the Tuesday 10 spread is basically gone from minus 77 to minus 90, which means two years outpaced 10 years on yields to the upside by 13 basis points. Now, as you look at the last time we closed at 4%, it was the 9th of November. But if you zoom back farther, the more important area is in October, October 24th, to be exact, where we closed at 4.24. Because getting closer to that's important. Kelly talked earlier.

She's hearing a lot about stagflation. Well, of course, it makes sense. We're moving much more slowly upward and yield on the long end, as evident by the spreads, and the inflationary pressures are giving way to. the slowness in the economy. That tug of war is stagflation. And finally, October Fed Fund Futures is the new fulcrum at 94-53-5, another new low contract close. And that's six basis points lower than yesterday's as Tews and Fed funds are running hand in hand. Kelly, back to you. Rick, thank you very much, Rick Santelli. Now, oil's slightly lower again today. After inventory

data. It's been persistently working for the bears. Pippa Stevens joins us now. Yep, and we saw another week of builds, the 11th straight week of a U.S. inventory build with the stockpiles now at the highest since May of 2021. And part of this is thanks to refinery maintenance that does bring down utilization rates, which then ultimately impacts demand for crude, trading a little bit higher now, but kind of in quite a tight range today. The headlines are all about first solar. Wow, what a move there. Yeah, it is surging at the highest since May of 2009, and this follows their Q4 report. They beat estimates on both the top and bottom line, but I really think it's the guidance here that's driving the stock to, yeah,

up 14% right now. They see full year 2023 EPS now between $7 and $8. That was against forecasts of 475. Wow. And a lot of that momentum is directly because of the IRA and those tax credits. And right now, First Solar is basically the only domestic manufacturer of panels at any type of scale. So they are the clear winner in this post-IRA push, but the stock is up 150% in the last year. So you got to wonder, is it a little bit stretched? Yeah, well, at least it's defied the narrative of everything else, which was peak in late 2021 and then collapse 70%. You know, this is a better narrative. Pippa, thanks very much. Pippa Stevens. Thank you very much. Let's get to Dominic Chu. Meantime for a CNBC News update. All right, good afternoon, Tyler.

Good afternoon, Kelly. Police in Tel Aviv fired stun grenades and arrested protesters participating and what opponents of a planned judicial overhaul called a nationwide day of disruption. Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is being tried on corruption charges, says judges have become too powerful. Opponents say that if he succeeds in limiting the Supreme Court's ability to strike down legislation, the country will no longer be a democracy. Democratic Senator John Tester says he will join Joe Manchin and vote for a GOP resolution that would reverse a Biden administration rule,

allowing employee retirement plans to consider environmental, social, and corporate governance, ESG factors when evaluating investments. That makes its passage more likely in a vote later on today, but President Biden is promising a veto. And sticking with politics, Vice President Harris cast her 29th, 29th tiebreaking vote today, allowing the Senate to confirm a judicial nominee. She is now tied with John Adams for the second largest number of tie-briking. breaks settled in the country's history as vice president. It begs the question. Tyler Kelly, who is number one? That distinction goes to John C. Calhoun, who is vice president from 1825 to 1832,

under two different presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He cast 31 tie-breaking votes, guys. Back over to you. That is good trivia, Dom. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Ahead on Power Lunch, putting the Instacart before the horse. After missteps, delays, valuation cuts, Instacart gearing up for its IPO again. Will the company's debut open the door to other tech companies looking to go public? We will discuss that in today's tech check. All right, folks, time for today's tech check. And for that, we head out west to Deirdre Bosa.

Hi, Deirdre. Hey, Tyler. Hey, Kelly. Well, the IPO market remains shut, frozen shut, in fact. but signs that we could be inching toward a reopening. And the key, it may lie with one company, Instacart, a company that for the last few years has become almost synonymous with the IPO pipeline, will they or won't they?

This is a question that investors, and the company itself, has gone back and forth on for ages. Well, it seems that the financials are lining up, according to the journal, Revenue and Profits sort some 50 and 80% respectively in the fourth quarter. It was also gap profitable. So as good an IPO candidate as any, right? maybe financials is one piece of the puzzle. Market volatility, of course, is the other,

and that is certainly less clear. Here's what CEO Fiji-CMO told me a year ago. We want to be a public company at some point. The market conditions are obviously a factor, but given that we have a very strong business and not a need to raise a lot of money, these market conditions are not affecting us and affecting our timing particularly. Like I said, that was a year ago. and she could pretty much say the exact same thing today. Not much has changed. Instacart still may not need to raise a lot of money,

but its employees they would like to get paid, and that remains tricky when investors are still iffy on risky companies, especially in the gig economy space that were built during an era of low interest rates and growth at all cost mentality. While Instacart, one of the most valuable startups in the world, it once was it has now slashed its internal valuation several times. Its public comps, too, take a luck, DoorDash, Uber, Lyft.

they do not make a compelling case to go public here, still trading well under their IPO prices. Still, though, Instacart may try its luck, and it's likely to get out ahead of other candidates that we talk about Kelly and Tyler, like Stripe and Reddit, because it is at least releasing these financials in some form to its investors. So did I hear you, you're right, that if you were to compare it to some of its peer groups, it wouldn't compare particularly favorably? It would now. This is an internal valuation known as a 409A. So usually when you do a funding round, you get a new valuation. Instacart is taking this upon themselves and marking it down because it's looking at their public comps, DoorDash, Uber, Lyft. They've seen how much they've fallen in the public market.

So they say, okay, our previous high valuation in the private market, they can no longer justify that. What does your instinct tell you? Do you think they will go public over the next 12 months or not? What's your guess? I think they got to. They've already filed confidentially and then they pulled that. So we know that there is a real desire. We know that every time Fiji speaks to her workforce, it's a question that constantly comes up.

This is one of the oldest unicorns, Tyler. It's been private for more than 10 years. So it's got to go. They talk about it a lot. Like, Stripe is another unicorn that's been private forever, but they seem to be pushing it off more so than an Instacart. So we'll see if conditions work out for them. If they don't, they could do a direct listing.

They don't, like I said, need to raise capital. They just need to create a liquidity event. All right. We'll finally get an IPO headline. Yeah, maybe we'll find out. All right, Deirdre, thanks so much. Good to see you, as always. Let's get some breaking news on that Glaxo vaccine for RSV.

Now Meg Trell is back, Meg. Hey, Kelly, well, the FDA's panel of outside advisors on vaccines voting in favor of GSK's vaccine for older adults, 60 plus. The vote for the safety backing up this vaccine was 10 to 2, and the vote in terms of its effectiveness was unanimous. All 12 members of this committee voting positively on this. vaccine. The FDA itself is expected to make a decision both on GSK's RSV vaccine and Pfizer's RSV vaccine by May. Yesterday, they voted in favor of Pfizer's vaccine. That vote was seven to four with one abstention. With both of these vaccines, they have focused in on the safety, wondering whether there are some risks of something known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, as well as the safety of

co-administering RSV vaccines with flu or COVID vaccines. They want to see more data on all of that, and they just want to see more data. They're pointing out we're not in a COVID situation. where this is an emergency use authorization, this would be a full approval. So we'll see what the FDA does in May. But it's important to point out, GSK and Pfizer, while they're the frontrunners, they're not the only ones in this race. Moderna is also working on an RSV vaccine. It's a little bit further behind in terms of the regulatory process.

If you are seeing that stock down a little bit more than the others in the past couple days, there are some questions, of course, about its ongoing COVID revenue, but also perhaps what the market ends up looking like here in RSV in adults. Guys, back to you. Meg, real quickly, is there a reason why they're approving it for a adults, is that because they want to do adults first and then kids? I would assume most people want it for their kids, you know, to keep them safe. Yeah, absolutely. Well, they are starting in adults. And typically kids, unfortunately, do come later in the development process because you have to be

so careful with safety of testing things in children. And RSV is a particular case because a very long time ago, there was a safety risk with some old vaccines. They were testing in RSV and children. And so that's kind of a legacy that's stretched on in RSV. And so they're especially careful. But those are coming as well. Very good to know. Meg, thank you for everything. Meg Terrell. After the break, CNBC's annual Women at Work survey with momentum, finding women are under pressure and eager for better opportunities. We've got the results next. New results from CNBC's annual Women at Work Survey show women at the executive level are leaving jobs more than ever before.

Julia Borsden has more. Are they choosing to go Julia or being forced? Well, here's the thing, Kelly. Women are under pressure and they say they are eager for both. better opportunities. This is according to the new momentum CNBC Women at Work survey. It found that one third of women say they've either left their job in the past year or they are considering leaving their jobs. And nearly half of all women who have left their jobs say they did so for better work-life balance. Now, stress and the need for work-life balance are also key issues for the

women who are right now considering leaving their jobs. But the top reason women say they're considering leaving is actually higher pay. Over half, of the women surveyed, citing that as the key reason that they're thinking about leaving their jobs. Now, an uncertain economy may also be contributing to worker burnout. 27% of women say they've worked longer hours, 17% have delayed taking time off because of that uncertain economy. And with so much work and research on how women at the VP level and above have left their jobs in record numbers, according to that McKinsey and Lean In study, the results of this momentum CNBC study offer, offer key insight into why women are making those decisions. And Kelly, you can find a lot more on this

survey on CnBC.com. It's just funny because you sort of think from the premise that, you know, it's going to be about their families, it's going to be about this, but they're like, no, we're leaving for higher pay. Yeah, no, I mean, it's absolutely important to look at the additional factors that economic uncertainty are adding to the decisions that women are making right now. And often, it seems like leaving and going to another company is a better. way to get a higher salary rather than pushing for promotion internally. Anything else, Julia, you think employers should take away from this? Yeah, I think it's really interesting right now to look at the particular results of the

impact that the overturning of Roe v. Wade has had on women's decisions about what types of companies they want to work for. And interestingly, nearly a quarter of the women polled said that they, and nearly a quarter of women workers said they will not work in a state that dramatically limits abortion access. And what's really notable here, Kelly, is that younger women are even more likely to say that, and women earning $100,000 or more. So those high earners are more likely to say

that they will not work in a state that bans access to abortion. So that's certainly something that companies are keeping an eye on and thinking about as they think about how some of this new legislation is impacting their workforce. All right, Julia Borson, thank you.

Join Women and Wealth at CNBC Your Money event on April 11th to explore more ways. women can increase their income save for the future and make the most out of current opportunities. CNBCAdvents.com to register for that virtual event. Really interesting findings there across the board. Very interesting. All right, a sales force to be reckoned with. The company electing a slate of directors in its activist fight. We will trade that name and others in today's three-stock lunch. Welcome back. Time for today's three-stock lunch. And we're tracking three names around earnings.

Salesforce reports after the bell with Elliott nominating a slate of director. in their activists fight, and the stock still down 50% from the all-time highs. Best Buy is on deck for tomorrow morning with retailers painting a mixed picture this earning season, and they've slid 9% of the past month. And first solar, we mentioned it earlier, but this one already reported, and it was a smaller than expected loss, strong guidance. The share is surging 13%. Let's bring in Quintra, Jewel Financial founder and president to trade all three.

Quint, let's start with Salesforce. Are you a buyer here? I am not, Kelly, at all. The stock is still too rich. I mean, it's great that Ellie, it's involved. And you got folks like Daniel Loeb behind the name now. But we really have to see how they're going to turn this thing around. I mean, it's still trading rich 28 times forward, really only growing those EPS 18%. I want to see what they say about margins, cloud growth, all those things tonight. But until I really see an actual turnaround and how they're going to navigate the future, just not a stock that I want to be an owner of here. All right. By the way, everybody, Salesforce CEO, Mark Benioff will be on an exclusive interview with Jim Kramer tonight on Mad Money 6 p.m. Eastern after those earnings. All right. Let's move on. Quint to the next one, and that is Best Buy, which is out tomorrow. This is a tricky one because by all metrics, you would look at this and find it probably pretty attractive. But I'm going to call it a value trap, 12 times forward, decent balance sheet. The problem is, is that they're expected to,

earn about $6 a share this coming year, but $3.52 of that's going to dividends, which basically means they don't have all that much, less than a 50% payout or retention to, you know, turn the business around and keep reinvesting. And also, we're hearing from more and more retailers that the consumer is starting to soften a bit. So this is a name that even though it looks cheap and it has a decent balance sheet, it's still a no touch for me. All right. No touch. All right. So that's, I think, a no and a no. So what about first solar, Quinn? Does this one have you interested? So I really wish we would have done this yesterday because, I mean, I'm going to talk my book and people aren't going to believe me, but we are long for solar and have been long for a very

long time. And it's really nice to see this one shine. They obviously, as you mentioned, had a nice EPS beat. Revenues were in line. The guidance was strong. And I mean, they're set to earn almost $5 a share next year. They've got a strong book value. They've been an unbelievable compounder. This one from a technical perspective, breaking out of a decade-long base. So I think this name is a winner, is a new leader over time,

as is many of the solar names out there are very attracted to us. I would not chase it here, but look for a pullback. It will come, and that'll provide a better entry point. Quint Taitro, thank you, sir. We appreciate it. Thank you all.

Three-stock lunch. All right, a shocking number of people do get caught up in investment scams and other kinds of fraud. So how much money is it costing people like you? That's next on Power Lunch. We've all heard about these investment scans, new numbers out today showing just how much fraud is costing people, and Dom Chu is putting that under the microscope. It's a ton of money, Tyler Kelly. What it comes down to is this is new data from the Federal Trade Commission, so they track the number and the dollar amount of all the fraud claims in America right now. And this past year, it hit a Staggering, get this, $8.8 billion lost in terms of total fraud.

That's the dollar amount. That's up 44% from the same time in 2021. A lot more dollar amount here. Take a look at where the biggest types of scams are coming from. People are losing the most money when it comes to certain types of things. Investment-related fraud. You can see there, $3.8 billion dollars coming in with the biggest in terms of dollar losses. Also, imposter type scams or somebody tries to impersonate.

somebody else to try to get you to give them their money, that comes in at about $2.7 billion. But what's really curious about this, and I'll just show you a chart, the total number of instances of fraud across all different kinds actually dropped off last year. The dollar amount went up, but the number of cases went down. But check out this. We were on a pretty steady trajectory from 2001 through about 2015, 2017. Everything gets more over time. But look at what happened here at the very end. Can you figure out what that was? that was the COVID pandemic. That was when the most number of cases ticked up higher.

So keep an eye on what's happening there. And there are ways to prevent it. Just go over to our website, cnbc.com. We have some tips on how to avoid financial fraud and impossible. Or a lot of these cases of online fraud? They could be. And by the way, cryptocurrency and bank transfers, the way that most people lose that money.

And I wonder if Bangman Freed is even calculated in World Trade. True. Anyhow, Dom, thanks very much. And thank you for watching Powerline.