Power Lunch - Stocks start the week lower 5/2/26

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Guggenheim's Dina DiLorenzo joins the show with her outlook on markets. "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston joins and talks the state of Hollywood.   And is bitcoin starting to break out? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

are under pressure as the latest developments in the Middle East Spark worries about more instability in the region. Welcome to Power Lunch. I'm Kelly Evans. And we're down across the board, as you can see. The Dow is currently down 400 plus points, similar declines for the S&P and NASDAQ. After the Russell's hit an all-time high, I should say earlier on, but that's a distant memory now. We have a big lineup from the Milken Conference.

That's where Brian Sullivan is today. Joined by D. Lorenzo, President of Guggenheim Investments, Academy Award nominated actor and entrepreneur Brian Krant. Winston, Fortress Investment Group, co-CEO-CEO Drew McKnight, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Brian, on that note, over to you. Yeah, kind of a huge lineup there, very varied, which we love, and that's one of the reasons we love being out here in Los Angeles at the Milken Global Conference. Big lineup.

Let's jump right into it. It's a big market day. There's a lot of news out there, and let's get straight to business with your first guest, get her take on the economy, bonds, the markets, and more. Joining us for a first on CNBC interview is Dina D. Lorenzo. president at Guggenheim Investments, $359 billion in assets across multiple strategies, Dina. It's great to have you on.

Thanks for kicking off the show. Hey, Brian. So I think the biggest question I've gotten, and I'm guessing you've gotten as well from your clients, is why are the markets holding up so well when I don't want to call it a war necessarily yet, but there's still a lot of conflict in the Middle East? Why are we holding up as well as we are? I agree with you. We have geopolitical.

We've got, you know, Fed policy uncertainty. We've got inflation concerns. I think... And the stock market's at record highs. I know. It's incredible. But here's the deal. The way we look at it is you've got strong balance sheets, strong corporate earnings,

AI spending, strong, forward-looking pricing probably already embedded in the markets. And you know what? There's a really interesting piece, too. I think the, you know, I grew up on a trading desk in the 90s. there's emotional volatility. I do think AI is playing a role here. It's mitigating some of that emotional volatility, and we're seeing that, right?

These AI products are really coming in. Data is processing, investment workflows are reflecting it. And for us, though, as a fixed income global asset manager who really focuses on public and private credit, we do see some volatility, right? And that's usually the yellow flag, the equity markets follow. So we're being super cautious and meeting our clients where they are. It's an important point you're making that the credit markets, and the bond

people will tell you that they're smarter than the stock people. All you got to do is ask a bond person. They'll play that. Well, I've played both. You played both. It's just why we love having you on, by the way. So in the credit markets, they will tend to crack before the equity markets do for a lot of different reasons. Are you seeing any cracks? I mean, I think it's selective, and I think you have to choose your managers wisely, right? I mean, I think there was definitely a lot of hype in the first quarter around, you know, the fixed income markets and the credit markets. But the volatility really wasn't about credit. It was more about the interest rates moving and interest rates going up and that the fact that the market pushed the expectations of a rate decline out further.

So now it's a matter of making sure that you're managing duration risk, one, two, you're managing interest rate risk and you're managing liquidity risk. We're seeing a huge amount of demand from our institutional clients still for private credit. And it's all about underwriting, selection, and quality. Because before the war began, that was the worry on Wall Street, was these firms that, let's be fair, 99% of our audience probably had never heard of Blue Owl or those firms or private credit. That is now sort of seeped into the global consciousness

of the CNBC viewer and listener. Yeah. But it's kind of been pushed to the back pages because of what's happening around the Persian Gulf and Iran. Where is private credit right now? Is it the same, better, or worse than it was to- Let's take a step back. Private credit means multiple things, and I don't think people really understand that, right? They were focusing on the vehicle that the private credit was in, right? And private credit is still really important asset class. As a matter of fact, it's not so much of an alternative now. It's demanded by both the wealth channel and the institutional channel. It's an important component of every single portfolio, right?

So private credit is not going away. We're still seeing a tremendous amount of demand. And there's different types of private credit. There's asset back financing. There's CLOs. There's structured credit. And it's really important that you choose the right manager to give you a diversified portfolio around private credit

that achieves the yield targets that you want and understands what your liquidity needs are. Some of those are sort of scary terms, I imagine, for a lot of the non-Wall Street professionals that are watching us right now. What's your word of advice to the non-pro investor about how to manage through a time, which, listen, it's always a scary, volatile time on Wall Street. If you find a time that isn't, let me know, and that's when I'll be scared. To be honest with you because your job is to manage risk.

That's literally you're in your team's job. What's some words of advice now on how to get through a period where people are like, I don't understand why the stock markets are record highs. Well, okay, first, I was a formal financially a financial advisor before joining Guggenheim, right? And it's super important that you really understand your client, right? You need to understand what their liquidity profiles are, what their long-term goals are, and there's a big difference between institutional and retail clients. Part therapist.

Exactly. Yeah, and I think investors are smarter, right? Like, right now you do have a little bit of a divergence between investor sentiment and consumer sentiment, sentiment, and I think it's really important to understand the difference between the two and really understand that overall it's important to have a diversified portfolio and really know what's inside the vehicles that you're buying and ask the right questions. Dina, it's Kelly here back in the studio. I appreciate being able to jump in.

Hi. As I look, we're talking a little bit more about this in a moment, but things like the 30-year Treasury bond going above 5%. some of the trends we're seeing across shorter maturities. Are those trends that concern you? Is there anything that, you know, are these warning signs for fixed income, especially with what's going on in Japan? Or, you know, are we making too much of it?

I don't think we should ever make too much of anything right now, right? I think it's really important to keep, like, fully informed and transparent of what's happening across the globe, especially as it relates to currencies, oil prices, inflation risk. I mean, we're entering a phase with a cheap. with the Fed policy potentially. So I think with respect to the way you're looking at the portfolios for fixed income, it's really important to make sure that you're getting the income you need

and be positioned in the effect that rates go, stay flat, go up or go down. And that's the way that we're managing the portfolios across the duration risk. So just one more on Japan, I don't know if it is there a message from the country dealing with, you know, it's having to defend the currency, you know, it's trying, everything that's going on with their bond yields, I can't help but look there and see it as a precursor because of debt loads to maybe what could happen here, but then people have been saying and thinking that for 15 years.

Well, I think you have to keep a really close eye on what's happening with the oil prices, right? I think that there's a reaction to the yen right now because they have to import oil from different places, right? So until we have some transparency on what's happening with the war and how we're going to resolve the issues with oil and where we're going from here, I think you're going to see continued volatility with the young. Yeah, and I think that to wrap it up, Dina, I think that there's been sort of the common wisdom, which sometimes is not very wise, let's be honest, but the idea that the longer this goes on,

the bigger the risks are, the worse it may get. Do you agree with that statement? Well, I think the market has priced in right now that it's probably going to not resolve itself quickly. Right. I think the most important thing is short-term spikes and unexpected, you know, you know, developments, right? Is there going to be a huge spike? Like, is there going to be a huge disruption in the street where the supplies that we're getting now are actually going to be even further disrupted? Because I do think that right now the markets have priced in that the world leaders are, they're going to resolve this, hopefully, right? Hopefully. Hopefully. What is the first thing that you check then every morning? You wake up? Is it bond yields? Is it currencies? What's the first thing you look at? Well, first I check geopolitical news and make sure that overnight, you know, what has been the safety of the people around the world? I mean, right? I mean, where are people stationed? Where is there missiles being shut off, you know, etc.?

What's then that impact to the market? What are the world leaders saying? And then where are the rates going? That's the second thing I really look at, right? And then how are the equity markets responding? equity's third. Equity's third. Well, because I'm a fixed, you know, I know. As you said, former trading desk in the 90s back when it was, there was a lot of difference and information flow, but we appreciate you joining us, giving us some of the information that you're seeing, some real world advice, DeLorenzo, kicking things off for us here at the Milk and Global Conference. Really appreciate it, Deena.

Thanks. Good to see you. Thank you. Times have certainly changed. Brian, thanks for now. We'll see in a second. But let's get a quick check on the bond markets. As I mentioned, the Treasury, the 30-year-old 30-year-old, going above 5%. That's the highest level since last July. Dom Chu, what are you seeing? All right, so Kelly, in light of what D. Lorenzo just said with regard to how people are behaving in her eyes,

there's been a huge focus on bond-related investments so far this year in 2026. Many of those investors are choosing to use exchange-traded funds to get more of that fixed-income exposure. Now, according to the latest data from TMXVETIF, head of research, Cynthia Murphy, as of May 1st, U.S. listed ETS have taken in roughly $642 billion worth of inflows year to date. Of those, nearly a third of that, as you can see, has flowed into fixed income ETFs. Now, for context, bond ETFs represent just 16% of the total market for U.S. listed funds, so the pace of bond ETF buying has accelerated a lot this year. The most popular bond funds year to date have been the newly minted pro-shunds,

shares genius money market ETF, the ticker IQMM, that's taken in roughly $22 billion since launching in February. This is the fund that is compliant for use by stable coin issuers to back their products. The next two are more established, the I shares shorter duration Treasury Bill ETF, ticker SGOV, and the Vanguard total bond market fund, ETF ticker BND, which took in 16 billion and 8 billion respectively. Now, interestingly, with all the focus on inflation, given the effects of the Iran war, investors have not really flocked to funds tied to Treasury inflation protected securities or those so-called tips. Now, Kelly, fund flows tied to those tips, ETFs have pretty much been the exact same pace year-to-date as they were at this same time last

year. So the inflation focus not flowing through to tips just yet, Kel. Dom, thank you very much. And we're just getting started here on Power Lunch today. Here's the lineup we have for the rest of the hour. Drew McKnight of Fortress Investment. Group, Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, and Breaking Bad Star and Dos Ombres founder, Brian Cranston. Dow's down 430 points. Stay with us. It's a down tape today, but we've got a good stat for you on the small cap outperformance that has taken place this year. The Russell 2000's almost 8 percentage point outperformance on the S&P is the biggest gap in favor of the Russell to start a year since 2010. What is that?

16 years ago. Let's head back to Brian Sullivan at the Milken. Institute Global Conference with a big player in the alternative investment world, Brian. I don't know if I'm more amazed by that stat, Kelly, or the fact that 2010 was 16 years ago. I mean, both those things are mind-blowing and random and interesting. All right, we're pleased that to be joining exclusively by Drew McNight. He is the co-CEO and managing partner Fortress Investment Group. $5 billion in managed, $55 billion, I shortchanged by $50, Drew. I saw the look in managed assets, mainly in the corporate credit and real estate markets.

Drew McNight, real pleasure to get you on. Thanks, Brian. I mean, shocking. We kind of led this with Dina de Lorenzo, Guggenheim, at the top, you know, this huge outperformance of small caps, which they're domestically tied to the economy. The market's not today, but overall at record highs, down a little bit today. We asked, Tina, the same question. Are you shocked and surprised that the equity markets have held up so well, given the fact

that we've got a war, inflation's back on the rise. We don't know where the bond market's going. Yeah, I think if you told me oil was at $140, $150, I'm not sure I would tell you equities we're at the highs, but I also think if you look at the CAPEX and you look at just how much the dollars are being spent in the U.S. economy, particularly domestically, it's staggering. And I think that is holding up the markets. It is. And by the way, oil is at 150 overseas. If you want to buy a physical barrel, that's what it costs, not the paper contract that we're showing there. So again, same question I think that I gave Dina is, do you see a time then, Drew, where if this goes on to July and August, where the market doesn't say everything's okay. It chooses to focus more on inflation and energy

than it does on AI and the capital spending. Well, I think if you look at that stat that you guys just showed, the divergence between the S&P and the Russell, I think you are seeing some smaller companies that are facing some of these cost inflation and some of the real negative effects of what's going on in the Middle East. I think as that gets extended, I think it only gets harder and I think you will start to see the real economy get hit.

And it is a small handful of companies that are benefiting greatly from this cap-ex boom with AI. And here's a bigger, I think corporate credit real estate, I think, go together because most of these developers building, by the way, around us here in Los Angeles, it's with borrowed money. And a lot of that money was borrowed

during or right after COVID. And I bring that up because interest rates were super low. A lot of that debt is being refinanced, or maybe they need to issue new debt, whatever it may be. They're not going to be at 2 or 3%. They're going to be at 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9%. How are the next few years, Drew, going to look? We've seen a big opportunity in real estate debt generically,

and I think a big function of that has been because of what you've seen commercial banks, and you've seen commercial banks have to pull back their own liquidity. where we've seen it be a big opportunity. When we look at the repricing in real estate cap rates and equity, we see if we can earn 8, 9% in a first mortgage real estate debt position, we like that a lot more than a 5%, 6% cap rate on real estate equity. You do. So what does that mean then for your clients and investors?

What should they be investing in right now? How do they make money five years from now based on what they invest in today? A lot of people want to talk about private credit, and I think private credit obviously encompasses a lot of different things. it encompasses LBO debt, it encompasses non-sponsored debt, it encompasses real estate debt. People talk about the growth in private credit, but I think you have to think about that growth in the context of the overall pie and commercial banks and investment banks shrinking their balance sheets and sometimes pulling back because of what they've seen in their own portfolios.

And so we've seen that opportunity within, I would say, private credit generically as a big opportunity to actually differentiate. Drew, it's Kelly. If I could jump in here back from the studio, you were just talking about private credit and, you know, how it might be more different. offensive and maybe not as at risk as some think. You also do a lot in asset-backed finance, and I've heard some people say, you've got to watch that market for where signs of distress with the consumer might first start to show up. Last hour, we were having a discussion with

Wyndham hotels about how their middle-income consumer is holding up just fine. Are you seeing anything in the asset-backed market that tells you a different story, or is it telling you the same story? No, Kelly, we are laser-focused on that, and I think the good part about having a big asset-based finance business is you get a tremendous amount of data. So we've got literally tens of thousands of different borrowers that we're monitoring on a month-to-month basis. So we are laser-focused on it. I think the beginning of the year, if anything, we were probably seeing a little bit of a tailwinds behind some of the tax refunds. That's been now probably at least offset with higher gas prices and inflation. But we're not seeing anything to date that gives us pause or worry, but it is

something we are laser focused on. Yeah, and last thing is outside of Fortress, you're also on the board of MP materials. The rare earth provider, bit of that mind twice. Some of the rare earth stocks, not going to pick out or single out one. They've soared the last few months. There's been some deals, some government equity stakes, some mergers. Are all these companies going to make it? I know it takes years to build out these supply chains, Drew. I know because I've interviewed and talked to Jim Litinsky and his team there at MP that the company you're on the board of, are all these companies going to make it? Yeah, you know, I can't tell you that I know all those companies like an OMP, and I think if you hear, if you listen to Jim's story and how long he's been involved in that,

obviously it's been in the, you know, the front page of the papers the past 12 months since they did that deal with the Department of War. But Jim's been working on that asset for, you know, nearly 10 years. I know I went to the mine almost like, I think eight years ago. He and Mike were literally sleeping on the factory floor. It feels like there's a lot of loose money out there, as my point right now. You just say rare earth, and it could be, uh, sure. shoe company, it says now we're rare earth or AI, and then the stock quadruples. And I think, and I do think the team at MP and Jim and Michael in particular, they know how hard it is because they lived and breathed it. I think where we are, we're incredibly excited.

I think Jim has been talking about it for a long time. And I think with the deal that we did with the Department of War, and we just announced expanding our facilities in Fort Worth, we're excited. And I do think it does, you know, meaningfully improve the supply chain for the United States. Did you bring in a neodymium with you? Like a little bit. I used to have some cuff links that Jim gave us on the board. Can you get to the airport with neodymium and some magnet? I don't know. There's a few deal toys we can probably we can probably rustle up for you.

Drew McDight, Fortress. Really appreciate it, Drew. Thank you, Brian. Thank you very much. I'm neodymium free, Kelly, but I'll bring some back for you. No one knows more elements on the periodic table than you do, Brian. I know all 11. How many are there?

100? I don't know. The scientists in the audience are screaming at the screen right now. Bitcoin about to break out or has it done so already? It's at its highest level since the end of January, and it's cracked above 80,000 once again. We'll have more after the break. Welcome back some breaking news out of Washington. Steve Leesman. What's happening?

Kelly, Janine Piro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, asking the U.S. District Court to vacate the opinions and orders in the Powell case. A little background. Judge Boseberg quashed the subpoenas in the criminal investigation. Fed Chair Jay Powell and the cost overruns. And she then promised to appeal, and today is the appeal deadline, but she's not appealing. She's asking for the decision to be vacated, which is to say, forget it ever happened. Vacating opinions would prevent the judgment from, quote, spawning any legal consequences.

Piero says in her filing, she argues the decision addresses, quote, important constitutional issues, including separation of powers concerns. The court decision also implicates, she says, complicated first, Amendment issues. Noting that Bosberg cited the tweets by the President's Bureau rights, it cannot be that the President

effectively forfeits its constitutional authority to faithfully execute the criminal laws through grand jury investigations if he has been especially critical of targets or witnesses. Of course, that's why presidents often are not critical. The Inspector General's inquiry, she says,

could lead to criminal charges and vacating, clears the path for re-litigating of the issue. So not precisely giving it up, which was a concern Fed Chair Jay Powell and appear to be part of his reasoning as to why he's staying on the board of governors. Kelly? In other words, Steve, am I correct in saying the news here is that Piro is not appealing this? So is it over? No, I don't think it's over over. I think the news here is both that

she's not appealing, but also that she is going, asking the judge to vacate this and then making comments in the filing that say part of the reason is to clear the way for further litigation. Interesting. And of course, that is if she has said, she's pointed out, if the Inspector General of the Fed finds criminal wrongdoing. Sure. And if we're looking for any market impact, hard to see that. Stocks already have been kind of tipping back towards session low. So I put it differently, we're not seeing any rally on this, at least for the time being. Steve really appreciated. Thanks. Pleasure.

Steve Leesman. The crypto-related stocks are still rising, though. As big, Bitcoin tops $80,000 for the first time since January. Tenaa McKeel joins us now with more. Today, what's driving this recent rally? Yeah, Kelly, look at Circle there, at 20% at one point today, really reacting to this agreement that senators came to over the weekend on the market structure bill known as the Clarity Act and one specific section of it that concerns yield. And so basically they came to this agreement that the market is totally rallying on right now.

It preserves stable coin rewards under one giant condition. And that condition is that crypto companies like Coinbase are able to give users rewards on their stable coins as long as it doesn't look anything like a bank deposit. This new section is saying leave that to the banks. So they are now encouraging companies to incentivize usage, Kelly. So that can be something like transacting, staking, trading, what have you. But if it is just you are a user that is parking or stable coin assets on a crypto platform, you will no longer be able to earn rewards or anything that looks like interest on those. Yeah.

All right. I guess the clarity, well, now that we know what the rules are, because a lot of people would say, that's a headwind. But strategy, meanwhile, which is one of the biggest buyers of Bitcoin is not doing so this week. Why is that? You know, they've got their earnings coming out tomorrow, Kelly, and I think that investors should just read this as something that companies do during their earnings week, honestly, just keep their finances clear. Michael Saylor, the chairman of strategy, posted on X today, you know, more buying next week. I think that this is just something that they want to keep clear for optics. I would not.

not say that this is any kind of reflection on the recent Bitcoin price action, you know, Bitcoin hitting 80K today and over the weekend, but still down year-to-date and underperforming, you know, gold, oil, the S&P and the dollar index. But I do think that that does call attention to what investors will be looking for out of the earnings report. They're going to want to hear confidence from Michael Saylor and really just, you know, look at that stock reaction, and make sure that investors still think that it's worth it to buy, you know, to pay a premium for strategy shares in order to get exposure to Bitcoin when Bitcoin has underperformed so much this year, Kelly.

Right. Exactly. And thanks very much. Now appreciated today. McKeel, strategy, as she mentioned, reports think, tomorrow, Brian. Here we go. All right. Up next, big interview.

We sat down with Florida governor Ron DeSantis. We got a first on CNBC interview. We're going to talk about Wall Street. taxes, the economy, and more. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida on set here at the Milken Conference in L.A. next. Welcome back, Brian, sitting down with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just moments ago. He's out at the Milken Conference in Los Angeles. Yeah, it's one of the few interviews, Kelly, that we're doing over the next couple of days that was not live.

We had a chance to sit down with Florida Governor Ronda Santos. It did about 10, 12 minutes, kind of a wide-ranging interview. You can see the whole thing on CNBC, Go check it out now. But of course, I asked him about really one of the hot topics out there, AI and data centers and the big concerns that those things would drive up energy prices for Florida residents. Here's what he had to say. We have a lot of environmentally sensitive areas.

I'm doing Everglades restoration, the biggest restoration in history. We're also concerned about electricity rates being raised on customers because the data centers take up a lot. I mean, the reality is you have this much capacity. this much demand. If you double the demand, unless you all of a sudden double the capacity, you are going to see rates go up. So I'm going to sign a bill probably this month, which is basically going to say consumers and individual rate payers are held harmless if there's a data center. So if a data center is going to do a deal with FP&L, FPNL cannot raise rates on customers.

Because at the end of the day, costs are the number one issue facing everyday, Americans as well as Floridians. I mean, California, I saw $6.40. I couldn't imagine what that is. But just, you know, in the last two months across the country, gas has gone up. Some of these things have gone up. So we want to make sure we're protecting the rate payers for any of those projects.

So, yeah, FPL and Next Air Energy is some of these stocks that our viewer knows. So would you say then? But here's the issue with the data centers that I have not liked around the country. Some of them aren't paying tax. They're getting property tax abatements. I would do the opposite. I mean, that would be, these are very wealthy companies, right? They're doing a build which creates some economic utility.

But once it's done, it employs very small number of people. Obviously, it's not very popular with grassroots people on both the left and right. And so what I would say is, why would you give them no property tax? I mean, we're working on getting rid of homestead property tax for our residents. I would rather have tax savings go to individual homeowners, for example. I don't understand why some of these states have given those types of. of a range? I was going to say, well, then, so how do you make sure that the people in a city don't pay more in electricity? You go to the, not only the FPL, I'm going to sign a bill.

So basically, so meta, Microsoft, Amazon, whoever it may be, I'm not, I'm just not picking on one company, they have to pay. Exactly. Pay full freight. You pay for what you use, and ultimately, now look, in fairness, Florida has not been a place where we have had a hyperscale data center yet. And I think part of it is, oh, we have tropical weather. There could be interruptions in service. And so I get what, but then from my perspective as governor, when we have a storm, I work hard to get the lights back on for people, right? What would it be like if you had a data center get power back on before our Florida homeowners? It wouldn't be good.

I think Florida is a unique situation. But I'm confident the bill I'm signing Floridians are not going to be negatively impacted. And it may mean they don't do data centers in Florida. But at the end of the day, I do not want to see a 20, 30 percent increase. on people because of the data center. Would you take a post in the Trump cabinet? People are always asking me, like, why don't you do this? Well, I had to ask, obviously, it's an economic.

Well, here's what I'd say. Big story around your name. Well, I gotta run through the tape with this job I have now. It's a great job. We've done a lot. I've got more that I want to do. No one's ever asked me to do anything, and I've never asked to do anything.

So I think a lot of it is just, you know, I'm one of the more well-known Republicans in the country. So I think people like to throw it in. Reality is people are going to run with my name more than they'll run with somebody who's maybe never held elected office in terms of, oh, are they in the mix or that? So some of that is just stuff that gets passed around. But the reality is we've been a good partner with the Trump administration on a variety of issues,

and we'll continue to do that. And then what's your status on redistricting? A lot of talk about what happened in Virginia. People say, is Florida going to have the same outcome? What's the, where do we stand with the votes and what may happen there? So the legislature passed it last week, and I signed it today. So that is the law. Today.

Yeah, so we signed a new map today. part of it was our previous map was impacted by the Kaleigh decision. I had said that many months ago. So we knew this day was going to happen. We were prepared for it. We did it. And that is now law of the land. All right. So there's a lot more to that interview talked about the economy, tax rates. And actually, Wall Street and whether or not he's talking to CEOs, about moving down there. Go to cnbc.com to get the entire interview. All right. Coming up after the break, something completely different. No? We're going to go. Kelly, we're going to go to you first.

See, I promised I wouldn't screw this up, and I just screwed it up. We're going to give great fodder to one of our next guests. You teased it. It's a tease for a tease. Just stay right there for one second while we get over to Brandon Gomez for the CNBC News Update. Brandon. Hey, Kelly, good afternoon. Russian state media announced today that Vladimir Putin is declaring a temporary ceasefire with Ukraine

in connection with the May 8th and 9th Victory Day holidays in Russia, which commemorate the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. Ukraine previously countered with a request for a long-term ceasefire. and earlier today, Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky suggested Ukraine may even target the celebration with drones. Meantime, legendary New York Yankees radio announcer, John Sterling died today at the age of 87. His tenure in the booth for the team spanned more than three decades, including five World Series wins before he stepped down in 2024. He was known for his personalized home run calls and catchphrases, and at one point, he appeared on over 5,000 straight broadcast without missing a game. and two people were killed and others were severely injured after a driver plowed into a group of pedestrians in the Germany city of Leipzig today.

Authorities tell Reuters the suspect is in custody, but they are still trying to determine a motive. Kelly, I'll send things back to you. All right, Brendan, thanks. And coming up, you probably know him from Breaking Bad, not the guy on the left, the one on the right. He's here to talk Hollywood, his mescal business, and more. Brian Cranston joins us after the break. Let's head back out to Milken, where Brian is with an A-list guest you might have heard of, Brian. Yeah, I tried to tease him earlier.

It didn't go well. I guess I should just stick to the script. Joining us now is actor, writer, and the co-founder of the Dos Ombres Mescal tequila brand. That is Brian Krantz. And I should note, he spells his name incorrectly. So the Y, I think the right ways with the I. Is that correct? The Irish way, which I'm surprised, being Sullivan, you should have a why.

Fake Irish. Fake Irish. Fake Irish. Yeah. I sensed something. There we go. And screw or upper of teases. So I appreciate that.

Brian Krantz, it's great to have you on. Thanks. Good to see you. We have a lot of celebrities that want to come on CNBC because they want to talk about some brand. And I get them on and I realize that these people really don't have any involvement in the brand. They actually don't know what the brand even does. Like, it's a shoe company.

I mean, it's no, we make whatever. This is your thing. You are actively involved in Dos Hombres. Tell us about this business. Oh, yeah. Well, we started Dos Hombres nine years ago as a mescal, and now we've been. branched out into making a tequila, and it's been fantastic. My partner in it is Aaron Paul, who is also my partner in Breaking Bad, if you remember. He played Jesse.

A couple episodes, I think. A couple, yeah, a couple episodes of those. But it came about because three years after we were together for seven years, very tight, we came very good friends, that we missed each other. And so, like men, we said, Well, let's... Like two ambres. Let's start a business together. And we both loved mescal and tequila, so we started the mescal. We started dos ambres.

And listen, it's a crowded space. What we do here is that a lot of the younger people are drinking less. So how do you manage through that? Have you had to adjust the pricing and the business? Well, first of all, that's a very sad thing to hear. That the people are drinking less. That's a terrible thing. We want...

I'll make it up for it. We want... We want people to embrace the idea of the spirits in general. You know, it's phases. We go in phases during lockdown, and, I mean, it spiked way too high. It's like the market. It goes up, it goes down. It just tries to fluctuate to find a place where it should be.

With the right level. Responsible, fun, safe. There you go. Yeah. But it's great. Our tequila just came out now. It's a brand new on the market. And we're excited about that.

And then we have our flagship, our mescal as well. We were talking in the commercial break about where you're from. I always like that's sort of loose, you know, we've never met. Like, hey, where'd you grow up? And you're actually a Los Angeles. Like, this is your home, born and raised, Hollywood, literally born and raised, in and around, Hollywood. Undergoing a seismic shift right now. Paramount, Warner Brothers, that deal, Netflix.

You've got a big show on Apple TV, obviously, with the studio. fantastic, by the way. I'm not just saying that because you're sitting here. And Netflix is building this giant new facility in the state I live in now, which is New Jersey. Where does the industry go from here? What do you see happening? We're in a very challenging time. I'm personally against the merger. I think these two legendary studios can operate perfectly on their own. We've seen last year that Warner Brothers did exceptionally well in their movies and Oscar wins and things like that. It's just bad for creativity all around. How?

Why? Why? Well, because there'll be contraction. There'll be a lot less people developing movies and television. There'll be a lot less people working in and around Los Angeles specifically. So it's a challenging moment for the industry and our city. So I would love to see them stay independently operated. and compete against you. Do you think there's a chance that things won't happen?

I mean, what are people saying in the industry? By and large, we're against it. Because of the fact that there'll be fewer and fewer. What we've seen in the last 10, 15 years is not only a contraction of properties, but of the budgets that have been approved for television shows and movies, they've been lower than that. and normal. So we have to work with less finances and they're going out of state, they're going out of country. And we get it. It's an independent marketplace. And they have to go where incentives

are very attractive. And we get it. You were talking about New Jersey just recently. So, but, you know, that's a different issue. Whether it's shot in Los Angeles or not, or there's a contraction of the studio system, that's what we're really focused on, is to try to see if we can keep them from this merger. I'm against it. Yeah, you came out and we showed a graphic, you know, Joaquin, Phoenix and a few others that were also coming out against it. The government, it looks like it's going to not listen. It looks like the deal is likely going to happen. Once it, if it does happen, I know you're against it, but if it does happen then,

What changes? I mean, how much of a shrinkage you think we're going to see in the film and TV industry? Quite a bit. Really? Yeah. Already, maybe 15, 20 years ago, each network was probably producing 30 or 40 television pilots a year. And now they're doing about 12 to 14 total. That's a half.

It's cut in half. It is drastic. The amount of movies has been diminished. the amount of, you know, so we've already seen a diminishment there. And by having one less studio, and we have a perfect template for that, when Disney bought Fox, it cut their products tremendously. And if this happens, it will cut again. And there will be tens of thousands of what they call the above the line, the writers, directors,

producers, actors, and below the line, all the crew, the entire crew, is going to be scrambling for work. It is. So there's a show on Apple TV called The Studio. Yeah. Have you heard about this show? I love that show. Yeah, and I love the mustard-colored, like, turtlenecks.

Oh, yeah. Seth Rogen and the crazy marketing. Yeah. And you're the, you're the intense. I'm trying to find the right word, to not offend you. The intense. Incredibly handsome. Smart as a whip.

That's right. I was just saying intelligent. You said smart. Yeah, yeah. Owner of the studio. And what you do is you poke fun at the industry you're in now, because you're like, we're going to make a Kool-Aid man movie. Oh, yeah, right?

It's going to happen. He wants to make these art-house movies. Could you still make an art-house... In real life, could Brian Cranston make an art-house movie, or do you have to make Kool-Aid man? Personally, I would probably have to finance it myself and then just do it as a labor of love and see if there's any marketplace for that.

But even on our show, the studio, we lampoon... You make fun of the industry. You're in. Pretty good, by the way. I mean, you go after it. We do. And we talk about the mergers and things like that and David Zazlov and, uh, uh-huh. There's a scene where Seth Rogan, who plays the newly appointed studio head is like trying to

basically say he's not going to make a Kool-Aid man movie. And you're the owner and you're like, you're going to make the Kool-Aid man movie. He's like, of course, of course, because you're the boss, right? Yeah. I mean, is this, is this real now when like Transformers 39? I'm not making fun of Transformers like because people are just too afraid to make. make a movie that won't automatically win. It's, well, Brian, but it's not an either

or situation. You can make the Kool-Aid movie, or that type of movie, or what we call a tent pole movie, a big movie, right? Big action movie, a Mission Impossible kind of thing. And you can make Power Lunch Live. Yes, and you can make that Power Lunch Lie.

And then you can also make, you know, smaller movies, more intimate movies, adult comedies and dramas and things like that. It's not, it's, it's mutually exclusive in other words. You could do it all. You just have to have the marketing ideas for both kinds of movies.

If there is a Power Lunch Live movie, I'm not saying that you should play me, but you're so handsome, I can't imagine it would be somebody else. I'd be honored to play you. You did Howard Beale on Broadway. Yes. And then you have an announcer like, Power Lunch. Can we use that? Is that Kelly, are we able to? Are we able, like, legally?

Could we, like, clip that and use that for the show? You're watching CNBC's Power Lunch. I can't do any better. We're going to start drinking as soon as the camera. Of course, I am a union member, so you have to pay for that. Oh. Back to you. Brian Grant. Brian with a Y.

Thank you. Kelly, back to you. Oh, yeah. Makes sense. Once he puts it, it too good to be true. I'll do my best after this, though. Coming up, a check on some stocks that you won't want to forget. That's a big clue about our mystery chart today. Take a guess on a second.

and we will reveal it after the break. Welcome back. The memory and storage stocks keep rallying as Micron hits a new all-time high and approaches $600 a share today. It's up 6%. Sandusk spiking after Bernstein raised its price target to 1,700. It's in the 12s right now at 5% today. And it's already the best performing stock in the S&P this year.

It's leading second place Lumentum by more than 200 percentage points. Meanwhile, a big name keeps falling. NVIDIA pacing for its fifth straight down day. That's its longest streak since February. The stock has fallen nearly 10% over that time. And speaking of NVIDIA, John Ford will bring us an exclusive interview with CEO Jensen Wong, along with Service Now CEO Bill McDermott. I believe that's tomorrow around 2.30 here on Power Lunch. More after the break.

Stocks are back near session lows. The Dow's down 560 points. They hit those levels earlier on when the UAE said it had intercepted missiles from Iran. Brian, sparking some concern that the ceasefire can end. Yeah, and you know, I've got to say, I haven't been here that long. Last night I was at an event here today. Here's the quick theme, if you will, which is things start slowly. Subprime started slowly.

Things start slowly, and then all of a sudden everything's fine until it's not. And people here are optimistic. They're bullish on things like AI spending, but they're also worried, Kelly, that is there going to be a point where this continues on? Energy prices get so high that things start to break. We're going to have a great lineup of guests. tomorrow. We've got Doug Kimmelman, who's one of the greatest energy investors. You may not have heard of Mike Sable, the CEO of Venture Global. That's been hot lately as well. And David Gross

of Bain. Talk to them and more about the things that we just hit on. I don't like that cautious tone, though. You think milk and tone is a little cautious this year? People want to be optimistic because we're here. We're out in Los Angeles, but they're wondering, will the ground shift? Yeah, great point. Brian, thanks so much. And thanks everybody for watching Power Lodge.