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I'm Scott Wapner, and you're listening to CNBC's Halftime Report, the podcast, the most profitable hour of the trading day. We record this live weekdays at 12 Eastern. Listen in. You're listening to Halftime Report, in progress. Makes them even greater, you know that.
But in a few short months since taking office, we have achieved the swift return of American strength at home and abroad. Now working with the vast majority of people in this region who seek stability and calm, our task is to unify against the few agents of chaos and terror that are left and that are holding hostage the dreams of millions and millions of great people. The biggest and most destructive of these forces is the regime in Iran
which has caused unthinkable suffering in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and beyond. There could be no sharper contrast with the path you have pursued on the Arabian Peninsula than the disaster unfolding right across in the Gulf of Iran. Think of that. They wanted to name it that. I said, "They're not going to let them do that. Do you mind if I stop that?" I stopped it. "We're not going to let that happen."
While you have been constructing the world's tallest skyscrapers in Jeddah and Dubai, Tehran's 1979 landmarks are collapsing into rubble and dust. They had it going for a little while under a much different system, but those buildings are largely falling apart, falling down, while you're building some of the world's biggest and most incredible infrastructure projects.
buildings, all sorts of things you're building that nobody's ever even seen before. Iran's decades of neglect and mismanagement have left the country plagued by rolling blackouts lasting for hours a day, all the time you hear about it.
While your skill has turned dry deserts into fertile farmland, Iran's leaders have managed to turn green farmland into dry deserts as their corrupt water mafia — it's called the water mafia — causes droughts and empty riverbeds. They get rich, but they don't let the people have any of it. And then, of course, there's the key difference at the root of it all.
While the Arab states have focused on becoming pillars of regional stability and world commerce, Iran's leaders have focused on stealing their people's wealth to fund terror and bloodshed abroad. Most tragic of all, they have dragged down an entire region with them. Countless lives were lost in the Iranian effort to maintain a crumbling regime in Syria. Look at what happened with Syria. In Lebanon,
Their Hezbollah proxies have pillaged the hopes of a nation whose capital, Beirut, was once called the Paris of the Middle East. Can you imagine? All of this misery and so much more was entirely avoidable, absolutely avoidable.
And Mohammad knew that. He knew that. Smart people knew that. If only the Iranian regime had focused on building their nation up instead of tearing the region down. Yet I'm here today not merely to condemn the past chaos of Iran's leaders, but to offer them a new path and a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future.
As I've shown repeatedly, I am willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even if our differences may be very profound, which obviously they are in the case of Iran. I have never believed in having permanent enemies. I am different than a lot of people think. I don't like permanent enemies, but sometimes...
You need enemies to do the job, and you have to do it right. Enemies get you motivated. In fact, some of the closest friends of the United States of America are nations we fought wars against in generations past, and now they're our friends and our allies. I want to make a deal with Iran. If I can make a deal with Iran, I'll be very happy if we're going to make your deal.
region and the world's a safer place. But if Iran's leadership rejects this olive branch and continues to attack their neighbors, then we will have no choice but to inflict massive maximum pressure, drive Iranian oil exports to zero like I did before. If you know that, they were a virtually bankrupt country.
because of what I did, they had no money for terror, they had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah, and take all action required to stop the regime from ever having a nuclear weapon. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
But with that said, Iran can have a much brighter future, but will never allow America and its allies to be threatened with terrorism or nuclear attack. The choice is theirs to make. We really want them to be a successful country. We want them to be a wonderful, safe, great country. But they cannot have a nuclear weapon. This is an offer that will not last forever.
The time is right now for them to choose. Right now, we don't have a lot of time to wait. Things are happening at a very fast pace. They're happening right here. They're happening at a very fast pace. So they have to make their move right now, one way or the other, make your move. As I said in my inaugural address, my greatest hope is to be a peacemaker and to be a unifier. I don't like war.
We have the greatest military, by the way, in the history of the world. You know, I rebuilt our military in my first four years and rebuilt it into the most powerful military there is. And you saw that when I knocked out ISIS in three weeks. People said it would take four years, five years. I did it. We did it in three weeks. Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan
And I used trade to a large extent to do it. I said, fellas, come on, let's make a deal. Let's do some trading. Let's not trade nuclear missiles. Let's trade the things that you make so beautifully. And they both have very powerful leaders, very strong leaders, good leaders, smart leaders. And...
It all stopped. Hopefully it'll remain that way, but it all stopped. I was very proud of Marco Rubio and all of the people that worked so hard. Marco, stand up. What a great job you did on that. Thank you. J.D. Vance, Marco. The whole group worked with you, but it was a great, great job. And I think they're actually getting along. Maybe we can even get them together a little bit, Marco, where they go out and have a nice dinner together. Wouldn't that be nice?
But we've come a long way, and it could be, you know, millions of people could have died from that conflict that started off small and was getting bigger and bigger and bigger by the day. I've also been working relentlessly to end the terrible bloodshed between Russia and Ukraine. And very importantly, talks are being held in Turkey later this week, probably on Thursday.
And they could produce some pretty good results. Our people are going to be going there. Marco's going to be going there. Others are going to be going, and we'll see if we can get it done. 5,000 people, young people for the most part, soldiers from Ukraine, soldiers from Russia. They're not from here, and they're not from the United States, but they're souls.
Their souls, I think, usually, mostly their young, beautiful souls that left their parents waving goodbye, left their brothers and sisters. "Goodbye, I'll see you soon." And they got blown to pieces. 5,000 on average a week are dying.
And people are dying elsewhere in the region, but tremendous numbers like we haven't seen since World War II are dying. And I want to stop it. I want to stop it. It's a horrible war. It would have never happened if I were president. That's a war that would have never happened. October 7th would have never happened if I were president because—
Iran had no money to pay Hamas or anybody else. They had no money. They were not looking to take care of them. They had to take care of themselves. They had no money. We stopped their oil effectively with the embargoes and sanctions.
But let me take this opportunity to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the constructive role that you've played in facilitating the Ukraine talks. And it really is. You've been amazing. You've made everything available to us. Thank you very much. Thank you. And if we get that settled, we'll pay a special tribute to what you've done. You really did lay a great groundwork. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
The West should not be dragging itself backward into another endless war in Europe, yet another endless war. We should stop the killing and work together to address the biggest long-term threats as one unbeatable team. Think of us as an unbeatable team. I mean, when you look at what you've done here, that's much more difficult than stopping stupidity. Think of it. It's stupidity.
What you've done is much more difficult, and you did it better than anybody else has ever done it as President of the United States.
My preference will always be for peace and partnership whenever those outcomes can be achieved. Always. It's always going to be that way. Only a fool would think otherwise. In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it's our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins. They loved using our very powerful
And now it's really the most powerful it's ever been. We just are getting a budget approved, $1 trillion, highest budget we've ever had in history for military, $1 trillion. And we're getting the greatest missiles, the greatest weapons. And, you know, I hate to do it, but you have to do it because we believe in peace through strength. You have to have the strength. Otherwise, bad things could happen. But hopefully...
We'll never have to use any of those weapons. Seems to be an awfully big waste of money if you're never going to use them, but hopefully we'll never have to use them because the destructive power of some of those weapons are like nobody's seen before. I believe it is God's job to sit in judgment, my job to defend America and to promote the fundamental interest of stability, prosperity and peace. That's what I really want to do.
I will never hesitate to wield American power if it's necessary to defend the United States or to help defend our allies. And there will be no mercy for any foe who tries to do us or them harm. We will have no mercy. They understand that. That's why I've been pretty lucky. A lot of people think, you know, he is looking to fight. He's looking to fight and things get settled. It's an amazing thing when they really think you mean it.
But we do. We have the greatest military, the strongest military, stronger than any. Nobody's even close. We have the best weapons in the world, but we don't want to use them. If you threaten America or our partners, however, then you'll be faced with overwhelming strength and devastating force. We have things that you don't even know about, you don't hear about.
And if you did, you'd say, wow. In recent weeks, following repeated attacks on American ships and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the United States military launched more than 1,100 strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. As a result, the Houthis agreed to stop. They said, we don't want this anymore. It's the first time you've heard that from them, too. They're tough. They're fighters. But just days ago, we...
were asked to cease targeting commercial. They were not going to be targeting commercial ships in any way, shape or form, anything American. And they were very happy that we stopped. But we had 52 days of thunder and lightning like they've never seen before.
This was a swift, ferocious, decisive and extremely successful use of military force. Not that we wanted to do it, but they were shooting down ships. They were shooting at you. They were shooting at Saudi Arabia. We don't want them shooting at Saudi Arabia, if that's okay. So we hit them hard. We got what we came for, and then we got out.
Since January 20th, the U.S. military has terminated 83 terrorist leaders operating across Iraq, Syria and Somalia, including ISIS's number two global leader. You read about that just recently. With the help of Pakistan, we apprehended the ISIS terrorists responsible for the attack on 13 American service members that abrogate that horrible, horrible disaster during the
During this Afghanistan withdrawal, you know, that's another thing that we don't even think about so much anymore. Thirteen died, but 42 were horribly wounded. But hundreds of people died overall because I count the people on the other side. Hundreds of people just grossly incompetent. It's probably why Putin decided to go into Ukraine, something he never would have done if I were president. But we wouldn't have had...
the problems of October 7th if I were president. We wouldn't have had Ukraine, Russia if I were president. We wouldn't have had Abbey Gate because there wouldn't have been any reason we were getting out, but we were getting out with dignity and with strength and power. But the way they got out was not good. I think it was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.
And we've been working tirelessly to bring back all hostages held by Hamas. We brought back a lot already, but we're bringing back more.
This weekend, we successfully negotiated the release of the last American hostage. Idan Alexander just came out a few hours ago, and we continue to work to get that war ended as quickly as possible. It's a horrible thing that's taking place. All civilized people must condemn the October 7th atrocities against Israel.
which would never have happened again if you had probably a different president, but definitely if you had me as president. The people of Gaza deserve a much better future, but that will or can not occur as long as their leaders choose to kidnap, torture, and target innocent men, women, and children for political ends. The way those people are treated in Gaza, there's
Not a place in the world where people are treated so badly, it's horrible. After years of suffering, two of the nation's most ravaged by terror are finally beginning to end their long nightmares under the new generation of leaders in Lebanon.
where a friend of mine has just become the ambassador. He's going to be great. I said, "You know, that could be a very dangerous job." He said, "I was born there. I'm Lebanese. I love that country." I said, "But it's very dangerous." You know, this is a friend of mine from New York. I said, "But it's very dangerous. Are you sure you want to do it?" I never thought of him as being a warrior, but he is a warrior. He loves his country.
He said, "If I'm injured or die, I'm dying for a country that I love." He grew up there. It's horrible what's happened in Lebanon, but you have a great ambassador, I can tell you that, in Lebanon.
which has been endlessly victimized by Hezbollah and their sponsor, Iran. A new president and prime minister brought the first real chance in decades for a more productive partnership with the United States. And we're going to work with their new ambassador and everybody else, Marco, and we're going to see if we can really help them out and let them get over that very high grid that they're going to have to get over.
My administration stands ready to help Lebanon create a future of economic development and peace with its neighbors. They have tremendous people in Lebanon, doctors, lawyers, great professional people. I hear it so many times. Likewise, in Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there is a new government that will...
hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace. That's what we want to see in Syria. They've had their share of travesty, war, killing many years. That's why my administration has already taken the first steps toward restoring normal relations between the United States and Syria for the first time in more than a decade.
And I'm very pleased to announce that Secretary Marco Rubio will be meeting with the new Syrian foreign minister in Turkey later this week. And very importantly, after discussing the situation in Syria with the crown prince, your crown prince,
And also with President Erdogan of Turkey, who called me the other day and asked for a very similar thing, among others and friends of mine, people that I have a lot of respect for in the Middle East, I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness. Oh, what I do for the crown prince.
The sanctions were brutal and crippling and served as an important, really an important function, nevertheless, at the time. But now it's their time to shine. It's their time to shine. We're taking them all off, and they're going to have, I think they're going to have
based on the people and the spirit and everything else that I'm hearing about. So I say good luck, Syria. Show us something very special like they've done, frankly, in Saudi Arabia, okay? They're going to show us something special. Very good people. Everywhere we can, my administration is pursuing peaceful engagement, offering a strong and steady hand of friendship to all that will take it in good faith. Together, we have made
unprecedented strides and tremendous progress. And we're still just at the dawn of the bright new day that awaits for the people of the Middle East, the great, great people of the Middle East. If the responsible nations of this region seize this moment, put aside your differences and focus on the interests that unite you, then all of humanity will soon be amazed at what
They will see right here in this geographic center of the world, it really is, it's like a center of the world, and the spiritual heart of its greatest faiths. For the first time in a thousand years, the world will look at this region not as a place of turmoil and strife and war and death, but as a land of opportunity and hope, just like you've done right here, a cultural and commercial crossroads of the planet.
Security and stability will lift millions into lives of safety and success, and the nations of this region will be free to realize your highest destinies, honor your proud histories, harness amazing new opportunities, and bring incredible glory to Almighty God. People will come from all over the globe to be inspired by the cities you build, the businesses you create,
the technologies you invent and the beauty, talent and potential you unleash
right in the hearts of your citizens. Each of you will be able to take tremendous pride in the legacy you will leave to your children because you will have given them the ultimate blessings of prosperity and peace. So important. In the United States, we've launched the golden age of America. It's the golden age. We see it. We see it with all that money, trillions and trillions and
dollars pouring in, hundreds of thousands of jobs coming in with it. And with the help of the people of the Middle East, the people in this room, partners throughout the region, the golden age of the Middle East can proceed right alongside of us. We will work together. We will be together. We will succeed together. We will win together. And we will always be friends. Thank you.
So, Mohammed, I want to thank you again very much for having me. And as a representative of what I think is the greatest nation in the world, we are with you all the way. And you have a tremendous future. Thank you very much. And please pay my respects to your father. Thank you very much. Thank you.
By that, of course, the president speaking at the Saudi U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh. The president touting what he sees as the achievements of his own administration in the short time that they have been in office. A good dose of geopolitics as well from the sanctions that he says he is lifting on Syria, the war in Ukraine.
and of course a good bit on Iran as well. Our Eamon Javers is in Washington who's been listening and watching all of this. Really an extraordinary set of hours here from the CEOs of the great American companies who are there to the pageantry, Eamon, that has welcomed the U.S. president in his first official overseas visit of his second term to what we just listened to on our television screens.
Scott, it really is an incredible display of wealth and power in Saudi Arabia as the president of the United States lands flanked with business executives of enormous influence themselves from the United States. And then the news that we just got there of the president announcing the cessation of
of sanctions against the new Syrian government. Remember, the insurgency in Syria pushed out the Assad regime and now has taken power. The president says he wants to give them a clean slate and an opportunity to show what they can do. And a remarkable turnaround there, Scott, for the new leader of Syria, the former insurgent leader there. His name is
Ahmed al-Shara and he was a member of al Qaeda in Iraq during the US invasion fought in the Iraqi insurgency was imprisoned by the US military for several years during that period of time now he is the leader of Syria and a former rebel commander and he's been given
and a waiver of sanctions by the president of the united states in an opening a diplomatic opening from the president and states for the new syrian government to join the family of nations the president says let's see what they can do so this is a president who says he's willing uh... to turn over a new leaf here with a lot of the countries in the region and holding out a contrast
between the towers and the gleaming sites that you see in Saudi Arabia and the crumbling infrastructure of Iran and holding out a similar olive branch, if you will, to the Iranian regime, suggesting that if they join the family of nations as well, that kind of prosperity could be coming their way in addition. So this is a president who's holding out prosperity and cooperation as his goal. He says he wants peace.
and he says he's willing to do business with regimes that have been formally at odds with the united states and demonstrating that uh... with this reversal sanctions on syria pretty extraordinary events amen thank you amen drivers writing that up for us in washington welcome everybody of course at a half time report where we have the s_ and p_ once again on the move on the move higher and
Closing in on a new record high. We're not that far away, in fact, for a new record high for the S&P. We're just shy of 5,900. What a remarkable turn of events, Steve, that it's been. And taking this next leg higher as we did on the events of the weekend. I'm really curious to get your point of view for somebody who's been overwhelmingly negative on this market. You've had a number of people come out today and say their recession situation
projections are far less than they were just last week. Are your own? They are. But let's keep in mind what I've said consistently over the last couple of weeks. Short term, I'm bullish on the market. My exposure reflects that since I have virtually no cash. It's the intermediate term that I was concerned with. And that's where the recession comes into play.
So you do have to modify your forecast if you look for recession as I have been. And again, it's not getting to the recession, it's the journey there of a declining economy.
And you don't think that that trajectory has been significantly altered as a result of what happened on the weekend? How could it not be? I do. I do. I absolutely do. So, which is why, you know, I'll hold on to this exposure for a while. Look, we're back to a situation where the market is, I would say, testing valuation limits. It's pulling forward what you're going to see in the tax cuts. So you'll see CapEx spending.
And look, let's face it, it was a major surrender by the administration, you know, after going to, you know, ridiculous tariff levels and coming back to basically where we were with China and with the UK. And I would expect to see them giving up, you know, the ghost again on the other deals that we see. So you do still have this temporary pause in CapEx spending that's going to impact the second quarter. But
I do think that at this point you're likely to look through it. Inflation will spike because tariffs are there. But I think you're likely to look through that, too. So what I've done is, as I mentioned, I did put on the indices more QQQ than VOO, which is the S&P. I'm going back into some of the old favorites because I know them.
So when you're looking to put exposure on quickly, you go to what you know, where you've done the fundamental analysis and where you've been comfortable with it. And look, just as an investor, you can't get stuck in a position and a viewpoint. So I'm pretty much fully invested. You know, Josh, Ed Yardeni raises his S&P year-end target.
He was at 6,000. Remember, he had taken it down, and maybe he did so a couple of different times. The goalposts, though, seem to have changed for many, including him. 6,500 is where his target is now. I said we're pushing 5,900. It seems as though there is a decidedly different level of optimism today than last week.
Offense takes the field is what Piper Sandler today says. Wells Fargo says ceilings now become floors. Expect dips to be bought. I mean, is that...
Is any of that helpful? They're just marking to market. Like, the stock market crashes and they all cut their targets. Then there's, like, talk of a detente or another 90-day extension, and they raise their targets back. Like, oh, we're going to go from 140% tariffs to 30%. Oh, well, then I take off my recession forecast. I mean, like, anyone can really do that. So I...
I try not to get bullish because the strategists raise their targets or get bearish. They're doing their job. They're marking to market based on what everyone already knows. And I get it. It's just not particularly helpful. The number one thing and the number two thing. Be helpful. Well, I'll be helpful. I'll be helpful. The number one thing and the number two thing. Number one is the inflation fight. We're winning.
You got CPI came in at 2.3% year over year. The expectation was 2.4. Doesn't sound like much, but can you imagine how much of this rally we would have reversed on a 2.6 print? Like it would have been gross.
Now I'm aware, and Weiss is probably dying to say this, so I'll just say it. I'm aware this may be the final tame CPI report before the effect of the tariff so far. And we'll get that report about a month from today. I get it, I understand. But still, this is the lowest year over year inflation rate, according to CPI, since February of 2021. That's important thing number one. Important thing number two.
90% of the companies in the S&P 500 are now in with their actual Q1 results. And let me tell you something, 78% of them beat earnings.
This was a very, very, very good quarter considering all the stuff that's been thrown at us. That is above the five-year average of 77% and above the 10-year average of 75%. So just an exceptional showing from the 500 best companies in America. When you look at the 90% that have reported and the 10% still to report with expectations,
You get a year over year Q1 earnings growth of 13.4%, almost fully in the books. It's the seventh straight positive year over year quarterly earnings report season. And I have to tell you, if you have CPI falling and earnings continuously surprising to the upside, almost every sector, that's more important than somebody saying, you know what? I was thinking 5,200, now I'm at 5,400.
I just don't know how that helps anybody. What I'm saying is helpful. Okay, Amy, it's not really about the targets at all. That's not the reason that we bring up what strategists are doing or what they're saying or what they're thinking. It's about the overall tone. It's representative of how the tone in this market has changed. And it's changed dramatically from Friday to today. Here we are just Tuesday, and we're 4% away from a new all-time high on the S&P 500. That's the point.
that I'm trying to make, no other. Yeah, no, I agree with that. Certainly, there's a lot of optimism coming back to the market. It was just unambiguously good news that we have a new deal and a 90-day detente. The two things that I'm really looking at for this market are how much did the tariff...
trade war pull forward economic activity and how much does that have to still seep through into earnings. As Josh said, Q1 earnings were very, very good. Now, and we have a little bit of a, we have like a six week window until we start focusing on Q2, but people might start getting nervous about Q2 depending on what the level of tariff pull forward was. And we really don't know that. Companies don't know that. And then we have the tax bill and that's going to be a fine line. I think people are, are
optimistic about it, but it can't be too stimulative that it impacts yields negatively. And it has to be stimulative enough that we get the economic benefits that people want from it. So it's a fine line with that tax bill. And those are the two things that I'm really watching to see how the rest of the year sort of unfolds. I feel like, Jim, the whole idea of the pull forward was viewed as a potential negative last week. But now it can be, I think, almost written off
as understandable and excusable. That, okay, there was a moment of dense fog and a lot of demand was pulled forward, whether it was orders from companies, whether it was purchases from consumers. And now if there's a momentary correcting phase in all of that because the environment is viewed as more positive, so be it. I think people will look through it.
I agree with Amy's premise and your conclusion. I agree there probably is some pull forward over the last several months. And I don't think it's going to matter, Scott.
And I don't think that the economic slowdown that may be the result of damage done over the past few months is going to matter either, as long as trade deals continue to come in. Steve, you know, you and I have spoken enough times. I think I know your position that they are paper at best. I will say that the market's going to key off of them. And more importantly, corporations are going to key off of them. So far, corporations have not laid people off. We see that in the weekly jobless claims. That's the thing that I fear the most.
is that CEOs who have been on hold so far start to pull back, start to lay people off. They're not going to do that if profits remain good, which they have, as Josh said, in the first quarter. Amy, you're right, they may come down in the second quarter. But I think the markets and CEOs are looking forward into 2026, when right now you're projecting 14% earnings per share growth. Big story in the market today remains the NASDAQ, which seems to be
at the epicenter of the better feeling within the market, tech, chips, software. The NASDAQ today is up 1.5%. It's back above 19K. It's just about 6% off of its all-time high. And Cristina Partsenevalos is with us here because NVIDIA
has been in the news over the last 24 hours. Not only, Christina, do you have Jensen Wong over in Riyadh as well, and he was singled out by the president as well, as he also gave, the president did, what a little bit of a dig, I think, on the fact that Tim Cook wasn't there, noting that very publicly as part of his remarks. But it's also this access that NVIDIA offers.
uh... was granted by the u_s_ that i think has more to do with the stocks move today but you know the space better than most tell us it's also interesting that jensen the c_o_p_ video wasn't at the inauguration day because he was too busy but uh... dot did unveil a new partnership today and that's adding to the share price climbing higher with saudi arabia to build a massive five hundred megawatt data center with humane which is the kingdom's new a_i_ venture
of Nvidia's most advanced GPUs over the next five years are going to be going to Saudi Arabia. So that is a big change. Jensen pointing directly to Blackwell racks on stage. You can see him there. He's just underneath the banner. It's Nvidia's most advanced chips and really marks a significant policy change from Washington. So until now, companies like Nvidia and AMD needed special US licenses to export advanced semiconductors to many Middle Eastern countries like the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.
And why? Because there were security concerns over the Middle East's close relationships with Beijing. China is Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner. AMD, though, too, just you can see the share price almost 4% higher. They're announcing their own landmark agreement with Humane to invest up to $10 billion. That would be Saudi Arabia investing in AMD to get 500 megawatts of AI compute capacity over five years. So very similar.
to Nvidia and I can also confirm the US is allowing the UAE, the United Arab Emirates to purchase advanced Nvidia chips. We should get some news possibly in the coming days on this deal. But for Nvidia overall, this really opens up vast new markets across the Middle East signaling not only a new chapter in both UX export policy, which we're seeing is changing now, but also just showing how this AI infrastructure race, especially within the sovereign wealth funds are advancing. Scott.
Christina, thank you. We'll watch those shares. Look at that. That's a gain of some 6% for shares of Nvidia. Other big names, big stocks on the move today, Amazon. It's on pace for its first five-day rally since early December, something to keep an eye on there.
Google said to be developing a software AI agent, a Pinterest-like feature. That according to the information. There's the stock in the Amazon. So Google trying to really counter this developing narrative about where its role in AI is going to be. We're going to take a quick break. We have many stocks on the move that we still need to trade today. UNH is a huge story of the day. Weiss owns it. We get his take. Disney's on the move. Uber, Netflix, Coinbase and Toast and a new name.
on Josh Brown's Best Stocks in the Market. We'll do all of that coming up.
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We're going to begin today with our chart of the day. It's UnitedHealth, the biggest drag on the S&P, a huge weight on the Dow today. The market picture there would look far different if not for this stock. The CEO is going to step down for personal reasons. They suspended their outlook as well. The stock's down 15%, new 52-week low. It's down 46% in a month. Weiss, what were you thinking?
I wasn't thinking it was going to go down when I bought it. Look, thank God it's not a core position at this point. I don't care what it is, man. But here's what I tell you. Look, I know Steve Hemsley. He did a great job as CEO. He's been chairman. He's still been very, very involved. I think the right move is to bring him back, and I think he can right the ship.
I've been looking at to add today. I haven't done that because I learned my lesson when I added last time. Right, because there was that day, what was it, post-earnings, where it got just absolutely destroyed. And you added then. I did add. Why aren't you selling it here? I mean, what's your strategy to hold on to a name that's gotten just crushed? It's still the world's largest insurance company. And I've got tremendous respect for Hemsley. I've got tremendous respect for John Rex, who's the president slash CFO. And
Look, when you're the biggest, you're taking on business that perhaps you shouldn't take, like some of the Humana business that they took and maybe didn't underwrite it correctly. So they'll get through it.
To think they can't, I think is ridiculous. So at the PE that's trading at, which is a PE level, and of course you don't know, they spend the guidance, but they will go back to growth next year. And so it's dead money here for sure for a while. But you're holding it. You're just going to hold it for now. I'm holding the rest that I have, yes. Okay. All right. I want to move on. Disney.
Six days in a row this stock's tracking for. What do you think, Jim? Amy, you own it too. What do you guys think? I think there's a few things here. One, the earnings report, I think that was last week, showed that the experiences, the theme parks, the cruises in particular, are hanging in there. And that was a big question with all the sentiment surveys about consumers. Now you've got over the past few days the easing of trade tensions, the lowering, as we were discussing earlier, of recession probabilities.
which puts more fuel to that fire that the consumer is going to be good in the long term and continue to go to Disneyland, Disney World, go on the cruises. On top of that, the part that I actually like the most is the growth engine going forward is going to be streaming. Now, it's got a lot of lifting to do to take over from the decline in linear, but I think it's up to the task.
Yeah, we actually sold it last time. And I should have known it was a bad sale when my 10-year-old told me he wanted to be a theme park enthusiast when he grows up. So, you know, look, I love this company. I thought the stock was going to have a hard time during the trade tensions. I still think that might play out, but definitely better than expected quarter, more resilience than I expected. So it was a bad sale. Okay.
Coming up, we're going to do that new stock on Josh Brown's best stocks in the market. We do have a new move from him as well, but first we get the headlines with Pippa Stevens. Hi, Pippa. Hey, Scott. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said today he would place a hold on all of President Trump's Justice Department nominees. He says he won't advance any candidates until he gets answers on the president's possible acceptance of a luxury jet from Qatar today.
that would be used as Air Force One. The Attorney General signed off on the gift. Schumer can't actually block the nominees, but he can slow down their consideration.
A two-day hearing is set to begin today that could decide whether Eric and Lyle Menendez could get out of prison. The brothers have been behind bars for more than 30 years for the 1989 murders of their parents. They are waiting for a judge to weigh in on a prosecutor's recommendation to reduce their life sentences to 50 years to life, which would make them eligible for parole immediately.
And Americans are finally getting relief in the egg aisle. The Consumer Price Index for April showed egg prices were down last month nearly 13 percent for an average of $5.12 for a dozen grade A eggs. Prices have skyrocketed as the U.S. deals with the bird flu outbreak. Halftime report will be right back. CNBC News Update is sponsored by Morgan Stanley, where old school hard work means bold new thinking.
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Introducing CNBC Plus, the new streaming platform from the number one source in business news. Watch live or on demand. Access any market, anytime, anywhere. Start streaming. Go to CNBC.com slash stream now. We're back. A new best stock on Josh Brown's radar. What is it?
I want to shout out Carvana. So I'm not taking this trade, but this hit our list of the best stocks in the market. And I think it's worth understanding what's happening here. We had a surprise uptick in the Mannheim index, which tracks used car prices. It's probably not a great thing that that's now heading in the wrong direction, but be that as it may, Carvana is probably the most obvious, uh,
beneficiary of that the stock's up six percent today we wrote it up for the best stocks in the market list on cnbc pro yesterday morning they reported on may 7th they absolutely smashed their numbers revenue of 38 net income was up 6x from 49 million to 373 million year over year the stock's working in a major way i know it's been controversial in the past
But it's on the list and we chose to write about it. All right. Again, CNBC Pro, if you sign up, you can get access to Josh's group of the best stocks. So another stock up nicely today is Toast. Last I saw it was up 5%. We can see the current move here. Our story is that you bought more. Why?
- Yeah, so this is an average up. I've been involved in the stock for a while and I bought the name right before the numbers because I like when you see strength going into the numbers and this thing was trading toward the high end of its range. Now obviously it's had an explosive move since
I'm gonna hold onto it. Record growth in Q1, 6,000 net new locations. They announced a huge enterprise deal with Hilton and the Applebee's chain to add on to what they're already doing for Marriott. ARR, which is the only number that matters,
31 year over year to 1.7 billion that's recurring revenue they can build upon that gross payment volumes were up huge net income up huge 56 million versus a loss of 83 million last year there were a lot of analysts who thought this company would never get to profitability now they're there and i think the stock looks great so i'm not trading i'm sticking with my position okay coming back with a move from weiss and then i'll tell you about an etf
that today hit a fresh all-time high. All right, welcome back. WTI on the move again. It's up 3%, $64. So crude's been moving higher away. So I got calls today on Chevron, EOG, and Exxon. Chevron downgraded, EOG price target cut, Exxon price target cut. You bought the XLE. I did. You're playing for a move even higher from here? Yes, I am. So I bought it on Friday. And the reason I bought it was, number one,
Stocks have been depressed because obviously commodities been depressed it had started to move up my thinking was if we went into the weekend and got some Made some headway with China then people think better about their economy about our economy and oil price would continue to move I thought about buying one of the majors But when I looked at the yield on the XLE which three and a half percent of the time I said why not do that and diversify myself so
I'm there, and I like the play to continue moving. I think I can get another 20% out of it or so. Okay. And the ITA, that's the ETF that I teased, hitting an all-time high this morning. That's back to 06. Sixth straight weekly gain. That's the longest since last October. Jimmy, you've got Lockheed.
What about this space? I think this is a space to be in. I will note that some of the aerospace companies are down, perhaps on the idea that there's going to be peace in the Middle East, which I love. However, the order book for most of these companies is very strong. I think about Lockheed Martin in particular. I think about whether it was six months ago, five months ago that Elon Musk tweeted the F-35 is a stupid, whatever he described it, a stupid vehicle.
The fact of the matter is it's the best airplane in the sky right now. The U.S. is ordering plenty of it, so is international air forces. There's a great missile business at Lockheed Martin. I love the idea of peace, but you've got to prepare for war to keep that peace. You know, I own FTAI in the space. Oh, right. And you added to that recently, didn't you? I did. And the CEO bought a bunch of stock, you know, a million or more stock. And that stock, Jeffries has started with about 200. I think you can get a good part of the way there. It's equipment leasing.
engine leasing and they just picked up two and a half billion dollar credit line, which will drive those earnings. It's going to keep moving. OK, we'll watch it. We'll do finals next. I'll see you on the bell a little bit later. We'll track this market. Dan Greenhouse, Alex Kanchowitz is going to join us. There's so much tech news today and we'll sweep all of that up and get his expert analysis on it. Josh Brown, your final is what?
Uber, my biggest position. It is now the third best performing name in the S&P, up 51% year to date.
New record high right now, looks incredible. - All right, thank you. Farmer Jim, what do you got? - Alphabet, I still think this is undervalued. I think too much of the competitive threat is priced in at this price. - Okay, Ames? - Santander, also up about 60% year to date, still trading at less than eight times earnings. - Okay, and that must be you with Leidos again. - Leidos, and here's the reason. Look, it's been pretty quiet with the government contractors, Booz Allen, et cetera, and at this point, you gotta believe that they're working something out with the government
And it's going to be better than expected. Thank you. See you on the belt. You've been listening to CNBC's Halftime Report, the podcast. You can always catch us live weekdays at 12 Eastern, only on CNBC.
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